6. Decay of Discipline.

In the preceding century the ravages of the Danes had fallen heavily on many a house. In 870, Bardney with three hundred monks, Peterborough with eighty-five inmates, Croyland the refuge of the last independent king of Mercia, Witlaf, who bequeathed to it his horn that he might be remembered on feast days, which soon gave place to silence and mourning; the province of York and the coasts of Durham likewise shared in the storm of calamities which caused the insertion of a new petition in the Litany. With fire and sword the Northmen invaded Cholsey, Horningsea, Soham, St. Bee's, Carlisle, Repton, Wareham and Wimbourne, Ebchester, Boswell, Leominster, Bardney, Icanhoe, East Dereham, Minster in Kent, Henbury, Frome, Coventry, Gilling, Hackness, Laestingham, and Whitby.

Even if we exclude the places which bear the name of Minster in Somerset, Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Sussex, Dorset, Devon, Wilts, and Essex, and probably were only missionary centres, there would probably remain a list of nearly one hundred houses which were either destroyed in war, absorbed by greater monasteries, annexed to sees, or deserted from poverty, before the coming of the Normans. At that time there were about sixty houses of canons, including the secular cathedrals, and probably fifty Benedictine monasteries. The religious tone had become lowered; even in 1009 some houses were too poor to maintain a refectory and dormitory. At Canterbury, like Chaucer's memorable traveller, they hunted, moreover they hawked, diced, drank deep, lived luxuriously, and maintained a household of servants which rivalled a nobleman's establishment (W. Malm., lib. i. sc. 44).

Many bishops opposed the introduction of monks in place of canons, but Athelwold took high-handed measures. He placed a bale of cowls in the choir of Winchester, and ordered the canons at once to lay aside surplice and cope and don the monk's frock, or depart (Eadmer, Vita S. Dunst. A. S. i. 219). The Constitutions of the new reformer Lanfranc were scarcely

published (Reyner, App. iii. sc. 85, P. i. sc. 40) when the fatal precedent of abbeys exempted from episcopal supervision commenced at Battle in 1066. (Reyner, Tr. ii. sc. 5, p. 91.) William of Malmesbury, in 1140, sorrowfully declared that England had changed for the worse, as ancient endowments were spent without regard to the life of monk, guest, or poor (W. Malm., lib. ii. sc. 84). When Girald du Barri wrote at the end of the same century, he was able to contrast the new reforms of the Benedictine order; rival congregations which had arisen in place of a single conventual system—these were the Cistercian, the Cluniac, the Carthusian, and the Grandmontine; and he awards the palm to the regular canon of St. Austin. (Itin. Cambr. lib. i. c. 3; Spec. Eccl. dist. iii. c. xix. xx. xxi.; Reyner, Tr. i. sc. i. p. 157.) Malmesbury describes the Cluniac as‘rich in this world and of shining piety towards God.' Girald briskly lashes the Cistercians with scathing satire.

7. Norman Influence.

With the settlement of the Norman bishops, Rochester, Durham, and Norwich were confirmed to the Benedictine rule, and 'stables of clerks,' as Malmesbury coarsely calls secular foundations, fared ill, whilst alien priories (founded by foreigners out of love to their Norman home), wavering in their allegiance, and making a constant drain of English produce and money to foreign houses, were multiplied (Reyner, App. P. iii. p. 74).

The archbishops in provincial synods, Hubert in 1200 and Langton in 1222, enacted canons for the regulation of the internal discipline, the repression of fantastic fashions in the habit of monks and canons regular; offenders were to be sent for amendment to some other house, whilst a relaxation was made by the establishment of a misericord, or chamber of recreation, where a more generous diet was permitted, so that the refectory was scantily attended; and the legate Otto, in 1237, vainly ordered the use of meat only in the infirmary (Leg. Const. c. 19).

From this time, whilst churches rose far and near, as silently as the Temple that crowned Mount Zion, the genuine interest of the subject lies wholly in the private fortunes of individual houses, the changeful annals of their chroniclers, and the general estimation of the orders exhibited in the popular writers of the age, although these are so often overcoloured by personal or party bias in the award of praise and blame, like the unseemly burlesques on the misericords of stalls, as to require the constant exercise of a cool and dispassionate judgment in order to distinguish the rhetoric or satire from the substantial truth.

The inner life of a convent, and the domestic arrangements having already been explained, it remains for us to trace the development of the monastic system and its external influences on society.

