§ 39.
The chief peculiarity of the Cistercian
transept was the arrangement, already described, of
its eastern chapels. This was modified in later times,
as at Furness, where the vaulting of the chapels was
removed and replaced by a wooden roof at a higher
level, and screen-walls took the place of the solid
divisions. The night-stair from the monks' dorter
was very generally placed against the west wall of
the adjacent transept; while in the end wall of the
opposite transept was the doorway through which
funerals passed to the graveyard. At Furness, where
the church, by an exceptional arrangement, stands
between the greater part of the
curia and the
cloister, this doorway formed the main entrance to
the church and was covered by a porch. Beaulieu,
like Cîteaux, has the unusual feature of a western
aisle in the transept opposite the cloister. Such
aisles, though sometimes found in both transepts of
Benedictine churches, are rare in the churches of
Cistercians.