THE MONASTIC PHASE OF THE CHURCH.
We have seen how the bishops who introduced the Christian Faith into the
heptarchic kingdoms established themselves and their clergy as religious
communities, on the lands, and with the means which the kings gave them,
built their churches and schools, and made them the centres of their
evangelizing work. The next stage in the work was the multiplication of
similar centres. The princes and ealdormen who were in subordinate
authority over subdivisions of a kingdom would have two motives for
desiring to have such establishments beside them. First they had very
likely in some cases been the patrons of a temple or an idol, and a
priest, near their principal residence, and would desire to maintain their
influence over their dependents and neighbours by keeping up a similar
place of religious worship for them. Secondly, as enlightened men and
zealous converts, they would be glad to have near them some of these new
teachers of religion and civilization, and to establish one of these
centres of light and leading to the neighbouring country. The bishops also
obtained grants of land from the king in suitable places, in order to
found on them new centres of evangelization.
Thus in Kent, Ethelbert founded the monastery of SS. Peter and Paul, which
is better known to us as St. Augustine’s (A.D. 603), and his son Eadbald
founded an offshoot from it at Dover (630). In 633 the latter king founded
a nunnery at Folkestone as a provision for his daughter Eanswitha, who
became its first abbess. And when, in the same year, his sister Ethelburga
arrived as a refugee from Northumbria, he made provision for her by the
gift of an estate at Lyminge, where the widowed queen founded a monastery.
On the death of Earconbert, 664, Sexburga, his widow, built for herself a
nunnery in the Isle of Sheppy. Sexburga was succeeded at Sheppy by her
daughter Eormenhilda, and she by her daughter Werburga. Eormenburga,
granddaughter of King Eadbald, built a nunnery, of which she was the first
abbess, in the Isle of Thanet; and was succeeded by her daughter St.
Mildred. Lastly, King Egbert, in 669, gave Reculver to his mass-priest,
Bass, that he might build a minster thereon.
In Northumbria, King Edwin built a church at York. Oswald gave Aidan the
Isle of Lindisfarne as the site of a religious house to be a centre of
missionary work in Northumbria. Aidan encouraged Hieu, the first nun of
the Northumbrian race, to organize a small nunnery on the north bank of
the Wear, and to remove thence to Hartlepool; there she was succeeded by
Hilda, the grand-niece of King Edwin, who subsequently removed to Whitby.
Besides organizing that famous double house, Hilda founded Hackness and
several other cells on estates of the abbey. The nunnery at Coldingham was
founded by Ebba, sister of King Oswald, who was herself the first abbess.
King Oswy, on the eve of battle with Penda (655), vowed, in case of
victory, to dedicate his infant daughter Elfleda to God, and to give
twelve estates to build monasteries. In fulfilment of his vow, he gave
Elfleda into the charge of Hilda, at Hartlepool (655), and gave six
estates in Bernicia and six in Deira, each of ten families (= hides of
land), of which probably Whitby was one, and perhaps Ripon and Hexham were
others. Benedict Biscop, a man of noble if not royal descent, received
grants of land from King Egfrid to found his famous monastery at Wearmouth
in 674, and eleven years later (685) at Jarrow. King Oswy built a
monastery at Gilling to atone for the crime of the slaughter of his
brother there (642), that prayer might be daily offered up for the souls
of both the slain and the slayer. King Ethelwald, son of Oswald and
sub-king of Deira, gave Bishop Cedd of the East Saxons a site for a
monastery at Lastingham, Yorkshire, that he might himself sometimes resort
to it for prayer, and might be buried there. Cedd left the monastery, on
his death, to his brother Chadd, afterwards Bishop of Lichfield.
Wulfhere, King of Mercia, gave Chadd fifty hides of land for the endowment
of his abbey at Barton-on-Humber.
