were named by the proprietors of the lands. | to have been a person of great learning and of These clergy were either parsons (rectors) or vicars. Many were in the appointment of the bishops, and of collegiate bodies, whose chapters they formed. Hence the lay patronage was much confined. Many sees and abbeys were opulent; but James III. seems to have been the first monarch who seized and made a traffic of the nomination."

The religious zeal of the age expended itself upon the same objects in Scotland as in England. Whithern, in Galloway, appears to have been the most noted Scottish pilgrimage. St. Treignan, repeatedly mentioned by Rabelais as the name of a Scottish saint, is supposed to be a corruption of St. Ninian, the founder of the bishopric of Whithern.2

singular acuteness and dexterity in argument. Ali his knowledge of the Scriptures and logical powers, however, availed him nothing in the contest with his hostile judges, and with the remorseless inquisitor, Laurence of Lindores, who was again the president of the court. It is lamentable to have to add that both these executions also took place during the primacy of Bishop Henry Wardlaw, the venerated founder of the first Scottish university-a prelate to whose enlightened munificence history and tradition bear the same testimony with this and other still enduring works of public usefulness.

Although no person is recorded to have been brought to the stake for heresy in the space of nearly thirty years that elapsed between the executions of Resby and Crawar, it is certain, nevertheless, that the new opinions obtained an extensive diffusion in Scotland during that interval. This is evident from the accounts of the trial of the Bohemian, who is spoken of as an emissary to a numerous body sharing the sentiments of himself and his countrymen. The growth of Lollardism may also be inferred from a statute that had been passed for its suppression by the parliament that assembled immediately after the return of James I. from England in 1421. This statute directed that every bishop should make inquisition within his diocese for all Lollards and other heretics, in order that they might be punished according to the laws of holy church, the civil power being called in for that purpose, when necessary, in aid of the ecclesiastical. It is stated that the little treatises which Resby and his disciples had dispersed had spread the obnoxious doctrines; Bower, the continuator of Fordun, who wrote some years after the second of the two executions that have been mentioned, tells us that there were still in his day some unhappy persons, instigated by the devil, by whom these writings were secretly preserved, and their pernicious heresies cherished, in accordance with the scriptural text, that "stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.”

The new doctrines, however, penetrated to the northern part of the island very soon after they made their appearance in the south. The first propagators appear to have come from England -whether seeking a refuge from the active inquisition after heresy, which had begun in that kingdom, or, as is more likely, ambitious of exercising the apostleship of the truth in a new land. in the year 1408, John Resby, an English priest, was apprehended as a Wyckliffite, and brought before a council of the clergy, presided over by Laurence of Lindores, an eminent doctor of divinity-the same who, on the institution, a few years after, of the university of St. Andrews, was appointed reader of the canon law in the new seminary. Resby, it is said, was charged with maintaining no fewer than forty erroneous opiions, of which, however, only two are particularized-one, that the pope was not Christ's vicar; the other, that he was not to be esteemed pope if he was a man of wicked life. The unfortunate man was condemned on these and the other charges, and was burned at Perth along with his books and writings-being, as far as is known, the first person who thus suffered in Scotland. The example, like that of the similar execution of Sawtre in England a few years before, appears to have been considered sufficient to strike terror into the popular mind for some time. The second The most important event that happened durScottish martyrdom did not take place till the ing the present period in the history of the Scotyear 1433, when Paul Crawar, a Bohemian phy-tish ecclesiastical establishment was the erection sician, was burned at St. Andrews on the 23d of July. Crawar appears to have been sent by the Reformers of Bohemia to open a communication, partly, perhaps, of a political as well as of a religious nature, with those of the same creed in Scotland, and to propagate in that country the tenets of Wyckliffe, Huss, and Jerome of Prague. He is admitted by the ecclesiastical chroniclers

1 Pinkerton, Hist. of Scotland, i. 174.

of the see of St. Andrews into an archbishopric by Pope Sixtus IV., in 1471. This measure was resorted to in consequence of the renewal by Nevil, Archbishop of York, of the old claim of his see to supremacy over the kingdom of Scotland. The Papal bull declared it to be an unfitting thing that an English prelate should be Primate of Scotland, and ordained all the rest of the Scottish bishops, twelve in number, to be hence

* See, among other passages, Liv. i. ch. 33. and Liv. ii. ch. 98, forth subject to St. Andrews. The occupant of

with the Notes of Le Duchat.

