The last two abbeys to be dissolved were Waltham Abbey and Shap Abbey, both in January 1540; although it was not until April 1540 that the cathedral priories of Canterbury and Rochester were transformed into secular cathedral chapters.

His entrance into the monastery may be dated to the 1050s and it is possible that he was previously attached to the cathedral priory at Rochester, which receives a noticeable degree of attention in his work.

The priory on May subsequently founded a priory there, which by 1318 had replaced the founding priory and which had been given to the canons regular of the cathedral priory in St. Andrews.

During his time as head of the cathedral priory, Haldenson was dean of theology in the new University of St Andrews, and became closely involved in its affairs.

If Hugh and Prior Robert had not been well mounted, and the elderly but resolute former steward of Ramsey forced to go afoot, they could not have arrived at the cathedral priory of Worcester within a day of each other.

In 964, during the episcopate of Bishop Æthelwold, the Minster's secular priests were replaced by Benedictine monks from Abingdon Abbey, establishing the cathedral priory.

'A commune is the tumult of the people, the terror of the realm, the tepidity of the priesthood'- such was the cry of the chronicler Richard of Devizes, as he took shelter in the cathedral priory at Winchester, and contemplated from afar the commune of London of the 1190s.

He is also thought to have been a sub-deacon of the cathedral priory as listed in the Worcester Annals or possibly a monk at St Andrew's in Worcester.

During the reign of Henry I, he donated the church at Wolverhampton to his cathedral priory at Worcester, although its lands and privileges were protected.

Tensions between the cathedral priory and the citizens of Norwich (in part over the jurisdiction of land in the city) culminated in the Riot of 1272, in which thirteen members of the priory were murdered and the precinct gates and St. Ethelbert's Church were destroyed.