following days, Corpus Christi, Nativity of St. John Baptist, Apostles Peter and Paul, Translation of St. Thomas, St. Mary Magdalen, St. James Apostle, Assumption of the blessed Virgin, "St. Laurence, St. Bartholomew, Nativity of St. Mary, Exaltation of the Holy Cross, St. Matthew, St. Michael, St. Luke Evangelist, Apostles Simon and Jude, All Saints, St. Andrew, St. Nicolas, Conception of the blessed Virgin, St. Thomas Apostle, the solemnity of the dedication of every parish church, and of the saints to whom every parish church is dedicated, and other feasts enjoined in every diocese by the ordinaries of the places in particular, and of their certain. knowledge. We therefore command you that ye notify all and singular the premisses to all our brethren and suffragans, enjoining every one of them that they admonish and effectually persuade the clergy and people subject to them, strictly to observe, and with honour to venerate the feasts above rehearsed, as they fall in their seasons: and let them reverently go to the parish churches on those days, and stay out the conclusion of the masses and other divine offices, praying devoutly and sincerely to God for the salvation of themselves and the rest of the faithful both quick and dead; that by thus going the circle of the solemnities of the saints, they, and other catholics for whom they pray, may deserve the constant intercession of the saints, whose feasts they celebrate, with Almighty God. And let our brethren intimate to their subjects, that on the other feasts of the saints, they may with impunity proceed in their customary labours. And if they find any hired labourers who presume to cease from working on particular feasts that are not above enjoined, in order to defraud those to whose service they have bound themselves, let them canonically restrain them from such superstitions, and cause others to restrain them by ecclesiastical censures. And we command our brethren aforesaid, that every one of them do clearly and distinctly certify us by their letters patent (containing a copy of these presents) what they have done in the premisses, before the feast of the Nativity of St. Mary the Virgin next coming; and do ye also take care effectually to perform all and singular the premisses, so far as they concern your cities and diocese, and in the same manner to certify it to us. Dated at Maghfield, 17 kal. Aug., A. D. 1362, and of our consecration the thirteenth*. * Because this archbishop makes an appearance of greatly retrenching the number of holydays, I thought fit to compare his list with the two largest, which I think are to be found in Sir H. Spelman; the first is that of Walter Cantelupe, of and for the diocese of Worcester, A. D. 1240. Sir H. Spelman, p. 358+. In this the following festivals are more than in Islep's list. St. Wolstan, a local saint, formerly bishop of this see; St. Paul's Conversion; the Chair of St. Peter; the Deposition, that is, the death of St. Oswald, another bishop of this see; St. Peter ad vincula; St. Martin, bishop. But then this list has only two holydays in Easter week, and two in Whitsun-week; and there is no mention of Preparation or Good Friday but then here are seven holydays mentioned over and above, in which all labour was to cease save that of the plough, viz. St. Vincent, St. John Port Lat., St. Barnabas, St. Leonard, St. Clement, pope, Translation of St. Oswald, St. Catherine. And farther, there were four in which women's work only was forbid, viz. St. Agnes, St. Margaret, St. Lucia, St. Agatha. The other list is that of Peter Quevil, bishop of Exeter, A. D. 12871. In this list the feasts over and above those mentioned by Islep are the Conversion of St. Paul, St. Peter's Chair, St. Gregory, St. George, John Port Lat., St. Augustin the English apostle, St. Peter ad vincula, Decollation of John Baptist, St. Martin, St. Catherine. Easter and Whitsuntide have here four days assigned for feasts, but perhaps the Sundays might be included. It is observable that the present archbishop had received a bull from Pope Innocent VI. for keeping the feast of St. Augustin of Canterbury, which though long before instituted, was scarce at all observed; and he directs it to be kept as a double feast, by ceasing from such labours as custom forbad on double feasts§: yet it is clear that our archbishop had no such regard to the pope's bull, which he received eight years before he made this constitution, as to make St. Augustin's day an holyday of obligation, or of cessation from labour. And it seems clear that the pope did. not understand the customs of England; for feasts here were not observed. by cessation from labour on account of their being double, but at the dis cretion of our archbishops and synods. Archbishop Islep indeed inserted into the list all the principal double feasts, as the Nativity and Epiphany, Ascension, as likewise the Assumption of the Virgin, of the Saint of the Church, and the Dedication of the Church. Easter day and Pentecost day are not enjoined by Archbishop Islep as principal double feasts, but as Lord's days. The greater double feasts which then were are also contained in this list, viz., Purification, Corpus Christi, Nativity of the blessed Virgin, and All Saints; but the feast of the Holy Trinity is compre 7 hended under the general head of Lord's days, and the same may be said of the feast of the Holy Relics, which was of old kept on the octaves of the Nativity of the blessed Virgin, but had afterwards been removed to the Sunday after the Translation of the new martyr Thomas Becket, (which was July 7 ;) these were greater double feasts, as also were afterward that of the Visitation, and of the Name of Jesus. But then Archbishop Islep leaves out one of the lesser double feasts, viz., the Transfiguration of our Lord; and many of the inferior double feasts, as Saints Gregory, Ambrose, George, two Augustins, Hierome, and the Translation of St. Edward; and takes in several simple feasts, viz., St. Nicolas, St. Mary Magdalen, and St. Laurence. The monks of Westminster two years before the date of this constitution had exhibited Pope Innocent the Fourth's bull for the solemn observation of King and St. Edward the Confessor to this archbishop, and the archbishop caused this bull to be copied out and sent to all the prelates of his province, and grants an indulgence of forty days to all that would observe it; but he did not think fit to make it an holyday of obligation: nay, this seems to have been but a simple feast for the Translation of Edward, king and martyr, mentioned among the inferior double feasts, is meant of Edward's son, and successor of King Edgar. This archbishop also received a bull from Innocent the Sixth for the universal celebration of St. Austin's day, which yet he has not here inserted. 