Abbey

ABBEY, a monastery, or conventual establishment, under the government of an ABBOT or an ABBESS (Lat. abbatia; from Syr. abba, father).

The earliest Christian monastic communities (see MONASTI cism) with which we are acquainted consisted of groups of cells or huts collected about a common centre, which was usually the abode of some anchorite celebrated for superior holiness or sin gular asceticism. The formation of such communities in the East precedes Christianity, the example having been already set by the Essenes in Judea and the Therapeutae in Egypt.

In the earliest age of Christian monasticism the ascetics were accustomed to live singly, independent of one another, at no great distance from some village, supporting themselves by the labour of their own hands, and distributing to the poor the surplus after the supply of their own scanty wants. Increasing religious fervour, aided by persecution, drove them farther and farther away from the abodes of men into mountain solitudes or lonely deserts. The deserts of Egypt swarmed with the "cells" or huts of these anchorites. Anthony, who had retired to the Egyp tian Thebaid during the persecution of Maximin, 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, emulous of his sanctity. The deeper he with drew into the wilderness the more numerous his disciples became. They refused to be separated from him, and built their cells 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. 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, Aalipac, "streets" or "lanes." The real founder of coeno bian (Kowas, common, and 13tos, life) monasteries in the modern sense was Pachomius, an Egyptian of the beginning of the 4th century. The first community established by him was at Taben nae, an island of the Nile in Upper Egypt. Eight others were founded in his lifetime, numbering 3,00o monks. Within 5o years from his death his societies could reckon 5o,000 members. These coenobia resembled villages peo pled by a hard-working religious community, all of one sex. The buildings were detached, small, and of the humblest character. 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, KaX1513ta, forming a religious ham let on the mountain side. They were subject to an abbot, and ob served a common rule. (They had no refectory, but ate their common meal, of bread and water only, when the day's labour was over, reclining on strewn grass, sometimes out of doors.) Four times in the day they joined in prayers and psalms.

The necessity for defence from hostile attacks, economy of space, and convenience of access from one part of the community to an other, by degrees dictated a more compact and orderly arrange ment of the buildings of a monas tic coenobium. Large piles of building were erected, with strong outside walls, capable of re sisting the assaults of an enemy, within which all the necessary edifices were ranged round one or more open courts, usually sur rounded with cloisters. The usual Eastern arrangement is exempli fied in the plan of the convent of Santa Laura, Mount Athos (Laura, the designation of a monastery generally, being converted into a female saint).

This monastery, like the oriental monasteries generally, is sur rounded 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 sooft. There is only one main entrance, on the north side (A), defended by three separate iron doors. Near the en trance is a large tower (M), a constant feature in the monas teries of the Levant. There is a small postern gate at L. The enciente comprises two large open courts, surrounded with build ings connected with cloister galleries of wood or stone. The outer court, which is much the larger, contains the granaries and storehouses (K), and the kitchen (H) and other offices connected with the refectory (G). Immediately adjacent to the gateway is a two-storied guest-house, opening from a cloister (C). The inner court is surrounded by a cloister (EE), from which open the monks' cells (II). In the centre of this court stands the catholi con or conventual church, a square building with an apse of the cruciform domical Byzantine type. In front of the church stands a marble fountain (F), covered by a dome supported on columns. Opening from the western side of the cloister, but actually stand ing in the outer court, is the refectory (G), a large cruciform building, about i ooft. each way, decorated within with frescoes of saints. At the upper end is a semi-circular recess, 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.

Benedictine.

