Diet Part 3 How they ate

Monastic meals were stylised and meant to be formal and ritualistic. We will investigate what monks ate and drank in other posts. Now let’s try to get a picture of how meals were organised. It is hard to generalise about conduct over many places and monastic traditions over a period as long as 11th to 16th century. However, apart from the Carthusians who ate alone, I believe a single pattern can be observed based on the Rule of St Benedict. I shall be working with this ideal and tracing some deviations which inevitably emerged whether Benedictine or Cistercian communities.

 Meals were taken in the main Frater (sometimes called Refectory). Monasteries were the only places during the Dark and Middle Ages which had a specific eating room. Separate dining rooms did not otherwise appear until the Renaissance villa in Italy. The monastic Frater  was usually situated in the main cloister and opposite the church. Generally large and often impressive architecturally, it was an important place. 

A surviving example is the former Frater of Worcester Cathedral Priory, now used as a hall for the King’s School. It is 120 long by 32 feet wide. 

Interior of King's School Hall, Worcester(from
Worcester Cathedral and Library Archive blog)

Exterior of King's School Hall, Worcester (from
Worcester Cathedral and Library  Archive blog)

The Frater at the great Yorkshire Cistercian Abbey at Rievaulx is 126 feet long and 80 feet high. 

Frater at Rievaulx today (above) and how it may have been
(English Heritage)

More often at ground level in Benedictine, in Cluniac and Cistercian houses there are examples of first floor level, possibly to emulate Christ’s upper room Last Supper.

There was a raised platform at the end opposite the entrance. Here would be the table for the presiding person and the senior members of the institution, plus sometimes guests. The other tables would be placed along the side walls. In one wall was a raised pulpit from which a member of the community would read during the meal. Near to the door to the cloister there would be cupboards for linen and napkins and spoons. The central area in the Frater was often left empty so that all monks around the edges could be seen. The main kitchen was often attached and communication took place through a hatch into the refectory or by a passage. Particularly in Cistercian houses, kitchens would be placed so that the lay brothers’ refectory could also be served from the same kitchen. The lay brothers (or conversi) had their own refectory and would also eat in silence but with no readings. 

 

Procession into dinner

Dinner was the main meal and usually followed High Mass and Sext in tthe Church. Monks would gather in the cloister and wash their hands in the lavatorium just outside the door to the Frater(usually a trough lined with lead with brass taps and drain pipes). At Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire you can see a series of blind arches with stone benches that would have housed lead-lined semi-circular basins each having a tap with running water for washing hands. Then monks would have dried their hands with towels from the towel cupboard in the outer wall of the nearby warming room. 

 

Lavatorium at Fountains (from Cistercians in Yorkshire Project)

They would collect spoons and napkins as they entered and take their places facing inwards at the tables around the wall, leaving space behind them for the servers to supply the food. A monk would likely have his own knife, which he would carry with him. Spoons were more rare and at Westminster they were given out at each meal and collected afterwards. Forks were unknown in British monasteries. Knives, spoons and hands would be used as needed.

 

Grace would be said and then the reading would begin soon after the presider sat down. Silence was expected. The only exception might be if there were guests the presider might speak to them. Usually a passage was read from the Bible (in Latin) eg the four Books of Kings, Job or the Books of Maccabees. None these sound like an aid to digestion....Otherwise it might be a part of the life of a Saint. The reading was to be done slowly but distinctly, repeating any really important passage. Monks had to be quiet during the reading. Courses would follow swiftly one after the other. A bell might be used to have food taken away. 

Refectory of Alcobaca Abbey in Portugal. Note the
amazing reading gallery on left. Closeup below.
From Motorhome Europe blog.

  The ideal monastic meal was like a ritual and we can detect the first instances of table           manners at the time.  However, it is hard to believe that meals were always quiet or               that the reader was audible, particularly as discipline was relaxed in the later Middle             Ages.

 

Convent of Christ, Tomar, Portugal.
Note table arrangement and pulpit

We can get a picture of what went on by the rules which have been recorded. Bear in mind that these rules were not universal.

•  Nuts were not to be cracked with teeth, but eased open with a knife. However if everyone had nuts they could go ahead and crack all together! 
• Monks were to eat their food calmly, cleanly, cheerfully. 
• They should not let their eyes wander. 
• They should not sit chin in hand or put hands across the face. 
• They should sit up straight and keep arms off the table. 
• No wiping of knife on table cloth before wiping it on bread. 
• No wiping of teeth on the tablecloth.

When Gerald of Wales, the famous historian and archdeacon of Brecon, visited Christchurch Canterbury in 1180 he has left us with a vivid description of what went on.

"all of them (sic monks) gesticulating with fingers, hands and arms, and whistling to one another in lieu of speaking, all extravagating in a manner more free and frivolous than was seemly....." I shall return to hand signals in a later post. This was in 1180 the golden monastic period. We can imagine what it may have been like in 1480...

