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Hoodies in the eighteenth century

The discipline enforced at the monastic community of La Trappe by Abbot Rancé in the early eighteenth century:

Rancé prescribed the curtailment of fish, eggs, spices, sugar, syrup, jellies, and vegetables of any flavor; increased hardness of cots; obligation of sleeping with the cowl; perpetual silence; prohibition of letters and visits; a ban on lighting fires before the hour of prime (that is, six in the morning, but the monks rose at three-thirty), and after compline. Cells were exclusively appointed for sleep; light was never to be brought into them. The statute for the sick henceforth barred any appeal to a doctor; the sick were not confined to their beds, but observed the rhythm of the community; they also slept with the cowl; they went to church to receive the final sacraments; no fire could be lit in the infirmary before prime...."

Jean Delumeau, Sin and Fear, New York, 1990, St. Martin's Press, (1st published in French, 1983), p.308.

 

Hazel