§ 61. THE REVIVAL OF MONASTICISM. 321
he says, " contain in themselves a divine and prophetic element, such as House of God, Gate of Salvation," etc.1
With wealth came the great abbeys of stone, exhibiting the highest architecture of the day. The establishments of Citeaux, Cluny, the Grande Chartreuse, and the great houses of Great Britain were on an elaborate scale. No pains or money were spared in their erection and equipment. Stained glass, sculpture, embroidery, rich vestments, were freely used.2 A well-ordered house had many parts, — chapel, refec tory, calefactory, scriptorium for writing, locutorium for conversation, dormitory, infirmary, hospital.3 Not a single structure, but an aggregation of buildings, was required by the larger establishments. Cluny, in 1245, was able to accom modate, at the same time, the pope, the king of France, and the emperor of Constantinople, together with their retinues. Matthew Paris says Dunfermline Abbey, Scotland, was ample enough to entertain, at the same time, three sovereigns without inconvenience the one to the other. The latest conveniences were introduced into these houses, the latest news there retailed. A convent was, upon the whole, a pretty good place to be in, from the standpoint of worldly wellbeing. What the modern club house is to the city, that the mediaeval convent was apt to be, so far as material appoint ments went. In its vaults the rich deposited their valuables. To its protection the oppressed .fled for refuge. There, as at Westminster, St. Denis, and Dunfermline, kings and princes chose to be buried. And there, while living, they were often glad to sojourn, as the most notable place of comfort and ease they could find on their journeys.
1 Casa Dei, House of God ; Vallis Domini, the Lord's Valley, Portus Salutis, Gate of Salvation; Ascende Ccelum, Ascent of Heaven ; Lucerna ; Claravallis, etc. Map, I. 24 ; Wright's ed., p. 40.
2 The luxury and pomp of Cluny called forth the well-known protest of St. Bernard.
3 See art. Abbey, in "Enc. Brit.," by Dr. Venable, and also Jessopp, and especially Gasquet, pp. 13-37.
Y
322 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1049-1294.
The conventual establishment was intended to be a selfsufficient corporation, a sort of socialistic community doing all its own work and supplying all its own stuffs and food.1 The altruistic principle was supposed to rule. They had their orchards and fields, and owned their own cattle. Some of them gathered honey from their own hives, had the fattest fish ponds, sheared and spun their own wool, made their own wine, and brewed their own beer. In their best days the monks set a good example of thrift. The list of minor officials in a convent was complete, from the cellarer to look after the cooking and the chamberlain to look after the dress of the brethren, to the cantor to direct the singing and the sacristan to care for the church ornaments. In the eleventh century the custom was introduced of associ ating lay brethren with the monasteries, so that in all particulars these institutions might be completely indepen dent. Nor was the convent always indifferent to the poor.2 But the tendency was for it to centre attention upon itself, rather than to seek the regeneration and prosperity of those outside its walls.
%/ Like many other earthly ideals, the ideal of peace, virtue, and happy contentment aimed at by the convent was not reached, or, if approached in the first moments of overflow ing ardor, was soon forfeited. For the method of monasticism is radically wrong. Here and there the cloister was the "audience chamber of God." But it was well understood that convent walls did not of themselves make holy. As, before, Jerome, Gregory of Nyssa, and Augustine had borne
1 The term "convent" primarily means a society of persons. In legal instruments the usual form in England in the Middle Ages was "the prior and convent of. " See Jessopp, p. 119, who calls attention to the endless bickerings and lawsuits in which the mediaeval convents of England were engaged. For the monk in his monastery, see Taunton, I. 65-96.
a At one time Cluny cared for 17,000 poor. In the famine of 1117 the convent of Heisterbach, near Cologne, fed 1500 a day. In a time of scarcity Bernard supported 2000 peasants till the time of harvest.