Monasticism in the West owes its extension and development to Benedict of Nursia (born A.D. 48o). 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 loo is amazing. Before the Coun cil 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 (as at Durham and Worcester, where the monasteries stand close to the steep bank of a river) to accommodate the arrangement to local circumstances (see BENEDICTINES). We have no existing examples of the earlier monasteries of the dictine order. But we have fortunately preserved to us an rate plan of the great Swiss monastery of St. Gall, erected about A.D. 82o, 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 (Zurich, 1844) and by Pro fessor Robert Willis (Arch. Journal, 1848, vol. v., pp. To the latter we are indebted for the substance of the following description, as well as for the plan, reduced from his elucidated transcript of the original preserved in the archives of the convent. The general appearance of the convent is that of a town of iso lated houses with streets running between them. It is evidently planned in compliance with the Benedictine rule, which enjoined that, if possible, the monastery should contain within itself every necessary of life, as well as the buildings more intimately con nected with the religious and social life of its inmates. It should comprise a mill, a bakehouse, stables, and cow-houses, together with accommodation for carrying on all necessary mechanical arts within the walls, so as to obviate the necessity of the monks going outside its limits.

The general distribution of the buildings may be thus de scribed. The church, with its cloister to the south, occupies the centre of a quadrangular area, about 43oft. 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 life and its daily requirements—the refectory for eating, the dormitory for sleep ing, 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 en closure, in close proximity to the abbot's house, that he might have a constant eye over them. The buildings devoted to hos pitality 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 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 storey only, and all but the church were probably erected of wood.

Canterbury Cathedral.

A curious bird's-eye view of Can terbury cathedral and its annexed conventual buildings, taken about 1165, is preserved in the Great Psalter in the library of Trinity college, Cambridge. As elucidated by Prof. Willis,' it exhibits the plan of a great Benedictine monastery in the 12th century, and enables us to compare it with that of the 9th as seen at St. Gall. We see in both the same general principles of arrangement, which indeed belong to all Benedictine monaster ies, enabling us to determine with precision the disposition of the various buildings, when little more than fragments of the walls exist. From some local reasons, however, the cloister and monas tic buildings are placed on the north, instead, as is far more com monly the case, on the south of the church. There is also a sepa rate chapter-house, which is wanting at St. Gall.

The buildings at Canterbury, as at St. Gall, form separate groups. The church forms the nucleus. In immediate contact with this, on the north side, lie the cloister and the group of buildings devoted to the monastic life. Outside of these, to the west and east, are the "halls and chambers devoted to the exercise of hospitality, with which every monastery was provided, for the purpose of receiving as guests persons who visited it, whether clergy or laity, travellers, pilgrims, or paupers." To the north a large open court divides the monastic from the menial build ings, intentionally placed as remote as possible from the ventual buildings proper, the stables, granaries, barn, house, brewhouse, laundries, etc., inhabited by the lay servants of the establishment. At the est possible distance from the church, beyond the precinct of the convent, is the eleemosynary department. The almonry for the relief of the poor, with a great hall annexed, forms the paupers' hospitium.

Westminster Abbey.—West minster abbey is another exam ple of a great Benedictine abbey, identical in its general arrange ments, so far as they can be traced, with those described above. The cloister and monastic buildings lay to the south side of the church. Parallel to the nave, on the south side of the cloister, was the refectory, with its lava tory at the door, and on the east ern side the remains of the dor mitory, raised on a vaulted sub structure and communicating with the south transept. The chapter house opened out of the same alley of the cloister. The small cloister lay to the south-east of the larger cloister, and still farther to the east the remains of the infirmary with the table hall, the refectory of those who were able to leave their chambers. The abbot's house formed a small courtyard at the west entrance, close to the inner gateway. Considerable portions of this remain, including the abbot's parlour, celebrated as "the Jerusalem Chamber," his hall, now used for the Westminster king's scholars, and the kitchen and butteries beyond.

Cluny.

