] 8 Wiltshire Pardons or Indulgences. 



when liis end was drawing near in 1200, he offered a pardon of 

 eighty days to such as should assist in that good work. 



In 1184 King Henry II. employed Templars and Hospitallers 

 to make collection (as a kind of subsidy) for the second Crusade, 

 pardons being given by way of encouragement. They were granted 

 likewise to induce believers to build chapels, churches, and minsters, 

 to aid hospitals or almshouses, and to make or repair bridges, roads, 

 or causeways. The number of days granted by an indulgence or 

 " pardon," as it was commonly called in England, varied normally 

 from ten to thirteen, up to twenty or forty days' relaxation of 

 penance enjoined. St. Hugh of Lincoln (a3 already mentioned) 

 had granted as many as eighty days, but the Council of Lateran 

 in 1215 restricted a bishop to grants of not more than forty days 

 at a time, except on the occasion of his dedicating a Church, when 

 he might grant a year's indulgence pro ilia vice ; but only forty 

 days could be gained on subsequent anniversaries of that local 

 festival. It became necessary to stigmatise the evil practices of 

 over-zealous and unscrupulous "collectors " and hawkers of indul- 

 gences who came to be known as quaestuarii rather than quaestores, 

 and gave a bad reputation to the "Pardoner" in the popular 

 literature of the fourteenth century. In June, 1546, the Council 

 of Trent forbade quaestuarii to preach either personally or by 

 substitute. (Sessio, v. cap. 2.) The Council of Vienne denounced 

 eight evil practices of pardoners in 1312, and certain English 

 Bishops before and after that date took steps to curb the extravagant 

 issue of pardons. The authoritative service-books of Salisbury Use 

 contain some references to indulgences. The lessons appointed for 

 mattins on the feast of the Visitation of B. Mary declare and recite 

 the pardons granted by Pope Urban VI. (c. 1378 — 89) to encourage 

 worshippers to observe the feast on July 2nd, viz., by a gift of 

 one hundred days for attendance at mattins, mass, and evensong, 

 forty days for each of the little hours, and one hundred days of 

 penance enjoined, for attendance at mattins, mass, evensong, and 

 hours through the octave (Brev. Sarum, iii., 397 — 8). Similar in- 

 dulgences granted by Urban IV. with respect to Corpus Christi 

 festival (1264) are in the lessons (ib. i. cols, mlxviii., mlxix.) The 