 Generally food was blessed at the meal and leftovers could be given to other people - possibly lay brothers, or the poor who used to gather at the gate. Unblessed food went to dogs or pigs or other animals. After eating monks had to wash hands in the Lavatorium, waiting in the cloister until all had finished. They might then chant the Miserere (Ps 51) on the way to the Church and their next Office. Readers and servers then took their meal. 

Guests of less importance might eat in the lay brother’s refectory, if there was one. A marshal would guard against pilfering, unruly behaviour and items thrown on the floor. Trestle tables would likely be set up after the guests sat down and then removed later.

Our eating arrangements here in St Albans had the  Frater on the north side of the main cloister. I spent some time this summer trying to make out evidence of any outlines, because the unusually dry hot summer suggests the layout of the abbey. 

Imagine monks lining up for dinner

Cloister edge and Abbot's lodging off to the left
against the nave wall.

Sources

Bottomley, F. Abbey explorer’s guide (Otley, 1995)

Braun, H. English abbeys {London, 1971)

Clark, J.G. Benedictines in the Middle Ages (Woodridge, 2011)

Clark, J.G. and Preest, D. eds. Deeds of the Abbots of St Albans (Boydell Press, 2019)

Crossley, F.H. The English abbey 3rd ed, (London,1949)

Freeman, M. St Albans, a history. (Lancaster, 2008)

Goodman, R. et al Tudor monastery farm : life in rural England 500 years ago (London, 2013)

Harvey, B. Living and dying in England, the monastic experience, 1100—1540 (Oxford, 193)

Jones, T. Medieval lives (London, 2004)

Kerr, J. Life in the Medieval cloister (London, 2009)

Kerr, J. Monastic hospitality : the Benedictines in England c1070 to c1250 (Boydell Press)

Knowles, D. Religious Orders in England vol 1-3 (Cambridge, 2008)

Leroux-Dhuys, J-F.  Cistercian abbeys : history and architecture (Cologne, 1998)

McAleavey, T. Life in a Medieval abbey  (London, 1995)

Parry, A. ed. Rule of St Benedict (Leominster, 1990)

Paston-Williams, S. Art of dining : a history of cooking and eating.(Oxford, 1996)

Rosewell, R The Medieval monastery (Oxford, 2011)

Still, M. The abbot and the rule : religious life at St Albans 1290-1349 (Aldershot, 2002)

Strong, R. Feast : a history of grand eating. (London, 2002)

Williams, D.H. The Cistercians in the early Middle Ages (1998)

Woolgar,  Culture of food in England 1200-1500 ( Yale, 2016)

Diet Part 2 - How it worked out

 The well known report by the famous historian and archdeacon of Brecon, Gerald of Wales being entertained at the Benedictine Cathedral Priory of Christchurch Canterbury on Trinity Sunday 1179, he apparently was treated to 16 courses! Such laxity and much worse was happening. Cluniac monks had been eating meat in closed off quarters. Based on practice at  the Abbey in Cluny in the 10th century they had represented a reformed Benedictine monasticism. In later posts we shall explore their contribution to art and performance of the liturgy. Yet here we begin to see suggestions that they had gone to seed. Bernard of Clairvaux certainly thought so. A group of Benedictines from Molesme had broken away and founded what became a new Order at Citeaux (Burgundy) : the Cistercian Order. It was dedicated to strict observance of St Benedict’s Rule. Bernard of Clairvaux arrived at Citeaux in 1110 and was the great founder of the Order which spread very rapidly over Europe. Back to basics : Walter Daniel the monk chronicler spoke of his pound of bread and pint of beans a day at the great Cistercian monastery of Rievaulx in the mid 12th century. Food there could be more bitter than wormwood. 

St Bernard of Clairvaux was very critical of the Cluniacs, accusing Peter the Venerable Abbot of Cluny of commending gluttonous feasting, and damning frugality. As for their food “course after course was brought in. Only meat was lacking and to compensate two huge servings of fish were given. ...the cooks prepared everything with such skill and cunning that the four or five dishes already consumed were no hindrance to what was to follow and the appetite was not checked by satiety, the selection of dishes was so exciting that the stomach did not realise that it was being overtaxed”. Sounds good to me  - but not to Bernard. Further he said “wine and white bread, honey-wine and pittances benefit the mind not the soul. The soul is not fattened out of frying pans." He knew many monks in Egypt had served God for a long time without fish. Pepper, ginger, cumin, sage, and all the thousand other spices might please the palate , but they inflamed lust”. He was very hard on himself and he seems to have suffered from a type of extreme anorexia nervosa. He hardly ate, often turning down food, then being paralysed because of lack of nourishment. At one meal he downed a pot of oil oblivious to its not being wine or water. He stank from stale vomit and must have been a trial to his fellows as he retired to his special place to vomit during services. 

