304 PBEBENDAllY HINGESTON-RANDOLPIl's REGISTEKS. 



without their aid. The thirteenth and the fourteenth centuries, 

 one " j)recocious " and the other "disappointing," are full of 

 local and national importance, nor is the fifteenth devoid of 

 abiding interest. The thirteenth century saw Cornwall clothing 

 herself in " a white robe of churches ;" the fou,rteenth saw the 

 triumphant completion of the noble Cathedral which has grown 

 old in the garb with which the genius of that century invested 

 it ; the fifteenth century saw a wave of religious feeling sweep 

 over the diocese that seemed to touch every manor house in the 

 west. The evidence of the truth of these statements abounds in 

 this series of documents. 



Mr. Capes gives a striking description of the contrast 

 between the engagements of a modern and mediaeval Bishop. 

 " Of the ministries that fill up the time and exhaust the energies 

 of a modern Prelate there are few traces in the career of his 

 mediaeval predecessor." No, Brewer was years in the Holy 

 Land, joint leader of a Crusade; Stafford was a great state 

 officer ; Stapeldon was the King's Lord Treasurer. Fox was 

 never at work, as far as is known, in the diocese at all. Bishops 

 with titles from distant places, places known to us through Marco 

 Polo, went up and down doing odd jobs, while their chiefs were 

 in London or at some great Council, or on important business as 

 ambassadors. Ordinations are held per Henricum Ennachdunen- 

 sem, and Henricum Ardakenensem, and William ISolubriensem. 

 Mr. Capes refers to the Bishop of Soltania, and Soltania is very 

 near to Balaklava. 



But these Registers reveal, below and behind all the strange 

 conflicts, personal and parochial, with which the Bishop's officials 

 are called upon to deal, the existence of deep religious feeling, 

 deeper and more personal by far than we have been accustomed 

 to think characterised the times which preceded the Wars of the 

 Roses, and led on to the reconstitution of the externals of 

 religious life in the days of Henry, Edward, and Elizabeth. It 

 may truthfully be said that there is hardly a religious movement 

 that stirred the minds of Cornishmen that does not find illustration 

 and record in the pages of the volumes. And in one respect the 

 illustrations are surprising. Again and again the names 

 connected with j)aiislies and places familiar to our eais as 

 household words were names of note in the same jjlaces six and 



