Encyclopedia
An
abbey , is a
Christian monastery or
convent, under the government of an
Abbot or an Abbess, who serve as the spiritual father or mother of the community. A
priory only differs from an abbey in that the superior bears the title of prior instead of abbot. Priories were originally offshoots from the larger abbeys, to the abbots of which they continued subordinate; however, the actual distinction between abbeys and priories was lost by the
Renaissance. Do not confuse the term
convent with the term monastery. Both nuns and monks live in monasteries. Sisters, members of active orders, live in convents. Nuns who are cloistered live in monasteries.
The earliest known Christian monastic communities consisted of groups of cells or huts collected about a common centre, which was usually the house of some hermit or anchorite famous for holiness or singular asceticism, but without any attempt at orderly arrangement. Such communities were not an invention of Christianity. The example had been already set in part by the Essenes in
Judea and perhaps by the Therapeutae in
Egypt.
In the earliest age of Christian
monasticism the
ascetics were accustomed to live singly, independent of one another, not far from some village church, supporting themselves by the labour of their own hands, and distributing the surplus after the supply of their own scanty wants to the poor. Increasing religious fervour, aided by persecution, drove them farther and farther away from the civilization into mountain solitudes or lonely deserts. The deserts of Egypt swarmed with the "cells" or huts of these anchorites.
Anthony the Great, who had retired to the Egyptian Thebaid during the persecution of
Maximian, A.D. 312, was the most celebrated among them for his
austerities, his sanctity, and his power as an exorcist. His fame collected round him a host of followers imitating his asceticism in an attempt to imitate his sanctity. The deeper he withdrew into the wilderness, the more numerous his disciples became. They refused to be separated from him, and built their ceils round that of their spiritual father. Thus arose the first monastic community, consisting of anchorites living each in his own little dwelling, united together under one superior. Anthony, as Neander remarks , "without any conscious design of his own, had become the founder of a new mode of living in common, Coenobitism." By degrees order
was introduced in the groups of huts. They were arranged in lines like the tents in an encampment, or the houses in a street. From this arrangement these lines of single cells came to be known as Laurae, Laurai, "streets" or "lanes."
The real founder of cenobitic monasteries in the modern sense was
Pachomius, an Egyptian of the beginning of the
4th century. The first community established by him was at Tabennae, an island of the
Nile in
Upper Egypt. Eight others were founded in the region during his lifetime, numbering 3,000 monks. Within fifty years from his death his societies could claim 50,000 members. These coenobia resembled villages, peopled by a hard-working religious community, all of one sex.
The buildings were detached, small and of the humblest character. Each cell or hut, according to Sozomen , contained three monks. They took their chief meal in a common refectory or dining hall at 3 P.M., up to which hour they usually fasted. They ate in silence, with hoods so drawn over their faces that they could see nothing but what was on the table before them. The monks spent the time not devoted to religious services or study in manual labour. Palladius, who visited the Egyptian monasteries about the close of the
4th century, found among the 300 members of the coenobium of Panopolis, under the
Pachomian rule, 15 tailors, 7 smiths, 4 carpenters, 12 cameldrivers and 15 tanners. Each separate community had its own oeconomus or steward, who was subject to a chief steward stationed at the head establishment. All the produce of the monks' labour was committed to him, and by him shipped to
Alexandria. The money raised by the sale was expended in the purchase of stores for the support of the communities, and what was over was devoted to charity. Twice in the year the superiors of the several
coenobia met at the chief monastery, under the presidency of an archimandrite , and at the last meeting gave in reports of their administration for the year. The coenobia of Syria belonged to the Pachomian institution. We learn many details concerning those in the vicinity of
Antioch from
Chrysostom's writings. The monks lived in separate huts,
kalbbia, forming a religious hamlet on the mountain side. They were subject to an abbot, and observed a common rule. Four times in the day they joined in
prayers and psalms.
Santa Laura, Mount Athos
The necessity for defence from hostile attacks , economy of space and convenience of access from one part of the community to another, by degrees dictated a more compact and orderly arrangement of the buildings of a monastic coenobium. Large piles of building were erected, with strong outside walls, capable of resisting the assaults of an enemy, within which all the necessary edifices were ranged round one or more open courts, usually surrounded with
cloisters. The usual Eastern arrangement is exemplified in the plan of the convent of the Holy Laura,
Mount Athos.
