Monastic Complaints: Visitations of the diocese of Norwich

In 1526, Bishop Richard Nykke visited Norwich Cathedral Priory to see if the community was running smoothly.

Each monk voiced his complaints, revealing that many things were not going well. The toilets were broken, barking dogs kept the monks up at night, and the food was often cold.

Some monks were also committing serious breached of Benedict’s rules.

Listen to a selection of the monks’ complaints in this translated audio piece, created for our current exhibition, Living by the Rule: Contemporary Meets Medieval, part of our What is the Meaning of Life? season, now showing until 4 October 2026.