This Order was founded in the 11th century on very strict and ascetic lines. The monks lived a life of the greatest austerity and practised the most self-denying ordinances. Their clothes were mean and rough; they never ate meat--fish and eggs being the only animal food allowed, and that only on two days in the week. On two days they had pulse or herbs boiled, and on three days bread and water--only two meals a day being taken.
The first Carthusian house was founded in England A.D. 1180, and there were only eight monasteries of the Order in this country at the dissolution of the monasteries.
Most of the above Orders had houses of Nuns affiliated to them.
The Abbeys and Monasteries of the Benedictines and the Orders founded from them, with the exception of the Carthusians, were built on the same general plan.
The _Church_ itself was, of course, the principal of the monastic buildings, and the most important part of the Church was the _Presbytery_, with the High Altar and the Choir. The Church was always cruciform and the Presbytery was the eastern arm. To it only the monks who were in priestly orders had access. The Choir, or Quire, frequently stretched in the _Nave_ beyond the _Transepts_, and was divided off from the more public part by the great screen.
In northern climates the Church was generally situated on the northern side of the monastic buildings. Being a lofty and substantial structure, it afforded protection, and acted as a screen to the other buildings from the keen north winds. Next to the Church in importance came the _Cloisters_, which were generally, in England, placed on the south side of the Nave. Around them were grouped the principal buildings. The Cloisters were covered and paved walks, surrounding a rectangular space called the _Cloister Garth_. They were the common dwelling place of the community, for in them the greater part of the work of the monks was carried on. The Northern Walk, by the wall of the Church, was naturally the warmest, as it had a southern aspect, and here the monks worked. The Prior sat near the eastern end of this walk, where there was the usual entrance to the Church, and along this side, the other seniors sat--not arranged in order of seniority, but in the positions that best suited them for the respective tasks on which they were engaged. The Abbot sat apart at the end of the eastern cloister nearest the Church door. In the same cloister, but toward the southern end, the Novice Master gave regular instruction to the novices, and the Western Cloister was given up to the junior monks.
