The English Benedictine Cathedral Priories: Rule and Practice, c. 1270-1420

This book continues and builds on a previous work, the Biographical Register of the Cathedral Priories. It offers a detailed study of the same eight monastic communities, with the addition of Durham. This book follows the lives of the young men, only some of whom are known by name, from the day of their arrival at the monastery to the moment of their death or departure. The individual chapters provide the details that fill in many of the gaps in the monastic biographies to be found in the earlier work. The result is the first comparative study of the implementation of the Benedictine Rule, and the daily routine, observances and customs practised by the nine priories as well as of the monks' progress through the successive stages of their monastic life. The book exploits to the full the archiepiscopal and episcopal registers, which record their official acts, in addition to the monastic accounts of the monk office holders who were responsible for the various departments within the monastery.