Christianity, Monks and Monasteries

Hi everyone,

I hope you enjoyed the first lecture and tutorial. Having moved *very* briskly through the Late Roman Empire, this week we're going to be thinking about the ways that Christianity structured life - at least for some people - in the Early Medieval World.

This image shows a plan of a monastery drawn up in a place called Reichenau sometime in the early 9th century (about 819-826 A.D.). It's known as the St Gall Monastery Plan, because it's been stored in the library of St Gall monastery, almost since it was made. The actual artefact is massive; it's made of five pieces of parchment sewn together, and measures 112 cm x 77.5 cm. I've chosen this image to stimulate your thoughts this week because scholars think that this plan isn't a plan at all... In other words, it's not like an architect's drawing to help builders to construct a monastery, or even a drawing of what the floorplan of an actual set of buildings looked like. Instead, they think it might be a kind of map of the ideal organisation of a monastery, and maybe therefore a visual metaphor for the ideal organisation of Christian life. 

So when you're reading and preparing for this week, it might be useful to think about what kinds of ideal Christian organisation the readings are discussing. What are they saying about how monks should live? Or about other Christians? What did this organisation represent; what was it for? Or perhaps you have other responses...!

If you have 'time', you might also want to think about how differently from us medieval people thought about time itself. How does the Benedictine Rule structure the hours of the day?

Post your thoughts, comments, ideas, questions or uncertainties below, and we'll discuss further when we meet on Monday.


Have a great week!
Kathleen


P.S. You can read more about the St Gall Plan and zoom in to see the amazing detail here: http://www.stgallplan.org/en/
P.P.S. You can find out more about medieval concepts of dates and times here: http://www.gardenhistoryinfo.com/medieval/medtime.html

It's official - we are too popular!

Apparently the book shop has run out of course guides for ATS 1316.

Fear not! More have been ordered, and the readings for next week can all be accessed online.

You should prepare the essential readings labelled "Week 2" (in the Unit Guide, or in your purple book) for next Monday. These are:

1. The Benedictine Rule (http://www.fordham.edu/Halsall/source/rul-benedict.asp)
2. A Chapter in the book called "Medieval Worlds" by Moran Cruz and Gerberding entitled "The Early Medieval Church and the West, 500-800". (Available as a digital copy by following the relevant links on the Library Readings List to be found on the right hand panel.)

The Week 2 tute blog will go up tomorrow morning.

Thanks everyone!

Welcome to Medieval Europe Tutorial 4

Hi everyone. I'm Kathleen and I'm going to be your tutor this semester. I'm looking forward to it!

To whet your appetite here's a shot I took of the north door of Westminster Abbey in London last year. The abbey was built by King Henry III  who wanted to create an impressive home for the relics (holy bones or other remains) of St Edward the Confessor, who was his patron saint and a former king of England. 

North door tympannum, Westminster Abbey (Click on the photo for higher resolution)

In medieval times, like now, if you visited Westminster you entered the abbey through the north door, where the carvings in the archway shown here (called a tympannum) told a story to everyone who came to the church. (These are actually replicas from the Victorian era, but you get the idea.) They follow a pattern called 'Christ in majesty' as ruler of the world, surrounded by the apostles and people asking for favour and forgiveness. Perhaps the king was trying to make a connection between his rule and Christ himself! What do you think?

A beautifully-illustrated hand-written story about St Edward's life (called a vita) was made for Henry's queen, and still survives in the library of Cambridge University. You can browse through the pages of this document here. 
You can find out lots more about Westminster abbey and its significance for English history from this Time Team special.