 The last section of Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 of Life in a Medieval City. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain, recording by Peter Yersley. Life in a Medieval City, illustrated by York in the 15th century, by Edwin Benson. Chapter 4, Section E, Education. The only school engaged in higher education in York in the century, was St. Peter's School. A very old foundation, where Alcuin, who in 782 had carried educational reform to the land of the Franks, had been master. At this school, which was attached to the Cathedral, were educated those who were to spend their lives in scholarship, especially as now after residence at Oxford or Cambridge, future priests and clerks, the sons of the nobility, and of the more wealthy members of the merchant class in the city. Other regular schools were the Grammar School at the Royal Hospital of St Leonard, and the one at Fosgate Hospital. This educational work was one of the most valuable kinds of public work done by these hospitals. A more elementary and less well-organized education was given by the parish priests and the chantry priests, from whom the children of the city generally, boys and girls, received at least oral instruction. Girls usually received a practical upbringing at home. The only schools for girls were those attached to women's monasteries, of which there was St Clement's nunnery, alone, in York. Educational welfare work, as distinct from direct and organized class teaching, was carried on by the friars, the religious men who lived under a rule, but who went out to work in the world, instead of spending their lives in seclusion, as the monks did. The Dominican and Franciscan friars played an important part in education by teaching, especially at the universities. Education was also a foremost interest of the Augustinians who supported a college at Oxford. Books which had all to be written by hand were scarce. The copying of manuscripts, which was done mostly in the monasteries, was laborious work. Instruction was given as a rule orally, but also by means of pictorial art and drama. The stained glass windows were more than ornamental additions to the church building. They were part of the means of instruction. Medieval drama had originated in the church's effort to make events described in the Gospel more real through their representation dramatically. The teaching of manual skill and craftsmanship was entirely the work of the masters of the crafts under the general supervision of the guilds. The work of the age was made beautiful, and being handwork, each piece of work gained the interest of individuality. The details of architectural orderment in consequence show wonderful diversity of form. The naive spirit of the ordinary handicraft workman was often reflected in his work. The arts of the goldsmith, silversmith, bell-founder, vestment-maker, which required elaborate embroidery, and the sculptor were practiced in York with excellent results. There has never been a university of York, although under Alkewine the School of York was doing work of high quality, work that gained European fame. Even within the last hundred years, when so many provincial universities and university colleges have been established, York, one of the most appropriate places, has not obtained a university. News and information reached the citizens, mainly from personal intercourse. Merchants visiting other cities discussed with fellow merchants, not only their immediate business, but also past and current events. Pilgrims, Parmas, and sailors recited their adventures on distant seas and lands, and told of the wonders of the world. The ordinary citizen, who read little, depended on conversations with better informed citizens and strangers. The city council was continually in communication with the king and the great officers of state. Information filtered down from the council to the citizens. The messengers often supplied the latest semi-official news, officials and servants attached to the royal service, or to that of nobles or of ecclesiastics, like the Archbishop of York, but the source of much political gossip. The news of the country passed to and fro between the city and the monastic lands, the castles, the manors, and the forests, by means of the visits of men who lived at those places. Markets and fares and public assemblies, whether the holding of the sizes or on-state visits, were occasions for the dissemination of news. The ordinary citizen gathered news and information also from the pulpit and from guild and parochial meetings, and from the bellman. The only authoritative news he received at first hand, he got by listening to the public readings of proclamations. In the Middle Ages, educated men who had no inclination for the life of the church monastic or secular, nor for landed proprietorship, with which was combined hunting and soldiering, became clerks. The clerks in the royal service helped in the work of administration of national affairs. Tradesmen's sons of ability and opportunity succeeded in gaining good positions in this service. Nobles also employed clerks. All together, there seems to have been in the 15th century good provision for higher education. The people of the Middle Ages were not