¹ Perry, Aaron J. (ed.), Dialogus inter militem et clericum, Richard Fitz Ralph's Sermon: ‘ Defensio curatorum’ and Methodius: ‘pe Beginning of pe World and pe Ende of Worldes’ Bj John Trevisa… (EETS Original Series 167 [London 1925]). This work is herein cited as Introduction. Google Scholar

² It would be impossible to acknowledge fully the help which I received from numerous officials, librarians, and scholars in England. But I would like at least to mention here the generous assistance and the hospitality of the Earl of Mount Edgcumbe; Captain J. T. Coryton of Pentillie Castle; Canon J. H. Adams, Vicar of Landulph; Canon J. H. W. Fisher, Vicar of Berkeley; Mr. C. W. Borlase Parker, Penzance; Mr. and Mrs. E. G. R. Hooper, Camborne; and Mr. John Berkeley, Berkeley Castle. In addition to these individuals, I am also greatly indebted to the librarians and archivists of the Museum of the Royal Institution of Cornwall and the County Record Office, Truro; the Morrab Library, Penzance; the County Record Office, Gloucester; the library of the Queen's College and the Bodleian, Oxford; and the County Record Office, Exeter.Google Scholar

³ Perry remarks (Introduction lv): Ί regret that I have not been able to get at all the possible sources, that I was not able to go to Cornwall to examine the muniments at Castle Horneck, Pentillie Castle, and Mount Edgcumbe. The Charters and Muniments of Berkeley Castle, where Trevisa spent most of his life, were not examined.Google Scholar

The Borlase papers, formerly at Castle Horneck near Penzance, have been dispersed. Some are now in the Morrab Library, Penzance; others are in the Museum of the Royal Institution of Cornwall, Truro; still others are in the possession of Mr. C. W. Borlase Parker of Penzance. Unfortunately I have been unable to locate the valuable ‘Heraldic and Parochial collections’ of Dr. Borlase, referred to in the Quarterly Review 139 (1875) 369.Google Scholar

The Pentillie muniments are still kept in Pentillie Castle, and, although they are not readily accessible, they were calendared by the late Charles Henderson in 1926. The Henderson MSS are in the Royal Institution of Cornwall Museum (Truro). Cf. C. Henderson's Cornish MSS 20 (1926) 127-282, ‘Documents at Pentillie Castle.’ The particular importance of the Pentillie muniments, however, is contingent on the likelihood that Trevisa was born at nearby Crocadon. As we shall see, it is not at all likely that this is the case. Nevertheless it should be pointed out that the MSS of Charles Henderson are indispensable for any serious research in Cornish history. Henderson's Ecclesiastical History of the 109 Western Parishes of Cornwall, with additional notes by Canon Adams and others, is being published serially in the Journal of the Royal Institution of Cornwall (1955ff.).Google Scholar

Some of the Mount Edgcumbe papers were destroyed when the mansion was hit by an incendiary bomb in an attack on Plymouth during World War II, but quite a number of them were later found stored in the stables, and have since been deposited in the County Record Office, Truro. These papers are of course valuable for research in Cornish history, but I was not able to locate any that were of particular importance for Trevisa.Google Scholar

The charters and muniments in Berkeley Castle are not accessible at present. I have learned from the Countess of Berkeley, who is now residing at Palazzo Borghese, Rome, that the muniment room is in a state of disarray, and I suspect that several years’ work by an archivist will be required to set it in order. Progress is being made, however, and I was glad to hear recently that the Historical Manuscripts Commission has begun filming selected documents. A microfilm of the Court Rolls and Bailiff's Accounts of the Berkeley manors is now on desposit in the Cambridge University Library.Google Scholar

⁴ Perry, Introduction lxi.Google Scholar

⁵ Further support for this appears in the fact that Trevisa needed letters dimissory from Exeter diocese before he could be ordained by Archbishop Sudbury. Cf. η. 56 infra. Google Scholar

⁶ Perry, Introduction lx-lxi. Trevisa means ‘the lower town’. The element trev- is from the I. E. root found in Lat. turba (English thorpe); -yssa, -ysa is a formation from the I. E. root found in Lat. pes, pedis (English foot), with characteristic loss of initial p. The arms of the Trevisa family are Gules, a Garbe, Or (a wheat-sneaf in gold against a red background). Mr. E. G. R. Hooper points out to me that many of these family emblems are based on puns, and he offers the ingenious suggestion that the Trevisa sheaf may be intended as a pun in Cornish on -ysa, alluding to the Cornish word ys, ‘corn’, ‘grain’.Google Scholar

