The Norman Conquest.

At the time of the Conquest, there were in England about 130 monasteries and cathedral churches, possessing about one-twelfth of the land. There were then nineteen bishoprics in England and Wales exclusive of the Isle of Man. Most of the Saxon bishops and abbots were replaced by Normans. The change was good. Some writers censure the Norman rulers for the change. But a better educated and more refined class of men had taken their places. A careful study of their lives and acts, as recorded in the “Monasticon,” will corroborate my statement.

All the property given to the religious houses in Anglo-Saxon times, was held in common. But the Norman bishops changed this arrangement in the cathedral churches. They divided the property and assigned to the canons what revenues they thought fit, and kept the rest of the church lands for their own personal use. These bishops had also initiated another innovation in the distribution of the cathedral revenues, which continued until 1840. They gave separate endowments of lands or tithes or both to the deans, priors, chancellors, treasurers, precentors, vicars choral, archdeacons, and prebendaries, for their own personal use, and quite separate from the common fund, of which the four principal officers had also their shares. Some of the Norman bishops purchased landed estates out of their own episcopal revenues, which they divided into prebends, and endowed prebendaries with them; other bishops divided some of the episcopal estates into prebends. Landed estates were also given by private donors which formed new prebendal endowments. These kind of endowments ceased about the thirteenth century. By the Cathedral Act of 1840, all the separate estates, amounting to about £60,000 per annum, were vested in the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for the Common Fund.

At the time of the Conquest, the nineteen cathedral churches were composed of secular canons, except two, viz., Winchester and Worcester, which were composed of Benedictine monks. These two were subsequently increased to eight, viz., Canterbury, Durham, Carlisle, Ely, Norwich, and Rochester, and so continued until the general dissolution of monasteries, when they were formed into secular chapters by changing the priors into deans, and chapters into canons. The fact that there were only two conventual chapters at the time of the Conquest, indicates that the seculars more than held their own in face of the powerful patronage and protection of King Edgar and Archbishop Dunstan. It is doubtful whether this had been an improvement. The ranks of the episcopal order, as I have hitherto stated, were generally recruited from the monks, because competent men could not be found elsewhere. The magnificent and artistic cathedrals of this country, had been designed and built by men connected with the monkish order. There is Durham, by William de Carilepho, formerly a Norman abbot; Ely, by its last abbots; Gloucester, by its abbots; Rochester, by Bishop Gundulf, a monk; Bishop Wacelin, in 1070, commenced to rebuild Winchester, and William of Wickham finished it; Bishop Wolstan laid the foundation of Worcester in 1084, etc.

The following table of monasteries, taken from Bishop Tanner’s “Notitia Monastica,” published in 1695, will give an idea of the powerful impetus which the Norman Conquest had given to their erection in this country.

Benedictines.Austin order.Cluniacs.Cistercians.Colleges.Preceptories.Alien Priories.Premonstratensians.Gilbertines.Carthusians.Brigettan order.Total.
William I.16661442
William II.724922
Henry I.30405104213104
Stephen15254351236697
Henry II.2230620368841108
Richard I.64114218
John.7117122636
Henry III.4151911132
Edward I.32391119
Edward II.224
Edward III.3611727
Richard II.
Henry IV.415
Henry V.16119
Henry VI.88
1151442686521251212031531

To 531, add 130 before the Conquest; total, 661.