Rule of St. Benedict : a commentary

COMMENTARY ON THE RULE OF
ST. BENEDICT

THE RULE OF
ST. BENEDICT

A Commentary by the Right Rev. DOM

PAUL DELATTE, Abbot of Solesmes and Superior-General
of the Congregation of the Benedictines of France. Translated by
DOM JUSTIN McCANN, Monk of Ampleforth. o & o &

L O N <D O N

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1921

NIHIL OBSTAT :

D. CUTHBERTUS ALMOND.

IMPRIMATUR :

•J- EDDARDUS,

Archiep. Birmingamien.

die 14 Septembris, 1920.

Ex ACTIS CAPITULI GENERALIS XI CONGREGATIONS
GALLICS O.S.B.

Unus e CapitularibuSy nomine omnium adstantium, imo et totius Con-
gregationis, gratias refert Rmo Prasidi quam maxima* et meritisstmas
pro novo opere juris communis facto, nempe Commentario tn Sanctam
Regulam, ex quo omnes baurire possumus uberrimam aque ac profundissimam
notitiam perfections status mc-nastici et largiter accipere purissimum
spiritum Sanctissimi Patris nostri Benedicti.

THESE PAGES, WRITTEN WITH THE AIM OF DISCLOSING
THE RICHES OF THE HOLY RULE, ARE DEDICATED, IN
LOVE AND DEVOTEDNESS, TO ALL THOSE, WHETHER
IN MONASTERIES OR IN THE WORLD, WHO BELONG
TO THE GREAT FAMILY OF ST. BENEDICT.

QUARR ABBEY,

September %thy 1913.

PREFACE

f I ^HE following translation was made at Ampleforth in 1917, and

was not at first intended for publication. It has been published

through the urgency of several friends, who persuaded the trans-

-^- lator that some such commentary on the Rule, in English, was

needed and would be welcomed.

The translation endeavours to be a faithful and accurate rendering
of the original. In this endeavour the translator has received constant
help from the Benedictines of Quarr, for which he is deeply grateful.
He is aware that he has not entirely avoided the defects which are usual
in translations, and for this he asks the indulgence of his readers.

The differences between the translation and the original are in
considerable. A few modifications of the text have been rendered
necessary by the publication of the Codex Juris Canonici. An index
has been supplied, and an English version of the Rule set parallel with
the Latin text. In constructing this version free use has been made of
current versions, especially of the excellent Rule of St. Benedict of Abbot
Hunter-Blair. Latin quotations in the text have generally been
translated.

On one further point the translator feels that he owes a word of
explanation, both to the general reader and to his own brethren. The
Benedictine monasteries of the world are grouped in Congregations,
generally on a national basis. Among these Congregations there is
considerable diversity of discipline and custom; and this though all
follow the same Rule. Such diversity has been characteristic of
Benedictinism from the beginning. Now the translator is a member of
the English Benedictine Congregation, a very ancient body with a
unique tradition. It is natural therefore that there should be points
of interpretation on which he would differ from the author of the
Commentary. But he has not allowed his own opinions to affect the
translation; he does not even think it necessary to mention them; he
would only ask the reader to observe that such phrases as " our Congre
gation," " our Constitutions " etc., wherever they occur in the text, as
indeed every word and sentence of the book, are uttered, not by the
translator, but by the author, the very distinguished Superior- General
of the Benedictines of France.

Finally, the translator desires to express his gratitude to the author
for the privilege that has been allowed him. And he wishes to associate
his work, in its degree, with the spirit and intention of the Dedication .

ST. BENET'S HALL,
OXFORD.
1920.

INTRODUCTION

" fT"^HE man of God, Benedict, among the many wonderful works
that made him famous in this world, was also conspicuous for
his teaching : for he wrote a Rule for monks, remarkable for

•A- discretion and rich in instruction. If anyone desires to know
more deeply the life and character of the man, he may find in the
ordinances of that Rule the exact image of his whole government:
for the holy man cannot possibly have taught otherwise than as he
lived." To this judgement of St. Gregory the Great,1 so complete
for all its grace of form and sobriety of language, we may yet add two
observations : first that the moral beauty of St. Benedict, his tempera
ment and almost his characteristics, are reflected also in the pages, at
once candid and profound, of his biographer; secondly, that the Rule
itself came, in the middle of the sixth century, as the ripe fruit of a
considerable monastic past and of the spiritual teaching of the Fathers.

St. Benedict was above all else a man of tradition. He was not the
enthusiastic creator of an entirely new form of the religious life : neither
nature nor grace disposed him to such a course. As may be seen from
the last chapter of his Rule, he cared nothing for a reputation of origin
ality, or for the glory of being a pioneer. He did not write till late,
till he was on the threshold of eternity, after study and perhaps after
experience of the principal monastic codes. Nearly every sentence
reveals almost a fixed determination to base his ideas on those of the
ancients, or at least to use their language and appropriate their terms.
But even though the Rule were nothing but an intelligent compilation,
even though it were merely put together with the study and spiritual
insight of St. Benedict, with the spirit of orderliness, moderation, and
lucidity of this Roman of old patrician stock, it would not for all that
be a commonplace work: in actual fact, it stands as the complete and
finished expression of the monastic ideal. Who can measure the
extraordinary influence that these few pages have exercised, during
fourteen centuries, over the general development of the Western world ?
Yet St. Benedict thought only of God and of souls desirous to go to
God; in the tranquil simplicity of his faith he purposed only to establish
a school of the Lord's service: Dominici schola servitii. But, just
because of this singleminded pursuit of the one thing necessary, God
has blessed the Rule of Monks with singular fruitfulness, and St. Benedict
has taken his place in the line of the great patriarchs.

We may almost say of the Benedictine Rule — what is certainly true
of the Law of God — that it bears in itself its own justification, that
it is self-sufficient; " the judgements of the Lord are true, justified in
themselves," and that it only needs to be read and loved and lived.

1 Dialogues, bk. II., chap, xxxvi. This second book is devoted to the life of
St. Benedict ; there is a French translation by E. CARTIER. [An English translation,
adapted from an earlier version, has been printed in the QUARTERLY SERIES.]

ix

x Introduction

A practical commentary on words dictated by the Spirit of God has
scarcely any other task than to spell them tenderly, to emphasize them
wisely, and to put them in the clearest light. And, indeed, a long
series of labours might very usefully converge on a literal explanation
of the Rule: a study, for instance, of monastic institutions from the
holy ventures of the Church of Jerusalem and the heroism of the
Thebaid to St. Basil and to St. Benedict ; a study of the life of St. Benedict ;
a critical history of the text of the Rule and a history of its diffusion;
an account of the living interpretation furnished by the customaries
and the Rules modelled on St. Benedict's; and finally a view of contem
porary monachism. Without entirely neglecting any of these questions,
especially those which are necessary for the understanding of the text,
our Commentary remains, even in its printed form, what it originally
was : an exposition of the Rule given in the Novitiate of the Abbey of
Solesmes. It reproduces, in an abridged form, conferences introductory
to the monastic life. Hence the absence of any scientific apparatus
properly so called; hence sometimes the familiar and homely style;
hence certain repetitions, provoked most often by the insistence of our
Holy Father himself. Perhaps the publication of these notes will
satisfy, in some measure, the interest of the many Christian souls who
ask us every day for enlightenment on the mode of life, spirituality, and
real usefulness of monks.

The text we explain is the one in current use in the Congregation
of the Benedictines of France. But everyone may consult the critical
editions of Schmidt and of WolfHin, the labours of Traube, Plenkers,
G. Morin, and other scholars, and especially the excellent edition
brought out in 1912 by the Right Reverend Dom C. Butler.1 We
must indicate briefly the chief theories that have been propounded with
regard to the history of the text. Dom Schmidt was the first to point
out the existence of two very distinct families of manuscripts. Accord
ing to him the most ancient manuscripts (Oxoniensis, of the end of the
seventh century; Feronensis LII. (otherwise 50) and Sangallensis 916,
of the eighth to ninth century) give the text of a first redaction of the
Rule; all three seem to come from an immediate common source.
D. Schmidt even thought that he had found in a Tegernsee manuscript
(Monacensis 19408, ninth century) the representative of an autograph
copy entrusted by St. Benedict to St. Maurus when the latter went to
Gaul. The Monte Cassino autograph, of which Theodemar sent
Charlemagne a faithful copy2 that was spread widely, would then
represent a second and final redaction. WolfHin, in the preface to his
edition of the Rule, puts forward the hypothesis of three or even four
redactions.

1 President of the English Benedictine Congregation.

2 We may follow the history of this copy, if it be indeed the same one, in PAUL
THE DEACON, De gestis Langobardorum, \. IV., c. xviii. 5 1. VI., c. xl. (Patrologia Latina,
XCV., 547-548, 650-651), and in the Chronicle of Monte-Cassino by LEO OF OSTIA,
1. I., 48 (P.L.) CLXXIII., 555). The latter relates that the autograph was destroyed
in the burning of the monastery of Teano in 896.

Introduction xi

It is certain that St. Benedict did not compose his Rule at one
stroke; Chapters LXVII.-LXXIII. are an addition; the Prologue was
probably written last. But, according to the view that tends more
and more to prevail, the manuscripts do not reveal the existence of
several editions ot the Rule issued by St. Benedict himself. Traube,
Plenkers, and Butler have shown that the text of the most ancient codices
that remain to us is really an emended and interpolated text. The
genuine and standard text must be sought for in the twofold Carlo-
vingian and Cassinese tradition: especially in Sangallensis 914, tran
scribed, in the early years of the ninth century, from the copy sent to
Charlemagne.1 D. Morin has issued a critical edition of this manu
script, and D. Butler has taken it as the basis of his labours. The text
on which we comment is a vulgate, a text which has been worked up
and improved, like that of the most ancient codices, and at about the
same time; D. Butler finds traces of this textus receptus as early as the
eighth century; and this is the text reproduced in the majority of
the manuscripts of the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries, and in
the printed editions. Let us remember finally that St. Benedict wrote
in the vulgar tongue as spoken in the neighbourhood of Cassinum in the
sixth century : the grammar and spelling of our text are largely retouched.
We have not yet got the definitive critical edition.

There is a very great interest in watching the genesis of the Rule,
in examining in detail how much of it is old and how much new. To
facilitate this task D. Butler has assembled and transcribed the chief
sources at the foot of his text: we have thus been able to add some
references to those which we had already collected. St. Benedict often
quotes St. Augustine, and several times St. Jerome; he had read St.
Cyprian, St. Leo, and Sulpicius Severus. The Rule is reminiscent
continually of the Institutes and the Conferences of Cassian.2 Much
is borrowed from the two collections of the Rules of St. Basil, the Regulce
fusius tractate^ and the Regulae hrevius tractate?, or rather from the
summary and fusion of the two effected by Rufinus, their translator into
Latin. St. Benedict reproduces many a passage of the Rule of St.
Pachomius translated by St. Jerome. He quotes the Rules of St.
Caesarius Ad monacbos and Ad virgines; the Rule of St. Macarius of
Alexandria; the first two of the so-called Rules of the Holy Fathers;
the Regula Orientalis; the Doctrina of St. Orsiesius, etc.3 He was

1 Cf. PAULI DIACONI, Epist. I. (P.L., XCV., 1585). This copy no longer
exists.

2 We shall cite CASSIAN after the edition of MICHAEL PETSCHENIG, vols. XIII.
(Conlat tones) and XVII. (De institutis caenobiorum) of the Vienna Corpus scriptorum
ecclesiasticorum latinorum. But the reader will do well not to neglect the commentary
of the old editor DOM ALARD GAZET, P.L., XLIX. These two works of Cassian have
been translated into French by E. CARTIER. [There is an English translation in
vol. XI. of the Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers.]

3 We shall cite all these Rules from the Codex Regularum of ST. BENEDICT OF
ANIANE, edited by HOLSTENIUS (Paris, 1663); likewise the Rules subsequent to
St. Benedict, in particular the interesting anonymous Rule called the Rule of the
Master (seventh century).

xii Introduction

familiar also with various hagiographical collections since grouped under
the general title of Lives of the Fathers : the Life of St. Antony, the
Lausiac History of Pattadius, the History of the Monks of Egypt trans
lated by Rufinus, the Verba seniorum ; etc.1

A word now on the principal commentaries. The oldest that has
come down to us is probably that of Paul the Deacon, generally identified,
though the point is not absolutely established,2 with Paul Warnefrid,
the historian of the Lombards, a monk of Monte Cassino towards the
end of the eighth century. The commentary of the Frank Hildemar is
scarcely more, according to Traube, than a slightly expanded copy of
the preceding one. Like the commentary of Smaragdus, Abbot of St.
Mihiel, Hildemar's was composed in the first half of the ninth century.
Bernard of Monte Cassino in the thirteenth century, and Petrus Boherius
in the fourteenth, also wrote explanations of the Rule.3 In 1638 D.
Hugh M£nard published, with copious and learned notes, the Concordia
Regularum of St. Benedict of Aniane, the great monastic reformer of the
beginning of the ninth century.4 But the most complete commentaries
are still those of D. Mege and D. Martene in the seventeenth century,
and above all of D. Calmet in the century following. D. Mege and
D. Calmet wrote in French; and the latter gives an " alphabetical
list of authors who have written on the Rule of St. Benedict " with
" critical observations on the rules of the monks and canons." The
only French commentary of any size that has appeared since is the
Explication ascetique et historique de la R&gle de saint Benoit, par un
Bentdictin (1901).

The Holy See having constituted the Congregation of France heir
to Cluny and St. Maur, we have a special motive for paying regard
to the customs of those two families. The most ancient collection that
contains the use of Cluny is the customary of Guy of Farf a ; next comes
the Ordo Cluniacensis of Bernard; and finally the Antiquiores consuetu-
dines Cluniacenses of Udalric, reproduced, with some modifications, in
the Constitutions of William of Hirschau: all works of the eleventh

1 For simplicity we shall take passages that occur in the Vit* Patrum from the
edition of ROSWEYD (1615). The Greek text of the Lausiac History of Palladius
should now be cited according to the edition of D. BUTLER (vol. VI. of Texts and
Studies, Cambridge, 1904); it has been translated into French by A. LUCOT
(Paris, 1912).

2 Cf. D. BUTLER, Sancti Benedicti Regula Monachorum, Prolegom., p. xvii.

3 The commentary of PAUL WARNEFRID was edited at Monte Cassino in 1880 ;
that of HILDEMAR, by D. MITTERMULLER, being appended to bk. II. of the
Dialogues of St. Gregory and SCHMIDT'S edition of the Rule, and published by
Pustet at Ratisbon, also in 1880 ; SMARAGDUS is printed in tome CII. of Migne's
Latin Patrology (see L. BARBEAU, Essai critique sur la 'vie et les ceu'vres de Smaragde,
thesis for the Ecole des Chartes, 1906, pp. 1-6) ; BERNARD OF MONTE CASSINO was
edited at Monte-Cassino by D. CAPLET, in 1894.5 BOHERIUS at Subiaco by
D. L. ALLODI, in 1908.

* On the manuscripts of the two works of ST BENEDICT OF ANIANE, and on the
edition of the ancient Latin monastic Rules which is being prepared by the Vienna
Academy, see H. PLENKERS, Untersuchungen zur Ucberlieferungsgeschichte der altesten
lateinischen Monchsregeln, Munich, 1906.

Introduction xiii

century.1 Recourse may also be had to the Disquisitiones monastics
of D. Haeften (1644), anc^ to the De antiquis monachorum ritibus of
D. Martene; as well as to the Acta Sanctorum Ordinis S. Benedicti and
the Annales of D. Mabillon.2

The primary purpose of these studies is neither curiosity nor historical
knowledge: our concern is with the soul and with the supernatural life.
By constant communing with the master thought of St. Benedict and
with the minds of his best disciples, will the sons of D. Gue"ranger be
able to keep alive among them the true spirit of monasticism.

1 The Customs of UDALRIC were edited by D. Luc D'ACHERY in his Spicilegium,
and reprinted by Migne in tome CXLIX. of his P.L. The other customaries are to
be found in the Vetus disciplina monastica of D. HERRGOTT ; those of Farfa and
Hirschau in tome CL. of the P.L. — Dom B. ALBERS re-edited the Comuetudines
Farfenses (in 1900, at Monte Cassino) in the first volume of his Consuetudines
monastic*; in the second volume he gives Consuetudines Cluniacenses antiquiores,vi\i\c\\y
according to him, are in reality the oldest known, and of which part may date even
from the time of St. Benedict of Aniane.

2 We shall cite the De ant. monach. rit. after the Antwerp edition, 1738 ; the
De ant. Ecd. rit. after the Antwerp edition, 1736 ; the Annales of MABILLON after the
Lucca edition, 1739-1745 ; the Acta SS. O.S.B. according to the Venice edition, 1733.

CONTENTS

CHAFTER PACK

INTRODUCTION - - iX

PROLOGUE I

I. OF THE VARIOUS KINDS OF MONKS - 25

II. WHAT KIND OF MAN THE ABBOT OUGHT TO BE - - 35

III. OF CALLING THE BRETHREN TO COUNCIL 7 56

IV. WHAT ARE THE INSTRUMENTS OF GOOD WORKS - 6l

V. OF OBEDIENCE - 83

VI. THE SPIRIT OF SILENCE - ~ 92

VII. OF HUMILITY - - IOO

VIII. OF THE DIVINE OFFICE AT NIGHT - 131

IX. HOW MANY PSALMS ARE TO BE SAID AT THE NIGHT HOURS 144

X. HOW THE NIGHT OFFICE IS TO BE SAID IN SUMMER - 153

XI. HOW THE NIGHT OFFICE IS TO BE SAID ON SUNDAYS - 154

XII. HOW THE OFFICE OF LAUDS IS TO BE SAID - 158

XIII. HOW LAUDS ARE TO BE SAID ON WEEKDAYS - l6o

164
1 68

XVI. HOW THE WORK OF GOD IS TO BE DONE IN THE DAY-TIME I/O
XVII. HOW MANY PSALMS ARE TO BE SAID AT THE DAY HOURS 174
XVIII. IN WHAT ORDER THE PSALMS ARE TO BE SAID - I'JJ
XIX. HOW TO SAY THE DIVINE OFFICE - 185
XX. OF REVERENCE AT PRAYER - 189
XXI. OF THE DEANS OF THE MONASTERY - 194
XXII. HOW THE MONKS ARE TO SLEEP - - 2OO
XXIII. OF EXCOMMUNICATION FOR FAULTS - 2O5
XXIV. WHAT THE MEASURE OF EXCOMMUNICATION SHOULD BE - 211
XXV. OF GRAVER FAULTS - 215
XXVI. OF THOSE WHO CONSORT WITH THE EXCOMMUNICATE - 2l8
XXVII. HOW CAREFUL THE ABBOT SHOULD BE OF THE EXCOMMUNI
CATE - 2 2O
XXVIII. OF THOSE WHO BEING OFTEN CORRECTED DO NOT AMEND 225
XXIX. WHETHER THE BRETHREN WHO LEAVE THE MONASTERY ARE

TO BE RECEIVED AGAIN - - 228

XXX. HOW YOUNG BOYS ARE TO BE CORRECTED - 23!

XXXI. OF THE CELLARER OF THE MONASTERY - - 233

XXXII. OF THE TOOLS AND PROPERTY OF THE MONASTERY - 243

XXXIII. WHETHER MONKS OUGHT TO HAVE ANYTHING OF THEIR OWN 245

XXXIV. WHETHER ALL OUGHT TO RECEIVE NECESSARY THINGS ALIKE 25!
XXXV. OF THE WEEKLY SERVERS IN THE KITCHEN - 254

XXXVI. OF THE SICK BRETHREN - - 258

XV

xvi Contents

CHAPTER PACK

XXXVII. OF OLD MEN AND CHILDREN - 263

XXXVIII. THE WEEKLY READER - - 265

XXXIX. OF THE MEASURE OF FOOD - 270

XL. OF THE MEASURE OF DRINK - 2/5

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

XLVIII. 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 - ~ 33°

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 - 424

LXIII. OF THE ORDER OF THE COMMUNITY - 43!

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 - - 468

LXVIII. IF A BROTHER BE COMMANDED TO DO IMPOSSIBILITIES - 472
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, prascepta magistri,
et inclina aurem cordis tui, et admoni-
tionem pii patris libenter excipe, et
efficaciter comple; ut ad eum per
obedientiae labor em redeas, a quo per
inobedientiae desidiam recesseras.

Hearken, O my son, to the precept
of your master, and incline the ear of
your heart: willingly receive and
faithfully fulfil the admonition of your
loving father, that you may return
by the labour of obedience to Him
from whom you had departed through
the sloth of disobedience.

OTHER Rules have a more impersonal character, a more concise
and formal legislative air: St. Benedict in his first words puts
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. i. 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
him as the patriarch of the monks of the West; and God has so disposed
the 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
father. The precepts which he brings you are counsels dictated by

1 ST. THOMAS AQUINAS, Summa 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 Proverbs2 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 our 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 Bernard3 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, fili mi, et suscipe verba mea. . . . Fill mi ausculta sermones meos
et ad eloquia mea inclina aurem tuam. Ne recedant ab oculis tuis, custodi ea in media
cordis tui.

St. Jerome begins one of his letters ad Eustochium with the words of Ps. xliv.
(Ep. XXII. i. P.L., XXIL, 394).

It would be inaccurate to set down as source of this beginning of the Prologue the
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 regularum.
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 sq.*)

3 Introduction a V etude de la medecine experimentale.

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 our 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 "-1
he will presently tell us of its solid fruitfulness and incomparable dignity.

Ad te ergo nunc meus2 sermo dirigi- To you, therefore, my words are

tur, quisquis abrenuntians propriis now addressed, whoever you are, that,
voluntatibus, Domino Christo vero renouncing your own will, you do take
regi militaturus, obedientiae fortissima up the strong and bright weapons
atque praeclara arma 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 senes : quia nihil sic quterit Deus ab his qui primitias habent conversa-
ttontSj quomodo obedientiee laborem (Verba Seniorum : Vitce Patrum, V., xiv. 15.
ROSWEYD, p. 619).

2 The best reading is mibi. ST. JEROME likewise says, in Letter XXII. ad Eusto-
chium (15): Nunc ad te mihi omnis 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
speaks of " wills " in the plural,1 because self-will or egoism has many
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
ourselves of temperament, of that disagreeable, obstinate, wrangling
temper 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 Verba Seniorum (Vit<e Patrum, V., i. 9.
ROSWEYD, p. 562) and in the Historia monachorum of RUFINUS (XXXI. ROSWEYD,
p. 484). St. Benedict cites in Chapter VII. the verse of Ecclesiasticus, xviii. 30: Et a
voluntatibus tuis avertere.

2 Cf. Exhortatio de panoplia ad monachos (inter S. EPHREM. opp. graec. lat., t. III.,
p. 219).

3 Sum enim laboriosus, etiam nunc sub magno opere peccator ; veteranus in numero
peccatorum, sed eeterno Regi novus incorporeee tiro militia (S. PAULINI NOLAKI, 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" (Phil. 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 nliorum dignatus est numero compu- He who has now vouchsafed to count

tare, non debeat aliquando 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, WOLFFLIN), 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 Conciliorum nova et amplissima Collectio, 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 tempore 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,

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

filiossuosexhaeredet;sednecutmetuen- angry father, disinherit His children,

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

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

ad pcenam, qui eum sequi noluerint ad lasting punishment, as most wicked

gloriam. servants who would not follow Him

to glory.

These words develop what has just been 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 God sons 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 j

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 our faults : " In Himself most good, in relation to us
He is just," says Tertullian. If we betray God, as our Father He will
disinherit us, as our master He will punish us; and this in exact propor
tion 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 aliquando, Let us then at length arise, since the

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

Hor a est jam nos de somno surgere. 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 clamans quid nos admoneat vox, what the Divine Voice admonishes us,

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

Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict

nolite obdurare corda vestra. Et iterum : hear his voice, harden not your hearts.' '
Qui babet aures audiendi, audiat quid And again, " He that hath ears to hear,
Spiritus dicat Ecclesiis. Et quid dicit ? let him hear what the Spirit saith to
VfniUy filii, audite me: timorem Domini the Churches." And what says He ?
doc f bo vos. C write, dum lumen vitce " Come, my children, hearken to me,
babttis, ne tenebra mortis vos compre- I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
hcndant. 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. u), 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 cries3 appealingly to us: "To-day, if you should hear my call,

1 Cf. CASS., Conlat., III., iv.
D. BUTLER compares QUINTUS CURTIUS, History of Alexander, bk. VIII., 4.

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

Prologue 9

harden not your hearts » (Ps. xciv. 8). We are essentially laggards 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 (xn. 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 We
consents to walk before you, follow Him and accept His lead: otherwis.
the star that guides you will disappear.2

Et qu*rens Dominus in multitu- And the Lord, seeking His own
dine populi, cui h*c clamat, operarium workmanin the multitude of tnepeopie
suiim, iterum dicit : Quis est homo, qui to whom He thus cries out says again :
vult vitam, et cupit Mere dies bonos ? "Who is the man that will have life
Quod si tu audiens respondeas: Ego, and desires to see good days ? ^ And
dicit tibi Deus: Si vis habere veram et if you, hearing Him, answer> A *m
perpetuam vitam, prohibe linguam tuam he," God says to you: "If thou wilt
a malo, et labia tua ne loquantur dolum. have true and everlasting lite, keep tny
Diverts a malo, et fac bonum; inquire tongue from evil and thy lips that they
pacem et scquere 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. An
meae ad preces vestras. Et antequam when you have done these things, my
me invocetis, dicam : Ecce adsum. eyes will be upon you, and my ears will

be open to your prayers; and beto
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
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 \ ulgate.
ST. CJESARIUS read the beginning of this text in much the same way as St. Benec
Curramus dum lucem vita habemus (P-L., XXXIX., 2230).

a Our Holy Father returns presently to Ps. xxxiii., from which he selects and c om-
ments on verses 12, 13, 14, 1 5, 16. He has in mind also ST. AUGUSTINE'S second Enarratto
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., XXXVI., 317-3*95 3*3)-
See also the Enarratio on Ps. cxliii. (no. 9. P.L., XXX VI I., 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 PSEUDO-CHRYSOSTOM brought forward
in the Revue B n dictinc, 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 relatioa of the soul to God: every soul is a labourer and
God is one too. 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
(i Cor. iii. 9; 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 our 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 '?" 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 not the Jewish one of 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 present, should we not be the 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 sick folk whose doctor
has forbidden them melon under pain of 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

" And 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.2 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. Then there is

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

2 Cf. S. Tb., II.-IL, q. xxix., De Pace.

12

Commentary on the Rule oj Sf. 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
invitantisnos, fratres charissimi ? Ecce
pietate sua demonstrat nobis Dominus
viam vitas. Succinctis ergo fide vel
observantia bonorum actuum lumbis

nostris, per ducatum Evangelii perga-
mus itinera ejus, ut mereamur eum qui
nos vocavit, in regno suo videre.

What can be sweeter to us, dearest
brethren, than this voice of the Lord
inviting us ? Behold in His loving-
kindness the Lord shows unto us the
way of life. Having our loins, there
fore, girded with faith and the per
formance of good works, let us walk
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-
mus habitare, nisi illuc bonis actibus
currendo, minime pervenitur. Sed
interrogemus cum Propheta Dominum,
dicentes ei : Domine, quis habitabit in
tabernaculo tuo, aut quis requiescet in
monte sancto tuo ? Post hanc interroga-
tionem, fratres, audiamus Dominum
respondentem, et ostendentem nobis
viam ipsius tabernaculi, ac dicentem:
Qui ingreditur sine macula, et operatur
justitiam; qui loquitur veritatem in
corde suo; qui non egit dolum in lingua

sua; qui non fecit proximo suo malum, et
opprobrium non accepit adversus proxi-
mum suum.

And if we wish to dwell in the taber
nacle of His kingdom, we shall by no
means reach it unless we run thither
by our good deeds. But let us ask the
Lord with the prophet, saying to Him :
" Lord, who shall dwell in thy taber
nacle, or who shall rest upon thy holy
hill ?" After this question, brethren,
let us hear the Lord answering, and
showing to us the way to His taber
nacle, and saying: " He that walks
without stain and works justice: he
that speaks truth in his heart, that
has not done guile with his tongue:
he that has done no evil to his neigh
bour, and has not taken up a reproach

against his neighbour."

1 Instead of the expression per ducatum Evangelit, the meaning of which seemed
rather vague, the most ancient manuscripts (we do not say the best, cf. Introduction)
read: et calceatis in pr&paratione Evangelii pads pedibits, 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).

2 Perhaps the best reading is: eum qui nos vocavit in regnum suum videre, 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,
deduxit 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 attitude 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 ?" 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 us, at once and resolutely, to " drive
both one and the other from our 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 his 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 precetnur jugiter omnipotentiam ejus,
ut qui talia per nosmetipsos implere non possumus qua jussa sunt, ejus ditati munere jacia-
mus (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, Tract., in Ps. cxxxvi. 14. P.L., IX., 784.
ST. AMBROSE, De pcenit., II., 106. 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, Domine, 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 pradi- us, O Lord, 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 glorietur. 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 " limentes 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 we 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-

CASSIAX, Inst., VI., xiii.

1 Cf. CASS., /»«., 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 verba mea bcec, et facit ea, Gospel: " He that heareth these words

similabo eum viro sapienti, qui <zdifi- of mine and doeth them, is like a wise

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

flumina, flaverunt venti^ et impegerunt the floods came, the winds blew, and

in domum illam, et non 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 psalm1 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 has 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 heaven2 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."

