CHAPTER IV

THE CISTERCIAN CLOISTER

§ 59. Having thus traced the position of the various buildings in the normal cloister-plan, we may consider the features peculiar to cloisters of the Cistercian order—features for which the internal arrangement of their churches have in some degree prepared us. It has been pointed out by Mr Micklethwaite that the plan of the Cistercian cloister is indicated by the order in which the buildings are directed to be visited in the Sunday procession—viz. chapter-house, parlour, dorter, rere-dorter, warming-house, frater, kitchen, cellarer's building. It will be observed that the parlour in this list comes between the chapter-house and dorter, and was therefore on the further side of the chapter-house from the church. On the other hand, although at Furness and Waverley the chapter-house directly joins the south transept of the church, there was in most Cistercian houses an intervening building. The ground-floor of this, however, was not a passage—for the way to the graveyard was through the doorway in the opposite transept—but was divided into two parts by a transverse wall. The eastern division, entered from the transept, was a vestry (_vestiarium_): the western, entered from the cloister, was probably the library (_librarium_), outside which, in the west wall of the transept, was the book-cupboard (_armarium commune_), a wainscoted recess in which the books wanted for constant use in cloister were kept. At Furness, where the chapter-house was entered by a short vestibule, the entrance-arch was flanked by two similar arches, each of which opened into a rectangular apartment: these rooms probably formed the library. In the later middle ages the partition-wall between the library and vestry was taken down at Fountains, and the double chamber was converted into a passage. The books appear to have been removed into closets formed by enclosing the western bays of the north and south alleys of the chapter-house.

§ 60. Lofty chapter-houses, like those of Gloucester and Bristol, are not found in the Cistercian plan, in which the dorter was almost invariably continued as far as the church and was provided with an annexe above the eastern projection of the chapter-house. Furness is a case in which the chapter-house, as already stated, had a vestibule; but here the vestibule is not a passage through the whole width of the eastern range, but a porch, above which a gallery was carried from the dorter to the night-stair. The roof of the chapter-house itself was somewhat higher, but there was the usual room on the upper floor. The chapter-house was usually an oblong, as at Fountains, or, as at Furness, a nearly square building, divided into alleys, generally three in number, by rows of columns which supported vaulting. The entrance, in most cases, followed the customary plan of a central doorway with a window on either side. Vaulted chapter-houses may still be seen at Buildwas, Kirkstall and Valle Crucis. That at Buildwas is of the normal plan, vaulted in three alleys. At Kirkstall the western part is vaulted in four alleys and has two wide archways from the cloister, while the eastern part beyond the range, rebuilt at the close of the thirteenth century, is vaulted in two alleys. The Valle Crucis chapter-house is a fourteenth-century rebuilding with the usual three alleys, but has a thick west wall, in which, on the south side of the central entrance, is the day-stair to the dorter, while on the north side is a vaulted book-cupboard, entered from the interior of the building. At Ford, where the chapter-house is now used as a private chapel, it is a vaulted building of the twelfth century, undivided by columns.

§ 61. The monks' parlour (_auditorium juxta capitulum_) was a narrow vaulted apartment in the ground-floor of the eastern range between the chapter-house and the sub-vault of the dorter. It was occasionally used, as at Beaulieu and Waverley, for a passage to the infirmary; but a separate passage, where the infirmary stood east of the range, was also made, as at Fountains, through the adjacent bay of the dorter sub-vault, which was walled off from the rest. The sub-vault, a long apartment, which at Furness extended no less than twelve bays south of the passage, was generally divided into two vaulted alleys by a central range of columns. It may have been partitioned off and applied to various uses, but at Furness it seems to have been undivided. From arrangements which are known to have existed at Clairvaux in 1517, it is now supposed to have been used, at any rate in part, as the house of the novices, possibly divided into a day-room, dorter and lodging for the novice-master. In a few instances, as at Croxden, Furness and Jervaulx, one or two of the southernmost bays originally formed an open _loggia_, with piers and arches taking the place of the outer walls: this space, however, in the two latter cases, was walled in after no long time. It may be noted that in the Benedictine houses of Peterborough and Westminster, where the common house was, according to the ordinary plan, in the sub-vault, a chapel was built as an eastern annexe, which was probably used at Peterborough as the chapel of the novices. This appears to bring corroborative evidence to the prevailing theory of the use of the Cistercian sub-vault, of which no part, however, was employed as the common or warming-house.

