Page:Henry VIII and the English Monasteries.djvu/14

viii ately was the case in some instances, it took place in consequence of the degradation of human nature, which was as possible in monk and canon as in secular priest and layman, and in spite of the strengthening assistance given in the religious life, and of all the checks furnished by rules and visitations. If religious fell, as sometimes they did, it was because they were human and were carried away by their passions, notwithstanding the helps and safeguards of the cloister, just as a priest might make shipwreck, notwithstanding the grace of his ordination, or a layman in spite of the Christian Sacraments.

At the same time, it must always be remembered that the whole purpose of such visits was to detect and correct what was amiss, and not to record or praise the daily round of service according to rule. Hence ordinarily only that which was irregular and blameworthy found place in visitation documents, and the rest, if it were normal and godlike, was passed over in silence. To estimate the general state of any religious house by the "Injunctions" of a visitation, without taking anything else into consideration, is hardly less absurd than estimating the morality of the world by the existence of the Ten Commandments.

By those who know anything whatever about the matter it will be readily admitted, that it does not require much art or knowledge on the part of any would-be literary chiffonier, routing among the records of the past, to fill up his basket with the soiled rags of frail humanity. But no one, who did not find a pecular delight in bending over such garbage and so obscuring his mental vision, could suppose that such a collection was history. As well might we measure the morality of the present day by the police cases and the annals of the divorce court, without other considerations which would certainly mitigate the severity of