booths, though in so doing they must needs trample down the harvest; on the other hand if the booths were not cleared away by Michaelmas Day at noon, the ploughmen were allowed to plough up the ground, and destroy whatever remained standing.*

The fair in the reign of Elizabeth lasted thirty six days, though, when first established by the authority of King John, it was only of one day's continuance; and again in later periods the time of it was much curtailed.

The university has the oversight of the weights and measures, as well as the licensing of the shows. To the corporation of the town belong the tolls and the general management of the fair, the court above-mentioned being presided over by the Mayor or his deputy. To keep the peace he has eight servants called Redcoats, who enact the part of policemen, patrolling the fair and apprehending all offenders. The proctors of the university also keep a court there to hear complaints about weights and measures, to seek out and punish women of the town, and see that the gownsmen commit no dis. order.

* See The History and Antiquities of Sturbridge Fair, in the fifth volume of BIBLIOTHECA TOPOGRAPHICA BRITANNICA or ANTIQUITIES IN CAMBRIDGESHIRE, SUFFOLK, &c., p. 80. 4to., Lond. 1790.

+ "Cum major, ballivi, et burgenses villæ nostræ Cantabrigiæ in comitatu Cantabrigiæ ante tricesimum annum incliti et præcharissimi patris nostri Domini Henrici, Dei gratia nuper regis Angliæ octavi, de tempore in tempus existentes, tempore cujus contrarium memoriæ hominum non existit, habuerint ac usi fuerint habere et tenere quotannis quandam feriam sive nundinas apud Barnewell et Sturbridge, in predicto comitatu Cantabrigiæ ac infra libertatem villæ nostre Cantabrigiæ tentam sive tentas ac per nomen nundinarum de Sturbridge cognitam ceu cognitas, incipientem sive incipientes quolibet anno in festo Sancti Bartholomæi apostoli, et ab eodem festo continue usque decimum quartum diem proximum post festum exaltationis Sancte Crucis singulis annis durantem sive durantes &c." Idem. APPendix. No. vi. p. 12.

The proclamation for this Fair is made by the vicechancellor and the mayor on alternate years, and at one time it took place on the Vigil of Holy Rood day (September 13); but in the reign of Elizabeth it was changed to the Vigil of the Nativity of the Virgin (September 7) which happened to be her birth-day. By the alteration of the calendar, it has now slipt on to the eighteenth of September, and the fair itself commences on the day following. Its duration however has been curtailed to fourteen days.

St. Michael and all the Holy Angels-Michaelmas Day; September 29. St. Michael has obtained the honour of this day from its being the anniversary of the dedication of a church to him on Mount Garganus,* or Mount St. Angelo, a mountain in Apulia. Such at least is one version, though this church on Mount Garganus would rather seem to belong to the Apparition of St. Michael. If however any cause could be assigned for the second title of the day, namely that of All the Holy Angels, there would be little difficulty in saying why Michael should more particularly claim it as his festival. He was at the head of the archangels, as Raphael was leader of the order of powers,' Uriel 'of the order of seraphims,'—and Gabriel of the order of Gods. He it was that bore the banner of the celestial host, and led it against Lucifer and his followers, by the superiority of his military tactics driving them out of Heaven, and then enclosing them in a space mid-way between earth and the skies above. “He had also," says the Golden Legend, "a grete plee and altercacyon with the devyll for the body of Moyses, bycause he wolde not shewe it, for the chyldren of Israell sholde have

* So says Bourne in his Antiquitates Vulgares, p. 219.

† See Randle Holme's Academy of Armory, book 2, chap. i. p. 11. THE FEEST OF SAYNT MYCHAEL, folio 254,-Folio; Wynkyn de Worde, London, 1527.

adoured and worshypped it." With such attributes it is no wonder that he should be at the head of a feast appropriated to all the angels, at a time when the beautiful simplicity of the christian faith had become perverted, and in most of its rites and ceremonies had degenerated into paganism. At a very early period we find a whole army of saints in array, each of whom took under his especial charge some favoured class of mankind, or protected against some especial malady.* Some were less restricted in their function, or, to use a medical phrase, were general

*

Amongst these we find that ANNA gives riches; SEBASTIANUS drives away the pestilence; VALENTINUS cures the epilepsy; STAPINUS, the gout; LIBORIUS, the stone; SYMPHORIANUS, hernia; PETRONIlla, fever; WOLFGANGUS, paralysis; MARCUS protects against sudden death; ANTONIUS, against erysipelas; ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST and BENEDICTUS, against poison; Anastasius, against head-aches; OTILIA, against diseases of the eyes; APOLLONIA, against tooth-ache; BLASIUS, against angina; AGATHA, against diseases of the breast; LAURENTIUS against diseases of the back; in torture Lupus lends his aid ; in childbirth, MARGARETA; to obtain the safe bringing forth of a son, FELICITAS must be invoked; in melancholy, MATURIUS; against the cough, catarrh, and warts, QUIRINUS; against colicky pains, ERASMUS ; against the itch and ulcers, RoCHUS; while JOHN THE BAPTIST and ROMANUS help madmen and those possessed with a devil; THEODORUS was to be addressed in storms and tempests; EUTYCHIUS for obtaining rain; GERVASIUS and VINCENTIUS for finding out thieves; JOBUS against the venereal disease; FLORIANUS against fires and lightning; and JOHN THE EVANGELIST, against hail.

