was charged with offenses in a civil court, was to show his tonsure, and then to ask for a book and prove that he was a clergyman by his ability to read it. Then he was released or turned over to the bishop's court, where the punishment was always light, never extending to the death penalty. In a book called Philobiblon, written about this time by a bishop of Durham, books, which are personified, are made to set forth their various claims. for consideration. They address themselves to the clergy as follows:

Philobiblon

Remember therefore, we pray, how many and how great 115. From the liberties and privileges are conferred upon you, the clergy, of Richard through us books. Instructed by us, at a tender age, while of Bury you were yet without down upon your chins, you received the tonsure upon your crowns, being protected by the dread claim of the church, in the decree, "Touch not my anointed, and do my prophets no harm; and whoever rashly toucheth them, his own blow shall instantly recoil upon him with the wound of an anathema." At length, however, falling into the age of The wicked wickedness, arriving at the double way of the Pythagoric sym- former bol, you chose the left-hand branch, and, turning aside, cast students off the preassumed destination of the Lord and became companions of thieves; and thus ever progressing to worse, you were defiled by robberies, homicide, and various shameful crimes, your character and conscience being equally corrupted by wickedness.

Being called to justice, you are bound in manacles and fetters, to be punished by a most ignominious death. Then your friend and neighbor fails you, nor is there any one to pity your fate. Peter swears he never knew the man; the mob cries out to the judge, "Crucify him! Crucify him! For if you discharge this man you are not Cæsar's friend." It is now too late to fly; you must stand before the tribunal; no place of appeal offers itself; nothing but hanging is to be expected. When sorrow and the broken song of lamentation alone fill the heart of the wretched man, when his cheeks are watered with tears,

career of the

The culprit

proves by

reading the book that he

is a clergy

man

116. John, bishop of Carlisle, to the pope, asking for Oxford the same privileges that have been given to Paris

and he is surrounded with anguish on every side, then let him remember us; and in order to avoid the peril of approaching death, let him display the little token of the ancient tonsure which we gave him, begging that we may be called in on his behalf, and bear witness of the benefit conferred. Then, moved by pity, we instantly run to meet the prodigal son, and snatch the fugitive servant from the gates of death. The well-known book is tendered to be read, and after a slight reading by the criminal, stammering from fear, the power of the judge is dissolved, the accuser is withdrawn, death is put to flight.

Many of the most valued privileges of the universities were grants from the pope, as the general head of the church, of which the universities were considered to be a part.

To the most holy father in Christ, Lord Boniface, by divine providence of the very holy Roman and universal church highest pontiff, John, by the mercy of the same, humble minister of the church at Carlisle, with reverential obedience sends kisses for his blessed feet.

Great fertility gladdens a mother, and the more virtuous the offspring the greater is the occasion for joy. The inexhaustible fertility of the University of Oxford does not cease to produce many great and useful sons for the ranks of the Lord, so that it is truly rated as the mother and nurse of English learning, and is deserving of being held in honor with the affection due to a mother. Therefore, since a wise son is the gladness of a father, she ought to be held in favor who increases the house of God with the wisdom and devotion of such sons.

As I have learned, the apostolic foresight has considered it best to distinguish the university of the kingdom of France by such a privilege that all who have attained in any faculty the rank of the honor of master shall be permitted to deliver lectures in the same faculty anywhere, and to continue these as long as they please, without a new examination or approbation, without the duty of going back to the beginning, or of seeking the favor of any one. I therefore affectionately and devotedly

beg your pious fatherly care that, for increasing with kind affection the peace and uniformity among scholastics, it may be pleasing to your apostolic kindness to extend the common privilege of this dispensation to the said University of Oxford. There is truly a fear felt by many of the great men of the kingdom of England, that peace cannot long be preserved inviolate by the students, a thing which is especially necessary among universities, unless the English university is acknowledged to be deserving of being ranked with the rest in liberties and scholastic powers. May the lord preserve your holiness to rule the universal church through all time! Dated at Berwick, on the third day of September, 1296.

