equaris quas consequereris si ecclesias Stationum Vrbis, intra et extra muros eius, Quadragesimalibus et alijs diebus Stationum ecclesiarum predictarum personaliter uisitares. Quodque idem uel alter Confessor quem duxeris eligendum omnium peccatorum tuorum de quibus corde contritus et ore confessus fueris etiam Bis quolibet Anno et in eodem mortis articulo uel quotiens de morte huiusmodi dubitabitur plenariam remissionem tibi in sinceritate fidei vnitate eiusdem sancte Romane ecclesie et obedientia ac deuotione nostra uel successorum nostrorum Romanorum Pontificum canonice intrantium persistenti auctoritate apostolica concedere ac uota quecunque per te forsan emissa uel imposterum emittenda vltramarino Visitationis Liminum beatorum Apostolorum Petri et Pauli ac Religionis uotis duntaxat exceptis in alia pietatis opera commutare ualeat. Et insuper quod liceat tibi post Nonam seu Merediem in presentia tua et familiarium tuorum ac aliarum personarum te sequentium facere celebrari et habere Altare portatile cum debitis reuerentia et honore super quo in locis ad hoc congruentibus et honestis sine iuris alieni preiudicio et cum qualitas negociorum pro tempore urgentium id exegerit etiam antequam illucescat dies circa tamen diurnam lucem Ita quod nec id tibi nec Sacerdoti taliter celebranti ad culpam ualeat imputari et si ad loca ecclesiastico interdicto quauis auctoritate supposita te contigerit declinare in illis clausis Januis excommunicatis et interdictis exclusis non pulsatis Campanis et submissa uoce possis per proprium uel alium Sacerdotem idoneum Missas et alia diuina officia in tua et familiarium tuorum et aliarum personarum predictarum presentia facere celebrari dummodo tu uel illi causam non dederitis interdicto nec id tibi uel illis contigerit specialiter interdici Quodque tu cum Sex, ac dilecta in Christo filia Nobilis Mulier Margarita Comitissa Richemondie tua Genetrix cum Sex alijs personis quas duxeritis et etiam quilibet uestrum duxerit pro tempore nominandas et eligendas, non teneamini Qudragesimali tempore ieiunare et nichilominus dicto tempore ouis caseo butiro et alijs lacticinijs quotiens tibi et Comitisse ac alijs personis prefatis uidebitur uesci libere et licite absque alicuius conscientie scrupulo possitis et quilibet uestrum possit Et dicte Margarite ut Confessor per eam etiam eligendus in omnibus casibus sedi predicte reseruatis premissis casibus ac presbitericidio duntaxat exceptis, similiter Bis quolibet Anna

et in mortis articulo in alijs uero quotiens fuerit oportunum pro commissis debitam absolutionem impendere et penitentiam salutarem iniungere ac plenariam omnium peccatorum suorum de quibus corde contrita et ore confessa fuerit remissionem huiusmodi etiam Bis quolibet Anno et in mortis articulo quotiens de illo dubitabitur auctoritate predicta impendere possit. Quodque tu ac dicta Margarita Comitissa et quilibet uestrum ac familiares uestri uobis in Mensa seruientes, illi uidelicet duntaxat qui Cibaria uestra pro securitate personarum uestrarum gustant antequam uobis exhibeantur. Quadragesimalibus et alijs quibus Jeiunium ab ecclesia est indictum necnon Sextis ferijs et Sabbati diebus carnibus uesci. Et si forsan contigerit te, et dictam Margaritam Comitissam uel aliquem uestrum cum aliqua seu aliquibus persona seu personis excommunicatis uel alijs sententijs censuris et penis ecclesiasticis innodatis, colloquium seu familiaritatem habere nullam propterea excommunicationis sententiam uel censuram aliam ecclesiasticam incurratis, dummodo conscij aut participes ex communicationis huiusmodi non fueritis et hoc in contemptum Clauium non feceritis. Ac quod dicta Comitissa cum Sex Matronis honestis et habitu honesto indutis Monasteria et Domos Religiosorum etiam Cartusiensium et Inclusarum quorumcunque ordinum quotiens sibi placuerit ingredi et salutare colloquium cum eis habere ac inibi refectionem sumere, dummodo earum et eorum qui et que Monasterijs et Domibus prefuerint ad hoc expressus accedat assensus et ibi non pernoctet libere et licite ualeat, tue ac Margarite Comitisse et aliarum personarum predictarum deuotioni respectiue tenore presentium de specialis dono gratie indulgemus. Non obstantibus apostolicis ac bone memorie Octonis et Octoboni olim in Regno Anglie dicte sedis Legatorum necnon in Prouincialibus et Sinodalibus Concilijs editis generalibus uel specialibus Constitutionibus et ordinationibus statutis quoque et consuetudinibus Monasteriorum Domorum et ordinum predictorum iuramento confirmatione apostolica uel quauis firmitate alia roboratis necnon quibusuis suspensionibus et limitationibus similium concessionum et facultatum hactenus factis, seu imposterum faciendis per nos et sedem predictam etiam cum quibusuis clausulis etiam derogatoriarum derogatorijs fortioribus efficacioribus et insolitis et talibus quod illis nullatenus possit derogari sub quibus presentes nequaquam comprehendi uolumus