§ 62. The Cistercian dorter and rere-dorter shew no important variation from the habitual plan. The position of the rere-dorter, at the end of the dorter or at right angles to it, or, as at Furness, in a separate building, was dictated by convenience for drainage. The room above the chapter-house was sometimes separate, as at Kirkstall and Valle Crucis, but was open to the rest of the dorter at Buildwas and Fountains. It may possibly have been appropriated to the abbot in the first instance, and afterwards, like the second dorter at Canterbury, may have been used by the obedientiaries or by the prior. At Valle Crucis the room contains a fireplace and is entered by a passage on the north side, which also leads to a small room next the church. Originally the day-stair to the dorter was placed in the eastern range of buildings, between the parlour and the dorter sub-vault: clear indications of this remain at Fountains and Kirkstall, and the day-stair is still in this position at Cleeve. But in most cases the stair was afterwards removed and placed against the west side of the sub-vault, between the eastern range and the range opposite the church, in the position which in Benedictine houses is generally occupied by a passage to the outer buildings. By a most unusual arrangement, the dorter at Waverley was on the ground-floor of the range, raised only by a few steps above the cloister. There was no upper floor, although a room between the dorter and parlour was divided into two stages[11]. The chapter-house was an undivided oblong building, vaulted in three bays; and there was, of course, no special night-entry to the church.

§ 63. The buildings connecting the east and west ranges of the Cistercian cloister were divided into three parts, with the warming-house on the east, the frater in the middle and the kitchen on the west, all entered from the cloister. It is probable that in the first instance the Cistercian frater was built in the usual way, with its major axis from east to west. This was always the plan of the frater at Sibton in Suffolk: there are clear traces of it at Kirkstall, and evidences of foundations at Fountains. In the Savigniac houses, afterwards Cistercian, the frater seems to have been built from east to west, and at Buckfast this position was apparently never altered. But such fraters were cramped in size by their position between the warming-house and kitchen, and, before the end of the twelfth century they were built or, as at Fountains and Kirkstall, rebuilt at right angles to the cloister with their major axes from north to south. This gave more room for the kitchen on the west: it also permitted a readjustment of the warming-house, and left room at the east end for the insertion of a wide and convenient day-stair to the dorter, with a landing at the head, from which, as at Fountains, access was given to a room, possibly the treasury or muniment-room, above the warming-house. We have no definite reason for the change of plan; but that it was due to the uncontemplated growth of numbers in Cistercian houses is at least probable. At Furness, where the dorter was of remarkable length, the frater, built in place of the old frater of the Savigniac monastery, had to be lengthened during the thirteenth century, the only reason for which can have been that, even on the new plan, it afforded insufficient room for all the brethren.

§ 64. The warming-house was a rectangular building, which at Fountains is vaulted in four compartments from a middle pillar. The fireplace was usually in a side-wall or, as at Waverley, in the further wall from the cloister. Two huge fireplaces remain in the east wall at Fountains, one of which has been blocked. At Tintern the fireplace was a middle hearth, surrounded by open arches and connected by smaller arches with the end walls. The outer wall was generally pierced by a window and a doorway which led into a yard at the back. Here at Fountains, against the west wall of the dorter sub-vault, was the wood-house from which the fire was replenished. The west wall of the warming-house was part of the east wall of the frater, and two openings in it at Fountains may have been intended to give the frater some of the benefit of the fire. The arrangements of the frater, of which a perfect example, now used as a church, remains at Beaulieu, were similar, allowing for the difference in plan, to those of Benedictine and other houses, but were less elaborate. It was raised a step or two above the cloister, and on one or both sides of the entrance were the lavatory arches. The magnificent frater at Rievaulx had a sub-vault, entered from the foot of the stair to the pulpit; but this is a rare instance of a feature often found in Benedictine houses. At Fountains the frater was divided by a row of columns into two alleys, each with its separate wooden roof; but the undivided plan, as at Beaulieu, was general.