VOL. I.

the latter see at this time was Patrick Graham,

a nephew of the late King James I., but who had been driven by the ascendency of the Boyds, in the reign of James III., from his native country to Rome. He was resident at the pontifical court when the bull was granted; but he now thought that, with his increase of dignity, he might venture to return home, the rather as he was at the same time appointed Papal legate for three years, with a commission to reform all abuses in the national church. He found, however, that his new rank and authority only made him new enemies. He was soon after arrested at the suit of some Roman bankers, who had advanced the money to pay the dues on his bull of privileges, and whose claims he was now unable to satisfy in consequence of the arbitrary seizure of part of his revenues by the king, and his expenses in bribing the persons possessing influence at court, that he might be allowed to retain the rest. He was first shut up in his own castle at St. Andrews,

and soon after committed to the custody of William Schevez, the archdeacon of his diocese, a young man who had insinuated himself into the favour of the court by his agreeable talents, and especially, it is affirmed, by his skill in astrology. a study which he had pursued under John Spernick at the university of Louvain. In no long time Schevez was appointed his coadjutor; and eventually a process was raised against the unfortunate archbishop, the result of which was, that he was found guilty of schism, simony, heresy, and other crimes, and sentenced to lose his dignity and to pass the rest of his life in confinement. This strange affair was terminated by Schevez being appointed archbishop. He held the primacy from 1478 till his death in 1494. Meanwhile his deposed predecessor had been transferred first to Inchcolm, thence to Dunfermline, and finally to the castle of Lochleven, where he died a few months after Schevez had obtained his place.

CHAPTER VIII.-HISTORY OF SOCIETY.

A.D. 1485).

FROM THE ACCESSION OF HENRY IV. (A.D. 1399), TO THE DEATH OF RICHARD III. Progress of English liberty-The advantages it derived from Henry IV. and his successors-Classes who composed the parliament during this period-Emancipation of the villains-Improved condition of the peasantryState of the mercantile classes-Their commodities of traffic-Mercantile shipping-Hinderances to the mercantile enterprise of the period-High estimation in which the mercantile profession was already heldManners and customs-Decay of chivalry-Causes of the decay-English archery-Its origin-Laws enacted for its general practice-The old English bow-The string-The arrow-Mode of handling the bow-Sports and competitions of archery-Rules by which proficiency in archery was acquired-Public sports-Dramatic representations-Miracle and mystery plays-Morality plays- Private theatricals-Royal pageant plays of this period--Amusements of the aristocracy-Inclosure hunting-Tennis-Card-playing-Costume of the higher classes-Female costume-Domestic life of the higher classes-Mansions of the nobility-Halls of the mansions-Banquets-Materials and accompaniments of the banquet-Ordinary meals-Retinues of the nobility-Domestic life of the commons-Glutton masses-Poverty of food in certain districts-Active sports of the commons-The play of quarter-staff-Wrestling matches, &c.-Bowling-Various games of ballPrisoners' bars-Blindman's buff-Boating-Prohibited games-Condition of London-Metropolitan sightseeing of the period-London riots-Literature and literary society of England-Falling off in the collegesFutility as yet of learned pursuits-Depreciation of the study of medicine and theology-Preachers of the day-Specimens of their sermons-Higher estimation of the study of law-Causes of this preference-Eduestion of students in law-Distinguished lawyers of the period-Decline in English poetry during this periodEnglish poets of the day-John Lydgate. Architecture-Perpendicular style-Its peculiar distinctions--Buildings in which it is illustrated-Tudor style-Its characteristics. Condition of Scotland-State of government in Scotland-Restrictions upon the royal authority-Power of the Scottish nobles-Imperfections of Scottish agriculture-Moss-troopers of Scotland-Mendicants-Military customs and warlike sports of the Scots Scottish weapons-Deficiency in the archery of Scotland-War laws of Scotland-Signal beacons— Modes of living in Scotland-Chiefs and their retainers-Insecure state of society-Rude condition of Scottish dwellings-Fruitless attempts of James I. and James III. to introduce civilization among the people-Learned Scotchmen of the period-Erection of the first Scottish universities -Scottish poets-James I.-Henry the Minstrel-Robert Henderson.

