1
00:00:24,705 --> 00:00:28,641
(Choir singing)

2
00:00:28,675 --> 00:00:30,040
once upon a time,

3
00:00:30,077 --> 00:00:32,944
far from the turmoil of the busy world,

4
00:00:32,979 --> 00:00:34,844
there lived a monk.

5
00:00:34,881 --> 00:00:39,978
He dedicated himself to a life of prayer,

6
00:00:40,020 --> 00:00:41,885
of hard work...

7
00:00:44,391 --> 00:00:45,881
poverty...

8
00:00:48,295 --> 00:00:51,628
self-denial...

9
00:00:51,665 --> 00:00:53,462
and silence.

10
00:00:53,500 --> 00:00:55,331
- Lovely day.
- shh.

11
00:00:55,369 --> 00:00:57,303
His life was shut away

12
00:00:57,337 --> 00:01:00,568
from the temptations
of ordinary mortals.

13
00:01:00,607 --> 00:01:02,438
He dedicated himself to God

14
00:01:02,476 --> 00:01:07,140
in a life that was literally
out of this world.

15
00:01:07,180 --> 00:01:10,980
But if monks in the Middle Ages
really were like this...

16
00:01:11,017 --> 00:01:12,780
(Man screaming)

17
00:01:12,819 --> 00:01:16,414
..why did so many people
come to hate them so much?

18
00:01:24,197 --> 00:01:27,860
At the abbey of Bury st. Edmunds in 1327,

19
00:01:27,901 --> 00:01:30,369
the last thing the monks
had on their minds

20
00:01:30,404 --> 00:01:32,133
was the contemplative life.

21
00:01:34,341 --> 00:01:38,175
For the entire year,
the monastery and the townsfolk

22
00:01:38,211 --> 00:01:41,544
had been locked in
a series of pitched battles...

23
00:01:43,316 --> 00:01:46,080
which culminated in the abbot being kidnapped,

24
00:01:46,119 --> 00:01:48,849
bundled into a sack
and carted off to London,

25
00:01:48,889 --> 00:01:52,052
where his eyebrows were shaved off.

26
00:01:54,494 --> 00:01:57,019
And Bury t Edmunds was not unique.

27
00:01:57,063 --> 00:02:00,897
it was an age when abbots
had their own armies,

28
00:02:00,934 --> 00:02:02,834
bishops ran brothels,

29
00:02:02,869 --> 00:02:05,929
and archbishops
often ran the country.

30
00:02:05,972 --> 00:02:08,065
Maybe even a monk's life

31
00:02:08,108 --> 00:02:10,372
wasn't quite what we imagined either.

32
00:02:17,350 --> 00:02:21,252
The idea of living a life
cut off from your fellow men

33
00:02:21,288 --> 00:02:22,915
in order to worship God

34
00:02:22,956 --> 00:02:26,892
didn't really get going in the west
until around 500 AD

35
00:02:26,927 --> 00:02:29,327
when an italian by the name of Benedict

36
00:02:29,362 --> 00:02:31,557
decided to escape city life

37
00:02:31,598 --> 00:02:35,193
and hide himself away
in these mountains.

38
00:02:35,235 --> 00:02:37,601
Benedict hadn't liked Rome.

39
00:02:37,637 --> 00:02:41,038
For his taste there was far too much
eating, drinking and sex

40
00:02:41,074 --> 00:02:43,406
and generally having a good time.

41
00:02:43,443 --> 00:02:46,071
What he was looking for was a nice cave,

42
00:02:46,112 --> 00:02:48,842
with no fitted carpets and no plumbing.

43
00:02:48,882 --> 00:02:55,185
# Hallelujah #

44
00:02:55,222 --> 00:02:57,315
so he moved in here.

45
00:02:57,357 --> 00:03:02,556
He preferred his food to be lowered down
to him in a bucket and only once a day.

46
00:03:02,596 --> 00:03:06,088
And he didn't want any oyster sauce
or deep-fried wontons.

47
00:03:06,132 --> 00:03:09,033
in fact, he didn't want
anything he could enjoy.

48
00:03:09,069 --> 00:03:10,696
As far as Benedict was concerned,

49
00:03:10,737 --> 00:03:12,932
God placed us on this world

50
00:03:12,973 --> 00:03:15,464
so we could refrain from
enjoying our time here

51
00:03:15,509 --> 00:03:19,240
and concentrate on thanking him
for placing us here.

52
00:03:19,279 --> 00:03:21,304
it's a curious philosophy

53
00:03:21,348 --> 00:03:24,784
but one which seems to have had
a lot of appeal.

54
00:03:24,818 --> 00:03:30,723
# My soul
doth magnify the Lord #

55
00:03:30,757 --> 00:03:34,215
Benedict just couldn't keep
a good thing like this to himself

56
00:03:34,261 --> 00:03:36,729
and soon there were lots
of other would-be hermits

57
00:03:36,763 --> 00:03:38,230
joining him

58
00:03:38,265 --> 00:03:39,823
so they could not enjoy themselves

59
00:03:39,866 --> 00:03:44,200
in solitude together
in the company of the great man.

60
00:03:48,074 --> 00:03:51,566
if there's one thing hermits like Benedict
can't stand

61
00:03:51,611 --> 00:03:53,101
it's overcrowding.

62
00:03:53,146 --> 00:03:56,980
And within a few years,
he had so many followers sharing his solitude

63
00:03:57,017 --> 00:04:00,350
that he decided to organize them
into separate communities.

64
00:04:00,387 --> 00:04:01,945
Monasteries.

65
00:04:01,988 --> 00:04:05,287
And he wrote a book of rules
for monks to follow.

