Common Aspects of Monastic Life

Monastic communities vary greatly in size. The smallest are termed cells, each staffed by two or three religious and wholly subordinate to a mother house. Priories are usually communities of eight or more religious, while abbeys are generally larger and wealthier; the largest such houses, which are invariably male, hold up to 150 brethren. The exact criteria used to determine whether a house is termed a cell, priory, or abbey depend upon the order to which the house belongs. Both priories and abbeys may be subordinated to mother houses. The apostolic ideal calls for a monastic community to consist of at least twelve brethren or sisters in addition to the head of the house. However, all cells and many smaller priories fall short of this mark [4]. Nunneries are smaller in size than their male monastic counterparts, and they may be poorer than male communities of equivalent size [5]. Several factors combine to yield such inequities. Some potential patrons regard women's prayers to be less efficacious than those of men. Others perceive the role of women religious to be different from that of their male counterparts, believing that nuns and canonesses are to live holy lives as brides of Christ, while monks and canons are to offer up prayers upon a patron's behalf. A patron who holds either of these beliefs and who feels that he or she is in need of intercessory prayer is more likely to endow a male house than a female one. Finally, many nunneries were established by patrons of lesser means who cannot afford to lavish expensive gifts upon their foundations [6].

The monasteries of different orders vary widely in their purpose, sources of funding, and layout, as well as the spiritual and worldly character of their religious. Nonetheless, most houses share a number of characteristics. Each house must be founded by a patron, who provides land, material, and perhaps money that enable a group of religious to build a community. Once a house is established, it requires continued material support from its patron and from other benefactors. If the monastery is able to attain a measure of self-sufficiency, it relies less upon the receipt of new gifts and more upon the revenue generated from the resources with which it has already been endowed. Like the rest of medieval society, a religious house is organized as a hierarchy featuring a variety of offices held by community members. Its church, cloister, and precinct are laid out according to some variation on the general monastic plan. The religious must endure the novitiate before they are allowed to be professed and thus become full members of the house. Finally, an unceasing round of duties and a theme of self-denial figure prominently in the lives of religious.

Foundation, Patronage, and Benefaction

Foundation

In the last century, certain types of monastic houses have become more popular with potential founders. New Benedictine communities of monks are rare nowadays, as they tend to be more expensive for their patrons due to their need for donations of developed land and working manors. Nunneries, on the other hand, are generally expected to be poorer, and are thus less of a burden for their founders. This attitude has contributed at least in part to the foundation of numerous female communities in the last century, particularly in the north of England [9]. Likewise, Cistercian monasteries, and those of the newer orders in general, tend to be cheap for their patrons, as they require unworked land that has been little more than waste to their benefactors [10]. Finally, communities of regular canons are fairly popular foundations, in part because they tend to require theadvowson or appropriation of churches instead of manors, and the bestowing of an ecclesiastical benefice is often cheaper for the donor than the provision of land [11].

The foundation of a monastic house might be somewhat spontaneous, with a lord providing supplies to monks or canons that are wandering through the lord's holdings. Oftentimes, though, it is planned meticulously, with the lord petitioning an existing house to provide some of its members as a nucleus for the new foundation. A charter is prepared that records the donatio, that is, the act of giving performed by the founder. Once the donatio has been recorded, it may take years for the new community to begin to live a normal cloistered life; indeed, the community may remain a dependent cell of another house for years, perhaps never growing into a fully developed monastery. Religious do not consider a new house truly founded until its church is dedicated [12]. Generally, both the founder and the community seek confirmation from the king and any other lords from whom the founder holds the granted land, directly or indirectly. Royal approval is especially valuable, since theoretically only the king may alienate land [13].

A cell may come into being for a variety of reasons. A house may be founded initially as a dependent of another community, with the intention that it grow into a proper monastery in due course. Alternately, an existing house may decline due to insufficient patronage or a lack of recruits, withering until only a few religious are left. Finally, a cell may be established, often at the site of a parish church already held by a distant mother house, as an administrative center for nearby manorial holdings. Cells resulting from either of the first two scenarios are founded at least in part for spiritual reasons, whereas those established to facilitate land management are motivated by purely temporal concerns. Regardless of a founder's or parent community's intentions, a cell that does not develop into a larger monastery quickly stagnates, its small population antithetical to a sense of shared monastic identity and hindering the proper observance of Christian ritual. Such a state of affairs encourages the resident religious to neglect their duties in favor of more comfortable schedules. Rare is the cell that boasts a communal life approaching the monastic ideal, or that is a source of spiritual strength for its mother house [14].

The agreement entered into by the founder and the monastery often stipulates that the community must provide certain services to the founder. They may be required to say prayers for the soul of the provider, members of his or her family, or other specified persons on certain days of the week, month, or year [15]. They may agree to entomb the founder in their church or graveyard following the latter's death, though the former is an honor rarely bestowed upon laypersons [16]. The founder may reserve the right to choose one or more persons to be members of the community, now or in the future; this is a valuable privilege, because it allows its holder to place extraneous younger sons or other superfluous family members in the monastery [17]. The election of the head of the community may require the founder's approval in one form or another; for example, the latter may be entitled to nominate the superior, or perhaps confirm (or strike down) the electorial results [18]. The founder may also be entitled to receive the community's hospitality, that is, to stay at the monastery for a certain number of days annually at the community's expense [19].

Patronage and Benefaction

Though the patron undertakes to supply most of the requirements of a monastic house, the community generally has a number of benefactors. A benefactor is a sort of lesser patron, expected to donate smaller sums of wealth to the house in return for remembrance in the community's prayers or other benefits of similar value. Since benefactors give less than do patrons, they expect to gain less as well [22]. A typical benefactor's gift might be wine for ceremonial use, alms for the community to distribute to the poor, candles for altars, building materials, and so on. Though benefactors were previously drawn exclusively from the nobility, it is becoming increasingly common for monasteries to receive small gifts of land or other property from well-to-do urban commoners and even rural peasants [23]. Benefactors do not always hope to gain spiritually from their donations; they may give a religious house some property in exchange for latter assuming responsibility for their debts [24].

When a monastery accepts a donation, the community draws up a charter detailing the agreement between the donor and the house. The charter is then witnessed and signed by all the parties involved. This includes not only the two principals, but also the donor's relatives, feudal lord, and any other party that could choose to exercise some legal claim to the gift in the future. The latter may give their consent in return for spiritual considerations, but may instead require monetary compensation. If the charter is not signed by all such parties, one or more may contest the monastery's right to the gift years or even decades after the original donation. Because it is often difficult to get the consent of all potential claimants, religious houses are frequently involved in protracted litigation, and may have to settle with more than one plaintiff over a period of years in order to retain a single piece of property. In the long run, a poorly executed charter can cost a monastery a great deal of money [25].

Confratres and Corrodians

Some confraternity agreements between laypersons and religious communities stipulate that the former may join the latter by entering the infirmary and being clothed in the habit shortly before dying; this is known as reception ad succurrendum [27]. Such agreements are restricted to cases where the confrater is of the same sex as the community members, and usually stipulate that the confrater's family must make some sort of annual or one-time donation once the benefactor has died. If the confrater joins the community, but then recovers instead of dying, he or she remains a member of the community. Entering a monastery when close to death is seen as a way of cleansing oneself of past sins, and even those who are enemies of the monastic order sometimes take the habit when they grow older. At times houses have been known to compete for the body of a dying or dead confrater, mindful perhaps of the donations that they will receive if they are able to secure the body of the deceased [28].

