“Item, the pittancer shall give a pittance of cheese and eggs to each of the monks on every day from the feast of Easter to the feast of the Holy Cross in September—to wit, three quarters of a pound of cheese; but when there is a principal processional duplex feast, each monk is to have a pound of cheese per diem, except on fast days, when he is to have half a pound only. Also on days when there is a principal or processional feast, each one of them, including the hebdomadary, is to have five eggs. Also, from the feast of Easter to the octave of St. John the Baptist the pittancer is to serve out old cheese, and new cheese from the octave of St. John the Baptist to the feast of St. Michael. From the feast of St. Michael to Quinquagesima the cheese is to be of medium quality. From the least of the Holy Cross in September until Lent the pittancer must serve out to each monk three quarters of a pound of cheese, if it is a feast of twelve lessons, and if it is a feast of three lessons, whether a week-day or a vigil, the pittancer is to give each monk but half a pound of cheese. He is also to give all the monks during Advent nine pounds of wax extra allowance, and it is not proper that the pittancer should weigh out cheese for any one on a Friday unless it be a principal processional or duplex feast, or a principal octave. It is also proper, seeing there is no fast from the feast of Christmas to the octave of the Epiphany, that every man should have his three quarters of a pound of cheese per diem. Also, on Christmas and Easter days the pittancer shall provide five dumplings per monk per diem, and one plate of sausage meat, [318a] and he shall also give to each of the servants on the said two days five dumplings for each several day; and the said pittancer on Christmas Day and on the day of St. John the Baptist shall make a relish, [318b] or seasoning, and give to each monk one good glass thereof, that is to say, the fourth part of one [318c] for each monk—to wit, on the first, second, and third day of the feast of the Nativity, the Circumcision, the Epiphany, and the Purification of the Blessed Virgin; and the pittancer is to put spice in the said relish, and the cellarer is to provide wine and honey, and during infirmary time those who are being bled are to receive no pittance from the pittancer. Further, from the feast of Easter to that of the Cross of September, there is no fast except on the prescribed vigils; each monk, therefore, should always have three quarters of a pound of cheese after celebration on a week-day until the above-named day. Further, the pittancer is to provide for three mandés in each week during the whole year, excepting Lent, and for each mandé he is to find three pounds of cheese. From the feast of St. Michael to that of St. Andrew he is to provide for an additional mandé in each week. Item, he is to pay the prior of the cloister six florins for his fine [319a] . . . and three florins to the . . . . [319b] and he should also give five eggs per diem to the hebdomadary of the high altar, except in Lent. Further, he is to give to the woodman, the baker, the keeper of the church, the servants of the Infirmary, the servant at the Eleemosynary, and the stableman, to each of them one florin in every year. Item, any monks who leave the monastery before vespers when it is not a fast, shall lose one quarter of a pound of cheese even though they return to the monastery after vespers but if it is a fast day, they are to lose nothing. Item, the pittancer is to serve out mashed beans to the servants of the convent during Lent as well as to those who are in religion, and at this season he is to provide the prior of the cloister and the hebdomadary with bruised cicerate; [319c] but if any one of the same is hebdomadary, he is only to receive one portion. If there are two celebrating high mass at the high altar, each of them is to receive one plate of the said bruised cicerate.
“As regards the office of cantor, the cantor is to intone the antiphon ‘ad benedictus ad magnificat’ at terce, [319d] and at all other services, and he is himself to intone the antiphons or provide a substitute who can intone them; and he is to intone the psalms according to custom. Also if there is any cloistered person who has begun his week of being hebdomadary, and falls into such sickness that he cannot celebrate the same, the cantor is to say or celebrate three masses. The cantor is to lead all the monks of the choir at matins, high mass, vespers, and on all other occasions. On days when there is a processional duplex feast, he is to write down the order of the office; that is to say, those who are to say the invitatory, [320a] the lessons, the epistle of the gospel [320b] and those who are to wear copes at high mass and at vespers. The cantor must sing the processional hymns which are sung on entering the church, but he is exempt from taking his turn of being hebdomadary by reason of his intoning the offices; and he is to write down the names of those who celebrate low masses and of those who get them said by proxy; and he is to report these last to the prior that they may be punished. The cantor or his delegate is to read in the refectory during meal times and during infirmary time, and he who reads in the refectory is to have a quart [?] of bread, as also are the two junior monks who wait at table. The cantor is to instruct the boys in the singing of the office and in morals, and is to receive their portions of bread, wine and pittance, and besides all this he is to receive one florin for each of them, and he is to keep them decently; and the prior is to certify himself upon this matter, and to see to it that he victuals them properly and gives them their food.
