also know somewhat by experience of these same pilgrimes, telling the cause, why that many men and women goe hither and thither now on pilgrimage; it is more for the health of their bodies, than of their soules; more for to have riches and prosperitie of this world, than for to bee enriched with vertues in their soules; more to have here worldly and fleshly friendship, than for to have friendship of God, and of his saints in heaven; for whatsoever thing man or woman doth, the friendship of God, nor of any other saint cannot bee had, without keeping of Gods commandements. Further with my protestation, I say now as I said in Shrewsburie, though they that have fleshly wils, travell farre their bodies and spend mikle money, to seeke and to visit the bones or images (as they say they do) of this saint or of that, such pilgrimage going is neither praiseable nor thankfull to God, nor to any saint of God, since in effect, all such pilgrimes despise God and all his commandements and saints. For the commandements of God they will nother know nor keepe, nor conforme them to live vertuouslie by example of Christ and of his saints. Wherfore sir, I have preached and taught openly, and so I purpose all my life time to do with Gods helpe, saying that such fond people wast blamefully Gods goods in their vaine pilgrimages, spending their goods upon vitious hostelars which are oft uncleane women of their bodies: and at the least, those goods with the which they should doe workes of mercie after Gods bidding, to poore needie men and women.

These poore mens goods and their livelode, these runners about offer to rich priests which have mikle more livelode than they neede. And thus those goods they wast wilfully, and spend them unjustly against Gods bidding upon strangers, with which they should help and relieve, after Gods will, their poore needie neighbours at home: yea and over this follie, oftentimes divers men and women, of these runners thus madly hither and thither into pilgrimage, borrow hereto other mens goods, yea and sometime they steale mens goods hereto, and they pay them never againe. Also sir, I know well that when divers men and women will goe, thus after their owne wils and finding out, on pilgrimage, they will ordaine with them before, to have with them both men and women, that can well sing' wanton songs; and some other

7 Can well sing.] Mine host of the Taberde, in Southwarke, well understood this temper of his guests, the pilgrims, and so suggested the scheme of the Canterbury Tales. Cantantes licet usque, minus via lædet, eamus. [Fain

pilgrimes will have with them bagpipes; so that in everie towne that they come through, what with the noise of their singing, and with the sound of their piping, and with the jangling of their Canturburie bels, and with the barking out of dogs after them, they make more noise, than if the king came there away, with all his clarions, and many other minstrels. And if these men and women be a moneth out in their pilgrimage, many of them shall be an halfe yeare after, great janglers, taletellers, and liars.

And the archbishop said to me; Leaud losell, thou seest not far enough in this matter, for thou considerest not the great travell of pilgrims, therefore thou blamest that thing that is praiseable. I say to thee, that it is right well done, that pilgrims have with them both singers and also pipers, that when one of them that goeth barefoote, striketh his toe upon a stone, and hurteth him sore, and maketh him to bleed, it is well done that he or his fellow begin then a song, or else take out of his bosome a bagpipe, for to drive away with such mirth, the hurt of his fellow. For with such solace, the travell and wearinesse of pilgrimes, is lightly and merrily borne out.

Fain wold I don you mirth and I wist how.
Ye gon to Canterbury, God mote you spede,
The blissful martyr quite you your mede :
And well I wot, as ye gone by the way,
Ye shapen you to talken and to play :
For truly comfort ne mirth is there none,
To riden by the way as dumb as a stone:
And therefore wold I maken you disport,
As I said erst, and done you some comfort.

P. 7. Edit. 1687.

An elder satirist gives us a still less favourable picture,
Pilgrimes and palmers plyght hem togyther
For to seke S. James, and sayntes at Rome :
They went forth theyr way wyth many wyse tales,
And had leve to lye all hyr lyfe after.

Hermets on a heape wyth hoked staves.

Wenten to Walsingham, and her wenches after,

Great loubeis and longe that loth were to swynke.

Visions of Pierce Ploughman, fol. 1. b.

