SOURCE: Coleman, Edward. “Nasty Habits—Satire and the Medieval Monk.” History Today 43, no. 6 (June 1993): 36-42.

In the following essay, Coleman analyzes the subtexts of the works of Gerald and other church writers and reveals instances of wry humor.

The great Cistercian abbey of Rievaulx in Yorkshire, whose impressive ruins survive today, was founded in 1131-32, and was largely complete by the death of Abbot Ailred (who had made a major contribution to its construction) in 1167. The monks of Rievaulx are fulsomely praised in Ailred's biography:

They venerate poverty … counting riches and honours as dung … spurning fleshly desires and vain glory in food, drink, act and affectation … they observe at all times a discreet uniformity, using only so much and such means of sustaining life as will just maintain the needs of the body and their fervour in the worship of God.

There is little doubt that the monastic...