THE MONKS' DIET
St. Benedict prescribes that every meal of the monks
"should have two cooked dishes, on account of individual
infirmities, so that he who perchance cannot eat of the one,
may make his meal of the other . . . and if any fruit or
young vegetables are available, let a third be added.
(Sufficere credimus ad refectionem cotidianam tam sextae quam
nonae omnibus mensis cocta duo pulmentaria propter diuersorum
infirmitatibus, ut forte, qui ex illo non potuerit edere,
ex alio reficiatur . . . et si fuerit, unde poma aut nascentia
leguminum, addatur et tertium).[141]
Hildemar, in commenting
on this chapter, points out that in contrast to the biblical
tradition where the term pulmentum is used for a considerably
broader range of dishes (including meals made of
venison), it is applied by St. Benedict exclusively to cooked
dishes made "of vegetables, of cheese and eggs, and of
flour" (de oleribus, de caseo et ovis et de farina). He adds to
this that if the term is used without the qualifying adjective
coctum it refers to uncooked dishes, "in which something is
added to bread to make it better eating such as cheese, the
leaves of leek [greens in general?] or egg, or other similar
things" (quidquid pani adijicitur, ut melius ipse panis
comedatur, sicuti est caseum et folia porrorum et ovum et
cetera his similia). Each monk was allowed a pound of
bread per day—St. Benedict calls it a "weighed pound"
(
panis libra una propensa), i.e., a quantity of bread whose
mass was controlled by weighing it on the scales rather
than by the estimate of the baker or servers.
[142]
On days on
which two meals were served, one third of this allowance of
bread was to be put aside for the evening meal.
"Except the sick who are very weak, let all abstain
entirely from the flesh of four-footed animals" (Carnium
uero quadripedum omnimodo ab omnibus abstineatur comestio
praeter omnino deuiles egrotos). St. Benedict states his views
about the inadmissibility of meat from quadrupeds clearly
enough, but frustrates his modern readers by not giving any
reasons for this injunction. His ninth-century commentator
Hildemar fortunately comes to aid in this matter: "It is on
account of its pleasurable taste, not because of the number
of feet that monks are known to abstain from the meat of
four-footed animals" (et ideo propter suavitatem gustus, non
propter numerum pedem abstinentes et poenitentes a carnibus
abstinere noscuntur) . . . "For the desires of the flesh are
more easily aroused where greater delight and pleasure is
encountered in the food (eo quod stimuli carnis magis solent
insurgere ubi major dulcedo et major suavitas gustus in cibum
percipitur). He points to the example set by Christ and by
the apostles, as well as by leading monastic authorities "of
none of whom we read in scripture or in Church history
that they ate any meat other than fish"; and concludes his
argument with a quotation from the fifth book of the
institutae patrum, where it is said that "the food of the
monks must be such as to contribute to the sustenance of
life, but not such as to arouse the desires of flesh and to
subminister to vice" (ut ille cibus debeat esse monachorum,
qui sustentationem tribuat vitae, non ille, qui occasionem
concupiscentiis et vitiis subministrat).[143]
The consumption of fowl was a controversial matter on
which St. Benedict had failed to express himself. This was
interpreted by many to mean that he condoned it. The
reform movement of Benedict of Aniane attempted to
eliminate the uncertainties that arose from this lack of
specific legislation, but the directives issued at Aachen
contradict, even annul, each other. The synod of 816 barred
the consumption of poultry, except in case of sickness (Ut
uolatilia intus forisue nisi pro infirmitate nullo tempore
comedant).[144]
The council of 817 admitted it for the great
feasts of Christmas and Easter for a period of eight days
each (Ut uolatilia in Natiuitate Domini et Pascha tantum
octo diebus si fuerit unde aut qui uoluerit comedant).[145]
A later
capitulary reduced this span to four days.[146]
A second controversial issue taken up at Aachen concerned
the question whether St. Benedict, in barring the
flesh of quadrupeds from the monks' table, also eliminated
the use of fats extracted from these creatures. Since his own
monastery, Monte Cassino, lay in one of the richest olive-producing
regions of Italy, it is probable, as Semmler has
pointed out,[147]
that this question did not even enter his
mind. North of the Alps, where olive oil was not available
in sufficient quantity to satisfy the needs of the monks'
kitchen, animal fats became a basic necessity.[148]
Benedict
of Aniane, after initially barring its use in the kitchen of his
own monastery, eventually felt himself constrained to
rescind this order.[149]
