WHO IS ADMITTED BESIDE THE MONKS
The question of who was to be admitted to the refectory
was never settled to everybody's satisfaction. In order to
protect the life of the monks from being contaminated
by association with visitors from the outside world, St.
Benedict provided the abbot with his own kitchen, "so
that the brethren may not be disturbed when guests—
who are never lacking in a monastery—arrive at irregular
hours."[174]
This rule had always been a source of annoyance
to reform-eager souls, and the resulting uncertainties are
reflected in conflicting legislation. Chapter 14 of the synod
of 817 rules "that layman should not be conducted into the
refectory for the sake of eating and drinking" (Ut laici in
refectorium causa manducandi uel bibendi non ducantur),[175]
but a directive which appears to have been issued not before
818-819 eased this directive by admitting ecclesiastics
of superior rank, and noblemen.[176]
Some abbots, such as
Adalhard of Corbie, went even further by making this
privilege available to paupers and secular canons of lower
ranks.[177]
Other monasteries retained the more restrictive
customs of earlier periods, as is suggested by a passage in
Ekkehard's Casus sancti Galli, which reads:
The monastery of St. Gall, as I come to speak about this place, has
always been held in such high veneration from the oldest memory
of our fathers, that no one, not even the most powerful canon or
layman of the secular world, was permitted to enter the monks'
enclosure or even to glance into it.
[178]
Infractions of this rule are carefully recorded by Ekkehard,
such as the time when King Conrad I surprised the monks
of St. Gall, on December 26 of the year 911, by entering
the refectory in the company of two bishops, with the word
"With us you shall have to share your meal whether you
wish or not!" and at the same time instructing Abbot
Salomon not to join the party in the refectory but to
preside over the table of the king's retainers in the House
for Distinguished Guests—a complete reversal of the roles
of abbot and emperor.
The entry of laymen into the refectory could be legalized,
however, by the act of confraternization, often performed
on such occasions, and on the day after Conrad's first unauthorized
entry into the refectory at St. Gall he petitioned
to be voted in confraternity by the monks. This was granted
him, and at the noon meal of the same day he again shared
their company, during which the monks were treated to
delicacies not permitted on their regular diet. "No one
complained that this or that was contrary to custom,"
concludes Ekkehard's account of this unusual event, "although
nothing like this had ever been heard or seen before,
or even experienced by a monk in this house."[179]
