An abbey is a monastery or religious community of the highest class, governed by an abbot, assisted generally by a prior, sub-prior, and other subordinate functionaries; or, in the case of a female community, superintended by an abbess. An abbey invariably included a church. A priory differed from an abbey only in being scarcely so extensive an establishment, and was governed by a prior. In the English conventual cathedral establishments, as Canterbury, Norwich, Ely, etc, the archbishops or bishops held the abbot's place, the immediate governor of the monastery being called a prior.
Some priories sprang originally from the more important abbeys, and remained under the jurisdiction of the abbots; but subsequently any real distinction between abbeys and priories was lost. The greater abbeys formed most complete and extensive establishments, including not only the church and other buildings devoted to the monastic life and its daily requirements, such as the refectory or eating-room, the dormitories or sleeping-rooms, the room for social intercourse, the school for novices, the scribes' cells, library, and so on; but also workshops, storehouses, mills, cattle and poultry sheds, dwellings for artisans, labourers, and other servants, infirmary, guest-house, etc. Among the most famous abbeys on the continent of Europe were those of Cluny, Clairvaux, and Citeaux in France; St Galle in Switzerland, and Pulda in Germany; the most noteworthy English abbeys were those of Westminster, St Mary's of York, Fountains, Kirkstall, Tintern, Rievaulx, Netley; and of Scotland, Melrose, Paisley, and Arbroath. Research Abbey
The term cloister is applied to a monastic establishment; a place for retirement from the world for religious duties.
Cloister is a generic term, and denotes a place of seclusion from the world for persons who devote their lives to religious purposes. It differs from a convent in that the distinctive idea of a cloister is that of seclusion from the world, while that of a convent is a community of living. Both terms denote houses for recluses of either sex.
A cloister or convent for monks is called a monastery; for nuns, a nunnery. An abbey is a convent or monastic institution governed by an abbot or an abbess; a priory is one governed by a prior or a prioress, and is usually affiliated to an abbey. Research Cloister
An Abbess is the female superior of a community of nuns in certain religious orders. An abbess has administrative jurisdiction equivalent to that of the abbot of a monastery but does not exercise the rights and duties of the priesthood. The title dates from the 6th century. Most of the original secular privileges of the position, such as membership in the king's council and rank of nobility equivalent to that of temporal peers, were abolished in the 16th century, at the time of the Reformation. Research Abbess
An abbot is the superior of a community of monks. The word abbot ultimately derives from the Syriacabba, meaning father. The lady of similar rank to an abbot being called abbess. An abbess, however, was not, like the abbot, allowed to exercise the spiritual functions of the priesthood, such as preaching, confessing, etc; nor did abbesses ever succeed in freeing themselves from the control of their diocesan bishop.
In the early age of monastic institutions between about 300 and 600 the monks were not priests, but simply laymen who retired from the world to live in common, and the abbot was also a layman. In the course of time the abbots were usually ordained, and when an abbey was directly attached to a cathedral the bishop was also abbot.
At first the abbeys were more remarkable for their numbers than for their magnitude, but latterly many of them were large and richly endowed, and the heads of such establishments became personages of no small influence and power, more especially after the abbots succeeded - by the eleventh century - in freeing themselves from the jurisdiction of the bishop of their diocese. Hence families of the highest rank might be seen eagerly striving to obtain the titles of abbot and abbess for their members. The great object was to obtain control over the revenues of the abbeys, and for this purpose recourse was had to the device of holding them under a kind of trust, or, as it was called, in commendam.
According to the original idea the abbot in commendam, or 'commendator,' was merely a temporary trustee, who drew the whole or part of the revenues during a vacancy, and was bound to apply them to specific purposes; but ultimately the commendator or lay abbot in many instances held the appointment for life, and was allowed to apply the whole or a large portion of the revenues to his own private use. Many of the abbots latterly vied with the bishops and nobility in rank and dignity, wearing a mitre and keeping up a great style. In England twenty-seven abbots long sat in the House of Lords. The Reformation introduced vast changes, not only in Protestant countries, where abbeys and all other monastic establishments were generally suppressed, but even in countries which still continued Roman Catholic; many sovereigns, whilst displaying their zeal for the Roman Catholic Church by persecuting its opponents, not scrupling to imitate them in the confiscation of church property.
Pierre Abelard was a French philosopher. He was born in 1079, at Le Pallet and died in 1142. He founded scholastic theology.
As a young man Pierre Abelard made extraordinary progress with his studies, and, ultimately eclipsing his teachers, he opened a school of scholastic philosophy near Paris, which attracted crowds of students from the neighbouring city. His success in the fiery debates which were then the fashion in the schools made him many enemies, among whom was Guillaume de Champeaux, his former teacher, chief of the cathedral school of Notre-Dame, and the most advanced of the Realists. Abelard succeeded his adversary in this school in 1113, and under him were trained many men who afterwards rose to eminence, among them being the future Pope Celestin II., Peter Lombard, and Arnold of Brescia.
While he was at the height of his popularity, and in his fortieth year, he became infatuated with a passion for Heloise - then only eighteen years of age - niece of Fulbert, a canon of Paris. Obtaining a home in Fulbert's house under the pretext of teaching Heloise philosophy, their intercourse at length became apparent, and Abelard, who had retired to Brittany, was followed by Heloise, who there gave birth to a son. A private marriage took place, and Heloise returned to her uncle's house, but refusing to make public her marriage (as likely to spoil Abelard's career), she was subjected to severe treatment at the hands of her uncle. To save her from this Abelard carried her off and placed her in a convent at Argenteuil, a proceeding which so incensed Fulbert that he hired ruffians who broke into Abelard's chamber and subjected him to a shameful mutilation.
Abelard, filled with grief and shame, became a monk in the abbey of St Denis, and Heloise took the veil. When time had somewhat moderated his grief he resumed his lectures; but trouble after trouble overtook him. His theological writings were condemned by the Council of Soissons, and he retired to an oratory called the Paraclete, subsequently becoming head of the abbey of St. Gildas-de-Rhuys in Brittany.
For a short time he again lectured at Paris in 1136, but his doctrines again brought persecution on him, and St Bernard had him condemned by the council of Sens and afterwards by the pope. Abelard did not long survive this, dying at St. Marcel, near Chalon-sur-Saone in 1142. Heloise, who had become abbess of the Paraclete, had him buried there, where she herself was afterwards laid by his side. Their ashes were removed to Paris in 1800, and in 1817 they were finally deposited beneath a mausoleum in the cemetery of Pere la Chaise.
Abelard is credited with the invention of a new philosophical system, midway between Realism and Nominalism. A complete edition of his works was published by Cousin in two volumes at Paris, 1849-59, and the letters of Abelard and Heloise have been often published in the original and in translations. Research Pierre Abelard
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