1.

Discuss your understanding of monastic lifestyle

(a) In the early church
(b) In the middle age church
2. Show the process of development from the early church structure to the middle age
structure of Monasticism
3.how did monasticism contribute to scholarship
The monastic way of life, a life of religious piety entirely devoted to God, hadlonged favored the Benedictine form
of monasticism in medieval Europe up until themiddle of the eleventh century. At some point during the eleventh
and twelfthcenturies, various forms of monastic orders began to spring up, as the older waysof monastic life were
not able to satisfy the ascetic impulses of a growing numberof the population. These new orders and religious
fervors of the medievalpopulation created a concern for traditional ecclesiastical leaders, as they hadto deal with
controlling these new orders and the supposed heresies associatedwith some of them; the ecclesiastical leaders
also had the challenge of directingthe desires of the people into a positive benefit for the church and society as
awhole.Beginning in the late tenth century in northern Italy, these new ideas ofmonasticism really began to take
deeper roots in the areas between Rome and theAlps by the middle of the following century. Monastic
communities such as theorder of Camaldoli and the order of Vallombrosa strongly contrasted with
thecontemporary observance of Benedictine life. Orders like these and others spreadthroughout medieval western
Europe and were less involved with society in general,content to live the ascetic life free of the temptations of the
world. This ideaof asceticism became the popular form of monasticism and even influenced to someextent
older monasteries such as Cluny, under the direction of Peter theVenerable.These changes in western medieval
monasticism were also influenced by thedeclining role of the regular clergy in society. In the past, the monks
hadcontrolled higher education, cultivating liberal arts and Bible knowledge, butthey could not handle a growing

class of intellectual scholars that sought outmore than this, desiring an advance in knowledge of speculative
thought and theorders of law.This loss in control contributed, in effect, to the monastic communities loss
ofimportance in the political arena as well. No longer did monarchs rely as heavilyon ecclesiastical money for the
funding of their armies, as kings and rulers foundnew sources of income to grow their military forces.The
Benedictines at this timealso saw a loss of influence in the religious community as well. More and morepeople
began to turn to the cathedral, the parish church, and the new monasticorders to express their religious devotions
and piety.By the 1130s, a new monastic order stood out among all the rest: the Cistercians.Known for wearing
white habits instead of black, the Cistercians sought after astrictly ascetic life, claiming the manorial estates of the
Benedictinesencouraged greed among the religious brothers, and the Cistercians wanted to avoidsuch temptations
and live like the apostles and Christ had lived. In as a littleas a century and a half, the Cistercian order manged to
establish some 700communities throughout all of medieval Europe.I could continue on discussing the
developments of the monastic orders Benedictine and Cistercian, as well as others but as time permits, I
would liketo turn now and briefly discuss what life was like in monastic community. For thepurposes of this
discussion, details of the monastic community will be based onthe rules of St. Benedict.Life in a monastery was
strictly defined by a set of rules. The monks who livedand worked in these communities followed a daily routine
set forth by these rules.It was a life of prayer and work devoted to God. The majority of the work monks

performed included working in the fields, building of monastic buildings, copyingand translating manuscripts, and
on occasion, selling the monasterys produce atthe market.While the rules permitted monks to sell at the market,
contact with the outsideworld was limited. According to St. Benedict:"When brethren return from a journey, at all
the canonical hours of the day onwhich they return, they should lie prostrate on the floor of the oratory, as theWork
of God comes to an end, and ask for the prayers of all, for any faults thatmay have overtaken them on their journey,
such as the sight or hearing of an evilthing or idle chatter. No one should venture to tell another anything he may

haveseen or heard while outside the monastery, for that does much harm."Monasteries were self-sustaining
communities. They had all the buildings necessaryto live like a small village. While not all monasteries were laid
out in exactlythe same manner, we can get an idea of its organization by studying the design ofSt. Gall.Naturally,
there was a church associated with each monastery. Just off the church,there was a cloister, where the monks came
to read and to think. The scriptoriumand the library were located in the northeast corner of the compound. To the
southof the church was the chapter house, the dormitory, and the refectory (where themonks ate their meals). The
kitchen was located to the west of the refectory, andthe cellar and pantry were located just north of the kitchen. All
of thesebuildings chapter house, dormitory, refectory, kitchen, cellar, and pantry surrounded the main
cloister.The eastern area of the monastery included living quarters for novices/pupils ofthe monastic school and the
hospital, kept separate so as not to risk infection toother members of the community.Moving to the northern area of
the compound, we find a house for distinguishedguests along with stables, a separate house for the abbot, an
external school, anda bakery.To the south and west of the compound were the agricultural buildings and
shops,important to the support and self-preservation of these communities. Theseincluded: workshops for
shoemakers, saddlers, shieldmakers, tanners, swordmakers,goldsmiths, and fullers; and other buildings such as a
barn, a brewery, a winepress, and stables for livestock such as horses, pigs, goats, sheep, and cows.As mentioned
before, this layout was specific to St. Gall, and not every monasterywas organized in the exact same manner, but it
does give us a good idea of theself-sustaining aspects of these communities.Sources: