Download PDF | [Cambridge Medieval Textbooks] Janet Burton - Monastic and Religious Orders in Britain 1000-1300 , Cambridge University Press, 1994.
374 Pages
The monastic life has alw ays been a central part o f the Christian experience and a unique experim ent in com m unity life. Yet despite the desire o f those who entered the religious life to turn their backs on the w orld, monastic houses remained very much a part o f it. This book explores tbe developm ent o f m onasticism in Britain from the last half-century o f A nglo-Saxon England to the year 1300. It investigates how the monastic order was affected by the Norm an settlement in the years after 1066, traces the impact on Britain o f new European interpretations o f monasticism , and details B ritain’s response to the challenge o f providing for the needs o f religious wom en.
It also exam ines the constant tensions between the monastic ideal and the demands made on religious com m unities by the w orld, by their founders and patrons, by kings, and by the secular church, and explores the vital role o f the religious orders in the econom y. This is the first general book on monastic history to cover England, Wales and Scotland, and the first general textbook to explore the interdependence o f religious com m unities and the w ider secular world.
Janet Burton is an Associate Lecturer in M edieval H istory at St D avid ’s U niversity College, Lampeter. She has published w idely on monastic history and contributed to Cistercian Art and Architecture in the British Isles (Cam bridge U niversity Press, 1986).
PREFACE
From the beginnings o f the Christian era, men and women have always sought the perfect way to serve their God in obedience to the commandments laid down by Christ himself Their efforts have led to many forms o f religious life and service, both within the world as layfolk or as churchmen, and withdrawn from it, as members o f religious communities devoted in different ways to the service o f God. The word ‘monk’ itself derives from the Greek monos, meaning one, alone, and has always described those who sought the solitary life, as hermits in the desert, in the European countryside, or enclosed in cells adjoining the walls o f parish churches and elsewhere. But the term ‘monasticism’ as we most frequently use it refers - somewhat paradoxically - to religious life within communities.
As such, monasticism has been, and continues to be, a central part o f the Christian experience, a unique experiment in community life. This book explores the ways in which men and women’s ideals o f how best they might achieve this goal o f perfect communal life altered and developed over a period o f roughly three hundred years. The scope, geographically, is England, Wales and Scotland. However, the approach taken in the first two chapters o f this work is chronological, in that they survey the state o f monastic life in the sixty years before the Norman Conquest o f England, and analyse how religious institutions developed in the forty years or so thereafter. Some o f these changes were the direct results o f conquest and the implantation o f a foreign ruling élite in England, including the more gradual Norman infiltration north into Scotland and west into Wales; some were part o f a more complex European development.
The next four chapters arc essentially about experiment, an account o f how, in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, Britain became receptive to new forms o f monastic life which grew out o f the debate about the nature o f primitive monasticism; out o f dissatisfaction with contemporary practice; out o f pressure, notably from women, for more appropriate modifications o f existing monastic rules; and out o f the new fervour for poverty and evangelism inspired by the teachings o f two remarkable men, St Francis and St Dominic. I have attempted, in all these chapters, to characterize the observances and distinctiveness o f each religious group, and briefly to describe the European context, before isolating their contribution to British monasticism. For it must be remembered that o f all the new forms o f monastic observance which were born in Christendom during the eleventh and twelfth centuries, only one, the order o f St Gilbert o f Sempringham, originated in Britain.
These early chapters are therefore primarily concerned with how men and women interpreted their role as members o f religious communities. In chapters 7-9, I have described in more detail how their lives within the cloister were organized: the buildings which made up the monastic complex; the daily timetable, the internal government o f the house and the maintenance o f discipline; intellectual pursuits followed by some at least o f the religious orders, their attitudes to learning and education, their writing o f history and saints’ lives, and their contributions to theological debate. Yet monasticism is not just about forms o f Christian service, the daily round o f prayer and contemplation by those who lived within the cloister, or, in the case o f the friars, a more evangelical mission. More often than not monasteries and nunneries were established by lay men and lay women, founded on lands given by the pious, and sustained by property and revenue provided by kings and queens, barons and countesses, members o f knightly families, archbishops and bishops.
These founders and patrons, no less than monks and nuns, played a vital role in the spread o f monasticism. By their giving - and withholding - o f benefactions, and by their expectations, they too did much to determine the way monasticism spread and developed. Religious houses were also corporations which owned land, administered estates and enjoyed rights and privileges which needed ratifying and defending. The daily life o f the religious was not always confined to the cloister, but brought them into contact with the outside world, in court, estate and manor house, as statesmen, managers and litigants. Chapter 10 is therefore concerned with the relationship between religious houses and their founders, patrons and benefactors, and their place in the wider community. Accordingly here an attempt is made to investigate a number o f crucial questions: how did patrons view their monasteries, what did they expect from them, and how did they view their duties and responsibilities? No previous general treatment o f monasticism has looked in detail at the role o f the local laity and their relationship, as patrons and benefactors, to the monastic houses. Finally, the book turns to economic issues, and examines the sources o f revenue enjoyed by religious houses, how they administered their financial affairs, and their involvement in commercial activities.
The religious orders were thus, in all sorts o f ways, a vital force in medieval society. The explosion o f monasticism in the period covered by this book has never been - and perhaps cannot be - fully explained. The fierce competition engendered by the search among the religious themselves for the ideal form o f religious life undoubtedly contributed to the great number o f experiments which the era witnessed. Not all manifestations o f religious fervour sought their outlet in a community which was, to all intents and purposes, enclosed and withdrawn from the world. Others, most notably the crusading movement which burst forth on the European scene from the late eleventh century, could not have contrasted more greatly. However, for at least a century and a half after the Norman Conquest, until the coming o f the friars, who succeeded in fusing the concept o f monastic life with a sense o f evangelical mission, the various forms o f monastic observance were still held by many to offer the highest form o f Christian life.
It is a great pleasure to acknowledge my debt to those who have helped me in the writing o f this book. Professor Barrie Dobson o f the University o f Cambridge, who a number o f years ago supervised my D.Phil. thesis at the University o f York, has been characteristically unstinting with his help and encouragement, as he has on so many other occasions. Dr David Smith o f the Borthwick Institute, University o f York and Dr Brian Golding o f the University o f Southampton have also given generously o f their time to read this book in draft, have made helpful suggestions and have enabled me to eradicate errors from the text. Professor Peter Fergusson o f Wellesley College, Boston, was kind enough to read and comment on chapter 7. I have benefited much from their encouragement and expertise, and I am grateful to them all. I would also like to acknowledge the assistance o f Dyfed County Council in granting me leave o f absence from my post in order to complete the writing o f the book. However, my chief debt, as always, is to my husband, who has cast a kindly but critical eye over my work, and has been ready and willing to discuss (or hear me talk about) the religious orders o f medieval Britain.
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