GILBERT OF SEMPRINGHAM 1085 - 1189 AD

His father was Lord of the Manor and because he considered that Gilbert would not cope with the life of a Knight, had him brought up in the church. Gilbert became a priest at Sempringham in Lincolnshire in 1123 AD

In 1131 AD he set up a home there for a group of young women and put it under Benedictine rule. For heavy work a number of labourers were organised to work for the convent. Later on lay sisters were added and priests were brought in to minister to the spiritual needs of the nuns. The priests (called canons) were under the rule of Augustine. The abbey had four levels of nuns, lay sisters, canons, and lay brothers. Men and women were housed separately, with the houses side by side, and the whole community was ruled by an abbess. The property belonged to the nuns. This was not a new idea, because it existed in Saxon times, e.g. at Wimborne. The most famous such medieval foundation was at Fontevrault in France, set up in 1118 AD.

In 1148 AD the Pope recognised the Gilbertines as a new order, and Gilbert became the first Master General. The order grew, and when Gilbert died, there were thousands of nuns and canons. They ran hospitals, orphanages and almshouses and looked after lepers. Gilbert set an example with an abstemious and prayerful life.

He fell out of favour in 1165 AD when he supported Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, in the quarrel with King Henry II and he was arrested for helping his superior, who was in exile. Gilbert was defiant, and the charge was later dropped.

When he was very old the brothers turned against him and forced him out of the generalship, but when the case went to Rome the Pope supported him. Gilbert spent the last years of his life nearly blind and as a simple member of his order.

By the time of the Reformation there were 20 houses in England and one in Scotland. Henry VIII got rid of them by 1540 AD.

The Gilbertine order was the only English religious order set up in the Middle Ages. It also gave women an important role at a time when they had no rights at all