CHAPTER IX
THE LONDON CLERGY
Since it will be recognised that the peculiarities which have been described as existing in the life of the Grey Friars are not the outcome of any individual circumstances, but rather the inevitable result of forcing a mediæval ideal on less responsive modern temperaments and in utterly changed circumstances, it will be expected that all the monastic congregations, at least, will present the same curious features. The rules and constitutions of different orders differ as much as their costumes, and their special and distinctive purposes—for each order is supposed to have a special object to justify its separate foundation—also differ; but the difference is again more theoretical than practical. Through the exigencies of their missionary status in England[1] they have been brought down to one common level of parochial activity; the same curious and half-hearted efforts
- ↑ The Archbishop of Canterbury was more correct than he imagined, from a strictly canonical point of view, when he so happily styled the Church of Rome in England 'The Italian Mission.' See note p. 168.
