Think of how many people worked to prepare you
food, and
especially how diligently the Lord supplies you with spiritual
delights in the way of learned teachers. Think of the countless
dangers endured by seamen in order to provide fish to satisfy
the wants of your flesh and thank God for each bite. (65)
[Stephen of Sawley, ‘Mirror for novices.’]
The monks ate in the refectory once a day in winter but twice daily
in summer, when a light supper was served to supplement dinner
and to sustain the community through the longer day and greater
time spent on manual labour. The monks also entered the refectory
for drinks such as those served after Nones.
As soon as the monks
heard the bell ringing to announce dinner (prandium)
they made their way to the basins that stood to either
side of the refectory entrance, to the west of the warming house
(the lavabo), to wash their hands. Lead pipes carried
water to stone basins, which were lined with pewter and set in
niches. There
was a towel cupboard east of the warming-house door.(66) Once
they had washed their hands, the monks proceeded to the refectory
where
the tables were arranged in a U-shape around the walls. Remains
of the stone table legs survive at Fountains. The monks sat on
stone benches facing inwards; at Meaux Abbey,
backs were added to the seats in the late fourteenth century. The
food was already
set on the tables, for the kitchener and cellarer,
two monastic officers [obedientiaries],
were to place the dishes on the table before the bell announcing
dinner was rung. Food was passed to
the refectory from the kitchen through a dumb-waiter-style hatch
in the west wall.
The monks stood while a blessing was read in
Latin and then took their seats, but nobody was to begin until
the prior (or whoever
was presiding), had uncovered his bread. The prior sat on a dais
at the southern end of the refectory, and a crucifix hung on the
wall above his head; the pin-holes that supported this are still
visible today.(67) The monks
usually drank ale and ate vegetables and bread, but on special
occasions,
such as feast days, they might
receive eggs, fish or a similar treat. Two types of bread were
baked at Fountains, and Saturday was probably the main day for
baking; grey loaves were fed to the dogs.(68) Meat
was not to be eaten in the refectory but was later permitted in
a separate building,
the misericord.
A delicate constitution Legumes cause wind, cheese lies heavy on the stomach, milk is injurious
to the head, drinking water gives no nourishment, cabbages foster melancholy,
leeks provide choler, fish from ponds or muddy water do not agree with
me.
[Bernard of Clairvaux, cited in J. McDonnell, Inland Fisheries, p. 22.]
The monastic community required a considerable
amount of fish to feed the monks, lay-brothers and
guests, and whilst the monastery
fished in rivers and created its own freshwater ponds, Fountains
also purchased fish. For example, stockfish (or ‘Icelandic
fish’), that had been imported from Iceland or Norway was
bought at Hull, York and Scarborough. The mid-fifteenth-century ‘Memorandum
Book’ records various purchases of stockfish and the expense
of its transportation to the abbey.(69) On
one occasion it cost two pennies to transport five hundred of these
salted fish to the abbey.(70)