Now that I’m doing my masters in Medieval Studies, I’ve been a bit too busy to do much writing for this blog. However, I visited Okehampton Castle last October. Here are some photos!
Okehampton Castle in the distance. October 2022. Photo by Viktor Athelstan.
Here is the first photo I took of the castle. I was pretty far away at the time, but very excited to see it! Even as ruins, Okehampton Castle is really impressive. It makes me wonder what medieval people thought when they saw it for the first time in its glory days. (This photo doesn’t really do justice to how high up on the hill it is.)
Okehampton Castle in the distance. October 2022. Photo by Viktor Athelstan.
Maybe this photo will give a better idea of the hill? (No. It doesn’t really. The hill is REALLY big.)
Okehampton Castle. October 2022. Photo by Viktor Athelstan.
There we go! This gives a better idea of Okehampton Castle’s scale. The gatehouse’s ruins are on the left.
Okehampton Castle’s gatehouse. October 2022. Photo by Viktor Athelstan.
It was a foggy morning that day. By the time I got to the castle the fog had almost (but not entirely!) lifted. This made for some really cool photographs.
Okehampton Castle. October 2022. Photo by Viktor Athelstan.
Here’s a hole.
Okehampton Castle. October 2022. Photo by Viktor Athelstan.
Another hole.
Surrounding landscape and a piece of Okehampton Castle. October 2022. Photo by Viktor Athelstan.
There’s some castle. The sunbeams through the fog was magical!
Okehampton Castle. October 2022. Photo by Viktor Athelstan.
After going through the gatehouse, I went through a corridor (I don’t know the technical term for it). The corridor leads to the rest of the castle. On each side you can see small stone walls. In the Middle Ages they were much higher!
Trees near Okehampton Castle. October 2022. Photo by Viktor Athelstan.
Aren’t these trees lovely?
Okehampton Castle. October 2022. Photo by Viktor Athelstan.
The fact that the ruins are on a hill makes for some great photographs and shows how intimidating the castle would have been in its glory days.
Okehampton Castle. October 2022. Photo by Viktor Athelstan.Okehampton Castle. October 2022. Photo by Viktor Athelstan.Okehampton Castle. October 2022. Photo by Viktor Athelstan.Okehampton Castle. October 2022. Photo by Viktor Athelstan.Okehampton Castle. October 2022. Photo by Viktor Athelstan.
You can see some autumn leaves here.
Okehampton Castle. October 2022. Photo by Viktor Athelstan.Okehampton Castle. October 2022. Photo by Viktor Athelstan.
I love that I could see the hills through the remaining windows.
Okehampton Castle. October 2022. Photo by Viktor Athelstan.Okehampton Castle. October 2022. Photo by Viktor Athelstan.
One of my favorite photos from this trip!
Okehampton Castle. October 2022. Photo by Viktor Athelstan.
If I recall correctly, this was part of the kitchen?
Because I took so many photos, I’ll post more in a part two!
I recently visited Exeter Cathedral so I figured I would post some photos I took! These photos are in no particular order. They feature multiple different aspects of the cathedral.
Outside of Exeter Cathedral—Autumn 2022Inside the Exeter Cathedral—Autumn 2022Outside Exeter Cathedral—Autumn 2022Some stonework by Exeter Cathedral’s front doors—Autumn 2022Outside Exeter Cathedral, including the Cathedral Green—Autumn 2022A side door of Exeter Cathedral, featuring a statue of Saint George killing a dragon (and some other saints)—Autumn 2022Part of Exeter Cathedral’s organ and the top of the choir stalls—Autumn 2022Exeter Cathedral’s wooden medieval bishop’s chair (note how it almost touches the ceiling!)—Autumn 2022Part of a chapel and a stained glass window in Exeter Cathedral—Autumn 2022Exeter Cathedral’s tomb of Walter Stapeldon, a medieval bishop of Exeter—Autumn 2022More stained glass in the Exeter Cathedral—Autumn 2022One example of carved graffiti in Exeter Cathedral—Autumn 2022Part of a tomb (I can’t remember whose) in Exeter Cathedral—Autumn 2022
I visited the Muckross Abbey ruins in spring 2018. Muckross Abbey is located in County Kerry, Ireland. On my Instagram @the_mediaeval_monk, some of my followers expressed interest in seeing my old photos of the abbey’s ruins.
