86 PAPERS, ETC. 



into and rcport upon the value of all ecclesiastlcal posses- 

 sions tliroughout the country. This was promptly carried 

 into efFect, and the retunis which wei'e made by these 

 officei's constitute the well-known "Valor Eccleslasticus," 

 in which they were digested and presented to both hoiises. 

 The " Valor " of Taunton Priory furjiishes iis with a com- 

 plete view of the possessions of the House immediately 

 before the suppression. It shows also what sums were paid 

 to various clerical and lay persons, baillffs, sherifFs, auditors, 

 and other civil officers, the charges due to the chief Lords, 

 the araount spent in alms by reason of any foundation or 

 ordinance, with the names of the parties so commemorated, 

 &c. We are thus presented with a most llvely picture of 

 the rights on the one band and the liabilities on the other 

 of one of the greater monasteries during its last few years 

 of place and power. 



As the return is necessarily of so great importance and 

 interest, I have thought proper to give it in translation, 

 and with its minute details more intelligibly represented 

 than as they stand in the original. The amounts, how- 

 ever, still figure in their ancient form, as I was unwilling 

 to modernize my authority when there was little or nothing 

 to be gained by the alteration. In studying the account 

 we should not forget either the easy terms which monastic 

 tenants notoriously enjoyed, or the immense increase in 

 the value of property from those times to our own, con- 

 siderations of the greatest importance in enabling us to 

 arrive at a due appreciation of the position of the Plouse. 

 It may also be premised that the record includes not only 

 the possessions already noticed as donations to the Priory 

 at various earlier periods, but those also which were lately 

 added by the union with it of the Priory of Staverdale. 



