CHRONICON DE LANERCOST, 1272-1280*

FTER the Church's three years widowhood, as it was

A called, when all men were laughing at the

College of Cardinals, the Archdeacon of Liége, who A.D. 1272. had accompanied [our] Lord Edward in his journey to the Holy Land, was elected Pope, and was named Gregory the Tenth. He sat for four years and ten days, and the seat was vacant for ten days. In the third year of his pontificate he held a solemn council at Lyons of five hundred bishops, six hundred abbots and three thousand other prelates, for the good of the Church and especially of the Holy Land, which he desired to visit at another time; at which council, among many other excellent acts, it was decreed that whensoever the name of Jesus should happen to be heard in church, every head, whether of layman or cleric, should be bowed, or, at least, every one should do adoration in thought.

The Greek official delegates were present with the Patriarch at this Council, and solemnly affirmed, by singing in their own language, the creed of the Holy Spirit proceeding both from the Father and the Son, to which [doctrine] they had not assented previously to that time. There were present also Tartar delegates, asking on behalf of their own people for teachers of the Christian faith, in token whereof they returned to their own [country] having been catechised and baptised.

In this Council the Orders both of Preachers and Minorites were approved and confirmed for the Colleges of Mendicants. But it would be a long matter to mention all the good things which were settled there.

2

And so in the year of the Consecration of this Pope, there arose, as is reported, a great dispute in the [Papal] Curia over the election of William Wishart many of them raising so many objections that the Head of the Church himself, having examined the objections set forth in writing, vowed by Saint Peter that if a moiety of the allegations were brought

*Further instalments of this translation of the Chronicle of Lanercost will appear in future numbers of the Scottish Historical Review.

1The Papal throne was vacant for two years and nine months, 1268-71. 2 To the see of St. Andrews in 1271.

against himself, he never would seek to be Pope. At length, by intervention of the grace and piety of Edward, he [Wishart] was consecrated under the Pope's dispensation. For the sake of example I do not hesitate to insert here what befel him later when he applied himself to his cure. Indeed, it is an evil far too common throughout the world that many persons, undertaking the correction of others, are very negligent about their own [conduct], and, while condemning the light offences of simple folk, condone the graver ones of great men.

There was a certain vicar, of a verity lewd and notorious, who, although often penalised on account of a concubine whom he kept, did not on that account desist from sinning. But when the bishop arrived on his ordinary visitation, the wretch was suspended and made subject to the prelate's mercy. Overcome with confusion, he returned home and beholding his doxy, poured forth his sorrows, attributing his mishap to the woman. Enquiring further, she learnt the cause of his agitation and became bitterly aware that she was to be cast out. 'Put away that notion,' quoth she to cheer him up, and I will get the better of the bishop.'

On the morrow as the bishop was hastening to his [the vicar's] church, she met him on the way laden with pudding,1 chickens and eggs, and, on his drawing near, she saluted him reverently with bowed head. When the prelate enquired whence she came and whither she was going, she replied: 'My lord, I am the vicar's concubine, and I am hastening to the bishop's sweetheart, who was lately brought to bed, and I wish to be as much comfort to her as I can.' This pricked his conscience; straightway he resumed his progress to the church, and, meeting the vicar, desired him to prepare for celebrating. The other reminded him of his suspension, and he [the bishop] stretched out his hand and gave him absolution. The sacrament having been performed, the bishop hastened away from the place without another word.

2

About this time there departed this life a certain prebendary of Howden church named John, a man of honourable life, passing his days modestly and without ostentation, skilled in astrology, given to hospitality and works of mercy. He began [to build] a new choir to the church at his own expense, and

1 Pulta = broth, pap or porridge, seems to have been used in the plural just as 'porridge' and 'brose' are so used in Lowland Scots at this day.

2 Quasi mutus.

foretold that the rest should be finished after his death; which [saying] we [now] perceive more clearly in the light; for, having been buried in a stately tomb in the middle of the choir itself, he is revered as a saint, and we have beheld, not only in the choir, but the wide and elaborate nave of the church completed through the oblations of people resorting [thither].

In the same church there lived at that time another master, called Richard of Barneby, a true and pure man, who, putting away from himself his private means, was residing at Gisburn in return for his money. He was formerly well known in the kingdom of Scotland as a cleric of the religious community of Kelso. On leaving that kingdom he commended his nephew, who is still living, to Sir Patrick Edgar, knight, for education and service. After a lapse of years, at the above-mentioned time, he ended his life in a fatal manner, when his nephew in Scotland, [feeling] his bed shaken, was putting on [his] garments or shoes. And behold, a bird of the size of a dove, but differing in appearance by its variety of colour, entered by the chimney of the house and attacked the said youth with its wings, striking him with so much noise, that the people in the kitchen wondered at the sound of blows, and the lad [thus] belaboured sat still as though stunned. This [the bird] did thrice, retiring each time to the beams of the roof. After about the space of a month had elapsed, the youth went on business to Kelso, and on drawing near, heard all the bells of the monastery sounding. Entering within the walls, he asked what was the cause of bell-ringing. Do you not know,' they said, 'that your uncle, our clerk, has died at Gisburn, on such and such a day and hour? The abbot received the news yesterday, and to-day is commemorating him.'

