The monasteries, their role; an overview .
Extracts from The Monasticon; Rev J F S Gordon DD (1868).

The following extracts are the opening pages from The Monasticon, a work that looks in particular at the Monasteries of Scotland as recorded in the seminal work by Spotiswoode, the Archbishop of Glasgow, then St Andrews, in the 17th century. It is a succinct and balanced view that sets out just how much the nation as a whole and mankind in general owes to the skills and dedication of many of these monks. Without them, their education, organisation, and inspiration for over a thousand years we would not be as advanced or as civilised a society as we like to think we are. Many of the old values upheld by the monasteries would not be amiss in our `must have`, sleazy and  politically correct society of today where even the teaching of children the difference between right and wrong is to be supplanted by  relative rather than absolute values; by encouraging  pupils to develop  `secure values and beliefs` – whatever that might mean.

continued pages 6-11.