John Sadler and Oxford, Bodleian Mss Mus. E. 1-5Author(s): David G. MateerSource: Music & Letters, Vol. 60, No. 3 (Jul., 1979), pp. 281-295Published by: Oxford University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/734838 .Accessed: 12/08/2011 02:13

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JOHN SADLER AND OXFORD, BODLEIAN MSS MUS. e. 1-5

BY DAVID G. MATEER

THE ANTHOLOGIES of John Baldwin, Robert Dow and John Sadler are among the most important sources of Elizabethan music, and yet comparatively little is known about the biography of these men and the circumstances and motives that induced them to undertake such work. Some research into the first two has already been carried out by Roger Bray1 and Philip Brett2 respectively, but the musicologist's knowledge of John Sadler has until now been very scant, though his work in other fields-as teacher, translator and churchman-has been recognized by historians for years. His activities as a music copyist are represented today by Bodleian MSS Mus. e. 1-5 and a later, smaller collection of which only two of the part-books are extant-the tenor (St. Michael's College, Tenbury, MS 1486) and the altus (in the private collection of Captain R. V. Berkeley at Spetchley Park, Worcester3). No detailed catalogue of the Oxford set exists in print, which is surprising in view of its special significance for scholars of the period. The present article is an attempt to supply that need and to tie up the various strands of the scribe's multifaceted career into a documented biography that sheds new light on the contents and compilation of the anthology.4

John Sadler was born in 1513, we know not where.5 He received his university education at Cambridge, graduating B.A. from Corpus Christi College in 1537-8 and M.A. two years later.6 From 1539 to 1546 he was a fellow of Jesus College, and in the latter year his name appears as one of the original fellows of Trinity in the. charter of founda- tion, though there is no record of any payment having been made to

"'British Library, R.M. 24 d 2 (John Baldwin's Commonplace Book): an Index and Commentary', R.M.A. Research Chronicle, xii (1974), 137-51; 'John Baldwin', Music & Letters, lvi (1975), 55-59.

2 The Songs of William Byrd (unpublished thesis), Cambridge University, 1964, pp. 19-23.

'Also known as the Willmott MS. Miss Margaret Crum informs me that this volume and Tenbury MS 1486 are soon to join Sadler's other part-books in the Bodleian Library.

4For brief bibliographical descriptions of the set, see F. Madan, A Summary Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, 1905, v. 649- 50, and Otto Picht & J. J. G. Alexander, Illuminated Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, 1973, iii. 103.

An entry in the survey of the diocese of Peterborough of 1576 tells us that at that time he was 63, a married man living in the parish of Sudborough (of which he was vicar), and a Master of Arts with 'bone erudicionis in lingua latina et theologia' (Lambeth Palace Library, CM XIII/56, f. 1).

6 J. & J. A. Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses, Cambridge, 1927, I/iv. 2.

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him.7 Sadler, it would seem, had found more lucrative or rewarding employment elsewhere, for his name next appears in connection with the grammar school at Fotheringhay, Northamptonshire. The splendid collegiate church there was dissolved in 1546 under Henry VIII's Chantries Act, but the school attached to it somehow survived, despite the view expressed by some of the inhabitants of nearby Oundle who maintained it had been closed down.8 An exemplification made on 15 June 1604 for Thomas Hurland, 'ludimagister Schole de Fodringhey', informs us that, after the second Chantries Act of 1547, commissioners Mildmay and Keilway

. . . by virtue of their letters patent dated 20th July in the second year of the late King Edward VI [i.e. 1548] assigned and appointed that a certain grammar school which long before the said 20th July was continually being kept in Fotheringhay. .. should continue, and that John Sadler, at that time school master of the same, should have and enjoy the room of schoolmaster, and should have for his wages ?13. 6s. 8d. yearly....

The first recorded payment of Sadler's government stipend occurs in the Ministers' Accounts for 1549-50:

Et in denariis solutis Johanni Sadeler Ludimagistro in Fodringhaie ad xiij'" vjs viijd per annum Viz. in allocatione huiusmodi hoc anno virtute Warraunti Walteri Mildemaye milites.10

Two years later he received a lump sum of ?43. 6s. 8d. which consisted of his salary for 1551-2, now made up to ?20 by an increment of ?6. 13s. 4d., together with four years back-pay of that increment cal- culated from Michaelmas 1551. Sadler was therefore teaching in Fotheringhay by at latest the Annunciation 1548.11 He received his last payment there in 1554-5,12 when he transferred his services to the re- established school at Oundle. The 1548 Comniissioners for the Con- tinuance of Schools in Northants had found 'that a grammer schole hathe been contynuallye kepte in Oundell in the saide Countie with the revenues of the late Guylde of our Ladie of Oundell aforesaide ... .'.

They therefore decreed '. . . that the saide Schole in Oundell aforesaide shall contynewe and that Wyllyam Irelande Scholemaster there shall have and enjoye the Rome of Scholemaster there And shall have for wages yerely vlj vjs viijd'."3 The chantry certificate drawn up in that year gives Ireland's age as 78, so it is hardly surprising to find that his name disaDDears from the Ministers' Accounts after 1554.

