A typical hermit saint, Godric of Finchale is plagued by demons. When the demons come, they taunt Godric with all the temptations of the flesh, and more hurtfully, they accuse him of being illiteratus, illiterate. Worst of all, one demon has the temerity to brag that he is perfectly able to chant the psalter as well as Godric: ‘O rustice, tam bene novi ego psallere, Godrice, sicut tu!’ (‘Peasant! I can learn to chant the psalter just as well as you, Godric!’). Like the demons, his monastic biographers also accuse Godric of being illiterate: Michael Clanchy has noted that ‘his chief biographer, Reginald of Durham, quite often describes him without malice as laicus, illiteratus and idiota’. This characterization extends beyond letters into music: he is described as ‘omnino ignarus musicae artis’ (‘completely ignorant of the art of music’). Modern scholars have tended to agree with this characterization. However, Godric was a man of the world. Formerly a merchant – some have said a pirate – before settling down near Durham to the life of a hermit, he made multiple high profile excursions around the Mediterranean and had the common literacy required of successful merchants. Moreover, in addition to this mercantile literacy, Godric did have a monastic literacy: his hagiographer remarks that he went back to school as an adult and learned to chant his psalter. The ability to chant the psalter is central to monastic literacy because it enables monks to participate fully in the liturgy – the daily round of prayers, chants and ritual action that comprise the Divine Office. In the twelfth century, of course, ‘literate’ means ‘Latinate’. Reginald of Durham, in particular, treats the terms litteratus and monachus as if they were synonyms. Godric's lives, however, reveal two parallel narratives about the saint: one in which he is illiteratus and idiota, and another in which he is extraordinarily gifted in words and music. Indeed, to modern ears, it is something of a paradox that despite this insistence on Godric's illiteracy, he is simultaneously acclaimed as the composer of some of the earliest Middle English poetry – the composer, in fact, of the earliest English vernacular songs for which musical notation survives. The discussion that follows, therefore, teases out some of the implications of this paradox and assesses the role that our impression of Godric's literacy plays in our imagination of him as a liturgist.

Salutem in Christo.

My very good Lord

I hartily thanke your Lordship for your Letters and for your care of my kinsman Dr Moreton. But I cannot thinke this busines of Slopford fitt for him to meddle in, for both my Lord Keeper and Mr Atturney generall are clearly of opinion that the right of Presentation for this tyme is in my Lord Cheife Baron's Sonne as your Lordship will easily see by such Evidences as they will produce. And therfore at my Lord Cheife Baron's entreaty I am willing to signify thus much to your Lordship, and to pray you to give his Clerke all fayre Expedition for his Institution, if you have noe just exception to his life or learning. And soe having nothing else to trouble your Lordship with at this tyme, I leave you to Gods grace and rest.

Your Lordships very lovinge Freind and Brother.

W: Cant:

Lambeth July 8 1637

To the right reverend Father in God, my very good Lord and Brother the Lord Bishop of Chester. these

In 1889 Antoni Rubió i Lluch published The Classical Renaissance in Catalan Literature (El renacimiento clásico en la literatura catalana), the speech he gave to mark his admission to the Royal Academy of Belles Lettres of Barcelona. This institution, born in 1700 as an Enlightenment salon, was, by the end of the nineteenth century, bringing together scholars intent on restoring knowledge of early Catalan literature as part of a broader plan, dubbed the Renaixença (Renaissance), to revive Catalan as a literary language. Modern Romance philology had come to be studied at the University of Barcelona – and indeed in the Iberian Peninsula – thanks to Manuel Milà i Fontanals. Rubió i Lluch had been one of his star pupils, a classmate of Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo, the head of the school of Spanish Philology. In his early thirties and with his Hellenistic education, Rubió i Lluch wanted to use his speech at what was at the time the most distinguished Catalan academic institution to point out that the history of Catalan medieval literature not only owed a debt to the wealth of Romance-language literature, to troubadour poetry, and to chivalric romance, but also that it had roots in the classical tradition and its subsequent revival in Renaissance Italy.

This volume is ultimately the progeny of Rubió i Lluch's speech. First and foremost, it provides an overarching vision of the presence of the classical tradition in medieval Catalan literature, drawing on the output of more than a century of academic research. In 1904 Rubió i Lluch began a course of university studies in Catalan (Estudis Universitaris Catalans) to run in parallel with the official ones in Spanish. He was the first in an unbroken chain of academics continuing until the end of the Spanish Civil War in 1939, from Lluís Nicolau d'Olwer to Martí de Riquer, and including his son Jordi Rubió i Balaguer among many others, who had the privilege to discover – quite literally – some of the treasures of medieval Catalan literature. Their research benefitted from studies on Italian influences by Mario Casella, Arturo Farinelli, and Bernardo Sanvisenti.

