Source details: (Book)

Monasteries and Society in the British Isles in the Later Middle Ages

Studies in the History of Medieval Religion,

Boydell and Brewer (Woodbridge 2008)

There has been an increasing interest in the history of the many houses of monks, canons and nuns which existed in the medieval British Isles. Recent research has considered them in their wider socio-cultural-economic context and historians are now questioning some of the older assumptions about monastic life in the later Middle Ages, and setting new approaches and new agenda. The fifteen chapters in this volume reflects these new trends and consider diverse aspects of monastic history. There is an emphasis on the wide range of contacts which existed between religious communities and the laity in the later medieval British Isles, covering a range of different religious orders and houses. While this period has often been seen to represent a general decline of the regular life this collection shows that although monastic culture may have changed it remained rich and vibrant right until the Dissolution.