Next in importance to the office of cantor, especially in regard to the church services which formed so integral a part in the daily life of a monastery, was the sacrist. To him, with his several assistants, was committed the care of the church fabric, with its sacred plate and vestments, as well as of the various reliquaries, shrines, and precious ornaments, which the monastery possessed. It was his duty to provide for the cleansing and lighting of the church, to prepare the choir and altars for the various services, to see that on feast days they were decked out with the appropriate hangings and ornaments; to provide that the vestments for the sacred ministers were ready for use as required, and that, on days when the community were vested in albs or in copes, these were rightly distributed to the brethren. The High Altar was specially in his own personal care: he had to see that it was becomingly decked for the great feasts, and he was particularly enjoined never to leave it without a frontal of some kind, that he might not seem to neglect the place where the daily Sacrifice was offered. Upon the sacrist was specially enjoined the necessary virtue of cleanliness. Every Saturday he had to see that the sconces of the candlesticks were all scoured out, and that the pavements before the altars were washed and cleaned. The floor of the presbytery was, like the High Altar, to be his own special charge. He was directed constantly to change the linen cloths of the altar and all those otherwise used in the Holy Sacrifice, remembering as a guiding principle that it was “unbecoming to minister to God, with things unsuitable for profane use.” The corporals he was also to wash and prepare himself, polishing them with a stone, known as “_lisca_”--“lischa,” or glass-stone. For this and the making of the altar breads--concerning which work the minute legislation of the Custumals testifies to the care required in the production of the bread for the Holy Eucharist--the sacrist and his assistants had to be vested in albs and were required to take every precaution in order to secure spotless cleanness of hands and person. During the operation psalms and other prayers were to be said. Once a week, also on Saturdays, if he were a priest or deacon, the sacrist was ordered to wash thoroughly all the chalices and sacred vessels used at the Holy Sacrifice, and to see that no stains of wine, or marks of use, were left on them. If he were not in Sacred Orders he had to get one of the brethren who was to do this office for him. On the Wednesday of each week all the cruets were to be thoroughly cleansed at the lavatory, as also all the jugs and utensils under his care or belonging to his office.