Early Double Monasteries / A Paper read before the Heretics' Society on December 6th, 1914

A Paper read before the Heretics' Society on December 6th, 1914
NEWNHAM COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE
Cambridge: DEIGHTON, BELL & CO., LIMITED. London: G. BELL & SONS, LIMITED. 1915

The use of the word double is important. The monastery was not mixed; men and women did not live or work together, and in many cases did not use the same Church; and though the chief feature of the system was association, there was in reality very little, when compared with the amount of separation. In time, the details of organisation varied, such, for example, as whether an abbot or an abbess ruled the whole monastery, though it was generally the latter. Details of the rule of the community naturally altered at different times and in different places, but the essential character remained the same.

As to the object of such an arrangement, opinions differ. Some have regarded it as a sort of moral experiment; others have seen in it only the natural outcome of the necessity for having priests close at hand to celebrate Mass, hear confessions and minister in general to the spiritual needs of the nuns. There is, too, the practical side of the plan—namely, that each side of the community was economically dependant on the other, as will be seen later. However this may be, the practice of placing the two together under one head seems to be as ancient as monasticism itself.
The Rule of S. Basil is written in the form of question and answer, and much of it refers to the relations between monks and nuns, while all impress upon the religious the duty of giving no occasion to the enemy to blaspheme. May the head of the monastery speak often with the abbess? May he speak with any of the sisters other than the abbess, on matters of faith? May the abbess be angry if a priest orders the sisters to do anything without her knowledge? If a sister refuses to sing the psalms, is she to be compelled to do so? All the answers urge both parts of the community to avoid giving ground for scandal. The nuns, in this case, seem to have had a separate church, for Gregory speaks of the Chorus of Virgins who awaited him when he came to visit his sister Macrina on her death bed. There were, too, schools for boys and girls attached to S. Basil's house, for he makes regulations concerning their education.