SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
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mnldtudes appeared. The king then acquainted tbem that the great master of the knight temp- lais had sent a phial containing a imall portion of the jrrecioui blood of Christ which be had ^ed upon the croit; and attetUd to be genuine by the seals of the patriarch of Jerusalem and others! He commanded a procession the fol- lowing dar; and the historian adds, that though the road between St. Paul's and Westminster abbey was rery deep and miry, the king kept Us eyes constantly fixed on the phial. Two monks received, and deposited the phial in the abbey " which made all Englana shine with glory, dedicating it to God and St. Edward." — This is one of the many absurdities of this king. Lord Herbert, in his life of Henry VIII., notices the great fall of the price of relics at the dissolution of the monasteries. "The respect giren to relics, and some pretended miracles, fell; iosomnch, as I find by our records, that a piece of St. Andrew's finger (covered only with an ounce of silver), being laid to pledge by a mo- Bastry for forty poundis, was left unredeemed at the dissolution of the house; the king's com- missioners, who upon surrender of any founda- tion undertook to pay the debts, refusing to return the price again. That is, they did not choose to repay the forty pounds, to receive o piece of the finger of St. Andrew.
Lord Cromwell's commissioners found, in St. Aug;nstine's abbey, at Bristol, the following re- lics : — two flowers which bore blossoms only on Christmas day, Jesus's coat, our Ladie's smocke, part of the last supper, part of a stone on which Jesus sat in Bethlehem, occ. The prior of Maiden Bradley, they found had five sons, and a daugh- ter married.
About this time the property of relics sud- denly sunk to the South-sea bubble; for shortly after the artifice of the Rood of Grace, at Box- ley in Kent, was fully opened to the eye of the populace; and a far-famed relic at Hales in Gloucestershire, of the blood of Christ, was at the same time exhibited. It was shown in a pbial, and it was believed that none could see It who were in mortal sin; and after many trials usually repeated to the same person, the deluded pilgrims at length went away fully satisfied. This relic was the blood of a duck, renewed every week, and put in a phial; one side was opaque, and the other transparent; the monk turned either side to the pilgrim, as he thought proper. The success of the pilgrim depended on the oblations he made; those who were scanty in their offerings were the longest to g^et a sight of the blood : when a man was in despair, he usually became generous!
1538. The introduction of Parochial Regis- ters in England was in consequence of the in- junctions of Thomas Lord Cromwell, which were set forth in this year, the thirtieth year of Henry VIII; but they were not much attended till the reign of queen Elizabeth, who issued injunctions concerning them in the 1st, 7th, and 39th years of her reign. It appears that in Spain they had been in use several years before.
and are said to have been instituted by cardinal Ximenes, in the year 1497, in order to remedy the disorders arismg from the frequency of di- vorces in that country. Till late years, they were kept very negligently in many parts of England; and being in the custody of church- wardens who changed from year to year, old registers were frequently lost or destroyed. In Northamptonshire, a piece of an old parish re- gister, on parchment, was found on the pillow of a lace-maker, with (he pattern of her work pricked upon it.
In a letter written by Mr. Brokesby to Mr. Heame, (both learned antiquaries, dated Dec. 12, 1708, the writer, speaking of long-lived persons, tells us that there was a woman whom he had conversed with in Yorkshire, who gave out that she was six score, and afterwards seven score, and hence had many visitants, from whom she got money. He then adds, " She was bom before registers were kept in country pa- rishes. Hence I could have no light for the time of her baptism."
1538. The first play printed in England was entitled A Tragedye or Enterlude, manyfestyng the ehtfe Promyses of God unto Man, by all ages in the Olde Lawe, from the fall of Adam to the incamacyon of the Lorde Jesus Christ. Compyled by Johan Bale, anno domina M.o. xxxiii. This is one of the rarest and valuable articles belonging to the British drama. It is in the Garrick collection.*
1638. The New Testament, faithfully translat- ed and lately corrected by Miles Coverdale, 8vo.
This testament seems to have been printed abroad, but is very accurate. In the title is a kind of label, inclosing the words, Search the Scriptures. At the end, is a collection of the Epistles from the bible, after the use of Salisbury. It has cuts only in the apocalypse, which, what- ever was the reason, are very frequent in the testaments of that time.
In Smith's Facsimiles, plate 17, there is a letter by Miles Coverdale to Thomas lord Crom- well, relative to his translation of the Bible, which says, A.D. 1638, "As concemyng y* New Testament in English, y* copy whereof yo" good lordshippe receaved lately a boke by
• John Bale, a tolerable Latin claMic, and an eminent bloKTapher, embraced the reformation, and was advanced to uie bishopric of Oasory, by king Bdward VI. Prior to his conversion from popery, he composed many scrip- tund interludes, chiefly from incidents of the New Tctla- mtnt; amongst them are the Life of Saint John the Baptist, written in 1538, Chriit in his Twelfth year, Baptitm and Temptation, The Rentrrection of Laiarut, The Council of the High Priestt, Simon the Leper, Ottr lAtrit't Supper, and the Washing of the Feet of his Diteiplee, ChrisPi Burial and Resurrection, the Passion of Christ, the Comtdjt of the three Laws of Nature, MoiCM and Christ corrupted bp the Sodomites, Pharisees and Papist, printed by Nicholefl, Hamburgh, in 1A3S, and so popular that It was reprinted by Colwell, in 1663; God's Promises to Man, which he calls A Tragedie, or Interlude, manpfestynge the chyfe promises of God unto man, in all ages, from the begynnynge of the worlde to the Deathe of Jesus Christe, a Mysterie, 1638; our author In his Vocaeyon, to the Bisboprick of Ossory infbrms os, that his comedy of John the Baptist, and his tragedy of God's Promises, were acted by the youths upon Sunday at the Maiket-cross of Kilkenny.— John Bale died I663.
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