III.2.3
NOVITIATE
LAYOUT OF THE CLOISTER
A hexameter written clockwise into the open space of the
cloister yard of the Novitiate informs us:
Hoc claustro oblati pulsantib· adsociantur[269]
In this cloister the oblates live with the
postulants
The oblati were youths offered to the monastery by their
parents.[270]
The pulsantes, literally "those who knock" (i.e., insist
on being admitted despite initial rejection and deliberate
discouragement) are novices on probation. The Rule of St.
Benedict prescribes a probation period of one year for each
novice.[271]
The cloister walks (porticus) with their arcaded galleries
enclosing an open pratellum or garden repeat on a smaller
scale the layout of the cloister of the regular monks. In both
there is no direct communication between adjacent rooms;
each opens separately onto the corresponding section of the
cloister walk. The designs of the arcades and the layout of
the pratellum are identical, and both elevations show in vertical
projection three arcades on either side of a central
passageway, a square area in the center of the pratellum with
a circle, which (to judge by analogy with the same symbol in
the monks' cloister) indicates the position of a savin tree in
the cloisters of the novices.
The cloister walks, in turn, give access to a U-shaped
tract of buildings, containing on the west a refectory
(refectorium) and a storeroom (camera); on the east, a
dormitory (dormitorium) and a warming room (pisalis); and
on the south, a sick room (infimort domus) and the apartment
for the master of the novices (mansio magistr eort).
Like the warming room of the regular monks, the warming
room of the novices is heated by a hypocaust with firing
chamber (camin') and smoke stack (exitus fumi). The sick
ward and the lodging of the master are heated with corner
fireplaces and have separate privies (exitus), each with two
seats. The dormitory has a privy (neces̄s̄) with six seats. The
beds for the novices are not shown on the Plan. If they were
placed in single file along the four walls of the room, there
would have been space for twelve beds; if they were
arranged in alternating sequence, parallel and at right angles
to the wall, the room could have accommodated about
twenty novices. Twelve is the number prescribed by Abbot
Adalhard of Corbie[272]
as the normal contingent of pulsantes
for the monastery of Corbie, and this may reflect a general
condition.
NOVICES AND THEIR SUPERVISORS
Hildemar[273]
classifies the youths of the monastery as
"children" (infantes), "boys" (pueri), and "adolescents"
(adolescentiores) according to their respective ages: "children"
up to the age of seven, "boys" from the age of seven
to fourteen, "adolescents" from the age of fourteen to
twenty-eight. Since every ten novices, according to Hildemar,[274]
had to have three to four supervisors with them at
all times, the Novitiate must have housed, along with the
novices, four or five regular monks. Some of those must
have slept in the Dormitory of the Novices. Others may have
shared the quarters of the master of the Novitiate. That the
latter was not the sole occupant of his apartment is suggested
by the size of his room and the fact that his privy has
two toilet seats. But the master's room could never have
held more than four or five beds besides his own. I call
attention to the interesting observation that the maximum
number of beds which could be installed in the novitiate
(twenty-six) does not exceed the seating capacity of the
chapel (twenty-eight), but is, rather, slightly below it.[275]
DIET AND CLOTHING
The abbot was responsible for the novices' food and
clothing. He had to provide them with fish, milk, and butter
and even with meat on the days of the higher religious
feasts. The younger boys received larger portions than the
adolescents. From the age of fifteen on, the novices renounced
meat entirely and their diet conformed to that of
the regular monks.[276]
Once each week, or at least once a
month, the youths were taken out into the open for games
and other forms of physical exercise.[277]
A complete account
of their clothing is given by Adalhard of Corbie:
These are what should be given to our aforesaid clerical canons who
have the special title of "knockers": in clothing, two white tunics
and a third of another color and four hose, two pairs of breeches,
two felt slippers, four shoes with new soles costing seven pence at
the cobblers, two gloves, two mufflers. These they receive every
year, but a cope of serge and fur and a mantle or bedcloth, or a
blanket, in the third year. All these should be taken from the
clothing which the brothers return when they receive new. And
they should select from the stock those garments which they think
are most useful to them. The other cowled garment—the tunic or
the cowl of serge from which the tunic can be made—will be issued
at the discretion of the prior.[278]
Adalhard also informs us that at Corbie some novices
were attached for special duty to other buildings: three to
the infirmary, one to the monks' laundry, and one to the
abbot's house.[279]