illiterate. The outstanding age of illiteracy, not to mention a host of other evils, in England, was the age that began with the Industrial Revolution, when statesmen failed to make the public services keep pace with the rapidly increasing population and the rapid development of new conditions. That there was as large a public ready and eager to buy the books that printing from type made possible has been regarded as a disproof of general illiteracy. The books were published in the vernacular. The people read them. It was in 1476 that Caxton set up his press at Westminster. The first printing press established in York was set up in 1509. Nevertheless, the general state of education and scholarship in England in the 15th century was at a low level, mainly owing to lack of enthusiasm and to the limited subjects of study. Natural science was unable yet to flourish. Medieval education was humanistic, but the old springs of this form of study were nearly dried up. The Greek classics were entirely lost. Even the few Latin classics that the medieval possessed, they did not understand a right. To Virgil the Aeneid, they gave a Christian interpretation. Grammar was the basis of study, which dealt mainly with such works as those of Kikaro, Virgil, Boethius. The 15th century, the last century of an age, was a backwater in education as in literature. The Great Revival was to come. The 15th century was indeed a century of revolution. Insofar as, under the almost placid surface of continuity and conformity, there were forces of revolted work, probing, accumulating knowledge and experience, perhaps unconsciously, for the day of liberation and change. The Bible was not yet popularly available. Wycliffe had been a pioneer in the work of translation and publication, but Tyndale and Coverdale in the 16th century supplied what he had aimed at doing in the 14th. The 15th century was the quiet, dark hour before the dawn. As Colleridge expressed it, No sooner had the revival of learning sounded through Europe like the blast of an archangel's trumpet, than from king to peasant there arose an enthusiasm for knowledge. The discovery of a manuscript became the subject of an embassy. Erasmus read by moonlight, because he could not afford a torch, and begged a penny not for the love of charity, but for the love of learning. But even then, when the enthusiasm and the will were there, such was the dearth of material for learning that, as in the case of Erasmus, the pioneers had practically nothing to work at but the classical texts, and a few meagre vocabularies with etymologies of medieval scholarship. In 1491 Grockin began to teach Greek at Oxford. In 1499 Erasmus first visited England, referring to his visit to this country in 1505-6. He wrote, There are in London five or six men who are thorough masters of both Latin and Greek, even in Italy. I doubt that you would find their equals. England's position was therefore, in this respect, a good one. Section F. ENTERTAINMENTS In the Middle Ages holidays were taken at festivals marked in the church calendar. Some feasts, like that of Witzentide, were universally observed. The ordinary length of a festival was eight days, that is, the full week, the octave. Apart from pilgrimages, the ordinary people travelled little. Moreover, the life and property of travellers were not altogether secure in the forest land, with the result that treasure and distinguished people travelled under the care of an armed escort. A large city like York was practically self-supporting in public amusements. The 15th century saw the full development of the religious mystery plays, and the allegorical morality plays, which, with their comic interludes, had become popular from the 13th and 14th centuries. The Feast of Corpus Christi, instituted about 1263, was the most important time in the year for the playing of these typically medieval dramas. Begun more than three centuries earlier within the church, and performed by the clergy as a dramatic reinforcement of the services and preaching, the medieval drama owed its origin mainly to the church, which maintained its influence as long as this drama continued. It soon came into the care of laymen who took part in the productions. In the 15th century, these plays, which were produced almost entirely by laymen, were so numerous that they were formed in cycles or groups. The texts of some of the most famous cycles, those of York, Chester, Wakefield, and Coventry, have survived. The various trade guilds made themselves responsible for the production of one pageant of the local cycle, or two or three guilds joined to produce a pageant, so that the whole city produced a large number of plays to celebrate the Feast of Corpus Christi. Among its officers, a guild had its pageant master, whose duty it was to supervise the guild's dramatic work. The York plays, the texts dating from the middle of the 14th century are extant. In 1415, 57 pageant plays were produced. Productions were made in York down to 1579, the following are examples taken from among the 57 plays and guilds. The shipwrights produced the building of the ark, the fishers and mariners produced Noah and the flood, the spices produced the annunciation, the tailors produced the birth of Christ, the goldsmiths