“The sacristan is to provide all the lights of the church whether oil or wax, and he is to give out small candles to the hebdomadary, and to keep the eight lamps that burn both night and day supplied with oil. He is to keep the lamps in repair and to buy new ones if the old are broken, and he is to provide the incense. He is to maintain the covered chapel of St. Nicholas, and the whole church except the portico of the same; and the lord abbot is to provide sound timber for doors and other necessaries. He is to keep the frames [321a] of the bells in repair, and also the ropes for the same, and during Lent he is to provide two pittances of eels to the value of eighteen groats for each pittance, and one other pittance of dumplings and seasoning during rogation time, to wit, five dumplings cooked in oil for each person, and one quart of bread and wine, and all the house domestics and serving men of the convent who may be present are to have the same. At this time all the monks are to have one quarter of a pound of cheese from the sacristan. And the said sacristan should find the convent two pittances during infirmary time and two pints [321b] of wine, and two suppers, one of chicken and salt meat, with white chestnuts, inasmuch as there is only to be just so much chicken as is sufficient. Item, he is to keep the church clean. Item, he has to pay to the keeper of the church one measure of barley, and eighteen groats for his clothes yearly, and every Martinmas he is to pay to the cantor sixty soldi, and he shall place a [321c] . . . or boss [321d] in the choir during Lent. Also he must do one O in Advent and take charge of all the ornaments of the altars and all the relics. Also on high days and when there is a procession he is to keep the paschal candle before the altar, as is customary, but on other days he shall keep a burning lamp only, and when the candle is burning the lamp may be extinguished.
* * * * *
“As touching the office of infirmarer, the infirmarer is to keep the whole convent fifteen days during infirmary time, to wit, the one-half of them for fifteen days and the other half for another fifteen days, except that on the first and last days all the monks will be in the infirmary. Also when he makes a pittance he is to give the monks beef and mutton, [322] sufficient in quantity and quality, and to receive their portions. The prior of the cloister, cantor, and cellarer may be in the infirmary the whole month. And the infirmarer is to keep a servant, who shall go and buy meat three times a week, to wit, on Saturdays, Mondays, and Wednesdays, but at the expense of the sender, and the said servant shall on the days following prepare the meat at the expense of the infirmarer; and he shall salt it and make seasoning as is customary, to wit, on all high days and days when there is a processional duplex feast, and on other days. On the feast of St. Michael he shall serve out a seasoning made of sage and onions; but the said servant shall not be bound to go and buy meat during Advent, and on Septuagesima and Quinquagesima Sundays he shall serve out seasoning. Also when the infirmarer serves out fresh meat, he is to provide fine salt. Also the said servant is to go and fetch medicine once or oftener when necessary, at the expense of the sick person, and to visit him. If the sick person requires it, he can have aid in the payment of his doctor, and the lord abbot is to pay for the doctor and medicines of all cloistered persons.
“On the principal octaves the monks are to have seasoning, but during the main feasts they are to have seasoning upon the first day only. The infirmarer is not bound to do anything or serve out anything on days when no flesh is eaten. The cellarer is to do this, and during the times of the said infirmaries, the servants of the monastery and convent are to be, as above, on the same footing as those who are in religion, that is to say, half of them are to be bled during one fifteen days, and the other half during the other fifteen days, as is customary.
“Item, touching the office of cellarer, it is ordered that the cellarer do serve out to the whole convent bread, wine, oil, and salt; as much of these two last as any one may require reasonably, and this on all days excepting when the infirmarer serves out kitchen meats, but even then the cellarer is to serve his rations to the hebdomadary. Item, he is to make a pittance of dumplings with seasoning to the convent on the first of the rogation days; each monk and each servant is to have five dumplings uncooked with his seasoning, and one cooked with [oil?] and a quart of bread and wine, and each monk is to have one quarter of a pound of cheese. Item, upon Holy Thursday he is to give to the convent a pittance of leeks and fish to the value of sixty soldi, and . . . [323a] Item, another pittance upon the first day of August; and he is to present the convent with a good sheep and cabbages with seasoning. Item, in infirmary time he is to provide two pittances, one of fowls and the other of salt meat and white chestnuts, and he is to give two pints of wine. Item, in each week he is to give one flagon [?]. [323b] Item, the cellarer is to provide napkins and plates at meal times in the refectory, and he is to find the bread for making seasoning, and the vinegar for the mustard; and he is to do an O in Advent, and in Lent he is to provide white chestnuts, and cicerate all the year. From the feast of St. Luke to the octave of St. Martin he is to provide fresh chestnuts, to wit, on feasts of twelve lessons; and on dumpling days he is to find the oil and flour with which to make the dumplings.
