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[[File:Pluscarden_Abbey.jpg|thumb|right|Camevole Abbey in Bissex is a Camuvalian foundation.]]
{{GNCN|Colleges in the Church of Nortend|Kloster_Maulbronn_2344.jpg|Camevole Abbey in Bissex is a Royal College.}}
A '''religious house''' in the [[Church of Nortend]] is any legal corporation where members take {{wp|religious vows}} and live in common.  
'''Colleges in the [[Church of Nortend]]''' are ecclesiastical corporate foundations where clerks<ref>The term „clerk” is used in this article to refer both to men and women.</ref> either in holy orders or lay, maintain a common life for the purpose ''inter alia'' of [[Nortish Rite|divine service]]. [[Great Nortend]] has a long and unbroken history of ecclesiastical common life which dates back to Sulthey Abbey founded in the 8th century by St. Laurence in 751.  


[[Great Nortend]] has a long and unbroken history of religious houses which dates back to Sulthey Abbey founded in the 8th century by St Laurence in 751, two years after the foundation of Sulthey Cathedral. There are currently as of 2020 623 religious houses in [[Great Nortend]] under the auspices of the Church of Nortend, with a total of approximately 13,000 professed religious.
Historically, common life was classified into religious or secular life, the former encompassing the houses of the various religious orders—monasteries, friaries and regular canonries—and the latter being independent colleges. During the Reformation, religious life in particular was attacked by some reformers as being corrupt and their vows vain and elevated into a supererogatory good or good ''in se''. Over a period of several decades, the secularisation of religious houses slowly occurred piecemeal until the reformed body of canon law issued in 1597 by the Great Convocation significantly reformed common life, establishing all houses as colleges of secular clerks.


==History==
There are currently as of 2020, 623 colleges in [[Great Nortend]] under the auspices of the Church of Nortend, with a total of approximately 10,000 clerks living in community, excluding in these numbers the numerous other members „living out”.<ref>''Telling Roll'', ''His Majesty's Exchequery'', 17 Alex. II.</ref> Many colleges have hospitals, almshouses or schools attached to them, including the collegiate houses of the [[University of Lendert]].
After the promulgation of the ''Statutes of Limmes'' and ''Statute of Supremacy'' which formally severed the Church of Nortend from the papal authority and placed Alexander I as head of the Church, the religious foundations went into a period of decline. However, neither statute abolished the religious foundations, which mostly all continued to operate.


As with the secular clergy, religious houses were required to renounce allegiance to the Pope by taking the Oath of Supremacy. Those foundations who refused to take the oath forfeited their lands to the Crown, who appointed a Steward to administer it, though the members were allowed to stay on. Despite the threat of loss of income, many houses refused to take the oath and recognise Alexander as head of the Church. This led to the confiscation of nearly 100 houses before 1670.
==To-day==
[[File:Abbey_School,_Battle_(2030).jpg|thumb|250px|right|Cireford School is run by the canons of Cireford College.]]


In 1668, the 12th Duke of Cardenbridge, a well-known reformer, was captured and hanged by the Abbot and monks of Staithway Abbey on Cardoby. Alexander I had opposed the criminalisation of papal allegiance but upon his death at the end of 1668, William I acceded to the throne with a far stricter view. Statutes were quickly passed which resulted in the immediately criminalisation of Roman papal allegiance and thenceforth, the penalty for such recusancy was to be death.  
Common, corporate life in the Church of Nortend continues to be characterised by modesty, piety, chastity, canonical obedience and above all, divine service in common, as well as, to a varying extent, common residence and common dining. Under the ''Canons-General'',<Ref>Canon LVII, ''Canons General'' of 1597.</ref> colleges are „secular houses” living under Statutes where there is maintained a corporate life with a purpose of maintaining daily Divine Service ''for the corporation''.


After the suppression and execution of the Six Heretics in 1670, numerous houses very quickly 'voluntarily' chose to recognise William and take the Oath.
Cathedral churches are notable instances of a college formed by the chapter. Other collegiate churches include the great abbeys, priories and minsters as well as the university colleges and chauntry colleges. The head of a college may be accorded the prelatial titles of „abbot” or „prior”  (or the female equivalent, „abbess” or „prioress”), elevating the college to an abbey or priory respectively.<ref>Most abbeys and priories were originally monastic foundations or houses of Austin canons or canonesses.</ref> Lesser „minster” or „chauntry” colleges are typically headed by a „dean”, „provost”, „master”, „warden”, „archpriest” or „rector” (in the case of appropriated parochial churches).


