This northern transept seems to have been a favourite spot for interments; for during the excavations numerous skulls were found there. At Clairvaux, the corresponding site was strewn with the graves of bishops, who selected it as the place wherein to rest after life’s weary struggle. No record or memorial of these survives, or of any of the dead interred at Mellifont, to point out the occupant of a single grave. In the northern wall of this transept is a beautiful door-way with jambs of clustered columns. Hard by, the wall was pierced to make a loop-hole when Mellifont was transformed into a fortress. On one side of the door-way are the remains of what must once have been a superb chapel; on the opposite side are a few steps of a spiral stair-case, formed in the thickness of the wall, which led up to the tower, as is to be seen at Graignamanagh, Co. Kilkenny, and other houses of the order in Ireland. The level of the floor here is some five or six feet lower than the adjacent road-way which was raised by the accumulated rubbish of former buildings that extended along the hill-side where the cottages now stand.
The southern transept may have had its six altars also. The aisle seems to have been built up, and when the alterations which took place in the whole fabric in the fifteenth century were made, a large portion of this transept would appear to have been allocated to the uses of a sacristy. No trace of a sacristy remains elsewhere, and this would be a very convenient place to utilise as one. The remains of some walls lead us to suppose such an arrangement probable. In Cistercian monasteries, a stair-case in this transept near the cloister led thence to the dormitory, but no remains of such a stairs have been discovered at Mellifont. When Sir Thomas Deane had the earth and rubbish, or, as he calls it, the “grassy mound,” removed, he discovered the foundations of two semi-circular chapels in each transept, in a line with the site occupied by the High, or principal Altar. (See the dotted lines in the Ground Plan). Describing them, Sir Thomas writes: “Within the circuit of the external walls are the foundations of an earlier church which indicate four semicircular chapels, and two square ones between. Of this church we have no distinct record, but the bases of semi-detached pillars would indicate the date given for the erection of Mellifont.” These four semi-circular chapels in line with the High Altar, formed an exact counterpart of the church of Clairvaux which was erected in 1135, and which by St. Bernard’s express wish, served St. Malachy as the model for Mellifont.
The chancel terminated in a square end, and was 42 feet deep by 26 feet wide. It was raised about six inches over the floor of the nave, and a slab of limestone extended the entire width with which the tiled pavement was flush. Almost in the centre of the chancel, that is to say, nearly midway between the two piers, are two sockets sunk in sandstone blocks. What uses they served cannot be affirmed with certainty. However, it may be conjectured that they served to receive the supports on which a violet curtain was suspended during Lent, screening the “Sanctuary.” This curtain spanned the space from pier to pier. The custom is still preserved in the Order. Here on this central spot, a lectern was placed, at which the sub-deacon at Solemn Masses sang the Epistle. Here, too, the celebrant of the Community Mass on Sundays blessed the water with which he sprinkled the brethren, who presented themselves two by two before him. It was here, also, that the Abbot blessed the candles, ashes, and palms, on Candlemas-day, Ash Wednesday, and Palm Sunday respectively. This was called the “Presbytery Step,” and the whole space within the chancel, the “Sanctuary.”
The basis on which the High Altar was built still remains. It is distant some few feet from the eastern wall, in order to allow a passage for the monks, who on Sundays and Festivals received Holy Communion at this altar, after which they walked around it in single file, and passing on by the Gospel, or northern corner, returned to their stalls in the nave. The basis is ten feet long by three and one half feet wide. On the Epistle, or southern side, are the piscina surrounded with a dog-tooth moulding, and the remains of the sedilia or stalls, which were occupied by the celebrant, deacon, and sub-deacon at High Mass. Under these sedilia a tomb was discovered during the excavations. A skull and some bones, together with a gold ring, were raised from their resting-place; the bones were replaced and covered with the slab of concrete now seen at this spot, but the ring was sold by a workman and could never be recovered. No inscription or tradition identifies the occupant of the hallowed grave. Could it have been that of the famous Dervorgilla? She was certainly buried at Mellifont, but unfortunately, we do not know the spot where her remains were laid when “life’s fitful fever” was over; or it may have been the resting-place of Thomas O’Connor, or of Luke Netterville, both, successively, Archbishops of Armagh; for they, also, were buried at Mellifont.
On the opposite, or Gospel side, is an arched recess having an ornamental moulding around it. This would seem to have been the Founder’s tomb, or rather, the remains of it. In the Cistercian Constitutions no special place was allotted for the tombs of Founders, and only the indefinite permission was given, that they, kings and queens, bishops and such like exalted dignitaries, might be buried within the churches of the Order. A general custom, however, prevailed in Ireland of appropriating to the Founder’s tomb a space in the northern wall of the chancel, and directly at right angles with the High Altar. Others, besides Founders, were buried on the north side in the chancel. Thus, in the Annals of St. Mary’s Abbey, Dublin, we are told that Felix O’Ruadan, who had been a great benefactor to that house, was buried in the chancel of the abbey church, on the north side. And Felix O’Dullany, the first Abbot of Jerpoint, and afterwards Bishop of Ossory, was interred on the north side of the High Altar, at Jerpoint.
