CAMBRIDGE
PRINTED BY JONATHAN PALMER
ALEXANDRA STREET
Introduction
In accordance with many requests, the following sketch of some of the features of monastic life in England is reprinted from The Church Times, in a somewhat extended and slightly amended form.
It has been suggested that it would be helpful to students to give a list of authorities on which these pages are based. A large number of authorities, such as monastic chartularies and customaries, and episcopal registers, only exist in manuscript; but the following are some of the principal printed books, in addition to the extended edition in eight vols. of Dugdale’s Monasticon:
English Monastic Life (1904). Abbot Gasquet.
Customary of the Benedictine Monasteries of St. Augustine, Canterbury, and St. Peter, Westminster (1902). Henry Bradshaw Society.
Observances of the Austin Priory of Barnwell (1897). J. Willis Clark.
Mediæval England (1903), Chaps. 3, 9, 15. Mary Bateson.
Rites and Customs of Durham (1842). Surtees Society.
Halmota Prioratus Dunelmensis (1886). Surtees Society.
Durham Account Rolls, 3 vols. (1898-1900). Surtees Society.
St. Gilbert of Sempringham and the Gilbertines (1902). Rose Graham.
Gesta Abbatum S. Albani, and other monastic volumes of the Rolls Series, including Nos. 8, 28, 29, 33, 36, 43, 45, 72, 78, 79, 85, and 96.
The Chronicle of Jocelin of Brakeland, of Bury St. Edmunds (1903). Sir Ernest Clarke.
The Obedientiaries of Abingdon Abbey (1902). Camden Society.
Records of Wroxall (1904). J. P. Rylands.
Saint Anselm (1888), Chap. 3. Dean Church.
A Consuetudinary of St. Swithun’s (1886). Dean Kitchin.
Obedientiary Rolls of St. Swithun’s (1892). Dean Kitchin.
Charters and Records of Cluni (1888). Sir G. Duckett.
Rentalia et Custumaria of Glastonbury. Somerset Record Society.
Visitations of the Diocese of Norwich (1888). Dr. Jessopp.
Collectanea Anglo-Premonstratensia (1904). Abbot Gasquet.
Inventories of Christ Church, Canterbury (1902). Messrs. Legg and Hope.
Chartularies of Finchale Priory (1837); of Jarrow and Monkwearmouth (1854); of Fountain’s Abbey (1863-78); of Whitby Abbey (1879); of Newhouse Abbey (1878); of Rievaulx Abbey (1889); of Giseburne Priory (1889); and of Brinkburn Priory (1893). Surtees Society.
Chartularies of St. Peter’s, Bath (1893); of Bruton and Montacute Priories (1894); and of Muchelney and Athelney Abbeys (1899). Somerset Record Society.
Episcopal Registers of Exeter, 7 vols. (1886, etc.). F. C. Hingeston-Randolph.
Episcopal Registers of Winchester, 3 vols. (1896, in progress). Hampshire Record Society.
Episcopal Registers of Worcester (1898, in progress). Worcester Historical Society.
Sede Vacante Register of Worcester Priory, five parts (1893-7). Worcester Historical Society.
Episcopal Registers of Bath and Wells, 4 vols. (1887-1889, in progress). Somerset Record Society.
Register of Walter Gray, Archbishop of York (1872). Surtees Society.
Register of Bishop Kellaw of Durham, 4 vols. (1873-8). Rolls Series.
Register of Archbishop Peckham, 3 vols. (1882-5). Rolls Series.
For the suppression of the monasteries the following should be consulted:
Letters and Papers of the reign of Henry VIII. (Domestic State Papers). Dr. Gairdner.
History of the Church of England, 6 vols. Canon Dixon.
Henry VIII. and the English Monasteries, 2 vols. (1888). Abbot Gasquet.
Henry VIII. (1901). F. Darwin Swift.
Reformation of the Church of England, 2 vols. (1882.) J. H. Blunt.
The Victoria County Histories, now in progress, propose to deal thoroughly with all the religious houses; up to the present, those of Hampshire (2nd vol.) have been treated by Rev. Dr. Cox, and those of Bedfordshire (1st vol.) by Sister Elspeth. The Times, in reviewing the first of these volumes, said that if the scheme was followed up in other counties after a like fashion with Hampshire, the result would be the issue of a new ‘Monasticon.’
Possibly it is presumptuous to quote St. Augustine in connection with a booklet of this description, but the words with which the great Doctor concludes his treatise De Civitate Dei seem applicable:
“If in these pages there is either too much or too little, the fault is mine, and may I be forgiven; but if there is just sufficient join with me in giving thanks to God.”
F. S. A.
October, 1904.