TO THE RIGHT HON. WILLIAM COMPTON, SON AND HEIR TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE JAMES BARON COMPTON, OF COMPTON, AND EARL OF NORTHAMPTON. HAVING formerly proved at large,* that it is lawful for any, and expedient for me, to have infant-patrons for my books, let me give an account why this parcel of my History was set apart for your Honour; not being cast by chance, but led by choice, to this my Dedication. First. I resolved with myself to select such a patron for this my "History of Abbeys," whose ancestor was not only of credit and repute in the reign, but also of favour and esteem in the affection, of king Henry VIII. Secondly. He should be such (if possible to be found) who had no partage at all in abbey-lands at their dissolution, that so his judgment might be unbiassed in the reading hereof. Both my requisites have happily met in your Honour, whose direct ancestor, Sir William Compton, was not * In several Dedicatory Epistles in my "Pisgah Sight." only chief gentleman of the bedchamber to the aforesaid king, but also (as a noble pen,* writing his " Life," informeth us) the third man in his favour, in the beginning of his reign; yet had he not a shoe-latchet of abbey-land, though nothing surely debarred him save his own abstinence: as there is none in all your ancient paternal estate; for I account not what since by accession of matches hath accrued unto it. Thus are you the person designed for my purpose; and I believe very few, if any, in England, can wash their hands in the same basin,-to have no abbey-lands sticking to their fingers; and thus being freest from being a party, in due time you will be fittest to be a judge, to pass unpartial sentence on what is written on this subject. And now let me make your lordship smile a little, acquainting you with a passage in the Legend of Nicholas, a popish saint. They report of him, that when an infant hanging on his mother's breast, he fasted Wednesdays and Fridays, and could not be urged to suck more than once a day.† But, good my lord, be not so ceremonious, or rather superstitious, to imitate his example. Wean not yourself, until you be weaned, and let all days be alike to your Honour. I dare assure you, no spark of sanctity the less for a drop of milk the more. A good case is no hinderance to a precious jewel, and a healthful body no abasement to a holy soul. And when your lordship shall arrive at riper years, consult your own extraction, as the best remembrancer of worthy behaviour; in whose veins there is the confluence of so many rivulets, that a mean herald, by the * The LORD HERBERT in his "History," page 8. in die S. Nichol. fol. 55. + Lib. Festival. guidance thereof upwards, may be led to the fountains of the most of the English nobility. All I will add is this: As you give three helmets for your arms, may you be careful to take the fourth, even "the helmet of salvation," Eph. vi. 17. An helmet which here is worn close, (whilst soldiers in the churchmilitant we see but in part,) but hereafter shall be borne, like the helmet of princes, with the beaver open in the church-triumphant, when we shall see as we are seen: The desire of Your Honour's most engaged beadsman, I. PRIMITIVE MONKS, WITH THEIR PIETY AND PAINFULNESS. 1. First Monks caused by Persecution. WHEN the furnace of persecution in the infancy of Christianity was grown so hot, that most cities, towns, and populous places were visited with that epidemical disease, many pious men fled into deserts, there to live with more safety, and serve God with less disturbance. No wild humour to make themselves miserable, and to choose and court their own calamity, put them on this project; much less any superstitious opinion of transcendent sanctity in a solitary life, made them willingly to leave their former habitations. For, whereas all men by their birth are indebted to their country, there to stay and discharge all civil relations; it had been dishonesty in them, like bankrupts, to run away into the wilderness to defraud their country, their creditor, except some violent occasion (such as persecution was) forced them thereunto: and this was the first original of monks in the world, so called from μóvos, because "living alone by themselves." 2. Their pious Employment in a solitary Life. Here they in the deserts hoped to find rocks, and stocks, yea, beasts themselves, more kind than men had been to them. What would hide and heat, cover and keep warm, served them for clothes, not placing (as their successors in after-ages) any holiness in their habit, folded up in the affected fashion thereof. in the affected fashion thereof. As for their food, |