A monastery may enter into agreements with one or more of its lay servants in which the latter become corrodians. In exchange for donations or, more frequently, labor provided while the servant is fit to work, the monastery undertakes to provide the servant with a corrody (room and board), or with care when he or she grows old or infirm, or both. In a sense, it is a sort of retirement plan, and this is the essential difference between a confrater and a corrodian. While the former receives mostly spiritual benefits following his or her death, the latter gains material benefits while alive. This in turn means that unlike the taking on of confratres, the transformation of servants into corrodians does not necessarily work to the monastery's monetary advantage; sometimes corrodians become financial burdens for the houses that support them [29].

Sources of Income

Land Holdings

The older and wealthier monastic houses, especially those that were founded before the Conquest, hold most of their lands by knight service [32]. The abbots of these houses are in essence barons, in that they sit on the royal councils with other great men, maintain households as do other powerful landholders, and are to field substantial numbers of knights and men-at-arms when summoned for war [33]. A monastery that holds most of its land by feudal service suffers financially when its abbacy falls vacant, since its overlord can hold the community's lands in wardship until a new head of the house is elected and confirmed. This has encouraged such monasteries to split their lands between the superior and the rest of the community, thus ensuring that only the lands in the former category fall into the hands of the overlord during wardship. Religious houses founded in the last 100 years, especially those of the newer orders such as the Cistercians, tend to hold little or no land by military tenure, holding instead by frankalmoin. Such a house does not generally fall under the wardship of its patrons when its abbacy or priorate is vacant, being placed instead in the custody of its order or mother house. Unsurprisingly, then, newer houses do not split their lands as do the older communities [34].

Houses of some of the newer monastic orders employ the grange system to manage their outlying lands instead of the manorial system. This involves the building of a grange complex, generally staffed by lay brethren, that acts as the local center of administration for nearby lands. In essence, the lay brethren and the grange complex are to the grange what the lord or bailiff and manor house are to the manor [35]. The purpose of the grange is to efficiently manage its resources so as to maximize production for the mother house. The grange system is ideally suited to this function, since it allows adjacent lands that would have remained separate under the manorial system to be consolidated into a single grange and exploited more effectively [36].

Whereas a lay lord with scattered manorial holdings may travel from manor to manor in order to consume the produce of his or her lands, a monastic community does not usually move en masse about the countryside. Instead, a religious house has the yields of its manors either sent to the monastery, or else sold to merchants [37].

Parish Churches

Rarer and more valuable to a monastic house than advowson is the appropriation of a parish church. This provides the holder with the right to all the tithes, the products of the glebe, and other income of the church, as long as the monastery appoints a resident vicar to see to the cure of souls in the parish [41]. Appropriation requires the consent of the diocesan, that of the patron of the church, and if the benefice is not vacant, the consent of the rector is required as well. Sometimes the bishop agrees to appropriation with the condition that a perpetual vicarage be created. This requires that the monastery not leave the vicarage vacant for too long, and not replace vicars very often; additionally, it must pay a fixed sum, or a fixed fraction of the appropriated church's income, to the vicar. These rules help to ensure that the parish will be properly ministered to by a competent priest [42]. The bishop may instead allow the monastery the appropriation in return for a significant portion of the parish income to be paid annually [43]. Finally, the agreement of appropriation may stipulate that the monastery must keep the current priest until he dies, and only after this point take full control of the benefice [44].

A monastery that has appropriated a church may keep the current priest if it suits the community to do so, but the priest may be ejected if he is found to be deficient. Religious houses are not supposed to appoint monks as vicars, as this was forbidden by the First Lateran Council. However, the proscription is sometimes ignored, and monks may be found acting as vicars in appropriated parishes [45]. Regular canons are under no such restrictions, and a house belonging to one of the canonical orders is likely to appoint its canons as vicars. This is not surprising, given the emphasis their orders place upon ministering to the faithful [46].

Monasteries do appoint secular clergy as vicars, but this does not guarantee proper cure of souls in the parish. They may hire inadequate priests for a pitiful sum in order to save money. Conditions may be so bad for the vicars that they leave their offices; this leads to a high turnaround rate, and again the parishioners are left without a priest. To curb these various abuses, Pope Alexander III granted bishops the right to ensure that appropriated churches provide proper spiritual care to the parish faithful. Consequently, there are at times clashes between diocesan bishops and monastic houses over the latter's appropriations [47].

Sometimes, a monastic community takes a more hands-off approach to an appropriated benefice. The parish is farmed out to a vicar, who makes a fixed payment to the religious house each year and keeps the balance of the parish income [48]. As with all farming arrangements of this type, lay and ecclesiastical, this has the advantage of allowing the community to expend little or no effort on the parish, and yet collect guaranteed income each year, but it also denies the monastery the profits kept by the farmer. In monastic communities that divide lands between the head of the house and the rest of the religious, an appropriated church belongs to either one or the other party, just as if it were a land holding.

Most monasteries only have financial and administrative control over appropriated churches, but little spiritual influence. While they profit from the parish incomes and appoint the vicars, the latter are legally subject to the diocesan courts Christian, as are the parishioners. However, vicars of parishes appropriated by religious houses that are exempt from episcopal visitation are free from diocesan control. A very few monasteries (Glastonbury, Ely, Ramsey, St. Augustine's, St. Albans, and Evesham) are entitled to hold their own canon law courts with jurisdictions over their appropriated parishes. Two abbeys (Bury St. Edmunds and Battle) may hold similar courts with more limited jurisdiction; the courts may try cases that involve the citizens of their respective towns only [49].

Shrines and Pilgrims

Pilgrims are not always an asset to the financial or spiritual well-being of a community. Their comings and goings may disturb the meditations of the religious. Since they generally spend the night in front of the shrine, one or more members of the community must often act as guards for the shrine itself and any other valuables in the church. Finally, some houses waive entrance fees for poorer folk, and may in fact give alms to the more wretched pilgrims [51].

During times of special need, such as when a monastic house is hoping to expand its church, a community will take a more active approach to generating revenue with its holy relics. Instead of waiting for pilgrims to come to the shrine, the shrine goes to them. A group of religious travel throughout the surrounding counties, or even the country, carrying a portable shrine containing relics. Upon arrival in a settlement, the shrine is usually installed in a church, and the local populace pay to touch them, drink water in which the relics were bathed, and so forth. Such touring shrines oftentimes are not appreciated by church officials in the localities through which they move, since they draw money away from the coffers of the local clergy [52].

Craftmaking

Organization and Hierarchy

In some houses, the obedientiary system is in effect, whereby each officer heads a department that controls a certain amount of the community's lands and the profits arising therefrom. All house members who are not obedientiaries are sometimes known as cloistered monks or nuns. Together, the obedientiaries and the cloistered religious are termed choir monks or nuns. Below them are laypersons functioning as domestic and agricultural servants. Some orders and individual communities include an intermediate layer between the choir religious and the servants, known as lay brothers or lay sisters. These are illiterate religious, generally from the peasant class, who perform heavy labor and menial tasks.

