Publisher's Synopsis
Giving an account of daily life in Westminster Abbey, one of medieval England's most important monastic communities, this book is also an exploration of some major themes in the social history of the Middle Ages.;Barbara Harvey exploits the exceptionally rich archives of the Benedictine foundation of Westminster to the full, offering numerous insights into the lives of the Westminster monks, their pensioners, and their patrons. She examines their charitable practices, their food and drink, illness and death, the abbey servants, and the institution of corrodies - a key aspect of the abbey's finances. Miss Harvey sets her findings in the context both of other religious institutions and of the secular world.;Barbara Harvey has also written "Westminster Abbey and its Estates in the Middle Ages" and "The Westminster Chronicle 1381-1394".
