254 



Edingdon Monastery. 



be but one of Good-men These Bonshommes tho' begging 



Fryars [the poorest of orders], and eremites, the most sequestered of 

 begging Fryars, had two (and I believe no more) convents inEngland, 

 absolutely the richest in all the land (monks only excepted), the one 

 at Ashridge in Bucks (now the mansion of the truly Honble. the 

 Earl of Bridgewater, where I am informed more of a monastery is 

 visible this day then in any other House of England. It was valued 

 at the Dissolution at £447 8s. §\d. The other at Edington in 

 Wiltshire (now [1662] known for the hospitality of the Lady 

 Beauchampe dwelling therein), valued when dissolved at £521 12s. 

 It seems that these Fryars tho' pretending to have nothing, nec in 

 propria nec in communi, would not cast their caps (I should say 

 their cowls) at rich revenues if bestowed upon them, but contentedly 

 (not to say cheerfully) embrace the same/'' 1 



The Rector was by custom entitled to sit in the Convocation of 

 the Province of Canterbury. 2 



A deed in the chartulary, headed " Transmutatio Cantarise de 

 Edyndon," gives the full scheme of the Bishop's Foundation. The 

 following is the substance of the more important part. It runs in 

 the name of Robert (Wyvill), Bishop of Sarum, and is dated at 

 Salisbury, 29th March, 1358 : — The office to be said according to 

 the Use of Sarum, daily and nightly. The brethren to attend the 

 Chapter House every day ; thence to mass. Then follow details of 

 the services, striking (pulsatio) of bells, &c. All to attend, unless 

 occupied out of doors. During a vacancy of the Rector, the house 

 to be governed by a deputy called the Cor-rector. The qualifications 

 for becoming a brother of the house are that the candidate shall be 



1 Fuller's Church Histoiy, Bk. vi., sect, i., art 24, 25. As the title of a sect 

 of grave religious men, this French name of course could not be intended to 

 convey the modern meaning of the French word, " easy good-natured men," 

 but that of "doers of good works." There was an Oriental order of monks, 

 on Mount Sinai and elsewhere, called Caloyers, or Kalories, a name of similar 

 kind, which some have fancied to be derived from, and to be a corruption of, 

 the Greek KakXlepyoi, operum bonorum artifices (doers of good works). (See 

 Pegge's Anonymiana, cent, xii., 93). 



In Todd's History of Ashridge is an account of the peculiarities of the Order of 

 Bonhommes. 



2 Hody's Hist, of English Councils, 1701, p. 6. 