The history of monasticism is one of alternate pe riods of decay and revival. With growth in popular esteem came increase in material wealth, leading to luxury and worldliness. The first religious ardour cooled, the strictness of the rule was relaxed, until by the loth century the decay of discipline was so complete in France that the monks are said to have been fre quently unacquainted with the rule of St. Benedict, and even ignorant that they were bound by any rule at all. The reforma tion of abuses generally took the form of the establishment of new monastic orders, with new and more stringent rules, requiring a modification of the architectural arrangements. One of the earliest of these reformed orders was the Cluniac, taking its name from the little village of Cluny, i2171. N.W. of Macon, near which, about A.D. 909, a reformed Benedictine abbey was founded by William, duke of Aquitaine and count of Auvergne, under Berno, abbot of Beaume. He was succeeded by Odo, who is often re garded as the founder of the order. The fame of Cluny spread far and wide. Its rigid rule was adopted by a vast number of the old Benedictine abbeys, who placed themselves in affiliation to the mother society, while new foundations sprang up in large numbers, all owing allegiance to the "archabbot," established at Cluny. By the end of the 12th century the number of monasteries affiliated to Cluny in the various countries of western Europe amounted to 2,000. The monastic establishment of Cluny was one of the most extensive and magnificent in France. We may form some idea of its enormous dimensions from the fact recorded, that, when, A.D. 1245, Pope Innocent IV., accompanied by twelve cardinals, a patriarch, three archbishops, the two gen erals of the Carthusians and Cistercians, the king (St. Louis), and three of his sons, the queen mother, Baldwin, count of Flanders and emperor of Constantinople, the duke of Burgundy, and six lords, visited the abbey, the whole party, with their at tendants, were lodged within the monastery without disarrang ing the monks, 400 in number. Nearly the whole of the abbey buildings, including the magnificent church, were swept away at the close of the i8th century. When the annexed ground-plan was taken, shortly before its destruction, nearly all the monastery, with the exception of the church, had been rebuilt.

The church, the ground-plan of which bears a remarkable re semblance to that of Lincoln cathedral, was of vast dimensions. It was 656ft. by i3oft. wide. The nave was io2ft. and the aisles 6oft. high. The nave (G) had double vaulted aisles on either side. Like Lincoln, it had an eastern as well as a western transept, each furnished with apsidal chapels to the east. The western transept was 213ft. long, and the eastern 123ft. The choir ter minated in a semicircular apse (F), surrounded by five chapels, also semicircular. The western entrance was approached by an ante-church, or narthex (B), itself an aisled church of no mean dimensions, flanked by two towers, rising from a flight of steps bearing a stone cross. The first English house of the Clu niac order was that of Lewes, founded by the earl of Warren, c. A.D. 1077. Of this only a few fragments of the domestic build ings exist. The best preserved Cluniac houses in England are Castle Acre, Norfolk, and Wenlock, Shropshire.

The Cluniac revival, with all its brilliancy, was but short-lived. The celebrity of this, as of other orders, worked its moral ruin. With their growth in wealth and dignity the Cluniac foundations became as worldly in life and as relaxed in discipline as their predecessors, and a fresh reform was needed.

Cistercian.

The next great monastic revival, the Cistercian, arising in the last years of the II th century, had a wider diffu sion, and a longer and more honourable existence. The rapid growth and wide celebrity of the order are undoubtedly to be attributed to the enthusiastic piety of St. Bernard, abbot of the first of the monastic colonies, subsequently sent forth in such quick succession by the first Cistercian houses, the far-famed abbey of Clairvaux, A.D. 1116. The rigid self-abnegation, which was the ruling principle of this reformed congregation of the Benedictine order, extended itself to the churches and other buildings erected by them. The characteristic of the Cistercian abbeys was the extremest simplicity and a studied plainness. Only one tower—a central one—was permitted, and that was to be very low. Unnecessary pinnacles and turrets were prohibited. The windows were to be plain and undivided, and it was for bidden to decorate them with stained glass. All needless orna ment was proscribed. The crosses must be of wood; the candle sticks of iron. The renunciation of the world was to be evidenced in all that met the eye. The same spirit manifested itself in the choice of the sites of their monasteries. The more dismal, the more hopeless a spot appeared, the more did it please their rigid mood. But they came not merely as ascetics, but as improvers. The Cistercian monasteries are, as a rule, found placed in deep well-watered valleys. They always stand on the border of a stream; not rarely, as at Fountains, the buildings extend over it. These valleys, now so rich and productive, wore a very different aspect when the brethren first chose them as the place of their retirement. Wide swamps, deep morasses, tangled thickets, wild impassable forests, were their prevailing features. The "bright valley," Clara Vallis of St. Bernard, was known as the "valley of Wormwood," infamous as a den of robbers.

