ABBEY: A monastic house under the rule of an
abbot or an abbess. The name is strictly applicable only to the houses of those orders in which
these titles are borne by the superiors. While in
the East the free form of a group of scattered cells
(known as a laura) continued side by side with the
common dwelling of a cenobite community, the
West developed a distinct style of its own in monastic architecture. The extant plan of the monastery
of St. Gall (820) may be taken as typical of the
construction of Western monasteries in the early
Middle Ages. The center of the entire group of
buildings was occupied by an open rectangular
space, on the north side of which was the church,
while on the other three sides ran the cloister or
ambulatory, a vaulted passage open on the inner
side, and serving both as a means of communication
and as a place for exercise in bad weather. Connected with the cloister, on the ground floor, were
the refectory and kitchen; the chapter-house, in
which the reading and exposition of the rule and
the chapter of faults took place; the
calefactarium
or winter dining-room; and the
parleatorium
or
reception-room of outsiders. On the floor above,
opening on a similar passage which connected with
the choir of the church or the organ-loft, were the
vestiarium,
where the clothes were kept, the library,
the dormitory, the infirmary, the rooms for the
novices, and the apartments of the abbot, which
were supposed to be accessible from outside without
passing through the enclosure into which strangers
were not allowed to penetrate. The kitchen, which
lay within this enclosure, had in like manner a
connection with the house for the reception of
pilgrims, and with the various farm-buildings,
which usually formed a separate quadrangle. The
entire group of buildings was surrounded by a
high, solid wall, which in some cases was fortified
against the dangers of rude times by towers and
strong gates. The monks' burying-ground was
also within the enclosure.
This system was preserved, with slight modifications, throughout the Middle Ages, the Cistercians
adhering to it with especial closeness, as may be
seen at Clairvaux and Maulbronn. Sometimes it
was enriched by architectural decoration, as in the
high-vaulted double refectories of St. Martin at
Paris and of Maulbronn, or adorned with painting,
as the world-famous " Last Supper " of Leonardo
da Vinci in the refectory of Santa Maria delle
Grazie at Milan. In houses occupied by female
religious the extensive farm-buildings were naturally lacking. The combination of hermit add
community life among the Carthusians required a
larger space, which was obtained by adding to the
original quadrangle -on the basis of the church a
second larger one, commonly surrounded also by
a cloister, with an open space or garden (containing
a cemetery) in the center, and with individual
dwellings for the monks around it. The mendicant
orders strove for simplicity in building as in other
things, and were forced by their situation in towns
to a more restricted plan. The teaching orders
added a wing or a separate house for their pupils.
The Jesuits completely abandoned the traditional
plan, and built themselves large palatial houses,
while modern monasteries have little to differentiate them from other large institutions. For a
more detailed treatment of the structural system
of abbeys and monastic buildings, consult the exhaustive monograph by Venables in the
Encyclopaedia Britannica, s.v. Abbey.
See MONASTICISM.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
In general: DCA, ii. (1880) 1243-88
(gives a list of 1,481 monasteries founded before 814);
DACL, i.
26-39; A. Ballu,
Le Monastere de Tebessa,
Paris, 1897 (valuable for detailed description of a typi-
cal abbey)
AUSTRIA: G. Wolfsgruber, A. Hubl, and O.
Schmidt,
Abteien und Kloster in Osterreich, Vienna,
1902.
FRANCE
: L. P. Herard,
Etudes archeologiques surles abbayes de
l'ancien diocese de Paris, Paris, 1852;
M. F. de Montrond,
Dictionnaire des
abbayes- et monasteres, ib. 1856; J. J. Bourasse,
Abbayes et
monasteres; histoire, monuments, souvenirs et ruines, ib. 1869;
E. P. M. Sauvage,
Histoire litteraire des
abbayes Normandes, ib. 1872; A. Peigne-Delacourt,
Tableau des
abbayes et des monasteres d'hommes en France . . . . 1768,
ib. 1875;
J. M. Besse,
Les premiers monasteres
de la Gaule, in
Revue des questions
historiques, Apr., 1902. GERMANY:
O. Grote,
Lexicon deutscher Stifte, Kloster, und Ordenshauer, 5 parts, Osterwick,1874-80; H. G. Hasse,
Geschichte der sachrischen Kloster
in der Mark Meissen and Oberlausits, Gotha, 1887; H. H. Koch,
Die Karmelitenkloster
der niederdeutschen Provinz, 13-16 Jahrhundert, Freiburg, 1889; H. Hauntinger,
Suddeutsche Kloster vor 100 Jahren,
Cologne, 1889; L. Sutter,
Die Dominican-Kloster auf
die Gebiete d. heutigen deutschen Schweitz im
13 Jahrhundert, Lucerne, 1893; A. Hohenegger,
Das Kapuziner-Kloster
zu Meran, Innsbruck, 1898; F. M. Herhagen,
Die Kloster-Ruinen zu Himmerod in der Eifel ,
Treves, 1900. GREAT
BRITAIN AND IRELAND: M. Archdall,
Monasticon Hibernicon ; . . . the Abbeys, Priories . . . in Ireland, London, 1788, ed. by P. F. Moran, Dublin, 1871; W. Beattie,
Castles and Abbeys of England, 2 vols., London, 1851; M.
E. C. Walcott,
Minster and Abbey Ruins of the United
Kingdom, ib. 1860; W. and M. Howitt,
Ruined Abbeys and Castles of Great Britain, 2 ser., ib. 1862-64;
Religious Houses of the United Kingdom,
ib. 1887;
T. G. Bonney,
Cathedrals, Abbeys and Churches of England and Wales,
2 vols., ib. 1888-91 (revised, 1898);
W. C. Lefroy,
Ruined Abbeys of Yorkshire,
ib. 1890; J. Timbs,
Abbeys, Castles
and Ancient Halls of England and Wales, 3 vols.,
ib. 1890;
W. A. J. Archbold,
Somerset Religious Houses,
ib. 1892.
