Abbey: Encyclopedia II - Abbey - Clermont

Abbey - Clermont

The whole establishment is surrounded hy a wall, furnished at intervals with watch towers. The enclosure is divided into two courts, of which the eastern court, surrounded by a cloister, from which the cottages of the monks open, is musch the larger. The two courts are divided by the main buildings of the monastery, including the church, the sanctuary, divided from the monks' choir, by a screen with two altars, the smaller cloister to the south surrounded by the chapter-house, the refectory and the chapel of Pontgibaud. The kitchen with its offices lies behind the refectory, accessible from the outer court without entering the cloister.

To the north of the church, beyond the sacristy, and the side chapels, there is the cell of the sub-prior, with its garden. The lodgings of the prior occupy the centre of the outer court, immediately in front of the west door of the church, and face the gateway of the convent. A small raised court with a fountain is before it. This outer court also contains the guest-chambers, the stables and lodgings of the lay brothers, the barns and granaries, the dovecot and the bakehouse. There is also a prison. In this outer court, in all the earlier foundations, as at Witham, there was a smaller church in addition to the larger church of the monks.)

The outer and inner courts are connected by a long passage, wide enough to admit a cart laden with wood to supply the cells of the brethren with fuel. The number of cells surrounding the great cloister is 18. They are all arranged on a uniform plan. Each little dwelling contains three rooms: a sitting-room warmed by a stove in winter; a sleeping-room furnished with a bed, a table, a bench, and a bookcase; and a closet. Between the cell and the cloister gallery is a passage or corridor, cutting off the inmate of the cell from all sound or movement which might interrupt his meditations. The superior had free access to this corridor, and through open niches was able to inspect the garden without being seen. There is a hatch or turn-table, in which the daily allowance of food was deposited by a brother appointed for that purpose, affording no view either inwards or outwards.

The above arrangements are found with scarcely any variation in all the charter-houses of western Europe. The Yorkshire Charterhouse of Mount Grace, founded by Thomas Holland, the young duke of Surrey, nephew of Richard II. and marshal of England, during the revival of the popularity of the order, about A.D. 1397, is the most perfect and best preserved English example. It is characterized by all the simplicity of the order. The church is a modest building, long, narrow and aisleless. Within the wall of enclosure are two courts. The smaller of the two, the south, presents the usual arrangement of church, refectory, etc., opening out of a cloister. The buildings are plain and solid. The northern court contains the cells, 14 in number.

It is surrotmded by a double stone wall, the two walls being about 30 ft. or 40 ft. apart. Between these, each in its own garden, stand the cells; low-built two-storied cottages, of two or three rooms on the ground-floor, lighted by a larger and a smaller window to the side, and provided with a doorway to the court, and one at the back, opposite to one in the outer wall, through which the monk may have conveyed the sweepings of his cell and the refuse of his garden to the "eremus" beyond. By the side of the door to the court is a little hatch through which the daily pittance of food was supplied, so contrived by turning at an angle in the wall that no one could either look in or look out. A very perfect example of this hatch---an arrangement belonging to all Carthusian houses--exists at Miraflores, near Burgos, which remains nearly as it was completed in 1480.

There were only nine Carthusian houses in England. The earliest was that at Witham in Somerset, founded by Henry II, by whom the order was first brought into England. The wealthiest and most magnificent was that of Sheen or Richmond in Surrey, founded by Henry V about 1414. The dimensions of the buildings at Sheen are stated to have been remarkably large. The great court measured 300 by 250 ft (91 by 76 m); the cloisters were a square of 500 ft (152 m); the hall was 110 ft (34 m) in length by 60 ft (18 m) in breadth.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Clermont", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki