Priory

“ All that remains of the Priory is an oblong structure of stone buttressed with red brick, looking on the outside like a barn, and, indeed, used as such. But it is, in fact, the hulk of the Priory Church; and, inside, the pillars and capitals are in very fair condition. The work is all Norman. This short-lived establishment was built in the eleventh century, as a "cell" (or outlying colony) , of the Abbey of St. Jacutus de Insula, near Dol in Brittany. Within two centuries the monks abandoned it in favour of their sister house at Linton. ”

“ Notwithstanding his liberal benefaction to the priory, a few years later he seems to have had reason to be displeased with the state of discipline and order in the house; for he held a visitation of the convent, "tam in capite, quam in membris," and issued some severe injunctions against divers breaches of the conventual rule, and even against some more serious offences. ”

“ The grounds form a public garden. Close by are the remains of St Mary’s Priory, which comprise a large Perpendicular gatehouse, refectory, precinct wall, abbot’s gate and still-house. A grammar school, founded 1554, occupied part of the Priory, but was removed in 1874 to new buildings. ”

“ The priory was indeed built on the site of the gallows; but in that suburban gathering-place of the people—place of executions, place of tournaments, place of markets, place of daily sport, place of the great annual fair—one gallows-tree was not enough to satisfy a justice that loved vengeance and had slight regard for life. ”

“ Two “greate gates,” with a wicket door let into one of them, for use when the gates were closed, or only pedestrians sought for admission, provided an entrance to the Priory. Proceeding through the arch-way of the Gate-house, we find ourselves in the precincts. In the distance, on our left hand, was the Parish Church of St. Wystan, on our right the Priory Church and conventual buildings.
The Priory Church consisted of nave, with north and south aisles, central tower, north and south transepts, choir, with aisles, and a south chapel, and a presbytery to the east of the choir. ”

“ Lampson that her mistress had unfortunately missed the train, but meant to go by the first one in the morning.
By chance a conveyance was found outside, and in it they drove to the Priory Hotel which, they were amazed to find, promised comfort as well as picturesqueness.
It was a long ivy-covered house, and bore every token of being a portion of the ancient Priory among the ruins of which it was standing. Great elms were in front of the house, and on one side there were apple trees, and at the other there was a garden reaching almost to where a ruined arch was held together by its own ivy. ”

“ The testator's gift of his body to be buried in the Priory Church was probably regarded as a beneficial legacy to the Prior and convent, in consequence of the offerings and presents which were made on such occasions ”

“ These disputes came to a head in 1271, when, in a quarrel at the gates of the priory, two citizens were killed. The townsmen flew to arms. The men of the priory retreated within the walls and prepared for a siege. The citizens, unable to force the gates of the priory, tore down the doors of the church. The prior threatened excommunication: the citizens demanded redress for the killing of two of their number. Finally, the prior put in execution his threat of excommunication: the citizens retorted by seizing provisions on their way to the priory. ”

“ It was the chief alien priory in those parts, which name of alien priors or abbats arose soon after the Norman Conquest, when certain Englishmen, Normans, and French, gave lands in England to Monasteries beyond the seas; upon which the monks built convenient houses 100 for increasing the number of those under their own rule, and to inspect their revenues and tithes, in which houses they planted a suitable number of monks, under a superior or steward. This priory or abbey was therefore accordingly made subject to the Abbey of St. ”

“ ABBEY, a monastery, or conventual establishment, under the government of an abbot or an abbess. A priory only differed from an abbey in that the superior bore the name of prior instead of abbot. This was the case in all the English conventual cathedrals, e.g., Canter bury, Ely, Norwich, &c., where the archbishop or bishop occupied the abbot s place, the superior of the monastery being termed prior. ”

“ Since, then, a certain Dominus Livius, concerning whom your Reverend Lordship will be more fully informed by our same Secretary, is in possession of a Priory in the Collegiate Church of SS. John and Riparata in the city of Luca, we most earnestly desire that the said Livius, through your Reverend Lordship's intercession, may resign the said Priory and Collegiate Church to our said Latin Secretary, on this condition, however, that your Reverend Lordship, as a special favour to us, will provide the said Dominus Livius with a Commandery of equal or of greater value. ”

