03.05.2015 Views

The Archaeology of Britain: An introduction from ... - waughfamily.ca

The Archaeology of Britain: An introduction from ... - waughfamily.ca

The Archaeology of Britain: An introduction from ... - waughfamily.ca

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

• 230 • Roberta Gilchrist<br />

until a reform movement <strong>of</strong> the tenth century laid down rules to be observed in monasteries and<br />

nunneries (the Regularis Concordia), and more standard plans evolved that were based around the<br />

monastic cloister (Aston 1993; Coppack 1990; Greene 1992). <strong>The</strong> origins <strong>of</strong> this social movement<br />

<strong>ca</strong>n be traced back to the desert monasticism <strong>of</strong> fourth- and fifth-century Egypt, Palestine and<br />

Syria. Two basic forms <strong>of</strong> monastic life prevailed throughout the medieval world: the eremitic<br />

and the coenobitic. Eremitic monasticism (<strong>from</strong> eremos, the desert) followed the tradition <strong>of</strong> the<br />

hermit, in which an individual lived in isolation and sought a more challenging, aescetic spirituality,<br />

denying comfort and companionship. <strong>The</strong> more common, coenobitic, monasticism stems <strong>from</strong><br />

the rule <strong>of</strong> St Benedict, written by Benedict <strong>of</strong> Nursia c.525, at Monte Cassino in Italy. <strong>The</strong><br />

Benedictine Rule emphasized communal living, and laid down precise requirements for the<br />

structure and routine <strong>of</strong> the monastery. It was to be self-sufficient in all things, so that ties and<br />

obligations to the outside world could be minimized, and the monks were to worship together,<br />

sleep in a communal dormitory and eat in a common refectory.<br />

By a conservative estimate, at least 2,000 monasteries and religious houses were founded in<br />

medieval England, Scotland and Wales, with particular orders coincident with certain chronologi<strong>ca</strong>l<br />

periods, associated variously with the town or countryside, and committed to a broad range <strong>of</strong><br />

religious and charitable purposes (Knowles and Hadcock 1971). Benedictine and Cluniac<br />

monasteries were founded by the Normans in England (c.1067–1130), and were <strong>of</strong>ten used as a<br />

means <strong>of</strong> consolidating their royal or baronial authority over <strong>An</strong>glo-Saxon areas. Monasteries<br />

following the rule <strong>of</strong> St Augustine were established for more pastoral and charitable functions.<br />

Houses <strong>of</strong> Augustinian <strong>ca</strong>nons were set up on a smaller s<strong>ca</strong>le and by lower-ranking patrons, in<br />

areas that required pastoral <strong>ca</strong>re (c.1100–1260). <strong>The</strong> Cistercians sought isolated and remote places,<br />

particularly in Yorkshire, Cheshire and Wales, in order to follow their reformed version <strong>of</strong> the<br />

monastic life (c.1125–1220). Initially the Cistercians were devoted to a life <strong>of</strong> simplicity; until the<br />

fourteenth century they included lay-brothers in most <strong>of</strong> their monasteries who were responsible<br />

for manual work and management <strong>of</strong> the estates and granges (farms). Orders <strong>of</strong> friars arrived in<br />

<strong>Britain</strong> c.1225, including the Francis<strong>ca</strong>ns and Domini<strong>ca</strong>ns, with new foundations into the early<br />

fourteenth century, aimed at preaching and edu<strong>ca</strong>ting the urban poor. In addition to the main<br />

orders for monks, <strong>ca</strong>nons and friars, there were corresponding houses for religious women, colleges,<br />

hospitals following monastic ordinances, preceptories <strong>of</strong> the Crusading Orders (the Templars<br />

and Hospitallers), Carthusian charterhouses (based on eremitic principles) and small hermitages<br />

(Gilchrist 1995). Most monasteries were established in the twelfth or thirteenth centuries, and<br />

continued in use for several hundred years, until the dissolution <strong>of</strong> the monasteries in England<br />

and Wales under Henry VIII (1535–40), and in Scotland by Parliament in 1560 when monasteries<br />

were confis<strong>ca</strong>ted and their buildings and lands sold or redistributed.<br />

KEY DATA<br />

Churches<br />

Early written sources are generally limited to references to church sites in wills, charters, saints’<br />

lives, monastic chronicles and law codes. Domesday Book, compiled in 1086, enumerated churches<br />

in England according to their financial value: approximately 2,700 were recorded, but many seem<br />

to have been omitted <strong>from</strong> the list, with accuracy varying according to the methods used by the<br />

compilers <strong>of</strong> the survey in each county. From the twelfth, and especially the thirteenth, century a<br />

wider range <strong>of</strong> documentary sources was compiled, including bishops’ registers, the records <strong>of</strong><br />

church courts and, <strong>from</strong> the fourteenth century, churchwardens’ accounts. By the fifteenth and<br />

sixteenth centuries, personal wills were regularly compiled that yield evidence <strong>of</strong> private bequests

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!