The whole place has now utterly disappeared, and the only relics of this once celebrated sanctuary are the name of Chapel Bush, which still clings to the site, and a bulla of Pope Martin V. recently found there.

§ 41. This bulla is a thick disc of lead, 1 inches in diameter, bearing on one side the name MARTINVS • PAPA . V, and on the other the heads of St. Paul and St. Peter, superscribed SPA and SPE respectively. The former occupies the place of honour, in dexter chief. Both heads exhibit the traditional features of the Apostles (of which Lanciani has collected an unbroken series from the first century onwards), St. Peter being represented with curly beard and hair, St. Paul with a long flowing beard. The workmanship is rude in the extreme, the device having remained unchanged from the time of Pope Paul I. (A.D. 757), when art was at its lowest ebb. At the Renaissance these primitive portraits were disused, and conventional types substituted.

A like bulla, of Gregory XI., was lately found built into the wall of Fen Ditton Church. It seems to have been the practice thus to use them, as under the Roman Empire it was the practice to build into the wall of each new house coins of the reigning Augustus. (This practice may possibly account for the wealth of Roman coins scattered about everywhere in Cambridgeshire.1)

Gregory XI. (1370-78), was the first Pope to restore the Holy See to Rome, after the exile at Avignon, under the influence of St. Catharine of Siena. Martin V. (1417-24) consecrated Milan Cathedral and was the first generallyacknowledged Pope after the Great Schism.

§ 42. The existence, in so poor a district, of so many monuments of piety and public spirit (and it must be remembered that every one of them, besides the 165 parish churches of the county, was either founded or practically rebuilt during this period) is a striking token

1 See Chapter II., § 16.

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of the extent to which the inhabitants were then under the dominion of religious motives. And this is further testified to by many of the entries in the Ely episcopal registers of the day, which show how minutely the ecclesiastical authorities scrutinized and regulated popular life and devotion.

§ 43. Thus, in 1376, the Bishop writes to "his dear son," John Fowler of Wisbeach: "Since you are not able every day to attend worship in the parish church of Wisbeach, on account of its distance, the very muddy condition of the highroad, and the dangers of other roads, we therefore permit you, your household, and your neighbours, to worship for one year in the chapel of Morrowe, provided that on Festivals and High Days you all go to your parish church." This license was renewed annually.

In like manner John and Geoffrey de Leverington are licensed "to have the Divine Offices celebrated for one year in decent oratories in their houses." They must go to the parish church on Sundays and festivals.

Special license is issued to Sir W. Castelacre to choose for two years his own confessor, who shall have power to absolve him even in the cases canonically reserved to the Bishop, viz., perjury "in assisis," disinheritage, bloodshed, corruption of nuns, and trespass against the church of Ely. This the regular diocesan "penitenciaries" could not do.

$44. To the parishioners of Haddenham the following mandate is sent by the Bishop: "We hear that the Dedication Festival of your Church falls on the Vigil of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary [September 8], and that you, like all other faithful Christians, fast on that Vigil on bread and water; which fast, though laudable, is not becoming to so great a Festival as the Dedication of your Church. We therefore transfer your Dedication Festival to October 20th."

So also the Master and Fellows of Peterhouse are

bidden to change the Dedication Festival of "S. Mary's extra Trumpington gates" from November 3 to July 11, because "the multitude of Festivals " about the former date interfere with its due observance. This church, now Little St. Mary's, was at that time used as a College Chapel by Peterhouse, as St. Benet's was by Corpus, to which the passage joining either College with its respective church still bears witness. The special connection subsisting between this College and its Founder's See is to be seen in the fact that every admission to a Fellowship therein finds a place in the Ely Diocesan Register. The Patent Rolls also refer to its inmates as "the Scholars of Ely dwelling at Cambridge."

§ 45. On June 26, 1377, the Bishop is summoned to the coronation of the King (Richard II.), and a few days later receives a Brief to pray for peace (with France). On July 4, accordingly, he issues a mandate to all his clergy that for six consecutive days solemn processions are to be made around the churches if fine, or within if stormy, "with singing of the Litany" and special prayers for this object. To this act of devotion, for those " confessis ac contritis," forty days' indulgence is attached.

