Every abbey of any importance kept a chartulary—in other words, a catalogue of its possessions in the copies of grants of land all collected within one or more volumes—a carefully compiled work, giving all the benefactions and privileges of the foundation, entered by the scribe or secretary of the establishment, who must have spent many hours of his life over the work, for these books are rarely found to be the work of more than one, or at most two, men—one handwriting continuing on until replaced by another. Great care and neatness was used in the formation of each black letter—even and perfect as the most exact printing ever done by machinery. Each charter was emphasized with an elaborate capital letter, and the index or headings to them were filled in after the writing was finished, as is proved by thefact that these were sometimes never completed. The probability is that they were the work of another artist or illuminator, and appear to have been sketched in with a brush or hair pencil, the writing having been executed with a quill pen. Colour is sometimes employed to embellish and ornament the work, but in the oldest chartularies colour, usually red, is only used to mark special passages, or, as in Domesday Book, to point out names of persons or places. The largest work on English monasteries was compiled by Sir William Dugdale; but in so extensive a work as the ‘Monasticon’ too much was undertaken; it was impossible to search deeply enough into existing records for information concerning every religious house throughout England. Therefore, although a valuable foundation to start with, much more may still be ascertained from manuscripts, public and private, particularly with regard to the lesser religious houses or cells to foreign abbeys.
Christianity among the Anglo-Saxons was a missionary undertaking, therefore it encouraged the foundation of organizing centres; but these seem at first to have rather taken the form of bishoprics than abbeys; still, information as to the early Church in England does not exist sufficiently in detail to permit us to state clearly the actual religious work or its method of working.
Later on the Saxon abbeys partook rather ofthe nature of large training colleges, where learning was carried on.
The mission of St. Augustine extended the monastic system, and spread Christianity to a wider extent. It also encouraged the resort hither of foreign monks. Great rivalry existed between the English bishops and these foreign missionary priests, a feud which never seems entirely to have died out. The largest number of English abbeys sprang up after the Norman Conquest. The invaders manifested their religion by bestowing large grants of lands as votive offerings and in token of gratitude, while Duke William’s honest repayment of the loans given him for the equipment of his armada brought over hundreds of priests and monks to take possession of their new territories. Church building was a religious work often undertaken for the expiation of sins. Voluntary work is always the best of its kind. To this day the remains of the old Norman abbeys surprise us with their solidity of structure and elegance of design. They must, indeed, have been beautiful when the interiors were fitted up with corresponding magnificence. At first the monks were poor—they were given land, not always of the best, often in wild and unfrequented regions; but by frugality, skill and industry, they soon brought it into a fertile state, and lived on its produce and the giftsof their patrons. The Cistercians were great wool-dealers, and we know how much English cloth was prized at home and abroad for its goodness of quality. In course of time the monks, by their labours, became rich. The need for toil being over, they sank into indolent affluence; instead of hard-working communities, they became wealthy landowners. The abbots were miniature kings, ruling over their vassals and dependents, living in almost royal state, surrounded by their court. The history of monastic England extends over very many centuries, even if its commencement is only placed at the arrival of St. Augustine inA.D.597, or later still, with the Norman invasion.
Changes of all kinds took place in those long centuries. Large abbeys had sunk into poverty, and others arisen in their places. The monks had been subdivided into orders, each having its own peculiar rules. The oldest of these was the Benedictine, or Black Monks, who held most of the largest monasteries—as many as 156 in number. From this Order arose the Cistercians, even more severe in their regulations—popular in England, probably from having had an Englishman as their founder, Stephen Harding, head of the Monastery of Citeaux (Cistercium) about the year 1125. This order had been approved by the Pope twenty-five years previously. Gasquet gives the names of 86Cistercian houses in England, the Cluniac as 26, and Carthusian as 9. These lesser orders had each its own distinctive rules, but, as the above figures show, were less popular than the older orders of monks. The number of nunneries was also very large (Gasquet gives 140). These were principally of the Benedictine Order. I have seen it stated that there was only one house of White Nuns in England, that of Grace Dieu, in Leicestershire, but this is not correct.
As the old Benedictine Order relaxed in severity, the Cistercians came forward, and when these were no longer conspicuous for piety and austerity, there arose the wandering missionaries known as Friars, who were also eloquent preachers, a marked contrast to the half-educated clergy. These friars were mendicants, bound by oath neither to possess land nor money, nor to enjoy luxury. They went about preaching throughout the country; it was the old story of the ‘house divided against itself being unable to stand.’ The friars preached against the monks, and the monks opposed the clergy, ending in the downfall of the three rivals under Henry VIII.
