§ 5.
The rule of St Benedict was introduced into
England by St Augustine, prior of the monastery on
the Coelian hill in Rome. At this time the chief
strength of Celtic monachism was naturally in the
north, although it had penetrated southwards to such
isolated outposts as Glastonbury. Gradually Roman
customs gained ground in the strongholds of Celtic
Christianity. The grant of the monastery of Ripon
to Wilfrid was followed by the departure of the
Scottish monks. Little is definitely known of English
monastic life at this period, but it is clear that it
began to approximate more closely to the Benedictine
model. Thus the nuns of Hackness, an offshoot of
the monastery of Whitby, had a common dormitory;
while the monasteries of Monkwearmouth and Jarrow
differed in many respects from the local pattern, and
were certainly established upon a principle of common
life. In certain features a compromise seems to have
been arrived at, as in the survival of the custom,
which had probably been introduced by Irish missionaries,
of grouping monks and nuns in one monastery
under the presidency of an abbess. The most famous
instance of this was the abbey of Whitby, but other
examples are known in various parts of England
remote from each other. For a few of these models
may have been found in Gaul, where the Benedictine
rule was not introduced until a period later than
the coming of Augustine. Another feature was the
establishment of bishops' sees in monasteries. In
European countries where the traditions of the Roman
occupation were more or less continuous, the cathedral
within the city was a distinct foundation from the
monasteries which, as at Paris or Rouen, rose at a
later date outside the walls. But the Celtic missionaries
in England broke new ground in a country from
which the traces of Roman Christianity had almost
disappeared, and their sees were founded in monasteries.
This custom was followed in the natural order
of things by Augustine at Canterbury. In the reorganisation
of dioceses after the Norman conquest
it was still continued. In eight of the seventeen
medieval dioceses of England the cathedral, and in
two others one of the two cathedrals, was a monastic
church.