Haec 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 paenitentiam te adducit ? Nam pius Apostle: " Knowest thou not that the
Dominus dicit: Nolo mortem peccatoris, patience of God is leading thee to
sed ut convertatur, et vivat. Cum ergo repentance ?" 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 ccelorum. 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., XXXVI., 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 mine dicturus est, pertinent ad
incipientes.

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

Prologue 1 7

The words hcec complens have been variously translated, as to
complete or to put the finishing touch to His kindness, or better perhaps
thus i1 Our Lord having invited us and having showed us the goal and
marked out the path, and having answered the 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.

Ideo, " 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
of 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." Sfd si corrfpleamus habitatoris officium.2

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

corpora nostra sanctae praeceptorum 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

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

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

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
to reassure and encourage souls who shrink from the holy demands of the

1 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
bac . . . (Matt. vii. 28).

2 A scribe, doubtless surprised at this suspended and somewhat elliptical phrase,
regarded it as the protasis of a conditional sentence nnd completed it with the somewhat
frigid gloss: erimus h&redes regni calorum. And with these words the Prologue ends
in the three most 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 had 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,
in the moral order we may win any power or any stature that we wish.
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 ? 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 our 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

Dominici schola servitii ; in qua institu- school of the Lord's service, in the

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

constituturos speramus. 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 1 9

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 cr^oX?;); 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 n>ot unlikely that our Holy Father had in mind the schola 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 C/. G. BOISSIER, La Religion romaine d' Augusts aux Antonins, 1. III., chap. iii.
See on this comparison an interesting note by DOM ROTHENHAUSLIR, Zur Aufnahmeord-
nung der Regula S. Benedicti (Munster, 1912), p. 37, note 4.

2o Commentary on the Rule of St. 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 restrictius, But if anything be somewhat strictly

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

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

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

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

salutis, quae 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-

mandatorum Dei. . . . ness of love ran 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"
(i Cor.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.
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 2 1

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. Sometimes, too, mortification will have as its
end the safeguarding of our 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 for 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 to be 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
purity 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 Justice and through their tears bless Him
for all, who say with Job : " Though he slay me, yet will I trust 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 in 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 "2 . . . 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. xi. P.L., XXXII., 761.

2 S. PACK., Reg. cxc. : . . . Probatte fratres conversationis etfidei. 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
versationis acfidei nostra et passionum tolerantiam donari nobis a Domino declaravit.

Prologue 2 3

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. cxviii. 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.

ut ab ipsius nunquam magisterio So that never departing from His

discedentes, 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 " (Due. Jesu Xte, Fili Dei vivi . . . before Due.
non 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 writh 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,
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: 1 'antaque circa eum claritas
excreverat ut in terris positus in c<zlestibus habitaret, we should still
recognize in the frequency of these references to salvation, to heaven,
and to God, the habitual trend of his thought : " The holy man could
in no way teach otherwise than as he lived."2 His whole soul was
fixed on eternity. This preoccupation has 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 that we have to renounce, to
learn, and to conquer.

1 In pritnis, si quis ad conversioncm venerit^ ea conditions excipiatttr^ ut usque ad
mortem suam ibi perseveret (S. CAESAR., Reg. ad mon., i.).

2 S. GREG. M., Dial., 1. II., c. xxxvi.

CHAPTER I

OF THE VARIOUS KINDS OF MONKS1

IT is possible to distribute the seventy-three chapters of the Rule
logically into different groups, 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 ccenobitarum, — 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 /zoz/o/^o?, the original meaning of which is the same as that of
/zoz/o?: 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 jjiova^oi
or /jLovdfrvres, 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,
Quod soli nullo vivere teste volunt.4

1 We translate the titles of the chapters. Though they are given by all the manu
scripts, 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, Benedicti Regula Monachorum^ Prasf., p. x. We
reproduce the Latin of the titles at the beginning of the first extract of each chapter.

2 HAEFT., 1. III., tract, i., De nomine monachorum. 3 Cf. CASS., Conlat., XVIII., v.
4 Itinerarium, 1. I., 489 sq. The following may serve as a version of these lines:

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 ther a-
'peutce because of the sincere service in which they adore the Divinity,
at another monks, 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."3

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 to 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 Cassian4 had noted, for Egypt, three

1 ST. AUGUSTINE explains how the cenobites themselves, though numerically many,
may yet be called uovos, since they have only one heart and one soul (Enarr. in Ps. cxxxii.
6. P.L., XXXVII., 1732-1733).

1 Histor., 1. VII., c. xxxiii. P.L., XXXI., 1145.

8 DC Hierarcbia ecclesiastica, c. vi.

4 Tria sunt in Mgypto genera monacborum. Unum, Ccenobit<e, quod illi Sauses
gentili lingua vacant, nos in commune viventes possumus appellate. Secundum, Ana-
choreta, qui soli habitant per deserta. . . . Tertium, genus est quod Remobotb dicunt,
deterrimum atque neglectum. . . . Hi bini vel terni, nee multo plures simul habitant^
suo arbitrio ac ditione viventes (S. HIERON., Epist. XXII. , 34. P.L., XXII., 419). CAS
SIAN reproduces and completes this list: Tria sunt in JEgypto genera monacborum, quorum
duo sunt optima, tertium tepidum atque omnimodis evitandum. Primum est coenobitarum
qui, scilicet in congregatione paritcr consistentes unius senioris judicio gubernantur. . . .
Secundum Anacboretarum, qui prius in ccenobiis instituti jamque in actuali conversationc
perfecti solitudinis elegere secreta. . . . Tertium reprehensibile Sarabaitarum est.—
(Anachiretce) in ccenobiis primum diutissime commor antes , ownem p attentive ac discretionis

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. Benedict2
it comprises the class of vagrant, roving monks, the gyrovagi. Cassian
and the Fathers of the East knew them well,3 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 KQIVQS /3to?) 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.5 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 Abbate. — We may remark,
once for all, that in St. Benedict's usage the disjunctive vel has often the
force of the copula et ; and that is the case in this passage. However
precise may be the rule 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

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

regulam diligenter edocti, . . . dirissimis dcemonum prceliis congressuri penetrant heremi
profunda secreta. — Emersit post haec illud deterrimitm et infidele monachorum genus . . .
etc., . . . bini vel terni in cellulis commorantur, non contenti abbatis euro, atque imperi*
gubcrnari. . . etc. . . . (Conlat., XVIII., iv., Instit., V., xxxvi., [cf. also Conlat., XVIII.,
vi.]; Conlat., XVIII., vii.)

All the ancient forms of the monastic life, even the less reputable, are still represented
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 singuli sine pas tore.

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

4 For example ST. JOHN CHRYSOST., In Matt. Horn. LXXII. P.O., LVIII., 671-672.
—ST. BASIL, Reg. fus., vii.— ST. JEROME, Epist. CXXV. 9. P.L., XXII., 1077.

5 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, sumciunt 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 (i.e., those who live
apart, in seclusion: ava^copeo)) ; St. Benedict does not distinguish them, as
St. Isidore1 did later, from hermits or dwellers in the desert (6/397/1,09).
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.3

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.4 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
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, \. II., c. xvi. P.L., LXXXIIL, 794-795.

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

3 S. GREG. M., Dial., 1. II., c. i.

4 Read the whole of Conference XIX. cf Cassian.

5 Vtrba Senior urn: Vita Patrum, III., 98. ROSWEYD, p. 515.

Of the 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 (conversio 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 (defcecata). 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 (Trapd/cXrjcns) 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 humilitate, c. Iviii. sq. (Opp. graec. lat., t. I., p. 3I5-3I7)- Paran.,
XXIIL, XXIV., XXXVIII. , XLII. (t. II., p. 102, 107, 136, 154).— YVON. CARNOT.,
Epist. CXCII. et CCLVI. P.L., CLXIL, 198, 260.

2 Tractate ad E'ulogium, 32. P.G., LXXIX., 1135.— Epist., 1. III., Ep. LXXII.
P.G., LXXIX., 422.

3 C/. 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 :
Servandum quoque de monachis, ne eis ad solitarias cellulas liceat a congregatione discedere,
nisi forte probatis post emeritos labores, aut propter infirmitatis necessitate™ asperior ab
abbatibus regula remittatur. Quod ita demum fiet, ut intra eadem monasterii septa
manentes, tamen sub abbatis potesiate separatas habere cellulas permittantur (MANN,
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.

30 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict

his Abbot until he has 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 withir 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: "And 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 approbati, experientia magistra, been tried by no rule nor by experience

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

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

saeculo fidem, mentiri Deo per tonsuram faith with the world in their works,

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

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

cis, sed suis inclusi ovilibus, pro lege even singly without a shepherd, shut

eis 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 like
not, that they consider unlawful.

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

1 Regula S. Bened. Explanatio. P.L.. CXCVIL, 1056.

2 S. Tb., I.-II., q. iv., a. 8.

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.' 5>1 But perhaps, with more likelihood, it may be
derived from the Aramaic term sarab, which means rebellious or refrac
tory.2 To 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 obedience ?

The Sarabaites 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, experientia 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., XVIIL, vii.

2 Cf. CALMET, in b. I. GAZET, in his note on the passage of CASSIAN previously
cited.

3 This phrase is better supported from all points of view than the reading experi-
entia magistri ; it is borrowed from CASSIAN, Conlat.j XIX., vii.

3 2 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 o-ptimi
•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: Qiwd voluttius sanctum est
Epist. XCIIL, 14, 43. P.L., XXXIII. , 328, 342. — Contra Epist. Parmeniani, 1. II.,
c. xiii. P.L., XLIIL, 73.— Contra Cresconinm Donatistam, 1. IV., c. xxxvii. P.£.,
XLIIL, 572.

2 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 Cf. S. ISIDORI PELUS., Epist., 1. I., Ep. XLI. P.C., LXXVIII., 207. Instead
of voluptatibus the best manuscripts have voluntatibus ; which recalls this passage of the
Verba Senior um : Oportet nos, . . . in congregatione manentes, non qua nostra sunt
quarere, neque servire proprice voluntati (Vita Patrum, V., xiv., 10. ROSWEYD, p. 618).
See also the Historia monacborum of RUFINUS, c. xxxi. ROSWEYD, p. 484.

2 The Regula Magistri, xx., draws a far from flattering portrait of the gyrovague;
read also the eighth chapter of the Constitution** monastics which figure among 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 Gyro-
vagues are inferior to the Sarabaites : et 'per omnia deteriores Sarabaitis.
St. Benedict, after a look at this picture, asks permission to insist no
further1 (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
layfolk; 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.

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

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 RUFINUS also (Hist, mon., c. vii.): Unde silere de his melius censeo,
quamparum digne proloqui (ROSWEYD, p. 464). An analogous formula occurs in SALLUST
(Jugurtba, xix.); D. Butler observes that it strongly resembles a proverb.

2 Epist. 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.
The 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 predecessors1 — as, for example, from St. Basil and St. Orsiesius — our
Holy Father has in this chapter produced entirely original work.

QUALIS ESSE DEBEAT ABBAS. AbbaS,

qui praeesse dignus est monasterio,
semper meminisse debet, quod dicitur,
et nomen majoris factis implere.
Christi enim agere vices in monasterio
creditur, quando ipsius vocatur prseno-
mine, dicente Apostolo: Accepistis
spiritum adoptionis filiorum, in quo
clamamus: Abba, pater.

An Abbot who is worthy to rule
over the monastery ought always to
remember what he is called, and
correspond to his name by his works.
For he is believed to hold the place
of Christ in the monastery, since he is
called by His name, as the Apostle
says: " Ye have received the spirit of
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.2

1 Cf. HAEFT., 1. III., tract, v.

2 Clericus qui Cbristi servit Ecdesiee interprctatur prime vocabtdum suum, et nowinis
definitione prolata, nitatur esse quod dicitur (S. HJERON., Epist. LIL, ad Nepotia*xmt 5,
P.L., XXII., 531).

35

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 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 an
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 would not have
been the motive of our submission. His procedure is always the 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 ministre jfurieu, chap.
xxxvi. ff.

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

It 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, 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.

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"
(Omnia sunt unum, ubi non 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

divinas 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 respect resembles the paternal authority of God more than the
patria potestas of Roman law with which St. Benedict was familiar;
but it is by no 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;

38 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, quod absit^ for it would be a
monstrous thing. But, so far from abusing his 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 qnia doc- Let the Abbot be ever mindful

trinae suse vel discipulorum obedientise, 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,

iterum 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: Nihil extra praceptum Domini
quod sit. . . .

2 Our Holy Father remembered ST. BASIL, who reminds the superior that he is
minister Christi et dispensator mysteriorum Dei ; timens ne prater voluntatem Dei, vel
prater quod in sacris Scripturis evidenter pracipitur, vel dicat aliquid, vel imperet, ete
inveniatur tanquam falsus testis Dei, aut sacrileges, vel introducens aliquid alicnum a
doctrina Domini, vel certe subrclinquens et prateriens aliquid eorum qua Deo placita sunt.
Ad fratres autcm csse debet tanquam si nutrix fovcat parvulos suns, etc. (Reg. contr., xv.).
Cf. ibid., clxxxiv.

What Kind of Man the Abbot ought to be 39

meo, veritatem tuam et salutare tuum solved in the judgement of the Lord,
dixi; ipsi autem contemnentes spreverunt and may say to the Lord with the
me. Et tune demum inobedientibus prophet: " I have not hidden thy
curse suae ovibus poena sit eis praevalens justice in my heart, I have declared
ipsa mors. 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 Life of
Agricola that the Emperor Nerva had had this chance : " Although . . .
Nerva 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: Mcmor sit semper. 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. ORSIESII, Doctrina^ x., xi.

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. n), 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: pcena sit eis prcevalens
ipsa mars.2

Ergo cum aliquis suscipit nomen
Abbatis, duplici debet doctrina suis
praeesse discipulis; id est, omnia bona
et -sancta, factis amplius quam verbis
ostendere, ut capacibus discipulis man-
data Domini verbis proponat: duris
vero corde et simplicioribus, factis
suis divina praecepta demonstret. Om
nia vero quae discipulis docuerit esse
contraria, in suis factis indicet non
agenda; ne aliis praedicans, ipse repro-
bus inveniatur. Ne quando illi dicat
Deus peccanti : Ouare tu enarras jus-
titias meas, et assumis testamentum
meum •per os tuum ? Tu vero odisti
disciplinam, et -projecisti sermones meos
-post te. Et, Qui in fratris tui oculo
•festucam videbas, in tuo trabem ncn
vidisti ?

Therefore when anyone takes the
name of Abbot, he ought to govern
his disciples by a twofold doctrine:
that is, he should show forth all that
is good and holy by his deeds, rather
than his words: declaring to the in
telligent among his disciples the com
mandments of the Lord by words : but
to the hard-hearted and the simple-
minded setting forth the divine pre
cepts by the example of his deeds.
And let him show by his own actions
that those things ought not to be done
which he has taught his disciples to be
against the law of God; lest, while
preaching to others, he should himself
become a castaway, and God should
say to him in his sin : " Why dost thou
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: Tantundcm iterum erit, ut, «', etc.
Cf. S. GKEG. 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, capaces, 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 des etudes monastiques, P. I., chap. iii.

- The counsel is frequent in the old writers; cf. S. BASIL.. Reg. f us. xliii.— S. NIL.,
Epist., I III., Ep. CCCXXXII. P.C., LXXIX., 542.— CASS., 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 AOYO? (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 conditions of
the sacerdotal life. But in the time of our Holy Father rough characters,
souls of limited vision, duri corde et simpliciores, 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 deep 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 duty 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 ? (l 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. xlix. 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 qucm in bonis actibus one be loved more than another, unless

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

Non convertenti 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 sequalem 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 merita, 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).3 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. xix. 15; Prov. xxiv. 23; James ii. i ff. — Cf. S. Tb., II. -II., q. Ixiii.

2 For example; Reg. I., SS. PATRUM, xvi.; Reg. Orientalis, I.; above all the letter of
ST. C^SARIUS, ad Oratoriam Abbatissam (HOLSTENIUS, op. cit., 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. 13). 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 LXIIL, 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 tempora, terroribus blandi- to circumstances, mingling gentleness

menta, 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 mox, ut coeperint oriri, radici- shut his eyes to the faults of offenders;

tus ea, ut praevalet, 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 conditiones boniinum, sed ammos inspicit rittgtiloTitiH. Servum et
nobilem de moribus pronuntiat. Sola apud Deum liber tas est, non servire peccatis. Sumna
apud Deum est nobilitas, clarum esse viriutibus. . . . Frustra sibi aliquis de ncbilitate
generis applaudit, cum universi paris honoris et ejusdetn apud Deum pretn sint, gut uno
Cbristi sanguine sunt redempti ; nee interest qua quis conditione natus sit, cum omnts in
Christo cequaliter renascamur. Nam et si obliviscimur quta ex uno omnes generati
saltern id semper mcminisse debemus quia per unum ownes regeneramur. (Epist*
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
providet Deus secundum modum sucz natures.

" 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
tempora. 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,
shall at one time display the severity of a master, at another the more
loving attitude of a father.2

It is with the purpose of helping the Abbot in the discerning of
spirits that our Holy Father divides them into three classes. " The
undisciplined and restless : "3 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 w7ho 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 ... Dicente Apostolo : Argue, obsecra, increpa, cum omni patientia etdoctrina. . .
Decernendum est ab illo qui praest, qualiter circa singulos debeat pietatis affectum mons-
trare, et qualiter tenere debeat disciplinam (Reg. I., SS. PATRUM, V.).

2 Cf. S. BASIL., Reg.fus., xliii.; Reg. contr., xxiii.

3 Two of ST. BASIL'S words (Reg. contr., xcviii.): Tanquam inquietus et indisciplina-
fus confundatur.

What Kina 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
disagreeableness 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 will 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
them to all sorts of ineptitudes. They were gathered in with goodness
and with pity; they came all broken and sick; the measure of indulgent
kindness overflowed for them. And', suddenly, behold them endowed
with the ability and power which they lacked: they become critics,
authorities, reformers. St. Benedict warns the Abbot to deal with them
resolutely and suppress them with vigour.

Yet our Holy Father is not blind to the painful side of this office.
It is always a difficult thing to face the inobservant monk, to take him
by 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 :2 this
is the only true mercifulness.3 Ut 'prcevalet 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 wounds
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 Dissimulas pcccata hominum (Sap., xi. 24).

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

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

* 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 on 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 liber obis animam with words." And again: " Strike

ejys a morte thy son with the rod, and thou shah

deliver his soul from death."

So the Abbot must resign himself to the duty of correcdon. Yei
he must correct with wisdom, without suffering himself to be cariicd
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 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 of Sf. 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 chanty, 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). 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

What 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). l

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 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
and punishment, a third persuasion; in a word, each should be treated
according to his temper and degree of intelligence. There is no I
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. PX., XXII., 353; or
from ST. AUGUSTINE, Ouastioncs in tie-plat.^ 1. III., xxxi. P.L., XXXIV. (C 8^-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
augmentatio^ 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 Citeaux, 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, and perishable
caducis; sed semper cogitet quia animas things; but let him ever bear in mind
suscepit regendas, de quibus et ratio- that he has undertaken the government
nem redditurus est. Et ne causetur of souls, of which he shall have to give
forte de minori substantia, meminerit an account. And that he may not
scriptum: Primum quants regnum Dei complain for want of worldly substance,
et justitiam ejus, et heec omnia adjicien- let him remember what is written :
tur vobis. Et iterum: Nibil deest ti- " Seek first the kingdom of God and
mentibus eum. 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.2"

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] discidii. qua nasci solet de rebus caducis atque terrenis (CASS., Conlat.
XVI., «.).

2 Semper cogitans (praposita) Deo se pro vobis reddituram esse rationem (S. AUG.,
Epist. CCXI., 15. P.L., XXXIII., 965).— Doctr. S. ORSIESII, xi,

54 Commentary on the Rule of Sf. Benedict

Sciatque quia qui suscepit 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 animae. 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-
Et cum de admonitionibus suis emenda- 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. The last two sentences of this chapter remind the Abbot of
this point, if not to reassure him, 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 ^e 5 5

which the shepherd1 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 CONSILIUM FRA-

TRIBUS. — Quoties aliqua praecipua agen
da sunt in monasterio, convocet Abbas
omnem congregationem, et dicat ipse
unde agitur. Et audiens consilium
fratrum, tractet apud se, et quod utilius
judicaverit facial. Ideo autem omnes
ad consilium vocari diximus, quia saepe
junior! Dominus revelat quod melius
est.

As often as any important matters
have to be transacted in the monastery,
let the Abbot call together the whole
community, and himself declare what
is the question to be settled. And,
having heard the counsel of the breth
ren, let him weigh it within himself,
and then do what he shall judge most
expedient. We have said that all
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,

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 the whole community.

And in desiring the presence of all1 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 rest with the Abbot's discretion,

salubrius esse 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 a

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. LVIII.), have no title to
a part in its deliberations.

2 Cf. S. CYPRIANI, Epist. IX., iv. PX., IV., 253.— CASS., Cnnlat., XVI., xii.

58 Cowmen tar y 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
humilitatis subjectione, 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;1 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.

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 praesumpserit, 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 the Rule,

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

1 Per omnia ad nutum (Abbatis] potestatemquc pendere. (SuLP, SEVER., Dial. I., c. ?j
P.L.,XX., 190.— Cf. CASS., Conlat., XXIV.,

Of Calling the Brethren to Council 59

omnibus judiciis suis aequissimo 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 igitur, " 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 ant for is monasterium contender f.
And D. BUTLER cites the interesting note of SMARAGDUS: Non dixit intus autfons, sicnt
aliqui codices habent, sed sicut in illo quern manibus suis scripsit, proterve aut forjs
monasterium reperitur. Unde intclligitur quia foris nullam, intus autem rsse contentioneni
permisit amicam. It is plain that some scribes and commentators have had difficulties
with this passage. Cf. PAUL THE DEACON, in b. I.

* Monasterii utilitas : CASS., Inst,, VII. , ix.

60 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict

turn utatur consilio, sicut scriptum est : advantage of the monastery, let him
Omnia fac cum consilio, et post factum take counsel with the seniors only, as
non pesnitebis. 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

r • ^HE preceding chapters have given us the organic structure of

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

is the individual and his means of supernatural perfection, so

A 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 of 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 recognized3 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., L, 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.

2 P.O., I., 480.

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

61

6 2 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) f 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.0 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.

" St. Benedict and the dues via" in the Journal of 1 Geological 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 doctrine
ascribed to ST. ATHANASIUS (P.C., XXVIII., 835) should not be ranked among St
Benedict's sources.

2 Analecta sacra et classica, p. 117.

8 Reprinted in the Revue b.m'dictinc, October 1909. See also an old translation of
ST. BASIL'S Admonitio ad monachal, reprinted in the same Review, April 1910.

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

5 MULLACTI, Fragments Philosophorum grcecorinn, t. I., p. 212 sq.

6 Ibid., p-^23 sq.~Cf. WEYMAN, Wochenschriftfi,r klass. Philologie, 1896, p. 209.

7 See, for instance, the Rules of ST. MACARIUS, ST. PACHOMIUS (clix.), etc

What arc the Instruments of Good Works 63

QlJJE SINT INSTRUMENTA BONORUM WHAT ARE THE INSTRUMENTS OF GOOD

OPERUM. — 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, tota virtute. 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 all 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 chanty 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 instrumcntum 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 /£.)? — " 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:
" On 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 do 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 sei-psum. 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 Joveth 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. 16), in certain ancient manu
scripts of the Acts (xv. 20 and 29), in the Teaching of the Apostles, 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, ivi, 24, xix. 16). follow Christ.

11. Corpus castigare (i Cor. ix. 27). II. 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. Jejunmm 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 of a sensual life; we must have
a practical love for fasting, that standard Christian mortification.

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

15. Nudum vestire (ibid.).5 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 similitudinis Dei, pervenit ad similitudinem
pecorum. Inde est quod nudati stola prima, pelliceas tunicas mortalitate meruerunt.
Honor enim hominis verus est imago et similitude Dei, quce non custoditur nisi ad ijpsum
a quo imprimitur. Tanto magis itaque inharetur Deo, quanta minus diligitur proprium.
Cupiditate vero experiendce potestatis sua, quodam nutu suo ad se ipsum tanquam ad
medium proruit. Ita cum vult esse sicut ille sub nullo, et ab ipsa sui medietate pcenaliter
ad ima propellitur, id est, ad ea quibus pecora latantur(De Trinitatc, 1. XII., c. xi.3 P.L.,
XLIL, 1006-1007).

3 The same is to be found in ST. AMBROSE, De Pcenit., 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 RUFINUS, c. xxxi. (ROSWEYD, p. 484): Docebat beatus Antonius
quod si quis velit ad perfectionem velociter pervenire, non sibi ipse fieret magister, nee
propriis -voluntatibus obediret, etiamsi rectum videatur esse quod vellet ; sed secundtim
mandatum Salvatoris observandum esse, ut ante omnia unusquisque abneget semetipsum sibi
et renuntiet propriis voluntatibus, quia et Salvator ipse dixit : Ego veni non ut faciam
voluntatem meam sed ejus 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. 16. To visit the sick.
39; Matt. xxv. 35-6).

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

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

I?)-

19. Dolentem consolari (Eccli. vii. 19. To console the sorrowing.

38; I Thess. v. 14).

In proportion as we conquer our selfish appetites, we 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 prseponere. 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 the 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 s&culum vocatur (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

jo 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. 20).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.
(i Pet. iv. 8).

27. Non jurare, ne forte perjuret 27. Not to swear, lest perchance
(Matt. v. 33 J"<7).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 conversatione, stabilitas in fide, verecundia in verbis, infactisjustitia,
in operibus miser icordia, in moribus discipline, injuriam facere non nossc, et factam posse
tolerare (the thirtieth instrument), cumfratribus pacem tenere ; Deum to to corde diligcre,
amare in illo quod pater est, timere quod Deus est ; Christo omnino nihil prceponere, quia
nee nobis quicquam ille prceposuit, caritati ejus inseparabiliter adhcerere (De Oratione
Dominica, xv. P.L., IV., 529).

8 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 well have known the Jewish War by means of the Latin translation which was
current in his time and which, according to CASSIODORUS (De Institut. 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 Rule of ST. MACARIUS
(xxi.).

What are the Instruments of Gooa 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 benedicere (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 manreuvres, 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. ii; 38. Not slothful.
Prov. xxiv. 30 sq}.

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

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 conies 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.

J2 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 applicet, 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 aeternam omni concupis- 46. To desire with all spiritual
centia spiritual! 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 se, sentiat
se bominem, et respiciat dictum propheticum : Maledictus ontnis qui spem suam ponit in
homing. Subducat se sibi, sed non deorsum versus. Subducat se sibi, ut heereat Deo.
Quidquid boni habet, illi tribuat a quo factus est ; quidquid mali habet, ipse sibi fecit.
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: ndvTwv &v
Trpa.TTOiJ.fv aya$a)i> TUV 6fov CUTIOV r^yw^ifBa ' TU»V 5e KO.KO>V atnot fjfjLfls fd^ifv ol
€\6p.fvoi (Epist. ad Marcellam, xii.). We may also compare with St. Benedict's teaching
that of the Council of Orange in 529: Nemo habet de suo nisi mendacium et peccatum. Si
quid autem habet homo veritatis atque justitice, ab illo fonte est, quern debemus sitire in
hac eremo, ut ex eo quasi guttis 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.]

2 Being recommended by Holy Scripture (Ecclus. vii. 40; Matt. xxiv. 42 ft".), this
practice was familiar to the ancient monks: Cogita apud temetipsum et did to : utique non
manebo in hoc mundo, nisi prtesenti hac die, et non peccabis Deo. . . . Ponatque sibi
mortem ante oculos (Reg. S. ANTONII, xii., xlv.). — Oportet monachum ut semper lugeat,
semper suorum sit memor peccatorum et omni bora ponat sibi mortem ante oculos suos (Verba
Seniorum : 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 it 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," 6 ep^ofjuevo^. 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: Domine 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 actor, 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 seniori 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.

j6 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). 1 and wicked words.

53. Multum loqui non amare (Prov. 53. Not to love much speaking.
x. 19).

54. Verba vana aut risui apta non 54. Not to speak vain words or
loqui (Matt. xii. 36; 2 Tim. ii. 1 6). 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: »•-••!. j- -

rnncipns obsta; sero medicma 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,3 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 (LUCIFER CALIG., Mor. essepro DeiJiL, vi. P.L., XIII., 1019).
* 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 cogitationes
prurientes in corde perniciosa confusione celare, sed confestim ut exortes fuerint eas suo
patefacere seniori, nee super earum judicio quicquam sua discretions committere^ sed Mud
credere tnalum esse vel bonum, quod discusserit ac pronuntiaverit senioris examen. . . .
Generale et evidens indicium diabolicce cogitationis ?.sse pronvntiant^ 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
Qute dicunt, facite, qua autem faciunt otherwise: being mindful of that pre-
facere nolite (Matt, xxiii. 3). cept of the Lord: " What they say, do

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

61. Non velle dici 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.fus., xvii.

2 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.
II).

64. Nullum odire (Lev. xix. 17; 64. To hate no man.
Matt. v. 43 /£.).

65. Zelum et invidiam non habere 65. Not to be jealous, nor to give
(Jac. iii. 14; Gal. v. 19 sq.). 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.L., XXII., 1214.

