Monasticism

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X is the cellarer and Y is the almoner.

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The appointment of Norman abbots was important because the abbot controlled every part of a monastery's life, so changing the abbot changed the monastery. After 1066 English abbots were replaced as they died or were removed: Turold went to Peterborough in 1070, Serlo to Gloucester in 1072, Paul of Caen to St Albans and Walter to Evesham in 1077, and Thurstan to Glastonbury. By the late 1080s most great abbeys had Norman or French abbots.

First, it strengthened Norman control. Abbeys were great landowners, and some had supported resistance: the monks of Ely backed Hereward in 1070-71. Norman abbots were loyal to William, and as tenants-in-chief they owed him knight service. Turold settled knights on the lands of Peterborough to meet this duty. The monasteries became supports of Norman rule rather than possible centres of English resistance.

Second, Norman abbots reformed and rebuilt their houses. They brought stricter discipline and continental customs, and Paul of Caen introduced Lanfranc's Constitutions at St Albans. Many rebuilt their churches on a grand scale - St Albans from 1077, using Roman bricks from nearby Verulamium, and Gloucester from 1089 - and communities grew, as at Gloucester under Serlo. Paul also set up a scriptorium to copy books, which spread Latin learning.

Third, the change caused conflict and cultural loss. A later St Albans chronicler said that Paul called his English predecessors uneducated and destroyed their tombs. At Glastonbury in 1083 Thurstan tried to impose a new style of chant, and when the monks resisted he brought in armed men, who killed three monks and wounded eighteen in the church. In time, however, Norman abbots came to honour English saints, for example when St Edmund's body was moved into the new church at Bury in 1095. So Norman abbots made the monasteries both pillars of Norman power and centres of reform, but at a real cost to English monks.

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Monasteries were important for learning because they were where most books were made, kept and read. Monks copied the Bible, the writings of the Church Fathers such as Augustine and Gregory, and works such as Bede's history. After 1066 the copying of books grew rapidly, especially at Christ Church in Canterbury. Norman abbots and bishops built up libraries: Paul of Caen set up a scriptorium at St Albans, and Bishop William of St Calais gave many books to Durham. This spread knowledge and linked England more closely to the Latin learning of Europe.

Monasteries also educated the next generation. Boys given to monasteries as oblates, and novices, were taught Latin, the psalms and chant, and Lanfranc's Constitutions laid down how the children should be supervised and taught. The greatest scholars of the age were monks: Lanfranc and Anselm had made the abbey of Bec famous across Europe, and Anselm, as Archbishop of Canterbury, wrote important works of theology such as Why God Became Man (1098).

Above all, monasteries preserved the memory of the past. As Figure 1 shows, the leading historians of the Norman period were monks. Eadmer of Canterbury wrote the History of Recent Events and the Life of Anselm, Orderic Vitalis, born in Shropshire, wrote his Ecclesiastical History at Saint-Evroul in Normandy, and William of Malmesbury and John of Worcester wrote histories of England. Several had English mothers and Norman fathers, and they preserved English history and the stories of English saints in Latin, joining the two traditions. At Peterborough the monks even kept the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in English until 1154. Most of what we know about Norman England comes from these monastic writers.

Learning was limited to a small, mostly clerical elite, and cathedral schools such as York also mattered. But monasteries were the main centres of learning and memory in Norman England.

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Showing their power was certainly one reason why the Normans built so many abbeys and monasteries, and in some cases, such as Battle Abbey, it was very important. But I do not think it was the main reason. The main reason was religious belief: the Normans genuinely believed that monks' prayers could save their souls, and they came from a duchy where founding monasteries was a deeply rooted tradition.

There is clear evidence that monasteries displayed Norman power. William founded Battle Abbey in about 1070 on the battlefield of Hastings, with its high altar where Harold had fallen, and brought stone from Caen to build it - a permanent monument to his victory. Norman barons often built priories beside their castles: William de Warenne at Lewes in about 1077, Roger of Montgomery at Shrewsbury in 1083 and Hugh of Avranches at Chester in 1092. In the rebellious north, the monastery at Durham, founded in 1083, stood beside the castle. Norman abbots rebuilt English abbey churches on a vast scale, such as St Albans from 1077 and Gloucester from 1089, and these huge Romanesque buildings dominated their towns, while the old English buildings were demolished. Many new houses were filled with monks from Normandy, from Marmoutier at Battle or Sées at Shrewsbury.

However, religious motives were stronger. Normans believed that the prayers of monks could help the souls of the dead, and founders' charters stress salvation for themselves and their families. Cluny, whose monks came to Lewes, was famous for its prayers for the dead. The violence of the Conquest also needed penance: in 1070 the papal legate Ermenfrid set penances for everyone who had fought at Hastings, which could be paid by building or endowing churches. Roger of Montgomery became a monk at Shrewsbury shortly before he died in 1094, which suggests his foundation was a matter of faith, not just display.

The Normans also brought a strong monastic tradition with them. Eleventh-century Normandy had seen a great revival of monasteries, such as Bec, where Lanfranc and Anselm had been monks, and the two abbeys at Caen, founded by William and Matilda as penance for their marriage. Reformers like Lanfranc wanted monasteries to be well run and well housed, and bigger communities and grander services needed bigger buildings. The relics of saints, such as St Edmund at Bury and St Cuthbert at Durham, drew pilgrims and needed fitting shrines. In the north, the revival was driven by an English monk, Aldwin, inspired by Bede's history.

There were practical reasons too. Monks were literate and could keep records, manage estates and offer hospitality and care for the poor and sick, which made monasteries useful to lords and communities.

Overall, showing power was an important reason, especially for the king at Battle and for barons who placed priories beside their castles in newly conquered lands. But it was not the main reason. For the Normans, piety and power went together, and the deepest motive was the belief that monasteries would save their souls, a belief they had brought from Normandy and that explains why they kept founding them long after their power was secure.