Houses founded for monks or canons do not include women in their communities. The populations of female convents, in contrast, sometimes feature male religious. A prior may rule over the women, or may share power with a prioress. Resident regular canons may act as priests for the female religious. Lay brethren may manage or work the monastery's lands. Even those communities that are composed exclusively of female religious require the services of a male chaplain hired to minister to their spiritual needs. Female monastic communities, unlike their male counterparts, cannot completely cut themselves off from contact with the opposite sex [57].

Visitation, Exemption, and External Authority

Some monastic communities are subject to the authority of the diocesan, meaning that they must endure the bishop's visitations. Others are exempt from episcopal control to varying degrees, having obtained exemption through legal battles, petitioning the pope, or some other method. Still others are automatically exempt, either because they are daughters of a mother house that has visitation rights, or because they belong to an order that is subordinate only to the papacy [60]. Whether exempt or not, however, all houses are subject to some external authority, be it the diocesan, another religious house, the order to which it belongs, or if nothing else, papal legates. Most nunneries, even those that are part of the exempt orders, are required to submit to episcopal visitation [61]. Furthermore, a number of exclusively female houses have their independence curtailed by a male master, generally a member of a nearby monastic community appointed by the visitor [62]. Ostensibly meant to shield the nuns from exposure to the outside world, the master sometimes becomes the de facto head of the house, interfering in the nuns' affairs on a daily basis and leaving little authority to the abbess or prioress.

Visitations of non-exempt houses are to be carried out approximately once every one to three years under ordinary circumstances [63]; if a new head of the house must be enthroned or monks ordained, and these ceremonies must be performed at the house itself, additional visitations may occur. However, bishops often choose to neglect their visitation duties, in some cases for several years [64]. Exempt houses may be visited perhaps once each year by representatives of the mother house, the order, or the papacy. The occasion is announced in advance; if the house is not exempt from diocesan control, the bishop dispatches a message to the house warning it to be ready for his or a subordinate's visitation on an certain date. On the appointed day, the visitor and his retainers arrive at the community and are met at the church door. The visitor kisses each of the religious in turn, and they genuflect as they return the kiss. The party proceeds to the altar where the visitor celebrates Mass. The assembly then moves to the chapter house, where the actual business of the visitation is conducted. This often begins with the preaching of a sermon by a visiting clerk. If the visitor is the diocesan, the head of the house then presents him with an official certificate acknowledging receipt of the bishop's message. The visitor then examines the financial state of the house. Once this is done, the main business of the visitation gets underway: the verbal examination and correction of the community members [65].

The examination is usually performed by clearing the chapter house of the community members, and then bringing in each religious individually for examination [66]. Each subject is questioned in order to determine whether they are lacking discipline in their following of the daily routines, acting disobedient, indulging in sexual activity, engaging in apostasy, or exhibiting other faults [67]. Once the examination is complete, the visitor presents a summary of what he has learned from his interrogations. Any members whom he accuses of serious breaches are again summoned to appear individually, whereupon a clerk reads the accusations to them and they are asked to declare whether or not they are guilty. If they answer that they are, the visitor gives them an appropriate penance to be performed. If the accused insist upon their innocence, they are enjoined to find compurgators who will swear as to their guiltlessness by a certain hour, though sometimes the visitor is lenient with those who cannot produce the necessary number of compurgators by the appointed time. Once the visitor has dealt with serious offenses, the entire community again enters the chapter house to listen to the summary of the findings, after which the visitation is declared complete. If monks are to be ordained or a head of the house is to be enthroned, this may be done before or after the interrogations and the airing of judgements. The entire visit generally lasts about a day, though a community that is found to be especially deficient may warrant a longer visitation [68].

Any commands that the visitor issues to correct faults are only meant to suffice until such time as final decisions are made, at which point more injunctions are sent to the community. The latter may range from minor admonitions to the ordering of drastic steps, including the appointment of officials to watch over the monastic affairs or even the deposition of the head of the community [69]. In general, the efficacy of the visitation system depends upon dissent within a community; if the religious are united in their flaunting of authority, and all are discrete, it is very difficult for a visitor to learn of and correct faults [70].

In the past, there were many different sorts of exemptions, and monasteries that were considered exempt were likely to possess freedom from a variety of aspects of the diocesan's power [71]. Currently, the status of exemption usually includes all of the following rights. The head of the house may not have to take the oath of allegiance to the bishop, may choose the bishop who is to preside over his or her investiture ceremony or any ordinations, may decline to attend the diocesan synod, may be excused from obeying the synod's decrees or paying taxes it has levied, or may have the right to petition the pope directly for consecration. The house itself may be empowered to ignore sentences of excommunications and interdicts pronounced by the diocesan, forbid the bishop from seeking the community's hospitality, or refuse to allow the bishop to perform Mass or ordain priests in the house's church. The head of the house may be empowered to wear or carry one or more of the seven episcopal garments and insignia [72] (ring, staff, gloves, sandles, mitre, tunicle, and dalmatic [73]). Some houses are only exempt so long as they pay an annual census to the diocesan [74].

Head of the Community and Disciplinary Officials

In reality, the procedure by which an abbacy or priorate is filled depends upon a number of factors: whether the patron of the house has any right to choose or confirm the candidate; the degree of independence of a daughter house from the mother community; the relationship between the diocesan and the community; and so on. Clashes may occur between the community, the patron, and the party endowed with visitation rights. The community generally believes that it has the right to elect its head; it almost invariably wishes to nominate one of its own. The patron may feel that since the superior is his or her vassal, he or she should be able to choose the person to fill the abbacy or priorate, perhaps someone from outside the community; this is especially likely if the house holds much of its land by knight service from the patron [79]. Additionally, the patron may have a written agreement with the monastery laying out his or her rights with respect to elections [80]. Finally, the diocesan, if the house is not exempt, or the mother house if such exists, may also see the superior as a subordinate, and will in such cases try to impose a candidate from within or outside the community upon the religious. At times, battles between the three parties have been drawn out over several years; such affairs are costly and often extremely bitter, featuring claims and counterclaims, numerous petitions to the pope, and even occasional episodes of violence. Nunneries actually benefit from their relative unimportance when it comes to elections of abbesses or prioresses; their lack of stature encourages the various parties to take less of an interest in the outcome, and thus appointments go more smoothly [81].

Ideally, the head of the household is the ultimate religious and disciplinary authority within the community. He or she is meant to listen to the opinions of the community, and then make a decision based upon their advice and his or her own judgement. In essence, the head relates to the house much as a lay lord does to his subordinates. The latter may influence the lord's thinking through counsel, but the lord makes the decisions, and his orders, once issued, are to be obeyed regardless of the subordinates' feelings on the matter [82]. In houses that do not split the responsibility for property, the superior, together with the cellarer, is charged with overseeing the management of landholdings [83]. The head hears the confessions of, and complaints about, errant religious while meeting with the community in chapter, and assigns penance or penalties as appropriate [84]. He or she decides which religious should be appointed as monastic officials [85]. The head must be evenhanded, not favoring one person over another within the community. Overall, his or her leadership should promote the best interests of the house at all times [86].

