Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Dedication
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 The impulse: what prompted monastic hospitality?
- Chapter 2 The administrative structure
- Chapter 3 The reception of guests
- Chapter 4 Provision for guests: body and soul
- Chapter 5 Provision for guests: entertainment and interaction
- Chapter 6 The financial implications of hospitality
- Conclusion
- Appendix 1 Jocelin of Brakelond, monk of Bury St Edmunds
- Appendix 2 The Waterworks Plan of Christ Church, Canterbury
- Bibliography
- Index
- Other volumes in Studies in the History of Medieval Religion
Chapter 1 - The impulse: what prompted monastic hospitality?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 September 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Dedication
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 The impulse: what prompted monastic hospitality?
- Chapter 2 The administrative structure
- Chapter 3 The reception of guests
- Chapter 4 Provision for guests: body and soul
- Chapter 5 Provision for guests: entertainment and interaction
- Chapter 6 The financial implications of hospitality
- Conclusion
- Appendix 1 Jocelin of Brakelond, monk of Bury St Edmunds
- Appendix 2 The Waterworks Plan of Christ Church, Canterbury
- Bibliography
- Index
- Other volumes in Studies in the History of Medieval Religion
Summary
Remember too how I always used to gain friends for the church of Bec: following this example, hasten to gain friends for yourselves from all sides by exercising the good deed of hospitality, dispensing generosity to all men, and when you do not have the opportunity of doing good works, by according at least the gift of a kind word.
The monastic community that extended a warm welcome to guests stood to enhance its reputation and might also reap financial benefits. Shortly after his consecration to the See of Canterbury in 1093, Anselm wrote a letter of advice to his former community at Bec in which he encouraged the monks to use hospitality to secure the goodwill and support of others. Anselm was not alone in realising the potential benefits of extending a warm welcome to guests. Following his visitation of Abingdon Abbey in 1245, Robert de Carevill instructed the monks to receive ecclesiastical and lay visitors according to their nobility, importance, rank and dignity, since this would increase charity, project the honour of the church, and secure advantage in a diversity of things and places. The episcopal injunctions issued to Prior Walter of Ely (occ. 1241–59) stipulated that for the sake of the church's reputation guests be shown humility. The importance of this enjoinder is suggested by its appearance second on the list of his ordinances. These were clearly not empty words of advice, for Osbert de Clare maintained that it was the warm welcome he had received at Lewes Priory which sparked off his close friendship with its prior, Hugh.
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- Information
- Monastic HospitalityThe Benedictines in England, c.1070–c.1250, pp. 23 - 49Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2007