Chapter Nine
IX
THE GOAL ACHIEVED
THE General Chapter of 1917 met at Woolhampton (Douai)
on July 31, and lasted two days. As regards Belmont it was
given a choice of four policies by the President: 1. To make
it fully independent; 2. To reconstitute the now almost
defunct Common House of Studies (due to expire next
year); 3. To continue for another period the present in-
determinate state of things, till St Michael's should be self-
supporting; 4. To close Belmont down altogether. On the
first day the opinions expressed were for the most part
unfavourable to Belmont, both because of finance and
because of the inexperienced personnel at St Michael's.
Ampleforth wanted the present arrangement to continue
for another period, and Douai wanted the Common House
restored. Fort Augustus was divided: its Abbot opposed the
Common House and favoured autonomy for Belmont 'if
it could be carried out'; but its Delegate (the future Abbot
and, later, Archbishop of St Andrew's and Edinburgh)
supported the Ampleforth view. Downside, of course,
supported complete and immediate independence and
financial support from the Hall Fund. The Prior of Belmont
said that of the four choices offered, the fourth was out of
the question, the third would make it impossible to carry on,
and the second was contrary to the decrees of previous
Chapters, and against the clear understanding under which
he had accepted office. The Belmont Delegate said that
though anxious for a settlement by the Chapter, the monas-
tery might have to appeal to Rome. The four other officials
were evenly divided for and against the granting of auto-
nomy. The President then proposed that the capital of the
Hall Fund be assigned to Belmont and be held by trustees
162
THE GOAL ACHIEVED 163
appointed by General Chapter, or if this were negatived
that the whole of the income of the Fund be given to Bel-
mont. The first of these was rejected, and the second was
superseded by an amendment next day by Dom Philip
Langdon which proved the turning point.
At the conclusion of the first day Abbots Butler and Ford
and Prior Kindersley cannot have felt much satisfaction or
confidence. The weight of opinion was clearly against them.
But next morning the shrewd brain of Fr Philip Langdon
came to the rescue. He moved an amendment which, while
excluding any capital grants, would give as income to
Belmont during the next quadriennium such a sum as,
added to its ordinary receipts, would raise their total income
to ^125 per head, this sum to be taken from the interest on
the Hall Fund, and any deficit to be made up by Downside,
Ampleforth and Douai, on condition that Belmont recog-
nised its responsibility for self-support. He also moved that
the Chapter hereby starts Belmont on its own separate
individual existence, so that it comes into line hie et nunc as a
separate individual house, the last remaining restriction on
its autonomy being removed. This was seconded by the
Ampleforth Delegate, and the Prior and Delegate of Belmont
notified their acceptance of these terms. The amendment
was carried unanimously. It was a most remarkable volte-
face from the attitude of the previous day, when it had even
been said that the Chapter of 1901 had made a mistake in
letting St Michael's have novices of its own at all; and it is
interesting to find in an exercise-book in which Prior
Kindersley had scribbled brief notes during the Chapter,
this brief entry: 'Friday morning, 9.30. Fr Langdon's
Resolution re Belmont, seconded by Fr V. Wilson, carried.
A wonderful change of opinions from former discussions.*
Thus Belmont officially ceased to be a Common House, and
became fully autonomous.
Then the Chapter declared it would no longer use its
Faculty from Rome to utilise St Michael's as a Common
Noviciate until November 1918, and that it would abrogate
all other passages in the Constitutions which interfered with
the autonomy of Belmont. In consequence of all this the
164 THE HISTORY OF BELMONT ABBEY
whole question of the Monastic Diocesan Chapter became a
domestic matter for the Belmont Familia. Finally the Chapter
agreed to use the Faculty empowering it to leave Prior
Kindersley in office until a final settlement of all Belmont
questions came from Rome, when a normal house-election
of the Prior would take place.
