Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures and Tables
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Maps: The Dependent Priories of the Monasteries of Medieval England (England and Wales)
- Introduction
- Part I The Dependent Priory as Daughter House
- Part II The Dependent Priory as Small Monastery
- 4 Monastic Life in Dependent Priories
- 5 Dependent Priories and their Neighbours
- 6 The Economy of English Cells
- Epilogue: The Dissolution of English Cells
- Appendices
- Select Bibliography
- Index
- Other Volumes in Studies in the History of Medieval Religion
4 - Monastic Life in Dependent Priories
from Part II - The Dependent Priory as Small Monastery
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 September 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures and Tables
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Maps: The Dependent Priories of the Monasteries of Medieval England (England and Wales)
- Introduction
- Part I The Dependent Priory as Daughter House
- Part II The Dependent Priory as Small Monastery
- 4 Monastic Life in Dependent Priories
- 5 Dependent Priories and their Neighbours
- 6 The Economy of English Cells
- Epilogue: The Dissolution of English Cells
- Appendices
- Select Bibliography
- Index
- Other Volumes in Studies in the History of Medieval Religion
Summary
Small Monasteries and Dependent Priories
In the conclusion to the second volume of his Religious Orders in England, Professor Knowles lamented that monastic history had inevitably to be drawn largely from the affairs of a small number of great houses. Although remarking that ‘it is natural …to desire some knowledge of the life and social relations of a smaller house’, he concluded that ‘the inner life and personal activities of such places must almost always elude observation’. Since nearly two-thirds of the monasteries of late medieval England enjoyed an annual income of under £200 and therefore came under the government's definition of a ‘lesser monastery’ in 1536, the extent of our ignorance about monastic life is obvious. Studies of particular orders, such as Professor Sir Howard Colvin's account of the Premonstratensians and the work of Dr J. C. Dickinson and Dr David Robinson on the Augustinian canons, have added significantly to our understanding of the smaller religious house. Important advances in the field have come more recently from archaeology, with a growing number of small and medium-sized houses being excavated in unprecedented detail, and from the study of nunneries. The work of Professor Roberta Gilchrist and Dr Marilyn Oliva, in particular, has revealed a great deal about the internal affairs of small nunneries, although it has also raised questions about whether conclusions reached for female monasteries can be applied to male houses of a similar size.
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- Information
- The Dependent Priories of Medieval English Monasteries , pp. 159 - 193Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2004