Monastery of Santa Laura, Mount Athos
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- A. Gateway
- B. Chapels
- C. Guest-house
- D. Church
- E. Cloister
- F. Fountain
- G. Refectory
- H. Kitchen
- I. Cells
- K. Storehouses
- L. Postern Gate
- M. Tower
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This monastery, like the oriental monasteries generally, is surrounded by a strong and lofty blank stone wall, enclosing an area of between 3 and 4 acres . The longer side extends to a length of about 500 feet. There is only one main entrance, on the north side , defended by three separate iron doors. Near the entrance is a large tower , a constant feature in the monasteries of the Levant. There is a small postern gate at L. The enceinte comprises two large open courts, surrounded with buildings connected with cloister galleries of wood or stone. The outer court, which is much the larger, contains the granaries and storehouses , and the kitchen and other offices connected with the refectory . Immediately adjacent to the gateway is a two-storied guest-house, opening from a cloister . The inner court is surrounded by a cloister , from which open the monks' cells . In the centre of this court stands the catholicon or conventual church, a square building with an apse of the
cruciform domical Byzantine type, approached by a domed
narthex. In front of the church stands a marble fountain , covered by a dome supported on columns.
Opening from the western side of the cloister, but actually standing in the outer court, is the refectory , a large cruciform building, about 100 feet each way, decorated within with frescoes of saints. At the upper end is a semicircular recess, recalling the triclinium of the Lateran Palace at Rome, in which is placed the seat of the hegumenos or abbot. This apartment is chiefly used as a hall of meeting, the oriental monks usually taking their meals in their separate cells.
The annexed plan of a
Coptic monastery, from Lenoir, shows a church of three aisles, with cellular apses, and two ranges of cells on either side of an oblong gallery.
Plan of Coptic Monastery
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- A. Narthex
- B. Church
- C. Corridor, with cells on each side
- D. Staircase
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Benedictine monasteries
Monasticism in the West owes its extension and development to
Benedict of Nursia . His rule was diffused with miraculous rapidity from the parent foundation on
Monte Cassino through the whole of
western Europe, and every country witnessed the erection of monasteries far exceeding anything that had yet been seen in spaciousness and splendour. Few great towns in Italy were without their Benedictine convent, and they quickly rose in all the great centres of population in
England,
France and
Spain. The number of these monasteries founded between A.D. 520 and 700 is amazing. Before the
Council of Constance, A.D. 1415, no fewer than 15,070 abbeys had been established of this order alone. The buildings of a Benedictine abbey were uniformly arranged after one plan, modified where necessary to accommodate the arrangement to local circumstances. We have no existing examples of the earlier monasteries of the Benedictine order. They have all yielded to the ravages of time and the violence of man. But we have fortunately preserved to us an elaborate plan of the great Swiss monastery of St Gall, erected about A.D. 820, which puts us in possession of the whole arrangements of a monastery of the first class towards the early part of the 9th century. This curious and interesting plan has been made the subject of a memoir both by Keller and by Professor Robert Willis
The general distribution of the buildings may be thus described:-The church, with its cloister to the south, occupies the centre of a quadrangular area, about 430 feet square. The buildings, as in all great monasteries, are distributed into groups. The church forms the nucleus, as the centre of the religious life of the community. In closest connection with the church is the group of buildings appropriated to the monastic line and its daily requirements---the refectory for eating, the dormitory for sleeping, the common room for social intercourse, the chapter-house for religious and disciplinary conference. These essential elements of monastic life are ranged about a cloister court, surrounded by a covered arcade, affording communication sheltered from the elements between the various buildings. The infirmary for sick monks, with the physician's house and physic garden, lies to the east. In the same group with the infirmary is the school for the novices. The outer school, with its headmaster's house against the opposite wall of the church, stands outside the convent enclosure, in close proximity to the abbot's house, that he might have a constant eye over them. The buildings devoted to hospitality are divided into three groups,--one for the reception of distinguished guests, another for monks visiting the monastery, a third for poor travellers and pilgrims. The first and third are placed to the right and left of the common entrance of the monastery,---the hospitium for distinguished guests being placed on the north side of the church, not far from the abbot's house; that for the poor on the south side next to the farm buildings. The monks are lodged in a guest-house built against the north wall of the church. The group of buildings connected with the material wants of the establishment is placed to the south and west of the church, and is distinctly separated from the monastic buildings. The kitchen, buttery and offices are reached by a passage from the west end of the refectory, and are connected with the bakehouse and brewhouse, which are placed still farther away. The whole of the southern and western sides is devoted to workshops, stables and farm-buildings. The buildings, with some exceptions, seem to have been of one story only, and all but the church were probably erected of wood. The whole includes thirty-three separate blocks. The church is cruciform, with a nave of nine bays, and a semicircular apse at either extremity. That to the west is surrounded by a semicircular colonnade, leaving an open "paradise" between it and the wall of the church. The whole area is divided by screens into various chapels. The high altar stands immediately to the east of the transept, or ritual choir; the altar of
Saint Paul in the eastern, and that of
St Peter in the western apse. A cylindrical campanile stands detached from the church on either side of the western apse .
