Lynch, Bridget
(2008)
A monastic landscape:
The Cistercians in medieval Leinster.
PhD thesis, National University of Ireland Maynooth.
Abstract
This study endeavours to discuss the Cistercian monasteries of Leinster with
regard to their physical location in the landscape, the agricultural contribution
of the monks to the broader social and economic world and the interaction
between the cloistered monks and the secular world. The various lands
granted to the Leinster houses are identified, discussed, and where possible
mapped. This theme is the subject of three different chapters. The lands at
foundation are examined then the additional grants and privileges included.
The seventh chapter investigates the dissolution of the religious houses. The
extents of the monastic possessions that were drawn up at this time permitted
a detailed examination of the lands held by the Leinster houses. This chapter
also provides a template for a study of the physical, economic and
agricultural state of the monasteries. The main overall findings of the thesis
relate to the uses and makeup of the Cistercian lands in addition to the
situation of these monasteries in the landscape of Leinster. All monasteries of
the order in Leinster were found to be situated in close proximity to road and
other route ways in addition to territorial and physical boundaries. At
dissolution the land of the Cistercians was overwhelmingly under arable
cultivation with a figure of 84% arrived at which compares to 72% for lands
outside Leinster and 82% for all monasteries recorded in the extents. On the
whole the monasteries of Leinster were found to have been in a good state of
repair and were still in production in the mid sixteenth century. It is also
stated that the total acreage of the Cistercians in medieval Ireland was in
excess of 500,000 statute acres. Perhaps significantly the situation with regard
to the Cistercian order post dissolution was discussed in the final chapter. It
is clear that the Cistercians maintained a presence in Ireland throughout the
sixteenth and earlv seventeenth centuries until the Order was re-estahlishpd
| Item Type: |
Thesis
(PhD)
|
| Keywords: |
monastic;
Cistercians; Leinster; |
| Academic Unit: |
Faculty of Arts,Celtic Studies and Philosophy > History |
| Item ID: |
5236 |
| Depositing User: |
IR eTheses
|
| Date Deposited: |
25 Jul 2014 08:39 |
| URI: |
|
| Use Licence: |
This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available
here |
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