The History of Richard Raynal, Solitary
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CONTENTS:
Introduction
How Sir John visited Master Hermit: and found him in contemplation
Of the Word from God that came to Master Hermit: and of his setting out
How Master Richard fared: how he heard Mass in Saint Pancras' Church: how he came to Westminster: and of his colloquy with the Ankret
How Master Richard saw the King in Westminster Hall: and of the Mass at Saint Edward's Altar
How Master Richard cried out in Westminster Hall: and of his coming to a Privy Parlour
Of Master Richard's speaking with the King's Grace: and how he was taken for it
Of Master Richard's second speaking with his Grace: and of his detention
Of the Parson's Disquisition on the whole matter
How Master Richard took his meat: and of Master Lieutenant's whipping of him
Of the Second Temptation of Master Richard: and how he overcame it
Of the Dark Night of the Soul
How Sir John went again to the cell: and of what he saw there
How one came to Master Priest: how Master Priest came to the King's Bedchamber: and of what he heard of the name of Jesus
Of Sir John's Meditations in Westminster Palace
How Master Richard went to God
Of his Burying
Introduction
In the winter of 1903-4 I had occasion to pass several months inRome.
Among other Religious Houses, lately bought back from the Government bytheir proper owners, was one (whose Order, for selfish reasons, I prefernot to specify), situated in the maze of narrow streets between thePiazza Navona and the Piazza Colonna; this, however, may be said ofthe Order, that it is one which, although little known in Italy, hadseveral houses in England up to the reign of Henry VIII. Like so manyother Orders at that time, its members moved first to France and then toItaly, where it has survived in penurious dignity ever since.
The Religious were able to take with them at the time of exodus, threeand a half centuries ago, a part of the small library that existed atthe English mother-house, and some few of these MSS. have survived tothe present day; many others, however, have certainly perished; for inthe list of books that I was looking over there one day in March, 1904,I observed several titles, of which, the priest-librarian told me, thecorresponding volumes have disappeared. To some half-dozen of thesetitles, however, there was appended a star, and on enquiring the meaningof this symbol, I was informed that it denoted that a translation hadbeen made into French and preserved in the library.
One of these titles especially attracted my attention. It ran asfollows: VITA ET OBITUS DNI RICARDI RAYNAL HEREMITAE.
Upon my asking to see this and its companions, I was conducted to adusty shelf in the little upstairs book-room, and was informed that Imight do as I pleased there for two hours, until the _Ave Maria_ rang,and the doors would be locked.
When the librarian had gone with many nods and smiles, I took downthese half dozen books and carried them to the table by the window, anduntil _Ave Maria_ rang I turned their pages.
The volume whose title had especially attracted my attention was aquarto MS., written, I should suppose from the caligraphy, about the endof the sixteenth century; a later hand had appended a summary to eachchapter with an appropriate quotation from a psalm. But the book was ina shocking condition, without binding, and contained no more than afragment. The last page was numbered "341," and the first page+ "129."One hundred and twenty-eight pages, therefore, were certainly lost atthe beginning, and I know not how many at the end; but what was left wassufficiently engrossing to hold me standing by the window, until thewrinkled face of the priest looked in again to inform me that unless Iwished to sleep in the library, I must be gone at once.
On the following morning by nine o'clock I was there again; and, afteran interview with the Superior, went up again with the keys in my ownpossession, a quantity of foolscap and a fountain-pen in my hand, andsandwiches in my pocket, to the dusty little room beneath the roof.
I repeated this series of actions, with the exception of the interview,every day for a fortnight, and when I returned to England in April Itook with me a complete re-translation into English of the "_Vita etobitus Dni Ricardi Raynal Heremitae_," and it is this re-translationthat is now given to the public, with the correction of many words andthe addition of notes, carried out during the last eighteen months.
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It is necessary to give some account of the book itself, but I will nottrouble my readers with an exhaustive survey of the reasons that haveled me to my opinions on the subject: it is enough to say that most ofthem are to be found in the text.
It is the story of the life of one of that large body of Englishhermits who flourished from about the beginning of the fourteenthcentury to the middle of the sixteenth; and was written, apparently forthe sake of the villagers, by his parish-priest, Sir John Chaldfield,who seems to have been an amiable, devout, and wordy man, who longoutlived his spiritual son. Of all the early part of Master RichardRaynal's life we are entirely ignorant, except of the facts that hisparents died in his youth, and that he himself was educated atCambridge. No doubt his early history was recorded in the one hundredand twenty-nine pages that are missing at the beginning. It is annoyingalso that the last pages are gone, for thereby we have lost what wouldprobably have been a very full and exhaustive list of the funeralfurniture of the sixteenth century, as well as an account of theprocession into the country and the ceremonies observed at the burial.We might have heard, too, with some exactness (for Sir John resembles ajournalist in his love of detail) about the way in which his friend'sfame began to spread, and the pilgrims to journey to his shrine. Itwould have been of interest to trace the first stages in theunauthorised cult of one as yet uncanonised. What is left of the book isthe record of only the last week in Master Richard's life and of hisdeath under peculiar circumstances at Westminster in the bed-chamberof the King.
