CH. I. same were balls of gold, supported by ramping beasts wound in leaves of gold. In the first work were gargoylles of gold, fiercely faced with spouts running. The second receit of this fountain was environed with winged serpents, all of gold, which griped it; and on the summit of the same was a fair lady, out of whose breasts ran abundantly water of marvellous delicious savour. About this fountain were benches of rosemary, fretted in braydes laid on gold, all the sides set with roses, on branches as they were growing about this fountain. On the benches sate eight fair ladies in strange attire, and so richly apparelled in cloth of gold, embroidered and cut over silver, that I cannot express the cunning workmanship thereof. November, Then when the king and queen were set, there A.D. 1527. was played before them, by children, in the Latin tongue, a manner of tragedy, the effect whereof was that the pope was in captivity and the church brought under foot. Whereupon St. Peter appeared and put the cardinal (Wolsey) in authority to bring the pope to his liberty, and to set up the church again. And so the cardinal made intercession with the kings of England and France that they took part together, and by their means the pope was delivered. Then in came the French king's children, and complained to the cardinal how the emperour kept them as hostages, and would not come to reasonable point with their father, whereupon they desired the cardinal to help for their deliverance; which wrought so with the king his master and the French king that he brought the emperour to a peace, and caused the two young princes to be delivered.' So far Hall CH. I. relates the scene, but there was more in the play than he remembered or cared to notice, and I am able to complete this curious picture of a pageant once really and truly a living spectacle in the old palace at Greenwich, by an inventory of the dresses worn by the boys and a list of the dramatis per sona. St. Paul's The school-boys of St. Paul's were taken The boys of down the river with the master in six boats, at School. the cost of a shilling a boat-the cost of the dresses and the other expenses amounting in all to sixty-one shillings. The characters were An orator in apparel of cloth of gold. Religio, Ecclesia, Veritas, like three widows, November, in garments of silk, and suits of lawn and cyprus. Heresy and False Interpretation, like sisters of Bohemia, apparelled in silk of divers colours. The heretic Luther, like a party friar, in russet damask and black taffety. Luther's wife, like a frow of Spiers in Almayn, in red silk. Peter, Paul, and James, in habits of white sarsnet, and three red mantles, and lace of silver and damask, and pelisses of scarlet. A Cardinal in his apparel. Two Sergeants in rich apparel. The Dolphin and his brother in coats of velvet embroidered with gold, and capes of satin bound with velvet. A Messenger in tinsel satin. Six men in gowns of grey sarsnet. 1527. CH. I. November, 1530. Six women in gowns of crimson velvet. Lady Peace in lady's apparel white and rich. Lady Quietness and Dame Tranquillity richly beseen in lady's apparel. It is a strange world. This was in November, 1527. In November, 1530, but three brief years after, Wolsey lay dying in misery, a disgraced man, at Leicester Abbey; 'the Pope's Holiness' was fast becoming in English eyes plain Bishop of Rome, held guilty towards this realm of unnumbered enormities, and all England was sweeping with immeasurable velocity towards the heretic Luther. So history repeats the lesson to us, not to boast ourselves of the morrow, for we know not what a day may bring forth. Before I conclude this survey, it remains for me to say something of the position of the poor, and of the measures which were taken for the solution of that most difficult of all problems, the distinguishing the truly deserving from the worthless and the vagabond. The subject is one to which in the progress of this work I shall have more than one occasion to return; but inasmuch as a sentimental opinion prevails that an increase The disso of poverty and the consequent enactment of poor-laws was the result of the suppression of teries not the religious houses, and that adequate relief had pauperism. been previously furnished by these establishments, it is necessary to say a few words for the removal lution of the monas the cause of it in Eng of an impression which is as near as possible the CH. 1. reverse of the truth. I do not doubt that for many centuries these houses fulfilled honestly the intentions with which they were established; but as early as the reign of Richard II. it was found necessary to provide some other means for the support of the aged and impotent; the monasteries Growth of not only having then begun to neglect their duty; land. but by the appropriation of benefices having actually deprived the parishes of their local and independent means of charity.* Licences to beg were at that time granted to deserving persons; and it is noticeable that this measure was in a few years followed by the petition to Henry IV. for the secularization of ecclesiastical property.† Thus early in our history had the regular clergy forgotten the nature of their mission, and the object for which the administration of the nation's charities had been committed to them. Thus early, while their houses were the nurseries of dishonest mendicancy, they had surrendered to lay compassion, those who ought to have been their especial care. I shall unhappily have occasion hereafter to illustrate these matters in detail. I mention them in this place only in order to dissipate at once a foolish dream. At the At the opening of the sixteenth century, before the suppression of the monasteries had suggested itself in a practical form, pauperism was a state question of * Rich. II. 12, cap. 7, 8, 9; Rich. II. 15, cap. 6. Injunctions to the Monasteries: BURNET's Collect. pp. 77-8. CH. 1. great difficulty, and as such I have at present to consider it. The sin of idleness. For the able-bodied vagrant, it is well known that the old English laws had no mercy. When wages are low, and population has outgrown the work which can be provided for it, idleness may be involuntary and innocent; at a time when all industrious men could maintain themselves in comfort and prosperity, 'when a fair day's wages for a fair day's work' was really and truly the law of the land, it was presumed that if strong capable men preferred to wander about the country, and live upon the labour of others, mendicancy was not the only crime of which they were likely to be guilty; while idleness itself was Severe acts justly looked upon as a high offence, and misdemeanour. The penalty of God's laws against a necessary idleness, as expressed in the system of nature, of hospita- was starvation; and it was held intolerable that lity. against vagrancy correlation any man should be allowed to escape a divine judgment by begging under false pretences, and robbing others of their honest earnings. In a country also the boast of which was its open-handed hospitality, it was necessary to take care that hospitality was not brought to discredit by abuse; and when every door was freely opened to a request for a meal or a night's lodging, there was an imperative duty to keep a strict eye on whatever persons were on the move. We shall therefore be prepared to find 'sturdy and valiant beggars' treated with summary justice as criminals of a high order; the right of a government so to treat them being proportioned to the facili |