Convents appear, unsurprisingly, to have been run as any other institution, with the
obedientiaries taking on the same roles as household servants on a secular estate.
The bursar of Durham Cathedral Priory was one of a number of officials and obedientiaries of the house to whom was entrusted the overseeing or administration of a particular section of the priory's activities.
Prior William of Tanfield (1308-1313) temporarily withdrew assets from obedientiaries and used the proceeds to reduce debts [Cambridge, 1992, pp.
(2002), The Obedientiaries of Westminster Abbey and their Financial Records (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press).
(11) Similarly, a payment to the 'Clmcis sancA NichoZai' in the 1538-9 Glastonbury Abbey
Obedientiaries' Accounts is probably related to a resident boy bishop ceremony at Glastonbury, where there was both an almonry and a choir school.
Larger monasteries included a whole range of officeholders or
obedientiaries. These included the cellarer (in charge of food and drink); almoner (in charge of the formal distribution of alms to the poor); the preceptor (in charge of the chanting of the daily offices); the sacrist (in charge of church furnishings and vestments), and the novice master who took responsibility for training the child-oblates and any adolescents.
Revenue from this was allocated to conventual accounting departments or '
obedientiaries', who used the income to finance their duties within the abbey.(75) The various obedientiary accounts, which survive in relative abundance, contain many references to property leased by Westminster townspeople, including its musicians.