“ This opportune letter was circulated with tremendous energy by the leaders of the Priory meeting [5] —a meeting always distinguished by its relentless resort to “discipline” for the enforcement of the highest ecclesiastical pretensions of the sect. These men, who thus used the name of their venerable chief for the prosecution of their own purposes, might have tried rather to save the credit of his grey hairs—a task that they have made it hopeless for any one else to undertake. ”

“ Much-Wenlock.
There is much else to be seen, for, wander where one will about the tranquil enclave, some new beauty is ever revealing itself to the discerning eye; while the sweet, reposeful landscape enfolds the old ruins with its mantle of midsummer verdure. One pictures to one's self this rich and sumptuous monastery in the zenith of its fame and [Pg 138] influence, the great Priory church with its crypt and chapter-house, its library, scriptorium, and picturesque Prior's Lodging. ”

“ Albans. The Dunstable annalist states that the body rested one night there—probably in the choir of the Priory Church—and the bier remained in this place while the Chancellor and the other magnates of the Court selected a suitable place for the erection of the Cross. The Prior of the Convent was present at the ceremony, and consecrated the spot by sprinkling holy water. The Priory received two valuable pieces of embroidery and more than 40 lb. of wax. [38]
38. ”

“ Alien Priory. The advowson of the priory of Tregony, as belonging to the abbey de Valle in Normandy, is mentioned fin. div. com. 52 Hen. 3. n. 18. This priory with the advowsons of the churches of Tregony and Biry were made over A.D. 1267, by the abbat and convent de Valle in diœc. ”

“ How seriously Bute took his unremitting efforts "to save St. Andrews," as his own expression was, is shown in a characteristic passage of one of his letters describing a recent discovery among the priory remains:
A head of Christ in stone, seemingly life-size, has just been found under the earth at the Priory. ”

“ On the opposite bank, which is finely wooded with elms and other trees, are the remains of an ancient priory, built upon a rock: and rock and ruin are so blended together that it is impossible to separate the one from the other. Nothing can be more beautiful than the little remnants of this holy place; elm trees—for we were near enough to distinguish them by their branches—grow out of the walls, and overshadow a small but very elegant window. It can scarcely be conceived what a grace the castle and priory impart to each other; and the river Clyde flows on smooth p. ”

“ But we have come slowly, toiling along on foot, and there has been ample time for a mounted messenger to ride back and give the warning to such of the robbers as are yet here. They know that the twain of us are travelling together. Wherefore, for the few miles that separate us now from the kindly shelter of the Priory, it will be better that we journey alone. ”

“ The church contains the effigy of a knight carved in oak. (Horsfield's Suss. II, 99.) A Benedictine nunnery or priory was founded here by Sir John Bohun 3 temp. K. Henry III, for five or six nuns. (Monast. IV, 423.) Part of the priory of Easebourne remains, the refectory being now a barn. (Dallaway.) "Priorissa de Esburne, que est rector ibidem. The Prioress of Easebourne, who is the rector there." (N. R.) The cure is now only a perpetual curacy, which we may conclude to have arisen from its appropriation to the priory. Cowdray—House contained a chapel. ”

“ The more this subject is studied, the more thoroughly are such facts established. Nor are the reasons why this should be the case far to seek. However unworthy the superior or the leading officials of an abbey or priory may occasionally have been, the system at all events secured a succession of resident lords for the most part of high moral and religious character, or of diligently supervised granges where the estates were at some distance from the central house. ”

“ They were at times permitted to exercise the accomplishments of music, and even dancing. They had their processions and other monastic amusements, like the monks, and even patronized the feast of fools, and other absurdities of the times. [154a] We may even picture to ourselves the Prioress indulging in the sport of hunting, for she had charters of free warren over the Priory lands, [154b] and the Harleyan MSS., in the British Museum, have illuminated representations of buxom dames, riding with hounds, and shooting stags, and bears, with cross-bow ”

