0:00:03 > 0:00:05When we think of monasteries in Britain,
0:00:05 > 0:00:09we think of Henry VIII and the Dissolution.
0:00:09 > 0:00:14But their story stretches back 1,000 years before Henry was born
0:00:14 > 0:00:17to the most remarkable of beginnings.
0:00:19 > 0:00:22The monastic system that would be torn apart by Henry
0:00:22 > 0:00:26began as a cult of extreme isolation
0:00:26 > 0:00:29on rocky islands and in desert caves.
0:00:31 > 0:00:32From these origins,
0:00:32 > 0:00:37the monasteries grew to dominate every aspect of public life.
0:00:38 > 0:00:42The story of Britain's millennium of monasteries
0:00:42 > 0:00:45is one of devotion and faith,
0:00:45 > 0:00:48but also of ambition,
0:00:48 > 0:00:51violence and greed.
0:00:51 > 0:00:53As the monks grew in power
0:00:53 > 0:00:56they transformed society,
0:00:56 > 0:00:59but they also absorbed its corruption.
0:01:00 > 0:01:06The difference between their original austere ideals and this,
0:01:06 > 0:01:09the palatial opulence
0:01:09 > 0:01:14of a high medieval monastery, is breathtaking.
0:01:14 > 0:01:18It's a contradiction they would never fully escape,
0:01:18 > 0:01:22and one that would eventually lead to their destruction.
0:01:25 > 0:01:27In this episode...
0:01:28 > 0:01:32..monasteries go from the shattered victims of Norse destruction
0:01:32 > 0:01:35to the guardians of medieval society.
0:01:37 > 0:01:41Massive new monasteries transform the skyline,
0:01:41 > 0:01:43as over 10,000 monks and nuns
0:01:43 > 0:01:46spread across the nation.
0:01:47 > 0:01:50In their hands, art is re-awoken,
0:01:50 > 0:01:52scholarship is saved,
0:01:52 > 0:01:54and music is transformed,
0:01:54 > 0:01:57and the monks spill beyond their monasteries
0:01:57 > 0:02:01as pioneers of business and social care.
0:02:03 > 0:02:05Yet the more influence they gain,
0:02:05 > 0:02:08the more they drift from their principles.
0:02:08 > 0:02:11Finally, their power becomes their weakness,
0:02:11 > 0:02:15and the monks are set up for a brutal fall.
0:02:36 > 0:02:38At the close of the 8th century,
0:02:38 > 0:02:40Lindisfarne, on the Northumbrian coast,
0:02:40 > 0:02:44was home to one of England's greatest monasteries.
0:02:47 > 0:02:49For over 150 years,
0:02:49 > 0:02:53its monks had dominated the spiritual lives of the local people,
0:02:53 > 0:02:57all the while growing wealthy from trade from the sea.
0:03:01 > 0:03:04Yet on the 8th June 793,
0:03:04 > 0:03:06they had an unexpected arrival.
0:03:12 > 0:03:16Unfamiliar longships appeared in these shallow waters.
0:03:18 > 0:03:20The occupants leapt out,
0:03:20 > 0:03:22splashed up the beach,
0:03:22 > 0:03:23and headed for the monastery.
0:03:25 > 0:03:29This was northern England's first Viking raid.
0:03:31 > 0:03:34It was a monk, Alcuin of York,
0:03:34 > 0:03:39who gives us the only contemporary account of what happened.
0:03:39 > 0:03:44"Never before has such terror been seen in Britain.
0:03:44 > 0:03:46"Behold the church of St Cuthbert,
0:03:46 > 0:03:52"splattered with the blood of God's priests, robbed of its ornaments."
0:03:55 > 0:03:59A chronicler tells how the monks were butchered, enslaved,
0:03:59 > 0:04:03or thrown into the waves to drown.
0:04:04 > 0:04:07Their sacred treasures were ripped from the monastery.
0:04:09 > 0:04:11And this was just the beginning.
0:04:15 > 0:04:18From Lindisfarne in Northumbria
0:04:18 > 0:04:21to Iona in the Hebrides
0:04:21 > 0:04:25to Skellig St Michael off the west coast of Ireland,
0:04:25 > 0:04:30Vikings tore into the rich and almost defenceless monasteries.
0:04:31 > 0:04:34Previously central to trade, learning and art,
0:04:34 > 0:04:39this once great network was left in tatters.
0:04:43 > 0:04:45Many monasteries fell into ruin.
0:04:47 > 0:04:50In a land harried by raiders,
0:04:50 > 0:04:53it must have seemed like the monks would never return.
0:05:06 > 0:05:09The next 50 years were a dark time.
0:05:11 > 0:05:16Soon, almost a third of the mainland had been settled by the invaders.
0:05:16 > 0:05:18In the absence of monks,
0:05:18 > 0:05:22the Saxon church was left in the hands of priests.
0:05:22 > 0:05:26They were sworn neither to chastity nor poverty,
0:05:26 > 0:05:30and some are thought to be leading disreputable lives.
0:05:33 > 0:05:36Yet in the middle of the 9th century,
0:05:36 > 0:05:38a new ruler appeared.
0:05:41 > 0:05:44King Alfred fought back against the invaders.
0:05:44 > 0:05:48And under his successor, a new nation - England -
0:05:48 > 0:05:50gradually started to take shape.
0:05:52 > 0:05:54As the invaders retreated,
0:05:54 > 0:05:57the stage was set for something that seemed impossible
0:05:57 > 0:05:59a few years before.
0:06:01 > 0:06:05The monasteries were about to enter their golden age.
0:06:17 > 0:06:21In the 10th century, the most important cathedral in England
0:06:21 > 0:06:23was Winchester's Old Minster.
0:06:27 > 0:06:30Its outline can still be seen today.
0:06:32 > 0:06:34In the year 964,
0:06:34 > 0:06:37armed men appeared at the Minster
0:06:37 > 0:06:41and threw the Saxon priests out of their own church.
0:06:41 > 0:06:46It seemed like the violence of Lindisfarne was happening again.
0:06:46 > 0:06:51But the armed men that came here to Winchester were no Vikings.
0:06:51 > 0:06:54The man in charge was an English bishop.
0:06:54 > 0:06:57And their mission was not to slaughter the priests
0:06:57 > 0:07:00but to replace them with monks.
0:07:02 > 0:07:06The bishop in command was called Aethelwold.
0:07:08 > 0:07:10A steely-eyed zealot,
0:07:10 > 0:07:13he had a particular loathing for regular priests.
0:07:13 > 0:07:18A biography written at the time said he had an especial hatred
0:07:18 > 0:07:21for the clergy here at Winchester, who were
0:07:21 > 0:07:25"involved in wicked and scandalous behaviour"
0:07:25 > 0:07:29and "constantly given up to gourmandizing and drunkenness."
0:07:29 > 0:07:34For Aethelwold, what this church needed was monks.
0:07:38 > 0:07:40But before the monks could be brought back,
0:07:40 > 0:07:43Aethelwold had to turn these forgotten holy men
0:07:43 > 0:07:48into a movement fit to save the nation's souls.
0:07:48 > 0:07:51Fortunately, he had a secret weapon.
0:07:53 > 0:07:56The Rule of Benedict was a set of strict instructions
0:07:56 > 0:07:58for monastic life,
0:07:58 > 0:08:03laid down in the 6th century by the Italian St Benedict of Nursia.
0:08:03 > 0:08:07The earlier Anglo-Saxons had known its ideas,
0:08:07 > 0:08:09but by now it had faded from view.
