Some brawling knight pretended he was in some sense
_patron_ of a cell, and demanded a trumpery allowance of bread
and ale, or an equivalent. As we read about these things we exclaim,
"Why in the world did they make such a fuss about a trifle?" Not so
thought the monks. They knew well enough what the thin end of the
wedge meant, and, being in a far better position than we are to judge
of the significance and importance of many a _casus belli_ which
now seems but trivial, they never dreamed of giving an inch for the
other side to take an ell. So they went to law, and enjoyed it
amazingly! Sometimes however, there were disputes which were not to
be settled peaceably; and then came what University men in the old
days used to know as a "Town and Gown row."
Let it be remembered that a Benedictine monastery, in the early
times, was invariably set down in a lonely wilderness. As time went
on, and the monks brought the swamp into cultivation, and wealth
flowed in, and the monastery became a centre of culture, there would
be sure to gather round the walls a number of hangers-on, who
gradually grew into a community, the tendency of which was to assert
itself, and to become less and less dependent upon the abbey for
support. These _towns_ (for they became such) were, as a rule,
built on the abbey land, and paid dues to the monastery.
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