Of the controversy respecting pilgrimages, as it was debated about this period, many further particulars may be learned, on both sides of the dispute, by consulting Lewis's Life of Pecock, p. 92-114. See also Sir Thomas More's Dialogue concerning Heresies, book i. Works, p. 105-40, and the Index of this work, and that of the Christian Institutes, under Pilgrimages..

And I said; Sir, S. Paul teacheth men to weepe with them that weepe.

8

And the archbishop said, What janglest thou against mens devotion? Whatsoever thou or such other say, I say that the pilgrimage that now is used, is, to them that doe it, a praiseable and a good meane to come the rather to grace. But I hold thee unable to know this grace, for thou enforcest thee to let the devotion of the people: since by authority of holy scripture, men may lefully have and use such solace as thou reprovest. For David in his last psalme, teacheth men to have divers instruments of musicke for to praise therewith God.

And I said; Sir, by the sentence of divers doctors expounding the psalmes of David, that musicke and minstrelsie that David and other saints of the old law spake of, ought now nother to be taken nor used by the letter, but these instruments with their musicke ought to bee interpreted ghostly: for all those figures are called vertues and graces, with which vertues men should please God, and praise his name. things befell to them in figure. that the letter of this psalme of David and of such other psalmes and sentences doth slay them that take them now litterally. This

For saint Paul saith all such
Therefore, sir, I understand,

8 A good meane.] The religious ceremonies with which the pilgrims set out upon their journey, if the prayers had been in their mother tongue, were of an imposing and impressive character.

The following is an account of the office prepared for the occasion, and still extant in the Salisbury manual.

"First of all the pilgrims were to be confessed of all their sins. Then they were to prostrate themselves before the altar, and to have said over them the psalms and prayers there appointed. The pilgrims were then to stand up, and the priest was to bless their scrips and staves, praying to God that he would vouchsafe to sanctify and bless them; that whosoever, for the love of his name, should put that scrip to his side, or hang it about his neck, or carry that staff in his hands, and thus going on pilgrimage, should desire, with an humble devotion, to obtain the suffrages of the saints, might be protected by the defence of God's right hand, and deserve to come to the joys of the eternal mansion. And then, after sprinkling holy water on the scrips and staves, the priest put his scrip about each of the pilgrims' neck, and delivered his staff into his hand, with a set form of words. If any of the pilgrims were going to Jerusalem, they were to have their garments marked with a cross; and the crosses were to be blessed and sprinkled with holy water; and his garment so marked was to be delivered to every one of the pilgrims with a set form of words. All which being ended, a mass was said for their good journey."-Lewis's Life of Bishop Pecock, p. 94. edit. 1744.

sentence as I understand sir, Christ approveth himselfe, putting out the minstrels, or that he would quicken the dead damsell.

And the archbishop said to me; Leud losel, is it not lefull to us to have organs' in the church for to worship therewithall God?

9 To have organs.] When in the next century the objections against instrumental church music were revived by the puritans, Hooker noticed an argument similar to that alleged by Thorpe in the preceding paragraph, that the ceremonial law was abrogated, and that the texts referred to in the book of Psalms were to be understood, under the gospel dispensation, spiritually, in the following terms.

"They which, under pretence of the law ceremonial abrogated, require the abrogation of instrumental musick, approving nevertheless the use of vocal melody to remain, must show some reason wherefore the one should be thought a legal ceremony and not the other. In church musick curiosity and ostentation of art, wanton, or light, or unsuitable harmony, such as only pleaseth the ear, and doth not naturally serve to the very kind and degree of those impressions which the matter that goeth with it leaveth, or is apt to leave in men's minds, doth rather blemish and disgrace that we do, than add either beauty or furtherance unto it. On the other side the faults prevented, the force and efficacy of the thing itself, when it drowneth not utterly, but fitly suiteth with matter altogether sounding to the praise of God, is in truth most admirable, and doth much edify, if not the understanding, because it teacheth not, yet surely the affection, because therein it worketh much. They must have hearts very dry and tough, from whom the melody of the Psalms doth not sometime draw that wherein a mind religiously affected delighteth." Ecclesiastical Polity, book v. sect. 38: where may be found much more very beautifully composed, in vindication of the use of musick in churches; and from which I apprehend a sufficient answer may be derived, built on the sure foundations of sound wisdom, and true religion, to the principles and practices of all those who have renounced the use of it.