66
00:04:05,325 --> 00:04:09,056
According to Benedict,
his rules weren't that strict.

67
00:04:09,095 --> 00:04:11,825
But he wouldn't let his monks
eat red meat

68
00:04:11,865 --> 00:04:15,232
and you weren't supposed
to talk at meal times.

69
00:04:16,269 --> 00:04:18,999
However, Benedict did allow
his monks to make a sign

70
00:04:19,039 --> 00:04:22,133
if they wanted something like, salt -
that was the sign -

71
00:04:22,175 --> 00:04:23,699
and we know what these signs were

72
00:04:23,743 --> 00:04:27,770
because the monks compiled dictionaries
of their sign language.

73
00:04:27,814 --> 00:04:31,113
For example we know that
the sign for king was this.

74
00:04:31,151 --> 00:04:34,143
And God was...king in heaven.

75
00:04:34,187 --> 00:04:37,350
While the sign for martyr,
you may be surprised to learn

76
00:04:37,390 --> 00:04:39,221
was this.

77
00:04:39,259 --> 00:04:41,784
And fish was simple.

78
00:04:41,828 --> 00:04:45,161
But for some curious reason,
herring was this sign.

79
00:04:45,198 --> 00:04:47,063
And for some
even more curious reason

80
00:04:47,100 --> 00:04:50,297
trout was the sign for herring
followed by this...

81
00:04:50,337 --> 00:04:52,134
which is the sign for woman.

82
00:04:52,172 --> 00:04:56,108
What Benedict hadn't envisaged
was that these simple signs

83
00:04:56,142 --> 00:04:59,475
would blossom into an entire
language of their own.

84
00:05:00,447 --> 00:05:03,883
The same signs were used
in monasteries all over Europe,

85
00:05:03,917 --> 00:05:05,908
a sort dumb Esperanto.

86
00:05:05,952 --> 00:05:08,182
o whatever country
a monk found himself in,

87
00:05:08,221 --> 00:05:12,419
he could always convey to a fellow monk
exactly what he wanted.

88
00:05:18,231 --> 00:05:21,598
 Benedict's book of rules
became famous

89
00:05:21,635 --> 00:05:23,569
and his monasteries flourished.

90
00:05:23,603 --> 00:05:28,370
in the 13th century one was built
on top of Benedict's actual cave.

91
00:05:28,408 --> 00:05:31,536
The monastery of San Benedetto
perches halfway up

92
00:05:31,578 --> 00:05:34,570
the sheer rockface
where Benedict sought solitude.

93
00:05:34,614 --> 00:05:37,174
i was shown round
by the unlikely figure

94
00:05:37,217 --> 00:05:41,176
of an Australian monk
who came here 41 years ago.

95
00:05:41,221 --> 00:05:43,451
so Father Giovanni,
can you tell me about

96
00:05:43,490 --> 00:05:45,924
- this painting over here?
- Yes.

97
00:05:45,959 --> 00:05:48,257
An episode of the life of st. Benedict.

98
00:05:48,294 --> 00:05:49,989
- What's he doing?
- in one of the monasteries

99
00:05:50,030 --> 00:05:53,727
founded by the saint in this valley,
there was a lazy monk.

100
00:05:53,767 --> 00:05:56,736
He didn't want to stay in
the chapel during the prayer.

101
00:05:56,770 --> 00:05:59,568
it was the devil who was pulling him out, see?

102
00:05:59,606 --> 00:06:05,306
on the right you see st. Benedict
who cured this lazy monk with a stick.

103
00:06:05,345 --> 00:06:06,334
(terry ) He beat him?

104
00:06:06,379 --> 00:06:09,143
Not a popular method today, is it?

105
00:06:09,182 --> 00:06:11,810
there's st. Benedict during a temptation.

106
00:06:11,851 --> 00:06:15,014
- see the devil there?
- He's breathing some fire, isn't he?

107
00:06:15,055 --> 00:06:19,185
Exactly. there's a third devil here.

108
00:06:19,225 --> 00:06:21,887
- Let's have a look.
- that's the main devil.

109
00:06:23,329 --> 00:06:25,991
Behind bars, he's meant
to be kept in prison, is he?

110
00:06:26,032 --> 00:06:27,294
Yes. (Laughs )

111
00:06:27,333 --> 00:06:30,325
- Benedict has got him in jail.
- Exactly!

112
00:06:30,370 --> 00:06:33,237
How when the monastic movement
has really...

113
00:06:33,273 --> 00:06:36,174
Monks are taking themselves away
from the world,

114
00:06:36,209 --> 00:06:40,009
how is it they've had any effect on the world?

115
00:06:40,046 --> 00:06:42,276
oh, they take themselves
away from the world

116
00:06:42,315 --> 00:06:44,749
to conquer the world.

117
00:06:45,418 --> 00:06:48,512
solitude, silence, that's the method, eh?

118
00:06:48,555 --> 00:06:50,716
the main work of the monks is prayer.

119
00:06:50,757 --> 00:06:53,123
ora et labore.

120
00:06:53,159 --> 00:06:55,423
You know, prayer and work.

121
00:06:59,299 --> 00:07:03,065
The monks had to support themselves
and supply their own needs

122
00:07:03,103 --> 00:07:06,630
so they could keep
their distance from the world.

123
00:07:07,340 --> 00:07:11,140
But keeping away from the world,
was to prove the one thing

124
00:07:11,177 --> 00:07:13,839
that monasteries weren't very good at.

125
00:07:13,880 --> 00:07:18,613
The unworldliness of monks
just wasn't destined to last.