produced the adoration, the vintners produced the wedding in Cana, the skinners produced the entry into Jerusalem, the backsters produced the last supper, the tapeters and couches produced Christ before pilot, the sauce makers produced the death of Judas, the bushes produced the death of Christ, the carpenters produced the resurrection, the scriveners produced the incredulity of Thomas, the tailors produced the ascension, the mercers produced the day of judgment. The full cycle gave in dramatic form the leading episodes of the scriptures from the creation to the last day. While the trade guilds were thus responsible for individual pageants, help and control were given by the guild of Corpus Christi inaugurated in 1408 and incorporated in 1459 and the city council. The guild had a very large number of members, among whom were the archbishop, many bishops and abbots and nobles. These dramatic productions belonged to the religious and social sides of the guilds. The plays however did not always provoke pleasure, for sometimes members of some of the guilds complained of the financial burden they were forced to bear in order to produce the plays allotted to them. The guilds also took part in public processions with torches on Corpus Christi Day in celebration of this popular festival. In the processions which were closely connected with the religious and guild phases of city life, they walked, city clergy wearing their surpluses, the master of the guild of Corpus Christi, the guild officials, the bearers of the shrine of the guild, the mayor, alderman and corporation, and officers and members of the guild of Corpus Christi and of the city trade guilds. As the procession went on its way, litanies and chants were sung by the clergy. The shrine, the central feature of the procession, was presented in 1449. It was itself of guilt and had many images, some of which were gilded, while the main ones under the steeple were in mother of pearl, silver and gold. To it were attached rings, brooches, girdles, buckles, beads, gourds and crucifixes in gold and silver, and adorned with coral and stools. On the occasion of the processions and performances of pageants, as at fairs, the city was filled with a boisterous multitude, which turned what was by traditionally religious exercise and entertainment to a time of riotous merry making and uncouth disorder. In 1426 a kind of crusade was preached by a friar miner, William Melton, against the riotous and drunken conduct of the people at the Corpus Christi Festival. He denounced the disgracing of the festival and affirmed that the people were forfeiting by their conduct the indulgences granted for the festival. The result of the friar's crusade was the holding of a special meeting of the city council, which decided that the processions and pageants were to be held on separate days, the pageants on the eve of Corpus Christi, and the procession on the feast itself, formerly both had taken place on the same day. The pageants were produced in suitable parts of the city. Stages on wheels were brought to these places, some of them open spaces, others main streets. The stages, which were the work of citizen workmen, were of three stories. The central and principal one, the stage proper representing the earth. Demons in Gordia Tyre came up from the flame region of the lowest story. Divine messengers and personages came down from the star and cloud adorned tipper story. The tiring room was below and behind the stage. The acting was by members of the guilds. They, no doubt, practiced here, as elsewhere, the ranting delivery of their speeches, so denounced by Hamlet in his critical address to the players whom he admonished to speak trippingly on the tongue, and not to out hered hered. There are several references in Shakespeare to these plays of the Middle Ages, for instance in Twelfth Night. Like to the old vice, who with dagger of lath in his rage and his wroth, cries, ah, ah, to the devil. And in Henry V, this roaring devil in the old play, that everyone may pair his nails with a wooden dagger. Stands for spectators were erected by private enterprise for profit in many places of the city. The general assembly, preparatory to the beginning of the performances, took place on Pageant Green, now called Toft Green, which lies behind that side of Mickelgate, which is opposite Holy Trinity. The first performances were made at the gates of Holy Trinity Priory, on the west side of the river. There were four performances in Mickelgate, a street near the Priory, four in Coney Street, the main street on the east side of the river, and likewise performances in other parts of the city. The last three performances took place at the gates of the Minster, in Low Petergate and in Pavement, which was one of the city market squares. When Richard III came to York in 1483, part of his entertainment consisted of performances of pageants. The only other public dramatic entertainments were crude, coarse, popular plays, done by strolling players. A medieval crowd at fair time was entertained by mounting-banks, tumblers, and similar rough-makers of unrefined mirth. The corporation had a band of minstrels in its service. Of physical games, archery was the most practiced. This was the national physical