The first order of friars was of Spanish origin, founded by DominicA.D.1204, and confirmed in 1215. They wore a brown habit of coarse hair-cloth. A few years later St. Francis of Assisi founded the Grey Friars, called after him Franciscans. These came to EnglandA.D.1224, wherethey became very popular. Like the monks, lesser orders arose out of these. The Premonstratensians gained little ground in England, but the Augustinian or Austin Friars had many followers, both men and women.
Henry VIII.’s first attack on religious houses was made upon those whose yearly incomes did not exceed £200. But the work thus begun did not end here. It is said that 376 small monasteries were doomed; of these 123 escaped immediate dissolution. Throughout 1535 and the succeeding five years the work of suppression was carried on. During that time the monks foresaw that ultimately they were doomed, and had time to sell or hide their choicest possessions before the Commissioners appeared to claim them. Then no doubt many valuable manuscripts and papers were destroyed, or else either hidden or removed out of the country. In several places some of these buried treasures have come to light after being concealed for a long time. In this way a beautiful copy of the Reading Abbey Chartulary was preserved for two hundred years, having been concealed in a secret chamber adjoining a chimney-stack in an old manor-house at Shinfield, only discovered by workmen during some repairs in the eighteenth century.
READING ABBEY CHARTER.(Photographed by Mr. A. A. Harrison, of Theale. Kindly lent by Lord Fingall.)
READING ABBEY CHARTER.
(Photographed by Mr. A. A. Harrison, of Theale. Kindly lent by Lord Fingall.)
This book[3]is a good example of its kind, being perfect as the day when it was first hidden away.In it are written the grants of lands from the Abbey’s second foundation by Henry I.[4]Vast possessions given bit by bit—generally by those families whose ancestors lay buried in the abbey church, for whose souls prayers were desired. The inventories of relics are very curious, and the vestments also are described. There is a long list of the books in the abbey libraries of Reading and Leominster. All the books in this long list disappeared, no one knows where or how. Two volumes, a missal and a book of hours, said once to have been part of the abbey library, were sold by auction in 1889. Nor was Reading the only instance of the total disappearance of valuable monastic manuscripts. Gasquet speaks of the wanton destruction of manuscripts at this period, and says that they were sold for all kinds of uses.
Mr. Maskell, ‘Monumentæ Ritualia Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ,’ reckons there must have been more than 250,000 volumes of Church service books in use, and that they must have been destroyed to prevent men from following the worship of their forefathers. A most interesting article on ‘Ancient Prymers,’ the service books of the people, appeared in theAntiquaryof March, 1892, written by Mr. Henry Littlehales.
READING ABBEY CHARTULARY.(Photographed by Mr. A. A. Harrison, of Theale.)
READING ABBEY CHARTULARY.
(Photographed by Mr. A. A. Harrison, of Theale.)
The original deeds or grants of land to abbeys are seldom met with among private documents.The wording differs little from that of an ordinary grant, except that the donor gives for the good of his soul and the souls of his ancestors. Sometimes very interesting details may be gathered from the foundation deeds of chantries, with the appointment of a priest to celebrate Mass and offer up prayers for the dead, receiving in return a salary derived from lands or else given at once in money.
Original grants from the Crown to abbeys are seldom dated the day or year they were written, except that they conclude with the names of the bishops attesting them and the witnesses who were present, although sometimes the King’s reign is given, or the episcopal year of the archbishop or diocesan bishop.
The names of the English archbishops and bishops are important as supplying the date of undated charters. Of the latter the contracted names of the sees are all given in Wright’s ‘Court-hand Restored,’ but neither there nor in any other book is mention made of the Norman bishops,[5]who frequently appear as witnesses to monastic charters.
As likely to be a help towards affixing the date of undated charters I append a list of the archbishops and chancellors of England from the Conquest to the fourteenth century; also a few of the bishops of the same period.
Next to Canterbury came the important bishopric of London. The latter was a very large and powerful diocese, originating first at DorchesterA.D.634, dividing into two sees, Winchester and Sherborne,A.D.705, which were further subdivided, the latter into Sherborne and Wells, and the Winchester see into Selsey and Ramsbury (Corvinensis); all reuniting in 1075 into the powerful bishopric of Old Sarum, eventually removed to Salisbury, 1218. Thus it will be seen that Winchester and Sherborne were the chief bishoprics, the others being offshoots of later creation.
The Bishops of Salisbury commenced under Herman (died 1077), previously known as Bishop of Sherborne (Scirburniensis).
The witnesses were chosen from the King’s chief officers, with a few local magnates. This will sometimes be a valuable guide to locality when the county is not named. But as a rule the name of the county is written on the margin, and also the name of the place, together with a brief index of the contents of the charter.