§ 65. The position of the kitchen was so planned as to communicate readily on one side with the monks' frater, which was served from it through a turn-table in the wall, and the frater of the lay brothers on the other, which was served at Fountains through a hatch in the west wall. It had a doorway from the cloister, which brought it into close connexion with the cellar and buttery in the western range; while at the back a door opened into a yard, where fuel could be kept. The fireplaces at Fountains and Kirkstall, where the kitchens were vaulted, were placed back to back in the middle of the room. Kitchens of the size of those at Durham or Glastonbury were unknown in Cistercian houses, where, even after the relaxation of the ordinary simple diet, meat was never cooked in the frater kitchen. The plan, which provided for the simultaneous supply of two fraters when necessary, was more compact and less secular in some of its features than the Benedictine plan; while the actual admission of the kitchen into the cloister buildings was made possible by the fact that the monks themselves did their own work, instead of using hired servants under the superintendence of the kitchener.

§ 66. The western range of a Cistercian cloister was sometimes separated from the west walk by an intervening passage or yard, as at Kirkstall, Pipewell and a few other houses, probably more in number than has been supposed. At the end of this yard was the western processional doorway of the church, the position of which depended on convenience for the Sunday procession, which always passed outside the west cloister, through the ground-floor of the western range. If the church extended west of the range, the doorway, as at Fountains, was in the building itself, or, as at Jervaulx, where the building did not directly join the church, in the bay west of it. If the range was to the west of a short nave, as at Hayles and Tintern, and there was no intermediate yard, the doorway was cut obliquely through the corner of the building which touched, or was near the church. The whole of the first floor was given up to the dorter of the lay brothers, to which was attached a rere-dorter, the arrangements of which are still remarkably perfect at Fountains. A night-stair descended into the church, as at Fountains, or, as at Jervaulx, just outside the western processional doorway: in houses where there was an intervening yard, the night-stair was placed against the east wall of the range. The ground-floor was divided by a passage, which was the outer parlour and main entrance of the cloister and entered the west walk close to the kitchen, into a long apartment on the side furthest from the church, and into a series of smaller rooms adjoining the church and cloister. The large room was the frater of the lay brothers: the rooms on the other side of the outer parlour were the buttery and cellars, and could be entered by doorways from the outer court and cloister-walk, while there were doors in the partition-walls between them. The building varied much in length. The splendid example at Fountains is twenty-two bays long, divided by columns into two alleys. The marks of the original partitions and doorways shew that two bays next the church were possibly the earlier outer parlour. The cellar was in the four bays following. Two bays were occupied by the buttery, two by the main entrance-passage; while the remaining twelve were the lay brothers' frater, two bays at the north end of which were screened off and had an outer doorway to the cellarer's checker. The western face was covered by one of those wooden pentises which were a very general feature in medieval buildings to cover doorways from a court or yard and form a sheltered means of access from one building to another. The day-stair to the dorter was naturally on this side of the building, and mounted against the north wall of the cellarer's checker, the upper floor of which was a lobby to the dorter. The arrangements at Furness were very similar, but there were only fifteen bays, of which the cellar seems to have occupied only two, the cloister-entry one, and the lay-brothers' frater eight, the buttery and the two bays next the church remaining as at Fountains. The division into alleys, although it occasionally was employed, as at Furness and Waverley, was not general, and the building was frequently narrow in proportion to its length. When the cloister of Waverley was enlarged in the thirteenth century, the cellarer's building was taken down to make way for the west walk, but its southern part, containing the lay brothers' frater and dorter, was rebuilt and extended southward.

