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MISCELLANEOU S.

[The Editor is not responsible for the opinions expressed in this department.]

REVIVAL OF CONVENTUAL INSTITUTIONS.

[WE have now the satisfaction to present to our readers the authorities in favour of the REVIVAL OF CONVENTUAL INSTITUTIONS, referred to in our last number. The collector of them requests us to state that he cannot doubt that very many have either escaped his search, or lain beyond the range of his reading; and to add, that the transmission of any such, through the hands of the publisher of the CHRISTIAN REMEMBRANCER, will be thankfully acknowledged.]

THE duties of monks were these:-"to pray, groan, and weep for their faults; to subdue their flesh;-to watch and abstain from pleasures;-to bridle their tongues, and shut their ears from vanities;-to guard their eyes, and keep their feet from wandering;-to labour with their hands, exult with their lips, and rejoice at heart in the praises of God; . . . to obey readily, and never to contradict, their superiors;-to serve willingly, and assist speedily, the sick brethren;-to throw off the cares of the world, and attend to celestial concerns with their utmost endeavours;-not to be overcome by the arts of Satan, and to do everything with prudence."

"To monastic perfection. . . eight things were requisite keeping the cloister; silence;-no property;-obedience;-no detraction or murmuring; —mutual love ;-performance of the appointed duties;-and confession. Besides these, they were to be imitators of Christ, love an abject and lowly habit, be clothed in vile garments, walk simply in discipline, upon rising to matins meditate upon their actions;-to bear patiently the injuries of others,-to him that struck them upon one cheek to turn the other. to converse of, and meditate upon, the last judgment, wait for the Lord, and dread the anger of the Judge; to use private prayer when under a vicious impulse, because such prayer reminded them of their crimes, and made them think themselves more guilty;—to have respect for their habit in act, speech, and thought ;not to be querulous, angry, slanderous;-not to regard rashly the lives of their superiors, nor to become rebellious by beholding their faults. . . .”—Fosbrooke's History of Monachism, pp. 211, 212. 4to. edit.

T. Hearne to Browne Willis, on the dissolution and destruction of Monasteries. "I am mightily pleased with your transcript out of the Augmentation Office. The pensions of the abbots both of Abingdon and Battle are large nor are those of the monks inconsiderable. I look upon these pensions as evident proofs of the innocence of those places. I have not Burnet by me at the writing this letter, so I cannot refer to the page where he allows of the argument. Yet I am sure he does allow it, and one that is so well versed as you are in our history cannot but quickly find it in him. He certainly wrote his history, as he hath done his other books, in post or rather Scotch haste. The very arguments he hath made use of against the monasteries would have served against the universities. It is no wonder that some ill men are found in all large societies. I do not doubt but the visitors were the most inveterate enemies that could be employed. And therefore, to be sure, they would, in their returns to the king, insert all the stories they could rake up that sullied the reputation of the monks, and were likely to please the king, who was resolved to get their revenues into his own hands, and was, for that reason, very glad to encourage any person who was willing to lay open the characters of those men in the blackest terms that could be thought of.

"What Burnet hath offered against them appears to me to be spite and malice. His proofs are weak and groundless. And I do not doubt but that if every monk's character were strictly and impartially examined, there is not one of them but what would appear more innocent and virtuous than any one of the visitors; and it may be, than any one of their accusers.

