“From due oblation, at the vaulted door,
The entering monks stood, each one with his mate,
At the two tables of the lowest floor,
Their looks directing to the spiry state
Of chair much sculptured, where the Prior sate;
To this, where transversely, a board was spread,
Inferior lordlings of the convent ate;
As passed the Prior, all depressed the head;
Loud rang a tinkling bell, and wonted grace was said.”
“The Prior gave the signal word; aloud
The reader ’gan the love of God reveal;
At the first stated pause, the holy crowd
Turned to the board in instantaneous wheel,
And solemn silence marked their instant meal;
The Prior to the reader bow’d, again
They turned; the Sacrist rang a tinkling peal,
Last grace was said; and, carolling a strain
Of David, two and two withdrew the hooded train.”
Brit. Monach.—Monastic Æconomy, 401.
“At noon-hour—did no fleshless day betide—
On posied trenchers the plain cates were spread,
The snow-white egg, the fish’s corned side,
Domestic fowl, by barn-door plenty fed,
And, best of nutriment, fermented bread;
No thirst was theirs but what that juice could pall,
The sugar’d ears of bearded barley shed;
An aged monk was marshal of the hall,
There walking to and fro, the servitours to call.”
—Poem quoted.
Pinguia concedens quæ sunt affinia carni,
Sic tamen ut nunquam sit manifesta caro.
—Spec. Stultor. Brit. Mon.
[76] “Nullus et monachus habeat colloquium cum maliere cognata aut extranea, in temporibus indebitis, sicut, prandii, et coenæ, et horæ meridianæ, aut tempore potûs assiguati.”—MS. Cott. Jul. II. 2. f. 159. Quoted by Fosbroke, p. 220.
[77] See ante op. cit.