Abbey

The first times of the monachism

The first known Christian communities consisted of groups of cell or huts gathered around a commonplace, in general the house of a hermit or a famous anchorite for his holiness or its solitary asceticism, but without any preliminary organization. This type of community is not an invention of Christianity: one knows former examples at the Esséniens in Judaea or Egypt.

At the dawn of the Christian monachism, the ascetics lived generally alone, independently from/to each other, not far from a village and local church, remaining by their own work and distributing the surplus to the poor. The religious enthusiasm, supported by persecutions, led number of them a little more to the variation of civilization, in the mountains or at the bottom of the deserts. Consequently, the deserts of Egypt literally swarmed with cells or huts inhabited by these anchorites.
Holy Antoine, withdrawn in the Egyptian desert during the persecution of Maximien (in 312), was admired the most of them for its austerity, its holiness and its capacity of Exorciste. Its fame attracted near him a great number of disciples imitating his asceticism in order to approach the holiness of their Master. More it was folded up in a moved back and wild area, and more of the disciples flowed. They refused to separate from their Master and built their huts around that of their spiritual father. Thus was born only the first monastic community, made up anchorites living each one in their own house, all plain under the direction of one. As notices it Neander in its Histoire of the Church ,

“ Saint Antoine has, without of to have been aware, be the founder of a novel mode of joint life, the cenobitism”. By stages, the groups of huts were organized. The small tents were lines in lines as along a street, which was worth to them the nickname of Laurae or Laurai , which means “street” or “way ”.

The true founder of the cenobitic lifestyle (of koinos which means “jointly” and bios which means “life”) in his modern direction is Pacôme, an Egyptian of the beginning of IVe century of the Christian era. The first community which it establishes found in Tabennae, an island on the the Nile. It founded eight other monasteries in the area during its life, adding up 3000 monks. 50 years after its death, they asserted 50.000 members. These entities gathered villages populated by religious communities of only one sex and based on work.

The buildings were independent, humble and of small size. According to Sozomen, each cell contained three monks. They took their meal in a common refectory or a dining room at 3 p.m., hour until which they remained with jeun. They ate in silence, with their hoods if lowered on their face which they could see anything else only the table below them. The monks did not spend their time to celebrate religious offices or studying the texts: their days were primarily devoted to manual work. About the 4th century, Palladius, visits some in the Egyptian monasteries, found approximately 300 members with Panopolis under the rule of Pacôme, 15 tailors, 7 blacksmiths, 12 drivers of camels and 15 tanners. Each separate community had its clean oeconomus (intendant) lying in the main establishment. All produces it work of the monks was entrusted to him, then sent to Alexandria. The money collected by the sale of these products made it possible to buy shops intended to support financially the community, the wealths of too being distributed to charitable ends. The superiors of different the coenobia met twice a year with the principal monastery, with in the chair archimandrite (“the chief of the herd”, of will miandra who means “shepherd”). They had moreover, during the last annual meeting, to submit the report/ratio of their management for the last year. The coenobia of Syria belonged to the institution pâcomienne.

We learned much from details concerning the communities located in the surroundings of Antioche thanks to the writings of Jean Chrysostome. The monks lived there in separated huts, the kalbbia , forming a hamlet on the slopes of the mountain. Subjects of an abbot, they observed the common rule (they did not have a refectory, but they consumed a food common limited to bread and water at the end of day's work, lengthened on straw, sometimes in front of their doors). They met only four times per day to request and recite psalms.

In Western Europe, the monachism makes its appearance starting from the delta of the Rhone: Marseilles, islands of Lérins, Arles, and will go up in the Rhodanien corridor. Many figures yet very popular, would not be this that in the names of localities mark this monachism: St Martin, bishop of Turns, St Césaire of Arles… These characters are characteristic of the first period of the monachism where the most famous abbots became bishops, bearing by là-même the ideal abbey with the row of model in architecture that in morals, or disciplines it secular clergy, i.e. priests of the parishes. From this period, the bishops and the abbots are represented with the same attributes: stick, miter, ring, and pectoral cross.

The monachism divides as of the appearance of the rules of the Colomban Irishman and Benoit de Nursie between Latin monachism and Eastern monachism. Each abbey, according to its rule is carrying an architecture, usual, and a filiation which connects it to the abbey from which the monks who founded it, and with the abbeys rested by the monks come who it formed. thus, little by little, a made monastic fabric of solidarity between the abbeys shapes, with in addition to solidarity, economic autonomy like normative principle for each abbey. Consequently, the abbeys become economic hearths around whose populations gather.

