The Order of the Cistercians, or _White Monks_, received its name from the Abbey of Citeaux in Normandy. In this the rules were stricter and the life harder than among the Benedictines. The Cistercians believed that the work of a man’s hands was as acceptable an offering to God as the recitation of prayers and the chanting of psalms, and hence they became great farmers and wool-growers.[29] Yorkshire was particularly their county, and the great Abbeys of Fountains, Rievaulx, Jervaulx and Byland were some of the wealthiest and most powerful in England. In the East Riding the Cistercians had an Abbey at Meaux and a nunnery at Swine. Footnote 29: In 1280 the monks of Meaux owned 11,000 sheep and 1000 beasts. [Illustration: A BENEDICTINE NUN.] A still stricter Order of monks was that of the Carthusians, who received their name from the Abbey of Chartreuse in the south-east of France. From the popular corruption of the word ‘Chartreuse’ into ‘Charterhouse,’ their monasteries became generally known as _Charterhouses_. One of these was established at Hull by Sir Michael de la Pole,[30] and there was in the North Riding another at Mount Grace, near Northallerton. Footnote 30: Close to this Carthusian monastery Sir Michael also built—in 1384—a _Maison Dieu_, or Hospital, for twenty-six poor men and women, ‘feeble and old.’ Its buildings were pulled down during the second siege of Hull, but afterwards replaced by others. This is the ‘Charterhouse’ that exists to-day, the present buildings dating from 1780. The life of a monk or a nun was one spent apart from the world but, at the same time, in common with all other inmates of the monastery or nunnery. The inmates worked together, prayed together, had their meals together, and slept in a common dormitory. Their life was also one of absolute devotion to carrying out the rules of their Order. Each inmate took, on entering the religious life, the three vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. By the first, no monk or nun might own separate possessions except the necessary clothing and bedding. Thus, one mattress, two pairs of blankets, two counterpanes, one cowl and frock, two tunics, two pairs of vests, four pairs of breeches, two pairs of shoes, four pairs of socks, two pairs of day-boots, one pair of night-boots, one night-cap, two towels, one soiled-linen ‘pokett,’ and one shaving cloth formed the wardrobe of a Black Monk. In addition he might possess a silver spoon, and then his outfit was complete. By the second vow he bound himself never to marry, and by the third to obey implicitly the orders of his superiors. * * * * * The Houses of these monks and nuns were, with slight exceptions here and there, constructed on certain definite lines, which can best be illustrated by a plan of the Cistercian Abbey of Kirkstall, near Leeds. Surrounding all was a wall, not shown in the plan.