⁷ Poly chronicon (ed. C. Babington and R. Lumby; Rolls Series, 9 vols. London 1865–86) II 91.Google Scholar

⁸ Bale, John, Scriptorum illustrium maioris Brytannie… Catalogus (Basel 1557) 518; Holinshed's, R. Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland II (London 1577) 1118; Richard Carew, Survey of Cornwall (London 1602) 59 (ed. 1811, 160).Google Scholar

⁹ Perry, Introduction lvii-lx. Carew says merely ‘…Crocadon, the mansion of Mr. Trevisa, a. gentleman deriving himself from the ancient and well-deserving chronicler of that name…’ (ed. 1811, 269). The footnote by Tonkin, eighteenth-century antiquary, appearing in the edition of 1811, adds: ‘Crocadon is the mansion of Charles Trevisa, Esq. descended from John Trevisa (born in this place, as I am informed), bred at Oxford….’. Subsequent writers, including Perry, seem to have thought that these were the words of Carew. But Perry shows clearly that Crocadon was owned by Johanne de Ferrariis in 1346, and by one Richard Geade in 1428. Furthermore, in Feudal Aids I (London 1899) 206, I find that Begi- naldus de Fereres held the third part of a fee in Croketon de Tremeton in 1306. The Ferrers family seems to have held Crocadon throughout the fourteenth century. Cf. Cornwall Feet of Fines (ed. Rowe, J. H., 2 vols. Exeter 1914–1950) I (1914) 420-22, for agreement between William de Ferrers and Henry de Nyweton as to fees of Croketon in 1328. A full account of property held by the Ferrers family is given in British Museum Additional MS 28838. I have searched both printed and unprinted records (in which care is required not to confuse Crocadon in St. Mellion, Cornwall, with Crocadon in Halwell, Devon), but have been unable to find any evidence connecting the Trevisas with Crocadon before the sixteenth century.Google Scholar

Two other statements about Trevisa's birthplace are difficult to explain. One is that of the eighteenth-century Cornish historian William Hals, who says that Trevisa was ‘born in Gloucestershire (as Baker saith)’ (quoted by J. Polsue, A Complete Parochial History of the County of Cornwall [4 vols. Truro 1867–72] III 305). This appears to be a confused remark; nor have I been able to determine the identity of ‘Baker’. The other strange statement comes from no less an authority than Thomas Fuller. In his Church History of Britain (London 1655) IV 151, Fuller had said that Trevisa was ‘born at Crocadon in Cornwall’. But in his History of the Worthies of England (London 1662) I 204, he says: ‘John Trevisa was born at Caradock in this County [= Cornwall]’. This might perhaps be dismissed as a slip, were it not for one fact. In March 1658 Fuller became chaplain to George Berkeley, first Earl of Berkeley (1628-1698). He was presented to the rectory of Cranford, near Houns- low, and hence was not resident in Gloucestershire, but the possibility remains that during his period of service with the Earl of Berkeley he may have had access to the muniments of Berkeley Castle (cf. Dictionary of National Biography). Nevertheless it is difficult to do anything with the Caradock reference. The only place in Cornwall to which the name can be assigned is modern Rosecraddock in the parish of St. Cleer. Earlier forms of the name (which means ‘Caradoc's ford’) are Rekaradoc A. D. 1086, Riscardoc 1196, Richera- doc 1202, Rescradok 1238, Recradoch 1239, Rescaradec 1249, Raskaradek 1287, and Ros- cradek 1316, as listed in Gover, J. F., The Placenames of Cornwall (1948) 255 (this valuable work by Gover is not yet published, but copies are on deposit in the Museum of the Royal Institution of Cornwall, Truro, and the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth). Aside from the difficulty of the name itself, Rosecraddock—if this is the place to which Fuller refers—seems to have been a residence of the Bray family in the fourteenth century. Cf. Polsue, Parochial History of Cornwall I 206; Vivian, J. L., The Visitations of Cornwall (Exeter 1887) 54.Google Scholar

