68 



An Early Vernacular Service. 



angry indeed at the suggestion of so early a date. He said it was 

 impossible. I mentioned this afterwards to a Jesuit priest, who 

 naively remarked, "It is not wise to be positive/ as you may be 

 proved to be wrong/'' 



I claim then for this service that it is earlier than the time of 

 Bishop Latimer. How then was it brought to his knowledge ? 



From the book itself we can tell to what Church it belonged. In 

 the kalendar there is a contemporaneous note written cursively in 

 the margin opposite August 2nd : " Obitus Dni Walteri Longney 

 olim Vicarii de Erlingham, qui mortem passus est anno do. Mcccccij 0 . 

 quarto nonas Augusti. Is me (librum) cum gradali Ecclesise dedit 

 ut annuatim celeb re tur suum anniversarium perpetuo/" Again in 

 the illuminated border at the commencement of vespers a bird is 

 drawn holding a label in its beak with " Sir Walter Longney " 

 written on it. I need not mention that Sir was formerly, as we 

 find in Shakspeare, 1 the title of a priest. There would have been 

 some authority for such of my brethren who lately indignantly de- 

 clined to be called Reverend, to have adopted the ancient title Sir, 

 instead of some less wise suggestions. Again, in the fine border at 

 the beginning of the sanctorale, on a label at the bottom of the 

 page, there is written " Orate pro animabus Walteri Retteforte et 

 Johanne uxoris ejus. 



From these data I would suggest that Walter Retteforte paid for 

 the execution of the book, and presented it to his godson, Sir Walter 

 Longney, Vicar of Arlingham, in Gloucestershire, who gave it to 

 his Church of Arlingham. 



I maintain that Latimer saw the MS. at Arlingham, and it 

 might have been presented to his notice in two ways (i) before he 

 was bishop, and (ii) after his consecration. 



(i) If a straight line be drawn from Warminster to Arlingham^ 

 and it be bisected, the point of bisection falls, if my map be right, in 

 the parish of West Kington. In A.D. 1529 (twenty-seven years 



1 Thus Viola, in Twelfth Night, act hi., sc. 4, says, " I am one that would 

 rather go with Sir Priest, than Sir Knight." In the same play we have Sir 

 Topaz ; in Merry Wives of Windsor, Sir Hugh ; in As You Like It, Sir 

 Oliver ; in Love's Labour Lost, Sir Nathanael. 