The popular interest in monasteries is confined to admiration of their architectural remains; and it will be well at this point to remember that the beginning of the eleventh century was one of critical interest, and exercised a great change on the face of Western Europe. The year 1000, which brought with it a panic of superstitious fear and paralysis of prospective effort, had passed away, and was succeeded by an outburst of religious zeal in erecting new churches so universal that the earth seemed to be putting on new garments of white. The whole system was changed.

The monks of Abingdon in 675 at first had only twelve houses and twelve chapels, within a precinct wall, besides the abbot's lodging—which might have served as a model to the later Carthusian. The minster was 120 feet long, and had east and western apses, probably, as in the early church of Ramsey, holding the choral and congregational altars. A curious wheel of melodious bells was rung in service time. They wore black, and had coarse beds of sackcloth; there was no dormitory, and the refectory and common church were only attended upon Sundays and festivals. At Bury St. Edmund's there were seven small chapels round the minster. The canons of Twyneham had nine chapels within their close; Malmesbury had at least

Chronological Sequel of Foundations in Centuries. II

three; Glastonbury four (Bede, cap. ii. 6, iii. 7, v. 4; Ric. Hagust. i. 3; W. Malm. v. sc. 216).

When the Normans landed there were only two classes of association-1. the monastic or Benedictine; 2. the canonical or collegiate. The eight monks of Exeter Cathedral were in 1050 removed to Westminster, and twenty secular canons with twenty vicars replaced them. Undeterred by this significant reaction, the Lotharingian bishops of Wells and Exeter about the middle of the eleventh century had vainly endeavoured to introduce the new system of regular canons having a common refectory and dormitory under the rule of St. Augustine. Now in the train of the Norman came the Austin canon and the Cluniac monk. The Benedictine at Battle introduced the custom of the north of France in having a pendent dove within a crown of gold above the altar, as in the secular churches of Sarum, Exeter, and Lincoln, contrary to the usual cup-like receptacle.

At

The first mention of a sanctuary lamp is at Tewkesbury. The earliest of the many collisions between the Norman abbots and English monks occurred at Glastonbury, and turned upon their innovations introduced into the services and chants. St. Augustine's, Canterbury, the rood-loft is mentioned in 1064, centuries before it appeared on the continent. The matin mass there and in the cathedral was said at a shrine altar, while at Westminster, St. Alban's, and elsewhere it was said at a choir altar; but in secular churches in a side chapel, or under the rood, as at Exeter, for the sake of the work-folk before proceeding to their daily toil. There was an exception in the nave of Winchester.

8. Chronological Sequel of Foundations in Centuries.

The monks we have seen had rivals from an early date in the secular clergy of the cathedrals. The Regular Canon now appeared. Four houses of the order of St. Augustine were founded in the reign of William I., five Cluniac, thirteen Benedictine with six cells, and several alien priories. The Cluniacs had

never more than thirty-three houses, and only two of these were north of the Humber.

In the reign of William Rufus the last attempt was made to replace monks with secular canons; thirteen Benedictine, five Cluniac, two Regular Canons' houses, and five alien priories, cells of foreign monasteries, were built.

Another fitful outburst of religious excitement brought hither the Cistercians, the new reformers. Their austere manners and hard life recommended them to the people; Archbishop Thurstan welcomed them in the north, and they spread rapidly among the wolds. This new movement stirred up life in the older monasteries with a wide revival.

In the reign of Henry I. twenty Benedictine with fifteen cells, and fifty Austin Canons' houses were founded; thirteen Cistercians after 1128, and three of Knights Hospitallers. Canons of the Holy Sepulchre and Grandmontine monks now appeared in England.

In the reign of Stephen the Knights Templars, and in 1146 the White Canons of Prémontre were introduced; twenty-two Benedictine houses with five cells, thirty-two Cistercian, twentythree of Austin Canons with four cells, five Præmonstratensian, two Cluniac, thirteen preceptories, and eleven houses of the purely English order of St. Gilbert or Sempringham were built, mostly in the counties of Lincoln and Cambridge.

Henry II. built the first Carthusian monastery at Witham. They never had more than nine English houses, including the last monastery (1450) founded in this country. Twentyeight Benedictine houses (mainly nunneries), nineteen Cistercian, five Cluniac, twenty-seven of Austin Canons, and sixteen Præmonstratensian were founded.

In the reign of Richard I. fourteen Benedictine houses, thirteen of Austin, eight of Præmonstratensian Canons, three Gilbertine, and four preceptories were founded.

In the reign of John, who shook the bags of hoarding abbots,' eight Benedictine houses, as many Cistercian, nineteen of Austin, three of Præmontratensian Canons, six Gilbertine,, and three preceptories were founded.