64 A MEDIAEVAL CITY

black garments. Their heads were shaved on the
crown, the technical term for which was the tonsure.
Monks spent their time in attending the frequent
services in the monastery church, which they entered
at the night and early morning services directly
from the dormitories; in copying manuscripts,
which occupied a large part of their day ; in contem-
plation and in study; in manual work ; in recreation.
The cloister where work was carried on and the
church were the essential buildings of the monastery.
Monastic life centred in these two places. Its
arrangements were dictated by the purpose of
making a religious atmosphere pervade everything ;
thus a religious book was read at meals.

The luxury and laxity that obtained in monastic
life were not confined to the fifteenth century.
The Archbishop had frequent occasion in the four-
teenth century to complain, for instance, of the use
by monks and nuns of ornaments, and of clothes of
finer material than the traditional rule permitted.
He condemned the wearing of clothes cut to a worldly
pattern. The religious had to be admonished from
time to time not to admit strangers within the
cloister, and to conform in all respects strictly to
their rule.

During the century St. Mary's Abbey contained
about sixty monks, including the Abbot, the supreme
head, and the Prior, who held the second highest
office; besides, there was a very large number of
lay-brethren, servants and officers, for in addition
to the internal work at the abbey, there was the
management of the abbey estates and business.
Abbots and monks were always keen traders. Alto-
gether the personnel of St. Mary's might have
numbered about two hundred.

The influence of such a monastery as St. Mary's