The `cloister court', on the south side of the nave of the
Ground plan of St. Gall
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CHURCH.
A. High altar.
B. Altar of St Paul.
C. Altar of St Peter.
D. Nave.
E. Paradise.
FF. Towers.
MONASTIC BUILDINGS
G. Cloister.
H. Calefactory, with dormitory over.
I. Necessary.
J. Abbot's house.
K. Refectory.
L. Kitchen.
M. Bakehouse and brewhouse.
N. Cellar.
O. Parlour. P1. Scriptorium with library k,
P2. Sacristy and vestry.
Q. House of Novices--1.chapel;
2. refectory; 3. calefactory;
4. dormitory; 5. master's room
6. chambers.
R. Infirmary--1--6 as above in
the house of novices.
S. Doctor's house.
T. Physic garden.
U. House for blood-letting.
V. School.
W. Schoolmaster's lodgings.
X1X1. Guest-house for those of superior rank
X2X2. Guest-house for the poor.
Y. Guest-chamber for strange monks.
MENIAL DEPARTMENT.
Z. Factory.
a. Threshing-floor
b. Workshops.
c, c. Mills.
d. Kiln.
e. Stables.
f Cow-sheds.
g. Goat-sheds.
h. Pig-sties. i. Sheep-folds.
k, k. Servants' and workmen's sleeping-chambers.
l. Gardener's house
m,m. Hen and duck house.
n. Poultry-keeper's house.
o. Garden.
q. Bakehouse for sacramental
s, s, s. Kitchens.
t, t, t. Baths.
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church has on its east side the "pisalis" or "calefactory", , the common sitting-room of the brethren, warmed by flues beneath the floor. On this side in later monasteries we invariably find the
chapter house, the absence of which in this plan is somewhat surprising. It appears, however, from the inscriptions on the plan itself, that the north walk of the cloisters served for the purposes of a chapter-house, and was fitted up with benches on the long sides. Above the calefactory is the "
dormitory" opening into the south transept of the church, to enable the monks to attend the nocturnal services with readiness. A passage at the other end leads to the "necessarium" , a portion of the monastic buildings always planned with extreme care. The southern side is occupied by the "refectory" , from the west end of which by a vestibule the kitchen is reached. This is separated from the main buildings of the monastery, and is connected by a long passage with a building containing the bake house and brewhouse , and the sleeping-rooms of the servants. The upper story of the refectory is the "vestiarium," where the ordinary clothes of the brethren were kept. On the western side of the cloister is another two story building . The cellar is below, and the larder and store-room above. Between this building and the church, opening by one door into the cloisters, and by another to the outer part of the monastery area, is the "parlour" for interviews with visitors from the external world . On the eastern side of the north transept is the "
scriptorium" or writing-room , with the library above.
To the east of the church stands a group of buildings comprising two miniature conventual establishments, each complete in itself. Each has a covered cloister surrounded by the usual buildings, i.e. refectory, dormitory, etc., and a church or chapel on one side, placed back to back. A detached building belonging to each contains a bath and a kitchen. One of these diminutive convents is appropriated to the "oblati" or novices , the other to the sick monks as an "
infirmary" .
The "residence of the physicians" stands contiguous to the infirmary, and the physic garden at the north-east corner of the monastery. Besides other rooms, it contains a drug store, and a chamber for those who are dangerously ill. The "house for bloodletting and purging" adjoins it on the west .
