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CONTENTS 

CHAPTER 

INTRODUCTION ... 

PROLOGUE - 

I. OF THE VARIOUS KINDS OF MONKS 
II. WHAT KIND OF MAN THE ABBOT OU< 
III. OF CALLING THE BRETHREN TO COU1 
IV. WHAT ARE THE INSTRUMENTS OF GOl 
V. OF OBEDIENCE - 
VI. THE SPIRIT OF SILENCE - 
VII. OF HUMILITY - 
VIII. OF THE DIVINE OFFICE AT NIGHT 
IX. HOW MANY PSALMS ARE TO BE SAID J 
X. HOW THE NIGHT OFFICE IS TO BE S/ 
XI. HOW THE NIGHT OFFICE IS TO BE S/ 
XII. HOW THE OFFICE OF LAUDS IS TO Bl 

XIII. HOW LAUDS ARE TO BE SAID ON WEI 

XIV. HOW THE NIGHT OFFICE IS TO BE Sf 
XV. AT WHAT TIMES OF THE YEAR " ALL! 

XVI. HOW THE WORK OF GOD IS TO BE DO 
XVII. HOW MANY PSALMS ARE TO BE SAID 
XVIII. IN WHAT ORDER THE PSAL'MS ARE T( 
XIX. HOW TO SAY THE DIVINE OFFICE 
XX. OF REVERENCE AT PRAYER 
XXI. OF THE DEANS OF THE MONASTERY 
XXII. HOW THE MONKS ARE TO SLEEP - 
XXIII. OF EXCOMMUNICATION FOR FAULTS 
XXIV. WHAT <THE MEASURE OF EXCOMMUNI 
XXV. OF GRAVER FAULTS 
XXVI. OF THOSE WHO CONSORT WITH THE 
XXVII. HOW CAREFUL THE ABBOT SHOULD BE 

GATE - 

XXVIII. OF THOSE WHO BEING OFTEN CORRE 

XXIX. WHETHER THE BRETHREN WHO LEAVE 

TO BE RECEIVED AGAIN - 

XXX. HOW YOUNG BOYS ARE TO BE CORR] 

XXXI. OF THE CELLARER OF THE MONASTEI 

XXXII. OF THE TOOLS AND PROPERTY OF TJ 

XXXIII. WHETHER MONKS OUGHT TO HAVE AN1 

XXXIV. WHETHER ALL OUGHT TO RECEIVE NE< 
XXXV. OF THE WEEKLY SERVERS IN THE KF 

XXXVI. OF THE SICK BRETHREN - 

XV 



ENTS 



MONKS -* 

LBBOT OUGHT TO BE 

TO COUNCIL 
TS OF GOOD WORKS 



PAGE 

ix 
i 

25 
35 
56 
61 



- 92 

NIGHT - 131 

BE SAID AT THE NIGHT HOURS 144 

TO BE SAID IN SUMMER - 153 

TO BE SAID ON SUNDAYS - 154 

( IS TO BE SAID - - 158 

D ON WEEKDAYS - - l6o 

TO BE SAID ON SAINTS'-DAYS 164 

2AR " ALLELUIA " IS TO BE SAID 1 68 

TO BE DONE IN THE DAY-TIME 170 

BE SAID AT THE DAY HOURS 174 

MS ARE TO BE SAID - ~ 1 77 

OFFICE - - - 185 



NASTERY - 

SLEEP - 

L FAULTS - 

COMMUNICATION SHOULD BE - 



VITH THE EXCOMMUNICATE 
HOULD BE OF THE EXCOMMUNI- 

EN CORRECTED DO NOT AMEND 
WO LEAVE THE MONASTERY ARE 



- 194- 

- 205 
211 
2IS 
218 



BE CORRECTED 

MONASTERY - 
RTY OF THE MONASTERY 
HAVE ANYTHING OF THEIR OWN 
ECEIVE NECESSARY THINGS ALIKE 
N THE KITCHEN 



22O 
225 

228 
231 

233' 

243 
245 

251 
254 

258 



xvi Contents 



PACK 



CHAPTER 

XXXVII. OF OLD MEM AND CHILDREN - - - 263 

XXXVIII. THE WEEKLY READER - - - - - 265 

XXXIX. OF THE MEASURE O'F FOOD - - - - 27O*> 

XL. OF THE MEASURE OF DRINK - - . - - 275-* 

XLI. AT WHAT HOURS THE BRETHREN ARE TO TAKE THEIR MEALS 278"* 
XLII. THAT NO ONE MAY SPEAK AFTER COMPLINE - - 28 1 

XLIII. OF THOSE WHO COME LATE TO THE WORK OF GOD OR TO TABLE 286* 
XLIV. OF THOSE WHO ARE EXCOMMUNICATED, HOW THEY ARE TO 

MAKE SATISFACTION - - . - - - 294 

XLV. OF THOSE WHO MAKE MISTAKES IN THE ORATORY - 297 

XLVI. OF THOSE WHO OFFEND IN ANY OTHER MATTERS - 299 

XLVII. OF SIGNIFYING THE HOUR FOR THE WORK OF GOD - 302 
XL VIII. OF THE DAILY MANUAL LABOUR - - - 304-* 

XLIX. OF THE OBSERVANCE OF LENT - - - - 317 

L. OF BRETHREN WHO ARE WORKING AT A DISTANCE FROM THE 

ORATORY OR ARE ON A JOURNEY - - - 322" 

LI. OF BRETHREN WHO DO NOT GO FAR AWAY - - 325-* 

LII. OF THE ORATORY OF THE MONASTERY - - - 327 

LIII. OF THE RECEPTION OF GUESTS - - - - 330 

LIV. WHETHER A MONK OUGHT TO RECEIVE LETTERS OR TOKENS 343 
LV. OF THE CLOTHES AND SHOES OF THE BRETHREN - - - 346 
LVI. OF THE ABBOT'S TABLE - - - - - 358 

LVII. OF THE ARTIFICERS OF THE MONASTERY - - - 361 

LVIII. OF THE DISCIPLINE OF RECEIVING BRETHREN INTO RELIGION 367 
- LIX. OF THE SONS OF NOBLES OR THE POOR THAT ARE OFFERED 406 
LX. OF PRIESTS WHO MAY WISH TO DWELL IN THE MONASTERY 413"- 
LXI. OF PILGRIM MONKS, HOW THEY ARE TO BE RECEIVED - 418 
LXII. OF THE PRIESTS OF THE MONASTERY - - - 42/jTV 

LXIII. OF THE ORDER OF THE COMMUNITY - - - 431 t 

LXIV. OF THE APPOINTMENT OF THE ABBOT - - - 44!*^ 

LXV. OF THE PRIOR OF THE MONASTERY -" - - 456 

LXVI. OF THE PORTER OF THE MONASTERY - - - 463 

LXVII. OF BRETHREN WHO ARE SENT ON A JOURNEY - - 460 

LXVIII. IF A BROTHER BE COMMANDED TO DO IMPOSSIBILITIES - 472.1 
LXIX. THAT MONKS PRESUME NOT TO DEFEND^ ONE ANOTHER - 476 
LXX. THAT NO ONE PRESUME RASHLY TO STRIKE OR EXCOMMUNI- 
CATE ANOTHER - - - - 479 
LXXI. THAT THE BRETHREN BE OBEDIENT ONE TO THE OTHER - 482"* 
LXXII. OF THE GOOD ZEAL WHICH MONKS OUGHT TO HAVE - 486 
LXXIII. THAT THE WHOLE OBSERVANCE OF JUSTICE IS NOT SET DOWN 

IN THIS RULE - - - - - 49! 

INDEX - - - - ..._ 497 




COMMENTARY ON THE RULE 
OF ST. BENEDICT 

PROLOGUE 

Ausculta, o fill, precepta magistri, Hearken, O my son, to the precept 
et inclina aurem cordis tui, et admoni- of your master, and incline the ear of 
tionem pii patris libenter excipe, et your heart: willingly receive and 
efficaciter comple; ut ad eum per faithfully fulfil the admonition of your 
obedientiae laborem redeas, a quo per loving father, that you may 'return 
inobedientiae desidiam recesseras. by the labour of obedience to Him 

from whom you had departed through 
the sloth of disobedience. 

S\ THER Rules have a more impersonal character, a more concise 
I and formal legislative air: St. Benedict in his first words puts 
1 I himself in intimate contact with his followers, commencing 
^^ the code of our monastic life with a loving address. 

He who speaks is a master; for we cannot dispense with a master 
in the supernatural life, which is at once a science and an art. He 
gives precepts that is to say, doctrinal and practical instruction. 
St. Benedict here speaks of himself, though many commentators have 
thought differently. It is no folly to call himself master, since he teaches 
not in his own name, nor things of his own devising. He wrote near 
the end of his life and in the fulness of his experience. Why should 
he not be a loving father pius pater, as he expresses it ? 

" O my son ": a title of endearment; softening whatever austerity 
there may be in the "precepts of the master," suggesting also that 
the highest form of fatherhood is that which transmits doctrine and 
enlightenment, having its ideal and source in God the " father of light " 
(Jas .1.17). St. Thomas tells us that there is a true fatherhood among the 
angels; 1 and in the Old Testament, among the patriarchs for instance, 
if a man was a father he had to be a teacher as well, and while he gave 
life had to enlighten the soul and hand on the teachings of God and His 
promises; so is Noah called a "herald of justice" (2 Pet. ii. 5). Ex- 
perience shows that no earthly fatherhood has ever so closely resembled 
the fatherhood of God as did St. Benedict's. The Church venerates 
hum as the patriarch of the monks of the West; and God has so disposed 
*Jae course of history that every religious Order is in some way indebted 
to him and has learnt from his fatherly wisdom. 

Truly these first words of the prologue are attractive and reassuring. 

-The master who addresses you, my child, is a father, a good and loving 

fatbler. The precepts which he brings you are counsels dictated by 

i l ST. THOMAS AQUINAS, Sumnta Tbeol., P. I., q. xlv., a. 5, ad. i. . 



2 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

his experience and his love " the admonition of your loving father." 
He does not dream of imposing them on you, but appeals to your good 
will, to your delicacy of perception; there is no question of constraint, 
but of a loving and glad acceptance, of supernatural docility. 

This docility St. Benedict requires of every beginner; this same 
docility, under the forms of humility and obedience, gives our monastic 
life its authentic character; and, finally, by it is sanctity won: " Whoso 
are led by the spirit of God, they are the sons of God " (Rom. viii. 14) 
The sovereign importance of this simple, unaffected disposition comes 
from the fact that it comprises in itself all virtue. To begin with, 
docility means prudence, and in prudence are united all the moral 
virtues. We cannot in our own persons have all experiences; but 
others have had them, and we reap the benefit of these by our docility. 
We make our own the wisdom of humanity supernaturalized, the 
wisdom of St. Benedict, and faith makes us share the very wisdom of 
God. Docility, and docility alone, establishes us in that state whence 
all self-seeking has been driven, a state which is the condition and the 
prelude- of a living union with Our Lord. Its name then is charity. 

We should note how St. Benedict analyzes and details the successive 
stages of supernatural docility. "Hearken": for we must listen; if 
there be too much noise in the soul and the attention be scattered over 
a multitude of objects, the voice of God which is generally quiet as 
" the whistling of a gentle air " (3 Kings xix.. 12) is not heard. That 
silence which of itself is perfect praise, "To thee silence is praise," 1 
is rare among beings so fickle and impressionable as we are. 

But' to hearken is not enough, and St. Benedict invites us in the 
pretty phrase of the Book of Proverbs 2 and Psalm xliv. to " incline 
the ear of our heart." We must have a receptive understanding, a 
trustful attitude towards the truth that is proposed to us.. If we begin 
by putting obstacles, by establishing at the entry of -our souls a strict 
barrier, or still more, if we be filled with bur own views to the point of 
saying, " He cannot teach me anything new; I know all that and better 
than he does ! . . ." then we are in the worst possible mental state, 
not only for supernatural teaching, but even for purely human instruc- 
tion. Claude Bernard 8 tells us that the scientist, while striving to 
formulate and verify his hypothesis, must be careful not to be led captive 

1 Ps. Ixiv. 2, according to .the Hebrew. 

2 C. iv. Audi, Jilt mi, et suscipe verba. mea. . . . Fili mi ausculta sermones meos 
el ad eloquid mea inclina aurem. tuatii. Ne recedant ab oculis tuis t custodi ea in media 
cordis tut. . 

St. Jerome begins one of his letters ad Eustocbium with the words of Ps. xliv/. 

(Ep. XXII. i. P.L., XXII., 394). i / 

It would be inaccurate to set down as source of this beginning of the Prologpe trie' ' 
beginning of the Admonitio ad filium spiritualem which figures among the spuria of 
St. Basil, and was inserted by HOLSTENIUS into the appendix of his Codex. regular urn. 
This treatise is probably the work of ST. PAULINUS OF AQUILEIA; but the beginning and _ 
other passages have been added later by some monk; cf. P.L., XCIX., 212 sq. (See 
also P.L., XL., 1054 50.) I 

3 Introduction a I* etude de la medecine experimentale. i 



Prologue 3 

by it, but must always remain accessible to any other better explanation. 
Our Holy Father asks us, then, to listen willingly, with free souls : 
"willingly receive." Let us ever accept at once the teaching which is 
given to us; if there be in it any elements which we cannot assimilate, 
these will be eliminated later of themselves. 

"Et efficaciter comple." And faithfully fulfil. It is the property 
of truth to move us to action. We cannot " hold it captive in injustice " 
(Rom. i. 1 8). We shall have to answer to God for all the good we have 
seen and have not done. But therein too lies the difficulty; for sin has 
upset the balance of our being: seeing, willing, loving, performing, 
these are far from being one single operation. 

So lest the work should frighten us, and to make clear at once its 
character and plan, our Holy Father, with the insight of genius, yet in 
the quiet classical style, sets down that which is the prize of our life, 
that which should be its single object, that which gives it its dignity, 
charm, and power, its merit and simplicity, that in which is contained 
the whole Rule: " that you may return to Him by the labour of obedi- 
ence." For our business is not to live many years, and to become 
learned, or to make a name in the world, but to walk to God, to get near 
to Him, to unite ourselves to Him. This manner of conceiving the 
spiritual life as a fearless walking to God is a favourite one with St. 
Benedict; we shall meet it many times in the Rule. Our life is on an 
inclined plane: we may ascend or descend, and the latter is very easy. 
Since the Fall, man has only one way in which to separate himself from 
God, and that is the way of the old Adam, disobedience; and he has, 
too, but one way to return and that is by obedience, with the new Adam. 
" For as by the disobedience of one man, many were made sinners : 
so also by the obedience of one, many shall be made just " (Rom. v. 19). 
We pride ourselves on pur disobedience, as giving proof of energy and 
vigorous personality; but St. Benedict declares that it is merely cowardice 
and sloth; and if he speaks of the contrary attitude of mind as " labour J>1 
he will presently tell us of its solid fruitfulness and incomparable dignity. 

Ad te ergo nunc meus 2 sermo dirigi- To you, therefore, my words are 
tur, quisquis abrenuntians propriis now addressed, whoever you are, that, 
voluntatibus, Domino Christo vero renouncing yjiur own -will, you do take 
regi militaturus, obedientiae fortissima up the strong and bright weapons 
atque praeclara anna assumis. of obedience, in order to fight for the 

Lord Christ, our true King. 

In these words St. Benedict indicates to whom his invitation is 
addressed, for whom is the scheme of life just sketched in rough outline. 
To you my words and my fatherly exhortation are now addressed, 
whoever you may be, provided you be docile and resolute. So that 

1 Dicebant settes : quid nibil sic qiusrit Deus ab bis qui primitias babent conversa- 
tioitis, quomodo obedienties laborem (Ferba Seniorum : Vita Patrum, V., xiv. 15. 
ROSWEYD, p. 619). 

2 The best reading is mibi. ST. JEROME likewise says, in Letter XXII. ad Ensto- 
cbium (15): Nunc ad te mibi ontnis dirigatur oratio (P-L., XXII., 403). 



4 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

if we except the incapable and those who are bound by the ties of 
other duty, no one is excluded. All that is required in the candidate 
is_the intention to accept the conditions of the monastic life, which are 
reducible to three: renunciation of one's own will, the taking up of the 
weapons of obedience, and service of the Lord. 

, To renounce one's own will is a necessary preliminary. St. Benedict 

I speaks of " wills " in the plural, 1 because self-will or egoism has many 

I forms. Without pretending to classify them we may observe that 

/ states of will may be spontaneous, or systematic, or temperamental. 

/ The first of these are the least dangerous, because implying only the 

/ mistake of a moment, a temporary distraction or interruption of con- 

/ tinuity. The systematic will is continually springing up in the course 

of the religious life. On the day of our profession we renounced all 

things, but we build up the old again later on. It may be a question 

\ of a person one likes or dislikes, or a question of doctrine, some detail 

\ perhaps on which we cannot yield. Still more difficult is it to rid 

I ourselves of temperament, of that disagreeable, obstinate, wrangling 

jtemper which sets us everlastingly in opposition. 

In proportion as we strip ourselves of the old secular vesture of egoism 
and cast off all its trappings, so shall we be ready to take and use the 
weapons of obedience. St. Paul regards the principal virtues as different 
pieces of the supernatural armour ; but our Holy Father gives one general 
name to the arms which he gives to his monks, 2 and speaks of the 
" weapons of obedience." A soldier has to obey, to obey always and 
no matter what happens; and a soldier of Jesus Christ has to obey 
universally and without asking for reasons; it is the least he can do. 
We have heard a great deal on the immorality of the vow of obedience, 
and what are called the passive virtues have received plenty of abuse. 
But St. Benedict had other notions of human dignity; in his view the 
weapons of obedience were the strongest, the best tempered, the most 
splendid, the most glorious. We obey God, we obey a Rule which we 
have studied and chosen; we obey a man, but within the limits of our 
vow. And while we obey we are free, since it is of our own act that 
we unite our will to the will of God, which can hardly entail any loss 
of dignity. Moreover, we are bound to make the real motive of the act 
our own, and so we unite our thoughts with the Divine thought. 

Once we are enrolled and armed we have but to fight under the 
standard of the true King, the Lord Christ : " to fight for the Lord 
Christ our true King." 3 We serve Him and His purpose, and we 

1 The same expression occurs in the Vcrba Seniorum (yitte Patrum, V., i. 9. 
ROSWEYD, p. 562) and in the Historia monacborum of RUFJNUS (XXXI. ROSWXYD, 
p. 484). St. Benedict cites in Chapter VII. the verse of Ecclesiasticus, xviii. 30: Et a 
voluntatibus tuts avertere. 

3 Cf. Exbortatio de panoplia ad monacbos (inter S. EPHREM. opp. grace, lat., t. III., 
p. 219). 

3 Sum enim laboriosus, etiam nunc sub magno of ere feccator ; veteranus in numero 
peeeatorum, sed teterno Regi novus incorporeee tiro militia (S. PAULINI NOLANI, Ep. IV. 
ad S. Augustinum. P.L., LXL, 165). 



Prologue 5 

serve according to the example He has given. " In the head of the book 
it is written of me that I should do thy will. O my God, I have 
desired it, and thy law in the midst of my heart " (Ps. xxxix. 8, 9). 
"Being made obedient even unto death" (Philr ii. 8). Let us have 
a full realization of the drama which is being enacted, and in which we 
have to play our part. This drama fills all time and all space. It 
began, with the very beginning of things, in the angelic world, by an 
act of disobedience. This brought another in its train here below, 
one which has been repaired by the obedience of Our Lord Jesus Christ. 
All intelligent beings are ranged in two camps, those who obey and those 
who obey not; and the struggle of the two forces knows no truce. 
Each has its king, and he who claims to withdraw himself from obedience 
passes by this very fact under the domination of the other King. God 
for god, I prefer my own. In the army of those .who obey the Lord, 
religious form a picked body. Our Holy Father recognizes elsewhere 
that the monastic life is also a school, a workshop, and above all a family. 

In primis, 1 ut quidquid agendum In the first place, whatever good 

inchoas bonum, ab eo perfici instantissi- work you begin to do, beg of Him with 

ma oratione deposcas; ut, qui nos jam most earnest prayer to perfect it; that 

in filiorum dignatus est numero compu- He who has now vouchsafed to count 

tare, non debeat aHquando de malis us in the number of His children may 

actibus nostris contristari. not at any time be grieved by our 'evil 

deeds. 

Our Holy Father's first piece of advice and his first care is that we 
should rest on God in order to go to Him. We need grace .and we 
need the prayer which wins grace; for these two things are connected 
and go necessarily together. This clear statement, at the very begin- 
ning of the Rule, makes short work of any Pelagian or Semi-Pelagian 
corruption of the truth. Pelagius, a wandering monk, held that man 
was essentially good, that his good will was sufficient for right action. 
Besides this he needed, but only as external helps, the law, and the 
teaching and example of Our Lord. Cassian himself, in his thirteenth 
Conference, considers that our reason and will are sufficient for the first 
act by which we accept the faith and enter upon the life of grace. The 
words of St. Benedict are profoundly wise and are in agreement with the 
teaching of the Council of Orange : 2 " The assistance of God must ever 
be asked even by the baptized and the saints, that they may be able to 
reach a good end or to persevere in good." 

We cannot do without God. God has part in each one of our acts, 
and influences their very origin. This is especially true of supernatural 
acts, because the created agent -is there setting forces to work which 
are not his own. The first movement towards the faith and to baptism 



1 With recent editors (SCHMIDT, WtftFFUN), we might join dirigitur and in primis, 
treating quisquis abrenuntians ... as a parenthetical clause. D. BUTLER rejects this 
punctuation as contrary to that of the best manuscripts and to the interpretation of the 
oldest commentators. 

2 Cap. x., MANSI, Sacrorum Condliorum nova et amplissima Collcctio, t. VIII., col. 714. 



6 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

is due to an impulsion of His grace; so too a true religious vocation comes 
from Him and not from any course of reasoning or philosophic deduction. 
But the co-operation of God is as indispensable for the continuance 
of this supernatural work as for its commencement; for it is a long work, 
as long as life. And though our vocation be angelic, our natures are 
not so. The angel is steadfast in the one act of his will; we with our 
weaker natures, more open to attack and assailed by lower impulses, 
must ever be renewing our purpose,, so ready are we to fail before 
difficulty.. Therefore we must go to God and ask Him in fervent prayer, 
prayer instant and untiring, instantissima oratione, for the grace to 
" perfect," the grace of perseverance. 

There can be no doubt that God yields to our prayer; He has 
already engaged to do so, He has tied His hands. The best answer 
to the natural question, Shall I have strength to persevere ? is that ' 
God has anticipated us : " For he hath first loved us. . . . With 
an everlasting love have I loved thee, therefore I drew thee, having 
pity on thee." His love is eternal. He has drawn close to each one of 
us. As a mark of it He has in baptism given us unasked the supernatural 
and divine life. Now we are of the number of His children. Let us 
then be what He has made us. Let us not by misdeeds belie that dignity 
to which His mere love has raised us. Let us strive not to cheat His 
goodness, nor to give Him cause to repent of it. In words full of 
insight and filial love, St. 'Benedict regards the development of our 
perfection as a personal success of God, and its miscarriage as a 
disappointment of the Almighty. 

Ita enim ei omni temppre de bonis For we must always so serve Him 

suis in nobis parendum est: ut non so- with the good things. He has given us, 

him, ut iratus pater, non aliquando that not only may He never, as an 

filiossuosexhaeredet;sednecutmetuen- angry father, disinherit His children, 

dus Dominus, irritatus mails nostris, ut but may never, as a dread Lord, in- 

nequissimos servos perpetuam tradat censed by our sins, deliver us to ever- 

ad poenam, qui cum sequi noluerint ad lasting punishment, as most wicked 

gloriam. ; servants who would not follow Him 

to glory. 

These words develop what has just teen said. Prayer and grace 
are necessary for us that we may obey God all our lives and at every 
moment of our lives, for that is really the task which has been set .us 
and accepted by us. Nothing will be wanting to us that we may fulfil 
it well, if our prayers win us grace and our fidelity makes it fructify. 
The source and the measure of our supernatural riches are also the source 
and measure of our obligations and responsibilities, and we are become 
before Godsons and servants. : 

We are children of God, not by any legal fiction, but by a deep and 
real assimilation to His only Son; because of that divine life which grace 
implants within us, we hold an unassailable title to the inheritance 
of that Son: "And if sons, heirs also, heirs indeed of God and joint 
heirs with Christ " (Rom. viii. 17). This supernatural life is endowed 



Prologue 7 

with faculties suitable to it : faith, hope, and charity. There are 
sanctifying grace,, the theological virtues, the moral virtues, the gifts 
of the Holy Spirit, and all sorts of helps. These are the " good things 
He has given us " of which St. Benedict speaks. This is the treasure 
which He has entrusted to our charge and to which we have to add as 
much as possible. " Trade till I come " (Luke xix. 13). 

Fidelity and success are asked of us not only because we love Our 
Lord and are anxious not to sadden Him, but also*on grounds of honour 
and justice; and St. Benedict urges self-interest as well. Fundamentally 
God is nothing but goodness; it is we who make Him severe, when we 
provoke Him by pur faults: " In Himself most good, in relation to us 
He is just," says Tertullian. If we betray God, as our Father He wjll 
disinherit us, as our master He will punish us ; and this in exact propor- 
tjpn to the degree in which His love has been despised and His confidence 
abused. We must understand the words. properly and not make St. 
Benedict say that God in His punishment makes two distinct grades, 
separable and capable of being Superimposed One on the other, as though 
He sometimes merely disinherits, and at others, if infidelity be great, 
chastises with positive punishments; for there is no case in which a soul, 
which has been really disinherited by its own fault, does not suffer. 
Our Holy Father's purpose is to describe the two inseparable pains of 
eternity: not only the pain of loss, which deprives rebellious children 
of their heavenly heritage, that is of God; but also the pain of sense, 
whereby the fire torments those utterly evil servants "who have 
refused to follow Him to glory." 

So man must either reign for ever with Christ or suffer for ever with 
the devils. St. Benedict puts this dread alternative before us several 
times in the course of the Prologue; and he sets forth the monastic life 
as the most direct and sure road to attain to God. In his eyes, to 
advance valiantly towards the full realization of one's baptism and the 
perfection of the supernatural life (he deals with nothing else in the 
Prologue) is both the most efficacious procedure for the escaping of 
everlasting death, and the most logical procedure, and that most glorious 
for God and for us. He makes no mistake; he knows that a man is free 
to enter or not to enter the monastic state, and that, for many of those 
whom -his invitation will reach, the monastic life is not indispensable 
either 'for amendment of life or for perseverance in good; he does not 
confuse the precepts and the counsels; and yet we may say that he 
simplifies the problem. We can never sufficiently study the precise 
and clear terms in which the matter is stated. 

Exsurgamus ergo tandem aliquandp, Let us then at length arise, since the 

excitante nos Scriptura, ac dicente': Scripture stirs us up, saying: "It is 

Horaestjam nos de somno surg/ert. Et time now for us to rise from sleep." 

apertis oculis nostris ad deificum lumen, And our eyes being open to the deifying 

attonitis auribus audiamus divina quoti- light, let us hear with wondering ears 

die damans quid nos admoneat vox, what the Divine Voice admonishes us, 

dicens: fjodie si vocem ejus audieritis, daily crying out: "To-day if ye shall 



8 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

nolite obdurate corda vestra. Et iterum : hear his voice, harden not your heartt." 

Qui babet aures audiendi, aitdiat quid And again, " He that hath ears to hear, 

Spiritus dicat Ecclesiis. ' Et quid dicit ? let him hear what the Spirit saith to 

Fenite, filii, audite me: timorem Domini the Churches." And what says He ? 

docebo vos. Currite, dum lumen vitee " Come, my children, hearken to me, 

babetis, ne tenebra mortis vos compre- I will teach you the fear of the Lord. 

hendant. Run while ye have the light of life, 

lest the darkness of death seize hold 

of you." 

The preliminaries being settled, we must now begin, says St. Benedict, 
and put our hands resolutely to the work. Whatever may be our age, 
above all if we are past the prime of life and moving downwards towards 
the end, it is time, the appointed time, God's hour and the hour of 
grace. Too long have we been plunged in sleep, 1 in deep sleep, perhaps 
in a sleep troubled and crossed by painful dreams. Sleep is not death* 
but neither is it life; it is life in abeyance, latent and inactive. Want of 
consideration, or familiarity, have dulled the outlines of supernatural 
realities. We sleep, yet we are not happy. Let us rise then now, at the 
summons of the voice which wakens us, the voice of God Himself and 
not merely of our Holy Father St. Benedict. God invites us by His 
Scriptures; for there we have indeed the words of God, addressed 
individually to each of us ; it is hard to see how the baptized soul can 
resist such teaching made especially for it. We shall find in the Rule 
that the sacred Scripture has always a decisive force. " It is now the 
hour to rise from sleep ": the liturgy of Advent uses this sentence of 
the Apostle (Rom. xiii. 1 1), nor is it ever unseasonable throughout the 
continual advent of our lives. 

We must open our eyes;. for it is thus that one begins to shake off 
sleep and recover consciousness. We must open them to " the deifying 
light," which phrase may be understood of the Scriptures, " Thy word is 
a lamp to my feet, and a light to my paths " (Ps. cxviii. 105), or of faith, 
or better of Our Lord Himself, the true Light who walks before us 
and guides us : " He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness but 
shall have the light of life" (John viii. 12). We must also hearken 
and give ear to a voice powerful at once and sweet " with wondering 
ears." 2 For inattention is the devil's strongest ally; and though we are 
ever enveloped by the divine light, and though God speaks to us every 
moment, we remain blind and deaf, sluggish and careless of the truth. 
Let us break through the shackles of habit, let us rouse our interest, 
stimulate our curiosity, for we are told by the wise men of old, and it is 
very true, that wonder or surprise is the origin of philosophical enquiry. 

Every morning, at the beginning of the Office, the voice of Our 
Lord cries 3 appealingly to us : " To-day, if you should hear my call, 

1 Cf. CASS., Conlat., III., iv. . 

2 D. BUTLER compares QUINTUS CURTIOS, History of Alexander ^ bk. VIII., 4. 

3 In Chapter VII. also St. Benedict says, "the Scripture cries to us." The tame 
expression is found in ST. CKSMUUS, Sermon CCLXIH., 4, in the appendix to the 
Sermons of St. Augustine (P.L. t XXXIX., 2233). 



Prologue 9 

harden not your hearts " (Ps. xciv. 8). We are essentially laggard^ and 
loiterers. " To-day?" we say. " What you ask me to abandon is so 
attractive. Suppose I wait till to-morrow. Of course I shall be wise 
and mortified to-morrow. . . ." And so our evil habit grows stronger, 
for every act leaves its trace on our character, and we lose power every 
day that we delay. Will not conversion be harder to-morrow ? 

" He that hath ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to 
the Churches " (Matt. xi. 15; Apoc. ii. 7). The call is more emphatic: 
it is addressed to our understanding, to our self-esteem, to a certain 
legitimate pride. The Spirit of God bids the soul that He visits to come 
simply and learn in His school, for He is both Teacher and Father. He 
will teach the soul to fear God that is to say, to live in God's sight 
with filial respect and love (Ps. xxxiii. 12). St. Benedict adds to this 
the solemn warning of Our Lord in St. John's gospel (xii. 35) : " Hasten 
to come to God, while you have the light of life, lest the darkness of 
death seize hold of you." 1 The " to-day " of which he speaks does not 
extend beyond the present life, and who can tell whether to-morrow 
is yours ? So while God speaks to you and gives you light, while He 
consents to walk before you, follow Him and accept His lead: otherwise 
the star that guides you will disappear. 2 

Et quaerens Dominus in multitu- And the Lord, seeking His own 

dine populi, cui haec clamat, operarium workman in the multitude of the people 

suum, iterum dicit: Quis est homo, qui to whom He thus cries out, says again: 

wilt vitam, et cupit videre dies bonos? "Who is the man that yn\\ fiavq )jfe. 

Quod si tu audiens respondeas: Ego, anddesires to see goodjlays ?" And 

dicit tibi Deus: Si vis habere veram et if-you, hearing Himfanswer, " I am 

' perpetuam'vitam, probibe linguam tuam he," God says to you: " If thou wilt 

a malo, et labia tua ne loquantur dolum. have true and everlasting life, keep thy 

Divette a malo, et fac bonum; inquire tongue from evil and thy lips that they 

pacem et -sequere earn. Et cum haec speak no guile. Turn from evil, and 

feceritis, oculi mei super vos, et aures do good: seek peace and pursue it. And 

I meae ad preces vestras. Et antequam when you have done these things, my 

f me invocetis, dicam : Ecce adsum. eyes will be upon you, and my ears will 

| be open to your prayers; and before 

. you call upon me, I will say unto you, 

Behold, I am here." 

So far our souls have come into touch with our Holy Father; they 
i have prayed with him, they have been moved by fear and roused by the 

1 St. Benedict .does not always cite Scripture word for word, whether purposely 
or because he quotes from memory. Also he often uses a version other than our Vulgate. 
ST. GKSARIUS read the beginning of this text in much the same way as St. Benedict: 
Curramus dum lucent vita babemus (P.L., XXXIX., 2230). 

a Our Holy Father returns presently to Ps. xxxiii., from which he selects and com- 
ments on verses 12, 13, 14, 15, 16. He has in mind also ST. AUGUSTINE'S second Enarratio 
on this psalm; and from audiamus divina ... to quid dulcius ... he scarcely does 
more- than quote it almost textually (nos. 16-20, 9. P.L., XXXVL, 317-319, 313). 
Seealso.thearra*ioonPs. cxliii. (no. 9. JP.L., XXXVII., 1862); the combination 
of the two passages of Isaias, Ixv. 24 and Iviii. 9, that we meet presently in St. Benedict, 
is certainly inspired by St. Augustine. 

We must abandon as a source of this passage the PSKUDO-CHRYSOSTOM brought forward 
in the Revue Benedictine, 1894, pp. 385^. 



io Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

divine words of the Scripture, but his call yet lacks something more 
personal, more decisive, and more dramatic. The householder, the 
owner of the vineyard (Matt. xx. 1-16), went down himself to the 
market-place to hire labourers, and the appeal which He makes to the 
whole Christian people is really addressed to each one, for He wishes to 
make a compact with each individual soul. In this we have a true 
picture of the relation of the soul to- God: every soul is a labourer and 
God is one top. God, who has need of nothing, has yet willed the 
manifestation of His attributes by means of the natural order, but 
especially by means of the supernatural order. The Incarnation, and 
Redemption represent God's great effort. To this He devoted Himself, 
but He did not consent to work alone. He willed to associate with 
Himself fellow-workers, and He deliberately left His work unfinished, 
knowing that it would be a joy to us to work after Him and with 
Him, and to spend our efforts there where He spent His blood 
(l Cor. iii. o; Col. i. 24). 

Moreover, the invitation promises a reward: " Who, is the man that 
will have life, and desires to .see good days ?" (Ps. xxxiii. 13). God 
does not disdain to engage our self-interest, nor to use bur primary and 
fundamental love of happiness. .Of course His glory and our happiness 
are intimately connected. Now when a man is offered happiness and 
life, he never refuses: " Does not each one of you answer, ' I J ?" says 
St. Augustine. " I am the ' man, O Lord, I wish it fervently." 
"But we must not have any misunderstanding," adds Our Lord, and 
for Him St. Benedict proceeds to state accurately the meaning and 
scope of His promise. Our ideal _is.jaot the Jewish one. JD! temporal, 
prosperity and length of days; we are concerned with the true and full 
life, the life of eternity. This life of eternity begins here below in the 
life of grace, and according to St. Benedict we shall know " good days." 
So if there were no life but-the-grcscnt, shoukhwe not-be-th^-happiest 
of men ? But without enlarging on the reward reserved for his labourer, 
St. Benedict, first briefly and then at greater, length, indicates the 
conditions which he .must accept. 

Certain things have to be eliminated. " Keep thy tongue from 
evil . . ." (Ps. xxxiii. 14-15). Does this mean that we must avoid 
lying and deceit properly so called ? Certainly it does. But we 
may give the words of the Old Testament a value relative to the new 
dispensation and consequently a wider scope. There is sometimes a 
lie of act implied in our whole life, a practical negation of our faith, 
a secret duality: charity summons us, but egoism prevails; we are 
divided and drawn in opposite directions, and too often the lower 
attraction prevails. We receive Holy Communion every morning, but 
we remain ourselves. If we really wish for life, we must aim at unity 
of purpose and true loyalty. 

" Turn from evil," Let us take our souls in our hands and reso- 
lutely separate ourselves from all that is evil. To avoid or turn aside 
from it is not enough; we must create between ourselves and evil a 



Prologue 1 1 

wide zone which neither we nor evil can cross; we must pronounce 
a sentence of eternal banishment against it. Let us not be like 'those 
men whom St. Francis de Sales compares to s,ick folk whose doctor 
has forbidden them melon under pain jof death; they abstain indeed 
from the forbidden fruit, but they " brood on their deprivation and 
talk about melons and bargain for a little indulgence; they insist on 
smelling them at least and count those fortunate who may eat them." 1 

" Aid do good." This is the positive side of our programme. This 
is a simple thought, so simple that it seems childish, yet it is one which 
is frequently overlooked. Too many people spend all their intelligence 
and strength in avoiding the snares with which the path of life is strewn; 
some souls are always stuck, always worried by the difficulties they meet, 
always anxious about little flecks of dust; their energy is devoted to 
lamentation or exhausted in continual self-consideration. Undoubt- 
edly a delicate conscience is a good thing, but it is dangerous to think 
too much of oneself, to magnify one's importance; of course we must 
know ourselves, but it is above all necessary to know God. At bottom, 
the purpose of our life is not merely to avoid sin and negation, but 
rather positively to exist, to do good, to reach God. 

"Seek peace." The quotation of Psalm xxxiii. was not made 
by accident and is not continued mechanically. When unity, harmony, 
and order have, been re-established in us, thanks to that loyalty of which 
we spoke above: when .the disagreement with God, with our brethren, 
and with ourselves has ceased, and this much is finally won and settled, 
then we have peace, " the tranquillity of order." Peace is not sloth nor 
a false lack of interest; it is the attitude which is spontaneously assumed 
by the soul when it is united to God by charity. Peace, like joy, is 
not exactly a virtue, but is the fruit of the highest of virtues, for it is 
the daughter of charity.* .Search for it in your house, says Our Lord, 
as for a hidden treasure; pursue it, if there be need. Sometimes it will 
appear to flee from us, but we must not be discouraged; we must not 
be irritated by its delay, for it may be that this itself is only our own 
delay with ourselves. And there is never any reason to leave this peace ; 
no events, no sufferings, no faults even should cause us to do so; for 
anxiety does not correct mistakes and repentance does not imply 
trouble. St. Paul regards peace as a sort of cloister of the spirit, which 
keeps our soul near to God: "And may the peace of God which passeth 
all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus " (Phil. iv. 
7). Let us remember that it is at once the recompense, fruit, measure, 
and cause of our virtue; and everyone knows that it has become the 
motto of the Benedictine Order. 

The psalm is continued, but verse 16 is alluded to without being 
formally quoted. After our soul has been turned in this way towards 
God, and has attained peace, then the benevolent regard of Our Lord 
rests on it and His ear is always open to our prayers; He takes pleasure 
i n this beauty which the light of His eyes has created. TJjen there is 

1 Introduction to the Devout Life, Part I,, chap. vii. 

2 Cf. S. Tb., II.-IL, y. aodx., De Pace. 



12 Commentary on the Rule oj St. Benedict 

the closest union: " He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit " (i Cor. 
vi. 17). Our prayer will be still in the heart, we shall not have opened 
our lips, before the Lord will say: " Lo, I am here." 

Quid dulcius nobis hac voce Domini What can be sweeter to us, dearest 
invitantisnos,fratrescharissimi ? Ecce brethren, than this voice of the Lord 
pietate sua demonstrat nobis Dominus inviting us ? Behold in His loving- 
viam vitae. Succinctis ergo fide vel kindness the Lord shows unto us the 
observantia bonorum actuum lumbis way of life. Having our loins, there- 
nostris, per ducatum Evangelii perga- fore, girded with faith and the per- 
mus itinera ejus, ut mereamur eum qui formance of good works, let us walk 
nos vocavit, in regno suo videre. in His paths by the guidance of the 

Gospel, that we may deserve to see 
Him who has called us in His kingdom. 

Our Holy Father allows an exclamation of joy to escape him. See, 
my beloved brethren, he cries, is there anything in the world could 
be more tender, more sweet, than this invitation of Our Lord, or 
couched in such terms ? It is God Himself, who in His loving-kindness 
calls to life and shows us the road. Up then, let us start our pilgrimage 
to God, let us walk quickly, with garment tucked up so that its folds 
may not beat round our legs and hinder us, but that we may have all 
our vigour: " Let your loins be girt and lamps burning in your hands " 
(Luke xxii. 35). Our girdle is faith, a practical faith which means the 
doing of good works and the habit .of them. " And justice shall be 
the girdle of his loins, and faith the girdle of his reins " (Isa. xi. 5). Led 
and directed by the precepts of the Gospel, 1 let us pass every stage 
of the journey to God unto the end, so that we may deserve to see Him 
who has called us in His kingdom. 2 

In cujus regni tabernaculo si volu- And if we wish to dwell in the taber- 
mus habitare, nisi illuc bonis actibus nacle of His kingdom, we shall by no 
currendo, minime pervenitur. Sed means reach it unless we run thither 
5 nterrogemus cum Propheta Dominum, by our good deeds. But let us ask the 
dicentes ei: Domine, quis habitabit in Lord with the prophet, saying to Him: 
tabernaculo tuo, out quis requiescet in "Lord, who shall dwell in thy taber- 
monte sancto tuo ? Post hanc interroga- nacle, or who shall rest upon thy holy 
tionem, fratres, audiamus Dominum hill ?" After this question, brethren, 
respondentem, et ostendentem nobis let us hear the Lord answering, and 
viam ipsius tabernaculi, ac dicentem : showing to us the way to His taber- 
Qui ingreditur sine macula, et operator nacle, and saying: " He that walks 
justitiam; qui loquitur veritatem in without stain and. works justice: he 
cordf suo; qui non egit dolum in lingua that speaks truth in his heart, that 
sua; qui non fecit proximo suo malum, et has not done guile with his tongue: 
opprobrium non accepit adversus proxi- he that has done no evil to Ms neigh- 
mum suum. bour, and has not taken up a reproach 

against his neighbour." 

1 Instead of the expression per ducatum Evangelii, the meaning of which seemed 
rather vague, the most ancient manuscripts (we do not say the best, cf. Introduction) 
read: et calceatis in preparation* Evattgelti pads pedibas, pergamus , . ., a reminiscence 
of chap. vi. of Ephesians (verse 15; observe that in verse 14 the Apostle bids us have our 
loins girt: it has been thought that St. Benedict was quoting these two verses loosely). 

3 Perhaps the best reading is: eum qui not vocavit in regnum suum yidere, a quotation 
of i Thess. ii. 12. 



Prologue 1 3 

So you wish sincerely to walk to the sanctuary of God, our King, 
and to abide there with Him for all eternity ? The society of God, 
of Our Lord Jesus Christ, of Our Lady, of the angels and saints, attracts 
you ? Since then you know the end and have willed it, you must now 
learn the means which lead to it. " We shall by no means reach it 
unless we run thither by our good deeds." St. Benedict -has said this 
before, but he insists on it and strives to put this point in the clearest 
possible light. A privileged state does not sanctify us, nor will grace 
secure our salvation of itself. It would be exceedingly rash to say to 
oneself: " I have made my profession, I am in healthy surroundings, 
I understand the supernatural life, I can speak of it on occasion with 
fluency and precision, I experience in my relations with God certain 
favours which tell me that I am in the higher ways. My toils there- 
fore are over." No, there must be action, we must move unceasingly, 
we must run. Acts are the offspring of our life, they continue it, they 
develop it, and our life exists- only for them: for an act is the ultimate 
term of all living energy. Let us recall the history of the fig-tree in 
the Gospel, which did not lack leaves, but was cursed and withered on 
the spot, because the fruit that is to say, acts was wanting. It may be 
objected that we are often told that our sanctification does not come 
from ourselves and that we have to let God work. Let us understand 
the matter: there is the preliminary work of clearing the ground, there 
is the constructive work, and there is the completion and perfection of 
the work, and in all of these is God's action exercised, especially in the 
last; but we are never dispensed from acting, and the two first stages 
are especially ours. 

If we want further information, we should rather go to Our Lord 
and with the prophet put to Him the question with which the fourteenth 
psalm opens. For us Christians its subject is the New Jerusalem and the 
true temple of God: " Behold the tabernacle of God with men, and 
he will dwell with them" (Apoc. xxi. 3). God answers us in the 
same psalm and traces for us the way to His holy place. St. Benedict 
confines himself to quoting verses 2 and 3, of which the meaning is quite 
clear. All is embraced in this rapid summary: intention, word, fulfil- 
ment, interior and exterior work; so that we have a threefold preparation 
of soul in purity, uprightness, and justice. 

Qui malignum diabolum aliqua He that has brought the malignant 

suadentem sibi, cum ipsa suasione sua evil one to naught, casting him out 

a conspectibus cordis sui respuens, of his heart with all his suggestions, 

deduiit ad nihilum, et parvulos cogi- and has taken his bad thoughts, while 

tatus ejus tenuit, et allisit ad Christum, they were yet young, and dashed them 

down upon Christ. 

Our Holy Father, from this on, paraphrases broadly the rest of the 
psalm, and first the first part of the fourth verse: " In his sight the 
malignant is brought to nothing." The literal sense refers to the 
attitude which the man who wishes to go to God must adopt in 
dealing with the. good and the wicked: he disdains the wicked and 



14 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

reserves all his esteem for the good: " He glorifies those who fear God." 
But St. Benedict has understood the passage of the attitu.de which he 
who seeks God must take up in the face of the malignant one, the devil, 1 
and all his teaching is full of a deep wisdom. 

It is natural and prudent to examine rigorously and to look well in 
the face the dispositions, emotions, and affections which follow one 
another in us, and to question them: "What are you ? Whence do 
you come ? What have you come to do with me ? What are the 
ultimate consequences to which you will lead me F" A wise man does 
not open his door to every visitor, nor do we let the first comer into the 
bosom of the family. If we can recognize the real source of certain 
treacherous and misleading tendencies, the true author of certain secret 
impulses, then we are safe. 

Once the diabolical suggestion has been recognized and the suggestor 
unmasked, St. Benedict wants, u's, at once and resolutely, to " drive 
both one and the other from bur hearts and to give them no considera- 
tion." Temptation takes various forms'. We should always fight it 
with humility and reliance on the help of God; but often the best way 
to get rid of it is to neglect and despise it. There are temptations which 
are merely silly, surprises or mere physiological effects : let us pass them 
by. It is a case for the application of the precept: " Salute no one by 
the way." For not only must one not worry about them, one must 
not even resist or cramp oneself in a useless struggle, nor fight, nor protest 
spasmodically, nor make any alteration in one's life. 

However, there are cases when our Holy Father asks us to employ 
different tactics; when, for example, the temptation is violent or pro- 
longed, and above all. when it is a question of our besetting temptation, 
some peculiar habitual temptation which has a special affinity with our 
character, a temptation which has assailed us in childhood, has followed 
us like an ever-present menace or evil spirit, which has grown up with 
us and grown old with us, and which we find still full of life. If we 
do not wish to succumb inevitably, we must collect all the energy and 
insight that we have, and vigorously grasping these hellish suggestions, 
these children of Babylon, as though spontaneously and without- 
reflection, dash them at once on the rock, which is Christ (i Cor. x. 4). 
We must arm ourselves with faith, charity, and prayer, make an appeal 
to Our Lord and so raise our souls into the region of peace. St. Benedict 
quotes, in its allegorical sense like many of the Fathers, 2 the last verse 

1 CASSIODORUS, in bis Exposition of this psalm (P-L., LXX., no), gives exactly the 
same sense to verse 8 as St. Benedict. Farther on, after having spoken of the courageous 
man qui mundi vitia cum suo auctore prostravit, he adds these words, which again recall 
another passage of the end of the Prologue; Sed precemur jugiter omnipotentiam ejus, 
ut qui talia per nosmetipsos implere nonpossumus quajussa svnt, ejus ditati munerefacia- 
itius (ibid., in). We notice the connection for the sake of those interested in the 
question of the relation of Cassiodorus to St. Benedict. 

2 ORIGEN, Contra Celsum, 1. VII., 22. P.<?., XI., 1453. 
ST. HILARY, Zract* in Pi. cxxxvi. 14. P.L., IX., 784. 
ST. AMBROSE, Depaenit., Il;,~fti6. P.L., XVI., 523. 



Prologue 1 5 

of Psalm cxxxvi.: "Blessed is he that shall take and dash thy little 
ones against the rock." 

Qui timentes Dominum, de bona These are they who, fearing the 

observantia sua non se reddunt elatos, Lord, are not puffed up with their 

sed ipsa in se bona, non a se posse, sed own good works,- but, knowing that 

a Domino fieri existimantes, operantem the good which is in them comes not 

in se Dominum magnificant, illud cum from themselves but from the Lord, 

Propheta dicentes: Non nobis, Doming, magnify the Lord who works in them, 

non nobis, sed nomini tuo da gloriam. saying with the prophet: "Not unto 

Sicut nee Paulus Apostolus de prasdi- us, O Lord 1 , not unto us, but unto 

catione sua sibi aliquid imputavit, thy name give the glory." So the 

dicens: Gratia Dei sum id, quod sum. Et. Apostle Paul imputed nothing of his 

iterum ipse dicit: Qui gloriatur, in preaching to himself, but said: "By 

Domino gloriftur. the grace of God I am what I am." 

* And again he says: " He that glorieth, 

let him glory in the Lord." 

Though our text of Psalm xiv. means "the just man honours 
those who fear God," St. Benedict's had " Timentes autem Dominum 
magnificant " i.e., " those who fear God give him glory," and these 
words furnish him with the application which follows. 

We have to do good and repel evil; and when we have fulfilled these 
two duties, we must, under pain of spoiling all, guard against vain self- 
complacency. The true servants of God, those who fear the severity 
of His judgements on the proud, strive to attribute to Him the causality 
and so to speak the responsibility for their virtue. They glorify God 
in recognizing that nothing comes to them of their own power: neither 
the idea, nor the resolution, nor the accomplishment of good. Un- 
doubtedly the act is both ours and His, indivisibly, and our merits are 
real; but the action of God has such priority, efficaciousness, and 
sovereignty, that He alone is to be credited with our sanctification: 
" But knowing that the good that is in them comes not from themselves 
but from the Lord, they magnify the Lord who works in them." 1 The 
hundred and thirteenth psalm proclaims this truth aloud; and that 
great worker St. Paul did not attribute to himself any of his apostolic 
success (i Cor. xv. 10), reminding us that every Christian could glory 
in naught but in the Lord (2 Cor. x. 17). We have already heard St. 
Benedict expressing his view on these nice questions of grace; here again 
his theology is sound and exact. 

There would be danger in investigating with curiosity and contem- 
plating unceasingly the good that is in us, but w,e must know how to 
recognize it tranquilly. Any serious examination of conscience should 
be arranged in two columns : the evil for which we alone are responsible 
and the good which is the work of God in us. God loves to be thanked, 

ST. JEROME, Epist. XXII., 6. P.L., XXII., 398. Commentariolum in Ps. cxxxvi., 
apud Anecdota Maredsolana, vol. III., P. i., p. 94. 

ST. AUGUSTINE, Enarr. in Ps. cxxxvi. 21. P.L., XXXVII., 1773-1774. 

CASSIAN, Inst., VI., xiii. 

* C/. CASS., Inst., XII., xvi. Conlat., III., xv. 

\. 



1 6 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

and we can only give thanks for a benefit which we know and which 
we allow ourselves to contemplate. 

Unde et Dominus in Evangelic ait: Hence also the Lord says in the 

Qui audit verb a mea htsc, et facit ea, Gospel: " He that heareth these words 

similabo ewn viro sapienti, qui eedifi- of mine and doeth them, is like a wise 

cavit domum suam supra petram: venerunt man who built his house upon a rock ; 

ftumina, flaverunt venti, et impegerunt the floods came, the winds blew, and 

in domum illam, et mm cecidit: fundata beat upon that house, and it fell not, 

enim erat supra petram. because it was founded upon a rock." 

Omitting some words of the psalm 1 St. Benedict passes at once to 
- those which end it:." He that doth these things shall not be moved for 
ever." The just man shall not fall, he shall not be cheated of his hope, 
he shall reach the temple of God where he has longed to be.' But, 
since this conclusion was somewhat abrupt, St. Benedict Jias thought 
fit to elucidate it with a text taken from the seventh chapter of St. 
Matthew, where Our Lord describes the security of the man who hears 
and fulfils His words, of the wise man who erects the edifice of his 
perfection upon a strong and unshakable foundation. Again Christ 
is the rock, and to attach ourselves to Him by faith, to love Him before 
; all else, makes us partake of His strength and His eternal stability. 

A house so built can withstand all assaults. They will not be 
wanting in a conscientious spiritual life, or in a community which wishes 
to keep its monastic faith pure and whole. Of all sorts they are, and 
from all directions; there is rain from heaven 2 and the winds of the air, 
and streams and torrents of the earth. So a community may experience 
trials from heaven, persecutions from the powers of this world, blasts 
which drive them over the seas, and yet take no harm. "And it fell 
not : because it was founded on a rock." 

Haze complens Dominus expectat And the Lord in fulfilment of these 
quotidie his suis sanctis monitis factis His words is waiting daily for us to 
nos respondere debere. Ideo nobis respond by our deeds to His holy 
propter emendationem malorum, hujus admonitions. Therefore are the days 
dies vitae ad inducias relaxantur, dicente of our life lengthened for the amend- 
Apostolo: An nescis, quia patientia Dei ment of our evil ways, as says the 
ad poenitentiam te adducii ? Nam pius Apostle : " Knowest thou not that the 
Dominus dicit: Nolo mortem peccatoris, patience of God is leading thee to 
sed ui convertatur, et vivat. Cum ergo repentance f " For the merciful Lord 
interrogassemus Dominum, fratres, de says: " I will not the death of a sinner, 
habitatore tabernaculi ejus, audivimus but that he should be converted and 
habitandi praeceptum: sed si com- live." Since then, brethren, we have 
pleamus habitatoris officium, erimus asked of the Lord who is to inhabit - 
haeredes regni coelorum. His temple, we have heard His com- 

mands to those who are to dwell there : 
and if we fulfil those duties, we shall 
be heirs of the kingdom of heaven. 

1 ST. AUGUSTINE (Enarr. in Ps. xiv. 4. P.L., XXXVL, 144) also distinguishes 
this same portion of the psalm, and says that it is addressed to beginners in the spiritual 
life: Sicut ilia superior a pertinent ad perfectos, ita ea qua nunc dicturus est, pertinent ad 
indptentes. . '' 

* Mentioned by the Gospel, but omitted by St. Benedict. 



Prologue 17 

The words btec complens have been variously translated, as to 
complete or to put the finishing touch to His kindness, or better perhaps 
thus i 1 Our Lord having invited us and having showed us the goal and 
marked out the path, and having answered thj2 question we addressed 
to Him with the psalmist concerning the conditions of admission into 
His eternal tabernacle, now waits for our reply. He waits always, 
with divine patience, for us to set about the surrender of ourselves 
by our deeds to His sacred admonitions. 

Ideoy " therefore," since God agrees to wait, our life on this 
earth has the character of a truce, of a delay; the duration of our life 
is a space of leisure contrived for us by God that we may at last amend. 
[This is what St. Paul teaches; and in the prophecy of Ezechiel (xviii. 23) 
God proclaims His purpose of mercy and tenderness : He has no interest 
/in our failure or damnation, and He desires our welfare more ardently 
,'than we do ourselves. Is it not then to be ignorant of the very meaning 
jof life, if we spend it in endless delays, delays the more dangerous because 
the thread of life may be snapped suddenly ? 

So St. Benedict concludes thus: we have received from the mouth 
of God Himself a complete answer to all that it was to our interest 
to know; we have been told that we may some day dwell in His kingdom, 
whither we are called and where our coming is awaited, on condition that 
we fulfil, from this on, the duty of one who wishes to dwell -there; 
for no one can enter into eternal life without doing the works and ful- 
filling the duties of a true citizen of eternity: "We have heard His 
commands to those who are to dwell there : but we must fulfil the duties 
of true dwellers." Sed si compleamus babitatoris offlcium. 2 

Ergo praeparanda sunt corda et Our hearts, therefore, and our bodies 

corpora nostra sancta prseceptorum must be made ready to fight under 

obedientiae militatura; et quod minus the holy obedience of His commands; 

habet in nobis natura possibile, roge- and let us ask God to supply by the 

mus Dominum, ut gratiae suae jubeat help of His grace what by nature is 

nobis adjutorium ministrare. Et si hardly possible to us. And if we 

fugientes gehennae poenas ad vitam would arrive at eternal life, escaping 

*perpetuam volumus pervenire, dum the pains of hell, then while there 

adhuc vacat, et in hoc corpore sumus, is yet time, while we are still in the 

W haec omnia per hanc lucis viam vacat flesh, and are able to fulfil all these 

Jimplere, currendum et agendum est things by the light which is given us 

j modo, quod in perpetuum nobis expe- we must hasten to do now what will 

diat. . profit us for all eternity. 

'.. This concluding portion of the Prologue seems directly designed 
Ito reassure and encourage souls who shrink from the holy demands of the 

i Observe that immediately after the Sermon on the Mount, the conclusion of 
which St. Benedict has just cited, the evangelist added: Cum consummasset Jesus verba 
; base . . . (Matt. vii. 28). . 

/ , 2 A scribe; doubtless surprised at this suspended and somewhat elliptical phrase, 
regarded it as the protasis of a conditional sentence and completed it with the somewhat 
Mfrigid gloss: erimus baredes regni calorum. And with these words the Prologue ends 
An the three niost ancient manuscripts; perhaps they had as their common source a 
codex in which the last page of the Prologue was lacking. (See the Introduction ) 



1 8 Commentary on the Rule of St, Benedict 

religious life, and who, when their first fervour has gone and the enthu- 
siasm of their first days evaporated, are tempted to turn back towards 
the world. If it is true that our Holy Father wrote this page in the 
last days of his life, he h.ad had time to receive a goodly number of 
postulants, and among them some of those soft natures, over-sensitive 
and lacking vitality, whose good will is real, but short-lived. St. Benedict 
appeals to them with the sursum corda which goes before sacrifice. 1 

The whole man has to take the field; first the heart, that is the secret 
dwelling and central source of all great thoughts and strong resolutions, 
and then the body itself, which must be trained by faithful observance. 
Otherwise monks will be in danger of resembling painted or stage 
soldiers, who ever threaten to strike or to march but never either strike ! 
or march. The monastic life is in fact a training camp, and before joining ( 
it it is better to be sure that you are determined. But, although no \ 
one can at his pleasure have literary genius or add an inch to his stature, j 
in the moral order we may win any power or any stature that we wish, j 
And we are not asked for muscular effort, but are simply told to submit 
to holy obedience and to exercise ourselves in the perfect fulfilment of 
a spiritual law. Can you not keep silence ? Why, women keep it, and 
well. Can you not love mortification j Even children practise it. Can 
you not do what women and. children do ? 

Suppose there is some little discord of temperament, or even, it 
may be, of nature between you and the monastic law. Tell God about 
it. He will tell His grace and bid it come to your aid, and His grace 
will make possible for you what nature led you to regard as "hardly 
possible." St. Benedict's phrase here is touched with gentle humour. 

Moreover, adds St. Benedict, we must be brave. You wish to avoid 
hell? Yes. You wish to get to heaven ? Of course. Well, says he, 
let me tell you again that life is short, and that it is a truce. We were 
once enemies of God, and fortunately we were not then: surprised by 
death. Let us make haste, while there, is yet time, to do something 
; for God; currendum et agendum est / let us make haste to accomplish, by 
the light of this life, 2 all the good works that we shall in heaven congratu- 
late ourselves on having done. What does St. Paul think now of his 
scourgings, or St. Lawrence of his gridiron, or St. Benedict of his rolling 
amid the thorns, or St. Benedict Labre of his poverty ? It is enough 
to cut short pur procrastination, if we but ponder for an instant this 
weighty advice of our Holy Father. 

Constituenda est ergo a nobis We have, therefore, to establish a } 

Dominicischolaservitii;inquainstitu- school of the Lord's service, in the 

tione njhil asperum nihilque grave nos institution of which we hope to order 

constituturos speramjis. nothing that is harsh or rigorous. 

At the same time as he strengthens and stimulates souls, St. Benedict 
is led to define the special form of the religious life which he has just 

1 These words echo the first paragraphs of the Prologue. 

2 We should read vitam, which is the only authoritative reading. 



Prologue 19 

offered them in the Lord's name; hitherto he had limited himself to 
asking whether they were ready for the full Christian life. So he 
makes easy the transition to his enunciation of the monastic rule. 

.See then, he says, what I want to do, what I propose to establish 
with the help of your generosity: "a school of the Lord's service." 
We must always hold fast to this definition of our life. A monastery 
is not a club, nor a house of retreat, nor an appendage to the universities. 
Doubtless it is a place of leisure, of liberty, and of repose (and that is the 
original sense of the word "school," from the Greek <r%o\77); but this 
leisure has for its object the study of the things of God, and the training 
and education of His soldiers, His guard of honour. The ancients gave 
the name of "school," says Dom Calmet, to the places where were 
learnt literature, the sciences, the fine arts, and military exercises; 
also to the companies employed for the defence of the palace, or the 
person of a prince, and to the places in which they lodged and trained. 
It is now not unlikely that our Holy Father had in mind the scbola or 
place of meeting of the Roman colleges or associations. 1 

So the monastic life is the " school of the Lord's service," the school 
where one learns to serve Him, where one is trained without cessation, 
in a novitiate which will last the whole of life. At bottom, St. Benedict 
has no other design than that of God Himself: " For the Father also 
seeketh such as will adore him in spirit and in truth." To serve God 
is to adore God. The service of God is made up of two elements: 
worship or, the exercise of the virtue of religion, and since the value 
of worship depends upon the value of the worshipper personal sancti- 
fication by fidelity to the law of God and the union of our wills with His. 
This worship is "in spirit," since it comes from the interior man; it 
is " in truth," since no faculty of a man is excepted; no work of charity, 
no study may escape it; nor can there be any contrariety in act or 
intention. And, to conclude, this worship is collective, social, and 
public. 

We have good hope, says St. Benedict, that this programme will 
contain nothing terrible. We need have no fear : the Rule is wise and 
therein is nothing disagreeable, harsh, or intolerable. It is to a marked 
degree gentler, both in its preliminary requirements and in its laws, 
than the monastic codes of the East; and our Holy Father, in his perfect 
discretion and in his love for souls, has allowed himself to appear some- 
what relaxed; But the Benedictine life does not consist essentially 
in a dying, a merciless mortification, nor can it be adequately defined 
as a life of penance or violent asceticism. Perhaps St. Benedict here 
veils too much the austerity of his Rule. He does not want to frighten 
anyone, and that is a good intention enough; but will he not contradict 
himself in the fifty-eighth chapter: "Let there be set. before him all 
the hard and rugged ways by which we walk towards God "? The 

1 Cf. G. BOISSIER, La Religion romaine d'Auguste aux Antonins, 1. III., chap. iii. 
See on this comparison an interesting note by DOM ROTHENHAUSLZR, Zur Aufnabmeord- 
nung der Regula S. Benedicts (Monster, 1912), p. 37, note 4. 



20 Commentary on the Rule of Sf. Benedict 

contradiction is not a real one, and all will be explained to a nicety in 
the words which follow. 

Sed et si quid paululum restricting, But if anything be somewhat strictly 

dictante aequitatis ratione, propter laid down, according to the dictates 

emendationem vitiorum, vel conser- of equity, for the amendment of vices 

yationem charitatis processerit, non or the preservation of charity, do not 

illico pavore perterritus refugias viam therefore fly in dismay from the way 

salutis, quse non est nisi angusto initio of salvation, whose beginning cannot 

incipienda. Processu vero conversa- but be strait. But as we go forward 

tionis et fidei, dilatato corde, inenarra- in our life and faith, we shall with,/ 

bili dilectionis dulcedine curritur via hearts enlarged and unspeakable sweet- j 

mandatorum Dei. ... ness of love run in the way of God's 

commandments. 

We are first told affectionately and in measured terms not to be 
surprised if we meet a little mortification and pain on the road that 
leads to God. After all, there is something of both on the road to hell; 
we can even say that you may save your life with less suffering than you 
may lose it; and if we had remained in the world we should have learnt 
by experience, perhaps by cruel experience, that it is the true home of 
disappointment, constraint, servitude, ennui. And the suffering that is 
met in the world is often of bad quality, base, impure, degrading, though 
of course it may be both wholesome and profitable, such as that which is 
exacted by apprenticeship to any craft, or any sort of intellectual or 
practical training. Why should we wish to have less to suffer to become 
religious, than to become artisans, or soldiers, or explorers ? No great 
object can be achieved without sacrifice : " Everyone that striveth for 
the mastery refraineth himself from all things. And they indeed that 
they may receive a corruptible crown : but we an incorruptible one " 
(iCor.ix. 25). 

There are, in the moral order, people who no longer suffer; they are 
those who belong without reserve to the good, whose life is become a 
foretaste of paradise. Our Holy Father describes, farther on, the blessed 
state of these perfect souls. Those who belong to evil, also unreservedly, 
and whose conscience is lulled to sleep and hardened, do not suffer any 
more either: but who would envy them that dreadful calm ? In the ! 
innumerable multitude of the suffering, there are those who do evil 
without being able to escape remorse, and who thus taste hell in this life ; 
and there are those who do good habitually, but are still tempted by 
evil, and of this class the different degrees are as various as are souls. 

It is true that we have said good-bye bravely to the world, and 
burnt our boats, but we have not yet reached the knowledge of God; , 
we live as it were suspended between heaven and earth, and we feel the ) 
void, for does not Nature herself abhor a vacuum ? We must die, die ' 
that voluntary death which is precious in the sight of God; we must , 
reset our type completely and issue, so to say, a new edition of ourselves. I 
There can be no building up without this preliminary destroying, and \ 
that is why our Holy Father lays it down as a principle that the way ; 



Prologue 21 

of salvation " cannot but be strait " in its beginning. " How narrow 
is the gate and strait the way that leadeth to life !" said Our Lord 
(Matt. vii. 14). The gate is narrow and we are large; we suffer from 
moral obesity, from having accumulated habits, customs, likes, from 
having spread ourselves out exteriorly on all sorts of objects and drawn 
in our train a thousand hindrances; but the time has come to renounce 
them; we can only get through by reducing ourselves let us remember 
the fable of the weasel and this reduction must be accompanied with 
pain. 

The cause of our suffering is single, it is self-will; but its occasions 
and instruments are manifold. In the first place there are the sufferings 
of the Rule, to which our Holy Father makes special allusion here, though 
his words may very well be understood of every monastic pain. Let 
'us notice the terms in which he refers to this severity. There will be 
as little of it as possible, paululum. It will not consist of arbitrary 
restrictions and trials, whether left to the initiative of the religious, 
or even to the choice of the legislator or superior; but it will present 
itself spontaneously, processerit, it will only exist because the situation 
evokes it, it will be determined by the nature of things, it will spring 
from the very conditions of monastic life, where, as in every society, 
peace can only reign on condition of partial sacrifices freely consented 
to by every member. Spmetimes, too, mortification will have as its 
end the safeguarding of OUT love of God or our moral life. " According 
to the dictates of equity "^everything is subjected to the law of a wise 
discipline. 

Other sufferings will come from ourselves, from our sickly imagina- 
tion. And there are those which we make fo^ one another. The most 
formidable ones come from God. God loves souls as precious pearls 
bought by the blood of His Son: " O Lord who lovest souls " (Wis. xi. 
27). But He does not love their dross and baseness. He wishes to be 
in our souls as a spiritual being in spiritual beings, as a force in a force 
which is submissive and receptive; and He wishes the mover and the 
moved tobe fitly proportionate. So, since He intervenes specially 
and personally, immediately and directly, at each stage of our spiritual 
life, He takes on Himself the work of purifying us. He alone can pene- 
trate into the depths of our being, and reach its most delicate fibres. 
This work he carries out thoroughly, but in a silent manner/interiorly 
and secretly, as befits our contemplative state. We are face to face 
| with God; all distractions have vanished and we are alone in a solitude, 
abandoned in a desert. We win a piercing consciousness of the infinite 
ipurity of God and so of our unworthiness ; the inexorable light of His" 
divinity falls full on our defects, on all the wounds of our soul, and we 
feel without defence against God's punishment. " I am a man that 
see my poverty by the rod of his indignation " (Lam. iii. i). . We are 
in purgatory. We suffer the tortures of St. Bartholomew. Like 
Prometheus we are fastened to our rock, and God's vulture comes and 
opens our breast, and there, quietly and ceaselessly, eats away all that 



22 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

displeases Him. And so we are utterly sick, and the soul is sore all over, 
and we readily lay the blame on anyone or anything. 

O blessed sufferings ! These are the toils of the journey to God, 
and, like the real purgatory, these too lead to heaven. "Do not 
therefore fly in dismay from the way of salvation." We must not take 
fright, lose our heads, yield, and flee. Those who bravely accept these 
divine demands; those who, instead of driving away the physician of 
the soul and begging consolation on all sides, keep enough energy and 
self-possession to add some interior mortification and to weed their 
garden, as St. Teresa puts it, these have a future. Those/who in tribu- 
lation speak tenderly to infinite Juttice and through the ( ir tears bless Him 
for all, who say with Job : " Though -he slay me, yet will I jzrust in him," 
who accept for years this burning severity, trusting that God will give 
Himself in the end, these are the candidates for sainthood, to these 
will God show Himself loving, both in time and in eternity. But for 
those who do none of these things we must surely weep; they will never 
know the deepest joy that the creature's heart may feel, the joy of 
Calvary, the joy of being God's unreservedly, as a thing with which He 
does what He will, as a trophy which He carries whither He pleases. 

Whether suffering comes in single spies or in battalions, whether it 
comes from God or. from men, it can always be borne, if we continue 
to pray and to be faithful to the duties of our state. Does not time, 
too, that wonderful invention of God's mercy, in some sort wear away 
and attenuate our pains, "that which is momentary and light of our 
tribulation " (2 Cor. iv. 17) ? Even in this world suffering will not last 
for ever: How long then ? So long as God wishes, so long as there 
remains in us something that must be burnt away. Therefore the 
duration of suffering depends hi part on our generosity. In the end, 
we accept solitude and enjoy it, things which once seemed so necessary 
to us interest us no more, and we accomplish without effort that which 
at first appeared impossible. Our passions still at times pull at our 
lower nature, but their call becomes daily more and more remote. 
" Trifles of trifles and vanities of vanities, my old mistresses; held me 
back; they caught hold of the garment of my flesh and whispered in 
my ear, * Can you let us go ?' ... As I heard them, they seemed 
to have shrunk to half their former size. No longer did they meet me 
face to face with open contradiction, but muttered behind my back, 
and, when I moved away, plucked stealthily at my coat to make me look 
back." 1 

" But as we go forward in our life and faith "* . . . The habit of 
monastic observance, the habit of close union with God, the mental 
habit of seeing our life in its relation to God, all these empty us and free 



1 S. AUG., Confess., 1. VIII,, c. . P.L., XXXII., 761. 

3 S. PACH., /teg. cxc.: . . . Probata fratres conversation* s etjidei. But St. Benedict 
is thinking rather of CASSIAN, Conlat., III., xv. Cassian, having recalled the fact after 
St. Paul (Phil. i. 29) that we must suffer with Christ, adds: Hie quoque et initium con- 
versations acfidei nostree etpasstonum tolerantiam donari nobis a Domino declaravit. 



Prologue 23 

us of encumbrance. Our hearts expand and grow to the stature of 
God, and God is at home with us, free of our house and sovereign there. 
And our hearts, on their side, are at ease: " I have run the way of thy 
commandments, when thou didst enlarge my heart " (Ps. czviii. 32). 
" Thy commandment is exceedingly broad " (ibid. 96). All conflict 
is over, naught is left but a glad docility, a sweet and holy confiscation 
of our will by Our Lord's will, a full surrender to His lead. A spring 
of tenderness has gushed forth from the depths of our desert, and its 
waters .of sweetness unspeakable penetrate like a perfume to the very 
confines of its desolation. Such is the gentle touch of God and the effect 
of His substantial love. And so the soul sets out, and runs, and sings. 
Dilatato corde, inenarrabili dilectionis dulcedine curritur via manda- 
torum Dei. 

b 

ut ab ipsius nunquam magisterio So that never departing from His 

discedentet, in ejus doctrina usque ad guidance, but persevering in His teach- 

mortem in monasterio perseverantes, ing in the monastery until death, we 

passionibus Christi per patientiam par- may by patience share in the sufferings 

ticipemus, ut regni ejus mereamur esse of Christ, that we may deserve to be 

consortes. partakers of His kingdom. 

Some editors have thought that this last paragraph was connected 
logically with the word speramus above and have treated the passage 
between as a parenthesis. But there is no reason to take it thus, and this 
long parenthesis seems hardly in accordance with St. Benedict's manner 
of writing. 

The monastery is a school where we learn to worship God; this 
school has one Master and only one: our Holy Father uttered His name 
when he spoke of the "way of the commandments of God." Our 
Lord Jesus Christ is the Master, since God has told us all by means of the 
Word. St. Augustine has pointed out many times the necessity of an 
interior master for either natural or supernatural knowledge. External 
teaching never gives intellectual illumination or grasp; its function is 
limited to throwing out a hint or setting an example, to analyzing, and 
to revealing the hidden connection that exists between premise and 
conclusion; apart from God we have only instructors. When Scripture, 
or the Fathers, or the Church speaks to us, then we have the teaching 
of God. 

The Word of God knows not silence, and the monastic life is set 
before us as a constant attention and docility to this voice that is ever 
speaking. In monasteries more than anywhere else is God pleased to 
communicate His thought, His designs, His beauty. " Mary, sitting 
by the feet of the Lord, heard his word " (Luke x. 39). Every morning 
before receiving the Body and Blood of the Lord we say to Him: " Make 
me always cleave to Thy commandments and never suffer me to be 
separated from Thee " (Dne. Jesu Xte y F Hi Dei vivi . . . before Dne. 
HOH sum dignus). This perseverance in His teaching will last till death, 
for no one ever deserts God who has once come to know Him. And 



24 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

it will pass beyond death, if it be true that the most perfect form of 
God's magisterium is found in the beatific vision. 

In the next words there is introduced that essential element of the 
Benedictine Rule, stability : first negatively, " never departing," and then 
positively, " persevering in his teaching in the monastery until death." 1 
Presented in this persuasive fashion it cannot frighten souls or seem 
to them a burden or a chain; it is simply fidelity to the blessed retreat 
where we are sure of finding the fulness of life. The first principle, 
the basis, the constituent, and the term of this supernatural life, is union 
with Our Lord Jesus Christ: union with His teaching, union with His 
sufferings, union with His blessedness. So that our Holy Father returns, 
at the end, to the idea of monastic suffering as being the prelude and 
price of our entry into the kingdom of God: " Heirs indeed of God, 
and joint-heirs of Christ; but if we suffer with. him, so that we may be 
glorified with him" (Rom. viii. 17). Like stability, so is suffering 
transfigured: it is now no longer aught else than a glorious co-operation 
with " the sufferings of Christ," and the monk who suffers may say 
with the Apostle: " I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up 
those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ, in my flesh, v 
for his body, which is the church " (Col. i. 24). 

Even if the Office did not tell us that he was all wrapped in the divine 
brightness and as it were already beatified : Tkntaque circa eum claritas 
cxcreveral ut in terris positus in ctelestibus habitant, we should still 
recognize in the frequency of these references to salvation, to heaven, 
and to God, the habitual trend of his thought: " *jThe holy man could 
in no way teach otherwise than as he lived;" 2 His whole soul was 
fixed on eternity. This preoccupation has i determined the organic 
conception of the religious life which he founded in the church; for 
with the most natural framework in the family, its pursuit is the highest 
that can be, union with God, and its goal, the utterly supernatural, 
eternity. This present life is only an apprenticeship, a trial or novitiate 
for eternity; and it is in view of eternity thai we have to renounce, to 
learn, and to conquer. 

1 In primis, si quis ad conversionem venerit, ea cvnditione excipiatur, ut usque ad \ 
mortem suam ibi perseveret (S. CJESAR., Reg. ad mon., i.). ) 

2 S. GREG. M., Dial., 1. II., c. xxxvi. ! ;' 



CHAPTER I 
OF THE VARIOUS KINDS OF MONKS 1 

IT is possible to distribute the seventy-three chapters of the Rule 
logically into different groupsj provided we note that these 
do not represent clear-cut divisions and that our Holy Father, 
like all ancient writers, even when he is dealing with legislative 
enactments, gives his thought a living and flexible form, careless of 
repetition or apparent disorder. 

We may distinguish in every true association two elements: the 
constitutive and the legislative. St. Benedict describes briefly in the 
first three chapters the organic structure of monastic society, what it sub- 
stantially is, and what it is not; its basis and its bond viz., the authority 
of the Abbot; then its members and their part in its government. 
Next follows (IV.-VII.) what concerns the spiritual form of our life and 
the supernatural training of each member. It is in these seven chapters 
that is given, as it seems to us, the constitution of the monastery; what 
remains relates to its legislative aspect; the subdivisions of this we shall 
notice later. 

DE GENERIBUS MoNACHORUM. It is plain that there are four kinds 

Monachorum quatuor esse genera mani- of monks. The first are the Cenobites 

festum est. Primum coenobitarum, that is, those who do their service 

hoc est, monasteriale, militans sub [lit. military service] in monasteries 

regula vel Abbate. under a rule and an abbot. 

The first word of the rule is the word " monk." 2 It comes from the 
Greek /uoz/a%o9, the original meaning of which is the same as that of 
fiovos: alone, unique, simple. In the early centuries of Christianity, 
when certain of the faithful separated themselves, though living in the 
world, from the conditions of ordinary life, and presently from society 
itself, so as to devote themselves, whether alone or in groups, to the 
practices of supernatural asceticism, they were sometimes called jwva%ol 
or /j.ovdovT?, separate, isolated, solitary; 3 the name was in vogue 
in the fourth century. A pagan poet at the commencement of the 
fifth century, Rutilius Namatianus, makes malicious play with the 
original meaning of the word: 

! Squalet lucifugis insula plena viris: 

Ipsi se monachos graio cognomine dicunt, 
i Quod soli nullo vivere teste volunt.* 

1 We translate the titles of the chapters. Though they are given by all the manu- 
sjcripts, with some slight variations, the critics discuss whether they are really St. Bene- 
dict's. The reasons alleged against their attribution to him are not always very convinc- 
ing; see, for example, W LFFLIN, Seriedicti Regula Monacborum, Praef., p. x. We 




In truth the island's foul and swarms again 

With men that shun the open light of day; 

Who call them monks that's Greek because they'd fain 

Do ill alone where none may say them nay. 



26 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

The idea of unity which is implied in their name has made it possible 
to define monks in various ways, each embracing a part of the truth. 
Thus they are men who live alone, 1 men who wish to introduce oneness 
and simplicity into their life, men who busy themselves with God only 
and seek nothing but union with Him. Paul Orosius says: "Monks 
are Christians who, setting aside the manifold activity of the world, 
devote themselves to the one work of their faith." 2 And St. Denis 
says: "Our pious masters have called these men, at one time ihera- 
peutte because of the sincere service in which they adore the Divinity, 
at another mgnks, because of their single undivided life, which removes 
their spirit from the distraction of manifold interests and by which they 
are borne towards the oneness of God and the perfection of holy 
love." 8 

To these old writers the name monk denoted a genus, comprising 
all the faithful who renounced the world to give themselves to perfection. 
For a long period to be a religious and to be a monk were synonymous, 
and that is still the case in the East. But, with the .appearance of 
forms of the religious life consecrated more directly to the service of 
souls, the term monk became specific. In actual fact it no longer 
belongs to any but the sons of St. Benedict and St. Bruno, though the 
custom has obtained in France of giving it to the followers of St. Francis 
and St. Dominic. However, St. Thomas and St. Bonaventure, in their 
controversy with the University of Paris, claimed for their brethren 
only the style of religious. 

If we should wish at this time of day to map out the religious life 
and ta classify it, we might divide religious with sufficient accuracy 
into five groups, according to the time of their historical appearance 
(I say nothing here of religious women, who are of innumerable types 
and of every variety) : the five groups would be : monks, regular canons, 
friars or mendicants, regular clerks, and secular priests joined in congre- 
gation with or without vows. 

In St. Benedict's time only four kinds of monks were recognized; 
and the division was so plain and so current that our Holy Father does 
not labour it. St. Jerome and Cassian 4 had noted, for Egypt, three 

1 ST. AUGUSTINE explains how the cenobitcs themselves, though numerically many^ 
may yet be called uovos, since they have only one heart and one soul (Enarr. in Pt. cxxxiil 
6. P.L., XXXVH., 1732-1733). 

1 Histor., 1. VII., c. xxriii. P.L., XXXI., 1 145. j 

* De Hierarcbia ecclesiastica, c. vi. ! 

4 Tria sunt tit Mgypto genera monacborum. Unum, Coenobite, quod illi Souses 
gentili lingua vacant^ not in commune viventes jwssumus appellare. Secundum, A*aj- 
cboreta, qui soli habitant per deserta. . . . Tertium, genus est quod Remobotb dicunt, 
deterrimufn atque neglectum. .... Hi bini vel terni, nee multo plures simul habitant, 
tuo arbitrio ac ditione viventes (S. HIERON., Epist. XXII., 34. P.L., XXII., 419). CAB- 
MAN reproduces and completes this list: Tria sunt in JEgypto genera monacborum, quorum 
duo sunt optima, tertium tepidum atque omnimodis evitaiidum. Primum est caenoaitarutK 
qui, scilicet in congregatione pariter consistentes unius senioris juditio gubernantur- - 
Secundum anachoretarum, qui prius in caenobiis instituti jamque in actuali conversation 
perfecti solitudinis elegere secreta. . . . Tertium reprebensibile Sarabaitarum est. 
(Anacboretce) in ccenobiis frimttm diutissime commorantes, otnnem patientite ac discrttionis 



Of the Various Kinds of Monks 27 

kinds. St. Benedict reproduces their words in part, and mentions, 
as Cassian does, 1 a fourth category. But, while Cassian makes it consist 
of false anchorites, deserters from the cenobitical life, for St. Benedict* 
it comprises the class of vagrant, roving monks, the gyrovagi. Cassian 
and the Fathers of the East knew them well, 8 but the wretched species 
had made such increase that St. Benedict could give them a name for 
themselves; this name is first found in the Rule, but it may have existed 
already in common use. 

St. Benedict first mentions the- Cenobites (i.e., those who live in 
common KOIVOS 109) because, following in this many of the Fathers, 4 
he gives them his preference. Cassian, who saw in the Christianity of 
Jerusalem a true religious family, considered them the first even histori- 
cally. 6 Since he was to have full opportunity to talk about Cenobites 
in the course of this Rule which was destined for them, St. Benedict 
here confines himself to marking in a few words their chief characteristics. 
They have a common life, they dwell in a monastery, and this is the 
framework of their stability. They serve that is, they strive together 
in a common and convergent effort, towards one and the same end and 
victory: perfection, and that conventual perfection. They have a 
rule, so that the fundamental conditions of their life are fixed and in no 
way left to arbitrary arrangement; but the rule need not be written, 
it might be a collection of customs. Vel 4bbate.-Wc may remark, 
once for all, that in St. Benedict Yusage the disjunctive vel has often the 
force of the copula et ; and that is the case in this passage. However 
precise may be the rale or customs, there are a thousand matters which 
will not be settled by them. So we have the living power of the Abbot 
to interpret the rule and fix its sense. Cenobites have an Abbot at. 
their head that is to say, a father; so they form a family. 

Deinde secundum genus est ana- The second are the Anchorites 

choretarum, id est, eremitarum, horum Hermits that is, those who, not in 

qui non conversionis fervore novitio, the first fervour of religious life, but 

sed monasterii probatione diuturna, after long probation in the monastery, 

didicerunt contra diabolum, multorum have learned by the help and experience 

solatio jam docti, pugnare; et bene in- of others to fight against the devil; and 

struct! fraterna ex acie ad singularem going forth well armed from the ranks 

regulam diligenter edocti, . .. . dirissimis dtemonum praeliis congressuri penetrant beremi 
profunda secreta. Emersit post beec Mud deterrimum et infidele monacborum genus . . . 
etc., . . . bint vel terni in cellulis commorantur, non contenti abbatis euro atque imperio 
gubernari. . . etc. . . . (Conlat.. XVIII., iv.. Instil., V., xxxvi., \cf. alto Conlat., XVIII., 
vi.]; Conlat., XVIII., vii.) . 

All the ancient forms of the monastic life, even the less reputable, are still repreiented 
to-day on Mt. Athos, the " holy mountain." 

1 Conlat., XVIII., viii. 

* St. Benedict puts with the sarabaites those monks who live alone, doing their own 
will: . . . aut certe tinguH sine pastore. 

3 Cf. D. BESSE, Les Moines Orient, chap. ii. ... . 

* For example ST. JOHN CHRYSOST., In Matt. Horn. LXXIL P.O., LVIII., 671-672. 
ST. BASIL, Reg. fits., vii. ST. JEROME, Epist. CXXV. 9. P.L., XXII., 1077. 

Conlat., XVIII., v. 



28 Commentary on the Rule or St. Benedict 

pugnam eremi, securi jam sine conso- of their brethren to the single-handed 
latione alterius, sola manu vel brachio, combat of the desert, are now able to 
contra vitia carnis vel cogitationum, fight safely without the support of 
Deo auxiliante, sufficiunt pugnare. others, by their own strength under 

God's aid, against the vices of the 
flesh and their evil thoughts. 

The second kind of monks are the anchorites (.<?., those who live 
apart, in seclusion : avaj(a)pe(a) ; St.Benedict does not distinguish them, as 
St. Isidore 1 did later, from hermits or dwellers in the desert (e/My/io?). 
The anachoretic life has always existed in the Church, 2 but it is no longer 
represented in our days, save in its mitigated form, among the Carthu- 
sians and Camaldolese . . . ; though there are as well, without doubt, 
a few hermits in solitudes and some recluses near certain monasteries. 
At the beginning of monasticism anchorites were innumerable, and 
we may even say that the religious life (in its special sense) took its 
origin among them, in the third century, with St. Paul of the Thebaid, 
St. Antony, and St. Hilarion, imitators of Elias and St. John the Baptist. 
Ecclesiastical law had not yet had time to regulate the religious state; 
so anyone who wished became an anchorite, with or without a master, 
in the dress and under the rule of his choice. And we know in what 
a very simple fashion St. Benedict himself became a hermit and made 
his profession. 8 

So he knew .the anchorite's life by personal experience and had 
practised it with generous ardour. He was ignorant neither of its 
attractions nor of the terrible temptations and extraordinary illusions 
to which it readily lends itself."* Man is not sufficient for himself; 
we need support, and we find it in social intercourse, through intelligence 
and love. We need example, encouragement, and direction. In the 
desert there is no supernatural rivalry. We have there none of the 
supervision or example of others, which, as an external supplement to 
conscience, is at once so precious, so effective, and so sweet. We have 
no scope for the exercise of fraternal charity, which is, however, the 
plainest index of our love of God. In solitude the imagination runs 
wild, the senses are strained to exasperation ; and, if perchance the devil 
interferes directly, there may come a complete upset of nature's balance, 
with vice or despair: Are not souls sometimes drawn into the desert 
by sloth, instability, pride, and hatred of their kind ? To escape 
from the tyranny of passion it is not enough to flee from men, as is I 
proved by many a story in the Lives of the Fathers. Take the case of) 
the monk plagued with an angry temper. He fled from the monastery ' 
so as to escape the occasions of sin, and soon found them again in the ! 
eccentricities of his pitcher. 6 On the subject of. the dangers of the, 

*: 

1 De ecclesiasticis officiis, 1. II., c. xvi. P.L., LXXXIIL, 794-795. 

2 Cf. VACANT-MANGENOT, Dictionnaire de Tb 'ologie, art. "Anachorete." 

3 S. GREG. M., Dial., I II., c. i. 

4 Read the whole of Conference XIX. of Cassian. 

B Verba Seninrum: Vite Patrum, III., 98. ROSWEYD, p. 515. 



Of tJie Various Kinds of Monks 29 

eremitical life St. Ephrem may be read, or, of a later period, St. Ivo of 
Chartres. 1 

Our Holy Father, however, is far from being blind to the sublimity 
of the anachoretical life. But he considers it too perfect to suit most 
souls, and he puts very high the conditions necessary for a prudent entry 
on such a way of life. With Cassian, St. Nilus, 2 and others of the old 
writers, he requires in the first place that the candidate be no longer 
in the first fervour of his conversion and religious life (tonvtrsio or 
conversatio). 'Monks, like wine, improve with age. The fervour and 
excitement of the novice are necessary, because it is by this fermentation 
that the soul gets rid of a multitude of minor impurities which make, 
it heavy and sluggish. But this sort of fervour is transient ; in proportion 
as the interior work of elimination is accomplished and the foreign 
elements are precipitated, it gives place to a fervour of. charity which 
is purified and clear (defacata). So the future hermit must try himself 
for long years in a monastery, learn the methods of the spiritual life, 
and become a past-master in the art of fighting the devil with the help 
and the consolation ( i jrapdic\i)<rt<i)of all his brethren. It is only when 
he has been well drilled and trained in the ranks, and in such collective 
struggle, for the single combat of the desert, that he will be able to face 
the struggle against the vices of the flesh and the spirit, without help 
henceforth from others, with nothing more to count on but God and 
the strength of his own right arm. Finally, the permission of his Abbot 
will guarantee the monk from all danger of presumption. 3 

The conditions of religious life have been modified, but human 
nature remains the same, and the temptation to quit the community 
and become a hermit is of all time. This desire may appear at the 
earliest stage, whether because God is really calling the soul into 
solitude, or because our self-love, infatuated with the renunciation 
demanded by so novel a life, persuades us wrongly that we have made a 
mistake, that we have not enough silence, and that all sorts of tedious 
association with others disturb the even course of our prayer. The 
temptation may arise later on and spring from a sickly or misanthropic 
temperament, or from a debased mysticism. Under the pretext that 
pure contemplation is the ideal and that the life of the Carthusian has 
been recognized by the Church as the most perfect, a monk will plague 

1 S. EPHR., De bumilitate, c. Iviii. sq. (Opp. grace. lat., 1. 1., p. 315-317). Para*. 
XXIII., XXIV., XXXVIII., XLH. (t. II., p. 102, 107, 136, 154). YVON. CARNOT., 
Epist. CXCII. et CCLVI. P.L., CLXIL, 198, 260. 

* Tractatus ad Eutogium, 32. P.G., LXXIX., 1135. Epist., 1. III., Ep. LXXII. 
AC., LXXIX., 422. 

. 3 Cf. SULP. SEVER., Dial. I., c.-xvii. P.L., XX., 195. The councils had often to 
concern themselves with anchorites, and that of Vannes, in particular, decreed in 465 : 
Scrvandum quoque de monacbis, ne eis ad solitaries cellulas liceat a congregatione discedere , 
nisi forte probatis post emeritos labores, out proffer injirmitatis necessitates! asperior ab 
abbatibus regula remittatur. Quod ita demum Jiet, ut intra eadem monasterii septa 
manentes, tamen sub abbatis po testate separates babere cellulas permittantur (MANSI, 
t. VII., col. 954). History shows that the anachoretical life was nearly always tempered 
by the cenobitical, and that the solitaries of the East were grouped in communities, 
or at least took companions, admitted disciples, and visited one another at long intervals. 



jo Commentary on the Rule of St. ^Benedict 

his Abbot until he his consented to his departure, a departure which 
is often only the prelude to a sad series of wanderings. Or perhaps 
a man will try to make himself a sort of anchorite within the walls of 
his monastery. He constructs a little life of his own; he keeps himself 
at a distance from the., Abbot and his brethren. The peaceful and 
leisured conditions secured by the monastic life no longer serve God, 
or charity* but self. Alas ! such a monk will no longer have even the 
shadow of true happiness; he will never come near to God; he will die 
prosaically, a slave to his ease and to an old man's whimsies, hardened 
and swollen with his self-love. We must hold fast to the advice of the 
Apostle: "Arid let us consider one another, to provoke unto charity 
and good works; not forsaking our assembly, as some are accustomed; 
but comforting one another, and so much the more as you see the day 
approaching " (Heb. x. 24-25). 

While maintaining our belief in extraordinary vocations, it is per- 
missible to regard the cenobitical life as more natural than that of the 
anchorite. " It is not good for man to be alone." Absolute silence, 
says St. Hildegarde, is inhuman that is to say, either above or below 
human nature. 1 Many things can only be well done in association; 
the stars themselves are grouped in constellations. So we, being all 
redeemed together by our Saviour, sanctify ourselves together in Him, 
so as to share with all fulness in the intimate union of the Divine Persons. 
As St. John says (i Ep. i. 3), " That which we have seen and have 
heard, we declare unto you; that you also may have fellowship with us 
and our fellowship may be with the Father and with his Son Jesus 
Christ." So in. eternity too our life will be cenobitical; and St. Thomas 
explains how even then the society of our friends will become an element 
of our happiness. 2 There is wisdom in not conceiving our earthly 
life on any different plan. 

Tertium vero monachorum deterri- A third and detestable kind of 

mum genus est sarabaitarum, qui nulla monks are the Sarabaites, who have 

regula approbate, experientia magistra, been tried by no rule nor by experience 

sicut aurum f ornaqs, sed in plumbi na- the master, as gold by the furnace; 

tura molliti, adhuc operibus servantes but, being as soft as lead, still keep 

saeculofidem,mentiril)eopertonsuram faith with the world in their works, 

noscuntur. Qui bini aut terai, aut while, as their tonsure shows, they lie 

certe singuli sine pastore, non Domini- to God. These in twos or threes, or 

as, sed suis inclusi bvilibus, pro lege even singly without a shepherd, shut 

eu est desideriorum voluptas: cum up not in the Lord's sheepfolds but in 

quicquid putaverint vel elegerint, hoc their own, make a law to themselves 

dicunt sanctum, et quod noluerint, hoc of their own pleasures and desires :! 

putant non licere. whatever they think fit or please to do, 

that they call holy ; and what they lie 
not, that they consider unlawful. 

Our Holy Father strikes out the anachoretical life, because prudence 
forbids jt to most men; for quite different motives he rejects the life 

1 Regula S. Betted. Exflanatio. P.L., CXCVIL, 1056. 
' S. Tb., I.-II., y. iv., a. 9. 



Of the Various Kinds of Monks 3 1 

of the Sarabaites, which is, as he says, detestable. Cassian attributes 
an Egyptian origin to; the word Sarabaite: " From their sequestering 
themselves from the association of the monasteries and looking after 
their needs, each man for himself, they were called in the Egyptian 
idiom * Sarabaites.' m But perhaps, with more likelihood, it may be 
derived from the Aramaic term sarab, which means rebellious or refrac- 
tory. 2 To 1 understand how it is that monks such as St. Benedict here 
describes could be found in existence for several centuries, we must 
remember that the Church had not yet surrounded the approach to 
religion with a series of precautionary measures, designed for the elimina- 
tion of the unworthy, the unsuitable, or the unstable. So a man had 
only to take a habit, or have one given him, and then cut his hair. With- 
out previous novitiate, without becoming part of a regularly constituted 
community, he was a monk and in the language of the time " converted," 
provided that he showed by certain external acts that he had renounced 
the world and devoted himself to God. Such a one was bound to 
chastity and, in some degree, to poverty; but where was ooedience ? . 

The Sarabaite 1 : might say: "We recognize theoretically that 
obedience is implied in the concept of monasticism; more than that, 
we are quite prepared to obey; what then will the actual tendering of 
obedience add to the perfection of our interior dispositions ?" St. Bene- 
dict foresees and discounts such sophisms. Only effective and practical 
obedience is any test of the reality of interior dispositions; and one only 
obeys where there are orders and a rule. Now the Sarabaites have no 
rule to test them, to prove them true religious: nulla regula approbate, 
" tried by no rule." Experience serves as a touchstone which teaches 
the monk and others his true value, fxperientia magistral "with 
experience as master." Far from being that true gold that readily 
stands the test of the furnace and emerges victorious, pure of all alloy, 
the man who refuses to pass through the crucible of a rule is convicted 
beforehand of being soft and base as lead. The life of the Sarabaites 
is an open lie. They lie at the same time to God and to the world: 
to the world, for they have put off its livery, yet their works are of the 
world worldly; to God, for they betray Him at the same time that they 
parade their consecration to His service. Their life is worldly, though 
their heads be shaven. 

But perhaps, if they have not a written rule, at least they have a 
living rule in the person of an Abbot. No; they unite in parties of 
two or three, and none of them claims any sort of authority; or even, 
and. this is still more agreeable, they live alone in hermitages. And so 
they form a fold without a shepherd, a fold which belongs to no master, 
not at all to God but entirely to themselves, " shut up, not in the 

1 Conlat., XVIII., vii. 

; * Cf. CALMKT, in b. 1. GAZET, in his note on the passage of CASSIAN previously' 
cited. 

9 This phrase is better supported from all points of view than the reading expert- 
entia mdgistri ; it is borrowed from CASSIAN, Conlat., XIX., vii. 



32 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

Lord's sheepfolds but in their own." Their rule is what pleases them, 
their desire, or the whim of the moment. Not that they form any set 
purpose to themselves of belonging to their own will alone; perhaps 
they persuade themselves that they do obey a rule; but they make their 
rule of life for themselves., Whatever they think fit or determine to do, 
that they call holy; 1 and what they like not, that they consider unlawful. 
We have here, expressed in singularly energetic language, a descrip- 
tion of a psychological state which is only too common and which forms 
a most serious danger. If the Sarabaite of history is extinct, his spirit 
is by no means so. Man has the unfortunate facility of seeing things, 
not as they are, but as he is, of making the world after his own image 
and likeness. In the moral order, in the sphere of will, where a mistake 
is not palpable, betraying itself (as in a laboratory) by the tangible and 
instant punishment of failure or an explosion, we easily come to distort 
all our decisions, to canonize what we do, to adore that which pleases 
us. It is delusion. 2 Thanks to this tendency, a man may motive the 
most unjustifiable course of action by excellent principles, and set up 
as a dictate of conscience what is really inspired by the basest passions. 
What revolutionary ever proposes simply to upset social order ? What 
heretic is not persuaded that he is serving the Church ? And when the 
monks of Vicovaro tried to poison St. Benedict, their fierce good faith 
must have based itself on high considerations of public interest. It is 
nowhere more easy than in the religious life to deaden the conscience 
and distort its voice; the old axiom proves true: Corruptio optimi 
pessima. And this is the result of a whole course of interior diplomacy, 
of a chemical process of the mind : " I have vowed perfection. This 
imposes on me a yoke which I no longer have the courage to bear: 
must I then leave the monastery ? This petty obedience may be all 
right for the period of growth and formation; but I am a senior now. 
And, after all,, are there not certain adjustments possible, certain 
legitimate interpretations of law ? And is not this also perfection ?" 
And so a man gently substitutes his own will for the law, until the 
fascination of self occupies the whole field of his interior vision; complete 
apostasy will not then be long in coming. Undoubtedly every tendency 
to isolate oneself from the community, all irregular fostering of an 
individual whim, does not end in such excess; but we should know the 
pitfalls that beset the way of the Sarabaite, and where it may lead, so 
that prudence may compel us to avoid it. Oh, if we could but profit 
by the fearful experiences of others ! -There is no security save in the 
way of absolute obedience and in conventual life under the rule of an 
Abbot. 

1 A reminiscence of a Roman proverb, several times quoted by ST. AUGUSTINE; 
the latter relates that Tychonius made the Donatists say: Quod volumus sanctum est 
Epist. XCIII., 14, 43. P.L., XXXIIL, 328, 342. Contra Epist. Parmeniani, 1. II., 
c. xiii. P.L., XLIIL, 73. Contra Cresconium Donatistam, 1. IV., c. xxxvii, JP.L., 
XLIIL, 572. 

8 Read Father Faber's Spiritual Conference on Self-deceit. 



Of the Various Kinds of Monks 33 

Quartum vero genus est mona- The fourth kind of monks are those 

chorum, quod nominatur gyrovagum, called Gyrovagues, who spend all 

qui tota vita sua per diversas provincias their lives long wandering about, divers 

ternis aut quaternis diebus per diver- provinces, staying in different cells 

sorum cellas hospitantur, semper vagi for three or four days at a time, ever 

et nunquam stabiles, et propriis volup- roaming, with no stability, given up 

tatibus et gulae illecebris servientes, et to their own pleasures and to the 

per omnia deteriores sarabaitis ; de snares of gluttony, and worse in all 

quorum omnium miserrima conversa- things than the Sarabaites. Of the 

tione melius est silere quam loqui. most wretched life of all these it is 

better to say nothing than to speak. 

It might have seemed difficult to find a more degraded form of the 
religious life than that of the Sarabaites; yet there is a worse still. 
After all the Sarabaites could work and pray; their fold was not the 
Lord's fold, but still they had one and so had an embryo of the monastic 
home; perhaps there were good souls to be met here and there among 
them; in any case the spectacle of their careless observance was not for 
many. But the Gyrovagues display their wretched state in the full 
light of day and in every place, without any reserve. 

They made the vow of poverty only, and that with no intention 
of shutting themselves up in a cloister, but of living in the world at 
the expense of others. Their whole life was passed on the road; they 
saw the world and conversed with all men. They would knock devoutly 
at monastery or hermitage, and the excuse of fatigue or respect for the 
religious habit, besides the careful attention that is given to the passing 
guest, ensured them a pleasant life and good meals. 1 After three or 
four days the Gyrovague would take his leave, with wallet well stuffed 
with provisions. He took great care not to fix himself anywhere, for 
he would have had to adopt the customs of the monastery which enter- 
tained him. He vanished at the right moment and before he could be 
required to take his part in the common toil. He was the parasite of 
the monastic life, rather a tramp than a monk. 2 We can imagine the 
shamelessness, the vulgarity, the immorality, and general intractability 
of these men. They discredited the religious life, and St. Augustine, 
in a passage by which St. Benedict was inspired, depicts them as raised 
up by the devil for this very purpose. " He has scattered many 
hypocrites in the guise of monks in all directions, men who traverse the 
provinces with no work and no fixed dwelling, never quiet or at rest. 
Some go about selling bones of the martyrs; let us suppose they are 
those of martyrs." 3 

1 C/. S. ISIDORI PELUS., Epist., I. I., Ep. XLI. P.C., LXXVIII., 207. Instead 
of voluptatibus the best manuscripts have voluntatibus ; which recalls this passage of the 
Verba Seniorum : Oportet nos, . . . in congregations manentes, non quee nostra stint 
queerere, nefue servtre propria voluntati (Vitee Patrum, V., xiv., 10. ROSWEYD, p. 618). 
See also the Historia monacborum of RUFINUS, c. xxxi. ROSWEYD, p. 484. 

9 The Regula Magistri, xx., draws a far from flattering portrait of the gyro vague; 
read also the eighth chapter of the Constitutions monastics which figure amcng the 
Works of ST. BASIL. P.G., XXXI., 1367 sq. 

3 De opere monacborum, c. xxviii. P.L., XL., 575. In bk. X. of the Institutions, 
chap, vi., CASSIAN describes the idle monk in terms which recall those of St. Augustine. 

3 



34 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

To sum up: they have no recollection, no prayer, no work, no morti- 
fication, no stability, no obedience; and on all these heads the Gyrb- 
vagues are inferior to the Sarabaites : et per omnfa deteriores Sarabaitis. 
St. Benedict, after a look at this picture, asks permission to insist no 
further 1 (De quorum omnium probably means the Sarabaites and 
Gyrovagues). Let us imitate him, and yet remember that the tendency 
to the life of the Gyrovague may always reappear. It is easy to grow 
fond of leaving the monastery, of good meals, of conversation with 
lay folk; to let oneself slip into taking little care with one's person and 
giving the name of " holy simplicity " to .slovenliness or to gossip with, 
externs. 

Hit ergo omissis, ad ccenobitarum Leaving these alone, therefore, let 
fortissimum genus disponendum, adju- us set to work, by the help of God, -j 
vante Domino, veniamus. to lay down a rule for the Cenobites v 

that is, the strongest race of monks; 

St. Jerome expresses himself in nearly the same terms : " These then, 
like evil pests, being put away, let us come to those who are more 
numerous and dwell in community that is, to those who are, as we said, 
called Cenobites." 2 So let us too leave on one side these caricatures 
of the monastic life; let us even, though for other reasons, leave aside 
the eremitical life, and now with God's help begin to organize by means 
of rule the sound and strong race of Cenobites. Already, even from 
the exclusions that form the theme of almost the whole of this first 
chapter, the great main lines of Benedictine life disengage themselves; 
that life will be conventual, ruled by obedience, vowed to stability. 

1 We read in RuriNtra also (Hist, man., c.-vii.): Uttde. silere de bit melitu cttueo, 
auam parum digne froloqui (RoswxYD, p. 464). An analogoui formula occurs in SALLUST 
(Jugurtba, xiz.); D. Butler observes that it strongly resembles a proverb. . 

Epiit. XXII., 35. P.L., XXII., 419. 



CHAPTER II 
WHAT KIND OF MAN THE ABBOT OUGHT TO BE 

IN order that our life may be truly cenobitical and conventual and 
not consist merely in. the juxtaposition of men under the same roof, 
with the motto of the Abbey of Thelema, " Do as you like," it 
must be regulated by a rule; but this rule itself will be inadequate 
and inefficient without the intervention of a living authority. No 
society escapes this necessity; each must have a master. And St. Bene- 
dict speaks at once about the Abbot, because he looks upon him as the 
keystone in the arch of that edifice which he wishes to construct, as the 
foundation on which all rests, as the influence which co-ordinates the 
diverse members, as the head and the heart, from which flows all vitality. 
Thef' queen-bee makes the hive, and it is matter of experience that a 
monastery takes after its Abbot. Therefore to show what the Abbot 
should be is at the same time to draw in advance the outlines of monastic 
society. No previous rule had given so complete an account of the 
duties of the Abbot, and although he borrows more than one idea from 
his predecessors 1 as, for example, from St. Basil and St. Orsiesius our 
Holy Father has in this chapter produced entirely original work. 

QUALM MSEDEBEAT ABBAS. Abbas, An Abbot who is worthy to rule 

qui praeesie dignus eit monasterio, over the monastery ought always to 

semper meminisse debet, quod dicitur, remember what he is called, and 

et nomen majoris factis implere. correspond to his name by his works/' 

Christi enim agere vices in monasterio For he is believed to. hold the place 

creditur, quando ipsius vocatur praeno- of Christ in the monastery, since he i 

mine, dicente Apostolo: Accepistis called by His name, as the Apostle 

spiritum adoptiohis Jiliorum, in quo says: "Ye have received the spirit of 

clamamus: Abba, pater. the adoption of sons, in which we 

cry: Abba, Father.*' 

St. Benedict refuses to concern himself with him who would be 
Abbot for his own pleasure or for ostentation, but deals only with him 
who is worthy to rule the monastery. He is worthy in proportion as 
he realizes by constant consideration the meaning of the name which 
he bears, and compels himself to justify by his deeds this title of superior 
and head. It is a question of loyalty and moral concord; there must be 
this harmony between the thing and its name, between the man and 
his distinctive title, between the nature and the activity which is to 
express it. * .So if he understands his name aright the Abbot will find 
in it, not only the source, but the character and extent of his power 
and the measure of his responsibility.* 

1 Cf, HAXFT., ,1. III., tract, v. 

* Cttricus qui Cbristi servit Ecclente ittterpretatur primo vocabulum suum, et xominis 
definition! prolata, nitatur esse quod dicitur (S. HIERON., Epist. Lll., ad Nepotianum, c. 
P.L., XXII., 531). 



36 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

The abbatial authority has its source in God: it does not come from 
the community, although the community designates its holder. It 
comes from God doubly, as authority and as spiritual authority. For 
all authority is from God. Those in our day who busy themselves in 
the thankless task of constructing a morality without obligation or 
sanction only expose the absolute impotence of men to create an ounce 
of authority. They may cajole, suggest, or compel; but authority they 
have not. A man is worth no more than his fellows ; neither cleverness, 
nor force, nor even intellectual superiority is able to create a real right 
to power; and of this anarchists are not unaware. We must give up the 
supposition of a social contract, an original vote of the people on purpose 
to declare that society shall exist. 1 That was a blessed state formerly 
when civil authority was exercised by men consecrated by the kingly 
anointing and reigning " by the grace of God." 

But here we are in the supernatural order, where power has no 1 other 
end than to rule souls and sanctify them. Such power can only come 
from the special investiture of God: " Nor doth anyone take to himself 
honour, except he be called by God." Undoubtedly, according to the 
terms of Canon Law, the authority of the Abbot is "ordinary"; 
nevertheless, in respect of God it is only delegated. The Abbot is the 
deputy and understudy of the Lord. We may examine this divine 
delegation at close quarters, for the whole teaching of this chapter 
derives from it. To St. Benedict the monastery is in very truth the 
"house of God" (Chapter LIIL); first in this sense that Our Lord 
Jesus Christ dwells there and is its centre; for,the joy of our conventual 
life consists in our all being grouped together round Him. But He 
does not dwell there as though in a hired house or in the rooms of ah 
hotel; He is the sole true proprietor of the monastery, possessing both 
radical dominion and dominion of use. He is also the Abbot; and if 
Our Lord were to show Himself visibly* all obedience and all honour 
would go to Him; the crozier would have to be placed in His hands 
forthwith. 2 

Would it be very sweet and very easy to obey Our Lord directly ? 
Yet He has not willed it so, and for many reasons. In the first place, 
it would be to realize the conditions of eternity at once. And are we 
quite certain that we should never disobey Him ? His visible presence, 
would give our faults a graver character, make them more worthy of 
condemnation. He has not even entrusted us to angels; perhaps they, 
would have failed to be considerate for our weakness; or we might have/ 
obeyed because of their superiority of nature and God wouJfiLnpt have' 
been the motive of our submission. His procedure is alwajj^Te same;! 
He expresses Himself and comes to us under the humblest forms : in the 
Creation, in the Incarnation, in the Holy Eucharist, in His priests. 

1 Read BOSSUET, Cinquieme avertissement sur les lettres du minis tre Jurieu, chap. 
xxxvi. S. 

2 Read ST. GERTRUDE'S Herald of Divine Love, chap. ii. of bk. IV. ; Our Lord presiding 
at chapter in the Office of Prime. ; 



What Kind of Man the Abbot ought to be 37 

If is His mercy; the Son of God, as the Apostle says, " had in all things 
to be made like to his brethren, that he might become merciful. . . . 
For in that wherein he himself hath suffered and been tempted, he is 
able to succour them also that are tempted" (Heb. ii. 17-18). The 
Abbot is a human creature like us, frail like us y perhaps more weak 
than we. He has his own temperament and his own habits; but let 
us not stop at the exterior, recognizing as we should that God is in him, 
believing that he is Christ, understanding that our faith has to be 
exercised: " For he is believed to hold the place of Christ in the monas- 
tery." Be he pleasant or harsh, be he old or young, be he the Abbot 
we know or a new one, it makes no matter, for he is the Lord. 
T His name itself expresses this substitution: he is called, as Our Lord 
is called, Abbot that is, Father. And to monks, who are Christians 
made perfect, we may apply the words which the Apostle St. Paul spoke 
of those who were regenerated in Christ. "You have received the 
spirit of the adoption of sons by which we cry: Abba, Father " (Rom. viii. 
15). But a difficulty presents itself; the Christians' cry is to the 
First Person of the Holy Trinity and not to the Second; they say: 
" Abba, Father," to imitate the Son of God speaking to His Father 
(Mark xiv. 36). Does the text cited by St. Benedict really prove that 
the Abbot bears one of the names of Christ and that Christ may be 
called Father ? We may reply that St. Benedict does not wish to give 
his quotation the character of rigorous demonstration; he merely notes 
that the Abbot has a " divine " name, and the sacred text which 
presents itself spontaneously to his thought appears to justify this 
teaching. Furthermore, theology teaches us that the title of Father 
may be given either to the First Person alone, when considered in rela- 
tion to the Second, or to the Three Persons together, when regarded 
as a single essence ad intra and as a single principle of action ad extra ; 
for in God, according to the axiom formulated by the Council of 
Florence: "where there is no opposition of relation, all is one" 
(Qmnia sunt unum, ubi rion obviat relationis oppositio). 

Ideoque Abbas nihil extra praecep- And therefore the Abbot ought not 

turn Domini (quod absit) debet aut (God forbid) to teach, or ordain, or 

docere, aut constituere, vel jubere: command anything contrary to the 

sed jussio ejus vel doctrina, fermentum law of the Lord; but let his bidding 

divinae justitiae, in discipulorum menti- and his doctrine be infused into the 

bus conspergatur. minds of his disciples like the leaven 

of divine justice. 

The Abbot's authority is divine; it is paternal and absolute, and in 
this res0^ resembles the paternal authority of God more than the 
patria potestas of Roman law with which St. Benedict was familiar; 
but it is by ho means an unlimited and arbitrary authority. No 
authority is lawful when exercised beyond its limits, and the limits of 
all authority are those fixed by God's grant. God does not support, 
and cannot be charged with, any exercise of authority for which He 
has given no grant, still less with any which militates against Himself; 



3 8 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

for God cannot be divided against God. Now, precisely because the 
authority of the Abbot comes from God and shares in the force and 
extent of God's authority, the Abbot should use it only for the ends 
and for the interests of God and according to God's methods. For 
Our Lord is not dispossessed; though His authority be in the hands of. 
the Abbot, it remains His still. Good sense teaches us this, and herein 
we have the basis of the simplicity, security, and perfect order of our life. 

Consequently nothing in the teaching, nothing in the general 
arrangements or particular orders of the Abbot, shall be foreign or con- 
trary to the law of the Lord; God forbid, guod absity 1 for it would be a 
monstrous thing. But, so far from abusing nis power to satisfy his 
passions and to cast into the souls of his disciples the evil leaven of false 
teachers (Matt. xvi. 6, 11-12), the Abbot must by his teaching and his 
orders infuse into them in abundance- the leaven of divine justice 
(Matt. xiii. 33)^; by means of him does Our Lord wish to be born and 
grow in souls. 2 

St. Benedict's words are not an invitation to monks to scrutinize 
their Abbot narrowly, so as to make sure that he is a faithful steward 
and governs correctly. The filial spirit, in accord with the axiom of 
common law, will always give the superior the benefit of the doubt; 
the contrary attitude, would tend to debase all authority and weaken 
all discipline. Men do not need to be encouraged to disobey. Of 
course exception is made of the case where misguided authority might 
prescribe what was bad or patently contrary to the Rule. Canonical 
.visitations were instituted to prevent and correct abuses; St. Benedict 
suggests a different method. 

Memor sit semper Abbas quia doc- Let the Abbot be ever mindful 

trinae suas vel discipulorum obedientiae, that at the dreadful judgement of God, 

utrarumque rerum, in tremendo judicio an account will have to be given both 

Dei facienda erit discussio, sciatque of his own teaching and of the obedi- 

Abbas culpae pastoris incumbere, quic- ence of his disciples. And let him know 

quid in ovibus paterfamilias utilitatis that any lack of profit which the father 

minus potuerit invenire. Tantum of the household may find in his sheep, 

iternm liber erit, si inquieto vel ino- shall be imputed to the fault of the 

bedienti gregi pastoris fuerit omnis shepherd. Only then shall he be 

diligentia attributa, et morbidis earum acquitted, if he shall have bestowed 

actibus universa fuerit cura exhibita: all pastoral diligence on his unquiet 

pastor earum in judicio Domini abso- and disobedient flock, and employed 

lutus, dicat cum Propheta Domino: all his care to amend their corrupt 

Justitiam tuam non abscondi in corde manner of life: then shall he be ab- 

1 D. BUTLER adopts, as better attested, the reading: Nibil extra praceptum Domini 
quod sit. ... . 

1 Our Holy Father remembered ST. BA^IL, who reminds the superior that he is 
minister Cbristi et dispensator mysteriorum Ufi ; timens ne prater .voluntatem Dei, vel ( 
prater quod in sacris Scripturis evidenter pracipitur, vel dicat aliguid, vel imperet, ete 
inveniatur tanquam falsus testis Dei, aut sacrilegus, vel introduces aliquid alienum a 
doctrina Domini^velcerte subrclinquens et prateriens aliquid eorum qua Deoplacita sunt. 
Ad fratres autem\esse debet tanquam si nutrix foveat parvulos suos, etc. (Reg- contr., xv.). 
Cf. ibid., clxxxivi- ' : 



What KM of Man the Abbot ought to* be 39 

meo, vtritaUm tuam tt salutart town solved in the judgement of the Lord, 
dixi; it$i autem contemnentes sfreverunt and may say to the Lord with the 
/. Et tune demum inobedientibus prophet: " I have not hidden thy 
car* suae ovibus poena sit eis praevalens justice in my heart, I have declared 
ipsa mow. thy truth and thy salvation, but they 

contemned and despised me." So at 
the last to those disobedient sheep 
may their punishment come, over- 
mastering death. 

There is a problem of government which has not yet found a final 
solution the problem, that is, of reconciling authority and liberty. 
It has been done, but at long intervals, and Tacitus noted in his Lift of 
Agricola that the Emperor Nerva had had this chance : " Although . . . 
Nerra Caesar combined things before incompatible, the principate and 
liberty. . . ." To-day men work at the problem incessantly; for .this 
end they make constitutions and supplementary laws, they revise them, 
they proclaim the separation of offices, they balance them ingeniously, 
they parcel out authority so that its parts may counterpoise one another, 
they leave in the hands of him who presides over public affairs the smallest 
possible amount of initiative. But it very often happens that we 
escape the dictatorship of one only to become subject to an oligarchical 
dictatorship. And as for individual liberty and the pretence of securing 
its inviolability, well, we at least know what it comes to. So it is 
ascertained fact that the only truly effective curb on human activity is 
conscience, and to restrain and guide this activity you must reach men's 
souls. 

St. Benedict is the wisest of legislators. He sets up an authority; 
he provides for the appointment of the holder of this authority 
by those concerned; he puts into the hands of the elect a power 
of enormous extent; and he simply makes this authority accountable 
to Our Lord. This is the only safeguard that he gives the monks. 
If the Abbot Has faith and is anxious for his salvation, he can have no 
better incentive or curb; if the Abbot is unworthy of his position, 
nothing short of deposition will do any good; if he is merely weak and 
heedless, our Holy Father impresses on him, over and over again, the 
responsibility he is incurring, and he would have him remind himself 
of it continually; Memor sit sem-per. It would even seem that St. 
Benedict dreaded defect rather than excess in the exercise of authority. 

The Abbot is responsible and will be judged for two matters: his 
own teaching and the observance of his disciples ; " of both these things " 
as St. Benedict says emphatically. 1 Of course faults are personal 
matters ; but, for all that, the Abbot will have to answer for the obedience 
of his monks, in the sense that he must maintain the yoke of obedience 
and in all discretion make his monks feel the salutary influence of his 
authority. He cannot be heedless. He will carry before the awful 
tribunal of God the load of community faults which he has known and 

1 Cf. S. ORSIESH, Doctrina, x., i. 



40 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

has not corrected. Between him and his monks there is set up a con- 
tinuous current : his actions go out towards them as an influence, theirs 
seek him as their principle. The Father of the family has made him 
shepherd and entrusted His sheep to him; He expects to find them all 
when He comes, and to find them strong and prospering. If He be 
disappointed, if any harm have come to the flock, let the Abbot know 
for certainty that it will be imputed to him: " any lack of profit which 
He may find." 

There is only one case, 1 when the shepherd will be relieved of 
responsibility, and that no pleasant case; it is when the loss God finds 
is not really the fault of the Abbot. His flock was unruly and turbulent. 
Yet he did not omit to spend his care on it and to administer all sorts 
of treatment for its moral ills. If such be the case the Abbot will be 
acquitted and absolved in the judgement, and he will be able to say to 
the Lord with the prophet David (Ps. xxxix. u), with Ezechiel (xx. 27) 
and with Isaias (i. 2): "I have not hidden thy justice in my heart, 
I have declared thy truth and thy salvation, but they have contemned 
them and despised me." Then, says - St. Benedict in conclusion, 
instead of the life which they would not, may death itself, for their 
punishment, take those sheep rebellious to his care and his treatment; 
may death overcome and have the final word: paena sit eis presvalens 
ipsa mors? 

Ergo cum aliquis suscipit nomen Therefore when anyone takes the 
Abbatis, duplici debet doctrina suis name of Abbot, he ought to govern 
prasesse discipulis; id est, omnia bona his disciples by a twofold doctrine: 
et sancta, factis amplius quam verbis that is, he should show forth all that 
ostendere, ut capacibus discipulis man- is good and holy by his deeds, rather 
data Domini verbis proponat: duris than his words: declaring to the in- 
vero corde et simplicioribus, factis telligent among his disciples the com- 
suis divina praecepta demonstret. Om- mandments of the Lord by words : but 
nia vero quae discipulis docuerit esse to the hard-hearted and the simple- 
contraria, in suis factis indicet non minded setting forth -the divine pre- 
agenda; ne aliis praedicans, ipse repro- cepts by the example of his deeds. 
bus inveniatur. Ne quando illi dicat And let him show by his own actions 
Dens peccanti : Quare tu enarras jus- that those things ought not to be done 
titias meas, et assumis testament-urn which he has taught his disciples to be 
nifum per os tuum? Tu vero odisti against the law of God; lest, while 
disciplinam, et projecisti sermones meos preaching to others, he should himself 
post te. Et,.Qui in frdtris tui oculo become a castaway, and God should 
festucam videbas, in tuo trabem ncn say to him in his sin: "Why dost thou 
vidisti ? declare my justice, and take my cove- 

nant in thy mouth ? Thou hast 
hated discipline, and hast cast my. 
words behind thee." And again, 
" Thou who sawest the mote in thy 
brother's eye, didst thou not see the 
beam in thine own ?" 

1 D. BUTLER reads: Tantundem iterum etit, ut t , etc. 
'Cf. S^ GREG. M., Dial;, 1. II., c. iii. 



What Kind of Man the Abbot ought to be 41 

So the Abbot has not received from God his dignity and his name 
in order to find in them the satisfaction of vanity or sloth: as the begin- 
ning of this chapter warned us, he is at the head of his monks to be useful 
to them and to lead them to God, " to profit rather than to preside," 
as our Holy Father tells us in Chapter LXIV. We learn also that the 
Abbot's responsibility holds in respect of two matters : his doctrine and 
the obedience of his disciples. St. Benedict now examines these two 
points more at leisure. . He gives to the word doctrine the widest signifi- 
cation: it is at once teaching properly so called and the government of 
souls, all that goes to the making of " disciples," the whole policy of an 
Abbot who is at once a father and a master. In the course of the 
chapter the teaching of the Abbot and his government are dealt with 
successively; to conclude our Holy Father reminds him that he shall 
have to give an account to God for the obedience of all his monks, as 
for his own fidelity. 

His first duty is to teach ; consequently he must study and he must - 
be learned. 1 Christians and monks are children of light. Sanctification 
is not a mechanical process but the development of supernatural 
understanding. If a love of doctrine reigns in a monastery, all goes well 
there. But though each religious can apply himself to the cultivation 
of his faith by his own study, it remains true that the life of the individual 
and the unity of the family need the Abbot's doctrine. Books, from 
the very fact that they speak to all men, speak to no one in particular; 
for this we need the living word of a master. And St. Benedict indicates 
in a phrase the subject-matter of the Abbot's teaching: omnia bona et 
sancta, " all that is good and holy," all that is apt to lead souls to God. 
For such is the knowledge that matters to us; other knowledge may.be 
learnt in other schools; the purpose of this knowledge is moral and 
practical. 

St. Benedict is thinking so little of human knowledge, or of dry 
theological or scriptural speculation, that he requires the Abbot to 
disseminate his doctrine by words and acts together, and even more by 
example than by word. 2 It is a matter of common experience that we 
teach more by our life than by our preaching, and example of whatever 
sort makes the deeper impression in proportion as it comes from a 
greater height. Therefore the motive which makes St. Benedict 
emphasize this twofold doctrine is precisely this, to make truth 
accessible to all the souls of which a community is ordinarily composed, 
including those whom mere didactic teaching of itself would fail to 
influence effectively. 

There are open souls, capacesj whose intelligence is absolutely right, 
trustful, in harmony beforehand with the doctrine, whose will is resolute, 
active, and so yoked with their intelligence that it moves spontaneously 
in the direction of the light. To souls of this fine temper, lofty and 

1 Cf. MABILLON, Traite" desuetudes monastiques, P. I., chap. iii. 

2 The counsel is frequent in the old writers; ef.-S. BASH.., Reg. fas. xliii.- S. Nit., 
Epist., 1. HI., Ep. CCCXXXIU P.G., LXXIX., 54*. CA., Conlat., XL, iv. 



42 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

strong, it is enough to propose the good, to speak the mind of God, and 
they fall into line with ease and joy. They realize in some degree the 
perfect man of Plato, with whom Ao<yo9 (reason) is supreme, understand- 
ing always effective, truth always decisive, who does evil only in spite of 
himself and by ignorance; they recall still more the angelic type. And 
without wishing to represent every monk as an angel, it is clear that in 
a modern community such receptive souls are the majority, because we 
> benefit by a long Christian past, by education, and by the condition! of 
\ the sacerdotal life. But in the time of our Holy Father rough characters, 
souls of limited vision, duri corde ft simpliciorfs, were to be met with. 
For such, supposing they still exist, the worthy life and regularity of the 
Abbot, the constant contact with his piety, will avail more than all 
exhortations. And we must add that the Abbot acts on his community 
not only by his spoken doctrine and by his example, but also by his 
tendency, by his spirit, by the cleep motive of his actions. It is a sort 
of secret magnetism, an impulse which souls do not resist; and it is in 
this way that little by little a monastery takes the character of its Abbot. 
St.* Benedict says nothing explicitly on the diity of residence, but it is 
plain that the Abbot could not teach and edify if he were always 
travelling. 

The question whether the legislator, comes under his own law does 
not arise here; for the Abbot is not a legislator, but the guardian of the 
Rule, and towards it he has a double obligation, to observe it in his 
capacity of monk, to see to its observance in his capacity of Abbot. 
What authority will his teaching have when his words are seen to be on 
one side and his deeds on the other ? In such a flagrant contradiction 
there is not merely harm and danger for the community; as St. Benedict 
adds, there is grave peril for himself. While preaching salvation to 
others, is he not on the way to become a castaway ? (i Cor. ix. 27). 
When pronouncing judgement God will emphasize all the hatefulness 
of this deliberate contrast between severe moral teaching and scan- 
dalously relaxed practice (Ps.xlixt 16-17; Matt. vii. 3), 

Non ab eo persona in monasterio Let him make no distinction of 

discernatur. Non unus plus ametur persons in the monastery. Let not 

quam alius, nisi quern in bonis actibus one be loved more than another, unless 

aut obedientia invenerit meliorem. he be found to excel in good works or 

Non eonvertenti ex servitio praeponatur in obedience. Let not one of noble 

ingenuus, nisi alia rationabilis causa birth be put. before him that was 

existat. Quod si ita, Justitia dictante, formerly a slave, unless some other 

Abbati visum fuerit, et de cujuslibet reasonable cause exist for it. If upon 

ordine id faciat; sin alias, propria tene- just, consideration it should so seem 

ant.loca: quia sive servus, sive liber, good to the Abbot, let him advance 

omnes in Christo unum.sumus, et sub one of any rank whatever; but other- 

uno Domino aequalem servitutis mili- wise let them keep their own places; 

tiam bajulamus: Quia non est persona- because, whether bond or free, we 

rum acceptio apud Deum. Solummodo are all one in Christ, and bear an 

in hac parte apud ipsum discernimur, equal burden in the army of one Lord: 

si meliores aliis in operibus bonis et for "with God there is no respect- 



-What Kind of Man the Abbot ought to be -43 

humiles inveniamur. Ergo aequalis sit ing of persons." Only for one reason 
omnibus ab eo charitas; una praebeatur are we to be preferred in His sight, 
omnibus, secundum merits, disciplina. if we be found to surpass others in 

good works and in humility. Let the 
Abbot, then, show equal love to all, 
and let the same discipline be imposed 
upon all according to their deserts. 

St. Benedict now deals with the Abbot's goverrment. In this 
paragraph he settles that it must be equitable; in that which follows 
he shows that it must be moderate and discreet. The Abbot must not 
be an accepter of persons; which is a general principle. To accept 
persons is, in the application of distributive justice, to have regard to 
persons themselves and not to title and right and the facts of the case. 
Holy Scripture frequently warns us against this tendency to favouritism 
and unjustifiable preferences; 1 and St. Benedict had only to develop 
a thought familiar to the old monastic legislators. 2 Here too the rule 
of the Abbot must copy the rule of God, " for with God there is no 
respect of persons " (Rom. ii. n ; Col. iii. 25).* Nevertheless we must 
note that the resemblance is not complete. God gives each, being its 
nature, and He remains entirely free as to the perfections which may be 
superadded to this nature; He gives! as it pleases Him; and this sovereign 
right is plainer still, in the supernatural order. Except for contract 
or promise God, when He gives, is independent of title or ground. 
But the same is not the case with the Abbot, who cannot, as God can, 
give the person preferred that which justifies the preference; all he 
can do is to recognize just titles to special treatment. 

Equity in the Abbot will be concerned with these two points: 
internal and private preference, and that external and public preference 
which -is manifested in the arrangements for the governance of the 
monastery or the appointment of officials. Motives drawn from natural 
sympathy, from relationship, from common origin, are insufficient 
grounds for any distinction of persons whatever. Also it is not enough 
that a man be agreeable, well brought up, of noble extraction, or have 
formerly been in high station, that he should therefore be summoned 
to an important charge; no more is age an adequate ground. In this 
matter the Abbot's responsibilities are far graver than when it is a 
matter of preferences which concern only individuals. To complete 
this subject we may add that the Abbot should never allow a foreign 
influence to be established at his side, whether in an individual or a 
group, to which he submits or with which he must count. There may 
be danger of this happening if the Abbot is by character impressionable, 
if he be somewhat weak, or is growing old. Such partial abdication of 
authority causes a vague sentiment of trouble and insecurity which 

1 Lev. xur.1 5 ; Prov. joriv. 23 ; James ii. i ff . Cf. S. Tb., II.-IL, q. briii. 

2 For example: Reg. I., SS. PATRUM, xvi.; Reg. Oriental, I.; above all the letter of 
ST. CJESAWDS, ad Oratortam Abbatissam (HOLSTENIUS, op. '/., P, III., p. 31-32). 

3 Cf. Deut. x. 17; Job xxxiv. 19. 



44 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

souls are found to feel. We prefer, instinctively, to obey one man 
rather than several. The Abbot alone is responsible, and it is to him 
and him only, and not to any subsequent influence, that his children are 
entrusted. He must have his own ideas, he must know what he wants, 
and he must make for his end gently, yet without allowing himself to be 
turned aside by sympathy or foolish tenderness, by pusillanimity or 
fatigue. 

St. Benedict borrows from St. Paul (i Cor. xii. 13 ; Gal. iii. 28) 
the lofty motive in virtue of which all have the same radical right to the 
affection of the Abbot. It is still true that once before baptism and 
in the life of the world there were both Jew and Gentile, Greek and 
barbarian, freeman and slave, man and woman; but with baptism and 
faith in Our Lord Jesus Christ, all these distinctions vanish; and in spite 
of the diversity of our individual circumstances, in spite of the plurality 
of our natures, we are all one in Our Lord Jesus Christ. The same 
divine sonship is enjoyed by all, the same blood circulates in all veins, 
all have the same name, the same spirit, the same nourishment, the same 
life. This levelling is accomplished, not by the degradation of any, 
but by the elevation of all to the stature of Our Lord: "unto the 
measure of the age of the fulness of Christ " (Eph. iv. 1-3). All have 
the same freedom and the same nobility, all likewise have the same 
glorious servitude, which is worth more than all kingdoms (i Cor. vii. 
22). In natural society distinctions of caste still exist; but they dis- 
appear in the wholly supernatural society of the monastic family. We 
are all nothing but soldiers, performing the same service under the 
standard of the same Lord. So the Abbot must regard his monks only 
as God regards them. 

The same principle, moreover, will allow the Abbot not to take 
literally and materially the precept : " let him make no distinction of 
persons in the monastery." It is not required of him that he should 
reduce all to a dead level, aim at a mathematical equality and apportion 
offices by chance. In this new world, where all are equal and one, 
God Himself makes use of discrimination and distinction; His tenderness 
goes out to those who more resemble His Son, who are more deeply- 
grafted into Him; He does not give the same confidence to all, for there 
are manifold functions to be fulfilled in the great body of the Church 
and they need various aptitudes. So the Abbot may show greater affec- 
tion for him whom he believes better that is, as St. Benedict defines 
it, one who is more obedient, more humble, and richer in good works. 
Beauty is the cause of affection; where there is greater beauty, there is 
ground for more affection. Yet the Abbot must guard against delusion, 
though this is a matter for his own conscience. Likewise he shall 
appoint to offices at his pleasure, provided that he takes care that 
there is fitness, a real proportion between the office and its holder. A 
reasonable cause, merit, and justice, will allow him to make some excep- 
tions to the law of order as defined in Chapter LXIII., where each holds 
the position that corresponds with his entry into religion. The freeman 



What Kind of Man the Abbot ought to. be 45 

or noble, ingenuus, shall not have, as such, any advantage over him who 
comes from servitude, but other reasons may commend him to the 
choice of the Abbot, and his former nobility must not be reason for 
disgrace. No more may low birth be such a stigma. Whatever may 
be the social rank of a monk he may become the object of a justifiable 
distinction : " let him advance one of any rank whatever." But the 
general principle remains: there must be the same affection for all, the 
same line of conduct with respect to all, while at the same time account 
is taken of the merit of each. (The word disciplina has various meanings 
in the Rule.) 1 

In doctrina namque sua Abbas For the Abbot in his doctrine 

apostolicam debet illam semper for- ought always to observe the rule of the 

mam servare, in qua dicitur: Argue, Apostle, wherein he says: "Reprove, 

obsecra, increpa. Id est, miscens tern- entreat, rebuke": suiting his action 

poribus tempera, terroribus blandi- to circumstances, mingling gentleness 

menu, dirum magistri, pium patris with severity; showing now the rigour 

ostendat affectum : id est, indisciplina- of a master, now the loving affection 

tos et inquietos debet durius arguere; of a father, so as sternly to rebuke the 

obedientes autem, et mites et patientes, undisciplined and restless, and to 

ut melius proficiant, obsecrare; negli- exhort the obedient, mild, and patient 

gentes autem et contemnentes, ut to advance in virtue. And such as are 

increpet et corripiat, admonemus. negligent and haughty we charge him 

Neque dissimulet peccata delinquen- to reprove and correct. Let him not 

tium, sed moi, ut coeperint oriri, radici- shut his eyes to the faults of offenders ; 

tus ea, ut pravalet, amputet, memor but as soon as they appear, let him 

periculi Heli sacerdotis de Silo. strive, as he has the authority for that, 

to root them out, remembering the 
fate of Heli, the priest of Silo. 

The Abbot's government must be equitable; but it will only be so 
on condition that it is judicious. It is possible seriously to misunder- 
stand the counsel of equity. There are people who have condensed 
their experience, which is often superficial and brief, into 
practical principles, formulas simple and easy of application. To 
resolve any concrete case that presents itself, they apply the formula, 
brutally. The method is one and invariable. It leaves the conscience 
at peace, sometimes even when the measures taken are devastating in 
their effect. We are all more or less imprisoned in our personality; 
we see all others through its medium; we are persuaded that measures 
which have succeeded with ourselves ought to suit all. Yet we cannot 
treat a living being as an abstraction; men are not the proper subject 
of experiments; each man is himself a little universe. Instead of 

1 This paragraph of the Rule recalls a passage in ST. JEROME : Nescit religio nostra 
personas accipere nee conditioner bominum, sed animos inspirit ringulorvm. Servum et 
nobilem de moribus pronuntiat. Sola apud Deum liber tas est, non servire peccatis. Svmma 
apud Deum est nobilitas, clarum esse virtutibus. . . . Frustra sibi aliquis de nobilitate 
generis applaudit, cum universi parts honoris et ejnsdem apud Deum pretii tint, qui uno 
Cbristi sanguine sunt redempti ; nee interest qua quis conditione natus sit, cum omttts in 
Cbristo eequaliter renascamur. Nam et si obliviscimur quia ex uno omnts generati srinus, 
saltern id semper meminisse debemus quia per unum omnes regeneramur. (Epist. CXLVIII. 
ad Celantiam, 21. P.L., XXII., 1214). 



46 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

making a man enter incontinent into our own system, and imprisoning 
him in our mental mould, it would be far better to try to know him, 
to see what he has in his heart, how he thinks and wills and suffers. 
Perhaps the true method here is to have no method. Since the Abbot 
is the depositary of the power of God, he ought to imitate the discretion 
and pliancy of Providence, which disposes all things with as much 
sweetness as force, and which, according to the words of theology, 
adapts itself wonderfully to the nature of the individual: Unicuique 
frovidet Deus secundum modum sues nature. 

" In his doctrine " : that is, in general, practical teaching, the guidance 
and government of souls, but St. Benedict has especially in view the 
duty of correction. He alludes to the advice which St. Paul gave to 
Timothy: "Preach the word: be instant in season, out of season: 
reprove, entreat, rebuke in all patience and doctrine " (2 Tim. iv. 2). 
Reprove, entreat, rebuke: these are three different attitudes, necessitated 
by the very diversity of the characters to which the correction is ad- 
dressed, 1 and corresponding to the three kinds of souls which our Holy 
Father enumerates a few lines farther on: for the first kind, reproof; 
for the second, exhortation; for the third, rebuke and punishment. 
But, before going into (detail about this matter, St. Benedict reminds 
the Abbot of the variety and complexity of his role. Miscens temporibus 
tempera. m The phrase is not easy to translate; it means that the Abbot 
ought to measure his action according to the circumstances of time, 
place, and person, to behave according to the conjuncture, to remember 
that there is a time for everything (Eccles. iii.), sometimes to use severity, 
sometimes gentleness: in one word, to model his mood according to the 
varying moods of each. The words which follow make St. Benedict's 
thought quite clear: the Abbot shall mingle caresses with threats, 
hall at one time display the severity of a master, at another the more 
loving attitude of a father.* 

It is with the purpose of helping the Abbot in t^e discerning of 
spirits that our Holy Father divides them into three classes. "The. 
undisciplined and restless : "* these are not so because they are formal 
rebels against discipline, but because they are like children, fickle and 
unquiet. They promise and do not perform; one has always to begin 
anew with them. Their intellect is not sufficiently developed, and they 
only obey impulses of sense; the intellect of another will come to their 
help, and they may be reached by their sensibility who are approachable 
in no other way. Such natures should feel the yoke, and they will be 
the less tempted to revolt the more they feel the weight of discipline. 
With them one must speak loud and clear, and sometimes not be con- 
tent with exhortations, as shall be said presently. 

1 . . . Diceute Apottob : Argue^ obtecra, inert fa, evm omni patientia et doctriua. ... 
Deeernendum ett ob illo qui praest, qualiter circa tingulos debeat pietatis affectum mo*s- 
trare, et qualiter tenere debeat discipltnam (Reg. I., SS. PATRDM, V.). 

* Cf. S. BASIL., Reg. f us., xliii.; Reg. cotttr., zxiii. 

3 Two of ST. BASIL'* words (Reg. contr f) xcviii.): Tanquam iuquietus et inditcipliita- 
tus ctnfundatitr. 



What Kiria of Man the Abbot ought to be 47 

It is pleasanter to have to deal with the "obedient, mild, and 
patient "; and, thank God, these 'are the most numerous. It is only 
necessary to entreat them paternally, and to exhort them to the good 
and the better way. True monks have a quick ear, they understand 
half-sentences and obey at a mere sign, thus sparing the Abbot the 
disagfeeableness of a reprimand. . 

This is necessary, however, when men are deliberately negligent, or 
resolutely .contemptuous. These are;, dangerous folk, because they 
always have a bad influence, not on the monks who hold fast to God, 
but on temperaments which are .rather changeable, distracted, of 
inferior mould; they are, besides, a source of irritation for all and a 
nuisance. "The negligent and haughty": their past has been spent 
in a long course of inobservance and to that their present remains 
fixed ; if you try to attack this second nature, you wilf be startled to meet . 
a fierce energy in characters whose essence you.. thought was softness. 
They expend more vigour in defence of their relaxation, against the 
efforts of the Abbot and the manifest disapproval of their brethren, 
than would be necessary for a resolute observance of the Rule. Or 
they become soured and discontented and give way to the spirit of 
contradiction; they have more than their share of spleen. Some minds 
are so made that they are always in love with the solution that has not 
won acceptance; it is fine, I know, to be the champion of the unsuccess- 
ful, but it is often embarrassing. In other cases there is a profound 
conviction that one has been misunderstood; no one in the community 
does justice to our worth or services. Undoubtedly it is the secret 
tendency of all men to value themselves much; but there are natures 
.which value only themselves* They spend their lives in argument. 
They have a ready-made opinion on every subject and naively suppose 
that they! are always right in every, matter and against everybody. 
The. idea never enters their heads that their opponent may have some- 
' thing to say for himself, and that their personal infallibility may be 
slightly at fault. So they summon the whole community to the bar 
of their minds and deliver a contemptuous and summary judgement, 
sometimes not without abusive terms.. It is worth noting that they 
are often those who would have been incapable of steering a wise course 
in the world, for they lack judgement and their temperament leads 
thorn to all sorts of ineptitudes. They were gathered in with goodness 
andi with pity; they came all broken and sick; the measure of indulgent 
kir/dness overflowed for them. And, suddenly, behold them endowed 
with the ability and power which they lacked: they become critics, 
au thorities, reformers. SfeBwiedJck^^ 
:,. reiolujtely aind suppress i them^^ yjgojir.^ 

^^eTour Holy FatHierTs not blind to the painful side of this office. 
It\is always a difficult thing to face the inobservant monk, to take him 
bjrt the throat and say, as Nathan did to David, " Thou art that man." 
It/ is so pleasant not to make oneself trouble and to have a quiet life. 
And then one may say: It will do no good. I have spoken before* 



48 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

To speak again is only to play the part of a Cassandra. There will be 
a scene, tears, a week of obstinate ill-humour, a violent ferment of 
rebellious thoughts, perhaps even the wish to break with a life which 
has become unbearable. Then is created this terrible situation: on 
one side timidity and reserve, on the other an attitude of defence and 
defiance and the disposition of the " deaf asp that stoppeth her ears " 
for fear of hearing. There is no worse misfortune for a soul than this 
of having forced truth to be silent, of having as it were discouraged 
God. Henceforth He keeps an awful silence and is provoked no 
more. . 

The Abbot will not fail of excuses to justify his saying nothing. 
Does not moral theology allow that there are circumstances in which 
it is better not to instruct, since the only result of knowledge would be 
to make a material sin into a formal one ? Certainly it does; but it 
also recognizes that this privilege of silence no longer obtains when 
a community would suffer harm, scandal, and disgrace. The Abbot 
may not shut his eyes systematically: " let him not shut his eyes to the 
faults of offenders " ; x he is bound to speak and to do his duty, even when 
others refuse to do theirs. A word gracefully spoken and tempered 
with charity always does its work. Further, St. Benedict requires the 
Abbot; not to delay, not to wait until he is absolutely constrained by 
the urgency of the danger; as soon as evil customs begin to appear he 
must cut them down vigorously, to the roots, radicitus amputet : z this 
is the only true mercifulness. 3 Ut pravalft is variously translated : 
sometimes " as is better," or " as it is in his power "; better, " since he 
has received authority for that purpose." 

In order to convince the Abbot our Holy Father asks him to remem- 
ber the tragic story of Heli (i Kings ii.-iv.). The high-priest had not 
spared warnings to his wicked sons ; but he had the power, and the Lord 
required him not only to reprimand but also to amputate and destroy. 
We know the results of his weakness : a bloody defeat of the Israelites, 
the death of the guilty, his solitary death, the profanation of the Ark 
of the Covenant, which fell into the hands of the enemy, the disgrace 
of the whole race. Faults which are tolerated have to be expiated 
just as much as others, but the whole family expiates them. Though 
the threat be a veiled one, the responsibility of the Abbot is clearly 
stated. Monastic houses rarely perish of hunger; they die of wour/ds 
which have not been cared for, where none has ministered strengthening 
wine or assuaging oil, of wounds which grow and fester. And if any- 
thing at all remains of such houses, it is but a mean and sorry plant, 

of which the Lord will not consent-to, make further use. 4 ,1 

i 
i 

1 Dissimulas peccata bominum (Sap., xi. 24). 

2 ... Radicitus amputavit (CASS., Conlat., XVI., vi.). 

3 Cf. S. BASIL., Reg. jus., xxiv., xxv.; Reg. contr., xvii., xxii. 

4 What St. Benedict says here about correction furnished the matter of the third 
book of St. Gregory the Great's Regula Pastoralis ; the whole work is, moreover, only 
an extended commentary oh the present chapter. [ 



What Kind of Man the Abbot ought to be 49 

Et honestiores quidem atque in- Those of good disposition and' 

telligibiles animos prima vel secunda understanding let him correct, for the 

admonitione verbis corripiat; impro- first or second time, with words only; 

bos autem et duros ac superbos vel but such as are froward and hard of 

inobedientes, verberum vel corporis heart, and proud, or disobedient, let 

castigatione in ipso initio peccati him chastise with bodily stripes at the 

coerceat, sciens scriptum: Stultus verbis very first offence, knowing that it is 

non corrigitur. Et iterum: Per cute written: " The fool is not corrected 

filium tuum virga, et liberabis animam with words." And again: " Strike 

ejus a morte. thy son with the rod, and thou shall 

deliver his soul from death." 

Sa,the Abbot must resign himself to the duty of correction. Yet N ' 
he must correct with, wisdom, without suffering himself to be carried \ 
away by his temperament or zeal; St. Benedict repeats this advice, ! 
by explaining in detail what must be the nature of the correction, ot | 
which hitherto he has spoken only in a general manner. In this passage 
he indicates only two character groups, but the two coincide with the \ 
previous three. With refined and intelligent natures one should not \ 
.resort to severity at once; a verbal reprimand will suffice for the first 
and second time. But as for those of coarse nature, hard of heart or 
rude, proud and refractory, they must be tamed by the rod or by some 
such bodily chastisement, and that >as soon as their evil habit begins / 
to show itself. 

Our Holy Father furnishes us immediately with a reason for these 
vigorous measures of repression : " He who lacks intelligence cannot be 
corrected by words." He is thinking of Proverbs : " A slave will not be 
corrected by words " (xxix. 19. See also xviii. 2). Holy Scripture 
considers that the child has a right to correction, he must get it as he 
must get nourishment, and he will not die of it; on the contrary he will 
live the true life: " Withhold not correction from a child: for if thou 
strike him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with 
the rod: and deliver his soul from hell" (Prov. xxiii. 13, 14). "He 
that spareth the rod, hateth his , son " (Prov. xiii. 24). In his De 
Institutions Oratorio, Quintilian, teacher of Domitian's great-nephews, 
lays it down that the child should be accustomed to virtue even before 
knowing what it is. He must be given certain associations of ideas. 
We know that for ourselves goodness first meant caresses.and sweetmeats, 
while to be bad brought dry bread, the whip, or detention. And we 
need not blush at these humble beginnings of our moral life. It is 
not at all impossible that the general deterioration of character is due 
to a certain lack of virility in repression. When the child as not seven, 
we ask: " Why punish him ? he is so young." When he is eight, " Why 
punish him ? he is so big." And so it is always either too soon or too 
late to teach the child his duty and the function of mortification in 
the Christian life; thus are made tyrants and little monsters. Since 
St. Benedict's day characters and customs have changed. There are 
undoubtedly fewer children or barbarians in a modern monastery; and 
in any case the rod and the prison, which were much in vogue for long 

4 



50 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

centuries of monasticism, have vanished from our midst. Yet one may 
still meet spoilt children, or wild and rebellious characters, for whom 
certain bodily punishments would be a sovereign remedy. 

However, the Abbot must remember the precept of Chapter LXIV. : 
" Let him cut them off prudently and with charity, in the way he shall 
see best for each." Souls more often need carrying than driving. 
A monastery is not a sort of forge with the Abbot, like a cyclops, 
fanning the flame. Moral reform and spiritual development are not 
achieved by a succession of violent and rapid movements. There is 
with souls, as with God, a slowness which the Abbot must respect. 

Meminisse debet semper Abbas, The Abbot ought always to re- 
quod est, meminisse quod dicitur, et member what he is, and what he is 
scire quia cui plus committitur, plus called, and to know that to whom 
ab eo exigitur: sciatque quam diffici- more is committed, from him more is 
lem et arduam rem suscepit, regere required; and he must consider how. 
animas, et multorum servire moribus. difficult and arduous a task he has 
Et alium quidem blandimentis, alium undertaken, of ruling souls and adapt- 
vero increpationibus, alium suasionibus, ing himself to many dispositions. Let 
et secundum uniuscujusque qualitatem him so accommodate and suit himself 
vel intelligentiam, ita se omnibus con-? to the character and intelligence of 
formet et aptet, ut non solum detri- each, winning some by kindness, others 
menta gregis sibi commissi non patia- by reproof, others by persuasion, that 
tur, verum etiam in augmentation boni he may not only suffer no loss in the 
gregis gaudeat. flock committed to him, but may even 

rejoice in their virtuous increase. 

It is said of Moses, in the Book of Numbers (xii. 3), that he was 
meekest of all men that dwelt upon the earth; and yet it is plain that 
on some occasions his cup of wrath was full to overflowing. But he 
had the lofty good sense and supernatural spirit not to lose patience 
except in the presence of the Lord. That happened to him at the 
" graves of lust " (Num. xi. 34), when the people, weary of the manna, 
set themselves to lamentation and weeping, as they remembered the 
fish that they ate in Egypt. The Lord was angry, and to Moses also the 
thing seemed intolerable. So he said to the Lord: "Why hast thou 
laid the weight of all this people upon me ? Have I conceived all this 
multitude or begotten them, that thou shouldst say to me: Carry 
them in thy bosom, as the nurse is wont to carry the little infant . . . ? 
I am not able alone to bear all this people, because it is too heavy for 
me. But if it seem unto thee otherwise, I beseech thee to kill me " 
(Num. xi. 11-15). One might say that St. Benedict expected some 
secret protestation to take its rise in the Abbot's heart also, in view of 
the truly superhuman programme which he has just elaborated so calmly. 
And it seems too that at this point the Rule might have slipped in some 
word of encouragement, as is its wont, so as to lessen and calm the 
anxieties of the Abbot; but St. Benedict has no consideration for him, 
and all the concluding portion of the chapter has no other purpose 
than to hold him forcibly to the austere contemplation of his duty. 

St. Benedict practically says : You have a heavy task. You must 



Whqt Kind of Man the Abbot ought to be 51 

be always remembering what you are, and remembering the name that 
men give you: you are Abbot, men call you Father. You are not a 
prince, nor a great noble, nor a civil governor : you are a Father. This 
whole family is yours. God has entrusted it to you, as a deposit dear 
to His heart, and in His sight souls have an infinite value. The Master 
of our life makes use of it as He will: on some He showers His tenderness, 
to others He gives His confidences; there is the sweet and simple 
vocation of John, there is the vocation of Peter; and we do not choose. 
Let the Abbot also remember the judgement of God; His trusts have 
ever to be accounted for. God does not give His gifts to men to be 
their sport; authority, influence, wealth are talents entrusted to us, and 
He will demand from us interest on them in rigorous and judicial 
terms : more has been entrusted to you, from you more shall be required 
(Luke xii. 48).! 

And the Abbot must know how difficult and arduous a task he 
has received of ruling souls and of making himself the servant of all 
by adapting himselt to the character of each. Men often seem little 
concerned to lighten his burden; in a monastery all passions that are 
unmortified and therefore are sources of suffering, discharge themselves 
on the Abbot, as it were naturally. But St. Benedict has no thought 
of this irregular addition to his task; according to him the task is already 
a delicate one because it has to do with souls. In a material substance 
change may be foreseen and is not due to caprice; but a spiritual. being 
does not act mechanically; there is need of light and patience to know 
it well and' adjust oneself to it. Then how different are souls from one 
another ! Manifold causes, and these of the sensible order, co-operate 
to. make of each something very personal indeed; heredity, or a first 
vital pulsation given by the soul to the body, which starts with it, 
determining in some sort the whole trend of our lives, or a subjection, 
whether passive or deliberate, to animal tendencies all these make our 
temperament. Each soul has tto free itself, to redeem itself, from 
tendencies of sense, by education, by vigorous effort, by the supernatural 
life which devotes the whole activity to God. The authority of the 
Abbot is given us precisely in order to help us to win this self-possession. 
It is the Abbot's business to proportion his action to the moral disposi- 
tions of each. One man needs kind words and caresses, another rebuke 
arid punishment, a third persuasion ; in a word, each should be treated 
according to his temper and degree of intelligence. There is no 
clearer mark of the family character of the monastery than this insistence 
by St. Benedict that the Abbot should know his subjects and lead each 
of them individually. 

It is this too that limits the size of a community : for if the monks 
are legion, the Abbot will only be a commander-in-chief, constructing 
a summary plan which his officials put into execution. Yet the Abbot 

1 St. Benedict may have taken his inspiration direct from the Doctrina S. ORSIESII, 
xv. (see D. BUTLER'S note); or from ST. JEROME, Epist. XIV. 9. P.L., XXII., 353; or 
from ST. AUGUSTINE, Quastionet in Heptat., 1. III., xxxi. P.L., XXXIV. (689-690). 



48 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

To speak again is only to play the part of a Cassandra. There will be 
a scene, tears, a week of obstinate ill-humour, a violent ferment of 
rebellious thoughts, perhaps even the wish to break with a life which 
has become unbearable. Then is created this terrible situation: on 
one side timidity and reserve, on the other an attitude of defence and 
defiance and the disposition of the " deaf asp that stoppeth her ears " 
for fear of hearing. There is no worse misfortune for a soul than this 
of having forced truth to be silent, of having as it were discouraged 
God. Henceforth He keeps an awful silence and is provoked no 
more. . 

The Abbot will not fail of excuses to justify his saying nothing. 
Does not moral theology allow that there are circumstances in which 
it is better not to instruct, since the only result of knowledge would be 
to make a material sin into a forma] one ? Certainly it does; but it 
also recognizes that this privilege of silence no longer obtains when 
a community would suffer harm, scandal, and disgrace. The Abbot 
may not shut his eyes systematically: "let him not shut his eyes to the 
faults of offenders " ; l he is bound to speak and to do his duty, even when 
others refuse to do theirs. A word gracefully spoken and tempered 
with charity always does its work. Further, St. Benedict requires the 
Abbot; not to delay, not to wait until he is absolutely constrained by 
the urgency of the danger; as soon as evil customs begin to appear he 
must cut them down vigorously, to the roots, r adicitus amputet : z this 
is the only true mercifulness. 3 Ut pravalet is variously translated : 
sometimes " as is better," or " as it is in his power "; better, " since he 
has received authority for that purpose." 

In order to convince the Abbot our Holy Father asks him to remem- 
ber the tragic story of Heli (l Kings ii.-iv.). The high-priest had not 
spared warnings to his wicked sons ; but he had the power, and the Lord 
required him not only to reprimand but also to amputate and destroy. 
We know the results of his weakness : a bloody defeat of the Israelites, 
the death of the guilty, his solitary death, the profanation of the Ark 
of the Covenant, which fell into the hands of the enemy, the disgrace 
of the whole race. Faults which are tolerated have to be expiated 
just as much as others, but the whole family expiates them. Though 
the threat be a veiled one, the responsibility of the Abbot is clearly 
stated. Monastic houses rarely perish of hunger; they die of wourids 
which have not been cared for, where none has ministered strengthening 
wine or assuaging oil, of wounds which grow and fester. And if any- 
thing at all remains of such houses, it is but a mean and sorry plant, 

of whiefe-tfee-Lord-wiH -not censent-tojnake further use. 4 ) 

i 

1 Dissimulas peccata bominum (Sap., xi. 24). S 

8 ... Radicitus amputavit (CASS., Conlat., XVI., vi.). / 

3 Cf. S. BASIL., Reg. fits- , xxiv., xxv. ; Reg . contr., xvii., xxii. j 

4 What St. Benedict says here about correction furnished the matter of the third 
book of St. Gregory the Great's Regula Pas tor alts ; the whole work is, moreover, only 
an extended commentary oh the present chapter. 



What Kind of Man the Abbot ought to be 49 

Et honestiores quidem atque in- Those of good disposition and v 

telligibiles animos prima vel secunda understanding let him correct, for the 

admonitione verbis corripiat; impro- first or second time, with words only; 

bos autem et duros ac superbos vel but such as are froward and hard of 

inobedientes, verberum vel corporis heart, and proud, or disobedient, let 

castigatione in ipso initio peccati him chastise with bodily stripes at the 

coerceat, sciens scriptum: Stultus verbis very first offence, knowing that it is 

non corrigitur. Et iterum: Percute written: "The fool is not corrected 

filium tuum virga, et liber obis animam with words." And again: " Strike 

ejus a norte. thy son with the rod, and thou shalt 

deliver his soul from death." 

Sa,the Abbot must resign himself to the duty of correction. Yet N \ 
he must correct with wisdom, without suffering himself to be carried \ 
away by his temperament or zeal; St. Benedict repeats this advice, 1 
by explaining in detail what must be the nature of the correction, ot \ 
which hitherto he has spoken only in a general manner. In this passage 
he indicates only two character groups, but the two coincide with the \ 
previous three. With refined and intelligent natures one should not \ 
, resort to severity at once; a verbal reprimand will suffice for the first 
and second time. But as for those of coarse nature, hard of heart or 
rude, proud and refractory, they must be tamed by the rod or by some 
such bodily chastisement, and that >as soon as their evil habit begins / 
to show itself. 

Our Holy Father furnishes us immediately with a reason for these 
vigorous measures of repression: "He who lacks intelligence cannot be 
corrected by words." He is thinking of Proverbs : " A slave will not be 
corrected by words " (xxix. 19. See also xviii. 2). Holy Scripture 
considers that the child has a right to correction, he must get it as he 
must get nourishment, and he will not die of it; on the contrary he will 
live the true life: " Withhold not correction from a child: for if thou 
strike him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with 
the rod: and deliver his soul from hell" (Prov. xxiii. 13, 14). "He 
that spareth the rod, hateth his son" (Prov. xiii. 24). In his De 
Institutions Oratorio. Quintilian, teacher of Domitian's great-nephews, 
lays it down that the child should be accustomed to virtue even before 
knowing what it is. He must be given certain associations of ideas. 
We know that for ourselves goodness first meant caresses and sweetmeats, 
while to be bad brought dry bread, the whip, or detention. And we 
need not blush at these humble beginnings of our moral life. It is 
not at all impossible that the general deterioration of character is due 
to a certain lack of virility in repression. When the child is not seven, 
we ask: " Why punish him ? he is so young." When he is eight, " Why 
punish him ? he is so big." And so it is always either too soon or too 
late to teach the child his duty and the function of mortification in 
the Christian life; thus are made tyrants and little monsters. Since 
St. Benedict's day characters and customs have changed. There are 
undoubtedly fewer children or barbarians in a modern monastery; and 
in any case the rod and the prison, which were much in vogue for long 

4 



50 Commentary on the Rule oj St. Benedict 

centuries of monasticism, have vanished from our midst. Yet one may 
still meet spoilt children, or wild and rebellious characters, for whom 
certain bodily punishments would be a sovereign remedy. 

However, the Abbot must remember the precept of Chapter LXIV. : 
" Let him cut them off prudently and with charity, in the way he shall 
see best for each." Souls more often need carrying than driving. 
A monastery is not a sort of forge with the Abbot, like a cyclops, 
fanning the flame. Moral reform and spiritual development are not 
achieved by a succession of violent and rapid movements. There is 
with souls, as with God, a slowness which the Abbot must respect. 

Meminisse debet semper Abbas, The Abbot ought always to re- 
quod est, meminisse quod dicitur, et member what he is, and what he is 
scire quia cui plus committitur, plus called, and to know that to whom 
ab eo exigitur: sciatque quam diffici- more is committed, from him more is 
lem et arduam rem suscepit, regere required; and he must consider how, 
animas, et multorum servire moribus. difficult and arduous a task he has 
Et alium quidem blandimentis, alium undertaken, of ruling souls and adapt- 
vero increpationibus, alium suasionibus, ing himself to many dispositions. Let 
et secundum uniuscujusque qualitatem him so accommodate and suit himself 
vel intelligentiam, ita se omnibus con- to the character and intelligence of 
formet et aptet, ut non solum detri- each, winning some by kindness, others 
menta gregis sibi commissi non patia- by reproof, others by persuasion, that 
tur, verum etiam in augmentatione boni he may not only suffer no loss in the 
gregis gaudeat. flock committed to him, but may even 

rejoice in their virtuous increase. 

It is said of Moses, in the Book of Numbers (xii. 3), that he was 
meekest of all men that dwelt upon the earth; and yet it is plain that 
on some occasions his cup of wrath was full to overflowing. But he 
had the lofty good sense and supernatural spirit not to lose patience 
except in the presence of the Lord. That happened to him at the 
" graves of lust " (Num. xi. 34), when the people, weary of the manna, 
set themselves to lamentation and weeping, as they remembered the 
fish that they ate in Egypt. The Lord was angry, and to Moses also the 
thing seemed intolerable. So he said to the Lord: "Why hast thou 
laid the weight of all this people upon me ? Have I conceived all this 
multitude or begotten them, that thou shouldst say to me : Carry 
them in thy bosom, as the nurse is wont to carry the little infant . . . ? 
I am not able alone to bear all this people, because it is too heavy for 
me. But if it seem unto thee otherwise, I beseech thee to kill me " 
(Num. xi. 11-15). O ne might say that St. Benedict expected some 
secret protestation to take its rise in the Abbot's heart also, in view of 
the truly superhuman programme which he has just elaborated so calmly. 
And it seems too that at this point the Rule might have slipped in some 
word of encouragement, as is its wont, so as to lessen and calm the 
anxieties of the Abbot; but St. Benedict has no consideration for him, 
and all the concluding portion of the chapter has no other purpose 
than to hold him forcibly to the austere contemplation of his duty. 

St. Benedict practically says : You have a heavy task. You must 



What Kind of Man the Abbot ought to be 5 1 

be always remembering what you are, and remembering the name that 
men give you: you are Abbot, men call you Father. You are not a 
prince, nor a great noble, nor a civil governor: you are a Father. This 
whole family is yours. God has entrusted it to you, as a deposit dear 
to His heart, and in His sight souls have an infinite value. The Master 
of our life makes use of it as He will: on some He showers His tenderness, 
to others He gives His confidences; there is the sweet and simple 
vocation of John, there is the vocation of Peter; and we do not choose. 
Let the Abbot also remember the judgement of God; His trusts have 
ever to be accounted for. God does not give His gifts to men to be 
their sport; authority, influence, wealth are talents entrusted to us, and 
He will demand from us interest on them in rigorous and judicial 
terms : more has been entrusted to you, from you more shall be required 
(Luke xii. 48). 1 

And the Abbot, must know how difficult and arduous a task he 
has received of ruling souls and of making himself the servant of all 
by adapting himself to the character of each. Men often seem little 
concerned to lighten his burden; in a monastery all passions that are 
unmortified and therefore are sources of suffering, discharge themselves 
on the Abbot, as it were naturally. But St. Benedict has no thought 
of this irregular addition to his task; according to him the task is already 
a delicate one because it has to do with souls. In a material substance 
change may be foreseen and is not due to caprice; but a spiritual being 
does not act mechanically; there is need of light and patience to know 
it well and' adjust oneself to it. Then how different are souls from one 
another ! Manifold causes, and these of the sensible order, co-operate 
to. make of each something very personal indeed; heredity, or a first 
vital pulsation given by the soul to the body, which starts with it, 
determining in some sort the whole trend of our lives, or a subjection, 
whether passive or deliberate, to animal tendencies all these make our 
temperament. Each soul has <to free itself, to redeem itself, from 
tendencies of sense, by education, by vigorous effort, by the supernatural 
life which devotes the whole activity to God. The authority of the 
Abbot is given us precisely in order to help us to win this self-possession. 
It is the Abbot's business to proportion his action to the moral disposi- 
tions of each. One man needs kind words and caresses, another rebuke 
arid punishment, a third persuasion; in a word, each should be treated 
according to his temper and degree of intelligence. There is no 
clearer mark of the family character of the monastery than this insistence 
by St. Benedict that the Abbot should know his subjects and lead each 
of them individually. 

It is this too that limits the size of a community: for if the monks 
are legion, the Abbot will only be a commander-in-chief, constructing 
a summary plan which his officials put into execution. Yet the Abbot 

1 St. Benedict may have taken his inspiration direct from the Doctrina S. ORSIESII, 
xv. (see D. BUTLER'S note); or from ST. JEROME, Efist. XIV. 9. P.L., XXII., 353; or 
from ST. AUGUSTINE, Quastionet in Heptat., 1. III., xxxi. P.L., XXXIV. (689-690). 



52 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

is not forbidden to think about the increase of his flock. And it is 
certainly of increase in numbers that St. Benedict speaks in the word 
augmentation while at the same time suggesting the idea of increase in 
virtue: boni gregis. We should understand him well. When he 
recommends the Abbot to put himself aside and skilfully to condescend, 
so that he may suffer no loss in his sheep, he does not make any promise 
or put it forward as a sure effect; he is merely indicating the intentions 
which should guide his conduct. And how might the Abbot hope for 
such success as the Lord Himself has not obtained ? There are souls 
whom neither patience nor tenderness nor severity can win, and for 
whom one can do nothing but pray and endure. St. Benedict would 
seem to say to the Abbot : Would you rejoice in the increase of a faithful 
flock ? Well, take good care of the souls entrusted to you, busy yourself 
with what you have; so will you get what you have not yet. Fervent 
monasteries do their recruiting of themselves, and that much more by the 
good odour of their observance than by any human methods or indis- 
creet propaganda. God so disposes events and hearts, that His family 
grows unceasingly; and if at times recruitment languishes or stops, 
we must not lose confidence: as at the beginnings of Ctteaux, a St. 
Bernard will come with numerous companions. 

Ante omnia, ne dissimulans aut par- Above all let him not, overlooking 
vipendens salutem animarum sibi com- or undervaluing the salvation of the 
missarum, plus gerat sollicitudinem de souls entrusted to him, be more solici- 
rebus transitoriis, et terrenis atque tous for fleeting, earthly, andperishable 
'caducis; sed semper cogitet quia animas things; but let him ever bear in mind ~n 
suscepit regendas, de quibus et ratio- that he has undertaken the government ^ 
nem redditurus eat. Et ne causetur of souls, of which he shall have to give 
forte de minor! substantia, meminerit an account. And that he may not 
scriptum: Primum qu&rite regnum Dei complain for want of worldly substance, 
et justitiam ejus, et h<sc omnia adjicien- let him remember what is written: 
tur vobis. Et iterum: Nihil deest ti- " Seek first the kingdom of God and 
mentibus turn. his, justice, and all these things shall 

be added unto you." And again: 
" Nothing is wanting to them that fear 
him." 

The Abbot's solicitude must not go astray on false tracks. It will 
not allow itself to be distracted by too great preoccupation with the 
matter of vocations, or by financial and material cares. In this last 
matter the temptation may be more insistent and treacherous, and it 
is for this reason that our Holy Father lays more stress on it. We must 
live, we must grow, we must pay our debts, we must build. And for 
these purposes we must make ourselves known, secure high and pro- 
ductive connections, write books and sell them, work the monastery 
lands profitably, purchase property and so on; we must, in a word, 
enter again on a mass of business affairs which it seemed that we had 
given up by the religious state. 

It is obvious that the Abbot could not be careless of the finances 
of the monastery without imprudence and a sort of treason: his vigilance 



What Kind of Man the Abbot ought to be 53 

and effort in this matter are a duty to the community. To understand 
this point it is sufficient to reflect on the innumerable evils which are 
caused by negligence; it is not at all desirable for our good name that we 
should pass through the bankruptcy courts. And not only must we 
live, but a certain margin is indispensable, so that all may go well and 
the monks remain faithful to poverty. Disorder, excessive expenditure, 
dilapidation, carelessness of the morrow these cannot be regarded as 
the true type of abbatial government. 

Nevertheless, what St. Benedict insists on is that the care of material 
interests must never cause the Abbot to neglect or treat as a secondary 
matter, which he may readily throw off on to other shoulders, the forma- 
tion and eternal salvation of the souls entrusted to him: "overlooking 
or undervaluing." The true wealth of a monastery is its souls; and 
compared with them how little worth are those "fleeting, earthly, 
and perishable- things." 1 . Undoubtedly the Abbot ought to be a wise 
administrator in temporals, because they have, a sacred character from 
the fact of their belonging to the Lord; but souls belong to God more 
nearly still, and it is for these as well, and for these above all, that he will 
have to render an account : semper cogitet quia animas suscepit regendas, 
de quibus et rationem redditurus est? 

And, lest the Abbot should be tempted to allege the slenderness of 
the resources of the monastery, let him remember what is written in 
St. Matthew (vi. 33) and in the Psalm (xxxiii. 10). God has given His 
word. If the house be fervent, resources like vocations will come, in 
God's good time and according to His measure. The Lord gives what is 
necessary to monasteries which are faithful and which He loves; some- 
times a little less, so that comfortable circumstances may not incline 
monks and Abbot to dispense with trust in God. Men of the world 
ask us: Is it not true that some phrases of the sixth chapter of St. 
Matthew seem to go beyond the laws of human prudence ? What is 
their true sense ? It is this: God wishes to lead us to be trustful and 
to the conviction that no anxiety should prevail over this trustfulness; 
for this end He makes use of various examples calculated to inspire it, 
but yet without telling us that we are dispensed from action : after all, 
the lilies and the birds are active. We may well believe that there are 
refinements which the world cannot grasp, evangelical counsels which 
cannot be realized save in the monastery, more enfranchised as it is from 
created conditions and belonging more to God. And it is because 
of the supreme jurisdiction exercised by Providence over those who 
belong to it, that trustfulness becomes a law, more immediately perhaps 
than prudence: for, when all is said, trust in God is a theological virtue, 
prudence a moral virtue; and, while I am not bound to keep the rules of 
prudence semper et pro semper, I am never dispensed from absolute trust. 

1 (Prima causa) discidit, qua nasci solet de rebus caducis atque terrenis (CXss., Conlat., 
XVI., ix.). 

3 Semper cogitans (praposita) Deo se pro vobis reddituram esse rationem (S. AUG., 
Epist. CCXL, 15. P.L., XXXIII., 965). Doctr. S. Oxgnsn, xi. 



54 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

Sciatque quia qui susccpit animas And let him know that he who 
regendas, praeparet se ad rationem red- has undertaken the government of 
dendam. Et quantum sub cura sua souls, must prepare himself to render 
fratrum se habere scierit numerum, an account of them. And whatever 
agnoscat pro certo quia in die judicii may be the number of the brethren 
ipsarum omnium animarum est reddi- under his care, let him be certainly 
turus Domino rationem, sine dubio assured that on the. Day of Judgement 
addita et suae animas. Et ita timens he will have to give an account to the 
semper futuram discussionem pastoris Lord of all these souls, as well as of 
de creditis ovibus, cum de alienis ratio- his own. And thus, being ever fearful 
ciniis cavet, redditur de suis sollicitus. of the coming judgement of the shep- 
Etcumdeadmonitionibussuisemenda- herd concerning the state of the 
tionem aliis subministrat, ipse efficitur flock committed to him, while he is 
a vitiis emendatus. careful on other men's accounts, he 

will be solicitous .also on his own. 

And so, while correcting others by his 

admonitions, he will be himself cured 

of his own defects. 

Our Holy Father is not afraid of repeating himself when he wants 
to remind the Abbot of the value of souls, of the delegated character 
of his power, and of the strict judgement which awaits him. At the 
tribunal of God every man will have to answer for himself, but the 
Abbot will have to answer for himself and for all the souls committed 
to his care, for each one in particular: this is incontestable, indubitable, 
pro certo, sine dubio. One would have to be senseless, or have lost the 
faith, not to be impressed by such a declaration. And likewise one 
would need a strong dose of delusion to want to take on one's shoulders> 
such a burden, and to the problems of one's own soul superadd those 
of others. 

Since the Abbot has consented, on the invitation of God, to make 
himself the servant of all; since his daily bread is work, anxiety, and 
suffering, he has assuredly some right to the prayers of his monks and 
to their compassion. It is on the ground of the responsibility assumed 
by priests and bishops that the Apostle St.* Paul, in a text which our 
Holy Father doubtless remembered, begs Christians to repay by obe- 
dience and loving docility the devotion and benefits they have received : 
" Obey your prelates and be subject to them. For they watch as being 
to render an account of your souls : that they may do this with joy and 
not with grief. For this is not expedient for you " (Heb. xiii. 17). 
Make the exercise of their charge easy and sweet; cause them to fulfil it 
with joy and not with sadness, for that will in no way be advantageous 
to yourselves; the weariness caused in an Abbot by a difficult and 
discontented community issues always in serious detriment to the 
community. 

If it is true that Abbots make their monks, it is certain that monks 
make their Abbot, and that the monastery is a school of mutual sanctifi- 
cation.1 The last two sentences of this chapter remind the Abbot of 
this point, if not to reassure Kim, for they are still austere, at least to 
Strengthen his courage. The constant thought of the judgement 



What Kind of Man the Abbot ought to be 55 

which the shepherd 1 will one day have to face in respect of the sheep 
entrusted to him, the care which he takes in putting other people's 
accounts in order, will make him more attentive to his own account: 
so the first benefit of his charge will be his own growth in interior 
watchfulness. The very fact that he has to carry other souls naturally 
leads him to watch over himself. A man might give himself some 
freedom if he were independent of others; but he is more careful when 
he is the father of a family, and the deputy of God, when weaknesses 
such as were once his would now have a formidable effect and would 
find an echo in the lives of others. Being bound to seek the amendment 
of others by his instructions,, the Abbot will at the same time set himself 
free of his own defects and redouble the fidelity of his life. Those for 
whom the duty of preaching is more than a vain amusement are always 
the first to reap the fruit of their words. We love harmony and moral 
unity; and influenced by this more than by the desire to avoid the 
sentence, " Physician, heal thyself," we labour little by little to put 
our actions in accord with our teaching. 

The Abbot has a greater compensation of which St. Benedict does 
not speak: the profit which he wins from constant contact with good 
souls. This contact is the most wholesome that there is, and resembles 
a sacrament. It is partly that such souls are to the Abbot an encourage- 
ment and an example, but chiefly that they are for him a sort of antici- 
pated vision of God. The greater the effect and the nearer to its cause, 
so much the more perfect is the knowledge we get of the cause; and here 
the effect is not only that work of God, a spiritual soul, but also all the 
means which God takes to transform it and unite it to His beauty. So 
may the Abbot find herein a true theology. And, until the day when he 
shall contemplate God face to face, he will nowhere see Him more 
clearly than in souls, in the living crystal of their purity. He will not 
find it hard then to keep very close to Our Lord, wherein is his sole 
safeguard and most sure consolation. 

1 The Abbot is meant here, rather than the Divine Pastor, 



CHAPTER III 
OF CALLING THE BRETHREN TO COUNCIL 

DE ADHIBENDIS AD coNsitiUM ERA- As often as any important matters 
TRIBUS. Quoties aliqua praecipua agen- have to.be transacted in the monastery, 
da sunt in monasterio, convocet Abbas let the Abbot call together the whole 
omnem congregationem, et dicat ipse community, and himself declare what 
unde agitur. Et audiens consilium is the question to be settled. And, 
fratrum, tractet apud se, et quod utilius having heard the counsel of the breth- p 
judicaverit faciat. Ideo autem omnes ren, let him weigh it within himself, \ 
ad consilium vocari diximus, quia saepe and then do what he shall judge most 
jxmiori Dominus revelat quod melius expedient. We have said that all 
est. should be called to council, because 

it is often to the younger that the Lord 

reveals what is best. 

THIS chapter fixes the constitution of the monastic body by defining 
the role which belongs to each member. Our Holy Father's 
purpose is not that of applying restrictions, limits, or counter- 
poises to the absolute power of the Abbot, for he never dreamt 
of introducing into his work the forms of democracy or parliamentary 
government; all the directions which we are just to read seem designed, 
on the contrary, to emphasize the sovereign character of abbatial 
authority, as interpreter and guardian of the authority of the Rule, and 
as a created form of the divine authority. But the depositary of this 
power remains a man, obliged to seek the truth laboriously, obliged 
to discover the best practical solutions, and liable to mistakes. There- 
fore, condescending to this weakness, St. Benedict gives him counsellors, 
whose function it is, not to share his power, to control, or on occasion 
to check him, but only to enlighten and support him, and so discreetly 
to prevent mistakes or abuses. One mind cannot exhaust every matter; 
what one man does not perceive another may discover, and affairs thus 
managed with the concert and wisdom of many are more certain of 
success. St. Benedict indicates this motive in concluding the chapter, 
when he cites the witness of Ecclesiasticus (xxxii. 24). 

Our Holy Father distinguishes two classes of matters in which the 
Abbot shall take counsel: pr&cipua and minor a, important and less 
important. For more serious matters he shall summon the whole 
community to council; for less serious matters, which are, however, 
important in their degree, he shall confine himself to consultation with 
the elders. There is a third class of questions which calls for no con- 
voking of the brethren; such are, in the first place, matters of detail, and 
next, those which have a predetermined solution, or an evident one, or 
one reserved to the Abbot, or such that the community will not be 
competent to judge. According to our Holy Father it is for the 
Abbot to estimate if it be proper for him to seek advice. Whenever. 

56 



Of Calling the Brethren to Council 57 

for example, the good name of the community or its financial interests 
are seriously concerned, he should summon thq whole community. 

And in desiring the presence of all 1 St. Benedict obeys an inspiration 
of faith. God is actively interested in the affairs of a monastic house; 
He presides over it, and every wise decision should be imputed to Him 
(Matt, xviii. 20). Why, then, exclude the newly professed or the young 
oblates who are of an age to speak (see Chapter LIX.) ? Is it not matter 
of experience that the Lord loves to communicate His thought to us 
by the mouths of little children ? 2 The young are more natural, less 
individual, and God acts more freely through them. He made use of 
a Samuel and of a Daniel (see Chapter LXIIL); and at Monte Cassino 
He used St. Maurus and St. Placid. But the young monk would at 
once lose the benefit of this divine predilection, if he failed in moderation, 
courtesy, and humility in his judgements; if he gave his opinion on 
persons and things with solemnity and importance; if he did not 
stand on his guard against the tendency to formulate harsh and rigid 
decisions; for the outlook of such a one is often limited and narrow, and 
he does not always appreciate the complexity of the matters discussed. 

At the same time it is the Abbot's place to sum up the case. He 
explains the matter clearly, so that all may understand what is discussed. 
He does this without passion and without attempting to extort 
support, since strictly speaking he does not need it. He listens with 
impartiality and patience to the advice of the brethren, which does not 
mean that he must let the long-winded talk indefinitely, or abstain 
from such correction as should be called for by right, by good order, 
or good sense. Then he takes counsel with himself, using the light 
that all have contributed, and decides sovereignly, not that which pleases 
him, nor always the contrary of the suggestions made, but what in 
God's sight he deems best. 

Sic autem dent fratres consilium But let the brethren give their 

cum omni humilitatis subjectione, ut advice with all subjection of humility, 

non praesumant procaciter defendere and not presume stubbornly to defend 

quod eis visum fuerit, sed magis in their own opinion; but rather let the 

Abbatis pendeat arbitrio, ut quod matter restwiththeAbbot'sdiscretion, 

salubrius ease judicaverit, ei cuncti that all may submit to whatever he 

obediant; sed sicut discipulis convenit shall consider best. Yet, even as it 

obedire magistro, ita et ipsum provide becomes disciples to obey their master, 

et juste condecet cuncta disponere. so does it behove him to order all 

things prudently and with justice. 

