12 March 2022

The Medieval Church in the Isles, Part 4: Regular Clergy


Simply and in brief, here is a description of regular clergy (a term which takes in both ordained and lay) living collectively according to a prescribe rule, as opposed to clergy in secular parishes and dioceses.  All the regular clergy prayed the canonical hours.

Regular clergy – Contemplative or Cloistered

The life of members of the contemplative or conventual orders, priests and lay brothers, or nuns, revolved around praying the canonical hours, work, and study with contemplation, with little contact with the surrounding community, except, in some cases, at times of worship.

Abbey was a monastery or nunnery presided over by an abbot or abbess, with at least ten other cenobites, anchorites, or even eremites.  His or her chief assistant, the Continental counterpart to the Irish ferlegind, was a prior.  In Ireland, the terms “abbot” and “abbey” were used rather loosely.

Priory was the designation used primarily for an autonomous house which answered to no abbot (conventual priory) or for a house subordinate to an abbey and its abbot (obedientary priory).

Abbot/Abbess – the superior of an abbey, an independent convent who only answered to the head of his or her order.

Prior/Prioress – A monastic rank with several different meanings.  A claustral prior (called dean in some monasteries) was second after the abbot in an abbey; in cases of large monasteries, the claustral prior was assisted by a sub-prior.  An obedientiary prior headed a satellite house of an abbey.  A conventual prior headed up a house that was not subordinate to an abbey.  A capitulary prior was the head of a monastic or canonical chapter of a cathedral.

Cenobites lived together communally in one house.

Anchorites lived in cells attached to the outer walls of a cathedral or a collegiate church.

Eremites lived alone, though sometimes grouped into spread-out communities, especially if centered around a notable saint.

A monk was a male cenobite.

A nun was a female cenobite of a contemplative order, or a member of an order for women attached to a canonical, mendicant, or military order for men, all orders of women being cloistered in the Middle Ages.

Choir brother/sister – so-called because they sang the Mass, canonical hours, and other services in choir, also spent their days in private prayer, meditation, and study.  These almost always came from the nobility, other gentry, and later bourgeois and were usually in holy orders or on their way to becoming ordained clergy.

Choir monastics began as postulants, where they took simple vows and were given a year or so to decide if they wanted to enter the monastic life.  If so, they became novices, with solemn annual vows over one to three years.  If they decided to take solemn life vows at the end of their novitiate, they became professed brothers or sisters.

Famuli – hired servants of the monastery, to do the manual labor needed at the monastery to free up the choir brothers and/or sisters for duties in choir and study.  These were much more common in the Ealry Middle Ages, being replaced in the High Middle Ages with lay brothers and lay sisters, but in some English monasteries, the practice continued.

Lay brother/sister – these were members of the monastery performing the same manual labor originally performed by famuli, as their form of contribution to the life of the monastery.  They usually came from the working and peasant classes and had little education.  Ostensibly the class of lay brother/sister came into being to allow those with little or no education to take up the religious life, but their existence also meant the monastery did not have to pay for famuli.

Lay brothers/sisters began as commissisi (corresponding to postulant) then became conversi (corresponding to novice) before taking life vows.

Nutritus – child oblate raised in the monastery who had the option to take vows upon reaching adulthood.

Commendator – a person appointed to take charge of the administration of an abbey (abbot or abbess commendator) or a conventual priory (prior or prioress commendator) in case of a vacancy.  Originally supposed to be temporary, this was in the Early Middle Ages abused with the positions being given out to secular or temporal favorites of the king or lord, especially in the Frankish and Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.  Thanks to papal intervention, the practice was curbed in the High Middle Ages, but sprang up once again in the Late Middle Ages, with the income of the foundation split, with two-thirds going to the commendator and the abbey or conventual priory having to make do with the remaining one third.

Impropriator was the beneficiary of income from the former lands of dissolved monasteries in England which were held by the crown.  This lasted until the 19th century.  In Scotland, the lands of dissolved monasteries were given to commendators, but after two or three generations, all the lands were temporalized.