All

Cistercian monasteries, unless the circumstances of the locality forbade it, were arranged according to one plan. The general arrangement and distribution of the various buildings which went to make up one of these vast establishments may be gathered from that of St. Bernard's own abbey of Clairvaux, which is here given. It will be observed that the abbey pre cincts are surrounded by a strong wall, furnished at intervals with watch-towers and other defensive works. The wall is nearly encircled by a stream of water, artificially diverted from the , small rivulets which flow through the precincts, furnishing the establishment with an abundant supply in every part, for the irrigation of the gardens and orchards, the sanitary requirements of the brotherhood and for the use of the offices and workshops.

The precincts are divided across the centre by a wall, running from north to south, into an outer and inner ward—the former containing the menial, the latter the monastic buildings. The pre were placed, without any regard to symmetry, convenience being the only consideration. Advancing eastwards, we have before us the wall separating the outer and inner ward, and the gate house (D) affording communication between the two. On pass ing through the gateway, the outer court of the inner ward was entered, with the western facade of the monastic church in front. Immediately on the right of the entrance was the abbot's house (G), in close proximity to the guest-house (F). On the other side of the court were the stables, for the accommodation of the horses of the guests and their attendants (H). The church occupied a central position. To the south was the great cloister (A), surrounded by the chief monastic buildings, and farther to the east the smaller cloister, opening out of which were the infirmary, novices' lodgings, and quarters for the aged monks.

Still farther to the east, divided from the monastic buildings by a wall, were the vegetable gardens and orchards, and tank for fish. The large fish-ponds, an indispensable adjunct to any eccle siastical foundation, on the formation of which the monks ished extreme care and pains, and which often remain as almost the only visible traces of these vast establishments, were placed outside the abbey walls.

Figure 5 furnishes the ground-plan of the distinctly monastic buildings on a larger scale. The usually unvarying arrangement of the Cistercian houses allows us to accept this as a type of the monasteries of this order. The church (A) is the chief fea ture. It consists of a vast nave of eleven bays, entered by a narthex, with a transept and short apsidal choir. (It may be re marked that the eastern limb in all unaltered Cistercian churches is remarkably short, and usually square.) To the east of each limb of the transept are two square chapels, divided according to Cistercian rule by solid walls. Nine radiating chapels, simi larly divided, surround the apse. The stalls of the monks, form ing the ritual choir, occupy the four eastern bays of the nave. There was a second range of stalls in the extreme western bays of the nave for the fratres conversi, or lay brothers. To the south of the church, so as to secure as much sun as possible, the cloister was invariably placed, except when local reasons forbade it. Round the cloister (B) were ranged the buildings connected with the monks' daily life. The chapter-house (C) always opened out of the east walk of the cloister in a line with the south transept. In Cistercian houses this was quadrangular, and was divided by pillars and arches into two or three aisles. Between it and the transept we find the sacristy (X), and a small book room (Y), armariolum, where the brothers deposited the volumes borrowed from the library. On the other side of the chapter house, to the south, is a passage (D) communicating with the courts and buildings beyond. This was sometimes known as the parlour, colloquii locus, the monks having the privilege of con versation here. Here also, when discipline became relaxed, traders, who had the liberty of admission, were allowed to display their goods. Beyond this we of ten find the calefactorium or day-room —an apartment warmed by flues beneath the pavement, where the brethren, half frozen during the night offices, betook them selves after the conclusion of lauds, to gain a little warmth, grease their sandals and get themselves ready for the work of the day. In the plan before us this apartment (E) opens from the south cloister walk, adjoining the refectory. The place usually assigned to it is occupied by the vaulted substructure of the dormitory (Z). The dormitory, as a rule, was placed on the east side of the cloister, running over the calefactory and chapter house, and joined the south transept, where a flight of steps ad mitted the brethren into the church for nocturnal services. Open ing out of the dormitory was always the necessarium, planned with the greatest regard to health and cleanliness, a water-course invariably running from end to end. The refectory opens out of the south cloister at (G). The position of the refectory is usually a marked point of difference between Benedictine and Cistercian abbeys. In the former, as at Canterbury, the refectory ran east and west parallel to the nave of the church, on the side of the cloister farthest removed from it. In the Cistercian mon asteries, to keep the noise and smell of dinner still farther away from the sacred building, the refectory was built north and south, at right angles to the axis of the church. It was often divided, sometimes into two, sometimes, as here, into three aisles. Out side the refectory door, in the cloister, was the lavatory, where the monks washed their hands at dinner-time. The buildings belonging to the material life of the monks lay near the refectory, as far as possible from the church, to the south-west. With a distinct entrance from the outer court was the kitchen court (F), with its buttery, scullery, and larder, and the important adjunct of a stream of running water. Farther to the west, projecting beyond the line of the west front of the church, were vast vaulted apartments (SS), serving as cellars and storehouses, above which was the dormitory of the conversi. Detached from these, and separated entirely from the monastic buildings, were various workshops, which convenience required to be banished to the outer precincts, a saw-mill and oil-mill (UU) turned by water, and a currier's shop (V), where the sandals and leathern girdles of the monks were made and repaired.