3 WEYMAN has noted that instruments 68 and 69 are found in the Florilegium of
the Greek compiler JOHN OF STOBI or STOB/EUS (III., ricpi (ppovr/o-eeoy, 80. Soxrtadov rcov
firrii <ro<pcioj/ viroOf)Kai)' Tlpfcrfivrepov aidov ' vecorfpov 5iSao"K6. Weyman proposes to
read in St. Benedict dirigere instead of diligere; but Traube and Butler maintain the
reading. Stobaeus, a pagan, was probably contemporaneous with St. Benedict (about 550).
As 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
chanty, 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 towards
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
1 Cj. MARTENI, in b. loc.

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 LXIII.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. PAUL and STEPHEN says in gracious terms: Senior -es junioribus
affectum paternum impendant et cum imperandi necessariumfuerit^ non tumenti animositate
et clamosis vocibus, sed fiducialiter, tranquilla simplicitate et auctoritate bonce vita ad
peragendam communem utilitatem qucefuerint opportuna injungant (c. ii.).

What are the Instruments of Good Works 8 I

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: quae 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 ment, 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 frcefaravit Deus his qui nor ear heard; nor hath it entered into
diligunt eum. Officina vero ubi hasc the heart of man to conceive what God
omnia diligenter 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 <?/. CASSIAN, Conlat.^ I., vii.

2 VARRO, De re rustica, 1. I., c. xxii.— COLUMELLA, De re rust., 1. I., c. vm. 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

82 Commentary on the 'Rule of SA 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
not 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, Uc. Clt.

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

CHAPTER V

OF OBEDIENCE

D£ OBEDIENTIA DISCIPULORUM.

Primus humilitatis gradus est obedientia
sine mora. Haec convenit iis qui nihil
sibi Christo carius existimant. Propter
servitium sanctum quod professi sunt,
seu propter metum gehennae, vel
gloriam vitas aeternae, mox ut aliquid
imperatum a majore fuerit, ac si divini-
tus imperetur, moram pati nesciunt in
faciendo. De quibus Dominus dicit:
In auditu auris obedivit mihi. Et item
dicit doctoribus: Qui vos audit, me
audit.

The first degree of humility is
obedience without delay. This be
comes those who hold nothing dearer
to them than Christ, and who on ac
count of the holy servitude which they
have taken upon them, and for fear of
hell, and for the glory of life everlasting,
as soon as anything is ordered by the
superior, just as if it had been com
manded by God Himself, are unable
to bear delay in doing it. It is of these
that the Lord says: "At the hearing
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 that 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

84 Commentary on the Rule of Sf. Benedict

do, to move by[lts[actsjwhither He wishes tolead 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
" obediently bonum" And this universal subjection makes an imposing
spectacle. But the material creation does the good without knowing
it; cceli 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 does 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
nesciunt in 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 hearethyou,
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 : mox ut aliquid imperatum a
majore 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.

8 Stattmque cum tibi a majore fuerit imperatum (S. PACK., Reg.t 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, 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. 5).
Furthermore, obedience implies the exercise of adoration in spirit and in
truth, the essential homage which God asks from His 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 prsedicta 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, ambae res communiter instant, the bidding of the master and
citius explicantur, quibus ad vitam the perfect work of the disciple are
ceternam 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 appealing
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 f1 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 with his 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 : quibus 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 ducit 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 coenobiis 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. Such
dicit: Non veni facer e voluntatem meant, as these without doubt fulfil that
sedejus quimisitme. 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.- Comtitutwnes
Societatis Jesu> P. VI., c. i. InsMutuw Soc. ^V(Prague, 1757), vol. i., p. 408,

88 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: scientes se per hanc
obediently 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 prezesse desiderant} 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,
response nolentis efficiatur; quia obe- nor with murmuring, nor with an
dientia quae majoribus praebetur, 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 at 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 the sarabaite
or gyrovague. His words recall CA»IAN, Conlat.) XXIV., xxvi. (cf. Conlat., XVIII. , vii.),
and SULPICIUS SEVERUS: Summum jus est (coenobitis\ sub abbatis imperio vivere, nihil
arbitrio suo agere, per ornnia ad nutum illius potestatemque pendere. . . . Heec illorum
prima virtus est, parere alieno imperio (Dial. I., c. x. P'L.j XX.,

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
tre-pide — 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 inertias 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 murmure, 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 responso 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.-xi. P.G., XLVIII., 540.

2 S. JOANN. CHRYS., Adversus oppugnatores vita monastica, 1. III., j i . P.G., XLVII.,
366.

3 ... Trepidas et tepidas contradictiunculas (S. AUG., De consensu Evangel, 1. I., 13.
P.L., XXXIV., 1048). De etnissa tardius vel tepidius oratione deflemus (CASS., Conlat.
XXIII., vii.).

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 hilarem 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.

sequiturgratiam; immo murmurantium And for such an action he shall gain

pcenamincurritjSinoncumsatisfactione 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 make its
own the order that is given. But to live " by the judgement and will
of another " is in St. Benedict's eyes1 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 himself 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 obedientia,

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 hio 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. 7).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 sesculo jugum sanctce Regular a
teneris annis amanter portavit ; et factus obediens usque ad mortem,
semetipsum abnegavit, ut Cbristo totus adhareret.3

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 mamium tuarum ; tn onini data
hilaremfac vultum tuum (xxxv., ion).

~ We should read: cor ejiis respicit murmurantem.

3 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 cleave 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 hominem in taciturnitate semper esse et non 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. Bened. 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 studere
monacbi (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 rigorous 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 pakhomien pendant le IVC siecle et
la premiere moitit du Ve, p. 291.

4 UDALR., Consuet. Clun., 1. I., c. xviii., xl.

5 Silentium autem per totumfere diem observantes mutms collocutionibus et collattombus
spiritualibus unam sibi horam reservant, invicem consolantes et invicem instruentes QACQUES
DE VITRY, Historia Occidentalis, c. xiv.).

6 Tractatus de duodecim gradibus superbice, c. xiii. P.L., CLXXXIL, 964. Sermo
XVII., de Diversis. P.L., 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 evrpcnreXia (a pleasant wit) may become a
moral virtue.1

DE 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, ut non dclinquam in lingua that I sin not with my tongue : I have
mea: posui ori meo custodiam: obmutui, placed a watch over my mouth; I
et humiliatus sumy 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
taceri, quanto magis a malis verbis ought to refrain even from good words
propter pcenam 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. T£., II. -II., 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 theologies. Tract. XII., Arbor prcedicamentalis 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 aedificationem eloquiis, perfectis portance of silence, let leave to speak
discipulis, propter taciturn! tatis 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.
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 it
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
enim primus disciplines actualis ingressus, ut omnium seniorum institute atque sententias
intento corde et quasi muto ore suscipias ac diligenter in pectore tuo condens ad perficienda
ea potius quam ad docenda fes tines. Ex hoc enim cenodoxiee perniciosa pr<ssumptio> ex
illo autemfructus spiritualis scientice 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 quae 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 proferre audeas;
nisi quod interrogare te aut ignoratio nocitura aut ratio necessaries cogmtionis impulerit,
ut quidam vance gloria amore distenti pro ostentatione doctrines 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 Bossuet, 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 soul, 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, aterna 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
naYvete, 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 BOSSUET, Elevations sur les mysteres, XVIIP semaine, 1 1 e elc-v.

8 Si quis clericus aut monachus verba scurrilia^ joculatoria, risumque moventia loquitur ,
acerrime corripiatur (an ancient African Council, cited by the Decree of GRATIAN;
cf. MANSI, t. III., col. 893). See also ST. JEROME, Ep. LIL, ad Nepotianum. P.L.,
XXII., £7 ,j.

4 ST. BASIL thus defined idle words: Generaliter omnis sermo gut non proficit ad
aliquant gratiam fidei Cbristi (Reg- contr., xl.).

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 Cluny1
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
person in 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., Consuet. Clun., 1. II., c. vi. — BERNARD., Ordo Clun., P. I., c. xvii. — Constit
Hirsaug., 1. 1., c. vi.-xxv.

2 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 HUMILITY

DE HUMILITATE. — Clamat nobis
Scriptura divina, fratres, dicens: Omnis
qui se exaltat, humiliabitury et qui se
humiliat^ exaltabitur. Cum haec ergo
dicit, ostendit omnem exaltationem
genus esse superbiae: quod se cavere
Propheta indicat, dicens: Domine, non
est exaltatum cor meum, neque elati sunt
oculi mei; neque ambulavi in magnis,
neque in mirabilibus super me. Sed
quid ? Si non humiliter sentiebam, sed
exaltavi animam meam; sicut ablactatus
super matre sua, ita retributio in anima
me a.

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 all 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. Non aliud sine 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 saeculo, by humility. And the ladder thus

quae humiliato 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 disciplinae 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 surely1 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 —
i.e., 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 gnis velit ad perfectionem velociter pervenire . . . (RufiN., 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 his 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 patriarcha Jacob, sealant
cernit in somnis, cujus caput peningebat usque ad ccelum, per quam diversis virtutum
gradibus ad superna conscenditur, et homines provocantur, terrarum deserentes bumilia,
cumEcclesiaprimitivorumdominiccepassionisfestacelebrare (S. HIERON., Epist. XCVIII.,
3. P.L., XXII., 793).

Quisquis igitur ad dfwprjTiK^v voluerit pervenire. . . . Gradus quidam ita ordinati
atque distincti sunt, ut humana humilitas possit ad sublime conscendere . . . (CASS.,
Conlat., XIV., ii.).

2 P.O., XXIX., 217 sq.

3 Exposttio in Ps. cxix. P.L., LXX., 901-902. De Institutione divin. Litter.,
praef. P.L., ibid., 1107.

* Principium nostree salutis ejusdemque custodia timor Domini est. Per hunc enim et
initium conversionis et vitiorum purgatio et virtutum custodia his qui inbuuntur ad viam
perfectionis adquiritur. . . . Humilitas vero his indiciis conprobatur : primo si morti-
jicatas in sese omnes habeat voluntates ; secundo si non solum suorum actuum, verum etiam
cogitationum nihil suum celaverit senior em ; tertio si nihil suee discretioni, sed judicio ejus
universa committal ac monita ejus sitiens ac libenter auscultet : quarto si in omnibus servet
obedientia mansuetudinem patientieeque constantiam / quinto si non solum injuriam
inferat nulli, sed ne ab olio quidem sibimet inrogatam doleat atque tristetur ; sexto si nihil
agat, nihil prcesumat, quod non vel communis regula vel majorum cohortantur 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 prabenlur velut operarium
malumjudicarit indignum ; octavo si semetipsum cunctis inferior em non superficiepronunttet
labiorum, sed intimo cordis credat affectu ; nono si linguam cohibeat vel non sit damosus
in voce ; decimo si non sit facilis ac promptus in rim. Talibus namque indiciis et bis
similibus humilitas vera dinoscitur. Qua cum fuerit in veritate possessa, conjestim te ad
caritatem, qua timorem non habet, gradu excelsiore perducet, per quam umversa, qua
prius non sine poena formidinis observabas, absque ullo labor e velut naturahter incipies
custodire, non jam contemplatione supplicii vel timoris ullius, sed amore ipsius bom et
delectations virtutum (Inst., IV., xxxix.).
1 II.-IL, q. clxi., a. 6.

1 04 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

quae prsecepit Deus, qualiter contem- 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 prseparata est, animo suo he ever reflect that life everlasting is

semper revolvat.2 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 amputare 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 de gradibus humilitatis et superbia, c. i. P.Z., CLXXXII., 941.

2 D. BUTLER reads : . . . qua pracepit Deus : ut qualiter et contemnentes Deum
gehenna de peccatis incendat^ et vita eeterna, qua timentibus Deum pr&parata 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.3

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.

a The Council of Sens recalled this fact when condemning Abelard's contrary error:
MANSI, t. XXI. , col. 569.

8 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 timorc ^
converti ad cognoscendam ejus voluntatem, quid nobis appetendum fugiendumque pr<ecipiat'
Timor autem iste cogitationem de nostra mortalitate et defutura morte necesseest incutiatt
et quasi clavatis carnibus omnes superbiee motus ligno crucis affigat (De Doctrina Christiana,
1. 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 -pro-price. 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.

io8 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 eternal 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, saying :" God searcheth the

Scrutans corda et renes Deus. Et item: heart and the reins." And again:

Dominus novit cogitationes hominum, " The Lord knoweth the thoughts of

quoniam vanes sunt. Et item dicit: men, that they are vain." And he

Intellexisti cogitationes me as a longe; also says: "Thou hast understood my

et: Quia cogitatio hominis 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 ero immacula- his guard against evil thoughts, let the

tus cor am eo, si observavero me ab iniqui- humble brother say ever in his heart;

tate mea. " 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 to
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 of 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., Injoannis Evang., tract. CXI., 3. P.L., XXXV., 1928.
1 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 monk1 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.

Vohmtatem vero propriam ita fa- We are, indeed, forbidden to do

cere prohibemur, cum dicit nobis our own will by Scripture, which says

Scrip tura: 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 sancta Scrip tura: Sunt vice the warning of Scripture: "There are

qua videntur hominibus recta, quarum ways which to men seem right, but the

-finis usque ad -profundum inferni demergit. 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 humilis : a faithful brother, useful to his master; St. Benedict says
similarly a little farther on, with Ps. Hi. 4: . . . et inutilesfactos.

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 praesentem semper, cum flesh, we must believe that God is

dicit Propheta Domino: Domine, ante always present to us, as the prophet

te est omne desiderium meum. Caven- says to the 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.

2 ST. AUGUSTINE came to recognize this fact, and bade his people not to be scanda
lized. Simpliciter fateor caritati vestrce coram Domino Deo nostro, qui testis est super
animam meam, 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 apotbecce dominica fructu olei luminosioris implentur
(Eptst. LXXVIII., 9. P.L., XXXIIL, 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 instinct 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 chanty, 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 filios hominum, ut Lord is ever looking down from heaven
videat 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 declinantes 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 futuro: lest, though He spare us now, because
Hcec fecisti, 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. xlix. 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 reward.

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

meam, sed ejus qui misit me. Item dicit own will, but the will of him who

Scriptura: Voluntas [babet pcenam, 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 Carlo vingian and Cassinese traditions read: Domino factorum nostrorum
opera nuntiantur.

Of Humility 1 1 3

conduct of that which Our Lord said of Himself: " I have come not
to do mine own will, but the will of him who sent me " (John vi. 38).1
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 scriptum 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 voluntates, secundum
imitationem ipsius Domini dicentis : Descendi de ccelo non utfaciam voluntatem meani, sed
voluntatem ejus qui misit me Patris (S. BASIL., Re?, 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 obediens 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" — i.e., 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 us;
our love invites sacrifice and every day it grows by reason of sacrifice

1 ActaSS.j April., t.I.,p. 250.

2 De Schism. Donat., 1. VII., post caput vii. P.L., XL, 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. XXVL, 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

perseveraverit usque in finem, hie salvus Scripture says: "He that shall perse-

erit. Item : Confortetur cor tuum, et vere to the end shall be saved." And

sustine Dominum. 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 modum obaudire oportet eum, qui placendi Deo implere regulam cupit ?
Apostolus ostendit, proponent nobis obedientiam Domini : Qui factus est, inquit, obedient
usque ad mortem, mortem autem crucis (S. BASIL., Reg contr., Ixv.).

1 1 6 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 amplectatur.

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 suff erentium : contrary, for the Lord, it says in the

Procter te morte afficimur iota die; person of the afflicted: " For thee we

Of Humility 1 1 7

eestimati sumus sicut ovcs 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 6f the divine
Sed in bis omnibus super amus 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 of 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 ostendat sub priore debere And in order to show that we ought

nos esse, subsequitur 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, praebent 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 j and being forced tq

1 1 8 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict

sustinent et persecutionem, 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 those 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. 12).
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 Ranee", 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
Francois, " 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 Rlgle 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. 2 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 Ranee, 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 Ranee.1

The Abbot of La Trappe expounded his theory of humiliations ia
his work De la saintete et des devoirs de la vie monastique.2 It was then
that Mabillon entered the lists and respectfully submitted to de Ranee
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 Commentaire sur la Regie (1687), wherein
he criticized very fully these fictitious and outlandish humiliations,
without however naming de Ranee.4 The friends of the latter, and
Bossuet among the first,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 Ranee published La Regie de saint Benoit nou-
vellement traduite et expliquee 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 ;a 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 LEVESQUE, Correspondance de Bossuet^ t. II., pp. 35-46.

2 Chap. xii.

8 CJ. DUBOIS, Histoire de V Abbt de Rance^ 1. VII., chap. v. T. II., pp. 36^.

* Pp. 241-242, 290-334.

8 See the letters to de Ranee* of October 4 and November 1 1, 1687, and the notes of
the editors URBAIN and LEVESQUE, op. cit., t. III., pp. 426-429, 444-447. Bossuet at once
had D. Mege'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 Ranee of January 2, 1690 (URBAIN et LEVESQUE, op. «'/.,
t. IV., pp. 50-52).

120 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 S'pera in eo. Et " Make known thy way unto the Lord,

item dicit: Confitemini Domino, quoniam and hope in him." And again:

bonus, quoniam in s&culum 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 thee my offence, and mine

adversum me injustitias meas Domino <9 iniquities I have not hidden. I said, I

et tu remisisti im^ietatem 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.j xxi., cxcix.} cc,

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 sapienticz
(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 God. 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 confidence 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. 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 God. 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 monachys, et ad omnia quse sibi ["meanest and worst of everything, and

1 2 2 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict

injunguntur, velut operarium malum in all that is enjoined him to esteem
et indignum se judicet, dicens cum himself a bad and worthless labourer,
Propheta: Ad, nihilum redactus sum, et saying with the prophet: "I have
nescivi: ut jumentum 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 wonders, he will put all his hope and strength in 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 deplore 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 Propheta: Ego autem affection of heart to be so, humbling
sum vermis, et non homo, opprobrium himself, and saying with the prophet :
hominum, et abjectio plebis. 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
ut disc am m and at a tua. and confounded." And again: "It

is good for me that thou hast humbled
me, that I may learn thy command
ments."

* Gj. 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 ipsi vilescit).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 our 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., CLXXXII., 942.

2 Cf. S. AUG., Liber de diversis Ixxxiii quast., queest. Ixxi., J. P.L., XL., 82. Df
sancta virginit., lii. P.L., ibid., 427.

1 24 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 eat, 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 Seniorum : Vita Patrum, III., 206. ROSWEYD, p. 531. — S. MACAR.,
Reg-, in- — S. BASIL., Reg. contr.j Ixii.

2 Cj. CASS., Conlat., XVIII., xi.

3 The phrase is CASSIAN'S, in the parallel passage; it is found also in Conlat.^ XXI V.,
xvi.; XII., xiii.

4 CASS., Instil., V., xxiii.; Conlat., XVIII., iii.; II., x. : Nullatenus decifi j>oterit

si non suo judicio, sed majorum vivit exemfilo,

Of Humility 125

et 'pro nihilo reputari (Love to be unknown and to be counted for
nothing).

Norms 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 Scrip tura quia in multi- shows: "In much talking thou shah

loquio non effugietur peccatum; et quia not avoid sin": and, ''The talkative

v ir linguosus non dirigetur super terram. 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 summons1 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:
vocem suam. " 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 servandum est silentium? usquequo interrogeris (Verba Seniorum : Vitee
Patrum, VII., c. xxxii. ROSWEYD, p. 679).

ia6 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict

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 Latin2 and offered it to the sister of his friend

1 C/. S. BASIL., Reg. contr., cxxx.

2 See this translation in the Maxima Bibliotheca veterum Patrum of MARGARIN DE
LA BIGNE, t. III., p. 335; and in MULLACH, Fragmenta Pbilosophorum greecorum, t. I.,
P- 523-

Of Humility 127

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 corpore 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 terrain aspec- whether sitting, walking, or standing,

tibus, reum se omni hora de peccatis with 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: Domine, non sum dignus saying in his heart what the publican

ego peccator lev are oculos meos ad cesium, in the Gospel said with his eyes fixed

Et item cum Propheta: Incurvatus et on the earth: "Lord, I a sinner am

humiliatus 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 Cy. P.L., XXL, 40-42, 191-200. — HARNACK, Die Ueberliejerung und der Bestand
der altchristlichen Litteratur bis Eusebius, p. 765.

2 The Ring oj PopeXystust together with the Prologue ofRuJinus, now first rendered into
English with an historical and critical commentary (London, 1910).

3 The best supported reading is : in Opere Dei.

128 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 inwards, 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 of the principle of huniility — 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 curapro 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

foras mittit timorem ; per quam universa 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 virtutum. 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. 1 8) : 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 c<sli pree multitudine iniquitatum mearum.

2 Intl., IV., xxxix. — Cj. Conlat., XI., viii. — Compare with this ending to the chapter
ST. AUGUSTINE, In Epistolamjoann., tract. IX., 2-9. P.L., XXXV., 2045-2052.

9

1 30 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. Quce
major voluftas quam fasti dium omnis volu-ptatis ? (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 laude (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

II.-II., q. Ixxxi., a. I.

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 of 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 virtute et statu religionis^ 1. I., 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 ff.), 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 writers1 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. iii. — BUTLER (op. cit., 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 Vfl
ascetic^ ex. gr. BASILII Reg., 85, 86, 95, etc.

1 34 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 leligious 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.-IL, q. clxxxvi., a. i.
3 Summa, II.-IL, ^.*lxxxi., aa. \ 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, II.-IL, q. clxxxvi., a. i, ad. 2.

2 See The Spiritual Life and Prayer according to Holy Scripture and Monastic Tradition,
chaps, x., xx., xxii., xxjii. (By Madame Cecile Bruyere, Abbess of Ste Cecile 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 conies 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 (meed 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 steculi actibus se facer e 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. Fas
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.

* Read the general Introduction to the Liturgical Teqr,

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 Rule, St. Benedict
shows an intelligent eclecticism. His cursus is 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 Trapovcria, 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 temper e, id est, a Kalendis Calends of November until Easter,

Novembris usque ad Pascha, juxta the brethren shall rise at what may be

considerationem rationis, octava 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 1 6th 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, CA?ROL, Les Origines liturgiques. Appendix I., pp. 317 ft.

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 " full " at 2 a.m.:
hora 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 consider ationem
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 Vigilice 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 veniat,
ambulansque dormitet, necdum expleto somno surgere com-pellatur (Regula, ix. P.£., LXXX.,
2 1 6).

* 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., I. VII., tract, ix., disq. 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 im-plendum debeat observari4 (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,5 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 horologium 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

fratribus qui Psalterii vel lectionum the Night Office be spent in study by

aliquid indigent, meditationi 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. DAREMBERG et SAGLIO, Dictionnaire des Antiquite's grecques et romaines, art.
Horologium.

2 Cf. H^FT., 1. VII., tract, ix.— CALMET, in h. L 3 Inst., II., xvii.

4 Monumenta Germanice Historica : Scriptores rerum Merovingianim, 1. 1., pp. 854 sq.

5 See the history of Adolius in Hist. Laus., c. civ. (Vita Patrum, VIII. ROSWEYD,
p. 769). 6 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 Menard 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., Inst., II., xii.-xiii,; III., v. — However, CASSIAN mentions exceptions: Inst.,
III., iv., viii.

2 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 pic t' (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 pf 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 temperetur hora ut Vigiliarum Agenda
parvissimo intervallo, quo fratres ad necessaria naturae exeant, mox Matutini, quiincipiente
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.

3 CASSIAN mentions the morning service (Lauds) qua expletis nocturnis psalmis et
orationibus post modicum temporis intervallum solet in Gallice monasteriis celebrari (Inst.t
III., iv.).

CHAPTER IX

HOW MANY PSALMS ARE TO BE SAID A? THE NIGHT

HOURS

QUOT PsALMI DICENDI SUNT IN

NOCTURNIS HORIS. — Hiemis tempore,
praemisso in primis Versu: Deus in
adjutorium meum intende, Domine ad
adjuvandum me festina, in secundo ter
dicendum est : Domine labia mea aperies,
et os meum annuntiabit laudem tuam;
cui subjungendus est tertius Psalmus,
et " Gloria." Post hunc, Psalmus
nonagesimus quartus cum Antiphona,
aut certe decantandus. Inde sequatur
Ambrosianum.

In winter time, after beginning
with the verse, Deus in adjutorium
meum intende, Domine ad adjuvandum
me festina, let the words, Domine labia
mea aperies, et os meum annuntia
bit laudem tuam, be next repeated
thrice; then the third Psalm, with a
Gloria, after which the ninety-fourth
Psalm is to be chanted with an anti-
phon, or at least chanted. Next
let a hymn follow.

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 principio, 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 adjutorium 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 Invitatory4 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
eerie 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 XLJII. he recommends that it should be said " very slowly
and protractedly " (omnino protrahendo 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,0 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. Regal., c. xxiii., append. I, p. 343) conjectures
that these words are an interpolation, cum nusquam repereris sicut erat in principio
tune apud Gracos in usufuisse ; nor do the Greeks say them now.

2 Can. v. MANSI, t. VIII., col. 727. 3 Inst.j II., viii.

4 C/. D. BAUMER: art. Invitatorium in the Kirchenlexicon of WETZER 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 versu (c. xi.); vespera quotidie quatuor psalmorum modulatione 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 Brwiaire, t. I., pp. 257-260.

6 While we use much recent work we may not neglect the Preface of B. TOMMASI to
Responsorialia et Antipbonaria Romance Ecclesia.

19

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 a*/Tt<£o)i>o9, 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 Paltographie Musical?,3 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 vTraKorj (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."5

1 The Jews were already familiar with methods analogous to the responsorial and
antiphonal.

2 In the article Antipbone dans la liturgie grecque of the Dictionnaire d'Arcb.'ologte
chre'tienne et de Liturgie.

3 See also, in t. V., the Avant-Propos a V Antiphonaire ambrosien, pp. 29-38.

4 S. AUG., Confess., 1. IX., c. vi.-vii. P.L., XXXIL, 769-770.

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 troparia?

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

* /»**., II., v.

2 Inst., II., xi. — In the Rule of ST. PACHOMIUS allusion is made several times to
responsorial psalmody: xiv.-xviii., cxxvii.-cxxviii.

3 Inst., III., viii. — See the letter of ST. BASIL to the clergy of Neo-Caesarea. P.O.,
XXXIL, 760-765.

4 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. BOUVY, Poetes et milodes, pp. 234^".

6 Reg. ad mon., xxi. Cf. especially: Reg. monasterii sancta Ceesariee, xi. Acta
SS., xii. Januarii (HOLSTENIUS does not give so complete a text). The cursus indicated
is that of L'^rins; the Rule of ST. AURELIAN gives nearly the same one. Pore BLUME
(Der Cursus S. Benedict! Nursini und die liturgischen Hymnen des 6-9 Jahr bunder ts . . .,
PP- 35~39) cite8 this cursus of Lc^rins according to the Munich manuscript 28118.

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. Csesarius 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 not even certain, as Calmet judiciously remarks, that the psalms
cum antiphonis (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 scbola, the choir
repeating the antiphon which the soloist or schola 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 imp one re 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
historia 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 Ambrosianum : that is the hymn, borrowed from
St. Ambrose and the liturgy of Milan.6 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 Athos, pp. 256-257.

* We cannot draw precise information as to St. Benedict's psalmody from those
words of Chapter XLIII. : Nonprcesumat sociari choro psallentium usque ad satisfactionem.

5 Consult: C. BLUME, Der Cursus S. Benedict! Nursini und die liturgischen Hymnen
des 6-9 Jahr bunder ts, noticed in the Revue B.'md.^ 1908, pp. 367-374; 1911, pp. 362-3(^4.

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, sories be sung — two of them without a

qui cantat, dicat "Gloria"; quam Gloria,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 sanctissima? Trinitatis. honour and reverence to the Holy

Codices autem legantur in Vigiliis, Trinity. Let the divinely inspired

tarn veteris Testament!, quam novi, books, both of the Old and New Testa-

divinae auctoritatis; sed et expositiones ments, be read at the Night Office,

earum, quas a nominatissimis, et ortho- and also the commentaries upon them

doxis, et catholicis Patribus factae 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. 1 6 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., Intl., II., v.

150 Commentary on the Rule 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 salve t 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 (Inst., II., iv.). In die vero sabbati vel dominico utrasque de novo recitant
Testamento, id est unam de Apostolo vel Actibus Apostolorum et aliam de Evangeliis ;
quod etiam totis Quinquagesimce diebus faciunt hi, quibus lectio curce est seu memoria
Scripturarum (ibid., vi.). In Palestine three lessons are recited (III., viii. — See the notes
of the editor, D. GAZET).

2 Cf. Palfograpbie musicale, t. V., p. in, note. — D. BAUMER, Hist, du Brtviaire,
1. II., c. iv.,§ v.: "Lessons," t. I., pp. 380 ff. — D. BAUDOT, Les Evangtliaires ; les
Lectionnaires.

3 THIEL, Epistola Romanorum Pontificum genuinee, t. L, pp. 454 sq. — C/. E. VON
DOBSCHUTZ, Das Deere turn Gelasianum (Leipzig, 1912). — D. J. CHAPMAN, On the
Deere turn Gelasianum de libris recipiendis et non recipiendis (Revue Benedictine, 1913).

4 Cf. GRANCOLAS, Commentaire historique sur le Briviaire 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
ambo) 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,3 " 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
Gorze4 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 psal-ms: 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 commentators point out that St.
Benedict regularly uses the word stare (to stand) when speaking of the
ordinary posture of the monks in choir : sic stemus ad psallendum . . .;
post Abbatem stare . . . ; in choro standum . . . ; ultimus omnium stet.
And if our Holy Father does not order the monks 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 mow., xx. 8 Commentary on Chapter VIII.

* Acta 55., Febr., t. III., p. 705. 5 Cf. UDALR., Consuet. Clun., 1. I., c. i.

