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Twice in the Regula of St. Benedict there occurs an expression which, because it is certainly picturesque and probably characteristic, seems to justify quotation. It is required of him who aspires to dwell in" the tabernacle of God's kingdom," that he be one who, "turning away the eyes of his heart from the wicked devil who tempts him, hath taken the young thoughts which he hath bred and dashed them to pieces on Christ." They are words which, with the final exhortation, "never to despair of the mercy of God," may not unfitly be remembered in the scenes we are about to visit, recording as they do the uncompromising austerity from which monasticism repeatedly declined, and the hope which it dared to proclaim amid the blackness of the world's eclipse.

Between the Benedictine order (reformed and unreformed) and the various branches of the Augustinian, the monks, as distinguished from friars, may be said. to have been divided, for all the "religious" who did not conform to the rule of St. Benedict were gathered at a subsequent period into at least a nominal unity under the name and patronage of the famous bishop of Hippo.

From quite primitive times there had been lonely hermits who

"Hurried torn with inward strife

The wilderness to seek,"

and there had long since begun to group themselves into such semblance of cœnobite monasticism as we are familiar with in Kingsley's Hypatia. But this development had been checked by the storm that ushered in the night of the dark ages, and it was left to St. Benedict to systematise, in harmony with the requirements of his day, the traditions and forces of asceticism.

Working to some extent upon the lines of SS. Pachomius and Basil, he gave to his order a uniformity never before attained, and enjoined upon its members the unaccustomed discipline of manual labour. So strongly was the former point insisted on, that many existing monasteries were deliberately destroyed by the early Benedictines in order to raise upon their sites buildings suited to the requirements of the new rule.

Within the walls of a Benedictine precinct was to be included all that its inmates might lawfully desire.1 Running water, mill, bakehouse, stable, cow-shed, workshops, must be there. A short description of

1 For the accompanying plan of the conventual buildings of Westminster, as well as for much other invaluable help, the author of these pages is indebted to his friends, Professor J. Henry Middleton and Mr. J. T. Micklethwaite.

the ordinary plan of such a monastery will be useful and should not be without interest. We cannot do better than borrow largely, though with certain necessary modifications, from Professor Willis's account of the Conventual Buildings of Canterbury. We will take the cloister-court as our nucleus. To the north rises the nave of the great church; to the east the south transept, chapter-house, and " calefactorium," or common warming house of the monks ; on the south are the "frater," kitchen, buttery, etc.; and on the west probably cellars and a “parlatorium,” where visitors may be interviewed. Over the calefactorium and vestibule of the chapter-house, and communicating by a staircase with the south transept of the church, we may expect to find the "dorter," North of the church is the "outer cemetery," the burial-ground of the laity, and east of this the "inner cemetery" for the monks. Outside the cloister are halls and chambers for purposes of hospitality. Southwards lies a large entrance court, which separates the strictly monastic buildings from the workshops and offices and the dwelling of the lay brothers. Southwest of this court is a great hall known as the Aula Nova, and supposed to have been the hospitium Beyond this again,

(guest-house) of the paupers.

and in fact outside the precinct, is the almonry for

relief of the poor. At Canterbury the cloister-court is on the north side of the church, and the cemetery on the south; but the above is the more usual arrangement.

The cloister, or at least its north wall, is often glazed and supplied with seats for study. A passage under the "dorter" leads to the smaller cloister-that of the infirmary. Here are a separate hall and chapel. The guest-house for strangers of rank includes a dining-hall, bed-rooms (each containing several beds), stables, servants' rooms, kitchen, bakehouse, brewhouse, and store-room. Visitors of less distinction had to put up with humbler quarters. Stranger monks are allowed to eat in the "frater," and therefore only require a sitting-room and dormitory.

If we remember that the word "frater," which has sometimes been wrongly translated "common-room," is only another name for the refectory, we shall now be in a position to understand the description given in Piers the Ploughman's Creed, of a monastery of another order-that of "Preaching Friars."

"Than cam I to that cloystre, and gaped abouten Whough it was pilered and peynt and portreyd well clene,

Al tyled with leed, lowe to the stones,

And ypaved with poyntll, ich poynt after other,

With cundites of clen tyn closed al aboute

With lavoures of lattin, loveliche ygreithed.—

-Thane was the chapitre house wrought as a great chirch Corven and covered, ant queytelehe entayled

With semliche selure yset on lofte

As a parlement house ypeynted aboute.

Thanne ferd I into fraytoure, and fond there a nother

An halle for an hygh kynge, an household to holden,
With brod bordes abouten, ybenched wel clene,
With wyndoves of glass, wrought as a chirche.
Then walkede I ferrer, and went all abouten,
And seigh halles full heygh, and houses full noble,
Chambers with chymneys, and chapels gaye,
And kychenes for an high kynge, in castels to holden,
And her dortoure 1 ydight, with dores full stronge,
Fermerye 2 and fraitur with fele mo houses,
And al strong ston wal sterne upon heithe

With gaye garites and grete, and iche hole glased.”

Yorkshire, or rather Northumbria, is said to have been thickly strewn with monasteries in the early days of St. Cuthbert, the missionary of the seventh century. We may certainly trace in various writers the names of something like a dozen, of which no other remains are to be found. Most of these, however, seem, like the original foundation of St. Hild at Whitby, to have belonged to an earlier and less perfect system than the Benedictine. It was the bishops and monks of Scotland who, after the conversion of the Saxons, did for Northumbria what St. Augustine had done for Kent; and Burton (Monast. Ebor.) mentions that ten monasteries were founded

1 66

'Dorter," or dormitory.

2 "Farmery," or infirmary.

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