On this diagram however, until XIIe century, little variety comes to be grafted. but a wind of reform and a need for clarifying the legal status of the people bring the Council of Lateran IV, in 1215, to reduce the number of rules of the religious institutes to five. From Lateran IV, therefore, the new religious orders must be grafted on preexistent rules. From 1215, the religious orders are distinguished into two: the monastic orders, with at their head an abbot, which live in a monastery, become synonymous with abbey, The other religious orders, which reside in convents. When they acts canons, (prémontrés, victorins), a convent can bear the name of monastery. In the orders beggars (Dominican, franciscains, tiny), or apostolic (Jesuits), the places of residence name convent, because these orders do not have an abbot. The symbol of the miter and the stick which is sometimes carried by members of these kinds is in this case the symbol of their rise to the episcopate (cf supra). The name of monastery given to their places of residence indicates a preceding monastic occupation, taken again by these orders beggars and apostolic, by preserving the name of use. For all the history of the monachism and abbeys in Western Europe, the date of 1215 is capital: it solidifies the models legal, architectural, theological and sociological.

First Eastern monasteries

The need for defending oneself against the attacks, the saving in space and the needs for circulation within the community dictated little by little a specific provision of the parts in a monastery. Broad pillars of construction were set up, with powerful external walls able to resist the attack of the enemy. Inside, all the buildings necessary were laid out around one or several courses opened, generally surrounded by Cloître S. the typical example of an Eastern fitting can be found in the monastery of Large Laure (Holy Laure, “Lavra” in copte) of the Mont Athos in Greece, more precisely in Macedonia of the East, and which was built in 961 - 963.

The monastery, like the great majority of the Eastern monasteries, is surrounded by a solid white wall surrounding a zone of 10 000 with 16 000 m ². The side the longest fact nearly 150 meters. There is only one main entrance on the northern face (A), defended by three separate steel doors. Close to the entry a large tower (M) is, which is a constant of the monasteries of Raising. A small postern is in (L). The enclosure includes/understands two large courses opened, surrounded by buildings which communicate with the galleries of the cloister out of wooden or stone. The external court, larger, contains the warehouses, the barns (K) and cooks it (H), as well as other parts communicating with the refectory (G). Close to the main door, one finds a hotel trade opening on a cloister. The interior court is surrounded by a cloister (E) on which open the cells monacales (I). In the center of this court is the church, a square building with a Abside in cross of the Byzantine type and a Narthex surmounted of a cupola. In front of the church is a marble fountain (F) glaze of a dome resting on columns. Opening on the western part of the cloister, but being makes some in the external court, is the refectory (G), a vast building in 30 meters broad cross and length of as much, decorated with Fresque S of saints. At his end, one notes a small circular recess who recalls the Triclinium Palais of Lateran to Rome, and in which is placed the seat of the abbot. This part is also used as meeting room, the Eastern monks usually taking their meal in separate cells.

This plan of a monastery copte, Lenoir, shows a church with three alleys, of the apses laid out in cells and two lines of cells on each side of a long gallery.

The bénédictines abbeys

In Occident, the monachism mainly owes its development with Benoît de Nursie, born in 480. Its rule known as “bénédictine”, starting from the foundation of the Mount Cassin, was diffused very quickly in all Western Europe. Everywhere, one attended the erection of monasteries which exceeded all that could have been seen until there by their size and their splendor. Rare were the big cities of Italy not to have their convent Benedictine, just like the great centers of England, France or Spain. The number of monasteries founded between 520 and 700 is astonishing. The emperor Louis the Piles ordered with all the abbeys of his empire to subject himself to the rule bénédictine. The bénédictines abbeys never formed an order: they did not have bonds between them. Before the Council of Constancy in 1415, they are not less 15 070 abbeys of this rule which had been founded! The construction of a Benedictine abbey is uniformly laid out according to a plan modified to adapt to the local characteristics (with Durham or Worcester for example, where the monasteries are located on banks of a river).