1 5 2 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict

Post has vero ties 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 capitella
which are mentioned, for example, by the Council of Agde of A.D. 506,
as well as by the Rules of St. Csesarius and St. Aurelian, and they are
the pr eces 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 frequentius cum grandi ajfectu ct compunctione dicatur, . . . ad Matutinos
et ad Miss as et ad Vesper am.

CHAPTER X
HOW THE NIGHT OFFICE IS TO BE SAID IN SUMMER

From Easter to the Calends of
November let the same number of
psalms be recited as prescribed above;
only that no lessons are to be read from
the book, on account of the shortness
of the nights: but instead of those
three lessons let one from the Old
Testament be said by heart, followed
by a short responsory, and the rest
as before laid down; so that never
less than twelve psalms, not counting
the third and ninety-fourth, be said
at the Night Office.

QUALITER ^ESTATIS TEMPORE AGATUR

NOCTURNA LAUS. — A Pascha autem us
que ad Kalendas Novembris, ut supra
dictum est, omnis psalmodiae quantitas
teneatur: excepto quod Lectiones in
codice, propter brevitatem noctium,
minime legantur, sed pro ipsis tribus
Lectionibus una de veteri Testamento
memoriter dicatur, quam breve Re-
sponsorium subsequatur, et reliqua
omnia ut dictum est impleantur, id est,
ut nunquam minus a duodecim Psal-
morum quantitate ad Vigilias nocturnas
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 SUNDATS

On Sundays let the brethren rise
earlier for the Night Office, in which
the measure shall be observed. When
six psalms and a versicle have been
sung (as already prescribed), and all
are seated on benches in their proper
order, let four lessons with their
responsories be read from the book,
as before: and to the last responsory
only let the reader add a Gloria, all
reverently rising as soon as he begins it.

QUALITER DOMINICIS DIEBUS VlGI-

LIJE AGANTUR. — Dominico die tem-
perius surgatur ad Vigilias, in quibus
Vigiliis teneatur mensura, id est,
modulatis, ut supra disposuimus, sex
Psalmis, et Versu, residentibus cunctis
disposite et per ordinem in subselliis,
legantur in codice, ut supra diximus,
quatuor Lectiones cum Responsoriis
suis, ubi tantum in Responsorio quarto
dicatur a cantante "Gloria"; quam
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, incipifnU
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 aliae quatuor Lectiones four more lessons with their respon-

cum Responsoriis suis,
supra.

ordine

quo

sories be read in the same way as the
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 quae 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 aliae 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 ; 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 Evangelio, 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 laus; 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.2 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., XIIL, XVIL). Sic omnes fere codices antiqui ; hi erant titvli volumtnum
S. Scripturarurn (D. BUTLER, op. cit., p. 133).

2 On the history of the Te Deum, see the work of D. CAGIN, Te Deum OH Illatw 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 2V 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 Eucheritf, 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 litanue, id est Kyrie Eleison
(IX., XIII.), litanieE (XII.); sometimes simply the benedictio (XL);
sometimes Kyrie eleison et misses sint (XVII.); sometimes litanice et
Oratio dominie a et fiant misscz (ibid.) ; for Compline finally : Kyrie eleison
et benedictio et misscz 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 -1
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 missce 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.).3

" 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 (V Office dtcrit dam la Rlgle blntdictine
et V office grec : Ecbos d' Orient, loth year, No. 67, November, 1907, pp. 342-344).

2 See CALMET, Commentary on Chapter XVII.

3 Cf. D. BAUMER, Ein Beitrag zur Erklarung von Litanice und Misses in capp. 9-17
der heiligen Regel (in Studien und Mittheilungen aus dem Benediktiner- und dem Cister-
denser-Orden, 1886, t. II., pp. 285^.). — In ST. CESARIUS 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. I., c. vii. P.L., XCVIII., 1376.

2 A regulation analogous to St. Benedict's is indicated by ST. CESARIUS: Si vero
evenerit ut tardius ad vigilias consurgant, singulas paginas, aut quantum Abbatisste visvm

fuerit, legant ; in cujus potestate erit, ut quando signumfecerit, qua legit, sine mora consurgat
(Reg. monasterii sanctce Casarice, Acta SS., Jan., 1. 1., p. 736). — According to the Customs
of Clteaux, 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-
NiTAs1 AGATUR. — In Matutinis Do-
minico die, in primis dicatur sexa-
gesimus sextus Psalmus sine Antiphona
in directum; post quem dicatur quin-
quagesimus cum " Alleluia." Post
quem 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 Evangelio, et Litaniae, et
completum est.

THE subject of this chapter is Sunday Lauds, and of the next
ferial Lauds; so the title is only correct if we join the two chapters
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 adjutorium3 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 CASSIAN (Inst., II., x.; III., iv., v., vi., etc.), is merely a
synonym for Synaxis or Office.

2 Cf. CASS., 7«5/., III., iv. This joining of the Night Office and Matutinum is found
also in the old Ambrosian Rite: D. CAGIN, Te Deum ou Illatio ? p. 417.

3 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.

4 For ST. C^SARIUS also the Morning Office commences with a directaneum (Reg.
ad mon., xxi.). Notice in this liturgy and elsewhere the presence of the Te Deum and
Gloria in excelsis at the end of Lauds.

158

How the Office of Lauds is to be said 159

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 antiphon, 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:y
set down for Lauds also in the Rule of St. Caesarius Ad monacbos.3 Next
comes the sixty-second psalm; Deus, Deus meus, ad te de luce vigiloy
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? 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 humiliate, which
recall the resurrection.

2 Epist. ad clericos Neocasarienses, 3. P.G., XXXIL, 763-764.— C/. CASS., lnst.t
III., vi.

3 Cap. xxi. * Cf. CASS., Inst., III., vi.

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 " (B'AUMER,
Hist, du Brtviaire, t. I., p. 253). C/., however, D. CABROL, Dictionnaire d' Arcbeologie
chr6tienne et de Liturgie, art. Cantiques fvangeliques.

CHAPTER XIII
HOW LAUDS ARE 10 BE SAID ON WEEKDAYS

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.

PRIVATIS DIEBUS QUALIFIER 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 weekdays which are not saints'-days1 — 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 psalmodice Lirinensis.

2 " 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 \ 6 1

Verb a 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 : 1e decet hymnus ; on Thursday the eighty-
seventh: Domine, Deus salutis mea, and the eighty-ninth: Domine,
refugium factus es nobis ; on Friday, the seventy-fifth: Notus in Jud&a
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 psalm 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 reci- 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. Cf. pp. 179 ff. — D. CABROL, Dictionnaire <T Archtologie
chretienne et de Liturgie, art. Cantiques.

II

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
Bene die tits, 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 et 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 Fes-pertina 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.

2 Cf. F. H. CHASE, The Lord's Prayer in the Early Church, In the series Texts and
Studies, ed. J. ARMITAGE ROBINSON.

3 See, for instance, the description of a service at Mt. Sinai in a document of the
sixth century printed by D. PiTRAj^wm eccles. Gracorum hist, et momim., 1. 1., p. 220.

* Can. x. MANSI, t. VIII., col. 550.

How Lauds are to be said on Weekdays 163

celebration1 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 prayer is 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 inducas in tentationem,
so that all may answer: sed liber a nos a malo. 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 Cf. S. AUG., Epist. CLVIL, CLXXVI., CLXXVIIL P.L., XXXIIL, 674, 762,
772.

3 Adjunxit plane et addidit (Dominus) legem, certa nos conditione et sponsione con-
stringens, ut sic nobis dimitti debita postulemus secundum quod et ipsi debitortbus nostris
dimittimus, scientes impetrari non posse quod propeccatis petimus, nisi et ipsi circa debitor es
nostros paria fecerimus (S. CYPRIANI De Oral, 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

VIGILIJE 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 Antiphonse 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 general 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 tempore, 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

* Cj. H. DELEGATE, S.J., Le$ Origines du culte des martyrs, chap, iii., pp. 109^.

164

How the Night Office is to be said on Saints' -I) ays 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 tpsum 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. Mege 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 loca sancta, ed. GAMURRINI, 1888, pp. 38-39*

2 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 i-psum 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-dayi 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, at 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 1 67

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

WHAT: TIMES OF THE TEAR "ALLELUIA" is
TO BE SAID

From the holy feast of Easter until
Pentecost, without interruption, let
Alleluia be said both with the psalms
and the responsories. From Pente
cost until the beginning of Lent, it
is to be said every night at the Night
Office with the second six psalms
only. But on every Sunday out of
Lent let the canticles, Lauds, Prime,
Terce, Sext, and None be said with
Alleluia. Vespers, however, with
antiphons. The responsories are never
to be said with Alleluia, except from
Easter to Pentecost.

ALLELUIA QUIBUS TEMPORIBUS
DICATUR. — A sancto Pascha usque ad
Pentecosten, sine intermissione dicatur
" Alleluia," tam in Psalmis quam in
Responsoriis. A Pentecoste usque ad
caput Quadragesima^, omnibus noc-
tibus, cum sex posterioribus Psalmis
tantum ad Nocturnos dicatur. Omni
vero Dominica extra Quadragesimam,
Cantica, Matutini, Prima, Tertia,
Sexta Nonaque cum " Alleluia " dican-
tur. Vespera vero cum Antiphonis.
Responsoria vero nunquam dicantur
cum " Alleluia," nisi a Pascha usque
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 age1 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 Tbfologie, and
£ Arcbtologie cbrttienne et de Liturgit.

1 68

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

QUALITER DIVINA OPERA PER DIEM

AGANTUR. — Ut ait Propheta: Septies in
die laudem dixi tibi. Qui septenarius
sacratus numerus a nobis sic implebi-
tur, si Matutini, Primae, Tertiae, Sex-
tae, Nonae, Vesperi, Completoriique
tempore, nostrae servitutis officia per-
solvamus. Quia de his Horis dixit
Propheta: Septies in die laudem dixi
tibi. Nam de Nocturnis Vigiliis idem
ipse Propheta ait : Media nocte surgebam
ad confitendum tibi. Ergo his tempori-
bus referamus laudes Creatori nostro
super judicia justitiae suae, id est, Matu-
tinis, Prima, Tertia, Sexta, Nona,
Vespera, Completorio, et nocte surga-
mus ad confitendum ei.

As the prophet saith: "Seven
times in the day I have given praise
to thee." And we shall observe this
sacred number of seven if, at the times
of Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None,
Vespers, and Compline, we fulfil the
duties of our service. For it was
of these Hours that he said: " Seven
times in the day have I given praise
to thee"; just as the same prophet
said of the Night Office: "At mid
night I arose to give thee praise." At
these times, therefore, let us sing the
praises of our Creator for the judge
ments of His justice: that is, at Lauds,
Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers,
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 Didacbe bade the
faithful recite the Lord's Prayer three times a day. Whether our Hours
of Terce, Sext, and None are connected or not2 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

D. BAUMER, op. cit.y 1. 1., p. 82.

2 Ibid., p. «;6, note

170

How the Work of God is to be done in the Day-time 1 7 1

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," Vesper, 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, Sext, 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. Basil4 and Cassian6 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."7 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, incipiente luce. However, as Cassian tells us,
it was adopted almost everywhere: " It is now celebrated in the West

1 Stromat., 1. VIL, c. vii. P.G., IX., 456-457.

2 De Oratione, c. xxiii.-xxv. P.L., I., 1191-1193.

3 When Vigils were to last the whole night (iravv\)\is} 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 ev^a/norta of the Evening Office; also
ST. GREGORY OF NYSSA, De Vita sancta Macrina. P.G., XL VI., 985. C/. Apostolical
Constitutions, 1. VIII. , c. xxxiv.-xxxvii. P.G., 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 Reg. f us., xxxvii. 5 Inst., III., iii. B Ibid., iv.

7 PARGOIRE, Prime et Complies, in the Revue (Thist. et de litter, religieuses, 1898,
pp. 281-288.

8 CASS., Inst., III., vi. The Matutina nostra solemnitas, of which Cassian speaks
at the end of chap, iii., is Prime and not Lauds. He never calls this new Office Prime.
Prime is mentioned under this name in the Rule of ST. CESARIUS given by the Bollan-
dists.

172 Commentary on the Rule of 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 Pere
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 (ffv/JbTTXrjpayOeia-ij^ Se TT}? rjfjiepas) a ev^apicrria
(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 : " Kal ird\iv TT}? Z/U/CTO? dp^o/ievr)?. . . . 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]."2 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 TrpwOinrvia (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 (vvx^wepov). 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. 2 Reg.fus., xxxvii.

3 Acta SS.y Junii, t. III., 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 : nostr<z scrvitutis
officta 'persolvamus.

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 wU' ingly. However,
there is a form of Laus perennis which does not requLc 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 nocte

. . 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 Cf. Dictionnaire d' Arch&ologie chretienne et de Liturgie, art. Agaune.

CHAPTER XVII

HOW MANT PSALMS ARE TO BE SAID A? THESE
HOURS (OF THE DAT)

QUOT PSALMI PER EASDEM HoRAS

DICENDI SUNT. — Jam de Nocturnis, vel
Matutinis digessimus ordinem psalmo-
diae ; mine de sequentibus Horis videa-
mus. Prima Hora dicantur Psalmi tres
sigillatim, et non sub una " Gloria."
Hymnus ejusdem Horae post Versum
Deus in adjutorium meum intende
antequam Psalmi incipiantur. Post
expletionem vero trium Psalmorum,
recitetur Lectio una, Versus, et " Kyrie
eleison," et missas 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 Jthey 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;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 misses. We have briefly indicated in an earlier
chapter what these concluding prayers might be and the various meanings
of the word missa? 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,

1 Inst., III., iii.

3 See the commentaries of MART£NE and CALMET on this chapter.

4 Cf. D. BAUMSR, op. cit., t. I., pp. 361-362, 374-375-

174

How many Psalms are to be said at these Hours 175

Psalmi, Lectio, Versus, " Kyrie elei- three psalms, the lesson and versicle,
son," et missse 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 Evangelio, Lita- the canticle from the Gospel, the

niae etOratio Dominica, et riant 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 Egypt2 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., the Magnificat), the litany, the Lord's Prayer, et fiant
mis see.

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- CASS., Inst., II., vi.

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., XXXVIII., LXIII.);2 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: aut 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;6
it was the custom too at Cluny.

1 The Council of Agde in 506 decreed: In conclusione matutinarum vet vesper tinarum
missarum, post bymnos, capitella de psalmis dicantur, et plebs collectaorationead vesperam
ab episcopo cum benedictione dimittatur (Can. xxx. MANBI, t. VIII., col. 330).

3 CASSIAN wrote of the monks of Egypt : Die sabbato vel dominica . . . bora tertia
sacra communionis obtentu conveniunt (Inst., III. ii.).

8 S. BASIL., Epist. XCIII. ad Casariam patriciam. P.G., XXXIL, 484-485.—
C/. D. CHAPMAN, La Communion frtquente dans les premiers ages (Paper read at the
nineteenth International Eucharistic Congress held at Westminster, 1908, pp. 161-168
of the Report). — D. BESSE, Les Moines d' Orient, pp. 351-354; Les Maine s del'Ancienne
France, pp. 445-448. 4 Hist, monacb., c. vii. ROSWEYD, p. 464.

5 Acta SS., Jan., t. II., p. 309. — C/. MARTINI, De ant. monach. n'f., 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 of 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 dmrnis Horis dicatur this verse always be said : Deus in adju-
Versus: Deus in adjutorium meum torium meum intends, Domine ad ad-
intende, Domine ad adjuvandum me juvandum me festina, and the Gloria;
festina, 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 «

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 the 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 feriae At Prime on Monday let three

dicantur tres Psalmi, id est, primus, Psalms be said — namely, the first,

secundus, et sextus. Etitaper singulos second, and sixth; and so in the same

dies ad Primam, 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 vero, et Sextam, et At Terce, Sext, and None on

Nonam secundae feriae 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. Expense 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- hundred and 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

cunctia 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 may 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 lnst.t 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. Reliqui omnes third, and the hundred and forty-

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 parvus est, fourth. But let the hundred and

cum centesimo quinto decimo conjun- sixteenth, as it is short, be joined to the

1 See MARTENE, 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 Psatms 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 and 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 — i.e., 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., 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.

2 Study on this point the cursus of ST. C/ESARIUS and of ST. AUREUAN.

1 82 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict

rest of the Office, that lesson, responsory, hymn, versicle, and canticle
are as previously ordered — i.e., 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 Psalmodise diurnae, The order of psalmody for the

reliqui omnes Psalmi, qui supersunt, Day Hours being now arranged, let

aequaliter dividantur in septem noc- all the remaining psalms be equally

tium Vigilias, partiendo scilicet qui distributed among tRe 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 psalm.

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 nihilominus, dispositione
uniform*, which fit in with it badly. The two passages seem in reality rather different.

In what Order the Psalms are to be said 183

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

suse 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 (pr&cipue) 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. H/EFT., 1. VII., tract, v., disq. iv. et v.— Cf. D. CABROL, La Rtforme du
et 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 fathers1 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 se^ ut prius ex more complerent or ationeset psalmodiam,et posted
cibum caperent. Cum autem ingressi fuissent^ psallebant, totumque psaltenum comple-
verunt (Verba Seniorum : Vita Patrum, III., 6. ROSWEYD, p. 493).

CHAPTER XIX

HOW TO SAT THE DIVINE OFFICE

DE DISCIPLINA PSALLENDI. — Ubique We believe that the divine presence

credimus divinam esse prassentiam, 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 qu<& de intrinseco procedit cum cognitione eorum 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 (
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 on the Rule of St. Benedict

all details are foreseen and all gestures regulated by the etiquette of
God. God's audience-chamber is always open, but the Divine Office
is a solemn levee. 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 titnore. the prophet says: " Serve the Lord in
Et iterum: Psallite sapienter. Et: fear": and again, " Sing ye wisely ";
In consfectu Angelorum 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 nostra?. 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 187

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 " statio " 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 tn oratione
sensus ejus non vagetur ? Si certus sit assistere se ante oculos Dei. Si enim quis judicem
suum videns vel principem, et loquens cum eo, non sibi 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 eum, qui scrutatur renes et corda ? . . .

i^vrrtuwir** AV» *•»' ••*»* * «• * v — A 99 * J

est mibi ut non commovear. Quomodo autem possibile sit, pradiximus ; td est, si non den
anima nostra otium, sed in omni tempore de Deo, et de openbus ac de beneficns ejus, et
de donis cogitemm et bate cum conjessione, et gratiarum actione semper volvamus in menu,
sicut scriptum est : Psallite sapienter (Reg. contr., cvni., ax. CJ. ibid., xxxiv.— CASS.,
Conlat., V., xvii., xviii.).— The Spiritual Life and Prayer, chap. vii.

1 88 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict

the aesthetic requirements of some hearers, and to keep up the reputa
tion of a " schola" 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 LIL). 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 nostrez (That mind and
voice be in harmony). It recalls the words of St. Augustine2 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.CCXI.^. P.L., XXXIII., 960. In theEnarratio in Psalmum cxlvi. (2) we
read : Qui ergo psallit, non sola voce psallit ; sed assumpto etiam quodam organo quod vocatur
psalterium, accedentibus manibus voci concordat. Vis ergo psallere ? Non solum vox
tua sonet laudes Dei, sed opera tua concordent cum voce tua. (P.L., XXXVII., 1899.)
In letter XLVIII. (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. CESARIUS, in the. appendix
to the sermons of St. Augustine, CCLXXXIV. P.L., XXXIX., 2282-2283.

CHAPTER XX

O.F 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 to 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 ?

THIS chapter is not a repetition of the preceding one. The
nineteenth chapter deals with conventual and official prayer,
with the solemn audience accorded by Our Lord, and its title
speaks of disciplina — 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 (dientela), 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 aedibus undam.2

The clients were partly of the household of their master j^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

1 S. BASIL., Reg. contr., cviii. (cf. Reg. brev., cci.).— CASS., Conlat., XXIIL, vi.—
Cf. also T.KT™, De <W J, xvi. (P.L., L, ii73-"74): %«>^ "™ -
assidere sub conspectu, contraque conspectum ejus, quern quam maxim* reverearts, a
venereris; quanto magis sub conspectu De^ mvi, angelo adhuc orattoms astante, etc—
S. EPHREM., Paranesis XIX. (Opp. grac. lat., t. II., p. 95).

2 VIRGIL, Georgics, 1. II., 461-462,

No portals proud of lofty palaces

Pour from each room long waves of morning guests.^ ^

189

190 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 which
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 of 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 servitium ostendunt monachi (Those
monks show themselves too slothful in the divine service); and the
liturgy invokes Our Lady 'pro 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 \ 9 1

to the external and more material side of prayer. With Our Lord
Himself,1 with St. Augustine,2 Cassian,3 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. viii. 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 compunction? lacrimarum (and tears of compunction). The
expression is borrowed from Cassian,5 whose conferences on prayer should
be read; and he also speaks often of true purity of heart and of pure
prayer.0 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 divinse gratia; protendatur. In longed by the inspiration of divine

1 MATT. vi. 7 ff. 2 Epist. CXXX., ad Probam, 20. P.L., XXXIII., 501-502.

3 Inst., II., x.; Conlat., IX., xxxvi.

4 B. ANGELA OF FOLIGNO: The Book oj Visions and Instructions, c. xxi. English
trans., CRUIKSHANK. New ed., N.Y. 1903. 5 Conlat., IX., xxviii.

6 Monachi autem illud opus est pracipuum, ut orattonem puram offerat Deo, n
habens in conscientia reprehensibile (RuFiN., Hist, monach., c. i. ROSWEYD, 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 petitions2
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, and 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., q. Ixxxiii., a, 14. U trum oratio deb et esse diuturna.

2 Hoc preecipue est in oratione petendnm^ ut Deo uniamur (Summa, II.-II., q. Ixxxiii.,
a. I, ad 2).

Of Reverence at Prayer \ 9 3

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 which 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 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.j II., vii.; cf. ibid., x.— The Rule of ST. PACHOMIUS said: Cumque manum
percusserit stans prior in gradu, et de scripturis quidpiam volvens memoriter, ut, oratione
finiente, nullus consurget tardius, sed omnes pariter levabunt (vi.).

2 CASSIAN mentions the concluding prayer of the Offices: Satis vero constat ilium
trinee curvationis numerum, qui solet in congregationibus fratrum ad concludendam synaxin
celebrari, eum qui intento animo supplied t observare non posse (Conlat., IX., xxxiv.). D.
BAUMER would read orationis instead of curvationis, and non supplicat (Hist, du Brtv.y
t.I.,p. 149, note i).

3 S. GREG. M., Dial., 1. II., c. iv.

CHAPTER XXI

W

OF THE DEANS OF THE MONASTERY

E 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<£$ositus (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.

DE DECANIS MONASTERII. — Si major
fuerit congregatio, eligantur de ipsis
fratres boni testimonii et sanctae con-
versationis et constituantur decani : qui
sollicitudinem gerant super decanias
suas in omnibus, secundum mandata
Dei et praecepta Abbatis sui. Qui
decani tales eligantur, in quibus securus
Abbas partiatur onera sua, et non eli
gantur per ordinem, sed secundum vitas
meritum, et sapientiae doctrinam.

Should the community be large,
let there be chosen from it certain
brethren of good repute and holy life,
and appointed deans. Let them care
fully direct their deaneries in all things
according to the commandments of
God and the orders of their Abbot.
And let such men be chosen deans as
the Abbot may safely trust to share his
burdens: let them not be chosen
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 decanus 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. I., c. ix.).

2 Epist., XXII., 35. P.£., 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,"3 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 meu, 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. catbol., 1. I., c. xxxi. PX., XXXII., 1338.

2 Inst., IV., x, xvii. 3 '«*'•> IV-> vii-
4 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 : vita meritum, sapienti<z
doctrinam (merit of life, learning of wisdom). The deans are to be
1 Cap. xi. — C/. MENARD, Concord. Reg., c. xxviii., p. 445.

Of the Deans of the Monastery 197

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
Claustral 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 circatorts;

198 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict

the name of " deans " was given to the brethren who controlled 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 should rather quietly rejoice that we no longer have to

1 BERNARD., Ordo C/««., P. I., c. ii.— UDALR., Consuet. Clun., 1. 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 followed 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. OESAR., Reg. ad
virg., x.).

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 conversations, 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 Rules1 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 conversations — 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 uno 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; tf IX.? col. 795.

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. For 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 Bursf eld 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. 1-1

3 C/UDALR., Comuet. Clun., 1. II., c. v., ix., x.—ConsM. Hirsaug., 1. I., c. Ixix., Ixx.

2O2 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 modestia. 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,
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 not 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
l According to D. BVT^ER: «? cultellos . . ,

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. 35-6). As soon as the appointed
signal sounded (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 th<*
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;
Da septem pigro: 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. MART£NE, De antlq, monach. rit., 1. I., c. i.

2 The dark lantern of the Claustral Prior or the circa tores easily found out those who
lingered in bed or continued their sleep in the church. Cf. UDALR., Conwet. G/t/«.,
1. II., c. viii.— BERNARD., Ordo Clun., P. I., c. nl-Consttt. Htrsaug., 1. 1., c. xxvm.

3 Six hours' sleep for old man and boy, seven for the sluggard, eight f

204 Commentary on the Rule of Sf. 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: lerra 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.-XLVI, 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 part
of the Rule he uses the threat, in passing, of one or other of the monast
punishments.

i 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 t
monks; in the final redaction of the Rule they got the place they now have by pure chanc
(Geschichte der benediktiniscben Professformel, p. 23, note i).

* Consult the commentaries of MEGE, MARTENE, CALMET.-MiNARD, op. at.,
c. xxx.-xxxix.-H^FTEN, 1. VIII.-D. HESSE, Les Moines d Orient, chap. ix.

3 Compare the Rule of ST. PACHOMIUS, especially Nos. clx. or

205

206 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict

DE EXCOMMUNICATIONS 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
bravado; 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 that 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 Si quis autem murmuraverit, vel contentiosus extiterit, aut referens in aliquo con-
trariam voluntatem pr&ceptis . . . (S. MACAR., Reg.) xii.). Si inobediens quis fuerit,
aut contentiosus, aut contradictor, aut mendax, et est perfricta frontis . . . (S. PACHOM.,
Reg., clxv. Cf. ibid., 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, objurgetur 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
communicationi subjaceat. Sin autem 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.

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 f tier it culpa, ille qui culpabilis invent tur, corripiatur ab Abbate
secretius. 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 tli
same terms as those of our Rule; then a threat addressed to anyone who should
with a rebellious monk: simili modo culpabilem judicandum (xxxui.); finally sentei
of exclusion is pronounced against the incorrigible monk ne vitioipsius aln penclit
(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 according to the character and temperament of the delinquent.
In the second chapter our Holy Father distinguished two classes of
characters 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. Csesarius, 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 monastic3 and
indeed in ecclesiastical use, for certain Councils prescribe it for refractory
clerics. In St. Benedict's language the word disciplina has 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 LVI., LXII., LXIII.,

1 Cf. S. BASIL., Reg. brev., xliv.

2 Cf. CALMET, Commentary on Chapter XXV.

3 Read H^SFTEN, 1. VIII., tract, v. — MARTENE, De antiq. monach. 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 regulce, 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 (III., XXXIL, 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 not 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 Citeaux,
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, which 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 "3— 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
catdere 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 C/. PIGNOT, Hist, de VOrdre de Cluny, t. II., pp. 400-406. See statute Ixiii. of
PETER THE VENERABLE. P.L., CLXXXIX., 1043. ...

*C.xv. 3C'xm-

4 Commentary on Chapter XXVIII.

5 M. G. H., Le$um, Sectio II., Capital. Regum Franc., t. I., p. 63.

2 1 o 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

WHAT: THE 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 f rater 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

Nec 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 zequas,

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 gravi) ; 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. I., iii.,

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 flayed,

Who scarce deserved the lash. (Trans., FRANCIS.) ^

2 Digne correptus secundum arbitrium senioris vel modum culpa (S. MACAR., Reg., xn.)«
Pro qualitate culp<e erit excommunicatio (Reg. I., SS. PATRUM, xv.). Cf. Reg- Orient.,
xxxii. — S. CAESAR., Reg. ad virg., xi.

211

212 Commentary on the Rule of Sf. 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 tne 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 distinction1 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 litterce 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 of the Universal Church by
means of his union with his monastic order, and only so. If he were

1 In the early centuries there were different degrees of penance and excommuni
cation: see J. MORINUS, Commentarius historicus de disciplina in administratione sacra-
menti peenitentiee. — GABRIEL ALBASPINJEUS, Observations ecclesiastics, 1. II. — JACQUES
, Traicte 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 consortio, 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 pra3viderit 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 frater nona; si Abbot shall think best for him; so that

fratres nona, ille vespertina; usque if , for example, the brethren eat at the

dum 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.

Therefore 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. ,. ,

8 The reader should remember what was said in chapter ix. concerning St. B<
psalmody.

214 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 XLL). 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
CXF GRAVER FAULTS

DE GRAVIORIBUS cuLPis. — Is frater 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
of 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 salvus delivered over to Satan for the des-

sit in die Domini. truction 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., rxxii.
315

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; but 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 CASSIAN also cites this text in a passage which inspired St. Benedict in his writing
of Chapters XXV. and XXVI. Inst., II., xvi.

2 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 LXIIL). 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 AfiBATis If any brother presume without

JUNGUNTUR EXCOMMUNICATIS. — Si quis the Abbot's leave to hold any inter-

frater praesurnpserit, sine jussione course whatever with an excom-

Abbatis, fratri excommunicato 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 the Judith of Boyer:

. . . Je pleure, hvilas ! pour ce pauvre Holopherne,
Si muchamment mis a mort par Judith.