EW subjects in history are more In this case, its existence would have been as interesting or more important than precarious as its birth, and it might have been the growth and progress of Eng-lost as rapidly as it had been won. On the con. lish liberty. It was by no sudden trary, whole centuries of struggle were necessary, outburst of popular energy, or ra- and all the sufferings as well as changes of inpid development of the national fancy, boyhood, and youth, had to be undergone character, that so great a blessing was achieved. before it could acquire a confirmed and perma

that is, a yard and a quarter. Only nineteen years afterwards, the rise in the condition of the

upon them; but do menace the ministers of their | cloth costing more than twelve-pence per plight lords of life and member, and, which more is, gather themselves together in great routs, and agree by such confederacy that every one shall aid other to resist their lords with strong hand." Here we have the act of self-emancipation conducted according to form of law, and afterwards followed by combination to make it good by force, if need should be. In this way, the conflict so important, although unnoticed in history, seems to have gone on until the rebellion of Wat Tyler in 1381, when one of the demands of the insurgents was the complete abolition of villanage. The suppression of this rebellion was followed by severe enactments, through which the old state of serfage was attempted to be restored; but the opportunity had gone by, and a spirit of independence had been awakened that went onward in spite of statutes. The result of this was evident in the next rebellion of the people conducted by Jack Cade in 1450. Here, nothing was spoken about villanage, for the legality of villanage was no longer absolute. The demands of the people had assumed a higher tone, and were directed against the wasteful expenditure of the crown and the abuses of the government, of which immediate redress was required. And besides this, they demanded the full exercise of their right to elect their own representatives in parliament without the interference of the nobility. This insurrection, too, was not so easily quelled as the first had been, when the boy Richard II. rode up to the angry mutineers, and appeased them with a few empty words. Instead of this, they repeatedly defeated the king's troops that were sent against them, and were only quelled at last from want of sufficient leaders. Their principles, also, instead of being permanently arrested, sustained nothing worse than a temporary check, under which they gained additional vigour for a more successful renewal of the contest.

During the present period of our history, the peasantry of England, who were now becoming free to serve whom and where they pleased, must, with their liberty, have been acquiring a correspondent increase in the means and comforts of domestic life. This is evident from the rise in the wages of rural labourers between 1388 and 1444, and the sumptuary laws that were afterwards enacted to repress extravagance of dress among the working-classes. It was found necessary to decree, that no labourer should be dressed in broad-cloth costing more than two shillings a yard; that his nether habiliments, called hosen, consisting of breeches and stockings composed of one piece, should not cost more than fourteen pence, and that his wife shall no longer wear a girdle garnished with silver, or a kerchief of

HUSBANDMAN AND COUNTRY WOMAN OF 15TH CENTURY. From Royal MSS. 18. D. VII. and 20. C. VII. working-classes is curiously indicated by a fresh sumptuary law, in which this twelve-penny kerchief is superseded by one of twenty-pence, beyond which, for the present at least, the head attire of the labourer's wife was not allowed to trespass. From the same source we learn, that domestic servants, whether of lords, tradesmen, or artificers, were well and comfortably fed, having at least one substantial meal a-day of flesh or fish, while the other meals chiefly consisted of "milk, butter, cheese, and other such victuals."

In turning from the agricultural to the mercantile progress of England during this period, it is necessary in the first case to take into account the population of the towns by which the commerce of the country was represented. We find, then, that as yet, the increase in the number of the people had been small, compared with the time that had elapsed and the opportunities that had apparently been enjoyed; for while the whole population at the time of the Norman conquest appears to have been about 2,000,000, at the close of the reign of Edward III., after a lapse of 300 years, it only amounted to about 2,500,000. The visitation of dearth to which England had been frequently subject, the wars with Scotland and France, and above all, the destructive pestilence of 1349 by which Europe at large was almost half depopulated, are the only causes to which we can trace this slowness of increase. Of this population, the town part of it is reckoned at not more than 170,000, or little more than a fifteenth. In these statistics, many of the chief cities of England present an astounding contrast to the greatness into which they afterwards expanded Thus, the population of London is rated at

about 35,000, that of Bristol 9500, that of New- | larger than a great Venetian carrack. In recomcastle-upon-Tyne 4000, that of Yarmouth 3000, pense of such a patriotic deed, the king directed that of Hull 2300. Scarcely, indeed, were there that the ship should be called the Carrack Grace thirty towns in England containing a popula- Dieu, and its owner permitted to take on board tion of more than 2000 souls, according to the roll" wool, tin, lamb-skins, wool-fels, passelarges, of the capitation tax in 1377. And yet, all this was much, according to the estimate of the day; and the Greek historian Laonicus Chalcondyles, in his description of the principal kingdoms of Europe in 1400, gives the following account of England:-" It is full of towns and villages. It has no vines, and but little fruit, but it abounds in corn, honey, and wool, from which the natives make great quantities of cloth. London, the capital, may be preferred to every city of the West for population, opulence, and luxury. It is seated on the river Thames, which, by the advantage of the tide, daily receives and despatches trading vessels from and to various countries."