monasticism without frontiers: the extended monastic community of the abbot of cluny in england ...

361 Pages·2017·13.42 MB·English

by  Janet Burton

MONASTICISM WITHOUT FRONTIERS:
THE EXTENDED MONASTIC COMMUNITY OF THE
ABBOT OF CLUNY IN ENGLAND AND WALES

C. P. PEARCE

Submitted to the University of Wales in fulfilment of the requirements for the

Degree of Doctor of Philosophy

University of Wales, Trinity Saint David

2017
Table of Contents

Abstract .................................................................................................... iii
Acknowledgements ................................................................................... iv
Abbreviations ............................................................................................ vi
List of figures ......................................................................................... viii
Introduction ................................................................................................. 1
Chapter 1 Foundations ........................................................................... 26
Chapter 2 Cluniac Sites: the dynamics of the choice of location ......... 59
Chapter 3 Administration....................................................................... 86
Chapter 4 Observance .......................................................................... 129
Chapter 5 Construction: the physical setting and environment ........... 152
Chapter 6 Cluniac priories and secular settlement ............................. 183
Chapter 7 Economy ............................................................................. 208
Chapter 8 Relations between the Cluniac Priories and secular
and ecclesiastical authority ................................................................ 245
Conclusion ............................................................................................. 286

Appendix A Cluniac Foundations in England and Wales .................. 298
Appendix B Dependency Relations of Cluniac Priories .................... 299
Appendix C Relative Dates of Foundation of Cluniac Priories .......... 301

Figures .................................................................................................... 302
Bibliography ........................................................................................... 331
Abstract

Cluniac monasteries, so called because of their relationship to the abbot of Cluny in
Burgundy, have been estimated to have numbered over seven hundred foundations at
one time, distributed throughout France and in England, Wales, Scotland, Lombardy,
and Spain. To date Cluniac studies have tended to concentrate on the abbey of Cluny,
undoubtedly the fullest expression of Cluniac monasticism. Much work has been done
on other individual Cluniac foundations but there has been little attempt to place the
resulting information in the context of an organisational relationship between Cluniac
monasteries and the abbot of Cluny, because this relationship is poorly understood.
This thesis redresses this neglect by for the first time providing a model for this
relationship whereby all Cluniac monks are said to have constituted an extended
monastic community under the authority of the abbot of Cluny whose purpose was the
transmission and maintenance of a distinctive monastic observance. This model was
developed from a comprehensive examination of evidence of a variety of types,
viewed from specific perspectives, relating to all the Cluniac foundations in England
and Wales. This shows clear evidence of the involvement of centrally coordinated
Cluniac administration in the regulation of these monasteries from the foundation
process, the selection of their sites and their relationship with secular settlement and
ecclesiastical and secular authority to provide optimal conditions for the following of
a distinctly Cluniac monastic observance by their resident monks. It is argued on the
basis of this model that future Cluniac research will be far more fruitful if it is re-
orientated towards the study of the extended Cluniac monastic community.
Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge the assistance of my supervisors, Professor Janet Burton
and Professor David Austin in the preparation of this thesis. I would also like to
acknowledge the support of my wife Colette
Abbreviations

Annals of Bermondsey Annales Monasterii de Bermundeseia, A.D. 1042–1432,
in Annales Monastici, ed. H. R. Luard, 5 vols (London:
Rolls Series, 1864–69), III, pp. 421–87

CCR Calendar of the Close Rolls preserved in the Public
Record Office AD 1227–1509, ed. H. C. Maxwell Lyte
et al., 61 vols (London, 1902–63)

CFR Calendar of Fine Rolls preserved in the Public Record
Office, 22 vols (London, 1911–62)

Cal. Papal Reg. Calendar of Entries in the Papal Registers relating to
Great
Britain and Ireland, ed. W. H. Bliss et al. (London,
1983– )

CPR Calendar of the Patent Rolls preserved in the Public
Record Office (London, 1891– )

Chartulary of Lewes The Chartulary of the Priory of St Pancras of Lewes,
parts 1 and 2, ed. L. F. Salzman, Sussex Record Society,
38, 40 (Lewes 1933–35)

Chartulary of Pontefract The Chartulary of St John of Pontefract, ed. R. Holmes,
2 vols, Yorkshire Archaeological Society Record Series,
25, 30 (1899–1902)

Cartulary of Daventry The Cartulary of Daventry Priory, ed. M. J. Franklin
(Northampton, 1988)

Domesday Domesday Book, ed. A. Williams and G. H. Martin
(London, 1992)

EYC Early Yorkshire Charters, 12 vols, I–III ed. W. Farrer
(Edinburgh, 1914–16) ; IV–XII ed. C. T. Clay,
Yorkshire Records Society, extra series (1935–65)

LP Henry VIII Calendar of the Letters and Papers, Foreign and
Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII, ed. J. Brewer, J.
Gairdner, and R. Brodie, 22 vols (London, 1864–1932)

