The English Benedictine Cathedral Priories: Rule and Practice, c.1270–c.1420 by Joan Greatrex (review)

Joan Greatrex is known for her meticulously assembled Biographical Register of English Cathedral Priories … c. 1066–1540 (New York, 1997), the result of regular visits and many hours of study in archives of the former priories. In addition, there are numerous articles about monks in particular houses—Ely, Norwich, Rochester, Winchester, and Worcester, shedding light on aspects of monastic life there. The author describes the present work as a “supplement” to the Register, where a fuller picture of monastic life might be obtained by the use of material from a group of houses, making up for the lack of evidence in some places. The priories concerned are Bath, Canterbury, Coventry, Durham, Ely, Norwich, Rochester, Winchester, and Worcester. Although there is some information for all the houses, there is most for Canterbury, Durham, and Norwich, followed by Ely, Winchester, Worcester, and Rochester. There is very little from Bath and Coventry. The chosen period is c. 1270 to c.1420.

The scheme is to show life in the monastery from the noviciate to death. The life of obedientiaries is considered under the title “Years of Maturity” and the observance in church under “The Rhythm of the Liturgical Year,” including fasts, feasts, and “recreation.” The infirmary follows, with sickness, death, and death notices. The study of the noviciate is especially useful, with its discussion of texts to be read. There are two appendices, on the study of grammar and monastic reading of historical works, in which some of the texts bundled together in library catalogs are elucidated. The importance of the precentor as librarian is emphasized, in addition to his already extensive work in ordering the worship of the choir. Issues pertaining to monks at Oxford and Cambridge are included, even the matter of “student funding.”

There is an introduction in which the reader is urged to judge the Benedictines of the fourteenth century on their own merits and in the light of the Rule as they saw it, not as against their twelfth-century predecessors. The problems of life with the bishop as abbot are discussed, including the advantages of the bishop’s frequent absences on the perambulation of his diocese. A section on “Cathedrals in a Monastic Precinct” shows plans of Canterbury, Durham, Worcester, Norwich, Rochester, and Ely. It would have been useful to include a version of John Crook’s plan for Winchester, especially as so much building was lost there. The author makes the point that the layout of cathedral priories hardly differed from that of major Benedictine abbeys, except, of course, for the presence of the bishop’s palace.

The “conclusion” chapter makes for sad reading. Calls for reform were not heeded, so that the “common life” became too much eroded in private cells, possessions, and pocket money. Her considered view is that the monks in the cathedral priories and other monastic houses in England were afflicted by a form of accidia in the two centuries before dissolution. Accidia is usually translated “sloth,” but sometimes is rendered as “restlessness, inability either to work or to pray,” or perhaps “lack of application.” She allows that the claustrales (those not holding office) may not have been so afflicted, but they do not generally appear in the records. This seems a harsh judgment, although since Greatrex knows the monks so much better than most scholars, it is hard to refute. She finds hope in some increased figures for the noviciate in Canterbury, Durham, and Worcester c. 1530, suggesting some aspirants still desired a monastic life.

As a companion to the Biographical Register, this book deserves its place on a library shelf. It can be read throughout, but in many cases it will be consulted for specific details such as dates of admission and ordination or the regulations of the infirmary. The pages on grammar, the reading of history, and the studies of young monks are of great...