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When, as here, men are endowed with a serious character, have a resolute spirit, and possess independent habits, they deal with their conscience as with their daily business, and end by laying hands on church as well as state. Already for a long time the exactions of the Roman See had provoked the resistance of the people,[178] and the higher clergy became unpopular. Men complained that the best livings were given by the pope to non-resident strangers; that some Italian, unknown in England, possessed fifty or sixty benefices in England; that English money poured into Rome; and that the clergy, being judged only by clergy, gave themselves up to their vices, and abused their state of immunity. In the first years of Henry III's reign there were nearly a hundred murders committed by priests then alive. At the beginning of the fourteenth century the ecclesiastical revenue was twelve times greater than the civil; about half the soil was in the hands of the clergy. At the end of the century the commons declared that the taxes paid to the church were five times greater than the taxes paid to the crown; and some years afterwards,[179] considering that the wealth of the clergy only served to keep them in idleness and luxury, they proposed to confiscate it for the public benefit. Already the idea of the Reformation had forced itself upon them. They remembered how in the ballads Robin Hood ordered his folk to spare the yeomen, laborers, even knights, if they are good fellows, but never to let abbots or bishops escape. The prelates were grievously oppressing the people by means of their privileges, ecclesiastical courts, and tithes; when suddenly, amid the pleasant banter or the monotonous babble of the Norman versifiers, we hear the indignant voice of a Saxon, a man of the people and a victim of oppression, thundering against them.

It is the vision of Piers Plowman, written, it is supposed, by a secular priest of Oxford.[180] Doubtless the traces of French taste are perceptible. It could not be otherwise; the people from below can never quite prevent themselves from imitating the people above, and the most unshackled popular poets, Burns and Béranger, too often preserve an academic style. So here a fashionable machinery, the allegory of the Roman de la Rose, is pressed into service. We have Do-well, Covetousness, Avarice, Simony, Conscience, and a whole world of talking abstractions. But, in spite of these vain foreign phantoms, the body of the poem is national, and true to life. The old language reappears in part; the old metre altogether; no morer rhymes, but barbarous alliterations; no more jesting, but a harsh gravity, a sustained invective, a grand and sombre imagination, heavy Latin texts, hammered down as by a Protestant hand. Piers Plowman went to sleep on the Malvern hills, and there had a wonderful dream:

"Thanne gan I meten—a merveillous swevene,

That I was in a wildernesse—wiste I nevere where;

And as I biheeld into the eest,—an heigh to the sonne,

I seigh a tour on a toft,—trieliche y-maked,

A deep dale bynethe—a dongeon thereinne

With depe diches and derke—and dredfulle of sighte.

A fair feeld ful of folk—fond I ther bitwene,

Of alle manere of men,—the meene and the riche,

Werchynge and wandrynge—as the world asketh.

Some putten hem to the plough,—pleiden ful selde,

In settynge and sowynge—swonken ful harde,

And wonnen that wastours—with glotonye dystruyeth."[181]

A gloomy picture of the world, like the frightful dreams which occur so often in Albert Durer and Luther. The first reformers were persuaded that the earth was given over to evil; that the devil had on it his empire and his officers; that Antichrist, seated on the throne of Rome, displayed ecclesiastical pomps to seduce souls and cast them into the fire of hell. So here Anti-christ, with raised banner, enters a convent; bells are rung; monks in solemn procession go to meet him, and receive with congratulations their lord and father.[182] With seven great giants, the seven deadly sins, he besieges Conscience; and the assault is led by Idleness, who brings with her an army of more than a thousand prelates: for vices reign, more hateful from being in holy places, and employed in the church of God in the devil's service.

"Ac now is Religion a rydere—a romere aboute,

A ledere of love-dayes—and a lond-buggere,

A prikere on a palfrey—fro manere to manere....

And but if his knave knele—that shal his coppe brynge,

He loureth on hym, and asketh hym—who taughte hym curteisie."[183]

But this sacrilegious show has its day, and God puts His hand on men in order to warn them. By order of Conscience, Nature sends forth a host of plagues and diseases from the planets:

"Kynde Conscience tho herde,—and cam out of the planetes,

And sente forth his forreyours—feveres and fluxes,

Coughes and cardiaclescrampes and tooth-aches,

Reumes and radegundes,—and roynous scabbes,

Biles and bocches,—and brennynge agues,

Frenesies and foule yveles,—forageres of kynde....

