RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



In the time of Robert Risborough, if the 

 abbot was unworthy of his office, public 

 opinion in the monastery was certainly against 

 him, though the prior and canons were ob- 

 liged to wait until he could be canonically 

 deposed, and the credit of the house restored 

 by a better appointment. It may fairly be 

 supposed that Henry Honor, who was elected 

 in Robert's place, was chosen because he up- 

 held a higher standard of religious observance. 

 It was probably during his long term of office 

 that the Sloane chartulary 1 was compiled, 

 though it contains some entries of later date. 

 It is a curious book, in which leases and royal 

 writs are mixed up indiscriminately with 

 scraps of general information of all kinds a 

 table of the kings of England, the way to find 

 Easter and to understand the signs of the 

 weather ; lists of Christian virtues, deadly 

 sins and colours for painting ; prescriptions 

 for divers diseases containing such strange in- 

 gredients as ' oil of black snails ' and ' marrow 

 of horse bones,' with the exorcisms for the 

 falling sickness and the fever ; the ten com- 

 mandments in English and many rhymed 

 adages and rules for the conduct of life gen- 

 erally. 2 



At the beginning of the sixteenth century 

 the discipline of the house became sadly lax, 

 and the visitation of Atwater in 1518 reveals 

 a very unsatisfactory state of affairs. The 

 bishop noticed that licences to go into the 

 town were much too readily granted to the 

 canons. These he ordered to be restricted in 

 future to cases of necessity. The refectory 

 was to be repaired, and until it was ready the 

 abbot must appoint some other place where 

 the canons could eat together and hear the 



1 Sloane MS. 747. This book has been very 

 little noticed by those who have inquired into the 

 history of Missenden, possibly because it is in the 

 worst hand of the late fifteenth century, and very 

 difficult to read. 



2 The following quaint rhyme may serve as an 

 instance : 



' When thi hede aks, memento : 

 And thi lypps blaks, confessia : 

 And thi hert pants, contritio : 

 And thi wind wants, satisfactio : 

 And thi lemes unwilling lie, iibcra me 



domine : 



And thi nose waxes colde, domint miserere : 

 And thi nyes hollowes, 

 Then the deth folowes, 



Feni ad judicium.' 



Another bids a man 



'Arise early, 

 Serve God devoutly, 

 The world busily, 

 Go thy way sadly, 

 Answer demurely,' etc. 



Rule read. The infirmary was to be put in 

 order, and five at least among the canons must 

 in future be priests. They were to have a 

 proper place where they could receive their 

 friends two or three times in the year. There 

 was a monk from another house living here 

 who was non utilis monasterio. Richard 

 Gynger, a novice, was too prone to ease and 

 gave neither his time nor his attention to 

 heavenly things ; he must occupy himself 

 laudably. There was want of care too even 

 in the appointments of the conventual church. 

 The bishop found it necessary to order a lamp 

 to be alight continually before the Blessed 

 Sacrament. The very servants of the mon- 

 astery were insolent and abusive to the canons, 

 and refused to attend to their needs. 3 



In the lists of those who abjured and did 

 penance in 1521 for heresy, Foxe names a 

 canon of Missenden. 4 It is by no means im- 

 probable at such a time, when the monastery 

 was in such complete disorder. 



There was worse to come. The visitations 

 of Longland in 1530 and 1531 revealed mis- 

 chief of a still more serious kind. In 1530 5 it 

 was complained that the abbot, John Fox, was 

 wholly under the influence of a secular, John 

 Compton, who cut down trees and did as he 

 pleased with the goods of the monastery. The 

 prior was remiss in correction, and did not set 

 an example of regular attendance at the 

 divine office. The buildings were all out of 

 repair, and the house 60 in debt. The 

 abbot had no book or rental to show his lands, 

 and did not know what his possessions really 

 were. The gate between the nave and choir 

 of the conventual church was never closed, so 

 that seculars could enter the choir at their 

 will. No lessons from Holy Scripture were 

 read in the refectory. One canon, John Sly- 

 thurst, was accused by three or four of his 

 brethren not merely of being ' verbose, of 

 elate mind, and a sower of dissension,' but of 

 the crime condemned beyond all others in 

 Holy Scripture ; and the late abbot, William 

 Honor, had shared his guilt. 



It was a terrible indictment, and the 

 bishop's commissary, Thomas Jackman, met 

 it with stringent regulations. John Sly- 

 thurst was to be kept apart from all the breth- 

 ren, in the custody of the abbot and prior ; 

 he was never to go out of his cell without a 

 licence from the bishop, and no one was to be 

 admitted to see him except those who came 

 for the good of his soul. No boys were to be 



Visitations of Atwater (Lincoln). 



Acts and Monuments, iv. 227. 



Visitations of Longland (Lincoln), 10 October, 



153' 

 373 