In the fen country of the Girvii, between Mercia and East Anglia, the two
kings, Peada of Mercia, and Oswy of the East Angles, concurred in the
foundation of a monastery at Medeshamsted (Peterborough, 655), and this
was followed by the foundation of Croyland (716) and Thorney (682). When
Etheldreda, the daughter of Anna, King of the East Angles, and virgin wife
of Egfrid of Northumbria, at length obtained her husband’s leave to enter
upon the religious life, she built herself a double monastery on her own
estate in the Isle of Ely (673). On her death, she was succeeded as abbess
by her sisters Sexburga, Eormenhilda and Werburga, each of whom had
previously been abbesses at Sheppy.
Among the West Saxons, a small community of Irish monks, at Malmesbury
(675), was enlarged by Aldhelm, a man of royal extraction, into a great
centre of religion and learning; and he and Bishop Daniel founded a number
of small monasteries, as Nutcelle (700) and Bradfield, up and down that
kingdom.[26]
[Illustration: Saxon Church at Bradford-on-Avon. (Probably one of Bishop
Aldhelm’s churches.)]
The four priests whom Peada, the son of Penda, on his conversion, took
back with him from Northumbria to his Princedom of the Middle Angles,
lived together in community for some years, till, by the death of Penda,
his son attained the Kingship of Mercia, and then Diuma was consecrated
Bishop of the Mercians, and established his see at Lichfield. Earconwald
(who was afterwards Bishop of London, 674), a man of noble birth, built a
monastery for himself at Chertsey in Surrey, and a nunnery at Barking in
Essex, for his sister Ethelberga. “The vales of Worcestershire and
Gloucestershire were famous for the multitude and grandeur of their
monastic institutions.” A monastic cell is said to have been founded at
Tewkesbury in 675, and one at Deerhurst, by Ethelmund the ealdorman, at a
still earlier date. Osric, the Prince of Wiccii, was probably the founder
of St. Peter’s Nunnery, Gloucester, and of Bath Abbey. Apparently his
brother Oswald founded Pershore Abbey; and their sister Cyneburga was the
first Abbess of Gloucester. Saxulph, Bishop of Lichfield, founded a little
religious house of St. Peter, at Worcester, which became the see of the
first Bishop of Worcester, when that diocese was founded by Archbishop
Theodore (680). Egwine, Bishop of Worcester, founded a monastery at
Evesham (702), and laying down his bishopric, retired thither to spend the
remainder of his life as its abbot.[27]
* * * * *
The following names will nearly complete the list of religious houses up
to the end of the eighth century: Abingdon, 675; Acle, seventh century;
Amesbury, 600; Bardney, seventh century; Bedrichsworth (St. Edmunds), 630;
Bosham, 681; Bredon, 761; Caistor, 650; Carlisle, 686; Clive, 790;
Cnobheresbury (Burgh Castle), 637; Congresbury, 474; Dacor, seventh
century; Derauuda, 714; Dereham, 650; Finchale, seventh century; Fladbury,
691; Gateshead, seventh century; Glastonbury, fifth century; Ikanho
(Boston), 654; Ithanacester, 630; Kempsey, 799; Kidderminster, 736;
Leominster, 660; Oundle, 711; Oxford St. Frideswide, 735; Partney, seventh
century; Petrocstow, sixth century; Peykirk, eighth century; Redbridge,
Hants. (Hreutford), 680; Repton, 660; Rochester, 600; St. Albans, 793;
York St. Mary’s, 732; Selsey, 681; Sherborne, 671; Stamford, 658; Stone,
Staff., 670; Stratford-on-Avon, 703; Tetbury, 680; Tilbury, 630; Tinmouth,
633; Walton, Yorks., 686; Wedon, 680; Wenloch, 680; Westminster, 604;
Wilton, 773; Wimborne, 713; Winchcombe, 787; Winchester, 646; Withington,
seventh century.[28]
The fashion of founding religious houses spread among the smaller
landowners, and some begged land of the king on which to found them.
