HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Gilbertine Order of
Canons Regular Canons regular are priests who live in community under a rule ( and canon in greek) and are generally organised into religious orders, differing from both secular canons and other forms of religious life, such as clerics regular, designated by a ...
was founded around 1130 by Saint Gilbert in
Sempringham Sempringham is a hamlet in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. It is situated south from the A52 road, east from Grantham and north from Bourne. The hamlet is in the civil parish of Pointon and Sempringham, and on the west ...
,
Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...
, where Gilbert was the
parish priest A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...
. It was the only completely
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
religious order A religious order is a lineage of communities and organizations of people who live in some way set apart from society in accordance with their specific religious devotion, usually characterized by the principles of its founder's religious practi ...
and came to an end in the 16th century at the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Modest Gilbertine revivals have taken place in the late 20th and early 21st centuries on three continents.


Founding

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
nun A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 599. The term is o ...
s based on the Cistercian Rule.Butler, Richard Urban. "Order of Gilbertines." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 6. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1909. 12 Oct. 2014
/ref> 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. As the serving maids requested that they too might have a dress and rule of life, on the advice of William, abbot of
Rievaulx Rievaulx ( ) is a small village and civil parish in Rye Dale within the North York Moors National Park near Helmsley in North Yorkshire, England and is located in what was the inner court of Rievaulx Abbey, close to the River Rye. The populat ...
, he decided to add
lay sisters 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, ...
to the community. Eventually Gilbert added
lay brothers 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, ...
to work the fields. In 1139 the small order opened its first new foundation on the island of Haverholm, a gift from
Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln Alexander of Lincoln (died February 1148) was a medieval English Bishop of Lincoln, a member of an important administrative and ecclesiastical family. He was the nephew of Roger of Salisbury, a Bishop of Salisbury and Chancellor of England und ...
. Each Gilbertine house now practically consisted of four communities, one of nuns, one of canons, one of lay sisters, and one of lay brothers. Over the years, more and more new foundations were established. In 1147 he left
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
for
Continental Europe Continental Europe or mainland Europe is the contiguous continent of Europe, excluding its surrounding islands. It can also be referred to ambiguously as the European continent, – which can conversely mean the whole of Europe – and, by ...
to seek assistance, and approached the
Cistercian The Cistercians, () officially the Order of Cistercians ( la, (Sacer) Ordo Cisterciensis, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint ...
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 Pope Eugene III ( la, Eugenius III; c. 1080 – 8 July 1153), born Bernardo Pignatelli, or possibly Paganelli, called Bernardo da Pisa, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 15 February 1145 to his death in 1153. He w ...
, himself a Cistercian, intervened to ask the abbot,
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux Bernard of Clairvaux, O. Cist. ( la, Bernardus Claraevallensis; 109020 August 1153), venerated as Saint Bernard, was an abbot, mystic, co-founder of the Knights Templars, and a major leader in the reformation of the Benedictine Order through t ...
, 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.


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. The Sisters wore a dark tunic without the scapular. They also wore a sheepskin cloak and a long hood. The Canons Regular wore a black
cassock The cassock or soutane is a Christian clerical clothing coat used by the clergy and male religious of the Oriental Orthodox Churches, Eastern Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church, in addition to some clergy in certain Protestant denomi ...
with a white hooded cloak (lined with lamb's wool) with shoes of red leather.S. Gilbert of Sempringham and the Gilbertines, Graham, Rose, 1901, p. 71 When labouring, they would use the scapular. In choir, they wore white copes. The Brothers wore a dark tunic with a dark cloak lined with rough skins. They wore a cloth
cope The cope (known in Latin as ''pluviale'' 'rain coat' or ''cappa'' 'cape') is a liturgical vestment, more precisely a long mantle or cloak, open in front and fastened at the breast with a band or clasp. It may be of any liturgical colours, litu ...
to the heels to wear in the Church.


Layout

Each Gilbertine priory had one
church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chris ...
, 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 Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...
. 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, 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 Pope Alexander III (c. 1100/1105 – 30 August 1181), born Roland ( it, Rolando), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 7 September 1159 until his death in 1181. A native of Siena, Alexander became pope after a con ...
ruled in Gilbert's favour, but the living conditions of the lay brothers were improved thereafter. In the mid-twelfth century, a girl was brought to
Watton Priory 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. The present building dates mainly from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuri ...
as a child, but had no real
religious vocation A calling, in the religious sense of the word, is a religious vocation (which comes from the Latin for "call") that may be professional or voluntary and, idiosyncratic to different religions, may come from another person, from a divine messenger, ...
. This
Nun of Watton The Nun of Watton (born in the 1140s) was the protagonist of a drama at Watton Priory in Yorkshire, recorded by St Aelred of Rievaulx around 1160 in ''De Quodam Miraculo Mirabili'', long known as '' De Sanctimoniali de Wattun''. In this story o ...
became pregnant by a lay brother, who fled, but he was brought back for punishment.


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 Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...
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 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 i ...
and a monument commemorating her was placed near the Priory site in the 1990s. Many English kings gave the order generous
charter A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the rec ...
s, and yet it always had financial problems. By the end of the 15th century, the Order was greatly impoverished, and
King Henry VI Henry VI (6 December 1421 – 21 May 1471) was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1422 to 1461 and again from 1470 to 1471, and disputed King of France from 1422 to 1453. The only child of Henry V, he succeeded to the English throne a ...
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.


