2nd S. IX. Map.. 3. '60 ] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



167 



Mr. Gough Nichols talks about the "sale of 

 these visionary benefits" — meaning indulgences. 

 Had he read no other than those forms printed at 

 the end of the Surtees edition of the Rites of Dur- 

 ham, and to which he refers, he would have found 

 that, while there is not a til tie of evidence which 

 warrants a suspicion that they were either bought 

 or sold, he might at the same time have assured 

 himself of the great practical good, in many ways, 

 of those so-called pardons. One among their 

 other objects was to draw people to church for 

 prayer, and to hear the word of God ; the condi- 

 tions for gaining them were the sincere confession 

 of, and hearty sorrow for sins : their effects, amend- 

 ment of life, forgiveness of injuries, healing of 

 feuds, atonement for spoken slander, reparation 

 for stolen goods, besides the building, the beauti- 

 fying, and endowment of our splendid cathedrals, 

 and our parish churches, probably in the opinion 

 of some among our antiquaries not the least good 

 effect resulting from them : these, forsooth, are no 

 " visionary benefits." 



To some extent, the doctrine of the Church 

 about indulgences was adopted and often acted 

 upon after the change of religion in this country : 

 commutation was allowed to be made in the severer 

 canonical ordinances of the Protestant Establish- 

 ment, so that something much more mild and easy 

 of performance might be substituted in their 

 stead ; and such a commutation was called a 

 "license." Roger Ascham asked and obtained 

 from Cranmer " to be dispensed with as to absti- 

 nence from flesh-meats, Lent and fish-days being 

 then strictly observed in the colleges " (at Cam- 

 bridge) ; and Cranmer "put himself to the trouble 

 of procuring the king's license under the privy 

 seal for this man, and he released him of the whole 

 charges of taking it out, paying all the fees him- 

 self." (Strype's Life of Cranmer, ed. E. H. S., ii. 

 65. 69.). In his Life of Parker, Strype informs us 

 that " However the observation of the fast of 

 Lent was regarded, yet dispensations also for it 

 were granted upon reasonable causes. This favour 

 (Parker) had " formerly shewed to John Fox, the 

 martyrologist, a spare sickly man, whom he per- 

 mitted for his bad stomach to eat flesh in Lent." 

 (p. 178.) Of Grindal the same writer tells us: 

 " As for dispensations for eating flesh, they were 

 rarely granted, and this upon the physician's testi- 

 monial. And, for the most part (Grindal), re- 

 mitted part of his fees (Life of Grindal, p. 219.). 

 Among the MSS. in the splendid collection at 

 Ashburnham Place there is a license, dated a.d. 

 1632, from Abbot, for eating meat on fast-days. 

 At Isleworth, among the muniments of the parish 

 church, is a license bearing date April 28th, 1661, 

 piven by W. Grant, vicar of Isleworth, to R. 

 Downton and Thomasina his wife, to eat flesh- 

 meat in Lent, &c. (Lysons, Environs of London, 

 iii. 118.). "These licenses," we are told by Ly- 



sons, " were by no means uncommon at an earlier 

 period. After the Restoration the keeping of 

 Lent, which had been neglected by the Puritans, 

 who entirely exploded the observing of seasons, 

 was enforced by a proclamation from the king, 

 and an oflice for granting licenses to eat flesh in 

 any part of England was set up in St. Paul's 

 churchyard, and advertised in the public papers, 

 Anno 1663." (ib.) When Lysons published his 

 book, 1795, there was in the possession of J. 

 Clitherow, Esq., of Boston House, " a curious li- 

 cense under Juxon's hand and seal, 1663, by 

 which he grants permission to Sir Nath. Powell, 

 Bart., his sons and daughters, and six guests 

 whom he shall at any time invite to his table, to 

 eat flesh in Lent, provided that they eat soberly 

 and frugally, with due grace said, and privately to 

 avoid scandal; the said Sir Nath. giving the sum 

 of 13*. Ad. to the poor of the parish " (ib. 119.). 



But there are Protestant indulgences for other 

 and far more serious and important things than the 

 eating of flesh in Lent and upon fast-days, to which 

 I beg to direct Mr. Gough Nichols's attention. 

 In the " Form of Penance " devised by Grindal, 

 we find it set forth thus : " Let the offender be set 

 directly over against the pulpit during the sermon 

 or homily, and there stand bare-headed, with the 

 sheet or other accustomed note of difference ; and 

 that upon some board raised a foot-and-a-half at 

 least above the church-floor, that they may be in 

 loco editiore et eininentiores omni populo, i. e. in an 

 higher place, and above all the people. It is very 

 requisite that the preacher in some place of his 

 sermon, or the curate after the end of the homily, 

 remaining still in the pulpit, shall publiekly in- 

 terrogate the offender, &c. Preacher. Dost thou 

 not here, before God and this congregation, con- 

 fess that thou didst commit such an offence, viz. 

 fornication, adultery, incest, &c. ?" (Strype's Life 

 of Grindal, p. 261.) Here, then, we have notori- 

 ous sinners, and among them the fornicator, the 

 adulterer, the incestuous man or woman, made to 

 come to church, and, clad in a white sheet, mount 

 the stool of repentance, and there openly answer 

 the interrogations of the preacher, acknowledge 

 their sins, and promise amendment in hearing and 

 sight of all the people. But an " indulgence," a re- 

 mission of all this humiliation and painful process, 

 might be bought with cash. Perhaps Grindal him- 

 self, certainly his successor Whitgift, bartered and 

 allowed bartering in remissions for such open 

 penance. 



In his " Articles touching Preachers," Whitgift 

 ordained " That from henceforth there be no com- 

 mutation of penance but in rare respects and 

 upon great consideration, and when it shall ap- 

 pear to the bishop himself that that shall be the 

 best way of winning and reforming the offender, 

 and that the penalty be employed either to the 

 relief of the poor of that parish or to other godly 