§ 67. In the later middle ages the Cistercian plan underwent some modification. The disappearance of lay brothers from the convents caused the disuse of a large part of the western range, which at Hayles was converted into the abbot's lodging. In some instances, as at Furness and Hayles, new processional doorways were made into the church from the west walk of the cloister, so that the course of the Sunday procession no longer differed from the Benedictine usage. At Waverley, on the other hand, after the destruction of the old cellarer's building, the procession still returned to the church outside the cloister, through a narrow passage between the cloister and an outer wall on the west. A further approximation to Benedictine use is seen in the fifteenth-century rebuilding of the frater at Cleeve upon a plan parallel to the church and adjacent cloister walk. Relaxation of discipline and the diminished number of monks allowed for more individual privacy: thus at Jervaulx some bays of the sub-dorter were cut off to form small rooms, each with its own fireplace. An important change was introduced in some houses owing to the removal of restrictions upon flesh-diet, which went so far that in the fifteenth century flesh was eaten on three days a week[12]. Hitherto a special flesh-frater or misericord (_misericordia_, i.e. indulgence) for monks undergoing bleeding had been provided in connexion with the infirmary buildings and kitchen. It now became convenient to place the misericord in closer communication with the cloister, and at Ford and Kirkstall this was done by dividing the frater into an upper and lower floor, the lower floor being probably used as the misericord. A new and smaller two-storied frater was built at Furness. In such cases meat was never cooked in the old kitchen, but a special meat-kitchen was provided; and the south end of the destroyed frater at Furness may have been kept for this purpose. At Jervaulx a new misericord was built at right angles to the east end of the frater, and a meat-kitchen was made about the same time on the other side of the sub-dorter.

§ 68. The chief peculiarities of the Cistercian plan were without influence on the houses of other orders, which adhered to Benedictine precedent in such points as the position of the warming-house, frater and kitchen. Thus the plan of the Augustinian house of Haughmond, allowing for special exigencies of site, is that of a Benedictine monastery, with the exception that the building between the church and chapter-house appears, as at St Agatha's and many smaller monasteries, to have been a sacristy, while the canons' parlour, as again at St Agatha's and at Repton, was in the Cistercian position, south of the chapter-house. At Alnwick the sacristy and parlour stood side by side south of the church. Variations may be found in such points as the connexion of the dorter with the church: in the Carmelite friary of Hulne, for example, the night-stair opened, not into the church itself, but into a small court next it. But the collation of plans, such as those of the Augustinian St Frideswide's at Oxford and the Premonstratensian St Radegund's at Bradsole, with those of other orders, shews clearly that the arrangement of canons' and friars' cloisters was modelled upon the convenient Benedictine plan. The same conclusion applies to nunneries, as may be gathered from the foregoing pages. Little is known of the buildings of Cistercian nunneries, but the nuns' cloister at Watton was upon the Benedictine plan, with the exception that the ground-floor of the western range was probably the house of the lay sisters. The canons' cloister was very similar in plan; but its vaulted chapter-house, like others already mentioned, may shew the architectural influence of the Cistercian order. The two cloisters were connected by a long passage, in which was the turning-window (_fenestra versatilis_), where necessary communication was carried on between the two divisions of the monastery.

§ 69. The plan of the Carthusian cloister, however, owing to the solitary life prescribed by the rule, was unique. The monastery at Mount Grace consisted of two courts, the northern or cloister-court being surrounded on three sides by a series of separate cells, each with its own garden. On the south side were the chapter-house and the cells occupied by the sacrist and prior; while the frater occupied the south-west angle of the court. The church stood at the back of the chapter-house and part of the south range, next the outer court. The chapter-house was, in fact, a northern annexe to the church, parallel and almost exactly equal in dimensions to the presbytery. Some years after the foundation of the priory, owing to an increase in endowments and the number of monks, a second cloister was formed south of the church by enclosing a long rectangular space in the north-east part of the outer court: later still, the north-west angle of the same court was divided by partition walls into one or more courts covering the west front of the church and the west wall of the new cloister. The outer court, thus curtailed, contained as usual the storehouses of the convent, the building on the west side, through which the monastery was entered, being probably devoted to the use of guests.