The door on this side of the chancel is a puzzle, as in no other church of the Order is one found in this position. There is no evidence of a building having adjoined with which this door communicated, so that its use is unknown. Quite close to this door there is a shallow recess in the wall, which may have been a provision for the Abbot’s throne, when he officiated pontifically, as that is the site usually occupied by it. Some five or six feet high of the chancel walls is all that is left standing; and, though not up to the window level, what remains of the cut stone and water-tabling gives an idea of the beauty of the whole, and what a loss we have sustained by its destruction.
In the original church, that is, the one erected in St. Malachy’s time, there were ten altars we are told, but on the ground plan seven only are shown. Two more at least were in front of the Rood-loft or Jubé, and the remaining one very probably was in one of the aisles. The church of Mellifont was remarkable, not so much for its vast dimensions, as for its architectural beauty; yet, in this it was surpassed by St. Mary’s Abbey, Dublin. Sir Thomas Deane writes: “From the fragments of the church which remain, it is easy to trace the vicissitudes the building underwent. I have great doubt that any portions of the structure above ground are those of the earliest church erected on the site, or date as far back as 1157, which is given as the year of its consecration.... The details of the piers (the older ones) are in my opinion a century or more later in date. They still indicate a foreign type, and the arrangements and obvious plan show that the transepts as well as the nave had aisles.... Portions of the piers discovered are of the fifteenth century, other parts of the church of the fourteenth.... A second portion dates probably from 1260, another from 1370, and another from 1460. I am not prepared to follow from the history of the Abbey the causes of such restorations; but it is certain that rebuildings of portions of the church occurred from time to time, and that violence or decay was the cause.” Neither to violence nor to decay can the alterations be attributed, which the church underwent at the three periods mentioned by Sir Thomas, but rather to the practice then common to the whole Order, chiefly in the monasteries of Great Britain and Ireland, of adopting the advancing changes in the Gothic style, and to the laudable efforts of the monks to make the House of God worthy of Him as far as art and skill could be made subservient to that purpose. Thus in the Annals of Fountains and Furness, there are abundant proofs of this constant change going on in those monasteries even down to the date of their suppression. One Abbot considered the eastern window too low and narrow, and had it enlarged; another thought the tower rested on too slender a basis, and he built substantial piers and flanked them on the outside with buttresses, and so with others.
To better understand the surroundings, it will be necessary to bear in mind the general plan on which all Cistercian monasteries were built. On this subject there is a good deal of misapprehension, even on the part of those who seem to have given close attention to the matter. The church and buildings necessary for large communities were so arranged as to form a square, thereby combining simplicity with economy. It is said that the monks borrowed this idea from the form of a Roman villa. The church formed the first or northern side (for in temperate and cold climates the other buildings, as they lay to the south, were sheltered by the church.) The sacristy, chapter-house, and other halls were on the east; the calefactory, refectory, and kitchen on the south; and the Domus Conversorum completed the square on the west. Within this square were the cloisters, always contiguous to the main buildings, and forming a communication with all the parts of the monastery. They were a sort of covered ambulatory, whose roof rested on the one side against the main buildings, and on the other was supported by open ornamental arcades, which, however, in these climates were glazed. The cloisters were often vaulted in richly moulded stonework, and were fitted up with benches for reading, chiefly on the side adjoining the church. The space or quadrilateral area enclosed by them was called the Cloister-Garth, in the centre of which a statue or handsome fountain stood.
The cloisters were generally entered from the church by the south aisle, at the point where it adjoins the transept; but here, at Mellifont, the entrance was direct from the south transept itself. This a glance at the ground-plan will show; though it may have been otherwise in the primitive church; for, when it underwent alterations, the transepts were widened by the addition of an aisle to each; and, the cloister being thus encroached on, a change was necessary in it also.
Adjoining the transept, and at right angles with the cloister, on the left, was a narrow hall or cell which contained books, chiefly the Sacred Scriptures, and the writings of the Fathers. This cell, which had no window, was called the “Armarium Commune,” or “Common Box;” for its contents were common to all the monks. Its situation was convenient to the reading-cloister, which lay along the south wall of the church. In this cell the monks were provided with an abundant supply of good books, but treatises on the Canon and Civil Laws were forbidden to be kept in it: the Prior was charged with the custody of these. Behind this cell, and communicating only with the church, the Sacristy was placed; but, as before observed, there is no trace of one here. Some writers on monastic ruins, confidently assure their readers that this cell was a prison, and that it was called the “Lantern;” casting upon the monks all responsibility for the name, and supposing them to have formed it on the lucus a non lucendo principle, seeing the cell was dark. The error was all their own; for the Lantern, as has been already shown, was in the tower over the crossing of the church; and the true use of this cell has just been stated above.