synod in matters of faith or contract. In 1517 the Benedictines of Tavistock obtained a bull of exemption.

3. Relation of Monasteries to the Diocesan Cathedral.

In order to draw closer the conventual houses to a secular cathedral church, several superiors held stalls, as the priors of Nostell and Hexham at York, the abbot of Grestein at Chichester, the abbots of Athelney and Muchelney at Wells, those of Sherborne and Montsburgh at Salisbury, and the abbots of Cormeilles and de Lyrâ at Hereford. In the same spirit of unity as well as of English patriotism, round the Sacred Car of the Standard floated the banners of St. Cuthbert of Durham, St. Peter of York, St. John of Beverley, and St. Wilfrid of Ripon, when Archbishop Thurstan marshalled his victorious army to confront the invading Scots at Northallerton,

4. Relation of Monasteries to the People.

The monasteries promoted the entertainment and instruction of the people. Miracle plays, which were the acting of the scenes depicted on frescoed walls and in stained glass windows of the church, taught in a popular though quaint form sacred history at a time when books were rare, and capable readers few. The attraction of the shrine with its glittering show by day, and glowing richly through the night, drew crowds of pilgrims and travellers when intercourse between distant parts of the country was infrequent and difficult owing to the rough highways and limited means of communication. The hospitable guest-halls received jesters and minstrels of the king's court or some noble household, to enliven with lays, antics, and merry pastime the dulness of every-day life, when public amusements were restricted to the tourney and rough rude games. A remarkable instance of the union of symbolic teaching with popular entertainment was offered in the custom at Malmesbury on Trinity Sunday, which was observed as a memorial of King Athelstan's gift of pasture land to the commoners

of the burgh, and the erection of the hayward's house on the monastery land, next the churchyard. There was commemoration of good Abbot Loring and dan Alured, the black monk, donor of the bell which called them to a special service, in which prayers were followed by ceremonious interchange of tripled kisses between a bachelor and a maiden, the latter carrying a hoop garlanded with flowers. Again, a curious anecdote will illustrate the pleasure derived from the sight of a diverting pastime or sleight of hand. Two of the first Franciscans who arrived in England, finding themselves on their way to Oxford belated among the flooded meadows and dense woodlands, sought shelter at a cell of Abingdon. The prior and monks came to the door all eager to welcome merry mummers and jugglers, such as the patched habits and broken speech of the foreigners betokened them. The first performance of the ambulatory miracle play took place before the abbey gate of Chester. The Greyfriars at Coventry performed in theatres drawn upon wheels; the canons of Thetford and Woodkirk took part in the scenic exhibitions or dramatic ceremonial of the church. The abbot of St. Mary's York kept a fool.

Through the streets and market-place, attracted by the prospect of a safe and comfortable lodging at night, came trooping palmers carrying branches from the Jordan and Holy Land; pilgrims from St. Michael's Mount, Puy, St. Denis, and Rome; and dusty-footed folk who bore the staff and scallop-shell of Compostella: as they passed along among the admiring crowd they sang sacred poems composed upon their march.

Spectacle, interlude, vigils, processions out of door and in door, preachings, feasts within the close at the installation of a new abbot, doles at the anniversary of one departed, attracted guests and visitors. Secular and regular vied with each other in liberal hospitality. The dean of Lincoln fed forty poor folk daily at his table; 1,500 people have been fed at a time in St. Paul's Churchyard, and 100 in the close of Exeter, and as many on successive anniversaries of the departed at Bath for the poor, not the rich; as Bishop King said, 'my remuneration is

not in the place I go from, but as my hope is in the place I go to.' At St. Augustine's, Canterbury, in 1295, the judges, 60 knights, and 4,500 lesser personages were the abbot's guests; and in 1309, 3007. was spent on an installation feast, in which 6,000 folk were regaled with 3,000 dishes and minstrelsy.

Fairs held under the shadow of the convent gates on the dedication day, with their attendant pastime and mirth, bales and merchandise brought from strange lands, enriched taverner and tradespeople by the influx of merchants, visitors, customers, and sight-seers. The townsfolk made merry with fresh arrivals of welcome guests, and home gatherings. The joyous festival which formed the conclusion of the commercial concourse at once hallowed the intercourse and gladdened the occasion. In time the pedlar gave place to regular traders, booths made way for shops, and the cottages of the humble village of dependent labourers were exchanged for the busy streets of the burgh, or even the splendour of a city. Such settlers formed the towns of Glastonbury, St. Alban's, and Malmesbury; the name of Coventre (Convent town) tells its own tale. Refugees took advantage of the sanctuary of Westminster. At Bury St. Edmund's, outside the precinct walls, four crosses (as at Beverley) mark the extent of the domain; and as early as the twelfth century a rough offering-box within the minster invited contributions to the fabric fund. At Battle the ‘leuga' was three miles in circumference. Abbots had their own court of justice and a jail; in some cases they had jurisdiction in matrimonial causes. The cellarer took the first choice of wares set out upon the stalls in market or fair, which were conceded by charter to a convent. Sheep were folded at night in the abbey pens for economical reasons, cattle pastured upon its commons by day, reaping-silver levied on every householder paid the wages of the husbandmen who cut its grain (as in the cathedral city an annual farthing was paid to the church for each hearth-fire); tithe from the eel pools and river fish, taxes for the use of streams in fulling the cloth from the weavers' looms, and fines for grinding corn at the abbey mill, brought money and fee into the treasury.

