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RELIGIOUS LIFE AND ORGANIZATION 415
had within their restricted area of competence powers similar to
that ofthe archdeacon, whose office they in fact filled in certain
small territories such as the isolated deaneries in Essex and
Sussex depending upon Canterbury; they also executed small
tasks for the bishop by mandate.
While the bishop's direct control was thus lessened function/'
ally by the multiplication of officials it was restricted in area by
local and personal exemptions of every kind. Hitherto the dio/
cese has been spoken of as though it were (as it is with incon/
siderable exceptions in modern Anglican practice) a plain area
in which the bishop could exercise all his normal jurisdiction.
Actually, the medieval diocese was a honeycomb oflocal and
personal exemptions of every kind, some ofthem dating from
early Saxon times, others attaching to persons who were mem/
bers ofthis or that order or institution, and still others that had
resulted from the persevering obstruction of individuals or
corporations. The simplest
to reckon with were those of the
religious orders. Originally, the monastery had been not only
within the diocese in the ancient Church but had had in the
bishop the guarantee ofits well-being. The vast majority ofthe
houses ofblack monks and black canons were still in this posi'
tion, and in the days after the Lateran Council were visited
officially by the diocesan, who also confirmed their elections.
A certain number, however, never very large, had obtained
a
privileged position. Some of these had royal immunities of
immemorial antiquity guaranteeing them against interference
from the bishop; such immunities were granted by kings to
their foundations before the Conquest Bury St. Edmunds
is an example, Westminster another of what were in fact
royal eigenkirchen, and the Conqueror followed the example at
Battle. Others had commended themselves to the Apostolic
see and obtained the right of it depending upon without the
intermediary power ofa bishop (nullo mediante), and most ofthe
anciently immune abbeys hastened to obtain such privileges as
a 'hedge* or counter/insurance. In most of these cases an area,
great or small, outside the abbey was included in the immunity.
At Westminster it was only the church of St. Margaret; at
5526.2 D