though it was certainly preserved here, at least by painting on glass. No wonder that a proud, a warlike and ignorant nobility, encouraged only that branch which attested their dignity. Their dungeons were rendered still darker by their pride. It was the case of all the arts; none flourished, but what served to display their wealth or contributed to their security. They were magnificent without luxury, and pompous without elegance. Rich plate, even to the enamelling on gold, rich stuffs, and curious armour, were carried to excess, while their chairs were mere pedestals, their clothes were encumbrances, and they knew no use of steel but as it served for safety or destruction. Their houses, for there was no medium between castles and hovels, implied the dangers of society, not the sweets of it; and, whenever peace left them leisure to think of modes, they seemed to imagine that fashion consisted in transfiguring the human body instead of adding grace to it." This savage picture is dashed off by the hand of a satirist, yet it would be little softened by spreading over it the hues of perfect truth. The large intercourse, by barter and by battle, which the third Edward established with foreign lands-more particularly France and Spain-brought wealth; and consequently conferred importance upon our middle ranks. "Riches and plenty," observes Warton, "the effects of conquest, peace and prosperity were spread on every side, and new luxuries were imported in great abundance from the conquered countries. There were few families, even of moderate condition, but had in their possession precious articles of dress and furniture, such as silk, fur, tapestry, embroidered beds, embossed cups of gold and silver, agate and chrystal; bracelets, chains and necklaces brought from Caen, Limoges, and other foreign cities." Not a little of this golden shower descended on the Church: the son and grandson of Henry the Third inherited neither his submission to the clergy, nor his love of cathedrals, and during their stirring and turbulent reigns art was little heard of; but it revived with Edward III. He honoured the priesthood, and, a lover of magnificence himself, encouraged it in them; nor were they slow in perceiving their advantage. The world-forswearing servants of a meek Redeemer soon exhibited but an indifferent symbol of his lowliness. Clad in the costliest dresses, they walked to sumptuous entertainments over inlaid floors, and under sculptured and painted roofs, hung with silver lamps that diffused at once light and odour. Their fields were covered with the fairest crops, their orchards filled with the rarest fruits, and their gardens produced grapes whose wine vied with that of France or Italy. Much of all this arose from the industry and intelligence of the priesthood-perhaps more from the benefactions which opulent sinners made in the hope of smoothing the way to Paradise. Their places at once of abode and worship were worthy of their pride and of their learning-palaces faded away before their splendid cathedrals— princes were not obeyed with that obedient start which followed the commands of men whose power extended over this world and far into the nextand the kings of the earth, for a time, found themselves but indifferently served when priests forbade. VOL. IV. C This power and glory of the order failed not to make deep impression on one so wise in his generation as William of Wykeham. The precise time when he began to aspire to the priesthood has not been traced; but there is proof that it was early; in even his first patent concerning the palace of Windsor he is called Clericus, but he had as yet, Lowth conjectures, only the tonsure, and some of the lower orders. It seems clear that so soon as he was prepared for preferment in the church the royal hand helped him on rapidly. He was presented to the rectory of Pulham, in Norfolk, 30th November, 1357; on the first of the following March he became prebendary of Flexton, in the church of Lichfield; and on the 5th of May, 1360, he had the king's grant of the Royal Free Chapel, or collegiate church of St. Martin le Grand, London. This last benefice he held about three years, during which time he generously rebuilt, in a very handsome manner, and at a very great expense, the cloister of the chapter-house and the body of the church:these additions being from plans made by himself, and the whole completed under his superintendence. In those days of nobles who could not write and people who could not read, knowledge, in all its branches, took up its abode with the clergy. They became the historians, the poets, the painters, the sculptors, the philosophers, the physicians of the land; and there is enough of evidence to prove that they were the chief architects also, not of ecclesiastical edifices alone, but of all works connected with the defence or embellishment of the country. Many learned prelates laid aside the mitre and as sumed the helmet, and grasped the sword with the same hand that wielded the crozier. It is enough to name Antony Beck, the warlike Bishop of Durham, who commanded the cavalry of Edward the First at the memorable battle of Falkirk with equal valour and prudence, and who erected few churches and many castles, as those of Alnwick, BarnardCastle, Gainsford, Somerton in Lincolnshire, and Altham in Kent, can testify. It was nothing new, therefore, for a churchman to put his hand to profane architecture; Wykeham, however, had not half the martial merit of Beck; he built but two castles, whereas the other raised five, and, though a councillor of state, his foot was never in the stirrup of a war-horse. * A churchman possessed of such generosity and such talents was in those days likely to be encouraged; and preferments accordingly came, so numerous and so valuable, that they seem to have alarmed the Pope, who, in the year 1366, demanded an answer from Wykeham to his bull issued concerning pluralities. "This bull," says Lowth, "orders all ecclesiastical persons whatsoever, possessed of more benefices than one, either with or without cure, to deliver to the ordinary of the place where they commonly reside a distinct and particular account of such their benefices, with the sum which each is taxed at in the King's books, to His Holiness was by no means a sensitive man in these matters; "at that time," says Lowth, "there were some who, by the Pope's authority, possessed at once twenty ecclesiastical benefices and dignities, with dispensation moreover for holding as many more as they could lawfully procure, without limitation of number." be transmitted to the Metropolitan, and by him to the Pope." The account which Wykeham rendered in obedience to this summons is curious--but monotonous-a bare recital of his pluralites and their net revenues. It appears that the yearly value of his benefices amounted to £873. 6s. 8d. I know not what was the result of this papal inquiry; Edward was not a prince to be intimidated by bulls; he withheld the old tribute, "and when," says Hume, "the Pope, in 1367, threatened to cite him to the court of Rome in default of payment, he laid the matter before his Parliament. That assembly unanimously declared that King John could not without a national consent subject his kingdom to a foreign power, and that they were therefore determined to support their sovereign against this unjust pretension." In vain his Holiness warned Edward in the words of the Abbot of Walthamstow : "Lord, bethink thee, Thou hast withheld from our most reverend house Wilt thou make satisfaction to the Church The king regarded neither the Pope's threats, nor his inquiries into the affairs of his clerical architect. Wykeham rose more and more in favour; "every thing," says Froissart, who was then on a visit at court, was done by him, and nothing was done without him." "The king," says Lowth," had raised him to some of the highest offices in the state, and intended to carry him still higher; it was in a manner necessary that his station in the church should |