t
sickness, called the Black Death, in the year 1349.

======================================================================

[Illustration: NO. 7. OLD PENSIONERS AND SCHOOLBOYS IN THE CHARTER
HOUSE. _See page_ 28]

======================================================================

Let us fancy what the life of the monks of the Charter House was like.
Their day began at an hour when you are sound asleep in bed; at eleven
o'clock the convent bell rang, and at midnight the monks met in chapel
for Matins, their first service, which often lasted two hours, or even
longer, so slowly, so solemnly, did they chant the psalms and prayers.
When it was over the monks went back to their beds until five o'clock,
when they rose and went about the business of the day. What did they
find to do? They were busy all day long, for they had to take part in
the many services of the chapel; and each monk had his own little house
and garden, called his "cell," where he passed most of his time alone.
Here he read and prayed; here he worked,--perhaps at carpentering or
some such trade, perhaps he copied or wrote books; here he ate his
solitary meal, the only meal {25} of the day, which might be of eggs,
fish, fruit and vegetables, but never of meat; sometimes it was of
bread and water only. By seven o'clock his day was ended and he was
asleep in bed. One of the strictest rules of this Order of monks is
that they shall be silent except in Chapel. They only meet together
twice a week; once when they all dine together, and again on Sundays,
when they all go for a long walk in company.

This has been the life of every Carthusian monk (so the Charter House
monks are called,) ever since the Order was founded in the eleventh
century; and this was the life of the London Charter House from the
days of Edward III. until the reign of Henry VIII. Do you remember
that he and his Parliament broke the links which bound together the
Churches of Rome and England? In 1534 a law was made which said that
the King, not the Pope, should henceforth be the Head of the English
Church, and that anyone who would not agree to this was a traitor.
Some people in England were very glad of this, for there were things in
the Church which seemed to them altogether wrong; "Now," they thought,
"these wrong things can be set right." But other people were very
sorry; they believed the Pope was indeed Head of the whole Church, that
God had made him so, and what G