2 /«*/., II., xvL

zi8

Of those who Consort with the Excommunicate 2 1 9

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 5 1 1 decrees in its xi. canon: De his qui
suscepta peenitentia religionem suae professions obliti ad sacularia relabuntur, placuit eos
et a communionc suspendi^ et ab omnium catholicorum convivio separari. Quod si post
interdictum cum eis quisquam prasumpserit 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 christianus ei ave dicat, aut eum osculare pr&sumat; . . .
nemo eijungatur in consortio, neque in aliquo negotio ; et si quis ei se sociaverit, . . . noverit
se simili percussum anathemate. 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 fratres: quia non est opus physician, but they that are sick."
sanis medicus, sed male babentibus.

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 pcena 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. 3-11).
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 sympaectas, 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 brethren of mature years
provocent eum ad humilitatis satis- and wisdom, who may, as it were
factionem, 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 cbaritas, 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 way2 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
symp&cttf to the excommunicate monk. The words quasi occultos con
solatores are a later gloss. The meaning of the word sympczcta 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 sympcecta and that it is a transliteration of the Greek word a-v^Traitcrr)^
(from a-vv 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 (TVfjLTrai/cTijs 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: Xa/3o>z/ riva o-vfiTraiKTijv
daKTjTrjv . . . .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 — i .*.,
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 h. I.

* Hist. Laus., c. Ixxxiii. P.G., XXXIV., 1180; ed. BUTLER, p. 109.

222 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict

stratagem. There are in the community amiable and earnest brethren,
in whom the excommunicated brother has confidence. They are monks
of mature years and solid virtue, upon whom the complaints, or even
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, fluctuantem. The
loving intervention of the sympcecta 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 sympactce 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 : et metuat the charge of weakly souls, and not

1 Nor does the Rule of ST. C^ESARIUS ad virgines leave the excommunicate in absolute
solitude: Cum una de spiritualibus sororibus resideat (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,
assumebatis: 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. The 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 mouth 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, quse erraverat, quaerere; cujus mountains, went to seek one which
innrmitati 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 Good Shepherd running in search of the lost sheep.
8 De moribus ecclesia cathol, 1. I., 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) and in 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 he 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 IIS QUI S^PIUS CORRECTI NON

EMENDANTUR. — Si quis fratcr frequen
ter correptus pro qualibet culpa, si
etiam excommunicatus non emen-
daverit, acrior ei accedat correctio, id
est, ut verberum vindicta in eum pro-
cedat.

If any brother who has been fre
quently corrected for some fault, or
even excommunicated, do not amend,
let a more severe chastisement be
applied — that is, let the punishment
of stripes be administered to him.

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
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
punishment is called more severe and more harsh, not because excommu
nication is a less serious penalty, but because bodily chastisement may
perhaps more effectively subdue the animal man 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
forte (quod absit) in superbiam elatus
etiam defendere voluerit opera sua,
tune Abbas f aciat quod sapiens medicus :
si exhibuit fomenta, si unguenta adhor-
tationum, si medicamina Scripturarum
divinarum, si ad ultimum ustionem ex-
communicationis vel plagas virgarum,
et jam si viderit nihil suam prsevalere
industriam: adhibeat etiam, quod
majus est, suam et omnium fratrum
pro eo orationem, ut Dominus, qui
omnia potest, operetur salutem circa
infirmum fratrem

But if even then he do not correct
himself, or perchance (which God
forbid !), puifed up with pride, even
wish to defend his deeds : then let the
Abbot act like a wise physician. If he
has applied fomentations and the
unction of his admonitions, the
medicine of the Holy Scriptures, and
the last cautery of excommunication
or corporal chastisement, and if he
see that his labours are of no avail, let
him add what is still more powerful —
his own prayers and those of all the
brethren for him, that God, who is
all-powerful, may work the cure of the
sick brother.

225

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 pronouncing irrevocable
sentence.

The Abbot must 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 sympcectce 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 fuerit, But if he be not healed even by this

tune jam utatur Abbas ferro abscis- means, then at length let 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 CASSIAN, Inst., X., vii.

2 S. AUG., Enarr. II. in Ps. Iviii. 1 1. P.L., XXXVI., 712.

Of those who, being often Corrected^ do not Amend 227

cedit, discedat: ne una ovis morbida from you." And again: "If the
omnem gregem contaminet. faithless one depart, let him depart,"

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. Macarius3 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, u. P.L., XXXIIL, 962.

2 De habitu virginum, xvii. P.L., IV., 456. The expression ovis morbida occurs
several times in ST. JEROME: Epist. II. P.L., XXII., 331; 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., cu.
5 C. xv.

CHAPTER XXIX

WHETHER THE BRETHREN WHO LEAVE THE
MONASTERT ARE TO BE RECEIVED AGAIN

Si DEBEANT ITERUM RECiPi FRATRES If any brother, who through his

EXEUNTES DE MONASTERio. — Frater qui 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 ei 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 case, 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 Btncd.,
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 he 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.).
Martene 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 time 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.

2 Qui absque commonitionefratrum recesserit et postea acta panitentia venertt, non ertt
in ordine suo absque majoris imperio (S. PACH., Reg., cxxxvi.). .

3 This explanation of usque tertio is proposed by the author of Explication antique
et bistorique de la Rtgle de saint Benoit, t. I., p. 429- In this way the reception of t
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. 2I-22).1

1 PETRI VENKR., Epist., 1. I., Ep. XXVIII. P.L., CLXXXIX., 127.

CHAPTER XXX
HOW TOUNG BOTS ARE TO BE CORRECTED

DE PUERIS MINORI ^ETATE, QUALiTER Every age and understanding should

CORRIPIANTUR. — Omnis aetas vel Intel- have its due measure. As often, there-

lectus proprias debet habere mensuras. fore, as boys, or those under age, or

Ideoque quoties pueri, vel adolescen- such as cannot fully understand the

tiores aetate, 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 no 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 pratexta* • 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 constitution promulgata.pubertatem in masculispost quartum decimum annum
completumiUicoinitiumaccipeTedisposuimus . . . QUSTINIAN, lnstit.,1., tit. 22;pul
A.D. 533).

231

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 : Mens 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 Orientalis.2

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.

2 Cf. S. BASIL., Reg. contr., cxi., cxii., cxiii.

234 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict

business which charity 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 that would soon degenerate into gluttony.
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 elatus : 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. CALMET., in h. I.

2 Reg. I., SS. PATRUM, xii. : . . . Qui cellar iumfratrum contineat. Debet talis tan-
tummodo eligi, qui fossil in omnibus gules sute suggesttonibus 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 everything,
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 apostolici all humility refuse what he asks for
praecepti, quia qui bene ministraverit, amiss. Let him be watchful over his
gradum bonum sibi 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 suam custodiat. 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 world. 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 iuum, quia monacbus es (Verba Seniorum: Vila Palrum^ III.,
170. ROSWEYD, p. 526).

a Supplicem nullum spernas, et cut dare non poles quod pctierit, non eum spernas; si poles
dare, da; si non potes, affabilem le prasta (S. AUG., Enarr. I. in Psal. ciii. 19. P.L.,
XXXVIL, 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. Nihii 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 ; sed omnia 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 debetqui buic officio deputatur,
ut audiat: Quia qui bene ministraverit, bonum gradum acquirit; et ammte su<e lucrum
Jacit (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 avaritiez 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., Inst.9 IV., xix., 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 usewithwhich 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 quae tribuatur, humility; and to him on whom he has
sermo responsionis porrigatur bonus, nothing else to bestow, let him give
quia scrip turn 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 quse 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 prassumat. 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 scandalizentur, 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 offerat.2 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 time,
immediately the notion enters his head. We may remark that the

1 S. GREG. M., Dial., 1. II., c. xxviii., xxix.

2 The scribes sometimes wrote typo, sometimes typho: the latter reading is the t
The word is Latinized Greek: rO$o$-, smoke, smoke of pride or arrogance; in Hippocrates
it means torpor, stupor, lethargy. If St. Benedict had this latter sense m 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 dormientium . . . super ipsas memonas non sint
sumptuosa, atque omnibus petentibus sine typbo et cum alacritate prabeantur (Epist. XXI 1.,
6. P.L., XXXIIL, 9z).

IP

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 beata,
dicta 'pads visio.

CHAPTER XXXII

OF THE TOOLS AND PROPERTT OF THE MONASTERY

D£ FERRAMENTIS VEL REBUS MONAS-

TERII. — Substantive monasterii in ferra-
mentis, vel vestibus, seu quibuslibet
rebus, provideat Abbas fratres, de
quorum vita et moribus securus sit: et
iis singula, ut utile judicaverit, con-
signet custodienda atque recolligenda.
Ex quibus Abbas breve teneat: ut dum
sibi in ipsa assignata fratres vicissim
succedunt, sciat quid dat aut quid
recipit. Si quis autem sordide aut
negligenter res monasterii tractaverit,
corripiatur; si non emendaverit, dis-
ciplinae regulari subjaceat.

Let the Abbot appoint brethren,
on whose manner of life and character
he can rely, to the charge of the tools,
clothes, and other property of the
monastery; and let him consign the
various things to their charge, as he
shall think fit, to be kept and to be
collected after use. Of these let the
Abbot keep a list, so that as the
brethren succeed to different employ
ments, he may know what he gives
and what he receives back. If anyone
treat the property of the monastery
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.

THE 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., xxvi., 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 (breve) 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 Fathers,
" 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. xxii. And ST. CJESARIUS: Quee cellario sive canava, sive vestibus, vel codicibus,
aut posticio, vel lanipendio praponuntur, super Evangelium claves accipiant, tt sine
murmuratione serviant reliquis. Si qua vero vesttmenta, calceamenta, utensilia negligenter
expendenda vel custodienda putarint, tanquam interversores rerum monasterialium severius
corrigantur (Reg. ad virg., xxx.).

CHAPTER XXXIII

WHETHER MONKS OUGHT TO HAVE ANTTHING OF
THEIR OWN i

Si QUID DEBEANT MONACHi PRO- Above all let the vice of private

PRIUM HABERE. — Prsecipue hoc vitium ownership be cut off 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 poteitate. own power.

AGAIN it is in reference to the cellarer and his office that our Holy
l\ Father describes for us the position of monks with regard to
AA 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: S* debet babere aliquid propriumy
qui inter fratres est f (Reg. contr., xxix.).

2 Both thought and phrase come from CASSIAN, Conlat., 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 Father declares in forcible terms that a monk may
own nothing whatsoever (nullam omnino rent) — 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 omnino. 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
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 dispoliation
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. ORSIESII 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. C/ESAR., Reg. ad mon., i.-iii., xv., xvi. ; Reg. ad virg., passim. — CASS., Inst., IV., xiii.

a Qui seipsum et membra sua tradidit in alterius potestatem propter mandatum Domini
(S. BASIL., Reg. contr., cvi.). — Ne sui quidem ipsius esse se dominum vel potestatem habere
cognoscat (CASS., Inst., II., Hi.).— See also S. MACAR., Reg., xxiv.— We read in the Con-
stitutiones monast., c. xx. (inter opp. S. BASILII. P.G., XXXI., 1393): Tu autem mortuus es,
et toti mundo crucifixus. Rejectis enim terrenis divitiis amplexus es paupertatem; et cum
te ipse dicastiDeo, Dei factus es thesaurus . . . Nibil omnino possidens, nihil babes quod
largiaris. Into etiam cum ipsum corpus obtuleris et de ceetero ne illius quidem potestatem
habeas, tanquam quod res sit Deo consecrata, tibi eo uti non licet ad humanum 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. The 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 solemnly pro
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 into 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 proprietatt,
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 Great1 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 liceat 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 scriptum 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. Benedict 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,2 but when we have nothing

1 Epist., 1. IV., Ep. VI.; 1. IX., Ep. VII., Ep. CXIV. P.L., LXXVIL, 672-673,
945-947, 1044-1045. See the edition of EWOLD and HARTMAN, M.G.H.: Epist., t. I.,
pp. 237-238; t. II., pp. 185-186, 215-216.

2 Nor was this the ideal of ST. GREGORY THE GREAT, who wrote: Religiosam vitam
eligentibus congrua nos oportet consideration prospicere, ne cujusdam necessitates 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 role
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., t. I., p. 175). And again: Officio pietatis im-
pellimur monasteries provida consider atione f err e consultum, ne hi qui Dei servitio deputati
esse noscuntur necessitatem aliquant possint, quod avertat Dominus, 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
toTbidpeculium—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.

2 Hanc regulam videamus districtissime nunc usque servari, ut ne verbo quidem aude>
quis dicer e aliquid suum magnumque sit crimen ex ore monachi processisse codtcem meum,
tabulas meas, grafium meum, tunicam meant, gallicas meas, proque hoc digna p<emtentia
satisfacturus sit, si casu aliquo per subreptionem vel ignorantiam bujusmodt verbum

ejus effugerit (Cass., Inst., IV., xiii.).

3 Read ST. THOMAS, Summa contra Gent., 1. III., c. cxxx.-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.3 The ordinary punishment was excommunication. At Citeaux
and among the Carthusians it was the custom to proclaim it solemnly
on Palm Sunday against all proprietarii.4

1 S. GREG. M., Dial., I. II., c. xix.

2 Dial., 1. IV., c. Iv. P.L., LXXVII., 420.

3 Cf. S. HIERON., Epist. XXII., 33. P.L., XXII., 418.
* Cf. MARTENK, in b. /.

CHAPTER XXXIV

Si OMNES DEBEANT JEQUALITER NECES-

SARIA ACCIPERE. — Sicut scriptum est:
Dividebatur singulis, prout cuique opus
erat. Ubi non dicimus, quod persona-
rum (quod absit) acceptio sit, sed infir-
mitatum consideratio. Ubi qui minus
indiget, agat Deo gratias, et non con-
tristetur : qui vero plus indiget, humi-
lietur pro infirmitate, et non extollatur
pro misericordia; et ita omnia membra
erunt in pace.

WHETHER ALL OUGHT TO RECEIVE NECESSARY
THINGS ALIKE

It is written: "Distribution was
made to everyone, according as he had
need." By this we do not mean that
there should be respecting of persons
(God forbid !) but consideration for
infirmities. Let him, therefore, who
needs less thank God and be not dis
tressed; and let him who requires
more be humbled because of his in
firmity and not puffed up by the
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 sint vobis omnia communia: et distribuatur unicuique vestrum a prceposita vestra victus
et tegumentum; non cequaliter omnibus, quia non aequaliter valetis omnes, sed unicuique sicut
opus fuerit. Sic enim legitis in Actibus Apostolorum: Quia erant eis omnia communia e\
distribuebatur singulis prout cuique opus erat. . . . Qua infirm* sunt ex pristina const
tudine, si aliter tractantur in victu, non debet aliis molestum esse, nee injustum videri, qua
fecit alia consuetudo fortiores. Nee illas feliciores putent, quia sumunt quod non sumt
ipsee: sed sibi potius gratulentur, quia valent quod non valcnt ill<e (Epist. C XL, 5, 9-
P.L., XXXIII., 960, 961).— Cf. S. BASIL., Reg. contr.

251

XC1V.

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 the 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

THE WEEKLY SERVERS IN THE KITCHEN

D£ SEPTIMANARIIS COQUIN^E. —

Fratres sic sibi invicem serviant, ut nul-
lus excusetur a coquinae officio, nisi aut
aegritudine, aut in causa gravis utilitatis
quisoccupatusfuerit; quiaexinde major
merces acquiritur. Imbecillibus au-
tem procurentur solatia, ut non cum
tristitia hoc faciant, sed habeant omnes
solatia, secundum modum congrega-
tionis aut positionem loci. Si major
congregatio fuerit, cellerarius excusetur
a coquina; vel si qui, ut diximus,
majoribus utilitatibus occupantur.
Cseteri vero sibi sub charitate invicem
serviant.

Let the brethren so serve each other
in turn that no one be excused from
the work of the kitchen unless on the
score of health, or because he is en
gaged in some matter of great utility;
for thence greater reward is obtained.
Let the weaker brethren, however,
be helped that they may not do their
work with sadness : and let all generally
have assistance according to the num
ber of the community and the situa
tion of the place. If the community
be larger, the cellarer shall be excused
from the service of the kitchen; and
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: " not to be ministered unto, but to minister."
Cassian tells us that in the East, save in Egypt,3 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 and 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. * ##., 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 merccs et caritas acquiritur). 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 Rules3 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,6 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 ministerii 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 C/. CALMET, in c. xxxv. * Inst., IV., xi.

3 For instance, the Rule of ST. C^SARIUS ad virgines, xii.

* UDALR., Consuet. Clun., 1. I., c. xlvi.— BERNARD., Ordo Clun., P. I., c. i.—Consttt.
Hirsaug., 1. II., c. xiv.

5 As in one of the Subiaco monasteries: S. GREG. M., Dial., 1. II., c. v.

256 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict

official1 of the week is to clean up (munditias faciai) 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 XXXIL).

Septimanarii autem, ante unam An hour before the meal these

horam refectionis, accipiant super sta- weekly servers shall receive, over and

tutam 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,3 our Holy Father grants each of them a drink
and a piece of bread, one hour before the common meal. Calmet 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 murmur? serviant sororibus suis (S. AUG., Ep. CCXI., 13. P.L., 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

Intrantes et exeuntes hebdomadarii, On Sunday, as soon as Lauds are
in oratorio mox Matutinis finitis, ended, both the incoming and out-
Dominica, omnium genibus provolvan- going servers for the week shall cast
tur, postulantes prose 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, qui adjuvisti him who is ending his week say this
me, e tconsolatus es me. Quo dicto tertio, verse: Benedictus es, Domine 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 adjutorium meum intende, Domine 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. intende, 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.2 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 received3 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 DEACON, Commentary in c. xxxv.

2 Ab omnibus fratribus oratio prosequatur, qua vel pro ignorationibus intercedat vel pro
admissis bumanafragilitatepeccatis, et commendet Deo velut sacrijvcium pingue consummata
eorum devotionis obsequia (CASS., Inst., IV., xix.). 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. xxxv.).

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.

D£ INFIRMIS FRATRIBUS. — Infir-

morum cura ante omnia et super omnia
adhibenda est, ut sicut revera Christo,
ita eis serviatur, quia ipse dixit: In-
firmus fui, et visitastis me. Et: Quod
jecistis uni de his minimis meis, mihi
fccistis. Sed et ipsi infirmi considerent
in honorem Dei sibi serviri, et non
superfluitate sua contristent fratres
suos servientes sibi. Qui tamen
patienterportandi sunt: quia de talibus
copiosior merces acquiritur. Ergo cura
maxima sit Abbati, ne aliquam negli-
gentiam patiantur.

Before all things and above all
things care must be taken of the sick,
so that they may be served in very deed
as Christ Himself; for He has said:
" I was sick and ye visited me " and,
" As long as ye did it to one of these,
my least brethren, ye did it to me."
But let the sick themselves consider
that they are served for the honour of
God, and not grieve their brethren
who serve them by their importunity.
Yet must they be patiently borne with,
because from such as these is gained
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 ourLord
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 (superfluitate 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 infirmitate meliorantur (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 cafled 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,

1 Quali affectu debemus infirmis fratribus ministrare f Sicut ipsi Domino o/erentes
obsequium, qui dixit: Ouia cum feds tis uni ex minimis is tis fratribus mfis, mibt fecistts
(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.

2 Chapter XI.

260 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict

neorum usus infirmis, quoties expedit, prompt, and painstaking. Let the use
offeratur. Sanis autem, et maxime of baths be granted to the sick as of ten
juvenibus, tardius concedatur. Sed as it shall be expedient; but to those
et carnium esus infirmis, 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 cella for the sick is to be entrusted to the infirmarian, whom

1 The old Customaries dispense the sick from the Divine Office only in very serious
cases. This is what we read in the Disciplina Farfensis: Illifratres qui non valent surgere,
e ant famuli servientes eis et educant illos sustentantes ulnis suis in ecclesia, atque collocent
ut melius potuerint. Ingratum nulli apparere debet bocfactum; quia seepe vidimus in eodem
diefratremfinire ex hacluce et ad Christum transire, etiam in ipsa ecclesia exhalare spiritum.
Quis de talibus dubitet quod non statim adregnumpolorum penetrent? . . . Ita debent opus
Dei per omniaagere sicutsani in monasterio, prater quod leniter atquecursimdicant. . . . ///*'
vero qui ita nimietate injirmitatis detinentur quod nullo modo consurgere valeant, mox ut
monasterio fuerint celebrata nocturnalia obsequia, annual ille qui ordinem tenet duobus
fratribus qui illis divinum opus decantent, etc. (1. II., c. Hi.).

z Regula S. P. Benedicti cum declarationibus Congregations S. Mauri (1663),
pp. 144-145-

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 for 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 tbermce 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
measare 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.3 The ancient monks often took our Holy Father's

1 Cf. S. CAESAR., Reg. ad virgines, xxx.

2 On the subject of bloodletting (minutid) and the employment of doctors by the
ancient monks, see CALMET, in b. /. — On the treatment of sick, dying, and dead monks,
see H^FTEN, 1. XL, tract, v.— MARTENE, De ant. monach. rit., 1. V., c. viii.-xiii.— PIGNOT
gives a summary of the customs of Cluny : Hist, de VOrdre de Cluny, t. II., pp. 434~435>
463-473.

3 Lavacra etiam, cujus infirmitas exposcit, minime denegentur: sed fiat sine murmura
tione de consilio medicine. . . . Si autem n'dla infirmitate compellitur, cupiditau su<£ non
pr&beatur assensus (S. C^SAR., Reg. ad virg., xxix.).

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 tliat the sick and those who are very weak2 may
eat meat " that they may recover their strength " (pro reparatione).
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 mtat in the accustomed manner (more solito).3
The same recommendation is repeated in Chapter XXXIX., and we
may reserve our commentary till then.

Curam autem maximam 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 discipulis 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 H^EFTEN, 1. V.,
tract, ix. — MARTENE, De ant. monaeh. rit., 1. V., c. vii. — CALMET, Commentary on
Chapter I.

2 We should read infirm <; omnino debilibus.

|^| 3 Pullos et carnes nunquam sani accipiant; infirmis quicquid necesse fuerit minis tretur
(S. CJESAR., Reg. ad mon., xxiv.). Quia sole t fieri, ut cella monasterii non semper bonum
vinum habeat, ad sanctce Abbatisste curam pertinebit ut tale vinum provideat, unde aut
infirma, aut ilia quee sunt delicatius nutritce, palpentur (S. CESAR., Reg. ad virg., xxviii.).
AZgrotantes sic tractandee sunt, ut citius convalescant; sed cum vires pristinas reparaverint,
redeant adfeliciorem abstinentia consuetudinem (ibid.) xx.).

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 regular 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 regular 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
($r(Bveniant 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, ut aliorum
fessa sustentetur <etas, aliorum nonfrangatur incipiens (S. HIERON., Ep. XXII., 35. P-L-,
XXII., 420). In cena mensa ponitur propter laborantes, senes et pueros, astusque gravts-
simos (S. HIERON., Prarfatio in Reg. S. Pachom., 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 WEE KIT READER

DE HEBDOMADARIO LECTORE. — 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. Cassian1
tells us that this custom conies from the Cappadocian2 monks
and not from those of Egypt; St. Benedict found it in St.
Caesarius as well.3 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 mensis
of the text quite literally, so that there was reading at first table— *.£.,
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 Inst., IV., xvii. 2 Cf. S. BASIL., Reg. brev., clxxx.

3 Sedentes ad mensam taceant, et animum lectioni intendant. Cum autem lectio
verit, meditatio sancta de corde non cesset. Si vero aliquid opus fuerit, qua mensce praest
sollicitudinem gerat, et quod est necessarium nutu magis quam voce petal. Nee sola vobis
fauces sumant cibum, sed et aures audiant Dei verbum (Reg. ad virg., xvi.). Cj. Keg. c
man., ix.

26s

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
r. 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 Missas et com- Let this brother, when beginning

munionem petat ab omnibus pro se his service, ask all after Mass and Com-

orari, ut avertat 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 labia mea aperies, oratory by all, he, the reader, first

et os meum annuntiabit laudem tuam; et beginning: Domine 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 Domine (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."2 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. Quae vero save the voice of the reader alone, be
necessaria sunt comedentibus et biben- heard there. Whatever is required
tibus,sibisicinvicemministrentfratres, 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
cumquesignipotiuspetaturquamvoce. 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 dieere. 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 and everywhere among monks.3 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 than 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., Consuet. Clun., 1. II., c. xxxiv.

2 The form we employ is very like the one already indicated by SMARAGDUS: Averte,
qu<esumus, Domine, ab hoc famulo tuo spiritum elationis, ut bumiliter legens, sensum
intellectum capiat lectionis.

3 See the enactments collected by MARTENE in his Commentary.— Est autem eiset
in capiendo cibo summum silentium (RUFIN., Hist, monacb., c. m. ROSWEYD, p. 45»;-
Tantum silentium ab omnibus exbibetur, ut, cum in unum tanta numerosttas Jratrum re
tionis obtentu consederit, nullus ne muttire quidem audeat prater eum, gut sua det
prxest, gut tamen si quid mensa superinferri vel auferri necessanum esse pervidertt, so
potius quam voce stgnificat (CASS., Int., IV., xvii.)--C/. S. PACH., Reg., xxxu

S. CAESAR., Reg. ad virg., 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 bebdoma-
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 cujuscumque 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 cafes 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 detur 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

Frater autem hebdomadarius acci- The brother who is reader for the

piat mixtum prius quam incipiat legere, 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 ejus qui pr&est
Patris (Reg. I. SS. PATRUM, viii.). Ad mensam specialiter nullus loquatur, nisi quipreeest,
vel qui interrogate fuer it (S. MACAR., Reg. xviii.).

2 Perhaps immediately before and not ante unam boram 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 word miscere (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 time, many assimilated it in practice
to the little extra allowance granted to the kitchen servers, the singulos
biberes et 'panem^ 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 tell 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 sedificent read or chant according to their order,
audientes. but such onl7 as ma/ edify the hearers •

The explanation of this short sentence is given at the beginning of
the chapter.

1 Cf. Explication ascetique et bistorique de la Rlgle de saint Benott, chapter xxxviii.

2 Cf. PAUL THE DEACON, Commentary in c. xxxv., pp. 333~334-

3 Reg. Magistri, xxiv.; cf. ibid., xxvii. Read the commentary of CALMET on our
text, and especially, in the Outrages postbumes of MABILLON (t. II., pp. 27^3jo), th.
TraitS ou Von refute la nouvelle explication que quelques auteurs donnent aux mots de JfffM
et de Communion qui se trouvent dans la Regie de saint Beno^t, and the Addition au prA
dent traite.

CHAPTER XXXIX

OF THE MEASURE OF FOOD

DE MENSURA CIBORUM. — SufficeiC

credimus ad refectionem quotidianam
tarn sextae, quam nonae, omnibus men-
sis cocta duo pulmentaria, propter
diversorum infirmitates: ut forte qui
ex uno non poterit edere, ex alio re-
ficiatur. Ergo duo pulmentaria cocta
fratribus sufficiant; et si fuerint inde
poma, aut nascentia leguminum, ad-
datur et tertium.

We think it sufficient for the daily
meal, whether at the sixth or the ninth
hour, that there be at all the tables two
dishes of cooked food, because of the
variety of men's weaknesses: so that
he who may not be able to eat of the
one may make his meal of the other.
Therefore let two cooked dishes suffice
for the brethren; and if there be any
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 masters1 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 mortification2 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 tables3 (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)* 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., xix. — CASS., Conlat., II., xvi.-xxvi.

2 CASS., Conlat.j XXI., xi.-xvii.

3 In spite of what CALMET 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 hemina of wine in the fourth month,
three hemina in the ninth, tenth, and eleventh. He speaks in the same place about the
pulmentarium of olives.

4 Pulmentarium means a dish of any sort, but especially stew, mash, or pudding:
cf. CALMET, in b. I.

270

Of the Measure of Food 27 1

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.1 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
(sifuerint inde [or unde]) .

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 interpretation2 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 refectio,sive prandii for each day, whether there be but one
et cense. 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 hemina

1 BERNARD., Ordo Clun., P. I., c. vi., xlvii. — UDALR., Consuet. Clun., 1. II., c. xxv.

* See especially the Commentary of CALMET.

3 Cf. S. GREG. M., Dial., 1. I., c. xi. P.L., LXXVII., 212.

2J2 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict

of wine spoken of in the next chapter.1 All these researches have their
interest for curiosity 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
hemina 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;2 perhaps
Petronax and the restorers of Monte Cassino recovered them, thanks
to Pope Zachary (A.D. 741-752) ;3 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 hemina 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.5 The Roman pound was equivalent, according to recent calcu
lations, to 327-45 grammes (n-£ 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

crit, 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 indigeries: quia excess be before all things avoided,

nih.il sic contrarium est 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. HJEFTEN, 1. X., tract, iii.-iv. — LANCELOT, Dissertation sur Vhemine de vin et
sur la lime de-pain de saint Benoist et des autres anciens religieux (Paris, 1667; second and
more complete edition, 1668). — MABILLON, Acta SS. O.S.B., Ssec. IV., P. I., Praef.,
152-165.

