0 a group of buildings that is a home for monks or nuns (= religious men or women who live separately from other people) -- монастырь, аббатство
The abbeys were not reserved for the clergy, they were distributed among the nobility, to women and even to children as additional sources of income.
They targeted the abbey because the saint's jurisdiction adjoined their minster and presumably in the hope of its patronage.
That the abbey did not accept this offer is a clear indication of its long-term priorities regarding policy.
Stevens took the opportunity to complain of the abbey's alleged transgressions.
Commercial life was also stimulated by the abbey.
While the abbey could thus expect to come under the gaze of the political nation, it also exerted a more direct influence over the locality.
In my view, a comparison with the creation of abbeys is inappropriate.
There are a number of possible reasons for the abbey's surprising absence from most religious histories of the period.