Bernard of Clairvaux (Museum, Palma Majorca)

During the 13th century despite the Cistercian reforms, diet in  Benedictine monasteries still became less stringent. Meat was no longer confined to the Infirmary. The rot had set in long before with lard and suet from quadrupeds.The Abbot or Prior no longer ate in the great refectory and ate in his own dining room.This could include meat. It became customary in some places for him to invite selected monks to dine with him  with meat. He would also have important guests. Perhaps there might be nine persons enjoying four courses. Officeholders in the monastery might also eat with him.. A second dining area began to appear  called a misericord. This would likely be the place where sick monks from the Infirmary dined. This rather furtive arrangement meant that all monks got a chance of meat on a regular basis. The refectory still did not serve meat, except when all the community met together for a major celebration. Remember  by now capons chickens, pigeons were not considered meat and offal was ok too. So there might be served three quarters lb meat per person in the refectory or three lbs in the misericord. Other Orders  were already less vigilant with meat eating : for example the Augustinians specified only when it could not be eaten.

 From about 1150 the Cistercians had taken  pittances on board. They were served at the abbot’s discretion and not on more than two consecutive days. Often supplied  by specific donors they were recorded in a register. By the late 14th century the abbey of Zwettl in Austria had these 98 days in a year.

Then In 1336 Pope   Benedict XII acknowledged the reality and changed the rules and meat was allowed to all monks on 3-4 days a week served in the other dining room or misericord in relays. At least 50% of monks were to still eat in the main refectory. Rather than an innovation, this relaxation was likely to have simply regularised existing practice. Cistercian houses by then had also began to less rigorous in control of diet.

I wish I could go into the kind of recipes used. This would be a huge subject and I am already spending 3 posts on diet! To give you a flavour do watch the little video below taken from a series about Historical Cooking in Italy. It is for Medieval Monk's Stuffed-egg soupa.  If you watch you will hear that I have nota made a spelling mistaka. I found this video informative but the accent is absolutely hilarious. Miles better than Captain Bertorelli in Hallo Hallo.

There were exceptions to the good food lifestyle. At Evesham in Worcestershire, Abbot Roger de Norrys was very hard on his monks, and food was so badly organised that they complained to the Papal Legate in 1213 complaining of no regular beans, no beer and terrible bread. Some had maybe died of starvation.

It was customary to lay out a ration of food for a deceased monk for up to a year. Also perhaps 3 rations for what was called the maundy. .All this food and leftovers .(this would only apply to the general dishes and not the pittances)were given to the poor who might gather outside the abbey gateway on a regular basis

Prior's quarter's at Castle Acre, Norfolk

Abbots had their own catering arrangements since they were given permission to divide the land and income of their abbey between abbot and community. They soon had their own staff and kitchen. They became like local gentry. By the 16th century they were entertaining in the same way as a nobleman. They only dined in the refectory with their monks on great occasions. A great feast given at Islip manor house in 1372 by the Abbot of Westminster  for King Edward III apparently required 77 capons, 165 pullets, 2 pheasants, 5 heron,6 egrets, 6 curlews all live from London, spices ,rice, flour, currants, dates, prunes, sugar, salt, 6 gallons of cream, and much  honey. The gardener also supplied all kinds of soft fruit. Then there was the use of silver goblets, fine linen, plate etc loaned  from the Abbey. Sounds slightly over the top!

By the 16th century the previously called pittances had been taken on board and this accounts for the large number of dishes sometimes recorded. They. might include dumplings, pancakes, cakes, special bread and flans. The original generals (lentil stew etc) would still be be put out but the interest and consumption would concentrate on the more exotic dishes. Flans were very popular especially on big occasions : to make 72 flans it took 10 lb cheese, and 350 eggs.

All through post 1066 England  life was as good in a monastery as anywhere unless you were a noble. You lived in an organised environment, were comparatively well fed and housed, had the best toilets around, all without the stresses of the outside world. By the 16th century discipline had declined and the frugality that St. Benedict had required had been eroded. From the evidence of 274 skeletons of the inmates of Merton Priory,  Bermondsey Abbey and St Mary at Tower Hill we can conclude that their calory intake of 6000 a day (or 4500 when fasting)twice the daily average for a man now, implies they were well fed and likely to become obese. A major study of Westminster Abbey monks came to similar conclusions. In the early 16th Century the average monk got 2 lb meat or fish a day, a gallon of ale and a .5 lb loaf of. Read.. Monks there were taller than lay people and teeth were bad. At Canterbury in 1500 the percentage intake of various foods tells the story : 35% bread,25% ale or wine,17% meat, 6% fish, 8.5 milk eggs cheese, 7% suet, 1% oats, 0.5 % vegetables. In Lent 45% bread,33% ale or wine, more fish and dried fruit 0.5 vegetables.

