Monks, they are the keepers of the past. They copied religious
and political documents while living in Anglo-Saxon England. And do not believe
that all monks are the same, they are not, they are all different. Monks were
very religious people that had close to none free or social time. Monks have
to practice their work in silence all of the time and especially at night;
basically nobody is allowed to speak at all.
A monastery is a place with many rules and regulations. Such as bedtimes and
nap or siesta time and so on. A monastery may be compared to a Pre School
in some ways. “The monks were to ‘sleep clothed and girded with
belts or cords-but not with knives at their sides, lest perchance they wound
themselves in their sleep.’ They kept clothes in bed, partly because
they had to be ready to go down quickly to Matins at midnight; also, at the
time only wealthy people had special clothes for night wear.” (Boyd,
Anne page 16.)
Daily life in a monastery is almost like daily life for the average
student, except more religious. For example, there was a ‘Summer Timetable’
on page 16 in Life in a Medieval Monastery. It maps out the entire day for the
monks, from bedtime, to chapter mass. It also includes times for breakfast,
chapter meetings, high mass, dinner, siestas, vespers, supper, evening prayer
and bedtime. The schedule adjusted according to season and the amount of sunlight
in a day.
There were many different types of monks. There were five different
types of monks. There were the Benedictine or Black Monks, “These were
the first families of monks who followed the St. Benedict’s Rule and did
not make any great changes in it. They wore a woolen gown and over this a black
habit and cowl.” There are also the Cluniac Monks; these monks belonged
to a family of monks who started at the city of Cluny in France. They also founded
houses for daughters all around Europe. They followed St. Benedict’s Rule
but made changes to it they also dressed like the Benedictine monks. There were
also the Cistercian or White monks. “These, as you know, belonged to a
family of monks which had its center at Citeaux, and tried to keep the Rule
of St. Benedict very strictly. Their great teacher was St. Bernard and they
founded many houses all over Europe.” A different type of monk that was
found were the Carthusian monks. Apparently, the belonged to a family of monks
who started at the Grand Chartreuse in France. The lived by stricter rules than
the Benedictines or the Cistercians. Each monk spent a lot of time alone to
study and pray silently. Sounds like fun, eh? The Cathusian monks also wore
a white gown and cowl and over the gown they had a white piece of cloth hanging
down the back and front. The most important type of monks were the Canons and
Friars. “Then there were families of canons, who lived a life rather like
the monks but under a different rule. The most important family of canons was
named after St. Augustine, Augustinian canons.” (Reeves, 54-55)
Even though the monks life may not really seem as if it were much
fun, the monks were devoted people that formed a very important part of society.
The monks follow a schedule but perform their duties very well. They also were
under strict rules and regulations, but not all monks were the same. There were
many types such as canons and friars, Benedictines and Carthusian monks.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1) Boyd, Anne. Life In A Medieval Monastery. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1987.
2) “Life in a Medieval Monastery.” Britain Express. 7 October 2002.
http://www.britainexpress.com/History/medieval-monastery.htm
3) Reeves, Marjorie. The Medieval Monastery. London: Logmans, Green and Company,
1958.
MIDDLE AGES INDEX