An oblate was a secular person, clergy or lay, who followed many of the tenets of the Rule of St. Benedict or other contemplative order and were affiliated with a specific convent.

A corridian was a lay person who obtained the right to room and board at a monastery.

Dowry was the term for a grant of land or entrance fee extracted from a prospective member of a monastery, generally in the case of females postulants, though male postulants were also expected to provide.

A monastery housed monks, nuns, or both, though the terms was and is used mostly for a house of monks.

convent likewise housed monks, nuns, or both, though in the Middle Ages it usually referred to a house of nuns.

A monkery housed monks.

A nunnery housed nuns.

A conhospita once housed cenobites of both sexes living together; this was almost exclusively a feature of the Celtic Church, notable examples being Kildare and Streonshalh (Whitby), though they were hardly rare among churches that followed the Celtic Rites.

A double-convent housed both monks and nuns, but in separate living quarters.  The best examples are the Fontévrault Benedictines (always), the Gilbertines (in most cases), the Bridgettines (always), and in rare cases, the Augustinian Canons and Canonesses.

The mensa was the part of the monastic estate directly supporting the foundation and supplying its table, roughly corresponding to the glebe of a parish.

Contemplative or cloistered orders in the British Isles for men included Benedictine monks, Carthusian monks, Cistercian monks, Cluniac monks, Grandmontine monks, Savignac monks, Tironensian monks, Trinitarian monks, and Valliscaulian  monks (only in Scotland).

Contemplative or cloistered orders in the British Isles for women included Benedictine nuns, Cistercian nuns, and Cluniac nuns.

Contemplative or cloistered orders in the British Isles for both men and women living in double-houses included Bridgettine nuns & monks and Fontévrault Benedictine monks & nuns.  The Bridgettines were unique in that the female part of each house was always superior and the head of the entire house always the abbess.

Abbey officers

Each abbey had its own set of officers, with many serving the same functions under the same of similar titles in canonries, cathedral chapters, secular collegiate churches, etc.  Not every abbey had all of these offices, and in many some were combined.

Abbot - as noted above, this was the superior, or head, or an abbey

Prior - served as chief deputy to the abbot

Subprior - third in rank behind the prior

Obedientes - the collective name for all the officers other than the three executives, all of whom were appointed by the abbot

Cantor - also called the precentor, was in charge of ensuring all Masses, canonical hours, and other services were carried out properly

Armarius - librarian of the monastery and supervisor of the scriptorium

Subcantor - also called the succentor, was deputy to the cantor

Sacrist - was responsible for the care of the sacred vessels, sacred instruments, and other objects used in services

Subsacrist - also known as the secretary or master of work

Treasurer - was the book-keeper and funds distributor

Revestarian - was in charge of the vestment worn for services, the cloths used on the altar, and those adorning sacred vessels

Chief cellarer - also called bursar, was in charge or acquisition of food as well as being general steward

Subcellarer - deputy to the cellarer/bursar

Kitchen steward - maintained the kitchen

Assistant kitchen steward - assisted the kitchen steward

Granatorian - steward of the granary

Refectorian - had charge of the refectory, its furniture, bowls and plates, eating utensils; also called a hall-butler

Servitor - assisted the refectorian

Kitchener - was in charge of the cooking, the head chef or sorts

Novice master - took charge of the novices for their training and care

Zelator - deputy to the novice master

Infirmarian - had charge over the infirmary and its patients, as well as for bleeding each monk weekly

Guest-master - was responsible for caring for guests

Almoner - responsible for distribution of food, clothing, blankets, and money to the poor

Vestarius - responsible for non-ecclesiastical clothing, bedding, etc. at the monastery

Hebdomadarian - the priest appointed weekly for singing daily conventual Mass, singing the Deus in adjutorium at the beginning of each canonical hour, bless holy water, etc.

Antiphoner - the one appointed weekly to sing the Invitatory at Matins, give out the antiphon for the first Psalm, lead the versicles and responses, etc.

