Long before the thirteenth century,
however, a monk was almost invariably ordained, and being an ordained
person, and having his local habitation in a bishop's diocese, it was
only natural that the bishop should claim jurisdiction over him and
over the church in which he and the fraternity ministered; but to
allow a power of visitation to any one outside the close corporation
of the convent was fraught with infinite peril to the community.
Confessing their faults one to another, and asking pardon of the Lord
Abbot or his representative, the prior, was one thing; but to have a
querulous or inquisitive or even hostile bishop coming and intruding
into their secrets, blurting them out to the world and actually
pronouncing sentence upon them--that seemed to the monks an
absolutely intolerable and shocking condition of affairs. Hence it
seemed supremely desirable to a convent to get for itself, by fair
means or foul--and I am afraid the means were not always fair means,
as we should consider them--the exemption of their house from
episcopal visitation or control. I believe that the earliest instance
of such an exemption being granted in England was that of the
Conqueror's Abbey of Battle. The precedent was a bad one, and led to
all sorts of attempts by other houses to procure for themselves the
like privilege. Such attempts were stoutly resisted by the bishops,
who foresaw the evils that would inevitably follow, and which in fact
did follow; and, of course, bishop and abbey went to law.
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