Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of Abbreviations
- Part One The Tudor Scene
- Chap. I The reign of Henry VII
- Chap. II Some monastic activities
- Chap. III The Cistercians
- Chap. IV The Premonstratensians
- Chap. V The friars in the early sixteenth century
- Chap. VI Sixteenth-century visitations
- Chap. VII Monastic personalities
- Chap. VIII Humanism at Evesham
- Chap. IX William More, prior of Worcester, 1518–36
- Chap. X Butley and Durham
- Part Two The Gathering Storm
- Part Three Suppression and Dissolution
- Part Four Reaction and Survival
- Appendix I Sir Thomas More's letter ‘to a monk’
- Appendix II Religious houses suppressed by Cardinal Wolsey
- Appendix III The witness of the Carthusians
- Appendix IV Houses with incomes exceeding £1000 in the Valor Ecclesiasticus
- Appendix V The sacrist of Beauvale
- Appendix VI Itinerary of the visitors, 1535–6
- Appendix VII The commissioners for the survey of the Lesser Houses in 1536
- Appendix VIII The conflict of evidence on the monasteries
- Appendix IX The last abbots of Colchester, Reading and Glastonbury
- Appendix X Regulars as bishops
- Bibliography
- Index
Chap. VIII - Humanism at Evesham
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 January 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of Abbreviations
- Part One The Tudor Scene
- Chap. I The reign of Henry VII
- Chap. II Some monastic activities
- Chap. III The Cistercians
- Chap. IV The Premonstratensians
- Chap. V The friars in the early sixteenth century
- Chap. VI Sixteenth-century visitations
- Chap. VII Monastic personalities
- Chap. VIII Humanism at Evesham
- Chap. IX William More, prior of Worcester, 1518–36
- Chap. X Butley and Durham
- Part Two The Gathering Storm
- Part Three Suppression and Dissolution
- Part Four Reaction and Survival
- Appendix I Sir Thomas More's letter ‘to a monk’
- Appendix II Religious houses suppressed by Cardinal Wolsey
- Appendix III The witness of the Carthusians
- Appendix IV Houses with incomes exceeding £1000 in the Valor Ecclesiasticus
- Appendix V The sacrist of Beauvale
- Appendix VI Itinerary of the visitors, 1535–6
- Appendix VII The commissioners for the survey of the Lesser Houses in 1536
- Appendix VIII The conflict of evidence on the monasteries
- Appendix IX The last abbots of Colchester, Reading and Glastonbury
- Appendix X Regulars as bishops
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
By a fortunate accident of survival there has come down to us from the abbey of Evesham, only fifteen miles distant from Worcester in the Vale of Avon east of the far-seen Bredon Hill, a book which opens a window upon the monastic world of the day giving a view very different from that of visitation records. This is a collection of letters written at Evesham by a monk of the house, one Robert Joseph Beecham or Willis.
These letters, about one hundred and sixty in number, were all the work of a single hand during two, or at most three, years. Only thirty or so in the whole collection bear a date, but there are indications that the chronological order is on the whole preserved, though with a few patent disarrangements. In the whole series only three or four external events are mentioned, but by a fortunate chance they combine with the sole precise date in the whole collection to assign a long run of letters to the autumn of 1530, and the whole series to a date between Christmas 1528 or 1529 and Christmas, 1531. No less than sixty correspondents are addressed, but at least seventy letters, or almost half the total number, are directed to eight of the writer's friends, while forty correspondents are the recipients of but a single letter apiece.
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- Information
- The Religious Orders in England , pp. 100 - 107Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1979