A very pertinent question arises now: how could this small building give sitting accommodation, not only to one hundred and fifty monks, which this monastery is said to have had, but even to a third of that number? It seems impossible. It may be that, on becoming numerous, they used as Chapter-house some other building no longer standing. At Graignamanagh, the monks, finding their Chapter-house too small, converted the eastern window of it into a door, and built a large and spacious hall, as a new Chapter-house, the old one serving as an ante-chamber to it. No such addition had been made here; for the window remains intact. What a change has come over this grand old Chapter-house since it saw its Abbot, who ranked as a peer of the realm, walk up its centre with solemn and stately tread, and mount the steps which led to his seat, on the east; and the grave assemblage of white-robed monks enter in silence, and take their places on either side, while one of them sang at the Lectern, the Martyrology, and a chapter of St. Benedict's Rule! From this custom of having a _chapter_ of the Rule sung there every morning, this apartment derives its name. In the interval, between the singing of the Martyrology and the chapter of St. Benedict's Rule, one of the priests gave out certain prayers, to which all responded. These prayers were chiefly petitions to the Lord, that He would deign to bless and guard them during the coming day; for the hour of chapter, or of the assembling of the Brethren, was generally about 6 A.M.. The Abbot then explained the chapter which had been sung, dwelt on the obligations incumbent on his hearers, by their profession, to observe the teaching which St. Benedict inculcated by his Rule; then called for the public self-accusations of breaches of monastic discipline (external faults only), and imposed penances commensurate with each transgression. The Chapter-house was the hall wherein were held the deliberations or councils relative to the administration of temporalities, and here novices were elected or rejected by secret ballot.