The plan of Saint-Gall

We do not have any remaining example of the first monasteries Benedictines: none resisted the devastations of time and violences of the men. We however have an elaborate plan of the large monastery Suisse of Saint-Gall, built in 820, which enables us to know a little best the provision of a monastery of foreground at the 9th century. This plan even made the object of a report by Keller (Zurich, 1844) and the professor Robert Willis (arch. Newspaper, 1848, vol. v. pp. 86-117). We mainly owe with this last the substance of the description which follows, just like the plan below, tiny room to a diagrammatic transcription of the original which remains preserved among the files of the convent. The general appearance of the convent is that of a borough of detached houses separated by streets. It is very clearly built by complying with the rule bénédictine which recommended that the monastery includes the whole of the economic activities, religious and |social essential to the daily life. It was to include/understand a Moulin, a Boulangerie and stables, the whole joined together inside the enclosure so that the monks have the least most often possible need to leave there.

The general provision of the Benedictine abbey can be described as follows: the church and its cloister in the south occupy the center of a quadrangular surface of approximately 130 m on side. The buildings are laid out in groups, as in all the large monasteries. The church, as a center of the religious life of the community, forms the core of it. Beside the church, the buildings dedicated to the monastic life and the daily life are laid out of the monks (the refectory to be restored, the dormitory to rest, the common room for the social relations, the chapter to request). These essential components of the monastic life are organized around a court and of a Cloître, which are surrounded by a covered gallery allowing to move between the buildings while remaining with the shelter of the bad weather or the sun. The infirmary for the sick monks, the house of the doctor and the medicinal garden are in the east. In the same group of buildings that the infirmary, one finds the school of the beginners. The external school, with the house of its Master on the opposite wall of the church, is apart from the enclosure of the convent, in the vicinity immediate of the house of the abbot who can thus have a constant eye on them. The buildings intended for hospitality are divided into three groups: for the reception of important personalities, for the monks visiting the monastery, and the last for the poor travellers and the pilgrims. The first and the third are placed on each side of the common entry of the monastery, hotel trade for the important visitors as for it being located against the northern face of the church, not far from the house of the abbot. The old people's home intended for the poor is against the southern face, close to the buildings of the farm. The monks are placed in a house built against the northern wall of the church. The group of the places intended for the material needs for the establishment relates to the southern and western parts of the church, and these buildings are very clearly separated from the monastic buildings. One reaches the kitchens and the rooms of work by a passage located at the western end of the refectory. These parts are connected to bakery and the Brasserie, placed even further. The southern and western wings are reserved for the workshops, the stables and the various agricultural buildings.

With some exceptions, the buildings seem to be set up in only once, and all, except for the church, were in Bois. The unit consisted of 33 separate blocks.

The church (D) is in the shape of cross with a nave of nine bays, a semicircular apse at each end. In the west, it is surrounded by a semicircular colonnade leaving a “paradise” (E) open between him and the wall of the church. The zone is divided into tables through the many vaults. The large furnace bridge (A) is located immediately at the east of the transept, the furnace bridge with Saint-Paul (B) in the east, that of Saint-Pierre in the western apse. A cylindrical bell-tower draws up western apse on both sides (F).

The court of the cloister (G), of the southern part of the nave of the church, has on its face is the “pisalis” or “to chauffoir”, the room where come to sit down the brothers, heated by conduits located in the ground. On this side of the monasteries, one invariably finds the house of the chapter about which the absence from this point of view is curious. It appears however starting from the inscriptions of the plan which the northern walk of the cloisters was intended for the house of the chapter, and was equipped with benches on its sides. Above chauffoir it the dormitory was, opening on the southern transept of the church to make it possible to the monks to be present at the night offices when it was necessary.

A passage located at the other end leads to the “ necessarium ” (I), part of the monastery always built with great care. At the western end, the southern face is occupied by the refectory (K), from which one can reach the kitchen (L) by a hall. This one is separated from the principal buildings of the monastery and is connected to a long driving passage to the building containing bakery and the brewery (M) as well as the rooms of the servants. The upper part of the refectory is the cloakroom, where usual clothing of the brothers is stored. Against the western face of the cloister another building on two floors is: the cell occupies the ground floor, and the pantry and the warehouse divide the stage. Between this building and the church, opening by a door towards the cloister and another towards the outside of the monastic enclosure, is the visiting room for the visits and the passages of the people of outside (O). On the face is the scriptorium (P1) is northern transept, above which the library is placed.