2 Cf. PAULI DIAC., De gestis Langobardorum, 1. IV., c. xviii. P.L., XCV., 548.

3 Ibid., 1. VI., c. xl. P.L., XCV., 650-65 1.

4 PAULI DIAC., Epist. I. P.L., XCV., 1585.

5 There is preserved at Monte Cassino a bronze weight of 1550 grammes (nearly
3$ lb.), which DOM TOSTI thinks is the libra propensa of St. Benedict: Delia vita di
San Benedetto, capo v. (edizione illustrata, 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).

6 DAREMBERG and SAGLIO, Dictionnaire des Antiquites grecques et romaines: Libra, iv.

7 In France the Paris pound, which was most widely spread, contained 16 ounces,
each equivalent to 30-59 grammes (1-08 oz. avoir.).

Of the Measure of Food 273

corda vestra in crapula et ebrietate. says: "Take heed to yourselves lest
Pueris vero minori aetate non eadem perhaps your hearts be overcharged
servetur quantitas, sed minor quam with surfeiting and drunkenness."
majoribus, servata in omnibus parcitate. And kt 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:
(indigeries). 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., Inst ., V., viii.— S. AUG., Confess., 1. X., c. xxxi. P.L., XXXII., 797 sq:
8 UDALRIC gives this definition, Consuet. Clun., 1. II., c. xxxv.j cj. 1. III., c. x^

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 vero quadrupedum ab But let all abstain from eating the

omnibus abstineatur comestio, praeter flesh of four-footed animals, except the
omnino debiles et segrotos. 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
ilesh 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 all1 — 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, and 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 mon., xxiv.; Reg.
ad virg., Recapitulation xvii.

2 The history of this matter is well summarized in the Commentary of CALMET.
Read also: HERRGOTT, Fetus disciplina monastica, Praef., pp. xii-xxxii. — D. GRicoiRE
BERTHELET, Traitf historique et moral de V abstinence de la viande et des revolutions
qu'elle a cues depuis le commencement du monde jusqu'd present, etc. (Rouen, 1731),
P. III., chapters i.-ii. — D. M£GE maintained that St. Benedict forbade the flesh of birds.

CHAPTER XL

OF THE MEASURE OF DRINK

" Everyone hath his proper gift
from God, one thus, another thus."
And therefore it is with some scruple
that we determine the measure of other
men's living. Yet, making due allow
ance for the weakness of some, we think
that a hemina of wine a day is sufficient
for each.

DE MENSURA POTUS. — Unusquisque
proprium babet donum ex Deo: alius sic,
alius vero sic. Et ideo cum aliqua
scrupulositate a nobis mensura victus
aliorum constituitur. Tamen infirmo-
rum contuentes imbecillitatem, credi-
mus heminam vini per singulos sufficere
per diem.

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) .l But we should remember what was said in the last chapter.

Quibus autem donat Deus 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
sestatis 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 DAREMBERG et SAGLIO, Dictionn. des antiquites grecques et romaines, art. Hemina.
[The Roman sextarius is generally equated with the English pint (more accurate!
= -96 of a pint). The bemina 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
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 esse; sed quia nostris no means a drink for monks, yet, since

temporibus id monachis 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

sed parcius : quia vinum apostatare facit " wine maketh 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;3 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,6 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 exposcit, 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 Pastori de quodam monacbo qui non bibebat vinum, et dixit
eis: Quia vinum monacborum omnino non est (Verba Seniorum: Vita Patrum, V., iv., 31.
ROSWEYD, p. 570).

2 S. ATHANASII, Vita S. Antonii, c. vii. P.G., XXVI., 853.— Cf. S. AUG., De moribus
cedes, cathol, 1. 1., c. xxxi. P.L., XXXII., 1339.— S. HIERON., Ep. LIL, 1 1 ; Ep. XXII.,
35. P.L., XXII., 536-537; #« ., 420.

3 C. vii. (ROSWEYD, p. 713).

4 Ut non usque ad satietatem persistamus in edendo (S. BASIL., Reg. contr,, ix.).
6 S. GREG. 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 absquc 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
country 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 THE BRETHREN ARE TO TAKE

THEIR MEALS

QuiBUS HORIS OPORTEAT REFICERE

FRATRES. — A sancto Pascha usque ad
Pentecosten ad sextam reficiant fratres,
et ad seram cenent.

From the holy feast of Easter until
Whitsuntide let the brethren dine at
the sixth hour and sup in the evening.

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 autem, tota aestate, si
labores agrorum non habent monachi,
aut nimietas asstatis non perturbat,
quarta et sexta feria jejunent usque ad
nonam : reliquis vero diebus ad sextam
prandeant. Quae prandii sexta, si
opera in agris habuerint, aut aestatis
fervor nimius fuerit, continuanda erit,
et in Abbatis sit providentia. Et sic
omnia temperet atque disponat, qua-
liter et animae salventur, et quod faci-
unt fratres, absque ulla murmuratione
faciant.

But from Whitsuntide, throughout
the summer, if the monks have not
to work in the fields, nor are harassed
by excessive heat, let them fast on
Wednesdays and Fridays until the
ninth hour, but on other days dine
at the sixth. Should they have field
labour, or should the heat of the sum
mer be very great, let dinner at the
sixth hour be the rule, at the discre
tion of the Abbot. Let him likewise
so temper and arrange all things that
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. Heereses, 1. III., t. ii.: Expositio fidei, xxii. P.G., XLIL,
825-828.

2 Cf. SOCRAT., Hist, eccks., 1. V., c. xxii. P.G., LXVII., 625-646.— CASS., Conlat.,
II., xxvi.j XXL, xxiii.

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 Quadragesimae, 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
lucerne 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 cenae, sive while thete is yet daylight. Indeed,
refectionis hora sic 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.

i ST. JEROME, in his preface to the Rule of St. Pacbomius writes: (5) Bis in bebdomada,
quarta et sexta Sabbati ab omnibus jejunatur, excepto tempore Pascb* et Pentecostes. AUu
diebus comedunt qui volunt post meridiem; et in cena simpler mensa pomtur, propter
laborantes, senes, et pueros, cestusque gravissimos. Sunt qut secundo parum cornedunt
alii qui plandii, \i-ve cena uno tantum cibo contenti sunt. Cf. LADEUZE, &M* sur le ceno-
bitisme pakbomien, pp. 298-299. ..

3 Cf. Dictionn. d'archtol. cbrtt. et de liturg., art. Caput Jejunn,

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
out 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

EF 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.,
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 monacbi. 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
i Some testimonies in favour of the night silence occur previously to St. Benedict:
Nemo alteri loquatur in tenebris, says the Rule of ST. PACHOMIUS (xciv.). Finitts tgitur
psalmis et cotidiana congregation, sicut superius mcmorammus, absoluta, nullus eor\
#4 modicum subsistere aut sermocinari audet cum altero (CASS., Inst., II., xv.J.

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 adopted1 differs from that of the editions of
Schmidt and WolfBin, which put a full stop after the word horis and a
colon after the words sive prandii. With either punctuation the clause
et ideo 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 tempus fuerit prandii; 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. Gu^ranger in his French translation of the Rule.

2 Omni tempore 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 all 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,
aedificet audientes; non autem Hepta- or at least something else which may
teucum, aut Regum: 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 Scrip

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 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 C/. MARTENE, De ant. monacb. rit., 1. I., c. xi. VVVT\/

2 Cf. S. AUG., De doctrina Christiana, 1. II., c. viu. P>L., XXX1V-, 40-

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

concurrentibus1 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.2 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 exeuntes 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 praevaricari 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 moderatione 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 XVI I. -XVI 1 1.).

1 Convenientibus in unumfratribus ad concinendos psalmos, quos quieturi ex more decan-
tant (CASS., Inst., IV., xix.).

8 Occurrat belongs only to the " received text "; and this whole passage is variously
punctuated by editors.

That no one may Speak ajter 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. MENARD 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.).

At the hour of Divine Office, as
soon as the signal is heard, let each one
lay aside whatever he may be engaged
on and hasten to it with all speed, and
yet with seriousness, so that no occasion
be given for levity. Let nothing be
put before the Work of God.

DE us QUI AD OPUS DEI VEL AD

MENSAM TARDE OCCURRUNT. Ad horam

divini Officii, mox ut auditum fuerit
signum, relictis omnibus quaelibet
fuerint in manibus, summa cum f estina-
tione curratur: cum gravitate tamen,
ut non scurrilitas inveniat fomitem.
Ergo nihil open 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 Itaque 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 suis cubilibus unusquisque prorumpit^
ita ut is, qui opus scriptoris exercet, quam repertusfuerit inchoasse litter am finire non audeat,
sed in eodem puncto, quo ad aures ejus sonitus pulsantis advenerit, summa velocitate prosiliens
ne tantum quidem morce interponat^ quantum ccepti apicis consummet effigiem, sed tnperfectas
liner a lineas derelinquens non tarn operis conpendia lucrare sectetur quam obedientite
virtutem exsequi toto studio atque temulatione festinet. Quam non solum operi manuum seu
lectioni vel silentio et quieti cellce, verum etiam cunctis virtutibus ita pr&ferunt) ut huic
judicent omnia postponenda et universa dispendia subire contenti sint^ dummodo hoc bonutn
in nullo violasse videantur (CASS., /«$*., IV., xii.).

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 dici) 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, publica 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 se 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

1 Cursum monasterii super omnia diligas.- — Ad horam vero orationis data signo qui non
statim pr<gtermisso omni opere quod agit paratus fuerit, foras excludatur, ut erubescat;
quia nihil orationi prteponendum est (S. MACAR., Reg., ix., xiv.). Orationi nihil preeponas
tota die (S. PORCARII Monita: Revue Bfnfdictine, 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 negligentibus). 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 CASS., Inst., III., vii. — The Rule of ST. MACARIUS (xiv.) also excludes the late
comer. — This is the regulation of ST. PACHOMIUS: Quando ad collectam tuba clangor
increpuerit per diem, qui ad unam orationem tardius venerit, super torts increpationis or dine
corripietur, et stabit in loco convivii (penance in the refectory). Nocte vero, quoniam
cor ports infirmitati plus aliquid conceditur, qui post tres or at tones venerit^ eodem et in collecta
et in vescendo ordine corripietur (ix-x). — ST EPHREM, 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. EPHREM. opp. grac. lat., t. II.,
pp. 93~94)-

2 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

rerit, 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 oj 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 lor Terce, Sext, and None (in lertia^ Sexta 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?2
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 adjutorium 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 (Prime, 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 occurrerit, ut simul omnes dicant before the Verse, so that all may say it

Versum et orent, et sub uno simul praying together and sit down to table

omnes accedant ad mensam: qui per at the same time, must be corrected

negligentiam suam aut vitium non once or twice if this be through negli-

occurrerit, usque ad secundam vicem gence or fault. If after this he do not

pro hoc corripiatur : si denuo non emen- amend, let him not 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 vini, 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 praesens, 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. 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 fost Vfrsunt jicitur f

Those who come Late to Work of God ^ or to Table 291

was, therefore, at that epoch — and the custom is as old as Christianity1

a form of Blessing before meals and Grace after meals. St. Benedic
alludes to both as the " Verse."2 And he requires three things at th
beginning of meals : that all should assemble before the Verse, that the
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.3 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 ig 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.).

2 On the prayers at monastic meals cf. M£NARD, Concordia Regularum, pp. 765-766. —
HJEFTEN, 1. X., tract, i., disq. vi. — MARTENE, De antiq. monach. rit , 1. I., c. ix.

3 Sunt qui secundo parum comedunt; alii qui prandii, sive cence uno tantum cibo contenti
sunt. Nonnulli gustato paullulum pane egrediuntur. Omnes pariter comedunt. Qui ad
mensam ire noluerit, in cellula sua panem tantum et aquam, ac salem accipit (S. HIERON.,
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 quis ad comedendum
tardius venerit, excepto majoris imperio . . ., aget panitentiam, aut ad domum jejunus
revertetur (xxxii.).

4 Qua signo tacto tardius ad opus Dei, vel ad opera vencrit, increpationi, ut dignum est,
subjacebit. Quod si secundo aut tertio admonita emendare nolucrit, a communione, vel a
convivio separetur (S. C^SAR., Reg. ad virg.t x.).

5 ST. BASIL condemns late-comers to wait for the next day's meal (Reg. contr., xcvn.);
he distinguishes, however, between guilty and excusable late-coming.

292 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict

Nee quisquam prsesumat 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 forbid 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 quam vel post quam legitimam communemque refectionem summa caulione
servatur, ne extra mensam quicquam cibi penitus ori suo quisquam indulgere prasumat) etc,
(CASS., Inst.j IV., xviii.).

9 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 pardon 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 quis iratus fuerit, nolens accipere
aliquid eorum qua ad usum prcebentur ? Iste talis dignus est etiam ut si queer at non accipiat,
usquequo probet is quipr&est; et cum viderit vitium animi curatttm, tune etiam quod corporis
usibus neccssarium fuerit prabebit (Reg- contr. occvi.). See also the question which
precedes this.

CHAPTER XLIV

OF THOSE WHO ARE 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

D£ IIS QUI EXCOMMUNICANTUR,
QUOMODO SATISFACIANT. Qui pIO

graviori culpa ab oratorio et a mensa
excommunicatur, hora qua opus Dei
in oratorio celebratur, ante fores ora-
torii prostratus jaceat, nihil dicens; nisi
tantum posito in terrain capite et pro-
stratus, pronus omnium de oratorio ex-
euntium pedibus se projiciat. Et hoc
tamdiu faciat usque dum Abbas judi-
caverit satisfactum esse.

He who for graver offences is
excommunicated from the oratory and
the table must, at the hour when the
Work of God is being performed in the
oratory, lie prostrate before the doors
of the oratory, saying naught; only
let him, with his face on the ground
and body prone, cast himself at the
feet of all as they go forth from the
oratory. And let him continue to do
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 nihil 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., xvi.) in this
chapter.

* See the Rule of ST. FRUCTUOSUS (xiv.), and the Rule of the Master (xiv.). — M^NARD,
Concordia Regularum, pp. 532-533.

3 It is true that there was usually, before the church, a covered atrium; penitents
and catechumens stayed there.

294

How the Excommunicated make Satisfaction 295

the brethren are going out; he must say nothing, but lying prostrate,
with his face 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 jussus 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.

Et tune, si jusserit 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 nonprsesumat 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
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 excom- But those who for small faults are
municatur 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 THOSE WHO MAKE MISTAKES IN THE ORATORT

D£ IIS QUI FALLUNTUR IN ORA
TORIO. — Si quis, dum pronuntiat Psal-
mum, Responsorium, aut Antiphonam,
vel Lectionem, fallitur: nisi cum satis-
factione ibi coram omnibus humiliatus
fuerit, majori vindictae subjaceat;
quippe qui noluit humilitate corrigere,
quod negligentia deliquit. Infantes
vero pro tali culpa vapulent.

If anyone while reciting a psalm,
responsory, antiphon, or lesson, make
a mistake, and do not make satisfaction,
humbling himself there before all,
let him be subjected to greater punish
ment, as one who would not correct
by humility what he did wrong through
negligence. But children for such
faults are to be whipped.

FROM 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 sav 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 be, 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,3 describe in detail the
procedure for the correction of children.

1 Nisi pro neglegentia prasenti confcstim vera humilitate subnixius satisfacerefestinarit
(CASS., Inst., III., vii.).

2 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. C7«»., 1. III., c. viii. et x.

CHAPTER XLVI
OF THOSE WHO OFFEND IN ANT OTHER MATTERS

DE us QUI IN ALIIS QUIBUSLIBET If anyone while engaged in any sort

REBUS DELINQUUNT. — 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

que loco, 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 alium 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.3
This penance probably consisted of kneeling 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 ubi ubi, et non veniens . . .

2 It is difficult to determine the exact meaning of this word. Some ancient manu
scripts read in monasterio.

3 Qui vas fictile fregerit . . . aget panitentiam vespere in sex orationibus. St quis
aliquid perdiderit, ante altare publice corripietur (S. PACH., Reg., cxxv., cxxxi.)-— Si qu
gillonem fictilem . . . cam aliquo fregerit, non aliter neglegentiam suam quam publi
diluet panitentia, cunctisque in synaxi fratribus congregatis tamdiu prostratus tn terra
veniam postulabit, etc. (CASS., Inst., IV., xvi.).

* S. GREG. M., Dial., 1. II., c. vi.

299

ica
terram

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 fuerit (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 Ranee 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, tantumAbbati, 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 detegere aut spiritual seniors, who know how to
publicare. heal their own wounds, and not 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 deprehenditur atque
convincitur . . . gravius emcndetur (S. AUG., Epist. CCXI., u. P.L., XXXIII., 962).

2 MARTENE, De ant. monacb. rit., 1. I., c. v.

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 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 e( wa e( aliens
vulncra^ non detegere et publicare.

CHAPTER XLVII
OF SIGNIFYING 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 ipse 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
L\ important that the times for the Office should be fixed with care
-*- JL 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 CASS., Inst., IV., xii. 8 S. PACK., Reg., iii.

3 S. HIERON., Epist. CVIIL, 19. P.L., XXII., 896.

4 It is narrated in the Life of St. Benedict how St. Romanus 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. GREG. M., Dial., 1. II., c. i.). The signum alluded to in the Rule
(Chapters XXIL, XLIIL, XLVIII.) is probably a bell.

30*

Of Signifying the Hour for the Work of God 303

Psalmos autem, vel Antiphonas, post Let those, who have been ordered,

Abbatem, ordine suo, quibus jussum intone the psalms and antiphons, each

fuerit, imponant. Cantare autem aut in his order, after the Abbot. Let no

legere non praesumat, 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 chant1 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
psalmody and the probable meaning of the word imponere.

2 Adstantibus ad orationem nullus pr&sumat sine pr&cepto qui prceest Patris psalmi
laudcm emitters (Reg. I. SS. PATRUM, vi.).

CHAPTER XLVIII

OF THE DAILY MANUAL LABOUR

DE OPERE MANUUM QUOTiDiANO. — Idleness is the enemy of the soul.

Otiositas inimica est animas. 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 I 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 animce (Reg. contr.,
cxcii.). D. BUTLER notes that this sentence is not from Solomon and does not occur
in the Greek text of ST. BASIL (Reg. fus., xxxvii.). We read in Ecclesiasticus (xxxiii.
28—29) only: Mitte (servum) in operationem, ne vacetj multam enim malitiam docuit
Otiositas.

2 St. Benedict quotes some expressions verbally from this paseage of the treatise De
opere monachorum: Quantum attinet ad meum commodum, multo mallem per singulos dies
certis horis, quantum in bene moderatis monasteries constitutum est, aliquid manibus operari,
et cceteras (vel certas) boras habere ad legendum et orandum, aut 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 MARTF.NE.

3°4

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 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 Him 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 our vows and in our whole life

1 De cur a pro mortuis gerenda, c. xiii. P.L., XL., 604.

20

306 Commentary on the Rule of Sf. 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 admonuerim religiosissimam prudentiam tuarn^
ut timorem Dei non irrationabilem vel inseras infirmiori vast tuo^ vel nutrias divina lectione
gravique colloquio (Epist. XX., 3. P.L., XXXIII., 87). — Erigunt nos divines lectiones
(Sermo CXLII., 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 unitive 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
endangered 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 translation 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 indoctus1 (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. GREG. 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 well 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

3 1 o 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 matiere de 1'figlise,"
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, Trait6 des ttudes monastiques.

Of the Daily Manual Labour 3 1 1

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 sextam 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, sic legat, ut alium non inquietet. their beds in all silence; or if anyone
Agatur Nona temperius, mediante chance to wish to read to himself, let
octava hora ;etiterum, 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— i.e., to September 14, on which day
began the counting from the Calends (decimo 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 afte
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
Octobris 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 : temperius,
mediants octavo, bora. Then they return to manual labour until evening,
until the hour of Vespers.

Si autem necessitas loci, aut pau- If, however, the needs of the place

pertas exegerit, ut ad fruges 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 legebatj oculi ducebantur per paginas, et cor intellectum rimabatur, vox autem
et lingua quicscebant. . . . Sic eum legentem vidimus tacite, et aliter numquam (Confess.^
1. VI., c. ft. P.L., XXXIL, 720-721).

Oj the Daily Manual Labour 3 1 3

St. Benedict takes occasion of this 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 nonae horse, 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 Romani) cuiquam onerosi sunt, sed Orientis more, et Pauli
apostoli auctoritate manibus suis se transigunt (S. AUG., De tnoribus cedes, catbol., 1. I.,
c. xxxiii. P.L., XXXII., 1340). — (Antonhts) gaudebat quod sine cujusquam molcstia ex
•pro^rns manibus yiveret (Vita S. Antonii^ versio EVAGRII, 50. P.G.^ XXVI., 915).

3 1 4 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 XXXVIIL).

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 Quadragesima^ 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. C^SAR., Reg. ad mon., xiv.). Post boram secundam unusquisque ad opus suum
paratus sit usque ad horam nonam, ut quidquidinjunctumfuerit^ sine murmuratione perficiat,
(S. MACAR., Reg., xi.).

Of the Daily Manual Labour 3 i 5

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
frater 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 utceteri 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, acedtosus.2
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 H;EFTEN, 1. IX.,
tract, iv., disq. v, and CALMET, Commentary on Chapter XLVIII,

2 Cf. St. Thomas, II.-II., ^. 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 all 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).

2 Ne plus operis fratres compellantur facere; sed moderatus labor omnes ad operandum
provocet (S. PACK., Reg.t clxxix.).

CHAPTER XLIX
OF THE OBSERVANCE OF LENT

kDE QUADRAGESIMJE OBSERVATIONE.

—Licet omni tempore vita monachi
Quadragesimae debeat observationem
habere; tamen quia paucorum est ista
virtus, ideo suademusistis diebus Qua-
dragesimse omni puritate vitam suam
custodire, omnes pariter negligentias
aliorum temporum his diebus sanctis
diluere.

Although the life of a monk ought
at all times to have about it a Lenten
observance, yet since few have strength
enough for this, we exhort all, at least
during the days of Lent, to keep them
selves in all purity of life, and to wash
away during that holy season the
negligences of other times.

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 life1 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

i Cf. CASS., 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
our 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 temp er emus : orationi cum refrain from all sin and give ourselves

fletibus, lectioni, et compunctioni to prayer with tears, to holy reading,

cordis, atque abstinentias 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,

1 St. Benedict is inspired by several passages of ST. LEO THE GREAT : Hac autem pr<spa-
ratio, licet omni tempore salubriter assumatur, . . . nunc autem sollicitius expetenda est. . . .
Scicntes enim [adversarii nostri] adesse sacratissimos Quadragesima dies, in quorum obser-
vantia omnes praterites desidiee castigantur, omnes neglegentice diluuntur* — Debebatur
quidem tantis mysteriis ita incessabilis devotio et continuata reverentia, ut tales per manere-
mus in conspectu Dei, quales nos in ipso pascbali festo dignum est inveniri. Sed quia heec
fortiludo paucorum est . . . magna divina institutionis 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 decoquerent. — Deo ita
demum sacrificium verce abstinently et verce pietatis ojferimus, si nos ab omni malitia con-
tineamus (De Quadrag., Sermo I., 2. P.L., LIV., 264; Sermo IV., I et 6. P.L., ibid.,
275, 280).

Of the Observance of Lent 3 1 9

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:
abstinentice, 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

nostrae: orationes peculiares, ciborum service: as private prayers, and absti-

et potus abstinentiam, unusquisque ne'nce 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 soinno, 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 ?
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 nos tram ratio istorum
dierum poscat augeri. . . . Ad mensuram consuetudinis nostree necessariis aliquid addamus
augmentis (De Quadrag., Sermo II., i. P.L., LIV., 268).— Debet esse atiquid quod Qua
dragesima: diebus addatur (vel augeatur}: sed ita, ut nihil ostentations 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 God 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

spiritualis 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.

2 S. GREG. M., Dial,, 1. II., c. ii. 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.

2 Sine (^prcepositi) voluntate nullusfrater quidquam agat (Reg. II. SS. PATRUM, i.).

3 Cf. S. BASIL., Reg. contr., Ixxxix., clxxxi., clxxxiv. — CASS., Inst., V., xxiii. — HJEFTENT,
1. X., tract, via., disq. vi. — UDALR., Consuet. Clun., 1. II., c. lii.

CHAPTER L

OF BRETHREN WHO ARE WORKING AT A DISTANCE
FROM THE ORATORT OR ARE ON A JOURNET

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.

Those brethren who work at a
great distance and cannot come to the
oratory at the proper time (the Abbot
judging such to be the case) should
perform the Work of God there where
they are working, bending their knees
in godly fear.

D£ FRATRIBUS QUI LONGE AB ORA
TORIO LABORANT, AUT IN VIA SUNT.

Fratres qui omnino longe sunt in la-
bore, et non possunt occurrere hora
competent! ad oratorium, et Abbas
hoc perpendit quia ita est, agant
ibidem opus Dei, ubi operantur, cum
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-

322

Of Brethren Distant from the Oratory 323

mms and St. Basil.1 On which point Martene 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 flectentes 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 direct! sunt, In the same way let not the ap-

non eos praetereant Horae 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.3 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 S* in navifuerit, et in monasterio, et in agro et in itinere, et in quolibet minister™,
orandi et psallendi tempora non prattermittat (S. PACK., Reg., cxlii.)— Si corporaliter non
occurrat adesse 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.

8 See the interesting particulars given by the Rule of the Master, Iv.

3 Ejrist., 1. I., Ep. XXVIII. P.L., CLXXXIX., 132.

4 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.

2 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 AWAY

D£ FRATRIBUS 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 responso).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 so 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."3 However, the Abbot may
possibly grant permission; that is the meaning we should give here to
the word pr&cipiatur. 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

Vita

1 See Chapter LXVI.

2 S. ATHANASII VitaS. Antonii, 54. P.O., XXVI., 919-922.—^^ Seniorum:
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., 1. II., c. xii.

* Cap. Ixi. 5 Inst., 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.

CHAPTER LII
OF IRE ORATORY OF THE MONASTERY

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: Mens nostra concordet voci nostrce; so also
here, in the matter of the oratory, which by definition and name is the
place of prayer (domus orationis)9he 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 nature convenienter oportet^ 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.

Expleto opere Dei omnes cum 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. Oratorium,
6. Dist. xlii.) and the canons of Councils have often quoted it. It is, besides, a remini
scence of ST. AUGUSTINE in his letter CCXI. ad monachal (7); and the whole passage has
certainly inspired St. Benedict: Orationibus instate horis et temporibus constitutes. In
oratorio nemo aliquid agat, nisi ad quod est factum, unde et nomen accepit; ut si ahqu<e
etiam praeter boras constitutas, si eis vacat, orare voluerint, non eis sint impedimenta^ qua
ibi aliquid agere -voluerint.

* Cf. S. PACK., Reg., v. et vii.

3 Confess., 1. VI., c. ii. P.L., XXXII., 719-720.

3*7

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 maynot 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, ne 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 object1 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. CASS., Inst., II., x. 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., 521-522.

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. . . ."l

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 (orcni), said CASSIAN, Inst., II., xii. On intentio cordis see
CASSIAN again, Conlat., L, vii.; IV., iv.; IX., vi.-vii.; XXIII., xi.; and Inst., V., xxxiv. —
Vera postulatio non in oris est vocibus, sed in cogitationibus cordis. Valentiores namque
voces apud secretissimas aures Dei non faciunt verba nostra, sed desideria. JEternam etenim
vitam si ore petimus, nee tanten corde desideramus, clamantes tacemus. Si vero desideramus
ex corde, etiam cum ore conticescimus, tacentes clamamus. . . . Intus in desiderio est clamor
secretus, qui ad humanas aures non pervenit, el tamen auditum Conditoris replet (S. GREG.
M., Moral, in Job, 1. XXII., c. xvii. P.L., LXXVI., 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 SUSCIPIENDIS. — Let all guests that come be re-

Omnes supervenientes hospites tarn- ceived like Christ Himself, for He will

quam Christus suscipiantur, quia ipse say: " I was a stranger and ye took me

dicturus est : Hospes fui, et 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 been
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 suscipiamus adventum . . . qui dicit: Hospes fui
ct suscepistis me (RUFIN., Hist, monach., c. vii. ROSWEYD, p. 464).

2 Cf. S. AMBR., De officiis, ii., 103. P.L., XVI., 131.

33°

Of the Reception of Guests 3 3 1

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 ?2
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.3 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 Apostolorum.
* Read also ST. NILUS, Tract, ad Eulogium, 23-24. P.G., LXXIX., 1123-1126;—
and PETER OF BLOIS, Epist. XXIX. P.L., CCVIL, 98-100.

3 Dial., 1. III., c. vii. P.L., LXXXVIL, 229 sq.

4 The same usage existed in the monasteries of ST. PACHOMIUS: cf. S. PACH., Reg., li.

5 Nobis in monasterio hospitalitas cordi est; omnesque ad nos venientes, l<etabumanitati$
fronte suscipimus. Veremur enim ne Maria cum Joseph locum non inveniat in diver sorio,
ne nobis dicat Jesus exdusus: Hospes cram, et non suscepistis me. Solos heereticos non recipi-
mus (S. HIERON., Apologia adv. libros Rufini, 1. III., 17. P.L., XXIII., 469).— C/.
S. BASIL., Reg. brev., cxxiv.

332 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 sup erv ententes. 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 hospites. 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 treating 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. gr<ec. lat., t. II., p. 244).

