The monks’ choir

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A royal request
In 1296 Abbot Stephen of Roche received a copy of the royal mandate requesting that the community celebrate the obsequies of the king’s brother, Edmund:
...we earnestly require and ask your friendship now that we are solemnly and with devotion celebrating the obsequies of our said brother, that you commend his soul to the most High God, with singing of masses and other aids of devout prayers, specially enjoining the same upon all the religious under your charge. (4)

The monks’ choir was screened off from the aisles and separated from the presbytery by two steps. The monks occupied inward-facing stalls, and in the later years of the abbey the seats were comparable to those in a minster, i.e. the carved wooden seats were arranged in tiered rows. The choir at Roche accommodated some sixty monks when the community reached its peak, but at the Dissolution in 1538 there were only fourteen monks and four novices. Whereas visiting Cistercians were fully integrated and took their accustomed place in the host choir, those who were unable to complete the daily round of worship, namely, the sick, the bloodlet, the elderly, and perhaps also novices, occupied the retrochoir that was, significantly, behind the monks’ choir and separated by a screen, the pulpitum. During the day the monks accessed their choir from the cloister, but at night-time they used stairs that led from their dormitory. Processions entered through the centre door in the West façade and left by the door leading to the cloister.

Model of the choir at Roche
© Cistercians in Yorkshire Project
<click to enlarge>

The monks occupied their choir for corporate worship when attendance was obligatory. This was not always observed, and in 1361 the monks of Roche were accused of negligence in celebrating the Canonical Hours. The monks also took their place in choir for ceremonies and rituals that demanded a full communal turn-out, such as, funerals, installations, the profession of novices, unction of the sick, (5) and the obsequies of the dead.