Needless to say, this was an historic occasion for St
Michael's, and both Abbot Butler and Prior Kindersley must
have been highly pleased, despite their failure to get a capital
grant from the Chapter. They had obtained everything else
for which they had asked. For Abbot Butler it meant the
successful conclusion of many years of effort, for whereas
Prior Kindersley had been concerned in the matter only
since 1915, Abbot Butler had been striving for the abolition
of the Common House and for the independence of Belmont
since at least 1908. From now on, however, there was not
quite so close an identity of aims between the Abbot and the
Prior, because for Abbot Butler the Chapter of 1917 had
brought the attainment of his chief ends, whereas for the
Prior there were still two all-important goals to be reached:
the severing of the diocesan connection by giving up the
Monastic Diocesan Chapter, and the raising of the house to
abbatial rank. Abbot Butler also wanted both these things to
come about, but for him they were more or less side-issues.
For the Prior they were vital. And so from now on the
Kindersley-Butler correspondence consists to a greater
extent than before of plans proposed by the Prior, together
with impatient suggestions that the Abbot should show
greater activity; and more or less lukewarm replies from the
latter in which Prior Kindersley is urged to keep quiet and
await events, all the more so as his position is now 'unassail-
able'.
But one result of these events was a marked change for the
worse in the relations between the Prior and Archbishop
Bilsborrow. Hitherto the latter's letters had been entirely
cordial, but from the General Chapter of 1917 onwards they
have an unfriendly, indeed an acid, note. Nor is this surpris-
ing, for the Archbishop had always wanted the Common
House to continue, and he could not see that the new
THE GOAL ACHIEVED ^b
Belmont had any useful function to fulfil. His letters both to
the Abbot-President and to Prior Kindersley constantly harp
on his regret for the passing of the Common House, and on
his view that autonomy was a secondary matter and that
now Belmont has no raison d'etre. To this last point Abbot
Butler in writing to the Archbishop gave the devastating
and profoundly wise reply: 'A Benedictine Monastery is its
own raison d'Stre, and the works it may do are the secondary
things'. The Archbishop had also been piqued by the Prior s
failure to show any enthusiasm for the Archbishop's 'great
idea' mentioned above1 whereby he would send all his
seminary students to Belmont if the Congregation would
continue to send their Juniors there for their studies. Further-
more, there was the matter of the proposed 'Benedictine
Diocese' of Hereford. From now on he took no interest in
Belmont, and reiterated that his task was to see that Cambria
Celtica was implemented, which meant that the unwelcome
arrangement of having two Chapters and two Cathedrals
must be made to work efficiently. To make matters worse,
Prior Kindersley, on August 15, somewhat naively informed
the Archbishop that it would be a good thing if he (the
Archbishop) were to inform Rome that he did not want
two Chapters and two Cathedrals, and that it would simplify
the Abbot President's work if the Archbishop were willing to
give up the Belmont Cathedral. This received the freezing
reply that the Archbishop 'could not entertain the suggestion
even for an instant'. And a few days later he repeated the
phrase when telling Abbot Butler of the incident. As the
Prior had for once not consulted Abbot Butler before making
this suggestion, the dismay of the latter on hearing of it is
not difficult to imagine. He at once sent a warning to the
Prior: 'I think you need to act very gingerly in the matter
of upsetting Cambria Celtica\ And he added: 'Cardinal
Gasquet will be against you'. He also wrote at once to the
Archbishop, pointing out that none of the Benedictine
Superiors had been consulted on the drawing up of the Bull,
and none of them wanted the double Chapter and two
1 See above, p. 154. This was really the first rift in the lute between the Prior
and the Archbishop
166 THE HISTORY OF BELMONT ABBEY
Cathedrals, adding that the Archbishop himself had in an
earlier letter described the Chapter at Belmont as 'the
perpetuation of a Benedictine ineptitude'. But he went on
to give his reasons for not wanting a Common House at
Belmont, and his statement on this point is worth quotation:
'. . . At the Chapter I opposed the reconstitution of the Common
House of Studies at Belmont, on the ground that the taking of the
young men out of the Houses and denuding these of their young
life, while it created at Belmont a stately observance, lowered
that in the other monasteries and rendered impossible such
observance as we are now able to maintain here. I held that the
weakness of the (other) Houses was too great a cost to pay for a
strong Belmont; and that it is healthier, and better for religion,
to have the Houses at their normal strength with their young
ones at home, and a Belmont started weak but with hopes of
growing into a good house; than a Belmont strong with an arti-
ficial strength, and the (other) Houses chronically weakened.
That is my objection to the Common House, and after I spoke
in this sense it was advocated no more at Chapter.'
