Monks in Motion: a prosopographical study of the English and Welsh Benedictines in exile, 1553-1800

Context
Following the proscription by statute of some central aspects of the practice of Roman Catholicism, including the formation of communities of religious, the first English Benedictine monastery in exile was established in Douai in 1607. It was followed by a further three monasteries across France and Germany. Prior to these foundations, which provided a nationalized focus, some aspiring English monks joined European communities, entering religious life in Catholic countries such as Spain. In total more than seven hundred men (not including those who left before final profession; their numbers will be revealed by this project) travelled from their homeland to enter such establishments over two hundred years. Despite popular understandings of English history, these institutions were not isolated and their contacts and networks spread widely. Living in communities but also returning to England to serve on the Catholic mission, the English Benedictines' mobility made them unusual amongst the Order in Counter-Reformation Europe. The transnational nature of their existence made them a bridging point between the mainland continent and England.

Aims and Objectives
The major aim of the project is to explore the changing political role in England of the English Benedictines. This will be achieved by examining their transnational networks through the creation of a dynamic, searchable database of the membership and activities of English Benedictines from Mary I's reign to 1800, when many English Catholic exiles were forced to return to their homeland because of the French Revolution and its associated violence. This will include exploration of the monks' roles in the English diaspora and their involvement in bringing European ideas into an English context. Moreover, it will consider the position of the four nationality-defined monasteries as English institutions in Europe, plugged into both the intellectual networks of the Counter-Reformation and the political developments of their homeland. It will be vital for re-imagining the Catholic community during the period of religious proscription.
The creation of an open source, searchable electronic database of all English Benedictines (including those who were early leavers or did not pass the selection process) will allow a wide-range of users to access material about each individual, including information regarding their family, origins, career and active networks.

Potential Applications and Benefits
The database will be easy to use and accessible to all, including information valuable for a wide-range of users. Family historians will be attracted by the genealogical details provided (including parents) and the relationship links added to each entry. This material will prove invaluable to scholars of various fields, such as those investigating social networks. In addition, search tools will be made available allowing scholars or interested parties to examine the confessional background of members, the social background or age ranges in management structures to name but a few. The database will follow a similar design to that of the AHRC-funded 'Who Were the Nuns?' project, allowing the two datasets to be used in conjunction to create a wider picture of transnational kinship networks. The database will be designed so that it is expandable and as open as possible for interpretation on a number of different levels by both scholars and the wider public.

Major beneficiaries of the project will be the wider public in general. The resource will be of immediate value to family historians, allowing them to trace particular family members with ease, as well as the extended kinship networks to which they belonged. The birthplace of each monk will be recorded and searchable (as well as the origins of his parents), meaning local communities will gain an insight into the history of their area. Similarly, those who live in the communities close to the English-based successors of the Benedictine communities in exile will gain from these datasets.
The timeliness and importance of the project is emphasised by recent changes for the monastic communities still in existence. With declining vocations, the oldest community - that of St Gregory the Great, founded in Douai in 1607 and currently based at Downside in Somerset since 1814 - is particularly under threat. Thus, the community will benefit from this research into their own history, plus the project will bring to wider public attention the existence of these centuries-old institutions and the important role they have played in various fields of English and European history.
Linked to this, the project will also be of potential use to parts of the public sector, particularly museums and galleries. Recent successful exhibitions have included religious items (such as the British Museum's 2011 'Treasures of Heaven' exhibition or Tate Britain's 2013 'Art Under Attack: Histories of British Iconoclasm') and the project will publicize similar items held by these communities, highlighting their role in the maintenance and creation of such objects within the material culture of the monasteries in exile. This is particularly the case for the historic libraries held by the communities: that at Downside has just received a significant grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund to publicize its holdings more widely. This project will give the context to such nationally important holdings.
Methods to achieve this wider dissemination will include articles in the printed media, such as BBC History magazine, as well as participation in public history days and conferences, such as those by local or specialist history societies.