88 MEDIEVAL CIVILIZATION the cellarer, in charge of the provisions, the treasurer, the librarian, the chorister, and the director of the school. The monks lived in commons, but they were obliged to keep silent save at certain hours; they came together before day to sing matins at sunrise, to hear prime: then came the mass, prayers, nones and compline. As the regulations of Saint Benedict com- manded labor, the monks were occupied either in culti- vating the soil, in watching over the domestics, in making ornaments for the church, or in copying manu- scripts. Many monks have described the life they led in their abbey, but the pictures differ greatly according as to whether the convent was rich or poor, recently organized or of older date, well or ill disciplined. The Parish—In Roman times, there had been churches and priests only in the towns. When the whole country had become christianized, the large pro- prietors, lords, abbots or bishops set about building chapels in their domains. The founder endowed the church with sufficient land to cover the expenses of worship and to support a priest, and the bishop ap- proved the foundation. From that time the priest of that church (the founder and his heirs reserved the right to name him), had the care (the cure1) of the souls of the village; the inhabitants had to attend his church, and to obey him. The territory administered by a priest formed a parish (administration). When this work of division was ended (in France it was about the tenth century), the whole Christian country was divided into parishes, just as it still is today. Each village had its church, or was attached * From this word came the title curate*