I’m splitting the photos up into several blog posts. This is so people can admire Muckross Abbey’s beauty without feeling overwhelmed by the sheer amount of photos in each blog post. (I know I get overwhelmed when I see very big photo dumps! Surely other people are the same, right?)
A Brief History of Muckross Abbey
According to the Killarney National Park website, Muckross Abbey was founded in 1448 by Daniel McCarthy Mor. It was a Franciscan friary. People have been buried in Muckross Abbey’s cemetery for centuries. The cemetery holds Irish chieftains, poets, and local residents. As you’ll see from the photos below, it’s no wonder people want to be buried in such a gorgeous place!
The Ruins of Muckross Abbey (Co. Kerry, Ireland) from a distance | Source: Viktor Athelstan 2018The ruins of Muckross Abbey (Co. Kerry, Ireland) from a distance. Also some water. Maybe a pond. (Or was it a stream?) | Source: Viktor Athelstan 2018Part of Muckross Abbey’s (Co. Kerry, Ireland) ruins. Note the window frame | | Source: Viktor Athelstan 2018Muckross Abbey (Co. Kerry, Ireland) ruins | Source: Viktor Athelstan 2018An old (?) gravestone at Muckross Abbey (Co. Kerry, Ireland) ruins. I’m not sure what it says. Comment if you can read it, as I’d love to know who this belongs to | | Source: Viktor Athelstan 2018Muckross Abbey (Co. Kerry, Ireland) ruins. I took the photo at a funny angle because at the time I felt like it lol. Also with this angle, I was able to capture more in the photo. | Source: Viktor Athelstan 2018The ruins of Muckross Abbey (Co. Kerry, Ireland) | Source: Viktor Athelstan 2018The ruins of Muckross Abbey (Co. Kerry, Ireland) | Source: Viktor Athelstan 2018A Memorial in the ruins of Muckross Abbey (Co. Kerry, Ireland) | Source: Viktor Athelstan 2018The ruins of Muckross Abbey (Co. Kerry, Ireland) | Source: Viktor Athelstan 2018A grave at the ruins of Muckross Abbey (Co. Kerry, Ireland) | Source: Viktor Athelstan 2018A tiny slit window looking out into greenery at the ruins of Muckross Abbey (Co. Kerry, Ireland) | Source: Viktor Athelstan 2018The ruins of Muckross Abbey (Co. Kerry, Ireland) | Source: Viktor Athelstan 2018Graves at the ruins of Muckross Abbey (Co. Kerry, Ireland) | Source: Viktor Athelstan 2018The ruins of Muckross Abbey (Co. Kerry, Ireland) | Source: Viktor Athelstan 2018
Celibacy was not always a requirement for Catholic priests. From Christianity’s beginnings to the 12th century, clerical wives and families were quite common. However, that didn’t mean the Church didn’t attempt to enforce clerical celibacy. They did. And they tried to do it a lot. You can read my first post about the Church’s attempts to enforce clerical celibacy here.
This begs the question, why enforce clerical celibacy in the first place?
A priest baptizing a baby while the mother watches | Ms. 46 (92.MK.92), fol. 41v | Source: The Getty Museum
Why Did Medieval Catholic Reformers Want Priests to Take a Vow of Celibacy?
Like most questions about why people want anything, the answer isn’t a simple one. Reformers had a few reasons for enforcing clerical celibacy. Today’s post will focus on the religious and financial reasons reformers had when advocating for clerical celibacy.
Religious Reasons For Clerical Celibacy
One argument for clerical celibacy was that priests needed to be pure to uphold sacramental purity. Priests performed holy rituals and held holy items. The only way to maintain that the sacraments had the ritual purity they deserved was to make sure the person performing them was pure as well. Sex is unclean and impure, thus, priests should not have sex.
