Project - Kent, Canterbury

No. 1 - 5: Exploring Canterbury.

Canterbury Cathedral

 

The Great Cloister.

 

CLOISTER (Lat. claustrum; Fr. cloitre; Ital. chiostro; Span. claustro; Ger. Kloster). The word "cloister," though now restricted to the four-sided enclosure, surrounded with covered ambulatories, usually attached to coventual and cathedral churches, and sometimes to colleges, or by a still further limitation to the ambulatories themselves, originally signified the entire monastery. In this sense it is of frequent occurrence in earlier English literature (e.g. Shakespeare, Meas. for Meas. i. 3, " This day my sister should the cloister enter"), and is still employed in poetry. The Latin claustrum, as its derivation implies, primarily denoted no more than the enclosing wall of a religious house, and then came to be used for the whole building enclosed within the wall. To this sense the German "Kloster" is still limited, the covered walks, or cloister in the modern sense, being called "Klostergang," or "Kreuzgang." In French the word cloitre retains the double sense.

 

d k In the special sense now most common, the word "cloister" enotes the quadrilateral area in a monastery or college of canons, round which the principal buildings are ranged, and which is usually provided with a covered way or ambulatory running all round, and affording a means of communication between the various centres of the ecclesiastical life, without exposure to the weather. According to the Benedictine arrangement, which from its suitability to the requirements of monastic life was generally adopted in the West, one side of the cloister was formed by the church, the refectory occupying the side opposite to it, that the worshippers might have the least annoyance from the noise or smell of the repasts. On the eastern side the chapter-house was placed, with other apartments belonging to the common life of the brethren adjacent to it, and, as a common rule, the dormitory occupied the whole of the upper story. On the opposite or western side were generally the cellarer's lodgings, with the cellars and store-houses, in which the provisions necessary for the sustenance of the confraternity were housed. In Cistercian monasteries the western side was usually occupied by the "domus conversorum," or lodgings of the lay-brethren, with their day-rooms and workshops below, and dormitory above. The cloister, with its surrounding buildings, generally stood on the south side of the church, to secure as much sunshine as possible. A very early example of this disposition is seen in the plan of the monastery of St Gall. Local requirements, in some instances, caused the cloister to be placed to the north of the church. This is the case in the English cathedrals, formerly Benedictine abbeys, of Canterbury,

 

Although the covered ambulatories are absolutely essential to the completeness of a monastic cloister, a chief object of which was to enable the inmates to pass from one part of the monastery to another without inconvenience from rain, wind, or sun, it appears that they were sometimes wanting.

 

We learn from Osbern's account of the conflagration of the monastery of Christ Church, Canterbury, 1067, that a cloister with covered ways existed at that time, affording communication between the church, the dormitory and the refectory. We learn from an early drawing of the monastery of Canterbury that this cloister was formed by an arcade of Norman arches supported on shafts, and covered by a shed roof. A fragment of an arcaded cloister of this pattern is still found on the eastern side of the infirmarycloister of the same foundation.

 

The older design was preserved in the South, where "the cloister is never a window, or anything in the least approaching to it in design, but a range of small elegant pillars, sometimes single, sometimes coupled, and supporting arches of a light and elegant design, all the features being of a character suited to the place where they are used, and to that only"

 

The cloister of a religious house was the scene of a large part of the life of the inmates of a monastery. It was the place of education for the younger members, and of study for the elders.

 

At Canterbury the monks' school was in the western ambulatory,

 

For this purpose small studies, known as "carrols," i.e. a ring or enclosed space, were often found in the recesses of the windows. Of this arrangement there are examples at Gloucester, Chester and elsewhere. The use of these studies is thus described in the Rites of Durham: - " In every wyndowe" in the north alley "were iii pewes or carrells, where every one of the olde monkes had his carrell severally by himselfe, that when they had dyned they dyd resorte to that place of cloister, and there studyed upon their books, every one in his carrell all the afternonne unto evensong tyme. This was there exercise every daie." On the opposite wall were cupboards full of books for the use of the students in the carrols. The cloister arrangements at Canterbury were similar to those just described.

 

The larger monastic establishments had more than one cloister; there was usually a second connected with the infirmary, of which there are examples at Westminster Abbey and at Canterbury; and sometimes one giving access to the kitchen and other domestic offices.

Extracts from Classic Encyclopedia

 

To see this Large:- farm5.static.flickr.com/4005/4370396300_ae46519c75_b.jpg

 

Taken on

October 5, 2007 at 12:27

Done