English Monastic Life

Francis Aidan Gasquet

English Monastic Life

PREFACE

This volume does not appear to call for any lengthy preface. It should introduce and explain itself, inasmuch as, beyond giving a brief account of the origin and aim of each of the Orders existing in England in pre-Reformation days, and drawing up a general list of the various houses, all I have attempted to do is to set before the reader, in as plain and popular a manner as I could, the general tenor of the life lived by the inmates in any one of those monastic establishments. In one sense the picture is ideal; that is, all the details of the daily observance could not perhaps be justified from an appeal to the annals or custumals of any one single monastery. Regular or religious life was never, it must be borne in mind, such a cast-iron system, or of so stereotyped a form, that it could not be, and for that matter frequently was, modified in this or that particular, according to the needs of places, circumstances, and times. Even in the case of establishments belonging to the same Order or religious body this is true; and it is of course all the more certainly true in regard to houses belonging to different Orders. Still, as will be explained later, the general agreement of the life led in all the monastic establishments is so marked, that it has been found possible to sketch a picture of that life which, without being perhaps actually exact in every particular for any one individual house, is sufficiently near to the truth in regard to all the houses in general. The purposes for which the various parts of the monastery were designed and were used, the duties assigned to the numerous officials, the provisions by which the well-being and order of the establishment were secured, the disposition of the hours of the day, and the regulations for carrying out the common conventual duties, etc., were similar in all religious bodies in pre-Reformation days; and, if regard be paid to the changed circumstances, are still applicable to the monastic and religious establishments now existing in England.

It remains for me to publicly record my thanks to those who have assisted me in the preparation of this volume.

In regard to the list of the ancient religious houses, which it is to be hoped may be found of use to the student of monastic archæology, I have to acknowledge the kind help of the Rev. Dr. Cox, the general editor of the series; of Mr. W. H. St. John Hope; of Mr. R. C. Fowler, of the Public Record Office; of the Rev. R. M. Serjeantson; and of the Rev. H. J. D. Astley. My readers are also indebted to Mr. St. John Hope and to Mr. H. Brakspear for permission to reproduce three plans giving the typical arrangement of different religious houses; and lastly, my thanks are due to Dom H. N. Birt for various suggestions, and for his careful reading of the proofs for me.

LIST OF MANUSCRIPTS AND PRINTED BOOKS

By the advice of the editor of this series, the present list of the principal manuscripts and books used in this volume to describe the life of an English mediæval monastery is here printed, in place of giving multitudinous references at the foot of every page. In the case of the MSS. full transcripts have been made of most of them, in order that all the available evidence bearing on the subject might be fully considered.

Consuetudinarium Monasterii B. Marie, Ebor. St. John’s Coll., Cambridge, MS. D. 27.

Consuetudinarium Abbatiæ S. Petri Westmonasteriensis (Abbot Ware’s). (4th part only, much burnt.) Cott. MS. Otho c. xi.

Constitutiones pro monasterio de Abingdon. Harl. MSS. 209, ff. 11-12, 85-87.

Ordinale S. Edmundi de Burgo. MS. Harl. 2,977.

Ordinale ecclesiæ S. Augustini Cantuariensis: de disciplina Monachorum, etc. Cott. MS. Vitellius D. xvi.

Consuetudines quædam Abbatiæ S. Edmundi Buriensis. (Stated in a Papal letter in the Marini transcripts). Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 15,358, f. 439 seqq.

Traditiones patrum O.S.B. in Liber albus of Edmundsbury. Harl. MS. 1005.

Consuetudines quædam Abbatiæ de Reading. MS. Cott. Vesp. E. v. f. 37 seqq.

Memoriale qualiter in monasterio conversare debemus. Harl. MS. 5,431, f. 114 d.

Officium Senescall. aule Hospitum ecclesie Cantuariensis faciendæ. MS. Cott. Galba E. v. f. 26 d seqq.

Consuetudines Cantuarienses. Arund. MS. 68, f. 55 seqq.

Traditio Generalis Capituli super mores et observantias monachorum Ordinis S. Benedicti. Cott. MS. Faustina C. xii. f. 181.

Consuetudines Elemosinæ ecclesiæ Sti. Petri et S. Swithune, Winton. Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 29,436, f. 72 d. seqq.

Walteri de Wykwane, Abb. de Winchcombe, perquisita spiritualia et temporalia, una cum ejusdem monasterii Constitutionibus et Ordinationibus per eundem factis. Cott. MS. Cleop. B. II. f. 1. Printed in Monasticon.

