monks met together; and they were declined so far from the steps of their fa thers, that they were become unprofitable."*

This might naturally have been expected. It was easy for those who felt that their consciences needed an opiate, to purchase, at the expense of their heirs, the prayers of mercenary ecclesiastics: it was easy for visionary enthusiasts to gratify their pride by framing codes of monas

*St. Antonin. tit. 16, c. 23, s. 1, 2. -Stillingfleet's Auswer to Cressy, p. 207..

A poet of the time of Henry VII, who satirized the follies and vices of the age, could not omit the hypocrisy of the monks :

"Hang up the scapler, the ames-coule and frocke, Or other habite of eche religion,

Upon a tree cleane dede, or rotten stocke!
Such are those fooles that haue profession,
Leauing their right rule in eache condition;
They bere the habite, the vesture, or the wede,
And eke the name, without the thing in dede.”.

See Alexander Barclay's Navis Stultifera, first printed in 1509.

tic regulations but it was not equally easy for either of them to restrain the impulses of human nature: and the more strict the laws which were intended to enforce obedience, the more widely may we expect at length to find that men would deviate towards opposite extremes.

"The monks in their convents, with the exception of the most zealous or the most learned, were of necessity devoured with ennui; and there was no amusement, however puerile, coarse, or indecorous, which they thought they could enjoy undetected, to which they did not recur with avidity. A curious story in Antony Wood, to this purpose, has frequently been referred to by the writers on these subjects. Two Franciscan friars, having lost their way, arrived in the greatest distress at a grange belonging to the Benedictine monks of Abingdon, near Oxford, The porter, who opened the gate, judged from their squalid appearance, their tattered garments, and their foreign idiom,

that they were farce players or maskers, and carried the joyful tidings in all haste to his prior. The prior, with his sacristan, the cellarer, and two younger monks, flew to the gate; and, urged by the hope of entertainment in the arts of gesticulation and dramatical performance, intreated them to enter. The friars, with a sad countenance, assured the Benedictines that they had mistaken their men; that they were no players, but servants of God, engaged to live according to the rule of the apostles. On this the monks, exasperated at the disappointment of their joyful hopes, fell upon them at once, beat and kicked them in a cruel manner, and thrust them from their doors."*

The small room immediately adjoining the refectory, through which we pass into the kitchen, seems to have been the pantry, or buttery. Two openings in the

* Godwin's Life of Chaucer, ch. 6.

walls are observed; one connecting the kitchen with the pantry, the other communicating between the pantry and refectory. Through these apertures, pro visions were probably conveyed.

The kitchen is a large vaulted room, about forty-eight feet in length, and eighteen in width. It has obtained the name of the abbot's kitchen. The fire place is of a curious construction. By the side of the kitchen, is a subterraneous passage, which terminates in a coppice, at a short distance from the abbey. This was probably a common sewer: though its capaciousness has made some think it was intended for concealment or retreat. Curiosity has often explored it; but no discoveries have been made.

Returning from the kitchen, through the rooms previously visited, we cross the passage, and enter the chapter house; which the remaining arches prove to have

been highly elegant. It is about thirtysix feet square.

The chapter house was designed for religious assemblies; in which the superior might address instructions and exhortations to the monks, for their spiritual improvement. Here also the community met to deliberate and decide upon such matters as were put to the vote.

Next to this, are two smaller rooms; the second of which adjoins the church, and was probably the sacristy, where the consecrated vessels or moveables were reposited. There is a handsome niche in the wall, in the bottom of which was a cavity, perhaps for holy water;* but a fel

* Of this it is well known the Papists have at all times made great use. But Dr. Middleton, in his Demonstration of the Conformity between Popery and Paganism, gives us a specimen of its administration, beyond the common line of absurdity; assuring us, that he was an eye witness of its being sprinkled, at the commencement of a new year, on horses, asses, and ather cattle!