One other bit of evidence concerning Trevisa's Cornish background which I have been unable to evaluate is the mention of one John Trevisa and two of his sisters, Juliana and Nichola, in a document dated Feb. 9, 1400–01, published in Cornwall Feet of Fines II (Exeter 1950) 76-77. This could be our author, since he was still alive at this date, but it is difficult to be sure.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Cf. Gover, The Placenames of Cornwall 333 (Trevessa in St. Enoder), 508 (Trevease in Constantine), 595 (Trevessa in St. Erth), 665 (Trevidgia in Towednack). The last-named is given in its modern form, but, as Gover indicates, in earlier documents it is spelled Tre- vyssa (1428, 1523) and Trevissa (1523). Indeed there is, near modern Trevidgia, a homestead presently known as Trevessa, though it is not named on the one inch Ordnance Survey Map no. 189 (1946). All of the Trevessas mentioned above except the one in St. Erth were proposed by local historians in Western Antiquary 6 (1886–7) 16-17.Google Scholar

¹¹ Gover, The Placenames of Cornwall 508.Google Scholar

¹² Cf. Perry, Introduction lx. Perry also quotes Henry Jenner, Hon. Secretary of the Royal Institution of Cornwall, who reaffirms Hals’ conjecture.Google Scholar

¹³ Cf. Boase, George C., Collectanea Cornubiensia: A Collection of Biographical and Topographical Notes relating to the County of Cornwall (Truro 1890) col. 1090; also Lawrance, W. T., Parliamentary Representation of Cornwall (Truro, n.d.) 36, 125, 141, 154, 168, 182, 195. Perry (Introduction lix) also lists a Richard Trevisa as M. P. for Launceston along with Ralph in 1371, citing Gilbert, C. S., An Historical Survey of the County of Cornwall II (London 1820) 309f. But Richard Trevisa seems to have been a figment of Gilbert's imagination. A Ricardus Kendale was M. P. for Launceston in 1369; immediately below his name Radulphus Trevysa is listed as M. P. in 1370 and again in 1371 (Lawrance, ibid. 125).Google Scholar

¹⁴ The Register of John de Grandisson, Bishop of Exeter (A. D. 1327–1369), Part I, 1327- 1330, with some account of the Episcopate of James de Berkeley (A. D. 1327) (ed. F. C. Hingeston-Randolph, London 1894) 421.Google Scholar

¹⁵ Ibid. 424.Google Scholar

¹⁶ It is reasonable to expect that the Bishop would appoint to a sequestration such men as lived in the immediate vicinity. One of the persons named above, for example, was William de Roskaryk, evidently a member of the old Cornish family which was residing at Roscarrock in the parish of St. Endellion as early as 1300. This manor is situated on the north coast, about fifteen miles due north of Roche. Cf. Daniel Lysons and Samuel Lysons, Magna Britannia: A Concise Topographical Account of the Several Counties of Great Britain, III : Cornwall (London 1814) cxlviii, 85; Gilbert, C.S., An Historical Survey of the County of Cornwall (2 vols. London 1817–20) II (1820) 251-52, 601; Fortescue Hitchens and Samuel Drew, The History of Cornwall (2 vols. Helston 1824) 11221-22; Davies Gilbert, The Parochial History of Cornwall (4 vols. London 1838) I 383-84; Polsue, Parochial History of Cornwall I 333-34, 337; Vivian, The Visitations of Cornwall 399ff. The Roscarrocks also owned at one time the manors of Treworder and Croan in Egloshayle, eight miles north of Roche. Cf. Lysons 81; Gilbert, C. S. II 618; Hitchens and Drew II 215; Davies Gilbert I 371; Polsue I 317-18. Another person mentioned later on in the Bishop's order of October 27, but not included in the above quotation, is Dominus Radulphus, Rector of the church of Wythiel, four miles north of Roche. Of course appointments to a sequestration may be made for reasons other than proximity; e.g. at the request of the family of the deceased. See below.Google Scholar

¹⁷ Carew, R., Survey of Cornwall (ed. 1811) 138.Google Scholar

¹⁸ Lysons, op. cit. (η. 16 supra) III ciii, 37-8; C. S. Gilbert, op. cit. II 103-04, 632; Hit- chens and Drew, op. cit. II 101-02; Davies Gilbert, op. cit. I 85-87; Polsue, op. cit. I 85, 99; Vivian, op. cit. 161ff. 429.Google Scholar

¹⁹ ‘Gonronson, the seat some time of a younger branch of the Flamanks, was sold by them, in 1724, to the Hawkins family: it is now a farm-house, the property of Sir Christopher Hawkins, Bart.’ (Lysons, op. cit. III 88). I have not been able to determine when Goonrounson came into the possession of the Flamanks. Cf. Vivian, Visitations 162.Google Scholar

