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Vestiary

Above the refectory there is a room of equal size for the
storage of the monks' clothing. It must have been accessible
by an external stairway from the southern cloister walk, but
the Plan is not explicit on this point. As the draftsman chose
to instruct us about the layout of the Refectory, we learn
nothing about the arrangement of the Vestiary above it.
We may imagine that it was equipped with chests, cupboards,
and racks for storage of garments and blankets.

[ILLUSTRATION]

231. ROME. TRAJAN'S COLUMN (A.D. 113)

Bas-relief shows Roman soldiers loading a Danube galley with barrels from an embankment depot near a Roman fort in Northern Dalmatia.
It is the earliest visual representation known attesting replacement of earthenware AMPHORAE with wooden barrels for wine transport.

[ILLUSTRATION]

230. AUGSBURG, GERMANY. ROMAN RELIEF

[after Pignorius, De Servis, 1656, 226]

Discovered in 1601, the panel shows the cellar of a Roman wine
merchant of the Germanic provinces of Rome, with wine barrels being
rolled into position and stored on a ledge.

WHAT CLOTHES THE MONKS ARE TO WEAR

In a chapter dealing with the quantities and the kinds of
clothing that the monks should wear, St. Benedict enumerates
what he considers necessary under ordinary conditions
and advocates a certain amount of flexibility, "for
in cold districts they will need more clothing, and in warm
districts less."[180] The synod of 816 paid great attention to
this question, and in a chapter of substantial length defined
the standard issue of clothing for each monk as follows:
Two shirts (camisias), two tunics (tunicas) two cowls
(cucullas), and two copes (cappas), to each of which might
be added a third one if necessity requires. Further: Four
shoes (pedules), two pairs of hose (femoralia), one frock
(roccum), one fur garment down to the heels (pelliciam usque
ad talos), two head coverings (fasciolas)—two more of the
same in case of a journey—one pair of summer gloves, in
vulgar language called uuantos (manicas quas uulgo uuantos
appellamus in aestate), one pair of winter gloves made of
sheep skin (muffulas ueruicinas), two pairs of day shoes (cal-

[ILLUSTRATION]

232. ROMAN RELIEF. AVIGNON, MUSÈE CALVET

This relief from Cabrières d'Aygues (Vaucluse) showing boatmen towing a wine barrel laden boat with the aid of hawsers tied to the mast. The
earthenware amphorae standing on a ledge above this scene disclose that these more easily breakable containers, while in transport already
replaced by the sturdier oak barrels, were on land still being used for commercial storage.

ciamenta diurna), two night slippers for the summer (subtalares
per noctem in aestate), two night slippers for the winter
inhieme uero soccos), a sufficient amount of soap and unction
(saponem sufficienter et uncturam), all of this to be increased,
if necessity demands, with the consent of the abbot.[181]

Another chapter rules that the clothing must be "of
middling quality, neither too mean, nor too costly" (nec
multum pretiosa sed mediocria),[182] and Bishop Haito, in his
commentary to the preliminary acts of the first synod
specifically rules against "vestments made of goat fur or
hemmed with silk" (capernina uestimenta seu sirico circum-
suta).[183] The abbot wears the same clothes as the regular
monks.[184]

The abbot must see to it that all of the issued garments
fit their wearers properly, and that the monks return
their old clothes as they receive new garments, so that they
can be stored in the Vestiary for distribution to the poor.[185]
A letter dispatched by Abbot Dietmar (778-797) of Monte
Cassino to Count Dietrich informs us that this exchange of
clothing occurred—appropriately enough—on the day of
the feast of St. Martin (November 11) on which the
monks presented themselves in the Vestiary, in solemn
procession, singing psalms and carrying lamps. There, during
the recitation of the Gospel passage, "Take no thought
for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor

[ILLUSTRATION]

233. GALLO-ROMAN STONE RELIEF, LANGERS, FRANCE. MUSÉE SAINT-DIDIER

[Photo after plaster cast in the Musée des Antiquités Nationales, Chateau de Saint-Germain-en-Laye]

A huge wine barrel, being transported on a four-wheeled cart drawn by two mules, shows the same concave curvature at the ends as the TUNNAE
MINORES in the Cellar of the Plan of St. Gall (fig. 225). Judging by the size of the mules drawing the cart, as well as by the height of the body
of its driver, this barrel must have been roughly of the same size as the TUNNAE.

yet for your body, what we shall put on" (Matthew 6:25)
the brothers were issued their new clothing.[186]

Also kept in the Vestiary, in compliance with a stipulation
made in chapter 58 of the Rule of St. Benedict, are the
clothes which a prospective monk wore when he first
arrived at the monastery, and of which he was stripped
before the altar during his formal and solemn reception
into the community. They were held in readiness "should
he ever listen to the persuasions of the devil and decide to
leave the monastery (which God forbid)."[187]