Statuta Capituli Generalis O.S.B. (Reading and Abingdon, A.D. 1388). Cott. MS. Faustina A. II. f. 93 seqq.

Westminster Chapter O.S.B. under King Henry V. Cott. MS. Vesp. D. ix. f. 193 seqq.

Acta Capitulorum Generalium O.S.A. Brit. Mus. Cotton Charter xiii. 3.

Acta Capituli Generalis Ordinis Sti. Augustini, A.D. 1506. R.O. Exchequer, Q.R. Miscell. 916⁄44.

Mortuary Rolls (Norwich). Brit. Mus. Cotton Charter II. 17 and 18.

Visitationes Abbatiæ de Hayles Ord. Cist. Brit. Mus., Royal MS. 12, E. XIV. f. 73 seqq.

Visitatio Ecclesiæ Cath. Wynton (Bp. William of Wykham, A.D. 1386). Harl. MS. 328.

Monasticon Cisterciense. Julianus, Paris. ed. nova Hugo Séjalon. 1892.

Bibliotheca Premonstratensis, 1633. Le Paige.

Customary of the Benedictine Monasteries of Saint Augustine, Canterbury, and Saint Peter, Westminster. ed. Sir E. Maunde Thompson (Henry Bradshaw Soc.). 1902.

The Ancren Riwle. ed. J. Morton (Camden Soc.). 1853.

The Observances in use at the Augustinian Priory at Barnwell, Cambridgeshire. ed. J. Willis Clark, M.A., F.S.A. 1897.

Apostolatus Benedictinorum in Anglia. Reyner, Clemens.

Antiquiores Consuetudines Cluniacensis Monasterii – Collectore Udalrico Monacho. Migne, Patr. Lat. vol. 149, col. 635 seqq.

The Lausiac History of Palladius. ed. Dom Cuthbert Butler. Part I. Introduction (Texts and Studies, vol. vi.).

De Antiquis Ecclesiæ Ritibus. Martène, III. pp. 253 seqq.

Ordinale Conventus Vallis Caulium. ed. W. de Gray Birch. 1900.

De Consuetudinibus Abbendoniæ, Chronicon Monasterii de Abingdon. ed. J. Stevenson (Rolls Series), II. p. 296 seqq.

The Ancient English Version of the Rule of St. Francis – Abbreviatio Statutoram. 1451: in Monumenta Franciscana. Vol. ii. (Rolls Series). ed. R. Howlett.

Rouleaux des Morts du ixe au xve Siècle, Léopold Delisle (Soc. de l’Histoire de France). 1866.

Accounts of the Obedientiars of Abingdon Abbey. ed. R. E. G. Kirk (Camden Soc.). 1892.

Compotus Rolls of the Obedientiaries of St. Swithun’s Priory, Winchester. ed. G. W. Kitchin (Hampshire Record Soc.). 1892.

De prima Institutione Monachorum in Monasticon Anglicanum. (ed. Calley Ellis and Bandinel), I. xix. seqq.

Processus electionis Abbatum S. Albani. Mon. Angl. II. 191, note.

De Consuetudinibus et Ordinationibus officialium separalium in Abbatia de Evesham. Mon. Angl. II. 23-5.

Literæ Constitutionum Hugonis, Lincoln. Episcopi, Visitatione Monalium de Cotun. Mon. Angl. V. 677.

Tractatus Statutorum Ordinis Cartusiensis pro Noviciis, etc. Mon. Angl. VI. pp. v., xii.

De Canonicorum Ordinis Origine, etc. Mon. Angl. VI. pp. 39-49.

Ordinatio pro coquina conventus Canonicorum de Haghmon. Mon. Angl. VI. 111.

Ordinatio pro officiis Prioris et Subprioris ibidem. Mon. Angl. VI. p. 112.

Institutiones beati Gilberti et successorum ejus, per Capitula Generalia institutæ. Mon. Angl. VI. p. 2, pp. *xxix. – *xcvii.

Regula Monachorum S. Trinitatis. Mon. Angl. VI. p. 3, p. 1,558 seqq.

De primordiis et inventione sacræ Religionis Iherosolimorum. Mon. Angl. V. p. 2, pp. 787 seqq.

De Canonicorum Ordinis Præmonstratensis Origine, etc. Mon. Angl. V. p. 2, pp. 857 seqq.

Consuetudines Abbatiæ Eveshamensis. Mon. Angl. II. 27-32.