Food in nunneries does not appear to have been markedly different. In the mid 15th century at the great  Barking Abbey on Martinmas 11 Nov a whole hog was to  serve 3 nuns. The Abbess kitchen had at least 13 pigs, and the cellaress was to have another 9-10 pigs killed at this time.

A very interesting website by Dr Christopher Monk called Monk's Modern Medieval Cuisine is well worth looking at to get more information about cooking in the Middle Ages.

The organisation of the provisions was formidable. In charge was the cellarer who had to manage the largest budget on the monastery, covering the provisioning of food and drink  for  the kitchen, bakehouse and brewery, its storage and keep accounts. He would also have to supervise the servants and lay brethren  to achieve these tasks. He would have a sub cellarer to cover in his absence and to assist with.Then there was the kitchener who was in charge of food production and quality control. Kitchens could be enormous, Although usually rectangular the best surviving example at Glastonbury from 1330-40  is circular. There would also be a pantry, buttery, scullery, and a courtyard for fuel and stores. Food sources would include produce from the monastery local farms as payment. The main local source would be their own gardens or orchard on the premises. This mIght include cabbages, turnips, carrots, peas, onions, beans and herbs. Spices imported from abroad became important and expensive. They implied that the house was a wealthy status symbol. Examples of heavy use are Evesham Abbey and Norwich Priory which spent £5 10 6 on spices  at a fair in Boston. Sugar was very expensive and came from Crete and Spain after the 15 century. Honey was the major sweetener.

The Carthusians were the exception. Their monks spent most of their time in their own cells arranged around cloisters and with their own garden behind. Meals were taken in their cells and passed  to them via a hatch. We saw this arrangement recently in the best preserved Carthusian monastery of Buxheim in Germany. No meat was allowed even for the sick. They were afraid that inmates would feign illness!

 

St Albans seems to have been more disciplined in its diet than many. others. However there were problems building up in the use of a Miserichord (second dining room) in John de Cella's time (1195-1214). This was a parlour chamber where meat and alcohol were taken with no restrictions from the Rule. It appears William of Trumpington (1214-35) reinforced the Rule during his abbacy. John de Hertford (1235-1263) was the first abbot to take his food in his own quarters. He caused controversy over retaining the money for the pittances intended for the sick. His predecessor William had done this first and despite promising to change this after an outside visitation, he still retained them. In line with the rule change by Benedict XII Abbot Michael de Mentmore (1336-1349) decreed that half the monks would have meat in the Oriel or Miserichord (second dining room) one day and the other half the next day. There was to be two plentiful courses of meat or fish. No meat was eaten in the main Refectory. This system was said to be fairer as previously here and at other monasteries there had been favouritism. We had our large Refectory and one in the Infirmary and the Abbot will have had one to entertain his numerous guests. There will have been one for the lay brothers too.

Monks are still being charged with obesity in Thailand in the 21st century- so nothing changes!

Sources

Bottomley, F. Abbey explorer’s guide (Otley, 1995)

Braun, H. English abbeys {London, 1971)

Clark, J.G. Benedictines in the Middle Ages (Woodridge, 2011)

Clark, J.G. and Preest, D. eds. Deeds of the Abbots of St Albans (Boydell Press, 2019)

Crossley, F.H. The English abbey 3rd ed, (London,1949)

Freeman, M. St Albans, a history. (Lancaster, 2008)

Goodman, R. et al Tudor monastery farm : life in rural England 500 years ago (London, 2013)

Harvey, B. Living and dying in England, the monastic experience, 1100—1540 (Oxford, 193)

Jones, T. Medieval lives (London, 2004)

Kerr, J. Life in the Medieval cloister (London, 2009)

Kerr, J. Monastic hospitality : the Benedictines in England c1070 to c1250 (Boydell Press)

Knowles, D. Religious Orders in England vol 1-3 (Cambridge, 2008)

Leroux-Dhuys, J-F.  Cistercian abbeys : history and architecture (Cologne, 1998)

McAleavey, T. Life in a Medieval abbey  (London, 1995)

Parry, A. ed. Rule of St Benedict (Leominster, 1990)

Paston-Williams, S. Art of dining : a history of cooking and eating.(Oxford, 1996)

Rosewell, R The Medieval monastery (Oxford, 2011)

Still, M. The abbot and the rule : religious life at St Albans 1290-1349 (Aldershot, 2002)

Strong, R. Feast : a history of grand eating. (London, 2002)

Williams, D.H. The Cistercians in the early Middle Ages (1998)

Woolgar,  Culture of food in England 1200-1500 ( Yale, 2016)

 

 

Diet Part 1- the intention

 “We are what we eat” (the French author Brillat-Savarin). Let’s try to apply this to a monkish diet. Being a monk implies a modest, controlled diet. But was it always so? The diet laid down by the Rule of St Benedict in the 6th century  was certainly ascetic, but by the 16th century monks were  lampooned as fat and avaricious. We are on a journey from a 6th century  ideal to the excesses of the 16th century. This is sometimes called the Middle Ages. It is outside my scope (and ability) to start before the Norman invasion in 1066 when my namesake Harold Godwin got the arrow in the eye and sadly we have to finish in 1539 with Henry VIII’s land grab. So this post will be looking at the early ideal of monastic diet and part two how and why this changed from the 11th to the 16th centuries.. We will be mainly concerned with Benedictine houses but also bring in trends from some  other  Orders for comparison. 

