Editing Chapter house (section)

==History and uses==
The community of monks would meet in the chapter house with the [[abbot]] to "hold [[chapter (religion)|chapter]]"; that is, "for the reading of the '[[Martyrology]]' and the '[[Necrology]]', for the correction of faults, the assigning of the tasks for the day, and for the exhortation of the superior, and again for the evening Collation or reading before [[Complin]]".<ref>{{CathEncy|wstitle=Chapter House}} The Necrology was a list of death anniversaries for the community and persons of interest to it.</ref>  The first meeting took place in the morning, after the church services of [[Prime (liturgy)|Prime]] or [[Terce]].  The monks might sit along the length of the walls in strict age-order, apart from the office-holders.

The [[Carolingian]] [[Plan of St Gall]] (c.&nbsp;820) is the plan for an ideal 9th century monastery, with a great variety of buildings and rooms, but none that really can be assigned the function of chapterhouse; nor is such a room mentioned by [[Benedict of Nursia|Saint Benedict]].  But the chapter house is mentioned in the proceedings of the [[Synods of Aachen (816–819)|Council of Aachen in 816]]. The church or cloister may have been used for all meetings in earlier monasteries, or there was usually a [[refectory]] (hall for eating). But by at least 1000 such a room had become normal in large monastic establishments. The east side of the cloister on which the chapter house was often located was usually the first to be constructed; it would have been begun shortly after the church walls were built.