7 H. McLeod Innes, The Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge, Cambridge, 1941, p. 20.

8 See Public Record Office, E/301/35, Chantry Certificate 40. Unless other- wise specified, subsequent archival references are to documents in the Public Record Office.

9LR/ l/1 3 7. f. 184 (my translation). SC6/3-4 Edw VI/716, f. 45V. SC6/5-6 Edw VI/718, f. 42v. S SC6/Philip & Mary/492, f. 6v. He was succeeded by one John Lowthe:

see SC6/Philip & Mary/493, f. 9. 1 Schools Continuance Warrant: E/319/1, file, No. 13 (Northants).

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We lose track of Sadler too at this time, but for a different reason: in that year the Court of Augmentations, which was responsible for paying the stipends of the masters in royal schools, was absorbed into the Court of the Exchequer, and in the ensuing dislocation the annual payment of ?5. 6s. 8d. to the schoolmaster of Oundle fell into abey- ance. When Elizabeth ascended the throne Sadler's entitlement was reaffirmed by a decree dated 29 October 1560, after his appearance before the Barons of the Exchequer.'4 Sadler cannot have been wholly dependent on this meagre sum, otherwise he would not have left the Fotheringhay post for one that yielded little more than a quarter of the stipend. The move may well have been the result of some financial inducement offered by a wealthy patron. Francis Russell, Lord of the Manor of Oundle, who succeeded his father as second Earl of Bedford on 14 March 1555, acted as benefactor to a number of educational institutions; he left money to University College, Oxford, and founded a free school at Woburn, so it is natural that he should have been con- cerned for the welfare of Oundle School.15 In 1571, at the suggestion of Sir Edmund Brudenell of Deene, Sadler dedicated to the Earl his translation of Vegetius's De re militari, which he published as The Foure Bookes of Flavius Vegetius Renatus in 1572. In the Epistle Dedicatorye the author says that he has received, 'now many yeares latelye passed . . . a liberall annuitye or stipend of your honoure, whereby I have bene the better able to expresse suche poore knowledge as I had . . . not only in setting forth of this presente worke, but also in that trade, which I have professed a long time'-i.e. schoolteaching. It is not unreasonable to suppose that Bedford brought Sadler to Oundle and paid him a stipend which made his salary up to something beyond what he had been receiving in respect of Fotheringhay. We learn something of the circumstances of the appointment from the 'letters patent of John Sadler for the School in Oundell', dated 5 February 1564;16 apparently Sadler took up his position as master of Oundle before the Annunciation 1555, after the removal ('amocionem') of the aged William Ireland; however, it seems that the crown stipend of ?5. 6s. 8d. per annum was 'frozen' in that year, and remained so until Michaelmas 1559.

The year 1556 marks the beginning of Oundle School's associa- tion with the Grocers' Company in the City. Sir William Laxton, former Lord Mayor of London and eight times Master of the Com- pany, by a codicil to his will dated 22 July 1556, left property in London to the Grocers charged with certain payments amounting to ?38 a year for the maintenance of a free grammar school and alms- house in his native Oundle. The Wardens of the Company, who became governors of the re-endowed school. were required to appoint 'an

14LR/1/130, f. 174. See also SC6/1-2 Eliz I/1613, f. 9v* '5This concern is clearly demonstrated by the Earl's letter of 17 May 1557

mentioned in W. G. Walker, A History of the Oundle Schools, London, 1956, p. 60. 1' LR/1/134, ff. 104v-105v.

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honest, virtuous and well learned Schoolmaster, being a Master of Arts, to teach grammar freely . . . and also . . . one honest learned person to be Usher of the said School and to teach and instruct the scholars of the same under the said schoolmaster'.'7 Their salaries were to be ?18 and ?6. 13s. 4d. per annum respectively. Despite the difficul- ties and delays in bringing the will into effect, it is clear that neither in place nor in personnel was there any break between the old guild grammar school and the new Laxton foundation. When the Wardens finally took possession on 3 June 1573

. . .they satt all downe and began to conferr what thinges were next to be doone And after consyderacion. had it was thought good to call in John Sadler who tofore had byn scoolemaster of the said freescoole, but now of Late had discontynewed, and had not taught there, but placed a young man in his rome/And it was declared unto the said scoolemr that from hensforth the schole shalbe kepte in suche order as Sr Willrm laxton in his will hathe apointed And that from Midsomer next the scoolemr is to have for his wages xviijIi ayere And a howse to dwell yn/And therfore exepte he wilbe from hens- forth resydent in Owndle And be dylligent in teaching of the scollers that they may proffyt under him, that he shall remain there. To whiche the said John Sadler aunswered That he myndeth to be resydent and to use himself so here after that he hopith the Companie shall have cawse to lyke well of him. Wherupon it was thought good to prove him to se whether he will do as he hath promysed, And Mr wardens requyred them of the towne that if at any tyme they see that he doo not his duetie that they will forwith wryte them therof And they will se that redresse shalbe had wtt1 asrnuche speed as maie be.'8

