RELIGIOUS HOUSES Woburn in a similar case) unable to meet the difficulty. There is no sign of any other grave faults having been committed, nor of anything like luxurious living. 1 The new prior, according to the bishop's advice, set himself to limit the expenses of the whole house and assigned a fixed income to the kitchen for the future 3 ; the deposed prior had a proper maintenance assigned to him at Ruxox. 3 The canons seem to have borne no ill will to Bishop Sutton for his corrections, and were ready on his next visit to their church (which was made not officially but only in passing) to praise him for his excellent sermon.* Other visitations of his are men- tioned in 1284, 5 1287,° 1288, 7 and 1293 8 5 the last was only to confer orders. Arch- bishop Peckham came in 1284, but found all well 9 (' as the bishop had been there quite lately,' the chronicler naively remarks) ; and Archbishop Winchelsea in 1 293. 10 The only serious charge that could be laid to the door of the canons all through the thirteenth cen- tury was their inability to keep clear of debt; and the record shows that this was often quite as much their misfortune as their fault. There are many incidental remarks of the chroniclers which serve to show that the tone of the house was thoroughly religious, and that the canons were faithful in keeping their rule. 11 It will suffice to instance, early in the 1 Bread and beer are constantly spoken of as the ordinary fare of the canons and their boarders also ; and when the beer failed in 1274 the chronicler notes as an exceptional event the purchase of five casks of wine, adding ' multum profuit nobis,' as if it were a novelty, or perhaps implying that they had been living lately on poorer food than usual, on account of poverty. The chronicle is full of these little life-like touches, which increase both its interest and its trustworthiness. 2 Ann. Mon. (Rolls Series), iii. 287. 3 The prior was allowed fourteen white loaves and fourteen gallons of better beer, with Sd. for ' companagium ' every week, and an allowance of 20i. a year, with corrodies and pay for a servant and a stable boy. This is a very scanty allowance com- pared with that granted to a retiring prior in 1328 at Hexham, of the same order (Annals of Hexham [Surtees Society], I. appendix lxxiii). The house at Ruxox was used as a residence for priors who had resigned as early as 1202 (Ann. Mon. [Rolls Series], iii. 29). » Ibid. 294. 6 Ibid. 313. 8 Ibid. 340. 7 Ibid. 342. » Ibid. 391. » Ibid. 315. 10 Ibid. 391. 11 In 1 288 a novice was not allowed to make his profession, as being too illiterate, frivolous in be- century, the generous treatment of the two young canons (one only a novice), who escaped by night through a window and went to join the Friars Minor at Oxford. They were indeed solemnly excommunicated and compelled to return ; but after they had done their penance in the chapter house and had been absolved, they were allowed a year to consider the matter, and if after that time they preferred the stricter order, they were granted permission to depart ; if not, they might remain at Dunstable. 12 A good deal later than this, in 1283, the apologetic way in which the chronicler relates how the prior went out to dinner with John Durant 1S is sufficient to show that the ordinary rules and customs of the order were not commonly broken. During the fourteenth century there were several visitations. There is no notice of any by Bishop Dalderby ; but he commissioned the prior of Dunstable in 1315 to visit the nuns of St. Giles-in-the-Wood in his name. 14 Bishop Burghersh in 1322 wrote to order the prior and convent to take back a brother who had been on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and asserted that he did so with the permission of his superior ; and a little later the prior was cited for refusing to obey this injunction. 16 In 1359 18 Bishop Gynwell, passing by the priory, noticed ' certain insolences and unlaw- ful wanderings ' of the canons, and wrote to reinforce the rule that none should go beyond the precincts of the monastery without reason- able cause, nor without the permission of the prior ; and ordered further that such per- mission should not be too frequently given. He also reminded them of the rule that none should eat or drink outside the monastery, or talk with seculars without permission. In 1379 Bishop Buckingham confirmed an important ordinance of Thomas Marshall, 17 haviour, and of a restless disposition (ibid. 342)- There are frequent references to the divine office. At the same time the chronicle is full of human nature. >« Ibid. 133. '3 Ibid. 302. ' This was quite against the custom observed in our monastery,' says the chronicler, ' but it may be excused, because he owed John so much money, and dared not offend him.' '« Line. Epis. Reg., Memo. Dalderby, 317c!. >g Ibid. Memo. Burghersh, 75d, 76d. " Ibid. Memo. Gynwell, 340. The prior of Dunstable was elected definitor in this year at the general chapter of the order, as well as in 1340. In 1350 a prior of Dunstable was president, being one of the very few who were able that year to assemble (Cott. MS. Vesp. D i. ff. 47, 50, 54). 17 Line. Epis. Reg., Memo. Buckingham, f. 82d. The prior alludes in this ordinance to the ' consti- 375
