The focus of Geoffrey Moorhouse's book is a great church with one of the most recognisable profiles in Europe: Durham Cathedral. The 'last office' - 'office' in its specialised meaning of a communal act of worship - was the last sung service of the Benedictine monks, which closed their life at Durham in the time of Henry VIII, on 31 December 1539. This is where Moorhouse starts, in a study of Durham that is more than just a study of Durham, and which is enriched by his usual stylish prose and eye for detail. The book would be a good place to begin if one wanted to understand the life of medieval English Benedictines and the brilliant bureaucratic and political skills that destroyed their world in the 1530s.

LRB 17 July 2008 | PDF Download