abbeys and priories
Abbots were the spiritual heads of the larger monasteries (abbesses for nuns), with priors in charge of smaller or daughter houses. Until the Reformation some 27 mainly ‘mitred abbots’ attended the House of Lords. Great abbeys like Evesham, Pershore, Buckfast, Selby, or Sherborne had vast estates. The
Valor Ecclesiasticus
of 1535, which preceded the dissolution of the monasteries, identified some 563 religious houses. The largest group, with more than 170 houses and 22 nunneries, belonged to the Augustinian ...