Our Legal Heritage : 600-1776 King Aethelbert - King George IIIReilly, S. A.
History
Our Legal Heritage : 600-1776 King Aethelbert - King George III
Reilly, S. A.
Law -- England -- History
Nuns and monks lived in segregated nunneries and monasteries on
church land and grew their own food. The local bishop usually was
also an abbot of a monastery. The priests and nuns wore long robes
with loose belts and did not carry weapons. Their life was ordered
by the ringing of the bell to start certain activities, such as
prayer; meals; meetings; work in the fields, gardens, or
workshops; and copying and illuminating books. They chanted to pay
homage and to communicate with God or his saints. They taught
justice, piety, chastity, peace, and charity; and cared for the
sick. Caring for the sick entailed mostly praying to God as it was
thought that only God could cure. They bathed a few times a year.
They got their drinking water from upstream of where they had
located their latrines over running water. The large monasteries
had libraries, dormitories, guesthouses, kitchens, butteries to
store wine, bakehouses, breweries, dairies, granaries, barns,
fishponds, orchards, vineyards, gardens, workshops, laundries,
lavatories with long stone or marble washing troughs, and towels.
Slavery was diminished by the church by excommunication for the
sale of a child over seven. The clergy taught that manumission of
slaves was good for the soul of the dead, so it became frequent in
wills. The clergy were to abstain from red meat and wine and were
to be celibate. But there were periods of laxity. Punishment was
by the cane or scourge.
The Archbishop of Canterbury began anointing new kings at the time
of coronation to emphasize that the king was ruler by the grace of
God. As God's minister, the king could only do right. From 973,
the new king swore to protect the Christian church, to prevent
inequities to all subjects, and to render good justice, which
became a standard oath.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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