There too was the copper-worker with his burin and
graver. Learning and art were not traditions with the Cistercians
as with the parent Order of the Benedictines, and yet the library
of Waverley was well filled both with precious books and with
pious students.
But the true glory of the Cistercian lay in his outdoor work, and
so ever and anon there passed through the cloister some sunburned
monk, soiled mattock or shovel in hand, with his gown looped to
his knee, fresh from the fields or the garden. The lush green
water-meadows speckled with the heavy-fleeced sheep, the acres of
corn-land reclaimed from heather and bracken, the vineyards on the
southern slope of Crooksbury Hill, the rows of Hankley fish-ponds,
the Frensham marshes drained and sown with vegetables, the
spacious pigeon-cotes, all circled the great Abbey round with the
visible labors of the Order.
The Abbot's full and florid face shone with a quiet content as he
looked out at his huge but well-ordered household. Like every
head of a prosperous Abbey, Abbot John, the fourth of the name,
was a man of various accomplishments. Through his own chosen
instruments he had to minister a great estate and to keep order
and decorum among a large body of men living a celibate life. He
was a rigid disciplinarian toward all beneath him, a supple
diplomatist to all above. He held high debate with neighboring
abbots and lords, with bishops, with papal legates, and even on
occasion with the King's majesty himself.
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