§ 46.

The cloister (claustrum) was, as its name implies, an enclosed space, surrounding all four sides of a rectangular court. The four walks of the cloister were roofed in: the walls next the court were pierced at first with open arcades, and later with large window-openings. One walk adjoined the nave of the church, and part of the east walk was overlapped by the adjacent transept. On the east and the two remaining sides of the cloister were the buildings necessary to the daily life of the convent, the chapter-house being invariably at the back of the east walk and the refectory or frater at the back of the walk opposite the church. The entrance from the outer court varied in position according to the site of the monastery: in many houses, as at Torre, it was a passage through or at one end of the western range, but at Durham, Worcester and some of the larger Benedictine houses it was a vaulted entry at the end of the east walk furthest from the church. There were, as we have seen, two doorways from the church, of which the eastern was the ordinary entrance used by the convent in the daytime. The Sunday procession left the church by this doorway, and passed along the east walk; and, after visiting the chief buildings on three sides of the cloister, returned into church by the doorway at the end of the west walk.