Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 8.djvu/223

 ii s. VIL MAR. is, 1913.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

The glimpses into the general life of the time are both numerous and highly interesting. Thus we have the Pope threatening with excommunication certain "sons of iniquity" in the town of Leo- minster who were wont so to defile the waters of Pinsley Brook ("Le Pyndesuclye ") that the Bene- dictine abbot and convent of the monastery of

the town of Redyng "at times shrink from

preparing their food and drink therewith, where- fore they are often rendered unfit to exercise divine offices"; and, to take another example, we have a mandate to certain abbots in the diocese of Worcester exempting the inhabitants of Cow Honeybourne from going in procession on Whitsuri Tuesday to the Benedictine monastery of Evesham. They had been wont to do this -one person from every house with cross erect and banners, the three miles from their town to the monastery, in order to make the offering of a farthing each ; and, meeting with other processions wending along with a like purpose, had quarrelled and fought with these for the honour of taking the lead, whence had occurred such mutilations and homicides that for the past twenty-six years the procession had been discontinued.

Of the dispensations to marry the most interesting is the mandate sent, upon Henry VI.'s petition, to the English archbishops to dispense him to contract marriage with any woman of suitable rank, seeing that, "on account of the divers impediments which exist between him and other Christian kings and princes, it is impossible for him to marry one of their daughters or nieces without having recourse to the Apostolic See." Abuses of the right of sanctuary especially at "the Benedictine monastery of St. Peter, Westminster," and " the collegiate church of St. Martin le Grand " are dealt with in a man- date drawn from the Pope by a complaint of the King's that ill-doers of all sorts were living there for a long time, " not without scandal and corrup- tion," and causing among religious and other honest men evils which were daily increasing.

Not least valuable, as affording insight into the contemporary state of things, are the indulgences,, with the mention of a few of which we may close our all too brief remarks upon a deeply fascinating, volume. In 1445 the Pope," having learned that at the town of Newport (villam in remotiori parte

Wallie ac in limitipus terre consistentem) there

is a certain stone bridge, greatand sumptuously built, under which the water of the sea ebbs ana flows 1

daily in great abundance but that the said town

haslonscbeen diminished in its inhabitants and means by pestilences and divers other sinister events, so that it is feared that unless help be forthcoming: the said bridge will go to ruin," grants diverse relaxation of enjoined penance to penitents who visit the spot and give alms for its repair ; and" similar benefit is offered to those who, on the- principal feasts of the year and certain other days,, visit and bestow alms upon an " Augustiniani monastery of St. Mary the Virgin without the walls of London," where was "a hospital of poor sisters in which the poor and sick and other miserable persons are kindly received and refreshed,, and children .and pregnant women cared for, and many other pious works of charity done by the- mistress and sisters, wherefore the faithful of those parts have a singular devotion to the church of the said monastery and to the said hospital, to whose said mistress and sisters certain revenues have been assigned, which are not enough." We hear of miracles performed at the chapel of St. Mary Graces- at Glasgow ; at a chapel of St. Andrew at Stalham, " at which John Kylburna hermit has long dwelt" ; and at the chapel of Stayner in the diocese of York, in which last is "quedam beate et gloriose- virginis Marie imago depicta." What, one would 1 like to be told, is the last that is known of that picture ?

The Irish entries during these years are frequent and of considerable importance. There are ten instances of deprivation of adherents to the Council of Basel after the Pope's removal to Ferrara.

THE Annual Catalogue of Messrs. Longmans, just published, contains the following illustration, which will inter- est our readers, the firm having kindly lent the block for our use. It is the earliest known sign of Messrs. Longmans, Green and Company, and is copied from the title - page of a book pub- lished in 1726. The business was founded by Thomas Long- man in 1724.

The Catalogue is a model of what such cata- logues should be. It is divided into sections the books being classified under subject-headings and has a full index. It abounds with names that are "familiar in our

mouths as household words.' find Colenso's ' Arithmetic,'

Among these we book that from its first publica- tion in 184O doub tless brought upon schoolboys more pains and penal- ties than any single book pub- lished before or since ; and Macaulay's ' Hi s t ory of England,' which gave to the rea d- ing of history a charm before unknown.

The last por- tion of the Catalogue is de- voted to South African publi- cations issued by the firm.. These number nearly one hundred and fifty, show- ing the great increase there has been of recent years in school-books for South Africa.