FIFTEENTH CENTURY.
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now took a bolder flight, and made on attack
XD Sir John 01dcastle,lord Cohham, the most itrioas of the followers of WicKf. 1415, ^»n7 11, Died Pierre Plaont, bishop of Senlis, ne bequeathed a large quarto Bible, &irly written on vellum, to &e house of the Sorbonne,* at Paris, on the last leaf of which there was a latin note to the following effect. " This book, the value of which is fifteen pounds of Pirns, belongs to the poor masters of Sorbonnc,* bequeathed to them by the reverend father in Christ, Pierre Plaont, formerly bishop of Senlis, and an eminent professor of Holy Scripture, of the society of the aforesaid bouse. May his soul rest in peace." " A similar pri nte d bible," says Chevilher, " would not have cost six francs."
1415. It appears from the regulation of the pageants of Corpus Christi play at York, in the mayoralty of William Alne, compiled by Roger Burton, the town-clerk, that they were fifty-four in number. They commenced with " God the Father Almighty, creating, forming the heavens, angels, archangels, Lucifer, and Uie angels that fell vrith him into hell ;" the tanners performed this: the next, being "God the Father in hb own substance, creating the earth, and which is therein, in the space of five days," was represent- ed by the plasterers: the third " God the Father creating Adnm of the slime of the earth, and making Eve of the rib, smd inspiring them with the snmt of life," was played by the card-makers: the fifty-fourth, "Jettu, Mary, twelve aposdes, four angels with trumpets, and four vrith a lance with two scourges, four good, and four bad q)irits, and six devils," was performed by the mercers. The town-clerk's entrff mentions the torches and torch-bearers in the procession : — " Porters, eight torches ; coblers, four torches ; cordwaners, fourteen torches; cottellers, two torches ; wevers — torches ; carpenters, six torch- es ; chaloners, four torches ; fuller, four torchers ; {prdellets, — torches ; taillers, — torches ; fifty, eight citizens had torches alike on the day of Corpus Christi ; and it was ordained that the porters and coblers should go first ; then of the ri^t the wevers and cordwaners; on the left the fullers, cutlers, girdellers, chaloners, carpen- ters, and UiUers ; then the better sort of citizens: and after, the twenty-four (common councilmen) the twelve (aldermen) the mayor, and four torches «f Mr. Thomas Buckton."
The religions guild, or fraternity of Corptu CkritH at York, was obliged annually to perform » Corpus Christi play. Drake says, this cere- ■OBy must have been in its time one of the most •tttaordinary entertainments the city could exhi- Ut; and would necessarily draw a great concourse of people out of the country to see it. SeveinJ hondred of persons were auntudly admitted, and it was supported chiefly by the annual collection nude at the procession. This religious play and piocesaon was instituted at York about the year
-15' """^S* o' Uie Sorbonne, at Parin, was foundeil py RooCTt de Sorbonne. he was confessor and ch^^tatn to St lonis, who gave him the canonry of Cambray. He wubomin I3SI, and died in 1274.
1250 ; and was to be celebrated each year on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday ; as a piece of religious pageantry, was so much esteemed that It was acted in that city till the twenty-sixth year of queen Elizabeth, 1584.
The performance of miracle plays is noticed in Peres the Plowman's Crede, written against the mendicant friars, at this period :
We hanten no tauemes, ne hol>eleD aboDtcn At marketes, and wifraela we mcdely v« neuer.
Chaucer, also, in the Wife of Bath's Prologue, makes her say —
Tberefore made I my Visitations
To Vigilis and to Processions,
To prechlngs eke, and to PLt^^rimagls,
To plays of Miractet and Mariages,
And werid on me my gay akarlit gitea, &e.
The Mysteries were usually acted in churches or chapels upon temporary scaffolds; or according to Strutt upon three platforms, one above another. On the uppermost sat God the Father, sur- rounded by his angels ; on the second the glorified saints, and on the last and lowest, men who had not yet passed from this life. On one side of the lowest platform was' the resemblance of a dark pitchy cavern, from whence issued the appearance of fire and flames ; and when it was necessary, the audience was treated with hideous yellings and noices in imitation of the bowlings and cries of wretched souls tormented by relentless demons. From this yauning cave devils themselves con- stantly ascended to delight, and to instruct the spectators. When enough of performers could not be found among the clergy, the churchwardens employedsecularplayers.andsometimes borrowed dresses from other parishes.
1415, Sep. 27. The reduction of Harflenr, in France, by Henry V. of England ; he rifled the town of its affluent stores, and dismissed the in- habitants y<\ih fire pennies.
1417, June 7. mlliam Bowes, mayor of York, by regulation, ordains that all the pageants of the play of Corpus Christi should be brought forth in order by the artificers of the city, and play at the places specified in the regulation. And father William de Melton, of the order of the Friars minors, and professor of Holy Page- antry, and a most famous preacher of the word of God, willing to destroy sin, and a great lover of virtue, having by preaching, exhorted the popu- lace that they would cause to be removed all public concubines in fornication or adultery, wherefore the mayor, by. consent of the commu- nity, ordained that they should depart the city within eight days, on pain of imprisonment, unless any of them shoula find good security Uiat she would not exercise her illegal vocation for the future.
1417, Auffust 12, Henry V. by a letter to his high chancellor dated Tonques, in Normandy, gives directions for the sealing annuities of £6 1.3*. 4d. each to seventeen masters of the " grete shippes, carrackes, barges, and balyngeis" belonging to the royal navy ; " to take yearly of our grant while that us last, at our exchequer at Westminster, at the term, of Michaelmas and
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