"among the monks of the Cistercian Order whatever is pleasing is
lawful, whatever is lawful is possible, whatever is possible is done."

[Sidenote: Grant of privileges.]

This degeneracy of the monastic Orders was due in no small measure to
the policy of the Papacy. The monasteries, in their desire to shake
themselves free from the jurisdiction of the bishop of the diocese,
appealed to Rome; and the Pope, in pursuit of his policy of
superseding the local authorities, encouraged the monks to regard
themselves as a kind of papal militia. Thus from the time of Gregory
VII, at all events, all kinds of exemptions and privileges were
granted to the monastic communities in general and to the abbots of
the greater houses in particular. Exemption from the visitation of the
local bishop was one of the most frequent grants, until the great
Orders became too powerful to be afraid of any interference. This
carried with it the right of jurisdiction by the abbot and general
chapter over all churches to which the monastic body had the right of
presentation. This was an increasingly serious matter, for pious
donors were constantly bequeathing churches and tithes to favourite
Orders and popular houses, and the abbot attempted with considerable
success to usurp the definitely episcopal authority by instituting the
parish priest. Nor was this the only matter in which the abbot
substituted himself for the bishop. The monastic community might build
a church without any reference to the local ecclesiastical authority,
and the abbot might consecrate it and any altar in it. It is true that
if any monk of the house or secular clergyman serving one of the
churches in the gift of the house desired ordination to any step in
the ecclesiastical hierarchy, the abbot was limited to choosing a
bishop who might be asked to perform the duty; but in the course of