The Customs of Old EnglandSnell, F. J. (Frederick John)
History
The Customs of Old England
Snell, F. J. (Frederick John)
England -- Social life and customs -- 1066-1485
The first article stipulated that the said craft should, under certain
penalties, keep and maintain a light before the image of our Lady in our
Lady's Chapel, within the precincts of St. Frideswyde's Church; the
second, that no person of the said craft should work on a Sunday, save
on market Sundays and in harvest-time, or shave any but such as were to
preach or do a religious act on Sunday all through the year; while a
third provided that all such as were of the craft were to receive at
least sixpence a quarter from each customer who desired to be shaved
weekly in his chamber or house. One shave per week does not coincide
with our modern notions of what is attractive and presentable in the
outer man, but the same rule prevailed at Cambridge. The statutes of St.
John's College in the latter university affirmed: "A barber is very
necessary to the college, who shall shave and cut once a week the head
and beard of the Master, Fellows, and Scholars, as they shall severally
have need."
In the statutes of New College, Oxford, there is an injunction against
the mock ceremony of shaving on the night preceding magistration. It is
called a _ludus_ (or play), and is believed to have been affined to the
ecclesiastical mummeries so popular in the Middle Ages, in one of which
the characters were a bishop, an abbot, a preceptor, and a fool shaved
the precentor on a public stage erected at the west end of the church.
There was also a species of masquerade celebrated by the religious in
France, which consisted in the display of the most formidable beards;
and it is recorded by Gregory of Tours that the Abbess of Poitou was
accused of allowing one of these shows, called a _Barbitoria_, to be
held in her monastery.
The only men of religion permitted to wear long beards were the
Templars; and, speaking generally,[4] the presence or absence of hair
was one of the marks of cleavage between the clergy (_tonsi_) and the
laity (_criniti_). Even those privileged to wear long hair--we refer, of
course, to the male portion of the community--were required to be shorn
so far that part of their ears might appear, and that their eyes might
not be covered. At first it may seem strange that the question of
trimming the hair should come under the cognizance of the Church--the
person himself or his barber might have been deemed at liberty to
consult his own taste. The canon, however, which regulated the usage was
based on the apostolic challenge: "Doth not nature itself teach you
that, if a man hath long hair, it is a shame unto him?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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