278 THE ANTIQUITIES 



take some notice, and make some remarks, on the most singular 

 items as they occur. 



In the preamble the visitor says "Considering the charge 

 "lying upon us, that your blood may not be required at our 

 " hands, we came down to visit your Priory, as our office required : 

 "and every time we repeated our visitation we found something 

 " still not only contrary to regular rules but also repugnant to 

 " religion and good reputation." 



In the first article after the preamble " he commands them 

 " on their obedience, and on pain of the greater excommunication, 

 " to see that the canonical hours by night and by day be sung in 

 " their choir, and the masses of the Blessed Mary, and other ac- 

 " customed masses, be celebrated at the proper hours with devotion, 

 " and at moderate pauses ; and that it be not allowed to any to 

 " absent themselves from the hours and masses, or to withdraw 

 "before they are finished." 



Item 2d. He enjoins them to observe that silence to which 

 they are so strictly bound by the rule of Saint Augustine at stated 

 times, and wholly to abstain from frivolous conversation. 



Item 4th. " Not to permit such frequent passing of secular 

 " people of both sexes through their convent, as if a thoroughfare, 

 " from whence many disorders may and have arisen." 



Item 5th. " To take care that the doors of their church and 

 " Priory be so attended to that no suspected and disorderly 

 " females, ' suspectae et aliae inhonestae,' pass through their choir 

 " and cloister in the dark ; " and to see that the doors of their 

 church between the nave and the choir, and the gates of their 

 cloister opening into the fields, be constantly kept shut until their 

 first choir-service is over in the morning, at dinner time, and when 

 they meet at their evening collation. 1 



Item 6th mentions that several of the canons are found to be 

 very ignorant and illiterate, and enjoins the prior to see that they 

 be better instructed by a proper master. 



Item 8th. The canons are here accused of refusing to accept 

 of their statutable clothing year by year, and of demanding a 

 certain specified sum of money, as if it were their annual rent 

 and due. This the bishop forbids, and orders that the canons 

 shall be clothed out of the revenue of the Priory, and the old 

 garments be laid by in a chamber and given to the poor, accord- 

 ing to the rule of Saint Augustine. 



1 A collation was a meal or repast on a fast day in lieu of a supper, 



