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English Monasteries

Chapter 22: § 18.
By A. Hamilton Thompson
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About This Book

The text surveys medieval monasticism in England, outlining major religious orders and their rules, the evolution of communal life, and the rise and decline of different houses. It analyzes architectural plans of conventual churches, cloisters, and ancillary buildings—showing how liturgy, daily routines, and practical needs shaped church, chapter-house, dorter, frater, infirmary, and gatehouse arrangements. Special attention is given to Cistercian and Benedictine variations, the role of lay brothers, and adaptations for canons, friars, and nuns. The manual closes with discussion of discipline, the daily cycle of offices and work, estate management, and the surviving ruins and archaeological evidence, supported by plans and illustrations.

§ 18.

The order of Premonstratensians, known from their white habit as white canons, was founded by St Norbert at Prémontré, to the west of Laon, about 1120. The canons followed the Augustinian rule in the main, but their constitution shewed a tendency to follow Cistercian models. The order was centralised under the abbot of Prémontré, where the general chapters were held, and was extended by the Cistercian process of colonisation, each house sending out its body of canons as the nucleus of a new abbey. Lisques, a daughter of Prémontré, colonised Newhouse abbey in north Lincolnshire in 1143. In 1147 Newhouse founded a daughter house at Alnwick, and between that time and 1212 founded ten other abbeys. Of these Welbeck (1153) was responsible for seven more between 1175 and 1218. In all there were thirty-one abbeys of the order in England, not counting two cells. Cistercian influence can be seen in the constitution of each new house as an abbey, in the choice of secluded sites for the houses of the order, and in the principal dedication of most of its churches to our Lady. Like other centralised orders, the Premonstratensians were exempt from the jurisdiction of the diocesan bishop; but the allegiance of the English canons to Prémontré gradually slackened, and the administration of their order in England was delegated in course of time to a commissary. In 1512 Julius II exempted the English houses from obedience to Prémontré and placed them under the control of the abbot of Welbeck.