Regular clergy – Canonical

Canons regular, priests and lay brothers, followed a rule and prayed the Divine Offices but were focused on interacting with and assisting the lay people of the surrounding community.  They followed primarily the Rule of St. Augustine of Hippo.  In the canonical orders, the lay brothers are a definite minority.

Canoness, usually called a moniale in England, was a female member of a canonical order

Canonry was the proper name for a house of canons or canonesses regular, but they were also called a priory, because all heads of canonical houses were usually priors or prioresses, though sometimes the title used was prelate.

Canonical orders for men in the British Isles included Augustinian Canons Regular, Augustinian Canons Regular-Arrosian, Augustinian Canons Regular-Holy Sepulchre, Augustinian Canons Regular-Victorine, Gilbertine Canons, and Norbertine Canons (Premonstratensian Fathers)

Canonical orders for women in the British Isles included Augustinian Canonesses, Augustinian Canonesses-Arrosian, Gilbertine Canonesses, and Norbertine Canonesses (Premonstratensian Sisters).

The Gilbertine Order of Canons Regular was wholly English in origin and confined thereto except for an establishment in Scotland for a brief period of twenty years, and possibly another in Ireland.  Nearly all their houses were double-convents, with houses solely for men or for women very rare.

The Augustinian Seculars are a canonical clergy counterpart to Benedictine oblates or Franciscan tertiaries for ordained and lay men and women, which in the Middle Ages only had chapters in England.

Regular clergy - Mendicant

A friar was a wandering preacher and/or teacher, or at least one who interacted with temporal society more routinely.

Friary was the name for a house of friars, though these were often called a priory as well since its superior was always a prior, except in the case of the Franciscans, whose superiors were called guardian, warden, or minister.

First Order was the Franciscan order for men, formally called the Order of Friars Minor.

Second Order was the Franciscan order for women, commonly known as the Poor Clares and formally the Order of St. Clare.

Third Order was the Franciscan order for men and women living in the secular world but abiding by the Rule of St. Francis and its provisions of poverty, chastity (though not celibacy), and obedience.  It was officially called the Brothers and Sisters of Penance.  In time, some members began to live communally and follow a stricter rule which included celibacy, leading to a separate Third Order Regular from the parent Third Order Secular.  The members of both were called Tertiaries.

Mendicant orders for men in the British Isles included Augustinian Friars (Friars Eremites, Augustinian Hermits, Austin Friars), Bethlehemite Friars, Carmelite Friars, Crutched Friars (Crosiers), Dominican Friars, Franciscan Friars Minor-Observant, Fransican Friars Minor-Capuchin, Franciscan Friars Minor-Conventual, Friars of the Sack (Brothers of Penitence, Bonshommes Brothers), and Pied Friars (Friars of St Mary de Areno).

Mendicant orders for women in the British Isles included Carmelite nuns, Dominican nuns, and Poor Clare nuns.

Regarding the Franciscan Third Order Regular, the only country in the british Isles with any houses was Ireland, and it has sixty-five such.

Regular clergy - Military

The military orders, at least in the British Isles, all originated in the Levant, specifically in Palestine.

Some, like the Knights Templar (Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon), originated to safeguard pilgrims to the Holy Land.

The Templars were organized into four classes:  Knights, serjeants, squires, and chaplains.  To be a Knight Templar, a man had to already be one, and the attached squires were not in training to becomes knights.

Others, like the Knights Hospitallers (Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem), came about to care for the sick and infirm.

The Hospitallers were divided into brothers military (both knights and men-at-arms), brothers infirmarian, and brothers chaplain.  Unlike the Templars, they accepted both novices and pages and squires in training.

The Lazarites (Order of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem) cared for lepers and included many lepers in their ranks, including their grand master.

The Lazarites organized into the classes of knights, brothers, clerics, and donors.

The Knights of St. Thomas (Hospitallers of St Thomas of Canterbury at Acre), unique to Englishmen, originated as a hospitaller order but like the Knights Hospitaller then became military, adopting the rule of the Order of Teutonic Knights.  After the fall of Acre, they abandoned their military role and adopted the Rule of St. Augustine.

