Monastic Reading at Thorney Arbey, 1323-1347

MONASTIC READING AT THORNEY ARREY, 1323-1347 By RICHARD SHARPE The only records to survive from the annual Lenten distribution of books in English Benedictine abbeys are four years' notes from Thorney abbey.1 Although not from consecutive years, all date from the period 1324 to 1330, during the early part of the abbacy of Reynold of Water Newton (1323-47). In the last years of his tenure the monks of Thorney were found to be reading material of a less pious character: two visitations discovered that a scandalous book was circulating among them during the years 1345 to 1347. Like the survival of the Lenten distribution records, this story is unique among English monastic archives. These sources provide two distinct , yet complementary, glimpses of the reading culture at Thorney in the time of Abbot Reynold, which are discussed in turn below. The two episodes interact to a small degree. Some of the monks named in the visitation records can be identified among those whose monastic reading is documented by the records of the distribution of books. These, however, are very difficult to understand, since many of the monks had the same name and the records do not use surnames; instead numbers are assigned to monks of the same name, and these must be interpreted by forming a sense of the order of seniority in which the names are written down. The only source that supplies surnames for a significant proportion of the monks in this period is a report of the election of a new abbot to succeed Reynold of Water Newton, which names the prior and thirty monks in priest's orders as well as two professed monks who at the time were deacon and subdeacon. This list not only adds surnames for many of the monks named more intimately in the records of the distribution of books; it also shows that the successful candidate was the only monk in this period who incepted as doctor in a university. There is also a link with the visitation records, for the unsuccessful candidate in that election was one of those who handled the scandalous book. It will become clear that most of the monks were not at all studious readers , and the provision of books was hardly more than enough to meet limited needs. The expectation in the Benedictine Rule that every monk should 1 I am grateful to those friends who have read over this paper for me. Dr. Bruce BarkerBenfield checked my reading of the distribution lists using the videospectral comparator. Dr. Joan Greatrex and Miss Barbara Harvey shared their unrivaled knowledge of English Benedictine records. 244TRADITIO read a book during Lent was followed, though strict attendance at the annual distribution was not enforced, and monks did not always relinquish the book at the end of the year. I. The Lenten Distribution of Books 1324-30 The Lenten distribution of books is as ancient as the monastic order, embedded in the Rule of St. Benedict himself.2 W7hile monastic customs that elaborate on the local traditions for living by the Rule rarely say much about the duties of the library-keeper, one duty frequently mentioned is the need to record which book each monk has received as his reading matter for the year. Such records rarely survive.3 Those from Thorney presented here are unique in an English context. The only real comparison is with two lists from Cluny, two hundred years apart, which list the names of monks and the book each took.4 The Thorney lists are to my knowledge wholly unique 2 Regula S. Benedicti, 48.14-16 (ed. R. Hanslik, CSEL 75, 2nd ed. [Vienna, 1977], 117). This requires monks to spend some time reading each day during Lent, "in quibus diebus quadragesimae accipiant omnes singulos codices de bibliotheea, quos per ordinem ex integro legant; qui codices in caput quadragesimae dandi sunt." This distribution was referred to by different words in different houses; electio, ostensio, and demonstratio are all used by English Benedictine abbeys. 3 Other borrowing records are not in the same category. Examples include the secondary record of twelve books on loan to a monk, "Nomina librorum pro quibus scribor in...