0:08:10 > 0:08:12By reintroducing the rule,
0:08:12 > 0:08:16Aethelwold believed he could create a breed of purer monks,
0:08:16 > 0:08:19in newly disciplined monasteries.
0:08:21 > 0:08:22Beginning in Winchester,
0:08:22 > 0:08:27they would take back the spiritual guardianship of the nation.
0:08:29 > 0:08:33Professor Sarah Foot explained what happened next.
0:08:37 > 0:08:39So, what happens here, and it happens here at Winchester,
0:08:39 > 0:08:42is it's often called the monastic reform, or the monastic revival -
0:08:42 > 0:08:45but I think really we should call it a monastic revolution.
0:08:45 > 0:08:49It fundamentally changes the nature of the religious life
0:08:49 > 0:08:52for monks and nuns living inside monasteries,
0:08:52 > 0:08:56all of which now have to follow the Rule of St Benedict exclusively
0:08:56 > 0:09:00and very rigidly, but it also changes the way of life for those clergy
0:09:00 > 0:09:02who decide they don't want to do this,
0:09:02 > 0:09:05- who get driven out of places like Winchester.- Interesting.
0:09:05 > 0:09:08So, it really is a revolution - it's a revolution in terms of the
0:09:08 > 0:09:13transformation of the religious life at this stage.
0:09:13 > 0:09:17It is. It means people who are going to call themselves monks or nuns
0:09:17 > 0:09:20have to live inside community -
0:09:20 > 0:09:23they're going to be walled away from the outside world,
0:09:23 > 0:09:27they're going to follow their strict rule of life which determines
0:09:27 > 0:09:30their social organisation, the kind of food they can eat,
0:09:30 > 0:09:34when they can eat it, and which radically alters the amount of time
0:09:34 > 0:09:35they spend in prayer,
0:09:35 > 0:09:39especially in formal liturgical worship inside the cathedral.
0:09:39 > 0:09:42So this variety which we've seen in Anglo-Saxon monasteries -
0:09:42 > 0:09:44- that's ending? - Yes, that's gone.
0:09:44 > 0:09:47So what you find now is a uniformity of observance.
0:09:47 > 0:09:51All monastic house were following the same rule in the same manner,
0:09:51 > 0:09:55so if you're in Winchester, if you're in Worcester,
0:09:55 > 0:09:58if you're in Ely or Peterborough,
0:09:58 > 0:10:01at six o'clock in the morning, they're all saying the same office,
0:10:01 > 0:10:06the same way, together. And it's always this central unifying idea
0:10:06 > 0:10:10that one right rule of life will govern all monks and nuns,
0:10:10 > 0:10:13the whole church, the whole nation.
0:10:13 > 0:10:15So it does feel revolutionary, doesn't it?
0:10:15 > 0:10:19It's removing some freedoms and imposing quite rigid rules.
0:10:19 > 0:10:23Very much imposing rules. But there were plenty of English people
0:10:23 > 0:10:26who thought this was a really good thing, and who then flocked
0:10:26 > 0:10:29to these communities that Aethelwold reformed.
0:10:38 > 0:10:43Aethelwold's hostile takeover was a spectacular success.
0:10:43 > 0:10:47Not only did he reinstate monks here at Winchester,
0:10:47 > 0:10:51but his act rippled out across the country
0:10:51 > 0:10:55in an astonishing rebirth of monastic life.
0:10:55 > 0:10:57And the monasteries weren't just revived -
0:10:57 > 0:11:01Aethelwold had set them on course to become the religious
0:11:01 > 0:11:04and cultural powerhouses of the Middle Ages.
0:11:11 > 0:11:13Following the Winchester revival,
0:11:13 > 0:11:17the Benedictine revolution spread across southern and central England
0:11:17 > 0:11:20in the 10th and early 11th centuries.
0:11:20 > 0:11:25Cathedrals like Winchester were converted into monasteries,
0:11:25 > 0:11:29while a wave of new monasteries were also founded.
0:11:29 > 0:11:34Anglo-Saxon aristocrats donated land and money to the monks,
0:11:34 > 0:11:40and a new network of monasteries was soon growing in power and prestige.
0:11:45 > 0:11:49The new funds, and the revived sense of mission,
0:11:49 > 0:11:52led to an artistic reawakening.
0:11:52 > 0:11:55The skill of illumination was reborn,
0:11:55 > 0:12:00with exceptional manuscripts like the Benedictional of St Aethelwold,
0:12:00 > 0:12:05in which vibrant colour and gold leaf testify to the new confidence
0:12:05 > 0:12:08and wealth of the monasteries.
0:12:08 > 0:12:12Yet the nobles who donated money to the monks
0:12:12 > 0:12:15were getting something in return.
0:12:17 > 0:12:21Under the Benedictine Rule, the monks had to worship together
0:12:21 > 0:12:22eight times daily.
0:12:22 > 0:12:25They would pray for the souls of their benefactors,
0:12:25 > 0:12:27and as well as offering silent prayer,
0:12:27 > 0:12:31they would come together to sing.
0:12:31 > 0:12:33The more beautiful the singing,
0:12:33 > 0:12:37the more powerful, and valuable, the prayer.
0:12:39 > 0:12:43With better organised choirs, and patrons to impress,
0:12:43 > 0:12:46the stage was set for a breakthrough
0:12:46 > 0:12:48that would transform Western music.
0:12:51 > 0:12:56# Hallelujah... #
0:12:56 > 0:12:59For centuries, monastic music
0:12:59 > 0:13:03had meant a simple single melody or chant.
0:13:05 > 0:13:09But now a new sound was born.
0:13:10 > 0:13:14THEY SING
0:13:18 > 0:13:20Known as polyphony,
0:13:20 > 0:13:22it added new musical layers
0:13:22 > 0:13:25of increasing complexity and beauty.
0:13:25 > 0:13:29SINGING CONTINUES
0:13:34 > 0:13:38And it was perfected in the English Benedictine monasteries.
0:13:38 > 0:13:43THEY SING
0:13:43 > 0:13:47This music wasn't heard for 1,000 years.
0:13:47 > 0:13:49Professor Susan Rankin
0:13:49 > 0:13:52was responsible for bringing it back to life.
0:13:55 > 0:13:57At Corpus Christi College, Cambridge,
0:13:57 > 0:14:02she explained how it lay hidden in one tiny but astonishing book.
0:14:03 > 0:14:07Susan, what is this beautiful little manuscript?
0:14:07 > 0:14:09It's a Troper, a liturgical book,
0:14:09 > 0:14:11a book of liturgical music,
0:14:11 > 0:14:15which is an absolute treasure chest of Anglo-Saxon music
0:14:15 > 0:14:21made at Winchester in the 1020s, 1030s.
0:14:21 > 0:14:23And what makes it so special, then?
0:14:23 > 0:14:28- It's the oldest surviving collection of two-part music, full stop.- Gosh.
0:14:28 > 0:14:30And this is the music for two voices,
0:14:30 > 0:14:34which was an incredibly new thing to hear at the time,
0:14:34 > 0:14:38and this is what makes this book exceptional.
0:14:38 > 0:14:40So what am I looking at here?
0:14:40 > 0:14:44You're looking at the chant for a whole series of different ways
0:14:44 > 0:14:46of singing Kyrie Eleison,
0:14:46 > 0:14:48which is what is sung at the beginning of the mass,
0:14:48 > 0:14:52and that's how you would sing it if you didn't have a second singer,
0:14:52 > 0:14:55and it's perfectly self sufficient.
0:14:55 > 0:14:59HE SINGS
0:15:05 > 0:15:08But what you find later on in the book
0:15:08 > 0:15:10is a second voice
0:15:10 > 0:15:12to put with that.
