9

IT. St. John's of Jerusalem, in London , founded by Jor-danus Briset, in the year 1100, and governed by a Prior, whowas styled Primus Anglioe Baro. William Weston was thethirty-third and last Prior.

28. Tewksbury, founded by Oddo, Duke of Mercia , in 715.In the year 930, Haylwardus Snew built a monastery atCraneborn, to which he subjected the Priory of Tewksbury jbut Robert Fitz-llamon, in the year 1102, re-built theAbbey of Tewksbury, and changed Craneborn into a Priory,dependent upon Tewksbury. John Wech, alias Wakeman,the twenty-sixth Abbot , was made Bishop of Gloucester byHen. VIII, and the monastery became the parish church.

29. Tavistock, founded by Odgar, Earl of Devonshire, in961. John Peryn was the thirty-sixth and last Abbot .

The total revenue of the Abbey lands, at their resignationinto the King’s hands, was valued at two million eighthundred and fifty-three thousand pounds, an immense sum inthose days.

ABBOT . This title of dignity and honour among theJews , appears to have been first assumed by the headsof monasteries, about the tune of St. Jerome , towards theclose of the fourth century. At which period they weresubject to the Bishops and ordinary Pastors, and onSundays frequented the parish church with the rest of thepeople ; at length, probably on account of the distance of themonastery from any place of worship, the monks wereallowed to elect a priest from their own community, and thechoice generally fell upon the Abbot , whose functions, how-ever, extended no further than to the spiritual assistance ofhis monastery, and he continued still in subjection to theBishops, till about the middle of the fifth century, when theAbbots began to assume to themselves the title of Lord, withother badges of the episcopacy, particularly the mitre. InBritain the mitred Abbots , that they might be distinguished

c