What lesson such an apparition was intended to convey, let him who readeth explain.

In the same year Richard King of Germany died.

In the same year died the Earl of Cornwall, brother of King Henry of England.2

1 Perhendebat, a verb form from perendinus, the day after to-morrow. There was a canonry at Gisburn, in Yorkshire, valued, says Matthew Paris, 'at 628 poundes yearlye.'

2 These two entries refer to one and the same person, viz. Richard, Earl of Cornwall, brother of Henry III., elected King of the Romans by four out of seven electors in 1257; but the minority having elected Alphonso X. of Castile, Richard failed to establish his authority, and returned to England in 1260.

B

In the same year Friar Robert of Kilwardby, of the Order of Preachers, was consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury.

Boniface Archbishop of Canterbury died, and in his place was elected the Prior of Holy Trinity; but on coming before the Sacred College his election was quashed, and his dignity A.D. 1273. conferred by the Pope upon Robert of Kilwardby, Prior Provincial of Preaching Friars in England. This person, a man of honourable life, a doctor of divinity, devoted to the study of God's Word, ruled and corrected the clergy as firmly as the laity, as his treatise on heresy and his condemnation of Oxford show by themselves.1

2

Also at this time King Henry of England, devout servant of God and the Church, departed from this world, on the feast day of Saint Edmund, Archbishop of Canterbury, after he had ruled over England fifty-six years and four months. He was buried at Westminster, and the absence of his son caused the coronation to be deferred.

In the time of this Henry a boy named Hugh was crucified in Lincoln by impious Jews, in derision of Christ and Christians, nor were they able to conceal him by any device.

Now in the beginning of King Henry's reign, Louis, son of the King of France, invaded England with Frenchmen at the instigation of some people of the country, as has been aforesaid; but afterwards intestinal war broke out at Lincoln between the English and French, where the French were beaten and Thomas Count of Perch was slain with many others. But the son of the King of France narrowly escaped in great terror, wherefore after his escape some Frenchman composed this rhyme :

'Enthroned in La Rochelle, our king never quails

Before Englishmen armed, for he broke all their tails.' 4

To which an Englishman replied thus:

'Lincoln can tell and the French King bewails

How the rope bound his people to Englishmen's tails.' 5

1 Excellent work, no doubt; but it had been better if, when appointed Cardinal-Bishop of Porto and Santa-Rufina in 1278, he had not removed all the registers and political records of Canterbury to Italy, whence they never returned. * 20th November, 1272. 3 On the last Crusade.

4 Rex in Rupella regnat, et amodo bella
Non timet Anglorum, quia caudas fregit eorum.
The taunt of Angli caudati is ancient and well known.

5 Ad nostras caudas Francos, ductos ut alaudas,
Perstrinxit restis superest Lincolnia testis.

This King Henry in his youth, at the instigation of Peter, Count of Brittany, crossed the channel to Brittany to recover the territory owned and lost by his predecessors; but failing altogether of success in his undertaking, returned [home] luckless and empty-handed.

In truth, whereas diligence in evil seldom has a good issue, it pleases one to relate an instance rather for the sake of justice than from ill-will to an individual. Queen Margaret of Scotland, deeply distressed by her various trials, chiefly by the death of her father and by anxiety about the return of her brother, went forth one beautiful evening after supper from Kinclavin to take the air on the banks of the Tay, accompanied by esquires and maidens, but in particular by her confessor, who related to me what took place. There was present among others a certain pompous esquire with his page, who had been recommended to him by his brother in the presence of his superiors. And as they were sitting under the brow of the bank, he [the esquire] went down to wash his hands, which he had soiled with clay in playing. As he stood thus bending over, one of the maids, prompted by the Queen, went up secretly and pushed him into the river-bed.

What care I cried he, enjoying the joke and taking it kindly, even were I further in, I know how to swim.'

Wading about thus in the channel, while the others applauded, he felt his body unexpectedly sucked into an eddy, and, though he shouted for help, there was none who would go to him except his little page-boy who was playing near at hand, and, hearing the clamour of the bystanders, rushed into the deep, and both were swallowed up in a moment before the eyes of all. Thus did the enemy of Simon and satellite of Satan, who declared that he had been the cause of that gallant knight's destruction, perish in sight of all; and the matron, led away unduly by affection for her parents, received rebuke for her selfish love, and showed herself before all men wounded to the heart by overpowering anguish.

FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE WORLD 6470 YEARS.

In beginning the eighth part of our work and, as it were, the peace of our age with a new king, I deem it meet to put this

1 Henry III. 2 Edward I. who was on his journey home from the Crusade. Or spoilt by the undue affection of her parents [nimis affectu parentum seducta]. The construction of the last paragraph and the moral are alike obscure.