The reason for the break in Sadler's teaching career referred to above was his institution to the living of Sudborough on 11 June 1568.'9 This did not prevent him from continuing to draw the yearly crown pension of ?5. 6s. 8d., as the Northamptonshire Ministers' Accounts of the period show,20 but combining the duties of a parish priest with those of a schoolmaster was apparently too much for the ageing Sadler, for in the Orders of the Court of Assistants for 18 March 1575 we read:

Item this courte was now informed that mr sadler scholemaster of Owndle is willinge to resigne his rome to the company/And ther were now certayne lettres redd, one from Sr Walter Myldmaye, another from Dr Wyhtegifte and one from the said mr sadler all tendinge to the prayes and worthines of one mr Wilkinsone doctor of fysick whoe is sueter to succed the said scholemaster at owndle . . . it was agreed that he-shall be admytted in the said rorrme of schole- master there.21

17 Laxton's will and codicil are printed in Walker, op. cit., pp. 54-58. 8 Grocers' Company, Orders of the Court of Assistants held 12 June 1573:

Guildhall Library, MS 11588/1, ff. 239-239v. "9Peterborough Diocesan Records, Institutions I (1541-73), f. 113. 20 SC6/Eliz 1/1622-9. 21 Guildhall MS 11588/1, f. 262.

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After Sadler had terminated his association with the Grocers, he retired to his Sudborough rectory; nine years later, however, we read of his resignation from the living on Thursday 20 February 1583-4.22 He was alive and seemingly well in 1591-the date of Tenbury MS 1486 and the Spetchley Park MS-but although the year of his death is not known, he cannot have survived long after his 78th birthday.

The measurements of Bodleian MSS Mus. e. 1-5 are as follows: 29.8 x 21.6 cm (e. 1), 29.2 x 22.6 cm (e. 2 and e. 5) and 28.9 x 22.2 cm (e. 3 and e. 4). The contemporary limp vellum covers are preserved in present bindings of eighteenth-century brown russia leather. The floral patterns and grotesque heads that decorate certain pages of the anthology are coloured with reds, blues, greens and so on; gold has been used for some of the initial letters near the beginning of the set. The action of a very acid ink has led to the disintegration of the paper in a few places and to a considerable amount of show-through. The watermark-grapes and a stalk with the initials 'A F'-is consistent throughout the collection and corresponds exactly to Heawood 2168.23 If, as is commonly assumed, the date 1585 inscribed so prominently at the beginning of Mus. e. 1 (f. 5v) was the year the part-books were started, then one must ask first what significance should be attached to the various other dates scattered throughout the anthology and, secondly, why it is that we have to wait until No. 27,24 i.e. near the end of the five-part section, before encountering motets from the Tallis- Byrd Cantiones sacrae (1575).25 These and similar questions will be resolved in the course of examining how the manuscripts were com- piled.

Sadler, it seems, had originally intended the first item in his books to be his In nomine-a sort of instrumental title-page to an exclusively vocal collection. The Byrd motets that precede it were apparently added later, for they are not included in the contemporary numbering of the pieces, which begins only with Tye's 'Miserere'. This is followed by more psalms and antiphons a 5, mainly by English composers of the older generation, and a couple of Continental motets by van Wilder and Crequillon. During the course of Fayrfax's 'Ave Dei Patris' (No. 6), and between Johnson's 'Ave Dei Patris' (No. 10) and Tallis's 'Salve intemerata' (No. 11), the shape of the directs at the end of each line of music changes in all the part-books, which suggests that the process of compilation was not an uninterrupted one. A marginal note at the end of Parsley's 'Conserva me' (No. 14) in Mus. e. 4 reads:

22 Peterborough Diocesan Records, Institutions II (1574-84), f. 77. E. Heawood, Watermarks mainly of the 17th and 18th Centuries, Hilversum,

1950, Pl. 299. 24All references are to the contemporary numbering. For a list of contents

see Appendix below. 25The exception is Tallis's 'Dum transisset', which occurs as early as No. 18;

but this is an old-fashioned piece, probably written and in circulation long before 1575.

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'senior sum ego/incipiam'. Sadler is here using the word 'senior' ('elder') in its New Testament sense, and from this we may infer that he had reached the end of No. 14 by the time of his ordination in 1568. The appearance of this very date after No. 14 in Mus. e. 3 (f. 34") can therefore be taken to refer to its date of copying, not composition. Indeed, none of the music up to and including this setting need have been composed after c.1555; much of it is in fact Henrician.

After the more modern Lamentations setting of Tallis and White (Nos. 16-17), a miscellaneous group of older pieces (Nos. 18-21) and an important cell of White's compositions (Nos. 22-25) bring with them another type of custos and a change to a less corrosive ink. When the 1575 Cantiones sacrae eventually appear, they come in a group (Nos. 27-29, 31), but again a change in the shape of the directs used in Nos. 29-31 suggests that they were not all copied at the same time. The last of the group-Tallis's 'Absterge, Domine'-is dated 1576 on f. 62 of the second book; as this cannot refer to its year of composition, one must assume either that Sadler took the date from some manuscript source of the piece or-more probably-that 'Absterge, Domine' re- presents the stage he had reached in the copying process by 1576. The latter interpretation draws support from the two Morley motets inter- spersed with the four Cantiones: after 'Domine, dominus noster' (No. 26) the same date of 1576 appears in four of the part-books, and after 'Domine, non est exaltatum' (No. 30) we read: 'Thomas Morley ... aetatis suae 19 an0 domini 1576'.26

