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The infirmarer
The Cistercian infirmary was managed by the infirmarer (or server
of the sick), a monastic official (obedientiary) of some prominence.
The infirmarer at first slept in the common dormitory with the
rest of the community, but, as at Roche,
he often had his own lodgings near to the infirmary complex.
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 his charges was ready
to return to conventual life the infirmarer sought authorisation
from the abbot for his return to the cloister. If one of the
brethren was about to die the infirmarer notified the community
of this so that they could all 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.
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 that was given for William’s actions was the
sick abbot’s refusal of 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.(10) 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.(11) Such visits
would have been expensive and were probably only used when absolutely
necessary.(12) That is not to say
that the infirmarer – or others within the abbey – had
no medical knowledge and surviving manuscripts from Kirkstall,
and from other Cistercian abbeys, suggest that ancient and contemporary
medical authorities were known.(13) A
copy of the Medulla Philosophorum,
a miscellany of tracts that includes explanations of various herbs
and plants and passages on indigestion, digestion and blood survives
in a thirteenth-century manuscript from Kirkstall.(14) 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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