Haughmond Abbey - The Monastic Life

The Monastic Life

The Augustinian rule allowed for many different styles of religious life. Haughmond was certainly a community of Canons Regular but only a little is known about the precise interpretation of the rule that prevailed or how well it was followed. Generally, a financially solvent house was likely to have a better religious life, and Haughmond was generally well run. After the mid-14th century there were never more than 13 canons, although the size of the buildings suggests numbers were considerably greater in earlier centuries.

Augustinians were expected to observe strict protocols in contacts with outsiders, to travel only with their abbot's permission and never to sleep alone. One of the problems at Lilleshall was that canons were often forced to undertake expeditions to the outlying estates, outside direct supervision of the abbot. This was much less prevalent at Haughmond, with its more concentrated estates, although it seems there was sometimes a need for canons to stay at Nefyn, where there was a canons' house in the early 14th century. There were also facilities, including chapels, for canons and abbots to stay on some of the granges, including Leebotwood and Beobridge. As the canons were all ordained priests, they could also officiate at chapels in the extra-parochial areas to the west, although Secular clergy were appointed as soon as these communities became viable. In the early years there were lay brothers to help in the work of the abbey, but they are never mentioned after 1190. There were, however, numerous paid officials and servants on the premises.

Arrangements for food and clothing altered over the years. Initially, canons were granted an annual allowance for clothing. In 1315, the Bishop of Lichfield, Walter Langton, prohibited this practice, so Abbot Richard de Brock earmarked the revenues of Cheswardine church and of Nagington and Hisland to be given to a chamberlain, who was to arrange supplies of clothing.

The diet at Haughmond seems to have been relatively varied and less austere than in most monastic institutions. In 1280 147 sheep and a calf were supplied to the abbey. Tithes of sea fish were exacted at Nefyn and the abbey had fisheries on the Dee and Severn, but it seems unlikely that fish were supplied fresh from the further fisheries. Ranulf of Chester's grant, however, allowed the canons to purchase annually 6000 herrings, which could be salted. These were available at Chester on special terms. In the 12th century the abbey was granted half a swarm of bees in the woods at Hardwick: it may be that mead was made, although honey had a symbolic connection with the austere life because of its association with John the Baptist, who is represented on a pillar of the chapter house.

Diet seems to have been improved in the early 14th century by the same process of earmarking revenues to it. In 1332 Abbot Nicholas of Longnor, as part of a more general package of reforms, allocated the proceeds from the churches at Hunstanton and Ruyton XI Towns, together with those of the Dee and Severn fisheries, to the purchase of meat and fish. A new set of kitchens were constructed. Fuel, flour, peas, cheese, butter, and pottage were still to be provided from the general accounts. There was a piggery at the abbey gates, and this was to provided 20 animals a year for the community. Two loads of flour were requisitioned annually for pastry. It is unclear to what extent the large quantities of meat actully formed part of the monastic diet, as there was also an infirmary on the premises. The kitchener was ordered to render account to the abbot four times a year. A cellarer was responsible for the supply of both beer and bread, including that required at the abbey's granges. the abbot ate from the same kitchens as the canons and could feed guests free of charge when on the premises, but he, the steward and the chaplain were to feed themselves when away from the abbey. Abbot Lognor established a substantial garden at the abbey and in later centuries a dovecote was installed there, providing another convenient source of meat.

The abbey must have built up a collection of books large enough to need separate accommodation, as Abbot Richard Pontesbury complained in 1518 that the bybliotheca was in need of repair. A small number of the books have survived: a Bible; a volume of glossed Gospels; a work by Petrus Comestor, a French theologian; one by Hugh of Fouilloy, another French cleric; and a volume containing both the Sententiae of Isidore of Seville and De sapientia by Alcuin. However, Haughmond, like other Augustinian houses in the region, was not noted for its scholarship. The only Haughmond canon to achieve academic eminence was John Ludlow, who was a scholar in St Mary's College, Oxford, a specifically Augustinian institution, and headed it as prior studentium in 1453 and 1453: he became abbot of Haughmond in 1464. The abbey was supposed to maintain at least one canon at university but was fined in 1511 by the general chapter of the Augustinians for failing to do so.

• Sculptures of the saints at Haughmond Abbey

• St Augustine of Hippo, eponym of the order.

• St Thomas of Canterbury, focus of England's most important pilgrimage.

• St Catherine of Alexandria, with wheel of martyrdom, exacting revenge on Emperor Maxentius. St John the Evangelist with eagle emblem.

• John the Baptist with lamb and flag. St Margaret of Antioch spearing a dragon.

• St Winifred with her murderer Caradog, who melted into the ground.

• St Michael the Archangel slaying a dragon.

• 14th century statue of St Peter on left of processional entrance.

• 14th century statue of St Paul on right of processional entrance.

In the absence of much documentary evidence, the abbey's art may shed some light on the values held dear by the community. In the 14th century a number of figures were carved on the previously plain shafts of the arches at the processional entrance to the church and at the entrance to the chapter house. St Peter and St Paul flank the church entrance used by the canons to enter the church for the Canonical Hours. These were the saints most closely associated with the Papacy, from which both the order and the abbey took their authority. For the chapter house, Augustine of Hippo, eponym of the order, and St John the Evangelist, patron saint of the abbey, were obvious choices. The remaining saints were all illustrative of martyrdom, austerity or spiritual struggle. Thomas Becket, murdered on the orders of Henry II, one of Haughmond's major benefactors, was a martyr whose cult at Canterbury was the focus for medieval England's most important pilgrimage. Catherine of Alexandria, seen as a virgin martyr, is portrayed with her wheel of martyrdom, taking revenge on the Emperor Maxentius. John the Baptist, closely associated with asceticism and speaking truth to power, and a Biblical type for Becket, clutches the lamb and flag symbol of the Agnus Dei. He is accompanied by Margaret of Antioch, who is spearing a dragon, a female counterpart to St Michael. St Winifred, a third virgin martyr, whose relics were kept at nearby Shrewsbury Abbey, is shown with her persecutor Caradog sinking into the ground. Facing her, St Michael the Archangel, armed with spear and shield, treads down and impales a dragon, representing Satan.