Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1900-06-19

in Old Legal Documents-sums Left
to Pay for Saying of Masses.
Sheets, blankets, pillows and cover
lets or counterpanes were frequent
subjects of beQuests in the middle
ages; and one lady of quality, Kath-
crime, Lady Hastings, having borrowed
money of another, Cecilia, Marchioncss
of Dorset, wills (15O3 that the said
Cecilia, in full contention of such sums
of money that owe unto her, have my
bed of arras, litter, tester and counter
pane, 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 l. at Knowle, cost $1,000, 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 VI
carious performances prevailed. Thus,
in Sir Roger Beauchamp's will Q379,
we find: Whereas l am bound to doe
service on the infidels, by devise Of
my grandsire, Sir Walter Beauchamp.
to the expense of 200 marks. l will that
Roger, son to Roger, my son, shall per-
form the same when he come Of age"
The Earl Of Hereford Q36D directs:
"A chaplain of good condition be sent
to Jerusalem principally for my lady
my mother, my lord my father, and for
us; and that the chaplain 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, ana to offer there Il s.
silver for us: and another such man
to Pomfret to offer at the tomb Of
Thomas, late Earl of Lancaster, Il s."
When LIE Balafre, Quentin Durward's
uncle, hears of the mishap that has be-
fallen his family, he bites off. 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 l 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, bark ye! as they
were just-living people, and free from
all heresy, it may be that they are well
nigh out of limbo already, SO that a
little matter may have them free of the
fetlocks; and in that case, look We, ye
will say. l desire to take out the bal
Of fhn in,
Grafton called the Ogilvies of Angus
shire in what way soever the church
may best come at them.'
This is the spirit In which masses
were commonly ordered. The testa-
tors main object was to get what he
thought moneys worth for his money.
Thus Sir Thomas Littleton the author
of the Treatise on Tenures," rem
dered famous by Coke's commentary
leaves a sum of money for masses "for
the souls of my feder and moder, and
for the soul of William Burley, my
father-in-.aw; and for the soul of Sir
Philip Chaturn, and for all souls that
am most burden to pray for" The av-
erage cost of masses may be collected
from a clause in the will of Joan, Lady
Gotham, in 1869:
81 will that vii thousand masses be
said for my soul by the canons of Tun-
brugge and Tanfugge, and the four or
ders of friars in London, viz, the friar
preachers, minors, Augustines and Car
melites, who for so doing shall have
fxxxix iii 8. iv d." This Is rather less
than three half-pence per mass.
The Earl of Salisbury, the son of
Henry II. by the fair Rosamond, be-
Queaths for the building of a monastery
Gnter alia) "a thousand sheep, three
hundred muttons, forty eight oxen and
fifteen bulls" The Earl of Warwick,
In 1869, leaves: '"To every church with
in each Of my manors the best beast
which should there be found, in salts
faction of my tithes forgotten and not
paid; and l desire that my executors
make full satisfaction to every man
that have in any sort wronged." The
object of bequests to the church, or for
pious uses, was not exclusively super
stitious, for wills were seldom set
aside or evaded when the priesthood
had direct interest in upholdlng them.
Bequests for the erection of statues
and monuments are Of frequent occur
renee, and the directions are sometimes
both curious and minute, as in the will
of Isabel, Countess of Warwick, in
1899: "Also 1 will that my statue be
made all naked, with my hair cast
accord ding to the design and
model which Thomas Porchabon has
for that purpose. with Mary Magdalen
laying her hand across, and st. John
the Evangelist on the right side and
st. Anthony on the left; at my feet a
impaling my arms with
those of the earl, my husband, support
ed by two griffins, but on the sides
thereof the statues of poor men and
women in their poor array with their
beads in their hands,"
Guichard, Earl Of Huntingdon, Wills
that his heart be taken out Of his body
and preserved with spices, to be de-
posted in the Church of Engle. The
Of the nobler members, es-
pecially the heart. was frequently en-
Times.