Refectory at Walsingham today

How can we tell what their diet was like?

•  First there are the rules which are written down and supposed to be followed. The prime example is the 6th century Rule of St Benedict, written for south Italian monks.

• Then there are records from the accounts of individual monasteries. These were  kept by the Cellarer, whose job it was to manage the food supply. 

• There are manor records of supplies sent to the monasteries from their farms.

• Outside visitations to monasteries by local bishops, papal legates  or official inspections by Monastic superiors can  give us evidence of infringements. 

• Excavations of monastic sites can produce food remains, giving vital evidence of what was eaten. Even more revealing are excavated skeletons of the inmates. For example, brilliant research about 3 smaller London houses in the early 16th century and in Westminster Abbey give us a real sense of their lifestyle. It is a long way from the original Rule! 

The 6th  century Rule of St Benedict came from southern Italy and was attuned to their climate. It was intended to support them in  manual work, coping with extreme heat and keep them in good health. It laid down one main meal a day in winter (around midday) and a second smaller one in the early evening of  the longer summer days, from Easter until September. The main meal was to have two cooked dishes - alternatives. A third dish containing raw vegetables might be added. A pound of bread was to be allowed for each monk plus the liquid wine/beer allowance.  No flesh meat except for those in the Infirmary who really needed it to keep up their strength. This was interpreted as no flesh meat from quadrupeds  at first this seemed by some to also include poultry and waterfowl (ducks, swans, geese).This  was not everybody’s view and two legged birds were deemed acceptable to eat in some communities.

Over the 6th to the 11th centuries practices varied across Europe. Meat was eaten sometimes somewhere. The problem with the Rule is that it is not prescriptive and in this lack of clarity (something we hear a lot about in our 21st century world) communities reached their own conclusions. Fish were therefore ok ; fowls have 2 feet so they were ok. This process went on all through our period of study. Fresh meat did not include offal so sausages and fritters were ok.

We should approach it from Benedict’s likely intentions. He specified a frugal diet but he did not want to make life impossible. Some manual work might have been involved in the hot Italian  summer. He made some allowance for this. The sick needed special care. He allowed for that The monastic life he expected was demanding and rigorous. Think of chanting all 150 psalms in a week... A pound of bread is substantial and so was the “liquid bread”(beer) At first it is likely that the main meal was  vegetable or cereal based with some additions of egg, cheese or fish on special occasions. The meat prohibition was also to do with controlling their passions. It was believed that meat aroused the senses - especially the sexual ones. This was one of the justifications of the awful regular bleeding that went on. This could be as often  as 4 times a year, where the  monk would lose several pints of blood  probably removed via a vein or artery in the arm or neck. 

This idea of a connection between what we eat and the senses is not dead. I can remember Stanley Green, an  eccentric who used to go up and down London’s Oxford Street from 1968 to 1993 with a placard and leaflets saying “Less lust  by less protein  ”.

After the Norman Conquest diet was likely more strictly controlled than in the previous Saxon monasteries. It became common to start the day after Prime, the first office of the monastic day, with  a light breakfast (mixtum) of bread and beer. Then the usual pattern of main meal ( which likely featured pulses eg lentil stew, or pottage, or vegetables eg braised cabbage or leeks, and local herbs. Then a lighter supper. 

When Paul de Caen took over the Abbey in 1077 behaviour is said to have been lax and the Rule of St Benedict was invoked to restore good order.

In 1219 the General Chapter of Benedictines was held in St Albans and it addressed dietary obligations. I presume and hope we set a good example at that time! St Albans still maintained the strict application of one meal a day in the winter time. Abbot William of Trumpington (1214-1235)enforced it in the early 13th century.

As other monastic Orders were founded they usually wanted to go back to the so-called original lifestyle. Perhaps most prominent were the  Cistercians in the early 12th century. When the friars started out from  the 1220s they too were ascetic and ate simply. Perhaps they would collect together the foods collected from their begging and concoct a soup. When they got their own buildings they would have had  fresh food from their garden or field. They may not have been entirely veggie because we know Francis encouraged them to have a good plate of meat to celebrate Christmas.

