St. Benedict sought to draw a sharp line between the monastic
life and that of the outside world. Hence he required that, as far as possible,
each monastery should form an independent, self-supporting community whose
members had no need of going beyond its limits for anything. In course of time,
as a monastery increased in wealth and number of inmates, it might come to form
an enormous establishment, covering many acres and presenting within its
massive walls the appearance of a fortified town.
THE MONASTERY BUILDINGS
The principal buildings of a Benedictine monastery of the
larger sort were grouped around an inner court, called a cloister. These
included a church, a refectory, or dining room, with the kitchen and buttery
near it, a dormitory, where the monks slept, and a chapter house, where they
transacted business. There was also a library, a school, a hospital, and a
guest house for the reception of strangers, besides barns, bakeries, laundries,
workshops, and storerooms for provisions. Beyond these buildings lay vegetable
gardens, orchards, grain fields, and often a mill, if the monastery was built
on a stream. The high wall and ditch, usually surrounding a monastery, shut it
off from outsiders and in time of danger protected it against attack.
