Reviregio Fernández González

Guadalajara

The downfall of the Benedictine order in 12^th-century England and literary texts

The Benedictine Order was founded by St Benedict (c.480-550) and based upon his Rule (poverty and austerity), It spread out all around Europe. Of course, the order reached England and the first Benedictine monastery was established in Canterbury in the year 597. Since then (with the parentheses of the Viking invasions) the number of Benedictine houses increased in a considerable way, for they very soon started gaining power and wealth in the life of Medieval England. But in the 12^th century the Benedictines started loosing their power and popularity and many other monastic orders, like the Cistercians, the Carthusians, the mendicant orders, and the military orders surpassed them. The most important objectives of this paper is to study this outstanding fact in the history of England, its reasons and consequences through the written records of the time, as for example The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, The Chronicle of Ailred of Rievaulx, The Chronicle of Jocelin of Brakelond, and Gerald of Wales’s The Journey through Wales.