medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
From: John Briggs <[log in to unmask]>
> These "alien priories" could indeed be 'real' priories (e.g. Boxgrove, a
priory of Lessay, which you might think was an abbey,
i might.
unless it was headed by a prior.
in which case, i would think that it was, well, a priory.
>except that it was headed by a prior)
so, why on earth would anyone --no matter how "alien" or Out On The Fringe--
think of it as an "abbey"?
words do have meanings, after all, do they not?
>but more often were like Hayling Priory which was just the residence of the
resident prior
you mean that it was just the "house where the prior lived"?
if that were the case, i'd say that calling it a "priory" was something of a
mis-translation.
though the ole OED does allow (in the smallest print possible) that a "priory"
can be "Sometimes [be] the name of a dwelling house on the site of a priory."
>who had been sent to collect the rectorial tithes (a secular priest had been
installed as vicar) as well as any manorial income. In the latter case there
was no actual priory or other monks.
yes, a sure mis-translation, due perhaps to an inadequate understanding of the
language and the concept that words do, indeed, have meanings.
so, lessee, can i get this straight:
first, i'm to "Forget charters", since they "tend to be early medieval."
except for the hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of them which survive from
the 11th-12th c. *alone* (or, is that "early medieval"?).
then, i've got to forget about understanding weird stuff from the Western
Fringe of the Civilized world by "trying to compare it with French
practice."
which latter, btw, while admittedly more than a bit chaotic, does have its own
sort of internal Cohesion and Logic --and would never, ever refer to the mere
residence of a prior as "a priory."
that would be like, i don't know, referring to the residence of a priest as,
like, a "Presbytère."
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presbyt%C3%A8re
c
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