0:15:12 > 0:15:18So you marry up the original single voice with this later voice.
0:15:18 > 0:15:21Here is the second voice for this Kyrie.
0:15:21 > 0:15:25THEY SING
0:15:29 > 0:15:32So this practice of polyphony would have been taking place
0:15:32 > 0:15:35- throughout monasteries?- I think it would have been sung in many,
0:15:35 > 0:15:39many monasteries. If you think about the fact that monks had to sing
0:15:39 > 0:15:43the Opus Dei, so the work of God, every day,
0:15:43 > 0:15:49in order to celebrate God on behalf of king and country,
0:15:49 > 0:15:53the monks were doing this not for themselves but for everybody else.
0:15:53 > 0:15:57Susan, it must feel wonderful to think you've uncovered
0:15:57 > 0:16:00this lost sound, you've brought it back to life.
0:16:00 > 0:16:05Well, the music was not heard from probably the late 11th century,
0:16:05 > 0:16:09and the moment when I heard that music was amazing,
0:16:09 > 0:16:11because it's wonderful music.
0:16:11 > 0:16:15And if this one book hadn't survived, we wouldn't really know that much.
0:16:15 > 0:16:20It transforms the history of early medieval music.
0:16:20 > 0:16:24THEY SING
0:16:24 > 0:16:29Only in monasteries, where talented individuals had time and money
0:16:29 > 0:16:31to push the boundaries of their art
0:16:31 > 0:16:34could such an harmonic breakthrough have taken place.
0:16:34 > 0:16:38SINGING CONTINUES
0:16:40 > 0:16:43Yet, within a few short years,
0:16:43 > 0:16:47the monasteries were shaken by another great upheaval.
0:16:58 > 0:17:00In 1066,
0:17:00 > 0:17:01William the Conqueror's Normans
0:17:01 > 0:17:04crashed into the Anglo-Saxon establishment,
0:17:04 > 0:17:09wiping out its power and swallowing up its land.
0:17:11 > 0:17:14Yet if the invasion brought destruction to the nation,
0:17:14 > 0:17:17for the monasteries, it was a godsend.
0:17:17 > 0:17:22Because the Normans didn't just keep the Anglo-Saxon monasteries,
0:17:22 > 0:17:25they rebuilt them on an epic scale.
0:17:26 > 0:17:30In the process, they created the vast stone monastery,
0:17:30 > 0:17:33the city of God, that we know today.
0:17:33 > 0:17:37The most incredible example of all stands in Durham.
0:17:39 > 0:17:41Under the Anglo-Saxons
0:17:41 > 0:17:43this green was Durham's market.
0:17:43 > 0:17:48But the Normans threw out the market and replaced it with a military
0:17:48 > 0:17:53religious complex. They built their castle here and they built,
0:17:53 > 0:17:56within the same protective enclosure,
0:17:56 > 0:18:00an astonishing vast new abbey.
0:18:14 > 0:18:18Just as their castles stamped the secular authority of the Normans
0:18:18 > 0:18:23on the country, their monasteries, or abbeys, larger than any buildings
0:18:23 > 0:18:25ever seen in the British Isles,
0:18:25 > 0:18:30declared that this invasion had been blessed by God.
0:18:36 > 0:18:41Garrisoned by monks, each abbey was a Christian fortress.
0:18:42 > 0:18:46The key to the new monasteries lay in architectural ideas
0:18:46 > 0:18:49the Normans brought over from the continent.
0:18:49 > 0:18:53Monks were engaged in an unending fight against evil,
0:18:53 > 0:18:57and their new fortresses were to surround and protect them
0:18:57 > 0:18:59as never before.
0:18:59 > 0:19:03These new ideas can be seen in a remarkable document,
0:19:03 > 0:19:07the only European architectural drawing to survive
0:19:07 > 0:19:11from the fall of Rome to the early Middle Ages.
0:19:11 > 0:19:15It includes the earliest surviving example of the structure
0:19:15 > 0:19:20that was to define the monastery more than any other - the cloister.
0:19:21 > 0:19:26Dr Giles Gasper from Durham University explained how this plan
0:19:26 > 0:19:30was the template for all future monastic buildings in Britain.
0:19:32 > 0:19:36Giles, this looks incredible. What are we looking at?
0:19:36 > 0:19:39We're looking here at the plan of the Abbey of St Gall,
0:19:39 > 0:19:43which is a great Swiss monastery from the 9th century, from the 830s.
0:19:43 > 0:19:47It's a wonderfully detailed plan
0:19:47 > 0:19:50of the whole monastic complex.
0:19:51 > 0:19:53What it seems to be is an idealised version
0:19:53 > 0:19:55of what a monastery should look like.
0:19:55 > 0:19:57If we start from the outside
0:19:57 > 0:20:00- we have animals... - Pigs...
0:20:00 > 0:20:04Pigs, sheep, goats. We have a little house for chickens here,
0:20:04 > 0:20:06a little chicken egg,
0:20:06 > 0:20:08and we have a vegetable garden.
0:20:08 > 0:20:10The cemetery.
0:20:10 > 0:20:14Then we get into the beating heart of the monastery,
0:20:14 > 0:20:17the reason for this other activity.
0:20:17 > 0:20:23So, the main monastery church and then this four-sided shape,
0:20:23 > 0:20:27the cloister, so this is both for monastic living,
0:20:27 > 0:20:31monastic sleeping - importantly - so that they can serve their church
0:20:31 > 0:20:35and get on with their monastic job, which is effective prayer.
0:20:35 > 0:20:37And the cloister seems to be a peculiar invention
0:20:37 > 0:20:41of the Middle Ages and is taken on from the 9th century,
0:20:41 > 0:20:44the date of this map, on into the high Middle Ages and becomes really
0:20:44 > 0:20:48a characteristic feature of medieval monasteries in the western world.
0:20:48 > 0:20:52And it really is contained, isn't it?
0:20:52 > 0:20:57If you look at where the more sort of general, worldly sections are,
0:20:57 > 0:21:01the animals, the plants, you can actually see that the cloister
0:21:01 > 0:21:04- is almost entirely cut off. - Yes.
0:21:04 > 0:21:07This is very different to earlier monastic sites that we see,
0:21:07 > 0:21:11Anglo-Saxon sites, where it's all a bit haphazard, it's evolving,
0:21:11 > 0:21:14you've got your industry, your trade, your agriculture -
0:21:14 > 0:21:17- but this is really ordered, really formalised.- Yeah.
0:21:17 > 0:21:22- So it's a body, a spiritual body, with its beating heart.- Exactly.
0:21:27 > 0:21:31In the building campaign the Normans unleashed across England,
0:21:31 > 0:21:33the idealised blueprint of St Gall
0:21:33 > 0:21:36became a physical reality.
0:21:37 > 0:21:43Regular stone cloisters spread across the country.
0:21:43 > 0:21:46Giles took me to see the example here at Durham,
0:21:46 > 0:21:50still on the template the Normans laid down nine centuries ago.
0:21:53 > 0:21:57So what we're seeing with the Normans, and with the evolution
0:21:57 > 0:21:59of these sorts of building complexes,
0:21:59 > 0:22:02is a much more rigorous treatment of the monks,
0:22:02 > 0:22:04the monks are being much more controlled.
0:22:04 > 0:22:08It's an expression of order in stone.
0:22:08 > 0:22:11Absolutely. There's a wonderful phrase which has been used
0:22:11 > 0:22:14to describe this period - "a struggle for right order in the world" -
0:22:14 > 0:22:18which encapsulates that struggle for religious and political power.
