This is an authoritative account of daily life in Westminster Abbey, one of medieval England's greatest monasteries. It is also a wide-ranging exploration of some major themes in the social history of the Middle Ages and early sixteenth century by a distinguished historian of that period.

Barbara Harvey exploits the exceptionally rich archives of the Benedictine foundation at Westminster to the full, offering many vivid insights into the lives of the monks of Westminster, their dependants, and their benefactors. She examines the charitable practices of the monks, their food and drink, their illnesses and their deaths, the number and conditions of employment of servants, and their controversial practice of granting corrodies (pensions made up in large measure of benefits in kind). All these topics Miss Harvey considers in the context both of religious institutions in general and of the secular world.