Monasticon William Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum, revised edn
by J. Caley, H. Ellis, and B. Bandinel, 6 volumes in 8
(London, 1817–30)
Montacute Cartulary Two cartularies of the Augustinian Priory of Bruton and
the Cluniac Priory of Monacute in the County of
Somerset, Somerset Record Society, 8 (1894)

Pat. Lat. Patrologia Latina Cursus Completus, ed. J. P. Migne,
221 vols (Paris, 1878–90)

Recueil Recueil de chartes et documents de St Martin des
Champs, ed. J. Depoin, 8 vols (Les Archives de la
France Monastique, 1913–21)

Recueil des Chartes Recueil des chartes de L’Abbaye de Cluny, ed. A.
Bernard and A. Bruel, 6 volumes (Paris, 1876–1903)

SAC Sussex Archaeological Collections

Tax. Eccl. Taxatio Ecclesiastica, ed. T. Astle, S. Ayscough, and J.
Caley (London: Record Commission, 1832)

VCH Victoria County History

Valor Ecc. Valor Ecclesiasticus, ed. J. Caley and J. Hunter, 6 vols
(London: Record Commission, 1810–34)
List of figures

Fig. 0.1 Map showing the extent of the distribution of Cluniac foundations in France

Fig. 0.2 Map showing the location of the abbey of Cluny

Fig. 0.3 Map showing the locations of Cluniac foundations in England and Wales

Fig. 2.1 Map showing the relative sites of the priory and castle in Lewes

Fig. 2.2 Map showing the relative positions of the priory and castle at Castle Acre

Fig. 2.3 Map showing the relative locations of the castle, settlement and priory at St
Clears

Fig. 2.4 Map showing the relative locations of the castle, settlement and priory at
Thetford

Fig. 2.5 Map showing the relative locations of the castle, settlement and priory at
Dudley

Fig. 2.6 Aerial photograph showing the island setting of Bromholm Priory surrounded
by relict watercourses

Fig. 5.1 The chancel arch and capitals of St Clears Priory

Fig. 5.2 Ground plan of conventual complex of Bermondsey Priory

Fig. 5.3 Ground plan of conventual complex of Bromholm Priory

Fig. 5.4 Ground plan of conventual complex of Castle Acre Priory

Fig. 5.5 Ground plan of conventual complex of Dudley Priory

Fig. 5.6 Ground plan of conventual complex of Lewes Priory

Fig. 5.7 Ground plan of conventual complex of Mendham Priory revealed by
cropmarks

Fig. 5.8 Ground plan of conventual complex of Monk Bretton Priory

Fig. 5.9 Plan of extant standing remains of Monk Horton Priory

Fig. 5.10 Plan of remains of Monkton Farleigh Priory revealed by excavation

Fig. 5.11 Ground plan of conventual complex of Much Wenlock Priory

Fig. 5.12 Ground plan of conventual complex of Pontefract Priory
Fig. 5.13 Ground plan of conventual complex of Prittlewell Priory

Fig. 5.14 Ground plan of conventual complex of Thetford Priory

Fig. 5.15 Views of architectural elaboration in the chapter house of Bromholm Priory

Fig. 5.16 Views of architectural elaboraton in the chapter house of Much Wenlock
Priory

Fig. 5.17 Antiquarian drawings of architectural elements from Mendham Priory

Fig. 5.18 Ground plan of the second and third abbey churches at Cluny

Fig. 5.19 Ground plan of the church of the priory of La Charite sur Loire

Fig. 5.20 Ground plan of the church of Lenton Priory

Fig. 5.21 Plan showing the evolution of the east end of the priory church of
Bermondsey recovered by excavation

Fig. 5.22 Modifications to the west range at Castle Acre Priory

Fig. 5.23 View of the west front of Castle Acre Priory

Fig. 6.1 Map showing the relative locations of Prittlewell parish church and the priory
site

Fig. 6.2 Map showing the relative location of the castle and settlement of Castle Acre
Priory relative to the permanent position of the priory

Fig. 6.3 Map showing the relative sites of the priory, castle and settlement at
Pontefract (first revision Ordnance Survey 1888–1914)
Introduction

The argument

The year 2010 marked the eleventh hundredth anniversary of the establishment of a monastic
organisation whose foundations numbered over 700 abbeys and priories throughout Europe
(Fig. 0.1).1 Yet outside of its place of origin this anniversary passed almost unmarked. The
organisation was that of the Cluniacs which was established with the foundation of the abbey
of Cluny in Burgundy in the year 910 (Fig. 0.2).2 This neglect is all the more striking when
compared with the widespread commemoration in 1998 of the nine hundredth anniversary of
the foundation of the abbey of Cîteaux, the birthplace of the Cistercian Order, which resulted
in a range of significant publications.3 An examination of the corpus of comparative
published material relating to monasticism in general reveals a similar neglect of Cluniac
monasticism. The studies dedicated to Cluniac monasticism that exist both in English and