“Item, as to the office of surveyor, it is ordered that the surveyor do pay the master builder and also the wages of the day labourers; the lord abbot is to find all the materials requisite for this purpose. Item, the surveyor is to make good any plank or post or nail, and he is to repair any hole in the roofs which can be repaired easily, and any beam or piece of boarding. Touching the aforesaid materials it is to be understood that the lord abbot furnish beams, boards, rafters, scantling, tiles, and anything of this description; [324a] the said surveyor is also to renew the roof of the cloister, chapter, refectory, dormitory, and portico; and the said surveyor is to do an O in Advent.
“Item, concerning the office of porter. The porter is to be in charge of the gate night and day, and if he go outside the convent, he must find a sufficient and trustworthy substitute; on every feast day he is [324b] . . . to lose none of his provender; and to receive his clothing in spring as though he were a junior monk; and if he is in holy orders, he is to receive clothing money; and to have his pro ratâ portions in all distributions. Item, the said porter shall enjoy the income derived from S. Michael of Canavesio; and when a monk is received into the monastery, he shall pay to the said porter five good sous; and the said porter shall shut the gates of the convent at sunset, and open them at sunrise.”
The rest of the document is little more than a resumé of what has been given, and common form to the effect that nothing in the foregoing is to override any orders made by the Holy Apostolic See which may be preserved in the monastery, and that the rights of the Holy See are to be preserved in all respects intact. If doubts arise concerning the interpretation of any clause they are to be settled by the abbot and two of the senior monks.
Index
Abruptness of introduction the measure of importance, 196
Absolute, we would have an absolute standard if we could, 196
Absolutely, nothing is anything, 196
Academies and their influence, 146–59, 226, 248
Academy picture, the desire to paint an, 142
— Ciseri’s, at Locarno, 271
Accidentals, a maze of metaphysical, 23
Action, foundations of, lie deeper than reason, 107
Adaptation and illusion, 44
Adipose cushion of Italy, 92
Advertisements, American, at Locarno, 273
Æstheticism, culture, earnestness, and intenseness, all methods of trying to conceal weakness, 192
Affection a sine quâ non for success, 158
Agape and gnosis, 17
Airolo, 25
Alcohol and imagination, 46
Alda, Il Salto della bella, 104
All things to all men, 66
Allen, Grant, 69
Almoner, the, of S. Michele, 315
Alone, should we like to see a picture when we are, 23, 158
Alpi and monti, difference between, 35
Alpine roads, the steps by which they have advanced, 59
Alps, narrowness of the, 61
Altar cloth, a fine embroidered 256
Altar-piece at Morbio Superiore, 237
Amateurs, wanted a periodical written and illustrated by, 156
Amber, a smile in, 235
Ambrogio, S., and neighbourhood, 113
American advertisements at Locarno, 273
Ancestors, to have been begotten of good ones for many generations, 252
Andermatt, 24
Andorno, 186
Angel, drawing an, down, 42
Angera, 258
Animals and plants, cause of their divergence, 153
Ants near Faido, 38
— and bees, stationary civilisation of, 195
— and their nests, 288
Anzone, the sad torrent of, 220
Apparition, artificial, of the B.V.M., 275
Appliances, creatures and their, 283
Apprenticeship v. the academic system, 150
Arona, 265
Art for art’s sake, 156
— Italian, causes of its decline, 141
— moral effect of, 252
Asbestos on pass between Fusio and Dalpe, 285
Asplenium alternifolium, 37
Ass dressed in sacerdotal robes, 67
Aureggio, 177
Aurora Borealis like pedal notes in Handel’s bass, 83
Avalanches at Mesocco, 222
Avogadro, 148
B.A. degree should be assimilated to M.A., 186
Baby, death of a, bells rung for, 266
