Greek Gods- Rome- Middle Ages- England

A GERMAN MONASTERY.

Above is the picture of a German monastery, at the close of the Middle Ages. There we see the strong wall, surrounded by a ditch, inclosing the buildings, and protecting the monastery from attack. To enter the enclosure we must cross the bridge and present ourselves at the gate. When we have passed this we see to the left stables for cattle and horses, while to the right are gardens of herbs for the cure of the sick. Near by is the monks' graveyard with the graves marked by little crosses.

In the center of the enclosure are workshops, where the monks work at different trades. The tall building with the spires crowned with the figures of saints, is the church, where the monks hold services at regular intervals throughout the day and night.

Adjoining this, in the form of a square, are the buildings in which the monks sleep and eat. This is the "cloister," and is the principal part of the monastery. In southern lands this inner square or cloister was usually surrounded on all sides by a porch or piazza, the roof of which was supported on long rows of pillars; and here the monks might pace to and fro in quiet talk when the duties of worship and labor did not occupy their time.

In addition to these buildings, there are many others which we cannot stop to describe. Some are used to carry on the work of the monastery; some are for the use of the abbot, who is the ruler of the monks; some are hospitals for the sick; and some are guest chambers, where travellers are lodged over night.

In the guest chambers the travellers might sleep undisturbed all the night through. It was not so with the monks. They must begin their worship long before the sun was up. Soon after midnight the bell of the monastery rings, the monks rise from their hard beds, and gather in the church, to recite prayers, read portions of the Bible, and sing psalms. Not less than twelve of the psalms of the Old Testament must be read each night at this service. At daybreak again the bell rings, and once more the monks gather in the church. This is the first of the seven services which are held during the day. The others come at seven o'clock in the morning, at nine o'clock, at noon, at three in the afternoon, at six o'clock, and at bed-time. At each of these there are prayers, reading from the Scriptures, and chanting of psalms. Latin was the only language used in the church services of the West in the Middle Ages; so the Bible was read, the psalms sung, and the prayers recited in this tongue. The services are so arranged that in the course of every week the entire Psalter or psalm book is gone through; then, at the Sunday night service, they begin again.

Besides these services, there are many other things which the monks must do. "Idleness," wrote St. Benedict, "is the enemy of the soul." So it was arranged that at fixed hours during the day the monks should labor with their hands. Some plowed the fields, harrowed them, and planted and harvested the grain. Others worked at various trades in the workshops of the monasteries. If any brother showed too much pride in his work, and put himself above the others because of his skill, he was made to work at something else. The monks must be humble at all times. "A monk," said Benedict, "must always show humility,—not only in his heart, but with his body also. This is so whether he is at work, or at prayer; whether he is in the monastery, in the garden, in the road, or in the fields. Everywhere,—sitting, walking, or standing,—let him always be with head bowed, his looks fixed upon the ground; and let him remember every hour that he is guilty of his sins."

A MONK COPYING BOOKS.

One of the most useful labors which the monks performed was the copying and writing of books. At certain hours of the day, especially on Sundays, the brothers were required by Benedict's rule to read and to study. In the Middle Ages, of course, there were no printing presses, and all books were "manuscript," that is, they were copied a letter at a time by hand. So in each well-regulated monastery there was a writing-room, or "scriptorium," where some of the monks worked copying manuscripts.

The writing was usually done on skins of parchment. These the monks cut to the size of the page, rubbing the surface smooth with pumice stone. Then the margins were marked and the lines ruled with sharp awls. The writing was done with pens made of quills or of reeds, and with ink made of soot mixed with gum and acid.

The greatest care was used in forming each letter, and at the beginning of the chapters a large initial was made. Sometimes these initials were really pictures, beautifully "illuminated" in blue, gold, and crimson. All this required skill and much pains.

"He who does not know how to write," wrote one monk at the end of a manuscript, "imagines that it is no labor; but though only three fingers hold the pen, the whole body grows weary." And another one wrote: "I pray you, good readers who may use this book, do not forget him who copied it. It was a poor brother named Louis, who while he copied the volume (which was brought from a foreign country) endured the cold, and was obliged to finish in the night what he could not write by day."

The monks, by copying books, did a great service to the world, for it was in this way that many valuable works were preserved during the Dark Ages, when violence and ignorance spread, and the love of learning had almost died out.

In other ways, also, the monks helped the cause of learning. At a time when no one else took the trouble, or knew how, to write a history of the things that were going on, the monks in most of the great monasteries wrote "annals" or "chronicles" in which events were each year set down. And at a time when there were no schools except those provided by the Church, the monks taught boys to read and to write, so that there might always be learned men to carry on the work of religion. The education which they gave, and the books which they wrote, were, of course, in Latin, like the services of the Church; for this was the only language of educated men.

The histories which the monks wrote were, no doubt, very poor ones, and the schools were not very good; but they were ever so much better than none at all. Here is what a monk wrote in the "annals" of his monastery, as the history of the year 807; it will show us something about both the histories and the schools:

"807. Grimoald, duke of Beneventum, died; and there was great sickness in the monastery of St. Boniface, so that many of the younger brothers died. The boys of the monastery school beat their teacher and ran away."

That is all we are told. Were the boys just unruly and naughty? Did they rebel at the tasks of school at a time when Charlemagne was waging his mighty wars; and did they long to become knights and warriors instead of priests and monks? Or was it on account of the sickness that they ran away? We cannot tell. That is the way it is with many things in the Middle Ages. Most of what we know about the history of that time we learn from the "chronicles" kept by the monks, and these do not tell us nearly all that we should like to know.