Ipfwich, about the first year of queen Mary. Nearly the fame period, a tranflation of ECCLESIATES into rhyme by Oliver Starkey occurs in bishop Tanner's library, if I recollect right, together with his Tranflation of Salluft's two hiftories. By the way, there was another vernacular verfification of ECCLESIASTES by Henry Lok, or Lock, of whom more will be faid hereafter, printed in 1597. This book was also tranflated into Latin hexameters by Drant, who will occur again in 1572. The ECCLESIASTES was verfified in English by Spenfer. I have before mentioned the SCHOOL-HOUSE OF WOMEN, a fatire against the fair fex. This was anfwered by Edward More of Hambledon in Buckinghamshire, about the year 1557, before he was twenty years of age. It required no very powerful abilities either of genius or judgment to confute such a groundless and malignant invective. More's book is entitled, The DEFENCE OF WOMEN, especially English women, against a book intituled the SCHOOL-HOUSE OF WOMEN. It it dedicated to Mafter William Page, fecretary to his neighbour and patron fir Edward Hoby of Bisham-abbey, and was printed at London in 1560 £. • A short treatife of certayne thinges In the popish church long used; In eight leaves, quarto, Bl. Lett. Fox and facetious gentleman." ECCL. MEM. iii. 60, 61, ch. vi. Many rhimes and Ballads were written against the Spanish match, in 1554. Strype, ibid. p. 127. ch. xiv. f In quarto. PRINCIP. "Venus unto thee for help, good Lady do I call." Our author, if I remember right, has furnished fome arguments to one William Heale of Exeter college; who wrote, in 1609, AN APOLOGY FOR WOMAN, in oppofition to Dr. Gager abovementioned, who had maintained at the Public Act, that it was lawful for husbands to beat their wives. Wood fays, that Heale "was always efteemed an ingenious man, but "weak, as being too much devoted to the "female fex." ATH, OXON. i. 314. 66 With the catholic liturgy, all the pageantries of popery were reftored to their antient fplendour by queen Mary. Among others, the proceffion of the boy-bishop was too popular a mummery to be forgotten. In the preceding reign of king Edward the fixth, Hugh Rhodes, a gentleman or musician of the royal chapel, published an English poem with the title, THE BOKE OF NURTUR for men feruants and children, or of the gouernaunce of youth, with STANS PUER AD MENSAM *. In the following reign of Mary, the fame poet printed a poem confisting of thirty-fix octave stanzas, entitled, "The SONG of the CHYLD"BYSSHOP, as it was fonge before the queenes maiestie in her "priuie chamber at her manour of faynt James in the feeldes "on faynt Nicholas day and Innocents day this yeare nowe pre"fent, by the chylde bysfhope of Poules churche' with his company. LONDINI, in ædibus Johannis Cawood typographi reginæ, 1555. Cum privilegio, &c *.' Cum privilegio, &c." By admitting this fpectacle into her prefence, it appears that her majesty's bigotry condefcended to give countenance to the most ridiculous and unmeaning ceremony of the Roman ritual. As to the fong itself, it is a fulfome panegyric on the queen's devotion: in which she is compared to Judith, Efther, the queen of Sheba, and the In quarto. Bl. Lett. Pa. Prol. "There "is few things to be understood." The poem begins, "Alle ye that wolde learn and wolde be called wyfe." In the church of York, no chorister was to be elected boy-bishop, " nifi ha"buerit claram vocem puerilem." Registr. Capitul. Ecclef. Ebor. fub ann. 1390. MS. ut fupr. i In the old ftatutes of faint Pauls, are many orders about this mock-folemnity. One is, that the canon, called STAGIARIUS, fhall find the boy-bishop his robes, and" equitatum honeftum." MS. fol. 86. Diceto dean. In the ftatutes of Salisbury cathedral, it is orderd, that the boy-bishop shall not make a feaft, "fed in domo com"muni