By this time Prior Kindersley had decided that in order to
give the Community occupation, and in the hope of en-
couraging vocations, a small school or alumnate should be
opened for boys who hoped to become monks. The Arch-
bishop had earlier expressed a hope that there might be a
school at St Michael's, but the Prior seems to have had
doubts as to whether he would approve the new idea, for on
September 15 Abbot Butler told him that if the Archbishop
raises objections they will have to take the case to Rome, and
that, since such a school had been approved by Bishop
Brown and actually started he had little doubt of a favourable
answer. On September 18 the new Alumnate was opened
and two days later there began a Novena of Thanksgiving
for the attainment of independence. On its conclusion the
first purely Michaelian Council meeting was held on
October i, consisting of the Cathedral Prior, and Frs Placid
Smith, Gregory Buisseret, and Romuald Leonard. At this
point it may also be mentioned in passing that in 1916, at
the suggestion of Dom Gregory Buisseret, the practice of
having a daily sung Mass was started. Hitherto, since 1906,
it had been sung only on First and Second class Feasts. A
1 For a fuller account of this, see p. 199, infra.
THE GOAL ACHIEVED 167
further detail of the period is that from March 1917 until
January 1921 Matins were recited overnight. It was in this
year, too, that the memorial tomb of Bishop Hedley was
unveiled in the Choir (whence it was removed in 1935 to
St Joseph's Chapel).
There now followed more than a year of negotiations and
counter-petitions over the relationship of the two Chapters,
largely concerned with matters of precedence, and with the
degree of power to be accorded to the Monastic Chapter. As
the Monastic Chapter was eventually (to the great relief of
all concerned) abolished in 1920, it is not necessary to
consider here the details of these proposals or the protracted
correspondence concerning them; except to say that the
claims made by Abbot Butler on behalf of the Monastic
Chapter were only put forward because Rome was insisting
that there must be a Monastic Chapter. And therefore, when
the Archbishop wrote derogatively of it to Rome, as having
now no right to precedence or influence in the Diocese,
since Belmont was no longer a Common House representing
the whole Congregation, Prior Kindersley very neatly capped
this by declaring to Rome that he entirely agreed with the
Archbishop and therefore petitioned that Belmont be allowed
to resign the privilege of being a Cathedral and forming a
Chapter, and that to make up for this loss of prestige it be
raised to the rank of an Abbey. This plan had, of course,
already been rejected by the Archbishop in the previous
August, and moreover Abbot Butler had advised the Prior
against writing to Rome, saying on November 6:
'If you send your desires to Rome, you must remember you will
have the Archbishop against you . . . and you will have Card.
Gasquet and Fr Philip Langdon against you, for it (sc. the two
Chapters and Cathedrals) is their particular baby. I believe you
will prejudice your position.'
Meanwhile on January 4, 1918, the Holy See issued a decree
deleting from the Constitutions the passages relating to
Belmont as the Common House, and confirming the action
of General Chapter in making the House an autonomous
monastery. The above petition by Prior Kindersley had been
sent to Rome on April 12, 1918, and it was not until Novem-
168 THE HISTORY OF BELMONT ABBEY
ber that Rome spoke, having meanwhile digested the
conflicting views put forward by the Archbishop on the one
hand, and Abbot Butler and the Prior on the other. But
when it came the decision sent by Cardinal de Lai caused
the utmost consternation in both camps. For this decree of
November 4 ordered that the provisions of Cambria Celtica
were not to be carried out until five years had elapsed, and
that meanwhile in place of the two Chapters there should be
six Diocesan Consultors, of whom three would be secular
priests and three Benedictines, all presided over by the Prior
of Belmont as Provost; and (worst of all) meanwhile a
Seminary was to be established at St Michael's.
