The principal buildings of a Benedictine monastery of the larger sort were grouped around an inner court, called a cloister. These included a church, a refectory, or dining room, with the kitchen and buttery near it, a dormitory, where the monks slept, and a chapter house, where they transacted business. There was also a library, a school, a hospital, and a guest house for the reception of strangers, besides barns, bakeries, laundries, workshops, and storerooms for provisions. Beyond these buildings lay vegetable gardens, orchards, grain fields, and often a mill, if the monastery was built on a stream. The high wall and ditch, usually surrounding a monastery, shut it off from outsiders and in time of danger protected it against attack. [Illustration: ABBEY OF SAINT GERMAIN DES PRÉS, PARIS This celebrated monastery was founded in the sixth century. Of the original buildings only the abbey church remains. The illustration shows the monastery as it was in 1361 A.D., with walls, towers, drawbridge, and moat. Adjoining the church were the cloister, the refectory, and the dormitory.] MONASTIC OCCUPATIONS St. Benedict defined a monastery as "a school for the service of the Lord." The monks under his Rule occupied themselves with a regular round of worship, reading, and manual labor. Each day was divided into seven sacred offices, beginning and ending with services in the monastery church. The first service came usually about two o'clock in the morning; the last, just as evening set in, before the monks retired to rest. In addition to their attendance at church, the monks spent several hours in reading from the Bible, private prayer, and meditation. For most of the day, however, they worked hard with their hands, doing the necessary washing and cooking for the monastery, raising the necessary supplies of vegetables and grain, and performing all the other tasks required to maintain a large establishment. This emphasis on labor, as a religious duty, was a characteristic feature of western monasticism. "To labor is to pray" became a favorite motto of the Benedictines. [22] [Illustration: A MONK COPYIST From a manuscript in the British Museum, London.] ATTRACTIVENESS OF THE MONASTIC LIFE It is clear that life in a Benedictine monastery appealed to many different kinds of people in the Middle Ages. Those of a spiritual turn of mind found in the monastic life the opportunity of giving themselves wholly to God. Studious and thoughtful persons, with no disposition for an active career in the world, naturally turned to the monastery as a secure retreat. The friendless and the disgraced often took refuge within its walls. Many a troubled soul, to whom the trials of this world seemed unendurable, sought to escape from them by seeking the peaceful shelter of the cloister. THE MONKS AS CIVILIZERS