126
00:07:20,687 --> 00:07:22,882
And ironically, it began to break down

127
00:07:22,922 --> 00:07:26,688
because of people's belief
in the power of prayer,

128
00:07:26,726 --> 00:07:30,253
and in the idea that the purer
and simpler the life you led,

129
00:07:30,296 --> 00:07:32,696
the more likely God was to listen.

130
00:07:32,732 --> 00:07:36,133
And since monks were supposed
to lead purer and simpler lives

131
00:07:36,169 --> 00:07:37,500
than anyone else,

132
00:07:37,537 --> 00:07:40,062
their prayers were seen as a hotline to God.

133
00:07:40,106 --> 00:07:41,471
# Hallelujah #

134
00:07:41,508 --> 00:07:43,874
Rich folk and warriors begun to pay monks

135
00:07:43,910 --> 00:07:48,244
to do all the praying they were
too busy to do for themselves.

136
00:07:48,281 --> 00:07:50,476
Prayer became a commodity.

137
00:07:50,517 --> 00:07:52,542
it gained a commercial value

138
00:07:52,585 --> 00:07:56,646
and that was to prove the undoing
of the whole system.

139
00:07:58,158 --> 00:08:00,922
it was a pretty rough world
outside the monastery wall.

140
00:08:00,960 --> 00:08:03,428
After all, fighting men
were professionally engaged

141
00:08:03,463 --> 00:08:05,522
in the business
of breaking commands,

142
00:08:05,565 --> 00:08:10,434
especially that one that said,
''Thou shalt not kill''.

143
00:08:10,470 --> 00:08:14,133
A warrior's soul was
not an easy one to save.

144
00:08:14,174 --> 00:08:16,404
in fact it required a strenuous effort

145
00:08:16,442 --> 00:08:20,640
by a significant number of people
to pray his way out.

146
00:08:20,680 --> 00:08:23,012
After the Battle of Hastings, for example,

147
00:08:23,049 --> 00:08:28,351
the Church demanded 120 days
of penance for everyone killed.

148
00:08:28,388 --> 00:08:30,356
William the Conqueror in his lifetime

149
00:08:30,390 --> 00:08:34,053
must have been responsible
for something like, mmm... 10,000 deaths.

150
00:08:34,093 --> 00:08:37,529
That's about 3,300 years of penance.

151
00:08:37,564 --> 00:08:42,763
He wouldn't have finished yet,
not until the year 4366.

152
00:08:45,572 --> 00:08:49,303
However, if the work was split up
amongst a couple of hundred monks,

153
00:08:49,342 --> 00:08:52,778
William could have his soul
cleansed in less than 18 years.

154
00:08:52,812 --> 00:08:57,681
 he founded a string of abbeys
to pray for his soul.

155
00:08:57,717 --> 00:08:59,878
in fact anyone who had any money

156
00:08:59,919 --> 00:09:05,084
would deem it only wise to invest a bit of it
in the innocence of monks.

157
00:09:05,124 --> 00:09:08,525
And far from living lives of
extreme poverty and discomfort,

158
00:09:08,561 --> 00:09:12,827
monks began to find themselves
as rich as priests.

159
00:09:15,768 --> 00:09:17,497
the monks of the abbey here

160
00:09:17,537 --> 00:09:20,370
benefited so much from various kings

161
00:09:20,406 --> 00:09:23,307
that they owned the entire
county of West suffolk,

162
00:09:23,343 --> 00:09:26,972
as far as the eye can see,
in every direction and further.

163
00:09:27,013 --> 00:09:29,675
they built this town of Bury st. Edmunds

164
00:09:29,716 --> 00:09:33,948
and you can still see how the abbot
carefully planned it on a grid,

165
00:09:33,987 --> 00:09:36,080
just like New York.

166
00:09:37,490 --> 00:09:39,924
Every single commercial transaction

167
00:09:39,959 --> 00:09:41,984
involved a cut for the monks.

168
00:09:42,028 --> 00:09:43,757
Whether you ran a barge
on the river

169
00:09:43,796 --> 00:09:46,390
or a stall in the market
or sold fish

170
00:09:46,432 --> 00:09:48,798
or supplied building materials.

171
00:09:49,936 --> 00:09:53,372
the abbey administered justice
and pocketed every fine it took.

172
00:09:53,406 --> 00:09:55,465
it ran the Royal Mint.

173
00:09:55,508 --> 00:09:57,135
Being abbot of Bury st. Edmunds

174
00:09:57,176 --> 00:10:00,475
was literally a license
to print money.

175
00:10:02,482 --> 00:10:06,111
the abbey even owned
the very horse droppings on the street

176
00:10:06,152 --> 00:10:08,484
and the monks took their cut of that.

177
00:10:10,690 --> 00:10:14,217
Every abbot jealously guarded
his monopoly.

178
00:10:14,260 --> 00:10:16,524
take Abbot samson, for example,

179
00:10:16,562 --> 00:10:21,192
who ruled Bury with a rod of iron
in the late 12th century.

180
00:10:21,234 --> 00:10:26,433
one day he heard that his dean,
Herbert, had built a windmill

181
00:10:26,472 --> 00:10:28,440
without his permission.

182
00:10:32,145 --> 00:10:34,170
the abbot was more than
a little miffed.

183
00:10:34,213 --> 00:10:38,843
in fact, his biographer tells us,
''samson boiled with fury

184
00:10:38,885 --> 00:10:41,376
''and could hardly eat or sleep.

185
00:10:41,421 --> 00:10:45,221
''He summoned Herbert and said,
'i thank you as much

186
00:10:45,258 --> 00:10:49,354
'''as if you had cut off both my feet.
By the faith of God,

187
00:10:49,395 --> 00:10:54,628
'''i will never eat bread until
that building is destroyed.''''