There was 'Harrow! and Help!—Here cometh Kynde!

With Deeth that is dredful—to undo us alle!'

The lord that lyved after lust—tho aloud cryde....

Deeth cam dryvynge after,—and al to duste passhed

Kynges and knyghtes,—kaysers and popes,...

Manye a lovely lady—and lemmans of knyghtes,

Swowned and swelted for sorwe of hise dyntes."[184]

Here is a crowd of miseries, like those which Milton has described in his vision of human life; tragic pictures and emotions, such as the reformers delight to dwell upon. There is a like speech delivered by John Knox, before the fair ladies of Mary Stuart, which tears the veil from the human corpse just as coarsely, in order to exhibit its shame. The conception of the world, proper to the people of the north, all sad and moral, shows itself already. They are never comfortable in their country; they have to strive continually against cold or rain. They cannot live there carelessly, lying under a lovely sky, in a sultry and clear atmosphere, their eyes filled with the noble beauty and happy serenity of the land. They must work to live; be attentive, exact, keep their houses wind and water tight, trudge doggedly through the mud behind their plough, light their lamps in their shops during the day. Their climate imposes endless inconvenience, and exacts endless endurance. Hence arise melancholy and the idea of duty. Man naturally thinks of life as of a battle, oftener of black death which closes this deadly show, and leads so many plumed and disorderly processions to the silence and the eternity of the grave. All this visible world is vain; there is nothing true but human virtue—the courageous energy with which man attains to self-command, the generous energy with which he employs himself in the service of others. On this view, then, his eyes are fixed; they pierce through worldly gauds, neglect sensual joys, to attain this. By such inner thoughts and feelings the ideal model is displaced; a new source of action springs up—the idea of righteousness. What sets them against ecclesiastical pomp and insolence is neither the envy of the poor and low, nor the anger of the oppressed, nor a revolutionary desire to experimentalize abstract truth, but conscience. They tremble lest they should not work out their salvation if they continue in a corrupt church; they fear the menaces of God, and dare not embark on the great journey with unsafe guides. "What is righteousness?" asked Luther, anxiously, "and how shall I obtain it?" With like anxiety Piers Plowman goes to seek Dowell, and asks each one to show him where he shall find him. "With us," say the friars. "Contra quath ich, Septies in die cadit justus, and ho so syngeth certys doth nat wel;" so he betakes himself to "study and writing," like Luther; the clerks at table speak much of God and of the Trinity, "and taken Bernarde to witnesse, and putteth forth presompcions... ac the carful mai crie and quaken atte gate, bothe a fyngred and a furst, and for defaute spille ys non so hende to have hym yn. Clerkus and knyghtes carpen of God ofte, and haveth hym muche in hure mouthe, ac mene men in herte;" and heart, inner faith, living virtue, are what constitute true religion. This is what these dull Saxons had begun to discover. The Teutonic conscience, and English good-sense, too, had been aroused, as well as individual energy, the resolution to judge and decide alone, by and for one's self. "Christ is our hede that sitteth on hie, Heddis ne ought we have no mo," says a poem, attributed to Chaucer, and which, with others, claims independence for Christian consciences.[185]

"We ben his membres bothe also,

Father he taught us call him all,

Maisters to call forbad he tho;

Al maisters ben wickid and fals."

No other mediator between man and God. In vain the doctors state that they have authority for their words; there is a word of greater authority, to wit, God's. We hear it in the fourteenth century, this grand "word of God." It quitted the learned schools, the dead languages, the dusty shelves on which the clergy suffered it to sleep, covered with a confusion of commentators and Fathers.[186] Wycliff appeared and translated it like Luther, and in a spirit similar to Luther's. "Cristen men and wymmen, olde and yonge, shulden studie fast in the Newe Testament, for it is of ful autorite, and opyn to undirstonding of simple men, as to the poyntis that be moost nedeful to salvacioun."[187] Religion must be secular, in order to escape from the hands of the clergy, who monopolize it; each must hear and read for himself the word of God; he will then be sure that it has not been corrupted; he will feel it better, and, more, he will understand it better, for