Some Orders followed the Rule of St Augustine of Hippo dating from about 400. The Praemonstratensian canons followed this in 1120 and the Augustinians in 1256. It is not prescriptive but recommends fasting and abstinence in proportion to the strength of the individual. The diet was frugal and probably meatless.

Change came in as increasingly Benedictine meals were supplemented by extra pittances as they were called. A local benefactor might provide for one of these. They were like treats : maybe better white bread, special fish, an egg dish. By this method new recipes were tried out. It was also becoming common to no longer regard the prescribed two main dishes as alternatives. It is easy to see how the number of dishes eaten began to creep up. E.g. 1150 the Abbey at Bury St Edmunds had 35 occasions to have these! But I am straying into part two of this post about Diet…

These are some of the books consulted :

Bottomley, F. Abbey explorer’s guide (Otley, 1995)

Braun, H. English abbeys {London, 1971)

Clark, J.G. Benedictines in the Middle Ages (Woodridge, 2011)

Clark, J.G. and Preest, D. eds. Deeds of the Abbots of St Albans (Boydell Press, 2019)

Crossley, F.H. The English abbey 3^rd ed, (London,1949)

Freeman, M. St Albans, a history. (Lancaster, 2008)

Goodman, R. et al Tudor monastery farm : life in rural England 500 years ago (London, 2013)

Harvey, B. Living and dying in England, the monastic experience, 1100—1540 (Oxford, 193)

Jones, T. Medieval lives (London, 2004)

Kerr, J. Life in the Medieval cloister (London, 2009)

Kerr, J. Monastic hospitality : the Benedictines in England c1070 to c1250 (Boydell Press)

Knowles, D. Religious Orders in England vol 1-3 (Cambridge, 2008)

Leroux-Dhuys, J-F.  Cistercian abbeys : history and architecture (Cologne, 1998)

McAleavey, T. Life in a Medieval abbey  (London, 1995)

Parry, A. ed. Rule of St Benedict (Leominster, 1990)

Paston-Williams, S. Art of dining : a history of cooking and eating.(Oxford, 1996)

Rosewell, R The Medieval monastery (Oxford, 2011)

Still, M. The abbot and the rule : religious life at St Albans 1290-1349 (Aldershot, 2002)

Strong, R. Feast : a history of grand eating. (London, 2002)

Williams, D.H. The Cistercians in the early Middle Ages (1998)

Woolgar,  Culture of food in England 1200-1500 ( Yale, 2016)

 

Fish

My model of Ely Cathedral  : also an Abbey - keeps cropping up in this post

 I guess you think that if monks didn't eat much meat, they must have had plenty of fish. Indeed, there are remains of fishponds around many monasteries. In fact the monkish diet was more varied than this. See this in future posts! I have enjoyed researching this one and hope it inspires you to try more fish - even eels! I have become obsessed with eels. They keep cropping up in this research. I don’t like snakes. Eels are similar and I am reminded of the supermarket here in St Albans 30 years ago which regularly sold  live eels from a tank!

Fish in Monasteries

The 6th century Rule of St Benedict speaks of one meal a day in winter and possibly an additional light supper  in summer (Easter to mid September). By the 11th century or earlier Festive occasions warranted little extra courses known confusingly as pittances. We think of a pittance as a small or inadequate amount of money. Pittances began in monasteries as a bequest left by someone to provide extra food at a particular time. We should also remember that there were over 100 feast days and saints days in a year. The Rule prohibited the eating of flesh meat. This could only be waived in cases of the very weak and sick. When I eventually post about meat eating we shall see that it was the general trend for Orders to begin very hardline and gradually relax their discipline. This is not surprising because St Benedict was writing for monks in southern Italy with  its different climate. For example the Cistercians began in the 12th century with no fish eating but later it was a major staple of their diet.

Franciscans fishing in a painting from 1880 by Walter Dendy Sadler called "Thursday 1880"Photo @Tate Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND (3.0 unported) For more info click here

 

Therefore fish became a popular option for all the Orders and it became customary on Fridays, Saturdays and Wednesdays and all six weeks of Lent for much of the Middle Ages. The Cistercians, so stringent in their discipline, had widely taken to fish before the end of the 12th century and into  the 13th.Outside the monasteries lay people could usually only get salted and pickled herrings and dried cod which was stiff as a board. Monasteries enjoyed much more varied and exotic offerings as we shall see.  At the abbey in Westminster by the early 16th century fish was served on as many as 215 days a year. On Fridays there would be 2 main fish dishes, and on other fish days perhaps three fish dishes. Winchester Abbey monks consumed fish for 165 of 278 days (59%) from 12 Dec 1514 to 19 Aug. 1515. These may have been exceptional but give some idea of how important fish had become in the monkish diet. Generally fish were used for the main meal rather than the pittances. The latter is where shellfish like cockles, mussels, whelks or oysters would be served. Splendid fish like pike, sturgeon and turbot might appear at major feasts, or for visitors.  We are able to build up a picture of how it worked through the evidence left in the accounts of the cellarer (in charge of food and drink)found in some monasteries and manorial records. Also critical comments left after visitations (our Abbot Thomas de la Mare (1349-1396)made many visits to other monasteries inspecting and reporting on disciplinary lapses). Finally, there is the evidence from excavated food remains on monastic sites and from the diet and health of monks derived from skeletons found.eg Westminster.