If it be good for the Abbot to welcome advice and to practise self- 
abnegation, monks on their side have a strict duty to show themselves 
men of tact, and to be docile sons. The brethren shall give their advice, 
since it is for this that they were assembled; a sulky, cross, and sullen 

1 Novices, not yet belonging to the community (Chap. LVIIL), have no title to 
a part in its deliberations. 

'; Cf. S. CYPRIANI, Epist. IX., iv. P.L., IV., 253. CASS., Conlat., XVI., ni. 



58 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

attitude would be ridiculous and very far from monastic. They shall 
give their advice in turn, when they are asked or when they receive the 
sign. They shall speak with all the submission of humility: cum omni 
bumilitatis subjection*, without taking a pompous, magisterial tone, 
without imagining themselves judges or members of Parliament, without 
regarding their opinion as decisive, or believing that the general welfare 
depends largely on them. We may add that it is necessary to keep within 
the scope of the matter in debate, and not to graft some motion or 
amendment on to the precise point that has been submitted for 
consideration. 

It may be that the advice you give wins little acceptance; well, 
you should rejoice that a wiser course is followed, or at least have the 
good manners not to argue bitterly and obstinately for your notion. 
Thank God, men do not argue publicly with the Abbot; but there is 
more danger of a man defending his view against one or other of his 
brethren. A man may be tempted to take up the words of another in 
order to contradict them, sometimes in order to turn them to ridicule, 
and this either openly or in a treacherous and sly fashion. Such a way 
of acting is all the more misguided, as the brother who is attacked 
generally has his mouth closed by charity, or prudence, or official secrecy. 
A monastic assembly should never take the rowdy character of some of 
our parliamentary debates. And, according to the mind of our Holy 
Father, neither individuals, nor a majority, nor even the unanimous 
opinion of the brethren, has a right to make its view prevail ; the decision 
is reserved exclusively to the Abbot ; x he remains free to take that view 
which seems to him most opportune, and all shall hasten to submit to 
it. But, while it is proper that disciples should obey their master, 
it is fitting, too, that the master should dispose all things with foresight 
and equity. There is no parcelling of authority, but there are. rights 
on both sides; those who obey are not handed over to arbitrary action, 
to the whims and caprices of passion; and the best guarantee that can 
be given them is this repeated declaration that the Abbot is accountable 
to God, and that, when all is said, he too and he especially must be 
obedient. 

X 

In omnibus igitur omnes magistram Let all, therefore, follow the Rule 

sequantur regulam, neque ab ea temere in all things as their guide, and from 

declinetur a quoquam. Nullus in it let no man rashly turn aside. Let 

monasterio sequatur cordis proprii no one in the monastery follow the 

voluntatem, neque praesumat quis- will of his own heart: nor let anyone 

quam cum Abbate suo proterve intus presume insolently to contend with 

aut foris monasterium contendere. his Abbot, either within or without 

Quod si prsesumpserit, regulari dis- the monastery. But if he should 

ciplinae subjaceat. Ipse tamen Abbas dare to do so, let him be subjected to 

cum timore Dei et observatione regulae the discipline appointed by die Rule, 

omnia faciat, sciens se procul dubio de The Abbot himself, however, must do 

1 Per omnia ad nutum (Abbotts) potestatemque pendere (SULP. SEVER., Dial. I., c. 3f 
P.L., XX., 190. Cf. CAS*., Conlat., XXIV., xxvi). ' ' 



Of Calling the Brethren to Council 59 

omnibus judiciis suis xquissimo judici everything with the fear of God, and 
Deo rationem redditurum. in observance of the Rule: knowing 

that he will have without doubt to 
render to God, the most just Judge, an 
account of all his judgements. 

The connection between this paragraph and the preceding one 
is close, as shown by the word igittir, " therefore." No one in the 
monastery may " follow the will of his own heart " and live as he likes. 
The form of .our life is fixed by a Rule; the Rule is -the standard to 
which all must conform, both the monks who give counsel and the 
Abbot who proposes and decides. In the discussion as well as in the 
decision of a matter each must seek inspiration in the Rule and its 
spirit; none may dispense with it without presumption. Supernatural 
prosperity and peace depend upon this submission of all to the same 
ideal and the same programme. 

And since the written Rule needs to be interpreted, since debate 
would sometimes be interminable if a living authority did not intervene 
with decisive power, all discussion should cease when the Abbot has 
made up his mind. He alone is responsible, and he alone has the 
grace of state; he is without doubt better informed than any other, 
because he has the whole situation in his hands, and can envisage all the 
aspects and all the issues of a problem. No one shall be so rash as to 
contend insolently with him, whether within the monastery, or still 
less without it, a thing which would give rise to greater scandal; 1 and, 
both within and without, the brethren shall scrupulously abstain from 
criticizing his decisions. Baffled self-will does not always show itself 
in open resistance, but rather, and this especially with timid or refined 
or well-bred natures, in secret murmurings. A monk can be in no worse 
state than this. The Rule first mentions the "regular discipline" 
(which we shall describe later) for the repression by severe punishment 
of this refractory and censorious spirit. 

But St. Benedict takes great care to remind the Abbot that he also 
has to face a judgement. All his decisions must be made in the fear of 
God, and in conformity with the Rule. He must know well, and without 
shadow of doubt, that he will give account of each one of them to the 
supremely just Judge. God reserves to Himself this business of weighing 
the Abbot's abuse of his independence of judgement, and the vista of a 
divine " regular discipline " will keep the Abbot from every slightest 
inclination to tyranny. 

Si qua vero minora agenda sunt in If it happen that less important 
monasterii utilitatibus, 2 seniorum tan- matters have to be transacted for the 

1 Without doubt the best reading is: proterve out foris monastcrium contenders. 
And D. BUTLER cites the interesting note of SMARAGDUS: Non dixit intus aut foris, sicut 
aliqui codices habent, sed sicut in illo quern manibus suis. scripsit, proterve aut foris 
monasterium reperitur. Unde intclligitur quia foris nullam, intus autem esse contentionem 
permisit amicam. It is plain that some scribes and commentators have had difficulties 
with this passage. Cf. PAUL THE DEACON, in b. I. 

-* Monasterii u(ilit0s : CASS., Jnst, t VIJ., ix. 



60 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

tumutatur consilio,sicutscriptumest: advantage of the monastery, let him 
Omnia fac cum consilio, et post factum take counsel with the seniors only, as 
nonptenitebis. it is written: "Do all things with 

counsel, and thou shall not afterwards 

repent it." 

Here is the second case, affairs of less importance, of which we said a 
word at the beginning of the chapter. We should grasp well the mean- 
ing of the text from Ecclesiasticus (xxxii. 24). Undoubtedly the Abbot 
should beware of an unlimited confidence in his own competence and 
judgement ; absolute power is dangerous, especially for him who wields 
it. Nevertheless we should not take the words " all things " too 
literally. Even when it is a question of important measures, experience 
shows that the Abbot will sometimes do better to consult only his 
own conscience. Moreover, we should note that failure does not 
prove that he has acted rashly. And when Holy Scripture tells him 
that if he takes counsel, he shall not afterwards repent it, it does not 
promise him success and infallibility. Nor does it declare that in case 
of failure he may throw the responsibility on to others and wash his 
hands of the issue. 

Times have changed since St. Benedict. He wrote his Rule with a 
conception of the patria potestas, absolute paternal authority, such as 
was implied in Roman law. Both superiors and monks had a living faith, 
and men submitted very readily to practically absolute government. 
But,- by slow process, the old framework has yielded a little under the 
pressure of changing custom. Democracy, if we would speak the 
truth, has no more been introduced into the monastery than it has 
into the Church; but it is undeniable that a greater importance has 
gradually been given to the individual. Undoubtedly, too, sad 
experience has shown to what imprudences a practically absolute power 
may lend itself. The abuse of Commendam forced monks to protect 
themselves against a power for life, without counterpoise and often very 
worldly. For this purpose were invented triennial Abbots and all the 
various means which tended to reduce, and sometimes even to weaken, 
the abbatial authority. The constitutions of each Congregation 
enumerate a certain number of cases in which the Abbot must obtain 
the consent of the Conventual Chapter, of the Council of Seniors, or 
even of General Chapter, and business is often decided by vote. We 
do not think an Abbot has anything to regret in the loss of the freedom 
and initiative of former times. It is enough that present legislative 
arrangements come from the Church for them to deserve >to be well 
received; but, to repeat, we must recognize that they have their justifi- 
cation in the desire to banish arbitrary and dangerous measures. Yet, 
in communities which are wisely governed and which have a good spirit, 
things go on always much as they did in the days of St. Benedict : a 
feeling of filial trust causes matters which he knows better than anyone 
else to be left to the decision of the Abbot; conflicts between an Abbot 
and his council are unknown, and all is done in harmonious concord. 



CHAPTER IV 

WHAT ARE THE INSTRUMENTS OF GOOD WORKS 

f"T"\HE preceding chapters have given us the organic structure of 

I monastic society. From this point to Chapter VIII. the subject 

I is the individual and his means of supernatural perfection, so 

-* that we may say that this portion of the Rule is St. Benedict's 

spiritual doctrine and gives monks their spiritual constitution. We 

remember with what insistence our Holy Father declared in the Prologue 

that progress in the Christian life is effected by the practice df good 

works and the constant exercise of all the virtues ; he now describes this 

well-regulated activity. This chapter gives a long list of the principal 

forms in which it is displayed; immediately after come separate chapters 

devoted to the fundamental dispositions of the soul, to obedience, 

recollection, and humility. 

" The Instruments of Good Works." Commentators have exercised 
their sagacity in defining the exact meaning of these words. St. Paul 
the Apostle speaks twice of the armour of a Christian; does our Holy 
Father desire to indicate here the interior qualities with which we should 
be provided habitus activi quibus instruimur in order to accomplish 
all good works ? Or does St. Benedict regard the Scripture texts, of 
which nearly all the sentences of this chapter are formed, as true instru- 
ments, as methods of proved efficaciousness, certain to make us practise 
good works ? As though, for the realization of the good, we had but 
to listen to the appeal of God. In a less subtle way one might give to 
the word instrumenta its meaning of legal instruments, and translate, 
"rules of morals, practical principles of good." It means also tools, 
implements, apparatus, resources, and, in the present case, the tools 
with which good is wrought, all the methods and implements of virtue, 
concretely the virtues and good works themselves. This is, it would 
seem, the meaning most in harmony with St. Benedict's thought; for, 
in concluding the chapter, he speaks of the " tools of the spiritual 
craft," and represents the monastery as the " workshop " where a. 
man learns to use them; 1 while it is because he is really dealing with 
good works that he can speak of them as adimpleta i.e., fulfilled. 

A word on the sources of this fourth chapter. Almost the entire 
series of instruments is to be found in the second part of the first Decretal 
Epistle of St. Clement ; 2 but it has long been recognized 3 that this 
second part is spurious and the work of Isidorus Mercator. There are 

1 Probably a reminiscence of CASSIAN, who says of fasts, vigils, etc., that they are 
perfections instrumenta (Conlat., I., vii.). Elsewhere Cassian speaks of instrumenta 
virtutum (Conlat., VI., x.); and St. Benedict reproduces this expression in the last chapter 
of his Rule. Instrumenta also means documents, records. 

a P.O., I., 480. 

3 MABILLON, Vctcra Analecta, t. II., p. 94, note c. (1723 edition). 

61 



62 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

certainly analogies between St. Benedict's chapter and the beginning 
of the Teaching of the Apostles (reproduced in the seventh book of the 
Apostolic Constitutions)', both, for example, commence with the state- 
ment of the twofold precept of charity; Dom Butler, however, holds 
that it is impossible to give certain proof of borrowing. 1 One may 
also compare the passage of the Holy Rule with the forty-nine sentences 
published by Cardinal Pitra under the title: Doctrina Hosii episcopi 
(t A.D. 397) ; 2 or with the Monita of Porcarius, Abbot of Lerins (at the 
end of the fifth century) ; 3 or again with the Doctrina of a certain Bishop 
Severinus, who has not been identified yet so far as I know. 4 We find 
analogous collections of sentences in the pagan philosophers themselves; 
see, for example, the Sentences attributed to the Seven Sages of Greece, 5 
the prose Sentences which precede the Disticha Catonis, and the Sentences 
ofSextus, a fragment of which St. Benedict cites in Chapter VII. 6 All 
civilizations have left us specimens of this gnomic literature; the Books 
of Proverbs and Ecclesiasticus belong to this class. We are naturally 
led to express our morality in mottoes, to embody it in practical axioms; 
it seems to us to make virtue much easier when we achieve a short, 
pithy, and well-turned phrase, which in its very perfection has a gracious 
charm. The old monastic rules were generally composed in this 
short, sententious style. 7 And it is from them, from Holy Scrip- 
ture, and to some degree from all sources, that our Holy Father seems 
to have gleaned his seventy-two instruments of good works; it is not yet 
proved that he has only copied, with greater or less modifications, one 
or several previous collections. 

It would be vain to attempt to reduce these instruments to a method- 
ical series and to find in them the unfolding of one plan, for St. Benedict 
had nothing of the sort in his mind. He is content to put at the head 
the most important and fundamental, and to group together maxims 
which have the same end and are connected by some analogy. We shall 
notice that maxims of supernatural perfection lie close to essential 
Christian precepts. The reason is that the latter, in their simplicity, 
embrace all moral teaching, and that here, as in the Prologue and in the 
chapters which are to follow, St. Benedict conceives monastic sanctity 
under the form of a regular, normal, and tranquil development of the 
graces of baptism. 

1 " St. Benedict and the duts vice" in the Journal of Theological Studies, January 
1910, p. 282. See also in the same Review, January 1911, p; 261, an article in which 
D. BUTLER discusses the sources of Chapter IV.; he shows that the Syntagma doctrines 
ascribed to ST. ATHANASIUS (P.G., XXVIII., 835) should not be ranked among St 
Benedict's sources. 

2 Analecta sacra et classica, p. 1 17. 

3 Reprinted in the Revue bi'ncdictine, October 1909. See also an old translation of 
ST. BASIL'S Admonitio ad monacbos, reprinted in the same Review, April 1910. 

* FEZ, Thesaurus Anecdotorum novissimus, t. IV., P. II., col. 1-4; or in FABRICIUS, 
Bibliotheca latina media et injimee eetatis, t. II. (ad calcem). 

5 MULLACH, Fragmcnta Philosophorum grencorum, t. I., p. 212 sq. f 

Ibid., p. 523 sq. Cf. WEYMAN, Wocbenscbriftji,r klass. Pbilologie, 189$ p. 209. 

7 See, for instance, the Rules of ST. MACARIUS, ST. PACHOWIUS (clix.), et 



What are the Instruments of Good Works 63 

QU/E SINT INSTRUMENTA BONORUM WHAT ARE THE INSTRUMENTS OF GOOD 

OFERUM. I. Primum Instrumentum: 1 WORKS. I. First Instrument: in the 
In primis, Dominum Deum diligere ex first place to love the Lord God with 
toto corde, tota anima, tola virtu te. all one's heart, all one's soul, and 

all one's strength. 

" In the first place " : yes, from every point of view, this is certainly 
the first instrument. For, to begin with, it is a universal precept. 
It is found already in its entirety in the Mosaic Law (Deut. vi. 5); and 
Our Lord had only to recall it (Mark xii. 30). Nevertheless, we cannot 
but see that the New Testament has given it a place of greater honour. 
Under the New Law there came a larger and more intimate outpouring 
of the Spirit of God : " the charity of God is poured forth in our hearts, 
by the Holy Ghost who is given to us " (Rom. v. 5) ; and filial love, 
according to the teaching of the Apostle, is the characteristic mark 
of the New Covenant. 

The precept is comprehensive and complete. It is satisfying to have 
all the duties of the Christian life comprised in one unique obligation. 
The mind is more attentive when it has but one thing to consider; the 
will is more determined when it has but one end to pursue; the soul is 
more serene and more joyously persevering when it has reduced al) to 
unity. We are only required to love. In this is summed up all morality. 
" Love and do what you will," said St. Augustine; and before him the 
Apostle, attributing to charity the acts of all the particular virtues, 
established the truth that charity of itself is sufficient, while without it' 
nothing suffices (i Cor. xiii.). 

"It is an easy precept, whether we regard its act or its object. A 
man need not be great, or rich, or healthy, or clever, to love. It is 
the most spontaneous and simple of acts; it is an initial act for which 
we have been prepared from infancy, thanks to the smiles and tenderness 
which have enfolded our life ; God has provoked it in such a way as to 
make sure. of it. The act is easy on the side of its object; for it is as 
natural to love God as it is to know Him, and man's faculties are 
enough of themselves. Of course such a love, in so far as it has not a 
supernatural principle as its root, could not take us to God; yet God is 
naturally lovable. He is so supernaturally on many grounds; He has 
made Himself known to us by the general benefits of Christianity and 
by the revelation of His goodness which is implied in the existence of 
each one of us. He has given us what is needed so that we may love 
Him supernaturally, and render Him an affection equal to His own. 
And He adds the precept: " Thou shalt love "; which precept has its 
own power of making us know and love God, for He only who loves, He 
only who is good and beautiful, has the right to demand love, and He 
only who loves without reservation has the right to demand a love without 
reservation. Truly it is an easy and sweet thing to love God, to love 
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Tenderness and Beauty and Purity Infinite. 

1 The words primum instrumentum do not occur in the manuscripts ; nor is there 
any numbering of the instruments. 



64 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

The sole objection that a man might raise is this: " Granted that 
love is necessary and sufficient, is it easy to love ? I have never encoun- 
tered God. 1 have lived for long a stranger to Him and unheeding. 
I do not dispute the reality of His beauty or of His love for me; but all 
that belongs to too spiritual a sphere, to which I hardly have access. 
Moreover, my temperament is positive, rather dry and cold, so that 
the supernatural stirs no emotion in me." This objection is based on 
a false definition of charity. Charity, according to St. Thomas, is a 
friendship between man and God; and we are taught by a pagan that 
true friendship is to wish and to reject the same objects as one's friend: 
Eadem velle, eadem nolle, ea demum firma amicitia est. To love God is 
to wish what God wishes and to do what God demands, it is to unite 
our will practically with His. Is not this the teaching of Our Lord 
Himself in St. Matthew (vii. 20 jy.)? " From their fruits you shall know 
them. Not everyone who saith to me: Lord, Lord, shall enter into the 
kingdom of heaven, but he that doth the will of my Father who is in 
heaven." Neither the fervour of our first days in the spiritual life, nor 
even the purified and very noble pleasure which is the effect of charity 
on the whole man, is necessary or constitutes an infallible indication 
of our intimacy with' Our Lord.. All these forms of joy are merely 
superadded to charity as an encouragement, or as an advance in our 
salary and inheritance. The fact is that to arrive, if not at sanctity, 
at least at a certain measure of genuine love, we must know how to be 
faithful without pleasure, in aridity, and in the very midst of interior 
disturbances which affect the whole sensitive nature. 

We have only to. read farther in the " first instrument " in order 
to appreciate the character and the measure of our charity. We must 
love " with the heart " that is, not necessarily with a love of feeling and 
emotion, but with our inner being. That may seem easy enough. 
Yet there is always danger, in a regular and liturgical life, of loving God 
only with the lips, in the routine of duties fulfilled in a purely formal 
manner. This is the Jewish tendency, many times denounced and 
scourged by the prophets and Our Lord. It may spring from some too 
well loved occupation, which draws off to its own advantage the best of 
our attention and leaves God only the meagre homage of a compulsory 
ceremonial. To love " with all the heart " must be to make charity 
shine in our souls, to bow intelligence and will before God, and through 
them the lower powers; and it is precisely for the better embracing of 
the whole that love gathers itself to the centre, to the vital core: " O 
my God, I have desired it, and thy law in the midst of my heart " 
(Ps. xxxix. 9). 

" With the whole soul." Without laying too great stress on such 
an interpretation or claiming for it an exclusive value, we might perhaps 
consider " soul " here as the principle of life and continued life ; for when 
the soul departs life ceases. So that to love God with one's. whole soul 
would suggest that law of continuity in our adhesion to Him which 
should rule all our supernatural activity. This continuity has its 



What are the Instruments of Good Works 65 

degrees. One meets with extraordinary graces, with graces of. intel- 
lectual recollection in God, and of infused contemplation; but these are 
granted most often to those who use ordinary grace well. It is the 
normal thing that our thoughts should be turned with some assiduity 
towards Him to whom we have vowed to belong. Not of course that 
we could make an act of love each moment; but we can live habitually 
under the influence of charity. God is simple, and can permeate our 
whole life like a subtle odour. The best intellectual work is that 
which is done in His presence. With a little practice this contact 
with God becomes a habit. "Where the treasure is, there is the 
heart "; and our heart returns to Him expressly so soon as some alien 
interest no longer draws it away. Life is always a process of adaptation 
to environment: the supernatural life develops in the atmosphere of 
charity, of peaceful and continuous attention to Our Lord. 

We must love " with all our strength " that is, with all our powers, 
in such sort that they are employed without reservation for the advantage 
of love and of God. This is indeed the very condition of love; for all 
real loving must be absolute and without limits; so soon as one loves, 
deliberation ceases, one gives oneself entirely, and, if need be, attempts 
the impossible. Charity excepts nothing. It would possess all our 
time, direct all our steps, regulate all our affections. And when we have 
exhausted the long series of sacrifices, when we have bravely broken 
one after another of the idols that encumbered our souls, there remains 
generally one last idol, not the grossest, nor perhaps the best loved, an 
idol that is sometimes quite petty and ridiculous, but the last; and 
therein that self, which has been dislodged from every other stronghold, 
ensconces itself entire. If we do not wish to remain for ever stationary, 
we -must arm ourselves with much resolve and delicacy of conscience, 
and cut the fastenings. 

2. Deinde proximum tamquam 2. Then, one's neighbour as one- 
seipsum (Mark xii. 31). self. 

With charity towards God goes charity towards one's neighbour: 
" Oh these two commandments dependeth the whole law and the 
prophets " (Matt. xxii. 40). So we may pause also at this precept of 
fraternal charity; it is a precept of continual application; half of the 
instruments of good works express different aspects of it, and are but its 
particular manifestations. 

The object of this charity is our neighbour that is, our brother, 
whoever he may be ; and, according to Our Lord's definition, this means 
any man to whom we can dp good, though he be a Samaritan. If we 
excommunicate our brethren, if we have someone or other whom we 
refuse to see, in whose presence we adopt an attitude of sulky and ill- 
tempered neutrality, or even of violent hostility, then we are renegades 
and heretics in charity. It is ourselves that we excommunicate. If 
you cherish enmity against one of your brethren, charity is no more in 
you, and what causes you to keep on good terms with the rest is self-love, 
,'" ' . : '' 5 



66 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

natural attraction, human sympathy, sometimes even a lower feeling 
which may be purely animal. Why do Communions sometimes produce 
so little fruit ? Because we put an obstacle in the way; and ordinarily 
this is the obstacle. Whence come some monastic apostasies ? From 
the contempt of charity. It is certain that, among religious, faults 
against charity, whether by aversion or detraction, are those wherein 
grave matter is most easily met. 

God is the motive of our charity. We love because God loves 
that > we should love. We love because our neighbour belongs to God, 
and the love which we have for God naturally spreads to all that is 
connected with Him. We love because God loves, and we abase our 
personal repugnance before the sovereign judgement of God. We love 
because there is something of God in our neighbour: just as the Holy 
Eucharist is an extension of the Incarnation, so our neighbour is an 
extension of the Eucharist; God is jealous and would have us meet 
naught but Himself in all the avenues of our life. Our Lord regards 
Himself as the one really benefited by our charity: " As long as you did 
it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to me " (Matt. xxv. 40). 
For in truth the act of charity which embraces God, ourselves, and our 
neighbour, is but one : we love God for Himself, ourselves for His sake, 
our neighbour because he is His and in Him. 

And, lest we should sometimes be undecided as to the range of 
our charity, we have been furnished with a ready standard viz., the 
supernatural love which we have for ourselves : tanquam seipsum. What- 
ever good we desire for ourselves and labour to procure for ourselves, 
this we should contrive for our neighbour by our desires, prayers, and 
efforts. Whenever you deal with one of your brethren, as the ninth 
instrument tells us, and then above all when you ask some service of 
him, or exercise when required the duty of correction, make use of 
a loving self-extension : to use a commonplace but accurate expression, 
" put yourself in his place." 

St. John continually speaks of charity. But, in the fourth chapter 
of his first Epistle, he expounds doctrinally what place it holds in the 
economy of the supernatural life.- God, says he, is charity: He has 
proved it by the Incarnation and the Redemption; those who know Him 
truly, know Him only as such. And those who are really born of Him, 
who are His legitimate sons, cannot but have His character and cannot 
but be charity. Charity is an essence, a nature, a character. In this 
respect it is a universal law that those who are born of God cannot but 
love; and this affection must be spontaneously directed to the two 
objects of the divine affection, God and our neighbour. But our share 
in the divine life remains, like God Himself, a thing hidden from our 
sight. The proof that we are born of God can only be supplied there 
where the term of our charity is visible; our neighbour alone gives us 
the opportunity of showing that we love God^ and are of His stock. 
When our charity is not exercised towards our neighbour, it is legitimate 
to conclude that it is non-existent : " For he that loveth not his 



What are the Instruments of Good Works 67 

brother, whom he seeth, how can he love God whom he seeth not ?" 
(i John iv. 20.) St. John's profound theology is only the development 
of the words of Our Lord : " By this shall all men know that you are my 
disciples, if you have love one for another " (John xiii. 35). 

3. Deinde non occidere (Exod. xx. 3. Then not to kill. 
13-17; Matt. xix. 18; Rom. xiii. 9). 

4. Non adulterari (ibid.). 4. Not to commit adultery. 

5. Non facere furtum (ibid.). 5. Not to steal. 

6. Non concupiscere (ibid.). 6. Not to covet. 

7. Non falsum testimonium dicere 7. Not to bear false witness. 
(ibid.). 

8. Honorare omnes homines (i Pet. 8. To honour all men. 
ii. 17). 

9. Et quod sibi quis fieri non vult, 9. Not to do to another what one 
alii non faciat. would not have done to oneself. 

In the instruments from the third to the seventh we have a negative 
analysis of the precept of charity. To love one's neighbour is to respect 
him in his person, in his life, in his consort, in his property; the very 
desire to hurt him is forbidden, and it is still less lawful to set any 
social influence in motion against him by means of false witness. We 
might ask how such warnings as these concern religious. But we must 
remember that St. Benedict is simply enumerating the elementary 
points of Christian morality, that a monk is never dispensed from 
attention to them, that even in a monastery these odious vices may be 
met with on a smaller scale, and that, after all, monastic history records 
some crimes like that of which our Holy Father himself was nearly the 
victim at Vicovaro. 

The eight and ninth instruments give us the positive analysis of the 
precept. But while the Mosaic Law and the Gospel, from which the 
five preceding instruments are taken, added the counsel of honouring 
father and mother, St. Benedict, addressing men separated from their 
parents, takes from St. Peter the most general rule of honouring all 
men. Then he reminds us what should be the measure of our charity, 
in that "Golden Rule," which he cites anew in Chapters LXI. and 
LXX., and always in its negative form. We find it expressed positively 
in St. Matthew (vii. 12) and in St. Luke (vi. 31); but it is given in the 
negative form in the Book of Tobias (iv. 1 6), in certain ancient manu- 
scripts of the Acts (xv. 20 and 29), in the Teaching of the Afostles, and in 
many of the Fathers of the Church. It would seem that St. Benedict 
quotes it from the Acts or the Fathers rather than from Tobias that 
is, if it be not simply a proverb, engraved in the memory of all and in 
current use. 1 

10. Abnegare semetipsum sibi, ut se- 10. To deny oneself, in order to 
quatur Christum (Matt. xvi. 24, xix. 16). follow Christ. 

11. Corpus castigare (i Cor. ix. 27). u. To chastise the body. 

1 See D. BUTLER'S article in the Journal of Theological Studies, January, 1910. 



68 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

12. Delicias non amplecti. 1 12. Not to seek after delicate living. 

13. Jejunium amare. 13. To love fasting. 

After having spoken of charity towards God,, and charity towards 
our neighbour, St. Benedict was free to say something on self-love. 
In the state of original justice man leant on God in a conscious and 
deliberate manner ; a man's dignity and power consisted then in return- 
ing to God the whole of the divine likeness that was his being. When 
he separated himself from God in the vain hope of getting nearer to 
Him, and becoming His equal, man fell back first on himself and then 
soon below himself, even to the likeness of the brute. This is the 
teaching of St. Augustine. 2 We were profoundly affected in that first 
of ties, in that initial love which controls the whole life. Henceforth 
the worship of self prevails, self-love in all its forms, whether the worship 
of the body in luxury, gluttony, and vanity, or the worship of thought 
and will. And whatever is loved, whether person or thing, is loved 
' only for self. Self-love is the one universal trace of the Fall; it is the 
one antagonist of our charity and our salvation. 

Now we understand why Our Lord asks those who would return 
to Him to renounce external and personal things, to leave the created, 
and, according to the phrase of the Gospel as St. Benedict read it, 3 to 
deny oneself to oneself. This is the general principle, and the instru- 
ments which follow mark three special applications of it. They combat 
that animality which is at the bottom of all self-love. We must chastise 
the body and compel it to be no more than a docile servant; we must 
not greedily seek comfort and the sweets oi a sensual life; we must have 
a practical love for fasting, that standard Christian mortification. 

14. Pauperes recreate (Isa. Iviii. 7; 14. To relieve the poor. 
Matt. xxv. 35-36).* 

15. Nudum vestire (ibid.). 6 15. To clothe the naked. 

1 We must not try to find a scriptural source at all costs; yet we shall generally 
conform to the custom of giving references to the- Bible. 

2 ... Incipiens a perverso appetitu similitttdinis Dei, pervenit ad similitudinem 
pccorum. Inde est quod nudati stola prima, pelliceas tunicas mortalitaie meruerunt. 
Honor enim bominis verus est imago et similitude Dei) quee non custoditur nisi ad vpsum 
a quo imprimitur. Tanto magis itaque inbeeretur Deo, quanta minus diligitur proprium. 
Cupiditate vero experiendes poles tatis sues, quodam nutit suo ad se ipsum tanquam ad 
medium proruit. Ita cum vult esse sicut ille sub nullo, et ab ipsa sui medietate pasnaliter 
ad ima propellitur, id est, ad ea quibus pecora leetantur(De Trinitatc, 1. XII., c. xi., P.L., 
XLIL, 1006-1007). 

3 The same is to be found in ST. AMBROSE, De Ptsnit., 1. II., 96, 97. P.L., XVI., 
520-521. Epist. II., 26. P.L., XVI., 886. St. Benedict had in mind a passage in 
the Historia monacborum of RUFINTJS, c. xxxi. (ROSWEYD, p. 484): Docebat beatus Antonius 
quod si quis velit ad perfectionem velociter pervenire, non sibi ipse jieret magister, nee 
propriis voluntatibus obediret^ etiamsi rectum videatur esse quod vellet ; sed secundum 
mandatum Salvatoris observandum esse, ut ante omnia unusquisque abneget semetipsum sibi 
et renuntiet propriis voluntatibus, quia et Salvator ipse discit : Ego vent non ut faciam 
voluntatem meam sed cjus qui misit me. 

4 Recreare is not merely to give alms, but to give food to the poor, to refresh them, 
to " re-create " them. 

5 Instruments 15, 16, 22, 23, 25, 26, 27, 41, occur in a sermon printed among the 
spuria of ST. AMBROSE (Sermo XXIV., 1 1. P.L., XVII., 654). The beginning and some 
other parts of the sermon belong probably to ST. CJESARIUS, but the whole is a com- 
pilation including later elements. 



What are the Instruments of Good Works 69 

1 6. Infirmum visitare (Eccli. vii. 1 6. To visit the sick. 
39; Matt. xxv. 35-6). 

17. Mortuum sepelire (Tob. i. 21; 17. To bury the dead, 
ii. 7-9). 

1 8. In tribulatione subvenire (Isa. i. 18. To help in affliction. 

17). . 

19. Dolentem consolari (Eccli. vii. 19. To console the sorrowing. 
38; i Thess. v. 14). 

In proportion as we conquer our selfish appetites, wd shall be able 
to provide for the divers necessities of our neighbours. If occasion for 
exercising the first two works of mercy scarcely comes to any but the 
Abbot and the cellarer, yet monks will sometimes have to visit the sick 
and bury the dead; and all can help the afflicted and console the 
sorrowing. 

20. A saeculi actibus se facere alie- 20. To keep aloof from worldly 
num. actions. 

21. Nihil amori Christi praeponere. 21. To prefer nothing to the love 

of Christ. 

Perhaps the juxtaposition of the twentieth instrument with those 
which immediately precede was suggested to St. Benedict by the text 
of St. James (i. 27) : Religion clean and undefiled before God and the 
Father is this : to visit the fatherless and widows in their tribulation, 
and to keep oneself unspotted from this world." However this may be, 
it is certain that the twentieth and twenty-first instruments have a 
general reference, that they are closely connected and complete each 
other, and that their object is to orientate our life, by showing from what 
mark we should turn and to what direct our course. The Prologue 
set this choice before us, the world or Our Lord, as mutually exclusive 
alternatives; we cannot remain neutral, but must belong wholly to 
the one or wholly to thej other. 

St. Benedict's language here is vigorous; he bids us keep aloof from 
worldly actions. By worldly actions is meant evil in all its forms: 
Corrumpere et corrumpi sceculwn voc atur (To corrupt and be corrupted 
is called the fashion of the world). After our entering into Christ by 
baptism and by the monastic profession, we should hold ourselves as 
far aloof from the world as possible and have no connection with it. 
There shall no longer be more intercourse' between us than there is 
between two corpses : " The world is crucified to me and I to the world " 
(Gal. vi. 14). Let us be on our guard against thinking that it may 
sometimes be proper to soften the differences, to lessen the distance 
which separates us. The Apostle warns us that we can only please 
God by preserving the integrity of our true life: "No man being a 
soldier to God, entangleth himself with secular businesses : that he may 
please him to whom he hath engaged himself" (2 Tim. ii. 4). The 
world itself is scandalized by our condescending to it, and the words 
of the Imitation are always fulfilled: "Sometimes we think to please 



70 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

others by our company; whereas we begin rather to be displeasing to 
them by reason of the bad qualities they discover in us " (I. viii.). 

We are not, however, vowed to solitude ; our separation from the 
world is only that we may draw near to God. No natural love for 
natural beauty shall prevail over the love which binds us to Christ. 
St. Benedict was fond of this sentence and repeats it in Chapter LXXII. 
Commentators give St. Matthew (x. 37-38) as the source of the passage, 
but it is more probably inspired by the Fathers. It is said in the 
Life of St. Antony : " His conversation, which was seasoned with wit, 
consoled the sad, instructed the ignorant, reconciled enemies: he 
persuaded all that nothing should be preferred to the love of Christ." 1 
And St. Cyprian had written before this; "To prefer nothing to 
Christ." 2 

22. Iram non perficere (Matt. v. 22. Not to gratify anger. 
22). 

23. Iracundiae tempus non reser- 23. Not to harbour a desire of 
vare. revenge. 

24. Dolum in corde non tenere 24. Not to foster guile in one's 
(Prov. xii. 2o). 3 heart. 

25. Pacemfalsam non dare (Ps.xxvii. 25. Not to make a feigned peace. 

3)' 

26. Caritatem non derelinquere 26. Not to forsake charity. 

(iPet.iv. 8). 

27. Non jurare, ne lorte perjuret 27. Not to swear, lest perchance. 
(Matt. v. 33 j^). 4 one forswear oneself. 

28. Veritatem ex corde, et ore pro- 28. To. utter truth from heart and 
ferre (Ps. xiv. 3); mouth. 

29. Malum pro malo non reddere 29. Not to render evil for evil. 
(I Pet iii. 9). 

30. Injuriam non facere, sed factam 30. To do no wrong to anyone, 
patienter sufferre (i Cor. vi. 7). 5 yea, to bear patiently wrong done to 

oneself. 

1 Versio Evagrii, 14. P.G., XXVI., 865. 

2 Here is the whole .passage of ST. CYPRIAN; St. Benedict seems to have known 
it well: Humilitas in conversations^ stabilitas in fide, verecvndia in verbis, infactisjustitia, 
in operibus misericordia, in moribus disciplina, injuriam facere non nos'se, et factam fosse 
tolerare (the thirtieth instrument), cum jratribus pacem tenere ; Deum toto corde diligere, 
amare in illo quod pater est, timere quod Deus est ; Cbristo omnino nibil praponere, quia 
nee nobis quicquam ille praposuit, caritati ejus inseparabiliter adbeerere (De Oratione 
Dominica, xv. P.L., IV., 529). 

3 Instruments 22-28 recall Prov. xii. 16-20. 

4 This maxim occurs several times in ST. AUGUSTINE, for instance Epist., CLVII., 40. 
P.L., XXXIII., 693. JOSEPHUS cites it (with a slight variation) as familiar to the 
Essenes: De Bella Jud., 1. II., c. viii. (al. vii.). It is interesting to note that a portion 
of the list of Essene virtues given by Josephus corresponds 'quite closely with the 
series of the instruments of good works from 13 to 28: sobriety, works of mercy, 
abstention from angry acts, true peace, fidelity to promises, abstention from oaths. 
We do not put forward Josephus as one of St. Benedict's sources, although he might 
very we|l have known the Jewish War by means of the Latin translation which was 
current in his time and which, according to CASSIODORUS (De Institute div. litt., c. xvii. 
P.L., LXX., 1133), was attributed to St. Ambrose, or St. Jerome, or Rufinus. 

5 St. Benedict's words come rather from ST. CYPRIAN or the Sale of ST. MACARIUS 
(xxi.). 



What are the Instruments of Good Works 71 

31. Inimicos diligere (Matt. v. 44). 31. To love one's enemies. 

32. Maledicentes se non remale- 32. Not to render cursing for 
dicere, sed magis beneditere (i Pet. iii. cursing, but rather blessing. 

9)- 

33. Persecutiones pro justitia sus- 33. To bear persecution for jus- 
tinere (Matt. v. 10). tice' sake. 

The subject is still charity towards our neighbour, but charity 
exercised under difficult circumstances, when our neighbour is a trial 
to us or even becomes our enemy and persecutor. There are cases 
where simple interior benevolence will not do, where charity must be 
backed by courage and magnanimity. Our Lord sometimes requires 
heroism. Not only must we never abandon serenity of mind or seek 
revenge; every Christian must have in his heart this divine disposition 
of returning good for evil. For children of God, to suffer persecution 
for justice' sake is the highest happiness. 

This group of counsels is interesting also for the fact that it adds 
the virtue of uprightness to that of charity. It is the glory of the 
monastic life to be founded in loyalty and absolute sincerity, to be 
delivered from all the diplomacy and shiftiness of the world. Happy 
those who have nothing to hide, who know nothing of tortuous or 
subterranean manoeuvres, who live full in the day. Happy those who 
have brought all their being to a perfect simplicity, and who, before 
God and before men, are what they are, without duality, stiffness, or 
effort, but with flexibility and ease. 

34. Non esse superbum (Tit. i. 7). 34. Not to be proud. 

35. Non vinolentum (ibid.). 35. Not given to wine. 

36. Non multum edacem (Eccli. 36. Not a glutton. 
xxxvii. 32). 

37. Non somnolentum (Prov. xx. 37. Not drowsy. 

13). 

38. Non pigrum (Rom. xii. n; 38. Not slothful. 
Prov. xxiv. 30 sq.). 

39. Non murmurosum (Sap. i. n). 39. Not a muirmurer. 

40. Non detractorem (ibid.). 40. Not a detractor. 

From the thirty-fourth to the sixty-third, the instruments seem 
designed to regulate morally, not our life in relation to others, but our 
separate personal life. First comes a series of negative counsels. The 
preceding ones had put us on our guard against the ways of the world 
which foment discord among men; these warn the monk to abstain 
from other " worldly actions " which are incompatible with Christian 
dignity. Anger and all its train of vices having been banished already, 
it remained to denounce pride, gluttony, and sloth; lust is dealt with in 
the fifty-ninth and sixty-third instruments, and envy in the sixty-fifth. 
St. Benedict singles out for special condemnation the spirit of mur- 
muring, a spirit habitual with the idle and lazy; the cantankerous, 
critical, and malicious spirit. 



72 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

41. Spem suam Deo committere 41. To put one's hope in God. 
(Ps. Ixxii. 28). 

42. Bonum aliquod in se cum 42. To attribute any good that 
viderit, Deo app licet, non sibi. one sees in oneself to God and not 

to oneself. 

43. Malum vero semper a se factum 43. But to recognize and always 
sciat, et sibi reputet. impute to oneself the evil .that one 

does. 

These counsels are designed to fortify us against the secret pride 
that rises in us when we have done good or avoided evil. We must 
know to whom we should ultimately attribute the glory of our virtues and 
the shame of our faults. It is too common a tendency to assume respon- 
sibility for the good alone and to give the glory of it to oneself; more- 
over, at an epoch which lay close to Pelagianism or Semi-Pelagianism, 
it was not superfluous briefly to recall the doctrines of grace and free- 
will; St. Benedict has done this already in the Prologue. In this place 
he proclaims that all man's strength and trust are in God and not in 
himself: " But it is good for me to cling to my God, to put my hope 
in the Lord God " (Ps. Ixxii. 28) ; fallen man must claim nothing as his 
own but evil and sin. 1 

44. Diem judicii timere (Luc. xii.). 44. To fear the Day of Judgement. 

45. Gehennam expavescere (ibid.). 45. To be in dread of hell. 

46. Vitam asternam omni concupis- 46. To desire with all spiritual 
centia spirituali desiderare (Phil. i. 23; longing everlasting life. 

Ps. Ixxxiii.). 

47. Mortem quotidie ante oculos 47. To keep death daily before 
suspectam habere. 2 one's eyes. 2 

If it be wise to distinguish the sources from which our actions come, 
it is indispensable also to recognize whither they lead us. In these four 
counsels our Holy Father warns us to think of our last end : of death, 
judgement, hell, and heaven. The whole.of life takes a different aspect 
according as we regard it as a walk or a journey. In the first case our 

1 Our Holy Father is in agreement with ST. AUGUSTINE: Non prasumat de $, sentiat 
se bominem, et respiciat dictum propbeticum : Malediclus omnis qui spent suam ponit in 
bomine. Sttbdticat se sibi, sed non deorsum versus. Subducat se sibi, ut btereat Deo. 
Ouidquid boni babet, tlli tribuat a quofactus est; quidquid mali babet, ipse sibi fed'. 
Deus quod in illo malum est, non fecit (Serm. XCVI., 2. P.L., XXXVIII., 386). A 
similar formula occurs in the Neo-Platonic philosopher PORPHYRY: IlaWcov 5>v 
irpa.TTOfj.tv ayafi&v TOV 6tuv IUTIOV ^ya>jie$a ' raw Se KUKO>V amoi 7//xct? ftrpiv ot 
cXo/zEpot (Epist. ad Marcellam, xii.). We may also compare with St. Benedict's teaching 
tfiat of the Council of Orange in 529: Nemo babet de suo nisi mendacium et peccatum. Si 
quid autem babet homo veritatis atque justifies, ab illofonte est, quern debemus sitire in 
bac eremo, ut ex eo quasi gut tis quibusdam irrorati, non deficiamus in via (Can. xxii., MANSI, 
t. VIII., col. 716). [The words of PORPHYRY echo a famous passage in PLATO'S Re- 
public.] 

z Being recommended by Holy Scripture (Ecclus. vii. 40; Matt. xxiv. 42 ff.), this 
practice was familiar to the ancient monks: Cogita apud temetipsum et dicito : utique non 
manebo in hoc mundo, nisi preesenti bac die, et non peccabis Deo. . . . Pcnatque sibi 
mortem ante oculos (Reg. S. ANTONII, xii., xlv.). Oportet monacbum ut semper lugeat, 
semper suorum sit mcmor peccatorum et omni bora ponat sibi mortem ante oculos suos (Verba 
Scniorum : Vita Patrum, III., 196. ROSWEYD, p. 529). 



What are the Instruments of Good Works 73 

movements are free, and we may choose our own pace. But if it be a 
journey with a fixed end, and if the conditions of this journey be such 
that it must end soon, perhaps in an unexpected fashion, and that it 
would be simply terrible not to reach our goal, would \i not be folly 
to travel at a venture ? We have no right to forget the judgement of 
God which awaits us. We have no right to put aside the terrors of hell, 
as though hell did not concern us. There are not two Christianities. 
And since Satan could fall from the steps of God's throne to the depths 
of the abyss, there is no security for us but in the continual consideration 
of our destiny. We are moving towards it. Our Lord calls Himself 
" He that cometh," o e/^o/tevo?. And those whose souls are turned to 
Him in faith and hope and charity may make their own the words of 
the Spirit and the Bride: " Come, Lord Jesus." 

For there is a something better still than the fear of God's judgement, 
and it is the desire of eternity, the burning thirst to see Our Lord and 
to be with Him for ever. St. Benedict indicates the true character of 
this desire in a word: it should be supernatural. With the young some- 
times, just after conversion and in the exaltation of their first fervour, 
the longing for eternity is but an emotional yearning, a curiosity legiti- 
mate in itself, yet mixed with imperfection. Some have this desire 
through a delicacy of conscience which shows them in how many ways 
they may offend God every day. With other souls it springs from 
weariness and cowardice, from the wish to be done with the toils of 
the spiritual life. But the desire of heaven is of purest metal when it 
awakes towards the end of our days, for we are never more' attached to 
the charms of the present life than when it is passing from us ; and few 
are they who, when the thread of their life is worn thin, ask God to 
come and sever it forthwith. 

We must think upon death. Death has no terrors for a monk. 
Paganism, our imagination, and our feelings have taught us to envelop 
this last moment in dread. The idea, or rather the imagination, of 
death always suggests to us farewell scenes, tears, mournful chants, 
the horrors of .corpses and tombs; our childish eyes pictured death as a 
skeleton holding a huge scythe, or under the symbol of a skull and cross- 
bones. Certainly death is the proof of sin and its punishment. But 
Our Lord Himself tasted this bitter cup, and so delivered us from 
the terror which death inspired in the ancients. " Therefore because 
the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself in like 
manner hath been partaker of the same: that, through death, he might 
destroy him who had the empire of death, that is to say, the devil: 
and might deliver them who through the fear of death were all their 
lifetime subject to servitude" (Heb. ii. 14-15). And if we regard 
death as the final meeting with Him whom we have sought and loved 
so long in faith, it is no longer possible to feel an indefinable superstitious 
fear at its approach. It is the true communion, and solemn profession, 
the veritable beginning of all things. " Yes," you will say, " but what 
about my failings ?" You must labour to overcome them, and to ex- 



74 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

piate them. And it is right that we should love all that comes from 
God; we must love His justice, and we must love purgatory. 'From 
now on we must accept the reprisals which He has to take on us and 
abandon ourselves blindly to His infinite mercy. Do we not go towards 
it with souls bathed in the Blood of Our Saviour and all penetrated 
with His beauty ? Will not God refuse to see in us aught but His 
own Son ? 

Very easy too is it to meditate on death in general or on the death 
of another, and such meditations are not without their usefulness. But 
our own death, the death of this individual concrete being that 
above all is good for us to consider, if not for the purpose of imagining 
its form, at least to accept in advance all its bitterness, all its conditions, 
all its particular circumstances. " To keep death daily before one's 
eyes." There is an act of perfect charity embodied in this rehearsal 
of death. And, as experience shows well, we cannot extemporize our 
dying; when death has not been prepared and practised, the piece is a 
failure. Not that we must "make-up" beforehand, practise poses, 
and prepare fine speeches and pathetic farewells : for death should be 
natural; but precisely that it may be natural, and since it only happens 
once " it is appointed unto men once to die " let us fix ourselves 
in the dispositions which may make it " precious in the sight of God." 
St. Benedict would like this thought and this effort to be a daily practice : 
so that we may accustom ourselves to it the more, and prevent all 
surprise, and perhaps also that we may repress in ourselves a certain 
excessive enjoyment of life. 

48. Actus vitae suae omni hora 48. To keep guard at all times over 
custodire (Deut. iv. 9). the actions of one's life. 

49. In omni loco Deum se respicere, 49. To know for certain that God 
pro certo scire (Prov. v. 21). sees one everywhere. 

We know our goal. St. Benedict now indicates some practices which 
help us to reach it. The constant thought of death makes us use life 
well. There is a close and necessary relation between what we are 
and what we shall be, for with the works of the present life do we 
construct our eternity. " To keep guard at all times over the actions 
of one's life " is to live thoughtfully, to be a person and not a puppet, 
a? being that rules itself and not an animal deprived of reason; it is to 
weigh one's actions and make them conform to law, to have empty and 
void of fruit not even one of those days which Our Lord has given us for 
His service: " Defraud not thyself of the good day: and let not the part 
of a good day overpass thee" (Ecclus. xiv. 14; compare the prayers 
of Prime: Doming Deus . . . and Dirigere ..-.). It is to set ourselves 
to accomplish our supernatural education by a resolute acceptance 
of all that God asks of us. The two first educations, the education of 
the family and the education of the school, even though without defects, 
even though they had always helped and never thwarted each other, 
would still not be enough to shape the whole man. For man has not 
only to ratify this work, he has to pursue it without ceasing. Grace 



What are the Instruments of Good Works- 75 

is a principle of action, and it is given us abundantly only that our 
activity may be raised higher from day to day and secured from all 
the counter-attacks of self-love. 

" To know for certain that God sees one everywhere." This advice 
must be very important since St. Benedict is constantly repeating it. 
He gives it in the Prologue, in the first and last degrees of humility, in 
the chapter " Of the discipline of saying the Divine Office." We find 
it in the Liturgy of the Church: 

Speculator adstat desuper, 
Qui nos diebus omnibus, 
Actusque nostros prospicit 
A luce prima in vesperum. 1 

The warning is so natural that it may be addressed to all: to the 
Christian as to the monk, to the child as to the mature man: " God sees, 
you." It would seem that those prodigies of sanctity, the Patriarchs, 
walked towards perfection with no other principle. Holy Scripture 
considers that all has been said about their greatness when it is described 
in these few words : " He walked with God," " He walked before God "; 
and God gives Abraham no other rule but this: " Walk before me and 
be perfect." 

The precept has a sovereign efficacy. The imperative of the moral 
law is only categorical when we see in it something more than an 
aesthetic rule, when we realize that God is not only the author of this 
law, -but also its surety and its guardian. Our moral life requires a 
witness, a function assigned to friendship by pagans and lay directors 
of conscience. Making his own a maxim of Epicurus and Plato, 
Seneca wrote thus in his eleventh letter to Lucilius: "We must choose 
some good man and keep him ever before our eyes, so that we may 
live as though he were looking on and do all as though he saw us. . . . 
Many sins are prevented if there be a witness by the sinner." For us 
this is no fiction of the imagination, but a living reality; nor have we 
a mere witness, but a Being who is at once spectator and actpr, no 
man but God. And we Christians say : Nemo peccat videns Deum, " No 
one seeing God sins." The impeccability of the elect is due to their 
being for ever rooted in good by the uninterrupted contemplation of 
beauty. Now we by faith may share in this privilege of vision, and the 
" exercise of the presence of God " may become something assiduous 
and constant, like our consciousness of ourselves. 

50. Cogitationes malas cordi suo 50. To dash down at the feet of 
advenientes mox ad Christum allidere. Christ one's evil thoughts, the instant 

that they come into the heart. 

51. Et senior! spiritual! patefacere. 51. And to lay them open to one's 

spiritual father. 
1 Feria V., ad Laudes, 

The Watcher ever from on high ' 
Marks our days as they go by, 
And every act discerneth done 
From early dawn to setting sun. 



76 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

52. Os suum a malo, vel pravo 52. To keep one's mouth from evil 
eloquio custodire (Ps. xxxiii. 14). l and wicked words. 

53. Multum loqui non amare (Prov. 53. Not to love much speaking. 
x.i9). 

54. Verba vana aut risui apta non 54. Not to speak vain words or 
loqui (Matt. xii. 36; 2 Tim. ii. 16). such as move to laughter. 

55. Risum multum aut excussum 55. Not to love much or excessive 
non amare (Eccli. xxi. 23). laughter. 

The forty-eighth and forty-ninth instruments were of a general 
character, inviting us to keep watch over our actions and giving us the 
motive for this watchfulness namely, the watchfulness of God. From 
this point the Holy Rule descends to detail. In the first place our 
acts are interior ones, thoughts and tendencies. We observed in the 
Prologue, in dealing with a text of similar import to the fiftieth instru- 
ment, that we should exercise a rigorous control over the feelings and 
thoughts which present themselves to us. When recognized as evil 
or dangerous, they must be dashed at once on the Rock, which is Christ. 
There is great security in thus seizing every irregular motion in its 
beginnings, while it has not yet got all its strength and while our strength 
remains intact ; for it is easier to extinguish a spark than a fire. And the 
author of the Imitation (I. xiii.) recalls in this connection the verses of 

Ovid: 

Principiis obsta; sero medicina paratur, 

Cum mala per longas invaluere moras. 2 

Another condition of security, equally absolute, is to drag Cacus 
from his cave, and to go simply and open one's soul, not only to one's 
confessor, but to one's Abbot, or Master of Novices, or to the superior 
against whom one is tempted. Our Holy Father makes of this course 
of action a special degree of humility, 8 and we may reserve our com- 
mentary for the seventh chapter. 

But our actions are not only thoughts and secret movements of the 
soul; there are also the words and external signs which manifest them. 
St.Benedict counsels us to guard them equally and keep watch over them. 
Conversation should be monastic; we should banish from it all that 
would be out of place or of doubtful character. And since there is 
danger, when one speaks much, of saying many things that had far better 
not be said, and danger always of dissipation, we should agree to avoid 
wordiness. Our Holy Father adds : " Not to speak vain words or such 
as move to laughter." He does not mean to proscribe spiritual joy, 

1 D. BUTLER indicates as sources; Ingenio malo pravoque (SALLUST., Catil., v.). Malo 
pravoque consilio (Lvcmti CMJG., Mor. esse pro Dei fl., in. P.L., XIII., 1019). 
1 Resist beginnings; all too late the cure 
When ills have gathered strength by long delay. 

3 CASSIAN had already written these words of gold: Nullas penitus cogitations* 
prurientes in corde perniciosa confusione celare, sed confestim ut exartee fuerint eas suo 
patefacere settion, nee super earum judicio quicquam sues discretion committere, sed illud 
credere malum esse vel botsum, quod discusserit ac pronuntiaverit senioris examen. . . . 
Generate et evident indicium diaoolitte cogitationis esse pronuntiant, si earn seniori confun- 
damur aperire (Inst., IV., ix.). 



What are the Instruments of Good Works 77 

nor that happiness which is sometimes an indication and an instrument 
of perfection, 1 but only gross gaiety, the unbridled noisy spirit, coarse 
and violent laughter. St. Benedict formulates the same restriction 
later on at greater length. 

56. Lectiones sanctas libenter au- 56. To listen willingly to holy 
dire. reading. 

57. Orationi frequenter incumbere 57. To apply oneself frequently to 
(Luc. xviii. I ; Col. iv. 2). prayer. 

. 58. Mala sua praeterita cum lacri- 58. Daily to confess in prayer one's 

mis vel gemitu quotidie in oratione Deo past sins with tears and sighs to God, 

confiteri, et de ipsis malis de cetero and to amend them for the time to 

emendare (Ps. vi. 7). come. 

59. Desideria carnis non perficere. 59. Not to fulfil the desires of the 
Voluntatem propriam odire (Gal. v. 16; flesh: to hate one's own will. 

Eccli. xviii. 30). 

60. Praeceptis Abbatis in omnibus 60. To obey in all things the com- 
obedire, etiam si ipse aliter (quod absit) mands of the Abbot, even though he 
agat, memor illius Dominici praecepti : himself (which God forbid) should act 
Qua dicunt, facite, quce autem faciunt otherwise: being mindful of that pre- 
facere noliie (Matt, xxiii. 3). cept of the Lord: " What they say, do 

ye; but what'they do, do ye not." 

61. Non velle did sanctum, ante- 61. Not to wish to be called holy 
quam sit, sed prius esse, quo verius before one is so; but first to be holy, 
dicatur. that one may be truly so called. 

62. Praecepta Dei factis quotidie 62. Daily to fulfil by one's deeds 
adimplere (Eccli. vi. 37). the commandments of God. 

The first two instruments mark the practical means which most 
effectively repress every evil habit and ensure to the monastic life its 
character of seriousness. Instead of letting himself slip into dissipation 
or gossip, a monk devotes himself to the study of spiritual things and 
to prayer. He is recommended to love holy reading and to have a 
taste for God's word : " Blessed are they that hear the word of God 
and keep it " (Luke xi. 28). It is by hearing that faith comes to us: 
" faith is from hearing" (Rom. x. .17); and it may be that the Rule 
speaks designedly of hearing and not of reading. Moreover, thanks 
to the word audire (hear) the fifty-sixth instrument was put within 
reach "of all, including monks who could not read. Prayer is easy for 
souls who live in constant communion with the teaching of Scripture 
and the saints. We may believe that our Holy Father remembered 
what Sulpicius Severus wrote of St. Martin : " He never let any hour 
or moment pass by, but he applied himself to prayer or reading; though 
even while reading, or whatever else he was doing, he never relaxed 
his mind from prayer." 2 

To meditation and prayer the monk shall join the spirit of compunc- 
tion. His intimacy with God does not dispense him from remembering 
ever that he is a sinner. So he shall replace worldly joy by tears and 

1 Cf. S. BASIL., Reg. fas., xvii. 

a Vita B. Martini, xxvi, P.L., XX., 175-176. 



78 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

heartfelt lamentation; and, in proportion as this compunction is sincere, 
he shall watch that he commits his former faults no more, and shall 
undertake a serious reform of his life. 1 

Our watchfulness should be directed to the two sources of evil 
which are in us: the spirit and the flesh; for the whole man suffers if 
either is affected. The passions of the flesh are far from being the more 
formidable; for those of the spirit are more treacherous and merit well 
the hatred which St. Benedict requires. "Go not after thy desires 
and turn away from thine own will," says Ecclesiasticus. 

To help us to triumph over all the forms of self-love, Our Lord has 
substituted for our wills His Divine Will, manifesting itself by the 
medium of a created authority. So our Holy Father traces for us a 
whole scheme of perfection and security when he writes : " To obey 
in all things the commands of the Abbot, even though he himself (which 
God forbid) should act otherwise: being mindful of that precept of the 
Lord: ' What they say, do ye; but what they do, do ye not.' " 

St. Benedict next warns us wittily against a rather subtle temptation 
which may arise in religious souls. It is not wise to believe too soon that 
one has reached the " transforming union." When a monk admires 
himself and aims at being canonized by his brethren, it is a certain sign 
that he is still far from sanctity. The author of the letter ad Celantiam 
matronam, which appears among the letters of St. Jerome, gives the 
same warning to his correspondent : " Beware lest beginning to fast 
or abstain you think yourself already a saint." 2 Let us first become 
saints, if we would like to be justly called such; and with this purpose 
let us strive each day to establish absolute agreement between our 
actions and the commandments of God. 

63. Castitatem amare (Judith xv. 63. To love chastity. 

"). 

64. Nullum odire (Lev. xix. 17; 64. To hate no man. 

Matt. v. 43 jy.). 

65. Zelum et invidiam non habere 65. Not to be jealous, nor to give 
(Jac. iii. 14; Gal. v. 19 JTJ.). way to envy. 

66. Contentionem non amare 66. Not to love strife. 
(2 Tim. ii. 14). 

67. Elationem fugere. 67. To fly from vainglory. 

68. Seniores venerari (Lev. xix. 32). 68. To reverence seniors. 

69. Juniores diligere (i Tim. v. i). 3 68. To love juniors. 

70. In Christi amore pro inimicis 70. To pray for one's enemies in 
orare (Matt. v. 44). the love of Christ. 

71. Cum discordantibus ante solis 71. To make peace with an adver- 
occasum in pacem redire (Eph. iv. 26). sary before the setting of the sun. 

1 The same advice occurs in the Rule ascribed to ST. ANTONY (xxv., xxx., xliv.). 

2 Epist. CXLVIII., 22. P.I., XXII., 1214. 

3 WEYMAN has noted that instruments 68 and 69 are found in the Florilegium of 
the Greek compiler JOHN OF STOBI or STOBJEUS (III., ITe/ji (^poi^o-ceof, So. Sounudov TU>V 
firra (ro0d>j> vtrotifJKai): Hptvftvrtpov al8ov ' vfutrepov StSdu/ce. Weyman proposes to 
read in St. Benedict duigere instead of diligere; but Traube and Butler maintain the 
reading. Stobams, a pagan, was probably contemporaneous with St. Benedict (about 550). 
Afl to SOSIADES, who collected the maxims of the Sages, this is all that is known of him. 



What are the Instruments of Good Works 79 

" To love chastity." This is the sole passage of the Rule where 
formal mention is made of chastity; doubtless because this virtue is so 
involved in the concept of the religious life that it was unnecessary to 
insist on it. Ancient monastic legislators are, however, more explicit, 
and while St. Benedict in the course of his Rule limits himself to putting 
us on our guard against bad thoughts and the desires of the flesh, his 
predecessors did not disdain to enter into detail concerning the occasions 
which must be avoided and the vices which must be punished. 1 St. 
Benedict simply says " to love chastity," as he said above " to love 
fasting." But while we are asked to love fasting only with a love of 
appreciation and as a useful tool, we must love chastity for itself and 
with a true affection. For priest and for monk chastity is a part of 
charity, its fine flower and perfection. With it the holocaust is complete 
and our body contributes its share to the work of the adoration of God 
and union with Him. " I beseech you\ . . that you present your 
bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing unto God " (Rom. xii. i). And 
St. Paul recommends the state of chastity because it is beautiful and 
good, and because it secures leisure for the holding of a continuous 
converse with the Divine Purity, " for that which is seemly and which 
may give you power to attend upon the Lord without impediment" 
(i Cor. vii. 35). In the enumeration of the fruits of the Spirit, where 
charity is first, chastity ends the list and seems to sum all up in itself: 
" Charity, joy, peace . . . continency, chastity " (Gal. v. 22-23). 
The exercise of charity, says St. Thomas, is most spontaneous, because, 
more than any other habit, charity has a powerful inclination towaVds 
its act; and the rest of the virtues borrow their facility from it. The 
preservation of chastity becomes an easy and delightful task so soon as it 
is subsumed into charity. And does it always require an heroic struggle 
to remain pure when one is far from the world, in touch with God, using 
prayer and study, and employing a detailed prudence, proportionate 
to the value of that which we wish to safeguard ? 

The instruments from the sixty-fourth to the seventy-first revert 
to the subject of fraternal charity. We have no right to indulge in 
estrangement or aversion from anyone whatsoever. Animosity, 
envy, and jealousy are proscribed. Even argument is rarely opportune : 
" Not to love strife. To fly from vainglory." In dispute or argument 
of a somewhat lively character, there constantly emerges some inordinate 
esteem of our own ideas and a tendency towards display. The 
discussion is often interminable and pure loss, since it is much less a 
question of principles than of mere accidentals. 

Fraternal charity is wise even in the nuances of life. In every com- 
munity old and young are side by side. The first have the experience 
of age, the second have vigour and spirit; the former love calm, the 
latter are restless ; and it is not a very rare thing to find them forming 
two groups with opposing tendencies. Our Holy Father's design is 
to prevent rivalry and petty troubles, to unite the two ages in mutual 

* Cf. MARTENE, in b. he. 



80 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

affection, to gather all souls together round the Abbot, and so by him 
close to God. So there will be respect and reverence for the old, and 
these in their turn will show affection and condescension towards the 
young. The same formula is repeated in Chapter LXII1. 1 

If, despite all the efforts of our charity, there be brethren who make 
themselves our enemies, there remains to us the last resource of praying 
for them, in union with Christ who taught this counsel of evangelical 
perfection and Himself practised it on the cross. We must also know 
how to effect a reconciliation with those who may have, had some dis- 
agreement with us. Virtual reconciliation that is, a reconciliation 
which is not formal but is implied in our attitude is often sufficient 
and is the best. We should make peace quickly, or at least " before the 
setting of the sun," which should be the limit. It were even better to 
make Our Lord wait than to postpone reconciliation: "Go first and 
be reconciled with thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift " 
(Matt. v. 24). 

72. Et de Dei misericordia nun- 72. And never to despair of God's 
quam desperare. mercy. 

This last recommendation has in the Christian life almost the 
value of the first, of which it seems an echo: for to be confident always 
of God's love no matter what may happen is to love Him truly: "I 
have hoped in the mercy of God for ever, yea for ever and ever " (Ps. li. 
10). In making this instrument the last of the whole series our Holy 
Father seems to say to us : "Even though you should have neglected the 
others, grasp your soul again and set yourself face to face with duty." 
Every fault and every error of detail should stir in us a twofold move- 
ment, of regret and of confidence. The first is indispensable, but it 
should be expeditious and should never be alone. Perhaps the most 
formidable thing in our daily failings is not the fault itself, but the 
weariness, heaviness, discouragement, and disillusionment that it leaves 
after it. We promised perfect fidelity, and lo, how we have failed of 
its perfection! The spell is broken, done with, shattered, like the 
glass-drop that goes to dust when we break its point. And till next 
confession, or till some strong movement of grace, the soul will remain 
in the gloomy contemplation of its weakness. 

True, it is a painful thing to be always running on the same rock, 
or always cleaning up the same dirt; it would be far sweeter to unite 
oneself to Our Lord for ever by a single act, like the angels. However, 
there is a good side even to these perpetual jerks and oscillations. For 
when all is said, to return to God when one has been misled, to make it up 
with Him, to put our whole soul back at His feet, this is an act of perfect 
charity. It is not impossible that these falls have contributed much to 

1 The Rule of SS. PAUi and STEPHEN says in gracious terms: Senior es junioribus 
affectum paternum impendani et cum imperandi necessariumfuerit, non tumenti animositate 
et clamosis vocibus, sed Jiducialiter, tranquitta simplicitate et auctoritate bonce vitee ad 
peragendam communem utilitatem quafuerint opporttina injnngant (c. ii.). 



IV hat are the Instruments of Good Works 81 

our progress. In any case they invite us to greater watchfulness and 
teach us the little or nothing that we are. Whatever our weakness may 
have been God has not changed, His arms are always open. Let us 
remember the father of the Prodigal Son, and the Good Samaritan, and 
other gospel parables, in which is enshrined for ever the form of divine 
mercy. 

Ecce haec sunt instrumenta artis Behold, these are the tools of the 
spiritualis: quse cum fuerint a nobis spiritual craft, which, if they be con- 
die noctuque incessabiliter adimpleta, stantly employed day and night, and 
et in die judicii reconsignata, ilia merces duly given back on the Day of Judge- 
nobis a Domino recompensabitur, quam merit, will gain for us from the Lord 
ipse promisit: Quod, oculus non vidit, that reward which He Himself has 
nee auris audivit, nee in cor hominis promised " which eye hath not seen, 
ascendit, qua pnsparavit Deus his qui nor ear heard; nor hath it entered into 
diligunt eum. Officina vero ubi haec the heart of man to conceive what God 
omnia djligenter operemur, claustra hath prepared for them that love 
sunt monasterii, et stabilitas in con- him." And the workshop where we 
gregatione. are to labour diligently at all these 

things is the cloister of the monastery, 
and stability in the community. 

This conclusion contains conditions and a promise. The promise 
is that Our Lord will give His workman the wage agreed on : a recom- 
pense that the eye of man has not seen, that his ear has never heard 
described, whose worth the secret presentiments of his heart have 
never led him to suspect (Isa. Ixiv. 4; I Cor. ii. 9). This will be God 
Himself. We purchase God, we win Eternal Beauty, by means of 
these few good works; surely we shall not have laboured in vain. But 
we must employ and use properly the tools of the spiritual craft. 1 
The Father of the household has entrusted them to us, all in good 
condition; He keeps a list of them in His infallible memory; He knows 
what each of them can achieve; He will demand an exact account of them 
from us on the Day of Judgement when we return them to Him : " duly 
given back on the Day of Judgement." St. Benedict perhaps alludes to 
the practice on the great Roman estates where the farmer would receive 
all the tools necessary to work the land profitably, the owner keeping 
an exact inventory of them. 2 The labour demanded of us must be 
persevering and free from negligence : " constantly employed night and 
day labour diligently at all these things " ; for the spiritual craft is the 
most delicate of all and does not tolerate slothful or capricious workmen. 

Like every trade and every craft, it is only practised well in a special 
workshop, in appointed and appropriate surroundings. The best tools 
become useless if the farmer is a gadabout. " For the farmer should 
not be a lounger, nor go beyond his estate, except it be to learn some 
method of husbandry; and this if it be near enough for him to return 

1 Cf- GASMAN, Conlat., I., vii. 

* VARRO, De re rustica, 1. I., c. xxii. COLUMELLA, De re rust., 1. I., c. viii. In 
Chapters XXXII. and XXXV. St. Benedict expresses himself in almost the same terms 
as these writers with regard to the implements and tools of the monastery. 

6 



8 2 Commentary on the Rule of.St* Benedict 

quickly." 1 Similarly, in the eyes of our Holy Father, the work of 
religious perfection is only carried on successfully in the enclosure of a 
monastery where one abides, in the bosom of a family which one never 
quits : " the cloister of the monastery and stability in the community." 
Enclosure and stability realize our separation from the world: thanks 
to the. enclosure, the world does not reach us; thanks to stability we do 
riot go to it. Until the sixth century the great curse of monasticism was 
instability and contact with the world; and it is easy to see that St. 
Benedict is continually counteracting this perilous custom. 2 

Stability is a mark of Benedictinism, and we should hold to it as 
to a family possession. We are free and at home only in our cloister, 
and we should love it as the surety of our vocation itself. We may say 
that nuns enjoy the ideal monastic enclosure, the privilege in its entirety. 
We may envy them and instead of finding reasons for leaving enclosure, 
seek. means not to leave it. Undoubtedly the interpretation of the law 
of enclosure, as of that of poverty, belongs to the Abbot, and filial 
obedience fixes the measure and the meaning of monastic duty; but we 
should in our hearts keep a love of enclosure, even though due obedience 
may cause us to break it in the letter. There are external works which 
remain compatible with the essential requirements of stability; but in 
proportion as these works'withdraw us more from the normal conditions 
of our life, there is need of a more and more formal and explicit ruling 
of the Abbot to bind us to them. Save in cases of necessity and 
superiors should strive prudently to reduce their number we have no 
reason to meddle with apostolic works, social questions, or politics. 
St. Benedict has bidden us only employ the tools of the spiritual craft,' 
and these in the cloister. 

1 COLUMELLA, loC. tit. 

2 Read the end of the Prologue, the protest against gyrovagues in Chapter I., the 
end of Chapter LIIL, and Chapters LVIIL, LXL, LXVI., LXVII. 



CHAPTER V 
OF OBEDIENCE 

DE OBEDIENTIA DisciPULORUM. The first degree of humility is 

Primus humilitatis gradus est obedientia obedience without delay. This be- 

sine mora. Haec convenit iis qui nihil comes those who hold nothing dearer 

sibi Christo carius existimant. Propter to them than Christ, and who on ac- 

servitium sanctum quod professi sunt, count of the holy servitude which they 

seu propter metum gehennae, vel have taken upon them, and for fear of 

gloriam vitae aeternae, mox .ut aliquid hell, and for the glory of life everlasting, 

imperatum a majore fuerit, ac si divini- as soon as anything is ordered by the 

tus imperetur, moram pati nesciunt in superior, just as if It had been com- 

faciendo. De quibus Dominus dicit: manded by, God Himself, are unable 

In auditu auris obedivit mihi. Et item to bear delay in doing it. It is of these 

dicit doctoribus: Qui vos audit, me that the Lord says: "At the hearing 

audit. of the ear he hath obeyed me."-. And 

again, to teachers he saith: " He that 
heareth you heareth me." 

THERE is no contradiction between the teaching with which this 
chapter begins and the teaching of Chapter VII., where obedience 
is represented as the third degree of humility; the point of view 
is different. The obedience which is spoken of here is not a 
special degree, with a second and a third to follow: St. Benedict insists 
on its sovereign value and declares tha*t it is the summit, the " apex," 
the gist and most complete expression of humility. In fact, he is not 
treating of any sort of obedience, but of ready and loving obedience, 
which is the only true. obedience, the only kind worthy of God and of 
ourselves; our Holy Father did not care to suppose that monks could be 
content with attenuated and lower forms of obedience. St. Benedict 
regards humility in the same way as in Chapter VII. ; it is less a particular 
virtue, than a state, a temperament, a fixed moral disposition. Obedience 
and humility, conceived as St. Benedict conceives them, may be defined 
by each other; if they are distinct, it is as cause and effect, or as sign and 
reality: the acts of obedience prepare us and lead us to humility that 
is to say, to being before God what we should be; and -the perfection 
of this attitude, the attainment of humility, is prompt obedience. 

We may recognize three divisions in this chapter: the motives of 
obedience, its external qualities, its interior perfection. 

The mere fact of being creatures, and intelligent creatures, implies 
obedience. When God created, as theology tells us, He was not 
determined to the act or solicited by anything; but He had a design, and 
He has assigned an end, not for Himself and His action, but for things 
themselves. Creation has a moral end, a programme conceived extern-, 
ally by God and realizing itself in time under the hand of His omnipo- 
tence. The end of creatures ist he good; and the essential good of a 
creature is to be what God wishes it to be, to do what He wishes it to 

83 



84 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

do, to move by its acts whither He wishes to lead it that is to say, to the 
manifestation of the divine attributes. Everything co-operates after 
its kind, by means of the spontaneous activity of its being, in the execu- 
tion of a vast general plan, the harmony of which we shall only appreciate 
in heaven; nothing may step aside and follow its own caprice; it is a 
harmony without discordant note. Ontologically every creature 
remains true and good: for it is from God and for God. All creation 
obeys and obeys well, with perfect pliancy, even miraculously; God may 
always expect from it what St. Benedict calls in Chapter LXXI. the 
" obedientice bonum" And this universal subjection makes an imposing 
spectacle. But the material creation does the good without knowing 
it; call enarrant gloriam Dei, the heavens which sing the glory of God 
do not understand their song. Man alone is God's conscious and 
voluntary workman. His. function and his happiness is to take part 
freely in the concord of creation, to be the loving fellow-worker of God. 
And every law which comes to us with authority tells us only how we may 
help God to realize His programme of good and beauty. Here we have 
the exact meaning of obedience. 

The same is true and especially true of the supernatural sphere. 
And if our Holy Father gives us motives for our obedience more attrac- 
tive and efficacious than that philosophical and rather stoic counsel: 
" Unite yourself with the universe," does he not, nevertheless, from the 
Prologue onwards, depict the monk as the favoured workman for whom 
God looks ? Does he not here too invoke the " holy service " which 
the religious has vowed ? And dbes he not describe obedience as the 
practical conformity of our aims with those of God ? 

All motives call upon us to give ready obedience : loyalty, prudence, 
hope, and charity. Some men regard obedience as fidelity to the 
promises of their profession: we have given our word; and certainly 
on that day we did not promise 'to disobey nor make any reservation. 
Others remember that hell was made to engulf the rebellious angels; 
to them obedience presents itself as the very condition of their security; 
and though this be not the highest of motives, still it is good and super- 
natural. Others, again, make obedience an exercise of the virtue of hope ; 
for, knowing that the promised reward is eternal life, they turn to 
obedience as to the price of future glory. 

But the deepest motive of obedience, the motive which precedes 
all the rest, and of which they are but partial expressions, is charity. 
Prompt obedience, says St. Benedict, befits those who hold nothing 
dearer to them than Christ (compare the twenty-first instrument of 
good works). Does it seem easy and ordinary to prefer nothing to 
Our Lord ? It may be so ; but practically, unknown perhaps to ourselves, 
there are often things which we love better than Him: some passion, 
idea, project, or desire. Hence come all our resistance, laziness, delay, 
difficulties. As long as we have our own personal programme, as long 
as we determine our own aim and the employment of our activity, so 
long we are not free and God is not free in us, perfect obedience is 



Of Obedience 85 

not yet ours. But from the day that we love nothing apart from God 
or more than God, we become in His hand a power which He can wield, 
a force He can utilize as He wills. How important it is not to build 
up again the edifice of our own will, which we threw down at the begin- 
ning of our monastic life ! As we grow older there is this tendency, 
and sometimes our obedience itself becomes a snare. We should never 
unlearn the simplicity and unaffectedness of our first submission, since 
the thoroughness of our obedience will always be the true measure of 
our progress in the spiritual life. 

Those who love Christ, says St. Benedict, cannot endure a delay 
in the execution of an order; delays are to them impossible: moram pati 
nesciuntin faciendo. They have recognized the beloved voice of their 
Lord. 1 The person of the superior, whatever his character and his 
faults, never- furnishes them with an excuse for refusal. They make, 
no distinction between what comes directly from God and what comes 
from Him through the medium of a man. They always obey God; as 
Our Lord Himself says to His representatives : " He that heareth you, 
heareth me" (Luke x. 16). To them, things have colour and savour 
only in so far as God wills them or loves them; they are indifferent until 
their relation to the will of God is clear: max ut aliquid imperatum a 
major e fuerit? The simple doctrinal fact that all our obedience has 
God for its end gives us the measure of its dignity and its merit; it also 
entails promptitude; and, with pride at being so well heard and under- 
stood, God commends it in the words: " At the hearing of the ear they 
have obeyed me " (Ps. xvii. 45). 

It is only right that God should congratulate Himself on our obedi- 
ence, since it is His work. We should understand this well. Our souls 
are sanctuaries, sanctuaries of the living God. The life of Our Lord has 
been poured out in us; and all the work of the Church has no other end 
than this, to ensure in each and in all the perfect growth of Christ. 
This is elementary and familiar doctrine. But perhaps it is a less 
familiar fact that in the supernatural order no work has real, value or 
extent except such as proceeds from this treasure of the divine life which 
is given to us. Nor is our obedience perfect until it has become a 
profound and permanent deference towards Him who lives in our hearts. 
Surely the most finished form of obedience is to give oneself to every 
good work under the interior impulse of God and His Holy Spirit. Is not 
this the sense in which the Apostle says that to suffer oneself to be 
led by the Spirit of God is to be truly a child of God ? And so God 
inclines us towards obedience, not merely by objective and external 
means, not only by suggesting to us motives of the natural or the super- 
natural order, but also by making Us share within our souls in the life, 
the powers, the virtues of Him who became obedient unto death, even 
to the death of the cross. 

It would be very easy to complete the praises of obedience and to 

1 A reminiscence of CASSIAN, Inst., IV., x., xxiv.; XII., xxxii. 

* Statimque cum tibi a majorefuerit imperatum (S. PACK., Reg,, xxx.}. 



86 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

show that while remaining, like the virtue of religion, a moral virtue, 
it is nevertheless in contact with the theological virtues, which have 
God directly for their object and which unite us to Him. Obedience 
prepares the way for these virtues and is in a way permeated by them; 
from the point of view of its positive content, it practically implies the 
exercise of them. It is faith t since we express our belief in the will 
of God who conceals Himself in the person of our superior. It is hope, 
since we make God's plan our own, for time and for eternity. It is 
charity, since filial obedience as much as friendship realizes the definition : 
idem velle, idem nolle; and especially because, according to St. John: 
" He that keepeth his word, in him in very deed the charity of God 
is perfected. And by this we know that we are in him " (i John ii.'S). 
Furthermore, obedience implies the exercise of adoration in spirit and in 
truth, the .essential homage which God asks from H[is redeemed creatures. 
We may say of obedience that it sums up Christianity: " He that doth 
the will of my Father who is in heaven, he shall enter into the kingdom 
of heaven " (Matt. vii. 21). 

Ergo hi tales relinquentes statim Such as these, therefore, leaving 
quae sua sunt, et voluntatem propriam immediately all that is theirs, and 
deserentes, mox exoccupatis manibus, forsaking their own will, with their 
et quod agebant imperfectum relin- hands disengaged and leaving un- 
quentes, vicino obedientiae pede, juben- finished what they were about, with the 
tis vocem factis sequuntur; et veluti ready step of obedience, follow by 
uno momento praedicta magistri jussic, their deeds the voice of him who com- 
et perfecta discipuli opera, in velocitate mands; and so, as it were at the same 
timoris Dei, amba? res communiter instant, the bidding of the master and 
citius explicantur, quibus ad vitam the perfect work of the disciple are 
aternam gradiendi amor incumbit. together more perfectly fulfilled in 

the swiftness of the fear of God, by 
those upon whom presses the desire 
of attaining eternal life. 

Here are given the qualities of obedience. The first is promptitude. 

St. Benedict has pointed to it already, but it seems to him so 

'characteristic of true obedience that he takes pleasure in describing 

it, heaping up synonyms and most expressive images in what is perhaps 

the most elaborate passage in the whole of the Rule. 

An obedient man does not hesitate. Not only does he not look for 
excuses in order to evade his duty, he even dispenses with all deliberation 
and reasoning before he acts. Whatever the order may be and whence- 
soever it may come, it always finds him ready. Nature has equipped us 
poorly for this spontaneous action, this resolute simplicity. All change 
puts us out. Only .with effort do we modify the state of our bodies, 
whether towards rest or towards motion; and, even without appealhijg 
to purely material beings, we know quite well that when we apply 
ourselves to any work our activity converges on it in such a way, that if 
we are called to leave it in order to begin another, some Internal shock 
is inevitable; there rises within us a secret protest, a sort of involuntary 
hesitation. But in the man who has attained true obedience, we no 



Of Obedience 87 

longer find any trace of this " first movement." He leaves his work 
at once, he abandons his own will that is to say, his preference, his 
interest of the moment. His business falls from his hands and they are 
free. What matters it that his work is unfinished F 1 It may be taken 
up again if there be a chance; but it is not right that God should wait. 
For God has spoken, and for the obedient man there are only two things 
in the world, God and God's will with him. His obedience, so to say, 
keeps step witlrhis commander; the execution of an order follows the 
order at once and closely. Or, rather, there is no appreciable interval 
between the one and the other : for in some sort these two things, the 
logically prior order of the master and its fulfilment by the disciple, 
occur in the same rapid instant of time, indivisibly. 

Obedience so described is a far different thing from the obedience 
that reproduces the passivity and inertia of a corpse, or the unthinking 
docility of the stick that we brandish in our hands. 2 It is said that 
a good commander ought to have his forces well in hand, so as to get 
from them with spirit and unity the maximum efficiency at the exact 
moment that it is needed. So is it with the obedient soul; true mastery, 
true interior sovereignty, is to have all one's vital forces in hand, well 
known and marshalled, so as to make them co-operate at the exact 
moment in the work which God asks from us. The soul is become an 
activity, but one which is always supple and always free, even in the act of 
its employment; it is perfectly intelligent and gives to things their real 
value; it applies itself or detaches itself at God's will, through God and 
for God. The extraordinary promptitude of its obedience comes solely 
from its fear of God: in velocitate timoris Dei; it fears to please Him less; 
it is afraid of losing or checking its intercourse with God. Such a soul 
loves, and has no other desire than that of mounting quickly the road to 
eternal life-:-guibus ad vitam ceternam gradiendi amor incumbit. 

Ideo angustam viam arripiunt; These therefore choose the narrow 

unde Dominus dicit: Augusta via est, way, of which the Lord says: " Narrow 

quee duett ad vitam; ut non suo arbitrio is the way which leadeth unto life "; 

viventes, vel desideriis suis, et volup- so that living not by their own will, 

tatibus obedientes, sed ambulantes nor obeying their own desires and 

alieno judicio et imperio, in ccenobiis pleasures, but walking according to the 

degentes, Abbatem sibi praeesse desi- judgement and command of another, 

derant. Sine dubio hi tales illam they live in community, and desire 

Domini sententiam imitantur, qua to have an Abbot over them. Sucn 

dicit: Non veni facere voluntatem meant, as these without doubt fulfil that 

sed ejus qui misit me. saying of the Lord : " I came not to 

do mine own will, but the will of him 
who sent me." _, 

Shall we then calculate meanly and anxiously whether obedience 
has hardships, whether authority is sufficiently regulated, whether 

1 Cf. CASS., /., IV., xii. 

2 When the masters of the spiritual life use these comparisons they merely wish 
to express the perfect pliancy of the obedient soul, dead to its own will. Cf. S. NILI 
Liber de monastica exercitatione, c. xli. P.G., LXXIX., 769-772. Constitutioves 
Societatis Jesu, P. VI-, c. i. Jnstitutuyt Soc. ^.[(Prague, 1757), vol. i., p. 408, 



Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

an order is easy or not ? God and eternity are at stake; what matter, 
then, the difficulties of the road ? It is the only one: s denies se -per bane 
obedientieg viam ituros ad Deum (knowing that by this way of obedience 
they will go to God), as St. Benedict says towards the end of his Rule. 
Our Lord Himself says the same: " Narrow is the way which leadeth 
to life." Yet we must enter by it. And it is only narrow because 
our hearts are narrow; it becomes a royal and triumphal road so soon as 
we open them to God. 

When they have once recognized that eternal life is only to be won 
by obedience, generous souls will choose their lot. We shall think no 
more of living as we will, of satisfying our desires and inclinations. We 
shall travel towards God, guided by the thought and the will of others ; 
we shall live hidden in a monastery; like true cenobites, we shall willingly 
consent to have an Abbot over us, we shall readily accept this perpetual 
subjection: Abbatem sibi praesse desiderant. 1 How contrary is all 
this to the conception of obedience which worldly people have forged 
themselves ! Monks do not submit through compulsion, or weakness, 
or incapacity, or lack of initiative. 

When our obedience is such as St. Benedict wishes it to be, then 
the imitation of Our Lord is made perfect in us. " I am not come 
to do mine own will, but the will of him who sent me." All God's 
victories are won by obedience; it was so with that of which St. Michael 
was the instrument, it was so with the Incarnation, whether looked at 
from the side of Our Lord or of Our Lady; it was so with the Redemp- 
tion, and in the Holy Eucharist Our Lord has found the means of being 
obedient unto the end. The obedient, therefore, are in good company. 
And in the face of such facts, the most elementary facts of our religion, 
what is all disobedience but disorder and folly ? 

Sed haec ipsa obedientia tune accep- But this very obedience will then 

tabilis erit Deo, et dulcis hominibus, be acceptable to God and sweet to 

si quod jubetur, non trepide, non tarde, men, if what is commanded be done 

non tepide, aut cum murmure vel cum not fearfully, tardily, nor lukewarmly, 

responso nolentis efficiaturjjjquia obe- nor with murmuring, nor with an 

dientia qua; majoribus praebeVir, Deo answer showing unwillingness; for the 

exhibetur. Ipse enim dixit: *Qui vos obedience which is given to superiors 

audit, me audit. is given to God, since He Himself 

has said: "He that heareth you, 

!', heareth me." 

Truly St. Benedict is anxious to make sure of the perfection of our 
obedience; therefore he insists%t the end of this chapter on its interior 
qualities. It should become, he first says, " acceptable to God and 
sweet to men." Acceptabilis Deo. We remarked above that God takes 

1 St. Benedict once more contrasts the ideal of the cenobite with that of thesarabaite 
or gyrovague. His words recall CASPIAN, Conlat., XXIV., xxvi. (cf. Conlai., XVIIL, vii.), 
and SULPICIUS SEVERUS : Summum jus est (ccenobitii), sub abbatis imferio vivere, nibil 
arbitrio suo agere, per omtia ad nutum illius potestatemqfue pendere. . . . Htec tllorum 
frima virtus est, parere alieno imferio (Dial. I., c. x. P.L., XX., 190). 



Of Obedience 89 

pride and pleasure in the obedience of His human creatures, even as 
He took pride in the fidelity 'of Job or the charity of St. Martin. Without 
any intention of making little of the obedience of the angels, we may be 
permitted to remark that it fulfils itself in a single act, which costs them 
no suffering, coming as it does from a nature which is perfectly balanced 
and not dislocated like ours; they have no martyrs, and no virgins. 1 
Perhaps, then, God's success is more apparent in us, where obedience is 
checked and thwarted by so many perverse solicitations; we are forced 
to repeat our acts of submission over and over again and to be recap- 
turing incessantly our elusive nature. We are preparing a great 
triumph for God, " When he shall come to be glorified in his saints and 
to be made wonderful in all them who have believed " (2 Thess. i. 10). 

The final end, then, of our obedience is to please God. But, while 
that is the essential point, St. Benedict requires something more: 
et dulcis hominibus. This is a spirituality far removed from some 
modern conceptions, where, on pretext of seeing only God and referring 
all to Him, it is alleged that pleasure should not intervene in questions 
of duty, and that we degrade our obedience if we seek in it a personal 
joy, and a fortiori doubtless if we seek the pleasure of others. Our 
Holy Father knows that happiness is the end of all life and that God 
has devoted thereto the first desire of our souls. And, in the monastic 
life, charity and obedience, which rule all our behaviour, have for their 
result and even for their end to make us all happy together. " All 
do all things and suffer all things that they may be glad and rejoice." 2 
It is far from true that to seek to lighten the task of those who rule us 
and to be agreeable to them, is too human and too dangerous. 

Obedience will be sweet to God and man, and earth will become 
heaven ("Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven") if the order 
we have received is fulfilled under certain fixed conditions. Non 
trepide 'that is, without hesitation or fear; for there are not two sides 
between which our soul may waver irresolute; there is only one, the 
side of God. Non tarde, without delay, as though there were 
in us a vis inertia which hinders obedience. Non tepide? without 
lukewarmness, the soul lacking vigour and remaining as though weighed 
down by a secret affection which it keeps for some other object. Aut 
cum murmur e, without any of that murmuring of which St. Benedict 
soon speaks explicitly; and finally and a fortiori^ without protest or 
a bad grace : vel cum response nolentis. And, after this exactly graduated 
description, St. Benedict repeats that the primary motive of obedience 
is that we obey God. We are uncompromising and proud enough to 
obey none but the Lord of heaven and earth. 

1 Cf. S. JOANN. CHRYS., De virginitate,x.-jd. P.G., XLVIII., 540. 

2 S. JOANN. CHRYS., Adversus oppugnatores vita monastics, 1. III., 1 1 . P.G., XLVIL, 
366. 

3 ... Trepidas et tepidas contradictiunculas (S. AUG., De consensu Evangel.^ 1. 1., 13. 
P.L., XXXIV., 1048). De entissa (ardius vel tepidms oratione deflemus (CASS.,- Conlat, 
XXIII., vu.). 



90 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

Et cum bono animo a discipulis And it ought to be given by disciples 

praeberi oportet, quia bilarem datorem with a good will, because "God loves a 

diligit Deus. Nam cum malo animo cheerful giver." For if the disciple 

si obedit discipulus, et non solum ore, obey with ill-will, and not merely 

sed etiam corde si murmuraverit: etsi murmur with his lips but even in his 

impleat jussionem, tamen acceptus jam heart, although he fulfil the command, 

non erit Deo, qui cor respicit mur- yet he will not be accepted by God, 

murantis; et pro tali facto nullam con- who regards the heart of the murmurer. 

sequiturgratiamjimmomurmurantium And for such an action he shall gain 

poenamincurrit,sinoncumsatisfactione no reward; nay, rather, he shall incur 

emendaverit. the punishment due to murmurers, 

unless he amend and make satisfaction. 

We may distinguish three kinds of obedience : of act, of will, and of 
thought. The first is necessary, who doubts it ? But is it enough ? 
It is to make a Jew or a slave... That .is true servitude, when our 
members reluctantly execute what our will disapproves; the harmony is 
only material and external. Unless the grace of God and education 
have made us supple beforehand, our obedience is apt to be, to start 
with, rough and mechanical, something .like those angular characters 
which our childish hands traced when the teacher held them in his own. 
In a reasonable being it is necessary, for real obedience, that the will, 
ranging itself alongside the will of another, should adopt and malce its 
own the order that is given. But to live " by the judgement and will 
of another " is in St. Benedict's eyes 1 a thing of still greater perfection. 

We can well conceive this attitude : " My superior orders this. I 
shall do it, I wish to do it, and as well as I can. But it is absurd. It is 
obvious that there are better things to do." There we have no obedience 
of the understanding; there is rapine in the holocaust, it has lost its 
marrow. This may be military obedience, but it is not the obedience 
of a monk. " Very well," it may be answered, " perhaps your teaching 
is deduced from the text of the Rule; but it asks too much. In order 
to understand monastic obedience in that way, we shall have to believe 
in the universal infallibility of superiors. The Pope iiimself is only 
infallible in certain matters and under special conditions; but I must 
believe, according to this theory, that the first authority I meet is 
infallible, always and everywhere and in all circumstances. You ask 
me for too radical an abdication : I cannot go so far." It is a pity, I 
reply, for you are not, and you never will be an obedient man. And 
look what follows. Since we are all of one piece and since will must be 
guided by thought, you will not escape, even though you be a modernist, 
the psychological law of continuity and unity. Your obedience rests 
for a time on feeling alone or on habit; but little by little intellect must 
triumph over will. And then, because you would not give all, you will 
give nothing; you will attain, by degrees, the. tranquil and obstinate 
exercise of your own will and contempt of obedience. 

" Am I then bound to believe that the prescribed action is the best 

1 As for ST. IGNATIUS in his celebrated letter De virtute oledientia* 



Of Obedience 91 

possible ?" There is no question at all of the absolutely good or the 
absolutely better. God is the absolute good. As soon as one enters 
the region of created things, the absolutely good no longer exists for 
practical purposes. It would be absurd to require it of a creature. 
God Himself? does not achieve it outside Himself: the world is not 
the best of all possible worlds; and supernatural mysteries have their 
absolute grandeur only because they imply and contain God. You must 
require from your superiors only the good, and that a good which is 
fitted to a whole and will not disturb its harmony. Practically speak- 
ing, for each one of us, the absolute good is that which we are ordered 
in the name of God. Undoubtedly the Abbot is not infallible ; but for all 
that he has hij mission, he is given a grace of state, he is well and fully 
informed. And what matter if he is wrong ? Provided that authority 
does not outstep its limits and does not command evil, we ordinary 
men cannot err and are infallible in always obeying. 

With obedience of act, of will, and of thought, all is complete, but 
on condition that this full gift be offered with a good heart : cum bono 
animo. We give to God, not only without measure, but gladly and 
gracefully, with a smile and the regret that we cannot give more: 
" Everyone as he hath determined in his heart, not with sadness or of 
necessity, for God loveth a cheerful giver " (2 Cor. ix. f). 1 If your 
heart is bitter and angry, cum malo animo, if there escape you words of 
protest or merely secret murmurings, your sacrifice is there, without 
doubt; but God does not accept such mere material sacrifices; in the 
Old Testament they were hateful to Him (Ps. xlix.); He wants the 
offering of a good will, and it is to such that His eyes are turned. 2 And 
what would be the result of a mere formal submission ? Such a sub- 
mission experiences all the small trials that obedience brings, but none 
of its recompense and its joy; more than this, it incurs the punishment 
reserved for murmurers by monastic discipline. St. Benedict alludes, 
in ending, to the penances of the rule, and to the humiliations which 
monks will spontaneously impose on themselves, when having caught 
themselves in a struggle with obedience, though but for a moment, 
they wish to destroy for ever so dangerous a tendency. 

All the teaching of this chapter is, we may say, illustrated by the 
example of St. Maurus, and is admirably summarized in an antiphon of 
his office: O beatum virum, qui spreto sceculo jugum sanctee Regults a 
teneris annis amanter portavit ; et factus obediens usque ad mortem^ 
semetipsum abnegavit, ut Christo totus adhesreret? 

1 St. Paul alludes to a text of Ecclesiasticus of which St. Benedict also was thinking: 
Bono animo gloriam redde Deo et non minuas primitias manuum tuarum ; in omni dato 
bilaremfac vultum tuum (xxxv., ion). 

2 We should read : cor ejds resptcit murmurantem. 

8 O blessed man, who despising the world did lovingly bear the yoke of the Holy 
Rule from early youth; and, being made obedient unto death, denied himself that he 
might clcav* wholly to Christ, 



CHAPTER VI 
THE SPIRIT OF SILENCE 

OUR activity expresses itself in two ways, in work and in word: 
obedience determines the first, the law of silence rules the 
second. Our Holy Father obviously attaches considerable 
importance to silence; he devotes an entire chapter to it, and this 
he places among the chapters which describe the fundamental disposi- 
tions of the monastic character; he returns to it in Chapters VII., 
XXXVIIL, XLIL, XLVIIL, LIL, and alludes to it elsewhere also. 

We must not mistake the true meaning of the word taciturnitas 
which St. Benedict uses. To our ears " taciturnity " has an evil sound. 
A taciturn man is for us a self-centred, almost a crafty or cunning man; 
but St. Benedict had no thought of introducing such a character among 
his disciples. The Latin word means neither taciturnity nor simply 
silence, but rather the disposition to keep silence, the habit and the love 
of silence, the spirit of silence. 

Does this chapter institute perpetual silence ? St. Hildegard 
condemns absolute silence in the words which we quoted in the first 
chapter: Inhumanum est bominem in taciturnitate semper esse efnon loqui. 1 
Speech has been given to us as the normal method of our intercourse 
with our kind; and when men are grouped together in community 
it seems natural a priori that they should use it, at least for that inter- 
course which is indispensable to the life of body and soul. Nor has 
anyone ventured to condemn the tongue to perpetual silence; for all 
rules make it lawful to speak to one's superior and to praise God with 
the lips. With these exceptions, because of the innumerable evils 
which spring from the tongue, it has sometimes been held expedient 
to forbid all verbal intercourse. Such a measure is a bold one. It is 
the literal and material application of the gospel counsel: "If thy 
right eye scandalize thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee ... if 
thy right hand scandalize thee, cut it off and cast it from thee " (Matt. v. 
29-30). To repress temptation, this is plainly a sovereign remedy; and, 
if applied universally it would suppress at once both sin and the sinner. 
Not to speak that we may not transgress in word, is then a possible 
method. Without trying to determine whether it is the most perfect 
method we may. at least ask ourselves if it effects its purpose. Alas ! 
it does not. In; the first place because strained and exasperated nature 
often contrives ingenious escapes from so rigorous a law; and, above all, 
because the regime of signs and symbols, which must replace speech, 
presents the same dangers of dissipation along with new perils. Jealousy 
and misunderstanding are not banished; nay, they may even take a more 
formidable character than among people who converse, for these 

1 Reg. S. Batted. Explanatio. P.L., CXCVIL, 1056, 

9* 



The Spirit of Silence 93 

know one another better, and can exchange explanations. Experience 
proves, too, that the true silence of the soul may be obtained in another 
manner. 

But what is the thought of our Holy Father on this point ? It 
is enough to read without prejudice, not only this present chapter, but 
also many other passages which may easily be found. The Rule provides 
for good and useful conversation; it orders silence more or less strict 
according to time and place; it proclaims it sometimes more insistently, 
sometimes more gently; it requires us to abstain at all times from 
scurrility, and in Lent to have fewer and more serious conversations. 
The intention of Chapter VI. is less to legislate on the subject of silence 
than to remind us of principles, to remind us that every real monastic 
life should be a life of recollection. Omni tempore silentio debent studcre 
monachi (Chapter XLII). 

But let us say a few words on the traditional practice. Absolute 
or quasi-absolute silence has always been the exception, even in the 
East, and in the times of primitive fervour. 1 Certainly the ancient 
monks spoke much less than we do, and worldly conversation was banned. 
Yet they did speak. The Rule of St. Basil, for instance, allows the 
breaking of silence for good reasons, in moderation and at fitting times. 2 
We see, too, from the Lives of the Fathers, and from Cassian, that 
spiritual conversations were frequent among religious; the Rule of 
St. Pachomius prescribes such conversation every morning. 3 St. 
Benedict having made no such rule as to regular conversation, it fell 
to superiors .and customaries to supply it. At Cluny, in the time of 
Udalric, 4 there were every day (with the exception of Sundays and 
certain feast days or days of penance) two set times when the brethren 
could speak in the cloister: in summer after chapter and after None, 
in winter after chapter and after Sext. The morning conversation 
scarcely exceeded half an hour, that of the afternoon lasted sometimes 
less than a quarter of an hour; and even this was suppressed by Peter 
the Venerable. The monks took advantage of these moments of leisure 
to renew their stocks of pens, or paper, or books, to wash their refectory 
cups, to sharpen their knives, etc. In some monasteries all had to be 
present at the talk, which began with the word Benedicite. Even 
at Citeaux, where a rigortius silence was practised from the outset, the 
brethren could converse on edifying topics, if not every day, at least 
from time to time; 5 and many passages of St. Bernard, 6 though directly 

1 Cf. D. BESSE, Les Moines d' Orient, p. 489-495. 

2 Reg. contr., xl., cxxxiv.; Reg. brev., ccviii. 

3 C. xx. Cf. LADEUZE, Etude sur le cenobitisme pakbomien pendant le IV C siecle et 
.la premiere moitie du V e , p. 291. 

* UDALR., Consuet. Clun., 1. 1., c. xviii., xl. 

6 Silentium autem per totumfere diem observantes mutuis collocutionibus et collationibvt 
spiritualibus unam sibi boram reservant, invicem consolanies et invicem instruentes QACQUES 
DE VITRY, Historia Occid'entalis, c. xiv.). 

6 Tractates de duodecim gradibus superbia, c. xiii. P.L., CLXXXIL, 964. Sermo 
XVIL, de Diversis. P.Z., CLXXXIII., 583 sq. 



94 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

concerned with the abuse of speech, allow us to suppose that speaking 
was at times legitimate and that these conferences had the character 
of real recreation. 

Our recreation, provided it remains conformable to the spirit of 
Chapter VI., is not, then, an innovation or relaxation. To absent oneself 
from it would be to commit a fault against the Rule, to lose an excellent 
opportunity of merit, and to deprive oneself of a rest which has become 
indispensable now that intellectual work has taken a large place in the 
monastic horarium. There are relaxations which are compatible with 
the gravity of the religious state and habitual union with Our 
Lord. Even for monks eurpaTreXto (a pleasant wit) may become a 

moral virtue. 1 

/' 

. DK TACITURNATE. Faciamus quod Let us do as says the prophet: 

ait Propheta: Dixi, Custodiam vias " I said, I will- take heed to my ways, 
meas y ut non delinquam in lingua that I sin not with my tongue: I have 
mea: posui ori meo custodiam: obmutui, placed a watch over my mouth; I 
ft humiliatus sum, et silui a bonis. Hie became dumb, and was silent, and held 
ostendit Propheta, si bonis eloquiis my peace even from good things." 
interdum propter taciturnitatem debet Here the prophet shows that if we 
taceii, quanto magis a malis verbis ought to refrain even from good words 
propter poenam peccati debet cessari ? for the sake of silence, how much more 

ought we to abstain from evil words, 
on account of the punishment due to 
sin! 

St. Benedict begins by laying down the principle of which the whole 
chapter is only the development. He borrows it, after the custom of the 
Fathers, from Sacred Scripture. In their literal sense these words of 
Psalm xxxviii. describe the silence of the just man under oppression, 
but St. Benedict gives them a general application; he sees in them the 
line of conduct suggested to all monks by prudence, wisdom, and 
humility. Since there is a danger of sinning with the tongue and 
of retarding our supernatural growth, we shall be attentive to all that 
passes our lips and guard them severely; we shall know how to be silent, 
even when good words are concerned. 

The Prophet's meaning is plain. While recommending us to abstain, 
at times, from good discourses in the spirit of recollection, he assuredly 
means that we must at once suppress every evil word. Such words are 
positively sinful, and the fear of punishment at least should close our 
mouths. Certain conversations are no more permissible in the world 
than in the cloister; there are others which ill become religious. The 
spirit of the world, made up of pride, levity, and disregard of the super- 
natural, easily takes root in the mind of the talkative monk. Usually 

1 Cf. S. Tb., II.-IL, q. clxviii., a. 2, Utrum in ludis possit esse aliqua virtus. The 
SALMANTICENSES discuss why St. Thomas has nowhere put silence among the virtues. 
The reason is, they say, because silence is not a special virtue: it only becomes " virtuous " 
by reason of the virtue which inspires it; it may imply the exercise of various virtues 
(Cursus tbeologicuS) Tract. XII., Arbor pradicamentalis virtutum, ed Palme, t. VI., 
pp. 503-504). 



The Spirit of Silence 95 

it is charity that suffers. Alas, how little remains of certain habitual 
conversations when all unkind criticism has been subtracted ! 

Ergo quamvis de bonis et sanctis Therefore, on account of the im- 
ad sedificationem eloquiis, perfectis portance of silence, let leave to speak i 
discipulis, propter taciturnitatis gravi- be seldom granted even to, perfect 
tatem, rara loquendi concedatur licen- disciples, although their conversation 
tia, quia scriptum est: In multiloquio be good and holy and tending to edi- 
non effugies peccatum. Et alibi: Mors fication; because it is written: "In 
et vita in manibus lingua. Nam loqui much speaking thou shalt not avoid 
et docere magistrum condecet: tacere sin;" and elsewhere: "Death and 
et audire discipulo convenit. life are in the power of the tongue." 

For it becomes the master to speak 
and to teach, but it beseems the 
disciple to be silent and to listen. 

Since we must avoid the faults of the tongue and their punishment, 
some reserve is imposed on us, even in the matter of good, pious, and 
edifying conversations, for not even these are without danger. St. 
1 Benedict, like the. ancient monks, evidently admits the principle of 
spiritual conversations, but on condition that they are not multiplied, 
and that, under pretext of mutual assistance, the law of silence is not 
evaded. This law remains weighty, even for more advanced disciples, 
even for the perfect or those who think themselves such. And our Holy 
Father thus puts aside with a word the objection that these conversations 
can be dangerous only for novices. It is a general principle, and one 
enunciated by the Spirit of God, that where there is much talking it is 
hard to avoid sin (Prov. x. 19). And elsewhere it is written that " death 
and life are in the power of the tongue" (Prov. xviii. 21). " There is 
nothing better than the tongue and nothing worse," as the fable says. 
We should read in St. James the classical passage on the evils that spring 
from the tongue. Good conversations, then, are only good if they are 
authorized, short, and rare. 

St. Benedict suggests one of the dangers of these spiritual conversa- 
tions. Some speak, others listen; perhaps it is always the same persons 
who do the speaking; they are " spiritual," they have read a great deal, 
prayer has no more secrets for them, they are animated with a holy fer- 
vour. Or each offers advice, puts himself forward as teacher and director. 
But all this is often only pride and delusion; the hearers are bored and 
no one is profited. In a monastery all are pupils and disciples; divine 
instruction is given by proper authority. " It becomes the master 
to speak. and to teach, but it beseems the disciples to be silent and to 
listen." 1 

Is, then, all spiritual conversation at times of recreation banned ? 
God forbid that we should be ashamed to pronounce His Holy Name. 

1 The thought is CASSIAN'S: ... Ut indicas summum ori tuo silentium. Hie est 
ettim primus discipline actualis ingressus, ut omnium seniorum instituta atque sententias 
intento corde et quasi muto ore suscipias ac diligenter in pectore tuo condens ad perficienda 
ea potius quam ad docenda festines. Ex hoc enim cenodoxiee perniciosa prasumptio, ex 
illo autemfructus spiritualis scientiee pullulabunt (Conlat., XIV., ix.). 



96 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

But it is fitting that such subjects should be introduced quietly, and 
discussed with moderation, without any display. Those whose souls 
are habitually turned towards God do not think it necessary to proclaim 
the fact by eloquent protestations; their peace and happiness shine forth 
of themselves. We are not forbidden to speak of study in recreation 
time or to broach a serious subject, provided that we avoid a dogmatic 
tone, interminable discussions, and allusions that tend to cause dissension. 
We must not monopolize the conversation from beginning to finish, 
completely and in a very loud tone of voice, with stories which are not 
always very interesting and which people have often heard. 

Apart from times of recreation a monk should be sparing of his 
words. Though the Constitutions allow him five minutes for the 
exchange of useful information, he will not think himself obliged to 
seek and multiply occasions; and when the conversation is to be longer 
he will obtain permission. He is able to meet his brethren without 
addressing them, without firing off some jest, without dissipating him- 
self over many things. Our Holy Father says later that a wise man may 
be known by the sobriety of his speech; and the Imitation, which 
has some excellent pages on silence, warns us that only those can securely 
speak who love to be silent : Nemo secure loquitur nisi qui libenter tacet. 

Et ideo, si quse requirenda sunt a And therefore, if anything has to 
priore, cum omni humilitate et sub- be asked of a superior, let it be done 
jectione reverentiae requirantur, ne with all humility and subjection of 
plus videatur loqui quam expedit. 1 reverence, lest he seem to say more 

than is expedient. 

The objection might be raised: Well, if spiritual conversations with 
one's brethren have their dangers and must be controlled, at least it 
is always lawful for us to talk to the Abbot and our elders. It is lawful, 
but with all humility, submission, and reverence, and without speaking 
more than is fitting. 2 Our Holy Father's idea is certainly not to 
require the disciple to lessen his intercourse with his superiors ; he does 
not recommend him to be so restrained and formal as to weigh and pre- 
pare and count his words; but he knows that questions and objections 
are often put in a spirit of vainglory. 

Direction of conscience itself should not become an idle chat. " I 
should say," wrote Bossuet to Sister Cornuau, 3 "that there seems to 
me a manifest defect in present-day piety: people talk too much about 
their prayer and their state. Instead of worrying about the degrees 
of prayer, they ought, without all this introspection, to pray simply 

1 St. Benedict continues to take his inspiration from CASSIAN, who wrote imme- 
diately after the words cited before: Nibil itaque in conlatione seniorum prof err e audeas; 
nisi quod interrogate te out ignoratio nocitura out ratio necessaries cognitionis impulerit, 
ut quidam vante gloria amore distenti pro ostentatione doctrints ea qua optime norunt 
interrogare se simulant. 

2 Hoc, quod dicit : ne videatur plus loqui quam expedit, non est in Regula, sed subauditio 
est (HILDEMAR). As a matter of fact the manuscripts which best represent the Carlo- 
vingian and Cassinese traditions have not got this conclusion. 

3 September 1 7, 1 690 (URBAIN et LEVESQUE, Correspondance de Eossuetj t. IV., p. 1 1 1). 



The Spirit of Silence 97 

as God gives them to pray, and not have so much to say about it." 
And St. John of the Cross says : " What is wanting, if there be anything 
wanting, is not writing or talking there is more than enough of that 
but silence and action. Moreover* talking distracts the soW-, -while 
silence joined to action produces recollection and gives the spirit a 
marvellous strength. Therefore, when one has made a soul know all 
that is necessary for its progress, it has no further need to listen to the 
words of others or to talk itself." 1 

We should note that even when we are speaking to God, the Gospel 
urges us not to be great talkers : " And when you are praying speak not 
much as the heathens do. For they think that in their much speaking 
they may be heard. Be you not therefore like to them " (Matt. vi. 7-8). 
And, except when divine grace calls us to prolong our prayer, St. 
Benedict tells us in a later chapter that prayer to be pure should be brief. 
Silence is one of the characteristics of God, Non in commotione Dominus. 
His greatest operations ad extra are achieved without noise, in mystery: 
" Truly thou art a hidden God, God of Israel, our Saviour " (Isa. xlv. 15). 
And the saints who have approached most nearly to God have become 
great votaries of silence. 2 

Scurrilitates vero vel verba otiosa But as for buffoonery or silly words, 

et risum moventia, aeterna clausura such as move to laughter, we utterly 

in omnibus locis damnamus, et ad tale condemn them in every place, nor do 

eloquium discipulum aperire os non we allow the disciple to open his 

permittimus. 3 mouth in such discourse. 

Here we have a fourth and last class of conversations: buffoonery, 
idle words, 4 worldly talk, talk that has for sole end the causing of laughter 
(see the fifty-fourth and fifty-fifth instruments of good works); these are 
banned for ever, (Sterna clausura, and everywhere; a monk's lips shall 
not utter such talk. Our Holy Father interdicts it with vigour and with 
a certain solemnity. 

He does not mean to forbid gaiety in recreation. There is wisdom 
in avoiding the prudery which is shocked and scandalized by everything; 
when we are good, the peace and innocence of childhood, its moral 
naivete", return to us. Still it remains true that there are certain 
subjects, a certain coarseness, a certain worldly tone, which should never 
enter our conversation. These things are not such as to stir wholesome 
laughter; there are matters which one should not touch, which it is 
wholesome to avoid. Our own delicacy of feeling and the thought of 
Our Lord will save us from all imprudence. 

When St. Benedict forbids frivolous conversation " in all places " 

1 Letter III., to the nuns of Veas. 

2 Read BOSSCET, Elevations sur les mysteres, XVIH e semaine, 1 1 e elev. 

* Si quit clericus aut monacbut verba scurrilia, joculat oria, risumque moventia loquitur, 
acerrime corripiatur (an ancient African Council, cited by the Decree ofGitATZAN; 
cf. MANSI, t. III., col. 893). See also ST. JEROME, Ep. LIL, ad Nepotianum. P.L., 
XXII.,47f. 

* ST. BASIL thus defined idle words: Generaliter omnis sermo qui non proficit ad 
aliquam gratiamfidei Cbristi (Reg. contr., zl.). 

7 



98 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

he leaves it to be understood that there are places where good conver- 
sation is lawful, and other places which are sacred to silence; in 
Chapter XLII. he speaks of sacred times. Monastic tradition deter- 
mined very early that absolute silence should reign in the church and in 
the refectory, even outside of conventual acts. At Cluny and else- 
where the dormitory and the kitchen were added, and often the chapter 
room, the calefactory, the sacristy, and the cloister, especially in the 
part which was next the church. In order not to break silence in these 
privileged places a whole language of signs was adopted at Cluny 1 
and Citeaux. St. Benedict prescribes signs during meals, and before 
him St. Pachomius made use of the same method in certain cases. 2 

So far we have spoken of the silence of words, the only sort of silence 
of which our Holy Father speaks. But there is also a material silence, 
the absence of noise. A nun of the Visitation Order asked St. Francis 
de Sales what she should do to reach perfection. The holy Bishop, 
who doubtless knew whom he was addressing, replied: " Sister, I think 
Our Lord wants you to close doors quietly." A quite personal piece 
of advice not without its humorous sting, but one which in a large 
community and a sonorous house may become a general and ever 
appropriate recommendation. This external silence is favourable to 
prayer and study; one cannot pray easily in the midst of a bombardment. 
. . . It may not, then, be superfluous to watch one's manner of walking, 
of sneezing, of blowing one's nose. Need we mention the dread turmoil 
with which meals begin, or the cries that ring through the monastery 
in times of recreation ? 3 All such things disappear with good taste 
and education, and when each remembers that he is not the only 
personin the world 

Finally, there is interior silence. It is the very reason and end of 
all other sorts of silence. Though prepared and facilitated by them, 
yet it is very distinct from them in practice. Some souls do not care 
for external noise, nor take to endless conversations, and yet they are 
never in a state of silence. For behind the dumb lips there is a continuous 
hubbub of interior talk, in exact proportion to their unmortified 
passions. When Our Lord wished to declare the happiness and sim- 
plicity of contemplation, He said to Martha: " Martha, Martha, thou 
art anxious and troubled about many. things." Is not this the reproach 
that He most often has need to address to us? Have we ever tried 
to review rapidly the infinite variety of objects and pictures which have 
just occupied the field of our interior vision ? Memories, grudges, 
projects, regrets, vain quests, angry emotions, vexations, scruples how 
many winds and waves buffet this world of our secret life ! Some 
brother whom we see suddenly recalls a long series of experiences; and 
we abandon ourselves to following this foolish scent so far and so long 
that we do not recover ourselves. A mere detail is enough to suggest 

1 UDALR., Comae t. Clun., 1. II., c. vi. BERNARD., Ordo Clurt., P. I., c. xvii. Comfit 
Hirsaug., 1. 1., c. vi.-xxv. 

8 Reg., cxvi. * Cf. S. BASIL., Reg. brev., cli, 



The Spirit of Silence 99 

a whole romance. Sometimes it is a pleasant little scene in which we 
review the past, or remember its joys and circumstances. Our soul 
becomes an entrance hall, a cinematograph, a phonograph, a kaleido- 
scope. The distractions of which we generally accuse ourselves are but 
rapid and unimportant parentheses in our lives; the serious distractions 
are those which control all our activity and lead it away from God. 

The fundamental purpose of silence is to free the soul, to give it 
strength and leisure to adhere to God. It frees the soul, just as obedi- 
ence gives the will its proper mastery. It has, like work, the twofold 
advantage of delivering us from the low tendencies of our nature and of 
fixing us in good. It sets us, little by little, in a serene region, sapientum 
templa serena, where we are able to speak to God and hear His voice. 
So silence in its turn is related to faith and charity. And just as in 
obedience we are not required to be slaves, so we are not to be silent in 
a mere access of vexation : all its protective limitations are something 
other than mortifications. Silence is a joyous work; and that is why, 
in the old Customaries, festivals were days of rigorous silence: propter 
festivitatis reverentiam. But, for the Christian soul, every day is a 
festival. 



CHAPTER VII 



OF HUMILITT 



DE HUMILITATE. Clamat nobis 
Scriptura divina, f ratres, dicens : Omnis 
qui 3e exaltat, humiliabitur, et qui se 
humiliat, exaltabitur. Cum haec ergo 
dicit, ostendit omnem exaltationem 
genus esse superbiae: quod se cavere 
Propheta indicat, dicens: Doming, non 
est exaltatum cor meum, neque elati sunt 
oculi met; neque ambulavi in magnis, 
neque in mirabilibus super me. Sed 
quid f Si non humiliter sentiebam, sed 
exaltavi animam meant; sicut ablactatus 
super matre sua, ita retributio in anima 
mea. 



The Holy Scripture cries out to us, 
brethren, saying: "Everyone that 
exalteth himself shall be humbled, and 
he that humbleth himself shall be 
exalted." In saying this, it teaches 
us that alj exaltation is a kind of pride, 
against which the prophet shows him- 
self to be on his guard when he says: 
" Lord, my heart is not exalted nor 
mine eyes lifted up ; nor have I walked 
in great things, nor in wonders above 
me." And why? " If I did not think 
humbly, but exalted my soul: like a 
child that is weaned from his mother, 
so wilt thou requite my soul." 

THE teaching of this chapter is again based on a pronouncement 
of Holy Scripture, a solemn pronouncement and divine procla- 
mation, delivered in terms so clear as to be understood even by 
those who are dull of hearing. " Everyone that exalteth himself 
shall be humbled, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted " 
(Luke xiv. n). Here is an axiom of faith, formulated by Our Lord 
Himself in His teaching and fulfilled first in His life; it admits of no 
contradiction. So we shall not consider the apparent paradox contained 
in the promise of glory to the humble and humiliation to the proud; 
it is a paradox familiar to Our Lord, and in proof we need only recall 
the eight beatitudes. 

When Holy Scripture speaks thus and in such general terms, con- 
tinues St. Benedict, it gives us to understand that every kind of personal 
exaltation is a form of the vice which is opposed to humility. Self-love 
and pride manifest themselves under the various species of exaltation, 
whether it be exaltation in, thought that is, arrogance; exaltation in 
words that is, boastfulness; exaltation in deeds that is, disobedience; 
exaltation in desire that is, ambition; exaltation in aims that is, pre- 
sumption. The Prophet, according to his own testimony (Ps. cxxx.), 
was on his guard against this elation and these aims; in the depth of his 
heart as well as in his external action he would not so exalt himself. 
And why ? asks St. Benedict. Because, replies the Psalmist, if my 
thoughts were not humble, if I suffered my soul to be lifted up, Thou 
wouldst have treated it as the child that is weaned by its mother, and 
put away from her breast. The Psalmist had the fear of God and 
dreaded to lose the kindness and favour which are promised to the humble 
alone : " God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble " 

(James iv. 6). 

100 



Of Humility 101 

Unde, fratres, si summae humilitatis Whence, brethren, if we wish ^to 

volumus culmen attingere, et ad exal- arrive at the highest point of humility 

tationem illam caelestem, ad quam per and speedily to reach that heavenly 

praesentis vitae humilitatem ascenditur, exaltation to which we can only ascend 

volumus velociter pervenire, actibus by the humility of this present life, 

nostris ascendentibus scala erigenda est, we must by our ever-ascending actions 

quae in somno Jacob apparuit, per erect such a ladder as that which Jacob 

quam et descendentes et ascendentes beheld in his dream, by which the 

Angeli monstrabantur. Nonaliudsine angels appeared to him descending^ 

dubio descensus ille et ascensus a nobis and ascending. This descent and 

intelligitur, nisi exaltatione descendere, ascent signify nothing else than that 

et humilitate ascendere. Scala vero we. descend by exaltation and ascend 

ipsa erecta, nostra est vita in sasculo, by humility. And the ladder thus 

quae humiliate corde a Domino erigitur erected is our life in the world, which, 

ad caelum. Latera enim hujus scalae if the heart be humbled, is lifted up 

dicimus nostrum esse corpus et animam, by the Lord to heaven. The. sides of 

in quibus lateribus diversos gradus the same ladder we understand to be our 

humilitatis vel discipline vocatio divina body and soul, in which the call of God 

ascendendos inseruit. has placed various degrees of humility 

or discipline, which we must ascend. 

The point is, then, that we must not lose God, as we shall do by 
exaltation, that we must remain attached to Him, as a child to its 
mother's breast, so as to live by Him and to grow in Him-; and this is 
the work of humility. " Unless you be converted and become as little 
children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever 
therefore shall humble himself as this little child, he is the greater in the 
kingdom of heaven " (Matt, xviii. 3-4). Do you really want God ? 
Do you wish to go to Him rapidly and surely 1 and to attain the glorious 
exaltation of heaven ? If so you must renounce the false exaltation of 
the present life and consent to be humble. Humility, it would seem, 
makes us descend to the confines of nothingness; and yet it is in its 
depths that we encounter the fulness of being. So it is more truly an 
ascension, for the final term of this abasement is really a lofty summit 
*'.*., God. Therefore we must make of our lives and actions a sort of 
ladder of humility; we must erect the ladder of Jacob. 

Let us recall the passage of Genesis (xxviii.). Jacob was in flight 
from the wrath of Esau. He went to sleep on a stone, and a mysterious 
dream showed him a ladder erected, by which angels were ascending and 
descending. Taken according to the literal sense this is a symbol of 
Divine Providence: angels go out from God as the executors of His 
orders and the bearers of His inspirations and graces; angels return to 
God as the messengers of creation, carrying to Him the prayers and 
works of rational creatures. Our Holy Father recalls this mission of the 
angels farther on; but in this place he takes the words of Genesis in an 
accommodated sense. " It is plain," he says, " that for us this descent 
and ascent signify nothing else than that we descend by exaltation and 
ascend by humility." 

1 Si quis velit ad perfectionem velociter pervenire . . . (RuriN., Hist, monacb. 
c. xxxi. ROSWEYD, p. 484). 



IO2 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

By humility the good angels ascended to God and were established 
in Him; by pride the bad angels fell from heaven. Humility alone 
made the difference; the same road pursued in opposite directions led the 
one kind to glory and the others to ruin. Now, with men as with the 
angels, the economy of salvation is simple, for all resolves itself into this 
twofold motion on the single ladder of humility. St. Benedict neglects 
the motion of illusory exaltation to deal only with the real exaltation, 
and he makes the meaning of hi? image clear by the details. The ladder 
erected to heaven is our life on this earth and all the acts that rise in a 
heart trained to humility. Since the ladder represents our life, we may 
regard body and soul, the two elements that go to the making of man, 
as the sides or the uprights of this ladder. In these uprights are inserted 
various steps of humility and moral perfection, which our vocation from 
God invites us to climb. 1 " In his heart he hath disposed to ascend by 
steps in the vale of tears " (Ps. Ixxxiii. 6). We should note with what 
anxiety for sound doctrine St. Benedict determines the part played by 
God in our ascension towards Him: God calls, God provides the means 
to reach Him, and supplies the steps of the ladder : " the call of God hath 
placed various degrees " ; and it is God who sets up the ladder and helps 
us to climb it by His grace: " is lifted up by the Lord to heaven." 

The allegory of the heavenly ladder is a favourite with the old writers . 
It illumines with a pleasing touch the Passion of SS. Perpetua and 
Felicity; St. Basil, in a homily on the first psalm, compares the pro- 
gressive exercise of the Christian virtues to the ascent of Jacob's ladder. 2 
Shortly after St. Benedict, Cassiodorus also uses this comparison and 
with expressions which recall the text of the Rule. 3 Then St. John 
Climacus, in his treatise The Scale of Paradise which earned him his 
surname, describes the spiritual life under the figure of a ladder of thirty 
steps. Cassian does not speak explicitly of a ladder, but he shows how 
man arrives at perfection by attaining various degrees of humility; 4 

1 St. Benedict's words recall this passage of a Paschal letter of THEOPHILUS OF 
ALEXANDRIA, translated by ST. JEROME: Quod intelligent et patriarcba Jacob, scalam 
cernit in somnis, cujus caput pertingebat usque ad ceelum, per quam diversis virtu turn 
gradibus ad super na .conscenditur, et homines provocantur, ten arum deserentes bumilia, 
cum Ecclesiaprimitivorum dominicapassionisfesta celebrare (S. HIERON., Epist. XCVIIL, 
3. P.L., XXII., 793). 

Quisquis igitur ad QeatptjTiKrjv voluerit pervenire. . . . Gradus quidam ita ordinati 
atque distincti sunt, ut. bumana bumilitas possit ad sublime conscendere . . . (ASS., 



3 Expositio in Ps. cxix. P.L., LXX., 901-902. De Institution divin. Litter., 
praef. P.L., ibid., 1107. 

* Principium nostree sdlutis ejusdemque custodia timor Domini est. Per hunc enim et 
initium conversions et, vitiorum purgatio et virtutum custodia bis qui inbuuntur ad viam 
perfections adquiritur. . . . Humilitas vero bis indiciis conprobatur : prime si morti- 
jicatas in sese omnes babeat voluntates ; secundo si non solum suorum actuum, verum etiam 
cogitationum nibil suum celaverit senior em ; tertio si nibil suee discretioni, sed judicio ejus 
universa committal ac monita ejus sitiens ac libenter auscultet : quarto si in omnibus servet 
obedientia mansuetudinem patientitsque constantiam ; quinto si non solum injuriam 
inferat nutti, sed ne ah alio quidem sibimet inrogatam doleat atque tristetur ; sexto si nibil 
agat, nibil prtesumat, quod non vel communis regula vel majorum coboriantur exempla ; 



Of Humility 103 

and it is from him that St. Benedict has borrowed the whole framework 
of his chapter. The differences are small. Cassian enumerates only 
ten degrees, while St. Benedict gives twelve; but we may note that the 
fear of God which St. Benedict puts down as the first degree, is given by 
Cassian in the forefront of his treatment, but not in the series of the 
degrees: "The beginning of our salvation and its guard is the fear of 
God," says Cassian. So the twelfth degree alone belongs to St. Benedict. 
The order of the degrees is not always the same, and St. Benedict has 
much expanded the brief enumeration of Cassian. 

St. Thomas Aquinas in an article of the Summa Theological shows the 
appropriateness of this division of humility into twelve degrees. He 
enumerates them in the reverse order, so that the twelfth becomes the 
first, the eleventh the second, and so on, and he tells us what led him to 
choose this inverted order, though St. Benedict had adopted the order 
of development. He explains that his enumeration proceeds from 
external to internal, while St. Benedict began with the internal. With- 
out ignoring the theoretical and practical priority of interior dispositions, 
or the fundamental character and solidity of the fear of God: " Rever- 
ence for God is the principle and root," he notes that man obtains 
humility by the co-operation of two forces: " First and chiefly by the 
gift of grace : and in this respect the internal precedes the external. But 
it is otherwise with human effort : a man first puts a check on externals 
and later comes to eradicate the internal; and it is according to this order 
that the degrees of humility are here given." Have we not two methods 
of spirituality sketched in these words ? An opportunity to compare 
them will occur later. But we may remark at this point that a man's 
effort may just as well begin with the internal, and basing itself chiefly 
on the reality of the new life that has been created in him, so follow 
a line parallel to the expansion of grace. 

There is besides a more considerable difference between St. Bene- 
dict's point of view and that of the angelic Doctor. St. Thomas regards 
humility as a particular virtue, designed to repress the immoderate love 
of greatness; it is a subdivision of moderation, which belongs to temper- 
ance as primary cardinal virtue. To St. Benedict, not only does humility 
imply the exercise of several other virtues, such as obedience or patience, 
which St. Thomas also recognizes, but it is as well a general virtue, 
mother and mistress of all virtue; it is the attitude which our soul 
habitually takes up in the sight of God, of herself, of everything and 

septimo si omni vilitate contentus sit et ad omnia se qua sibi prabentur velut operarium 
malumjudicarit indignum ; octavo sisemetipsum cuttctis inferior em non superficie pronuntiet 
labiorum, sed intimo cordis credat affectu; nono si linguam cobibeat vel non sit clamosus 
in voce ; decimo si non sit facilis ac promptus in risu. Talibus namque indiciis et bis 
similibus bumilitas vera dinoscitur. Qua cumfuerit in veritate possessa, confestim te ad 
caritatem, qua timorem non babet, grain excelsior e perducet, per quam universa, qua 
prius non sine pcena formidinis observabas, absque ullo labore velut naturaliter incipies 
custodire, non jam contemplation supplicii vel timoris ullius, sed amore ipsius boni et 
delectatione virtutum (Inst., IV., xxxix.). 
1 II.-II., j. clxi., a. 6. 



104 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

everybody. St. Benedict shows in detail how it embraces all the forms 
of our activity and governs all our steps. The quotations from Scripture 
with which the chapter opened, and the very allegory of the ladder, 
have already indicated that St. Benedict takes humility in its widest 
acceptation. The seventh chapter is justly regarded as the finished 
expression of monastic spirituality. 

Why are there twelve degrees, no more and no less? Such divisions 
are always somewhat arbitrary, but we only ask that they should fit the 
teaching and facilitate exposition. The commentators, as we might 
expect, find no difficulty in showing, each in his own way, the complete 
appropriateness of the number twelve, while observing, as does D. Mege 
after St. Bernard, 1 that it is more profitable to climb the degrees of 
humility than to count them. St. Benedict has not enumerated them 
at random, as we shall see; yet there is nothing to show that they corres- 
pond to distinct and successive stages of spiritual growth, and that one 
could compare them for example to the seven mansions of St. Teresa's 
Interior Castle. They describe the most characteristic dispositions 
of the humble soul towards the essential duties and principal circum- 
stances of the supernatural and monastic life. Cassian calls them the 
indications or marks of humility. So we need not have attained one 
of these steps in order to ascend to the next; and although one or other 
mode of humility may belong more especially to a determined period 
in the spiritual life, it is wise to cultivate the whole of these dispositions 
at the same time, for it is their complete realization which constitutes 
perfection. 

Primus itaque humilitatis gradus The first degree of humility, then, 

est, si timorem Dei sibi ante oculos is that a man always keep the fear of 

semper ponens, oblivionem omnino God before his eyes, avoiding all forget- 

fugiat, et semper sit memor omnium fulness; and that he be ever mindful of 

qua precepit Deus, qualiter con tern- all that God hath commanded, and that 

nentes Deum in gehennam pro peccatis those who despise God will be con- 

incidunt, et vitam aeternam quae timen- sumed in hell for their sins; and that 

tibus Deum praeparata est, animo suo he ever reflect that life everlasting is 

semper revolvat. 9 Et custodians se prepared for them that fear Him. 2 And 

omni hora a peccatis et vitiis, id est keeping himself at all times from sin 

cogitationum, linguae, oculorum, ma- and vice, whether of the thoughts, the 

nuum, pedum vel voluntatis propriae, tongue, the eyes, the hands, the feet, 

sed et desideria carnis amputate fes- or his own will, let him thus hasten 

tinet. to cut off the desires of the flesh. 

Christian humility is not a mere external and formal habit, attained 
by practice and exercise, nor is it a virtue of the lips, nor does it consist 
in the contempt of self. There are beings who are perfectly abject, 
who despise themselves sincerely, yet do not for this deserve to be called 
humble. It is not a virtue of the pure intellect, but resides in the will. 

1 Tractatus degradibus bumilitatis et superbue,c. i. P.Z., CLXXXII., 941. 

* D. BUTLER reads:.. . . qute pracepit Deus: ut qualiter et contemnentes Deum 
gebenna de peccatis incendat, et vita teterna, qute. timentibus Deum praparata est, animo 
suo semper evolvat. 



Of Humility 105 

Nevertheless, it must be recognized that humility is based upon spiritual 
understanding and faith, and St. Benedict was not wrong on this point. 
According to him the whole edifice of humility is based upon an exact 
knowledge, so that humility may be defined as an attitude of " truth." 
First of all it regulates our relation to God. For this end we must know 
what'God is in Himself and what He is in relation to us, and we must 
be aware of His presence. Our spiritual education is the fruit of a 
twofold looking: God's looking on us, our looking to Him. When our 
gaze meets God's and this state is prolonged and becomes habitual, 
then our souls possess the " fear of God." According to some Hebrew 
scholars we may establish a correspondence between the word which 
means to fear and that which means to look. When we were little 
children, we watched the looks of our mother so as to estimate the value 
of our actions, and this was the beginning of conscience. The look that 
we keep steadily fixed on God becomes the final form of our conscience 
as children of God: " To thee have I lifted up my eyes: who dwellest 
in heaven " (Ps. cxxii.). 

There is hardly any disposition of soul that is so assiduously exacted 
in the Old Testament as the fear of God. It is given as the beginning 
of wisdom: " The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." It is 
presented as its attainment: "To fear God is the fulness of wisdom. . . . 
The fear of the Lord is the crown of wisdom " (Ecclus. i. 20, 22) ; and 
Holy Scripture likes to sum up the sanctity of its great men by saying 
that they " feared God." Finally it is offered as the best instrument 
of perfection, and the Psalmist asks God that He would deign to " pierce 
his flesh with his fear." We should also note that the fear of God is 
a variable quantity, that it takes diverse character and value according 
as it belongs to the old economy or the new, and in its expression in the 
individual life. There is the fear of the slave, of the son, of the spouse; 
there is temporal fear and eternal fear: "The fear of God is holy, 
enduring for ever and ever," 1 for fear endures even among those who are 
with God. 2 It is among the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and without it 
there is no spiritual life. Our Holy Father would have it rooted in the 
hearts of his monks. We should read attentively these pregnant texts 
and understand all that is implied in this notion of the fear of God, 
whether for intellect or will or action. 8 

Our attitude towards God will be determined by the same appre- 
ciation of what He is to us and what we are to Him, of what He has 
ordained and under what penalties. We are creatures, which is to say 

1 Cf. S. AUG., Enarr. in Ps. cxxvii. 8-9. P.L., XXXVII., 1681-1683. 

' The Council of Sens recalled this fact when condemning Abelard's contrary error: 
MANSI, t. XXI., col. 569. 

We may compare with this paragraph of the Rule what ST. AUGUSTINE wrote when 
expounding the seven degrees that lead to wisdom: Ante omnia igitur opus est Dei timore 
convent ad cognoscendam ejus voluntatem, quid nobis appetendum fugiendumque pracipiat' 
Timor autem iste cogitationem de nostra mortalitate et de future morte necesseest incutiah 
et quasi clavatis carnibus omnes superbia motus ligno cruets affigat (De Doctrine cbristiana, 
l.II.,c.vii. P.L., XXXIV., 39). 



106 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

that we hold all from God: body, soul, life, continued existence, the 
influences that act on us, guidance, the day of death in one word, 
all. Therefore God has over us an absolute right of ownership and 
authority. In all this there is nothing that need terrify us. It is the 
joy, the highest joy, of the creature, to recognize this divine sovereignty 
and' to abandon itself to this absolute power. And God never does us 
more honour than when He disposes of us at His pleasure, without 
asking our leave, without appearing to suspect that there will be any 
hesitation in our will or reluctance in our flesh. So were treated 
Abraham, the prophets, St. John the Baptist, Our Lady, Our Lord 
Jesus Christ. The valiant soul knows what it means, for the cry of the 
crusader is of all time. Need we add that we too for our part have 
judged it well to extend and consecrate, by our profession, God's rights 
over us ? Bound to God as His creatures, we are also bound as souls 
redeemed by His blood, as sinners who have perhaps many times been 
pardoned and snatched from hell; we are bound again on the ground of 
our adoptive sonship, and because, since we remain weak, we are in 
continual need of God. Besides, He has defined His purpose in our 
regard, and how we should co-operate with Him; He has given 
us precepts and fortified them with His sanction. Eternal life is pre- 
pared for them that fear Him; while for sinners, for those who neglect 
God and so make mockery of His infinite majesty, there is hell. 

We recognize here the great teaching of the Prologue. Here, too, 
our Holy Father insists that the intellectual appreciation from which 
springs the fear of God must be continual, present every moment, 
always awake : semper ponens, . . . semper sit memor, . . . animo suo semper 
revolvat . . . omni bora. He knows that we long have need of an effort 
thus to preserve contact with God: sibi ante oculos ponens ; faith alone 
makes us attentive to the presence of God and to supernatural realities, 
while it is fatally easy for us to be aware of ourselves and of the things of 
sense which surround us. Oblivionem omnino fugiat : inattentiveness is 
the great feeder of hell, and there is one whose whole interest it is to 
foster it in us. We may forget from inadvertence or distraction ; our souls 
may be carried away by the influence of the sensible. We may forget 
from carelessness, cowardice, sleepiness : " I have never done it, I am 
too old; I cannot . . ." We may forget of set purpose, and then we 
have deliberate inattention, the sin against the Holy Spirit, the deter- 
mination so to shut our souls that light and repentance can find no entry. 
And what is the good of this ? When you forget thus, do you suppress 
your previous knowledge ? Do you suppress the consciousness which you 
had, before you began to pervert it, of the ultimate consequences of 
your unfaithfulness ? Do you suppress duty ? As though, to extinguish 
a debt, it were enough to refuse to think of it. Do you suppress God ? 
Do you really think that a petty ruse, some little internal diplomacy 
or wrongheadedness, is enough to get rid of God ? We may do what we 
like, but we shall not change reality. God is master, we are creatures ; 
and we have given our word. Not God Himself can change these facts. 



Of Humility 107 

There is heaven for those that fear Him, hell for those that despise Him; 
and when life is finished the time of probation is over. God would be 
a mockery, a sort of guy whom we might buffet and abuse indefinitely 
and with impunity, if He took no thought for the commands He has 
given, and if souls did not bear their responsibility and their burden 
before Him. 

Et custodiens se (and keeping himself) : our Holy Father now considers 
the consequences of the fear of God in respect of practical fidelity. 
Assiduous meditation on the will of God, His rewards and His punish- 
ments, will encourage the monk to watchfulness. Every moment, and 
especially at times of temptation, which perhaps occur periodically, he 
will be on his guard. Sad experience of his falls, and his daily examina- 
tion of conscience, will reveal to him his weak points. He must abstain 
from sin and vice that is, from every fault, whether habitual or not ; 
and he must eliminate along with the fault the evil tendency which is 
its germ. St. Benedict enumerates the principal instruments of sin: 
thought, speech, eyes, hands, feet. And these various faculties, which 
serve as the material means of sin, are summed up in the will : vel 
voluntatis propria. But not only completed and external faults demand 
vigilance and resolution ; we must be quick to cut off the desires of the 
flesh themselves, as soon as they begin to appear. The expression 
desideria carnis, with St. Benedict as with St. Paul, designates all the 
desires of the selfish life, of the life before baptism and profession, the 
sum of all tendencies which do not come from God or lead to Him. 
The flesh here signifies man in continual conflict with that Spirit, 
which realizes our divine sonship by its influence and its presence. 

^Estimet se homo de caelis a Deo Let him consider that he is always 

semper respici omni hora; et facta sua beheld from' heaven by God, and that 

in omni loco ab aspectu Divinitatis his actions are everywhere seen by the 

videri, et ab Angelis omni hora Deo eye of the Divine Majesty, and are every 

nuntiari. hour reported to Him by His angels. 

Therefore true fear of God is made up of knowledge and practical 
fidelity. This lesson seemed so important to our Holy Father that he 
takes it up again point by point, thereby giving a disproportionate space 
to the study of the first degree of humility. So we have again this 
general principle that we must be conscious of God's abiding presence. 
Up to this point, it would seem, St. Benedict has only spoken of the look 
we cast on Him, a look which suffers interruption, for it is characteristic 
of created beings not to exercise their powers at every instant. But 
God is pure act. His name is " the living and seeing God." The 
glance of His eye reaches even to the abyss; at all times and everywhere 
things are naked to His sight. When St. Benedict, with Holy Scripture, 
declares that God looks upon us from on high, as from an observatory, 
this means, not only that God is well placed so as to lose nothing of our 
doings, but also that He views us from the depths of the sanctuary of our 
souls. For God has in fact no other habitation than Himself and us, 
though He be present everywhere because of His universal activity. 



108 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

So " from heaven " does not imply remoteness, but on the contrary 
the most complete intimacy; not separation but real union; it is not 
from outside but from within that God informs Himself continually 
of our life: and it is there, within our souls, that our look should seek to 
encounter His. 1 - 

We are never alone, God sees us always ; and His angels, adds St. 
Benedict, apprise Him ceaselessly of our deeds. It would seem then 
that our Holy Father has not completely discarded the literal meaning 
of Jacob's ladder. No one will imagine that the angels convey informa- 
tion necessary to adequate knowledge. God employs these messengers 
out of His abundance, not out of His need. He associates them with 
the working of His providence, so that all may be accomplished in a 
regular hierarchical fashion; so that subjects too may become chiefs 
and kings; so that they may have the joy of co-operating in the building 
of the Church, the object of their eternaj admiration (Eph. iii. 10; 
Heb. i. 14) ; so that from now onwards those who already possess eternity 
and those who still journey towards it may be united in a vast asso- 
ciation of charity, zeal, and affection: " With whom we shall share the 
holy and most sweet city of God itself." 2 

Demonstrat nobis hoc Propheta, This the prophet tells us, when he 

cum in cogitationibus nostris ita Deum shows how God is ever present to our 

semper praesentem ostendit, dicens: thoughts, saving: " God searcheth the 

Servians corda et renes Deus. Et item: heart and the reins." And again: 

Dominus novit cogitationes hominum, " The Lord knoweth the thoughts of 

quoniam vaiue sunt. Et item dicit: men, that they are vain." And he 

Intfllexisti cogitationes meas a longe; also says: "Thou hast understood my 

et: Quia cogitatio bominis confitebitur thoughts afar off "; and " The thought 

tibi. Nam ut sollicitus sit circa cogita- of man shall confess to thee." In 

tiones perversas, dicat semper humilis order, therefore, that he may be on 

f rater in corde suo: Tune era immacula- his guard against evil thoughts, let the 

tus cor am to, si observavero me ab iniqui- humble brother say ever in his heart; 

tatemea. "Then shall I be unspotted before 

him, if I shall have kept me from mine 
iniquity." 

After having recalled the directive principle of our moral life, 
St. Benedict shows what practical influence the fear of God ought te 
have on our actions, developing the paragraph Et custodiens se. . 
Leaving on one side the purely external act, which of itself has no moral 
character, our Holy Father deals successively with thought, manifes- 
tations o'f self-will, and desires. And it is not a mere care for method, 
the desire to adjust his didactic exposition to the laws of psychology, 
which led our Holy Father to speak first of intellect, and then of will, 
and finally of desire: we see that his aim is to form his monks from 
within. We may notice, too, that all the observations of St. Benedict 
are deduced from the words of Holy Scripture, acquiring thus a divine 
authority. 

1 Cf. S. AUG., InJoannisEvang., tract. CXI., 3. P.L., XXXV., 1928. 
* S. AUG., De Civitate Dei, 1. XXII., c. xxix. P.L., XLL, 797. 



Of Humility 109 

God is the witness of all our thoughts. His glance, according to 
the seventh psalm (verse 10), " probes the reins and the heart." And 
again : " The Lord knoweth the thoughts of men, that they are vain " 
(Ps. xciii. n). Likewise: "Thou hast understood my thoughts afar 
off " (Ps. cxxxviii. 3), and " The thought of man shall surely confess 
to thee " (Ps. Ixxv. n); thoughts which are mysterious to all lose their 
mystery at once to God. So the first degree of humility will consist in 
the monk 1 guarding himself from evil thoughts. And, to keep up his 
vigilance, he should voluntarily murmur in his heart the twenty-fourth 
verse of the seventeenth psalm, which speaks of the glance of God, of 
the purity that it demands, and of the method which assures this perfect 
cleanliness. "Then shall I be without spot in thy eyes, if I guard 
against my evil thoughts, against that which is the root of evil in me." 
For sin begins in thought and not in sense, in a deliberate look at the 
forbidden object, and not in a mere sight which is suddenly presented 
to us, or in a caprice of memory. There is no formal sin but in the will, 
and evil thoughts only exist because of perversities of will. St. Benedict 
devotes a moment to these last. 

Voluntatem vero propriam ita fa- We are, indeed, forbidden to do 

cere prohibemur, cum dicit nobis our own will by Scripture, which says 

Scriptura: Et a voluntatibus tuis aver- to us: "Turn away from thine own 

tere. Et item rogamus Deum in will." And so too we beg of God in 

oratione, ut fiat illius voluntas in nobis. prayer that His will may be done in us. 

Docemur ergo merito nostram non Rightly therefore are we taught not 

facere voluntatem, cum cavemus illud to do our own will, if we take heed to 

quod dicit sahcta Scriptura: Sunt vice the warning of Scripture: "There are 

quee videntur bominibus recta, quarum ways which to men seem right, but the 

finis usque ad -prof unduminfernidemer git. ends thereof lead to the depths of 

Et cum item cavemus illud quod deneg- hell"; or, again, when we tremble 

ligentibus dictum est: Corrupti sunt, et at what is said of the careless: "They 

abominabiles facti sunt in voluptatibus are corrupt and have become abomin- 

suis. * able in their pleasures." 

Of the two antagonistic wills, man's will and God's will, which is 
to prevail ? Certainly God's, if we think of His omnipresence, His 
rights, His threats, and His promises. We are not bidden: " Act always 
against your own will," for such a behest would savour of Jansenism; 
but rather, " Beware of your personal and isolated will, separate yourself 
from all forms of your own will: for such is the formal command of the 
Scripture" (Ecclus. xviii. 30). And every time that we recite the Lord's 
Prayer, we beg God that His will may be fulfilled in us and fulfilled by 
us. Hence our life will show men the sincerity of our prayer. 

If we wish to learn not to pursue the exercise of our own will, we 
must listen with holy fear to what Scripture says further : there are ways, 
practical habits, which seem to men right and fair, but the end of them 

1 We should, however, with all the manuscripts and the most ancient commentators, 
read utilis instead of bumilis : a faithful brother, useful to his master; St. Benedict sayi 
similarly a little farther on, with Ps. Hi. 4: ... el inutiles/actos. 



no Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

engulfs us in the depths of hell (Prov. xvi. 25, xiv. 12). Our Holy 
Father once more warns us of the great danger of delusion, child of 
evil passion. Every passion is an adjustment of the being on a certain 
axis. When this adjustment is violent and resolute, it becomes the 
normal state and takes the place of conscience. Then that is good 
which is suitable, adapted, and favourable to it. We call this the good; 
and God Himself must speak according to it, for man is not ashamed to 
vex and bend and torture the words of Scripture, and he dares to seek 
in an alleged providential course of events the justification of his system 
and his pretended mission. But responsibility remains, even in delusion, 
when one was conscious of evil at the start and thereafter at certain lucid 
intervals ; though it is not impossible that the sum of evil and suffering 
that is in the world- does not come from malice alone, and that responsi- 
bility is diminished by delusion. For were this not so, would not the 
thing terrify us ? If the good undergo trial, and if the part played by 
goodness in the kingdom of God is thereby diminished, this is not always 
the effect of pure wickedness, for blindness has its share in it. But it is 
possible that souls, which benefit by this sorry privilege of unconscious- 
ness, expiate their misdeeds, in proportion to the permanence of the 
consequences, and that the chastisement perseveres until the complete 
elimination from historical reality and the complex of things of all the 
disorder caused by delusion. 

Besides the self-will of the proud man, which is shut up as it were in 
a strong castle and canonizes all his decisions, one meets the self-will of 
the man who is sluggish and cowardly, who refuses to react against 
himself, negligentibus. Often the two tendencies unite and support 
each other. Anything may happen then and very quickly. Thus is 
reached the wretched state described by the Rule and by the thirteenth 
psalm (verse i). But perhaps our Holy Father here wished to indicate 
with a rapid stroke, by the side of culpable delusion, that other perverse 
state which is known as formal negligence and contempt for all that is 
most sacred. " The wicked man, when he is come into the depth of 
sins, contemneth : but ignominy and reproach follow him " (Prov. xviii. 3) . 
Such dispositions may now -and then appear in monasteries and reach 
their hateful climax. 2 

In desideriis vero carnis nobis Deum And in regard to the desires of the 

credamus esse prsesentem semper, eum flesh, we must believe that God is 

dicit Propheta Domino: Doming, ante always present to us, as the prophet 

te est omne desideriwn meum. Caven- says to lie Lord: "O Lord, all my desire 

1 As D. BUTLER remarks, St. Benedict cites a version other than the Vulgate; the 
expression demergit is a reminiscence of ST. MATTH. xviii. 6. 

a ST. AUGUSTINE came to recognize this fact, and bade his people not to be scanda- 
lized. Simpliciter fateor caritati vestrts cor am Domino Deo nostro, qui testis est super 
animam meant, ex quo Deo servire ccepi : quomodo difficile sum expertus meliores quam 
qui in monasteriis profecerunt ; ita non sum expertus pejores quam qui in monasteriis 
ceciderunt. . . . Quapropter etsi contristamur de aliquibus purgamentis, consolamur 
tamen etiam de pluribus ornamentis. Nolite ergo propter amurcam qua oculi vestri offen- 
duntur, torcularia detestari, unde apotbeca dominica fructu olei luminosioris implentur 
(Epist. LXXVIII., 9. P.L., XXXIII., 272). 



Of Humility 1 1 1 

dum ergo ideo malum desiderium, quia is before thee." Let us be on our 
mors secus introitum delectationis guard then against evil desires, since 
posita est. Unde Scriptura praecepit, death has its seat close to the entrance 
dicens: Post concupiscentias tuas non eas. of delight; wherefore the Scripture 

commands us, saying: " Go not after 
thy concupiscences." 

Internal activity consists of thought and will; but St. Benedict is 
aware that, besides and beyond these two elements, there is a third which 
darkens the intellect and entraps, debases, and imprisons the will. 
Fleshly desire is that secret and base concupiscence, that jnstinct of 
sense which drives us towards persons or things, not because they are 
good but because they please us. Again, the conviction of the presence 
of God will introduce order among these stormy and subversive desires. 
As the prophet David said: "O Lord, all my desire is before thee" 
(Ps. xxxvii. 10). 

To this lofty motive, proceeding from charity, our Holy Father adds 
another, less disinterested, but effective and within the reach of every 
soul. We should dread evil desires, because, in spite of their seeming 
sweetness and the pleasure we find in them, they are poison and some-, 
times deadly poison. Death is installed, so to speak, close to the 
entrance of evil delight: and death too often enters on the heels of 
delight. Therefore does Scripture bid us not to let ourselves be dragged 
along by our concupiscences and drawn in their train (Ecclus. xviii. 30) : 
for they may lead us to perdition. After opening out this vista, our 
Holy Father now proceeds to summarize and conclude the whole teach- 
ing of the first degree of humility. 

Ergo si oculi Domini speculantur Since, therefore, the eyes of the 
bonos et malos, et Dominus de ceslo Lord behold good and evil; and the 
semper respicit super filtos bominum, ut Lord is ever looking down from heaven 
viieat si est intelligent aut requirens upon the children of men, to see who 
Deum; et ab Angelis nobis deputatis has understanding or is seeking God; 
quotidie die noctuque Domino factori and since the works of our hands are 
nostro et Creatori omnium Deo opera reported to Him, our Maker and 
nostra nuntiantur; cavendum est ergo Creator, day and night by the angels 
omni hora, fratres, sicut in Psalmo dicit appointed to watch over us; we must 
Propheta; ne nos decKnantes in malum, be always on the watch, brethren, lest, 
et inutiles factos, aliqua hora aspiciat as the prophet says in the psalm, God 
Deus, et parcendo nobis in hoc tempore should see us at any time declining 
(quia pius est, et expectat nos converti to evil and become unprofitable; and 
in melius), ne dicat nobis in future: lest, though He spare us now, because 
Hac fectsti, et tacui. He is merciful and expects our conver- 

sion, He should say to us hereafter: 
" These things thou didst and I held 
my peace." 

St. Benedict is content to reiterate, under the form of an exhortation 
addressed to all and in the same key as the Prologue, the points which 
have been developed in this exposition. The eyes of the Lord are upon 
the good and the wicked; unceasingly from the height of heaven He 
looks upon the children of men, to discover whether there be among 
them an intelligent servant and one who seeks Him (Ps. xiii. 2); our 



1 1 2 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

guardian angels give an account to the Lord that made us of all our 
deeds every day, by night as well as by day. 1 So there is reason every 
moment to fear, my brethren, according to the warning of the prophet 
in the fifty-second psalm, that if we fall into evil and become unprofitable 
God is at that same moment watching us. He might punish us on the 
spot. Perhaps He will spare us in this life, for He is good and awaits 
our return to better dispositions ; so at least we must fear lest He say to 
us in the next life: " These things thou didst and I held my peace ; 
but now I am going to speak " (Ps. xlii. 21). This sentence nullifies the 
tacit objection which the sinner raises against the justice of God: " I 
have sinned, and what harm hath befallen me ?" (Ecclus. v. 4). If God 
does not punish at once, it is because He would give the soul time to 
return to Him. There is no doubt, also, that it is in order to save the 
free and filial character of virtue; for virtue would easily become a 
bargain, and fidelity a vulgar piece of smart calculation, if the punish- 
ment followed immediately on the fault or if the good deed were at 
once crowned with its rewatd. 

Secundus humilitatis gradus est, si The second degree of humility is 

propriam quis non amans voluntatem that a man love not his own will, nor 

desideria sua non delectetur implere ; delight in gratifying his own desires; 

sed vocem illam Domini factis imitetur but carry out in his deeds that saying 

dicentis: Non veni facere voluntatem of the Lord: " I came not to do mine 

meant, sed f jus qui misit me. Itemdicit own will, but the will of him who 

Scrip tura: Voluntas habet faenam, et sent me." And again Scripture says: 

necessitas parit coronam. " Self-will hath punishment, but 

necessity wins a crown." 

We remember, perhaps, that in Cassian the fear of God does not 
constitute a special degree, but is presented as in a sense the common 
basis of -all the degrees of humility. At bottom St. Benedict's doctrine 
is the same. We should notice that henceforth he assigns no new motive 
for humility, but confines himself to indicating the methods and authen- 
tic forms through which humility should manifest itself. He too has 
spoken, primarily and at considerable length, of the fear of God; but, 
without setting this on one side, as did Cassian, he describes at the same 
time the negative consequences which it will have in our life as a whole. 
So that, in reality, abstention from the selfish actions which spring from 
our own will is the first degree of humility, with St. Benedict as with 
Cassian. The subsequent degrees describe the positive results of 
spiritual fear viz., to do the will of God instead of one's own will 
(the second degree: Cassian did not distinguish it from the first); to do 
the will even of men when they hold God's place (the third degree) ; 
to do the will of God and superiors in heroic circumstances (the fourth 
degree), etc. 

Therefore the second degree of humility is the realization in our 

1 The manuscripts have not got the words: et creatori omnium Deo, and the chief 
witnesses to the Carlovingian and Cassinese traditions read: Domino fac tor um nostrorum 
ofera nuntiantur. 



Of Humility 113 

conduct of that which Our Lord said of Himself: " I have come not 
to do mine own wu% but the will of him who sent me " (John vi. 38).* 
Instead of loving our own will, of taking joy in doing what we like and 
what our desires suggest, we shall imitate Our Lord Jesus Christ. The 
divine will of Our Saviour was wholly united with the will of His 
Father, and the same was true of His human will. But He had, as we 
have, an instinctive and indeliberate will, a natural will, a principle of 
interior reaction which impelled Him to choose certain things and- avoid 
others. Now this will also bowed down before the will of His Father: 
" The chalice which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it ? " 
(John xviii. n). Yet this was the chalice of which He had said shortly 
before : " Father, if it be possible, let this chalice pass from me." Truly 
he was a man and no beautiful statue; He felt human repugnance with 
a unique depth and an exquisite sensibility, and therefore He can be 
put before us as a model. 

St. Benedict adds that our own spiritual interest urges us to sub- 
mission. This little phrase is the crux of commentators. In the 
first place, should we read voluptas or voluntas? Since the context 
deals with self-will, it would seem that voluntas is the true reading; 
this conclusion is confirmed if we appreciate the antithesis to necessitas ; 
and some manuscripts have this reading. Still the reading of the 
best manuscripts, and the one reproduced in the oldest commentators, 
is voluptas. This expression is in no way unexpected, for it is supported 
very naturally by the words desideria sua non delectetur implere (nor 
delight in gratifying his own desires) ; and the antithesis remains in some 
manner, for, according to St. Benedict's thought, will is here equivalent 
to pleasure, and at least the words sound much the same. But to what 
passage of Scripture does St. Benedict refer ? The sentence is not to 
be found in the Bible. St. Benedict, so most commentators say, quotes 
from memory and gives the sense and not the words, as the writers of the 
New Testament and the Fathers have sometimes done. But then we 
should be able to produce a text with some likeness to our Holy Father's 
quotation, which is clean-cut and precise. Must we refer it to some 
lost text ? That is a sort of hypothesis to which we should rarely have 
recourse. Can our Holy Father's memory have been a little at fault ? 
Commentators have shrunk from this solution. Again, it is hard to 
suppose that he is quoting a proverb, since he refers expressly to Scripture. 
Some explain by saying that Scripture does not designate the sacred 
books exclusively; for does not the exposition of the eleventh degree 
of humility close with a non-scriptural quotation introduced by the 
formula scriptwn est (it is written) ? We might answer that this formula 
is much less precise than the word " Scripture." 

Yet it may be a fragment of ecclesiastical literature. The Bollandists 

1 Quod utique qui implere vult, sine dubio proprias sibi amputat lioluntates, secundum 
imitationem ipsius Domini dicentis : Descendi de calo non utfaciam voluntatem meam, sed 
voluntatem ejus qui misit me Patris (S. BASIL., Reg. contr., xii.). See also CASS., Conlat.. 
XXIV., xxvi. 

8 



1 1 4 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

have reproduced, from manuscripts and Mombricius, the Acts of 
SS. 'Agape, Chionia, and Irene, which are inserted in those of SS. Chry- 
sogonus and Anastasia. This text, which they give as of great antiquity, 
is (happily for our hypothesis) different from that of Simeon Meta- 
phrastes (tenth century). In it we read : " Sisinnius said : ' Are they not 
then polluted who have tasted of the blood of sacrifices ?' Irene replied: 
'Not only are they not polluted, but they are even crowned: for pleasure 
hath punishment, but necessity wins (parat) a crown* " (Mombricius 
has parit). 1 The authenticity of these Acts is contested by Ruinart; 
but they may nevertheless be anterior to our Holy Father. Have we 
perhaps a more certain source in St. Optatus of Milevis, who writes: 
" Self-will hath punishment, necessity pardon " ? 2 It is possible; but 
the two formulas are not identical and still less the ideas, St. Optatus's 
meaning is that those deserve full chastisement who are in full possession 
of their freedom, while responsibility and therefore chastisement are less 
where there has been constraint. St. Benedict's meaning is that self- 
will incurs punishment, while necessity that is, not an external and 
perverse constraint which leads us to evil, but a wise constraint which 
we put upon ourselves for the doing of good merits a crown. If the 
borrowing from St. Optatus were established, we should have to go 
back to the hypothesis of a proverbial formula adapting itself to cir- 
cumstances. 

Tertius humilitatis gradus est, ut The third degree of humility is 
quis pro Dei amore omni obedientia se that a man for the love of God submit 
subdat majori, imitans Dominum de himself to his superior in all obedience; 
quo dicit Apostolus: Factus obedient imitating the Lord, of whom the 
usque ad mortem. apostle saith: " He was made obedient 

even unto death." 

Obedience again and always obedience; but these various degrees 
represent an advance, though they imply one another and are in germ 
contained in one another. To fulfil the will of God is comparatively 
easy; for He is Himself, His laws have a universal character and contain 
their own justification, and then He is invisible: major ex longinquo 
reverentia (distance increases reverence). But God requires us to submit 
our wills to the wills of other men, and that continuously and till death, 
without protest or any reservation: "in all obedience"; "to his 
superior " *.*., in general; and St. Benedict even adds later: "That 
the brethren be obedient to one another." 

A little phrase, inserted in the precept, gives us its deep meaning 
and reassures us: it is "for the love of God" that we thus submit 
ourselves; our activity is always directed to God. When we obey for 
love, when our souls are raised aloft, then all becomes easy for t us; 
our love invites sacrifice and every day it grows by reason of sacrifice 

1 Acta SS., April., 1. 1., p. 250. 

* De Schism. Donat., 1. VII., post caput vii. P.L., XI., 1098. This passage has 
been restored to its place in chap. i. of the same book VII., in the edition of the 
Vienna Corpus, t. XXVI., p. 160. 



Of Humility 1 1 5 

accepted. This third degree of humility is especially Christian in that 
it requires us to imitate Our Lord, of whom St. Paul says that " He 
was made obedient even unto death " (Phil. ii. 8). 1 From Bethlehem 
to Calvary, and after, in the Holy Eucharist, the life of Our Lord has 
been nothing but obedience to creatures for love of His heavenly Father. 
He has not set any limits to this entire and glad giving of Himself, and 
He died to consummate it. If we are of the kin of Our Lord, if we are 
anxious to realize the meaning of Redemption, we shall desire no other 
method than His. 

Quartus humilitatis gradus est, si The fourth degree of humility is 

in ipsa obedientia duris et contrariis that if in this very obedience hard and 

rebus, vel etiam quibuslibet irrogatis contrary things, nay even injuries, are 

injuriis, tacita conscientia patientiam done to him, he should embrace them 

amplectatur, et sustinens non lassescat, patiently with silent consciousness, and 

vel discedat, dicente Scriptura: Qui not grow weary or give in, as the 

persev er (merit tuque in finem, hie sahus Scripture says: "He that shall perse- 

erit. Item: Confortetur cor tuum, et vere to the end shall be saved." And 

sustinf Dominwn. again: " Let thy heart take courage 

and wait thou for the Lord." 

The fourth degree of humility is heroic obedience, and by heroic 
we do not mean optional. The subject here is true monastic obedience, 
and every soul that is anxious to be faithful will often have occasion to 
use this blessed page, rich in experience and in saintliness, wherein our 
Holy Father develops a part of the monastic programme which was 
sketched at the very end of the Prologue: " we may by patience share 
in the sufferings of Christ." 

Obedience may meet with objective difficulties : what is commanded 
may be hard, repugnant, even impossible, as St. Benedict says later. 
Or difficulties may come from the temper, or erratic ways, or want of 
tact, of those who command; they may treat us in an insulting way, or 
reproach us slightingly. Authority is a big subject: we may consider 
it as an element of unity, conservation, and happiness, and as a necessary 
element; but we cannot close our eyes to the fact that it is a dangerous 
instrument in the hands of a man. Those on whom the yoke presses 
heavily sometimes find it more intolerable than that anarchy which they 
dread. Lastly, such suffering always contains an imaginary element 
which aggravates the real grievance. Combine these three : the diffi- 
culty of the object, the difficulty that comes from the authority, the 
difficulties which we make for ourselves, and the result may be too 
much for our nature, which at length is stifled and exasperated. 
There are some who cultivate this frenzy, who lose their heads in it, 
and from it draw the germ of resolutions which upset and dishonour 
their whole life. Let four words of the Holy Rule, words of an incom- 
parable precision, define the attitude of the truly humble monk. 

1 Usque ad quern modtim obaudire oportet eum, qut placendiDeo implere regulam cupitf 
Apostolus ostendit, proponent nobis obedientiam Domini : Qui factus est, inquit, obedient 
usque ad mortem^ mortem autem crucis (S. BASIL., Reg contr., Ixv.). 



n6 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

Tacita (silent). We must, at such times, know how to be silent, 
and that completely. To check the tongue or the pen is to keep one's 
strength whole, while if a man abandon himself to his words or anger, 
he is lost. It will be objected that one must complain, that suffering 
must be let breathe. No, says St. Benedict, be silent. And so as to 
have naught to say externally, make your interior thought be silent also: 
tacita conscientia (with silent consciousness). It is not enough for 
humility and obedience to be dumb, yet to indulge in concentrated, 
and sometimes apparent, anger. We must avoid secret plainings, inner 
protestations, endless recalling of the past, angry reminiscence. 
There are passages in our life which it is bad enough to have known once; 
why should we wish, by incessantly returning to them in thought, to 
make them eternal ? This is to act like the child who has a small cut 
and inflames it by constantly touching it. Would that such re- 
miniscences tended to stimulate our courage, penitence, or charity ! 
Then all would be well. But the suffering which we cause ourselves, 
which comes from our persistent reawakening of some secret sorrow, 
is not wholesome. So we should let fall into darkness, oblivion, and 
nothingness all that which tends only to trouble our peace. We have 
an opportunity of exercising patience, which, as St. James says, is the 
work of perfection: "Patience hath a perfect work," and its work is to 
maintain in us, despite all, the order of reason and faith. Let 
us take our courage in both hands ; let us grasp this blessed patience so 
tightly and so strongly that nothing in the world shall be able to separate 
us from it : patientiam am-plectatur. 

This is not the time for groaning, for self-justification, for dispute. 
We should not have been saved if Our Lord had declined to suffer. It 
is the time for bending our shoulders and carrying the cross, for carrying 
all that God wills and so long as He wishes, without growing weary or 
lagging on the road. " Son, when thou comest to the service of God, 
stand in justice and in fear: and prepare thy soul for temptation. ... 
Wait on God with patience: join thyself to God and endure, that thy 
life may be increased in the latter end " (Ecclus. ii. I and 3). As we 
said in expounding the Prologue, there is no-spiritual future for any but 
those who can thus hold their ground. When we promise ourselves 
to stand firm and to wait till the storm is past, then we develop great 
powers of resistance. Besides, all suffering has an end. It will blossom 
in glory and salvation, says Scripture; but only on condition that we 
persevere to this end (Matt. xxiv. 13). Be brave, it says again, and 
endure the Lord (Ps. xxvi. 14). Endure the Lord: true words, because, 
your trial comes from His Providence, He helps you to endure, and the 
trial has no other end than to lead you to Him : our Holy Father at once 
proceeds to remind us of this. 

Et ostendens fidelem pro Domino And showing how the faithful man 

universa etiam contraria sustinere ought to bear all things, however 

debere, dicit ex persona sufferentium : contrary, for the Lord, it says in the 

Propter te morte afficimur tota die; person of the afflicted: "For thee we 



Of Humility 117 

sumus sicut oves occisionis. suffer death all the day long; we are 
Et securi de spe retributionis divinae, esteemed as sheep for the slaughter." 
subsequuntur gaudentes, et dicentes: And secure in their hope of the divine 
Sed in bis omnibus superamus propter reward, they go on with joy, saying: 
eum qui'dilexit nos. Et item alio loco "But in all these things we overcome, 
Scriptura: Probasti nos, inquit, Deus, through him who hath loved us." 
igne nos examinasti, sicut igne examinatur And so in another place Scripture 
argentum; induxisti nos in laqueum; says: "Thou hast proved us, O God; 
posuisti tribulationes in dorso nostro. thou hast tried us as silver is tried by 

fire; thou hast led us into the snare, 
and hast laid tribulation on our backs." 

St. Benedict returns to the two classes 6f difficulties which he had 
mentioned earlier in a more rapid fashion; first objective difficulties, 
and then, in the succeeding paragraph, those which come from persons. 
Sustine et abstine said the Stoics (Endure and abstain). Here we are 
only required to endure; but this patience is no longer acquiescence in 
an impersonal law, which we accept because it is universal and inevitable; 
it is acquiescence in a personal will, a service rendered to God, and, 
through our courage, a measure of collaboration in His work of redemp- 
tion: pro Domino, propter te. With such a conviction we could go even 
to martyrdom. Et ostendens fidelem. . . . To show how he who has 
faith, who is loyal to the Lord, should endure all things, including those 
most repugnant to nature, Scripture. tells us that whose who suffer say: 
" For thy sake death threatens us all the day long, and we are treated 
as sheep destined for slaughter " (Ps. xliii. 22). 

In truth we achieve by these sufferings nothing less than the con- 
quest of God. As our courage increases, so does our hope grow. We 
are sure of our God, sure of eternal compensation. Joy is ours, and 
love draws us onward, ourselves and our cross. How well now we 
understand the programme of our life and our death ! There is One 
who has loved me with an everlasting love, who has reached down to 
my wretchedness, who leads me with Him, gloriously, along His own 
blood-stained track, to the Father. Whatever is required of us, we 
shall succeed; nay, it would seem that we have already won, " through 
him that hath loved us "(Rom. viii. 37). We recognize everywhere 
the hand of God, and we kiss it affectionately, saying again with Holy 
Scripture: " Thou dost prove us, O God; thou dost put us to the trial 
of fire, even as men try silver; thou hast permitted us to fall unto the 
snare; thou hast laid tribulation on our shoulders " (Ps. Ixv. 10-11). 

Et ut bstendat sub priore debere And in order to show that we ought 

nos esse, subsecjuitur dicens: Imposuisti to be under a superior, it goes on to 

homines super capita nostra. Sed et say: "Thou hast placed men over our 

praeceptum Domini in adversis et heads." Moreover, fulfilling the pre- 

injuriis per patientiam adimplentes, cept of the Lord by patience in adver- 

percussi in maxillam, prabent et sities and injuries, they who are struck 

alteram, auferenti tunicam dimittunt on one cheek offer the other: to him 

et pallium, angariati milliario vadunt et who takes away their coat they leave 

duo, cum Paulo Apostolo falsos fratres also their cloak; and being forced to 



1 1 8 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

sustinent et persecufionem, et maledi- walk one mile, they go two. With 
centes se benedicunt. Paul the Apostle, they bear with false 

brethren, and bless those that curse 

them. 

When the difficulty comes from thdse who command, we shall 
remember that we are cenobites and that we must go to God under the 
guidance of a superior. We should submit to this willingly and say with 
Holy Scripture: " Thou hast placed men over our heads" (Ps. Ixv..i2). 
What does it matter if men trouble us, if they wound us with words ? 
God permits it. Obedient men, who have reached this degree of valour, 
march under the will of God as soldiers under their flag, through all 
obstacles, not suffering themselves to be turned aside or disturbed by 
anything. And such is their perfection, that not only do they preserve 
docility towards their superior and joyous affection, but in their earnest- 
ness they go beyond what is ordered; they ask in all sincerity and candour 
not to be spared ; they never assume the air of victims. And so they fulfil 
the counsel of perfection given by Our Lord in St. Matthew (v. 39 sq.) : 
Are you struck on the cheek ? Offer the other. Is your coat taken from 
you ? Let your cloak go too. The state officials requisition you for a 
mile ? Don't refuse to go two. 1 Plainly, and this the gospel text shows 
well, these metaphors need not be taken literally: Our Lord only wished 
to describe the spontaneity and generosity of Christian justice, as con- 
trasted with the justice of the Pharisees. Our Holy Father follows this 
up by adding that if real persecutions come to us, not now from superiors, 
but from false brethren, again we have nothing to do but endure, and, 
in company with the Apostle St. Paul, answer curses with a blessing 
(2 Cor. xi. 26; i Cor. iv. 12). We have a living commentary on this 
teaching in the history of our Holy Father himself, when his own monks 
and Florentius tried to poison him. 

With this fourth degree of humility is connected the celebrated 
question of " fictitious humiliations," which raised a lively controversy 
in the seventeenth century. Abbot de Ranc, adopting the extra- 
ordinary practices of some Eastern monks, introduced among his monks 
the custom of imputing imaginary faults to exercise their virtue. The 
method appealed to the spirituality of the time. In 1616, Dom Philip 
Franyois, "Prior of Saint-Airy, sometime Master of Novices of the 
Order of St. Benedict of the Congregation of Verdun," along with some 
good teaching which he gave in his Guide spirituelle tiree de la Rbgle de 
sainct Benoist pour conduire les novices selon V esprit de la mesme Rlgle" 
recommended that one should " impute to them some grave fault 
which they have not committed and punish them well for it." 2 In 1671 
William Le Roy, commendatory Abbot of Haute-Fontaine in Cham- 
pagne, having gone to pass some time at La Trappe to prepare himself 
there for the reform of his monastery, was shocked by these methods of 
humiliation, which in his view injured truth, justice, and charity, and, 
after discussing the matter with de Ranee", formulated his objections in a 

1 Cf. CASS., Conlat., XVI., xxi.-xxiv. P. 473. 



Of Humility 1 1 9 

manuscript Dissertation. De Ranee replied vigorously: a long letter 
addressed to the Bishop of Chalons accused Le Roy of having interpreted 
these fictions in a bad sense and of maintaining a view which would 
" destroy all the sanctity of the Thebaid," The controversy went on 
for some years without creating much stir; but in 1677 the Reply of 
de Ranc, of which he had given some copies to his friends, was printed 
without his knowledge. Naturally Le Roy talked of publishing his 
Dissertation; meanwhile he put in circulation an Elucidation of the Reply 
and asked the advice of Bossuet. The latter, in a letter of August 16, 
1677, urged his correspondent to let the matter rest and so secured the 
last word to his friend de Ranc^. 1 

The Abbot of La Trappe expounded his theory of humiliations in 
his work De la saintete et des devoirs de la vie monastique? It was then 
that Mabillon entered, the lists and respectfully submitted to de Ranc 
some Reflections (unpublished) on various points ; he made his own the 
objections of M. Le Roy and for the same reasons. 3 But no one spoke 
so plainly as Dom Mege in his Comment air e sur la Regie (1687), wherein 
he criticized very fully these fictitious and outlandish humiliations, 
without however naming de Ranc. 4 The friends of the latter, and 
Bossuet among the firstj 6 exerted themselves to such good purpose, that, 
after various vicissitudes, the Commentary of Dom Mege was forbidden 
for all the 'members of the Congregation of St. Maur in the Chapter of 
1689. That same year de RancI published La Regie de saint Benoit nou- 
vellement traduite et expliquie selon son veritable esprit , ''and on the last 
day of the year appeared the Commentary of Dom Martene, announced 
two years before to Bossuet by Pere Boistard, the General of the Con- 
gregation of St. Maur, as " more correct " than that of Dom Mege. And 
it is true that, except in a few points, the polemical tone is absent ; 8 Mar- 
tene even endeavours to justify historically a discreet use of humiliations. 
But for us the criticism of Dom Mege has lost none of its value. Not 
only is it no part of our custom to lie in order to prove the virtue of 
another, but we hold that superiors have no need of these factitious 
or violent methods to make sure of this virtue and cause its increase. 
In reality our Holy Father suggests absolutely nothing of the sort. 
And how easy it would become for monks, under this system of false 
imputations, to ignore all disagreeable observations, even when very 
well justified, on the ground that the Abbot is only seeking to try their 
virtue. 

1 URBAIN et LEVESQUX, Correspondance de Bossuet, t. II., pp. 35-46. 

a Chap. xii. 

Cf. DUBOIS, Histoirt de VAbbe de Ranee, 1. VII., chap. v. T. II., pp. 36 ff. 

* Pp. 241-242, 290-334. 

6 See the letters to de Ranee of October 4 and November 1 1, 1687, and the notes of 
the editors URBAIN and LXVESQUE, op. cit., t. III., pp. 426-429, 444-447. Bossuet at once 
had D. Mdge's book suppressed by the authorities. " ... May it remain banished 
from all places where true regularity and piety are known," he wrote to Mme. de 
Beringhen, March 28, 1689 (t. IV., pp. 15-16). 

6 See BOSSUET'S letter to de Ranc of January 2, 1690 (URBAIN et LEVESQUK, op. cit., 
t. IV., pp. 50-52). 



I2O Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

Quintus humilitatis gradus est, si The fifth degree of humility is to 

omnes cogitationes malas cordi suo hide from one's Abbot none of the 

advenientes, vel mala a se absconse evil thoughts that beset one's heart, 

commissa, per humilem confessionem nor the sins committed in secret, but 

Abbati non celaverit suo. Hortatur humbly to confess them. Concerning 

nos de hac re Scriptura, dicens: Revela which the Scripture exhorts us, saying: 

Domino viam tuam, et spera in eo. Et "Make known thy way unto the Lord, 

itemdicit: Confitemini Domino, quoniam and hope in him." And again: 

bonus, quoniam in steculum misericordia "Confess to the Lord, for he is good, 

ejus. Et item Propheta: Delictum for his mercy endureth for ever." 

meum cognitum tibi fed, et injustitias So also the prophet says: " I have made 

meas non operui. Dixi, pronuntiabo known to the^my offence, and mine 

adversum me injustitias meas Domino, iniquities I have not hidden. I said, I 

et tu remisisti impietatem cordis mei. will confess against myself my iniquities 

to the Lord: and thou hast forgiven 
the wickedness of my heart." 

With the first four degrees the theory of humility is complete; we 
now know in what essentially consists the humility of the creature, the 
Christian, and the monk. What follows is only the application to certain 
circumstances in the monastic life of the principles already laid down. 
And a point worth noting we shall still for some time be occupied 
with internal elements; it would seem that the Rule makes a sort of 
proud claim to deal almost exclusively with such elements. To repeat, it 
is to the very sources of the moral life and to the depths where only God's 
eye can penetrate that we must carry our active efforts at correction; 
there is it that all should be regulated in the light of faith and in charity. 

This degree is not concerned with sacramental confession. St. 
Benedict rarely speaks to us of divine or ecclesiastical law, since he 
supposes it known already. Besides Abbots were not always priests, 
and so could not receive confession in ordine ad sacr amentum. What 
he speaks of here is a quite private affair, unofficial, a voluntary confiding 
of our wretchedness, what we know nowadays as "manifestation." 
Monastic tradition is unanimous in recommending" this practice, for 
monks as well as for nuns. We have already quoted the wise words 
of the Institutions of Cassian, in speaking of the fifty-first instrument of 
good works; the tenth chapter of his second Conference might also be 
studied. St. Basil recurs frequently to that humble avowal of his 
secret faults which a monk should make, not, says he, to anyone at all, 
nor to one who pleases him, but to those who have the grace of state 
and proper capacity. 1 St. Benedict would like it to be to the Abbot 
himself; for it is only then that the .procedure obtains its full effect. 
The Church, however, to prevent certain abuses, has reminded superiors 
that they have no right to exact manifestation of conscience. 

These manifestations, says our Holy Father, deal with two matters. 
First with " all the evil thoughts that beset one's heart." Let us 
understand this well. According to St. Gregory, the history of tempta- 
tion comprises three moments: suggestion, pleasure, consent. There 

1 Reg. contr., xxi., cxcix., cc r 



Of Humility 1 2 1 

is no need to preserve and reveal to the Abbot what has been not even a 
suggestion, but only a lightning-like flash of thought; nor what has not 
caused real pleasure, because our soul at any rate, if not our sensibility, 
has remained unmoved. In the vague disturbances and confused 
movements of thoughts, inclinations, and impressions which make up 
our secret life, there are elements which we must know how to neglect ; 
to attend to all is a weakness: Nescire qucedam magna -pars sapientics 
(Not to know some things is a great part of wisdom). But evil thoughts 
which are really ours, thoughts which abide with us, tendencies to which 
we surrender ourselves, inveterate companions of our thinking, these 
are the things which deserve to be brought out into the light. If they 
remain hidden they gradually overrun the soul. Likewise we must 
disclose the " sins we may have committed in secret." ^ 

The wholesomeness of this procedure is easily seen. \ All our external 
and public actions are controlled by regular authority, and we have 
a restraint also in human respect, propriety, and fear of ridicule; but 
our interior or hidden life is a thing apart!) So St. Benedict provides 
this help to conscience and sends the monk to his Abbot. It is a practi- 
cal application of the sentiment of the fear of Godp Toothache is said 
to depart when one approaches the dentist's chair ; it may be, too, that the 
mere thought: " I shall have to tell this," will often be enough to guard 
us against ourselves. In this then we may find an abundant source of 
security. A tempter does not care to have witnesses of his procedure. 
So it is notorious, as Cassian had remarked, that the devil dreads nothing 
more than the filial freedom with which we open our whole soul to our 
Abbot, knowing that such frankness shelters us from his arts and defends 
us against his shafts. God Himself guards us in the person of our 
superior. And all the texts here adduced (Ps. xxxvi. 5, cv. I, 
xxxi. 5) regard the confident given to the Abbot as given to Our 
Lord. They represent the avowal of our faults as a giving glory to 
God in its hopefulness and its praise of His mercy, as an infallible 
guarantee of His support and an assurance of pardon. 