"ech place of holy writ, both opyn and derk, techit mekenes and charite; and therfore he that kepith mekenes and charite hath the trewe undirstondyng and perfectioun of al holi writ.... Therfore no simple man of wit be aferd unmesurabli to studie in the text of holy writ... and no clerk be proude of the verrey undirstondyng of holy writ, for whi undirstonding of hooly writ with outen charite that kepith Goddis heestis, makith a man depper dampned... and pride and covetise of clerkis is cause of her blindees and eresie, and priveth them fro verrey undirstondyng of holy writ."[188]

These are the memorable words that began to circulate in the markets and in the schools. They read the translated Bible, and commented on it; they judged the existing Church after it. What judgments these serious and untainted minds passed upon it, with what readiness they pushed on to the true religion of their race, we may see from their petition to Parliament.[189] One hundred and thirty years before Luther, they said that the pope was not established by Christ, that pilgrimages and image-worship were akin to idolatry, that external rites are of no importance, that priests ought not to possess temporal wealth, that the doctrine of transubstantiation made a people idolatrous, that priests have not the power of absolving from sin. In proof of all this they brought forward texts of Scripture. Fancy these brave spirits, simple and strong souls, who began to read at night in their shops, by candle-light; for they were shopkeepers—tailors, skinners, and bakers—who, with some men of letters, began to read, and then to believe, and finally got themselves burned.[190] What a sight for the fifteenth century, and what a promise! It seems as though, with liberty of action, liberty of mind begins to appear; that these common folk will think and speak; that under the conventional literature, imitated from France, a new literature is dawning; and that England, genuine England, half-mute since the Conquest, will at last find a voice.

She had not yet found it. King and peers ally themselves to the Church, pass terrible statutes, destroy books, burn heretics alive, often with refinement of torture—one in a barrel, another hung by an iron chain around his waist. The temporal wealth of the clergy had been attacked, and therewith the whole English constitution; and the great establishment above crushed out with its whole weight the revolutionists from below. Darkly, in silence, while the nobles were destroying each other in the Wars of the Roses, the commons went on working and living, separating themselves from the established Church, maintaining their liberties, amassing wealth, but not going further.[191] Like a vast rock which underlies the soil, yet crops up here and there at distant intervals, they barely show themselves. No great poetical or religious work displays them to the light. They sang; but their ballads, first ignored, then transformed, reach us only in a late edition. They prayed; but beyond one or two indifferent poems, their incomplete and repressed doctrine bore no fruit. We may well see from the verse, tone, and drift of their ballads that they are capable of the finest poetic originality,[192] but their poetry is in the hands of yeomen and harpers. We perceive, by the precocity and energy of their religious protests, that they are capable of the most severe and impassioned creeds; but their faith remains hidden in the shop-parlors of a few obscure sectaries. Neither their faith nor their poetry has been able to attain its end or issue. The Renaissance and the Reformation, those two national outbreaks, are still far off; and the literature of the period retains to the end, like the highest ranks of English society, almost the perfect stamp of its French origin and its foreign models.

[97]See, amidst other delineations of their manners, the first accounts of the first Crusade. Godfrey clove a Saracen down to his waist. In Palestine, a widow was compelled, up to the age of sixty, to marry again, because no fief could remain without a defender. A Spanish leader said to his exhausted soldiers after a battle, "You are too weary and too much wounded, but come and fight with me against this other band; the fresh wounds which we shall receive will make us forget those which we have." At this time, says the General Chronicle of Spain, kings, counts, and nobles, and all the knights, that they might be ever ready, kept their horses in the chamber where they slept with their wives.

[98]For difference in numbers of the fleet and men see Freeman, "History of the Norman Conquest," 3 vols., 1867, III. 381, 387.—Tr.

[99]For all the details see "Anglo-Norman Chronicles," III. 4, as quoted by Aug. Thierry. I have myself seen the locality and the country.

[100]Of three columns of attack at Hastings, two were composed of auxiliaries. Moreover, the chroniclers are not at fault upon this critical point; they agree in stating that England was conquered by Frenchmen.

[101]It was a Rouen fisherman, a soldier of Rollo, who killed the Duke of France at the mouth of the Eure. Hastings, the famous' sea-king, was a laborer's son from the neighborhood of Troyes.

[102]"In the tenth century," says Stendhal, "a man wished for two things: First, not to be slain; second, to have a good leather coat." See Fontenelle's "Chronicle."