“ He writes in explanation, and adds some very pleasant particulars.
Clack Fall Fair. To the Editor of the Every-Day Book.
Dear Sir,—I cannot allow your pages to close without replying to the “Corrections and Illustrations,” p. 1584, made by “A Reader” respecting “Clack and its vicinity.”
First. I observe that Bradenstoke priory is usually called the “Abbey,” in the neighbourhood,—not the “Priory.” There is a tree growing upon the tower, and a legend respecting it. ”

“ Dear me! You have missed an opportunity which I should have been glad to have. I am preparing a book on Ruined Abbeys and Priories of England, and it has always been my wish to see the Cluniac Priory of St. ”

“ To live single persons, without marriage. This Priory was called St. Mary de Vall or de Valle, to distinguish it from St. Mary de Plym in Devon, so named from the rivers on which they are situate. This priory, together with its superior's revenues, when it was dissolved, was valued at 912l. ”

“ Buttolph in the South; ... to make there a Priory, and to ordain a Prior and Canons, brothers and also sisters, who in the same place, the Rule and Order of the said Church of Bethelem solemnly professing, shall bear the Token of a Starre openly in their Coapes and Mantles of profession, and for to say Divine Service there, for the souls aforesaid, and all Christian souls, and specially to receive there, the Bishop of Bethelem, Canons, brothers, and messengers of the Church of Bethelem for ever more, as often as they shall come thither. ”

“ The old market-place has been lately taken down; but in the main street, not far from the castle keep, remains, lately restored, one of those timbered houses so common in the midland counties and the Weald of Kent, with their dormer windows and richly-carved bressumers and barge-boards, but rarer in the West of England. [8] The glory, however, of the town, the Priory Church, still stands. Before describing it let us give some account of its history. Its earliest buildings were founded by some of the secular canons of the order of St. ”

“ The prior leaves the high altar, and hastens to the stranger-penitent, who, murmuring in a failing voice that he hears spirits calling him to death and judgment, sinks into the arms of the priest, and whispers a bequest of all that he owns to the convent; praying only that he may be buried there. Meantime, the nuns, novices, and boarders, have all been driven off to their cells by the prioress, who had overheard a faint scream from one of them. ”

“ But in abbeys the chief of the obedientiaries was styled prior; and we cannot, perhaps, give a better idea of his functions than by borrowing a naval analogy, and calling him the abbot’s first lieutenant; for, like that officer in a ship, the prior at all times carried on the internal discipline of the convent, and in the abbot’s absence he was his vicegerent; wielding all the abbot’s powers, except those of making or deposing obedientiaries and consecrating novices. He had a suite of apartments of his own, called the prior’s chamber, or the prior’s lodging ”

“ The fortress is girt about the base with feudal walls and towers colored by the sea; above these rises a little town, the houses being set on broken ledges of rock; above the town stand the fortifications, and a church and its tower crown all. It is one of the most curious places in the world.
Pagan priests here worshipped the god of high places; monks succeeded them; Henry II held court here, then it became a place to which saints made yearly pilgrimages. The Revolution drove out the monks, and turned it into a prison. ”

“ Nor forbore they a bishop’s land, nor an abbot’s, nor a priest’s, but robbed monks and clerks, and every man another who anywhere could. If two or three men came riding to a town, all the township fled before them, imagining them to be robbers. The bishops and clergy constantly cursed them, but nothing came of it, for they were all accursed, and forsworn, and lost. ”

“ And let bailiffs be constituted of sufficient faculties and of commendable discretion and fidelity, the best that can be found, and let them similarly render due account every year before the same prioress and convent.... Furthermore we will that the Prioress and convent of the aforesaid house do not sell or concede in perpetuity or grant for a term corrodies, stipends, liveries or pensions to clerics or to laymen, save with our licence first sought and obtained [754] . ”