8 



the lay brethren and for ordinary workmen, villagers, and travellers. This was 

 sometimes in the west end of the nave, or in one or both aisles, but in the larger 

 communities a separate church was often built, or even two, as at Evesham. The 

 arrangement here is very interesting, the aisles being divided by solid stone screens 

 from the nave, chancel, and transepts. I think the lay brothers had the 

 western part of the nave, and the guests and parishioners the whole of the 

 south aisles and transept. The place of the high altar is distinctly marked, a 

 crypt, probably for burial, has been constructed under it at a later date. Like 

 other Cistercian churches, this had two altars in each transept, there were also 

 altars at the east end of each chancel aisle ; in the south aisle the sedilia and 

 piscina still exist in a mutilated condition. In the north chancel aisle is a door- 

 way, probably used by the monks in the infirmary for occasional access without 

 passing through the cloister. In the north-west corner of the north transept may 

 be seen remains of the staircase by which the monks descended from their dormi- 

 tory to all the night services, which took place every four hours. They sat in the 

 choir — not in what we commonly call the chancel (which was really the presby- 

 tery) but in the space under the tower, and some part of the nave. A screen 

 would probably divide this jiart from the western part of the nave, and one is 

 shown in the plan sold in the abbey, but there is now no evidence of its existence. 



THE MONASTIC BUILDINGS. 



In the range of buildings that extends from the north transept there is 

 first a pair of narrow rooms which adjoin the transept — the eastern room, which is 

 vaulted, and is entered from the church was the Sacristy ; but the western one, 

 which opens direct from the cloister, is of very uncertain use. In one form or 

 another, it exists in nearly every monastery. It is sometimes called the parlour, 

 or the place where, in cloister time, any monk who had business with the abbot, or 

 a brother, had to speak ^or silence was enjoined in the cloister itself. It has been 

 thought to be the place where the body of a deceased monk lay before the time of 

 burial ; but we have a very minute account of every detail of that which was done 

 from the death to the burial of a Cistercian monk, and this seems not to have been 

 possible in their case. The only written record of this place that I have heard of 

 would show it to be the place where the parchment, wax, and other articles used 

 by the writers of manuscripts were bought of travelling merchants — but I own 

 that this seems most unlikely, for it is in the very heart of the monastery, where 

 strangers would be excluded. My friend, Mr. Edmund Sharpe, lately deceased 

 (whose authority stood highest in these questions), thought this place was the 

 penitentiary, or place where a monk had to do penance in sight of his brethren, or 

 even to be confined for any of the offences — great or small — which they seem to 

 have been always committing. Sometimes this cell has a door, sometimes 

 not. At Llanthony it has a very handsome open archway, and is lighted by a 

 window in the east end. In such a place penance might be done in public view, 

 and yet without interfering with the ordinary use of the cloister. 



The next building is the Chapter House, the doorway and windows of 

 which were always open to the cloister. In fact, here there are three open arch- 