[103]William of Malmesbury.

[104]Churches in London, Sarum, Norwich, Durham, Chichester Peterborough, Rochester, Hereford, Gloucester, Oxford, etc.—William of Malmesbury.

[105]Ordericus Vitalis.

[106]Robert Wace, "Roman du Rou."

[107]Ibid. Et li Normanz et li Franfceiz Tote nuit firent oreisons, Et furent en aflicions. De lor péchiés confèz se firent As proveires les regehirent, Et qui n'en out proveires prèz, A son veizin se fist confèz, Pour ço ke samedi esteit Ke la bataille estre debveit. Unt Normanz a pramis e voé, Si com li cler l'orent loé, Ke à ce jor mez s'il veskeient, Char ni saunc ne mangereient Giffrei, éveske de Coustances. A plusors joint lor pénitances. Cli reçut li confessions Et dona l' béneiçons.

[108]Robert Wace, "Roman du Rou" Taillefer ki moult bien cantout Sur un roussin qui tot alout Devant li dus alout cantant De Kalermaine e de Rolant, E d'Oliver et des vassals Ki moururent à Roncevals. Quant ils orent chevalchié tant K'as Engleis vindrent aprismant: "Sires! dist Taillefer, merci! Je vos ai languement servi. Tut mon servise me debvez, Hui, si vos plaist, me le rendez Por tout guerredun vos requier, Et si vos voil forment preier, Otreiez-mei, ke jo n'i faille, Li primier colp de la bataille." Et li dus répont: "Je l'otrei." Et Taillefer point à desrei; Devant toz li altres se mist, Un Englez féri, si l'ocist. De sos le pis, parmie la pance, Li fist passer ultre la lance, A terre estendu l'abati. Poiz trait l'espée, altre féri. Poiz a crié: "Venez, venez! Ke fetes-vos? Férez, férez!" Done l'unt Englez avironé, Al secund colp k'il ou doné.

[109]The idea of types is applicable throughout all physical and moral nature.

[110]Danois is a contraction of le d'Ardennois, from the Ardennes.—Tr.

[111]Genin, "Chanson de Roland": Co sent Rollans que la mort le trespent, Devers la teste sur le quer li descent; Desuz un pin i est alet curant, Sur l'herbe verte si est culchet adenz; Desuz lui met l'espée et l'olifan; Turnat sa teste vers la paîene gent, Pour ço l'at fait que il voelt veirement Que Carles diet e trestute sa gent; Li gentilz quens, qu'il fut mort cunquérant. Cleimet sa culpe, e menut e suvent, Pur ses pecchez en puroffrid lo guant. Li quens Rollans se iut desuz un pin, Envers Espaigne en ad turnet sun vis, De plusurs choses a remembrer le prist. De tantes terres cume li bers cunquist, De dulce France des humes de sun lign, De Carlemagne sun seignor ki l'nurrit. Ne poet muer n'en plurt et ne susprit. Mais lui meisme ne volt mettre en ubli. Cleimet sa culpe, si priet Dieu mercit: "Veire paterne, ki unques ne mentis, Seint Lazaron de mort resurrexis, Et Daniel des lions guaresis, Guaris de mei l'arome de tuz perilz, Pur les pecchez que en ma vie fis." Sun destre guant à Deu en puroffrit. Seint Gabriel de sa main l'ad pris. Desur sun bras teneit le chef enclin, Juntes ses mains est alet à sa fin. Deus i tramist sun angle cherubin, Et seint Michel qu'on cleimet del péril Ensemble ad els seint Gabriel i vint, L'anme del cunte portent en pareis.

[112] Mon trés-chier ami débonnaire, Vous m'avez une chose ditte Oui n'est pas à faire petite Mais que l'on doit moult rersongnier. Et nonpourquant, sanz eslongnier, Puisque garison autrement Ne povez avoir vraiement, Pour vostre amour les occiray, Et le sang vous apporteray.

[113] Vraiz Diex, moult est excellente, Et de grant charité plaine, Vostre bonté souveraine. Car vostre grâce présente, A toute personne humaine, Vraix Diex, moult est excellente, Puisqu'elle a cuer et entente, Et que a ce desir l'amaine Que de vous servir se paine.

[114]See H. Taine, "La Fontaine and His Fables," p. 15.

