Exploring Medieval Monasteries, part 12

Hello. The Cistercian order began as an antidote to perceived Benedictine laxity, but over time they too move away from the early ideals and it becomes harder to differentiate between the Benedictines and the Cluniacs and the Cistercians. And the next attempt to return to the monastic basics is the Friars. Their houses begin to appear in the early 13th century and they spread widely. The Friars' mission is the spiritual well-being of the general population. They concentrate on teaching and preaching, and consequently they tended to choose urban sites, usually on the margins of medieval towns. The most numerous were the Franciscans, or the Grey Friars, although they usually wear brown today, sometimes called the Friars Minor, and the Dominicans, or the Black Friars, because they wear a black cape. Now because of a strong emphasis on poverty, these are mendicant Friars. They never acquire landed estates in the same way that the other orders had done, but they could own their own sites, the sites that their houses occupied, and the precincts of those houses could be quite extensive. The Franciscans, founded by Saint Francis of Assisi in 1209, with the approval of Pope Innocent III, they arrive in England in 1224, very soon established at Canterbury. Grey Friars Chapel remains at Canterbury, and then in London there is a friary established. This is a plan of the site, and a blue plaque marks the site. A friary at Oxford followed soon after. You can see the flint and stone Grey Friars Hall in Iffley Road, which is now part of the university. Now this was built in 1931, but some of the fabric probably came from the friary. The Cambridge Friary is now at Sydney Sussex College is on the site. By 1230 there are houses in Bristol, at Gloucester we can see the ruins of the Friary Chapel, and at Kings Lynn where Grey Friars Tower remains, 93 feet high, and for obvious reasons sometimes called the Leaning Tower, and there are other friaries elsewhere. Now a sister organisation, the Order of Saint Clare, was founded by Saint Clare of Assisi. She's one of Saint Francis's followers and associates, sometimes called the Franciscan Mineresses and the Poor Clares. Their main base was at Aldgate in London, where the miner's street name recalls their presence, but they first arrived in this country at Newcastle on Tyne in the 1280s. Now Denny Abbey had belonged to the Benedictines and then had been acquired by the Knights Templar. When the Templars were disbanded in the early 14th century, then the site was acquired by Mary de Valence. She's a Countess of Pembroke, founder of Pembroke College, Cambridge. She converted the Templars Church into a house herself, and then brought the Poor Clares to the site, and they built their own church and buildings. At the dissolution in 1539, the nuns' buildings were dismantled and the stone was sold off, and the site became a farm until the 1960s. It's now managed by English Heritage, and it's home to a farmland museum. The Dominicans, they were founded by Saint Dominic in France in 1216, and the order arrives in England 1221, settled in Oxford. This is Blackfriars Hall, part of the universities on the site today, and from Oxford they spread to the main medieval towns. In London, they're established by 1224, Blackfriars Station, very close to the site. Within the next few years, they're at Northampton, York, Shrewsbury, and Exeter. Now the Carmelites, known as the Whitefriars from their white habit, they began as hermits on Mount Carmel in Palestine, and they were sponsored to come to England by a crusader, Richard de Grey of Codner Castle in Derbyshire, and he gave them some land that he owned in Kent, and a priory was established at Aylesford, which is near Maidstone. They're established about 1242. Now initially, they still pursue their hermit ideals, but around about 1260, their then prior general, Simon Stock, called a general chapter, and they decided that they would abandon the isolated hermit lifestyle in favour of the communal life of mendicant friars. Aylesford was dissolved in 1538, but restored to the order in 1949, and there were other groups established at Holme Priory, Annick in Northumbria, you can see the remains in Holme Park, and at in Norfolk, where a gatehouse remains, although in ruins, and there were one or two other establishments. The Augustinian Friars, or Austin Friars, they were founded by Pope Alexander IV in 1256. They followed the rule of Augustine of Hippo, a very simple rule that was written down around about the year 400. And they mixed some of the principles of preaching, while retaining part of the spiritual traditions of hermits. And their first foundation was at Clare in Suffolk in 1248. Again, the remaining buildings were restored to the order in 1953. Most towns and cities acquired at least one friary, and some of the larger towns, York and Norwich, they had houses of all groups, the Dominicans, the Franciscans, the Augustinians, the Carmelites, they were all represented. A Dominican friary in Derby was established round about 1230 by the Bishop of Litchfield and Coventry. It attracted quite a lot of patronage. Henry III, Edward I, Edward II were all patrons of Derby Friary. And generally, there were around 30 friars. Under threat of dissolution, they begin to disperse, so when the end comes in 1539, there were only six friars remaining. The Friary Hotel is on the site today, and there's an old wall at the back that may have fragments of the friary, and a tile was found that probably comes from Derby Friary. It was found very nearby, and of course, the street name Friargate recalls their presence there. The Franciscan friars came to Litchfield in 1237. They were dissolved in 1538. Most of the friary was demolished. This is an artist's impression of what the site would have looked like. The bishop's lodging survived, incorporated into the Friary Girls' School, and then part of Litchfield Library for many years. Now, there's an archaeological dig on the site of the Friary Church, and the dig revealed the extent and the layout of the friary. It's now a scheduled ancient monument, but it's turned into a public garden. A little bit of the north wall of the nave of the Friary Church remains, and where the cloisters were has been marked out. The classical style portico was not part of the friary. It came from Shenston Corp, just to make an entrance to the public gardens in the 1930s. Now, next time, we're going to take a closer look at the most important monastic building, the church. 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.