There followed a spate of frantic letters, for the Archbishop
and the secular clergy were dismayed by the five year
postponement of the setting up of a secular Chapter, and the
Benedictines by the insistence that the Monastic Chapter
must remain, and especially by the prospect of having to
have a seminary at Belmont. Both the Archbishop and Abbot
Butler said that they would not promulgate the decree at
present. Prior Kindersley was convinced it would be quite
impracticable to allow secular students to mix with the
Community at Belmont, that it would make normal monastic
life impossible; while Abbot Butler said it would be a case
of 'Bishop Baines all over again'. There was much feeling
against Fr Langdon who was held responsible for this re-
newed insistence on the Double Chapters, and who, it was
felt, was pushing his own views in Rome instead of those of
the Congregation whom he represented. For their part, the
secular clergy were drawing up a petition against the
postponement for five years of the setting up of the secular
Chapter, which petition both Abbot Butler and Prior
Kindersley were ready to sign, for they had both been dis-
tressed by the disappointment thus caused to the secular
clergy. Meanwhile it was incumbent on the Archbishop and
the Abbot-President to come to some agreement as regards
the precise functions and rights of the Monastic Chapter,
for Rome was waiting for their suggestions. Unfortunately
relations with the Archbishop were even more strained than
usual, chiefly because the monks were insisting that the
THE GOAL ACHIEVED 169
Monastic Chapter must have a veto in those matters of
importance upon which a bishop is bound to get the consent
of his Chapter, and also a voice in the drawing up of a terna
when the See is vacant. His attitude at this time is shown by
his reply to the Abbot of Ampleforth on November i, in
which, after curtly refusing to let Dom Placid Smith have
charge of the parish at Merthyr Vale, or to promise that some
day Belmont might be given this mission, he went on to say:
'I must confess that Belmont since the General Chapter is some-
thing of a mystery to me. One thing, however, is certain, and it
is that if Belmont hopes to live by diocesan parishes, it will very
likely be disappointed. I have more priests now than I need, and
can easily get more ... I may say that the action of General
Chapter was a cruel disappointment to me.'1
And as 1918 merged into 1919 Prior Kindersley was again
urging Abbot Butler to go to Rome himself and there to
declare boldly that Belmont wanted to give up the Chapter
and the Cathedral altogether, and that this would solve all
the difficulties; but by now even the Prior had almost
despaired of ever being freed from the Double Chapter
arrangement. And indeed 1919 was to be a year of frustra-
tions, even though it eventually proved to be that period of
deeper darkness that precedes the dawn. On April 10 the
Archbishop and the Abbot at last succeeded in drawing up
an agreement on the Chapter and they sent it to Rome, only
to be told by Cardinal de Lai at the end of May that it was
inadequate, and that the Holy Father (Benedict XV)
desired that Cardinal Gasquet when next in England should
discuss the matter with them and help them to draw up a
more complete scheme which would comply with the
requirements of Cambria Celtica. And on August 7 this.
meeting with Cardinal Gasquet took place and a new
scheme was drawn up, in which, despite the Archbishop's
protests, the clause giving the Monastic Chapter a voice in
matters for which the Archbishop must have the consent of
his Chapter was inserted. He said he would make representa-
tions to Rome about it. Nothing appears to have been said
' A year earlier he had written to Abbot Butler: 'Belmont, as it now is, is &
subject of great sadness to me. I have never had such a great disappointment.*
M
I 70 THE HISTORY OF BELMONT ABBEY
about the Seminary at Belmont demanded by the Papal
decree of November 4, 1918, and Abbot Butler was confident
that no more would be heard of it.
This new scheme was despatched to Rome in August, but
during that autumn the long-drawn-out insistence by Rome
that Cambria Celtica must be made to work came at last to an
end, and the authorities there apparently concluded that it
must be scrapped. For, in preparation for a meeting of the
Regimen in London on January 14, 1920, Abbot Butler
notified the Father of the Regimen that a letter from Rome
had informed him that the Gasquet Schema had been
considered at a full Session of the Gonsistorial Congregation
(not this time by Cardinal de Lai alone), and their final
view was that two Chapters, both effective, would certainly
lead to difficulties, and Cardinal de Lai had been advised
by them to withdraw the whole scheme. Therefore the Holy
Father expressed a wish that the E.B.C. should give the lead
by offering to renounce the Monastic Chapter altogether,
and that all the portion of Cambria Celtica relating to St
Michael's be deleted. The President added that if this were
done he had no doubt that Belmont would be made an
Abbey.1 Secondly, the Consistorial Congregation was ready
to recognise the renunciation thus made by the E.B.C., and
the work for religion which it has done, especially in the
Archdiocese of Cardiff, and were prepared to make a
declaration to the effect 'that there shall never fail in the
English Hierarchy a representative of that well-merited
Order, to which the Faith and Religion owe so much in
England'.