De officis Præcentoris. Mon. Angl. II. p. 39.

De Sacrista. Mon. Angl. II. p. 40.

Constitutiones per Decanum et Capitulum Ecclesiæ Cathedralis S. Pauli, Lond., factæ, Moniales Cœnobii S. Helenæ prope Bishop’s-gate, infra Civitatem London, tangentes. Mon. Angl. IV. p. 553.

Leges Monachis Hydensibus ab Edgaro Rege datæ. Mon. Angl. II. p. 439 seqq.

Constitutiones Capituli Generalis O.S.B. apud Northampton, A.D. 1225, in Mon. Angl. I. pp. xlvi. – li.

A Consuetudinary of the Fourteenth Century for the House of St. Swithin, Winchester. ed. G. W. Kitchen, D.D. 1886.

Collectanea Anglo-Premonstratensia (Camden Soc.). 1904.

Charters and Records of Cluni. G. Duckett.

Visitations of English Cluniac Foundations. G. Duckett.

Two Chartularies of the Priory of St. Peter at Bath. ed. W. Hunt (Somerset Record Soc.). 1893.

Rentalia et Custumaria of Glastonbury. ed. C. Elton (Somerset Record Soc.).

Woman and Monasticism. L. Eckenstein. 1896.

S. Gilbert of Sempringham and the Gilbertines. Rose Graham. 1902.

Gesta Abbatum S. Albani. ed. Riley (Rolls Series), II. pp. 95-107, Constitutiones Abbatis Johannis de Maryns, c. 1308. pp. 301-316, Constitutiones, c. 1336. pp. 418-466, Constitutiones Abb. Thomæ de la Mare, c. 1386. pp. 511-519. Constitutions for nuns of Sopwell.

Gesta Abbatum S. Albani. ed. Riley (Rolls Series), III. pp. 470-72. Constitutiones Abbatis Johannis de la Moote.

Adam de Domerham. Hearne, p. 123. De electione Walteri More Abbatis Cenobii Glastoniensis.

The Register of Ralph of Shrewsbury, Bishop of Bath and Wells (1329-1363). ed. T. S. Holmes (Somerset Record Soc.). 1896.

Episcopal Register of the Diocese of Winchester. William of Wykeham. ed. T. F. Kirby (Hampshire Record Soc.). 1899.

Episcopal Registers of the Diocese of Exeter. Seven vols. ed. F. C. Hingeston-Randolph.

Episcopal Register of the Diocese of Winchester, John de Sandale and Rigaud de Asserio. ed. F. J. Baigent (Hampshire Record Soc.). 1897.

Episcopal Registers of the Diocese of Worcester. ed. J. Willis Bund (Worcester Hist. Soc.).

Visitations of the Diocese of Norwich, A.D. 1492-1532. ed. A. Jessop, D.D. (Camden Soc.). 1888.

Rites and Customs within the Monastical Church of Durham. ed. J. Raine (Surtees Soc.). 1842.

The Durham Household Book. ed. J. Raine (Surtees Soc.). 1844.

Halmota Prioratus Dunelmensis. ed. J. Booth (Surtees Soc.). 1886.

Durham Account Rolls. ed. J. T. Fowler (Surtees Soc.). 3 vols. 1898-1900.

CHAPTER I

THE MONASTIC LIFE

The regular or monastic life was instituted to enable men to attain with greater security to the higher ideals of the Christian life proposed to them in the Gospel. In the early ages of the Church the fervour of the first converts, strengthened and purified by the fierce persecutions they had to endure for religion, enabled them, or a considerable number of them, to reach this high standard without withdrawing from the world, its business, or society. The belief that, by the means of regulated labour and strict discipline of the senses and appetites, it was in the power of man to perfect his moral nature and rise to heights in the spiritual order, not otherwise attainable, seems almost inherent in man’s nature. Well-regulated practices founded upon this principle have been existent in all forms of religious worship other than Christian, and they can be recognised no less in the observances of ancient Egypt than in those of the lamas of modern Thibet. In the pagan world this doctrine seems to have dictated much of the peculiar teaching of the Stoics; and among the Jews the Essenes governed their lives in theory and practice upon this belief. Even among the early Christians there were some, who by striving to master their lower nature desired to attain the true end of human life as the Gospel taught them, the knowledge and love of God and obedience to His will. These were known as Ascetae, and in one of the earliest Christian documents they are mentioned as a class of Christians between the laity and the clergy. They were, however, in the world though not “of the world,” and strove to reach their goal whilst living their ordinary life by means of perseverance in prayer, voluntary chastity and poverty, as well as by the exercise of mortification of all kinds.

