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WHILE James I. of
Scotland on the one hand took active and vigorous measures for the
repression of sorning and every other form of mendicity on the part of
all that were able to work for their living, on the other lie introduced
regulations which conferred on mendicity a repute to which it could not
before pretend. True it is that from time immemorial pilgrims had been
in the habit of living on the alms of the faithful, and that the Church,
too, recognised an order of mendicant friars. But these eases were
anomalous and peculiar both friars and pilgrims chose the life upon
religious grounds. That of beggar students and candidates for the
ministry was not dissimilar for these, too, had chosen what was regarded
as a high, unworldly vocation, and to entertain them as guests was
generally regarded as an honour and a privilege. But by the Act of 1424
general mendicancy—only tolerated till then—was recognised in the case
of qualified persons as a lawful and laudable profession. Virtually the
Act permitted all not between the ages of fourteen and seventy to beg in
town and country; and, moreover, it instituted, under the countenance
and patronage of the local authorities, an order of beggarhood for such
as from physical or mental defects were unable to earn a living by any
other means. Such persons might be enrolled on application in Landward
districts to the sheriffs and in towns to the baillies. The most patent
and irrefragable qualification was blindness, but the claims of
lameness, if complete enough, and of of half-wittedness, if sufficiently
decided, were readily acknowledged; those who passed the test receiving
a gaberlunzie, or beggar's badge, which conferred the license to ask
alms of all and sundry, and the privilege of pursuing their calling not
only without molestation but with every prospect of success. Possibly at
first comparatively few found it necessary to take advantage of the Act,
for in Edinburgh at least tokens do not appear to have been issued to
beggars till 1502, and then only to prevent the increase of pestilence
by the influx of strangers. After the Reformation the distribution of
gaberlunzies was undertaken by the Kirk-sessions which generally made it
a sine qud non that the receiver should be a communicant and as
by a clause in the Act of 1424 it was charged that all non-licensed
beggars should work for their bread or be burned in the cheek and
banished the kingdom, the result was that the Kirk not only invited but
compelled into her fold all "the halt the lame and the blind."
In addition to the order
thus established throughout the kingdom, the king and (probably in
emulation of the royal example) many of the nobles extended authority
and countenance to a special body of beggars called bedesmen. The king's
bedesmen were as many in number as the king was years old; every Maundy
Thursday they assembled in his presence, when their feet were washed by
his own royal hands, and they received a new outfit for the year,
including a blue gown, a wooden cup and platter, a leathern purse, as
many pennies or shillings Scots as he was years old, and a pewter badge
with the words "Pass and Repass"; they were the aristocracy, the high
dignitaries, of the craft; their career, while much less toilsome and
anxious, was probably much more lucrative than of most in the learned
professions and no doubt the rank and file of beggardom, recognising the
honour and glory thus shed upon their calling, regarded the possessors
of its prizes with the mingled envy and admiration customary in other
professions. And as the calling, being thus explicitly recognised as
honourable, must certainly have included many very worthy and honest
suppliants—many persons held in general respect—the community seems on
its part to have co-operated with the very spirit of the law, and to
have ministered to the needs of legalised mendicants Witl1 ungrudging
cordiality and cheerfulness. This may be inferred even from such pieces
of poetical satire as "The Gaberlunzie Man'' and the "Jollie Beggar."
The "panky auld earle" who "cam o'er the lea" was ensconced in a
comfortable " place ayont the ingle," where he "cadgily ranted and
sang," and so thoroughly established himself in the good graces of the
daughter of the house that she fled with him ere morning; while the
punctiliousness of the Jollie Beggar in the selection of a bedroom
appears to indicate that a certain choice as to quarters—humble though
they were—was both claimed and allowed.
The institution of a
licensed order of mendicancy seems to have been necessitated by the
Church's neglect of her duties to the poor. In "The Dream" Sir David
Lindsay makes the misuse by the prelates of the patrimony of Holy Kirk—
"The third to be given to
the poor is,
But they dispersed that gear all other gatis
On carts and dice, on harlotry and houris."
one of the causes of
their "punition" in hell. Knox, too, wrote a satirical "Beggars Summonds
" to the friars to quit the " great hospitalis," which properly belonged
to the poor. Dated " Fra the haul Cities, Towns, and Villages of
Scotland the Fyrst Day of January, 1558," it was couched in the nanie of
" the Blynd, Ci'uked, Wedowis, Orpheilings, and all other Pure, sa
viseit. Be the Hand of God as may not worke."
At the Reformation the
Kirk adopted various measures of relief which tended to decrease the
necessity of begging; but, apart from its gainfulness, the calling had
the reconnnendation of independence as well as that peculiar charm which
attaches to adventure. By this time, too, the custom had struck so deep
that it could not be at once eradicated. Not only so, but in spite of
the restrictions that hedged the calling off, it was impossible to
restrain the majority of those in difficulties from sharing in its
benefits. The severest enactments were passed from time to time against
unlicensed mendicancy, but they were practically of no avail. One
permitted the detention of strong and masterful beggars as slaves; by
another they could be seized and employed in manufactories; a third
constrained them to toil in Government mines; provision was made for
their chastisement by time special erection of correction houses ; a
stricter supervision of the poor was enforced in every parish; an
endeavour was made to contrive a better system of police. But mendicancy
went on flourishing more lustily than ever, and shortly before the union
attained to proportions practically un- manageable. After the union it
began to decay; but the professional beggar continued to ply his trade
well into the present century, and the order of king's bedesmen was only
abolished in 1833.
The national manna was
the customary alms, and the "mealpowk" which figures in the poem of The
Jollie Beggar" remained the mumper's main equipment through the ages.
Seldom did it happen, even when times were hardest, that he went empty
away from the poorest door; and in the villages, so late as fifty or
sixty years ago, it was still the householder's duty to minister to the
blind beggar's needs, and pass him on from neighbour to neighbour until
he had made the round of the place. He sold his meal to a dealer, and he
was able to fare sumptuously in such haunts as "Poosie Nancie's" on the
proceeds. In the country lie was generally certain of a substantial
supper in the farmer's kitchen and a comfortable bed of straw in the
farmer's byre; and in many districts this tradition of hospitality
lingers still. But the picturesque and venerable blue-gown, the carted
cripple with his team of (logs, the half-witted ballad-singer in his
faded fripperies—all these have long since gone their last rounds and
passed from Scottish scenes. Perhaps their absence is no matter for
regret; but has the problem of relief for the deserving poor been solved
in such a way as makes the extinction of lawful beggary a theme for
unmingled congratuulation? |
