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

The hemina that St. Benedict had in mind probably
came closer to that which was in use under the Romans in
classical times than to any of the later Frankish measures.
This would have entitled the monks to drink a little over a
fourth and perhaps as much as a third of a liter of wine
per day. Whether taken in the course of a single meal or
spaced out over two meals, this amount could hardly have
had any damaging effects on health or have lead to "surfeit"
or "drunkeness," especially not if these meals were
followed, as they traditionally were, by either a brief
period of rest,[238] or by sleep.[239] St. Benedict's assessment
of the quantity of wine that could be safely consumed at
the monks' table was both conservative and judicious. But
in evaluating his ruling historically one must not lose
sight of the fact that when St. Benedict took the epochal
step of sanctioning the consumption of wine for the
monastic community, the issue was as yet a highly controversial
one. Once the decision was made, the frailties of
human nature would tend to push the allowance upward.
From 0.2736 liters to 0.5 liters is not a big step; the less so,
if one considers the great inflation the hemina experienced
as an official capacity measure between the time of St.
Benedict and the time of Louis the Pious. That the daily
monastic allowance would follow this inflationary cycle,
which peaked under Louis the Pious to the impressive
equivalent of 2.12 liters, is impossible to assume. That it
rose to 0.5 liters is probable. There are even some indications
that it might have risen as high as 0.7 liters. A half-liter
of wine per day, if consumed by a healthy man in the
course of two successive meals, could still be interpreted as
lying within the spirit of St. Benedict's ruling; 0.7 liters
would have pushed the Rule to its limit; any amount above
that would have been clearly in violation of the Rule.[240]
My suspicion that the daily allowance of wine might have
risen as high as 0.7 liters at the time of Louis the Pious is
based upon a well known but perhaps not fully explored
passage in the Customs of Corbie, where we are told that in
this monastery each visiting pauper was issued two

300

[ILLUSTRATION]

245. BOOK OF KELLS. DUBLIN, TRINITY COLLEGE LIBRARY. MS 59, fol. 188r

OPENING WORDS OF ST. MARK GOSPELS

[by courtesy of the Trustees of Trinity College]

301

[ILLUSTRATION]

246. PLAN OF ST. GALL

DIAGRAM SHOWING THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE PRINCIPAL BUILDING MASSES

The shape of Church and Claustrum bears striking resemblance to the Quoniam initial of the St. Mark Gospels, Book of Kells (fig. 245).
The building masses grouped around this central motif likewise recall the manner in which secondary letter blocks are ranged peripherally
around the initial. The similarity may be accidental, if not deceptive, since the prime reasons for grouping buildings on the Plan of St. Gall (as
well as the development of the claustral scheme) are clearly funtional. Yet one cannot entirely discard the possibility of an interplay of
functional with aesthetic considerations.

302

[ILLUSTRATION]

247. PLAN OF ST. GALL. NOVITIATE AND INFIRMARY

PLAN. AUTHORS' INTERPRETATION

The circular apses of the double chapel to which the Novitiate and the Infirmary are attached, as well as the round arches of passages and
openings in the walls of the cloister walks (see fig. 236) leave no doubt that this building complex was conceived as a masonry structure. Each
of its two components has all the constituent parts of a monastic cloister (Dormitory, Refectory, Warming Room, Supply Room, lodgings for
supervising teachers and guardians) but since these facilities are strung out on ground floor level rather than in two-storied buildings, this
architectural compound covers a surface area almost as large as that of the Monks' Cloister. It housed in practice probably no more than twelve
novices plus twelve sick or dying monks—together with teachers and guardians not more than thirty individuals.

Differing dietary prerogatives, bathing privileges, and need for special educational and
medical facilities, required that novices and the ill not only be housed apart from regular
monks, but also separated from each other. The Novitiate and Infirmary complex—inspired
by the grandiose centrality and axial bisymmetry of Roman imperial palaces (figs. 240-242)
—is an ingenious architectural implementation of all these needs. Two U-shaped ranges
of rooms around open inner courts, on either side of a church halved transversely, served
a dual constituency with identical, mutually isolated facilities. No doubt the location of
Novitiate and Infirmary was purposeful. Away from the bustle and noise of workshops
and near the open, "parklike" eastern paradise of the Church, the Orchard, and
gardens, its residents might find activities and recreation suited to the returning strength
of the convalescent, or the energies and spirits of the young. Proximity might serve to
remind both ill and novices of beginnings and an end, in view of the great Cemetery cross,
while healing and learning continued in the embrace of the larger community.