It is impossible to know for certain who was this king, but I aminclined to believe that it was Henry VI., the founder of Eton Collegeand King's College, Cambridge, whose life ended in such tragedy towardsthe close of the fifteenth century. His Queen is not mentioned frombeginning to end, and for this and other reasons I am inclined toparticularise still more, and conjecture that the period of which thebook treats must be prior to the year 1445 A.D., when the King marriedat the age of twenty-three.
Supposing that these conjectures are right, the cardinal spoken of inthe book would be Cardinal Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester, and cousinof the King.
All this, however, must be doubtful, since the translator of theoriginal English or Latin appears to have omitted with scrupulous carethe names of all personages occurring in the narrative, with one or twounimportant exceptions. We do not even know in what part of the countrySir John Chaldfield held his living, but it appears to have been withinthirty or forty miles of London. We must excuse the foreign scribe,however; probably the English names were unintelligible and barbarous tohis perceptions; and appeared unimportant, too, compared to the interestof the mystical and spiritual experiences recorded in the book.
Of these experiences it is difficult to write judiciously in thispractical age.
Master Richard Raynal appears to have been a very curious young man, ofgreat personal beauty, extreme simplicity, and a certain magneticattractiveness. He believed himself, further, to be in direct andconstant communication with supernatural things, and would be set downnow as a religious fanatic, deeply tinged with superstition. His parson,too, in these
days, would be thought little better, but at the time inwhich they lived both would probably be regarded with considerableveneration. We hear, in fact, that a chapel was finally erected overMaster Raynal's body, and that pilgrimages were made there; andprobably, if the rest of the work had been preserved to us, we shouldhave found a record of miracles wrought at his shrine. All traces,however, of that shrine have now disappeared--most likely under thestern action of Henry VIII.--and Richard's name is unknown tohagiology, in spite of his parson's confidence as regarded his futurebeatification.
It is, however, interesting to notice that in Master Raynal'sreligion, as in Richard Rolle's, hermit of Hampole, there appears tohave been some of that inchoate Quietism which was apt to tinge thefaith of a few of the English solitaries. He was accustomed to attendmass devoutly and to receive the sacraments, and on his death-bed wasspeeded into the next world, at his own desire, by all the observancesprescribed by the Catholic Church. His attitude, too, towards thepriesthood, is somewhat uncharacteristic of his fellows, who were aptto boast with apparent complacency that they were neither "monk, friar,nor clerk." In other matters he is a good type of that strange race ofsolitaries who swarmed in England at that time, who were under no vows,but served God as it pleased them, not hesitating to go among theirfellows from time to time if they thought themselves called to it, whowere looked upon with veneration or contempt, according to the opinionformed of them by their observers, but who, at any rate, lived a simpleand wholesome life, and were to some extent witnesses to the existenceof a supernatural Power at whose bidding (so they believed) they weresummoned to celibacy, seclusion, labour, and prayer.
It is curious also to trace through Sir John's fanciful eyes theparallels between the sufferings of Master Richard and those ofChrist. Of course, no irreverence is intended. I should imagine that,if Sir John were put on his defence, he would say that the life ofevery true Christian must approximate to the life of Christ so far ashis spirit is identified with the Divine Spirit, and that this isoccasionally fulfilled even in minute details.
It is unnecessary to add much more in this introduction--(for the storywill tell its own tale)--beyond saying that the re-translation of theFrench fragment into English has been to me a source of considerablepleasure. I have done my best to render it into the English of itsproper period, including even its alliterations, while avoiding needlessarchaisms and above all arbitrary spelling. But no doubt I am guilty ofmany solecisms. I have attempted also to elucidate the text by a numberof footnotes, in which I have explained whatever seemed to call for it,and have appended translations to the numerous Latin quotations in whichSir John indulges after the manner of his time. I must apologise forthese footnotes--(such are always tiresome)--but I could think of noother way by which the text could be made clear. They can always beomitted without much loss by the reader who has no taste for them.
Sir John's style is a little difficult sometimes, especially when hetreats in detail of his friend's mystical experience, but he has acertain power of word-painting (unusual at his date) in matters both ofnature and of grace, and it is only when he has been unduly trite orobscure that I have ventured, with a good deal of regret, to omit hisobservations. All such omissions, however, as well as peculiardifficulties of statement or allusion, have been dealt with infoot-notes.
With regard to the function of the book, at any rate since its firsttranslation into French, it is probably safe to conjecture that it mayhave been used at one time for reading aloud in the refectory. I am ledto make this guess from observing its division into chapters, and thequasi-texts appended to each. These texts are of all sorts, though allare taken from the Book of Psalms; but their application to the matterthat follows is sometimes fanciful, frequently mystical, andoccasionally trite.
If the book receives any sympathy from English readers--(an eventualityabout which I have my doubts)--I shall hope, at some future date, toedit others of the MSS. still reposing in the little room under the roofbetween the _Piazza Navona_ and the _Piazza Colonna_ in Rome, to which Ihave been generously promised free access.
I must express my gratitude to the Superior of the Order of ---- (towhose genius, coupled with that of another, I dedicate this book), forgiving me permission to edit his MS.; to Dom Robert Maple, O.S.B., formuch useful information and help in regard to the English mystics; andto Mme. Germain who has verified references, interpreted difficulties,and assisted me by her encouragement.
ROBERT BENSON.
Cambridge,Feast of SS. Peter and Paul, 1905.