In the east of the church an small group of buildings including/understanding is held two tiny convents. Each one has a covered cloister surrounded by the usual buildings (refectory, dormitory, etc) as well as a church and a vault on the side, placed back with back. A common separate building contains the baths and the kitchen. One of these two miniature convents is intended the oblats or to beginners (Q), the other being used as infirmary to the sick monks. (R)

The “residence of the doctors” (S) is contiguous with the infirmary and the medicinal garden (T), in the north-eastern corner of the monastery. Close to these parts, one finds a “pharmacy” as well as a room for the patients at the risk. The house for the “bleedings and the purgings” is associated there with the west. (U)

The external school, in north, contains a broad classroom divided into her medium and surrounded by 14 small parts, residences of the students. The house of the Master (W), is on the other hand built against the wall of the church. The two “old people's homes” or “hotel trades” for the rest from abroad (X1, X2) include/understand a broad common room and a refectory in their center, surrounded by the parts arranged to sleep. Each old people's home has its own bakery and its own brewery, with in more for the travellers of high ranking a kitchen and a warehouse as well as chambriers for the servants and of the stables for the horses. There is also an old people's home for the foreign monks with the monastery against the northern wall of the church.

Beyond the cloister, at the southern end of the zone of the convent the “factory is” which contains the workshops of the shoe-maker, the saddler, the cutler, the grinder, the tanner, the washerwomen, the blacksmiths and the goldsmiths like their residences with the back. One also finds this side the buildings of the farm, the vast attic, the battery (place where cereals are beaten) (A), the mills (c) and malt factory (d). Vis-a-vis the west are the stables (E), the cattle sheds (F), the sheep-fold of the goats (G), the pigsties (H) as well as the sheep-folds (I) and the districts of the plowmen and the servants (K). In the south-eastern corner one finds the hen house as well as the shelter of the Canard S and the Volaille (m) with the housing of their guard (N). One also sees the vegetable garden (O), the pieces bearing the name of the Légume S which push there: Onion, garlic, Celery, Lettuce, Poppy, Carrot, cabbage, etc Eighteen varieties on the whole. In the same way, the medicinal garden presents the name of the medicinal herbs which cultivated there and the cemetery (p) that of the trees (Pommier, Poirier, Prunier, quince tree) which are planted there.

However, this plan did not correspond to the topographic reality of the abbey of Saint-Gall. It is not a geometrical representation of this space, but rather an ideal plan , even idealized of the abbey-type where each element is in the place that one estimates to him to have to have. The analysis of the plan above remains valid, but one must preserve at the spirit the fact that strict reality could be very different.

The abbey of Westminster

The Abbaye of Westminster is another example of large Benedictine abbey, identical in its broad outlines to the abbey described above. The monastic cloister and buildings are in the south of the church. Simultaneously with the nave, against the southern face of the cloister the refectory and its bathrooms are, close to the door. East coast, one can find the remainders of a dormitory built with a structure arched and communicating with the southern transept. The house of the chapter opens on the same alley of the cloister. The small cloister is in the south-east of a larger cloister, and more in the east one finds the remainders of the infirmary with his corridor, and the refectory for those which could not leave their rooms. The house of the abbot forms a small court at the western entry, meadows of the interior door. There remain rather important vestiges of this abbey, like the visiting room of the abbey, (the “Room of Jerusalem”, now used for the Disciples of King de Westminster), as well as the kitchen and the dairies.

The abbey of York

The Sainte-Marie abbey of York watch also the usual provision bénédictine. The enclosure is surrounded by a solid wall strengthened on three on its sides, the river Ouse giving a sufficient protection on the fourth.

The entry is done by a solid carries to north. A vault rose meadows of the main door, at the place where is now the Saint-Olaf church, in which the newcomers paid their devotions dice their arrival. Close to the door in the South the old people's home was. The buildings today are completely destroyed, but it remains enough of traces to enable us to identify the large church in cross, the court of the cloister with the house of the chapter, the refectory, the court of the kitchens and the offices contiguous and the principal apartments. The infirmary completely disappeared.

