Rise from your knees, ye children of Campostella, or if ye bend, let it be to the Almighty alone, and no longer on the eve of your patron's day address him in the following strain, however sublime it may sound: "Thou shield of that faith which in Spain we revere, "From the blessed asylum of glory intense, "To thee fervent thanks Spain shall ever outpour; "When heathen impiety, loathsome and dread, "And when terrible wars had nigh wasted our force, "Beneath thy direction, stretch'd prone at thy feet, With hearts low and humble, this day we entreat Thou wilt strengthen the hope which enlivens our frames, The hope of thy favour and presence, Saint James! "Then praise to the Son and the Father above, And to that Holy Spirit which springs from their love; And finally here is Cardinal Gasquet's summary of a report of a fifteenth-century Englishman of his Compostela pilgrimage:1 William Wey's ship was named the Mary White, and in company with them six other English ships brought pilgrims from Portsmouth, Bristol, Weymouth, Lymington, and a second from Plymouth. They reached Corunna on May 21st, and Compostella for the great celebration of Trinity Day. Wey was evidently much honoured by being pointed out to the church officials as the chief Englishman of note present, and he was given the post of first bearer of the canopy in the procession of the Blessed Sacrament. Four out of the six poles were carried by his countrymen, whom he names as Austill, Gale and Fulford. On their return the pilgrims spent three days at Corunna. They were not allowed to be idle, but religious festivities must have occupied most of their time. On Wednesday, the eve of Corpus Christi, there was a procession of English pilgrims throughout the city and a mass in honour of the Blessed Virgin. On Corpus Christi itself their procession was in the Franciscan church, and a sermon was preached in English by an English Bachelor in Theology on the theme, Ecce ego; vocasti me. "No other nation," says William Wey, somewhat proudly, "had these special services but the English." In the first port there were ships belonging to English, Welsh, Irish, Norman, French, and Breton, and the English alone had two and thirty. 1 The Eve of the Reformation, 366. On his return from Compostela, Robert Cary protracted a long and uneventful life at home. Perhaps his faith won for him, from that experience, the miracle of persistent good health. On April 12, 1535, he executed a long deed of settlement of his estate1 and five years later he died. He was buried in Clovelly Church, where in the chancel a sepulchral brass perpetuates his name. This noble monument, marking the end of an era, has been well described as follows:2 The figure is arrayed in very rich armour: the breast-plate is fluted: from the waist are suspended two narrow taces, to which are appended two ornamental tuilles reaching to the bend of the thigh, a tunic of mail hangs below the elbow and the knee plates are very rich. The legs are enclosed in plate and large rowelled spurs are fastened on the heels with long straps. The offensive arms are a sword and dagger suspended from a curiously arranged belt. The head is without covering, and the hands are bare and joined, as if in devotion, on the breast. The inscription on the tomb is: Praye for the soule of Master Robert Cary, Esquire, sonne and heyre of Sir William Cary, Knight, which Robert decessyd the XVth day of June in the yere of our Lord God MVXL, on whose soule Jesus have mercy. 1 Calendared by Dymond, H. & G., vi, 24, from the original at Cockington Court. 2 W. R. Crabbe, in his "Account of the Monumental Brasses of Devon," quoted by Dymond, H. & G., vi, 6. Robert Cary lived beyond the age to which he belonged and into the modern world. "The spacious times of great Elizabeth" were near. Doubtless he had relations with his prosperous young kinsman the Bristol merchant, who was soon to be a mayor, and felt an uneasy stir moving his pulses as he heard from him the new ideas engendered by participation in a roaring foreign trade. He heard of the discovery of America and of the golden conquests of Cortez and Pizarro in Mexico and Peru, of Luther and the Reformation, of the Renaissance of art and letters. He saw printing come into general use and doubtless heard the Scriptures read from a printed English Bible, though he might not approve that practice. He saw Henry VIII, like Henry V, established in the power won by his father, turn to foreign politics to consolidate the opinions of a people distracted by civil strife, and he lived to see and lament the consequent breach with Rome, the establishment of a national Church and the dissolution of the monasteries. But he died a staunch Roman Catholic and a survivor of the middle ages. CHAPTER NINE THE SWARMING OF THE HIVE In contrast with the equitable principle of the Roman law which has been adopted generally in the modern world, the English rule of inheritance, derived from Germanic custom as modified and enforced by a highly centralized feudal system, was based upon considerations of economic necessity. The family as an institution is held to be more important than any member of it; for purposes of military service the maintenance of the integrity of the inheritance is a matter of more concern to the lawgiver than the claim of individuals: so the practice of succession by primogeniture was established.1 Cary of Devon had followed this rule, but in the eleventh generation the reason for the feudal practice was no longer compelling, and we are now to witness an interesting experiment. Robert Cary of Clovelly had five sons by his three wives. They were John and Thomas, sons of Jane Carew; William, son of Agnes Hody; and Robert and Gregory, sons of Margaret 1 Pollock and Maitland, History of English Law, 1911, 262. |