The evidence assembled so far prompts the following specula- tions. Sadler began his anthology some time in the mid-1560s with such music as was readily available-compositions by Tye, Taverner, Tallis, Fayrfax and so on. After his ordination, and possibly even as late as c. 1570, he paused after the inclusion of White's Lamentations (No. 17), perhaps because of the weight of his new commitments at Sud- borough and/or because of work on his translation of Vegetius. He doubtless had finished that task on or before the date of its Epistle Dedicatorye ('the first daye of October 1571'), and, finding himself free once again to resume his music collecting, may soon afterwards have copied Nos. 18 ff. On his confirmation as headmaster of the new Laxton foundation in 1573 he celebrated the appointrnent by decorat- ing a page of one of his part-books (Mus. e. 2, f. 32V) with a floral design which announces his new status-'iohn sadler grocer'. The four psalm-motets by Robert White (Nos. 22-25) may well have been in- cluded as a gesture of respect to the memory of the composer who died in November 1574. The reason, I suggest, why no music from the 1575 Cantiones occurs before No. 27 is that, with the exception of such pieces as Tallis's 'Dum transisset', none was available up to that time. It may well have taken ten or twelve months for the printed part-books to reach Sadler, or for selected motets from them to circulate in manu-

26 Mus. e. 3, f. 60v.

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script, but when they did he copied a small group of four. The two juxtaposed Morley pieces, also dated 1576, appear to provide this theory with independent corroboration. Sadler may well have begun copying the four-part music in that year too, for the same form of direct found in Nos. 29-31 appears at the beginning of Taverner's 'Western Wind' Mass towards the end of the anthology.

Sadler appears to have set aside the collection after No. 31, for the next motets, Byrd's 'Ne irascaris' (No. 32) and Taverner's 'Mater Christi' (No. 33) are dated 1580 (Mus. e. 2) and 1581 (Mus. e. 5) respectively. Both Nos. 32 and 34, as well as the two Byrd works which Sadler added to the beginning of the part-books about this time, were eventually published in the Cantiones sacrae of 1589. Some of the pre- liminary and final leaves were later decorated with inscriptions and geometrical patterns, but a number of omissions and elementary spell- ing errors in the Latin make it doubtful that Sadler was responsible for them. The desire to use designs more intricate than he himself was capable of executing may have necessitated the assistance of another scribe, who, though working to Sadler's specifications, was perhaps Latinless. The completion-date-1585-was finally added to the beginning of the first book, some twenty years after the set was started.

Apart from the flowers and grotesques, Sadler decorated his antho- logy with drawings of owls, hounds, swine, and bells. The first two are usually associated with some enigmatic phrase or proverb; a fierce- looking dog, for instance, occurs on f. 31 of Mus. e. 2 in conjunction with 'Howe yis hownd hunteth cownter' and on f. 53 of Mus. e. 4, beside 'a hote weather for howndes to hunte'. The owl is no less puz- zling; it appears on f. 24 of the first book with 'I wyll not sing shut in a cage', and on f. 31 of Mus. e. 3 with 'I am sycke for a mowse'. Both the talbot and the owl were, of course, common heraldic charges, and it is possible that their presencc here is a consequence of Sadler's growing interest in heraldry, which manifests itself so plainly in the illustrations and initial letters of Tenbury MS 1486 and the Spetchley Park book. The sow and the bell, which appear in all books before Morley's 'Domine, non est' and Taverner's 'Mater Christi' respectively, are easier to justify; they are the symbols of St. Antony of Coma, patron saint of the Grocers' Company.

The Bodleian set is also handsomely and liberally annotated with mottoes, adages and quotations from various sacred sources. Most are in Latin and range from everyday proverbs such as 'Dum spiro, spero'27 to short biblical extracts of a general nature, e.g. 'Timor domini fons vitae' (Prov. xiv. 27a).28 However, the splendid sun-dial design that appears at the beginning of the first book (f. 5v) seems to set the tone of the inscriptions in the collection, for many convey a concern for the

2' Mus. e. 3, f. 31 . 28 Mus. e. 2, f. 3V.