On this Abbot Butler further commented:
'This would mean in effect that the Archbishop of Cardiff would
always be a Benedictine; («) and if we press for it probably even
1 This was all precisely what Prior Kindersley had suggested all along, and
for which he had petitioned Rome (against the advice of Abbot Butler, and
against the wishes of the Archbishop) in April, 1918.
* Here he is inaccurate, for no mention of a particular diocese was made,
and therefore his argument against accepting the offer falls to the ground.
Actually the promise is included in the fateful Bull Praeclara Gesta of 1920,
with the proviso: -so far as circumstances permit'. And circumstances have
not always permitted its fulfilment. But Abbot Butler is doubtless right in the
sense that to make the same diocese permanently Benedictine would be
undesirable.
THE GOAL ACHIEVED I71
this definite provision could be secured. We shall have to say if we
think such an arrangement would be desirable, good tor the
Archdiocese, and for religion. My own feeling at present is against
it, flattering though it be to us. I fear it would place us m an
invidious position, especially in the Archdiocese but also n
other dioceses. ... And without doubt it would be bitterly
resented by the Cardiff Clergy.'
He concluded, therefore, by saying that it would be for the
highest interests of religion if we were to thank the Cardinals
for their very gratifying proposal, but to say that we think
it better to take our stand along with the other Religious
Orders, and to allow the Secular Clergy of Cardiff to have
the same position as those in other Dioceses.
At a formal meeting of the Regimen held at the Jermyn
Court Hotel, London, on January 14. 1920, the above letter
from Rome, which had been written by Cardinal Gasquet at
the wish of Pope Benedict XV, was taken as a final solution
of the Belmont Question. Thus, after exactly five years of
negotiations and proposals and counter-proposals, Belmont
at last reached its goal. The final touch was added five.
months later with the publication in June of the Bull
Praeclara Gesta, dated March 21, which raised St Michaels.
to the rank of an Abbey,1 at the same time abolishing the
monastic Cathedral and Chapter. Simultaneously the Arch-
bishop received an Apostolic Indult regulating the immediate
setting up of a Secular Chapter at Cardiff, which was duly
formed on March 31.
It will have been obvious from the foregoing account how
very much this successful issue to the efforts of the preceding
five years owed to Abbot Cuthbert Butler. Without his skill,
his farsightedness, and his pertinacity it could in fact not have
been reached at all. If Dom Anselm Cockshoot was held to.
be 'the Father of Belmont' in the days of the old Common
Novitiate and House of Studies, Abbot Butler was assuredly
the Father of the modern independent Belmont, and he
should ever be gratefully remembered as such.
And so, for the first time in history, Herefordshire now had
a Benedictine Abbey. There had been of old, Priories at
Hereford, Leominster, Kilpeck, and Ewias Harold, but the
1 For the full text of this Bull, see p. 224, infra.
172 THE HISTORY OF BELMONT ABBEY
only Abbey in the country, that at Abbeydore, had not been
Benedictine. And at the same time a fifth Abbey was added
to the English Congregation. It now remained to provide
the new Abbey with an Abbot, and for this the election was
held at St Michael's on June 30, 1920. The result was more
or less a foregone conclusion, and the former Cathedral
Prior was henceforth the first Abbot ofBelmont. The occasion
was made yet more notable by the fact that on the following
day the Mayor of Hereford (Mr A. D. Steel) gave a civic
reception at the Town Hall to the newly-elected Abbot, at
which he was presented with an illuminated address. A
fortnight later, on July 15, came the Solemn Blessing of the
Abbot which was graced by the presence of His Eminence
Francis Cardinal Bourne, who officiated and sang Pontifical
High Mass. It is notable also that on this occasion three of
the Canons of the Archdiocese were present in the Sanctuary:
Mgr Provost Irvine as Assistant Priest to the Cardinal, and
Canons O'Reilly and Exton as Deacons at the throne. The
absence of Archbishop Bilsborrow, who had originally agreed
to officiate at the ceremony, was due to ill-health. The
Assistant Abbots were Abbots Butler and Ford. There were
also present the Bishops ofMenevia and Clifton (i.e. Bishops
Mostyn and Burton), as well as many Abbots and monks,
and the Mayor and Mayoress of Hereford. At the luncheon
which followed, the Founder's son. Major John Wegg-
Prosser, was seated beside the Cardinal. Meanwhile the
ladies, not being able to be present in the refectory, had been
entertained by Mrs Cecil Wegg-Prosser in a marquee on the
lawn, and thither, after many speeches, the Abbot and his
male guests repaired for the making of more speeches. And
so was launched a new era in the history of St Michael's:
henceforth no longer a training ground for other people's
novices, no longer a house of studies, no longer a Cathedral;
but now a 'common or garden' monastery on a par with the
other Houses of the E.B.C., and although still generously
subsidised by them, yet now, none the less, set the task of
learning to stand on its own feet, and to make its own way
in the world.
