medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
From: John Briggs <[log in to unmask]>
> On 16/12/2011 16:12, Christopher Crockett wrote:
>> the church of Bradford was not a "priory" of Shaftsbury until the early
13th c., yet it was the "mother church" to seven "chapelries."
> Calling a church owned (i.e. the advowson is owned: the owner of the
advowson might or might appropriate [impropriate] the living) by a
monastery a "priory" is probably a peculiar French idea, quite possibly
involving a mistranslation.
yes, not all churches "owned" by monasteries (i.e., not just the advowson, but
the fabric, the churchyard and whatever else might pertain to the church) were
"priories."
my placing of that word in quotes comes from the suspicion that it is somewhat
anachronistic, at least before about 1200 (in France --*always* in France).
by nifty definition, a "priory" is a church [i.e., an institution] which has a
"prior" --i suspect this may have been true even in the Fringe areas of
Europe.
priories could be quite small --only a few resident monks or canons (headed by
a prior), in what was, statistically, usually a "village church" (perhaps,
though not necessarily, with a cloister).
or they could be quite large --St. Martin-des-Champs near Paris (<Cluny), St.
Martin-au-Val near Chartres (<Marmoutier), Perray-le-Monial (<Cluny), etc.
all of the latter had churches (and conventual buildings, most since
obliterated) of rather impressive size.
all of the latter were monastic institutions with a considerable number of
monks, headed by a prior.
the best general study i know of the priories of a single [French] mother
house is:
Odile Gantier, “Recherches sur les possessions et les prieurés de
l’abbaye de Marmoutier,” Revue Mabillon, LIII, 1963, pp. 93-110,161-7;
LIV, 1964, pp. 15-24, 56-67, 125-135 [58 pages consecutively numbered in
brackets]; LV, 1965, pp. 32-44, 65-79.
MM had priories & possessions all over Europe, even out on the Western Fringe,
where the folks were noted for painting their bodies blue and totally
misunderstanding the complexities of the Gothic style until the Waning of the
Middle Ages.
c
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