Bach as good a musician as Handel, 17
Badgers’ fat, 289
Balaclava, a stuffed Charge of, 251
Ballerini, Mgr., Patriarch of Alexandria, 268, 272
Banda, Casina di, 119
Bank of England note, Italian language on, 19
Barelli, Signer, at Bisbino, 239
Barley, mode of drying, 29
Barratt, Mrs., of Langar, 198
Baskets, helmet-shaped, near Lanzo, 134
Bastianini, 149
Bayeux tapestry, 150
Beaconsfield, Lord, 23, 141, 142
Beds, good, their moral influence, 184, 186
Bees, stationary civilisation of, 195
Beethoven on Handel, 18
Beginners in art, how to treat them, 155
Bell, Peter, and his primrose, 38, 143
Bellini, the, when, where, and how to get their like again, 146
Bellinzona, 198
Bergamo, Colleone chapel at, 231
Berkeley, Bishop, and his tar-water, 64
Bernardino, Padre, his inscription on my drawing, 220
Bernardino, San, 223
Biasca, 85
Biella, 169
Bignasco, 278
Bigotry, eating a mode of, 153
Birds, 116
— their names, 291
— their singing, 230
Bisbino, Monte, 233
Bishop, Boy, 67
— welcomed with a brass band, 272
Bleeding times, 312
Blinds, milkmen’s and undertakers’, 145
Blood, circulation of, like people, 20
Bodily mechanism, a town like, 20
Body, soul, and money, 107
Boelini, family of, 213
Bologna, Academy at, 147
Bonvicino, the famiglia, 124
Borromeo, S. Carlo, room in which he was born, 263
Botticelli, Sandro, on landscape painting, 45
Brebbia, church at, 258
Bridge, the first, 59
Brigand, right to free a, conferred upon Graglia, 189, 193
British Museum and Oropa, 183, 185
Buckley, Miss Arabella, 69
Bullocks, how I lost my, 154
Burrello, Castel, 114
Bussoleno, 114
Butcher, the eructive, 126
Cadagno, Lake of, 81
Cader Idris, an Archbishop on, 89
Calanca, Sta. Maria in, 202, 223
Calonico, 55
Cama, the æsthetic dog at, 202
Cambridge, a modest proposal to make an Oropa of, 186
Campello, 76
Campo Santo at Calpiognia, 30
— at Mesocco, 204
— at Pisa, 159
Canaries, their song unpleasant, 231
Cantine, a day at the, 243
Canvas of life turned upside down, 68
“Carbonate of pork,” 315
Carracci, the, 147
Casina di Banda, 119
Castelletto, 265
Cavagnago, 76
Cenere, Monte, narcissuses on, 228
Ceres, 161
Cerrea, 133
Chalk, Conté, the Italian for whom this was the one thing needful, 136
Chalk eggs, 43
Chamois, foot of, 283
Change, repudiation of desire for sudden, 186
— importance of, depends on the rate of introduction, 196
— either the circumstances or the sufferer will, 196
Changes, sweeping, to be felt hereafter as vibrations, 60
Cheapissimo, 165
Cheese and the alpi, 289
Chestnuts, 118
Chicory and seed onions, weary utterness in, 227
Children, subalpine, 301
— what becomes of the clever, 149
Chinese, the examination-ridden, 151
Chironico, 75
“Chow,” 52
Church-going, subalpine, 303
Circulation of people like blood, 20
Ciseri, his picture at Locarno, 271
Civilisation, antiquity of Italian, 124
— stationary, of ants and bees, 195
Class distinction inevitable, 195
Classification only possible through sense of shock, 63
Clergy, our English, and S. Michele priests, 106
Cloisters at Locarno, 271
— at Oltrona, 258
Club, the, the true university, 155
Collects, unsympathetic priest bristling with, 111
Colleone, Medea, 231
Colma di San Giovanni, 163
Comba di Susa, 119
Comfort as a moral influence 185
Comic song, the landlord’s, 128
Common sense, the safest guide, 108
Consistent, who ever is? 153
Contradictory principles, there must be a harmonious fusing of, 152
Converting things by eating them, 153
Corpses, desiccated, at S. Michele, 97
Cousins, my, the lower animals, 69
Cows fighting in farmyard, 120
Cricco, 125
Cristoforo, S., church of, at Mesocco, 208
— at Castello, 234
Crossing, efficacy of, 152
— unexpected results of, 55
— useless if too wide, 157
Crucifixion, fresco at Fusio, 140
Culture and priggishness, 141
— a mode of concealing weakness, 192
Current feeling, the safest guide, 108
Cutlets, burnt, and the waiter, 124