0:22:18 > 0:22:21It's something the Normans, I think, with their access to wealth
0:22:21 > 0:22:23that they have with the conquest,
0:22:23 > 0:22:26so we see the buildings from the 1060s through the 1070s,
0:22:26 > 0:22:291080s, 1090s, just absolutely massive.
0:22:29 > 0:22:31They're building on a huge scale.
0:22:31 > 0:22:35If you could work out the GDP ratio, this would be absolutely enormous.
0:22:35 > 0:22:38You're seeing these buildings as an ideological statement.
0:22:38 > 0:22:42They are the landscape of power, they're the landscape of order.
0:22:48 > 0:22:50The immense new Norman monasteries
0:22:50 > 0:22:54soon changed the face of towns across Britain.
0:22:55 > 0:23:01So many of the great cathedrals and abbeys that still define our skyline
0:23:01 > 0:23:06were first built in their current epic form under the invaders.
0:23:06 > 0:23:10Canterbury, Durham, Norwich, Ely -
0:23:10 > 0:23:14all went up in during this spectacular wave of construction.
0:23:16 > 0:23:20What's more, every one was built as a community of monks.
0:23:20 > 0:23:23For the Normans, stone meant power,
0:23:23 > 0:23:28and the most lasting expression of this belief wasn't their castles -
0:23:28 > 0:23:30it was their monasteries.
0:23:36 > 0:23:40New Norman monasteries soon rose across the land,
0:23:40 > 0:23:43from Wales up into the north of England.
0:23:45 > 0:23:49Areas that hadn't been reached by the Anglo-Saxon revival
0:23:49 > 0:23:52now received monks of their own,
0:23:52 > 0:23:56creating an immense and far-reaching monastic network.
0:23:58 > 0:24:01But what was life actually like for the monks?
0:24:09 > 0:24:13Monastic communities could range from 5 to 100 members,
0:24:13 > 0:24:16from adolescence upwards.
0:24:17 > 0:24:21Recruits had to make a financial contribution to their monasteries,
0:24:21 > 0:24:25so were usually drawn from wealthy families.
0:24:25 > 0:24:29Their new life under the Benedictine Rule was strict.
0:24:30 > 0:24:34One of the most severe regulations banned talking in church,
0:24:34 > 0:24:36at night or at meal times.
0:24:38 > 0:24:40Yet, as well as being obedient,
0:24:40 > 0:24:44medieval monks were resourceful and inventive.
0:24:44 > 0:24:46ROOSTER CROWS
0:24:46 > 0:24:51They soon found an ingenious way around the strictness of their rule.
0:24:52 > 0:24:58Dr Deborah Banham explained how they became masters of sign language.
0:24:59 > 0:25:02What sort of signs can you show me, Debby?
0:25:02 > 0:25:04Well, there's this one.
0:25:04 > 0:25:08- Looks like a fish. - Yes, absolutely.
0:25:08 > 0:25:12And the later signs have far more different kinds of fish,
0:25:12 > 0:25:15- so you always start off with this... - OK.
0:25:15 > 0:25:18..and then one of them adds this.
0:25:19 > 0:25:21Any idea what that is?
0:25:21 > 0:25:24Well, it's actually the sign for a woman.
0:25:24 > 0:25:26- Oh, that's the sign for a woman. - Yes.
0:25:26 > 0:25:28And that's a specific kind of fish.
0:25:30 > 0:25:32I just want to say lady fish but I don't know!
0:25:32 > 0:25:35In fact, it's a trout.
0:25:35 > 0:25:37Oh, a trout! No!
0:25:37 > 0:25:41- "Lady fish."- Which is supposed to be female, for some reason.
0:25:41 > 0:25:44Then we get the phrase "old trout."
0:25:44 > 0:25:47Yes, it comes from that, presumably.
0:25:47 > 0:25:50And what about the different people within a monastic community,
0:25:50 > 0:25:51do they have signs for those?
0:25:51 > 0:25:55Yes. One that I really like, it's a kind of double sign.
0:25:55 > 0:25:59It starts off where you point to your two eyes with your two fingers,
0:25:59 > 0:26:02and then you hold up your little finger.
0:26:02 > 0:26:03Ooh.
0:26:03 > 0:26:06- See if you can figure out what that is.- A teacher?
0:26:06 > 0:26:08Putting your hand up?
0:26:08 > 0:26:10Actually, yeah, but not for that reason.
0:26:10 > 0:26:14- This the sign for "look" - pointing at your eyes.- Yes.
0:26:14 > 0:26:15And this means "small."
0:26:15 > 0:26:19- Oh, "looking after the little ones." - Exactly.
0:26:19 > 0:26:23- Little finger is always for small and thumb for big.- Oh, right!
0:26:25 > 0:26:29Sign language began as a means of following the strict
0:26:29 > 0:26:30Rule of Benedict.
0:26:30 > 0:26:34Yet for some monks it soon became a means of flouting it.
0:26:37 > 0:26:42When the historian Gerald of Wales ate at Canterbury Cathedral Priory
0:26:42 > 0:26:45in 1180, he complained,
0:26:45 > 0:26:49"There were the monks, all of them gesticulating with fingers,
0:26:49 > 0:26:54"hands and arms and whistling to one another instead of speaking so that
0:26:54 > 0:27:01"I seemed to be seated at a stage play or among actors and jesters."
0:27:01 > 0:27:04I think we get a glimpse of real life
0:27:04 > 0:27:07amongst all this gesticulating and whistling.
0:27:07 > 0:27:12These monks weren't the fanatics of the early days of monasticism,
0:27:12 > 0:27:16they were real people with a need to communicate.
0:27:16 > 0:27:18The Benedictine Rule couldn't be broken,
0:27:18 > 0:27:22but it could be creatively stretched.
0:27:25 > 0:27:28In the new Norman monasteries,
0:27:28 > 0:27:31sign language wasn't the only creative outburst.
0:27:31 > 0:27:34With a country to carve up,
0:27:34 > 0:27:38the invaders had made the monks landlords on a massive scale,
0:27:38 > 0:27:41meaning immense wealth from rents and tithes
0:27:41 > 0:27:44began flooding into their coffers.
0:27:44 > 0:27:48This cash was soon converted into opulent art.
0:27:52 > 0:27:54Among the handful of survivals
0:27:54 > 0:27:57is the exceptional Gloucester Candlestick.
0:28:00 > 0:28:04Made for Gloucester Abbey at the start of the 12th century,
0:28:04 > 0:28:08its writhing forms depict the struggle of sinful man
0:28:08 > 0:28:12to reach the light at the summit, representing Jesus.
0:28:15 > 0:28:20In the monasteries, such glittering works were joined by rich tapestries
0:28:20 > 0:28:23and gloriously painted church interiors
0:28:23 > 0:28:27in a great rainbow of religious finery.
0:28:28 > 0:28:29The point was clear -
0:28:29 > 0:28:33monasteries could bring you the riches of heaven.
0:28:33 > 0:28:36And to prove it, they were rich.
0:28:38 > 0:28:43And yet, how could the monasteries justify such wealth?
0:28:46 > 0:28:50The desert fathers who had inspired the first monks
0:28:50 > 0:28:53had preached a life of simple poverty.
0:28:53 > 0:28:58And early monasteries had offered a retreat from the world.
0:28:58 > 0:29:04Now, some breakaway monks wanted to return to these simple origins.
0:29:08 > 0:29:10In the year 1132,
0:29:10 > 0:29:13some Benedictine monks here in York
0:29:13 > 0:29:16saw an extraordinary sight.
0:29:20 > 0:29:23A group of French monks passed through the town,
0:29:23 > 0:29:27and they were like nothing that had been seen before.