===Dissolution===
The daily life of a college varies according to its particular statutes. Most require that the resident clerks, or their vicars, sing daily Mattins and Vespers, as well as a daily service of Holy Communion. Colleges generally provide rooms for their members and require that they dine together regularly, although accommodation differs between individual houses for prebendaries to dormitories shared by multiple clerks. While nearly all colleges employ  servants for the upkeep and sustenance of the college, colleges also usually require their members to attend to non-religious duties for the support of the community, such as gardening, light farming and the like, as well as the production of manuscripts, paintings, candles and other ornaments for religious purposes, depending on the particular traditions of the college.
Even so, the perceived excesses of religious houses continued to cause controversy, especially between parishioners and their monastic landlords. Since the late mediæval period the austere and often cloistered state demanded by the rules of the houses had been frequently ignored for centuries, many monks and canons living outside of the cloister in contravention of their vows of stability.  


The 13th Duke of Cardenbridge, now King's Clerk, aggresively advocated for the suppression and dissolution of the monasteries despite their recognition of William's supremacy. Several smaller and indebted houses were dissolved starting in 1675; however, increasing Exponential Catholic influence in Court meant that the Duke lost favour with William, halting the dissolutions.
Colleges use the Latin Services but where a parish church has been appropriated, English services must be said for the parish. Larger colleges often have various chapels with dedicated daily or weekly services, e.g. in honour of the Virgin Mary or in memory of the dead. Choral music forms an important part of worship in most colleges, and the corpus of Nortish collegiate music is significant, being composed in Latin for a reformed liturgy. As part of their works of Christian charity, colleges also play an important pastoral role for the local population, often including almshouses or hospitals associated with its foundation. Colleges often have schools for the education of the youth. A large number of the common schools of Great Nortend are part of collegiate foundations, in addition to the university colleges of the [[University of Lendert]].  


===''Quia solliciti''===
===Endowments===
Even so, reform was urgently needed and as Exponential influence at Court declined, the canon ''Quia solliciti'' was enacted by Henry V in 1711 which, ''inter alia'', provided for reform of the monasteries and priories. The canon culled the number of different monastic orders to four and the number canons regular to two. All other monastic houses and houses of canons regular were forced to convert to a different order or were dissolved.
[[File:Bassum_Die_Stiftsmühle_in_Bassum.jpg|thumb|250px|The abbey mill at Bassham Abbey.]]
Colleges are endowed with land, called the „stight”, to produce a sufficient income for the sustenance of the house through tithes and rents or the sale of produce. An average abbey holds a stight of 15,000 acres of land, roughly equivalent to around 8 to 9 medium-sized manors. Stights usually include mills, cornhouses and tithe barns. The colleges in total own roughly 15% of the land of Great Nortend. Colleges rely on a stight in addition to alms and government funding for their public services. It also relatively common for testators to bequeath money to houses for the endowment of a chauntry or for regular services for a certain number of years, although new perpetual chauntries or endowment with land in frankalmoign is forbidden by law without a licence.<ref>''Endowments and Chantries Act'', 10 Edm. VI.</ref>


The rules of each order were amended by the Archbishop of Sulthey and thence enforced strictly by regular visitations by the diocesan bishop or provincial archbishop. The changes made by the Archbishop allowed for increased freedoms for religious, yet reaffirmed regular principles and obligations.  
==Reformation==
[[File:Cleeve_gate.jpg|thumb|right|250px|The gatehouse at Rundelset Priory which was a daughter house of Staithway Abbey. It was dissolved in 1668. The house was refounded at the same site in 1822 by Edmund VII, the first new foundation in centuries.]]At the time of the promulgation of the ''Statute of Supremacy'' in 1569 which formally severed the [[Church of Nortend]] from the papal authority and placed [[Monarchy_of_Great_Nortend#House_of_Anthord_pre.E2.80.93Oln|Alexander I]] as head of the Church,<ref>''Statute of Supremacy'', 3 Alex. I.</ref> the religious houses were in a general period of decline and corruption in life, morals and faith.<ref name="Layland">E. T. Layland, vol. 3, Historia Ecclesiæ in Erbonica, 1942, Aldes., ad c. VI. p. 344.</ref>


