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Eliot Wilson's avatar

As somebody who studied the (very modest) restoration of English monasticism in the 1550s, what has always struck me is that, as you rightly say, monasteries were a blend of spirituality, transaction, tradition and intercession, so tightly interwoven that it was scarcely possible to separate the strands; but once it was done away with, certainly in the English context, it was all but impossible to recreate in its old form.

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Helen Barrell's avatar

That book sounds great, as is your review of it.

It's fascinating how interwoven the monasteries were with daily life. Whenever I end up reading a will from the 1400s and early 1500s, it always strikes me how much money the wealthy were leaving for monks in as many places as possible to "sing for their souls". And then they'd hire one person in particular (sometimes even specifying who, if it was a relative) to be a priest to "sing for their souls" ("and the souls of my mother and father, and my late wives, and all Christian souls" - I do love it when they list them!) in a specific church or even in a particular chapel in a church, for a set number of years. I always picture the priest kneeling in front of an altar and over and over again praying for the person who's paid them to do so. I suppose the priest would feel they were undertaking a very important duty for a soul in Purgatory, but with my modern brain, I just think... Blimey, didn't they get bored?

I really need to read that book! Although the missing anchoresses is a shame. I studied Julian of Norwich briefly at university.

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