Abba is a devotional expression for the Divine Fatherhood, and, apparently, the chief appellation of God used by Jesus in prayer. The name was also adopted by a Swedish seventies music group from their initials. Abba is a Semitic word equivalent to 'Father,' which, being applied in the Eastern church to monks, superiors of monks, and other ecclesiastics, gave rise to the word abbot. In the Syriac and Coptic Churches it is given to the bishops. Research Abba
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
Abbe is a French word for an abbot, or for anyone regularly wearing the clerical dress. Before the French Revolution, all who had studied theology, either with a view to become ordained clergymen, or merely to obtain some ecclesiastical appointment or benefice, were generally so designated. Many of them had little that was clerical in their manners or character. Marked out by their special dress, they were seen everywhere - at the court, the ball, the theatre, and other places of public resort, and in private families, where they acted sometimes as tutors and sometimes as confidential advisers. Others again adopted the literary profession or became teachers in the higher educational establishments. Research Abbe
The bear of Bradwardine was a wine goblet, of about a pint capacity, made on command of St Duthac the Abbot of Aberbrothoe to be presented to the Baron of Bradwardine for services rendered in defence of the monastery. Inscribed upon the goblet was the motto: 'Beware the Bear'. Research Bear of Bradwardine
A bell is a hollow, somewhat cup-shaped, sounding instrument of metal. The metal from which bells are usually made (by founding) is an alloy, called bell-metal, commonly composed of eighty parts of copper and twenty of tin. The proportion of tin varies, however, from one-third to one-fifth of the weight of the copper, according to the sound required, the size of the bell, and the impulse to be given. The clearness and richness of the tone depend upon the metal used, the perfection of its casting, and also upon its shape; it having been shown by a number of experiments that the well-known shape with a thick lip is the best adapted to give a perfect sound. The depth of the tone of a bell increases in proportion to its size.
A bell is divided into the body or barrel, the ear or cannon, and the clapper or tongue. The lip or sound-bow is that part where the bell is struck by the clapper. It is uncertain whether the jangling instruments used by the Egyptians and Israelites can be correctly described as bells; but it is certain that bells of a considerable size were in early use in China and Japan, and that the Greeks and Romans used them for various purposes. They are said to have been first introduced into Christian churches about 400 AD by Paulinus, bishop of Nola, in Campania (whence campana and nola as old names of bells); although their adoption on a wide scale does not become apparent until after the year 550, when they were introduced into France.
Benedict Biscop, abbot of Wearmouth, seems to have imported bells from Italy to England in 680, but their use in Ireland and Scotland is probably of earlier date. The oldest of those existing in Great Britain and Ireland, such as the 'bell of St. Patrick's will' and St Ninian's bell, are quadrangular and made of thin iron plates hammered and riveted together.
Until the thirteenth century bells were of comparatively small size, but after the casting of the Jacqueline of Paris (6.5 tons) in 1400 their weight rapidly increased. Among the more famous bells are the bell of Cologne, 11. tons, 1448; of Dantzic, 6 tons, 1453; of Halberstadt, 7.5, 1457; of Rouen, 16, 1501; of Breslau, 11, 1507; of Lucerne, 71, 1636; of Oxford,7.5 1680; of Paris, 12.8, 1680; of Bruges, 10.5, 1680; of Vienna, 17.75, 1711; of Moscow (the monarch of all bells), 193, 1736; three other bells at Moscow ranging from 16 to 31 tons, and a fourth of 80 tons cast in 1819; the bell of Lincoln (Great Tom), 5.5, 1834; of YorkMinster (Great Peter), 10.75, 1845; of Montreal, 134, 1847; of Westminster (Big Ben), 15.5, 1856, (St Stephen), 13.5, 1858; the Great Bell of St. Paul's, 17.5, 1882. Others are the bells of Ghent (5 tons), Gorlitz (10.75 tons), St Peter's, Rome (8 tons), Antwerp (7.25 tons), Olmutz (18 tons), Sacred Heart, Paris (27 tons), Novgorod (31 tons), Pekin (53.5 tons).
Besides their use in churches bells are employed for various purposes, formerly the most common use being to summon attendants or domestics in private houses, hotels, etc. Bells for this purpose were of small size and may be held in the hand and rung, but most commonly were rung by means of wires stretched from the various apartments to the place where the bells were hung. Bells rung by electricity became common in hotels and other establishments around 1905.
A clock is an instrument for measuring time and indicating hours, minutes, and usually seconds, by means of hands moving on a dial-plate, and traditionally differing from a watch mainly in having the movement of its machinery regulated by a pendulum, and in not being portable. A clock also chimes, though the term clock is frequently, and incorrectly, applied to the non-chiming instruments for measuring time, which are technically known as a timepiece.