cum fociis converfetur, nifi eum "ut Choriftam, ad domum Canonici, caufa "folatii, ad menfam contigerit evocari." Sub anno 1319. Tit. xlv. De STATU CHORISTARUM. MS. k In quarto. Bl. Lett. Strype fays, that in 1556, "On S. Nicolas even, Saint Ni"colas, that is a boy habited like a bi fhop in pontificalibus went abroad in moft "parts of London, finging after the old "fashion, and was received with many "ignorant but well-difpofed people into "their houses; and had as much good "cheer as ever was wont to be had before." ECCL. MEM. iii. 310. ch. xxxix. See also P. 387. ch. 1. In 1554, Nov. 13. an edict was iffued by the bishop of London, to all the clergy of his diocefe, to have a boy-bishop in proceffion, &c. Strype, ibid. p. 202. ch. xxv. See. alfo p. 205, 206. ch. xxvi. virgin Mary'. This show of the boy-bishop, not so much for its fuperftition as its levity and abfurdity, had been formally abrogated by king Henry the eighth, fourteen years before, in the year 1542, as appears by a "Proclamation devised by the Kings Majesty by the advys of his Highness Counsel the xxii day of Julie, 33 Hen. viij, commanding the ffeafts of faint Luke, faint Mark, faint Marie Magdalene, Inuention of the "Croffe, and faint Laurence, which had been abrogated, should "be nowe againe celebrated and kept holie days," of which the following is the concluding claufe. "And where as here"tofore dyuers and many fuperftitious and chyldysh obferuances "have be vsed, and yet to this day are obferued and kept, in many and fundry partes of this realm, as vpon faint Nicholas ", 66 In a poem by Llodowyke Lloyd, in the Paradife of daintie Deuifes, (edit. 1585.) on the death of fir Edward Saunders, queen Elifabeth is complimented much in the fame manner. NUM. 32. SIGNAT. E. 2. O facred feate, where Saba fage doth fit, Like Sufan found, like Sara fad, with Hefter's mace in hand, With Iudithes fword, Bellona-like, to rule this noble land. In Barnabie Googe's POPISH KINGDOM, a tranflation from Naogeorgius's REGNUM ANTICHRISTI, fol. 55. Lond. 1570. 4to. Saint Nicholas monie víde to give to maydens fecretlie, Who that be still may vfe his wonted liberalitie: The mother all their children on the Eeve do caufe to fast, And when they euerie one at night in Both apples, nuts and payres they bring, See a curious paffage in bifhop Fisher's Sermon of the MONTHS MINDE of Margaret countess of Richmond, Where it is faid, that she praied to S. Nicholas the patron and helper of all true maydens, when nine years old, about the choice of a huf band: and that the faint appeared in a vifion, and announced the earl of Richmond. Edit Baker, pag. 8. There is a precept iffued to the fheriff of Oxford from Edward the firft, in 1305, to prohibit tournaments being intermixed with the sports of the scholars on faint Nicholas's day. Rot. Clauf. 33 Edw. i. memb. 2. I have already given traces of this practice in the colleges of Winchester and Eton. [fee fupr. vol. ii. p. 389.] To which I here add another. Regiftr. Coll. Wint. fub ann. 1427. "Crux deaurata de cupro ་་ [copper] cum Baculo, pro EPISCOPO “PUERORUM." But it appears that the practice fubfifted in common grammar. fchools. "Hoc anno, 1464, in festo sancti Nicolai non erat EPISCOPUS PUERORUM "in fchola grammaticali in civitate Can"tuariæ ex defectu Magiftrorum, viz. J. Sidney et T. Hikfon, &c." Lib. Johannis Stone, Monachi Ecclef. Cant. fc. De Obitibus et aliis Memorabilibus fui cænobii ab anno 1415 ad annum 1467. MS. C. C. C. C. Q8. The abufes of this cuftom in Wells cathedral are mentioned fo early as Decemb. 1. 1298. Regiftr. Eccl. Wellenf. [See fapr. vol. i. 248. ii. 375. 389.] 375.389.] 