BURIED HISTORY

By W. J. FERRAR ISTORIANS, and indeed all teachers of history, however high their status or humble their scope, would do well to take ull account of the archaeological work done in their own neigh- bourhoods. Its results are for the most part embodied in the ual reports, magazines and proceedings of the county archaeo- ogical societies and field clubs. But alas! such volumes, for- idding in appearance and unadvertised, do not come naturally into he path of the inquirer. Apart altogether from the records of he excavation of camps and barrows by field-workers like Wheeler, II h

IS

d

awkes, Piggott, Crawford or Williams-Freeman, which are gradually roviding an outline of the story of pre-Roman Britain from pre-

story to the rising of the misty curtain of history itself, there re the results of the patient labours of scores of devoted researchers mong documents, which throw a vivid and authentic light on the epercussions of war, legislation and social change on the developing fe of the men who stood where we now stand. Old registers and hurchwardens' accounts, wills, diaries and manor rolls bring oncrete reality into what is often a dull subject. The teacher ntimately acquainted with the actual past of his own neighbourhood an never be dull.

A glance at the June number of the Wiltshire Archaeological and Tatural History Magazine, which is but one sample of a vast ray of such work, will illustrate what is meant. It contains at least

hree articles which at once bring past history into the world of y uthentic fact. They may be said to call to life respectively the eed for our severance from Rome, the English Revolution and the haracter of the Reformed Anglican Church.

The first article, " Cardinals Beneficed in Sarum Cathedral," by e Rev. C. Moor, D.D., F.S.A., gives a list of over fifty Cardinals, ly eight of whom were of English birth, who battened on our nglish florins. Some held the Deanery, some an Archdeaconry, nd many a Canonry or Prebend as well, generally together with imilar preferment in other dioceses. And this is a list of Cardinals lone! Think of William de Agrifolio, who had " the advantage elegant aspect," Archdeacon of Berks (with the Pope's leave to isit it by deputy for five years), with the Prebends of Bere and herminster. Or John de Blandiaco, both Treasurer and Archdeacon

Sarum, as well as Rector of Adderbury (Oxon), or Bontampi, ishop of Perugia, voiding at his death the Archdeaconry of Berks, orth 120 marks per annum. Or Dean Fargis, nephew of Pope lement V, who besides the Deanery and other Continental pre- erment, was also Dean and Prebendary of York, Prebendary of eytesbury, and of a stall in Lichfield. Or Henry Minutulo, who as Archbishop of Naples, building the Archiepiscopal Palace and he marble porch of the Cathedral, " prodigious in size and remark- ble for the colour of the porphyry, sculpture, statues and ornamenta- on." This prelate had "reservation of 200 gold florins per annum torn the Archdeaconry of Taunton," and held the living of Sutton-

m-Buckingham, which he let on farm. The list, the result of uch research, is a long one, and its cumulative effect is to make ne convinced, with Dr. Moor, that " the long continuance of such system added to the ever-increasing demand for a thorough eformation of the Church." Yes, this list of over fifty hungry ardinals brings into clear light the nation's need for a severance rem Rome.

The second article, " Ship Money in the Hundred orICingsbridge,"

It ie

If

h IC

d

d

a It

g d is d

a

e

by C. W. Pugh, gives life and reality to the beginning of the struggle between King and Parliament. Here we have a contemporary list of persons assessed for ship money in North Wilts in 1635, the year when the tax was extended by the King, without the sanction of Parliament, to the inland counties. The transcript from the " twelve leaves of paper closely written on both sides in a clear seventeenth century script" cannot fail to bring home to all whi study it what ship' money actually meant to the whole country. It touched not only the big landowner or the wealthy merchant, but the poorest householder. The clergy certainly. There is Jo. Har- ward, Vicar, assessed at Li los., and " Mr. Gallimore for his parsonage," at zos. But also every common man and woman. For instance we have Mr. John Dayly at 4s. 9d., Willi Rymell at 6d, Phillis Roade at 4s. 9d., Widow Wilkins of Herpit at 3s., John Mills and his mother at 4s., Widow Morecocke at IId., and so on for fifteen pages through Bradbury, Swindon, Hillmarton, Clack, Woodlockshaye and the rest. Such a list, so challenging in its particularity, brings home to us to what extent and in what multi- farious breasts the sparks of indignation were kindled that blazed up at Westminster and ended on the scaffold at Whitehall.

The third notable article, by C. R. Everett, F.S.G., is of ecclesiastical interest. It throws some light on the status of cathedrals with regard to Bishops in the reformed Church. How far did episcopal discipline extend over the Close? Here we have a contemporary record of an " Episcopal Visitation of the Cathedral Church of Sarum " in 1607, which shows the continuance of pre- Reformation custom so far as the Bishop's right to " visit " was concerned. The original was recently found quite accidentally in the Diocesan Registry at Salisbury. It forms part of a dilapidated parchment-covered volume, and is strangely introduced as " Inscribed by Shuter." It is known that such visitations took place with con- siderable ceremonial and the kind of inquiries that were made and answered. From the fifty-six disciplinary questions and the replies made by Canons and Vicars-Choral we realise that the post- Reformation Bishops were concerned with much the same troubles as the pre-Reformation ones. Again there is no question of the episcopal authority over the Dean and Chapter. That matter had been settled by the Pope Boniface IX in 1392. It was not raised in the Church of England till 1683, when Bishop Seth Ward's right was challenged by Dean Pierce, on the ground that the Pope's ruling was no longer valid. The Keeper of the Great Seal, Lord North, decided in the Bishop's favour. Bishop Wordsworth exercised his right in 1880.

The discovery of this document is thus of some importance for Church history. It certainly illustrates the continuity of the Ecclesia Anglicana with the Church under Papal control. And, moreover, to read the actual record of what dignified Canons and shy Vicars-Choral answered to the searching episcopal questions, as it is " inscribed by Shiner," gives fresh colour to our vague ideas of the Cathedral life that soon was to pass through greater vicissitudes.