medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
jbugslag wrote:
>
>> Interestingly, all
>> Premonstratensian houses are abbeys, whereas most Augustinian (black
>> canons) ones are priories.
>
> Does this mean that they looked to a particular abbey as their
> "mother house"? It is my understanding that a priory must exist
> under an abbey, but perhaps I'm mistaken. Any clarification of this
> point would be appreciated.
No, it is just a convention: an abbey is headed by an abbot [there was a
tiresome convention of spelling it "abbat" c.1900], and a priory is headed
by a prior. [The Augustinians seemed to have used the term "prelate" for
the president of either a priory or an abbey, perhaps to get over this
point.] The Premonstratensians adopted the Cistercian practice of strict
filiation, but, also like the Cistercians, all their houses, large and
small, were abbeys. For other orders, it was generally a case of size and
status: large houses were abbeys, small ones priories. But the Augustinians
(and Cluniacs) had comparatively few abbeys, so large houses quite often
remained as priories. All Carthusian houses were priories.
John Briggs
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