MEDLZEVAL LICHFIELD.*
LICHFIELD lays just claim to possess the most beautiful of our Cathedrals. For vastness of size, it is easily surpassed by York and Canterbury; for grandeur of site and for storied magnificence, it is more than rivalled by Lincoln and Durham ; for age of fabric, it cannot be compared with Rochester and Norwich ; but in grace of outline, in symmetry of proportion, and in picturesque effect, it is without a rival, and may justly lay claim to the title of " the Queen of English Minsters." Nor is it only in its cathedral church that Lichfield may fairly challenge attention. The history of that vast diocese of the Midlands (originally conterminous with the kingdom of Mercia), to which Lichfield gave its chief name, is of surpassing and unique interest. The provincial jurisdiction exercised by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, the princely sway of the Bishops of Durham, and the statesmanship usually expected of the occupant of the See of London, make their history in many respects, of greater moment and interest than any of the sub- sidiary Sees. But Lichfield can alone lay claim to be the prolific mother of twelve other sees, that were originally, wholly or in part, within her borders ; and she alone, as was the case for some fifteen years at the end of the eighth century, has shared with Canterbury in archiepiscopal dignity in the Southern • Diocesan History of Lichfield. By William Bereaford. London: Society for Promoting Christi= Knowledge.
Province. In commemoration of the brief honour and jurisdic- tion held by Archbishop Higbert, of Lichfield, this see for several centuries always ranked first in precedence among all the Suffragans of Canterbury. The site of Lichfield, on one of the direct roads from the north to the south of the kingdom, the position of the wide-spread diocese midway between the jealousies of the two Archdioceses of Canterbury and York, and the mineral wealth of its two shires of Derby and Stafford, combined to render its Bishop of no small importance, and Kings were frequently present at their consecration or instalment. For sanctity of life, Crusading valour, or practical statesman- ship, for ardent churchmanship, strenuous munificence, or zealous administration, Lichfield's bede-roll of Bishops need fear no rival, whether we think of a Chad, a Clinton, and a Langton, or of an Overall, a Hackett, and a Selwyn.
There are a paucity of records and a clashing of traditions in connection with the early history of this great Mercian See that make the task of the historian a somewhat barren toil, though not one whit more barren than the Saxon and Norman history of any other of our old English Sees. But when we come to the thirteenth century, the case is wholly different. The Chapter muniments, collated with the civil statements to be found in the Public Record Office, as shown from the portions recently printed by a local archaeo- logical society, must be singularly rich in matters pertaining to ecclesiastical disputes and jurisdiction, and to the general condition of the people of the Midlands during the long reign of Henry III., and right through the Plantagenet, Tudor, and Stuart dynasties. Then, again, so soon as the fourteenth century is entered, the profusion of material for a diocesan history is quite embarrassing, and requires the most careful digestion. The official record of the diocese, some four years ago, called attention to the condition and contents of the Lich- field episcopal registers. It was there shown that in point of completeness and order the local annals of Lichfield were un- rivalled from the year 1296. For while there is not a single diocese with an absolutely unbroken record of episcopal acts, the registers of Lichfield will compare most favourably with those of every other diocese, whether we consider the fewness of the gaps, the short period over which they extend, or the com- paratively unimportant epochs during which they occur. This being the case, the statement of Mr. Beresford, in the preface to his volume, that " materials for the work are remark- ably scanty," is of so startling a character as to be quite bewildering. If Mr. Beresford means material already pub- lished, there is some truth in his remark, otherwise it is alto- gether and entirely erroneous. It is the common fault of the whole of this series of diocesan histories, so far as at present published by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, valuable as they are in many respects, that far too little use has been made of original and local records. But yet Mr. Beresford has been well aware of the richness of at least the episcopal registers of Lichfield, for he quotes very largely from manuscript abstracts made by Bishop Hobhouse, and lent him for the purpose. From the earliest register, that of Bishop Walter de Langton, Lord High Treasurer of England, and far the most valuable of 'the series, not a single quotation, even in a condensed form, seems to be made, the reason apparently being that Bishop Hobhouse has not analysed this volume. The acts of Bishop Norbury, Langton's successor, are treated of at some length, under the title of "A Mediaeval Bishop at Work ;" but the dryness of the bones that might have been made so full of life is pain- fully apparent ; and on turning to the first volume of - the Salt Archceological Collections, where the marginal headings of this register are given, with a few notes, it is plain that all the in- formation is transferred from those pages. Indeed, the whole of this chapter might have been written by any one in a couple of hours who had the Salt volume at his elbow, together with the Derbyshire Archcsological Society's Journal, for 1881, where the Lichfield Sacrists' Roll, for 1346, is printed in full. Some ofl'the later registers are treated in an equally bald and barren manner, a score or two of facts being heaped together in a single paragraph. If Mr. Beresford can read these registers, he had no business to put off his readers with excerpts from a valuable but thread-bare analysis ; and if he cannot, he should have waited to compile the diocesan history until he had the necessary skill, and until; also, he had the leisure wherein to assimilate these profound stores of literary food. A few of the graphic illustrations of men and manners, under successive bishops and deans, that might be so readily gleaned from episcopal and
