462 The Rev. E. H. Pearc3 [:\Iay 14, 



longer at Avignon. In fear of losing all hold on Italy, Gregory XL 

 had left that scene of luxurious exile and mvenous extortion on 

 September 18, loTG, and had entered Rome on January 17, lo77.* 

 jVIost Englishmen had loathed tlie Avignonese residence, because it 

 threw tlie Papacy into the hands of the French ; but William 

 Colchester, as he packed his slender valise, tliought differently. ''Non 

 potuit reperire societatem versus Auinionem." There was no great 

 chance of getting company on the road ; and company meant so 

 much the more security. So he went to the fourteenth century 

 representative of Messrs. Thos. Cook & Son and hired a courier, one 

 (xerard of London, for 206., pleading as his excuse for ihis expendi- 

 ture " diuersitatem lingue et viarum discrimina in partibus trans- 

 marinis." To get to Dover he bought for himself a horse and saddle 

 for 34s. 8d., but I a little fear that he expected the man Gerard to 

 Avalk, for he also laid out '2(js. Sd. upon a horse, saddle and bridle 

 for Gerard, urging as his reason that the man declined to cover the 

 journey on foot. And so we get them to Dover, where for five 

 days they failed to procure a passage, and the two men and the two 

 horses ate their heads off at sixpence a day per horse and fivepence 

 a meal per man. When they got a ship, the men's passage cost* 

 3s. 4:d. each, the horses, by virtue of their cubic displacement, costing 

 double. And so to Calais, and within three days to Bruges, where 

 again there is a long halt. For the royal letters have not come; 

 Edward III. died eleven days after our travellers left London. But 

 Colchester is convinced that an enemy hath done this ; the issue of 

 the documents has been prevented "per aduersarios" ; and you will 

 remember that the Dean and College of St. Stephen's were closer 

 to the royal ear than our Abbot and Convent. Anyhow there is 

 nine days' commissariat at Bruges to be entered ; also a reward given to 

 the hotel servants " prout modus est patrie," according to the custom 

 of the country ; we can all enter into his feelings as he writes up 

 that particular tenpence. In brief, he has already spent nearly all the 

 £10 which he received at starting from Brother John Lakyngheth, 

 his rival for mouiistic promotion. 



So now he converts his balance of 15s. Sd. into florins, reckoning 

 each florin at 3s. 2d. To that he adds seven florins by the sale of 

 his own horse — he has done well here, for the horse cost 34:S. 8d. in 

 London and he has ridden him to Bruges and sold him for 2'2s. 2d. ; 

 but the man Gerard's horse was the worse for wear — " infirmabatur 

 per viam quasi ad mortem" — it went for 9s. 6d., or three florins. 

 Colchester borrowed twenty-three florins, and on they went, some- 

 times hiring a mount, sometimes getting a lift, sometimes in terror of 

 the Frenchmen, who laid an ambu>h for them as they entered 

 Dauphine, so that our travellers hired a guide to lead them through 

 by-ways " extra viam communem." On the twenty-seventh day after 



♦ L. Pastor, Gesdiichte des Pa'pstc, i. p. 109. 



