Cameo corner: Matt Williams takes up the habit

The cameo for this week's programme involved Time Team digger Matt Williams taking on the role of a medieval lay brother. Here we take a brief look at medieval monastic life and its origins. For more detailed information, see also Monasteries: a short history.

Where it came from
Monastic teachings go way back to the time of the birth of Christ, when a group of desert hermits known as Coptic monks practised in Egypt. Their religion spread from the east and gradually gained popularity on the fringes of Europe, including Ireland, during the 5th century AD. By the 6th century, a set of monastic rules had been established by St Benedict, setting out how monks should live. In 597, St Augustine reached England and set about establishing St Benedict's rule here. Monasteries became an important part of life in Britain, and existed as such until Henry VIII dissolved them in the 16th century.

Where monks lived
Monks created their own communities known as monasteries. These are essentially self-contained settlements. Most monasteries have a variety of buildings gathered around a main abbey church, which support the settlement and its interests. These range from kitchens and breweries to libraries (scriptorium), offices, administration buildings and chapter houses where the community governed itself. Monasteries were also commonly charged with caring for the sick, so many have hospital buildings too. The monks themselves lived either in dormitories or individual cells. These were very basic, with few, if any, creature comforts.

The economy of the abbey
The majority of monastic sites held great influence locally, and sometimes regionally or even nationally. At the head of the house was the abbot, or, in the case of a nunnery, the abbess. They exercised control over both their own monastic communities and often those of the surrounding area. Many sites were lands given by wealthy donors hoping to secure themselves places in heaven, and as a result the well-established monasteries were often vast concerns with great wealth and large-scale agricultural and industrial activities.

An abbot would normally have a prior to assist in the administration of the monastery; and it's the prior who would deal with the day to day running of the site and oversee all the monks, novices (trainee monks) and lay brothers (as played by Matt). This last category in the community consisted not of monks but workers who tended fields and farms, made beer or managed woods under the control of the abbot. They were incorporated into the religious life of the abbey, but their role was less academic and more manual than the monks.

The monk's life
The foundation of monastic life is the strict adhesion to an immovable timetable of prayer, education, contemplation and penance. In theory, at least, monks were allowed no personal belongings and lived a hard life wearing rough cloth, sleeping on hard surfaces, and eating little. Their day would start shortly after midnight, when they would have to get up and meet in the abbey church for prayers. From that point on they would have to get up every two or three hours for further services, which took place up to seven times a day. Even when they stopped for the one meal of the day they would eat in silence apart from the tones of a brother conducting Bible readings. When not in communal prayer the monks would be expected to spend time in private prayer and contemplation. In the few remaining hours outside of formal religious practice, the monks were educated and learned the skills for which they are so well known, such as writing and illumination (decoration) of manuscripts.

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