The headquarters of a military order for a geographical region was generally called a priory.  The chief house of a country within that region generally had no special designation.  The priory for the Hospitallers in the British Isles was at Clerkenwell, London, while the headquarters for the British Isles of the Templars was at New Temple, London.  The Lazarites and Thomasines also headquarted in London for their regions.

The local chapter for the Knights Hospitaller was a commandery (its head called a commander).  The local chapter for the Knights Templar, Knights Lazarite, and Knights Thomasine was called a preceptory (its superior called a preceptor).

Hospitals

In the Middle Ages, only a very few institutions with the name hospital were what we would now call hospitals today.  All of them were staffed by regular clergy of various orders, including Benedictines, Augustinians, Knights Hospitaller, Lazarists (Hospitallers of St. Lazarus), Thomasines (Hospitallers of St. Thomas of Canterbury at Acre), and Knights Templar, as well as orders specially created for the institution which they served, such as the Royal Hospital of St. Katharine by the Tower, which survives today as the Royal Foundation of St. Katharine.

Foundations called hospitals in the Middle Ages included actual hospitals, infirmaries, hospices, almshouses, orphanages, food distribution centers, hostels for pilgrims, and leprosariums, the last of which were the focus of the Lazarists (Order of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem), whose Grand Master and many of its brothers were lepers themselves.  St. Giles’ Collegiate Church in Edinburgh originated as the Hospital of St. Giles operated by the Lazarists under David I, sister to the Lazarist facility in Harehope, Northumberland.

One of the best examples of an institution which fits the modern definition of hospital was the Hospital of the Holy Trinity at Soltray, or Soutra, seventeen miles south of Edinburgh, about halfway between the city and Melrose Abbey on the Via Regia or Girthgate, as it was known in Scotland.  This road, still in use throughout the medieval period, was a section of the old Roman road between Eboracum (York) and the former legionary fort at Inchtuthil in the northern Lowlands district of Gowrie.  The hospital was established by Augustinian Canons at the request of Malcolm IV.  Archaeologists have found traces of medicines from three different continents and other evidence of a bustling operation at the cutting edge of medieval science.

The largest medical hospital in England was also run by Augustinians, the Hospital of St. Leonard in York.  At its height, St. Leonard’s had a staff of eighteen Augustinians and thirty choristers and could host as many as two hundred forty patients.  It was built on the site of the former Hospital of St. Peter founded by King Aethelstan and reportedly staffed by Culdees, which had caught fire and burned to the ground in the Harrowing of the North.

The Knights Hospitaller (Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem) were, of course, dedicated to services at its many hospitals (it’s in the name), but what is not known is that the Knights Templar (Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon) also operated hospitals.  These, which served the dual purpose of infirmary and clinic for the poor and hostel for religious pilgrims, were usually dedicated to their patron saint, St. Mary Magdalene, such as the facility at Linlithgow and its sister house at Rutherford in Roxburghshire.

Regular clergy garb

One of the most distinguishing features of regular clergy was, and in some cases still is, their grab, generally called their habit.

For monks, friars, canons, and military brothers, normal daily wear was a long-sleeved ankle-length tunic, a cincture (also called a girdle), and a hooded scapular.  At canonical hours, brothers wore a cowl and novices wore a mantle over their respective habits.

Different orders had habits of different colors, and were sometimes known by those colors, such as the Brown Friars (Franciscans), Grey Friars (Conventual Franciscans), Black Monks (Benedictines), Black Friars (Dominicans), White Friars (Carmelites), Grey Monks (Tironensians), White Monks (Cistercians), and Black Canons (Augustinians).

For nuns, the basic garment was also a tunic tied at the waist with a cincture, with a hoodless scapular over it, and a coif covered with a veil.

The coif was the collective name for the set of garments covering the head common to all female religious.  More specifically, it was the close-fitting white cap covering the top, back, and sides of the head.  Around this was worn the bandeau, a thin white headband to support the whimple, a large piece of white linen covering the hair and part of the cheeks (this part was actually common to women in Europe from early medieval times).  Below this was the guimpe covering the neck and shoulders.  Over it all was worn the veil.

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