"I would not be thought, from what I have said, to be an enemy to the Reformation. That is certainly to be commended, so far as it was carried on with a design to shake off and extirpate those gross errors that had, by degrees, crept into the Church; and so far the king himself is to be commended, as he proposed that in his opposing the pope. But then, whereas the Reformation was carried on with a design also to destroy all the abbies, and to take from them those lands that were conferred in the most solemn manner, this ought certainly to be condemned and to be looked upon as the highest instance of sacrilege; and by it the king hath left behind him such a blemish as will never be wiped off. And therefore my Lord Herbert might well conclude his history with a wish that he could leave him in his grave; which is a very excellent conclusion, notwithstanding very short; he having, by his demolishing the religious houses, and by giving and selling the lands to lay persons exceeded in sacrilege any particular prince that ever went before him. Nay, I question whether he did not exceed all the princes of any one single kingdom put together. I am very unwilling to speak ill of crowned heads; but what I have mentioned is so very notorious that it is no secret, and, therefore, there can be no manner of harm in speaking of it even in the most public manner. When Christianity was first planted in Britain the Reformers discovered plainly that what they did was out of a true principle of piety and devotion, and with a design only to propagate the Christian doctrines, and not with an intent to enrich themselves. They, therefore, did not destroy heathen temples and other places of worship, but only converted them to a Christiau use. Neither did they employ any of those things that had been appropriated to religion to a profane use; but decreed in a synod that they should continue for religious purposes to which they were originally designed, though with this caution, that under the severest penalties they should not be (as before) made use of upon any account in promoting and advancing the heathen, but only in carrying on and establishing the Christian discipline. Had King Henry VIII. imitated them, he had left in this point a very great and glorious character behind him. But in this he very unhappily failed, and the nation groans to this day for the sins that were at this time committed, not only by himself but by the agents employed by him, particularly by the visitors, who proceeded with the utmost rigour and violence against the monks, and stuck at nothing that they thought would expose them, and would serve as an argument to the king for dissolving the abbies and seizing on their lands and revenues, and afterwards employing them to such purposes as himself, by the advice of those visitors, and other enemies to the monks, should judge proper. . . ."

Note. The sentiments expressed in this letter are such as, in the opinion of the writer of this note, do no less credit to Hearne's heart than to his head. On the necessity and important value of the Reformation, there can be only one opinion; but the overthrow of every monastic institution, the barbarous cruelty inflicted on the professors of religion, and the destruction of every valuable monument of art, every splendid relic of literature, cannot but impress us with a disgust and abhorrence, which even the great benefits we have received from the change can scarcely allay. That there were some abuses in societies so numerous and extensive, was to be expected; but that these abuses were not general, is proved from the testimony of the visitors themselves.

Many of the persons appointed, not so much to inspect as to condemn the monasteries and nunneries of the kingdom, confessed that they could discover no ill-conduct in their inhabitants or domestic government ;-that the houses they were directed to suppress were of the greatest benefit to the neighbourhood in which they were situated, as well as of essential interest to the poor;

they instructed the children of the wealthy;-they employed the mechanics and labourers, and they relieved the poor. There are numerous instances on record of the most earnest intercession from the visitors in behalf of the unhappy objects of Henry's avaricious displeasure. The nunnery of Godstow, in Oxfordshire, the abbey of St. Edmund's-bury, in Suffolk, the monastery of Woolstrope, in Lincolnshire, with divers others, were reported as free from stain; their inmates were represented as pious, charitable, and virtuous, and their continuance deemed of vital importance to the country around them. The interesting account of the manners of one of these monastic institutions, given by one of the visitors (Gifford), is too curious to be omitted. He is speaking of Woolstrope: "The governor thereof is a verie good husbande for the howse, and well beloved of all the inhabitants thereunto adjoynynge-a right honest man, having ryghte religious persones being prests of ryght good conversacion, and lyvynge relygiously; having such qualities of virtue as we have not found the lyke in no place. For ther is not one religious person ther, but that he can and doth use either embrotheryng, writing bokes, with verie fair hande, maykng ther own garments, carving, paynting, or graffing (graving). The howse without any slaunder or ill-fame, and standinge verie solitarie keepinge such hospitalitie, that, except singular good provysion, it could not be mayntened with half so much more as they may spend. Such a number of the pore inhabitants nigh thereunto daily relieved, that we have not seene the lyke, havinge no more lands than they have. God be even my Judge, as I do write unto you the troth. The premises considered, I beseche you to be a means to the King's Majesty for the standinge of the sayde Woolstrope." The same visitor also intercedes for the nunnery of Polesworth, in Warwickshire," wherein is an abbess, namyd Alice Fitzherbert, of the age of sixty years, a very sadde (grave), discreate, and religyous woman: and in the same howse, under her rule, are twelve virtuous and religyous nonnes, and of good conversation. Wherefore ye myghte do a ryght good and meritorious dede, to be medyator to the Kyng's highnes for the said howse to stand and remayne unsuppressed. And in the town of Polesworth are forty-four tenements, and never a plough but one: the resydue be artyficers, laborers, and victellers, and live in effect by the said howse, and the repayre and resorte that ys made to the gentylmens' children and studiountes that ther do lyf, to the nomber somety me of thirty, sometimes of forty and four, that these be ryghte vertuously brought upp."-Warton's Life of Sir Thomas Pope, pp. 27-30.

