Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages: Third EditionCutts, Edward Lewes
History
Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages: Third Edition
Cutts, Edward Lewes
Civilization, Medieval; Middle Ages -- Social life and customs
Next in dignity after the obedientiaries come the _Cloister Monks_; of
these some had received holy orders at the hands of the bishop, some not.
Their number was limited. A cloister monk in a rich abbey seems to have
been something like in dignity to the fellow of a modern college, and a
good deal of interest was sometimes employed to obtain the admission of a
youth as a novice, with a view to his ultimately arriving at this
dignified degree. Next in order come the _Professed Brethren_. These seem
to be monks who had not been elected to the dignity of cloister monks;
some of them were admitted late in life. Those monks who had been brought
up in the house were called _nutriti_, those who came later in life
_conversi_; the lay brothers were also sometimes called _conversi_. There
were again the _Novices_, who were not all necessarily young, for a
_conversus_ passed through a noviciate; and even a monk of another order,
or of another house of their own order, and even a monk from a cell of
their own house, was reckoned among the novices. There were also the
_Chaplains_ of the abbot and other high officials; and frequently there
were other clerics living in the monastery, who served the chantries in
the abbey church, and the churches and chapels which belonged to the
monastery and were in its neighbourhood. Again, there were the _Artificers
and Servants_ of the monastery: millers, bakers, tailors, shoemakers,
smiths, and similar artificers, were often a part of a monastic
establishment. And there were numerous men-servants, grooms, and the like:
these were all under certain vows, and were kept under discipline. In the
Cistercian abbey of Waverley there were in 1187 A.D. seventy monks and one
hundred and twenty _conversi_, besides priests, clerks, servants, &c. In
the great Benedictine abbey of St. Edmund's Bury, in the time of Edward
I., there were eighty monks; fifteen chaplains attendant on the abbot and
chief officers; about one hundred and eleven servants in the various
offices, chiefly residing within the walls of the monastery; forty
priests, officiating in the several chapels, chantries, and monastic
appendages in the town; and an indefinite number of professed brethren.
The following notes will give an idea of the occupations of the servants.
In the time of William Rufus the servants at Evesham numbered--five in the
church, two in the infirmary, two in the cellar, five in the kitchen,
seven in the bakehouse, four brewers, four menders, two in the bath, two
shoemakers, two in the orchard, three gardeners, one at the cloister gate,
two at the great gate, five at the vineyard, four who served the monks
when they went out, four fishermen, four in the abbot's chamber, three in
the hall. At Salley Abbey, at the end of the fourteenth century, there
were about thirty-five servants, among whom are mentioned the shoemaker
and barber, the prior's chamberlain, the abbot's cook, the convent cook
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