Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- PREFACE
- LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
- Part One The Old Orders, 1216—1340
- Chap. I The thirteenth century
- Chap. II Reorganization among the Black Monks, 1216–1336
- Chap. III The Augustinian chapters, 1216–1339
- Chap. IV The exploitation of the land
- Chap. V Henry of Eastry
- Chap. VI The monastic administration
- Chap. VII The agrarian economy of the Cistercians
- Chap. VIII The system of visitation
- Chap. IX The first century of visitation: (I)
- Chap. X The first century of visitation: (II)
- Part Two The Friars, 1216–1340
- Part Three The Monasteries and their World
- Appendices
- Bibliography
- Index
Chap. VII - The agrarian economy of the Cistercians
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- PREFACE
- LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
- Part One The Old Orders, 1216—1340
- Chap. I The thirteenth century
- Chap. II Reorganization among the Black Monks, 1216–1336
- Chap. III The Augustinian chapters, 1216–1339
- Chap. IV The exploitation of the land
- Chap. V Henry of Eastry
- Chap. VI The monastic administration
- Chap. VII The agrarian economy of the Cistercians
- Chap. VIII The system of visitation
- Chap. IX The first century of visitation: (I)
- Chap. X The first century of visitation: (II)
- Part Two The Friars, 1216–1340
- Part Three The Monasteries and their World
- Appendices
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The economy of the Cistercians had been in origin professedly from different, and more simple than, that of the black monks. Topographically, the white-monk abbey was not a quasi-urban group of buildings, owning manors scattered over the neighbouring countryside at greater or less distances, but a purely monastic group lying at the heart of a large non-manorial rural area; economically, while the black monks were supported by rents, dues and the produce of the demesne on a number of manors, worked largely by the unpaid labour of villeins, the Cistercians had been able at the start to plough up the land and place their farm buildings as near the abbey as they wished, and in exactly the situation they might choose; distant properties were exploited from sub-stations known as granges, and all were worked partly by the monks, but chiefly by the lay brothers, with such hired labour as might be found necessary; as regards administration, while the black-monk property was administered by a number of different officials enjoying all but complete independence, that of the white monks was all controlled directly by a single cellarer. The result of all these differences is noted more than once by Gerald of Wales: whereas the system of the black monks would create chaos and want when applied to a group of potentially prosperous manors, that of the white monks would soon evolve order and plenty out of a wilderness.
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- Information
- Religious Orders Vol 1 , pp. 64 - 77Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1979