The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Abbey

ABBEY, a monastery or religious community of the highest class, governed by an abbot, assisted generally by a prior, sub-prior, and other subordinate functionaries; or, in the case of a female community, superintended by an abbess. A priory differed from an abbey only in being on a smaller scale, and governed by a superior named a prior. Abbeys or monasteries first rose in the East. Among the most famous abbeys on the European continent were those of Clugny, Clairvaux, and Citeaux in France; of St. Galle in Switzerland, and of Fulda in Germany; in England, those of Westminster, St. Mary's of York, Fountains, Kirkstall, Tintern, Rievalux, Netley, Paisley, and Arbroath. The English abbeys were wholly abolished by Henry VIII at the Reformation. Abbeys were usually strongly, with walls which served as a defense against enemies and within which were large buildings in which the occupants carried on the work to which they had been assigned. See ;.