CHAP XXXII. regulars and seculars; the former were those who had all things in common, while the latter had nothing in common but their dwelling and table. Epistolæ Can- Pearson's Anglia Monastica, P. 55. Tanner's Preface to the The distinction drawn by Professor Stubbs between the two principal religious foundations at Canterbury, will illustrate this point: "The cathedral church of Canterbury was not a monastery in the same sense as that of St. Augustine's, in the same city; the latter was founded for monastic purposes, the other was the mother church of the whole kingdom, its monastic character being almost accidental; even in its strictest days of discipline it had contained many clergy who were not monks, and many monks who were so only in name." At the time of the Conquest the orders of Benedictines and canons in England were thus divided. There were fifty-seven Benedictine abbeys and seventy-eight canonical foundations, and they all suffered in the common afflictions of the Norman invasion. One of their grievances, perhaps a minor one (though not so considered by many in the present day), was their being compelled to lay aside their long-cherished religious services, and adopt a new ritual; another was the election of bishops from the secular priests; a third was the assignment by the bishops of what revenues they deemed sufficient to maintain the priors and convents; reserving the rest, and the best Church lands, for the use of themselves and their successors. Great were the complaints of Archbishop Lanfranc's injustice in the division of the possessions of the see of Canterbury. It was alleged that he had retained the services and fees of the earls, barons, and knights, and had set apart for the monks, the yeomen and husbandmen. The last grievance which Tanner refers to, and which affected the clergy in general, was the Conqueror's charging for the first time the Church lands with military services, they having been previously held in frankalmoigne, and subject to no duties and charges beyond what they laid on themselves.** # One of the earliest grants to the monks of Christ Church for their table, was that of Ethelbald, son of Ethelbert, who gave them the We have already noticed the acts of spoliation by CHAP. XXXII. William Rufus on ecclesiatical property. Henry I., though a very bad man, ranks high among the Anglo-Norman monarchs for his affectation of piety and attachment to the Church. But little can be said of the religious zeal of either Stephen or Henry II., though both were builders of religious houses, and both Richard I. and King John appear to have been strongly prejudiced against ecclesiastics. On the fifty eventful years which elapsed between the enactment of the Constitutions of Clarendon and the surrender of the kingdom by John to Pope Innocent III., Professor Stubbs remarks P. x. "One life of ordinary length might witness the martyrdom of St. Epistolæ CanThomas, and the suspension of Stephen Langton. What were the pro- tuariensis, cesses by which the changed attitude of parties, and the altered appearances of principles were brought about? Was the difference ascribable only to the inferiority of John to Henry, of Thomas to Stephen, of Alexander to Innocent? What was the direction, the impetus, the initial force of the undercurrent that made it possible for such changes to be wrought by such men? What was the share of Richard, Urban, Clement and Celestine, of Archbishops Baldwin and Hubert, of Ranulf Glanvill, William Longchamp, or Geoffrey Fitz-Peter? For an answer to such questions the student must look, like the archæologist, below the surface of political history. In 1164 he finds kings, bishops, and barons, on one side, the Archbishop and the inferior clergy on the other, the Pope and the people either uninterested observers, or half-hearted partizans. In 1215 he finds the King and the Pope allied against the Church and the people." Down to the reign of King John thirty religious houses had been established in Kent. Three of them were situate in the Weald, two being priories of Black Canons (so called from their dress), one of them founded at Tunbridge by Richard de Clare, Earl of Hertford, in the reign of Henry I., and the other at Combwell, in Goudhurst, by church of Adisham, in Kent, A.D. DCXVI., free from all secular service and fiscal tribute, except the three customs of expedition against the enemy, and the building and repairing bridges and castles, these being common burthens from which no one was exempted. In subsequent charters, granted by different Anglo-Saxon monarchs, "freely as Adisham" was inserted, to avoid the repetition of the exemptions. CHAP. XXXII. Richard de Turnham, in the reign of Henry II. The third was a priory for Premonstratensian Canons,* first founded at Offham, in Sussex, by Ralph de Dene, but which in the reign of Henry II. was transferred to Bayham (near Tunbridge Wells). The collegiate church at Ulcomb, founded by Archbishop Langton, and the priory of the Order of the Holy Trinity at Mottenden (near Headcorn), were not opened until the reign of Henry III. The first Carmelite Friars in Kent settled in a secluded spot at Losenham in Newenden in the same reign (Henry III.) They were sometimes called White Friars from the colour of their habit. Lambarde says, "They made their nest at Newenden, which was before a woody and solitary place." Sir Thomas Alcher, or Fitz-Aucher, was their patron. By degrees nearly all the best of the Church endowments were engrossed by the monasteries, who provided but scantily for the working parochial clergy, an abuse of power which greatly helped to bring about their own suppression. I cannot do better than close this chapter with Professor Stubbs' remarks on this subject. "From the end of the twelfth century until the Reformation, from the days of Archbishop Hubert to those of Wolsey, the monasteries remained magnificent host-Iries; their churches were splendid chapels for noble patrons; their inhabitants were bachelor country gentlemen, more polished and charitable, but little more learned or more pure in life than their lay neighbours; their estates were well managed, and enjoyed great advantages and exemptions; they were, in fact, an element of peace in a nation that delighted in war. But with a few noble exceptions there was nothing in the system that did spiritual service; books were multiplied, but learning declined; prayers were offered unceasingly, but the efficacious energy of real devotion was not found in the homes that it had reared. The monastic body had sacrificed the opportunity of doing good work for the triumph of a moment. The great prize of their ambition, the government of the Church, fell from their hands. The position occupied from henceforth by the monks of Canterbury, -and their state and weight may be taken as a fair criterion of the whole system,—was void of all political importance; their action in the election of the *Commonly known by the name of White Canons. Their habit was a white cassock with a rochet over it, a long white cloak and a white cap; their living was according to the reformed rule of St. Austin. primate was merely nominal. In spite of many efforts to elect men of their own order, only once more did a monk fill the throne of Augustine. With the exception of Simon Langham, whose merits were by no means those of a monastic saint, Baldwin was the last monk who governed the Church of England." CHAP. XXXII. CHAP. XXXIII. Antiquities of p. 38. p. 255. CHAPTER XXXIII. THE KENTISH ROADS.-ARCHIEPISCOPAL RESIDENCES. THETHER our earliest principal highways were in number only four, or, as the Itinerary of Antoninus states, fifteen, most writers are agreed that the Romans perfected certain lines of road which had been previously traced out and used by the former inhabitants. Those which passed through Kent and Sussex were distinguished by the names of Watling Street and Ermyn Street. We will not stop to consider which was the most ancient, but refer the reader to Stukely, Gale, Manning and Bray, and other writers on the subject. There appears to be a general agreement that three of our most ancient seaports, Portus Ritupæ (Richborough), Portus Dubris (Dover), and Portus Lemanis (Lympne), as shown in Map 1, were the starting points of the Watling Street road, which became united at Durovernum (Canterbury), where the Sturius (Stour) must have been forded or crossed by a bridge or bridges. Somner says its principal channel ran anciently, as at present, through the middle of the city, but this must be conjecture. He refers to the great inundations which Canterbury had been frequently subjected to; lessened, however, in his day (1641), “the city having been raised in all parts of it;" a statement confirmed by recent discoveries in drainage works. Proceeding to Durobrivis (Rochester), the Watling Street road crossed the Madus (Medway), but, according to Dr. Harris, somewhat to the north of the present bridge. Harris |