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Sign language
To preserve silence in the cloister monks communicated
using signs. The codification of signs began at the reformed Benedictine
house of Cluny in the tenth century, and was soon taken on by other
orders. A surviving Clairvaux manuscript contains a list of 227
signs which were made using the fingers and hands. Signing was
intended to convey essential information only and was not for
conversation
or an excuse for frivolity. At Lent the Cistercians did not simply
follow an abstemious diet but were also urged to minimise speech
and signing, thus fasting with the tongue and hands as much as
the stomach.
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