capitular records, would throw much light on the condition of the country at different eras. The tale, for instance, might have been told, with all its quaint details, of the Coventry wife-murderer,—how he broke from his civil guards on the way to gaol, rushing at midnight into the priory church of Monica Kirkby and claiming sanctuary ; how the constables re- tired for assistance, and returned, making violent entrance into the church ; how the prior and his monks, in their love for sanctuary rights, placed the murderer and adulterer on the very high altar itself, clasping his arms around the altar crucifix; how the civilians pushed aside the anathematising prior and his attendants, and dragged forth the criminal ; and how the Bishop, being invoked, excommunicated the whole posse of the civilians. Or, again, what a picture might have been presented of the poor, incontinent vicar-choral shivering through the whole of the choir offices of three long November days, clad in " surplice only " (not the Judicial Committee's " only," but literally so, with bare head and legs), and with lighted taper in his hand, before the Dean's stall in Lichfield Cathedral !
The only reference in the volume. to the interesting question of ecclesiastical jurisdiction over morals in the post-Reformation days is an incidental mention, apparently with surprise that the Bishop's Court adjudicated on such matters, about 1690. But it was the custom, at all events in the Midlands, for the churchwardens to present at the twice-a-year parochial visitations for all offences against morals, even down to the first decade of the present century. This subject of paro- chial visitations needs almost a special historian, so little is known, and still less printed, on the question. The church- wardens of Chapel-en-le-Frith presented parishioners for pre- nuptial fornication, for stone-throwing at the church, and for
abusive language, as late as 1805, and the defendants were cited before the peculiar Decanal Court' held at Bakewell, fotind guilty,
condemned to public penance, and then, on application through proctor to the Chapter at Lichfield, allowed to commute the penance for a monetary fine. The Lichfield records abound with illustrations of this subject, both in episcopal and capita- lar jurisdictions, from 1275 downwards. Dean Heywood, a noble benefactor of the cathedral, and a remarkable man in many ways, carried out his visitations of the city of Lichfieldin the fifteenth century in a most thorough manner. Two assessors were appointed for every street and suburban district of the city, who reported to the Dean's Court on a great variety of offences. Drinking at late hours, and gambling, as well as the usual category of sins that we might expect to meet with under the head of morals, down even to incest, were all taken cognisance of ; and the citizens were severely dealt with in the way of penances and fines, the money payment being often re- fused, and public flogging round the Cathedral and market place insisted upon.
The Elizabethan chapter of this work is specially disappoint- ing. The treatment of the Roman-Catholic families of Derby- shire and Staffordshire, the general harrying of the Recusants, who took refuge in the wildnesses of the Peak district, and the martyrdom of *many of their priests, ought to have claimed a closer attention. For it was in this diocese that the persecu- tion was by far the hottest. Almost the whole of this unhappy work was done by the civil, rather than the ecclesiastical power, and though the account of it yet remains to be written, Mr.
Beresford may therefore be, perhaps, pardoned for his very brief and unsatisfactory allusion to the subject, especially as its annals are rather to be found amid the national stores of Fetter Lane than in the diocesan archives of Lichfield. But on another point, local research might have enabled him to give a remark- able picture of the Elizabethan clergy at the close of that event- ful reign. Out of four hundred and four clergy of the diocese, only one hundred and four were graduates, and only seventy- three licensed as preachers.
Our author has fallen into several inaccuracies, such as his estimate of rural deans of the thirteenth century, his idea of the " sole duty " of chantry priests, and his notion of the way in which the monasteries served the appropriated churches, and has also gone astray on some minor details, such as the meaning of " a pair of organs ;" but it would be ungenerous to pursue the shortcomings of this work any further, for if it is approached without any high expectations of original research, the pages will be found to be eminently readable, and on all vital points reliable, whilst its general fairness of tone will commend it to the clergy of the diocese as a suitable present for the pupil- teachers and senior scholars of their Sunday schools.
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