exercise, one which had helped the English soldiers to gain a great reputation for themselves, as at Agincourt, 1415. At York, the Butts, where men practiced archery, were outside the city walls. Section G. Classes. Class divisions were well marked. They appeared in manners, in dress, and in occupation. Fashions varied considerably as the century progressed. There were close-fitting dresses and loose ones, small head dresses like the call, a jeweled net to bind in the hair, and high and broad erections that went to the other extreme. Men now wore their hair long. Later they had it close cropped. Perhaps the most wonderful fashion was that which men followed in wearing hoes of different colours. With all the vagaries of fashion, the most striking feature of dress was the use of rich and a manifold variety of colours. Accepting the case of the dress of the religious, which was generally of a somber hue, colour characterised men's clothes as much as it did the dresses of women. The doublet was the coat of the time. Sleeves were generally big. Long and pointed shoes were characteristic, but it was the cloak that proved so effective a piece of dress, the cloak that has such scenic possibilities that can so nicely express character. There were only few kinds of personal ornament. The most usual were brooches, belts, chains, and pendants, and especially finger rings, of which the signet ring was a popular form. The nobles, great landowners, in many cases of Norman origin, were lords over a considerable number of people. York, being a royal city, escaped many of the troubles consequent on rule by an immediate overlord. Besides himself, his family, and personal servants, a lord provided for a retinue of armed retainers, who formed a kind of bodyguard, and a force to serve the king as occasion demanded. In addition, important household officials, such as secretaries and treasurers. Among noblemen's followers there were many dependents, some no doubt parasites, but a number, especially if literary men, in need of patronage to help them to live, as well as to pursue their vocation. The different kinds of religious men have already been mentioned, from archbishops and abbots, to the scurrilous imposters who used a religious exterior to rob poor people, at whose expense they lived well a wandering, loose, hypocritical life. In York there were monks and friars, cathedral, parochial, and chantry priests, and clerks. The monastic life was a recognized profession. In the monasteries there were, besides regular monks, novices, or those who aspired to take the full monastic vows, and especially in the 15th century, by which time the importance of lowly arduous service for the brethren and personal labour had lapsed. A very large number of semi-religious and lay brethren who were really servants to the regular monks. In the 15th century the religious houses were extremely wealthy. Some of the monks were of noble birth. Nobles, when travelling, usually lodged at the monastic houses, which were dotted all over England. The kings resided often at Abbey's when visiting the provinces. Richard III, when Duke of Gloucester resided at the Austin Friary in York. The one monastic house for women was St. Clement's Nunnery. There were, moreover, sisterhoods in the hospitals of, for example, St. Leonard and St. Nicholas. St. Leonard's hospital, among its many functions, was a home of royal pensioners. The townspeople were chiefly merchants and tradesmen, and those they employed, and the wives and families of all of them. Men of this type, both rich and poor, rose to important positions in trade and city life, and in the king's service some entered the service of nobles. Great dignity was attached to the higher positions of authority in city and guild life. Trade led to wealth, and increased comfort, and a higher social state. Men in the king's service received preferment more often than direct monetary reward. Women had only the monastic life to enter as a profession. They could become full members of a number of the York trade guilds. The social position of women in the retrograde 15th century fully agrees with the absence of women from among those who achieved notability in the city during the century. The most interesting type of citizens was that composed of the freemen, who formed the vast majority of the inhabitants. As the name implies, they were historically the descendants of the men who in earlier times were freed from serfdom. It was the freemen who, through the mayor and corporation, paid rent to the king for the city, its rights, and possessions. There are still, it may be noted, freemen of the city, distinct from those distinguished men who have received its honorary freedom. The main privileges of the medieval freemen included the right of trading in the city and of voting. They also had rights over the common lands attached to the city, and they were eligible to fill the offices of local civic government, if thought wealthy enough to be elected into such a close, self-elected corporation. Soldiers of the Royal Army were stationed in York at the castle. The Wars of the Roses, Wars of Kings and Nobles, lasted from 1455 to 1485, and although York itself hardly experienced the warfare, it saw contingents of the