Chapter 10
Sacrifice were cultivated or not. For one may not underestimate the artistic pursuit of sacred song in St. Benedict's cloister, nor, on the other hand, thrust it too prominently into the forefront.
Order of the Personnel in the Choir.—The Holy Rule mentions certain im portant requirements for the placement of the monks in the oratory for the "Work of God." The chanter and the reader were to stand at the lectern in the middle of the choir. The others grouped themselves around these two in the form of a half-circle as a sort of schola (cf. Isidor (f 636), Etymolog. V, xix).
The excommunicated (cf. chaps, xlii & xliii) stood at the end of the choir, in a relatively separate place, and at night by the lamp near the lectern.
Benches were provided for periods when the lessons were being read, pro bably not in a stationary arrangement as they are today, but as movable and interchangeable seats along the wall; in any case, the Rule insisted strictly up on maintenance of the proper order in sitting (which is quite superfluous with our modern choir-stall arrangement). The excommunicated had to be able to prostrate themselves on the floor at their places.
We do not know anything about the abbot's location in the oratory. The priests stood near him, and the lector, by reason of the blessing, stood op posite him and the priests. The abbot's seat in the oratory (and the position of the altar), however, were without much doubt centrally located.
TENTH CHAPTER
How the Night Office is to be sung in Summer From Easter Sunday until the first of November, let the number of psalms be adhered to exactly as outlined above, except that, on account of the shortness of the nights, no les sons at all from the book shall be read. In place of the lessons, however, let one lesson from the Old Testament be recited from memory, this to be followed by a short responsory.
Everything else shall be carried through as directed, namely, that never fewer than twelve psalms (a nocturne)1 shall be chanted at the night office, not counting, of course, the third and the 94th.
1 The chanting of the psalms to the number of twelve at the first and second nocturne of the night office was a custom that prevailed in the first days of monasticism. Abbot Cassian is authority for the statement that it owed its origin to the revelation of an angel (Institutes ii, 4).