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passage of time and the transitoriness of human existence. Advice such as 'Spende not the tyme ydlely"9 and 'Cogita mori'3 commonly appeared on sun-dials of the period. Sadler, an old man when the set was finally completed, was apparently no different from other Eliza- bethans in his morbid preoccupation with the inexorable onslaught of death.31 A number of tags clearly indicate that he considered the final reckcning with his God to be near at hand, e.g. 'Memento me [sic], domine, in regno celorum' (cf. Luc. xxiii. 42),32 and 'Dominus dedit, dominus abstulit, placuit sicut deo ita factum est'.3 This latter quotation, notwithstanding the slight alteration in the Latin, is one of the sentences from the Burial service as it appears in the Liber Precum Publicarum (1560),X3 and there are other extracts from the Litany and the Psalms, such as one might expect to be the choice of someone who was vicar of Sudborough for sixteen years. Most of the inscriptions, however, do not conform so readily with our preconceived picture of the man; for instance, 'Credo videre bona domini in terra vivencium',35 and 'A porta inferi erue, domine, animam meam'36 are psalm antiphons at Matins and Lauds respectively in the Office of the Dead in the Sarum and Roman rites. Their appearance here is surely somewhat inconsistent with Sadler's membership of the Anglican clergy. Even if one accepts the counter-claim that both antiphons, in English translation, had already formed part of the Burial service contained in the first Edwardian Prayer Book, one is still confronted with the difficulty of explaining the presence of other quotations which are peculiar to the Catholic Office, e.g. 'Omnis spiritus laudet dominum', another psalm antiphon from the Officium Mortuorum (Lauds), and 'Sana, domine, animam meam',37 the beginning of the second antiphon (third Nocturn) at Matins in the same service.38 The suspicion that Sadler may have been using the Breviary as a source of quotation is substantiated by an analysis of the other inscriptions. Around the edge of the prominent sun-dial in the first book one reads: 'Qui vult venire post me dicit dominus abneget semetipsum et tollat crucem suam et sequatur me'. There are at least three biblical sources for this sentence-Matt. xvi. 24, Marc. viii. 34, and Luc. ix. 23-but none of them corresponds exactly to Sadler's quotation with respect to the constituent words and/ or their order. The sentence does appear, however, precisely as he gives

29 Mus. e. 3, f. 22. 3" Mus. e. 3, f. 29. 3 See Roy Strong, The English Icon: Elizabethan and Jacobean Portraiture,

London, 1969, pp. 37-40. 32 Mus. e. 3, f. 3V. 3 Mus. e. 5, f. 50w.

Liturgical Services . set forth in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, ed. W. K. Clay, Cambridge, 1847.

"Mus. e. 5, f. 4V. 36 Mus. e. 2, f. 76. Sadler modifies the original slightly to 'animas nostras',

thus broadening the scope of his petition. 87 Mus. e. 1, ff. 57, 23. 8 Breviarium ad Usum insignis Ecclesiae Sarum, ed. Francis Proctor &

Christopher Wordsworth, Cambridge, 1882, ii. 281 and 277.

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it, in the Sarum Breviary as a psalm antiphon at Lauds In Natali unius Martyris.39 On f. 3v of Mus. e. 5 we find 'In conspectu angelorum Psallam tibi deus meus', which without the 'deus meus' is Ps. cxxxvii. lb; with it, however, it is the antiphon to the same psalm at Vespers on Feria VI.40 Again, on f. 13 of the second book the following occurs: 'Euge serve bone et fidelis quia super pauca fuisti fidelis, supra multa te constituam, dicit dominus'. This corresponds exactly to part of Matt. xxv. 23 except for the final 'dicit dominus', which appears only when the sentence is used in its ritual position, as an antiphon at Lauds In Natali unius Confessoris.4'

The inclusion of these and many other fragments from the Catholic liturgy suggests that a profound change occurred in Sadler's religious beliefs during the compilation of the part-books. A major contributing factor in this transformation was doubtless his impending death. Know- ing his days to be numbered, Sadler may well have asked to be received back into the Catholic faith. Remorse at having abandoned the faith of his youth would explain the guilt-ridden and penitential tone of many of the inscriptions.42

The most popular part of the Breviary for Sadler seems to have been the Commune Sanctorum. We have already seen that an antiphon from Lauds In Natali unius Martyris figures at the beginning of the collection (Mus. e. 1, f. 5V); three folios later we read: 'Hoc est pre- ceptum meum ut diligatis invicem sicut dilexi vos' (Joan. xv. 12)-the first antiphon at Lauds In Natali unius Apostoli.43 On f. 56v of the same volume appears 'Justus ut palma florebit in domo domini', the responsory at None In Natali unius Martyris and In Natali unius Con- fessoris." At Lauds in both these services we also encounter 'Justorum autem anime, in manu dei sunt'.45 At the very end of Mus. e. 2 (f. 76) appears 'Qui sequitur me non ambulat in tenebris sed habebit lumen vite dicit dominus deus noster', another antiphon at Lauds In Natali unius Martyris, except that the 'deus noster' has been added in order to complete the geometrical shape.46 Again, at the end of the third book (f. 76) is written 'Beatus vir qui in lege domini meditabitur [sic] voluntas eius permanet die ac nocte et omnia quecunque faciet semper prosperabuntur', the first antiphon at Matins In Natali unius Con-

89 Ibid., ii. 384. 4" Ibid., ii. 210. 41 Ibid., ii. 420. 'E.g. the first verse of Ps. 1, 'Miserere mei, Deus', which is quoted in its

entirety on f. 58 of Mus. e. 2; the beginning of the fourth verse of the same psalm, 'Tibi soli peccavi et malum coram te feci', an antiphon at Lauds on Feria V (Mus. e. 4, f. 56); Ps. xl. 4, 'Ego dixi, domine, miserere mei sana animam meam quia peccavi tibi' (Mus. e. 5, f. 70), which is either the third responsory on Feria III in the first week after the Octave of the Epiphany (Breviarium . . . Sarum, col. ccccxxv) or the gradual at Mass on the first Sunday after Trinity (Missale ... Sa.rum, ed. F. H. Dickinson, Burntisland, 1861-83, col. 461).

