In message <004301c255e2$18d86580$861afbd2@inui>, H. Inui
<[log in to unmask]> writes
>Can anyone give me any useful suggestions relative to Lent Licence during
>the period late Elizabethan and early Stuart ?
>
In the Middle Ages clergy and laymen had been forbidden to eat flesh
during Lent. A licence to eat meat could be obtained from the bishop,
for a price. However, by the Reformation the obligation to abstain no
longer applied in England.
WE. Tate, in _The Parish Chest_, p. 156, says that the obligation to
abstain was reintroduced on economic rather than religious grounds.
This was by an act of parliament of 1562-3, the purpose of which was to
'encourage the home fishing fleet, that great reserve of seamen for
national defence'. The Act ordered abstinence during Lent, plus every
Wednesday, Friday and Saturday and on Ember Days, under pain of a £3
fine or 3 months in prison. Exemptions, the Lent Licence, could be
purchased for a fee. Tate discusses these licences, with examples.
Graham Javes
|