2

"treat you to worship Him, by whom kings reign and princes
'rule.' The King feebly raised himself up, and stretched out his
hands; and, before the elevation of the cup, called the Prince to
kiss him, and then pronounced upon him a blessing,' variously
given, but in each version containing an allusion to the
blessing of Isaac on Jacob-it may be from the recollection of
the comparison of himself to Jacob on his first accession, or
from the likeness of the relations of himself and his son
to the two Jewish Patriarchs. These were the last words of
the victorious Henry.' The Prince, in an agony of grief,
retired to an oratory, as it would seem, within the monastery;
and there, on his bare knees, and with floods of tears, passed
the whole of that dreary day, till nightfall, in remorse for his
past sins.
At night he secretly went to a holy hermit in the
Precincts (the successor, probably, of the one whom Richard
II. had consulted), and from him, after a full confession,
received absolution. Such was the tradition of what, in
modern days, would be called the conversion of Henry V.'

The last historical purpose to which the Abbot's House was turned before the Dissolution was the confinement of Sir Sir Thomas Thomas More, under charge of the last Abbot, who strongly More, urged his acknowledgment of the King's Supremacy. From its 1534. walls he probably wrote his Appeal to a General Council.1

Priors and

On leaving the Abbot's House, we find ourselves in the The midst of the ordinary monastic life. It is now that we Subpriors. come upon the indications of the unusual grandeur of the establishment. The Abbot's House was, as we have seen, a little palace. The rest was in proportion. In most monasteries there was but one Prior (who filled the office of Deputy to the Abbot), and one Subprior. Here, close adjoining to the Abbot's House, was a long line of buildings,

1 Elmham, c. vii. Capgrave's De Henricis, p. 110.

2 See Chapter II.

Elmham, c. vii.

+ More's Works, 282.

THE
CLOISTERS.

now forming the eastern side of Dean's Yard, which were occupied by the Prior, the Subprior, the Prior of the Cloister, and the two inferior Subpriors, and their Chaplain.' The South Cloister near the Prior's Chamber was painted with a fresco of the Nativity. The number of the inferior officers was doubled in like manner, raising the whole number to fifty or sixty. The ordinary members of the monastic community were at least in the thirteenth century admitted, not without considerable scrutiny as to their character and motives. Their number seems to have amounted to about eighty.

The Abbot's House opened by a large archway, still visible, into the West Cloister. The Cloisters had been begun by the Confessor, and were finished shortly after the Conquest. Part of the eastern side was rebuilt by Henry III., and part of the northern by Edward I. The eastern was finished by Abbot Byrcheston in 1345, and the southern and western, with the remaining part of the northern, by the Abbot Langham and Littlington from 1350 to 1366.3 In this quadrangle was, doubtless, the focus of the monastic life-the place of recreation and gossip, of intercourse and business, and of final rest. In the central plot of grass were buried the humbler brethren; in the South and East Cloisters, as we have seen, the earlier Abbots. The behaviour of the monks in this public place was under the supervision of the two lesser Subpriors, who bore the somewhat unpleasant name of Spies of the Cloister.' In the North Cloister, close by the entrance of the Church, where the monks usually walked, sate the Prior. In the Western-the one still the most familiar to Westminster scholars-sate the Master of the

1 Ware, p. 275.

2 Cartulary. See Appendix.

Gleanings, 37, 52, 53. A fragment, bearing the names of William Rufus and Abbot Gislebert, is said to have been found in 1831. (Gent. Mag.

[1831], part ii. p. 545.) A capital, with their joint heads, was found in the remains of the walls of the Westminster Palace. (Vet. Mon. vol. v. plate xcvii. p. 4.)

School in

Novices, with his disciples. This was the first beginning of Westminster School. Traces of it have been found in the The literary challenges of the London schoolboys, described by the West Fitzstephen,' in the reign of Henry II., and in the legendary Cloister. traditions of Ingulph's schooldays, in the time of the Confessor and Queen Edith:

Frequently have I seen her when, in my boyhood, I used to visit my father, who was employed about the Court; and often when I met her, as I was coming from school, did she question me about my studies and my verses, and most readily passing from the solidity of grammar to the brighter studies of logic, in which she was particularly skilful, she would catch me with the subtle threads of her arguments. She would always present me with three or four pieces of money, which were counted out to me by her handmaiden, and then send me to the royal larder to refresh myself.2

Near the seat of the monks was a carved crucifix.3 These novices or disciples at their lessons were planted, except for one hour in the day, each behind the other. No signals or jokes were allowed amongst them. No language but French was allowed in their communications with each other. English and Latin were expressly prohibited. The utmost care was to be taken with their writings and illuminations.7

Besides these occupations, many others less civilised were carried on in the same place. Under the Abbots' of vene'rable memory' before Henry III.'s changes, the Cloister was the scene of the important act of shaving, an art Shaving. respecting which the most minute directions are given. Afterwards the younger monks alone underwent the operation thus publicly. Soap and hot water were to be

1 'Pueri diversarum scholarum ver'sibus inter se conrixantur.' (Descript. Lond.)

2 Ingulph's Chronicle (A. D. 10431051). The Chronicle really dates from the beginning of the fourteenth Century. (Quart. Rev. xxxiv. 296.) Cartulary. See Appendix.

♦ Ware, p. 268.

• Ibid. p. 277.

Ibid. pp. 280, 375, 388, 404, 422, 423. The form of admission is given in Latin, French, and English, ib. p. 407. See p. 455.

Ibid. pp. 275, 281.