70 An Early Vernacular Service. 



Walter Longney baptized in Arlingham Church about the year 1550. 

 (the registers commence in 1539). This seems to show that the 

 former owner of the book, who gave it to the Church which he 

 served, was so far in favour of the Reformation as to be a married 

 man and to have a son, or at least a grandson, of his own name, 

 settled in the parish where he was Vicar. 



It would be interesting to know how this splendid book was pre- 

 served to our own times when so much has been destroyed. But 

 all that I can learn about it is that it was presented to Bishop 

 Denison, who bequeathed it — a most precious legacy — to the Dean 

 and Chapter, who no doubt value it as it deserves. There has been 

 an attempt to evangelize the book after a fashion by a poor endeavour 

 to change the hymn Salve Regina into a psalm of praise of our 

 Blessed Lord, but this would not be enough to save it from des- 

 truction . 



So early as 1409 the Bishop of Salisbury presented a memorial 

 to the Council of Pisa, complaining that many of the clergy of 

 England were thrust upon a people whose tongue they did not 

 understand. The Italian court regarded England as a sponge that 

 would bear squeezing. At the time of the appointment of Bishop 

 Jewel the Dean of Sarum was an Italian, living at Rome. The 

 Dean and dignitaries of the Cathedral had been in the habit of living 

 abroad, and spending the money of the Cathedral abroad, so that 

 the wail of neglected work, and of the campanale falling in ruin, 

 followed them. Such cases as these hastened on the desire for re- 

 formation : and the people of England determined to have a clergy 

 of their own people, living among them, speaking their own language. 

 They therefore cut off all non-residents and foreigners. They also 

 determined to have, if possible, the services in a language they could 

 understand, and I venture to submit that the manuscript which I 

 have brought to your notice is the earliest known evidence of this 

 determination being carried out into practice. 



