CONVERSUS
Conversus: translation
[lay brother]. A lay member of a monastery who entered late in life, perhaps with a *corrody. They were so named for being 'converted' from the secular world. They were often illiterate and not permitted to become monks; monks from wealthier families tended to be literate and were known as 'fathers'. The main purpose of the conversus was to do the manual labour of a foundation, making the worldly wealth needed, as the religious worked for the soul. The Cistercian order had more conversi than other rules. For example, at Rievaulx, when Ailred was abbot (c.1150-60), there were 140 monks and 600 conversi. The better able were sent to the monastery's outlying farms and *granges; however, a great many were found to be unreliable and much was stolen. By the time of the *Black Death, granges and farms had been let out on commercial terms; after this, there were scarcely any conversi. -
Cf. Nutritus