The use of a horologium, or hour-teller, was common even amongst the ancients, but their time-pieces were nothing else than sun-dials, hour-glasses, and clepsydrae. In the earlier half of our era we have accounts of several attempts at clock construction : that of Boethius in the 6th century, the clock sent by Harun al Rashid to Charlemagne in 809, that made by Pacificus, archdeacon of Verona, in the 9th century, and that of PopeSylvester II in the 10th century. It is doubtful, however, if any of these was a wheel-and-weight clock, and it is probably to the monks that we owe the invention of clocks set in motion by wheels and weights. In the 12th century clocks were made use of in the monasteries, which announced the end of every hour by the sound of a bell put in motion by means of wheels. From this time forward the expression, 'the clock has struck,' is often met with. The hand for marking the time is also made mention of.
In the 14th century there are stronger traces of the later system of clock-work. Dante particularly mentions clocks. Richard, abbot of St Albans in England, made a clock in 1326, such as had never been heard of until then. It not only indicated the course of the sun and moon, but also the ebb and flood tide. Large clocks on steeples likewise were first made use of in the 14th century. Watches are a much later invention, although they have likewise been said to have been invented as early as the 14th century. A celebrated clock, the construction of which is well known, was set up in Paris for Charles V in 1379, the maker being Henry de Vick, a German. It probably formed a model on which clocks were constructed for nearly 300 years, and until Huyghens applied the pendulum to clock-work as the regulating power, about 1657. The great advantage of the pendulum prior to the invention of electronic oscillators is that the beats or oscillations of a pendulum all occupy substantially the same time (the time depending on its length), hence its utility in imparting regularity to a time-measurer. The mechanism by which comparative regularity was previously attained, though ingenious and simple, was far less perfect; and the first pendulum escapement that is, the contrivance by which the pendulum was connected with the clock-work, was also less perfect than others subsequently introduced, especially Graham's dead-heat escapement, invented in 1700.
In a watch, prior to the invention of electronics, the balance-wheel and spring served the same purpose as the pendulum, and the honour of being the inventor of the balance-spring was contested between Huyghens and the English pliilosopher Dr. Hooke. Various improvements followed, such as the chronometerescapement, and the addition of a compensation adjustment, by which two metals having unequal rates of expansion and contraction under variations of temperature are combined in the pendulum or the balance-wheel, so that, each metal counteracting the other, the vibrations are isochronous under any change of temperature. This arrangement was perfected by Harrison in 1726, and was especially useful in navigation. Research Clock
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
The dissolution of the monasteries in England was carried out by Henry VIII between 1535 and 1539. This was an attack on Church property for three reasons. First, the monks were the main supporters of the Papal authority in England, and they were members of orders which were spread over Europe. It had proved possible to separate the English bishops and clergy from allegiance to the Pope; this was not possible with the monastic orders, which were international, not insular, institutions. The second reason was the wealth of the monasteries, which was the result of the pious bequest of many centuries. The cry against monastic wealth had been raised many times previously in English history, particularly by John Wycliffe and others from the time of Edward III and Richard II. The courtiers of Henry VIII and the rising middle class were greedy for land, and Henry VIII saw that by ministering to their greed he could make his new nobility and their new property a firm support of his Reformation. The third reason for ending the monasteries was
the reason given to Parliament: that the monks had outlived their day of usefulness and were abandoned to idleness and vice. There were over 600 religious houses in England, and no doubt there was some truth in this charge. Zealous churchmen had long known that all was not well with these ancient institutions. In Henry VII's reign the Oxford Reformers had rebuked monkish follies, and CardinalMorton had noted the 'incurable uselessness' of many of the smaller houses where the monks were idle and ignorant. CardinalWolsey had obtained a Papal Bull to visit the monasteries, and had begun to suppress some, intending to use their revenues for the benefit of education and the New Learning and to found new bishoprics. One of them, St. Frideswide's Priory at Oxford, he converted into Cardinal College (later Christ Church).
In 1535 Henry VIII made Thomas Cromwell his Vicar-General, 'with power to visit any monastery in England'. The character of Cromwell was sufficient guarantee that the visitation would not be conducted fairly. He knew what was expected of him; he was to be 'The Hammer of the Monks'. His agents hurried through England, visited some of the monasteries, and drew up an evil report. This report unfortunately no longer exists. Our only information is derived from Cromwell's note-books and from the letters of his agents, from which we may gather something of their methods. For example, Dr. Layton, vicar of Harrow-on-the-Hill, dashed through southern England from Gloucestershire to Rent between August and October 1535. He condemned monasteries wholesale, on insufficient evidence, although at the same time he did not scruple to accept bribes from some, or to help himself to plate and jewels from others.
However, Parliament was satisfied, and the country squires, anxious for the 'goods of the Church', shouted ' Down with them!' The Act dissolving 276 of the lesser monasteries of England in 1536 was the last important Act of the Reformation Parliament. In dissolving the smaller monasteries first, Henry VIII had cautiously tested his power. But his violent measures had by 1536 caused grave discontent, especially in the west and north, and in Parliament itself. His wholesale destruction of the smaller monasteries was followed by two popular uprisings. The first occurred in Lincolnshire, where the rebels were crushed by a military force under the Duke of Suffolk. The second rising, in Yorkshire in 1536, known as the Pilgrimage of Grace, was much more serious. The following year the famous shrine of Becket at Canterbury was attacked. Thomas Becket was declared in April 1538 'a false saint and a traitor to the Supreme Head of the Church'; his bones were burnt; his shrine pillaged and its offerings confiscated.
Then Henry VIII was ready to turn his attention to the greater monasteries, although Parliament had saved them earlier because of their good conduct. Cromwell and his agents in 1539 began a persecution of the abbots: many were induced to surrender their abbeys to the king; others could only be reduced by methods of terror. The Abbots of Reading and Colchester were tried for treason; the Abbot of Glastonbury for felony. All three were executed. The odious methods of Cromwell are well shown in some notes left in his own handwriting: 'To see that the evidence be well sorted and the indictments well drawn against the said abbots. The Abbot of Reading to be sent down to be tried and executed at Reading with his accomplices. The Abbot of Glaston to be tried at Glaston, and also executed there with his accomplices.' The last Abbot of Glastonbury, a pious, venerable man beloved in the countryside, was executed with two of his brethren on GlastonburyTor, after a mock trial in November 1539. These ferocities had the desired effect: many less brave spirits gave in, and soon there were no monasteries left. The dissolution of 616 religious houses was the greatest revolution in the ownership of land in England since the Norman Conquest. The monastic income has been variously estimated at between one-fifth and one-third of the total rental of England.
This newly acquired wealth the king might have used in developing public works, such as education. Some of it was spent in re-building the Navy; but the king's own greed and the greed of courtiers swallowed most of the spoil. A thousand newly enriched families became the nobility on which Henry in future relied for support. The 'Abbey' where the descendants or successors of these Tudor families now live is a name to be found in many an English village. But sad indeed was the fate of the original buildings. Some, like the great church at Tewkesbury, have been preserved in the form of parish churches; others have been partly preserved to form cathedrals. But the greater number were ruthlessly destroyed by their new possessors, their roofs despoiled for the valuable lead, their walls made quarries for new buildings, their treasures scattered, and their ruins left desolate. Whatever defence may be made for the suppression of the monastic orders, no excuse can be offered for this orgy of destruction, which deprived England of some of her noblest monuments.
It is probable that at least 15000 persons were cast adrift. These people went to swell the already large number of the unemployed, for whom Tudor statesmanship could find no better relief than the savage punishments inflicted on thieves and vagabonds. Some of the monks were given benefices or pensioned by the Government, but the pensions were not always paid; the occupants of the lesser houses fared worse than those of the greater. The hospitality which the monks had always given to the poor was now removed. There was nothing to take its place, and many monks and nuns joined the ranks of those who had formerly subsisted on their charity. Many gaps were left in national life, for the abbeys, said Aske 'were one of the beauties of this realm to all men and strangers passing through the same; all gentlemen much succoured in their needs with money, and in nunneries their daughters brought up in virtue. And such abbeys as were near the danger of seabanks were great maintainers of sea-walls and dykes, builders of bridges and highways, and such other things for the commonwealth.' Research Dissolution of the Monasteries
The Feast of Fools was the name given to festivals regularly celebrated, from the 5th to the 16th century, in several countries of Europe, by the clergy and laity, with the most absurd ceremonies. The feast of fools was an imitation of the Roman Saturnalia, and, like this, was celebrated in December. The chief celebration fell upon the day of the Innocents, or upon New-year's Day;
but the feast continued from Christmas to the last Sunday of Epiphany. The young people, who played the chief parts, chose from among their own number a mock pope, archbishop, bishop, or abbot, and consecrated him, with many ridiculous ceremonies, in the chief church of the place. They often travestied the performance of the highest offices of the church, while others, dressed in different kinds of masks and disguises, engaged in indecent songs and dances, and practised all possible follies in the church. Except from their association with the Saturnalia nothing is known of the origin of these extravagancies, which appear to have been very ancient. They were most common in France, but the feast was also observed in Spain, Germany, England, and Scotland. In France it survived until the year 1644. Research Feast of Fools
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Abba