²⁰ Op. cit. I 341; cf. also Lysons, op. cit. III 87; Hitchens and Drew, op. cit. II 225; Davies Gilbert, op. cit. I 391-92. Charles Henderson, ‘The Ecclesiastical History of the 109 Western Parishes of Cornwall’ (Part 2), Journal of the Royal Institution of Cornwall, New Series, 2.4 (1956) 143-151, has valuable details on the parish of St. Enoder, but nothing on Trevessa.Google Scholar

²¹ I am indebted to Mr. E. G. Retallack Hooper of Camborne and Mr. Richard Gendall of Redruth for taking me to see Trevessa. Both men are active in the Dasserghyans Ker- newek (Cf. Publications of Modem Language Association 61 [1946] 258-68). Mr. Hooper was named Barth Mur in 1959.Google Scholar

²² Mitchell was a place of considerable importance in medieval times. Cf. Henderson's discussion, op. cit. 150-51 (η. 20 supra). Google Scholar

²³ For about the past twenty years Trevessa has been occupied by the Gordon Delbridge family.Google Scholar

²⁴ Gilbert, C. S., op. cit. II 349; Polsue, op cit. I 373-74.Google Scholar

²⁵ Cf. Polsue, op. cit. I 341 and n. 20 supra. Google Scholar

²⁶ Reviewed by Perry, Introduction lvi f. But see also Wilkins, op. cit. infra (n. 83) 72 and η. 1.Google Scholar

²⁷ Op. cit. lxxxiv-lxxxvii. Perry seems puzzled by the date in Smyth's Lives of the Berkeleys (η. 43 infra). What happened, I believe, is this. As the MSS attest, Trevisa actually wrote that he completed his translation ‘on a Thursday the eighteenth of April, 1387, the tenth year of Richard II, the year of my lord's age Sir Thomas of Berkeley, that made me make this translation, 35’. Then Caxton, for whatever reason, changed the date to 1357. It must have been deliberate, for he also changed the regnal year (31 Edward III). But in so doing, he created two visible inconsistencies in Trevisa's statement. For one thing, 1357 was not the 35th year of Thomas (IV), but rather the 65th year of Thomas the third. Smyth, of course, saw this at once, and changed the age accordingly on the assumption that 1357 was correct (The Lives of the Berkeleys I 344, margin), and in spite of the fact that 1387 was the 35th year of Thomas IV. But this change left one other inconsistency which even Smyth did not detect: the 18th of April falls on a Thursday in 1387; in 1357 it does not. This was long ago pointed out by James Ussher, Historia Dogmatica… de Scrip- turis et Sacris Vernaculis (ed. Henry Wharton; London 1690) 157. Thus Caxton produced the error, and Smyth compounded it.Google Scholar

²⁸ The Church History of Britain… (London 1655) I 151.Google Scholar

²⁹ Script, ill. (n. 8 supra) 518.Google Scholar

³⁰ Albertus Fabricius, Joannes, Bibliotheca latina mediae et infimae aetatis (Hamburg 1734–36) IV (1735) 450.Google Scholar

³¹ Rogers, John J., ‘Notice of John de Trevisa, a Cornish mediaeval author.—A. D. 1342- 1412,’ Journal of the Royal Institution of Cornwall 3.11 (April 1870) 147–54. The quotation is on p. 148.Google Scholar

³² Ibid. 149.Google Scholar

³³ It is probably for this reason that G. W. Boase, in his Registrum Collegii Exoniensis (Oxford Historical Society 27; Oxford 1894) 11, gives ‘about 1342’ as the date of Trevisa's birth. Such, at least, is the supposition of Wilkins, H. J. (op. cit. infra [n. 83] 72 n. 1). Wilkins’ own argument for an early date is circular, depending ultimately on the erroneous conjectures of Thomas Fuller (cf. η. 28 supra). Google Scholar

³⁴ The History of Glasney Collegiate Church, Cornwall (Camborne 1903) xiii.Google Scholar

³⁵ Ibid. 6-8.Google Scholar

³⁶ Ibid. 7-29. Neither St. Erth nor Towednack was ever appropriated to Glasney.Google Scholar

³⁷ Ibid. 14.Google Scholar

³⁸ Ibid. 96-97.Google Scholar

³⁹ The Ancient Cornish Drama (ed. Edwin Norris, 2 vols. Oxford 1859). And see my ar ticle, ‘The Date of the Cornish Ordinalia,’ Mediaeval Studies 23 (1961) 91-125.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Cf. Morton Nance, R., ‘The Plen an Gwary or Cornish Playing-Place’, Journal of the Royal Institution of Cornwall 24 (1935) 190–211; Peter, op. cit. (η. 34 supra) 29.Google Scholar