As the tenth volume in the series, this publication marks an important milestone for Fourteenth Century England (FCE). It is now eighteen years since the first volume was published in 2000. The editor of that volume, Nigel Saul, stated at the time that the fourteenth century had suffered a degree of scholarly neglect in comparison to the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries. This is clearly no longer the case: in the twenty-first century, scholarship on the fourteenth century has blossomed, not least with the publication of two major biographies on Edward II and Edward III, by Professors Seymour Phillips and Mark Ormrod, respectively. In the past eighteen years FCE has made a vital contribution to this burgeoning of scholarly interest in the period. Including the present volume, no fewer than one hundred and four articles, and almost as many authors (some have published more than once), have appeared in FCE since 2000.

Following the lead of volume one, each subsequent volume – including the present one – has published an eclectic mix of essays on all aspects of fourteenth-century history relating to England, her dominions and neighbours. The volumes are not thematic – the editors consider this to be a strength of the series, since it encourages a range of subject-matter and attracts contributors with a great diversity of research methodologies and interests. The positive reviews given to FCE volumes over the years are a testament to the success of this format, and to the quality of the work of the authors who have published in FCE. In this volume, important contributions to the history of the fourteenth-century English parliament are offered in articles by Seymour Phillips and Alison McHardy. Ilana Krug explores the relatively neglected topic of purveyance, offering an overview of this contentious practice across the whole of the fourteenth century. Alan Kissane's discussion is concerned with the difficult and troubling subject of sexual violence towards girls, while Bridget Wells-Furby and Laura Tompkins explore, from very different standpoints, the material and acquisitive nature of marriage arrangement. Finally, Kathryn Warner, Elizabeth Biggs and Anna Duch offer different perspectives on the practice and representation of fourteenth-century kingship.

❧ A Song and Some Theory

IN CHAPTER 3 a poem by Thomas Hardy about instrumental playing was quoted and discussed. Another Hardy poem, ‘Her song’, presented below in its entirety, is about singing.

This poem's protagonist, like all of Hardy's heroines a Wessex or west country woman, is undoubtedly rural, if part of the man's attraction was that he came from a different region. Hardy therefore wants us to think of her song as a folksong, with three functions specified in turn in the first six lines: it is sung at leisure, at work, and at feasting. She sings the song on Sunday because in a rural community there is nothing else to do on a Sunday, and by 1850 half the population of England was no longer going to church. (Nevertheless, the first line is intended to shock: one should not sing a secular song on the Sabbath.) She doubtless sings the song on Monday while she does the washing, though there is also the implication, returning in the final stanza, that it was on Monday that the song undid her, when she beguiled somebody with it. Then she sings it at a New Year's Eve party.

She will probably have learnt the song from her mother, who quite likely underwent a similar life and may still be working and singing alongside her, and, although no child is mentioned, there would not have been such dreadful ‘cup-eyed care and doubt’ without one, and it is probably to the child that she is passing on the song during the second half of stanza 2.

Salutem in Christo

Sir.

I have receaved your Letters of December 26th And I thanke you for them. You have done very discreetly to lett mee know what has beene desired of you there, in case the Prince of Oranges young Child (whom God preserve in health) should fall into any sicknes and Danger, before the tyme appointed for publicke, and solemne Baptisme. For God forbid but you should doe your Duty in that behalfe, being there unto desired by the Prince of Orange himselfe, and having the Liking and Approbation of the Queene of Bohemia, whom you serve, for the doing of itt, in case there bee Necessity. But in all other Cases, in which you are not soe call’d in, as in this (it seemes) you are, I would have you by all meanes avoyd all Occasions, which may but seeme to give Offence to the Clergie there. For you cannot but see by that which herefore befell you from Dr. Rivett, how full of Danger any kinde of such medling may bee. And for this particular, because I would be sure noe Clamour should hurt you (if malice should chance to rayse any) I have acquainted his Maiestie with the whole Busines. God send you a Happie New Yeare to whose blessed protection I leave you and rest

Your very Loving friend

W: Cant:

Lambeth January 9.th 1639./40.