The most real benefit of the procedure is contained in the pro- 
cedure itself. Without doubt it will obtain forgiveness for us, without 
doubt some guidance and practical advice will be provided us, and we 
shall accept it with eyes closed, without discussion or reservation; but 
its true and essential efficaciousness lies elsewhere. It establishes us 
in simplicity and absolute loyalty, it creates a profound unity in our life, 
a conformity between the inward and the outward. C Certain little 
secret deceptions cannot withstand the determination to keep our souls 
always as an open book, to have nothing therein but what God and our 
neighbour may read, and to speak as we shall speak at the judgement 
seat of GodJ The peace and joy of our lives as monks depend largely 
on our freedom with the Abbot and his freedom with us. 

Sextus humilitatis gradus est, si The sixth degree of humility is, 
omni vilitate vel extremitate contentus for a monk to be contented with the 
sit monachus, e t ad omnia quae sibi meanest and worst of everything, and 



122 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

injunguntur, velut operarium malum in all that is enjoined him to esteem A 7^ 
et indignum se judicet, dicens cum himself a bad and worthless labourer, h 
Fropheta: Ad, nihilum redactus sum, et saying with the prophet: "I have ' 
ntscivi : ut jwnentum factus sum apud been brought to nothing, and I knew 
te, et ego semper tecum. it not: I am become as a beast before 

thee, yet I am always with thee." 

The sixth degree of humility consists in accepting interiorly all the 
conditions of the monastic life and never being particular. 1 The monk 
will take all with a good grace, whether it be poverty of dwelling or 
clothes or food : omni vilitate. He will not allow himself to be surprised 
or discouraged by the base and menial character of tasks that may be 
entrusted to him; he will not be ashamed of the position that may be 
assigned to him and will not die of chagrin because he is forgotten 
in the distribution of dignities or favours : vel extremitate. Duties of 
considerable moment may sometimes come his way; he will not be con- 
ceited. Instead of being puffed up with his importance and regarding 
the trust committed to him as a tardy recognition of his capabilities, 
he will hold himself sincerely as an incapable workman, badly trained 
and predisposed of himself to all sorts of mistakes. Instead of promising 
himself to work xvonders, he will put all his hope and strengthen God 
alone; he will devote himself to every work that he is given, whatever 
it may be, with the same tranquil consciousness of his personal powerless- 
ness, saying with the prophet: " Behold me brought to what I am, to 
nothing; I know naught. I am as a beast of burden before thee, and 
I am always with thee," that I may rest on thee (Ps. Ixxii. 22-23). 

To be content with anything does not mean that we must not 
bother much about slovenliness, neglect, boorishness of manners, and 
a whole assemblage of habits which may easily be a source of annoyance 
to others. There are no fictitious humiliations ; but difficulties should 
not be added to those which are of rule. Nor yet does our Holy Father 
intend to prescribe conventual squalor and rudeness, nor even to 
condemn in advance what has lately been called " holy luxury "; though 
Marte'ne, influenced by the principles of the early Cistercians and the. 
Trappists, feels bound to deplpy-e the sumptuous character of monastic 
dwellings. 

Septimus humilitatis gradus est, si The seventh degree of humility is 
omnibus se inferiorem et viliorem, non that he should not only call himself , 
solum sua lingua pronuntiet, sed etiam with his tongue lower and viler than 
intimo cordis credat affectu, humilians all, but also believe himself with inmost 
se, et dicens cum Fropheta: Ego autem affection of heart to be so, humbling 
sum vermis, et non homo, opprobrium himself, and saying with the prophet: 
bominum, et abjectio flebis. Exaltatus " I am a worm and no man, the shame 
sum, et humiliates, et confusus. Et of men and the outcast of the people: 
item: Bonum mihi quod humiliasti me, I have been exalted, and cast down 
tit discam mandata tua. and confounded." And again: " It 

is good for me that thou hast humbled 
me, that I may learn thy command- 



ments.'* 



1 /. S. BASIL, Reg. contr., xxii. 



Of Humility 123 

A monk's humble appreciation of himself is not confined to the 
circumstances mentioned in the preceding degree, for it is universal and 
of universal application. The seventh degree embodies an element of 
comparison, in which certain authors would like to see, not a simple 
application of humility, but its very essence. Humility, to St. Bernard, 
is the virtue " by which a man, through truest self-knowledge, grows 
vile in his own eyes " (qua homo, verissima sui agnitione, sibi ipsivilescit). 1 
Wherein lies the comparison? Must one believe himself inferior 
" to all things " ? It would surely be rather extreme to declare oneself 
inferior to beings who have not reason, to the devil, to the dust of the 
highway; moreover, it is hard to believe this, unless when we realize 
vividly, at certain times, how we abuse out power of turning from God, 
while irrational creatures obey Him without fail. One of the most 
characteristic marks of the saints is this eagerness to put themselves 
in the lowest place, to hold themselves cheap, to prefer themselves to 
none. In the most perfect characters, every grace of God but deepens* 
in their eyes the abyss of their nothingness, and all the loving favours of 
Our Lord increase the conviction of their fundamental unworthiness. 
Can this be, as is sometimes said, "pious exaggeration," a fictitious and 
affected attitude? It is undeniable that from one point of view we 
are all worth the same, since of ourselves we are worth nothing, and can 
do nothing but sin: " There is no sin that a man has committed, which 
another may not commit, except he be helped by God who made man." 
To this extent there is no difference between ourselves and others. 
To attain sincere and tried humility I shall not compare myself with 
my brethren, but I shall be attentive to my relation with God and to my 
worth in His sight. I know very little about my neighbour: if I see 
him do good, I should take edification therefrom; if, on the other hand, 
he do evil, my ignorance of his real dispositions should plead in his 
favour: "No one is bad, until he is proved so." We never know to 
what degree he is culpable, nor what influence heredity, previous 
training, and environment have had on him; we know not what he has 
been and what he is in God's sight, nor for what God destines him. 
How easy it would have been at Calvary to regard the good thief as a 
lost soul, or St. Paul himself as a wild fanatic at the martyrdom of 
St. Stephen ! 2 But at least we know ourselves well. " I know not," 
said the Count de Maistre, "what passes in the heart of a rogue; but 
there is enough in the heart of an honest man to make him blush." 
If anyone had treated us as we have treated Our Lord, we should have 
had no difficulty in regarding him as the basest of men. Have we not 
lied enough to God ? Have we not betrayed Him enough ? And how 
many days of fidelity have succeeded our repentances ? An instant's 
reflection is enough to make us realize what we are and in what 
place we should put ourselves: inferior to all, more wretched than 

1 De Gradibus bumilitatis, c. i. P.L., CLXXXIL, 942. 

2 Cf. S. AUG., Liber de diversis Ixxxiii quait., quest. Ixxi., 5. P.L., XL., 82. DC 
sane t a virginit., III. P.L., ibid., 427, 



124 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

all, 1 under the feet of all: " I am a worm and no man, the shame of 
men and the outcast of the people " (Ps. xxi. 7). 

When he does not confine himself to mere verbal protestations, 
which are always easy, 2 but obeys a spontaneous and profound con- 
viction, 3 then the monk shares in the humility of Him who, expiating 
all our misery in His own person, uttered on the cross the words of the 
prophet which we have just quoted. Then the soul recognizes, in the 
degradation to which it has fallen, the just punishment of its pride: 
" I raised myself up, and lo ! I am cast down and confounded " 
(Ps. Ixxxvii. 1 6). It understands all the spiritual profit of this humilia- 
tion thus accepted: " It is good for me that thou hast humbled me, for 
thus I shall learn to obey thee " (Ps. cxviii. 71). 

Octavus humilitatis gradus est, si The eighth degree of humility is, 
nihil agat monachus, nisi quod com- for a monk to do nothing except what 
munis monasterii regula, vel majorum is authorized by the common Rule of 
cohortantur exempla. the monastery, or the example of his 

seniors. . 

A monk who practises the seventh degree of humility finds the 
observance of the eighth a matter of course. He remains quietly in his 
place, as an anonymous unit, one of many; he seeks no exceptions 
or privileges ; he does nothing that is out of the way or attracts notice, 
but only what is authorized by the common rule of the monastery and 
by the conduct according to rule of the seniors, by lawful custom. 4 
This is not an invitation to sloth or apathy, nor to a sort of stoicism, a 
lack of filial simplicity, which would leave the Abbot the task of finding 
out for himself our weakness and our needs; our Holy Father only wishes 
to destroy every expression of self-will. We have by instinct a love of 
petty distinctions; it is only with some chagrin that we make up our 
minds to be ignored and lost in the crowd, especially if we were once 
honoured and exalted. We strive after originality, singularity, pose, 
effect; We would be personages and have our style, our own point of 
view, and our own manner of thought. All of which'is a wretched revo- 
cation of that sacrifice of ourselves which we accepted on the day of 
our profession. Moreover, this need of self-assertion manifests itself 
most often in trivial, almost insignificant, matters, wherein all a man's 
selfishness seems to take refuge. It may be a small point of pronuncia- 
tion, a personal peculiarity in the common ceremonial, exceptions in the 
refectory. And this degenerates into a passion, whether open or 
concealed, and sometimes into revolt. It is great virtue and real 
spiritual eminence to conform oneself always to the customs of the 
monastery and that even in external practices of devotion : Ama nesciri 

1 Verba Senior urn : Vita Patrttm, III., 206. ROSWEYD, p. 531. S. MACAR., 
Reg., iii. S. BASIL., Reg. contr., Ixii. 
a Cf. CASS., Conlat., XVIII.., xi. 

3 The phrase is CASSIAN'S, in the parallel passage; it is found also in Conlat., XXIV., 
xvi.; XII., xiii. 

4 CASS., Iris tit., V., xxiii.; Conlat., XVIII., iii.; II., x.: Nullatenus decifi poterit 
quisque, si non suo jvdicio, jed majorum vivit exemflo. ^ 



Of Humility 125 

et pro nibilo reputari (Love to be unknown and to be counted for 
nothing). 

Nonus humilitatis gradus est, si The ninth degree of humility is 

linguam ad loquendum prohibeat that a monk refrain his tongue from 

monachus et taciturnitatem habens, speaking, keeping silence until a ques- 

usque ad interrogationem non loquatur, tion be asked him, as the Scripture 

monstrante Scriptura quia in multi- shows: "In much talking thou shah 

loquio non effugietur peceatum; et quia not avoid sin " : and, " The talkative 

vir linguosus non dirigetur super ten am. man shall not be directed upon the 

earth." 

In the eighth, degree St. Benedict consented at last to speak of ex- 
ternal works, and in that degree he has comprised our whole monastic 
activity. The three succeeding degrees, which might easily be united 
into one, deal with some more important details, with speech and 
certain concomitants of speech. A humble monk knows how to restrain 
his tongue, which is ever liable to misuse. He has the spirit of silence 
and a reverence for silence. In the presence of his superiors or his 
brethren he is wont, as it were, to await a summons 1 and a motive, before 
he speaks. Even in time of recreation one should observe moderation; 
yet conversation has its rights, and that is its hour. But would that we 
could speak only in time of recreation ! There are those who are 
constantly at high pressure and cannot contain themselves. It has 
become necessity and second nature. They always suppose the matter 
is urgent, be it an excellent" joke, or some confidence that will not wait, 
or a genial notion which must immediately be shared with friends. 
And it is futile to talk of silence before such as these, for they always 
think the criticism is meant for others. Let us beware of condoning 
our talkativeness, on the ground that after all it is only an external 
matter; for, alas ! this external disposition is joined interiorly with a 
fund of pride, immortification, and spiritual dissipation. And we shall 
only succeed in correcting the secret enemy if we try to grapple with him 
in his visible manifestations. The result of this thoughtless stream of 
talk, as Scripture tells us, is unfailingly sin (Prov. x. 19) ; it means also 
loss of time and that irremediably scandal, and the slow destruction 
of our fraternal charity and spirit of obedience. The wordy man, the 
great talker, will never succeed, never find his way upon the earth: 
he will weary and offend both God and men (Ps. cxxxix. 12). 

Decimus humilitatis gradus est, si The tenth degree of humility is 
non sit facilis ac promptus in risu, quia that he be not easily moved and prompt 
scriptum est: Stultus in risu exaltat to laughter; because it is written: 
vocemsuam, "The fool lifteth up his voice in 

laughter." 

St. Benedict has already warned us several times against buffoonery, 
gainst the " loud, resounding laugh." We are well aware that a' pleasant 
wit is a virtue; 'children would certainly not have surrounded Our 

1 Usquequo iervandum est silentium? usquequo interrogeris (Verba Seniorum : Vita 
Patrum, VII., c. xxxii. ROSWEYD, p. 679). 



126 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedtct 

Lord and sought His blessing, if He had not consented to smile and be 
agreeable. But the Holy Rule will not. tolerate a habit of treating 
nothing seriously, of turning everything into jest. This infirmity of 
the mind is one of the most unpleasant traces of the spirit of the world. 
Even in the world it is irritating and in bad taste; it is considered the 
mark of a superficial mind and empty soul: " A fool lifteth up his voice 
in laughter " (Ecclus. xxi. 23). But for a monk it is incompatible with 
recollection and the sense of the presence of God. Moreover, it con- 
tains a rich store of self-love, the desire for display, of passing as a man 
of parts, a " devil of a fellow." There is this danger too : all this foolish 
gaiety stirs up an impure sediment, a sort of dangerous bottom of 
coarseness; reason and will fall partly into abeyance and we are thrown 
off our guard. And there is perhaps no loophole in a man's character 
through which temptation and evil suggestion get in more surely. 
Pere Surin, who knew the ways of the devil, speaks in his book on 
the nuns of Loudun of a possessed nun who owed the fits of possession 
to a sort of rude high spirits, to which she used to surrender herself: 
she did not get rid of the devil until she had corrected this excessive 
gaiety. 

Undecimus humilitatis gradus est, The eleventh degree of humility is 

si, cum loquitur monachus, leniter et that when a monk speaks he do so 

sine risu, humiliter et cum gravitate, gently and without laughter,' humbly, 

vel pauca verba et rationabilia loquatur, gravely, with few and reasonable words, 

et non sit clamosus in voce; sicut scrip- and that he be not noisy in his speech, 

turn est: Sapiens verbis innotescit as it is written: "A wise man is known 

paucis. in a few words." 

St. Benedict has not prescribed absolute silence, but no one can fail 
to admire the number of precautions with which he has surrounded 
silence. In the ninth degree he asked us not to be too ready to speak; 
in the tenth, not to be too ready to laugh; he now describes'the manner 
of the humble and well-instructed monk when he must make use of 
speech. He must do it gently, without laughter or jest, humbly, gravely, 
with few words and such as are reasonable, without shouting or noise, 1 
following the example of Our Lord, of whom St. Matthew (xii. 19) says 
(after Isaiah), " He shall not contend nor cry out : neither shall any man 
hear his voice in the streets." 

Instead of this text St. Benedict quotes another in which it is said 
that " the wise man is known in a few words." Though he says scriptum 
est (it is written), and we find an equivalent thought in several passages 
of the sacred books, notably in the tenth chapter of Ecclesiastes (verse 14), 
it is not from Holy Scripture that he has taken the verbal form of this 
maxim. As D. Hugh Menard observed in his time, this is the hundred 
and thirty-fourth of the sentences of Sextus. Rufinus translated this 
collection from Greek into Latin 2 and offered it to the sister of his friend 

1 Cj. S. BASIL., Reg. contr., cxxx. 

2 See this translation in the Maxima Bibliotbeca veterum Patrutn of MARGARIN DE 
LA BIGNE, t. III., p. 335 ; and in MULLACH, Fragmenta Pbilosopbormn grcecorum, 1. 1., 
P- 



Of Humility 1 27 

Apronianus as a precious "ring," worthy of being worn on the finger. 
Men say, said he, that its author was Sixtus, Bishop of Rome and martyr. 
St. Augustine at first accepted this attribution, but later, being better 
informed, changed his mind. As for St. Jerome, he several times 
denounced with indignation the audacity of Rufinus for daring to 
ascribe to St. Sixtus an entirely pagan work containing doctrinal errors. 
The Decree of Gelasius condemned it. In fact, there has, it would 
seem, been a confusion between St. Sixtus II. and a Pythagorean or 
Stoic philosopher of the same name. 1 However, an English critic, 
Conybeare, has quite recently endeavoured to prove that the Ring of. 
Pope Xystus is the work of a philosopher, retouched by a Christian living 
before A.D. 150, who may have been Pope Sixtus I. 2 

Duodecimus humilitatis gradus est, The twelfth degree of humility 

si non solum corde monachus, sed etiam is that the monk, not only in his heart, 

ipso corpora humilitatem videntibus se but also in his very exterior, always 

semper indicet, id est, in opere, 3 in show his humility to all who see him: 

oratorio, in monasterio, in horto, in that is, in work, in the oratory, in the 

via, in agro vel ubicumque, sedens, monastery, in the garden, on the road, 

ambulans, vel stans, inclinato sit in the field, or wherever He may be, 

semper capite, defixis in terram aspec- whether sitting, walking, or standing, 

tibus, reuin se omni hora de peccatis wiith head always bent down, and eyes 

suis existimans, jam se tremendo Dei fixed on the earth ; that he ever think 

judicio praesentari existimet: dicens of the guilt of his sins, and imagine 

sibi in corde semper illud quod publica- himself already present before the 

nus ille evangelicus, fixis in terram terrible judgement seat of God, always 

oculis, dixit: Doming, non sum dignus saying in his heart what the publican 

ego peccator levare oculos meos ad cerium, in the Gospel said with his eyes fixed 

Et item cum Propheta: Incurvatus et on the earth: "Lord, I a sinner am 

bumiliatus sum usquequaque. not worthy to raise mine eyes to 

heaven." And again, with the prophet: 
"I am bowed down and humbled on 
every side.'* 

For the last time let us remark the character of this antique spirit- 
uality which takes a man interiorly and makes of spiritual renewal a 
spontaneous and living work, the normal development of divine forces 
produced in us by baptism and the other sacraments. If humility 
be really in the heart it will appear in the body also, and will regulate 
all its movements; it will be like a new temperament, a nature made 
in humility replacing the old. This external manifestation is a thing 
natural and necessary: it is the very consequence of our oneness of being. 
So we should be on our watch against regarding this twelfth degree as 
the least of all, on the pretext that it concerns only the body. Deep 
sentiments, whether great love, great sorrow, or lofty thought, have 
always a dominant and despotic character. They work a change first 

1 CJ. P-L., XXI., 40-42, 191-200. HARNACK, Z)T Ueberlieferung und der Bestand 
der altcbristlichen Litteratur bis Eusebius, p. 765. 

2 The Ring of Pope Xystus t together with the Prologue of Rufinus, now first rendered into 
English with an historical and critical commentary (London, 1910). 

3 The best supported reading is : in Opere Dei. 



iz8 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

in the centre of our soul: the soul becomes as it were collected to a 
point; it makes a clean sweep; all that is not in accordance with this 
deep sentiment is treated as non-existent, or as accidental and neg- 
ligible. Then there is a change at the circumference: the passion 
resounds to the very confines of our nature, and concentrates all our 
activity in its minutest forms ; it wrecks our life or remakes it on its own 
plan. Man must perforce bear on him the trace of his vices; virtue, 
too, imprints its glorious stigmata on him, but less rapidly; for the more 
animal our impulses are, the more physical in their basis, the more 
readily do they stamp themselves on the sensibility and mould the body 
itself. Interior and exterior are conjoined, and we may sometimes 
prove it from the opposite direction; for deliberate external attitudes 
do partially modify the interior. 1 

When humility has laid hold of a soul, it embraces the whole man 
insensibly ; it is like that Scripture unguent which begins with the head 
and then, little by little, makes its way to the fringe of the garment: 
" Like the precious ointment on the head, that ran down upon the 
beard, the beard of Aaron, that ran down to the skirt of his garment " 
(Ps. cxxxii. 2). The humble monk, says St. Benedict, enumerating 
the chief circumstances of the day and the diverse positions of the body, 
is recognizable everywhere and always. He neither walks, nor sits, 
nor stands, in the manner of the world, least of all like the vain or frivo- 
lous. His manner is not smug and conceited, he does not bully or rail, 
nor does he carry himself proudly and arrogantly. Habitually his 
head is gently bent, his gaze fixed on the ground. It has been remarked 
that the eyes of the saints, even when they are looking at some object, 
seem turned inwardr, towards the hidden Beauty, so far and yet so near. 
Herein is a living lesson in humility: " that he always show his humility 
to all who see him." But there must be no stiffness or affectation. We 
need not think about the external effect of our humility, and still less 
must we aim at such effect, for to be anxious to edify by the display 
of virtue is always to run extreme risk of pride. 

The exposition of the twelfth degree of humility is rounded off with 
a doctrinal reassertion *>f the principle of humility that is, the fear of 
God, implying our looking to Him and His looking on us, eternal life being 
the issue. For Our Lord's look is not a Platonic gaze, a sort of infinite 
mirror in which created things are merely reflected; it is already a judge- 
ment. Undoubtedly this judgement will not be fully known to us until 
death has fixed its irrevocable seal upon our deeds ; but we must never 
forget that God is our judge even here and now. He is our judge not 
only because He sees us and weighs us and registers our deserts, but also 
because He commences even now to execute sentence. When prayer is 
tasteless, reading ineffective, feast-days without savour, the truths of faith 
powerless to rouse, life without joy, grace attenuated, what is all this 
but the present operation of the justice of God ? But even when things 
are not pushed to this extremity, even when we know we are in the 

1 Cj. S. AUG., De cura pro mortuis gerenda, c. v. P.L., XL., 597. 



Of Humility 129 

grace of God and feel His love, even then, says St. Benedict, we should 
ever be conscious of the load of our sins, and can ever without falsity 
regard ourselves as already standing before the dread judgement seat 
of God. And while, in the bottom of our hearts, we correspond with 
the exercise of divine justice by a continual act of humble repentance, 
of charity, and of adoration, we must keep exteriorly the only attitude 
that befits us, the attitude of the publican in the Gospel (Luke xviii. 13 ; 
Matt. viii. 8). Like him we must confess to God that we are unworthy 
to raise our eyes towards heaven and His purity. 1 Or we must repeat 
with the prophet : " Lo, I am bowed down always in humility " 
(Ps. cxviii. 107). 

Ergo his omnibus humilitatis gradi- Having, therefore, ascended all 

bus ascensis, monachus mox ad carita- these degrees of humility, the monk 

tern Dei perveniet illam, quae perfecta will presently arrive at that love of 

forasmittittimoremjperquamuniversa God which, being perfect, casts out 

quae prius non sine formidine observa- fear: whereby he shall begin to keep, 

bat, absque ullo labore, velut naturali- without labour, and as it were naturally 

ter ex consuetudine incipit custodire, and by custom, all those precepts which 

non jam timore gehennae, sed amore he had hitherto observed not without 

Christi et consuetudine ipsa bona et fear, no longer through dread of hell, 

delectatione virtu turn. QuodDominus but for the love of Christ, and of a 

in operario suo mundo a vitiis et pec- good habit and a delight in virtue, 

catis, Spiritu Sancto dignabitur demon- Which God will vouchsafe to manifest 

strare. by the Holy Spirit in His labourer, 

now cleansed from vice and sin. 

This is the end. Save for the last sentence, it is taken almost 
verbally from Cassian. 2 So here we have the symbolical steps fixed into 
body and soul. When we have scaled them resolutely, without neglect- 
ing any and for this a few days' retreat will probably not suffice God 
will hasten to give us the promised recompense. This recompense is 
the same as that mentioned at the end of the Prologue: union with 
God in perfect charity. In both passages we read also of a fear which is 
driven out by love, and of an unspeakable sweetness which permeates 
the powers of the soul. It would seem that St. Benedict was anxious 
to fix clearly the nature of this fear which is driven out by perfect 
charity (i John iv. 18) : it is not chaste fear, which " abideth for ever and 
ever," but a cowardly fear, which keeps us to the performance of duty 
and magnifies its difficulties; and it is also servile fear, the dread of 
eternal punishment. For St. Benedict would have us substitute 
for this last motive, somewhat inferior and Jewish as it is, the influence 
of nobler motives viz., love of Our Lord, a leaning towards the good, 
a delight in pleasing God. 

Thanks to charity, all that the monk did not aforetime fulfil without 

1 The quotation is far from literal; it recalls a passage of the Prayer of Manasses 
printed at the end of our Latin Bibles: Domine, . . . non sum dignus intueri et aspicere 
altitudinem cali pra multitudine iniquitatum mearum. 

a lust., IV., xxxix. Cj. Cottlat., XL, viii. Compare with this ending to the chapter 
ST. AUGUSTINE, In Epistolamjfoann., tract. IX., 2-9. P.L., XXXV., 2045-2052. 

9 



130 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

dread, he now, when deeply attached to Our Lord, fulfils without 
effort, as it were spontaneously and naturally, by the influence of good 
habit, and with the secret charm that .the practice of virtue brings to 
souls which are delivered from themselves. Love carries us, love has 
transfigured all; its unction has penetrated all the faculties of our being. 
There is no more inertia in us, no more difficulties in things; or, if there 
be still difficulty, it is the condiment of action, a stimulus to good, a 
motive the more for charity to display and prove itself. We are on the 
road to God, with souls all bathed in His love, with natures wholly 
inspired by His gospel and thoroughly Christianized. And assuredly 
joy is not lacking. The exclusion of all sensible and material pleasure 
has prepared us to enjoy the true pleasure and the true good. Qua 
major voluptas quamfastidium omnis voluptatis? (What greater pleasure 
than aversion from all pleasure ?) said Tertullian. Undoubtedly 
St. Benedict recommended the fear of God's presence as a medicine; 
but that which was the remedy of our convalescence becomes the 
generous nourishment and the delight of our health. Profound happi- 
ness, assured and invincible, is to live thus in God's sight, near Him 
and in Him. 

And our Holy Father adds some words to which we may give the 
meaning either of a promise, or of a modest prayer or loving wish. The 
words take the form of a compact which our Holy Father makes with us, 
in the name of Our Lord. Such, says he, is the programme which Our 
Lord will deign to fulfil and show forth. He will not manifest it to the 
world, for where would be the good ? But He will make it known to 
him in whom it shall be accomplished. After having, by means of 
humility, purified His servant and workman from vice and sin, He will 
pour forth in him without stint the substantial unction of His Spirit. 
This is the eternal role of the Spirit of God. Since, in the bosom of the 
Holy Trinity, He is the indissoluble bond, the living tie, and eternal 
embrace of Father and Son, so are attributed to Him ad extra (in external 
operation) all supernatural unions. He it is who unites us to Our Lord 
Jesus Christ and by Our Lord to the Father; He it is who gives us the 
temper for this region and this sanctuary where our life is established 
for ever. And we reach it by the one way which Our Lord traced and 
Himself followed: the humility of little children. 



CHAPTER VIII 
OF THE DIVINE OFFICE AT NIGHT 

HAVING traced the main lines of the spiritual training of his 
disciples, St. Benedict now sets himself to organize liturgical 
and conventual prayer. He begins without any doctrinal 
introduction; but we may pause to ask ourselves what the 
Church and the old monastic legislators mean when, whether explicitly 
or not, they make the Divine Office the central and essential work of the 
religious and contemplative life. 

Whatever may be the etymology of the word " religion," 1 it implies, 
in its broadest acceptation, the idea of a relation towards God. In this 
sense the whole creation has a religious character. All things, in the 
very measure in which they possess being, are bound to God their 
Creator, Providence, and Last End. Ontologically all are true, 
beautiful, and good; all are in conformity with the ideal of the divine 
Artificer; all are a created expression of uncreated Beauty; all are in 
accord with His will and are good of Him and for Him, lending them- 
selves with facility to His designs. The whole of this vast creation speaks 
of God and obeys Him; it is a sweet song in His ears, a surpassing act of 
praise. " The Lord hath made all things for himself " (Prov. xvi. 4). 
Not even moral evil can disturb the harmony of God's plan. Un- 
willingly and with disgust does creation endure the profanation of the 
wicked, who would turn it from its end; it groans in this servitude; and 
while waiting for its day of resurrection and recompense (Rom. viii. 19 sq.) 
it co-operates in the work of redemption and serves as the instrument of 
God's vengeance. Nor is all this a mere dream or an exaggerated fancy. 
Creation as a whole possesses in a true and special way a liturgical 
character. It resembles the divine life itself: for the Holy Trinity is a 
temple wherein, by His eternal generation, the Word is the perfect 
praise of the Father, "the brightness of his glory and the figure of his 
substance"; where the communion of Father and Son is sealed in 
the kiss of peace and in the personal joy which is their common Spirit. 
Glory has been defined as clara notitia cum latude (clear knowledge 
conjoined with praise); by the twofold procession of which we have 
just spoken God finds in Himself His essential glory. It is enough for 
Him; and the glory which He must receive from His works is only 
necessary on the creature's side; for God it remains accidental and 
exterior. Yet He may not -renounce it: " I will not give my glory 
to another." 

Furthermore, we should notice that this accidental glory of God 
is only complete on condition that it is at once objective, formal, and 
expressed. Objective glory is the real manifestation of the perfections 

1 Summa^ II.-II., q. bcxxi., a. i. 
131 



132 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

of God: all being, all life, all created beauty, whether natural or super- 
natural, is ontologically the praise of God. Formal glory is paid only 
by rational creatures, who alone are capable of appreciating objective 
glory and of tracing it to its source; and only in this act do we get 
religion and liturgy. Without saying anything in this place about 
the religion of the angels, we may at least remark the truly sacerdotal 
position of man in the midst of the lower creation. The Apostle says in 
his Epistle to the Hebrews .- " Every high-priest taken from among men 
is ordained for men in the things that appertain to God, that he may 
offer up gifts and sacrifices " (v. i) . Man himself is taken out of creation, 
raised above it, and made its priest, so that he may offer to God, in his 
own name and in the name of the whole world, an intelligent homage. 
By his very nature an abridgement of the universe a " microcosm," 
as the ancients put it- his function is to collect the manifold voices of 
creation, as if all found their echo in his heart, as if he were the world's 
consciousness ; and his mission is to give life to all with his thought and 
love, and to make offering of all, whether in his use of the world or in 
explicit praise. The religious system of the world is completed and 
made perfect only in him; he is the link between the world and God; 
and when this link is broken, then the whole creation is affected and 
falls: " cursed is the earth in thy work " (Gen. iii. 17). 

Man's religion is not aestheticism, nor emotion, nor a blind deference 
to prejudices of upbringing, nor a cosmological theory, nor self-love and 
the love of humanity; it is not even " an affirmation concerning matters 
which lie beyond experience," nor the idea of the infinite; yet all these 
definitions have been advanced. Religion is a moral virtue, the most 
noble of all the moral virtues, and is akin to justice. It disposes us to 
pay God the worship that is His due. And the formal object of this 
worship, the fundamental motive of all religious acts, is the sovereign 
eminence of God, His infinite excellence as it is in itself : " We give 
Thee thanks for Thy great glory," and as it manifests itself for our sake 
in creation, conservation, providence, and all benefits. 1 If we had 
leisure to write the history of any religious act whatever,- we should note 
with theologians that it always implies an intellectual appreciation of 
divine excellence, a humble self-abasement, the will to confess sub- 
mission, and finally an actual recognition of the divine sovereignty, 
whether by way of an expressive act and confirmation of some sort, 
merely internal in character, or by an act which is at once internal and 
openly manifested. It is this last act which properly speaking makes 
the act of religion and worship, in which the glorification of God is 
consummated. However, a liturgy is something more than this; it is 
the sum of acts, words, chants, and ceremonies, by means of which we 
manifest our interior religion; it is a collective and social prayer, the 
forms pf which have a character that is regular, definite, and determined. 

The raising of man to the supernatural order made his relation to 
God more intimate and his religion more exalted. Nor has God been" 

1 Summa, II.-II., q, Ixxxi. SUAREZ, De virtu te et statu religionis, 1. 1., c. vi. 



Of the Divine Office at Night 133 

content with the priesthood of man for the uniting of Himself to 
creation. This link was fragile, and it broke; and perhaps God's very 
motive in allowing it to break was that He might replace it by another 
priesthood and make another humanity, no longer resting on Adam and 
on man, but on Jesus Christ and the Man-God. When He consented 
to run the risks of creation, it was because He was thinking of the in- 
comparable glory that would be paid Him by His Word Incarnate, the 
Redeemer. It would be easy to show how the Incarnate Word com- 
pletes the hierarchical series of the three sorts of glory of which we have 
spoken, how the whole creation, both natural and supernatural, is 
united to Him and incorporated with Him, the unique and eternal 
High-Priest, so as to offer to the Holy Trinity a single sacrifice of expia- 
tion, adoration, and thanksgiving, filling both time and eternity. To 
participate in His death and in His life by baptism is, in reality, according 
to St. Peter (i Peter ii. 4 $*.), to share in His royal priesthood, so as to 
co-operate in the great liturgical act of which He is at one and the 
same time, and eminently, altar, priest, and victim. Nor has the Apostle 
Paul laid down any other programme for the Christian : " By him there- 
fore let us offer the sacrifice of praise always to God, that is to say, the 
fruit of lips confessing to his name " (Heb. xiii. 15). 

But all particular liturgies centre round, are merged in, and draw 
their strength from, the collective liturgy of that great living organism 
the Church, which is the perfect man and the fulness of Christ. The 
whole life of the Church expresses and unfolds itself in its liturgy; all 
the relations of creatures with God here find their principle and their 
consummation; by the very acts that in the individual as in the whole 
mass realize union with God, the liturgy pays 'God " all honour and 
glory." In it the Holy Spirit has achieved the concentration, eternaliza- 
tion, and diffusion throughout the whole Body of Christ of the unchange- 
able fulness of the act of redemption, all the spiritual riches of the 
Church in the past, in the present, and in eternity. And as the bloody 
sacrifice, and the entry of our High Priest into the sanctuary of heaven, 
mark the culmination of His work, so the liturgy has its centre in the 
Mass, the " Eucharist." The Divine Office and the Hours are but the 
splendid accompaniment, the preparation for or radiance from the 
Eucharist. It may be said that the two economies, the natural and the 
supernatural, meet in this synthetic act, this " Action " par excellence. 
So our Holy Father and other ancient writers 1 are well inspired when 
they call the liturgy in its totality the Opus Dei (Work of God) : the 
work which has God and God alone for its direct object, the work which 
magnifies God, the work which works divine things, the work in which 
God is solely interested, of which He is the principal agent, but which 
He has willed should be accomplished by human hands and human lips. 

1 Cf. HJEFT., 1. VII., tract, ii., disq. Hi. BUTLER (op. '/., p. 203) notes that the 
expression Opus Dei has the same sense in the Rules of ST. CJESARIUS as in St. Benedict, 
and he adds: Apud alias scriptores antiquiores . . . significabat opera vita spiritualis vel 
ascetics, ex. gr. BASIUI Reg., 85, 86, 95, etc. 



134 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

There are differences and special privileges among those who are 
consecrated priests and religious by the 'same baptism. God, by the 
sacrament of Holy Orders, associates some more intimately with the 
priesthood of His Son. Others are religious, not merely in the adjectival 
sense, like ordinary Christians, but substantially and essentially. Every 
authentic form of the religious life has for its first object the unifying 
of the powers of the soul, so as to make them combine for the con- 
templation and service of God. To be a religious is to belong to God 
alone, by a consecration and holocaust of one's whole self. " Religion, 
since it is a state in which a man consecrates his whole self and all his 
belongings to the worship of God, and so to speak immolates all, is 
without doubt a state of perfection." 1 We can well understand why 
the Church has entrusted the celebration of her liturgy especially to 
religious. In fact, apart from rare exceptions or dispensations, the 
Divine Office remains the first duty of every religious family. Religious, 
therefore, remain such in substance, even though the Church, desiring 
to secure full success for apostolic or charitable work, puts it into their 
consecrated hands. Yet, they are then religious "with addition," in 
view of work which is superadded and which, though religious because 
of its motive and relation to God, is not so directly and in its object. 

But we monks are religious "without addition," we are religious 
only; we are given up to God to belong to Him solely. In our life no 
distraction and division is possible; our work is of the same nature as our 
life. We are not religious for the Work of God and for study, any more 
than for manual labour: for then our condition would be far inferior 
to that of the secular clergy who are directly concerned with souls. 
We do not deny that a contemplative can and should study; we do not 
dispute that erudite labours or apostolic works may be lawfully under- 
taken and successfully accomplished by monks. We content ourselves 
with the affirmation that the proper and distinctive work of the Bene- 
dictine, his lot and his mission, is the liturgy. He makes his profession 
so as to be in the Church which is an association for the praise of God 
one who glorifies God according to forms instituted by her who knows 
how God should be honoured and possesses the words of eternal life. 
He is wholly a man of prayer, and the diverse forms of his activity take 
spontaneously a religious" colour, a quality of adoration and praise. 
Theologians enquire whether every good act which is performed with 
the formal design of honouring God becomes an act of religion and 
worship. St. Thomas, while recognizing a special value in acts which 
are produced directly by the virtue of religion and are its proper fruit, 
replies that all acts which are prescribed or determined by it take from 
this source a religious character. 2 Actions of this last sort are innumer- 
able in a icligious life; and especially because of the profound and total 
consecration of our very being to God's service there can scarcely be an 
act which escapes this transformation, provided the soul is careful often 

1 'Summa, II.-II., y. clxxxvi., a. i. 

8 Summp, II.-II., y/lxxxi., aa. I et 4. . 



Of the Divine Office at Night 135 

to renew and ratify its profession. " If a man devote his whole life to 
the service of God, his whole life will belong to religion." 1 

But, beyond this personal and inclusive consecration which we share 
with all religious, we have, let it be repeated, a special vocation to 
prayer; the whole practical organization of our life is connected with and 
converges towards worship. The holy liturgy is for us, at one and the 
same time, a means of sanctification and an end. But it is especially 
an end. Our contemplation nourishes itself therein without cessation, 
and so to speak finds in the liturgy its adequate object and proper term. 2 
This should be well understood. It is not a small matter, even from 
a practical point of view, to know our end with all exactitude, to find 
a definition so successful as to include both God and ourselves, His 
interests and ours, His glory and our happiness, the work of time 
and the work of eternity. There is no lack of definitions: we are told 
that our- business is to " secure our salvation," " to procure the glory 
of God," " to realize our sanctification," " to attain union with God 
and His eternal life." These definitions are precise but of unequal 
value; though it is true that with a little explanation we may find the 
fulness of doctrine implied in all, and, for enlightened and generous 
souls, the first loses its tendency to lead in practice to lukewarmness and 
a commercial spirituality. The last is the best, and it is the one which 
our Holy Father adopts, in company with all the ancient writers. But 
none, save the second, suggests the idea of liturgy. And it is a pity; 
for after all our union with God is itself ordained for praise. 

The supernatural beauty of Our Lord in us, that perfect resemblance 
to Him which the whole supernatural economy is engaged in forming, 
that divine imprint which the liturgy like some press is ever stamping 
on our souls, is not given to us that we should take our joy in it by 
ourselves, in selfish complacency. If we share more than others in 
the life and the experience of Him who has for His personal mission to 
reveal and glorify the Father, it is that we may share in His destiny, 
may with Him exercise that priesthood of which we have just spoken, 
may, like the ancients of the Apocalypse casting their crowns, or, like 
Our Lord on the Last Day, throw down before the throne of God our 
participated splendour. The value of the act depends upon the value 
of the agent; the adoration depends upon the adorer. And it is only 
because God " seeks those who will adore in spirit and in truth " that 
He has made us one with His Son by means of His Holy Spirit. In the 
wonderful passage with which the Epistle to the Ephesians begins, 
St. Paul makes it plain that the supreme end of creation and redemption, 
of that " recapitulation " of all things in Christ, is the liturgical witness 
to infinite Excellence and infinite Beauty: " He chose us in him before 
the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and unspotted in 

1 Summa, H.-II., q. clxxxvi., a. i, ad. 2. 

8 See The Spiritual Life and Prayer according to Holy Scripture and Monastic Tradition, 
chaps, x., xx., xxii., xxiii. (By Madame C^dle Bfuyere, Abbess of Ste Cfccije de 
Solesmes.) 



136 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

his sight in charity, who hath predestinated us unto the adoption of 
children through Jesus Christ unto himself: according to the purpose 
of his will: unto the praise of the glory of his grace, in which he hath 
graced us in his beloved son/' Therefore there is a close connection 
between the three elements: union with God, the praise of God, the 
glory of God. Our individual and conventual sanctity expresses itself 
in that same liturgical prayer which realizes it most effectually; it is our 
blessedness to enter even here below into the life and joy of our God; 
it is to make all that created and uncreated being, which comes to us 
from the Father by way of the Word and Holy Spirit, flow back eternally 
by this same road of the Word and the Spirit towards its beginning that 
has no beginning, the Father. 

Does our Holy Father speak of the liturgy immediately after de- 
scribing the individual training of the monk because all our training 
and all our virtue are connected with our prayer ? Is there purpose 
in this order ? We may be allowed to think so, though it would be hard 
to prove it. What is certain is that St. Benedict has himself defined 
the monastic life as the " school of the Lord's service "; that he places 
the regulation of the liturgy in the forefront of his legislation; that he 
regulates this public prayer with more precision and care than anything 
else, leaving to individual initiative the measure and manner of private 
prayer; that he urges us finally " to set nothing before the Work of God." 
In fact all other monastic occupations depend upon this; the liturgy 
fixes our whole horarium ; it claims almost all the hours of our day, and 
those the best hours. While a life devoted to study profits by the 
silence of the morning hours and the mental clarity that sleep has 
restored to push forward its learned researches at its ease, we for our 
part set ourselves to repeat the same psalms in the presence of the same 
God. Would a monk be faithful to the Rule and his conscience who 
should not give himself readily to this seeming waste, who should as far 
as possible husband the hours of the day so as to measure out parsi- 
moniously what shall be given to God ? Though our Holy Father 
calls the Office our servitutis pensum (nieed of service), we never consider 
it as a task or forced labour; and if, at times, in an active and very busy 
ministry, some clerics are tempted to fulfil the duty of their Office with 
haste, or even to groan under the weight of this additional burden, there 
can never be any excuse for the monk to regard the Divine Office so. 

What if the world does not understand this work of prayer and does 
not appreciate its purpose, except it be from an aesthetic standpoint ? 
And yet how few are affected by the real and supernatural beauty of the 
rites of the Church or the sacred chant ! We shall never be tempted 
so to reduce our life that the world may comprehend it ; for our life is 
what God and St. Benedict and our own free act have made it. Discord 
with the world is a principle of ours, as old as the Gospel and as old as 
our Rule : A sceculi g.ctibus sefacere alienum (To keep aloof from worldly 
ways). The world is irreligious of its nature, professedly atheistic, 
sometimes with, an atheism which is measured and knows its limitations, 



Of the Divine Office at Night 1 37 

but at others with an aggressive atheism which stops at no lengths and 
at no measures. If the world does not understand the life of con- 
templatives, then why does it single them out for its persecution? 
Because the hatred of him who inspires the world is more 'clearsighted. 
Besides irreligion there is the vague religious sentiment of so many 
Christians, and, in a period of feverish activity and utilitarianism, an 
almost universal misunderstanding of the function of prayer. Fa s 
est et ab hoste doceri: in the face of this naturalistic and impious con- 
spiracy we are more than ever bound to be religious, completely and 
solely, and to assert what men deny or forget. And this not in a 
reactionary spirit, or from rivalry and contrast with other Orders, but 
from a fine and delicate sense of fidelity. Since we are, by special 
title, God's religious, we must, so to speak, offer Him compensation, 
and make our fidelity all the more loyal the more God is deserted: 
" You are they who have continued with me in my temptations. And 
I dispose to you, as my Father hath disposed to me, a kingdom; that 
you may eat and drink at my table, in my kingdom " (Luke xxii. 28-30). 

Our ambition goes no farther than that. Yet we believe in the 
apostolic and social value of our prayer, and we believe that by it we 
reach directly not only God and ourselves, but our neighbours also. 
Even without speaking of its secret influence on the providential course 
of events, is not the spectacle of the Office worthily celebrated a very 
effective sort of preaching ? Since the days of the primitive Church 
(Acts ii. 42-47) the Catholic liturgy has been a principle of unity for the 
people of God, and social charity has been created by it. 1 Can we hope 
to see the true and deep solidarity of Christendom restored, apart 
from that reunion of all around God, sharing in the same prayer and the 
same living Bread ? However this may be, yet we are content to be 
makers of nothing that is visible or tangible, and to have no other 
usefulness than that of adoring God. We are glad and content to attain 
by the Work of God nothing but the essential end of all things, the end 
of the whole rational creation, the very end of the Church. So to act 
is to take here and now the attitude of eternity, and to rehearse for 
heaven; for, according to St. John, the work of those who are admitted 
into the heavenly Jerusalem is contemplation and a royal service: " The 
throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it. And his servants shall 
serve him. And they shall see his face : and his name shall be on their 
foreheads. . . . And they shall reign for ever and ever" (Apoc. xxii. 3-5). 

The methodical order in which St. Benedict sets out the parts of 
his liturgical legislation is obvious. He speaks to us first of the Night 
Office, then of the Day Office, and finally of the general discipline of 
the Divine Office, and of the dispositions which a monk should take 
with him to prayer. We may enumerate the subjects treated in these 
thirteen chapters, while noting that the titles given to them in the 
Rule do not always correspond exactly with their real contents. 

1 Read the general Introduction to the Liturgical Tear, 



138 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

VIII. The hour for the Night Office according to the season. 

IX. The composition of the Night Office in winter. 

X. The composition of the Night Office in summer. 

XI. The composition of the Night Office on Sundays. 
XII. The composition of the Morning Office on Sundays. 

XIII. The composition of the Morning Office on ferias. 

XIV. The composition of the Office on Saints'-days. 
XV. The use of Alleluia. 

XVI. The number of the Hours of the Day Office. 
XVII. The composition of the six* last Hours of the day. 
XVIII. The distribution of the Psalter among the different Hours. 
XIX.-XX. Attitude of mind and body during prayer. 

In the liturgy, as in other observances of his Ru^e, St. Benedict 
shows an intelligent eclecticism. His cursusis composed of borrowings 
from the Roman and Ambrosian liturgies, and from the monastic 
liturgies of East and West, with some novelties and personal preferences. 
The whole forms a solid and stable framework, where all important 
details are foreseen; and doubtless St. Benedict wished, on this point as 
on others, to remedy the fluctuations of current monastic discipline. 
Yet the framework was not, as we shall see, absolutely rigid, although the 
time of improvisation and complete liturgical liberty was long past. 
Our Holy Father evidently only intended to regulate divine service 
in his own monasteries ; but, since his work was the most complete, wisest, 
and most discreet which had appeared up to that time, it became little 
by little the sole monastic liturgy, and to some degree inspired the Roman 
liturgy itself. To avoid turning this commentary into a long and 
erudite work, we must leave to the general history of liturgical forms 
and to monastic history the study of the developments of the Divine 
Office, among the secular clergy as well as among monks, from the begin- 
ning to St. Benedict and from St. Benedict to our own day; for it would 
be to undertake a complete history of the Breviary. The work of Dom 
Suitbert Baumer (translated from the German into French by Dom 
Biron) may be consulted with profit, and many references will be found 
there. The text of St. Benedict will furnish us only with the occasion 
for a few historical remarks. 

The Work of God begins in the very heart of the night. This 
Night Office, the longest of all, is also the most -ancient. It is not 
at all necessary to seek its origin in the expectation of the immediate 
return of the Saviour, of the irapov<ria, but rather in the great Easter 
Vigil and in the other Vigils which the first Christians celebrated, after 
the pattern of this, on Sundays and certain fixed days. The programme 
of a Vigil recalls that of the morning and Sabbath prayer of the syna- 
gogues. It was often followed, whether at once or after an interval, 
by the Agape and the service of the Eucharist; yet not always, and it is 
distinct from the celebration of the mysteries. "They declared," 
wrote Pliny to Trajan, " that this was the sum of their fault or error; 



Of the Divine Office at Night 1 39 

that they were wont to meet together on a fixed day before morning, 
to make a song to Christ as to God by themselves and in turn . . . ; 
which being done, they would separate and again meet to take food." 
Becoming attached very early to the Mass, the Vigil, or non-liturgical 
service, formed the Ante-Mass or Mass of the Catechumens. Dom 
Cabrol, after pointing out the analogies that exist between the arrange- 
ment of the Night Office and that of the Ante-Mass, adds that " the 
other Offices were formed on the model of the Night Office, which 
alone existed at first as a public Office"; there is the same liturgical 
design, though curtailed, in Lauds, Vespers, and the Little Hours. 1 
While the faithful and even the clergy could not celebrate the Night 
Office daily, the monks were from the beginning assiduous in it, and 
we find the Night Office present among them all. 

DE OFFICIIS DIVINIS IN NOCTIBUS. In winter-time, that is, from the 

Hiemis tempore, id est, a Kalendis Calends of November until Easter, 

Novembris usque ad Fascha, juxta the brethren shall rise at what may be 

considerationem rationis, o.ctava hora reasonably calculated to be the eighth 

noctis surgendum est, ut modice am- hour of the night; so that, having 

plius de media nocte pausetur, et jam rested till some time past midnight, 

digesti surgant. they may rise having had their full 

sleep. 

For an accurate conception of the primitive Benedictine Office 
we must obviously set our minds free from modern conditions and the 
customs which time has introduced. In the first place, instead of fixing 
the hour of the Night Office according to the four seasons, our Holy 
Father, for simplicity, divides the year into two great divisions: winter 
and summer. The first extends from the Calends of November to 
Easter, the second from Easter to the aforesaid Calends. The question 
may be raised whether Calends means the first of November, the day 
on which they fall, or the i6th of October, the day on which one begins 
to count to them. In Chapter XLVIII., the expression a Kalendis 
Octobris (from the Calends of October) certainly means the I4th of 
September, the beginning of the Monastic Lent. Hildemar, inter- 
preting the Rule according to the customs of the Roman Church, 
understands by the Calends of November either Sunday the 1st of 
November, or the Sunday which precedes the 1st of November, when 
this date falls within the first three days of the week, or the Sunday 
which follows the 1st of November when this date falls within the other 
three days. Calmet admits this explanation all the more readily because 
it appeared to him (wrongly, it would seem) indispensable "for the 
reconciling St. Benedict with himself . . . since he wishes the Office 
and psalter to be begun every Sunday and continued during the week." 
So we have two liturgical seasons instead of four. Our Holy Father's 
purpose is to proportion the Office to the length or brevity of the nights. 

The ancients had also this special way of regarding days and hours. 
Without doubt the civil day among the Romans ran from midnight to 

* P, CAPROL, Les Origines liturgiyues, Appendix I., pp 



140 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

midnight and was divided into twenty-four hours, which astronomers 
considered as equal or equinoctial; but in current usage the day was 
regarded as composed of two elements viz., day and night. The length 
of day and night naturally varied with the season of the year; never- 
theless the number of their divisions or hours remained the same : 
there were twelve hours of the day from sunrise to sunset, and 
twelve hours of night from sunset to sunrise. With midday and mid- 
night as fixed points, there were six hours before midday and six hours 
after, six hours before midnight and six hours after. 1 So the length of 
each of these hours was constantly changing. In winter the night hours 
were longer than those of the day, and this was reversed in summer; 
only at the equinoxes of spring and autumn were day and night of 
equal length. The first hour of the day at the equinox commenced 
at what we call 6 a.m.; the first hour of the night at 6 p.m.; and the 
eighth hour of the night, beginning at I a.m., was 't-full " at 2 a.m. : 
bora octava plena. 

Our Holy Father counted his hours in the Roman fashion. 2 The 
eighth hour of the night, of which he speaks, changed its position and 
moved about during the year, according as one went away from or 
approached the equinox. The rational determination of this eighth 
hour was to fix the hour of rising for his monks : juxta considerationem 
rationis (commentators usually understand these words of the discretion 
of St. Benedict's ordinance). Further, we may note that St. Benedict 
does not say at what point in the eighth hour his monks should rise: 
that too might vary with the season; probably it was nearer the beginning 
of the eighth hour in proportion as the nights were longer, and pro- 
portionally nearer the end when they were shorter. Perhaps the Abbot 
fixed in advance the exact moment of rising for each night, or rather 
for a week or more, striking a mean. There was need of considerable 
calculation in order to secure the monk a sufficient amount of sleep. 3 
If sleep lasted a little more than half the night, 4 digestion would have 
had time to be completed and all would be ready for the Divine Office. 

1 Vigilia were military divisions of the night. While the Greeks divided the night 
into three watches of four hours each, the Romans divided it into four watches of three 
hours. 

2 However, D. Mege and other commentators think that St. Benedict divided day 
and night together into twenty-four hours of equal length. 

3 ST. COLUMBANUS treated his monks more roughly: Lassus ad stratum venial, 
ambulansque dormitet, necdum expleto somno surgere compellatur (Regula, ix. P.L., LXXX., 
216). 

* Here again commentators have different interpretations. A monk, perhaps, 
had not to rise shortly after the middle of that period of time which constitutes the 
night, but to obtain an amount of sleep equal to somewhat more than half the night. 
To achieve this it would be necessary to correlate, according to the season, the expiration 
of the eighth hour (in the Roman sense) and bedtime. Let us suppose the date is 
the Calends of November: the night beginning at five o'clock in the evening and ending 
at seven o'clock in the morning has a length of fourteen equinoctial hours; if the monks, 
rising at the Roman eighth hour that is, about 2.20 a.m. went to bed at 7 p.m., 
they slept a little more than half the night i.e., seven hours and twenty minutes 
(Cf. H/EFT., 1. VII., tract, ix., djsq. iv., p. 777). 



Of the Divine Office at Night 141 

The monks going to bed after Compline, which was said at nightfall, 
could sleep in winter from six or seven o'clock in the evening until 
about two or even three o'clock in the morning. All through the year 
the time of rising oscillated, it would seem, between the hours of one 
and three o'clock; the custom of rising at midnight, as Martene remarks, 
arose from an inaccurate interpretation of the Rule and is not in con- 
formity with tradition. 

The difficulty of calculating the hour of rising was increased for the 
early monks by the fact that they had no striking-clocks or alarums. 
They had often to be content with an approximate time. The ancients 
determined the hour of the day from the height of the sun, from the 
length and direction of its shadow; they had invented, for the measure- 
ment of time, the gnomon, the sundial, the sun-clock. To measure 
duration they used the sand-glass, clepsydra, water-clock. 1 But monks 
did not always possess these instruments, 2 and had to listen for cockcrow 
or follow carefully the movements of the stars. Cassian observes that 
the monk whose duty it is to wake the brethren should not relax his 
vigilance on the plea that he has formed the habit of waking them at the 
same hour: " Although daily custom compel him to wake at the same 
hour, yet he should carefully and frequently calculate the time appointed 
for the community by the courses of the stars and so summon them to 
the duty of prayer." 3 An interesting little treatise of St. Gregory of 
Tours has come down to us with the title: De cursu stellarum ratio, 
qualiter ad officium implendwn debeat observari 4 (The courses of the 
stars and how to observe them for the purpose of fulfilling the Office). 
The recital of a fixed quantity of prayers, 6 the calculation of the quantity 
of wax consumed in a candle, or of the difference of level in the oil of a 
lamp, were other elementary methods. The Rule of the Master requires 
two brethren to keep watch and consult the borologium frequently. 6 
St. Benedict entrusts the duty of summoning the brethren to the Work 
of God to the Abbot in person, or to a zealous monk acting under the 
supervision of the Abbot; but he was obliged to foresee the possibility 
of forgetfulness and mistakes, and we shall find him consenting to an 
a bridgement of the ,Office, if the monks' sleep has unluckily been pro- 
Jonged. 

Quod vero restat post Vigilias, a And let the time that remains after 

f ratribus qui Psalterii vel lectionum the Night Office be spent in study by 

aliquid indigent, meditation! inser- those brethren who have still some 

viatur. part of the psalter and lessons to learn. 

The monks did not go back to bed after the Night Office. The 
ancient monks feared that this supplementary rest made the soul lose 
the spiritual vigour that the sacred vigils had inspired and furnished an 

1 Cf. DAREMBBRG et SAGLIO, Dictionnaire des Antiquit/s grecques et romaines, art. 
Horologium. 

* Cf. HajFT., 1. VII., tract, ix. CALMET, in b. I. 3 Inst., II., xvii. 

4 Monumenta Germanics Historica : Scriptures rerum RJ trovingiarum, 1. 1., pp. 854 sq. 

5 See the history of Adolius in Hist. Laus., c. civ. (Vita Patrum, VIII. ROSWEYD, 
p. 769). a Cap. xxxi.-xxxii. 



142 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

occasion for illusions of the devil. 1 However, some legislators, especially 
the Master, and also some Benedictine abbots, were less strict. Even 
to strict regulations there were exceptions, the details of which may be 
found in Martene and Calmet: as, for example, when the monks had 
been awakened too soon or when they were suffering from sickness. 

It would have been indiscreet, in the winter Vigils, to continue 
psalmody and lessons from half-past two until six o'clock. The lessons, 
as we shall see, were very long at that season. Yet there remained 
before Matins (i.e., Lauds) an interval of varying duration: this period 
was to be devoted to study by those who needed to study some matter 
(literally: by those who are lacking at all in the psalter or lessons). In 
Low Latin, says Calmet, the word meditari has often the meaning of 
* to study,' learn by heart or rote. We should remember that in 
St. Benedict's time illiterate or poorly instructed brethren and children 
were received into the monastery. A monk had to learn to follow the 
Office intelligently, and even to take his turn as reader or cantor. From 
the beginning of his monastic life he strove to commit the whole psalter 
to memory; the short lessons and most common liturgical formulas 
were also learnt by heart. Those who had every night to read the 
Scripture or the Fathers from manuscripts which were full of abbrevia- 
tions, perhaps defaced by use and faded, by the dim light of a smoky 
lamp, and without the help of spectacles (adds Calmet) : these generally 
required special preparation. If the reader failed to make himself 
understood his hearers could not turn to their books, as we can; for 
breviaries were not invented and manuscripts were rare. Finally, all 
had to penetrate deeply into the meaning of the sacred words. And for 
this preparation, indispensable to the worthy celebration of the Divine 
Office, St. Benedict chose the hours of silence and recollection; they 
supplemented the two hours of sacred reading (lectio divina) which were 
appointed daily for the monks. This ordinance of the Rule is not 
obsolete, and the reader must prepare even in our days. It is a sad 
spectacle to see a man who has learnt Latin floundering through ten lines 
of Scripture or the Fathers, with many wrong pauses, false accents, and 
mistakes of grammar. We should never treat Our Lord as a barbarian. 

But what of the monks who know their lessons and psalter? how will 
they spend the time till Lauds ? There is every reason to believe that 
they did not go back to bed. The time was left to the devotion of the 
monks or to the disposition of the Abbot, as Dom Hugh Me'nard notes; 
St. Benedict has not elaborately determined the employment of every 
moment. The monks devoted these times to prayer and spiritual 
reading; but we may look in vain in our Holy Father or the ancients 
for a prescribed half-hour or hour of prayer, still less for a fixed method. 2 

1 CASS., lust., II., xii.-xiii; III., v. However, CASSIAN mentions exceptions: Inst., 
III., iv., viii. 

a The Carthusians have no rule as to mental prayer. Nor had the disciples of 
St. Dominic and St. Francis until the sixteenth century, nor even the Society of 
Jesus at its origin. Cf. P. BOUVIER, L'Evolution de la pie'ttf (Etudes, t. CXX. [1909], 
pp. 187-211). 



Of the Divine Office at Night 143 

We are sometimes asked, quite seriously, what could have been their 
" subjects for meditation." The holy liturgy furnished innumerable 
subjects and those always new. Private prayer drew its sap from the 
prayer of the Church and remained Catholic, simple, and living, like 
her. It had not yet entered anyone's head to imprison the movements 
of the soul in rigid moulds and to substitute for their joyous spontaneity 
of expression the dull commonplaces of the stereotyped formula. Who 
could exhaust the study of the psalms, the study of other portions of 
Scripture, the study of the holy Fathers, the study of the history of the 
Church and the saints ? And who can flatter himself that he has no 
further need for this study ? And again, even though long practice 
has familiarized us with the prayers of the liturgy, and precisely because 
of this familiarity, we must revivify all by constant study, if we do not 
want to become parrots, voice and members doing their duty mechani- 
cally without the intervention of the intelligence. The recitation of 
the psalms may become merely an exercise of voice and memory, so 
easily does everything human pass into the category of the unconscious 
and reflex. 

A Pascha autem usque ad supra- But from Easter to the aforesaid 

dictas Kalendas Novembris, sic tern- Calends of November, let the hour 

peretur hora Vigiliarum agenda, ut for the Night Office be so arranged that 

parvissimo intervallo, quo fratres ad after a very short interval, during which 

necessaria naturae exeant, custodito, the brethren may go out for the neces- 

mox Matutini, qui incipiente luce sities of nature, Lauds, which are to 

agendi sunt, subsequantur. 1 be said at daybreak, may begin without 

delay. 

In summer the determination of the eighth hour does not fix the 
commencement of the Night Office, which is determined by the relation 
between the hour of sunrise and the first Office of the day. Though this 
hour varies according to the season, yet it forms the fixed point from 
which to calculate the hour of rising. There must be time before dawn 
for the saying of the short Vigils; between this and Lauds the brethren 
must be given some moments for the necessities of nature; the study of 
the psalms and lessons is in this season removed to another time. 2 

Despite the shortness of the Night Office, the monks going to bed 
later than in winter and rising at practically the same hour had less 
sleep; so our Holy Father grants them a siesta after the meal which 
generally took place at the sixth hour (Chapter XL VIII.). We shall 
meet in Chapters XI. and XIV. the exceptions which modify the arrange- 
ments of the present chapter. 

1 The " received text " has modified the original with a view to greater clearness; 
here is the reading adopted by D. BUTLER: Sic temper etur bora ut Vigiliarum Agenda 
parvissimo intervallo, quo fratres ad necessaria natures exeant, moxMatutini, qui incipiente 
luce agendi sunt, subsequantur. = Matutini, parvissimo intervallo . . ., max subsequantur 
Vigiliarum Agenda. And he rightly points out that the word Agenda is used as a noun, 
as it is farther on, in Chap. XIII. : it means the Opus Dei. 

2 CASSIAN mentions the morning service (Lauds) qute exfletis nocturnis psalmis et 
orationibus post modicum temporis intervallum solet in Gallics monasteriis celebrari (Inst. t 



CHAPTER IX 

HOW MANT PSALMS ARE TO BE SAID AT THE NIGHT 

HOURS 

QUOT PSALMI DICENDI SUNT IN In winter time, after beginning 

NOCTURNIS HORIS. Hiemis tempore, with the verse, Deus in adjutorium 

prsemisso in primis Versu: Deus in meum intends, Doming ad adjuvandum 

adjutorium meum intende, Domine ad me festina, let the words, Domine labia 

adjuvandum me festina, in secundo ter mea aperies, et os meum annuntia- 

dicendumest: Domine labiamea aperies, bit laudem tuam, be next repeated 

et os meum annuntiabit laudem tuam; thrice; then the third Psalm, with a 

cui subjungendus est tertius Psalmus, Gloria, after which the ninety-fourth 

et " Gloria." Post hunc, Psalmus Psalm is to be chanted with an anti- 

nonagesimus quartus cum Antiphona, phon, or at least chanted. Next 

aut certe decantandus. Inde sequatur let a hymn follow. 

Ambrosianum. . 

THE preceding chapter fixed the hour for the commencement of 
the Night Office and divided the liturgical year into two parts, 
winter and summer; the present chapter explains the composition 
of the Night Office in winter, while the next does the same for 
summer. Only the Office of the time and the ferial Office are here 
dealt with.. 

We have, to start with, a double series of preparatory prayers. The 
first series commences with the second verse of the sixty-ninth psalm: 
Deus in adjutorium meum intende. The Egyptian monks, according 
to Cassian, 1 had a great devotion to this sacred formula, which seemed 
to them to suit all times and circumstances. Yet there is nothing to 
prove that it formed part of the liturgy before St. Benedict. Nor is it 
clear that our Holy Father, who mentions it plainly for the Little Hours, 
prescribed it also for the Night Office. The doubt arises not only from 
the fact that the verses Deus in adjutorium and Domine have nearly the 
same sense and so make a tautology; but also and especially because the 
most authoritative reading of the manuscripts omits the verse Deus, etc. 
So it is probable that the monastic Night Office, like the Roman, 
commenced with the invocation taken from the fiftieth psalm (verse 17). 
St. Benedict would have it repeated three times, in honour of the Holy 
Trinity and to emphasize the insistence of the demand. It is very 
appropriate, since God alone can teach us to pray, and the work of praise 
thus begun is especially His work, the " Work of God." 

Next comes the third psalm, chosen without doubt for the verse: 
Ego dormivi et soporatus sum, et exsurrexi quia Dominus suscepit me. 
Thanks to this psalm those who are late may arrive before the Invitatory. 
The psalm is followed by the short doxology, Gloria Patri, composed, 
or at least greatly popularized, at the time of the Arian controversies. 
The formula used at Monte Cassino was most probably the same as now; 

1 Conlat., X., x. 
144 



How many Psalms are to be said at the Night Hours 145 

for to its clause nunc et semper, etc., the Council of Vaison in A.D. 529, 
presided over by St. Caesarius, had ordered the addition of the words 
sicut erat in principle, in imitation of what was said in so many places : 
" not only at Rome but also throughout the whole East, 1 and the whole 
of Africa and Italy." 2 Our Holy Father would have the Gloria said after 
each psalm (we may infer this from many passages of the Rule) : this is 
the Western use, different, according to Cassian, from that of the whole 
East : " In this province, at the end of a psalm, one intones and all join 
loudly in Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto, a thing we have not heard 
throughout the whole East; there the psalm is usually finished by the 
cantor, all the rest being silent, and, when the psalm is ended, a prayer 
follows; only the antiphon is terminated by this praise of the Trinity." 3 
St. Benedict has the Gloria also at the end of the canticles, at the end 
of certain responses, and after the Deus in adjutorivm of the Day Hours. 

Up to this point the preparatory formulas of the Office have had 
a very general character: with the ninety-fourth psalm a second prepara- 
tion begins, including the Invitatory and the Hymn and having a more 
immediate relation, at least in actual usage, to the liturgy of each day. 
The Invitatory 4 is intended to dispel all torpor, whether of body or 
soul, to awaken fervour, and tune the instrument of praise. So it is 
given a special solemnity : it is chanted with an antiphon according to 
the manner which we shall describe; at least it should be chanted, aut 
certe decantandus, probably in the mode and with the melody of a psalm 
accompanied by an antiphon. 5 Nor is it only for the sake of solemnity 
that St. Benedict would have the Invitatory performed thus, for in 
Chapter XLIII. he recommends that it should be said " very slowly 
and protractedly" (omnino protrabendo et morose) so as to give the 
brethren plenty of time to arrive before the Gloria at its close and so 
avoid a humiliating penance. 

We promised to leave to the liturgy course all questions which belong 
to it; yet we must say a word concerning the ancient psalmody, 6 or else 
leave unexplained or misunderstood several regulations of the Holy 
Rule. Our Holy Father makes a distinction between psalms said 
" without an antiphon, straight on " (sine antiphona, in directum) and 

1 D. HUGH MENARD (Concord. Regul., c. xxiii., append. I, p. 343) conjectures 
that these words are an interpolation, cum nusquam repereri: sicut erat in principio 
tune apud Gracos in usufuisse ; nor do the Greeks say them now. 

2 Can. v. MANSI, t. VIII., col. 727. 8 Inst., II., viii. 

4 Cf. D. BAUMER: art. Invitatorium in the Kircbenlexicon of WEJZER and WELTER. 

5 We leave to the specialists the task of telling us what was the sacred chant before 
our Holy Father and in his time. The Rule ordinarily employs vague phrases; to " say " 
the psalms, to " psalmodize " the psalms and canticles; sometimes, however, it is a little 
more explicit : sexpsalmi cum alleluia cantandi (c. ix.) ; modulatis, ut supra disposuimus, sex 
psalmis et verm (c. xi.); vesper a quotidie quatuor psalmorum modulations canatur (c. xviii.) 
As to the lessons we know nothing: the Rule speaks of " reading," of " saying," and of 
" reciting " them. We know that responsories were " chanted." And that is all. 
See what CASSIODORUS says of the chanting of the psalms and Alleluia, and of jubili. 
Cf. BAUMER, Histoire du Breviaire, 1. 1., pp. 257-260. 

While we use much recent work we may not neglect the Preface of B. TOMMASI to 
Responsorialia et Antipbonarip Romance Ecclesiee, 

'9 



146 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

psalms said " with an antiphon " (cum antiphona). Let us deal with the 
second first. It is a species of what is called alternative psalmody, in 
which the voices answer or echo one another. When a single singer 
alternates with the choir we have what is called responsorial psalmody, 
a kind that was in current use during the early centuries and is frequently 
alluded to by the Fathers of the Church, as for example by St. Augustine. 
Our Invitatory is a psalmus responsorius, and everything would lead us 
to believe that with St. Benedict also, to say the ninety-fourth psalm 
cum antiphona meant, not merely to put an antiphon before and after 
it, but to interpolate a refrain after each verse or group of verses. This 
" response" of the choir was generally taken from the psalm itself, and 
was short and simple in melody. 

Here, for St. Benedict, the antiphon performs the function of a 
response. Yet liturgists distinguish responsorial psalmody from anti- 
phonal psalmody. Even if the latter is only a modification of the former, 
it certainly implies new and different elements; but the most character- 
istic difference is perhaps not that which is generally given, the alter- 
nation of choir with choir. 1 In the antiphonal psalmody of the fourth 
century whatever may be its origin and the primitive meaning of the 
word dvTujMovos, which lends itself so readily to ambiguity the novelty 
would rather lie, according to Bishop Petit, 2 in the fact that the inter- 
polated refrains " are not taken from the psalm itself, but composed in 
their entirety; and finally that these refrains are no longer rendered in 
unison, as in responsorial psalmody, but in harmony and with modula- 
tions hitherto unknown." Dom Cagin had before this described, in 
his preface to the sixth volume of Palfograpbte Musicale? the liturgical 
revolution which was effected " almost simultaneously at Constanti- 
nople, in Cappadocia, at Jerusalem, Antioch, and Edessa," and finally 
at Milan under St. Ambrose, " as a result of the same circumstances and 
on the same ground. It was everywhere a question of combating 
Arianism." And he concluded: "What is new is not perhaps the- 
psalmody of two choirs in itself, but the psalmody of two choirs of the 
people . . . what is especially new is the hymn literature with its 
anthems or alternate strophes, with the anti-Arian doxology performing 
the function of viraicoij (response). . . . What is new, finally, is the 
Vigil Office, which was performed at Milan * according to the custom 
of the East,' 4 like the psalms and hymns. . . ." " At this time," writes 
Paulinus, the biographer of St. Ambrose, " antiphons, hymns, and vigils 
first began to be in vogue in the church of Milan. And the devotion 
to these services remains to the present day, not only in the same church, 
but throughout almost all the provinces of the West." 6 

1 The Jews were already familiar with methods analogous to the responsorial and 
antiphonal. 

* In the article Antipbone dans la liturgie grecque of the Dictionnaire d' Arcbeologie 
cbre'tienne et de Liturgie. 

3 See also, in t. V., the Avant-Propos d V Antipbonaire ambrosien, pp. 29-38. 

4 S. AUG., Confess., 1. IX., c. vi.-vii. P.L.. XXXII., 769-770. 
6 P.L., XIV., 31. 



How many Psalms are to be said at the Night Hours 1 47 

The liturgy of Monte Cassino, for its part, is probably indebted to 
that of Milan. Though it be less animated and less rich than the 
Ambrosian service, the Benedictine Night Office is more so than that of 
which St. Benedict read a short description in the second and third 
books of the Institutes of Cassian. The psalmody of the Egyptian monks 
was of the simplest possible kind : one monk chanted the psalms, or a 
whole series of psalms (never more than six each), while the rest listened, 
seated and in silence; from time to time all rose and prostrated themselves 
for a secret prayer, then an old monk improvised or recited a prayer: 
" One comes forward to sing psalms to the Lord. And when, while 
all sit ... and attend to the words of the cantor with all attention of 
heart, he has chanted eleven psalms separated by the interposition of 
prayers, with verses connected and uttered alike, finishing the twelfth 
with the response of Alleluia . . .," etc. 1 This is not even responsorial 
psalmody; yet there is, at the last psalm, a "response" of the hearers; 
and Cassian records the care of the Egyptian monks " that for the 
Alleluia response no psalm is used but such as in its title has the word 
Alleluia." 2 In Palestine and other parts of the East the psalmody was 
less monotonous and less fatiguing, although all took more share in it; 
the Vigils comprised three stages : " For after standing and singing 
three anthems, they sit on the ground, or on very low seats, and answer 
three psalms which one sings, each of which psalms is given them by a 
different monk, the brethren taking the duty in turn, and to these they 
add three lessons sitting again in silence." 3 But Cassian regards the 
custom of chanting twenty or thirty psalms in one night as an indis- 
creet novelty: " and these, too, protracted by the singing of antiphons 
and the addition of some modulations." 4 The Eastern monks, at any 
rate those of the desert, were long hostile to the introduction into their 
liturgy of canons and iroparia. 6 

St. Benedict, like St. Caesarius, 6 adopts antiphons, responses, and 
hymns. To chant the psalms with an antiphon probably means to 
insert a refrain between the verses. In that way the Office was made 
more solemn, longer, and more laborious. That is why our Holy Father 

1 Inst., II., v. 

3 Inst., II., xi. In the Rule of ST. PACHOMIUS allusion is made several times to 
responsorial psalmody: xiv.-xviii., cxxvii.-cxxviii. 

8 /*/., III., viii. See the letter of ST. BASIL to the clergy of Neo-Caesarea. P.O., 
XXXIL, 760-765. 

* Inst., II., ii. What is the exact meaning for CASSIAN of the word " antiphon " ? 
- (Cf. also Inst., II., viii.) In the ancient writers it means sometimes a chant in octaves, 
sometimes alternate recitation, sometimes the psalm itself or the composition executed 
in this manner, with or without the insertion of a refrain, sometimes the refrain, etc. 
See the Peregrinatio ad loca sancta, the author of which we may call EUCHERIA until 
better evidence is available. 

5 Cf. E. Bouw, Pottes et mflodes, pp. 234 Jf. 

6 Reg. ad mon.) xxi. Cf. especially: Reg. monasterii sancta Ceesarice, xi. Acta 
SS., xii. Januarii^HoLSTENius does not give so complete a text). The cursus indicated 
is that of Lirins; the Rule of ST. AURELIAN gives nearly the same one. Pere BLUME 
(Der Cursus S. Benedicti Nursini und die liturgiscben Hymnen des 6-9 Jabrbundert* . . ., 
pp. 35-39) cites this cursus of Lerins according to the Munich manuscript 281 18. 



148 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

suppresses antiphons for the Little Hours, if the community is not 
large, and at Compline (Chapter XVII.). The sixty-sixth psalm, which 
begins Lauds, the psalms of the Little Hours when the community is 
small, and those of Compline were said directanee, in directum (straight 
through, without interruption). This sort of psalmody appears also 
in the liturgy of St. Caesarius and of St. Aurelian; it exists too, with the 
same rubric, in the Ambrosian liturgy, and consists in the whole choir 
executing the chant with one voice and continuously. 1 But, if we keep 
closely to the text of the Rule, all we have is a psalmody deprived of 
antiphons, without any indication of the manner of its execution. 2 
It is hot even certain, as Calmet judiciously remarks, that the psalms 
cum antipkonis (with antiphons) were chanted by two choirs. Perhaps 
the responsorial method, which was used by the Fathers of the East, 
and which we find shortly after St. Benedict's time in St. Aurelian, 
was preserved by him. Perhaps all the monks, who were capable of 
fulfilling this office worthily and were authorized by the Abbot, chanted 
the psalms in turn, whether alone or grouped in a sehola, the choir 
repeating the antiphon which the soloist or scbola had given out at the 
beginning. 3 " Let the Psalms and Antiphons be intoned by those whose 
duty it is, each in his order, after the Abbot. Let no one presume to 
sing or to read except such as can so perform the office that the hearers 
may be edified" (Chapter XLVIL; see also Chapter LXIIL). It is 
said also of one forbidden the common meal: " He shall intone neither 
psalm nor antiphon in the oratory, nor shall he read a lesson, until he 
have made satisfaction" (Chapter XXIV.). 4 We cannot argue that 
the expression imponere has, like " intone " with us, the sense of giving 
out the first words or first notes : for St. Benedict himself, in Chapter 
XLIV., gives it a wider meaning : " So that he presume not to intone 
psalm, or lesson, or anything else, in the oratory." 

As regards responses, our Holy Father distinguishes the "short 
responsory " from the long one which followed the long lessons and was 
long enough in itself to be capable of abridgement if the brethren had 
risen too late (Chapter XL). The long responsory was either a real 
" responsorial psalm " with a more elaborate melody, or perhaps a 
bistoria in scriptural or ecclesiastical style; its execution probably 
demanded special ability: but all that the Rule tells us is that a " cantor " 
here intervened. 

Inde sequatur Ambrosianwn: that is the hymn, borrowed from 
St. Ambrose and the liturgy of Milan. 5 Without raising any question 

1 Cf. TOMMASI, op. cit. 

2 In any case psalmody in directum is not mere recitation recto tono, as D. CALMET 
remained " persuaded," in spite of Tommasi (Comment, on chap. xii.). 

3 Analogous usages still exist to-day in the liturgy of the Greeks. Cf. D. PLACID DE 
MEESTER, Voyage de deux Benedictins aux monasteres du Mont Atbos, pp. 256-257. 

* We cannot draw precise information as to St. Benedict's psalmody from those 
words of Chapter XLIII. : Nonprasumat sociari choro psallentium usque ad satisfactionem. 

s Consult: C. BLUME, Der Cursus S. Benedicti Nursini vnd die liturgiscben Hymnen 
des 6-yJabrbunderts, noticed in the Revue B^nid., 1908, pp. 367-3745 191 1, pp. 362-364. 



How many Psalms are to be said at the Night Hours 1 49 

as to the correctness of this attribution our Holy Father speaks according 
to current usage. The great bishop had, so to speak, won citizen rights 
for the hymn in the Western Church. At the very dawn of Christianity, 
in the Epistles of St. Paul for example (Rom. xiii. 11-12; Eph. v. 14; 
I Tim. iii. 16; 2 Tim. ii. 11-13), there are plain traces of these spiritual 
hymns in which the outpouring of the gifts of the Holy Spirit found free 
expression. But heretics abused this very popular instrument in order 
to sow their errors broadcast; the need arose of administering an anti- 
dote, and Catholic literature was enriched with .valuable compositions. 
However, the Roman Church, doubtless ever watchful of danger, 
showed herself at first very reserved with regard to hymns and did not 
officially admit them into her liturgy until long after St. Benedict. 

Deinde sex Psalmi cum Antiphonis. Then six psalms with antiphons. 

Quibus dictis, dicto Versu, benedicat These being said, and also a versicle, 

Abbas, et sedentibus omnibus in scam- let the Abbot give the blessing: and, 

nis, legantur vicissim a fratribus in all being seated in their places, let 

codice super analogium tres Lectiones, three lessons be read by the brethren 

inter quas tria Responsoria canantur. in turn, from the book on the lectern. 

Duo Responsoria sine " Gloria " dican- Between the lessons let three respon- 

tur. Post tertiam vero Lectionem, series be sung two of them without a 

qui cantat, dicat " Gloria " ; quam Glor w,but after the third let the cantor 

dum incipit cantor dicere, mox omnes say the Gloria: and as soon as he begins 

de sedilibus surgant ob honorem et it, let all rise from their seats out of 

reverentiam sanctissimse Trinitatis. honour and reverence to the Holy 

Codices autem legantur in Vigiliis, Trinity. Let the divinely inspired 

tarn veteris Testamenti, quam novi, books, both of the Old and New Testa- 

divinae auctoritatis; sed et expositiones ments, be read at the Night Office, 

earum, quae a nominatissimis, et ortho- and also the commentaries upon them 

doxis, et catholicis Patribus facts sunt. written by the most renowned, ortho- 
dox, and Catholic Fathers. 

Psalmody is the essential part of the Office. As the ferial Office is 
divided into two nocturns, each of these has attributed to it six of the 
twelve psalms, which, traditionally, according to Eastern custom and 
angelical monition, 1 had to be recited every night. The versicle and 
its response, short utterances of the soloist and choir, revive the spirit 
of prayer and make the transition from the psalms to the lessons. 

The synagogue also used to combine lessons with psalmody; the Law 
was read first and then the Prophets; finally, the person best qualified 
gave a homily: Our Lord did so on occasion (Luke iv. 16 sq*). The 
Christian Church adopted an analogous arrangement: Old Testament, 
the Acts or Epistles, the Gospel, and a sermon, read or spoken. We 
find the three lessons of the Ante-Mass of certain days in our Roman 
missal; and we know that the Ante-Mass is perhaps a relic of the ancient 
Vigil. At the Ante-Mass as in the Vigil there were sometimes read also 
the letters of holy bishops, such as St. Clement of Rome, the letters of 
the Churches, the Passions of Martyrs on their days. Without seeking 
to discover what was original in St. Benedict's choice and arrangement 

1 CASS., Inst. t II., v. 



150 Commentary on the Rute of St. Benedict 

of lessons, 1 we may simply set down the fact that he prescribed 
readings from the Old Testament, from the New Testament, and from 
authorized commentaries of the Fathers. He does not tell us whether 
the three lessons of ferial Vigils were taken from these three sources 
and in this order; the eleventh chapter merely tells us that the lessons 
of the third nocturn on Sundays are from the New Testament and that 
the solemn reading of the Gospel comes last. 

Nor do we know how far the duty of determining the lessons was 
left to the Abbot. It would seem that tradition and use had long before 
assigned appropriate portions of Scripture to the principal liturgical 
seasons, and these are sometimes the same lessons as now. 2 Moreover, 
the Acts of the Martyrs had to be read on their feast days; while in the 
fourteenth chapter our Holy Father requires the recital on the feasts 
of saints and on all solemn days of the psalms, antiphons, and lessons 
" belonging to the day itself." Doubtless more liberty was left to the 
Abbot with regard to the writings of the Fathers. St. Benedict 
recommends him to have read as Holy Scripture none but authentic 
and canonical books, and to choose, among the best known Fathers, those 
who were orthodox and Catholic. The true faith is the first considera- 
tion. At a time when manuscripts were scarce and critical capacity was 
rare, wrong or dubious doctrine might easily steal into souls by way 
of the church lessons; the more that at the beginning, in default of any 
formal decision of the Church, it Was the fact of being read constantly 
in assemblies for worship that settled the authenticity and orthodoxy 
of the books themselves. The famous decree concerning public lessons, 
ascribed to Pope Gelasius, 3 is perhaps contemporaneous with our Holy 
Father. In his time were read especially St. Jerome, St. Ambrose, 
St. Augustine, and even Origen. 

" When the. versicle has been said, let the Abbot give the blessing." 
The reader asked from the president of the choir permission to be heard, 
and solicited by his agency the blessing of God; 4 our formula for this is 
very ancient. Smaragdus quotes a formula of blessing: "Precibus 
omnium sanctorum suorum salvet et benedicat nos Dominus, or another 
blessing of this sort." No distinction was yet made between Blessing 
and Absolution. It would seem that the Abbot did not give three 

1 CASSIAN says that the monks of Egypt, after chanting twelve psalms at the Office 
of the evening and of the night, have two lessons, one from the Old and one from the 
New Testament (//., II., iv.). In die vero sabbati vel dominico utrasque de novo recitant 
Testamento) id est unam de Afostolo vel Actibus Apostolorum et aliam de Evangeliis ; 
quod etiam totis Quinquagesinue diebus faciunt hi, quibus lectio cures est seu memoria 
Scripturarum (ibid., vi.). In Palestine three lessons are recited (III., viii. See the notes 
of the editor, D. GAZET). 

8 Cf. Palfograpbie musicale, t. V., p. in, note. D. BAUMER, Hist, du Brlviaire, 
1. II., c. iv., v.: "Lessons," t. I., pp. 380 ff. D. BAUDOT, Les Evangeli aires ; les 
Lectionnaires. ' * 

3 THIEL, Epistoltg Romdnorum Pontificum genuinee, t. I., pp. 454 sq. Cf. E. VON 
DOBSCHUTZ, Das Decretum Gelasianum (Leipzig, 1912). D. J. CHAPMAN, On the 
Deere turn Gelasianum de libris recipiendis et non recipiendis (Revue Bfnfdictine, 1913). 

* Cf. GRANCOLAS, Commentaire bistorique sur le Brtviaire Remain, t. I., p. 207. 



How many Psalms are to be said at the Night Hours 1 5 1 

blessings but only one, 1 in which the three readers who succeeded one 
another at the pulpit or lectern (analogium does not signify only the 
ambd) were considered to share. St. Benedict says expressly that the 
brethren read in turn, doubtless so that they might not be fatigued. 
As a fact the lessons were much longer then than now: St. Caesarius 
speaks of " three leaves." 2 And this custom lasted for many centuries. 
" In the Cluniac order," says Calmet, 8 " the whole of Genesis was read 
in Septuagesima week, and the whole of Isaias in six week-days. St. 
Udalric relates that a monk, who marked the end; of the lessons, was 
accused in Chapter of having cut them too short, since he had had only 
the Epistle to the Romans read in two week-days. Blessed John of 
Gorze 4 once read the whole of the prophet Daniel for a single lesson." 
The length of the lessons varied according to the length of the nights, 
and depended on the will of the presider and on custom. 5 They could 
not be recited by memory, as could the psalms: and our Holy Father 
mentions the codex placed on the lectern. 

In the monasteries of St. Caesarius and St. Aurelian the reader sat. 
St. Benedict only says that all the brethren are seated on benches, 
in scamnis, during the lessons (except during the reading of the Gospel: 
Chapter XL), and during the responses, except at the Gloria. That 
would lead us to infer that the psalms were recited standing. The 
early Christians prayed thus; and commeiitators point out that St. 
Benedict regularly uses the word stare (to (Stand) when speaking of the 
ordinary posture of the monks in choir : si\. stemus ad psallendum . . .; 
post Abbatem stare . . . / in cboro standumk. . . ; ultimus omnium stet. 
And if our Holy Father does not order the \ionks to rise at the Gloria 
of the psalms, the. reason is that they are already standing. As a matter 
of fact, too, the Greek monks sit only during the lessons ; and we ourselves, 
even when we take advantage of the "misericords" of our stalls, are 
considered to be standing. We do not know how the lessons terminated. 
Some centuries after St. Benedict we learn that in certain churches 
the chief of the choir caused the reader to stop by the words : Tu autem 
(siste understood); the latter replied: Domine miserere nobis, and the 
choir: Deo gratias* 

We have already spoken of the responsories which followed naturally 
on the lessons, lectiones cum responsoriis suis, and of -which the last 
ended with the Gloria. We may mark what St. Benedict says about the 
devotion of the monks to the Holy Trinity, and be careful that our 
profound bows are something more than mere mechanical motions. 
St. Benedict only prescribes rising; but bows, genuflexions, and pros- 
trations have always existed in^the Church; and our Holy Father did 
not intend to write a complete ceremonial (genuflexion is mentioned 
in Chapter I.). 

1 In Chapter XI. St. Benedict mentions a blessing before the lessons of the third 
nocturn only, but it is permissible to think that one was given before those of the first 
two also. 

2 Reg. ad man., xx. 8 Commentary on Chapter VIII. 

4 Acta SS., Fe.br., t. III., p. 705. 6 Cf. UDALR., Consuet. Clutt., 1. 1., c. i. 



152 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

Post has vero tres Lectiones cum After these three lessons with their 

Responsoriis suis, sequantur reliqui sex responsories let six more psalms 

Psalmi cum " Alleluia " cantandi. follow, to be sung with an Alleluia. 

Post hos Lectio Apostoli sequatur, ex Then let a lesson from the Apostle 

corde recitanda, et Versus, et suppli- be said by heart, with a verse and 

catio Litaniae, id est, " Kyrie eleison" the petition of the Litany that is, 

Et sic finiantur Vigiliae nocturnae. Kyrie eleison. And so let the Night 

Office come to an end. 

There was no interval between the nocturns; but, as soon as the first 
ended, six more psalms were chanted, not now with an antiphon, but 
with Alleluia. We have met this use of Alleluia in Cassian. It is 
probable that with St. Benedict it was repeated, after the manner of an 
antiphon, in the course of the psalm. Then came a lesson taken from 
the Apostle St. Paul, short enough to be said by heart ; and, after the ver- 
sicle, the petition of the Litany that is to say, as St. Benedict explains, 
Kyrie Eleison. 1 But the Kyrie, many times repeated, was only the 
beginning of a series of earnest supplications which in the early centuries 
used to end the principal liturgical functions: these are the capitetta 
which are mentioned, for example, by the Council of Agde of A.D. 506, 
as well as by the Rules of St. Caesarius and St. Aurelian, and they are 
the freces feriales preserved in the Roman breviary. Though St. Bene- 
dict does not speak here of the Pater noster, it is quite probable that it 
was recited and that secretly (see Chapter XIII.); it formed part. of the 
Litany. According to many commentators and liturgists our Holy 
Father also implied the saying of the traditional collect, and only with 
this would the Night Office be finished, as in the case of all the other 
Hours. To this we shall have occasion to return. 

1 The Council of Vaison in 529 (can. iii. MANSI, t. VIII., col. 727) decrees: Ut 
Kyrie eleison frequenti us cum grandi affectu et compunctione dicalur, . . . ad Mainlines 
et ad Missas et ad Vesper am. 



CHAPTER X 
HOW THE NIGHT OFFICE IS TO BE SAID IN SUMMER 

QUALITER .ffiSTATis TEMPORE AGATUR From Easter to the Calends of 

NOCTURNA LAUS. A Pascha autem us- November let the same number of 

que ad Kalendas Novembris, ut supra psalms be recited as prescribed above; 

dictum est, omnis psalmodiae quantitas only that no lessons are to be read from 

teneatur: excepto quod Lectiones in the book, o.n account of the shortness 

codice, propter brevitatem noctium, of the nights: but instead of those 

minime legantur, sed pro ipsis tribus three lessons let one from the Old 

Lectionibus una de veteri Testamento Testament be said by heart, followed 

memoriter dicatur, quam breve Re- by a short responsory, and the rest 

sponsorium subsequatur, et reliqua as before laid down; so that never 

omnia ut dictum est impleantur, id est, less than twelve psalms, not counting 

ut nunquam minus a duodecim Psal- the third and ninety-fourth, be said 

morum quantitate ad Vigilias nocturnas at the Night Office, 
dicatur, exceptis tertio et nonagesimo 
quarto Psalmo. 

THE subject of this chapter throughout is ferial Vigils. The time 
is now summer, from Easter to November, when the nights are 
shorter. They still suffice for the psalmody, even with antiphons 
interspersed; but dawn comes too soon to give time for the long 
lessons of the Old and New Testaments and commentaries of the Fathers ; 
and there must be no delaying of the hour of Lauds, which remains 
fixed to daybreak, nor any indiscreet shortening of the time of sleep. 
The necessary reduction must not effect the psalmody, for*that is more 
directly addressed to God and is the part of the Office formally devoted 
to prayer. The three lessons of the first nocturn shall be replaced by a 
single lesson from the Old Testament, said by heart and therefore very 
short. Instead of the three long responsories, one only, and that a very 
brief one, shall be chanted. All is done to-day as St. Benedict prescribed. 
The second portion of the Office is exactly the same as in winter: 
six psalms with Alleluia for the antiphon. There is no other difference 
between the Office of summer and of winter than the matter of. the 
lessons and responsories. Our Holy Father insists that never less than 
the twelve psalms sanctioned by holy tradition shall be recited; and, to 
prevent all misunderstanding, he reminds us that the third and ninety- 
fourth psalms are not counted in this series of the twelve psalms of the 
Night Office. 



CHAPTER XI 
HOW THE NIGHT OFFICE IS TO BE SAID ON SUNDAYS 

QUALITER DOMINICIS DiEBUS Vici- On Sundays let the brethren rise 

LIJE AOANTUR. Dominico die tern- earlier for the Night Office, in which 

perius surgatur ad Vigilias, in quibus the measure shall be observed. When 

Vigiliis teneatur mensura, id est, six psalms and a versicle have been 

modulatis, ut supra disposuimus, sex sung (as already prescribed), and all 

Psalmis, et Versu, residentibus cunctis are seated on benches in their proper 

disposite et per ordinem in subselliis, order, let four lessons with their 

legantur in codice, ut supra diximus, responsories be read from the book, 

quatuor Lectiones cum Responsoriis as before: and to the last responsory 

suis, ubi tantum in Responsorio quarto only let the reader add a Gloria, all 

dicatur a cantante "Gloria"; quam reverently rising as soon as he begins it. 
dum incipit, mox omnes cum rever- 
entia surgant. 

THE liturgy of Sunday Vigils deserved a special chapter; for this 
Office is, as was fitting, the most solemn and most complete. 
Its composition is to remain the same, says St. Benedict, through- 
out the year, without distinction of summer and winter. On 
Sundays the monks must rise earlier than during the week, because of 
the length of the Office, and in summer especially will the time of rising 
have to be put forward, if Lauds are to commence at dawn, inci-piente 
luce. . Since on this day there is no manual labour the monks are able 
to devote more time to prayer and to endure the fatigue of longer vigils. 
Our Holy Father does not repeat what he has said already about the 
preparatory prayers. At the Sunday Night Office, he says, "the 
measure shall be observed." This does not mean discretion, nor the 
measure that will presently be given, but rather that which has been 
already fixed for the first nocturn of ferial Vigils. ' That is to say, 
explains St. Benedict, that six psalms (with their antiphons, of course) and 
the versicle shall be " modulated," as has been said previously. Then 
all shall take their seats, according to rank, in good order, and the lessons 
shall commence. These shall be read at the lectern from the book and 
by the brethren in turn, ut supra diximus (as said above). But this time 
there are four lessons with their respective responsories. Only at the 
fourth responsory, and not as before at the third, does the cantor add the 
Gloria and all rise in reverence. St. Benedict does not say from what 
source the lessons were taken, but we may conjecture that they were from 
Scripture, perhaps from the Old Testament. 

Post quas Lectiones sequantur ex After the lessons let six more psalms 

ordine alii sex Psalmi cum Antiphonis, follow in order, with their antiphons 

sicut anteriores, et Versus. Post quos and versicle as before; and then let 

iterum legantur alise quatuor Lectiones four more lessons with their respon- 

cum Responsoriis suis, ordine quo sories be read in the same way as the 

supra. former. 

'54 



How the Night Office is to be said on Sundays 155 

The second nocturn follows the first without an interval and starts 
with six psalms, taken according to their order in the psalter. They also 
have their antiphons, differing in this from the psalms of the ferial 
second nocturn which are chanted with Alleluia. After the versicle 
come four more lessons with their responsories, ordine quo supra (in the 
manner previously indicated) that is, with the Gloria at the end of the 
fourth, all standing the while. These lessons were probably taken from 
the Fathers of the Church. 

Post quas iterum dicantur tria Next let three canticles from the 

Cantica de Prophetis, 1 qu instituerit prophets be said, as the Abbot shall 

Abbas; quae Cantica cum "Alleluia" appoint, which canticles are to be 

psallantur. Dicto etiam Versu, et sung with an Alleluia. After- the 

benedicente Abbate, legantur alias versicle, and the blessing given by the 

quatuor Lectiones de novo Testa- Abbot, let four more lessons from the 

mento, ordine quo supra. New Testament be read as before. 

/- There is a third nocturn j but in order not to exceed the sacred number 
of twelve psalms our Holy Father seeks material for the psalmody in the 
prophetical canticles of the Old Testament. The Abbot shall choose 
them at his pleasure, whether among all those in the Bible, or among 
those used by the liturgies. For the use of these canticles is considerably 
earlier than St. Benedict's time, if not among monks, at any rate in 
many churches of the East, in the churches of Milan and Rome, etc. 
The antiphon Alleluia accompanies the canticles, and so is always 
kept for the last portion of the psalmody. The versicle is said, the 
Abbot blesses the reader, as he has perhaps already twice blessed him, 
at the beginning of the lessons of each nocturn; then four lessons of the 
New Testament (Acts of the Apostles or Epistles) are read with their 
responsories and the Gloria after the fourth: ordine quo supra (as above). 

Post quartum autem Responsorium And at the end of the fourth 

incipiat Abbas Hymnum: "Te Deum responsory, let the Abbot begin the 

laudamus." Quo dicto, legat. Abbas hymn Te Deum laudamus. After the 

Lectionem de Evangelic, cum honore hymn let the Abbot read the lesson 

et tremore stantibus omnibus. Qua from the Gospel, while all stand in 

perlecta, respondeant omnes : " Amen." awe and reverence. The Gospel being 

Et subsequatur mox Abbas Hymnum : ended, let all answer Amen. Then 

" Te decet laus." Et data benedic- let the Abbot go on with the hymn, 

tione incipiant Matutinos. Te decet laws and after the blessing 

has been given, let them begin Lauds. 

This is the solemn conclusion of the Night Office. The Abbot 
intones the Te Deum? The order of lessons adopted by St. Benedict 
was admirable; after the Old Testament, the Fathers, and the apostolical 
writings, last of all came the Gospel, ''the very voice of Our Lord Jesus 
Christ, at the culminating point of the Office. All stood and a religious 
fear brooded over all: cum. honore et tremore stantibus omnibus. The 

1 St. Benedict probably wrote de Propbetarum, de Evangelia (similarly in Chapters 
XII., XIII., XVII.). Sic omnes fere codices antiqui ; hi erant tituli voluminunt 
S. Scripturarum (D. BUTLER, op. cit., p. 133). 
^ a On the history of the Te Deum, see the work of D. CAGIN, Te Deum ou lllatio f 



156 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

Abbot, because he held in the monastery the place of Christ, himself 
read the words of Christ. But, though he alone was reader, the com- 
munity joined him in the unanimous profession of faith with which 
the reading ended. Some liturgists think the passage chosen from the 
Gospel was the one which was proper to the Sunday or feast and sung 
at the Mass of the day. 

As soon as the Gospel is ended the Abbot intones the hymn Te decet 
laus, which is found in the seventh book of the Apostolic Constitutions. 
But what is the " blessing " of which our Holy Father next speaks ? 
We know, from the evidence of documents such as the Apostolic Con- 
stitutions and the Peregrinatio Eucheriee, that the principal liturgical 
offices ended with litanies and prayers for all the needs of the 
faithful, with a prayer by the bishop, accompanied or followed by his 
blessing, and finally with the formula of dismissal. The words of 
St. Benedict recall all these usages. In speaking of the end of Offices 
he sometimes mentions the supplicatio litanies, id, est Kyrie Eleison 
(IX., XIII.), litaniee (XII.); sometimes simply the benedictio (XL); 
sometimes Kyrie eleison et missee sint (XVII.); sometimes litanies et 
Oratio dominica et fiant missee (ibid.) ; for Compline finally: Kyrie eleison 
et benedictio et missee fiant (ibid.); in Chapter LXVII. he writes: " At 
the last prayer of the Work of God let a commemoration be always 
made of the absent." In these various passages our Holy Father is 
alluding to well-known rites and does not think it necessary to be more 
precise. Perhaps he intends to designate the whole conclusion of an 
Office by citing only one of the elements which composed it, the Litany 
for example, or the blessing; or perhaps for St. Benedict the blessing 
which ends Vigils is merely a Collect or a developed Benedicamus Domino ? 
As to the term missa, it has in old writers many meanings, though these 
are very closely related : it signifies the dismissal of the faithful, the formula 
by which this was effected, the whole body of prayers which completed 
a liturgical function, the canonical Office itself, and finally the Mass. 
Our Holy Father, like Cassian, uses the word missee in various senses : 2 
sometimes it is synonymous with completum est (it is finished), some- 
times perhaps it means the prayers which conclude the Office, and 
finally it signifies the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass (Chapters XXXV., 
XXXVIIL, and LX.). 8 

" And after the blessing has been given let them begin Lauds," 
yet with that parvissimum intervallum (very small interval) between 
the Night Office and the first Office of the day spoken of in the eighth 

1 D. PLACID DE MEESTER puts forward the hypothesis that this blessing, as also 
the one before the lessons, was a formula of praise, a blessing of God, an acclamation 
analogous to those with which, in the Greek rite, certain Offices begin, or which make the 
transition between two parts of the same Office (U Office dfcrit dans la Rtgle bfnldictine 
et V office grec : Ecbos a" Or tent, icth year, No. 67, November, 1907, pp. 342-344). 

8 See CALMET, Commentary on Chapter XVII. 

3 Cf. D. BAUMER, Ein Beitrag ur ErklSrung von Litaniee und Missis incapp. 9-17 
der betligen Regel (in Studien und Mittbeilungen aus dent Benediktiner- und dent Cister- 
cienser-Orden, 1886, t. II., pp. 285^.). In ST. CJESARIUS and ST. AURELIAN missa still 
has the sense of a reading or lesson. 



How the Night Office is to be said on Sundays 157 

chapter. Even on Sunday, at every season, the monks could go out 
then for a moment, as the beginning of Chapter XIII. makes abundantly 
plain : " On week-days . . . let- the sixty-sixth psalm be said without 
an antiphon, straight on, and somewhat slowly, as on Sundays, in order 
that all may be in time for the fiftieth." 

Qui ordo Vigiliarum omni tempore, This order for the Night Office is 
tarn aestatis quam hiemis, aequaliter in always to be observed on Sunday, 
die Dominico teneatur : nisi forte (quod alike in summer and in winter, unless 
absit) tardius surgatur, quia tune ali- perchance (which God forbid) they rise 
quid de Lectionibus breviandum est, too late, in which case the lessons 
aut Responsoriis. Quod tamen omnino or responsories must be somewhat 
caveatur, ne proveniat. Quod si con- shortened. Let all care, however, 
tigerit, digne inde satisfaciat Deo in be taken that this do not happen; but, 
oratorio, per cujus evenerit neglectum. if it should, let him, through whose 

neglect it has come to pass, make 
fitting satisfaction for it to God in 
the oratory. 

This is quite plain, thanks to the explanations already given. The 
arrangement of Sunday Vigils does not vary in winter and summer. 
The hour of rising is early enough for the worthy and full performance 
of the Office before daybreak; for it must be finished by dawn. The 
quantity of the lessons themselves is fixed in advance, at least in a 
general way, by custom and the will of the Abbot. After St. Benedict's 
time we find the cantor, or some other competent person, preparing 
these lessons; sometimes the beginning and end of the lessons are marked 
on the manuscript by a drop of wax or a finger-nail scratch; or the 
superior himself might determine the appropriate amount on the actual 
occasion; then he would impose silence on the reader by some means 
or other, by the Tu autem of which we have spoken, or sono gutturis 
(by a cough) as Charlemagne used to do. 1 

Our Holy Father foresees only one Occasion when it will be necessary 
to abridge the normal amount of lessons and responses, but not the 
psalmody or the rest viz., when the signal for rising was given too late. 2 
And since Sunday required an earlier hour for rising, it was on this day 
that the mistake could be most easily made. But St. Benedict would 
have the greatest care and watchfulness used to prevent such an occur- 
rence; and he binds the monk, by whose negligence Our Lord has been 
cheated of a part of the common prayer, to public penance in the oratory. 

1 De gestis Caroli Magni, 1. 1., c. vii. P.L., XCVIII., 1376. 

2 A regulation analogous to St. Benedict's is indicated by ST. CJESARIUS: Si vero 
evenerit ut tardius ad vigilias consurgant, singulas paginas, aut quantum Abbatiute visum 

fuerit, legant ; in cujus poles tate erit, ut quando signumfecerit, qua legit, tine mora consurgat 
(Reg. monasterii sanctce Casaria, Acta SS., Jan., 1. 1., p. 736). According to the Customs 
of Citeaux, if the monks rose too soon the cantor should see that the twelfth lesson 
was lengthened. 



CHAPTER XII 



HOW 'THE OFFICE OF LAUDS IS TO BE SAID 



At Lauds on Sunday let the sixty- 
sixth psalm first be said straight on 
without antiphon. After this let 
the fiftieth psalm be said, with an 
Alleluia, and then the hundred and 
seventeenth and the sixty-second. 
Then the Benedicite and psalms of 
praise, a lesson^ from the Apocalypse, 
said by heart, a responsory, a hymn, 
a versicle, a canticle out of the Gospel, 
and the litany, and so let it come to 
an end. 



QUALITER MATUTINORUM SOLEM- 

AS 1 AGATUR. In Matutinis Do- 
minico die, in primis dicatur sexa- 
gesimus sextus Psalmus sine Antiphona 
in directum; post quern dicatur quin- 
quagesimus cum "Alleluia." Post 
quern dicatur centesimus decimus sep- 
timus, et sexagesimus secundus; deinde 
Benedictiones et Laudes; Lectio de 
Apocalypsi una ex corde, et Respon- 
sorium, et Ambrosianum, et Versus, et 
Canticum de Evangelic, et Litaniae, et 
completum est. 

F I ^riE subject of this chapter is Sunday Lauds, and of the next 
I ferial Lauds ; so the title is only correct if we join the two.chapters 
I together, a procedure which is suggested by the opening words 
-*- of Chapter XIII. : Diebus autem. We are already aware that what 
was -known to the ancients as Matins now goes by the name of Lauds. 
This Office was instituted some centuries before St. Benedict ; it 
represents the hour of the victory of light over darkness, the hour of 
Our Lord's resurrection. Lauds is the natural complement of the 
Night Office, perhaps a double of it; at any rate they do not seem to have 
been separated at first. With St. Benedict too, save for winter ferias 
and the " short interval " of other days, the link between the two is 
a real one: " after the blessing has been given let them begin Lauds." 2 
And at all times the preparation for Lauds is very short: perhaps it 
does not even include the Deus in adjutorivm 3 and consists merely in 
the rather slow chanting of the sixty-sixth psalm, " without antiphon, 
straight on," 4 " so that all may be in time for the fiftieth " as St. Benedict 
says in the next chapter. 

The Miserere, the psalm of sorrow for sin, plays here to some extent 
the part of Invitatory ; before singing of the appearance of the pure 
light and offering the Lord a detailed praise for all His benefits, the 
soul needs to purify itself and to recognize that God alone can make 

1 Solemnitas here, as in GASMAN (/., II., x.j III., iv., v., vi., etc.), is merely a 
synonym for Synaxis or Office. 

3 Cf. CASS., Inst.y III., iv. This joining of the Night Office and Matutinum is found 
also in the old Ambrosian Rite : D. CAGIN, Te Deum ou Illatio f p. 417. 

8 We should not forget, however, that our Holy Father does not always give every 
detail of the rubrics and that he sometimes abridges. See the commentary on 
Chapter XLIII. 

* For ST. C/ESARIOS also the Morning Office commences with a directaneum (Reg. 
ad MOM., xxi.). Notice in this liturgy and elsewhere the presence of the Te Deum and 
Gloria in excehis at the end of Lauds. 

158 



How the Office of Lauds is to be said 1 59 

it come forth from its darkness. 1 We learn from St.. Basil that this 
psalm was already recited at the same hour in his time: " When day is 
breaking, let all with one voice and one heart sing the psalm of penitence, 
each making the words of sorrow his own." 2 St. Benedict would have it 
said with Alleluia as antiphqn, and perhaps, too, Alleluia was said with 
the psalms that follow. Next comes the great psalm of the resurrection, 
the hundred and seventeenth: Confitemini Domino quoniam bonu:, 
set down for Lauds also in the Rule of St. Caesarius Ad monachos? Next 
comes the sixty-second psalm; Deus t Deus meus, ad te de luce vigilo, 
very appropriate to the Morning Office, the use of which St. Benedict 
had only to borrow from monastic and other liturgies. The same is true 
of the canticle Benedicite, the " blessings " as it is called by St. Benedict 
and St. Caesarius, and of the psalms of praise (cxlviii., cxlix., cl.). 4 

A single lesson taken from the Apocalypse is recited by heart. There 
follows the responsory, doubtless a short one, the Ambrosian hymn, 
the versicle, and the canticle of the Gospel i.e., the Benedictus, chosen 
especially for the last verses : Visitavit nos Oriens ex alto, illuminare his 
qui in tenebris et in umbra mortis sedent. 6 Last come the " litanies " 
i.e., the Kyrie eleison and all the concluding formulas, and we are at the 
end, the dismissal. 

1 According to D. CALMET the Miserere may have been chosen because of the 
words: Domine,labia mea aperies, or because of these: exultabunt ossa bumiliata, which 
recall the resurrection. 

a Epist. ad clerieos Neocasarienses, 3. **-<?., XXXII., 763-764. CJ. CABS., /*/., 
III., vi. 

3 Cap. xxi. * Cf. CMS.. Inst., III., yi. 

5 " It is now generally believed, and that on good grounds, that the Magnificat was 
introduced into Vespers, as the Benedictus into Lauds, by St. Benedict " (BAUMER, 
Hist, du Brdviaire, t. I., p. 253). Cf., however, D. CABROL, Dictionnaire d'Arcbtolog ie 
cbritienne et de Liturgie, art. C antiques fvangtliques. 



CHAPTER XIII 
HOW LAUDS ARE TO BE SAID ON WEEKDAYS 



PRIVATIS DIEBUS QUALITER MATU- 
TINI AGANTUR. Diebus autem privatis 
Matutinorum solemnitas ita agatur, 
id est, sexagesimus sextus Psalmus dica- 
tur sine Antiphona in directum, sub- 
trahendo modice, sicut in Dominica, 
ut omnes occurrant ad quinquagesi- 
mum, qui cum Antiphona dicatur. 



On week-days let Lauds 'be cele- 
brated in the following manner. Let 
the sixty-sixth psalm be said without 
an antiphon and somewhat slowly, as 
on Sundays, in order that all may be 
in time for the fiftieth, which is to be 
said with an antiphon. 



ON weekdays which are not saints'-days 1 i.e., on ordinary ferial 
days the Morning Office is celebrated as follows. The sixty- 
sixth psalm is said without an antiphon, straight on, and some- 
what slowly, as on Sundays. So will all the brethren be in choir 
for the fiftieth psalm, which is part of the solemn psalmody and is not 
now said with Alleluia but with a special antiphon. These two psalms, 
with the psalms of praise of which St. Benedict speaks farther on, 
constitute the unchanging portion of the psalmody. In the next 
words we have the variable part. 



After this let two other psalms 
be said according to custom; that is, 
on Monday, the fifth and thirty- 
fifth : on Tuesday, the forty-second and 
fifty-sixth: on Wednesday, the sixty- 
third and sixty-fourth: on Thursday, 
the eighty-seventh and eighty-ninth: 
on Friday, the seventy-fifth and 
ninety-first; and on Saturday, the 
hundred and forty-second, and the 
canticle from Deuteronomy, which 
must be divided into two Glorias. 



Post quern alii duo Psalmi dicantur, 
secundum consuetudinem, id est, se- 
cunda feria, quintus, et trigesimus 
quintus. Tertia feria, quadragesimus 
secundus, et quinquagesimus sextus. 
Quarta feria, sexagesimus tertius, et 
sexagesimus quartus. Quinta feria, 
octogesimus Septimus, et octogesimus 
nonus. Sexta feria, septuagesimus 
quintus, et nonagesimus primus. Sab- 
bato autem, centesimus quadragesimus 
secundus, et Canticum Deuteronomii, 
quod dividatur in duas " Glorias." 

Every day, after the Miserere, two psalms are to be said " according 
to custom." What is this custom ? Is it a monastic custom current 
at Monte Cassino, or the custom of local churches, or Ambrosian custom, 
or Roman, such as is mentioned in reference to the canticles ? We have 
no means of knowing. Nor do we know whether our Holy Father has 
taken the particular two psalms, as well as the practice of using two 
psalms, from the custom. However, he probably took over bodily this 
group of eleven psalms, chosen here and there in the psalter. But what 
was the original reason for their choice ? 2 On Monday we have the fifth : 

1 The expression diebus privatis occurs also in the Or do psalmodia Lirinensis. 

* "A judicious person, who has given serious reflection to the matter," says D. 
CALMET, " thinks that St. Benedict wished to put at the first Day Hour psalms which 
speak of light and morning, and which are connected with the resurrection." 

160 



How Lauds are to be said on Weekdays 161 

Verba mea, and the thirty-fifth: Dixit injustus ; on Tuesday the forty- 
second: Judica me Deus, and the fifty-sixth: Miserere met, Deus, 
miserere mei ; on Wednesday the sixty-third : Exaudi Deus, orationem 
meam, and the sixty-fourth: Te decet hymnus ; on Thursday the eighty- 
seventh: Domine, Deus salutis mete, and the eighty-ninth: Doming, 
refugium factus es nobis ; on Friday, the seventy-fifth: Notus in Judeea 
Deus, and the ninety-first : Bonum est confiteri Domino ; on Saturday, 
the hundred and forty-second : Domine, exaudi orationem meam, auribus 
percipe. In the Roman breviary, before the reform of Pius X., there 
were at Lauds each day, after the Miserere, a single special palm and a 
canticle; the canticles were the same in the two liturgies; one of the 
psalms indicated by St. Benedict for each feria was present and still 
remains on the same days in the Roman breviary, with this difference 
that in the Roman breviary psalms cxlii. and xci. belong respectively 
to Friday and Saturday. 

A single psalm is assigned to Saturday, because, of the unusual 
length of the canticle from Deuteronomy appointed for this day. 
The canticle was divided into two Glorias, which means that it was 
divided into two portions each followed by the doxology Gloria ; the 
first part of the canticle took the place of one of the customary two 
psalms and the second part was the canticle itself. This leads St. 
Benedict to speak about the canticle. 

Nam ceteris diebus, Canticum But on the other days let canticles 
unumquodque die suo ex Prophetis, from the prophets be said, each on 
sicut psallit Ecclesia Romana, dicatur. its proper day, according to the prac- 
Post haec sequantur Laudes; deinde tice of the Roman Church. Then 
Lectio una Apostoli memoriter reel- let the psalms of praise follow, and 
tanda, Responsorium, Ambrosianum, after them a lesson from the Apostle, 
Versus, Canticum de Evangelio, Lita- to be said by heart, the responsory, 
nia, et completum est. the hymn, the versicle, the canticle 

out of the Gospel, the litany, and so 

conclude. 

Canticles are to be recited every day, not on Saturday only, and they 
are not to be the same each day, but each of the ferias is to have its 
own canticle, taken, like Saturday's canticle, from the repertory of the 
Roman Church. The Abbot had to determine the canticles of the third 
nocturn of Sundays, since the Roman Church used only psalms at the 
Night Office: and he could not take from it what it did not possess. 
But every day at Lauds it had a canticle taken from the prophets (ex 
prophetis in a broad sense) ; and St. Benedict in this matter adopts the 
custom and probably too the designation of the Roman Church. As 
D. Baumer remarks, only a few churches of the West had adopted the 
Eastern custom of numerous canticles, and the introduction of this 
practice by St. Benedict " was, at least for the monks, something of 
a novelty." 1 While Sunday has the " blessings " of the Three Children, 

1 Op. cit., t. I., p. 249. C/. pp. 179 Jf. D. CABROL, Dictionnaire d' Arcbfologie 
cbretienne et de Lifurgie, art. Continues. 

Il 



1 62 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

Monday has the canticle of the twelfth chapter of Isaias; Tuesday the 
canticle of Ezechias; Wednesday the canticle of Anna; Thursday the 
canticle of Moses after the passage of the Red Sea; Friday the canticle 
of Habacuc; and Saturday that of Deuteronomy, in which Moses 
traces, before dying, the past and future history of Israel. After these 
canticles come the psalms of praise; then the short lesson taken from the 
Apostle St. Paul and recited by memory, the short responsory, the Am- 
brosian hymn, the versicle, the canticle from the Gospel, otherwise the 
Benedictus, the litany, and so the Office ends. 

Plane agenda Matutina vel Ves- The Office of Lauds and Vespers, 

pertina non transeat aliquando, nisi however, must never conclude with- 

ultimo per ordinem Oratio Dominica, out the Lord's Prayer being said 

omnibus audientibus, dicatur a priore, aloud by the superior, so that all may 

propter scandalorum spinas, quae oriri hear it, on account of the thorns of 

solent, ut conventi per ipsius Orationis scandal which are wont to arise; so 

sponsionem, qua dicunt: Dimitte nobis that the brethren, by the covenant 

debita nostra, sicut ft nos dimittimus which they make in that prayer when 

debitoribus nostris, purgent se ab hujus- they say, " Forgive us our trespasses, as 

modi vitio. Ceteris vero agendis, we forgive them that trespass against 

ultima pars ejus Orationis dicatur, ut us," may cleanse themselves of such 

ab omnibus respondeatur: Sed liber a faults. But at the other Offices let 

nos a malo. the last part only of the prayer be 

/ said aloud, so that all may answer: 
" But deliver us from evil." 

In prescribing the litany as the conclusion of the Office, our Holy 
Father most probably intends by that a whole complex of prayers 
of which the Paternoster was part; but he is anxious to make a formal 
and precise rule, peculiar to the monastic Office, for the liturgical use 
of the Paternoster. The rule which he lays down is to be invariable, 
and we see at once what store he set by it: Plane (i.e., certe, omnino) 
agenda Matutina vel Vesfertina non transeat aliquando . . . (The 
Office of Lauds and Vespers must never conclude without the Lord's 
Prayer). There is no need to speak here of the beauty of this prayer, 
the most venerable and complete of all prayers, preserving ever in each 
of its petitions the divine unction that came to it from the lips of Our 
Lord. 1 From the earliest days of the Church it had its privileged 
place in private Christian prayer; the Didache bids everyone recite it 
three times a day, morning, noon, and night, at the traditional hours of 
Jewish prayer. It also had its place early in public prayer; 2 and numer- 
ous texts mention its solemn recitation at the Offices, both before our 
Holy Father and in his time. 3 The Council of Girone in A.D. 517 
decreed: " That everyday, after morning and evening Office, the Lord's 
Prayer be said by the priest." 4 St. Benedict also requires that no 

1 CASS., Conlat., IX., xviii. sq. 

- Cf. F. H. CHASE, The Lord's Prayer in the Early Church, in the series lextt and. 
Studies, ed. J. ARMITAOE ROBINSON. 

3 See, for instance, the description of a service at Mt. Sinai in a document of the 
sixth century printed by D. PITRA, Jurit eccles. Gracorum bist.et monuttt., 1. 1., p. zao. 

* Can. z. MANSI, t. VIII., col. 550. 



How Lauds are to be said on Weekdays 163 

celebration 1 of Lauds or Vespers should take place without the Lord's 
Prayer being recited at -the end in its entirety by the president of the 
assembly, in the hearing of all the monks. 

From the words of the Paternoster which are cited in the Rule, and 
from the explanation furnished by our Holy Father himself, we see 
clearly the special motive of this public recitation in choir. Undoubt- 
edly it gave souls a special opportunity, at a time when some traces of 
Pelagianism still survived almost everywhere, for examination of con- 
science, for disavowal and sorrow, and made them put their trust in 
God alone for the escaping evil and temptation; 2 but St. Benedict has a 
different end in view. Even in communities which are .united in all 
fraternal charity, little wounds may be caused, often without evil intent 
and from mere diversity of temperament. And these wounds, for all 
their triviality, yet when touched by thought or word may grow sore 
and fester. But they vanish when we find in God's goodness towards 
us a supernatural motive for charity towards our brethren. To use* 
St. Benedict's simile, the thorns of scandal, which occasionally spring 
up in monasteries, then disappear. The petition of the Paternoster : 
" Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive " is a reciprocal contract, an 
engagement we enter into with Our Lord (sponsio) . 3 Instead of imitating 
those Christians of whom Cassian writes : " When this praye* ? sung in 
church by the whole people, they pass over this part in silence, doubtless 
that they may not seem to bind themselves . . .," 4 the children of St. 
Benedict must take these words to themselves, let themselves be arraigned 
(convenire) and tried by them : they pronounce their own condemnation 
if they do not pardon one another and make reconciliation (convenire 
in another sense). 

This solemn recitation of the Lord's Prayer shall take place only at 
the beginning and end of the day. At other Offices, ceteris vero agendis, 
only the last words are to be said aloud; Et ne nos indue as in tentationem y 
so that all may answer: sea liber a nos a male. Even in this less solemn 
form one might have opportunity to put one's soul into harmony with 
the thought of God, and to group in one prayer the intentions of all. 

1 Agenda means an Office, a portion of the Work of God. 

2 C/. S. AUG., Eput. CLVII., CLXXVL, CLXXVIII. P.L., XXXIII., 674, 762, 

77 2 - 

3 Adjunxit plane et addidit (Dominus) legem, cert a nos conditione et sponsione con- 

stringensy ut sic nobis dimitti debits postulemus secundum quod et ipsi debitoribus nostris 
dimittimus, scientes impetrari non posse quod propeccafis petimus, nisi et ipsi circa debitores 
nostros paria fecerimus (S. CYPRIANI De Orat. Domin., xxiii. P.L., IV., 535). 

4 Conlat., IX., xxii. 



CHAPTER XIV 

HOW THE NIGHT OFFICE IS TO BE SAID ON SAINTS'- 

DATS 

IN NATALITIIS SANCTORUM QUALITER On the Festivals of Saints, and all 

VIGILLE: AGANTUR. In Sanctorum vero other solemnities, let the Office be 

festivitatibus, vel omnibus solemnita- ordered as we have prescribed for 

tibus, sicut diximus Dominico die Sundays: except that the psalms, 

agendum, ita agatur, excepto quod antiphons, and lessons suitable to the 

Psalmi, aut Antiphonae vel Lectiones day are to be said. Their quantity, 

ad ipsum diem pertinentes dicantur. however, shall remain as we have 

Modus autem supradictus teneatur. appointed above. 

OF the three kinds of Offices : ferial, Sunday, and festive, our Holy 
Father has now determined the first two, in what concerns 
Vigils and Lauds; a few lines are enough in which to regulate 
the festive Office, since it is like the Office of Sunday. The 
title of the chapter would restrict the similarity to Vigils only, but this 
is perhaps wrong, since St. Benedict expresses himself in genera] terms, 
without distinguishing between Vigils and Lauds; nor does he say any 
more on peculiarities of the festive Office in the Day Hours; and the 
Night Office needed especially this determination of the modus that is, 
the quantity of psalmody and lesson. We may regret St. Benedict's 
extreme brevity, all the more because we have insufficient information 
from other sources concerning the festive Office among monks of that 
time. 

For the feasts de tern-pore, the solemnities which commemorated the 
mysteries of Our Lord's life : such as Easter, Christmas, the Epiphany, etc. 
(St. Benedict probably means these by the words : vel omnibus solemni- 
tatibus), the monastic calendar was from the first adapted to the calendar 
used by secular churches. The same was not the case with the feasts 
of the saints. It is true that some, such as the feasts of SS. Peter 
and Paul, St. Stephen, SS. James and John, St. Andrew, St. John 
the Baptist, etc., were at an early date common to all Christians; 
but in primitive times the feasts of martyrs and those of confessors 
(of somewhat later origin) were not celebrated except in the churches 
with which they were locally connected, or where there was at least 
some special local reason for their observance. 1 Monastic churches, 
being generally without such traditions, had few natales (Saints'-days) 
to commemorate; and this is undoubtedly the explanation of the silence 
of the ancient Eastern Rules in this matter. Sometimes the monks 
would leave their solitudes in order to keep the feast of a martyr with 
the clergy and the faithful; and it was in this way that the pilgrim 
Eucheria had (at Charra in Mesopotamia) the unexpected joy of meet- 
ng and conversing with all the monks of that district, who had to meet 

x 

1 Cf. H. DELEHAYE, S.J., Les Origlnes du culte des martyrs, chap, iii., pp, 109^, 

164 



I 

How the Night Office is to be said on Saints'-Days 165 

there in order to keep the anniversary of the martyr-monk Helpidius: 
" They told me," she writes, " that except at Easter and on this day 
they did not leave their retreats." 1 In the Rule of St. Caesarius edited 
by the Bollandists there are special liturgical provisions, not only for 
Sundays and ordinary days (privatis diebus), but also for Easter, Christ- 
mas, the Epiphany, solemnities, " all feast-days," and especially for feasts 
of martyrs : " When feasts of martyrs are being celebrated, let the first 
lesson be read from the Gospels, the rest from the Acts of the Martyrs." 2 

So the monastic calendar was enriched little by little and copied 
the calendar of secular churches, which, moreover, were sometimes served 
by monks or had a monastery close to them. If our Holy Father was 
no conspicuous innovator in what concerns the cultus of the saints, he 
has at least secured it an honoured and regular place in the monastic 
liturgy. We know from St. Gregory that, when he took possession of 
Monte Cassino, St. Benedict dedicated an oratory to St. John the Baptist 
and another to St. Martin of Tours ; and he makes us pronounce our 
vows before the relics of the saints, who are invoked as solemn witnesses. 

On the feasts of saints and on all solemnities, the Work of God, 
(agendum, ita agatur) is to be performed in the same manner as has been 
laid down previously for Sunday i.e., at every season three nocturns, 
twelve lessons, twelve responsories. But St. Benedict adds a clause which 
limits and lessens the likeness of the festive Office to that of Sunday: 
it is to have its own psalms, antiphons, and lessons (we may note that 
there is no question of responsories or hymns). Long discussions have 
arisen among commentators as to the interpretation of the words: 
ad ipsum diem pertinentes (belonging to the day itself). Does this mean 
the psalms, antiphons, and lessons of the feria, or rather psalms, anti- 
phons, and lessons specially assigned to the feast ? Calmet holds the first 
opinion; D. Mge is decidedly in favour of the second; Martene, while 
recognizing the strength of the arguments adduced by the supporters of 
the latter view, leaves everyone free to estimate their value and comes to 
no decision. 

Grammatically the text will bear either interpretation, so we must 
seek a solution elsewhere. St. Benedict, in the eighteenth chapter, 
requires of all his disciples the integral recitation of the whole psalter 
in a week; and he does not mean any hundred and fifty psalms, but the 
hundred and fifty psalms of the psalter. Now, this could only be achieved 
if at the Vigils of saints the psalms of the corresponding feria were recited. 
To those who answer that " St. Benedict was speaking conditionally, 
on the hypothesis that no feast-day would occur during the week," 
Calmet replies that " with such suppositions an author may be made 
to say anything." For St. Benedict the psalmody is the immovable 
framework of the Divine Office, and, though he leaves the Abbot free 
to arrange the psalter in some better way, yet, as we may repeat, he 
wishes the whole psalter to be recited each week. The festive character 

1 Peregrinatio ad loco, lancta, ed. GAMURRINI, 1888, pp. 38-39. 
3 Acta SS., Jan., 1. 1., pp. 735-736. 



1 66 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

was sufficiently asserted by the special plan of 'the Office, copied from 
the Sunday, and by certain proper prayers. Again, do not the Little 
Hours now keep their psalmody unchanged even on feast-days, and has 
not the recent reform of the Roman Breviary combined the ferial and 
festal Office ? However, as Calmet remarks, we cannot seek arguments 
in favour of one or the other interpretation of the text in customs 
subsequent to St. Benedict, albeit very ancient, nor in more recent 
ecclesiastical or monastic legislation. 

Against those who understand the words ad ipsum diem of the 
current feria, the following objection is urged: St. Benedict speaks in 
the same way of the psalms as of the antiphons and lessons, enumerating 
these elements without distinction: we may infer, therefore, that their 
condition is the same. Now it seems clear that on feast-days neither 
the antiphons of the psalter nor the lessons of the feria could be said: 
for on f erias in winter there are only three lessons, and only one in summer, 
while the festive Office demands twelve; moreover, there are antiphons 
properly so called only in the first nocturn, while the festive Office requires 
them for both nocturns; therefore the ferial psalms were no more said 
than were the antiphons and lessons of the same feria. Calmet in reply 
contests the minor; " the lessons will be taken," he says, " from the same 
books as the ferial lessons came from, only instead of three there will be 
twelve; for antiphons either the antiphons of the same feria will be 
taken, or they will be drawn from a general antiphonary; and the same 
with the responsories. There would be a book containing a store, of all 
these things, for it is impossible to doubt that, in St. Benedict's time 
and after, there were psalters, lectionaries, antiphonaries, and collections 
of responsories. . . ." One might allow that the lessons, like the 
canticles, perhaps also like the antiphons, were in fact proper to the feast 
and assigned by usage and the will of the Abbot, and maintain that the 
psalms did not necessarily go with the other elements among which they 
are enumerated. Then by this clause St. Benedict would have wished 
simply to distinguish the festal from the Sunday liturgy, each of these 
elements being arranged as best suited it. Unfortunately, in this 
explanation, the phrase ad ipsum diem has an indeterminate or rather 
a double sense, since at one time it means the feria, a't another the feast. 

Perhaps it would be better to admit that psalms, antiphons, and 
lessons were proper to the feast. That was the case in the liturgies 
of Milan and Rome which were known to St. Benedict; our Common 
Offices of saints, at least the Office for martyrs, were originally proper 
Offices. Eucheria remarks with interest that the church of Jerusalem 
adapted the liturgical texts to the mystery of the day: "Among all 
else this that they do is especially noteworthy : the psalms and antiphons 
are always appropriate, both those said at Vigils and those of the Morning 
Office; likewise those said during the day or at Sext and None and even- 
tide ; all are so apt and significant that they suit the occasion." 1 Accord- 
ing to the Rule for the monastery of St. Caesaria, as we have seen, 

1 Peregrinatio, p. 50. 



How the Night Office is to be said on Saints' -Days 167 

certain lessons were taken from the Acts of the Martyrs whose feast was 
being celebrated; in the same document is contained the following 
ordinance: " On all feast-days at the twelfth hour the psalms of the 
third hour are to be said and three antiphons added, but the lessons are 
to be said of the matter in hand, that is of the feast-day itself." Is it 
not reasonable enough to think that our Holy Father adopted a similar 
practice ? And he could prescribe a festal psalmody without sacrificing 
the great principle of the'eighteenth chapter concerning the weekly 
recitation of the psalter, since feast-days were then exceptional and quite 
rare. He concludes by laying it down that the form of the festal Office, 
its general plan, the number and arrangement of its parts, should be the 
same as in the Sunday Office, whatever might be the feast or day on 
which it fell and its proper parts. So at the beginning a festal Office 
of three lessons was unknown. 



CHAPTER XV 

A<T WHAT TIMES OF THE YEAR "ALLELUIA" IS 

TO BE SAID 

ALLELUIA QUIBUS TEMPORIBUS From the holy feast of Easter until 

DICATUR. A sancto Pascha usque ad Pentecost, without interruption, let 

Pentecosten, sine intermissione dicatur Alleluia be said both with the psalms 

"Alleluia," tarn in Psalmis quam in and the responsories. From Pente- 

Responsoriis. A Pentecoste usque ad cost until the beginning of Lent, it 

caput Quadragesimx, omnibus noc- is to be said every night at the Night 

tibus, cum sex posterioribus Psalmis Office with the second six psalms 

tantum ad Nocturnes dicatur. Omni only. But on every Sunday out of 

vero Dominica extra Quadragesimam, Lent let the canticles, Lauds, Prime, 

Cantica, Matutini, Prima, Tertia, Terce, Sext, and None be said with 

' Sexta Nonaque cum " Alleluia " dican- Alleluia. Vespers, however, with 

tur. Vespera vero cum Antiphonis. antiphons. The responsories are never 

Responsoria vero nunquam dicantur to be said with Alleluia, except from 

cum " Alleluia," nisi a Pascha usque Easter to Pentecost, 
ad Pentecosten. 

CHAPTERS XIV. and XV. complete the arrangement of the Night 
Office, and with them we pass to the Day Offices; they treat 
of matters which concern both Vigils and the liturgy of the day. 
Our Holy Father devoted a special article to Alleluia, not merely 
dignitatis causa and out of respect for this glad cry so dear to souls in 
every age 1 and found, along with Amen, even in the liturgy of eternity; 
but rather and chiefly in order to regulate and extend its use. St. 
Benedict has it sung every day in the year except in Lent; in this we are 
far from the rigorism of the heresiarch Vigilantius, so vigorously trounced 
by St. Jerome, who would have kept Alleluia for the feast of Easter 
alone. 

From Easter to Pentecost Alleluia must be said in the psalms and 
responsories, sine intermissione (without interruption). To understand 
the precise meaning of this phrase we must attend very carefully to the 
arrangements which follow and remember how St. Benedict in other 
chapters regulates the use of antiphons and Alleluia. During the whole 
of paschal time Alleluia is said at all responsories, both on Sundays and 
during the week. And in the psalmody there is no other antiphon but 
Alleluia, at the Night Office as well as at the Day Office, on Sundays 
as well as on ferias. 

During the whole period from Pentecost to the beginning of Lent 
(there is no question yet of Septuagesima), on ferial days, Alleluia shall 
be said only at the six psalms of the second nocturn, as an antiphon. 
On these same days, at Lauds, Little Hours, and Vespers, the psalmody 
is interspersed with antiphons and not with Alleluia. 

1 See the account of the Alleluia in the Dictionnaires de la Bible, de Thfologie, and 
d' Arcb&ologie cbretienne et de Liturgie. 

168 



At what Times of the Tear " Alleluia " is to be said 169 

Sunday is in some sort a repetition of Easter-day: so Alleluia shall 
be used each Sunday, except in Lent, at nearly all the Hours: it shall 
be used for the canticles of the third nocturn, for the fiftieth psalm (and 
perhaps for those that follow) of Lauds, for the psalms of Prime, Terce, 
Sext, and None. But Vespers shall have antiphons and not use Alleluia. 

As regards responsories, they shall be said with Alleluia only during 
paschal time. Our Holy Father makes no mention of adding Alleluia 
to certain versicles and antiphons, as is now done, but only to psalms 
and responsories : tarn in psalmis quam in responsoriis. 



CHAPTER XVI 

HOW THE WORK OF GOD IS TO BE DONE IN THE 

DAT-TIME 

j 

QUALITER DIVINA OPERA PER DIEM As the prophet saith: "Seven 

AGANTUR. Ut ait Propheta: Septies in times in the day I have given praise 

die laudem dixi tibi. Qui septenarius to thee." And we shall observe this 

sacratus numerus a nobis sic implebi- sacred number of seven if, at the times 

tur, si Matutini, Primae, Tertiae, Sex- of Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, 

tae, Nonae, Vesperi, Completoriique Vespers, and Compline, we fulfil the 

tempore, nostrae servitutis officia per- duties of our service. For it was 

solvamus. Quia de his Horis dixit of these Hours that he said: " Seven 

Propheta: Septies in die laudem dixi times in the day have I given praise 

tibi. Nam de Nocturnis Vigiliis idem to thee " ; just as the same prophet 

ip&ePiopheta. sAt: Media noctesurgebam said of the Night Office: "At mid- 

ad confitendum tibi. Ergo his tempori- night I arose to give thee praise." At 

bus referamus laudes Creator! nostro these times, therefore, let us sing the 

super judicia justitiae suae, id est, Matu- praises -of our Creator for the judge- 

tinis, Prima, Tertia, Sexta, Nona, ments of His justice: that is, at Lauds 1 , 

Vespera, Completorio, et nocte surga- Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers, 

mus ad confitendum ei. and Compline: and at night let us 

arise to praise Him. 

WE now pass to the hours of the day in the strict sense, Lauds 
being only the conclusion of the Night Office, or the Office 
of dawn and morning. But, before fixing their content, 
St. Benedict desired to enumerate them clearly and to sum 
up the moments of the day and night when the monks devote themselves 
to the Work of God. However, he has already mentioned all the Hours" 
except Compline, though only cursorily So a more accurate title for 
the chapter might be : How many Offices there are in a day (of twenty- 
four hours). 

We are not called upon to write the history of the Day Hours any 
more than was St. Benedict. Lauds and Vespers are the most ancient 
and the most solemn: " In the first half of the fourth century they were 
celebrated daily in public." 1 They were represented among the Jews 
by the morning and evening sacrifice; for the Jews had three traditional 
times for prayer : morning, noon (Sext and None), and evening. Several 
passages of the Acts show us the Apostles and their disciples praying at 
the hours that the Jews prayed in the Temple and the synagogues. 
We have already had occasion to observe that the Didache bade the 
faithful recite the Lord's Prayer three times a day. Whether our Hours 
of Terce, Sext, and None are connected or not 2 with this Christian 
practice, itself imitated from Jewish custom, it is certain that as early as 
the second century the three Hours of prayer are urged by Clement 
of Alexandria on all "those who appreciate the trinity of the holy 

1 D. BXUMER, op. cit., t. 1., p. 82. * Ibid., p. 56, note I. 

170 



How the Work of God is to be done in the Day-time 171 

mansions." 1 Tertullian is more explicit and gives mystical reasons for 
the choice. 2 But originally, it would seem, the chief idea was to address 
God at the three principal divisions of the civil day. The day was 
divided into twelve hours, calculated from sunrise to sunset, the sixth 
hour always corresponding to what we call midday; but only at the 
equinoxes did the third and ninth hours correspond to our 9 a.m. 
and 3 p.m. The end of the twelfth hour marked sunset; the 
"evening star," Vesfct , appeared: and this was the hour of Vespers, 
Lucernarium, or lamp-lighting time; then began the first watch of the 
night. 3 To get Terce, Se/xt, and None into his scheme, our Holy Father 
had only to conform to a usage that had become practically universal 
and in particular to remember what St. Basil 4 and Cassian 6 had written 
about these Hours. 

The Office of Prime dates from the time of Cassian, who relates 
its. origin. 6 The researches of Pere Pargoire have established the fact 
that Prime became a canonical Hour about the year 382 or 390 at the 
latest, and that it was instituted in a monastery at Bethlehem, not 
St. Jerome's. At Bethlehem, as in other monasteries, Lauds were said 
almost immediately after Matins, even in winter, without waiting for 
dawn; and, as a consequence, the brethren were allowed to lie down 
again until daybreak. But "the lazy abused this permission: since 
there was no community exercise to force them to leave their cells, 
instead of rising to work with hand or brain until the Hour of Terce, 
they formed the habit of waiting quietly in their beds for the signal to this 
Office. So there was a reform, and the elders decided that the custom 
of going to bed after the Night Office should continue, but that at 
sunrise, when work' became possible, the community should assemble 
for the recitation of Prime."* This Hour is a double of the Morning 
Office, alter a matutina, and psalms taken from Lauds were recited at it; 8 
it is a morning prayer which perhaps all those might dispense with who 
chanted Lauds at daybreak, inci-piente luce. However, as Cassian tells us, 
it was adopted almost everywhere : " It is now celebrated in the West 

1 Stromat., 1. VII., c. vii. P.G., IX., 456-457. 
8 De Orations, c. xxiii.-xxv. P.L., I., 1191-1193. 

3 When Vigils were to last the whole night (iravvv\if) it was very natural to regard 
the Lucernarium as their prelude; and that is why some ancient sources look on 
Vespers as belonging to the Night Office. ST. BASIL (Reg. fus., xxxvii. De Spiritu 
Sancto, Ixxiii. P.G., XXXII. ,205) speaks of the tv^apurria of the Evening Office; also 
ST. GREGORY OF NYSSA, De Vita sancta Macrina. P.G., XLVI., 985. C/. Apostolical 
Constitutions, 1. VIII., c. xxxiv.-xxxvii. P.O., I., 1135-1140. This name "Evening 
Eucharist " is very suggestive. It is clear, in fact, that the Lucernarium of the early 
centuries often had its Agape or non-sacramental Eucharist, accompanied by alleluia 
psalms and followed, on certain days, by the sacramental Eucharist. Things were 
so done, in the same order and at the same hour, at the Last Supper. 

4 &* fa") xxxvii. - 8 /., III., iii. Ibid., iv. 

7 PARGOIRE, Prime et Complies, in the Revue tTbist. et de littSr. religieuses, 1898, 
pp. 281-288. 

8 CASS., Ittst., III., vi. The Matutina nostra solemnitas, of which Cassian speaks 
at the end of chap. Hi., is Prime and not Lauds. He never calls this new Office Prime. 
Prime is mentioned under this name in- the Rule of ST. CJESARIUS given by the Bollan- 
dists. 



172 Commentary on t/ie Rule oj St. Benedict 

especially," by which we must understand the Western monasteries, for 
secular churches were slower to adopt it. 

The institution of the Hour of Compline (Completorium), which 
completes the Work of God, has often been attributed to St. Benedict; 
but our Holy Father has no need of other credit than that to which he 
is historically entitled. Perhaps the name is his ; undoubtedly the spread 
of this Hour was due to its inclusion in the Benedictine scheme; un- 
doubtedly also it is due to our Holy Father's initiative that Vespers 
became a day Hour and Compline took the place of the Lucernarium 
(Chapters XLL, XLII.) : but there are at least two pieces of evidence 
in favour of the existence of Compline before St. Benedict; and P&re 
Pargoire is of opinion that these texts certainly imply a special canonical 
Hour and not a simple evening prayer, or private devotional exercise. 1 
St. Basil, enumerating the official hours of prayer, says that when the day 
is finished and complete (<rvfwr\7;p<a#euri7s Se T)S 17/46/30,9) a u%apto-Tia 
(thanksgiving) was celebrated for all benefits received and pardon 
asked for all faults or errors committed: by this he means Vespers. 
Then he goes on : " Kai ird\iv T% VVKTO? apxpftevijs. . . . And again, 
when the night begins, we ask for sleep free from faults and evil dreams, 
by the recitation without fail of the ninetieth psalm [already used at 
Sext]." a The second piece of evidence is this : Callinicus, the disciple 
and biographer of St. Hypatius (t June 30, 446), hegumenos (superior) 
of the monastery of Rufinianes, at " The Oak " near Chalcedon 
where St. John Chrysostom was condemned, narrates that his hero 
lived in seclusion during Lent, but did not fail to recite the Morning 
Office, Terce, Sext, None, Lucernarium, then the irpmOvirvia (the 
Office which precedes the first sleep), and finally the Midnight Office; in 
this way, adds the biographer, he fulfilled in the course of each day the 
words : " Seven times in the day have I given praise to thee for the 
judgements of thy justice." 3 

St. Benedict also is anxious to achieve, in the number of the Hours, 
the sacred total of seven. He does so, thanks to Prime, in the day itself, 
while St. Hypatius had to include the Night Office; so with St. Benedict 
dies (day) means the space between sunrise and sunset, while for 
St. Hypatius it is the whole liturgical day (vvyOriiAepov). Cassian, 
who did not know Compline but counted Prime among the Hours, 
arrives at the number seven by including the Night Office; and he 
remarks that one of the advantages of the institution of the " second 
morning office " was just this realization to the letter of the words of 
David: "That number, which blessed David gives, though it have 
also a spiritual sense, is thus manifestly fulfilled according to the letter: 
' Seven times in the day have I given praise to thee for the judgements 
of thy justice.' For by adding this Hour and so having these spiritual 
assemblies seven times in the day, we plainly praise God seven times 
a day." 4 Our Holy Father probably remembered this passage; but 

1 Op. cit., pp. 456-467. a Reg. fits., xxxvii. 

3 Acta SS., Junii, t. HI., p. 325. * Inst., III., iv. 



How the Work of God is to be done in the Day-time 173 

since in his arrangement the number of Hours exceeded seven, he adds 
at once that the Prophet was there speaking only of the Day Hours, 
and alluded to the Night Office in another passage of the same hundred 
and eighteenth psalm. Therefore Holy Scripture itself summons us 
to praise our Creator seven times a day and once in the night. 1 To 
this are we bound as monks and as workmen of prayer : nostree servitutis 
officia. persohamus. 

More than this was achieved formerly: in very populous monasteries 
it was natural to organize the Work of God in such a way that choirs of 
monks relieved one another from hour to hour and the work of praise 
ceased neither day nor night. At St. Maurice of Agaune, for instance, 
at the beginning of the sixth century, we find the Laus perennis (perpetual 
praise). 2 And when monastic devotion could not adopt continuous 
psalmody, it often added various Offices to the pensum servitutis 
(meed of service) prescribed by St. Benedict, and the rubrics of our 
Breviary still mention on certain days the recitation of the Gradual 
Psalms, of the Penitential Psalms, and of the Office of the Dead. With- 
out misconceiving the intention which dictated these practices, we may 
be allowed to remark that our Holy Father purposely abridged the 
liturgy of his predecessors and that he arranged the content of the Hours 
in a more discreet and wiser fashion. Does Our Lord gain much by an 
ever-increasing accumulation of prayers and new Offices ? We must 
leave ourselves breathing-space. The generous must have the oppor- 
tunity of doing something spontaneously and quite willingly. However, 
there is a form of Laus perennis which does not require an army of monks, 
which is open to each individual to realize : it is secret prayer, attention 
to God and the things of God, the attitude of submission and love, a 
certain constant contact with Beauty ever present. Thus, not only 
the monastery, but the soul of each monk, and the united chorus of all, 
may sing to God an unceasing song. 

1 In the first Sermo asceticus, which, if not St. Basil's, at least belongs probably to the 
fourth or fifth century, the author, like St. Benedict, cites these two texts: Media node 

. . . and Septies . . ., but he only counts seven Hours in all: the Night Office, the 
Morning Office, Terce, None, Vespers, and, in order to get seven, divides the midday 
prayer into two: the prayer before the meal and the prayer after. P.G., XXXI., 877- 
878. 

2 C/". Dictionnaire d' Arcb&ologie cbrftienne et de Liturgie, art. Agaune. 



CHAPTER XVII 

HOW MANY PSALMS ARE TO BE SAID AT THESE 
HOURS (OF THE DAT} 



QUOT PSALM i PER EASDEM HORAS 
DICENDI SUNT. Jam de Nocturnis, vel 
Matutinis digessimus ordinem psalmo- 
diae ; nunc de sequentibus Horis videa- 
mus. Prima Hora dicantur Psalmi tres 
sigillatim, et non sub una " Gloria." 
Hymnus ejusdem Horae post Versum 
Dfus in adjutorium meum intende 
antequam Psalmi incipiantur. Post 
expletionem vero trium Psalmorum, 
recitetur Lectio una, Versus, et " Kyrie 
eleison," et missae sint. 



We have already disposed the 
order of the psalmody for the Night 
Office and for Lauds : let us proceed 
to arrange for the remaining Hours. 
At Prime, let three Psalms be said, 
separately, and not under one Gloria. 
The hymn at this Hour is to 'follow 
the verse Deus. in adjutorium before 
the psalms are begun. Then, at the 
end of the three psalms, let one lesson 
be said, with a versicle, the Kyrie 
eleison and the concluding prayer. 



WE have already, says St. Benedict, arranged the order of the 
psalmody for Vigils and Lauds; let us look now to the 
succeeding Hours. His object is to indicate the scheme 
or form of the Offices of the day, taking them in the order in 
which they. occur; the substance of both night and day psalmody will 
be dealt with in the next chapter. 

First we have the composition of Prime: the versicle Deus in adju- 
torium, then the Gloria, as laid down at the beginning of the eighteenth 
chapter, next the hymn proper to the Hour. In the same way do the 
three succeeding Hours begin. Moreover, the psalmody of Prime and 
of these three Hours consists of three psalms. In the monasteries of 
Palestine, Mesopotamia, and all that part of the East Cassian tells us 
Terce, Sext, and None consisted every day of three psalms j 1 those who 
adopted Prime used for that Hour psalms 1., Ixii., and Ixxxix. 2 On 
Sunday, St. Benedict adds in the next chapter, Prime shall have by 
exception, not three psalms, but the first four sections of the hundred 
and eighteenth psalm. These psalms were to be said separately, each 
with its own Gloria, and not united above one Gloria, as are the last three 
psalms of Lauds. After the psalms comes a lesson, then the versicle, 
the Kyrie eleison and the missa. We have briefly indicated in an earlier 
chapter what these concluding prayers might be and the various meanings 
of the word missa. 3 All that part of Prime which we say in chapter 
(the martyrology, prayers for manual labour, reading of the Rule) dates 
from the eighth and ninth centuries and originated in monastic customs. 4 

Tertia vero, Sexta, et Nona, eodem Terce, Sext, and None are to be 
ordine celebretur Oratio : Versus, recited in the same way that is, the 
Hymni earundem Horarum, terni verse, the hymn proper to each Hour, 



i /., III., iii. 

3 See the commentaries of MART&NE and CALMET on this chapter. 

4 Cf. D. B'AUMIR, op. cit., 1. 1., pp. 361-362, 374-375. 

'74 



How many Psalms are to be said at these Hours 175 

Paalmi, Lectio, Versus, " Kyrie elei- three psalms, the lesson and versicle, 
son," et missae sint. Si major congre- Kyrie eleison and the concluding 
gatio fuerit, cum Antiphonis dicantur; prayer. If the community be large, 
si vero minor, in directum psallantur. let the psalms be sung with antiphons; 

but if small, let them be sung straight 

forward. 

The best reading of the text for the beginning of this section is 
probably that which we have adopted, with the addition of id est (that 
is) before Versus. The prayer or portion of the Work of God which is 
celebrated at Terce, Sext, and None, is to have the same plan as Prime, 
comprising, that is to say,, the verse Deus in adjutorium, a proper hymn, 
three psalms, etc. If the community is large the psalms of the four 
Little Hours shall be said with intercalated antiphons; otherwise they 
shall be said straight forward. 1 These Day Hours are brief, as was 
fitting for men who had work to do; they are simple, so that they can be 
recited by memory, even at the scene of one's toil (Chapter L.). 

Vespertina autem synaxis quatuor Let the Vesper Office consist of 

Psalmis cum Antiphonis terminetur, four psalms with antiphons: after the 

post quos Psalmos lectio recitanda est, psalms a lesson is to be recited; then 

inde Responsorium, Ambrosianum, the responsory, the hymn and versicle, 

Versus, Canticum de Evangelic, Lita- the canticle from the Gospel, the 

niae et Oratio Dominica, et fiant missae. Litany and Lord's Prayer and the 

concluding prayer. 

The Vesper psalmody is shorter than was that of the ancient Lucer- 
narium, as for instance with the monks of Egypt 2 and St. Caesarius; for 
it comprises only four psalms. Likewise, instead of several long lessons, 
St. Benedict requires only one, and that probably quite short and capable 
of recitation by heart, as in the case of the Little Hours; however, the 
reading which precedes Compline will go far to compensate. The 
psalms are to be said with antiphons. Next we have a responsory, the 
Ambrosianum (i.e., the hymn), the versicle, the canticle from the 
Gospel (i.e. y the Magnificat), the litany, the Lord's Prayer, et fiant 
misste. 

Completorium autem trium Psal- Let Compline consist of the recita- 

morum dictione terminetur, qui Psal- tion of three psalms, to be said straight 

mi directanee et sine Antiphona dicendi on without antiphons; then the 

sunt. Post quos Hymnus ejusdem hymn for that hour, one lesson, the 

Horse, Lectio una, Versus, " Kyrie versicle, Kyrie eleison, the blessing, 

eleison " et benedictio, et missae fiant. and the concluding prayer. 

St. Benedict keeps for another place what he has to say about the 
reading which preceded Compline (Chapter XLII.); the short lesson: 
Fratres sobrii estate ... is a relic and a repetition of it in our actual 
liturgy. Compline is to consist first of three psalms without antiphons 
in the direct manner. Then comes the hymn proper to this last Hour 
of the day; so that Lauds, Vespers and Compline have their hymn after 
the psalmody. Finally there is a short lesson, a versicle, the Kyrie 

1 See the commentary on Chapter IX. CAM., Inst. t II., vi. w 



176 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

eleison, the blessing and the concluding prayers or dismissal. We should 
recall what little was said concerning the blessing in Chapter XL, where 
St. Benedict spoke of the blessing at the end of Vigils : " And after the 
blessing has been given, let them begin Lauds." So the Night Office 
and the Day Hours end in the same manner. Let us remember also 
that in the ancient service the dismissal of the catechumens or of the 
faithful was only pronounced after a series of prayers in which the 
deacon and the bishop enumerated the intentions of all, and formulated 
the desires and sentiments of the assembly; after which the bishop 
gave his blessing. It is probable that at the end of Vigils and of Com- 
pline the Abbot too blessed all his children and accompanied the action 
with a formula of his own choice or one predetermined. 1 Monastic 
custom has preserved the blessing of Compline and given it a real 
importance. No one should be absent at that moment ; it is an act of 
communion with brethren and Abbot ; and the blessing should be 
carried to those in the monastery who cannot be present to receive it. 
Commentators enquire why our Holy Father says nothing about 
Mass, though it is the culminating point of the liturgy. We may repeat 
that it was not St. Benedict's purpose to say everything: he passes over 
in silence points of ordinary ecclesiastical discipline ; and, among properly 
monastic observances, he only mentions the chief, those which he adopts 
for his children and those which used to be defined by precise rules. 
He speaks elsewhere en -passant of the Mass and Communion on Sunday 
and " solemn days " (Chapters XXXV., XXXVIIL, LXIII.) ; a he allows 
the Abbot to have priests and deacons ordained for the religious service 
of the monastery and the officium altaris (Chapter LXIL); the Abbot 
may invite priests who embrace the monastic life to bless or to celebrate 
Mass: ant Missam tenere (Chapter LX.). Two centuries before St. 
Benedict's time, monks, like fervent Christians in the world, used to 
communicate very often and even daily; and it was not indispensable 
to do this at Mass since each individual could take the Holy Eucharist 
home with him. 3 Rufinus has preserved us this counsel of Abbot 
Apollonius : " He also advised that, if possible, monks should every day 
partake of the mysteries of Christ, lest perchance he, who should keep 
far from these, should find himself far from God." 4 The custom of 
daily Conventual Mass is very ancient, and Martene finds an example 
of it at the beginning of the fifth century in the life of St. Euthymius; 5 
it was the custom too at Cluny. 

1 The Council of Agde in 506 decreed: In conclusione matntinarum vel vesper tinarum 
missarum, post bymnos, capitella de psalmis dicantur, et plebs collecta orations ad vesperam 
ab episcopo cum benedictione dimittatur (Can. xxx. MANSI, t. VIII., 001.330). 

2 CASSIAN wrote of the monks of Egypt: Die sabbato vel dominica . . . bora tertia 
sacra communionis obtentu conveniunt (Inst., III. ii.). > 

3 S. BASIL., Epist. XCIII. ad Casariam patriciam. P.O., XXXII., 484-485. 
Cf. D. CHAPMAN, La Communion frtquente dans les premiers dges (Paper read at the 
nineteenth International Eucharistic Congress held at Westminster, 1908, pp. 161-168 
of the. Report). D. BESSE, Les Moines d'Orienj, pp. 351-354; LesMoines del'Ancienne 
France, pp. 445-448. * Hist, monacb., c. vii. ROSWEYD, p. 464. 

6 Acta SS., Jan., t. II., p. 309. Cf. MARTINK, De ant. monacb. rit., 1. II., c. iv.-viii. 
CALMET, Commentary on Chapter XXXV. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

IN WHAT: ORDER THE PSALMS ARE TO BE SAID 

WE now know the number of the Hours and the plan of each of 
them; this long chapter is devoted by St. Benedict to the 
distribution of the psalms among the Hours of the day and 
the night. Leaving Lauds on one side, for he has fixed its 
psalmody in the thirteenth chapter, he determines successively the 
psalmody of Prime, of the three succeeding Hours, of Vespers, and of 
Compline. Since these Offices for the most part called for a special 
selection of their psalms, it was best to begin with them, while Vigils 
would share the psalms that remained. To fix the psalmody of each of 
the Hours, St. Benedict naturally follows their course throughout the 
week, and, as is natural too, begins with Sunday. The principle that 
guides this distribution of the psalter is that the whole should be 
said in the week; the same rule prevails in the Roman liturgy, 
while the Ambrosian fixes the period at two weeks. To realize this 
plan, our Holy Father had to adopt various- arrangements which give 
his system of psalmody a rather complicated and perplexed character. 
He had, in fact, to take account of the traditional attribution of certain 
psalms to certain Hours, while at the same time making arrangements 
of his own, as for instance in the case of the Little Hours. 

To begin with, we may note that the Rule divides the whole 
hundred and fifty psalms into three parts. The first portion, from the 
first to the nineteenth inclusively, is devoted, with three exceptions, 
to Prime on weekdays. The second, extending from the twentieth 
to the hundred and eighth, furnishes, again with three exceptions, 
the psalmody ofe Vigils and Lauds. The last, extending from the 
hundred and ninth to the hundred and forty-seventh, supplies our Holy 
Father with the psalms of Vespers, of the Little Hours of Sunday, and 
of Terce, Sext, and None on the other days of the week. 

Quo ORDiNEPsALMi DiCENDi BUNT. First of all, at the Day Hours, let 

In primis, semper diurnis Horis dicatur this verse always be said : Deus in adju- 

Versus: Deus in adjutorium meum torium meum intends, Doming ad ad- 

intende, Domine ad adjuvandum me juvandum me festina, and the Gloria; 

ffstina, et " Gloria." Inde Hymnus followed by the hymn proper to each 

uniuscujusque Horae. Hour. 

These few lines return briefly to the ordinary introduction to the 
psalmody of the Day Hours i.e., Prime and the three that succeed. 
The best manuscripts have not got the words: semper diurnis Horis; 
nevertheless this passage could not refer to all the Hours both of day 
and night indiscriminately, since the presence of the verse Deus in 
adjutorium at the Night Office and at Lauds is not proved; but chiefly 
because the " hymn proper to each Hour " precedes the psalmody only 
at Vigils and the Little Hours. 

177 12 



178 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

Deinde Prima hora, Dominica, At Prime on Sunday four parts of 

dicenda sunt quatuor capitula Psalmi the hundred and eighteenth psalm 

centesimi octavi decimi. Reliquis are to be said. At the other Hours 

vero Horis, id est, Tertia, Sexta, et that is, Terce, Sext, and None let 

Nona, terna capitula supradicti Psalmi three parts of die same psalm be said, 
centesimi octavi decimi dicantur. 

St. Benedict at once gives a privileged position to the hundred 
and eighteenth psalm. It is quite evident from the commentaries of 
the Fathers Origen, St. Hilary, St. Ambrose, St. Augustine that the 
longest of the psalms was also regarded as the richest in doctrine and 
the most profound: they saw in it an incomparable programme of the 
Christian life. We know that it is alphabetical: each verse of every 
eight consecutive verses commences with the same letter of the 
Hebrew alphabet; and, since there are twenty-two letters in this 
alphabet, the psalm consists of twenty-two strophes, or octonaries, which 
our Holy Father calls capitula. His intention is to apportion it among 
all the Little Hours of Sunday and the three last of Monday that is, 
between seven canonical Hours; to this purpose twenty-one of the 
octonaries are devoted, since the psalmody of these Hours normally 
contains three psalms or portions of psalms. But rather than leave 
the single remaining octonary out in the cold on Monday, St. Benedict 
chose to give four capitula to Sunday's Prime. 

Ad Primam autem secundae ferise . At Prime on Monday let three" 

dicantur tres Psalmi, id est, primus, Psalms be said namely, the first, 

secundus, et sextus. Et ita per singulos second, and sixth; and so in the same 

dies ad Primanv usque ad Dominicam way every day until Sunday let three 

dicantur per ordinem terni Psalmi, psalms be said at Prime in order, up 

usque ad nonum decimum Psalmum; to the nineteenth; the ninth and the 

ita sane, ut nonus Psalmus et Septimus seventeenth, however, being divided 

decimus partiantur in binas " Glorias." into two Glorias. Let it thus come 

Et sic fiat, ut ad Vigilias Dominica about that at the^ Night Office on 

semper a vigesimo incipiatur. Sunday we shall always begin with 

the twentieth psalm. 

We are still at Prime, but Prime of Monday. Rather than use them 
at Prime, Terce, and Sext, St. Benedict divides the last nine octonaries 
of the hundred and eighteenth psalm between Terce, Sext, and None 
of this day; for if the determination of the psalmody of the last three 
Little Hours throughout the week had to begin with None on Monday, 
some complication would ensue, at least in the exposition and in the 
text of the law. The question now, therefore, is to provide for the 
Psalmody of Prime for the week, and St. Benedict takes it quite simply 
from the beginning of the psalter. Prime of Monday shall have the 
first, second, and sixth psalms, the third psalm being reserved for the 
beginning of the Night Office, the fourth being the first psalm of 
Compline, and the fifth being consecrated by usage to Lauds of Monday. 

For each of the remaining days till Sunday three psalms are taken 
in their sequence. But since the ninth and seventeenth are more 
lengthy and there is no time at this morning Hour for long psalmody, 



In what Order the Psalms are to be said 179 

they are to be divided into two, each portion being followed by a Gloria. 
In this way the monks will be in a position to begin the Night Office 
of Sunday regularly with the twentieth psalm. The practice of divid- 
ing psalms was an old one and existed, for example, among the monks 
of Egypt, as Cassian tells us. 1 

Ad Tertiam veto, et Sextam, et At Terce, Sext, and None on 

Nonam secundse ferise novem capitula, Monday are to be said the nine remain- 

quae residua sunt de centesimo decimo ing parts of the hundred and eighteenth 

octavo Psalmo, ipsa terna capitula psalm, three parts at each hour. This 

per easdem Horas dicantur. Expenso psalm having thus been said through 

igitur Psalmo centesimo octavo decimo in two days that is, Sunday and 

duobus diebus, id est, Dominica et Monday let the nine psalms from the 

secunda feria, tertia feria jam ad Ter- hundredand nineteenth to the hundred 

tiam, Sextam, vel Nonam psallantur and twenty-seventh be said on Tuesday 

terni Psalmi, a centesimo nono decimo at Terce, Sext, and None three at 

usque ad centesimum vigesimum sep- each Hour. And these psalms are to 

timum, id est, Psalmi novem. Quique be repeated at the same Hours every 

Psalmi semper usque ad Dominicam day until Sunday: (the arrangement, 

per easdem Horas itidem repetantur nevertheless, of hymns, lessons, and 

(Hymnorum nihilominus, Lectionum versicles remaining the same every 

vel Versuum dispositione uniformi day), so as always to begin on Sunday 

cunctis diebus servata), et ita scilicet, from the hundred and eighteenth 

ut semper Dominica a centesimo octavo psalm, 
decimo incipiatur. 

For Terce, Sext, and None of Monday the last nine octonaries of 
the hundred and eighteenth psalm have been held in reserve. At the 
same Hours, from Tuesday to the following Sunday, the nine psalms 
which immediately succeed the hundred and eighteenth shall be said, 
each day, three of them at each Hour. These are the first of the 
fifteen Gradual Psalms. Their brevity chiefly commended them to 
St. Benedict; for, as we said a short time ago, they are very suitable to 
Hours which monks ^nay have to say by memory, at the scene of their 
labours. So these nine psalms are repeated regularly every day at the 
Hours to which they have been finally fixed; and this is done up to 
Sunday; but at that point the psalmody of the Little Hours shall start 
again at the hundred and eighteenth psalm. 

The words Hymnorum nihilominus . . . servata form a parenthesis 
which commentators generally pass by without comment, and those 
who have deigned to speak of it do so inadequately. Nihilominus is 
an adversative conjunction implying an exception or contrast, and 
we may ask what are the contrasted elements. St. Benedict has just 
said that each day at the same Hours the same psalms are said; and 
it would seem at first sight, despite the " nevertheless," that the 
arrangement for the hymns, lessons, and versicles is to be the same : "the 
arrangement . . . remaining the same every day." Where, then, is the 
contrast ? We ought perhaps to attend more carefully to the thought 
and intention of St. Benedict than to its verbal expression. When he 

1 I mt., II., xi. 



180 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

wrote this sentence he was alluding to well-known liturgical practice 
and did not dream that his explanation, for all that it was intended 
to be clear, might be very puzzling to future commentators. Perhaps 
we should have understood the " nevertheless " better if it had been 
thrown to the end of the clause; for this seems to have been St. Benedict's 
meaning. He was bound to note that the nine Gradual Psalms were 
said at the same Hours of Terce, Sext, and None every day, but only 
from Tuesday up to Sunday, since Sunday had for all its Little Hours 
a special psalmody, taken from the hundred and eighteenth psalm, 
and Monday, being provided from another source than this psalm at 
Prime, had recourse to it for the three succeeding Hours. Here 
is a sufficiency of change and variety; and it is with the complexity 
of this scheme that St. Benedict contrasts the arrangement of the hymns, 
lessons, and versicles, which remains uniform every day, cunctis diebus. 1 
At Tuesday's Terce, for example, the hymn, lesson, and versicle are the 
same as on Monday and Wednesday. So is it in our present liturgy 
except on Sundays and feast-days, when lessons and versicles are 
different. 

Vespera autem quotidie quatuor Vespers are to be sung every day 

Psalmorum modulatione canatur. Qui with four psalms. And let these 

. Psalmi incipiantur a centesimo nono 'begin from the hundred and ninth, 

usque ad centesimum quadragesimum and go on to the hundred and forty- 

septimum: exceptis iis qui in diversis seventh, omitting those of their number 

Horis ex eis sequestrantur, id est, a which are set apart for other Hours 

centesimo decimo septimo, usque ad that is, from the hundred and seven- 

centesimum vigesimum septimum, et teenth. to the hundred and twenty- 

centesimo trigesimo tertio, et centesimo seventh, the hundred and thirty- 

quadragesimo secundo. Reliquiomnes third, and the hundred and fdrty- 

in Vespera dicendi sunt. Et quia second. All the rest are to be said 

minus veniunt tres Psalmi, ideo divi- at Vespers. And as there are three 

dendi sunt qui in numero suprascripto psalms wanting, let those of the afore- 

fortiores inveniuntur: id est, centesi- said number which are somewhat 

mus trigesimus octavus, et centesimus long be divided namely, the hundred 

quadragesimus tertius, et centesimus and thirty-eighth, the hundred and 

quadragesimus quartus. Centesimus forty-third, and the hundred and forty- 

vero sextus decimus, quia parvusest, fourth. But let the hundred and 

cum centesimo quinto decimo conjun- sixteenth, as it is short, be joined to the 

1 See MARTNE, who quotes these explanations of HILDEMAR and BOHERIUS: 
according to them it is the quantity or number of hymns, lessons, and versicles of the 
Hours of each day that remain the same. In our view uniformity is observed rather in 
the quality. Others think that the parenthesis does not necessarily contrast the regime 
for hymns, lessons, and versicles, with that of the psalmody; that nibilominus means either 
" besides, moreover," or " no less, likewise." St. Benedict would then simply say, and 
this with the object of rendering his arrangement of the Little Hours more precise if 
needed, that not only are the psalms he has just mentioned the same until Sunday, 
but that there is uniformity every day in the arrangement or disposition of hymns, 
lessons, and versicles; the law laid down elsewhere for the secondary parts of the Hours 
is to be observed every day: these parts shall have the same number and the same 
arrangement, leaving on one side their quality, of which St. Benedict says nothing. 
This remark would be of the same character as that with which the chapter begins and 
would complete it. 



In what Order the Psaims are to be said 181 

gatur. Digesto ergo ordine Psalmorum hundred and fifteenth. The order 
vespertinorum, reliqua, id est, Lee- of the psalms at Vespers being thus 
tiones, Responsoria, Hymni, Versus, disposed, let the rest that is, the 
vel Cantica, sicut supra taxavimus, lessons, responses, hymns, verses, and 
impleantur. . canticles be said as already laid 

down. 

We pass to Vespers. For seven days, at the rate of four psalms a 
day, Vespers require twenty-eight psalms. The Benedictine liturgy, 
like the Roman and Ambrosian, makes the series of Vesper psalms begin 
with the hundred and ninth. The traditional psalm of the Lucernarium, 
psalm cxl., chosen for the sake of its verse : Dirigatur oratio mea . . ., 
occurs in this last portion of the psalter. Beginning with Sunday, 
says St. Benedict, the psalms are to be taken from the hundred and ninth 
to the hundred and forty-seventh inclusively, the three last psalms of 
the psalter forming the laudes of each day. This would give thirty- 
eight psalms, or more than are required, if some were not reserved for 
other Hours : the hundred ||id seventeenth belonging to Lauds of Sunday, 
the hundred and eighteenth and the first nine Gradual Psalms being 
applied as we have just seen, the hundred and thirty-third being the 
last psalm of Compline, and the hundred and forty-second being the 
second psalm of Saturday's Lauds. The hundred and sixteenth psalm, 
being short, is joined to the hundred and fifteenth. But after these 
arrangements we are left with three psalms too few; so the longest 
psalms of the Vesper series have to be divided into two *.*., the 
hundred and thirty-eighth, the hundred and forty-third, and the 
hundred and forty- fourth. 

Digesto ergo. . . . Here again is a small clause which should not 
have escaped the attention of commentators. This remark seems 
parallel to that which terminates the preceding section; yet we may 
hesitate to give it the same interpretation. If the parallelism is com- 
plete and in the sense that we have indicated, we should translate 
thus: " The order of the psalms for Vespers is thus fixed; they are new 
every day, yet all else i.e. t lesson, responsory, hymn, versicle, and 
canticle, 1 is performed as we have determined above in the preceding 
section, and remains unchanged throughout the week." But, to say 
nothing of the other liturgical items, was the hymn at Vespers always 
the same ? There is no historical impossibility in the matter. 2 St. 
Benedict speaks of hymns proper to each of the Little Hours, but he 
nowhere says that the hymn for Vespers changes each day, any more 
than the hymns of Vigils, Lauds, and Compline. Furthermore, in his 
Rule he only regulates the Sunday and ferial office, and the little he 
says about feast-days does not allow us to conjecture that they enjoyed 
proper hymns. But perhaps, after all is said, our Holy Father's remark 
may only have the purpose of reminding us, in passing and with reference 
to the arrangements of the Vesper psalmody, of the composition of the 

1 We should, as a matter of fact, read the singular. 

3 Study on this point the cursus of ST. CXSARIUS and of ST. AURILIAN. 



1 82 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

rest of the Office, that lesson, responsory, hymn, versicle, and canticle 
are as previously ordered .*., in Chapter XVII. 1 

Ad Completorium vero quotidie At Compline the same psalms are 

iidem Psalmi repetantur ; id est quartus, to be repeated every day namely, the 

nonagesimus, et centesimus trigesimus fourth, nineteenth, and hundred and 

tertius. thirty-third. 

Compline has the same psalms every day : the fourth, Cum invocarem, 
the ninetieth, Qui habitat, and the hundred and thirty-third, Ecce 
nunc benedicite Dominum. We may note that St. Benedict in this 
place says nothing of the prayers which follow the psalmody; yet from 
this silence we can draw no conclusions towards a solution of our 
difficulties. 

Disposito ordine Psalmodiae diurnae, The order of psalmody for the 

reliqui omnes Psalmi, qui supersunt, Day Hours being now arranged, let 

sequaliter dividantur in septem noc- all the remaining psalms be equally 

tium Vigilias, partiendo scilicet qui distributed among the seven Night 

inter eos prolixiores sunt Psalmi, et Offices, by dividing the longer psalms 

duodecim per unamquamque consti- into two, and assigning twelve to 

tuantur noctem. each night. 

The psalmody for the Day Hours has been explained. The seven 
Night Offices shall share all the remaining psalms all that have not 
yet been appropriated. This distribution is to be made equally, at 
the rate of twelve psalms for each night. There is left that part of the 
psalter which extends from the twentieth to the hundred and eighth 
psalm i.e., eighty-nine psalms; and, since we require eighty-four, we 
should have too many if the ninety-fourth psalm were not retained for 
the Invitatory, the nineteenth as the second psalm of Compline, and 
twelve others for Lauds. When these have been subtracted, there are 
nine psalms too few; we get out of this difficulty by dividing the nine 
longest psalms " into two Glorias" as St. Benedict said farther back. The 
Rule does not designate these psalms; but, according to Benedictine 
custom, they are the thirty-sixth, sixty-seventh, sixty-eighth, seventy- 
seventh, eighty-eighth, hundred and third, hundred and fourth, hundred 
and fifth, hundred and sixth. In the Ambrosian and Roman liturgies 
also, the psalmody of the Night Offices concludes with the hundred and 
eighth ps.alm. 

Hoc praecipue commonentes, ut si Above all, we recommend that if 

cui forte haec distributio Psalmorum this arrangement of the psalms be 

displicuerit, ordinet, si melius aliter displeasing to anyone, he should, if 

judicaverit, dum omnimodis id atten- he think fit, order it otherwise; taking 

datur, ut omni hebdomada Psalterium care especially that the whole Psalter 

ex integro numero centum quinqua- of a hundred and fifty psalms be 

ginta Psalmorum psallatur, et Do- recited every week, and always begun 

1 This explanation is doubtless similar to that referred to in the end of the note on 
page 180. But the explanation here does not do violence to the text, while in the 
parenthesis Hymnorum . . . there, are expressions such as nibilominus, dispositione 
uniformi, which fit in., with it badly. The two passages seem in reality rather different. 



In what Order the Psalms are to be said 

minico die semper a capite repetatur afresh at the Night Office on Sunday. 

ad Vigilias : quia nimis iners devotionis For those monks show themselves too 

suae servitium ostendunt Monachi, slothful in the divine service who say 

qui minus Psalterio, cum Canticis in the course of a week less than the 

consuetudinariis, per septimanae cir- entire Psalter, with the usual canticles; 

culum psallunt; cum legamus sanctos since we read that our holy fathers 

Patres nostros uno die hoc strenue resolutely performed in a single day- 

implevisse, quod nos tepidi utinam what I pray we tepid monks may 

septimana integra persolvamus. achieve in a whole week. 

St. Benedict does not flatter himself that he has distributed the 
psalter in the best manner possible. With perfect humility and deference 
to the views of others, he emphatically (practpue) admonishes any of 
his successors (he cannot here mean simple monks), who may discover 
an arrangement which seems preferable, to adopt it without scruple. 
So long as liturgical arrangements were not definitely consecrated by 
the Church, some Abbots took advantage of the permission accorded 
by our Holy Father. Councils such as those of Aix-la-Chapelle in 
A.D. 802 and 817 had to recall monastic communities to the pure and 
simple observance of the Rule. Even as concerns the distribution of the 
psalter St. Benedict's work is very wise; if there be some complexity 
. in the arrangement of the psalms', we must recognize, at least from the 
point of view of the length of the Offices, that all the parts are success- 
fully balanced and counterpoised. 1 

The only point which seemed essential to St. Benedict, and which 
every arrangement, whatever it might be, should safeguard before all else, 
was that the psalter should be said each week in its entirety that is, with 
all its hundred and fifty psalms, so that the series might begin anew 
every Sunday at the Night Office. The principle that guided our 
Holy Father and the Roman Church is obvious : the Sovereign Pontiff 
emphasized it recently in the constitution Divino afflatu. The 
psalter was created by God Himself to be for ever the authentic formu- 
lary of prayer. With its thoughts and in its language God has willed 
to be praised and honoured. The psalms express the deepest, most 
varied, and most delicate sentiments of the human heart, and answer 
all its needs. They served the saints of the Old Testament; they have 
served the Apostles and the saints of all ages. And their words have 
been uttered by other and more august lips: for they were said and 
said again by Our Lady and Our Lord. In the pilgrimages to Jerusalem 
Our Lord and His Mother and St. Joseph chanted the Gradual Psalms. 
Some authors have thought that Our Lord used to recite the psalter 
every day, and that He was only continuing His prayer when in His 
Passion, raised aloft on the cross, He said: " My God, my God, why 
hast thou forsaken me ? " and again : " Into thy hands I commend my 
spirit." 

Perhaps, in St. Benedict's time, some monks had begun to reduce 



1 Cf. HffiFT., 1. VII., tract, v., dis<j. iv. et v. Cf. D. CABROL, La Rtforme du Briviaire 
e( du Calendrier, 



184 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

the amount of their psalmody. To say in the course of a week the 
Psalter and the customary canticles is, adds St. Benedict, a minimum 
effort for those who are workmen of prayer. They would indeed show too 
great indolence and sloth, in the service of God that they have vowed, 
who should fail of this. While we read that our holy fathers 1 valiantly 
performed in one day this task of the psalter, God grant that we tepid 
monks may fulfil it at least in the course of a week. The purpose of this 
humble remark of our Holy Father's is to persuade his children 
not to reduce an Office adapted so considerately to the capacity 
of all and thereby constituting a wise mean ; but he cannot have wished 
to suggest any depreciation of the cursus which he has just established, 
nor to invite experiment and indiscreet change. However, the phrase 
" we tepid monks " has more than once aroused the spirit of emulation 
in certain religious or in whole congregations, so that Offices were 
added to Offices. It goes without saying that private devotion may give 
itself full rein, under the direction of obedience; and a disciple of St. 
Peter Damian, St. Dominic Loricatus, succeeded in reciting twelve 
psalters and a half in twenty-four hours, while at the same time giving 
himself the discipline with both hands. "But these examples," 
concludes Calmet, " are more worthy of admiration than of imitation, 
and the excessive prolixity of Offices has met with the disapproval of 
several very judicious persons." 

1 ... Dixerunt inter K, ut prius ex morecomplerentorationesetpsalmodiam,etpostea 
cibum caperent. Cum an tern ingressi fuissent, psallebant, totumque psalter turn corn-pit' 
verunt (Ferba Seniorum : Vites Patrum, III., 6. ROSWEVD, p. 493). 



CHAPTER XIX 

HOW TO SAT THE DIVINE OFFICE 

DE DISCIPLINA PSALLENDI. Ubique We believe that the divine presence 

credimus divinam esse praesentiam, et is everywhere, and that the eyes of 

oculos Domini in omni loco speculari the Lord behold the good and the 

bonos et malos: maxime tamen hoc evil in every place. Especially do we 

sine aliqua dubitatione credimus, cum believe this, without any doubt, when 

ad opus divinum assistimus. we are assisting at the Work of God. 

THE last two chapters of the section on the Office are not concerned 
with technicalities, but specify the dispositions, especially the 
interior dispositions, which we should bring with us to the 
psalmody (that is to say, to the Work of God in general) and to 
private prayer. 

" We believe that God is present everywhere, and that in every 
place the eyes of the Lord look attentively on the good and the evil. . . ." 
The words are a sort of brief allusion to the doctrine of the first degree 
of humility, that the fear of God must determine our attitude in all our 
prayers. They indicate the surroundings in which our life is passed : 
that we live in a sanctuary, very near to God, very close to His Heart. 
We should think often of this. An intelligent action, says Aristotle, 
is one quee de intrinseco -proced.it cum cognitions forum in quibus est actio. 
That is to say, it is an action which comes from within, not as a purely 
mechanical reaction, nor by constraint, but spontaneously, and is com- 
bined with knowledge of all that concerns the action, or at least of all 
important circumstances. Now our life is really intelligent, has a 
chance of interesting us, of developing and of succeeding, only if we 
become conscious of its character, of the serious and even solemn 
circumstances in which it is enacted. In simpler phrase than the philo- 
sopher, St. Benedict says : " We believe ... we believe without any 
doubt." We must do honour to our faith, and we only do so when we 
submit ourselves practically to it. Apart from such practical sub- 
mission, faith is nothing but a philosophic system or a Platonic ideal 
without practical issue. The monk is a believer and must take his 
faith seriously. 