Returning to the cloister, a vaulted passage admitted to the small cloister (I), opening from the north side of which were eight small cells, assigned to the scribes employed in copying works for the library, which was placed in the upper story, accessible by a turret staircase. To the south of the small cloister a long hall will be noticed. This was a lecture-holl, or rather a hall for the religious disputations customary among the Cistercians. From this cloister opened the infirmary (K), with its hall, chapel, cells, blood-letting house, and other dependencies. At the eastern verge of the vast group of buildings we find the novices' lodgings (L), with a third cloister near the novices' quarters and the original guest-house (M). Detached from the great mass of the monastic edi fices was the original abbot's house (N), with its dining-hall (P). Closely adjoining this, so that the eye of the father of the whole establishment should be constantly over those who stood the most in need of his watchful care—those who were training for the monastic life, and those who had worn themselves out in its duties—was a fourth cloister (0), with annexed buildings, de voted to the aged and infirm members of the establishment. The cemetery, the last resting place of the brethren, lay to the north side of the nave of the church (H).

It

will be seen from the above account that the arrangement of a Cistercian monastery was in accordance with a clearly defined system, and admirably adapted to its purpose. The base court nearest to the outer wall con tained the buildings belonging to the functions of the body as agriculturists and employers of labour. Advancing into the inner court, the buildings devoted to hospitality are found close to the entrance; while those connected with the supply of the material wants of the brethren t h e kitchen, cellars, etc. form a court of themselves outside the cloister and quite detached from the church. The church, refec tory, dormitory and other build ings belonging to the professional life of the brethren, surround the great cloister. The small cloister beyond, with its scribes' cells, library, hall for disputations, etc., is the centre of the literary life of the community. The require ments of sickness and old age are carefully provided for in the infirmary cloister and that for the aged and infirm members of the establishment. The same group contains the quarters of the novices.

The English Cistercian houses, of which there are such exten sive and beautiful remains at Fountains, Rievaulx, Kirkstall, Tintern, Netley, etc., were mainly arranged after the same plan, with slight local variations.

Fountains Abbey.

