How useful are the secondary sources provided in understanding Medieval Monasticism compared with the site of Fountains Abbey?

The first 200 words of this essay...

How useful are the secondary sources provided in understanding Medieval Monasticism compared with the site of Fountains Abbey?

Medieval Monasticism refers to the reflection of the way of life that monks lead in an extremely religious time where the influence of the church was great and was incredibly stronger than the power that the church consists of today.

The concept of self-imposed hard-ship was taken up in the 4th century, where under the guidance of St. Anthony, the first Christian monks lived in the Egyptian desert. After many objections that Christ's true teaching could not be entirely followed whilst on your own, solemn bishops and hermits created monastic rules. The most influential of these rules being that of St Benedict of Nursia, written around 530 which had an enormous impact upon western monks, including the Cistercians. Benedict's rule of living such an austere lifestyle was reformed in 1132 where Cistercians simplified liturgy, art and architecture and built a building as a place to introduce others to living in such a modified way and an area to practise their worship of the Opus Dei under demanding regulations. The erection of timber buildings began not long after a simple