⁴¹ Note the terms of the Beaupre bequest, Peter, op. cit. 29-32. The minimum age for clerk of the second form was 18.Google Scholar

⁴² Peter provides an enlightening summary of the professional careers of the canons and prebendaries of Glasney (op. cit. 106ff.). Many of them had leaves of absence for study at Oxford. William de Polmorva (p. 135), one of the most eminent Cornishmen of the 14th century, was a former chancellor of the University.Google Scholar

⁴³ Smyth, The Lives of the Berkeleys (ed. Sir John Maclean, 3 vols. Gloucester 1883–85) I 236, 245, 274.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Ibid. I 376, 380. Egloshayle is about 15 miles northeast of St. Enoder. Thomas IV, Lord Berkeley (1368–1417), under whom Trevisa served as chaplain, owned lands in several southwestern counties, including Cornwall (ibid. II 4-5).Google Scholar

⁴⁵ Peter, History of Glasney 124-25; cf. also Smyth, op. cit. I 271.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Peter, op. cit. 117.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ Smyth, op. cit. I 254. Sir Maurice's life, a very interesting one, is recounted by Smyth, op. cit. I 245-68.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ Ibid. I 316, 333.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ Ibid. I 270. Eudo died the following year (1328).Google Scholar

⁵⁰ Perry, Introduction lxi-lxv.Google Scholar

⁵¹ Ibid, lxv, but see also below.Google Scholar

⁵² Cf. D. C. Fowler, ‘John Trevisa and the English Bible,’ Modern Philology 58 (1960) 81-98.Google Scholar

⁵³ Register III (1959) 1903f.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ Fowler, R. C. (ed.), Registrum Simonis de Sudbiria. Diocesis Londoniensis. A. D. 1362-1375 (The Canterbury and York Society 34; Oxford 1927). The ordinations are listed in Appendix II to this volume (paged separately), and the Trevisa entries appear on pp. 76, 80, 82, 87.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ Reg. Sudbury II 80.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ I take it that Master Ralph de Ryngsted was then administering the affairs of the Bishopric of Exeter, sede vacante, Grandisson having died in 1369. See Reg. Brantingham (ed. Hingeston-Randolph) II 885. The letters dimissory allowed a candidate to be ordained outside of his own diocese—in this case outside of Exeter. Here we have one further indication of Trevisa's Cornish origin.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ Cf. Magrath, J. R., The Queen's College (2 vols. Oxford 1921) I 277. The earliest surviving Long Roll is for the year 1347–8 (ibid. I 332-47).Google Scholar

⁵⁸ Throughout this section my references to the Long Rolls will be to volume and page of the valuable handwritten copy of them made by Stainer, C. L., Compoti Collegii Aule Reginae (10 vols. Oxford 1906–08). The computus of Trevisa covers the period from May 5 to September 28, 1369 (Stainer, Compoti II 164).Google Scholar

⁵⁹ Stainer, Compoti II 164, 167, 173, 176, 179, 183, 189, 191, 193, 196-7, 201, 204, 207, 210, 216; III 238, 274, 291, 366, 369; IV 381, 400, 437, 453.Google Scholar

⁶⁰ Introduction lxii.Google Scholar

⁶¹ One gap is June, 1370 to September, 1371. Did Trevisa perhaps go abroad during this period? We know that the business of the college occasionally demanded trips overseas. Provost Whitfield went on a journey to Avignon, for example, in 1363–4 (cf. R. H. Hodgkin, Six Centuries of an Oxford College [Oxford 1949] 24). We know also that John Trevisa visited in Germany and Savoy sometime prior to 1387 (Polychronicon II 61, ed cit. η. 7 supra). Google Scholar

⁶² Stainer, Compoti II 201.Google Scholar

⁶³ Ibid. II 216.Google Scholar

⁶⁴ Magrath, op. cit. (η. 57 supra), I 16-17.Google Scholar

⁶⁵ Stainer, Compoti II 176.Google Scholar

⁶⁶ Ibid. II 183; quoted by Perry, Introduction lxii.Google Scholar

⁶⁷ Perry, Introduction lxiv; cf. also D. C. Fowler, Modern Philology 58 (1960) 81-98, esp. 88-93.Google Scholar

⁶⁸ Hodgkin, R. H., op. cit. 32.Google Scholar

⁶⁹ After Trevisa and his colleagues were expelled in 1378, an order was issued for the recovery of books and other possessions which they apparently took with them, and which ‘were lodged and pledged in diverse places in the town’ of Oxford (Calendar of Close Rolls, 1377–81, p. 258; cf. D. C. Fowler, Modern Philology 58 [1960] 91 and n. 54). Perhaps the rebellious fellows, including Trevisa, retired in like manner to ‘diverse places in the town’ for the duration of the controversy.Google Scholar

