Abbey
A monastery canonically erected and autonomous, with a
community of not fewer than twelve religious; monks under the
government of an abbot; nuns under that of an abbess.
An autonomous priory is ruled by a superior who bears the title of
prior instead of that of abbot; but this distinction was unknown
in the first centuries of monastic history. Such were the
twelve great cathedral priories of England, immediately governed
by a prior, the diocesan being considered the abbot. Other
priories were founded as cells, or offshoots from the great
abbeys, and remained dependent on the parent house, by whose
abbot the prior was appointed, and was removable at will.
Originally the term monastery designated, both in the East and
in the West, the dwelling either of a solitary or of a
community; while caenobium, congregatio, fraternitas,
asceterion, etc. were applied solely to the houses of
communities. Monasteries took their names from either their
locality, their founders, or from some monk whose life has shed
lustre upon them; and later, from some saint whose relics were
there preserved, or who was locally an object of special
veneration. The monks of Egypt and Palestine, as may be
gathered from the "Peregrinatio Etheriae," also selected for
their monasteries sites famous for their connection with some
biblical event or personage. The first monks generally settled
in solitary places, away from the haunts of men, though
sometimes they were to be found also in cities like Alexandria,
Rome, Carthage, and Hippo. Monasteries, founded in country
places, not infrequently gathered around them settlements which,
particularly in England and Germany, in the course of time
developed into great centres of population and industry. Many
important towns owe their origin to this cause; but the tendency
never showed itself in Africa and the East. Though the sites
selected were often beautiful, many settlements, especially in
Egypt, were of set purpose made amid arid deserts. Nor was this
form of austerity confined to them. In the Middle Ages, the
more dismal and savage did this site appear to be, the more did
it appeal to the rigid mood of the Cistercians. Still, the
preference, at least with the majority of the monks of the West,
was for fertile lands, suitable for cultivation and agriculture.
The formation of communities dates from pre-Christian times, as
witness the Essenes; but the earliest Christian monastic
foundations of which we have definite knowledge were simply
groups of huts without any orderly arrangement, erected about
the abode of some solitary famous for holiness and asceticism,
around whom had gathered a knot of disciples anxious to learn
his doctrine and to imitate his way of life. Communities that
had outgrown the accommodation afforded by their monasteries
founded branch houses, and thus propagated themselves like the
swarming of a beehive. Bishops founded many monasteries, while
others owed their existence to the piety of princes and nobles,
who also generously endowed them. The Council of Chalcedon
(451) forbade the foundation of any monastery without the
permission of the local bishop, thus obviating the difficulties
likely to arise from irresponsible action. This became the
universal law, and it also safeguarded these institutions
against disbandment or ruin, since they enjoyed a certain
sacredness of character in popular estimation.
Double
monasteries were those in which dwelt communities both of men
and women at one and the same time, under the government of a
common superior, either an abbot or an abbess. The Emperor
Justinian suppressed them in the East on account of the abuses
which this arrangement might lead to; but the custom long
prevailed in England, France, and Spain, where strict rules,
keeping the sexes entirely separate at all times, minimized the
danger of scandals. Examples of these were the houses of the
Order of St. Gilbert of Sempringham; and in France,
Faremoutiers, Chelles, Remiremont, etc.
In the beginning, solitaries attached no importance whatever to
the form of design of their dwellings. They made use of
anything that Nature afforded, or their circumstances suggested.
In the East, especially in Egypt, abandoned tombs and burial
caves; in the West, cave and rude huts constructed of branches
of trees, mud, or sun-dried bricks, and furnished with the
barest necessities, sheltered many an early solitary. When the
number of such solitaries in a certain locality grew, and huts
increased in proportion, gradually they came to subject
themselves to a common superior and to follow a common rule of
life; but they had no common buildings except a church to which
they all repaired for the Sunday services. At Tabennae on the
Nile, in Upper Egypt, however, St. Pachomius laid the
foundations of the coenobitical life, arranging everything in an
organized manner. He built several monasteries, each containing
about 1,600 separate cells laid out in lines as an encampment,
where the monks slept and performed some of their manual tasks;
but there were large halls for their common needs, as the
church, refectory, kitchen, even an infirmary and a guest-house.
