The Plan of St. Gall :: :: University of Virginia Library

The first cenobitic monastery, founded around 320 by St.
Pachomius in Tabennisi near Dendera in the Upper Nile
Valley, had at one point in its history between 1,200 and
1,600 monks.[133] Benedictine monasticism reduced these figures
to more manageable proportions. Although the Abbey
of Jumièges, in the seventh century is said to have had as
many as 900 monks,[134] the largest Carolingian monasteries
north of the Alps rarely exceeded a count of 300 monks.
The average number of monks of a transalpine monastery
in the ninth century appears to have ranged between 100
and 150. The following is a list of the approximate number
of monks in certain Carolingian monasteries, based primarily
on the studies of Dom Ursmer Berlière.[135]

The monastery on the Plan of St. Gall can house approximately
110 monks. I arrive at this figure through a count
of the beds that are actually shown on the Plan, adding to
this the number that might be installed in the bedrooms of
houses where they have not been designated. The Dormitory
of the Monks is equipped with seventy-seven beds,[136]
the dormitory in the Abbot's House with eight.[137] There are
five beds in the Porter's Lodging,[138] two in the lodging of the
master of the Outer School.[139] To this must be added an
estimated minimum of twelve beds in the dormitory of the
Novitiate[140] and an estimated three beds in the apartment of
the master of the Hospice for Pilgrims and Paupers. It is
not quite clear from the Plan where the chamberlain slept.[141]
If the gardener was a monk (as he appears to have been),[142]
he would probably also have had with him one or two assistants.
There were at least two physicians, who may also
have been monks.[143] This brings the total of the religiosi to
the estimated 110 monks.

Because of the paradigmatic character of the Plan, these
figures must be looked upon as a reflection of what the assembled
bishops and abbots, in 816 and 817 at the time of
Louis the Pious, considered to be the ideal number of monks
in a monastery. There is no doubt in my mind that the architect
who developed the scheme of the Plan based his work
upon a clearly formulated population plan, as I have demonstrated
earlier,[144] and that he implemented this plan as he
established the dimensions of the individual buildings.

[133]

Boon, 1932, 5 and 17, chap. 15. In the preface to his translation of the
Rule of St. Pachomius, St. Jerome says that there were thirty to forty
houses in one monastery and that each house had an occupancy of
"plus or minus forty" monks.

[134]

Berlière, 1929, 248. Charles W. Jones brings to my attention that the
Northumbrian Abbey of Wearmouth and Jarrow, according to Bede,
had 600 brothers in two cloisters about five miles apart. See Venerabilis
Bedae Opera Historica, I, chap. 18, ed. Plummer, I, 1896, 382-83.

[135]

Berlière, 1929, 231-61, and 1930, 19-42. Allowance must be made
for the fact that Berlière's studies do not extend to the whole of the
Frankish empire. They might, nevertheless, provide a workable average.
I am not repeating here the reference to original sources, which will be
found in Berlière's study.

[136]

On the Dormitory, see above, pp. 249ff.

[137]

On the Abbot's House, see above, pp. 321ff.

[138]

On the Porter's Lodging, see II, 153ff.

[139]

On the Outer School, see II, 144ff.

[140]

On the Novitiate, see above, pp. 311ff.

[141]

On the Hospice for Pilgrims and Paupers, see II, 144ff.

[142]

On the Gardener's House, see II, 203ff.

[143]

On the Physician's House, see II, 178ff.

[144]

For the detailed reckoning, see above, pp. 113-14.