The "outer school," to the north of the convent area, contains a large schoolroom divided across the middle by a screen or partition, and surrounded by fourteen little rooms, termed the dwellings of the scholars. The head-master's house is opposite, built against the side wall of the church. The two "hospitia" or guest-houses for the entertainment of strangers of different degrees comprise a large common chamber or refectory in the centre, surrounded by sleeping-apartments. Each is provided with its own brewhouse and bakehouse, and that for travellers of a superior order has a kitchen and storeroom, with bedrooms for their servants and stables for their horses. There is also an "hospitium" for strange monks, abutting on the north wall of the church .
Beyond the cloister, at the extreme verge of the convent area to the south, stands the "factory" , containing workshops for
shoemakers, saddlers , cutlers and grinders, trencher-makers, tanners, curriers, fullers, smiths and
goldsmiths, with their dwellings in the rear. On this side we also find the farm buildings, the large granary and threshing-floor , mills , malthouse . Facing the west are the stables , ox-sheds , goatstables
The outer and inner courts are connected by a long passage, wide enough to admit a cart laden with wood to supply the cells of the brethren with fuel. The number of cells surrounding the great cloister is 18. They are all arranged on a uniform plan. Each little dwelling contains three rooms: a sitting-room warmed by a stove in winter; a sleeping-room furnished with a bed, a table, a bench, and a bookcase; and a closet. Between the cell and the cloister gallery is a passage or corridor, cutting off the inmate of the cell from all sound or movement which might interrupt his meditations. The superior had free access to this corridor, and through open niches was able to inspect the garden without being seen. There is a hatch or turn-table, in which the daily allowance of food was deposited by a brother appointed for that purpose, affording no view either inwards or outwards.
The above arrangements are found with scarcely any variation in all the charter-houses of western Europe. The
Yorkshire Charterhouse of Mount Grace, founded by Thomas Holland, the young duke of Surrey, nephew of Richard II. and marshal of England, during the revival of the popularity of the order, about A.D. 1397, is the most perfect and best preserved English example. It is characterized by all the simplicity of the order. The church is a modest building, long, narrow and aisleless. Within the wall of enclosure are two courts. The smaller of the two, the south, presents the usual arrangement of church, refectory, etc., opening out of a cloister. The buildings are plain and solid. The northern court contains the cells, 14 in number.
It is surrotmded by a double stone wall, the two walls being about 30 ft. or 40 ft. apart. Between these, each in its own garden, stand the cells; low-built two-storied cottages, of two or three rooms on the ground-floor, lighted by a larger and a smaller window to the side, and provided with a doorway to the court, and one at the back, opposite to one in the outer wall, through which the monk may have conveyed the sweepings of his cell and the refuse of his garden to the "eremus" beyond. By the side of the door to the court is a little hatch through which the daily pittance of food was supplied, so contrived by turning at an angle in the wall that no one could either look in or look out. A very perfect example of this hatch---an arrangement belonging to all Carthusian houses--exists at Miraflores, near
Burgos, which remains nearly as it was completed in 1480.
There were only nine Carthusian houses in England. The earliest was that at Witham in
Somerset, founded by
Henry II, by whom the order was first brought into England. The wealthiest and most magnificent was that of Sheen or Richmond in
Surrey, founded by
Henry V about 1414. The dimensions of the buildings at Sheen are stated to have been remarkably large. The great court measured 300 by 250 ft ; the cloisters were a square of 500 ft ; the hall was 110 ft in length by 60 ft in breadth.