* Quart/io ad ostium monasterii aliqui venerint^ si clerici fuerint aitt monacbi, majori
honor e suscipiantur (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, therefore, 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. Basil2 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 peregrines fratres advenire senserunt, continue velut examen apunt, singuli quique
ex suis cellulis proruunt, atque in obviam nobis lato cursu et festina alacritate contendunt,
portantes secum quamplurimi ipsorum urceos aquce et panes, secundum quod Propbeta corri-
piens quosdam dicit: Quid non existis filiis 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 vice laborem levantes, re autem
vera vita humanae eerumnas mysticis traditionibus abluentes (RUFIN., Hist, monacb.,
c. xxi. ROSWEYD, pp. 477-478).

a S. PACH., Reg., l.-li. — S. BASIL., Reg. j us., xxxii., xlv.; 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 pacis thus associate with one another in
osculum non prius offeratur, nisi ora- peace; but 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 ce commendatitice. It tUra formate).1 In early times the
Creed 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: ILT.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 hospitalitatis cf. DAREMBERG et SAGLIO, Dictionnaire des
antiquitts grecques et romaines, art. Hospitium. — According to TERTULLIAN, what unites
all churches is communicatio pacis, et appellatiofraternitatis, et contesseratio bospitalitatis
(De prescript., c. xx. P.L., II., 32).

2 Forma bujusmodi inter monachos observatur, ut si quis ad eos venial . . . ante
omnia ut oratiojiat, ut nomen Domini invocetur: quia sifuerit aliqua transformatio damonis,
continuo oratione facta diffugiet (Hist, monacb., c. i. ROSWEYD, 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 jusserit 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 humanitas in the sense of loving

1 Sape dixit (abbas Apollo) de suscipiendis monacbis, quod oportet adorare fratres
advenientes: non enim ipsos, aiebat, sed Deum adorasti (PALLAD., Hist. Laus., c. Hi.
ROSWEYD, p. 75 1).— Cf. RUFIN., Hist, monacb., c. ii. ROSVVEYD, p. ^.—Verba Seniorum:
Vita Patrum, III., 195. ROSWEYD, pp. 528-529.— Vita Porphyrii, xxxv. P.G., LXV.,
12x7-1228,

336 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict

care and assistance, as did Rufinus1 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 priorc 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-
orura 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. Chanty 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 LVL, 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.5 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 tam 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

Suscepimus, Deus, misericordiam tuam, been washed let them say this verse:

1 Habebat (abbas Isidorus) bospitalem cellulam, in qua adventantes hospitio recipiat
et omni bumanitate refoveat (Hist, monach., 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 Scrip turis qua ad adijicationem vita ac Jidei pertinent, ccepit.

Et ut vidit nos, statim prior adoravit usque ad terram, et surgens osculo nos suscepit.
Ubi autem ingressi sumus monasterium, oratione prius (ut moris est) data, pedes nostros
propriis manibus lavat, et cetera qua ad requiem corporis pertinent adimplevit (RUFIN.,
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 aut ab ejus refectione te facias alienum.

5 To those astonished at being too well treated might be read the anecdote re
counted in the Verba Seniorum: Vita Patrum, III,, 5. ROSWEYD, p. 493,

Of the Reception of Guests 337

in media templi tui. Pauperum autem " Suscepimus, Deus, misgricordiam
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
ceived1. 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. Martin3 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. Mege 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 avcrtas oculum, aut inanem dimittas pauper em : ne forte Dominus in hospite
aut in paupere ad te venial (S. MACAR., Reg., xx.).

a Est bic Eliseus, filius Sapbat, qui fundebat aquam super manus Eli<e (IV. Reg., iii.,
1 1).— Cf. S. ATHANASII, Procsm. Vita S. Antonii. P.G., 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 hospitibus manus et pedes abluimus,
panem cum vino ojferimus, Abbate in ordine suo id faciente, nullisque, nisi injirmis, qui
hose implere non valcnt, exceptis (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 XXX VI.), and one for the Abbot and guests
(Chapter LIIL). 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 ipsis, 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.

2 Oratio III., 3. P.G., 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 im-peranti"1

Item et cellam hospitum habeat Moreover, let a brother whose soul
assignatam frater cujus animam timor is possessed by the fear of the Lord
Dei possideat; ubi sint lecti strati have the guest-house assigned to his
sufficienter ; et domus Dei a sapientibus 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.3 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 imperatis. 2 S. GREG. M., Dial., 1. II., c. xxii.
3 C/. PIGNOT, Hutoire de VOrdre de Cluny, t. 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 : cujus 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 Reuter's Agency ? Nor is he required to set himself
up as permanent director and instructor. Finally, 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 ant viderit, with guests. But if he chance to
salutatis humiliter, ut dictum est, et meet or to see them, after humbly
petita benedictione, 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 apostolate 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 LXVL).

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., l.-li. — S. BASIL., Reg. fits., xxxii.-xxxiii. — CASS., Inst., IV., xvi. —
St. Benedict quotes verbally the First Rule of the HOLY FATHERS: Venientibus (hospi-
tibus] nullus nisi unus cui euro, circa bospitale fuerit injuncta occurrat et responsum del
Venientibus. Orare vel pacem offerre non liceat ulli nisi primo videatur ab eo qui prceest
Patre; et oratione simul peracta, sequatur or dine suo pads ojficium redder e. Nee licebit
alicui fratri cum superveniente sermocinari; non sit illi cura interrogandi unde venent,
ad quid venerit, vel quando ambulatums sit, nisi soli qui prceest Patn, aut quibus ipse
jusserit. Venientibus vero fratribus ad horam refectionis non licebit peregrine fratri cum
fratribus manducare, nisi cum eo qui prceest Patre, ut possit cedificari. Nulli hcebtt
cum eo loqui nee alicujus audiatur sermo, nisi divinus qui ex pagina proferatur, et ejtis qui
prceest Patris, vel quibus ipse jusserit loqui, ut aliquid de Deo conveniat (via.).

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 On no account shall it be lawful

EULOGIAS SUSCIPERE. — Nullatenus liceat for a monk to receive, either from his

monacho nee a parentibus suis, nee a parents or anyone else, or from his

quoquam hominum, nee sibi invicem brethren, letters, tokens, or any little

litteras, aut eulogias vel quaelibet gifts whatsoever, or to give them 10

munuscula accipere aut dare, sine others, without the permission of his

praecepto Abbatis sui. 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 LVL 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,
eulogiez 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 ab altero accipiet quidpiam, nisi prapositus jusserit (S. PACK., Reg., cvi.).

2 ST. AUGUSTINE (Epist. CCXL, u. P.L., XXXIII., 962) speaks of nuns surrep-
titiously receiving litteras vel qucelibet munuscula. — Cf. S. C^SAR., Reg. ad virg., xxm.
S. ORSIESII Doctrina, xxxix.

3 Cf. CASS., Inst., 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
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.2 Presents were also made of fruit, images,
medals, relics; and all these things received the generic name of eulogies?
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 eulogies. 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. CAESAR., Reg. ad won., xv.

2 S. PAULINI Epist., III.-V. P.L., LXL, 164^.

3 Cf. MABILLON, Acta 55. O.5.5., Saec. i., p. 310. — VENANTIUS FORTUNATUS, Car-
mina, passim. — See the Comments of MARTENE and CALMET on this passage of the Rule.
— The poisoned bread which Florentius sent to St. Benedict was a eulogia (S. GREG. M.?
Dial., 1. II., c. viii.}.

Whether a Monk ought to receive Letters or Tokens 345

diabolo. Qui autem aliter praesumpse- been sent be grieved, lest occasion be
rit, disciplinae regulari subjaceat.1 given to the devil. Should anyone,

however, presume to act otherwise,
let him be subjected to the discipline
of the Rule.

Some 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
si jusserit susci-pi), 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 CCXI.,
12): Etiam illud quod suis veljiliabus vel aliqua necessitudine ad se pertinentibus in monas-
terio constitutis aliquis vel aliqua contulerit, sive vestem sive quodlibet aliud inter neces-
saria deputandum, non occulte accipiatur; sed sit in potestate praposita, ut in commune
redactum, cui necessarium fuerit, prabeatur. Quod si aliqua rem sibi collatam celavertt,
furtijudicio condemnetur (P.L., XXXIII., 963). Reproduced in part by ST. CESARIUS,
Reg. ad mon.) i.; Reg. ad virg., xl.

CHAPTER LV

OF THE CLOTHES AND SHOES OF THE BRETHREN

D£ VESTIMENTIS, ET CALCEAMENTIS

FRATRUM. — Vestimenta fratribus secun-
dum locorum qualitatem ubi habitant,
vel aerum temperiem dentur, quia in
frigidis regionibus amplius indigetur,
in calidis vero minus. Haec ergo con-
sideratio penes Abbatem sit.

Let clothing be given to the
brethren suitable to the nature and
climate of the place where they live:
for in cold regions more is required,
in warm regions less. It shall be the
Abbot's duty, therefore, to consider
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
sufficere credimus monachis per singu-
los cucullam et tunicam : cucullam in
hieme villosam; in restate puram et
vetustam; et scapulare propter opera;
indumenta pedum, pedules et caligas.

We think, however, that in tem
perate climates a cowl and a tunic
should suffice for each monk: the cowl
to be of thick stuff in winter, but in
summer something worn and thin:
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 rerum 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.

2 CASS., /»«., I.— SOZOM., Hist, eccles., 1. III., c. xiii.-xiv. P.C., LXVIL,
1065-1081.— S. DOROTHEI Doctrina, i., 12-13. P.O., LXXXVIII., 1632 sg.

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 peasants1 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\iov)
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 of 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).4 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}.5 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 (/LMfXwn;, a sheepskin, from ^rjKov— 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.,
fig. 2094.

2 See, for instance, the Rule of ST. PACHOMIUS, Lausiac History (ed. BUTLER)
pp. 89-90, 92, 98. 3 Inst.j I., iii.

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 or andum cuban-
dumque dignanter tegare, transmisi; quanquam non opportune species villosa mittatur
hieme finita, jamque temporibus testatis appropinquantibus (Epist., 1. VII., Ep. XVI.
P.L., LVIIL, 586). And the clothing of St. Germanus of Auxerre, according to his
biographer CONSTANTIUS, was cuculla et tunica (Acta 55., Julii, t. VII., p. 204). — Cf.
S. HIERON., Vita S. Hilarionis, c. xlvi. P.L., XXIII. , 52.— S. PAULINI Poema XXIV.
ad Cytberium, vers. 389-390. P.L., LXL, 622. — ENNODII, Epist., 1. IX., Ep. XVII.
P.L., LXIII., 156.

5 COLUMELLA, De re rustica, 1. I., c. viii.; 1. XL, c. i. — PALLADIUS, De re rustica,
1. I., c. xliii. 6 S. PACK., 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, quam olio nomine casulam vocamus.
. . . Ill ud a:: tent vestimentum quod a gallicanis monachis cuculla dicitur et nos cappam
vocamus, quod proprie monachorum designat babitum, melotem appellare delimits, sicut
et bactenus in hac provincia a quibusdam 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, p&nula, sagum: overcoat, mantle,
cloak, coat); moreover, St. Benedict may mean by cuculla 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 litttraire de deux religieux btntdictins de la
Congregation de Saint-Maur, t. II., p. 154. — MABILLON, Acta SS. O.S.B., Saec. V.,
Praef., p. xxxi.

2 Cf. MABILLON, Annales O.S.B., t. II., p. 353. — BERNARD DE MONTFAUCON, Les
Monuments de la monarchic franfaise, t. I., pi. xxviii.— ROHAULT DE FLEURY, La Messe,
t. VIII., pi. dcxliv. — SEROUK D'AGINCOURT, Histoire de I' art par les 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 net codici Cassinesi, Disp. V., Tav. i.; Disp. VI. — See the repro
ductions of miniatures of a Cluny manuscript of the twelfth century in D. I/HUILLIER,
Vie de saint Hugues, pp. 298, 360, 512.

4 Cf. CASSIAN, Inst,, I., v.

5 P.L., XCV., 1588.— See two reproductions of peasants clad in hooded tunic, in
the Revue arch'ologique, 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 was reserved 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
(\ef3iTc0v, /coXofirj, 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 shirts, 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 (inclumenta pedum); antiquaries dispute lengthily about them,
at which D. Mege is much amused.5 The monks of some countries6
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 caligce 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

L The ancient forms of the scapular are to be found in: MABILLON, Acta SS. O.S..Z?.,
Saec. V., Praef., p. xxxi; Annales O.S.B., t. I., p. 505. — Antiphonaire du B. HARTKER:
PaUographie musicale, II. Series, t. I., p. u of the reproduction of the manuscript. —
Le Miniature nei codici Cassinesi, Disp. II., Tav. i.; Disp. IV., Tav. i.; Disp. VI.,
Tav. iv.; MABILLON reproduces the first of these miniatures in his Annales, 1. 1., p. 109.
— MARTENE et DURAND, Voyage litter air e de deux religieux bent die tins de la Congre
gation de Saint-Maur, t. II., p. 64.

2 SMARAGDUS had already written: Cucullam dicit ille quod nos modo dicimus cappam.
. . . Quod vero ille dicit scapulars propter opera, hoc nos modo dicimus cucullam.

3 C/. MABILLON, Acta SS. O.SJ?., 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 casula; see the description of the cowl in the Disciplina
Farfensis, 1. II., c. iv.

4 Inst., I., ii.

5 Commentary in h. 1. — Read especially CALMET. 6 CASS., Inst., 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 caligee clavata (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."6 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. Sumcit at once, to be put by in the clothes-

1 Dial., 1. I., c. iv. P.L., LXXVII., 173. C/., ibid., 1. III., c. xx. P.L., ibid.,

269 Sq.

2 CASS., Inst., I., ii. — S. BASIL., Reg.fus., xxii.

3 St. Benedict is quoting a passage of ST. BASIL, but one which concerns food : Sed
si quid «/, quod in unaquaque provincia facilius et vilius comparator (Reg- contr., ix.).

4 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).

s PETRI VENERAB., Epist., 1. I., Ep. XXVIII. P.L., CLXXXIX., 116-1175 1. IV.,
Ep. XVII. P.L., ibid., 332 sq.
6 Reg. brev., 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
cst 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 \femoralia,
breeches, drawers, trunk-hose. The monks, like most of the ancients

1 Borrowed from ST. C^SARIUS: Indumenta ipsa cum nova accipiunt, si vetera neces-
saria non habuerint, Abbatisses refundant, pauperibus aut incipientibus, vel junioribus
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.

a Conlat.y IX., v. 3 S. HIERON., Pro;/, in Reg. S. Pack., 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:
Super fluum est munditias in cilicio queer ere. " 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."* 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 cuculbe et tunicae sint aliquanto Let their cowls and tunics also be

his, quas habere soliti sunt, modice a little better than those they usually
meliores; quas exeuntes 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. Eccles., P. III., 1. viii., 25. P.L., CLXXXVIIL, 637.

3 Apopbtbegmata 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
bettei, 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. /.

2 Inst.j I., ii. — Abbas Agathon . . , in omnibus cum discretione pollebat, tarn in opere
mannum suarum quam in vestimento. Talibus enim vestibus utebatur, ut nee satis bona,
nee satis males cuiquam apparerent (Verba Seniorum: Vita Patrum, III., 75. ROSWEYD,
p. 512).

Of the Clothes and Shoes of the Brethren 355

their whole furniture was a bed. The bedding comprised four
items.

Matta. 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
Icena in winter.

Lcena. A covering, more or less shaggy or furry.
Capitate. A bolster of straw, or hair, or perhaps of feathers.
At Cluny 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 his
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 peculiar e, hard to translate exactly, is borrowed from CASSIAN,
Inst., IV., xiv. and xvi.; VII., vii.

2 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 pr&sumat circa lectum suum reponere aut babere (S. CAESAR., Reg- ad
virg.f 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 tliat are necessary: that is,

tellus, graphium, acus, mappula, tabu- cowl, tunic, stockings, shoes, girdle,

lae, ut omnis auferatur necessitatis 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 and 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, and 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 (tabulce) 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 scntentia 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."

consideret infirmitatem indigentium, Let him, therefore, consider the

etnon malam voluntateminvidentium. 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., Vial., 1. II., c. xix.

2 Cf. BERNARD., Ordo Clun., P. I., c. v. -UDALR., Consuet. Clun., 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 qui praesunt, observabunt regulam illam quce dicit:
Dividebatur unicuique prout opus erat. 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.

CHAPTER LVI

O.F 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. Seniorum 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 P1 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. Martene 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, Martene, Mege, and Hugh
Menard, 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
stint, id est de prope; peregrini sunt, qui de alia regione sunt.

2 Cf. Epist., 1. I., Ep. XXVIII. P.L., CLXXXIX., 133.

358

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 P1 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 would 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 XXXVIII.). 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 LI II. 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.: Venientibus fratribus ad boram refectioms, nonhcebit
peregrino'fratri cum fratribus manducare, nisi cum eo qui protest Patrc, ut posstt adifican.

360 Commentary on the Rule of St. 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 Martene
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 exercise 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, except 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

CXF THE ARTIFICERS OF THE MONASTERY

D£ ARTIFICIBUS MONASTERII.

Artifices, si sunt in monasterio, cum
omni humilitate et reverentia faciant
ipsas artes, si tamen jusserit Abbas.
Quod si aliquis ex eis extollitur pro
scientia artis suae, eo quod videatur
aliquid conferre monasterio, hie talis
evellatur ab ipsa arte, et denuo per earn
non transeat, nisi forte humiliato ei
iterum Abbas jubeat.

Should there be artificers in the
monastery, let them ply their crafts
in all humility and submission, pro
vided the Abbot give permission.
But if one of them be puffed up by
reason of his knowledge of his craft,
in that he seems to confer some benefit
on the monastery, let such a one be
taken from it and not exercise it again,
unless perchance, when he has humble-''
himself, the Abbot bid him resume.

f I ^HE 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.

-JL 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 only 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 LXVL, 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 ipsi per ficers is to be sold, let those, through

quorum manus transigenda sunt, ne whose hands the business has to pass,

aliquam fraudem praesumant inferre. see that they presume not to commit

Memorentur Ananiae et Saphirae: ne any fraud. Let them remember

forte mortem quam illi in corpora 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. CCXI., 6. P.L., XXXIII., 960.— CASS., Inst., IV., xiv.— S. EPHR.,
Parcen., xxvi. (opp. grac. lat., t. II., p. 114). — S. BASIL., Reg.fus,, xxix.

2 Cf. S. BASIL., Reg. Jus.) xxxviii.

Of the Artificers of the Monastery

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;3 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
avaritiae 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 Deus. 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

1 /«$/., X., xxiv.

* ST. BASIL manifests the same repugnance: Reg. f us., xxxix.

3 However, PAUL THE DEACON and HILDEMAR 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 Matth., 1. XV., 15. P.O., XIII., 1297-129%.— S. AUG.,
Contra Epist. Parmeniani, 1. III., c. i. P.L., XLIIL, 84.— CASS., Conlat., VI., xi.

pp.

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. n).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
Ecole des Chartes,3 and by Father Eberhard Hoffmann, a Cistercian of
Mehrerau.4 The dissertation of Martene in the Preface to the sixth
volume of the Veterum scriptorum . . . 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. no.

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.

* Some ancient writers had given the same counsel: EVAGRIUS, Rerum monachalium
rationes, viii. P.G., XL., 1259-1260. — ISAIAS, Reg., lix., Ixi.

3 ficole nationale des Chartes, Positions des theses, 1906, pp. 43-49: Etude sur
I'Institut monastique des frsres convers et sur Voblature au moyen dge; leur origine et leur
role (xi.-xiii. cent.).

4 Das Konverseninstitutd.es Cisterzienserordens in seinem Ursprung und 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 Le*rins
under Faustus, 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 bypreference
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 LVIIL). 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, Avc, 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
Maurists, 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 LVIII

OF THE DISCIPLINE OF RECEIVING 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,

" Try the spirits if they be of God."
If, therefore, he that comes persevere
in knocking, and after four or five days
seem patiently to endure the wrongs
done to him and the difficulty made
about his entrance, and to persist
in his petition, let entrance be granted
him, and let him be in the guest
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 Illi quorum conversion! consulere voluimus . . . says ST. AUGUSTINE (Epist.
LXXXIIL, 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 vcnerit
(S. C^SAR., Reg. ad wow., i.; Reg. ad virg., Recapitulatio, via.).— D. BUTLER (S. Bene-
dictiRegula monackorum, 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. ConferripotestCASSiAN\JS,c.Nest.,V.,i.:perbonorumactuumconversationem. . . .
Conversio non usurpabatur a S. Benedicto ; converti vero bis invenitur (ii., Ixiii.). Con
versatio ( = vita monastica) et conversio erant ambo in usu communi, — Cf. D. ROTHEN-
HAUSLER, Zur Aufnahmeordnung der Regula S. Benedicti, II., Conversatio morum, pp. 20
sq.— D. HERWEGEN, Geschichte der benediktinischen Professformel, II., i. Conversatio
und conversio im Regeltext, pp. 47 sq.

367

ingressus: sed sicut ait Apostolus:
Probate spiritus, si ex Deo sunt. Ergo
si veniens perseveraverit pulsans, et
illatas sibi injurias, et difficultatem
ingressus, post quatuor aut quinque
dies visus fuerit patienter portare, et
persistere petition! suas, annuatur ei
ingressus, et sit in cella hospitum paucis
diebus.

368 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict

Vocation. — We must limit the use of this term and not make it
signify any expression of our activity. We speak 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 be 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 second 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.-IL, q. clxxxix., 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, 'pacific antes 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 our
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 ei facilis tribuatur ingressus. It
was the same among the Fathers of the East.1 St. Benedict's first

1 Si quis accesserit ad ostium monasterii volens sceculo renuntiare, etfratrum aggregan
numero, non habebit intrandi libertatem, sed prius nuntiabitur Patri monasterii, et manebit
paucis diebusforis ante januam (S. PACK., Reg. x\\x.).—Hebdomada pro foribus jaceant ;
nulli cum eis de fratribus jungantur, et semper dura et laboriosa eis proponantur. Si vero
per sever averint pulsantes, eis non negetur ingressus (Reg- I. SS. PATRUM, vii.). — Ambiens
quis intra ccenobii recipi disciplinam non ante prorsus admittitur, quam diebus decem vel
eo amplius pro foribus excubans indicium per sever antiee . . • demonstraverit (CASS., /«*.,
IV., iii.)- There are also resemblances between this chapter of St. Benedict and
several passages in ST. BASIL (Cf. Reg. Jus., x. sq.}.

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 knew that 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. H^FTEN, 1. IV., tract, ii. 2 II. -II. ,q. 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.
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., Maii, 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 postulants hip. — 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 postulantship. 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,3 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 Inst., 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 historique sur la destruction des Ordres religieux en Prance
au XVIIP siecle, pp.

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 of 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 regular em (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 point1—
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 /«$/., IV., v.-vi.

2 Cf. HILDEMAR, Comment, in cap. lvii\.—Fi(a S. B(**4< Anian., c. v\. P.L^
CIIL, 356,

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.

Ihe 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 regularem 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 professed, 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
sim'plicitre grams (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. GUKRANGER.
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. monach. rit.^ 1. V., c. ii.; De ant. eccl. m., 1. II., c. ii. — See
the 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 quserit, 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. Praedicentur ei the Work of God, for obedience, and
omnia dura et aspera, per quse 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 Inst., 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
(a.'ptus 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 :
Omnino 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 quarit. 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 to turn
annum sui novitiatus nihil aliud discant prater Regulam B. Patris N. Benedicti, cere-
manias nostra societatis, officium divinum et qua ad illud pertinent, vitas Patrum et colla-
tiones eorundem. 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, rubricisque dabunt; demum
excolenda memoriae, ne pereat aut languescat, satagent. . .

2 Constituit (Pachomius) prapositos qui sibi ad lucrandas animas, qua ad eum quondtt
confluebant, adjutores existerent (Vita S. Pachomii^ c. xxv., 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, and 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 obedientice 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. Basil2
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., iii.

2 Prim autem quam corpori fraternitatis inseratur, oportetei injungiqueedamlaboriosa
opera et quee videantur opprobrio haberi a scscularibus^ etc. (Reg. contr.j 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.

Prtzdicentur 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., he. nit. cit.

* VIRGIL had spoken of a race dura et aspera (Aen., v., 730) ; but the true sourc<
of St. Benedict are rather the following: Via regia suavis ac lems est, licet dura et asper
sentiatur (CASS., Conlat., XXIV., xxv.).— Satis duram atque asperam vttam . . - babuit
(PALLAD., His tor. Laus., versio antiqua: apud Parad. Heracl., 41. ROSWEYD, p. 970;.
—Semper dura et laboriosa eis proponantur (Reg. I. SS. PATRUM, vu.).

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 and 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."3 Sorrow is never anything but

1 S. AUG., Confess., 1. VI., c. xvi. P.L., XXXII., 732.

2 DANTE, Inferno, III., 32-42. 3 S. AUG., ibid., 1. III., 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 suae 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 militare vis; si potes 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.

2 St. Benedict's predecessors had written: Si quis de s&culo ad monasterium convent
voluerit, Regula ei introeunti legatur, et omnes actus monasterii illi patejiant. Qui si
omnia apte sustinuerit sic digne a fratribus suscipiatur in monasterio (S. MACAR., Reg.,
xxiii.)- — And ST. CESARIUS: Qu&cumque ad conversionem venerit, in salutatorio ei Jre-
quentius Regula relegatur; et si prompta et libera voluntate professa fuerit se omnia Regula
instituta completuram, tamdiu ibi sit quamdiu Abbatissa jus turn ac rationabile visumjuent
(Reg. ad virg., Recap., viii.)-— 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 querans aut
heredi tuo controversiam relinquas (ORELLI-HENZEN, Inscnpttonum latinarum selectaru
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-Benoh 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 cenobitisnte pakho-
mien pendant le lVe siecle et la premiere moitie du Ve^ pp. 280-282).

3 Epist., 1. I., Ep. XXVIII. P.L., CLXXXIX.,

4 And by the new Code.

Of the Discipline of receiving Brethren into Religion 385

f ession : 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 verbal
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 altar e posui, cor am Deo et Sanctis ejus, in quantum mihi ipse Deus
dederit adfutorium, Deo et vobis promitto custodire, et in quo possum, ipso
auxiliante, conservo? 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 Ceremoniale monastico-benedictinum of the Bavarian Congre
gation of the Holy Angels (1737), p. 189. . .

2 Cf. D. ROTHENHAUSLER, Zur Aufnabmeordnung der Regula S. Benedict^ I., i. 2,

pp. 9 sq.

3 M. G. H. : Legum, Sectio V., Formula, p. 569.

ivx. \j* AJ.« • jLstywrri') ov^nw T •} * •• wj jf- jvy _-

- These documents are to be found in BALUZE, Capitularia Regum Francorum: Nova
collectw for mularum, nos. xxxiii. and xxxii., t. II., pp. 576 and 574; in MABILLON, Ac to
SS. O.S.B., Sac. IV., P. I., pp. 694-695; and in the recent and critical edition of the
Monumenta Germani* Historica: Legum, Sectio V., Formula Merowingici et Karohm
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 few disci fina monasttca,?. 591; it

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;3
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.

The 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. ALBERS: Consuetudines monastics,
vol. III., p. 178. The formula which D. ALBERS cites immediately before this one
is the same as that of no xxxii. in Baluze, as that printed by Du CANGE, Glossarium
(Profiler?), and by LEOPOLD DELISLE, Literature latine et histoire du moyen age, p. 16.
— See also the formula given by SMARAGDUS and quoted in MARTENE, Commentary,
p. 763. — Cf. D. HERWEGEN, Gescbichte der benediktiniscben Professformel.

1 See Chapter III. of the Holy Rule and the Commentary of PAUL THE DEACON.

2 MARTENE, De ant. monacb. rit., 1. V., c. iv., col. 646.

3 MARTENE, op. cit., 1. V., c. iv., col. 656.

4 MARTENE, De ant. eccl. rit.j 1. II., c. ii. T. II., col. 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 the 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 life1 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 being 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, Rbglement du Noviciat (current under the title: Notions snr
la vie religieuse et monastique}. See also: MGR. GAY, De la vie et des verm chrttienncs
Considerees dans 1'etat religieux, t. II., chap, ix.-xi.

* Cf. ST. THOMAS, §Hmma II. -II., ^- Ixxxviii., a. 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.5 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
which 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 " ; at 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 Constitutions monastics, c. xxi. P.(?., XXXI. ,
1393-1402.

2 Imt., VII., ix.

3 Reg. ad mon., I; Reg. ad virg., \.~Cf. also the Rule of ST. AURELIAN, i.
* 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 mattei

1 Cf. H^EFTEN, 1. IV., tract, vi., disq. vi.

2 Cf. ST. THOMAS, Summa II.— II., 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 posnam 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 Rtgle, Avertissement, pp. 36/-~ J- ROTTNER, Mar
garita ccelestis, q. XI., a. ii., pp. 520 sq.

2 Read D. GUERANGER, Reglement du Noviciat, chap. ii.

3 Cf. ST. THOMAS, Summa II.-IL, q. clxxxvi., a. 9., ad. V

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, et cuncta himself, he promise to keep all things,
sibi imperata servare, tune suscipiatur and to observe everything that is
in congregatione, sciens lege Regulae 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 com
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 accipere. 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 me, Domine, 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. XXXIIL),
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 aliter fecerit, 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 comes 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 C/. S. BASIL., Reg. fus., xiv. Constitutiones monastics, c. xxii. P.G., XXXI.,
1401 sq. — S. JOANN. CHRYSOS., Adbort. II. ad Tbeodorum lapsum. P.G., XLVII.,
309. — S. C.ffiSAR., Reg. ad man., i.