As I was going to seale this Letter, I heard that the young prince was dead. How true it is I know not. Yet I thought fit to send these Letters that you might know I have receav’d yours. And before I could seale, I receav’d your last Letters which give mee certayne notice of his Death. I am sory for itt; but glad that they have gayn’d a Precedent for Private Baptisme, and by Dr. Rivettes hands.

Neither of your Last Letters give mee any Accounte of the Manuscripts which you sent me word were att Leyden; And about which I writt to you.

To my very Loving frend Dr. Johnson Chaplen to the Queen's Majestie of Bohemia att the Hague these

Sir:

In the midst of mye great Affliction I am desyred to wright to you, and to request of you and the Fellowes a kindnes, which I hope is everye waye fitt and Convenient to be granted. It is that you would at mye Intreatye take younge Smith into your Consideration, and make hime fellowe before the yeare of his probation be Expired, in regard of the pretention he makes to the Founders Kindred. Which busynes though I shall not take upon me to determine, yett in regard I am informed that you have done the like favour for some which have claymed under the same descent, at the request of some of mye predecessors, I doe hearbye desyer you to doe the like for me, if you knowe not iust and statutable Exception against it. Soe I take my leave and rest Your verye lovinge frend.

W: Cant:

Tower. November. 11. 1641.

To mye verye lovinge frend Dr Sheldon Warden of All Soules College Oxford. thess.

Malta and the Mediterranean context

The sixteenth century is a period of transition in European history, characterised by changes on the economic, social, religious and political level. In the long run, these changes disintegrated the old medieval order and challenged traditional and established ways of thought and action. Although Malta was slow to shed its medieval character, events in the wider European context did ultimately affect the island's society. Among other things, the century witnessed the further westward reach of the Ottoman empire and its establishment as a Mediterranean power. Another significant change was the Italian maritime republics’ loss of primacy and the demise of the Hanseatic League, creating a void that was filled by the Habsburg–Ottoman struggle for supremacy in the central Mediterranean and the rise of new economic powers like England. The sixteenth century was also marked by the Habsburg–Valois rivalry, which intensified as a consequence of close Franco-Ottoman relations.

The spread of the Reformation to western and eastern Europe saw religious orders such as the Knights Hospitaller lose substantial income from their estates. An event which greatly affected Malta in subsequent years was Süleyman the Magnificent's conquest of Rhodes from the Hospitaller Order of St John in 1522. For almost eight years after this loss the Knights wandered from port to port, at the mercy of their various hosts. They were in desperate need of a territory to rule and a base where they could consolidate and centralise not only their activities against the Muslim enemy but also communication between the conventual authority and the Order's priories. Resolving these issues was critical if they were to confirm their significance in the Christian world. The Knights were experiencing a ‘crisis of identity’ and thus, notwithstanding certain difficulties which will be examined in the next chapter, they viewed the possession of Malta as a positive step towards regaining their raison d'etre. Not only was the island viewed as a frontier base, due to its proximity to Muslim territory, but its superb harbours would make it an excellent base for the Knights’ naval activities. The continuation of Holy War from this base would do justice to the constant flow of revenues from the Knights’ commanderies across Europe.

Salutem in Christo

After my harty commendations etc

It cannot be unknowne to you, how it hath pleased God of late to stirr upp the mindes of well disposed people towards the repaire of St. Paules Church in London which great worke soe neerly concerninge the Glory of Almighty God, and the honor of this Kingdom, Wee doubt not but every man of ability and especially those of the clergy, will endeavour by all good meanes possible to assist and further. These are therfore hartely to pray yow, and either of yow, that the collection towards the Worke aforesaid may be hastned in those parts, and especially in your Jurisdiction, and that you will not fayle both by your selfe and freinds, to promote the busines as much as in yow lyes, in all parts of the diocess. And for matter of commutations, if any fall owt in your disposall, I shall earnestly desire yow, not to be unmindfull of this great and chargeable worke, for which I shall give yow very harty thanks. Soe assuring my selfe of your love and care theerin, I leave yow to the Grace of God, and rest

Your very lovinge Freinde

W: Cant:

Lambeth. March. 6. 1634.

To my very lovinge Freinds Dr Kingsley Archdeacon of Canterbury and Dr Steed his Officiall. At Canterbury These

My verye good Lord.

I receaved your Lordships letres bye thiss your Servant the last weeke, and I am hartelye sorye for your iust Cause of greefe, if the busynes be soe as you apprehend it. But I could not give you any answear till I had spoken with his Maiestye; because your wife beinge as yett honored with your priviledges, cannot be proceeded against bye me without the Kings leave first obtayned. And howsoever, I cannot command hir to be searched bye women wheather shee be with-child or not, till thear be some proceedings against hir in a legall waye, which hath not yett bine donne.

