Sometimes, too, the misconduct of a
prior was so abominable that it could not be borne, and then came the
very difficult and very delicate business of getting him deposed: a
process which was by no means easily managed, as appeared in the
instance of Simon Pumice, Prior of Worcester, in 1219, and in many
another case.
Such hopes and fears and provocations as these all contributed to
relieve the monotony which it has been too readily assumed was the
characteristic of the cloister life. The monks had a world of their
own within the precincts, but they were not so shut in but that their
relations with the greater world outside were very real. Moreover,
that confinement to the monastery itself, which was necessarily very
greatly relaxed in the case of the officers or obedientaries of the
convent, was almost as easily relaxed if one of the brethren could
manage to get the right side of the abbot or prior. When Archbishop
Peckham was holding his visitations in 1282 he more than once remarks
with asperity upon a monk _farming_ a manor of his convent, and
declares that the practice must stop. The outlying manors must have
somebody to look after them, it was assumed, and if one of the
brethren was willing to undertake the management for the convent, why
should he not?
Nor, again, must we suppose that the monks were debarred all
amusements.
Pages:
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153