page_title: Buildwas Abbey
section_title: Spiritual and intellectual life
hierarchical_section_title: Buildwas Abbey / Abbots and Monks / Spiritual and intellectual life
context_page_description: Buildwas Abbey was a Cistercian monastery located on the banks of the River Severn, at Buildwas, Shropshire, England - today about two miles west of Ironbridge. Founded by the local bishop in 1135, it was sparsely endowed at the outset but enjoyed several periods of growth and increasing wealth: notably under Abbot Ranulf in the second half of the 12th century and again from the mid-13th century, when large numbers of acquisitions were made from the local landed gentry. Abbots were regularly used as agents by Plantagenet in their attempts to subdue Ireland and Wales and the abbey acquired a daughter house in each country. It was a centre of learning, with a substantial library, and was noted for its discipline until the economic and demographic crises of the 14th century brought about decline and difficulties, exacerbated by conflict and political instability in the Welsh Marches. The abbey was suppressed in 1536 as part of the Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII. Substantial remains of the abbey church and monk's quarters remain and are in the care of English Heritage.
context_section_description: When Edward III proposed drafting in the abbot of Buildwas to reassert authority over the Welsh Cistercian abbey of Strata Marcella in 1328, he commented that at Buildwas "wholesome observance and regular institution flourishes." However, this was influenced by the king’s own political interests in the Welsh Marches, and it is clear that he was determined to use the abbot of Buildwas as his agent. A later letter admits that the real problem at Strata Marcella was political: "unlawful assemblies to excite contentions and hatred between the English and the Welsh," so the king had reason to trumpet the effectiveness of the English abbot he hoped to use against a Welsh monastery.
  Evaluation of the monastic life at Buildwas was the responsibility of the Cistercian order itself, as Cistercian monasteries were beyond the canonical visitations of the local bishop. Only one visitation on behalf of the mother house of Savigny has left a written record. In 1231 Stephen of Lexington issued statutes after a visitation, but those received by Buildwas were identical to those for Byland, Combermere, and Quarr, suggesting that there were no special grounds for censure: routine concerns about excessive conversation and dietary luxury, with instructions for improving the discipline of novice monks and lay brothers.
  Monks generally pursued their education and spiritual development as far as the priesthood. There were plenty of opportunities to preside over the Eucharist at Buildwas, as there were at least eight altars Whenever the life of the abbey was disrupted, the main concern of kings and other interested parties was the interruption to chantry masses: celebrations of the Eucharist for the souls of the dead. These depended on the Catholic theology of the Sacrifice of the Mass and the belief that the "special fruit" made available through Christ’s sacrifice was applicable at the will and intention of the priest. It was not only the great who expected to be remembered in the worship. When Henry del Park and Margery, who held just one twelfth of the manor of Blymhill between them, gave a right to common pasture to the abbey in 1272, the quid pro quo was that the abbot "will remember the same Henry and Margery, and the heirs of the same Margery, in all benedictions and prayers which henceforth shall be made in the aforesaid church forever." The kings repeatedly refer to the need for maintenance of chantries for their ancestors and for present future members of the royal family. This is reflected by the large number of altars, which make clear that the operation of chantries was the main business of the church at Buildwas, at least in the eyes of outsiders.
  Cistercians were supposed to exercise their priestly office only within their own abbeys, with vicars appointed to appropriated churches. In 1307, however, Buildwas appointed a deacon, Robert de Munsterton, as vicar at Leighton parish church, which presumably necessitated sending a monk to celebrate Mass. In 1394, it simply sent one of its own monks, William de Weston, to act as chaplain. In 1398 Weston, now recorded as a monk of Buildwas and vicar of Leighton, received a licence to go on pilgrimage to Rome for the good of his own soul: what arrangements were made for the continuing cure of souls in his parish is unclear.
  The tradition of book production and book ownership, probably begun by Abbot Ranulf, continued. In the library of Balliol College, Oxford, are a group of four 13th century volumes from Buildwas, including works of St Bernard and St Jerome, as well as two anonymous works, that have similar decorative features, thought to indicate an origin in the same scriptorium, probably that of Buildwas Abbey itself. Another of Balliol’s volumes is a glossed psalter bearing the inscription:
  Liber sancte marie de Buldewas quem magister Walterus de Brug' dictus le Paumer legauit eidem domui Anno domini mo cco lxxo vijo tempore fratris Willelmi Tyrry tunc abbatis loci eiusdem
  A book from St Mary’s, Buildwas, which Master Walter Bridgnorth, known as Palmer, bequeathed to that house in 1277
caption: 15th century high mass.
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