What would be on the menu?

The abbot’s kitchen would be dealing with the more fancy or rare fish  especially for visitors. The monks might get some of these rarities as a pittance rather than a main dish. For example conger eel would be a treat to monks but not so in the abbot’s kitchen. Helpings were likely larger than we would expect - perhaps 1.5 lb of fish per person compared to 1.25-0.5 lb in restaurants today. 

Here are some sample dishes::

Red Herring with mustard

Eel with pepper, cumin and saffron

Eel tart

Douce tygre (fish in sweet and sour sauce)

Oysters in cevey (stewed in wine)

Dressed crab (blended with vinegar, ginger, cinnamon, sugar and wine and served hot)

(For more ideas see a wonderful little book about Evesham Abbey : Flans and Wine : food cookery in a medieval monastery by Brother William of Berneslei : translated by David Snowden)

How did they get the fish?

I will now explain how such a lot of fish could have reached the monkish table. Fish could come from local rivers or the coast where the monastery had fishing rights. It could  be handed over as a gratuity or a payment in place of a tithe or toll. Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire had fishing rights on Malham Tarn. It also had rights on the River Tees which it shared with Rievaulx Abbey. These were Cistercian foundations and the fishing would have been done  by the conversi (lay brothers). They might also do the drying and salting. Evidence of this of this has been found in the Oldstead Grange (monastic farm) at Byland Abbey in Yorkshire. At St Albans there were rights along the Ver to near Park Street and the natural lakes, still popular today. The prior of  St Alban’s daughter house at Tynemouth (the mouth of the river Tyne near Newcastle), built a port for fishing and trading. The abbey at Chester had a boat on the Dee and a ship with 10 nets off the island of Anglesey for some of their supply. St Dogmaels near Cardigan in Wales had fishing rights on the nearby River Teifi  or from monastic fishponds. Some fish might be fresh from either source but most would be cured some way before or after  purchase.

 I was born in the Fens in East Anglia and here much of the land was very low or under water with amazingly abundant fish of many kinds. Contemporaries were staggered by the amount of fish  there. The Abbots of Ramsey and Thorney made agreements between themselves about local fishing rights. Matters were not always cordial with secular landowners and in a legal dispute with a local lord of the manor, the Abbot of Crowland was found guilty of trespass and fined heavily.The Cathedral/Priory at Ely had an unusual way of obtaining fish. Locals would pay their dues to the priory with fresh eels in “Sticks” of eels. (25 per Stick).This may be the origin of the name Ely. Nor was this unique : the Upwell/Outwell area outside Wisbech (Cambridgeshire) paid Ramsey Abbey 60,000 eels a year! Castle Acre Priory in Norfolk received 2000 eels from nearby Methwold.

Primitive ways of catching eels

Nets for catching eels

Monasteries would seek supplies at markets or use suppliers who brought goods to them. At Westminster in the later Middle Ages the cellarer would perhaps go down to the city market every day.   The fish he bought would likely come from the fishing grounds off Kent and Essex. Much of it was brought into Queenhythe a small islet in the Thames and processed there (pickled, salted, or smoked). It was hard to transport fresh fish very far inland and monasteries near the sea must have had an advantage. E.g. Tynemouth. Even so I have read that Syon Abbey in West London had fish from Scarborough in Yorkshire and Iceland!

Fishponds

There was a popular view that most of the fish consumed in monasteries came from their own fishponds. It is now believed that the first fishponds were founded by secular landowners. Monasteries found them useful and they became common by the end of the 12th century. Some early examples were in fact gifts from local laity. It is clear that these ponds could seldom have provided enough fish to support a monastery. The idea that there was surplus  for selling on to outsiders is now discounted. They were like store cupboards used to provide stocks of particular fish  for special occasions or visitors. (Rather like posh fish restaurants keep fish in a tank for customers to choose). It is likely that the sea   provided more fish for the monasteries  than freshwater rivers and lakes and ponds least of all. Fishponds were costly to build and maintain and might involve negotiation or disputes with local landowners. Cistercian foundations in their remote locations would have found it less hassle to start fishponds than the older Orders in their more populated or urban environment. Canterbury and Glastonbury had only one pond each but the Augustinian Maxstoke Priory in Warwickshire had eight inside the precinct and two more outside. Ponds could also be associated with local granges (farms owned by the monastery) and were run by lay folk. All ponds should be flushed out regularly and this had to be assured by a local water supply and good management from the monastic community. For example bream and pike had a 5 year growth cycle and required  a cleaning of the pond every five years. 