188
00:10:55,702 --> 00:10:57,363
Well, it was a subtle enough hint,

189
00:10:57,403 --> 00:11:01,669
but Herbert took it
and destroyed the mill immediately.

190
00:11:05,745 --> 00:11:08,236
As a rich landowner, the Abbot of Bury

191
00:11:08,281 --> 00:11:11,250
was supposed to marshal
a small army for the king.

192
00:11:11,284 --> 00:11:13,878
Well, Abbot samson had no problem with that.

193
00:11:13,920 --> 00:11:18,186
in 1193, he personally
donned armor and led his troops

194
00:11:18,224 --> 00:11:19,987
in the siege of Windsor.

195
00:11:22,495 --> 00:11:26,329
Fighting for Richard i against his brother John.

196
00:11:26,366 --> 00:11:28,766
But poor old st. Benedict and his rule book

197
00:11:28,801 --> 00:11:31,099
must have been turning in their graves.

198
00:11:33,673 --> 00:11:37,973
There was this paradox
at the heart of medieval monasticism.

199
00:11:38,011 --> 00:11:41,071
one of the driving forces
behind monasticism

200
00:11:41,114 --> 00:11:46,814
was the idea that as monks led purer, simpler,
more austere lives,

201
00:11:46,853 --> 00:11:50,687
their prayers were worth more
than other folks'.

202
00:11:50,723 --> 00:11:55,490
of cause the purer, simpler,
more austere a monastery was,

203
00:11:55,528 --> 00:11:57,894
the more it attracted
wealth from rich clients

204
00:11:57,930 --> 00:12:00,592
anxious for it to say their prayers for them.

205
00:12:00,633 --> 00:12:05,036
the irony was that the wealthier
a monastery became,

206
00:12:05,071 --> 00:12:09,474
the less pure, simple
and austere its lifestyle became

207
00:12:09,509 --> 00:12:12,239
and hence less valuable its prayers.

208
00:12:12,278 --> 00:12:14,610
- it was a vicious circle.
- Exactly!

209
00:12:14,647 --> 00:12:16,808
Exactly!

210
00:12:16,849 --> 00:12:18,282
 a new breed of monk

211
00:12:18,317 --> 00:12:22,083
would take monasticism back to basics.

212
00:12:23,256 --> 00:12:25,724
Here on the North Yorkshire moors,

213
00:12:25,758 --> 00:12:31,697
a group of monks arrived
from the French abbey of Clairvaux in 1132.

214
00:12:33,132 --> 00:12:37,535
these monks had come
to get back to the basics of st. Benedict's rule

215
00:12:37,570 --> 00:12:39,561
and enjoy lives of abject poverty,

216
00:12:39,605 --> 00:12:42,369
vegetarianism and strict discipline.

217
00:12:44,243 --> 00:12:46,541
they called themselves Cistercians

218
00:12:46,579 --> 00:12:49,810
and wore white robes to symbolize purity.

219
00:12:49,849 --> 00:12:53,216
they also wore no underpants
to symbolize...

220
00:12:53,252 --> 00:12:56,244
i'm not quite sure
what that symbolized, but st. Benedict

221
00:12:56,289 --> 00:12:58,120
hadn't mentioned
anything about underpants

222
00:12:58,157 --> 00:13:01,422
and so the Cistercians would
have no truck with the things.

223
00:13:01,461 --> 00:13:04,089
some call it bare-bottomed piety.

224
00:13:06,432 --> 00:13:09,367
these Cistercians were
determined to worship God

225
00:13:09,402 --> 00:13:11,336
not only without underpants

226
00:13:11,370 --> 00:13:15,101
but in the most remote
and uninhabited places.

227
00:13:15,141 --> 00:13:17,769
At the start there were just 12 monks

228
00:13:17,810 --> 00:13:19,869
and an abbot living here in wooden huts,

229
00:13:19,912 --> 00:13:24,781
but within 2o years the wooden huts
were a distant memory.

230
00:13:26,419 --> 00:13:29,479
They named the new monastery Rievaulx,

231
00:13:29,522 --> 00:13:32,252
and many more were soon to follow.

232
00:13:35,261 --> 00:13:38,230
the Cistercians were
more than a religious movement.

233
00:13:38,264 --> 00:13:39,731
they were a brand.

234
00:13:39,765 --> 00:13:42,461
they invented a sort of Mc-monasticism,

235
00:13:42,502 --> 00:13:46,438
a worldwide franchise
in which uniformity was the key.

236
00:13:46,472 --> 00:13:49,839
the same books, the same food,
the same customs,

237
00:13:49,876 --> 00:13:53,107
the same clothes,
the same architecture.

238
00:13:53,146 --> 00:13:55,376
it's said that a blind monk from scotland

239
00:13:55,414 --> 00:13:59,874
could find his way round
a Cistercian monastery in scandinavia.

240
00:14:02,655 --> 00:14:05,681
Archaeologist
Glyn Coppack has been examining

241
00:14:05,725 --> 00:14:08,455
Cistercian monasteries all over Britain.

242
00:14:08,494 --> 00:14:12,794
He explains how the neighboring
Fountains Abbey was constructed.

243
00:14:12,832 --> 00:14:15,960
Glyn, how were the Cistercians
getting back to basics?

244
00:14:16,002 --> 00:14:17,663
Well, they were simplifying their architecture.

245
00:14:17,703 --> 00:14:20,137
they spent a long time getting it right.