Now, faith tells us that God is everywhere present and that His gaze, 
though He be not seen, illumines all human activity; it tells us too that in 
every place and at every moment we are able, and sweet duty binds us, to 
live before Him and do Him homage. This homage, however, is private, 
not official, and has its source in personal love; it is quite free in its 
expression, and though it ever remains profoundly respectful, yet is it 
without forms and ceremonial. But the sacred liturgy pays God an 
official worship; and if God is not more present at the Divine Office 
than at private prayer, we are nevertheless especially bound to awaken 
and exercise our faith when we take part in this official audience, wherein 

185 



1 86 Commentary oh the Rule of St. Benedict 

all details are foreseen and all gestures regulated by the etiquette of 
God. God's audience-chamber Is ahyays open, but the Divine Office 
is a solemn leve'e. There God is enwrapped in more compelling 
majesty; we appear before Him in the name of the whole Church; we 
identify ourselves with the one, eternal High-Priest, Our Lord Jesus 
Christ; we perform the work of works. 

Ideo semper memores simus quod Let us, then, ever remember what 
ait Propheta: Servite Domino in timort. the prophet says: " Serve the Lord iu 
Et iterum: Psallite sapienter. Et: fear": and again, "Sing ye wisely"; 
In consfectu Angelorwn psallam tibi. and, " In the sight of the angels I will 
Ergo consideremus qualiter oporteat sing praises unto thee." Therefore 
nos in conspectu divinitatis et Ange- let us consider how we ought to behave 
lorum esse, et sic stemus ad psallendum, ourselves in the presence of God and 
ut mens nostra concordet voci nostrx. of His angels, and so assist at the 

Divine Office, that mind and voice be 

in harmony. 

Let us but think of it, and go through an act of supernatural under- 
standing: memores simus, consideremus. Let us make our "composition 
of place," as modern methods of prayer have it. We are face to face 
with God. All creation is reunited. The Angels are around the altar. 
We are. going to sing with them (Ps. cxxxvii. i) and chant the triple 
Sanctus which they have taught us. Surely, then, we should vie with 
them in reverence and love. They veil their faces with their wings: 
we too are bidden by the prophet David, " Serve the Lord in fear " 
(Ps. ii. 1 1). And again, he says : " Sing ye wisely " (Ps. xlvi. 8) -that is, 
be aware not only of the words you pronounce, and the instruction they 
contain, but also and especially of Him to whom you speak. And, 
finally, let us remember that in this more fortunate than were perhaps 
St. Benedict's monks we have the Blessed Sacrament in our oratory. 

How well we recognize our Holy Father's generous method, at 
once profound and spiritual ! The way of constraint, though rules be 
absolute and rubrics perfect, is unable to produce more than an external 
perfection at the best. If the soul is distracted or the heart cold, if the 
Divine Office is nothing but a drill of body and voice, it will soon become 
tedious, with a deadly tedium. And this will be apparent, betraying 
itself in yawns and impatient movements, in wandering glances, in all 
sorts of irreverences. " What do you do during Mass ?" a distracted 
soul was once asked. " I wait for it to end," was the answer. What, 
then, will you do in eternity, which will not end ? 

Many other conditions are necessary for the realization of our Holy 
Father's ideal. The community must have a high esteem for the Divine 
Office; and it is for superiors to maintain or restore this in every way 
and before all else. The individual, too, must have this esteem; it 
is heightened by study and by constant affectionate intercourse with 
Our Lord. How can one, who out of choir is occupied with every- 
thing but God, flatter himself that he will avoid distraction or 
lethargy at the Divine Office ? Remote preparation for prayer is 



How to say the Divine Office 1 87 

recommended by all the masters of asceticism. 1 They speak to us also 
of a proximate and immediate preparation; and our Constitutions have 
provided for it by securing us before each choir duty the few minutes, 
"statio"'in the cloister. These are precious minutes, and it would 
be hard to exaggerate their importance, for then do we tune the soul, 
our spiritual instrument. We should therefore have the good sense 
not to pursue in the " static " questions or lines of thought which we 
have begun; nor should it be a place for conversation or any sort of inter- 
course. " Before prayer prepare thy soul and be not as a man that 
tempteth God" (Ecclus. xviii. 23). 

The entrance into the church, the attitude and various motions 
to be observed in choir, are regulated by the ceremonial and watched 
over by the master of ceremonies. But neither the one nor the other 
will be able to secure the execution, at once accurate and graceful, 
dignified and simple, of the liturgical motions, unless each individual con- 
tributes his whole presence of mind, his full measure of good behaviour, 
of spiritual courtesy, and finally of self-denial : for we must then especially 
take account of the whole body and co-ordinate our movements with 
those of others. All the ceremonies, even the smallest, will be exactly 
observed, in good order, yet without the obtrusive stiffness of soldiers 
on parade, if we are attentive to the meaning and purpose of the action 
that is being performed. Self-denial is perhaps more than ever indis- 
pensable in the case of the chanting; for it is better to suffer a little error 
than to sacrifice the combined movement, and the vocal unison, and to 
transform the choir into a prize-ring or a battlefield. The Constitu- 
tions bid us " not to spare the voice " : which is not an invitation to 
drown all others; and when they describe the qualities of the true 
sacred chant, with its virile and quiet style, they do not intend to leave 
to the judgement of the individual a matter which is of right reserved 
to the choirmaster. In this field also we must use all diligence, and 
we need preparation; for the execution of certain parts of the Gregorian 
chant cannot be improvised; we must not, once we have made our 
profession, bid good-bye for ever to the study of the Gradual and 
Antiphonary. This will never be good enough for Our Lord; and, 
while we ought not to devote ourselves to such study merely to satisfy 

1 We should ponder these words of ST. BASIL, which our Holy Father had in mind 
in writing this chapter and the succeeding one: Quomodo obtinebit quis ut in orations 
sensus ejus non vagetur f Si certus sit assistere se ante oculos Dei. Si enim quit judicem 
suum videns vel principem, et loquens cum eo, non tibi credit licitum esse vagari oculis, 
et aliorsum aspicere, dum ipse loquitur ; quanta magis qui accedit ad Dominum, nusquam 
debet movere oculum cordis, sed intentus esse in turn, qui scrutatur renes et corda f . . . 
Si possibile est obtinere bominem, ut in omni tempore et loco non vagetur mens sua ; vel 
quomodo idjieri potest f Quia possibile est, ostendit ille qui dixit : Oculi mei semper ad 
Dominum. Et iterum :. Providebam Dominum in conspectu meo semper ; quia a dextris 
est mibi ut non commovear. Quomodo autem possibile sit, pradiximus ; id est, si non demus 
animce nostrte otium, sed in omni tempore de Deo, et de operibus ac de beneficiis ejus, et 
de donis cogitemus et bac cum confessione, et gratiarum actione semper volvamus in mente, 
sicut scriptum est : Psallite sapienter (Reg. contr., cviii., cix. Cj. ibid., xxxiv --CASS., 
Conlat., V., xvii., xviii.). The Spiritual Life and Prayer^ chap. vii. 



Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

the aesthetic requirements of some hearers, and to keep up the reputa- 
tion of a " scbola," yet we must remember that the chant and the 
psalmody are our form of apostolate and that we owe to souls this most 
effective preaching. 

But it is not sufficient to assure the dignity and the good material 
execution of the Divine Office. Our minds must realize to whom word 
and song are addressed, and must be attentive to the thought of the 
Psalmist and of the Church. As the voice rings out the heart must 
grow fervent. And, to complete the harmony, our lives themselves 
must be brought into accord with thought and love and voice. 
Then, and then only, will the liturgy attain its twofold end, of 
honouring God and sanctifying our souls. Once again let us note 
well the method St. Benedict uses to inspire reverence in the 
oratory and attention at prayer. He does not think, as did other 
monastic legislators, 1 of combating distraction and sleepiness by making 
his monks weave baskets or mats during the long psalmody and lessons. 
The. Work of God, with him, is all in its entirety to be performed 
in the House of God: "Let the oratory be what it is called; and let 
nothing else be done or kept there" (Chapter Lll.). He takes for 
granted that we are Christians and that we use reflection; so he gives 
us no other rule than what is provided by our spiritual insight. " Let 
us consider," he says; by which words he invites us to eliminate all 
unreason, all discord between theory and deliberate practice, and to make 
of our whole life a constant exercise of harmony, loyalty, and delicate 
feeling. And our Holy Father sums up all his teaching in that phrase 
of antique ring: Ut mens nostra concordet voci nostree (That mind and 
voice be in harmony). It recalls the words of St. Augustine 2 inserted 
by St. Caesarius into his Rule for virgins: 3 "When you pray to God in 
psalms and hymns, let the heart feel what the voice utters." 

1 Cf. CALMET, Commentary on Chapter XI. 

2 Epist. CCXL, 7. P.L., XXXIII., 960. In theEnarratio in Psalmum cxlvi. (2) we 
read : Qiti ergo psallit, non sola voce psallit ; sed assumpto etiam quodam organo quod vocatur 
psalterium, accedentibus manibus voci concordat. Vis ergo psalleref Non solum vox 
tua sonet laudes Dei, sed opera tua concordent cum voce tua. (P.L., XXXVII., 1899.) 
In letter XL VIII. (3) to Abbot Eudoxius and his monks ST. AUGUSTINE writes: 
. . . Sive cantantes et psallentes in cordibus vestris Domino, vel vocibus a corde non dissonis 
. . . (P.L., XXXIII., 188-189). 

3 C. xx. Read a beautiful sermon on this theme by ST. CJESARIUS, in the appendix 
to the sermons of St. Augustine, CCLXXXIV. P.L., XXXIX., 2282-2283. 



CHAPTER XX 
OF REFERENCE AT PRATER 

DE REVERENTIA ORATION is. Si cum If, when we wish to make any 

hominibus potentibus volumus aliqua request to men in power, we presume 

suggerere, non praesumimus, nisi cum not ta do so except with humility and 

humilitate, et reverentia: quanto magis reverence; how much more ought we 

Domino Deo universorum cum omni with all lowliness and purity of devo- 

humilitate et puritatis devotione sup- tion to offer our supplications to the 

plicandum est ? Lord God of all things ? 

f | ^HIS chapter is not a repetition of the preceding one. The 

I nineteenth chapter deals with conventual and official prayer, 

I with the solemn audience accorded by Our Lord, and its title 

-^- speaks of discipline! that is, ceremonial; the twentieth deals with 

private prayers, and, to remove any danger arising from the greater 

freedom of such prayers, speaks to us of the respect (reverentia) with 

which we should always approach God. 

The comparison and the a fortiori with which St. Benedict begins 
were suggested to him by his good sense and his reading; 1 but it is not 
impossible that he also had in mind in this simile a characteristic point 
of Roman life. Society was not yet levelled and made democratic. 
There was a powerful aristocracy, around which was grouped not only 
an army of slaves, but also a vast clientele (clientele^, composed of free 
men or enfranchised slaves, who lived attached to their master, under 
the name of friends, companions, or simply of clients ; every day they 
would come to pay their duty to their master or to ask a favour, repaying 
in respect what they received in money or patronage. 

Si non ingentem foribus domus alta superbis 
Mane salutantum totis vomit aedi bus undam. 2 

The clients were partly of the household of their master; they were 
associated with him in his rule and his interests, and so their requests 
were a sort of discreet indication of that which seemed to them fitting: 
they " suggest," as St. Benedict says, and the term becomes admirably 
theological when applied to our prayers. If we dare to approach the 
powerful of this world only with humility and reverence, if our sense 
of propriety and our own interest make us adopt before each of them 
the appropriate attitude, with how much greater reason ought our 

1 S. BASIL., Reg. cotttr., cviii. (cf. Reg. brev., cci.). CASS., Conlat., XXIII., vi. 
Cf. also TERTULLIAN, De Oratione, xvi. (P.L., I., 1173-1174): Siquidem irreverens est 
assidere sub conspectu, contraque conspectum ejus, quern quant maxime reverearis, ac 
venereris ; quanto magis sub conspectu Dei vivi, angelo adbuc orationis astante, etc. 
S. EPHREM., Paranesis XIX. (Opp. grac. lat., t. II., p. 95). 
a VIRGIL, Georgics, 1. II., 461-462, 

^ No portals proud of lofty palaces 

Pour from each room long waves of morning guests. 

(trans., ROYDS.) 
189 



1 90 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

supplications to the Lord and Master of all things to be made in all 
humility, devotion and purity ? 

Humility, as we know, springs from the consciousness of what God 
is and of what we are in His sight. The habit of dealing with God, 
the facility with which He allows Himself to be approached, and the 
very humble forms which He takes when He comes down to us none 
of these things should lessen our respect. One of the most certain 
marks of delusion is to treat God as an equal, as one who has made a 
bargain with us and with whom we are doing business. When Our 
Lord in the Gospel urged us to use trustful, earnest, even importunate 
prayer, He did not mean to encourage that strangely peremptory and 
exacting tone which is sometimes taken by the petitions and .such 
strange petitions too ! of the unenlightened faithful. Whatever the 
supernatural dignity to which God has raised us, there is never reason 
for our raising ourselves, for developing an audacious manner, or for 
forgetting we are speaking to God. 

Purity is mentioned as many as three times in these few lines. We 
should understand it not only in the special sense of freedom from gross 
passions, but also of detachment from all created love and of the absence 
of all base alloy. Our prayers will be effective when we are able to say 
to God: " I undoubtedly have, unknown to myself, inclinations whieh 7 . 
You see and which displease You: I love them as little as You, and I 
disavow them." When our will, which is the source of every relation, 
is free from all irregular attachment, then God has established us in 
true purity. But St. Benedict does not say simply "purity": his 
phrase is "devotion of purity." In the language^! to-day devotion 
signifies the flame of charity, and is that disposition of habitual fervour 
in the service of God which makes us fulfil with promptitude, perse- 
verance, and joy all our duties towards Him. But the Latin word devotio 
has a meaning which, while not very different, is more profound. 
Devotio is belonging, consecration, subjection, as a state, as. a fixed, 
continuous, and even legal condition ; and in the present case it is servi- 
tude accepted and loved, voluntary subjection to God and to all God's 
dispensations. In the eighteenth chapter we have the same sense of 
devotio: Nimis iners devotionis sues servitiwm ostendunt monachi (Those 
monks show themselves too slothful in the divine service); and the 
liturgy invokes Our Lady fro devoto femineo sexu (for the consecrate 
feminine sex). Puritas then is enfranchisement from any alien servitude 
which should steal a part of our love or activity; and devotio means 
belonging wholly to Our Lord. 

Et non in multiloquio, sed in And let us remember that not for 
puritate cordis, et compunctione lacri- our much speaking, but for our purity 
marum nos exaudiri sciamus. of heart and tears of compunction, 

shall we be heard. 

After having described in three words the ^interior disposi- 
tions with which we should approach God, St. Benedict now passes 



Of Reverence at Prayer 191 

to the external and more material side of prayer. With Our Lord 
Himself, 1 with St. Augustine, 2 Cassian, 8 and all the Fathers, he urges 
us to avoid wordiness. The Jewish worship was not the only worship 
which, thanks to the priests, became a difficult and complicated ritualism, 
a religion of words and gestures; for ritualism and verbiage invaded, the 
pagan cults and especially the Roman worship : " They think they are 
heard for their much speaking," as Our Lord said. However, many 
words do not make real prayer. We pray in words only that we may 
one day be free of words, and adore, praise, and love in silence that 
"Beauty which closeth the lips." 4 "They that adore 'him must, 
adore in spirit and in truth" (John iv. 24). Prayer has its source in 
the heart ; there is a prayer of the heart which is not tied to words. And 
this prayer is always heard, for the Spirit of God inspires it and gives it 
its form: " For, we -know not what we should pray for as we ought: 
but the Spirit himself asketh for us with unspeakable groanings" 
(Rom. yiii. 26). To pray in purity of heart is, as we have said, to display 
to the gaze and the heart of God the desire and affection of a soul which 
is free, which is disengaged from all base attachments and united to 
Him in conformity of will. 

Et compunctione lacrimarum (and tears of compunction). The 
expression is .borrowed from Cassian, 6 whose conferences on prayer should 
be read; and he also speaks often of true purity of heart and of pure 
prayer.* Compunction though the Imitation tells us that it is better 
to have it than to define it is that softening of heart caused in us, 
under the guidance of faith, by the remembrance of our faults and the 
consideration of the benefits of God. Our Holy Father several times 
in his Rule conjoins prayer and tears, as though the two things went 
naturally together; in the fifty-second chapter he says : " If anyone desire 
to pray in private, let him go in simply and pray, not with a loud voice, 
but with tears and fervour of heart." St. Gregory tells us that St. Bene- 
dict had the gift of tears; and what one day troubled the good Theo- 
probus was less the abundance and duration of his tears, than their deep 
sadness : " When he waited a long while yet did not see his weeping ended, 
and the man of God was not, as was his wont, weeping in prayer but in 
sorrowful lamentation, he inquired what might be the cause of so great 
a grief." 7 The gift of tears is regarded as the least of all the charismata; 
but it has the merit of not leading to pride and also of leaving no room 
for distractions at prayer; it drowns them all. 

Et ideo brevis debet esse et pura Therefore prayer ought to be short 
oratio; nisi forte ex affectu inspira- and pure, except it be perchance pro* 
tionis divinae gratia? protendatur. In longed by the inspiration of divine 

1 MATT. vi. jff. Epist. CXXX., ad Probam, 20. P.L., XXXIII., 501-502. 
8 Inst.y II., x.; Conlat., IX., xxxvi, 

4 B. ANGELA OF FOLIGNO: The Book of Visions and Instructions, c. xxi. English 
trans., CRUIKSHANK. New ed., N.Y. 1903. 6 Conlat., IX., xxviii. 

6 Monacbi autem illud opus est pracipuum, ut orationem puram offerat Deo, nibil 
babens in consci&ttia reprebensibile (RCFIN., Hist, monacb,, c. i. ROSWEYP, p. 453). 

7 S. GREG. M., Dial., 1. II., c. xvii. 



192 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

conventu tamen omnino brevietur grace. But let prayer made in common 
oratio, et facto signo a priore, omnes always be short: and at the signal given 
pariter surgant. by the superior, let all rise together. 

St. Benedict enunciates the practical conclusion: our prayer should 
be short and pure, short so that it may be pure. 1 Such was the custom 
of the Egyptian monks, as is remarked by St. Augustine and Cassian; 
they preferred to keep in touch with Our Lord by many rapid ejacula- 
tions, rather than by long prayers, in which many superfluous petitions 2 
are often made, which too are especially concerned with self, and which 
may degenerate into fatigue, torpor, and decay. We should, moreover, 
reflect on the inevitable danger, which would have been incurred in 
St. Benedict's day, and which is still incurred in our own time by minds 
of small culture and imperfectly formed souls, in being held officially 
to prolonged prayer. Previous training is indispensable for mental 
prayer, if it is to have any considerable duration. For a moment may 
find all said, arid then the mind is off elsewhere. . Sometimes we may 
recall it, but it is off again, no matter in what direction. Sometimes 
we do not even think of recalling it, and the time is spent in mental 
wanderings, so that we reach the end of our half -hour and wonder what 
part God has taken in the prayer that, has just abruptly ended. And 
yet, at the very same time, we know our faith and our needs, and perhaps 
even our theology. 

It goes without saying that our Holy Father has no thought of re- 
ducing the time which our fervour would give to God, for he formally 
provides for the case when divine grace stirs in us an interior movement 
of devotion and leads us to prolong our prayers. Provided that the 
work that is given us by obedience does not suffer and that we neglect 
none of our duties, this taste for prayer is wholly legitimate. But in 
order to avoid delusion and to consecrate all by obedience, we should 
not undertake prolonged prayers without previously obtaining the con- 
sent of the Abbot. The Constitutions fix the minimum time which 
should be devoted to prayer. And God grant that monks may ever 
have sufficient sense of their vocation for superiors to be dispensed from 
all inquiry and compulsion in this matter. However, no- attempt is 
made to saddle us with a " method " ; we are not forbidden to converse 
with God in peaceful meditation on Holy Scripture or the liturgy; 
for the lectio divina (sacred reading), which the Rule prescribes, is 
something more than a simple preparation for prayer; these two hours 
of reading enable our Holy Father to recommend that the prayers of 
his monks should be short, so as to be pure. 

The last provision of this chapter is inspired. again by discretion. 
If the individual be allowed, when divine grace moves him, to increase 
his private prayers, it is clear that it would scarcely be reasonable to 
require long additions to the daily liturgical duty from the whole com- 

1 Cf. ST. THOMAS, Summa, II.-II., y. Ixxxiii., a. 14. Utrum oratio debet essediuturna. 

2 Hoc pracipue est in orations petendum, ut Deo uniamur (Summa, II.-II., q. Ixxxiii., 
a. i, ad 2). 



Of Reverence at Prayer 193 

munity. Therefore St. Benedict ordains that prayer in.common should 
always be very short: omnino brevietur, and that all should rise at the 
same time, on the signal of the superior. Of what prayers is he treating ? 
Cassian relates how the monks of Egypt after each psalm prayed for 
some moments erect and in silence, then prostrated on the ground, 
and almost immediately rose again, to unite their intention finally with 
the one who was reciting the collect : " But when he who is to make the 
collect has risen from the ground, all likewise rise, so that no one pre- 
sumes either to kneel before he bends down or to delay when he rises, 
lest he should seem rather to have made a prayer of his own than to 
have followed the prayer of him who makes the collect." 1 But St. Bene- 
dict nowhere prescribes private prayer or a collect after each psalm: 
their place is taken by the antiphons. He would seem here to be alluding 
to the prayers with which the Offices ended (see Chapter LXVII.) : 2 
of which some were said in silence and mentally, while the monks either 
bowed or prostrated, and whicn the Abbot might abridge. For all 
its brevity, this conventual prayer was too much for that monk, men- 
tioned in the life of St. Benedict, whom a little black devil used to lure 
outside. " He could not stay at prayer, but as soon as the brethren 
bowed down in prayer, he would go out. ... And when the man of 
God had come to the same monastery 1 and at the appointed time, the 
psalmody being finished, the brethren were giving themselves to 
prayer," 3 etc. St. Benedict never speaks of conventual prayers dis- 
tinct from the Work of God: "When the Work of God is ended, let 
all go out with the utmost silence. . . . But if anyone desire to pray 
in private, let him go in with simplicity and pray " (Chapter LIL). 

1 Inst., II., vii.j cf, ibid., x. The Rule of ST. PACHOMIUS said: Cumque mattum 
percusserit stans prior in gradu, et de scrip turis quidpiam volvens memoriter, *, orations 
jiniente, nullus consurget tardius, sed omnes pariter levabunt (vi.). 

8 CASSIAN mentions the concluding prayer of the Offices: Satis vero cons tat ilium 
trims curvafionis numerum, qui solet in congregationibus fratrum ad concludendam synaxin 
celebrari, eum qui intento aninio supplicat observare non posse (Conlat., IX., xxxiv.). D. 
BAUMER would read orationis instead of curvationis, and non supplicat (Hist, du 
1. 1., p. 149, note i). 

3 S. GREG. M., Dial., 1. II., c. iv. 



CHAPTER XXI 
OF THE DEANS OF THE MONASTERT 

WE enter now upon a portion of the Holy Rule which deals 
with the internal government and discipline of the monastery 
(XXI.-XXX.). St. Benedict begins by determining the 
principle of order and that hierarchical arrangement of 
parts which shall secure the right functioning of all. The authority of 
the Abbot initiates all regular activities, presiding over all and issuing 
sovereign decrees, and to it St. Benedict devoted the long chapter at 
the beginning of his Rule. But the Abbot must be seconded by officials 
acting under his orders and on his responsibility. Ordinarily this 
function appertains chiefly to the -pr&positvs (the Prior), to whom 
St. Benedict makes a brief allusion at the end of this chapter. When he 
comes to deal with him professedly, in the sixty-fifth chapter, our Holy 
Father makes no secret of his repugnance for a dignity and an office 
which to his mind was dangerous on more than one count. After the 
Prior come the deans: but if the deans are able, in their respective 
departments, to secure work and discipline, then the general and com- 
prehensive rule of the Prior may be easily dispensed with : " If possible, 
let all the affairs of the monastery be attended to (as we have already 
arranged) by deans, as the Abbot shall appoint; so that, the same office 
being shared by many, no one may become proud" (Chapter LXV.). 
So we may speak first of the deans. 

DEDECANisMoNASTERH. Si major Should the community be large, 

fuerit congregatio, eligantur de ipsis let there be chosen from it certain 

fratres boni testimonii et sanctx con- brethren of good repute and holy life, 

versa tionis et const! tuantur decani : qui and appointed deans. Let them care- 

sollicitudinem gerant super decanias fully direct their deaneries in all things 

suas in omnibus, secundum mandata according to the commandments of 

Dei et pnecepta Abbatis sui. Qui God and the orders of their Abbot, 

decani tales eligantur, in quibus securus And let such men be chosen deans as 

Abbas partiatur onera sua, et non eli- the Abbot may safely trust to share his 

gantur per ordinem, sed secundum vitae burdens: let .them not be chosen 

meritum, et sapientise doctrinam. according to order, but for the merit 

of their lives and for their learning of 
wisdom. 

The name and functions of the dean came from the camp to the 
monastery. In military language a dec anus or decurio was one who had 
ten men under his command. 1 The cenobites of Egypt, with something 
of a military organization, were arranged in groups of ten. St. Jerome 
says: "They are divided by tens and hundreds, the tenth man pre- 
siding over nine; while the hundredth has ten provosts under him." 2 

1 In the same way COLUMELLA says that workers in the fields should be grouped in 
tens (De re rustica, 1. 1., c. ix.). 

1 Epist., XXII., 35. P.Lv XXII., 419. 

194 



Of the Deans of the Monastery 195 

And St. Augustine : " They give their work to those whom they call 
deans (decani) because they are set over ten. . . . These deans, while 
arranging all things with great solicitude and providing whatever their 
life needs for the weakness of the body, yet themselves give an account 
to one whom they call father." In this we recognize the idea and almost 
the phraseology of St. Benedict. He found in Cassian also many passages 
relating to deans. 2 Mentioning that the young monks are entrusted 
" to a senior who is in charge of ten juniors," 8 Cassian notes that the 
office of dean dates from Moses, whose father-in-law Jethro gave him 
this good advice: "Provide out of all the people able men, such as fear 
God, in whom there is truth, and that hate avarice : and appoint of them 
rulers of thousands, and of hundreds, and of fifties, and of tens, who may 
judge the people at all times. And when any great matter soever shall 
fall out, let them refer it to thee, and let them judge the lesser matters 
only: that so it may be lighter for thee, the burden being shared out unto 
others" (Ex. xviii. 21-22). St. Benedict also would seem to have 
remembered this passage. 

Deans only existed where the community was rather large, and it is 
possible to determine exactly what St. Benedict meant by "large." 
So long as a community consisted of twelve monks, as at Subiaco, or as 
at the commencement of the monastery of Terracina, 4 the Abbot could 
manage with one assistant. But since St. Benedict speaks of deans in 
the plural, and the plural implies at least two, and since each dean had 
ten monks under him (St. Jerome says nine), it would appear that a 
community became really "large" when it reached the number of 
eighteen or twenty religious. 

Eligantur (let there be chosen). There is every reason to believe 
that in St. Benedict's time deans were chosen directly by the Abbot. 
.The Abbot chose his deans just as he chose his Prior. If the community 
interfered, it was never to exercise a right or vindicate a privilege, but 
humbly to put its desires before the Abbot and to submit its preferences 
to him; it was no more than a presentation, and the Abbot and his 
monks acted in harmony and for the best interests of all. " But if the 
needs of the place require it, and the community ask for it reasonably 
and with humility, and the Abbot judge it expedient, let him himself 
appoint a Prior, whomsoever he shall choose with the counsel of brethren 
who fear God" (Chapter LXV.). And in Chapter LXII. our Holy 
Father, after having reminded any priest of the monastery that he must 
take his rank according to the date of his profession, provides for this 
exception : " Unless the choice of the community and the will of the 
Abbot should, raise him to a higher place for the merit of his life." 
Nowadays deans do not rule over a fixed deanery, but have duties of 
kindly supervision over the whole community; in particular they have 
to set a good example, and to act as advisers to the Abbot, like the seniors. 

1 De moribus Eccles. cathol., 1. 1., c. xxri. P.L., XXXII., 1338. 
8 Inst., IV., z, xvii. 8 Inst., IV., vii. 

* S. GREG. M., Dial., 1. II., c. iii., xxii. 



196 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

Modern Constitutions and Declarations have fixed, for each Benedictine 
Congregation, all that concerns the choice, number, and functions of 
the seniors and deans; most of them recognize the right of a community 
to be represented in the Abbot's Council by brethren elected by secret 
scrutiny. And it generally happens that the counsellors chosen by the 
community are more numerous than those chosen by the Abbot. But 
God grant that we may never have to invoke legislative contrivances to 
prevent the Abbot being in a minority in his Council. -Such a course 
would introduce disunion into a monastery, would erect in permanency 
and consecrate a dualism and rivalry between Abbot and community. 
Practically, in a peaceful community, there is no difference between the 
case where the counsellors are chosen by the Abbot, according to the 
text of the Rule, and that where the majority are elected by the monks : 
for all are, by the same title, counsellors of the Abbot and of the com- 
munity. The Abbot chooses counsellors, and counsellors are chosen for 
him; they are not to be either opponents or partisans. 

Eligantur de ipsis (let there be chosen from it) : deans shall not be 
chosen from seculars or even from other monks. It is hardly necessary 
to-day to observe that authority should only be entrusted to those 
who belong to the family. Yet it is sometimes good to remember that, 
save for the cases provided in Canon Law, externs, no matter who they 
be, have no right to interfere in our internal affairs; we are exempt, 
and have no need for legal guardianship or counsel. Perhaps, however, 
St. Benedict's remark is especially intended to remind the community 
that it should show deference and do honour to deans chosen from its 
bosom. Et constituantur decani (and let them be appointed deans): 
in which words is implied an official recognition of their title and perhaps 
also a ceremony of investiture. According to the Rule of the Master 
the rod of office was solemnly put into their hands. 1 

St. Benedict indicates by what signs the Abbot and his community 
may recognize those who are worthy to be elected. Age is not necessarily 
the determining factor, for deans must not be appointed by seniority : 
" let them not be chosen according to their order "; and it would be 
strange, in promoting a monk, to have regard to nothing but the date 
of his clothing, our Holy Father having several times repeated that age 
should neither raise prejudice against a man nor create a presumption 
in his favour. The old monks and counsellors of the Abbot, of whom 
St. Benedict spoke in the third chapter, are not necessarily candidates 
for the office of dean; the charge then implied, as we have said, an active 
rule and constant supervision, for which aged monks might often not 
have strength; for a man might be a senior and a wise counsellor and yet, 
for one reason or another, be incapable of managing a deanery. We may 
go farther still: aptitude, even marked aptitude, sound learning, and real 
virtue, are not always determining factors; there is needed a sum of 
qualities which our Holy Father reduces to two : vitee meritum, sapentia 
doctrinam (merit of life, learning of wisdom). The deans are to be 
1 Cap. xi. C/. MENAKD, Concord. Reg., c. xxviii., p. 445. 



Of the Deans of the Monastery 1 97 

chosen as were the first deacons, whom they resemble in their office. 
They are to have a good name among the brethren, so that men may 
bow willingly to their authority; their life must be edifying, since they 
have to help the Abbot in maintaining good observance. Besides 
meritorious life they need the " learning of wisdom " that is to say, 
prudence, tact, and a feeling for what is spiritual and monastic; and it is 
here that training, experience, and age may be a great help. In brief, 
they must be such that the Abbot may have full confidence in them, 
and may with entire security leave many details to them and divide his 
cares among them. 

This, in fact, is the purpose of the deans : to help the Abbot. When 
a house is starting and during all the period of " becoming," the superior 
may have to encroach on the spheres of particular officials; but in a fully 
organized monastery the Abbot should take care to provide himself with 
assistants and deputies, reserving for himself general direction only and 
the work inherent in his charge. He cannot successfully busy himself 
about everything, and our Holy Father wishes him to have quiet and 
leisure : " Let him not be violent or over anxious, not exacting or 
obstinate, not jealous or prone to suspicion, or else he will never be at 
rest " (Chapter LXIV.). Moreover, since he must grow old and die, 
he is well advised to think of the morrow and to initiate others into the 
government of the community, which does not die. Finally, this 
division of labour within the monastery does not merely relieve the Abbot 
and secure the future: it gives others the benefit of co-operation in the 
common work and a measure of responsibility. Whence it comes that 
no one is tempted to be wholly indifferent, to live in isolation, occupied 
solely with his own studies; and each only learns to love the better his 
home and his brethren. 

Deans, says St. Benedict, must be solicitous for their deaneries. 
Solicitude does not mean arrogance or tyranny, but care and loving 
devotion. No one is put in authority that he may satisfy his vanity, 
and make himself friends either within or without the monastery, or take 
reprisals, or act with violence; but rather so that he may be more 
devoted to his monastic family and may serve it more intimately. 
Deans are bound to fulfil their office in its entirety : in omnibus. Formerly 
it was a charge of considerable complexity, requiring continuous care 
combined with decision and strength of character. The duties of deans 
at Monte Cassino were doubtless the same as among the Eastern monks 
spoken of in the passages of St. Jerome, St. Augustine, and Cassian 
previously quoted; they watched over their deaneries in the dormitory, 
in the refectory, and at manual labour; they saw to the observance of 
silence, gave permissions, and inflicted penances. A list of the chief 
functions of deans may be found in Martene. Sometimes, in places 
where deans did not exist, these functions were performed by the 
Glaustral Prior. At Cluny, after the Abbot and the Grand Prior, came 
the Claustral Prior, assisted at need by another and aided in his super- 
vision by masters of the children and young monks and by the circatoresi 



198 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

the name of " deans " was given to the brethren who controlle4 the 
working of the " villas " or farms situated in the neighbourhood of the 
monastery: villarum provisores. 1 

When St. Benedict wrote of deans that they should " govern their 
deaneries in all things," he had no intention of conferring on them an 
unlimited and uncontrolled power. In the first place there is a divine 
limit: " according to the commandments of God"; and then a limit 
on the side of the Abbot, " and the orders of their Abbot." For this 
authority must be exercised in unity of purpose with the Abbot, neither 
apart from him nor against him. The Abbot shares his government 
but does not abdicate it, and he may not become a stranger in his own 
house. Undoubtedly the monk who is in charge has no need, in the 
transaction of ordinary affairs, to interview the Abbot on details; but 
so soon as there are changes of some moment to be effected, or extra- 
ordinary matters to be dealt with, he should consult the Abbot and obtain 
his authorization. And supposing that the Abbot, on a particular 
day and as an exceptional case, should interfere in order to inspect or 
reform some point or other, the official who should be astonished as 
though he were distrusted, who should be irritated as though it implied 
want of consideration, and should protest against the supposed intrusion, 
or give it out that his Abbot is of one way of thinking but he of another, 
such a one would forget the rule: according to the orders of his Abbot. 
A man entrusted with a charge sees clearly only the requirements of his 
charge, is shortsighted and deficient in the sense of proportion; and he 
should be convinced that considerations of a wider scope must sometimes 
modify his programme or his habits. The power of a dean, again, 
is limited on the side of the brethren, since he rules only his deanery. 
He will avoid that ambitious and jealous spirit which makes a man extend 
the field of his jurisdiction as widely as possible : " This is my business, 
that concerns me; custom says that such and such, a right or advantage 
belongs to my office." Wherever charity, self-effacement, and good 
sense are lacking, offices will supply matter for petty rivalry, and that 
the more easily since they overlap one another and no customary can 
achieve an exact delimitation of their frontiers. 

We may make one last observation. St. Benedict uses the possessive 
pronoun " their " in alluding to the deaneries; but his intention thereby 
is not to suggest real possession and inalienable right, but simply appoint- 
ment. -There is no such thing here as possession by prescription, whether 
by a period of seven years or even of thirty. All the offices of the 
monastery are held ad nutum, on precarious tenure, even the office of 
dean 'or Prior. Every official should realize that his charge may pass 
into another's hands, that he may be deprived of it without the least 
shadow of injustice; for an opposite conviction would be a very subtle 
danger and a recrudescence of the spirit of ownership. If we are relieved 
of an office, we snould rather quietly rejoice that we no longer have to 

1 BERNARD., Ordo <?/., P. I., c. ii. UDALR., Consuet. C/., L III., c. v. 



Of the Deans of the Monastery 199 

bear that responsibility, and be glad, according to the old saying, that 
Thebes has produced a worthier man; 

Quod si quis ex eis aliqua forte And should any one of them, being 

inflatus superbia repertus fuerit repre- puffed up with pride, be found worthy 

hensibilis: correptus semel, et iterum, of blame, and after being thrice cor- 

et tertio, si emendare' noluerit, de- rected, refuse to amend, let him be 

jiciatur, et alter in loco ejus, qui dignus deposed and one put in his place who 

est, subrogetur. Et de praeposito ea- is worthy. And we order the same 

dem constituimus. to be done in the case of the Prior. 

If it happened that any dean, abusing his privileged position and 
swollen with self-importance, should be found blameworthy, this is 
how the Abbot should proceed. With the natural exception of notorious 
fault or scandalous resistance, and when it is only a question of bad 
tendencies or secret faults, a dean shall receive secret admonition up 
to three times. 1 Monks have two such secret admonitions, deans three, 
and the Prior four. If a dean refuse to amend, the Abbot has only one 
resource left viz., to withdraw the offender from an office which has 
become a danger for himself and his brethren, and to entrust it to another 
who is worthy of it. An analogous line of conduct, says St. Benedict, 
shall be folio Wed with regard to a proud or unruly Prior. Nevertheless, 
there shall be some differences of treatment; but of these our Holy 
Father says nothing here, since he proposed to speak of the Prior at 
greater length in the sixty-fifth chapter. 

1 Quod si secundo aut tertio admonita emendare noluerit . . . (S. CKSAR., Reg. ad 



CHAPTER XXII 

HOW 'THE MONKS ARE TO SLEEP 

QUOMODO DORMIANT MONACHi. Let them sleep each one in a 

Singuli per singulos lectos dormiant. separate bed, receiving bedding suitable 

Lectisternia pro modo conversationis, to their manner of life, as the Abbot 

secundum dispensationem Abbatis sui, shall appoint, 
singuli accipiant. 

ST. BENEDICT did not throw out the details of his Rule at 
random, without any order; yet it is hard to see, at first sight, 
what is the connection of this chapter with those which surround 
it. Probably our Holy Father, having spoken of the deans, 
wished to speak of the chief circumstances in which they had to exercise 
their duties, and of the methods put into their hands to secure 
obedience. Moreover, this question of the monks' sleep, being involved 
in that of the Night Office, is not out of place amid liturgical legisla- 
tion, and Rules anterior to St, Benedict frequently treated the two 
together. 

The regulation with which the chapter opens, that each brother 
should have a separate bed, seems to us nowadays quite superfluous. 
It is mere elementary decency and indispensable comfort. However, 
the old monastic Rules 1 thought it their duty to make the same provision, 
and Councils have legislated on the matter, 2 doubtless because the con- 
trary practice existed in some houses. For manners were simple and 
the mode of life was voluntarily assimilated to that of the poor man and 
the peasant. Monks lay down to rest fully clad, on mats, mattresses, 
or planks. 

So each brother is to receive a bed and bedding (lectisternia), the 
whole being suitable to the poverty and austerity of his way of life 
that is the best explanation of the words pro modo conversationis and 
according to the regulations of the Abbot. Our Holy Father keeps 
the list of bedding till Chapter LV. : " For their bedding let a straw 
mattress, blanket, coverlet, and pillow suffice." Monks are not to be 
surprised if their couch is somewhat hard : for it is merely a camp-bed 
whereon they stretch themselves for a few hours, and they themselves 
are soldiers, who, as St. Benedict says presently, should be ready to rise 
at the first signal. Nevertheless, the Abbot may give a more comfortable 
bed to the sick or aged, and adjust the amount and quality of the bed- 
clothes to the climate or season. 

Si potest fieri, omnes in unb loco If it be possible, let all sleep in one 
dormiant; si autem multitudo non place; but if the number do not 
sinit, deni, aut viceni cum senioribus permit of this, let them repose by 

1 Except the Regula cujusdam ad virgines, xiv. 

2 Cf. Cone. Turonense II. (567), can. xiv. MANSI, t, IX., col. 795. 

3PQ 



How the Monks are to Sleep 201 

suis, qui super eos solliciti sint, pausent. tens or twenties with the seniors who 
Candela jugiter in eadem cella ardeat have charge of them. Let a candle 
usque mane. burn constantly in the cell until 

morning. 

Each is to have his own bed; but, so far as possible, there is to be 
one dormitory for all that is to say, for all the professed monks ; for, 
according to the fifty-eighth chapter, novices have separate accommo- 
dation : " Let him go into the cell of the novices where he is to meditate, 
to take his meals, and to sleep." St. Benedict wishes to have the perfect 
cenobitical life; so his sons must pray and work and eat together and 
have a common dormitory. 1 This is not, however, an innovation; for 
in the commentary of Martene may be found divers ancient testimonies 
in favour of the dormitory, in particular the witness of St. Caesarius; 2 
and there too may be read the history of the changes in custom with 
regard to this point, tor long centuries Benedictine monks slept in a 
dormitory, in beds without screens, generally with the Abbot in the 
midst of them. Provided certain precautions were taken in the interest 
of hygiene and decency, no fault was to be found with this arrangement. 3 
In the fifteenth century the fathers of Cluny and Bursfeld again condemn 
separate cells; but the dormitory is divided into cubicles, which really 
form so many little rooms where each may read and pray in peace. In 
the days when the monk's life was practically all absorbed by the Divine 
Office and manual labour, a brother would not go to the dormitory 
except to sleep or to read by his bed. However, the lectio divina (sacred 
reading) was generally taken in the cloister or the chapter-room, while 
copyists and illuminators worked in a common room known as the 
scriptorium. But the conditions of monastic life became rather different 
with the predominance of intellectual labours, the institution of lay 
brothers, new habits of piety, the intrusion of lay folk into the cloister, 
and the system of beneficed monks with each his separate apartment. 
It was easy to justify the use of cells by precedents taken from the history 
of the Eastern monks, or the monks of St. Martin, or Lerins, etc., and 
from the customs of the Carthusians and Camaldolese. Not to break 
completely with monastic antiquity, the cells were closed by a simple 
screen, or else the door had a small aperture with a movable shutter; 
while the name of " dormitory " was preserved for the corridor on to 
which the cells opened; and, finally, the light which St. Benedict says 
should burn until morning was faithfully kept in this same corridor all 
through the night. 

The Rule does not consider any other arrangement than that of the 
dormitory; yet it leaves it to the Abbot to decide whether to assemble 
all in the same place, or, because of their numbers, to scatter them in 
different rooms, in their groups of ten (deaneries), or with many such 
groups together. In this last case, and in the absence of Abbot and Prior, 

1 CJ. S. GREG. M., Dial., 1. II., c. xxxv. 

2 Reg. ad monach., iii. ; Reg. ad virg., vii. 

3 C/TUoALR., Consuft- C/n.,l. II., c. v., ix., x. Gonstit. Hirsaug., 1. 1., c. Ixix., Ixx, 



2Q2 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

the monks were placed under the more immediate responsibility and 
supervision of their respective deans (that is the meaning here of the 
words senioribus suis). It was partly in order to enable the deans to 
exercise vigilance that the old customaries regulate so minutely the 
lighting of the dormitory. This was done, says Calmet, " by lights of 
wax, tallow, oil, wood, rush, or reed, but principally by torches of pine 
or fir." If we are to believe certain commentators, the deans must 
have had no right to close their eyes at all during the whole night; 
but St. Benedict makes no such demand of them; they could assure 
themselves that all was going well with less trouble, and go their rounds 
from time to time, as the customaries provide. 

Vestiti dormiant, et cincti cingulis Let them sleep clothed, and girded 

aut funibus, et cultellos ad latus non with belts or cords but not with 

habeant dum dormiunt, ne forte per knives at their .sides, lest perchance 

somnium vulnerentur dormientes; et they wound themselves in their sleep 

ut parati sint monachi semper ; et facto and thus be always ready, so that when 

signo absque mora surgentes, festinent the signal is given they rise without 

invicem se praevenire ad opus Dei, cum delay, and hasten each to forestall 

omni tamen gravitate et modes tia. the other in going to the Work of God, 

yet with all gravity and modesty. 

Monks must sleep clothed, and not, under the pretext of simplicity, 
in the manner of many of the ancients or of the peasants of Campania. 
Their clothing for the night, if not the same as that for the day, shall 
at any rate consist of the same elements viz., the tunic, worn near the 
skin like a shirt and with its folds gathered in by a belt; probably also 
stockings or light shoes (pedules), which will be spoken of in Chapter LV. ; 
finally the cowl, for our Holy Father writes in the same chapter: " It 
is sufficient for a monk to have two tunics and two cowls, on account 
of the nights and the need of washing." Drawers were given only to 
those on a journey. The scapular, being a working garment (propter 
opera) was out of place. It would seem that the belt used at night 
was different from that used during the day; the latter was the bracile y 
a large cincture acting as a pouch, while at night any sort of girdle would 
serve, of leather or cord: "girded with belts or cords, but hot with 
knives at their sides." 1 Our Holy Father orders that their large knives, 
which were used for the most diverse purposes,, should not, as' in the 
daytime, be fastened to the belt: for it would be easy, even though the 
knife were in a case, to wound oneself in the unconscious movements 
of sleep, or to strike one's neighbours with it in the course of a nightmare. 

When our Holy Father and other legislators bade monks keep their 
religious habit when sleeping, or at least some part of this habit, it was 
in the first place from motives of decency and poverty: for that was all 
the clothes they had. It was also from devotion to the vesture which 
symbolized their profession, and because it was a safeguard against the 
attacks of the devil. St. Benedict adds: " Let them sleep clothed and 
girded . . . and thus be always ready." The monk, as the soldier of 

1 According to D. BUTWR: ufcultfllos . . , 



How the Monks are to Sleep 203 

Christ, should be always ready to run to the Work of God. Perhaps 
we have in this passage an allusion to the Gospel words: " Let your loins 
be girt and lamps burning in your hands. And you yourselves like to 
men who wait for their lord " (Luke xii. 3 5-6) . As soon as the appointed 
signalsounded (Chapter XLVII.) all rose, without discussing the point 
with their pillows, and, probably leaving for the daytime the business 
of a quick toilet and change of habit, went down immediately to the 
oratory. 1 If there is one reason for regretting the ancient arrangement 
of the monastic dormitory, it is that it made it difficult for the lazy 
to indulge their laziness. A man might close his eyes and hide as well 
as possible under the coverlet, but it would be vain; 2 for he would not 
escape the feeling that he was a blot on the general promptness. The 
brethren have to be prompt and to strive who should be the first at the 
Work of God, yet with all gravity and modesty, adds our Holy Father 
prudently. It is the last time of all in which to indulge in small jests, 
or to rush madly down stairs and corridors, and in Chapter XLIII. 
St. Benedict repeats both counsels. 

We should remember and practise the instruction : " When the signal 
is given . . . rise without delay." We must not rise piecemeal, bit 
by bit, but immediately and as it were mechanically: it is easiest in the 
end. The Divine Office, both the work and our disposition towards it, 
will suffer from the unhappy self-indulgence and petty calculation which 
give us an additional twenty minutes of sleep every morning. Eight 
hours of sleep is more than was granted by old rules of health: 

Sex horas dormisse sat est, pueroque senique; 
Daseptempigro: nulli concesseris octo. 3 

And even though punctual rising imply some weariness and morti- 
fication, let us face it resolutely. It is by such courage in details that 
we come to be morally stronger, more fully masters of our body, and lords 
over our passions. Moreover, the most wholesome mortifications are 
those which enter into the tissue of everyday life and are with difficulty 
perceived. 

Adolescentiores fratres juxta se non Let not the younger brethren 
habeant lectos, sed permixti cum have their beds by themselves, but 
senioribus. Surgentes vero ad opus among those of the seniors. And 
Dei, invicem se moderate cohortentur, when they rise for the Work of God, 
propter somnolentorum excusationes. let them gently encourage one another, 

because of the excuses of the drowsy. 

These few lines are intended to secure the discipline of the dormi- 
tory and that moderate haste which has just been mentioned. In 
Chapter XLIII. St. Benedict fixes the order which the monks are to 
take in all assemblies of the brethren : precedence being determined by 

1 Cf. MARTNE, De antiq. monacb. rit., 1. 1., c. i. 

2 The dark lantern of the Claustral Prior or the circatores easily found out those who 
lingered in bed or continued their sleep in the church. Cf. UDALR., Consvet. C/i/n., 
1. II., c. viii. BERNARD., Ordo C7fl., P. I., c. iii. Constit. Hirsaug., 1. 1., c. xxviii. 

3 Six hours' sleep for old man and boy, seven for the sluggard, eight for none. 



204 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

the date and hour of " conversion." In this place our Holy Father 
makes an exception of the case when the accident of their entry into 
religion has grouped many young religious together. Children and young 
people are great sleepers. These "younger brethren," if together in 
the dormitory, might either not wake, or be only too happy to enter into 
a conspiracy for mutual indulgence. They might often, too, be tempted 
to frolics. To obviate these various dangers St. Benedict would have 
their beds put among those of the older monks. The term senioribus 
(seniors), since it is contrasted with adolescentiores (younger monks), 
and is not as before accompanied by the possessive pronoun suis (their) 
should here be understood to mean religious of riper years and not the 
deans ; the latter, besides, would have been too few for the plan proposed. 
If we understand the words pro modo conversations at the beginning of 
the chapter to mean that the beds were arranged according to age, 
temperament, and gravity, we must admit, with some commentators, 
that St. Benedict gives the same counsel twice. 

" When they rise." Not the young only must be encouraged: all 
the monks are to do this service for one another. The sleepy have 
always plenty of bad excuses for not rising, as nightmare, indigestion, 
cramp, headache, or the signal was not quite heard. These are the 
somnolentorum excusationes. St. Benedict, in the interests of the Office 
and of the common observance, empowers us to destroy all these illusions 
by discreet exhortation, moderate; a little noise is enough, or at need 
a shake of the bed. Would a few words be permitted ? ' And does our 
Holy Father intend to make an exception to the rigid law of the night 
silence ? It is not unlikely. Besides, we do not know when this time 
of silence ended, and it may have been precisely at the hour of rising 
and at the beginning of the monastic day. St. Basil recommends us 
to give the knocker-up a good reception, to welcome gratefully him who 
comes to draw us out of the humiliating state of sleep, wherein the soul 
loses self-consciousness, and to invite us to the work of glorifying God. 1 

We may add a final observation connected with the general subject 
of the chapter. Some people, before they go to sleep, review the 
intellectual work of the day so as to fix and assimilate the results; which 
is a good practice, if it be brief. St. Teresa tells us that she never went 
to sleep without thinking of the Garden of Olives, of that dreadful 
night and of the agony of Our Lord : which is a far better practice. The 
last thought of our day is of very great importance, for it influences our 
sleep and influences the morrow. It is quite possible for us to consecrate 
to God even the unconscious moments of slumber. Our last thought 
is like a seed entrusted silently to the earth: 'Terra ultro fructificat (The 
earth giveth fruit of itself); while it fades away, its blessed influence 
sinks slowly into our souls, impregnates them and permeates the whole. 

1 Reg. contr., Ixxv., Ixxvi. 



CHAPTER XXIII 

OF EXCOMMUNICATION FOR FAULTS 

THE duty of supervision and correction having been entrusted to 
the deans, they could not be left without the means to deal with 
non-observance of rule; therefore this chapter and the seven 
succeeding ones treat of punishment and the methods of its 
application. 1 All the old Rules abound in disciplinary provisions, and 
we shall have occasion to notice some of the items which St. Benedict 
has borrowed from them. 2 But nowhere before had a legislator formu- 
lated a code of such perfect sobriety, so prudent, discreet, and gentle 
in its holy rigour. 3 The evolution of manners has profoundly modified 
since his day both the nature of offences and the character of punishment ; 
yet it is still useful to study the ideas of our Holy Father concerning the 
difficult duty of correction, even though the letter of his provisions has 
been in great measure abrogated by custom. 

We may fix at once the plan of these eight chapters. The twenty- 
third enumerates first the principal faults to be punished, and then 
commences to describe the progressive series or hierarchy of corrections 
according to the Rule viz., two secret admonitions, a public rebuke," 
excommunication, or corporal punishment. This is not an exhaustive 
list; but with the twenty-fourth chapter begins a long digression on 
excommunication, which is of two kinds, excommunication from meals 
(XXIV.), excommunication from meals and choir (XXV.). The two 
chapters that follow treat, the one of unlawful intercourse with the 
excommunicate (XXVI.), the other of lawful intercourse with them and 
the solicitude of the Abbot in their regard (XXVII.). Then St. Bene- 
dict resumes and completes, in the twenty-eighth chapter, the enumera- 
tion of the various methods of repression and cure viz., the rod, earnest 
prayer, and, if all else is unavailing, expulsion. The twenty-ninth 
chapter fixes the number of times and the conditions under which 
expelled or renegade monks may be reinstated. Finally, the thirtieth 
chapter forms a little codicil on the punishments suitable for the young. 
Farther on, in Chapters XLIII.-XLVL, our Holy Father takes occasion 
to complete his code of punishments, treating of penances for faults 
of a less serious kind than those he deals with here. And in many parts 
of the Rule he uses the threat, in passing, of one or other of the monastic 
punishments. 

1 According to Abbot HERWEGEN, the eight chapters of this penal code would 
originally have formed a special fascicle, more for the use of the superior than of the 
monks; in the final redaction of the Rule they got the place they now have by pure chance 
(Gescbichte der benediktiniscben Professformel, p. 23, note i). 

a Consult the commentaries of MEGE, MARTENE, CALMET. MKNARD, op. cit., 
c. xxx.-xxxix. HFTEN, 1. VIII. D. BESSE, Les Moines d' Orient, chap. ix. 

3 Compare the Rule of ST. PACHOMIUS, especially Nos. clx. onwards. 

205 



206 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

DE EXCOMMUNICATIONE cuLPARUM. If any brother shall be found con- 

Si quis frater contumax, aut inobe- tumacious, or disobedient, or proud, 

diens, aut superbus, aut murmurans, or a murmurer, or in any way opposed 

vel in aliquo contrarius existens sanctae to the Holy Rule, and the orders of his 

regulae, et praeceptis seniorum suorum, seniors, and a contemner : 
contemptor repertus fuerit: 

We may note, first of all, that the faults contemplated by St. Benedict 
in this paragraph have their common basis in a rebellious will; or rather 
that he is concerned with this only, having no intention of cataloguing 
the infinite variety of offences, of which only a few are mentioned in 
the course of the Rule. Penances may be imposed for purely formal 
faults, so as to prevent negligence and make conscience more delicate; 
but severe treatment, with the. rigour implied in these penal arrange- 
ments, is not meted out to imperfections; for there is not sufficient 
matter. Nor again is severity used against faults of thoughtlessness, 
ignorance, or impulse. Following the example of God, who considers 
only what comes from our deliberate will (Matt. xv. 17-20), St. Benedict 
is severe only with perversity of will, in its most formidable external 
manifestations. 1 There is, in the first place, formal rebellion. Con- 
tumacia (contumacy) is refusal to obey, directed against a present 
authority, open and obstinate resistance. It is audacious and insolent 
disobedience. Next comes grave disobedience, with no admixture of 
vbravado; it is refusal to submit to the Rule or to some order that has 
been given. Then comes pride, habitual self-exaltation, self-inflation, 
and the worship of one's own worth, which is at bottom the secret 
principle of every failing in monastic life and the poisoned root of all 
the faults spoken of here. 

Nothing of all this is. very attractive; it reveals the beast, headstrong 
and restive : " Become not like the horse and the mule who have no 
understanding" (Ps. xxxi. 9). And yet we can see clearly ithat what 
our Holy Father detests most vigorously and most constantly denounces 
is a disposition to murmur: " or a murmurer." The murmurer is a 
sorry being, and it is just because he is such that he is a grumbler, 
discontented with everything and always in opposition. Yet he falls 
into line, he is in a material sense almost correct, and at need he may even 
be obsequious. He has not the unhappy courage of downright dis- 
obedience, for he does what he is told, though with a groan. But he 
carries here and there, to souls which he feels are prepared by their 
weakness and their sufferings, the accursed gospel of his murmuring. 
He is mean and cowardly, and at the same time dangerous. One might 
almost prefer the contumacious man, and the violence of his resistance, 
to the base and underhand scheming of the murmurer. 

Vel in aliquo . '. . Calmet enumerates the various meanings which 

1 5* quis autem murmuraverit) vel contentiosus extiterit, aut referens in aliquo con- 
trariam voluntatem praceptis . . . (S. MACAR., Reg.,, xii.). Si inobediens quis fuerit, 
aut contentiosus, aut contradictor, aut mendax, et est perfricUe frontis . . . (S. PACH.OM., 
Reg., clxv. Cf. ibid. t cl.). 



Of Excommunication for Faults 207 . 

may be given to this section. The most natural is the following: " or 
else if he be found contemptuous, transgressing in some way or other 
the Holy Rule and the orders of his seniors, the deans." It forms a 
fifth kind of offence, being added to open resistance, serious disobedience, 
pride, and murmuring, .and consists in the breaking of the Rule, accom- 
panied with contempt. We may repeat that there could be no question 
of visiting every failing, no matter what, with the severity, of the^ 
established penal code. But a want of harmony which may be slight 
and momentary may also become serious, constant, and unmanageable, 
and constitute what is called contempt; or if it be not formal contempt, 
which happily is very rare, at least it will be equivalent and practical 
contempt. Probably the evil dispositions here enumerated imply 
theological culpability, but St. Benedict does not consider them from 
that point of view; he punishes them only as contrary to monastic 
observance and the public promises of our profession. 

... hie secundum Domini nostri prae- ... let him, according to Our Lord's 
ceptum admoneatur semel et secundo commandment, be once or twice 
secrete a senioribus suis. Si non privately admonished by his seniors, 
emendaverit, ob jurgetur publice coram If he do not amend, let him be rebuked 
omnibus. Si vero neque sic correx- in public before all. But if even then 
erit, si intelligit qualis poena sit, ex- he do not correct himself, let him be 
communication.! sub jaceat. Sinautem subjected to excommunication, pro- 
improbus est, vindictae corporali sub- vided that he understand the nature 
datur. 1 of the punishment. Should he, how- 

ever, prove froward, let him undergo 
corporal chastisement. 

V. 

This is, for ordinary cases, the procedure to be followed in the 
correction of the brethren; St. Benedict gives elsewhere the special 
points to be observed in the correction of deans, the Prior, and priests. 
He lays it down too, in Chapter LXX., that if a fault be public and such 
as to give scandal, it should receive an appropriate chastisement : " Let 
such as offend herein be rebuked in the presence of all, that the rest may 
be struck with fear." But so long as faults are not plainly scandalous, 
whatever be their gravity in other respects, the Holy Rule employs 
indulgence and pity. It is clearly inspired by the counsel of Our Lord 
in the Gospel : " But if thy brother shall offend against thee, go and 
rebuke him between thee and him alone. If he shall hear thee, thou 
shalt gain thy brother. And if he will not hear thee : take with thee one 
or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word 
may stand. And if he will not hear them : tell the church. And if he 
will not hear the church : let him be to thee as the heathen and publican " 

1 Cum vero inventa fuerit culpa, tile qui culpabilis invenitur, corripiatur ab Abbate 
seeretius. Quod si non sufficit ad emendationem, corripiatur a paucis senioribus. Quod 
si nee sic emendaverit, excommunicetur (Reg. Orient., xxxii.). Next come some particulars 
concerning excommunication from meals and prayer, and on satisfaction, almost in the 
same terms as' those of our Rule; then a threat addressed to anyone who should talk 
with a rebellious monk: simili modo culpabilem judicandum (xxxiii.); finally sentence 
of exclusion is pronounced against the incorrigible monk ne vitio ipsius alii periclitentur 
(xxxv). 



208 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

(Matt, xviii. 15-17). So a private warning is first given and, if need be, 
repeated; and this is to be done by those only who hold a position of 
authority (see Chapter LXX.) i.e., the Abbot and the deans or seniors. 
If secret admonition has no effect, then the delinquent is rebuked 
in public, and this is the second stage. The third consists in excom- 
munication or /corporal chastisement, for there are two methods of pro- 
cedure acceding to the character and temperament of the delinquent. 
In the /Second chapter our Holy Father distinguished two classes of 
cjxpr.acjfcers to which the Abbot should apply different treatment : " Those 

* of good disposition and understanding let him, for the first or second 

, time, correct only with words; but such as are f reward and hard of heart, 
and proud, or disobedient, let him chastise with bodily stripes at the 
very first offence." It is hardly probable that in this passage St. Benedict 
would absolutely deprive of the double admonition these rough or 
rebellious natures, for it would seem from Chapter XXIII. to be part 
of the procedure to be applied to all. In the second chapter he is 
speaking in rather a general fashion about diversity of treatment and 
observes that one or two reprimands are enough for some, while others 
only yield to the argument of force. It would be waste of time, in the 
case of the latter, to indulge in many verbal rebukes and to delay punish- 
ment; the evil must be at once eradicated from the sensitive nature by 
methods which appeal to sense. And since the ineffectiveness in many 
cases of the most severe rebukes has been established, we then pass at 

'once to the third stage in the procedure of correction. But this will not 
here be excommunication, for the improbus (froward) will either be 
glad of it as a new way of escaping observance, or else will not understand 

- its nature or feel its sting. 1 

We shall explain excommunication -in the -succeeding chapters and 
describe its nature; in this place a word may be said about corporal 
punishment. Our forefathers did not hesitate to have recourse to it; 
and our Holy Father, who threatens offenders with it more than once 
in his Rule, only needed to remember the Rules of St. Pachomius and 
St. Caesarius, the Lives of the Fathers, and, in a word, all tradition. 
The most common penances were reduction of food and drink, confine- 
ment, 2 and compulsory tasks; but above all there were the rod, the whip, 
and the ferula, the punishments of bad servants and children. Long 
before the rise of that voluntary practice of penance which St. Peter 
Damian propagated, the " discipline " was a penance in monastic 8 and 
indeed in ecclesiastical use, for certain Councils prescribe it for refractory 
clerics. In St. Benedict's language the word disciplina. ha,s various 
meanings, which can be determined only by the context. Thus in 
Chapter II. it means a line of practical conduct; in Chapter VII. the 
spiritual life and moral perfection; in Chapters LVL, LXIL, LXIIL, 

1 Cf- S. BASIL., Reg. brev,, xliv. 

2 Cf. CALMET, Commentary on Chapter XXV. 

3 Read HJEFTEN, 1. VIII., tract, v. MARTENE, De antiq. monacb. rit., 1. II., 
c. xi., col. 229 sq. CALMET, Commentary on Chapter III. 



Of 'Excommunication for Faults 209 

/ 

and LXXI. regularity, good order and its safeguards; in Chapters 
XXXIV. and LV. a punishment or correction of some sort; in 
Chapter -XXIV. corporal punishment, whether fasting or the rod. 
Disciplina regularis, disciplina regula, mean the sum of all monastic 
observances or submission to these observances (LX., LXIL); finally, 
disciplina regularis is either the graduated body of corrective methods 
provided by the Rule, or some of the degrees, and perhaps the punish-, 
ment of the rod alone (HI., XXXII., LIV., LXV., LXX.). 

Nowadays, when a monk is to be punished with the discipline 
a thing of extremely rare occurrence he is himself charged with the 
Execution of the sentence, out of the reach of curious eyes, and with 
no very formidable instrument. But things were not done quite in 
that way in the times of our ancestors. To begin with, this punishment 
while riot everywhere so common as in the regime of St. Columbanus, 
where strokes of the whip were current coin was by no means unusual. 
It took place most frequently in public and in full chapter. The rod 
or whip was manipulated by the Abbot in person, or by a brother 
expressly deputed for this charitable duty. At Cluny, 1 as at Ctteaux, 
and to some degree everywhere, the blows fell on the bare shoulders, 
at least when it was a question of serious faults. The number of blows 
did not generally exceed thirty-nine, whicji was the Jewish measure, 
five times applied to the Apostle by his fellow-countrymen: " Of the 
Jews five times did I receive forty stripes save one" (2 Cor. xi. 24). 
In order not to violate the Law, which prescribed forty as the maximum _ 
(Deut. xxv. 3), they chose to keep below that number. The old monks, 
less scrupulous than the Pharisees, sometimes gave as many as a hundred 
stripes to great offenders. " Let him be extended and receive a hundred 
lashes," says the Rule of St. Fructuosus. 2 The Penitential of St. Colum- 
banus speaks of a hundred and even of two hundred stripes ; but the same 
code of punishment has this provision : " Let no more than twenty-five 
stripes be given at a time." The Rule of the Master is more formidable 
still : " Let them be beaten with rods to death " 8 that is to say, observes 
Calmet, 4 " to the limit of endurance, with extreme rigour : for it was 
never really done to the death, and even in profane authors the phrase 
ctsdere ad necem (beat to death) is not to be taken literally, but as a 
figure of speech." A capitulary of Charlemagne, 5 reproduced by the 
Council of Frankfort in A.D. 794, thinks it necessary to urge Abbots not 
to put out the eyes or cut off the limbs of their monks " whatever be 
the fault committed " : that kind of punishment should be left to seculars. 
We need not either deplore or regret the severities of former days. 
When characters were ruder and less refined by a long process of educa- 
tion, when they sometimes stipulated for the benefits of confinement 

1 Cf. PIGNOT, Hist, de VOrdre de Cluny, i. II., pp. 400-406. See statute Ixiii. of 
PETER THE VENERABLE. P.L., CLXXXIX., 1043. 

2 C. xv. a C. xiii. 
4 Commentary on Chapter XXVIII. 

6 . M. G. H., Legum, Sectio II., Capitul. Regum Franc., 1. 1., p. 63. 

H 



2io Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

or severe flogging as a precaution against their falls, this severity of 
regular discipline was often the only means of overcoming the rebellion 
of sense or the nerves. We should remember also that offences 
and misdemeanours of monks or clerics did not generally come before 
civil tribunals, so that it was necessary that ecclesiastical or monastic 
superiors should enforce the law themselves. All this is now -changed; 
and if there occur disorders in face of which monastic authority is power- 
less, yet we must recognize that the dignity of monastic life has gained 
by the change. Therefore should monasticism, with all the more care, 
recruit itself from among those whose obedience is voluntary, eager, 
and joyous. 



CHAPTER XXIV 

MEASURE OF EXCOMMUNICATION 
SHOULD BE 

QUALIS DEBEAT EssE MODUS EXcoM- The measure of excommunication 

MUNICATIONIS. Secundum modum or chastisement should be meted out 

culpae, excommunicationis vel disci- according to the gravity of the offence, 

plinae debet extendi mensura: qui the estimation of which shall be left 

culparum modus in Abbatis pendeat to the judgement of the Abbot. If 

judicio. Si quis tamen frater in levio- any brother be found guilty of lighter 

ribus culpis invenitur, tantum a mensae faults, let him be excluded only from 

participatione privetur. the common table. 

GRACE pokes fun cleverly at the Stoics who asserted that there 
was no difference between offences, all being equally grave: 



H 



Nee vincet ratio hoc, tantumdem ut peccet idemque, 

Qui teneros caules alieni fregerit horti, 

Et qui nocturnus divum sacra legerit. Adsit 

Regula, peccatis quae poenas irroget aequas, 

Ne scutica dignum horribili sectere flagello. 1 



Our Holy Father satisfies these requirements of Roman good sense 
and universal prudence in laying it down that the mode and measure 
of chastisement shall be proportionate to the nature and malice of the 
offence; 2 so there are to be different degrees, not only in corporal 
correction (disciplina), but in excommunication itself. Yet in order 
to avoid disputes, it is to be the Abbot's duty to estimate the gravity of 
offences and to fix the punishment incurred. Not that the Abbot may 
at his pleasure modify the objective gravity of faults, or put anything 
he likes under grave obligation (sub gravf) ; but he has the full right, in 
the interests of good observance, to decree severe penalties against faults 
otherwise light, which threaten to become chronic and to harm the com- ' 
munity. This determination of offence and penalty is left, not to his 
caprice, but to his judgement and his conscience: "shall be left to the 
judgement of the Abbot." 

-St. Benedict has not thought it necessary to enlarge on the character 
and measure of corporal punishment, but he is anxious to be precise 
with regard to excommunication. Although a great deal of power is 

1 Satires, 1. 1., Hi., 

Nor can right reason prove the crime the same, 

To rob a garden, or, by fear unawed, 

To steal by night the sacred things of God. 

Then let the punishment be fairly weighed 

Against the crime; nor let the wretch be Hayed, 

Who scarce deserved the lash. (Trans., FRANCIS.) 

2 Digne correptus secundum arbitrium senioris vel modum culpee (S. MACAU., Reg., xii.). 
Pro quatitate culpa erit excommunicatio (Reg. I., SS. PATKUM, xv.). Cf. Reg. Orient. , 
xxxii. S. CESAR., Reg. ad virg., xi. 

zn 



2 1 2 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

left with the superior, yet he cannot punish lighter offences (lighter is 
used by St. Benedict in a relative sense only) save by excommunication 
from the common table. The other form of excommunication excluded 
a man at one and the same time from table, oratory, and intercourse 
with his brethren. Many Rules before the time of our Holy Father, 
that of St. Caesarius for example, mention this twofold excommunication. 
It is not impossible that the Church herself was inspired by monastic 
legislation, in making a clear distinction 1 between the greater excommu- 
nication, which cuts a man off from the society of the faithful, and the 
lesser excommunication which deprives him only of certain spiritual 
advantages, of the sacraments, and of the exercise of jurisdiction. The 
Apostles themselves seem to have made distinctions and shades of 
difference in the severity of excommunication; we might study and 
compare the character and effects of excommunication as pronounced 
by St. Peter, St. Paul, and St. John. 

Commentators compare monastic excommunication with that pro- 
nounced by the Church and enquire what is its value and scope. I think 
we may support the opinion of Calmet. Whatever were the limits in 
St. Benedict's time to the privilege of exemption, it is not open to doubt 
and the very text of the Rule proves it emphatically that an Abbot 
possessed sufficient authority to pronounce a sentence of excommunica- 
tion; it was the exercise of a power of jurisdiction, not of orders. And 
the effects of this sentence were identical with those of the Church's 
excommunication ; the only difference lay in the immediate source of 
the excommunication and the special state of the monk so punished. 
The better to understand the scope of monastic excommunication we 
should remember the hierarchical constitution of the ancient Church 
and the bond of solidarity which held all its parts together. First one 
was in communion with a bishop and the faithful of a diocese, and then 
by means of this incorporation in a particular church one was a member 
of the Church universal, becoming part of the larger society by means 
of the lesser. To be admitted into special communion with another 
diocese it was necessary ,to produce litteree formates. Many Councils 
speak of these testimonials and our Holy Father himself emphasizes 
the need of them. They showed that a man was at peace with his 
church of origin, whether monastic or secular. Sentence of excom- 
munication pronounced by one bishop was notified to others from place 
to place, and the person affected, by the sole fact that he was excluded 
from the communion of his bishop, was excluded from the communion 
of the whole Church. Now a monastic family formed a small autono- 
mous church in the bosom of the larger diocesan family. From the 
day of his profession a monk was a member O f the Universal Church by 
means of his uniori with his monastic order, and only so. If he were 



cation 



1 In the early centuries there were different degrees of penance and excommuni- 
ion: see J. MORINUS, Commentaries bistoricus de disciplina in administration sacra- 



menti panitentia. GABRIEL ALBASPIN^US, Observations ecclesiastics , 1. II. JACQUES. 
VEH.LON, Tratctf des excommunications et monitoires. 



What the Measure of "Excommunication should be 213 

regularly excommunicated by his Abbot, and that for faults against 
ordinary morality or the special obligations of his state, he found himself 
ipso facto outside the Church, and was so regarded by all Christians. 
St. Gregory in the Life of our Holy Father relates how the man of God 
threatened two incorrigible nuns with excommunication, and the claim 
does not seem to him extraordinary; he merely expresses admiration 
for the fact that St. Benedict's threat was sufficient for God, that He 
treated these religious who had died in their sin as excommunicated, 
and then ratified, beyond the grave, the removal of the excommunica- 
tion pronounced by His servant. The whole chapter is of very great 
interest. 1 

Privati autem a mensae oonsortio, And this shall be the rule for one 

ista erit ratio : ut in oratorio Psalmum deprived of the fellowship of the table : 

aut Antiphonam non imponat, neque he shall intone neither psalm nor 

Lectionem recitet, usque ad satisfac- antiphon in the oratory, nor shall 

tionem. Refectionem autem cibi post he read a lesson, until he have made 

fratrum refectionem accipiat, mensura satisfaction. Let him take his meals 

vel hora qua praeviderit Abbas ei alone, after those of the brethren, in 

competere: ut si verbi gratia fratres the measure and at the time that the 

reficiunt sexta hora, ille f rater nona ; si Abbot shall think best for him ; so that 

fratres nona, ille vespertina; usque if , for example, the brethren eat at the 

dura satisfactione congrua veniam sixth hour, let him eat at the ninth: 

consequatur. if they eat at the ninth, let him eat 

in the evening, until by proper satis- 
faction he obtain pardon. 

Theiefore the first and more gentle form of excommunication after 
admonitions was decreed against him who suffered himself to fall into 
offences, serious undoubtedly, but less grave than those presently to be 
mentioned. It meant first of all a penalty in the oratory. The guilty 
monk was not excluded from conventual prayer, but he no longer had 
the right to be heard in any special way, and was forbidden any individual 
part. He did not give out or intone any psalm or antiphon, 2 and recited 
no lesson; but he could, perhaps for the Rule does not give us certain 
information on this point mingle his voice with the voices of the choir. 
Certain later monastic customs forbade him to take his part in the con- 
ventual offering, or the kiss of peace, or the communion, or to celebrate 
Mass in public, etc. This isolation was to last until he had made fitting 
satisfaction and received absolution from the Abbot (see the last words 
of Chapter XLIV.). We must not confuse this excommunication with 
the penance imposed on monks who neglected to take their part in the 
prayers before a meal (Chapter XLIII). 

The refectory was the chief scene of the lesser monastic excommunica- 
tion: whence its name of excommunication a mensa. The monk still 
appeared in the oratory, for a part of conventual life might there be left 
him; but he was banished from the common table. He took his food 

1 Dial., 1. II., c. xxiii. 

* The reader should remember what was said in chapter ix. concerning St. Benedict's 
psalmody. 



2 1 4 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

' alone, and that after the meals of the brethren. The words " in the 
measure and at the time that the Abbot shall think best for him " are not 
in the manuscripts and have been borrowed from the next chapter; 
nor is there any parallel between the conditions of the two sorts of ex- 
communicated; and, as is remarked by commentators, the meals of one 
excommunicated a mensa were diminished only if he was unrepentant. 
His meals were merely put later: when his brethren, for instance, took 
their meal at the sixth hour that is to say, during the whole summer save 
on fast days the excommunicated monk took his at the ninth; when the 

. community had theirs at the ninth hour that is to say, from the begin- 
ning of the monastic Lent to the beginning of Lent proper the excom- 
municated monk took his at the hour of Vespers (Chapter XLI.) . In this 
matter, however, St. Benedict does not intend to lay down a complete 
and rigorous rule; it was the Abbot's business to decide according to the 
individual case. The penalty was to last until the monk, having made 

- suitable satisfaction, received his pardon. 



CHAPTER XXV 
OF GRAVER FAULTS 

DE GRAVIORIBUS cuLPis. Is fratcr Let that brother who is found 
qui gravioris culpae noxa tenetur, sus- guilty of a more grievous offence be 
pendatur a mensa simul et ab oratorio, excluded both from the table and from 

the oratory. 

GIAVER faults entail a more severe form of excommunication, 
excluding both from table and from oratory. We find a list 
qf the chief faults of this kind in various Rules or Constitutions; 
but St. Benedict himself refrained from giving such a list. Yet 
he describes in emphatic words the isolation of the excommunicated 
monk. Save for some exceptions which are provided for later, all 
personal intercourse with him is broken off. We should note, however, 
the singular discretion with which all is done. Monastic excommunica- 
tion is not exclusion, an absolute cutting off and final rupture of relations, 
such as is implied in the greater excommunication of the Church of 
to-day. Monastic excommunication resembles that pronounced by 
St. Paul, to which this chapter makes clear allusion; it has a remedial 
character and does not abandon the soul to perdition. There is always 
hope. Before proceeding to expulsion, which is the final act, trial must 
be made to see whether the monk is not terrified by the solitude created 
around him, and whether love of his religious family, more potent than 
punishments and reprimands, will not bring him to repentance. He is 
now scarcely of the monastery, but he is still in the monastery. 

Nullis ei fratrum in ullo jungatur Let none of the brethren consort 

consortio, neque in colloquio. Solus with him or speak to him. Let him 

sit ad opus sibi injunctum, persistens be alone at the work enjoined him, 

in paenitentiae luctu, sciens illam ter- and continue in sorrow of penance, 

ribilem Apostoli sententiam dicentis: remembering that dreadful sentence 

traditum hujusmodi hominem Satanae of the Apostle: " That such a one is 

in interitum carnis, ut spiritus salyus delivered over to Satan for the des- 

sit in die Domini. traction of the flesh, that his spirit 

may be saved in the day of the Lord." 

He is as one plague-stricken, of his own act. Having become the 
enemy of God, he no longer has friends ; he has no part any more in the 
community life, from which he has been the first to exclude himself 
by his fault. All avoid him. None may approach him, hold relations 
with him, or converse with him. There is now no place for him in the 
oratory. 1 Nor is he worthy to share even in the common toil. Not 
that he may wander idle, for he shall have his own fixed task, perhaps 
even a heavier task ; but he shall perform it alone. And, according to the 
custom of certain monasteries, he shall be kept in confinement. He shall 
abide in penance and sorrow, and he shall have leisure, during the long 

1 Cf. Reg. Orient., xzzii. 
215 



2 1 6 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

hours of his solitude, to meditate on and apply to himself the dreadful 
sentence, of the Apostle : " such a one is delivered over to Satan 
for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in 
the day of the Lord" (i Cor. v. 5). 1 All this should be well under- 
stood. 

All creation obeys the law of community life; living beings do not 
develop and attain their end save by means of belonging to a society, or 
family, or hierarchical organization, of which the ideal pattern and term 
must be sought in the Blessed Trinity itself. This is -true of men in 
general, it is still more true of the Church, and it is true also of a monastic 
body. We win salvation only by help of our family life; God's grace 
comes to us only in this living framework; we need the help of our Abbot 
and the prayers of our brethren. When sentence of excommunication 
interrupts this blessed current of divine influence and this pulsating life, 
we are no longer secure, or certain of anything. Ceasing to belong to 
the Church, to our spiritual family, to Our Lord and His jurisdiction, 
we pass into another hierarchical system and we are then exposed to the 
terrible familiarities and assaults of Satan. Even so God allowed the 
excommunication, pronounced by St. Peter against Ananias and Saphira, 
to entail their bodily death. The excommunication of Simon Magus 
caused him to be possessed by the devil. That of the incestuous 
Corinthian was intended to preserve the Church from all contagion and 
also to " deliver over to the tortures of the devil the body of the guilty 
man in order that his soul should be saved in the judgement of God." 
As in the story of the unstable monk whom St. Benedict -let go, 2 there is 
always a dragon beyond the gates of the monastery, watching for the 
excommunicated and the renegade. 

Doubtless our Holy Father by no means says that the tortures of 
Satan infallibly visit the excommunicated monk; hut it is a threat, a 
warning not to remain impenitent, not to relapse ever into such an evil 
state. For in the ages of faith excommunication was regarded as a 
supreme peril, and the mere threat of it would fill souls with religious 
terror. But the sense of the supernatural has diminished; and it is this 
fact, coupled with an indubitable improvement in men's characters, 
which nowadays leads the Church and the monastic order to be very 
sparing of excommunication. Moreover, it happens only too frequently 
that those who deserve excommunication begin by excommunicating 
themselves. 

Cibi autem refectionem solus per- Let him take his portion of food 
cipiat, mensura vel hora qua praevi- alone, in the measure and at the time 
derit ei Abbas competere; nee a quo- that the Abbot shall think best for 
quam benedicatur transeunte, nee him. Let none of those who pass by 
cibus qui ei datur. bless him, nor let the food that is given 

him be blessed. 

1 CASBIAN also cites this text in a passage which inspired St. Benedict in his writing 
of Chapters XXV. and XXVI. /*/., II., xvi. 
8 S. GREG. M., Dial., 1. II., c. xxv. 



Of Graver Faults 217 

Being banished from the oratory, the excommunicate monk is a 
fortiori banished from the common refectory. And the penance is 
more severe than in the preceding case; for not only is the hour of his 
meal delayed, its substance also is reduced, so that the rebel is attacked 
both in soul and in body. Our Holy Father leaves it to the Abbot to 
determine the hour and character of his repast. The brethren who meet 
the excommunicated monk do not reply to his salutation, do not say 
Benedicite to him (see Chapter LXIII.). Moreover, the food that is 
given to him does not receive the usual blessing. 

We shall meet in Chapter XLIV. the series of expiations through 
which the excommunicate monk must pass before being reconciled with 
God and his brethren. 



CHAPTER XXVI 

OF THOSE WHO, WITHOUT LEAVE OF THE ABBOT, 
CONSORT WITH THE EXCOMMUNICATE 

DE us QUI SINE JUSSIONE AsBATis If any brother presume without 

JUNCUNTUR EXCOMMUNICATIS. Si quis the Abbot's leave to hold any inter- 

frater prasumpserit, sine jussione course whatever with an excom- 

Abbatis, fratri excommunicate quoli- municated brother, or to speak with 

bet modo se jungere, aut loqui cum eo, him, or to send him a message, let him 

vel mandatum ei dirigere, similem sor- incur the same punishment of excom- 

tiatur excommunicationis vindictam. munication. 

THE efficacy of excommunication would obviously be compromised 
and the remedy lose all its power, if it were not real; isolation is 
essential. But matters sometimes followed such a course as this. 
One of the brethren being excommunicated, certain wrongheaded 
people were tempted to take his part, to support him in his rebellion and 
so stir up something of a revolution. Other religious, united by some 
bond of blood or friendship with the guilty one, endeavoured to persuade 
themselves that nothing should stand in the way of the impulses and ties 
of nature and so broke the law of quarantine. Others finally allowed, 
themselves to feel pity at the sight of this poor Holophernes, 1 so wickedly 
banished by the Abbot, and their thoughtless and harmful tenderness 
wrecked a course of treatment which they did not understand. Cassian 
writes as follows on this point : " If a monk be suspended from prayers 
for committing some fault, no one whatever has permission to pray with 
him . . .; and whoever, moved by inconsiderate piety, shall presume 
to hold communion with him in prayer before he be received back by 
a senior, makes himself partaker of his condemnation, for he hands him- 
self voluntarily over to Satan, to whom the other had been committed 
for the amendment of his guilt: and he incurs a heavier responsibility 
inasmuch as by holding intercourse with him, whether for talk or for 
prayer, he adds fuel to his insolence and increases for the worse the con- 
tumacy of the offender." 2 

Apart from a special order of the Abbot, as explained at greater 
length in the next chapter, every brother who dares to associate with the 
excommunicated monk or to enter into relations with him of whatever 
sort, by conversation, or message, or by acting as his go-between, shares 
in his excommunication and will find himself involved in the same con- 
demnation. This provision has seemed harsh to some commentators; 
and the more so because, in Canon Law, to have intercourse with one 
who is under the greater excommunication involves only lesser excom- 

1 An allusion to Racine's epigram on t\ie Judith of Boyer: 

. . . Je pleure, helas t pour ce pauvre Holopherne, 
Si me'chamment mis a mort par Judith. 

1 Iiut. t II., xvi. 

218 



Of those 'who Consort with the Excommunicate 219 

munication. But it would seem that in early times, among clergy as 
among monks, a notable infringement of the law of excommunication 
implied a full participation in the penalty of the excommunicate; there 
was no distinction made. 1 

1 For instance, the Council of Orleans in 511 decrees in its xi. canon: De bis gut 
suscepta peenitentia religionem suee professions obliti ad sacularia relabuhtur, placuit eos 
et a communione suspendi, et ab omnium catbolicorum convivio separari. Quod si post 
interdictum cum eis quisquam preesumpserit manducare, et ipse communione privetur 
(MANSI, t. VIII., col. 353). In the collections the authentic canons of the council are 
followed by others, of which the .value is unknown; here is one that much resembles the 
text of our Rule: . . . Nullus cbristianus ei ave dicat, aut eum osculare prasumat; . . . 
nemo eijungatur in consortio, neque in aliquo negotio ; et si quis ei se sociaverit, ... noverit 
se simili percussum anathema te. His exceptis, qui ob bane causam ei junguntur^ ut eum 
revocant ab errore, et provocent ad satisfactionem . . . (MANSI, ibid^ col. 367). 



CHAPTER XXVII 

HOW CAREFUL THE ABBOT SHOULD BE OF THE 
EXCOMMUNICATE 

QUALITER DEBEAT ESSE soLLiciTus Let the Abbot take care with all 

ABBAS CIRCA EXCOMMUNICATOS. Omni solicitude of offending brethren, for 

sollicitudine curam gerat Abbas circa " they that are whole need not a 

delinquentes f ratres : quia non est opus physician, but they that are sick." 
sanis mfdicus, sed male habentibus. 

THIS is the final chapter of the digression on excommunication. 
It throws light on the whole subject of monastic penal legislation 
and makes St. Benedict's intention plain; and at the same time 
it reveals to us his fatherly solicitude. We know how variously 
human justice defends its exercise of the right of punishment, even to 
the extent of the death penalty. Some support the claims of absolute 
order, and maintain that those who will not accommodate themselves 
to it by obedience must do so by chastisement. This view is a true one, 
but it is cold and contemptuous; there is nothing for the guilty man but 
resignation. Others prefer to make the safety of society their basis^ 
and punishment is then a security. The penalty, in protecting society 
against a recurrence of the faults punished, has a twofold action, both 
making it impossible for the criminal to do harm, and inspiring others 
with a wholesome fear: Culpam pasna premit comes: again a true view, 
but harsh and frequently ineffective. The Christian and monastic 
rule puts itself in the position of the delinquent, and, without at all 
disregarding the aims just considered, concerns itself before all with his 
correction, regarding him more as a sick brother than as a condemned 
criminal. The ancient Rules and the Lives of the Fathers abound in 
edifying instruction on the mercy due to sinners, but none in our opinion 
contains anything comparable to this chapter, so characteristic of 
St. Benedict, and so full of his fatherly love, grave, strong, and 
considerate. 

Omni sollicitudine . . . Though, there be punishment, yet the 
monastery, the "house of God," is not a penitentiary, where the 
rebellious are cured only by violent repression and harsh treatment. 
The Abbot shall employ all possible solicitude and devotedness in favour 
of erring brethren. And as sole reason for this the Holy Rule invokes 
the words once used by Our Lord in justification of His infinite forgiving- 
ness : " They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick " 
(Matt. ix. 12). He came to redeem, to console, to heal; and woe to 
those self-sufficient souls who think they have no need of His compassion 
and His healing. Mercy is Our Lord's predominant virtue; it earned 
for Him the astonishment, the scandal, the very hatred of the evil 
casuists of His time, the Pharisees and doctors of the law. We have only 
to recall the episode of the woman taken in adultery, who was excom- 

220 



The Abbot and the Excommunicate 221 

municated by the doctors and condemned to stoning (John vii. 3-1 r): . 
If God's heart is all goodness, the Abbot, who holds His place in the 
monastery, should always lean towards the side of mercy and love. ' 

Et ideo uti debet omni modo ut sa- To which end he ought to behave 
piens medicus : immittere quasi occultos in every way as a wise physician, 
consolatores sympsectas, id est, seniores sending as it were secret consolers 
sapientes fratres, qui quasi secrete to sympathize with him that is to 
consolentur fratrem fluctuantem, et say, some brethfen of mature years 
provocent eum ad humilitatis satis- and wisdom, who may, as it were 
f actionem, et consolentur eum, ne secretly, console the wavering brother, 
abundantiori tristitia absorbeatur; sed induce him to make humble satisfac- 
sicut ait Apostolus : Confirmetur in tion, and comfort him, that he be not 
eo charitas, et oretur pro eo ab omnibus, overwhelmed by excess of sorrow; 

but, as the Apostle saith, " Let charity 
be strengthened towards him," and 
let all pray for .him. 

Since the Abbot is appointed a physician of souls, 1 he shall act in 
every way 2 like a wise physician : he shall endeavour to find the effective 
remedy, or, rather, endeavour that the remedy of excommunication may 
have its full effect; he shall make use of the various means which his 
charity or experience may suggest to him. He shall, for example, send 
sympcectts to the excommunicate monk. The words quasi occultos con- 
solatores are a later gloss. The meaning of the word sympacta has been 
much discussed, and very various not to say fantastic etymologies have 
been proposed; scribes too have often ill-treated it. Though the best 
reading is senpectas,it is very probable that the correct spelling of the word 
is sympescta and that it is a transliteration of the Greek word <rv/j,iratKTr)<i 
(from ffvv and Tratfw) and means literally, one who plays with the child, 
or plays with another, a playfellow (collusor). 3 In Christian literature 
before St. Benedict, we find o-u/iTratVnj? employed, and that in the 
figurative sense, only in the Lausiac History of Palladius. The 
History relates how Serapion Sindonita took the notion of selling himself 
to a company of actors, so as to convert them the more easily, and made 
an ascetic a party to his game or pious fraud: XajScoi/ riva <rvfnraiicr^v 
a<7Ki)rr)v . . . . 4 Our Holy Father uses the word in an analogous 
sense. Because he adds immediately: " that is to say, some brethren of 
mature years and wisdom," it was thought that he was explaining the 
unusual word, and so some read not even senpectas but senipetas '.*., 
men approaching old age. And from this source come some unlikely 
interpretations. St. Benedict does in fact explain himself, but does it 
much more in the words "who may as it were secretly console . . ." 
than in those which follow directly after the phrase " that is to say." 
And his thought is as follows : the Abbot cannot intervene directly and 
himself approach the excommunicate, but he may have recourse to a 

1 S. BASIL., Reg. contr., xxiv. 

2 Omnimodo, in one word, according to the best manuscripts. 

3 Cf. CALMET, in b. I. . 

* Hist. Latts., c. Ixxxiii. P.O., XXXIV., 1180; ed. BUTLER, p. 109. 



222 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

,cratagem. There are in the community amiable and earnest brethren, 

- in whom the excommunicated brother has confidence. They arc monks 

of mature years and solid virtue, upon whom the complaints, or even 

j the violent recriminations of the condemned man, will have no harmful 

effect; they are also skilful and diplomatic. So the Abbot makes them 

parties to his game of mercy and accomplices of his charity They shall 

go secretly to find the excommunicated brother,- as though of their own 

accord and not as formal ambassadors; and their action will appear to 

him as though merely sanctioned by the Abbot. 

Their function is first to console the brother and then to dispose 
him to amendment . His soul is still in a disturbed state, divided between 
anger and dread, between irritation and anxiety, ftuctuantem. The, 
loving intervention of the sympcectes has as its object the calming of 
passion and helping of conscience ; it will gently lead the excommunicated 
brother to make humble satisfaction, not from constraint, but from 
the desire to make amends. Yet before all else, as St. Benedict insists, 
he needs to be consoled. The symptecta will see to it that chagrin and 
shame do not crush him, that he be not " overwhelmed by excess of 
sorrow." . St. Paul gave this counsel in the case of the incestuous 
Corinthian ; and he proceeded to say that at such a critical time charity 
should be great, should show itself, and prevail in the treatment of him 
(2 Cor; ii. 7-8). While the discreet agents of the Abbot show their 
interest in the excommunicated monk directly, all the brethren must 
pray for him. 1 

We are very far in all this from those revengeful forms which human 
justice so readily affects, very far from the pharisaical spirit which 
requires implacable severity, very far from the tendencies, sometimes 
expressed in literature, which acknowledge only the virtue that has 
never fallen, and for which a momentary lapse has no cure but despair 
and suicide. That is the world all through : the most corrupt are the 
most implacable. We may also observe how the provisions of the 
monastic rule realize the ideal form under which penal justice, should 
and can be exercised. The right to punish is normally exercised with 
success only by those who have endeavoured to exorcise the fault, who 
have proclaimed the moral law, who have not only refrained from culti- 
vating violent and impious passions, the agents of crime, but have striven 
to diminish and, if possible, to suppress all revolutionary instincts. 
When a society incites to evil and corrupts both thought and morals, 
what right has it to set itself up as the judge of its own victims ? 

Magnopere enim debet sollicitu- For the Abbot is bound to use the 

dinem gerere Abbas circa delinquentes greatest care with erring brethren, 

fratres, et omni sagacitate et industria and to strive with all possible pru- 

curare, ne aliquam de ovibus sibi dence and zeal not to lose any one of 

creditis perdat. Noverit enim se in- the sheep committed to him. He 

firmarum curam suscepisse animarum, must know that he has undertaken 

non super sanas tyrannidem : etmetuat the charge of weakly souls, and not 

1 Nor does the Rule of ST. CJESARIUS ad virgines leave the excommunicate in absolute 
solitude :Cum una de spiritualibus sororibus resident (xxxi.)> 



The Abbot and the Excommunicate 223 

Prophetae comminationem, per quern a tyranny over the strong; and let 
dicit Deus: Quod crassum videbatis, him fear the threat of the prophet, 
assumtbatis: et quod debile erat, pro- wherein God says: "What ye saw to 
jiciebatis. be fat that ye took to yourselves, and 

what was diseased ye cast away." 

St. Benedict repeats with great emphasis the first words of the 
chapter. The Abbot, he says, should exhibit the greatest solicitude 
with regard to erring brethren, 1 and should run, hasten, and expend all 
possible prudence and zeal, so as not to lose one of the sheep entrusted 
to him. God grant that an Abbot may never hold aloof from an erring 
brother with the scandalized horror of the Pharisee in the presence of 
St. Mary Magdalene ! Nor should he ignore him and abandon the 
excommunicate to his passions and wounded pride, saying: " I cannot 
help it. If he wants to persevere in his rebellion, why, let him do it ! 
I cannot give him my will instead of his own." Obviously you have 
not died for him, or you would throw him over less readily. " Yes, but 
he irritates me. He is so bitter and disloyal. . . ." He is all the more 
your concern. You are not a prince, or a pitiless justiciary, or an execu- 
tioner. JThe Abbot's function, speaking generally, is not to exercise 
a haughty tyranny over strong souls, for God has entrusted to him the 
care and tendance and cure of souls weakly and infirm; and to this shall 
he give his special attention!/ St. Augustine wrote in the same sense 
of ministers of God living in the world: " Their care should be the cure 
of men rather than men who have been cured. They must endure the 
faults of men so as to cure them, for a plague must be endured before 
it can be cured." 2 So the Abbot must be on his guard against an 
attitude which is very natural, yet very selfish; let him, at need, remember 
the indignation .of God, denouncing by the \nouth of His prophet the 
harshness and rapacity of the evil pastors of Israel: You took to your- 
selves that which seemed to you fat and well-conditioned; but you 
spurned the lean. The whole passage of Ezechiel is an awe-inspiring 
threat (xxxiv. 3-4). But we do not ask the Abbot to be complaisant 
or weak, no more than to open the doors of his monastery to mediocrity 
or wretchedness of every sort. 

Et Pastoris boni pium imitetur Let him imitate the loving example 
exemplum, qui, relictis nonaginta no- of the 'Good Shepherd, who, leaving 
vem ovibus in montibus, abiit unam the ninety and nine sheep on the 
ovem, qua erraverat, quaerere; cujus mountains, went to seek one which 
infirmitati in tantum compassus est, had gone astray, on whose weakness 
ut earn in sacris humeris suis dignaretur He had such compassion that He 
imponere, et sic reportare ad gregem. vouchsafed to lay it on His own sacred 

shoulders, and thus bring it back to the 

flock. 

St. Benedict contrasts the conduct of unworthy and . mercenary 
shepherds with the example, the "loving example," of the tenderness 

1 The true reading, says D. BUTLER, is certainly currere; St. Benedict develops later 
on this idea of the Qpod Shepherd running in search of the lost sheep. 
8 De ntoribus ecclesia catbol., 1. 1., c. xxxii. P.L., XXXII., 1339. 



224 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

and condescendence of the Good Shepherd, as portrayed by Our Lord 
Himself in St. Matthew (xviii. 12-14) an ^ * n St. Luke (xv. 3-7, cf. 
John x.). The Good Shepherd had a hundred sheep, one of which 
strayed one day far from the flock. Then the Shepherd, leaving the- 
ninety-nine in their folds on the hillsides which they pastured, went off 
to find the one deserter. He found it, hurt, perhaps, or refractory. And 
such was His pity for its weakness that He deigned to put it on His 
sacred shoulders and so bring it back to the flock. 1 The Gospel goes on 
to emphasize the joy of the Good Shepherd. And indeed to restore an 
erring soul to Our Lord is the highest joy that can be tasted here below. 
" My brethren, if any of you err from the truth and one convert him : 
he must know that Jie who causeth a sinner to be converted from the 
error of his way shall save his soul from death and shall cover a multitude 
of sins" (James v. 19-20). It need not be said that this ready and 
untiring condescendence of the Abbot expresses also what all the brethren 
should feel towards one another. There should be a general conspiracy . 
of charity " lest he lose any of the sheep committed to him." 

1 ST. BASIL quotes the same gospel parable and the text: non est opus valentibus, etc., 
in a passage which resembles our Rule (Reg- brev., cii. ; see also Reg. contr., xxvii.). 



CHAPTER XXVIII 

OF THOSE WHO, BEING OFTEN CORRECTED, DO NOT 

AMEND 

DE us QUI s.ffipius CORRECTI NGN If any brother who has been fre- 

EMENDANTUR. Si quis frater frequen- quently corrected for some fault, or 

ter correptus pro qualibet culpa, si even excommunicated, do not amend, 

etiam exc.ommunicatus non emen- let a more severe chastisement be 

daverit, acrior ei accedat correctio, id applied .that is, let the punishment 

est, ut verberum vindicta in eum pro- of stripes be administered to him. 

cedat. * * 

OUR Holy Father here returns to the degrees of regular discipline 
which he began to enumerate in the twenty-third ^chapter. 
First of all he reviews briefly the particular chastisements already , 
described: a brother, guilty of one of the faults which deserve . 
chastisement, has been frequently corrected i.e., at least three times, 
twice secretly and once in public; he has been excommunicated or has I 
suffered corporal punishment. But, for all this, he has not amended. 
Even excommunication has had no result, though it was thought that that 
would cure him. At this stage excommunication is supplemented by a, 
more severe chastisement : the guilty man is beaten with rods. Corporal i 
punishment is called more severe and more harsh, riot because excommu- > 
nication is a less serious penalty, but because bodily chastisement may 
perhaps more effectively subdue the animal mail which has remained , 
insensible to spiritual penalties; and also because there is in corporal 
punishment a note of servitude and as it were a stigma of disgrace. In 
the case of one with whom excommunication has not been tried, but 
who has had to submit to fasting or the rod immediately following on 
the admonitions, doubtless the same regime will be continued, only 
the strokes will be laid on somewhat more heavily. 

Quod si nee ita se correxerit, aut But if even then he do not correct 
forte (quod absit) in superbiam elatus himself, or perchance (which God 
etiam defendere voluerit opera sua, forbid !), puffed up with pridt., even 
tune Abbas facial quod sapiens medicus : wish to defend his deeds : then let the 
si exhibuit fomenta, si unguenta adhor- Abbot act like a wise physician. If he 
tationum, si medicamina Scripturarum has applied fomentations and the 
divinarum, si ad ultimum ustipnem ex- unction of his admonitions, the 
communicationis vel plagas virgarum, medicine of the Holy Scriptures, and 
et jam si viderit nihil suam praevalere the last cautery of excommunication 
industriam: adhibeat etiam, quod or corporal chastisement, and if he 
majus est, suam et omnium fratrum see that his labours are of no avail, let 
pro eo orationem, ut Dominus, qui him add what is still more powerful 
omnia potest, pperetur salutem circa his own prayers and those of all the 
infirmum fratrem brethren for him, that God, who is 

all-powerful, may work the cure of the 

sick brother, 

15 



226 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

Plainly, in St. Benedict's eyes, a soul has an absolute value and must 
be treated with boundless patience. He puts the case of the guilty 
man not yet submitting and even daring, in a violent fit of pride, to 
justify himself and invoke right for his side. " Which God forbid !" 
says St. Benedict. Yet he knows too well that it is not unlikely. He has 
elsewhere condemned the unhappy facility which men have of calling 
that good which they desire, of worshipping their own ideas, of justifying 
thus the most shameful excesses. For conscience becomes seared. 
What had hitherto been merely weakness, becomes now a principle 
and a system. Still, there is no question yet of pronouncingirrevocable 
sentence. 

The Abbot mtist continue to act like a wise -physician. 1 He must 
review all the means which he might legitimately use to obtain a cure, 
and must make certain that he has neglected none. He has had, accord- 
ing to the methods of ancient medicine, to use every means to make the 
sickness emerge, to draw out to the surface the deep-rooted evil which 
was upsetting the vital functions. First he used fomentations, warm 
applications, fit to persuade the evil to depart; then ointments, the balm 
of his admonitions, as though to soften skin and flesh; and next the 
internal remedy of the Holy Scriptures. The word of God has a sacra- 
mental value, and acts on_ souls like a charm. Its lucid and sweet 
sentences can free the soul from its fever. Obviously admonition, 
whether private or public, and the good advice of the sympactee should 
be inspired pre-eminently by supernatural doctrine, and remind the 
guilty one of the familiar passages of Holy Scripture, containing the rule 
of morality and monastic perfection. If these preliminary measures 
failed, the Abbot decided to cauterize with the hot iron of excommuni- 
cation, or to lance with the sharp points of the scourge. But he may 
be forced to conclude that his skill makes no way against the evil. 

What human effort cannot achieve, prayer may obtain from God. 
For Him no situation is desperate. The treasuries of His mercy hold 
graces capable of converting the most hardened heart. Is He not the 
God who brings the dead to life (Rom. iv. 17) ? " To the Almighty 
Physician nothing is incurable; He gives up none." 2 So let the Abbot 
still act like a wise physician, says St. Benedict; let him use a remedy 
more potent than the others, his own prayers and those of the brethren, 
in order that God, with whom all things are possible, may restore health 
to the sick brother. By this is meant a supplication more insistent and 
more general than that mentioned in Chapter XXVII. ; it is a sort 
of formal suit to God, at once respectful and filial, by the whole com- 
munity. 

Quod si nee isto modo sanatus f uerit, But if he be not healed even by this 

tune jam utatur Abbas ferro abscis- means, then at length Jet. the Abbot 

sionis, ut ait Apostolus : Auferte malum use the sword of separation, as the 

ex vobis.- Et iterum: Infidelis si dis- Apostle says: "Put away the evil one 

1 The metaphors which follow are inspired by CAMIAN, /**., X., vii. 
3 S. AUG., Enarr. II. in Ps. Iviii. n. P.Z, XXXVI., 712. 



Of those who, being often Corrected, do not Amend 227 

ceditf discedat: ne una ovis morbida from you." And again: " If the 

omnem gregem contaminet. faithless one depart, let him depart," 

i lest one diseased sheep should taint 

the whole flock. 

Finally, if the unfortunate man is not cured by the last remedy, there 
is nothing for it but amputation. The excommunicated man becomes 
a danger. He may infect the whole community with his malady, for 
one diseased sheep can taint a whole flock. The duty of charity to the 
community always more important than the individual demands 
the removal of any element that is incorrigible, forming as it does a 
scandal and a permanent danger. This is the advice of St. Paul : " Put 
away the evil [or the evil one] from your midst " (i Cor. v. 13). " Nor 
is this done from cruelty, but from mercy, lest he destroy many by the 
infection of his disease," says St. Augustine in a passage which may be 
compared with our description of the degrees of regular discipline. 1 
St. Cyprian, too, writes as follows : " I should not think them worthy to 
mix with virgins, but like infected sheep or sick cattle they should be 
kept away from the virgin flock, holy and pure, lest by contagion they 
should pollute the rest." 2 And the more so as the man is no longer 
merely sick; he is dead. All that the Abbot does is to recognize a 
severance which has already been effected by the expelled man himself. 
He has decided. There is nothing for it but to accept his incorrigible 
blindness: " If the faithless one wishes to go, let him go," says St. Bene- 
dict, taking another sentence of St. Paul in an accommodated sense 
(i Cor. vii. 15). 

Expulsion is provided for also in more ancient Rules, for example 
in those of St. Macarius 8 and St. Basil; 4 and St. Benedict clearly has 
some such legislation in his mind. Some Rules did not venture to decree 
expulsion: "Though a man be immersed in an abyss of frequent and 
most serious faults," says St. Isidore, 5 " still he should not be expelled 
from the monastery . . . lest perchance he, who could have been cured 
by a long course of penance, may, when cast forth, be devoured by the 
devil." Seclusion and confinement, perpetual if necessary, were pre- 
ferred. But the common law of the Church has recognized the lawful- 
ness and expediency of expulsion and has determined the juridical forms 
by which competent authority may proceed to effect it. 

1 Epist. CCXL, ii. P.i., XXXIII., 962. 

8 De babitu virginum, xvii. P.L., IV., 456. The expression ovis morbida occurs, 
several times in ST. JEROME : Epist. II. P.Z^-XXH.,' 33 1 ; Epist. XVI., i. P.L., ibid., 
358; Epist. CXXX. ad Demetriadem, 19. P.L., ibid., 1122. 

3 C. xvii., xxvii.-xxviii. 

* Reg. contr., xxx. Cf. Reg. brev., xxxviii., xliv., Ivii., Ixxxiv., cii. 

5 C. xv. 



CHAPTER XXIX 

WHETHER THE BRETHREN WHO LEAVE THE 
MONASTERY ARE TO BE RECEIVED AGAIN 

Si DEBEANT iTERUM RECiPi FRATRES If any brother, who through his 

EXEUNTES DE MONASTERio. Frater qul own fault departs or is cast out of the 

proprio vitio egreditur, aut projicitur monastery, be willing to return, let 

de monasterio, si reverti voluerit, him first promise entire amendment 

spondeat prius omnem emendationem of the fault for which he left; and then 

vitii pro quo egressus est, et sic in let him be received back into the 

ultimo gradu recipiatur, ut ex hoc ejus lowest place, that thus his humility 

humilitas comprobetur. may be tried. 

THIS chapter rounds off the last and at the same time softens its 
severity. The incorrigible brother having been expelled may 
presently be moved by grace, so that, like the Prodigal Son, 
returning to himself he desires to go back to God. And while 
speaking of expulsion, our Holy Father allows of another cdse, where.the 
leaving of the monastery is the work of the religious himself, impelled 
by the evil spirit of instability or by some vicious motive or other. 1 
St. Benedict is careful to add " through his own fault " : for it may 
occasionally happen that such departure is regular, sanctioned by the 
Abbot or legalized by the Church. Of such cases we shall say nothing, 
as, for instance, of the case where a man thinks it his duty to escape 
from surroundings which appear to him inobservant and disedifying, 
or passes to a stricter form of religious life. Nor again shall we seek to 
determine whether secularization, sought and obtained, is not sometimes, 
to the eye of conscience, a euphemism for religious apostasy. 

Regulus is said to have pleaded earnestly before the Roman Senate 
against an exchange of prisoners between Carthage and the Roman 
State; his view was that a Roman who had suffered himself to be taken 
captive without a struggle, could not afterwards fulfil his duty valiantly. 

Auro repensus scilicet acrior 
Miles redibit ? Flagitio additis 
Damnum ! 2 

A bad soldier restored to the war would prove himself a bad soldier 
again. So to ransom a prisoner was to throw your money away and not 
to gain a soldier. All of which is distinctly Roman in sentiment; but 

1 D. BUTLER adopts this text: Frater qui proprio vitio egreditur de monasterio, si 
reverti voluerit, spondeat prius omnem emendationem pro quo egressus est. And D. CHAP- 
MAN, reviewing Traube, strove to show that the reading of the " received text " and of 
the most ancient manuscripts was a clear case of misguided interpolation (Revue Bfnfd., 
1898, p. 506). Without disputing the authority of the Carlovingian and Cassinese 
tradition, it is, however, possible to give a probable sense to our text. Why should an 
expelled monk not come to a better mind ? Do not the arrangements of this chapter 
appear to be a natural consequence of what precedes ? 

2 HORACE, Odes, Bk. III., v. 

228 



Are Brethren who leave to be received again? 229 

St. Benedict's attitude, in opening his arms to the renegade and the 
expelled monk, and giving them the chance of repairing the past by a 
better life, is truly human and is in conformity with the ways of God. 1 
There are two conditions set to this act of mercy, and both have the 
same purpose: to show that the returned brother has nothing in common 
with him who fled or was expelled. St. Benedict lays it down that the 
brother who so presents himself should first of all promise fundamental 
amendment of the fault which occasioned his departure : to this extent 
he is no longer, interiorly in his will, the same man as the former. And 
this change of identity expresses itself externally under a form which has 
no doubt the character of a punishment and a trial, but which may 
also be a delicate and skilful act of considerateness. When he enters he 
takes rank as though he then first came. There has been a misdeal and 
all must begin again. He takes his order anew from entrance and con- 
version, and inherits naught from the evil monk who went forth. 
Besides, says our Holy Father, his humility will thus be tested and 
assurance obtained that he has amended and intends to become a new 
man. 2 St. Benedict does not mention other requirements, but it is 
probable that there was a public confession and apology followed by 
absolution, as in the case of the excommunicate (Chapter XLIV.). 
Marte'ne cites in full various ritual forms for the reception of renegades. 

Quod si denuo exierit, usque tertio Should he again depart, let him be 

recipiatur. Jam vero postea sciat, taken back until the third time. But 

omnem sibi reversionis aditum dene- let him know that after this all way of 

gari. return is denied him. 

We have seen how our Holy Father strives to avert and delay 
expulsion ; it remains now to observe how this penalty, though the end 
of so long a process, seems to him by no means final. We must admire 
such abounding charity. All other considerations yield to that of 
saving a soul from destruction. A brother leaves for the first time and 
he is received when he returns. A second tune he leaves and a second 
time is received on the same terms as before. And the same happens 
after a third departure : " let him be taken back until the third time." 3 
But he must know that henceforth all way of return is barred to him. 
There must be a limit; mercy has not been stinted, but these goings and 
comings must not become a mere game for the runaway and vexation 
for the community; we cannot favour instability, a thing specifically 
combated by our Holy Father. 

Nevertheless, in certain monasteries, for example at Cluny, the 
repentant monk was received back after a greater number of fruitless 

1 ST. BASIL is more strict: Reg. f us., xiv. 

8 Qui absque commonitione fratrum recesserit et postea acta panitentia venerit^ non erit 
in ordine suo absque majoris imperio (S. PACK., Reg., cxxxvi.). 

3 This explanation of usque tertio is proposed by the author of Explication ascetique 
et bistorique de la RPgle de saint Benoit, 1. 1., p. 429. In this way the reception of the 
monk on his first leaving the world and coming to the monastery is not counted among 
the three receptions. The critical editions read: usque tertio ita recipiatur. 



230 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

attempts. They believed that they were thus following St. Benedict's 
true intention. It was observed, with more subtlety than exactitude, 
that the text said that the monk who leaves more than three times must 
know that all return to the monastery is forbidden. Yes, said commen- 
tators, he must know that, he must know that he has no right to a fourth 
pardon. The threat will do him good. But the Abbot is free to decide 
differently; and though the door is closed to the monk, the Abbot may 
open it. Peter the Venerable himself had recourse to this kindly trick 
of interpretation in defending to St. Bernard the leniency of Cluny. 
However, he rested his case principally on more solid proofs. Would 
you then, he asked, introduce a new Gospel and put limits to mercy ? 
What was to become of declarations such as that of Our Lord to St. Peter : 
" Lord, how often shall my brother offend against me, and I forgive him ? 
Till seven times ? Jesus saith to him : I say not to thee, till seven times, 
but till seventy times seven times " (Matt, xviii. 21-22). 1 

1 PRTRI VENER., Epist., 1. 1., Ep. XXVIH. P.L., CLXXXIX., 127. 



CHAPTER XXX 
HOW TOUNG SOTS ARE TO BE CORRECTED 

DE PUERIS MINORI .STATE, QUAINTER Every age and understanding should 

CORRIPIANTUR. Omnis aetas vel Intel- have its due measure. As often, there- 

Icctus proprias debet habere mensuras. fore, as boys, or those under age, or 

Ideoque quoties pueri, vel adolescen- such as cannot fully understand the 

tiores state, aut qui minus intelligere greatness of the penalty of excom- 

possunt quanta poena sit excommunica- munication, commit faults, let them 

tionis, hi tales dum delinquunt, aut be punished by severe fasting or sharp 

jejuniis nimiis affligantur, aut acribus stripes, in order that they may be 

verberibus coerceantur, ut sanentur. cured. 

JUST as punishments should be graduated to suit the fault, so should 
they be proportioned to the years, understanding, and education of 
the individual. St. Benedict has already noted this, in the chapter 
on the Abbot and in the twenty-third chapter, so far as concerns 
understanding, but without explicit mention of differences of age. A 
reminder, therefore, at the close of his code of punishments, that many 
of its provisions by ho means suited the young, was not out of place. 
" Every age and every degree of intelligence should have its proper 
measure," its own methods of correction : this is the general principle. 
And our Holy Father proceeds at once to apply it to three classes of 
persons : children, adolescents, and those of limited understanding or 
small culture. 

The Rule does not determine the limits of childhood and adolescence, 
and this doubtless of set purpose ; for full responsibility and exact dis- 
cretion do not come to all at the same age. Farther on (in the seventieth 
chapter) St. Benedict lays it down that in what concerns external 
supervision the conditions of infancy (pueritia) should cease at the 
completion of the age of fourteen that is to say, at the age when Roman 
children generally discarded the toga pr&texta}- Adolescence, according 
to St. Isidore (who seems in this matter to have inspired the commen- 
tators), lasted to the age of twenty-eight. But it is clear that most 
monks could be brought under the full discipline of the Rule long before 
the expiration of this period. St. Benedict does not distinguish between 
boys and the younger religious ; what he requires is that there should be 
a special and identical regime for all in whom animal impulses pre- 
dominate. 

A first principle in education is to take men on the side by which 
they may be reached: by their intelligence if they have such; by their 
senses if intelligence is not yet sufficiently developed. Now, what is a 
child ? A being, doubtless, rich with future promise, but for the 
present scarce revealing any phenomena but those of the animal life. 

1 Sancta constitutions promulgate, pubertatem in mascults post quartum decimum annum 
completumillicoinitiumacciperedisposuimm . . . QUSTINIAN, /flm'f., I., tit. 22$ published 
A.D. 533). 

33* 



232 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

As we observed in the second chapter, it is by means of sweetmeats, or 
dry bread and the lash, that we teach him the ABC of conscience, the 
distinction between good and evil. To excommunicate such a one 
would be cruelty and folly; nor should we propose seriously to imprison 
children. In the case of the adolescent, we have got intelligence, but 
also the pride of intelligence as it awakens; there is conscience, but with 
it are crude or violent passions; we have to deal, not with dormant 
powers as in the case of the child, but with rebellion. Finally, by the 
side of these two classes must be ranged those persons who remain 
children all their lives, with nothing in their souls to check the impulses 
of instinct. Such persons, as St. Benedict insists, are little suited to 
comprehend the scope of a moral penalty like excommunication. 

So, when characters such as these commit faults, appeal must be made 
to their bodies, whether for repression or weakening. They may be 
weakened by severe fasting (by nimiis St. Benedict cannot mean excessive 
and indiscreet) ; their extravagances may be repressed by well-directed 
stripes. " In order that they may be cured " : for thus shall be established 
true moral health that is to say, the ordered and tranquil play of every 
energy, the balance and harmony of body and soul: Metis sana in corpore 
sano. 



CHAPTER XXXI 
OF THE CELLARER OF THE MONASTERY 

WE enter, with Chapter XXXI., upon that section of the Rule 
which is concerned with the working and material conditions 
of the monastery. The community has property, does 
work, and possesses tools for work; it must live and support 
itself. All this goes to make a considerable department, which is 
entrusted to the immediate or mediate care of him whom St. Benedict 
calls the " cellarer of the monastery," and whom other Rules call the 
provider, or the procurator, or, as Cassian does, the economus, who 
" presides over the deaconry." 1 In ancient writers the cellarius was a 
trusted servant who had charge of the cellar and the office, and dis- 
tributed their victuals to the slaves. But, in St. Benedict's use, as for 
. St. Pachomius and to some extent for all monks, the whole temporal 
administration devolved on the cellarer. We may easily measure the 
importance which St. Benedict attached to his office 'by the length of 
the chapter devoted to him, by the qualities which are required of him, 
and by the variety of the counsels that are given him. Among the 
sources of this chapter we may single out for special mention the twenty- 
fifth chapter of the Regula Orientalist 

DE CELLERARIO MONASTERii. Cel- Let there be chosen out of the com- 

lerarius monasterii eligatur de congre- munity as Cellarer of the monastery, 

gatione sapiens, maturus moribus, so- a man wise and of mature character, 

brius, non multum edax, non elatus, temperate, not a great eater, not 

non turbulentus, non injuriosus, non haughty, nor headstrong, nor offensive, 

tardus, non prodigus, sed timens Deum, not dilatory, nor wasteful, but a God- 

qui omni congregation! sit sicut pater, fearing man, who may be like a father 

to the whole community. 

The cellarer shall be elected or chosen by the Abbot; of that there 
can be no doubt, since St. Benedict entrusts to the Abbot the care of 
providing for the hierarchical organization of the monastery; but, In so 
important a matter, one which concerns the whole community, the 
Abbot shall take advice, if not of all the brethren, at least of the more 
prudent (Chapter LXV.). The cellarer shall be chosen from the bosom 
of the community: for it is obvious that to entrust the management 
of the possessions of the monastery to an outsider would be unkind to 
the community by ignoring them and would also be dangerous for the 
individual appointed. And should not a monastery be administered 
monastically ? A layman might be cleverer or more acquainted with 
business : but he might see just the business side and no other and fail 
to give things the importance which they have in reference to God. 
There is profitable business which we should despise, and unprofitable 

1 Conlat., XXL, i.; Inst., V., xl. 

8 Cf. S. BASIL., Reg. contr., cxi., cxii.,' cxiii, 



234 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

business which chanty bids us undertake. Only sons of the house know 
what suits the dignity of the house; and only a brother can set the souls 
of his brethren before temporal advantage. Finally, manual labour, 
and the different offices connected with it, are too much part of the web 
of our lives to be dependent on a stranger. All this is plain ; but perhaps 
our Holy Father merely means that he should be chosen from among 
all the brethren who possesses the requisite assemblage of qualities. 

St. Benedict enumerates the cellarer's virtues with extreme care. 
Nor is it difficult to explain such requirements. Monastic life depends 
on peacefulness and security, the individual living without care for 
material things and having no relations with the outside world. There 
are, however, three or four monks whose life is sacrificed to the well- 
being of all, who are denied this prayerful serenity and this recollection, 
and who by their very office are endangered, so that the rest may be 
saved. Such are the infirmarian, the guestmaster, the cellarer, and the 
Abbot. The cellarer, says St. Benedict, should be a " wise " man that 
is, circumspect and prudent, able to consider many points at the same 
time, and in his decisions to give due weight to each : wisdom is eminent 
knowledge, able to judge and ordain by reason of its eminence. He 
must be " of mature character." His years, or in default of years his 
innate seriousness (" a spotless life is old age," Wisd. iv. 9), will guard him 
from interior and exterior dangers. He must be " temperate, 1 not a 
great eater " ; 2 for, being in charge of the department of supplies and 
provisions, he must not be tempted to secure himself worldly comforts 
and privileges in food and drink thatwould soon degenerateintogluttony. 
Perhaps this counsel was especially opportune at a time when manners 
were barbarous and tended to excess; for nowadays we should be more 
inclined to advise the Abbot to choose a cellarer who both ate and 
drank. In fact it would be dangerous to entrust the victualling of the 
community either to an ascetic, a monk who lived very meagrely and 
always well within the average, or to a monk whose life was nothing but 
exceptions and who did not follow the general regime. The first 
cannot estimate correctly; his measure is too small: for we naturally 
take ourselves as the standard and are easily unmerciful with grievances 
which we ourselves do not feel. This state of things leads inevitably 
to murmuring, and would make many unable to face the essential work 
of their lives. On the other hand, we have a regime of exceptions, 
spreading from one to another through the whole monastery. 

Non flatus : he must not be proud. His office undoubtedly gives him 
an occasion for pride. The uniting of many functions in his hands, the 
dependence of all on him, the very custom which the Abbot wisely 
follows of keeping nothing in his own possession, but himself receiving 
what he needs from the cellarer: this subordination of all to him may 
insensibly become a temptation. Non turbulentus : he must not be 

1 Cf. CAI.MET., in b.L 

8 Reg. I., SS. PA r RUM, xii.: . . . Qui cellar turn fratrum contineat. Debet talis tan- 
tummodo eligi, gut possit in omnibus gulce su<e suggestionibus dominari. 



Of the Cellarer of the Monastery 235 

turbulent and a source of confusion; he should be of an equable and 
peaceful temper. Turbulence and caprice are everywhere and always 
objectionable: but they would be especially so in the case of one who 
has such serious responsibilities. Non injuriosus : he must not insult 
people, a thing to which impatience leads so quickly. The more various 
the interests he has to consider, the more resolute should be his calm 
serenity. We may add that this serenity implies constant union with 
God and cannot come merely from temperament. He especially should 
often repeat those words of the seventy-fifth psalm : " And his place 
is in peace and his abode in Sion." He must not be slow (non tardus) 
through avarice or meanness or natural carelessness; for the business 
entrusted, to him generally demands promptitude. Non prodigus : 
he, should not be wasteful, with a taste for extravagant expenditure. 
Nay, he shall be forgiven for being somewhat careful, a little close-fisted, 
so as to be a check on a hundred factitious requirements. In any case 
he must be exact, and get a clear idea of things, nor give the misguided 
man all he asks for a journey or purchase of any sort. The " fear of 
God " shall guide all his actions and inspire his decisions. And in 
temporal matters the cellarer must be "like a father to the whole 
community," not a mere business man, or harsh and heedless bailiff. 

Curam gerat de .omnibus: sine Let him have the care of every thing, 
jussione Abbatis nihil faciat. Quae but do nothing without leave of the 
jubentur, custodiat: fratres non con- Abbot. Let him take heed to what 
tristet. Si quis autem f rater ab eo is commanded him: let him not sadden 
forte aliquid irrationabiliter postulat, his brethren. If a brother ask him 
non spernendo eum contristet, sed for anything unreasonably, let him 
rationabiliter cum humilitate male not treat him with contempt and so 
petenti deneget. Animam suam cus- grieve him, but reasonably and with 
todiat, memor semper illius apostolic! all humility refuse what he asks for 
praecepti, quia qui bene ministraverit, amiss. Let him be watchful over his 
gradum bonum si bi acquirit. own soul, remembering always that 

saying of the Apostle, that "he that 
hath ministered well purchaseth to 
himself a good degree." 

Up to this point our Holy Father has been giving a rapid summary of 
the qualities which should determine the choice of a cellarer. He now 
speaks of his duties in general, describing his relations with the Abbot, 
and with his brethren, and finally what he should be himself. "Let 
him have the care of everything." To separate the offices which supply 
the material wants of the community and set them in a mere relation 
of juxtaposition to one another would be to open the door to disorder, 
waste, jealousy, and negligence. Not that one man is to do everything; 
but things will not be done and done well except there be a single 
directive authority. This authority the cellarer should have. No- 
thing should be withdrawn from his vigilant care. He shall be respon- 
sible for all; yet, as St. Benedict adds, he shall do nothing without leave 
of the Abbot, and his activities are to be controlled by his instructions: 



236 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

" let him take heed to what is commanded him." Of course in practical . 
concerns and matters of finance the Abbot will always be very ready 
to adopt the opinion of his cellarer, since more than any other he is 
conversant with such and is competent to deal with them. But, when 
all is said, the Abbot remains responsible and from him must come the 
decision. So after putting these various offices into the hands of the 
cellarer, St. Benedict would have these offices and their controller, 
the cellarer, remain unquestionably in the hands of the Abbot. 

He is not to sadden the brethren. 1 Here we have the most thorny 
problem of his administration. If every request were reasonable and 
discreet, and the function of the cellarer a mere giving of consent, there 
would be no need to bother about finding a prudent and judicious 
man for the post. But the cellarer must be able to say no, when a 
request is unjustified or unreasonable. Undoubtedly the cellarer's 
duty is simplified by the fact that he gives nothing save by express or 
tacit permission of the Abbot; but there still remains scope, in the 
ordinary duties of his office, for the exercise of this wise counsel of our 
Holy Father. He may be asked for what is unreasonable. Let him 
learn to refuse it reasonably that is, explaining the refusal, simply, 
humbly, sweetly, without insult or taunt; so that the brother who 
prefers the unreasonable request may not be able to charge him with 
impatience or prejudice, whether in the substance or the manner of 
his refusal. There is a manner of giving which enhances the gift; so, 
too, there is a manner of refusing which softens the refusal: spiritual 
tact will find this manner. 2 St. Benedict's aim is to banish murmuring, 
to secure gentleness with souls, and to spare the Abbot those trouble- 
some appeals which the aggrieved monk naturally brings to his tribunal. 
The cellarer must be amiable. He has not to be a sort of hedgehog in 
the community, getting into an attitude of defence whenever anyone 
approaches him, because he guesses -what the matter is. If people 
are compelled to take their courage in both hands when they have any 
request to make of him, and if they only make up their minds to face 
him in the last extremity, then monastic poverty is in great danger; 
for, to avoid these painful interviews, the brethren will be strongly 
tempted to provide themselves with what is necessary, and presently 
with what is superfluous. 

Animam mam custodial. In these words we have the duty of the 
cellarer as regards himself. He must guard his soul against the dissi- 
pation inevitably induced by the care of material things and somewhat 
frequent relations with the w6rld. He should be a more interior man 
and a better monk than his brethren. The more he is drawn out to the 
external by the nature of his occupations, the more should he turn in 

1 Ne contristes fratrem tuum, quia monacbus es (Verba Seniorum: VitcePatrum, III., 
170. ROSWEYD, p. 526). 

8 Supplicem nullum spernas, et cui dare non poles quod petierit, non eum spernas; si potes 
dare, da; si non potes, affabilem te prasta (S. AUG., Enarr. I. in Psal. ciii. 19. P.L., 
XXXVII., 1351). 



Of the Cellarer of the Monastery 237 

to his centre and to God, and so escape dissipation and aridity. Such 
is the meaning generally given to St. Benedict's words, and the interpre- 
tation is accurate. Yet we may bring out the meaning more fully, if we 
consider the motive which goes with the counsel viz., that the cellarer 
should remember the reward that is promised him. The words " let 
him be watchful over his own soul !" recall the Gospel sentence : " In 
your patience you shall possess your souls " (Luke xxi. 19) ; for to watch 
over and to possess the soul mean the same. Perhaps dissipation is not 
the only danger to which a cellarer is exposed; he may let his soul escape 
his grasp by impatience or ennui. Great is his temptation, every day 
and every moment and lasting for years; for the capable cellarer is a 
precious pearl and is jealously kept. His life does not belong to himself; 
unwittingly a conspiracy of all is formed against his peace; he is most 
exposed to the petty importunities and annoyances of the brethren. 
And if he has a taste for the things of the mind and for piety, how heroic 
is that abnegation which purchases the peace and security of all ! Yet 
the cellarer should not dwell upon his toil and sacrifice and servitude, 
but remember only what the Apostle said of deacons who fulfilled their 
duties diligently: "They that have ministered well shall purchase to 
themselves a good degree and much confidence in the faith which is in 
Christ Jesus " (i Tim. iii. I3.) 1 For God is just and without doubt will 
give a large share of the merits of the community to those whose devot- 
edness permits the community to serve Him in peace. The " good 
degree " here promised is not promotion in the worldly sense: it is a 
better position henceforth and for ever in nearness to God. 

Infirmorum, infantium, hospitum, Let him have especial care of the 
pauperumque cum omni sollicitudine sick, of the children, of guests, and of 
curam gerat, sciens sine dubio, quia pro the poor, knowing without doubt that 
his omnibus in die judicii rationem he will have to render an account of all 
redditurus est. Omnia vasa monasterii these on the Day of Judgement. Let 
cunctamque substantiam, ac si altaris him look upon all the vessels and goods 
vasa sacrata conspiciat. Nihil ducat of the Monastery as though they were 
negligendum: neque avaritiae studeat, the consecrated vessels of the altar, 
neque prodigus sit, aut extirpator Let him not think that he may neglect 
substantial monasterii ; sedomnia men- anything: let him not be given to 
surate faciat, et secundum jussionem covetousness, nor wasteful, nor a 
Abbatis sui. squanderer of the goods of the monas- 

tery; but do all things in proper 
measure, and according to the bidding 
of his Abbot. 

The Rule, considering more in detail the duties of the cellarer, 
specifies the privileged objects of his care and determines the true 
character of his administration . The sick and children of the monastery, 
guests, and the poor that present themselves : all these have an especial 
title to the good offices and the generosity of the cellarer. The Abbot 

1 The First Rule of the HOLY FATHERS also said : Studere debet qui Bute officio deputatur, 
ut audiat: Quia qui bene ministraverit, bonum gradum acquirit; et animce sues lucrum 
facit (xii.). 



238 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

and community count upon him to exercise those works of mercy which 
are expected from a monastery. And, in order to awaken his zeal, 
St. Benedict treats him as he did the Abbot, appealing to his conscience 
and reminding him that without doubt he will have to render an account 
of all his deeds on the Day of Judgement. 

All the tools and vessels of the monastery, all its goods, whether real 
or personal, must be regarded by him and treated as though they were 
the consecrated vessels of the altar. This is a strong statement and 
would even seem exaggerated; yet it is common to the ancient monastic 
Rules. To the question: "How should workers care for the tools or 
implements of their work ?" St. Basil answers : " First they should treat 
them as though they were the vessels of God, even as those already con- 
secrated to His service. Then as not being able without them to profit 
by their devotedness and zeal. ... If a man misuse them, he is to be 
adjudged guilty of sacrilege; if a man destroy them .by his negligence, 
he incurs the same charge; for all things which are appointed for the 
use of the servants of God are without doubt consecrated to God." 
The same teaching is to be found in the first Rule of the Holy Fathers 
and in Cassian. 1 Despite the legal arrangements which communities 
are forced to adopt in order to resist the encroachments of an infidel 
State, the only true proprietor of monastic property is God, neither one 
nor many religious nor the corporate community itself. Both persons 
and property belong to God. What consecration does for the vessels 
of the altar is done for monks by their profession, for their property 
by its devotion to God's service. Perhaps it is this quality of monastic 
property, more than its actual value, which commends it to the rapacity 
of God's enemies. But our use of God's resources, which as our Father 
He gives for our enjoyment and entrusts to our administration, must 
be guided by the inspiration of faith. Neither Abbot nor cellarer may 
make away with or squander these resources without dishonouring God 
and frustrating His designs; their consciences will even forbid them to 
surrender part to iniquitous exaction, with the purpose in itself very 
human of possessing the rest in peace. The property may be taken 
from them; but they may not give it away or divert it from its true end. 
Nihil ducat negligendum. . . . Since all the possessions of the 
monastery, movable or not, are the property of God, the cellarer may 
treat none with negligence. No sort of economy, as we are told, should 
be despised ; but here it is a question not of economy, but rather 
of respect and supernatural fidelity. Negligence in such circumstances 
may easily acquire the malice of sacrilege. Neque avaritits studeat: 
by which remark St. Benedict would anticipate and prevent the mistake 
of a cellarer who should interpret the previous counsel to suit his own 
wishes. For the desire to amass and to keep, which is impossible of 
realization by the other religious, may be realized by him. The habit 
of handling money, the need of skilful management and carefulness, 
combined, it may be, with a natural leaning towards excessive economy: 

1 S. BASIL., Reg. contr., ciii., civ. Reg. I. SS. PATRUM, xii. CASS., Itut., IV., six., xx. 



Of the Cellarer of the Monastery 239 

all these, assisted by age, may make a man who has renounced personal 
ownership, the very type of a proprietor, in the pretended interest of the 
community. What ingenious reasons self-interest can find to satisfy 
its desires and bring about ownership under the very shelter of the vow 
of poverty ! So he accumulates, and defends against all approach and 
against all use with which he does not agree, possessions of which he is only 
the temporary administrator; he creates an unlimited reserve, though 
the property, like the persons of a monastery, once they pass a certain 
point, should fructify for God that is, serve for the foundation of new 
centres of teaching and prayer. 

There is another danger: prodigality, the squandering of the re- 
sources of the monastery. To see a religious house go bankrupt is not 
an edifying spectacle; nor should it groan under a burden of debt. As 
we have already remarked, religious poverty requires a margin of sub- 
sistence. A monk should never be forced by the notorious distress of 
his house to provide for himself, to go begging from all sides, to impor- 
tune parents and benefactors. The worst may be feared if the cellarer 
is a " hustler," enamoured of imposing purchases, which are no sooner 
made than they are found useless and sold at a loss ; if he is partial to 
mining shares and remote speculations; if he has an incorrigible love for 
bricks and mortar. Rather than abandon himself to covetousness or 
prodigality, let him listen to our Holy Father's appeal and do all things 
in proper measure, keeping the mean between both extremes. If he 
would not give way to inclination or temperament, let him keep the 
Abbot informed of his administration, and follow in all things the orders 
and views of his superior, who must not stand aside. 

Humilitatem ante omnia habeat, Let him above all things have 

et cui substantia non est qua; tribuatur, humility; and to him on whom he has 

sermo responsionis porrigatur bonus, nothing else to bestow, let him give 

quia scriptum est: Sermo bonus super at least a kind answer, as it is written: 

datum optimum. " A good word is above the best gift." 

St. Benedict has treated of the qualities and duties of the cellarer 
in a general and theoretical fashion; he now considers him in the actual 
and concrete exercise of his office, so as to emphasize anew the attitude 
which is expected from him towards the Abbot and towards his brethren. 
" Let him above all things have humility." To meet the special diffi- 
culties of his charge the cellarer should, as we have said, be a better 
monk than all; therefore should he possess, more deeply and strongly 
entrenched in his soul, that virtue which makes the monk, humility. 
Humility has been defined as " submission to God and to every creature 
for love of God "; to which we would fain add " peaceful and constant 
union with God." By the assiduous practice of this union the cellarer 
will spare himself a thousand blunders and his neighbour many a petty 
annoyance. Let us admire once more St. Benedict's spiritual skill. 
Instead of describing minutely the methods and particular means which 
the cellarer must use, instead of furnishing him with a ready-made mind, 
he educates him from within and gives him a soul. 



240 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

The humility of the cellarer will show itself especially, says the Rule, 
in his manner of refusing monks what he cannot or ought not to give 
them. He should remember that he is their brother and their equal, 
their servant rather than their master, and that the favours which he 
grants or withholds are not his nor personal to him. A rough or con- 
temptuous refusal is cruel. And, if you must disappoint, you need not 
do it tauntingly. How excellent is kindness, and how little it costs ! 
Just a word of regret, some small .compensation, a promise, an affable 
air, a friendly smile. If the money or object which is asked for cannot 
be given, then " let him give at least a kind answer " : which words are 
almost those of Ecclesiasticus (xviii. 16-17) : " A good word is above 
the best gift." 

Omnia quae ei injunxerit Abbas, Let him have under his care all 
ipse habeat sub cura sua; a quibus eum that the Abbot may enjoin him, and 
prohibuerit, non praesumat. presume not to meddle with what is 

forbidden him. 

A third time St. Benedict reminds the cellarer that he should con- 
form in all things to the orders and directions of his Abbot; a thing 
required by humility and obedience. Office is made easy when one is 
determined to be absolutely docile. Perhaps this third instruction has 
a new meaning. As we said a moment ago, it is very important that the 
whole material administration of the monastery should be unified. 
But one man cannot manage the manifold interests of a great monastery, 
nor need he necessarily possess all-round aptitude. So the Abbot may 
relieve a cellarer of the immediate care of several matters. Some cel- 
larers will want to keep everything in their own hands, while others 
will disburden themselves according to their own good pleasure; either 
attitude is harmful and dangerous. The difficulty is met and solved 
by the Abbot's authority: he must himself choose the different officials 
and define exactly the scope and limits of their offices! So let the 
cellarer look to all that the Abbot may enjoin him, but let him not 
meddle with matters in which he has been requested not to interfere. 
To appeal to monastic custom, to vindicate haughtily the supposed 
rights of his office, and to search the chronicles of the Order for proof 
of his case such procedure would be childish. 

Fratribus constitutam annonam Let him distribute to the brethren 
sine aliquo typo vel mora offerat, ut their appointed allowance of food, 
non scandatizentur, memor divini without arrogance or delay, that they 
eloquii, quid mereatur qui scandaliza- be not scandalized: mindful of what 
verit unum de pusillis. the Word of God declares him to 

deserve, who " shall scandalize one of 

these little ones." 

It is to the cellarer, as we shall see in the succeeding chapters, that 
St. Benedict entrusts the care and distribution of food. The Rule 
determines what should be given to the monks at each meal ; it provides 
for certain cases when the Abbot may somewhat increase and alter the 



Of the Cellarer of the Monastery 241 

allowance of food and drink. By constitutam annonam St. Benedict 
means this fixed portion, the regular allowance given to those serving 
under the standard of God. Perhaps, by an extreme care for the 
finances of the monastery or from fear of scarcity to come, the cellarer 
might sometimes be tempted to reduce the portion fixed by the Abbot, 
or at least to grant it with regret, with a sort of jealousy and a disagreeable 
reluctance. The Life of St. Benedict gives a sketch of one of these 
too conscientious cellarers. 1 A cellarer might even go so far as to 
season with ungracious comment the portion that he has been compelled 
to give. Our Holy Father warns him against a temper which would 
wound charity and obedience and true monastic poverty: sine aliquo 
typo vel mora offer at? Refusals, grumbling, and niggardliness would 
cause trouble in the community. For men are not angels, and they must 
eat; neither are all men perfect, and, when they have just cause to com- 
plain, they do complain. Our Holy Father sets such value on peace 
and charity in the community that his language becomes severe and he 
recalls the Gospel menaces against those who sow discord and give 
scandal, be it only to one of the little children of God (Matt, xviii. 6). 

Si congregatio major fuerit, solatia If the community be large, let 

ei dentur, a quibus adjutus, et ipse helpers be given to him, by whose aid 

aequo animo impleat officium sibi com- he may with peace of mind discharge 

missum. Horis competentibus dentur the office committed to him. Let 

quae danda sunt, et petantur quae such things as are necessary be given 

petenda sunt: ut nemo perturbetur, and asked for at befitting times, that 

neque contristetur in domo Dei. no one may be troubled or grieved in 

the house of God. 

The intention of these last words is to secure the cellarer himself 
some peace and leisure. In the first place, if the community is large, 
the Abbot shall give him assistants, so that he may be able to discharge 
the office committed to him with an equable and tranquil soul. But it 
will relieve him more than all else if the brethren are considerate and 
take care to make their requests to him only at the proper times; while 
on his part he should give what he has to give in due time and at fixed 
hours. The brethren should know how to wait for a suitable oppor- 
tunity, and should ask themselves, when they go to the cellarer, whether 
he is not occupied by business of greater moment. That man has neither 
good manners nor charity who jumps up as soon as he feels a need and 
runs off to the cellarer, at any hour of the day "and of silence tune, 
immediately the notion enters his head. We may remark that the 

1 S. GREG. M., Dial., 1. II., c. xxviii., zxix. 

* The scribes sometimes wrote typo, sometimes typbo: the latter reading is the better. 
The word is Latinized Greek : rQ<f>os, smoke, smoke of pride or arrogance; in Hippocrates 
it means torpor, stupor, lethargy. If St. Benedict had this latter sense in mind, typus 
and mora would be very nearly synonymous; what he wanted to say was: without 
arrogance, cum bumilitate, as before and for a third time. St. Benedict's words recall 
ST. AUGUSTINE: oblationes pro spiritibus dormienti um . . . super ipsas memorias non sint 
sumptuosa, atque omnibus petentibus sine typbo et cum alacritate prabeantur (Epist. XXII., 
6. P.L.j XXXIII., 92). 



242 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

<*** 

recollected and studious wait most willingly and are-most* economical 
of the time of others. 

We might give to St. Benedict's words a general application. There 
is practically but one man in the monastery to whom this rule does not 
apply that is, the Abbot. He is yours wholly. You may be passing 
his room and you go in, with nothing to say or ask for, but simply be- 
cause your heart is so inclined. You receive his blessing and you are 
dismissed, if he is very busy, or else you chat for a moment. It is the 
Abbot's privilege to be accessible at every hour, and that is the advantage 
of his office; good monks will take care that they do not deprive him of 
it. Having made this observation let us hold fast to St. Benedict's 
principle: that no one should be troubled or grieved in the house of 
God. We were created and put in the world to be happy. Superiors 
have no mission to try the patience of their monks by deliberate rebuffs, 
nor have monks to burden beyond measure the shoulders of those who 
carry them. The monastery is the " house of God," and therefore 
the house of peace and the threshold of eternity : Urbs Jerusalem btata, 
dicta pacts visio. 



, .. ,. ,. , 
L-' a/ vs v/ a/-\9 J a>\s v/ a/ vs'w' QJ vs */' e> vs 



CHAPTER XXXII 

OP THE TOOLS AND PROPERTY OF THE MONASTERY 

DE FERRAMENTIS VEL REBUS MONAs- Let the Abbot appoint brethren, 
TERi^r-Substantiae monasterii in ferra- on whose manner of life and character 
mentis, vel vestibus, seu quibuslibet he can rely, to the charge of the tools, 
rebus, provideat Abbas fratres, de clothes, and other property of the 
quorum vita et moribus securus sit: et monastery; and let him consign the 
us singula, ut utile judicaverit, con- various, things to their charge, as he 
signet custodienda atque recolligenda. shall think fit, to be kept and to be 
Ex quibus Abbas breve teneat: ut dum collected after use. Of these let the 
sibi in ipsa assignata fratres vicissim Abbot keep a list, so that as the 
succedunt, sciat quid dat aut quid brethren succeed to different employ- 
recipit. Si quis autem sordide aut ments, he may know what he gives 
negUgenter res monasterii tractaverit, and what he receives back. If anyone 
corripiatur; si non emendaverit, dis- treat the property of the monastery 
ciplinae regulari subjaceat. in a slovenly or negligent manner, let 

him be corrected; and if he do not 
amend, let him be subjected to the 
discipline of the Rule. 

connection of this chapter with the preceding one is obvious. 
Both treat of the property of the monastery, and the thirty- 
second mentions some of those assistants that the cellarer was 
promised in the thirty-first. 
The Abbot has to entrust to brethren whose good life and steady 
character he knows, and in whom he can repose all confidence, whatever 
tools, clothes, or other movable property the monastery may possess. 
He must assign to each, according as he thinks fit, a special depart- 
ment, with the duty of guarding and preserving the implements 
pertaining to his department. To prevent their being lost, they will 
see to their return, after use, to the regular place; consignet custodienda 
atque recolligenda. So the cellarer does not himself choose his assist- 
ants, but is given them by the Abbot. One will have charge of tools, 
another, of clothes, another of the library, and so on. The immediate 
control of the commissariat and the kitchen remains in the hands of the 
cellarer. 

There is nothing to prove that in St. Benedict's time tools were 
given out for a week only, and that all the offices here mentioned 
changed their holders periodically, as in the service of the kitchen, and 
in conformity with the ordinance of St. Pachomius: "When the 
week is finished all tools shall be brought back to one house; and let 
those who follow every week know what to give out to the various 
houses." 1 St. Benedict foresees, however, that the brethren will follow 
one another in the custody of the things entrusted to them; and, 
since they might be tempted to accuse one another of negligence, he 

1 ST. PACK., Rule. Ixvi.; cf. xxv., zxvi., xxvii. 
243 




244 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

makes a point of fixing responsibility. So the Abbot, never abdicating 
his position, must keep by him an account and inventory (brevi) of all 
things given out; in order that he may know exactly what he gives and 
what is given back to him. This is that excellent precaution of accurate . 
book-keeping. Calmet appositely notices the analogies between our 
Holy Father's arrangements and those of the Latin agricultural writers, 
Columella and Varro. ^^ 

In the third and final sentence of this chapter our Holy Father 
declares that punishment will be inflicted on those who treat the pro- 
perty of the monastery in a slovenly or careless manner viz., a repri- 
mand, and if that be unsuccessful, the application of the various penalties 
comprised in the discipline of the Rule. " If any of the brethren shall 
treat anything negligently," says the first Rule of the Holy Fathfrs t 
" let him know that his part is with that king who drank in the sacred 
vessels of God's House with his concubines, and let him remember 
the punishment he earned." 1 In the world a man is impelled to care for 
himself and his possessions, to be thrifty and businesslike, by different 
motives : by consideration for his well-being and the well-being and social 
standing of his family, and by the sentiment of personal ownership. 
Children are rarely careful, because they have little foresight ; communists 
and socialists, who give all ownership to collective bodies or to the State, 
will with difficulty solve the problem of work and economy. The monas- 
tic life alone has found the means, while suppressing personal ownership,; 
of furnishing work, economy, and carefulness, not with any ordinary 
motive or stimulus, but with the most powerful of all: the conviction, 
that is, that we work for God and that our respect is paid to His property. 
Yet it is imperative that these considerations should not remain in the 
region of abstract theory, but be practically realized by the individual 
in his conduct. This done, it is not external order only and health 
that benefit by scrupulous care of clothes, person, cell, books, tools, and 
all else, but our souls also, our delicacy of conscience, our spiritual 
family, and even God Himself. 

1 C. aani. And ST. CJESARIUS: Qua cellario rive canava, rive vestibus, vel codicibui, 
aut posticio, vel lattipendio praponuntur y super Evangeliuik cloves accipiant t et sine 
murmuratione serviant reliquis. Si qua vero vestimenta, calceamenta, utensilia negligentcr 
expendenda vel custodienda putarint, tanquam interversores return monasterialium severius 
corrigantur (Reg. ad virg., xxx.). 



CHAPTER XXXIII 

WHETHER MONKS OUGHT TO HAVE ANYTHING OF 

THEIR OWN* 

Si QUID DEBEANT MONACHi FRO- Above all let the vice of private 

PRIUM HABERE. Prxcipue hoc vitium ownership be cut oflE from the monas- 

radicitus amputetur de monasterio, ne tery by the roots. Let none presume 

quis praesumat aliquid dare aut accipere to give or receive anything without 

sine jussione Abbatis, neque aliquid leave of the Abbot, or to keep any- 

habere proprium, nullam omnino rem, thing as their own, either book or 

neque codicem, neque tabulas, neque writing-tablet or pen, or anything 

graphium, sed nihil omnino: quippe whatsoever; since they are permitted 

quibus nee corpora sua, nee voluntates to have neither body nor will in their 

licet habere in propria potestate. own power. 

AGAIN it is in reference to the cellarer and his office that our Holy 
A Father describes for us. the position of monks with regard to 
J"A temporal goods, and tells us under what conditions and in what 
**. measure they may use them. Before St. Benedict's time, as 
after it, poverty was always one of the three essential obligations of the 
religious life; and if our Holy Father does not require his disciples to 
take, an explicit vow of chastity or poverty, the reason is that they are 
included in the promise to observe monastic customs and the monastic 
mode of life: that is in the vow of conversio morum. That the monk is 
poor by the very fact of his state of life was a principle universally 
accepted; and so St. Benedict is able to embark without any preface, and 
so to say ex abrupto, on his provisions for the exclusion of all personal 
ownership. 

" Above all let this vice of private ownership be cut off from the 
monastery by the roots"; 2 farther on he calls it "this most baneful 
vice." Such words as these, for all their appearance of extreme and 
rather excessive vigour, are yet not more than prudent. For in this 
matter nothing is trivial. Doubtless poverty belongs to the more 
external side of Our religious promises; for while I give God my will by 
obedience and my body by chastity, it would seem that by poverty I 
only give external goods and the rights attaching to them. But for 
the very reason that poverty is more external it is more open to menace, 
just as the most advanced works of a fortress are those first attacked by 
the enemy. So long as these works remain intact and stoutly defended, 
the fortress has nothing to fear; but if they be taken the most central 
parts are no longer secure, and it often happens that those works are 
turned against a position, which were laboriously constructed for its 
defence. . Experience teaches that religious apostasy nearly always 
begins with some breach of poverty. Infidelities multiply and con- 

1 This is ST. BASIL'S title, or rather his question: Si debet babere aliquid 
qui tnterfratret est f (Reg. coittr., zxix.). 

* Both thought and phrase come from CASSIAN, Conlat. t XVI., vi. 

245 



246 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

science slumbers. A man speaks thus to himself: "The thing is so 
trivial; I should certainly get permission if I asked. And I cannot be 
bothering the Abbot with these petty details. Perhaps he would not 
understand how useful these things are to me, how necessary for my 
health and my studies. This has been of great service to me before now; 
it is so convenient and I am used to it. I have a prescriptive right to it." 
When personal ownership is re-established, under whatever form, we 
are no longer in God's house, but in our own, among our goods and 
chattels or in "furnished apartments"; for our relation to God is 
instantly changed. Again there is meum and tuum; self-interest re- 
appears and with it jealousy and conflict; for our relations to our neigh- 
bours are also instantly changed. We return to the conditions of 
ordinary worldly life, but with a mean and base addition, the disgrace 
of a broken vow. 

After having proscribed the vice of ownership in general, St. Benedict 
enumerates the different acts of ownership which are forbidden to monks 
viz., giving, receiving, and keeping. 1 The qualification: "without 
leave of the Abbot " will be explained later. So as to preclude all the 
petty devices of self-interest and to keep off all too liberal interpretations 
of the law, our Holy Fathei\declares in forcible terms that a monk may 
| _own nothing whatsoever (nullam omnino reni) not even trivial things, 
' not even articles of prime necessity to students, such as books, writing- 
tablets, pens. All these things are given us only ad usum, not for a use 
which is of right and perpetual, but for a use of fact, revocable at pleasure 
; by the superior.^ And St. Benedict repeats the point in the words: 
, sed nihil omnina/. We shall find the same rigorous ordinance in the 
; fifty-eighth chapter, and the sentence which follows occurs there too, 
though in a less complete form. From the moment of their profession 
j monks may possess nothing, " since they are no longer permitted to have 
either body or will in their own power." 2 What is our Holy Father's 
exact meaning ? Would he suggest that, since the monk has given his 
person to religion, it should be much easier for him to consent to the 
abandonment of his property, which is external to himself and of less 
value ? Or would he merely mark the fact that the monk's dispoliatipn 
must be quite radical, "since neither body nor will is any longer in his 
own power." It seems to us that the words of St. Benedict have here 

1 As sources of this chapter we may indicate once for all the following: S. PACK., 
Reg., Ixxxi., cvi. S. Oztitsn Doctrina, xxi.-xxiii. Reg. II. SS. PATRUM., i. -Reg. 
Orient.^ xxx.-xxxi. S. BASIL., Reg. contr., xxix.-xxxi., xcviii.-xcix. S. AUG., Epist. 
CCXI., 5 (P.L., XXXIII., 960). SULP. SEV., Vita B. Martini, x. (P.L., XX:, 166). 
S. CSSAR., Reg. ad man., i.-iii., xv., xvi.; Reg. ad virg., passim. CAPS., Inst., IV., xiii. 

* Qui seipsum el membra sua tradidit in alterius potestatem propter mandatum Domini 
(S. BASIL., Reg. contr., cvi.). Ne sui quidem ipsius esse se dominum vel potestatem babere 
cogHoscat (CASS., Inst., II., iii.). See also S. MACAR., Reg., xxiv. We read in the Con- 
stitutiones monast., c. xx. (inter opp. S. BASILII. P.O., XXXI., 1393): Tu autem mortuus es, 
et toti mundo crucifixus, Rejectis enim terrenis divitiis dmplexus es paupertatem; et cum 
te ipse dicasti Deo, Deifactus es thesaurus . . . Nibil omnino possidens, nibil babes quod 
largiaris. Imo etiam cum ipsum corpus obtuleris et de catero ne illius quidem potestatem 
habeas, tanquam quod res sit Deo consecrata, tibi eo uti non licet ad bumanum usum. 



Ought Monks to have anything of their Own? 247 

a juridical force, a formal practical reference. Goods, which of them- 
selves belong to no one, do not become ours save by means of two acts: 
the first an act of our positive will, for no one can be an owner in his 
own despite, and even for an inheritance acceptance is necessary; the 
other an act of our body, which occupies the object and awards it, 
whether by its labour or by some external form, to the person. If one 
or other of these elements be wanting, and a fortiori if there be neither 
internal act of will nor external occupation, ownership does not exist. 
Now this, to St. Benedict's mind, is precisely the case of the monk: he is 
incapable of possessing, since his body and will, the necessary instruments 
of personal appropriation, belong to him no more. 

Does this mean that profession makes the religious radically incapable 
of the act of acquisition or of exercising any sort of ownership ? To 
appreciate the point perfectly we should remember that according to 
the actual legislation of the Church vows are of two kinds, simple and 
solemn. The simple vow of poverty leaves the religious the bare owner- 
ship of his property, but does not permit him its administration or use 
save under the control of his superior; for the monk's will must be made 
competent by the will of his Abbot, ^he case is different with the 
solemn vow. To be quite precise the solemnity of the vow consists 
in the intervention of the Sovereign Pontiff; for the vow is regarded as 
uttered in his presence and accepted by him. Henceforth he alone may 
dispense, since it is the common character of every case that is taken to 
Rome and in which Rome intervenes, though it be incidentally only, to 
be withdrawn ipso facto from any inferior jurisdiction. The solemnlypro- 
fessed monk loses both the bare ownership and the administration of his 
property; yet he may be empowered by the Holy See to perform certain 
acts of ownership, notwithstanding his vow and without breaking it, 
as is proved by certain papal decisions of the eighteenth and nineteenth 
centuries. In certain cases the Church has authorized religious to attest 
the reality of their ownership under oath before the civil courts. But, 
for all that, they do not cease to be poor, since even then they are owners 
only within the limits set by obedience and by the will of the Holy See. 
So we cannot say unreservedly that solemn profession entails an absolute 
and final incapacity to possess. 

Moreover, even without taking irito consideration extraordinary 
cases and dispensations, it is correct and wise to hold that, in a general 
way, the monk in solemn vows always remains capable of real acquisition, 
that the animus domini can really exist in him. The terse axiom of 
canon law which decides the point says so twice in the words: Quod 
monachus acquirit monasterio acquirit. A monk acquires property, and 
acquires it for his monastery; whether it be by labour, gift, bequest, or 
inheritance. He is incapable of acquiring for himself in proprietatf, 
with rights of ownership; but acquires for the monastery to which he 
belongs. His union with the monastery and incorporation in it are so 
complete that, except he has settled in due time (before his vows) what 
shall become of anything that comes to him later, the monastery inherits. 



248, Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

at once all the property that falls to a monk. We should not regard the 
system of "la mort civile" (civil death) which was introduced in 
France during the fifteenth century as an ideal state of things for 
monasticism. By this system religious were, so to say, struck out of the 
list of the living, both in their active and passive relations, so that any 
legacy, instead of going to them and their monastery, passed by law to 
their heirs. This was an injustice, a perverse precaution against the 
excessive extension of mortmain, a socialistic ordinance suppressing 
ownership by State authority, a prelude to the spoliations of the eigh- 
teenth century. Some have found the theory of " civil death " in the 
laws of Justinian; but a close- perusal shows, on the contrary, that these 
laws .sanctioned the bestowal of a monk's property on the monastery 
and even authorized a bequest to be made in favour of the monastery 
in certain cases. St. Gregory the Great 1 cites these laws and bases his 
action on their decision, so far as they were Christian and equitable; 
but there is nothing to prove that he wished to give them ecclesiastical 
authority. 

Omnia vero necessaria a patre But let them hope to receive all 

monasterii sperare ; nee quicquam Uceat that is necessary from the father of the 

habere, quod Abbas non dederit aut monastery; nor let them be allowed to 

permiserit. Omniaque omnibus sint keep anything which the Abbot has 

communia, ut scrip turn est, nee quis- not given or permitted. Let all things 

quam suum esse aliquid dicat aut praesu- be common to all, as it is written, nor 

mat. let anyone say or assume that aught 

is his own. 

So far St. Bejiedict has given only negative precepts; now he tells 
us how the monks are provided with the things indispensable for their 
life and state. They must expect to receive them from the father of 
the monastery, and they must not keep anything whatever that the Abbot 
has not given or permitted. We should take careful note that herein 
consists the true essence of our poverty. For there are different types 
of poverty. There is the poverty of St. Cajetan and apostolic men; 
there is poverty relieved by manual labour; there is poverty relieved 
by begging; there is poverty with community of goods; there is the 
poverty of the Capuchins and Friars Minor of the observance, who may , 
possess neither real nor personal property. And all are good; all have 
their origin in facts of history which gave each its special character. 
St. Benedict's conception is as follows. We are children of a family, 
forming the family of God and remaining minors till eternity. We 
live in our Father's house, the house of God. All the possessions of the 
monastery are His and He dispenses to us what we need by the hands 
of the Abbot, His representative. We are poor, not when we are in 
want of all things and suffer from scarcity,? but when we have nothing 

1 Epist., llV.,Ep. VI.; 1. IX., Ep. VII., Ep. CXIV. P.L., LXXVIL, 670-673, 
945-947, 1044-1045. See the edition of E WOLD and HARTMAN, M.G.H.: Epist., 1. 1., 
pp. 237-238; t. II., pp. 185-186, 215-216. . 

' Nor was this the ideal of ST. GREGORY THE GREAT, who. wrote: Religiosam vitam 
eligentibus congrna not oportet consideratione prospicere, ne cujusdam necessitous occasio aut 





Ought Monks to have anything of their Own? 249 

in our possession save what, the Abbot has given us or permitted us to 
keep. The Abbot is responsible to God both for what he refuses and 
for what he gives; yet each individual should help him to fulfil his rdle 
of guardian of poverty by reducing his requirements. 1 It appears to 
us that a man has the Benedictine spirit when he takes naturally to these 
elementary principles. 

Not even when certain possessions are left to the disposal of a monk 
is there ownership; no one should make anything his own, whatever it 
be, either in thought or word. This is the monastic tradition. 2 All is 
common, and the same property is for the use of all. This is a holy, 
well-regulated communism, and not anarchy. It is a return, prudently 
and with limitations, to the conditions of the Church of Jerusalem 
(Acts iv. 32) ; God alone possesses, and we rely upon Him, thus realizing 
the ideal traced in the. Sermon on the Mount. We retain no single 
care, our liberty is complete. Nothing embarrasses or occupies our 
activity, in the way that possession of any sort generally does; for every 
proprietor is the slave of his property, often belonging only half or even 
less to the things of God. That is why the religious soul should be 
free of it all, free from all material possessions, from all immoderate 
desires, from all deliberate attachment to any good which is not God. 
Riches, in themselves, are neither good nor bad; nor is poverty itself 
good, save when it permits us to enjoy the Sovereign Good in all com- 
pleteness. Is not, therefore, that form of poverty the best which most 
effectively conduces to this leisure of soul and union with God? 3 
Poverty, as St. Benedict understands it, secures us our subsistence and 
banishes all care, secures us a position of legitimate and necessary 
independence, secures us liberty to go to God, secures our obedience and 
submission to the Abbot, secures our fraternal charity, since there is 
no longer " mine and thine," secures our charity towards God, and our 
perfection. 

Quod si quisquam hoc nequissimo But if anyone shall be found to 
vitio deprehensus fuerit delectari, ad- indulge in this most baneful vice, and 
moneatur semel et iterum: si non after one or two admonitions do not 
emendaverit, correction! subjaceat. amend, let him be subjected to 

correction. 

desides facial aut robur, quod absit, conversations infringat (Epist., 1. III., .Ep. XVII., 
P.L., LXXVII., 617; M.G.H.: Epist., 1. 1., p. 175). And again: Officio ptetatis im- 
pellimur tnonas teriis provi da consideration ferre consultant, ne bi qui Dei servitio deputati 
esse noscuntur necessitatem aliquant possint, quod avertat Domiuus, sustinere (Epist., 1. II., 
Ep. IV. P.L., LXXVII., 541 ; M.G.H.: Epist., 1. 1., p. 109). 

1 We should congratulate ourselves on the fact that our Constitutions absolutely 
torbidpeculium i.e., any money deposit, testamentary reservation, or income left to the 
free disposal of the monk. Even when authorized by Rule, this custom is hardly in 
accordance with 'the spirit of true monastic poverty. The Abbot himself, by our 
Constitutions, is subject to the requirements of the perfect common life. 

* Hanc regulam videamus districtissime nunc usque servari, ut ne verbo quidem audeat 
quis dicere altquid suum magnumque sit crimen ex ore monacbi processing codicem nteum, 
tabulas meat, grafium nteum, tunicam meant, gallicas meat, proque hoc digna panitentia 
satisfacturus sit, si easu aliquo per subreptionem vel ignoranttam bujusmodi verbum de ore 
ejus effugerit (Cass., Inst., IV., xiii.). 

3 Read ST. THOMAS, Summa contra Gent., 1. III., c. cxxz.-cxxxv. 



250 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

Our Holy Father threatens with chastisement all who should be 
convicted of any yielding to this detestable vice of ownership. Such 
a monk is to be warned a first and second time; if he does not mend his 
ways he is to be subjected to the grades of regular correction. Monastic 
antiquity ever showed itself very severe on this point. We may recall 
the story of the napkins told in the Life of St. Benedict. 1 St. Gregory 
the Great also tells of one of his monks who had secreted three gold coins. 
He did not allow the brethren to assist him on his deathbed and gave 
orders for him to be buried in a dunghill, with a little ritual which 
vividly impressed the monks and provoked a general restitution of all 
articles which had passed into private use, whether secretly or through 
the proper channels. 2 This custom of burying monks guilty of the vice 
of ownership in a dunghill, or in unconsecrated ground, is found else- 
where. 8 The ordinary punishment was excommunication. At Ctteauz 
and among the Carthusians it was the custom to proclaim it solemnly 
on Palm Sunday against all proprietarit. 4 

1 S. GREG. M., Dial., 1. II., c. ziz. 

Dial., 1. IV., c. Iv. P.L., LXXVIL, 420. 

3 Cf. S. HURON., ,Epist. XXII., 33. P.L., XXII., 418. 

4 Cf. MARTINI, in b. I. 



CHAPTER XXXIV 

WHETHER ALL OUGHT TO RECEIVE NECESSART 

THINGS ALIKE 

Si OMNES DEBEANT JEQUAUTER NECES- It is written: "Distribution was 

SARIA ACCIPERE. Sicut scriptum est: made to everyone, according as he had 

Dividebatur singulis, front cuique opus need." By this we do not mean that 

erat. Ubi non dicimus, quod persona- there should be respecting of persons 

rum (quod absit) acceptio sit, sed infir- (God forbid !) but consideration for 

mitatum consideratio. Ubi qui minus' infirmities. Let him, therefore, who 

indiget, agat Deo gratias, et non con- needs less thank God and be not dis- 

tristetur: qui vero plus indiget, humi- tressed; and let him who requires 

lietur pro infirmitate, et non extollatur more be humbled because of his in- 

promisericordia; etita omnia membra firmity and not puffed up by the 

erunt in pace. ' mercy that is shown to him: so all 

the members shall be in peace. 

THIS chapter is the complement of the preceding one, for it 
develops and expounds the words : " But let them hope to 
receive all that is necessary from the father of the monastery." 
We shall find the ordinances of these two chapters summarized 
at the end of the fifty-fifth. 1 They are very characteristic of the spirit 
of our Holy Father and mark an epoch in the history of monasticism. 
The religious life began with great austerity which was exacted from all. 
The time was the morrow of the persecutions, and souls were raised to 
the pitch of heroism, ready and even trained for martyrdom. God 
wished strongly to emphasize the idea of renunciation and to give a 
vigorous impulse to the development of monastic institutions. A 
picked body of men and characters of exceptional strength were needed ; 
those who could not satisfy these high requirements returned to or 
remained in secular life; as we may see illustrated in St. Antony's method 
of testing the vocation of St. Paul the Simple. But St. Benedict's idea 
is different. Without ceasing to be a picked body and therefore, like 
all such, not very numerous the religious community is to be accessible 
to men of very various temper and very unequal vigour. Perfection 
is to be its normal end, but not its condition. There shall be discretion", 
moderation, and restraint in observances. More than this, the monastic 
life shall model itself on the life of, the family and not on a military 
organization. In an army a man is to some degree an anonymous unit, 
bound to furnish the standard amount of work and service; when his 

1 St. Benedict had in mind the words of ST. AUGUSTINE : Non dicatis aliquid proprium, 
sed tint vobis omnia communia: et distribuatur unicuique vestrum a praposita vestra victus 
et tegumentum; non aqualiter omnibus, quia non aqualiter valetis omnes, sed unicuique sicut 
opusfuerit. Sic enim legitis in Actibus Apostolorum: Quia erant eis omnia communia et 
distribuebatur singulis prout cuique opus erat. . . . Qua infirma sunt ex pristina consue- 
tudine, si aliter tractantur in victu, non debet aliis molestum esse, nee injustum videri, quas 
fecit alia consuetudo fortiores. Nee illas feliciores putent, quia sumunt quod non sumunt 
ipsa: sed sibi potius gratulentur, quia valent quod non valent ilia (Epist. CCXL, 5, 9. 
P.L., XXXIII., 960, 961). Cf. S. BASIL., Reg. contr., xciv. 

251 



252 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

capacity for endurance is lowered and he becomes a defective unit, he 
is removed and his place and number taken by another. In a family, 
on the contrary; the weaker member gets additional attention; and 
while a military chief must ignore all aspects of the individual which do 
not concern his duty, and consider almost exclusively the total effect, 
the father of a family is concerned with each of his children in particular, 
" he calleth his own sheep by name " and nothing which affects 
them leaves him unaffected. 

Nor does St. Benedict attempt to reduce all his monks to one uniform 
level. " As it is written " : once more he borrows the exact design of the 
religious life from the conditions of the primitive Church (Acts iv. 35). 
In practice, taking man individually, inequality and not equality is the 
rule; and consequently their treatment should be proportionate and 
not identical. All efforts that are made to escape this law of nature 
involve mistakes and cruelties. And, to return to the Abbot, he should 
give to the brethren according to their real needs; by which we do not 
mean caprices or claims. The business of settling what is necessary 
does not appertain to the individual; for some temperaments would set 
everything down as necessary; but all have the right to ask, and humility 
and simplicity will know how to do it. The Abbot does not ordinarily 
delegate his powers in this matter of poverty to any official of the 
monastery, precisely because of the special gravity which we have 
seen belongs to the subject, and also because of the disastrous 
results which would follow if a monk were free to get permissions 
from several sources and then combine the various permissions thus 
obtained. 

Nothing is simpler than a system of absolute equality, in which 
government becomes a matter of bureaucracy and mere administration, 
without soul or pity. But, when we have a system of proportional 
equality, and when account has to be taken of individuals, then the 
ruler's task is a very delicate one indeed. There is danger for the Abbot, 
danger for the monk who obtains permission, danger for his brethren. 
Against this threefold peril St. Benedict warns us in the rest of the 
chapter. First he reminds the Abbot of the principle already expounded 
in the second chapter, that he is bound to be attentive to the infirmities 
of each, without acceptance of persons or the pursuit of his own inclina- 
tion. But our Holy Father proceeds to add that the Abbot has a right 
to count on the discretion and good spirit of the brethren. The 
government of a house would quickly become impossible, if all set 
themselves, in the spirit of a narrow and slavish self-interest, to watch 
jealously the permissions and relaxations granted to one of their number 
by th6 father's authority. St. Benedict delineates with delicate skill 
the attitude to be taken by monks with regard to exceptions from the 
common regime. He who needs less, he tells us, should thank God 
and not be distressed that he does not receive special attention; he who 
needs more should be humbled on account of his weakness and not 
puffed up by the mercy which is shown him. In this way there will be 



Whether all ought to receive Necessary Things alike 253 

neither quarrels nor rivalry in the monastery, and all the members of 
this mystical body of the Lord will abide in peace. 

Ante omnia, ne murmurationis Above all things let not the pest 

malum pro qualicumque causa, in of murmuring, for whatever cause, by 

aliquo qualicumque verbo vel signifi- any word or sign, be manifested. If 

catione appareat. Quod si deprehen- anyone be found guilty in this let him 

sus fuerit quis, districtiori discipline be subjected to the most severe 

subdatur. punishment. 

In St. Benedict's eyes, monastic peace is a benefit which surpasses 
all others, as murmuring seems to him the worst of all evils. Above all 
things, he says, let not the pest of murmuring show itself, for any cause 
or in any form whatever, whether in word, or in act, or in some attitude 
that implies discontent. A man may say: " I will make no approaches; 
I will keep out of his way; I will assume a mask of reserve or offended 
dignity, and so let authority perceive that it has failed in its duty." 
Now, that is sheer anarchy; for authority is destroyed if it become 
Subordinated to its subjects. Even should the Abbot take certain 
measures, in this matter of exceptions to the common regime, which 
seem to us unjustifiable, murmuring is a greater evil still. St. Benedict 
says, "for whatever cause." And he stipulates that any monk who 
is found guilty of murmuring should be subjected to very severe 
chastisement. 



250 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

Our Holy Father threatens with chastisement all who should be 
convicted of any yielding to this detestable vice of ownership. Such 
a monk is to be warned a first and second time; if he does not mend his 
ways he is to be subjected to the grades of regular correction. Monastic 
antiquity ever showed itself very severe on this point. We may recall 
the story of the napkins told in the Life of St. Benedict. 1 St. Gregory 
the Great also tells of one of his monks who had secreted three gold coins. 
He did not allow the brethren to assist him on his deathbed and gave 
orders for him to be buried in a dunghill, with a little ritual which 
vividly impressed the monks and provoked a general restitution of all 
articles which had passed into private use, whether secretly or through 
the proper channels. 2 This custom of burying monks guilty of the vice 
of ownership in a dunghill, or in unconsecrated ground, is found else- 
where. 8 The ordinary punishment was excommunication. At Ctteaux 
and among the Carthusians it was the custom to proclaim it solemnly 
on Palm Sunday against all proprietarii. 4 

1 S. GREG. M., Dial., 1. II., c. xix. 

Dial., 1. IV., c. Iv. P.L., LXXVIL, 4*0. 

3 C/. S. HIERON., Epist. XXII., 33. P.L., XXII., 418. 

4 Cf. MARTINI, in b. /. 



CHAPTER XXXIV 

WHETHER ALL OUGHT TO RECEIVE NECESSARY 

THINGS ALIKE 

SIOMNESDEBEANT/EQUALITERNECES- It is written: "Distribution was 

SARIA ACCIFERE. Sicut scriptum est: made to everyone, according as he had 

Dividebatur singulis, prout cuique opus need." By this we do not mean that 

erat. Ubi non dicimus, qnod persona- there should be respecting of persons 

rum (quod absit) acceptio sit, sed infir- (God forbid!) but consideration for 

mitatum consideratio. Ubi qui minus' infirmities. Let him, therefore, who 

indiget, agat Deo gratias, et non con- needs less thank God and be not dis- 

tristetur: qui vero plus indiget, humi- tressed; and let him who requires 

lietur pro infirmitate, et non extollatur more be humbled because of his in- 

pro misericordia; et ita omnia membra firmity and not puffed up by the 

erunt in pace. * mercy that is shown to him: so all 

the members shall be in peace. 

THIS chapter is the complement of the preceding one, for it 
develops and expounds the words : " But let them hope to 
receive all that is necessary from the father of the monastery." 
We shall find the ordinances of these two chapters summarized 
at the end of the fifty-fifth. 1 They are very characteristic of the spirit 
of our Holy Father and mark an epoch in the history of monasticism. 
The religious life began with great austerity which was exacted from all. 
The time was the morrow of the persecutions, and souls were raised to 
the pitch of heroism, ready and even trained for martyrdom. God 
wished strongly to emphasize the idea of renunciation and to give a 
vigorous impulse to the development of monastic institutions. A 
picked body of men and characters of exceptional strength were needed; 
those who could not satisfy these high requirements returned to or 
remained in secular life; as we may see illustrated in St. Antony's method 
of testing the vocation of St. Paul the Simple. But St. Benedict's idea 
is different. Without ceasing to be a picked body and therefore, like 
all such, not very numerous the religious community is to be accessible 
to men of very various temper and very unequal vigour. Perfection 
is to be its normal end, but not its condition. There shall be discretion", 
moderation, and restraint in observances. More than this, the monastic 
life shall model itself on the life of, the family and not on a military 
organization. In an army a man is to some degree an anonymous unit, 
bound to furnish the standard amount of work and service; when his 

1 St. Benedict had in mind the words of ST. AUGUSTINE : Non dicatis aliquid proprium, 
sed tint vobis omnia communia: et distribuatur unicuique vestrum a praposita vestra victus 
et tegumentum; non aqualiter omnibus, quia non aqualiter valetis omnes, sed unicuique sicut 
opusfuerit. Sic enim legitis in. Actibus Apostolorum: Quia erant eis omnia communia et 
distribuebatur singulis prout cuique opus erat. . . . Qua infirma sunt ex pristina consue- 
tudine, si aliter tractantur in victu, non debet aliis molestum esse, nee injustum videri, quas 
fecit alia consuetude fortiores. Nee illas feliciores putent, quia sumunt quod non sumunt 
ipste: sed sibi potius gratulentur, quia valent quod non valent ilia (Epist. CCXL, 5, 9. 
P.L., XXXIII., 960, 961). Cf. S. BASIL., Reg. contr., xciv. 

251 



252 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

capacity for endurance is lowered and he becomes a defective unit, he 
is removed and his place and number taken by another. In a family, 
on^the contrary^ the weaker member gets additional attention; and 
while a military chief must ignore all aspects of the individual which do 
not concern his duty, and consider almost exclusively the total effect, 
the fatner of a family is concerned with each of his children in particular, 
" he calleth his own sheep by name " and nothing which affects 
them leaves him unaffected. 

Nor does St. Benedict attempt to reduce all his monks to one uniform 
level. " As it is written " : once more he borrows the exact design of the 
religious life from the conditions of the primitive Church (Acts iv. 35). 
In practice, taking man individually, inequality and not equality is the 
rule; and consequently their treatment should be proportionate and 
not identical. All efforts that are made to escape this law of nature 
involve mistakes and cruelties. And, to return to the Abbot, he should 
give to the brethren according to their real needs; by which we do not 
mean caprices or claims. The business of settling what is necessary 
does not appertain to the individual; for some temperaments would set 
everything down as necessary; but all have the right to ask, and humility 
and simplicity will know how to do it. The Abbot does not ordinarily 
delegate his powers in this matter of poverty to any official of the 
monastery, precisely because of the special gravity which we have 
seen belongs to the subject, and also because of the disastrous 
results which would follow if a monk were free to get permissions 
from several sources and then combine the various permissions thus 
obtained. 

Nothing is simpler than a system of absolute equality, in which 
government becomes a matter of bureaucracy and mere administration, 
without soul or pity. But, when we have a system of proportional 
equality, and when account has to be taken of individuals, then the 
ruler's task is a very delicate one indeed. There is danger for the Abbot, 
danger for the monk who obtains permission, danger for his brethren. 
Against this threefold peril St. Benedict warns us in the rest of the 
chapter. First he reminds the Abbot of the principle already expounded 
in the second chapter, that he is bound to be attentive to the infirmities 
of each, without acceptance of persons or the pursuit of his own inclina- 
tion. But our Holy Father proceeds to add that the Abbot has a right 
to count on the discretion and good spirit of the brethren. The 
government of a house would quickly become impossible, if all set 
themselves, in the spirit of a narrow and slavish self-interest, to watch 
jealously the permissions and relaxations granted to one of their number 
by th6 father's authority. St. Benedict delineates with delicate skill 
the attitude to be taken by monks with regard to exceptions from the 
common regime. He who needs less, he tells us, should thank God 
and not be distressed that he does not receive special attention; he who 
needs more should be humbled on account of his weakness and not 
puffed up by the mercy which is shown him. In this way there will be 



Whether all ought to receive Necessary Things alike 253 

neither quarrels nor rivalry in the monastery, and all the members of 
this mystical body of the Lord will abide in peace. 

Ante omnia, ne murmurationis Above all things let not the pest 

malum pro qualicumque causa, in of murmuring, for whatever cause, by 

aliquo qualicumque verbo vel signifi- any word or sign, be manifested. If 

catione appareat. Quod si deprehen- anyone be found guilty in this let him 

sus fuerit quis, districtiori discipline be subjected to the most severe 

subdatur. punishment. 

In St. Benedict's eyes, monastic peace is a benefit which surpasses 
all others, as murmuring seems to him the worst of all evils. Above all 
things, he says, let not the pest of murmuring show itself, for any cause 
or in any form whatever, whether in word, or in act, or in some attitude 
that implies discontent. A man may say: " I will make no approaches; 
I will keep out of his way; I will assume a mask of reserve or offended 
dignity, and so let authority perceive that it has failed in its duty." 
Now, that is sheer anarchy; for authority is destroyed if it become 
subordinated to its subjects. Even should the Abbot take certain 
measures, in this matter of exceptions to the common regime, which 
seem to us unjustifiable, murmuring is a greater evil still. St. Benedict 
says, " for whatever cause." And he stipulates that any monk who 
is found guilty of murmuring should be subjected to very severe 
chastisement. 



CHAPTER XXXV 

OF THE WEEKLT SEWERS IN THE KITCHEN 

DE SEPTIMANARHS coQuiN.ffi.-T- Let the brethren so serve each other 
Fratres sic sibi invicem serviant, ut nul- in turn that no one be excused from 
lus excusetur a coquinae officio, nisi aut the work of the kitchen unless on the 
jegritudine, aut in causa gravis utilitatis score of health, or because he is en- 
quisoccupatusfuerit; quiaexinde major gaged in some matter of great utility; 
merces acquiritur. Imbecillibus au- for thence greater reward is obtained, 
tern procurentur solatia, ut non cum Let the weaker brethren, however, 
tristitia hoc faciant, sed habeant omnes be helped that they may not do their 
solatia, secundum modum congrega- work with sadness: and let all generally 
tionis aut positionem loci. Si major have assistance according to the num- 
congregatio fuerit, cellerarius excusetur ber of the community and the situa- 
a coquina; vel si qui, ut diximus, tion of the place. If the community 
majoribus utilitatibus occupantur. be larger, the cellarer shall be excused 
Caeteri vero sibi sub charitate invicem from the service of the kitchen; and 
serviant. any others who are engaged (as we 

have said) in matters of greater utility. 
But let the rest serve one another in 
turn with all charity. 

MAN needs a local habitation; he needs a roof over his head 
and the means to exercise his activities, since he is born to 
labour; and he needs food that he may live. This last need 
is imperious and recurrent, even for monks ; wherefore 
St. Benedict has to devote several chapters to the regulation of meals. 
All that concerns kitchen, refectory, and cellar was put, as we have said, 
under the immediate jurisdiction of the cellarer. Our Holy Father 
deals first with the servers of the kitchen, that is, with the brethren who 
prepare the food and serve at table; for this twofold duty was fulfilled 
by the same persons. 1 There was not yet any distinction between 
choir-monks and lay brothers. 2 

All the brethren are to .serve one another in turn with all charity. 
In this they will imitate the Lord, who declared that He had come into 
the world only to serve: " riot to be ministered unto, but to minister." 
Cassian tells us that in the East, save in Egypt, 8 all the monks in their 
turn spent a week thus in the kitchen. We may easily imagine that these 
untrained cooks would not always produce an appetising arid dainty 
repast; but tastes were simple, especially in the East. Salted herbs, 
says Cassian, seemed to them a delicious feast; 4 the monks of Egypt 

1 Does St. Benedict really intend to distinguish between the kitcheners and table 
s ewers, when he writes, in Chapter XXXVIII., that the reader will take his meal cum 
coquina bebdomadariis et servitoribus f It is more likely that the servers are brethren 
given as assistants to the officials of the week. 

* The principal source of this chapter is chapter xix. of the fourth book of the 
Institutes of CASSIAN. 

3 //., IV., xxii. * Ibid., xi. 