Fountains abbey, first founded A.D. 1132, is one of the largest and best preserved Cistercian houses in England. Earlier buildings received considerable additions and alterations. in the later period of the order, causing deviations from the strict Cistercian type. The church stands a short dis tance to the north of the River Skell, the buildings of the abbey stretching down to and even across the stream. We have the cloister (H) to the south, with the three-aisled chapter-house (I) and calefactory (L) opening from its eastern walk, and the refec tory (S), with the kitchen (Q) and buttery (T) attached, at right angles to its southern walk. Parallel with the western walk is an immense vaulted substructure (U), incorrectly styled the cloisters, serving as cellars and store-rooms, and supporting the dormitory of the conversi above. This building extended across the river. At its south-west corner were the necessaries (V), also built, as usual, above the swiftly flowing stream. The monks' dormitory was in its usual position above the chapter-house, to the south of the transept. As peculiarities of arrangement may be noticed the position of the kitchen (Q), between the refectory and calefactory, and of the infirmary (W) (unless there is some error in its designation) above the river to the west, adjoining the guest-houses (XX). We may also call attention to the greatly lengthened choir, commenced by Abbot John of York, 1203-11, and carried on by his successor, terminating, like Durham cathe dral, in an eastern transept, the work of Abbot John of Kent, 1220-47, and to the tower (D), added not long before the dis solution by Abbot Huby, 1494-1526, in a very unusual position at the northern end of the north transept. The abbot's house, the largest and most remarkable example of this class of build ings in the kingdom, stands south to the east of the church and cloister, from which it is divided by the kitchen court (K), surrounded by the ordinary domestic offices. A considerable por tion of this house was erected on arches over the Skell. The size and character of this house, probably, at the time of its erection, the most spacious house of a subject in the kingdom, not a castle, bespeaks the wide departure of the Cistercian order from the stern simplicity of the original foundation. The hall (2) was one of the most spacious and magnificent apartments in mediaeval times, measuring i7oft. by 7oft. Like the hall in the castle at Winchester, and Westminster hall, as originally built, it was divided by 18 pillars and arches, with 3 aisles. Among other apartments, for the designation of which we must refer to the ground-plan, was a domestic oratory or chapel, (6) 461ft. by 23ft. and a kitchen (7), Soft. by 38ft.

Feudal Character.

The arrangement of the building be speaks the powerful feudal lord, not the humble father of a body of hard-working brethren, bound by vows to a life of poverty and self-denying toil. In the words of Dean Milman, "the superior, once a man bowed to the earth with humility, care-worn, pale, emaciated, with a coarse habit bound with a cord, with naked feet, had become an abbot on his curvetting palfrey, in rich attire, with his silver cross before him, travelling to take his place amid the lordliest of the realm." (Lat. Christ. vol. iii. p. 33o.) The buildings of the Austin canons or Black canons (so called from the colour of their habit) present few distinctive peculi arities. This order had its first seat in England at Colchester, where a house for Austin canons was founded about A.D. 1105, and it very soon spread widely. As an order of regular clergy, holding a middle position between monks and secular canons, almost resembling a community of parish priests living under rule, they adopted naves of great length to accommodate large congregations.

The Premonstratensian regular canons, or White canons, had as many as 35 houses in England, of which the most perfect remaining are those of Easby, Yorkshire, and Bayham, Kent. The head house of the order in England was Welbeck. This order was a reformed branch of the Austin canons, founded, A.D. IIIg, by Norbert (born at Xanten, on the Lower Rhine, c. 1080) at Premontre, a secluded marshy valley in the forest of Coucy in the diocese of Laon. The order spread widely. Even in the founder's lifetime it possessed houses in Syria and Palestine. It long maintained its rigid austerity, till in the course of years wealth impaired its discipline, and its members sank into indo lence and luxury. The Premonstratensians were brought to Eng land shortly after A.D. 1140, and were first settled at Newhouse, in Lincolnshire, near the Humber. The ground-plan of Easby abbey, owing to its situation on the edge of the steeply-sloping banks of the Swale, is singularly irregular. The cloister is duly placed on the south side of the church, and the chief buildings oc cupy their usual positions round it. But the cloister garth, as at Chichester, is not rectangular, and all the surrounding buildings are thus made to sprawl in a very awkward fashion. The church follows the plan adopted by the Austin canons in their northern abbeys, and has only one aisle to the nave--that to the north; while the choir is long, narrow and aisleless. Each transept has an aisle to the east, forming three chapels.

The church at Bayham was destitute of aisles either to nave or choir. The latter terminated in a three-sided apse. This church is remarkable for its exceeding narrowness in proportion to its length. Extending in longitudinal dimensions 257ft., it is not more than 25ft. broad. Stern Premonstratensian canons wanted no congregations, and cared for no possessions ; therefore they built their church like a long room.