Though the practice of seeking seclusion from the world for the purpose of better carrying out these ideals was apparently not unknown in the third century, it was not until after the conversion of Constantine that it can be said to have become general. The triumph of Christianity not only freed Christians from the spiritual stimulus of persecution, but it opened the door of the Christian home to worldly habits and luxury which were hitherto unknown, and which made the practice of the higher ideals of the spirit difficult, if not impossible, in the ordinary surroundings of the family life. To use the expression of Walter Hilton, the baptism of Constantine “brought so many fish into Peter’s net that it was well-nigh rent by the very multitude.” Henceforth it became necessary for Christians, who would satisfy the deeply seated instinct of human nature for the higher life, to seek it mostly in the solitudes of the desert, or later within the sheltering walls of the monastery.

For a right understanding of monastic history and monastic practices in the West generally, and even in England, it is necessary to have some idea at least of the main features of Eastern monachism. It has been pointed out by Dom Butler, in his masterly introduction to the Lausiac History of Palladius,1 that monachism developed along two lines in Egypt. The first was the system initiated and directed by St. Anthony, when about the year A.D. 305, after living a life of seclusion for some twenty years, he undertook the direction and organisation of the multitude of monks which the reputation of his sanctity had drawn to his neighbourhood. The second was due to St. Pachomius, who, just about the same time, at the beginning of the fourth century, whilst yet quite a young man, founded his first monastery at Tabennisi in the far south of Egypt.

The first system came to prevail over a great portion of the country by the end of the first century after its foundation by St. Anthony. The monks were mostly hermits in the strict sense of the word. They lived apart and “out of earshot of one another,”2 coming together at certain times for divine worship. In other districts the religious lived together in threes or fours, who, on all days but the Saturdays and Sundays when all assembled in the great church, were used to sing their songs and hymns together in their common cells. Of this system Palladius, who is the first authority on the matter, says: “They have different practices, each as he is able and as he wishes.” Dom Butler thus describes it: —

“There was no rule of life. The Elders exercised an authority, but it was mainly personal… The society appears to have been a sort of spiritual democracy, ruled by the personal influence of the leading ascetics, but there was no efficient hold upon individuals to keep them from falling into extravagances… A young man would put himself under the guidance of a senior and obey him in all things; but the bonds between them were wholly voluntary. The purely eremitical life tended to die out, but what took its place continued to be semi-eremitical.”3

The second system introduced at the beginning of the fourth century may be described as the cenobitical or conventual type of monachism. Pachomius’ monks lived together under a complete system of organisation, not, indeed, as a family under a father, but rather as an army under a discipline of a military character. This form of the monastic life spread with great rapidity, and by the time of its founder’s death (c. 345) it counted eight monasteries and several hundred monks.

“The most remarkable feature about it,” says Dom Butler, “is that (like Citeaux in a later age) it almost at once assumed the shape of a fully organised congregation or order, with a superior general and a system of visitation and general chapters – in short, all the machinery of centralised government, such as does not appear again in the monastic world until the Cistercians and the Mendicant Orders arose in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.”4

The various monasteries under the Rule of St. Pachomius existed as separate houses, each with a head or præpositus and other officials of its own, and organised apparently on the basis of the trades followed by the inmates. The numbers in each house naturally varied; between thirty and forty on an average living together. At the more solemn services all the members of the various houses came together to the common church; but the lesser offices were celebrated by the houses individually. Under this rule, regular organised work was provided for the monk not merely as a discipline and penitential exercise, as was the case under the Antonian system, but as a part of the life itself. The common ideal of asceticism aimed at was not too high.

“The fundamental idea of St. Pachomius’ Rule was,” says Dom Butler, “to establish a moderate level of observance which might be obligatory upon all; and to leave it open to each – and to, indeed, encourage each – to go beyond the fixed minimum, according as he was prompted by his strength, his courage, and his zeal.”5

Hence we find the Pachomian monks eating or fasting as they wished. The tables were laid at midday, and dinner was provided every hour till evening; they ate when they liked, or fasted if they felt called on so to do. Some took a meal only in the evening, others every second or even only every fifth day. The Rule allowed them their full freedom; and any idea of what is now understood by “Common Life” – the living together and doing all things together according to rule – was a feature entirely absent from Egyptian monachism.