246
00:14:20,173 --> 00:14:23,165
so you have simple pillars
with pointed arches

247
00:14:23,209 --> 00:14:26,440
and to add to the austerity
the whole thing is painted white.

248
00:14:26,479 --> 00:14:28,208
You can still see looking around us

249
00:14:28,247 --> 00:14:31,239
where the weather hasn't taken it off
'cause it's very, very fragile.

250
00:14:31,284 --> 00:14:33,514
But the whole thing
would have shone inside.

251
00:14:33,553 --> 00:14:35,214
so this is kind of
symbolic purity.

252
00:14:35,254 --> 00:14:36,551
oh, absolutely.

253
00:14:36,589 --> 00:14:39,683
And in the windows, plain glass,
no colored glass.

254
00:14:39,725 --> 00:14:41,488
How do you know they had plain glass?

255
00:14:41,527 --> 00:14:44,462
Well, we've got some.
Here's some...

256
00:14:44,497 --> 00:14:45,862
Coincidence.

257
00:14:45,898 --> 00:14:50,164
..we found earlier, you see it's just
a plain green glass, yes?

258
00:14:50,203 --> 00:14:51,431
- No color in there.
- Yeah.

259
00:14:51,470 --> 00:14:54,064
And you don't see very many of these.

260
00:14:54,106 --> 00:14:55,630
this is a processional cross.

261
00:14:55,675 --> 00:14:58,872
this would normally be gold or silver.

262
00:14:58,911 --> 00:15:03,109
this is iron.
it's as simple as you can get.

263
00:15:03,149 --> 00:15:06,414
Now why are they doing it?
Who's this going to appeal to,

264
00:15:06,452 --> 00:15:08,852
this sort of, kind of austerity?

265
00:15:08,888 --> 00:15:12,085
Well, the simpler the religion,
the harder the life,

266
00:15:12,124 --> 00:15:14,115
the more powerful the prayers.

267
00:15:14,160 --> 00:15:18,529
And the people they are appealing to are those
who need the salvation more than most.

268
00:15:18,564 --> 00:15:21,499
the military classes, professional soldiers.

269
00:15:26,038 --> 00:15:27,801
The mill, the brewery, the kitchens

270
00:15:27,840 --> 00:15:29,933
and the latrines of the monastery

271
00:15:29,976 --> 00:15:33,104
were all fed by
a sophisticated water supply.

272
00:15:33,145 --> 00:15:37,844
And in fact when you go to the cloister,
water comes out of there in taps like this.

273
00:15:37,883 --> 00:15:39,475
- A tap!
- that's a tap.

274
00:15:39,518 --> 00:15:41,816
it's got a little Celtic beast's head there.

275
00:15:41,854 --> 00:15:44,584
Actually in the hole there. i see, so the...

276
00:15:44,624 --> 00:15:46,956
that's off and then to get water
coming through

277
00:15:46,993 --> 00:15:49,052
you just turn it like that
and the water flows through.

278
00:15:49,095 --> 00:15:50,494
And then when you've finished you...

279
00:15:50,529 --> 00:15:52,895
turn it up back and it stops. that's brilliant.

280
00:15:52,932 --> 00:15:54,399
so what date is this?

281
00:15:54,433 --> 00:15:55,991
that's about 117o.

282
00:15:56,035 --> 00:15:58,060
Now this is the sort of thing
that many of us didn't have

283
00:15:58,104 --> 00:15:59,901
until about 192o in our own homes.

284
00:16:01,907 --> 00:16:06,867
The Cistercians weren't poor monks
who arrived in Yorkshire by chance.

285
00:16:06,912 --> 00:16:11,372
The whole thing was run
to a centrally coordinated business plan

286
00:16:11,417 --> 00:16:13,180
and they were ruthless with anyone

287
00:16:13,219 --> 00:16:15,153
who happened to get in the way.

288
00:16:16,289 --> 00:16:17,756
one critic wrote,

289
00:16:17,790 --> 00:16:20,588
''They raze villages
and turn out the parishioners

290
00:16:20,626 --> 00:16:23,720
''who are reduced to poverty. ''

291
00:16:23,763 --> 00:16:26,698
The Cistercians were natural businessmen.

292
00:16:26,732 --> 00:16:29,428
At Fountains they bred a supersheep,

293
00:16:29,468 --> 00:16:32,631
which produced the highest
quality wool in Europe.

294
00:16:37,710 --> 00:16:40,508
At Rievaulx, they moved into heavy industry.

295
00:16:40,546 --> 00:16:43,174
Another archaeologist, Gerry McDonnell,

296
00:16:43,215 --> 00:16:47,151
is trying to work out just how advanced
their technology was.

297
00:16:48,587 --> 00:16:49,679
What are you actually doing here?

298
00:16:49,722 --> 00:16:51,087
What we've built here is a furnace

299
00:16:51,123 --> 00:16:53,387
that's based on one of the ones
that we excavated

300
00:16:53,426 --> 00:16:55,553
further to the north up Bilsdale

301
00:16:55,594 --> 00:16:58,825
and it's basically an early type
of so-called ''bloomery furnace''

302
00:16:58,864 --> 00:17:01,594
that was the dominant method
of producing iron

303
00:17:01,634 --> 00:17:03,499
in the 12th and 13th century.

304
00:17:03,536 --> 00:17:04,901
so what are they doing with it?

305
00:17:04,937 --> 00:17:07,098
they need their own supply quite clearly.

306
00:17:07,139 --> 00:17:09,699
Just to build the abbey itself
you need the steel tools,

307
00:17:09,742 --> 00:17:11,710
the chisels, the saws, et cetera.

