Chasing a rumour found online I made a trip to Kirkstall abbey. It had been said that a tunnel lead from the abby to the town hall in the city centre. I wondered the abbey before approaching two employees working at the abbey gift shop. I enquired as to the whereabouts or existence of the tunnel and unfortunately their seemingly slim knowledge of the abbey did not prevail. They were able to point me in the direction of a more senior man called Steve assuring me that his extensive knowledge of the Abbey would be of more use to me.
Steve swiftly convinced me that the tunnel was nothing more than a rumour explaining the town hall was built long after the ruin of Kirkstall Abbey defeating any reasonable need for the tunnel. I then proceeded to asked some strange and pressing questions in a desperate attempt to squeeze something interesting from my visit regarding the untold story.
Steve then enlightened me with information regarding the monks that once inhabited the abbey. He explained that some of the monks here were know to be corrupt. Exploiting their positions within the church the monks would break their vows by stealing, killing and committing buggary. Steve quoted a specific story involving the murder of the "Vicar of Sandal's" servant. Steve went on to explain that this sort of corruption existed as anyone would be accepted into the order. Many men would take their vows to escape commonly found poverty during the Dark Ages. Being a monk presented a life of security for these people. As result of the varied people joining the order not all monks would have the strongest of morels and being put into a position of power made them dangerous. Steve explained that the monks would also abuse systems for forgiveness meaning that in the eyes of God they believed they had done no wrong, simply punishing themselves for sins committed. Steve's examples of self punishment were; ice baths, vows of silence and the wearing of hair shirts. This lead me on to think about how corruption exists within the church today and how power is entrusted to people who aren't necessarily to be trusted.
After learning about the misbehaving monks I felt excited about the prospect of drawing a series of GTA style monks killing and stealing various things. I left with some solid and interesting information giving me plenty of angles from witch could form a book.
I made some drawing from secondary sources as well as some from my head in response to todays visit.
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