The synod of 816 adopted this more
moderate view and formally permitted the use of animal
fats for cooking, except on Fridays, the twenty days before
Christmas, and the period between Sunday Quinquagesima
and the feast of Easter.[150]
This custom was universally
adopted, with the exception of Adalhard of Corbie,
who retained the position that fat from quadrupeds was
meat and therefore subject to St. Benedict's injunction.[151]
The Rule permitted each monk a hemina of wine per day,
and the synod of 816 expanded this allowance, so when
wine was not available in sufficient quantity, it could be
replaced by twice its measure in beer.[152]
The diet of the monk thus consisted of bread, a variety of
dishes made of pulse, fresh vegetables and fruit when in
season, a good measure of wine or beer, poultry at certain
periods of the year, every variety of fish, and of course the
entire gamut of dairy and poultry products such as milk,
cheeses, and eggs. The Consuetudines Sublacenses contains
a paragraph from which we may learn what, at the time of
its writing, was considered a typical monastic menu:
But today in the monastery of Subiaco this custom is followed:
when there are two meals a day, namely on Sunday, Tuesday, and
Thursday, at the midday meal a course (ferculum) of chickpeas (de
ciceribus) and of earth products (tellerinis) as well as a custard (subtestum)
of eggs, cheese, and milk, and also fruits which are in season
are put on the table. And on the same days, for the evening meal, a
fried dish (una frictura) of eggs, or two fresh eggs prepared some
[ILLUSTRATION]
225. PLAN OF ST. GALL. CELLAR AND LARDER
SAME SIZE AS ORIGINAL (1:192)
The monastery's supply of wine and beer is stored on the ground floor of a building 40 by 87½ feet, the upper story of which serves as Larder.
The Cellar accommodates five large and nine small barrels, with a storage capacity so calculated as to insure that each member of a community
of approximately 300 men, could be issued one HEMINA of wine per day.
The cultural history of wine and its containers is fascinating. The prehistoric homeland of the grapevine (VITIS VINIFERA) were the wooded
regions extending from the Caucasus to the mountains of Thrace. At the beginning of historic times viticulture was already so widely diffused in
the Near East as to make it impossible to ascribe its inception to any particular country (Lutz, 1922, 1ff). In pre-dynastic Egypt vineyards
were planted to produce as a royal luxury funerary wines for its rulers. The liquid was stored in earthenware jars smeared inside with resin or
bitumen for better preservation and also to improve its taste. These jars, almost identical in shape with those later used by the Greeks and
Romans (fig. 226), had pointed bottoms and either rested in the ground or were set into wooden stands or stone rings. To store larger quantities,
the Hittites and the Romans increased the jar size to impressive dimensions (figs. 227-228).
Certain Greek authors were convinced that the culture of vines came to Greece from Asia Minor, together with Dionysios, a deity of Asiatic
descent. The grapevine may first have been introduced to the Romans by the Etruscans who came to Italy from Central Anatolia around 900
B.C. (Forbes, 1956, 128).
Greek colonists, after founding Marseille around 600 B.C., imported wine into the territory of the Celts, who made a major contribution to
viticulture through invention of the wooden barrel (figs. 229-234). Propagated by the Gallic Celts, and by the Romans after the conquest of
Gaul, viticulture penetrated north along the Rhône and the Saöne Rivers and through the Belfort Gap into the Moselle and Rhine valleys
(Forbes, 1956, LOC. CIT.). The use of wine in the sacraments, as well as the solemn homage paid it by Christ himself, conferred upon wine a
prestige that in the Middle Ages led to an extraordinary proliferation of vine growing north of the Alps. St. Benedict's allowance of one
HEMINA of wine per day lent impetus and authority to the planting of vineyards and production of wine in monastic life.
On the layout of the Cellar by modular grid, see fig. 70, p. 102; on the storage capacity of the Cellar and wine consumption, see fig. 235, p. 186
other way with a bit of cheese. On different days different courses
should be prepared, for example, a course of beans (
fabae) or peas
(
pisellae) or cabbages (
caulae) and so forth and afterward fresh
cheese with leftovers (
recocta) or fishes with fruits in season. For
dinner a cooked course with cheese and fruits. . . .
[153]
Apples, or any other fruit that is eaten raw, were divided
equally among the brothers by the cellarer and laid out on
the tables before the monks were seated.[154]
Outside the
regular mealtime the eating of fruit or any other sort of
fresh vegetables was forbidden.[155]
