Monasticon Anglicanum: a history of the abbies and other monasteries, hospitals, frieries, and cathedral and collegiate churches, with their dependencies, in England and Wales; also of all such Scotch, Irish and French monasteries, as were in manner connected with religious houses in England / Originally pub. in Latin by Sir William Dugdale...[Now ed., enriched with a large accession of materials taken from leiger books, chartularies, rolls, and other documents preserved in the national archives, public libraries, and other repositories; the history of each religious foundation in English being prefixed to its respective series of Latin charters. By John Caley...Henry Ellis...and the Rev. Bulkeley Bandinel.
- William Dugdale
- Date:
- 1846
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Monasticon Anglicanum: a history of the abbies and other monasteries, hospitals, frieries, and cathedral and collegiate churches, with their dependencies, in England and Wales; also of all such Scotch, Irish and French monasteries, as were in manner connected with religious houses in England / Originally pub. in Latin by Sir William Dugdale...[Now ed., enriched with a large accession of materials taken from leiger books, chartularies, rolls, and other documents preserved in the national archives, public libraries, and other repositories; the history of each religious foundation in English being prefixed to its respective series of Latin charters. By John Caley...Henry Ellis...and the Rev. Bulkeley Bandinel. Source: Wellcome Collection.
![the bells, and sweep the church and the choir. These places were intended for maimed and invalid soldiers. This was afterwards converted into money, and since then, these Oblats and their pensions have been transferred to the Hospital of the Invalids at Paris, which King Lewis the Fourteenth began to build in the year 1671, two years after the foundation he had made in the year 1669a. “This Order was divided into ten provinces, being those of Dauphine (which includes Provence and Savoy) Auvergne, Poitiers, Saintonge, and Gascony, in France; Spain, Italy, Lombardy, Germany, in which is comprehended Lorain and the County of Burgundy; and lastly, England, which includes Scotland. “At the general chapters, formerly held yearly, and now every three years, two visitors are chosen for every province, and two others for the monasteries of nuns ; fifteen diffinitors; three auditors of causes; and two auditors of excuses. There were formerly five principal Priories; which were also the five first daughters of Cluni; but since the priory of St. Pancrace at Lewes, in England, has been involved in the destruction of other monasteries of that kingdom, there are only four of those principal Priories, or first daughters of Cluni, being those of la Charite-sur-Loire, St. Martin des Champs, at Paris, Souvigni, and Souxillanges.” Cluniacensis Ordo, [Glaber Rodulphus monachus Cluniacensis, lib. iii. Hist. Franc, cap. 5.] Ad ultimum quoque praedicta videlicet Institutio (ordinis sancti Benedicti) jam pene defessa, authore Deo, elegit sibi sapientiae sedem, vires collectura, ac fructificatura germine multiplied in monasterio scilicet cognomento Cluniaco, quod etiam ex situ ejusdem loci ad-clivo atque humili, tale sortitum est nomen : vel etiam, quod aptius illL congruit, a cluendo dictum, quoniam cluere, crescere dicimus: insigne quippe incrementum diversorum donorum a sui principio indies locus idem obtinuit. Construxit igitur praedictum ccenobium primitus pater monachorum Balmensis monasterii Berno vocatus, jubente Willermo piissimo Aquitanorum duce, in pago Matisconense, super Graonam fluvio- lum. Quod etiam ccenobium in primo, non amplius quam quindecim terras colonias dicitur in dotem accepisse, fratres tamen duodecim numero inibi memorantur convenisse. Ex quorum veluti optimo semine multiplicata stirpe domini excercituum innumerabilis magnam cognoscitur replesse. Qui quoniam his quae Dei sunt, videlicet justitise & pietatis operibus incessanter adhaeserunt, idcirco bonis omnibus repleri meruerunt, insuperque futuris mirabile reliquerunt exemplum ; nam post praefatum Brunonem suscepit regiminis curam sapientissimus Abbas Odo, &c. a Having given an account of the Oblats, or persons offered to a monastery, says Stevens, it may not be unacceptable to take notice of the several sorts of exterior acts formerly used to denote the firm disposition made, or as it were a confirmation of any donation made in the most authentic manner. Several forms were formerly used for giving possession to the persons that were to receive the donation. The most common was to give a glove, a knife, the haft of a knife, a stick, the stalk of an herb, the bough of a tree, a bit of wood, a book, or some other thing. Sometimes the donor broke or bent his own knife or another’s. They brought some earth from the very place which was given, which was hung up in the church, before the high altar, tyed up in a piece of linnen. The donation was also made by touching the bells, or the bell-ropes ; by a publick declaration made with a loud voice ; by the leather-thong the donor was girt with, or by the kiss of peace, a ceremony which seems to have been essential, and which religious persons had performed by seculars, when decency would not permit them to do it to persons of a different sex. Therefore one Mainon, with the consent of his son and of his daughter-in-law, having given the land of Brescliiot to the abby of St. Abuin of Angers, in testimony thereof he and his son embraced the monk Walter, who received the donation ; but it being indecent for that Walter to give the kiss of peace to a woman, he ordered the provost of the abby to do it for him to Mainon’s son’s wife. Father Mabillon, in his Annals of the Benedictines, gives us two very singular instances of this sort of donations, the one made by cuffs on the face, and the other by paring a nail till the blood came, as appears by the Acts of the Donations made to the abby of Moissac, by Ponce Earl of Toulouse, and by one Honfroy to the monastery of Preaux in Normandy. For Ponce Earl of Toulouse, having, in the year 1045, given a parcel of land to the abby of Moissac, now changed into a Collegiate of regular canons, he made that donation by paring the nail of his thumb to the quick, and drew blood ; and Honfroy having also given some land, in the year 1034, to the monastery of Preaux, with the consent of Robert Duke of Normandy, the prince sent his son William for him, to place that donation on the altar, which he did in the presence of several persons, among whom were Roger and Robert William, sons to Honfroy, who gave Robert William a cuff on the face. Richard de Lillebonne received a greater, and asking Honfroy, why he had given him so great a cuff; he answered, that being younger than he, and in all appear¬ ance likely to live longer, he would be a witness of that action. In fine, Hugh, son to Earl Valeran, received a third cuff. Father Mabillon adds, that this is the only example he has met with of this sort of donations made by cuffs.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b30455832_0005_0025.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)