⁷⁰ Hodersale was one of those to whom Trevisa gave power of attorney in 1390, when he was planning another trip abroad (Perry, Introduction lxviii). Cf. also Emden, Register II 940; and see n. 97 infra. Google Scholar

⁷¹ Stainer, Compoti III 238.Google Scholar

⁷² Cf. η. 69 supra. Google Scholar

⁷³ Stainer, Compoti III 274. For Trevelles, another Cornishman, cf. Emden, Register III 1899f.Google Scholar

⁷⁴ Stainer, Compoti III 274.Google Scholar

⁷⁵ Ibid. Ill 291.Google Scholar

⁷⁶ This is the conclusion of Emden, Register III 1903. But in view of Trevisa's apparent protest against the payment, could not the rent have been for an earlier four-year period? We have already seen that there is no record of Trevisa's residence at Queen's from 1375 to 1378, and yet we know he was there at least some of this time. Cf. η. 69 supra. Google Scholar

⁷⁷ Stainer, Compoti IV 381, 400. The normal rent for one year seems to have been 15 s. But for 1394–5 Trevisa paid xi s. viii d., and for 1395–6 he paid xiii s. iiii d.Google Scholar

⁷⁸ Stainer, Compoti II 191, 207; III 366, 369; IV 381, 400, 437, 453.Google Scholar

⁷⁹ Hodgkin, Six Centuries of an Oxford College 37f. The reference to Grimby's debt and Trevisa as his executor occurs in Stainer, Compoti II 179: ‘Item de debitis gilberti grimisby per manus Magistri Iohannis treuisa executoris sui in parte solucionis iiij li.’ If Trevisa did assume responsibility for Grimsby's debt, then his conscientiousness certainly stands as a rebuke to those friars who were said to ‘suffre the ded in dette to the day of dome’ (Piers the Plowman, B-text, passus XX 291).Google Scholar

⁸⁰ Hodgkin, op. cit. 33.Google Scholar

⁸¹ We are left with the curious fact that no payments were made between 1372 and 1392. Could the four pounds be a debt incurred during the Queen's College controversy which resulted in Trevisa's expulsion? On February 7, 1380, certain commissioners are ordered ‘to proceed by sworn examination of both parties and other scholars of the University and to compel restitution’. (Quoted by Perry, Introduction lxiv f.).Google Scholar

⁸² Perry^ Introduction lxv-lxxv.Google Scholar

⁸³ Wilkins, H. J., Was John Wycliffe a Negligent Pluralist? Also John de Trevisa his Life and Work (London 1915) 71–113, esp. 78-86.Google Scholar

⁸⁴ Two major untapped sources remain: the muniments of Berkeley Castle (see n. 3 supra), and the Worcester diocesan records. Perhaps it is too much to hope that a manuscript of one of Trevisa's works remains buried in the mass of documents in the muniment room of Berkeley Castle, yet the possibility remains; they have never been completely catalogued. Both Perry and Wilkins acknowledge the services of the Rev. J. H. Bloom, who searched on their behalf in the episcopal registers of Worcester diocese for references. But we do not know how carefully this was done; these records should be rechecked. I find it hard to believe that Trevisa could be vicar of Berkeley for perhaps a quarter of a century or more and leave but a single entry (concerning the appointment of his successor) in the Worcester diocesan records.Google Scholar

⁸⁵ Perry, Introduction lxvi.Google Scholar

⁸⁶ See n. 27 supra. I cannot find that Smyth had any direct, documentary knowledge of Trevisa beyond what he could learn from Caxton and Bale, perhaps with the exception of some notes taken from the Worcester diocesan records. Cf. Select Roll no. 138 (as catalogued by I. H. Jeayes, Descriptive Catalogue of the Charters and Muniments…at Berkeley Castle [Bristol 1892]), ‘Extracts from the Registers of the Bishops of Worcester to Berkeley (1287–1460).’ Even Smyth's statement (op. cit. I 7) that Trevisa compiled a pedigree of the Berkeley family in January, 1351 (Select Roll 102 in Jeayes; cf. Perry, Introduction cxxviii) seems to be an inference based on Caxton's erroneous date for completion of the Polychronicon translation. If our conjecture about the date of Trevisa's birth is correct, he was probably not over 9 years old in 1351. In addition, Magister David was vicar of Berkeley as late as 1362 (cf. η. 87 infra). Google Scholar

