whereby our fair sustained much loss. At last, upon the mediation of the bishop of London and many others, it was settled between us and them, that they should come to the fair, and that some of them should pay toll, but that it should be forthwith returned to them, so that by such a dissembled act the privilege on both sides should be preserved. But in process of time, when the abbot had made agreement with his knights, and, as it were, slept in tranquillity, behold again "the Philistines be upon thee, Sampson!" Lo, the Londoners, with one voice, were threatening that they would lay level with the earth the stone houses which the abbot had built that very year, or that they would take distress by a hundredfold from the men of St. Edmund, unless the abbot forthwith redressed the wrong done them by the bailiffs of the town of St. Edmund. These had taken fifteen pence from the carts of the citizens of London, who on their way from Yarmouth, laden with herring, had made passage through our demesnes. Furthermore the citizens of London said that they were quit of toll in every market, and on every occasion, and in every place throughout all England, from the time when Rome was first founded, and that London was founded at the very same time. Also that they ought to have such an exemption throughout all England, as well by reason of its being a privileged city, which was of old time the metropolis and head of the kingdom, as by reason of its antiquity. But the abbot sought reasonable postponements thereupon, until the return of our lord the king of England, that he might consult with him upon this; and having taken advice of the lawyers, he returned to the claimants those fifteen pence, without prejudice to the question of each party's rights. The greater rigidity of the Cistercian rule appears from the following account of the foundation of that order. It was established at Citeaux in France, whence the name of the order is drawn, a generation after the Norman Conquest, and by the thirteenth century had a number of monasteries in England, almost equaling the older Benedictine houses in extent and influence. Cistercian At this time began the Cistercian order, which is now both 119. How believed and asserted to be the surest road to heaven. To the Englishman Stephen speak of this does not seem irrelevant to the work I have Fitz-Harding undertaken, since it redounds to the glory of England to have helped to produced the distinguished man who was the author and found the promoter of that rule. To us he belonged, and in our schools Order passed the earlier part of his life. Wherefore, if we are not envious, we shall embrace his good qualities the more kindly, in proportion as we knew them more intimately. And, moreover, I am anxious to extol his praise, because it is a mark of an ingenuous mind to approve that virtue in others, of which in yourself you regret the absence. He was named Harding, and born in England of no very illustrious parents. From his early years he was a monk at Sherborne; but when secular desires had captivated his youth he grew disgusted with the monastic garb, and went first to Scotland and afterwards to France. Here, after some years' exercise in the liberal arts, he was reawakened to the love of God. For he went to Rome with a clerk who partook of his studies; neither the length and difficulty of the journey, nor the scantiness of their means of subsistence by the way, preventing them, both as they went and returned, from singing daily the whole psalter. Benedictine questions the divergences from them Indeed the mind of this celebrated man was already medi- Fitz-Hardtating the design which soon after, by the grace of God, he ing takes the attempted to put in execution. For returning into Burgundy, he vows, but was tonsured at Molêmes, a new and magnificent monastery. Here he readily admitted the first elements of the order, as he had formerly seen them; but when additional matters were proposed for his observance, such as he had neither read in the Benedictine rule nor seen elsewhere, he began, modestly and as became a monk, to ask the reason of them. . . The subject, then, being canvassed in frequent chapters, Determinaended by bringing over the abbot himself to the opinion that tion to return to the spirit all superfluous matters should be passed by, and merely the of the Beneessence of the rule be scrutinized. Two of the fraternity, there- dictine rule fore, of equal faith and learning, were elected, who, by vicarious examination, were to discover the intention of the founder's rule; and when they had discovered it, to propound it to the Severity of the Cistercian rule rest. The abbot diligently endeavored to induce the whole convent to give their concurrence, but as it is difficult to eradicate from men's minds what has early taken root, since they reluctantly relinquish the first notions they have imbibed, almost the whole of them refused to accept the new regulations, because they were attached to the old. Eighteen only, among whom was Harding, otherwise called Stephen, persevering in their holy determination, together with their abbot, left the monastery, declaring that the purity of the institution could not be preserved in a place where riches and gluttony warred against even the heart that was well inclined. They came therefore to Citeaux, a situation formerly covered with woods, but now so conspicuous from the abundant piety of its monks, that it is not undeservedly esteemed blessed by the Divinity himself. Here, by the countenance of the archbishop of Vienne, who is now pope, they entered on a labor worthy to be remembered and