Most strikingly, ''all'' religious houses were required to bring their liturgies into conformity with the 1709 Book of Mass and 1710 Book of Offices, no matter whether they shared their buildings or not. The number of Offices a day was reduced to four—Mattins, Nones, Vespers and Compline—to be said “at times which may be convenient to the parishioners, as well as to the monks, and not during the night as they have been wont to do hitherto.
Under the 1572 ''Statute for the Obedience of Clerks'', as with other clerks, members of colleges, priories and abbeys were required to renounce allegiance to the Pope by taking the [[Subjectship of Great Nortend|Oath of Obedience]]. Those foundations whose members refused to take the oath forfeited their lands to the Crown, who appointed an official to administer them, although the members were usually allowed to stay. Despite the threat of loss of income, many houses refused to take the oath and recognise Alexander as head of the Church. This led to the confiscation of nearly 100 houses before 1670.<ref>Id. c. VIII. p. 493.</ref>


===''De mendicis ordinibus''===
After the suppression and execution of the Six Heretics in 1575, numerous houses very quickly „voluntarily” chose to recognise William and take the Oath of Obedience.<ref>Id.</ref> The same year, the first step was taken in reform with the dissolution of the order of Franciscans, and the secularisation of their friaries. Even so, the corruption of the remaining religious houses continued to cause controversy, especially between peasants and their monastic landlords.<ref>C. A. Smithowe, ''Gulielmian Politics of Dissolution'', vol. 4 in 1973, ''Journal of Ecclesiastical History''.</ref> In 1582, the Dominicans were ordered to reform their preaching, secured by a requirement that friars take degrees at the reformed Faculty of Divinity at the [[University of Lendert]], while choir monks were similarly ordered to be examined in their learning.  
The mendicant orders did not escape reformation either. In 1729, William promulgated ''De mendicis ordinibus'' to reform the friars, culling their numbers to three orders. Owing to the ease with which superstitious people were fooled by the preaching of unlearned friars, it commanded that friars would be required to gain a degree in divinity before they would be permitted to preach.  


The continual financial pressure on most religious houses was mostly abated by carving out new parishes around friary churches and thus allowing friars to collect tithes, with the proviso that the vicar be provided by the house. Furthermore, friars were forbidden from wandering from town to town, begging, but rather enjoined to stay and reside at their convents and friaries unless ordered to move.
In 1585, the Great Annulment was issued by the Archbishop of Lendert, which annulled all religious vows, although this did not generally result in significant change in daily life in the religious houses. That same year, the Visitation of the houses was completed and the King beaun dissolutions of houses in significant debt. The entire order of Carmelites were dissolved the next year with their friaries completely dispersed on account of the theological objection taken to their „mystical” spirituality. Several religious houses saw that continuation as monastic or mendicant houses would soon not be possible under the reforms of Cardinal Frympell and Alexander I. Several houses had already secularised after the forced secularisations of the Greyfriars in 1575, seeing it as a way of maintaining their communities with the least disruption.


===Later history===
In  1597, the Great Convocation issued the new, reformed ''Canons-General'' which effectively put an end to the piecemeal reforms of houses by immediately secularising all existing religious houses, monastic or mendicant, and founding them as colleges of secular canons, ordering that new, reformed statutes be issued for each foundation by the Chancery and that they adopt the reformed books of Divine Service.
From 18th centuries there was a marked decline in the number of monastic religious. Mary had acceded to the throne in an atmosphere of increased Protestantism. Convinced by the Lord High Treasurer, she issued the canon ''In reformatione'' which suspended initiations and professions into religious life. However, after her wedding to the avowedly traditional Earl of Scode, this was revoked.


In the 19th century, with the increased education of the masses in the numerous schools owned by the religious houses, religious houses began to increase in side, stabilising in the 20th century to the current level.
==See also==
* [[Lendert Cathedral|Lendert Cathedral Priory]], a cathedral college in [[Lendert-with-Cadell]]
* [[Allord School]], a school attached to Allord Abbey.