Then again every trade and occupation had its own patron Saint. Divines had Thomas and Augustine; Physicians and Pharmacopolists, Cosmas and Damian; Philosophers, Catharina; Scholars and Students, Gregory; Merchants, Frumentius and Guido; Musicians, Leo, Romanus, and Cecilia; Painters, Luke; Goldsmiths and Melters, Elizius and Januarius; Statuaries, Claudius, Nicostratus, Symphorianus, Castorius, and Simplicianus; Blacksmiths, Leonhardus, Dumstanus (St. Dunstan) and Longinus; Shoemakers, Crispinus, Homobonus, Zachæus, and Deusdedit; Clothiers, Michael, Meningus, and Severus; Tailors, Gutmanus; Potters, Goarus; Carpenters, Wolfgang, Jacobus, Baeticus, and Josephus; Horsemen, Georgius; Grooms, Eulogius;

practitioners* and fought indiscriminately against all the plagues and accidents to which human life and the human frame are liable. Others again presided over cities; and indeed there was hardly any city of note in the Christian world that

Wheelwrights, Josephus; Locksmiths, Leonhardus; Porters, Christopherus; Glaziers, Clarus; Huntsmen, Eustachius; Vine-dressers and Vintagers, Urbanus; Curriers and Sadlers, Bartholomæus; Weavers, Onuphrius; Gardeners, Adelranus; Soldiers, Adrianus; Charcoalburners, Alexander; Shepherds, Wendelinus, Cutbertus, and Simeon Stylita; Sailors and travellers by water, Nicolaus, Christophorus, and of late Petrus Gonsalez; Swineherds, Antonius, Eberhardus, Harmogastes, and Ulmarez; Agriculturists, Albanus, Fortunatus, Isidorus, Lambertus, and Leontius; Widows, Gertrudis; Wives, Anna; the Betrothed, Dorothea; the unchaste also invoke the same; Maid-servants, Dula and Agothoclea; Servants, Eunus, Vitalis, and Justus; Harlots pray to Maria Magdalene and Afra; and Captives call upon St. Leonard. (J. A. FABRICII BIBLIOGRAPHIA ANTIQUARIA, p. 267. 4to. Hamb. and Leips. 1713.)

In addition to this S. Agatha presides over fire; S. Nicolaus and Christophorus, over water; S. Justus, over the earth and its fruits; Valerianus and Theodorus over the air and storms; Gertrudis and Nicasius drive away mice and dormice; Lupus expels weasels; Rupert and Vitus are the patrons of dogs; Wendelinus of sheep; Eulogius, of horses; Pelagius, of oxen; Antonius, of hogs; Gallus, of geese; Urbanus and Medardus, of the vine.

Lastly, every month has its tutelar saint against the pest, and indeed in most cases more than one saint was appointed to the office. It should be observed too, though it can hardly have escaped the reader's notice, that there is some want of certainty and precision in these saintly regulations, as we often find a saint presiding over one thing by himself, and over another in company with some of his brethren. The catalogue too might be extended beyond what is given to us by Fabricius.

* These however were only fourteen in number, and were respectively known as St. Blasius, Dionysius, Erasmus, Pantaleo, Vitus, Georgius-by some called Gregory-Cyriacus, Christophorus, Achatius, Eustachius, Egidius, Barbara, Catharina, and Margareta.

was left unprovided of a patron saint, while in many cases whole kingdoms were taken under their protection.* It is impossible not to see in all this a direct imitation of the Pagan world. If England has its St. George, France its Saint Denys, and Rome its Saint Peter, for their especial protectors, so also had the Ephesians their Diana, the Egyptians their Isis and Osiris, the Babylonians their Bell, the Rhodians the Sun, and the Paphians their Venus. In the angels too we are not less reminded of the guardian genii of antiquity: for if the Egyptians allowed three tutelar genii to every man, the Pythagoreans two, and the Romans a good and evil attendant spirit, their Christian descendants did the same thing in fact, though not in name, when they allowed to every one his good and evil angel. True it is that at one time the Council of Laodicea forbade the adoration of angels, but the heresy, if it were one, in later times obtained the full sanction of

* Thus Moresinus in his PAPATUS says, (p. 48, Edit. 1596.) "Scotia Andream, Angliæ Georgium, Galliæ Dionysium (St. Denys) &c. ; Edinburgo Egidium, Aberdonia Nicolaum❞—and here he breaks off, as if weary of the detail, which might however be considerably extended. Stephen in his WORLD of Wonders (p. 315) as quoted by Brand, gives a few of them-St. Eligia and St. Norbert for Antwerp; St. Hulderich, or Ulric, for Augsburg; St. Martin, for Boulogne; St. Mary and St. Donation, for Bruges; St. Mary and St. Gudula, for Brussels; the Three Kings of the East, for Cologne; St. Ursula and the Eleven Thousand Virgins, also for Cologne; St. George and St. John the Baptist, for Genoa; St. Bavo and St. Liburn, for Ghent'; St. Martial, for Limosin; St. Vincent, for Lisbon; St. Mary and St. Rusnold, for Mechlin; St. Martin and St. Boniface, for Mentz; St. Ambrose, for Milan; St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Januarius, for Naples; St. Sebald, for Nuremberg; St. Frideswide, for Oxford; St. Genevieve, for Paris; St. Peter and St. Paul, for Rome; St. Rupert, for Salzburg; the Virgin Mary, for Sienna; St. Ursus, for Soleure; St. Mark, for Venice; and St. Stephen, for Vienna.