[1] Conversi were found in houses of other orders, e.g. the Augustinian, but their position in such cases was less definite than in the Cistercian order. Male conversi were attached to houses of Cistercian nuns: examples of this are known in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire.

[2] In 1301 the Benedictine monks of Gloucester were allowed a frock and cowl out of the wardrobe at least once a year, day-shoes once in 18 months, boots once in five years, pairs of woollen shirts (langelli) once every four years. They could change when necessary a thick and thin tunic, their pilch or fur cloak (pellicea), ordinary boots, under-shirt (stamen) and drawers (femoralia).

[3] In 1230 the monks of St James', Bristol, a cell of Tewkesbury, petitioned the bishop of Worcester against the consecration of the Dominican church in St James' parish. Various documents in the York episcopal registers between 1279 and 1296 deal with the rivalry between the custodes of the alien priory of Scarborough and the local Dominicans. In both cases the root of ill-feeling was the diversion by the friars of the oblations due to the parish altar.

[4] Historical Growth of the English Parish Church, 1911, pp. 11-15.

[5] At Waverley, late in the twelfth century, there were 70 monks, 120 conversi. That the monks sometimes found the conversi difficult to manage is shewn by the action of abbot Richard (1220-35) at Meaux, who removed them from the granges and confined them to menial and craftsmen's work.

[6] The order in which the parts of a monastery were built followed the immediate needs of the convent. Thus at Evesham the eastern part of the church and the eastern range of the cloister were built first: the frater and western range, with the permanent outer buildings and the rest of the church, were not finished till later. At Meaux a temporary two-storied building, church above and dorter below, was used for some years until permanent buildings were ready.

[7] At St Albans, where we have much information about the library, two-thirds of the demesne tithes in Hatfield and some tithes in Redbourn were assigned between 1077 and 1098 ad volumina ecclesiae (i.e. the church-books) facienda.

[8] At Evesham two of the obedientiaries' checkers or offices were in the sub-vault of the dorter. Here also was the misericord, which had a door into the infirmary garden. The bleeding-house was a vaulted room beneath the rere-dorter.

[9] Notices relating to water-supply are frequent in monastic chronicles. In 1216, when the old spring at Waverley dried up, a monk named Simon brought the waters of several springs by a culvert into a conduit which was called St Mary's fount. The new lavatory at Malmesbury was finished in 1284.

[10] The weekly maundy (mandatum) or foot-washing took place at the lavatory; the arrangement is well seen at Fountains, where the monks sat on an upper ledge with their feet in the trough below.

[11] The upper stage was probably the treasury, which the account of the flood of 1265 shews to have been on an upper floor.

[12] In Benedictine houses the use of the misericord for monks in ordinary health was permitted at an earlier period. Abbot Colerne (1260-96) made regulations in 1292 for the daily use of the misericord at Malmesbury by a certain number of monks.

[13] Jocelyn of Brakelond says that in bleeding-time 'monks are wont to open to one another the secrets of the heart and to take counsel together,' and describes how at such a time, in the vacancy before his election as abbot of Bury, Samson the sub-sacrist sat in silence, smiling at the gossip of the brethren.

[14] Abbot Paul (1077-98) ordained that the minuti at St Albans, instead of feeding on meat pasties, should have a dish of salt-fish and slices of cake, known as 'karpie.'

[15] At St Albans there was a large camera for infirm abbots close to the infirmary. This, known as the pictorium or painted chamber, was destroyed by the insurgent tenants in 1381.

[16] Abbot Brokehampton (1282-1316) built two guest-chambers at Evesham upon vaulted undercrofts on the west side of the curia. In 1378 parliament sat in the guest-house and other buildings at Gloucester: the account shews how the cloister life was disorganised by the crowd of visitors.

[17] This was due to the removal of a chantry of six monks and a secular priest from Ottringham to the monastery.

[18] In Benedictine monasteries there were usually several offices outside the precinct—e.g., at Tewkesbury the mill and the guests' stable, burned in 1257, were extra portam abbatiae. The building of permanent offices in the curia at Bury by abbot Samson is described by Jocelyn of Brakelond.

[19] The almonry at St Albans, built by abbot Wallingford (1326-35), included a hall, chapel, chambers, kitchen, cellar and other buildings necessary for the scholars and their master.

[20] The prior was usually nominated by the abbot, or the names of several nominees were submitted to the convent for election. Jocelyn of Brakelond gives a detailed account of the election of a prior at Bury.

[21] The abbot's household at Gloucester, as regulated by archbishop Winchelsey in 1301, included five lay esquires and several lay servants, each with a definite office. Of the esquires one was seneschal of the guest-hall, another marshal, who was charged with regulating accounts, a third cook: the other two were appointed to serve the abbot's table and bed-chamber.

[22] Thus the cellarer of Evesham supplied the frater daily with 72 loaves.

[23] The officers and obedientiaries at Evesham in the thirteenth century were the prior, sub-prior, third prior and other custodes ordinis, the precentor, dean of the Christianity of the vale of Evesham, sacrist, chamberlain, kitchener, two cellarers, infirmarer, almoner, warden of the vineyard and garden, master of the fabric, guest-master and pittancer. The last official distributed the money allowances of the brethren.