2«^ S. V. 1 19., April 10. '58.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



291 



** though their souls have gone to a very bad 

 place" (" in nigras et inauspicatas domos de- 

 missae"); and, so far as the general sense of the 

 passage is concerned, this appears to be a tolerably 

 correct explanation. It leaves us in ignorance, 

 however, as to the exact meaning of the expres- 

 sion " Make beried" with respect to which Tyr- 

 whitt says, " I really cannot guess what it means." 



The meaning of " blake beried" now to be 

 submitted is that, provided the " Pardonere " 

 could extract his hearers' " pens," he recked not, 

 when they were dead, though, in consequence of 

 their having been made penniless, they had only 

 the commonest kind of funeral, a black bier, no- 

 thing more ; and not such obsequies as were 

 rendered to those who left something behind to 

 pay expenses. — But, says the Pardonere, their- 

 " soules " went " blake beried." 



And now, with reference to their " soules" let 

 us hear what Black^tone says in his Commenta- 

 ries, vol. ii. Book II. Ch. xxviii. on the subject of 

 Mortuaries. When a death had occurred, after 

 the lord's heriot was taken out, the next best 

 chattel of the deceased was reserved, as a mor- 

 tuary, to the Church ; and therefore, by the law 

 of King Canute, this mortuary is called soul- 

 scot (sawl-sceat). " Secundum melius animal 

 reservetur, post obitum, pro salute animce suae." 

 (To this passage Tyrwhitt gives a reference.) 



In France this principle was carried so far, 

 that it was not deemed sufficient to inter de- 

 faulters as paupers; they altogether forfeited the 

 last rites of the Church. " Every man that died 

 without bequeathing part of his estate to the 

 Church, which was called dying without confession, 

 was formerly deprived of Christian burial." More- 

 over, it was ordained that this soid-scot, called 

 also animce symbolum, should be paid when the 

 grave was opened. " .^quissimum est, ut animce 

 symbolum (quam pecuniam sepulchralem vocant) 

 semper dependatur, cum sepulchrum sit fossum." 

 (Du Cange.) It was not an affair of the body 

 merely, but altogether of the soid. " Munera 

 necnon defunctorum animabus congruentia puteo 

 impendantur aperto." (lb.) Exactly Chaucer's 

 " whan that they be beried." 



Respecting the practice as it prevailed in Eng- 

 land, two things are to be observed : first, that 

 this soul-scot " was a kind of expiation and amends 

 to the Clergy for the personal tithes, and other 

 ecclesiastical dues, which the laity in their life- 

 time might have neglected or forgotten to pay ; " 

 secondly, that " it was anciently usual In this 

 kingdom to bring the mortuary to Church along 

 with the corpse when it came to be burled." 



Such was the practice at the period when 

 Chaucer lived. " So early as Hen. III. we find 

 it rivited into an established custom." And so it 

 continued till 21 Hen. VIII. c. 6., which enacted 

 a composition in lieu of payment in kind. 



Hence may we more easily understand, in its 

 general purport, the language which Chaucer has 

 put into the Pardonere's mouth. He, the Par- 

 donere, having succeeded in winning for himself 

 his hearer's " pens " while they yet lived, nothing 

 was left as a mortuary to pay their soul-scot to 

 the " Personne," or Parish Priest, when they were 

 dead. They got neither masses, nor " cencings," 

 nor orisons, nor requiems, nor torches, nor " era- 

 brothered palle," nor sumptuous offerings, nor 

 any of those appliances for the repose of the soul 

 which waited on solvent obsequies ; but only the 

 poorest kind of funeral — a black bier. And if, 

 in default of payment, the " Personne " would 

 not give them the rites deemed needful for their 

 soul's rest, they were not likely to get them from 

 " Perdoneres" or begging " fryars." — " Why 

 couete ye not to bury poor folke among you ? " 

 {Jacke Upland.) 



It was not only, then, that the black bier made 

 but a sorry interment as tlieir bodies were con- 

 cerned. They also suffered in their souls. Their 

 souls went black-bier'd ; i. e. without those rites 

 for which they had left no funds. But the Par- 

 donere recked not, though he had their " pens " 

 in his pocket. 



Such is our general explanation of the difficulty. 

 For its full clearance, however, there still remains 

 occasion for some verbal discussions, which are 

 reserved for a subsequent paper. 



The use of symbolum for symbola, a scot, is not 

 a blunder of mediaeval latinity, but may be traced 

 to the later days of classic Rome. Thomas Boys. 



P. S. The explanation of Eclympasteire, or 

 Eclympasteyre (Death), offered in " N. & Q.," 

 2°'^ S. v. 229., and the derivation from eKKifxirdvw, 

 were previously suggested in Bell's Annotated 

 Edition of Chaucer, vol. vi. p. 141. I hasten to 

 make this acknowledgment, and in any farther 

 examination of the difficulties of Chaucer indi- 

 cated by Tyrwhitt, shall gladly avail myself of the 

 work in question. 



MiMOt U0te^. 



A New Greek Gospel MS. — The Evening Star 

 (March 29), on thd authority of an Athens journal, 

 announces the recent discovery of a " manuscript 

 copy on parchment of the Gospels in Greek " — 

 Attic, I presume, — as it was found in a "garret" 

 of a house in Athens. The date of this important 

 document, which now lies In "good preservation" 

 in the public library of that city, is stated to be 

 480. Any information your learned correspon- 

 dents may be able to communicate respecting the 

 MS. In question, its genuineness, or the result of 

 its collation with existing Greek copies, will prove 

 highly interesting to biblical scholars. 



F. Phiixott. 



