Monasteries are communities that have taken religious vows and agreed to live a code of conduct. They are usually associated with the buildings in which monks or nuns live in. Monasteries flourished during the Middle Ages and often became wealthy. They were important as centers of Christianity, a place of learning, and agricultural innovation.
To become a monk one had to first become an oblate. To become an oblate, one had to be given to the monastery by one's father. When one was old enough, one could take their first vows and become a novice. After several years of being a novice, with the abbot's (the head of the monastery) approval, one was able to take their final vows and become a monk.
Monasteries consisted of several different buildings, and some larger communities were like small towns. Each monastery had an abbey church and next to it a cloister. A cloister is a covered walkway around a courtyard where monks could get exercise and sometimes sit at desks to illuminate manuscripts. The refectory (dining room), the dormitory, the scriptorium, the chapter house (used for meetings of church leaders), all opened onto the cloister. .
In the dining room, monks were not allowed to talk; instead they made signals to each other. On some occasions a monk would read from the Bible while the others meditated. They were allowed only one meal in the wintertime and two in the summertime. Monks did not eat meat except if they were ill and on certain days. The dormitory was their own little room where they slept. The scriptorium was where books and manuscripts were written and illustrated. The monks would decorate them with magnificent paints and a gold leaf. The monks that decorated them were called illuminators, one had to very skilled to become an illuminator. The books were written on parchment that was made out of the skin of young animals. The chapter house is where monks could ask each other for their pardon for anything they had done wrong.