Once again, however, reality may diverge considerably from the ideal. An abbot might sacrifice the well-being of his community for personal gain; a prioress may favor one nun over another because of familial connections. Similarly, community members may be individually disobedient or even collectively rebellious, flouting the authority of their master or mistress, petitioning external authorities to intercede on their behalf, and so on. This is especially likely if the house is factionalized, or the head was appointed under political pressure from outside parties and the community had little or no say in the matter. Alternately, the head of the house and his or her flock may be united against an external influence. This is often the case when a patron or visitor attempts to interfere in what the community considers to be its affairs. Subordinate communities might clash with their mother houses over their independence, as might nunneries with their male masters.

The head of a community was originally meant to live with his or her charges, eating with them in the refectory and sleeping in the dormitory. This is rarely the case nowadays, mostly due to necessity given the social context in which the monastery operates. The head is seen as an important public figure. He or she is expected to entertain royal and noble guests, travel through the manorial holdings of his or her community, and participate in politics [87]. Such a role requires that the office take on the trappings of a secular lord's life: a fine hall, meals including meat and other foods forbidden in the cloister, and numerous servants and retainers. In essence, the head has his or her own household, the activities of which would disrupt the community's claustral life if not kept separate from the cloister. Other factors also encourage the separation. Inevitably, some holders of abbacies or priorates are attracted to power or luxury; such persons tend to de-emphasize the spiritual nature of their positions, focusing instead upon their roles as secular lords. Furthermore, those monasteries that split property between the head of the house and the community create conditions that further exacerbate the isolation of the former from the latter [88].

The abbot or abbess of a wealthy monastery often lives in a miniature claustral complex outside the main cloister and keeps up to 50 horses and as many servants. The latter may include clerks, kitchen hands, laundresses, couriers, valets, grooms, and squires or even knights [89]. Additionally, the head of a prosperous house is served by a body of officials similar to that found attending secular lords: a household steward, a chamberlain, one or more chaplains acting as secretaries, and so forth. Note that these officials are not usually religious; laypersons and secular clergy fulfill these duties. Such an abbot or abbess generally dines alone or with guests, only eating in the refectory on great feast days. If the superior has a private chapel and chaplains, he or she will even celebrate Mass apart from the community [90]. Of course, the heads of poorer or more austere monastic houses make do with far less, and in some cases actually live and eat with their communities instead of maintaining a separate dwelling.

An abbey has not only an abbot or abbess, but also a prior or prioress as a subordinate leader. When the superior is present, the subordinate is often responsible for discipline and for seeing that the former's orders are obeyed [91]. When the superior is away, the subordinate takes on the former's daily duties. Priors, who are always ordained, celebrate High Mass during the great festivals [92]; prioresses, who cannot be ordained, do not have this privilege. Since many abbots and abbesses dwell apart from their communities and spend much time travelling, subordinate priors and prioresses end up acting in their places for long periods of time. Additionally, the prior is assisted by a subprior, or the prioress by a subprioress; the assistance includes helping to maintain discipline and the performance of delegated tasks. The largest abbeys also have a third prior or prioress, who is subordinate to the subprior or subprioress; and also a claustral prior or prioress, charged with ensuring that community members do not loiter in inappropriate places at any time. The latter is generally assisted by circatores (also known as custodes ordinis), religious who keep watch on the premises and note irregularities in order to announce them later in chapter [93]. Priories have fewer such subordinates; a male priory generally has only a subprior as the prior's subordinate. The latter fulfills all the duties of an abbatial prior as detailed above [94]. Female priories feature similar arrangements.

Many houses appoint another disciplinary official known as the master or mistress of novices. This official is responsible for seeing to the discipline and instruction of the novices. In some monasteries, a separate master or mistress of children is appointed, who oversees the child novices or those children who are being schooled at the community, but the two positions are usually combined [95]. Either or both may sleep in the novice dormitory instead of with the rest of the community. They use beatings, the denial of food, and imprisonment as teaching aids and to keep the novices on their best behavior [96].

Cellarer and Officials of the Kitchen and Refectory

The kitchener is charged with procuring fresh foods from manors for the community's tables, and staple foodstuffs from the cellarer. He or she also oversees the preparation of meals, which is done by lay servants and by servers, religious who are appointed each week in rotation. The refectorer supervises the refectory and its furnishings, linen, and so forth; he or she is sometimes assisted by a subrefectorer. The pittancer provides the community members with pittances when deemed appropriate. The gardener oversees the community's gardens. All these officials have servants working under them. In smaller communities, some or all of these positions do not exist, their duties being performed by the cellarer instead [99].

Sacrist and Warden of the Shrines

A religious house that possesses one or more shrines famous for their holy relics often appoints a warden of the shrines. This official is charged with ensuring that the shrines are maintained and protected from the pilgrims [101]. Since pilgrims often spend the night in the church, the warden or a trusted subordinate must often sleep near the shrine in order to ensure the safety of the relics [102]. A community without such an official may expect the sacrist to sleep in the church instead, to protect the valuables found therein [103]. Some houses expect the warden, sacrist, or subsacrist to take their meals in the church as well [104].

Chamberlain

Almoner

Whereas poor pilgrims and other wretched travellers usually cannot expect to be given such donations more than once or twice, the regional poor may be regular pensioners of the community who receive alms at certain times each month or year. Of course, not all houses are so generous [107].

Precentor

Communities that devote considerable effort to copying may appoint a librarian (or armarius) as an assistant to the precentor. The librarian is charged with both the library and the scriptorium; the latter responsibility includes the supplying of parchment, ink, desks, and other materials that copyists require for their work [110].

Other Officials

The infirmarian is responsible for the smooth running of the infirmary. Ideally he or she has some skill in the healing arts and knowledge of medicinal herbs. If a male, the infirmarian is generally expected to say Mass for his charges. While a smaller house may have a modest infirmary, larger communities sometimes boast entire complexes devoted to the healing of the sick and the housing of the old and infirm, including a main hall, a chapel, a kitchen, a refectory, and other buildings deemed necessary. The infirmarian generally has at least one servant working under him or her, and if the infirmary is a large complex, he or she may have additional subordinate officials who manage the various buildings, including a kitchener, a chamberlain, and sacrist [111].

The hosteler (or guest master) sees to the needs of those staying at the monastery. He or she is responsible for the furnishing of guest rooms, the care of guests' horses, and the meals and comfort of the guests themselves [112]. Sometimes, the more distinguished guests eat with the head of the house, in which case the hosteler must collaborate with the latter in order to arrange the meals. Guests who are regular clergy often live in the cloisters and participate in the monastic routine during their stay; the hosteler is not generally responsible for their well-being [113].

The office of master or mistress of works is sometimes found in monasteries that are engaging in large-scale building projects. If such a position exists, the officeholder manages the building project, overseeing the masons, carpenters, and other craftsmen in their work. However, many monastic houses leave the project to a master mason instead of having one of their own direct it [114].

