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The chapter meeting
(3/4)
If you think you’re being dealt with
harshly, you will be soothed if
you do the following: think of your accuser as the razor of God
who
wishes to remove your unsightly hair so that you will appear fairer
in
beauty than the sons of men and be more pleasing in the presence
of
God in the light of the living. (7)
[Stephen of Sawley, ‘Mirror
for Novices’]
The daily chapter meeting opened with a reading
of the martyrology, to commemorate the saints celebrated that day.
This was followed
by a short morning prayer known as the Pretiosa. A chapter
from the Rule
of St Benedict was then read out and this marked the real
start of proceedings. On Sundays and feast days a passage from
either the Cistercian Customs (the Book of Usages) or
the Statutes of the General
Chapter was read and explained. An office to commemorate
the dead concluded the liturgical part of the meeting.
Disciplinary
matters were then addressed. Each monk was invited to step forward
to confess his sins before the community. He prostrated himself
on the floor, asked pardon and awaited judgement. Any monk who
was not forthcoming was ‘accused’- out of charity -
by his brethren, so that he too could be judged, corrected and
progress, unhindered, on the road to salvation. Punishment usually
consisted of fasting, demotion or beating. Anyone who was to be
beaten was punished immediately in front of the community: the
offender’s robe was loosened so that it fell to his waist
and left his flesh exposed, while a member of the community administered
his punishment. In more extreme circumstances, such as murder or
sodomy, the offender might face imprisonment or expulsion. In 1206
the General Chapter ruled
that prisons might be built within the abbeys for those who offended;
in 1230 it was stipulated that these
should be strong and secure. Statutes issued by the General Chapter
suggest that from the second half of the thirteenth century, life
imprisonment was not uncommon.(8) The
whole community witnessed these punishments but nobody was to disclose
what had transpired at chapter.
The chapter-house was also used for private confession when the
monks confessed wrongful thoughts or feelings such as anger, laziness
or jealousy.
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