note on privies in monasteries

Wolfgang Braunfels, Monasteries of Western Europe: The Architecture of the Orders (Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 1972)
talks about 'a description of a model Cluniac monastery, dating from about 1042...' which '...dwelled lovingly on the depiction of the large latrines, mentioning their forty-five seats, each ventilated by a finistrella above" (p 55-56) and that running water was laid-on throughout.

The latrine is 70 feet long, and 23 feet wide. 45 seats are arranged there, and for each seat there is a little window in the wall two feet high and half a foot wide; above the arrangement of the seats [one sees] a layer [?] of timbers, and 17 windows, three feet high and one and half feet wide, have been made above this timber construction...
Outside the monks' refectory and 60 feet from the end of the latrines, twelve sunken chambers with as many tubs are to be organized, where baths may be prepared for the brethren at the appointed times.(p.238-9)

(The guesthouse for visitors also is supposed to have 40 latrines for men and 30 for women.)

In the same book, an early 13th-century description of Clairvaux explains how the river is diverted through the entire settlement, serving to run mills, etc, then for cooking/washing/etc, and finally 'bearing away the refuse, it leaves everything spick and span behind it.' (p. 245)
The author also discusses latrines in other types of monastic foundations, including the individual ones attached to Carthusian monks' cells (p. 114)