Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 5.djvu/146

This page needs to be proofread.
104
DESCRIPTION OF THE ANCIENT PLAN

sick, and I will now proceed to describe their arrangements separately[1].

The novices' convent bears an inscription which informs us that in this cloister are associated those who are offered up by their parents and those who are upon probation, "hoc claustro oblati, 'pulsantibus adsociantur."

The oblati are those youths or boys who were devoted by their parents to a monastic life. In the history of the monastery of St. Gall mention is frequently made of such solemn ceremonies. Thus for example the learned monk Iso, A.D. 871, was from his birth vowed to the monastic life by his parents. The expression oblati occurs in the commencement of the fifty-ninth chapter of the rules of St. Benedict, where the subject is the reception of the sons of nobles and of poor persons. By pulsatfes[2] are to be understood those who are received into the novitiate; literally, those who knocked at the door of the monastery, seeking admission therein[3]. He who wished to be received into a monastery, or to enter into holy orders, must, according to the capitulare of Charlemagne of the year 789, be first examined or tried, and give an account of his morals and course of life. He therefore entered first into the so called "pulsatorium monasticum," where he was examined and prepared.

The walks of their cloister have arcades on the sides, disposed on the same principle as those of the great cloister already described, and might serve in bad weather as a place for recreation for the scholars. The principal building, which encloses three sides of the square, is divided into six large rooms. On the west side is the refectory and a chamber, "camera." The south side comprises the apartment of the master, "mansio magistri corum," and the infirmary, "infrmorum domus" both of which are provided with a stove and other necessary appendages. On the east side are the dormitory and the common room, "pisalis[4]," with a fire-place, "caminus" and a chimney, "exitus fumi." These six chambers are not connected with each other, but each has a door which opens upon the cloister.

In the centre of the space enclosed by the cloister is indi-

  1. ↑ I have added the above observations to Keller's article on the Noviæ convent.
  2. ↑ Vide the articles Oblati, Pulsare, Pulsatorium, in Ducange.
  3. ↑ Another interpretation is given in Mabillon's Annales Ord. S. Benedicti.
  4. ↑ Pisalis has been already shewn to mean a room warmed by a stove.
This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.