The revival clunisien

The history of the Monachisme is a succession of periods of decline and revival. Forts of a popularity and a regard growing, the monks also saw growing their incomes, leading them to garner richnesses and to adapt tangible properties increasingly more. After the first religious heats had calmed down, the severity of the rule slackened little by little until the 10th century. The relaxation was such as French monks of this time said not to know about the Saint-Beno4it cheese rule, being unaware of even if they were subject to a rule or not. This carelessness led to the formation of new monastic orders with more strict rules, which required an adaptation of the architecture of the abbeys.

One of the first of these kinds was that of Cluny. It draws its name from the small village of Cluny, close to Mâcon, where a Benedictine abbey reformed were founded in 909 by Guillaume I {{er}}, duke of Aquitaine and count of Auvergne, which placed it under the direction of Bernon, abbot of Beaume. Odon, often described like the founder of the order, then succeeded to him. The fame of Cluny extended far beyond the monastery from origin. Its rigid rule was adopted by a great number of old bénédictines abbeys which were affiliated at the head office, and the new monasteries, increasingly many, wished all to be attached to Cluny. At the end of the 12th century, the number of monasteries affiliated to Cluny in Western Europe reached 2000. The establishment of Cluny was one of largest and splendid of France. One can have an good idea of his dimensions thanks to the Pape Innocent IV, which visited Cluny accompanied by twelve cardinals, a patriarch, three archbishops, the two generals of Cartusiens and Cisterciens, King Saint-Louis and three of its sons, of the queen-mother, Baldwin, of the count of Flanders, of the emperor of Constantinople, the duke of Burgundy and six Lords. All placed within the monastery with their continuations, without causing the least disturbance with the monks. The near total of the buildings of the abbey, including the monumental church, were sold like national goods, then destroyed at the end of the 18th century.

In Cluny, the church and the general plan of the unit resemble in a way striking the Cathédrale of Lincoln. The church Cluny III was very vast: more than 141 m length on 65 m broad. The chorus ends in a semicircular apse surrounded by 5 also semicircular vaults. The western entry was consisted of the flanked narthex of two turns. In the south of the church the court of the immense cloister was, placed much more at the west that with the accustomed one. In the south of the cloister the refectory, an imposing building of approximately 30 meters was out of 20, filled of six lines of tables in length and three transversely. It was decorated portraits of the benefactors of the abbey and objects scriptural. On the wall of the bottom was painted a scene of the Last Jugement. We cannot unfortunately identify the other principal buildings. Remain the house of the abbot, still partially upright close to the entry, the old people's home and very vast bakery.

The first house clunisienne in England was founded in Lewes by the count of Warren in 1077. There remain only some fragments of the buildings of service. The clunisiennes abbeys best preserved of England are Castle Acre, in the Norfolk, and Wenlock in the Shropshire. The plans are presented in the architectural Antiquités of John Britton. They show us notable differences with the provision bénédictine. In each one of them, the house of the prior is of a remarkable perfection. All the houses attached to Cluny were French dependences directed by priors of this nationality. They obtained their independence only under the reign of Henri VI. In spite of its glare, the revival clunisien was of short duration. Its reputation and its celebrity are at the origin of her decline. After a considerable growth of their kind, the monks clunisiens became as rich and little disciplined as their predecessors. A new reform then became necessary.

Cistercians

The following monastic revival was that of the Cisterciens, which developed at the 11th century. The order profited from a broader diffusion and a more durable and honourable existence that its predecessor. It owes to its true origin at a distinct community Benedictines founded in 1098 by Etienne Harding (1060-1134), (a native of Dorset, educated with the monastery of Sherborne). Its name derives from Cîteaux ( Cistercium ), a region of the Burgundy near to Beaune and Nuits-Saint-Georges. The etymology of Cîteaux would come according to the explanation most commonly allowed, of “cistels”, reeds which push in the marshy areas.

The rapid growth and the broad celebrity whom the order knows are without any doubt due mainly to the enthusiastic piety of Saint Bernard, abbot of the first community cistercian, which is established with the Abbaye of Clairvaux in 1116. The rigid rule privileging the abnegation entirely governed this congregation, and then extended to the new affiliated communities.

The two central characteristics of the cistercians abbeys are thus their simplicity pushed to the extreme and a very studied sobriety. A single central tower was allowed and was to be as low as possible. The artifices superfluities and the turrets were also prohibited. A triforium, in the same way, was to be excluded. The windows were to be clear and not divided, and it was interdict to decorate them with stained glasses. Any useless ornament was seen thus proscribed. The crosses were to be in Bois, the candlesticks in Fer. The renunciation of the world became of this fact an obviousness for all that the eye met.

The same concern is observed in the geographical establishment monasteries: more one place wild, was isolated and moved away from any civilization, better were its chances to accommodate a community. One should not only nevertheless regard the cistercians ascetics, but also as precursors having allowed certain progress. The monasteries cistercians were indeed built in deep and well irrigated valleys, generally at the edge of a River, sometimes more in height. These valleys, now so rich and so flourishing, presented a quite different aspect when the brothers chose them like place of retreat. Large marshes, deep marshes and impenetrable forests were selection criteria! The “clear valley” of Clairvaux was famous like a valley covered with Forêt S and filled brigands. “ It was a so dull loneliness and so savage, a ground so sterile that the beginning, Bernard and to his companions were reduced by it to living on sheets of Hêtre S ”. (Milman, Hist. off Latin Christianity, vol. III. p. 335.)

The canons augustiniens

The communities of canons augustiniens (known as black canons because of the color of their dress) have some characteristics which distinguish them. The order has its seat with Colchester, in England, where a house of the augustiniens was founded around 1105 before the order is not diffused very quickly. Regular order of the Clergy occupying an intermediate position between the monks and the secular clergy, and community resembling at a community of priests of parish living under a common rule, the augustiniens adopted naves of big size in order to be able to lodge great congregations. The chorus is generally long, and sometimes, as with Llanthony and Christchurch (Twynham), it is intersected with alleys, which is not the case with Bolton, Kirkham or elsewhere. At the most septentrional communities, the nave has often only one wing northern, as in Bolton, Brinkburn or with the priory of Lanercost. The provision of the buildings reserved for the monastic life followed the traditional plan. The house of the prior was invariably attached to the south-western angle of the nave.

Above, the plan of the Saint-Augustin abbey to Bristol-board (today cathedral of the city) watch the provision of the buildings, which is dissociated by some aspects of the model traditional Benedictine. The house of the canons augustiniens in Thornton, in the Lincolnshire, is remarkable by the size and the magnificence of its entry, the upper floors forming the hotel trade of the establishment, like by its octagonal house of the chapter.

The order of Prémontré

The regular canons of Prémontré (also called white canons ) had close to thirty-five establishments in England, from which the representatives emblématiques are with Easby in the Yorkshire and with Bayham in the Kent. The principal house of the order in England was located at Welbeck. This order was a reformed branch of the canons augustiniens, founded in 1119 by Norbert de Xanten in Prémontré, a marshy and withdrawn valley of Coucy meadows of Laon. The order was largely spread. Whereas its founder was still in life, the order had already houses in Syria and Palestine. It a long time maintained an austerity strict until with time, the richness affects the discipline and which its members sink in indolence and the luxury.

The members about Prémontré invested England starting from 1140 and settled in Newhouse, in the Lincolnshire, close to Humber. The plan of the abbey of Easby is irregular because of its situation and the irregular layout of the river on the edges of which it is installed. The cloister is duly placed at the south of the church, and the principal buildings occupy their usual positions around it. But the cloister is not rectangular, and the buildings which surround it are placed rather with difficulty. The church follows the plan adopted by the canons augustiniens in their abbeys of north and has only one alley in the nave whereas the chorus is long, narrow and deprived of alley. Each transept has an alley in the east, forming three vaults.

The church of Bayham was deprived of alley in the nave as in the chorus, this last finishing in an apse at three sides. This church is remarkable because of its excessive narrowness compared to its length: for a 78 meters length, its width does not exceed 8 meters. The severe members of the order did not want large gatherings and did not cherish any dream of prosperity: they thus built their church like a long part.

The chartreuses ones

The Carthusian monks are unaware of the abbey institution. Also their houses never carry the title of abbey, but of monastery or house. Established by Holy Bruno in 1084, the order of the Carthusian monks developed an original form of the Western monachism, associating the life Community or cenobitic and the ideal of life as a recluse or eremitic. This postulate implied a new organization of the plan of the buildings and gave rise to an own architecture. For their description, to refer to the article Carthusian monk.