Carthusians.

The Carthusian order, on its establishment by St. Bruno, about A.D. 1084, developed a greatly modified form and arrangement of a monastic institution. The principle of this order, which combined the coenobitic with the solitary life, de manded the erection of buildings on a novel plan. This plan, which was first adopted by St. Bruno and his twelve companions at the original institution at Chartreux, near Grenoble, was main tained in all the Carthusian establishments throughout Europe, even after the ascetic severity of the order had been to some extent relaxed, and the primitive simplicity of their buildings had been exchanged for the magnificence of decoration which char acterizes such foundations as the Certosas of Pavia and Florence. According to the rule of St. Bruno, all the members of a Car thusian brotherhood lived in the most absolute solitude and silence. Each occupied a small detached cottage, standing by itself in a small garden surrounded by high walls and connected by a common corridor or cloister. In these cottages or cells a Carthusian monk passed his time in the strictest asceticism, only leaving his solitary dwelling to attend the services of the Church, except on certain days when the brotherhood assembled in the refectory. The peculiarity of the arrangements of a Carthusian monastery, or charter-house, as it was called in England, from a corruption of the French chartreux, is exhibited in the plan of that of Clermont, after Viollet-le-Duc.

Clermont Abbey is

surrounded by a wall, furnished at in tervals with watch towers (R). The enclosure is divided into two courts, of which the eastern court, surrounded by a cloister, from which the cottages of the monks (I) open, is much the larger. The two courts are divided by the main buildings of the monastery, including the church, the sanctuary (A), divided from B, the monks' choir, by a screen with two altars, the smaller cloister to the south (S) surrounded by the chapter-house (E), the refectory (X)—these buildings occupying their normal posi tion—and the chapel of Pontgibaud (K). The kitchen with its offices (V) lies behind the refectory, accessible from the outer court without entering the cloister. To the north of the church, beyond the sacristy (L), and the side chapels (M), we find the cell of the sub-prior (A') with its garden. The lodgings of the prior (G) occupy the centre of the outer court, immediately in front of the west door of the church, and face the gateway of the convent (0). A small raised court with a fountain (C) is before it. This outer court also contains the guest-chambers (P), the stables, and lodgings of the lay brothers (N), the barns and granaries (Q), the dovecot (H), and the bakehouse (T). At Z is the prison. (In this outer court, in all the earlier foundations, as at Witham, there was a smaller church in addition to the larger church of the monks.) The outer and inner courts are connected by a long passage (F), 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 (C), warmed by a stove in winter; a sleeping room (D), furnished with a bed, a table, a bench, and a book case; and a closet (E). Between the cell and the cloister gal lery (A) is a passage or corridor (B), 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. At I is the hatch or turn-table, in which the daily allow ance of food was deposited by a brother appointed for that purpose, affording no view either inwards or outwards. H is the garden, cultivated by the occupant of the cell. At K is the wood-house. F is a covered walk, with the necessary at the end.

The above arrangements are found with scarcely any variation in all the charter-houses of western Europe. The Yorkshire Charter-house 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.

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 Austin Friars. These orders arose at the begin ning of the 13th century, when the Benedictines, together with their various reformed branches, had terminated their active mission, and Christian Europe was ready for a new religious revival. 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 un broken 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 uninter rupted structure, with a con tinuous range of windows. Taken as a whole, the remains of the establishments of the friars af ford little warrant for the invec tive of Matthew Paris, benedic tine of St. Albans : "The friars who have been founded scarcely 4o years have built residences as the palaces of kings. These are they who, enlarging day by day their sumptuous edifices and en circling them with lofty walls, lay up in them their incalcu lable treasures, transgressing the bounds of poverty and violating the fundamental rules of their profession." classical authorities on the subjects of the fore going article are Lenoir, Architecture Monastique, 1852-56, and Dug dale, Monasticon Anglicanum (reprinted 1846) ; F. A. Hibbert, The Dissolution of the Monasteries (Iwo) ; C. W. New, History of the Alien Priories in England (1916). See the articles on the different orders.