V.17.1
ANIMAL HUSBANDRY:
AN INTRINSIC
PART OF THE MONASTIC ECONOMY
The presence on the Plan of St. Gall of a vast array of
houses for livestock and poultry and their keepers may at
first seem puzzling in view of the monks' essentially vegetarian
diet. It becomes a less surprising phenomenon,
however, when one considers that, although meat was categorically
interdicted to the monks themselves by a rule
that left no margin for ambiguity, it was permitted to
the serfs and workmen, who outnumbered the monks, and
even to the monks themselves in times of sickness and
during the period of bloodletting.[594]
But there are other
reasons, and probably more important ones, why the raising
of livestock was a necessary part of the monastic
economy. Animals were needed for hauling and riding.
Without horses and oxen harnessed to plows and carts,
the serfs could neither have tilled the soil nor brought in
the harvest. Saddle horses were an indispensable means of
transportation for the abbot or any other monastic official
whose business took him onto the monastery's outlying
estates. Horses had to be raised for the king as an annual
contribution to the common defense, and horses had to be
kept in readiness for the armed men whom the monastery
was required to dispatch to the king's army in times of
war.[595]
Cows, sheep, goats, and pigs were slaughtered for their
meat, and from the Liber benedictionum of Ekkehart we
learn that the cuts of meat from these animals were as
cherished in his day on the tables of those who could
afford them as they are today.[596]
But cows, goats, and sheep
also produced milk, a more important product, because it
was used to make cheese—a staple in everyone's diet.
Sheep's wool was indispensable for making coats and
blankets. Leather was made from the hides of oxen. The
skin of the calf and the lamb yielded a commodity that was
of prime importance for the monastery's religious and
educational mission: parchment. The quill used in writing
the sacred texts came from the wings of geese.
The meat of poultry, as has already been pointed out,
was not subject to the same restrictions as the meat of
quadrupeds. The second synod of Aachen (817) granted
it to the monks for a period of eight days on each of the
great religious feasts of Christmas and Easter. Later the
number of days was reduced to four on each of these
occasions.
[597]
For the rest of the year, when consumption was
prohibited, hens were of vital importance for their capacity
to produce eggs—a year round staple in the monastic diet
and one of its most important sources of protein. For egg
production alone, the raising of poultry was bound to be
one of the most important aspects of monastic animal
husbandry, and the polyptichs and household accounts from
medieval abbeys abound with records of supplementary
deliveries of eggs, chickens, and hens (
ova, pulli et gallinae)
from the abbey's outlying farms.
[598]
Lastly we must not overlook the fact that these animals
provided the only good fertilizer that was known to the
medieval agriculturalist and one that made a vital contribution
to the enrichment of the community's crop and
harvest.
It becomes quite clear then, that despite the monks'
essentially vegetarian diet, the monastery as a self-sustaining
economic and agricultural entity could not forego
the need to raise livestock and poultry in quantities commensurate
with the number of men whom it had to clothe
and feed. In the spring, summer, and autumn the majority
of monastic animals were unquestionably put out to pasture.
For that reason, the houses for livestock and their
keepers shown on the Plan of St. Gall are likely to define
only that space which was needed to stable the animals
kept under roof and shelter during the harsh winter months
in order to insure the propagation of the species. The
costliness of stall feeding demanded that this be done with
discretion. A thirteenth-century directive recorded in the
cartulary of Gloucester Abbey rules that "no useless and
unfertile animals are to be wintered on hay and forage"
(quod nulla animalia inutilia et infructuosa hyementur ad
consumptionem foeni vel foragii) and the text makes it clear
that exceptions to this ruling should be made only with
regard to such useful and deserving animals as the plow
oxen and breeding cows (talia scilicet de quibus non credatur
posse nutriri aliquis bos utilis ad carucas vel vacca competens
ad armentum).[599]
The directive reflects a general condition
of medieval animal husbandry that pervaded all social
strata and the whole of medieval life, with only minor
variations on the highest levels.
The importance of animal husbandry is eloquently
attested by St. Fructuosus in the ninth chapter of his
Galician Rule. As noted in the translation by Barlow, this
chapter does not appear in the Fructuosan Rule for other
areas, presumably because (as Fructuosus acknowledges)
then, as now, Galicia required "more work on the soil than
any other land" and the monk in whose charge lay the
pasturing of livestock needed not only firm direction but
also moral support:
"Those who accept the charge of attending the livestock of the
monastery should show such concern for them that they will not
cause any harm to the crops, and they should be watched so carefully
and so astutely that they will not be devoured by wild beasts,
and they should be kept away from steep and rocky mountains and
inaccessible valleys, so that they will not slip over a precipice. But,
if any of the above-mentioned negligent deeds happens because of
inattention or lack of care on the part of the shepherds, they shall
straightway throw themselves at the feet of their elders and, as
though deploring great sins, shall for a considerable time suffer
penance worthy of such a fault. . . . The flocks are to be placed in
the charge of a monk who is well-proved, who was trained to this
sort of work while in the world, and who desires to guard the flocks
with such good intention that never the slightest complaint comes
from his lips. They may have younger ones assigned them by turns
to share their labor. They may have sufficient clothing and covering
for the feet. One monk, such as we have mentioned, shall be responsible
for this service, so as not to inconvenience all the monks
in the monastery. But since some who guard the flocks are accustomed
to complain and think they have no reward for such
service when they cannot be seen praying and working in the
congregation, let them harken to the words of the Rules of the
Fathers . . . recognizing the examples of the Fathers of old, for the
patriarchs tended flocks, and Peter performed the duties of a
fisherman, and Joseph the Just, to whom the Virgin Mary was
espoused, was a carpenter. Accordingly, they have no reason to
dislike the sheep which have been assigned to them, for they shall
reap not one but many rewards. Their young shall be refreshed,
their old shall be warmed, their captives redeemed, their guests and
strangers entertained. Besides, most monasteries would scarcely
have enough food for three months, if there existed only the daily
bread in this province, which requires more work on the soil than
any other land. Therefore, one who is assigned this task should
happily obey and should most firmly believe that his obedience
frees him from all danger and prepares him for a great reward
before God, just as the disobedient one suffers the loss of his
soul."[600]
The total area set aside for animal husbandry on the
Plan of St. Gall takes up more than one-fourth of the
monastery site. It accommodates six houses for the larger
breeds and two enclosures for poultry, as well as the living
rooms and bedrooms needed for their keepers. The stables
for the larger animals are concentrated in a large service
yard lying to the south and west of the claustrum; the
houses for the poultry are in the southeast corner of the
monastery site, between the vegetable garden and the
granary.