[1] James, M. R. 1, 109-110.
[2] Bateson, Med. Eng., 339.
But among so many houses some were bound to be ill-
conducted. And it is important to remember that irregularities
would be recorded oftener than more favourable
facts. What had been usual would go unnoted; what was
strange, and a departure from the highest standard of
monachism, would be observed with regret by friends
and dwelt on with spite by enemies. Although human
memory is apt to register evil acts with more assiduity and
fidelity than good, yet a contrary view of the last state of
monachism may be argued with as much reason and with
the support of equally reliable evidence. The great
majority of the houses were not under lax control. The
general organisation was not defective; nor was every
monk a "lorel, a loller, and a spille-tyme.' " Setting aside
the question of general conduct, with which we have little
to do, plenty of evidence may be collected to show that the
work of the earlier periods was not only continued in the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, but that some of the
monks enjoyed special distinction among their contemporaries.
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