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Monasteries and Society in the British Isles in the Later Middle Ages

Monasteries and Society in the British Isles in the Later Middle Ages 

Edited by Janet Burton and Karen Stober

Boydell Press, 2008

ISBN: 9781843833864

In recent years there has been an increasing interest in the history of the numerous houses of monks, canons and nuns which existed in the medieval British Isles, considering them in their wider socio-cultural-economic context; historians are now questioning some of the older assumptions about monastic life in the later Middle Ages, and setting new approaches and new agenda. The present volume reflects these new trends. Its fifteen chapters assess diverse aspects of monastic history, focusing on the wide range of contacts which existed between religious communities and the laity in the later medieval British Isles, covering a range of different religious orders and houses. This period has often been considered to represent a general decline of the regular life; but on the contrary, the essays here demonstrate that there remained a rich monastic culture which, although different from that of earlier centuries, remained vibrant.

Contents

The Social Networks of Late Medieval Welsh Monasteries, by  Karen Stober 

Cistercian Hospitality in the Later Middle Ages, by  Julie Kerr

Cistercians and Border Conflicts: Some Comparisons between the Experiences of Scotland and Pomerania, by Emilia Jamroziak

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`Not a Thing for a Stranger to Enter Upon’: the Selection of Monastic Superiors in Late Medieval and Tudor England, by  Martin Heale \

Patronage, Prestige and Politics: the Observant Franciscans at Adare, by Colman O Clabaigh

The Augustinian Priory of Wombridge and its Benefactors in the Later Middle Ages, by Andrew Abram

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The Rising Price of Piety in the Later Middle Ages, by Michael Hicks

Looking for Medieval Nuns, by Janet Burton

Quhat say ye now, my lady priores: How have ye usit your office, can ye ges?: Politics, Power and Realities of the Office of a Prioress in her Community in Late Medieval Scotland, by Kimm Curran

Monasteries and Secular Education in Late Medieval England, by James G. Clark

`Make Straight in the Desert a Highway for our God’: the Carthusians and Community in Late Medieval England, by Glyn Coppack

Early Franciscan Legislation and Lay Society, by Jens U. Rohrkasten

The Austin Friars in Late Medieval Canterbury: Negotiating Spaces, by Sheila Sweetinburgh

Monasteries in Medieval Cornwall: Mediocrity or Merit?, by Nicholas Orme

Monasteries and Society in Sixteenth-Century Yorkshire: the Last Years of Roche Abbey, by Claire Cross

Read a review by Rachel Bellerby

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