Monasticism Flashcards
All 17 cards in this deck
Which language replaced English for royal writs after the Norman Conquest?
Latin. Before 1066 writs were often written in English; under the Normans official documents were written in Latin, while the ruling elite spoke Norman French.
Which monastic rule did the Normans reinforce in English monasteries?
The Rule of St Benedict, demanding poverty, chastity and obedience.
Which new monastic order did the Normans introduce to England, known for strict and elaborate services?
The Cluniacs, whose first English house was Lewes Priory, founded by William de Warenne.
Who founded Lewes Priory, and when?
William de Warenne, who persuaded the Cluniacs to set up a priory near his castle at Lewes between 1078 and 1082.
Give one religious reason Norman lords founded monasteries and priories.
The monks' prayers and masses would save the founder's soul and atone for the killing of the Conquest; he could also be buried there.
Give one political reason the Normans built monasteries and priories.
Castle, town and priory together showed Norman military power and spiritual authority, so rebels were defying God as well as an army.
How did Lanfranc change the daily life of monks in England?
He made it stricter and more pious, with a set routine of services under his Monastic Constitutions, bringing English houses up to European standards.
True or false? All English monks accepted Lanfranc's monastic reforms without objection.
False. Some resisted: at Glastonbury in 1083 monks who refused a new Norman style of chanting were attacked by the abbot's soldiers, and the changes were enforced.
Where did education increasingly take place after the Norman monastic reforms?
In grammar schools, for example at Northampton, Exeter, Lincoln and Oxford.
What was taught in Norman grammar schools, and to whom?
Latin grammar, writing and speaking Latin, to boys from about age 10 for around four years.
Which subjects did the Church-controlled schools teach, and why?
Latin, music, mathematics and law — to train priests and monks, provide music for services and work out the church calendar.
What was Anglo-Norman?
The language of the upper classes: Norman-French that gradually absorbed Anglo-Saxon words. Peasants still spoke English.
How did William I change who ran England's monasteries?
As English abbots died or were removed, he replaced them with Normans, such as Lanfranc's nephew Paul of Caen at St Albans (1077). Most ordinary monks stayed English.
Who were the Augustinian canons?
Priests who lived together in a community under the Rule of St Augustine rather than the Rule of St Benedict. Their first houses in England appeared around 1100.
What work did monastic scribes do?
They copied books by hand, such as Bibles and service books, in the monastery's writing room (scriptorium), and wrote records such as chronicles.
Which major text did English monks keep writing in Old English after 1066?
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a record of events kept year by year. Monks went on adding to it in English, even though royal documents had switched to Latin.
Who received an education in Norman England?
Only a small minority, mainly sons of wealthy families taught by monks or clergy, many of them training to be monks or royal clerks. Almost all peasants could not read.