Selected quad for the lemma: city_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
city_n	abbey_n	found_v	winchester_n	33	3	10.3906	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62734	Notitia monastica, or, A short history of the religious houses in England and Wales by Thomas Tanner ...	Tanner, Thomas, 1674-1735.	1695 (1695)	Wing T144; ESTC R668	166,591	415

of the Episcopal ●ees are also added in their proper places not ●hat they are rare but because I was willing ●o make the Collection as compleat as possible ●he Arms also of the six new Bishopricks found●d by King Henry VIII are the same with the ●ld Priories I am not ignorant that several Monasteries had no Arms and of those that ●ad few used them in the Common Seal of the House that being generally the Saint or Saints to whom it was dedicated tho' the Arms are sometimes found at the lower part of the Seal or else they are used as a Counter-Seal Thus here is given as briefly as the matter would permit some account of the method contents and use of the following Book In the sequel of this discourse some attempts will be made toward a brief History of the general state of Monasteries in this Island from the time of the Britains till the Dissolution with some reflections on their Learning The original of Monks in Britain may be dated from the first plantation of Christianity therein if we may give any credit to a very Learned Gentleman who tells us That it is probable that some of the Druids having been converted from the Pagan Religion whereof they were the Priests became our first Monks being thereunto much inclined by the severity of their former discipline But however 't is just to suppose that several Christians to avoid the heat of the persecution which raged so fiercely here in the reign of Dioclesian did withdraw into solitary places and there accustoming themselves to live were our first Ascetics This retired life afterward became more eligible when Britain was in a combustion by reason of the wars between the Usurpers of the Roman Empire which were followed by the incursions of the Picts and the Conquest of the Saxons These troublesome times without doubt inclined contemplative persons to fly into the most private solitudes Caves Forests and Mountains where they spent their time in reading the Scriptures and other duties of Religion having no tye or vows but what they from time to time impos'd upon themselves There is great question among the Learned who it was that brought over the Monastic Rules and first instituted Abbies in Britain It is the opinion of the Right Reverend Bishop of Worcester to whom the Church Antiquities of these ages owe their greatest light That the British Monasteries were no older than S. Patrick's time Indeed the Winchester Historian would make the World believe that there was an Abby founded in that City for Monks of the Order of St. Mark the Evangelist by King Lucius A. D. 194. who endowed the Bishops and them with the Lands and Privileges of the Flamen viz. all the Country twelve miles round the City But every part of this ill grounded story is so erroneous that 't is not worth the while to confute it Besides this Capgrave and from him Bale and Pits seem to contradict the forementioned opinion by asserting that Pelagius the Heretick who flourished about A. D. 400. was Abbat of Bangor But there is no probability at all in the Monkish tradition of Pelagius's being Abbat of Bangor and there is not much more of Bangor's being so famous a Monastery at that time or of Pelagius's being a Monk therein For the British Monasteries were no elder than St. Patrick's time And in Pelagius's time those were called Monks at Rome who had no office in the Church but yet retired from the common employments of the World for sacred Studies and devotion and where any number of these lived tog●ther that was called a Monastery Thus that great Prelate And 't is likely that Congellus about A. D. 530. was the first that converted the House of Bangor into a Monastery tho' not the first that brought the Monastick way of living into Britain as Mr. Camden will have it As for St. Patrick after he had converted the Irish to the Christian Faith A. D. 433. he came over into this Isle and finding at Glastonbury twelve Anchorites he gathered them together and making himself Abbat taught them to live according to the Monastick Rules And this is the more probable because he was Nephew to St. Martin of Tours who brought this manner of life into France and from whom St. Patric● might easily have learned it Malmsbury also calls this Monastery in another place the oldest that he knew in England In the next age the British Historians report that St. Dubriciu● Arch-bishop of St. Davids founded twelve Monasteries and taught his Monks to live after the manner of the Asians and Africans upon the works of their own hands This was about the year 512. Not long after as 't was before observ'd the Abby of Bangor was instituted which as Bede saith consisted of seven Classes each Class containing three hundred Monks who all lived on their own labours What other things were enjoined them we have no account but that they had a Rule is plain from Gildas who mentions Monachorum decreta and Monachi Votum but whether the Rule of the Welsh Monasteries was the same with that St. Patrick instituted at Glastonbury Or if different whether either was the same used in any other parts of the World we have no light from Antiquity to discover Indeed that great Antiquary Sir Roger Twisden tells us The Monks of Bangor were not unlike the Order of St. Basil if not of it Upon the Conversion of the Pagan Saxons who then domineer'd over the largest Province of Britain since called England Monasteries were founded in all parts where Christianity had any footing Thus St. Austin and his followers erected Monasteries in Kent and the Scottish Bishops and Monks propagated the Christian Faith after the same way among the Northumbrians Tho' it appears by a passage of Bede that after the death of St. Austin the Monks found no great encouragement in the South parts For that Venerable Author saith that about A. D. 640. Earcongota daughter to Earcombert King of Kent was made Nun at Brige in France Because at that time there being very few Monasteries in Britain many went to the Religious Houses of France for the sake of a Monastick life and also they used to send their daughters thither to be taught and devoted to the service of God c. But about this time the West-Saxons and Mercians were converted to Christianity upon which Monasteries were every where built with great zeal for God's glory and liberally endowed by the Saxon Kings It will seem strange to some that nothing should be hitherto said about the Order of St. Austin the Monk and to prove that the old Saxon Monks were Benedictines But if I might presume to offer any thing in this case I should rather think that the Benedictine Rule was scarce heard of in England till some hundred of years after and never perfectly observed till after the Conquest There is no great credit to be