303

"beakers" (calices) of beer per day. The context of the
passage discloses that the "beaker" of Corbie was capable
of holding 1/96 of a modius[241] which in the light of the
values established by M. B. Guérard for capacity measures
in use at the time when this text was written (A.D. 822)
would amount to 0.7 liters.[242] The passage does not refer
to wine but to beer; however, the relative value of wine
and beer had been defined in 816 in the first synod of
Aachen, in a chapter which directed that if a shortage of
wine were to occur in a monastery, the traditional measure
of wine should be replaced by twice that volume of beer:
ubi autem uinum non est unde hemina detur duplicem eminae
mensuram de ceruisa bona . . . accipiant.[243] This directive was
promulgated as an imperial law and must have been known
to everyone in the empire.

Truly enough the Customs of Corbie speak of rations to
be issued to the poor, not to the monks, but since from
another chapter of that same text it can be inferred that
monks and paupers are entitled to the same ration of
bread,[244] there is more than a high probability that they
were also granted the same ration of wine or beer. Good
monastic custom would require that an equal amount be
also granted to the serfs. The latter might even have been
issued slightly larger rations because of their involvement
in hard physical labor.

[238]

After the midday meal, see above, p. 250.

[239]

After the evening meal, which was succeeded only by a brief period
of reading and by Compline. See Benedicti regula, chap. 42; ed. Hanslik
1960, 104; ed. McCann, 1952, 100-101; ed. Steidle, 1952, 240-41.

[240]

The effect of wine or beer on man depends on the concentration of
alcohol in the blood, and this in turn is dependent on the manner in
which the intake is spaced out over the day and to what extent the
alcohol is diluted by food. Dr. Alfred Childs, an expert on alcohol in the
School of Public Health of the University of California at Berkeley,
advises me that half a liter of wine, spaced out over two meals, and
allowing for some rest after the midday meal, would not have any
damaging effects although it might well involve some temporary impairment
of cerebration during earlier phases of the period during which the
alcohol is metabolized. Even 0.7 liters, if spaced out over two meals and
diluted by food, Dr. Childs opines, might still be within the safety limits
set by St. Benedict (i.e., neither lead to "surfeit" nor "drunkeness")
but would be pushing it close to the edge of these limits. For an analysis
of the metabolism of alcohol, the mechanism of its toxic effects and its
rational use by healthy persons, see Childs, 1970.

[241]

Consuetudines Corbeienses, chap. 4; ed. Semmler, Corp. con. mon., I
1963, 373; and Jones, III, Appendix II, 105; where it is stipulated that a
quarter of a modius or four sesters of beer be divided daily among twelve
paupers, "so that each will receive two beakers." From this it must be
inferred that there were 96 beakers in a modius (I do not see how Semmler
arrived at the figure of seventy-two. Semmler, 1963, 54). Since in 822
when the Customs of Corbie was written, the official capacity of the
modius was 68 liters, the beaker of Corbie must have been the equivalent
of 0.7 liters. The directive reads as follows: De potu autem detur cotidie
modius dimidius, id sunt sextarii octo, de quibus diuiduntur sextarii quattuor
inter illos duodecim suprasriptos, ita ut unusquisque accipiat calices duos.

[242]

Cf. above, p. 299.

[243]

Synodi primae decr. auth., chap. 20; ed. Semmler, Corp. cons. mon.,
I, 1963, 463. Chrodegang ordered replacement of wine by an equal
amount of beer (chap. 23, Regula canonicorum, ed. J. B. Pelt, Etudes sur
la Cathedrale de Metz IV, La Liturgie, 1, Metz, 1937, 20).

[244]

On the number of loaves of bread and their distribution in the
monastery see Consuetudines Corbeienses, chap. 3; ed. Semmler, Corp.
cons. mon., I, 1963, 375ff; and Jones, III, Appendix II, 106.