254 



Of the Weekly Servers in the Kitchen 255 

were content with fresh or dried vegetables; and it was a royal banquet 
(summa voluptas) when they were served monthly with hashed leeks, 
salted herbs, ground salt, 1 olives, and tiny salted fish. 2 

No one shall be dispensed from the service of the kitchen, says 
St. Benedict. The more humiliating it is and irksome, the greater will 
be the recompense, and charity too will grow (we should in fact read 
major merces et caritas acguiritur). At the French Court of former days 
even the commonest services conferred a title of nobility or presupposed 
it: the butler, chamberlain, and constable were great personages. The 
spiritual nobility who form Our Lord's royal court rank above all others, 
and all monastic offices are honourable. Our Holy Father, however, 
recognizes the Abbot's right to exempt certain of the brethren from the 
service of the kitchen : those in ill-health, those who are engaged in more 
important and exacting duties, such as the cellarer of a large community, 
and undoubtedly the Abbot as well. Some ancient Rules 3 except the 
Abbot expressly, while others would have him serve on certain days, 
if he be free. At Cluny, at least in its early days, the Abbot performed 
the service of the kitchen and waited at table on Christmas-day, in 
company with the cellarer and the deans; the Customs also order that 
the Abbot should be put in the list of servers when his turn comes, but 
as a supernumerary. 4 From motives of discretion our Holy Father 
would have help given to the weak, and ordains that the holders of this 
office should have the assistance of as many brethren as are required by 
the condition and number of the community, or the arrangement of 
the monastery; for the kitchen may be in the basement, the well very 
far away, 5 etc. It is important that the work should be well performed, 
but also that the brethren should perform it without sadness. 

Egressurus de septimana, sabbato Let him who is ending his week's 
munditias faciat. Linteamina, cum service clean up everything on Satur- 
quibus sibi fratres manus aut pedes day. He must wash the towels with 
tergunt, lavet: pedes vero tarn ipse, qui which the brethren wipe their hands 
egreditur, quam ille qui intraturus est, and feet; and both he who is finishing 
omnibus lavent. Vasa minister!! sui his'service, and he who is entering on it, 
munda et sana cellerario reconsignet; are to wash the feet of all. Let him 
qui cellerarius item intranti consignet, hand over to the cellarer the vessels 
ut sciat quid dat aut quid recipit. used in his work clean and in sound 

condition; and let the cellarer hand 
them to the one entering on his office, 
that he may know what he gives and 
what he receives. 

After enunciating and explaining the common duty of mutual 
service our. Holy Father enters upon certain technical details, in the 
interest of cleanliness and good order. Every Saturday the outgoing 

1 Cf. CALMET, in c. xxxv. 8 /*/., IV., xi. 

3 For instance, the Rule of ST. GIBSAKIUS ad virgines, xii. 

4 UDALR., Consuet. Clun., 1. 1., c. xlvi. BERNARD., Ordo Clun., P. I., c. i. Cons tit. 
Hirsaug., 1. II., c. xiv. 

6 As in one of the Sublaco monasteries: S. GREG. M., Dial., 1. II., c. v. 



256 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

official * of the week is to clean up (munditias faciat) in the kitchen and 
in the refectory. On him falls the duty of washing the towels with 
which the brethren dry their hands and feet. Every Saturday too, 
assisted by his successor, he washes the feet of the brethren, in memory 
of the mandatum of Our Lord and as wages for the work of the whole 
week, as Cassian says. Finally, St. Benedict bids him return the vessels 
used in his work to the cellarer, clean and in good condition (munda et 
sana) such as they stood in the inventory made or checked the previous 
week. Constant supervision was necessary in this service, which changed 
hands each week and gave scope for negligence; and this supervision 
was reserved to the cellarer, who kept by him an inventory of the articles 
entrusted to the week's official, just as the Abbot kept the list of all tools 
and instruments distributed to the holders of the various offices 
(Chapter XXXII.). 

Septimanarii autem, ante unam An hour before the meal these 

horam refectionis, accipiant super sta- weekly servers shall receive, over and 

tu tarn annonam singulos biberes, et pa- above the appointed allowance, a 

nem: ut hora refectionis, sine murmur- draught of wine and a piece of bread, 

atione etgravi labore, serviant fratribus so that they may serve the brethren at 

suis. In diebus tamen solemnibus meal time without murmuring or 

usque ad Missas sustineant. excessive fatigue. On solemn days, 

however, let them wait until after Mass. 

Here we have another act of condescension on the part of the Rule. 
Breakfast did not exist in those days, and St. Benedict speaks only of 
two meals, never of three. Now the weekly servers of the kitchen, 
besides the .fatigue of their duties, would also have their dinner hour 
delayed. They did not take their places with their brethren when these 
had been served, as the Rule of the Master prescribes; 2 an observation 
in the thirty-eighth chapter shows that they ate after all the others, 
along with the reader i.e., "at second table," as we say nowadays. 
In order that they may be able to serve without excessive fatigue and 
without murmuring, 8 our Holy Father grants each of them a drink 
and a piece of bread, one hour before the common meal. Cahnet says : 
"The word biber, from which comes biberes, is low Latin and signifies, 
in the monastic rules, a small vessel containing enough wine for a draught, 
to refresh oneself." We should translate the words super statutam 
annonam as meaning that it is over and above the ordinary fixed allow- 
ance, and not, with some commentators, that it is to be taken from the 
ordinary allowance; for we may quote Calmet again " the preposition 
super in Latin, like hyper in Greek, naturally signifies superabundance 
and not subtraction." We may add that our Holy Father's intention 
is not to deduct from the ordinary allowance, but to balance by means 
of a little addition the labours attached to the duty of kitchener. He 

1 St. Benedict speaks of the weekly servers sometimes in the singular, sometimes 
in the plural. 

2 Reg. Magistri, xxiii. 

3 Sine murmure serviant sororibus suis (S. AUG., Ep. CCXI., 13. /*.., XXXIII., 964). 



Of the Weekly Servers in the Kitchen 257 

proceeds to observe that this small anticipation of their meal is on 
solemn days that is to say feast-days and Sundays incompatible with 
the requirements of Communion and the Eucharistic fast. On such 
days all communicate, and this at the Conventual Mass. The kitchen 
officials were not to take advantage of the merciful provision of the Rule 
to omit Holy Communion or break the fast; in spite of the added 
fatigue of the long liturgy they were to wait until after Mass that is, to 
something less than an hour before the common meal to take their 
food. 1 

Intrantesetexeunteshebdomadarii, On Sunday, as soon as Lauds are 
in oratorio mox Matutinis finitis, ended, both die incoming and out- 
Dominica, omnium genibus provolvan- going servers for the week shall cast 
tur, postulantes pro se orari. Egrediens themselves on their knees in the pre- 
autem de septimana dicat hunc versum : sence of all and ask their prayers. Let 
Benedictus es Domine Deus y quiadjuvisti him who is ending his week say this 
me, et consolatus es me. Quo dicto tertio, verse : Benedictus es, Doming Deus, qui 
accipiat benedictionem egrediens. adjuvisti me et consolatus es me; and 
Subsequatur ingrediens et dicat: Deus when this has been said thrice, let him 
in adjutor turn meum intende, Doming ad receive the blessing. He who is 
adjuvandum me festina. Et hoc idem entering on his office shall then follow, 
tertio repetatur ab omnibus. Et ac- and say: Deus in adjutorium meum 
cepta benedictione, ingrediatur. inttndt, Domine ad adjuvandum me 

festina. Let this also be thrice re- 
peated by all; and having received the 
blessing let him enter on his office. 

The chapter ends with the description of a liturgical rite in two parts 
viz., absolution for the outgoing servers of the week and installation 
of the incoming. On Sunday, immediately after Matins (i.e., Lauds) 
the first prostrate at the feet of all the brethren in the Oratory, begging 
their prayers. 8 They recite thrice (all together, or the senior monk 
only) the verse Benedictus es (Ps. Ixxxv. 17); then the superior gives the 
blessing, doubtless by saying a collect. Those entering on their week 
follow, saying thrice the verse Deus in adjutorium, which the choir repeats 
after them (St. Benedict does not say whether the choir repeated also the 
Benedictus es) ; when the blessing has been received 8 they have entered 
on their week. Thus they were invested with their charge in the name 
of Our Lord, and a duty of a very material kind and one often grievous 
to nature was consecrated by prayer. It became from that moment a 
religious and meritorious work, accomplished for the glory of God. 

1 Cf. PAUL THE DIACON, Commentary in c. zxxv. 

* Ab omnibus fratribus oratio prosequatur, qua velpro ignorationibut intercedat velpro 
admissis bumanafragilitate peccatit, et commendet Deo velut sacrtficiutn pingue consummate 
eorum devotionis obsequia (CASS., Inst., IV., x.). Among the Eastern monks this was 
done after the evening meal on Sundays. 

3 The two prayers which we use come from Monte Cassino and Cluny (UDALR., 
Consuet. Clun., 1. II., c. xxxr.). 



CHAPTER XXXVI 
OF THE SICK BRETHREN 

WE may remember that in Chapter XXXI. St. Benedict con- 
fided the sick and children to the care of the cellarer ; we may 
remember also that in Chapter XXXIV. the Holy Rule would 
have, more attention given to those who require more. To 
make his meaning plain and to clear up some points, our Holy Father, 
after settling the conditions of service in the. kitchen, treats separately 
of the care due to the sick and infirm (Chapter XXXVI.), the aged and 
children (Chapter XXXVII.). The chapters form a kind of parenthesis, 
and after them St. Benedict returns to the subject of the refectory and 
meals. 

DE INFIRMIS FRATRIBUS. Infir- Before all things and above all 

morum cura ante omnia et super omnia things care must be taken of the sick, 

adhibenda est, ut sicut revera Christo, so that they may be served in very deed 

ita eis serviatur, quia ipse dixit: In- as Christ Himself; for He has said: 

firmus fui, et visitastis me. Et: Quod " I was sick and ye visited me" and, 

fecistis uni de bis minimi* meis, mibi "As long as ye did it to one of these, 

fecistis. Sedetipsiinfirmiconsiderent my least brethren, ye did it to me." 

in honorem Dei sibi serviri, et non But let the sick themselves consider 

superfluitate sua contristent fratres that they are served for the honour of 

suos servientes sibi. Qui tamen God, and not grieve their brethren 

patienter portandi sunt: quia de talibus who serve them by their importunity, 

copiosior merces acquiritur. Ergo cura Yet must they be patiently borne with, 

maxima sit Abbati, ne aliquam negli- because from such as these is gained 

gentiam patiantur. more abundant reward. Therefore 

the Abbot shall take the greatest care 
that they suffer no neglect. 

In this matter, again, the inspiration of faith must guide our conduct. 
In a general way, Our Lord is near us, taking the form of our neighbour 
whoever he may be. Nay, our neighbour is Christ. We live with His 
Real Presence; for we meet with naught else but God, both in us and 
around us . We are ever serving God, and our acts of love ascend to Him. 
" All that ye shall do to one of these my little ones, ye shall do to me " 
(Matt. xxv. 40) . This is more especially true of our religious brethren and 
of their consecrated persons ; and when they suffer, they resemble our Lord 
Jesus Christ all the more. Therefore' they shall be served just as though 
they were Christ Himself, for He says: " I was sick and you visited me " 
(Matt. xxv. 36). A gain indeed for the sick, but our gain also. Is not 
this ideal of faith enough to give abundant peace and joy to those visited 
by sickness and debility, and to inspire also in those who tend them true 
tenderness of heart ? It is this very thought, more than a sentiment 
of natural compassion, that caused our Holy Father's emphasis of lan- 
guage: " Before all things and above all things care must be taken of the 



Of the Sick Brethren 259 

sick, and they shall be served in very deed as Christ Himself." 1 No 
other Rule displayed so much solicitude with regard to the weak and 
suffering. 

In return for this supernatural tendance with its character of 
reverence, the sick shall endeavour really to resemble the Lord by their 
gentle humility, self-denial, and moderation. They shall remember 
that these attentions are paid, not to their poor persons, but to God 
hidden in them. They shall be careful not to sadden by unreasonable 
demands and unrestrained importunity (superftuitate sua) the brethren 
who are employed in their service, as their brethren and not as their 
servants. According to the author of the Imitation of Christ it is hard 
to grow holy in illness: Pauci ex infirmitatemeliorantur (I. xxiii.). We 
become impatient, effeminate, almost luxurious. Temperament re- 
asserts itself, and with the help of the devil nature becomes insolent 
again. The habit of living on exceptions and a special regime stealthily 
saps the spirit of monastic observance, and we practically become 
persuaded that sickness dispenses us from being monks Active suffering 
is perhaps less dangerous from this point of view than a perpetual state 
of indisposition and what is now called neurasthenia. To souls who are 
tempted to occupy themselves excessively with the care of their health, 
who are always complaining and always in search of new remedies, we 
might recommend the careful reading of a chapter in the Way of Per- 
fection. St. Teresa writes : " Believe it, daughters, when once we begin 
to subdue these bodies of ours they do not so much molest us. There 
will be enough to observe what ye have need of. Take no care for 
yourselves except there be a manifest necessity. Unless we resolve 
once for all to accept death, and the loss of our health, we shall never 
do anything." 2 The letters of the Saint show us, however, how far 
she busied herself with the health of others and how she exercised her 
ingenuity in procuring small luxuries for the sick. A monk, even if 
seriously ill, ought to be able to do without extraordinary and expensive 
remedies, such as a periodical " cure " at some watering-place; and he 
will never ask the help of his family. 

Even if the sick show themselves exacting, says St. Benedict, they 
must be patiently borne with, since from them is gained a more abundant 
reward. Moreover, so that no excuse for complaint may be given, and 
to realize fully what Our Lord expects from our charity, the Abbot must 
watch with the greatest care that the sick are not treated with neglect 
nor suffer from the unskilfulness or ignorance of anyone. 

Quibus fratribus infirmis sit cella And let a cell be set apart by itself 
super se deputata, et servitor timens for the sick brethren and an attendant 
Deum, et diligens ac sollicitus. Bal- be appointed who is God-fearing, 

8 

1 Quali affectu debemus infirmis fratribus ministrare ? Sicut ipsi Domino offerentes 
obsequium, qui dixit: Quia cumfecistis uni ex minimis istis fratribus meis, mibt fecistis 
(S. BASIL., Reg. contr., xxxvi.). And St. Basil also adds in the second part of this rule 
and in the next that the sick should show themselves worthy of such honour. 

8 Chapter XI. 



260 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

neorum usus infinnis, quoties expedit, prompt, and painstaking. Let the use 
offeratur. Sanis autem, et maxima of baths be granted to the sick as often 
juvenibus, tardius concedatur. Sed as it shall be expedient; but to those 
et carnium esus innrmis, omninoque who are well, and especially to the 
debilibus pro reparatione concedatur. young, baths shall be seldom permitted. 
At ubi meliorati fuerint, a carnibus The use of meat, too, shall be per- 
more solito omnes abstineant. mitted to the sick and to the very 

weak, that they may recover their 
strength; but, when they are restored 
to health, let all abstain from meat 
in the accustomed manner. 

There shall be special accommodation in the monastery for the sick, 
for all who cannot follow the common observance, and. who need special 
care, a purer air, and more quiet. In the great abbeys of former days 
the infirmary was almost a second monastery, with its own church, 1 
cloister, kitchen, refectory, and dormitory. Our Holy Father evidently 
means each monastic family to care for its sick in the monastery itself. 
And we might well be astonished should a religious express the desire 
to go seek his cure with his parents, or friends in the world. Likewise, 
it would be far from consistent with the spirit and traditions of the 
Benedictine Order to collect in a single sanatorium, or in a retreat, all 
the sick of a Congregation or a province. We should deprive them thus 
of that share in the religious life which is compatible with their state 
and leave them to finish their days in very prosaic fashion. Above all, 
we should deprive communities of the advantage of their charity and 
of the edification generally given by the sick and the old. Those who 
are on the threshold of eternity have a special title to the delicate 
attentions which they can only receive from their Abbot and their 
brethren. To prepare them to appear in the presence of Infinite Purity, 
to complete the work of forming them to the image of God, surely this 
is to serve Christ in their persons and to win for ourselves the blessing 
and gratitude of God. The arrangements for the sick in the 
Congregation 'of St. Maur are noteworthy. In order that they might 
never have to suffer by the pecuniary distress of a particular monastery, 
all the expenses viz., medicines (except white sugar), doctors' fees, and 
the fees of chemists and surgeons, food purchased for them, journeys, etc. 
were charged to the Congregation and had to be regulated by the 
Diet.2 

The cello, for the sick is to be entrusted to the infirmarian, whom 

1 The old Customaries dispense the tick from the Divine Office only in very serious 
cases. This is what we read in the Disciplina Farfensis: Illifratres qui non valent surgere, 
eant famuli servientes eis et educant illos sustentantes ulnis mis in ecclesia, aique coUocent 
ut melius pptuerint. Ingratumnulli apparere debet bocfactum; quid safe vidimus in eodem 
diefratremfinire ex bac luce et ad Christum transire, etiam in ipsa ecclesia exbalare spiritum. 
Quis de talibus dubitet quod non statim ad regttum polorum penetrent f . . . Ita detent opus 
Dei per omniaageresicutsani in monasterio, prater quod leniteratquecursimdicant. . . . Illi 
oero qui ita nimietate infirmitatis detihentur quod nullo modo consurgere valeant, max ut 
monasterio fuerint celebrata nocturnalia obsequia, annual tile qui ordinem tenet duobus 
fratribus qui illis divinum opus decantent, etc. (1. II., c. lii.). 

* Regula S. P. Benedicti cum declarationibus Congregations S. Mauri (1663), 
pp. 



Of the Sick Brethren 261 

St. Benedict calls the "attendant " (servitor), but who was certainly 
a monk and not a secular. The infirmarian is to have assistants, if 
necessary; St. Benedict implies as much by using the plural servitoribus 
at the end of this chapter. Our Holy Father finds three words adequate 
to sum up the personal qualities of a good infirmarian. He must be 
God-fearing that is, habitually guided by the spirit of faith in all his 
dealings with the sick; he must be prompt, for those who suffer are 
tried by long delays; and he must be attentive and kind. 1 We 
might add that he has a right to absolute obedience from his patients. 
To doctor yourself in your own fashion, or according to the prescriptions 
of brethren who have no authority to interfere, is a very dangerous form 
of self-will: " since they are permitted to have neither body nor will in 
their own power." Moreover, it is by no means profitable ior monks 
to take pleasure in discussing their health with one another. 

Without here entering into detail with regard to the treatment 
required by various diseases, 2 St. Benedict only considers two sorts of 
relief viz., baths and the use of flesh meat. We know how plentiful 
at Rome were the tbermte or public baths. Every great house had its 
baths, and they formed part of the daily programme of every gentleman. 
Monasticism complied with this custom in a measure; and Cassiodorus, 
St. Benedict's contemporary, installed baths in his monastery of Vivarium. 
They were indispensable in a hot country for monks who devoted them- 
selves to manual labour and did not wear underclothing. And obviously 
monks did not go to the public baths, first because they rarely dwelt in a 
town, and then because such public bathing would have had its dangers. 
St. Benedict requires that baths be offered to the sick, not sparingly, 
but as often as health may be benefited by them. " But to those who 
are well, and especially to the young, baths shall seldom be permitted." 
Our Holy Father does not dispense the healthy and the young from a 
measure of precaution which is doubly necessary in community life. 
Certainly he makes a limitation; but this limitation is not inspired by 
a sort of foolish panic, otherwise he would simply have forbidden the 
use of baths. The word tardius (lit., more slowly) should be considered 
in the light of Roman custom and of the generous treatment which 
St. Benedict employs towards the sick. It is notorious that baths, 
especially hot baths, when very frequent, have the result of enervating 
the body, and of inducing sloth and a 'sort of decay of the will. St. Bene- 
dict did not want worldly manners in his monasteries; yet he stipulates 
that baths be offered to the sick, while being permitted, at rarer intervals, 
to those in health. 8 The ancient monks often took our Holy Father's 

1 Cf. S. CXSAR., Reg. ad virgines, xxx. 

* On the subject of bloodletting (minutio) and the employment of doctors by the 
ancient monks, see CALMET, in b. /.-On the treatment of nek, dying, and dead monks, 
see KfirrKN, 1. XI., tract, v. MAKT&NE, De ant. mottacb. <., 1. V., c. viii.-xlii. PIONOT 
gives a summary of the customs of Cluny : Hist, de FOrdre de Cluny, t. II., pp. 434-^435, 

463-473. 

3 Lavacra etiam, cujus infirmitas exposcit, minima denegentur: sedfiat sine murtttura- 
tione de coiuUio medicina. . . . Si atitem nutta infirmitate compellitur, cupiditati sua non 
prabeatur auentus (S. CJRSAR., Reg. ad virg., xzlx.). 



262 Commentary on the Rule oj St. Benedict 

restriction too literally. Paul the Deacon observes that they bathed 
once, twice, or three times a year. Calmet writes: "At present, 
especially in temperate regions, the use of them is almost abolished. 
Likewise there is now no question in monasteries of regular household 
baths. In case of sickness permission is given to go to the public baths, 
with the reservations and precautions of which we have spoken." But 
hygiene and charity may take this matter differently without injuring 
monastic austerity or the spirit of mortification. 1 

St. Benedict adds that the sick and those who are very weak 2 may 
eat meat "that they may recover their strength" (pro reparation^). 
And, to mark plainly the character of this concession, our Holy Father 
would have it end so soon as their health no longer requires it. Then, 
all will abstain from meat in the accustomed manner (more solito). 3 
The same recommendation is repeated in Chapter XXXIX., and we 
may reserve our commlentary till then. 

Curam autem majrimam habeat Let the Abbot take all possible 

Abbas, ne a cellerariis aut servitoribus care that the sick be not neglected by 

negligantur infirmi: quia ad ipsum the cellarers or their attendants; 

respicit, quicquid a djscipulis delin- because he is responsible for whatever 

quitur. ; is done amiss by his disciples. 

For the second time the Abbot is required to take very great care of 
the sick. He must watch that they be not neglected by the cellarers 
or the infirmarians; for he is responsible for all the shortcomings of his 
disciples. Let us add that no one in the monastery may be indifferent 
to the sick; all should remember them in their prayers and visit them 
with the permission of the Abbot. But the ordinances of the Rule 
do not lapse in the case of the sick, and their cells should never be turned 
into parlours. 

1 On the care of tonsure and beard among the ancient monks, see HKFTEN, 1. V., 
tract, iz. MARTNE, De ant. monatb. rit., 1. V., c. vii. CALMET, Commentary on 
Chapter I. 

* We should read infirm t omnitio debilibus. 

3 Pullos et car net nunquam satti accipiant; infirmii quicquid tucesse f tier it ministretur 
(S. C/ESAR., Reg. ad matt., xxiv.). Quia sold fieri, ut cella monasterii non semper bonum 
vinum babeat, ad sanctee Abbatisste cur am pertinebit ut tale vinum provideat, unde aut 
infirm*, nut ilia qua sunt delicatius nutritce, palpentur (S. CJBSAR., Reg. ad virg., xxviii.). 
JEgrotantes sic tractandte sunt, ut citius convalescant; sed cum vires pristinas reparaverint, 
redeant adfeliciorem abstinentite consuetudinem (ibid., zx.). 




CHAPTER XXXVII 
OF OLD MEN AND CHILDREN 

DE SENIBUS VEL iNFANTiBUs. Licet Although human nature of itself 
ipsa natura humana trahatur ad miseri- is drawn to feel pity and consideration 
cordiam in his aetatibus, senum videli- for these two times of life viz. for old 
cetet infantum: tamen et regulae auc- men and children yet the authority 
toritas eis prospiciat. Consideretur of the Rule should also provide for 
semper in eis imbecillitas, et nullatenus them. Let their weakness be always 
eis districtio regulae teneatur in alimen- taken into account, and let the full 
tis; sed sit in eis pia consideratio, et rigour of the Rule as regards food be 
praeveniant horas canonicas. in no wise maintained in their regard; 

but let a kind consideration be shown 
for them, and let them anticipate the 
regular hours. 

MERE humanity, says St. Benedict, will give us sympathy and 
indulgence towards these two periods of life, old age and child- 
hood; yet the authority of the Rule should also intervene 
in their favour. Charity is something better than mere philan- 
thropy, and the fundamental motive of our actions should be super- 
natural. Moreover, we must note carefully that dispensations, permis- 
sions, and kindly interpretations of the Rule, appertain still to the Rule 
and emanate from authority; they have not their source in caprice, 
arbitrary action, or relaxation. 

Therefore regard shall always be shown towards the weakness of 
children and the aged, and the austerity of the Rule as to food shall by 
no means be applied to them. 1 Instead they shall be treated with a 
tender considerateness and permitted to eat before the regular hours 
(praveniant boras canonicas). In one word, everything shall be done so 
that the monastic life, which does not consist in levelling and uniform- 
ity, may remain possible for them. St. Benedict did not think it proper 
to enter into precise details, but has left all to the discretion of the Abbot. 
It is his duty to determine, in each case, when childhood ends and when 
old age begins; to decide whether one or several supplementary meals 
should be granted, or only some small instalments, analogous to the 
solace supplied to the kitchen servers, readers, and monks who have 
been employed in some fatiguing occupation. We know from a 
sentence in Chapter LXIII. that the children had their meals with the 
community. Discussing the words in alimentis, D. Menard observes 
that the exceptions spoken of by St. Benedict concerned the quality 
rather than the quantity of food, for we find in Chapter XXXIX. the 

1 Vinum tantum senes accipiunt, quibus cum parvulis sape jit prandium, at aliorum 
fessa autentetur atas, aliorum nonfrangatur incipient (S. HIERON., Ep. XXII., 35. P.L., 
XXII., 420). In cena mensa ponitur propter laborantes, senes et pueros, astusque gravis- 
simos (S. HIERON., Prafatio in Reg. S. Pacbom., 5). 

263 



264 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

words " the same quantity shall not be given to young children, but 
a lesser amount than to their elders." The child's stomach, says 
D. Menard, is too small to/ digest an abundance of viands; an 
old man's stomach is too cold, and indulgence in an ill-regulated 
diet might destroy the little heat that is left; as Hippocrates 
teaches. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII 
'THE WEEKLY READER 

DE HEBDOMADARIO LECTORS. When the brethren are taking their 

Mensis fratrum edentium lectio deesse meals there should always be reading, 

non debet; nee fortuito casu, qui arri- Yet no one shall presume at haphazard 

puerit codicem legere audeat ibi, sed to take the book and read; but let him 

lecturus tota hebdomada, Dominica who is to read throughout the week 

ingrediatur. enter on his office on Sunday. 

READING must never be lacking at the public meals. Cassian 1 
tells us that this custom comes from the Cappadocian 8 monks 
and not from those of Egypt; St. Benedict found it in St. 
Caesarius as well. 8 The purpose is clear, and was as follows. 
Though their meals were frugal in the extreme, it aimed at distracting 
attention from that poor pittance and at moderating the animal satis- 
faction in eating and drinking by an appeal to the things of piety and the 
mind; that is the motive invoked by St. Basil. However, Cassian notes 
another : " It cannot be doubted," he says, " that the Cappadocians 
adopted this practice, not so much for the spiritual nurture of their 
minds, as for the purpose of cutting short superfluous and idle talk 
and especially those disputes which arise at most meals; they saw 'no 
other way of suppressing them." Monastic tradition adopted this 
reading at table unanimously. Often it even took the plural mentis 
of the text quite literally, so that there was reading at first table i.e. t 
at the community meal; reading at second table i.e., the servers' meal; 
reading at -the" table of the Abbot and guests; reading for the sick; and 
even at the meals of monks on a journey. 

What was read? Calmet says: "In the Order of St. Benedict, 
Sacred Scripture was more commonly read; and since each part of the 
year has its special books of the Scriptures to be read in choir, what was 
not read in the choir was read in the refectory, in such a way that, in 
the course of the year, the whole of the Scriptures was read both in the 
choir and. in the refectory. Often the homily begun at Matins was 
continued in the refectory. The Acts and Passions of the saints and 
martyrs were also read there. . . ." The Rule too was read, perhaps 
from the time of St. Benedict himself; for he says: " We wish this Rule 
to be read frequently in the community so that no brother may plead 
ignorance as an excuse " (Chapter LXVI.) Custom now adds to this list 
certain historical works which are concerned in some way with Church 
matters or the monastic life. We may profit much by the reading in 
the refectory. If the refectory be a place where we recruit our bodily 

1 /**., IV., xvii. * Cf. S. BASIL., Reg. brev., cbooc. 

* Sedentes ad mensam taceant, et animum lectioni intendant. Cum autem lectio cessa* 
verit^ meditatio sancta de corde non cesset. Si vero aliquid opusfuerit, qua mentis praest 
sollicitydinem gerat, et quod est necestarium nutu magis quam voce petal. Nee sola vobis 
fauces tumant cibum, sed et aures audiant Dei verbum (Reg. ad virg., xvi.)> Cf. Reg. ad 
ix. 

265 



266 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

strength, it is also a place where prayer is easy and intellectual labour 
very sweet and almost unconscious. 

Let us speak now of the reader. His office is grave, and it should be 
fulfilled with gravity. The first-comer, chosen haphazard, or even 
appointed by his own choice and impelled by the desire of self -display, 
shall not seize the book and make himself, impromptu, the reader for 
a meal; reading in the refectory is to be a regular office, commencing 
on the Sunday and continuing throughout the whole week. At the 
end of the chapter, in a final sentence which seems to have been added 
at the dictate of experience, St. Benedict comes back to this regulation. 
Neither individual will, nor chance and circumstances, nor the order of 
the community, should designate those who are to read or chant, 
whether in refectory or choir; the Abbot must choose those who can 
make themselves heard and understood, and be really useful to their 
brethren: who can "edify" them. In the time of St. Benedict not 
everyone could read; and even nowadays to be able to read well in public 
in a large refectory is not a common gift. Aptitudes differ, but in any 
case it is difficult to read without preparation. If we respect ourselves 
and our audience we shall prepare carefully. A man must be able to 
divide clauses intelligently, and to break up a period in such a way as to 
give each portion of it its proper value. And this may be realized even 
in the style of reading called recto tono (monotone) ; for properly speaking 
there is no such reading, since intelligence and accentuation are every 
instant modulating quite perceptibly the note on which the reading is 
read. It is not necessary to have a powerful voice, nor even a clear one ; 
but it is important to know the voice which you have and the place 
in which you are reading, and to adjust yourself to these conditions. 
The settled purpose of making yourself heard at both ends of the room 
involves an unconscious adaptation of means to end. We should read 
slowly, articulate mute syllables, without swelling the voice on the open 
ones, and remember that we are not reading privately nor holding a 
conversation. In the midst of noise and when minds are inevitably 
distracted, it is indispensable that the meaning should reach each one 
where he sits and that no effort should be needed to catch it. . 

Qui ingrediens, post Missaset com- Let this brother, when beginning 

munionem petat ab omnibus pro se his service, ask all after Mass and Com- 

orari, ut aver tat ab eo Deus spiritum munion to pray for him, that God may 

elationis. Et dicatur hie versus in keep from him the spirit of pride, 

oratorio tertio ab omnibus, ipso tamen And let this verse be said thrice in the 

incipiente: Domine lobia mea aperies, oratory by all, he, the reader, first 

et os meum annuntiabit laudem tuam; et beginning: Doming labia mea aperies, 

sic accepta benedictione, ingrediatur et os meum annuntiabit laudem tuam. 

adlegendum. And so, having received the blessing, 

let him enter on his reading. 

Investiture in this office, as was the case with the kitchen servers, is 
accomplished by a blessing. The blessing of the reader took place after 
Mass and Communion on Sundays. The brother begged the prayers 
of all, either in words, or by prostrating or bowing in the middle of the 



The Weekly Reader 267 

choir. He said thrice the verse Doming (Ps. 1. 17) and the whole com- 
munity repeated it after him. Then the Abbot gave the blessing, 
probably chanting a collect; " and so, having received the blessing, let 
him enter on his reading." We have preserved the whole of this rite, 1 
and in the collect we ask God to avert from the reader " the spirit of 
pride and ignorance."* Our Holy Father mentions only pride explicitly. 
In his time, as we may repeat, only a picked few could read Latin well, 
without clumsiness or barbarism. Moreover, this spiritual precaution 
against vanity is always seasonable; for the reader occupies a conspicuous 
position; he alone is speaking amidst universal silence; he is tempted 
to think that he is producing a great effect; and he is liable to look 
round him to make sure of the general admiration. 

Summumque fiat silentium ad men- Let the greatest silence be kept at 
sam, ut nullius mussitatio vel vox, nisi table, so that no whispering nor voice, 
solius legentis, ibi audiatur. Quaevero save the voice of the reader alone, be 
necessaria sunt comedentibus et biben- heard there. Whatever is required 
tibuSjSibisicinvicemministrentfratres, for eating and drinking the brethren 
ut nullus indigeat petere aliquid. Si shall minister to each other so that 
quid tamen opus fuerit, sonitu cujus- no one need ask for anything. But 
cumquesigmpotiuspetaturquamvoce. should anything be wanted, let it be 
Nee praesumat ibi aliquis de ipsa lee- asked for by the noise of some sign 
tione, aut aliunde quicquam requirere, rather than by the voice. Let no one 
ne detur occasio maligno, nisi forte ask any question there about what is 
prior voluerit pro sedificatione aliquid being read or about anything else, lest 
breviter dicere. occasion be given to the Evil One; 

unless, perhaps, the superior should 
wish to say something briefly for the 
edification of the brethren. 

Complete and profound silence should reign at table, a strict law 
which has prevailed always arid everywhere among monks. 8 No 
whispering should be heard in the refectory, nor any other voice but 
that of the reader. Interchange of ideas is forbidden, even though 
performed in a low voice, and into your neighbour's ear. It would be 
very bad taste to read your letters during the reading, or some book 
.of your own which interests you more. Likewise we should give up 
mocking and sly applications or allusions, made by means of gestures or 
smiles or fixed looks; doubtless we have not got to be impassive as statues 
in the refectory, no more thari in the oratory; but these petty manifes- 
tations, even though they hurt no one, are seldom becoming. 

1 And we have also adopted the very ancient custom of asking a blessing before the 
reading which accompanies each meal. Cf. UDALR., Cottsuet. Clun., 1. II., c. xxxiv. 

* The form we employ is very like the one already indicated by SMARAGDUS: Averte, 
quasumus, Doming, ab hoc famulo tuo spiritum elationis, ut bumiliter legens, sensum et 
inteUectum capiat lectionis. 

8 See the enactments collected by MARTNE in his Commentary. Est autem eis et 
in capiendo cibo summum silentium (ROFIN., Hist, monacb., c. iii. ROSWEYD, p. 458). 
Tantum silentium ab omnibus exbibetur, ut, cum in unum tanta numerositas fratrum refec- 
tionis obtentu consederit, nullus ne muttire quidem audeat prater eum, qui sua decania 
priest, qui tamen si quid mensa superinferri vel auferri necessarium esse perviderit, sonitu 
fotius quant voce significat (CASS., /.., IV., xvii.). Cf. S. PACK., Reg., xxxiii. 
S. CAESAR., Reg. advirg.y xvi. 



268 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

Not even fraternal charity excuses a breakage of silence. Cassian 
tells us that in the monastery of St. Pachomius " each monk had his 
hood lowered over his eyes, so that he could see only the table and the 
food placed before him, and so that none could note the manner in 
which his neighbour ate nor the quantity of his portion." St. Benedict 
is more amiable and courteous, prescribing that the brethren shall serve 
each other with all that is necessary for the meal, so that no one may have 
need to ask for anything, and the law of silence be kept, and of charity 
also. No one should be so absorbed in his own business as to be unable 
to perceive what his brethren lack. Moreover, there are the hebdoma- 
darii and the kitchen servers, moving to and fro and attentive all through 
the meal. If there be need to ask anything from your neighbour or 
the servers, it should be done by means of a sign, by some recognized 
sound, rather than by words : Sonitu wjuscumque signi potius petatur quam 
voce. Several ancient Rules express themselves in the same terms. 
Evidently some moderate sign was intended, for a great clatter would 
have been as prejudicial to recollection and the reading as talking. 
Modern monastic customs have suppressed all signs of a noisy character; 
only in cafs is the waiter summoned by striking a glass or the table. 

The refectory silence maybe broken not only by noise and by exchange 
of words relative to the serving, but also, St. Benedict says, by questions 
about the reading or some other subject. No one would venture in 
practice to address a question to the superior at this time; but we may 
be tempted to engage in a little dialogue with a neighbour. The Rule 
does not allow it, ne detwr occasio, so that every occasion of levity, dis- 
putation, and pride may be suppressed. The word maligno (to the Evil 
One) does not belong to the original text, but is a gloss added by analogy 
with two other passages of the Rule (in Chapters XLIII. and LIV.). 

The hours when we give our bodies what they require in order to live 
are dangerous hours, as are those immediately after the meal; it is wise 
to protect oneself then against the attacks of the devil; which is one of 
the reasons why we sanctify our meals with prayer, reading, and silence. 
Our Holy Father allows only the superior (prior) to say .a few words " for 
edification," but briefly, and he need not consider himself obliged to do so. 1 

Prater autem hebdomadarius acci- The brother who is reader for the 

piatmixtumpriusquamincipiatlegere, week shall receive a sop before he 

propter communionem sanctam, et ne begins to read, on account of the Holy 

forte grave sit ei jejunium sustinere: Communion, and lest it be too hard 

postea autem cum coquinae hebdoma- for him to fast so long. He shall take 

dariis et servitoribus reficiat. his meal afterwards with the weekly 

cooks and servers. 

These final directions concern the meal of the weekly reader. In 
the first place, before commencing to read, 2 he is to receive a mixtum. 

1 Nee alicujus audiatur sermo, nisi divinus,. qui ex pagina proferatur, et ejut gut praest 
Patris (Reg. I. SS. PATROM, viii.)- Ad mensam specialiter nuttus loquatur, nisi quipraest t 
velqui interrogate fuerit (S. MACAU., Reg. xviii.). . 

* Perhaps immediately -before and not ante unam bar am as the kitchen servers: 
these latter needed to be fortified for the immediate preparations of the meal, the most 
trying part of their work. 



The Weekly ^Reader 269 

The word mixtum meant for the ancients wine mixed with substances 
which tempered its taste and strength, or wine diluted with water, and 
so contrasted with merum (unmixed wine); sometimes it merely means 
wine or any beverage, just as the vrordmiscere (to mix) signifies to pour 
out for drinking. It is possible that by the " mixture " granted to the 
reader St. Benedict means only, a cup of wine diluted with water; 1 but 
it is certain that, shortly after his tune, many assimilated it in practice 
to the little extra allowance granted to the kitchen servers, the singulos 
biberes et pattern, and the mixtum became a draught of wine with some 
pieces of bread steeped in it. 

Our Holy Father gives two reasons for this custom. Both are valid 
only for the first meal, which was often the sole meal of the day. And 
the first reason given, "on account of the Holy Communion," holds 
only for Sundays and solemn .feasts, the days on which all the monks 
received Holy Communion. In this case the mixtum certainly plays 
the part of an ablution. In the first centuries of the Church (as still 
done now at certain liturgical functions, such as ordination, profession, 
etc.) communicants were given a draught of unconsecrated wine 
(sometimes with a morsel of bread),, in order to help the swallowing 
of the sacred species and to prevent any accident. In St. Benedict's 
practice the meal probably followed Mass very closely. 2 And it is 
possible that the custom of Monte Cassino was the, same as that which 
we find in the Rule of the Master, where dinner commenced with the 
distribution of blessed. wine with some morsels of bread steeped in it; 
the Master orders that the reader also should take this beverage and 
he gives as reason: " As soon as the Abbot first of all at the table has 
taken his wine, let the reader also take his lest he spit out the Sacrament, 
and so let him begin to read." 3 On Sundays and feast-days, according 
to St. Benedict's provision, the kitchen servers also took their little 
refection after Mass, and, on those days, in company with the reader. 
When there was not Holy Communion, the mixtum at. least took the 
edge off hunger, and allowed the monk to wait without excessive fatigue 
for the meal which reader, weekly servers, and cooks took together. Our 
Holy Father does not teU us whether the- reader received this mixtum 
before supper also. 

Fratres autem non per ordinem The brethren, however, are not to 
legant aut cantent, sed qui aedificent read or chant according to their order, 
audientes. but such only as may edify the hearers . 

The explanation of this short sentence is given at the beginning of 
the chapter. 

1 Cf. Explication ascttique et bistorique de la Rigle de taint Benefit, chapter zxzviii. 
* Cf. PAUL THI DEACON, Commentary in c. nov., pp. 333~334' 
3 Reg. Magistri, xxiv.; cf. ibid., xxvii. Read the commentary of CALMIT on our 
text, and especially, in the Ouvrages postbumes of MABILLON (t. II., pp. 272-320), the 
Trait oul'on rtfute la nouvelle explication que quelques auteurs donnent aux mots de Messe 
et de Communion qui se trouvent dans la Rigle de taint Beno't, and the Addition an price* 
dent trait6. 



CHAPTER XXXIX 

OF THE MEASURE OF FOOD 

DE MENSURA CIBORUM. Sufficcre We think it sufficient for the daily 

credimus ad refectionem quotidianam meal, whether at the sixth or the ninth 

tarn sextx, quam nonse, omnibus men- hour, that there be at all the tables two 

sis cocta duo pulmentaria, propter dishes of cooked food, because of the 

diversorum infirmitates: ut forte qui variety of men's weaknesses: so that 

ex .uno non poterit edere, ex alio re- he who may not be able to eat of the 

ficiatur. Ergo duo pulmentaria cocta one may make his meal of the other, 

fratribus sufficiant; et si fuerint inde Therefore let two cooked dishes suffice 

poma, aut nascentia leguminum, ad- for the brethren; and if there be any 

datur et tertium. fruit or young vegetables, let a third 

dish be added. 

IF the Fathers of the desert could have read this chapter of the Rule 
they would perhaps have regarded its provisions as lax. Some 
of their masters 1 certainly recommended discretion in abstinence 
and fasting, quite in St. Benedict's fashion ; but the most generous 
measure of an Eastern monk is less than the fare which our Holy Father 
allows daily to his disciples, comprising as this does three courses. And 
yet St. Benedict only puts this regime forward with reserve, as a reason- 
able mean allowance (sufficere credimus), leaving the Abbot power to add 
to it. Such considerateness is easily justified if we recognize the entirely 
relative value of mortification 2 and remember the end at which our 
Holy Father was aiming. He wished to make the monastic life accessible 
to souls that might be deterred by extreme austerity. He wished to 
adapt his Rule to Western constitutions, and to a more rigorous climate, 
which compels men to compensate for the lack of external warmth by 
the use of more potent bodily fuel. We must add that he wrote for 
men who not only performed long liturgical duties, but also laboured 
in the open air for part of the day. The fare which he gives his monks 
is practically peasants' fare, simple and plentiful. 

At all the tables 3 (that is to say, at those occupied by the monks in 
small groups, under the presidency of the deans ; or else at the community 
table, the servers' table, and the Abbot's) ^at all the tables two cooked 
dishes (cocta duo pulmentaria) 4 shall be served; St. Benedict does not 
think it suitable or even possible to be precise as to their nature. Usage 

1 S. BASIL., Reg.fus., rue. CASS., Conlat., II., xvi.-xxvi. 

2 CASS., Conlat., XXI., xi.-rvii. 

3 In spite of what CALMKT says, the best reading of the manuscripts is certainly this, 
and not omnibus mensibus, at every season; the fact is that a difference was sometimes 
made between the regime of summer and that of winter: Cf. CATO, De re rustica, 
c. Ivi.-lviii. Cato would have workers receive a bemina of wine in the fourth month, 
three bemina in the ninth, tenth, and eleventh. He speaks in the same place about the 
pulmentarium of olives. 

* Pulmentarium means a dish of any sort, but especially stew, mash, or pudding: 
cf. CALMIT, in b. /. 



Of the Measure of Food 271 

has varied enormously in this matter, nor need we attempt to summarize 
it. Vegetables have always formed the basis of monastic fare; eggs, 
fish, and milk products appeared more rarely at their table in former days. 
At Cluny they served cooked beans every day, and this was the staple 
dish par excellence?- St. Benedict naturally does not order the eating 
of the two dishes; he allows them so that all appetites may be satisfied 
and that all may recruit their strength: propter diver sorum infirmitates. 
He adds that, thanks to the two courses, a brother who cannot eat of 
one will be able to make his meal on the other. But have we the right, 
according to the Rule, to patronize both ? Commentators are agreed 
among themselves, and with custom, in. answering in the affirmative. 
So let two cooked dishes suffice for the brethren, continues St. Benedict; 
and let a third be added of fruit or fresh vegetables, if they can be 
procured easily that is to say, if they are in the monastery garden 
(sifuerintinde\ptunde'. 

The menu our Holy Father has just given is that of the whole day 
the quantity of food supplied each day or the daily fare whether there 
were two meals or only one, both in Lent and 'during the rest of the year. 
At least that is the best-founded interpretation 2 of the very concise 
phrase of the Rule : " for the daily meal whether at the sixth or the ninth 
hour." St. Benedict only speaks of the meal at the sixth or ninth hour ; 
when dinner was at the sixth hour there was supper in the evening, but 
the meal at the sixth hour was the chief one and probably furnished 
supper not only with that third part of bread of which St. Benedict 
speaks presently, but also with such articles of food as were better suited 
to a frugal supper. On the fast-days appointed by the Rule, dinner 
was at the ninth hour; during the ecclesiastical Lent, the sole meal 
was taken in the evening; but the quantity of food was always the 
same, St. Benedict leaving it to the discretion of each individual to make 
such retrenchment as was compatible with health and obedience 
(Chapter XLIX.). Most ancient monastic customaries confirm these 
comments. 

Panis libra una propensa sufficiat Let a pound weight of bread suffice 
in die, sive una sit ref ectio, sive prandii for each day, whether there be but one 
et cenae. Quod si cenaturi sunt, de meal, or both dinner and supper. If 
eadem libra tertia pars a cellerario they are to sup let a third part of the 
servetur, reddenda cenaturis. pound be kept back by the cellarer 

and given to them for supper. 

Every day, whether there be but one meal or both dinner and 
supper, a pound of bread shall suffice, a generous pound of full weight, 
turning the scale definitely (propensa). If there be supper, the cellarer 
shall reserve the third part of this pound. Markings made in the baking 
probably facilitated this partition. 3 Endless discussions have arisen as 
to the exact quantity of the "pound weight," just as .with the bemina 

1 BERNARD., Ordo Clun., P. I., c. vi., xlvii. UDALR., Consuet. Clun., 1. II., c. xxv. 

* See especially the Commentary of CALMET. 

3 C/. S. GREG. M., Dial,, L I., c. xi. P.L., LXXVII., 212. 



272 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

of wine spoken of in the next chapter. 1 All these researches have their 
interest for cariosity and erudition, but they have none whatever as 
true commentary and elucidation of the Rule. Even if we suppose that 
measures, while keeping the same names, have not varied with time and 
country, it is clear in the case before us that our Holy Father employs 
the customary measures in an approximate and not in an exact way. 
His pound of bread is something over a pound, the capacity of his 
bemina is perhaps calculated in a way that would satisfy the requirements 
of weaker brethren. But what is still more decisive is the care which the 
monks of Monte Cassino took to preserve the weight of bread and 
measure of wine fixed by our Holy Father. They carried them to Rome 
in A.D. 581, when they were driven out by the Lombards; 8 perhaps 
Petronax and the restorers of Monte Cassino recovered them, thanks 
to Pope Zachary (A.D. 741 -752) ; 8 finally, Theodemar, Abbot of Monte 
Cassino, sent to Charlemagne the measures of bread and wine as deter- 
mined by St. Benedict. 4 All these precautions were superfluous, if 
the pound and the bemina were invariable measures, known to all and 
in current use. And it is quite clear that they were not preserved 
as memorials of our Holy Father, but as special standards appointed by 
him. 6 The Roman pound was equivalent, according to recent calcu- 
lations, to 327*45 grammes (11$ ounces avoirdupois approx.). 6 This 
would be a small amount as the daily ration of men working in the 
fields. Calmet says there is reason to believe that St. Benedict did not 
take the Roman pound, containing 12 ounces (Roman), but the pound 
of commerce, containing i6. 7 Many commentators .find even this 
too small. Our Constitutions wisely declare that, since the value of St. 
Benedict's pound is unknown, bread shall be given without restriction. 

Quod si labor forte factus fuerit If, however, their work have been 

major; in arbitrio et potestate Abbatis greater, it shall be at the will and in the 

erit, si expediat, aliquid augere, remota power of the Abbot, if it be expedient, 

prae omnibus crapula, ut nunquam to make some addition, provided that 

surripiat monacho indigenes: quia excess be before all things avoided, 

nihil sic contrarium eat omni chris- that no monk suffer from surfeiting* 

tiano quomodo crapula, sicut ait For nothing is more contrary to any 

Dominus noster: Videte ne graventur Christian life than excess, as Our Lord 

1 Cf. HxrntN, 1. X., tract. iiL-hr. LANCELOT, Dissertation sur fbSmine de vin et 
sur la Ivor e depain de saint Benoist et det autres ancient religievx (Paris, 1667; second and 
more complete edition, 1668). MABILLON, Acta SS. O.S.B., Sac. IV., P. I., Praef., 
152-165. 

Cf. PATJLI DIAC., Dege'stis Langobardorum, 1. IV., c. xviii. P.L., XCV., 548. 
3 Ibid., 1. VL, c. xl. P.X., XCV., 650-651. 

* PAULI DIAC., Epist. I. P.L., XCV., 1585. 

5 There is preserved at Monte Cassino a bronze weight of 1550 grammes (nearly 
3f lb.), which DOM TOSTI thinks is the libra propensa of St. Benedict: Delia vita di 
San Benedetto, capo v. (edizione illustrate, p. 194). But is not this the weight of a 
loaf which was divided among several monks ? (Cf. CALMET, Commentary on 
Chapter XXXIX., pp. 39-40). 

8 DARIMBKRG and SAGLIO, Dictionnaire des AntiquitSs grecyues et romaines: Libra, iv. 

7 In France the Paris pound, which was most widely spread, contained 1 6 ounces, 
each equivalent to 30*59 grammes (1*08 oz. avoir.). 



Of the Measure of Food 273 

corda vestra in erapula et ebrietate. says: "Take heed to yourselves lest 
Pueris vero minor! setate non eadem perhaps your hearts be overcharged 
servetur quantitas, scd minor quam with surfeiting and drunkenness," 
majoribus, servata in omnibus parcitate. And let not the same quantity be 

allotted to children of tender years, 
but less than to their elders, frugality 
being observed in all things. 

However large already the ordinary daily allowance of food and 
drink, St, Benedict still leaves the Abbot the power to add to it, if he 
think fit, as for example in the case of extraordinary toil, So he does 
not purpose to drive all his monks by rule to heroic mortification and 
extreme severity towards the flesh. The Abbot's function is not to 
crush his monks, but to establish a just ratio between their work and the 
physical recruitment which it requires. Only he must beware of excess. 
Above all things, his adjustments must never favour gluttony, and a 
monk must never be surprised by the shameful consequences of excess : 
(indigenes). For nothing is so degrading, not alone for a monk, but 
for any Christian, as such excess, Our Lord was addressing all His 
followers when He said: "Take heed to yourselves lest perhaps your 
hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness " (Luke xxi, 34). 
St. Benedict adds that the children in the monastery shall have a quantity 
suitable to their age; and, along with the considerate treatment that they 
merit, there will also be in all things such austerity as is agreeable to the 
life which they have already professed. 

In our days, perhaps, the tendency to excess will display itself rather 
in fastidiousness and singularity than in gluttony properly so called. 
And, strangely enough, it is actually necessary sometimes to persuade 
people to eat, just as though they were Manicheans and eating was sinful. 
We sometimes meet with wrongheaded folk who regard eating and drink- 
ing as a humiliating function, and do themselves great injury by their 
monomania. Such as these need watching and even constraint. But, 
apart from these pathological cases, the Abbot leaves each individual 
free to decide in God's sight what he should take and what deny himself. 
We eat to live; we take what is needful to sustain us in our work, and fit 
us to face our duty; and always must we observe that rule of good 
breeding, health, and mortification which bids us stop before satiety. 1 
Nor should the refectory and its business become the preoccupation of 
our lives, a constant and harassing anxiety. 

.The idea of compensations and additions to the ordinary fare has 
generally been well understood and realized under various forms. The 
customaries and cartularies of the Middle Ages often mention extra 
courses and the distribution of " pittances." At Cluny, in the end, they 
regularly added to the beans and other vegetables a " general " or 
" pittance " of eggs, fish, and cheese. By " general " was meant a portion 
served to each monk on a special plate; the " pittance " was a dish for 
two. 2 Modern stomachs cannot manage the solid meals of our ancestors. 

1 Cf. CASS., /j /., V., viii. S. Auo., Confess., 1. X., c. xxxi. P.L., XXXII., 797 sy. 
* UDALRIC give* this definition, Cottsuet. Clun., 1. II., c. xxxv.j cf. 1. III., c. xvhi. 

18 



274 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

It is true that they submitted to blood-letting, often a monthly occur- 
rence; but to compensate at once for this lowering treatment, the patient 
was given a substantial " general " and submitted to a thorough regime 
of feeding up. 

Carnium yero quadrupedum ab But let all abstain from eating the 
omnibus abstineatur comestio, prater flesh of four-footed animals, except the 
omnino debiles et aegrotos. very weak and the sick. 

We may remind ourselves of what St. Benedict said in reference to 
the sick in the thirty-sixth chapter : " The use of meat too shall be 
permitted to the ; sick," etc. In this place also we have the same pro- 
hibition for the healthy and the same exception for the seriously ill or 
weak. But St. Benedict here makes the scope of his prohibition more 
precise by the words carnium vero quadrupedum, thus forbidding the 
flesh of four-footed animals. Does the phrase exclude other sorts of 
flesh, so that fowls would be permitted ? However strange it may 
appear to us, it would seem to be incontestable that, in St. Benedict's 
time and for centuries afterwards, birds were considered by many 
we do not say by all 1 as fare compatible with abstinence. You could 
deny yourself such flesh meat for mortification, but it was recognized 
to be flesh of an inferior quality; though it might be more delicate and 
more agreeable to the taste than the flesh of quadrupeds, it was less 
nourishing and less apt to stimulate the passions. And did not Genesis 
say that the birds and fishes were created on the same day and both 
alike taken from the waters ? Why not treat waterfowl as fish, for they 
live on them and taste like them ? Whatever be the value of the reasons 
formerly alleged in justification of the practice of treating bipeds as 
abstinence-fare, it was a custom, ^nd everyone knows that moral theo- 
logians still in our own days allow certain waterfowl on abstinence days. 
They would, however, surprise us on a monastic table; and for us the 
question has been practically decided. 2 

1 S. CJESARIUS expressly forbids birds, except for the sick: Reg. ad man., xxiv.; Reg. 
ad virg., Recapitulatio, xvii. 

* The history of this matter is well ( summarized in the Commentary of CALMET. 
Read also: HERRGOTT, Fetus disciplina monastics, Praef., pp. xii-xxxii. D. GREGOXKE 
BERTHELET, Traitt bistoriyue et moral de f abstinence de la viande et des revolutions 
qu'elle a eues depuis le commencement du monde jusqu'a present, etc. (Rouen, 1731), 
P. III., chapters i.-ii. D. MEGE maintained that St. Benedict forbade the flesh of birds. 



vs U' e/ \s r e/iX> /' G/.VS *r' e/vs w'e/\>u a/v9 w a/.vg? 



CHAPTER XL 

OF THE MEASURE OF DRINK 

DE MENSURA POTUS. Unusquisque "Everyone hath his proper gift 

proprium habet donwn ex Deo: alius sic, from God, one thus, another thus." 

alius vero sic. Et ideo cum aliqua And therefore it is with some scruple 

scrupulositate a nobis mensura victus that we determine the measure of other 

aliorum constituitur. Tamen infirmo- men's living. Yet, making due allow- 

rum contuentes imbecillitatem, credi- ance for the weakness of some, we think 

mus heminam vini per singulos sufficere that a hemina of wine a day is sufficient 

per diem. for each. 

THE whole of this chapter is a striking illustration of that fatherly 
discretion which we have so often remarked; the care with which 
the most ordinary details of our life are regulated is obvious and 
touching. First we have a formal recognition of the differences 
between us in body, in soul, and in grace : " Everyone hath his proper 
gift from God, one thus,. another thus " (i Cor. vii. 7). And because 
of this individual variety our Holy Father confesses -that it is only with 
some misgiving and timidity that he ventures to determine matters which 
concern the lives of others. An absolutely invariable and rigid measure 
a bed of Procrustes to which both great and small must needs adapt 
themselves is out of the question. Nor should a man take himself 
as the standard to which all must conform. What, then, shall be our 
fixed point ? We shall consider the weakness of the small and feeble: 
of those who are little ones as regards physical strength, as well as of 
those who are not rich in moral vigour. Considering all these cases, 
we think, says St. Benedict, that a hemina of wine a day is sufficient for 
each monk. The Roman hemina was almost a quarter of a litre (nearly 
a half -pint) .* But we should remember what was said in the last chapter. 

Quibus autem donatDeus toleran- But let those to whom God gives 
tiam abstinentiae, propriam se habi- the gift of abstinence know that they 
turos mercedem sciant. Quod si aut shall receive their proper reward. If 
loci necessitas, vel labor, aut ardor either the situation of the place, the 
aestatis amplius poposcerit, in arbitrio work, or the heat of summer require 
prioris consistat, considerans in omni- more, let it be in the power of the 
bus ne subrepat satietas aut ebrietas. superior to grant it, care being taken 

in all things that surfeit or drunken- 
ness creep not in. 

After laying down the reasonable mean allowance, the Rule, in its 
care for the spirit of mortification, for obedience, and for considerateness, 
provides for the principal cases that may occur. A monk may think 
himself able to do without wine, whether entirely or in part; God has 
given him vigorous health and inspired a secret desire for this abstinence. 

1 DABIMBERG et SAGLIO, Dictfonn. des antiquitts grecques et romaines, art. Hemina, 
[The Roman sextarius is generally equated with the English pint (more accurately 
ex -96 of a pint). The bemi na was half of the sextarius.] 



276 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

Let him ask permission, as required in Chapter XLIX,, and, if he obtain 
it, give up wine. He will gain merit both for his generosity and for his 

1 !.. 

docility. 

But the allowance of wine may be too small. The climate may be 
rigorous, there may be extraordinary work, or else it is the height of 
summer and the heat is extreme. Such circumstances seem to call for 
a little more. The superior may grant it, but he should take great care 
that none insensibly reach drunkenness or even a state of surfeit which 
approximates thereto. Commentators give details of the wine allowed 
at the end of meals or outside mealtimes. At Cluny, besides the regular 
amount of wine served at the meal (the " justice," as it was called), 
there was sometimes given also a " charity " of wine, or the pigmentum, 
a compound of wine, honey, cinnamon, and cloves. 

Licet legamus vinum omnino Although we read that wine is by 

monachorum non essej sed quia nostris no means a drink for monks, yet, since 

temporibus id mottackis persuader! non in our days they cannot be persuaded 

potest, saltern vel hoc consentiamus, of this, let us at least agree not to 

ut non usque ad satietatem bibamus, drink to satiety, but sparingly: because 

sedparcius: quia vinum apostatart facit "wine maketn even the wise to fall 

etiam sapientes. away." 

St. Benedict seems to be a little ashamed of his leniency and to 
remember regretfully the heroism of the Fathers of the East. " We 
read/' he says, " that wine is by no means the drink of monks." The 
passage occurs, word for word, in the collected Verba Seniorum. 1 It is 
said also in the Life of St. Antony that neither he nor other fervent 
ascetics used flesh meat or wine. 2 This usage was, however, not general : 
the Lausiac History, for example, shows that the monks of Nitria drank 
wine; 8 so too did the monks of St. Caesarius. In our days, St. Benedict 
continues, it is impossible to convince monks that the axiom of the 
ancients is true. Therefore they shall drink wine, since they must, but 
they shall at least agree not to drink to satiety, 4 for " wine maketh even 
the wise to fall away" (Ecclus. xix. 2). At Monte Cassino, as at 
Vicovaro, St. Benedict drank wine. He might easily have astonished all 
by his mortifications he was an expert and might have lived as he did at 
Subiaco. But, when he became father of a religious family, he put him- 
self into harmony with the dispositions and lawful usages of his monks. 

Ubi autem loci necessitas erposcit, But where the place is such that 
ut nee suprascripta mensura inveniri not even the aforesaid measure can be 
possit, sed multo minus, aut ex supplied, but much less, or none at 

1 Narraverunt quidam abbati Pattori de quodam monacbo qui non bibebat vinum, et dixit 
tit: Quia vinum monaeborum omnino non ett (Verba Senior urn: Vita Patrum, V., iv., 31. 
ROIWZYD, p. 570). 

S. ATHANAIII, Vita S. Antonii, c. vii. P.G., XXVI., 853.- Cj. S. AUG., De moribus 
eecles. catbol, 1. 1., c. xxxi. P.L. t XXXII., 1339.$. HIEXON., Ep. LIL, 1 1 5 Ep. XXII., 
35. P.L., XXII., S36-5375 #(<* 4*>- 

C. yii. (RoswiYD, j>. 713). . 

4 Utftott usque ad satietatem persistamut in edendo (S. BASIL., Reg. cotttr., ix.). 
8 S. GRKO. M., Dial., 1. II., c. iii. 



Of the Measure of Drink 277 

toto nihil, benedicant Deum qui ibi all, let those who dwell there bless God 

habitant, et non murmurent. Hoc and not murmur. This above all do 

autem omnino admonentes, ut absque we admonish, that they be without 

murmurationibus sint. murmuring. 

Therefore the hemina shall be the standard, a mean between total 
abstinence and excess. But we must provide for the case when even 
this limited measure cannot be got. The monastery may be poor, the 
cquntry may produce no wine, with the result that much less may be 
procurable or even none at all. In that case the monks must bless God, 
from whom are both wine and lack of wine, and face this small hardship . 
bravely. It will not kill them. We are like soldiers: " Everyone that 
striveth for the mastery refraineth himself from all things. And they 
indeed that they may receive a corruptible crown : but we an incorrup- 
tible crown" (i Cor. ix. 25). We should never murmur or grow sad 
on account of such matters. Our Holy Father reiterates the* advice, 
warning monks who are deprived of their portion of wine to abstain 
also from murmuring. ' 



CHAPTER XLI 

AT WHAT HOURS THf BRETHREN ARE TO TAKE 

THEIR MEALS 

QUIBUS HORIS OPORTEAT REFiCERE From the holy feast of Easter until 

FRATRES. A sancto Pascha usque ad Whitsuntide let the brethren dine at 

Pentecosten ad sextam reficiant fratres, the sixth hour and sup in the evening, 
et ad seram cenent. 

ST. BENEDICT divides the year into four parts as regards the 
times of meals. From Easter till Whitsuntide there is no fast, 
in accordance with the ancient discipline of the Church. It is 
certain also, though St. Benedict says nothing on the point, that 
Sundays were not fast-days. There were two meals, one in the middle 
of the day, at the sixth hour, and the other in the evening before sunset, 
at an hour which would naturally vary according to the season. In 
Greek and Roman customs the midday meal was a summary affair; 
for the monks it was the chief meal of the day. 

A Pentecoste antem, tota aestate, si But from Whitsuntide, throughout 

labores agrorum non habent monachi, the summer, if the monks have not 

aut nimietas aestatis non perturbat, to work in the fields, nor are harassed 

quarta et sexta feria jejunent usque ad by excessive heat, let them- fast on 

nonam: reliquis veto diebus ad sextam Wednesdays and Fridays until the 

prandeant. Quse prandii sexta, si ninth hour, but on other days dine 

opera in agris habuerint, aut sestatis at the sixth. Should they have field 

fervor nimius fuerit, continuanda erit, labour, or should the heat of the sum- 

et in Abbatis sit providentia. Et sic mer be very great, let dinner at the 

omnia temperet atque disponat, qua- sixth hour be the rule, at the discre- 

liter et animae salventur, et quod faci- tion of the Abbot. Let him likewise 

unt fratres, absque ulla murmuratione so temper and arrange all things that 

faciant. souls may be saved and that the 

brethren may fulfil their tasks 
without any murmuring. 

From Whitsuntide throughout the summer, the Easter regime holds 
good, except that Wednesdays and Fridays are to be fast-days. These 
same days were days of penance for all Christians in the early centuries. 1 
But St. Benedict differentiates these fast-days from the fast of Lent, 
putting the single meal at the ninth hour that is, towards three o'clock 
in the afternoon. In some places the ninth hour was the time for 
breaking fast, not only at this season but also in Lent. 2 On other days, 
says St. Benedict, dinner shall be at the sixth hour. Because he does not 
speak of supper, and because some ancient documents such as the Rule 
of St. Fructuosus and the Rule of the Master exclude it expressly, some 

1 Cf. S. EPIPH., Adv. Hareses, 1. III., t. ii. : Exporitio fdei, xxii. P.G., XLII., 
825-828. 

* Cf. SOCRAT., Hist, eccles., 1. V.. c. xxii. P.G., LXVIL, 625-646. CASS., Conlat.* 

w ^y*TT * s 

II., xxvi.; XXI., xxm. 

278 



At what Hours the Brethren are to take their Meals 279 

commentators doubt whether they had both prandium and cena at Monte 
Casino in summer. 1 But it is the custom of the whole Order to grant 
two meals on days which are not fast-days. 

Our Holy Father allows an alleviation of the summer regime in the 
case of heavier toil or excessive heat. Hours were longer in this season, 
and it might often be a severe trial to wait till the ninth hour for a meal. 
" Let dinner at the sixth hour be the rule."; so that throughout the 
week, even on Wednesdays and Fridays, dinner shall be at that time. 
Probably there was also supper in the evening, so that the fast was com- 
pletely dropped. It is left to the fatherly wisdom and foresight of the 
Abbot to determine when this was suitable. St. Benedict adds that 
he must also so contrive and arrange all things that souls may be saved, 
and the work of the brethren be fulfilled without murmuring. Here, 
as always, we find care for measure and moderation, fear of murmuring 
and complaint, though this be entirely secret. Better to dispense with 
the fast than to expose the brethren to discouragement or distress. 

Ab Idibus autem Septembris, usque From the Ides of September until 
ad caput Quadragesima, ad nonam the beginning of Lent let the brethren 
semper reficiant fratres. always dine at the ninth hour. 

The third period, which we know as the monastic Lent, extends 
from after the Ides of September, when the Calends of October begin 
that is, from September 14 until the ecclesiastical Lent. In this 
period dinner was at the ninth hour. There is nothing to show that 
there was a collation on fast-days. But we should remember that the 
quantity of food was the same at all times. On fast-days that was 
served at one meal which was else served at two, the difference being 
that the hour of this single repast was more or less retarded. 

In Quadragesima vero usque ad During Lent, however, until Easter 
Pascha, ad Vesperam reficiant. Ipsa let them dine in the evening. But let 
tamen Vespera sic agatur, ut lumine this evening meal be so arranged that 
lucernae non indigeant reficientes, sed they shall not need lamps while eating, 
luce adhuc diei omnia consummentur. and that all things may be finished 
Sed et omni tempore, sive cense, sive while there is yet daylight. Indeed, 
refectionishorasic.temperetur, ut cum at all times of the year, let the hour, 
luce fiant omnia. whether for dinner or supper, be so 

arranged that everything be done by 

daylight. 

From the beginning of Lent (Ash Wednesday or Quadragesima 
Sunday) 2 until Easter there shall be one meal and that at the hour of 
Vespers, after the Office. This was for many centuries the most common 
practice of the clergy and the faithful. 

1 ST. JEROME, in bis preface to the Rule of St. Pacbomius writes: (5) Bis in bebdtmada, 
quarto et sexta Sabbati ab omnibus jejunatur, excepto tempore Pascba et Pentecostes. Aliis 
diebus comedunt qui volunt post meridiem; et in cena similiter mensa ponitur, propter 
laborantes, senes, et pueros, testusque gravissimos. Sunt qui secundo parum comedunt; 
alii qui prandii, sive cena uno tantum cibo contenti sunt. Cf. LADEUZE, tude sur le ceno- 
bitisme pakbomien, pp. 298-299. 

* CJ. Dictionn. d'arcbiol. ebrit. et de Liturg^ art, 



280 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

Our Holy Father wished the Lenten meal to be taken before sunset, 
a forestalling of the time which would be some relief to the brethren, 
The hour of Vespers shall be fixed so as to allow the meal to be finished 
in daylight without any need of a lamp. The reader will not require a 
light, and the brethren, moreover, will be less tempted to distractions 
during the meal. Conversation would have been easy in a badly 
lighted refectory. St. Benedict makes a general rule of this. Through- 
put the year the hour of supper, or the hour of the single meal, shall be 
so arranged that all is fulfilled by daylight. It may be objected that 
this would in winter put dinner very near supper. Calmet replies 
to this: " (i) that St. Benedict was speaking of Italy where he wrote 
and where the days of winter are longer than in France, Germany, or 
the North. (2) That it is by no means certain that he granted supper 
to his monks from the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross till Easter, 
on days when dinner was at the sixth hour any more than on days when 
it was at the ninth. (3) But supposing that he did grant it, it was more 
in the nature of a light lunch than of a supper." 



CHAPTER XLII 
THAT NO ONE MAT SPEAK AFTER COMPLINE 

CF us recall the division of the Rule suggested in the first chapter.. 
The central portion, from the twenty-first to the fifty-seventh 
chapters inclusively, concerns legislation and the internal order 
of the monastery, It is subdivided into three parts viz., 4 
XXI. -XXX., dealing with the deans and their duties and the code of 
punishments ; XXXI. -XLI., dealing with the cellarer and so with all that 
is connected with his office in a more or less immediate way. We now 
come to the subject of regularity and observance. It is not hard to see 
how this chapter is connected with the previous one and based on it. 

UT POST COMPLETORIUM NEMO LO- Monks should study silence always, 

QUATUR. Omni tempore silentio de- but especially during the hours of the 

bent studere monachi, maxime tamen night; and this shall hold of all times, 

nocturnis horis, et ideo omni tempore, whether fast-days or not. 
sive jejunii, sive prandii. 

St. Benedict takes silence first, as though to remind us that it is 
the most important item in monastic observance. Superiors speak 
repeatedly of the observance of silence, and we are inclined to regard 
it as a vague commonplace, a subject taken up when there is nothing else 
to say. Yet they only imitate our Holy Father. Without repeating 
the doctrinal and practical reflections made in the sixth chapter, we may 
well observe again that silence, like poverty and mortification, has only 
a relative value. Silence is not perfection, absolute silence is not sanctity. 
There are natures which from timidity, or a deep-seated tranquillity, 
dislike self-expression. Silence is, then, a matter of temperament and 
no virtue. For its value consists in a voluntary and deliberate relation 
to perfection and God. Silence is an aid to prayer, the condition and 
effect of interior recollection, the guardian and sign of charity. 

Recollection is so bound up with the goal of the monastic life that 
St. Benedict writes with insistence and some imperiousness. He does 
not merely invite. Monks ought, he says, at all times without excep- 
tion, and even when they are speaking, to study and .love silence. 
Omni tempore silentio debent studere monachi. Those words give us the 
general rule, to be modified in its application according to times, places, 
and subjects of conversation. St. Benedict, as we have remarked 
elsewhere, nowhere prescribes the absolute suppression of speech. 
He recognizes degrees of silence; the very diversity of these degrees 
and the special condemnation sometimes pronounced on certain sorts 
of conversation all these detailed measures of prevention would be out 
of place in a house where there was never any talking. Our Holy 
Father here gives the night silence a privileged place. 1 Religious orders 

1 Some testimonies in favour of the night silence occur previously to St. Benedict: 
Nemo alteri loquatur in tenebrts, says the Rule of ST. PACHOMIOT (xciv.). Finitit igitur 
pialmis et cotidiana congregations, ficut superius memoravimut, absolute nullut eorum vel 
ad modicum subsistere aut sermocinari audet cum altero (Cxss., Inst. t II., xv.). 

281 



282 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

have all adopted from him a measure which is justified on many grounds. 
In the first place it was in the interest of good order, when all the monks 
slept in the same dormitory, and the vigilance of the Abbot and deans 
was as a matter of fact somewhat relaxed. It is further a matter of 
mortification. For while all is silence and recollection, our will readily 
submits itself to what external things require, and we put ourselves 
simply in unison with nature. .When all noise is stilled, imagination 
becomes less . active, thoughtfulness and prayer more easy. In the 
secret places of our souls there is produced an effect like that which 
resulted from the coming of the Angel of deliverance, described in the 
Book of Wisdom and applied by the Church to the coming of 
our Lord: "While all things were in quiet silence and the night was 
in the midst of her course, thy almighty word leapt down from heaven 
from thy royal throne . ./." (Wisdom xviii. 14-15). 

Besides the general counsel of silence, three things are dealt with in 
this chapter viz., reading or spiritual conferences, Compline, and the 
night silence. The end of the" first sentence presents a difficulty. The 
punctuation we have adopted 1 differs from that of the editions of 
Schmidt and Wolfflin, which put a full stop after the word bar is and a 
colon after the words sive prandii. With either punctuation the clause 
ft idea etc., is both the conclusion of the general precept which precedes 
and an introduction to the details that follow. The sense would seem to 
be : Monks should practise silence at all times, but especially at night. 
So at all times, whether fast-days or not, things should be done as follows. 
Then in a long digression St. Benedict indicates how the monks are to 
prepare for the night silence and when it is to begin, whether the day 
be one on which there are two meals or only one. He is thinking in the 
latter case of the fast-days of the Rule and does not explicitly consider 
the fast-days of the Church, a thing which we shall explain. After this 
digression, with the words Et exeuntes a Completorio, we come back to 
the topic of the night silence. 

A third system of punctuation, of fairly wide acceptance, makes 
the words Et ideo begin a new sentence and puts a simple comma before 
si tempusfuerit prandti; but this reading raises the following difficulty. 
If we understand by fast-days the fasts of the Rule, as well as those of 
the Church, it is not accurate to say in general that as soon as supper is 
ended there follows spiritual reading; for on the fast-days of the Rule 
there was most probably no supper, but only the one repast at the ninth 
hour. If we take the words to refer to the fast of Lent, the statement 
is accurate; but then the two alternatives "fast-days or not " do not 
exhaust the meaning of the words " at all times," since the fast-days of 
the Rule are excluded. With our punctuation we may very well take 
the words " fast-days " to mean all such days of whatever sort. 

1 Followed by D. Guranger in his French translation of the Rule. 

* Omni tetnpore seems here to mean: all the year, every day, although at the begin- 
ning of the chapter we gave it a wider meaning: at every time, in afi circumstances, 
always. 



That no one may Speak after Compline 283 

Si tempus fuerit prandii, mox ut If it be not a fast-day, as soon as 
surrexerint a cena, sedeant omnes in they shall have risen from supper let 
unum, et legat unus Collationes, vel all sit down together, and let one read 
Vitas Patrum, aut certe aliquid quod the Conferences or Lives of the Fathers, 
asdificet audientes; non autem Hepta- or at least something else which may 
teucum, aut Regura: quia infirmis in- edify the hearers; but not the Hepta- 
tellectibus non erit utile ilia hora hanc teuch, nor the Books of Kings: for it 
Scripturam audire; aliis vero horis will not profit those of weak under- 
legantur. standing to hear those parts of Sdtip- 

ture at that hour; let them be read 

at other times. 

On days when there are two meals, as soon as supper is ended, the 
brethren shall rise, assemble, and sit together in one place, and one of 
them begin the reading. St. Benedict does not say where this took 
place, and the s custom of the Order has been very various. Most often 
reading and Compline took place in the chapter-house or in the cloister, 
sometimes in the oratory, or even in the refectory. 1 Nowadays all is 
done in the oratory. Besides the chief purpose of edifying the monks, 
preparing them for the night, and leaving their minds full of spiritual 
thoughts, our Holy Father had another intention in instituting this 
reading. It was a practical one, and is revealed in the last words of the 
succeeding sentence. For the length of the reading is calculated so 
that all the monks may be able to assemble for a last conventual prayer. 
The kitchen servers and the reader, who have their meal at second table, 
the infirmarians, guestmasters, and all occupied in any special duty, will 
thus have the means of rejoining their brethren. If need be they must 
hurry somewhat : " so that during the reading all may come together 
(concurrentibus, running together), even such as may be occupied in 
some work enjoined them." 

St. Benedict indicates the substance of this reading viz., the 
Collationes or Conferences (of Cassian), the Lives of the Fathers, or at 
least some book capable of edifying the hearers. Some parts of .Scripture 
with approved patristic commentaries might be read. But the Rule 
excludes the Heptateuch (i.e., the Pentateuch plus the Books of Joshua 
and Judges) and the Books of Kings (probably including the Book of 
Ruth). 2 These being historical narratives might disturb some imagina- 
tions, and in any case were not quite adapted to the restful purpose of 
this evening reading. Or else St.. Benedict wished to spare his monks, 
among whom were children and boys, some narratives quite Oriental 
in their freedom. " It will not profit those of weak understanding to 
hear those parts of Scripture at that hour, but they shall be read at other 
times." The whole Bible is from God. It was not written for un- 
believers. St. Benedict's intention, therefore, is not to make an expur- 
gated edition of the Sacred Books, for the use of those who might be 
tempted to explain them in the light of their evil experiences, but 
merely to take precautions to ensure us a quiet night and quiet awakening. 

1 Cf. MA&T&NI, De ant. monacb. rit., 1. 1., c. . 

8 Cf. S. AUG., De doctrina cbristiana, 1. IIv, c. viii, P.Z., XXXIV., 40-41. 



284 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

Si autem jejunii dies fuerit, dicta If it be a fast-day, then a short time 

Vespera, parvo intervallo, mox acce- after Vespers let them assemble for 

dant ad lectionem, ut diximus, et lectis the reading, as we have said; four or 

quatuor aut quinque foliis, vel quan- five pages being read, or as much as 

turn hora permittit, omnibus in unum time allows, so that during the delay 

concurrentibus 1 per hanc moram lee- provided by this reading all may come 

tionis; si quis forte in assignato sibi together, even such as may be occupied 

commisso fuerit occupatus, occurrat. 3 in some work enjoined them, 

This probably refers to the monastic fasts, two days a week from 
Pentecost to September 14, and every day from then to Lent. On 
these days dinner was at the ninth hour. Vespers followed at its 
proper time, and then, after a brief interval, all assembled for the reading 
as previously explained. The kitchen servers would be free long before, 
but other brethren might be occupied in various tasks, whether in the 
monastery or its surroundings. They must hasten to join the community 
and arrive, at latest, towards the end of the reading. It would appear 
that it hardly lasted more than a half -hour, sufficient for the reading of 
four or five pages of manuscript. But St. Benedict does not wish to 
fix it too precisely, adding that it should last as long as time allows. On 
days when there had been supper, or when that meal was taken late, 
in summer for instance, or when work was heavier, the Abbot might 
shorten the reading. Nowadays we do not exceed ten minutes; but we 
have reading or a spiritual conference before the evening meal. 

St. Benedict has nothing special to say about Lent or other ecclesi- 
astical fasts, since, in what regards reading and Compline, all would be 
the same as on days when there were two meals. The reading would 
follow immediately after the single evening meal. 

Omnes ergo in unum positi com- When all, therefore, are gathered 

pleant; et exeuntea a Completorio together let them say Compline; and 

nulla sit licentia denuo cuiquam loqui when they come out from Compline 

aliquid, Quod si inventus fuerit quis- no one shall be allowed to speak further 

quam przevaricari hanc taciturnitatis to anyone. If anyone be found to 

regulam, graviori vindictae subjaceat; evade this rule of silence, let him be 

excepto si necessitas hospitum super- punished severely; unless the presence 

venerit, aut forte Abbas alicui aliquid of guests should make it necessary, or 

jusserit. Quod tamen et ipsum cum the Abbot should chance to give some 

summa gravitate et moderationc order. But even this must be done 

honestissime fiat. becomingly, with the greatest gravity 

and moderation. 

Note again the importance which St. Benedict attaches to the 
presence of all at Compline. All tasks shall cease and all the brethren 
unite at this last hour of the day : omnes in unum positi compleant. Then 
shall Compline be said; its structure our Holy Father has given else- 
where (Chapters XVII. -XVIII.). 

1 Convenientibus in uttumfratribus ad concinendos psalmos, quos quieturi ex more decan- 
tant (CASS., Inst., IV., xix.). 

2 Occurrat belongs only to the " received text "; and this whole passage is variously 
punctuated by editors. 



That no one may Speak after Compline 285 

On coming out from this hour, no one shall be free to say anything 
whatever to any of his brethren: nulla sit licentia denuo cuiquam loqui 
aliquid. Whosoever is convicted of a violation of this rule shall be 
subjected to very severe punishment. St. Benedict does not say what 
this was ; but, in ancient times, it sometimes took the form of excommuni- 
cation. Custom is still exacting in this matter and good monks will 
endeavour to keep the night silence in all its integrity. 

Nevertheless, all rules remain subordinate to discretion and even the 
gravest precepts have no other aim except charity. Our Holy Father 
enumerates briefly the chief circumstances when one must overlook the 
rule viz., if guests, have to be attended to, if the Abbot has orders to 
give. One may imagine other cases, such as fire, the sickness of a brother, 
robbery; 1 any of which reasons would be more than enough to justify 
the breaking of the night silence. But, as St. Benedict remarks, though 
silence gives way before the higher law of charity, it never loses all its 
rights. We should only say what is necessary, with great gravity, in 
few words, and with all possible moderation and restraint. 

As we said in commenting on the twenty-second chapter, the Rule 
does not tell us when the night silence ended, and it may have ended at 
rising. From the time of St. Benedict of Aniane it lasted in certain 
monasteries until Prime and the meeting of the brethren in the chapter- 
house. With us it ceases with the versicle Pretiosa at Prime. 

1 D. MiNARD notes that the ancient monks often observed the night silence when 
away from the monastery and on a journey; he tells how St. Stephen of Obazine, and, 
on another occasion, two monks of Cluny, when attacked by robbers or barbarians, kept 
an imperturbable silence. 



CHAPTER XLIII 

OF THOSE WHO COME LATE TO THE WORK OF GOD, 

OR TO TABLE 

WE now start a series of four chapters which may be regarded 
as the complement of the monastic penal legislation (in 
XXIII.-XXX.). They are more in place here than earlier. 
For our Holy Father treats in fact of observance, regu- 
larity, and punctuality; these are the chief subjects of these chapters. 
They contain punishments for small breaches of observance and for 
purely material faults. We are told how to expiate all the little injuries 
we may do to the peace and good order of the community, slight and 
even involuntary irreverences towards God and sacred things. And 
since public penances most often have the oratory or refectory for their 
scene and occasion, it was natural not to speak of them until meals had 
been dealt with. Finally, apropos of satisfactions, St. Benedict describes 
the manner of them for brethren excommunicated both from oratory 
and table or from table alone (Chapter XLIV.). 

DE us QUi AD OPUS DEI VEL AD At the hour of Divine Office, as 

MENSAM TARDE occuRRUNT. Ad horam soon as the signal is heard, let each one 

divini Officii, mox ut auditum fuerit ky aside whatever he may be engaged 

signum, relictis omnibus quaelibet on and hasten to it with all speed, and 

fuerint in manibus, summaxum festina- yet with seriousness, so that no occasion 

tione curratur: cum gravitate tamen, be given for levity. Let nothing be 

ut non scurrilitas inveniat fomitem. put before the Work of God. 
Ergo nihil operi Dei praeponatur. 

In oratory and refectory the whole community is united and there 
the external bond of conventual life is realized. Therefore should 
punctuality be especially in evidence at these duties. St. Benedict 
deals first with the Divine Office, giving the precept, the mode of its 
fulfilment, and finally the motive. As soon as the signal for Office is 
heard, each one should go with all speed, leaving unfinished any other 
work, whatever hand or brain has been occupied with. 1 It is obvious, 
and St. Benedict thought it unnecessary to remark, that one would not 
abandon thus abruptly whatever charity or good sense would bid him 

1 Iiaque considentes intra cubilia sua et operi ac meditationi studiumpariter inpendentes, 
cum sonitum pulsantis ostium ac diversorum cellulas percutientis audierint ad orationem 
scilicet eos seu ad opus aliquod invitantis, certatim e suit cubilibus unusquisque prorumpit, 
ita ut is, qui opus scriptoris exercet, quam repertusfuerit incboasse litter am finire non audeat, 
sed in eodem puncto, quo ad awes ejus sonitus pulsantis advenerit, summa velocitate prosiliens 
tie tantum quidem mores interponal t quantum caepti apicis consummet effigiem, sed inperfectas 
litters lineas derelinquens non tarn operis conpendia lucrare sectetur quam obedientiee 
virtu tern exsequi toto studio atque amulationefestinet. Quam nonsolum operi manuum seu 
lectioni vel silentio et quieti cellee, verum etiam cunctis virtutibus ita frceftrunt, ut buic 
judicent omnia postponenda et universa dispendia subire contenti sint, dvmmodo hoc bonum 
in nullo violasse videantur (CASS., Inst., IV., zii.). 

286 



Those who come Late to Work of God, or to Table 287 

keep or continue for a moment. Extreme haste should also be tempered 
with gravity, for we are not bidden to run in the literal sense of the word. 
Dissipation should not be caused and justified by a gross interpretation 
of the Rule, and that in duties which we should approach with great 
recollection. 

. The supernatural zeal with which St. Benedict would have us fulfil 
all the behests of obedience is ever justified, for it is God who gives the 
orders; but this is especially true when the work is the Work of God 
par excellence, that essential and unique work towards which are ordained 
all God's operations ad extra. Nothing, says St. Benedict, should be 
put before the Work of God. Which principle, borrowed by him from 
monastic tradition, 1 has remained the proud motto of all his children. 
Let us never be slow to appear in the audience chamber of God; there 
is the one interest of life. Moreover, regularity is the school of abnega- 
tion. Let us be forgiven for repeating that it is the truest mortification, 
sounding the very depths of our wills, though it remain unnoticed by 
men. Monastic punctuality is not mechanical or constrained. It has 
its source in deep conviction, in a glad spontaneity of faith and love. 
Our souls are identified with the law, and thus arises an orthodox form 
of that immanence of which men now speak so much. 

Quod si quis ad nocturnas Vigilias Should anyone come to the Night 
post " Gloriam " Psalmi nonagesimi Office after the Gloria of the ninety- 
quart! (quern propter hoc omnino pro- fourth psalm (which for this reason 
trahendo et morose volumus did) we wish to be said very slowly and 
occurrerit, non stet in ordine suo in protractedly), let him not stand in his 
choro, sed ultimus omnium stet, aut in order in the choir, but last of all, or in 
loco quern taliBus negligentibus seor- the place set apart by the Abbot for 
sum constituent Abbas, ut videatur ab such negligent ones, so that he may 
ipso vel ab omnibus, usque dum com- be seen by him and by all, until, the 
pleto opere Dei, publics satisfactione Work of God being ended, he do 
paeniteat. Ideo autem eos in ultimo penance by public satisfaction. The 
aut. seorsum judicavimus debere stare, reason why we have judged it fitting 
ut visi ab omnibus, vel pro ipsa vere- for them to stand in the last place. or 
cundia sua emendentur. Nam si foras apart, is that, being seen by all, they 
oratorium remaneant, erit forte talis may amend for very shame. For if 
qui 8e aut recollocet et dormiat, aut they were to remain outside the ora- 
certe sedeat foris, vel fabulis vacet, et tory, there might be one who would 
detur occasio maligno; sed ingrediatur return to his bed and sleep, or else sit 
intro, ut nee totum perdat, et de reli- outside and give himself to idle tales, 
quo emendetur. and so give occasion to the Evil One. 

Let him, therefore, enter, that he may 
not lose the whole, and may amend for 
the future. 

The common purpose of the penances which our Holy Father now 
begins to appoint is undoubtedly to repair the offence against God and 

* Cursum monasterii super omnia diligas. Ad boram vero orationis data signo qui non 
statim pratermisso omni opere quod agit paratus fuerit, foras excludatur, ut erubetcat; 
quia nibil orationi praponendum est (S. MACAR., Reg., ix., adv.). Orationi nibil praponat. 
tola die (S. PORCARII Monita: Revue BSnfdictine, October, 1909, p. 478). 



288 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

the slight scandal given to the brethren ; but they have as well a remedial 
character, tending to wean us from all inclination to self-will or careless- 
ness. Whoever arrives after the Gloria of the ninety-fourth psalm, in 
the Night Office, must not take his order in the choir. He has displayed 
too little zeal to deserve, though he be now ready, to join the common 
psalmody. The Invitatory had been chanted slowly and much drawn 
out with set purpose of considerateness. He shall take his place last 
of all, or else apart, in a special place appointed by the Abbot for such 
delinquents (talibus negligentibut). He will be seen there by the Abbot 
and his brethren and will feel a salutary shame. But this is not the whole 
of his penance; for when the Office is over, he shall make public satis- 
faction, probably in the choir or at the doors of the church. 

So St. Benedict allows the late-comer into the oratory, but appoints 
him the last place or puts him in the pillory of the lazy. In this he 
departs from the custom of the monks of Palestine as he found it de- 
scribed in Cassian. With them a monk, who did not arrive at the Night 
Office before the prayer which followed the second psalm, had to remain 
outside the oratory, taking part in the Office from a distance only, and 
when the brethren came out had to prostrate at the feet of all, asking 
their pardon. At Terce, Sext, and None he had to arrive before the end 
of the first psalm if he would escape the above penalty. 1 It may be 
that for the fervent Eastern of refined nature such temporary excom- 
munication was a severe lesson. But St. Benedict knew that in the 
West of his day such a proceeding would have been dangerous for certain 
ruder natures. We have judged it fitting, he says, to relegate such 
careless ones to the last place, or to a place apart and conspicuous, so 
that, in default of high motives, their shame may produce amendment. 
But to allow a monk, even as a punishment, to remain outside the oratory 
would be to expose him to a thousand temptations. The lazy man 
would regard it as a positive encouragement, return to bed, and continue 
his slumbers, judging that excommunication certainly had its good points. 
Another might sit solitary outside; 2 or else indulge in gossip with other 
late-comers or with strangers. Now a monk without protection of 
prayer, or rule, or work, or the society of his brethren, would be a sure 
prize for the enemy. Our Holy Father puts it quite directly: " and so 
give occasion to the Evil One." The devil is always looking for oppor- 
tunities; but as long as we are safeguarded by the helps of our conven- 
tual life we may laugh at him. For we ourselves hold the key that 
opens and shuts our souls, and none enters but he to whom we grant 

1 CABS., Inst., III., vii. The Rule of ST. MACAKIUB (xiv.) also excludes the late- 
comer. This is the regulation of ST. PACHOMIUS: Quando ad collectam tuba clangor 
increpuerit per diem, qui ad unam orationent tardiut venerit) superioris increpationis or dine 
corripietur, et stabit in loco convivii (penance in the refectory). Nocte vero, quoniam 
carports infirmitati plus aliquid conceditur, qui post tres orationes venerit, eodem et in collects 
et in vescendo ordine eorripietur (ix-x). ST EPHRKM, Paraenesis xviii, wherein 
monks are exhorted to rise in haste for the "Work of the Lord," and to 
enter the oratory, even if Office has begun (inter S. EPHHEM. opp. greec. lot., t. II., 

pp. 93-94)' 

8 We should read sedeat sibi forts. 



Those who come Late to Work of 'God, or to Table 289 

admittance. If the late-comer be admitted into the oratory, St. Bene- 
dict adds, anxious to justify his innovation to the full, he does not lose 
the whole advantage of the Divine Office; and he is constrained to amend 
for the future; or: makes satisfaction for what he has omitted and for 
the negligence that he has shown. 

Diurnis autem Horis, qui ad opus At the Day Hours let him who 

Dei post Versum et " Gloriam " primi comes to the Work of God after the 

Psalmi qui post Versum dicitur, occur- Verse and the Gloria of the first psalm 

rent, lege qua supra diximus, in ultimo which is said after the Verse stand in 

stet loco: nee praesumat sociari choro the last place, as ordered above; nor 

psallentium usque ad satisfactionem, let him presume to join the choir in 

nisi forte Abbas licentiam dederit per- their chanting until he have made 

missione sua; ita tamen, ut satisfaciat satisfaction, unless the Abbot allow 

reus ex hoc. him: yet even so let him make satis- 
faction for his guilt. 

One who comes late for the Day Hours, arriving after the Gloria 
of the first psalm which follows the versicle Deus in adjutorium, must be 
punished as before. He must take the last place, or else (St. Benedict 
does not mention this explicitly) go to the place appointed for the 
negligent. Until he has made satisfaction he is not to be permitted 
to join his voice with the voices of the choir in their chanting. It may 
be asked whether late-comers were denied all share in the Office, or 
merely forbidden to chant, whether alone or in the " schola " (choro 
psallentium are St. Benedict's words), psalms, antiphons, or lessons, in the 
same way as this was forbidden to those excommunicated from the table 
(Chapter XXIV.) and those excommunicated from oratory and table 
before their complete reconciliation (Chapter XLIV.). 1 Did they do 
nothing but listen ? Did they recite what they could in a very low voice ? 
Did they take part in certain " responses," or in chanting which was 
performed by the whole choir? We cannot say. The words " that 
he may not lose the whole " would seem to indicate more than a purely 
passive role. Nor can we say, from the mere text of the Rule, whether 
this exclusion could be continued for many Offices, when the negligence 
was more grave, or was habitual, or when complete satisfaction was long 
coming. But St. Benedict tells us that the negligent monk could take 
his usual place and duty in choir by express invitation of the Abbot ; 
as, for example, when he was in charge of a duty which without him would 
be unfulfilled or fulfilled imperfectly. It would not do to disorganize the 
common prayer for the sake of punishing one man's tardiness . However, 
even then, the guilty man must make public satisfaction after the 
Office. 

It has been remarked that St. Benedict is more lenient with those 
who come late for Matins than with laggards at the Day Offices ; and the 
reason is not obscure. At the Night Office they have until after the 
Verse, psalm iii., and the Invitatory ; at the Day Hours they are punished 
if they come after the first psalm. -But what does St. Benedict mean by 

1 See p. 148. 

'9 



290 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

the Day Hours? Cassian, 1 in a passage which our Holy Father uses 
with modifications, describes the penances done by the Palestinian 
monks when they arrived late for the Night Offices (in nocturnis conven- 
ticulis), or else for Terce, Sext, and None (in Tertia, Stxta vel Nona). 
Cassian says nothing of other Hours. Lauds could be included under 
the Night Office, Compline probably did not yet exist in those parts, 
and Prime was of quite recent institution. But what of Vespers? 
Was the rule of penance the same for this as for the Night Offices?* 
Yet, whatever may have been Palestinian custom, we have no right 
to infer an exact agreement between the arrangements mentioned by 
Cassian and those of St. Benedict. If our Holy Father really intends 
to speak of Lauds and the succeeding Hours, we must recognize that all 
the Hours have the verse Deus in adjutorium, a fact not mentioned 
explicitly in his set treatment of the Office save for Prime, Terce, Sext, 
and None. 3 And we should allow that at Lauds laggards have till after 
the Gloria of the sixty-sixth psalm, which is purposely said slowly like 
the Invitatory, "that all may be in time for the fiftieth" (Chapter XIII.). 4 
Perhaps, finally, the fact that St. Benedict does not here mention the 
hymn, between the Deus in adjutortum and the first psalm, is a proof 
that he wishes to include in one precise formula the Day Offices which 
have the hymn before the psalmody (Prune, Terce, Sext, and None) 
and those other Offices where the hymn comes after (Lauds, Vespers, and 
Compline). 

Ad mensam autem qui ante Versum He who does not come to table 

non occurred t, ut simul primes dicant before the Verse, so that all may say it 

Versum et orent, et sub uno simul praying together and sit down to table 

onmes accedant ad mensam : qui per at the same time, must be corrected 

negligentiam suam aut vitrom non once or twice if this be through negli- 

occurrerit, usque ad secundara vicem gence or fault. If after this he do not 

pro hoc corripiatur : si denuo non emen- amend, let him hot be suffered to share 

daverit, non permittatur ad mensae in the common table, but be separated 

communis participationem, sed seques- from the company of all and eat alone, 

tratus a consortio omnium reficiat solus, his portion of wine being taken from 

sublata ei portione sua vim, usque him until he makes satisfaction and 

ad satisfactionem et emendationem. -amends. He is to undergo the same 

Similiter autem patiatur, qui ad ilium, punishment who is not present at the 

Versum non fuerit prsesens, qui post Verse which is said after meals, 
cibum dicitur. 

St. Benedict now ensures the conventual character of meals. In 
the main it is not hard of realization, for there are decisive reasons 
urging all the monks to be present and that without great delay ; whereby 
we achieve a complete reunion. But if all are present for the meal 
they should likewise be present for the prayers before and after. There 

1 Inst., III., vii. * See p. 171, note 3. ' See pp. 158 and 177. 

4 Is it not precisely in allusion to Lauds and in order to prevent any confusion 
between psalm Ixvi. and psalm 1. that St. Benedict speaks specifically of the first psalm 
qui post versutn dicitur f ~ 



Those who come Late to Work of God^ or to Table 29 



I 



was, therefore, at that epoch and the custom is as old as Christianity 1 
a form of Blessing before meals and Grace after meals. St. Benedict 
alludes to both as the " VeTse." 2 And he requires three things at the 
beginning of meals: that all should assemble before the Verse, that they 
should say it and pray together, and finally that all should sit down 
together (ut sub uno simul omnes accedant ad mensam). By this regula- 
tion and the one concerning the end of the meal our Holy Father 
perhaps intends to exclude the custom followed by the monks of St. 
Pachomius, who went to the refectory as they wished and left when it 

. suited them. 8 At any rate, it is plain that in St. Benedict's conception 
a monastery is a fraternal fellowship, closely knit together, wherein all 
follow the same horarium, wherein, all are blessed and consecrated, and 
all works, even the most ordinary ones, are sanctified, by prayer. 

He who from carelessness or caprice does not arrive before the 
prayer shall first be corrected once or twice. So St. Benedict prudently 
makes a distinction between negligence in coming to the Divine Office 
and a late arrival at meals. The latter fault is less serious. However, 
if two corrections do not cause amendment, the guilty one must thence- 
forth be forbidden to share in the common table. 4 This is not the 
excommunication from meals provided in the twenty-fourth chapter, 
but a penalty analogous to that just decreed against the laggard at the 
Office. The refectory, like the choir, had a place allotted to the careless 
where they were to eat by themselves separated from the society of their 
brethren and deprived of their portion of wine. They had not to take 
their meals .at second table or outside the refectory. 6 This is proved 
by St. Benedict's requirements before the laggards may recover their 
wine and their right place: they had to make satisfaction and amend; 
but it would be impossible to manifest their improvement in punctuality 

' unless they were kept in the common refectory. Our Holy Father 
decides finally that the same punishment should be inflicted on the 
monk who goes out before Grace. . 

1 To give a blessing before breaking bread is the familiar action of Our Lord 
(Luke xxiv. 30-35) and of the Apostles (Acts xxvii. 33-35). This' blessing occurs in 
the Agape of the early Christians. * Read on this subject chapters ix. and x. of the 
Didacbe, the interpretation of which has been fixed in a quite final manner by D. CAGIN 
(L'Eucbaristia, part II., viii.). 

* On the prayers at monastic meals cf. MENARD, Concordia Regularum, pp. 765-766. 
HKFTEN, 1. X., tract, i., disq. vi. MARTENE, De antiq. monacb. rit , 1. 1., c. ix. 

3 Sun* qui secundo par urn comedunt; alii quiprandii, sive cents uno tantum cibo contenti 
sunt. Nonnulli gustato paullulum pane egrediuntur. Omnes pariter comedunt. Qui ad 
mensam ire noluerii, in cettula sua panem tantum et aquam, ac salem accipit (S. HURON., 
Praf. in Reg. S.Pacb., 5). But when the monks of ST. PACHOMIUS came to the refectory 
they had. to come at a fixed hour, for we read in the same Rule: Si quiz ad comedendiim 
tardius venerit, excepto majoris imperio . . ,., aget panitentiam, out ad domum jejunus 
revertetur (xxxii.). 

4 Qua signo tacto tardius ad opus Dei, vel ad opera venerit, increpationi, ut dignum est, 
subjacebit. Quod si secundo aut tertio admonita emendare noluerit, a communione, vel a 

. convivio separetur (S. CJESAR., Reg. ad virg., x.). 

6 ST. BASIL condemns late-comers to wait for the next day's meal (Reg. contr., xcvii.); 
he distinguishes, however, between guilty and excusable late-coming. 



\\ 
292 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

Nee quisquam praesumat ante And let no one presume to take 

statutam horam, vel postea, quicquam any food or drink before or after the 

cibi vel potus percipere. Sed et si cui appointed time; but if something is 

offertur aliquid a priore, et accipere offered to anyone by the superior and 

renuerit, hora qua desideraverit, hoc he refuse it, and afterwards wishes to 

quod prius recusavit aut aliud omnino have what he had rejected or some 

non percipiat, usque ad emendationem other thing, let him get neither this 

congruam. nor anything else till he makes proper 

satisfaction. 

If negligent monks were free to eat and drink before or after the 
appointed hour, they would certainly have recompensed themselves 
for the loss of their wine and their penance at the common meal; and 
they would have had little zeal for amendment. But St. Benedict 
forbids eating or drinking, no matter how small a quantity, apart from 
the refectory and the conventual meals. 1 Moreover, it would have been 
unseemly for a monk to eat at any time or to drink when he had oppor- 
tunity, seeking a little dessert in the vineyard or the orchard. Nor is it 
in the power of the cellarer, or of him whom we call the " depositary," 
to consider the needs of each individual, to distribute kindly largesse, 
or to show a tender thoughtfulness for one or other of the brethren. 
Furthermore, in the refectory, you must get permission if you would 
exchange one dish for another which you think more suited to your 
stomach. And since the spirit of singularity and self-indulgence is very 
subtle and very hard to conquer, we should ever be on our guard, more 
especially as we advance in years, against seeking our ease and likes and 
preferences. 2 Finally, it may not be quite unnecessary to remark that, 
if the laws of our common life and of .mortification forbicP us giving 
ourselves anything whatever outside of mealtime, poverty also forbids 
us to offer a brother what we think we should deny ourselves. We are 
poorer than the poor themselves and cannot even dispose freely of our 
superfluity. To mix up some dish or other, without partaking of it, 
so as to show that we have touched it, and to transform it thus into 
something which we may give to others, would be to some degree a 
mistaking of true monastic poverty. 

St. Benedict forbids a monk to give or receive irregularly, but he 
recognizes the superior's right to grant a solace or some small addition, 
whether in the course of the common meal or outside it. And our 
Holy Father would have the monk accept with humility and courtesy 
what the Abbot's considerateness offers him. Not that he means to 
oblige the brethren to take indiscriminately and wholly any addition 
which they think excessive or harmful. He must accept graciously, 
but he may graciously excuse himself. For what St. Benedict wishes 
to banish is false austerity, ill-temper, and intractableness. A man 
may refuse haughtily and repenting soon come to ask for what he 

1 Ante quant vel post quam legitimam communemque refectionem summa cautione 
servatur, ne extra mensam quicquam cibipenitus ori suo quisquam indulgere prauumat, etc. 
(CASS., Irut., IV., xviii.). 

* Cf. S. BASIL., Reg. contr., xc. . 



Those who come Late to Work of God, or to Table 293 

had refused. The superior, says St. Benedict, should then remember 
his incivility, and not only refuse what is asked, but also every sort of 
favour, perhaps even necessary things, until the brother begs parden and 
repairs his fault suitably. 1 

1 The meaning we give to the words of St. Benedict is, it seems, almost the same as 
that of the passage in ST. BASIL which inspired them: Si quit iratutf verity nolens aceipere 
aliquid eorum qute ad mum preebentur f hte talis dignus est etiam ut si quterat non accipiat, 
utquequo probet it quipraett; et cum viderit vitium animi curatum, tune etiam quod (or ports 
ustbus neeasarium fuerit prabebit (Reg. contr. .xcvi.). See also the question which 
precedes this. 



= N .<T'^ i '-;.:-<' 



CHAPTER XLIV 



O/" TffOS /rao ^^ EXCOMMUNICATED, HOW THET 
ARE TO MAKE SATISFACTION 

ST. BENEDICT continues his enumeration of the means by which 
faults against observance are expiated, of the penances by which 
we regain favour. If small mistakes call for punishment and 
penance, more serious and very grave faults require such a fortiori. 
In outlining the ascending series of punishments deserved by these 
two last classes of faults our Holy Father (in Chapters XXIV. and XXV.) 
described the condition of those excommunicated " from oratory and 
table " and " from table." He now tells us how both may obtain 
pardon. To emerge from the full regular excommunication, a whole 
series of graduated and wise expiations had to be traversed, in which 
four stages may be distinguished. 1 

DE us QUI EXCOMMUNICANTUR, He who for graver offences is 

QUOMODO SATISFACIANT. Qui pro excommunicated from the oratory and 

graviori cu)pa ab. oratorio et a mensa the table must, at the hour when the 

excommunicatur, hora qua opus Dei Workof God is being performed in the 

in oratorio celebratur, ante fores ora- oratory, lie prostrate before the doors 

torii prostratus jaceat, nihil dicens; nisi of the oratory, saying naught; only 

tantum posito in terrain capite et pro- let him, with his face on the ground 

stratus, pronus omnium de oratorio ex- and body prone, cast himself at the 

euntium pedibus se projiciat. Et hoc feet of all as they go forth from the 

tamdiu faciat usque dum Abbas judi- oratory. And let him continue to do 

caverit satisfactum esse. this until the Abbot judge that satis- 

faction has been made. 

The excommunicated monk, who has submitted and consented 
to be reconciled with God and his brethren, is treated as were public 
penitents in the early centuries. At the hour when the Work of God 
is celebrated, at all Offices, he prostrates before the doors of the oratory, 
saying nothing. Possibly our Holy Father's intention was to keep 
him there during the whole of the Office, and the words nihil dicens 
are meant to forbid him taking any part in the liturgy. Many historical 
texts support this interpretation. 2 However, to stay thus at the door 
during the whole Office of the long winter nights would be a painful 
process, 3 especially if we take the words prostratus jaceat literally. 
Does it not seem that St. Benedict himself explains his meaning when 
he adds, immediately after nibil dicens, the clause beginning nisi tantum? 
The excommunicated monk must be at the doors of the oratory while 

1 There is some verbal reminiscence of CASSIAN (Inst., II., xvi.; IV., zvi.) in this 
chapter. 

* See the Rule of ST. FRUCTUOSUS (xiv.), and the Rule of the Master (xiv.). Mi NARD, 
Cottcordia Regularum, pp. 532-533. 

3 It is true that there was usually, before the church, a covered atrium; penitents 
and catechumens stayed there. 

*94 



How the Excommunicated make Satisfaction 295 

the brethren are going out; he must say nothing, but lying -prostrate, 
with his fice in the dust, cast himself at the feet of all, whether before 
each in turn or while the whole community defiles past him. The first 
remedy for every evil is humility, and humiliation is the means to obtain 
humility. Moral virtues are acquired by exercise, by the accumulation, 
and repetition of acts. The excommunicate must continue to act thus, 
says the Rule, until the Abbot judges that this first satisfaction is 
complete and sufficient. 

Qui dum jussiis ab Abbate venerit, Then, when the Abbot bids him, 
provolvat se ipsius Abbatis pedibus, let him come and cast himself at the 
deinde omnium vestigiis-fratrum, ut feet of the Abbot, and next at those 
orent pro eo. of all the brethren, that they may pray 

for him. 

This is the second stage. At the invitation of the Abbot the penitent 
comes and casts himself at his feet, and then at the feet of all the brethren 
begging their prayers, whether by word or merely by his suppliant 
attitude. The excommunication evidently will soon be removed and the 
guilty one restored to his place in the family. St. Benedict does not 
tell us in what place this second stage was enacted. 

Etturic, si jusaerit Abbas, recipiatur And then, if the Abbot so order, 

in choro, vel in ordine, quo Abbas de- let him be received back into the choir, 

creverit: ita sane, ut Psalmum aut in such a place as he shall appoint: 

Lectionem vel aliud quid nonpraesumat yet so that he presume not to intone 

in oratorio imponere, nisi iterum Abbas psalm or lesson or anything else in the 

jubeat. oratory, unless the Abbot again com- 
mand him. 

When the Abbot ordains it, the penitent is received back into the 
choir, but takes his rank as the Abbot judges fit, not necessarily that 
which he held before his fall. And in order to make him realize that 
his state is still only one of convalescence, he is forbidden to chant or 
to recite (probably by himself or in the " schola ") psalms, lessons, or 
other liturgical pieces of the same character. He will not have the right f 
to raise his voice in the presence of God and his brethren until formal 
authorization by the Abbot. If St. Benedict is prudent in his use of 
punishments, he does not care for quick and wholesale amnesty, that 
facility of pardon which encourages a recrudescence of the same faults. 

Et omnibus Horis, dum completur Moreover, at every Hour, when the 
opus Dei, projiciat se in terram, in loco Work of God is ended, let him cast 
in quo stat, et sic satisfaciat, usque dum himself on the ground, in the place 
ei jubeat Abbas, ut quiescat ab hac where he stands, and so make satisfac- 
satisfactione. tion, until the Abbot bids him cease 

from this satisfaction. 

Although he has regained his place in the common prayer, the 
penitent monk still owes a last satisfaction. At the end of each Hour 
he must prostrate on the ground, in the same place as he holds in choir; 
and he must repeat this satisfaction until the Abbot bids him cease and 



296 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

be at rest (quiescat) . We may note carefully that it is not said that the 
monk then recovers the place he held before his fault. Our Holy Father 
recognizes elsewhere that the Abbot has the right to degrade a man for 
well-founded reasons, certis ex causis (Chapter LXIIL). 

Qui vero pro levibus culpis ezcom- But those who for small faults are 
municatnr tantum a mensa, in oratorio excommunicated only from the table 
satisfaciat usque ad jussionem Abbatis; must make satisfaction in the oratory 
et tamdiu hoc faciat, usque dum bene- so long as the Abbot shall command; 
dicat, et dicat: Sufficit. let them do so till he bless them and 

say: It is enough. 

The procedure was naturally less complex and more gentle when it 
was a matter only of the minor excommunication, called excommunica- 
tion from the table because it operated chiefly in the refectory. In the 
choir, the excommunicated man was only deprived of the right to intone 
psalms and antiphons and recite lessons until he had made satisfaction, 
adds St. Benedict (Chapter XXIV.). Our Holy Father confines him- 
self here to directing that this satisfaction should be made in the oratory 
and last as long as the Abbot thinks suitable, being repeated until he 
gives his blessing and says: It is enough. But in what did this satis- 
faction consist ? It would seem that it was nothing else but the pros- 
tration of which our Holy Father spoke in the preceding sentence. 
Since the Rule gives no precise directions we may interpret it by itself, 
from the passage which is nearest and most connected in sense. 

We cannot embark on the history of monastic custom with regard 
to the satisfaction performed by the excommunicated. Let us observe 
only that the text of the Rule has never been abrogated. It remains still 
and it may be put into force. And though Occasions for the incurring 
or infliction of excommunication be much rarer than once they were, 
yet they are still possible. Given the occasion, it would be the strict 
duty of the Abbot to apply the penalties of the Rule, if he were forced 
thereto by obstinacy or by prolonged and formal contempt. 



CHAPTER XLV 

OF T#OS WHO MAKE MISTAKES IN THE ORATORT 




DE us QUI FALLUNTUR IN OKA- If anyone while reciting a psalm, 

TORIO. Si qu, dura pronuntiat Psal- responsory, antiphon, or lesson, make 

mum, Responsorium, aut Antiphonam, a mistake, and do not make satisfaction, 

vel Lectionem, fallitur: nisi cum satis- humbling himself there before all, 

f actione ibi coram omnibus humiliatus let him be subjected to greater punish- 

fuerit, majori vindictx subjaceat; ment, as one who would not correct 

quippe qui noluit humilitate corrigere, by humility what he did wrong through 

quod negligentia deliquit. Infantes negligence. But children for such 

vero pro tali culpa vapulent. faults are to be whipped. 

|ROM this point we are no longer concerned with grave irregulari- 
ties but with purely formal mistakes, at the most with offences 
'"due to some negligence or inadvertence. The ancients teach us 
not to be too easygoing even in such small matters. 1 In the 
oratory, in particular, where all is sacred and where the work performed 
is of supreme importance, where routine, laziness, and sleepiness are ever 
to be feared, any mistake calls for immediate expiation and such as is 
suited to its gravity. If anyone, says the Rule, makes a mistake in recit- 
ing a psalm, responsory, antiphon, or lesson, he owes satisfaction. The 
error may be a fault in pronunciation, by which we substitute one word 
for another or curtail a word, or else a fault in chanting, or the intoning 
of a wrong versicle ; St. Benedict does not go into detail, but employs 'the 
general phrase: "while reciting." Nor does he say what the satis- 
faction was. But we may suppose with some probability that he meant 
a humiliation imposed on himself by the delinquent, by kneeling or 
prostrating in his place before the eyes of all. Such, with minor differ- 
ences, are now and have always been, in the diverse branches of the 
Order, the ordinary choir penances. 

It is not necessary that our fault should have caused appreciable 
disturbance or discord, nor even that our neighbours should have 
noticed it. It is not a question of aesthetics, but of religious justice. 
Imperfection has appeared where there should be full and continuous 
.perfection, so that we have a real debt to pay to the Majesty of God. 
Our religion takes its whole character from the idea we have of God, 
and the attitude which this idea makes us adopt before Him. Under 
the New Covenant, God has not loaded us with a weight of manifold 
ritual ordinances, because He thought that charity would suffice to 
regulate our attitude in the presence of His Beauty. There are attentions 
which we should not expect of slaves, but should be astonished not to 
find in sons. Our penances should be done spontaneously, generously, 
with zealous faith and love. They should be done at once, without 

1 In writing this chapter and the one following St. Benedict had in mind the 
Institutes of CASSIAN, IV., xvi. 

297 



298 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

debate or secret self- justification. There is nothing better for making 
conscience delicate than this generous reparation for trivial faults and 
errors of frailty. Our Holy Father decrees that he who will not punish 
himself and correct his negligence by an act of humility must incur 
a more severe penalty. 1 Since he voluntarily abandons his character 
of a son in order to adopt again the internal attitude of the slave, he shall 
be treated for the slave that he would Ire, and will not be the gainer, 
thereby. 

" But children for such faults are to be whipped." We know that 
there were children in the monastery, that they were real religious, and 
that they were present at all the Offices. The Rule comes to the assist- 
ance of consciences not yet fully developed and stipulates that their 
mistakes in chanting- or psalmody should be punished with the rod. 2 
The old customaries, particularly that of Udalric, 8 describe in detail the 
procedure for the correction of children. 

1 Nisi fro neglegentia prasenti confatim vera bumilitate subnixivs satisfacerefestinarit 
(CAM., /., III., vii.). 

* It is better to interpret the words pro tali culpa of any fault committed by the 
boy in the chant or psalmody, than of the fault of not humbling himself. 

3 Consuet. Clun.) 1. III., c. via. et x. 






*'* ' ' ' , i , 4-. 



CHAPTER XLVI 
OF THOSE WHO OFFEND IN A 'NT OTHER MATTERS 

DE us QUI IN ALIIS QuiBUSLiBET If anyone while engaged in any sort 

REBUS DELINQUUHT. Si quis dum in of work, whether in the kitchen, the 

labore quovis, in coquina, in cellario, cellar, the office, the bakehouse, or the 

in ministerio, in pistrino, in horto, in garden, in any craft, and in any place, 

arte aliqua dum laborat, vel in quocum- shall do anything amiss, break or lose 

queloco, aliquid deliquerit, aut fregerit anything, or offend in any way what- 

quippiam, aut perdiderit, vel aliud soever, and shall not come at once 

quid excesserit, 1 et non veniens con- before the Abbot, or the community, 

tinuo ante Abbatem vel congrega- and of his own accord do penance and 

tionem, ipse ultro satisfecerit et pro- confess his fault, but it be known by 

diderit delictum suum ; dum per atium means of another, let him be subjected 

cognitum fuerit, majori subjaceat to greater punishment, 
emendationi. . 

ST. BENEDICT here deals with the penance due for faults com- 
mitted Outside the oratory. He first enumerates the principal 
offices of the monastery in which faults might occur : the kitchen, 
cellar, office, 2 bakehouse, and garden. Then he uses general 
phrases to cover all: in practising any craft or fulfilling any work in any 
place, if anything be broken, lost, or spoilt, and damage, or trouble be 
caused to the community in a word, if any fault of inattention, negli- 
gence or awkwardness be committed. In all these cases the offender 
must come at once, confess his fault, and do penance, before the Abbot 
if the Abbot be alone, before the Abbot and community if all the 
brethren are assembled together, which would ordinarily be the case. 8 
This penance probably consisted oikneeling or prostration. St. Bene- 
dict would have.it be voluntary: ultro satisfecerit (of his own accord do 
penance), and fulfilled with zeal: veniens continue (come at once). 
The worthy Goth at Subiaco, who let the blade of his tool fall into the 
lake, acted in this manner. 4 

In a numerous community, often scattered and toiling in various 
places, much going and coming and loss of time would obviously be 
caused, for the Abbot and for each member, if the smallest offence or 
damage had to be brought at once to the knowledge of all. So monastic 
custom established the "chapter of faults," which is held in chapter 
several times a week, and in which each accuses himself of faults against 
observance, or some small damage for which he is responsible. The 

1 D. BUTLER reads: . . . excesserit ubiubi^et non veniens . . . 

1 It is difficult to determine the exact meaning of this word. Some ancient manu- 
scripts read in monasterio. 

a Qui vas fictile fregerit . . . aget peenitentiam vespere in sex orationibus. Si quis 
aliquid perdiderit, .ante altare publice corripietur (S. PACK., Reg., cxxv., cxxxi.). Si quis 
giUonem fictilem . . . easu aliquo fregerit) non aliter neglegentiam suam quant publica 
diluet panitentia, cunctisque in synaxi fratribus congregates tantdiu prostratus in terram 
veniom postulabit) etc. (ASS., Inst., IV., xvi.). 

4 S. GREG. M., Dial., 1. II., c. vi. 

* 299 



300 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

penances, which cannot prudently be performed in church or even in the 
chapter room, are generally fulfilled in the refectory. 

St. Benedict foresees the case of a monk who from false shame or a 
refractory spirit conceals one of these external faults or formal errors. 
In such a case, when what has occurred is learnt by means of another, 
the penance must be more severe. 1 The Abbot might be informed by 
the deans or the brethren, and the words of our Holy Father: dum per 
alium cognitum futrit (but it be known by means of another), are not 
sufficient to prove that the practice of denunciation existed in those 
days. According to that monastic custom each monk had to make 
known in chapter the faults he had noticed in others. There is no 
doubt that it existed almost universally in the ninth century; Cluny 
and Citeaux adopted it. It was suppressed by the Congregation of 
Monte Cassino, the Congregation of SS. Vitonus and Hydulphus* 
and the Congregations connected with them; but it is still in force 
among the Cistercians. 2 We must walk warily in examining the merits 
of a practice which has such abundant and venerable authority; yet it is 
easy to discover the reasons which have led us to abandon it. The duty 
of fraternal correction, fulfilled in that public fashion by all for the 
benefit of all, is yet the most delicate of duties. Charity is much en- 
dangered. A sort of narrow and jealous surveillance easily spreads and 
entangles all in its meshes. How easily will all sorts of petty rivalries, 
revenges, and reprisals vent themselves under cover of this regularized 
denunciation! Doubtless these dangers would vanish if the monks, 
denouncers as well as denounced, were all perfect. But then, to what 
purpose the denunciation? Abbot de Ranc6 replied that ill-conse- 
quences, however real, should not make us forget the benefit which may 
be got from this practice both by the good and by the lukewarm. Of 
course a religious who sees acts or tendencies which are a serious danger 
for the monastery or for one of the brethren should never shelter himself 
behind the condemnation which, the world reserves for the informer 
and dispense himself from telling the Abbot. That would be to 
undervalue the honour of his brethren and the charity which he owes " 
to all. After all, the hive is of more value than one bee, and certainly 
of more value than a hornet. Nor are the complaints of him whose 
fault is thus revealed really admissible. 

Si animae vero peccati causa latens If, however, the guilt of his offence 
fuerit, tan turn Abbati, aut spiritualibus be hidden in his own soul, let him 
senioribus patefaciat, qui sciant curare manifest it to the Abbot only or to the 
sua, et aliena vulnera non dttegere aut spiritual seniors, who know how to 
publicare. heal their own wounds, and hot to 

disclose or publish those of others; 

Is our Holy Father here contrasting public confession of faults against 
the Rule, and penance for such, with secret confession of theological 
faults ? More probably he refers to an extra-sacramental manifestation, 

1 Si hoc ultra confitetur, parcatur illi et oretur pro ea. Si autem deprebenditur atque 
convincitur . . . graviut emendetur (S. AUG., Efist. CCXL, n. P.L., XXXIII., 962). 
* MARTENE, De ant. monacb. rit., 1. 1., c. v. f 



Of those who Offend in any other Matters 301 

this regulation having then the same purpose as the fifty-first instrument 
of good works and the fifth degree of humility. Whether there be 
theological guilt or not, though the interior fault remain quite a formal 
one, the result of inadvertence, surprise, or impulse, though it be only 
a temptation, a disturbing mood, or an obstinate obsession the brother, 
with filial purpose and loyal desire to amend, should manifest his state 
candidly not to the whole community, since there has been no scandal 
or notoriety but to the Abbot or to the spiritual seniors. As we have 
said elsewhere, the ancients regarded this practice as an indispensable 
means of spiritual progress, and as a source of peace and security. So 
we shall tell the Abbot, even though he look austere and we fear his 
judgement and the results of our confidence. Whatever may be the 
Abbot's character and worth in other respects, has he not, for his children, 
a sort of sacramental character ? Has he not a right to know what is going 
on in his house and in his monks ? By " spiritual seniors " St. Benedict 
probably means all those who have an important part in the government 
of souls. Failing the Abbot, manifestation should be made to them. 
They are ."spiritual" men, instructed' in the ways of God; having 
triumphed over the devil in their own case, or at least reduced his power, 
by the experience thus acquired they may be useful to others. They 
know how to heal their own wounds and the wounds of others. And, 
adds St. Benedict, we may count on their discretion ; they will not reveal 
or publish the fault confessed. 1 

These two chapters just ending, 'besides their formal instruction, 
are useful also as showing us the system of our monastic life with respect 
to the interior culture of the soul. We do not belong to the active 
life, and we cannot have a twofold existence. The fact that we have 
definitely broken with the world removes from us a number of dangers. 
We are in habitual contact with God and holy things, as though wrapped 
ever in a cloud of fragrant incense. Even our hours of toil should bring 
us close to God; for they do not dissipate our attention. And, besides, 
we should be watchful the whole day long; we should at once repair and 
expiate before our brethren absolutely all the y small infidelities to which 
nature has succumbed. What does all this mean but examination of 
conscience, not examination at a fixed hour and for a stated time, but 
continuous and assiduous examination, which nothing may escape ? 
Let men who are plunged in the cares and perils of the apostolic ministry, 
ever liable in the very course of their activities to outstep the bounds 
and to yield overmuch to inclination let such as these fortify themselves 
with manifold and minute examinations of conscience ; for such they are 
both right and prudent. But the needs of our souls are different, and 
for them our Holy Father has otherwise provided. Were we to inflict on 
ourselves these endless investigations, the result would only be to increase 
our sense of self-importance, to exhaust and trouble us, perhaps even to 
poison our lives. Let us, then, replace this superfluous inquiry by regu- 
larity, absolute fidelity, perfect charity, and tranquil union with God. 

1 The best reading would appear to be as follows: Qui sciant curare et sua et alietta 
vulnera, non detegere et publicare. 



CHAPTER XLVII 
OF SIGNIFTING THE HOUR FOR THE WORK OF GOD 

DE SIGNIFICANDA BORA oPERis Let the announcing of the hour 

DEI. Nuntianda hora operis Dei, die for the Work of God, both by day and 

noctuque sit cura Abbatis, aut ipae night, be the Abbot's care: either by 

nuntiare, aut tali sollicito fratri injun- giving the signal himself or assigning 

gat hanc curam, ut omnia horis com- this task to such a careful brother 

petentibus compleantur. that all things may be done at the 

fitting times. 

A GAIN the subject is regularity and orderliness. Since the Work 
A of God forms the pivot of the monastic day, it is supremely 
JLA important that the times for the Office should be fixed with care 
* -*. and punctually notified. Now, in an epoch when the length of 
the hour varied from day to day and when the methods of determining 
time were often rudimentary (see the commentary on the eighth chapter) 
we can understand why the duty of signifying the hour for the Work of 
God was given to the Abbot in person. He carries all responsibility. 
And in spite of the multiplicity of his occupations, St. Benedict is not 
afraid to entrust to him the care of calling the monks to prayer, seven 
times during the day and once at night. A wise provision, precluding 
disorder and disputes among the brethren; thus murmuring is banished 
and all are inspired with a greater esteem for the Divine Office. 

Nevertheless, the Abbot's labours, or absence, or ill-health, might 
obviously make him unable to fulfil this duty; so that our Holy Father 
allows him to entrust it to an attentive and diligent brother. The 
latter shall see that all the Office is fulfilled in its entirety and at the 
fitting times (see the end of Chapter XL). Nowadays Abbots delegate 
their power to an official, yet remain concerned that the work should 
be done with exactitude. 

Commentators take occasion of this chapter to describe the various 
methods formerly employed in monasteries for the awaking or warning 
of the brethren. They knocked at doors, 1 or used such various instru- 
ments as horns, wooden trumpets, 2 clappers, rattles, etc. The nuns of 
St. Paula were summoned to Office by the singing of Alleluia? In the 
Benedictine Order, perhaps from the very time of St. Benedict, 4 the 
thing most often used was a bell or hand-bell. Remembering the 
beautiful prayers in the Pontifical for the blessing of bells and the 
solemn consecration given to them, we shall not doubt that their sweet 
and penetrating tones are the very voice of God and that we should 
answer their appeal with glad haste. 

1 CAM., 7iw/., IV., xii. a S, PACK., Reg., Hi. 

3 S. HURON., Epist. CVIIL, 19. P.L., XXII., 896. 

4 It is narrated in the Life of St. Benedict how St. Romahus used to let down bread 
to him in his hermitage by means of a rope and to warn him by means of a bell fixed to 
this rope (S. GRIG. M., Dial., 1. II., c. i.). The signum alluded to in the Rule 
(Chapters XXIL, XLIII., XLVIII.) is probably a bell. 



Of Signifying the Hour for the Work of God 303 

Palmos autem, vel Antiphonas, post Let those, who have been ordered, 

Abbatem, ordine sno, quibus jussum intone the psalms and antiphons, each 

fuerit, imponant. Can tare autem aut in his order, after the Abbot. Let no 

legere non prxsumat, nisi qui potest one presume to sing or to read except 

ipsum officium implere, ut aedificentur he can fulfil the office so that the 

audientes. Quod cum humilitate, et hearers may be edified. And let it be 

gravitate, et tremore faciat,- et cui done with humility, gravity, and awe, 

jusserit Abbas. and by him whom the Abbot has 

appointed. 

After having secured its regular commencement, St. Benedict makes 
an ordinance designed to safeguard the dignity of the work of God itself. 
The brethren must not intone or chant 1 the psalms and antiphons 
by chance, under the impulse of caprice or on their personal 
initiative. Several conditions are to be fulfilled before a monk may 
perform these duties. He must have received an order and have been 
regularly designated. The brethren shall intone psalms and antiphons 
in their turn and in order of seniority, " after the Abbot," as is natural. 
No one shall undertake to sing or read, if he be not capable of performing 
the office to the edification of the hearers. The duty of selecting, and 
of deciding the question of capacity, devolves on the Abbot. 2 Finally* 
when fulfilling the charge appointed to them, the brethren must display 
humility, gravity, religious fear, and a great spirit of submission. 

1 See the discussion in Chapter IX of this commentary on the primitive monastic 
pialmody and the probable meaning of the word imponerc. 

9 Adstantibus ad orationem nullus prasumat sine pracepto qui praest Patris psalmi 
laudem emitters (Reg- I. SS. PATRUM, vii.). 



CHAPTER XLVIII 
OF THE DAILY MANUAL LABOUR 

DE OPERE MANUUM QUOTioiANO. Idleness is the enemy of the soul. 

Otiositas inimica est animae. Et ideo Therefore should the brethren be 

certis temporibus occupari debent occupied at stated times in manual 

fratres in labore manuum, certis iterum labour, and at other fixed hours in 

horis in lectione divina. sacred reading. 

THIS chapter gives us much more than is promised in the title. 
It deals not merely with manual labour, but with all monastic 
labours, with all that occupies the hours left free by the Office. 
It legislates for the use of time, giving the horarium of a Bene- 
dictine day. 

According to his custom our Holy Father begins with a general 
precept: " Idleness is the enemy of the soul. 1 Therefore should the 
brethren be occupied, at stated times in manual labour, and at other 
fixed hours in sacred reading." Though St. Benedict alludes explicitly 
only to the dangers of idleness, he was not blind to the positive benefit 
and intrinsic value of work. Its advantages are manifold. We may 
see in work a potent means of diversion and a remedy for many tempta- 
tions, we may recognize the weakness and softness of all that has not 
constant exercise, and finally we may remember that all life and all 
happiness imply action, contemplation itself being only the supreme 
activity of mind and heart united, an act of clinging with all our being 
to Him who is. Work is not simply a penalty and a punishment; it is 
a divine law anterior to sin, of universal validity. How, then, should 
monks escape it-? Nay, they are doubly bound to work, since their 
life always includes some austerity and penance, and since that indwelling 
of God in the soul to which they aspire is only promised to those who 
toil perseveringly. Sweet toil ! said St. Augustine regretfully, as he 
thought of the ceaseless worry that beset his .episcopate. 2 Our Holy 
Father groups the chief monastic occupations under three heads: 
the Work of God, sacred reading, and manual labour (Opus Dei, lectio 
divina, opus manuum). 

There is nothing but good to be said of manual labour. 3 From the 
very beginning, in various degree, it figures in the programme of the 

1 A reminiscence of ST. BASIL: Et Salomon: Otiositas inimica est anima (Reg. contr., 
czcii.). D. BUTLER notes that this sentence is not from Solomon and does not occur 
in the Greek text of ST. BASIL (Reg.' f us., xxxvii.). We read in Ecclesiasticus (xxxiii. 
28-29) only: Mitte (servuni) in operationem, ne vacet; multam enim malitiam docuit 
Otiositas. 

9 St. Benedict quotes some expressions verbally from this passage of the treatise De 
of ere monacborum: Quantum attinet ad meum cemmodum, multo mallem per singulos dies 
certis Boris, quantum in bene moderatis monasteries constituent est, aliquid manibus operari, 
et cateras (vel certas) boras babere ad legendum ft orandum, out aliquid de divinis litteris 
agendum liberas (c. xxix. P.L., XL., 576). 

3 There is a full dissertation on manual labour in the Commentary of MARTENE. 

34 



Of the Daily Manual Labour 305 

religious life. It would seem that its first purpose is to reduce the body 
to subjection, to shake off its inertia, to destroy those desires and instincts 
which find in it their source and their fuel. So manual labour is a 
process of mortification. It allows us at the same time to consecrate 
to God our physical strength itself. Is there need to allude to its 
eminently hygienic character, especially in the young, for monks who 
devote long hours to the Office and to study ? Accidentally, too, it 
may be a means of humility, and its servile character may be repugnant 
to certain natures ; though it is hard to see what humiliation there is in 
digging the ground or breaking stones on a road. Finally manual labour 
sometimes becomes for monks the regular means of earning their bread; 
and, in every monastery, it is required at least by the daily necessities 
of life. But after one has in a general way proclaimed the indispensable 
nature of manual labour, after one has emphasized its advantages and 
even affirmed that, in a concrete case, it is necessary for an individual 
to the exclusion almost of any other, it remains true that material toil 
has no efficacy of itself for the formation of an intelligent nature and less 
still for the development of the supernatural life. Of the two forms 
of toil, the one servile, and the other liberal, with the intellect for its 
basis, it seems to us easy to recognize the absolute superiority of the 
second over the first, and to fix the proportion in which the two should 
normally be represented among us. 

The success of the Holy Rule and the cause of its diffusion is the 
common connection of all the ordinances contained in it 7 with an 
ideal of life which it set out to realize, and a primary and essential work. 
Our understanding of the Rule and appreciation of our vocation depend 
upon an exact and practical grasp of this connection. St. Benedict's 
master thought is that we should seek God,. There are only two legiti- 
mate attitudes towards God: to enjoy Hun when we possess Him, to 
seek Him as long as we do not possess Him fully. God is by nature 
hidden and invisible, He dwells in light inaccessible. "Verily thou 
art a hidden God, God of Israel, the Saviour " (Isa. xlv. 15). Even when 
He reveals Himself, He is still hidden : in creation, in the incarnation, 
in redemption, in the Eucharist. He reveals Himself more and hides 
Himself more; He is at once God giving Himself, and God incommunic- 
able. And our life, when it is truly the life of Christ, becomes hidden 
with Him : " Ye are dead and your life is hidden with Christ in God " 
(Col. iii. 3). We sometimes wonder why it is that the dead we have 
loved most dearly never reveal themselves to us and seem to cease all 
relation with us. " If souls still intervened in the affairs of the living," 
said St. Augustine, " my mother Monica would speak to me every night, 
she who followed me over land and sea and whose one love I was." 1 
Our dead are silent, because they must not disturb the economy of our 
faith; but above all because they belong to God, and, being His, adopt 
His ways and enwrap themselves in His mysteriousness. So we must 
seek God. The renunciations involved in bur vows and in our whole life 
1 De curapro mortuis gerenda, c. xiii. P.L., XL., 604. 



20 



306 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

set our souls free for this blessed seeking. We lose ourselves to find God, 
as the Gospel says and as St. John of the Cross sings so admirably: 

For no beauty created 
Myself will I lose, 
But alone for that Beauty, 
Which words cannot name, 
Which may happily be found. 

The sacraments, prayer, the constant exercise of faith, hope, and 
charity, these things bring us near to God and make us enter little by 
little into union with Him. The " sacred reading " (lectio divina) 
prescribed by our Holy Father has no other purpose than this. 

We should mark the phrase lectio divina carefully. 1 It is not merely 
intellectual activity and culture of the mind; so it is beside the point to 
commend St. Benedict for an intention which can scarcely have been his. 
It is the work of the intelligence, if you will, but of the intelligence 
applying itself to divine mysteries and divine learning; it is the work 
of the supernatural intelligence that is to say, of faith. It is the organ- 
ized totality of those progressive intellectual methods by which we make 
the things of God familiar to us and accustom ourselves to the con- 
templation of the invisible. Not abstract, cold speculation, nor mere 
human curiosity, nor shallow study; but solid, profound, and perse- 
vering investigation of Truth itself. We may say that God alone is 
the object of this study, its inspiration and its chief cause; for it is not 
only pursued under His gaze, but in His light and in very intimate 
contact with Him. It is a study pursued in prayer and in love. The 
name lectio is only the first moment of an ascending series : lectio, cogitatio, 
studium, meditatio, oratio, contemplatio (reading, thinking, study, medi- 
tation, prayer, contemplation) ; but St. Benedict knew that the remain- 
ing degrees would soon come if the soul were loyal and courageous. 
So it is to contemplation and union with God that the monastic lectio 
divina tends. The hours which our Holy Father would have us devote 
to this reading every day are essentially hours of prayer. 

We have already answered those who enquire whether the ancient 
monks practised prayer, whether they had a set method, and what was the 
subject of their prayer. Apart from the Divine Office (which after all 
is surely prayer), apart from some moments of private prayer, "short 
and pure," which St. Benedict permitted to those who felt attracted 
to it, all were bidden to devote prolonged study to Sacred Scripture 
the book of books to the Fathers and the words of the liturgy. So, 
by ordinance of the Rule, the whole day was to be passed in the presence 
of God. The method of prayer was simple and easy. It was to forget 
self and to live in habitual recollection, to steep the soul assiduously in the 
very beauty of the mysteries of faith, to ponder on all the aspects of the 

1 It occurs in ST. AUGUSTINE: Illudsane admonuerimreligiosiuimamprudentiam tuam, 
ut timorem Dei non irrationabilem vel imeras infirmiori vast tuo, vel nutrias divina lectione 
gravique cottoquio (Epist. XX., 3. P.L., XXXIII., 87). Erigunt nos divina lectiones 
(Sermo CXLIL, c. i. P.L., XXXVIIL, 778). 



Of the Daily Manual Labour 307 

supernatural dispensation, under the inspiration of that Spirit of God 
which alone can teach us how to pray (Rom. viii. 26). For sixteen 
centuries, clerics, religious, and simple lay folk knew no other method of 
communicating with God than this free outpouring of the soul before 
Him, and this " sacred reading " which nourishes prayer, implies it, 
and is almost one thing with it. 

Let us reassure ourselves. The. absence of systematic method, of 
books containing short ready-made meditations, does not mean disorder, . 
nor lead inevitably to dissipation of energy and distraction of mind. 
The ancients were not without certain practices for fixing thought and 
concentrating the soul; they did not disdain all spiritual discipline. 
Especially did they think it needful, for souls immersed in the manifold 
cares of the world, to remind them of Our Lord's advice: "But thou, 
when thou shalt pray, enter into thy chamber and, having shut the door, 
pray to thy Father in secret " (Matt. vi. 6). But they thought that the 
words of God, of the saints, and of the liturgy, meditated and repeated 
without ceasing, had a sovereign power of withdrawing the soul from 
anxious self-consideration, in order to possess it wholly and introduce 
it into the mystery of God and His Christ. Once there, the need of 
beautiful considerations or of the well-constructed arguments of a keen 
intellect vanished; there is need for naught but contemplation and love, 
in all simplicity. So, from the beginning of our conversion, the work 
of purgation is achieved by acts of the illuminative and unitiye ways, 
and thus our transformation in God begins to be realized: " But we all, 
beholding the glory of the Lord with open face, are transformed into 
the same image, from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord " 
(2. Cor. iii. 18). In order that prayer may become an easy matter it 
is enough that we realize the treasure which baptism has given us, and, 
with St. Paul's help, understand what it means to be redeemed in Christ 
and to live with His life. .Whatever be the suitability of methods for 
this or that class of the faithful, we may be permitted to preserve what 
Father Faber calls " the badge of the old Benedictine ascetics." 1 We 
are in the happy condition of Benjamin, the best loved son : " The best 
beloved of the Lord shall dwell confidently in him. As in a bride 
chamber shall he abide all the day long: and between his shoulders shall 
he rest " (Deut. xxxiii. 12). 

The majority of St. Benedict's predecessors, even anchorites hidden 
in desert solitudes, devoted several hours of the night and of the day 
to spiritual study, especially to the study of the Scriptures. St. Pacho- 
mius would have the illiterate who joined him learn to read. Our 
forefathers considered that sacred study was required of all those to 
whom God gave intelligence and leisure. Contemplation itself is 
endaLgered as soon as it claims to be self-sufficient. For God never 
comes to the succour of sloth with extraordinary illumination; His 
works are arranged in orderly fashion, and He does not grant such 

1 All for Jesus, c. viii., 8. See D. GUKRANGER'S Preface to his translatioa of the 
Exercises of St. Gertrude. 



308 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

favours save at His own pleasure and to those who can learn in no other 
way. Although St. Benedict counted among his monks more than one 
slave and barbarian, and although they all remained, with few exceptions, 
in the lay state, yet he. reserved a relatively large amount of time for the 
lectio divina. He had himself abruptly broken off his secular studies 
and retired from the world scienter nescius et sapienter indoctus 1 (know- 
ingly ignorant and wisely unlearned) ; but he took up later the assiduous 
study of Scripture and the Fathers, and his Rule betrays quite con- 
siderable reading. He lays it down that the Abbot should be " learned 
in the law of God " (Chapter LXIV.). For many centuries now the 
Black Monks have given a large place to study. Manual labour, without 
having been deliberately or completely abandoned, has been gradually 
replaced by mental labour. And we believe that this change is abun- 
dantly justified by the alteration in the intellectual, social, and economic 
conditions of modern times, and by the present position of monasteries. 
All choir monks must now be fit for the priesthood; and the Church 
has lately insisted on the necessity of study even for religious vowed to the 
contemplative life. She expects from them an apostolate of the mind, 
an influence on the Christian thought of their contemporaries; she 
sometimes entrusts to them, by exception, the work of preaching and 
instruction but without ever dispensing them from being monks* 
And perhaps we may be allowed to insist on a matter which we think is 
no personal fancy, but a fundamental part of the monastic spirit. 

First, then, under pain of suffering the springs of our prayer to dry 
up, we must reserve the best moments of the day for " sacred reading " 
properly so called. To what studies shall we give ourselves beyond our 
spiritual reading' All that is valuable and useful for the Church is 
valuable and useful for us; but it goes without saying that, except for 
special works of obedience, the sciences known as ecclesiastical have 
a right to our choice, especially such as best suit the ordinary conditions 
of our life and are more fitted to unite us with God. Nevertheless, 
we should note that a monk does not specialize at pleasure according to 
his own inclinations; our studies, as well as all else, and with even more 
reason than manual labour, should be directed, controlled, and conse- 
crated continually by the will of the Abbot. 

But although we apply ourselves regularly to the study of theology, 
ecclesiastical history, patrology, or liturgy, it is of importance to know 
how to work and in what spirit. There are so many ways of studying 
a book. Let it be, for example, the manuscript of one of St. Augustine's 
sermons. One might describe its state, count its parts, recognize the 
style of its writing, determine its date. Or one could go farther, and 
attempt some measure of historical reconstruction, comparing the text 
with that of other manuscript or printed copies, with other works of 
St. Augustine, and with other authors; asking oneself when the sermon 
was delivered and to what audience; collecting from its pages all that 
would help to a better knowledge of the period, etc. Of course, such re- 

1 S. GRIG. M., Dial., 1. II., praef. 



Of the Daily Manual Labour 309 

searches are profitable and even necessary, and thoughtful men may even 
glean from them things of much moment for their instruction. Yet 
it is undeniable that such textual study is inadequate. What would 
become of the man who refused to eat until he had made a chemical 
analysis of every dish, separating what was harmful from what was 
nutritious ? He would die of inanition. There is. a third method, 
more scientific and more philosophical, which passes from the text to 
the meaning. There are major and minor premises and many various 
conceptions to be arranged methodically in one coherent whole and 
made part of a scheme of thought. But we should recognize wei* that 
this work, being purely abstract and academic, does not exhaust the 
content of the book. Divine truth is of greater worth; and those who 
confine themselves to such study will ever remain in the antechamber, 
studying God and never learning to know Him. How is it that a man 
may sometimes succeed in making theology itself the most wearisome, 
sterile, and frigid of all sciences ? Because he regards it in a merely 
human and bookish manner, and sees in it only material for examination. 

The definite acts, which should be the outcome of all those hitherto 
mentioned, are a heartfelt and practical assent to truth, a real assimila- 
tion of it, and an entire sympathy of soul. Clearly to see the spiritual 
theses of our faith will do us no good, if our will shuts itself off from the 
truth known, and if thought, love, and act do not work together. True 
knowledge is that which develops our faith and increases our charity. 
Moreover, charity, after having received from faith, gives it something 
in its turn; for we know better that which we love more, and we see 
according as we are. This is really fruitful study, the science of monks 
and of saints. Here is the normal occupation of our minds and a 
preparation for the beatific vision. 

Work, as we said a moment ago, is a powerful diversion and saves us 
from a thousand temptations, a thing which is especially true of intel- 
lectual work. Yet it is not, like a sacrament, infallible in its operation, 
since we may study divine things in such a way as to remain ever ignor- 
ant of them. After all, the efficaciousness of our study is not to be 
measured by its material object or by its duration; we shall appreciate 
its value by its coefficient of moral dispositions, by a certain quality 
of attentiveness, a certain spiritual well-being, a certain loyalty and 
liberty of soul, by an awareness and an ever-deepening appreciation of 
God. The story of ^Esop's banquet comes to my mind. He wished 
to set before his friends the best thing in the world, and it was found 
to be tongue; and the worst thing in the world, and again it was 
tongue. Study seems to me to be in like case. Perhaps it is the best 
of all created things ; but when it deviates from its true end, it is worse 
than aught, else. One may take occasion from philosophy, theology, 
and Scripture to lose one's own faith and destroy the faith of others. 
Knowledge by itself is not dangerous ; and if some wise men are proud, 
so are some fools. But knowledge which has no influence on our sanc- 
tification is very likely to make us proud. " Lay up to yourselves 



310 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

treasures in heaven: where neither rust nor the moth doth consume, 
and where thieves do not break through and steal" (Matt. vi. 20). 
Purely human knowledge is exposed to rust, and the moth, and thieves ; 
and a day comes when nothing is left of your living encyclopaedia. The 
other sort of knowledge is divine by title, eternal in its fruit, and in- 
corruptible of its very nature; it cannot be taken from us nor can we 
ourselves abuse it or make it a cause of vanity. It is profitable only for 
eternity. That is the only sort of knowledge which the Church and the 
world expect from priests and monks. God grant that we have not left 
the world and taken our vows in order to belong body and soul to science 
and criticism, to be devoted collectors of bibliographical notes. It is 
desirable that monastic work should be conscientious and methodical, 
and never fritter itself away on mediocre subjects; 1 but we must not 
take God and study as our ideal, we must not look to intensive production 
and realize all too literally the traditional learned Benedictine, who 
rivals the pupils of the Ecole des Chartes or the members of the Academic 
des Inscriptions. What a sorry apostolate ! The day that we sacrifice 
on the altar of study our conventual life, the solemn performance of the 
Office, monastic regularity and stability, we lose our whole character, 
and almost our title to exist. Let us remember in what miserable 
fashion the Congregation of St. Maur ended. As soon as there is any 
human consideration, whether reputation, riches, or knowledge, which 
we put into the scale against God and which we use as a pretext for 
robbing Him, then our fall is near. 

So we must be on our guard against a naturalistic spirit: we must 
not cut down our prayers, or even lessen our esteem for them, in the 
interests of a quite unreal advantage to be gained by sacred learning. 
We should also fear the critical spirit, that narrow, crabbed, pedantic 
disposition which dissects all things distrustfully. We should avoid 
the carping spirit, for which authority is always in the wrong, a 'priori^ - 
especially actual present authority, the spirit which welcomes all mistrust. 
Those who doubt and deny win immediate fame. And the deference 
refused to tradition, to antiquity, to authority, is given at once and 
wholly, with infinite thoughtlessness, to the notions of some writer or 
other, to one of those prophets of the hour who trumpet the vague 
phrases: progress, evolution, broad-mindedness, and dogmatic awaken- 
ing. This is intellectual foolery. And it seems to me that good sense 
and dignity require from us not only an attitude of reserve, but above 
all a spirit of tranquil resistance and conservatism. Conservation is the 
very instinct of life, a disposition essential for existence. We shall be 
truly progressive if we hold fast to this spirit, for there is no progress 
for a living organism which does not preserve continuity with its past. 
We belong to a traditional society, the Church. In his Conference 
with the Protestant minister Claude "sur la mati&re de l'glise," 
Bossuet observes " that there was never a time when the world did not 
possess a visible and speaking authority, to which obedience had to be 
given. Before Jesus Christ there was the Synagogue; when the Syna- 
1 Read MABILLON, TraitS des etudes monastiques. 



Of the Daily Manual Labour 311 

gogue was doomed, Jesus Christ Himself came; when He departed 
He left His Church, to which He sent His Holy Spirit. If you could 
bring back Jesus Christ, teaching, preaching, and working miracles, I 
should have no further need of the Church; likewise, if you take the 
Church from me, I need Jesus Christ in person, speaking, preaching, and 
deciding with miracles and an infallible authority." 1 Christians, clerics, 
and monks, we receive our teaching from the Church alone. Neither 
science nor criticism is our mother; the Church alone, who gave us. 
birth and nourished us, has the right to form our souls for eternity. In 
dogma, morals, liturgy, history, and in Sacred Scripture especially, it 
is ever the Church which speaks and expounds. Hence the character 
of monastic teaching and of monastic studies: we take from the lips 
and from the heart of the Church the thought of God. 

Ideoque hac dispositione credimus We think, therefore, that the times 
utraque tempora ordinari: id est, ut a for each may be disposed as follows: 
Pascha usque ad Kalendas Octobris from Easter to the Calends of October, 
mane exeuntes, a prima usque ad horam on coming out in the morning let them 
pene quartam laborent, quod neces- labour at whatever is necessary from 
sarium fuerit. Ab hora autem quarta the first until about the fourth hour, 
usque ad horam quasi sextain lectioni From the fourth hour until close upon 
vacent. Post sextam autem surgentes a the sixth let them apply themselves 
mensa, pausent in lectis suis cum omni to reading. After the sixth hour, when 
silentio; aut forte qui voluerit sibi they rise from table, let them rest on 
legere,siclegat,utaliumnoninquietet. their beds in all silence; or if anyone 
Agatur Nona temperius, mediante chance to wish to read to himself, let 
octava hora jetiterum, quod faciendum him so read as not to disturb anyone 
est, operentur usque ad vesperam. else. Let None be said rather soon, 

at the middle of the eighth hour; and 
then let them again work at whatever 
has to be done until Vespers. 

In order to banish idleness the monk's day is to be devoted, at fixed 
hours, to manual labour and the study of sacred things. And this, 
continues our Holy Father, is the way in which we think we should 
apportion the time. In the eighth chapter, when determining the time 
for the beginning of the Night Office, St. Benedict divided the year 
into two seasons; in the forty-first chapter, dealing with the hours of 
meals, he divided it into four periods; in the forty-second chapter, 
apropos of the reading at Compline, he is content with two; and in this 
place finally he divides it into three. The first period extends from 
Easter to the Calends of October*.*., to September 14, on which day 
began the counting from the Calends (dccimo octavo Kalendas Octobris) ; 
it is the same date as that signified in the forty-first chapter by the 
phrase ab Idibus Septembris: from the close of the Ides of September. 2 

1 Bar-le-Duc edition, 1863, t. V., p. 348. 

* These words cannot in this chapter mean the day on which the Calends fall i.e. 
October i : in fact, St. Benedict would have the brethren take their meal at None after 
September 14 (Chapter XLL), at Sext from Easter to what he here calls the " Calends 
of October"; now the two ordinances would be irreconcilable, the one fixing 
September 14, the other October i, if we understood the words usque ad Kalendas 
Octobrit to mean the day on which the Calends fall. 



3 1 2 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

Let us repeat what was said in the eighth chapter about the division of 
the day -among the ancients. It was divided into twenty-four hours 
of unequal length according to the season; the twelve day hours were 
counted from the rising to the setting of the sun; they were longer in 
summer and shorter in winter. 

During summer the brethren shall go out in the morning, probably- 
after Prime, and occupy themselves in necessary work until the fourth 
hour. From the fourth hour until about the sixth they shall devote 
themselves to reading. Terce might be said in the fields (Chapter L.) ; 
Sext is said in the monastery. When the sixth hour is ended and the 
meal finished, the brethren shall rise from table and may then rest on 
their beds. This was the siesta, always indispensable for Italians, and 
granted here to monks with good reason, because during all this period 
the heat was greater, work larger in amount, and nights shorter. Our 
Holy Father would have the night silence observed during this time. 
And charity demands it, for the conversation of some would disturb 
the sleep of the rest. Yet no one is forced to lie down ; he may continue 
the reading he had been engaged on before dinner, but on the express 
condition that he reads in a very low voice and to himself alone, so as 
not to annoy anyone. Apparently the ancients were accustomed when 
reading, if not to read aloud, at least to pronounce the words; and 
St. Augustine remarks on St. Ambrose's contrary practice. 1 After the 
siesta the brethren recite None (agatur Nona), though the ninth hour 
has not yet begun, it being about the middle of the eighth : temperivs, 
mediante octava bora. Then they return to manual labour until evening, 
until the hour of Vespers. 

Si autem necessitas loci, aut pau- If, however, the heeds of the place 

pertas exegerit, ut ad f rages colligen- or poverty require them to labour 

das per se occupentur, non contristen- themselves in gathering in the harvest, 

tur; quia tune vere monachi sunt, si de let them not grieve at that; for then 

labore manuum suarum vivunt, sicut are they truly monks when they live 

et Patres nostri et Apostoli. Omnia by the labour of their hands, as our 

tamen mensurate fiant propter pusil- Fathers . and the Apostles did. But 

lanimes. let all; things be done in moderation 

for the sake of the faint-hearted. 

This passage might be applied to any season, but it is particularly 
appropriate for summer and the beginning of autumn, for that is the 
time of harvest and fruit-gathering. It is difficult to see how, from such 
a passage as this just read, certain well-known exaggerations could arise. 
St. Benedict foresees he does not exact it that conditions of locality 
or poverty may oblige the monks themselves to gather the fruits of the 
earth. The monks might live in a solitary region ; the monastery might 
possess vast landed property and have only a few servants. If the crops 
were not to perish on the ground the monks had to be employed. And 

1 Cum legebat, oculi ducebantur per paginas, et cor intellectum rimabatur, vox autem 
et lingua quiescebant. . . . Sic eum legentem vidimus 'tacite, et aliter numquam (Confess,. 
1. VI., c. w. P.L., XXXII-, 7ZQ-7ZI). 



Of the Daily Manual Labour 313 

St. Benedict takes occasion of tjds possibility to remind us that 
manual labour is not only good and useful, and sanctified by obedience, 
but also that the holy Apostles and the Fathers of the desert were 
not ashamed to devote themselves to it. The remark was not super- 
fluous. In the East manual labour kept a less servile and coercive 
character than in the West. Even rich folk often learnt a craft, working 
for occupation or to give alms to the poor. St. Paul wove Cilician 
sail-cloth, proudly resolving not to burden the churches. But the 
West is more practical .and more industrial; with a different climate 
and vigorous muscles there is more expenditure of physical strength, 
so that labour was naturally left to slaves And our Holy Father thinks 
it necessary to plead in its favour, as St. Augustine had done at some 
length in his treatise De opere monachorum (Concerning the work of 
monks) . Monks should never find manual work beneath them, especially 
those who have been slaves, says the holy Doctor. And to live by the 
work of one's hands, as did our fathers and the Apostles, is to be truly 
a monk; it is to devote oneself to a very monastic occupation and to 
realize a primitive ideal. 1 But our Holy Father nowhere says that 
monks are not monks or are less monks when they do not live by the 
labour of their hands. It is impossible to misunderstand his thought 
if we note that he here speaks of harvest as of an exceptional thing and 
an extraordinary labour. Yet even then, he adds, the law of discretion 
holds good. All must be done with moderation, on account of the 
weak. The Abbot shall be careful never to crush the community under 
an excessive load of work. 

A Kalendis autem Octobris usque From the Calends of October until 

ad caput Quadragesimae, usque ad the beginning of Lent let the brethren 

horam secundam plenam lectioni va- devote themselves to reading till the 

cent; hora secunda agatur Tertia; et end of the second hour. At the 

usque ad Nonam omnes in opus suum second hour let Terce be said, after 

laborent, quod eis injungitur. Facto which they shall all labour at their 

autem primo signo nonse hora, dis- appointed work until None. At the 

jungant se ab opere suo singuli, et sint first signal for the hour of None all 

parati, dum secundum signum pulsa- shall cease from their work, and be 

verit. Post refectionem autem vacent ready as soon as the second signal is 

lectionibus suis, aut Psalmis. sounded. After their meal let them 

' occupy themselves in their reading 
or with the psalms. 

From the Calends of October that is to say, from the beginning of 
the monastic Lent (September 14) till the beginning of Lent proper, 
there is a new rule for manual labour. The great labours are over; 
perhaps it is inside the monastery rather, and in the various workshops 
of the enclosure, that the monks are then employed. The day hours 
are growing shorter and shorter; the hours of the night being abundantly 

1 Ne ipsi quidem (monacbi Romar.f) cuiquam onerosi sunt, sed Orientis more, et Fault 
apostoli auc tori tat e manibus suis se transigunt (S. AUG., De moribus eccles. catbol., 1. I., 
c. xxxiii. P.L., XXXII., 1340). (Antonius) gaudebat quod sine cujusqtiam molcstia ex 
propriis mqnifas viverettVita S. 4(oni, versio EVAGRH, 50. P.G., XXVI., 915). 



314 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

sufficient, there is no question now of a siesta. From morning till the 
end of the second hour the brethren devote themselves to reading. 
When the second hour is ended they say Terce. Then, until the ninth 
hour, each is employed in his appointed task. 1 The Office of None 
(and probably the others too) is announced by two signals. At the first 
signal all leave their work at once and prepare for the Office, which 
begins after the sounding of the second signal. Then follows the meal. 
Then the brethren take up again their reading of the morning, or study 
the psalms. Perhaps the words lectionibus suis (their reading) designates 
especially the lessons of the Night Office, as in the eighth chapter: 
" And let the time that remains after the Night Office be spent in study 
by those brethren who have still some part of the psalter and lessons 
to learn." Our Holy Father intends, therefore, that the substance 
of the " sacred reading " and of study should be taken primarily from 
the liturgy. This reading continued until Vespers. If we add this 
reading to that of the morning and to that which could follow the Night 
Office in winter, we obtain a large amount of spiritual study. The Rule 
nowhere speaks expressly of conferences. It is probable, however, that 
the Abbot gave his monks the benefit of the doctrine which St. Benedict 
expects him to possess. Sometimes doubtless the reading was done by 
one only, by the Abbot or a dean, and anyone might ask questions. 
This was one of the recognized methods of teaching in ancient times 
and St. Benedict has some allusions to it (Chapter IV., fifty-sixth 
instrument, Chapter VI., Chapter XXXVIII.). 

In Quadragesimae vero diebus, a In Lent, however, from the morn- 
mane usque ad tertiam plenam, lectioni ing till the end of the third hour, let 
vacent, et usque ad decimam plenam them devote themselves to reading, 
operentur quod eis injungitur. In and, after that, work at their appointed 
quibus diebus Quadragesimae, accipiant tasks till the end of the tenth hour, 
omnes singulos codices de bibliotheca, In this time of Lent let them receive 
quos per ordinem ex integro legant: a book each from the library, to 
qui codices in capite Quadragesimae be read consecutively and straight 
dandi sunt. through. These books are to be given 

out at the beginning of Lent. 

We have here the third and last period, the time of Lent. Reading 
is then to be taken in the morning to the end of the third hour. After 
that, till the end of the tenth hour, the monks have to busy themselves 
in the work that has been ordered them. In these arrangements we 
may note that there is no mention of Mass on weekdays. 

In the next chapter .our Holy Father recommends special applica- 
tion to reading during Lent; he here makes provision so that none may 
lack books and evade so necessary an obligation. The monastery shall 
possess a library and one large enough for each monk to receive a manu- 

1 Omni tempore usque ad tertiam legant: post tertiam unusquisque sibi opera injuncta 
facial (S. CJESAR., Reg. ad man., xiv.). Post bar am secundam unusquisque ad opus suum 
paratussit usque ad boram nonam, ut quidquid injuttctumfuerit, sine murmuratione ferficiat 
(S. MACAU., &., xi.). 



Of the Daily Manual Labour 315 

script. 1 These will be given out at the beginning of Lent, a practice 
which still obtains. We receive from the hands of the Abbot himself 
the book by means of which God is to instruct us. " To be read con- 
secutively and straight through:" it is not enough to skip the pages, to 
read carelessly in a random and perfunctory manner such passages as 
seem less tedious; our Holy Father would have us read through in order. 
He requires serious study and not that rapid, superficial manner of reading 
which is only a graceful form of laziness. The Rule does not fix a 
date for the restoration of such books, nor does it say that they have to 
be read in their entirety during Lent. 

Ante omnia sane deputentur unus Above all, let one or two seniors 
aut duo seniores, qui circumeant mo- be deputed to go round the monastery 
nasterium horis quibus vacant fratres at the hours when the brethren are 
lectioni, et videant, ne forte inveniatur engaged in reading, and see that there 
{rater acediosus, qui vacet otio aut be no slothful brother giving himself to 
fabulis, et non sit intentus lectioni: idleness or to gossip, and not applying 
et non solum sibi inutilis sit, sed etiam himself to his reading, so that he is not 
alios extollat. Hie talis, si (quod absit) only useless to himself, but a distraction 
repertus fuerit, corripiatur semel et to others. If such a one be found 
secundo: si non emendaverit, correc- (which God forbid) let him be corrected 
tioni regulari subjaceat, taliter ut ceteri once and a second time; and, if he do 
metum habeant. Neque frater ad frat- not amend, let him be subjected to the 
rem jungatur horis incompetentibus. chastisement of the Rule, in such a way 

that the rest may be afraid. More- 
over one brother shall not associate 
with another at unsuitable hours. 

After the enunciation of the precept of sacred reading there follow 
certain disciplinary measures to guarantee its observance. We suspect 
that in St. Benedict's time there were novices perhaps even -older 
monks who felt little attraction for the deciphering of cumbrous 
manuscripts and would have preferred working in the fields to the Ser- 
mons of St. Augustine on the psalms, or to some other and more subtle 
commentator. It was for their benefit, to assist their consciences, 
that St. Benedict instituted the circatores. " Above all," he says, " let 
one or two seniors be deputed to go round the monastery at the hours 
when the brethren are engaged in reading." They will ascertain what 
is going on. Perhaps they will meet an easygoing brother, one with no 
taste for things of the mind and weary of seeking God, acediosus? 
Instead of applying himself to his reading, he dreams and dozes, or else 
he gossips. A man afflicted with ennui propagates his own condition, 
and laziness is contagious. So this brother not only wastes his own time 
and harms himself, but also distracts the rest. When the circator meets 
with such a defective monk which God forbid he must himself 
reprimand him secretly or have him admonished by the Abbot once or 
twice. But if the guilty man does not amend, he is to be subjected to 

1 Some partic ulars on the ancient monastic libraries are given in HXFTEN, 1. IX., 
tract, iv., disq. v, and CALMET, Commentary on Chapter XL VIII. 

2 Cf. St. Thomas, II.-II., y. xxxv., on acedia- 



3 1 6 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

the chastisement of the Rule, in such sort that all the rest maybe inspired 
with fear. 

The observation that succeeds has a general reference and concerns 
all seasons of the year, and all times of silence. One monk must not 
associate with another, or converse, at unsuitable hours. Many dangers 
are thus removed. Once more, thanks to these few words, we see that 
St. Benedict's monks had regular hours when they could converse. 

- Dominico die lectioni vacent, On Sunday let them devote them- 

exceptis iis qui variis officiis deputati selves to reading, save such as are 

sunt. Si quis vero ita negligens et assigned to the various offices. But if 

desidiosus fuerit, ut non velit aut non anyone be so negligent and slothful as 

possit meditari aut legere, injungatur to be unwilling or unable to read or 

ei opus quod faciat, ut non vacet. meditate, he must have some work 

Fratribus infirmis vel delicatis talis given him that he be not idle. For 

opera aut-ars injungatur, ut nee otiosi weak or delicate brethren let such work 

sint, nee violentia laboris opprimantur, or craft be enjoined that they will not 

ut effugentur. Quorum imbecillitas be idle and yet will not be oppressed 

ab Abbate consideranda est. by weight of labour so as to be driven 

away. The weakness of such brethren 
must be considered by the Abbot. 

Here, finally, are some exceptions to the rules laid down in this 
chapter. Something needed to be said of Sunday. On this day, in 
every season, manual labour ceases and ail the brethren are occupied in 
reading, 1 save such as are employed in duties which cannot cease the 
work of the kitchen, for example. 

St. Benedict then provides for the case of a monk who is so negligent 
and slothful that he will neither read nor meditate. Aut non possit 
(or unable) : perhaps even he cannot, because of a habit of intellectual 
indifference, or else from defect of nature, without culpability on his 
part. That he may not remain unoccupied, some task shall be given 
him. Without doubt our Holy Father would have this done on the 
other days of the week as well and not on Sunday only. However, it 
might be more necessary on Sunday, for, during the long hours devoted 
by the community to reading, some occupation would have to be found 
for the negligent or illiterate consistent with Sunday restrictions. 

Not only should the duration of manual labour be fixed prudently; 
its kind also should be adapted to the powers of the individual. St. Bene- 
dict wrote previously: "But let all things be done in moderation for 
the sake of the faint-hearted." He here pleads again in favour of the 
weak or delicate. They should not remain idle and yet they should not 
be oppressed by too heavy a weight of labour, so as to be discouraged 
and eVen tempted to flee from the monastery. 2 They shall be entrusted 
with some easy task, and appointed to work suitable to their state of 
health. This consideration for their weakness is left to the conscience 
and to the heart of the Abbot. 

1 Dominicis diebus orationi tantum et lectionibus vacant (S. HIERON., Epist. XXII., 
35. P.L., XXII., 420). 

1 Neplus operis fratres compellantur facere; sed moderates labor omnes ad operandum 
provocet (S. PACK., Reg., clxxw.). 



CHAPTER XLIX 
'THE OBSERVANCE OF LENT 

DE QUADRAGESIMA OBSERVATIONE. Although the life of a monk ought 

Licet omni tempore vita monachi at all times to have about it a Lenten 

Quadragesimae debeat observationem observance, yet since few have strength 

habere; tamen quia paucorum est ista enough for this", we exhort all, at least 

virtus, ideo suademusistis diebus Qua- during the days of Lent, to keep them- 

dragesimae omni puritate vitam suam selves in all purity of life, and to wash 

custodire, omnes pariter negligentias away during that holy season the 

aliorum temporum his diebus sanctis negligences of other times, 
diluere. 

ST. BENEDICT had occasion in the preceding chapter to describe 
certain of the ordinary observances of Lent; but so important 
is this season in a Christian and monastic life 1 that he devotes 
a special chapter to it, wherein are set before all certain optional 
practices, and especially the supernatural dispositions which will give 
value to what they do. 

We should not misunderstand the nature of St. Benedict's declaration 
" that the life of a monk ought at all times to be marked by Lenten 
observance." Lent, according to the popular view, is a portion of the 
year given over to fasting, abstinence, and practices of mortification. 
The world, which is always impressed by what hits it hardest, regards 
Lent as so much stinting of food and drink; it is more alive to the culi- 
nary hardships of this season than to its real and fundamental purpose 
of penance. But in St. Benedict's conception, Lent has a wider mean- 
ing. When he expresses the desire that the life of a monk should be a 
continual Lent, he is not speaking of Lenten fare; for that would be to 
upset the regulations he has made elsewhere and to leave a monk the 
dangerous liberty of eating or not as he pleased, and of eating at his own 
hours, and it would imply want of discretion. Moreover it does not 
appear that our Holy Father intends to embark his monks on a regime 
of endless austerities and extraordinary mortification. He is speaking 
of the Lent of the spirit, a Lent which will fit in with any horarium and 
suit all states of bodily health, which, moreover, is far superior to the 
Lent of the body, this being but a means to help us to achieve the other. 
This true Lent involves two elements, negative and positive, an 
element which disjoins and an element which unites. It consists in the 
first place of the elimination of sin, and even of imperfection, in the 
suppression of all that cannot be reconciled with God's Will for us, with 
the dignity of our vocation and the seriousness of our vows. And the 
Lent of the spirit is complete when good works are practised and the 
soul clings more closely to God. Now the monk's life should at every 
time be an endeavour to fulfil this programme of sanctity. The very 

1 Cf. CABS., Conlat.) XXI. 
317 



3 1 8 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

reality of our incorporation with Our Lord and daily liturgical co-opera- 
tion with His mystery should be enough to stamp our lives with the 
mark of a continually increasing fidelity. But St. Benedict shows his 
knowledge of men, for he says: " few have strength enough for this." 
We always lag somewhat behind our ideal, and even in perfect loyalty 
there are defects of execution. So the purpose of Lent is to furnish 
us with an opportunity of repairing -and expiating the negligences of 
other times. It is a time, moreover, of recollection, of more attentive 
docility, of spiritual activity: "keep themselves in all purity of life." 
St. Benedict here uses the word purity in its broad and comprehensive 
sense, understanding by it the life of unity and unmixed union with 
God, the absence of all base alloy in the inner principle which determines 
pur activity: " Whoso are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of 
God "; wherein is virginity of heart. To keep our souls in all purity 
and to efface the negligences of the rest of the year, these are two 
counsels connected as cause and effect: for we do not strike at the faults 
of other times save by our fidelity in the present. 1 

Quod tune digne fit, si ab omnibus This we shall worthily do if we 

vitiis nos temperemus: orationi cum refrain from all sin and give ourselves 

fletibus, lectioni, et compunction! to prayer with tears, to holy reading, 

cordis, atque abstinentiae operam de- compunction of heart, and abstinence, 
mus. 

St. Benedict now' develops his meaning, giving in detail the points 
with which the individual's observance of Lent may be concerned. 
First comes the negative element, abstinence from all vices and evil 
habits. This is fundamental; for it is idle to add new practices, to 
conceive a fine plan of bodily austerities, when our hearts remain 
voluntarily full of pride, jealousy, sloth, and murmuring. 

Then we have the positive element in which prayer comes first. 
The Pharisees put the external work and material performance before 
all else; but a Christian thinks first of prayer. St. Benedict requires 
prayer accompanied by tears that is, prayer intimate and earnest, 
springing from love and " compunction of heart." We recognize 
here the teaching of Chapter XX. So, in Lent, private prayer shall 
be more frequent and more fervent, while official prayer, the divine 
service, shall be better prepared and performed with greater care. We 
shall also apply ourselves specially to the study of divine things, lectioni, 

* St. Benedict is inspired by several passages of ST. LEO THE GREAT : Heec autem prapa- 
ratfo, licet omni tempore salubriter assumatur, . . . nunc autem sollicitius expetenda est. . . . 
Scientes enim [adversarii nostri] adesse sacratissimos Quadragesima dies, in quorum obser- 
vatttia omnes prateritte desidits castigantur, omnes neglegentiee diluuntur. Debebatur 
quidem tantis mysteriis ita inctssabilis devotio et continuata reverentia, ut tales permanere- 
mus in cottspectu Dei, quales nos in ipso pascbali festo dignum est inveniri. Sed quia beec 
fortitude paucorunt est . . . magna divina institutions salubritate provisum est, ut ad 
reparandam mentium puritatem quadraginta nobis dierum exercitatio mederetur, in quibus 
aliorum temporum culpas et pia opera redimerent, et jejunia casta decoquereni. Deo ita 
demum sacrificium vera abstinentia et verts pietatis ojferimus, si nos ab omni malitia con- 
tineamus (De Quadrag., Sermo I., z. P.L., LIV., 264; Sermo IV., i et 6. P.L., ibid., 
175,280). 



Of the Observance of Lent 319 

which explains the reference in the previous chapter to Lenten books. 
We should note that our Holy Father does not suggest extraordinary 
practices, but a full and more generous accomplishment of the ordinary 
duties of our state. To this he appends a counsel of self-restraint: 
abstinentitgy perhaps giving to this word, as to the word Lent, a wider 
signification than that sanctioned by current usage. Nor could it have 
referred to abstinence from meat, for this was continual in monasteries. 

Ergo his diebus augeamus nobis In these days, then, let us add 

aliquid ad solitum pensum servitutis something to the usual meed of our 

nostne: orationes peculiares, ciborum service: as private prayers, and absti- 

et potus abstinentiam, unusquisque rience from food and drink, so that 

super mensuram sibi indictam aliquid everyone of his own will may offer to 

propria voluntate cum gaudio Sancti God, with joy of the Holy Spirit, 

Spiritus offerat Deo: id est, subtrahat something beyond the measure ap- 

corpori suo de cibo, de potu, de somno, pointed him! withholding from his 

de loquacitate, de scurrilitate, et cum body somewhat of his food, drink, 

spiritualis desiderii gaudio sanctum and sleep, refraining from talk and 

Pascha expectet. mirth, and awaiting holy Easter with 

the joy of spiritual longing. 

The monastic life was defined as a " school of the Lord's service." 
So we have a task, a service to fulfil, according to strict justice and the 
requirements of our vows. But the good and generous servant goes 
beyond what is prescribed : augeamus aliquid (let us add something) - 1 
And St. Benedict proceeds to enumerate some Lenten practices viz., 
special prayers, which chiefly concern the soul, and privations in food 
and sleep, with a more scrupulous abstinence from talking and dissipa- 
tion, for the conquest of the body. Abstinence, fasting, and vigils are 
the standard methods of bodily mortification. We may remind our- 
selves that in Lent our forefathers took only one meal and that in the 
evening; therefore it required some strength of soul to reduce further 
an already frugal regime. "So that everyone may offer something " : 
would it not be a fair interpretation of St. Benedict's meaning if we 
recognized in this phraseology a brief allusion to the discretion and 
moderation which should characterize our observance, even in Lent F 
A multiplicity of external works is another mark of the piety of the 
Pharisee. - 

But what we should .discover in these words, more than anything 
else, is an indication of the inner dispositions from which our Lenten 
practices should proceed: they should have the gracious quality of an 
"offering made to God." An offering is by definition something 
spontaneous, so the monk will take counsel with his generosity and 
himself choose his gift, 'propria voluntate (of his own will); and if obe- 
dience intervenes, it will not be to reduce initiative or manly resolution, 

1 Another reminiscence of ST. LEO: Omnem observantiam nostrum ratio istorum 
dierum poscat augeri. . . . Ad mensuram consuetudinis nostrte necessariis aliqui d addamus 
augmentis (De Quadrag., Sermo II., i. P.L., LIV., 268). Debet esse aliquid quod Qua- 
dragesima diebus addatur (yel augeaturj: sed ita, ut nibil ostentationis causa, fiat, sed 
religionis (S. AMBROS., De virginibus, 1. III., c. iv. P.L., XVI., 225). 



320 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

but to guide them and make them fruitful. An offering should be 
joyous, " with joy of the Holy Spirit " : " for Go4 loveth a cheerful 
giver " (2 Cor. ix. 7). We know that the Pharisee when he fasted had a 
long and disagreeable face : "they disfigure their faces" (Matt. vi. 16-18). 
Isaias saw them "bowing their heads low and lying on sackcloth 
and ashes" (Iviii. 5). 1 But Our Lord requires a different attitude 
from souls which are at peace with Him, which are loved by Him, 
and which carry within them infinite Love, Beauty, and Joy ; " but thou, 
when thou fastest, anoint thy head, and wash thy face." Our Holy 
Father knows his New Testament. He is not at all blind to the fact 
that in Lent there are special obstacles to joy : physical obstacles, such 
as a rebellious stomach or a heavy head; spiritual obstacles, such as petty 
temptations, and attacks of those nasty " black birds." 2 When there is 
physical suffering or moral depression, the enemy is never far distant; 
neither is God, fortunately, nor His angels; therefore the Church is 
careful to commit us to the good angels at the very beginning of the 
holy season of Quadragesima. 3 

Besides, as the Rule reminds us, Lent will end. We should antici- 
pate the joy of paschal time and let it influence the weeks of expectation. 
The joy meant is " the joy of spiritual longing " ; the joy of the stomach, 
which has a base longing of its own, is not here referred to. " And 
awaiting holy Easter with the joy of spiritual longing " : we can catch a 
glimpse in these few words of the great sweetness of Easter to our Holy 
Father. Thus is joy mentioned twice in a few lines, for in fact joy is 
always a duty. Even in its most austere moments and in its penitential 
exercises the monastic life should keep that tranquil character and that 
accessibility which St. Benedict wished it to have : " In the setting forth 
of which we hope to order nothing that is harsh or rigorous." 

Hoc ipsum tamen, quod unusquis- Let each one, however, make 

que offert Abbati suo suggerat, et known to his Abbot what he offers, 

cum ejus fiat oratione et voluntate: and let it be done with his blessing 

quia quod sine permissione patris and permission : because what is* done 

spirituals fit, praesumptioni deputabi- without leave of the spiritual father 

tur et vanae gloriae, non mercedi. shall be imputed to presumption and 

Ergo cum voluntate Abbatis omnia vainglory, and merit no reward. Every- 

agenda sunt thing, therefore, is to be done with 

the approval of the Abbot. 

Additional mortifications, though undertaken spontaneously, must 
be submitted to the judgement of the Abbot, whom our Holy Father 
here calls the " spiritual father." There can be no excess in the theo- 
logical virtues, but in the moral virtues excess is easy, for they consist in 
a wise mean between two extremes, and their immediate object is a 
thing which is not good of itself or for itself, but in virtue of its relation 
to an absolute good. Mortification is only a relative good: otherwise 



1 Missale Romanum, Epistola feriee vi. post Cineres 
a S. GREG. M., Dial., 1. II., c. ii. 3 Missa 



3 Missale Romanum, Dom. i. Quadrag. 



Of the Observance of Lent 321 

every Indian fakir would be perfect. 1 It is good because it establishes 
us in moral health and reduces the demands of our bodies or of self-will; 
because it helps us to expiate and make amends for sin; and above all 
because it associates us with the sufferings of Our Lord Jesus Christ; 
it is good as a method and as a means, not as an end. Now there is 
room here for errors, both doctrinal and practical. Not only is it pos- 
sible to fail in moderation, but even, by a strange reversal of the very 
principles of Christianity, to make the whole supernatural life consist 
in the " mortification " of penance. It is possible to exceed in audacity, 
to slay the ram that Isaac may live. An attraction towards severe 
mortification may be a matter of temperament, of natural violence, or 
morbid excess of refinement, or nothing but a form of pride. Very 
frequently an ardent desire of bodily mortification is not united with 
interior obedience and with mortification of the understanding. There 
is no future for the soft soul, nor yet for those who are extremely morti- 
fied, if their penances be not accompanied with a very great docility 
and submission of spirit. St. Benedict indicates the sole method of 
avoiding illusion, that we should tell the Abbot our good desires and 
follow his guidance in everything. 

Our Holy Father gives another motive for such recourse to our 
superior. A monk has ceased to belong to himself, his whole activity is 
determined by the Rule and by the will of the Abbot. 2 It would not do, 
under pretence of perfection, and by means of particular observances, 
which may be excellent in themselves but are not authorized, to escape 
for a whole Lent from that absolute subjection which is the very essence 
of our monastic life. Whatever we might do in these dispositions would 
have no supernatural character, nor bring us any merit. Whatever is 
done without the permission of the spiritual father, says St. Benedict, 
shall be imputed to presumption and vainglory, and merit no reward. 3 
Once more are we put on our guard against pharisaical tendencies, 
against ostentation in good deeds: " Sound not a trumpet before thee, 
as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they 
may be honoured by men. Amen I say to you, they have received their 
reward " (Matt. vi. 2). In our little mortifications we should forget 
everything save the regard and the joy of our heavenly Father. St. 
Benedict, besides speaking of the permission of the Abbot, mentions 
his prayers as well. We may always count on the prayers of our Abbot, 
and our prayers should habitually be united with his. 

1 As Father Faber remarks; Growth in holiness, chapter xi. 
8 Sine (prapositi) voluntate nullus frater quidquam agat (Reg. II. SS. PATRUM, i.). 
3 Cf. S. BASIL., Reg. contr., Ixxxix., clxxxi., clxxxiv. CASS., Inst. t V., xxiii. HJEFTEN, 
1. X., tract, viii., disq. vi. UDAIR., Consuet. Clun., 1. II., c. lii. 



CHAPTER L 

OF BRETHREN WHO ARE WORKING AT A DISTANCE 
FROM THE ORATORY OR ARE ON A JOVRNET 

THESE two short chapters (L. and LI.) take account of possible 
exceptions to the perfect punctuality and regularity treated of 
in the preceding chapters. They might be joined under one 
title. Their purpose is to settle cases of conscience, created by 
temporary withdrawal or prolonged absence, with regard to two duties: 
first, the Divine Office ; secondly, conventual meals. The fiftieth chapter 
tells us how those brethren are to perform the Hours who cannot be 
in the oratory with the community, either because their work keeps 
them in the fields or because they are on a journey. 

