ABSTRACT
The singularly beautiful monastic church at Daphne, on the high road from Athens to Eleusis, has the ruins of a cloister on its southern side, but this was certainly the work of the Frank Dukes of Athens, some of whom are buried in the building. Apart from the church, the very extensive monastic buildings rather closely resemble a section of the richer portion of Pompeii or of some other Roman town. The Cistercians at first made a determined effort to return to primitive simplicity and S. Bernard most vigorously denounces the architectural splendour of Cluny, happily unconscious that in less than a century monks of his own order would be worshipping in buildings of equal splendour. Contrary to a very general impression, the monk was rather a patron of art than himself a skilled craftsman. All scruples that may have survived from early times as to the magnificence of monastic churches were soon set aside.
