[229] Gautier, ii. 107, from _Bibl. de l’Arsenal MS._ 854; e.g. ‘_Deprecatio pro dono instrioni impendendo_. Salutem et amoris perpetui firmitatem. R. latorem praesentium, egregium instrionem qui nuper meis interfuit nuptiis, ubi suum officium exercuit eleganter, ad vos cum magna confidentia destinamus, rogantes precibus, quibus possumus, quatinus aliquid subsidium gracie specialis eidem impendere debeatis.’ Collier, i. 42, gives a letter of Richard III for his bearward. [230] Collier, i. 41. [231] Strutt, 194; Gautier, ii. 173-8; H. Lavoix, ii. 198. They are called _Scolae ministrorum_, _Scolae mimorum_. They can be traced to the fourteenth century. Genève and Bourg-en-Bresse also had them. The Paris statutes of 1407 (cf. Appendix F) require a licence from the _roi des ménestrels_ for such an assembly. A Beauvais _computus_ (1402) has ‘Dati sunt de gratia panes ducenti capitulares mimis in hac civitate de diversis partibus pro cantilenis novis addiscendis confluentibus.’ [232] Hearne, _Appendix ad Lelandi Collectanea_, vi. 36; Percy, 367. The proclamation is dated Aug. 6, 9 Edw. II (i. e. 1315). [233] No technical term seems, however, intended in _Launfal_ (ed. Ritson), 668: ‘They hadde menstrales of moch honours, Fydelers, sytolyrs, and trompours.’ [234] C. J. Ribton-Turner, _Vagrants and Vagrancy_, chs. 3, 4, 5. The proclamation of 1284 against ‘Westours, Bards, and Rhymers and other idlers and vagabonds, who live on the gifts called Cymmortha,’ and the Act of 1402 (4 _Hen. IV_, c. 27) in the same sense, seem only to refer to the Welsh bards (cf. p. 77). [235] Ribton-Turner, 107 (14 _Eliz._ c. 5). Whipping is provided for ‘all Fencers Bearewardes Comon Players in Enterludes & Minstrels, not belonging to any Baron of this Realme or towards any other honourable personage of greater Degree; all Juglers Pedlars Tynkers and Petye Chapmen; whiche said Fencers Bearewardes comon Players in Enterludes Mynstrels Juglers Pedlars Tynkers & Petye Chapmen, shall wander abroade and have not Lycense of two Justices of the Peace at the leaste, whereof one to be of the Quorum, wher and in what Shier they shall happen to wander.’ The terms of 39 _Eliz._ c. 4 (1597-8) are very similar, but 1 _Jac. I_, c. 7 (1603-4), took away the exemption for noblemen’s servants. [236] Appendix F. [237] Gautier, ii. 156; Ducange, s.v. _Ministelli_. [238] Gautier, ii. 158. Strutt, 195, quotes from _Cott. MS. Nero_, c. viii a payment of Edw. III ‘ministrallo facienti ministralsiam suam coram imagine Beatae Mariae in Veltam, rege praesente.’ Chaucer’s pilgrims had no professional minstrels, but the miller did as well: ‘He was a janglere and a goliardeys, ...  ... A baggepype wel koude he blowe and sowne, And therwithal he broghte us out of towne.’ It was in the absence of regular minstrels that the pilgrims fell to telling one another stories.