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VI. Heading of Mortuary Roll, Thomas Brown, Bishop of Norwich, d. 1445
Cott. Charters, ii., 18. " 64 VII. Adam the Cellarer, St. Alban’s
Cott. MSS., Nero D. iii., f. 16^b. " 74 VIII. End of Mortuary Roll, Thomas Brown, Bishop of Norwich, d. 1445
Cott. Charters, ii., 18. " 94 IX. Franciscans in Choir
Cott. MSS., Dom. A. xvii. " 112 X. Community in Chapter House, Westminster
Harl. MSS., 1498, f. 76. " 122 XI. Henry VI. being received as a Confrater at Edmondsbury
Harl. MSS., 2278, f. 6. " 126 XII. Refectory Pulpit, Chester
E. H. New. " 138 XIII. Carmelite in his Study
Roy. MSS., 14 E. i., f. 3. " 148 XIV. Elizabeth Harvey, Abbess of Elstow
From Walter’s Brasses. " 154 XV. Benedictine Nuns in Choir
Cott. MSS., Dom. A. xvii. " 158 XVI. Franciscan Nuns in Choir
Cott. MSS., Dom. A. xvii. " 176 XVII. Henry VII. giving Charter to Monks at Westminster Hall " 194 XVIII. Seneschal John Whitewell and Mother
Illuminator of St. Alban’s
Cott. MSS., Nero D. iii., ff. 103, 105. " 200   Plan of Beaulieu Abbey, Cistercian " 14   Plan of Repton Priory, Austin Canons " 24   Plan of Watton Priory, Gilbertine, Double House " 34   Map of Houses of the Black Monks
Map of Houses of the White Monks
Map of Houses of the Carthusians and Friars
Map of Houses of the Regular Canons
Map of Houses of the Nuns " 318

 

 

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PREFACE

 

This volume does not appear to call for any lengthy preface. It should introduce and explain itself, inasmuch as, beyond giving a brief account of the origin and aim of each of the Orders existing in England in pre-Reformation days, and drawing up a general list of the various houses, all I have attempted to do is to set before the reader, in as plain and popular a manner as I could, the general tenor of the life lived by the inmates in any one of those monastic establishments. In one sense the picture is ideal; that is, all the details of the daily observance could not perhaps be justified from an appeal to the annals or custumals of any one single monastery. Regular or religious life was never, it must be borne in mind, such a cast-iron system, or of so stereotyped a form, that it could not be, and for that matter frequently was, modified in this or that particular, according to the needs of places, circumstances, and times. Even in the case of establishments belonging to the same Order or religious body this is true; and it is of course all the more certainly true in regard to houses belonging to different Orders. Still, as will be explained later, the general agreement of the life led in all the monastic establishments is so marked, that it has been found possible to sketch a picture of that life which, without being perhaps actually exact in every particular for any one individual house, is sufficiently near to the truth in regard to all the