An enclosure protecting all these buildings gave the settlement
the appearance of a walled village; but every part was of the
utmost simplicity, without any pretense to architectural style.
It was this arrangement of monasteries, inaugurated by
St. Pachomius, which finally spread throughout Palestine, and
received the name of laurae, that is "lanes" or "alleys."
In addition to these congregations of solitaries, all living in
huts apart, there were caenobia, monasteries wherein the
inmates lived a common life, none of them being permitted to
retire to the cells of a laurae before they had therein
undergone a lengthy period of training. In time this form of
common life superseded that of the older laurae.
Monasticism in the West
owes its development to St. Benedict
(480-543). His
Rule spread rapidly, and the number of
monasteries founded in England, France, Spain, and Italy between
520 and 700 was very great. More than 15,000 Abbeys, following
the Benedictine Rule, had been established before the Council of
Constance in 1415. No special plan was adopted or followed in
the building of the first caenobia,or monasteries as we
understand the term today. The monks simply copied the
buildings familiar to them, the Roman house or villa, whose
plan, throughout the extent of the Roman Empire, was practically
uniform. The founders of monasteries had often merely to
install a community in an already existing villa. When they had
to build, the natural instinct was to copy old models. If they
fixed upon a site with existing buildings in good repair, they
simply adapted them to their requirements, as St. Benedict did
at Monte Cassino, not disdaining to turn to Christian uses what
had before served for the worship of idols. The spread of the
monastic life gradually effected great changes in the model of
the Roman villa. The various avocations followed by the monks
required suitable buildings, which were at first erected not
upon any premeditated plan, but just as the need for them arose.
These requirements, however, being practically the same in every
country, resulted in practically similar arrangements everywhere.
The monastic lawgivers of the East have left no written record
of the principal parts of their monasteries. St. Benedict,
however, mentions the chief component parts with great
exactness, in his Rule, as the oratory, dormitory, refectory,
kitchen, workshops, cellars for stores, infirmary, novitiate,
guest-house, and by inference, the conference-room or
chapter-house. These, therefore, find a place in all
Benedictine abbeys, which all followed one common plan,
occasionally modified to suit local conditions. The chief
buildings were arranged around a quadrangle. Taking the normal
English arrangement, it will be found that the church was
situated as a rule on the north side, its high and massive walls
affording the monks a good shelter from the rough north winds.
The buildings of the choir, presbytery, and retrochapels
extending more to the east, gave some protection from the biting
east wind. Canterbury and Chester, however, were exceptions,
their churches being on the southern side, where also they were
frequently found in warm and sunny climates, with the obvious
purpose of obtaining some shelter from the heat of the sun. The
choir was ordinarily entered, in the normally planned English
monasteries, by a door at the junction of the northern and
eastern cloisters, another door at the western end of the north
cloister being reserved for the more solemn processions.
Although in the course of time there came into existence private
rooms (chequer or saccarium) wherein the officials
transacted their business, and later still private cells are to
be met with, the cloisters were, in the main, the dwelling-place
of the entire community, and here the common life was lived.
The northern cloister, looking south, was the warmest of the
four divisions. Here was the prior's seat, next to the door of
the church; then those of the rest, more or less in order. The
abbot's place was at the northeastern corner. The novice-master
with his novices occupied the southern portion of the eastern
cloister, while the junior monks were opposite in the western
limb. The cold, sunless, southern walk was not used; but out of
it opened the refectory, with the lavatory close at hand. In
Cistercian houses it stood at right angles to the cloister.
Near the refectory was the conventual kitchen with its various
offices. The chapter-house opened out of the eastern cloister,
as near the church as possible. The position of the dormitory
was not so fixed. Normally, it communicated with the southern
transept, hence it was over the eastern cloister; occasionally
it stood at right angles to it, as at Winchester, or on the
western side, as at Worcester. The infirmary usually appears to
have been to the east of the dormitory, but no fixed position
was assigned to it. The guest-house was situated where it would
be least likely to interfere the privacy of the monastery. In
later days, when books had multiplied, a special building for
the library was added, at right angles to one of the walks of
the cloister. To these may be added the calefactory, the
parlour, or locutorium, the almonry, and the offices of
the obedientiaries; but these additional buildings fitted into
the general plan where they best might, and their disposition
differed somewhat in the various monasteries. The English
Cistercian houses, of which there are so many extensive and
beautiful remains, were mainly arranged after the plan of
Citeaux, in Burgundy, the mother-house, with slight local
variations.
