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Life in a Medieval Monastery |
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Life in a Medieval Monastery |
INTRODUCTION
The word "monastery" is derived from the Greek monos, meaning alone. Christian monasticism is generally regarded as a way of life involving persons living in seclusion from the world, under religious vows and subject to a fixed rule. Medieval monasticism had its roots in two distinct types of ascetic life practiced by Christians in early fourth century Egypt. The first type was the eremetical life of the desert hermits, whose most famous practitioner was St. Anthony. The other type was the cenobitical life of monks who lived together in organized communities, whose founder was said to be St. Pachomius. The monastic traditions of Egypt began to be known in the West beginning in the late fourth century, as literature about the lives of the desert fathers was disseminated, and individual monks traveled to and settled in Europe.
During the fifth and sixth centuries, monasteries were founded in Italy, Gaul, Spain, and Ireland. In Gaul, and later, England, double monasteries were common. These were establishments of monks and nuns who lived in separate quarters under the direction of an abbess. During this early stage of monastic development, there was no generally accepted rule that governed monastic life. In the West there were translations of various Eastern codes, such as the Rules of Pachomius and Basil. Another influential rule was St. Augustine's famous letter on the management of convents of nuns. However, there was nothing that could be called a working code for the management of a monastery. This changed in the eighth century with the widespread adoption of the Rule of St. Benedict.
Benedict of Nursia was born near Spoleto, Italy, around the year 480. As a young man he lived as a hermit near the town of Subiaco, and his reputation for holiness was such that the monks of a nearby monastery asked him to become their abbot. Benedict's first attempt at communal monastic living cannot be considered a success, since his fellow monks resented his strict rules and tried to poison him! He returned to Subiaco, and eventually founded his own monastery at Montecassino.
It was at Montecassino that Benedict composed his Rule for living in monastic communities. He envisioned the monastery as a reclusive and self-sufficient community, directed by an elected abbot. To lessen dependence on the secular word, the Rule decreed that everything essential for life, such as water, mills, gardens, and workshops, be found within the monastery walls. The church was always the most prominent building, and other buildings contained large rooms such as refectories and dormitories that reflected the group nature of monastic living. Benedict's Rule emphasized the value of communal religious life, and outlined how a monk's day was to be filled with prayer, manual labor and spiritual reading.
A monk's day began with the ringing of bells, some time between midnight and two a.m., signaling the first prayers of the day. After a short nap, prayers were again held at sunrise, and then at three-hour intervals throughout the day. Communal prayers averaged about five hours per day, while private prayer and contemplation could take up to four more hours. Meals were served once a day in winter, twice in summer, with meat forbidden except in case of illness. Monks were required to be silent while eating, and developed a sign language to communicate. At least three hours per day were spent in manual labor, with remaining hours not spent in prayer devoted to study, especially of Latin, and sacred reading.
During the medieval period, monasteries were the centers of knowledge and education. They maintained schools and libraries, and were responsible for copying manuscripts. And although monasteries were founded with the idea of withdrawal from monastic life, they became a major force in the secular world of agriculture and government. They generally were founded by wealthy feudal lords, who then appointed their sons and daughters abbots and abbesses. (Monasteries were a convenient place to send second sons, who might become overly ambitious and seek to displace the oldest son in feudal succession. They were also useful refuges for daughters unable to find noble husbands.) Many monasteries became wealthy estates, with large land holdings that employed thousands of workers. Thus, the abbot or abbess of a large monastery could wield great secular power.
By the eleventh century, there began to be widespread dissatisfaction with the wealth and power the monasteries possessed. Several new monastic orders arose, inspired by the lives of the desert fathers and the Apostolic brotherhood, as well as the Benedictine rule itself. They sought a simpler form of religious life, with less dependence on the rents, serfs, and churches that provided income for the large monastic estates. The Carthusian and Cistercian Orders were the most prominent movements to arise from this reform.
The age of great monastic endowments was over by the end of the thirteenth century. In
many Benedictine monasteries numbers declined, in part because of the end of the practice
of donating children to be brought up as monks. Alternative forms of religious life, such
as that of the friars, began to proliferate. Also, many monasteries, especially in
Germany, refused to accept postulants that were not of noble birth, drastically limiting
the number of potential recruits. In the latter part of the Middle Ages, a more relaxed
form of Benedictine life was adopted and was acknowledged as valid by Pope Benedict XII in
1336. The age of Luther and the Reformation caused a precipitous decline in monastic
vocations, and it wasn't until the reform movements of the nineteenth century that
monastic life began its revival.
