The Abbey of St. Albans from 1300 to the dissolution of the monasteries

An historical study traces the abbey's trajectory from internal reform to suppression, first describing a fourteenth-century revival of discipline and financial reorganization under successive abbots and the continuation of literary and hospitable traditions, then examining economic pressures—papal and royal exactions, estate management—and the fifteenth-century spiritual and institutional decline that made dissolution inevitable. It presents an economic sketch, a chapter on decaying monastic spirit, an appendix with a later abbot's account, and reference lists of abbots and chief authorities.