WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL MONASTERY.* WINCHESTER is fortunate, indeed, in finding its
'Dates suer in its Dean. Dean Kitchin has already produced the best volume of the "Historic Towns" series in his History of Winchester ; and now he has published some records of the Cathedral, which throw more light on the inner life of a great monastery in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries than any- thing hitherto printed. The documents printed are the rolls of the " Obedientiaries "—that is, the officers of the monastery, the monks who managed its business—for various years ex- tending from 1311 to 1517. Concerned as they are with the most minute details of daily life, they would be an arid wilderness of tedious items if the Dean had not provided an elaborate and ordered introduction to guide us through them. He has collected the dry and scattered bones, and revivified them with a lively and coherent commentary. He has taken as his text Lanfrano's Constitutions for the governance of Christ Church, Canterbury, and shows ue in detail how far the monastery of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries con- formed to their foundation, and to the rules of the twelfth century. He has also printed, by way of further illustra- tion, an abbreviation of the Consuetudinary of Ethelwold, Bishop of Winchester, who, in 966, turned out the Secular Canons of Winchester (who were, allowing for the difference of age and manners, exactly like our modern married or marriageable Canons), to make room for monks. This was edited by his pupil, 2Elfric, for Eynsbam Abbey, near Oxford, in the first quarter of the tenth century, and this edition is now copied by Miss Bateson from the library of Corpus, Cambridge. Here we may be allowed to protest against the way in which it has been printed. Dean Kitchin's own copies have been printed, as all such docu- ments ought to be printed, in the Latin as written by us-- that is, " studentiura " is printed so, and not " studencium," as it would be written in the original ; and the genitives and datives in "re" are printed so, and not as written, "e;" and " v " is put for " u." This is the only sensible course. Latin printed as copied in the Record Office, preserving the contractions, not as they are written, but in an unintelligible modern com- promise, is almost as unintelligible to the ordinary person as if it remained in the original hand. To make it intelligible the contractions are extended ; "e " for " " is just as much a contraction as " r "with a twiddle for "rum," and there is no more reason for keeping one than the other. But Miss Bateson's copy not only preserves those difficulties, but is also made nearly unreadable by the extensions being printed in a different type to the rest of the work,—a maddening distraction to the reader. It is a system which has been rejected in the pub- lications alike of the Rolls series, the Surtias Society, and the Camden Society, as well as by the Dean himself. These documents show how far by the fourteenth century the monasteries had departed from their original theory and primitive practice. They were no longer a company of ascetics living a hard life here for the sake of attaining a better life hereafter. They were no longer the preservers of learning * Compotus Rolls of thu Obodiantictrios of S. Swithin's Priory, Winchostar. By G. W. Kitehin, D D,, P.S.A., Donn of Winchester. London Simpkin and CO.
and the patrons of education, if, indeed, they ever had been the latter. They were middle-class gentlemen living a quiet college life in the enjoyment of a splendid estate, seeing a good deal of good company, and eating a good many good dinners, and entertaining themselves with a certain amount of good literature. They were by no means tied to the cloister. The Prior-
" A. feudal prince, for he was little less, had his living-quarters entirely apart from those of the monks He had his own esquires and clerks in his service, as well as a full tale of farauli.' These all wore the Prior's livery As he passed from estate to estate on business or on pleasure bent, my Lord Prior was sur- rounded by a large retinue of friends and followers, and took full share in all the duties and amusements of a country life. In the Almoners Roll of 1311 a valet . . . . . . had to take charge of his master's horses at Cateney, in Wiltshire, for 3 weeks at a charge
to the convent of 3s. M. In the same year 3d. for broad to feed the Prior's hounds, he being then on his way to hunt in the broad forest wilds of Savernake In Crondal a serving man of the Prior was staying in charge of 7 horses, awaiting his master's arrival for a few days' coursing. We find, too, that the convent built the Prior a new house for his dogs within the precincts,' "- though sport and dogs were an abomination to the rule of Benedict.
