CHAPTER XV

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_Monasteries, pages 163-176._

A sketch of the origin and progress of monasteries in England, 163. Danes destroyed the monasteries, 164. This gave an impetus to building manorial churches, 165. King Edgar rebuilt them, 165. His leading church ideas, 165, 166. The English monks passed through three reformations, 166. The Norman bishops divided the properties of the cathedral church, 168. Table showing the monasteries built from William I. to Henry VI., 169. Alien monasteries, 170. Main indications of a religious revolutionary wave passing over England, 170. The preaching of Franciscans, Dominicans, and John Wickliffe that tithes were only alms, 170-172. Wickliffe’s opinions pronounced heretical, 171. Cathedral Act of 1840 [3 & 4 Vict., c. 113] passed to sweep away Church abuses, 172. Beneficial effect of the Act, 173. The object of owners in appropriating tithes to monasteries, 175. Charter of the Earl of Chester to the Monastery of Chester, 176.

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