Upon Sundaye last att Windsore I acquainted his Maiestye with what your Lord had written, and tooke the boldnes to have your honourable frend mye Lord of Holland bye. The Kinge is as Carefull for you as maye be, but his Maiestye bid me tell you, your Lordship shall have all Justice done you that maye be. At last thiss was resolved. That it is most fitt for your Lordship to goe presentlye to hir, and take mye Lord of Harford and some other frends with you, and see hir, for it is impossible if shee be with childe, but that it must needs shewe it selfe. And if you suspect anye Cushin-greatnes you maye your selfe in the right of a Husband requyer of hir for your satisfaction to submitt hirselfe to search bye honest and grave women. And if shee refuse soe to doe, your Lordship must then thinke of farther Counsells.

In the mean tyme, your Lordship is advised to take present Counsell of some Civill Lawyers what course is fittest for you to hold against hir. And his Maiestye hath Commanded the Lord Keeper and Mr Atturnye generall to advise what maye be done bye the Common Lawe. And hath farther given me power to call hir into the Highe Commission if anye bye your Lordships appointment will Article against hir, whear you shall (upon proofe made) be sure of the Justice of that Court.

Salutem in Christo.

My very Good Lord.

I send you here inclosed a Letter of a former Date, and it had come sooner to you; but that your Sonne told mee Mr Griffith was expected here, sooner then that Letter could come to you, which made mee stay the Letter; because there is a Passage Concerning him. But now he comes not, I have adventured to send it.

To your last Letters of November 10th I have little other Answer to give you, then Thankes. And Dr Morton hath a greate deale of Cause, and I hope will thanke you too. He is now in my Judgement better fitted with his Prebend, and 2 Benefices, then if he had Croston. And nothing can make him thinke otherwise, but the greate value of the Benefice, which haveing once swallow’d in his imagination, it seemes he cannot well tell how to come off. But when I consider the Trouble of the Exchange, and the hazard by reason of the Title, and the inconstancy of the Party, with whom he is to deale, and the inconveniences which may arise upon it, though as yet not foreseene, I thinke he shall doe far more wisely, and providently for himselfe to Thanke God and his Freinds for this that he hath, and thinke noe more of Croston. And soe much I pray be pleased to shew him in these my Letters, when he comes next to wayte upon you.

Sir Robert Huddlestone hath beene with me this Terme, and Confesses cleerely to mee, That he hath sold the Inheritance of Croston to a Lyncolneshire Gentleman, and bound himselfe to make good the Title. So if other Things were accommodated; yet how wee shall be able to get over this Rocke, I knowe not; and then Dr Moreton must be Quiet, whether he will or noe; unlesse I were able cleerely to intitle the King, which for ought yet appeares to me, I am not.

The rest of your Lordships Letter is but a Protestation of your true, and loving respects to mee; which I doe verily believe, and as kyndly accept as yourselfe can wish. And shall (God willing) as I may have Opportunity, be Carefull to see your Sonne that is at Brazen-nose provided for, if you doe not rather desyre to Place him neerer you in those Parts.

Salutem in Christo.

My very good Lord.

For other thinges I shall give your Lordship an Accompt by your Sonne, but these are breifly to certify you, that I have acquainted Mr Atturney Generall, with the Abuse of Prohibitions out of the Exchequer Court with you at Chester, as alsoe the frequent and unworthy Publishing of theyr﹛writts of Rebellion Outlawryes in the Churches in tyme of divyne Service. Concerninge which I praye your Lordship to sett me downe the Groundes and Reasons of the Prohibitions, as alsoe what the manner is in making the Church a Place for such Proclamations. And when I shall receyve such Advertisements from you of the severall Particulars as are fitting, together with the abuse and inconvenyence of them, I shall not fayle to doe you such further service herein as I may. But I would have you adde nothing to these Letters save onely what you shall thinke fitt concerning these matters, and that as breifly as you can, that I may shew them to Mr Atturney Generall, or any else as occasion shall be offered. Soe in hast. I leave you to the Grace of God and rest

Your Lordships very lovinge Freind and Brother.

W: Cant:

Lambeth. December 1. 1634.

