Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 2.djvu/349

1535.] No fairs nor markets were any more to be held within the precincts.

Every monk was to have a separate bed, and not to have any child or boy lying with him, or otherwise haunting unto him.

The 'brethren' were to occupy themselves in daily reading or other honest and laudable exercises. Especially there was to be every day one general lesson in Holy Scripture, at which every member of the house was bound to be present.

Finally, that they might all understand the meaning of their position in the world, and the intention, which they had so miserably forgotten, of the foundations to which they belonged, the abbot, prior, or president, was every day to explain in English some portion of the rule which they had professed; 'applying the same always to the doctrine of Christ.' The language of the injunctions is either Cromwell's or the King's; and the passage upon this subject is exceedingly beautiful.

'The abbot shall teach them that the said rule, and other their principles of religion (so far as they be laudable), be taken out of Holy Scripture: and he shall shew them the places from whence they be derived: and that their ceremonies and other observances be none other things than as the first letters or principles, and certain introductions to true Christianity: and that true religion is not contained in apparel, manner of going, shaven heads, and such other marks; nor in silence