The Religious Orders in England

Dom David Knowles surveys the monastic life and activities in the early Tudor period.

Dom David Knowles (Author)

9780521295680, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 27 September 1979

540 pages
22.8 x 15.2 x 3 cm, 0.833 kg

This volume opens with a survey of monastic life and activities in the early Tudor period, which throws new light on the fortunes of the Cistercian abbeys and on the influence upon the monks of the new humanist education. Chapters are devoted to Bishop Redman's visitations of the white canons, to the rural pursuits of Prior More of Worcester, to the friars ranged for and against the New Learning, and to the Carthusians; there are also a number of character sketches of notable abbots and others. There follows a review of the changing religious climate: of Wolsey's attempts at reform, of the all-perspective influence of Erasmus and of the career of Elizabeth Barton. The economic state of the monasteries is discussed as a prelude to the sombre story of the Suppression, illuminated by rare gleams of heroism. The fate and after-careers of the religious are treated in full from the record sources; there are chapters on the aftermath in Mary's reign and the linking with modern Benedictines, and an epilogue looks back over six centuries of English monasticism.

Preface
List of abbreviations
Part I. The Tudor Scene: 1. The reign of Henry VII
2. Some monastic activities
3. The Cistercians
4. The Premonstratensians
5. The friars in the early sixteenth century
6. Sixteenth-century visitations
7. Monastic personalities
8. Humanism at Evesham
9. William More, prior of Worcester, 1518–36
10. Butley and Durham
Part II. The Gathering Storm: 11. Erasmus
12. Reform and suppression under Wolsey
13. European precedents
14. Acceptance of the royal supremacy
15. Elizabeth Barton
Part III. Suppression and Dissolution: 16. Before the dissolution
17. The end of the Observants
18. Syon
19. The London Charterhouse and its sister houses
20. The economy of the monasteries in 1535
21. Servants, almsgiving and corrodians
22. The visitation of 1535–6
23. The Act of Suppression and the case for the defence
24. The dissolution of the lesser houses
25. The Northern Rising
26. The last phase
27. The attack on the greater houses
28. The suppression of the friars
29. The cankered hearts
30. The transformation of the buildings
31. The new cathedrals and colleges
32. The disposal of the lands
33. The treatment of the dispossessed
Part IV. Reaction and Survival: 34. The Marian restoration
35. The old and the new
36. Epilogue
Appendices
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], British & Irish history [HBJD1]