Mendicant Friars
An article on monastic arrangements would be incomplete without some account of the convents of the Mendicant or Preaching Friars, including the Black Friars or
Dominicans, the Grey or
Franciscans, the White or
Carmelites, the Eremite or Augustinian, Friars. These orders arose at the beginning of the 13th century, with the growth of towns and cities. Whereas Benedictines and their various branches had worked to achieve self-sufficient agricultural estates, the Mendicant Friars operated differently. Planting themselves, as a rule, in large towns, and by preference in the poorest and most densely populated districts, the Preaching Friars were obliged to adapt their buildings to the requirements of the site. Regularity of arrangement, therefore, was not possible, even if they had studied it. Their churches, built for the reception of large congregations of hearers rather than worshippers, form a class by themselves, totally unlike those of the elder orders in ground-plan and character. They were usually long parallelograms unbroken by transepts. The nave very usually consisted of two equal bodies, one containing the stalls of the brotherhood, the other left entirely free for the congregation. The constructional choir is often wanting, the whole church forming one uninterrupted structure, with a continuous range of windows. The east end was usually square, but the Friars Church at
Winchelsea had a polygonal apse. We not unfrequently find a single transept, sometimes of great size, rivalling or exceeding the nave. This arrangement is frequent in
Ireland, where the numerous small friaries afford admirable exemplifications of these peculiarities of ground-plan. The friars' churches were at first destitute of towers; but in the 14th and 15th centuries, tall, slender towers were commonly inserted between the nave and the choir. The Grey Friars at Lynn, where the tower is hexagonal, is a good example. The arrangement of the monastic buildings is equally peculiar and characteristic. We miss entirely the regularity of the buildings of the earlier orders. At the Jacobins at Paris, a cloister lay to the north of the long narrow church of two parallel aisles, while the refectory--a room of immense length, quite detached from the cloister--stretched across the area before the west front of the church. At Toulouse the nave also has two parallel aisles, but the choir is apsidal, with radiating chapel. The refectory stretches northwards at right angles to the cloister, which lies to the north of the church, having the chapter-house and sacristy on the east.
Norwich, Gloucester
As examples of English friaries, the Dominican house at
Norwich, and those of the Dominicans and Franciscans at Gloucester, may be mentioned. The church of the Black Friars of Norwich departs from the original type in the nave , in having regular aisles. In this it resembles the earlier examples of the Grey Friars at Reading. The choir is long and aisleless; an hexagonal tower between the two, like that existing at Lynn, has perished. Thc cloister and monastic buildings remain tolerably perfect to the north. The Dominican convent at Gloucester still exhibits the cloister-court, on the north side of which is the desecrated church. The refectory is on the west side and on the south the dormitory of the 13th century. This is a remarkably good example. There were 18 cells or cubicles on each side, divided by partitions, the bases of which remain. On the east side was the prior's house, a building of later date. At the Grey or Franciscan Friars, the church followed the ordinary type in having two equal bodies, each gabled, with a continuous range of windows. There was a slender tower between the nave and the choir.
Hulne
Of the convents of the Carmelite or White Friars we have a good example in the Abbey of Hulne, near Alnwick, the first of the order in England, founded A.D. 1240.
The church is a narrow oblong, destitute of aisles, 123 ft. long by only 26 ft. wide. The cloisters are to the south, with the chapter-house, etc., to the east, with the dormitory over. The prior's lodge is placed to the west of the cloister. The guest-houses adjoin the entrance gateway, to which a chapel was annexed on the south side of the conventual area. The nave of the church of the Austin Friars or Eremites in London is still standing. It is of Decorated date, and has wide centre and side aisles, divided by a very light and graceful arcade. Some fragments of the south walk of the cloister of the Grey Friars remained among the buildings of
Christ's Hospital , while they were still standing. Of the Black Friars all has perished but the name. Taken as a whole, the remains of the establishments of the friars afford little warrant for the bitter invective of the Benedictine of St Alban's, Matthew Paris: "The friars who have been founded hardly 40 years have built residences as the palaces of kings. These are they who, enlarging day by day their sumptuous edifices, encircling them with lofty walls, lay up in them their incalculable treasures, imprudently transgressing the bounds of poverty and violating the very fundamental rules of their profession." Allowance must here be made for jealousy of a rival order just rising in popularity.
Cells
Every large monastery had depending upon it smaller foundations known as cells or priories. Sometimes these foundations were no more than a single building serving as residence and farm offices, while other examples were miniature monasteries for 5 or 10 monks. The outlying farming establishments belonging to the monastic foundations were known as villae or granges. They were usually staffed by lay-brothers, sometimes under the supervision of a single monk.
Abbots and abbesses as rulers
Some cities were ruled by heads of a certain abbey. For more information, see abbey-principality.
Nunnery
A
nunnery is a convent of nuns. The first nunnery in England was built at
Folkestone in about 635 by King Eadbald.
See also
- List of abbeys and priories
External links
- Catholic Encyclopedia
- Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Sacred Destinations
- Sacred Destinations
- A benedictine abbey
