Monasticism

Tudor Edwards describes how the austere order of Trappists in Normandy was driven by the French Revolution to seek refuge in Switzerland, Austria and Russia.

‘The pleasure of books possessed me from childhood’ wrote this twelfth-century historian. Among other work, William of Malmesbury, writes J.J.N. McGurk, produced an Historia Novella, extending until 1142.

L.W. Cowie describe show the Franciscans came to London in the thirteenth century and founded a highly patronised friary.

The Friars Hermits of St Augustine founded their London house in 1253. L.W. Cowie describes how, after the Reformation, it became the Dutch Protestant Church.

Stephen Clissold describes how, after twenty years of life as a nun, St Teresa began to experience visions and ecstasies which led her to found, in Avila, a reformed Carmelite convent.

Harold F. Hutchison describes how the tastes and affections of King Edward II were disgusting to the medieval orthodoxy of monks and barons.

W.N. Bryant introduces Bede, the ‘Father of English History’, a Northumbrian Monk who devoted his life to study, teaching and church services.

During the first half of the thirteenth century, Matthew Paris recorded in words and drawings the events of world history. W.N. Bryant tells his story.

Deryck Abel reflects on a crucial figure in the dispute between King John of England and Pope Innocent III, which in turn led to the issuing of Magna Carta in 1215.

The life of a most pious Christian saint, who died on April 21st, 1109.