One other feature must also be noticed, which would seem to be the direct outcome of the liberty allowed in much of the life, and in particular in the matter of austerities, to the individual monk under the systems both of St. Anthony and St. Pachomius. It is a spirit of strongly marked individualism. Each worked for his personal advance in virtue; each strove to do his utmost in all kinds of ascetical exercises and austerities – in prolonging his fasts, his prayers, his silence. The favourite name used to describe any of the prominent monks was “great athlete.” They loved “to make a record” in austerities, and to contend with one another in mortifications; and they would freely boast of their spiritual achievements. This being so, penances and austerities tended to multiply and increase in severity, and this freedom of the individual in regard to his asceticism accounts for the very severe and often incongruous mortifications undertaken by the monks of Egypt.

Monachism was introduced into Western Europe from Egypt by way of Rome. The first monks who settled in the Eternal City were known as “Egyptians,” and the Latin translation of the Vita Antonii (c. 380) became “the recognised embodiment of the monastic ideal.” It preserved its primitive character in the matter of austerities during the fourth century, and St. Augustine declares that he knew of religious bodies of both sexes, which exercised themselves “in incredible fastings,” passing not merely one day without food or drink, which was “a common practice,” but often going “for three days or more without anything.”

During this same century the monastic life made its appearance in Gaul. About A.D. 360 St. Martin founded a religious house at Ligugé, near Poitiers; and when about A.D. 371 he became Bishop of Tours, he established another monastic centre in a retired position near his episcopal city, which he made his usual residence. The life led by the monks was a simple reproduction of that of St. Anthony’s followers. Cassian, the great organiser of monachism in Gaul, also followed closely the primitive Egyptian ideals both in theory and practice, whilst what is known of the early history of the monastery at Lerins, founded by Honoratus, to whom Cassian dedicated the second part of his Conferences, points to the fact that here too the eremitical life was regarded as the monastic ideal. On the whole, therefore, it may be said that the available evidence “amply justifies the statement that Gallic monachism during the fifth and sixth centuries was thoroughly Egyptian in both theory and practice.”6

It is now possible to understand the position of St. Benedict in regard to monasticism. The great Patriarch of Western monks was born probably about A.D. 480, and it was during that century that the knowledge of Eastern rules of regular life was increased greatly in Italy by the translation of an abridgment of Saint Basil’s code into Latin by Rufinus. St. Basil had introduced for his monks in Cappadocia and the neighbouring provinces certain modifications of the Egyptian monastic observances. There was more common life for his religious: they lived together and ate together; and not when they pleased, but when the superior ordained. They prayed always in common, and generally depended upon the will of a common superior. About the same time St. Jerome translated the Rule of Pachomius, and the influence of these two Rules upon the monastic life of Italy at the period when St. Benedict comes upon the scene is manifest. Whatever changes had been introduced into the local observances, and however varied were the practices of individual monasteries, it is at least certain that at this period the monastic system in use in Italy was founded upon and drew its chief inspirations from Egyptian models. What was wholly successful in the East proved, however, unsuitable to Western imitators, and, owing to the climatic conditions, impossible. This much seems certain even from the mention made of the Gyrovagi and Sarabites by St. Benedict, since he describes them as existing kinds of monks whose example was to be avoided. That he had practical knowledge and experience of the Egyptian and the Eastern types of monachism clearly appears in his reference to Cassian and to the Rule of “Our Holy Father Saint Basil,” as he calls him, and in the fact that he made his own first essay in the monastic life as a solitary.

When, some time about the beginning of the sixth century, St. Benedict came to write his Rule, with full knowledge and experience both of the systems then in vogue and of the existing need of some reconstitution, it is noteworthy that he did not attempt to restore the lapsed practices of primitive asceticism, or insist upon any very different scheme of regular discipline. On the contrary, “he deliberately turned his back on the austerities that had hitherto been regarded as the chief means for attaining the spiritual end of the monastic life.” He calls his Rule “a very little rule for beginners” —minima inchoationis regula, and says that though there may be in it some things “a little severe,” still he hopes that he will establish “nothing harsh, nothing heavy.” The most cursory comparison between this new Rule and those which previously existed will make it abundantly clear that St. Benedict’s legislation was conceived in a spirit of moderation in regard to every detail of the monastic life. Common-sense, and the wise consideration of the superior in tempering any possible severity, according to the needs of times, places, and circumstances were, by his desire, to preside over the spiritual growth of those trained in his “school of divine service.”