1 sum of money to buy a robe of worsted lined with purple satin to be made in honor of St. Nicholas for the Bishop'to wear his day and night in the parish of at the Paleys gate." There is a Ritual of the Church of Norwich inter MSS. Coll. Bened. Cantabr. but I am not certain whether there be any particular account of this custom therein.* Some of your Cam "Because this way of celebrating St. Nicolas day is so odd and strange, let me add a word or two explanatory of it. The memory of this saint and bishop Nicolas was thus solemnized by a child, the better to remember the holy man, even when he was a child, and his child-like vertues, when he became a man. The Popish Festival tells us, that' while he lay in his cradle, he fasted Wednesdays and Fridays, sucking but once a day on those days. And his meekness and simplicity, the proper vertues of children, he maintained from his childhood as long as he lived: And therefore, saith the Festival, Children don him worship before all other saints. This boy-bishop, or St. Nicolases, was commonly one of the choristers, and, therefore, in the old offices, was called "Episcopus Choristarum," bishop of the choristers, and chosen by the rest to this honour. But, afterward, there were many St. Nicolas's, and every parish almost had his St. Nicolas. And from this St. Nicolas day to Innocents day, at night, this boy bore the name of a bishop, and the state and habit too, wearing the mitre and the pastoral staff, and the rest of the Pontifical attire; nay, and reading the holy offices. While he went his procession, he was much feasted and treated by the people, as, it seems, much valuing his blessing. Which made the citizens so fond of keeping this holyday." bridge friends may look into it and inform you, if it be not too late. I am, very heartily, Your oving Friend, THOM. TANNER. Thus far the industrious Strype in his Ecclesiastical Memorials, vol. iii. page 206. Hearne, in his Liber Niger, p. 667, gives the will of Archbishop Rotheram, who died in 1500, in which he leaves to the College he founded at Rotheram, in Yorkshire,unam Mitram de Clothe of goold, habentem 2. knoppez arg. enamelb, dat. ad occupand: per Barnes-bilhop." Dean Colet too, the founder of St. Paul's School, in London, orders in his body of statutes, dated in 1512, that all his scholars" shall every Childermas daye come to Paulis churche and hear the childe bishop sermon; and after be at the hygh masse, and each of them offer a 1d. to the childe bysshop, and with them the maisters and surveyors of the scole." See Knight's Life of Dean Colet, 8vo. Lond. 1724. p. 362. END OF THE FIRST VOLUME. Printed by Munday and Slatter, Oxford. WRITTEN BY EMINENT PERSONS IN THE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES: TO WHICH ARE ADDED, HEARNE'S JOURNEYS TO READING, AND TO WHADDON HALL, THE SEAT of browne WILLIS, ESQ. AND LIVES OF EMINENT MEN, BY JOHN AUBREY, ESQ. THE WHOLE NOW FIRST PUBLISHED FROM THE ORIGINALS IN THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY AND ASHMOLEAN MUSEUM, WITH BIOGRAPHICAL AND LITERARY ILLUSTRATIONS. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. II.-PART I. LONDON: PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND BROWN, PATERNOSTER-ROW; AND MUNDAY AND SLATTER, Oxford. LETTER CXI. Dr. HICKES to Mr. T. HEARNE. On Printing MSS. May 2, 1715.. DEAR SIR, I HAD the favour of both your letters, and my trembling hand and other infirmities oblige me to answer them in as few words as I can. I cannot approve of your printing Tully's Works, for as I used to tell Dr. Mill, Dr. Grabe, Dr. Hudson, &c. I am for printing MSS. especially in the Universities, even the bare MSS. correctly and faithfully, though without notes and commentaries, as MSS. were at first printed, and leave posterity in after editions to refine upon them in notes, and commentaries, and what criticisms they please. Therefore I much approve of your printing that ancient copy of the Acts of the Apostles in Greek, and Latin, and in the manner you mention,* in capitals, keeping the Hearne did print this very valuable MS. which is supposed to have belonged to venerable Bede, and to have been written about the seventh century. |