forces of both sides, as well as the leaders and royal heads of both parties. They lived in the city a number of men in the royal service. Some worked at the administrative offices of the Royal Forest of Galtries, Davy Hall, where the chief officer himself dwelt. There were also the men who worked at the Royal Fishpond, near which was Fishergate, in which street most of these men lived. Those afflicted with leprosy, a disease which in England disappeared towards the end of the 15th century, dwelt apart for fear of infecting the healthy. The four hospitals outside the four main entrances to the city served to keep the disease isolated. York received from time to time a large number and a great diversity of visitors. Distinguished visitors usually received gifts from the corporation. Kings, queens and full court and retinue came, and sometimes the entire houses of parliament, at such times great crowds of nobles, spiritual lords, commoners, officers, military and civil, thronged the city and taxed its accommodation. On such an occasion as Richard III's attendance at the Minster for Mass, or the visit of Henry V, the narrow streets were packed to suffocation, with people assembled to watch the processions of gorgeously arrayed sovereigns, princes, peers, ecclesiastics, soldiers and distinguished commoners. The Duke of Gloucester, afterwards Richard III, was very popular in the North especially in York, where he was received, as in 1483, with magnificence and festivity. The North was loyal to him and gave him much support in his political schemes. The visits of the royal judges of Assize, of sailors and pilgrims, have already been mentioned. Peddlers, who were active nomad tradesmen, were always to be found in town and country, dealing in their small wares. Last, and some of the unhappiest, among the types of people to be found in a medieval city, were serfs who had absconded from the lands or the service to which they were bound. They sometimes fled to a city for the security it afforded. Serfdom, however, was rapidly disappearing. Chapter V Conclusion Life in York in the 15th century was active. Trade, home and continental, was flourishing. Building operations were in hand. Work was always proceeding at the minster, or at one or other of the religious houses and churches. There were so many social elements, established in and visiting York, that something of interest was always taking place. Entertainment was plentiful and pageants were as well produced in York as anywhere in the kingdom. The city enjoyed a particularly large measure of local government. Its reputation was great. According to contemporary standards, it was a fine, prosperous city, one that contained resplendent ecclesiastical buildings that were second to none. In short, it was a full, noble city. Although the present city looks in parts more typically medieval than modern, York today forms a very great contrast with the 15th century city. We are separated from the 15th century by the Renaissance, the Reformation and Tudor England, by the Civil War and the Restoration, by the age of prose and reason, the keen-minded and rough-mannered 18th century, by the Industrial Revolution, and by that second Renaissance, the Victorian Age, during which the amenities of daily life were revolutionised. Radical changes are to be seen, for example, in the style of architecture, the mode of transmission of news, the methods of transport, the form of municipal government, the maintenance of the public peace, and in social relationships, more particularly with regard to industry and commerce, and the parts played by employer and employed. The number of inhabitants today is about six times that of the medieval city. The contrast, which is so great in most ways as to be quite obvious, is an interesting and profitable study, but it might have been founded on more precise data. For, great as is the amount of valuable material that York can supply concerning its history, investigation shows how much greater that amount would have been had the city and its rulers, during the last century or two, realised the value of the accumulated original historical riches that it contained. Whereas the moderns obliterated practically all they came against, fortunately the earlier people were content to make no change beyond what was immediately necessary, hence the survival of material most valuable to the historian and archaeologist. York, as it is today, is a city marvelously rich in survivals of past ages. It is also, as a result especially, of the 19th century a city of destruction. While we may regret, but not repine, at the disappearance of much of interest and value as the result of progress, yet wanton, ruthless destruction, such as has taken place within the last century, deserves the sternest denunciation. In spite of its being in consequence a city of destruction, York is a storehouse of original material for the history of England. Its records are in earth, stone, brick, wood, plaster, bone, and coin metal, on parchment, paper, and glass, above the ground and below it, everywhere and in every form. This wealth of historical material connected with practically every period of our national history is a priceless possession and one that is not yet exhausted.