intended establishment, he was advised to visit Rome in person, that it might be privileged by the pope himself, a counsel to which he cheerfully acceded. Arrived at the eternal city, he is graciously received by the Roman Pontiff, who compliments him not a little on his celibacy,* and so wins him over by his kindness that he begins to think what he can do in return for it. At length, on entering the "Schola Anglorum" next day, he is happily inspired with the idea † of laying a yearly tax of a penny upon every family in his kingdom, and the project is so highly approved of by the pontiff, that he consents to exempt every English penitent from undergoing exile in the accomplishment of his penance. And here again one can not help admiring the dexterity of the Roman See in

* "Verè cœlebem vitam agentibus meritò mittendus fuit angelus, cùm castitate cognata sit puritas Angelica." MATTHEI PARIS-H18TORIA MAJOR, p. 29. Vita Offa Secundi, folio, Londini, 1640. I ought perhaps to add, the Pope in this speech refers to the fact of an angel having been sent to King Offa to show him where to find the bones of Alban.

"His igitur auditis rex quid dignè tantæ benignitati compenset secum studiosè pertractat. Tandem divina inspirante gratia consilium invenit salubre, et in die crastina Scholam Anglorum, qui (quæ) tunc Romæ floruit, ingressus, dedit ibi ex Regali munificentia ad sustentationem gentis regni sui illuc venientis singulos argenteos de familiis singulis, omnibus in posterum diebus, singulis annis." Idem. p. 29. There is something exceedingly characteristic in this royal munificence, (regalis munificentia) which gives away other people's money, and the jest is heightened when we find the liberal and pious monarch especially exempting his new foundation of St. Albans from the impost" excepta tota terra Sancti Albani suo monasterio conferenda, prout postea collata privilegia testantur." What between saints, kings, Danes, and Normans, our Saxon ancestors must have had a pleasant time of it.

"Ex hoc tali largitate obtinuit et conditione ut de regno Angliæ nullus publicè pœnitens pro executione sibi injunctæ pœnitentiæ subiret exilium." Id. p. 29.

turning every thing to the advantage of its treasury. Prohibitions were multiplied, and new moral duties imposed upon mankind, simply that the pontiff might make a profit by selling his exemptions from them. At first indeed it would seem that this Rome-scot was rather an alms granted by the Saxons for the benefit of their brethren, and not a tax to enrich the court of Rome, but it was speedily converted, in part at least, from its original intention, and found its way into the papal coffers. According to Thoms, who quotes from Collet, the whole sum thus collected, amounted only to £200, 6s. 8d.—a very nice calculation that only wanted the farthings, to be a perfect monument of antiquarian fidelity and learning.

*

The Transfiguration-August 6-" A feast celebrated by the Papists in memory of our Saviour's transfiguring himself upon Mount Thabor, and showing a glimpse of his glory to his apostles, St. Peter, St. James, and St. John. And his face, saith the text (Matt. xvii. 2,) shone as the sun, and his garment became white as snow." Durandus says it was established by Pope Calixtus the Second, and not because the Transfiguration took place on that day, but because it was the day on which the event was published and made manifest by the apostles, who were with Christ upon the Mount. Baronius, however, quoting the most ancient Greek menologues and other sufficient authorities, maintains that the festival was of much older date than the time of Calixtus the Second. §

* Anecdotes and Traditions of early English History and Literature, p. 117. Qrto. London, 1839. Camden Society.

FESTA ANGLO-ROMANA, p. 94.

"Sequitur de festo Transfigurationis Domini, quod est in die beati Sexti, non quia tali die trasfiguratio facta sit, sed quia tūc ab Apostolis, qui secũ fuerit in monte, fuit manifestata, publicata, et prædicata." Durandi Div. OFFIC. RAT., lib. vii., cap. 12, p. 294.

§ Institutio ejus solemnitatis longè ante ejus tempora facta conspicitur." BARONII MARTYROLOGIUM ROMANUM; Augusti 6, p. 497.

END OF THE DOG-DAYS.-This takes place on the 11th of August.

Assumption of the Virgin Mary-August 15.-This is also called by Roman Catholic writers the Passage or Repose of the Virgin Mary, who however seem puzzled to settle when and where she died, or even to fix the time of her Assumption, that is to say of her being raised at once, or assumed, into Heaven, before the general resurrection of the dead; for it was only the Collyridian heretics, who imagined she was of a divine nature and exempted from the common necessity of death.* Eusebius says she died A.D. 48, and was at once taken up to Heaven. Others say, that she died after the lapse of one year from her Son's ascension, and so many days as intervene between that time and the 15th of August, and then after another forty days was assumed to glory. This last, according to Belethus (cap. 147), was learnt in a vision by a most religious woman, called Elizabeth, who makes a Second Assumption, namely, an assumption of the body after that of the spirit. Gregory of Tours states that when she was about to die, the Apostles watched by her, and "behold the Lord Jesus came with his angels, and receiving her spirit delivered it to the archangel Michael and departed. But early in the morning the Apostles raised up the body with the bed, and placed it in a sepulchre." As to the place of her death, Butler tells us that

* "Scire debemus improbatam fuisse ab Ecclesia Catholica opinionem Collyridianorum hæreticorum asserentium beatam Virginem divinæ fuisse naturæ prorsusque mortis expertem." BARONII MARTYROLOGIUM R.-August 15, p. 517.

