Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/45

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 CLOISTER (Latin, claustrum ; French, cloitre ; Italian, ckiostro ; Spanish, claustro ; German, Hosier). The word &quot; cloister,&quot; though now restricted to the four-sided enclosure, surrounded with covered ambulatories, usually attached to conventual and cathedral churches, and some times to colleges, or by a still further limitation to the ambulatories themselves, originally signified the entire monastery. In this sense it is of frequent occurrence in our earlier literature (e.g., Shakespeare, Meas. for Meas., i. 3, &quot;This day my sister should the cloister enter&quot;), and is still employed in poetry. The Latin claustrum, as its derivation implies, primarily denoted no more than the enclosing wall of a religious house, and then came to be used for the whole building enclosed within the wall. To this sense the German &quot; kloster &quot; is still limited, the covered walks, or cloister in the modern sense, being called &quot; kloster-gang,&quot; or &quot; kreuz-gang.&quot; In French, as with us, the word cloitre retains the double sense. In the special sense now most common, the word &quot; cloister &quot; denotes the quadrilateral area in a monastery or college of canons, round which the principal buildings are ranged, and which is usually provided with a covered way or ambulatory running all round, and affording a means of communication between the various centres of the eccle siastical life, without exposure to the weather. According to the Benedictine arrangement, which from its suitability to the requirements of monastic life was generally adopted in the West, one side of the cloister was formed by the church, the refectory occupying the side opposite to it, that the worshippers might have the least annoyance from the noise or smell of the repasts. On the eastern side the chapter house was placed, with other apartments belonging to the common life of the brethren adjacent to it, and, as a common rule, the dormitory occupied the whole of the upper story. On the opposite or western side were generally the cellarer s lodgings, with the cellars and store-houses, in which the provisions necessary for the sustenance of the confraternity were housed. In Cistercian monasteries tho western side was usually occupied by the &quot; domus cou- versorum,&quot; or lodgings of the lay-brethren, with their day- rooms and workshops below, and dormitory above. The cloister, with its surrounding buildings, generally stood 011 the south side of the church, to secure as much sunshine as possible. A very early example of this disposition ia seen in the plan of the monastery of St Gall (, . ). Local requirements, in some instances, caused the cloister to be placed to the north of the church. This is the case in the English cathedrals, formerly Bene dictine abbeys, of Canterbury, Gloucester, and Chester, as well as in that of Lincoln. Other examples of the north ward situation are at Tintern, Buildwas, and Sherborne. Although the covered ambulatories are absolutely essential to the completeness of a monastic cloister, a chief object of which was to enable the inmates to pass from one part of the monastery to another without inconvenience from rain, wind, or sun, it appears that they were sometimes wanting. The cloister at St Alban s seems to have been deficient in ambulatories till the abbacy of Robert of Gorham, 1151- 1166, when the eastern walk was erected. This, as was often the case with the earliest ambulatories, was of wood covered with a pentice roof. We learn from Osbern s account of the conflagration of the monastery of Christ Church, Canterbury, 1067, that a cloister with covered ways existed at that time, affording communication be tween the church, the dormitory, and the refectory. We learn from an early drawing of the monastery of Canter bury that this cloister was formed by an arcade of Norman arches supported on shafts, and covered by a shud roof. 