§ 70.
Of the extra-claustral buildings of a
monastery, the most important was the infirmary
(
domus infirmaria,
infirmitorium). This was not
merely used for the accommodation of the sick, but
was the dwelling-place of those who were too infirm
to take part in the regular routine of the cloister,
known in most orders as
stagiarii or
stationarii, and
of the
sempectae who, in the Cistercian order, had
been professed for fifty years. It was also generally
used by the
minuti or religious who were undergoing
their periodical bleeding (
minutio) for the sake of
their health. Each of the Augustinian canons of
Barnwell was allowed to be bled once every seven
weeks, if he so desired: he might even be bled once
a month, if his health demanded it, but in this latter
case he was not allowed to take his furlough in the
infirmary. The leave allowed at Barnwell lasted
three days, and canons were permitted during such
periods to talk to each other and take walks within a
limited area
[13]. Thus there were usually a few
minuti
on leave, whose absence made little difference to the
number of those in quire; and in the larger houses
it is clear that opportunities of bleeding took place
once a week. In the Cistercian and Carthusian
orders the rules were stricter: the monks were bled
in batches appointed by the prior at fixed seasons
in the year—four seasons in Cistercian, five in
Carthusian monasteries. According to the statutes,
Cistercian
minuti were obliged to take their meals
in the frater, but this rule appears to have been
gradually relaxed, and monks probably went into
the infirmary, as in other orders, and were allowed
a flesh-diet
[14]. In Cluniac houses the actual operation
of bleeding took place in the common house. Several
Benedictine houses—e.g. Bardney and Croyland—sent
their
minuti to small houses or granges at a
little distance from the monastery, under the supervision
of a prior.
