A HISTORY OF NORFOLK 



There is no formal report extant as to this 

 house in the return of the county commissioners, 

 but a letter of Richard Southwell's to Cromwell, 

 dated 25 July, 1536, shows that their duties were 

 delegated to Sir Thomas Lestrange and Mr. 

 Hogges, who were ordered to sequestrate all 

 money, plate, jewels, and such-like stuff found at 

 the priory. From this remarkable letter it is 

 clear that Southwell either believed, or affected 

 to believe, that someone in Walsingham Priory 

 followed some black art or made use of the philo- 

 sopher's stone, whereas the discovery was probably 

 a mere chemist's laboratory : — 



Emoung other thinges the same Sir Thomas Lestrange 

 and Mr. Hoges dyd there f}-nd a secrete privj'e place 

 within the howse d}-d ever come, as they saye, in 

 wiche there were instrewmentes, pottes, bellowes, 

 flyes of suche strange colors as the lick none of us had 

 seene, with poyses and other thinges to sorte, and dewyd 

 gould and silver, nothing there wantinge that should 

 belonge to the arrte of multyplying. Off all wiche 

 the)- desyred me by lettres to advertyse you, and also 

 that from the Satredaye at night till the Sonday next 

 folowinge was offred at their now beinge xxxiijs. iiijd. 

 over and besyd waxe. Of this moultiplying it maye 

 please you to cawse them to be examyned, and so to 

 advertyse unto them your further pleasure.' 



On 22 September of the same year Prior 

 Vowell wrote to Cromwell. From this com- 

 munication it is evident that there was a good 

 deal of underhand work going on in the con- 

 vent. The prior denied that either he or his 

 chapter were privy to certain articles and letters 

 that had been sent in their name to Cromwell, 

 and accused, Robert Wylsey (one of the canons 

 who had subscribed to the king's supremacy in 

 1534.), of having forwarded them, which he 

 partly acknowledged. It is significant that the 

 prior concludes his letter by saying that he sends 

 Cromwell by the bearer his ' fee' for the ensuing 

 year.^ A list of Cromwell's blackmail from the 

 threatened houses for this year includes ^^ from 

 Prior Vowel.' 



The shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham has 

 obtained an undying fame by the visit of Eras- 

 mus, the great scholar of the Renaissance, who 

 used his most pungent satire to expose the vani- 

 ties of pilgrims and pilgrimages. When Erasmus 

 was at Cambridge in May, 151 1, he wrote to 

 his friend Andreas Ammonius, that, in fulfilment 

 of a vow, he was about to visit the virgin of 

 Walsingham. and to hang up some Greek verses 

 there.* These verses are given in his works as 

 collected by Frobenius in 1540.^ They have 

 been thus Englished : — 



' Hail ! Jesu's mother, blessed evermore. 

 Alone of women God-bearing and virgin. 

 Others may offer to thee various gifts. 

 This man his gold, that man again his silver, 



' L. and P. Hen. Fill, Cleof E. iv, fol. 231. 



' Ibid, xi, 196. 



' Ibid. App. 16. *Epistola, 114. 'Tom. v, 11 09. 



A third adorn thy shrine with precious stones ; 

 For which some ask a guerdon of good health. 

 Some riches ; others hope that by thy aid 

 They soon may bear a father's honoured name. 



' Or gain the years of Pylus' reverend sage. 

 But the poor poet, for his well-meant song. 

 Bringing these verses only, all he has. 

 Asks in reward for his most humble gift 

 That greatest blessing, piety of heart. 

 And full remission of his many sins.' ' 



It is impossible to doubt that at this time 

 Erasmus shared the usual opinion of the day on 

 pilgrimages and special shrines. It was not until 

 1524 that Erasmus put forth his colloquy on 

 pilgrimages, wherein he introduces an imaginary 

 conversation as to an imaginary second visit to 

 Walsingham. In the colloquy Erasmus sup- 

 poses a meeting of two friends, Menedemus and 

 Oxygus, the latter of whom has just returned 

 from pilgrimages to Walsingham and other 

 shrines, stating that the town is almost sustained 

 by the resort of pilgrims. Oxygus describes the 

 wonders of the place, the gold, the silver, and 

 the precious stones offered to the image of Our 

 Lady, the marvels worked at the holy wells, the 

 miracle of the knight on horse-back, for whose 

 admission the portal of the chapel stretched it- 

 self, the various relics and especially the crystal 

 phial containing some milk of the Virgin. The 

 Santa Casa, said to have been miraculously con- 

 veyed there centuries before, specially attracted 

 the attention of Oxygus, who commented upon 

 the apparent renewing of the walls, the roof 

 beams, and the thatch. All this was admitted 

 by the sacrist, and after his assent he was asked : 

 ' As now no part of the old building remains, 

 how do you prove that this was the cottage 

 which was brought from a great distance r ' 

 whereupon the sacrist ' immediately showed us a 

 very old bear's skin fixed to the rafters ; and 

 almost ridiculed our dulness in not having observed 

 so manifest a proof.' The most amusing part of 

 the satire is where the sub-prior of the house 

 saluted Oxygus, asking him if he was not the 

 man who on a visit some years before had hung 

 up a votive inscription in Hebrew characters i" 

 On receiving an affirmative answer, the canon 

 proceeded to state how laboriously they all had 

 striven to read it, and how many spectacles had 

 been wiped in vain. Whenever any doctor of 

 theology or law had arrived, he was at once con- 

 ducted to the inscription. Some declared it was 

 Arabic, others that it was meaningless. At last, 

 however, someone arrived who was able to read 

 the title, which was in Latin. But they all 

 finally agreed that the inscription was in Hebrew, 

 because no one knew Greek, and anything that 

 they did not understand they always called 

 Hebrew. 



It is singular to reflect that this part of the 

 colloquy has several times served as a text for 



•^Erasmus, P i /grim ages, hy J. G.Nichols (ed. 1875), 



102. 



398 



