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when disciplinary matters are dealt with, which can on occasion be…I won’t say entertaining , but certainly distracting . Closer to heaven than the common herd we may be, but monks are still men, and since only God is perfect it is inevitable that even the most saintly among us errs on occasion. It is therefore a central tenet of our calling that we correct our transgressions if we are to progress along that spiritual journey of which I have already spoken. For “if the Devil tempted Christ in the desert, what man is there that will not be tempted?” Or so wrote Cesarius of Heisterbach.
    Anyway, the point is that Chapter is our one opportunity for us monks to own up to our faults in a spirit of true humility and that in the full scrutiny of our brother monks. This is necessary for occasionally we are not even aware that we have sinned. And where this is the case, or if we deny or refuse to self-accuse, someone else can usually be found to do it for us. We are reminded that this is done not from spite but out of compassion and as such we are not to bear a grudge against our accuser who, as it were, like the razor of God shaves us of the unsightly hair of sin. Of course, this gives plenty of scope for vexatious allegation - although no-one would suggest that a brother monk could be capable of such base motive. In any event, this was of little concern to me for I had not, so far as I was aware, been guilty of any wrongdoing recently that would attract the censure of my brother monks. I therefore went into Chapter this morning with a cheerful heart and a clear conscience.
     
    Prior Herbert opened the session with the usual prayer of supplication:
    ‘The Peace of the Lord be with you and may He give His blessings on these our solemn deliberations.’
    We rejoined with a resounding “Amen”, all seventy monks in unison, and sat down on the stone benches that line the walls of the chapterhouse to hear the day’s business. When all were settled Brother Michael read the daily chapter from the Rule of Saint Benedict which today was Chapter 53 – appropriately enough in light of our visitors from Norfolk, viz: Let all guests who arrive be received as Christ, because He will say: “I was a stranger and you took Me in”. Brother Michael then sat down and Prior Herbert rose to address us.
    First, he related more of the details of the war in France and the distressing news of the defeat of King John’s allies in Flanders. Prior Herbert did not linger over this for too long except to extend the hope that now that the king was back on English soil he might at last find time to devote to specifically English matters – by which we all understood he meant Hugh Northwold’s bid to be our new abbot. But for once, mercifully, even that matter was allowed to rest there rather than to rehearse the arguments yet again with all the usual acrimonious disagreements between the brothers. I presumed the reason for this self-restraint was out of courtesy for the stranger in our midst whom I’d already noted sitting at the front of the room when we filed in - a tall, rather sickly young man not above twenty summers, thin and pale of complexion. This man Prior Herbert now brought forward to present to us.
    ‘Brothers , I would ask you to welcome today into our midst Brother Eusebius.’ He extended his hand towards the young man who stood up for our inspection.
    Herbert then continued: ‘Brother Eusebius is a member of the Priory Church of the Holy Cross and Blessed Virgin at Shouldham in our neighbouring county of Norfolk. As many of you know, the canons of Shouldham are not Benedictines like us but follow instead the Rule of Saint Augustine of Hippo – hence his rather exotic attire.’
    Herbert was referring to the young man’s tunic of black wool which was unusual covered as it was in a white cloak and hood and was therefore quite different from our own robe of plain black wool. Herbert’s comment was meant as a light-hearted jest