B Breviarium ... Sarum, ii. 368. 4Ibid., ii. 385, 421. 45Mus. e. 2, f. 4'.

"Breviarium ... Sarum, ii. 383.

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fessoris et Pontificis,47 and Mus. e. 4 concludes with the following in- scription: 'In celestibus regnis sanctorum habitacio est, et in eternum requies eorum, alleluya' (f. 67), which is an antiphon at Lauds in the Commune Apostolorum in Paschal time.48 Lastly, at the back of the fifth book (f. 70) is written 'Qui me confessus fuerit coram hominibus con- fitebor et ego eum coram patre meo qui est in celo'. Without the final four words this is the first antiphon at Lauds In Natali unius Martyris ;49

as it stands, it is very similar to Matt. x. 32 where the final phrase appears, albeit in a different case and word order. Again it seems that the extra text was required to complete the circular design.

This emphasis on martyrs and confessors reflects another underlying theme in these part-books, that of humiliation and persecution suffered in the name of one's faith. Such extracts as the following speak for them- selves: 'Elegi abiectus esse in domo dei mei: magis quam habitare in tabernaculis peccatorum' (Ps. lxxxiii. 1 lb), or 'Qui semitant [sic] in lacrimis in exultacione metent' (cf. Ps. cxxv. 5),5? and it is surely no coincidence that the texts of the two Byrd motets that head the collec- tion also tell of suffering, self-abasement and the desire for freedom from 'the yoke of our captivity'.5" The Northern Rebellion in 1569 and the arrival in the following year of the papal Bull excommunicating and deposing Elizabeth, together with the exposure of the Ridolfi Plot (1571), had dire consequences for Catholicism in England, for they brought to an end the large measure of practical toleration the faith had enjoyed during the first decade of the reign. The Parliament of 1571 subjected to the penalty of treason anyone who reconciled another to Rome, and it was under this shadow that the first wave of missionaries from Douai arrived in England in 1574. The trickle of executions which began in 1570 increased alarmingly after 1581; according to the penal legislation of that year saying Mass was punishable by a fine of 200 marks and a year in prison, hearing it 100 marks and the same im- prisonment, and recusancy unaggravated by these offences ?20 a month. Conviction spelled jail (even death) for every priest and beggary for every layman, and Catholic England was in despair.

In the face of such oppression certain hitherto innocuous quotations in Sadler's part-books, such as the sun-dial motto 'Post tenebras, spero lucem' or Ps. cxviii. 62a: 'Media nocte surgebam ad confitendum tibi',52 take on a new and very special significance; so too does the antiphon to the Nunc dimittis at Compline, 'Salva nos, Domine', which appears complete on f. 19v of Mus. e. 4. The heads that appear in the initial letters of certain pieces also lend support to the notion that Sadler, at some time during the anthology's compilation, was motivated

47 Ibid., ii. 411. 48 Ibid., ii. 358. 4' Ibid., ii. 383.

Mus. e. 5, f. 52; Mus. e. 3, f.3v. 5 See J. Kerman, 'The Elizabethan Motet: a Study of Texts for Music', Studies

in the Renaissance, ix (1962), 273-308. 5' Mus. e. 3, f. 6; Mus. e. 4, f. 65.

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by some strong commemorative impulse. A number of them are, to use heraldic language, 'couped at the neck and bleeding, wreathed about the temples'. They precede the following pieces in all part-books- Nos. 1, 17* 19, 20*, 21*, and 24-but occur before Nos. 3* and- 22 in four of the part-books only, and before No. 8* in Mus. e. 2 and e. 4.53 The only factor determining which numbers should receive such treatment seems to have been the presence of a stem in the initial letter which enabled the heads to be incorporated easily. In the context of this collection as a whole, it is not fanciful to regard the inclusion of such gruesome images as a generalized protest against the humiliating and brutal treatment of Catholics by the authorities and as a plea for tolerance. But Sadler may well have been hinting at one victim in particular, since the heads all bear a striking resemblance to each other despite differences in facial expression. Certain details do indeed render it possible to be more precise about his identity, for some of the heads are wearing what appears to be a clerical cap or biretta, and a balloon issuing from the mouth of one of them contains the words 'Verbum dei'.4 Clues such as these rather suggest that our search for a suitable candidate may usefully be confined to the company of martyred priests. If the copying-date of the initial letters and heads was also that of the music they precede, then we could further restrict ourselves, but such an assumption would be unwarranted in view of the considerable evidence there is to show that a period of years sometimes elapsed between Sadler's copying a piece and his subsequent inclusion of its initial letter and/or illustration. For instance, the style of the initial 'N' of Byrd's 'Ne irascaris' (No. 32, copied 1580) is identical with that of the 'D' at the beginning of White's 'Domine, non est exaltatum' (No. 24, music copied c. 1575), and it is not unfair to suppose that they were executed contemporaneously; similarly, the drawings of the sow and the bell, which occupy the space left for the initial letters before Morley's 'Domine, non est exaltatum' (copied 1576) and Taverner's 'Mater Christi' (copied 1581), were probably added at the same time because of their common emblematic association with St. Antony of Coma; and the 'SADLER' monogram which appears within the circular inscription on the 'title-page' of Mus. e. 5 (copied c.1585) also occurs before Byrd's 'Attollite portas' (copied 1576). One must therefore con- clude that there is no necessary connection between the copy-dates of the motets and that of their respective initial letters and illustrations.