[115]La Fontaine, "Contes, Richard Minutolo."

[116] Parler lui veut d'une besogne Où crois que peu conquerrérois Si la besogne vous nommois.

[117]At King Stephen's death there were 1,115 castles.

[118]A. Thierry, "Histoire de la Conquête de l'Angleterre," II.

[119]William of Malmesbury. A. Thierry, II. 20, 122-203.

[120]A. Thierry.

[121]"In the year 652," says Warton, I. 3, "it was the common practice of the Anglo-Saxons to send their youth to the monasteries of France for education; and not only the language but the manners of the French were esteemed the most polite accomplishments."

[122]Warton, I. 5.

[123]Trevisa's translation of the Polycronycon.

[124]Statutes of foundation of New College, Oxford. In the abbey of Glastonbury, in 1247: Liber de excidio Trojæ, gesta Ricardi regis, gesta Alexandri Magni, etc. In the abbey of Peterborough: Amys et Amelion, Sir Tristam, Guy de Bourgogne, gesta Otuclis les prophéties de Merlin, le Charlemagne de Turpin, la destruction de Troie, etc. Warton, ibid.

[125]In 1154.

[126]Warton, I. 72-78.

[127]In 1400. Warton, II. 248. Gower died in 1408; his French ballads belong to the end of the fourteenth century.

[128]He wrote in 1356, and died in 1372.

[129]"And for als moche as it is longe time passed that ther was no generalle Passage ne Vyage over the See, and many Men desiren for to here speke of the holy Lond, and han thereof gret Solace and Comfort, I, John Maundevylle, Knyght, alle be it I be not worthi, that was born in Englond, in the town of Seynt-Albones, passed the See in the Zeer of our Lord Jesu-Crist 1322, in the Day of Seynt Michelle, and hidreto have been longe tyme over the See, and have seyn and gon thorghe manye dyverse londes, and many Provynces, and Kingdomes, and Iles."

"And zee shulle undirstonde that I have put this Boke out of Latyn into Frensche, and translated it azen out of Frensche, into Englyssche, that every Man of my Nacioun may undirstonde it."—Sir John Maundeville's "Voyage and Travaile," ed. Halliwell, 1866, prologue, p. 4.

[130]Sir John Maundeville's "Voyage and Travaile," ed. Halliwell, 1866, XII., p. 139. It is confessed that the original on which Wace depended for his ancient "History of England" is the Latin compilation of Geoffrey of Monmouth.

[131]Extract from the account of the proceedings at Arthur's coronation given by Layamon, in his translation of Wace, executed about 1180. Madden's "Layamon," 1847, II. p. 625 et passim: Tha the king igeten hafde And al his mon-weorede, Tha bugen ut of burhge Theines swithe balde. Alle tha kinges, And heore here-thringes. Alle tha biscopes, And alle tha clærckes, All the eorles, And alle tha beornes. Alle the theines, Alle the sweines, Feire iscrudde, Helde geond felde. Summe heo gunnen æruen, Summe heo gunnen urnen, Summe heo gunnen lepen, Summe heo gunnen sceoten, Summe heo wræstleden And wither-gome makeden, Summe heo on uelde Pleouweden under scelde, Summe heo driven balles Wide geond tha feldes. Monianes kunnes gomen Ther heo gunnen driuen. And wha swa mihte iwinne Wurthscipe of his gomene, Hine me ladde mid songe At foren than leod kinge; And the king, for his gomene, Gaf him geven gode. Alle tha quene The icumen weoren there. And alle tha lafdies, Leoneden geond walles. To bihalden the dugethen. And that folc plæie. This ilæste threo dæges, Swulc gomes and swulc plæges, Tha, at than veorthe dæie The king gon to spekene And agæf his goden cnihten All heore rihten; He gef seolver, he gæf gold, He gef hors, he gef lond, Castles, and clœthes eke; His monnen he iquende.

[132]After 1297.

[133]About 1312.

[134]About 1349.

[135]Warton, II. 36.

[136]Time of Henry III., "Reliquiae Antiquæ," edited by Messrs. Wright and Halliwell, I. 102.

[137]About 1278. Warton, I. 28.

[138]Ibid., I. 31.

[139]Ibid. I. 30.

[140]"Poem of the Owl and Nightingale," who dispute as to which has the finest voice.

[141]Letter of Peter of Blois.