308
00:17:11,744 --> 00:17:13,712
But also for example, to shear the sheep,

309
00:17:13,746 --> 00:17:16,271
you need sheep shears
which were steel-edged tools.

310
00:17:16,315 --> 00:17:19,443
But the quantity that they're producing
and the granges that they've got

311
00:17:19,485 --> 00:17:22,079
must have been producing far
in excess of what they needed

312
00:17:22,121 --> 00:17:25,147
so they were actually selling it
on into the open market.

313
00:17:25,191 --> 00:17:28,957
the advantage of the Cistercians is they have
a good European network

314
00:17:28,994 --> 00:17:32,896
and so the ability to...
for technological transfer within that group

315
00:17:32,932 --> 00:17:34,194
is very, very good

316
00:17:34,233 --> 00:17:36,428
and so we know
they were competent engineers

317
00:17:36,469 --> 00:17:39,461
and so i'm sure that they were
at the forefront of technology.

318
00:17:43,109 --> 00:17:45,339
As the Cistercian monasteries grew wealthier

319
00:17:45,378 --> 00:17:49,405
so their architecture got
more elaborate and decorated.

320
00:17:49,448 --> 00:17:54,818
By the 14th century they'd be picking out
these arches with lines of red paint

321
00:17:54,854 --> 00:17:59,416
and by the 15th, they were even throwing
in the odd sculpture.

322
00:17:59,458 --> 00:18:01,722
Heavens above.

323
00:18:03,596 --> 00:18:07,362
And of course no well-to-do monk
wants to share a dormitory,

324
00:18:07,400 --> 00:18:11,530
so they all moved out
and established individual bachelor pads,

325
00:18:11,570 --> 00:18:14,266
each private room with its own fireplace.

326
00:18:14,306 --> 00:18:16,206
You can see it's cut into the wall here.

327
00:18:16,242 --> 00:18:21,111
And a bedroom upstairs complete
with an en suite lavatory.

328
00:18:23,582 --> 00:18:25,812
(Terry ) And remember t. Benedict's diet?

329
00:18:25,851 --> 00:18:27,842
His monks weren't supposed
to eat the flesh

330
00:18:27,887 --> 00:18:30,287
of four-footed creatures.

331
00:18:30,322 --> 00:18:33,485
Monks, however, could eat meat if they were ill.

332
00:18:33,526 --> 00:18:37,724
so meat was available
here in the infirmary.

333
00:18:37,763 --> 00:18:42,996
so little by little the brothers
gave up eating in the refectory

334
00:18:43,035 --> 00:18:47,062
and started to take
their meals here instead.

335
00:18:47,106 --> 00:18:49,666
Cistercian logic for you.

336
00:18:49,708 --> 00:18:52,541
(Terry ) it was another loophole
just like the one

337
00:18:52,578 --> 00:18:54,045
that allowed monks
to get around

338
00:18:54,079 --> 00:18:55,774
the ''no talking at meals'' rule

339
00:18:55,815 --> 00:18:57,578
by using sign language.

340
00:18:59,585 --> 00:19:03,146
in fact, most of the signs were about food

341
00:19:03,189 --> 00:19:05,851
which isn't surprising
because in a monastery

342
00:19:05,891 --> 00:19:08,826
there was a lot of food to talk about.

343
00:19:08,861 --> 00:19:13,730
Here in Glastonbury, for example,
the abbot's kitchen was one vast chimney.

344
00:19:16,869 --> 00:19:19,133
Every week contained at least one feast day

345
00:19:19,171 --> 00:19:21,969
in which the poor monks
might have to deal with

346
00:19:22,007 --> 00:19:24,601
something like 16 courses.

347
00:19:58,611 --> 00:20:01,239
The monks were equally serious
about their booze.

348
00:20:01,280 --> 00:20:05,046
Alcohol accounted for something like
2o% of their energy intake.

349
00:20:05,084 --> 00:20:09,043
Nowadays it's about 5%.
Well, maybe a bit more in my case.

350
00:20:09,088 --> 00:20:10,646
of course, you've got to remember

351
00:20:10,689 --> 00:20:12,589
that it wasn't safe to drink the tap water,

352
00:20:12,625 --> 00:20:13,717
but still it's...

353
00:20:13,759 --> 00:20:15,920
a long way from Benedict's bucket.

354
00:20:21,100 --> 00:20:25,196
Gluttony was not the only sin
that monks fell prey to.

355
00:20:25,237 --> 00:20:30,641
Records for 1447 note
a brothel in Westminster, the Maiden's Head,

356
00:20:30,676 --> 00:20:33,270
that was much frequented by monks.

357
00:20:34,647 --> 00:20:36,945
And with 12 pounds pocket money a year,

358
00:20:36,982 --> 00:20:40,383
any girl's going to be glad to see a monk
coming through the door.

359
00:20:41,787 --> 00:20:46,087
The fact is, that as the time went on
the monasteries were just coining in money.

360
00:20:46,125 --> 00:20:48,150
After all, they held the keys to heaven

361
00:20:48,193 --> 00:20:49,888
and everyone wants to get there,

362
00:20:49,929 --> 00:20:52,193
so there were plenty of ways
to part the leaders from their cash.

363
00:20:54,700 --> 00:20:58,295
For example, the medieval Church
advised that everyone

364
00:20:58,337 --> 00:21:00,965
go on pilgrimage at least once in their lives.

365
00:21:01,006 --> 00:21:06,967
it was good for the soul and it
made the church a lot of money.

366
00:21:07,012 --> 00:21:09,810
Monastic institutions up and down the land

367
00:21:09,848 --> 00:21:12,715
vied with each other
to attract the most visitors.

368
00:21:12,751 --> 00:21:16,847
the best bet was to have
a really first-class relic.

369
00:21:16,889 --> 00:21:21,917
Canterbury cathedral made more than
£1,ooo a year out of pilgrimage.

370
00:21:21,961 --> 00:21:23,690
of course the big attraction there

371
00:21:23,729 --> 00:21:26,527
was the skull of Thomas Becket,
the turbulent priest

372
00:21:26,565 --> 00:21:29,033
who'd challenged the power
of King Henry ii.

373
00:21:29,068 --> 00:21:32,526
You could see where his head
had been split in two.

374
00:21:32,571 --> 00:21:34,334
(splat)

375
00:21:34,373 --> 00:21:39,140
But the monks of Canterbury
had plenty of other relics to be proud of.

376
00:21:39,178 --> 00:21:41,442
there was Aaron's rod.

377
00:21:41,480 --> 00:21:45,473
there was some of the stone
on which the Lord was standing

378
00:21:45,517 --> 00:21:48,918
shortly before he ascended into heaven.

379
00:21:48,954 --> 00:21:54,654
there was part of the table
off which the Last supper was eaten.

380
00:21:54,693 --> 00:21:59,960
they even had some of the clay
out of which God fashioned Adam

381
00:21:59,999 --> 00:22:03,833
and some of the Virgin Mary's knitting.

382
00:22:03,869 --> 00:22:06,963
And we know all this because
a writer in the 15th century

383
00:22:07,006 --> 00:22:09,566
carefully noted it all down.

384
00:22:14,647 --> 00:22:17,480
The monasteries
and the medieval church itself

385
00:22:17,516 --> 00:22:19,541
had become by the 14th century

386
00:22:19,585 --> 00:22:22,452
one vast commercial enterprise

387
00:22:22,488 --> 00:22:26,481
and the corporate HQ
was here in Avignon.

388
00:22:26,525 --> 00:22:32,157
This was the seat of the popes
from 13o9 to 1377.

389
00:22:32,197 --> 00:22:35,098
And it was to here that
the vast wealth of Christendom

390
00:22:35,134 --> 00:22:39,571
flowed in an endless stream
of tithes, fines, bribes

391
00:22:39,605 --> 00:22:41,698
and backhanders.

392
00:22:42,741 --> 00:22:45,005
the pope must have been presided over

393
00:22:45,044 --> 00:22:47,842
the greatest accumulation
of wealth in the western world

394
00:22:47,880 --> 00:22:50,178
and he also had a lot of enemies.

395
00:22:50,215 --> 00:22:54,345
i'm pretty certain he didn't sleep easily
in his bed at night.

396
00:22:54,386 --> 00:22:57,685
in fact you can tell
from his palace that he didn't.

397
00:22:57,723 --> 00:23:00,453
it's more like a fortress than a palace.

398
00:23:00,492 --> 00:23:05,486
A palace of paranoia
with a dark secret at its center.

399
00:23:10,135 --> 00:23:14,538
this is where the pope
would hold great banquets.

400
00:23:14,573 --> 00:23:17,440
the carver would cut up
everybody's meat for them

401
00:23:17,476 --> 00:23:20,138
behind big screens just about here

402
00:23:20,179 --> 00:23:22,113
which you think might be
very kind of him,

403
00:23:22,147 --> 00:23:26,743
but in fact nobody was allowed
in the pope's presence with a knife,

404
00:23:26,785 --> 00:23:28,616
so cutting up their meat for them

405
00:23:28,654 --> 00:23:31,623
wasn't a convenience,
it was a security precaution,

406
00:23:31,657 --> 00:23:35,991
rather like having plastic cutlery
on airlines nowadays.

407
00:23:38,864 --> 00:23:42,322
this is where the pope
would make his public appearances.

408
00:23:42,367 --> 00:23:45,564
Now, in Rome he'd appear
on the balcony of st. Peter's

409
00:23:45,604 --> 00:23:48,164
and wave to the assembled masses below.

410
00:23:48,207 --> 00:23:51,643
in Avignon he'd stick his head
out of this window here.

411
00:23:51,677 --> 00:23:55,113
You can see he's covered to his left and if
he spots any trouble in the crowd to his right

412
00:23:55,147 --> 00:23:57,547
it's easy to duck out of the way.

413
00:23:57,583 --> 00:23:59,278
(Crowd cheering)

414
00:24:02,755 --> 00:24:06,714
this is the grand treasury,
where the pope's accountants

415
00:24:06,759 --> 00:24:09,250
would get busy checking all the money

416
00:24:09,294 --> 00:24:11,728
that poured into the papal coffers.

417
00:24:11,764 --> 00:24:15,666
And now we're getting closer
to the great secret

418
00:24:15,701 --> 00:24:19,034
at the heart of the papal palace of Avignon.

419
00:24:19,071 --> 00:24:21,562
i'm going into the holy of holies,

420
00:24:21,607 --> 00:24:27,842
the lower treasury where the pope stored
all that prodigious wealth.

421
00:24:34,620 --> 00:24:36,884
this is where the tithes and offerings

422
00:24:36,922 --> 00:24:39,584
from people all over Europe ended up,

423
00:24:39,625 --> 00:24:43,356
deep in the bowels
of this closely guarded fortress.

424
00:24:43,395 --> 00:24:46,728
But even this isn't the great secret.

425
00:24:46,765 --> 00:24:50,895
the great secret is where
they kept the real treasure.

426
00:24:52,638 --> 00:24:56,369
this whole room has a false floor.