Like indulgences are issued, in 1389, to all who take part in the processions and litanies ordered on Wednesdays and Fridays "for the prosperity of the Anglican Church and the King and Realm of England." Benefactions to churches were also thus encouraged: St. Peter's, Witleseye [sic]; St. Mildred's, Exning; St. Rhadegunde's, Cambridge; and even such remote places as "the Hospital of St. Anthony in the Diocese of Vienne," are aided in this way. Alms-deeds to individuals were likewise held worthy of this privilege. Those who contribute to the support of the "ffayr and good" Dns. Thomas, chaplain of the Holy Trinity, Walsoken; or to the relief of "Philip de Cliston, a poor hermit "; or to the ransom of Brother John Braynok, "who with very many English

in the company of Dns. Sir Henry de Percy has been taken prisoner by the Scots" (at Otterburn), are all indulgenced.

These indulgences, it must be remembered, were not licenses to commit sin, but so many days' abrogation of the penance imposed by the confessor as a condition of absolution. As such Luther refused to receive them, and thus began his breach with Catholicism. The system. having been found to lead to abuse, indulgences can no longer be pleaded amongst Roman Catholics in abrogation of earthly penances, but are held to avail for the mitigation of the sufferings of purgatory.

§ 46. Wrong-doers are severely denounced in these registers, especially if their offences are against ecclesiastical property.

One John Bernard, being arrested on suspicion of having murdered "the cook of the Austin Friars at Cambridge," and handed over for trial to the Ecclesiastical Courts (his victim being a cleric), the Rural Dean of Cambridge is ordered to proclaim " publicly and in the mother tongue," in all the churches of his deanery, on Sundays and High Days during Mass, that any witnesses in the case are to appear before the Bishop in the cathedral on the Monday after the Feast of St. Dunstan (May 19). The severest penalties of the ecclesiastical courts being stripes and imprisonment, John Bernard, even if guilty, escaped hanging, unless he was handed over to the secular arm.

Certain "iniquitatis filii," unknown, of Chatteris, having detained certain rents due to the Bishop, viz., 9d. from a tenement formerly John Ffithion's,1 and 16d. from other tenements, the Vicar of Chatteris is ordered to warn the guilty parties on Sundays and High Days during Mass, to pay these rents within fifteen days under pain of excommunication.

1 I.e., Featherstonhaugh.

Certain miscreants living in Bardney Moor having driven off the Bishop's cattle, the Chaplain of Doddington is ordered to denounce them "cum cruce erecta, pulsatis campanis, candelis accensis et postmodum extinctis ac in eorum vituperationem in terram projectis et pedibus conculcatis."

A like ceremonial is observed in the case of some unknown scoundrels who, one Epiphany night, entered Ely Cathedral, removed the wooden capsa covering the feretrum of St. Etheldred, and stole therefrom rings, brooches (firmacula), and other jewels.

On August 23, 1378, the Bishop is ordered to denounce throughout his diocese certain unknown miscreants who had violated the sanctuary of Westminster, slaying in the Abbey Church a fugitive who had sought refuge there. Accordingly, on Sunday, September 12, "a solemn procession having been made in the Cathedral of Ely by all the priests of Ely, secular and religious, wearing stoles and carrying torches," all who had taken part in this sacrilege were publicly denounced. A subsequent mandate relates that the wrong-doers "Dns Sir Alan de Boxhill, Dns Sir Ralf fferrers," and others, had been thus brought to confession before the Bishop of London, who sent them to Rome to seek absolution from the Pope.

§ 47. Such spiritual censures did not, however, always produce so speedy an effect. Thus, the Master and Fellows of Trinity Hall in 1382 complain to the Chancellor of the University of one Thomas Pond, a priest. Soon afterwards we find the Chancellor passing on the case to the Bishop, inasmuch as Pond" has been under excommunication for

forty days, and is still obstinate." This is on September 3, 1382. By-and-by the Bishop in turn has to complain to the King that Thomas Pond, in spite of excommunication, will not obey his monitions. "As he remains obstinate, and the Church can do no more, we