Far from widening the period of investigation, these observations actually reduce it substantially, for if the 'D' of No. 24 is contemporary with the 'N' of No. 32, then the execution of the victim whose head is depicted in the 'D' cannot have taken place before 1580; it follows that the heads which occur earlier in the anthology-if they belong

' An asterisk indicates that the head appears severed in at least one of the part-books.

5 Mus. e. 2, f. 40.

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to the same person-must also have been added about that date. Despite the large number of English martyrs for the period 1580-85, one in particular can lay strong claim to have been the inspiration of Sadler's memorial gesture. In 1581 Father Edmund Campion, leader of the Jesuit mission in England, was betrayed, tried and executed at Tyburn with two other priests-an event that shook the nation, not just the Catholic community, and called forth a flood of theological tracts, biographies and elegaic verse.55 The priests had been arraigned, not under any of the recent penal legislation, but under the ancient treason act of 1352, a decision which, though it was designed at the time to side-step any charge of religious persecution, has only served to further compromise the authorities in the eyes of posterity. On the testimony of biased or false witnesses, Campion and his co-defendants were found guilty and condemned to a traitor's death. They suffered the full rigours of the sentence of execution on 1 December:

Ye shall be drawn . .. upon hurdles to the place of execution, and there be hanged and let down alive, and your privy parts cut off, and your entrails taken out and burnt in your sight; then your heads to be cut off and your bodies divided into four parts... .56

The severed heads of the part-books are certainly consistent with such a fate; could they be interpreted as personal expressions of the horror and shock Sadler felt at the butchery of men who, even in the hour of death, had each professed their innocence of all conspiracy and treason? Their judicial murder may well have moved him to inscribe on f. 28v of Mus. e. 4 the cynical biblical comment 'Omnis homo mendax'.57 According to one eye-witness account of the executions, Campion prayed for Elizabeth before his death and wished her 'a long, quiet raigne, with all prosperity'.68 Such behaviour was symptomatic of the feeling among the vast majority of English Catholics, who did not consider loyalty to the Queen to be incompatible with their religious convictions, a sentiment echoed by Sadler himself on f. 8 of Mus. e. 2 in the inscription 'Vivat Regina Amen'.

Our theory thus far has been based on an examination of only some of the inhabited initials of the manuscripts; in at least nine other instances, however, the head depicted is that of an imbecile jester or fool wearing either a feather or the traditional motley coxcomb-an image which, at first sight, would seem to be out of keeping with the high seriousness of Sadler's intentions. Yet any incongruity vanishes on consideration of Campion's final minutes on the scaffold and his

Byrd's 'Why do I use my paper, ink and pen' draws on lines from one such poem attributed to Henry Walpole, who witnessed Campion's death.

Evelyn Waugh, Edmund Campion, 2nd edn., London, 1947, p. 198. Ps. cxv. 2b.

58 A true reporte of the death & martyrdome of M. Campion Iesuite and preiste, & M. Sherwin, & M. Bryan preistes at Tiborne . .. Observed and written by a Catholike preist which was present therat, Wherunto is annexid certayne verses made by sundrie persons [1582], f. iOT.

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valedictory address to the assembled throng. The 'true reporte .

informs us that Campion

. . . with grave countenance and sweet voyce, stoutly spake as followeth: Spectaculum facti sumus Deo, Angeli & hominibus saying, These are the words of S. Paule, Englished thus: We are made a spectacle or a sight unto God, unto his Angels, and unto men: verified this day in me, who am here a spectacle unto my lorde god, a spectacle unto his angel & unto you men. And here going forwarde in this text, was interuptid & cut of by Syr Frauncis Knowles and the sheryfs.59

Except for the substitution of 'Deo' for 'muindi', the verse with which Campion began is I Corinthians iv. 9b, a not altogether unpredictable choice as it is the first line of one of the Epistles at Mass In Die plurimoru m Martyrum in the Sarum rite."0 If he had not been pre- vented from 'going forwarde in this text' Campion would no doubt have gone on to translate and interpret the next line of the lectio- 'Nos stulti propter Christum'-a line with which Sadler would have been totally familiar. Herein lies the real source of his hitherto puzzling representations of the decapitated fool, since Campion indeed became 'a fool for Christ's sake', in every sense of St. Paul's phrase, when he lost his head rather than deny his faith. On another level of symbolism the image works equally well, for the nouns 'innocent' and 'fool' were used synonymously at the time; what better way for Sadler to proclaim the victim's innocence than through this subtle play on the ambiguous connotations of the word 'innocent'-a simple, guileless fellow, but also a guiltless one, a scapegoat.6"

