Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/281

 The Period of Invasions 201 The monks regarded good hard work as a great aid to salva- tion. They set the example of careful cultivation of the lands about their monasteries and in this way introduced better farming methods into the regions where they settled. They entertained travelers at a time when there were few or no inns and so in- creased the intercourse between the various parts of Europe. 319. Arrangement of a Monastery. The home which the monks constructed for themselves was called a monastery or abbey. The buildings were arranged around a court, called the cloister. On all four sides of this was a covered walk, which made it possible to reach all the buildings without exposing one's self to either the rain or the hot sun. On the north side of the cloister was the church, which always faced west. As time went on and certain groups of monks were given a great deal of property, they constructed very beautiful churches for their monasteries. Westminster Abbey, for instance, was originally the church of a monastery lying outside the city of London. On the west side of the cloister were storerooms for provisions ; on the south side was the " refectory," or dining room, and a sitting room ; and to the east of the cloister was the "dormitory," where the monks slept. The Benedictine Rule provided that the monks should so far as possible have everything for their support on their own land. So outside the group of buildings around the cloister would be found the garden, the orchard, the mill, a fishpond, and fields for raising grain. There were also a hospital for the sick and a guest house for pilgrims or poor people who happened to come along. 320. The Monks as Missionaries. The first great undertaking of the monks was the conversion of those German peoples who had not yet been won over to Christianity. In this they were successful and the strength of the Roman Catholic Church was greatly in- creased. The first people to engage the attention of the monks were the heathen German tribes who had conquered the once Christian Britain.