Now, I’m sure some readers are indigent about the idea of sex being dirty. Well, sexual uncleanliness isn’t just a ritualistic concept. Practically speaking, it’s reality. There are fluids involved. Would you really want to receive communion from someone who just had sex and possibly didn’t wash their hands that well afterward?
As clerical marriage was a reality for the first thousand or so years of Christianity, there were practical rules in place to ensure ritual purity. When a priest had sex, he needed to wait a certain amount of time before he could perform sacraments, touch the Eucharist, etc. If he did have sex within the allotted time frame that allowed him to regain his ritual purity, he had to find another priest to say mass for him.
Medieval priests were on call 24/7, so reformers argued they should be celibate all the time. That way a priest wasn’t scrambling to find someone else to perform Last Rites at 3am because a parishioner is dying and the priest and his partner were having a bit of fun before he received the news someone needed him.
Another religious reason for clerical celibacy was from a moral standpoint. I don’t mean moral in a “sex is bad” way. I mean moral from a “once sex is involved, there’s a greater chance of vile acts occurring.” Reformers were aware priests had a lot of power over their parishioners. Even if a relationship is between two consenting adults, power dynamics make things extremely complicated at best and disgustingly immoral at worst.
(Also we’re talking about the Catholic Church. You know, the institution that’s infamous for the copious amount of sexual abuse cases (some ongoing) that have happened over its 2000 year history. (As a side note, I know some people claim that clerical celibacy causes sexual abuse. To that I say, the average person doesn’t prey on children when they haven’t had sex in a while. I’m extremely suspicious of anyone who says otherwise.))
Financial Reasons For Clerical Celibacy
Sacramental purity wasn’t the only reason for clerical celibacy. Like with most rules people make, money is usually a factor. And clerical celibacy was no different.
Generally speaking, when a man and a woman marry (or are just not celibate with each other) there’s a good chance of babies happening. In an era with not super reliable birth control (though it did exist) babies happened a lot.
That, combined with the fact medieval masculinity depended on how many children you had and the Christian view married couples should only have sex to conceive a child (Note: in theory, medieval Christians followed this. In practice they didn’t.), meant some priests had a lot of children.
Babies are expensive.
And so is educating children and finding good dowries and making sure your children can financially support themselves as adults. For medieval clerical sons, the priesthood was a family business. Priests, especially ones in positions of power such as bishops and archbishops, sought to make sure their sons inherited their prebends and benefices.
In short, priests used Church money to support their families. Reformers did not like this.
Reformers also did not particularly like priests spending lots of Church money on their wives/concubines/girlfriends. They claimed priests “create public spectacles by taking their women, decked out lavishly in fine clothing and jewels, to weddings and to church” (Thibodeaux 30).
(Of course, the extent of how bad this supposed “lavishing” was could very well have been exaggerated by reformers in certain situations. I’m sure some priests spent too much money buying their partners nice gifts and I’m also sure other priests could have put in a bit more effort making sure their partners had something nicer than what they currently own. In situations like these, there wouldn’t be one absolute that applied to every single English/Norman Catholic priest from the beginning of Christianity to when priests actually started following the reforms.)
By lavishing their special lady friends with expensive things, reformers thought priests were paying more attention and in a sense worshiping women more than the church they were supposed to serve. I will go more into the medieval gender implications for priests “serving” women in a later blog post where I’ll discuss the gender-based reasons for and against clerical celibacy.
Source:
Thibodeaux, Jennifer D. The Manly Priest Clerical Celibacy, Masculinity, and Reform in England and Normandy, 1066-1300. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015.
Here is the YouTube link for episode 8 of my podcast, The Mediaeval Monk Podcast! Below the video are links to The Mediaeval Monk Podcast’s Spotify and Anchor pages.
What happens after you die has fascinated and confused humanity for thousands of years. One explanation comes in the form of ghost stories. Join Viktor Athelstan each week as he shares medieval stories and discusses aspects of medieval culture. Today’s story-driven episode features twelve fifteenth-century ghost stories from Byland Abbey, England.
The Mediaeval Monk 
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