Add to
this that a monk had to pass through rather a long training before he
was regularly admitted to full membership. He had to submit to a term
of probation, during which he was subject to a somewhat rigorous
ordeal.
A novice had the pride taken out of him in a very effectual way
during his novitiate--he was pretty much in the position of a
_fag_ at a great school nowadays, and by the time that he had
passed through his novitiate he was usually very well broken in, and
in harmony with the spirit of the place in which he found himself. It
was something to have a higher place assigned him at last in the
church and the dormitory, to have some petty office given him, and to
have a chance of being promoted by and by. There was Brother So-and-
so, who was getting infirm, and he could not do the pitanciar's work
much longer; the precentor was getting as hoarse as a raven, and the
sacrist was gouty, or the cellarer was showing signs of breaking up.
Nay, the prior's cough gave unmistakable signs of his lungs being
wrong, and if he _were_ to drop off, which we should of course
all of us deplore--there would be a general move up, it might be;
unless, indeed, Father Abbot should promote his chaplain over the
heads of all of us--for such things have been!
But, when we come to look a little closer, we find that the monotony
of monastic life was almost confined to the frequent services in the
church.
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