0:29:29 > 0:29:33The French monks didn't wear black habits, like the Benedictines,
0:29:33 > 0:29:35they wore white ones.
0:29:35 > 0:29:40And this whiteness seemed to infiltrate their whole being.
0:29:40 > 0:29:42They were spiritually pure,
0:29:42 > 0:29:45they rejected personal possessions,
0:29:45 > 0:29:47fine art and ostentation.
0:29:47 > 0:29:52The York Benedictines were so overwhelmed by the purity
0:29:52 > 0:29:58of the newcomers that they deserted their own order and followed them.
0:29:58 > 0:30:01The Cistercians had arrived.
0:30:05 > 0:30:09The Cistercian Order had been founded in 1098,
0:30:09 > 0:30:12near Dijon in western France.
0:30:12 > 0:30:14A group of French Benedictines,
0:30:14 > 0:30:18sickened by the flaunting of wealth by their own brothers,
0:30:18 > 0:30:22had set up a splinter monastery in a marshy wood,
0:30:22 > 0:30:24deliberately echoing the very first monks
0:30:24 > 0:30:27who retreated into the desert.
0:30:30 > 0:30:34The white monks passing through York were headed here -
0:30:34 > 0:30:38the valley of the river Rye in Yorkshire, known as Rievaulx.
0:30:40 > 0:30:45The area was described as "a horrid and vast solitude."
0:30:45 > 0:30:49In other words, it was perfect.
0:30:55 > 0:30:59Rievaulx Abbey was founded in 1132
0:30:59 > 0:31:03as the Cistercians' headquarters in the north of England.
0:31:11 > 0:31:16The intricate honeycomb of the monastery still survives...
0:31:16 > 0:31:19from the Chapter House, where the monks gathered daily,
0:31:19 > 0:31:23to hear a reading from the Rule of Benedict...
0:31:23 > 0:31:26to their immense church.
0:31:32 > 0:31:35Just being here gives you a feeling
0:31:35 > 0:31:41for the exceptional singularity of mind of the Cistercian Order.
0:31:41 > 0:31:43The core of this magnificent church
0:31:43 > 0:31:48went up just 30 years after the foundation of Rievaulx
0:31:48 > 0:31:51in this deserted place.
0:31:51 > 0:31:57Benedictine churches were orgies of red, green and gold -
0:31:57 > 0:32:00covered in lavish decoration.
0:32:00 > 0:32:05But this place was plain, stark,
0:32:05 > 0:32:09and as spiritually cleansed as the Cistercians themselves.
0:32:14 > 0:32:19These radical ideals of austere isolation
0:32:19 > 0:32:23live on today at the Cistercian monastery of Mount St Bernard.
0:32:25 > 0:32:28The Abbot is Farther Erik Varden.
0:32:30 > 0:32:34There is a radical element to dedicating your life
0:32:34 > 0:32:36to becoming a monk.
0:32:36 > 0:32:39It says in the constitutions of our order
0:32:39 > 0:32:42that our life is obscure,
0:32:42 > 0:32:44laborious and ordinary,
0:32:44 > 0:32:47and it's a true statement.
0:32:47 > 0:32:50The crucial experience of monks,
0:32:50 > 0:32:52and the experience that you discover
0:32:52 > 0:32:55fairly early on in your novitiate,
0:32:55 > 0:32:57is not an experience of power,
0:32:57 > 0:33:00but an experience of radical poverty.
0:33:00 > 0:33:04Has some of the asceticism maybe passed away?
0:33:04 > 0:33:07The fundamental ascetic practice
0:33:07 > 0:33:10is the same, and that is the...
0:33:10 > 0:33:12abandonment of self will.
0:33:12 > 0:33:14The total surrender of oneself,
0:33:14 > 0:33:16of one's future,
0:33:16 > 0:33:19and of one's aspirations.
0:33:19 > 0:33:21Our fundamental ministry
0:33:21 > 0:33:24is our life of prayer,
0:33:24 > 0:33:27which is a life that we pursue
0:33:27 > 0:33:29not only for ourselves,
0:33:29 > 0:33:32but for the entire church, indeed for the entire world.
0:33:32 > 0:33:36Tell me, father, what do you think a monastery is for?
0:33:36 > 0:33:40In some ways I'd say a monastery isn't for anything.
0:33:40 > 0:33:43A monastery is fundamentally useless.
0:33:43 > 0:33:46It doesn't exist to perform a particular function,
0:33:46 > 0:33:51whether it's some kind of agriculture, or some kind of craft,
0:33:51 > 0:33:54or even providing charity
0:33:54 > 0:33:56and hospitality for the poor.
0:33:56 > 0:34:01A monastery exists purely, really, for the worship of God.
0:34:01 > 0:34:05But a monastery will also aspire to be a conduit for the grace of God,
0:34:05 > 0:34:09of calling down God's mercy
0:34:09 > 0:34:13and love on his people.
0:34:13 > 0:34:17Are the roles of monks, then, to look after the eternal life,
0:34:17 > 0:34:21the afterlife, of yourselves and your community?
0:34:21 > 0:34:26The monastic contemplative life is the life in which the monk...
0:34:27 > 0:34:30..seeks every day
0:34:30 > 0:34:32to see the face of God.
0:34:32 > 0:34:36The monastic life is a preparation
0:34:36 > 0:34:39for the life of eternity
0:34:39 > 0:34:41and, for the monk,
0:34:41 > 0:34:45the life of eternity has already begun here.
0:34:45 > 0:34:50So you are constantly contemplating and working your mind but you work
0:34:50 > 0:34:54your bodies, too, you do physical labour as part of your order?
0:34:54 > 0:34:57Certainly. We endeavour to be as self-sufficient as we can,
0:34:57 > 0:35:00and, like any other human beings, we need to earn a living,
0:35:00 > 0:35:03so we try to do honest work
0:35:03 > 0:35:07in order to provide for our needs.
0:35:12 > 0:35:15This emphasis on manual labour and self-sufficiency
0:35:15 > 0:35:19is a defining characteristic of the Cistercians.
0:35:22 > 0:35:25And 800 years ago,
0:35:25 > 0:35:27it enabled this austere order
0:35:27 > 0:35:31to afford their towering medieval monasteries.
0:35:33 > 0:35:38Because the early Cistercians turned out to be brilliant farmers,
0:35:38 > 0:35:40above all of sheep.
0:35:42 > 0:35:46Their choice of remote areas meant that vast tracts of territory
0:35:46 > 0:35:49were opened up for their flocks.
0:35:49 > 0:35:52They recruited lay brothers, men from poor backgrounds
0:35:52 > 0:35:55who lived a simplified monastic life
0:35:55 > 0:35:58and worked the land for free.
0:35:58 > 0:36:00The revenues were soon huge.
0:36:05 > 0:36:09By 1300, Rievaulx's neighbouring Cistercian abbey, Fountains,
0:36:09 > 0:36:14was the largest producer of wool in England, and even had its own ship.
0:36:16 > 0:36:19Today, the largest sheep farms in the country
0:36:19 > 0:36:21rarely go above 8,000 animals.
0:36:21 > 0:36:25Fountains Abbey had 18,000.
0:36:25 > 0:36:28This was truly industrial farming.
0:36:29 > 0:36:31But like all corporations,
0:36:31 > 0:36:35the Cistercians were to discover that success has a price.
0:36:36 > 0:36:39Before the 12th century was out,
0:36:39 > 0:36:43they'd already attracted a reputation for greed.