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SOURCES
Cantor, Norman F. The Medieval World 300-1300. New York: Macmillan, 1968
The Middle Ages: a concise encyclopedia. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1989
New Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1967
What Life Was Like in the Age of Chivalry. Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, 1997
SELECTED BOOKS
Monasticism in the Middle Ages
France, James. The Cistercians in medieval art. Kalamazoo, Mich. : Cistercian Publications, 1998. (BX3409 C497 no.170)
Elder, E. Rozanne. The New monastery : texts and studies on the earliest Cistercians. Spencer, Mass. : Cistercian Publications, 1998. (BX3415 C497 no.60)
Herman of Tournai. The restoration of the Monastery of Saint Martin of Tournai. Washington, D.C. : Catholic University of America Press, c1996. (BX2612.T6 H4713)
Logan, F. Donald. Runaway religious in medieval England, c. 1240-1540. New York : Cambridge University Press, 1996. (BX2592 L64)
Burton, Janet E. Monastic and religious orders in Britain, 1000-1300. New York Cambridge University Press, 1994. (BX2592 .B86)
Milis, Ludovicus. Angelic monks and earthly men : monasticism and its meaning to medieval society. Rochester, NY: Boydell Press, 1992. (BX2470 .M52)
King, James Cecil. The culture of the Abbey of St. Gall : an overview. Stuttgart : Belser, 1991. (NX663.S9 K8413)
Grégoire, Réginald. The monastic realm. New York : Rizzoli, 1985. (BX2470 .G7413)
Lawrence, C. H. Medieval monasticism : forms of religious life in western Europe in the Middle Ages. New York : Longman, 1984. (BX2470 .L435)
Bishko, Charles Julian. Spanish and Portuguese monastic history 600-1300. London : Variorum Reprints, 1984. (BX2654 .B541)
Guibert. Self and society in Medieval France : the memoirs of Abbot Guibert of Nogent. Buffalo : University of Toronto Press, 1984. (BX4705.G85 A33)
Moorman, John R. H. Medieval Franciscan houses. St. Bonaventure University, 1983. (BX3606.2 .M788)
Bolton, Brenda. The medieval reformation. London : Edward Arnold, 1983. (BX2470 .B639)
Panagopoulos, Beata. Cistercian and mendicant monasteries in medieval Greece. Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1979. (BQT5928.P3)
Butler, Lionel Harry. Medieval monasteries of Great Britain. London : Joseph, 1979. (BX2592 .B977)
Zarnecki, George. The monastic achievement. New York, McGraw-Hill <1972>. (BQX 6808 Z37)
Hunter Blair, Peter. The world of Bede. New York, St. Martin's Press <1971, c1970>. (BR67.B4 Z5, H86)
Jocelin de Brakelond. The chronicle of Jocelin of Brakelond, monk of St. Edmundsbury. New York, Cooper Square Publishers, 1966. (DA690.B97 J6)
Leclercq, Jean. The history of medieval spirituality. 1960. (BV5082.2 .L42)
Swartwout, Robert Egerton. The monastic craftsman, an inquiry into the services of monks to art in Britain and in Europe north of the Alps during the middle ages. Cambridge <Eng.> W. Heffer and Sons, ltd., 1932. (N5970 .S8)
Fuhrmann, Joseph. Irish medieval monasteries on the continent. Washington, 1927. (BQX2210 .F8)
Monasticism for Women in the Middle Ages
Makowski, Elizabeth M. Canon law and cloistered women : Periculoso and its commentators, 1298-1545. Washington, D.C. : Catholic University of America Press, c1997. (BQV230 487 .M34)
Venarde, Bruce L. Women's monasticism and medieval society : nunneries in France and England, 890-1215. Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 1997. (BX4220.E85 V46)
Schmitt, Miriam. Medieval women monastics : wisdom's wellsprings. Collegeville, Minn. : Liturgical Press, 1996. (BX4200 .M43)
Bell, David N. What nuns read : books and libraries in medieval English nunneries. Kalamazoo, MI : Cistercian Publications, 1995. (BX3409 .C497)
Gilchrist, Roberta. Religious women in medieval East Anglia : history and
archaeology c1100-1540. University of
East Anglia ; 1993. (BX4220.G7 G55)
Johnson, Penelope D. Equal in monastic profession : religious women in Medieval France. Chicago : University of Chicago Press, c1991. (BX4220.F8 J64)
Holloway, Julia. Equally in God's image : women in the Middle Ages. New York : P. Lang, c1990. (HQ1143 .E68)
Thompson, Sally. Women religious : the founding of English nunneries after the Norman Conquest. New York : Oxford University Press, 1991. (BX2592 .T56)
Elkins, Sharon K. Holy women of twelfth-century England. Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, c1988. (BX4220.G7 E45)
Nichols, John A Medieval religious women. Kalamazoo, Mich. : Cistercian Publications, 1984. (BX4210.M345)
Maycock, Alan. Saint Mary's Abbey. Kent: St. Mary's Abbey, c1953. (BX4631.M3)
VIDEOS
The Medieval monastery a photographic essay. University of Toronto for the Centre for Medieval Studies: 1979. (ACV4 .M4243)
JOURNALS
Bulletin of medieval canon law
Cahiers de civilisation médiévale
Medieval philosophy & theology
Journal of medieval and Renaissance studies
Medieval archaeology
Mediaeval studies
Medievalia et humanistica
Le Moyen âge
Nuovi studi medievali
Patristica et mediaevalia
Recherches de théologie et philosophie médiévales
Speculum
Traditio
WEB SITES
The Catholic Encyclopedia: Monasticism
The Catholic Encyclopedia: The
Rule of St. Benedict
http://www.knight.org/advent/cathen/02436a.htm
Medieval Architecture:
Abbies and Monasteries
http://www.netserf.org/Architecture/Abbeys_Monasteries/
Medieval People:
Religious Figures
http://www.netserf.org/People/Religious/
Medieval Religion: Holy
Orders
http://www.netserf.org/Religion/Religious_Orders/
Last updated February 2005
http://www.mtangel.edu/library/subject/monastic.htm