venerated to the end of time. Certainly many of their regulations seem severe, and more particularly these: they wear nothing made with furs or linen, nor even that finely spun linen garment which we call staminium neither breeches, unless when sent on a journey, which at their return they wash and restore. They have two tunics with cowls, but no additional garments in winter, though, if they think fit, in summer they may lighten their garb. They sleep clad and girded, and never after matins return to their beds; but they so order the time of matins that it shall be light ere the lauds begin. So intent are they on their rule that they think no jot or tittle of it should be disregarded. Directly after these hymns they sing the prime, after which they go out to work for stated hours. They complete whatever labor or service they have to perform by day without any other light. No one is ever absent from daily services or from complines except the sick. The cellarer and hospitaller, after complines, wait upon the guests, yet observing the strictest silence. The abbot allows himself no indulgence beyond the others. He is everywhere present, everywhere attending to his flock; except that he does not eat with the rest, because his table is with the strangers and the poor. Nevertheless, be he where he may, he is equally sparing of food and of speech; for never more than two dishes are served either to him or to his company; butter and meat never but to the sick. From the Ides of September till Easter they do not take more than one meal a day, no matter what festival it may be, except on Sunday. They never leave the cloister but for the purpose of labor, nor do they ever speak, either there or elsewhere, save only to the abbot or prior. They pay unwearied attention to the canonical services, making no addition to them except the vigil for the dead. They use in their divine service the Ambrosian chants and hymns, as far as they have been able to learn them at Milan. While they bestow care on the stranger and the sick, they inflict intolerable mortifications on their own bodies, for the health of their souls. more than to their old abbey The abbot at first both endured these privations with much The first alacrity himself and compelled the rest to do the same. In abbot and process of time, however, the man repented; he had been half the delicately brought up, and could not well bear such continued monks return scantiness of diet. The monks, whom he had left at Molêmes, getting scent of this disposition either by messages or letters, for it is uncertain which, drew him back to the monastery by his obedience to the pope, for such was their pretext, compelling him to a measure to which he was already extremely well disposed. For, as if wearied out by the pertinacity of their entreaties, he left the narrow confines of poverty and sought again his former magnificence. All followed him from Citeaux who had gone thither with him, except eight. These, few in number but great in virtue, appointed Alberic, one of their party, abbot, and Stephen prior. The former, not surviving more than eight years, was, at the will of heaven, happily called away. Then, doubtless by God's appointment, Stephen, though absent, was elected abbot, the original contriver of the whole scheme, the especial and celebrated ornament of our times. Sixteen abbeys which he has already completed, and seven which he has begun, are sufficient testimonies of his abundant merit. . . . The Cistercian monks at the present day are a model for all monks, a mirror for the diligent, a spur to the indolent, 120. Charter of Lincoln III. TOWNS AND GILDS The period in which most of the large towns obtained their first charters was during the reigns of Henry II, Richard, and John; but it was during the period covered by this chapter, the thirteenth and early fourteenth cen-* turies, that they first became really important. Each city or borough of any size in England had a charter, somewhat like that of Lincoln, which is here given, granting or confirming to it various rights and privileges of self-government. Henry, by the grace of God king of England, duke of of the city Normandy and Aquitaine, count of Anjou, to the bishop of Lincoln, justiciars, sheriffs, barons, officers, and all his faithful, French and English, of Lincoln, greeting. Know that I have conceded to my citizens of Lincoln all their liberties and customs and laws, which they had in the time of Edward and William and Henry, kings of England; and their gild merchant of the men of the city and of other merchants of the county, just as they had it in the time of our aforesaid predecessors, kings of England, best and most freely. And all men who dwell within the four divisions of the city and attend the market are to be at the gilds and customs and assizes of the city as they have been best in the time of Edward, William, and Henry, kings of England. I grant to them, moreover, that if any one shall buy any land within the city, of the burgage of Lincoln, and shall have held it for a year and a day without any claim, and he who has bought it is able to show that the claimant has been in the land of England within the year and has not claimed it, for the future as before he shall hold it well and in peace, and without any prosecution. I confirm also to them, that if any one shall have remained in the city of Lincoln for a year and a day without claim on the part of any claimant, and has given the customs, and is able to show by the laws and customs of the city that the claimant has been in the land of England and has not made a claim against him, for the future |