0:36:43 > 0:36:47And there's some truth in it. More Cistercians than any other order
0:36:47 > 0:36:51were found guilty by the courts of moving boundaries
0:36:51 > 0:36:55and forging charters to gain more land.
0:36:55 > 0:36:59The Cistercians were already rich from the wool trade,
0:36:59 > 0:37:03but they were just as happy to fleece their neighbours.
0:37:07 > 0:37:10The Cistercians had further professionalised
0:37:10 > 0:37:12the medieval monastery,
0:37:12 > 0:37:16showing how monks could lead the way in agriculture and business.
0:37:16 > 0:37:20Yet, as this austere order had interacted with the world,
0:37:20 > 0:37:24its ideals had become corrupted.
0:37:24 > 0:37:27It was a pattern that was to be seen again.
0:37:31 > 0:37:37By the 13th century the Cistercians weren't the only new monks around.
0:37:37 > 0:37:39And if THEY had headed for the wilderness,
0:37:39 > 0:37:43their new rivals did the exact opposite.
0:37:43 > 0:37:47The occasion was the rapid spread of cities and towns across Europe.
0:37:53 > 0:37:56The new towns meant more wealth,
0:37:56 > 0:37:59but also bigger crowds of urban poor,
0:37:59 > 0:38:03all clamouring for spiritual attention.
0:38:03 > 0:38:06In response, many monks chose to pursue their mission
0:38:06 > 0:38:08outside the cloister.
0:38:11 > 0:38:15These urban newcomers were known as friars.
0:38:17 > 0:38:20The most famous, the Dominicans,
0:38:20 > 0:38:24arrived from France in 1221,
0:38:24 > 0:38:27and the Italian Franciscans three years later.
0:38:28 > 0:38:31Monks had been rural landlords,
0:38:31 > 0:38:34but the friars chose not to own property
0:38:34 > 0:38:37and lived instead on charity.
0:38:37 > 0:38:39If monks lived off the land,
0:38:39 > 0:38:42friars lived off the people.
0:38:42 > 0:38:46And their spiritual message was aimed at the people, too.
0:38:48 > 0:38:52Up till now, monks had prayed in their monasteries
0:38:52 > 0:38:53on behalf of other people.
0:38:53 > 0:38:55But the friars reversed that -
0:38:55 > 0:38:58the preached in open spaces
0:38:58 > 0:39:00and encouraged members of the public
0:39:00 > 0:39:03to look to their own spiritual salvation.
0:39:03 > 0:39:07Their motivation was the example of Jesus,
0:39:07 > 0:39:10who had lived a life of itinerant poverty
0:39:10 > 0:39:14and urged his listeners to individual conversion.
0:39:14 > 0:39:17It was a message many wanted to hear.
0:39:20 > 0:39:24For centuries, monasteries had been elite institutions,
0:39:24 > 0:39:29staffed by and prioritising the needs of the wealthy.
0:39:29 > 0:39:32But the friars also served the poor
0:39:32 > 0:39:34and the urban middle classes.
0:39:34 > 0:39:37They might hear your confession,
0:39:37 > 0:39:39teach at your child's school,
0:39:39 > 0:39:41draw you up a legal document,
0:39:41 > 0:39:44or conduct your marriage service.
0:39:45 > 0:39:47The friars were soon everywhere,
0:39:47 > 0:39:50meaning that a single town could have a bewildering range
0:39:50 > 0:39:53of different monasteries and friaries
0:39:53 > 0:39:56all serving the same population.
0:39:56 > 0:40:01In the early 13th century, if you wanted the services of a monk
0:40:01 > 0:40:06or a friar in Oxford, you could come here to the Augustinian Friary.
0:40:09 > 0:40:12Or the Black Friars, who were just down there.
0:40:13 > 0:40:16The Grey Friars were here.
0:40:18 > 0:40:21The Friars of the Sack were in there.
0:40:21 > 0:40:25The Crutched Friars, they were in there.
0:40:27 > 0:40:29Your Benedictines were in there
0:40:29 > 0:40:32and your Carmelites were down there.
0:40:34 > 0:40:35More Benedictines.
0:40:37 > 0:40:40The Austin Friars were here.
0:40:43 > 0:40:45More Augustinians were here,
0:40:45 > 0:40:50and then further outside the city were the Hospitaliers, the Templars,
0:40:50 > 0:40:54two nunneries and, just so they didn't miss out on the fun,
0:40:54 > 0:40:56some Cistercians, too.
0:40:56 > 0:40:58That's 15 monastic communities
0:40:58 > 0:41:02for a population of less than 7,000.
0:41:08 > 0:41:10In towns across the country,
0:41:10 > 0:41:13friars wove their way into the already established
0:41:13 > 0:41:18monastic network, joining the Cistercians and other new arrivals
0:41:18 > 0:41:20in a massive web of monasteries.
0:41:22 > 0:41:26By 1300, there were more than 500 monasteries
0:41:26 > 0:41:32and over 10,000 people in monastic orders across the British Isles.
0:41:32 > 0:41:35It had become a land of monasteries.
0:41:38 > 0:41:41In the process, the monastery was changing
0:41:41 > 0:41:43from an inward-looking refuge
0:41:43 > 0:41:48to an outward-facing centre of bustling urban life.
0:41:48 > 0:41:53And there was one area where their work was truly life-changing.
0:42:10 > 0:42:11In the spring of 2015,
0:42:11 > 0:42:16Bart's Hospital in East London will open its new heart centre.
0:42:18 > 0:42:24Costing £250 million, it's the latest addition to a hospital
0:42:24 > 0:42:28that serves a population of 2.5 million.
0:42:31 > 0:42:35Yet it all began with fewer than ten monks.
0:42:41 > 0:42:45Hidden behind the modern-day Bart's is the Priory Church
0:42:45 > 0:42:47of St Bartholomew the Great.
0:42:49 > 0:42:55The Priory and the hospital were founded in 1123 and staffed by monks
0:42:55 > 0:43:00from anther recently formed order, known as the Augustinians.
0:43:01 > 0:43:06This makes the complex of St Bart's one the oldest hospitals in Europe
0:43:06 > 0:43:08still on its original site.
0:43:10 > 0:43:14Professor Carole Rawcliffe explained how, with hospitals like St Bart's,
0:43:14 > 0:43:19monasteries transformed medical care in the Middle Ages.
0:43:21 > 0:43:24So, Carole, who's running these hospitals, then?
0:43:24 > 0:43:27Well, the largest ones, the ones we know about, like Bart's,
0:43:27 > 0:43:30St Thomas', for example, St Leonard's in York,
0:43:30 > 0:43:32are run by monastic orders
0:43:32 > 0:43:35and often by the Augustinian Canons because they have
0:43:35 > 0:43:38a rather less elaborate liturgy.
0:43:38 > 0:43:41They're more geared to practical work, to pastoral work,
0:43:41 > 0:43:43in the wider community.
0:43:43 > 0:43:47And, Carole, what sort of help are the Augustinian Canons providing
0:43:47 > 0:43:50in these sorts of hospitals?
0:43:50 > 0:43:53What you get is a clean environment,
0:43:53 > 0:43:57clean sheets, you're warm, you get a good diet
0:43:57 > 0:44:00and you get that spiritual care and the feeling of being safe.
0:44:00 > 0:44:03You know, if you've been tramping on the road,
0:44:03 > 0:44:06just to be in a safe environment is something.
0:44:06 > 0:44:11But Bart's is quite unusual because it also looks after pregnant women,
0:44:11 > 0:44:14and many hospitals refused to admit women at all,
0:44:14 > 0:44:16and certainly not pregnant ones
0:44:16 > 0:44:18because they're likely to be women of ill-repute.