It must be confessed indeed, that before the Reformation, this part of religious worship was much corrupted. Nor was it to be wondered at, where the service was in an unknown tongue, that efforts to please or to astonish the ear by the tricks of art, and by passages of a laborious and rapid execution, should take the place of simple, grave, and solemn melodies. Wickliffe expresses himself with great severity on this subject. See Lewis's History, p. 132-135. And in the same place, says very beautifully, in reply to an argument that might be urged on the other side, " And if they seyn that angels hearen (praise) God by song in heaven; seye that we kunnen (know) not that song; but they ben in full victory of their enemies, and we ben in perilous battle, and in the valley of weeping and mourning; and our song letteth us fro better occupation, and stirreth us to many great sins, and to forget ourselves." Erasmus, in one of his epistles, attributes the ignorance so prevalent in his times partly to the want of sober and sound preaching of God's word, and partly to the incroachments made upon divine service by the unbounded usage in churches of elaborate and artificial musick. (Lib. xxv. epist. 64.) And in his annotations on the New Testament, written about the

And I said, Yea sir, by mans ordinance; but by the ordinance of God, a good sermon to the peoples understanding were mikle more pleasant to God.

year 1512, he gives a description which displays the same evil in very striking terms. "We have introduced into the churches a certain elaborate and theatrical species of music, accompanied with a tumultuous diversity of voices. All is full of trumpets, cornets, pipes, fiddles, and singing. We come to church as to a play-house. And for this purpose, ample salaries are expended on organists and societies of boys, whose whole time is wasted in learning to sing. These fooleries are become so agreeable, that the monks, especially in England, think of nothing else. To this end, even in the Benedictine monasteries of England, many youths, boys, and other vocal performers, are sustained, who, early every morning, sing to the organ the mass of the Virgin Mary with the most harmonious modulations of voice. And the bishops are obliged to keep choirs of this sort in their families." Annot. in Epistle i. ad Corinth. (chap. xiv. ver. 19.)

"At the time of the Reformation (says Sir John Hawkins), such abuses had crept into the choral service, which had departed from its primitive simplicity and dignity, that not only the council of Trent passed a decree against curious and artificial singing, but the thirty-two commissioners in the Reformatio Legum Ecclesiasticarum, expressed their disapprobation of it in very strong terms. Queen Mary, who loved music, and played on several instruments, laboured to support it, and in her reign the formulary In Usum Sarum was republished. At the accession of her sister Elizabeth to the crown, the clergy were divided in their opinions about the use of church music. The first statutes of uniformity seemed to consider it as a thing indifferent; but the queen by her injunctions made it a part of cathedral worship. In this she is supposed to have had the concurrence of Parker, archbishop of Canterbury, who had been taught to sing in his youth, and was a great lover of music, as was also the queen." See notes to the Northumberland Houshold Book, p. 444, 445.

In his Complaint to the King and Parliament, Wickliffe has taken upon him to say, in very strong language, "as Christ saved the world by the writing and teaching of the four evangelists, so now the fiend casteth to damne the world in letting" (hindering) "to preach the gospel, by these foure; by fayned contemplation;-by songs;-by Salisburie use; and by worldly buysines of priests."-Wickliffe's Two Short Treatises, 1608. 4to. p. 17.

Of two of these- the "new song "-or church-music, and the "Salisbury Use," he elsewhere expresses himself with much seriousness, and cogency of observation, as follows:

First, of the church-music. "Wonder it is why men praise so much this new praying by great crying and high song, and leave the still manner of praying as Christ and his apostles used. It seems that we seek our own liking and pride in this song, more than the devotion and understanding of that which we sing. This is great sin: for Augustine saith in his Confessions, 'As oft as the song delights me more than that which is sung, so oft I acknowledge that I trespass grievously.' Therefore, saith Paul, 'I had rather