RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



During the morning everyone was fully occu- 

 pied. The masters of the novices, of the song- 

 school, and of the farmery u school, were busy 

 with their respective scholars. The bursar was 

 engaged in receiving rents, paying wages, and 

 generally superintending the financial affairs of 

 the house, in his little stone office near the 

 kitchen. All the officers of the house had to 

 account to him for the money entrusted to them 

 for special purposes. The cellarer overlooked 

 the food supplies, regulated the expenses of the 

 kitchen, and arranged for the proper serving of 

 meals. The terrer, whose office, or 'checker,' 

 was near the guest-hall, was responsible for the 

 comfort of all guests. He saw to the ordering 

 of their chamber, the supply of bed and table- 

 linen for their use, and of provender for their 

 horses ; provided wine for strangers, and super- 

 intended the four yeomen told off to attend on 

 them. The keeper of the garners supplied the 

 household with corn. 



The chamberlain, with the assistance of a 

 tailor who worked in the 'sartry,' or tailor's 

 shop, near the chamberlain's checker, provided 

 clothing for the brethren, i.e. frocks, girdles, and 

 boots, with underclothing, sheets, socks, &c., of 

 linsey-woolsey, no linen being allowed to the 

 monks. The sacristan, whose office was no 

 sinecure, provided bread, wine, wax, and lights 

 for the services ; arranged for necessary repairs 

 to the windows, bells, &c., of the church ; saw 

 to the cleaning of it ; and was also responsible 

 for the convent's lands of Sacristanhaugh and 

 St. Margaret's Wood. His checker, where he 

 carried on business and took his meals, was 

 within the church in the north aisle. 



The labours of the prior's chaplain were 

 almost entirely confined to the household of the 

 lord prior himself. He controlled the servants, 

 paid them ' their wages, provided all that was 

 wanted for the table, and purchased the prior's 

 apparel. His office was over the stairs of the 

 hall, and he slept in a room next the prior him- 

 self. The deputy-prior kept the keys of the 

 shrines of SS. Cuthbert and Bede, and superin- 

 tended the opening of the former when visitors 

 brought offerings, and also during the Te Deum 

 at mattins and the Magnificat at evensong, and 

 of the latter when St. Bede's bones were to be 

 carried in procession. He was sometimes called 

 the master of the feretory. 



Perhaps the most congenial employment was 

 that of the master of the common-house. It 

 was his duty to keep a hogshead of wine and a 

 good fire in the common-house for the monks. 

 This was the only fire to which they had access, 

 the officers of the house excepted, and in the 

 bitter northern winters it must have been much 

 appreciated. To the common-house belonged 

 also a garden and a bowling-alley, where the 



1 i.e. infirmary. 



master stood by during games to see good order 

 kept. When Lent drew near he provided figs, 

 walnuts, and 'such spices as should be comfort- 

 able for the monks for their great austerity of 

 prayer and fasting * ; and on ' the day called 

 O Sapientia, between Martinmas and Christmas,' 

 he kept a feast 'a solemn banquet of figs, 

 raisins, ale, and cakes,' in which the prior and 

 convent shared ; ' and thereof was no superfluity 

 or excess, but a scholastical and moderate con- 

 gratulation amongst themselves.' 



With these and the like occupations for the 

 officers of the house, and other work for the 

 humbler brethren, the time must have passed 

 quickly till eleven o'clock, when the bell at the 

 conduit-door rang, summoning all to wash and 

 dine. 



Having washed their hands at the marble 

 laver in the cloister, 1 * and dried them on clean 

 towels from the awmry by the frater-house door, 

 of which every monk had a key, the brethren 

 filed in to dinner. This meal was an affair of 

 some ceremony. The monks dined in what 

 was called ' the loft,' up some stairs at the wes 

 end of the frater-house ; they, as also the prior, 

 were served from the great kitchen. The tables 

 were furnished with table-cloths, salt-cellars, and 

 mazers or drinking-bowls. Every monk had his 

 own mazer, edged with silver double-gilt. 

 There were also at the high table a basin and 

 ewer of latten, the ewer shaped like a huntsman 

 on horseback, used by the sub-prior to wash his 

 hands at table. He always dined and supped 

 with the convent, said grace for them, and was 

 responsible for their good behaviour during 

 meals. 



The novices and their master dined at 'a fair 

 table set up at the east end of the frater-house, 

 with a decent screen of wainscot over it.' One 

 of their number, standing in a window-recess 

 fitted with a desk, read during the meal a chapter 

 of the Bible in Latin, which being ended, the 

 master tolled a gilt bell hanging above his head, 

 on which another novice came to the high table 

 and said grace, and they departed to their books. 



The 'children of the almonry' 17 had their 

 meals in a loft on the north side of the abbey 

 gates, and were supplied with food from the 

 novices' table. The prior who, except on rare 

 occasions, dined in his own house, sent portions 

 from his table to four old women who lived in 

 the farmery outside the south gate of the abbey, 

 each having a separate chamber. 



The daily allowance of food for a monk of 

 Durham seems to have consisted of a loaf of 

 bread, two justicias 18 of ale, two portions of pulse 



" See Arck. Lmd. Iviii, 437. 



17 Poor children supported by the benevolence of 

 the house. They were taught in the ' farmery- 

 school ' outside the abbey gates, which was founded 

 nd maintained by the priors at their own cost. 



" Known as the ' monks' justice.' 



8 7 



