and Oswald (who became bishop of Worcester and later
archbishop of York), imported the Benedictine Reform
from the Continent and reinvigorated monastic life. To
enforce the Benedictine Rule buttressed by effective
continental and native regulations, they promulgated a
code of approved practice, the Regularis concordia (ca.
970). The monasteries, some 40 in number with none
in the north, were declared free of dependency on local
nobles and became powerful supporters of the West
Saxon monarchy.
Thanks to the renewed energies that resulted from the
Reform, the monasteries again became centers of learn-
ing and art, providing education and culture. Æhelwold’s
school at Winchester developed a highly refi ned Latin
style and produced the two fi nest OE prose stylists and
preachers, Ælfric and Wulfstan. It was during this period
that much Anglo-Latin and most extant OE texts were
written, created for the most part in Benedictine scripto-
ria. Canterbury was especially active as a writing center,
and Winchester gained particular renown for manuscript
illustration, identifi able as “the Winchester School.”
As the guide for traditional Benedictines (Black
Monks and Nuns), augmented for Cluniacs, and re-
formed by the Cistercians (White Monks), the Rule
of Benedict continued to dominate life in religious
orders until the advent of the friars (Franciscans and
Dominicans) in the 13th century. Benedictine abbeys,
priories, and cells became ubiquitous throughout the
realm, sometimes enormously wealthy and politically
and economically powerful under forceful leaders, such
as Abbot Samson of Bury St. Edmunds (ca. 1135–1212).
The order also continued to foster scholars and espe-
cially historians, such as William of Malmesbury (ca.
1095–ca. 1143), and at St. Albans Roger of Wendover
(d. 1236) and Matthew Paris (ca. 1199–1259).
Further Reading
Primary Sources
Fry, Timothy, ed. and trans. RB 1980 : The Rule of St. Benedict.
Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1981.
Gregory the Great. Life and Miracles of St. Benedict (Books Two
of the Dialogues). Trans. Odo J. Zimmermann and Benedict
R. Avery. Collegeville: St. John’s Abbey Press, 1949.
Kornexl, Lucia, ed. Die Regularis Concordia und Ihre Altenglische
Interlinearversion. Texte und Untersuchungen zur Englischen
Philologie 17. Munich: Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 1993.
Secondary Sources
Burton, Janet. Monastic and Religious Orders in Britain 1000–
1300. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
Farmer, David Hugh, ed. Benedict’s Disciples. Leominster:
Fowler Wright, 1980.
Knowles, David. The Monastic Order in England: A History of
Its Development from the Times of St Dunstan to the Fourth
Lateran Council 940–1216. 2d ed. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1963.
Platt, C.P.S. The Abbeys and Priories of Medieval England.
London: Secker & Warburg, 1984.
Turner, D.H.,ed. The Benedictines in Britain. London: British
Library, 1980.
George Hardin BrownBENJAMIN OF TUDELA (fl. 1160–1172)
Benjamin of Tudela was a Jewish merchant renowned
for his travels through various countries from about
1160 to about 1172, when he returned to Spain, dying
shortly thereafter. He left a book in Hebrew (or more
correctly his notes, which were turned into a book by an
anonymous hand) concerning his travels, which became
famous and in translation was one of the most widely
read travel accounts of all time.
Muslim and Jewish travelers in the Mediterranean,
and particularly from Spain, were numerous, and we
have accounts of such voyages from many (among Jews,
the most famous, besides Benjamin, were Ibrahı ̄ m ibn
Yaqu ̄b of the tenth century and Judah al-Harı ̄ zı ̄ of the
thirteenth). Benjamin’s account is particularly valu-
able because of its details on commerce, agriculture,
manufacture, and so on, and for the information it gives
concerning remote and exotic areas of the world (in-
cluding China). True, he did not personally reach these
lands, but at least some of the information he received
from secondhand reports is of value. His own personal
travels were limited to the coast of Provence; Italy; the
Greek isles; Constantinople and Asia Minor; Syria and
Mesopotamia (nearly to India); Palestine, and Egypt.
His primary goals were to investigate and report on
commerce and agriculture and to report on the presence
and condition of Jews in various parts of the world, as
well as to visit “holy sites.” His estimates of Jewish
populations in various regions and towns are gener-
ally substantiated by other sources, and his work is an
important source for Jewish history. For general history
there is also much of great value, including his listing of
some thirty Christian nations which had merchants in
Alexandria, and certainly his information on agriculture
and technology.
The fi rst Hebrew edition appeared in 1543, based on
a faulty manuscript, and was copied in subsequent edi-
tions and Latin and early English translations, in spite of
the more accurate edition of 1556, which subsequently
appeared. The edition, with English translation, of
Asher is based on a much better manuscript reading.
Most important are the extensive notes (English) in the
second volume. Adler’s edition, fi nally, is based on the
most accurate extant manuscript. The Spanish Hebra-
ist Benito Arias Montano made the fi rst translation, in
Latin (1575), from which Purchas’s Pilgrims English
translation and others in French were made. A second
Latin translation by Constantin 1’Empereur appeared inBENEDICT OF NURSIA, SAINT