File:The ruined abbeys of Yorkshire (1883) (14592496879).jpg

Identifier: ruinedabbeysofyo00lefr_0 (find matches)
Title: The ruined abbeys of Yorkshire
Year: 1883 (1880s)
Authors: Lefroy, William, 1836-1900
Subjects: Abbeys
Publisher: London, Seeley, Jackson, and Halliday
Contributing Library: Getty Research Institute
Digitizing Sponsor: Getty Research Institute

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ot of Citeaux. The uniformity which enables us, in passing fromone Cistercian ruin to another, to predict with cer-tainty what buildings we shall find or trace, and the remarkably rapid spread of the pointed archafter its first appearance in England. Two otherpeculiarities, the one a characteristic quality, theother a noticeable feature, of Cistercian architecture,owe their origin and significance to the foundersof the order. The first is their simplicity. All original Cister- Rievaulx. 9 cian work is plain and good. A severe self-restrainteverywhere forces the loving ardour of these wifelessand childless builders to flow in narrow channels.The zeal of the sacred house is eating them up, butthey have to hold their eager hands from lofty tower choir was without aisles, though the usual chapelseast of the transepts were permitted and adopted.In the domestic arrangements the same simplicityprevailed. In place of the lordly dwelling of theBenedictine Abbot, the Cistercian had probably but
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RliVAUI.X ABBEY. THE CHOIR, LOOKING NORTH. and lavish decoration, and spend themselves uponthe perfect utterance of lowly thoughts. Robert, Alberic, Stephen, and Bernard, weremonastic Puritans. Not only their churches and thedresses and diet of their monks were plain and humble,but their very eucharistic vessels and priestly vest-ments were rigidly reformed. The typical Cistercian a single private room, and a bed in the common dorter of the monks. The Benedictines, whose original garb had beensimply the usual clothing of the peasants, had learntto be curious in party-coloured silks, in which theyparaded upon costly mules ; but the white monk,rejecting all raiment not prescribed by St. Benedict, D io The Ruined Abt confined his wardrobe to the tunic, the scanty sleeve-less scapular, and the pointed cowl. When he was inchoir it is true he threw a cuculla, or large mantle,over his working dress, and when, in permitted-bootsand spurs he rode abroad, this garment would be blackor grey. The

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