"Such is the picture of two of these establishments: and this picture is given, too, by one of those persons absolutely sent thither to discover errors, not to report virtues-for it seems that Henry was displeased with such favourable sentiments, and attributed them to bribery. It is like,' said he, 'that they have receyved rewards which caused them to wright as they do.' Gifford, however, made his honesty the more manifest by continuing to represent the virtues and ability of the religious houses in the same bold strain.

"But the loss sustained by literature on this occasion can never be repaired, nor can its extent be ever ascertained. Whole libraries were destroyed, or made waste paper of, or consumed for the vilest uses. The splendid and magnificent Abbey of Malmesbury, which possessed some of the finest manuscripts in the kingdom was ransacked, and its treasures either sold or burnt to serve the commonest purposes of life. An antiquary who travelled through that town many years after the dissolution relates, that he saw broken windows patched up with remnants of the most valuable manuscripts on vellum, and that the bakers had not even then consumed the stores they had accumulated in heating their ovens! See also some curious instances of the ignorance of the Reformers in Wood's Athenæ Oxon. by Bliss, edit. 4to. vol. i. col. 468.-Letters of Eminent Persons, from the Bodleian Library, 3 vols. 8vo. Longman: 1813.

The monks being thus settled gave themselves up to idleness and pleasure, having in their hands the chief encouragements of learning, and yet doing

nothing towards it: but, on the contrary, decrying and disparaging it all they ould.”—Burnet's History of the Reformation, p. 22, line 10-15.

"This is a very hard censure to pass upon a whole order of men, who were once very honorable, but always very serviceable, to the Church. On the contrary, after they were thus settled (viz. by Dunstan, Ethelwald, and Oswald, in the reign of Edgar), they set themselves in with great industry to restore learning, and root out that universal ignorance which had then prevailed in England, and effectually performed it. Insomuch as, whereas before that time scarce any secular priest in England could read or write a Latin epistle,within a few years (as Elfric, a learned disciple of Ethelwald boasteth) the face of things was so changed by the endeavours of Dunstan and his master Ethelwald, that learning was generally restored, and began to flourish. At that time, and long after, the monasteries were the schools and nurseries of almost the whole clergy, as well secular as regular: for the universities (if there were any) were then very mean societies; and the whole learning of the nation was then, in a manner, confined to their cloisters. As the universities increased, they gradually decreased, yet still retained and cultivated learning, till about the middle of the 13th age, when the mendicant orders arose, who by their hypocrisy, juggling tricks, and extraordinary industry, ran down both them and the secular clergy. Within two hundred years, the mendicants became contemptible; and then both the monks and the seculars began to recover their ancient credit, and long before the Reformation had made great progress in the restoration of learning. They had all along brought up their novices in learning, every great monastery having for that purpose a peculiar college in one of the universities; and even to the time of the dissolution, they continued to bring up great numbers of children at school at their own charge for the service of the Church; and immediately before the Reformation many of the great monasteries were so many nurseries of learning, and the superiors of them very learned themselves, and promoters of learning in others. Such were Kidderminster, abbot of Winchelcomb; Goldwell, prior of Canterbury; Vache, abbot of St. Austin's; Wells, prior of Ely; Holbeach, prior of Worcester; Islip, abbot of Westminster; Webbe, prior of Coventry; and many others. I do not hereby apologise for the laziness of the monks in the middle ages, but maintain that, both in the time of Edgar, and some time after, and immediately before the Reformation, they deserved a contrary character to what the historian giveth of them; and that even in the worst times they were far from being enemies and opposers of learning, as he would have it believed."

"Battel Abbey was represented to be a little Sodom; so was Christ Church, in Canterbury, with several other Houses.”—P. 241, l. 45.