0:44:18 > 0:44:21And perhaps even to tempt the Canons, who knows,
0:44:21 > 0:44:24but here there's a maternity ward.
0:44:24 > 0:44:29For me as well, all these ideas are challenging those established
0:44:29 > 0:44:33notions of what a monastery does because this is quite modern,
0:44:33 > 0:44:36quite forward thinking, the idea that they are places of health
0:44:36 > 0:44:39and medicine and maternity care.
0:44:39 > 0:44:43Yes. And by the time you get to the late 14th, early 15th century,
0:44:43 > 0:44:46there's a priest who lives in this precinct here,
0:44:46 > 0:44:51at Bart's, called John Mirfield, and he produces two encyclopaedias
0:44:51 > 0:44:56about health and he talks about fresh air, a healthy diet,
0:44:56 > 0:45:01and exercise in a way the viewers to this programme will find curiously
0:45:01 > 0:45:03modern because he says, well, you know,
0:45:03 > 0:45:07"You're Canon, so you can't go jogging around the streets of London
0:45:07 > 0:45:11"or having your personal trainer in the park," as people do now,
0:45:11 > 0:45:15- so you fit your cell out in an appropriate way.- Like a personal gym.
0:45:15 > 0:45:18Yes, a personal gym. So you can have weights,
0:45:18 > 0:45:22and you have ropes, and you can exercise yourself to keep fit.
0:45:22 > 0:45:25Weight training monks. This is brilliant!
0:45:25 > 0:45:28But they're not supposed to do it to be vain
0:45:28 > 0:45:32and to have gym-honed bodies, but maybe some of them were.
0:45:32 > 0:45:36They're there to be effective instruments of God
0:45:36 > 0:45:40in serving the poor, in staffing the hospital,
0:45:40 > 0:45:45because monasteries at this time are becoming centres of medical knowledge
0:45:45 > 0:45:47so they're a wonderful vehicle
0:45:47 > 0:45:51for transmitting all these new medical ideas.
0:45:55 > 0:45:58Their massive network of monasteries,
0:45:58 > 0:46:02and their dedication to the latest medical thinking,
0:46:02 > 0:46:06meant that the monks offered an extensive medieval health service.
0:46:07 > 0:46:11Yet medicine was only one of many branches of monastic knowledge.
0:46:14 > 0:46:19Centuries earlier, as barbarians overran the Roman Empire,
0:46:19 > 0:46:23it was the monasteries who had kept the flame of ancient learning alive.
0:46:24 > 0:46:29Now, the exceptional dedication and organisation of the monks
0:46:29 > 0:46:33had created a Europe-wide network of learning.
0:46:33 > 0:46:36And monks didn't just preserve ancient knowledge,
0:46:36 > 0:46:39they were making new discoveries, too.
0:46:41 > 0:46:44Many of the most intellectually ambitious
0:46:44 > 0:46:48and passionately curious people of the age, were monks.
0:46:48 > 0:46:52The great philosopher Thomas Aquinas was a Dominican.
0:46:53 > 0:46:55The pioneer of the scientific method,
0:46:55 > 0:46:58the Englishman Roger Bacon, was a Franciscan.
0:46:59 > 0:47:03As was the philosopher William of Ockham.
0:47:05 > 0:47:08Rather than being shut off from the world,
0:47:08 > 0:47:13medieval monks had an omnivorous hunger for all knowledge.
0:47:13 > 0:47:16One of the most remarkable pieces of evidence for this
0:47:16 > 0:47:20can be found at London's Royal College of Arms.
0:47:25 > 0:47:27This is the Polychronicon.
0:47:27 > 0:47:32The Benedictine monk who wrote it was called Ranulf Higden,
0:47:32 > 0:47:35and apart from the fact that he entered the monastery at Chester
0:47:35 > 0:47:40in 1299, we know virtually nothing else about his life.
0:47:40 > 0:47:44This is surprising, because contained in here
0:47:44 > 0:47:49is so much other information that it's almost mind boggling.
0:47:53 > 0:47:57The name Polychronicon means "many chronicles"
0:47:57 > 0:48:00and it's a staggeringly ambitious attempt to pull together
0:48:00 > 0:48:04the history and the geography of the known world.
0:48:06 > 0:48:11It begins with a virtual global tour, as Higden whirls his readers
0:48:11 > 0:48:15round exotic sites from Constantinople to Egypt.
0:48:17 > 0:48:19The journey ends with Britain,
0:48:19 > 0:48:21which occupies a third of the tour.
0:48:23 > 0:48:25The headline status was deliberate.
0:48:26 > 0:48:31In centuries gone by Britain had been a backwater,
0:48:31 > 0:48:34but by putting it at the heart of his text,
0:48:34 > 0:48:37foregrounded by the great places and events of the world,
0:48:37 > 0:48:42Higden is asserting that it's now a major nation.
0:48:44 > 0:48:48Higden patiently unfolds the story of his homeland,
0:48:48 > 0:48:50and isn't afraid of controversy.
0:48:52 > 0:48:57In one section he tackles that famous British leader, King Arthur.
0:48:57 > 0:48:59Unlike some of his predecessors,
0:48:59 > 0:49:03Higden questions whether Arthur had really lived at all.
0:49:08 > 0:49:12Arthur had been a heroic leader to previous historians
0:49:12 > 0:49:14like Geoffrey of Monmouth.
0:49:14 > 0:49:16But here Ranulf is questioning
0:49:16 > 0:49:19whether he really was this massive figure.
0:49:19 > 0:49:24If he really did defeat the powers of France and Rome,
0:49:24 > 0:49:27then why is there not a single reference to him
0:49:27 > 0:49:29in any of their histories?
0:49:33 > 0:49:37The scepticism feels surprisingly modern.
0:49:37 > 0:49:41And before long, Ranulf Higden's desire to map the limits of
0:49:41 > 0:49:45the known world was brought to life by other monks in his monastery.
0:49:48 > 0:49:52The Evesham Map was created 20 to 50 years
0:49:52 > 0:49:55after Higden wrote his chronicle.
0:49:55 > 0:49:57It's thought to derive from a map
0:49:57 > 0:50:01originally included in the Polychronicon itself.
0:50:02 > 0:50:05To us it appears upside down,
0:50:05 > 0:50:07with the Middle East at the top
0:50:07 > 0:50:09and Britain at the bottom.
0:50:12 > 0:50:17This map really is just an incredible work of art.
0:50:17 > 0:50:21In some respects it's a traditional medieval Mappa Mundi,
0:50:21 > 0:50:23a map of the world,
0:50:23 > 0:50:28and you can see all the important sites of Christendom
0:50:28 > 0:50:32complete with Paradise, the Garden of Eden up there.
0:50:32 > 0:50:36You can see Adam and Eve with the serpent wrapped around
0:50:36 > 0:50:39the Tree of Knowledge, biting onto the apple.
0:50:39 > 0:50:41You've got the Tower of Babel,
0:50:41 > 0:50:44you've got Jerusalem shown here
0:50:44 > 0:50:47as this lavish Gothic tower,
0:50:47 > 0:50:51then there's the Red Sea here,
0:50:51 > 0:50:56and cutting straight through the Red Sea you can see the passage
0:50:56 > 0:50:59of the Jews out of captivity.
0:50:59 > 0:51:02It is possible to navigate your way around this map
0:51:02 > 0:51:05and recognise the specific countries,
0:51:05 > 0:51:10but it's not in proportion, it's not an exact reflection of the world.