The Carthusian monastery differed considerably in its
arrangements from those of other orders. The monks were
practically hermits, and each occupied a small detached cottage,
containing three rooms, which they left only to attend the
services of the church and on certain days when the community
met together in the refectory. These cottages opened out of
three sides of a quadrangular cloister, and on the fourth side
were the church, refectory, chapter-house, and other public
offices. Both laurae and caenobium were
surrounded by walls which protected the inmates either from the
intrusion of seculars or from the violence of marauders. No
monk might go beyond this enclosure without permission. The
monks of the earlier period considered this separation from the
outer world as a matter of prime importance. Women were never
permitted to enter the precincts of monasteries for men; even
access to the church was oftentimes denied them, or, if accorded
admission, as at Durham, they were relegated to a strictly
limited space, farthest removed from the monks' choir. Even
greater strictness was observed in safe-guarding the enclosure
of nuns. The danger of attack from Saracen hordes necessitated,
in the case of Eastern monasteries, the erection of lofty walls,
with only one entrance place many feet above the ground, reached
by a stairway or drawbridge that could be raised for defense.
The monks of the West, not standing in fear of such incursions,
did not need such elaborate safeguards, and therefore contented
themselves with ordinary enclosure walls. A religious of mature
age and character was selected for the responsible office of
porter, and to act as the channel of communication between the
inmates and the outside world. His chamber was always close by,
so that he might be at hand to fulfill his duties of receiving
the poor and of announcing the arrival of guests. In the
Egyptian monasteries the guest-house, situated near the entrance
gateway, was place under the charge of the porter, who was
assisted by the novices. St. Benedict so arranged that it
should be a building distinct from the monastery itself,
although within the enclosure. It had its own kitchen, served
by two of the brethren appointed for that purpose annually; a
refectory where the abbot took his meals with distinguished
guests, and, when he thought fit, invited some of the seniors to
join him there; an apartment for the solemn reception of guests,
in which the ceremony of washing their feet, as prescribed by
the Rule was performed by the abbot and his community; and a
dormitory suitably furnished. Thus the guests received every
attention due to them by the laws of charity and hospitality,
and the community, while gaining the merit of dispensing them
in a large-hearted way, through the appointed officials,
suffered no disturbance of their own peace and quiet. It was
usual for the buildings dedicated for hospitality to be divided
into four: one for the reception of guests of distinction,
another for poor travelers and pilgrims, a third for merchants
arriving on business with the cellarer, and the last for
monk-visitors.
Formerly, as now, monastic communities always and everywhere
extended a generous hospitality to all comers as an important
way of fulfilling their social duties; hence monasteries lying
on or near the main highways enjoyed particular consideration
and esteem. Where guests were frequent and numerous, the
accommodation provided for them was on a commensurate scale.
And as it was necessary for great personages to travel
accompanied by a crowd of retainers, vast stables and other
outhouses were added to these monastic hostels. Later
xenodochia, or infirmaries, were attached to these
guest-houses, where sick travelers could receive medical
treatment. St. Benedict ordained that the monastic oratory
should be what its name implied, a place exclusively reserved
for public and private prayer. In the beginning it was a mere
chapel, only large enough to hold the religious, since externs
were not admitted. The size of these oratories were gradually
enlarged to meet the requirements of the liturgy. There was
also usually an oratory, outside the monastic enclosure, to
which women were admitted.
The refectory was the common hall where the monks assembled for
their meals. Strict silence was observed there, but during the
meals one of the brethren read aloud to the community. The
refectory was originally built on the plan of the ancient Roman
triclinium, terminating in an apse. The tables were
ranged along three sides of the room near the walls, leaving the
interior space for the movements of the servers. Near the door
of the refectory was invariably to be found the lavatory, where
the monks washed their hands before and after meals. The
kitchen, was, for convenience, always situated near the
refectory. In the larger monasteries separate kitchens were
provided for the community (where the brethren performed the
duties in weekly turns), the abbot, the sick, and the guests.
