In the time of Robert Risborough, if the abbot was unworthy of his office, public opinion in the monastery was certainly against him, though the prior and canons were ob- liged to wait until he could be canonically deposed, and the credit of the house restored by a better appointment. It may fairly be supposed that Henry Honor, who was elected in Robert's place, was chosen because he up- held a higher standard of religious observance. It was probably during his long term of office that the Sloane chartulary [1] was compiled, though it contains some entries of later date. It is a curious book, in which leases and royal writs are mixed up indiscriminately with scraps of general information of all kinds a table of the kings of England, the way to find Easter and to understand the signs of the weather ; lists of Christian virtues, deadly sins and colours for painting ; prescriptions for divers diseases containing such strange in- gredients as ' oil of black snails ' and ' marrow of horse bones,' with the exorcisms for the falling sickness and the fever ; the ten com- mandments in English and many rhymed adages and rules for the conduct of life gen- erally. [2]
At the beginning of the sixteenth century the discipline of the house became sadly lax, and the visitation of Atwater in 1518 reveals a very unsatisfactory state of affairs. The bishop noticed that licences to go into the town were much too readily granted to the canons. These he ordered to be restricted in future to cases of necessity. The refectory was to be repaired, and until it was ready the abbot must appoint some other place where the canons could eat together and hear the Rule read. The infirmary was to be put in order, and five at least among the canons must in future be priests. They were to have a proper place where they could receive their friends two or three times in the year. There was a monk from another house living here who was non utilis monasterio. Richard Gynger, a novice, was too prone to ease and gave neither his time nor his attention to heavenly things ; he must occupy himself laudably. There was want of care too even in the appointments of the conventual church. The bishop found it necessary to order a lamp to be alight continually before the Blessed Sacrament. The very servants of the mon- astery were insolent and abusive to the canons, and refused to attend to their needs. [3]
In the lists of those who abjured and did penance in 1521 for heresy, Foxe names a canon of Missenden.[4] It is by no means im- probable at such a time, when the monastery was in such complete disorder.
There was worse to come. The visitations of Longland in 1530 and 1531 revealed mis- chief of a still more serious kind. In 1530 [5] it was complained that the abbot, John Fox, was wholly under the influence of a secular, John Compton, who cut down trees and did as he pleased with the goods of the monastery. The prior was remiss in correction, and did not set an example of regular attendance at the divine office. The buildings were all out of repair, and the house £60 in debt. The abbot had no book or rental to show his lands, and did not know what his possessions really were. The gate between the nave and choir of the conventual church was never closed, so that seculars could enter the choir at their will. No lessons from Holy Scripture were read in the refectory. One canon, John Sly- thurst, was accused by three or four of his brethren not merely of being ' verbose, of elate mind, and a sower of dissension,' but of the crime condemned beyond all others in Holy Scripture ; and the late abbot, William Honor, had shared his guilt.
It was a terrible indictment, and the bishop's commissary, Thomas Jackman, met it with stringent regulations. John Sly- thurst was to be kept apart from all the breth- ren, in the custody of the abbot and prior ; he was never to go out of his cell without a licence from the bishop, and no one was to be admitted to see him except those who came for the good of his soul. No boys were to be
- ↑ Sloane MS. 747. This book has been very little noticed by those who have inquired into the history of Missenden, possibly because it is in the worst hand of the late fifteenth century, and very difficult to read.
- ↑
The following quaint rhyme may serve as an instance :
' When thi hede aks, memento :
And thi lypps blaks, confessio :
And thi hert pants, contritio :
And thi wind wants, satisfactio :
And thi lemes unwilling lie, libera me domine :
And thi nose waxes colde, domine miserere :
And thi nyes hollowes,
Then the deth folowes,
Veni ad judicium.Another bids a man
'Arise early, Serve God devoutly, The world busily, Go thy way sadly, Answer demurely,' etc.
- ↑ Visitations of Atwater (Lincoln).
- ↑ Acts and Monuments, iv. 227.
- ↑ Visitations of Longland (Lincoln), 10 October,
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