140 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 
Lincoln. 
DOCUMENTS—Continued. 
Date Document 
1615. Spencer, p. 81. 
1518. Spencer, p. 62. 
1664-5. Chambers, II, 
379. 
Content 
“At Lincoln in 1515 
the players not only 
were required to go in 
character in the proces¬ 
sion, but constables 
were stationed ‘to wait 
upon the array in pro¬ 
cession, both to keep the 
people from the array, 
and also to take heed of 
such as wear garments 
in the same.’ ” 
“In the early years of 
the Corpus Christi festi¬ 
val, when the proces¬ 
sion and the plays were 
all one, the ceremonies 
of the day seem to have 
begun at an early hour 
in the morning - .—What 
the exact hour was in 
the earliest years of the 
procession we do not 
know.—At Lincoln in 
1518 it was at seven 
o’clock in the morning.” 
In 1554 and 1555 “ ‘it 
was ordered that St. 
Anne’s Gild with Corpus 
Christi Play shall be 
brought forth’ and 
played this year.’ ” 
Interpretation 
1515, 27 July.—“It is 
agreed that whereas di¬ 
vers garments and other 
‘heriorments’ are yearly 
borrowed in the country 
for the arraying of the 
pageants of St. Anne’s 
Guild, but now the 
knights and gentlemen 
are afraid with the pla¬ 
gue so that the ‘grace- 
man’ cannot borrow 
such garments, every 
alderman shall prepare 
and set forth in the said 
array two good gowns 
and every sheriff and 
every chamberlain a 
gown, and the persons 
with them shall wear 
the same. And the con¬ 
stables are ordered to 
wait upon the array in 
procession, both to keep 
the people from the ar¬ 
ray, and also to take 
heed of such as wear 
garments in the same.” 
Hist. Mss., XIV, pt. 3, 
p. 25. 
1518, 16 June. “Ord¬ 
ered that every aider- 
man shall send forth a 
servant with a torch to 
be lighted in the pro¬ 
cession with a rochet 
upon him about the Sac¬ 
rament,—And also send 
forth one person with a 
gown upon his back to 
go in the procession. 
That every constable 
shall wait on the pro¬ 
cession on St. Anne’s 
day by 7 of the Clock, 
upon pain of forfeiture 
of 12 d.” Same, p. 26. 
I do not believe that 
the two entries for 1515 
and 1518 refer to the 
Corpus Christi proces¬ 
sion for these reasons: 
1. The procession is 
evidently the procession 
on St. Anne’s day. 
2. The dates of the 
enactments (June, July) 
are more appropriate 
for St. Anne’s day than 
for Corpus Christi day. 