There can be no disputing the overwhelming Catholic bias of MSS Mus. e. 1-5. Apart from the inscriptions, initial letters, and such details as the drawings of steps leading up to a crucifix,62 the nature of the contents themselves must also be taken into consideration. The collec- tion is, to say the least, retrospective, containing as it does a large quantity of Henrician music which doubtless was of nostalgic value to Sadler as he looked back on better days. Even the texts of the more mnodern pieces, such as the four motets from Byrd's 1589 Cantiones, have a decidedly recusant flavour in their striking use of images from the Babylonian captivity. It is possible that the drawing of the owvl and its accompanying inscription 'I wyll not sing shut in a cage' (Mus. e. 1, f. 24) were intended by Sadler as a comnment on the effect such repres- sion was having on the cultural life of the country; does the owl's confinement and the stifling of its creativity refer covertly to another, more human member of the bird family-William Byrd? Certainly

59"Ibid.) ff. 8v~-9. 60 See Missale ... Sartum, col. 685*. In contemporary Roman service-books this

lesson is prescribed for the Masses In Vigilia unius Apostoli, Confessorum Pontificum Commune and Unius Confessoris non Pontificis Commune.

61 See Enid Welsford, The Fool: his Social and Literary History, London, 1935, particularly Chapters III and VII. , Mus. e. 1, f. 19; Mus. e. 2, f. 48.

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such double entendre would have appealed to Sadler's mentality." The drawings of the ferocious hunting-dogs may likewise have some ulterior significance; could they be seen as canine embodiments of the government secret service, whose agents tracked down their quarry- recusants and Jesuit priests-with such ruthlessness?64 Such an inter- pretation gives some point to one of the cryptic inscriptions associated with this creature: 'How yiS hownd hunteth cownter' (Mus. e. 2, f. 31); if the function of Walsingham's 'hounds' was to seek out Papists and their sympathizers, then, from Sadler's point of view, they really were on the wrong scent, for little suspicion could be expected to fall on him, an Anglican priest of many years' standing.

Finally, the part-books reveal yet another of John Sadler's many talents, for he claims to be the composer of the In nomine that appears near the beginning of the collection. This is the only known source of the work, and in the absence of any evidence to the contrary there is no reason to doubt the ascription. It is by no means an incompetent piece; Sadler was capable of manipulating imitative points skilfully and to good effect, with few of the solecisms and harmonic asperities one might expect to find in the work of an amateur. In fact, it com- pares very favourably with the extant compositions of John Baldwin, who was a professional musician. Sadler's ability as a composer should come as no surprise, however, for everything else about his anthology -the neat handwriting, the meticulous underlay, the quality of the musical texts, and the fine penmanship of the drawings and inscriptions -indicate that he was a man who worked to the most rigorous stand- ards in all that he did.

3 See E. H. Fellowes William Byrd, London, 1936, Ch. XVI for other con- temporary instances of such word-play on the composer's name.

4 For an interesting essay on the use of animal allusions for concealed political comment see A. J. Petti 'Beasts and Politics in Elizabethian Literature', Essays and Studies, London, 1963, pp. 68-90.

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APPENDIX

Contents of Bodleian MSS Mus. e. 1-5

Modern Contem- Composer Title number porary

number- ing

1 Byrd Aspice Domine de sede 5 voc. 2 Byrd Domine prestolamur 3 Sadler In nomine 4 1 Tye Miserere mei, Deus 5 2 Taverner 0 Splendor gloriae 6 3 Shepherd Inclina Domine 7 4 Merbecke Domine Jesu Christe 8 5 Aston Te Deum 9 6 Fayrfax Ave Dei Patris

10 7 Taverner Gaude plurimum 11 8 Crequillon Job tonso capite 12 9 Taverner Ave Dei Patris 13 10 Johnson Ave Dei Patris 14 11 Tallis Salve intemerata 15 12 Aston Gaude Mater Matris Christi 16 13 van Wilder* Aspice Domine 17 14 Parsley Conserva me 18 15 Tallis Domine quis habitabit 19a 16a Tallis Incipit lamentatio

b b Tallis De lamentatione 20 17 White Heth: Peccatum peccavit 21 18 Tallis Dum transisset 22 19 Johnson Domine in virtute 23 20 Fayrfax Maria plena virtute 24 21 Parsley Mem: Cui comparabo 25 22 White Miserere mei, Deus 26 23 White Exaudiat te 27 24 White Domine, non est exaltatum 28 25 White Manus tuae fecerunt me 29 26 Morley Domine, Dominus noster 30 27 Tallis 0 sacrum convivium 31 28 Tallis Salvator mundi 32 29 Byrd Attollite portas 6 voc. 33 30 Morley Domine, non est exaltatum 5 voc. 34 31 Tallis Absterge, Domine 35 32 Byrd Ne irascaris 36 33 Taverner Mater Christi 37 34 Byrd Tribulationes civitatum 38 35 White justus es, Domine 39 Taverner Western Wind Mass 4 voc. 40 William Par- Good fellows must go

son[s] 41 anon. Conye skins 42 Ferrabosco It Musica leta 5 voc. 43 [Tye] Miserere mei, Deus$ * 'Master Phillups' in the MSS. t 'Alfonso' in MSS. 4 Beginning of tenor part only.

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