procuraretur aliquid venenorum, quod nimis [i.e. valde] timebat
legatus;' and it is certain that poisoning was but too much in vogue
in these times, both amongst the Italians and the good people of this
island [41]; so that this was a post of signal trust and confidence.
And indeed afterwards, a person was employed to _taste_, or _take
the assaie_, as it was called [42], both of the messes and the water
in the ewer [43], at great tables; but it may be doubted whether a
particular person was appointed to this service, or it was a branch
of the _Sewer's_ and cup-bearer's duty, for I observe, the _Sewer_ is
sometimes called _Pragustator_ [44], and the cup-bearer tastes the
water elsewhere [45]. The religious houses, and their presidents, the
abbots and priors, had their days of _Gala_, as likewise their halls
for strangers, whom, when persons of rank, they often entertained
with splendour and magnificence. And as for the secular clergy,
archbishops and bishops, their feasts, of which we have some upon
record [46], were so superb, that they might vie either with the
regal entertainments, or the pontifical suppers of ancient Rome
(which became even proverbial [47]), and certainly could not be
dressed and set out without a large number of Cooks [48]. In short,
the satirists of the times before, and about the time of, the
Reformation, are continually inveighing against the high-living of
the bishops and clergy; indeed luxury was then carried to such an
extravagant pitch amongst them, that archbishop Cranmer, A. 1541,
found it necessary to bring the secular clergy under some reasonable
regulation in regard to the furnishing of their tables, not excepting
even his own [49].

After this historical deduction of the _Ars coquinaria_, which I
have endeavoured to make as short as possible, it is time to say
something of the Roll which is here given to the public, and the