Read Online The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century by Ian Mortimer - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Ian Mortimer
Tags: General, History, Medieval, Europe, Great Britain, bought-and-paid-for, A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century
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Durham is given command of the rearmost division in the march across Normandy during the Crécy campaign (1346). Archbishop Zouche of York similarly demonstrates his valor, jointly leading an English army to victory at the battle of Neville’s Cross (also 1346). Most remarkable of all, in 1383 Bishop Henry Despenser of Norwich invades Flanders. He claims to be fighting a “crusade” against the French supporters of Pope Clement but instead he attacks the Flemish supporters of Pope Urban (whom the English also recognize). If it is too much to expect an aristocratic bishop to turn the other cheek, you would have thought at least he might obey the commandment “Thou shalt not kill.”
The clergy as a whole are split into two sorts. The archbishops and bishops preside over the
secular clergy
—that is to say those priests and men in lesser orders who live in the world and administer to its needs. The
regular clergy
are, for most purposes, outside their jurisdiction, answering instead to the head of their house and ultimately to the head of their Order. Monks and canons withdraw from the world to live lives of quiet contemplation and prayer behind the closed doors of abbeys and priories. Their female equivalents—nuns and canonesses—do likewise. Friars go out into the world to preach, but their female counterparts (the Franciscan nuns, called “Poor Clares,” and Dominican nuns) live in priories.
One question you are bound to ask, as you travel around medieval England, is this: if monks have withdrawn from the world to live lives of contemplation and prayer, how come you meet so many of them outside their cloisters, journeying around the country? The answer is monastic business. Abbots and priors need to attend meetings of
Types of Regular Clergy
Type
Orders
Notes
Monastic Orders
• Benedictines (also known as Black Monks, from the color of their habit)
• Cluniacs
• Cistercians (White Monks)
• Carthusians
Monks follow the Rule of St. Benedict. They withdraw from the secular world, to contemplate and pray, and have no possessions of their own. The Benedictines are the oldest Order, and the most lax in their observance of the Rule. The Cistercians are much stricter, and the Carthusians stricter still, living in cloistered monastic cells.
Regular Canons
• Augustinian Canons (Austin Canons or Black Canons)
• Premonstratensians (White Canons)
• Gilbertines
• Grandmontines
Like monks except that they follow the teachings of St. Augustine of Hippo. The Order of St. Gilbert of Sempringham is the only monastic order to be founded in England; it permits monks and nuns to live in double monasteries and worship in the same church.
Military Orders
• The Order of the Temple
• The Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem (Hospitallers)
Orders of knights originally established to protect the pilgrim routes to the Holy Land. After the abolition of the Templars in 1308, only the Hospitallers have a significant presence in England.
Mendicant Orders (friars)
• Dominicans Unlike monks, friars go out Dominicans (Blackfriars or Friars Preacher)
• Franciscans (Greyfriars or Friars Minor)
• Carmelites (White Friars)
• Austin Friars
• Friars of the Holy Cross (Crutched Friars)
Unlike monks, friars go out into the world, preaching the word of God to rich and poor alike. They have given up all their property and taken vows of chastity and abstinence, but otherwise they are free to roam where they will.
their Order, and many abbots and a couple of priors are summoned to attend Parliament. Some traveling is undertaken by other monks to acquire things—including manuscripts to copy for the monastic-library—or to exchange news. But the vast bulk of monastic business is to oversee the abbey’s estates. The monk in Chaucer’s “Sea Captain’s Tale” is allowed by his abbot to roam where he wants on the pretext of inspecting the monastic granges. Some monasteries have a great number of these, with vast estates
The clergy as a whole are split into two sorts. The archbishops and bishops preside over the
secular clergy
—that is to say those priests and men in lesser orders who live in the world and administer to its needs. The
regular clergy
are, for most purposes, outside their jurisdiction, answering instead to the head of their house and ultimately to the head of their Order. Monks and canons withdraw from the world to live lives of quiet contemplation and prayer behind the closed doors of abbeys and priories. Their female equivalents—nuns and canonesses—do likewise. Friars go out into the world to preach, but their female counterparts (the Franciscan nuns, called “Poor Clares,” and Dominican nuns) live in priories.
One question you are bound to ask, as you travel around medieval England, is this: if monks have withdrawn from the world to live lives of contemplation and prayer, how come you meet so many of them outside their cloisters, journeying around the country? The answer is monastic business. Abbots and priors need to attend meetings of
Types of Regular Clergy
Type
Orders
Notes
Monastic Orders
• Benedictines (also known as Black Monks, from the color of their habit)
• Cluniacs
• Cistercians (White Monks)
• Carthusians
Monks follow the Rule of St. Benedict. They withdraw from the secular world, to contemplate and pray, and have no possessions of their own. The Benedictines are the oldest Order, and the most lax in their observance of the Rule. The Cistercians are much stricter, and the Carthusians stricter still, living in cloistered monastic cells.
Regular Canons
• Augustinian Canons (Austin Canons or Black Canons)
• Premonstratensians (White Canons)
• Gilbertines
• Grandmontines
Like monks except that they follow the teachings of St. Augustine of Hippo. The Order of St. Gilbert of Sempringham is the only monastic order to be founded in England; it permits monks and nuns to live in double monasteries and worship in the same church.
Military Orders
• The Order of the Temple
• The Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem (Hospitallers)
Orders of knights originally established to protect the pilgrim routes to the Holy Land. After the abolition of the Templars in 1308, only the Hospitallers have a significant presence in England.
Mendicant Orders (friars)
• Dominicans Unlike monks, friars go out Dominicans (Blackfriars or Friars Preacher)
• Franciscans (Greyfriars or Friars Minor)
• Carmelites (White Friars)
• Austin Friars
• Friars of the Holy Cross (Crutched Friars)
Unlike monks, friars go out into the world, preaching the word of God to rich and poor alike. They have given up all their property and taken vows of chastity and abstinence, but otherwise they are free to roam where they will.
their Order, and many abbots and a couple of priors are summoned to attend Parliament. Some traveling is undertaken by other monks to acquire things—including manuscripts to copy for the monastic-library—or to exchange news. But the vast bulk of monastic business is to oversee the abbey’s estates. The monk in Chaucer’s “Sea Captain’s Tale” is allowed by his abbot to roam where he wants on the pretext of inspecting the monastic granges. Some monasteries have a great number of these, with vast estates
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