Fishpond today at Waltham Abbey

Fishing at Waltham Abbey

Ponds were stocked with fish  through gifts, purchases or transfer from other ponds within the estate. For example King Henry III in the mid 13th century  gave grants to certain abbots to have fish from the royal ponds. Prior More at Worcester bought nearly 6500 eels  between 1518 and 1524. Apparently 50 eels cost 1d and up to 1400 could be supplied at  a time! Eel fishing could be very successful and they were often trapped at night when they went off to their spawning ground, by being trapped in a water mill, weir or water meadow.

 It was common for monasteries to have mill ponds. These were a body of water, often constructed through the building of a dam or weir across a stream. They were then used like a reservoir to power a water mill. Stoneleigh Abbey at Crayfield in Warwickshire housed perch, bream roach and pickerel in the 1380s. At some time in the later Middle Ages the Abbey watermills in St Albans along the Ver provided 1000 eels a year.We had several fishponds here at St Albans along the southern side of the Ver and it is possible that a building on the site of the Fighting Cocks pub was used for fishing tackle.Today the river Ver is much smaller and more like stream. The recently constructed bypass sluice near the Fighting Cocks  reminds us of the importance of the mill.

Views around the Fighting Cocks,
St Albans

The Cistercians regarded fish as “river fruit” and there is a great example of a pond system at Maulbronn in south Germany. The unique system there has 20 reservoirs and ponds, of which three remain today. The fish raised were mainly eels, pike and carp ; also tench, bass and roach.

From the Baroque period there are examples of ornamental fishponds in monasteries in the Holy Roman Empire. Eg Wessobrunn in Bavaria on left below seen last years and Kremsmunster in  Lower Austria which I hope to see one day!

Types of fish eaten 

From my researches I have found mentions of the following : (bear in mind availability would  vary over the country)

Barbel,,Bream,Carp,Chub,Cockles,Cod,CongerEel,Dace,Eel,Flounder,Grayling,Gudgeon,Herring,Lamprey,Mackerel,Minnow,Mullet,Mussels,Oysters,Perch,Pickerel,Pike,Plaice,,Roach,Ruff,Salmon,Seal,Skate,Sole,Sturgeon,Tench,Turbot,Whelks,Whitebait,

Whiting.

In some places barnacle geese and puffins counted as fish because they were created at sea, also beavers!

Conservation of Fish

Fish consumed in monasteries was mostly cured : fresh fish was more rare. So how were they conserved? The use of salt was critical. It was used as preservative, and flavour enhancer.The salting process meant that the fish were covered in salt which absorbed the  water in the fish, and this prevented growth of bacteria and fungi. It also slows down the oxidisation process and the fish from becoming rancid. There were many types salt available. The finer ones worked quicker. Lighter salting or powdering was used for short term preservation. The aim was  to make the salt act like a dry cure. It could be combined with smoking

Rock salt was plentiful in Cheshire and Worcestershire. At Nantwich streams were diverted and the salt water was collected and boiled in flat pans with a protein eg. ox blood which collected impurities that could be skimmed off later. The evaporated water was put through wicker baskets, dried and loaded onto a pack horse.  Pack trains distributed salt around the country. The salt would be in cones, and pieces had to be chipped off. It was not until the 19th century that an additive made the salt free running. There was  sea salt gathered in the Fens and processed in shallow pans. 

Salt was expensive because it was taxed in other countries. Then by the late Middle Ages fish farming had developed leading to more sea vessels and more salt to preserve the fish. 

Salt was useful in other ways. At Winchester in 1305 the butter produced in the abbey used 1 lb salt to 10lb of butter : ie 10% compared to today’s 2%!

Dried and salted fish might be bought annually in large amounts by some monasteries.

Smoked fish had to be lightly salted first. In our climate this was necessary to keep bacteria under control. Drier places could preserve fish by air drying and were able  to smoke fatty foods with no further help.A smoking house for fish has been excavated at Byland Abbey in Yorkshire. Salt cod and herrings were very popular. To process herrings, they were first gutted, opened out and laid in layers separated by coarse salt in barrels. This drew the juice out of the fish, and mingling with  the salt  became brine. Twelve of these might be packed tightly in a small watertight barrel.

Cod would be cleaned and filleted and both sides rubbed with dry salt and then hung up to air dry. The moisture dripped out, flesh dehydrated and bacterial activity slowed down. This made the fish extremely hard and to be used it hard to be soaked for 24 hours with changes of water to remove salt and rehydrate it. We  can still see this process today in the salt cod (Bacalao) so beloved by the Spanish and Portuguese.

Piles of Bacalao for dinner