Exploring Medieval Monasteries, part 5

Hello. Last time I finished with the foundation of a monastery at Lindisfarne by St Aidan in 635. And from Lindisfarne, monasteries were established across the North East and elsewhere. A man called Chedd, one of four missionary brothers, trained at Lindisfarne under Aidan and carried out a mission to the East Saxons. He established monasteries at West Tilbury, at Upminster, at Mersey and at Bradwell-on-Sea. The Bradwell site was where a Roman fort had stood and Chedd arrives and founds the monastery there in 654. The chapel at Bradwell, St Peter on the Wall, survives from the time of Chedd's monastery. It was built using bricks and stones from the Roman fort and it's one of the oldest, largely intact churches in England. For many years it was used as a barn and then in the 1920s it was restored as a place of worship. Now like many of the Northumbrian houses, and in common with many of these early foundations, at Bradwell this was a community of men and women. How the two communities interrelated is not known, but we can infer they were well controlled because they had a reputation for good discipline. A lot of our evidence of these early monasteries has been preserved by chance, perhaps in narratives that were written for other purposes. We have a life of St Guthlach. St Guthlach was 7th century, his life was written around about 740. But it tells us that Guthlach trained as a monk under an abbess at Repton in Derbyshire. So from that we learn about the house of nuns in Repton, and it may well have been a dual house because Guthlach is studying there. Chedd's more famous younger brother was Chadd, also trained under St Aidan at Lindisfarne, and he came to the Midlands to establish the Diocese of Mercia, around about 669, and based that at Lichfield. He also founded a monastery there, and the site is probably where we now have St Chadd's Church and St Chadd's Well. A second monastery was founded by Chadd at Barrow-on-Humber. King Osley of Northumbria gave land in 657 for a monastery at Whitby, and St Hilda was appointed as the founding abbess, and Whitby was a double monastery of men and women, but under the overall control and supervision of Hilda. In 664, of course, it will be the location for the Synod of Whitby, when Roman Christian practice prevails over British Christian practice. And one of the leading figures arguing for the Roman traditions of that Synod was Wilfred, who was the founder of abbeys at Hexham and at Ripon. Now Wilfred had a quarrel with King Egfraith of Northumbria, and went into exile. He paid a visit to Rome, and when he returned to England, he came to Sussex and spent five years there. Now, although there was already a community, a small community, of Irish monks at Bosham, Sussex remained essentially pagan, one of the last places in England. And Wilfred was given land by King Etherway for an abbey at Seltsie, which was founded round about 681. The location of Wilfred's abbey is uncertain, and one suggestion is it has been lost to the sea, but I think it was most likely on the site that's now occupied by St Peter's, the parish church of Church Norton. This is a 13th century church, but I think the site is quite likely where Wilfred's abbey was. Now, St Benedict of Nursia in southeastern Umbria had produced guidelines early in the 6th century about how monastic life should be organised and led. It wasn't the first or the only monastic rule, but in it Wilfred saw a detailed rule, a means by which different communities could be directed to a common end. And he was influential in encouraging it to be adopted as a way of organising monastic life, and over time it became universally adopted in the western church. From Sussex, Wilfred made a successful mission to convert the Isle of Wight, and at the end of that, England, nominally at least, is a Christian country. Now, King Agatha of Northumbria also gave land for a monastery in 674 to one of his nobles. There's a man called Benedict Biscop, and the result is Monk Wearmouth. Now, Biscop had travelled quite widely, and he brought over masons from Europe to build a church in stone, and a section of the base of the tower of the current St Peter's dates from Biscop's time, above it it's 10th century and later, otherwise only the porch and west wall of the former monastery still stand. A few years later, 682, more land was granted to Biscop, and from this a sister foundation was established, Jarrow, and we can see the monastic remains with the later St Paul's behind. Again, masons from Europe, and this time glass workers too. Stone buildings with glass, this is a novelty in the 7th century. England at the time is a land of wooden buildings. There's a fragment of that early glass, it's only about 7 inches in diameter, it was found during excavations, and has been reset in St Paul's Church. Now, all in all, Benedict Biscop made 5 trips to Rome. He is studying European monasticism, he wants to learn as much as possible. His aim at Monk Wearmouth Jarrow is a model monastery for others to copy. And the famous library at Jarrow was furnished initially with books that Biscop had brought back from Rome. And this is the library where Bede studied and wrote. The excavations at Jarrow in the 60s and 70s identified that the first monastery had two churches, oriented east to west, and in line with each other. Those sites are now linked in the present St Paul's Parish Church. Domestic accommodation was parallel to those churches, and then there were gardens on the southern-facing slope. It's similar to earlier monastic layouts that have been discovered elsewhere. And when Monk Wearmouth and Jarrow were founded, the site was a peninsula between the rivers Tyne and Don. Tyne to the north and Don to the south. It would have had a defining banking ditch across the site. Landfill and other changes have reconfigured the landscape in modern times. And then from the late 7th century onwards, there is more and more monastic foundation. Chertsey Embarking in 666, Ely 673, Gloucester 679, Worcester 680, Pershore 689, Evesham 701. And for many monasteries, no foundation date has been recorded. And there are sites yet to be discovered, sites that are still coming to light. We know from a mention in a royal charter, and this is a charter of a king that ruled from 694 to 709, so roughly around about 700, that there was a religious house at Nasingbury. There's a grant of land in the charter, it says, for a house of God at Nasingham. And that site at Nasinghury was identified and excavated only in the 1970s. They discovered the post holes for two timber churches again in line, and an associated cemetery with almost 200 individuals buried. They were dated by radiocarbon methods to the 8th century, so the time of the monastic house. And the analysis showed that these people were not typical of an ordinary village community. The majority were elderly, well-nourished women. There were also some men whose bones showed signs of hard physical labour. So here we have a religious community of nuns with a few men working as labourers on the monastic side. So by the time we get to the close of the 8th century, we've got numerous monastic institutions, many of them wealthy, becoming increasingly influential, playing a significant part in religious life and social life and economic life, all the activities of society. And we assume that the motive behind all these foundations is piety, its religious seal. Well, possibly not. In some cases. I will begin with that thought next time. If you've enjoyed this video, hit the like and subscribe buttons and click on the notification bell to be informed when the next video is released. Or you can subscribe by clicking on the rose window over my shoulder.