The dormitory was the community bed-chamber. A lamp burned in
it throughout the night. The monks slept clothed, so as to be
ready, as St. Benedict says, to rise without delay for the night
Office. The normal arrangement, where the numbers permitted it,
was for all to sleep in one dormitory, hence there were often
very large; sometimes more than one was required. The practice,
however, gradually came in of dividing the large dormitory into
numerous small cubicles, one being allotted to each monk. The
latrines were separated from the main buildings by a passage,
and were always planned with the greatest regard to health and
cleanliness, a copious supply of running water being used
wherever possible.
Although St. Benedict makes no specific mention of a
chapter-house, nevertheless he does order monks to "come
together presently after supper to read the 'Collations.'" No
chapter-house appears on the plan of the great Swiss monastery
of St. Gall, dating back to the ninth century; in the early
days, therefore, the cloisters must have served for the meetings
of the community, either for instruction or to discuss the
affairs of the monastery. But convenience soon suggested a
special place for these purposes, and there is mention of
chapter-rooms in the Council of Aix-la-Chapelle (817). The
chapter-room was always on the cloister level, on to which it
opened. The cloisters, though covered, were generally open to
the weather, and were an adaptation of the old Roman
atrium. Besides providing a means of communication
between the various parts of the monastery, they were both the
dwelling-place and the workshop of the monks, and thus the word
cloister became a synonym for the monastic life. How the
monks managed to live in these open galleries during the winter
months, in cold climates, is a mystery; a room, called a
"calefactory," heated by flues, or in which a fire was kept up,
where the monks might retire occasionally to warm themselves,
was provided in English monasteries. On the Continent the
practice in regard to the novices differed somewhat from that
prevailing in England. Not being as yet incorporated into the
community, they were not permitted to dwell in the interior of
the monastery. They had their places in choir during the Divine
Office, but they spent the rest of their time in the novitiate.
A senior monk, called the novice-master, instructed them in the
principles of the religious life, and "tried their spirits if
they be of God," as St. Benedict's Rule prescribed. This period
of probation lasted a whole year. Abroad, the building set
apart for the novices was provided with its own dormitory,
kitchen, refectory, workroom, and occasionally even its own
cloisters; it was, in fact, a miniature monastery within a
larger one.
The infirmary was a special building set apart for the
accommodation of the sick and infirm brethren, who there
received the particular care and attention they needed, at the
hands of those appointed to the duty. A herbal garden provided
many of the remedies. When death had brought its reward, the
monks were laid to rest in a cemetery within the monastic
precincts. The honour of burial amongst the religious, a
privilege highly esteemed, was also sometimes accorded bishops,
royal personages, and distinguished benefactors.
No monastery was complete without its cellars for the storing
of provisions. There were, in addition, the granaries, barns,
etc., all under the care of the cellarer, as also such buildings
and outhouses as were used for agricultural purposes. Gardens
and orchards provided such vegetables and fruit as were
cultivated in the Middle Ages. The work of the fields did not,
however, occupy all the time of the monks. Besides cultivating
the arts, and transcribing manuscripts, they plied many trades,
such as tailoring, shoe-making, carpentering, etc., while others
baked the bread for daily consumption. Most monasteries had a
mill for grinding their own corn. It will thus be seen that an
Abbey, especially if it maintained a large community, was a
little city, self-contained and self-sufficing, as St. Benedict
wished it to be, to obviate as far as possible any necessity for
the monks to leave the enclosure. The enormous development of
the monastic life brought in its train a similar development in
the accommodation suitable for it. The monastic buildings, at
first so primitive, grew in time till they presented a very
imposing appearance; and the arts were requisitioned and ancient
models of architecture copied, adapted, and modified. The
Basilican plan, indigenous to Italy, was, naturally, that first
adopted. Its churches consisted of a nave and aisles, lighted
by clerestory windows, and terminating in a semicircular
sanctuary or apse. As time went on, the round arch, typical of
Basilican and Romanesque architecture, gradually gave place to
the pointed arch, peculiar to the new Gothic style, which is
defined as "perfected Romanesque." In England a tendency
developed of making the sanctuary rectangular instead of
apsidal. The Normans adopted this arrangement; and in their
church-planning the English oblong type of chancel gradually
took the place of the Romanesque and continental apse, and the
Basilica plan was abandoned for that of the Gothic, of a
crossing or transept, separating nave from chancel, the latter
being extended to make room for the choir. The final evolution
of the style peculiar to England is due to the Cistercians, the
characteristic of whose Abbeys was extreme simplicity and the
absence of needless ornament; their renunciation of the world
was evidenced in all that met the eye. Pinnacles, turrets,
traceried windows, and stained glass were, in their early days
at least, proscribed. And during the twelfth century Cistercian
influence predominated throughout Western Europe. The
Cistercian churches of this period, Fountains, Kirkstall,
Jervaulx, Netly, and Tintern, have rectangular chancels. These
and other twelfth century churches belong to what is known as
the Transitional or Pointed Norman style. Then followed the
greater elaboration of Early and Decorated English, as seen at
Norwich and Worcester, or rebuilt Westminster, culminating in
the splendours of the Perpendicular, or Tudor style, of which
Henry VII's Chapel, at Westminster, is so superb an example.