⁸⁷ Mag. David vicari ecclië de Berkeley, quoted by Wilkins, op. cit 79; cf. also Perry, Introduction lxvi, n. 3. In his St. Mary-the-Virgin, Berkeley: History and Guide (2nd ed. Durs- ley, Glos. 1958), Canon J. H. W. Fisher lists David of Melesh, vicar of Berkeley in 1349.Google Scholar

⁸⁸ p_erry₎ Introduction lxxxiv. This assumes, with Emden (Register III 1903f.), that Trevisa was vicar of Berkeley when Thomas IV ‘made [him] make this translation.’ But since we know that Trevisa was working on Book I in 1385 (Perry, Introduction lxxxvi f.), the evidence of the Polychronicon would suggest that Trevisa was vicar by 1385.Google Scholar

⁸⁹ Two items of information mentioned earlier in this paper may help us narrow, if only by inference, the span of years within which to place Trevisa's appointment. One is my suggestion that Trevisa may have come to the attention of the Berkeley family before he went to Oxford; the other is the fact that he was ordained priest on June 8, 1370. The first point makes an early date plausible, but the second makes it unlikely (though not impossible) that his appointment would be earlier than 1370.Google Scholar

⁹⁰ For this discovery I am indebted to Canon Fisher, Vicar of Berkeley, who located the document at Stone, and to the Gloucestershire Records Officer, Mr. Irvine E. Gray, who transcribed it for me. Mr. Gray says, in a letter to Canon Fisher dated December 8, 1960, ‘The translation has every appearance of being genuine, and from the writing must have been made about 1700’. If this date is correct, one is tempted to suppose that the transcriber may have been Dr. Richard Parsons, whose Parochial Visitation of the County of Gloucester (Bodleian MS Rawlinson B. 323) was compiled at about that time.Google Scholar

⁹¹ Smyth, The Lives of the Berkeleys III 363.Google Scholar

⁹² Ibid. 374-75, 363. To my unpracticed eye Smyth's history of the Sergeants of Stone seems inordinately complicated, but essentially the facts are these. Thomas de Stone died in 1315, leaving two daughters Joan and Alice. Joan married John Sergeant, Sr., and Alice married John Swonhunger. The two families partitioned their inheritance in 1329. Then John Sergeant, Sr. and Joan had a son, John Sergeant the younger, who apparently did not marry, and a daughter, Joan, who married (among others) Walter Hurst; while John Swonhunger and Alice had a son, William Swonhunger, who married Isabel. These two families partitioned lands in 1347. Finally, in 1353, there was a partition between John Sergeant the younger and William Swonhunger, whereby John acquired lands in Hame, Game, and Stinchcombe (Smyth, op. cit. III 374f.).Google Scholar

⁹³ Op. cit. 79-85. Dr. Wilkins became vicar of Westbury-on-Trym in 1900; he died in 1941. Other relevant publications by Wilkins are Some Chapters on the Ecclesiastical History of Westbury-on-Trym, Bristol, 1909, and a supplement to his book on Wyclif and Trevisa, published in 1916. Mention should also be made here of the attractive west window of Westbury-on-Trym parish church, designed no doubt by Dr. Wilkins, and depicting Wyclif and Trevisa in two of its four main panels. Trevisa has a walking stick in his right hand (alluding perhaps to his travels), and in his left hand he holds a book.Google Scholar

⁹⁴ Wilkins, op. cit. 80-81. The document is Ancient Petition 7355 in the Public Record Office, written in Norman French. The regnal years referred to in the document are 11 and 12 Richard II, which Wilkins translates as 1387 and 1388; but the specific dates given reveal that these should be 1388 and 1389. Robert Wattes, the dean who endured Trevisa's violent attack, gave up his post at Westbury-on-Trym on October 14, 1390, ‘probably,’ says Wilkins, ‘ because he would not endure the indignity of the presence of John de Trevisa… ‘ (p. 81). One cannot help but have a certain amount of sympathy for the dean.Google Scholar

⁹⁵ Calendar of Close Rolls, Richard II, vol. Ill (1385–89) 665; cited by Emden, Register III 1903f. It is not referred to by Wilkins or Perry.Google Scholar