Those communities that have jurisdiction over the courts Christian of their appropriated parishes appoint an archdeacon or a rural dean to oversee their canon law courts. The officeholder fulfills the same function as does his secular counterpart when holding court. Female houses must appoint priests to these positions, since nuns cannot take holy orders. In male houses, the sacrists often hold these offices [115].

Because women religious cannot be ordained, they cannot celebrate Mass on their own. For this reason, a nunnery that does not include regular canons amongst its population requires the services of a male chaplain, or more than one if the house is a large one. The chaplain may live within the conventual walls, but not within the cloister, for this could lead to sinful behavior or a bad reputation for the community. The chaplains of some houses live outside the walls, perhaps taking on the duties of parish priests as well. The chaplain of a nunnery does not have a great deal of power within the community; his is a paid position subordinate to the abbess or prioress, somewhat akin to a lay lord's chaplain [116].

Obedientiaries

The obedientiaries' many responsibilities require that they spend a considerable amount of time outside the cloister, travelling throughout their holdings and interacting with laypersons. Almost inevitably, this encourages obedientiaries to be somewhat lax in keeping their vows and adhering to the rule by which their community lives. Their management of departmental lands and profits amounts to de facto holding of personal property. Their dealings with others render monastic restrictions on conversation, diet, and fraternizing with members of the opposite sex unworkable. Even within the cloister, obedientiaries are often excused from following the normal regimen because of their duties. They may be allowed to work on their accounts while the community is meant to be studying, sleep during the recitation of the Divine Office, or eat meat and converse in the guest dining hall while their fellow religious restrict their diets and their tongues in the refectory. All of this contributes to a sharp division between the obedientiaries on the one hand, and the cloister monks or nuns on the other. Indeed, the two groups lead very different lives in many communities [118].

Besides its effect upon the morals and discipline of participating religious, the obedientiary system has other drawbacks. Since the departments are each in charge of their own lands and funds, it is quite possible that one will be flush with wealth while another is forced to borrow money. Since departments are often quite jealous of their holdings, they rarely share profits between them. Moreover, though the superior may depose or suspend obedientiaries, custom strongly discourages the reapportioning of departmental property in order to encourage solvency. This inflexibility and lack of intercommunication has led to absurd situations, including at least one instance in which a house has ended up so deeply in debt to Jews that the latter have taken up residence in the community's treasury. None of this has gone unnoticed by Church reformers, many of whom have attacked the obedientiary system for undermining monastic life, particularly the vow of poverty. Some heads of houses and choir religious feel that the system gives departments far too much independence and attempt to bring it under control, to varying degrees of success [119].

Professed Religious

Religious are considered legally dead with respect to the holding of property. They may not hold land or own personal items. This means that any holdings that are not otherwise disposed of before they make their profession are inherited by their heirs, and likewise their chattels become the property of those named in their wills [121].

Novices

Life is often hard for novices. They are to be under the watchful eye of the master of novices at all times. They should be silent and still unless commanded to speak or to accomplish some task. They are often kept segregated from the rest of the community, the members of which are often forbidden from showing any kindness to them. Discipline may be harsh, especially for younger novitiates; the master may administer beatings and other physical punishments when he or she feels that such penalties are needed. Novices spend their days learning the ways of their community and performing menial chores; the latter may include basic copying work if their script is sufficient to the task. They must also practice and memorize the many passages and chants required for the celebration of the Divine Office throughout the year. They may attend chapter with the professed, or they may have their own chapter in which they are disciplined [124].

Lay Brethren and Sisters

The role of lay brethren has been evolving since their introduction. Originally meant to work with their hands, they are increasingly seen as administrators who oversee lay servants instead of performing heavy labor themselves [127]. An example of this is the manner in which granges are staffed; generally a few conversi are responsible for a much greater number of hired or unfree servants [128]. Lay sisters, who are less common than their male counterparts, have not experienced a similar promotion in status; they still work much as do female household servants, performing domestic chores such as washing, brewing and cheesemaking [129].

Servants

Becoming Religious, Profession, and Renunciation of Vows

The process of joining a religious house varies according to the aspirant's age and status. Sometimes parents, driven by piety, the desire to rid themselves of an extraneous son or daughter, or some other motivation, will give their young child to a monastery. Other religious enter the cloister when they have come of age, while still others don the habit when they are older, perhaps even after living full secular lives. The length of the novitiate depends upon the age of the novice; the older the aspirant, the shorter the period [136]. Though the cloistered life is one that should be entered into voluntarily, it sometimes happens that a person is forced to become religious against his or her will. Communities that accept unwilling members may well experience problems in the long run due to the resulting bitterness and discord within the house.

Reasons for Taking Up the Religious Life

Older offspring, or even fully-grown adults, may be forced to take up the religious life as well by those who stand to gain from such a turn of events. An unscrupulous younger brother of a deceased landholder may conspire to cloister his elder brother's daughter in order to gain her inheritance. A family may wish to rid themselves of a crippled, deformed, or mentally impaired son or daughter, though in such cases a monastery may well refuse to admit the would-be aspirant [140]. The reasons that unprincipled relations and other parties have for compelling a person to don the habit are many and varied.

Even those aspirants who truly wish to enter the cloister may not be motivated by piety. Some join monasteries hoping for soft and easy lives. Others, motivated by a craving for power, become religious with the intent of exercising authority over their fellows or those laypersons falling under their rule. Still others may don the habit in order to hide themselves away from enemies they have made. Some aspirants wish to spend their days reading the books in the monastic library or writing their own works; this motivation is probably more common amongst religious women than men, since males have access to a variety of scholastic options in the secular world that are closed to females. The full range of human hopes, desires, motivations, and fears may be found within a monastic community.

Entering as a Child

Prior to this century, children were often given to monasteries as child oblates. The latter are considered somewhat different from other novices; their parents present them as gifts at the community's altar in a ceremony somewhat akin to a sacrifice, and unlike ordinary novices, they may not thereafter be returned to their families. In the past, the majority of community members in many houses began their monastic careers as child oblates. In the last hundred years, however, the situation has changed. The new orders such as the Cistercians do not allow their houses to accept child oblates, and their reformist zeal has reverberated through the older orders. As a result, very few child oblates are offered anymore. The practice of taking young novices is still fairly common, but such aspirants are not considered oblates [143].

Joining as a Young Adult

As might be expected, some such novices have more trouble adjusting to the cloister than do young children. On the other hand, they consume fewer resources during their shorter novitiate than do their younger counterparts. Furthermore, those who enter monasteries as young men are increasingly likely to have received a thorough secular education at a cathedral school or university. In fact, such men are often far better educated than they would have been had they received schooling in the cloister; a few may already have been ordained prior to their novitiates [145]. The same cannot be said for women, however; they are unlikely to have received much of an education beyond perhaps grammar school, and certainly will not have attended university.

