MONASTIC INSTITUTIONS. The following is a list of the religious houses and monastic institutions which formerly existed in Shropshire, with their annual value as returned at their suppression. The Benedictine monks had a great Abbey at Shrewsbury, returned as of the annual value of £132. 4s. 10d. Haughmond Abbey, £259. 13s. 7¼d. Buildwas Abbey, £110. 19s. 3d. Wombridge Priory, £65. 7s. 4d. Battlefield College, £54. 1s. 10d. Tong College, £22. 8s. 1d. Lilleshall Abbey, £229. 3s. l½d. Bridgnorth Hospital, £4. Ludlow Hospital, £17. 13s. 3d. Wenlock Priory, £401. 0s. 7¼d. St. Chad’s College, Shrewsbury, £14. 14s. 4d. St. Mary’s College, £13. 1s. 8d. According to Speed there was also a Monastery of Black Monks at Bromfield, a Priory at Chirbury, with various cells and chantries, which will be found noticed in the several parishes in which they were respectively situated. It was one of the singular characteristics of the Roman Catholic Church, that it gave scope to partial reformation. What among Protestants would be called a new sect, became in that church merely a new order. From time to time, men arose to recall attention to some doctrine or practice, which had fallen into disuse, and for a revival of which a necessity was felt. The church gave scope to their zeal, and benefited by their efforts till they, in turn, became rich and corrupt, and other reformers were needed. About the year 1120, the rule of St. Augustine was reformed by St. Norbet. He professed that the Virgin Mary had pointed out the site on which he was to found a new church, and that she had prescribed the white habits the monks were to wear.