0:51:10 > 0:51:15If you look at the scale of other countries, you can see that Spain
0:51:15 > 0:51:18is just this small section here,
0:51:18 > 0:51:20and in comparison England's huge -
0:51:20 > 0:51:25it spreads right the way across the bottom of the map.
0:51:25 > 0:51:29You can see major towns and cities all picked out.
0:51:29 > 0:51:32So you've got Dover here with this tower,
0:51:32 > 0:51:37and London similarly a fortified tower.
0:51:37 > 0:51:40But then there are two churches that are depicted.
0:51:40 > 0:51:43One is Canterbury, the archbishopric,
0:51:43 > 0:51:46and the other is Evesham,
0:51:46 > 0:51:51not perhaps such a major town but important because this is the site
0:51:51 > 0:51:55at which this incredible work has been put together,
0:51:55 > 0:51:59so the monks of Evesham are literally securing their place
0:51:59 > 0:52:01on the map.
0:52:03 > 0:52:06Works like the Evesham Map and the Polychronicon
0:52:06 > 0:52:09show how monks were obsessed with gathering
0:52:09 > 0:52:12and expanding our knowledge of the world.
0:52:13 > 0:52:16Far from being blinkered scribes,
0:52:16 > 0:52:19they were the intellectual pioneers of their age,
0:52:19 > 0:52:23and it was monasteries that gave them their freedom.
0:52:30 > 0:52:34Yet although the 12th and 13th centuries were a gilded age
0:52:34 > 0:52:36for the monasteries,
0:52:36 > 0:52:40fundamental flaws in this vast system were starting to emerge.
0:52:40 > 0:52:44The more prestige they gained, the more they built,
0:52:44 > 0:52:48locking them into a draining cycle of expense.
0:52:53 > 0:52:55At the once mighty Rievaulx,
0:52:55 > 0:52:58the Cistercians were in trouble.
0:53:00 > 0:53:02The Cistercians had overbuilt.
0:53:02 > 0:53:05Even their great wool income couldn't save them.
0:53:05 > 0:53:10Twice in the 13th century they had to be granted royal protection
0:53:10 > 0:53:13to prevent complete financial collapse.
0:53:15 > 0:53:19Other disasters landed on their heads - heavy rains,
0:53:19 > 0:53:25poor harvests, famine, and violent attacks by Scottish raiders.
0:53:25 > 0:53:31In the mid-14th century the plague scythed into Rievaulx's inhabitants,
0:53:31 > 0:53:34and their model system never recovered.
0:53:35 > 0:53:39By 1400, this mighty abbey,
0:53:39 > 0:53:42which once housed over 600 members,
0:53:42 > 0:53:45now had just 14 monks,
0:53:45 > 0:53:48three lay brothers and one abbot.
0:53:50 > 0:53:53And finances weren't the only problem.
0:53:55 > 0:53:58Britain's vast monastery network
0:53:58 > 0:54:01was starting to show other signs of decay.
0:54:01 > 0:54:03The most worrying decline of all
0:54:03 > 0:54:07affected not their buildings, but their morals.
0:54:07 > 0:54:09BELL TOLLS
0:54:13 > 0:54:15Throughout their history,
0:54:15 > 0:54:19monasteries had been subject to inspections by senior churchmen.
0:54:19 > 0:54:24In 1437, the officer assigned to visit the abbey here in Peterborough
0:54:24 > 0:54:27was one Bishop Alnwick.
0:54:28 > 0:54:30Peterborough was a thriving abbey,
0:54:30 > 0:54:34whose west front was one of the glories of European architecture.
0:54:37 > 0:54:43Unfortunately, its community of monks wasn't quite so exemplary,
0:54:43 > 0:54:47as the report made by the visiting bishop shows.
0:54:49 > 0:54:52Following his visit, Alnwick gave strict orders
0:54:52 > 0:54:55on how the monastery was to be reformed.
0:54:55 > 0:55:00These give a little window onto the sorts of things that were going on.
0:55:00 > 0:55:03"None of the monks for any cause whatever
0:55:03 > 0:55:06"shall drink or eat in the town of Peterborough,
0:55:06 > 0:55:09"until the last day of March next to come,
0:55:09 > 0:55:13"and that they dance not with any women in the same town
0:55:13 > 0:55:17"or bring in any women within the monastery."
0:55:17 > 0:55:22It seems that the monks were straying a little bit from the path.
0:55:28 > 0:55:32Nine years later, Alnwick was back to make sure things had improved
0:55:32 > 0:55:35at the Peterborough monastery.
0:55:35 > 0:55:37But that isn't quite what had happened.
0:55:42 > 0:55:45In the interim, the monks had been getting involved with
0:55:45 > 0:55:47"so-called light women",
0:55:47 > 0:55:51the sacristan had got mixed up with a local boy,
0:55:51 > 0:55:55and the abbot, it was alleged, had three mistresses,
0:55:55 > 0:56:00one of whom was strutting around town in a fur coat, quote,
0:56:00 > 0:56:03"beyond her husband's estate."
0:56:03 > 0:56:07When examined, it turned out that was the very fur coat
0:56:07 > 0:56:11that the abbot's predecessor had left to the abbey in his will.
0:56:11 > 0:56:15And, perhaps most interesting of all,
0:56:15 > 0:56:18the abbot got off with nothing more than a warning.
0:56:23 > 0:56:25Alnwick's toothless reports
0:56:25 > 0:56:28had failed to correct the Peterborough monks.
0:56:30 > 0:56:31And these sinners weren't alone.
0:56:31 > 0:56:36Across the country, monastic morals were crumbling.
0:56:36 > 0:56:40How had the monks, once hailed as the spiritual saviours
0:56:40 > 0:56:42of the nation, come to this?
0:56:46 > 0:56:49The truth was that, by the 15th century,
0:56:49 > 0:56:52the medieval monastery had been transformed.
0:56:53 > 0:56:57It had turned itself inside out,
0:56:57 > 0:57:02becoming active in the world, while neglecting its own spiritual core.
0:57:02 > 0:57:06As they became increasingly entangled with the world
0:57:06 > 0:57:08outside the cloister,
0:57:08 > 0:57:11many monks fell victim to its temptations.
0:57:11 > 0:57:14Yet if this was the monasteries' fatal flaw,
0:57:14 > 0:57:18the beneficiary had been medieval Britain itself.
0:57:20 > 0:57:22Monasteries redrew the map,
0:57:22 > 0:57:26as new towns clustered around their great abbeys.
0:57:26 > 0:57:28They transformed the skyline
0:57:28 > 0:57:31as their churches soared higher and higher.
0:57:31 > 0:57:35They were a health service, an education system,
0:57:35 > 0:57:39pioneers of technology, saviours of scholarship,
0:57:39 > 0:57:44and the inspiration for the greatest art and music of their time.
0:57:45 > 0:57:47Though in decline,
0:57:47 > 0:57:52the monasteries still basked in the fading light of their golden age.
0:57:52 > 0:57:56Their continuing domination of so many social spheres
0:57:56 > 0:57:59made them feel invulnerable.
0:57:59 > 0:58:04They couldn't see the cataclysm that lay just beyond the horizon.
0:58:05 > 0:58:08The monasteries still believed they were too big to fail.
0:58:11 > 0:58:14Monasteries had begun by rejecting the world,
0:58:14 > 0:58:17but soon the world couldn't do without them.
0:58:17 > 0:58:21It seemed like things would stay this way for ever.
0:58:27 > 0:58:29Next time...
0:58:29 > 0:58:33as many monasteries descend into extremes of decadence
0:58:33 > 0:58:38and corruption, religious reforms and a rapacious monarch
0:58:38 > 0:58:43conspire to bring about their brutal and systematic liquidation.