DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6914#0050
18
ARCHITECTURAL ANTIQUITIES.
lie the same spiritual advantages at a much cheaper rate,—who soon surpassed
their rivals in their pretensions to learning- and piety, and who quickly succeeded
to the popularity which the monks had formerly enjoyed.
The religious Edifices which will be frequently adverted to in the ensuing pages,
consisted of cathedral, parochial, and collegiate churches, free chapels, abbeys,
priories, colleges, hospitals, preceptories, commanderies, and friaries. The cathedral
and parochial churches have already been noticed : collegiate churches and colleges
belonged to, and were appropriated by a number of secular canons, living together
under the government of a dean, warden, provost, or master; and having for the
more solemn performance of divine service, chaplains, singing men, and choristers
belonging to each.
An Abbey was appropriated to a society of religious people, governed by an
abbot or abbess ; and some of these abbeys, being endowed with baronies, entitled
their abbots to be summoned to and sit in parliament. The abbots had the power
and authority of bishops within the limits of their several houses, gave a solemn
benediction, conferred the lesser orders, wore mitres, sandals, &c. and carried
crosses or pastorals in their hands ; and some of their houses were exempted from
the jurisdiction of both archbishop and bishop, and subject to the Pope only.
A Priory was a house occupied by a society of religious persons, the chief of
whom was termed a prior or prioress; and of these there were two sorts : first,
where the prior was chosen by the convent, and governed as independently as any
abbot in his abbey : such were the cathedral priors, and most of those of the
Austin order. Secondly, where the priory was a cell subordinate to some great
abbey, and the prior was placed and displaced at the will of the abbot. But there
was a considerable difference in the regulation of these cells ; for some were alto-
gether subject to their respective abbots, who sent what officers and monks they
pleased, and took their revenues into the common stock of the abbeys ; whilst
others consisted of a stated number of monks, under a prior sent to them from the
superior abbey, and these priories paid a pension yearly, as an acknowledgment of
their subjection, but acted in other matters as independent bodies, and had the
rest of the revenues for their own use. The priories or cells were always of the
same order as the abbeys on which they depended, though sometimes their in-
mates were of a different sex ; it being usual, after the Norman conquest, for the
great abbeys to build nunneries on some of their manors, which should be subject
to their visitation.
ARCHITECTURAL ANTIQUITIES.
lie the same spiritual advantages at a much cheaper rate,—who soon surpassed
their rivals in their pretensions to learning- and piety, and who quickly succeeded
to the popularity which the monks had formerly enjoyed.
The religious Edifices which will be frequently adverted to in the ensuing pages,
consisted of cathedral, parochial, and collegiate churches, free chapels, abbeys,
priories, colleges, hospitals, preceptories, commanderies, and friaries. The cathedral
and parochial churches have already been noticed : collegiate churches and colleges
belonged to, and were appropriated by a number of secular canons, living together
under the government of a dean, warden, provost, or master; and having for the
more solemn performance of divine service, chaplains, singing men, and choristers
belonging to each.
An Abbey was appropriated to a society of religious people, governed by an
abbot or abbess ; and some of these abbeys, being endowed with baronies, entitled
their abbots to be summoned to and sit in parliament. The abbots had the power
and authority of bishops within the limits of their several houses, gave a solemn
benediction, conferred the lesser orders, wore mitres, sandals, &c. and carried
crosses or pastorals in their hands ; and some of their houses were exempted from
the jurisdiction of both archbishop and bishop, and subject to the Pope only.
A Priory was a house occupied by a society of religious persons, the chief of
whom was termed a prior or prioress; and of these there were two sorts : first,
where the prior was chosen by the convent, and governed as independently as any
abbot in his abbey : such were the cathedral priors, and most of those of the
Austin order. Secondly, where the priory was a cell subordinate to some great
abbey, and the prior was placed and displaced at the will of the abbot. But there
was a considerable difference in the regulation of these cells ; for some were alto-
gether subject to their respective abbots, who sent what officers and monks they
pleased, and took their revenues into the common stock of the abbeys ; whilst
others consisted of a stated number of monks, under a prior sent to them from the
superior abbey, and these priories paid a pension yearly, as an acknowledgment of
their subjection, but acted in other matters as independent bodies, and had the
rest of the revenues for their own use. The priories or cells were always of the
same order as the abbeys on which they depended, though sometimes their in-
mates were of a different sex ; it being usual, after the Norman conquest, for the
great abbeys to build nunneries on some of their manors, which should be subject
to their visitation.