There were, however, bounds to such exactions and dues; the townsmen might loudly protest, and did on occasion rise in flat rebellion or serious rioting, so that on one memorable day when an imprudent cellarer attempted to levy a distress upon a defaulter's goods, all the old crones of Bury ran out of doors, and with their shrill voices and threatening distaffs drove back the obnoxious officer to the shelter of the gates. At St. Alban's the townspeople waylaid a queen on her journey, in order to protest against their compulsory use of the abbey mills. There is another side to the picture, as the humble chorister in the secular cathedral might aspire to the bishop's throne, the meanest novice might rise through successive stages of promotion to the abbot's palace, and take his place in the king's court, and a part in affairs of state. There are also many incidents on record to show how close was the attachment between the conventual and his neighbours. A certain number of monks dined weekly with the founder of Tewkesbury. Admiration of their good lives and belief in the power of human intercession led men like Hugh Courtenay and Lord Albemarle who founded abbeys, and Cœur de Lion who heartily detested monks, alike to say, when in danger of shipwreck in storms at midnight, 'Would the hour had come when the white monks will be praising God; for then they pray for them at sea, and God will remember us!' Again, superstition won great repute for Dieu l'encresse, where the deep baying of its white mastiffs was believed to have struck terror into the evil spirits even in the great deep, and protected the soul of Ranulph, Earl of Chester, in his last extremity. Kindness and good will also made the canons of Aldgate, London, the debtors of their neighbours. The first prior, Norman, had spent too liberally in building his new charge, so that the citizens who followed the Sunday procession round the cloister, peeping through the refectory door, saw the cloths duly laid, but tables bare of bread. At once the women of the ward formed a little society of ladies bountiful, and, until one by one they died off, each laid a loaf before the altar every Sunday morning, in order to supply the canons and their guest

Relations of Monastery to Literature and Education. 35

house. A fit of remorse on the part of King Stephen made him grant to Exeter Cathedral a rent to repair the damages inflicted in the siege.

5. Relations of the Monastery to Literature and Education.

The hostels of the monastic orders at Oxford, Cambridge, and Stamford furnished promising students with schools of learning, in addition to the reading rooms and cloisters of the monasteries. It is only an imperfect list which enumerates the following eminent contributors to the biographical, historical, and general literature of this country: Walsingham, Matthew Paris, Wendover, Rishanger, and Wheathampstead among the writers of St. Alban's; Lydgate of Bury, William of Malmesbury, Florilegus of Westminster, Higden of Chester, Eadmer and Gervase of Canterbury, Reginald Symeon and Turgot of Durham, Robert of Gloucester, Benedict of Canterbury, Jocelyn of Bury, Florence, Heming, Botoner of Worcester, Bartholomew Cotton of Norwich, the wise dreamer 'on a May morning upon Malvern hills,' were Benedictines; Ralph of Coggeshall, Ailred of Rievaulx, Bromton of Jorvaulx, Cistercians. Thomas of Elmham was a Clungiac. The Austin Canons produced (before Latin gave place to English) Wikes of Osney, W. Hemingburgh of Guisborough, Roger Hoveden, William Newburgh, John and Richard of Hexham, Knighton of Leicester, Peter Langtoft; and the Gilbertines boasted their poet Robert Mannyng of Brunne. The Grey Friars, whose schools at Oxford were of European renown, pointed with pride to the names of Friar Bacon, Duns Scotus, Ockham, Alexander of Hales Owen, 'the irrefragable doctor' Bungay, Burley, Peckham, Marsh, Walter of Exeter and Otterbourne. The Dominicans Kilwardby and Trivet close this roll, which implies fellow-workers unknown to fame, and powerful though unobserved, the anonymous authors of annals and chronicles of the realm.

Great was the rejoicing when William de Broke, monk of Gloucester, in 1298, was the first Benedictine who put on the scarlet habit of a D.D. at Oxford. His convent attended him,