There were in the monastery at its fullest, during this period, sixty-four monks, with a net revenue which, at the time of the dissolution, was £1,542 3s. 4d., or, taking " the moderate scale of 1: 12 for the difference in the value of money then and now," about £15,500. In a modern college such an income would be administered by, at the most, two bursars with the general supervision of the warden; but in the monasteries there was an extraordinarily complex and sub • divided organisation, under which each separate branch of revenue and expenditure was administered by a separate officer or " obedientiary." Historically, it is probable that this was due to the democratic theory of monasteries that every one was to share in all the duties and labours ; to take his turn at
cooking, or gardening, or bed-making. But for centuries after these duties had been delegated to paid servants the sub-division of responsibility remained, and created the most cumbrous system of administration possible. Thus there were three Sub:priors besides the Prior to look after internal dis- cipline ; though, except for the Sub-prior who represented the Prior during his frequent and prolonged absences, the priors were rather honorary privileged persons than administrators. Then there were the church officials : the Sacrist, or trea- surer, as he was commonly called in the secular Cathedrals, who looked after the " sacra," the sacred vessels, ornaments,
and treasures of the church ; the Precentor, who superintended the services of the church ; the 0 ustos Operum, or master of the works, who was responsible for the maintenance of the fabric ;
the Anniversarian, who looked after the " obits," or annual commemorations of founders and benefactors. Each of these had his separate estates and his separate roll of accounts. Then there were the "Estates Bursar," called the "Receiver of the Priory Exchequer; " the Hordarian (a name which Dean Kitohin seems disposed to derive from the English
word " hoard," whereas it seems more likely that like all the other names it is derived from a Latin word, probably " hordeum," barley, used for any grain), who kept the larder, and was in college language the " maniple ; " the Refectorian, who saw that all things were duly provided for the dining- hall, but did not provide them himself. The Chamberlain was about a third of a domestic bursar, whose chief payments were £1 3s. 4d. for the boys in the school, and the " liveries " to the Bishop, Prior, and monks ; and for the thirty-six shaving days of the monastery,—what a fearful array of stubble must have been presented in the ten days' interval between the shaving days The Cellarer was a most important person in days before tea and teetotalism, when everybody drank beer, or wine if he could get it, at breakfast, dinner, and supper,—feast and fast day alike. He provided not only the drink, but the vessels to drink from. The Almoner, according to the common idea of a monastery, as the father of the poor, should be a most im- portant officer. But the Dean says :—
" One cannot help feeling a certain sense of surprise and dis- appointment, in going through our numerous Almoners' Rolls, at finding how little they show of any benevolent care for the sick and suffering. It is often said that the distress which followed after the Dissolution of the Monasteries in England was due to the sudden cutting-off of these ancient wells of benevolence. The truth rather seems to be that the clamour and distress then arose not so much from the cessation of doles as from the dismissal, to find other work for which they were not ill-fitted, of a large num- ber of easy-going hangers-on and dependents. The abolition of doles must have seemed a terrible wrong to those who preferred the casual loaf to the regular wage. Yet, in the main, the end of this promiscuous charity was a wholesome though painful remedy for existing ills."
With other officers, the whole number of these " Obedientiaries " reached nearly twenty, most of them with their separate landed estates, or manors, which they were bound to visit from time to time, and which gave them the position of country gentlemen. The system made the monastic accounts a scene of wild confusion. Under such divided responsibility, there was no certainty of good, and a very considerable proba- bility of bad, management. Hence the continuous struggles against deficits, which, in spite of all their wealth, most monasteries laboured under, as the histories, for example, of Meaux Abbey or Hexham Priory show. Hence, too, the diminution in the number of monks. Even at Winchester, one of the richest and best-ordered monasteries, there was an almost continuous decrease from sixty-four in 1325, to twenty-nine in 1495. In 1532, the number had risen again to forty-three, a rather remarkable fact, which makes one wonder whether, in view of impending dissolution, members had entered for the chance of being able to " com- pound and cut."
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