Donning the Habit at a Later Age

Price of Admission

The value of the gift varies according to the prestige of the monastery; the more desirable monasteries charge higher entrance fees than do the poorer ones. Within certain bounds, the gift's worth is expected to be greater if the aspirant or his or her sponsor is of high status. Church advowsons and appropriations are popular with donors and receivers alike, since they often bring in a large income for the monastery and are not a great loss for a secular landholder. If a monk is entering a modest priory, a typical gift might be one or two bovates of land, pasture rights in woodland, or something of similar value; two sisters entering a small convent might be expected to provide a benefice to the community [151]. In the case of women entering nunneries, the gift is termed a dowry, just as if the aspirant was about to be married, though the gift's worth is generally less than it would be in the latter case.

Profession

Profession is done during chapter in front of the head of the house at the altar. The aspirant recites the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience; in most cases, he or she must also take a vow of stability. The latter stipulates that the avower must not abandon one community for another without proper authorization. The postulant may read the vows aloud from a contract with God that has been prepared for the occasion, and the other religious in attendance act as his or her witnesses. The superior then recites prayers, and the new member receives the kiss of peace from the members of the community. The ritual may involve the prostration of the newly professed in front of the altar covered with a shroud, candles at his or her head and feet, the reading of Scripture, and the tolling of the bells to announce the new member's death to the world. The new religious is then commanded to rise, receive Communion, and then take his or her place in the choir with the other professed. If the aspirant is female, the ceremony may involve the wearing of bridal clothes and the donning of a ring in order to signal the postulant's marriage to Christ, and her hair being shorn to symbolize her rejection of sensuality. Some aspirants choose to take a new name, usually Latin, at this time, symbolizing the death of their secular lives and rebirth as regular clergy [152].

Ideally, religious may be dead to the world, but in reality they often maintain contacts with laypersons. They frequently carry on correspondence with their family members. Relatives may stay at the monastery as guests, and occasionally professed may make trips to visit family as well [153].

Forsaking the Religious Life

In general, the consent of the community is required, as well as that of the party holding visitation rights. If such consent is not forthcoming, a case may be appealed through the ecclesiastical courts up to the papal level [154]. Alternately, the party attempting to remove the religious may simply do so without Church sanction, but this is forbidden under canon law. The abandonment of the monastic life without permission is the crime of apostasy; it is punishable by excommunication. Assuming that the punishment is carried out with sufficient backing to make it terrifying, it leaves the victim cursed and alone, without friends in the world. Many apostates break under such oppressive conditions, returning to the cloister and throwing themselves at the mercy of their communities, who may take them back after further punishment [155].

Structures and Layout of the Monastic Complex

Monastic complexes vary in layout, but always include a cloister, a roughly square area of ground known as the garth with covered walkways along each of its sides, each walkway separated from the garth by a low wall with arcades. The conventual buildings are built around the cloister, surrounding it on all four sides in all but the smallest communities; together, these form the claustral complex [159]. The remainder of the grounds is generally divided into the inner and outer courts; these contain various outbuildings, some domestic, some agricultural, and some particular to monastic life. The whole is usually surrounded by a wall with one or more gates and, in wealthier communities, gatehouses. Large monastic complexes might occupy eighty or more acres altogether [160].

Generally, the community locates its church on the north side of the cloister; this affords protection from the cold north wind, while at the same time ensuring that the church will not be casting a perpetual shadow over the cloister by blocking the southern light. Local topography sometimes requires that the cloister be built to the north of the church, however [161]. Additionally, female communities may choose a north side cloister for symbolic reasons concerning the association of the Virgin Mary, and more generally of women, with the north side of the church [162]. The remainder of the claustral buildings are arranged in various ways around the cloister; the dormitory is often to the east and the refectory to the south [163].

Ideally, a stream runs nearby; the community may divert it in whole or in part in order to supply themselves with water or to use it for waste disposal. Complexes are often located in valleys watered by rivers or streams for this reason [164]. The presence of a spring makes the supplying of piped water much easier. If a spring exists, it may be capped with a well house to prevent it from being polluted. Wood or lead pipes carry the water from the spring to a cistern via a succession of settling tanks, the latter designed to remove sediment. The cistern supplies pressured water to various parts of the complex [165]. If no convenient water source exists, or the spring is not located at a higher elevation than the monastery, the water tank may be filled by pumping or buckets. Poorer religious houses cannot afford piped water, relying instead upon water drawn from a well or a stream, or rainwater running off the roof into a cistern [166].

Life in a monastic complex is on the whole cleaner than it might be in a peasant dwelling, manor house, or castle, but is often less comfortable as well. Conventual sanitary arrangements are superior to those found elsewhere, and religious are permitted to bathe at certain times of the year. However, in the chillier months, there is little relief from the cold; in general, fires are only found in the calefactory, the infirmary, the kitchen, the guesthouse, the quarters of the superior, and any other places where they are required for some reason other than the comfort of the occupants [167].

The wealth of a community determines the extent of a monastic complex and the composition and adornment of its buildings. An impoverished cell might lack a claustral complex entirely and be comprised of a few wattle and daub structures, the latter barely worthy of a poor manor house. Only the presence of a rude church would distinguish such a cell from a manor. A large abbey will have church the size of a cathedral and many other large masonry buildings. In general, wealthier communities tend to locate certain structures, such as the abbot's quarters or infirmary, outside of the claustral complex, sometimes equipping them with their own satellite cloisters so that they appear to be miniature monasteries themselves.

The different elements of a monastic complex are discussed below. Note that while a typical community might be arranged as specified, individual monasteries may differ radically from the norm in layout. For example, a community's dormitory might be in the western range instead of the east, or the western range might be truncated or missing entirely.

Cloister

Church

Monks and canons generally equip their church with transepts featuring multiple altars, whereas a nunnery's church is less likely to have such features. This is because most male religious are ordained priests, and may therefore say Mass, but nuns may not become priests and thus cannot use altars themselves. Of course, the paucity of material and financial resources at the disposal of women religious also factors into the relative simplicity of their churches. There are often at least two doors on the south walls of the church, the eastern one leading to the dormitory via the night stairs, the western portal opening onto the cloister walkway. Obviously, churches that are to the south of the cloister have these doors on the north walls instead [174]. In communities that include lay brethren or lay sisters, these lesser members often have the use of the nave for worship, while the choir and chancel is for the choir monks or nuns only [175]. Some churches feature galleries, elevated platforms from which guests, corrodians, or novices may attend services without disturbing the religious below. A gallery may be located along the west, north, or south wall of the nave, between the nave and the choir, above the eastern boundary of the choir, or within a transept. Generally, it is accessed via a passage from the upper level of the eastern or western range. The closer the gallery is to the east end of the church, the more likely it is to be reserved for the use of novices [176]. In addition, many monastic churches feature organs [177].

Communities sometimes share their church with a parish; in such cases, the parishioners are usually relegated to the nave, or more rarely an aisle, or even more unusually a transept; the latter only occurs when the nave has not yet been finished and is therefore unavailable for parish use. In some cases, the parish has an attached or separate chapel, and is barred from the church altogether. A few monastic houses split the church lengthwise with the parishioners, the two sections being divided by a wall. A parish and a female community that share a church may invert the standard arrangement, giving the nave to the women religious and the chancel to the parishioners. It may be expected that on feast days the monastic community join with the parish for a procession, but this depends upon the individual community and its arrangements with the parish. Unfortunately, shared churches may lead to disruption of the services of one party by those of the other. For example, the parishioners may ring the bells during their services at intervals that interrupt the flow of the community's recitation of the Divine Office. Such situations often lead to conflict between religious and parish; for this reason, a community often prefers to have its church to itself [178].

