A study of monasteries Medieval Religious Houses in England and Wales, D. Knowles and R. N. Hadcock (Longmans 11 gns.)

"'THERE is no brilliance in
I. Bede, but much steady clarity; no overtones and undertones, no subtle intuition, no twilight mystery, no lightning flash of genius. He lives and writes in noonday sunshine." Thus David Knowles characterised the father of English history.
It well describes Dorn David's own most recent book — a monumental work of collation which he has edited with Mr. Neville Hadeock. The "hard facts" of what was one of the central institutions of medieval English life are presented starkly. There are none of the • metaphorical clouds of incense or snatches of plainsong which distinguish so much writing on the religious life of the Middle Ages.
There is little for readers of Helen Waddell here. Despite its formidable price (11 guineas) and lack of illustrations this much improved reissue of a work which first appeared in 1953 must take its place on the shelf of any serious student of medieval monasticism.
The editors keep closely to their intention of producing a "reliable catalogue" of prereformation monasticism, and with the exception of the polished introduction by Dom David and the statistical tables which form an appendix there is little effort to draw conclusions.
Nevertheless the mass of information allows certain factors and trends to emerge clearly. The vast extent and variety of the religious life of the period is particularly striking. In the period 1350-1422 over 1,000 houses flourished and before the Black Death arrived in all its fury and wrought havoc in many communities there were some 18,000 monks.
Medieval monasticism was no refuge for the chosen few but rather a fortress for the striving many. This fact goes a long way to explain why English nionasticism struck such deep roots and why Professor Knowles and Mr. Hadcock need 560 pages to catalogue its history.
D. T. Bellenger