DE FRATRIBUS Qui LONGE AB OKA- Those brethren who work at a 

TORIO IABORANT, AUT IN VIA BUNT. great distance and cannot come to the 

Fratres qui omnino longe sunt in la- oratory at the proper time (the Abbot 

bore, et non possunt occurrere hora judging such to be the case) should 

competent! ad oratorium, et Abbas perform the Work of God there where 

hoc perpendit quia ita est, agant they are working, bending their knees 

ibidem opus Dei, ubi operantur, cum in godly fear, 
tremore divino flectentes genua. 

We may note in the first place that St. Benedict regards all his 
monks as strictly bound to the Office; yet in those days monks were 
not generally clerics. Brethren who have gone to work in the 
fields must contrive to return, in time to celebrate each of the liturgical 
Hours in the oratory, if the distance is not too great, and also, doubtless,' 
if they can leave their work without serious inconvenience; but this, 
second proviso, though established in monastic tradition, is not men- 
tioned by St. Benedict. 

Those who are too far away (qui omnino longe sunt) must say the Office 
where they are. And, to cut short indecision, the Abbot is to decide 
whether they shall return or not* This obviously refers to exceptional 
cases. All manual work, in St. Benedict's plan, should ordinarily be 
performed within the enclosure (Chapter LXVL), and in such sort that 
the brethren may easily assemble for the Work of God. But it may often 
happen that the monastery has more distant possessions. In such 
cases the crops shall be gathered by workmen. The Rule nowhere 
provides for large agricultural undertakings, which should habitually 
absorb the activities of the community and compel many monks to.be 
absent all day or for whole weeks far from the centre of conventual 
life. 

The custom of reciting certain parts of the Office in the fields 
existed before St. Benedict: it is mentioned by the Rules of St. Pacho- 

32* 



Of Brethren Distant from the Oratory 323 

mius and St. Basil. 1 On which point Marte'ne observes that " we should 
not wonder that monks performed the Divine Office in the fields, since 
they also took the midday sleep there, to refresh their bodies." Perhaps 
it is easier to sleep in the fields than to recite the Office there reverently. 
So our Holy Father recommends the observance of the same supreme 
reverence and the same vigilance as in choir. God is nowhere absent, 
and if the thought of His presence is familiar to monks, as St. Benedict 
would have it be, they will recollect themselves without trouble. The 
place of their work thus becomes as sacred as the oratory. The cus- 
tomary ceremonial is observed there: bows, genuflexions, prayers said 
kneeling or prostrate: cum tremore divino flectcntes genua; which words 
do not mean that the whole Office is recited kneeling, but rather that the 
same rubrics are kept as in choir. There is question, probably, only of 
a Little Hour, and practically all could be recited from memory. 2 

Similiter qui in itinere directi sunt, In the same way let not the ap- 

non eos praetereant Horaj constitute: pointed hours pass them by who are 

sed ut possunt, agant ibi, et servitutis sent on a journey: but, as far as they 

pensum non negligant reddere. can, let them perform them there and 

,, not neglect to pay their due of service. 

Here we have the case of monks on journey. The question has been 
asked: to what refer the words " in the same way " ? The Cluniacs 
held with good reason that they applied to the phrase " let not . . .' pass 
them by"; the Cistercians that they referred to the words "bending 
their knees." As a matter of fact universal monastic custom was 
practically this. When the time for reciting the Hour seemed to have 
come a monk got down from his horse (long journeys were rarely made 
on foot), took off his travelling gloves and headgear, and prayed in the 
same way and in the same posture as he would have done in choir; 
when the Hour was started thus, he remounted his horse and continued 
the psalmody. When the roads were too muddy, when there was rain 
or snow, the genuflexion before the Office was dispensed with and the 
Miserere recited instead : such at least was the Cluniac custom, as Peter 
the Venerable reminds St. Bernard. 8 Our Holy Father suggested such 
discreet action when he wrote : " as far as they can let them perform 
them there." 4 These words leave ^a margin for the interpretation of 
superiors and monks; they must celebrate the Work of God as well as 
possible. If they had been bound to recite the Office exactly as in 
choir and in its entirety, they would have had to carry with them large 
manuscript books. Breviaries were then, and for long after, unknown. 
Before their appearance, however, there is evidence of the use of manu- 

1 Si in navifuerit, et in monasterio, et in agro et in itinere, et in quolibet minister, 
orandi et psallendi tempora non pratermittat (S. PACK., Reg., cxlii.). Si cwyufaliter non 
occurrat adeue cum ceteris ad orationis locum, in quocunque loco inventus fuerit, quod 
devotionis est expleat (S. BASIL., Reg. contr., cvii.). See also CASS., Inst., II., xv. 

* See the interesting particulars given by the Rule of the Master, Iv. 
. 3 Epist., 1. 1., Ep. XXVIII. P.L., CLXXXIX., 132. 

* We should read: agant sibi, they shall say the Office by themselves. 



324 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

scripts containing certain portions of the Office and a selection of prayers 
and lessons for travellers. 1 So St. Benedict could not give more exact 
instructions. What he wishes is that monks should do what they can. 
" And not neglect to pay their due of service " : for it is a debt of justice 
and a sacred obligation. 2 

In the words " let not the appointed Hours pass them by " some 
commentators see a command to recite each Hour at its proper time. 
St. Benedict would have been surprised at a monk saying Lauds, for 
instance, at sunset or bedtime. We may also remember that there are 
places which are less favourable to a pious and becoming recitation of 
our Office; and finally, that apart from the cases provided for in moral 
theology, no one nowadays is free to shorten his Office and suit it to the 
exigencies of his journey. 

1 Cf. CALMET, Commentary on Chapter L. 

* On the antiquity and universality of this obligatory recitation, for clerics as 
for monks, cf. MABILLON, De Liturgia gallicana: Disquisitio de cursu gallicano, vi., 
pp. 426-439. 



CHAPTER LI 
OF BRETHREN WHO DO NOT GO FAR AW AT 



DE FRATRIBU8 QUI NON SATIS LONGE 

PROFICISCUNTUR, Fratres qui pro 
quovis response proficiscuntur, et ea 
die sperant reverti ad monasterium, 
non praesumant foris manducare, 
etiamsi a quovis rogentur: nisi forte 
eis ab Abbate suo praecipiatur. Quod 
si aliter fecerint, excommunicentur. 



Brethren who go out on any busi- 
ness and expect to return to the monas- 
tery on the same day must not pre- 
sume to eat abroad, even though they 
be asked by anyone at all; except 
permission be given by their Abbot. 
If they do otherwise let them be 
excommunicated. 



THE title of this chapter is not a sufficient indication of its real 
purpose. The preceding chapter laid down rules of conduct for 
monks with regard to the Divine Office; the present chapter tells 
them what they must do with regard to meals. 

The chapter deals with brethren who are sent out officially on some 
business (pro quovis response). 1 St. Benedict says nothing about monks 
who travel far; these would obviously have to accept the hospitality 
they found on the road. Or else they would carry their provisions with 
them a necessary course in the desert and then the sun would some- 
times dry up the wine-skins, as it did for those brethren who went to 
visit St. Antony; or sometimes the ass which carried their food expired 
on the road. 2 

Whenever monks see that they can return to the monastery 
the same day they must be careful not to sit at table* with layfolk. 
St. Benedict foresaw the excuses of those who travel. " The journey 
is hard. It is po hot. I was importuned so. Were they not people 
of standing, or devout folk ?" None of these excuses will do: " even 
though they be asked by anyone at all." 8 However, the Abbot may 
possibly grant permission; that is the meaning we should give here to 
the word pnscipiatur. The Rule of the Master gives a short dialogue 
held between a monk and his Abbot and enumerates all the circumstances 
in which we should accept or refuse invitations. 4 For ourselves, if the 
superior's permission is only tacit and presumed, we should be very 
careful how we use it. Of course, if seriously fatigued, we should accept 
refreshment without scruple. Cassian relates that two young solitaries 
let themselves die of hunger rather than touch some figs they were 
carrying to a sick man. 6 

Our Holy Father pronounces the penalty of excommunication 
against transgressors (perhaps excommunication from the table), since 

1 See Chapter LXVI. 

a S. ATHANASH fitaS. Antonii, 54. P.G., XXVI., 919-922.; Verba Seniorum: Vita 
Patrum, V., x., 2. ROSWEYD., p. 596. S. PACK., Reg., liv. 

3 An incident in St. Benedict's Life may serve for commentary on this chapter: 
S. GREG. M., Dial., I. II., c. xii. 

* Cap. Ixi. B /*., V., xl. 

3*5 



326 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

by this breach of rule they become layfolk again. The common life 
is expressed especially in the conventual character of the Divine Office 
and meals. Even though a monk cannot take his repast at the same hour 
as his brethren, it is desirable that he should take it at the monastery 
after his return. The tables of layfolk were not made for us; neither 
their wines nor their talk suit us. Men sometimes employ the pretext 
of edification ; but is not the edification much more real when we are 
only rarely seen ? Would not people of the world be rather surprised 
that monks should accept invitations so readily ? If they eat and drink 
little, they will be suspected of hypocrisy; if they have good appetites 
and appreciate good wine, they will be charged with excess. Our Holy 
Father wishes that at every instant and in every place the monk should 
remain a monk and preserve all that he can of his profession. Let us 
beware of thinking that once we are outside the monastery it is good form 
to walk, gaze, and act as do men of the world and to be monks only 
in dress. 



vlv;:< 



CHAPTER LII 
O/ 1 r# ORATORT OF THE MONASTERT 



DE ORATORIO MONASTERII. Ora- Let the oratory be what it is called; 
torium hoc sit,, quod dicitur; nee ibi and let nothing else be done or kept 
quidquam aliud geratur, aut condatur. there, 

ST. BENEDICT likes to have things exact, consistent and har- 
monious. When speaking of the Abbot he requires him to justify 
his name by his deeds: Et studeat nomen majoris factis implere; 
when treating of the Divine Office he counsels us to put our minds 
in harmony with our voices : M ens nostra concordet voci nostra; so also 
here, in the matter of the oratory, which by definition and name is the 
place of prayer (domus orationis) t he would have this title be fully justified: 
" let. it be what it is called." We recognize in all this the same lofty 
interest in good order. Love of order is one of the most noble forms of 
conscience; by this it touches aesthetics and the cult of beauty. And, 
at the same time, it is the best proof of our submission to law, since the 
moral law was summed up by the ancients in this simple dictum: " Be 
what you are," Vivere natures cohvenienter oportet y manifest in your 
acts that which is in your being. 

So the oratory shall be used only for the things of prayer. Nee ibi 
quidquam aliud geratur aut condatur?- Nothing foreign to it shall be 
done there. The oratory must not be like a workshop; St. Benedict 
has no weaving of mats during the psalmody. 2 Nor shall meals be taken 
there, as in certain churches mentioned by St. Augustine. 3 Nor again 
is it a dormitory. Aut condatur: nothing shall be deposited there save 
what belongs to the Divine Office; it must not become a sort of lumber 
room where all manner of things are heaped confusedly, books, tools, 
and garments. 

Ezpleto opere Dei omnes eunv When the Work of God is finished 
summo silentio exeant, et agatur let all go out with the utmost silence, 
reverentia Deo; ut f rater, qui forte and let reverence be paid to God; 
sibi peculiariter vult orare, non impe- so that a brother who perchance wishes 
diatur alterius improbitate. to pray by himself may not be hindered 

by another's importunity. 

The oratory belongs exclusively to God and to those who pray to 
Him. When the. Work of God is finished, all must withdraw in very 

1 This prescription of the Rule has been adopted by Canon Law (Can. Oratoriutn, 
6. Dist. zlii.) and the canons of Councils have often quoted it. It is, besides, a remini- 
scence of ST. AUGUSTINE in his letter CCXI. ad monacbas (7); and the whole passage has 
certainly inspired St. Benedict: Orationibus instate boris et temporibus constitutis. In 
oratorio nemo aliquid agat, nisi ad quod est factum, unde et nomen accepit; ut si aliqucc 
etiam prater boras eonstitutas^ si eis vacat, orare voluerint, non eis sint impedimenta, qua 
ibi aliquid agere valuer int. 

Cf. S. PACK., Reg., v. et vii. 

3 Confess., 1. VL, c. ii. P.L. t XXXII., 719-720. 

327 



328 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

strict silence, thus showing their reverence towards God's Majesty 
(et agatur reverentia Deo). Commentators who understand these words 
of a salutation or genuflexion to the Cross or the Blessed Sacrament 
would seem to be wrong. St. Benedict means us to appreciate the 
sanctity of the place, not to leave it noisily, and never to stay there to 
talk. Honour due to God requires this, as does also our own spiritual 
interest, since the sweetness left in our hearts by the Office may eva- 
porate in a moment. But the Rule adds yet another motive. 

Profound silence shall be observed in the oratory from affectionate 
consideration for our brethren, and, " that a brother who perchance 
wishes to pray by himself may not be hindered by another's importunity." 
We must in passing take note of this private prayer, of which St. Benedict 
nowhere speaks formally, any more than of spiritual conferences. The 
little that is said of it here and in Chapter XX. is enough to establish 
the fact that the monks of former days did not ignore it, and that the 
Rule and the Abbot's authority allowed them to take from manual 
labour or study some moments for prayer. But St. Benedict leaves 
this practice in some sort optional and free : " a brother who perchance " 
... "if another wish." Apparently our Holy Father wished to 
signalize the time immediately after Office as especially favourable for 
prayer; the soul is then quite full of God, and, as we know, there is an 
intimate connection between a monk's prayer and the Divine Office. 
The church is also implicitly indicated by the Rule as the place -par 
excellence for prayer. Finally, the words which follow would appear 
to outline a method. 

Sed si alter vult sibi forte secretius But if another wish perchance to 

orare, simpliciter intret et oret; non in pray by himself, let him go in with 

clamosa voce, sed in lacrimis et inten- simplicity and. pray, not with a loud 

tione cordis. Ergo qui simile opus voice, but with tears and fervour of 

non facit, non permittatur, expleto heart. And let him ' who is not 

opere Dei, remorari in oratorio, similarly occupied be not permitted 

sicut dictum est, he alius impedimen- to stay in the oratory after the Work of 

turn patiatur. God, lest another should be hindered, 

*as has been said. 

St. Benedict's principal object 1 is to protect recollection, by saving 
his monks from the noise of much going and coming, and from the din 
of unnecessary talk. If there be one place in this world where we have 
a right not to be molested or given over to the mercy of the talkative 
it is surely the oratory. It is closed to all who do not intend to pray 
there, and it is also closed, for the same reasons, to 'those whose too 
demonstrative piety might annoy their brethren. Let us not forget 
that the Rule was first written for men of the South, and that external 
forms of devotion always follow temperament. Moreover, some of the 
monks of Monte Cassino had doubtless been barbarians and peasants. 

1 Cf. CABS., Inst., II., z. Read the whole chapter and the ones following, which 
St. Benedict had in mind while writing Chapter LII. S. BASIL., Reg. contr., cxxxvi. 
S. CYPR., De oratione dominica, c. iv. et v. P.L., IV., 5x1-522. 



Of the Oratory of the Monastery 329 

St. Benedict reminds us, for the benefit of those who would not be 
restrained by education from certain extravagances, that cries, loud sup- 
plications, and sighs must be absolutely banned from a monastic oratory. 
Intention, the secret fervour of the heart this it is which makes prayer; 
and if tears come, let them be tears of silence and tenderness. Our 
Holy Father's rapid sketch of the man of prayer is truly admirable: 
" Let him go in with simplicity and pray. . . .' n " 

Therefore, concludes St. Benedict, all those who do not confine 
themselves, apart from the Divine Office, to this silent prayer, shall 
be excluded from the oratory in the name of. fraternal charity. 

1 Omni cordis intentione (oreni), said CASSIAN, Irtst., II., xii. On intentio cordis see 
CASSIAN again, Conlat., I., vii.; IV., iv.; IX., vi.-vii.; XXIII., xi.; and Inst., V., xxxiv. 
Vera postulatio turn in arts est vocibus, sed in cogitationibus cordis. Valentiores namque 
voces apud secretissimas aures Dei nonfaciunt verba nostra, ted desideria. JEternam etenim 
vitam si ore petimus, nee tamen corde 'desideramus, clamantes tacemus. Si vero desideramus 
ex corde, etiam cum ore conticescimus, tacentes clamamus. . . . Intus in desiderio est clamor 
secretttS) qui ad humanas aures non pervenit, el tamen auditum Conditoris replet (S. GREG. 
M., Moral, in Job, 1. XXII., c. xvii. P.L., LXXVL, 238). 



CHAPTER LIII 
OF <THE RECEPTION OF GUESTS 

THE regulations contained in this long chapter may be sum- 
marized under four heads. St. Benedict first speaks of those 
who enjoy monastic hospitality. Then he describes the usual 
ceremonial for the reception of a guest. Then he arranges 
certain details of claustral organization concerning hospitality. And, 
in conclusion, he guards against the recollection of the monastery being 
disturbed by the presence of guests. 

DE HOSPITIBUS SUSCIPIENDI8. Let all guests that come be re- 

Omnes supervenientes hospites tarn- ceivedlike Christ Himself, for He will 

quam Christus suscipiantur, quia ipse say: " I was a stranger and ye took me 

dicturus est: Hospgs /, ft suscepistis in." And let fitting honour be shown 

me. Et omnibus congruus honor ex- to all, especially, however, to such as are 

hibeatur, maxime tamen domesticis of the household of the faith and to 

fidei et peregrinis. pilgrims. 

St. Benedict begins with words of generous welcome, laying down the 
primary motive of hospitality, based on faith and charity. Guests 
shall be received as Our Lord Himself, so that He may be able to say to 
us on the Day of Judgement: " I was a stranger and ye took me in " 
(Matt. xxv. 35). 1 Therefore ^hospitality is not merely an act of philan- 
thropy or worldly courtesy, nor one inspired by the desire of popularity 
or influence, but rests on the conviction that we receive Christ Himself 
in the persons of guests, and the will to honour Him wheresoever He 
hides Himself, with the certainty that He will recompense us in eternity. 
And surely it is a remarkable thing that, in the passage of the Gospel 
from which our Holy Father took his text, the judgement passed by 
Our Lord concerns no other matter but charity, and this as expressed 
in attention paid to strangers and the sick. 

Hospitality is a profoundly human activity, even considering it 
altogether apart from the supernatural. 2 The East especially has beeii 
faithful to it from the remotest antiquity; the Arab recovers delicacy 
of conscience when guests are brought into his tent. In the Old Testa- 
ment the Patriarchs were great hosts. And the Church has preserved 
God's law of hospitality with infinite care. St. Paul the Apostle often 
recalls it: " Forget not hospitality; for thereby some have entertained 
angels unawares" (Heb. xiii. 2). A bishop should be "hospitable" 
(i. Tim. iii. 2), and likewise a Christian widow (ibid. v. 10). The most 
ancient 'monuments of Christian literature regulate hospitality, and 
determine the prudent measures with which it should protect itself in a 

1 Adventantes fratres quasi Domini fiucipiamui adventum . . . qui dicit: Hospesfui 
et suscepistis me (Rurm., Hist. monacb.,c. vii. ROSWEYD, p. 464). 
8 Cf. S. AMBB., De officiis, ii., 103. P.L., XVI., 131. 

330 



Of the Reception of Guests 331 

pagan world. 1 The Fathers praise it and practise it ; who does not know 
the story, for example, of St. Gregory and. his thirteenth beggar?* 
As to monks it is their glory to guard, almost alone, the traditions of 
hospitality. Before, as well as after, our Holy Father, we undoubtedly 
find it practised in all religious families, but the holy Patriarch formu- 
lated its perfect code. The better to understand its seasonableness, 
we should remember that in the sixth century inns were rare, and that 
often there were even no roads; we may read in the Dialogues of St. 
Gregory of the misadventures to which a traveller overtaken by night 
was exposed. 8 Monasteries were located precisely in deserted places; 
in them was refuge to be sought. 

All who come must be received, says the Rule. In principle no one 
should be refused, since the motive of hospitality, which St. Benedict 
immediately recalls, is valid for all, since there is something of God in all 
souls, for all are loved by Him. Nevertheless, although the Rule does 
not set this down explictily, some reservations are necessary. In the 
first place all that our Holy Father says of the reception of guests into 
the monastery shows that he did not mean to extend hospitality to 
women. Yet there have been monasteries Cluny, for instance which 
established hospices outside the enclosure for the reception of women 
and young children. 4 Hospitality had to be refused also to professional 
malefactors and to notoriously dangerous folk. Nor could the Church's 
enemies and notorious heretics partake of the monks' bread. 6 Surely 
all the ceremonial of hospitality is applicable only to Catholics. How- 
ever, despite all precautions, undesirable folk might find their way into 
a monastery. So the Rule of the Master prescribes that two brethren 
should sleep in the guest-house and close the door securely, so that none 
might escape by night and carry off the bedding or other objects. 
Nowadays we may be even a little more particular. In receiving un- 
known guests we should think not only of individual charity, but of the 
common security. And now that inns and hotels are plentiful, there is 
no cruelty in closing the door on doubtful characters. 

Furthermore, we may observe that there are charitable institutions 
which have hospitality as their whole purpose or as part of their purpose ; 
these bear names in accord with their function. There are others which 
are hospitable, but by extension of meaning and not by definition. The 
latter case is ours. Hospitality is not an essential part of Benedictine 
life, but only an integrating part ; as such it is capable of expansion or 
contraction according to need and time, of being adapted to circum- 

1 Cf. S. CLEMENT., Epist. ad virgines; the Doctrina Apostokrum. 
1 Read also ST. NILUS, Tract, ad Eulogium, 23-24. P.G., LXXIX., 1123-1126; 
and PETER OF BLOIS, Epist. XXIX. P.L., CCVII., 98-100. 
8 Dial., 1. III., c. vii. P.L ., LXXXVIL, 229 so. 

4 The same usage existed in the monasteries of ST. PACHOMIUS: cf. S. PACH., Reg., li. 

5 Nobis in monasterio bospitalitas cordi est; omnesque ad nos venientes, Iteta bumanitatis 
f route suscipimus. Veremur ettim ne Maria cum Joseph locum non inveniat in diversorio, 

ne nobis dicat Jesus exclusus: Hospes eram, et non suscepistis me. Solos btsreticos non recipi- 
mus (S. HIERON., Apologia adv. libros Rufini, 1. III., 17. P.L., XXIII., 469). Cf. 
S. BASIL., Reg. brev., cxxiv. 



33 2 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

stances, proportioned to resources, calculated according to rules of 
prudence, and, finally, subordinated to the highest laws of the monastic 
life. 

Omnes supervenientes. Guests may arrive at any hour and even 
without warning, for in St. Benedict's time it was difficult to give notice : 
incertis boris supervenientes bospites. But with modern postal facilities 
a word of warning is more natural and safer, if we would cause neither 
surprise nor confusion. Monks, however, should not be too exacting 
on this point, for monastic hospitality should be ready for everything, 
even for surprises. 

" And let fitting honour be shown to all." In the person of the 
stranger who presents himself, we receive, said St. Ephrem, 1 not a man, 
but God Himself; so there should be no accepting of persons. But 
though goodwill and interior dispositions be the same for all, yet the 
external expression of our respect should be regulated according to 
the status of the guest, and St. Benedict prescribes that fitting honour 
(congruus honor) should be shown to all. This is mere prudence and 
charity. If we paid a commoner the honours of a prince, would we 
be Creating him suitably and putting him at his ease ? Does a layman 
expect the same reception as a bishop? Bernard of Monte Cassino 
says: "Coarse bread, herbs, and beans are enough for a poor man; 
but a rich man is scarce content with pork, or beef, or tender 
fowls." . . , 

There are three classes of guests for whom St. Benedict requires 
special attention. First, domestici fidei (those of the household of the 
faith). This perhaps means our brethren in the Faith, those of the 
same supernatural household and family, agreeably to the words of the 
Apostle: "Now therefore you are no more strangers and foreigners: 
but you are fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God " 
(Eph. ii. 19). " Let us work good to all men, but especially to those who 
are of the household of the faith " (Gal. vi. 10). A warmer welcome 
shall be given to a Christian than to a Jew or an infidel. But might not 
the words " those of the household of the faith " mean stranger monks 
or clerics ? It is precisely to these that St. Pachomius orders greater 
consideration to be shown. 2 

Peregrini. Pilgrims belong to God in a special way. They are 
seeking God, and we should help them to find Him, giving them, wher- 
ever they halt, a substitute for their native land. A little farther on 
our Holy Father again prescribes this great solicitude towards pilgrims, 
and orders it to be extended also to the poor. " Because in them Christ 
is more received. For the very fear we have of the rich procures them 
honour." It is unnecessary, St. Benedict shrewdly remarks, to require 
that respect and those attentions for the rich and powerful which they 
will obtain without any trouble. The magnificence of their persons 

1 Testamentum (inter S. EPHREM. opp. grate, /a*., t. II., p. 244). 

2 Quando ad ostium monasterii aliqui venerint, si clerici fuerint out monacbi, majori 
honor e stucipiantur (Reg., li.). 



Of the Reception of Guests 333 

and of their train, the honour they confer on those whom they visit, 
the hope, it may be, of obtaining some favour from them: all these 
sentiments help us to receive them well. But with poor people there 
is little danger of obsequiousness. Yet they are more grateful, because 
they are less accustomed to attentions. And in them especially is 
Christ received; they are the privileged members of Our Lord Jesus 
Christ, of Him who lived on the earth as a pilgrim, as a poor man, as a 
stranger ever in quest of a lodging: " The foxes have holes and the birds 
of the air nests : but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head " 
(Matt. viii. 20). We should observe that St. Benedict uses Christian 
phraseology : he speaks not of strangers but of guests. 

Ut ergo nuntiatus fuerit hospes, When, therefdre, a guest is an- 
occurratur ei a priore vel a fratribus, nounced, let him be met by the 
cum omni officio charitatis : superior or brethren with all marks 

of charity. 

In order to describe the ceremony of his reception St. Benedict 
begins at the gate of the monastery and follows the guest through the 
whole course of his visit. The Eastern monks were sometimes accus- 
tomed to meet guests in a body. 1 But cenobites could be somewhat 
less demonstrative than the solitaries of Nitria and Scete. St. Pacho- 
mius and St. Basil 2 would not have the whole community turn out for 
all guests that came; and, if we read St. Benedict properly, his regula- 
tion is the same. The community might be engaged at the Divine 
Office, or scattered here and there, employed in various tasks, when a 
guest arrived. Moreover, we may imagine the embarrassment which 
some visitors would feel if met by a levy en masse of the whole com- 
munity. Above all, what disorder would be occasioned in the monastery 
if all had to assemble at the gate for every arrival at any hour ! So we 
should suppose that the ceremonial here indicated and monastic 
customs have interpreted it thus was applied with more or less solem- 
nity according to circumstances of time, place, and person. Often, 
undoubtedly, porter and guest-master alone appeared. On other 
occasions the reception was conventual, and the brethren were probably 
warned by a predetermined signal. In spite of its brevity, the Rule 
distinguishes cases where the superior (prior) received a guest, and cases 
where this duty fell to " brethren," not necessarily meaning the whole 
community, but brethren who had charge of guests, or else the deans, 
or those who happened to be free. 

1 Ubi peregrinosfratres advenire senserunt, continuo velut examen apum, singuli quique 
ex suis cellulis proruunt, atque in obviam nobis lato cursu etfestina alacritate contendunt, 
portantes secum quamplurimi ipsorum urceos aqua et panes, secundum quod Propbeta corri- 
piens quosdam dicit: Quia nan existis Jiliis Israel in obviam cum pane et aqua (2. Esdr. 
xiii. 2). Tune deinde susceptos nos adducunt primo cum psalmis ad ecclesiam, lavant pedes, 
ac singuli quique linteis quibus utebantur abstergunt, quasi via laborem levantes, re autem 
vera vita bumana arumnas mysticis traditionibus- abluentes (RUFIN., Hist, monacb. t 
c. xxi. ROSWEYD, pp. 477-478). 

8 S. PACK., Reg., 1,-li. S. BASIL., Reg.fus., xxxii., adv.; Reg. brev., cccxiii. 



334 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

Et primitus orent pariter, et sic Let them first pray together, and 
sibi socientur in pace. Quod pads thus associate with one another in 
osculum non prius offeratur, nisi ora- peace; b.ut the kiss of peace must not 
tione praemissa, propter illusiones be offered until prayer has gone before, 
diabolicas. on account of the delusions of the 

devil. 

Before all else they shall pray together, and that in the oratory, as 
St. Benedict specifies presently. The early Christians received no one 
without good credentials. The faithful of one diocese were not ad- 
mitted to communion with another church without letters of recom- 
mendation (litter '& commendatitia, litteraformata). 1 In early times the 
Greed served to distinguish Catholics from those who were not such; 
it was the password. In the Arian period Catholics marked themselves 
off from heretics by means of a paper bearing the Greek initials of 
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost: II.T.A-II. The same idea may have 
disposed St. Benedict to make prayer the prelude to reception; when the 
guest consents to it, then he is at peace with the Church. Thus a 
visitor is admitted to communion with us only after we are sure that he 
is himself in communion with God. 

But our Holy Father, in insisting that this prayer should come before 
all else, suggests another motive : " on account of the delusions of the 
devil." The Fathers of the East, by whose ordinances the Rule is 
directly inspired, are more explicit. It sometimes happened that the 
devil took human form in order to introduce himself into a monastery 
and molest the monks; a preliminary prayer was the most effective way 
of neutralizing any diabolical influence. Rufinus says it was a rule that 
prayer should always precede greeting. 2 Moreover, to fortify oneself 
against contact with heretics, or other perverse folk, would also be to 
frustrate "the delusions of the devil"; it is too true that corrupt and 
vicious people, besides their evil habits and uncleanness, carry with 
them an unhealthy atmosphere. 

After prayer comes the kiss of peace. This was the ancient form 
of greeting between Christians : " Salute one another with a holy kiss," 
says St. Paul. Rufinus mentions also the fraternal kiss of monks and 
their guests. 

In ipsa autem salutatione omnis And in the salutation itself let all 

exhibeatur humilitas. Omnibus veni- humility be shown. At the arrival 

entibus sive discedentibus hospitibus, or departure of all guests, by bowing 

inclinato capite, vel prostrate omni the head or even prostrating with the 

corpore in terra, Christus in eis adore- whole body on the ground, let Christ be 

tur, qui et suscipitur. adored in them, who indeed is received. 

1 On the ancient tessera bospitalitatis cf. DAREMBERG et SAGLIO, Dictionnaire da 
anti quites grecques et romaines, art. Hospitium. According to TERTULLIAN, what unites . 
all churches is communicatio pacts, et appellatio fraternitatis, et contesseratio bospitalitatis 
(De prescript., c. c. P.L., II., 3z). 

2 Forma bujusmodi inter monacbos observatur, ut si quis ad eos veniat . . . ante 
omnia ut oratiojiat, ut nomen Domini invocetur: quia sifuerit aliqua transformatio damonis, 
continuo orationefacta diffugiet (Hist, monacb., c. i. ROSWIYD, pp. 456-457). Cf. Verba 
Seniorum: Vita Patrum, V., xii., 15. ROSWEYD, p. 614. 



Of the Reception of Guests 335 

This paragraph may be regarded as a parenthesis, determining the 
general character of the welcome given to guests, and, so to speak, the 
tone of the greetings addressed to them. Our Holy Father has already 
bidden us meet them with all cordiality: " with all marks of charity "; 
he now tells us to greet them with " all humility " ; presently we shall 
be invited to treat them with " all kindness." It is not a question of 
worldly politeness,^ but of supernatural courtesy and humility. We know 
that monastic humility shows itself in submission to God and to every 
creature for love of God: and since it is Christ chiefly whom we recog- 
nize in guests, we shall not be ashamed to reverence Him profoundly 
in them. Before all who arrive or depart we shall bow or prostrate, 
probably according to the dignity of the guest. 1 The practice of 
prostration has perforce been abandoned. 

Suscepti autem hospites ducantur When the guests have been re- 
ad orationem, et postea sedeat cum eis ceived let them be led to prayer, 
prior, aut cui jmserit ipse. Legatur and then let the superior, or anyone 
coram hospite lex divina, ut aedificetur, he may appoint, sit with them. Let 
et post haec omnis ei exhibeatur hu- the divine law be read before the guest 
manitas. for his edification; and afterwards 

let all kindness be shown him. 

The parenthesis finished, St. Benedict takes up again his description 
of the ceremonial of hospitality. The guest having been received into 
the monastery shall be conducted first to the oratory, as has been said, 
and then saluted and embraced. The brethren, who have perhaps 
assembled to receive him, return to their work; and the Abbot, or 
a monk appointed'by the Abbot, shall stay with him and keep him 
company. 

Following the custom of the ancient Fathers St. Benedict desires 
that .the** divine law " should be read to guests " at once," meaning by 
" divine .law " a passage of Holy Scripture or of a Catholic author, some 
such matter as formed the spiritual reading (lectio divina) of the monk 
himself. The guest is certainly treated as one of the family. This 
reading edifies him and prepares him to benefit by his sojourn in God's 
house. There is preserved at Monte Cassino a collection of short 
exhortations, for the use of guests, extracted from St. Gregory. While 
the soul is receiving this spiritual nourishment, a material repast is 
being prepared in the kitchen. But customs have changed. Perhaps 
travellers complained of being kept too long waiting for supper and 
bed* The divine law is now read to them only in the refectory. 

After the reading, continues our Holy Father, the guest must be 
treated with all possible " kindness," and given any comforts that he 
needs. St. Benedict here uses the word bumanitas in the sense of loving 

1 Safe dixit (abbas Apollo) de suscipiendis monacvts, quod oportet adorare fratres 
advenientes: nott enim ipsos, aiebat, sed Deum adorasti (PALLAD., Hist. Lavs., c. lii. 
ROSWEYD, "p. 75 r). Cf- RDFIN., Hist, monacb., c. ii. ROSWEYD, p. 458. Verba Seniorum: 
Vita Patrum, III., 195, ROSWEYD, pp. 528-529. Vita Porpbyrii, xxxv. P.G., LXV., 
1227-1228. 



336 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

care and assistance, as did Rufinus 1 and Cassian, 2 from whom this 
expression is borrowed. And the Rule indicates quite a series of 
delicate attentions, describing the quasi-festival that will be observed on 
account of the guest. 3 

Jejunium a priore frangatur propter Let the superior break his fast for 
hospitem; nisi forte praecipuus sit ille the sake of the guest, unless it happens 
dies jejunii, qui non possit violari. to be a principal fast-day, which may 
Fratres autem consuetudines jejuni- not be broken. The brethren, how- 
orum prosequantur. ever, shall observe their accustomed 

fasting. 

Most guests were Christians and knew what was meant by an 
ecclesiastical fast; neither they nor the Abbot could dispense themselves 
from it. But the superior might break the fast of the Rule, which was 
less strict. Charity is of more value than fasting. And perhaps the 
guest would be reluctant to partake of the monastic table, if his com- 
panion would only eat very little. 4 However, St. Benedict observes 
that the dispensation from the fasts of the Rule only concerns the guests 
and the superior, and also, according to Chapter LVI., those religious 
who assist him at this meal or take his place. The rest of the brethren 
shall remain faithful to the fast, so that the coming of guests may never 
introduce relaxation into the monastery. We shall see presently how 
the inner organization of hospitality allowed the claims of charity and 
observance to be reconciled. 

In the' words " all kindness " some commentators Bernard of Monte 
Cassino and Turrecremata, for example think they find permission for 
the serving of flesh meat to guests. But the opposite practice prevailed 
almost everywhere, and the Cistercians maintained it habitually. People 
do not come to monasteries for good cheer; a sumptuous meal would 
rather scandalize guests. 6 Nevertheless, while doing no injury to the 
law of monastic poverty and monastic frugality, we should not impose 
on them the severity of our own fare. 

Aquam in manibus Abbas hospitibus Let the Abbot pour water on the 

det; pedes hospitibus omnibus tarn hands of the guests; let both the Abbot 

Abbas, quam cuncta congregatio lavet; and the whole" community wash the 

quibus lotis, hunc versum dicant: feet of all guests. When they have 

Suscfpimus, Deus, misericordiam tuam, been washed let them say this verse: 

1 Habebat (abbas Isidorus) bospitalem cellulam, in qua advetttantes bospitio recipiat 
et omni bumanitate refoveat (Hist, mottacb., c. xvii. ROSWEYD, p. 476). 

2 Inst., V., xxiv.; Conlat., II., xxv.; XXL, xiv. 

3 Cumques alutans nos orasset more sibi solito, pedes bospitum propriis manibus lavat, 
et docere nos ex Scripturis qua ad tedificationem vita acfidei pertinent, ceepit. 

Et ut. vidit nos, statim prior adoravit usque ad terram, et surgtns osculo nos suscepiv. 
Ubi autem ingressi sumus monasterium, oratione prius (ut marts est) data, pedes nostros 
propriis manibus lavat, et cetera qua ad requiem carports pertinent adimplevit (Rurm., 
Hist, monacb., c. ii. et vii, ROSWEYD, pp. ,458, 464). 

* Cf. CASS., Inst., V., xxiv.-xxvi. And elsewhere also (Conlat., II., xxvi.) CASSIAN 
notes: Satis absurdum est, utfratri, immo Chris to mensam offer ens non cum eo cibum pariter 
sumas out ab ejus refectione te facias alienum. 

6 To those astonished at being* too well treated might be read the anecdote re- 
counted in the Verba Seniorum: Vita Patrutn, HI., 5. ROSWEYD, p. 493, 



Of the Reception of Guests 337 

in media templi tut. Pauperum aatem " Swcepimus, Deus, misericordiam 
et peregrinorum maxime susceptio tuam in media templi tui." Let special 
omni cura sollicite exhibeatur: quia in care and solicitude be shown in the 
ipsis magis Christus suscipitur. Nam reception of the poor and of pilgrims, 
divitum terror ipse sibi exigit honorem. because in them Christ is more re- 
ceived 1 . For the very fear we have 
of the rich procures them honour. 

The Abbot shall pour water on the hands of guests and wash their 
feet. Because the Abbot holds the place of Christ in the monastery, 
therefore is this function reserved to him, recalling the condescension 
of Our Lord to His Apostles at the Last Supper and expressing Christian 
humility and charity. In ancient times, to pour water on the hand of 
those who were going to table was the act of a servant or disciple; 2 
with St. Martin 8 it became the act of a monk wishing to honour his 
guests ; and St. Benedict makes it a rule. This practice is still observed, 
and takes place at the door of the refectory when the guest is first led in. 
As to the washing of the feet, a regular element in the ritual of ancient 
hospitality, it no longer agrees with our Western manners and has long 
been suppressed; we must honour guests, not embarrass them. 

We should understand well in what sense the Rule would have the 
whole community proceed with the Abbot to the washing of the feet of 
all guests. As D. M&ge remarks, guests would have good reason to 
complain "if they had to endure being washed and washed again as 
many times as there were monks." The text probably means that all 
the religious should fulfil this charitable office in turn ; and it was thus 
that the business was performed formerly in many monasteries. 4 Not all 
guests had their feet washed, this privilege being by preference reserved 
for the poor, who are mentioned expressly in the succeeding words, of the 
Rule. But perhaps our Holy Father intended the whole community 
to be present at what has since been called the Mandatum (Maundy) 
and to take part in it, as we do on Holy Thursday or on the eve of the 
clothing of a novice. This interpretation also can appeal to ancient 
customs. There was a fixed time each day for the Mandatum, for a 
guest's feet were not washed in this conventual manner at the moment 
of his arrival, which would have caused considerable disturbance and 
disorganization of the horarium. In monasteries of the Middle Ages 
the guests used to be assembled generally in the chapter-room before 
or after the meal, or else in the evening after Compline. St. Benedict 
orders that a short prayer from the forty-seventh psalm should be 

1 Ne avert as oculum, out inanem dimittas pauperem : ne forte Dominus in bospite 
ant in paupere ad te venial (S. MACAR., Reg., xx.). 

2 Est bic Eliseus, filius Sapbat, quifundebat aquam super manus Elite (IV. Reg., in., 
u). Cf. S. ATHANASII, Praam. Vita S. Antonii. P.O., XXVI., 839. 

3 SULP. SEVER., Vita B. Martini, xxv. P.L., XX., 171. 

4 Thus PETER THE VENERABLE writes to St. Bernard: Facimus quod possumus, et per 
totius anni spatium, unaquaque die tribus peregrinis bospitibus manus et pei.es abluimus, 
pattern cum vino offerimus, Ablate in ordine suo id faciente, nttllisque, nisi infirmis, qui 
btec implere non valent, cxceptis (Epist., 1. I., Ep. XXVIII. P.L., CLXXXIX., 131). 



338 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

recited after the Mandatum, so as to give thanks to God for,the visit He 
has paid to the monastery in the persons of the guests. 

After having been received thus into the family, guests conformed as 
far as possible to its regime and took their part both in prayers and work; ' 
of all of which St. Benedict says nothing. The monks of Nitria let their 
guests rest for a week; then they employed some in kitchen, bakery, 
or garden, others in reading and study. Silence was observed in the 
guest-house till midday, but they could talk then. 1 Abbot Isaias invites 
guests to render all service of which they are capable. 2 The Rule of the 
Master would have a guest compelled to work if he stays more than forty- 
eight hours. 

Coquina Abbatis et hospitum per Let the kitchen for the Abbot and 
se sit, ut incertis horis supervenientes guests be apart by itself; so that guests, 
hospites, qui nunquam desunt monas- who are never lacking in a monastery, 
terio, non inquietent fratres. may not disturb the brethren, coming 

at uncertain hours. 

The claustral organization necessary to cope with the duties of hos- 
pitality embraces two elements: the kitchen and its servers, the guest- 
house and the guest-master. 

In order to ensure order and peace in the monastery St. Benedict 
gives it three kitchens: one for the community (Chapter XXXI.), one 
for the sick (Chapter XXXVI.), and one for the Abbot and guests 
(Chapter LIU.). Thanks to this arrangement, guests may arrive 
at any hour without their arrival and the care of preparing a meal for 
them disturbing the community. The example of Cluny has often 
been cited, where the Pope, the Emperor, and several kings with numer- 
ous suites, might stay without impairing the tranquil regularity of 
monastic life. But the custom early prevailed, in certain places, of the 
Abbot eating with guests in the common refectory, one kitchen sufficing 
for the two tables. Or else, as Paul the Deacon notes, the two kitchens 
were placed near together and a " turn " allowed the passage of dishes 
from one to the other. 

In quam coquinam ingrediantur Let two brothers who are able to 
duo fratres ad annum, qui ipsum offi- fulfil this duty well be placed in this 
cium bene impleant. Quibus, ut kitchen for the year. If they need it 
indigent, solatia administrentur, ut let help be afforded them, that they 
absque murmuratione serviant: et may serve without murmuring. On 
iterum quando occupationem mi- . the other hand, when they have not 
norem habent, exeant, ubi eis imper- much to occupy them, let them go forth 
atur, in opera. Et non solum in ipsia, to other work, wherever they are 
sed et in omnibus officiis monasterii ista bidden. And not only with regard to 
sit consideratio; ut quando indigent, them, but also in all the offices of the 
solatia accommodentur eis; et iterum monastery let this consideration be 
quando vacant, obediant imperanti. shown, so that when they need it, 

help may be given them, and again 
when they are idle they may do what 
they are bidden. 

1 PALLAD., Hist. Laus., c. vii. ROSWEYD, p. 713. 
1 Oratio III., 3. P.O., XL., mo. 



Of the Reception of Guests 339 

Two of the brethren are appointed to the charge ot this guest- 
kitchen. While all the monks have to work in turn in the community- 
kitchen, and serve for a week, the kitcheners for guests remain at their 
office for a whole year. Why this difference ? The reason is that the 
dignity of guests called for a more careful cuisine, and only the more 
skilful brethren were appointed to it: " who are able to fulfil this duty 
well " ; and they were kept at it for a whole year just because of their skill 
and practice. " 

And since the work could vary much in proportion to the number 
of guests, the Rule is discreetly and prudently anxious that no one should 
be overworked or left idle. When many guests come, help shall be 
given; when the guest-house is empty or nearly so, the monks habitually 
occupied there shall not regard themselves as dispensed from conventual 
work, but shall go where obedience sends them. St. Benedict takes 
occasion of this to tell us that none of the officials of the monastery 
should be overworked, or on the other hand withdraw themselves from 
obedience and daily toil: " obediant imperanti" 1 

Item et cellam hospitum habeat Moreover, let a brother whose soul 
assignatam f rater cujus animam timor is possessed by >the fear of the Lord 
Dei possideat; ubi sint lecti strati have the guest-hotfse assigned to his 
Sttfficienter;etdomusDeiasapientibus care. Let there be sufficient, beds 
sapienter administretur. provided there; and let the house of 

God be wisely governed by wise men. 

No monastery is complete without a guest-house. A whole history 
of monastic guest-houses might be written. This cella hospitum is 
evidently not a cell, a single apartment where all the guests were hud- 
dled together; it is a house, a regular and complete habitation. In the 
Life of St. Benedict, where we have the account of the plans for the 
monastery of Terracina supplied by the Patriarch in a dream, mention 
is made of a place for the reception of guests. 2 Probably from the 
very time of St. Benedict the guest-house was separated from the rest 
of the monastery. The Rule does not fix its exact position ; but monastic 
custom, in conformity with the spirit and intentions of St. Benedict, 
placed it apart from the cloister, dormitory, and refectory of the religious, 
generally quite near the entrance gate. This was already the practice 
in the time of St. Pachomius. 

At Cluny, where hospitality was exercised on a large scale, the 
guest-house was in two parts: the guest-house proper, under the juris- 
diction of the guest-master, and receiving rich or well-to-do travellers; 
and the almonry, administered by the almoner and receiving poor travel- 
lers, pilgrims, the sick, and the poor of the neighbourhood. 8 The daily 
Mandatum of which we spoke above took place in the almonry. The 
history of "hospices," built near monasteries and by their agency, 
connects itself with this chapter on hospitality. From the sixth and 
seventh centuries monastic hospices were numerous in Gaul. 

1 The authoritative reading is itnperatis. * S. GREG. M., Dial., 1. 11., c. xzii. 
3 CJ. PIGNOT, histoire de VOrdre de Cluny 1 1. II., pp. 456-463. 



340 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

The guest-house cells should have suitable furniture, of better quality, 
doubtless, than that used by the monks . St . Benedict mentions the bed 
only, perhaps as being after the refectory table what the guest most 
needs. And care must be taken that there is a sufficient number of beds 
fully equipped : ubi sint lecti strati sufficienter. % 

Our Holy Father defines in a single phrase the virtues he requires 
of the guest-master : the " fear of God " should be to him as an enclosure 
in which his soul rests captive : c ujus animam timor Dei possideat. The 
guest-master has special duties and special dangers . We expect him to be 
prudent and even shrewd; he needs charity, unfailing patience, much 
self-denial; he needs both zeal and caution. The honour of the com- 
munity, its good name, the edification of strangers, all depend largely 
on him. He is the first to deal with postulants, and prepares the way 
discreetly for the novice-master. We may imagine the perils of this 
office : distraction of spirit, distaste for the things of God, for Office, and 
for study which has become so difficult, and an exaggerated interest in 
outside matters. His conversation should never be worldly, under pre- 
text of adapting himself to the mentality of some visitors. There are 
matters of which he may confess his ignorance; who expects him to have 
the information of a Renter's Agency ? Nor is he required to set himself 
up as permanent director and instructor. jFinally, a delicate disinterested- 
ness will prevent him from appropriating as personal to himself those 
friendly feelings which are directed to other brethren or to the whole 
community. Summing up, St. Benedict says that the guest-house, 
which in a monastery is especially the house of God, should be entrusted 
to wise men, who may administer it wisely. 

Hospitibus autem, cui non prae- Let a monk who is not so bidden 
cipitur,nullatenus societur neque collo- on no account associate or converse 
quatur: sed si obviaverit aut viderit, with guests. But if he chance to 
salutatis humiliter, ut dictum est, et meet or to see them, after humbly 
petitabenedictione,pertranseat, dicens saluting them, as we have said, and 
sibi non licere colloqui cum hospite. asking their blessing, let him pass on, 

saying that he is not permitted to 

talk with a guest. 

This last remark gives us St. Benedict's whole mind on the character 
and measure of our relations with the outside world. Hospitality as 
described in this chapter is a duty of faith, since it is Our Lord whom we 
receive in the persons of guests; a duty of charity also and an apostolate, 
for it is not possible to come into contact with the recollected and attrac- 
tive dignity of the monastic life without obtaining supernatural benefit. 
Sometimes we teach by our words and sometimes by our books, but most 
of all do we teach by our lives. Instruction in this form cannot be 
questioned. The Acts of the Apostles tell us how pagans were edified 
by the spectacle of the first Christian community. A real though 
insensible impression is produced on all those who attend our services, 
and on priests and cultivated folk who visit the monastery, and these 
spread the influence among their acquaintance. 



Of the Reception of Guests 341 

But St. Benedict would have this inner apbstolate harmonize with 
the essential conditions of our life, so that the practice of charity may 
never impair peace and observance. Our Holy Father prescribed some 
precautionary measures before; he now requires that guests be com- 
mitted exclusively to the care of the guest-master, and the rest of the 
brethren excused from this duty. Analogous arrangements are found 
in most ancient Rules. 1 Careless, dissipated, and gossiping monks 
seek contact with the world most readily. Nor is that strange, for they 
already belong to it by their life; not knowing what to do with their time, 
they give it to any comer. There is hardly another matter in which 
nature deludes itself so easily. Those men most greedily desire converse 
with people of the world, for whom such people are most dangerous. 
And even though we should have all qualities necessary for edification, 
we cannot practise an apostolate piously and profitably which is not 
directed by obedience. 

If it happens, says St. Benedict, that a monk meets a guest unex- 
pectedly, he must conduct himself politely, salute him with humility 
as mentioned before, furnish any information that is sought, and then 
retire, excusing himself on the ground that he may not prolong the con- 
versation. We have no reason to blush at such an avowal. As we may 
repeat, it is giving people of , the world a false idea of the monastic life 
to persuade them by exaggerated cordiality, or by conversations entered 
upon at once without previous permission, that we have nothing to do, 
that we are glad of any excuse to escape from solitude and silence. 
Let us take care never to let them think that our life resembles their 
own. And if we walk through the monastery with guests we should 
respect the appointed places of silence; visitors will moderate their 
voices in proportion as we restrain ours. St. Benedict adds " and asking 
their blessing " : which is an allusion to the ancient custom according 
to which a monk meeting a superior or elder said: Benedicite ; by the 
same formula was the supernatural dignity of guests recognized. (See 
the commentary on Chapters LXIII. and LXVI.). 

Throughout the last lines of this chapter we discover once more, 
as at a glance, what is the monastic ideal and what our Holy Father 
expects of us. We are not obliged to do good is it often real good ? 
to our own detriment, we are not bound to accomplish all the good that 
is possible in this world and at any price. It would be buying influence 

1 S. PACK., Reg.) 1,-li. S. BASIL., Reg.fus., xxxii.-xxxiii. CABS., Inst., IV., xvi. 
St. Benedict quotes verbally the First Rule of the HOLY FATHERS: Venientibus (bospi- 
tibui) nullus nisi unus cui cura circa hospitals fuerit injuncta occurrat et responsum det 
venientibus. Or are vel pacem offerre non liceat ulli nisi primo videatur ab eo qui praest 
Patre; et orations simul peracta, sequatur ordine suo pacts officium reddere. Nee licebit 
alicui fratri cum superveniente sermocinari; non sit illi cura interrogandi unde venerit, 
ad quid venerit, vel quando ambulaturus sit, nisi soli qui praest Patri, aut quibus ipse 
jusserit. Venientibus vero fratribus ad horam refectionis non licebit peregrino fratri cum 
fratribus manducare, nisi cum eo qui praest Patre, ut possit adificari. Nulli licebit 
cum eo loqui nee alicujus audiatur sermo, nisi divinus qui ex pagina proferatur, et ejus qui 
praest Patris, vel quibus ipse jusserit loqui, ut aliquid de Deo conveniat (viii.). 



34-2 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

and reputation too dearly, if we bought them at the expense of an 
essential part of our Rule. And this is the more undeniable in that other 
Orders have now undertaken the work of preaching and ministering to 
souls; we are no longer needed. It is not fitting that we should desert 
our life of prayer and silence to become regular clerics, supernumeraries 
or casuals, or that we should scatter our energies in a great variety of works 
for which we are in general poorly prepared. We have the right to hold 
fast to the essential conditions of the monastic institute, to that which 
has, moreover, always constituted the special, normal, and distinctive 
function of monks. Except for rare and sometimes splendid exceptions, 
this is all that the Church requires of us. And of what has a feverish 
age more need than of the spectacle of men living only by God and for 
God, assiduous in the praise of His beauty, and sharing in every manifes- 
tation of Catholic life by the sure and efficacious means of liturgical 
prayer? 



CHAPTER LIV 

WHETHER A MONK OUGHT TO RECEIVE LETTERS OR 

TOKENS 



Si DEBET MONACHUS LITTERAS, VEL 

EULOGIAS SUSCIPERE. Nullatenus liceat 
monacho nee a parentibus suis, nee a 
quoquam hominum, nee sibi invicem 
litteras, aut eulogias vel quaelibet 
munuscula accipere aut dare, sine 
praecepto Abbatis sui. 



On no account shall it be lawful 
for a monk to receive, either from his 
parents or anyone else, or from his 
brethren, letters, tokens, or any little 
gifts whatsoever, or to give them to 
others, without the permission of his 
Abbot. 



IT is difficult to see the connection between the chapter on hospi- 
tality and this on presents. Like certain portions of Chapters 
LV. and LVIL, this chapter completes rather the 'teaching of 
Chapters XXXIII. and XXXIV., on poverty; Chapter LVI. is a 
codicil to Chapter LIII. 

A monk, as we know already, is incapable of receiving, giving, or 
alienating anything whatsoever without the permission of the- Abbot. 1 
That is the strict principle. St. Benedict ranges the persons from 
whom gifts may _come in three classes; parents, external friends, brethren 
in religion. Then he enumerates things which may be given: letters, 
eulogia or pious presents, and any little gifts whatsoever. 2 

" Letters." Our separation from the world to be effective must be 
external : such as is produced by our leaving it, by enclosure, by our habit, 
by silence; but it should be internal also : and if intercourse is assiduously 
maintained by visits and letters, it is clear that our thoughts remain 
with the world: "No man, being a soldier to God, entangleth himself 
with secular business: that he may please him to whom he hath engaged 
himself " (2 Tim. ii. 4). Perhaps we write too many letters. Why can 
we not confine ourselves to those demanded by politeness, charity, and 
real utility? Would it not be rather strange that more letters should 
go out of a monastery than come in ? We should drop not only all 
frivolous, trivial correspondence, but also such as is of a purely worldly 
character. Let us also remember the dangers of letters of " direction." 
And when we write, let it be always with sobriety, and moderation, 
and in a supernatural spirit. There are anecdotes which may be told 
in recreation, but with which it would be foolish to entertain our 
correspondents. There are certain details or events of our family life 
which we have no right to communicate even to our parents or to 
religious. A monk is safeguarded by having to obtain permission to 

1 Nemo db altero accipiet quidpiam, nisi prapositus jusserit (S. PACK., Reg., cvi.). 

8 ST. AUGUSTINE (Epist. CCXI., n. P.L., XXXIII., 962) speaks of nuns surrep- 
titiously receiving litteras vel quaelibet munuscula. Cf. S. CJESAR., Reg. ad vt'rg., xxiii. 
S. ORSIESII Doctrina, xxxix. 

3 C/. CASS., /*., V., xxxii. 

343 



344 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

write; moreover, our Constitutions bind us to give our letters open to 
the superior and in the same way to receive those that come. 1 

" Tokens." The practice of sending a friend something from your 
table existed among the pagans of antiquity and survived in Christian 
times. The morsel of blessed bread which is distributed (in France) 
to the faithful in the course of High Mass, as a token of communion 
x between them, is the eulogia par excellence. In the fourth century 
we find St. Paulinus of Nola sending little loaves of bread to his friends 
to St. Augustine, for instance.^ Presents were also made of fruit, images, 
medals, relics; and all these things received the generic name of eulogite? 
The Holy Rule supposes that presents come chiefly from outside; 
yet it foresees that there may occur between religious of the same or 
different monasteries some interchange of letters and eulogia. Doubt- 
less "little presents strengthen friendship"; but, even apart from 
poverty, there are other motives which forbid monks these civilities 
as long as they remain clandestine. St. Benedict's prohibition is precise 
and complete; it embraces all cases, and demolishes in advance all vain 
excuses. We have broken with the world, and we are poor by profession. 

Quod si etiam a parentibus suis ei And if anything be sent to him, 

quicquam directum fuerit, non prsesu- even by his parents, let him not pre- 

mat suscipere illud, nisi prius indica- sume to receive it, except it have first 

turn fuerit Abbati. been made known to the Abbot. 

After laying down the principle St. Benedict speaks of presents 
given by parents: they may not be appropriated without the Abbot's 
permission. We cannot be made owners in spite of ourselves and in 
spite of the Rule. So it would be superfluous to protest that a present 
Is a personal gift, or a souvenir, or has cost the monastery nothing. 
When any presents whatsoever come to a brother, they should first be 
handed to the Abbot. The Abbot often does not look at them and has 
them distributed whatever they may be; but he never means to put 
them ipso facto at the disposition of the brother to whom he sends them. 
Permission is still required before the brother may use either a part or 
the whole. Whatever is not granted must go without delay to the 
religious who has charge of such things. Let us recall what was said 
in Chapter XXXIII. on the extreme watchfulness which we should 
employ in all that concerns poverty; in this matter there are no trivial 
details. . 

Quod si jusserit suscipi, in Abbatis If he order it to be received, let 

sit potestate, cui illud jubeat dari; it be in the Abbot's power to appoint 

et non contristetur f rater, cui forte to whom it shall be given; nor let the 

directum fuerat, ut non detur occasio brother to whom it chance to have 

1 Cf. CASS., Inst., IV., xvi. S. CESAR., Reg. ad man., xv. 

2 S. PAULINI Epist., III.-V. P.L., LXI., 164 sq. 

3 Cf. MABILLON, Acta SS. O.S.B., Saec. i., p. 310. VENANTIUS FORTUNATUS, Car- 
minay passim. See the Comments of MART&NE and CALMET on this passage of the Rule. 
The poisoned bread which Florentius sent to St. Benedict was a eulogia (S. GREG. Mi 
f)ial., 1. II., c. viii.J. 



Whether a Monk ought to receive Letters or Tokens 345 

diabolo. Qui autem aliter presumpse- been sent be grieved, lest occasion be 
rit, discipline regular! subjaceat. 1 given to the devil. Should anyone, 

however, presume to act otherwise, 
let him be subjected to the discipline 
of the Rule. 

^ome present or other arrives and is handed to the Abbot ; the Abbot 
receives it and then transmits it to the monk to whom it was sent (quod 
sijusserit suscipt), but adds, at once or somewhat later, the unexpected 
clause: " You shall give it to such and such a brother." To be grieved 
in these circumstances would be the mark of a very small soul. It 
betrays attachment to things, and shows that our happiness consisted in 
possessing God and them. Such grief reveals the depths of the soul. 
And, at the same time, it is perilous; for it disarms us, and by means of 
it the devil sows all sorts of foolish feelings in us: regret that we left the 
world, distaste for our life, hostility towards the Abbot as not loving us, 
jealousy of the brother to whom our cherished present has gone. 

" " Should anyone presume to act otherwise." Most commentators 
say that St. Benedict would have the severity of regular discipline 
employed only against one who appropriated an article wrongfully, and 
not against one who evinces disappointment, unless perhaps this leads 
him to scandalous excesses. 

We should remember that, in this matter of poverty, there are three 
things to be distinguished : the vow, the virtue, and the spirit of poverty. 

We observe the vow if we abstain from acts which are forbidden us, 
or rather which we have forbidden ourselves in taking the vow: if we 
possess nothing, dispose of nothing, destroy nothing. But the vow is 
much endangered if we do not go on to the virtue, which leads us not 
only to fulfil our vow indifferently well, but to practise renunciation 
and privation with facility, promptitude, and joy. The virtue, in its 
turn, is complete only if it be connected with its most lofty motive. 
We must have the spirit of poverty, which is to regard ourselves as being 
united to God and obliged to be like Him. We did not leave the world 
to enter solitude, but rather to go into the society of God. We are not 
poor in order to be poor, but to be rich with God and rich like God. 
God Himself is poor, for He has but Himself; yet He is infinite wealth, 
since He possesses in Himself the fulness of all things. This, is the last 
word about our poverty. And at this height the three vows of religion 
reunite, even .as the three theological virtues meet in union with God . 

1 All these ordinances are as old as monachism, as is shown by a curious regulation 
of ST. PACHOMIUS (Hi.), and especially by this passage of ST. AUGUSTINE (Letter CCXL, 
12): Etiam illud quod suis veljiliabus vel aliqua necessitudine ad se pertinentibus in monas- 
terio constitutis aliquis vel aliqua contulerit, $ive vestem sive quodlibet aliud inter neces- 
saria deputandum, non occulte accipiatur; sed sit in potentate pr&posita, ut in commune 
redactum, cut necessarium fuerit, prabeatur. Quod si aliqua rent sibi collatam celaverit, 
furtijudicio condemnetur (P.L., XXXIII., 963). Reproduced in part by ST. CJESARIUS, 
Reg. ad moit., i.; Reg. ad virg., xl. 



CHAPTER LV 
OF THE CLOTHES AND SHOES OF THE BRETHREN 

DE VESTIMENTIS, ET CALCEAMENTis Let clo thing be given to the 

FRATRUM. Vestimenta fratribus secun- brethren suitable to the nature an4 

dum locorum qualitatem ubi habitant, climate of the place where they live: 

vel aerum temperiem dentur, quia in for in cold regions more is required, 

frigidis regionibus amplius indigetur, in warm regions less. It shall be the 

in calidis vero minus. Haec ergo con- Abbot's duty, therefore, to consider 

sideratio penes Abbatem sit. this. 

IT has sometimes been thought that St. Benedict had a presentiment, 
or a prophetic knowledge, that his Rule would spread and be re- 
ceived widely in Christian Europe, and that this led him to say here 
that clothing should be adapted to climatic conditions and their 
variety. That may be so; but it is certain that the differences of 
temperature which exist between Sicily and the Sabine country, be- 
tween Monte Cassino and Terracina, were sufficient to justify this 
prudent ordinance. So monks shall be clothed variously according to 
differences of latitude and conditions of climate. St. Benedict differs in 
this point from some modern founders, who have determined the colour, 
cut, and stuff of clothing with the greatest nicety. He does not even 
begin with a principle of poverty, but with a precept of discretion, 
wherein is revealed once more the breadth of his spirit. And his 
ordinance has the further purpose of precluding excess, fancifulness, or 
confusion. The Abbot, and the Abbot alone, shall decide what may 
form part of a monk's wardrobe; it shall be his to say if some addition 
should be made to the common allowance, or to suppress and modify 
some of its constituents. 

-Nos tamen mediocribus locis We think, however, that in tem- 

sufficere credimus monachis per singu- perate climates a cowl and a tunic 

los cucullam et tunicam: cucullam in should suffice for each monk: the cowl 

hieme villosam; in aestate puram et to be -of thick stuff in winter, but in 

vetus tarn ; et scapulare prop ter opera; summer something worn and thin: 

indumenta pedum, pedules et caligas. likewise a scapular for work, and shoes 

and stockings to cover their feet. 

Though he has left the care of clothing to the Abbot, St. Benedict 
consents to indicate always with a certain discreet timidity what 
should be allowed in temperate regions. 

Let us note first that our Holy Father clearly means to give his monks 
a distinctive costume. Perhaps the warning which he addresses to monks 
and which we shall explain presently: De quarum return omnium ... 
has misled people and made them think that St. Benedict was indifferent, 
not only to the quality and colour of the material, but also to the 
character and distinctive form of the habit. Erasmus, for example, 
alleges that St. Benedict and his monks were clothed like everyone else. 

346 



Of the Clothes and Shoes of the Brethren 347 

But Erasmus was deceived by prejudice and a too rapid and careless 
reading. .Without any doubt St. Benedict asked and received from 
St. Romanus a special habit: " He asked for the habit of a holy life." 1 
We shall be accurate if we say that St. Benedict was inspired by various 
contemporary customs, and that the exclusive employment of certain 
articles of clothing was sufficient to make them distinctive. Why 
should monks have rejected the custom of antiquity, which gave each 
social class its special costume ? Soldiers had theirs, and so had philo- 
sophers even, being distinguishable by their pallium (robe), staff, and 
long beard. Tertullian's obscure and difficult treatise De -pallio might 
be consulted on this point. Moreover, the first monks had good reasons 
for the choice of a special costume. 

The monastic habit distinguishes us from the rest of men, and that 
is its primary justification. It also reminds us, and that incessantly, 
of our supernatural state : by its austerity, by its form, by all its details, 
it warns us that we are no longer of the world and that there are a 
thousand worldly matters to which we have bidden farewell. The 
monks of antiquity delighted in investigating the symbolism of the 
religious habit, 2 which is suggested also by the sacred liturgy. We should 
read the forms for the blessing and imposition of the monastic habit in 
our ritual. Just because of this blessing, which makes- it sacramental) 
our habit guards us, is a part of our enclosure and completes it: it holds 
us in the sweet captivity of God. And perhaps we should not seek else- 
where for the motive of that disfavour, or rather hatred, which the 
religious habit encounters from the devil and his agents. It is a bad 
sign when a priest or a monk is eager and glad to return to what the 
liturgy calls " the ignominy of worldly dress." The cowl does not make 
the monk, but what service it renders him ! There is a real relation 
between our dress and our state; there are things which we feel to be 
impossible, conduct which we shall never attempt, just because we wear 
the livery of God. Let us esteem and venerate it, but especially the 
cowl, whose generous folds will enwrap us even in death. 

Our Holy Father did not create this monastic habit in all its entirety, 
but selected from the elements furnished by tradition with his usual 
discrimination. In such a matter usage varied greatly, according to 
times and places, and we cannot attempt to trace its evolution here. 
Nor is it wise, when illustrations are lacking, to construct an exact theory 
as to the costume described by customaries and commentaries; for it 
is not always possible to identify certain items. St. Benedict considers 
it sufficient in temperate regions if each monk has a cowl. and a tunic. 
In winter the cowl shall be of rough or thick stuff; in summer, of stuff 
which is lighter or worn by use. (We are not told that the tunic changes 
with the seasons.) At work the cowl shall be replaced by a less ample 
garment, the scapular. To write the history of cowl and scapular would 

1 S. GREG. M., Dial., 1. II., c. i. 

1 CASS., Irut., I. SOZOM., Hist, eccles., 1. HI., c. xiii.-xiv. P.G., LXVIL, 
1065-1081. S. DOROTHEI Doctrind) i., 12-13. P.G., LXXXVIII., 1632 sq. 



348 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

necessitate a treatment beyond the scale of this commentary; we must 
confine ourselves to a few notes. 

Originally the cowl was merely a cap or hood (cucullus, cucullio) 
covering the head and the nape of the neck, its conical form recalling 
the skin caps once called cuculli of grocers and druggists. It was the 
ordinary headgear of peasants 1 and children. Very popular in Italy 
and in Gaul, the hood was doubtless popular also throughout the whole 
Empire, for we meet a similar headdress with the same name (KOV\OV\LOV) 
among the first monks of the East. 2 Besides the practical motives which 
made them adopt it, there were considerations also of a symbolical kind. 
The hood reminds monks, says Cassian, 3 that they should imitate the 
innocence and simplicity qf children, since they have returned to 
spiritual childhood. This is to regard profession as a second baptism; 
just as the neophyte's head was covered in baptism, so was the/monk's 
in profession. The hood was the most venerated part of the monastic 
habit and was worn day and night. 

The cowl of which St. Benedict speaks is certainly something more 
than a hood. It is the vestis cucullata i.e., a garment fitted with a hood 
(cucullus).* Columella advises that labourers in the fields should be 
protected against bad weather with skins having sleeves (pellibus mani- 
catis) or hooded cloaks (sagis cucullis or cucullatis); and Palladius 
prescribes skin tunics with hoods (tunicas pelliceas cum cucullis). 6 For 
monks, as for layfolk, the cowl might be of rough material or of the skins 
of animals; it then resembled, apart from its hood, the melota of the 
Eastern monks (/LrjkatTJ}, a sheepskin, from /M7\oj>=sheep), which was 
a nightdress or travelling garment and could on occasion serve as a 
wallet. 6 Perhaps it was a sheepskin of this kind with a hood that our 
Holy Father wore at Subiaco. 7 We cannot describe with exactitude 

1 Cf. DAREMBERG et SAGLIO, Dictionnaire des antiques grecques et romaines, t. I., 
6g. 2094. 

8 See, for instance, the Rule of ST. PACHOMIUS, Lausiac History (ed. BUTLER) 
pp. 89-90, 92, 98. 3 //., I., ill. 

4 Some traces remain of the use of the words cuculla and cucullus before St. Benedict's 
time to denote a hooded garment. SIDONIUS APOLLINARIS offers one such to Abbot 
Chariobaudus: Nocturnalemcucullum, quo membra confecta jejuniis, inter orandum cuban- 
dumque dignanter tegare, transmisi; quanquam non opportune species villosa mittatur 
bieme finiia, jamque temporibus astatis appropinquantibus (Epist., 1. VII., Ep. XVI. 
P.L., LVIII., 586). And the clothing of St. Germanus of Auxerre, according to his 
biographer CONSTANTIUS, was cuculla et tunica (Acta SS., Julii, t. VII., p. 204). Cf. 
S. HIERON., Vita S. Hilarionis, c. xlvi. P.L., XXIII., 52. S. PAVLitnPoema XXIV. 
ad Cytberium, vers. 389-390. P.L., LXL, 622. ENNODII, Epist., 1. IX., Ep. XVII. 
P.L., LXIII., 156. 

3 COLUMELLA, De re rnstica, 1. I.,, c. viii.; 1. XI., c. i. PALLADIUS, De re rnstica, 
Ti, L, c. xliii. 6 S. PACH., Reg., xxxviii. 

7 ST. GREGORY tells us that the shepherds dum (ilium) vestitum pellibus inter fruteta 
cernerent, aliquant bestiam esse crediderunt; and the boy Placid when rescued from the 
water said he had seen above his head Abbatis melotem (Dial., 1. II., c. i. et vii.). 
THEODEMAR, in his letter to Charlemagne, explaining what the cowl was, what shapes 
it had taken and what names received in different places, observed that its first and 
original name was melota: Cucullam nos esse dicimus, quant alio nomine casulam vocamus. 
. . . Illud antem vestimentum quod a gallicanis monacbis cuculla dicitur et nos cappam 
vocamus, quod proprie monacborum designat bdbitum, melotem appellare debemus, sicut 
et bactenus in bac provincia a qttibusdam vocatur (P.L., XCV., 1587). 



Of the Clothes and Shoes of the Brethren 349 

the shape of a cowl in the time of St. Benedict, for the hood could be 
fixed to divers garments (lacerna, casula, ptsnula, sagum: overcoat, mantle, 
cloak, coat); moreover, St. Benedict may mean by c uculla any monastic 
habit with a hood, whatever its special shape, dimensions, and material. 
The most ancient monastic cowls that we know are shaped like a full 
chasuble, reaching to the feet and having no openings in the sides. 1 
That explains why it was necessary to take off the cowl for manual 
labour. In later times, in order to free the arms, the casula was slit 
along the sides, and the two portions fastened together at intervals by 
straps or bands, which came to be called " St. Benedict's stitches " or 
"joints"; this shape of garment occurs in many documents from the 
ninth to the twelfth century. 2 

Cowls with sleeves were in use from the tenth century, these sleeves 
being at first rather narrow. 3 The hood underwent a series of trans- 
formations: under the influence of Cistercian and Franciscan custom 
it grew long and tapering; in some places it became very full, falling 
over the shoulders like a veil and forming two lappets in front: this 
shape survives in the English Congregation. 

The origin of the scapular is somewhat obscure. We find no mention 
of a garment of this name before St. Benedict. Etymologically it would- 
be a garment designed to protect the shoulders (scapula) or to fit the 
shoulders : but in what way ? Our Holy Father merely says: " likewise 
a scapular for work"; nor is the scapular mentioned at the end of the 
chapter in the small list of articles necessary for a monk. Learned 
authorities have identified it, but without much reason, with the sort 
of corset or belt which the Eastern monks used for tucking up their 
garments and preventing them blowing about during their work; 4 
many Greek authors have described this shoulder garment shaped like 
a cross under various names. More probably the primitive scapular 
of the monks of Monte Cassino was a small cowl, a tunic or frock with a 
hood, like that used by the peasants of the district. Theodemar, 
speaking of the scapular, says that it is so called because it covers chiefly 
the shoulders and head: "Almost all the peasants in this country use 
this garment; in place of it we have a covering made of coarser stuff 
after the manner of a melota, except that it has sleeves reaching to the 
hands." 5 This tunic sometimes had short sleeves and sometimes was 

1 Cf. MARTENE et DURAND, Voyage litteraire de deux religieux bintdictins de la 
Congregation de Saint-Maur, t. II., p. 154. MABILLON, Acta SS. O.S.5., Saec. V., 
Praef., p. xxxi. 

* Cf. MABILLON, Annales O.S.B., t. II., p. 353. BERNARD DE MONTFAUCON, Les 
Monuments de la monarchic fran^aise, t. I., pi. xxviii. ROHAULT DE FLEURY, La Messe, 
t. VIII., pi. dcxliv. SEROUX D'AGINCOURT, Histoire de Vart par ^monuments, t. III., 
p. 80; t. V., pi. Ixix. We may often be at a loss to decide whether the thing spoken 
of is a cowl, or a scapular, or some liturgical garment. 

3 Cf. Le Miniature neicodici Cassinesi, Disp. V., Tav. i.; Disp. VI. See the repro- 
ductions of miniatures of a Cluny manuscript of the twelfth century in D. L'HUILLIER, 
Vie de saint Hugues, pp. 298, 360, 512. 

4 Cf. CASSIAN, Inst., I., v. 

5 P.L.j XCV., 1588. See two reproductions of peasants clad in hooded tunic, in 
the Revue arcbiologique t May-June, 1892, pp. 331 and 333. 



350 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

without them. It was often slit open at the sides and the two parts 
joined by one or several fastenings or joints; in the course of centuries 
these fastenings disappeared, the flaps grew longer, and the scapular 
became what we now wear. 1 At Cluny, in the eleventh century, only 
the cowl and the frock, which was worn over it, were known; there was 
no scapular. 2 The cowl was formed of two long strips of material which 
reached to the ground, after covering the shoulders and part of the 
arms; 3 the hood was fitted to it. The cowl wasjreserved for professed 
monks; while the frock, an ample robe with long sleeves, was permitted 
to the novices ; except for these last the frock had no hood. 

Cucullam et tunicam: the tunic is the undergarment; we should 
remember that the ancients did not use underclothing. The tunic 
(\cfiiTa>v, K0\o/3ij, colobium) was used by the monks of all countries; 
it had short sleeves or no sleeves at all, and was usually made of cloth. 
Anchorites often wore tunics made of goats' hair or camel hair, true 
hair shins, the use of which Cassian would allow only to very fervent 
religious who have a special vocation; for the clothing of a monk he 
prefers less unusual material, yet such as is coarse and common. 4 This, 
as we shall see, is exactly our Holy Father's view. The tunic was not 
loose, but held in by a girdle of leather or linen. St. Benedict does not 
speak here of the girdle (bracile) but mentions it a little farther on; at 
night the monks were to sleep "girt with belts or cords " (cincti cingulis 
autfunibus), as said in Chapter XXII. 

Pedules et caligas. It is difficult to identify these coverings of the 
feet (indumenta -pedum); antiquaries dispute lengthily about them, 
at which D. Mege is much amused. 6 The monks of some countries 6 
generally went barefoot, like the poor, which is a sort of footgear that 
does not wear out, being renewed by nature. The solitaries of St. 
Pachomius used sandals. The pedules prescribed by St. Benedict are 
perhaps stockings, or socks, or light indoor footgear. The caligee are 
not necessarily what we call shoes, but may be military sandals bound by 
straps and clasping foot and ankle firmly, a very convenient and very 
healthy sort of footwear. Field work obviously required more solid 

1 The ancient forms of the scapular are to be found in: MABILLON, Acta SS. O.S..B., 
Saec. V., Przf., p. xxxi; Annales O-S.B., t. I., p. 505. Antipbonaire du B. HARTKZR: 
Paleograpbie musicals, II. Series, t. I., p. 1 1 of the reproduction of the manuscript. 
Le Miniature net codici Cassinesi, Disp. II., Tav. i.; Disp. IV., Tav. i.; Disp. VI., 
Tav. iv.; MABILLON reproduces the first of these miniatures in his Annales, t- 1., p. 109. 
MARTKNE et DURAND, Voyage littfraire de deux religieux btnfdictins de la Congri- 
gation de Saint-Maur, t. II., p. 64. 

2 SMARAGDUS had already written: Cucullam dicit ille quod nos mododicimus cappam. 
. . . Quod vero ille dicit scapular -e propter opera, hoc nos modo dicimus cucullam. 

3 C/. MABILLON, Acta SS. 0.5.2?., Saec. V., Praef., pp. xxxii-xxxiv. The Cluniac 
cowl is described in a curious dialogue between a monk of Citeaux and one of Cluny 
(of the second half of the twelfth century): MARTENE et DURAND, Thesaurus novus 
anecdotorum, t. V., col. 1638-1639. It would seem that this cowl-scapular is the relic 
of a cowl in the form of a casufa; see the description of the cowl in the Disciplina 
Farfersis, 1. II., c. iv. 

4 7sf., I., ii. 

5 Commentary in t. L Read especially CALMET. 6 CASS., 2nst. t I., ix. 



Of the Clothes and Shoes of the Brethren 351 

" caligee " than those worn in the house. St. Gregory the Great tells 
us of caligts clavatee (nailed boots) which were worn during work in the 
monasteries of St. Equitius. 1 

De quarum rerum omnium colore Of all these things and their colour 

aut grossitudine non causentur mo- or coarseness let not the monks com- 

nachi, sed quales inveniri possunt in plain, but let them be such as can be 

provincia qua degunt, aut quod vilius got in the region where they live, 

comparari potest. Abbas autem de or can be bought most cheaply. Let 

mensura provideat, ut non sint curta the Abbot be careful about their size, 

ipsa vestimenta utentibus eis, sed men- that these garments be not short for 

surata. those who wear them, but fit well. 

Monks should not discuss the colour or quality of their clothing, 
even in the secrecy of their hearts. This advice is also given by Cassian 
and St. Basil. 2 There must be no affectation, vanity, or effeminacy. 
That material shall be chosen which is generally used in the district, 
and which can be bought most cheaply. 3 This passage would seem to 
prove decisively that St. Benedict determined nothing as to the colour 
of our habit. The natural impulse was to seek something of an austere 
and inconspicuous shade. White and black, grey and brown, were 
adopted by preference; but there was often a mixed and motley result : 
a white tunic, for instance, with black cowl and scapular. A great mass 
of historical evidence on this point may be found collected in the com- 
mentaries of Martene and Calmet. Black was the prevailing colour, at 
least for outer garments, and Cluny held jealously to it, 4 while Citeaux 
declared for white, a choice attributed to St. Alberic. The colour of 
the habit was discussed between Citeaux. and Cluny, and Peter the 
Venerable took up the defence of black and of charity and discretion 
at the same time in several letters to St. Bernard. 6 

In the Rule of St. Basil it is a monk's business to say if his clothing 
is " too large or too small for his height." 8 But St. Benedict would 
have the Abbot see to all, no detail being too small for his affectionate 
solicitude. Therefore he shall take care that the garments suit the 
stature of each, not being excessively full or long, so as to cause pride 
or inconvenience; nor, on the other hand, excessively short, thereby 
easily becoming ridiculous. St. Benedict mentions the second defect 
only. 

Accipientes nova, vetera semper When they receive new clothes 
reddant in praesenti, reponenda in let them always give back the old ones 
vestiario propter pauperes. Sufficit at once, to be put by in the clothes- 

1 Dial, 1. I., c. iv. P.L., LXXVIL, 173. C/, ibid., 1. III., c. xx. P.L., ibid., 
269 sq. 

* CASS., Ittst., I., ii. S. BASIL., Reg.fus.,xxu. 

3 St. Benedict is quoting a passage of ST. BASIL, but one which concerns food: Sed 
si quid est, quod in unaquaque provittcia facilius et vilius comparatur (Reg. contr., ix.). 

. * D. MAYEUL LAMEY has recently essayed to prove that the Cluniac habit was 
russet, of the natural colour of brown wool (CEuvres choisies, pp. 240-261). 

PETKI VENERAB., Epist., 1. I., Ep. XXVIII. P.L., CLXXXIX., 116-117; ! IV., 
Ep. XVII. P.L., ibid., 332 sq. 

9 Reg. brev. t clxviii. 



352 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

enim monacho duas tunicas et duas room for the poor. For it is sufficient 
cucullas habere, propter noctes, et for a monk to have two tunics and two 
propter lavare ipsas res. Jam quod cowls, as well for night wear as for 
supra fuerit, superfluum est, et ampu- convenience of washing. Anything 
tari debet. Et pedules, et quodcumque beyond this is superfluous and ought 
est vetustum, reddant, dum accipiunt to be cut off. In the same way let 
novum. them give up their stockings, and 

whatever else is worn out, when they 

receive new ones. 

When a monk receives new clothes, he is not free to keep his worn- 
out garments by him to be utilized still at his pleasure; which would be 
a sad return to the vice of ownership, since necessities only are allowed 
and all superfluity must be curtailed. Moreover, we are able to take 
even from our poverty what may be given to those poorer than ourselves, 
but on condition that the alms is given by the Abbot or the brethren 
charged with this duty; for by what title would a monk distribute 
objects, even of a most worthless kind, if they in no way belonged to 
him? So our Holy Father ordains that all shall be deposited in the 
clothes-room. 1 

Two tunics and two cowls shall be enough for each. St. Benedict says 
nothing of the other less important parts of the habit, which perhaps, 
especially in the case of the pedules (stockings), exceeded the number of 
two. Cassian before him spoke of the use of two tunics, " for day and 
night wear." 2 St. Basil would have only one, while St. Pachomius 
allowed two cuculli^ two tunics, " and one already worn with wear for 
sleep or work." 3 We know from St. Benedict himself that monks slept 
clothed: they kept on their tunics a matter of mere decency and 
probably also their cowls. The ancient monks had, it would seem, 
a special tunic, girdle, and cowl for night ; there is no mention of the 
scapular, which was not needed except for work. Perhaps they wore 
these clothes even during the Night Office. So the monks of Monte 
Cassino received two tunics, and two cowls, more or less thick according 
to the season. Our Holy Father gives another reason for having these 
two sets of garments : the necessity of parting with them for a time while 
they were being washed that is, if they could be washed* for clothes 
made of the skins of animals do not take readily to washing. 

Femoralia hi qui diriguntur in via, Let those who are sent on a journey 
de vestiario accipiant; qui revertentes receive drawers from the clothes- 
lota ibi restituant. room, and on their return restore them 

washed. 

Here we have an exceptional article of monastic clothing ifemoralia, 
breeches, drawers, trunk-hose. The monks, like most of the ancients 

1 Borrowed from ST. CJESARIUS: Indumenta ipsa cum nova accipiunt, si vetera neces- 
saria non babuerint, Abbatissts refundattt, pauperibus out tncipientibus, vel jnnioribus 
dispensanda (Reg. ad virg., xl.). CATO too recommended that, when slaves were given 
new clothing, their old clothes should be collected, but it was to use them in another 
way: De re rustica, c. lix. 

2 Conlat., IX., v. s S. HIERON., Prof, in Reg. S. Pacb., 4; Reg., Ixxxi. 



Of the Clothes and Shoes of the Brethren 353 

who wore long garments, hardly used them save for reasons of health 
or travel. St. Martin's monks did not wear them; St. Fructuosus 
allows them to his; the Master does the same; but in general the early 
monks seem to have regarded the habitual use of drawers as a relaxation. 
Paul the Deacon holds to the words of the Rule; Theodemar says that 
at Monte Cassino most preferred to do without them; and Hildemar 
says : " Where the brethren, generally receive and wear drawers, they 
should receive them in chapter, like the rest of their clothing. . . . 
But monasteries where all receive and wear them are not praiseworthy." 
Cluny adopted the use of drawers, and Peter the Venerable had to defend 
the practice against the Cistercians. 1 According to Ordericus Vitalis, 
St. Robert suppressed them for the monks of Molesmes. 2 In default 
of drawers, properly so called, loin-cloths or pants were sometimes used. 

Qui revertentes lota ibi restituant. The brethren, when they return 
from their journey, must restore the drawers to the clothes-room, having 
first washed them. They did their washing themselves, on which topic 
the customaries furnish us with abundant detail. We need not dwell 
upon the care which the monks bestowed on their persons, but we should 
note our Holy Father's interest in cleanliness. If we were hermits we 
might dress as we pleased, with the least possible trouble; we might even 
say, with St. Hilarion, that it was superfluous to wash a hair shirt: 
Superfluum est munditias in cilicio quarere. " Monks," said a Father 
of the desert, with- some exaggeration of language, " should wear a 
cloak such that, if they left it on the ground, it might remain there for 
three days without anyone being inclined to pick it up." 3 But we are 
cenobites and belong to a family; out of respect for our family and 'con- 
sideration for our brethren we should have constant care for cleanliness 
and tidiness : they generally indicate purity and refinement of soul. 

Let us remember the spirit which guided our Holy Father in 
determining the monastic dress. He did not wish to mortify us by 
means of the habit, but to secure perfect detachment and poverty. 
He would give us what is necessary and even something more, so as to 
leave monastic life its holy joy, its sober liberty, and its peace. He wished 
to prevent all discontent and murmuring. He wished to secure a 
certain gentlemanliness inside the monastery, and especially, perhaps, 
outside, as is shown by the ordinance which follows. 

Et cucullae et tunicas sint aliquanto Let their cowls and tunics also be' 
his, quas habere soliti sunt, modice a little better than those they usually 
meliores; quas exeimtes in viam acci- wear; they must receive these from the 
piant de vestiario, et revertentes res- clothes-room when setting out on their 
tituant. journey, and restore them on their 

return. 

Monks going on a journey receive from the clothes-room cowls and 
tunics somewhat better than those they wear usually. Some customaries 
add that, when a person of quality comes to the monastery, the brother 

i Epist., 1. I., Ep. XXVIII. P.L., CLXXXIX., 123. 

a Hist. Becks*, P. III., 1. viii., 25. P.L., CLXXXVIIL, 637. 

3 Apopbtbeynata Patrum, P.C., LXV., 227. 



354 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

who attends him should receive more fitting clothes. 1 This is an act 
of consideration towards visitors. Such was the conduct of Our Lord 
Himself, who in His intercourse with the Jews did not imitate the 
austerity of St. John the Baptist : " The Son of Man came eating and 
drinking." St. Benedict does not want to be ashamed of his sons when 
they appear in the world. But what of poverty and edification ? 
Carelessness and dirt do not edify, nor are we bound to advertise our 
poverty. The Abbot is not told to have a patch sewn on to every new 
habit which he gives, so that it may appear old and worn. And St. Bene- 
dict held, with Cassian, that we " should avoid the opposite defect " 
to excessive care and nicety as to dress, " and not attract notice by 
affected negligence." 2 

If we dwell upon such small points, it is because they concern, not 
external appearances only, but the very form of monastic perfection 
itself. And St. Benedict, who began as an anchorite and was familiar 
with extreme poverty, knew what he was doing when he fixed the 
characteristic features of our life. There is a virtue and a sanctity 
which we may liken to light that has been resolved through a prism. 
There are souls who have the spirit of poverty, or of mortification, or 
zeal and a kind of supernatural impetuosity, in an extreme degree. The 
spectrum of such sanctity contains a bar of vivid red, and men see it 
better, perhaps imitate it with less difficulty, though their gestures be 
awkward. Of course all the virtues have a fragmentary and relative 
character: so fragmentary that our attention should never be devoted 
to one in such a way that the rest are eclipsed; relative, because all are 
preparatory and relative to contemplation, to the constant, deep exercise 
of faith, hope, and charity. Besides the prismatic sanctity, of which 
we have spoken, there is a white sanctity, where all tints are merged in a 
perfect simplicity and equality. Such sanctity makes less stir; it is less 
noticed, and the unobservant do not notice it at all. But it is enough 
that God recognizes it as a more perfect likeness to Our Lord and to 
His Mother. 

Stramenta autem lectorum suffi- For their bedding let a mattress, 
ciant: matta, sagum, laena et capitale blanket, coverlet, and pillow suffice. 
Quae tamen lecta frequenter ab Abbate These beds - must be frequently in- 
scrutanda sunt, propter opus peculiare, spected by the Abbot because of private 
ne inveniatur. Et si cui inventum property, lest it be found therein, 
fuerit, quod ab Abbate non acceperit, And if anyone be found to have what 
gravissimae discipline subjaceat. he has not received from the Abbot, 

let him be subjected to the most 

severe discipline. 

After clothes, furniture. We should not forget that the 
ancient monks did not have cells but slept in a dormitory, so that 

1 HILDEMAR, in b.l. 

* Inst., L, ii. Abbas Agatbon . . . in omnibus cum discretions pollebat, tarn in opere 
manuum suarum quant in vestimento. Talibus enim vestibtts utebatur, ut nee satis bonce, 
nee satis niala cuiquam apparerent (Ferba Stniorum: Vitce Patrum, III., 75. ROSWXYD, 
p. 512). 



Of the Clothes and Shoes of the Brethren 355 

their whole furniture was a bed. The bedding comprised four 
items. 

Malta. According to Calmet, this was very probably a rush-mat, or 
at best a quilted straw mattress, but certainly not a mattress stuffed 
with hair or wool. 

Sagum. A covering, or heavy sheet. Some ancient commentators 
thought the sagum was a sack stuffed with straw or hay. " But I think," 
says Calmet, " that sagum in this passage properly signifies a bed cover- 
ing, of a finer and lighter character then the Icena; that the sagum served 
to cover the brethren in the summer and the Icena in winter; or better 
that in summer they only used the sagum, while using both sagum and 
lana in winter. 

Leena. A covering, more or less shaggy or furry. 
Capitate. A bolster of straw, or hair, or perhaps of feathers. 
AtCluny the bedding conformed to the regulations of the Rule, but 
they allowed as many coverlets as the season demanded. In winter these 
were made of the skins of sheep, goats, or cats. Peter the Venerable 
had to forbid luxurious furs. Our customs have added little, and have 
abolished coverlets of fur. We should obey them faithfully with the 
greatest strictness. Yet the monastic bed remains, in spite of them, 
none too easy to leave at four o'clock in the morning. 

St. Benedict imposes on the Abbot the duty of looking to the poverty 
of bed and cell. The monk of Monte Cassino naturally had no cup- 
board or other furniture whatever; the bed was the only place where he 
could hide anything for his personal use unknown to the Abbot. 1 The 
ancient Rules also as, for instance, those of St. Isidore, St. Fructuosus, 
and St. Donatus order superiors to make these domiciliary visits. 2 
Paul the Deacon and Hildemar describe in detail the usual ceremonial 
in their time. In the morning the Abbot announced to the monks 
assembled in chapter that he was going to make a visitation and he 
deputed for this purpose four or five brothers " of good life." After 
making their investigation the brethren returned, sometimes with con- 
siderable booty: they set down before each offender the matter of hit 
offence, and the Abbot invited the culprits to explain the origin of the 
articles discovered. Perhaps Abbots nowadays keep this point of the 
Rule less faithfully. Of course, they may easily see in a glance, when 
they enter a cell, the various objects which it contains. Moreover, in 
a well-ordered and busy house, the Abbot trusts somewhat to the good 
sense and good taste of all, and relies on each making from time to time 
a careful inventory of his furniture. We should take particular care 
with regard to library books, and not let our cells become like the cave 

1 The expression opus peculiars, hard to translate exactly, is borrowed from CASSIAN, 
Inst., IV., xiv. and xvi.j VII., vii. 

* One might be tempted to suppose that what St. Benedict and the ancient monks 
had in mind was the discovery of some superfluity in bedding; but this was not so. The 
bed sometimes became a secret store: Quidquid ad manducandum vel bibendum pertinet 
nulla de sororibus prasumat circa lectum suum repottere out babere (S. CESAR., Reg. ad 
virg., xxviii.). 



356 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

of Cacus, from which there was no return; charity and poverty are here 
concerned. And such habits are all the more dangerous as supplying 
a justification for others; for one will accumulate in order to forestall 
the operations of another. St. Benedict calls for the greatest severity 
against such offences, chiefly because of the tendency which they reveal. 

Etuthocvitiumpeculiareradicitus And in order that this vice of 

amputetur, dentur ab Abbate omnia private ownership may be cut off by 

quae sunt necessaria: id est, cuculla, the roots let the Abbot supply all 

tunica, pedules, caligae, bracile, cul- things that are necessary: that is, 

tellus, graphium, acus, mappula, tabu- cowl, tunic, stockings, shoes, girdle, 

lag, ut omnis auferatur necessitates ex- knife, style, needle, handkerchief, and 

cusatio. tablets; so that all plea of necessity 

may be taken away. 

The Abbot is bound both to repress petty greediness and to give 
necessaries generously; thus will excuses based on necessity be abolished 
and the vice of ownership be in a fair way of being suppressed arid cut 
out by the roots. St. Benedict enumerates a certain number of objects 
which should be distributed to each monk. We know the first of these 
already : cowl, tunic, arid footgear. We have here some others. Bracile : 
this was the belt used during the day, large enough to serve as a recep- 
tacle, instead of pockets. From it hung the knife (cultellus) which was 
used in the refectory and elsewhere; in it was kept the handkerchief 
(mappula). We may remember the story of that monk of St. Benedict's 
who concealed handkerchiefs " in his bosom." 1 Each person received 
also a needle (acus), and with it, doubtless, some thread, for repairing 
small defects in his clothing, and finally waxen tablets (tabula) and a 
style (graphium). 

A modern monastic outfit is somewhat more elaborate, though it is 
perhaps less so than that of a Cluniac monk in the eleventh century. 2 
We have to get permission if we would add an overcoat to our equipment, 
or a skull-cap, or a Clementine; and it is certainly more perfect to fall in 
with the common rule, leaving it to our superiors to see that we lack no 
necessary. A monk should be able to renounce many items of comfort. 

A quo tamen Abbate semper con- Yet let the Abbot always be mind- 

sideretur ilia sententia Actuum Apos- ful of those words of the Acts of the 

tolorum, quia dabatur singulis, prout Apostles: "Distribution was made 

cuique opus erat. Ita ergo et Abbas to everyone, according as he had need." 

consider et infirmitatem indigentium, Let him, therefore, consider the 

et hon malam voluntatem invidentium. infirmities of such as are in want, and 

In omnibus tamen judiciis suis Dei not the ill-will of the envious. Never- 

retributionem cogitet. theless, in all his decisions, let him 

think of the judgement of God. 

The teaching contained in these few lines is familiar and recalls 
especially Chapter XXXIV. The Abbot, says St. Benedict, shall never 

1 S. GREG. M., Dial., 1. II., c. xix. 

* Cf. BERNARD., Ordo Clun., P. I., c. v. -UDALR., Consuet. C/n., 1, III., c, xi. 
PIGNOT, Histoire de I'Ordre de Cluny, t. II., pp. 431-432. 



Of the Clothes and Shoes of the Brethren 357 

think of imposing a uniform rule: he should have the indulgent and 
dexterous spirit of a father. He shall give to each according to his real 
needs, as was done in the Church of Jerusalem (Acts iv. 35), even though 
he thus expose himself to the discontent of some. 1 He shall be attentive 
to the weakness of those who are in want, and never consider the evil 
dispositions of the envious. In a well-united monastic family the Abbot 
shall always have the right to be something of an accepter of persons, 
as we have said already. There shall be privileges and privileged persons : 
and the privileges shall go automatically to the small and the weak, to 
those who require more consideration and to those of whom one is not 
sure. Charitable impulse shall always make us regard every exception 
by which a brother may benefit as justifiable and as our own. 

But, in order to banish delusion and unenlightened sympathy, 
St. Benedict reminds the Abbot once more of the account which he 
shall have to render of all his decisions at the judgement seat of God. 

1 ST. BASIL had already written: Hi quiprasunt, observabunt regulamillam qua dicit: 
Dividehfftur unicuique prout opuserat. Debent enim unumquemque pravenire ut secundum 
laborem etiam solatia refectionis inveniat (Reg. contr,, xciv.). See also 'ST. AUGUSTINE, 
Letter .CCXI., 5. P.L., XXXIII., 960. v I 



CHAPTER LVI 
O/' THE ABBOTS TABLE 

DE MENSA ABBATIS. Mensa Ab- Let the table of the Abbot be 

batis cum hospitibus et peregrinis sit always with guests and pilgrims. But 

semper. Quoties tamen minus sunt as often as there are few guests, it 

hospites, quos vult de fratribus vocare, shall be in his power to invite any of the 

in ipsius sit potestate. Senibrum brethren he wishes. Let him take 

autem unum aut duo semper cum care, however, always to leave one or 

fratribus dimittendos procuret, prop- two seniors with the brethren, for the 

ter disciplinam. sake of discipline. 

THE Rule contains few chapters shorter, and, it would seem, 
clearer, than this; yet there are few which have given rise to so 
much controversy. How, it has been asked, could St. Benedict 
order the Abbot to have his meals regularly with guests and 
pilgrims: cum hospitibus et peregrinis ? x Our Holy Father having said 
elsewhere that guests are never lacking in a monastery, the Abbot will 
have to be a permanent absentee. But that, we are told, is a priori 
impossible: for, both from a disciplinary and a financial point of view, 
it would entail disorder and a serious danger of monastic decadence; 
moreover the Abbot himself would be in some danger if he had to take 
his meals and even spend his days with layfolk, separated from his com- 
munity. MartSne exclaims: " Who can say how many evils arise both 
in spirituals and in temporals, when the Abbot is feasting while the 
community fast ?" 

In actual fact, a posteriori, all the ancient Rules place the Abbot 
in the common refectory. Most commentaries, commencing with 
Hildemar's, and the customaries of observant monasteries of all periods, 
are against a literal interpretation of St. Benedict's words. Councils 
even, like that of Aix-la-Chapelle in A.D. 817, forbid the Abbot to 
have his meals apart. At Cluny, says Peter the Venerable, our Abbots 
always eat with us, save when they are sick, or in exceptional cases enter- 
tain certain guests. 2 Wherever an attempt has been made to hold to 
the literal sense of the Rule abuses have broken out. And the com- 
mentators of the seventeenth century, Martne, Mege, and Hugh 
Me'nard, combating them with an indignation which is abundantly 
justified, protest against so disastrous an interpretation. For them the 
text can mean only this: guests are to be entertained at the Abbot's 
table, but it shall be in the common refectory, in a special place of 
honour. And they all spend much ingenuity in solving the difficulties 
which are put to them. 

For the opposite interpretation has its supporters. Bernard of 
Monte Cassino, Haeften, Perez, and Calmet, refuse to distort the plain 

1 PAUL THE DEACON gives another explanation: Hospites sunt qui de eadem regions 
sunt, id est de prope; peregrini sunt, qui de alia regione sunt. 
* Cf. Epist., 1. 1., Ep. XXVIII. P.L., CLXXXIX., 133. 



Of the Abbots Table 359 

meaning of the Rule, confirmed as it is by other passages. For instance, 
Chapter LIU. says : " Let the kitchen for the Abbot and guests be apart 
by itself; so that guests, who are never lacking in a monastery, may not 
disturb the brethren, coming at irregular hours." Would it not 
seem, from these words, that the Abbot and his guests really have their 
kitchen apart and a special refectory P 1 The reason St. Benedict gives 
for this measure is that, the hours of arrival of guests being uncertain 
and variable, their meals would not be at the same time as the fixed meals 
of the community. Therefore special cooks and a separate table were 
needed. At this the Abbot wquld take his place, not surely at any 
moment of the day, but at the times when the chief meals for guests 
occurred, the community meanwhile keeping its own regime and time- 
table. Nor could guests be compelled to wait for their dinner till None, 
during the monastic Lent. And that is why St. Benedict prescribes, 
again in Chapter LIU., that the Abbot or one who presides at the table 
of the guests, the '* superior," should break his fast, " unless it happens 
to be a principal fast-day, which may not be broken;" for, in this case, 
both guests and monks should wait for the canonical hour. Therefore 
we must admit that, on days when the Abbot broke the fast of the Rule 
" for the sake of the guest," he ate at a different hour from the brethren, 
and except he took a second meal ! did not appear in the common 
refectory on that day. ... But, if guests are never lacking in a 
monastery, has the Abbot a wholesale dispensation from fasting from 
September 14 to Lent ? We should not take St. Benedict's dictum that 
guests are never lacking in a monastery in such a literal and absolute way; 
he must have foreseen that the Abbot would be free sometimes. But we 
must take literally the commands which follow: "Let the superior break 
his fast . . ." and : " Let the table of the Abbot be always with guests." 

However, the supporters of the hypothesis of a common refectory 
are very subtle and have an answer to all difficulties even to that raised 
for them by the words : " But as often as there are few guests, it shall be 
in his power to invite any of the brethren he wishes." These words 
obviously imply a separate refectory, to which the Abbot might summon, 
when there was not a great concourse of guests, some brother known to 
the guests or more fitted to edify them. Now, what would be the 
object, in a common refectory, of summoning some of the brethren to 
sit near you and the guests ? To secure them a good dinner ? Or was 
it that the Abbot and his table companions might not be left in isolation, 
however relative ? And of course there is silence in this common 
refectory and all attend to the reading: " Reading must not be wanting 
while the brethren eat at table" (Chapter XXXVIIL). Will the Abbot 
and these privileged brethren chat while the rest keep silence and follow 
the reading ? Surely not; for that would mean sheer disorder. In the 
description of the reception of guests in Chapter LIU. there is no sugges- 
tion that guests took their meals in silence in the monks' refectory. 

And if it were still possible to have doubts as to the reality of these 

1 Cf. Reg. I, SS. PATRUM, viii. : Vettientibus fratribus ad bar am refecttonis, non licebit 
peregrinofratri cam fratribus manducare, nisi cum eo qui praest Patre, utpoait adificari. 



360 Commentary *vn the Rule of Sf. Benedict 

two refectories, it would be enough to read the third and last sentence 
of the present chapter, which seems to us decisive. There, says Marte'ne 
after Hildemar, " carnal Abbots " triumph. True, and only prejudice 
or prepossession however creditable could dispute it. If the Abbot 
and seniors remained in the common refectory, why the recommenda- 
tion that one or two seniors be left with the brethren in the interests of 
discipline ? But here is a last argument urged against our view. In 
Chapter XXXVIII. our Holy Father supposes that the superior may 
wish to say a few words, for edification. St. Benedict's hypothesis 
would be vain, it is argued, if the Abbot were never with his monks, 
but with the guests " who are never lacking in a monastery." We 
have already replied that these last words should be taken in a broad 
sense, and that the Abbot might in fact sometimes find himself with the 
community: as, for instance, if the guests arrived after the meal of the 
Abbot and brethren. We should observe also that the word superior 
(prior) does not in the Rule designate the Abbot alone, but a superior 
of any sort ; and it may apply here to him who presides at the community 
meal in the absence of the Abbot. 

We ought to say a word on the motives which made St. Benedict 
ordain that the Abbot should take his meals with guests. He re- 
membered that St. Paul urged the superiors of ecclesiastical communities 
to be hospitable. .Hospitality was an exerqise of charity and a proof of 
Christian brotherhood, things which were very necessary at that period; 
it was, above all, an excellent method of spreading the Gospel. The 
conversation of the Abbot, whom St. Benedict wished to be a man of 
learning and virtue, combined with the spectacle of the monastic life 
to form an , attractive sort of preaching. The recruitment of the 
monastery was in part effected by this hospitable intercourse. And thus 
the Abbot, while occupied with guests, was by no means deserting his 
house, but was working for it. Moreover, the character of conventual 
life was somewhat different then from what it has become since. Now- 
adays, if an Abbot were not with his monks in the refectory and at 
recreation, he would never be with them, since, $xcept for the Divine 
Office and the spiritual conference, the whole day is employed in labours 
at which we work alone. But in St. Benedict's time all worked together 
in the fields and together returned to the monastery, and the Abbot, 
who accompanied his monks everywhere, even to the dormitory, could 
the more easily abstract some of his time in favour of guests. 

While we hold fast to the spirit which inspires this chapter, we have 
only to congratulate ourselves on the modifications introduced by usage 
and the authority of the Church. The Abbot should not now take his 
meals apart from the community. Certainly, though we should not take 
ridiculous precautions against guests, perpetual contact with them would 
be prejudicial to the recollectedness and work of the Abbot. Guests 
and he generally meet immediately after meals or at other fixed times. 
In exceptional cases which, moreover, are justified by monastic 
tradition the Abbot takes his meal with them apart; but most often 
they are introduced into the common refectory. 



CHAPTER LV1I 
OF THE ARTIFICERS OF THE MONASTERY 

DE ARTIFICIBUS MONASTERH. Should there be artificers in the 

Artifices, si sunt in monasterio, cum monastery, let them ply their crafts 

omni humilitate et reverentia faciant in all humility and submission, pro- 

ipsas artes, si tamen jusserit Abbas, vided the Abbot give permission. 

Quod si aliquis ex eis extollitur pro But if one of them be puffed up by 

scientia artis suae, eo quod videatur reason of his knowledge of his craft, 

aliquid conferre monasterio, hie talis in that he seems to confer some benefit 

evellatur ab ipsa arte, et denuo per earn on the monastery, let such a one be 

non transeat, nisi forte humiliate ei taken from it and not exercise it again, 

iterum Abbas jubeat. unless perchance, when he has humbled 

himself, the Abbot bid him resume. 

THE first, part of this chapter relates to the crafts and mechanical 
arts exercised within the monastery; the second to the fruit and 
produce of these labours. 
All the brethren are available for rough work or for that which is 
easily executed. But there are tasks of a special character which require 
an apprenticeship and belong pnly to artifices (artificers or artisans). 
So St. Benedict supposes that there are craftsmen in the monastery, 
perhaps even real artists : painters, sculptors, or illuminators. They 
may have learnt their crafts in the world, or had their training in the 
monastery. For our Holy 'Father wishes that all arts necessary for the 
upkeep of the House should be cultivated therein. He does not merely 
tolerate them, but formally desires them; yet he is aware, here as in 
Chapter LXVI., that this will not always be possible. 

St. Benedict is consistent when he decides that advantage may be 
taken of the skill of those brethren who know a craft; for he never thinks 
of deliberately thwarting aptitude and taste, under pretext of morti- 
fication. Only one condition is required: the order or permission of 
the Abbot. The monk is expected to exercise his craft " in all humility 
and submission." Special knowledge distinguishes a man among his 
fellows, and measures have to be taken to guard against self-sufficiency. 
Moreover, the community generally benefits by these special capacities ; 
and the more real the benefit, the easier for him who procures it to find 
cause for pride or non-observance. Whenever any enterprise, manu- 
factory, or money-making concern is annexed to a monastery the danger 
exists. "One year with another," a man may say, "I am worth so 
much to the community. The rest do nothing but eat and drink, 
while I supply the Abbey finances with a considerable annual sum." 
One can only avoid the danger of such a situation by having a solid 
religious spirit; St. Augustine foresaw this before St. Benedict: " Nor 
let them be puffed up if they benefit the common funds from their own 
resources." Cassian has the same thought. St. Ephrem also bids 
a monk not to take pride in what he may contribute; and St. Basil, 

361 



362 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

like our Holy Father, urges the superior not to tolerate such an 
abuse. 1 

The monk's soul is worth more than all else. The moment the 
Abbot sees pride, or a mercantile spirit, or insubordination and par- 
ticularism, creeping in by way of these small occupations he should 
ignore any pecuniary loss, which is never irreparable, and safeguard souls 
at all costs. The words of the Rule are emphatic: " Let such a one be 
taken from his craft and not exercise it again, unless perchance, when he 
has humbled himself, the Abbot bid him resume it." 

Si quid vero ex operibus ^artificum And if any of the work of the arti- 

venumdandum est, videant'lpsi per ficers is to be sold, let those, through 

quorum manus transigenda sunt, ne whose hands the business has to pass, 

aliquam fraudem prsesumant inferre. see that they presume not to commit 

Memorentur Ananiae et Saphirae: ne any fraud. Let them remember 

forte mortem quam illi in corpore Ananias and Saphira: lest perchance 

pertulerunt, hanc isti, vel omnes qui they, and all who deal fraudulently 

aliquam fraudem de rebus monasterii with the goods of the monastery, should 

fecerint, in anima patiantur. suffer* in their souls the death which 

these incurred in the body. 

Perhaps this is a fitting place to review the list of manufactures or 
enterprises which are compatible with the external dignity of our life, 
with the nature of a monastery, and with our traditions. 2 The matter 
is at once important and delicate. Tradition has determined what is 
suitable and what is not so for the various branches of religious families. 
We should abstain from laying down universal laws on such matters. 
Every superior is to some degree a judge of what he owes to himself, 
of what he owes to his monastery, of what is required by the inter- 
connection of different houses, and of what they are sometimes con- 
. strained to do in order to meet financial stress. The Carthusians make 
liqueur, or rather a father and some lay brothers are thus employed. 
The Trappists manufacture chocolate, cheese, and beer, and farm their 
land; that is their accepted practice. For ourselves we are not the 
" sole manufacturers and patentees " of any product. If for the publica- 
tion of liturgical books and other monastic works, and to aid in the diffu- 
sion of truth, we control a printing-press, so be it. It is a kind of con- 
ventual preaching; we are only taking up again our old traditions and 
by means of a press multiplying the manuscripts which formerly we 
transcribed and illuminated. To go outside this is to expose ourselves 
sometimes to serious mistakes; it is to enter again, and that by the wrong 
door, upon all the responsibilities and preoccupations of the world, 
to escape from our religious life, et propter vitam vivendi perdere causas. 
It has yet to be proved that Our Lord cares much for our exercising any 
industry. 

But supposing the farm annexed to a monastery produces more than 

1 ( S. AUG., Epist. CCXL, 6. P.L., XXXIII., 960. CASS., Inst., IV., xiv. S. Emit., 
an.) xxvi. (opp. greec. /<., t. II., p. 114). S. BASIL., Reg.fus., xxix. 
* Cf. S. BASIL., Reg.fus., xxxviii. 



Of the Artificers of the Monastery 363 

is required for the monks themselves: wine, for instance, or honey, or 
vegetables; what is to be done with the surplus ? Some of the Eastern 
Fathers used to unweave their' mats and baskets. and begin over again. 
Cassian tells us that Abbot Paul, who lived seven days' journey from any 
habitation, used at the end of the year to burn the baskets with which 
his cave was encumbered. But the majority sold their work in the 
towns. 1 Nor are we forbidden to imitate them. Having attended to 
the duty of almsgiving, we may then provide for our monastery. But 
St. Benedict would surely not have cared to see his monks going to fairs 
and public markets. 2 He desires that all crafts should be exercised in 
the monastery enclosure: " so that there may be no need for the monks 
to go abroad." How, then, could he wish his monks to go abroad, not 
merely to buy, but to engage in trade ? 

Selling shall be done by means of agents. And St. Benedict warns 
the Abbot and monks to see that these agents deal honestly. They 
might be tempted to make a commission on the sales. The work is 
conscientiously done, the wine is not adulterated, and there are plenty 
of buyers. The vendors may be induced, by the very excellence of the 
merchandise they are offering, to put the price high, and pocket the 
difference. Perhaps they are dependants of the monastery and think 
it only natural to enrich themselves at its expense. But St. Benedict 
recalls the case of Ananias and Saphira (Acts v.): the deed which drew 
down upon the pair the severity of God and St. Peter was rather like 
that forecasted in the Rule. They had sold their field; instead of 
handing over the whole price to the community, they took some pocket 
money for themselves out of it and gave St. Peter what remained, 
completing the transaction with a lie, and that a concerted one. It would 
seem that St. Benedict regarded the fault committed by Ananias and 
Saphira as venial and as punished with bodily death only; 8 in which he 
followed the interpretation of several Fathers, such as Origen, St. Augus- 
tine, and Cassian. 4 But the fault of the monastery agents is more 
serious ; for the stuff they deal with is only a deposit, and a sacred deposit 
at that, since all monastic property belongs to God. Therefore they 
shall suffer in their souls. 

In ipsis autem pretiis non surripiat In the prices themselves let not 
avaritise malum, sed semper aliquantu- the vice of avarice creep in, but let 
him vilius detur, quam a secularibus goods always be sold a little cheaper 
datur: ut in omnibus glorificetur Dens, than by men of the world, that God 

may be glorified in all things. 

Monks must avoid all that resembles greed and the desire of unlimited 
accumulation : 'avaritiae malum. How unworthy of a religious is greed 



/.j X., xav. 

1 ST. BASIL manifests the same repugnance: Reg.fus., zxxix. 

3 However, PAUL THE DEACON and HILOEMAR think that St. Benedict does not claim 
to settle the question as to their spiritual death: he considers only the bodily punishment. 

* ORIGEN., Comm. in Mattb., 1. XV., 15. P. G., XIII., 1297-1298. S. AUG., 
Contra Epist* Parmeniani, 1. III., c. i. P.L., XLIIL, 84. CASS., Conlat^ VI., xi. 



364 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

of gain ! St. Jerome, from whom our Holy Father borrowed his 
portrait of the Sarabaite, tells us that they sold dear: " They put part 
of the produce of their work into the common stock, that they may have 
their food in common . . . and as though their craft were holy and not 
their lives, they ask a greater price for what they sell." 1 St. Benedict 
requires the exact contrary. The products of monastic toil shall always 
be sold at something less than the ordinary price; in order that religious 
may not cause protests and anger which would recoil on God; in order 
that people of the world may find edification in their accommodating 
and disinterested spirit, and that, even in money matters, they may 
find means for a sort of apostolate : " That God may be glorified in all 
things" (i Pet. iv. ii). 2 

A little supernatural pride will easily secure us against all unseemly 
astuteness and permit us to be faithful to the spirit of the Rule, if not 
always to the letter. For there are economical conditions and exterior 
interests of which we must take account. In times when there was no 
commercial competition, nor, as nowadays, over-production, and 
especially when monks were employed in producing objects of the first 
necessity, no rivalry was possible, and the lower rate of monastic prices 
was sheer gain for the public. But, as things now are, monasteries 
which flooded the public markets with manufactured articles at prices 
below those current would cause a ruinous fall of values, bankruptcies, 
and enmities. If monks are obliged to make more profit than they 
would like, they can always restore it in alms. When the business is small 
and cannot constitute serious competition, it is permissible to sell cheap; 
likewise, when one is working a patent, there is more liberty of action. 
But whether we lower the price or raise it, the essential point is to realize 
always the Benedictine motto: " That God may be glorified in all 
things " (Ut in omnibus glorificetur Deus). 

Lay brothers. We may take occasion of this chapter (LVII.) to say 
a word about lay brothers. Their history is yet to be written. It has, 
however, been sketched by M. Raymond Chasles in his thesis for the 
IScole des Chartes, 8 and by Father Eberhard Hoffmann, a Cistercian of 
Mehrerau. 4 The dissertation of Martene-in the Preface to the sixth 
volume of the Veterum scri-ptorum . . . amplissima collectio may also 
be read; also Calmet in his commentary on the second chapter of the 
Rule; and Mabillon, in the Preface to the sixth Benedictine century 
(P. II.). 

The commentators of the seventeenth century seem to have been 
mistaken in asserting that lay brothers existed before St. Benedict and 

1 Epist. XXII., 34. P.L., XXII., 419. 

8 Some ancient writers had given the same counsel: EVAGRIUS, Rerun monacbalium 
rationes, viii. P.G., XL., 1259-1260. ISAIAS, Reg., lix., Ixi. 

3 Iicole nationale des Chartes, Positions des theses, 1906, pp. 43-49: Etude sur 
rinstitut monastique desfrlres convert et sur I'oblature au moyeit Age; lew arigine et lew 
r6le (xi.-xiii. cent.). 

* DasKonverseninstitutdes Cisterxienserordem in seinem Ursprung vnd seiner Organisa- 
tion (Fribourg, 1905). Reviewed in the Revue Benedictine, April, 1906, p. 289. 



Of the Artificers of the Monastery 365 

even in his institute. In the earliest Western monasteries, as at Linns 
under Fatistus, in the fifth century, there were monks who were clerics, 
and monks who were laymen; there were lettered monks and illiterate; 
nor is it at all surprising that the heavier work was entrusted by preference 
to the latter. But they did not form a separate class. Moreover, many 
monasteries had servants and even slaves on their lands, but these were 
not monks. 

Many passages of the Rule seem to forbid any distinction between 
monks (for instance the words of Chapter II.: " Let him make no dis- 
tinction of persons in the monastery ") ; and there is no text to prove 
the existence of a distinct class, specially dedicated to the material 
services of the monastery. Allusions to lay brothers have been found 
in the ordinances concerning the sick, the guests, and the porter; but 
they are not convincing. Chapter XXXVIII. says that the reader at 
meals shall eat " with the weekly servers of the kitchen and the atten- 
dants ": but this is not enough to establish the existence even of purely 
lay servants; yet M. Chasles draws that inference. But it is undeniable 
that at Monte Cassino there were, besides the educated and cultured 
monks, peasants and quondam slaves, such as the worthy Goth mentioned 
in the Life of St. Benedict. There are those who " can neither meditate 
nor read " (Chapter XLVIII.) ; some are unable ,to write their profession 
paper (Chapter LVIII.). The Abbot obviously would not choose 
clerics and priests from among these "simple folk," as St. Benedict 
calls them ; and they would have to be given work suited to their capacity. 
But apart from that they were distinguished in no respect from the rest 
of the monks. They went to the Divine Office and took part in it to the 
best of their ability; their memories gradually learnt the psalms and 
hymns. . 

From the eighth to the tenth century and here we are summarizing 
the conclusions of M. Chasles a change came over monastic practice. 
The Work of God took more considerable proportions than in St. Bene- 
dict's time. Monks were very numerous. The difference between 
educated and illiterate was accentuated; little by little lay famuli 
(servants) gave way to religious exclusively occupied in manual work, 
with a special liturgical Office of a very simple character. 1 Cluny had 
lay brothers. They were monks, but had no seat in chapter; in church 
they took their place in the lower choir; some, however, were employed 
in the ritual; and those who had good voices even acted as cantors and 
were vested in the cope. The lay brothers had a special habit and wore 
beards, whence their name of barbati (bearded) ; in the earliest times the 
name of conversi applied to all monks. There was also in monasteries 
a class called " oblates," whose history is intimately bound up with that 
of lay brothers. Children brought up in the cloister were often called 
nutriti (nurslings) to distinguish them from conversi, or those who came 
of their.own accord. 

1 Our lay brothers also recite an Office, composed of the Pater, Ave, and some short 
prayers taken from our Hours. . 



366 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

The institution of lay brothers reached its full development in the 

eleventh century. It was established in Germany, thanks chiefly to 

Abbot William of Hirschau, who was much influenced, as is well known, 

by the Customs of Cluny . Haymo, his biographer, has left us a summary 

of the Rule for lay brothers at Hirschau. As at Cluny, the business of 

the kitchen was entrusted to them. Lay brothers played an important 

part at the end of the eleventh century. In the twelfth they appeared 

in all the abbeys of Western Europe. They are found among the 

Camaldolese, Vallombrosians, and Carthusians. But it was at Citeaux 

above all that they held an important position. Customs and a Rule 

were drawn up for them. Some of them were to dwell in the abbey, 

others in the "granges," others with, high secular personages; some 

were assigned to the service of the abbeys of Cistercian nuns. The 

more recent Congregations of Monte Cassino, Bursfeld, St. Vanne, and 

St. Maur also had their lay brothers. There was, moreover, among the 

Maiirists, another class called " commis " (officials) who were charged 

especially with external works and the relations of the monastery with 

the outside world; after probation they took a vow of stability. Finally, 

there were " perpetual servants," bound to the monastery by civil 

contract. . 

It should be observed that our Constitutions, taken in this case from 
those of the Maurists, order that none should be admitted as lay brothers 
save those who possess aptitude for their work. Above all we should 
note that they are as truly religious and monks as are the choir monks. 
Therefore they should have such instruction and training as will enable 
them to live up to their vows. They are all, whether novices or pro- 
fessed, under the spiritual direction of the lay brother master. As 
regards their work they are under the cellarer; apart from him and the 
fathers assigned to the charge of them, no one has a right to put any duty 
on them or to require their services; if lay brothers are not the domestic 
servants of the community, they are still less the servants of any individual 
monk, Perfect courtesy and considerate charity should regulate all our 
relations with them; every species of petty familiarity should be severely 
repressed, as well as all unjustifiable conversation; both their interest 
and ours demand this. Let us also beware of scandalizing simple souls 
by certain ways which are scarcely monastic, and by notorious breaches 
of Rule. 

Their life is humble, silent, hidden, and more severe in some respects 
than that of the choir monks; and, as the Maurist Declarations set it 
down, they should not be advanced to Orders nor undertake higher 
studies. Strict observance of these two last points is indispensable 
for the safeguarding of their monastic vocation; and those who seek to 
enter the clerical state nearly always meet with failure. Their laborious 
days may easily become one long colloquy with the Lord; and the 
spectacle of such glad and peaceful fidelity is the most valuable of all 
their services. 



CHAPTER LVI II 

OF 7 HE DISCIPLINE OF RECEIPTING BRETHREN INTO 

RELIGION 

THE portion of the Rule which begins with this chapter and extends 
to the sixty-sixth inclusively is quite clearly defined, and deals 
first with the recruitment of the monastery, then with its 
hierarchical arrangement and regular order. To 'exhaust the 
topic of recruitment our Holy Father speaks successively of novices in 
general, of children, of priests, and of stranger monks. The present 
chapter, which gives us the general methods by which a community is 
recruited, comprises three main divisions : the reception of candidates, 
their probation or novitiate, and their final admission. This last part 
treats of the solemn forms of admission, and then of the monk's obligation 
to dispose of all his property. Here we have a number of questions, the 
importance and interest of which invite us to extend our commentary. 

DE DISCIPLINA SUSCIPIENDORUM To him that newly comes to con- 

FRATRUM. Noviter veniens quis ad version, let not an easy entrance be 

conversionem, non ei facilis tribuatur granted, but, as the Apostle says, 

ingressus: sed sicut ait Apostolus: "Try the spirits if they be of God." 

Probate spiritus, si ex Deo sunt. Ergo If, therefore, he that comes persevere 

si veniens perseveraverit pulsans, et in knocking, and after four or five days 

illatas sibi injurias, et difficultatem seem patiently to endure the wrongs 

ingressus, post quatuor aut quinque done to him and the difficulty made 

dies visus fuerit patienter portare, et about his entrance, and to persist 

persistere petitioni suae, annuatur ei in his petition, let entrance be granted 

ingressus, et sit in cellahospi turn paucis him," and let him be in the guest- 

diebus. house for a few days. 

" One that newly comes to conversion" The conversion here 
spoken of is simply the religious life, so' called from its being a turning 
towards God. This phraseology accorded with the ecclesiastical 
language of the time, 1 and is very felicitous; man turns from sin, from 
the world and its frivolity, in order to direct his life towards the supreme 
reality and uncreated beauty. However, when he presents himself at 
the monastery, and so at the house of God, he does but respond to the 
call of God Himself i.e., to vocation. 

1 lilt quorum conversion! consulere voluimus . . . says ST. AUGUSTINE (Epist. 
LXXXIII., 2 et 3. P.L., XXXIII., 292), and a little farther on: Cum quisque ad monas- 
terium convertitur, si veraci corde convertitur, etc. Si quis ad conversionem venerit 
(S. CAESAR., Reg. ad man., i.; Reg. ad virg., Recapitulatio, viii.). D. BUTLER (S. Bene- 
dicti Regula monacborum, pp. 140-141) says that the best attested reading everywhere 
in the Rule is conversatio: Conversatio morum: lectio omnino certa sed baud facilis intel- 
lectu. .ConferripotestCA&aixNVS, c.Nest., V., i.: per bonorum actuum conversationem. . . . 
Conversio non usurpabatur a S. Benedicto; converti vero bis invenitur (ii., Ixiii.). Con- 
versatio (vita monastica) et conversio erantambo in tuu communi.Cf. D. ROTHEN- 
HAUSLER, Zur Aufnabmeordnung der Regula S. Benedicti, II., Conversatio morum, pp. 20 
sq. D. HERWEGEN, Gescbicbte der benediktiniscben Professformel, II., i. Conversatio 
und conversio im Regeltext, pp. 47 sq. . 

367 



368 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

Vocation. Iff z must limit the use of this term and not make it 
signify any expression of our activity. We sjteak of the soldier's vocation, 
the engineer's vocation, the vocation to the married state or common 
vocation. These are actual states, the result of strictly personal choice, 
the product of circumstances; aptitudes, and tastes. Doubtless these 
choices do not escape the laws of Providence, yet they do not imply a 
very special invitation of God,; as does vocation properly so called. This 
comprises three elements : a special call of God^-to a high supernatural 
state to which call the intelligent creature should respond with free 
co-operation. And in this sense there are only three vocations : vocation 
to the Faith, for heretics and infidels, which is universal and obligatory 
under pain of damnation; religious vocation, which is, as we hope to 
show, universal and yet a matter of counsel; vocation to the eccle'ias- 
tical state, which is special and is addressed to a select few, chosen by 
name from among Christian folk and designated by the Church. Here 
we are concerned with religious vocation only. 

A general vocation to the religious life may be distinguished from an 
individual vocation. The first is the universal invitation addressed by 
Our Lord to all the faithful: "If anyone wish to come after me" 
(Matt. xvi. 24); " If thou wouldst be, perfect " (ibid. xix. 21). This 
vocation has been given once and for all, and Our Lord's words have 
never been retracted. Neither the State nor the Church has any power 
here. God has called souls and opened the gates of perfection to them. 
It is not merely permission or leave, but a positive invitation addressed 
to the whole Church. Everyone baptized is by that act sufficiently 
called by God to a life which is the fulfilment of baptism. But, in actual 
fact, Our Lord's offer does not reach all efficaciously; it may jbe that a 
soul is inattentive; it may be that it does not consent to follow the divine 
counsel; it may be that at the hour when God's call reaches its ear, it 
finds that it has taken on itself obligations which forbid it making any 
response; it may be that it is without certain dispositions of soul or body 
which are strictly requisite. God respects the play and course of secon- 
dary causes, and in practice only a picked few are capable of following 
His call: "Not all take this word, but those to whom it is given. . . . He 
that can take, let him take it " (Matt. xix. 11-12). 

The doctrinal principle of a universal vocation having been carefully 
safeguarded, it remains true that there is an individual and, so to speak, 
a privileged vocation. But our ideas should be clear with regard to this 
" special " vocation also. Vocation to the religious life cannot neces- 
sarily mean a positive call, a revelation, a supernatural and imperative 
intimation: "Thou shalt be a religious." Nor is it any more true, 
necessarily, that vocation is the command of a confessor. The confessor 
may advise, he can and should enlighten ; he can weigh the chances of 
success, because he knows the soul's dispositions : but he cannot command, 
in any sense whatever. God himself does not command. Souls are 
free. It is infinite imprudence, and want of reverence for souls, to claim 
to choose their state of/ life for them, when the consequences are felt in 



Of the Discipline of receiving Brethren into Religion 369 

time and in eternity. Do parents and meddling, merciless directors 
bear the consequences of .the decision which they impose by main force 
on a too docile and trustful soul ? Vocation is a personal matter. 

But, we may ask further, what is the form under which God speaks 
to souls, when He would draw them to Him ? To confine the infinite 
variety of His methods within the compass of a formula or a catalogue 
is impossible. For God all means are good. Vocation may be a matter 
of sensible attraction, an inclination of the heart towards the religious 
life, the love of the chant and of beautiful services : a form which it very 
naturally takes among the young. But this sensible attraction is not an 
indispensable element. Vocation is sometimes an impression that dates 
from infancy: we have never contemplated our life in any other than 
monastic surroundings; we are influenced, perhaps, by the example 
of a relative. Or it may be an ideal of perfection that suddenly forces 
itself upon us. ( 

Vocation may consist in an intellectual appreciation of the moral 
superiority of the religious life and in the strong resolve : " It is the 
better way and I will follow it." Perhaps this is the purest type of 
vocation. Sometimes a man is guided by a sort of practical and utili- 
tarian impulse : " I shall have no more visits to receive or make, no more 
confessions, no more sermons, no domestic worries. I shall have leisure 
for prayer and study and shall live in peace." This sort of vocation 
is the vocation of middle age, of one who has already been wounded by 
contact with life. 

Or it may be suffering which turns souls towards God; or again dis- 
content, moral unrest, inability to be happy elsewhere. Our Lord, 
when He would direct us towards His ends, sows secret bitterness over 
all the joys of our life, and we meet naught but sadness and bruises if 
we step aside from the way traced by Him, a way, as the prophet says, 
that is marked out with hewn stones : " He hath shut up my ways with 
square stones " (Lam. iii. 9). Finally, there are cases where the religious 
life, while remaining in the abstract a counsel of perfection, yet becomes 
in the concrete an obligation : as when experience forces us to recognize 
that we need the cloister, that there only is our eternal salvation per- 
fectly secure. In brief, vocation is never lacking; God's call takes so 
many forms, that one of them is always at hand and he who enters 
always has good reasons for entering. 1 

Again, we must not fail to remark and the very words of the Rule 
invite us to do so that all these diverse ways in which the universal 
call manifests itself to the individual do but constitute the material 
and determinable element in vocation; the formal and determinant 
element is the firm resolve to seek God and perfection. " If thou 
wouldst be perfect ?" Do you wish it ? " Who is the man that would 
have life and desires to see good days ?" said St. Benedict in the Prologue. 
When all is said, this is the essential element and often the only one 

1 Abbot Paphnutius explained to CASSIAN that there were three kinds of vocation: 
Primus ex Deo est, secundus per bominem, tertius ex necessitate (Conlat., III., iii.-v.). 

24. 



370 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

that matters. For, of the two other elements, the concrete manifestation 
of God's counsel and personal aptitude, we have said that the first is never 
lacking; and of the seco'nd we may say that it is sometimes created or 
at least developed, when the will is generously determined. This explains 
why our Holy Father's ordinances for the admission of a postulant and 
the training of a novice have as their sole purpose the testing of his will. 

Should there be long deliberation and much consultation? 
St. Thomas says not. 1 What, he asks, shall we deliberate about ? On 
the excellence of the proposed resolution ? But it cannot be disputed 
that it is a good thing, nay, a very good thing; and to doubt this, though 
it were but for an instant, would be to give the lie to Our Lord. Must 
we deliberate about our powers, whether we have the necessary strength 
to carry out our resolve ? Some of our friends will tell us that we are 
doing a foolish thing, a thing impossible for our nature. Others, better 
advised, will reply: " You have the resources of your will, which are 
boundless ; prayer will procure you the infinite strength of God. Children 
and women have done it; you can surely do as much." St. Thomas 
admits that there may be deliberation on three points : Is our health 
sufficient ? Have we debts ? What form of religious life suits us best ? 
Here we may consult and interrogate; but we should ask few people 
and such as are discreet, prudent, competent in supernatural matters, 
well-informed on the character of the monastic life, and even predisposed 
in its favour. One may deliberate, too, with oneself, but let it be done 
quickly. And above all we should reflect on the most expeditious 
means to rid ourselves of all obstacles. 

- After having seen what religious vocation is in general, it will not 
be superfluous to say a word as to the qualifications prudently required 
for the contemplative life, and in particular the monastic and Benedictine 
contemplative life. An immortal soul the same baptized the same 
from that moment endowed with the supernatural faculties of which 
contemplation is the proper exercise : this is enough, no more is needed. 
Does the condition seem simple and easy to be realized ? Yet it is the 
principal one of all, and the fundamental one; it might almost be said 
that it is the sole condition, given a determined will. 

Very ordinary health is adequate to our monastic duty. But the 
important thing required of a candidate for the contemplative life is a 
certain equipoise of temperament, a thing not always very common in 
our age of impulsive and neurotic natures. A man who vows himself 
to the monastic life with a rather weak head and defective intellect will 
there lose all that is left, or at least will become a burden to his brethren 
and a danger to the community. An exaggerated preoccupation with 
health, with oneself, with the honour and attention one deserves, is a 
very bad omen; hypertrophy of the ego may be the first sign of insanity. 
Yet we do not reject a candidate because we find in him certain slight 
faults or egoistic tendences; otherwise no one would be chosen. 

A man need not be a Plato or an Aristotle for the work of Christian 
contemplation. But it would certainly be presumptuous to-day to 

1 II. -II., q. chuucix., a. 10. 



Of the Discipline of receiving Brethren into Religion 371 

enter the contemplative life and to become a choir monk, we do not 
say without some previous education for that is forbidden by the Holy 
See but without a real taste for the things of the mind. The con- 
templative life does not consist in dreaming and doing nothing. Beware 
of those who neglect study on the ground that we are vowed only to 
pure contemplation, or that, according to the Apostle, " knowledge 
puffeth up." Taking our life as a whole, a taste for true and whole- 
some doctrine is a guarantee of perseverance, of worthiness, and of 
progress, safer often than a certain kind of piety. 

The postulant must intend to take his faith seriously and must be 
valiant. In a monastery our livelihood is assured; we have not the 
external prick of necessity, nor the stimulus that action brings with it. 
If a contemplative be not courageous, he will quickly become a loiterer, 
a deserter of perfection, a useless thing. There is required of him also 
a love of quiet and silence, a certain detachment from the world, from 
politics, from external activity, from a ministry which he has freely 
abandoned, even, we would fain add, from the affairs of his family. 
We have not to provide for our brothers and sisters, nephews and nieces; 
our prayers and our fidelity will be more efficacious with God than 
human activities for which we are no longer competent. The candidate 
should also have a good character and a certain youthfulness of soul; 
critical, peevish, and unsociable temperaments are poorly suited to a 
rule which requires continual contact with brethren and filial submission 
to the Abbot. 

Finally, an excellent sign of a vocation to the contemplative life 
is described in the passage of Ecclesiasticus : Pulchritudinis studium 
habentes, pacificantes in domibus suis: the just men of old studied 
beauty, they caused peace and order in their houses. Study of beauty 
does not necessarily mean artistic taste or artistic talent; but it implies 
the habit of doing nothing by halves, of realizing perfect purity, and a 
delicacy of disposition that does not suffer the petty passions of the world 
we have renounced to enter our souls again under any disguise. 
Courtesy and refinement also, in our relations with God as with pur 
brethren, flow from this love of beauty; as do likewise an intelligent 
love of the Divine Office, of its rites and of its chants. 

'The reception of candidates. A man believes that God is calling him 
to the Benedictine life; he is " converted "; he comes and knocks at the 
door. Strange to say, it does not open at once, and his reception is very 
reserved, not to say disagreeable: Non eifacilis tribuatur ingressus. It 
was the same among the Fathers of the East. 1 St. Benedict's first 

1 Si guts accesserit ad ostium monasterii volens sisculo renuntiare, etfratrum aggregari 
numero, non babebit intrandi liber tatem, sed prius nuntiabitur Patri monasterii, et manebit 
paucis diebus forts ante jdnuam (S. PACK., Reg. xlix.). Hebdomada pro foribus jaceant ; 
nulli cum eis de fratribus jungantur, et semper dura et labor iosa eis proponantur. Si vero 
perseyeraverint pulsantes, eis non negetur ingressus (Reg. I. SS. PATRUM, vii.). Ambient 
quis intra caenobii recipi disciplinam non ante prorsus admittitur, quam diebus decem vel 
eo amplius pro for ibus excubans indicium per severantia ... demonstraveri t (CAM., Inst., 
IV., iii.). There are also resemblances between this chapter of St. Benedict and 
several passages in ST. BASIL (Cf. Reg. f us., x. ;;.). 



372 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

observation is a warning against receiving promiscuously all who present 
themselves. They are generally unknown ; their past, the secret motives 
which impel them to the monastic life, their possession of the requisite 
qualities, are all unknown. In St. Benedict's time there were 
special reasons for a very careful scrutiny. Besides men who were 
known or were furnished with letters of recommendation, there came 
strangers, slaves, barbarians, ex-soldiers; perhaps also characters were 
in general less refined than in the East. 

Moreover, St. Benedict knewthat the monastic life was God's reserve. 
Now, it is not prudent to recruit a picked body of troops by chance. 
Such a corps does not want those defectives who encumber and retard 
the progress of the whole. It is unwise to seek numbers at any price; 
God has no need of big battalions : sufficient for Him the three hundred 
soldiers of a Gideon. We must not induce souls to impose on themselves 
obligations out of proportion to their strength; nor must we receive 
men indiscreetly and bequeath to those that come after us a heritage 
of difficulties. Moreover, to receive everyone or nearly everyone is not 
the way to get many subjects, since the very condition of a monastery's 
recruitment is that excellence and edifying influence which chance 
elements are incapable of securing. The history of monasticism proves 
that want of strictness in the reception of subjects contributed largely 
to the decline of certain houses. 1 To sum up, both the interests of God 
and the interests of the Church are at stake ; so too are the interests of 
the monastery in the present and in the future, and the interests of the 
candidates themselves. Without doubt the special motives that formerly 
caused a certain severity in this matter no longer hold to-day; there are 
now no slaves, and those who present themselves are Christians, often 
even clerics and priests ; we know what they are, thanks to the testimonial 
letters prescribed by Canon Law and to private information. Never- 
theless the general motives still remain. Experience proves that pre- 
cautions are not superfluous, since a good number of those received do 
not persevere. So wise are the regulations of our Rule, that the year's 
novitiate and the methods of trial there exacted have been adopted 
by the Church and extended to all sorts of religious orders. 

When our Holy Father shows so much reserve in receiving those who 
knock at the door, he is obviously no friend to military methods of 
recruiting. There is a kind of pressing solicitation which, so to speak, 
forces the candidate to stand and deliver. We must always avoid the 
methods of the press gang in our pursuit of postulants, nor shall we use 
alluring advertisement. In spite of kindly invitations and although 
there be no absolute rule on this point, we shall not go to colleges and 
seminaries, there to seek the increase of our communities. Providence 
has its own ways of making souls know the monastery where it would 
have them be. Yet is it legitimate and praiseworthy, while avoiding 
any kind of compulsion, to exhort a soul that seems predisposed to the 
religious life; that is the teaching of St. Thomas. 2 Nor is it indiscreet 

1 Cf. HJEFTEN, 1. IV., tract, ii. a II.-II., y. clxxxix., a. 9. 



Of the Discipline of receiving Brethren into Religion 373 

sweetly and moderately to press one who is visibly called, yet temporizes 
without any solid motive. We must know how to help, encourage, 
and, as our Holy Father presently says, " win souls." 

From one point of view admission into the Benedictine Order is 
perhaps subject to less complicated conditions than is the case with 
some modern forms of the religious life : one cannot become a Jesuit, 
Dominican, or Franciscan, without very definite qualities. Suppose 
a man have none of the qualities necessary for a preacher, or a professor, 
or a missionary; he cannot, without rashness, enter an Order which is 
devoted expressly to the mission, to teaching, or to the work of preaching. 
Of course no one will think of becoming a monk merely because all other 
doors are closed to him. Yet it remains true that for the Benedictine 
life there is scarcely but one aptitude required of us viz., the interior 
purpose of sanctifying our souls. , And this aptitude exists when a man 
is determined to develop the powers of his baptism. As we have already 
observed, the formal constituent of religious vocation in general is a 
vigorous will; and it is with the candidate's will that the scrutiny of 
superiors should chiefly concern itself. The more uniform our existence 
is, the more withdrawn from the world and disengaged from the torrent 
of modern life, which flows towards noise, display, and action, the more 
openly contrary to the temper created in almost all our contemporaries 
by social influences, the less can we consent to lower its standard. 

St. Benedict's idea is so exactly that which we have just expressed, 
that he seems to have had no other intention, when fixing the novitiate 
tests, than to discover the seriousness, determination, and generosity 
of the will. 1 For if the candidate be one of those who will and will not 
(" the sluggard willeth and willeth not "), if his will have only conceived 
one of those indecisive resolutions in which the lazy perish (" desires 
kill the slothful ") : the necessity he is under of waiting at the door, the 
very rebuffs of his first reception, will make this appearance of a vocation 
vanish in smoke, and he will retrace his steps congratulating himself 
that he went no farther. 

Therefore, the postulant shall be left knocking at the door, says 
St. Benedict. Yet it shall be partly opened, though it be to tell him 
unpleasant things. He may be told, for instance, that he is too old or 
too young, that he has not health or energy enough to become a monk, 
that there is no room for him. The Fathers of the East were very 
skilful in varying these tests. Read, for instance, the account of 
St. Antony's reception of Paul the Simple, or the reception given 
by St. Pachomius to Macarius of Alexandria in disguise. 2 We see why 
the monk who attended the door and was charged with the reception 
of postulants had to be chosen from among those of greatest experience. 3 
At the end of four or five days of this treatment, if the candidate holds 

1 Cf. S. BASIL., Sermo asceticus de renuntiatione saculi. P.G., XXXI., 626 sq. 
S. GREG. M., Expositio in I. Reg., 1. IV., c. iv., 17. P.L., LXXIX., 245. 

2 PALLAD., Hist. Laus., c. xxviii. et xix.-xx. ROSWEYD, pp. 730, 723. 

3 Cf. Vita S. Pacbomii, c. xix. Acta SS., Mali, t. III., p. 303. 



374 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

firm and remains, entrance shall be granted him: but only entrance into 
the guest-house, which, as we have said, is a separate building. There 
he must remain some days, as the Rule prescribes with no more precise 
determination of time; during this period, again, exact knowledge may 
be gained of his character. According to some ancient monastic 
customs, he was employed to wait on the guests. Cassian says that after 
admission and clothing the candidate was entrusted to the guest-master 
for a year, and then to the novice-master. 1 It will be observed that 
the candidate makes his way into the Benedictine family only gradually 
and by stages, with a slow and prudent progress; first comes the door, 
then the guest-house, then the novitiate, and finally entrance into the 
community. 

Clothing and postulantsbip. In the actual Solesmes practice the 
candidate remains some days in the guest-house; that was the custom 
at Cluny and among the Maurists. Then he is given a cell in the novi- 
tiate and follows the novitiate exercises. At the end of a fortnight he 
may receive the habit. But he comes first before the Abbot and his 
Council, and a certain number of questions are put to him concerning 
his canonical fitness for the religious life. 2 

After clothing begins the period of postulant ship. We may regard it 
as taking the place of the first tests to which our forefathers made new- 
comers submit, but only if we note that it was, as such, unknown to 
them. A distinction between the postulantship and novitiate will be 
searched for in vain not only in St. Benedict but everywhere else. 
The postulantship was an invention of the last Maurists. After the 
royal edict professing to reform religious orders, promulgated by 
Louis XV. in March, 1768, which forbade profession before the age of 
twenty-one, 8 the Congregation of St. Maur published in 1770 a new 
edition of its Constitutions. In this document the " first probation." 
becomes a regular organized stage, through which all candidates must 
pass, under the religious habit and in special houses; its normal dura- 
tion is a year, but it might last as many as fourteen months or as 
few as six. The postulants were entrusted to a " Director of proba- 
tioners" (Director probandorum) and a Zelator. Their horarium and 
exercises were almost the same as those of the novices, save that the 
latter devoted themselves exclusively to studies " calculated to develop 
piety and train the memory," while the postulants, under the guidance 
of the Zelator, added to the study of the rubrics, chant, New Testa- 
ment, Rule, etc., the study of Latin, French, Greek, and ^Hebrew. 
" Let them be taught the rules for correct reading and speaking, and 

1 /., IV., vii. 

2 This set of questions is ancient; it occurs in large part in the Ceremonial of St. 
Augustine of Canterbury (Customary of the 'Benedictine Monasteries of St. Augustine, 
Canterbury, and St. Peter, Westminster, edited by SIR EDWARD MAUNDE THOMPSON, 
London, 1902, vol. I., p. 6). There already existed in the institute of ST. PACHOMIUS 
an examination previous to admission: Reg. xlix. 

3 Cf. PRAT., S.J., Essai bistorique sur la destruction des Ordres religieux en France 
au XVHI e siecle, pp. 182 ff.' 



Of 'the Discipline of receiving Brethren into Religion 375 

the elements of Geography, Chronology, and History: so that they may 
be instructed in virtue and knowledge together." Our constitutions, 
which in the matter ot the postulantship are indebted to the Maurists, 
follow them also in the determination of its length. But with us 
postulants are put with the novices and undergo an absolutely identical 
probation. 

The postulantship has been introduced into many religious families, 
but Canon Law does not order it for choir monks. Clement VIII., 
in the decree Cum ad regularem (March 19, 1603), stipulated that 
all candidates should be instructed in the Rule, the vows, and the 
special nature of the institute, before receiving the habit that is to say, 
before commencing the novitiate proper. The fact is that in the time 
of Clement VIII. only two clothings were known: the clothing of the 
novice and the clothing of the professed monk. To-day we have three : 
the clothing of the layman, of the novice, and of the professed. But 
the two first are only duplicates of the profession clothing. And from 
the very rite itself it is plain that this clothing is the most important 
and has a decisive effect. Then only is the candidate required to choose 
between his worldly garments and the garments of religion, then only 
is the monastic habit given in its entirety, then only does it receive a 
special blessing, then only is its meaning and virtue set forth in detail. 
And while the clothing of a postulant takes place in chapter, and the 
clothing of a novice in chapter and in church at the end of Mass, the 
clothing of a professed monk is performed in the very course of the 
Holy Sacrifice. 

In St. Benedict's practice he parted with Cassian on this point 1 
clothing coincided with profession, as we know from the very terms of 
this fifty-eighth chapter. The novitiate was made in lay clothes, which 
differed less than now from the garments of religion; when probation 
was finished, the novice renounced the livery of the world and received 
the monastic habit and the tonsure. Such was then the common 
practice in the West, as witnessed by the Rules of St. Caesarius, St. Aure- 
lian, St. Ferreolus, St. Fructuosus, the Master, the Fifth Council of 
Orleans of A.D. 549, the third novel of Justinian. The Council of Aix-la- 
Chapelle in A.D. 817 still insists: " Nor let the novice be tonsured, nor 
change his former vesture, until he promises obedience." However, 
since the ninth century, the practice has been introduced in the West- 
already known, as we have said, to some Easterns of giving the habit 
and the tonsure at the commencement of the novitiate. 2 At Cluny 
in the eleventh century there was a clothing at the beginning of the 
year's novitiate. The Cistercians adopted this custom, and it spread also 
amongst nuns. Nowadays, unless an approved Rule formally authorizes 
the contrary, or there is a special dispensation, it is common law that 
the novitiate be made in the habit of religion. Finally, since the 

1 Inst., IV., v.-vi. 

8 Cf. HILDEMAR. Comment, in cap. Iviii, Vita 5. Bened. Aniqn., c. vi, P.L., 
CIII./3&6. 



376 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

creation of the postulantship, the clothing is in practice anticipated 
still earlier. 1 

Postea sit in cella novitiorum, ubi Afterwards let him be in the cell 
meditetur, et manducet, et dormiat. of the novices, where he shall meditate, 

eat, and sleep. 

The novitiate. After the candidate has been clothed as a novice he 
is a true member of the monastic family and enjoys the privileges of 
novices as recognized in Canon Law. 

The novitiate house (cella novitiorum), according to our Holy Father's 
notion, is distinct from the habitation of the monks, somewhat in the 
same way as the guest-house. The novices have their own refectory, 
their own dormitory, and a special place where they meditate that is 
to say, where they pray and study divine things. It is highly probable 
that St. Benedict admitted novices to the Divine Office and to the 
manual labour in which the whole community took part : the very 
enumeration of what is done in the novitiate suggests this and seems 
to exclude other special exercises. Moreover, early monastic history 
gives us no positive evidence of an absolute separation. At Cluny, 
when the novices were not very, numerous, they slept and ate with the 
professed monks. They were always present at the Offices in the lower 
choir of the church. In chapter they were present only for the expla- 
nation of the Rule. 

The separation of novices and professed became canonical by the 
decree Cum ad regular em of Clement VIII. The new Codex ordains: 
" Let the novitiate be separated, as far as possible, from the part 
of the house occupied by the professe.d, so that novices, except 
for a special reason and with the permission of the superior or 
their Master, may have no communication with the professed, nor the 
professed with novices (Can. 564)." The unauthorized intercourse 
of a novice with a choir monk is regarded by our Constitutions as a fault 
simplicitre gravis (of itself serious). The object is to secure a single 
uniform training and to keep novices concentrated exclusively on the pro- 
cess of their monastic initiation. But doubtless this separation cannot 
among us have the absolute and uncompromising character which it 
takes in certain more modern religious bodies. A Benedictine monastery 
is a family of which the novices are the children. They are not merely 
in a relation of juxtaposition to the rest, but are thrown with them 
constantly all through the day. Before admitting them to profession, 
it is right that the community should observe them carefully and come 
to know them. Yet it remains true that the mere fact of being a 

1 All the Ceremonial which is actually used by the Congregation of France, and 
which other Benedictine families have adopted, was composed by D. GURANGEK. 
The Abbot of Solesmes utilized and combined materials taken from various ancient 
rituals for profession and the clothing of novices. A portion of these materials will be 
found in MARTENE, De ant. monacb. rit,, 1. V., c. ii. ; De ant. eccl. rit., 1. II., c. ii. See 
(he Declarations, Constitutions, and Ritual of the Congregation of St. Maur. 



Of the Discipline of receiving Brethren into Religion 377 

professed monk, or even a senior, is not sufficient to legitimize direct 
interference with novices when they merit reprimand or admonition. 

Again, a monastery, because it is a family, has the right to train its 
own novices. Among the Maurists only one or two houses in a province 
possessed a novitiate. The practice of having one novitiate for a whole 
Congregation has real advantages, which have decided many Orders or 
branches of an Order to adopt it. Perhaps a closer union between the 
members of diverse monasteries is thus secured; and small communities 
are dispensed from having a novitiate, where, with a very modest number 
of candidates, it would yet be necessary to employ several religious. 
Finally, it is easier thus to secure the candidate a complete and uniform 
training. However, the disadvantages are also real; and the actual 
practice of our Congregation is for each superior to educate his own 
children. This usage is in conformity with the traditions of the Order 
and with the mind of St. Benedict who, by the way, never contem- 
plated a Congregation. It is a recognition of the autonomy of each 
monastery. Nevertheless an Abbot may entrust his novices to another 
house; and a recent General Chapter expressed the desire that the same 
horarium and a common course of reading and study should be followed 
everywhere. 

Et senior ei talis deputetur, qui Let there be assigned to him a 
aptus sit ad lucrandas animas, et qui senior, who is skilled in winning souls, 
super eum omnino curiose intendat et who may watch him with the utmost 
sollicitus sit, si vere Deum quaerit, et care and consider anxiously whether 
si sollicitus est ad opus Dei, ad obedien- he truly seeks God, and is zealous for 
tiam, ad opprobria. Prsedicentur ei the Work of God, for obedience, and 
omnia dura et aspera, per quae itur ad for humiliations. Let there be set 
Deum. before him all the hard and rugged 

ways by which we walk towards 
God. 

The Novice Master. Having entered the novitiate, the candidate 
is placed under the control of a master : such is the universal practice, 
as old as the monastic life itself. Does St. Benedict mean that each 
novice should have a master, as was the custom among many Eastern 
monks ? That is the opinion of Haeften and of some other commentators. 
But it may be disputed. St. Basil and Cassian, who inspired our Holy 
Father, take for granted that the novices are numerous, and Cassian 
speaks of an " elderly monk guiding the ten religious whom the Abbot 
has entrusted to his charge." 1 The words of the Rule, like those of 
the Institutes (of Cassian) speak only of a novice and deal with the 
individual; but this is only a method of exposition; in actual fact the 
novice might belong to a group. Supposing, as is quite likely, that many 
candidates present themselves at a monastery, how will the cella novi- 
tiorum (novitiate house) work, if each has to have his own master ? 
Moreover, as Martene observes, the separation of novices from the 

1 /*., IV., vii. 



378 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

community, explicitly indicated by the Rule, would be nothing but an 
unrealizable ordinance, if each novice was entrusted to a senior. 

So St. Benedict probably intended that there should be one Master 
of Novices, but he did not therefore intend him to be omnipotent. 
When a novitiate is the novitiate of a whole Congregation or of a 
province, there is reason for leaving him his independence, since it is 
justified by the Constitutions and by custom. To permit Abbots and 
local superiors to enter the single novitiate at their pleasure and to 
exercise their authority in it, would be to contravene the very law of a 
house which belongs to the Congregation, and depends on the Diet or 
General Chapter. But when each monastery has its own novitiate, 
when the Novice Master is nominated by the Abbot and when the latter 
may always, if he so will, keep this charge for himself, to refuse to let 
him interfere in the affairs of his novitiate would be at once an audacious, 
inconsistent, and futile act. Therefore the Novice Master should never 
regard his charge as a fief which he must defend jealously against the 
intrusions of the Abbot as understanding nothing about it. The 
novices do not belong to the Novice Master; he is merely the Abbot's 
representative among them. This incontestable principle once laid 
down, it is clear that the first care of a Novice Master should be to know 
the Abbot's mind and how he conceives the training of his subjects. 
He should study only to be obedient, docile, intelligently and lovingly 
pliant. Without doubt it is his mission to lead souls to Our Lord 
(aptus ad lucrandas animas), but there is no going to Our Lord save by 
way of the Abbot. He has to train disciples and sons for his Abbot; 
therefore he shall not seek to be anything but a disciple and a true son. 
This is good sense and order, and procures the security and peace of all. 
Thus only shall the novices make real progress, and the Novice Master 
be truly loyal; for he is trusted with full confidence. 

And this same principle, that the Novice Master is the Abbot's 
representative, determines the general character of his activity. Sharing 
in the fatherhood of the Abbot, he shall have, along with reverence for 
souls, a deep and supernatural tenderness for all and for each. He shall 
not disdain their regard and their trust in him, because they need trust- 
fulness and submission that they may grow; yet he shall never take 
advantage of it to the point of engrossing what after all does not belong 
even to the Abbot, but to God. He must readily believe that his work 
is not his own, but Our Lord's and the Abbot's, who work through him. 
He may take St. John the Baptist as his patron saint and with him say: 
" I am not the Christ, but am sent before him. He that hath the bride 
is the bridegroom : but the friend of the bridegroom, who standeth and 
heareth him, rejoiceth with joy because of the bridegroom's voice. 
This my joy therefore is fulfilled. He must increase: but I must 
decrease " (John iii. 28-30). 

St. Benedict would have the Novice Master be a senior if not old 
in years, at any rate mature in prudence and in the understanding of 
supernatural things. A Master's business is to teach: Loqui et docere 



Of the Discipline of receiving Brethren into Religion 379 

magistrum condecet (Chapter VI.); and our Holy Father has himself 
indicated the substance of this teaching. First and foremost it consists 
of the Rule, customs, and traditions of the Order. The special counsel 
given by our Holy Father to the Abbot : " And especially let him observe 
this present Rule in all things," concerns the Novice Master also. He 
must expound it to the newcomers and maintain with discretion, yet 
firmly and uncompromisingly, the true spirit of the monastic institute. 
He will also, of course, instruct them in all that concerns the interior 
life. Holy Scripture, the Liturgy, and the Fathers being the very 
sources of Benedictine piety, a taste for them must be instilled in the 
novitiate. 1 

Our Holy Father requires the Master of Novices not only to teach 
and enlighten souls, but also, by means of various ascetical methods, 
to re-form them, to turn them towards God, to train them to virtue and 
perfection, to bear them along in a word, to " win " them for God. 2 
According to our Holy Father he must be careful, cautious, and observant : 
Omnina curiose intendat et sollicitus sit. And in order to facilitate this 
scrutiny, the novice should lay bare his whole soul. There are some who 
preserve an obstinate silence, others who talk endlessly, and always about 
themselves; but it is better to be something talkative than to " close 
up." The careful observation of the Novice Master is not that bitter 
zeal which St. Benedict condemns elsewhere, that extreme severity 
which exacts from all at every moment the maximum of perfection. 
Nor do we want a minute supervision; for what is the good of pressing 
heavily on souls so as to excite in them a precocious fervour, which too 
often is factitious and transient ? What is the good of forcing them to 
endless self-analysis ? Nay, they are called to leave the region of self 
and sweetly to turn towards eternal Beauty and Purity: "Hearken, O 
daughter, and see, and incline thy ear, and forget . . ." (Ps. xliv.). 
" But we all, beholding the glory of the Lord with open face, are trans- 
formed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the 
Lord " (2 Cor. iii. 18). 

St. Benedict himself indicates the signs which shall guide the 
Master in his investigation, and so at the same time gives the disciple 
his programme : Si vere Deum qiusrit. Does he seek God ? God seeks 
man : " And the Lord, seeking his own workman in the multitude of 
the people to whom he thus cries out "; and man on his part should 
seek God. " That they should seek God if haply they may feel after 

1 The Constitutions of Chezal-Benoit contained this ordinance: Novitii per totum 
annum sui novitiatus nibil aliud discant prater Regulam B. Patris N. Benedict^ cere- 
monias nostree societatis, officium divinum et qua ad ttlud pertinent, vitas Pair urn et colla- 
tiones eorunde'm. Our Constitutions, which here again borrow from St. Maur, forbid 
during the novitiate " profane and curious studies "that is to say, critical or erudite 
labours and generally all that is not concerned with spiritual and professional training; 
then they add: Sedulam operam cantui gregoriano, ceremoniis, rttbricisque dabunt; demum 
excolenda memorite, ne pereat out languescat, satagent. 

* Constituit (Pachomius) prafositos qui sibi ad lucrandas animas, qua ad turn quotidie 
conflvebant, adjutores existerent (Vita S> Pacbomii t c. xxr., Acta SS., Maii, t. III.). 



380 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

him or find him, although he be not far from every one of us " 
(Acts xvii. 27). This and nothing else is what is done in the monastic 
life. Why should we be ashamed of this work before people of the 
world ? God is the only interesting being, and the postulant should 
realize that from the first moment of his conversion. The Novice 
Master will soon discover whether a soul is turning itself wholly in this 
direction. 

This seeking God will show itself especially in a great zeal for the 
Divine Office : si sollicitus est ad opus Dei. There is the novice secure 
of finding the Lord, of talking with Him, of putting himself in harmony 
with Him : " The sacrifice of praise shall glorify me : and there is the 
way by which I will show him the salvation of God " (Ps. xlix. 23). 
Since his whole life must be spent in the Work of God, the novice shall 
use all effort to gain a liturgical spirit, arid superiors shall notice whether 
he is eager to take his place in the church, whether he is content there 
in the spirit of faith and abides without weariness, whether he provides 
and prepares for the ceremonies and lessons. 

When the novice seeks God he remembers also that the only way 
that leads securely and quickly to Him is the way of obedience : Scientes 
se per bane obedientiee viam ituros ad Deum (Chapter LXXI.) For 
St. Benedict, as we know, all virtue is manifested and summed up in 
an interior attitude which may be called obedience or humility. 
The Novice Master should therefore principally as urged by all 
monastic history habituate the novices to profound docility, to a 
supreme reverence for authority, very far removed from every sort of 
questioning, though this be polite or even purely secret. In 'their 
desire to break down pride the ancients employed methods which 
sometimes rather astonish us. 1 

Our Holy Father is doubtless recalling Cassian and also St. Basil 2 
when he requires his novices to be eager for humiliations (ad opprobria). 
However, save for the preliminary tests which St. Benedict himself 
imposes on candidates at the doors of the monastery (which, moreover, 
may have been very moderate in character), we nowhere in the Holy 
Rule find allusion to certain deliberate vexations, of a factitious and 
unjustifiable character, and calculated to exasperate human nature. 
We have spoken of them already in connection with the fourth degree 
of humility. We said that God's methods and the methods of the 
Rule are enough to try a soul. One would hardly feel at one's ease 
under an Abbot who believed himself bound in conscience to be a trial 
to his monks, and regarded them rather as patients or victims. The 
humiliations spoken of by St. Benedict are much rather the trials implied 
normally in the ordinary course of a religious life. The servile works 
in which monks were employed, the care of cattle, harvesting, the 
reclaiming of land, the kitchen service, all these formed so many humi- 

1 Cf. CASS., Inst., IV., in. 

2 Prius autem quam carport f rater nitatis inseratur, oportetei injungi quadam labor iosa 
opera et qua videantur opprobrio baberi a sacularibus, etc. (Reg. contr., vi.). 



Of the Discipline of receiving Brethren into Religion 381 

liations for the native pride and refinement of patricians. 1 Moreover, 
the monastery had no comforts ; provision was made for living and for 
cleanliness, but not for comfort. Finally, a noble might have to rub 
elbows with one of his former slaves, sometimes even receive orders 
from him. We see at once in what the humiliations consisted and in 
- what they still consist. Does some regular task mortify an evil tendency 
of yours ? Well, do it bravely. God alone counts ; things and events 
do not matter; to work miracles or to work in the kitchen is all one; it 
is enough that the task be ordered and willed by God. The soul thus 
faces all things with the same tranquil zeal. This, we admit, is a de- 
scription of perfect virtue, but generous souls reach it quickly or tend 
vigorously towards it. 

Pradicentur ei omnia dura et aspera per qua itur ad Deum (Let there 
be set before him all the hard and rugged ways by which we walk towards 
God). We should recall what was said at the end of the Prologue. 
There are real difficulties in the monastic life; the road which leads to 
God is sown with roughness and pain. 2 The novice will not be slow 
to find this out for himself. Yet he must be told, in order that he may 
not have too great a surprise and may arm himself with courage. But 
this warning should be discreet, so as not to frighten, and so as to observe 
the truth. Moreover, the postulant, wholly plunged in the joy of his 
first meetings with the Lord, and proud of his first renunciation, would 
scarcely believe us or at least would misunderstand the character of 
. these hardships. God of His mercy leaves many things hidden design- 
edly. Enough that the novice is ready to accept all. The ritual of 
profession renews this warning and asks his formal acceptance. 

The Novice Master, therefore, should speak somewhat in this way: 
In the first place there are the general conventual hardships of the 
monastic life, which has certainly not been organized with a view to 
gratify nature. Next, and especially, there are particular trials for each 
individual. And hardship always assails us at the point where we are 
most sensitive and least prepared. Such and such vexations, which 
would have been nothing in the world, become almost unbearable in 
the monastery; God generally permits an enormous disproportion 
between the cause of the hardship and the hardship felt. Some brother, 
or father, or the Abbot especially, becomes a burden to us : " He does 
not speak to me ; he does not understand me ; he keeps all his affection 
for others. The notions that prevail here are very strange and one has 
to adopt them. I had a .very good way of thinking, and now it is 
found too broad or too narrow, and I have to revise my views. 

What a nuisance ! " So a man fosters his weariness, and 

talks about it; his little wound festers; he becomes despondent. 

1 Cf. S. BASIL., loc. ult. cit. 

2 VIRGIL had spoken of a race dura et aspera (Aen., v., 730) ; but the true sources 
of St. Benedict are rather the following: Viaregia suavis acleyis est, licet duraet aspera 
sentiatur (CASS., Conlat., XXIV., xxv.)- Satis duram atque asperam vitam . . . babuit 
(PALLAD., His tor. Laus., versio antiqua: apud Par ad. Heracl., 41. ROSWEYD, p. 970). 
Semper dura et laboriosa eis proponantur (Reg. I. SS. PATRUM, vii.). 



382 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

Sometimes it seems that perseverance is only secured by natural 
and petty motives. Sometimes, too, the temptation takes this form: 
"Why did I not choose another Order? After all, the monastic 
and contemplative life is not the only one. There are plenty of 
other ways of being a religious; I might be a Dominican, or a 
Capuchin, or a Jesuit: a Dominican especially. Then there are the 
Carthusians; they have almost continual silence, and one has not to 
associate with people " 

Let us add that, in a monastery, the absence of distractions and diver- 
sion gives us over entirely to our grievance. As we noted in commenting 
on the Prologue, the sufferings of contemplatives resemble the pains 
of purgatory: the fire penetrates to the marrow, to the most intimate 
fibres of our being; it is a slow burning, as in a closed vessel, stifling and 
choking. Every movement becomes painful, as with a man whose outer 
skin has been removed: " The soul tosses and turns upon back and side 
and face; but all is hard." 1 Verily it is painful, this contact with God, 
the contact of our ugliness with His beauty, of our darkness with His 
light. St. John of the Cross explains it admirably. Until the day 
when God shall be our supreme joy, He is the great trial. " For the 
word of God is living and effectual and more piercing than any two- 
edged sword and reaching unto the division of the soul and the spirit, 
of the joints also and the marrow: and is a discerner of the thoughts 
and intents of the heart" (Heb. iv. 12). Furthermore, there are 
certain privileged sufferings which would be intolerable and mortal, 
if God did not sustain us by His grace; but they are the prelude to union 
with Him. Let us not imagine that our little novitiate troubles have 
something to do" with these sufferings. 

One wretched way of escaping the dura et aspera (hard and rugged 
ways) is to make oneself a quiet bourgeois existence, to seek to be one of 
those whose lives are without glory and without disgrace, whom heaven 
likes not and hell will not receive in its depths, 2 of those who are saved, 
but barely and prosaically. " He who soweth sparingly shall also reap 
sparingly: and he who soweth in blessings shall also reap blessings" 
(2 Cor. ix. 6). If we read the fourteenth chapter of The Spiritual Life 
and Prayer on the First Purification, we find that " those who forget 
themselves sometimes pass these painful stages, however hard they may 
be, very cheerfully; but they appear very painful, and are in fact doubly 
so, to those who love their spiritual comfort too well. Therefore what 
is needed is to remain tranquilly on the cross, to adore, to let the 
physician cut the sore at his pleasure, to make an effort to keep very close 
to God, whose touch wounds only to heal. Let us take care also not to 
magnify our sufferings by imagination arid by a turning in upon self 
which strains and irritates us. Certain unhealthy temperaments have 
a tendency to seek a sort of morbid pleasure, not free from pose, in 
suffering: but " no sorrow is desirable." 8 Sorrow is never anything but 

1 S. AUG., Confess., 1. VI., c. xvi. P.L., XXXII., 732. 

a DANTE, Inferno, III., 32-42. a S. AUG., ibid., 1. HI., c. ii. P.L., XXXII., 684. 



Of the Discipline of receiving Brethren into Religion 383 

a means; and often our sufferings, being due to unfaithfulness, are such 
that we might easily be rid of them. As to the others, it is far more 
important to accept them well when they come, than feverishly to solicit 
them from God. " Upon the bars I did not deny Thee, O God, and 
when put to the fire I confessed thee, O Christ; Thou hast proved my 
heart and hast visited me in the night, Thou hast tried me with fire : and 
iniquity was not found in me." 1 

Et si promiserit de stabilitatis suse And if he promise steadfastly to 
perseverantia, post duorum mensium persevere in stability, after the lapse 
circulum legatur ei haec Regula per of two months let this Rule be read 
ordinem, et dicatur ei: Ecce lex, sub in order to him and let him be told: 
qua militarevisjsipotes observare, in- "Behold the law under which you 
gredere: si vero non potes, liber dis- desire to fight; if you can keep it, enter; 
cede. Si adhuc steterit, tune ducatur if you cannot, freely depart." If 
in supradictam cellam novitiorum, et he still stand firm, let him be taken 
iterum probetur in omni patientia. to the aforesaid cell of the Novices, 
Et post sex mensium circulum relegatur and again tried in all patience. And 
ei Regula, ut sciat ad quod ingreditur. after the lapse of six months, let the 
Et si adhuc stat, post quatuor menses Rule be read to him again, that he may 
iterum relegatur ei eadem regula. know to what he is entering. Should 

he still stand firm, after four months 
let the same Rule be read to him once 
more. 

Choosing, -petition, and scrutiny. St. Benedict has no very pronounced 
interest in anything about the candidate save the temper of his will. 
The novitiate trial is to be continued only if the candidate " promise 
steadfastly to persevere," if his intention of giving himself to God in 
the monastery is thoroughly solid. But since the quality of our will is 
in proportion to our knowledge; since we remain attached to that only 
which we have freely chosen; since we are bound to fulfil only what we 
have promised : for all these motives of elementary prudence and wisdom, 
St. Benedict would have the candidate made to know the laws of his new 
life exactly. The year of novitiate is marked by this presentation of 
the Rule at intervals and by a threefold choosing. 2 

According to St. Benedict's words it would appear that this official 
reading of the Rule, consecutively and in its entirety, 'per ordinem, was 
done after the two, or six, or four months, if not at one sitting, at least 
during the days which preceded the ceremony of choosing. The ancient 

1 Office of St. Lawrence the Martyr. 

* St. Benedict's predecessors had written: Si quis de seeculo ad monasterium convent 
voluerit, Regula ei introeunti legatur, et omnes actus monasterii illi patefiant. Qui si 
omnia apte sustinuerit sic digne a frairibus suscipiatur in monasterio (S. MACAX., Reg., 
xxiii.). And ST. GKSARIUS: Queecumque ad conversionem venerit, in salutatorio eifre- 
quentius Regula relegatur; et siprompta et libera voluntateprofessafuerit se omnia Regula 
tnstituta completuram, tamdiu tbi sit quamdiu Abbatissa justum ac rationabile vitumfuerit 
(Re$. ad virg., Recap., yiii.). An analogous provision occurs among the statutes of a 
burial society, in a Latin inscription of the second century: Tu qui novos (=novus) 
in hoc collegia intrare voles, prius legem perlege et sic intra, ne postmodum queraris aut 
beredi tuo controversiam relinquas (ORELLI-HENZEN,. Inscfiptionum latinarum selectarum 
amplissima collectio, no. 6086;. 



384 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

customaries mention these three readings and these three choosings. 1 
In actual fact the Rule is read to novices in the course of the months of 
probation. It is not read to each individual by himself, but to the whole 
community, three times a year among us, in chapter and in the refectory. 
Moreover, it should be explained in its entirety during the novitiate. 
The Council of Aix-la-Chapelle, in A.D. 817, recommended: " That all 
monks, who are able, should learn the Rule by heart." We still have 
two solemn ceremonies of choosing : before the novice receives the habit 
and before profession. 

If this reading and this formal arraignment have not driven the 
candidate away, if he " stands firm," he is taken back to the novitiate 
and tried " in all patience" that is to say, trial is made to see whether 
he can suffer, without being disconcerted, all the little worries of com- 
munity life. The patience of which our Holy Father here speaks is 
rather that of the novice than of his masters, which for its part should 
never fail: for we must imitate God, who knows how to wait. Our 
Constitutions, agreeing in this with more ancient Constitutions, such as 
those of Chezal-Benoft and of the Maurists, prescribe an examination 
of the novices by chapter, at certain fixed dates; this is the function that 
we call the " novices' chapter "; it is held at the Ember-days. 

The duration of the novitiate proper is fixed by our Holy Father at 
a year, as is proved if we add together the three periods of two, six, and 
four months which precede the choosings. Whatever be the facts about 
the novitiate of St. Pachomius, 2 other legislators, such as St. Caesarius, 
St. Fructuosus, and St. Ferreolus, require a year's trial. Sometimes the 
superior had power to reduce the period of probation, even to a notable 
extent. Such reductions were customary at Cluny, and Peter the 
Venerable justifies them to St. Bernard. 3 A year was a judicious mean ; 
and therefore the Benedictine usage has passed into the Corpus Juris, in 
the Decretals, and has been consecrated by the Council of Trent. 4 The 
Council even decreed that profession made before the age of sixteen and 
without a year's novitiate is null. Its legislation is severe on this point. 
But the discussion of all these questions may be left to the Canonists. 
When the year's novitiate is complete the candidate is received or 
dismissed; yet it is not irregular for the superior to prolong the pro- 
bation some months. These eleventh-hour attempts, or a second 
novitiate, generally have no great success. 

The candidate's choice is not sufficient of itself to admit him to pro- 

1 Here is the reply of a candidate at St. Ouen in Rouen (fourteenth to fifteenth 
century): " My lord, for this I do not trust in myself, but in God and our Lady, 
St. Mary, and in all the saints, men and women, and in you, my lord, and the holy 
community of this house that I shall be obedient even to death. And should the 
devil wish me to retract this, I beg you, my lord, to have me constrained by force " 
(MARTENE, De ant. eccl. rit., 1. II., c. ii. T. II., col. 465). 

2 MGR. LADEUZE considers " that the novitiate did not exist among the cenobites 
of St. Pachomius as a regular and general institution " (Etude sur le ctnobitisme pakbo- 
mien pendant le IV siecle et la premiere moitie du F e , pp. 280-282). 

Epitt.tll.jEp.XXVm. P.L., CLXXXIX., 
4 And by the new Code. 



Of the Discipline of receiving Brethren into Religion 385 

fession : there is needed as well the consent of the body, and this, accord- 
ing to our custom, the novice asks humbly on his knees in the middle of 
chapter. In ancient monastic practice the candidate also made a last 
petition and was questioned as to his dispositions. Our Constitutions, 
in prescribing a similar course, are indebted to the Maurists and other 
Benedictine Congregations, 1 but with this difference, that the ceremony 
comprises nothing else but the reading of a long and solemn formula. 
We should note besides that the phrase " make a petition " has not, in 
modern usage, quite the same meaning as in the Rule. The Petitio, 
according to St. Benedict's ideas and the custom of his time, was at once 
a request for admission, a promise, and the schedule, or written and 
signed instrument, testifying for ever to the obligations contracted. 2 
This written petition was then preceded, it would seem, by a verjbal 
promise: "Let him make a promise of stability. . . . Let him draw up 
a petition containing this promise." Subsequently and this is mani- 
fest in the very tenor of the documents the verbal promise was some- 
times made only after the drawing up of the legal instrument. 

In the verbal promise the text of the Rule was reproduced without 
addition: Promitto de stabilitate mea, etc. As to the written formula 
or petition, which was also without doubt originally short, this became 
fuller after the seventh century, developing into a little speech in which 
the novice described the reality of the trial he had undergone, asked 
admission to the household of God and His servants, proclaimed his 
good resolutions, mentioned the saints, the relics, and the Abbot, and 
ended as we do in our form. Later on the long formula was abridged. 
And in this way the schedule, or petition, was confused with the verbal 
promise uttered before or after it. A fusion of the two produced a 
summary, and that is the nature of the form in actual use. The verbal 
formula of the eighth and ninth centuries is cited sometimes in docu- 
ments of that period alongside the long formula of petition in this shape, 
for instance: Ego tile, Domne Abba N., obedientiam vobis secundum 
Regulam S. Benedicti, juxta quod, in ista petitione continet, quam super 
istud altare posui, coram Deo et Sanctis ejus, in quantum mihi ipse Deus 
dederit adjutorium, Deo et vobis promitto custodire, et in quo possum, ipso 
auxiliante, conserve? Our petition formula is only an ancient pro- 
fession schedule, somewhat abridged and adapted to its new purpose ; 
or, more accurately, it is a compilation formed from many different 
documents of the same character. 4 

1 See, for instance, the Ceremonials monastico-benedictinum of the Bavarian Congre- 
gation of the Holy Angels (1737), p. 189. 

2 Cf. D. ROTHENHAUSLER, Zttr Aufttabmeordnung der Regula S. Benedict^ I., i. 2, 
pp. 9 sq. 

3 M. G. H. : Legum, Sectio V., Formula, p. 569. 

4 These documents are to be found in BALUZE, Capitularia Regum Francorum: Nova 
collectio formularum, nos. xxxiii. and xxxii., t. II., pp. 576 and 5745 in MABILLON, Acta 
SS. O.S.B., Saec. IV., P. I., pp. 694-695; and in the recent and critical edition of the 
Monumenta Germania Historica: Legum, Sectio V., Formulae Merowingici et Karolini 
Aevi, p. 479, n. 42, and p. 570, n. 3 1. A formula much resembling that given by BALUZE 
in no. xxxiii. is cited by HERRGOTT in his Fetus disciflina monffstica,p. 591; it maybe 



386 Commentary on the. Rule of St. Benedict 

We might seek in vain in the petitions of former days for that 
mention of the " suffrages " of the community which is introduced in 
ours. The reason is that the novice was admitted to profession in 
virtue of the Abbot's decision ; it was the right of the father of the family 
to grant a place in his household to his newborn son. The Abbot 
stood guarantee to the community for the good dispositions of the 
candidate whom he received. He was the witness par excellence, in . 
this world, of the profession promises, just as the saints, whose relics they 
had, were their witnesses in heaven. So we find St. Benedict prescribing 
that the petition be made " in the name of the saints . . . and of the 
Abbot there present "; the latter received the petition in the name of 
God, and the candidate became truly bis son. However, the Abbot 
did not fail to take the advice of his community. 1 According to the 
Statutes of Lanfranc, 2 he asks the brethren if he may proceed to the 
profession; there is the same direction in the Bursfeld Ceremonial; 8 
the " novices' chapters," of which we said a word, were designed for the 
enlightenment /of the Abbot. But, after all, it is he who decides, and 
there is no voting; if there be sometimes mention of a " scrutiny," it is 
only in its etymological sense of an examination. 4 Present-day legis- 
lation is different; but to-day still, the decision of the Abbot carries 
most weight in the matter of admission, not so much on the score of the 
double vote that the Constitutions give him, as because it is he who 
presents, and because he presents only those of whom he is morally sure; 

Ike vows of religion. Before entering upon the third portion of 
the chapter, and in order not to have to interrupt the description of the 
ritual of profession, we may briefly review the theological basis of the 
vows of religion, and examine closely the form used by the Benedictines. 

The supernatural perfection of man consists essentially in charity, 
not- initial or incipient charity, but charity dominant and supreme; it 
consists in an eminent degree of charity, or in the complex of all 
those forces which unite us to God deeply, solidly, and in a stable and 
continuous fashion. And the " perfect life " is defined by its tendency 
towards perfection, by a manner of living (modus vivendi) designed to 
realize and increase perfection. Now, this is obtained by the full and 
generous accomplishment of the precepts, which are all nothing but 
particular manifestations of the law of charity. But, for all that, we do 
not arrive at this full observance of the precepts and at perfect charity 
save by the practice of certain counsels. A counsel, on its negative side, 

found also in the M. G. H,: /. c., p. 568, and in D. ALBEM: Cotuuetudi net monasti <*, 
vol. III., p. 178. The formula which D. ALBEKS cites immediately before thii one 
is the same as that of no zzxii. in Baluze, as that printed by Du CANGE, Glottarium 
(Profiteri), and by LEOPOLD DELISLE, Literature latitu et bistoire du moyen dge, p. 16. 
See also the formula given by SMARAGDUS and quoted in MARTENS, Commentary, 
p. 763. Cf. D. HERWEGEN, Gescbicbte der benediktiniscben Professformel. 

1 See Chapter III. of the Holy Rule and the Commentary otPAUl THE DEACON. 

9 MART&NE, De ant. monacb. Tit., 1. V., c. iv., col. 646. 

3 MART^NE, op. '<., 1. V., c. iv., col. 656. 

MARTNE, De ant. ted. >., 1. II,, c. ii. T. IJ,, cpj, 484, 



Of the Discipline of receiving Brethren into "Religion 387 

guarantees a precept, and, at the same time, defends and protects 
charity; on its positive side it increases charity while being at the same 
time its fruit; it is at once the cause and index of perfection. The 
perfect life, or life of perfection, is therefore assured by the practice of 
the counsels ; thus the exercise of &e counsels is a mark of the perfect life. 

But the perfect life may exist even in the world and is not necessarily 
the religious life. The latter is the "state of perfection" that is to 
say, the perfect life organized and comprising certain special elements. 
It will not be out of place to say a word concerning each of these. 

We should remember, in the first place, that the religious life is 
not distinct from the Christian life, it is not something new superadded 
to Christianity, but is one of its states, its achievement and full 
flower. This state is not purely interior, but has as well a visible and 
external character. It implies stability, a legal and de jure permanence. 
The religious life is instituted with a view to personal perfection, at 
least primarily. We enter upon it by personal resolve and personal 
action. And the obligation is contracted in precise terms under an 
exterior and visible form, in a way that the Church can ascertain. 