SOME FACTS AND FIGURES OF THE COMMON HOUSE 173
APPENDIX IX
SOME FACTS AND FIGURES REGARDING THE
COMMON HOUSE
The calculation of statistics regarding the old Common
Noviciate and House of Studies is complicated by the fact that
no clear-cut date can be given for its abolition. The decree
authorising its existence expired in 1918, but for some years
before that date the numbers had been steadily declining, a-nd
Downside sent no novices or juniors after 1907. Those from the
other two Houses continued to come for roughly ten years more,
but (partly because of the war) their numbers dwindled. Thus
the Common House may be said to have gradually petered out.
It had opened, of course, on November 21, 1859, and the first
monk to be clothed was Dom Benedict Purton ofDoual (January
IQ i86o)- while the first profession was that of Dom Placid
Whittle ofAmpleforth on August 30, i86o. It is said that one
brother, on the day of his profession, when reading aloud his
vows in the middle of the choir during Mass, suddenly broke oft
and refused to complete them. He died, aged twenty-one, after
staying two more years in the habit (1876-1878). In those days
final vows were taken immediately on the conclusion of the one
year's noviciate. These vows were simple but perpetual, and
solemn vows were taken after the monk had left Belmont for his
own monastery. This remained the case until the coming into
force of the new Code of Canon Law in 1918.
Belmont in those days was a place of jealously preserved
traditions, even in trivial matters; e.g. the novices (as distinct
from the juniors) were not allowed in the main cloister except
in case of necessity, and then they must scrupulously keep close
to the eastern wall of the cloister, i.e. inside the line of coloured
tiles which runs a foot from the wall. No one but the Superior
might walk close to the opposite wall. And similarly there were
traditional dates for annual events. Thus, that for the arrival of
new novices was always August 22, while the date of clothing was
normally September 3, and that of profession September 4,
though sometimes these were on the eve and the Feast of St
Michael respectively.
As a rule the average number of new arrivals each year worked
out at eight or nine from the whole Congregation, though
naturally this varied considerably, and in one year there were
as many as eighteen; so that in most years there were enough
young monks to fill the choir stalls completely. In this connection
an analysis of the facts revealed by the Clothing and Profession
Book is not without interest. Including the handful of Fort
Augustus novices (before 1883, in which year that House left
I 74 THE HISTORY OF BELMONT ABBEY
the E.B.C.), and those who, after 1901, were clothed for Belmont
itself, the total number to pass through the house in the sixty odd
years of its existence as a Common House was just under five
hundred; and, considering only the three senior monasteries,
these were divided as follows: For Downside there were 113
novices clothed, and of these 84 became professed. The corres-
ponding figures for Ampleforth were 175 clothed, of whom 127
were professed; while Douai also had 175 clothed, of whom 121
were professed. These figures mean that the percentage of those
clothed who went on to Profession were 74 per cent, 72 per cent,
and 69 per cent for the three houses respectively; which are
remarkably high figures, the average generally expected in a
religious house being around 40 per cent or 50 per cent. For
the 'indigenous' Belmont Community itself, from its inception in
1901 until 1955 there were 124 clothed, of whom 59 were
solemnly professed: i.e. 47 per cent. The above figures for the
three older Houses are also surprising as showing a remarkable
preponderance of Ampleforth and Douai novices as compared
with those from Downside (175 each, as against 113), and this is
only partially accounted for by the fact that Downside stopped
sending novices ten years before the others did. For in those ten
years only about twenty-five novices came from each of the other
two Houses, so that, excluding them, the figures for Ampleforth
and Douai when the Downside stream ceased were roughly
150 each.