4.6 "faint Catharine", faint Clement, the holie Innocents, and "and fuch like ', Children [boys] be strangelie decked and ap→ "parayled, to counterfeit Prieftes, Bisfhopes, and Women, and "fo be ledde with Songes and Dances from houfe to house, bleffing the people, and gathering of money; and Boyes do finge maffe, and preache in the pulpitt, with fuch other vnfittinge and inconuenient vsages, rather to the deryfyon than "anie true glorie of God, or honor of his fayntes: The Kynges “maiestie therefore, myndinge nothinge fo moche as to aduance "the true glory of God without vain fuperftition, wylleth and "commandeth, that from henceforth all fvch fvperftitious ob"feruations be left and clerely extinguished throwout all this "his realme and dominions, for-as moche as the fame doth re"femble rather the vnlawfull fuperftition of gentilitie, than the pvre and fincere religion of Chrifte." With refpect to the disguifings of these young fraternities, and their proceflions from house to house with finging and dancing, specified in this edict, The reader will recollect the old play of Saint Catharine, LUDUS CATHARINE, exhibited at faint Albans abbey in 1160. Strype fays, in 1556, " On Saint Katha"rines day, at fix of the clock at night, "S. Katharine went about the battlements "of S. Paul's church accompanied with "fine finging and great lights. This was "faint Katharine's Proceffion." EccL. MEM. iii. 309. ch. xxxix. Again, her proceffion, in 1553, is celebrated with five hundred great lights, round faint Paul's fteeple, &c. lbid. p. 51. ch. v. And p. 57. ch. v. Among the church-proceffions revived by Queen Mary, that of S. Clement's church, in honour of this faint, was by far the most splendid of any in London. Their proceffion to S. Pauls in 1557, was made very pompous with four core "banners and ftreamers, and the waits of "the city playing, and threefcore priests " and clarkes in copes. And divers of "the Inns of Court were there, who went "next the priests, &c."' Strype, ubi fupr. iii. 377. ch xlix. P In the SYNODUS CARNOTENSIS, under the year 1526, It is ordered, "In "fefto fancti Nicholai, Catharinæ, Inno"centium, aut alio quovis die, prætextu "recreationis, ne Scholaftici, Clerici, Sa"cerdotefve, ftultum aliquod aut ridicu"lum faciant in ecclefia. Denique ab ec"clefia ejiciantur VESTES FATUORUM per"fonas SCENICAS agentium." See Bochellus, Decret. ECCLES, GALL. lib. iv. TIT. vii. C. 43. 44. 46. p. 586. Yet thefe fports feem to nave remained in France fo late as 1585. For in the Synod of Aix, 1585, it is enjoined, "Ceffent in die Sanc 66 torum Innocentium ludibria omnia et pueriles ac theatrales lufus." Bochell. ibid. C. 45. p. 586. A Synod of Tholouse, an. 1590, removes plays, fpectacles, and hiftrionum circulationes, from churches and their cemeteries. Bochell. ibid. lib. iv. TIT. 1. C. 98. p. 560. in a very mutilated fragment of a COMPUTUS, or annual Accompt-roll, of faint Swithin's cathedral Priory at Winchester, under the year 1441, a disbursement is made to the finging-boys of the monastery, who, together with the chorifters of faint Elifabeth's collegiate chapel near that city, were dreffed up like girls, and exhibited their sports before the abbess and nuns of faint Mary's abbey at Winchester, in the public refectory of that convent, on Innocent's day 2. "Pro Pueris Eleemofynariæ una "cum Pueris Capella fanctæ Elizabethæ, ornatis more puellarum, et faltantibus, cantantibus, et ludentibus, coram domina "Abbatiffa et monialibus Abbathia beatæ Mariæ virginis, in "aula ibidem in die fanctorum Innocentium"." And again, in a fragment of an Accompt of the Celerar of Hyde Abbey at Winchester, under the year 1490. "In larvis et aliis indu"mentis Puerorum vifentium Dominum apud Wulfey, et Con"stabularium Caftri Winton, in apparatu fuo, necnon fubin"trantium omnia monafteria civitatis Winton, in ffefto fancti "Nicholai." That is, "In furnishing masks and dresses for "the boys of the convent, when they visited the bishop at |