> My other question also concerns food; I would like to find out the food
> rules for the monastic and mendicant orders, again with the emphasis on
> C15th England. I have useful information on Benedictines from Barbara
> Harvey's Living and dying in England, 1100-1540, and some references to
> Carthusian practices from Sargent's edition of Nicholas Love's Mirror.
> Does anybody have a suggestion for how I might proceed, perhaps in a
> less piecemeal fashion, in retrieving the food rules that I haven't yet
> got to?
Dear Melissa,
I have not had the opportunity to read Barbara Harvey's book, but
there is substantial evidence that in 15th-century England, the
original intent of the Benedictine rule was being consistently
flouted, by systematically abandoning the refectory, with its rules
for restricted diet. Obedientiaries were commonly partitioning off
bits of the infirmary for their offices (where they would commonly
eat), for example, since there were relaxed dietary rules applying to
infirmaries. In smaller houses, the superior's lodgings were often
used for communal meals, since the demands of hospitality made
dietary nonapplicable to their establishments. And a special room
for communal eating, known as a misericord, where meat was allowed,
occurs often in 15th-century English monasteries. The arrangements
were completely ad hoc and differed greatly between houses. At
Muchelney (I believe) there was some kind of rotation system, with
the monks eating in the superiors' lodging and a misericord and, I
believe, another "relaxed" chamber in the monastery. The Rites of
Durham (ed. Fowler), written in the 16th century, most likely by an
ex-monk, makes clear that by the later 15th century, the monks there
ate regularly in the misericord, while the novices regularly ate at
the high table in the refectory!! The refectory was only used
"normally" once a year, on the feast of St Cuthbert, when not only
all the monks, but visiting dignitaries from the locality, all ate in
the refectory. I find it fascinating that rather than just ignoring
the dietary rules, which pertained specifically to the refectory,
recourse was had to such huge and obvious loopholes. Hope this is
helpful.
Cheers,
Jim Bugslag
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