By the Rev. Canon Jackson, F.8.A. 



■39 



where. That is the case at present. The present vicar resides four 

 miles off. He has therefore every Sunday a Sabbath day's journey 

 of four miles there and four back : making eight : and if during the 

 week he has any person to visit, or anything to speak about, the 

 eight miles have again to be performed. He has been vicar now 

 (1882) for nearly thirty- six years, and during that long time, having 

 never, except three times, taken his legal three months holiday in the 

 year, there remain thirty -five years during which he has hardly ever 

 missed his Sabbath day's journey. Eight miles every Sunday and 

 other great days makes above four hundred miles in a year : 

 multiply that by, say thirty-five years, you get fourteen thousand 

 miles. Add to that, for extra walks, rides, or drives on week-days, 

 certainly not less two thousand miles, you get a sum total of about 

 sixteen thousand miles which the vicar has had to travel, in all 

 weathers, in order to do his ordinary duties in the parish. All this 

 is the consequence of the abbot of Malmesbury's selfish behaviour, 

 and as the vicar of Norton who has undergone this inconvenience, 

 is no other than the humble individual who has now the honour of 

 addressing you, if I should have, as I may have, occasion in the 

 course of this address to speak in praise of the abbots of Malmes- 

 bury, you will I hope, regard such conduct as a noble instance of 

 forgiveness of injury. 



The monasteries certainly impoverished the parish clergy. They 

 were also rather troublesome to the Bishops : for one of the first 

 things a monastery always tried to do, was to get itself exempt from 

 all visitation or interference on the part of the Bishop of the diocese. 

 Great jealousy, as might be expected, arose out of this. The monas- 

 teries acknowledged no superior but Rome. I need not say, how 

 omnipotent the Pope was, in earlier days, and how great his authority 

 over even kings themselves. The monasteries were his creatures 

 and satellites, and in order to pacify and keep on good terms with 

 them, the old kings, nobles, and landed gentry, bestowed on 

 them vast tracts of land. The quantity which the whole six 

 hundred and forty monasteries in England ultimately possessed, has 

 been much exaggerated : but probably it cannot be reckoned at 

 less than one tenth of the soil of England. This, as was to be 



