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The infirmarer
(3/3)
In the thirteenth century the infirmarer
at Roche seemingly had his own lodgings beside the abbot’s
house.
[Kinder, Cistercian Europe, p. 364.] |
The infirmary at Roche, like that of other religious
houses, was managed by the infirmarer (or server of the sick),
a monastic
official (obedientiary)
of some prominence. Whilst the infirmarer at first slept in the
common dormitory with the rest of the community,
from the late thirteenth century he had his own house nearby,
which was situated beside the abbot’s lodgings. The infirmarer
acted first and foremost as an intermediary between the infirmary
and the cloister. Whenever a monk was received in the infirmary
it was the infirmarer’s responsibility to transfer his
utensils from the refectory and his bedding from the dormitory,
and obtain his allowance of food and drink from the cellarer
each day. The infirmarer also fetched the books that were needed
for services in the infirmary chapel from the abbey church, and
made sure that they were returned safely. Whenever one of his
charges was ready to return to conventual life the infirmarer
sought the required authorisation from the abbot. If one of the
brethren was about to die, the infirmarer notified the community
of this so that they everyone could gather around the dying monk
and observe the required solemnities. The infirmarer also had
numerous responsibilities within the infirmary complex. He was
to ensure that the fire was lit, to light the candles for Matins,
to clean the bowls that had been used at bloodletting and dispose
of the blood. On Saturdays he washed the feet of those who resided
in the infirmary – if they so wished – and gave their
clothing a good shake to air it.
Poisoned
pottage
In 1448-9 a London
physician, Henry Wells, was summoned to Fountains Abbey to
tend Abbot
John
Greenfield, who, it was
thought, had been poisoned by William Downom, one of his monks.
The reason given for William’s actions was that the sick
abbot had refused the pottage William had prepared for him.
[Hammond and Talbot, A
Biographical Register of the Medical Practitioners in Medieval
England, pp. 85-6.] |
Although the twelfth-century customary
of the Order, the Ecclesiastica
Officia, discusses the infirmarer’s managerial duties
in some detail, it says little of his medical knowledge. The infirmarer – and
no doubt others in the abbey - would have been well-versed in herbal
remedies and used herbs from the abbey’s herb garden, but
it is likely that lay medical practitioners were summoned to tend
the seriously ill.(14) Such visits
would have been expensive and were probably only used when absolutely
necessary.(15) That is not to
say that the infirmarer or others within the abbey had no medical
knowledge,
and surviving Cistercian manuscripts suggest that ancient and contemporary
medical authorities were known.(16) A
copy of the Medulla Philosophorum,
a miscellany of tracts that includes explanations of various herbs
and plants, as well as passages on indigestion, digestion and blood,
survives in a thirteenth-century manuscript from Kirkstall.(17) In
contrast, a rather exceptional entry in the Coucher Book of
Kirkstall is a recipe for the prevention of falling
sickness which prescribes that the charm, Dealbagneth, Debagneth,
Degluthun should be recited
whilst making the sign of the Cross.
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