York a city of destruction and a "storehouse of the past" LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS YORK IN THE XVTH CENTURY _(From a drawing by E. Ridsdale Tate)_ COOKING WITH THE SPIT _(From the Louttrell Psalter)_ BISHOP AND CANONS _(From Richard II.'s "Book of Hours")_ KNIGHTS DOING PENANCE AT A SHRINE _(From a XVth Century MS.)_ ADMINISTRATION OF HOLY COMMUNION WITH HOUSEL CLOTH _(From a XIVth Century MS.)_ SEMI-CHOIR OF FRANCISCANS _(From a XVth Century MS.)_ ARCHERY _(From the Louttrell Psalter)_ AN ABBOT [Illustration: YORK IN THE XVTH CENTURY FROM A DRAWING BY E. RIDSDALE TATE] A MEDIÆVAL CITY CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION In English history the fifteenth century is the last of the centuries that form the Middle Ages, which were preceded by the age of racial settlement and followed by that of the great Renaissance. Although the active beginnings of this new era are to be observed in the fifteenth century, yet this century belongs essentially to the Middle Ages. Perhaps the most attractive feature of the Middle Ages is that they were so intensely human. A naïve spirit appears in their formal literature, as in Chaucer's account of the Canterbury pilgrims, in their decorated religious manuscripts, in their thought, and very characteristically, in their architecture, which combines a simple naturalness with a bold and daring ingenuity. From columns, the constructional motive of which is so simple and natural, and walls pierced with windows, they erected systems of lofty arches and high stone-vaulted roofs, the stability of which depended on very skilled balancing of thrust and counter-thrust. To-day mediæval buildings are to be found all over England. The majority of them are examples of an architecture that has not been surpassed for majesty, beauty, size, and constructional skill. Such buildings, without the help of the literary and other memorials, testify by themselves to the greatness of the Middle Ages.