'Good Friday, but this is only in Sir H. Spelman, p. 610, not 501 *. "Lyndwood here takes notice of the reason given in a gloss on De Consecr. Dist. 3. c. 19, why a feast was instituted in honour to the cross, and not to the ass, which yet bore our Saviour's Body as well as the cross, viz., that on the cross Christ performed our redemption +. But it may be answered that the ass did by its proper action and motion contribute to the carrying of our Saviour to the place where our redemption was to be performed, but the wood of the cross could not by any proper action or motion contribute to this great end. 'I know not how it should come to pass that this Roman deacon has had more honour done him than any of the bishops of that see: for his feast was always solemnly observed in this and other Churches, which is more than can be said of his own bishop, Sixtus, or Xystus, who yet died a martyr as well as he nor did the English ever constantly and universally keep the feast of any the greatest popes, not even of Gregory the Great, by whose means we were converted. • But they must, says Lyndwood, be only such feasts as have been first authorized by the pope and the case is very plain, our very archbishops in convocation never presume to institute any holyday, but only to choose such as they thought most proper out of the vast number inserted into the Roman calendar. 'Decurrendo, Oxford; decorando, Sir H. Spelman, p. 610; not in the other copy 5011. [S. Parasceues, O. MS. addit. Wilkins, vol. ii. p. 560.] [Lyndwood, Provinciale, p. 102. gl. Inventionis sanctæ crucis.] [decurrendo, W.] a Therefore this should in strictness stand before the two preceding constitutions. [Addenda.] [It was now near two hundred years since Roger, the high-spirited archbishop of York, had assumed an equality with him of Canterbury, and claimed the same privilege of having his cross borne up before him when he was in the province of Canterbury, which the other claimed and used in the province of York. The two present archbishops, Simon Islip and John Thorsby, put an amicable end to this vain dispute, by the mediation of King Edward III., without the interposition of the pope. The sum of the concordat was, that John of York, within two months of the date thereof, (viz., April 20, 1353, or 2,) and his successors, within two months from their first entrance into the province of Canterbury, and having their cross borne up before them, should offer the figure of an archbishop bearing his cross in gold, or some other jewel, of forty pounds value, at Thomas Becket's shrine, by the hands of their official, chancellor, auditor, or some doctor of law, or knight: and that he of Canterbury, for the greater antiquity and eminence of his church, should in the royal presence sit on the king's right hand, and rest his cross on the right side of his throne, he of York on the left side: that in all places large enough, the two archbishops, with their cross-bearers, should go side by side; but in places too narrow for this, Canterbury should have the precedence. In the year 1452, a hundred years after this concordate, William Booth, archbishop of York, did send such an oblation by the hands of a knight. Anglia Sacra, vol. i. p. 74, 75 *.] * [Cf. ibid., p. 77. not.] A.D. MCCCLXIII., OR THEREABOUTS. ARCHBISHOP THORSBY'S CONSTITUTIONS. LATIN. Sir H. p. 602. vol. iii. p. 68.] THE Constitutions of John Thorsby, archbishop of York. 1. John, by divine permission archbishop of York, pri- Spelman, mate of England, &c. "We do the duty of our office while vol. ii. we make such wholesome ordinances as may promote the [Wilkins, honour of the Church, and concern the salvation of souls, and restrain and suppress the excesses and abuses of our subjects. Desiring, therefore, to obviate some errors and abuses so far as we can, which we see to grow rife in the Church; in the first place, (according to the example of Christ, who would have His own Church be called a house, not of merchandise but of prayer; and not allowing fraudulent traffic there to be exercised, cast the buyers and sellers out of the temple,) we firmly forbid any one to keep a market in the churches, the porches and cemeteries thereunto belonging, or other holy places of our "diocese on the Lord's day or other festivals, or to presume to traffic or hold any secular pleas therein; and let there be no wrestlings, shootings, or plays, which may be the cause or occasion of sin, dissension, hatred or fighting therein performed: but let every catholic come thither to pray, and to implore pardon for his sins. He is also said to have been cardinal of St. Sabine, but he does not here express this title. By this it should seem that these are only diocesan constitutions; yet I chose to insert them, not only because they were drawn by a primate, and so truly great an one as Thorsby was, but because of the provincial constitutions therein cited and inserted. [Especially because I find it a [Addenda.] prevailing opinion in this age, that a constitution of the archbishop was ["Constitutiones Johannis Thoresby, archiepiscopi Eboracensis edita Anno Dom. 1367. Ex MS. Cott. Vitellius D. 5. fol. 152 b. et ex MS. penes episc. |