[142]William of Malmesbury.

[143]At the installation feast of George Nevill, Archbishop of York, the brother of Guy of Warwick, there were consumed 104 oxen and 6 wild bulls, 1000 sheep, 304 calves, as many hogs, 2000 swine, 500 stags, bucks, and does, 204 kids, 22,802 wild or tame fowl, 300 quarters of corn, 300 tuns of ale, 100 of wine, a pipe of hypocras, 12 porpoises and seals.

[144]These prodigalities and refinements grew to excess under his grandson Richard II.

[145]Warton, I. 156.

[146]Warton, I. 176, spelling modernized.

[147]Warton, I. 123: "In Fraunce these rhymes were wroht, Every Englyshe ne knew it not."

[148]See Lingard's "History," II. 55, note 4.—Tr.

[149]Domesday Book. Froude's "History England", 1858, 1. 13: "Through all these arrangements a single aim is visible, that every man in England should have his definite place and definite duty assigned to him, and that no human being should be at liberty to lead at his own pleasure an unaccountable existence. The discipline of an army was transferred to the details of social life."

[150]Domesday Book, "tenants-in-chief."

[151]According to Ailred (temp. Hen. II), "a king, many bishops and abbots, many great earls and noble knights descended both from English and Norman blood, constituted a support to the one and an honor to the other. At present," says another author of the same period, "as the English and Normans dwell together, and have constantly intermarried, the two nations are so completely mingled together, that at least as regards freemen, one can scarcely distinguish who is Norman and who English.... The villeins attached to the soil," he says again, "are alone of pure Saxon blood."

[152]Magna Charta, 1215.

[153]"Chaucer's Works," ed. Sir H. Nicholas, 6 vols., 1845, "Prologue to the Canterbury Tales," II. p. 11, line 333.

[154]Prologue to "The Canterbury Tales," II. p. 17, line 547.

[155]From 1214, and also in 1225 and 1254. Guizot, "Origin of the Representative System in England," pp. 297-299.

[156]In 1264.

[157]Aug. Thierry, IV. 56. Ritson's "Robin Hood," 1832.

[158]Latimer's "Sermons," ed. Arber, 6th Sermon, 1869, p. 173.

[159]Ritson, "Robin Hood Ballads," I. IV. verses 41-48.

[160]Ibid, verses 145-152.

[161]A pinder's task was to pin the sheep in the fold, cattle in the penfold or pound (Richardson).—Tr.

[162]Ritson, II. 3, verses 17-26.

[163]Ibid. II. 6, verses 58-89.

[164]Ritson, verses 94-101.

[165]"The Difference between an Absolute and Limited Monarchy—A learned Commendation of the Politic Laws of England" (Latin). I frequently quote from the second work, which is more full and complete.

[166]The courage which finds utterance here is coarse; the English instincts are combative and independent. The French race, and the Gauls generally, are perhaps the most reckless of life of any.

[167]"The Difference," etc., 3d ed. 1724, ch. XIII. p. 98. There are nowadays in France 42 highway robberies as against 738 in England. In 1843, there were in England four times as many accusations of crimes and offences as in France, having regard to the number of inhabitants (Moreau de Jonnès).

[168]Statute of Winchester, 1285; Ordinance of 1378.

[169]Benvenuto Cellini, quoted by Froude, I. 20, "History of England." Shakespeare, "Henry V," conversation of French lords before the battle of Agincourt.

[170]"The Difference." etc.

[171]The original of this very famous treatise, "de Laudibus Legum Angliæ," was written in Latin between 1464 and 1470, first published in 1537, and translated into English in 1775 by Francis Gregor. I have taken these extracts from the magnificent edition of Sir John Fortescue's works published in 1869 for private distribution, and edited by Thomas Fortescue, Lord Clermont. Some of the pieces quoted, left in the old spelling, are taken from an older edition, translated by Robert Mulcaster in 1567.—Tr.

[172]"Of an Absolute and Limited Monarchy," 3d ed. 1724, ch. III. p. 15.

[173]Commines bears the same testimony.

[174]"De Laudibus," etc., ch. XXXVI.

