Ancient Royal Wills. the establishment oí masses, and schools I and colleges became the objects of pious bounty, instead of convents and chantries. The will of Margaret, Countess of Richmond, mother of Henry VIL, exhibits the reaction ary and the progressive doctrines in marked contrast. After providing for a variety of masses, she leaves the bulk of her property for the benefit of Christ's and St. John's Colleges, Cambridge. That much of what she destined for St. John's was abstracted by Wolsey and other courtiers, through the culpable complicity of her royal grandson, was no fault of hers. The will of Henry VII. directs that open proclamation shall be made in every shire town, for all who had suffered wrong to appear, and prove their case. The will of Henry VIII. is in perfect keeping with his character, beginning with a mixture of dogmatism and the pride that apes humility, and proceeding to dispose of the entire kingdom, as, indeed, he was au thorized to do (failing his children and their issue) by statute 35 Hen. 8, c. i. The first "Defender of the Faith" resolutely upheld as many of the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church as could be reconciled with his summary rejection of its supremacy, and with the seizure of a large portion of its temporalities. He therefore directs a ser mon and mass on the morrow devoutly to be done, and " that all Divine service accus tomed for dead folks to be celebrated for us in the proper place where it shall fortune us to depart this transitory life. " After providing for the foundation of the Poor Knights of Windsor, he proceeds to entail the Crown by nearly the same forms of ex j pression as are used in ordinary marriage settlements, passing over the line of his elder sister, the Queen of Scots, in favor of that of his younger sister, the Duchess of Suffolk; and he appoints a council for his son until he shall have accomplished his eighteenth year. Beds, it seems, of the most sumptuous
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materials were in the Middle Ages a fash ionable luxury. Sheets, blankets, pillows, and coverlets or counterpanes, are frequent subjects of bequest; and one lady of qual ity, Katherine, Lady Hastings, having bor rowed money of another, Cecilia, March ioness of Dorset, wills (1503) "that the said Cecilia, in full contentation of such sums of money that I owe unto her, have my bed of arras, litter, tester, and counterpane, which she late borrowed of me." The costliness of the materials may be estimated from the tradition that the bed, with the furniture, prepared for James I. at Knowle cost .£7000, the curtains being cloth of gold. Bequests for masses and pilgrimages abound, and it is curious to observe to what extent the belief in the efficacy of vicarious performances prevailed. Thus, in Sir Roger Beauchamp's will ( 1 379), we 'find : " Whereas I am bound to do service on the infidels, by devise of my grandsire Sir Walter Beauchamp, to the ex pense of two hundred marks, I will that Roger, son to Roger my son, shall perform the same when he comes of age. " The Earl of Hereford ( 1 361 ) directs : " A chap lain of good condition be sent to Jerusalem principally for my lady my mother, my lord my father, and for us; and that the chap lain be charged to say masses by the way at all times that he can conveniently for the souls; and that a good and loyal man be sent to Canterbury, and to offer there xl. s. silver for us; and another such man to Pomfret to offer at the tomb of Thomas, late Karl of Lancaster, xl. s." When Le Balafré, Quentin Dunvard's uncle, hears of the mishap that has befallen his family, he bites off a few inches of his gold chain, and sends them to a monk with this message : " Tell my gossip that my brother and sister, and some others of my house, are all dead and gone; and I pray him to have masses for their souls as far as the value of these links will carry him, and to do on trust what else may be necessary to free them from purgatory. And, hark
