10 



Edmund Sharpe called this western building the domus conversorum, because the 

 conversi used the lower story by day, and the upper story was their dormitory 

 at night. The conversi were members of the Order, being devoted to prayer and 

 labour ; but they were chiefly employed in the agricultural and artificer's work of 

 the community. They were about double the uumber of the monks, and were, in 

 fact, their servants, having been taken from the poorest class — outcasts, from 

 poverty or crime, who were glad to accept of shelter in the monastery, who could 

 neither read nor write, nor could even be instructed by the monks in any of the 

 higher arts, which the monks kept to themselves. They were dispensed from 

 attending the night services, and had to attend only very few of the day services. 

 Their entrance to the church was at the north-west corner. They appear to have 

 been sleepy in church, for a preacher who observed this, once broke off his sermon, 

 and said, " Now, I will tell you a good story." He watched the effect, and then 

 taunted them with their miserable spiritual condition, saying, " I speak to you of 

 God, and you go to sleep— I make a jest, and you wake up and are all attention ! " 



What other buildings there may have been at Tintern I know not. They 

 would have such barns and stables and workshops as a large agricultural establish- 

 ment needed for the supply of every want. All these, with the almonry, would 

 be outside the cloister bounds where many small remains still exist. We know 

 that the Abbey precinct enclosed 34 acres of ground, and would have a suitable 

 gateway for entrance. The infirmary also was outside the cloister. It was not 

 merely for the sick, but specially for the aged and infirm monks, who were no 

 longer able to undergo the severities of the monastic rule. They were dispensed 

 from all the regular services, and from all business in chapter and in cloister. 

 They had a suitable diet, and were tended by young monks, who were enjoined 

 to cheer them, and not trouble them with unpleasant news. The services were 

 said for them in a chapel that opened out of the infirmary, so that they could 

 join in them sitting or lying in bed. I have no doubt that the building, which at 

 Llanthony Priory is used as the parish church, was formerly the infirmary with 

 its chapel, now the chancel of the church. 



As to the cloister itself, not a stone of it remains in situ. It had a wooden 

 roof, and it enclosed the cloister garth, which was the burial place of the monks. 

 On the south side of it, exactly opposite the door of the refectory, is a broken 

 part of the wall of the church which may have contained the seat of the abbot or 

 prior in cloister-time. 



Having described the buildings at Tintern, I may now refer to the build- 

 ings erected by the other monastic orders. 



The Cluniac Monks, already noticed as a branch of the Benedictines, built 

 magnificent monasteries, generally similar in plan, but did not attain to very 

 great popularity. They had about 30 establishments in this country, of which 

 Wenlock Priory is one. The Cistercians numbered more than 100. The Augus- 

 tinian Canons followed rules and erected monasteries, not materially different 

 from those of the Benedictines. They differed in being, of necessity, clergy. 



