Gilbertine Order

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Gilbertine Order
Order of Gilbertine Canons Regular
Named afterGilbert of Sempringham
Formationc.1130
Founder Gilbert of Sempringham
Founded atSempringham
Dissolved1539
Legal statusDissolved
Headquarters Sempringham Priory
Location
Official language
English
Master of the Gilbertine Order
Gilbert of Sempringham (first)
Robert Holgate (last)
Affiliations Catholic Church

The Gilbertine Order of Canons Regular was founded around 1130 by Saint Gilbert in Sempringham, Lincolnshire, where Gilbert was the parish priest. It was the only completely English religious order and came to an end in the 16th century at the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries. [1] Modest Gilbertine revivals have taken place in the late 20th and early 21st centuries on three continents.

Contents

Founding

Gilbert of Sempringham flanked by two nuns GilbertSempringham.jpg
Gilbert of Sempringham flanked by two nuns

Gilbert initially established a community for enclosed contemplative nuns. He accepted seven women whom he had taught in the village school and in 1131 founded an order of nuns based on the Cistercian Rule. [2] Gilbert set up buildings and a cloister for them against the north wall of the church, which stood on his land at Sempringham, and gave them a rule of life, enjoining upon them chastity, humility, obedience, and charity. Their daily necessaries were passed to them through a window by some girls chosen by Gilbert from among his people. [3]

As the serving maids requested that they too might have a dress and rule of life, on the advice of William, abbot of Rievaulx, he decided to add lay sisters to the community. [3] Eventually Gilbert added lay brothers to work the fields. [1] In 1139 the small order opened its first new foundation on the island of Haverholm, a gift from Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln. Each Gilbertine house now practically consisted of four communities, one of nuns, one of canons, one of lay sisters, and one of lay brothers. [1] Over the years, more and more new foundations were established.

In 1147 he left England for Continental Europe to seek assistance, and approached the Cistercian Order at its major house in Cîteaux to take on the running of his foundations. The Cistercians declined, apparently because they felt unable to administer houses for both men and women, but Pope Eugene III, himself a Cistercian, intervened to ask the abbot, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, to assist Gilbert in drawing up Institutes for a new Order, which combined Benedictine and Cistercian influences. Pope Eugene then appointed Gilbert as the first Master of the Order of Sempringham or Gilbertines. Gilbert returned to England in 1148, and completed the order, by appointing canons, who lived according to variant of the Augustinian rule, to serve his community as priests, and to help him in the work of administration. [3]

Habits

The Nuns wore a black tunic and a black scapular for work. They also wore a black lamb's wool head-dress with a coarse black cloth veil. [4]

The Sisters wore a dark tunic without the scapular. They also wore a sheepskin cloak and a long hood. [4]

The Canons Regular wore a black cassock with a white hooded cloak [5] (lined with lamb's wool) [6] with shoes of red leather. [4] When labouring, they would use the scapular. In choir, they each wore a white cowl. [4]

The Brothers wore a dark tunic with a dark cloak lined with rough skins. In church they wore a cloth cowl which descended to the heels. [4]

Layout

Each Gilbertine priory had one church, divided unequally by a wall. The nuns had the larger part, and the canons the smaller. The latter would join the nuns only to celebrate mass. From the church, the nunnery normally stood to the north and the canons' lodgings to the south.

Scandals

Towards the end of Gilbert's life, when he was around 90 years old, some of the lay brothers at Sempringham rose up against him, [1] complaining of too much work and too little food. The rebels, led by two skilled craftsmen, received money from both religious and secular supporters and took their case to Rome. Pope Alexander III ruled in Gilbert's favour, but the living conditions of the lay brothers were improved thereafter. [7]

In the mid-twelfth century, a girl was brought to Watton Priory as a child, but had no real religious vocation. This Nun of Watton became pregnant by a lay brother, who fled, but he was brought back for punishment.[ citation needed ]

The Middle Ages

The Gilbertine order was always popular in England and Wales. Its houses were the final homes of the last of the Welsh royal family, young daughters, after the rest had been defeated and killed in the 1280s. Principal among these was Gwenllian who was sent to Sempringham Priory and a monument commemorating her was placed near the Priory site in the 1990s. Many English kings gave the order generous charters, and yet it always had financial problems. By the end of the 15th century, the Order was greatly impoverished, and King Henry VI exempted all of its houses from paying taxes and from any other sort of payment. He could not force his successors to do the same. [1]

Dissolution

Malton Priory, West front Malton Priory, West front.JPG
Malton Priory, West front

By the time of the Dissolution, there were twenty-six houses of Gilbertines, but only four of these were ranked as "greater houses", having annual incomes above £200. Following the Suppression of Religious Houses Act 1535, these houses gave in to King Henry VIII in 1538 without a fight, surrendering "of their own free will". [1] Each nun and canon then received a pension for the rest of their lives.

The last Master of the Order, Robert Holgate is credited with using his influence to save them for a few years. Malton Priory, one of the lesser Gilbertine houses, was the last to surrender in December 1539, [8] whereas Sempringham Priory, worth more than £200 a year, surrendered in 1538. [3] Holgate was already the Bishop of Llandaff but translated to become Archbishop of York in 1545.

The Gilbertines were the only purely English order [1] (except for one short-lived house in Scotland), therefore the Dissolution marked their permanent end.

Legacy

The Gilbertine legacy is fairly small; only fifteen extant manuscripts are associated with the Order, originating from only five of the Gilbertine houses. Four additional works ascribed to Gilbertines, but not surviving in Gilbertine copies, include the Vita of Gilbert of Sempringham, the Gilbertine Rule, the so-called 'Sempringham Continuation' to Le Livere de Reis Engleterre, and the works of Robert Mannyng.

The remains of one Gilbertine monastery, Malton Priory, have been incorporated into the parish church at Malton in North Yorkshire. The original monastery was established around 1150, and, though it has suffered considerable abuse, the surviving fragment remains impressive. Although the Priory at Sempringham was destroyed, the adjacent and contemporary parish church of St Andrew remains and some evidence of mediaeval decoration is still to be found.

The remains of Mattersey Priory are currently managed by English Heritage.

In 2001, British Channel 4 Television's archaeological series Time Team [9] [10] excavated a Gilbertine monastery in Chicksands, Bedfordshire. The programme was shown in 2002 as part of series 9 of Time Team.

Gilbertine revivals

Oblates of St Gilbert

In 1983, following celebrations of the 900th anniversary of Gilbert's birth, a number of lay people in the East Midlands undertook to sustain the memory and work of Gilbert and the Gilbertine Order by establishing a new secular order. The Oblates of St Gilbert exist to promote the Gilbertine contemplative spirit and to foster interest in the study of Gilbert and his Order. They are supported by the Cistercian monastery of Mount St Bernard Abbey in Leicestershire. [11]

In about 1998, Carlos Aparicido Marchesani, a Catholic priest of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of São Paulo in Brazil, visited the Gilbertine Oblates as he had had a devotion to Saint Gilbert since his time as a seminarian in the United States. He obtained permission from his bishop to found a small religious community, the Fraternidade São Gilbert, ad experimentum, which was set up near São Paulo. [12] This experimental community was dissolved in 2012. [13]

The Companions of St Gilbert of Sempringham

A Roman Catholic Gilbertine community, The Canons Regular of St Gilbert of Sempringham (GSmp), began in 2017 in Canada within the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter. [14] [ better source needed ] In August 2019 members discerned that a full restoration could not take place as was desired. [15] [ better source needed ][ failed verification ] The Companions of St Gilbert of Sempringham, which existed alongside the canons regular, not unlike a third order in structure and purpose, will now be the main expression of Gilbertine spirituality resulting from this attempt at a restoration; it had begun as a de facto association of the faithful.[ citation needed ]

The detective novel, The Beautiful Mystery (2012), by Louise Penny is set in a fictional Gilbertine abbey in rural Quebec.[ citation needed ]

See also

Related Research Articles

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A scapular is a Western Christian garment suspended from the shoulders. There are two types of scapulars, the monastic and devotional scapular; both forms may simply be referred to as "scapular". As an object of popular piety, a scapular serves to remind wearers of their commitment to live a Christian life.

Lay brother is a largely extinct term referring to religious brothers, particularly in the Catholic Church, who focused upon manual service and secular matters, and were distinguished from choir monks or friars in that they did not pray in choir, and from clerics, in that they were not in possession of holy orders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Haverholme Priory</span> Former monastery in Lincolnshire

Haverholme Priory was a monastery in Lincolnshire, England. Its remains are situated 4 miles (6 km) north-east of the town of Sleaford and less than 1 mile (1.6 km) south-west from the village of Anwick.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gilbert of Sempringham</span> English Roman Catholic saint

Gilbert of Sempringham the founder of the Gilbertine Order, was the only Medieval Englishman to found a conventual order, mainly because the Abbot of Cîteaux declined his request to assist him in organising a group of women who wanted to live as nuns, living with lay brothers and sisters, in 1148. He founded a double monastery of canons regular and nuns in spite of such a foundation being contrary to canonical practice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sempringham</span> Hamlet in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England

Sempringham is a village in the civil parish of Pointon and Sempringham, in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. It is situated 2 miles (3.2 km) south from the A52 road, 12 miles (19 km) east from Grantham and 8 miles (13 km) north from Bourne. The hamlet is on the western edge of the Lincolnshire Fens, the closest village being Billingborough, 0.5 miles (0.80 km) to the north on the B1177 road. Sempringham is noted as the home of Gilbert of Sempringham, the son of the lord of the manor. Gilbert is the only English Saint to have founded a monastic order, the Gilbertines. In 1921 the parish had a population of 112. On 1 April 1931 the parish was abolished to form "Pointon and Sempringham".

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chicksands Priory</span>

Chicksands Priory is a former monastic house at Chicksands in Bedfordshire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Religious habit</span> Distinctive set of garments worn by members of a religious order

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Order of St Benedict (Anglican)</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Holgate</span> English Anglican bishop (died 1555)

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Malton Priory</span> Church in North Yorkshire, England

Malton Priory, Old Malton, North Yorkshire, England, is near to the town of Malton. It was founded as a monastery of the Gilbertine Order by Eustace fitz John, the lord of Malton Castle. Fitz John founded both Malton Priory and Watton Priory around 1150; some sources suggest that this was an act of penance for his support for the Scots in the Battle of the Standard.

Marmont Priory was a priory for Gilbertine Canons in Cambridgeshire, England. It was established by landowner Ralph de Hauvill as a small priory or chantry of three canons who prayed for the souls of de Hauvill and his wife, Maud. Fifteen years earlier, Maud had a vision of Gilbert of Sempringham ascending to Heaven on the day of his death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Watton Priory</span> Priory in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England

Watton Priory was a priory of the Gilbertine Order at Watton in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The double monastery was founded in 1150 by Eustace fitz John.

Alvingham Priory was a Gilbertine priory in St. Mary, Alvingham, Lincolnshire, England. The Priory, established between 1148 and 1154, was a "double house", where religious of both sexes lived in two separate monasteries. They did not commonly communicate with one another, and there was an internal wall dividing their priory church. The superior of every Gilbertine house was the prioress, the prior being really an official of her house.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sempringham Priory</span> Building in Lincolnshire, England

Sempringham Priory was a priory in Lincolnshire, England, located in the medieval hamlet of Sempringham, to the northwest of Pointon. Today, all that remains of the priory is a marking on the ground where the walls stood and a square, which are identifiable only in aerial photos of the vicinity. However, the parish church of St Andrew's, built around 1100 AD, is witness to the priory standing alone in a field away from the main road.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 PD-icon.svg One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Butler, Richard Urban (1909). "Order of Gilbertines". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia . Vol. 6. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved 12 October 2014.
  2. Butler, Richard Urban. "Order of Gilbertines." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 6. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1909. 12 Oct. 2014
  3. 1 2 3 4 Page, William, 'Houses of the Gilbertine order: The priory of Sempringham', A History of the County of Lincoln: Volume 2 (1906), pp. 179–187, (Public domain text), accessed via British History online
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 S. Gilbert of Sempringham and the Gilbertines, Graham, Rose, 1901, p. 71
  5. Monasticon Vol.2 p.791
  6. English Monastic Life, Gasquet, Francis Aidan, 1904, p.229
  7. ""The Gilbertine Order", St. Mary's Priory Church, Old Malton". Archived from the original on 13 October 2014. Retrieved 12 October 2014.
  8. Gilbertine houses: Priory of Malton. A History of the County of York: Volume 3 (1974), pp. 253-254 (Public domain text), accessed via British History Online.
  9. "When The Time Team Came To Chicksands". The Friends of Chicksands Priory. 2013. Archived from the original on 17 February 2015.
  10. Time Team. Season 09, Episode 04. Originally aired on 27 January 2002.
  11. "Oblates of St Gilbert".
  12. Catholic Herald 26 March 2004 "Medieval English order enjoys revival in Brazil"
  13. Letter to Hilary Costello OCSO, Mount St Bernard Abbey, from Carlos Marchesani
  14. Anglicanorum Coetibus Society 2017/05/12
  15. "Companions of St. Gilbert". gilbertine.net.

Bibliography