Introduction

Abstract

The religious life was heaven and hell; religious houses could be depicted as ideal homes or centers of madness. For the likes of St Augustine, monasteries were the sweet smell to God, or they could be compared to a pleasant and precious wine.1 Regardless of how it was perceived, mo-nasticism was a focal point in late medieval religious culture. Moreover, with religious houses, villages and cities were born and existing ones reformed, and religious life structured the everyday life of their inhabitants. At some point in their lives, everyone had contact with religious houses, and and monks, nuns, or friars. This book is an exploration of attitudes toward the religious life during the reign of Henry VIII (1509-47), an attempt to capture the mentality of the people who lived in those tumultuous times. Below, I will attempt to interpret, give meaning to and find significance in the thoughts of the people of the past.2 Cultural history always perceives human life as a social and as a cultural construction; an understanding of the people of the past is essential if we want to understand their culture.3KeywordsReligious OrderCultural HistoryReligious LifeReligious PeopleFactual SourceThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.