26 TRANSLATION OF ST. THOMAS CHAP. enable us to be present at some of the most gorgeous spectacles, and to meet some of the most remarkable characters of mediæval times; it would help us to appreciate more comprehensively and more clearly some of the main causes and effects of the Reformation." To the tomb of Becket Richard Coeur de Lion walked all the way, after landing at Sandwich, that he might render thanks "to God and St. Thomas" for his deliverance from his enemies and his success at the siege of Acre; it was at the same tomb that Louis VII., the first King of France to set foot in England (1179), offered thanks (and jewels) in gratitude for his son's recovery from a dangerous illness. It was fifty years after the murder that there took place the translation of St. Thomas of Canterbury, which made the shrine become more widely popular. Fire had largely destroyed the edifice shortly after the great tragedy, but the rebuilding had proceeded apace, and for just upon half a century the body of the murdered Primate had lain in the crypt. Two years' notice of the approaching translation was given that people from all parts of the Christian world might attend, and the consequence was that Canterbury witnessed such a sight as, the various chroniclers agree, had never been seen in England before. The Archbishop Stephen Langton "through the range of his episcopal dominions had issued orders for maintenance to be provided for the vast multitude, not only in the city of Canterbury itself, but on the various roads by which they would approach. During the whole celebration, along the whole way from London to Canterbury, hay and provender were given to all who asked, and at each gate of Canterbury, in the four quarters of the city, in the four licensed cellars, were placed tuns of wine, to be distributed gratis, and on the day of the festival wine ran freely through the gutters of the streets." They did things in a generous fashion in those days, though the debt incurred was such that it took four of Langton's successors to wipe it off. But Canterbury has witnessed many events since then, some of which vied in splendour with the celebration of the translation of the Saint's body to the shrine. Such for example was the enthronisation in 1295 of Archbishop Winchelsey, who, as a boy of humble parentage, had some II PILGRIMS FROM LONDON 27 years before sought a gratuitous education at the school of the city over which he was to rule. Of the pilgrimages to the Shrine of St. Thomas we have the most lasting and most fascinating account in Chaucer's great work, where we see a representative company setting out from Southwark and proceeding in leisurely fashion along the highway to the great centre of attraction on which pilgrims from the east were converging from Sandwich, from the south by the Dover Road and from the west by that Pilgrim's Road which we shall touch again and again on our Kentish byways. The route of London pilgrims undyingly portrayed by the 28 BOBBE-UP-AND-DOUN" CHAP. father of our poesy is indicated by widely separated lines in his poem : 66 Lo, Depèford, and it is half wey pryme; Lo, Grenèwych, ther many a shrewe is inne . . . At " 'Boghton-under-Blee" the pilgrims were overtaken by the Canon's Yeoman and then later comes a reference which has greatly puzzled Chaucerian commentators. Introducing the Manciple's Tale the poet begins. "Woot ye nat where ther stant a litel toun, Which that y-cleped is Bobbe-up-and-doun, This has sometimes been taken as meaning Harbledown, and sometimes, on the strength of there being a field known as "Up-and-down" in the parish, as meaning Thanington. In either case it would seem as though the pilgrims would be so near the end of their journey as to have been more likely to be thinking of getting accommodation for the night than having time for two further stories, yet the description applies so well II CHAUCER'S PILGRIMS 29 to Harbledown that the village is likely to remain identified with the place "ycleped Bobbe-up-and-doun.” 66 Chaucer's Tales" were written, presumably, about an ordinary company of pilgrims setting out in the springtime of (probably) 1387, possibly spending in leisurely fashion four days on the journey, which now is an easy day's ride for a cyclist, and a mere mouthful of miles to a motor. "Whan that Aprillè with his shourès soote The droghte of March hath perced to the roote, That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke." Though the poet tells us that in the spring the English folks' fancy lightly turned to thoughts of pilgrimage, Canterbury was a well-honoured shrine all the year round. More especially was this so in December and July, the anniversaries of the martyrdom and translation. Then, too, at every fiftieth anniversary, or jubilee of the translation, the celebration was far more numerously attended; then indulgences were granted to all pilgrims and the festival lasted for a long July fortnight. Of the many great pilgrimages that took place there are particulars in various chronicles and in the city records. It was during the fifteenth century that the fame of St. Thomas was at its height, that the old city saw the whole year long a stream of pilgrims reaching flood proportions in July and December. At the first jubilee after Chaucer's company had visited the shrine, that of 1420-two centuries after the translation-the festival lasted for fifteen days, from noon on St. Thomas's day, and the ancient record tells us that the Bailiffs of the city-William Bailey and William Ickham — 30 THE PASSING OF THE SHRINE CHAP. arranged with the townsfolk to make suitable provision for the many expected visitors, in the preparing of lodgings, beds and food in and around the city. The coming of the pilgrims on this occasion meant the crowding into the city of about one hundred thousand men and women, English and foreigners, in addition to the ordinary inhabitants. The "foreigners included Irish, Welsh, and Scots, and it is interesting in this connection to recall that in Kent a foreigner at the present day signifies anyone who is unlucky enough to belong to the shires, or anywhere other than Kent. When Canterbury was thus invaded by a pious army of a hundred thousand pilgrims we may be sure that it was a merry place during the week of jubilee, for having performed their duties at the Shrine our forefathers turned readily to amusement. So amply were preparations made that the victuallers were enabled to sell Gascony wine and white wine for eightpence a gallon, while they asked but a penny for two loaves. Then must the narrow lanes and streets, the wider “markets” and the suburbs without the walls have been like one great fair. There were, however, but half a dozen such jubilees, for before 1570 came round Henry VIII. and the " Hammer of the Monasteries" had established the Reformation and done that work of destruction in which the jewelled Shrine of St. Thomas passed from the sight of men. In 1538 it is said that Henry VIII. addressed a summons to "Thomas Becket, some time Archbishop of Canterbury," charging the dead Prelate with treason, contumacy and rebellion, and this summons having been duly read before the Shrine and thirty days having elapsed without the 368-years-dead Churchman having put in an appearance, the case against him was formally argued at Westminster-with the inevitable result. Sentence was duly pronounced that the bones of the contumacious one should be burnt and that the offerings made at the Shrine should be forfeited to the crown. Great was the change that had come over men in a couple of centuries, for that which was so readily violated in the reign of the eighth Henry had been so guarded in the reign of the second Edward that when a powerful baron, Lord Badlesmere, visited the Shrine in arms, and with armed companions, the outraged citizens informed the King and the nobleman was tried and decapitated for insulting the Shrine by the presence |