==Types==
==References==
[[File:Cleeve_gate.jpg|thumb|right|250px|The gatehouse at Rundelset Priory.]]
{{Reflist}}
[[File:Pandhof_Utrecht_Cathedral.JPG|thumb|right|250px|The cloister garth at Handingham Abbey.]]
Religious houses are split between cloistered or eremitical monastic houses, mendicant houses and houses of canons regular.


Of the first category of cloistered or eremitical monastics, houses are either {{wp|Benedictines}}, {{wp|Cistercians}}, {{wp|Carthusians}} and Camuvalians, commonly known as the Black Monks, Pied Monks, White Monks and Red Monks respectively. Of the four, the Camuvalians are a uniquely Erbonian type, originating at Camevole Abbey.
{{GNC}}[[Category:Religion in Astyria]]
 
Of mendicant orders, there are four since 1726, being the {{wp|Dominicans}} and {{wp|Franciscans}}, {{wp|Carmelites}} and {{wp|Augustinians}}, commonly known as the Black Friars, Grey Friars, White Friars and Austin Friars respectively.
 
Canons regular may be broadly classified into the Austin Canons and Norbertine Canons, commonly known as the Black Canons and the White Canons respectively.
 
===Monastic houses===
Great Nortend has a large number of monastic houses scattered across the country. Whilst most of the 433 cloistered monastic foundations are in the {{wp|Benedictines|Benedictine}} or {{wp|Cistercians|Cistercian}} tradition, following the Rule of St Benedict as amended by Cardinal Dr. Wedgford in 1711, a sizeable number are {{wp|Carthusians}}, following the Carthusian statutes, and Camuvalians, following the Rule of St Edmund.
 
Despite these four types, there are no formal orders ''per se''. Rather, there are four canonical rules which a house may adhere to. Furthermore, there is no national hierarchy. Apart from the eremitic Carthusian monasteries which only have priories, there is a more localised hierarchy of dependent daughter ''priories'' under the control of a mother ''abbey''. These priories may in time be elevated to abbatial status and becoming independent once the canonical requirement of twelve choir monks or nuns has been reached.
 
There is a biennial General Convocation, where the abbots and abbesses of all abbeys (thus excluding the Carthusians) meet to discuss matters.
 
====Grades====
Within a monastery, there are two types of religious—lay and choir.
 
Choir monks and nuns have are devoted to prayer in choir and study. Choir monks are always ordained and receive the honorific 'Dom'. Choir nuns, whilst not ordained, receive the title 'Dame'. Lay brothers or sisters have supporting the choir monks and nuns in their duties through manual labour in lieu of study. The majority of religious are lay, given the education requirements for choir religious.
 
===Mendicant houses===
[[File:Abbey_School,_Battle_(2030).jpg|thumb|250px|right|St Martin's School is run by the brothers of Dominican Cireford Priory.]]The Dominicans, Austins, Franciscans and Carmelites are the four authorised mendicant orders of Great Nortend since 1726. Each order has its own apostolic ministry, adopted by the the Prior General and hierarchy of each order.
 
The Dominicans mainly engage in scholastic endeavours, such as education and preaching. Though historically the convents of the mendicant orders were cloistered as monastic foundations, in the 19th and 20th centuries the lay sisters of the Dominicans began to undertake apostolic works in the community like the friars in the education of especially girls and young boys. The Austin friars and sisters have a greater emphasis on charity, sharing and poverty but otherwise are similarly engaged in education, philosophy and scholasticisms.
 
The Franciscan friars emphasise personal poverty and commonly engage in a variety of works in the community such as ministry and pastoral work in areas of poverty, as well as caring for the sick. A small number dedicate themselves to justice and law, practising and teaching canon and regular law at the universities. Their female lay sisters, the Minoresses, are active in nursing and pastoral work, often running orphanages, hospitals and providing community nursing services. Choir Minoresses remain contemplative in the Franciscan tradition. The Carmelites focus on a more spiritual devotion, but otherwise are similar to Franciscans.
 
Unlike the monastic foundations, all of the mendicant orders have a national hierarchy, headed by a Prior General. The friars and lay sisters do not take vows of stability, and may move between individual convents.
 