1 Marrier lists some 716 Cluniac abbeys and priories (M. Marrier and A. Duchenne, ed., Bibliotheca
Cluniacensis (Paris, 1614; reprinted Macon 1915), cols 1705–52). Evans suggested that this list referred
to numbers of foundations at a date not earlier than the second half of the fourteenth century and more
probably the fifteenth century: J. Evans, The Romanesque Architecture of the Order of Cluny
(Cambridge, 1938), p. 8. The number of foundations varies depending on the criteria used for inclusion
which is a point addressed in this thesis. I contend that only foundations containing monks that
acknowledged the authority of the abbot of Cluny should be considered Cluniac rather than those that
adopted Cluniac customs but retained their independence. By this definition a number of foundations
remained Cluniac for only part of their existence and subsequently seceded from the Cluniac
organisation. Conant without any apparent authority suggested that there were over 1300 Cluniac
foundations: K. Conant, Carolingian and Romanesque Architecture 800–1200 (London, 1973), pp. 108–
9. Aston states that there were as many as 2000 Cluniac foundations: M. Aston, ‘The expansion of the
monastic and religious orders of Europe from the eleventh century’, in G. Keevill, M. Aston, and T. Hall,
ed., Monastic Archaeology: papers on the study of medieval monasteries (Oxford, 2001), pp. 9–36 (p.
10). The point to be made is that the number of foundations was significant.

2 The date of the foundation charter of the abbey of Cluny: J. Evans, Monastic Life at Cluny (Oxford,
1968), p. 4.

3 Examples include R. de Bourbon Parme, Les Cisterciens 1098–1998 (Paris, 1998), and two publications
dealing with Cistercian foundations in Britain: D. Robinson, ed., The Cistercian Abbeys of Britain: Far
from the Concourse of Men (London, 1998) and G. Coppack, The White Monks: The Cistercians in
Britain 1128–1540 (Stroud, 1998).

1
French focus almost exclusively on the abbey of Cluny, both its archaeology and history.4
While accounts of the history and archaeology of other individual Cluniac foundations in
France exist, these are largely descriptive and there is almost no attempt to place them in the
context of a Cluniac monastic organisation.5
There were 35 Cluniac priories in England and Wales, the largest number of Cluniac
priories outside the heartland of Cluniac monasticism in Burgundy and France (Fig. 0.3 and
Appendix A), yet there has been only one reasonably comprehensive account of the Cluniac
foundations in England and Wales which is now some 105 years old, and two short
summaries.6 The important general studies of monasticism covering England and Wales
make almost no reference to Cluniac monasticism let alone the Cluniac priories in the two
countries.7 Certainly to date there has been no publication dedicated to the Cluniac
foundations in England and Wales to compare with those dedicated to the other main types of
contemporary monastic foundations in these countries, namely those of the Augustinians and
Benedictines as well as the Cistercians.8 The most recent study related to Cluniac foundations

4 English examples dealing with the archaeology of the abbey of Cluny include K. Conant, Cluny: les
eglises et la maison du chef d’Ordre (Macon, 1968) and the more recent A. Baud, Cluny: un grand
chantier medieval au coeur de l’Europe (Paris, 2003), while significant publications dealing with the
history of the abbey include Evans, Monastic Life at Cluny, and D. Vingtain, L’Abbaye de Cluny Centre
de l’Occident medieval (Paris, 1998).

5 Examples include P. Beaussart, L’Eglise Benedictine de La Charité sur Loire ‘Fille Ainee de Cluny’ (La
Charité sur Loire, 1929) dedicated to this important Cluniac priory, and L. Faton,‘Cluny a la decouverte
des sites clunisiens’, in Dossiers d’Archeologie no. 275 juil./aout 2002 (Dijon, 2002), pp. 14–139, which
provides a summary of the principal Cluniac foundations in France, Italy and Spain.

6 L. Guilloreau, ‘Les prieurés anglais de l’ordre de Cluny’, in Congres du Millenaire de Cluny, I (Macon,
1910), pp. 291–373. R. Graham ‘The Cluniac order and its English province’, Journal of the British
Archaeological Association, 28 (1922), 169–74, is short and factual but does not attempt to examine the
nature of the organisational relationship between the abbot of Cluny and the Cluniac foundations in
England. Barlow’s account in The English Church 1066–1154 (London, 1979) pp. 184–5, is even shorter
and similarly does not address the issue of organisation.

7 These include: G. Coppack, Abbeys and Priories (Stroud, 1993), J. P. Greene, Medieval Monasteries
(London, 1992) and M. Aston, Monasteries in the Landscape (Stroud, 2000).

8 As well as the commemorative publications dedicated to the Cistercians referenced above, these include:
J. C. Dickinson, The Origins of the Austin Canons and their Introduction into England (London, 1950)
and J. M. Luxford, The Art and Architecture of English Benedictine Monasteries 1300–1540
(Woodbridge, 2012). On the Cistercians see recent publications: J. Burton and J. Kerr, The Cistercians in
2