It is contracted in view of a good which is over and above the precepts 
that is to say, in view of the counsels, of works which prepare, exercise, 
and increase perfection. The counsels to which the religious life binds 
us are not merely interior; nor does the religious life bind monks to all 
counsels, but primarily to the three great evangelical counsels, and to 
the good determined for each form of the religious life 1 by its own end 
and its special laws. Poverty, chastity, and obedience are at one and 
the same time a means of enfranchisement by the sacrifice of three great 
concupiscences, a giving to God of the whole man with all his external 
goods, his body and his soul, and a means of union with God; for, 
according to the theologians, the vows of religion, besides bein'g a 
guarantee and a security, have at the same time the character of an 
offering and a holocaust. Much might be said on the subject of the 
vows : the more so that the true conception of their scope and excellence 
is nowadays often misunderstood. A vow really adds something to 
a good work and is a very efficacious instrument of perfection; it creates 
a bond which of its nature decisively enfranchises him who takes the 
vow, a bond which purposely fixes the will in the good vowed. Thanks 
to the vow, a good work becomes an act of worship and adoration, and 
not only the fruit but the sap and the tree itself are consecrated to God. 2 
Profession is nothing else but the taking of the vows of religion. 

But, in order that the giving of ourselves by the three main vows of 
religion should make us religious, it must be accepted in the name of 
God by the Church; and the Church in this case is represented by the 
prelate or any other competent person. Profession being, as we shall 
explain, a contract, the intervention of two parties is indispensable. 

1 Cf. D. GUERANGER, Reglement du Noviciat (current under the title: Notions stir 
la vie religieuse et monastique). See also: MGR. GAY, De la vie et rf WW* cbrtfiennes 
comiderees dans fetat religieux, t. II., chap. ix.-xi. 

1 Cf. ST. THOMAS, Summa H.-II., q. uzxviii., . 6. 



388 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

The profession should be made and the vows practised under a 
Rule approved by the Church: as the Rules of St. Basil, St. Benedict, 
St. Augustine, and St. Francis, on one or other of which "constitutions" 
now are based. The Popes have allowed some Orders to live under a 
Rule of their own, not derived from one of the four just mentioned. 
Finally, the religious life, in virtue of canonical regulations, now requires 
submission to a superior, and also a common life, which varies in degree 
according to the Order. 

Without entering in detail into the distinction between simple and 
solemn vows, it will be well to say a word about it. Solemnity does not 
mean perpetuity, for there are simple vows with perfect perpetuity, 
as in the Congregations which take only simple vows. Still less does it 
consist in the liturgical ceremonies, or even in the publicity with which 
the vows are taken, though the law ordains that the monk's parish priest 
must be notified. Solemnity makes the monk incapable of performing 
acts contrary to the vows, in such a way that these acts become not 
merely illicit, but null and void, but this incapacity might be regarded 
rather as a consequence of solemnity than as its essential element, and 
it is sometimes attached to simple vows, as for instance to the vows taken 
by the Jesuit scholastics and coadjutors. 

The Church has not made any pronouncement on this question 
of the essential character of solemnity, but there can be no doubt that 
it is an institution of ecclesiastical origin. The Church decides the 
special conditions which must be fulfilled in taking solemn vows, and 
the Church can dispense from the obligations which result from them, 
or from the solemnity, while at the same time leaving the vows 
intact. 

Nevertheless it remains true that solemn vows, because of the in- 
capacity which they imply, strip the monk completely and bind him 
more closely to his Order; they set him in a more perfect state, and the 
Church secures the full privileges of exemption to every religious body 
in which solemn vows are taken. 

Perpetual vows, whether simple or solemn, cannot now be taken 
before the age of twenty-one, and until after three years at least of 
temporary vows. 

" Let the vows be taken according to the Benedictine form viz., 
of stability, conversion of manners, and obedience according to the 
Rule of our Holy Father St. Benedict, to be observed in the sense 
explained by the Constitutions." So speak our Constitutions. 

Stability. We should remember that one of the principal objects 
of our Holy Father was to combat degraded forms of the monastic life, 
especially "gyrovagy." It was a great evil. The vows of religion, 
although perpetual, often became illusory when a man set himself to 
run about the world and change his monastery as caprice suggested. 
Monastic legislation admitted these changes of monastery too easily. 1 

1 Cf. FAUSTI RHEGIENSIS, Sermo vii. ad monacbos. P.L., LVIII., 885. 



Of the Discipline of receiving Brethren into Religion 389 

St. Basil, without failing to recognize that there are sometimes good 
reasons for passing to another house, yet lays down the principle of 
stability in the monastery. 1 Instabilitas is condemned by Cassian. 2 
St. Caesarius of Aries makes stability a primary condition of admission: 
" In the first place, if any one come to conversion (i.e., religious life), 
let him be received on this condition that he persevere there until 
death." 3 The Fourth Ecumenical Council forbade monks to quit 
their monasteries without the bishop's authorization, 4 and the Council 
of Agde (A.D. 506) laid it down that a monk belonged to his house and 
his Abbot. 6 But it really seems that St. Benedict was the first to bind a 
monk to his monastery by an express vow; and in the passage of the Rule 
whjch enumerates the elements of his promise the vow of stability 
holds the first place. 

Stability therefore has the precise meaning of permanence in the 
supernatural family in which profession is made, of permanence in the 
monastery, and not merely the general meaning of perseverance in good 
or in the religious life. " From that day forward he cannot depart from 
the monastery," says St. Benedict. As early as the Prologue he alludes to 
" perseverance until death in the monastery "; it the end of the fourth 
chapter the monastic enclosure, with stability in the assembly of the 
brethren, was put before us as the sole workshop wherein the instru- 
ments of the spiritual craft might be used successfully. Finally, in the 
sixty-first chapter, St. Benedict indicates the method which must be 
followed in succouring victims of the vagrant habit (gyrovagy), if there 
be any hope of a cure. 

Monastic stability is not the rigid enclosure of nuns ; it is not opposed 
to such an egress as is authorized by the Abbot, nor even, nowadays at 
least, to a passing into another house of a Congregation, when permission 
is granted. We vow stability " according to our Constitutions " : now 
these provide for the case when a monk may, by means of an authentic 
instrument, set his stability in a monastery other than that of his pro- 
fession : as when a man leaves his own house either for his personal good, 
or to help a community, or to assist in a new foundation. If stability- 
is in conflict with obedience, the latter must prevail; for, to repeat, the 
stability we vow does not imply absolute immovability. It may be said 
that stability consists in a deep and lasting belonging to a family, 
normally to the very monastery of one's profession. 

Conversion of manners. In general this means abandonment of 
a sinful or worldly life, and the direction of our activity towards the 
supernatural. But we should take these words in the exact sense 
attached to them, in the time of our Holy Father. Conversion of 
manners meant the religious life itself, considered in the elements with- 

1 Reg. fus., xxxvi. Cf. also the Constitutiones monastics, c. xxi. P.G., XXXI., 
1393-1402. 

2 Inst., VII., ix. 

3 Reg. ad mon.y i. ; Reg. ad virg., i. Cf. also the Rule of ST. AURELIAN, i. 

4 Can. iv. MANSI:, t. VII., col. 382. 

5 Can. xxxviii. MANSI, t. VIII. , col. 331. 



39 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

out which it cannot exist, especially in chastity and poverty (obedience is 
presently mentioned expressly) . Let us not be astonished that our form 
of profession contains no explicit mention of poverty and chastity: this 
omission is traditional and is found in the diverse branches of the Order. 1 
Nor have Carthusians, Canons Regular, Carmelites, and Dominicans 
an express mention of the three vows; some have only the vow of 
obedience. 2 The monks of St. Basil take only the vow of chastity. 

Obedience well deserved to be the matter of a special promise: it is 
the most lofty form of conversion of manners; it is the sacrifice of soul 
and will; it embraces of itself the whole supernatural life and the whole 
religious life. Moreover, his definite purpose of distinguishing cenobites 
from anchorites on the one hand and from sarabaites on the other, 
induced St. Benedict to make obedience an explicit vow. Bernard of 
Monte Cassino remarks judiciously that in emphasizing thus the vows 
of stability, conversion of manners, and obedience, our Holy Father 
distinguishes his monks from the gyrovagues by stability, from the 
sarabaites by conversion of manners, and from the anchorites by 
obedience to a superior and a written rule. 

We take our vows " according to the Rule of St. Benedict, as inter- 
preted by our Constitutions." This calls for several observations. 

We do not vow to practise all the counsels, which would be rather 
hard of fulfilment, since some are mutually exclusive and contradictory 
(poverty and almsgiving, for instance), and their number is infinite. 
As we have already remarked, every form of the religious life is based 
upon the observance of the three great substantive counsels, to which are 
added those counsels which are appropriate to the end of the institute. 
By making our profession as Benedictines, we engage to live according 
to the Rule of St. Benedict; therefore we shall not go about making 
ourselves a motley collection from other Rules as the accident of de- 
votion leads us. Still less are we justified in adding to or subtracting 
anything whatever from our Rule and Constitutions, with a view to 
the greater perfection of the community. Neither the Abbot, nor the 
Superior General, nor General Chapter can of themselves modify them 
in a notable degree; they are competent only to interpret them, to 
propose changes and to test them. That Benedictine life, which is our 
duty, is also our right. Even as regards the essential vows chastity 
being excepted obedience and poverty are understood and practised 
in each Order in a way to some degree peculiar to the Order: and we 
have a right to the special character of the Benedictine Rule. The ideal 
of our observance is bound up with an accurate understanding of our 
Holy Father's spirit. Yet we should be on our guard; for it is fatally 
easy for egoism, folly, or delusion to persuade a monk that his superior 
has not got the true mind of St. Benedict, or that he oversteps his rights. 

We make profession to live " according to the Rule " : but to what 
extent does the Rule bind us ? Is faithful observance merely , a matter 

' l Cf. HJEFTEN, 1. IV., tract, vi., di8q; vi. 
2 Cf. ST. THOMAS, Summa II.-IL, q. clxxxvi., a. 8. 



Of the Discipline of receiving Brethren into Religion 391 

of the individual's consistency, or of propriety, or of honour or is 
conscience concerned, and to what extent ? The question is a delicate 
and complicated one, but very practical. Here we can give some con- 
clusions only. 

The religious Rule involves obligation. It involves obligation, and 
that under the ordinary theological conditions, for all the ordinances 
of natural law, of divine positive law, and of ecclesiastical law, which it 
embodies and promulgates to its subjects. It involves an obligation of 
conscience, more or less grave, in all that constitutes the matter of the 
vows: infringement in this case having the malice of sacrilege. We do 
not vow to keep the Rule absolutely : otherwise all that it contains would 
be matter of the' vows; but only to live " according to the Rule." It 
involves an obligation of conscience in the special cases where the Rule, 
or the superior, prescribes something in formulas of command which 
appeal to the vow of obedience. . 

Some Rules take the trouble to specify the points which bind under 
pain of mortal or venial sin. Others announce that, save for the cases 
enumerated above, they do not bind under sin, but only to the enduring 
of the prescribed penalty (sed solum ad pcenam taxatam sustinendam). 
Others specify nothing, which is the case with the ancient Rules and 
ours in particular. Casuistry was not according to the spirit of those 
times, and it is probable that they never dreamt that disputes might 
arise on this point. 

Yet there have been disputes among the theologians of the Order. 1 
Without plunging into the heart of the discussion, it may be affirmed 
that our Holy Father intended to make of his Rule something other 
than a series of optional counsels of perfection, something other, too, 
than a sort of police code, than a system of personal penalties designed 
to inspire fear by their severity. His monks are not slaves, who obey 
the menace of the lash; the Abbot is not a " prefect of discipline." 
Practically, whatever be the obligation of the Rule in itself, 2 there are 
few infringements of it which do not become theological faults in virtue 
of malice which originates elsewhere. The secret motive which inspires 
transgression often has an immoral complexion, as of laziness, pride, or 
gluttony. There may also be formal contempt for some point or other 
of observance, 3 such contempt as might constitute a grave fault if it 
extended to the whole Rule. Moreover, there may be scandal of a 
more or less serious nature: we may contribute to the relaxation of 
general discipline. On all these points delusion is easy and habits of 
inobservance are easily formed, especially in the matter of silence, 
studies, and prayer : it is thus that a man finds himself on the downward 
.slope that leads to contempt. 

In these matters we need delicacy of conscience, not scrupulosity, 

1 Cf. D. MEGE, Comment, sur la Rigle, Avertiuement, pp. 36 jf. J. ROTTNER, Mar- 
garita calestis, q. XL, a. .ii., pp. 520 sq. 

8 Read D. GUERANGER, Rtglement du Noviciat, chap. ii. 
3 Cf. ST. THOMAS, Summa II.-II., q. clxxxri., a. 9., ad. 3. 



392 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

nor an awkward rigidity, which ignores shades of difference and that 
prudent " epikia " of which moralists speak. Above all let us not forget 
that we have a real obligation of conscience to tend towards perfection 
and have solemnly vowed it; that the Rule is the very form of this 
perfection which we have vowed, and that its liberality and discretion 
do not leave self-will free to recover itself in detail. Sons need only to 
know what their Father loves and what he expects of them. 

Et si habita secum deliberatione, And if, having deliberated with 
promiserit se omnia custodire, etcuncta himself, he promise to keep all things, 
sibi imperata servare, tune suscipiatur and to observe everything that is 
in congregatione, sciens lege Regulse commanded him, then let him be 
constitutum, quod ei ex ilia die non received into the community, knowing 
liceat egredi de monasterio, nee collum that it is decreed by the law of the Rule 
excutere de sub jugo Regulae, quam that from that day forward he may not 
sub tarn morosa deliberatione licuit ei depart from the 'monastery nor shake 
recusare aut suscipere. from off his neck the yoke of the Rule, 

which after such prolonged delibera- 
tion he was free either to refuse or to 
accept. 

The character and consequences of profession. Before describing 
profession, St. Benedict briefly indicates what happens when the 
novitiate trial is complete and the candidate has made up his mind: 
he promises to observe the whole Rule; he is received into the coin- 
munity; and his engagement is irrevocable. Our Holy Father here 
emphasizes especially the character and the moral consequences of an 
act for which the novice has had opportunity to prepare himself with all 
completeness. The consequences, so far as material goods are concerned, 
shall be mentioned only at the end of the chapter. 

Profession is a considered act. There has been leisure to think 
about it and to deliberate, leisure large and abundantly sufficient: 
tarn morosa deliberatio. The novice has been required to weigh the 
reasons for and against, and to refuse or accept the burden: licuit 
recusare aut accfyere. Before committing himself, he. has examined 
the matter .for a last time in the depths of his soul: habita secum delibera- 
tione. For profession is not a jest or an elegant mockery entailing no 
consequences. 

Its principal character is that of oblation, as we see clearly from the 
formula which accompanies it: Suscipe /<?, Domtne, from the part of 
the Mass at which it is made, and from the very words of the Rule. 
Now, according to St. Benedict, this giving must be entire, comprising 
the whole man, both in his being and in his activity: so much so that 
St. Benedict bases the ensuing incapacity of the monk to possess any- 
thing whatever upon the absolute character of the gift : " Who may not 
have their bodies or their wills in their own power " (Chap. XXXIII.), 
and in the last paragraph of the present chapter " . . .no power even 
over his own body." It is a sacrifice in which the victim is consumed 
wholly. No one thinks, on the day of his profession, of making reserva- 



Of the Discipline of receiving Brethren into Religion 393 

tions, of bargaining shamefully with God, of arranging that such and 
such a point of the Rule shall not bind him. On that day we do not even 
take precautions against eventual requirements, and possible excesses of 
authority. On that day we say: " Lord, I write my vow small that You 
may be able, in the blank spaces and on the margin, to write all that 
You wish; You are not one to haggle with. Set down the unexpected, 
the painful, the impossible; it makes no matter, You shall be obeyed." 
Our bond remains as we made it. We shall have to render an account of 
it according to its true value, and not according to subsequent mitiga- 
tion and abatement : " For by thy words thou shalt be justified : and by 
thy words thou shalt be condemned " (Matt. xii. 37). 

Profession, therefore^ is an engagement of honour, or rather of strict 
justice. Our word once given, we must keep it even when it is given 
to the living God. As we shall see later, profession is also a contract, 
and a twofold contract : with God who gives us His life in exchange for 
ours, with our monastic family, which gives us a share in all its super- 
natural goods, in return for a promise of submission and fidelity. If 
we arrive ever at such a state as practically to say that our contracts 
do not bind us, we mock God, says St. Benedict, recalling the words of 
St. Paul (Gal. vi. 7): Ut si aliquando aliterfecerit, ab eo se damnandum 
sciat quern irridet. 

Finally, profession is a definitive and irrevocable act. 1 Did we 
intend to make a terminable contract ? Can the belonging of the soul 
to God, and of God to the soul, which profession implies, have 'a 
precarious and temporary character ? It must last for eternity. He 
who loves does not look forward to the day when he shall cease to love. 
St. Benedict had besides a special motive in adding the remark: Sciens 
... quod ei ex ilia die, etc. As we have said, he does not want any of 
those gyrovagues who come and go at their pleasure, nor does he want 
sarabaites. And in-plain language he warns those who would join his 
family of the conditions of the life led therein: a man may not go forth 
any more; he is stable and abides under the yoke of a Rule. 2 

The ceremonial of profession. After something of a campaign of 
private and conventual prayers, 3 the blessed day of profession comes at 
last, a day of unique importance to the soul, to be ranked only with the 
day of baptism and the day of its entry into eternity. The community 
assemble in the chapter room after Terce and the novice coines forward 
to make a last petition and a last choice. 4 " Son, you know the law 
under which you wish to fight, you know upon what you are entering. 

1 Cf. S. BASIL., Reg. f us., xiv. Constitutions! monastics, c. xxii. P.G., XXXL, 
1401 sq. S. JQANN. CHRYSOS., Adbort. II. ad Tbeodorum lapsum. P.O., XLVIL, 
309. S. C&SAR., Reg. ad man., i. . 

8 J u & fegulce colla submittentes {Vita Macarii Romani, 2. Vita Patrum, I. Ros- 
WEYD, p. 225). 

3 The Customs of Cluny said: Commendat (Abbas) fratribus ut in orationibus suit 
recordentur eorum, et aliquando, si videtur^ unum psalmum, post singulas Horas in illo die 
pro eis cantari (UDALR., Consuet. Clun., 1. II., c. xxvi.). 

* This choosing, of dress was in vogue among the Maucists also. 



394 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

Lo, now before you are the garments of your former worldly condition, 
and the clothing of holy religion: choose in the sight of God and His 
saints, choose which of these your soul seeks and desires." After the 
choosing of the monastic habit the procession 1 returns to the oratory. . 

The profession shall take place there, as St. Benedict prescribed, 
for it is eminently a religious and liturgical function. It takes place 
during Mass and at the. time of the Offertory. Our Holy Father does 
not say so, but everything leads us to believe that such was really the 
custom in his time. Let us note that the vows were to be placed " on 
the altar " : doubtless along with the offerings of the faithful; for, in the 
next chapter, he prescribes that the written petition of a child offered 
by its parents should be wrapped, with its hand and with the offerings 
(of the faithful), in the altar-cloth: Et cum oblatione ifsam petitionem 
et manum pueri involvant in palla altaris et sic eum off ef ant. The 
Council of Aix-la-Chapelle, in A.D. 817, interprets the cum oblatione of 
Chapter LIX. in that way. The most ancient tradition puts the profes- 
sion during the Holy Sacrifice. In the eighth century St. Theodore of 
Canterbury says in his Capitulary that the profession took place during 
Mass celebrated by the Abbot. 2 The same was the custom at Cluhy 8 
and in many other places. The statutes of Lanfranc leave it to the 
choice of the Abbot to bless the monk " before the Introit if he do not 
celebrate the Mass, or after the Gospel, whether he celebrate or no "; 4 
but it is clear from what follows that the second method was more in 
favour. Almost everywhere, in fact, the profession was made after the 
Gospel, or the Credo, and before the Offertory. However, in his first 
commentary on the Rule, Peter Boherius says that it took place after the 
Offertory. 6 Among" the Maurists also profession came after the Offertory. 

The custom of some modern Congregations is to have the profession 
outsideMass ; those whichmake it in the course of the Mass are authorized 
by a decree of 1894 to adopt the Jesuit ceremonial, which consists in 
pronouncing the vows before the priest who holds the Sacred Host, 
immediately before receiving Communion.* We are free to consider 
the ancient custom more profoundly symbolical. 

1 We then sing that same psalm cxxv.: In convertendo, which the five* first monks 
of Solesmes sang when going from the parish church to the restored monastery, 
July 11, 1833. 

* According to the ancient monastic canons, the. Abbot should himself celebrate 
the Mass, if he can, and receive the profession, thus performing the " blessing " of the 
monk. In liturgical parlance it is not a " consecration," for monks do not form part 
of the ecclesiastical hierarchy; and, according to ST. DENIS, it is the business of priests 
to bless them (De bierarcb. eccl., c. vi.). 

8 BERNARD., Ordo Clun., P. I., c. xx. . 

4 Cap. Hi., ap. MARTENE, De antiq. monacb. rit., 1. V., c. iv., col. 646. Cf. BERNARD, 
Ordo Clun., P. I., c. xv., xx. 6 Cf. MARTENE, Commentary, p. 769. 

8 Compare this custom with that which is found mentioned in the Ltber ordinum 
of the Mozarabic liturgy, edited by D. FEROTIN; the evidence is at least as old as the 
eleventh century, but is probably older. It is there said (cols. 85-86) that after the 
profession of a.conversus who is not a cenobite, when the prayers are finished, datur ei 
sancta communtp; for a cenobite, the ritual is the same, except that, after the Com- 
munion, tola jam explicita missa, he deposits his profession form on the altar and 
dings the Suscipe. 



Of the Discipline of receiving Brethren into Religion 395 

Before describing the ceremony of profession we should enquire 
what it was before our Holy Father's time. Canonists distinguish two 
sorts of profession, tacit and explicit, and observe that the former was 
the only one in use primitively: it consisted of acts equivalent to formal 
profession and having the validity of a contract. It may be said that 
the taking or reception of the monastic habit, and often also the tonsure, 
were enough, in the early centuries, for the making a monk or a nun; 
hermits made their profession in a more simple manner still; generally 
they contrived to receive the habit from the hands of an elderly monk. , 
Sometimes even, a famous nun gave it to a man, as Evagrius of Pontus 
received it from Melania the Elder. 1 

The giving of the religious habit: was among monks doubtless accom- 
panied at an early date by prayers, and surrounded with some solemnity, 
but we are not so well informed on this point as on the giving the veil, 
and the consecration of virgins, the liturgy of which is very ancient. 
St. Fachomius says merely that after the preliminary trials the candidate 
shall be handed over to the brethren: " Then they shall strip him of his 
worldly garments and clothe him in the monk's habit, and pass him on 
to the door-keeper, that he may bring him before all the brethren at 
prayer time; and he shall sit in the place that shall be commanded him." 2 
St.Nilus only gives us very summary information when he says: "When, 
then, did you put on the venerable monastic habit? What Abbot 
applied his hand, saying good words ?" 3 It is hard to determine the 
character of the ceremonial used by St. Basil. There were witnesses. 
Questions were put to the novice and there was profession " clear and 
plain." Doubtless there was also a fixed form. 4 As to the written 
promise, the most ancient example of it which we have 8 would seem to 
be the engagement which Schenoudi of Atripe, of the Upper Thebaid 
(A.D. 452), made his monks sign. 6 St. Isidore also requires a written docu- 
ment, and Mabillon cites a form of this -pactum (compact). 7 The same 
custom obtained among the monks of St. Fructuosus (seventh century). 8 

1 PALLAD., Hist. Laos., c. Ixxxvi. ROSWIYD, p. 764. * Reg-> xlix. 

3 Epist., 1. II., Ep. XCVI. P.C., LXXIX., 243. 

* S. BASIL., Reg.fus., xii, xiv., xv. Epist. CXCIX. (P.O., XXXII., 719.) Reg. 
brev.) ii. 

6 In a sermon attributed to FAUSTUS or RHIGIUM (fifth century) mention is made 
of the cbirograpbum de quo se monacbus debitum ex tola fide promiserit implere (P.L., 
LVIIL, 875). . 

8 Here it is, according to the Coptic text and the German translation of LIIPOLDT 
(Scbenute von Atripe, pp. 109, 195-196): " The contract. Each shall say thus: I bind 
myself before God, in His holy place, even as the words witness which my mouth 
pronounces: I will not defile my body in any way, I will not steal, I will not perjure 
myself, I will not lie, I will not do ill :n secret. If I transgress that to which I hate 
bound myself, then I will not to enter into the kingdom of heaven; for I well see that 
God, because of the contract I have made before Him, will destroy my soul and my body 
in the gehenna of fire, because I shall have transgressed the contract that I have made." 
Cf. LADEUZE, tude sur le cfnobitisme pakbomien pendant le IV siecle et la premiere 
moitii du V, pp. 208, 314^. Also: the review of LEIPOLDT'S work in the Revue d'bist. 
ecc/'s., t. VII., pp. 76 ff. 

7 S. ISIDOKI Reg. t IV. MABILLON, Annales O.S.B., 1. XII., xlii. T. I., p. 332. 

8 Reg., xxii.: see a formula for this pact in P.L., LXXXVIL, 1127 sq. 



396 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

Whatever may be said as to the customs from which St. Benedict 
drew inspiration, and of the correspondences which exist, for instance, 
between the Benedictine ceremonial and that given by St. Denis in the 
sixth chapter of his Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, it is undeniable that our 
Holy Father has here again accomplished work of a profoundly original 
character. He organized and defined monastic profession, and made 
it a juridical act, complete in itself and of considerable solemnity. We 
recognize the hand of a Roman, and a Roman of a noble and vigorous 
line. It was the common practice of all peoples, and especially of the 
Hebrews, to surround contracts with guarantees, symbolical actions, 
witnesses, so as fully to determine their sense and to ensure their faithful 
fulfilment; but nowhere more than at Rome were public and private 
transactions accompanied with a profusion of forms which had to be 
scrupulously observed under pain of nullity. The necessity of com- 
bating the instability of the sarabaites and gyrovagues combined 
with these racial tendencies to suggest this ceremonial to our Holy 
Father. 1 

So the Benedictine profession is pre-eminently a contract, a bilateral 
contract, between the novice on the one side, and God and the brethren 
on the other : I give myself wholly and for ever to God and to the monastic 
Order, that God and the monastic Order may admit me to communion 
with them, may put me in possession of their life. It is adoption into 
God's family: the candidate is denominated " he who is to be received " 
(suscipiendus); he gives himself to be received and accepted: and the fact 
of reception makes him a son of the family. 

Suscipiendus autem, in oratorio Let him who is to be received make 

coram omnibus promittat de stabilitate before all, in the oratory, a promise 

sua, et conversions morum suorum, et of stability, conversion of manners, 

obedientia, coram Deo et Sanctis ejus, and obedience, in the presence of God 

ut si aliquando aliter fecerit, ab eo se and His saints, so that, if he should 

damnandum sciat quern irridet. De ever act otherwise, he may know that 

qua promissione sua faciat petitionem he will be condemned by Him whom 

ad nomen Sanctorum quorum reliquiae he mocks. Of this promise of his let 

ibi sunt, et Abbatis praesentis. Quam him make a petition in the name of the 

petitionem manu sua scribat : aut certe, saints whose relics are there, and of the 

si non scit litteras, alter ab eo rogatus Abbot there present. Let him write 

scribat; et ille novitius signum faciat, this petition with his own hand; or at 

et manu sua earn super altare ponat. least, if he knows not letters, let 

Quam dum posuerit, incipiat ipse another write it at his request, and 

novitius mox hunc versum: Suscipe let the novice affix a sign to it, and 

me, Domine, secundttm eloquium tuum, place it with his own hand upon the 

et vivam : et non confundas me ab exspec- altar. When he has placed it there, 

tatione , mea. Quern versum omnis let the novice himself presently begin 

congregatio tertio respondeat, adjun- this verse: " Suscipe me, Domine, 

gentes: "Gloria Patri." Tune ipse secundum eloquium tuum, et vivam : et 

frater novitius prosternatur singulorum non confundas me ab exspectatione mea." 

1 D. RoTHENHXustER, Zur AufnabmeordnuHg der Regula S. Benedicti, compares 
ingeniously the ordinances of this passage of the Rule and the juridical customs of the 
time. 



Of the Discipline of receiving Brethren into Religion 397 

pedibus, ut orent pro eo, et jam ex And this verse let the whole community 
ilia hora in congregatione reputetur. thrice answer, adding thereto Gloria 

Patri. Then let the brother novice 
cast himself at the feet of all, that they 
may pray for him; and from that day 
let him be counted as one of the com- 
munity. 

A contract or public act such as profession requires witnesses. There 
are heavenly witnesses: " in the presence of God and His saints "; and 
there are earthly witnesses : the Abbot, the brethren, and all the faithful 
there present. Nothing shall be done in a corner. 

But first of all, according to our practice, the candidate is interrogated 
solemnly as to his dispositions with regard to the obligations he is going 
to contract. The same is done before baptism and before the consecra- 
tion of a bishop. " Let him make a promise of stability." 1 There have 
been examinations and preliminary scrutinies during the year of novi- 
tiate, but a final one is needed. The candidate replies to a series of 
precise and plain questions by the repetition of Volo (I will). This oral 
promise is nowadays completed by the reading of the document con- 
taining the vows. 

For there is such a document, called by St. Benedict the " petition," 
a new juridical guarantee, supplementing the necessarily transient 
character of mere words. Our Holy Father sees to it that it be an 
instrument well and duly drawn. It is written by the candidate with 
his own hand. If he cannot write, he must ask one of his brethren to 
write it in his name. It is localized. The expression " let him make a 
petition in the name of the saints whose relics are there " undoubtedly 
means that he takes for witnesses and guarantors the saints of the abbey, 
those who more especially are a part of the monastic family, who are 
more immediately present, who are the recognized protectors. But 
as a consequence the profession is, localized before the eyes of God and 
His saints and even before the eyes of men; for, according to the view 
of our forefathers, just as there was no monastery without a church, so 
there was no church without relics : and a monastery was known as the 
monastery enriched with such and such relics. It is dated, dated 
especially by the name of the Abbot there present, of the then Abbot, 
et Abbatis prcssentis; indicating that this profession was made under such 
and such an Abbot. It is signed. The novice affixes to it a sign or the 
sign: words which do not necessarily mean his name or signature, but 
perhaps a conventional mark of any sort, adopted by the individual in 
order to attest his private transactions, and such that even the illiterate 

1 Perhaps it was even the case, in St. Benedict's practice, that the promissio was 
made under the form of question and answer (as among the Greeks: cf. ST. DENIS, 
De bier, eccl., c. vi. Eucologium of the Greeks, ed. GOAR (1647), PP- 4*>9> 477 Jf0- Cf* 
D. ROTHENHAUSLER, Zur Aufttabmeord nung der Regula S. Benedict^ p. 3. The admoni- 
tion in our Ceremonial, Dominus noster Jesus Cbristus, and the interrogatory which 
follows are borrowed from the ancient ritual of Abbot Orderisius of Monte Cassino 
(MARTENE, De ant. monacb. rit., 1. V., c. iv., col. 640). Next come four splendid prayers 
which are found in the Gregorian Sacramentary: Or do ad faciendum monacbum. ' 



398 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

could make it. The " sign " 'par excellence, formerly much employed 
as a signature, is the cross . For long the profession document was signed 
by a simple cross, as is still the case in the majority of the Congregations 
of our Order. However, monastic antiquity shows some cases of sigr- 
nature by name. 1 Hildemar says that the novice should write his name, 
or, " if he does not know letters," trace the sign of the cross in the 
presence of the brethren. 2 

The novice, even though he is a layman, signs his vows on the altar 
itself, on the stone whereon Our Lord Jesus Christ offers and immolates 
Himself. And St. Benedict would have him deposit them there with 
his own hand. Thenceforth the promise and offering of the novice 
are consecrated things. Finally, that the petition may better resist the 
effects of time, we write it upon parchment, as is done in all very im- 
portant ecclesiastical transactions. According to our Holy Father him- 
self, it shall be kept in the archives of the monastery and never returned 
to the monk. 8 

" When he has placed it there, let the novice himself presently begin 
this verse : Suscipe" After all the juridical guarantees of which we 
have spoken comes a prayer, designed to assure their efficaciousness. 

Our Holy Father, who knew the Psalter thoroughly, found no more, 
appropriate formula than this simple verse of the hundred and eighteenth 
psalm. The novice is standing, in the presence of God. He addresses 
himself in turn to each of the three Divine Persons. And the general 
sense of his prayer, chanted and made still more expressive by liturgical 
actions, is undoubtedly that of a supreme affirmation of his sacrifice, but 
above all of a humble and trustful appeal for its acceptance. Having 
done all that is in his power, the novice begs God to fulfil on His side the 
engagements entailed in the contract. God has engaged to receive and 
accept; He has given His word; His fidelity is pledged. The novice 
is sure that God will not fail him, and he does not distrust Him or take 
precautions against Him. But, prostrating in the dust, he begs Him 
to let it be even so and to deign to accept him as His son. If we are 
unfaithful, the contract is violated and without fruit: God is mocked 
and we are disappointed and frustrated. Therefore, it is really against 
his own frailty that the novice wishes to fortify himself: Susctpe me, 
Domine, secundum eloquium tuum, et vivam : et non confundas me ab exspec- 
tatione mea. Grant that I may be really " given " and really " received," 
truly received because truly given, and that both of us may be able to 
keep our word. . Both my gift and Yours rest wholly in Your blessed 
hands. 

God's answer, it would seem, is not slow in coming. First of all, as its 

1 Cf. HJEFTEN, 1. IV., tract, v,, disq. vi. 

8 Our lay brothers sign with a cross. The choir-monks (since August 15, 1840) 
add their names beneath the cross. In order to prevent the possibility of fraud and to 
have the fact of profession certified beyond question, we have borrowed from the 
Congregation of St. Maur the custom of adding to the profession form an instrument 
in which the Abbot attests what has been done. 

3 Though an enfranchised slave was given the deed recording his purchase. Cf, D. 

ROTHENHXtJSLER, Op. '/., p. 1 6, note 2. 



Of the Discipline of receiving Brethren into Religion 399 

visible manifestation, comes the acceptance of the brethren, incorpora- 
tion into the society of God's children. This incorporation is made 
manifest immediately after the chanting of the first Suscipe: for all the 
brethren take it up in chorus; and they do not say Suscipe eum, but 
Suscipe me; so that there is already vital union, and the entire com- 
munity joins with the newly professed in presenting the oblation. The 
word tertio has always been taken to mean a threefold repetition. 
The combined Suscipe ends, as St. Benedict prescribes, with the praise 
of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; nor is there any need to emphasize the 
appropriateness of this doxology. 

After the public prayers in which the principal duties of the professed 
monk are enumerated, and all the graces which will help him to face them 
asked, 1 the blessing and imposition of the monastic habit take place. 
The clothing, of which our Holy Father speaks a few lines farther on, 
took place, then, in the oratory, doubtless at the end of the ceremony. 
Usage has varied on this last point, and the clothing has sometimes been 
put after the Communion. As we have said already, it has always been 
an essential part of the profession ceremony, and has often even sufficed 
alone. 2 Before the clothing we sing the Veni Creator* as was done by 
the Maurists and others; which indicates that the act is specially en- 
trusted, by appropriation, to the Divine Person who unites and con- 
summates. So does God take complete possession. 8 Therefore, after 
the clothing, is sung the antiphon Confirma hoc Deus. 

The clothing is the external manifestation of the transformation 
which has been wrought within; the old man, the sinner, has been 
destroyed; he has given place to the new man, to him who lives of God 
and for God, a " new creature." It is a restoration, a new edition, a 
completing of what was done in baptism; and at baptism also the 
neophyte was given a special and symbolical garment. "It may reason- 
ably be said," says St. Thomas, " that by entry into religion a man obtains 
the remission of all his sins. . . . Wherefore we read in the Lives of 
the Fathers that they who enter religion obtain the same grace that the 
baptized obtain." 4 Tradition is unanimous in regarding profession 
as a second " baptism " ; and everyone may benefit by an examination 

1 Observe especially the prayer Clementissime, which D. GURANGER found in 
MAKTBNC, De ant. monacb. rit., 1. V., c. iv., colt. 648-649, and which the latter had taken 
from an old ritual of Aniane. It may go back to a very high antiquity; it forms part of 
an Ordo conversorum, in the Liber ordinum of the Mozarabic liturgy published by 
D. FiROTiN (cols. 83-85). The Preface which follows is found (in the form of a prayer) 
in the Ordo romanus of HITTORP (De divinis Ecclesite catbolicee officiis, col. 155). 

* Quid petit f Bettedictionem habitus met (Ritual of the English Benedictine Con- 
gregation). 

8 We may note, all the same, that the insertion of the Veni Creator at this point 
is a little surprising; and historically it is a relatively recent practice (cf., however, the 
Statutes of LANFRANC: MART&NI, De ant. monacb. rit., I. V., c. iv., col. 647). 

4 Summa, II.-IL, q. clxxxix., a. 3. We read in a sermon attributed to FACSTUS 
or RHKGIUM: Abrenuntianti publica panitentia non est necessaria, quia conversus in- 
gemuit et cum Deo eeternum pactum inivit. Ex itto igiturdie non memorantur ejus delicta 
quagessit in saculo, in quo facturum sejustitiam de reliquo promiserit Deo (P.L., LVIII., 
875-876). 



400 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

of the analogies which exist, as regards ritual and doctrine, between 
profession and baptism. 1 

The monastic habit signifies the state of perfect innocence and 
spiritual childhood: 2 " May they be to him the covering of his sins," as 
one of the prayers at the clothing says ; it signifies the life of Our Lord 
Jesus Christ penetrating us and enfolding us wholly : " For as many of 
you as have been baptized in Christ have put on Christ " (Gal. iii. 27) : 
especially does the cowl signify this unique grace and our belonging 
to the society of the perfect, the livery of which we shall wear thence- 
forth. The habit is at once the mark of this belonging, and the means 
or instrument of our separation from the world : " strong armour and a 
safe defence," as the ritual says again. Finally and this is plainer to 
see in the ceremonial for the consecration of Virgins it symbolizes 
the adornment and embellishment of the espoused soul, for profession 
may be regarded also as a marriage feast. And just as the Church, in 
giving the white robe to the newly baptized, bids him guard it without 
spot until the day of the eternal marriage feast, so the Abbot asks on 
behalf of the newly professed " that he may be brought joyfully with his 
wedding garment into the heavenly banquet of our most sweet Spouse, 
the Lord Jesus Christ, there to reign for ever." 

Monastic tradition would have the newly professed keep on his cowl 
(and formerly he kept his head covered with the hood) during the days 
which follow immediately on this second baptism: even as the newly 
baptized kept for some time their white garments and the cap or veil. 3 
The Abbot uncovered the head at a time appointed; and like baptism 
again this was a little liturgical ceremony, taking place generally in 
church after the Conventual Mass, but sometimes in the chapter house. 

The professed monk, therefore, has been "adopted" by God and 
belongs henceforth to the family of God. But to be one of the family 
of God is to dwell in the society of the three Divine Persons, and in the 
society of the members of Our Lord Jesus Christ, which is the Church. 
Baptism made us all " one " in Christ; profession, on its part, aggregates 
us to the society of those who are specially vowed to God, between 
whom there is a community of goods, prayers, and work, as in the primi- 
tive Church. The Suscipe taken up by the community already snowed 
this union, as we have said; but St. Benedict would have a formal rite 

1 Cf. Religiosa Professionis valor satisfactorius constant} traditione necnon et intrin- 
secis pracipuis quibusdam arguments defensus, auct. ROBERTO COLLETTE, O.C. On 
the " new name " given to the professed monk, see HJEFTEN, 1. IV., tract, viii., disq. ii., 
iii., and iv. 

8 See CASSIAN, Inst., I., iii. 

3 Cf. THEODORE OF CANTERBURY, Panitent., iii. P.L., XCIX., 928. PAUL THE 
DEACON (Commentary in cap. Iviii.) is insistent on it and speaks of eight days. The 
Council of Aix-la-Chapelle in 817 prescribed three days only (cap. xxxv. MANSI, 
t. XIV., col. 396). [In the English Benedictine ritual the newly professed monk wears 
his hood over his head until the Conventual Mass of the " third day " after his pro- 
fession, except when in his cell. The hood is fastened in that position by the Abbot 
at the end of the profession ceremony, and unfastened by him before the Communion 
at the Mass of the " third day."] 



Of the Discipline of receiving Brethren into Religion 401 

of adoption into the monastic family. And just as on the day of their 
baptism it is by becoming the children of the Church that men become 
the children of God, -and partake in the supernatural life, even so, on 
the day of profession, it is by becoming children of the monastery that 
they partake in the perfect supernatural life. When the~hewly professed 
has asked the prayers of the Abbot and received from him his paternal 
kiss, then all the brethren embrace the chosen one, who asks them to 
pray for him, as the very words of the Rule prescribe; and they answer 
him with a cordial Proficiat (may it profit thee). 1 Among the Maurists 
and generally the newly professed passed into the stalls for this ceremony, 
but at Monte Cassino the brethren came to him, and the kiss of peace 
was given kneeling, as though to mark the supernatural respect and holy 
affection of all these consecrated souls. Such is also our practice. 2 

The profession is now accomplished. According to the rite attested 
by the most ancient documents, as for instance by the writings of Paul 
the Deacon and Hildemar, the neophyte prostrates before the altar, " en- 
folded wholly " in his cowl, as the rituals say, that of the Maurists for 
example. " You are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God " 
(Col. Hi. 3). "We are buried together with him by baptism into 
death " (Rom. vi. 4). In order to express this notion of death in a 
striking way, modern monastic custom 3 has devised the ceremonial of 
pall and lighted candles . Dom Gueranger, in his conferences, apologized 
for having preserved a usage " from which the faithful draw some edifi- 
cation," but which he considered to be rather too theatrical and likely 
to cause misunderstanding of the true effect of profession. In fact, there 
lies there not only the corpse of the old man, but also, and this more 
than anything, a living man, a man renewed; there is a living victim, 
" a pure, holy and unspotted victim," reunited to the victim on the 
altar, offered and accepted with that victim, and enwrapped by the 
deacon in the fragrance of the same incense. 

Then the Mass continues. Motionless, and silent like the Lamb of 

1 The two formulas: Or a fro me, pater, and Proficiat tibi,frater, are found in a 
manuscript ritual of Corbie, cited by MARTENE (De ant. monacb. rit., 1. V., c. iv., cols. 
654 and 655). As to the kiss of peace, of which St. Benedict does not speak, it is men- 
tioned in the Rule of the Master (eighth century), in the Pontifical of Alet (ninth 
century : MARTENE, De ant. eccl. rit., 1. II., c. ii. T. II., col. 454), in HILDEMAR, etc. 

2 Psalm xlvii. is sung during this ceremony, the antiphon being its verse Suscepimtts, 
Deus, dear to St. Benedict (Chapter LHL); also psalm cxxxii., the psalm par excellence 
of monastic brotherhood (read the Enarratio of ST. AUGUSTINE on this psalm). Both 
are indicated in the Pontifical (with the Miserere between them) for the blessing 
of an Abbot who is not professed. 

8 For instance, the ritual of the Congregation of St. Maur of 1666. We should 
recognize that, according to PAUL THE DEACON, they sang over the professed monk the 
Miserere, the De profundis, and, adds this commentator, cater os psalmos qui ad hoc per- 
tinent. See also HILDEMAR, in b. 1. We sing the Litany of the Saints, and it is pre- 
scribed also by the rituals of other Congregations. It is an imitation of what is done 
at ordinations and at the consecration of virgins. St. Benedict limited himself to 
writing: et orentpro eo ; and it would seem that, primitively, these prayers comprised 
some psalms, then the litanies, the supplicatio litaniee i.e., the Kyrie eleison repeated 
a series of verses and responses, and finally the prayer. (See Paul the Deacon and 
Hildemar.) 

26 



402 Commentary on the Rule oj St. Benedict 

God, the newly professed suffers himself to be immolated and con- 
sumed mystically by the Eternal High-Priest. How sweet that Mass 
and that Communion ! Our whole monastic life should resemble this 
Profession Mass. Suppliers it rogamus, omnipotent Deus, jube bate 
perferriy per manus sancti Angeli tui in sublime altare tuum,in conspectu 
divints Majestatis tua. ... Then comes the Paternoster, which is an 
appeal to the Tenderness, Beauty, and Purity of God, with its tranquil 
and full petition. Holy Communion completes-the baptismal illumina- 
tion : even so the newly professed should, according to our most ancient 
customs, receive the Body and the Blood of the Lord, and, like the neo- 
phytes once more, they shall communicate each day of this period in 
white (inalbis). 

Finally, the newly professed monk is given official possession of 
his stall in choir. Thus the rights acquired by profession are sealed, 
and henceforth the monk shall keep the rank thus given to him. The 
choir is now his true place, for he has been chosen and blessed for the 
work of praise. In the case of nuns there is even a solemn giving of 
the book of the Divine Office. However, our ceremonial, in accord 
once more with tradition, would have the neophyte fulfil no choir 
duty alone for three days. Formerly, too, he kept complete silence, 
hidden night and day in his cowl and conversing with God. 1 

Res si quas habet, aut eroget prius If he have any property let him 
pauperfbus, aut facta solemniter dona- either first bestow it on the poor, or 
tione, conferat monasterio, nihil sibi by solemn deed of gift make it over 
reservans ex omnibus: quippe qui ex to the monastery, keeping nothing of 
illo die nee proprii corporis potestatem it all for himself, as knowing that 
se habiturum sciat. Mox ergo in ora- from that day forward he will have no 
torio exuatur rebus propriisquibus power even over his own body. Forth- 
vestitus est, et induatur rebus monas- with, therefore, in the oratory, let 
terii. Ilia autem vestimenta, quibus him be stripped of his own garments 
erutus est, reponantur in vestiario wherewith he is clad, and be clothed 
conservanda, ut si aliquando, suadente in those of the monastery. Those 
diabolo, consenserit ut egrediatur de garments which are taken from him 
monasterio (quod absit), tune erutus shall be placed in the clothes-room, 
rebus monasterii, projiciatur. Illam there to be kept, so that if ever, by 
tamen petitionem, quam desuper altare the persuasion of the devil, he consent 
Abbas tulit, non recipiat, sed in monas- (which God forbid) to leave the 
terio reservetur. monastery, he may be stripped of the 

monastic property and cast forth. 
The petition, however, which the 
Abbot received on the altar shall not 
be given back to him, but shall be 
kept in the monastery. 

1 The Ceremonial in actual use in the English Congregation still lays it down that 
the newly professed are to converse during these three days with none but their con- 
fessor. [This is the full rubric: Tune deniqueProfessus a Magistro deducitur ad locum 
sunn inter Professos, et usque ad Missam conventualem ttrtii post diet, in qua ad sacram 
Synaxim accedit, nemini loquitur nisi Confessario suoj nee tit cboro acttbusve conventuali- 
bus quidquam ita recital ut a ceteris monacbis audiatur. Item, extra cellam suam, capu- 
ttum super caput semper gerit.] 



J,. . iff '. '-.- 

Of the Discipline of receiving Brethren into Refig ton 403 

. Arrangements toitbregar d to -property. What shall tfie monk do with 
his property, supposing he has any? Our Holy Father concludes the 
chapter by dealing with this point, and his regulations echo the teaching 
of the ancient monks. 1 

" Let him first bestow it *' that is, before profession, or else before 
the putting on of the monastic garments as mentioned presently. The 
candidate can and ought to dispose freely of his property, both actual 
and possible. He is free to choose whom he shall give it to, for all that 
is required of him is to despoil himself, completely and finally, without 
keeping anything for himself, whether within the monastery or without, 
without securing for himself any benefit such as a small regular income. 
All monastic rules have insisted vigorously, as we know, on the incom- 
patibility of possession of any sort with the true religious life. 

St. Benedict does not say anything about parents. It would seem 
that the ancients were not yery partial to donations made to one's 
family. St. Caesarius, for instance, speaks plainly about them in his 
second letter to Abbess Caesaria. 2 Monastic profession consecrates 
the whole man to God, and since his property is in some sort part of 
him, the best use the candidate can make of it is to offer all to God in the 
person of His poor. That is the express counsel of Our Lord: " Sell 
what thou hast and give to the poor " ; and it is the first thought which 
occurs to St. Benedict: "either let him first bestow it on the poor." 
Obviously, however, if a man's parents are in, need, his charity should 
begin with them. The monastery, too, may -lawfully be considered, 
for the monastery is of our kin and the monastery is poor. Therefore, 
our Holy Father, without maintaining that anything must be asked 
from the candidate or his parents, without neglecting to suggest both 
here and in the next chapter that we must proceed in this matter with 
much moderation, is less severe than Cassian and. St. Basil: the former 
would have nothing accepted from the novice, the latter speaks only 
of donation made to the poor and recommends that nothing be 
accepted from the parents. 8 ( - 

Monastic tradition if in agreement with St. , Benedict's views, and 
his reserved attitude. Paul the Deacon and Hildemar report the curious 
little dialogue which took place between Abbot and novice on this 



1 Qui n susceftut fuerit, nan *l u fa substantia quam iniulit, ted etiam nee de seipso 
*b ilia judicabit bora. .Nam ri aliquid pri us erogavit pauperibus, aut venient in cellulam 
aliquid intuit t jratribus, ipsi tauten tun es t licitumut aliqmd babeat in sua potestate 
(S. MACAK., Reg. t wdv.). And ST. GBSAUUS: Festimenta laica non ei mutentur nisi 
autea defacultate sua cbartas venditionis suafaciat, sicut Domintu pracepit dicens: Si 
vii perfectus esse t vade, vendeomnia qua babes, da panperibui^etvitni, tequere me. Certe 
ri non-milt vendere,,donatienis cbartas, aut parentibus, aut mono* friofaciat, dummodo 
liber sit: et nibil babeat proprium. Si vero pater ejus aut mater vivat et non babet potes- 
latem fadendi: quando itti migraverint, cogatur facer e. Quacumque secum exbibuit 
Abbott tradatj nibil sibi reservet; et si aliquts de propinguis aliyuid tranimiserit, offerat 
Abbati. Si ipsi est necessarium, ipso jubente babeat; si itti necesse non est, in commune 
redactum cut opus est tribuatur (Reg., ad mon. y i.; cf. Reg. ad. virg., iv.). See alto: 
S. BASIL., Reg. fus., viii.-ix.: Reg. contr.. iv.-v. S. AUG., Epist. LXXXIII. P.L.. 
XXXIII, 291 <f. CA., //., IV* iiL-vi. 

1 P.L., LXVIL, 1133. 3 Reg*/us,, ix.j Reg.breo.. ccciv.-r-CAM., /**., IV., iv. 



404 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

point. 1 According to actual usage a pension is allowed to be paid 
during the novitiate, but by no means exacted. A man may quite well 
bring with him nothing but his " good will," as says the founder of 
Cluny. The dowry of nuns is often the very condition sine qua non 
of the existence of the convent, and is a practice approved by the Holy 
See. But the Church, while recognizing that monasteries have the 
right to accept the donations of those who are going to be professed, 
has always taken care to preclude all practices and compacts of a 
simoniacal character. Canon Law fixes the time when the novice 
should dispose of his property, which is two months only before pro- 
fession nowadays, two months before solemn profession. 

The donation ordered by St. Benedict would seem from the Rule 
to take place in the very course of the profession ceremony. But the 
text may be taken otherwise. Besides it is not impossible that, every- 
thing having been arranged previously, a solemn declaration was made 
at the profession that one wished to dispose of one's property in such 
and such a way. We should perhaps, understand a passage in the Rule 
of the Master in this way. 2 

St. Benedict prescribes that, if donation be made to the monastery, 
it should be done according to the accepted legal forms, so that the 
intention of the donor may be plain beyond dispute, so that the support 
of the law may be assured, and so that the monastery may be safe against 
dispossession or legal process. The Master would have the act of dona- 
tion, which was drawn up on the entrance of the candidate, counter- 
signed by monk witnesses, the bishop, the priest, the deacon, and the 
clergy of the place, and deposited on the altar. 3 Martne has proved 
that this placing of donation documents on the altar is no isolated 
instance; 4 and some of the forms employed have come down to us. 6 
" Keeping nothing for himself ..." St. Benedict has already ex- 
pressed himself in much the same terms in the thirty-third chapter, 
and we explained his meaning in that place. 

Mox ergo. ... So as to realize completely and manifest exteriorly 

1 The Abbot having reminded the novice of the command Vende omnia tua: Si 
tile dixerit: quia in hoc monasterio volo tribuere; tune dicat illi Abba: Frater, Deo adju- 
vante, nobis non est necessaria tua res; eo quod nostra indigentia babemus unde suppleatur. 
Sunt enim alii pauperiores nobis, out etiam monasteria, vel certe parentes tui forte plus sunt 
pauperes quam nos, et idea melius est utpro mercede illis tribuas quiplus indigent quam nobis. 
Si autem tile dixerit: quia volo pro mercede anima meee magis in hoc monasterio tribuere 
quam alteri dare; tune donare debet rem suam out pauperibus aut in monasterium (PAUL: 
DIAC., Commentary in cap. Iviii.). 

2 Cap. Ixxxix. 

3 Cap. Ixxxvii.j Ixxxix. When the brother deposits his deed on the altar he should 
say: Ecce, Domine, cum anima mea et paupertate mea, quidquid mibi donasti tibi recon- 
signo et offero, et ibi volo ut sint res meee ubifuerit cor meum et anima mea: sub potestate 
tamen monasterii et Abbatis, quern mibi, Domine, in vice tua timendum praponis . . ., 
unde quia per eum nobis tu omnia necessaria cogitas, idea nibil nos oportet peculiare babere, 
quia tu nobis de omnibus es idoneus et ir omnibus sufficis solus; ut jam nobis vivere et spes 
Ckristus sit et mori lucrum. 

* Commentary in b. I. 

5 For instance, that cited by DE ROZIERE in his Recueil g&neral des for mules usitees 
dans I' Empire des Francs du V* au X< siecle (Part I., no. cxciii.). 



Of the Discipline of receiving Brethren into Religion 405 

this basic incapability, the newly professed is stripped, in the very 
oratory, of his worldly garments and clothed in those of the monastery. 
Consequently, the novitiate in St. Benedict's time was certainly made 
in secular clothes, as we observed before. St. Benedict uses here again 
the words of St. Pachomius and Cassian; 1 like them, he would have the 
secular garments deposited in the clothes-room. Without doubt they 
were not kept there in reserve for an indefinite period, for in case a 
monk should leave it would be easy to find him substitutes. 

Such abandonment of the monastery, in spite of the vow of stability, 
was frequent enough at that period for St. Benedict to consider the 
question as to how many times one should be received back who has left 
or been dismissed by his own fault (Chapter XXIX.). In the case of 
certain headstrong natures the temptation was so violent that practical 
precautions were taken against it. It is not uncommon to find in the 
ancient profession rituals a request addressed by the candidates to the 
Abbot that he would lock them up securely on the day when the devil 
should tempt them to quit the monastery, or that he would drag them 
back by force if they have deserted. The Abbot had a penal code and 
prison cells at his disposal. But our Holy Father did not prescribe 
either constraint or coercion for the fugitive; yet he will not let him 
carry the vesture of his holy profession into the unknown, for a deserter 
has no right to it, and to wear it in the world would cause scandal. 
And St. Benedict wishes also to prevent a man taking advantage of his 
habit to obtain admittance into another monastery, as did the gyro- 
vagues. Canon Law has fixed the procedure to be observed with regard 
to those who are expelled or secularized, and preserves the monastic 
regulation which forbids them to wear the religious habit. 

So the old discarded vesture of the world may be returned, as says 
St. Benedict; but one thing is never returned, a thing which the deserter 
might wish to bear off or to destroy. This is the document containing 
his vows, which has been received by the Abbot on the altar of the Lord, 
and which will bear witness eternally in favour of the rights of God 
against the violator of the contract. 

1 Tune nudabunt etim vestimentis sacularibus et induent babitu monacborum. . . . 
Vestimenta autem qua secum detulerat, accipient qui buic ret prapositi sunt, et 
inferent in repositorium et erunt in potentate principis monasterii (S. PACH., Reg., xliz.). 
In concilia fratrum productus in medium exuatur propriis, ac per manus Abbatis induatur 
monasterii vestimentis. . . . Ilia vero qua deposuit vestimenta oeconomo consignata tamdiu 
reservantur donee profectus et conversations ejus ac tolerantiee virtutem . . . evidenter 
agnoscant. Et siquidem posse eum inibi durare tempore precedents perspexerint . . ., in- 
digentibus eadem largiuntur. Sin vero . . ., exeuntes eum monasterii quibus indutus 
fuerat vestimentis etrevestitum antiquis quafuerant sequestrata depellunt. . . . Deposita 
monasterii veste pellatur (CASS., Inst., IV., v.-vi.). 




CHAPTER LIX 

OF 'THE SONS OF NOBLES OR THE POOR THAT ARE 

OFFERED 

IE preceding chapter described the reception of adults ; the 
present one speaks of the reception of children. This does not 
mean children received into the monastery temporarily as alumni, 
to be educated there, but children given permanently and devoted 
to the religious life. These regulations of the Rule are now obsolete, the 
ancient discipline having been modified and the Council of Trent having 
refused to recognize the validity of profession made before the com- 
pletion of the sixteenth year. But if we would appreciate correctly 
the question of fact and the question of right, the historical and the 
doctrinal aspect of the matter, it is important not to let our judgement 
be affected by present-day legislation, and particularly by the lessening 
of the religious sense. 1 

The practice of parents consecrating their children to God goes back 
very far in the history of the Old Testament. Without speaking of the 
extraordinary offering of Abraham, nor even of the vow of Jephte 
(Judg. xi.), we know that the young Samuel was presented in the 
Temple and consecrated to its service by his mother Anna (i Kings i.). 
St. John the Baptist and Our Lady were offered in the same way. And 
it was even a general law with the Jews that the firstborn belonged to 
the Lord, unless they were " ransomed " by their parents. Moreover, 
the rights of the father of a family were in antiquity almost sovereign. 
St. Paul the Apostle takes it for granted that a father has the right either 
to give his daughter in marriage or to consecrate her to God: " For he 
that hath determined, being steadfast in his heart, having no necessity, 
but having power of his own will, and hath judged this in his heart, to 
keep his virgin, doth well " (i Cor. vii. 37). To consecrate a daughter 
to virginity does not seem to the Apostle an infringement of the true 
liberty of the individual; it was a sort of slavery which he could not 
think much of who ventures to advise Christian slaves to abide in their 
state, and, instead of seeking enfranchisement, to serve conscientiously 
and heartily: "Wast thou called, being a bondman ? Care not for 
it: but if thou mayest be made free, use it rather" (i Cor. vii. 21). 
" Servants, be obedient to them that are your lords according to the 
flesh, with fear and trembling, in the simplicity of your heart, as to 
Christ . . . with a good will serving, as to the Lord, and not to men " 
(Eph. vi. 5, 7). 

In early tunes, Christians thought it quite natural that they should 

1 Read, with the various Commentaries, MENARD, Concord. Rtgul., in b.l. H.SFTEN, 
1. IV., tract, i. MABILLON, Acta SS. O.S.B., Saec. IV., P. II., Praef., 199; Ssec. VI., 
P. I., Praef., 36. Vetera Analecta, pp. 155-158. THOMASSIN, Ancienne et nouvelle 
discipline de I'Eglise, P. I., 1. III., chaps. Ivl-lix. 

406 



Of the Sons of Nobles or the Poor that are Offer ea 407 

offer their children to monasteries. It is a practice " found in many 
places in Egypt, in the Thebaid^ Palestine, Syria, and in Asia Minor," 
says the author of the Monks of the East (Moines d'Orient), who cites 
much interesting evidence. 1 Undoubtedly there were sometimes abuses 
and disadvantages in these precocious professions, for St. Basil, while 
maintaining the principle of the admission of children, requires that they 
be not asked to make their profession until they have reached an age 
when they can act with full knowledge and liberty. 2 St. Benedict, who 
took more than one hint from those famous pages on the reception and 
education of children, has yet not accepted them in their entirety; 
and in particular he has not thought it his duty to adopt St. Basil's 
caution with regard to the age of profession, and to depart from the 
Western custom. 

In the West, in fact, and that too before St. Benedict's tune, parents 
were accustomed to bind their young children finally to the religious 
life. Thomassin 8 cites a passage from a letter of St. Augustine in favour 
of a discipline analogous to St. Basil's, but it does not appear to us very 
conclusive. Nor is there anything to prove that the young oblates, 
of whom St. Jerome speaks in the letters cited by the same author, were 
not vowed for life : of Asella it is said, " While still wrapped in the clothes 
of childhood and scarce beyond her tenth year, she was consecrated, 
receiving thus the glorious pledge of future blessedness." St. Caesarius 
allows the nuns to receive girls at six or seven years of age; and he is not 
speaking only of children who were to be educated in the monastery. 4 
St. Gregory of Tours speaks of such offerings, and of the offering of 
slaves by their masters, as of an old and common practice. 6 The Fifth 
Council of Orleans (A.D. 549) recognizes that girls enter the religious 
life either of their own will (propria voluntate) or by their parents offering 
them; and the First Council of M^con (A.D. 583) excommunicates 
oblates who should abandon the monastery. 7 Children vowed to the 
clerical state were given the choice, at a fixed time, either of making a 
vow of chastity, which allowed them to proceed to sacred Orders, or 
of marrying and so remaining in the lower Orders. 8 Let us turn now 
to the text of the Rule. 

DE FILIIS KOBILIUM VEL PAUPERUM, If perchance any noble shall offer 

QUI OFFERUNTUR. Si quis forte de his son to God in the monastery, let 

nobilibus offert filium suum Deo in the parents, should the boy himself be 

monasterio, si ipse puer minor! aetate not old enough, make the petition 

est, parentes ejus faciant petitionem of which we spoke before. And, to- 

quam supra diximus. Et cum obla- gather with the offerings, let them 

1 Chapter V., p. izi. a Reg. fits., xv. Cf. Reg. contr., vii. 

8 Ancienne et nouvette discipline de I'Eglise, P. I., 1. III., chap. Ivi., no. xii. 

* Reg. ad virg., v. 

5 In gloria martyrum, 75. M. G. H.: Script, rer. merov., t. I., p. 538. lit gloria 
canfeisorum, 22. M. G. H. : ibid., p. 762. De virtutibus S. Martini, ii., 4. M. G. H. : 
ibid., pp. 610-611. 

* Can. xix. MANSI, t. IX., col. 133. 7 Can. xii. MANSI, t. IX., col. 934. 

8 Concil. III. Cartbag. (397), can. xix. MANSI, t. III., col. 883. Tolet. II. (527) 
can. i. MANSI, t, VIII,, col. 785. Fasense ///, (529), can, i. MANSI, t. VIII,, col. 7*6 



408 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

tione ipsam petitionem et manum pueri wrap that petition and the hand of the 
involvant in palla altaris, et sic eum child in the altar-cloth, and so offer 
offerant. him. 

By nobles, our Holy Father, using the language of his time, means the 
rich, though, as Hildemar observes, many noble by birth are poor, and 
many commoners wealthy. Perhaps St. Benedict was thinking, when 
he wrote these lines, of Eutychius, father of St. Maurus, and of Tertullus, 
father of St. Placid. 1 

St. Benedict supposes that the child is too young to write his petition 
that is, his vows himself. This age is fixed variously in the 
Customaries from ten to fourteen years. It is the business of the 
parents (that is to say, according to the commentators and custom, of 
the father and mother; of the mother if the father be dead, sometimes 
of other relatives, or of a guardian 2 ) it is the business of the 
parents to promise stability, conversion of manners, and obedience 
in the name of their child; they have to draw up the " petition of 
which we spoke before " : which words are of themselves enough to 
prove that we are dealing with a true profession, a profession as real as 
that of adults and formulated in practically the same terms. 3 

The vows are deposited on the altar along with the offerings that is, 
with the bread and wine offered for the sacrifice, of which the child 
himself and his parents would give their share. Therefore we are here 
again in the oratory and at Mass. The offerings, the petition, and the 
hand of the child are wrapped in the " altar-cloth." Does this mean 
what we now call the corporal, which formerly was much more ample 
and was probably the only altar-cloth ? Or does it mean, as Paul the 
Deacon explains it, the veil which covered the offerings ? 4 There should 
be witnesses present, as our Holy Father remarks at the end of the 
chapter, and their numerous signatures are to be found at the foot of 
the profession documents which have been preserved. St. Basil made 
the same recommendation. 6 

De rebus autem suis, aut in praesenti With respect to their property they 

petitione promittant sub jurejurando, must in the same petition promise 

quia nunquam per se, nunquam per under oath that they will never either 

suspectampersonam,necquolibetmodo themselves or through an interme- 

ei aliquando aliquid dent, aut tribuant diary, or in any way whatever, give 

occasionem habendi. Vel certe, si hoc him anything, or the means of having 

facere noluerint, et aliquid offerre vol- anything. Or else, if they are unwil- 

uerint in eleemosynam monasterio pro ling to do this, and desire to offer some- 

mercede sua, faciant ex rebus, quas thing as an alms to the monastery for 

1 S. GREG. M., Dial., 1. II., c. Hi. 

* Cf. MARTENE, Commentary in b. /., p. 784. * 

* Specimens of these petitions (later than the time of St. Benedict) are to be found 
in MABILLON, Vetera Analecta, pp. 155-158; MARTENE, Commentary in b. /., p. 785; 
L. DELISLE, Litterature latins et bistoire du moyen dge, pp. 9-16; etc. 

4 Commentary in b. I. 

8 Oportet infantes voluntate et consensu parentum, immo ab ipsis parentibus oblatos, 
sub testimonio plurimorum suscipi; ut omnis occasio maledicti gratia excludatur bominum 
pessimoruip (Reg. contr., vii.). 



Of the Sons of Nobles or the Poor that are Offered 409 

dare volunt monasterio donationem, their advantage, let them make a dona- 
reservato sibi (si ita voluerint) usufruc- tion to the monastery of the property 
tuario. Atque ita omnia obstruantur, which they wish to give, reserving to 
ut nulla suspicio remaneat puero, per themselves, if they so wish, the usu- 
quam deceptus perire possit (quod fruct. And so let every way be blocked 
absit), quod experimento didicimus. that the child may have no sort of 

expectation, by which he may be 
misled and perish (which God forbid), 
as we have learnt by experience may 
happen. 

As in the fifty-eighth chapter, after regulations which concern persons 
come regulations concerning property. The child has become a monk; 
his profession is final and not merely provisional; it is not fictitious, or 
existing only in the desire of his parents. The child is poor, and that 
absolutely and for ever. It is important, therefore, to settle the question 
not of his present possessions he is too young to have any but of the 
property which may come to him some day from his family. Matters 
must be so arranged, says St. Benedict with vigour of language, that all 
communication with the world, on account of this property, should be 
closed to him; that every way may be blocked to the thought that this 
property might come to him should he return to the world. If it were 
open to the oblate to think that he might one day have property on 
some title or other, he might be deceived by this mirage; he might 
easily become a renegade and lose his soul. 1 God forbid, exclaims 
St. Benedict; but we have learnt by experience that such evils do happen. 2 

Infringements of the law of poverty are a danger for all monks; but 
the very conditions in which the child is vowed to poverty make it 
necessary to regulate this matter with especial prudence. The parents 
bind themselves by an oath, in words which are embodied in the petition, 
never to give anything themselves, or by an intermediary, or in any way 
whatever, or to give the means of possessing anything. Our Holy 
Father has here adopted the legal style, exhausting all hypotheses. 

Such a procedure, the first proposed to the parents by St. Benedict, 
is tantamount to disinheriting the child. He suggests another course, 
but very cautiously, as he did in the previous chapter with respect to 
adults. If they are unwilling to act thus viz., to swear that their 
child shall never have part in their fortune, let them offer with him 
some property, which may stand for his share of the inheritance. Just 
as the adult, if he wishes, may offer himself with his property, so the 
child is offered with whatever the parents agree to relinquish. But 
the gift is nothing really but an alms to the monastery: pro mercede sua 
(for their advantage), as a return for what the monastery does for their 
child; or, according to the interpretation of Paul the Deacon and many 

1 CASSIAN says of the monk who should keep some resources in the world: Sedubi 
primum exorta fuerit qualibet occasions commotio, fiducia stipis illius animatum, continuo 
de monasterio velutfunda rotante fugiturum (last., IV., iii.). 

* Quod omnimodis observari debere, multis sunt experiments frequenter edocti, wrote 
CASSIAN also, but with reference to troubles which may be caused in a monastery by 
the acceptance of the property of the candidate (Inst., IV., iv.). 



41 o Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

others, for the salvation and ransom of their souls. Care must be taken 
that the act of donation is drawn up in proper form; and the parents 
shall reserve to themselves the income of the property abandoned, if 
they wish to do so. We have already observed that St*- Benedict, 
St. Basil, and Cassian feared these gifts made to the monastery. 

Similiter autem et pauperiores f aci- Let those who are poorer do in like 

ant. Qui vero ex toto nihil habent, manner. But those who have nothing 

simpliciter petitionem faciant, et cum whatever shall simply make, the peti- 

oblatione offerant filium suum coram tion, and offer their son along with the 

tcstibus. offerings and before witnesses. 

St. Benedict ranges the parents of oblates, from the point of view 
of their fortunes, in three classes: the nobles or rich, those who possess 
less, those who possess nothing at all. The " poorer " (pauperiorts) 
are to observe the same regulations as the rich. As to poor folk, whose 
children are received with equal readiness and affection, they have 
merely to write the petition or get it written, and present their child 
with the offerings of bread and wine in the presence of witnesses. 1 

The same line of conduct with regard to oblates was pursued after 
our Holy Father's time. St. Isidore, the Master, and others sanction 
it in the West. 2 Councils legislated on the matter. For instance, the 
Fourth Council of Toledo (A.D. 633) decrees thus: " A monk is made by 
the consecration of his parents or by his own profession; by whichever 
of these he is bound, it shall hold him. Wherefore, we close against 
them the way of return to the world and forbid all such returning." 3 
St. Gregory II. (A.D. 715-731), in a letter to St. Boniface, declares that 
the oblate is no longer free to marry. 4 The tendency to approximate 
to Eastern discipline, which showed itself at the beginning of the ninth 
century, was due to. abuses. Some families found it a useful method of 
disposing decently of* weakly, lame, or stunted children, or of providing 
for younger sons without worldly prospects. Laxity entered monas- 
teries in consequence. Some Councils (as for instance that of Aix-la- 
Chapelle in A.D. 817),* without forbidding parents to offer healthy 
children, decreed that oblates should confirm their profession by a 
personal act, when they were of an age to make such. But these 
decisions were not by any means observed everywhere. The Council 
of Worms in A.D. 868 again binds oblates to remain always in the 

1 We know from Chapter II. that the religious life was by no means forbidden to 
slaves. The previous consent of their masters, or enfranchisement, was doubtless re- 
quired, as the Council of Chalcedon (45 1) prescribes (can. iv. MANSI, t. VII., col. 374). 
See also the letter of GELASIVS to the bishops of Lucania (c. xiv. MANSI, t. VIII., col. 41). 
ST. BASIL (Reg. f us., xi.). Masters sometimes offered their slaves to God; sometimes, 
too, the master, entering religion, was followed by his slaves (S. GREG. TOHON., la gloria 
confessorum, zz. . M. G. H.: Script, rer. merov., t. 1., p. 762. De virtutibus S.Martini, 
ii., 4. M. G. H.: ibid., pp. 610-611. Histor. Franc., x. 29. M. G. H.: ibid., 
pp. 440-442. Vita S. Romarici, 4: MABILLON, Ac/a SS. O.S.B., Saec. II., p. 400). 

* ST. AURELIAN (Reg. ad man., xlvii.) requires a formal instrument quando atate 
probati fuerint. * Cap. xlix. MANSI, t. X., col. 631. 

4 Ep. XIV. ad Bonifacium episc., 7. P.L., LXXXIX., 25. 

8 Cap. xxxvi. MANSI, t. XIV., col. 396. * Can. xxu. MANSI, t. XV., col. 873. 



Of the Sons of Nobles or the Poor that are Offered 41 1 

monastery; and in the second half of the ninth century the old practice 
had regained the upper hand. 

At Cluny oblates were numerous and the customs furnish interesting 
details with regard to them. They were treated as true religious; 
and, if it was the rule that in their fifteenth year they should read their 
vows and be blessed with all the ceremonial of an adult's profession, 
this by ho means proves that their engagement was not regarded as 
irrevocable from the very beginning. On the contrary, precisely 
because they were regarded as professed, they were not given the cowl 
anew at the age of fifteen. The same customs are found at Farfa, Bee, 
and elsewhere. 1 As a proof that Cluny certainly viewed the act of 
offering as creating a real and final bond between the child and the 
monastery, we find them refusing to let St. Bernard's relative, Robert, 
pass over to Clairvaux. The incident is well known. We know that it 
occasioned the vigorous letter that is placed at the head of St. Bernard's 
correspondence, and that the Pope, being consulted, decided in favour 
of the black monks. St. Bernard did not deny that the child belonged to 
God and to the monastic life ; but in this affair, as in a parallel case treated 
of in the course of another letter, 2 he maintained that the oblate could, 
when grown up, pass freely to the religious family of his choice ; especially, 
he added, when this was more fervent and of a stricter observance. 
Doubtless Cluny did not much relish the reasoning of the holy Doctor. 8 

The fundamental juridical effects of oblate profession having been 
disputed, it was but a step farther to allow them to return to the world 
if they wished. Undoubtedly, Clement III. ratified the decree of the 
Fourth Council of Toledo; but his successor, CelestineIII.,acknowledged 
that oblates possessed the sorry liberty of returning to the world, and 
this discipline prevailed little by little over the old; but this does not 
at all prove that the old discipline was an abuse, or exorbitant, or arising 
from * false interpretation ;i pl ; the Rule, but merely, as it has been ex- 
pressed, " that the faith othe peoples had grown old." 

To appreciate the customs of antiquity we need the antique soul; 
to appreciate Christian practice we need the Christian soul. Let us 
remember in the first place -that the notion of paternal omnipotence, 
the -patria potestas of the Romans, certainly had an influence on this 
institution. But is that notion pagan ? If so, how comes it that the 
Old and New Testaments recognize this discipline in part, and that 
the Church sanctioned and adopted it for so many centuries ? Indeed, 
the attacks which are made on the oblate system are based on a major 
premiss which is greatly in need of cogent proof and will not quickly 

1 Cf. MART&NE, De ant. monacb. '/., 1. V., c. v., col. 659 5;. 

1 Epist. CCCLXXXII. P.L., CLXXXIL, 585 sq. 

Epist. I. P.L., CLXXXIL, 67 sq.] Epistj CCCLXXXII. P.L., ibid., 585-586: 
V ideal prudentia vestra quid babeat plus vigoris et rationis, utrum ittud quod faetum est 
de ipso per alium ipso nesciente, an ittud quod sclent et prudens de se ipso fecit* . . . Ego 
autem dico, quod votum parentum integrum manet, et oblatio eorum non es t exinani ta sed 
cumulata. Nam et idem offertur quod prius oblatum est; et eidem offertur cuiprius obla- 
tum est; et quod prius a solis parentibus oblatum fuerat, nunc offertur afilto. 



41 2 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

get it, this namely, that a man is subject to those laws only the obliga- 
tion and burden of which he has freely accepted. We are creatures, 
without having willed it, Frenchmen, without having willed it, men 
of the twentieth century, without having desired it in any way; we have 
become Christians and we have been committed to God's service, without 
our opinion being asked. 1 If a man reflects he quickly recognizes that 
he is a being of whom God disposes at His pleasure, of whom God Himself 
disposes, whether directly or by intermediaries, but always as his master. 

May not retrospective concern about this institution come, in 
fact, from a too prevalent misconception of liberty? The power to 
choose evil or a lesser good, personal independence with respect to good 
or evil, a narrow and jealous individualism what is all this but the dimi- 
nution of liberty ? True liberty consists in a profound belonging, in a 
conscious and loved adhesion, to the good and to God. If we do not 
take this point of view, it is hardly possible to understand education, 
which has for its end precisely this, to create in us a prejudice in favour 
of the good, even before we know what it is. And those who would 
have every Frenchman belong to the State more than to the family, 
and that he should be trained at the State University or forfeit all social 
standing, are only turning to their own use the procedure for which 
they reproach the Church. 

When Tertullus, the senator, offered his young son Placid to St. Bene- 
dict, he did not think that he was acting tyrannically; he believed that 
he was thus assuring the safety and eternal life of his son; and he per- 
suaded himself that neither the child nor God would ever blame him 
for his decision. As a matter of fact the majority of children offered 
in this way afterwards joyously clung to the profession that had been 
made for them. And if there were some who would gladly have re- 
turned to the world, are they much to be pitied for having been con- 
strained to remain with God ? .And instead of letting our minds be 
possessed by the abuses and inevitable defections occasioned by the 
system, should we not rather bless it for having given us St. Maurus, 
St. Placid, the Venerable Bede, St. Gertrude, and so many others ? 
So we have no reason to be ashamed of this fifty-ninth chapter. Had It 
been applied to ourselves, we should have known God only, we should 
have no memories but of Him, we should have nothing to unlearn: 
where would be the misfortune ? 2 

1 On this comparison between infant baptism and the " oblature," read THOMASSIN, 
Ancienne et nouvelle discipline de FEglise,-P. I., 1. III., chap. vi. T. I., cols. 1762-1763. 

* With this chapter may be connected the question of " adult oblates ": internal 
oblates, who give themselves to the monastery in order to live there the life of the 
monks and under a rule, with or without a religious habit; external oblates, who are, 
so to speak, the fringe of the monastic garment. Properly speaking, such oblates do not 
form a third order; they belong, as do the monks, to the monastery of their profession. 

We said, in speaking of lay-brothers, that their history is closely connected in its 
origins with that of oblates; the same is true of the history of "recluses." 

Here, too, something might be said about " monastic schools," which also were 
divided into internal and external schools. Cf. LioN MAITRX, Les Ecoles episcopate 
et monastiques de f Occident depuis Charlemagne jusqu'd Pbilippe-Auguste, 768-1180. r 
CLEKVAL, Les Ecoles de Cbartres au moyen (tge. POKIE, Histoire de I'Abbaye du Sec, 
1. 1., chaps, iii. iv., vii., xv. 



CHAPTER LX 

OF PRIESTS WHO MAT WISH TO DWELL IN THE 

MONASTERY 

DE SACERDOTIBUS, Qui voLUERiNT If anyone of the priestly order ask 

IN MONASTERIO HABiTARE. Si quis de to be received into the monastery, 

ordine sacerdotum in monasterio se let not assent be too quickly granted 

suscipi rogaverit, non quidem ei citius him; but if he persist strongly in this 

assentiatur : tamen si omnino perstiterit request, let him know that he must keep 

in hac petitione, sciat se omnem Regu- all the discipline of the Rule, and that 

lae disciplinam servaturum, nee aliquid nothing will be relaxed in his favour, 

ei relaxabitur, utsitsicutscriptumest: to fulfil what is written: "Friend, 

Amice, ad quid venisti ? whereto art thou come ?" 

IN early times, as we have already noted, monks belonged to the 
ranks of the laity. There were, however, in every monastery some 
priests and clerics; and to them our Holy Father devotes the whole 
of Chapter LXIL, which completes the teaching of this chapter. 
So far from being mutually exclusive the two orders may be co-ordinated 
harmoniously and the two lives combined; monks become clerics and 
clerics embrace the monastic life, and this alliance of the two states 
honours the religious and sanctifies the priestly life; as St. Jerome says: 
" Monks and clerics, whose priesthood is adorned by their vows and vows 
by their priesthood." 1 For the moment St: Benedict is concerned only 
with the reception that shall be given to those of the priestly order who 
wish to be admitted, whether they be bishops, priests, deacons, 2 or lower 
clergy. (Our Holy Father distinguishes the two classes of clerics both 
in this chapter and at the end of the next.) 

The monastic life is distinct from the priestly life in its end, its 
duties, and its graces. We shall not think'of denying that the secular 
priest should work for his perfection: was it not said to him when the 
priestly dignity was conferred: " Realize what you do, imitate what you 
perform " (Agnosce quod agis, imitate quod tractas) ? And to prove that 
the realization of perfection is.no cloistral monopoly, we have only to 
recall here the example of the saintly Cure d'Ars. Nor shall we make the 
comparison, so famous and so often ill understood, between the state of 
acquired perfection, the episcopate, and the state of perfection yet to 
be acquired, the religious state. Nor do we dream of establishing any 
comparisons between persons . We deal with the theology of the matter. 
Now it is certain that the religious life is the perfect life organized, 
secured by the practice of counsels and vows, and that the priest himself 
enters it without losing status. It is incontestable also that the Church, 
is solicitous to maintain and safeguard the sacred right of all clerics 
to enter, should they wish, an active or contemplative Order. Bishops, 

1 S. HURON.; Epist. LII. ad Nepot., 5. P.L., XXII., 532. 

8 We may regard deacons as forming part of this order (HILDEMAR, in b. /.). 

413 



41 4 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

because of the spiritual bond which binds them to their church, require 
the permission of the Sovereign Pontiff in order to become religious. 
As to clerics in sacred orders, Canon Law requires them only to 
give respectful notice to their ordinary, and to make arrangements 
with him so that souls may not suffer thereby and be left without a 
pastor. 1 Even when there is a shortage of priests, bishops have too much 
of the supernatural spirit and too deep a sense of the Communion of 
Saints not to favour religious vocations. 

If it be always permissible for a cleric, one who is already " converted 
to the clerical state," as ancient Councils express it, to seek admittance 
into a monastery for a new and more complete " conversion " : it is also 
allowable for the monastery not to be too ready or in too great a hurry 
to receive him: "Let not assent be too quickly granted him." Care 
must be taken therefore not to forestall him, and not to yield save to 
long and urgent importunity: "If he persist strongly in this request." 
Without permitting ourselves to be dazzled by the honour or advantage 
that such vocations may bring to the monastery, it is prudent to test 
them exactly as any others more than others, says Hildemar. And the 
same commentator adds, with Paul the Deacon, that a priest had to 
pass through the same stages as a layman, including even the humiliating 
wait at the door. But our Holy Father so careful of the honour due 
to. a priest could not intend to submit him to the annoyances and 
insults which usually preceded admittance. 2 

The fears of the Holy Rule are still justifiable. In the seminary, 
when men are being prepared for the functions and duties of the priestly 
life, constant stress is laid on the incomparable dignity of the priesthood. 
The priest stands in a special relation to the virginal motherhood of 
Our Lady; the fact that he holds authority and jurisdiction over Our 
Lord's Person exalts him above kings and even above angels; and 
this teaching is accurate. But we also know well that when super- 
natural dignity is conferred on us, we are singularly ready to stress the 
grandeur and privilege, and not the responsibility and obligation. 
Nuns are never at a loss for words in which to proclaim themselves the 
spouses of Jesus Christ; yet it would be rash to say that they always do 
the will of their Spouse. A too exclusive sense of our personal dignity 
is a poor disposition for a life characterized by humility and obedience. 

Moreover, a priest, especially if he be somewhat advanced in years, 
comes with a soul already formed, with a clear-cut character, with habits, 
or even a fixed system of thought. In such circumstances it is difficult 
for him to be freely and calmly accessible to ideas and practices which 
are far from familiar to him, and may seem unsuitable, if not incorrect. 

1 The reader is referred to the canonists: PIATUS MONTZNSIS, O.M.C., Preelections 
juris regularisj VCRMEERSCH, S.J., De religions; and especially the solid dissertation 
of Pe*re NILUS, S.J., in his Select* disputationes academic* juris ecclesiaslici. 

* Cum autem clericus aliquis ad virum sanctum ut moitacbis adscribtretur accedebat, 
ordini quidem ejus deferebatur reverentia, quemadmodum divind nobis lex prascribit; 
quantum vero ad observantiam canonis fratres obligantis attinet, prastabat illam talis 
eeque ac ceteri (Vita S. Pacbomii, c. iii. Acta SS. t Mail, t. III., p. 303). 



Of Priests who may wish to Dwell m the Monastery 415 

Inclination of a very human sort will make him critical; and it will seem, 
granted his experience, that he has entered only to correct his brethren 
and reform the abbey. A secular priest is so placed that he must hold 
himself aloof from the world and preserve^an attitude of defence; but 
in the monastic life no grosser fault can be committed than to be on 
one's guard. Whoever purposes to become a monk must consent to 
that complete reformation of the self which implies the effacement of 
pur own will. . Long exercise of authority, though quite lawful and 
supernatural authority, may have made a priest, despite himself, some- 
thing of a " boss" and director; or the habit of an easy life, without 
constraint or intellectual occupation, may have softened his character. 
Yet, to succeed, one side of our heart must have remained naive, simple, 
and affectionate; we must rediscover something of youthfulness and 
joyous courage. 

But, after all, if the candidate is not of the stamp of those we have 
just described, or if his goodwill is such that he has a chance of success, 
it is not imprudent to receive him. Nevertheless St. Benedict says 
nothing of this reception, but observes immediately that the priest 
should know well that if he enters he will be bound to keep all the 
discipline of the Rule, without any relaxation being made in his favour 
He must meditate on the words of the Gospel: " Friend, whereto art 
thou come?" Was it not to sanctify yourself and to obey? The 
words occur in St. Matthew (xxvi. 50), and were addressed to Judas; 
but we are free to think that St. Benedict used the quotation apart from 
its context. The Fathers of the Desert used an equivalent formula 
when they wished to remind themselves of the realities of their vocation : 
St. Arsenius often asked himself : "Why did you leave the world?" 
(Propter quid existi f). 1 So St. Bernard, to whom this sentence is gener- 
ally attributed, did no more than imitate the ancients. 2 

Concedatur ei tamen post Abbatem Nevertheless, let it be granted him 
stare, etbenedicere, autMissamtenere, to stand after the Abbot, to give the 
si tamen jusserit ei Abbas. Sin alias, blessing, and to say Mass, if so be that 
nullatenus aliqua praesumat, sciens se the Abbot bid him do so. Otherwise, 
discipline regular! subditum, et magis let him presume to do nothing, 
humilitatis exempla omnibus (let. knowing that he is subject to the dis- 

cipline of the Rule; but rather let him 
give an example of humility to all. 

The integrity of the monastic life having been safeguarded by the 
measures which precede, St. Benedict now puts forward others which 
do honour to the priesthood; yet all is left to the judgement of the 
Abbot. He may give a priest (and probably St. Benedict means as soon 
as he enters) a higher position: " after the Abbot," perhaps even before 
.the Prior and the deans of the monastery, if these be not priests; if there 

1 Verba Seniorum: Viue Patrum, V., xv., 9. ROSWIYD, p. 621. ST. JOHN 
CLIMACUS also quotes the sentence Amice, ad quid venisti f which a monk tempted with 
instability should say to himself (Scala, gradusjv. P.G., LXXXVI1L, 724). 

1 Vita, 1. 1., c. iv. P.L., CLXXXV., 238. 



416 Commentary on the Rule oj St. Benedict 

are other older priests, the newcomer evidently takes his rank according 
to his age in the habit. " To give the blessing " (benedicere) means to 
give the regular blessings in the course of the office (or in the refectory 
for the meals and reading). Missam (or Missas) tenere means to cele- 
brate Mass ; according to Calmet, who has quite a little dissertation on 
this subject, it might also mean " to preside in choir or to recite the 
last Collect." In all else priests followed the regime of their brother 
novices: for without doubt they were riot dispensed from the regular 
novitiate; and it should be noted that St. Benedict mentions only 
liturgical precedence. According to later monastic customs, when 
priests were also more numerous, priest novices were sometimes reduced 
to the position of laymen; when they were allowed, after profession, the 
privilege of saying Mass, it was not without a strict examination before- 
hand. 

When the Abbot does not think fit, says St. Benedict, to sanction 
these exceptions,"the priest must abide in the ranks, without attempting 
to exercise his sacred functions. He must remember that he is subject 
to the ordinary law; he who has so often, in the sacrifice of the altar, 
been face to face with the humility of God Himself, must possess the 
privilege of his priesthood in humility. It is a well-known fact that those 
who receive grace well, receive it after such a fashion that it emphasizes 
their nothingness. Every favour from -God surprises them. When 
"her divine' motherhood raised Our Lady above all creatures, then did 
she recognize herself as nothing but the handmaid of the Lord. So 
everyone expects from priests an example of humility, rather than the 
sad spectacle of a ridiculous self-importance. 

Si forte ordinationis aut alicujus If there chance to be a question of 
rei causa fuerit in monasterio, ilium an appointment, or other matter, in 
locum attendat, quando ingressus est the monastery, let him expect the 
in monasterium, non ilium qui ei pro position due to him according to the 
reverentia sacerdotii concessus est. time of his entrance, and not that which 

was granted to him out of reverence for 

the priesthood. 

This passage is somewhat puzzling and has been very variously inter- 
preted. It may be understood in this way : if an important office in the 
monastery falls vacant, if there be question, for instance, of appointing 
or ordaining (in St. Benedict's use of the word) the Abbot, or Prior, the 
priest must not imagine that the position will come to him of right. 
Likewise, if any other important decision has to be taken in the 
monastery, or if Chapter deliberates upon a point proposed by the 
Abbot, the priest must not think himself indispensable, nor give his 
advice in a tone of authority, on the plea that he is better educated and 
more experienced than the others. St. Benedict stills these natural 
movements with a word : the priest must regard as his the rank which he 
would occupy according to the, date of his entrance, and not the rank 
which the Abbot has freely granted him out of respect for his priesthood, 



Of Priests who may wish to Dwell in the Monastery 417 

and which he may always withdraw. Apart from such special arrange- 
ment he must keep the rank of monastic seniority. Our Holy Father re- 
peats this almost in the same terms in Chapter LXII. : " Let him always 
keep the place due to him according to his entrance into the monastery, 
except with regard to the duties of the altar, and unless the choice of the 
community and the will of the Abbot should promote him for the merit 
of his life." The counsel has not lost its seasonableness : may we not 
say that to keep the rank of one's profession is almost a general rule of 
the spiritual life ? Throughout the whole course of our life, whatever 
may be the distinctions that come to us, we should put ourselves, before 
God, back into the place that is ours of right and which we know well : 
the last place, the place of nothingness. 

Clericorum autem si quis eodem If any cleric should desire in the 
desiderio monasterio sociari voluerit, same way to. be admitted into the 
loco mediocri collocetur, et ipsum monastery, let him be placed in a 
tamen, si promittit de observatione middle rank: but this too only if he 
Regulae, vel propria stabilitate. promise observance of the Rule and his 

own stability. 

All that has just been said about priests applies, in due proportion, 
to other clerics. The Abbot may give them a middle rank that is, 
one less exalted than that given to priests and in keeping with their 
ecclesiastical status. But St. Benedict again observes that the reception 
of clerics, as of priests, is conditional on their promise to observe the 
Rule and (vel) to be stable. We need not necessarily take this last 
sentence according to the too literal interpretation of Bernard of Monte 
Cassino; according to him, St. Benedict meant that a special place was 
granted to clerics only after their formal profession. 



27 



CHAPTER LXI 

OF PILGRIM MONKS, HOW THET ARE TO BE 

RECEIVED 

DE MONACHIS PEREGRIN is, QUALi- If any pilgrim monk come from 

TKR SUSCIPIANTUR. Si quis monachus distant parts, and desire to dwell in 

peregrinus de longinquis provinces the monastery as a guest, and if he be 

supervenerit, si pro hospite voluerit content with the custom of the place 

habitare in monasterio, et contentus as he finds it, and do not trouble the 

fuerit consuetudine loci quam invene- monastery by any unreasonable wants, 

rit, et non forte superfluitate sua per- but be content simply with what he 

turbat monasterium, sed simplici'ter finds, let him be received for as long 

contentus est quod invenerit, suscipia- a time as he will, 
tur quanto tempore cupit. 

HERE we have a new method of recruitment. To get the real mean- 
ing of this chapter we should remember what was the condition 
of religious in the West in our Holy Father's time. The monastic 
order, taken in its entirety, still resembled a nebula, unresolved and 
undiff erentiated. There were monks, monasteries, and monastic customs, 
but no Congregation, such as Cluny formed later; no single rule govern- 
ing many houses; 1 often, even, no other rule in a monastery than the 
will of the Abbot: it was thus that St. Romanus lived, as St. Gregory 
tells us, " under the rule of Abbot Deodatus." Even in the East, where 
true federations of monasteries with written rules had long existed, the 
religious life kept a somewhat private character, less strict and less 
official than that" of later ages. A wide door was left open to instability : 
having obtained the blessing of his Abbot, a monk might freely set out 
on a long pilgrimage to some sanctuary, or monastic centre, to meet 
with holy folk; and it was open to him to settle there where the life 
suited his fervour or his laxity. The author of the Monastic Consti- 
tutions protests, if not against instability, at least against its abuses. 2 

The gyrovague and the sarabaite realized fully the ideal of instability. 
Probably it is not with them that our Holy Father deals in this chapter. 
They were people easily to be recognized and they were incorrigible; 
St. Benedict, on the very threshold of his Rule, draws their portrait 
in such indignant terms that the pilgrim monk (monachus feregrinus) 
whom he here receives with open arms cannot be a gyrovague by pro- 
fession. Those he speaks of are monks coming " from distant parts " : 
not that the regulations which follow have only such in view and exclude 
religious coming from nearer monasteries; but because St. Benedict 
reserves to the end of the chapter his special reference to these, along 
with the counsel concerning them. 

We do not think that the words of the text " as a guest " and, 
farther on,. " during the time he was a guest " must be taken literally. 

1 C/. CASS., Inst., II., ii. a Cap. vii. and viii. P.O., XXXI., -1365-1370. 

418 



Of Pilgrim Monks, how they are to be "Received 4,19 

There is no reference whatever to the guest-house; on the contrary, 
St. Benedict says that the pilgrim is received "in the monastery," 
which seems decisive. Moreover, all the details which follow show 
clearly that the traveller was admitted into the intimate life of the 
monastery, where he could observe and be observed; and this was even 
indispensable if our Holy Father was to pursue prudently his merciful 
design of admitting him among those who were stable. We read in the 
Life of St. Benedict 1 that the monks of Abbot Servandus slept, when at 
Monte Cassino, in the same dwelling as the brethren. St. Pachomius, 
after having begun by allowing pilgrim monks into his community, 
changed his policy in order to prevent disorders. 2 

St. Benedict only requires of the monk thus received that he conform 
to the conditions of the new life to which God has led him: as regards 
the hour of rising, food, and work, he is treated as a brother but on con- 
dition that he acts amiably and simply, like a brother. If the pilgrim 
showed a desire for exceptional treatment and made unreasonable re- 
quests (superfluitate sud), he ceased to be anything but a nuisance: and 
St. Benedict tells us farther on how to behave towards him. But if he 
was reasonable and accommodating, he could be received into the 
monastery for as long a period as he wished. 3 

Si quae tamen rationabiliter et cum If, however, he censures or points 

humilitate caritatis reprehendit aut out anything reasonably and with the 

ostendit, tractet Abbas prudenter, ne humility of charity, let the Abbot treat 

forte eum propter hoc ipsum Dominus the matter prudently, lest perchance 

direzerit. God have sent him for this very end. 

Here assuredly is one of those passages wherein is reflected most 
clearly the humble and discreet spirit of our Holy Father, his intellectual 
docility. One may be very holy and very clever, and yet have something 
to learn from others. Moses was certainly more elevated in grace and 
more gifted than Jethro; yet he received good counsel from him 
(Ex. xviii. 13 j.) 4 and our souls should be all the more open to the 
ideas of others, the more we cease to be observant of the details of our 
own life. Those who come from outside, who have had other experience 
and do not bear our familiar yoke of custom, are more apt to discern 
our shortcomings. 

But these criticisms to deserve a hearing must, says St. Benedict, 
be reasonable *.*., objectively justified and courteous, without arro- 
gance or excess. Cum humilitate caritatis: for it is under these forms 
that we are most likely to meet the Spirit of God. Reprehendit implies 
formal blame, the warning that a mode of action is unsuitable; ostendit 
-implies a prudent suggestion that the superior should enquire into some 
matter or act in such and such a way. A discreet man will naturally 

1 S. GRIG. M., Dial., 1. II., c. xxxv. 

* Vita S. Pacbom., Acta SS., Mail, t. III., p. 307. 

3 It would seem that St. Benedict was much influenced by interrogation Ixxzvii. 
(Reg. contr^) of ST. BASIL: Conceit quidem ei convenit ingrestum. . . . Inter Awn enim 
potest fieri, ut per tern-pus proficiat et delectetur sanctitate vita et permaneat in cceptis. 

* S. AUG., De doctrina cbrist., praef., 7. P.L., XXXIV., 18. 



420 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

make such communications as these to the Abbot, and not to those who 
have not the authority necessary for correction or control. The Abbot 
must study the matter prudently and without prejudice ; for it may be 
God Himself that has come in the guise of this pilgrim monk, so often 
does He hide in guests. 

Si vero postea voluerit stabilitatem But if afterwards he wish to con- 
suam firmare, non renuatur talis volun- firm his stability, let not such a purpose 
tas, et maxime, quia tempore hospitali- be denied, and especially since his 
tatis potuit ejus vita dignosci. Quod manner of life could be well ascertained 
si superfluus aut vitiosus inventus fuerit during the time he was a guest. But 
tempore hospitalitatis, non solum non if, during that time, he was found 
debet sociari corpori monasterii, 1 ve- exorbitant or prone to vice, not only 
rum etiam dicatur ei honeste ut dis- should he not be admitted as a member 
cedat, ne ejus miseria etiam alii vitien- of the community, buthe should even 
tur. be told courteously to depart, lest 

others should be corrupted by his 
wretchedness. 

We may combine the first sentence of this section with the next 
extract and keep our commentary on it for that place. 

His sojourn inside the monastery has given opportunity of ascertaining 
the traveller's dispositions. Just in proportion to the liberty allowed 
him of mingling with the brethren has his true .temperament been 
disclosed. If he be exacting, hard to please, and always anxious to be 
somewhere else, then it is easy to foresee that as soon as he is affiliated 
to the monastery if this be granted to him he will repent of having 
vowed stability. Or he may be prone to vice: he may have not merely 
failings who is without them ? but rooted habits, the obstinate nature 
of v which would be burdensome to the community and dangerous for 
weak souls. A man often exercises an influence out of proportion to his 
moral worth; and it is their failings that men most readily communicate 
to others. The Abbot should then see that consideration for the 
general good prevails; he may not, in the hope of a very problematical 
cure, expose his subjects to real dangers. Therefore, when the stranger 
has exhausted our patience, he must Ibe asked " courteously " to depart. 
St. Benedict would not have us use discourteous or rough methods 
towards him. 

Quod si non fuerit talis qui mereatur If, however, he is not such as to 
projici, non solum si petierit suscipiatur deserve to be cast forth, let him not 
congregation! sociandus, verum etiam merely on his own asking be received 
suadeatur ut stet, ut ejus exemplo alii as a member of the community, but 
erudiantur, et quia in omni loco uni even be persuaded to stay, that 
Domino servitur, et uni Regi militatur. others may be taught by his example, 

and because in every place we serve 
one Lord and fight under one King. 

If, after having tried the rule of the monastery (see the previous 
extract), he shows a fixed determination to end his wanderings and asks 

1 A verbal reminiscence of ST. BASIL: . . . Quern sociari voluerint corpori congre- 
gationis (Reg. confr., cxcii.). 



Of Pilgrim Monks y how they are to be Received 42 1 

for stability, such a purpose should not be opposed but considered: 
since, in St. Benedict's opinion, stability is for a monk the best of good 
things and the surest guarantee of spiritual progress. That he should 
ask for stability is already an excellent sign. And St. Benedict urges 
this course the more, because from the conduct of this monk while 
de facto a member of the community, it will be easy to estimate whether 
he deserves to belong to it by right. 

But he goes farther. Supposing a good monk does not venture to 
ask, or does not give the matter a thought : he may be sweetly invited to 
remain. We should remember, in order to understand why our Holy 
Father inclines somewhat to commendation of his own monastery, that 
true stability existed nowhere else; that outside the Benedictine life 
there was as yet no solid bond between religious and their monastery; 
and that finally, in the particular case before us, the monk has already 
left his own. If he be virtuous, if he give promise, why should one not 
make advances ? His monastery does not suffer, since he has left it 
and perhaps without promise of return; the monk gains by it, since he 
enters a life made more perfect by stability; the Benedictine monastery 
also gains, since it is increased by a good member in contact with whom 
the others will profit. 1 It will be pointed out to him that after all it is 
not contrary to his profession to stay there, since in every place we serve 
one and the same Lord and fight under the same King; he has not to 
change his master but to " fix " himself in surroundings where he will 
serve Him better. 2 We must be careful not to interpret these words 
in a sense hostile to stability: assuredly St. Benedict had no intention 
of saying that change was an indifferent matter. On the contrary, 
the remark is given as a motive for remaining. 

A monk who decided to remain did not make a new novitiate, since 
monastic life was then one, and the question of the monastery accidental. 
Nor had he to make a new profession; he had only to promise stability. 
Paul the Deacon and Hildemar have preserved for us the form used in 
their day. The multiplication of religious Orders has introduced 
modifications of discipline on this point. Passage from one Order to 
another involves the repetition of novitiate and profession. And in the 
majority of cases the sanction of the Holy See is necessary. 

Quern etiam si talem esse per- And if the Abbot perceive him 

spexerit Abbas, liceat eum in superiore to be a man of this kind, he may put 

aliquantulum constituere loco. Non him in a somewhat higher place, 

solum autem monachum, sed etiam de Not only a monk, but also any of the 

supradictis gradibus sacerdotum vel aforesaid priests or clerics, may be put 

1 We are led to translate thus by the symmetry between the two parts of the sen- 
tence: ne ejus miseria etiam alii vitientur and ut ejus exemplo alii erudiantur. Or else 
St. Benedict means that this achieving of stability is a lesson and an invitation to other 
wandering monks. 

2 Or, more simply, and without answering a tacit objection, he is told that there ii 
no need for him to go seek the monastic life elsewhere, since he finds it just here, within 
his grasp. ; : 



422 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

clericorum, stabilire potest Abbas in by the Abbot in a higher place than 
major! quam ingreditur loco, si ejus according to the time of their entrance, 
talem prospexerit esse vitam. if he sees that their lives are such 

[as we have said]. 

When the Abbot considers that the virtues of the newcomer justify 
an exception to the common rule and are such (this is St. Benedict's 
meaning) as we have said, he may, if he wish, raise him somewhat 
(aliquantulum) above the rank due to him by his entrance into the 
monastery. 1 The same shall hold for the priests and clerics spoken of a 
short while back. By this recommendation, the equivalent of which we 
find in Chapters LX., LXIL, and LXIII., St. Benedict wished to reserve 
this power to the Abbot and to cut short all protestation and surprise, 
of a too natural sort, which might arise in the community: "These 
last have worked but one hour, and thou hast made them equal to us, 
who have borne the burden of the day and the heats " (Matt. xx. 12). 
However, this power of the Abbot is not arbitrarily exercised, and 
St. Benedict twice says that the precedence granted must be justified 
by a meritorious life. 

Caveat autem Abbas, ne aliquando But let the Abbot take care never 

de alio noto monasterio monachum ad to receive permanently a monk from 

habitandum suscipiat, sine consensu any known monastery without his own 

Abbatis ejus, aut litteris commendati- Abbot's consent, and letters of recom- 

tiis: quia scriptum est: Quod tibi non mendation; because it is written: 

vis fieri, alteri ne feceris. " What thou wouldst not have done 

to thyself, do not thou to another." 

Since the beginning of the chapter St. Benedict has been speaking 
about monks arriving from distant parts from the East, it may be. In 
most cases of this kind the monastery which received him was forced 
to trust to the good faith of the visitor and to the impression which he 
gave of his character and habits; more than this could not often be asked 
from him. But St, Benedict is more exacting when it is a question of 
a monk coming from a neighbouring and known monastery. Since 
there was acquaintance, identity of language, and some intercourse, 
the respective Abbots could act in concert. 

Such action was, in the first place, mere prudence on the part of the 
receiving Abbot. How had the monk come to leave his monastery ? 
Was he a runaway, or had he the consent^ of his Abbot ? St. Benedict 
was not a man to enrich himself by the loss of another, or even with his 
rejected subjects. It was also courteous and charitable ; and St. Benedict 
bids the Abbot ask himself what he would think if a neighbour stole his 
monks: " What thou wouldst not haye done to thyself, do not thou to 
another." 2 Finally, it was in obedience to monastic usage and to certain 

1 The first Rule of the HOLY FATHERS was more severe: lilt vero monacbus guantos 
fratres in olio monasterio invenerit, tantos se noverit babere priores. Nee attendendum 
est quifuit antea, sed probandum est qualis esse cceperit (xiii.). 

1 Read again the ninth instrument of good works and the; end of Chapter LXX. 



Of Pilgrim Monks, how they are to be Received 423 

conciliar decrees of the period. 1 A pilgrim monk, therefore, shall 
not be received, unless it be established, by testimony which he bears, 
or by a letter addressed to the Abbot directly, or by some other method, 
that his superior has given him his exeat. Failing this special consent 
and formal attestation, sine consensu Abbatis ejus, the traveller must at 
least exhibit general letters of recommendation (aut litteris commenda- 
titiis).* These documents of which we have already said something 
in the chapter on guests were drawn up sometimes under the 
form of letters from one Abbot to another, sometimes under a more 
general form, recommending to all ecclesiastical or monastic authorities 
a monk who had gone forth in regular fashion from his monastery, on 
a voyage of discovery, free to choose his new religious home. 8 

1 The first Rule of the HOLY FATHERS said: Nee tacendum est qualiter inter semonas- 
teria pacem firmam obtineant. Non licebit de alto monasterio, sine voluntate ejus qui 
preeest Patris,fratres recipere. Sed nee videre oportct, dicente Apostolo: quia qui primam 
fidem irritam fecit est infideli deterior. (Note this witness in favour of stability, before 
St. Benedict.) Quod si prfcatus fuerit ab eo qui preeest Patre ut in alia monasterio in- 
grediatur, commendetur ab eo ei qui praest ubi esse desiderat, et sic suscipiatur, etc. (xiii.). 
The Council of Agde in 506 decreed: Monacbum nisi Abbatis sui aut permissu aut 
voluntate ad. alterum monasterium commigrantem, nullus Abbas aut suscipere aut retinere 
prasumat (Can. xxvii. MANSI, t. VIII., col. 329. See also the Council of Orleans 
of 511, Can. xix. MANSI, t. VIII., cols. 354-355). 

* The Council of Agde. of 506 forbids -monks, as well as clerics, to travel without 
these Letters (Can. xxxviii. MANSI, t. VIII., col. 331). 

* MARTENE cites several examples of these two sorts of letters, in his Commentary 
on this chapter. Cf. S. DESIDERII CADURCENSIS (-f 654 or 655), Epist. II. and IX. P.L., 
LXXXVII., 249, 253. 



CHAPTER LXII 
OF THE PRIESTS OF THE MONASTERY 

EF us not forget that the purpose of all this portion of the holy 
Rule is to describe the recruitment of the monastery, its composi- 
tion, its internal good order, and the hierarchical organization 
which shall guarantee its peace. The commentary of this chapter 
should be connected with that on Chapter LX. 

St. Epiphanius, enumerating the degrees of the Christian hierarchy, 
reserves the lowest for the married state; next comes widowhood con- 
secrated to God; then the monastic life and virginity; and finally, as 
the crown of all and the source of all sanctity, the priesthood, recruited 
from among virgins i.e., monks and the chaste. 1 In the view of the 
author of the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy monks are perfect Christians; 
consequently they have their position at the summit of the passive part 
of the hierarchy, comprising purified, illuminated, and perfect souls; 
but they are quite distinct from the active part, which comprises those 
who purify, deacons; those who illuminate, priests; and those who 
complete and perfect, bishops. Yet there is no incompatibility, as 
we observed in the sixtieth chapter, between the priesthood and the 
monastic profession; quite the contrary, as says St. Denis, for " monks 
should form their lives on those of priests, with whom they have many 
points of affinity, and to whom they are nearer than are the members 
of the other degrees." 2 And those are more apt for priestly functions, 
who have been prepared for them by a holier life. Therefore the Church 
often, from the earliest times, entrusted monks with certain pastoral 
duties and even with the administration of dioceses. St. Athanasius 
made Egyptian solitaries bishops; St. Martin, St. Augustine, St. Eusebius 
of Vercellae and others, themselves monks, recruited their clergy from 
among monks, or raised their clerics to the monastic life; Pope St. Siricius 
in his letter to Himerius of Tarragona (A.D. 385) 3 expresses his desire 
that exemplary monks should receive sacred Orders; St. Augustine 
of Canterbury and his brethren evangelized England. We have to 
speak at present only of monks ordained with a view to the spiritual 
interests of the community. 4 

The earliest ascetics attended the churches of their district. Anchor- 
ites most often regarded themselves as dispensed, and we know how our 
Holy Father, in his solitude at Subiaco, learnt that " it was Easter." 
To get a secular priest to come to the monastery to celebrate the holy 
mysteries and administer the sacraments was a method in use in some 
religious families, with St. Pachomius especially. But it was simpler 

1 Adv. Hareses y 1. III., t. ii.: Expositio fidei, xxi. f'G. t XLII., 824-825. 
1 De bierarcb. eccles., c. vi. " 3 Cap. xiii. P.L., XIIT., 1 144. 

* Cf., with the Commentaries, HJEFTEN, 1. III., tract, vii. 

424 



Of the Priests of the Monastery 425 

to supply your own needs and to institute a monastic clergy; which 
custom prevailed early both in East and West. So every monastery 
had its clerics, very few in number, as we said in Chapter LX. ; sometimes 
a single priest sufficed, all the more that Mass was not celebrated every 
day. According to Palladius, in the monastery of Abbot Isidore, 
containing a thousand monks, the doorkeeper and two others of the 
brethren were priests. 1 The Abbot himself had not always this dignity, 
and it is conjectured that our Holy Father received only the diaconate. 2 
In the ninth century Church discipline required the Abbot to be a 
priest (Council of Rome, A.D. 826) : 3 and nothing could be more natural, 
especially when many ordinary religious had the honour of the priest- 
hood. In the list of the monks of Saint-Denys, about the year 838, out 
of 123 monks, one is a bishop, 33 are priests, 17 deacons, 24 subdeacons 
and 7 acolytes. 4 

To assist the priests in their duties, they were given deacons, and 
St. Benedict speaks of the ordination " of a priest or a deacon." Why 
does he say nothing of the lower clergy ? Perhaps because simple monks 
could easily fulfil the liturgical functions reserved for these ministers 
in secular churches. Historians, such as Thomassin and Mabillon, 6 
even think that monastic profession was often equivalent to the sub- 
diaconate and took its place. But if such a custom did really exist for 
a time, it was neither general nor permanent; it is recorded, for instance, 
in the Life of St. Wandrille that St. Ouen conferred the subdiaconate 
on him.' St. Aurelian says in his Rule for monks: 7 " Let none receive 
the honour of the priesthood or diaconate except the Abbot wish a 
priest to be ordained, and a deacon and subdeacon. Let him have the 
'power of ordaining (presenting ?) for these offices whomsoever he wishes 
and when he wishes." St. Benedict never dreamt of promoting his 
disciples to the episcopate. It was only much later that certain monas- 
teries took care to have a bishop to ordain in the monastery; at one time 
this was the Abbot, as at Lobbes in Belgium or at St. Martin's of Tours, 
at another it was a simple monk, as sometimes happened at Saint- 
Denys. 8 

According to present-day discipline it is forbidden to receive as choir 
monks those who do not possess the qualifications requisite for sacred 
Orders. Pope Clement V. introduced this innovation in the Fifteenth 

Council at Vienne (A.D. 131 1) 9 decreeing: " That all monks, there being 



1 Hist. Laits., c. Ixxi. (Vitee Patrum, VIII. ROSWEYD, p. 759). 
8 Read the full dissertation of H;EFTEN, Prolegom., xviii., pp. 33-35. D. L'HUILUER, 
Le Patriarchs S. Benott, pp. 267-270. 

3 Can. xxvii. MANSI, ad ann., 853, t. XIV., col. 1007. 

4 Luc D'ACHERY, Spicileg., t. IV., p. 229. 

3 THOMASSIN, Ancienne et nouvelle discipline de I'Eglise, P. II., 1. I., chap. Ixxxv. 
T. II., col. 54.7. MABILLON, Annales O.S.B., 1. X., xx. T. I., p. 252. 

MABILLON, Acta SS. O.S.5., Saec. II., p. 507. 

* Cap. xlvi. 

8 ARNOLD Wiov, in his Lignum vita, has essayed to draw up a list of monk-bishops. 

9 From the Corpus juris: Clement., 1. III., t. X., c. i., Ne in agro. 



426 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

no lawful excuse, should at the bidding of their Abbot have themselves 
promoted to all the sacred Orders"; and this, he said, was for the 
" amplification of divine worship " : a choir of priests and clerics offering 
God a more perfect praise than a choir of simple religious.^ The decree 
Cum ad regularem of Clement VIII. (March 19, 1603) laid 'further stress 
on the point. Canon Law permits only religious who have made 
their solemn vows to proceed to the major Orders. 

DE SACERDOTIBUS MONASTERii. If any Abbot seek to have a priest 
Si quis Abbas sibi pfesbyterum, vel or deacon ordained for himself, let 
diaconum ordinare petierit, de suis him choose from among his monks one 
eligat qui dignus sit sacerdotio fungi, who is worthy to fulfil the 'priestly 

office. 

When the Abbot has need of a priest or a deacon for the service of 
his monastery (sibi), and when the method of recruitment provided in 
Chapter LX. is not applied or remains inadequate, he shall choose among 
his monks one who is worthy to fulfil the sacred duties (sacerdotium is 
here used by St. Benedict in a wide sense, as the words de ordine sacer- 
dotwn before) ; and he shall ask for his ordination that is, present him 
for ordination. Quite a number of interesting conclusions may be 
drawn from these words. . 

And first : in our Holy Father's time not the local bishop, but the 
Abbot chose and presented. The point is of importance for the history 
of monastic exemption. When it was a matter of ordaining a monk 
for the external ministry and the service of the diocese, the bishop 
designated him at his pleasure; at the same time, Councils, such as that 
of Agde (A.D. S06), 1 remind him that he should ask the consent of the 
Abbot. Neither was it the community or the seniors who chose the 
candidates, as at Scete, though they were probably consulted. 2 Nor 
again was it the monk's business to ask for or presumptuously desire the 
honour and burden of the priesthood. On this point the fourteenth 
and fifteenth chapters of the eleventh book of Cassian's Institutes 
should be read. Still less does it become a religious to seek to avoid 
sacred Orders and to elude them by improper methods, as, for example, 
by cutting off an ear, as did the three fervent monks in the Paradise of 
the Fathers? Cassian noted that such humility might very well be 
nothing but a variety of pride. 4 Everyone should put himself at the 
disposal of God and his Abbot. 6 St. Athanasius endeavoured to con- 
vince his friend, the monk Dracontius, that the episcopate does not 

1 Can. xxvii. MANSI, t. VIII., col. 329. 

2 Verba Seniorum: Vita Patrum, III., 22. ROSWEYD, pp. 499-500. Cf. MARTitrc, 
Comment, in b. /., p. 815. 

8 P.G., LXV., 456. 

4 Conlat., IV., xx. 

5 The ideal would be to make one's own the principle of John of Lycopolis: Neque 
fugiendum omnimodis dicimus clericatum vel sacerdotium, neque rursus omnimodis expeten- 
dum, sed danda opera /, ut vitia quidcm a nobis depellantur, et virtutes animee conquirari- 
tur. Dei autemjudicio relinquendum r, quern velit, et si velit assumere sibi ad ministerium 
vel ad sacerdotium (RUFIN., Hist, monacb., c. i. ROSWEYD, pp. 452-453). 



Of the Priests of the Monastery 427 

necessarily constitute a state of perdition for a monk. 1 However, our 
Holy Father is careful to remind the monk ordained how he should 
behave in the community. 

Ordinatus autem caveat elationem Let him that is ordained beware 

aut superbiam; nee quicquam praesu- of arrogance and pride, and presume 

mat, nisi quod ei ab Abbate praecipitur, to do nothing that is not commanded 

sciens se multo magis discipline him by the Abbot, knowing that he 

regular! subditum. Nee occasione is now all the more subject to regular 

sacerdotii obliviscatur regulae obedien- discipline. Let him not take occasion 

tiam et disciplinary sed magis ac ma- of his priesthood to forget theobedience 

gis in Domino proficiat. and discipline of the Rule, but ad- 
vance ever more and more in the Lord. 

The special position occupied by a priest in an ancient monastery 
created dangers for the individual which St. Benedict enumerates. 
There was danger of vanity and of pride; danger of negligence or dis- 
obedience to the ordinances of Rule or Abbot, the priest imagining that 
he had a right to exceptional treatment, that he could do as he liked 
about such and such a monastic custom; danger of insubordination, 
because he sought to put himself forward in certain circumstances and 
laid claim to certain powers of initiative: nee quidquam prasumat. . . . 
It were a sad thing to take advantage of the priesthood in order to satisfy 
the petty designs of self-love. Such action would show a fundamental 
misunderstanding of the supernatural economy. " Noblesse oblige": 
the very fact that he is a priest binds a man to be a better monk; he must 
regard himself as subject to the regular discipline in a much greater 
degree than the rest. 2 The special law of his life is advancement, a con- 
tinuous progress toward that example of obedience and humility which 
Our Lord gives him at the altar : Sed magis ac magis in Domino proficiat? 

Locum vero ilium semper attendat, Let him always keep the place due 

quo ingressus est monasterium, prater to him according to his entrance into 

officium altaris, et si forte electio the monastery, except with regard to 

congregationis et-voluntas Abbatis pro the duties of the altar, or unless the 

vitae merito eum promovere voluerit: choice of the community and the will 

qui tamen regulam a decanis vel prse- of the Abbot should wish to promote 

positis const! tutam sibi servandam him for the merit of his life. Never- 

sciat; quod si aliter prasumpserit, non theless, let him know that he must 

ut sacerdos, sed ut rebellis judicetur. keep the rule given to him by the 

Et saepe admonitus si non correxerit, deans and priors. Should he presume 

etiam episcopus adhibeatur in testi- to do otherwise he must be considered 

mo mum. Quodsinecsicemendaverit, not as a priest, but as a rebel; and if 

clarescentibus culpjs, projiciatur de after frequent admonition he do not 

1 P.O., XXV., 53'-534- 

1 Including the rod, if he deserves it, as PAUL THE DEACON and HILDKMAR note with 
some insistence. The true reading is probably subdendum. 

8 At the end of the Sernto asceticus de renuntiatione saculi, inserted among the works 
of ST. BASIL, we read these words, which are in accord with those of our Holy Father: 
Ne efferat te cleri gradus sed potius bumiliet. Nam animae profectus bumilitatis profectus 
est, . . . Quanta ad majores sacerdotii grades appropinjuare te contigerit, tantum bumilia 
teipsunt . . . (P.O., XXXI., 



428 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

monasterio; si tamen tails fuerit ejus amend, let even the bishop be brought 
contumacia, ut subdi aut obedire in as a witness; If even then he do 
regulae nolit. not amend, and his guilt is manifest, 

let him be cast forth from the monas- 
tery; only, however, if his contumacy 
be such that he will not submit or 
obey the Rule. 

We have already seen this advice addressed to all and especially to 
priests, that they should always keep to the order of their profession 
and seniority; exception is made only for priests or clerics who exercise 
sacred duties, and for those who receive a privileged rank on account of 
the merit of their lives. We have seen further that this precedence was 
in practice the ordinary lot of good priests, at least in liturgical functions, 
as soon as the Abbot granted it, whether on his own initiative, or, adds 
St. Benedict, at the suggestion of the community, as sometimes happened 
with the Prior. Some commentators think, in our opinion wrongly, that 
St. Benedict only alludes to their being chosen for the office of dean or 
Prior; in which case he says that a priest will not be dispensed from 
observing the rules laid down " for " deans and the Prior. It is true 
that the most authoritative manuscripts have not got the preposition 
a. (by) before decants (deans), a fact which would incline us to translate 
" for the deans." But even with this reading we may translate " by 
the deans." And it is certainly the more natural sense : a priest, though 
put above certain deans or above the Prior, 1 must accept and fulfil 
faithfully the orders of all his monastic superiors. 

If, despite all these warnings of the Rule, a priest is insubordinate, 
measures will have to be taken, against him. Non ut sacerdos, sed ut 
rebellis judicetur. He has two characters: henceforth we shall cease to 
honour his priesthood, which by his unworthy conduct he would seem 
to wish us to forget, and we shall regard him now as nothing but a rebel 
monk. As such shall he be treated. Some commentators give the word 
judicetur its formal signification of trial, legal process, and condemnation, 
an interpretation which scarcely alters the general sense of the passage. 
Whatever translation is adopted, and especially if the second is preferred: 
" He must be judged, not as a priest, but as a rebel," we may recognize 
in the logical distinction made by our Holy Father with regard to the 
person of the offender, a mark of his spirit of faith and of his respect 
for the priestly character. He would put the priesthood out of the case 
and not think of degrading it ; the sole purpose of his action is to suppress 
rebellion. Moreover, the unruly priest is treated with consideration 
and tact. Numerous representations and loving exhortations shall be 
.addressed to him; and there shall be much patience. St. Benedict 
does not add that he shall, if necessary, suffer corporal punishment and 
excommunication, which were the degrees of the regular discipline, 
and were inflicted even on the Prior if he proved incorrigible. Hildemar 
tells us that in his time, in French monasteries, disobedient priests were 

1 Some manuscripts have the singular prapotito. Promovere has the same sense as 
pratulerit in the next chapter. 



Of the Priests of the Monastery 429 

flogged like ordinary monks, but that in Italy they were taken to the 
bishop, who judged and degraded them, if there were cause: after which 
the Abbot could chastise them. 

This recourse to the bishop is put forward by our Holy Father as an 
extreme measure : " even the bishop " are his words. It would be 
difficult to prove by means of this " even " alone that recourse to episcopal 
authority was not obligatory; however, we should note that the bishop 
is called in only as " a witness " : he is apprised and called as a witness of 
the scandalous conduct of the priest. St. Benedict does not tell us 
what the bishop's personal intervention meant for the offender : doubt- 
less a more authoritative admonition, perhaps even judgement and 
sentence. However, it does not seem, from the words of the Rule, that 
it was he who pronounced definite sentence of expulsion. All these 
points concern the rights of monasteries with respect to bishops. To- 
gether with what is said briefly on the point in Chapter LXIV., this is 
the sole instance of our Holy Father's invoking episcopal authority. 
Freely chosen by the monks, often " ordained " by the bishop, and 
having, through this medium, received from God and the Church 
plenary jurisdiction over his family, the Abbot exercised this jurisdiction 
according to his conscience and good pleasure. When the Abbot wished 
to excommunicate or expel one of his monks, or even one of the officials 
of his house, we nowhere find the Rule prescribing that the bishop 
should be called in. 

As early as the fourth century there are indications in certain 
ecclesiastical documents of what was subsequently known as monastic 
exemption. We may merely recall the fact that the Council of Chal- 
cedon (A.D. 451), though subjecting monks, and especially those ordained 
by him, to the bishop of the diocese, at the same time wished that they 
should be undisturbed in their monastery which is the chief purpose 
and most tangible benefit of exemption. 1 Subsequently, and this even 
in monasteries where the bishop only intervened to perform certain 
pontifical functions, there remained a canonical bond between him and 
the monks whom he had ordained: these latter depended on him in 
some manner,> doubtless in what concerned the administration of the 
sacraments. The Third Council of Aries (between A.D. 455 and 460) 
which reasserted this, at the same time recognized that the Abbot of 
L6rins, Faustus (future Bishop of Riez), had the right to be sole master in 
his own house, and that the Bishop of Fre"jus could not interfere in the 
government of " the whole multitude of the laity of the monastery." 2 

1 Monacbos vero per unamquamque civiiatem out regiottem subjectos esse episcopo, et 
quietem diligere, et intentos esse tantummodo jejunio et orationi, in locis in quibus renun- 
tiaverunt saculo, permanentes: nee ecclesiasticis vero, nee sacularibus negotiis communtcent, 
vel in aliquo sint molesti, propria monasteria deserentes, nisi forte bis preecipiatur propter 
opus necessarium ab episcopo civitatis (Can. iv. MANSI, t. VII., col. 374; cf. also Canons 
vi. and viii.). This same Council allows (Can. vi.) a priest or a deacon to be ordained 
titulo monasterii, the origin of the titulus menses communis; the titultts pauper tatis came in 
only with the mendicant Orders. 

2 MANSI, t. VII., col. 908. Cf. MABILLON, Annales O.S.B., 1. I., xxxix. T. I., 
pp. 15-17. 



43 o Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

In Africa, exemption gained much strength from the decree of the 
Council of Carthage of A.D. 525 : " Therefore, all monasteries whatsoever 
shall be as' they have always been, free in every way from the conditions 
of the clergy, answerable only to themselves and God." 1 The same 
Council and that of A.D. 534 (or 536) sealed these monastic liberties; 
but the Council of A.D. 534 reserved to the diocesan the privilege of 
ordaining. 2 We shall say nothing of the letters of St. Gregory the Great, 
which, however, contain many interesting details on monastic exemp- 
tion in Italy, shortly after St. Benedict. 

We understand better now why our Holy Father, inspired doubtless 
by a discipline allied to that which we have just outlined, would have 
" even the bishop " intervene in the case of a rebellious monk, without, 
however, leaving to him the duty of expulsion, supposing this to be 
necessary. The two authorities, episcopal arid abbatial, should work 
in concert. Then, if offences became glaring and scandalous, if 
the priest persisted in his refusal to obey and submit to the Rule, he 
should be expelled. Our Holy Father leaves it to be understood, in 
this last sentence, that so radical a measure should be adopted only if 
all other methods were really ineffective. . * 

1 MANSI, t. VIII., col. 656. 

* Oportet enim in nullo monasterio quemlibet episcopum catbedram collocate} out qui 
forte babuerint, babere: nee aliquant ordinationem, quamvis levissimam facere, nisi cleri- 
corum, si voluerint babere; esse enim debent monacbi in abbatum suorum potestate ... 
Inter sacriftcia vero ordinatos suos tantummodo idem episcopus plebiumubi monasteria sun't, 
recitet: hoc enim convenit pad (MANSI, t. VIII., cols. 841-842. MABILLON reads: . . . 
ordinatores suos . . . episcopos plebium . . . recitent. Annales O.S.B., I. II., xvii- 
xviii. T. I., p. 40). On exemption, cf. CALME.T, Comment, sur la Regie, 1. 1., Preface, 
xxii. Jf. S. CHAMARD, De I'immunite ecclesiastique et monastique (Rev. des quest, bis tor., 
1877, T. XXII., pp. 428-464). D. BESSE, Le Monacbisme africain, chap, xii.; Les Moines 
de I'Ancienne France, passim, especially Bk. IV., chap, xvii.-- CAM. DAUX, La Pro- 
tection apostolique au moyen age (Rev. des quest, bis tor., 1902, t. LXXIL, pp. 5-60). 
JULES ViNDXttKE,L' Exemption devisite monastique. G. LETONNELIER, L'Abbaye de Cluny 
et le privilege de I' exemption (in Millenaire de Cluny, t. 1., pp. 247-263). AUG. HUTNER, 
Das Recbtsinstitut der klosterlicben Exemtion in der abendlandiscben Kircbe (Arcbiv. fur 
Katb. Kircbenrecbt, 1906, 1907). Dom Gueranger, Abbe de Solesmes, par un Moine 
bengdictin de la Congregation de France, chap. vii. - T. I., pp. 216-217. 



CHAPTER LX1II 
OF THE ORDER OF THE COMMUNHT 

fT^HE previous chapters^ have enumerated the elements that com- 
I pose a Benedictine family: young people, adults and old men, 
I laymen and clerics, freemen and former slaves, educated and 
-*- illiterate, dignitaries and simple monks. What place shall each 
hold in the community ? For order is necessary both for the peace and 
the progress of a monastic house. St. Benedict's Rule does not coun- 
tenance that haphazard system 'which some practise as an ordinance 
of humility. Order is the law of every group or collective body: it 
exists in nature, it is found among the angels, it is demanded by civil 
and religious society. ..And monastic society, being a liturgical choir 
whose business it is to answer the heavenly choir, does not escape this 
necessity, especially when its members are numerous. Now Monte 
Cassino was not a monastery of twelve monks like those at Subiaco, and 
many passages of the holy Rule Chapter XXL, for example in treat- 
ing of the heads of the deaneries, presuppose a considerable community. 
At the hierarchical summit of all, and ruling the whole, is the Abbot, 
seconded at need by the Prior (Chapters LXIV. and LXV.)j next come 
the deans and the various officials who form the ctaff . St. Benedict has 
already, in passing, given some rules of precedence, but Le now wishes 
in a special chapter to arrange all expressly. 

First of all he deals with the formal order of the community; then, 
from the words Juniores ergo . . . onwards, "with the private relations 
of monks with one another, giving us quite a treatise on monastic 
courtesy and good manners. 

DE ORDINE CONGREGATIONIS. Let them so keep their order in the 
Ordines suos in monasterio ita conser- monastery, as the tinv of their con- 
vent, ut conversionis tempus et vitae version and the merit of their lives 
meritum discernit, vel ut Abbas con- determine, or as the Abbot shall 
stituerit. Qui Abbas non conturbet appoint. And let not the Abbot 
gregem sibi commissum, nee quasi disturb the flock committed to him, 
tibera utens potestate, injuste disponat nor by the use of arbitrary power 
aliquid: sed cogitet semper, quia de ordain anything unjustly; but let him 
omnibus judiciis et operibus suis red- ever bear in mind that he will have to 
diturus est Deo rationem. give an account to God of all his 

judgements and of all his deeds. 

Three causes may operate in the determination of a monk's rank: 
the date of his conversion, the merit of his life, and the will of the Abbot. 
The first is the general rule, the two others being no more than excep- 
tions. Given this law, all dispute about precedence is impossible. 
Moreover, it is founded on reason and is conformable to the dispositions 
of Providence. We shall explain farther on what our Holy Father 
means by the time of conversion (tempus conversionis or conversationis). 

43' 



432 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

" Merit of life." Not certainly, as Calmet observes, that a special 
position might be given a monk merely because he was a saintly man, 
but rather because the perfection of his life recommends him for some 
office or for the priesthood. Is it necessary to say that no one should 
lay claim to distinction or office on the ground of his virtue ? The 
initiative belongs to the superior. 

The will of the Abbot and the date of conversion, these practically 
fix a monk's rank. So our Holy Father presently reduces all others 
to these two : " Therefore in that order which he shall have appointed, 
or which they hold of themselves (i.e., by the date of their conversion)." 
However, he .did right to distinguish here merit of life and the appoint- 
ment of the Abbot; for the Abbot may promote a man for a motive 
other than his supernatural perfection, provided that he does not choose 
monks of rather inobservant or uncertain character. There may, for 
instance, be a monk who has not yet had time to give indubitable evidence 
of great virtue, but who could, it seems, be serviceable to the community 
and a credit to it, were he put into a position of authority. The Abbot 
is free to invite such a one to show his capacity. Or a young monk may 
be raised to the dignity of cantor in virtue of his possessing a good 
voice. 

But the Rule, while leaving the Abbot free to create rights of pre- 
cedence, warns him to use the power with reserve and for solid motives. 
It tells him again that his authority is paternal and not unrestricted, 
absolute but not arbitrary; the principle Sic volo, sic jubeo, sit 'pro ratione 
voluntas is never admissible in governing souls. The Abbot cannot 
upset the order of his community at his pleasure, as he might the pieces 
of a chessboard: he may not make a point of taking the youngest and 
putting him above his elders, and then tiring and taking another, to 
be rejected in his turn, and so disturb the whole flock that God has 
entrusted to him. 1 Monasteries need interior stability : the Abbot must 
choose his men after mature deliberation or he will always be changing. 
Yet, after all, he has the right, for instance, to choose as Prior one who 
has only been solemnly professed a fortnight, or as Novice Master a monk 
professed the day before. Our Holy Father is content to remind him 
that he is accountable to God for all his decisions and for all his deeds. 

Ergo secundum ordines quos Therefore in that order which he 

constituent, vel quos habuerint ipsi shall have appointed, or which they 

fratres, sic accedant ad pacem, ad com- hold themselves, let the brethren 

munionem, ad psalmum imponendum, approach to receive the kiss of peace, 

in choro standum. Et in omnibus and to Communion, and in the same 

omnino locis aetas non discernatur order intone psalms and stand in choir, 

inordine, nee praejudicet; quia Samuel And in all places whatsoever let not 

et Daniel pueri presbyteros judica- age decide the order or be prejudicial 

verunt. to it; for Samuel and Daniel when but 

children judged the elders. 

1 The Rule of the Master is less discreet in this matter than St. Benedict} read 
chap. xcii. 



Of the Order of the Community 433 

It will be noticed that St. Benedict specifies only liturgical occasions : 
these are the most important; in them the hierarchical order has need to 
be most scrupulously safeguarded. But the words " in all places whatso- 
ever," purposely general, perhaps designate all the circumstances of 
monastic life, so that elsewhere too confusion did not reign, and the same 
principles of order were obeyed: thus, at the very end of the chapter, 
St. Benedict alludes to order in the refectory. 1 Therefore the monks 
shall " approach to receive the kiss of peace " in the prescribed order. 
In the time of our Holy Father, each individual went up to the altar 
and received the kiss of peace from the celebrant. 2 In the same 
order shall they go to Holy Communion, receiving it under both 
kinds; 8 so shall they take their places in choir, and give out psalms or 
antiphons, if they can fulfil this duty unto edification, as St. Benedict 
said in Chapter XLVII. : Psalmos autem, vd antipbonas, post Abb'atem, 
ordine suo, quibus jussum fuerit, important. Cantare autem aut legere 
non preesumat, nisi qui potest ipsum officium implere y ut eedificentur 
audientes. 

But, we might object, is age to confer no superiority ? Is it not a 
reversal of natural law that the young should take precedence of the old, 
and that the government of men of years and experience should be 
entrusted to them ? The Abbot will sometimes hear himself blamed 
for showing preference to " youngsters " ; let him take comfort : for here 
the first law is to take the best wherever you find it, and often it is not 
possible to act otherwise; moreover, St. Benedict, in harmony with the 
oldest monastic tradition, is on the side of the Abbot. Just as it would 
be ludicrous to want none but the young, so it would be absurd to 
exclude them from office when they are capable. In the third chapter 
our Holy Father would have all professed monks, young as well as old, 
summoned to council : " Because it is often to the younger that the Lord 
reveals what is best." Here, he lays it down afresh that in no cir- 
cumstance whatever shall a monk's age be a motive for precedence, 
still less an obstacle and a source of prejudice. And, that he might not 
have to cite his young oblates, Maurus and Placid, as examples, he takes 
his proofs from the Old Testament: Samuel was God's messenger to 
Heli and his sons (i Kings iii.) ; Daniel confounded the two elders 
(Dan. xiii.). 4 

1 Our Holy Father had in mind here the discipline of the monks of Tabennisi, 
described by ST. JEROME in his preface to the translation of the Rule of ST. PACHOMIUS: 
Quicumque autem monasterium primus ingreditur, primus sedet, primus ambulat, primus 
psalmum dicit, primus in mensa manum extendit, prior in ecclesia communicat: nee atas 
inter eos quart tur sed professio. 

* On the monastic ceremonial for the kiss of peace read MARTENE, De ant. monacb. 
rit., 1. II., c. iv., cols. 178-181. 

8 At Cluny Communion was still received under both kinds. Cf. UDALR., Consuet. 
Clun., 1. II., c. xxx. 

4 This is perhaps a reminiscence of ST. JEROME: . . . Neque Vitro eorum qui a me 
exemplaria acceperunt vel auctoritate vel eetate ducaris,quum et Daniel puer senes judicet, 
et Amos pastor caprarum in sacerdotum principes invebatur (Epist. XXXVII., 4. P.L., 
XXII., 463). 

28 



434 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 



L 



Ergo exceptis iis, quos, ut diximus, Excepting, therefore, those whom 
altiori consilio Abbas pretulerit, vel (as we have said) the Abbot has 
degradaverit certis ex causis, reliqui promoted from higher motives, or 
omnes, ut convertuntur, ita sint, ut, degraded for solid reasons, let all the 
verbi gratia, qui secunda diei hora rest take the order of their conversion; 
venerit in monasterium, juniorem se so that, for example, he who enters 
noverit esse illo qui prima hora diei the monastery at the second hour of 
venit, cujuslibet setatis aut dignitatis the day must know'that he is junior 
sit. Fueris vero per omnia ab omnibus to him who came at the first hour, 
disciplina teneatur. whatever may be his age and dignity. 

But children are to be kept under 
discipline in all matters and by every- 
one. 

St. Benedict repeats once more that, apart from cases where the 
Abbot " promotes " for higher motives 1 or " degrades " for solid 
reasons, each must occupy the place which corresponds to the date of 
his conversion, of his " entry into the monastery." 2 And he explains 
his meaning by an example. Commentators, however, have wondered 
whether the date of conversion does not rather mean, in St. Benedict's 
intention, the date of profession: profession alone, they urge, is the 
definitive conversion and entry into the monastic life, and the Rule 
says in Chapter LVIII. : " From that day let him be counted as one of 
the community." It is certain that, according to monastic usage, 
almost universal and of long standing, every monk receives his rank in 
the community according to the date of his profession : but the text of 
the Rule, if read without prejudice, would seem to be clearly in favour 
of the date of entry into the monastery. 3 Generally, however, with rare 
exceptions, the first to enter makes his profession first. 

" Whatever may be his age and dignity." Did children, therefore 
*'.<?., the young oblates take rank according to the date of their offering, 
which was their profession, and so mingle with the other monks, taking 
precedence sometimes of mature and aged men I The thought evidently 
occurred to St. Benedict, for he makes immediate allusion to the children, 
only to prevent the difficulties which would arise from such precocious 
precedence: " But children are to be kept under discipline in all matters 
and by everyone." They shall precede those who entered the monastery 
after them (for we must not forget that their oblate profession has the 
same juridical value as adult profession) : nevertheless all their elders 
shall have the right to supervise, , admonish, and correct them in all 
matters (disciplina). 

St. Benedict explains his meaning more clearly still some lines farther 
on, when speaking of the relation of monks to one another: " Let young 
children and boys take their order in the oratory, or at table, with discip- 
line. In other places also, wherever they may be, let them be under 

1 Altiori consilio: the expression occurs in SULP. SEVERUS, Dial. I., c. x. P.L. t 
XX., 190. 

2 Cf. the passage before cited from the preface to the translation of the Rule of 
ST. PACHOMIUS. 

3 Read H&FIEN, 1. III., tract. Hi., disq. vi. 



Of the Order of the Community 435 

custody and discipline, until they come to the age of understanding." 
To this passage should be joined that in Chapter LXX. : "However, with 
regard to children, until the fifteenth year of their age, let them be kept 
by all under diligent discipline and custody: yet this, too, with measure 
and discretion." Therefore very young children and those who are 
somewhat older must keep their rank: ordines suos consequantur. What 
order is meant ? If we would translate in harmony with the whole 
context and make St. Benedict consistent, we must understand him to 
mean their order according to profession and years of monastic life (and 
not their order among themselves in the children's quarters). Cum 
discipline says St. Benedict in passing, which may be translated : 
without confusion, in good order; or rather, under the supervision and 
correction of the older brethren. Thus they must keep the order of pro- 
fession, in oratory and refectory, without, however, escaping disciplina; 
but apart from those places, in all other places and circumstances (foris 
autemvel ubiubt), they shall have no precedence and shall simply remain 
under the guard and loving control of all/ In the dormitory, for in- 
stance, care shall be taken that their beds are placed between those of 
their elders : Adolescentioresfratres, etc. (Chapter XXII.). This collective 
guardianship lasted until the children had attained their fifteenth year, 
and had reached mature intelligence and full discretion. In this matter 
St. Benedict parts with St. Basil, who separated the children absolutely 
from the rest of the monks, except in the oratory; 1 but we should re- 
member that St. Basil's oblates were not professed. 

After the time of our Holy Father, Western monastic custom also 
separated oblates more or less strictly from the rest. In choir and 
refectory they formed a separate group; they were under the control 
of special masters; even after their fifteenth year r if they were still too 
childish, they were closely watched. 2 Hildemar 8 tells us that children 
did not take the rank in the community which corresponded to their 
entry into the monastery until they ceased to be under tutelage. In 
course of time, in proportion as the system declined, not even this tardy 
honour was paid them. But, as Calmet maintains, primitive usage was 
as we have described it above, and several commentators have been 
misled by later customs. 

Such is the prudent legislation which assures all monks their proper 
rank and dignity. It would be pitiful, however, and ridiculous, if 
questions of precedence should engender jealousy and quarrelling among 
religious. 4 

Juniores ergo pr lores suos honorent: Let the younger brethren, then, 
priores vero juniores diligant. reverence their elders, and the elder 

love the younger. 

Formal order, as fixed by St. Benedict in the first part of this chapter, 
while absolutely indispensable, is yet not sufficient by itself. We must add 

1 Reg. f us., xv. * Cf. UDALR., Consuet. Clun., \, III., c. ix. 

3 Commentary on Chapter LXX. 1 * Cf. ST. BASIL., Reg.cotttr., x. 



436 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

to it mutual affection.and regard, politeness and supernatural courtesy. 
We should not criticize worldly politeness too severely. Its most 
common defects are two : it is hollow, since it is not the expression of 
charity; it is false, since it easily changes its tune and in a moment decries 
without pity those whom it praised without conviction. Such as it is, 
however, it contains some self-denial; it often consists in voluntary self- 
effacement, in secret designs for another's honour or gratification. It 
is the business of God's children to restore this politeness to its integrity. 
Among them especially it shall be based on self-denial. We should note 
this point well, that we do not come into contact with our brethren by 
means of our interior virtues, but much rather on our external side; 
men scarcely know us else; and therefore are we bound, because of our 
common life, to get rid of our external faults. And monastic politeness 
should spring, not merely from education, refinement, and good taste, 
but above all from the spirit of faith and from charity. When Tobias, 
without disclosing his identity, presented himself before Raguel, the 
latter observed to his wife : " How like is this young man to my cousin !" 
And he began to love him on the strength of this likeness. Each of our 
brethren deserves the same honour: he is not only consecrated to God, 
but he has something of God in him : how shall we refuse him our respect 
and our affection ? How shall we not treat him as one in whose company 
we are with God. Our conventual life is but an apprenticeship for 
our eternal intercourse with God in heaven. 

St. Benedict first lays down an ordinance based on natural and super- 
natural law: that the young should honour their elders and that the old 
should love the young. (We recognize the sixty-eighth and sixty-ninth 
instruments of good works : Senior?* venerari, Juniores diligere.) Without 
this mutual relation, the community will contain parties, which watch 
one another curiously, perhaps envy and decry one another. Old men 
may have their faults and their fads : but it is a pity to have eyes only for 
their eccentricities. Youth is often too exacting, too sure of itself, and 
full of reforming zeal. Age, on its side, is sometimes hard, anxious to see 
others perfect immediately: yet why not give novices and young monks 
time to eliminate the habits which they have brought from the world ? 
Juniores ergo . . . this ordinance is the consequence and corollary of 
what St. Benedict decided before concerning the relative rights and 
duties of the young and those of greater natural or monastic age; at the 
same time it is the general principle inspiring the regulations which 
follow. 

In ipsa autem appellatione nomi- In calling each other by name, let 

num null! liceat alium puro nomine no one address another by his simple 

appellate; sed priores Juniores suos name; but let the elders call the 

fratresnominentjunioresautempriores younger brethren Fratres, and the 

suos nonnos vocent, quod inteUigitur younger call their elders Nonni, by 

paterna reverentia. Abbas autem, which is conveyed the reverence due 

quia 'vices Christi agere videtur, Dom- to a father. But let the Abbot, since 

nus et Abbas vocetur: non sua assump- he is considered to represent Christ, 

tione, sed honore et amore Christi. be called Lord and Abbot; not that 



Of the Order of the Community 437 

Ipse autem cogitet, et sic se exhibeat he hath taken it on himself, but for 
ut dignus sit tali honore. honour and love of Christ. Let him 

reflect, and so act as to be worthy of 

such an honour. 

Respect and mutual affection must be manifested exteriorly, first 
of all in the manner of address, for it is thus that we take contact with 
one another. Angels converse after a more simple method; but we men 
must employ an explicit form of speech. The holy Rule decides what 
it shall be. 1 It does so first negatively and by the method of exclusion : 
to designate a brother (whether we are addressing him or speaking 
about him) we must not employ his name simply and curtly, without any 
prefix. 2 Therefore we break the Rule if we use only Christian name or 
surname, if we designate a brother, and that habitually, by the mere 
name of his office in the monastery, by the name of his position in the 
world, by the name of his nationality, or, a fortiori, by a nickname. And 
we must eliminate from our vocabulary slang, schoolboy language, 
and all vulgar or too familiar modes of speech. 

After this prohibition, St. Benedict indicates positively the monastic 
forms of address. Elders must call those younger than they (juniores 
suos) fratres, "brothers." The term is affectionate and pleasing; it 
emphasizes the united life of all religious of the same family; 8 the first 
^Christians and first monks used it. 4 We must give up secular modes 
of address. The elders shall be called Nonni, conveying "paternal 
reverence " the word being equivalent to " Reverend Father " (a nun 
was called Nonna). Many derivations have been given for this word, 
of which the, most probable is that it is of Egyptian origin, employed 
to express respect and reverence for an old and devout man; St. Jerome 
uses it several times in his letters. 6 

As for the Abbot, who represents Our Lord in the monastery and 
holds His place, he is to be called Domnus, " Dom " (a diminutive of 
Dominus, which is reserved to Our Lord). St. Benedict did not invent 
the term Domnus: the form Domnus apostolicusvras already used in speak- 
ing of the Pope, and it was applied to great and saintly people ; "They 
announce that Domnus Martinus has died," writes Sulpicius Severus. 8 
The superior was also called " Abbot," a Syriac word meaning father. 
In the East this name was generally given to simple religious, venerable 
by age and virtue; 7 the superior was called by such names as 7rpoecrra>9, 
praepositus, pater monasterii, archimandrite, hegoumenos, etc. St 

1 Cf. H/EFTEN, 1. III., tract, iv. 

8 The disciple and biographer of St. Fulgcntius.of Ruspe (t 533) says of his hero: 
Circa singulos ita mansuetus fuit et communis etfacilis ut neminem fratrum puro nomine 
clamitaret (Vita S. Fulgent., c. xxvii. P.L., LXV., col. 144). 

3 Bene fratres jussit appellari, quia uno sacro fonte baptismatis sunt renati, et uno 
Spiritu sanctificati, et unam professionem professi sunt, et unam remunerationem adipisci 
desiderant, et ab una matre, id est sancta Ecclesia, editi sunt. Et boc.notandum est, quia 
melior est istafraternitas spiritualis, quam carnalis (PAUL THE DEACON, in b. /.). 

* rf S AIT/: Vtiavrat .' T>,*1~. /. vvv :: D T WVIMT ,_ ... 



43 8 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

Benedict reserves the title of Abbot for him who is really the father of 
the family. And he reminds him that he receives this name in honour 
and for love of Christ, and not as a motive for pride. As in the second 
chapter, he bids him make his life and conduct conformable to all that 
is implied in such a name, and to show himself worthy of the honour 
conferred on him. Of course he does not mean that the Abbot has to be 
always " on stilts," or that he is obliged to be pontificating perpetually. 
From the ninth century onwards the term nonnus was dropped in 
many monasteries. The Council of Aix-la-Chapelle (A.D. 817) recom- 
mends that the Prespositi (Priors or seniors ?) should have this title; it 
survived in some parts, as for instance at Monte Cassino, where it is 
found at the end of the thirteenth century, in the writings of the com- 
mentator Bernard ; and Citeaux preserved it down to our time. But the 
title domnus was more attractive : Smaragdus tells us that elders liked to 
be addressed thus. At Cluny, in the time of Udalric, every professed 
monk had a right to it. 1 Like the Benedictines of the Congregation of 
St. Vanne and the Maurists, we reserve it for the professed who are 
priests. Professed monks who are not priests are Reverends P^res 
(Reverend Fathers). Lay brothers, postulants, and novices, even if 
priests, are called brothers. In certain countries, Italy for instance, 
where secular priests are called " dom " or " don," novices also enjoy 
the title, and the style of " Reverend Father " is kept for professed 
monks who are priests. The name of " Abbot " (Abb) itself has been 
usurped by the secular clergy in the Galilean Church, largely on account 
of the system of commendatory Abbots; it should be noted, however, 
that, since the sixth century, the title of Abbot (Abbe") was sometimes 
given, in France, to a secular priest charged with the government of 
an important church and the rule of the college of clerics who serve it. 2 

Ubicumque autem sibi obviant Wherever the brethren meet one 

fratres, junior a priore benedictionem another, let the younger ask a blessing 

petat. Transeunte majore, junior from the elder. And when the elder 

surgat et det ei locum sedendi. Nee passes by, let the younger rise and give 

praesumat junior consedere, nisi ei place to him to sit down. Nor let 

praecipiat senior suus: ut fiat quod the younger presume to sit unless his 

scriptum est: Honor e invicem proven- senior bid him, that it may be as was 

ientes. . written: "In honour anticipating 

one another." 

Pueri parvuli vel adolescentes, in Let young children and boys take 

oratorio vel ad mensam, cum disciplina their order in the oratory, or at table, 

ordines suos consequantur. Foris with discipline. In other places also, 

autem vel ubiubi, custodiara habeant et wherever they may be, let them be 

disciplinam, usque dum ad intelligibi- under custody and discipline, until 

lem aetatem perveniant. they come to the age of understanding. 

We have seen how monks address one another; we have now to con- 
sider certain marks of courtesy which they owe one another, and first the 
salutation. In whatever place the brethren meet, the younger should 

1 UDALR., Consuet. Clun., 1. II., c. xx. 

8 Cf. S. GREG. TORON., Liber Vitte Patrtim, ii., 3-4. M.G.H.: Script, rer. merov., 
t. I., pp. 670-671. In gloria martyrum, 60. M.G.H.: *foW., p. 529. 



Of the Order of the Community 439 

ask the " blessing " of his elder. Our Holy Father has mentioned this 
blessing several times: in Chapter XXV. he said of the excommunicated 
monk: "Let none of those who pass by bless him "; in Chapter LIII. 
he told the brother who met a guest to salute him : " And asking their 
blessing, let him pass on"; in Chapter LXVI. he bids the porter: "As 
soon as anyone shall knock, or a poor man call to him, let him answer 
' Deo gratias,' or bless him." The custom is of great antiquity. St. Paul 
(Heb. vii. I ff.) explains how Melchisedech " blessed " Abraham : 
" That which is less is blessed by the better." To bless also means to 
praise God on account of some thing or person: " And Simeon blessed 
them " (Luke ii. 34). At the Last Supper, Our Lord took bread and 
blessed : evXoyqo-a?. The early Christians blessed each other when they 
met. 1 It is not a mere gesture, but a wish or an expression of gratitude 
towards God, something analogous to the Dominus vobiscum of the 
liturgy: God be blessed for this meeting ! May God bless you ! 

According to the practice of the ancient monks both of East and 
West, you .bowed before him whom you wished to honour and said: 
Benedic Pater, or Benedicite, recognizing thereby the presence of God 
in the guest or brother, and beseeching a blessing from God dwelling 
in him. We learn from the Rule of the Master, from Bernard of Monte 
Cassino, and from other sources, that the reply was: Dens, or Dominus? 
but it was not always expressed, and Boherius says that he heard none 
at Subiaco and Monte Cassino: " I have not heard what the senior 
answers, nor do I find anything about his answer in the Rule, except he 
answers Deo gratias" 3 Our Holy Father does tell the porter to answer 
Deo gratias; but he adds: "or bless," which would lead us to suppose 
that the form of blessing was not Deo gratias. However this may be, 
Deo gratias is an ancient and beautiful formula of monastic salutation. 
The circumcelliones of St. Augustine's time blamed the monks for 
using it; we may see how the saintly Doctor censures them for this in 
his discourse on the hundred and thirty-second psalm. 4 

Blessing is asked and given, says Paul the Deacon, only in places and 
at tunes when speaking is allowed; in the regular places and during the 
privileged times of silence, salutation is confined to asking a blessing in 
the heart and a bow of the head. Peter the Venerable was compelled 
to prove to the Cistercians, who were shocked at it, that such a practice 
sufficed for the observance of the Rule on this point. 6 In the Declara- 

1 Quod penes Deum bonitatis et benignitatis, omnis benedictio inter not summum tit 
disciplines et conversations sacramentum, " benedicat te Deus " tarn facile pronuntias 
qiiam Christiana necesse est (TXRTULI.., De testim. aninue, c. ii. P.L., I., 61 1). 

* Reg. Magistri, ziii. BERNARD. CASS., in cap. xzv. 
8 Commentary on this passage. 

4 P.L., XXXVII., ?73Zr Hi etiam insultare nobis audetit quia fratres, cum vident 
homines, Deo gratias dicunt. Quid est, inquiunt, Deo gratias f Itaue surdus es ut nescias 
quid sit Deo gratias t Qui dicit Deo gratias, gratias agit Deo. Vide si non debet frater 
Deo gratias agere, quando videt fratrem suum. Num enim non est locus gratulationis 
quando se invicem vtdent qui habitant in Chris to f And in Letter XLI., ST. AUGUSTINE 
says again: Deo gratias I nam quid melius et animo geramus et ore promamus, et calamo 
exprimamus quam Deo gratias f Hoc nee did brevius, nee audiri Itetius^ nee intelligi 
grandius; nee agi fructuosius potest (P.L., XXXIII., 158). 

* Epist., 1. I., Ep. XXVIU. P.Z,.,CLXXXIX., 133-134, 



44 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

tions for Sainte-Ccile, Dom Gue"ranger writes : " The younger sisters 
shall ask a blessing from their elders that is to say, from the professed 
who have left the novitiate saying: Benedicitej but, during the night 
silence they shall only bow to them. The senior shall receive this mark 
of honour in a humble and gracious manner; but those who were pro- 
fessed on the same day as the one who salutes them, shall answer: 
Benedicite" We have not got this custom, and we must hold to 
what is established. But we are not dispensed from saluting a senior, 
and, in a general way, every brother we meet. It is by no means necessary 
to say a few pleasant words to him, to utter some joke or witticism; but 
it is always correct to uncover if we are wearing the hood, to look 
towards him and to bow. Even though the younger should forget 
to do it, the senior can certainly bow before his brother and before his 
brother's angel guardian. 

St. Benedict provides finally for the case when a senior passes a 
junior who is seated: the latter must rise immediately; and if the senior 
is coming to sit in the spot or near the spot where the junior is, the 
latter ought to give place to him and not to sit down again until invited 
to do so. This is in accordance with the politeness of all countries and 
all times: Aristotle says: 1 "Honour should be paid to every elder in 
proportion to his age, both by rising and by giving place to him." Still 
we may note, with Paul the Deacon and Hildemar, that if the senior is 
merely passing, " the junior should rise a little, bow and ask a blessing "; 
that if the senior passes again and again, or if the junior is seated in ff 
spot where many seniors come and go, he is dispensed from rising every 
time ; that courtesy and charity make it a duty for the senior not to leave 
the junior standing before him. The Abbot, says Hildemar, shall bring 
up this last point at chapter, and if any senior transgresses it, he shall be 
punished; if he remains incorrigible, the Abbot shall put him down in 
the lowest place. It would, in fact, be somewhat ridiculous for a monk 
to be incessantly parading his seniority, and exacting haughtily all the 
honours that are due to him. 

Let us never regard these ordinances of the Rule as out of date. To 
repeat, this politeness and these attentions are an index pf our charity 
and. supernatural refinement. Brethren should anticipate one another 
in honour (Rom. xii. 10); they should be zealous and should sometimes 
study to be kind, yet without affectation or obsequiousness. We should 
salute our seniors and let them pass before us; we should not be ashamed 
to speak to the Abbot kneeling. Commentators take occasion of what 
is said here about sitting to observe that a monk should never sit in the 
loose and lazy mariner of the worldling. 2 

St. Benedict ends with instructions as to the attitude of the com- 
munity towards the children: on these we have already commented. 

1 Ethics, 1. IX., c. ii. Cf. Serttto aueticus de rettutttiatione seeculi, inter S. BASIL. 
opp. P.G., XXXI., 644. 

* Cunt sedts, nan superpones alteri cruri alterum crus tuum: siquidem is tud facer e^ 
animi parutn attenti atque aliud agentis indicium est (Sermo asceticus de renuntiat. 
8. P.O., XXXI., 644). 



CHAPTER LXIV 
O/' 7# APPOINTMENT OF THE ABBOT 



THE constant purpose of this portion of the Rule is to assure the 
good order, observance, and internal peace of the community. 
Consequently our Holy Father finds himself led to speak a second 
time about him whose mission it is to rule the whole monastic city 
and in whom resides the very fulness of authority. He does not consider 
that the second chapter and continual references to the Abbot's govern- 
ment throughout the Rule have exhausted so important a subject; and 
far from seeking to weaken and soften the austerity of the second chapter, 
as has been sometimes rather arbitrarily supposed, St. Benedict here 
completes it. He first establishes the procedure for the election and 
" ordination " of the Abbot, and then reminds us what spirit of wisdom 
and discretion should direct the Abbot in his .dealings with souls. 

DE ORDINANDO AaBATE. In Abba- In the appointment of an Abbot let 

tia ordinatione ilia semper consideretur this principle always be observed, that 

ratio, ut hie constituatur, quern sibi he be made Abbot who is chosen by 

omnis concors congregatio, secundum the whole community unanimously 

timorem Dei, sive etiam pars quamvis in the fear of God, or even by a part, 

parva congregationis saniori consilio however small, with sounder counsel. 
elegerit. 

In the course of the centuries various methods have been employed 
in the appointment of abbots. Assuredly the method which from the 
eighth century onwards 1 allowed the king or lay lords, by right of 
foundation or patronage, to nominate to abbeys and priories was not the 
best of these. It even happened, in the hey-day of commendam, that 
these titular superiors were neither monks nor. clerics; and the monas- 
teries were governed for them, indifferently well, by men of their choice. 
The mensa abbatialis (Abbot's income) was distinct from the mensa 
communis (income of the community) ; and the whole function of the 
commendatory Abbot was to draw the revenues. 2 Abbeys were given 
to children at their birth or as wedding presents to princes and princesses. 
Thank God we bo longer know the dearly bought splendours of the 
abbeys of the old regime; and in spite of the precarious and diminished 
character of our life, in spite of persecution and exile, we are at least free 
within our own walls. 

The rights of the Sovereign Pontiff with respect to the appointment 
of an Abbot are incontestably more real than those of a king, though he 
be " the most Christian King." The Pope could, " out of the pleni- 
tude of his apostolic power," confer the dignity of Abbot and the 
government of a monastery on the candidate chosen by himself, just as 
he confers the episcopal dignity and the government of a diocese. In 

1 MABILLON, Acta SS. O.S.B., Saec. III., Prsef., in. 

* Cf, EMILK LESNB, L' Origins des menses dans le temporel des Eglises et des monasteres 
de France, au IX' siecle. 

441 



442 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

. 

practice Popes sometimes use this power, but only in special and extra- 
ordinary circumstances, as has for long been the case in the basilical 
monasteries of Rome. The Letters of St. Gregory the Great show us 
the Sovereign Pontiff appointing Abbots. 1 We shall presently describe 
the part ordinarily played by the Holy See in the election of an Abbot. 

As regards bishops, Canon Law recognizes that they cannot of them- 
selves, without delegation from the Pope, choose the superiors of regulars. 
Yet they did so more than once in the first centuries of monasticism, 2 
whether in the capacity of founders and for the first occasion only, or as 
reformers, or by abuse of their power. At the same time Councils, 
such as that of Carthage in A.D. 534,* strove to safeguard the liberties 
of monks. "And when abbots die, let those who are to succeed them 
be chosen by the judgement of the community; nor let the bishop claim 
or assume the function of making this choice." We find St. Aurelian 
obtaining from Pope Vigilius a confirmation of the right of monks to 
elect their own Abbot, 6 and St. Gregory the Great maintaining this 
ordinance of the Holy Rule. 6 What part bishops formerly played in this 
matter and what part they now play shall be made clear in the sequel. 

So kjs_the privilege^ofmoglfs tn repose their Abbot: but, in actual 
practice^ theegerciseof thi> Tipfrt h?8 tal^n various %ms. According 
to St. Basil's regulations, the superiors of the neighbouring communities 
chose the Abbot. 7 The fifteenth century saw the rise of great Bene- 
dictine congregations, some of which, while abandoning perpetual 
abbots, were wont to receive their superiors from the General Chapter 
or Diet. The Congregation, in the modern sense of that word, provided 
by the medium of its superiors for the maintenance of the officials. 
Under St. Paehomius, the superior of each monastery was nominated 
by the superior-general of the Congregation; and the latter himself 
designated his successor. 8 

Historically this last method was often employed. Theodoret 9 and 
Cassian 10 allude to it. For the West we have numerous pieces of evi- 
dence as, for instance, in the Lives of the Fathers ofju?a t m St. Gregory 
of Tours, etc. The Rule of the Master* 1 describes at length the procedure 
to be followed when an Abbot wished to take to himself a coadjutor 
with right of succession ; according to this Rule the monks had no say 
in the matter; 12 and if the Abbot departed without making provision for 

1 Epist., 1. IX., Ep. XCI. P.L., LXXVIL, 1018; M.G.H.: Epist., t. II., p. 49. 

Cf. S. ISIDORI PEUJS., Epist., 1. 1., Ep. CCLXII. P.G., LXXVIIL, 339. 
8 Cf. Vita S. Ctesarii, 1. 1., 12. M.G.H.: Script, rer. merov., t. III., p. 461. 
' MANSI, t. VIII., col. 842. 

6 MABILLON, Annales O.S.S., I. IX., xxviii. T. I., p. 231. 

Epist., 1. II., Epp. XLI. and XLII. P.L., LXXVII., 578-580; M.G.H.: Epist., 
t. I., pp. 348 and 346. 7 Reg. f us., xliii. 

8 Cf. If ADEUZE, Etude sur le ctnobitisme pakbomien pendant le IV' stick et la premise 
moitit du V, pp. 286, 287, and 316. 

9 Religiosa bistoria, c. iv. P.G., LXXXIL, 1345. 

10 Inst., IV., xxviii. u Cap. xciii. and xciv. 

u ... k'e cum unusquisque de suo judicio successionemprtcsumens, universal in sedi- 
tionem exagitet, et studiosam par tibia pugnam scandali dcmum pacts faciat in contentionem 
eonverti (xciv.). 



Of the Appointment of the Abbot 443 

the future, the bishop and clergy of the district applied to a saintly 
neighbouring Abbot, and asked him to stay a month in the monastery 
that had lost its pastor, with power to choose the most worthy. At 
Cluny, whereas St. Odo and Blessed Aymard were elected by their 
brethren, St. Majolus and St. Odilo were designated by their prede- 
cessors, the community only intervening to approve of the choice. 
When St. Odilo, being now advanced in years, was asked to choose in 
his turn, he consented only to nominate some prudent monks to perform 
the election, which had then to be ratified by all: it was in thisovay that 
St. Hugh was chosen. 1 The method of election by " spiritual brethren," 
as Bernard of Cluny calls them, even passed into a custom. 2 If the 
Prior who presided at the meeting, or the first senior consulted, 
proposed a name which was acceptable to all, the election was 
accomplished. 8 

Nowadays still an Abbot has the right to concern himself about the 
future of his children, and to foresee, but with infinite discretion, who 
shall be the heir of his policy and the continuator of his work, if indeed 
he has had a policy and if he has endeavoured a work which deserves to 
last. For why should everything be periodically put into the melting- 
pot ? The Abbot knows his family and knows what is good for it. He 
is going to appear before God; no man plays false at such a time, and 
human motives have little influence. It was at that moment that the 
Patriarchs became prophets, and, like Jacob or the dying Moses, traced 
the future history of their people. But it will be said that saints them- 
selves have been deceived in their last choice. Are we sure that the 
responsibility for the failure that. followed should be thrown on their 
choice ? After all, you may make what use you will of the Abbot's 
advice; but, that he is free to leave such admits of no doubt. In this 
way do we compensate for the advantages of an actual hereditary succes- 
sion, which has no place here. And it may be that it will help a com- 
munity to realize that unanimity of which St. Benedict speaks: Omnis 
consors congregatio. 

Consequently, under our Holy Father's arrangement, the members 
of the community alone have the duty of choosing their father. In most 
cases this is the safest and most equitable method, the monastic family 
being better informed and more directly concerned than anyone else. 
We may almost say that it is a point of natural law; and the Church 
recognizes it in the words of the Pontifical at the ordination of a priest : 
" All necessarily yield a more willing obedience to him to whose ordina- 
tion they have given their consent." It is clear also from the context 
that the Rule expects monks to choose an Abbot from among them- 
selves; but it is difficult to determine how this election was effected. 
St. Caesarius is not more explicit than St. Benedict. 4 Nowadays, apart 
from the method of " compromise," the election is made by secret 
ballot, an oath being administered to each elector. As to the 

1 Read UDALRIC, Consuei. Clun., 1. III., c. i. * BERNARD., Or do Clun., P. I., c. i. 
* Constit. Hirsaug.) I, II., c. i. * Reg. ad vir., Recapitulatio, xii. 



444 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

details of the election, each Congregation has its own rules of 
procedure. 

St. Benedict supposes election to have three possible results: (i) The 
whole community, acting under the influence of the fear of God, is of 
one accord in choosing a good monk. (2) The whole community agrees 
in the choice of an unworthy candidate, one more or less a party to its 
irregularities; which case he examines farther on. (3) There is no una- 
nimity and votes are divided : " Let him be made Abbot who is 
chosen . . . even by a part, however small, with sounder counsel." 
This passage is undeniably difficult. 

According to the common interpretation, our Holy Father's mean- 
ing is as follows: supposing that there is on the one side a relative 
majority, or an absolute majority, or even practical unanimity, and on 
the other side a minority of some sort, however small it may be : l the 
one chosen by this minority shall be Abbot, if its choice is better and 
better inspired, saniori consilio. We see at once the dangers of such an 
arrangement : it is a proximate occasion of schism, an encouragement to 
turbulent and factious minorities: for no party will ever lack reasons 
for alleging that its opinion is the only wise one. For this reason the 
Church now requires a numerical majority. Did St. Benedict really 
cast this apple of discord among his monks and misunderstand human 
nature in this way ? For voting would have no result, and it would be 
necessary continually to appeal to an outside authority which should 
give the casting vote and decide which is the better choice: the bishop, 
for instance, or the neighbouring abbots, whom St. Benedict mentions 
presently, or the Pope himself, says Calmet. Certainly matters happened 
so more than once in the course of the centuries; but the text of the 
Rule does not, for the case in point, provide for the intervention 
of the bishop or of another abbot: in the Rule the community is 
self-sufficient. ^ 

Another interpretation is proposed by the author pf the Explication 
ascetique et historique de la Regie de saint Benoit. There are two methods 
of election: " either by the whole community unanimously" (several 
important manuscripts read sive instead of sibi) ; " or even by a part." 
The first is the more normal method; the second consists in entrusting 
the election of the Abbot to a portion, even a very small portion, of the 
community, but prudent and of " sounder counsel "; this method may 
be used in the ordinary course of events, or in exceptional cases, where 
the community foresees or has ascertained the ineffectiveness of a vote. 
The explanation is a good one. Yet, it would seem that our Holy 
Father distinguishes and contrasts in some way the case where the whole 
community is unanimous and that where, the community being divided, 
the choice of a minority, though small, deserves to prevail; but, according 
to the present explanation, practically, in spite of some delays required 

1 If only two monks choose a good abbot, and a hundred choose an unworthy 
one, say PAUL THE DEACON and HILDEMAR, the choice of the former should 
prevail. 



Of the Appointment of the Abbot 445 

for deliberation and the selection of the electoral committee, there is 
always unanimity in the election : opposition has vanished. 

We must look for another solution of the difficulty. We may, for 
once, range ourselves on the side of the famous Caramuel, whose view 
was adopted also by Dom Mege. Take a case where several candidates 
receive votes. If there be an- absolute majority, it settles the matter, 
though it be only a " part " in comparison with unanimity. If there be 
no absolute majority, but votes are scattered, St. Benedict does not 
desire a second voting: it would only cause some chance combination 
or a coalition of malcontents. In this hypothesis, then, the choice shall 
be determined by a simple relative majority. He shall be elected who 
has obtained the most votes. If this number be compared with the 
number of voters, it is only a part and a small part; it is in reality only 
a minority, if you add up the other minorities and compare the total 
with it. There remains to justify the words: " with sounder counsel." 
Caramuel has an answer for everything: " It is more numerous than the 
other parties, and therefore is to be presumed sounder." So says 
Caramuel and Dom M^ge after him. Perhaps St. Benedict would 
suggest that in this case of an election accomplished by a relative 
majority, all have more reason to scrutinize the one elected, to verify 
his claims with more care, and to scrutinize also those who elected him. 
It was then that one might, at need, call in an arbiter from outside; but 
it would be an exceptional course and without danger to the indepen- 
dence of the community. 

Vitae autem merito, et sapientiae Let him who is to be appointed be 

doctrina eligatur qui ordinandus est, chosen for the merit of his life and the 

etiam si ultimus fuerit in ordine con- learning of his wisdom, even though he 

gregationis. should be the last of the community. 

Whatever be the method of election, each monk should choose con- 
scientiously, says St. Benedict, who now deals with the person of the 
elect. It would be a disgraceful thing if men who have taken a solemn 
oath to elect the most worthy should east their votes in any direction 
at all, as chance passion may direct or the petty calculations of the 
moment. So would the government of souls be put into unstable or 
irresolute hands for twenty or thirty years, and that by the play of paltry 
passions. Here is one of those times when it is most important to put 
oneself in the presence of God and to stand before His judgement seat; 
the election must be performed, as our Holy Father has said already, 
" in the fear of God." A man must silence his prejudices and his 
dislikes, nay, even his likes and his enthusiasms: above all he must be 
intelligent and prudent. 

St. Benedict indicates with precision the marks by which we shall 
recognize a suitable candidate. First, " merit of life." That a man has 
a great position in the world, a distinguished name and distinguished 
connections, a rich patrimony which inspires the hope that we shall live 
at our ease and be able to build, that he has financial and administrative 
capacity: all such considerations are banished. We shall examine 



446 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

whether there is merit and holiness of life, not necessarily absence of 
defects and failings, but a real worthiness of life and preoccupation with 
the things of God. Besides this 1 St. Benedict requires " the learning 
of wisdom." By which he does not mean knowledge simply : the higher 
mathematics, for instance, are not sufficient. Nor is it even ecclesiastical 
knowledge: for then a dry knowledge of theology, inspired by nothing 
better than curiosity, yet stamped with its doctor's degree, might suffice. 
Nor is it simply a theoretical or experimental knowledge of the mystical 
life. It is something much more comprehensive: it is a learning which 
comes of assiduous reading, reflection, practice, and prudence, and from 
the understanding of monastic institutions. We shall presently find 
St. Benedict reminding us that prudence, tact, and discretion are 
especially to be expected from an Abbot. And these are qualities 
which do not always accompany understanding, or virtue, or apostolic 
zeal. The ancient monks used to say : " Is he holy ? Let him pray for 
us. Is he learned? Let him teach us. Is he prudent? Let him 
rule us " (Sanctus est? oret fro nobis. Doctus est? doceat nos. Prudens 
est? regat nos). 

When all these conditions are fulfilled, they ought to determine the 
vote of the community, even though the one chosen hold the lowest place 
in the monastery, and be therefore recently professed and even quite 
young in years. St. Placid did not do so badly, nor St. Hugh, who was 
Abbot at twenty-five. And then, if. youth is a fault, it is one that is 
quickly and surely corrected. It is even a good principle to elect a 
young Abbot: there are works which he will undertake and which he 
will be able to pursue just because he is conscious of vigour and because! 
he has the future before him. In a Benedictine community, life and 
activity come from the Abbot; and though other forms of the religious 
life, by their strong personnel, powerful organization, and minute 
regulations, maintain the unity and assure the development of their 
work, whatever be the changes of ruler: with us, on the contrary, 
everything depends on the person of the Abbot. 2 

Quod si etiam omnis congregatio But even if all the community 

vitiis suis (quod quidem absit) consen- with one accord (which God forbid) 

tientem personam pari consilio elegerit, should elect a person who condones 

et vitia ipsa aliquatenus in notitiam their evil ways, and these somehow 

episcopi, ad cujus dioecesim pertinet come to the knowledge of the bishop 

locus ipse, vel Abbatibus, aut chris- to whose diocese the place belongs , 

tianis vicinis claruerint, prohibeant or of the Abbots or neighbouring 

pravorum praevalere consensum, et Christians, let them prevent the agree- 

1 Sattcta quippe rusticitas solum sibi prodest; et quantum eedificat ex vita merito 
Ecclesiam Cbristi, tantum nocet si destruentibus non resistat. . . . Fides quantum inter se 
distent justa rusticitas et dccta justitia (S. HIERON., Epist. XLIII., 3. P.L., XXII. y 



Councils and popes long ago laid it down that an abbot should have the years- 
and the dignity of the priesthood. The rule is embodied in the Code. To be validly 
elected an Abbot must be ten years professed and at least thirty years old. A 
Superior General must be forty years old. The same rules apply to Abbesses. 



.. Of the Appointment of tfie Abbot 447 

domui Dei dignum const! tuant dispen- ment of these wicked men prevailing, 
satorem; scientes pro hoc se recepturos and appoint a worthy steward over 
mercedem bonam, si illud caste et zelo the house of God, knowing that for 
Deifaciant,sicutecontrariopeccatum, this they shall receive a good reward, 
si negligant. if they do it with a pure intention and 

for the love of God, as, on the other 
hand, they will sin if they neglect 
it. i 

St. Benedict considers, and that with horror: Quod quidem absit! 
a third result of an election : the case where the votes of the community 
unite to elect an unworthy man. A community never chooses an un- 
worthy candidate except for its own pleasure and because it says to itself: 
" Look at his habits, look how he is involved in the same failings as our- 
selves; he is a monk who will not be troublesome: we may make him 
Abbot without fear." Calculations of this sort were not by any means 
impossible at a period when there were monks such as those of Vicovaro; 
if the monks could unite to poison the Abbot, they could also unite 
to provide him with a lamentable successor. 1 

When this misfortune happens, and the bishop of the place or the 
neighbouring abbots and influential layiolk have learnt with certainty, 
by whatever method, whether official or private, of the vicious pro- 
ceedings of the community, they have a duty in conscience to intervene : 
if they do so, God will give them good recompense ; if they take no notice, 
they shall sin and be punished. However, as St. Benedict quickly 
remarks, their intervention must be inspired by pure motives and by 
zeal for the glory of God, not by ambitious designs, by jealousy or 
unjustifiable preferences. It were wrong that the liberty of monastic 
life should be lessened under the pretext of vigilance, however devoted 
and affectionate, and that all the pious folk of the neighbourhood should 
go to war and take sides in a matter which concerns them not at all. 
Those to whom our Holy Father appeals shall have a double mission: 
first, to quash the evil or dubious election and frustrate the plans of the 
wicked ; secondly, to provide a worthy ruler for God's house. What was 
the part played by each of the personages mentioned by St. Benedict ? 
Everything would lead us to believe that they had to act in concert, 
under the guidance of the bishop, the abbots supporting him with their 
advice, and the Christians of the vicinity lending at need the help of the 
" secular arm." The proceedings probably took the form of an ecclesias- 
tical enquiry. 2 And finally, how was the choice of the new Abbot 
determined ? Our Holy Father is too laconic for us to be able to get 
answers to all these questions from his words alone. 

1 S. GREG. M., Dial., 1. II., c. iii. 

* These dispositions of the Rule agree with those of the Council of Carthage of 
536 (MANSI, t. VIII., col. 842): S* qua vero contentio, quod non optamus, exorta fuerit, 
ut ista Abbatum aliorum concilia sive judicio Jiniatur; out si scandalum perseveraverit, 
ad Primates uniuscujusque provinci<e universes faus<e monasteriarum judicandte perducantur. 
(Cf. Canon vii. of the Council of Tours [567] on the procedure to be followed in 
deposing an abbot. MANSI, t. IX., col. 793.) 



448 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

Ordinatus autem Abbas cogitet Let him that has been appointed 
semper quale onus suscepit, et cui Abbot always bear in mind what a 
redditurus est rationem yillicationis burden he has undertaken, and to 
suae; sciatque sibi oportere prodesse whom he will have to give an account 
magis quam prseesse. of his stewardship; and let him know 

that it behoves him rather to profit 
his brethren than preside over them. 

St. Benedict addresses some counsels to the Abbot elected and 
appointed 1 which often recall those of the second chapter and lead us 
also to repetition. Before descending to practical applications, he lays 
down the general principle which should regulate the whole conduct of 
the Abbot. He is required to bear in mind not so much the honour 
done him as the burden placed upon his shoulders: he is the Lord's 
steward and holds His place in regard to souls; he must think of this 
constantly, and must never forget to what Master of sovereign insight 
and equity he shall have to give an account of his stewardship. 

The words which follow are weighty: the Abbot must know that it 
is his duty rather to serve than to command, to be useful to his children 
rather than to cut a great figure. Our Lord Himself said with the same 
apt assonance: " The Son of Man is not come to be ministered unto but 
to minister" (Matt. xx. 28). But our Holy Father's words are also 
a verbal reminiscence of St. Augustine, when speaking to the people 
on the anniversary of his episcopal consecration: "Help us, both by 
your prayers and by your docility, that we may delight to profit you 
rather than to preside over you "; and in another place: " That he may 
understand that he is not a bishop in order to delight in presiding and 
not in profiting." 2 And, in .fact, how many ways there are in which 
an Abbot may regard his charge ! " Behold," he might say to himself, 
" I have attained my goal; I have won mymarshal's baton ; I have nothing 
further to hope for; let me take my ease." By no means, for an Abbot 
is a man of toil, Or he might reason in this way: " I have numerous 
occupations, visits to make and receive, letters to write, connections 
to cultivate, material interests to safeguard : surely it is no longer possible 
for me to face the requirements of the Rule. They shall see me ponti- 
ficating from time to time: as for all else, the monastic life shall go on 
without me." Of course the Abbot, because of his occupations and 
because of his work for the community, cannot be with it always and 
present at all observances; but does it not seem that an Abbot who 
should use his charge as an excuse for shirking the Rule except it be 

1 In general, the confirmation of an abbatial election, the institution, or " ordina- 
tion " of the Abbot, fell then by right to the bishop of the diocese, even in the case of 
monasteries which enjoyed much independence. From the sixth century onwards 
certain founders, and even bishops themselves, in Italy and in Gaul, reserved the pro- 
tection of their monasteries and the confirmation of abbatial elections to the Sovereign 
Pontiff. But neither in Chapters LXIV. and LXV. of the Rule, nor in the Life of 
St. Benedict (S. GREG. M., Dial., 1. II., c. iii., xxii.), do we find sufficient data for 
deciding the manner of the ordinatio Abbatis at Subiaco and Monte Caasino. 

' Sermo CCCXL. P.L., XXXVIII., 1484. De civitate Dei, 1. XIX,, c. xix. 
P.L., XLI., 647. 



Of the Appointment of the Abbot 449 

for sickness or old age deprives himself of a great source of strength 
and defrauds his monks of a very good example ? There is another 
danger: in the language of the Ceremonial an Abbot ranks next to a 
Bishop and possesses some of his external rights ; tequiparatus episcopis. 
From a sense of his dignity, and for the good renown of his monastery, 
he may believe himself bound to multiply pontifical occasions both at 
home and abroad, to show himself at all ceremonies, ecclesiastical meet- 
ings, and congresses, and to claim privileges and honours. All this 
would be quite unworthy of an earnest man and very much against the 
words of the Rule. The Abbot is a monk, humble and simple; and his 
place is at home. 

