Exploring Medieval Monasteries, part 11

Hello. I've been looking at the new monastic orders that begin to emerge at the end of the 11th century, and we've looked at the Carthusians and the Cistercians. The Cistercians were the most successful in terms of the numbers of recruits, but if we look at the number of individual houses, then the most prolific of the new orders were the Canons. Now, these are priests. They lived communally, but combined prayer and contemplation with active ministry. Not separated from the outside world, very much part of it. And the largest of the groups of Canons were the Augustinians, or the Black Canons, because they wear a black cloak. We know they were established at Colchester by 1106, St Botolph's Priory. Holy Trinity in Aldgate, London, followed a year or so later, and Mitre Square occupies the site of the old Cloisters, and in the offices on the corner of Mitre Square, there are some of the pointed arches from the Priory. Eventually, there were over 200 Augustinian Priories, and a handful of wealthy individual Abbeys. Abbeys like Waltham in Essex, where the nave of the Abbey Church became the parish church after the dissolution. A bridge and gateway of the former Abbey do survive. In Leicester's Abbey Park, which was used for training archaeology students for many years, the plan of the Abbey there has been recovered, and stones have been laid to show the layout of the site. There is still a little bit of precinct wall that remains, and Cavendish House, which is a ruin itself now, was built with stone recycled from Leicester's Augustinian Abbey. There are a variety of sites, some in urban areas, and some in rural areas. Among the foundations in Staffordshire, we have Culwich Priory, which was connected to Kenilworth. These are the stables of the old house on the site now. Trenton Priory, founded by the Earl of Chester around about 1150. No remains, it's where Trenton Gardens is today. Roaster Priory was founded around 1141. Again, no remains. Stone Priory, this is the Priory Seal, founded early in the 12th century by Robert of Stafford. In Derbyshire, we have Cork Priory, founded by the Augustinians around about 1115, dedicated to St Giles. The current Cork Abbey, of course, much later house, dates from 1703. The Cork Priory mainly moved to Repton in 1170, when Repton Priory was founded, and Cork was then left as a subsidiary cell to Repton. Gresley Priory, founded by William of Gresley around about 1130, and the Priory Church at Church Gresley became the parish church at the dissolution, dedicated to St George and St Mary. Now, the Augustinians followed the rule of St Augustine of Hippo. He wrote this round about the year 400, and it gives brief guidelines for living within a community. This is how the rule begins. The chief motivation for your sharing your life together is to live harmoniously in the house and to have one heart and one soul seeking God. It requires a community to share everything in common, to live together in brotherly love, to pray together at specific times, to dress without distinction, to obey a superior, and to listen to the rule read weekly. The rule says, you listen to the rule, so that you will see yourselves in this little book as a mirror and not neglect anything through forgetfulness. An Augustinian canon wrote at the time, the rule of St Augustine of Hippo is well balanced, judicious, common sense, less severe than the rule of St Benedict, simple and easy, so that unlearned men and little children can walk in it without stumbling. Now, within the Augustinian movement, there were some subgroups. One of these groups was known as the Victorines. They're named after the Abbey of St Victor in Paris, and the gatehouse of Bristol Abbey, which is Victorine, now the diocesan office of Bristol Cathedral. The chapter house is a real hidden gem. There's another subgroup called the Aroasians. They didn't wear the black cloak of the other Augustinians, came from Aroase in Northern France, and among the abbeys they founded Missenden Abbey, this is a later house on the site, founded 1133. Beautiful site near the head of the river Misbourne. This is the foundation charter, which is in the British Library. Missenden Abbey became an adult learning centre, suffered a major fire in 1985. The interior was gutted, but it's been faithfully restored to its earliest splendour, and there are vaulted rooms, ceremonial staircase, ornate plasterwork, now owned by Buckinghamshire New University. There's a group known as the Canons Regular of the Holy Sepulchre, an Augustinian offshoot founded in the Holy Land. And then we have the Premonstretentions, founded by St Norbert, he was the abbot of an abbey at Premonstret near Lyon in Northern France, known as the White Canons, from wearing a white habit. And this is Norbert receiving the Augustinian rule directly from St Augustine. Now they were similar to the Cistercians in that they chose isolated sites. Now the Augustinians from Cork Abbey had tried to establish an abbey at Dale in Derbyshire. They failed, possibly just found the site too difficult. Thick woodland at the time, and poor arable. There's still some woodland, and within the woodland is a hermit's cell. Where the Augustinians failed, the Premonstretentions succeeded, and founded Dale Abbey around about 1204. And from Dale Abbey, said they practice active ministry, the Canons, they served as priests at Ilkeston, at Heaner, at Kirkhalam, and at Stanton-by-Dale. What was probably the abbey infirmary became the parish church of all saints at the Dissolution. It's connected to a house, Virgis Farmhouse, which makes it the only semi-detached church only known. Inside the church, some 13th century wall paintings survive. And in Dale Abbey itself, abbey house and manor house incorporate some remains of the abbey. And what was probably the gatehouse can be seen behind the Methodist chapel. Fragmentary remains, including a very impressive east window of the abbey church, give an idea of the size and layout at Dale. Now the only purely English order were the Gilberteans. These were founded by Gilbert of Sempringham in Lincolnshire. Gilbert returned to the Anglo-Saxon idea of double houses of men and women. In the event, most of the Gilbertean houses were men only, but there were some dual houses. Gilbert limited the numbers to 100 nuns and lay sisters and 50 canons and lay brothers. Although they're dual houses, there was a wall built between them. They didn't communicate very much. The Gilberteans wore black with white cloaks. Most of the double houses were in which is where this sub-order of canons was founded. Now next time, I'm going to look at the Franciscans and the Dominicans, the Friars. 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