Fountains Abbey: History
• Origins
• Sources
• Foundation
• Consolidation
• Trials and Tribulations
• Strength and Stability
• End of Monastic Life

Fountains Abbey: Buildings
• Precinct
• Church
• Cloister
• Sacristy
• Library
• Chapter House
• Parlour
• Dormitory
• Warming House
• Day Room
• Refectory
• Kitchen
• Lay Brothers' Range
• Abbots House
• Infirmary
• Outer Court
• Gatehouse
• Guesthouse

Fountains Abbey: Lands

Fountains Abbey: People

What did the monks read ?

(1/1)

Book that belonged to a monk of Fountains
© British Library
<click to enlarge>

Stephen of Sawley began his monastic career as a monk of Fountains and later officiated as abbot of Sawley, of Newminster and finally Fountains. Stephen wrote a spiritual directory for the instruction of those entering Cistercian life [novices], guiding them in spiritual and practical tasks. This was known as the ‘Mirror of Novices’ [Speculorum Novi]. Chapters fifteen and sixteen of this treatise discuss recommended reading material, advising novices, as beginners, what they should read first and what they might then progress to read.(153)

Step 1
As a beginner, the novice was warned to read only four texts - the customs of the Order (the Usages), the Cistercian antiphonary, the Lives of the Fathers and Gregory the Great’s Dialogues.

‘It (the soul) sees there things that are corrupt and corrects them, and things that are beautiful and which contribute to its radiance.’

Step 2
Once the novice had gained experience, he could indulge in ‘more solid food’ and study the Old and New Testaments. He was not simply to read these works to acquire knowledge - ‘that is merely curiosity’ - but to use these texts as a mirror, that his soul might see there a reflection of its own image (see right). Furthermore, the novice should try to memorise all that he had learnt.

Step 3

It is good for your soul, it enriches your spirit and instructs your mind with the fat of a more perfect charity.

The novice could then progress and Stephen recommends particularly important books that he could now read. These include the Rule of St Benedict, the Confessions of St Augustine and his Commentaries on the Psalter, the twelfth-century sermons of Gilbert of Hoyland on the ‘Song of Songs’. The novice was to read and cherish these works before he endeavoured to read others, such as Cassian’s Conferences and Jerome’s Letters, and contemporary works by Aelred of Rievaulx and William of St Thierry. At all times the novice was to choose and read these works ‘with discretion and not a little caution’, that they might instruct him in modesty, perseverance and knowledge of the virtues.