MUCHELNEY ABUEY. 97 



State of things would betray an ignorance of human nature. 

 While Brother Johannes de Taunton would be illuminating 

 a hymnal, Brother TValterus Mapes would be indulging 

 hirnseif and eliciting peals of unafFected mirth with one 

 of Ins satirical songs, and Brother Anselmus de Muchelney 

 would be absorbed in meditation on some thoughtful 

 sentence of S. Augustine or S. Ambrose, or tasking his 

 acumen with some logical puzzle of Aquinas or Occam. 

 There were no newspapers, no " special correspondent 

 from the seat of war," no electric telegraph, in those old 

 days ; and accordingly you might have found, as often as 

 opportunity allowed, a circle of attentive ears round some 

 visitor from the court or beyond sea, with piquant ac- 

 counts of moving incidents, battles with the infidels, or the 

 transcendant glories of some wonder-working shrine. When 

 there was a lack of gossip of this kind, there was plenty of 

 talk about the internal affairs of the House itself. In the 

 Company of that most charming of chroniclers, Jocelin of 

 Brakelond, we can mingle with the groups that saunter along 

 the cloister, and catch the whispers of the conventual 

 critics. u That brother is good, and a good clerk, fit to 

 be Abbat," says one. " From good clerks kind heaven 

 deliver us !" replies another. " How can an unlearned 

 man," says a third, "deliver a sermon in chapter, or preach 

 to the people on holidays, or attain to the knowledge of 

 binding and loosing ? For the eure of souls is the art of arts 

 and the science of sciences. Heaven forbid that a dumb 

 statue should be set up among us !" " That man has more 

 brains than all of us put together," urges a fourth ; " strict 

 in diseipline, profound, and eloquent, and of a comely sta- 

 ture." " What if he do excel '?" quoth another; " he is too 

 scornfui and too reserved." " Better that than one slow of 

 speech," it is retorted ; " one that has paste or malt in bis 



