e de
Guise, and Charles Maurice, of the noble family of Broglio, have, in
times comparatively modern, presided over the community. The privileges
and honorary distinctions attached to the office, were also
considerable. The names of the superiors of the monastery stand recorded
on various occasions, as men selected for important trusts; and they
were formally empowered, by a bull of Pope Clement VII. dated from
Avignon, to bestow the benediction, even in the church of Avranches, and
in the presence of the bishop or the metropolitan himself, and to wear
the mitre, and all other episcopal insignia. The powers and immunities
of the convent were likewise extensive and important. Its annual income
was estimated by the author of the _Alien Priories_, in the middle of
the last century, at forty thousand livres; but it is at the same time
stated in that work, that, at an earlier period, it was far more
considerable. Among the transmarine possessions of the abbey, was its
namesake in Cornwall, which was annexed to it by Robert, Earl of Moreton
and Cornwall, before the year 1085, and was also renowned for its
sanctity at a very remote epoch. The coincidence in form and situation
between the two is most remarkable.

St. Michael's Mount, in Normandy, is situated near the extremity of the
province, towards Brittany; to the south of Granville, the south-west of
Avranches, and the north of Pontorson and Dol. It is a conical mass of
granite, which, from a base of about one-fourth of a league in
circumference, towers to the height of above four hundred feet,
including the buildings that crown its summit. It stands insulated and
alone, except the neighboring rock of Tombeleine, in the midst of a
dreary level of white sand, that presents a surface of more than twelve
square leagues, extending on all sides, almost as far as the eye can
reach, and unvaried, unless where it is intersected with branches of
different rivers. The whole of this space is at high water entirely
covered with the sea, while the receding tide leaves it bare; yet still
so, that it is difficult and dangerous to traverse it without a guide.
The base of the mount is surrounded with high thick walls, flanked with
semi-circular towers all machicolated, and bastions. Towards the west
and north, its sides present only steep, black, bare, pointed rocks: the
portions that lie in an opposite direction, incline in a comparatively
easy slope, and are covered with houses that foll