MUCHELNEY ABBEY. 99 



you think of them, Dr. A ? And what woulcl you say to 

 them, Reverend Professor B ? And, as for the Dean C, 

 the Bursar D, or even the Senior Proctor E himself, fond 

 of chat at the hall table, a quiet party in the common 

 room, with occasional assemblies of neighbours and lady 

 friends inside his own " oak," — how would they be likely to 

 regard such an investigation ? Let us run over the list of 

 our friends in London, Oxford, and Cambridge, and imagine 

 their returns to tbis stringent series ! Without offence, I be- 

 lieve that their judgment of such an infliction would not 

 present many points of difference from that of the Francis- 

 cans before referred to, when smarting under the severities of 

 Brother Wygniundus. What the penitentiary Arnulf said 

 to the Pope about it these excellent gentlemen would be 

 likely to endorse : " Si Diabolus fuisset incarnatus, non 

 invenisset subtiliorem et fortiorem laqueum ad illaqueandas 

 animas, quam fuit illa visitatio" — "The very devilincarnate 

 could not have invented a more subtle and effective snare 

 for the snaring of souls than was that Visitation !" 



A place now for two documents. What has been al- 

 ready said may perhaps furnish us with some notion of the 

 reception given to them. The first consists of a judgment 

 of Bishop Radulphus de Salopia, in the year 1335, in refer- 

 ence to the report of a previous Visitation : 



" Injunctiones d'ni epi in visitac'oe sua, ad Abbate' & 

 Conv. de Muchelney. 



" Nup' comp'imus q'd aliqui monachi domus v're, qui 

 secundu' canonica instituta vili supellectili deberent esse 

 contenti, aliis f 'ribus difformiter conversantes in refectorio, 

 vasis preciosis & splendidis in suis refectionibus abutuntur. 

 Alij quibus, ex ordinis proprio, exilia tuguria sufficere po- 

 terant & deberent, lectos seu cubilia in co'i dormitorio ad 

 modum tabernaculi seu vestibuli sibi fieri faciunt, & orna- 