Oportet ergo cum esse doctum in He must, therefore, be learned in 
lege divina, ut sciat unde prof erat nova the law of God, that he may know 
et vetera: castum, sobrium, misericor- whence to bring forth new things and 
dem ; et semper superexaltet misericor- old : he must be chaste, sober, merciful, 
diam judicio, ut idem ipse consequa- and always exalt mercy above judge- 
tur. Oderit vitia, diligat fratres. ment, that he himself may obtain 

the same. Let him hate sin, and love 

the brethren. 

The Abbot exists only for the good of his monks : "he must therefore 
(oportft ergo) be learned in the faith, in the spiritual life, and in the 
Sacred Scriptures." This is the first precise counsel given to the Abbot, 
and we remember how our Holy Father insisted previously on this point. 
From a treasure already acquired and increased every day by study and 
prayer, the Abbot must draw, like a good householder, " new things and 
old" (Matth. xiii. 52; Cant. vii. 13): doctrine which does not change 
and application which changes from day to day, the eternal rules and the 
counsels appropriate to each individual nature. It is the father's duty 
to give light, as it is the duty of a son lovingly to let it penetrate his 
being: "And they shall all be taught of God" (John vi. 45). A 
monastery should be a school of supernatural learning. When men 
are not encouraged and sustained, daily nourished with intellectual 
food, they grow old before their time, and from day to day the number 
and compass of their ideas are reduced; they busy themselves with their 
health, with themselves, with a hundred nothings, which they magnify, 
and they become ungovernable. And if, unfortunately, the Abbot 
does not instruct at all, or confines himself to uttering futilities, he 
will never really be in touch with his monks, and will never know the 
greatest joys of life. 

But besides theoretical instruction as to what we should think and 
believe, there is practical instruction as to what we must resolve and 
accomplish. With a view to this second kind of preaching St. Benedict 
marks out rapidly the virtues which shall give authority to the Abbot's 
words. He must be chaste and sober. To emphasize this point is un- 
necessary, for it would be simply monstrous if things were otherwise, and 
if the Abbot's life gave other example than this to his children. How- 
ever, sobriety and chastity, as understood by the ancients, did not merely 

29 



45 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

mean constraint and negation: they implied perfect moral delicacy, 
the spirit of detachment in the use of created goods, and that clinging 
to God which is the result of this sacrifice. 

St. Benedict adds "merciful," because he is about to lead us to another 
topic, that of correction or active repression. Plato somewhere asks: 
" What is government ?" and replies that it is to exchange enlighten- 
ment with the governed. The reply is a beautiful one and quite in 
conformity with the Socratic theory that no one does wrong but in his 
own despite: if the offender knew, he would not sin. Unhappily it is 
a principle too ideal for fallen beings; and authority must often resign 
itself to the duty of correction and punishment. Blessed be our Holy 
Father for giving us God's own method as our pattern and for exhorting 
the Abbot to it, not only because he is a father, but also on the ground 
of his own interest: "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain 
mercy." St. Odilo used to say: " I would rather be condemned for 
mercifulness than for severity." If God, at the Last Judgement, 
reproaches us for excessive mercifulness, may we not kneel before Him 
and say with the greatest possible respect: " But what of Yourself, 
O Lord ?" Therefore let the Abbot always exalt mercy above justice, 
when severity does not appear indispensable (Jas. ii. 13). He is not 
a minister of justice, but of mercy. Of course he must hate wrongdoing 
and dangerous tendencies : but at least let him love the brethren. This 
double principle must guide him in his correction. 1 

In ipsa autem correctione pruden- And in his correction itself let him 
ter agat, et ne quid nimisj ne dum act prudently, and not go to excess, 
nimis eradere cupit aeruginem, franga- lest seeking too eagerly to scrape off 
tur vas; suaque fragilitate semper the rust he break the vessel. Let him 
suspectus sit, memmeritque calamum keep his own frailty ever before his 
quassatum non conterendum. In eyes, and remember that the bruised 
quibus non dicimus ut permittat reed must not be broken. By this 
nutriri vitia, sed prudenter et cum we do not mean that he should 
caritate ea amputet, prout viderit suffer vices to grow up, but that he 
cuique expedite, sicut jam diximus; should cut them off prudently and 
et studeat plus amari quam timer i. with charity, according as he shall see 

that it is best for each, as we have said ; 

and let him study rather to be loved 

than feared. 

How then must correction be applied, when it has become necessary ? 
With prudence and moderation, without ever going to excess: ne quid 
nimis. 2 In the first place, reprimands should be rare. When they fall 

1 -It is borrowed from ST. AUGUSTINE: Dilige bominem, oderis vitium (Sermo XLIX., 
5. P.L., XXXVIIL, 313); Oderit vitium, amet bominem (De civil. Dei., 1. XIV., 
c. vi. P.L., XLL, 409); Cum dilectione bominum et odio vitiorum (Efist. CCXL, n. 
P.L., XXXIII,, 962). S. CSSAR., Reg. ad virg., xxii.: Hocfaeite cum dilectione sororum 
et odio vitiorum. 

* A reminiscence of St. Jerome or of St. Augustine. Difficile est modum tenere itt 
omnibus, says ST. JEROME, et vere juxta pbilosopborum sententiam, /tco4rqs u dperi}, 
virtpfio\ri Kakla. refutantur; quod nos una et brevi sententiola exfrimere possumus: Ne 
quid nimis, TIMNTIUS, Andria, I., i. 34 (Epist. CVIII., 20. P.L., XXII., 898). Else- 



Of the Appointment of the Abbot 451 

thick and fast and frequently, men grow used to them and they cease 
to make an impression. Secondly, they should be really justified: some 
matters are of considerable moment and others less important; there 
may be some detail which an Abbot, from habit or temperament, does 
not like, and yet which he is .not for that reason obliged to root out. 
Lastly, correction should be timely and adapted to the character and 
moral condition of the individual: some men are docile, others resent 
all interference; souls habitually submissive have moments of keen 
temptation, when it would, be imprudent and perhaps even cruel to 
add to their burden. We must beware of exasperating souls: though 
we may have to scrape the rust off the kettle, we must not go so far as to 
break it. Our touch must be deft and delicate. 

To induce the Abbot to be merciful St. Benedict gives him a double 
motive: he must consider his own state, and he must consider God. 
Ever bethinking himself of his own frailty, ever putting himself in the 
place of the one he corrects, he will be inclined to indulgence and com- 
passion. Especially will this be so if, remaining united to the Lord and 
acting only in concert with Him, he remembers the terms in which 
Isaias (xlii. 3) and St. Matthew (zii. 20) describe the character of the 
Messias: " the bruised reed he shall not break." And while the Rule 
thus endeavours to restrain the Abbot from being prone to severity, it 
would be strange that any brother should think he has a mission to rebuke 
authority and spur it on, when it is not employed in correcting immedi- 
ately all that he thinks intolerable. " Why does the Abbot not see that ? 
It stares one in the face. Can it be that he is a party to it ?" Have 
patience ! It is bad taste thus to evoke the thunderbolt on all that is 
not in precise conformity with one's personal notions : " You know not 
of what spirit you are " (Luke ix. 55) . Moreover, such indignant moods 
searcely come except to youth and inexperience; and those who are most 
impatient to have their brethren treated with severity are most easily 
taken aback when they themselves are reprimanded. Let us then leave 
the Abbot to intervene at his own time and in the way which he 
judges fit. 

In quibus non dicimus . . . In this sentence we have, not an abate- 
ment of mercy, but a warning against a false interpretation of this virtue. 
The ideal of mercy is not the letting everyone do as he pleases; inobser- 
vance and laxity do not constitute the family spirit. And it is important 
that anxiety to show kindness to the individual should not make us 
forget to be kind to the community; for a monastery rapidly declines 
if the superior be too ready to forget, excuse, and pardon everything. 
St. Benedict would not have evil practices grow through such toleration. 
And his life shows us more than one occasion in which his fatherly love 

where (Epist. CXXX., 11. P.L., XXII., 1116) St. Jerome repeats the two quotations 
and attributes Ne quid nimis to one of the Seven Sages, adding: Quod tarn celeorefactum 
est, ut comico quoque versu expressum sit. In Letter LX., 7 (P.L., XXII., 593) he asks 
Heliodorus to moderate hia sorrow for the death of his nephew Nepotianus and quotes 
the Ne quid nimis. On his part, ST. AUGUSTINX quotes and explains the same epigram 
(Enarratio IV. in Ps. cxviiL, I. P., XXXVII., 1509). 



45 2 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

was armed with holy severity : we have but to recall the story of the young 
monk who held the lamp; of him who could not remain at prayer but 
yielded to the solicitations of the little blackamoor; of the over-zealous 
cellarer who kept back the flask of oil. Faults undoubtedly have to be 
suppressed, but it must be done at the fitting moment, with skill and 
with charity. 

Moreover, the Abbot is advised to aim at being loved rather than 
feared. St. Augustine gives the same counsel. 1 So the ancients knew 
not that superfine spirituality which would have us guard against a 
warm attachment to our superior, in order that we may obey with purer 
intention : which would make us distinguish carefully between the man 
and the superior, so as to fortify ourselves against a too natural affection 
for the former. 2 If our Holy Father bids the Abbot make himself 
loved and not feared, his first reason is that the Abbot holds the place of 
Our Lord and our relations with Our Lord are the same as our relations 
with the Abbot. His further reason is that the new dispensation is 
essentially and wholly a dispensation of love and not of fear : " You have 
not received the spirit of servitude again in fear." Finally, this affection 
itself is an indispensable help to virtue; it gives support and consolation 
to the heart of the Abbot. And, by means of it, he can lead them to 
God more effectively; for souls obey the better the more they love. 

Non sit turbulentus et anxius, non Let him not be violent and anxious, 

sit nimius et obstinatus, non zelotypus nor exacting and headstrong, nor 

et nimis suspiciosus, quia nunquam jealous and too prone to suspicion, 

requiescet. for he will never be at rest. 

Having spoken of instruction and of correction, its necessary comple- 
ment, our Holy Father now insists on that fundamental disposition 
which is called discretion. It should show itself first Of all in the 
Abbot's character. A man's character is the moral form of his tempera- 
ment. We might desire that he should have no temperament, or 
character, or personality: that he were wholly like to God, and that 
God's influence replaced self. But this is not always possible, and the 
Abbot and his monks must accept the fact. St. Benedict requires that 
the Abbot should at least strive not to be violent, anxious, exacting, 
headstrong, jealous, over-suspicious: 8 for, says he, there is no rest for 
such a one. How impossible is peacefulness in a house whose head is 

1 'Corripiat inquietas, console tur pusillanimes, suscipiat infantas, patiens sit ad omnesj 
disciplinam libem babeat, metuens imponat. Et quamvis utrumque sit necessarium, tamen 
plus a vobis amari appetat quant timeri, semper cogitans Deo se pro vobis redd.itu.ram esse 
rationem. TJnde magis obed'iendo non solum vestri, verum etiam ipsius miseremini; quia 
inter vos quanta in loco superior e, tanto in periculo major e versatur (Epist. CCXI., 15. 
P.L., XXXIII., 964-965). 

2 Amastis enim ut venire tis: sed amastis, quid f Si nos, et hoc bene; nam volumus amari 
a vobis, ted nolumus in nobis. Quia ergo in Cbristo vos amamus, in Chris to nos redamate, 
et amor noster pro invicem gemat ad Deum: ipse enim gemitus columbts est (S. AUG., In 
yoannis Evang., tract. VI., i. P.L., XXXV., 1425). 

3 Again a reminiscence of Isaias, who says of the Messias: Non clamabit, neque accipiet 
personam. . . . Calamum quassatum non confer et. . . . 2V 'on erittristis, neque turbulentus. 
(xlii. 2-4). 



Of the Appointment of the Abbot 45 3 

restless and passionate ! Let us beware of passing lightly over these 
words and regarding them as so much padding. On the contrary, they 
seem to define once more, and by contrast, the general character of 
our life. Not instruction only, but peace as well, comes from above 
and is communicated to us through our superiors. A monastery should 
be the abode of peace; and we expect to see it radiate from the person 
of the Abbot. Let us repeat once more: St. Benedict does not recom- 
mend an Abbot to use the spur, to push, or to goad, in order to obtain 
the maximum of spiritual result in the minimum of time. Such violent 
methods may succeed: but they have a very good chance of failure; 
and even when they succeed they give the supernatural life a touch of 
anxiety and tension. , 

In ipsis imperils suis sit providus In his commands* themselves, 
et consideratus, sive secundum Deum, whether they concern God or the 
sive secundum saeculum sint. Opera world, let him be prudent and con- 
quae injungit, discernat ac temperet, siderate'. Let him be discreet and 
cogitans discretionem sancti Jacob, moderate in the tasks which he im- 
dicentis: Si greges meos; 'plus in ambu- poses, bearing in mind the discretion 
lando fecero labor are, morientur cuncti of holy Jacob, who said: "If I cause 
una die. 1 Haec ergo aliaque testimonia my flocks to be overdriven, they will 
discretionis matris virtutis sumens, sic all die in" one day." Taking, then, this 
omnia temperet, ut sit quod et fortes and other examples of discretion, the 
cupiant, et infirmi non refugiant. mother of virtue, let him so temper 

.all things, that the strong may have 
something to strive after, and the weak 
may not be dismayed. 

The subject now is the Abbot's discretion, when he commands and 
imposes duties of obedience: for he may not abstain from giving orders, 
so as to avoid the faults that were pointed out to him a moment ago. 
But let him, " in his commands themselves," be careful and moderate, 
prudent and considerate, whether he be dealing with the things of God, 
such as the Divine Office and prayer, or with temporal matters, such as 
work and food. He should always divide his personality and in some 
sort Uve in the persons of the weak. When the Abbot is apportioning 
work, says St. Benedict, let him show discernment and moderation, 
adapting it carefully to the capacity and strength of the individual. 
God has given him no mission to crush His servants . He must remember 
the discretion of the holy Patriarch Jacob (Gen. xxxiii. 13), and in his 
reading make careful note of all the other examples of this discretion, 
the mother of virtues. 2 

Here again in these few words, and expressed positively, is the whole 
spirit of St. Benedict. Discretion is nothing else but a form of prudence, 
queen and mistress of the moral virtues, according to the exposition of 

1 Recent critical editions read: . . . et consideratus; et sive secundum Deum, sive 
secundum steculum sit opera quant injungit, discernat. 

* These are the very words of CASSIAK, in his and Conference (chap iv.), which 
might well be re-read in its entirety: Omnium namque virtu turn generatrix^ custos modern- 
trixque discretio est. 



454 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

the angelic Doctor. 1 Virtues should be deliberate and intelligent, and 
ever hold a mean : now it is the business of prudence to determine this 
virtuous mean, after careful consideration of the circumstances of action. 
Where prudence is, there also are the other moral virtues; just as all the 
theological virtues meet in charity. We might say of discretion that it 
is prudentia regnativa that is to say, the virtue which, conscious of the 
end to be obtained and of the means at its disposal, ordains all acts to this 
desired end, sets itself to proportion, all things and exceed in none, to 
measure the difficulty of a task both by its character and by the capacity 
of the individual. As a habit and a sustained quality of life, discretion 
is the wise moderation and exquisite tempering of action. It orders the 
virtues and powers of the soul harmoniously, in such sort that the lofty 
end of life, the contemplation of divine things, is attained. 

" Let him so temper all things, that the strong may have something 
to strive after, and the weak may not be dismayed." There is our Holy 
Father's purpose, to rally all souls of goodwill to the perfect life and to 
lead them to union with God. But, that being so, one must be content 
not to require from everyone and at every moment the maximum of 
sustained effort. That would be to hurry towards inobservance under 
colour of perfection. How short a time such enthusiasms last I Luke- 
warmness is not a more serious danger than this. St. Benedict establishes 
a certain wise mean, easy of attainment, beyond which nothing shall 
be exacted. But a margin is left for personal sensitiveness and generosity. 
St. Benedict himself, in the last chapter of his Rule and in other passages, 
lays open vistas of greater perfection for the valiant. And prudence 
also would counsel a monk, who is desirous of attaining sanctity, not to 
slumber on the way, but to put his working ideal very high. 

Et praecipue, ut presentem Regu- And, especially, let him observe 

lam in omnibus conserve! ; ut, dum this present Rule in all things; so that, 

bene ministraverit, audiat a Domino, having ministered well, he may hear 

quod servus bonus, qui erogavit triti- of the Lord what that good servant 

cum conservis suis in tempore suo: heard, who gave wheat to his fellow- 

Amen dico vobis, ait, super omnia bona servants in due season: "Amen, I say 

sua constituet eum. unto you, he shall place him over all 

his goods." 

A last and weighty piece of advice is addressed to the Abbot : " And, 
especially, let him observe this present Rule in all things." All through 
this chapter he has heard scarcely of anything else than, of mercy, dis- 
cretion, and the adaptation of all things to the needs of his children. 
In order to avoid all misunderstanding, St. Benedict reminds him that 
he is by no means free to modify ~the Rule, to make it 1 easier or harder, 
to substitute for it his own notions and his own extemporary arrange- 
ments. Till St. Benedict's time the will of the Abbot had often been 
the only rule of a monastery: but St. Benedict's cenobites require a 
written Rule, broadminded' yet stable and precise. It is entrusted to 

1 Summa, II.-II., q. xlvii. 



Of the Appointment of the Abbot 455 

the "Abbot's care. St. Benedict bids him preserve it intact in spirit 
and in letter to see to its observance, and, undoubtedly, to observe it 
also himself. The Abbot may not dispense with the Rule, which pro- 
vides him instruction and restraint; nor is the Rule enough of itself 
without the Abbot, by reason of its abstract and general character. 
There should be a close union between the one and the other. And in 
this lies the very natural explanation of the difficulty created between 
a monk and his Abbot, when the monk begins to take liberties with the 
Rule. At the same moment and by the same act he separates himself 
from God, from the Rule, and from his Abbot; and, by remaining faith- 
ful to one or other of these three, a monk achieves fidelity to all, and 
happiness: 

The last words of the chapter, which are meant for his encouragement, 
also tell the Abbot for the last time that he is the servant of the servants 
of God (conserves .mis), that he is a steward whose business it is to dis- 
tribute pure supernatural food to them, honestly and unselfishly. If he 
does his duty well, the Lord of the family will one day set him over all 
His goods (Matt. xxiv. 45 /?.). 



CHAPTER LXV 
OF THE PRIOR OF THE MONASTERT 

{ I ^HE Abbot may be assisted in his government by a second-in- 
I command. Several ancient Rules 1 have no other title than 
I " second " for this official ; and St. Gregory tells us that St. Benedict 
-^ at the time of the foundation of the monastery of Terracina 
appointed "a Father and one to second him" (Pattern constitute ft 
guts ei secundus esset); while a little farther on he calls this " second " 
his prior : Preefositus ejus? The title of " Praepositus," which is applied 
in a general way by Sacred Scripture and the Fathers to all those who 
exercise governing power, as for example to bishops, belonged also to the 
superiors of monastic communities; St. Basil calls the Abbot irpoearr&i. 
Cassian calls him " Praepositus ;" 8 in the Rule of St. Pachomius, trans- 
lated by St. Jerome, the " Praepositus domus " is the superior of a 
monastery. But in reserving this title for the Abbot's assistant, our 
Holy Father was no innovator; the Rule of St. Macarius 4 distinguished 
the Praepositus from the Abbot, and St. Caesarius speaks of the Abbess, 
or Mother, and the Praeposita. 5 As to the title " Prior " which now* 
takes the place of Praepositus or Provost, it designates in St. Benedict's 
Rule any superior whatever, an elder or one who presides. 

Our actual legislation recognizes three kinds of Priors: conventual 
Priors, who have jurisdiction like Abbots; simple Priors, superiors of 
monasteries which are not yet canonically erected and are considered 
as forming a part of the mother house; claustral Priors, the only kind 
with which we shall presently have to deal. This Prior is called 
"claustral," says Lanfranc, 7 because he is specially charged with the 
supervision <Jf the cloister and its surroundings that is, with the region 
generally occupied by the monks. He was distinguished at Cluny and 
elsewhere from the one who was called Grand Prior, and was his vicar. 8 
In actual fact, the duties of the Subprior of an abbey are in some degree 

1 S. PACK., Reg., clxxxii., clxxxv. THKODORXTI, Religiosa bistoria, c.'iv. P.G., 
LXXXIL, 1348. Cf. S. BASIL., Reg. fus., xlv. 

Dial, 1. II., c. xxii. ' Inst., V., xxvii.; Conlat., XVIII., vii. 
4 Cap. xxvii. 8 Reg. ad virg., xvi. 

* Differing from the view of some commentators, we do not think that the term 
" Prior " had already acquired its narrower meaning in the* letter of ST. GREGORY 
THE GREAT ad Victorem episcopum (Epist., l.V. Ep. VI. P.L., LXXVIL, 727; M.G.H. : 
Epist., t. 1., p. 284): there, as in the interesting letter ad Agnellum Abbatem concerning 
the appointment of a " Praepositus " (Epist., 1. VII. Ep. X. P.L., ibid., 864; M.G.H. : 
ibid., p. 453), locus Prioris and locus prioratus refer to the superior; and St. Gregory 
always calls the Abbot's " second " Prapositus (Epist., 1. III., Ep. III. P.L., ibid., 605 ; 
M.G.H.: ibid., pp. 160 sg.). In order to find this personage with the name of 
" Prior," we have to come down to the Statutes of LANFRANC, the Customs of Cluny, 
the Use of Ctteaux, etc. (Cf. H/EFTEN, 1. HI., tract, vi., disq. i.-iii.). 

7 Statuta, c. Hi. 

8 Details as to their respective functions are to be found in UDALRIC, Consuet. Clun., 
1. III., c. iv. and vi., in the Ordo Cluniacensis of BERNARD, P. I., c. ii. and iii., and in the 
Constitutions of Hirscbau, 1. II., c. xvi., xvii., and xx. 

456 



Of the Prior of the Monastery 457 

the same as those of the Cluniac Claustral Prior. In the Declarations 
or Constitutions of the Maurist Congregation mention is made only 
of one or several deans to help the superior and his " second " in the 
maintenance of discipline. The Subprior, or second Prior, existed in the 
Congregations of Bursfeld, Valladolid, etc. 

The sixty-fifth chapter may be summarized as follows: The grave 
abuses that the appointment of a Prior may give rise to, especially if he 
is appointed by others and not by the Abbot. Is it possible to do without 
a Prior ? Granted that it is not, how is he to be appointed ? What 
should be the attitude of the Prior in the fulfilment of his duties? 
What is to be done should he conduct himself badly and prove 
incorrigible ? 

DE PRJEPOSITO MONASTERII. It happens very often that by the 

Saepius quidem contingit, ut per or- appointment of the Prior grave scan- 

dinationem praepositi scandala gravia dais arise in monasteries; since there 

in monasteriis oriantur, dum sint are some who* puffed up by the evil 

aliqui maligno spiritu superbiae inflati, spiritof pride, and deeming themselves 

qui aestimantes se secundos Abbates esse, to be second .Abbots, take upon them- 

assumentes sibi tyrannidem, scandala selves a usurped power, and so foster 

nutriunt, dissensiones in congregatione scandals and cause dissensions in the 

faciunt, ... Community, . . . 

We cannot fail to be struck by the very severe tone which our Holy 
Father suddenly adopts, and by the extraordinary vigour with which 
he denounces the intrigues and scandals which he says very often follow 
the appointment of the Prior. He brands these intrigues with harsh 
.and incisive words, such as we are not accustomed to expect from his 
pen. The sentences seem borne along in a torrent of holy indignation. 
And for a moment St. Benedict throws aside his wonted brevity, in 
order to analyze and describe the phases of the evil. We get the impres- 
sion that he has met the thing at close quarters and speaks from an 
attentive and connected experience. But neither he nor history has 
told us of what precise facts he was thinking. After indicating the abuses 
in a general way, and without fixing the events which are their cause, 
our Holy Father draws attention to certain specially effective circum- 
stances. 

. . . et maxime in illis locis, ubi . . . and especially in those places 

ab eodem sacerdote, vel ab eisdem where the Prior is appointed by the 

Abbatibus qui Abbatem ordinant, ab same Bishop or the same Abbots as 

ipsis etiam et praepositus ordinatur. appoint the Abbot himself. How 

Quod quam sit absurdum facile ad- foolish this custom is may easily be 

vertitur, quia ab ipso initio ordinationis seen ; for from his first entering upon 

materia ei datur superbiendi, dum ei office an incentive to pride is given to 

suggeritur a cogitationibus suis, exu- him, the thought suggesting itself 

turn eum esse a potestate Abbatis sui, that he is freed from the authority 

quia ab ipsis est ordinatus a quibus et of his Abbot, since he has been ap- 

Abbas. pointed by the very same persons. 

In the preceding chapter St. Benedict alluded to the extraordinary 
intervention of the bishop or of neighbouring abbots in the election of 



458 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

the Abbot. In this we learn that in certain places St. Benedict does 
not say " everywhere " the appointment or installation of the Abbot- 
he does not say " election " belonged usually either to the bishop 
(sacerdos), or to a council of abbots, or rather to the bishop assisted by 
the neighbouring abbots. And it happened sometimes that the Prior 
received his appointment from the same persons as had appointed the 
Abbot, perhaps in the same ceremony. 1 " How foolish this custom is 
may easily be seen," St. Benedict boldly says. For the result is to 
furnish the Prior, from the very beginning, in the very act which sets 
him in power, with a proximate occasion of pride. We should not 
count too much on the virtue of men, and experience shows what 
happens when the Prior allows himself to be " puffed up with an evil 
spirit of pride." ' 

Consider first of all the secret thoughts of the Prior; it is like the first 
act in a tragedy: " I am not the Abbot's man: he has not chosen. me, I 
have been imposed, on him. So I am independent; I hold the place of 
the superior authority, which has appointed me and to which alone I am 
accountable. Consequently it is my business to correct the Abbot 
and to control his activity." 2 The Abbot, however, from his own point 
of view, makes very similar reflections : " It will be no easy matter 
governing here. I have got a man by me to act as my supervisor, a 
man whose functions are very disagreeable to me since he watches me in 
the name of the authority that has made him and very easy for himself, 
since, with nothing positive to do, he is at full liberty to criticize." So 
opens the second act, and then the division begins to show itself extern- 
ally. In fact, it is impossible to limit the operation of such causes, since 
they are organic and do not consist only in incompatibilities of tempera- 
ment. In spite of precautions taken to save appearances the quarrel 
will break out and the whole house be invited to take sides. 

Hinc suscitantur invidiae, rixae, de- Hence are stirred up envy, quarrels, 

tractiones, aemulationes, dissensiones, backbiting, dissensions, jealousy, and 

exordinationes; et dum contraria disorders. And while the Abbot and 

sibi invicem Abbas praepositusque Prior are at variance with one another, 

sentiunt, et ipsorum necesse est sub it must needs be that their souls are 

hac dissensione animas periclitari; et endangered by reason of their dif- 

ii qui sub ipsis sunt, dum adulantur agreement; and those who are their 

partibus, eunt in perditionem. Cujus subjects, while favouring one side or 

periculi malum illos respicit in capite, the other, run to destruction. The 

qui talibus in ordinatione se fecerunt evil of this peril falls chiefly on those 

auctores. who by their appointment have 

originated such disorders. 

The Prior regards himself and claims to be treated, not as the Abbot's 
second, but as a " second Abbot." He tries to draw all into his own hands, 
to seize a p6wer which is then nothing else but usurpation and tyranny: 

1 Mas erat eorum tune, observes SMARAGDUS, ut quando Abbas ordinabatur, tune et 
ab eodem tpiscopo et aliis coram adstantibus Abbatibus et prtepositus or dinar etur. 

* The 'best manuscript reading is perhaps the very words, in " direct speech/' which 
pride suggests to the soul: Ab ipsis es et ttt ordinatus a quibus et Abbas. 



Of the Prior of the Monastery 459 

assumentes sibi tyrannidem. He has his flatterers* his clients, his court. 
To attain his ends he encourages and foments scandals, sows tares, 
organizes conspiracies, and divides the community. And then all is 
hatred, altercation, backbiting, calumny, jealousy, envy, dissension, and 
disorder of every kind. The modes range themselves in one or other 
camp: for it is no longer permitted or possible to remain neutral. 
Those 'who love order and obedience take sides with the Abbot; those 
who profess to love reform and good sense and so on, these join the Prior. 

Then there is an end of peace, of spirituality, of good example, of 
the monastery. The quarrel grows more bitter from day to day; 
sometimes the accursed heritage of these dissensions is passed on for a 
long period of years, and while all suffer from them, no one is willing 
to be cured. For all are thinking of revenge, of defence, or of attack, 
and they stand in an attitude of armed neutrality. With this lamentable 
result: those who have once tasted this bitter cup of fraternal discord 
can never again leave it alone; hostility enters into their temperament 
and distrust becomes incurable. Infallibly, says St. Benedict, the souls 
of the Prior and the Abbot himself are endangered; and those who 
espouse the side of one or the other run to perdition. For it is very 
hard then, even for the good, to preserve moderation and charity. 

The responsibility for the evil which must result from such a danger- 
ous state of affairs (cujus periculi malum) lies in the first place with those 
who, in appointing the Prior with the Abbot, have really made them- 
selves the authors of such disorders. 1 This is a declaration as outspoken 
as the quam sit absurdum above. Yet this practice, in spite of all the 
anathemas of St. Benedict, was adopted in the seventeenth century by 
the Congregation of St. Vanne, in which General Chapter nominated 
the Claustral Priors or Subpriors. Among the Maurists and Cassinese 
the superior himself chose his assistant. 

Ideoque nos praevidemus expedire, We foresee, therefore, that it is 

propter pads caritatisque custodiam, expedient for the preservation of peace 

in Abbatis pendere arbitrio ordina- and charity, that the ordering of the 

tipnem monasterii sui. Et si potest monastery depend upon the will of 

fieri, per decanos ordinetur (ut antea the Abbot. If possible, let all the 

dispqsuimus)omnisutilitas monasterii, affairs of the monastery be attended 

prottt Abbas disposuerit: ut dum to (as we have already arranged) by 

pluribus committitur, unus non super- deans, as the Abbot shall appoint; 

biat. so that, the same office being shared 

by many, no one may become proud. 

St. Benedict here takes measures of a legislative character. Since 
the evil just described comes from alien interference in the appoint- 
ment of officials, "we foresee," for the purpose of avoiding these scandals 
and in order to safeguard peace and charity "we foresee" that it is 
expedient to leave to the Abbot full liberty to organize and rule his 
monastery (ordinatio has here its generic sense). This principle of the 
absolute power of the Abbot derives directly from the conception which 

1 Some manuscripts read talius inordinationis. 



460 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

St. Benedict had of a monastic community; it is not merely suggested 
by emergency or given simply as an opportune safeguard. 

In virtue of this principle the Abbot then shall choose his own Prior 
if he think it necessary to choose one. For our Holy Father goes even 
farther. While his predecessors seemed to make no scruple of providing 
themselves with such an assistant, St. Benedict holds that it would be 
better to do without. He suspects, however, that this will not always be 
possible: Et si potest fieri. But it could be done; and especially since, 
according to the mind of St. Benedict, the Abbot should rarely be away 
and should consequently have less need of a substitute. By means of 
deans, according to his regulation in Chapter XXI., the Abbot shall 
secure all needful help and provide for the manifold necessities of the 
monastery. 1 St. Benedict does not mean that the deans, and they 
alone, should be given charge of the various offices, but rather that they 
should see to the maintenance of good discipline and fulfil the functions 
generally reserved to the Prior. In any case all will be done in con- 
formity with the orders of the Abbot. And, thanks to this parcelling 
out of power among many, the individual will be less tempted to pride. 

Quod si aut locus expetit, aut con- But if the needs of the place re- 

gregatio petierit rationabiliter cum quire it, and the community ask for it 

humilitate, et Abbas judicaverit ex- reasonably and with humility, and the 

pedire, quemcumque elegerit Abbas, Abbot judge it expedient, let him 

cumconsiliofratrumtimentiumDeum, himself appoint a Prior, whomsoever 

ordinet ipse sibi praepositum. he shall choose with the counsel of 

brethren who fear God. 

Nevertheless, in wishing to guard himself against the ill-conduct of 
a Prior and the troubles which result, he must not leave the monastery 
without proper government. For if the house is large, if the Abbot 
is often absent or is overworked, it would seem difficult for the deans 
to maintain an identical policy and one absolutely according to the policy 
of the Abbot. The latter then, " if the needs of the place require it," 
may choose a Prior. He will do so all the more willingly because the 
community, it may be, asks him, humbly and for substantial reasons. 
But while he is recommended to confer in the matter with prudent and 
God-fearing brethren, the duty of estimating the suitability of the 
measure and deciding upon it is left to him. 2 

We shall observe how St. Benedict, in every phrase, sets himself to 
emphasize the entire freedom of the Abbot. He himself chooses whom 
he wishes (quemcumque elegerit Abbas) and when he wishes; he himself 
appoints his Prior (ordinet ipse sibi prtspositum), and he is not the bishop's 
Prior nor the community's Prior ; the Prior is his own, he is his man. And 
that is enough to determine the attitude and rdle of the Prior in the 
community. 

. y 

1 Utilitas monastcrii: the same expression as in Chapter III.; it is found in CASSIAN, 
/j/., VII., ix. 

* See the old customaries, especially that of Cluny, for the manner of " ordination " 
of the Prior. 



Of the Prior of the Monastery 461 

Qui tamen praepositus ilia agat Let the Prior^ however, reverently 

cum reverentia qua ab Abbate suo do whatever is enjoined him by his 

ei injuncta fuerint, nihil contra Ab- Abbot, and nothing against his will 

batis voluntatem, aut ordinationem or command; for the more he is raised 

faciens: quia quantum praelatus est above the rest, so much the more care- 

ceteris, tantum eum oportet sollicite fully ought he to observe the precepts 

observare praecepta regulae. of the Rule. 

Qui tamen -prapositus: we should notice the "however" (tamen) t 
an adverb intended again to anticipate the encroachments of the official 
elected. He is Prior that is to say, the one who comes immediately 
after the Abbot and who is after him the first authority in the monastery ; 
to him in case of the absence, resignation, incapacity, or death of the 
Abbot falls the right of government; to him the Abbot leaves a large 
amount of activity and influence; but for all this the Prior is not to affect 
an arrogant and independent air. Since the Abbot has chosen him 
freely and not irreversibly, so that he may be his right arm and represent 
him among the brethren, the Prior would be disloyal if he strove to 
capture the affection of the monks, to dissuade them slyly from obeying 
the Abbot on this point or on that, and if he had no regard on his own 
part for orders or instructions that were given. " Let him do reverently," 
says St. Benedict, "whatever is enjoined by his Abbot, and nothing 
~ against his will or command." 1 

These words impel us to say something of the qualities of a Prior. 
God be blessed if he be a holy man, for he has need of virtue who has 
at once to command and to obey, to obey better and with a deeper 
docility, to obey a man whom he sees at closer quarters and whose failings 
he may know full well. It goes without saying that he must be intelligent 
and circumspect. He must be regular and a true monk, for his duty 
before all else is to maintain exact observance. And St. Benedict 
reminds him that in proportion as he is raised above others he must 
give an example of greater fidelity to the precepts of the Rule. That 
he should be devoted to his Abbot is only natural; and he shall force 
himself if necessary to draw near to him and to bring the brethren to 
him. And it follows that he must love these. It is almost desirable, 
too, that he should be of a somewhat different temperament from the 
Abbot, even in the interest of the Abbot himself, to whom, on occasion 
and respectfully, he will be able to give good advice; and also in the 
interest of the brethren, who will sometimes be able to find in the Prior 
certain qualities complementary to those of the Abbot; but to compare 
the Abbot to a father and the Prior to a mother is foolishness. 2 

Qui praepositus, si repertus fuerit And if the Prior be found culpable 

vitiosus, aut elatione deceptus super- or deceived by the haughtiness of 

biae, aut contemptor sanctae regulae pride, or be proved a contemner of 

fuerit comprobatu^admoneatur verbis the holy Rule, let him be admonished 

1 ST. PACHOM.IUS likewise said of the local superior of each monastery: Ipse autem 
pr&positus nibil faciet, nisi quod Pater jusserit, maxime in re nova; nam qua ex more 
descendit, servabit regulas moHasterii (clviii.). 

2 D. MGE, Comment., p. 750. 



462 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

usque quater: si mm emendaverit, by words until the fourth time; 'and 
adhibeatur ei correctio discipline then if he do not amend, let the cor- 
regularis. Quod si neque sic corre- rection of regular discipline be applied 
xerit, tune dejiciatur de ordine prae- to him. But if even then he do not 
positurae, et alins qui dignus est, in loco amend, let him be deposed from the 
ejns subrogetur. Quod si et postea in office of Prior, and another, who is 
congregatione quietus et obediens non worthy, be substituted in his place, 
fuerit, etiam de monasterio expellatur. If afterwards he be not quiet and 
Cogitet tamen Abbas, se de omnibus obedient in the community, let him 
judiciis Deo redditurum rationem, ne be expelled from the monastery, 
forte invidiae aut zeli flamma urat ani- Nevertheless let the Abbot bear in 
mam. mind that he must give an account to 

God of all his judgements, lest per- 
chance the flame of envy or jealousy be 
kindled in his soul. 

We have to be prepared for all eventualities. li the Prior is pre- 
sumptuous, if he be seduced and led away by pride, if he be. convicted 
of contempt for the sacred monastic institutions, 1 if finally he be found 
vicious then the Abbot is not to be helpless. Nevertheless he shall 
respect the office which he himself has given him and he shall not be 
in a hurry to discredit him in the esteem of the brethren. While the 
ordinary monks get two warnings and the deans three, the Prior is to be 
warned four times and secretly. If he do not amend then the severity 
of regular discipline must .be applied; public reprimand, etc. 
(Chapter XXVIII.). 

If all this leaves him incorrigible, then he must be degraded from his 
position of Prior, and another who is really worthy of the office put in 
his place. According to our actual discipline the deposition of a bad 
or doubtful Prior would not take so long; and the twofold ceremony 
of the deposition and renewal of officials which occurs every year pro- 
vides a convenient opportunity for the Prior's disappearance, the; more 
so as such a change of function carries no implication at all of degradation. 
However, if the monk should try in consequence, in a very human spirit 
of revenge, to foment discord in the community, and if he do not abide 
in his place, obedient and peaceable, then he must even be expelled 
from the monastery: etiam de monasterio expellatur. 

But in a matter where the Abbot may go to excess, allowing himself 
to be led by jealousy, resentment, or passion, St. Benedict bids him 
remember that he shall have to render an account to God of all his 
decisions. There is nothing which will more effectively stifle in its 
origin every evil flame that may be kindled in his heart. 

1 D. CALMET gives five reasons to prove that our Holy Father could, without vanity 
or presumption, speak of the " holy Rule." As BOHERIUS observes, these words, although 
ill understood, are really insufficient ground for denying to St. Benedict the authorship 
of this chapter, or even of the whole Rule, as some writers have featured to do. 




CHAPTER LXVI 
OF THE PORTER OF THE MONASTERT 

internal order and peace of the monastery are only secure if its 
relations with the outside world are controlled and regulated with 
vigilance. So our Holy Father rounds off this portion of the 
Rule by devoting a few lines to the porter. The office has long 
been, and that almost everywhere, a most humble one, being handed 
over to lay brothers or servants: yet the ancients, as we shall see, viewed 
it in a very different way. The purpose of once more commending and 
safeguarding monastic enclosure and stability inspires also the second 
portion of this chapter, though it seems at first so disconnected. 
St. Benedict was led to make the connection by the very source from 
which he has drawn nearly all the points of this chapter: the seventeenth 
chapter of Rufinus's History of Monks. 1 

DE OSTIARIO MONASTERII. Ad At the gate of the monastery let 

portam monasterii ponatur senex there be placed a wise old man, who 

sapiens, qui sciat accipere responsum knows how to give and receive an 

et reddere, cujus maturitas eum non answer, and whose ripeness of years 

sinat vagari. Qui portariua cellam suffers him not to wander. This 

debethaberejuxta portam, utvenientes porter ought to have his cell near 

semper praesentem inveniant a quo the gate, so that they who come may 

responsum accipiant. Et mox ut ali- always find someone at hand to give 

quis pulsaverit aut pauper clamaverit, them an answer. As soon as anyone 

" Deo gratias " respondeat, aut bene- shall knock, or a poor man call to him, 

dicat; et cum omni mansuetudine let him answer, "Deo gratias," or 

timoris Dei reddat responsum festi- bid God bless him, and then with 

nanter, cum fervore caritatis. Qui all gentleness of the fear of God, let 

portarius, si indiget solatio, juniorem him answer quickly in the fervour 

fratrem accipiat. of charity. If the porter need solace, 

let him have with him one of the 

younger brethren. 

We should notice that our Holy Father speaks of the gate of the 
monastery in the singular. It is in fact traditional 2 that one gate only 

1 Treating of the monastery of Abbot Isidore, in the Thebaid: Intrinseeus putei 
plures, borti irrigui, omnium quoque pomorum arborumque parodist, et qutecumque neces- 
taria usibus er.ant sufficienter, immo et abundanter proviso; ab hoc ut nulli monaeborum 
babitantium intrinsecus, necessitas ulla fieret exeundi foras ad aliquid requirendum. 
Senior quidam, vir gravis t et de primis electus, adjanuam sedens, hoc babebat officii ut 
adventantes ea lege suscipiat, qua ingressi ultra non extant. . . . Hie ergo senior in janua t 
ubi ipse commanet, adbarentem stbi babebat bospitalem cellulam, in qua adventantes 
bospttio reeipiat et omni bumanitate refoveat (Vita Patrum, II., xvii. ROSWXYO, 
pp. 475-476). , In chap, ii., RUFINTIS had written: Plantavit (Hor) bane silvam, ut ibi 
jratres, quos inibi congregare cupiebat, non baberent necessitatem iigni gratia longius 
evagandt (ROSWEYO, p. 457).. 

* The I33rd Novel of JUSTINIAN (c. i: Collatio IX., tit. XVI.) legislated thus: 
Volumus . . . non plurimos esse in monasterium ingressusjed unum, aut seeundumfortej 
et adstarejanua viros senes et eastos et testimonii bom ex omnibus^ qui quidem neque reveren* 
dissimis monacbis toncedant sine abbatis voluntote exire monastenum. ., , . Sitque cau- 
tiiiima maceria munitum monasterium, ut nuttus exitus aliunde nisi per januas sit. 



464 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

apart from another generally provided for domestic traffic should 
give access to the monastery; and this to secure our enclosure. For the 
custody of this gate, the Rule institutes a porter. He is not a con- 
cierge (hall-porter), and should have neither his name nor his ways. 
St. Benedict would not have the first-comer appointed to the office. 
At three points does the monastery come into contact with the outside 
world: at guest-house, gate, and parlour. The monastic parlours are 
habitually used by no one except those brethren whose parents or friends 
live rather near the monastery and make frequent visits. Of the special 
dangers of the guest-master we spoke in commenting on Chapter LIU. ; 
the same observations should be made again in reference to the porter, 
whose function also is a very delicate one. 

He is the first to come into contact with guests. In ancient times 
he sometimes did duty for guest-master as well. 1 Many others besides 
guests present themselves at the gate-house : dependents of the monastery, 
tourists, penitents, pilgrims, and finally the poor; and the porter is often 
entrusted with the distribution of alms to the needy. 2 In a large 
monastery his office is never a sinecure, and provides abundant occasions 
for mortification and self -suppression. A happy disposition is not 
enough: a man must have supernatural virtue, in order to be affable 
always and always good-humoured, to know how to be silent and how 
to speak at the right time. If the porter has not got a real love of silence, 
his cell will be nothing but a place of idle gossip and tittle-tattle. All 
the news of the outside world will be reported there, and the monks, 
it may be, will come there to get it; from there, too, will be divulged 
certain details, more or less distorted, of the life within. God forbid 
that the porter should ever make himself an irregular intermediary 
between the monastery and the world. Moreover, he should not lack 
tact or discernment, so that he may know at once with whom he is 
dealing, and divine how he ought to treat individuals and give 
appropriate attention to all: he should be "a wise old man, who 
knows how to give and receive an answer." The word-translated 
" answer'" (rtsponsum) often meant, in the language of the time, some 
business affair or message,- a " commission," as we say commonly. 8 

The age of the porter is not unimportant. If he be too old, his task 
may easily become intolerable to him, and he may be tempted to get 
rid too summarily of those who interrupt his reading or quiet. If he 
be too young he does not command respect and consideration; he 
cannot well distinguish between those who should be received and those 
whom he should dismiss. Youthful impulsiveness may lead him abroad ; 
he opens the gate for others and he may, if he be not over-conscientious, 

1 CASSIAN wrote of the postulant: Deputatur seniori, qui searsum baud longe a vesti- 
bule monasterii commanens babet curam feregrinorum atque advenientium deputatam eisque 
omncm diligentiam susceptionis et bumanitatis inpendit (/*;., IV., vii.). 

* Such was the case at Citeaux (according to chap. cxx. of the Use), at Bursfeld, etc. 

3 In Chapter LJ. St. Benedict wrote: Prater qui pro quovis response proficiscitur. ... 
And ST. GREGORY THE GREAT: Mas etenim eelleefuit, ut quotient ad rcsponsum aliquod 
egrederentur fratres ... (Dial., 1. II., c. xii.). Cf. Du CANGE, Glossarium. 



Of the Porter of the Monastery 465 

open it for himself, and persuade himself that he needs a little excursion 
into the neighbouring country, whether for the enlargement of his life 
or even for the sake of his prayers. A taste for reading and prayer, 
.combined with some small manual task, will help the porter to love 
perfect enclosure. 1 Very many visitors are able to judge the monastery 
only from the reception that they receive at the gate-house : which is a 
further reason why everything there should be worthy and edifying. 

The commentators discuss whether our Holy Father really required 
an "old" man; the majority think so, and many pieces of historical 
evidence seem to support their view; especially as St. Benedict himself 
prescribes that the porter should be granted as assistant " a younger 
brother." But we may be content with simple maturity, of years and 
of prudence. Among the Fathers of the East, the porter was sometimes 
one of the few priests of the establishment. Everywhere, and for all 
the reasons which we have mentioned the safety of the monastery, its 
good name, and the edification of strangers this office was regarded 
as one of the principal ones; we should remember that the Church 
instituted a special order of clerics to guard the doors of her temples. 
The Council of Aix-la-Chapelle (A.D. 817) required well-instructed 
brethren to be chosen. And Calmet suggests that to leave this office 
to laymen is an indication of a lessening of the monastic sense. But this, 
perhaps, is rather severe. Peter the Venerable, in his controversy with 
Clteaux, confessed that he did not see the good of. fixing a monk at the 
gate-house. In a sense, he said, there were no gates at Cluny, for the 
gates of the ; monastery were almost always open to all comers. Sufficient, 
then, that an " honest servant " should guard them at the times when 
they should be closed. 2 The Cistercians placed a choir monk and a 
lay brother in this office. Let us desire to be able to do the same in our 
monasteries. 

The porter should have his cell quite close to the gate : that is neces- 
sary. He is not fastened there with a chain, as was the practice of the 
Romans; but charity and prudence require that he should be faithful 
to his post, so that those who come may always find someone to answer 
them and with whom they may deal: a quo responsum accipiant. It is 
probable that, in St. Benedict's arrangement, the porter said certain 
parts of the Office and made his " sacred reading " in his cell; but, since 
the gate remained closed the whole night and even at certain times of 
the day perhaps at meal-times, for instance the porter was not 
completely excluded from conventual exercises. 3 Moreover, our Holy 

1 The Regula cujusdam ad virgines draws a beautiful portrait of nuns charged with 
the duty of guarding the door: . . . Mtate senili; quibus mundus silet; qute jam ex 
prasentibus pompis nibil desiderent; sed in toto cordis ajfectu Creatori inbeerentes singula 
dicant: mibi autem adbeerere Deo bonum est, ponere in Deo spent meant, . . . Sint mentis 
tua statu firmissimeg, ut Domino cum Propbeta orando dicant: Averte oculos nostros ne 
videant vanitatcm. . . . Tale semper supervenientibus ostendant exemplum, ut et forts ab 
extraneis nomen Domini glorificetur, . . . et intus a consodalibus suis mercedis prteparent 
lucra, dum omnium viceforis gerent cur am (iii.). 

8 Epist., 1. 1., Ep. XXVIII. P.L., CLXXXIX., 134. 

8 Cf. Reg Magistri) xpy, 

30 



466 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

Father allows him as assistant a younger brother, who would do his 
behests and replace him at need, but without relieving him of responsi- 
bility, for he remains in charge. 

The Rule enters next into some details with regard to the work of 
the porter. When anyone knocks, or when a poor man, seeking nothing 
else but an alms, cries out to announce his presence, the porter must, 
without the least delay, answer Deo gratia* or bless him. We have said, 
in Chapter LXIII., what should be understood by this blessing. And we 
do not think there is reason to enquire, or that it is even possible to 
ascertain, whether the formula Deo gratias was reserved to the poor, 
while the blessing was kept for the rich, or vice versa. 1 But what should 
be noted is the counsel to " answer " with all possible sweetness, with 
all the gentleness that tomes of the fear of God, and at the same time 
with all the zeal and holy fervour of charity. It is so natural for people 
who are harassed and hurried to be impatient, and, in the current phrase, 
to send everyone packing. That he may ever at need command the 
secret of this tranquil haste, the porter must remember that God Him- 
self lies concealed in the person of the guest. And if there come one 
who is not expected, or who seems an intruder, he should receive the 
same loving welcome, in memory of St. Gregory's thirteenth pauper 
or St. Martin's beggar. 

Monasterium autem si fieri potest, The monastery, if it be possible, 
ita debet construi, ut omnia necemria, ought to be so constructed that all 
id est, aqua, molendinum, hortus, pis- things necessary, such as water, a mill, 
trinum, vel artes di versa; intra monas- . a garden, a bakery, and the various 
terium exerceantur, ut non sit neces- crafts may be contained within it; so 
litas monachis vagandi for as; quia that there may be no need for the 
omnino non expedit animabus eorum. monks to go abroad, for this is alto- 
gether inexpedient for their souls. 

We have pointed out the connection, over and above their common 
origin, between.this ordinance and those which precede: St. Benedict's 
constant anxiety is to emphasize the separation of his monks from the 
world, and to guarantee their enclosure and stability. It is wholly 
unsuitable and dangerous for monks to roam here and there, to walk 
abroad, and in general to go out without permission, or with a permission 
which has been extorted and is then extended. The world is not a 
healthy place for us; our souls are ill at ease in it ; we are no longer suited 
to sojourn there without danger. That a man should feel a need of 
distraction, of escaping observance and the common life, would be a very 
bad omen. And self-indulgence never lacks excuses; it can clothe itself 
in most edifying forms: it will allege work. for souls, or sacred studies, 
or charity, or precious bodily health. But our Holy Father does not 
answer for the perseverance and sanctity of souls except they remain 
hidden in their monastery. He even desires that the monastery should 
be self-sufficing and so equipped that there is nothing wanting of the 
things necessary for life and work. Yet he recognizes that this is not 

1 Some manuscripts read aut Benedic. 



Of the Porter of the Monastery 467 

always possible. The circumstances of a Mont St. Michel, for instance, 
do not lend themselves well to St. Benedict's intention; and the hills 
which, according to the old saying, 1 he loved so well, were not always, 
except by miracle, provided with a water-supply. 2 

The enumeration of things " necessary " does not, it is needless to 
say, pretend to be exhaustive; St. Benedict only mentions the essentials: 
water, a mill, 8 a garden, a bakery, 4 and finally the crafts and various 
works (see Chapter LVIL). We should note in passing that our Holy 
Father recommends occupations and enterprises in so far as they are 
necessary to the conventual life, and not as great commercial under- 
takings. It would seem, too, that he does not care to see his monks go 
to work far off, since he wishes to have the garden in the very enclosure. 

Therefore the complete monastery resembles a city. This was the 
case with many of the monasteries of the Thebaid, where the different 
trades occupied each their own quarter. In the West, after St. Bene- 
dict's time, certain great abbeys were admirably organized, and-trairied.^, 
a still greater variety of craftsmen and artists. But, under pain of 
extending the commentary immoderately, we must leave all these 
questions to the historian of monasticism. 

Hanc autem Regulam saepius vo- And we wish this Rule to be 
lumus in congregatione legi, ne quis frequently read in the community, 
fratrum de ignorantia se eicuset. that none of the brethren may excuse 

himself on the ground of ignorance. 

We may regard this sentence as the conclusion of a first redaction 
of the Rule; although, according to the view which tends to -prevail, 
neither history, nor the intrinsic evidence of the manuscripts, really 
discloses the existence of two primitive and different texts. But it 
remains highly probable that the Rule was not composed in a single 
effort. 

Our Holy Father enjoins that the code of the monastic life should 
be read very often in public, so that no one may excuse his laxity on the 
ground of ignorance or a treacherous memory. It is another example of 
St. Benedict's determination to have done with all the disorders pro- 
duced in so many monasteries by the vagueness, or even the absence, 
of written rules. We are faithful to St. Benedict's precept, for his 
Rule is read several times to the novices, and is read to all, in Latin 
or in the vernacular, at Prime and at the evening meal. 5 

1 Bertiardus valley mantes Benedictus amabat, 
Oppida Franciscus, celebres Dominion urbes. 

* Read chap. v. of the Life of St. Benedict (S. GREG. M., Dial., 1. II.). 

8 D. CAIMKT has quite a little dissertation on mills. 

''* D. BUTLER'S edition omits pistrinum. See the discussions of the commentators 
on the exact meaning of this word. 

5 This reading at Prime is already prescribed by the Council of Aiz-la-Chapelle 
of 817 (cap. Ixix.). The reading in the refectory is appointed in the Rule of the Master 
(xxiv.). 



CHAPTER LXV1I 
OF BRETHREN WHO ARE SENT ON A JOURNET 

THERE is a connection between the sixty-sixth chapter and the 
first of those which careful critics regard as later additions. Our 
Holy Father foresees that it will sometimes be necessary for monks 
to leave their actual enclosure and go on a journey; but even then 
he would have them surrounded and protected by a spiritual enclosure, 
so that the monastery may, as it were, accompany them continually. 
That is the purpose which dictates all the arrangements of this chapter; 
their character and number show how much St. Benedict feared his 
sons going abroad, even though they did so in quite, regular fashion. He 
has spoken already, in Chapters L. and LI., of monks on a journey, but 
briefly and only to remind us of their obligations in the matter of the 
Divine Office and of meals; in Chapter LV. their clothing was dealt 
with; but here the point of view is different. We should observe, 
finally, that the chapter deals with monks who are undertaking a real 
journey, and not with those who are absent only for a few hours. 

DE FRATRIBUS IN VIA DiRECTis. Let the brethren who are about to 

Dirigendi fratres in via, omnium fra- be sent on a journey commend them- 

trum vel Abbatis oration! se com- selves to the prayers of all the brethren 

mendent: et semper ad orationem and of the Abbot; and always, at the 

ultimam operis Dei commemoratio last prayer of the Work of God, let 

omnium absentium fiat. a commemoration be made of all the 

absent. 

St. Benedict, therefore, admits that a monk may undertake a journey, 
without thereby violating his vow of stability. Yet he must be sent 
according to rule : dirigendus. The spiritual or financial interests of the 
. monastery, the care of souls, messages to be taken to princes, bishops, 
or abbots, attendance at councils, and, in exceptional cases, a visit to 
one's family: these are some of the motives which may induce the Abbot 
to impose this hard obedience. 1 Even nowadays, when journeys are 
accomplished more rapidly, a man with the monastic spirit should never 
solicit, still less insistently claim, the favour of returning to his home 
perhaps periodically or of passing some weeks near a well-stocked 
library. But certain awkward situations should be laid before the 
Abbot as a matter of filial duty: his prudence shall decide. 

Ordinarily, the Abbot gives the departing monk one or more com- 
panions : this is the best of safeguards, and thus community life is not 
wholly abandoned. Although St. Benedict says nothing of this custom 
(the plural " brethren " perhaps suggests it), it is probable that it 
existed in his monastery, as it did among the Fathers of the East. 2 The 

1 Cf. HJEFTEN, 1. XL, tract, iv., hinerarium. 

8 Nullus solus f eras mittatur ad aliquod negotiant, nisi juncto ei altero (S. PACH., 
Reg., Ivi.). Cf. S. MACAR., Reg., xxii. S. BASIL., Reg. /iw., xxxix. ST. GREGORY THE 

468 



Of Brethren 'who are sent on a journey 469 

Council of Aix-la-Chapelle (A.D. 817) prescribed that a monk oh a journey 
should always have a companion. 

Before going, the brethren recommended themselves to the prayers 
of all and of the Abbot. Some commentators (Bernard of Monte 
Cassino and Boherius) regard the particle vel in this place as disjunctive : 
St. Benedict, they say, foresees the case where a monk might have to 
quit the monastery without being able to appear before the assembled 
community, and then the prayer and blessing of the Abbot are to 
suffice. 1 The prayers of the community are asked in the oratory, at a 
fitting time. 2 

Thus armed and fortified they set out. As we said in Chapter L., they 
keep all the monastic observances that they can. Especially are they 
faithful to the Divine Office and to their reading* 8 The community, on 
its part, never fails to remember absent brethren at the end of each Hour. 
Several commentators think that St. Benedict means only the prayer 
at the end of the whole Office that is, the one which ends Compline 
since he does not mention all the canonical Hours expressly, as he does 
presently when dealing with the return. One may reply that in the 
latter passage St. Benedict uses the expression " the ending of the Work 
of God " for the conclusion of each Hour : peromnes canonicas Horas, dum 
expletur Opus Dei} why should he have given a different sense to a quite 
analogous phrase ? et semper ad orationem ultimam Operis Dei. How- 
ever, general and ancient monastic usage is sufficient to justify our inter- 
pretation. 4 These touching prayers for absent brethren were formerly 
of some length. Those given by Smaragdus begin with the words: 
Oremus profratribus nostris absentibus; they comprise a series of short 
versicles with their responses, and then the fiftieth psalm. The Breviary 
of Paul V. selected a very much shortened formula, but one which is still 
attractive, and, if said with faith, sufficient. 

GREAT sets down among the reasons which made him refuse to confirm the election of 
Abbot Constantius, that this monk had made a journey alone: Epist., 1. XII., Ep. 
XXIV. P.Z., LXXVIL, 1233; M.G.H. :Epist., ML, p. 35 1. 

1 The Abbot's blessing was, moreover, necessary always, both on setting out and on 
returning: several passages in the Life of St. Benedict allude to it (S. GREG. M., Dial., 
1. II.). See, for instance, chaps, xii., xrii., xxiv. : in this last passage is told the 
story of the young monk who loved his parents too much, and going to see them with- 
out having obtained a blessing, died that same day. 

* The Gregorian Sacramentary has three special prayers for this occasion; they are 
quoted by HJEFTEN (1. XI., tract, iv., disq. iii.) along with those also which are given by 
Smaragdus. The one we recite occurs already in the Customs of Cluny (1. III., c. v.) and 
in the Constitutions of Hirscbau (1. II., c. xviii.). 

When travellers were to return the same day or after a few days, the blessing and 
short prayer of the superior usually sufficed (cf. H.XFTEN, loc. '/.). In actual fact, in 
our Congregation, we do not ask for prayers in the oratory unless the absence has to 
extend beyond a week; but, every time that we leave enclosure, we should, both going 
and returning, ask the superior's blessing and pray for a moment in the church. 

* Codiculum modicum cum aliquibus lectionibus de monasterio secum portet, ut quavis 
bora in via repausaverit, aliquantulum tamen legat, etc. (Reg- Magistri, Ivii.). 

4 We have recalled the fact before (p. 156), that the ancient services ordinarily ended 
with prayers for all the needs of the faithful. 



47 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

Revertentes autem de via fratres, Let the brethren that return from 
ipodiequoredeunt,peromnescanoni- " a journey, on the very day that they 
cas Horas, dum expletur opus Dei, come back, lie prostrate on the floor 
prostrati solo oratorii ab omnibus of the oratory at all the canonical 
petant orationem propter excessus, Hours at the ending of the Work of 
ne quid forte subripuerit in via visus, God, and beg the prayers of all on 
aut auditus malae rei, aut otiosi ser- account of their transgressions, if 
monis. Nee praesumat quisquam aliis perchance they should have seen or 
referre quaecumque foris monasterium heard, anything evil on their journey 
viderit ant audierit, quia plurima or have fallen into idle talk. And let 
destructio est. Quod si quis prae- no one presume to tell others what he 
sumpserit, vindictae regular! subjaceat. may have seen or heard outside the 

monastery, for thence comes manifold 
destruction. If anyone shall so pre- 
sume let him be subjected to the 
punishment of the Rule. 

On the very day of their return, without any delay, the brethren 
must prostrate themselves on the floor of the oratory, at the end of 
each Hour, b.egging thus the prayers of all. The custom has been 
established of requiring this, once for all, at the end of the first canonical 
Hour that follows their return. The form used by us appears to be 
identical with that used at Cluny and Hirschau. 1 These prayers are a 
sort of sacramental, designed for the removal of all negligences and all 
faults into which eyes, ears, or tongue may have been surprised. Paul 
the Deacon and Hildemar note that we are dealing here chiefly and solely 
with those faults of surprise into which our weakness falls almost 
inevitably, and that such is the meaning suggested by the words excessus 
and subri-pverit; graver faults, or faults of a different kind, would require, 
they say, to be confessed to the Abbot. 2 Our Holy Father's intention 
is to purify the spirit, heart, and senses of the monk from all the worldly 
impressions which he may have gathered in his own despite. As with 
the heavenly Jerusalem, no defilement may penetrate into the precincts 
of the monastic " Vision of Peace." 

For the same reason, those who return from a journey shall spare their 
brethren what the Rule endeavours to deliver them from for themselves. 
St. Benedict does not forbid the recital of everything seen or heard: for 
why not tell of edifying matters, 8 or of certain harmless details ? What 
he requires is that a man should not relate at random and thoughtlessly 
all that he has observed: queecumque; for, says he, " thence comes mani- 
fold destruction " (destructio, the opposite of tsdificatio). Indiscreet 
or too circumstantial narratives might awaken memories here and there, 
might arouse interests, inspire regrets, suggest little romances, resuscitate 

1 Constit, Hirsaug., 1. II., c. six. 

* Cf. S. BASIL., Reg.fus.j xliv.: Quibus permittendts tint peregrinationes et quomodo t 
ubi redierintj sint interrogandi. 

8 As is formally permitted by the Regula Tarnatensis (ii.). St. Benedict is quoting 
ST. PACHOMIUS: Et omnino quidquid foris gesserint et audierint, in monasterio narrare non 
poterunt. Si quis ambulaverit in via, vel havigaverit, aut operates fuerit forts, non loqua- 
tur in monasterio qua ibi geri viderit (Ivii., Ixxxvi.). 



Of Brethren who are sent on a Journey 471 

matters to which we are dead, and which, by God's help, are dead to 
us: "The world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." It is 
always better to keep on this side of what we think is the proper line, 
and to banish any matter which might be such as to trouble a soul, 
or even to disturb a brother's vocation. 

St. Benedict lays down a severe penalty against such as dare to 
infringe this point of rule; they shall be subjected to the regular dis- 
cipline. 

Similiter, et qui presumpserit He shall undergo a like penalty who 
claustra monasterii egredi, vel quo- presumes to leave the enclosure of the 
cumque ire, vel quidpiam quamvis monastery and go anywhere or do 
parvum sine Abbatis jussione facere. anything, however small, without 

permission of the Abbot. 

Nothing would be left, of enclosure or stability if every individual 
had the right to weigh the Treasons for and against his going out, for his 
turning this way or that in the course of a journey, or for undertaking 
any particular line of action. That is the reason why our Holy Father, 
in ending the chapter, reminds us that the Abbot's command or per- 
mission is designed for the prevention of all uncertainty, and is requisite 
so that the monk's conscience may rest in full security; moreover, the 
punishments of regular discipline are decreed against anyone who should 
leave the monastery without permission, turn his steps in any direction 
whatever, or do anything at all, though very trifling, outsidethe enclosure. 1 
The parts of this sentence should be taken together, not disjunctively. 
Our Holy Father, always judicious and discreet, could not have threatened 
with so severe punishment a monk who should do anything irregularly, 
however trifling it might be, within the monastery; and how, too, could 
such an ordinance suit the context? Nor does the sentence concern 
one who should wander and go anywhere at all, without permission, in 
the monastery. Undoubtedly, as Smaragdus observed, St. Benedict 
seems in this place to have been inspired by one of St. Pachomius's rules 2 
and by a passage in Cassian, 3 both of which imply the meaning which 
we reject (less the penalties) ; but our Holy Father sometimes modifies 
considerably the sources which he uses. 

1 ST. BASIL had asked : An conveniat aliquo abire, moderatore non prius eommonefacto f 
(Reg. brev., CMC.). 

* Nullus neque exeundi in agrum, neque ambulandi in motuuterio, neque extra murum 
monasterii foras babeatfacultaum y nisi interrogaveritprapositumet tile c0iurerif (Ixxxiv.). 
IV., x. 



CHAPTER LXV1II 

IF A BROTHER BE COMMANDED TO DO 
IMPOSSIBILITIES 



^THHERE i& nothing in the Rule which does not deserve our greatest 

I veneration : yet, these last pages, written by our Holy Father in 

I the fulness of his years, of his knowledge of souls, and of his sanctity, 

-*- resemble a spiritual testament, and have for us a savour of eternity. 

They are transfused with the brightness of God and impregnated with 

His sweetness. 

Once more the subject is obedience. In the very Prologue our 
Holy Father defined the monastic life as a glorious labour of obedience: 
" That you may return by the labour of obedience to Him from whom 
you departed through the sloth of disobedience "; our spiritual armour, 
in all its parts, is called obedience: " Who renouncing your own. will, 
do take up the strong and bright arms of obedience." The fifth chapter 
treats expressly of obedience and delineates it as above all else eager and 
joyous. The seventh chapter, in its first degrees of humility, perhaps 
even in all, really give us nothing but degrees of obedience. St. Benedict 
invokes obedience unceasingly, even as St. Francis of Assisi sang of 
poverty. And, confronted with this insistence, we are tempted to say: . 
" Father, why always repeat the same thing ?" Undoubtedly he would 
answer us with St. John : " Little children, it is the Lord's command, 
and, if it be done, all is done." We must have obedience always, 
obedience in all matters, obedience to all, and, when necessary, heroic 
obedience. St. Benedict has revealed his secret to us, has entrusted 
us with his ideal; he would have a monk to be not merely obedient, 
but a personification of obedience, like Him, by Him and in Him, who 
was *'- made obedient even unto death." 

We may enquire, before commencing the commentary, whether any 
special motive led our Holy Father to treat this question of heroic 
obedience immediately after the sixtyrseventh chapter rather than else- 
where. We believe that here again, as in the chapter on the porter, 
this order of treatment was suggested to him by the source which he 
utilized: the tenth chapter of the fourth book of Cassian's Institutions. 1 

Si FRATRI IMPOSSIBILIA iNjuNGAN- If on any brother there be laid 
TUR. Si cui fratri all qua forte gravia commands that are hard and impos- 

1 Post bac tanta observantia obedientia regula custoditur, ut junior esabsqueprapositi 
tui scientia velpermissu non solum non audeant cella progredi, sed ne ipsi quidem communi 
ac naturali necessitati satisfacere sua auctoritate prasumant (we recognize here the con- 
clusion of our Chapter LXVII.; and here are words which resemble the succeeding 
chapter): sicque universa complere, queecumque fuerint ab eo pracepta, tamquam si ex Deo 
sint calitus edita, sine ulla discussions festinant, ut nonnunquam etiam impossibilia sibimet 
imperata ea fide ac devotions suscipiant, ut tola -virtu te ac sine ulla cordis beesitatione 
perficere ea et consummare nitantur et ne impossibilitatetn quidem preecepti pro senioris 
reverentia metiantur. St. Benedict may have been thinking also of ST. BASIL, Reg. 
contr., bux., Ixxxii. Cf. Reg. f us., xxviii. 

47* 



If a Brother be Commanded to do Impossibilities 473 

aut impossibilia ihjunguntur, suscipiat sible, let him receive the order of his 
quidem jubentis imperium cum omni superior with all meekness and obe- 
mansuetudine et obedientia. dience. 

Commands that are hard and impossible ? What becomes of the 
much-vaunted discretion of the Benedictine Rule ? And what of 
St. Benedict's promise, in the Prologue, to enjoin nothing beyond 
ordinary human capacity: " we hope to order nothing that is harsh or 
rigorous" ? No, he is not self-contradictory. He does not, we are sure, 
adopt those Eastern practices though often venerable and suggestive 
which aimed at breaking self-will by tasks of a violently paradoxical and 
contradictory character. Nothing in the Rule of St. Benedict, or in his 
life, permits us to assimilate the " impossibilia " of which he is thinking 
to the impossibilia mentioned by Cassian; the same expression often 
signifies very different realities. The miracle of St. Maurus walking 
on the water is assuredly' an exceptional event; and perhaps, too, our 
Holy Father at first merely sent him to help the boy Placid: then his 
obedience provoked the miracle. 

St. Benedict may be thinking of the case of a command which is 
scarcely to be fulfilled by ordinary methods, or even by merely human 
power; but he is especially concerned with the attitude of those people 
who, when they receive a command, are so ready to declare it impossible. 
The Abbot may reflect and contrive and calculate, yet this or that monk, 
to whom the office of cellarer, or infirmarian, or reader, is entrusted, will 
in all good faith allege his incapacity. So sweet is it to have no responsi- 
bility, to have no duties except one's prayers and studies. So pleasant 
is it to be a mere passenger on the ship, and not to be obliged to lend 
a hand in its working. Therefore, by a species of delusion which is only 
too natural, when authority with all kindliness makes certain brethren 
emerge from their quiet, and obliges them tb undertake some task for 
the community, their first impulse is to entrench themselves in their 
incapacity. There is an exact parallel to their attitude in the amusing 
behaviour of the raven, when our Holy Father bade it carry off the 
poisoned loaf. " Then the raven, opening its mouth and stretching 
out its wings, began to flutter round about the loaf and to croak, as if 
it wished to express that it desired to obey and yet could not fulfil the 
command." 1 

In face of this state of trepidation St. Benedict's action is very 
fatherly; he says to his monk: " You are convinced that the command 
is hard, that it is impossible for you to fulfil it ? That may be true, but 
I shall not discuss your estimate. Let it be agreed between us that 
the command is superhuman; perhaps it is something like that raising 
of the dead to life which the good peasant of Cassinum imposed on me 
one day. 2 But, after all, there are graces of state and graces of office : 

1 S. GREG. M., Dial., 1. II., c. viii. 

* Quid vultis oner a nobis imponere, quce nan possutnus par tare f exclaimed St. Benedict 
at first. But presently he worked the miracle, in all simplicity of faith (S. GREG. M., 
Dial., 1. II., c. xxxii.). 



474 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

God helps us to carry that burden which He has Himself put upon us. 
Moreover, many things seem impossible only because we have not 
resolutely attempted them. Only try, and you will soon find your feet ; 
if you do not try, you never will. Perhaps, too, your Abbot wishes to 
make you show your mettle and to compel you to develop by effort. 
Remember the calling of Moses, of Isaias, of Jonas, of Amos, and of 
St. John the Baptist." 

Then, in the spirit of great gentleness and obedience (cum omni man- 
suetudine et obedientia), the religious shall accept the command. Thus 
does one learn to walk on the water, as did St. Maurus. How often 
does it not happen that God suddenly removes all difficulties, thanks to 
the joyous eagerness of our obedience! The women, who we^nt to 
Our Lord's tomb, said doubtingly as they went: " Who shall roll, us 
back the stone from the door of the sepulchre ?" Yet they came there 
and the great stone was removed. " And looking they saw the stone 
rolled back; for it was very great." 

Quod si omnino virium suamm But if he sees that the burden 

viderit pondus ezcedere, impossibili- altogether exceeds his strength, let 

tatis suae causas ei qui sibi praeest him lay before his superior the reasons 

patienter et opportune suggerat, non of his incapacity patiently and in due 

superbiendo, aut resistendo, vel contra- season, without showing pride, or 

dicendo. resistance, or contradictoriness. 

But if, after a generous and loyal attempt, you find that you are 
certainly not equal to the task, do not sulk, or murmur, or complain 
to your brethren. Go, seek your Abbot, and gently, at the fitting time, 
lay before him the reasons of your failure, without pride, rebellion, or 
contentiousness. Endeavour to treat the matter as though it concerned 
another and not yourself, as a case for which you are merely supplying 
the details (suggerat). " In due season," adds St. Benedict; and in fact 
we must know how to wait for the proper time, when we are calm, when 
we know that our superior is so also ; we must likewise choose a favourable 
place: nor is this diplomacy and deceit, but mere' prudence and charity. 
And, in our entreatyitself, let us avoid all that savours of haughty demand, 
of passionateness, or of an unyielding obstinacy. Moreover, let us, 
on principle, never ask for a permission but with perfect liberty of 
spirit and that supernatural disinterestedness which is prepared to 
accept refusal. We belong wholly to obedience; obedience alone 
guarantees us against delusion; obedience is the guardian angel of our 
monastic life: " For what have I in heaven ? And besides thee what 
do I desire upon earth ? . . . Thou art the God of my heart, and the 
God that is my portion for ever " (Ps. Izzii. 25-26). 

Quod si post suggestionem suam in If, however, after these represen- 
sua sententia prioris imperium perdura- tations, the superior still persist in his 
verit, sciat junior ita sibi expedire, command, let the subject know that 
et ex caritate confidens de adjutorio this is expedient for him, and let him 
Dei, obediat. . obey out of love, trusting in the help 

of God. 



If a Brother be Commanded to do Impossibilities 475 

Though our representations may have been couched in the best 
terms possible and supported by the wisest of reasons, it may happen 
that the superior persists in his command. That is his business. His 
purpose may be to try or to constrain : he has a perfect right to do so, 
especially when it is a matter of imposing certain more difficult offices, 
such, for instance, as the government of a community. In such a case 
the monk must cease to consider the alleged insurmountable difficulties 
which he thinks he perceives; he must convince himself that it is proper 
for him to act thus, that it is good for him to obey even to the borders 
of absurdity. Souls, if they would mount high, have need to empty 
themselves thus. " Do you wish it, my Lord and my God ? Then it 
is my wish also. Then all is simple, all is easy for me. I have put my 
hope in You : and You have promised Your grace to all those who trust 
in You." That is the disposition which our Holy Father St. Benedict 
ventures to require of us. It is not the disposition of the child who 
obeys for fear of the rod, nor of the man who resigns himself to some- 
thing because he cannot do otherwise; but a tranquil, intelligent 
adhesion, submissiveness springing from love, a profound act of faith, 
hope, and charity: "Let him know that this is expedient for him, and 
let him obey in love, trusting in the help of God." If God's purpose 
is merely to prove the quality of our obedience, an angel will come at 
the right moment, as the angel came to Abraham. Without explaining 
his meaning further, our Holy Father bids us count on God. 

And probably a miracle will not be necessary to relieve our trouble. 
For, as we may repeat, the incapacity of men often arises from sloth or 
pusillanimity. They too often forget the simple truth that if a thing 
is to get done we must do it. And when we have spent long hours in 
contemplating, in a spirit of false and foolish self-pity, the real or pre- 
tended difficulties of our duty, we have not changed the reality of things 
one whit: our duty is always our duty, and the will of God abides: we 
have only succeeded in weakening ourselves. " Fortune favours the 
brave " t in this case fortune is the grace of God. 



CHAPTER LXIX 

THAt MONKS PRESUME NOT TO DEFEND ONE 

ANOTHER 

rHAPTERS LXVIII. to LXXI. seem to have a common purpos 
viz., to destroy selfishness at the root, to pursue it into its most 
secret hiding-places, and therefore to regulate precisely our charity 
^^ towards God and our brethren. They complete the fifth and 
seventh chapters. St. Benedict here signalizes some special circumstances 
of the monastic life wherein self is more tempted to assertion. A man 
may discuss the feasibility of commands (LXVIII.) ; he may without 
cause make himself the defender or the judge of his brethren (LXIX., 
' LXX.) ; he may reject that obedience which, in varying degrees, each 
individual owes to all (LXXI.): all these tendencies originate in an 
exaggeration of the self. 

UT IN MONASTERIO NGN PRIEST;- The greatest care must be taken 

MAT ALTER ALTERUM DEFENDERS. Sum- that no one in the monastery presume 

mopere praecavendum cst, ne quavis for any reason to defend another, or to 

occasione prassumat alter alterum take his part, even though they be 

defendefe monachum in xnonasterio, joined by some near tie of kinship, 

aut quasi tueri, etiamsi qualibet con- Let not the monks presume to do this 

sanguinitatis propinquitate jungantur. in any way whatsoever, because the 

Nee quolibet modo id a monachis most grievous occasion of scandals may 

praesumatur, quia exinde gravissima arise therefrom. If anyone transgress 

occasio scandalorum oriri potest. this rule, let him be very severely 

Quod si quis haec transgressus fuerit, punished, 
acrius coerceatur. 

Here we have a thing which may occur in the best-regulated com- 
munity. Suppose two brothers, or two cousins, or an uncle and nephew, 
are monks together ; the ties of blood draw them to each other, and there 
is danger that natural affection, always blind, should close their eyes to 
very real defects and lead them to excuse each other. Superiors can 
never be careful enough in their treatment of those we love ! The best- 
intentioned measures are blamed for severity and prejudice. The 
difficulty is more complex still if these measures are based on facts which 
are known only to the Abbot and which he may not divulge. So a man 
will defend his relative, either openly, or in a discreet and skilful manner; 
he makes himself a sort of officious guardian and claims a right of pro- 
tection (aut quasi tueri). > 

Perhaps the most formidable relationships are not those of blood, 
but those of choice, those created by assiduous and exclusive attentions. 
"Particular friendships" should evidently be banished from a monastery. 
After having renounced the keenest and most legitimate natural affections 
we should not replace them with unreality and absurdity. This point 
does not need to be laboured, except for temperaments of a silly, frivolous, 

476 



I 

That Monks presume not Ito Defend One Another 477 

and rather foolish stamp. Monks should love as do the angels in heaven : 
" They shall be like the angels of God in heaven." The affection of 
the angels towards one another does not turn them from God, or diminish 
their submissiveness and obedience. It causes them neither trouble, nor 
anxiety, nor jealousy. They meet gladly ; but they do not go in pursuit. 

The danger emphasized by St. Benedict may. exist also in little 
coteries, or particular friendships between a group, and even in certain 
gatherings of a regular character, as, for example, when several monks 
are continually together for some w,ork in common. Hence the curious 
phenomenon that may sometimes be observed: these religious when 
together may agree or disagree. But whether they agree or not, they 
none the less form a distinct body, a State within a State. One cannot 
touch one of their number without touching all, and evoking discontent 
and murmuring. They share their grievances, and sometimes even 
invent a language, a special slang, in which to express and com- 
municate them. They criticize the acts of authority and sympathize 
with the victims. From many observations made by our Holy Father 
we may infer that the monasteries of his time contained some meddle- 
some busybodies, thoughtless mischief-makers, or professional schemers, 
whether by temperament or inveterate habit. Such people unite the 
discontented and busy themselves with inflaming the petty wounds of 
self-love. All their strictures are wrapped in insinuation; they make 
hypocritical pretence of justifying authority, and abundant protestations 
of obedience; their sentences are punctuated with sighs, andsoon. And, 
of course, there is always in this condolence some pretext of charity, 
or pity, or of " independence of character," even of piety itself. How 
easy is delusion in this matter ! 

In reality their action causes scandals and divisions in the community: 
Exinde gravissima occasio scandalorum oriri potest. At the same time 
they are doing the worst possible service to the brother whom they defend 
in this way. Who knows if our imprudent and thoughtless words may 
not sow the seeds of actual apostasy from the religious life ? Such 
action, too, often entails calumny and injustice towards the Abbot: 
for the Abbot cannot be justifying all the decisions that he takes, unless 
he would introduce the parliamentary system of government by debate. 
Finally, these little monastic cabals never lack a certain naive self- 
sufficiency, since they appear to claim that government of which they 
judge the Abbot incapable. 

We now understand the strong expressions employed by St. Benedict: 
" The greatest care must be taken . . . for any reason ... in any way 
whatsoever": whatever be the circumstances, whatever the methods 
employed; we understand also the " very severe " punishment decreed 
against those who infringe this rule. 1 Yet it is, of course, quite regular 

1 St. Benedict is not more severe than the ancient monastic legislators: Qui cotuentit 
peccantibtu et defendit alium delinquentem, maledictut erit apud Detim et homines, et 
corripietur increpatione severissima (S. PACII., Reg., clxxvi. See also ST. BASIL, Reg. 
contr.y xxvi. 



478 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

and very meritorious to help a brother to bear some punishment or 
difficult task. Moreover, it is charitable, both towards the Abbot and 
towards the brother, if we think that the punishment is out of proportion 
to the fault, if we know of extenuating circumstances, or if we are well 
informed as to the true state of the case, humbly to approach the Abbot 
himself and to enlighten him. 









CHAPTER LXX 

THAT NO ONE PRESUME RASHLt TO STRIKE OR 
EXCOMMUNICATE ANOTHER 

IN the preceding chapter our Holy Father has warned us against that 
egoism which manifests itself in irregular sympathies on pretext of 
charity; he now denounces egoistic antipathies which betray them- 
selves in correction, equally irregular, but coloured with the appear- 
ance of zeal. For this chapter deals only with those who presume to 
inflict what they regard as regular punishment, and not indiscriminately 
with all who permit themselves to indulge in rough conduct towards 
their brethren. 

UT NON PRJESUMAT QUiSQUAM ALi- In order that in the monastery 

QUEM PASSIM CSDBRE AUT ExcoMMUNi- every occasion of presumption may 

CARE. Ut vitetur in monasterio omnis be avoided, we ordain and decree that 

praesumptionis occasio, ordinamus it be lawful to no one to excommuni- 

atque constituimus ut nulli liceat cate or strike any of his brethren, 

quemquam fratrum suorum excom- except he be given power to do so by 

municare aut caedere, nisi cui potestas the Abbot. Those that sin before all 

ab Abbate data fuerit. Peccantes shall be reproved, that the rest may 

autera coram omnibus arguantur, ut have fear, 
ceteri metum habeant. 

Authority is not to be usurped. It is unlawful and very imprudent 
to exercise so delicate a power as that of correction without any sort of 
right. Therefore no monk should of his own accord and without formal 
instructions from the Abbot inflict the punishment of excommunication 
or the rod on anyone whatsoever, and in a burst of " bitter zeal " come 
down upon all offenders. We must suppose that such abuses were to 
be met with, in St. Benedict's days. And in our own time there are 
temperaments which seem predisposed towards the functions of the 
inquisitor or redresser of wrongs. Reprimand, denunciation, scolding, 
and a suspension of friendly relations which results in practical excom- 
munication: all these methods are justified in their eyes, when they 
wish to have the Rule respected or to enforce unimportant customs 
that affect their vanity. " Such and such an abuse is glaring," they will 
say. But who compels you to notice it ? Are you responsible ? Why 
this morbid craving to interfere in other folks' business ? Look to your- 
self. Be content to pray for the brother who annoys or scandalizes you. 
Give him good advice on occasion, and above all good example. And 
tell the proper authority. Turn to God : for experience shows that souls 
grow merciful in proportion to their nearness to Him. It is common 
knowledge, too, that the most intolerant and ill-advised critics are men 
without office, men who lack the grace of state and act only according 
to their character and the impulse of the moment. For the first danger 
to which this unseasonable correction is liable is the danger of striking 
too hard. The second is of achieving no result. No one can be a 

479 



480 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

physician of the body off-hand, still less a physician of the soul. 1 But 
our Holy Father speaks explicitly only of the danger of pride, of arrogant 
rashness : Ut vitetur 2 in monasterio omnis prasumptionis occasio. To deal 
out the regular punishments of excommunication and the rod without 
authority and on any pretext, and to do this rashly (passim, as the title 
says), is to assume to oneself a strange importance; it is practically 
to usurp the powers of the lawful authority. It may even be an 
ambitious effort to win a reputation as a fervent and resolute man. 3 

Peccantes autem . . . This passage is a verbal quotation from St. Paul: 

" Them that sin reprove before all: that the rest also may have fear " 

(l. Tim. v. 20) ; but what is the exact meaning of our Holy Father, and 

what is the connection of this remark with the context ? Various 

explanations have been given. " Those who sin against the foregoing 

regulations shall be corrected publicly." Such a development of the 

text is apt, but why did St. Benedict omit the few words needed to 

make the sentence clear, and say absolutely, without formal reference 

to what precedes : " those that sin" ? Moreover, St. Benedict presently 

specifies the punishment which he reserves for those who correct without 

authority viz., the, degrees of the regular discipline; and the regular 

discipline implies something other than public rebuke "Those who 

commit a fault shall be reprimanded publicly." When put in that 

general way the ordinance would seem to be at variance both with the 

Rule itself, which elsewhere prescribes secret admonition, and with 

morality; for to bring every fault, of whatever sort, before the whole 

Community might be nothing short of defamation. The sense is rather 

/ this: transgressions of a public and scandalous character (peccantes 

j cor am omnibus) shall not remain unpunished; some authorized person 

; must correct such faults, with vigour, publicly if necessary, and in such 

I a way that the disorderly may be deterred. 4 

Infantibus vero usque ad quintum Children, however, shall be kept 

decimum annum aetatis, discipline by all under diligent and watchful 

diligentia sit, et custodia adhibeatur discipline until their fifteenth year: 

ab omnibus: sed et.hoc cum omni yet this too with all measure and dis- 

mensura et ratione. cretion. 

1 Si enim objurgatio est animce curatio, non est cujuslibet objurgate, sicut nee mederi, 
nisi siprafectus ipse, multo adbibito examine, id cuipiam permiserit (S. BASIL., Reg. f us., 

1*"* \ 

liii.). 

* The most authoritative reading is: Vetetur in monasterio .. . . occasio, atque con- 
stituimus. 

8 Is not this ST. BASIL'S meaning also: Si quit, non desiderio corrigendi fratres arguat 
eum qui delinquit, sed sui vitii explendi gratia, quomodo oportet bunc eorrigi f . . . lite 
velut suis commodis prospiciens et primatus desiderans notetur . . . (Reg, contr., cxciii.). 
In the answer to the next question, he points out that it lies with the superior to 
determine vel quanta tempore vel quali modo corripi debeant. 

* The majority of the commentators connect the words cor am omnibus with both 
peccantes and arguantur. SMARAGDUS recalls in this context the words of Leviticus: 
Non oderis fratrem tuum in corde tud, sed publice argue eum, ne habeas super eo peccatum 
(xix. 17). Ipsa corripienda sunt cor am omnibus, qua peccantur cor am omnibus; ipsa 
corripienda sunt secretius, qua peccantur secretius (S. AUG., Sermo LXXXII., 10. P.L., 
XXXVIII., 511). Another explanation is: no one should without authority inflict 
corporal or spiritual punishment (excommiinicare aut ctedere), but, in face of a public 
and scandalous fault, anyone may protest and reprove '(arguere). 



That no One Strike or Excommunicate Another 481 

In stipulating that no one should usurp the right of punishing his 
brethren, St. Benedict did not wish to revoke the regulations which we 
have met already, and according to which children of less than fifteen 
years are subject to the supervision and correction of all their elders, 
whoever they may be. The children lived with the older monks, fol- 
lowed most of the exercises with them, and were trained by the influence 
of all. " This manner of bringing up the young was perhaps much 
better than that since used," says Calmet. "Experience shows that,, 
children brought up to think and speak seriously are capable of acquiring 
very early great maturity and rare wisdom, which we do not find in 
children educated among dissipated folk or with other children." But 
our Holy Father foresaw the danger. An older monk, who was rough 
and somewhat barbarous still in his ways, might get vexed with these 
little children let us suppose they were frolicsome and had the bad 
taste too to be his elders by profession and deal out his punishments 
with too liberal a hand. One cannot reason much with children, and 
St. Benedict was not unaware that early education, is accomplished 
otherwise than through the intellect: yet he requires that correction 
should be exercised with all measure and discretion. 

Nam in fortiori aetate qui pre- For if anyone presume, without 
sumpserit aliquatenus sine praecepto leave of the Abbot, to chastise such 
Abbatis, vel in ipsis infantibus sine as are above that age, or show undue 
discretione exarserit, discipline regu- seventy even to the children, let him 
lari subjaceat, quia scriptum est: be subjected to the discipline of the 
Quod tibi non vis fieri, alii ne fecerts. Rule, for it is written : " Do not thou 

to another what thou wouldst not have 

done to thyself." 

St. Benedict sums up and concludes. Anyone who, without the 
Abbot's orders, has the temerity to punish adults in any way, or to 
punish children indiscreetly, shall be subjected to regular discipline; 
he shall experience on his own account, and for his future amendment, 
the wisdom of the divine counsel: " Do not thou to another, what thou 
wouldst riot have done to thyself." 1 

The ordinances of this chapter are primarily addressed to those who 
have no authority to correct their brethren; they also concern all those 
who are invested by the monastic penal code, by lawful custom, or by 
special delegation, with ordinary or extraordinary right of correction, 
when they overstep the bounds of what is permitted by the Rule and 
by prudence. Speaking generally, all .correction should fulfil the three 
following conditions: the corrector should have power to correct, the 
cause should be just and reasonably adequate, and the punishment 
should be proportioned to the fault. The effect of correction will be 
much jeopardized, if it is manifest that we are yielding to impatience, or 
to natural antipathy, or to irritability of temperament: let us keep our 
antipathies for our own faults. 

1 This is the ninth instrument of good works: see farther back, p. 67. 

3 



CHAPTER LXXI 

THAT 'THE BRETHREN BE OBEDIENT ONE TO 

THE OTHER 

NO one may correct his brethren without authority, but there are 
many with this authority; and it is far less important for a monk 
who is aiming at perfection to verify the credentials of the person 
who commands or punishes, than simply to obey all in all things. 
Therefore, far from exercising a disagreeable supervision over his 
brethren, or harassing them with tyrannical repression, each individual 
must study to subject himself to all. 1 

The chapter has two parts, the first telling us how to receive a 
brother's command or to do him a service; the second how to receive 
certain reprimands from superiors. 

UT OBEDIENTES siNT siBi INVICEM Not only is the boon of obedience 

FRATRES. Obedientiae bonum non so- to be shown by all to the Abbot, but 

him Abbati exhibendum est ab omni- the brethren must also obey one 

bus, sed etiam sibi invicem ita obediant another, knowing that by this path of 

fratres, scientes se per hanc obedien- obedience they shall go to God. The 

tiae viam ituros ad Deum. Praemisso commands, therefore, of the Abbot or 

ergo Abbatis, aut praepositorum qui the superiors appointed by him (to 

ab eo constituuntur imperio (cui non which we allow no private orders to 

permittimus privata imperia prseponi), be preferred) having the first place, 

de cetero omnes juniores prioribus suis for the rest let all the younger brethren 

omni caritate et sollicitudine obe- obey their elders with all charity and 

diant. Quod si quis contentiosus solicitude. But should anyone be 

reperitur, corripiatur. found contentious, let him be cor- 
rected. 

Obedientiee bonum. 2 Obedience is not a wholly formal and external 
act, nor an alms disdainfully given, but a gift given gracefully, and gladly 
received by God: "acceptable to God and sweet to men " (Chapter V.). 
And it is also a benefit and a blessing for him who obeys : for each act 
of submission removes a portion of his self-love and gives him more of 
God. To draw near to God and to be united with Him is the end of all 
spiritual activity. And we know that the ancients viewed the Christian 
life as an uninterrupted march towards that blessed goal, union with the 
living God: " Father, I will that where I am there also my servant may 
be." We have been told, and our Lord and His Mother and the Saints 
have shown it to us in their lives, that obedience is the royal road by 
which we ascend to God. Our Holy Father St. Benedict is never weary 
of speaking of it; it is the alpha and omega of his Rule. 

So, if we hasten to reach God, we shall seek occasions of obedience 
rather than ingenious ways of eluding it. With our eyes raised towards 
the heavenly Jerusalem, we shall journey light-heartedly, seeing now 
naught but God in all things, obeying God and every creature for the 

1 ST. BASIL has the same teaching: Reg. contr., xiii., Ixiv. 

2 The expression is CASSIAN'S, /;*., IV., xxx.; XII., 

482 



That the Brethren be Obedient One to the Other 483 

love of God, with our souls " lost/' as the mystics say. Obedience to 
the Abbot, and to those who hold some measure of authority from him, 
will no longer suffice us: we shall bow as well, and for very similar 
motives, to the wishes of our seniors, and even to the wishes of our juniors, 
though St. Benedict does not require this explicitly; and there shall be 
among the brethren a sort of general eagerness to obey one another: 
Sed etiatn sibi invicem ita obtdiant fratres. God forbid we scarcely 
dare to make the supposition that a monk should adopt a different 
view, maintaining that the monastic life means individualism and every 
man for himself, that each is isolated from the others and has no relations 
with them but those of juxtaposition. He will conclude that it is 
his duty to consider himself and no one else, to observe Chapter LXX. 
scrupulously, but, in return, to brook no interference. 

The commentators observe that, even in a life where every moment 
is consecrated to some fixed work, where the laws of obedience and inter- 
course with others are determined by a written or living rule and by 
custom, there remain to the brethren plenty of opportunities for the 
exercise of mutual obedience. Are not courtesy, affability, and obliging- 
ness, so many engaging forms of obedience ? There are monks, very 
jealous of their time and very faithful to their studies, who yet seem 
always to be at one's service, and to have nothing else to do but to give 
themselves to all who seek them. Omni caritate et sollicitudine obediant. 
In that brief sentence the divine origin of our obedience, its character 
and its manner, are expressed. It is not a product of worldly politeness, 
but of charity. Let us not imagine that we are obeying as St. Benedict 
would have us obey when we consider that we are doing a favour; or 
when our obedience is accompanied by a bored and sceptical attitude; 
or, finally, when we put on a sad air and regard ourselves as martyrs. 
This is but a caricature of obedience. 

There is always danger of delusion when we examine ourselves 
anxiously in order to see how we stand with God: " Are my sins for- 
gotten ? Have I reached the illuminative way yet ? Or the unitive, 
perhaps ? " Though this be curiosity, yet after all it is a lawful curiosity, 
since our sole interest is to know whether we stand well with Him who 
alone counts. And God's answer never fails; but we do not usually 
listen where we should to hear it. Imagination, the senses, human 
understanding, the devils, delude us. We should not seek this dread 
secret even from God, even in prayer. Nor does our confessor know it. 
We must, in all humility and honesty, examine our obedience. If 
we find in fact that our soul has become pliable, profoundly and almost 
boundlessly docile, let us rejoice and let us thank God: for then He is 
very near. And it may be that the Symbolical verses of St. John of the 
Cross echo softly in our hearts: 

My soul is occupied 

And all my substance in His service; 

Now I guard no flock, 

Nor have I any other employment: 

My sole occupation is love. 



484 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

t 

If then on the common 

I am no longer seen or found, 

Say that I am lost; 

That, being enamoured, 

I lost myself, and yet I have been won. 

St. Benedict observes that a certain order should be kept in this 
obedience which is due to all. The Abbot and deans shall of course 
be attended to first. When we ask for a permission or fulfil a command, 
we must avoid all conflict of jurisdictions, and certainly beware of pro- 
voking such maliciously. When authority properly so called has been 
obeyed first, says St. Benedict, or when it does not intervene, all shall 
receive with simplicity, humility, and good sense, the lawful orders, 
suggestions, and observations of the seniors. This is a counsel of per- 
fection, but also, in some degree, a precept. And if there be .found in 
the monastery a contentious person, one who is always eager to dispute, 
and always provided with excellent reasons for evading obedience, he 
shall be made to see that such a disposition is entirely incompatible with 
the religious life; and he shall be punished. St. Paul before him said: 
" But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, nor 
the Church of God " (i Cor. xi. 16). 

Si quis autem pro quavis minima But if anyone be rebuked by the 

causa, ab Abbate vel a quocumque Abbot or by any superior in any 

priore suo corripiatur quolibet modo ; way for however small a cause, or if he 

vel si leviter senserit animum prioris faintly perceive that the mind of any 

cujuscumque contra seiratum vel com- superior is angered or moved against 

motum, quamvis modice, mox sine him, however little, let him at once, 

mora tamdiu prostratus in terra ante without delay, cast himself on the 

pedes ejus jaceat satiafaciens, usque ground at his feet, and there remain 

dum benedictionesanetur ilia commo- doing penance, until that feeling 'be 

tio. Quod si quis contempserit facere, appeased, as he gives him a blessing, 

aut si contumax fuerit, de monasterio But if anyone shquld disdain to do this, 

expellatur. let him either be subjected td corporal 

chastisement, or, if he remain obdurate, 
be expelled from the monastery. 

Each phrase of this passage is full of meaning, though its severity 
may astonish us. Yet it is in harmony with all the holy Rule and with 
the ancient rules; 1 and, certain details excepted, its ordinances have 
always been enforced. It would seem that the monk who is rebuked 
does not owe satisfaction in the case of every sort of reprimand, but 
only when the superior's words are emphasized by some feeling, by 
some animation of tone, and especially by indignation. The offender 
has not to wait for this extreme development; a slight display of feeling 
is enough: quamvis modice. Nor need it be manifest; it is enough that 
it be merely divined, faintly perceived : vel si leviter senserit. However 
trifling the cause of the rebuke may appear (pro quavis minima causa); 

1 Prater qui fro qualibet culpa arguitur vel increpatur, patientiam babeat el turn 
responded* arguenti; sed bumiliet se in omnibus (S. MACAU., Reg-, xvi.). 



That the Brethren be Obedient One to the Other 485 

whatever be the manner in which it is administered (quolibet modd); 
and whencesoever it comes (a b Abbtfe vel a quocumque priore suo) : he 
must prostrate on the ground 1 at once without delay, without reflecting, 
or weighing the arguments for and against. And he shall remain in this 
humble posture until the superior blesses him and thereby shows that 
his irritation has passed. St. Benedict naturally takes it for granted 
that mercy will not lag behind repentance. 

Our business, then, is not to justify ourselves, to prove that we meant 
no harm, to protest that our intentions were good; still less have we to 
launch out into irrelevancies. And, as we have said, this point of the 
Rule is not obsolete; there are occasions when the offender should ask 
pardon at once on his knees, or at least give excuses. The profit of this 
humble submission is twofold: the brother reprimanded finds an 
immediate and easy means of repairing his fault, and of becoming little 
again, and when prostrate he will no longer be tempted to dispute; the 
superior, on his part, is disposed to immediate forgiveness, and his 
feeling vanishes suddenly while his hand makes the sign of blessing: 
usque dum. benediction* sanetur ilia commotio. Both parties gain by the 
experience. 

St. Benedict, in concluding, indicates the penalties reserved for thqse 
who refuse to make satisfaction. If a proud spirit .resists, he shall be 
visited with the rod, or subjected probably to the graduated punishments 
detailed in the monastic penal code ; and, finally, if he proves incorrigible, 
he shall be expelled from the community. 2 He shall be given back to 
the world, since by his spirit of contention he belongs to the world. 

1 CASS., 7J*.,IV., xvi. 

3 According to the ancient commentators, if the monk be one who has been 
brought up in the monastery that is, if he entered as an oblate he shall not be sent 
back into the world of which he is ignorant, but shall be imprisoned. 



CHAPTER LXXII 

M 

OF THE GOOD ZEAL WHICH MONKS OUGHT TO HAVE 



DE ZELO BONO, QUEM DEBENT 
HABERE MONACHI. SicUt CSt ZehlS 

amaritudinis malus, qui separat a Deo, 
et ducit ad infernum: ita est zelus 
bonus, qui separat a vitiis, et ducit 
ad Deum et ad vitam aeternam. Hunc 
ergo zelum ferventissimo amore exer- 
ceant monachi. ... 



As there is an evil zeal of bitter- 
ness which separates from God and 
leads to hell, so there is a good zeal, 
which separates from vices and leads 
to God and to life everlasting. Let 
monks, therefore, practise this zeal 
with most fervent loVe. ... 



f I ^HIS chapter completes and summarizes the teaching of the four 

I which precede it. We may even regard it as a synthesis of the 

I entire Rule. St. Benedict condenses the whole science of monastic 

-A- perfection into a few short and pithy sentences, which have the 

brightness and solidity of the diamond. Although the points of doctrine, 

and even the forms of their expression, are already partly known to us, 

their selection and grouping give them a new value. 1 

The idea is as old as Christianity, and very familiar to St. Benedict, 
that every human life has the choice between two directions or ways, 
and two only: the way of evil, of separation from God, of hell; and the 
way of good, of separation from vice, of union with God, of life ever- 
lasting. On these two roads two hostile armies are hastening, and 
between them are continual conflicts. Each has its chief and its 
standard, each its motto, its tactics, and its proper arms ; in the one camp 
are pride and disobedience, and the Non serviam of Lucifer; in the other 
humility and obedience, and the Quis ut Deus I of St. Michael. Our 
Holy Father speaks to us here of two sorts of zeal, as St. Augustine spoke 
of two loves. 2 

Zeal is a secret ardour, a fermentation of the soul, its warmth and 
fervour. In Holy Scripture and the Fathers the word " zeal " most 
often means an evil tendency of the soul: jealousy, envy, greediness in 
the pursuit of some selfish satisfaction even at the expense of our neigh- 
bours. Cassian uses the word in this sense in the sixth chapter of his 
first Conference, and in the fifteenth and sixteenth chapters of his 
eighteenth Conference; in this sense, too, our Holy Father recommends 
us : " not to have zeal and envy " (Chapter IV. : sixty-fifth instrument), 
and warns the Abbot: "lest perchance the flame of envy or jealousy 
(zelus) be kindled in his soul " (Chapter LXV.). St. James was the first 

. l The chapter echoes the teaching of ST. BASIL : Reg. contr., xii. sq. This is the way 
in which the ancients understood the contemplative life: Quali affectu debet servire qui 
tervit Dee ? Affectum bonum vel animum ilium esse arbitror ego, cum desiderium vehement 
et inexplcbile atque immobile inest nobis placendi Deo. Impletur autem iste affectus per 
tbeoriam (Icwpfar), id est scientiam per quam intueri et perspicere possumus magnificen- 
tiam gloria Dei, et per cogitationes pias et puras, et per memoriam bonorum qua nobis a 
Deo collata tunt; ex quorum recordatione venitanima dilectio Domini, Dei sni, ut eum 
diligat extoto corde sno, et ex tota anim^sua, et ex tota mente sua (xiv.). 
* De civitate Dei, 1. XIV., c. zxviii. P.L., XLL, 436. 

486 



Of the Good Zeal 'which Monks ought to have 487 

to speak of " bitter zeal ": " But if you have bitter zeal, and there be 
contentions in your hearts, glory not and be not liars against the truth. 
For where zeal and contention is: there is inconstancy and every 
evil work " (Jas. iii. 14, 16). This evil zeal leads straight to death, as 
St. Clement of Rome had already written: TO et? Odvarov dyov ij\os 
(" zeal which leads to death"). 1 But there is also a good zeal, a holy 
ardour, " the zeal of God," which St. Benedict alluded to cursorily 
in the sixty-fourth chapter. 2 He tells us presently how this zeal mani- 
fests itself; here he merely notes its effect, which is to free souls from 
evil passions and lead them to God. 3 

So it is perfectly clear that the starting-point of all our moral activity 
is within ; and it is to the interior, to the soul, that our Holy Father looks, 
and there that he wishes to evoke decisive action. The important point 
is to know what we have in our hearts. Perhaps we should have to 
answer: " I love myself much; scarcely anyone else counts. I possess 
a very keen self-assertiveness; I belong heart and soul to my own views 
that is, to my delusions. And since I am not alone in the world, and 
there is a multitude of other selves around me who limit me and seek 
to check me, my zeal easily becomes impatience, anger, contentiousness, 
and rebellion : the evil zeal of bitterness." We are forbidden to remain 
neutral. Merely external correction has no value or lasting effect. 
If we assume an inert and frozen attitude, we have already chosen death. 
Let us rather allow the Spirit of God to enkindle in us the flame of that 
good zeal, whose name is charity. --Love and do what you will." 
The man who loves God is in some sort a law to himself. And when 
the fervour of faith and tenderness animates our deeds, all goes well. 
Evil habits, however inveterate, cannot resist this living and wholly 
divine flame. Such is the zeal, says St. Benedict, which monks should 
liave and exercise " with most fervent love." Then he tells us in detail 
to what this holy rivalry is applied. 

** 

... id est, ut honore se invicem ... that is? in honour preventing 
praeveniant. Infirmitates suas sive one another. Let them most patiently 
corporum sive morum patientissime endure one another's infirmities, 
tolerent; obedientiam sibi certatim whether of body or of character, 
impendant, Nullus quod sibi utile Let them obey one another with 
judicat sequatur, sed quod magis alii, rivalry. Let no one follow what he 
Caritatem fraternitatis casto impen- judges good for himself, but rather 
dant amore. . what seems good for another. Let 

them tender the charity of brother- 
hood with chaste love. 

1 Epist. ad Cor., ix. (FUNK, Of era Patrum Apost., I., p. 72). Cited by D. BUTLER 
along with the " ancient Latin translation." 

1 C/. CABS., Conlat., II., xxvi.; VII., ii., Mm., xxxi.; XII., i.; XIII., viii. 5 XVII., 
zxv. S. BASIL., Reg. contr., Ixxviii. 

* ST. JEROME, in bis Commentary on Ezecbiel (1. V., cap. xvi. P.L., XXV., 156), 
cites as " from the Gospels " this sentence which is no longer to be found in them, but 
which recalls a passage in Ecclesiasticus (iv. 25): Est confusio qua duett ad mortem, et 
est confusio qua duett ad vitam. He quotes these words again in his letter LXVI., 6, 
P.L., XXII., 642. Cf. 2. Cor. vii. 10. 



488 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

The subject is ever charity, and that fraternal charity: " by this shall 
all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another " 
(John. xiii. 35). Charity is manifested in mutual regard and mutual kind- 
nesses, and our Holy Father reminds us of the words of the Epistle to the 
Romans (xii. 10) already quoted in Chapter LXIII. Charity. manifests 
itself also in loving toleration of the moral or corporal infirmities of 
our brethren j 1 and, we may add, in the peaceful acceptance of our own 
wretchedness. All things are common in a monastery, both good and 
evil. Perhaps even we may have to endure with tireless patience 
(patientissime), not only the infirmities of our neighbours but also their 
difference from ourselves. We all come from different provinces (ex 
diver sis provinciis). This man comes from the fogs of the North; this 
other has matured under the strong suns of the south; such a one comes 
from Burgundy and has perhaps some drops of its wine in his veins, while 
another is a Breton and a Breton true to his race. Now God requires 
us to accommodate ourselves to diversities of temperament, and never to 
fret at an association which has been formed in Him and by means of 
His grace. Let us endure also our neighbour's superiority, and the 
love and confidence which are bestowed on him . God often allows us to 
suffer keenly on this point, in order to compel us to seek a higher affection 
where we may fear no rivalry: " Bear ye one another's burdens: and so 
you shall fulfil the law of Christ " (Gal. vi. 2). 

Obey one another with rivalry, continues our Holy Father. Instead 
of pursuing; his personal satisfaction, each one^must seek every oppor- 
tunity of obliging his brethren: 8 This is the great law of Christianity 
and the antithesis of animality ; for the animal and the animal man order 
all things towards nothing but their own advantage. St. Paul with one. 
stroke of his pen hits off a community which was not yet fully Christian : 
" All seek the things that are their own: not the things that are Jesus 
Christ's" (Phil. ii. 21); and, a few lines before, he draws the ideal 
of a Christian community: " Each one not considering the things that 
are his own, but those that are other men's " (ibid., 4). And St. Bene- 
dict ends the series of counsels which ensure family peace by that most 
engaging one, again borrowed from St. Paul: that they pay their debt 
of chaste brotherly love (Rom. xii. 10; I Thess. iv. 9; Heb. xiii. I. 
See also I Pet. i. 22 sq.}. He emphasizes that character of supernatural 
purity which constitutes the charm and the enduring reality of 
monastic affection. 

Deum timeant; Abbatem suum Let them fear God, and love their 
sincera et humili caritate diligant; Abbot with sincere and humble 
Christo omnino nihil praeponant, qui affection. Let them prefer nothing 

1 A reminiscence of CASSIAN: (Lazarus) i nfirmitatem carports patientissime toleravit 
(Conlat., VI., Hi.). Is vere et non ex parte perfectus est, qui et in eremo squalorem soli- 
tudinis et in ccenobio infirmitatem fratrum aquali magnanimitate sustentat (Conlat., 
XIX., ix.). 

2 Sitque inter eos pax et concordia, et libenter majoribus subjiciantur, sedentes, ambu 
lantes, ac stantes in ordine >, et invicem de. bumilitate certantes (S. PACK., Reg. clxxix.) 



Of the Good Zeal which Monks ought to have 489 

nos pariter ad vitam aeternam per- whatever to Christ. And may He 
ducat. Amen. bring us all alike to life everlasting. 

Amen. 

Up to this point our Holy Father's counsels have chiefly concerned 
our relations towards our brethren and equals what may be called our 
social co-ordination; now, it would seem, they concern our relations 
with those who are set over us our social subordination : and a monastic 
family is bound together by the union of these two elements. 

Deum time ant. They must fear God as dutiful servants, and as 
sons. We know this chaste fear well, a fear lasting for ever and ever: 
timor castus permanent in saculum saculi; it is the Benedictine spirit 
par excellence. We should have it always; it is the stimulus of our zeal, 
and the practical expression of our charity. And perhaps, too, the best 
attested reading is this: Caritatemfraternitatis caste impendant. Amore 
Deum timeant (Let them tender the charity of brotherhood chastely. 
Let them fear God in love). We find an identical expression in the 
Roman Pontifical in that admirable Preface for the Consecration of 
Virgins : Amore te timeant (Let them fear Thee in love). 1 

" Let them prefer nothing whatever to Christ." This is the twenty- 
first instrument of good works and a motto taken from St. Cyprian and 
St. Antony. It is easy, in days of sincerity and spiritual joy, to tell 
Our Lord that we prefer nothing whatever to Him : but it is easier still, 
alas ! to unsay our words in the details of our life. And yet God loves 
us to repeat these elective words to Him. They are rich in faith, in 
hope, and in charity. God has pity on our desire, and contrives, little 
by little, that we become true: there is no longer aught but Him 
in us; we respond at last to that dateless, fathomless, boundless love 
which embraced us in our own despite. 

And, as though to guarantee the Abbot's authority, as though to 
establish for the last time that it comes from God, and is a sacrament 
of the Lord in our midst, St. Benedict gives the Abbot a place between 
God the Father and His Christ. And again it is in charity that he seeks 
the sure norm of our relations towards the Abbot. Abbatem suum, he 
says, indicating that he is our own. We have elected him perhaps, or 
made our profession to him. We shall respect all prelates; but he who 
is the father of our monastic family and our soul's father, has a special 
title to our affection. It shall be "sincere": and by consequence 
steadfast under rebuke or severity. It shall be no fawning or foolish 
affection, but true, coming from the soul and from faith. St. Benedict 
would have it be "humble," a quality that we should understand. 
Doubtless it is right that our relations with him whose function it is, 
as our Holy Father noted before, to serve and not to domineer, should 
be distinguished by a hply and joyous liberty; but liberty is not un- 
ceremoniousness. The fabulist has described for us the impudence 
of the frogs towards their King Log: 

1 D. G. MOWN has made the same comparison: Vers un texte definitif de la regie 
de S. Benott: Revue Br.n6d.) October, 191.2, pp. 408-409. 



49 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

Up came a crowd of them, 

Swarmed o'er the back of him, 

Made themselves quite at their ease; 

Respect wa quite gone, 

Awe there was none, 

As they leapt on the neck of their king. 

Humility consists in keeping one's proper place. Reverence might 
perhaps come more easy if authority held itself aloof, withdrew into 
splendid shadow, and played the prince; but that would not be St. Bene- 
dict's family, where the Abbot lives among his monks. Yet there is a 
degree of moderation, discretion, and filial respect, from which none 
should depart, and which is never lacking in a soul that is attached to 
Our Lord. ' 

The chapter ends with a wish. May we by loving our brethren, 
by fearing God with the fear of love, by loving our Abbot, and clinging 
without reserve to Him who declared Himself "the way, the truth and 
the life " may we all together, conventually, attain eternal life I 1 

1 The Amen is not to be found in the belt manuscript! nor in the most ancient 
commentators. x 




CHAPTER LXXIII 

'THAT 'THE WHOLE OBSERVANCE OF JUSTICE IS NOT 
SET DOWN IN THIS RULE 

[IS chapter is a veritable storehouse of practical teaching. It 
even enlightens us anew on that question, so often discussed by 
the moralists and already answered by our Holy Father: What is 
the first directive principle of all our moral activity ? We know 
the answer well : " Live conformably to what you are and you will grow." 
To progress, to go forward, to tend towards perfection, is our supreme 
law. Now two things are necessary for this : we need an interior stimulus, 
which is zeal, holy rivalry, and the fervent charity spoken of in the 
preceding chapter; but besides this, says St. Benedict, we need a field 
iii which we may thus move and run : and of this he speaks now. 

DE EO QUOD NON OMNis oBSERVATio We have written this Rule in order 

JUSTITIJE IN HAC SIT R.EGULA coNSTi- that, observing it in monasteries, we 

TUTA. Regulam autem hanc descrip- may show that in some measure we have 

simus, ut earn observantes in monas- goodness of manners and a beginning 

teriis, aliquatenus vel honestatem of religious life, 

morum, aut initium conversations * 

nos demonstremus habere. ~ 

Here, he says, is the Rule promised at the end of the Prologue and 
the first chapter. It has been drawn up with care, to regulate observance 
in our monasteries of cenobites. If we remain'faithful to it, that will 
be a sufficient proof that we have, if not extraordinary sanctity, at least 
a certain worthiness of life and a beginning, 1 or attempt, at a true 
monasticism : no one will now be tempted to confuse us with gyrovagues 
or sarabaites. 

These words breathe a Christian simplicity, which of itself reveals 
the perfect sanctity of our Holy Father. Such candour and such 
moderation could only come from God. How different is human 
tendency! Men naturally regard their works as masterpieces. We 
claim, as though instinctively, to compass the whole world with our 
minds; what we do is always final and complete. Only the truly wise, 
only men of real artistic genius escape this fascination. Our Holy 
Father is of this number. The Rule appears to him as a modest sketch, 
as an introduction or initiation into a higher life. We know how the 
centuries have given the lie to this humble statement. And St. Benedict 
himself could not have altogether mistaken the true character and scope 
of his achievement. Having recommended the Abbot to " maintain 
every item of this Rule," having promulgated, as a guarantee of its 
observance, a complete and rigorous penal code, he could not have 

1 Initium conversationist the same phrase occurs in CASSIAN, JIM/., IV., xxxix. See 
also Verba seniorum: Vita Patrum^ V., xi., 29. ROSWSYD, p. 611. 

491 



49 2 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

intended to diminish our respect for that which he twice names " the 
holy Rule " (Chapters XXIII., LXV.). When we hear him bidding us 
have recourse to the teaching of Scripture and the Fathers, he does not 
mean that we should, according to the accident of devotion, introduce 
elements of all sorts drawn from very various sources into the form of 
life which he has given us. Did he not promise, at the end of the seventh 
chapter, that he who should scale the various degrees of humility would 
most surely attain to union with God ?. Does not the teaching of his 
Rule aim at giving us in outline a complete code of monastic perfection ? 
Deep humility does not mean blindness, and " pious exaggeration " 
was not congenial to St. Benedict's temperament. 

How, then, are we to justify his.extreme modesty ? Let us remember 
in the first place that he wrote his Rule far less for perfect souls than for 
those who have resolved to become perfect. He sets himself to prepare 
them, to refine them, to lead them by an easy way to the very consumma- 
tion of charity and the holy liberty of the children of God. The spiritual 
doctrine of the Rule is complete ; but complete in the manner of a 
catechism, which condenses the whole of theology into the simple forms 
of its exposition, and really only needs to be developed. The obser- 
vances of the Rule are discreet, chosen with care, proportioned to the 
average strength of human nature, without any leaning towards un- 
sparing mortification : but souls which hunger for God will know well 
how to be generous, to go somewhat farther, under the guidance of 
obedience, to make their silence deeper, their prayers more assiduous, 
their liturgical duties more perfect; above all they can raise the interior 
principle of their actions almost to the power of infinity. All this is 
only virtually contained in the Rule; the Rule invites to it and suggests 
it : " this little Rule for beginners." Moreover, what rule is there that 
will not display its insufficiency when brought face to face with the 
boundless horizon of perfection laid open in the words of Our Lord: 
" Be ye therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect " 
(Matt. v. 48) ? Our Holy Father finds his Rule mean and paltry in 
contrast with the splendours revealed by God to His saints, which he 
knew by experience: " To the soul that sees the Creator, every created 
thing is of small account." 1 

Ceterum ad perfectionem conver- But for those who hasten to the 

sationis qui festinant, sunt doctrinae perfection of the religious life, there are 

sanctorum Patrum, quarum observatio the teachings of the holy Fathers, the 

perducit hominem ad celsitudinem observance of which brings a man to 

perfectionis. Quae enim pagina, aut the height of perfection. For what 

quis sermo divinas auctoritatis veteris page or what word is there in the 

ac novi Testament!, non est rectissima divinely inspired books of the Old and 

norma vitae humanae ? Aut quis liber New Testaments, that is not a most 

sanctorum catholicorum Patrum hoc accurate rule for human life? Or 

non resonat, ut recto cursu pervenia- what book of the holy Catholic Fathers 

mus ad Creatorem nostrum ? Nee non does not loudly proclaim how we may 

1 S. GKXG. M., Dial., L II., c. xxxv. 



The whole Observance of Justice not in this Rule 493 

et Collationes Patrum, et Instituta et by a straight course reach our Creator? 
Vitaeorum;sedet Regula sancti Patria Moreover, the Conferences of the 
nostri Basilii, quid aliud sunt, nisi Fathers, their Institutes and their 
bene viventium et obedientium mona- Lives, and the Rule of our holy Father 
chorum exempla, et instrumenta vir- Basil what else are they but examples 
tutum ? Nobis autem desidiosis et for well-living and obedient monks 
male viventibus atque negligentibus, and instruments of virtue ? But to us 
rubor confusionis est. who are slothful and ill-living and 

negligent, they bring the blush of 

shame. 

St. Benedict in a few words indicates to the soul that is eager to 
realize the monastic ideal 1 the sources from which it may complete its 
supernatural instruction. Let us note well the role given to the intellect. 
St. Benedict is concerned with the contemplative life; and this life 
develops according to laws of its own. We are not bidden walk and run 
in the apostolic and active life, but in the .life wherein both night and 
day we scrutinize God and His works; wherein is revealed by way of 
illumination, love, and praise the mystery of God and of Christ. Nor 
would our Holy Father have us study the ancients merely in order to 
collect a variety of ascetical counsels, although he emphasizes on four 
occasions the practical moral benefit of this study: he is thinking of a 
profound doctrinal instruction, of an intellectual relish for divine things, 
which is all the more effectual in influencing our whole life because it is 
the fruit of a higher knowledge. However, men's minds differ, even as 
the stars: " For star differeth from star in glory "(i Cor. xv. 41); all 
methods are good which reform the life and lead to God; but no one 
will wonder that the sons of St. Benedict remain faithful to the method 
of the early centuries, and that they find the guidance and nourishment 
of their souls in reading taken from " any page " of the Bible or the 
Fathers of the Church. 

Here then, according to St. Benedict, is the matter of our contem- 
plation: "the teachings of the holy Fathers." Perhaps this phrase 
embraces all our fathers in the faith, all those who have written on God 
and supernatural matters, beginning with the inspired writers; and 
St. Benedict goes on to enumerate three great classes of works. The first 
comprises the books of the Old and New Testaments that are recognized 
as of divine authority, and therefore excludes all apocryphal or doubtful 
books, which were still in circulation amongst the faithful. The Holy 
Bible is the monk's manual. But God grant that we may never treat 
these letters of our heavenly Father to His creatures as St. Augustine 2 
puts it after the manner of rationalists or mere critics ! Only if we 
regard Scripture with the same respect as the Eucharist, will each 
page or word become the surest moral rule for human life (rectissima 
norma vites bumanee)? 

1 Ad perfectionem festinantibus . . . (CASS., Conlat., XXI., v.). 
* Enarrat. in Psalmum Ixiv. 2. P.L., XXXVI., 774. 

3 This is the whole theme of psalm cxviii. : Lucerna pedibus meis verbum tuum, et 
lumen scmitis meis. 



494 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

And since Scripture does not contain God's whole thought, we shall 
join to it the study of the Fathers (sane torum catholiforum Patrum), those 
who are faithful mouthpieces of tradition, and whose works provide us 
with a continuous commentary on the Bible, the only commentary that 
we value. Neither heretics nor atheists are competent to explain the 
Scriptures to children of the Church: they are intruders; the Church 
was in possession before them; and the Church has from God the true 
meaning of the sacred books, even as Tertullian 1 long ago haughtily 
proclaimed. Is there one of the writings of the Fathers, continues 
St. Benedict, that does not call aloud upon us to mount by the straight 
path of the just (Isa. xxvi. 7) to our Creator ? 

Scripture and the Fathers belong to all the faithful; there are other 
books which are the special heritage of monks and bring us into com- 
munion with the spirit of all our saints. St. Benedict mentions the 
works which were best known in his time : the Cottationes, in which 
John Cassian summarizes his admirable conferences with the Eastern 
monks; the Instituta caenobiorum of the same author; the Lives of the 
Fathers (Vita Patrum); and the Rule of one who was then regarded as 
the greatest monastic legislator : " our holy Father St. Basil." All these 
writings are nothing else than patterns, authentic models, 2 of a holy 
life and of monastic obedience; they are also "instruments of virtue ": 
evidences and records of virtue, or rather, means and methods for the 
development of virtues in us. 8 They are at the same tune an encourage- 
ment and a stimulus; and when we are weak, inobservant, and negligent, 4 
their lessons will cause us to blush for shame. Our Holy Father's 
intention, we repeat, is not to depreciate his Rule, nor to confound souls 
that are satisfied with it; still less does he condone laxity. The most 
that he would say is this: that what we do is small, when compared with 
the austerity of the East. But perhaps he would rather, by depicting 
the perfection of former days, humble those who might be tempted 
to laxity, who might find in the very gentleness of their rule a pretext 
for evading it. 

The whole of this paragraph of the Rule contains weighty teaching 
as to the chief interest of our monastic life, and as to the subject-matter 
of our reading and labour. Gossip, newspapers, reviews, criticism, or 
handbooks of devotion: none of these can lead a monk to the heights of 

1 Ita non cbristiani nullumjus capiunt cbristianarum Litterarum; ad quos merito dicen- 
dunt est: Qui estis f quando et unde vents tis f quid in meo agitis, non' met f quo denique, 
Marcion, jure silvam meant cadis f qua licentia, Valentine, fontes meos tramvertis t qua 
potestate, Appeles, limites meos commoves f quid bic ceteri ad voluntatem vestram seminatis 
et pascitis f Mea est possessio, olim possideo. . . . Ego sum bares apostolorum . . . (De 
prtescrip'tione beereticorum, xxxvii. P.L., II., 51). 

8 The words exempla et are in the " received text " only. 

3 See the explanation of the word instrumenta which we gave at the beginning of 
Chapter IV. TERTULLIAN, shortly after that passage from which we have just 
quoted, calls the Scriptures instrumenta doctrines (De prescriptions bareticorum, 
xxxviii. P.L., II., 51). 

4 A desidiosis ac neglegentibus . . . (CASS., Conlat., XII., xvi.). 



The 'whole Observance of Justice not in this Rule 495 

perfection : ad celsitudiium perfectionis. 1 They are broken cisterns that 
cannot hold or furnish the living water (Jer. ii. 13). As soon as 
monasticism abandons the wells of doctrine from which our fathers drew, 
it becomes enfeebled, and Esau's blessing of worldly prosperity cannot 
hide its insignificant triviality. Christian literature has been enriched 
since the times of St. Benedict; but his little library has not gone out 
of date. The Church herself in her official lessons scarcely knows any 
other books than those which our Holy Father recommends for their 
sovereign excellence. 

Quisquis ergo ad patriam caelestem Whoever, therefore, you are who 

festinas, hanc rainimam inchoationis hasten towards your heavenly country, 

Regulam descriptam, adjuvante fulfil with the aid of Christ this little 

Christo, perfice: et tune demum ad Rule for beginners which we have set 

majora, quae supra commemoravimus, forth; and then at length you shall 

doctrinae virtutumque culmina, Deo arrive, under God's protection, at the 

protegente, peryenies. lofty summits of doctrine and virtue 

of which we have spoken above. 

Our Holy Father speaks too modestly of his Rule. Is there, apart 
from the Gospel, a book which has been able, as it has, to adapt itself 
to all the needs of Christian society from the sixth century to our own 
day, and which will, as God has revealed to certain of His saints, continue 
to do so until the coming of the Son of Man ? Without adopting the 
arrogant claim that a Benedictine, in virtue of his Rule, is a man fit for 
any sphere, we should recognize for a last time that the Rule has lent 
itself with wonderful adaptability to works of extremely various kinds, 
that it has accommodated itself better than any other to times and 
circumstances, and that it has furnished a solid legislative framework to 
several founders of .Orders or Congregations. To devise a Rule so 
wide as to embrace all, so strong as to contain all, so divinely simple as 
to be understood by the unlettered Goth and to charm St. Gregory the 
Great, so perfect as to deserve for ever the appellation of " the Rule," 
the monastic Rule par excellence: is not this a work of surpassing super- 
natural genius ? 

But St. Benedict is concerned with glory of a far different sort. 
Like the psalmist, his eyes are lifted up to the mountains. The Church 
has her giants of sanctity; there are lofty summits of wisdom and virtue, 2 
towards which they have shown the road: perhaps Our Lord will give 
us the grace to attain them some day; but let us begin by observing in 
its entirety all that is taught us in the humble pages that we have just 
read. There is a heavenly country, a family sanctuary, where we are 
expected, where God and St. Benedict are waiting for us: let souls that 
hasten to reach it first achieve their novitiate for eternity. 

1 CASSIAN said: scandere . . . culmina perfections (Inst., IV., vlii.). 

* Dominica doctrines culmen ascendit (CASS., Conlat., XXI., xxxiv.). Si ad admen 
virtutum ejus volumus pervenire . . . (Conlat., XVIIL, xv.). Cf. Inst., IV., zxiti.; Conlat. 
XXII., vii. 



496 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 

Here we meet again that ardent and sweet invitation with which the 
Rule began. We meet again the profoundly Christian teaching of the 
Prologue, that we go to God only by the help of God and His Christ, 
by the divine strength given us by baptism and by faith. Above all we 
meet again that quiet yet confident assertion, that He who has loved us 
and called us will love us to the end and never betray our hopes. For the 
Rule ends on this blessed assurance : " You shall arrive "... you shall 
arrive even at the heart of God. 



INDEX 



The Index includes authors, proper names (with some necessary exclusions), Latin words and 
phrases explained in the. Commentary, and subjects. The reference number covers the 
entire page, notes as well as text. It has not been attempted to give a verbal index to 
the text of the Rule, and the reader is recommended to consult the indexes in Abbot 
Butler's edition (published by Herder). Nor have quotations from Holy Scripture 
been indexed. It should be noted further that the majority of the references to authorities 
are to actual quotations, and not to mere citations of the authors specif ed. 



ABANDONMENT of the monastery, 228-230, 

,f 5 
abbas, 437 

abbot, father of the monastery, 27, 37, 
320; represents Christ, 36, 37, 437; 
physician and pastor of souls, 38-40, 
54, 221, 223, 225-227, 300, 320, 453; 
master and teacher, 40-42, 45, 57, 95, 
314, 449; his qualifications in de- 
tail, 35-55, 445-454; his paramount 
'authority, 36-40, 56-60, 459, 479, to 
be exercised according to the law of 
God, 37, according to the Rule, 59, 
454-455, according to constitutions, 60, 
390, with the counsel of his monks, 
56-60, 196, with prudence and equity, 
42-46, with firmness and discretion, 
45-51, 220-227, 357> 45'-454, without 
arbitrariness, 431-432, and with a 
constant sense of his accountability, 

38-40, 45, 50, 52, J54-55. 59> 3S 6 . 43 ', 
443, 462 ; the officials of the monastery 
to be appointed by him and exercise 
their functions in entire obedience to 
him, 194-199, 235-236, 240, 303, 
361-362, 378, 459-462; his permission 
constantly required, 245, 248, 320, 325, 
343-346, 361, 471, 481; responsible for 
the choice of Lessons and Canticles, 1 50, 
155, for furniture, tools, food, drink, 
and clothing, 200, 243, 272, 275, 347, 
351, for signifying the Hours for the 
Office, 302, for the judgement of offences 
and their punishment, 211, 287, 289, 
294-296, for studies, 308, for the 
observance of poverty, 245^ 248, 
343-346, 354-356, for the order of the 
monastery, 415, 422, 428, 431; chooses 
those to be ordained, 426; his functions 
'at Matins, 155-156; duties towards 
sick, 258-262, and guests, 335-338, 
358-360, towards postulants, 374, and 
novices, 377, 378, 386, 394, 397, 400; 
should listen to the criticisms of visiting 
monks, 419; should not take another 
Abbot's monks, 422-423; the manner 
of his appointment, 441-445,; no term 



set to his rule, but deposition pro- 
vided for, 447; monks going on a 
journey must commend themselves 
to his prayers, 468-469; entire obedience 
and submission to, 472-475, 484-485; 
to be loved with sincere and humble 
affection, 488-489 

absent brethren, prayers for, 156, 468-469 

abstinence, 319. See Fleshmcat 

acus, 356 

ad ipsum diem pertincntcs, 165-167 

address, modes of, to be used by monks, 
437-438. See Benedicite 

admission, of fugitive and expelled monks, 
i 228-230, of postulants, 367-405, of 
oblates, 406-412, of priests and clerics, 
413-417, of pilgrim monks, 418-423 

adolescence, 231-232. See Children 

/Esop, 309, 490 

aterna clausura, 97 

Agape, 138 

Agape, Chionia and Irene, SS., Acts of, 1 14 

Agde, Council of (A.D. 506), 152, 176, 389, 
423, 426 

agenda, 143, 163 

agents of the monastery, 363 

agricultural work of monks, 278, 312-313, 
322 

Aix-la-Chapelle, Councils of (A.D. 802, 

8'7)5 183, 3S8> 375. 384, 394, 4', 438, 
465, 467, 469 

Alberic, St., 351 

alleluia, 147, 152, 153, 155, 158, 159, 160, 

168-169 

Ambrose, St., 146, 148, 312, 319 
Ambrosian Liturgy, 138, 146, 147, 148, 

155, 166, 177, 181, 182 
ambrosianum, 148, 175 
anahgium, 151 
anchorites, 28-30 
Angela of Foligno, B., 191 
angels, i, 6, 89, 101, 102; guardian, 107, 

1 08, in, 112 
ante-mass, 139, 149 
antiphonal psalmody, 145-148 
antiphons, at various Offices, 144-148, 

'52-157, 158^69, 175 



497 



49 8. Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 



Antony, St., 28, 70, 72, 276, 313, 373, 489 

Apopbtbegmata patrum, 353 

apostolate, .the monastic, 137, 308, 340, 

341-342, 360 

apostolic activities, 82, 134, 308, 342, 424 
Apostolic Constitutions, 62, 156 
Aquinas. See Thomas Aquinas, St. 
Arianism, 146, 334 
Aristotle, 185 

Aries, Council of (A.D. 456), 429 
armour, the supernatural, 4 
Arsenius, St., 415 
artificers of the monastery, 361-366, 

466-467 
Asella, 406 

astuteness in selling to be avoided, 364 
Athariasius, St., 424, 426 
Athos, Mt., 27 
Augustine, St., 10, 16, 22, 23, 26, 32, 33, 

S3. 63, 68, 72, 105, 108, 1 10, 150, 178, 

1 88, 195, 223, 226, 227, 236, 250, 304, 

35. 36 3", 3'3> 3^7) 345. 36i, 363, 
366, 382, 388, 424, 439, 448, 450, 451, 
452, 480, 486, 493 
Augustine of Canterbury, St., 424 
Aurclian, St., 148, 151, 375, 425, 442 w 
austerity, great, not the aim of St. Bene- 
dict, 19, 251, 270, 317, 492 
authority, comes from God, 36; to be 
exercised for God, 37-38; relation to 
liberty, 39; a dangerous thing in the 
hands of a man, 155; not to be usurped, 
479. See also Abbot 
avarice, to be avoided by the cellarer, 

237-238, by monks, 363-364 
Aymard, B., 443 

bakery of the monastery, 466, 467 j 
Bartholomew, St., 21 \ 

Basil, St., his Rule recommended by 
St. Benedict, 493, 494; quoted, 38, 46, 
93,97, 102, 113, 115, 120, 159, 172, 187, 
204, 224, 238, 246, 259, 276, 291, 293, 

34, 323i 333. 35', 357. 380, 395. 47> 
408, 419, 420, 427, 435, 440, 442, 470, 
471, 480, 486, 494 

baths, 259-262 

Baumcr, Dom, 159, 161, 170 

Bavarian Congregation of the Holy 
Angels, 385 

Bee, 411 

bedding, 354~355 

Bcdc, Venerable, 412 

bells, 302 

bcncdiccrc, benedictio, 150, 156, 176, 416 

bcncdicite, 93, 217, 341, 439, 465-466; 
canticle, 159, 161 

Benedict, St., ix; begins his Rule with a 
loving address, a master and father, i, 
220, 226, 229; requires docility, 2, and 
obedience, 3; conceives our life at a 



journey to God, 3; continual insistence 
on obedience, 1-5, 78, 83-91, 114-119, 
472-475, 482-485, on stability, 24, 
81-82, 388-389, on the love of Christ, 
69-70, 81, 84, 488-489, who is to be 
recognized in the Abbot, 36, 37, 437, 
in the sick, 258, in guests, 330; calls the 
monastery a school of His service, 19, 
23, 136; insists on the thought of God's 
presence, 74-75, 104-109, 110-112, 
185-186; urges the thought of eternity 
and judgement, 6, 7, 9, 16-17, 24, 
72-74, 105-110, 112, 128, 130, 185,489; 
gentleness and discretion of, 19, 205, 
251, 263, 275, 346, 453, 473; prefers 
the cenobitical life, 27-34, 87; regards 
the Abbot as the keystone of the monas- 
tery, 35, see also Abbot; specially 
severe on murmuring, 90, 206, 253, 277, 
279, 351; borrows largely from Cassian, 
102-103, 129, etc.; gives paramount 
importance to the Work of God, 136, 
286; borrows his cursus from many 
sources, 138; his own contributions, 
145, 159, 161, 162, 172; humble about 
his arrangement of the psalms, but 
wishes the entire psalter to be said in 
a week, 183; recognizes three chief 
monastic occupations: the Work of 
God, sacred reading, manual labour, 
304; his master thought that we should 
seek God, 305; displays the genius of a 
Roman, 396; was perhaps a deacon, 425; 
mantes amabat, 467; his modesty about 
his Rule, ix, 491-492, 495; the 'vogue 
and influence of his Rule, ix, 495. For 
detail of his teaching and regulations 
see the index, passim 

Benedict Labre, St., 18 

Benedictine mission, 134-135. See Apos- 
tolate 

Benedictine piety, 379. See Prayer 

Benedict (Canticle), 159, 162 

benedict us es, 257 

Bernard, St., 52, 93, 104, 123, 351, 411, 
415,467 

Bernard, Claude, 2 

Bernard of Cluny, 443 

Bernard of Monte Cassino, 322,. 336, 390, 

4'7> 438, 439 

Bethlehem, monastery at, 171 
biberes, 256 
bishops, relations of monks with, 426, 

429-430, 442, 447-448, 458 
blessing. See Benedicere 
Boherius, 439, 462 
Bonaventure, St., 26. 
books, for Lent, 314-315, 318; for the 

Office, 142, 150, 157, 166, 323-324 
boots, 350 
Botiuet, 96, 119, 310 



Index 



499 



boys, how to be corrected, 231-232. See 

also Children, Oblates 
bracile, 201, 356 

breakfast, not provided by the Rule, 256 
breve, 244 
breviary, a late invention, 323; the Roman, 

161. See Roman Liturgy; quoted, 24, 

74, 75, 75, 81, 173, 242 
brevity in prayer, 192 
Bruno, St., 26 
buffoonery, 97, 125-126 
Bursfeld Congregation, 201, 366, 386, 456, 

457, 464 
Butler, Dom, 5, 62, 133, 143, 155, 228, 

34 367 

cabals, monastic, 477 

Cabrol, Dom, 139 

cadere, 209 

Casaria, Abbess, 403 

Csesarius, St., 24, 147, 151, 157, 159, 165, 

167, 1 88, 199, 222, 244, 26l, 262, 265, 

291, 3H 352. 355, 375, 383, 384, 389, 

403, 407, 450, 456 
Cagin, Dom, 146 
Cajetan, St., 248 
Calends, meaning of, in the Rule, 139, 311, 



caligte, 350 

Calfinicus, 172. 

Calmet, Dom, 19, 139, 142, 151, 159, 160, 
165, 1 66, 184, 202, 206, 209, 256, 262, 
265, 272, 280, 415, 432, 435, 462, 465, 
481 

Camaldolese, 28, 201, 366 

Canons Regular, 390 

Canticles, at Matins, 155; at Lauds, 
158-159, 161-162; at Vespers, 159, 175 

cantors, 303. 

capitate, 355 

Cappadocian monks, 146, 265 

Capuchins, 248 

Caramuel, 445 

Carmelites, 390 

carnes, 274 

Carthage, Councils of, 430, 442, 447 

Carthusians, 28, 29, 142, 201,. 250, 362, 
366, 390 

Cassian, his Conferences and Institutes 
recommended by St. Benedict, 283, 
493-4945 freely used by St. Benedict, 
103 and passim; quoted, 5, 22, 26-27, 
29, 3 S3, 61,76, 93, 95, 96, 102-103,- 

104, 112, 120, 121, 124, 129, 141, 142, 

H3, 145, i47> '5, * 6 3 7i *72, 174, 
176, 191, 193, 195, 246, 249, 254, 255, 
256, 257, 267, 268, 281, 283, 284, 286, 
290, 292, 298, 299, 325, 329, 336, 348, 

35, 352, 354, 355, 3*3, 369, 37', 377, 
405, 409, 426, 453, 464, 472, 488, 494, 

495 



Caninese Congregation, 300, 366, 459 

Caisinum, 473.- See Monte Cassino 

Cassiodorus, 14, 261 

Cato, 352 

Celestine III., Pope, 411 

cellarer, appointment of, 233; qualifies 

tions and duties, 233-242 
cenobite, 25-34 
ceremonies, of choir, 187; of profession, 

393-402 
Chalcedon, Council of ^.0.451), 389,410, 

429 

chanting, manner of, 187. See Psalmody 
Chapman, Dom, 228 
chapter, conventual, 56-60; of faults, 299; 

for novices, 384, 386 
charity, love of God and neighbour, 28, 

63-71, 78-80, 163, 488 
Charlemagne, 157, 209, 272 
Chasles, M. Raymond, 364-365 
chastity, 79, 245 

Chezal-Benolt, Constitutions of, 379, 384 
children (pueri farvuli vel adolescentes) 

admitted into the monastery, 406-412; 

discipline, 231-232, 297, 298, 434-435, 

438, 480-481; indulgence towards, 

263-264; food of, 273 
choir, ceremonies of, 187; mistakes in, 

297-298 
choir-monks, a distinction not made by 

St. Benedict, 365 ; must now be qualified 

to receive Orders, 425 
Christ, see Jesus Christ 
Church, an organ of worship, 133; divine 

authority of, 310-311; regulates and 

approves vows, 388; the church of the 

monastery, 327-329 
circa tores, 197, 202, 315 
Cistercians. See Ctteaux 
Cfteaux, 52, 93, 98, 122, 209, 250, 300, 

323, 336, 349, 35o, 35i, 353, 366, 375, 

438, 439, 464, 465 
civil death, the system of, 248 
Clement III., Pope, 411 
Clement V., Pope, 425 
Clement VIII., Pope, 375, 376, 426, 443 
Clement of Alexandria, 170 
Clement of Rome, St., 487 
clocks, ancient substitutes for, 141 
clothing, for night, 202; in general, 

346-357; Abbot's duty with regard to, 

351-35.5 
clothing in the monastic habit, postulants, 

374-375, novices, 375, professed monks, 

375, 399-400, 405 

Cluny, 93, 98, 151, 176, 197, 201, 209, 229, 
255, 257, 271, 273, 276, 300, 323, 331, 

338, 339, 35o, 35 *, 353, 355, 35$, 358, 
365-366, 374, 375, 384, 393, 394, 404, 

411, 418, 433, 4^8, 443, 45 6 465 47 
collect. 156 193 



500 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 



colour of habit, 351 

Columbanue, St., 140, 209 

Columella, 81, 194, 244, 348 

commendam, 60, 441 

Communion, Holy, 10, 23, 66, 176, 213, 

257, 266, 269, 402, 433 
community, to be consulted by the Abbot, 
56-60; chooses the Abbot, 442-443; 
order of, 431-440 

Compline, 148, 172, 175, 182; silence after, 
281-285; institution of, attributed to 
St. Benedict, 172 
compunction, 77-78, 191, 318 
concupiscence, 77-79, in 
Conferences, of Cassian, recommended by 

St. Benedict, 283, 493. See Cassian 
confession of faults and temptations, 76, 

120-121, 300-301 

confinement, solitary, 209, 215, 227, 405 
congregational system not known to 

St. Benedict, 418 
constitutam annonam, 241 
Constitutiones monastics, 246 
Constitutions, TOWS taken according to, 
390. See under names of various 
Congregations 
contemplation, 307 
contemplative life, qualifications required 

for, 370-371; trials of, 21-22, 382 
contempt of the Rule, 207, 391 
contentiousness, 79, 484 
contumacia, 206 
conversatio, 29, 491 
conversation, 93-98, 76, 125, 316 
conversi^ 29, 245, 367, 389, 431 
conversion of manners, vow of, 245, 389- 

39 

Conybeare, F. C., 127 
corporal punishment. See Punishment 
correction, necessity of, 48-50; ordinary 

procedure for, 207-208, 213, 225-227; 

Abbot's duty regarding, 450-452; of 

priests, 428-430; of prior, 462; irregular, 

479-481. See also Children, 
council, ^of the whole community, 56-60; 

of seniors, 59, 60, 196; Abbot's relation 

to, 58-60, 196 
courtesy, 435-440, 483 
cowl, 347-349, 352, 353 
crafts. See Artificers 
critical Spirit, 38, 94-95, 310. See 

Murmuring 
cuculla, 348 
cultellus, 201, 356 
Cure d'Ars, 412 
Cyprian, St., 70, 163, 227, 489 

David, King, 47 

Day Hours, 170-182; unpunctuality at, 

289-290. See under names of Hours 
deacons of the monastery, 424 



deans, 194-199 

death, the thought of, 73-74 

decanut, 194-195 

delusion, 32, no 

De Meester, Dom Placid, 156 

Denis the Areopagite, 26, 396, 424 

denunciation, the practice of, 300 

Deo'gratias, 439, 465-466 

Deodatus, Abbot, 418 

desideria carnis, 107 

desolation, spiritual, 21-22, 128, 382 

despair, 80-8 1 

Deus in adjutorium, 144, 158, 174, 177, 
257,290 

devil, the, 5, 7, 13, 14, 28, 73, 103, 106, 
121, 126, 193, 216, 218, 334, 486 

devotio, 190 ', 

Didacbe, 62, 67, 162, 170 

directanee, in directum, 148 

direction of conscience, 96-97 

dirigatur oratio mea, 181 

disciplina, 45, 189, 208-209, 211, 434-435 

Disciplina Farfensis, 260 

discipline, the, 208-209 

discretion, 453-454. See Abbot; Bene- 
dict, St,; Rule 

disobedience, 39-40, 206. See Obedience 

distinction of persons in the monastery, 

43-45* 3 6 5- See Order 
docility required by St. Benedict, 2. See 

Obedience 

dom, domnus, 437-438 
domestici Jidei, 332 
Domine labia mea aperies, 267 
Dominic, St., 26, 467 
Dominic Loricatus, St., 184 
Dominicans, 142, 390 
Domitian, 49 
Dpnatus, St., 355 
dormitory, 201-204 
Dracontius, 426 
drink, the measure of, 275-277 
duality in moral life, 10 

Eastern monks, 26-27, 144, 145, 146, 147, 
148, 151, 197, 333, 407, 467, 468 

eating between meals forbidden, 292 

education, function of punishment in, 49 

Egyptian monks, 144, 147, 192, 254 

election of Abbot, 443-445 

enclosure, 81-82, 322, 466-467, 468, 471 

English Benedictine Congregation, 349, 
399, 400, 402 

Ephrem, St., 29, 332, 360 

Epicurus, 75 

Epiphanius, St., 424 

equality, absolute, not aimed at by 
St. Benedict, 252 

Equitius, St., 351 

Erasmus, 343 

eremita, 28 



Index 



5 01 



eremitical life, 28-30 

Essenes, 70 

eternity, the desire of, 70. See Bene- 
dict, St. 

Eucharist, the Holy. See Mass; Com- 
munion. 

eulogia, 343-344 

efcpctTreXlcc, 94, 125 

examination of conscience, 15, 301 

excess in eating and drinking, 273 

excommunicated monks, improper com- 
munication with, 218-219; Abbot must 
be solicitous for, 220-224, 226; recon- 
ciliation of, 221-224, 294-296 

excommunication, monastic, 205-227, 
325,479-481 

exemption, monastic, 426, 429-430, 442, 
447-448,458 

Exbortatio depanoplia ad monacbos, 4 

exferientia magistra, 31 

Explication ascetique et bistorique de la 
&&, 444 

expulsion of incorrigible monks, 227; 
readmission of, 228-230 

Eusebius of Vercells, St., 424 

Euthymius, St., 176 . 

Eutychius, 408 

Evagrius of Pontus, 395 

Faber, Father, 32, 307, 321 

Farfa, 260, 411 

fast, ecclesiastical, 271, 279-280, 282, 284, 

314, 336, see also Lent; eucharistic, 257, 

269; monastic, 271, 279, 280, 282, 284, 

3i3-3H 336> 3595 summer, 278-279, 

284 

fastidiousness to be avoided, 122 
fasting, a mortification, 68, 319-320; 

a punishment, 208, 214, 217, 225, 

231-232 
Fathers of the Church, appropriate 

reading for Benedictines, 306-310; 

recommended by St. Benedict, 493-494 
faults, chapter of, 299; confession of, 76, 

120, 300-301; correction of, 205-230, 

286-301 

Faustus of Lefins, 429 , 

Faustus of Rhegium, 395, 399 
fear of God, 105-112, 489. See God 
feast-days. See Saints'-days 
femoralia, 352-353 
ferias, Office on. See Matins; Lauds; 

etc. 

Ferreolus, St., 375, 384 
fervor ttovitius, 29 ^ 

fields, Office in the, 323. See Agricultural 

work 
flesh meat, forbidden by St. Benedict, 274; 

except for the sick and infirm, 260, 262, 

274; may it be given to guests ? 336 
Florence, Council of, 37 



food, provided by the cellarer, 240-241; 
measure and kinds of, 270-274} 
275-277; for the sick, 260, 262, 274; 
for old men and children, 263-264; for 
guests, 336 

footgear, 350 

forgetfulness to be shunned, 106-108 

fowls regarded as fasting fare, 274 

Francis of Assisi, St., 26, 467, 472 

Francis de Sales, St., n, 98 

Franciscans, 142, 248, 349 

Fran9ois, Dom Philip, 118 

Frankfort, Council of (A.D. 794), 209 

Fratres sobrii estate^ 175 

French Benedictine Congregation, Con- 
stitutions of, 192, 249, 272, 366, 379, 

384> 385. 39. , 
friendships, particular, 476-477 
Fructuosus, St., 209, 353, 355, 375, 34, 

395 
Fulgentius, St., 437 

gaiety, 77, 94, 97, 126 

garden of the monastery, 466, 467 

gate of the monastery, 463-464 

Gelasius, Bope, 150 

Gertrude, St., 412 

Girone, Council of (A.D. 517), 162 

Gloria Patri, 144, 145, 174 

gluttony, 273, 275-276 

God, the fatherhood of, I, 6; we must be 
docile and attentive to, 2; will require 
an account, 3, 39-40, 42, 51, 54, 59, 
357, see also Abbot; life a journey to, 
in obedience, 3; necessity of His grace, 
5-6, 15, 102, 496; fear of, 7, 9, 72-73, 
105-110, 112, 128, 130, 185, 489; His 
cau, 10, 12, 23, 368; all go6d to be 
ascribed to, 15, 72; the patience of, 17; 
trust in, 18, 53, 80-81, 301, 412, 475; 
the lover and purifier of souls, 21, 22, 
117, 382; union with, 23, 24, 173, 301, 
482; all authority from, 36-38; no 
respecter of persons, 43; discretion of 
His Providence, 46; blesses fervent 
monasteries, 52-53; reflected in good 
souls, 55; actively interested in the 
affairs of a monastic house, 57; the love 
of, and of our neighbour for Him, 28, 
63-65, 65-71, 173, 301; sees us always, 
74-75, 107-109, ui-112, 128, 185-186; 
His purpose in creation, 83-84; rejoices 
in our obedience, 85, 87, 89; wins all 
His victories by obedience, 88; loves 
a cheerful giver, 91; silence of, 97; 
requires humility, 101; His rights 
absolute, 106, 238, 244, 249; requires 
us to obey others, 114, and gives us 
His graces in and through our social 
state, 216; liturgical worship of, 131- 
136; gave us the psalter, 183; reverence 



502 Commentary on the Rule of St Benedict 



in prayer to, 189-193, 327-328; generous 
to those who sacrifice themselves for 
the Community, 237; nothing to be 
put before His Work, 286-287; the 
object of our study, 306; vocation comes 
from, 368; novice must seek, 379-380; 
the end of our lives, 482, 495-496. 
See also Jesus Christ; Trinity 

Gospel at Matins, 155 

grace, necessity of, 5^-6, 15, 102, 496 

grace at meals, 290-291 

Gradual Psalms, 173, 180, 183 

grapbium, 356 

Gratian, Decree of, 97 

Greek monks, 151. See Eastern monks 

Gregory the Great, St., 24, 48, 120, 165, 
191, 193, 213* 248, 250, 32> 3o8> 329j 
339> 348, 35*> 4i8, 419* 44*> 45*> 464* 
465, 473. 495 

Gregory II., St., 410 

Gregory of Tours, St., 141, 407 

grumbling. See Murmuring 

guardian angels, 107, 108, iri, 112 

guest-house, 331, 338-340 

guest-master, 340 

guests, reception of, 330-342, 418-423; 
cellarer's duty towards, 237; relations 
of community with, 341; separate 
refectory for, 358-360 

gyrovague, 27, 33-34, 388, 418 

habit, the Benedictine, 346-357; colour 

of v 351; significance of, 400; not to be 

taken away by a monk who leaves, 405; 

taking of the, see Clothing 
beec complens, 17 
Haeften, Dom, 35 
hardships of monastic life, 381-382 
begoumenos, 437 
bemina, 272, 275 
Heli, 48 
hermits, 28-30 
Herwegen, Dom, 205 
Hilarion, St., 28, 353 
Hildegarde, St., 30, 92 
Hildemar, 96,. 139, 353, 398, 408, 414, 

421, 427, 435, 470 
Hirschau, 366, 470 
Holy Spirit, the, 133, 135 
Horace, 211, 228 

hospitality, 330-33 1, 340, 360. Se Guest 
hour, for Offices, signifying of, 302-303; 

of rising, see Rising, 
hours, division of, by the ancients and 

St. Benedict, 139-140 
hours of the Office. See under Matins; 

Lauds; etc. 

Hugh of Cluny, St., 443 
bumanitas, 335 
humility, 100-130; relation to obedience, 

83; in prayer, 190 



humiliations, novice to be eager for, 380; 

fictitious, 118-119, 380 
hymns, of Matins, 145, 148-149; of Lauds, 

159, 162; of Prime, 174; of Little Hours, 

175, 179-180; of Vespers, 175, 181; of 

Compline, 175 
Hypatius, St., 172 

Idleness, the enemy of the soul, 304 
Imitation of Christ, 67, 76, 96, 191, 259 
imponere, 148 
impossibilities, if a monk be commanded, 

472-475 . . ' 

mattentiveness, spiritual, 106-108 

infirmarian, 261 ' 

infirmary, 260 

ingetiuus, 45 

InscriptioHum latinarum . . . collectio 

(Orelli-Hen^en), 383 
Institutes) of Cassian, recommended by 

St. Benedict, 493. See Cassian 
instruments of good works, 61-82 
instrumentum, 61 
intentio cordis, 329 

introspection, dangers of, n, 15, 116 
Invitatory, 145 
Isaias, Abbot, 338 
Isidore, St., 28, 227, 231, 355, 395 
Isidore, Abbot, 425, 463 
Ivo of Chartres, St., 29 

Jacob, 101, 443, 453 
Jephte, 406 

Jerome, St., 26, 34, 35, 45, 78, 102, 127, 
194, 263, 279, 291, 316, 331, 3*1, 407, 

4*3* 433> 446 45o> 487 

jesting, 97, 125-126 

Jesuits, 142, 394 

Jesus Christ, the monk a soldier of, 3-5; 
must follow Him in obedience, 5, 
83-85, 112-113, 114-115, in patience, 
23-24, in self-denial, 67-68; must cast 
down temptations before Him, 13-14* 
75-76; and prefer nothing to Him, 
69-70, 83-85, 488-489; the perfect 
monk lives by His .love,' 129-130; the 
Abbot represents Him, 35-38, 437; 
to be seen in all our brethren, and 
especially in the sick, 258-259, in guests, 
33<V335> 34> * the poor, 332-333, 
337; the monastery a school of His 
service, 18-19, 2 3; must suffer with H&n, 
24; teaches humility, 36-37, 100; desire 
of, 1-3, 73; priesthood of, 133;. used the 
psalms, 183; bids us avoid wordiness 
in prayer," 191, and intemperance, 
273; Imitation of Cbrist, see Imitation 

Jethro, 195, 419 

Jews, psalmody of, 146, 149, 170 

Job, 22, 89 

John, St., on charity, 66-67 



Index 



53 



John the Baptist, St., 28, 164, 165, 406, 474 

John Chryiostom, St., 89 

John Climacus, St., 415 

John of the Cross, St., 97, 306, 483-484 

John of Gorze, B., 151 

John of Lycopolis, 426 

Jonas, 474 

Joseph, St., 183 

Josephus, 70 

journeys, 322-326, 468-471^ how the 
Office is to be said on, 322-324; clothes 
f r 353; prayers before and after, 
468-470; things seen and heard on, 
470-471 

Judgement, the Last, 73 

juniors, 203-204, 435-440 

Justinian, 231, 248, 375, 463 

juxta comiderationem rationis, 140 

Kitchens of the monastery, 338 

Kitchen servers, 254-257 

Kyrie eleison, 152, 156, 159, 174, 175, 176 

labour, manual, 304-316 
ladder of humility, 101-102 
Ladeuze, Mgr., 384 



La Fontaine, 490 

Lanfranc, Statutes of, 386, 394, 456 

Last Things, the, 72-74 

Lauds, on Sundays and feast-days, 158-159, 

164; on ferias, 1607-163; antiquity of, 

170; to begin at daybreak, 143; interval 

between Matins and Lauds, 141-143, 

between Lauds and Prime, 171; 

Paternoster at, 162-163 
laughter, 125-126 
laus perennis, 173 
lay brothers, 364-366; not distinguished 

from choir monks by St. Benedict, 365 
Lawrence, St., 18, 383 
lectio diyina, 142, 192, 201, 304, 306. See 

Reading . 
lectiones cum responsoriis suis, 151. See 

Lessons 

lectisternia, 200 
Lent, observance of, 317-321; silence in, 

93> 319-32; hours of meals in, 279-280; 

special books for, 314-315, 318 
Leo the Great, St., 318, 319 
Le'rins, 201, 429 
Le Roy, William, 118-119 
Lessons, of the Office, at Matins on ferias, 

149-151, 152, 153, on Sundays, 154-155, 

on Saints'-days, 150, 164-167; length 

of, 151, 157; to be shortened if the 

monks rise late, 157 
Lessons (short) at Lauds, 159, 162; at 

Little Hours, 175, 179-180; at Vespers, 

175, 181; at Compline, 175 
letters of monks, 343-345 



libra, 271-272 

library of the monastery, 314, 355 

lighting of dormitory, 202 

liiania, 152, 156, 159, 162 

litter a commendatitia, formate, 212, 334, 
423 

Little Hours, the, 148. See also Tercej 
Sext; None 

liturgy, idea of, 131-133; the Opus Dei, 
133; the special province of religious, 
134; the main Benedictine work, 
134-137; apostolic value of, 137; sources 
of St. Benedict's, 138-139; Matins 
most ancient part of, 138-139; books 
for, 142, 150, 157, 166, 323-324; care in. 
performance of, 186-187. See also 
under the names of the parts and 
elements of the liturgy 

Lives of the Fathers, recommended by 
St. Benedict, 283, 493. See Vitce 
Patrum 

Lobbes, 425 

Lombards, 272 

love of God. and neighbour. See Charity 

lucernarium, 171, 172, 181 

Lucifer, 486. See Devil 

lying, in word and deed, 10 

Mabillon, 119, 395, 425 

Macarius, St., 206, 211, 268, 287, 314, 

337,373,383,4<>3,484,45 6 
Macon, Council of, 407 

Magnificat, 159, 175 

Maistre, Count de, 123 

Majolus, St., 443 

Mandatum, 256, 337, 339 

manifestation of conscience, 75, 76, 120 

121, 300-301 
manual labour, 304-316 
manufactures suitable to monks, 362-363; 
mappula, 356 
Marine, 119, 122, 141, 165, 180, 323, 

358, 36, 377, 384, 404 
Martin, St., 77, 89, 165, 201, 337, 353, 

424, 425, -465 

Mary, B.V.M., 13, 106, 183, 190, 416 
Mary Magdalene, St., 223 
Mass, the, 133, 156, 176, 213, 257, 266, 

269, 314, 400, 401-402, 416 
Matins, on ferias, 138-153, 168; on 

Sundays, 154, 157, 169; on Saints'-days r 

164-167; the psalms of, 182; most 

ancient part of the Office, 138-139; the 

time of, 139-141, 143; probably began. 

with Domine labia mea aperies, 144; 

interval before Lauds, 142-143, 156-157; 

no interval between the nocturns, 152. 

See also under names of various elements- 
matta, 355 

Matutinorum solemnitas, 158. See Lauds 
Maundy, the, 337 



504 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 



Maunis, St., 57, 91, 408, 412, 433, 473, 

meals, reading at, 265; silence at, 267-268; 
hours of, 278-280; eating between, 
forbidden, 292; away from the monas- 
tery, 322-326. See also Fast; Food; 
Dmik 

meat. See Flesh meat 

meditari, 142 

meditation, 142-143, 307 

M<Jge, Dom, 104, 119, 140, 165, 337, 445 

Melania the Elder, 395 

melota, 348, 349 

Mnard, Dom, 126, 142, 145, 263-264, 
285 

mental prayer, 142-143, 192, 306-307, 

493 
mercy, works of, 68-69 

Michael, St., 486 

Milan, Liturgy of. See Ambrosian Liturgy 

mill of the monastery, 466, 467 

minutio, 261 

miscens tcmporibus tempora, 46 

Miserere, 158-159 

missa sint,jiant, 156, 174 

Missal, the Roman, 23, 402 

missam, missas tenere, 413 

mixtum, 269 

Mplesmes, 353 

monastery, a school of the Lord's service, 

18, *9 23, 3i9> a family, 27, 51, 252; 

the house of God, 36,. 57; prosperity of, 

48, 52-53; property of sacred, 238, 244; 

to be self-sufficing, 466-467 
monastic life, a counsel, 7; hardships of, 

381-383; distinct from priestly, 413. 

See Vocation and passim 
Monica, St., 305 
monk, meaning of the word, 25, 26; lands 

of, 25-34; varying temperament and 

character, 41-42, 46-48, 51; for duties 

see Index, passim 
Mont St. Michel, 467 
Monte Cassino, 57, 144, 147, 160, 165, 

*97> 257. 269, 272, 276, 328, 335 34, 

35?, 353 355. 3^5* 401. 48, 43 *> 439 
mortification, 19-20, 68, 317, 319, 320-321 
Moses, 50, 195, 419, 443, 474 
murmuring, 71, 90-91, 206, 253, 256, 277, 

279. 338 

Nathan, 47 

necessaries to be provided for all alike, 

25.1-253 
negfigence to be avoided, 122, 354 

Nerva, 39 

Night Office, unpunctuality at, 287-289. 

See also Matins 
night silence, 204, 281-285 
Nilus, St., 29, 395 
Nitria, 333, 338 



nobles, sons of, who are offered, 406-412 
nocturns, of ferial" Office, 149, 152; of 

Sunday Office, 154-155; of festal 

Office, 165 
None, 148, 168-169, 170, 175, 179-180, 

3H 

nonttus, 437 

.novices, 367-405; separated from the 
professed, 376; studies of, 379; chapter 
of, 384, 386; admitted to profession 
by vote of the Community, 386 

novice-master, 377-379 

novitiate, tests and training of, 379-383; 
stages and length of, 383-384; one 
novitiate for a Congregation, 377, 378 

nulla regula approbati, 31 

obedience, 3-5, 32, 34, 83-91, 472; for 
love of Our Lord, 83-85, 115; as a part 
of humility, 114-115; in spite of 
difficulties, 115-118, 472-475; vow of, 
390; novice to be zealous for, 377, 380; 
of monks one to another, 482-485, 
487-488; the best index of spiritual 
progress, 483 

obedietttiee bonum, 482 

oblates, adult, 365, 412; children, 406- 
412, 434-435. See Children 

obligation of the Rule, 391-393 

oblivio, 106 

Odilo, St., 443, 450 

Odo of Cluny, St., 443, 446 

Office, the Divine, the Opus Dei, 133; 
its meaning and place in Benedictine 
life, 131-137; terminations of, 152, 156, 
162; excessive multiplication of Offices, 
173; beginning of, 177; how to be said, 
185-1935 the Night Office, 138-157, 
1 64-1 67, 1 82 ; the Day Offices, 158-1 63, 
170-182; nothing to be put before it, 
287; the sign for, 302; how to be said 
away from the monastery, 322-324; 
novices to be zealous for, 380 

Office of the Dead, 173 

officials of the monastery hold their offices 
ad ttutum Abbatis, 198. ^See also 
Cellarer, etc. 

officiousness, 479-480 

old monks, 263 

Optatus, St., 1 14 

opus Dei, 133 

opus peculiars, 355 

Orange, Council of, 5, 72 

oratory of the monastery, 327-329 

order of the Community, 431-440; not 
to be determined by age, 433; generally 
fixed by date of " conversion," 434; 
special ordinances for priests and clerics, 
415-417, 422, 428, and for pilgrim 
monks, 422 

Ordericus Vitalis, 353 



Index 



505 



Orleans, Councils of, 219, 407, 423 
Often, St., 425 
Ovid, 76 

Pachomius, 22, 85, 93, 98, 193, 206, 229, 
243, 281, 288, 291, 299, 316, 323, 332, 

333. 343. 37*> 373. 379. 384, 395. 45. 
414, 419, 424, 442, 456, 461, 468, 470, 

47 1 . 477. 488 
Palestine, psalmody of, 147 
Palladius, Lausiac History, 221, 335, 425 
Palladius, De re rustica, 348 
Paphnutius, Abbot, 369 
Paradise of the Fathers, 426 
Pardon, humble asking for, 484-485. See 

also Confession 
Pargoire, Pere, 171 
pastoral work, 424. See also Apostolic 

activities 

Paternoster, 162-163 
patria potestas, 37, 60, 41 1 
Paul, St., 1 8, 123. Quoted, passim 
Paul the Deacon, 338, 353, 358, 404, 408, 

409, 414, 421, 427, 437, 440, 470 
Paul Orosius, 26 
Paul the Simple, St., 28, 373 
Paula, St., 302 
Paulinus of Nola, St., 4, 344 
Paulinus (biographer of St. Ambrose), 

146 

Pax, the Benedictine motto, n 
pedvles, 20 1, 350 
Pelagianism, 5, 72, 163 
penances, for faults in general, 205-217, 

299-301; for the incorrigible, 225-227; 

for boys, 231-232, 298; for unpunctu- 

ality, 286-293; for the excommunicated, 

294-296; for mistakes in choir, 297-298 
Penitential psalma^T^W 
Peregrinatio Eucbmte, 156, 164-165, 166 > 
Perpetua and Felicity, SS., 102 
Peter Damian, St., 184 
Peter the Venerable, 93, 230, 323, 337, 

35'. 358. 384,439.465 
Petit, Mgr., 146 

Petition, the Profession, 385 

Petronax, 272 

pigmentum, 276 

pilgrim monks, 418-423. See also Guests 

Pius X., Pope, 161, 183 

Placid, St., 57, 408, 412, 433, 446, 473 

Plato, 42, 72, 75, 450 

Pliny, 138-139 

politeness, 435-440, 483 

Pontifical, the Roman, 413, 443, 489 

poor, sons of, who are offered, 406-412. 

See also Guests 
Porcarius, 287 
Porphyry, 72 

porter of the monastery, 463-467 
postulants, 371-375 



poverty, monastic, 245-253; vow of, 247, 
345; Abbot sees to observance of, 
355-356. See Clothes, etc. 

prapositus, 437, 456 

prayer, necessity of, 5-6; qualities of, 
77, 97, 189-193; remote preparation 
for, 186-187; private prayer, 192-193, 
318-319, 327-329. See also Medita- 
tion; <Mental Prayer; Liturgy 

preces feriales, 152 

presence of God, the thought of the, 
74-75, 107-109, iii-iiz, 128, 185-186 

presents to monks, 343-345 

pride, 72, loo-ioi, 206, 266-267, 361. 
See Self-complacency 

priesthood, relation of, to monastic life, 
413-414, 424 

priests in .the monastery, 413-417, 
424-430 

Prime, 168-169, 171, 172, 174, 178-179; 
interval between Lauds and, 171; night 
silence ends at, 285; work begins after, 



prior (frapositus) of the monastery, 197, 
456-462; St. Benedict severe about, 
457-459; to be appointed by the Abbot, 
459-460; to be in all things submissive 
to die Abbot, 461 ; to be punished if 
refractory, 462 

prior, signifies in the Rule the Abbot, 
a superior, a senior, 96, 117, 162, 192, 
267, 275, 292, 333, 335, 336, 435, 4^6, 

43> 474 482, 484 . 

pro modo conversations, 200, 204 

T/H>rT<St, 437, 456 

profession, admission of novices to, '386; 
character and consequences of, 392-398; 
a second baptism, 399; ceremonial of, 
393-402; schedule of, 385, 397-398 

Prometheus, 21 

promptitude in rising, 203, 204 

property, private, 245-250; arrangements 
concerning, before Profession, 402-404, 
409-410. See also Poverty 

psalms, at Matins on ferial days, 144-153, 
182, on Sundays, 154-157, 182, on 
Saints'-days, 164-167; at Lauds on 
ferial days, 160-163, on Sundays, 
158-159, on Saints'-days, 164-167; at 
Prime, 174, 178-179; at Little Hours, 
175, 179-1805 at Vespers, 175, 180-181; 
at Compline, 175, 182; probably said 
standing, 151; study of, 142; the 
principle of St. Benedict's distribution 
of, 165, 167, 183; does not regard his 
distribution of, as final, 183; the authen- 
tic Divine prayer, 183 

psalmody, kinds of, 145-148; essential 
part of the Office, 149 

psalmus responsorius, 146 

putritia, 231 



506 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict 



pulmentarium, 270 

punctuality, in rising from sleep, 203, 204; 

at Community exercises, 286-293; 

law allowed at different Offices, 288-290; 

penances for faults in, 288-291; Abbot 

to be responsible for, 302-303 
punishment, ground of, 220; not to be 

inflicted without authority, 479-481; 

corporal, 49-50, 207-210, 22$, 231, 

298, 485. See also Correction; Penances 
puritatis devotio, 190 
purity of prayer, 190 

Quintilian, 49 
Quintus Curtius, 8 

Racine, 218 

Raguel, 436 

Ranc, Abbot de, 118-119, 300 

reader, the weekly, 265-269; of Lessons, 

H 2 ' 303 
reading, at meals, 265-268; after supper or 

Vespers, 283-284; sacred, 77, 142, 

306-308,- 314-316, 318-319, 493-49.5 
reception of brethren into religion, 

367-40$. See Admission; Guests 
recollection, 2, 173, 281, 301; before sleep, 

204 

recreation, 94. See Conversation 
recruitment of the monastery, 52, 340, 

360, 371-373. See Admission 
refectory, servers in, 254-257; reading 
; in, 265-268; penances in, 300; for the 

sick, 260; for guests, 338-340; the 

Abbot's, 358-360 
Regula S. Antonii, 72 
Regula cujusdam ad virgines, 465 
Regula Magistri, 33, 141, 142, 196, 209, 

269, 33 1 ? 338,. 44, 442. 469 
Regula Orientalis, 207 
Regula SS. Patrum I., 46, 211, 234, 237, 

244, 268, 363, 341, 359, 371, 422, 423 
Regula SS. Patrum II., 321 
Regulus, 228 

relationships, in the monastery, 476 
religion, meaning of, 131-137 
religious, what is a ? 134; religious life the 
"' perfection of the Christian life, 387 
Responses, at Matins, 148, '151, 153, 155, 

157, 165; at Lauds, 159, 162; at Vespers, 

175, 181 

responsorial psalmody, 146 
responsum, 325, 464 
reverence in prayer, 189-193 
Ring of Pope Xystus, 127 
rising, time of, 139-141, 143, i$4, 1575 

promptitude in, 203, 204 
Robert, St., 353 
Roman Liturgy, 138, 149, 150, 152, 155, 

161, 1 66, 177, 181, 182 



Romanui, St., 302, 347, 418 

Rome, Council of (A.D. 826), 425 * 

Runnus, 34, 68, 101, 126-127, I 7&t *9 ! > 
267, 330, 333, 334, 336, 426, 463 

Rule of St. Basil, recommended by 
St. Benedict, 493. See also Basil, St. 

Rule of St. Benedict, manuscripts, sources, 
commentaries, x-xii; moderation of, 
19, 251, 473, 492; stability an essential 
element of, 24; titles of the chapters, 
25; to be observed by all, 58-59, 454; 
called " holy " by St. Benedict himself, 
206, 461, 462; its. master thought the 
seeking of God, 305; to be read to the 
novices frequently, 383-384, and to the 
whole Community, 384, 467; orie of 
those approved by the Church, 388; 
vows to be taken according to, 390; 
the obligation of, 390-391; the closing 
chapters especially venerable, 472; 
obedience its alpha and omega, 482; 
Chapter LXXII. a synthesis of, 486; 
St. Benedict's modest opinion of, 
49 1-496 ; adaptability of, 495. Textual 
notes, 3, 5, 12, 17, 18, 25, 31, 33, 38, 40, 
59, 6 3, 9* 9 6 > "4, i9 "2, 113, 127, 
H3 55, 202, 205, 221, 223, 228, 229, 
241, 270, 282, 284, 299, 301, 323, 367, 
428, 453, 466, 467, 480 

Rule of SS. Paul and Stephen, 80 

Rule. See also Regula 

Rutilius Namatianus, 25 

Sacred reading. See Reading 

sagum, 355 - 

Saint-Denys, 425 

St. Maur, Congregation of, 260, 310, 366, 

374, 377, 379, 34, 385, 394, 398, 399, 
401, 438, 459 
St. Vanne, Congregation of, 366, 438, 

459 
SS. Vitonus and Hydulphus, Congregation 

of, 300 
Saints, cultus of, in monastic churches, 

164-165 

Saints'-days, Office on, 150, 164-167 
Salmanticenses, 94 
salutation, modes of, between monks, 439. 

SeieBe'nedicite 
Samuel, 57, 433 
sanatorium, 260 
sanctity, kinds of, 354 
sapientiee doctrina, 197 
Sarabaites, 31-33, 418 
Satan. See Devil 
scapular, 202, 349-350 
Scete, 333, 426 
Schenoudi of Atrip, 395 
scbola dominici servitii, 19 
scriptorium, 201 



Index 



507 



Scripture, use of, in the Rule, 8, 9; 
sacramental value of, 226; to be read to 
guests, 335; recommended by St. Bene- 
dict, 492-495. See also Lessons; 
Reading 

self-assertion, 124 

self-complacency, 15, 72, 78, 321. See 
Pride 

self-love, 68, joo-ioi, 476 

self-will, 21, 109-110, 113 

selling of the produce of the monastery, 

363-364 
Seneca, 75 

seniores, 202, 204 . 
seniors, relations of, with juniors, 435-440; 

council of, 59-60, 196 
Sens, Council of, 105 
Sentences ofSextus, 62, 126 
Serapion Sindonita, 221 
Sermo asceticus de renuntiatione saculi, 440 
Servandus, Abbot, 419 
servers in the kitchen and at meals, 



seven Offices of the day, 172-173 

Sext, 148, 168-169, 170, 171, 175, 179-180, 



Sextus, Sentences of, 62, 126 

shoes, 349-350 

sic stemus ad psallendum, 151 

sick monks, 258-262; cellarer's duty 
towards, 237 

sicut erat ., 145 

Sidonius Apollinaris, 348 

siesta, 143, 312, 314 

signs, use of, at meals, 267-268; for Hours 
of the Office, 302, 314 

silence, the spirit of, 92-99; a part of 
humility, 115-116, 125-126; how far 
enjoined by St. Benedict, 76, 93, 125, 
316; material silence, 98; interior, 
98-99; at meals, 267-268; after Com- 
pline, 204, 281-285; in Lent, 319; in 
the oratory, 328 

silent obedience, 1 16 

simple vows distinguished from solemn, 
247, 388 

simplicity of heart, 10, 71 

sincerity, 10, 71 

singularity, to be avoided, 124 

Siricius, Pope St., 424 

sleep, manner and measure of, 200-204; 
time of rising from, 139-141, 143, 154, 
157; promptitude in rising from, 203, 
204; recollection before, 204. See 
Siesta 

Smaragdus, 59, 150, 267, 350, 438, 458, 
469,471,480 

solemn vows distinguished from simple, 
247, 388 

solemnitas, 158 

Solesmes, 374, 394 



solitude, dangers of, 28, 30 

somnolentorum excusationes, 204 

Spiritual Life and Prayer, 382 

spiritual reading, 77, 142, 306-308, 
314-316, 31873/9. 493-49$ 

stability, essential element in* the Rule, 
24, 27, 34, 82; meaning of, 389; vow 
of, 388-389; to be promised by pilgrim 
monk, 421; St. Benedict anxious for, 
466-467 

statio, 187 

Stephen, St., 123 

Stobaeus, 78 

stockings, 350, 352 

Stoics, 117, 211 

study, of psalter and lessons, 142; matter 
and method of, 306-311; studies of 
novices, 379. See also Reading 

Subiaco, 195, 298, 348, 424, 431, 439 

sufferings, 20-24; of obedience, 115-118; 
of monastic life, 381-383 

Sulpicius Severus, 58, 77, 88, 437 

Sunday, occupations of, 316; the Office 
of, 154-159, 168-169 

super statutam annonam, 256 

superfluity, 259, 419 

supplicatio litania, 156 

Surra, Pdre, 126 

sympacta, 221 

Tabennisi, 433 
tabula, 356 
tacita conscientia, 1 16 
Tacitus, 39, 69 
taciturnitas, 92 
talkativeness, 95-97, 125 
talking. See Conversation; Silence 
Te decet laus, 156 
Te Deum, 155 
tears, gift of, 191, 328, 329 
temptations, to be cast down before Our 
Lord, 14, 75, 76; manifestation of, 

75, 76, 120-121, 300-301 

Terce, 148, 168-169, I 7- 1 7 1 > 1 75> 

179-180; in the fields, 312, 314 
Terence, 450 

Teresa, St., 22, 104, 204, 259 
Terracina, 195, 339, 346, 356 
Tertullian, 7, 130, 189, 334, 347, 439, 494 
Tertullus, 408, 412 
Thebaid, 467 
Thelema, 35 

Theodemar, 348, 349, 353 
Theodore of Canterbury, St., 394 
Theodoret, 442 
Theophilus of Alexandria, 102 
tberapeuta, 26 
Thomas Aquinas, St., i, n, 26, 30, 43, 64, 

76, 79. 94, 103, '31, 132* 34. i35> 19*1 
249. 370, 372, 387. 39' 399 453 

Thomassm, 407, 425 



508 Commentary on tlie Rule of Sf. Benedict 



time, how computed by St. Benedict, 
139-141. See Meals; Office; Sleep; Year 

Tobias, 436 

tokens (eulogta), 343-345 

Toledo, Council of (A.D. 633), 410, 411 

tolerance, mutual, 488 

tonsure, 30, 375, 395 

tools of the monastery, 243-244 

Trappists, 122, 362 

Trent, Council of, 384, 404, 406, 443, 446 

Trinity, the Blessed, 37, 130, 131, 133, 
216 

tunic, 350, 352, 353 

Turrecremata, 336 

typus, 241 

Udalric, 151, 438 

University of Paris, 26 

unpunctuality, in rising, 203-204; at 

Community exercises, 286-293 
unworldliness, 69, 326 
ut pravalet, 48 

Vatson, Council of (A.D. 529), 145, 152 

valetudinarianism, 259 

Valladolid, Congregation of, 457 

Vallombrosan Order, 336 

Vannes, Council of (A.D. 465), 29 

Varro, 244 

vet, 27, 469 

Vcrba Seniorum, 3, 28, 33, 125, 184, 236, 

276, 354, 4i5 
Vcrsicles, at Matins, 150, 154, 155, 157; 

at Lauds, 162; at Prime, 174; at Little 

Hours, 175, 179-180; at Vespers, 175, 

181; at Compline, 175 
versus = grace at meals, 291 
Vespers, 169, 170, 171, 172, 175, 180-181; 

Paternoster at, 162; hour of, 279-280; 

reading after, 283-284 
Vicovaro, 32, 67, 447 
Vienne, Council of (A.D. 1311), 425 
Vigilantius, 168 
vigilitf, 140 
Vigilius, Pope, 442 
Vigils. See Matins 



Virgil, 189, 381 

Vita Patrun, 72, 93, 184, 494. See also 
Verba Seniorum 

Vitry, Jacques de, 93 

Vivarium, 261 

vocation, 368-370; requirements of Bene- 
dictine, 370-373 

volttptas babet pcenam, 113 

vows of religion, 386-392; theological 
basis of, 386-3885 distinction between 
simple and solemn vows, 388; vow of 
stability, 388-389, of conversion of 
manners, 389-390, of obedience, 390; 
taken according to Rule and Con- 
stitutions, 390; obligation of, 390-393; 
vow of poverty, 247; formula of, 385, 
397-398, to be kept in the monastery, 
405; vows of Oblates, 406-408. See 
also Profession 

Wandrille, St., 425 

washing of the feet. See Maundy 

water-supply of monastery, 466, 467 

weapons of obedience, 4 

will, renunciation of, 4; perversity of, the 

root of serious faults, 206-207. See a ' so 

Self-will. 

wine, allowed by St. Benedict, 275-277 
wit, pleasantness of (etrpaireXla), 94, 125 
work, value of, 304-305; kinds of, for 

monks, 361-366. Sec also Manual 

labour; Study 
Work of God, the Divine Office, 133. 

See Office 
world, relations of monks with, 340-342, 

343, 371, 466. See Enclosure 
worldliness, 69, 326 
Worms, Council of (A.D. 868), 410 

Year, variously divided by St. Benedict, 
3" 

Zachary, Pope, 272 

zeal for the Work of God, 287, 380; 

the good zeal which monks ought to 

have, 486-490 



Printed in England 



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DEULTTE, Paul 

The Rule of Saint 
Benedict 

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