⁹⁶ Smyth, op. cit. II 20.Google Scholar

⁹⁷ Treaty Roll No. 75, Public Record Office; quoted by Perry, Introduction lxviii, and quoted and translated by Wilkins, op. cit. 84f. That ‘Westbury’ means Westbury-on- Trym has been clearly established by Wilkins and Perry. Both William Farrington and Robert Hodersale had connections with Queen's College, and were no doubt personal friends of Trevisa; cf. Emden, Register II 666, 940.Google Scholar

⁹⁸ Polychronicon II 61, ed. cit. η. 7 supra. Cf. η. 61 supra. Google Scholar

⁹⁹ The Lives of the Berkeleys I 338. Smyth elaborates on Trevisa's ‘doctrine’ as follows: ‘That though his Ancestors guifts to Abbyes in old time, and some of his own, bee more wasted in gluttony pride and outrage of the owners, then in sustenance and need of men and guests, yet the givers shall not lose theire mede, for their will and intent is weyed in thy ballance, and their good deeds shall follow them, with the reward of glory and immortality’. In the margin Smyth refers to Trevisa's Polychronicon 5. 32: ‘But certeynliche])e 3euers schal not lese here mede, for here wille and here entent is i-weye in Goddes bal- aunce’ (Rolls Series VI 347). Although Smyth for reasons already discussed applies Trevisa's teachings to Thomas III, the anti-monastic views of Trevisa actually apply much more directly to the life of Thomas IV, who, according to Smyth (op. cit. II 19), withheld the lavish gifts to monastic orders which had so frequently been bestowed on them by his ancestors. Whether this is the direct result of Trevisa's influence is difficult to say. The idea seems to have been in the air during this period. Cf. Piers the Plowman, B-text, pas- sus XV 316-334.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁰ Ralph Bigland, Historical, Monumental and Genealogical Collections relative to the County of Gloucester… (2 vols. London 1791). The Berkeley inscriptions are in I 159-174.Google Scholar

¹⁰¹ Quoted by Perry, Introduction cxxv; Wilkins, op. cit. 86.Google Scholar

¹⁰² I am indebted to Canon J. H. W. Fisher for this information.Google Scholar

¹⁰³ Rogers, John J., op. cit. 153 (η. 31 supra). Rogers gives no indication that he was at Berkeley while the restoration was in progress or indeed at any other time. Perhaps someone relayed the information to him. See n. 104 infra. Google Scholar

¹⁰⁴ This stone differs from the one described by Rogers in two respects: (1) it is not near the altar, and (2) the inscription was cut in the stone surface—no brass was used.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁵ The four G's are unmistakable. The two following vertical strokes are also clear, but the second is shorter than the first.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁶ Perry, Introduction lxxv; Wilkins, op. cit. 86.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁷ Op. cit. lxxv-cxxxiii.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁸ Perry edited the Dialogus inter militem et clericum and FitzRalph's Defensio ciirato- rum. The Polychronicon was edited by G. Babington and J. Lumby (cf. η. 7 supra.). Trevisa's Dialogue and Epistle have not been edited, but the texts arc printed, with spelling modernized, in Alfred W. Pollard, Fifteenth Century Prose and Verse (An English Garner) (Westminster 1903) 203-210. The Gospel of Sicodemus, De regimine principum, and De proprietatibus rerum have not been edited. The De proprietatibus rerum is being edited by the present writer for the Early English Text Society. The late Professor Perry was preparing an edition of De regimine principum, but he died in 1952 with the work still unfinished. Mrs. Perry has very kindly turned over to me his manuscripts, and I plan to complete the project. A valuable unpublished thesis on the De regimine principum is Herbert E. Ghilds, A Study of the Unique Middle English Translation of the De Regimine Principum of Aegidius Romanus (MS Digby 233) (University of Washington 1932). Professor Childs presents a valuable review of the authorship problem, and offers confirming evidence that Trevisa is the translator of De regimine principum, and that John Walton, who evidently succeeded Trevisa as man of letters for the Berkeley family, was the translator of the other text in MS Digby 233, Vegetius’ De re militari. Google Scholar

¹⁰⁹ * Op. cit. xciv-xcviii; cxi-cxv. Google Scholar

¹¹⁰ Op. cit. lxxvi f. Google Scholar

¹¹¹ Cf. Modern Philology 58 (1960) 82 and n. 7. Google Scholar

¹¹² Cf. Modern Philology 58 (I960) 81-98, and my book, Piers the Plowman: Literary Relations of the A and Ii Texts (University of Washington Press: Seattle 1961) chap. 7. See also the recent note by N. R. Ker, Ά Middle-English Summary of the Bible.’ Medium A evil m 29 (1960) 115-118.Google Scholar