II. THE MONASTERIES

The monasteries, many of which had come down from a period before the Norman Conquest, were growing steadily in the extent of their possessions, and in the number of their inmates. Among the largest, richest, and most influential of the old Benedictine monasteries was that of St. Albans, situated about twenty miles north of London. Its records, which are still preserved, fill several volumes, and are occupied with notices of the erection of new buildings, ornamentation of the shrines in the abbey church, gifts of books, loans obtained from the Jews, settlement of disputes about property, and such matters, as is indicated in the following extracts.

annals of the

When the above-mentioned Abbot Robert had ruled excel- 117. Extracts lently for fifteen years, four months, and some days over the from the church of St. Alban, which had been intrusted to him, being abbey of very ill with pleurisy, on a certain Sabbath night, the twenty- St. Albans third of October, he was anointed with the oil for the sick (1166-1260) by the venerable Lawrence, abbot of Westminster, who was present; and just at dawn he departed this life, in the year of the Incarnation of the Lord 1166. Gilbert Foliot, bishop of

Debts to the Jews and others

Appeal to

the king for

permission to elect a new abbot

London, Lawrence, abbot of Westminster, and Simon, then prior of the church of St. Alban, were all present to bury him. He was interred in the chapter house, which he had so fittingly erected, at the feet of Abbot Paul, who was the first man in this church who is known to have been decked in pontifical array, as his likeness on his marble sarcophagus bears witness.

After the abbot died the whole abbey was taken possession of by the justiciar of the king, but its care was intrusted by the same justiciar, Robert, earl of Leicester, to the prior, and to brother Adam, the cellarer, and other brethren of the place.

The church was found to be burdened with many debts, the amount of which was discovered to be six hundred marks, as was estimated by the royal officials. It owed much to Christians, but more to the Jews. The abbot was excusable for this on account of the reasons for such difficulties, and was pardoned, at the earnest request of the best men. From a feeling of relationship and fellowship, however, since flesh and blood had revealed themselves to him, he had bestowed many gifts upon his own people. He had also caused the estate of Gorham with its belongings to be rashly regranted and wrongfully increased; and at the beginning of the erection of the chapter house which he intended to build, he had, at the advice of his architect, caused the bodies of the old abbots to be buried too meanly, and without any record of those distinguished men. So when the architect died of apoplexy, the memory of the place was lost. First carnal affection, and then negligence, weakened the heart of the man.

Announcement was made to the lord king of the death of Robert, abbot of the church of St. Alban, and the king lamented his loss. The monks therefore immediately begged that permission be granted them to choose another in his place; for four months and more the license to elect was postponed. Finally the king, overcome with weariness at their ceaseless prayers, wrote to the bishop of London to go to the monastery of St. Alban, where three names should be presented in his presence, and the whole affair should then be reported by him in a letter to the king. An account of the family and character of those nominated should also be sent, together with

their acquirements and wisdom, in order that he himself might choose from the three the one whom he preferred.

Abbot Simon

This was done, and when the family and career of the three Election of nominees had been announced to the king, he replied that his choice rested on the prior of the place, that is to say, Lord Simon; and Simon was installed abbot of the church of St. Alban, a man of worthy life, well skilled in letters, and an especial lover of the Scriptures and of books. And immediately on the same day, that is, the twentieth of May, which day was in that year the day of the Lord's Ascension, he was consecrated by the lord of London, Gilbert, whose cognomen is Foliot, with no pledge except that to the Roman church. And at this consecration he was adorned with the pontifical insignia. . . .

St. Alban

Abbot Simon of pious memory from that time began care- Building of fully and wisely to collect an immense treasure of gold, silver, the shrine of and precious gems. And he began also to construct a receptacle which we call a shrine1 (and up to this time we have seen none better) by the hand of a most excellent workman, Master John, a goldsmith; and within a few years he successfully completed this piece of work, so laborious, so rich, and so finely wrought. When it was completed he placed it in a more prominent position, that is, above the high altar, opposite the person celebrating, so that each one celebrating the mass might have, in his face and in his heart, over this same altar, the memory of the martyr; and so in the sight of the one celebrating there was constantly portrayed that vision which showed the martyrdom, that is to say, the murder of this same man. On two sides of the shrine were figured a series of the occurrences in the life of the blessed martyr, which were a pledge and a preparation for his passion, with raised figures of gold and silver of beaten work, which is commonly called relief work. On the top facing the east he reverently placed an image of the crucifix, with the figures of Mary and John and a most suitable display of precious gems. On the front, looking towards the west, he placed an image of the Blessed Virgin, seated on a throne

1 For the remains of St. Alban, the patron saint of the monastery, who had been put to death there according to tradition in A.D. 286.