Few English Abbeys of note, however, were of homogeneous
architecture; in fact, the mixture of styles, though sometimes
almost bewildering, adds to what is left of these stately piles
a greater picturesqueness ever pleasing to archaeologist and
artist.
The routine of a monastery could be maintained and supervised
only by the delegation of some of the abbot's authority to
various officials, who thus shared with him the burden of rule
and administration, and the transaction of
business--considerable and ever increasing in volume, where a
large and important monastery was concerned. The rule was
exercised in subordination to the abbot by the claustral prior
and sub-prior; the administration, by officials termed
obedientiaries who possessed extensive powers in their own
spheres. Their number varied in different houses; but the
following were the ordinary officials, together with their
duties, most commonly named in old Customals: The cantor, or
precentor, regulated the singing in the church service, and was
assisted by the succentor or sub-cantor. He trained the novices
to render the traditional chant properly. In some places he
acted as master to the boys of he claustral school. He was the
librarian and archivist, and in this capacity, had charge of the
precious tomes and manuscripts preserved in a special aumbry or
book-cupboard, and had to provide the choirbooks and those for
reading in the refectory. He prepared and sent round the
briefs, or mortuary-rolls, announcing the death of any of the
brethren to other monasteries. He was also one of the three
official custodians of the convent seal, holding one of the keys
to the chest where it was kept. To the sacrist and his
assistants was committed the care of the church fabric, together
with its sacred plate and vestments. He had to see to the
cleaning and lighting of the church, its decking for great
festivals, and the vestments used by the sacred vestments. The
cemetery was also under his charge. To his office pertained the
lighting of the entire of the entire monastery: and thus he
superintended the candle-making, and bought the necessary stores
of wax, tallow, and cotton for wicks. He slept in the church,
and took his meals near at hand, so that day and night the
church was never left without a guardian. His chief assistants
were a revestiarius, who saw to the vestments, the linen, and
the hangings of the church, and was responsible for their being
kept in repair, or replaced when worn out; and the treasurer,
who was in special charge of the shrines, reliquaries, sacred
vessels, and other plate.
