Religious Orders Vol 1

This is the first of a series of volumes which have become recognised as one of the great monuments of English historical scholarship. The late Dom David Knowles began work on the subject in 1929
The Monastic Order in England appeared in 1948, 1955 and 1959. This volume begins the account of a whole way of Christian life and a unique element of English civilisation, from Anglo-Saxon times to the mid-sixteenth century. It opens with a survey of monastic life and activities of the old orders to 1340
goes on to record the impact of the Friars, and concludes with a general survey of the monasteries and their world.