===Canons regular===
'''Not to be confused with canons secular'''
 
Canons regular are houses of priests ascribing to a rule (''regula''). There are two types of canons regular—the Austin Canons (Black Canons) and Norbertine Canons (White Canons). Both ascribe to the Rule of St Augustine; however, the Norbertines have additional statutes which increase the austerity of their houses and lives.
 
There are forty-six houses of canons regular in Great Nortend; of these, thirty-nine are of Black Canons and seven are of White Canons.
 
==Sufficiency==
Religious foundations are generally expected to be self-sufficient. Monastic foundations are normally endowed with enough land to have a sufficient income for the sustenance of the abbey or priory. An average abbey holds approximately 15,000 acres of land, roughly equivalent to around 8 to 9 medium-sized manors. The monasteries in total own 3,845 manors which make up roughly 15% of the total land-mass of Erbonia, although around half are owned by the fifty largest abbeys in the country.
 
Although mendicant houses traditionally relied upon begging, nowadays actual begging for subsistence is no longer common. Mendicant houses nowadays rely on tithes from their parish in addition to charitable donations and government funding for their public services.
 
{{GNC}}

Latest revision as of 12:23, 25 October 2024

Colleges in the Church of Nortend
Kloster Maulbronn 2344.jpg
Camevole Abbey in Bissex is a Royal College.
Part of a series on the
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Colleges in the Church of Nortend are ecclesiastical corporate foundations where clerks[1] either in holy orders or lay, maintain a common life for the purpose inter alia of divine service. Great Nortend has a long and unbroken history of ecclesiastical common life which dates back to Sulthey Abbey founded in the 8th century by St. Laurence in 751.

Historically, common life was classified into religious or secular life, the former encompassing the houses of the various religious orders—monasteries, friaries and regular canonries—and the latter being independent colleges. During the Reformation, religious life in particular was attacked by some reformers as being corrupt and their vows vain and elevated into a supererogatory good or good in se. Over a period of several decades, the secularisation of religious houses slowly occurred piecemeal until the reformed body of canon law issued in 1597 by the Great Convocation significantly reformed common life, establishing all houses as colleges of secular clerks.

There are currently as of 2020, 623 colleges in Great Nortend under the auspices of the Church of Nortend, with a total of approximately 10,000 clerks living in community, excluding in these numbers the numerous other members „living out”.[2] Many colleges have hospitals, almshouses or schools attached to them, including the collegiate houses of the University of Lendert.

To-day

Cireford School is run by the canons of Cireford College.

Common, corporate life in the Church of Nortend continues to be characterised by modesty, piety, chastity, canonical obedience and above all, divine service in common, as well as, to a varying extent, common residence and common dining. Under the Canons-General,[3] colleges are „secular houses” living under Statutes where there is maintained a corporate life with a purpose of maintaining daily Divine Service for the corporation.

Cathedral churches are notable instances of a college formed by the chapter. Other collegiate churches include the great abbeys, priories and minsters as well as the university colleges and chauntry colleges. The head of a college may be accorded the prelatial titles of „abbot” or „prior” (or the female equivalent, „abbess” or „prioress”), elevating the college to an abbey or priory respectively.[4] Lesser „minster” or „chauntry” colleges are typically headed by a „dean”, „provost”, „master”, „warden”, „archpriest” or „rector” (in the case of appropriated parochial churches).

The daily life of a college varies according to its particular statutes. Most require that the resident clerks, or their vicars, sing daily Mattins and Vespers, as well as a daily service of Holy Communion. Colleges generally provide rooms for their members and require that they dine together regularly, although accommodation differs between individual houses for prebendaries to dormitories shared by multiple clerks. While nearly all colleges employ servants for the upkeep and sustenance of the college, colleges also usually require their members to attend to non-religious duties for the support of the community, such as gardening, light farming and the like, as well as the production of manuscripts, paintings, candles and other ornaments for religious purposes, depending on the particular traditions of the college.