The monastic graveyard is generally located to the east or southeast of the church. If the latter is shared with a parish, then the parishioners' graveyard may be on the north side of the church [179].

Eastern Range

The ground floor, or undercroft, of the building contains some or all of the following rooms, arranged from north to south: the sacristy, in which vestments and ceremonial items are kept; the chapter house, in which the community meets; the parlor, where conversation is permitted; the day room of the novices; the day room of the professed; and the calefactory, or warming room, where a fire is permitted for religious to warm themselves for brief periods between services. The sacristy of a female house is often accessible only from outside the cloister, as it is intended for use by the male chaplain and not the women religious. In addition, a passageway known as a slype sometimes penetrates the eastern range, providing access to the inner court east of the claustral buildings. The slype may be combined with the parlor, or the parlor with the warming room. If the monastery has a treasury, it is generally located in this range as well; the community stores its valuables, property deeds, and other important documents here. Laypersons may also use the treasury to store valuables, if they have an appropriate arrangement with the community [181].

The chapter house is one of the centers of communal life, and both funds and effort are often expended in order to increase its size or embellish it with ornamentation. In larger communities, the chapter house generally extends beyond the eastern range so as to afford it greater breadth and height; in such cases, the portion under the dormitory is relegated to the role of vestibule. Important members of the community may be entombed here, or in the eastern alley of the cloister. When in chapter, members of the community face the center of the room. They are seated along the walls in order of seniority from east to west, with the head of the house against the east wall. In front of the superior is a lectern upon which rests the necrology, or Book of Life, a tome in which the community records the names of deceased members, patrons, and benefactors whom are to be remembered in worship on certain days [182].

A few communities locate a library and scriptorium in the eastern range. The two may be combined into one room, or they may be separate. Sometimes the library is located above the scriptorium, or one or both may be located above the chapter house or the parlor. Occasionally, the scriptorium is adjacent to the calefactory so as to provide some warmth to the scribes on cold days. For many communities, however, the northern walkway of the cloister serves as the scriptorium, and a separate library would be pointless given the paucity of books [183].

Southern Range

The refectory itself may take up the upper floor of the entire building, or it may be oriented along the north-south axis; the latter is generally true only in larger communities, where the required size of the refectory is too great to be oriented east-west. The room will often be equipped with large windows facing along one long wall, facing south or east in order to take advantage of the sunlight. A pulpit is located at the far (that is, the east or south) end of the refectory, in the right corner when viewed from the entrance; from here, one of the religious reads to his or her fellow community members during meals. The pulpit may be raised several feet above the level of the floor, in which case it is reached by stairs, sometimes located in a passageway within the wall. The far wall features a dais with a table atop it; here the head of the community sits with the most senior or distinguished members facing the room. The wall behind the table features a crucifix and is often decorated. The other members of the community sit facing one another at tables that are arranged so as to be parallel to the long walls of the refectory. Cupboards holding tablecloths and eating utensils are located near either the entrance or the kitchen. The refectory is rarely vaulted, even in wealthier communities, since a wooden roof has better acoustic properties and thus makes the reader's job somewhat easier, especially in a large room [185].

The kitchen is equipped with hearths and troughs lining the walls, and a central hearth and chimney. The troughs may feature pipes and taps that provide fresh water, as might the lavatorium. A bell house, and perhaps even a barber house, may be located near the lavatorium, the former to call the community to meals, the latter for the use of the barber. A passageway through the southern range may give access to the area beyond the cloister [186].

Western Range

Inner Court

The infirmary is often to the east or south of the cloister. It may consist of a single hall lined on either side with beds, a fire to warm the inmates, and a small chapel where patients may worship. Larger communities generally have aisled infirmaries and build a miniature claustral complex around them, albeit with a smaller garth than that of the main cloister. Such a complex might feature a kitchen, a large chapel, a refectory, and other buildings. The herbarium, where herbs are stored and medicines made, is generally adjacent to the infirmary [189].

If the guest quarters or those of the head of the community are not in the claustral complex proper, they may be located in the inner court. When this is the case, they may be free-standing, or may each have their own miniature cloisters as with the infirmary, or one or more cloisters may be shared between the superior's quarters, the guest accommodations, and the infirmary. In a large monastery, the abbot or abbess is likely to have impressive quarters equipped with a kitchen, a chapel, a large hall connected with private chambers, and various luxuries akin to those appropriate to an important lay lord [190].

Note that nunneries tend to have a weaker delineation between domestic and claustral buildings; thus, some of the former may be found as part of the claustral complex proper. If one or more male chaplains are housed in a nunnery, their quarters are unlikely to be within the claustral complex, as this would encourage scandalous behavior; they are generally within the inner court [191].

Outer Court

Walls

Granges

A small but notable difference between the layout of a grange and that of a manor is the invariable inclusion of an oratory in the former, used by lay brethren for worship. The oratory may be quite crude; it is rarely considered to be of chapel status. Similarly, the rest of the buildings are likely to be built not of stone, but of wood, wattle, and daub. The lack of funds expended to construct the complex fits the grange's purpose well. It exists to bring profit to the mother house, not as a monastic cell in which prayer is emphasized [195].

Life as a Religious

The members of a monastic community are meant to live according to a rigorous schedule, or horarium. The latter rigidly regulates the day-to-day routine of a monastic community, keeping the religious busy with prescribed duties and offering little or no time for idle pursuits. It not only dictates when prayers should be said and reading should be done, but also when the religious should meet in chapter, eat, and sleep. Different orders and houses follow different schedules; additionally, within a single house the horarium generally varies depending upon the day of the week, the occurrence of different feasts, and other chronological and spiritual factors [200]. Since such schedules demand a fairly precise method of measuring time, most monasteries use a sundial or water clock to keep track of the hours [201].

Religious must not only follow a rigid schedule; they must also carry out their duties and meet their daily needs according to strict rules. Besides the keeping of their vows, the professed's food, clothing, and other comforts must all conform to rigorous standards; even conversation is severely limited. In short, every facet of the life of a religious is meant to be controlled. While some monastic houses, particularly those of the more zealous reformist orders, strive for or even attain this ideal, many fall short of the mark. Some communities may have only a few religious who are lax; obedientaries in particular are often excused from the normal regimen because of their additional duties, and end up living more like laypersons than religious. If a house's discipline is loose, the entire community may live corrupt lives; monks may frequently dine on meat with guests, nuns may wear expensive furs, or canons may enjoy a hunting outing. Some religious indulge in even more scandalous behavior, such as succumbing to the temptations of the flesh. Such improprieties act as fuel for the fires of indignation burning within the ecclesiastical reformists, both secular and regular, and add weight to arguments made by critics of monasticism.