The orders beggars

An article on monastic constructions would be incomplete without taking account of the convents of the orders beggars, i.e. the Dominicain S, the Franciscain S, the Carmélite S and the Augustinien S. These orders appeared at the beginning of the 13th century with the growth of the cities. Whereas the Benedictine S and their various alternatives were devoted to their agricultural properties, the brothers beggars operated differently. They settled in the cities, preferably in the poorest districts and densément populated. The brothers beggars thus had to adapt their buildings to these new constraints.

A regular provision, even if she were studied, appeared impossible. Their churches, built for the reception of broad crowd of listeners rather than for the single men of the worship, form a case with share, quite different from the plans adopted by the preceding orders. It was in general of long parallelograms not cut by transepts. The nave usually consisted of two equal bodies, one containing the stalls of the brothers, the other entirely free of access. The chorus as such is difficult to locate, so much the very whole church forms only one uninterrupted structure, bordered of windows. The end is generally of form rectangular, but the church of the brothers of Winchelsea has a polygonal apse. It happens that one finds a transept single, sometimes of big size, sometimes larger than the nave itself. This provision is frequent in Ireland, where the many monasteries offer admirable examples of these architectural characteristics. At the beginning, these churches were deprived of bell-tower, but into 14th and 15th centuries, of the high and thin towers were commonly inserted between the nave and the chorus. The monastery of the gray brothers of Lynn, where the bell-tower is hexagonal, is an good example. The provision of the monastic buildings is also very characteristic: it has nothing to do with the regularity of the buildings of the older orders. With the Convent of the Jacobins to Paris, the cloister is held in north of the long narrow church of two alleys, whereas the refectory, a part of very big size rather detached from the cloister, extends in the zone which is in front of the western face of the church. With Toulouse, the nave also has two parallel naves, but the chorus is absidal with radiating chapels. The refectory extends on the northern side, just with the angle of the cloister which is in the north of the church, the sacristy and the house of the chapter being held in the east.

Dependences

All the large monasteries had under their dependence of smaller foundations known under the name of priories. Sometimes, these foundations comprised one building being used of residence or farm, whereas others were true miniature monasteries for five to ten monks. The farms were generally exploited by brothers convers under the supervision of only one monk.

Abbots and abbesses as leaders

The abbeys regulates of it are directed by regular abbots who take part fully in the community of the abbey and who are guaranteeing of his religious function.

Frequently the royal authority amended of the monasteries in abbeys in Commende. Thus it named at their head a clerk not monk called abbot commendataire . This last could live apart from the abbey, never to even move there. It profited from incomes related to the maintenance of its load, and the abuses were frequent. The commende involved the decline of many abbeys, with the impoverishment of the community, the progressive abandonment of its religious initial vocation, consequence of frustrations and angers which it generated in the monks.

Certain cities were directed by the superiors of one their abbeys. One speaks then about Prince-abbot .

Convents, places of reclusion

The abbey like means of exclusion in the nobility and the high-middle-class (…)

The reform of Saint-Maur in France

A new design of the monastic life and its architecture with XVIIe and XVIIIe centuries (…)

Abbeys and the French revolution

Destruction, re-uses and survivals (…)

Convents at the XIXe century

Rebirth and evolution of the direction of the life monacale (…)

Life and monastic architecture since 1905

Consequences of the law of separation of the Church and the State at the beginning of the XXe century (…)

The abbey today

The role and life of the monks and moniales vis-a-vis the contemporary company (…)
Worms of new translations and architectural tendencies since Le Corbusier and her convent of Tourette (…)

See too

Monk
Carthusian monk
Religious order
List of the catholic monastic orders
Abbey List of the abbeys
virtual Abbeys: Abbey of Thélème - Abbey of Creteil -

External bonds

ABBEYS and 278 Internet sites
Abbeys in Provence
French Abbeys

Sites of the principal French abbeys:

Ganagobie
Nozzle Hellouin
Abundance
Citeaux
Cluny
Fontfroide
the Mount St Michel and its bay in photographs
Ligugé
Molesme
Mount-of-Cats the
Oelenberg
Pierre-which-Transfers It
Royaumont
Sénanque
Saint-Georges de Boscherville
Saint-Sever
Saint-Wandrille
Sylvanes
Solesmes
Réau
Saint Mathieu de Fine Ground
Abbaye of Mortemer
Abbaye of Ambronay
Cistercian abbey Notre-Dame of Grace-God

Panoramic photographs Nieul on Autise

Random links: