The Abbots and Priors of Late Medieval and Reformation England

The Abbots and Priors of Late Medieval and Reformation England
Author: Martin Heale
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 416
Release: 2016-09-08
Genre: History
ISBN: 0191006963

The importance of the medieval abbot needs no particular emphasis. The monastic superiors of late medieval England ruled over thousands of monks and canons, who swore to them vows of obedience; they were prominent figures in royal and church government; and collectively they controlled properties worth around double the Crown's annual ordinary income. Moreover, as guardians of regular observance and the primary interface between their monastery and the wider world, abbots and priors were pivotal to the effective functioning and well-being of the monastic order. The Abbots and Priors of Late Medieval and Reformation England provides the first detailed study of English male monastic superiors, exploring their evolving role and reputation between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries. Individual chapters examine the election and selection of late medieval monastic heads; the internal functions of the superior as the father of the community; the head of house as administrator; abbatial living standards and modes of display; monastic superiors' public role in service of the Church and Crown; their external relations and reputation; the interaction between monastic heads and the government in Henry VIII's England; the Dissolution of the monasteries; and the afterlives of abbots and priors following the suppression of their houses. This study of monastic leadership sheds much valuable light on the religious houses of late medieval and early Tudor England, including their spiritual life, administration, spending priorities, and their multi-faceted relations with the outside world. The Abbots and Priors of Late Medieval and Reformation England also elucidates the crucial part played by monastic superiors in the dramatic events of the 1530s, when many heads surrendered their monasteries into the hands of Henry VIII.

Standards of Living in the Later Middle Ages

Standards of Living in the Later Middle Ages
Author: Christopher Dyer
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 360
Release: 1989-03-09
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780521272155

Between 1200 and 1520 medieval English society went through a series of upheavals: this was an age of war, pestilence and rebellion. This book explores the realities of life of the people who lived through those stirring times. It looks in turn at aristocrats, peasants, townsmen, wage-earners and paupers, and examines how they obtained their incomes and how they spent them. This revised edition (1998) includes a substantial new concluding chapter and an updated bibliography.

The Reformation of Cathedrals

The Reformation of Cathedrals
Author: Stanford E. Lehmberg
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2014-07-14
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1400859808

Stanford Lehmberg, a noted authority on the Tudor period, examines the impact of the Reformation on the cathedrals of England and Wales. Based largely on manuscript materials from the cathedral archives themselves, this book is the first attempt to draw together information for all twenty-nine of the cathedrals that existed in the Tudor period. The author scrutinizes the major changes that took place during this era in the institutional structure, personnel, endowments, liturgy, and music of the cathedral and shows how the cathedrals, unlike the monasteries that were dissolved by Henry VIII, succeeded in adapting successfully to the Reformation. Forty-two illustrations depict sixteenth-century changes in cathedral buildings. Narrative chapters trace the changes that occurred during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, "Bloody" Mary, and Elizabeth I. Analytical sections are devoted to cathedral finance and cathedral music. The changing lives of cathedral musicians are described in some detail, and even greater attention is paid to the cathedral clergy, whose living conditions changed markedly when they were allowed to marry. Using a variety of sources, including such physical remains as tombs and monuments, the concluding chapter discusses the role of cathedrals in English society. Originally published in 1989. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

The Culture of Medieval English Monasticism

The Culture of Medieval English Monasticism
Author: James G. Clark
Publisher: Boydell Press
Total Pages: 366
Release: 2007
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781843833215

Examinations of the culture - artistic, material, musical - of English monasteries in the six centuries between the Conquest and the Dissolution. The cultural remains of England's abbeys and priories have always attracted scholarly attention but too often they have been studied in isolation, appreciated only for their artistic, codicological or intellectual features and notfor the insights they offer into the patterns of life and thought - the underlying norms, values and mentalité - of the communities of men and women which made them. Indeed, the distinguished monastic historian David Knowles doubted there would ever be sufficient evidence to recover "the mentality of the ordinary cloister monk". These twelve essays challenge this view. They exploit newly catalogued and newly discovered evidence - manuscript books, wall paintings, and even the traces of original monastic music - to recover the cultural dynamics of a cross-section of male and female communities. It is often claimed that over time the cultural traditions of the monasteries were suffocated by secular trends but here it is suggested that many houses remained a major cultural force even on the verge of the Reformation. James G. Clark is Professor of History at the University of Exeter. Contributors: DAVID BELL, ROGER BOWERS, JAMES CLARK, BARRIE COLLETT, MARY ERLER, G. R. EVANS, MIRIAM GILL, JOAN GREATREX, JULIAN HASELDINE, J. D. NORTH, ALAN PIPER, AND R. M. THOMSON.

Monastic Life in the Medieval British Isles

Monastic Life in the Medieval British Isles
Author: Julie Kerr
Publisher: University of Wales Press
Total Pages: 274
Release: 2018-10-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1786833190

This book celebrates the work and contribution of Professor Janet Burton to medieval monastic studies in Britain. Burton has fundamentally changed approaches to the study of religious foundations in regional contexts (Yorkshire and Wales), placing importance on social networks for monastic structures and female Cistercian communities in medieval Britain; moreover, she has pioneered research on the canons and their place in medieval English and Welsh societies. This Festschrift comprises contributions by her colleagues, former students and friends – leading scholars in the field – who engage with and develop themes that are integral to Burton’s work. The rich and diverse collection in the present volume represents original work on religious life in the British Isles from the twelfth to the sixteenth century as homage to the transformative contribution that Burton has made to medieval monastic studies in the British Isles.