Worship and Ritual

Communal Mass, the most important component of the liturgy, is said at least twice each day in monastic houses. Morrow (or chapter) Mass may be sung or recited, and takes place at the choir altar if one exists. High Mass is performed at the high altar to the accompaniment of chant. Some communities celebrate a third Mass, that of Our Lady, as well [210]. In nunneries, the celebrant must be the community chaplain, since women cannot be ordained as priests. In many male houses, most of the monks or canons are ordained, and thus may perform Mass. In such communities, a celebrant known as the hebdomadarian is appointed each week, often according to a schedule maintained by the precentor. He is to lead the celebration of Mass each day, with the general exception of High Mass on greater feast days when the subordinate prior is responsible for the ceremony. The hebdomadarian also performs other duties, such as intoning the first passage of each hour of the Divine Office and blessing holy water. He may not touch a corpse during the week in which he performs Mass [211].

The Divine Office consists of eight different services, known as canonical hours. In chronological order, these are Nocturns, Matins, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers, and Compline, the first taking place before dawn, the last in the evening. Each hour is celebrated in the community's church with the recitation of prayers, hymns, and psalms, punctuated by biblical passages and perhaps readings from other books appropriate to the occasion. In most communities, the recitation of the hours of the Divine Office takes more time than other forms of liturgical celebration [212].

Depending upon the order and the house, other offices may be recited by the community as well. These may include the Offices of All Saints, the Dead, and Our Lady; the first two consist only of psalms and lessons said in the morning and evening, while the Office of Our Lady is said either preceding or following each canonical hour of the Divine Office. Furthermore, additional psalms that are not part of the various offices may also be recited at irregular intervals throughout the day. More universal is the celebration of private Mass amongst ordained monks and canons, and the saying of personal prayers amongst all religious. Private Masses are generally said early in the day, since the celebrant must be fasting; they may be celebrated during study time or while in chapter by the monks or canons of some houses. Individual prayers may be said by religious while they are waiting for child novices to rise for Nocturns, while they are washing and changing before Terce, and following Compline. Those recited at the latter time may be said at an altar. Depending upon the community, other times may be set aside for personal prayer as well [213].

Sundays and feast days are the occasions for more elaborate ceremonies. Altogether, there are perhaps 100 feast days; together with Sundays that do not fall on feasts, about 150 days require special liturgical celebrations. There are six great feasts each year, and a dozen or more important feast days that are termed feasts in copes; lesser feasts, perhaps twenty in number, are known as feasts in albs, and there are minor feasts of twelve lessons as well. The latter rank with Sundays in significance, whereas the other feasts are of more importance. Monastic communities generally vest the religious in copes and albs during great feasts and feasts in copes, and merely in albs during feasts in albs. On such occasions, these vestments are worn by the cantors and hebdomadaries for all liturgical ceremonies, and by the entire community during processions and the celebration of High Mass. Feasts in copes are also marked by the lighting of the church, the spreading of fresh rushes on the floors, and the decoration of the altars, choir, chapter house, and refectory; feasts in albs omit these embellishments. The feasts of twelve lessons are thus named due to the fact that twelve lessons, passages from biblical or other sacred texts, are recited as part of the Divine Office. In fact, the liturgy on feast days of all types consists of lengthier Masses and canonical hours, and bells are sounded for longer periods as well. No work is done, leaving more time for the more elaborate celebrations [214]. Special ceremonies may be undertaken on different holidays; for example, at Easter, four religious stand near the empty sepulchre in the church, representing the angel and the women present at Christ's tomb. A few rituals are less than solemn, however. On St. Nicholas' Day, many monasteries elect a young novice as the head of the house during this time. The child then conducts services on the Feast of the Holy Innocents. On the Feast of the Circumcision, also known as the Feast of the Fools, the clergy may engage in various silly and irreverent antics, such as the wearing of masks during the celebration of Mass and the singing of licentious songs at the altar [215].

Processions involve the ceremonial parading of religious throughout the monastery and perhaps outside the precinct as well. These are held at Vespers and Matins on feast days and before Mass on Sundays; as might be expected, those taking place during feasts in copes are further embellished over those held on feasts in albs. A Sunday procession might be conducted as follows. In the morning, after the hebdomadarian blesses holy water at the high altar, two religious proceed through the cloister walkways, sprinkling holy water in adjacent rooms. Simultaneously, the rest of the community moves through the eastern part of the church, sprinkling holy water on the altars found there. The latter then leave the church and enter the eastern walkway in procession, led by the cross and the holy water bearers flanked by candle-wielding acolytes, with the head of the house bringing up the rear. The procession winds through the southern and the western walkways, entering the church again via a western doorway and proceeding to the nave altar, which is also sprinkled, as are any altars in side chapels. Finally, the procession enters the choir to complete the ceremony. On feasts in copes, the procession includes other embellishments such as the carrying of holy relics and shrines [216]. In some nunneries, virgins bear lit candles, while nuns who have not been chaste throughout their lives carry candles that have been snuffed out, publicly symbolizing their loss of virginity and the irreversible nature of that loss [217].

Study and Writing

Those who became novices when they were young receive all of their schooling in the cloister, and thus are often at an intellectual disadvantage when compared with those educated outside the monastery. The monastic curriculum is not as well-rounded as that of other schools; students study only grammar and rhetoric of the trivium, and only music of the quadrivium. Additionally, while universities provide a learning environment that encourages challenge and debate, schooling within religious houses involves less in the way of lively exchanges of ideas. Religious educated within the cloister may become literary or historical scholars, but science and law are generally closed to them [219].

Of course, those monks and canons who were educated prior to joining a monastic community may rank with the finest scholars in England. Such men bring new ideas and knowledge to their house, and often continue to practice their studies after their profession. Often, these clergy are ordained prior to entering a religious house. Male religious with previous secular schooling are becoming increasingly common; some abbots and priors, as well as other male religious, have master's degrees. A few have completed their doctorates as well. However, such men are the minority; most brethren do not have the benefit of university education [220].

While monastic education is generally considered inferior to secular schooling, the latter is rarely open to women. Females cannot as a rule attend university, and are generally unwelcome in other sorts of schools as well. Some are lucky enough to be provided with private tutors, but for many women, conventual education is the only schooling open to them. Unsurprisingly, then, while monks and canons are often less learned than their secular counterparts, the reverse is often true for women [221].

Monastic schooling, like secular learning, depends upon books; the more available to the students, the better. Books are labor-intensive to produce, however, and are thus not very common. In general, the old and wealthy abbeys have the greatest collections of books, sometimes possessing hundreds of volumes. The libraries of the reformist orders tend to be smaller and less diverse, with a greater emphasis on spiritual works and fewer books concerning medicine, canon law, and other more secular subjects. The collections of the largest reformist abbeys may be one or two hundred books, while the small and poor priories have very few books at all, regardless of their order. Depending upon the community, books may be kept within the sacristy, in a cupboard within the church, within the scriptorium or library, or in the cloister walkway against the south wall of the church [222].

Books are acquired by a community through donations from patrons and benefactors; the gifts may be either books themselves, or else money to be used for the benefit of the scriptorium. Sometimes when a learned man enters a monastery he donates his collection of texts to the house's library. Books are of course transcribed in the scriptorium as well, copies being made either of books possessed by the community or of works borrowed from other monasteries. Saints' lives are common subjects of monastic texts, reflecting the interests and training of conventual