"Denique impleto a beata Maria hujus vitæ cursu cum jam vocaretur à sæculo, congregati sunt omnes apostoli a singulis regionibus ad domum ejus. Cumque audiissent quia esset adsumenda de mundo vigilabant cum ea simul. Et ecce Dominus Jesu advenit cum angelis suis, et, accipiens animam ejus, tradidit Michäeli archangelo, et recessit.

some think she died at Ephesus, and others imagine she ended her days at Jerusalem.

MINSTREL'S BULL-Running at TUTBURY,*—August 16. -In the monastic times it was the custom on the morrowt of the Assumption,-that is to say, on the 16th of August-for the Prior of Tutbury to turn out a bull at the abbey-gate for the amusement of the minstrels, who appear at one period to have formed a sort of guild in that part of the country. As soon as the bull's "horns are cut off, his ears cropt, his taile cut by the stumple, all his body smeared over with soap, and his nose blown full of beaten pepper-in short being made as mad as 'tis possible for him to be-after solemn proclamation made by the steward that all manner of persons give way to the bull, none being to come near him by 40 foot, any way to hinder the minstrells, but to attend his or their own safeties, every one at his perill; he is then forthwith turned out to them, (anciently by the prior, now by the Lord Devonshire or his deputy) to be taken by them, and none other, within the county of Stafford between the time of his being turned out to them and the setting of the sun on the same day; which if they Diluculo autem levaverunt Apostoli cum lectulo corpus ejus, posueruntque illud in monumento." S. GREGORII TURONIS OP. De Gloria Martyrum, cap. 10.

* 66 Stutesberie, Toteberie, or Tutbury as it is now called, is an antient honour situated in the North-east borders of the hundred of Offlow, about five miles from Burton, and on the south banks of the river, Dove, which separates it from the county of Derby. It probably derives its name from some statue or altar erected on the Castle Hill, in the time of the Saxons to the Gaulish God Tot, or Thoth, Mercury, from whom also Tuesday has its appellation, as Wednesday hath from Woden." Shaw's History of Staffordshire, vol. i. p. 37, folio, London, 1798.

The learned reader will, I trust, excuse me if I venture to remind others that the morrow of the assumption is a very different thing from the morning; in fact it means the day afterwards.

can not doe, but the bull escapes from them untaken, and gets over the river* into Darbyshire, he remains still my Lord Devonshire's bull; but if the said Minstrells can take him, and hold him so long as to cutt off but some small matter of his hair, and bring the same to the Mercat Cross in token they have taken him, the said bull is then brought to the bailiff's house in Tutbury, and there coller'd and roap'd and so brought to the bull-ring, in the high-street, and there baited with doggs, the first course being allotted for the king; the second for the honour of the towne; and the third for the king of the Minstrells. Which, after it is done, the said Minstrells are to have him for their owne, and may sell, or kill, and divide amongst them, according as they shall think good."+

Dr. Plot imagines that this custom was derived from the Spanish bull-fights, and introduced into this country by John of Gaunt; but this seems to be a very idle conjecture; as regards the first part of it, there is no similarity whatever between the two sports, while, as to the second, the bull was provided by the prior and not by John of Gaunt, who was the receiver, instead of the giver, on this occasion, the Minstrels paying him a yearly fine for their privilege. I should imagine then that the delivery of the bull belonged to some obsolete, and now forgotten, tenure, though the Minstrels came in after times to enjoy the benefit of it, and probably when first

* i.e. the river Dove.

+ Dr. Plot's HISTORY OF STAFFordshire, p. 435, folio, Oxford, 1686. "Item est ibidem quædam consuetudo quòd histriones, venientes ad matutinas in festo Assumptionis beatæ Mariæ, habebant unum taurum de Priore de Tuttebury, si ipsum capere possuit citra Aquam, Doue, propinquiorem Tuttebury; vel Prior dabit eis xla. pro qua quidem consuetudine dabuntur domino ad dictum festum annuatim xxd."-Dugdale MONASTICON ANGLICANUM, vol. iii. p. 397. Tutbury Priory, folio, London, 1821.