The cellarer was the purveyor of all food-stuffs and drink for
the use of the community. This entailed frequent absences, and
hence exemption from much of the ordinary choir duties. He had
charge of the hired servants, whom he alone could engage,
dismiss, or punish. He superintended the serving up of the
meals. To his office belonged the supplying of fuel, carriage
of goods, repairs of the house, etc. He was aided by a
sub-cellarer and, in the bakery, by a granatorius, or keeper of
the grain, who saw to the grinding and quality of flour. The
refectorian had charge of the refectory, or "fratry," keeping it
clean, supplied with cloths, napkins, jugs, and dishes, and
superintended the laying of the tables. To him, too, was
assigned the care of the lavatory, and the providing it with
towels and, if necessary, hot water. The office of the
kitchener was one of great responsibility, for to him fell the
portioning out of the food, and it was only great experience
which could preserve the happy mean between waste and
niggardliness. He had under him an emptor, or buyer,
experienced in marketing. He had to keep a strict account of
his expenditures and of the stores, presenting in books weekly
to the abbot for examination. He presided over the entire
kitchen department, seeing particularly that all the utensils
were kept scrupulously clean. The discharge of his duty
entailed frequent exemption from choir. The weekly servers
helped in the kitchen, under the kitchener's orders, and waited
at table during the meals. The concluded their week's work on
Saturday evenings by washing the feet of the brethren. The
infirmarian had to tend the sick with affectionate sympathy,
and, as far as might be necessary, was excused from regular
duties. If a priest, he said Mass for the sick; if not, he got
a priest to do so. He always slept in the infirmary, even when
there were no sick there, so as to be found on the spot in case
of emergency. The curious practice of blood-letting, looked on
as so salutary in ancient times, was carried out by the
infirmarian. The chief duty of the almoner was to distribute
the alms of the monastery, in food and clothing, to the poor,
with kindness and discretion; and; while ministering to their
bodily wants, he was not to forget those of their soul also. He
superintended the daily maundy or washing of the feet of the
poor selected for that purpose. Another of his duties was to
take charge of any school, other than the claustral school,
connected with the monastery. To him also fell the task of
seeing to the circulation of the mortuary-rolls.
In medieval days the hospitality extended to travelers by the
monasteries was of such constant occurrences that the
guest-master required a full measure of tact, prudence, and
discretion, as well as affability, since the reputation of the
house was in his keeping. His first duty was to see that the
guest-house always ready for the reception of visitors, whom he
was to receive, as enjoined by the Rule, as he would Christ
Himself, and during their stay to supply their wants, entertain
them, conduct them to the church services, and generally to hold
himself at their disposal. The chief duties of the chamberlain
of a monastery were concerned with the wardrobe of the brethren,
repairing or renewing their worn-out garments, and preserving
cast-off clothes for distribution to the poor by the almoner.
He had also to superintend the laundry. As it belonged to him
to provide cloth and other material for the clothing, he had to
attend the neighbouring fairs to purchase his stock. On him,
too, devolved the task of making preparation for the baths,
feet-washing, and shaving of the brethren.
The novice-master was of course one of the most important
officials in every monastery. In church, in the refectory, in
the cloister, in the dormitory, he kept a watchful control over
the novices, and spent the day teaching them and exercising them
in the rules and traditional practices of the religious life,
encouraging and helping those who showed real signs of a
monastic vocation. The weekly officials included, besides the
servers already referred to, the reader in the refectory, who
was enjoined to make careful preparation so as to avoid
mistakes. Also, the antiphoner whose duty it was to read the
invitatory at Matins, intone the first antiphon of the Psalms,
the versicles and responsories, after the lessons, and the
capitulum, or little chapter, etc. The hebdomadarian, or priest
of the week, had to commence all the various canonical Hours,
give all the blessings that might be required, and sing the High
Mass each day.
The greater Abbeys in England were represented through their
superiors in Parliament, in Convocations, and in Synod. Their
superiors were regularly included in the Commissions of Peace,
and in all things acted as, and were considered the equals of,
their great feudal neighbours. The alms bestowed on the poor by
the monasteries, together with those furnished by law, by the
parish priests, served to support them without recourse to the
more recent poor-laws. The lot of the poor was lightened, and
they knew that they could turn for help.and sympathy to the
religious houses. Poverty as witnessed in these days was
impossible in all the Middle Ages, because the monks, spread
over all the country, acted as merely stewards of God's
property, and dispensed it, if lavishly, yet with discretion.
The relations between the monks and their tenants were uniformly
kindly; the smaller cottagers were treated with much
consideration, and if it became necessary to inflict fines,
justice was tempered with mercy. The monastic manors were
worked somewhat on the principle of a co-operative farm. If we
may form a judgment on the whole of England from the "Durham
Halmote Rolls," the conditions of village life left little to be
desired. Provisions for watching over the public health were
enforced, a guard kept over water supplies, stringent measures
taken in regard to springs and wells, and the cleansing of ponds
and milldams. A common mill ground the tenants' corn, and their
bread was baked in a common oven. The relation of the monks to
their peasant-tenants was rather that of rent-chargers than of
absolute owners.
HENRY NORBERT BIRT
Transcribed by Rev. Louis Hacker, O.S.B.
The 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia