Saints and Sinners: Britain's Millennium of Monasteries

BBC Four

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BBC Four HD

Janina Ramirez

Nick Kent

Susan Jones

Nick Tanner

Jamie Simpson

Oxford Film and TV

Saints and Sinners: Britain's Millennium of Monasteries: Episode 2

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Episode 2

BBC Four - Saints and Sinners: Britain's Millennium of Monasteries, Episode 2

How the monasteries' success and spectacular artistic achievement proved too good to last.

Janina Ramirez looks at how monasteries transformed society and rose to a position of immense power, only for sin and corruption to lead to collapse as the medieval period ended.

The golden age of the British monastery was during the medieval period, when monks transformed British society and rose to a position of immense power. Fighting back after centuries of defeat and neglect, a wave of new monasteries spread across the nation, with over 500 British monastic houses established by the 14th century. Far from the inward-looking recluses of legend, monks were exceptionally creative, and became pioneers in the fields of medicine, science, scholarship, industry, farming, art and music. They didn't turn their back on the medieval world, but helped transform it. 

Yet as the monasteries mingled with the world outside their cloisters they began to take on its corruption. They had begun with a vow of poverty, but eventually came to own a third of the nation's land. This wealth, combined with the sins of individual monks, sealed their fate, and as the medieval period ended the monks were on the brink of a catastrophic and total collapse.

From Viking-ravaged Lindisfarne to the astonishing achievements of Durham and Peterborough cathedrals (both built for monks), from cutting-edge hospitals to the rediscovery of the oldest collection of two-part music in the world, this is a story of astonishing success and spectacular artistic achievement that proved too good to last.

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Dr Janina Ramirez discovers how monasteries shaped every aspect of medieval Britain.

Janina Ramirez discovers how monasteries shaped all aspects of medieval Britain and created a dazzling array of art, architecture and literature, a story of faith, sacrifice, violence and corruption.

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Saints and Sinners: Britain's Millennium of Monasteries

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