The monks were expected to observe silence in
the claustral area and to communicate by signs when necessary.
Nevertheless, there were times when conversation was necessary
and this took place in the parlour. The parlour at Fountains stood
to the south of the chapter-house, between the chapter-house and
the toilet-block (reredorters). A door in the west wall
led to the cloister, one in the east to a yard. The parlour was
remodelled
in the late twelfth century and was finely decorated for a building
of this kind, perhaps, as it was considered an extension of the
chapter-house design, which was completed at the same time.(50)
A warning against gossip
The German Cistercian, Idungus of Prufung, criticised Cluniac monks for
chatting and complained that they eagerly gossiped after the daily
chapter meeting ‘by permission of the order’. He compared
the noise they made to the din in a tavern full of sots where the men
talked ‘with their fellow spouses’ and the women drinkers
chatted with their companions. Idungus warned of the perils of such
behaviour: ‘From the permission to chatter arises the wherewithal
for brawling. From the brawl come threats and acrimony, so much so
that at times it is necessary to recall the chapter by striking the
wooden tabula’.
[Idungus, Dialogue, I: 23 (pp 36-7).]
The
parlour was not to be used for idle gossip, but for essential communication
only. The master of novices might
speak with visiting monks here and was also permitted to talk to
novices under his
charge, during the first two months of their probationary period.
The prior could hear novices’ confessions in the parlour
during the time allocated to reading, and the monks gathered in
the parlour after the daily chapter meeting for the allocation
of tasks. The parlour may also have been used by the monks to hang
their cowls.(51)