The monks were men who lived a life of prayer, fasting, and study apart from the world. None might ever leave the precincts of the monastery without permission. The Benedictines received their name from Saint Benedict, who lived in the sixth century, and drew up rules for the daily life and conduct of the monks of the Order. They all slept in the same dormitory, and all took their meals together in a common room called a refectory. In the refectory at Chester you may see a lector's pulpit from which portions of the Scriptures were read aloud to the monks as they sat at their meals. They gave all their private possessions to the monastery, and had to obey their superior in all matters. Every hour of the day and night had its allotted duties of work, study, or religious services. High up in the wall in one of the oldest parts of Chester Cathedral is a row of tiny arches, and behind them a narrow passage, along which the monks went from their sleeping-chamber to the early morning services in the abbey church.
To some of the monks was given the work of gardening, agriculture, and even building. The name of Caleyards at Chester still speaks to us of the kitchen-garden which the monks tended. Others made copies of illuminated 'missals' or books of Church services, or wrote histories and the annals of the abbey to which they were attached. The Chronicles of S. Werburgh were kept and added to yearly by the monks of Chester; though the original has been lost, a copy of it, made by a later scribe, has happily been preserved.
The most important part of the monastery was of course the church. The Norman churches were built of stone, and, as they took many years to build, very few of the founders lived to see the completion of their work. Probably only the foundations and portions of the walls of the church of Earl Hugh Lupus were finished during his lifetime. The work of the Norman builders may be recognized by the round-headed arches, doorways and windows which they copied from the Roman buildings. The Roman basilica or hall of justice, in which the earliest Christians were permitted to worship, was taken as a model for Christian churches. The capital of a Norman pillar in Frodsham Church proves that they had studied the architecture of the Romans, for it has the Ionic 'volute' or spiral scroll on each of its four faces. If you look for the round arches in the Cathedral of Chester you will be able to make out the portions which remain of the church built by Earl Hugh and by the abbots who completed his plans after his death.