Colleges use the Latin Services but where a parish church has been appropriated, English services must be said for the parish. Larger colleges often have various chapels with dedicated daily or weekly services, e.g. in honour of the Virgin Mary or in memory of the dead. Choral music forms an important part of worship in most colleges, and the corpus of Nortish collegiate music is significant, being composed in Latin for a reformed liturgy. As part of their works of Christian charity, colleges also play an important pastoral role for the local population, often including almshouses or hospitals associated with its foundation. Colleges often have schools for the education of the youth. A large number of the common schools of Great Nortend are part of collegiate foundations, in addition to the university colleges of the University of Lendert.

Endowments

The abbey mill at Bassham Abbey.

Colleges are endowed with land, called the „stight”, to produce a sufficient income for the sustenance of the house through tithes and rents or the sale of produce. An average abbey holds a stight of 15,000 acres of land, roughly equivalent to around 8 to 9 medium-sized manors. Stights usually include mills, cornhouses and tithe barns. The colleges in total own roughly 15% of the land of Great Nortend. Colleges rely on a stight in addition to alms and government funding for their public services. It also relatively common for testators to bequeath money to houses for the endowment of a chauntry or for regular services for a certain number of years, although new perpetual chauntries or endowment with land in frankalmoign is forbidden by law without a licence.[5]

Reformation

The gatehouse at Rundelset Priory which was a daughter house of Staithway Abbey. It was dissolved in 1668. The house was refounded at the same site in 1822 by Edmund VII, the first new foundation in centuries.

At the time of the promulgation of the Statute of Supremacy in 1569 which formally severed the Church of Nortend from the papal authority and placed Alexander I as head of the Church,[6] the religious houses were in a general period of decline and corruption in life, morals and faith.[7]

Under the 1572 Statute for the Obedience of Clerks, as with other clerks, members of colleges, priories and abbeys were required to renounce allegiance to the Pope by taking the Oath of Obedience. Those foundations whose members refused to take the oath forfeited their lands to the Crown, who appointed an official to administer them, although the members were usually allowed to stay. Despite the threat of loss of income, many houses refused to take the oath and recognise Alexander as head of the Church. This led to the confiscation of nearly 100 houses before 1670.[8]

After the suppression and execution of the Six Heretics in 1575, numerous houses very quickly „voluntarily” chose to recognise William and take the Oath of Obedience.[9] The same year, the first step was taken in reform with the dissolution of the order of Franciscans, and the secularisation of their friaries. Even so, the corruption of the remaining religious houses continued to cause controversy, especially between peasants and their monastic landlords.[10] In 1582, the Dominicans were ordered to reform their preaching, secured by a requirement that friars take degrees at the reformed Faculty of Divinity at the University of Lendert, while choir monks were similarly ordered to be examined in their learning.

In 1585, the Great Annulment was issued by the Archbishop of Lendert, which annulled all religious vows, although this did not generally result in significant change in daily life in the religious houses. That same year, the Visitation of the houses was completed and the King beaun dissolutions of houses in significant debt. The entire order of Carmelites were dissolved the next year with their friaries completely dispersed on account of the theological objection taken to their „mystical” spirituality. Several religious houses saw that continuation as monastic or mendicant houses would soon not be possible under the reforms of Cardinal Frympell and Alexander I. Several houses had already secularised after the forced secularisations of the Greyfriars in 1575, seeing it as a way of maintaining their communities with the least disruption.

In 1597, the Great Convocation issued the new, reformed Canons-General which effectively put an end to the piecemeal reforms of houses by immediately secularising all existing religious houses, monastic or mendicant, and founding them as colleges of secular canons, ordering that new, reformed statutes be issued for each foundation by the Chancery and that they adopt the reformed books of Divine Service.

See also

References

  1. The term „clerk” is used in this article to refer both to men and women.
  2. Telling Roll, His Majesty's Exchequery, 17 Alex. II.
  3. Canon LVII, Canons General of 1597.
  4. Most abbeys and priories were originally monastic foundations or houses of Austin canons or canonesses.
  5. Endowments and Chantries Act, 10 Edm. VI.
  6. Statute of Supremacy, 3 Alex. I.
  7. E. T. Layland, vol. 3, Historia Ecclesiæ in Erbonica, 1942, Aldes., ad c. VI. p. 344.
  8. Id. c. VIII. p. 493.
  9. Id.
  10. C. A. Smithowe, Gulielmian Politics of Dissolution, vol. 4 in 1973, Journal of Ecclesiastical History.