On ordinary occasions, of course, the daily Chapter would not occupy a very long time, possibly a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes. At any rate, a full half-hour of the morning would be left before the High Mass, which began at ten o'clock. This time was generally spent by the monks in conversation in the cloister. On days when there was talking, the prior, or abbot if he had been present, on coming into the cloister when the Chapter was over, would sound three times the _tabula sonatila_, which was apparently a piece of hard wood, to which two other smaller pieces were loosely fastened, so that when shaken it gave forth a musical sound and served the purpose of our modern gong. This triple sounding of the _tabula_ was always the signal for talking; the superior, or whoever acted for him, pronouncing the word _Benedicite_, without which no conversation was to be permitted in the monastery. "By the three strokes," says one author who sees deep meanings in ordinary things, "is to be understood the signs of our mortality, representing our coming into the world, our passage through life, and our transit through the portals of death." The special significance of this thought in regard to conversation was apparently that in view of it, a bridle should be set upon the tongue and a guard upon the heart, which was so frequently disturbed by trifling images.
After the Chapter the common business of the house was transacted. The discussion about all the many details of a great administration like that of a mediæval monastery necessitated regular consultations between the officials and the superior, and frequent debates upon matters of policy, or matters of business, or on points of the Rule or observance. These meetings were known as "the Parliament," or Discussions, and from them the word to signify our house of national representatives was taken.
One particular part of the cloister was selected where these monastic Parliaments were held, and thither all came who had any matter to suggest or business to transact with the officials. Here the abbot, or he who took his place, was ordered to be ever ready to hear what those had to say who sought him for guidance or direction. In another part of the cloister, during this time after Chapter, the senior monks met together to listen to devotional reading, and to discuss points that might strike them in their reading, or which had been suggested by the Divine Office. In the same way the juniors were to be in their places in the western walk of the cloister with their master, or one or more of the seniors, similarly engaged in asking questions as to observance, or seeking to know the meaning of any difficult passages in Holy Scripture. The novices, and the juniors who had been only recently professed, were together in the northern walk of the cloister, being taught the principles and practices of the monastic life. It was a precious time for the beginner, when the disciple was exhorted to question his instructor on all matters connected with the regular observance, but especially about the Rule and the Divine Office.