427
00:24:56,408 --> 00:24:59,707
this is the grubby secret
at the heart of Christendom

428
00:24:59,745 --> 00:25:02,077
in the 14th century.

429
00:25:02,114 --> 00:25:06,608
And it was here under his floorboards
that God's representative on earth

430
00:25:06,652 --> 00:25:08,381
stashed the real treasure,

431
00:25:08,420 --> 00:25:11,389
the gold plate, coins and jewelry.

432
00:25:11,423 --> 00:25:16,827
it's odd to think that if you or i
were looking at this site 6oo years ago,

433
00:25:16,862 --> 00:25:20,229
we probably wouldn't leave this room alive.

434
00:25:26,305 --> 00:25:29,502
Wealth and power
are inevitable bedfellows

435
00:25:29,541 --> 00:25:32,442
and in the Middle Ages,
the popes became rulers,

436
00:25:32,477 --> 00:25:37,312
great princes, vying with kings
for territory and influence.

437
00:25:39,384 --> 00:25:41,716
the power struggle between Church and state

438
00:25:41,753 --> 00:25:45,689
wasn't just something that passed by
the monastery walls unnoticed.

439
00:25:45,724 --> 00:25:48,454
it caught up the abbots,
the priors and the monks

440
00:25:48,493 --> 00:25:50,859
and it carried them along with it.

441
00:25:50,896 --> 00:25:54,889
As the power and wealth of the Church
and its monasteries grew,

442
00:25:54,933 --> 00:25:58,528
resentment amongst the laity
also gathered momentum.

443
00:25:58,570 --> 00:26:01,471
in Bury st. Edmunds in 1327,

444
00:26:01,506 --> 00:26:05,203
a group of townsfolk
assembled here in the guildhall

445
00:26:05,244 --> 00:26:10,739
and swore an oath to destroy
the power of the abbey.

446
00:26:12,117 --> 00:26:14,517
the next day,
almost the entire adult population

447
00:26:14,553 --> 00:26:18,387
turned out fully armed
in the market place here.

448
00:26:19,057 --> 00:26:21,924
they attacked the abbey,
they beat up the monks, stole their habits

449
00:26:21,960 --> 00:26:24,360
and went running
round the town in them.

450
00:26:24,396 --> 00:26:26,990
it was a conflict
which was to last a year

451
00:26:27,032 --> 00:26:29,796
and which saw even priests and friars

452
00:26:29,835 --> 00:26:32,963
leading armed assaults
against the monastery.

453
00:26:34,273 --> 00:26:37,140
During the riots,
the gatehouse to the abbey

454
00:26:37,175 --> 00:26:38,870
had been destroyed,

455
00:26:38,911 --> 00:26:41,471
so the monks
built a new fortified one

456
00:26:41,513 --> 00:26:44,482
complete with portcullis and arrow slits.

457
00:26:44,516 --> 00:26:46,006
But it didn't do them much good.

458
00:26:46,051 --> 00:26:48,884
in 1381 there was a national uprising

459
00:26:48,921 --> 00:26:52,516
and Bury, along with other monasteries,
was sacked and looted.

460
00:26:52,557 --> 00:26:54,184
the prior was executed

461
00:26:54,226 --> 00:26:57,957
and his severed head was stuck on a pike
in the great market.

462
00:26:57,996 --> 00:27:01,693
Even the Archbishop of Canterbury
was beheaded by the mob.

463
00:27:01,733 --> 00:27:06,966
The Church's response
was to adopt a program of zero tolerance.

464
00:27:07,005 --> 00:27:10,497
From 14o1, anyone who dared
to criticize the church,

465
00:27:10,542 --> 00:27:14,205
faced the prospect
of being burnt at the stake.

466
00:27:15,914 --> 00:27:17,973
The story of the monasteries
came to an end

467
00:27:18,016 --> 00:27:21,747
when Henry Viii made himself
head of the Church in England

468
00:27:21,787 --> 00:27:23,118
and destroyed them,

469
00:27:23,155 --> 00:27:25,851
confiscating their wealth.

470
00:27:32,364 --> 00:27:35,197
All we have now are these fairy ruins.

471
00:27:35,233 --> 00:27:38,896
A monument to an ideal
of simplicity and piety

472
00:27:38,937 --> 00:27:43,169
that became corrupted
on a magnificent scale.

473
00:27:43,208 --> 00:27:45,768
it seems to me, looking back
through the monks' story,

474
00:27:45,811 --> 00:27:48,541
that once prayer acquired a monetary value,

475
00:27:48,580 --> 00:27:50,241
the game was up.

476
00:27:50,282 --> 00:27:52,978
the monasteries,
the prayer factories,

477
00:27:53,018 --> 00:27:55,384
became commercial enterprises

478
00:27:55,420 --> 00:27:56,751
and once that had happened,

479
00:27:56,788 --> 00:28:01,487
there was just no way they could fulfill
their original function.

480
00:28:03,628 --> 00:28:08,395
the monks couldn't really cut themselves off
forever from the wicked world.

481
00:28:08,433 --> 00:28:10,298
No matter how hard they tried,

482
00:28:10,335 --> 00:28:12,769
they were part of the wicked world,

483
00:28:12,804 --> 00:28:16,740
and what's more,
very often they ran it.

484
00:28:24,750 --> 00:28:27,742
Next time on Terry Jones' Medieval Lives,

485
00:28:27,786 --> 00:28:29,981
the damsel in distress.

486
00:28:30,022 --> 00:28:32,149
i meet real medieval women

487
00:28:32,190 --> 00:28:34,658
who fight in wars, run businesses,

488
00:28:34,693 --> 00:28:36,524
and even run the country.