Dissolution

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
Dissolution of the Lesser Monasteries Act The Suppression of Religious Houses Act 1535 ( 27 Hen 8 c 28; 1536 in modern dating), also referred to as the Act for the Dissolution of the Lesser Monasteries and as the Dissolution of Lesser Monasteries Act, was an Act of the Parliament of ...
of 1536, these houses gave in to
King Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disag ...
in 1538 without a fight, surrendering "of their own free will". Each nun and canon then received a pension for the rest of their lives. The last Master of the Order,
Robert Holgate Robert Holgate (1481/1482 – 1555) was Bishop of Llandaff from 1537 and then Archbishop of York (from 1545 to 1554). He recognised Henry VIII as head of the Church of England. Although a protege of Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex, Holga ...
is credited with using his influence to save them for a few years.
Malton Priory 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 ...
, one of the lesser Gilbertine houses, was the last to surrender in December 1539, whereas
Sempringham Priory 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 i ...
, worth more than £200 a year, surrendered in 1538.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 The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, ...
text), accessed vi
British History online
/ref> Holgate was already the
Bishop of Llandaff The Bishop of Llandaff is the ordinary of the Church in Wales Diocese of Llandaff. Area of authority The diocese covers most of the County of Glamorgan. The bishop's seat is in the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul (the site of a ...
but translated to become
Archbishop of York The archbishop of York is a senior bishop in the Church of England, second only to the archbishop of Canterbury. The archbishop is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of York and the metropolitan bishop of the province of York, which covers th ...
in 1545. The Gilbertines were the only purely English order (except for one short-lived house in
Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
), 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 Robert Mannyng (or Robert de Brunne; 1275 – c. 1338) was an English chronicler and Gilbertine Order, Gilbertine monk. Mannyng provides a surprising amount of information about himself in his two known works, ''Handlyng Synne'' and ''Mannyng's ...
. The remains of one Gilbertine monastery,
Malton Priory 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 ...
, have been incorporated into the parish church at Malton in
North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by National parks of the United Kingdom, national parks, including most of ...
. 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. In 2001, British Channel 4 Television's archaeological series ''
Time Team ''Time Team'' is a British television programme that originally aired on Channel 4 from 16 January 1994 to 7 September 2014. It returned online in 2022 for two episodes released on YouTube. Created by television producer Tim ...
'' excavated a Gilbertine monastery in
Chicksands Chicksands is a village in the Central Bedfordshire district of Bedfordshire, England, and part of the civil parish of Campton and Chicksands, whose population in 2007 was estimated to be 2,510. By the 2011 census the figure was accurately placed ...
, 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 The East Midlands is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. It comprises the eastern half of the area traditionally known as the Midlands. It consists of Leicestershire, Derbyshire, Li ...
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 Mount St Bernard Abbey is a Roman Catholic, Trappist monastery near Coalville, Leicestershire, England, founded in 1835 in the parish of Whitwick and now in that of Charley. The abbey was the first permanent monastery to be founded in England ...
in Leicestershire. In about 1998 a priest of the
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of São Paulo The Archdiocese of São Paulo ( la, Archidioecesis Sancti Pauli in Brasilia) is a Latin Metropolitan Archbishopric of the Roman Catholic Church in Brazil. The Archdiocese is currently headed by Odilo Scherer since his appointment by Pope Benedi ...
in Brazil, Carlos Aparicido Marchesani, visited the Gilbertine Oblates as he had had a devotion to Saint Gilbert since 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. This experimental community was dissolved in 2012.


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 The Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter is a special Catholic diocese for Anglican and Methodist converts in the United States and Canada. It allows these parishioners to maintain elements of Anglican liturgy and tradition in thei ...
. In August 2019 members discerned that a full restoration could not take place as was desired.https://gilbertine.net/ 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 In the Catholic Church, an association of the Christian faithful or simply association of the faithful (Latin: ''consociationes christifidelium'') sometimes called a public association of the faithful, is a group of baptized persons, clerics or la ...
.


In popular fiction

The detective novel, ''The Beautiful Mystery'' (2012), by
Louise Penny Louise Penny is a Canadian author of mystery novels set in the Canadian province of Quebec centred on the work of francophone Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec. Penny's first career was as a radio broadcaster for the Can ...
is set in a fictional Gilbertine abbey in rural
Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
.


See also

* :Gilbertine nunneries * :Gilbertine monasteries *
Anchorite In Christianity, an anchorite or anchoret (female: anchoress) is someone who, for religious reasons, withdraws from secular society so as to be able to lead an intensely prayer-oriented, ascetic, or Eucharist-focused life. While anchorites are ...


References


Bibliography

*Brian Golding: ''Gilbert of Sempringham and the Gilbertine Order'': Oxford: Oxford University Press: 1995:


External links


British History OnlineThe Cistercians in YorkshireForbidden love in WattonThe UCL monastic archivesThe Companions of St Gilbert of Sempringham
{{authority control Dissolution of the Monasteries History of Catholic monasticism History of Catholicism in England Religious organizations established in the 1130s 1130 establishments in England 1538 disestablishments in England