There are allready come or coming to your Lordships handes certaine Letters or else an Order from my Lord Keeper for the Augmentation of a Vicarage within your Lordships Diocess. I pray be very carefull to see them put in Execution, for it may be a leading Case, for some other busynesses of that nature, which I have in agitation here. W: Cant:

To the Right Reverend Father in God, my very good Lord and Brother, the Lord Bishop of Chester. these.

Salutem in Christo

After my hearty comendations etc:

I have receivd very kinde Letters from you by your Commissioners, for which as

I give you thankes, soe have I been very ready to doe whatsoever is desired in them.

For I have againe seconded your busynes concerning the Hospitall, and likewise

moved his Majestie for the buildinge of your Churches, which you cannot nowe

but want because the wall which parted the Chancell of St. Gyles Church from the

body therof, is pulled downe, by which meanes you have a Church less then you had before. I moved these busynesses to his Majestie in the presence of the Lord Register, who will witnes with me to you, howe ready and carefull I have been to serve you in both these particulars. His Majestie said he would consider of them, with some of his Councell of that Nation; and then give answere. This Answere I beleeve the Lord Register brings with him, if it be not sent before by your owne Commisssioners. Soe wishing that Citye all hapines, I leave you all to the Grace of God, and rest

Your very loveing Freind,

W: Cant:

Lambeth. May. 9th. 1634.

To my very worthy Freindes, the Lord Provost of Edenburgh and the rest of his Brethren there. these

Sir:

I am glad of anye opportunitye to heare from you and your health is welcome to Court. Anye occasion that gave me Cause to heare from you must needs be welcome, though I Confess nothinge was att thiss tyme less expected.

The busynes you referred to the bearers relation, and bye hime I see howe much he is bound to you which I presume he will ever returne with thankes and all fayer Carridge towards you. I referr you to hime for mye answear both because thear ar some things which I would not wright: and for that he hasts his returne. Onlye I thinke the summe demaunded is to deare: And I thinke he would have asked less, and made more hast to part with it then he doth if the great accident above had not happened.

I am caled upon for hast that he maye goe part of his waye to night, and I shall not troble hime to carrye, nor you to reed more lynes, then these fewe which maye tell you that I am in good health, though I have had much adoe with a tedious Journye, and thear's worss behinde. I wish you all happines and desyer to be remembered to your good Ladye whoe I hope hath recovered good health at the Bath. In thiss bearers haste I leave you to the Grace of God and shall ever rest

your verye lovinge poore frend

Guil: Batho: et Welle:

Alderton. Julye. 27. 1627.

Wee have yett noe certaine newes in Court from mye Lord Duke but onlye that he is before the Ile de Reye bye Rochel. I praye God bless hime and send hime backe with honour.

To my Worthye and much Honoured frend Sir John Scudamore Knight and Baronet thess

❧ Introduction

AT some point in 1643, the wardens of Wimborne Minster paid 6d ‘for some of the organ pipes’, which they must already have taken down and put into safe keeping or had stolen while the loft remained as a seating area. That same year, the Dean and Chapter of Salisbury Cathedral prudently dismantled their organ rather than have it destroyed, while the organ pipes at Warminster St Denys parish church (the ‘minster’) were taken out ‘and hidden under a floor in the tower, lest the soldiers should spoil them, as they had done in other places’. (If they were retrieved at the Restoration, it was to little effect: the organ was out of repair in 1683.) These actions came none too soon, for on 9 May 1644 Parliament passed an ordinance for the removal of church organs. Over the next few years, Roundhead soldiers routinely destroyed the existing organs in parish churches, as well as the cathedral organs. St Mary's, Chard, must have had one, for an ‘organ loft’, presumably empty, is referred to in 1659. Crewkerne's organ was destroyed in 1646, as was Shepton Mallet's ‘by the soldiers’, the ‘remains’ at Crewkerne being stored by the churchwardens. St Andrew's, Chippenham, sold its organ to a manor house, Lacock Abbey, probably the only organs in England to survive the Civil War and Commonwealth being those in domestic spaces. At St Mary Redcliffe in Bristol, the stained glass was broken and the ‘fanatics’ marched through the city blowing the organ pipes they had looted. Most notoriously, in Exeter, the Parliamentary troops ‘brake down the [cathedral] organs, and taking two or three hundred pipes with them in a most scornful and contemptuous manner went up and down the streets piping with them; and meeting with some of the choristers of the Church, whose surplices they had stolen before, and employed them to base servile offices, scoffingly told them: “Boys, we have spoiled your trade, you must go and sing hot pudding pies.”’ What a soundscape! This will have been some time after 1645, when the cathedral organist John Lugg lost his job.