John Cundal and 2 servts 1 days wages Their 3 boards Rob. Cundal 4 days werke, with his board Thomas Ashwell 1 day and halfe, alowed as for his labour 9d. 5d. Is. 5d. os. 6d. 3 days bord off 2 men 9d. § 36. Travelling seems to have been fully as cheap as at present. Thus, in connection with a certain "sewt off Chyrche goods" the expenses are as follows: Journey to Cambridge at visitacion Journey to London, 7 days and 7 nights, man horse and wages IS. od. 6s. 8d. § 37. Much was spent on the "Reparacions" of the church, and in particular on a new peal of bells; in connection with which we may notice that carriage was no dearer then than now: Cost of refounding Great bell Makyng clapper according to bell Carryage of bell to London and backe ye weight being 20 cwt and 10 lb 14li. 7s. 8d. Carriage of clapper to London and home weighing 60 lb ffor the new bell called the trebull with the caryage and other charges to London and homeward for mendyng of the clapper ffor taking down and rehang 3rd bell with new whele 4s. 16s. Id. Ward of Ashwell making 3rd bell ageine and he having all olde stuffe and chargyd for 7 yeres after in all maner Reparac' To smith for rep. watch whele of ye clock 'IOS. 4d. To carver for ymag of S. Margar' Bar of yren with 2 staples and 10 rings to hang a clothe before the ymages of S. Marg' and S. Kater' in Lent on Painter for said images with y' tabernacles John Glasyer 24 days work in glassyng his board those 24 days Plummer 2 days on roof His seruer their bord those 2 days 8d. his hyerns to mend the vestre Mason for 5 days work 9 lb sowdir for theyme 6 lb sawdre and nails for leds, with wood for to hete Mason and man 8 days at chyrch wall 3s. od. 4s. 4s. 8s. his seruer for 8 days wages 25. 8d. his boy for 4 ditto their boarding To pargett or newe overcastyng the stonework of the stepull with a lode of lyme I lode of flynts and gathering 2 lodes of stone from Ashwell quarry To carriage and gadering one and a half lodes of stone fo ye chirch wall 3 lodes of sand, with carriage IS. 75. 4s. 4d. 8d. 4s. IS. 6 cwt paument tyle at 2s. 8d. per cwt. 35. 2d. 16s. and laying 5s. 5d. 6 bundles of lathes ffor closing of the stepul windows contaning in a bundell c piece 3s. 4d. The final completion of the work was celebrated on St. Margaret's Day, July, 1511, by a grand miracle play, entitled "The Holy Martyr Seynt George," to the expenses of which many of the neighbouring villages contributed. § 38. The "Inventorye of yo Churche Goodes" referred to on p. 179 shows how very completely the church was provided with everything needful for the decent performance of Divine service. The wealth of books is especially remarkable, including more than one "bibull. Books at this date, though printing had already come in, were a very expensive item in church expenses. An "antiphoner," or anthem-book, is priced at no less than £2. The service-books at Bassingbourn were according to the Use of Sarum, which everywhere throughout England tended more and more to supplant the less generally popular Uses of Lincoln, York, Hereford, and Bangor. Strange to say, this last seems to have had some currency in Cambridgeshire. We find the monks of Royston Priory petitioning their Visitor, the Bishop of London, for leave to change it for that of Sarum. The petitioners set forth that the Bangor Use is imperfect in itself, and in their performance still more imperfect, from the decayed and torn condition of their books, which they are loath to be at the charge of renewing, unless for the more satisfactory Sarum prayer-books. It was this general adoption of a common standard of worship which paved the way for the decision of the Reformers that "henceforth all the whole Realm should have but one use," and led to the issue of the Book of Common Prayer. CHAPTER VIII. REFORMATION PERIOD-I. § 1-8. Length of Reformation drama-Causes of Reformation-Fall of Constantinople-Renaissance-Bishop West-Fisher-Christ's and St. John's founded-First pensioners-Erasmus-Sir Thomas More Greek pronunciation. § 9-15. Cromwell Chancellor-Change of curriculum-Despoiling of University-Bishop Goodrych-Suppression of Abbeys-Grievances following-Royston Priory-Latimer's protest-Destruction of shrines-Popular revolts-Cambridgeshire Protestants. § 16-22. Germans' at Cambridge-Magdalene-Trinity-Regius professorships-Bishop Cox-Libraries destroyed. § 23-32. Parish guilds suppressed-Church goods confiscatedBarrington Inventory-Overthrow of morality-Peasant risings. § 33-38. Mary at Sawston-Proclaimed at Cambridge-Catholic reaction-Dr. Perne-Marian persecutions-Ridley's farewell to Cambridge. § 39-44. Elizabethan counter-change-Disastrous effect of unsettlement-March parish accounts-Caius-Emmanuel-Sidney. $ 1. T HE series of events which form the English "Reformation" was far more extended than the current use of the term would lead us to suppose. The name is commonly confined to the period which began when the charms of Anne Boleyn first led Henry VIII. to repudiate the Pope, and ended with the accession of Boleyn's daughter to the throne. But the movement in which these events were prime factors both began earlier, and continued far later than their respective dates. For many years after Elizabeth succeeded to the Crown it remained a most doubtful question whether England would not revert to Catholicism. Even the Gunpowder Plot was not the hopeless insanity it is commonly held; if, as was probably the case, fully half the population were even then Catholics in heart. And when the failure of that plot settled, once for all, the triumph of Protestantism in the land, it took yet another fifty years of struggle to determine the particular kind of Protestantism most favoured by the nation. Not till the Restoration was anything like an abiding settlement arrived at. And it is this whole period of unstable equilibrium in the religion of the realm which ought to be included (as, indeed, it was by the seventeenth-century Puritans) under the name of the Reformation. § 2. During this period our county history will introduce us to almost every one of the chief actors in this religious drama. Henry, Mary, Elizabeth, James I., Charles I., both Cromwells, Wolsey, Fisher, Cranmer, Ridley, Latimer, Parker, Erasmus, all play their part in its pages; the fortunes of many amongst them having, indeed, a most special connection with Cambridgeshire. § 3. We have already seen the first foreshadowing of the Reformation movement, in the impulse which made Colleges, rather than Abbeys, the objects of pious benefactions during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. And this impulse towards extending the field of knowledge, rather than merely cultivating it within time-hallowed limits, received no small quickening by the invention of the printing-press and the fall of Constantinople. These two great events, alike of incalculable importance in human progress, took place almost simultaneously, the date of the latter being 1453. The result of their mutual 'interaction was at the same time to bring Western thought into contact with the treasures of Byzantine scholarship, and to provide a means whereby this contact could be |