ABSTRACT
Rievaulx abbey was a Cistercian foundation in Yorkshire dating from around 1150-1200 and reduced to a ruin at the dissolution. The famous, accidentally preserved plan of the monastery of St Gall, dating from around 800, confirms in detail that the spatial arrangements had largely been determined by that period, but, of the earlier monasteries, including Benedict's own of around 500. St Benedict repeatedly refers to the antiphon in his correct order of observances, but, in his account, they happen in the oratory, the monks' chapel, from which the monastic church developed. The monks in the choir are separated from the nave and laity and split between the sides, so that they can sing antiphonally. The boundaries of the community are indicated by the range of places a monk might be found, by the treatment of guests, by the need for a wise doorman, by punishment of wrongdoers, by excommunication from prayer and meals, and ultimately by exclusion from the community.
