it was often extended to anyone who was connected to the Church. To claim ‘benefit of the clergy’, an individual had to read a verse from Psalm 51 in the Bible. In medieval England it was only ...

who used monasteries as a source of healthcare and support in times of need. The Church remained an important institution in England, but some of its influence had diminished.

From the ambulatory and crypt of the church of the Royal Abbey of Saint-Denis, Saint Benedict Window. New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art ... to the late medieval iconography that features on ...