Exploring Medieval Monasteries, part 9

Hello. We've talked about monasteries being founded. What are the practical considerations? What resources are necessary for a religious community to be viable? First requirement is land, and a grant of land would be made at the time of foundation. Once they're up and running, then further bequests can be expected, and if they prosper, then they can purchase more. And these estates then have to be managed, managed to support the community. In the earliest monasteries, the brothers might take on the work themselves. This is rare after the Norman conquest. Hard labour is either done by lay brothers, who enter the monastery, become part of the community, or farms will be rented out to tenants, and then the income will be used to buy in the supplies. The essential factor for a monastic site itself is a good water supply, both for drinking, so ideally a fresh, reliable spring, and a stream or suitable river for cleaning and flushing drains to the kitchen and the latrine. Now this would usually involve constructing a leet from a watercourse, and it called for considerable technical skills. The site's got to be surveyed, and the drains have got to be engineered, making use of the natural contours and gravity to ensure a sufficient and a manageable flow of water. One of the best surviving examples of monastic drains can be seen at Monk Breton. This is near Barnsley. It was a Cluniac Priory. It was founded in 1154, and a leet was dug to take water from the River Derne. A channel served the kitchen, and that washed food waste into a drain under the toilet block, the Reridorta, and then a main drain ran from the kitchen past the guesthouse and onto the infirmary, and a wooden sluice controlled the flow of water from the River Derne into the leet. I've also talked, I think it was in part six, about a standard monastic layout that it emerges based on what became known as the St Gal Plan from St Gal Monastery in Switzerland. Now this might be adjusted to suit variations of the site etc, so to generalise, this is what most medieval monasteries would have looked like by time we get to the 11th century. Most important building, of course, is the church, oriented east to west. North exhort porch at the west end, then a nave for the lay people, and then a choir chancel for the brothers. Connected to the church, and most commonly on the south side, we would have the cloisters. This is where the monks might work or study, and the cloisters will be set around a garden. In the east range, on the ground floor, a sacristy for storing the vestments, the vessels for the services, perhaps a library, and the chapter house where meetings are held. Above that east range, a dormitory and toilets. There will be stairs from that upper dormitory, night stairs, down into the choir for use during night services. On the south range, we have the kitchen, dining room, and a warming room. This is the one heated room which is a communal that the monks can use in the winter months. In the west range, there will be storerooms, guest accommodation, and over a dormitory for lay brothers, and perhaps for guests. Again, night stairs, this time into the nave so that they can hear the services. The one order that does not adopt this communal way of living is the Carthusians. They developed a different model, based on monks living separately, but still together. It's back to that paradox I mentioned right at the beginning of this series, of the desire for solitude. Solitude is an aid to spirituality and contemplation, while being part of a community. The man behind the Carthusian movement was a man called Bruno. He was the Chancellor of the Diocese of Reims. When an unsuitable new bishop was appointed to Reims, Bruno and some of the clergy opposed the move, and they had him removed. Bruno was then in line to replace him as the Bishop of Reims. He refused that position, and with a few companions, retreated into the wilds of southeastern France. The Bishop of Grenoble, a man called Hugh, suggested that they set up a permanent base on the limestone massif of Chartres, in the French Alps of Dauphiné, where he had a summer retreat. Pretty remote, inaccessible, inhospitable, an altitude well over 4,000 feet. In 1084, Bruno and his companions settled, built a chapel near a spring, and the Bishop of Grenoble acted as abbot. Chartres was a priory. Now, it was almost certainly not Bruno's idea to establish a new order. This arises after Bruno's time. It's under the fifth prior, a man called Guillo. This is when the principles of life at Chartres are drawn up into a rule. By that time, the original monastery had suffered an avalanche, and building was underway on a new monastery, now known as Grand Chartres. And the design of Grand Chartres established the pattern for Carthusian monasteries everywhere. It's remained substantially unchanged since that date. There will be a church, a chapter house, and a refectory, quite a small church. These are the communal buildings. Then a very large cloister, surrounded by individual cells, each with a small garden in which vegetables are grown, and water from a spring will be fed around all of these cells in a channel. Each monk would tend his garden and is expected to have a specialist trade of benefit to the community. Their provisions were distributed on Sunday for the week, bread and vegetables, and each monk lives, works, cooks, eats, and sleeps in his cell and in silence. The monks only leave their cell with permission or to go to church. The refectory, which is communal, was used on feast days, but again the meals are taken in silence and you kept your eyes on your dish. The menu, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, bread and water. Tuesday and Thursday, bread and vegetables. No meat. They were allowed fish if it was given to them. They couldn't buy it. Cheese and eggs were allowed on Thursday and Sunday. One meal a day, except on Sunday when they could have two. Not allowed to keep any leftovers for the next day. I can't imagine there were many leftovers. Their garments were fairly rough, white robe with a black outer cloak. Now lower down the valley from Grand Chartres was separate accommodation, a lower house. It's called a corrie. That was for lay brothers. That also had guest accommodation and this is where farm buildings were associated. There are no visitors to Grand Chartres. No cars are allowed. If you go today, there is a museum which can be visited. It's a mile and a half from the monastery itself. The monks at Grand Chartres are supported by sales of Chartres liqueur. Now Chartres gets corrupted in English to Charterhouse and the first Charterhouse in England founded in the late 1170s at Witham in Somerset. Founded by Henry II. It's part of his penance for the murder of Thomas Becket in 1170 and then just a further eight follow. The second was at Hatherop in Gloucester but that soon moved in Somerset. There were two in Yorkshire at Hull and Mountgrass, Coventry, Sheen in Surrey, Bovale in Nottinghamshire and Epworth in Lincolnshire and then of course the Charterhouse in London. Now next time I'm going to take a look at the Cistercian order. If you've enjoyed this video hit the like and subscribe buttons and click on the notification bell to be informed when the next video is released or you can subscribe by clicking on the rose window over my shoulder.