says that it amounted to more than 40,000 marks (quadraginta millia marcarum)—with which his immediate predecessor, Richard de Marisco, had loaded the Church. en Of one work however, which he carried out after he became Bishop of Durham, I must say a few words, because it is, so to speak, blended with the closing scenes of the life of this really holy Bishop. He became the second founder of a religious house at Tarrant in Dorset, which, no long time afterwards, became incorporated with the order of the Cistercians.1 Originally established in the time of Richard I. by Ralph de Kaynes, it was considerably enlarged and also dowed by Richard Poore, who was a native of the place, and to whom William Kaynes, great-grandson of the first founder, had been given in ward during his minority. The whole society consisted in his time only of three ladies of good family, with their domestic servants or lay-sisters, who-without being attached to any of the recognized orders-retired from the world for the purpose of engaging in good and charitable works, at the same time employing themselves without let or hindrance in pious exercises and devout meditations-" If any ignorant person ask you of what order ye are, say that ye are of the order of St. James. If such answer seem strange, ask him what is order, and where he can find it in Holy Scripture more plainly described than by St. James. He tells us what is true religion, and what is right order. Pure religion and without stain, are his words, is to visit and help widows and orphans, and to keep himself pure and unstained from the world. This is what St. James calls religion and order." The words just quoted are from the "Ancren Riwle," or "Rule for Anchoresses," a treatise on the rules and duties of monastic life, which was addressed to these "sisters" at Tarrant. And there is every reason for believing that this remarkable treatise was the work of Bishop Richard Poore Certainly his great learning, his active 2 1 Rot. Itin., 50 H. 3. m. 8. 66 2 This treatise, under the title of The Ancren Riwle," was published by the Camden Society, in 1853. The editor, Canon Morton, Vicar of Holbeach, gives, as it seems to me, conclusive reasons for believing it to have been the work of benevolence, the sanctity of his life, and his tender care for the spiritual welfare of his friends and dependents, shown in the pious exhortations which he repeatedly addressed to them immediately before his death, agree with the lessons of piety so earnestly and affectionately addressed in this book to the "Anchoresses" of Tarrant. Well! to this little village of Tarrant-and the monastery which he there refounded-the place of his birth-after all, his first love -the thoughts of Richard Poore reverted, as he saw his own life drawing to its close. He would now willingly forget Durham and all its massive glory, and Sarum with all its chastened loveliness, and say "Let Thy servant turn back again, that I may die in my own city, and be buried by the grave of my father and of my mother." And so to his native village he went, there, in its longedfor retirement, to prepare him for the Master's call. Warned one day that the time was at hand when he must really leave the world, he assembled his attendants and the people, and spoke earnestly to them about heavenly things. On the morrow, when his illness increased upon him, he renewed his exhortations to them, asking forgiveness if he had offended any, and then bidding them all farewell. On the third day, he sent for his domestics and retainers, distributed gifts among them according to their deserts, and calmly settled all his worldly affairs. Then he took leave of his relatives and friends, one by one, and gave them each his blessing. The hour of Compline had arrived; the office was said in the chamber where lay the dying Bishop. He followed them as best he could through the first psalm till they came to the last verse-his lips softly murmured, "I will lay me down in peace and take my rest," when his gentle spirit fled. Those around chanted solemnly, yet hopefully, on-"For Thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety." Bishop Richard Poore. As regards the monastery itself, Matthew Paris says (Chronica Majora, iii., 392), “illam dedit Reginæ, ubi sibi elegit sepulturam." Joan, daughter of King John and wife of Alexander King of the Scots, was buried there, and hence it was sometimes called "Locus benedictus reginæ super Tarente." It was also called, after its second founder, "Locus Ricardi Episcopi." See Hutchins' Dorset, i., 120. Matthew Paris, who was his cotemporary, speaks of him as a man of "eminent sanctity, and profound knowledge." It is for the former that we chiefly cherish his memory; well worthy is he to be enrolled among the saintly Bishops of the Church, with not a few of whom we have been blessed in this our favoured diocese of Sarum. Leland, when he visited our cathedral in the year 1540, saw a tablet in the Lady Chapel with the following inscription :- 2 "EX TABELLA IN SACELLO S. MARIÆ. "ORATE SPATIUM XL. ANNORUM TEMPORIBUS TRIUM REGUM, VIDELICET ANTI- It will be observed that the statement on the tablet is very explicit as to Bishop Richard Poore's body having been interred at Durham, whilst his heart was buried at Tarrant. It is natural enough for us at Sarum to wish that we also had a memorial of the good Bishop, and so, despite of evidence to the contrary, to bring ourselves into 1 "Vir eximiæ sanctitatis et profundæ scientiæ." Chronica Majora, iii., 391. 2 Leland, Itinerary, iii., p. 92. VOL. XVIII.-NO. LIII. an actual belief that it is so.1 But after all, have we not the greatest monument of all in our glorious cathedral, of which he was the undoubted founder, though it was not completed till some thirty years after his decease, and in which, ever since that memorable Sunday before S. Michael's Day, 1225, when he first dedicated his altars in the Lady Chapel, there has been offered almost without ceasing the daily sacrifice of prayer and praise. Terses from the Crewe MSS. on the assumption of Knighthood, temp. James J. Communicated by SIR GEORGE DUCKETT, Bart. HE refusal on the part of many country gentlemen to take up the order of knighthood, both in the time of King James I., and afterwards in that of his son, preferring rather to be fined for declining to do so, was based often upon more solid reasons than would at first sight appear, for to men of good lineage and descent, the honor, if indeed it could be so called, was not only a very doubtful one, as the ensuing lines clearly shew, but exceedingly 1 The first person, as far as I know, who suggested Salisbury as the burialplace of Bishop Poore was Richardson, in his edition (1743) of Bishop Godwyn's "De Præsulibus Angliæ," but in this he absolutely contradicts the statement made by his author nearly one hundred and fifty years before; for the work was published first in 1601. The monument attributed to him, which has lately been replaced on the north side of the altar, I believe to be that of Bishop Bingham. This also was the opinion of Canon Bowles expressed more than forty years ago (History of Lacock Abbey, p. 370), and of Mr. Planché, in a paper (1859) on the "Sepulchral Effigies in Salisbury Cathedral." See British Archæol. Journal, xv.,119. repugnant to those, for whom the days of chivalry or feudal aspirations could not be said to have entirely ceased. At the time when Charles I., for the purpose of raising money, put in force the statute of Edward II., which obliged persons, who had the amount of £20 a year in fee, to take the said order of knighthood, the compositions or fines for not obeying the order were sufficiently numerous, especially those levied at the time in question, viz,, of that King's coronations in the years 1630, 1631, and 1632. The following contemporary lines are from the Cole MSS. (vol. xxi., fol. 206) in the British Museum, quoting the Crewe MS. : "Verses upon the order for making Knights of such persons who held 40' per an. in King James's time." "Come all you Ffarmers out of the countrey, Leave of gestures rusticall, Bidd all your home-spun parssetts adue, And sute yourselves in fashions new: Honour invites you to delights: Come all to court, and be made knights. "He that hath fortie pounds per annum, His wife shall take the wall of her gran'am, "Knighthood in old time was counted an honour, Tush, it's no matter what people do say! |