Note 23 — I. The Revival within the Abbey during the 14th Century.

Gesta Abbatum III, p. 147, ‘per epidemias hominum et mortalitatem bestiarum facultates monasterii redditae sunt exiles.’ Also Walsingham, Hist. Ang. I, 273. ‘At that time,’ says Walsingham, ‘villages formerly very populous were bereft of inhabitants, and so thickly did the plague lay them low that there scarcely survived enough to bury the dead.... Many were of opinion that scarce a tenth of the population survived.’