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, THE CHURCH HISTORY OF BRITAIN. BOOK VI. THE HISTORY OF ABBEYS IN ENGLAND. SECTION I. THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 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. As for their food, the grass was their cloth, the ground their table, herbs and roots their diet, wild fruits and berries their dainties, hunger their sauce, their nails their knives, their hands their cups, the next well their wine-cellar. But what their bill-of-fare wanted in cheer, it had in grace; their life being constantly spent in prayer, reading, musing, and such like pious employments. They turned solitariness itself into society; and, cleaving themselves asunder by the divine art of meditation, did make, of one, two or more opposing, answering, moderating in their own bosoms, and busy in themselves with variety of heavenly recreations. It would do one good even but to think of their goodness, and at the re-bound and second-hand to meditate on their meditations. For if ever poverty was to be envied, it was here. And I appeal to the moderate men of these times, whether in the height of these woful wars, they have not sometimes wished, (not out of passionate distemper, but serious recollection of themselves,) some such private place to retire unto, where, out of the noise of this clamorous world, they might have reposed themselves, and served God with more quiet. 3. They vowed no Poverty, Chastity, or Obedience. These monks were of two sorts, either such as fled from actual, or from imminent, persecution. For when a danger is not created by a timorous fancy, but rationally represented as probable, in such a case the principles of prudence, not out of cowardice but caution, warrant men to provide for their safety. Neither of these bound themselves with a wilful vow to observe poverty, but poverty rather vowed to observe them, waiting constantly upon them. Neither did they vow chastity, though keeping it better than such as vowed it in after-ages. As for the vow of obedience, it was both needless and impossible in their condition, having none beneath or above them, living alone, and their whole convent, as one may say, consisting of a single person. And as they entered on this course of life rather by impulsion than election, so when peace was restored, they returned to their former homes in cities and towns, resuming their callings, which they had not left off, but for a time laid aside. The first British monks that we meet with in this kind were immediately after the martyrdom of St. Alban; for then, saith Gildas, qui superfuerant sylvis ac desertis, abditisque speluncis se occultacerunt, "such as survived hid themselves in woods and deserts, and secret dens of the earth." As, long after, on the like occasion, when the Pagan Saxons and Danes invaded this island, many religious persons retired themselves to solitary lives. See POLYDORE VIRGIL De Inventione Rerum, lib. vii. cap. 1, and SIXTUS SENENSIS, lib. vi. annotat. 332. II. VOLUNTARY MONKS, EMBRACING THAT LIFE, NOT FOR NECESSITY, BUT CONVENIENCY. 1. Silver Monks succeeded the former Golden Ones. AFTER these succeeded a second sort of monks, leading a solitary life, when no visible need forced them thereunto, as neither feeling nor fearing any apparent persecution. Yet these, considering the inconstancy of human matters,—that, though they had prosperity for the present, it might soon be changed into a contrary condition, if either the restless endeavours of the devil took effect, or sinful Christians were rewarded according to their deserts,-freely chose a lone life; also prompted, perchance, thereunto by their own melancholy disposition. 2. Fetched from wandering in the Wilderness to dwell together. Afterwards it was counted convenient, that such who hitherto dwelt desolate in deserts, scattered asunder, should be gathered together to live under one roof, because their company would be cheerful in health, and needful in sickness, one to another. Hence these two words, though contrary to sound, signify the same: Monasterium, a place containing men living "alone;" Cœnobium, a place containing men living in common." For though they were sequestered from the rest of the world, yet they enjoyed mutual society amongst themselves. And, again: though at solemn times they joined in their public devotions and refections, yet, no doubt, they observed hours by themselves in their private orisons. Of these, some were gardeners like Adam, husbandmen like Noah, caught fish with Peter, made tents with Paul,-as every man was either advised by his inclination, or directed by his dexterity; and no calling was counted base that was found beneficial. Much were they delighted with making of hives, as the emblem of a convent for order and industry; wherein the bees, under a master their abbot, have several cells, and live and labour in a regular discipline. In a word, they had hard hands and tender hearts, sustaining themselves by their labour, and relieving others by their charity, as formerly hath been observed in the monks of Bangor. 3. The Discipline of British Monks under St. David. Take a taste of their austerity who lived at Vall Rosine, since called Minevea in Pembrokeshire, under the method of St. David. They were raised with the crowing of the cock from their beds, and then betook themselves to their prayers, and spent the rest of the • HARPSFIELD Hist. Eccl. Angl. page 40. day in their several callings. When their task was done, they again bestowed themselves in prayers, meditations, reading, and writing; and at night, when the heavens were full of stars, they first began to feed, having their temperate repast to satisfy hunger on bread, water, and herbs. Then the third time they went to their prayers, and so to bed, till the circulation of their daily employment returned in the morning: A spectacle of virtue and continence; who, although they received nothing, or any thing very unwillingly, of others, yet were so far from wanting necessaries, that by their pains they provided sustenance for many poor people, orphans, widows, and strangers. 4. Superstition unawares occasioned by them. Here, as we cannot but highly commend the integrity of their hearts herein, so we must withal bemoan, that what in them was intentionally good proved occasionally evil, hatching superstition under the warmth of their devotion. For though even these as yet were free from human ordinances and vows, yet will-worship crept in insensible in the next age, (tares are easier seen grown than growing,) and error and viciousness came in by degrees. The monks afterwards, having sufficiency, turned lazy; then, getting wealth, waxed wanton; and at last, endowed with superfluity, became notoriously wicked, as hereafter shall appear. Thus, as Pliny reporteth of the gagate-stone, that, set a-fire, it burneth more fiercely if water be cast on, but is extinguished if oil be poured thereupon so the zeal of monastic men was inflamed the more with the bitter water of affliction, whilst in prosperity the oil of plenty quenched their piety. So ill a steward is human corruption of outward happiness, oftener using it to the receiver's hurt, than the Giver's glory! III. OF SUPERSTITION, WHICH WAS THE FUNDAMENTAL FAULT IN ALL ABBEYS. 1. Abbeys built on the Sand of Superstition. THIS was one main fault in all English abbeys, that the builders did not dig deep enough to lay the foundation, as grounded on the foundered and mouldering bottom of superstition. For every monastery was conceived a magazine of merit both for the founder, his ancestors, and posterity. And although all these dotations did carry the title of pure alms, yet, seriously considered, they will be found rather forced than free, as extorted from men with the fear of purgatory; one flash of which fire, believed, is able to melt a miser into charity; yea, which is worse, many of their foundations had |