[175]"The might of the realme most stondyth upon archers which be not rich men." Compare Hallam, II. 482. All this takes us back as far as the Conquest, and farther. "It is reasonable to suppose that the greater part of those who appear to have possessed small freeholds or parcels of manors were no other than the original nation.... A respectable class of free socagers, having in general full right of alienating their lands, and holding them probably at a small certain rent from the lord of the manor, frequently occurs in the Domesday Book." At all events, there were in Domesday Book Saxons "perfectly exempt from villenage." This class is mentioned with respect in the treatises of Glanvil and Bracton. As for the villeins, they were quickly liberated in the thirteenth or fourteenth century, either by their own energies or by becoming copyholders. The Wars of the Roses still further raised the commons; orders were frequently issued, previous to a battle, to slay the nobles and spare the commoners.

[176]"Description of England," 275.

[177]The following is a portrait of a yeoman, by Latimer, in the first sermon preached before Edward VI, March 8, 1549: "My father was a yeoman, and had no lands of his own; only he had a farm of £3 or £4 by year at the uttermost, and hereupon he tilled so much as kept half-a-dozen men. He had walk for a hundred sheep, and my mother milked thirty kine. He was able, and did find the king a harness, with himself and his horse; while he came to the place that he should receive the king's wages. I can remember that I buckled his harness when he went unto Blackheath field. He kept me to school, or else I had not been able to have preached before the King's Majesty now. He married my sisters with £5 or 20 nobles a-piece, so that he brought them up in godliness and fear of God; he kept hospitality for his poor neighbours, and some alms he gave to the poor; and all this did he of the said farm. Where he that now hath it payeth £16 by the year, or more, and is not able to do anything for his prince, for himself, nor for his children, or give a cup of drink to the poor."

This is from the sixth sermon, preached before the young king, April 12, 1549: "In my time my poor father was as diligent to teach me to shoot as to learn (me) any other thing; and so, I think, other men did their children. He taught me how to draw, how to lay my body in my bow, and not to draw with strength of arms, as other nations do, but with strength of the body. I had my bows bought me according to my age and strength; as I increased in them, so my bows were made bigger and bigger; for men shall never shoot well except they be brought up in it. It is a goodly art, a wholesome kind of exercise, and much commended in physic."

[178]In 1246, 1376. Thierry, III. 79.

[179]1404-1409. The commons declared that with these revenues the king would be able to maintain 15 earls, 1500 knights, 6,200 squires, and 100 hospitals; each earl receiving annually 300 marks; each knight 100 marks, and the produce of four ploughed lands; each squire 40 marks, and the produce of two ploughed lands.

[180]About 1362.

[181]"Piers Ploughman's Vision and Creed," ed. T. Wright, 1856, I. p. 2, lines 21-44.

[182]The Archdeacon of Richmond, on his tour in 1216, came to the priory of Bridlington with ninety-seven horses, twenty-one dogs, and three falcons.

[183]"Piers Ploughman's Vision," I. p. 191, lines 6,217-6,228.

[184]Ibid. II. Last book, p. 430, lines 14,084-14,135.

[185]"Piers Plowman's Crede; the Plowman's Tale," first printed in 1550. There were three editions in one year, it was so manifestly Protestant.

[186]Knighton, about 1400, wrote thus of Wyclif: "Transtulit de Latino in anglicam linguam, non angelicam. Unde per ipeum fit vulgare, et magis apertum laicis et mulieribus legere scientibus quam solet esse clericis admodum litteratis, et bene intelligentibus. Et sic evangelica margerita spargitur et a porcis conculcatur... (ita) ut laicis commune æternum quod ante fuerat clericis et ecolesiæ doctoribus talentum supernum."

[187]Wyclif's Bible, ed. Forshall and Madden, 1850, preface to Oxford edition, p. 2.

[188]Ibid.

[189]In 1395.

[190]1401, William Sawtré, the first Lollard burned alive.

[191]Commines, v. ch. 19 and 20: "In my opinion, of all kingdoms of the world of which I have any knowledge, where the public weal is best observed, and least violence is exercised on the people, and where no buildings are overthrown or demolished in war, England is the best; and the ruin and misfortune falls on them who wage the war.... The kingdom of England has this advantage beyond other nations, that the people and the country are not destroyed or burnt, nor the buildings demolished; and ill-fortune falls on men of war, and especially on the nobles."

[192]See the ballads of "Chevy Chase, The Nut-Brown Maid," etc. Many of them are admirable little dramas.