THIRTEENTH CENTURY.
69
1198. The Festival of Fools was instituted at Paris on de jour de Pan 1 198, and continued prosperously for 240 years. The merits of this rich solemnity originally belonged to St. Nicho- ls, and the "Lords of Misrule," in our inns of court, with the " Abbots of Unreason," seem to hare acquired their dignity from the same motive, that of exploding by a just ridicule the Satur- naUan mummery, and the priestcraft of the Druids.
1203. Inthesummerofthis year, the Crusaders appeared before Constantinople; and spent the fallowing winter in the subtuDS of Galata. The city was taken by storm, and suffered all the horrors of pillage and devastation. " In order to insult the fallen city, the manners, the dress, the customs of the OreeVs were exposed to ridicule or scorn, in ludicrous exhibitions ; anApens, inhtands tnd paper, were displayed in the ttreett, at the ignohU arms or contemptible instruments of a race of students and of scribes. Paper or parchment held out no temptation to arance ; and the pil- grims feeling no predilection for science, particu- krly when locked up in an unknown tongue, would not be solicitous to seize or purloin the works of the learned ; but we cannot doubt that many perished in the three fires which raged in that city; for some writings of antiquity, which, are known to have existed in the twelfth century, are now lost The effects of these Holy IVars, as they were called, became visible in a variety of forms, and the crusades may be regarded as the date, when Chivalry first ajssumed a systematic appearance ; knighthood was then invested with extraordinary splendours ; and the science of heraldry may be traced to Palastine. In every country of Efurope,the Christian knight drew his svord during the celebration of mass, and held it out naked, in testimony of his readiness to defend the feuth of Christ.
1205, April 29. King John, at the end of an order for the transmission of various quantities of vine, to Northampton and Windsor, adds, " send US immediately, upon the receipt of these letters, Ute Romance of the History of England.
1203. Francis ofAssize, who founded the order otFiandscans,*in this year, says of himself, that he was tempted to have a 5(>ai ; hutas this seemed
coatraiy to his vow, which allowed him nothing
\mleoats, a cord, and hose, and in ease of necessity fuli/jshoes; he, after prayer, resorted to the gospel, and meeting with that sentence, " Itis given unto Tou to know the mysteries of the kingdom of hearen, but to them it is not given ;" (Matthew xiii. II .) concluded that he should do well enough without books, and suffered none of his followers to have so much as a bible, or breviary,or psalter. — Gataker, on the Nature and Use of Lots.
l20%,March29. Immediately after the publica- tion of the interdict against King John, we find that monarch, giving a receipt to the sacrist of Reading, for various books which had been in the ■ custody of the abbot of that monastery. Thg
- The Domlnicwis, from the coloor of their apper g»x-
met/tumtaUti Black Friers; and the Frandscaiu were called Onjt Friars.
books were " six books of the bible, in which were contained all the Old Testament ; the first part of the Bible, and the Sacraments of Master Hugh de St. Victor; the Sentences of Peter Lombarf; the EpistoliB de Civate Dei of St. Augustine; Augustine upon the third part of the psalter ; the books of Valerian de Moribus ; the treatise of Origin, upon the Old Testament ; and the book of Cardidus Arianus ad Marium A few days afterwards, the King acknowledged to have re- ceived at Waverley, from Simon, his chamberlain, his book called Pliny, which had also been in the custody of the abbot of Reading.
1214. The first obscure mention of academical degrees, in the tmiversity of Paris, from which the other tmiversities in Europe have borrowed most of their customs and institutions. In 1231, academical degrees were conipletely established.
1215, /un« 29, (Trinity Friday) King John subscribes Magna Charta, or the great Charter of Liberties, which is the basis and palladium of British freedom, upon this day, at Ruuemeade, a meadow so named on the banks of the Thames, between Staines and Windsor, (now the Egham race course.) " On the one side, stood Fitz Walter, and the majority of the barons and nobility of England : on the other, sate the King, accompa- nied by eight bishops, Pandulf, the papal envoy, and fifteen gentlemen ; these attended as his ma- jesty's advisers." It is a curious fact, and one which marks the state of literarv knowledge, even amongst the nobility, in those days, that out of the twenty-six barons who subscribed this important bill of rights, only three could write their own names, the signatures of the remainder, according tolhe term, only made their marks. Most of the provisions expired with that system, for which they were calculated ; but at the same time, they were highly useful. They checked the most galling abuses of feudal superiority, and they gave a new tone to English legislation.
It Ls to the English barons, remarks the illus- trious Chatham, that we are indebted for the laws and constitution we possess ; their virtues were rude and uncultivated, hut they were great and sincere ; their understandings were as little
Solish'ed as their manners ; but they had hearts to istinguish the rights of humanity, and they had the spirit to maintain them.
This memorable instrument was ratified four times by Henry III. the son and successor of John ; twice by Edward I. ; fifteen times by Edward III. ; seven times by Richard II. ; six times by Henry IV. ; and once by Henry V.*
Until the reign of King John, markets and fairs were always held in the church-yard, and on a Sunday. ^ewark-upon-Trent, in Notting- hamshire, was the first place whose inhabitants Setitioned that monarch to change die market- ays from Sunday to Wednesday, on which day
- Sir Robert CotUn, one day «t his tallor'i, dtocoTered
that the man was holding in his hand, ready to cut up for
measures, an original Magna Charta, with all its appen- dagea of seals and sijjnatures. This anecdote is told by Coiomies, who Ion ft resided in this country j and an origi- nal Magrna Charta is preserved in the Cottonian library, in the British Museum, exhibitinfr marks of dilapidation.
Dinitized bv