* * * * *
Some of these religious houses were great and solemn monasteries, like
those of Italy and France, with noble churches and frequent services; and
their inmates lived a secluded life, devoted to learning, meditation, and
prayer. St. Augustine’s monastery at Canterbury was the earliest of them.
Benedict Biscop’s monasteries at Wearmouth and Jarrow, and Wilfrid’s at
Ripon and Hexham, and others, were of this type.
The life of these greater monasteries was led according to a strict and
ascetic rule. St. Augustine would certainly adopt at Canterbury the rule
which his master, Gregory, had drawn up for his own house of St. Andrew on
the Cœlian Hill. Benedict Biscop built his houses and framed his rule
after repeated visits to Italy and France and a careful study of the most
famous of their religious communities; Wilfrid would certainly introduce a
similar rule into the monasteries over which he presided; these would
follow the main lines of the Benedictine rule; though that, in its
entirety, was not introduced till the reformation of the monasteries in
the time of King Egbert and Archbishop Dunstan. The monastery at
Lindisfarne would naturally follow the customs of Iona and the less rigid
life of the Scottish religious houses; and is to be regarded rather as a
citadel of Christian learning, and a centre of evangelization, than as a
place devoted to seclusion and contemplation. The other religious houses
which owed their existence to the missionaries from Lindisfarne would be
likely to follow its customs.
Some of the smaller religious houses were conducted on the same lines of
strict ascetic discipline as the greater monasteries; but in many of them
the life was little more “regular” or ascetic than that of an ordinary
household--say that of a church dignitary--scrupulous in the attendance of
all its members at the daily services in the oratory, and in the strict
decorum of their daily life. This opened an easy door to abuse, and in a
short time the discipline of many of the monasteries had become very lax.
One remarkable feature of these early monasteries is that many of them
were hereditary properties, and the rule over them often descended from
father to son and from mother to daughter. We have seen the successions in
the Kentish monasteries and at Ely from sister to sister and from mother
to daughter. Cedd bequeathed his monastery of Lastingham to his brother
Chad. Benedict Biscop saw the danger of the custom, and declared that he
would not transfer his monasteries to his own brother unless he was a fit
person to be abbot. Whitgils built a small church and monastery at
Spurnhead in Holderness, and left them to his heirs; they came at last, by
legitimate succession, to no less distinguished a person than Alcuin; who
was, therefore, not only Abbot of Tours, with its vast territory on which
there were 200,000 serfs, but also of this little monastery in his native
country. Hedda, who styles himself mass-priest, in 790 bequeathed his
patrimonial inheritance, consisting of two large parcels of land, with a
minster on one of them, limiting the succession of the latter to clergymen
of his family considered capable of ruling a minster according to
ecclesiastical law, and in default of such heir, it was to go to Worcester
Cathedral, where he had been bred and schooled (“Cod. Dipl.,” i.
206).[29]
It is easy to understand how it was that in process of time many of these
semi-secular religious houses passed easily into the status of parochial
rectories; and, on the other hand, how a rectory, which often had a number
of chaplains and clerks to assist the rector in ministering to the mother
church and its outlying chapels, came to be called a “minster.”
In the Danish invasions and occupations, most of these religious houses
were plundered and ruined, the greater houses were not at once reoccupied
on the restoration of order, and most of the smaller houses disappeared.
In the course of the revival of religion in the reign of Edgar under the
influence of Dunstan, it was the boast of the king and his ecclesiastical
advisers that they had restored not less than forty of the old
monasteries, and brought them to the discipline of the Benedictine rule. A
few monasteries were restored or founded after that time, notably by
Canute at Bury St. Edmunds, and at Hulme in Norfolk, and by Edward the
Confessor at Westminster; but at the time of the Conquest there were
probably not more than about fifty monasteries in the country of any
account; and in the latter part of the period the monastic zeal of
Dunstan’s revival had cooled down to a level of average religiousness.