ceterisque contrarijs quibuscunque. Prouiso quod Maiestas tua Regia concessione celebrari faciendi ante diem parce utatur quia cum in Altaris ministerio immoletur dominus noster dei filius Jesus Christus qui candor est lucis eterne congruit hoc, non in Noctis tenebris fieri sed in luce. Nulli ergo omnino hominum liceat hanc paginam nostre suppletionis dispensationis absolutionis concessionis et uoluntatis infringere uel ei ausu temerario contraire. Si quis autem hoc attemptare presumpserit indignationem omnipotentis Dei ac beatorum Petri et Pauli Apostolorum eius se nouerit incursurum. Datum Rome apud Sanctum petrum Anno Incarnationis dominice Millesimoquingentesimo quarto Tertiodecimo Kalendas Junij Pontificatus nostri Anno Primo.

Sigismundus.

On the back is written: P. de Comitibus. The Document is endorsed: Registrata apud me Sigismundum. And in a later hand: Julij Papae 2di Indulgentia &c. concessa Henrico 7° et Margaretae Genetrici eius, &c. Anno Domini 1504, 13 Cal. Junij Pontificatus nostri Anno primo.

On the back is also written in a contemporary English hand: Confessionale, de suplecione defectuum confessoris et super eisdem dispensacione. Et quot licet super receptis summate ordinare componere et disponere. Et quod visitandum capellam in qua fuerit habeat indulgencias stacionum in vrbe. Et de absolucione et plenaria remmissione &c. Et de post nonam. Et de altari portatili. Et de commutacione votorum. Et de non ieiunandum. Et de lacticinijs commedendum. Et de esu carnium. Et de diuersis alijs indultis.

[To be continued.]

R. F. S.

COLLEGE FICTION.*

The Hand of the Spoiler: being the adventures of Master Wilfrid Clavering at Corbridge, Hexham, and elsewhere, in the twenty-seventh, twenty-eighth, and twenty-ninth years of his late Highness King Henry the Eighth. By R. H. FORSTER. (Newcastle-on-Tyne: Mawson, Swan, and Morgan, 1898.)

OR readers of the Eagle there lies some satisfaction in the knowledge that college fiction is no longer exclusively represented by the editors' chronicle and tutors' testimonials, but has broken out in quite a new place, with a bound volume, an author, and publishers of its own. The credit of this enterprise is at least partly due to the author, though nine-tenths of the glory will be claimed by the noble but predatory Bird which has thriven for so long upon his literary productions. The purpose of this article is to congratulate Mr R. H. Forster upon his undoubted success in his new field; the Bird itself may be safely left to expatiate upon its honourable position of nursing-mother to a new writer of romance.

One supreme merit Mr Forster undoubtedly possesses; he writes in plain, straightforward English. We are sick of long-winded heroes, who speechify at intolerable length upon the field of battle, and flood us with cheap sentiment at each crisis of their eventful lives. We have out-lived the fascination of the nasty-tempered young gentlemen of Scotch extraction, who speak a tongue not understanded of us, and are very ready with their blood when the Covenant is called in question. Even the elderly heroes who use French oaths, and are

always misunderstood until the last chapter, have lost their charm. "By my halidome" and "grammercy seem less convincing than of yore, and no longer of themselves afford irrefutable evidence that the medieval background is properly painted in. Thus it is a relief to commune for a season with a writer who forswears the cheaper tricks of the trade, and depends for his local colour upon knowledge of the locality and a vigorous imagination. Add to this the robust delight of the north-country man for the Tyne and Tynedale, and "what things are to be seen beside Hexham and Corbridge"; and we get an impression that recalls to the man of Somerset or Devon the day when he first read Lorna Doone.

The Hand of the Spoiler does not profess to be a novel of character; still less does it deal with problems. The churchmen are pale reflexions of the ecclesiastics of The Abbot and The Monastery, and the villain, Sir Raynald Carnaby, is an ineffective person who would be at home at the Adelphi. But the boys of the story are well drawn by one who has not lost touch with them, or forgotten their peculiar outlook on life; and their adventures are ingeniously devised, and described with a spirit and evident enjoyment that would carry the most superior person off his feet.

To our thinking the best scene in the book is where the boy Wilfrid Clavering escapes by the aid of the great oak tree from an upper window in the fortified house of the Sheriff of Hertfordshire, and this will serve to give us a taste of Mr Forster's quality :

"And then John lifted me up to the window; and, creeping past the bar, I sat down upon the outer sill and peered forth into the night, striving to see some way whereby I might come at one of the branches, and so climb down to the ground.

"Truly, 'twas an ill seat and a fearsome upon that stormy night; and my heart well nigh gave way again as I strove to make my eyes pierce through the pitchy blackness which was outspread beneath me, around me, above me, everywhere. And