"The historian doth not tell us by whom they were thus represented; for that would have marred all the history, and have relieved the reputation of these monasteries. Not by the visitors, surely, for the acts of their visitation of these places do not remain. The credit of the whole matter rests upon the authority of a vile pamphlet published soon after without a name, pretending to relate the enormous wickednesses discovered in the monasteries of England at their suppression. From this pamphlet Stevens transcribed these stories into his 'Apology for Herodotus,' and from him Fuller took them into his 'Church History, from whom our historian received them. But Fuller is so ingenuous as to own from whom he took them, and to add, that he thinks it not reasonable to believe such heinous accusations upon so slender testimony. We have some reason to reflect upon the complaint which our historian brings against Dr. Heylin; that he never vouched any authority for what he writ, which is not to be forgiven any who write of transactions beyond their own times. I fear that, upon computation, it will be found that our author hath not vouched any authority for so much as the third part of his history; and is especially deficient in those passages which tend to defame the memories of other men; in which, above all others, justice and charity would require that sufficient, or at least

some, testimony be produced."-A Specimen of some errors and defects in the History of the Reformation of the Church of England, by Gilbert Burnet. By Anthony Harmer (an Anagram for Henry Wharton). London : 1693.

"Archbishop Bramhall disapproves of the perpetual vow (of celibacy), but thinks that if that were changed to the form of our English universities, or of the canonesses and Biggins (Beguines) on the other side the seas,' and other changes made, monasteries might agree well enough with reformed devotion.' -British Critic, No. Ixiv. Art. "Extracts from Divines," &c.

"The Church of England hath no monasteries, as not essential to the constitution of a Church, though advantageous to the maintenance of that retirement from the world wherein our common Christianity consisteth, by that visible retirement wherein this profession consisteth. For the constitution thereof, after that horrible act of abolishing the monasteries under Hen. VIII. it is no marvel if it were difficult to agree in a form which the Reformation might allow and cherish. Yet is no son of the Church of England bound to disown the whole Church in maintaining, as she has, the monastic life to be agreeable with Christianity, and expedient to the intent of it."-Thorndike, Epilogue iii. p. 371.

"It might seem that the ordinary state of those who are engaged in the world, is of more perfection than monastic life, as furnishing greater opportunities for the exercise of that charity wherein our Christianity chiefly consisteth. To which I answer, that though the occasions of the world minister more opportunities of exercising charity, yet the engagements which a man that liveth in the world hath, make it more difficult for him. In the profession of monastic life there is ground for presuming that those who live in it come nearer what our baptism professeth, by the means thereof, than others can do." -Ibid. p. 372.

"Some there are, either so averse from the calling, or so in love with the possessions religious people were endowed with, as they held an opinion that there should have been no reformation, but an absolute extirpation of them. In which yet Latimer, a glorious martyr, did not concur, who would have had two or three saved in every shire. And certainly those men, in my understanding, do rather concur with the Donatists than the ancient Fathers of the Church. For, to speak seriously, and without passion, what can the ill be (without other consequence) to have places set apart whither men, either by nature, time, or otherwise unfit for the world, may retire themselves in religious company, may think on heaven and good learning?"—Sir Roger Twysden, Monastic Life, p. 31.

Ipsa quoque monachorum cænobia Rex (Jacobus Angliæ primus) optimus et pietatis studiosissimus soluturus omninò non fuit (certè non omnia) ut sæpè affirmantem audivi, si invenisset integra, et primæ institutionis legem servantia."-Isaaci Casauboni Epist. 710, ad Cardinalem Perronium.

"One of the most munificent of her (Lady Falkland's) charitable schemes which she contemplated about this time was the establishment of religious houses in different parts of the kingdom, for the education of young gentlewomen, and the retirement of widows. That such institutions are devoutly to be wished, none can question, who consider how favourable they would be to the education and piety of the young, and what a blessed refuge they would afford to those who are desolate and oppressed. The world is 'all too wanton and too full of gawds' to give audience to thousands of those who are still compelled to mingle in scenes they loathe, and stifle feelings which, in such retreats, might be fostered undisturbed and without ridicule. Retired as Lady Falkland's life was, and little as she was obliged to mingle in scenes for which her heart had no sympathy, she would often look upon the Priory of Barford, one of her estates, and long to remodel its walls, and fill them with persons who, bound together by the tie of a common faith and sorrow, might live in resignation and peaceableness, lonely, but not forlorn.' What public blessings, also, would such institutions prove! They would exist as wells of