As regards Belmont itself, it is worth noting that before 1901,
when choir monks began to be accepted for the new Community
of St Michael's, there were, within the period 1859-1901, eight
laybrothers clothed for St Michael's, of whom only one (Br
Robert Adams) was professed; but in addition there were also
numerous laybrother-postulants who never got as far as the
clothing ceremony, and also several oblates, at least two of whom
(Brs Patrick M'Carthy and David Slaughter) remained for life,
and are buried at Belmont.
It will perhaps surprise the modern generation of monks to
learn that originally their predecessors had only very restricted
facilities for receiving Holy Communion, for the Council Book
tersely records in 1861 that Juniors are to be allowed to receive
Holy Communion on Sundays, and on one other day of their
choice each week. Something has already been said in this book
of the spartan conditions of life in the monastery during the early
years, of the scanty allowance of food, the long hours of study
and short periods of recreation, and the fact that for long the
house was unheated; but here it may also be added that for
very many years the lighting, both in church and monastery,
was extremely inadequate (presumably it consisted only of oil
THE HORARIUM 175
lamps), until in 1879 (twenty years after the opening of the house)
the Council, with considerable trepidation on account of the
expense involved, debated at great length and on several occasions
the possibility of obtaining a supply of gas from Hereford; and it
was eventually decided to give it a trial for a period of seven
years. This was, of course, long before incandescent mantles were
invented, and so the old 'fish-tail' burners were installed in church
and house, and cannot have been a very noticeable improvement.
But gas held sway at Belmont for more than seventy years after
that, long after it had disappeared from the other monasteries,
and it is only the present generation that has known the blessings
of electric light, which was brought into the house by Abbot
Anselm Lightbound in 1950.
APPENDIX X
THE HORARIUM IN THE COMMON HOUSE OF
STUDIES
Two specimens of the horarium in the early days of the house
are extant: both very spartan and severe by modern standards.
It is specially noteworthy that the first of these provides for a
minimum of six hours daily devoted to private study or lectures;
and it will also be observed that in the second horarium study
began at 6.45 a.m. The first of these documents is in the hand-
writing of Prior Vaughan, and therefore presumably dates from
about 1865 or 1870. The second is in the writing of Prior Raynal
and is dated 1884. In each case variations are of course made for
feast days and Sundays, but here only the time-table for ordinary
working days is given. These horaria were, of course, for the
professed monks, not for the novices.
1865 (?)
1884
4.30 Rise.
4.30 Rise-
5.0 Matins, Lauds, Prime.
5.0 Matins and Lauds.
Clean cells, etc.
6.0 Mental Prayer.
6.40 Meditation. Terce, Mass
6.30 Prime.
(Communion), Sext,
6.45 Study.
None.
7.15 Breakfast and recrea-
8.0 Light breakfast, and rec-
tion.
reation.
8.0 Terce, Mass and Sext.
8.45 Study.
8.45 Cell-work.
10.15 Recreation.
9.0 Study.
10.30 Morning Lecture (1
10.15 Recreation.
hour).
10.30 Schools of Philosophy
11.30 Private study (50 min- and Theology.
utes).
11.30 Private Preaching or
12.30 Dinner.
Plain Chant.
THE HISTORY OF BELMONT ABBEY
176 THE HISTORY OF
2.20 Manual Labour.
3.0 Sung Vespers.
3.30 Afternoon Lecture.
4.30 Spiritual Reading.
5.0 Evening Study (i hour).
6.0 Evening Lecture (i
hour).
7.0 Supper.
8.30 Compline.
(Thus at this time the Conven-
tual Mass took place before
breakfast.)
i2.o Sacred Eloquence, or
Study.
i .0 Dinner and None.
1.40 Recreation.
3.0 Manual Labour.
3.30 Private Study.
4.0 Church History, or
Scripture.
6.0 Vespers sung.
6.30 Spiritual Reading.
7.0 Supper. Recreation.
8.30 Compline and Medita-
tion.