2 Jug° regula colla submittentes (Vita Macarii Romani, 2. Vita Patrum, I. Ros-
WEYD, p. 225).

3 The Customs of Cluny said: Commendat (Abbas] fratribtts ut in orationibus MS
recordentur eorum, et aliquando, si videtur, unum psalmum, post singidas Horas in illo die
pro eis cantari (UDALR., Consuet. Clun., 1. II., c. xxvi.).

4 This choosing of dress was in vogue among the Maurists 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 procession1 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 ipsam 'petitionem
et manum pueri involvant in palla altaris et sic eum offerant. 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 Cluny3
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 ; thosewhichmake it in the course of theMass 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.6 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 n, 1833.

2 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 hierarch. eccl., c. vi.).

3 BERNARD., Ordo Clun., P. I., c. xx.

4 Cap. in., ap. MARTENE, De antiq. monach. rit., 1. V., c. iv., col. 646. — Cf. BERNARD,
Ordo Clun., P. L, c. xv., xx. 5 C/. MARTENE, Commentary, p. 769.

6 Compare this custom with that which is found mentioned in the Liber 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 communio ; for a cenobite, the ritual is the same, except that, after the Com
munion, tota jam explicita missa, he deposits his profession form on the altar and
sings 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. Pachomius 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 have5 would seem to
be the engagement which Schenoudi of Atripc, 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. Laus., c. Ixxxvi. ROSWEYD, p. 764. 2 Reg-, xlix.

3 Epist., 1. II., Ep. XCVI. P.O., LXXIX., 243.

* S. BASIL., Reg.fus., xii, xiv., xv. Epist. CXCIX. (P.G., XXXII., 719.) Reg.
brev., ii. ^ .

5 In a sermon attributed to FAUSTUS OF RHEGIUM (fifth century) mention is made
of the cbirographum de quo se monacbus debitum ex tola fide promiserit implere (P-L-,
LVIIL, 875).

6 Here it is, according to the Coptic text and the German translation of LEIPOLDT
(Schenute 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 in secret. If I transgress that to which I have
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, Etude sur le cenobitisme pakhomien pendant le IV siecle et la premiere
moiti'' du Ve, pp. 208, 314^. Also: the review of LEIPOLDT'S work in the Revue d'btst.
ecclrs., t. VII., pp. 76 ff.

^ S. ISIDORI Reg., 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 conversione 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 prsesentis. 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, secundum 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 ex spec tatione mea"

1 D. ROTHENHAUSLER, Zur Aufnahmeordnung 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 Folo (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 prezsentis; 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. 469, 477 ff.). Cf.
D. ROTHENHAUSLER, Zur Aufnahmeordnung 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 Cassmo
(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 Sf. 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 sig
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.3

" 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: Suscipe 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. H^FTEN, 1. IV., tract, v., disq. vi.

2 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,

ROTHENHAUSLER, Op. tit., 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.3 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. GUERANGER found in
MARTENE, De ant. monach. rit., 1. V., c. iv., cols. 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 ordinunt of the Mozarabic liturgy published by
D. FEROTIN (cols. 83-85). — The Preface which follows is found (in the form of a prayer)
in the Ordo romanus of HITTORP (De divinis Ecclesics catbolicee officiis, col. 155).

2 Quid petis ? Benedictionem habitus mei (Ritual of the English Benedictine Con
gregation).

3 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 (c/., however, the
Statutes of LANFRANC: MARTENE, De ant. monach. rit., 1. V., c. iv., col. 647).

4 Summa, II.-IL, q. clxxxix., a. 3.— We read in a sermon attributed to FAUSTUS
OF RHEGIUM: Abrenuntianti publica panitentia non est necessaria, quia conversus in-
gemuit et cum Deo (Sternum pactum inivit. Ex illo igitur die non memorantur ejus delicta
qua gessit in seeculo, in quo facturum se justitiam de reliquo promisent Deo (P.L., LVIIL,
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 showed
this union, as we have said; but St. Benedict would have a formal rite

1 Cf. Religiose Professions valor satisfactorius constants traditione necnon et intrin-
secis prtecipuis quibusdam argumentis defensus, auct. ROBERTO COLLETTE, O.C. — On
the " new name " given to the professed monk, see H^EFTEN, 1. IV., tract, viii., disq. ii.,
iii., and iv.

2 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 newly 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. iii. 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 custom3 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 pro me, pater, and Proficiat tibi, frater, are found in a
manuscript ritual of Corbie, cited by MARTENE (De ant. monach. rit., 1. V., c. iy., 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 Suscepimus,
Deus, dear to St. Benedict (Chapter LIII.); 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.

3 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, cceteros psalmos qui ad hoc per
tinent. See also HILDEMAR, in h. /.—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 orent pro eo ; and it would seem that, primitively, these prayers comprised
some psalms, then the litaniae, the supplicatio litanice — 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. Surplices te rogamus, omnipotens Deus, jube hcec
perferri, per manus sancti Angeli tui in sublime altare tuum, in conspectu
divine Majestatis tucz. . . . 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 (in albis).

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 qua3 habet, aut eroget prius If he have any property let him
pauperibus, 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 propriis quibus 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
exutus 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 exutus 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 denique Professus a Magistro deducitur ad locum,
suum inter Professos, et usque ad Missam conventualem tertii post diet, in qua ad sacram
Synaxim accedit, nemini loquitur nisi Confessario suo ; nee in choro actibusve conventuali-
bus quidquam ita recitat ut a ceteris monachis audiatur. Item, extra cellam suam, capu-
num super caput semper gerit.]

Of the Discipline of receiving Brethren into Religion 403

Arrangements with regard to property. — What shall the monk do with
hisfiproperty, 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 very 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.3

Monastic tradition is 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 si susceptus fuerit, non solum de substantia quam intulit, sed etiam nee de seipso
ab ilia judicabit bora. Nam si aliquid prius erogavit pauperibus, aut veniens in cellulam
aliquid intulit fratribus, ipsi tamen non est licitum ut aliquid habeat in sua potentate
(S. MACAR., Reg., xxiv.). And ST. CAESARIUS: Vestimenta laica non ei mutentur nisi
antea de facultate sua chartas venditionis suee facial, sicut Dominus pracepit dicens: Si
vis perjectus esse, vade, vende omnia ques babes, da pauperibus, et veni, sequere me. Certe
si non vult vendere, donationis chartas, aut parentibus, aut monasterio facial, dummodo
liber sit; et nihil habeat proprium. Si vero pater ejus aut mater vivat et non babet poies-
tatem faciendi: quando illi migraverinl, cogalur facere. Quacumque secum exhibuit
Abbati iradat; nihil sibi reservet; et si aliquis de propinquis aliquid iransmiserit, offerat
Abbati. Si ipsi est necessarium, ipso jubente habeat; si illi necesse non est, in commune
redactum cui opus est tribuatur (Reg. ad won., i.; cf. Reg. ad. virg., iv.). — See also:
S. BASIL., Reg. fus., viii.-ix.; Reg. contr., iv.-v.— S. AUG., Epist. LXXXIII. P.L.,
XXXIII, 291 sq.— CASS., Inst., IV., iii.-vi.

2 P.L., LXVII., 1133. 3 Reg. Jus., ix.; Reg. brev., ccciv.— CASS., Inst., 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 Martene 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.5
" 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
ille dixerit: quia in hoc monasterio volo tribuere; tune dicat illi Abba: Prater, Deo adju-
vante, nobis non est necessaria tua res; eo quod nostra indigentia habemus unde suppleatur.
Sunt enim alii pauperiores nobis, aut etiam monasteria, vel certe parentes tui forte plus sunt
pauperes quam nos, et ideo melius est utpro mercede illis tribuas qui plus indigent quam nobis.
Si autem ille dixerit: quia volo pro mercede animce mea magis in hoc monasterio tribuere
quam alteri dare; tune donare debet rem suam aut pauperibus aut in monasterium (PAULI
DIAC., Commentary in cap. Iviii.).

2 Cap. Ixxxix.

3 Cap. Ixxxvii., Ixxxix. When the brother deposits his deed on the altar he should
say: Ecce, Domine, cum anima mea et pauper tate mea, quidquid mihi donas ti tibi recon-
signo et offero, et ibi volo ut sint res mea ubifuerit cor meum et anima mea: sub potestate
tamen monasterii et Abbatis, quern mihi, Doming, in vice tua timendum prceponis . . .,
unde quia per eum nobis tu omnia necessaria cogitas, ideo nihil nos oportet peculiar e habere,
quia tu nobis de omnibus es idoneus et in omnibus sujjicis solus; ut jam nobis vivere et spes
Cbristus sit et mori lucrum.

4 Commentary in h. I.

5 For instance, that cited by DE ROZIERE in his Recueil general des for mules usitees
dans r Empire des Francs du Vf au X' siecle (Part I., no. cxciii.J.

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 eum vestimentis sacularibus et induent babitu monacborunt. . . .
Vestimenta autem qua secum detulerat, accipient qui buic rei prapositi sunt, et
inherent in repositorium et erunt in potestate principis monasterii (S. PACK., Reg., xlix.).
— 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 tolerantia virtutem . . . evidenter
agnoscant. Et siquidem posse eum inibi durare tempore procedente perspexerint . . ., in-
digentibus eadem largiuntur. Sin vero . . ., exeuntes eum monasterii quibus indutus
fuerat vestimentis etrevestitum antiquis qua fuerant sequestrata depellunt. . . . Deposita
monasterii veste pellatur (CASS., Inst., IV., v.-vi.).

CHAPTER LIX

OF THE SONS OF NOBLES OR THE POOR THAT ARE

OFFERED

THE 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 times, Christians thought it quite natural that they should

1 Read, with the various Commentaries, MENARD, Concord. Regul., in b. /. —
1. IV., tract, i.— MABILLON, Acta SS. O.S.B., Ssec. IV., P. II., Praef., 199; Saec. VI.,
P. I., Praef., 36. Vetera Analecta, pp. 155-158. — THOMASSIN, Ancienne et nouvelle
discipline de I'Eglise, P. I., 1. III., chaps. Ivi.-lix.

406

Of the Sons of Nobles or the Poor that are Offerea 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 time, parents
were accustomed to bind their young children finally to the religious
life. Thomassin3 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 Macon (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 NOBILIUM 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 minori 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- gether with the offerings, let them

1 Chapter V., p. 121. 2 Reg. J -us., xv. Cf. Reg. contr., vii.

3 Ancienne et nouvelle discipline de I'Eglise, P. I., 1. III., chap. Ivi., no. xii.

4 Reg. ad virg., v.

5 In gloria martyrum, 75. M. G. H.: Script, rer. merov., t. I., p. 538. In gloria
confessorum, 22. M. G. H.: ibid., p. 762. De virtutibus S. Martini, ii., 4. M. G. H.:
ibid., pp. 610-611.

6 Can. xix. MANSI, t. IX., col. 133. 7 Can. xii. MANSI, t. IX., col. 934.

8 Condi. III. Cartbag. (397), can. xix. MANSI, t. III., col. 883.— Tolet. II. (527)
can.i. MANSI, t. VIII,, col. 785.— Vaseme III. (529), can, i, MANSI, t. VIII., col. 726

408 Commentary on the Rule of Sf. 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 guardian2) — 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.5

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. iii.

2 Cf. MARTENE, Commentary in h. /., p. 784.

3 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, Litter ature latine et histoire du moyen age, pp. 9-16; etc.

4 Commentary in b. I.

5 Oportet infantes voluntate et consensu parentum^ immo ab ipsis parentibus oblatos^
sub testimonio plurimorum stiscipi; ut omnis occasio maledicti gratia excludatur bominum
pessimorum (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 mer cede 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 occasione commotio, fiducia stipis illius animatum, contintto
de monasterio velut funda rotante fugiturum (Inst., IV., Hi.).

2 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 faci- 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

testibus. 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 " (pauperiores)
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. 8i7),6 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. 8686 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 (451) prescribes (can. iv. MANSI, t. VII., col. 374).
See also the letter of GELASIUS 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. TURON., In gloria
confessorum, 22. M. G. H.: Script, rer. merov., t. I., p. 762. De virtutibus S. Martini,
ii., 4. M. G. Ii.: ibid., pp. 610-611. Histor. Franc., x. 29. M. G. H.: ibid.,
pp. 440-442. — Vita S. Romarici, 4: MABILLON, Acta SS. O.S.B., Saec. II., p. 400).

2 ST. AURELIAN (Reg. ad mon., xlvii.) requires a formal instrument quando estate
probati fuerint. 3 Cap. xlix. MANSI, t. X., col. 631.

* Ep. XIV. ad Bonifacium episc., 7. P.L., LXXXIX., 525.

5 Cap. xxxvi. MANSI, t. XIV., col. 396. 8 Can. xxii. 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 no 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.3

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, Celestine III ., 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 a false interpretation of the Rule, but merely, as it has been ex
pressed, " that the faith of the 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. MARTKNE, De ant. monach. rit., 1. V., c. v., col. 659 sq.

2 Epist. CCCLXXXII. P.L., CLXXXIL, 585 sq.

3 Epist. I. P.L., CLXXXIL, 67 sq.-, Epist. CCCLXXXII. P.L., i*d., 585-586:
Videat prudentia vestra quid babeat plus vigoris et rations, utrum illud quod factum est
de ipso per alium ipso nesciente, an illud quod sciens et prudens de se ipso fecit. . . . bgo
autem dico, quod votum parentum integrum manet, et oblatio eorum non est exinanita sed
cumulata. Nam et idem offer tur quod prius oblatum est; et eidem offertur cut prius o,
turn est; et quod prius a solis parentibus oblatum, fuer at, nunc offertur ajilio.

4 1 2 Commentary on the Rule of Sf. 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 I'Eglise, P. I., 1. III., chap. vi. T. I., cols. 1762-1763.

2 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 MAITRE, Les Ecoles episcopates
et monastiques de I' Occident depuis Charlemagne jusqu'd Philippe- Auguste, 768-1180. —
CLIRVAL, Les Ecoles de Chartres au moyen age. — PORXE, Histoire de V Abb aye du Bec^
t. I., chaps, iii. iv., vii., xv.

CHAPTER LX

OF PRIESTS WHO MAT WISH TO DWELL IN THE
MONASTERT

DE SACERDOTIBUS, QUI VOLUERINT
IN MONASTERIO HABITARE. Si quis de

ordine sacerdotum in monasterio se
suscipi rogaverit, non quidem ei citius
assentiatur : tamen si omnino perstiterit
in hac petitione, sciat se omnem Regu-
lae disciplinam servaturum, nee aliquid
ei relaxabitur, ut sit sicut scriptum est:
Amice, ad quid venisti ?

If anyone of the priestly order ask
to be received into the monastery,
let not assent be too quickly granted
him; but if he persist strongly in this
request, let him know that he must keep
all the discipline of the Rule, and that
nothing will be relaxed in his favour,
to fulfil what is written: "Friend,
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, imitare 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. HIERON., Epist. LII. ad Nepot., 5. P.L., XXII., 532.

2 We may regard deacons as forming part of this order (HILDKMAR, in b. I.).

4*3

414 "-Commentary on the Rule oj 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 MONTENSIS, O.M.C., Prcelectiones
juris regularise VERMEERSCH, S.J., De religiosis ; and especially the solid dissertation
of Pere NILLES, S.J., in his Selectee disputationes academics juris ecclesiastici.

9 Cum autem clericus aliquis ad virum sanctum ut monachis adscriberetur accedebat,
ordini qiiidem ejus deferebatur reverentia, quemadmodum divina nobis lex prascribit ;
quantum vero ad observantiam canonis fratres obligantis attinet, preestabat illam talis
ceque ac ceteri (Vita S. Pachomii, c. iii. Acta SS., Maii, t. III., p. 303).

Of Priests who may wish to Dwell in 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
our 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?"
(Procter quid, existi />).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, et benedicere, aut Missam tenere, 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 regulari subditum, et magis let him presume to do nothing,
humilitatis exempla omnibus det. 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: Vita Patrum, V., xv., 9. ROSWEYD, p. 621.— ST. JOHN
CLIMACUS also quotes the sentence Amice, ad quid ventstt f which a monk tempted with
instability should say to himself (Scala, gradus iv. P.G., LXXXVIII., 724).

2 Vita, 1. I., c. iv. P.L., CLXXXV., 238.

41 6 Commentary on the Rule of 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 not 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 4 1 7

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

If any pilgrim monk come from
distant parts, and desire to dwell in
the monastery as a guest, and if he be
content with the custom of the place
as he finds it, and do not trouble the
monastery by any unreasonable wants,
but be content simply with what he
finds, let him be received for as long
a time as he will.

D£ MONACHIS PEREGRINIS, QUALI-

TER SUSCIPIANTUR. — Si quis monachus
peregrinus de longinquis provinciis
supervenerit, si pro hospite voluerit
habitare in monasterio, et contentus
fuerit consuetudine loci quam invene-
rit, et non forte superfluitate sua per-
turbat monasterium, sed simpliciter
contentus est quod invenerit, suscipia-
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
undifferentiated. 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 peregrinus)
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 Cf. CASS., Inst.t II., ii.

2 Cap. vii. and viii.
418

P.G., XXXI., 1365-1370.

Of Pilgrim Monks , how they are to be 'Received 4 1 9

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. Benedict1 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 sua), 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

direxerit. 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 sq.)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 i.e., 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. GREG. M., Dial., 1. II., c. xxxv.

2 Vita S. Pachom., Acta 55., Mail, t. III., p. 307.

3 It would seem that St. Benedict was much influenced by interrogation Ixxxvu.
(Reg. contr.} of ST. BASIL: Concedi quidem ei convenit ingressum. . . . Inter dum emm
potest fieri, ut per tempus proficiat et delectetur sanctitate vita et permaneat in cceptts.

4 S. AUG., De doctrina cbrist., prsef., 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, but he 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 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 be 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 petieritsuscipiatur 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. contr., cxcii.).

Of Pilgrim Monks, 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 euminsuperiore 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.

a Or, more simply, and without answering a tacit objection, he is told that there is
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
majori 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
(aliquantulurri) 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 LXIIL, 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 have 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: Ille veromonachus quantos
fratres in alio monasterio invenerit, tantos se noverit habere priores. Nee attendendum
est gut fuit antea, sed probandum est qualis esse coeperit (xiii.).

* 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-
titns).2 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.3

1 The first Rule of the HOLY FATHERS said: Nee tacendum est qualiter inter se monas-
teria pacem firmam obtineant. Non licebit de alto monasterio, sine voluntate ejus qui
praest 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 precatus fuerit ab eo qui prceest Patre ut in alio monasterio in-
grediatur, commendetur ab eo ei qui protest ubi esse desiderat, et sic suscipiatur, etc. (xiii.).
— The Council of Agde in 506 decreed: Monachum nisi Abbatis sui aut permissu aut
voluntate ad alterum monasterium commigrantem^ nullus Abbas aut suscipere aut retinere
pr<ssumat (Can. xxvii. MANSI, t. VIII. , col. 329. See also the Council of Orleans
of 511, Can. xix. MANSI, t. VIIL, cols. 354-355).

2 The Council of Agde of 506 forbids monks, as well as clerics, to travel without
these Letters (Can. xxxviii. MANSI, t. VIIL, col. 331).

3 MARTENE cites several examples of these two sorts of letters, in his Commentary
on this chapter. Cf. S. DESIDERII CADURCENSIS (t 654 or 655), Epist. II. and IX. P.L.,
LXXXVIL, 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, 1. III., t. ii.: Expositio fidei, xxi. P.<7., XLII., 824-825.

2 De hierarch. eccles., c. vi. 3 Cap. xiii. P.L., XIIT., 1144.
4 C/., with the Commentaries, H^FTEN, 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,5
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.8 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. Laus.) c. Ixxi. (Vitce Patrum, VIII. ROSVVEYD, p. 759).

2 Read the full dissertation of H^.FTEN, Prolegom., xviii., pp. 33-35.-— D. L'HUILLIER,
Le Patriarche S. Benoit, pp. 267-270.

3 Can. xxvii. MANSI, ad ann., 853, t. XIV., col. 1007.

4 Luc D'ACHERY, Spicileg., t. IV., p. 229.

5 THOMASSIN, Ancienne et nouvelle discipline de VEglise, P. II., 1. I., chap. Ixxxv.
T. II., col. 547.— MABILLON, Annales O.S.5., 1. X., xx. T. I., p. 252.

• MABILLON, Acta SS. O.S.B., Saec. II., p. 507.

7 Cap. xlvi.

8 ARNOLD WION, 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 presbyterum, 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 or dine sacer-
dotum 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. 5O6),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 Vcrba Seniorttm: Vita Patrum, III., 22. ROSWEYD, pp. 499-500. Cf. MART&NE,
Comment, in h. /., p. 815.

3 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 ommmodis dicimus clericatum vel sacerdotium, neque rursus omnimodis expeten-
dum, sed danda opera est, ut vitia quid em a nobis depellantur, et virtutes animce conquiran-
tur. Dei autemjudicio relinquendum est, quern velit, et si velit assumere sibi ad minis terium
vel ad sacerdotium (RuriN., 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 disciplinae him by the Abbot, knowing that he

regulari subditum. Nee occasione is now all the more subject to regular

sacerdotii obliviscatur regulae obedien- discipline. Let him not take occasion

tiam et disciplinam, 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 prtesumat. . . .
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.3

Locum vero ilium semper attendat, Let him always keep the place due

quo ingressus est monasterium, praeter 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 prae- of the Abbot should wish to promote

positis constitutam sibi servandam him for the merit of his life. Never-

sciat; quod si aliter prsesumpserit, 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

monium. Quod si nee sic emendaverit, not as a priest, but as a rebel; and if

clarescentibus culpis, projiciatur de after frequent admonition he do not

1 P.O., XXV., 531-534.

2 Including the rod, if he deserves it, as PAUL THE DEACON and HILDEMAR note Witt
some insistence. The true reading is probably subdendum.

3 At the end of the Sermo asceticus de renuntiatione saculi, inserted among the wor
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 anima profectus humilitatis profectus
est. . . . Quanta ad majores sacerdotii grai-is appropittjuare te contigtrit, tatttum humiUa
teibsum . . . (P.O., XXXL,

428 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict

monasterio; si tamen talis 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 decanis (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 warning" 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 praposito. — 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
Le"rins, Faustus (future Bishop of Riez), had the right to be sole master in
his own house, and that the Bishop of Frejus could not interfere in the
government of " the whole multitude of the laity of the monastery."2

1 Monacbos vero per unamquamque civitatem aut regionem subjectos esse episcopo, et
quietem diligere, et intentos esse tantummodo jejunio et orationi, in locis in quibus renun-
tiaverunt seeculo, permanentes: nee ecclesiasticis vero, nee sacularibus negotiis communtcent,

titulo monasterii, the origin of the titulus mensa communis; the titulus pauper tatis came in
only with
2 MAN:
pp. 15-17.

only with the mendicant Orders.

8 MANSI, t. VII., col. 908.— Cf. MABILLON, Annales O.S.B., 1. I., xxxix. i . I.,

43° Commentary on the Rule of Sf. 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 and abbatial, should work
in concert. Then, if oifences 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.

2 Oportet enim in nullo monasterio quemlibet episcopum cathedram collocare; aut qui
forte babuerint, habere: nee aliquam ordinationem, quamvis levissimam facere, nisi cleri-
corum, si voluerint habere; essc enim debent monachi in abbatum suorum potestate . . .
Inter sacrificia vero ordinatos suos tantummodo idem episcopus plebium ubi monasteria sunt,
recitet: hoc enim convenit pad (MANSI, t. VIII., cols. 841-842. — MABILLON reads: . . .
ordinatores suos . . . episcopos plebium . . . recitent. Annales O.S.B., 1. II., xvii-
xviii. T. I., p. 40). — On exemption, cf. CALMET, Comment, sur la Regie, t. I., Preface,
xxii.jf. — S. CHAMARD, De I'immunite ecclesiastique et monastique (Rev. des quest, histor.,
1877, T. XXII., pp. 428-464). — D. BESSE, LeMonachisme africain, chap. xii. ; Les Moines
de VAncienne France, passim, especially Bk. IV., chap. xvii. -CAM. DAUX, La Pro
tection apostolique au moyen age (Rev. des quest, histor., 1902, t. LXXIL, pp. 5—60). —
JULES VENDENNE, V Exemption de visite monastique. — G. LETONNELIER, UAbbaye de Cluny
et le privilege de V exemption (in Millenaire de Cluny, t. I., pp. 247-263). — AUG. HUFNER,
Das Rechtsinstitut der klosterlichen Exemtion in der abcndl'dndischen Kirche (Archiv. fur
Kath. Kirchenrecht, 1906, 1907). — Dom Guer anger, Abbe de Solesmes, par un Moine
benedictin de la Congregation de France, chap. vii. T. I., pp. 216-217.

CHAPTER LX1II

OF THE ORDER OF THE COMMUNITY

f I ^HE previous chapters have enumerated the elements that com
pose a Benedictine family: young people, adults and old men,
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.) ; next come
the deans and the various officials who form the staff. St. Benedict has
already, in passing, given some rules of precedence, but he 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 CONGREGATIONS. — Let them so keep their order in the
Ordines suos in monasterio ita conser- monastery, as the time 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,
libera 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 conversations).

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;3 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 XL VII.: Psalmos autem, vel antiphonas, post Abbatem,
ordine suo, quibus jussum fuerit, important. Cantare autem aut legere
non pr&sumat, nisi qui potest ipsum offictum implere, ut ezdificentur
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 quceritur sed professio.

2 On the monastic ceremonial for the kiss of peace read MARTENE, De ant. monacb.
rit.j 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.

* This is perhaps a reminiscence of ST. JEROME: . . . Neque vero 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.//-,

XXII., 463).

28

434 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict

Ergo exceptis iis, quos, ut diximus, Excepting, therefore, those whom
altiori consilio Abbas praetulerit, 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 aetatis aut dignitatis the day must know that he is junior
sit. Pueris 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 * 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 —
i.e., 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 ? 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.,
XX., 190.

2 C/. the passage before cited from the preface to the translation of the Rule of
ST. PACHOMIUS.

3 Read H^EFTEN, 1. III., tract, iii., 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 : or dines 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
disciplina, 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
autem vel ubiubi), 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, if they were still too
childish, they were closely watched.2 Hildemar3 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 priores 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 fus xv 2 Cf. UDALR., Comuet. Clun., 1. III., c. ix.

3 Commentary on Chapter LXX. * Cf. ST. BASIL., Reg. contr., 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 : Seniores verier ari^ 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 nulli liceat alium puro nomine no one address another by his simple

appellare; sed priores Juniores suos name; but let the elders call the

fratresnominent, Juniores autempriores younger brethren Fratres, and the

suos nonnos vocent, quod intelligitur 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

mis 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 (junior es
suos) fratres, "brothers." The term is affectionate and pleasing; it
emphasizes the united life of all religious of the same family;3 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.5

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 apostolicus was 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.6
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 Tr/aoeo-TO)?,
praepositus, pater monasterii, archimandrite, hegoumenos, etc. St

1 Cf. H^FTEN, 1. III., tract, iv.

2 The disciple and biographer of St. Fulgentius of Ruspe (t 533) says of his hero:
Circa singulos ita mansuetus fuit et communis et facilis 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 hoc notandum est, quia
melior est ista f rater nitas spiritualis, quam carnalis (PAUL THE DEACON, in b. /.).

4 Cf. S. AUG., Enarrat. in Psalm, cxxxii. P.L., XXXVII., 1729 sq.

6 Epist. XXII., 16. P.L., XXII., 404; Epist. CXVIL, 6. P.L., ibid., 956.— Read
H^EFTEN, 1. III., tract, iv., disq. iii.— CALMET, Comm. in h. I.

6 Epist. II. P.L.j XX., 179. 7 Cf. CASSIAN and the Vita Patrum, passim.

438 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 Pra-positi (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 Peres
(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 Gallican 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

prsecipiat senior suus: ut fiat quod the younger presume to sit unless his

scriptum est: Honor e invicem. graven- 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, custodiam 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. C7««., 1. II., c. xx.

2 Cf. S. GREG. TURON., Liber Vitce Patrurn, ii., 3-4. M.G.H.: Script, rer. merov.,
t- I., pp. 670-671. In gloria martyrum, 60. M.G.H.: ibid., 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 LIU.
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 : evA-o^cra?. 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: Deus, or Dominus ;2
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"* 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 times 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.5 In the Declara-

1 Quod penes Deum bonitatis et benignitatis, omnis benedictio inter nos summum sit
discipline et conversations sacramentum, " benedicat te Deus " tarn facile pronuntias
quam Cbristiano necesse est (TERTULL., De testim. animee, c. ii. P.L., I., 61 1).

2 Reg. Magistri, xiii. — BERNARD. CASS., in cap. xxv.

3 Commentary on this passage.

4 P.L., XXXVII., 1732: Hi etiam insultare nobis audent quia fratres, cum vident
homines, Deo gratias dicunt. Quid est, inquiunt, Deo gratias ? Itane surdus es ut nescias
quid sit Deo gratias ? Qui dicit Deo gratias, gratias agit Deo. Vide si non debet frater
Deo gratias agere, quando videt fratrem suum. Num enim non est locus gratulationts
quando se invicem vident qui habitant in Cbristo ? — And in Letter XLI., ST. AUGUSTINE
says again: Deo gratias ! nam quid melius et animo geramus et ore promamus, et calamo
exprimamus quam Deo gratias ? Hoc nee did brevius, nee andiri latius, nee intelligi
grandius ; nee agifructuosius potest (P.L., XXXIII. , 158).

5 Epist., 1. I., Ep. XXVIII. P.L., CLXXXIX., 133-134-

44° Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict

tions for Sainte-C£cile, 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: Benedicite; 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 a
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 of 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 manner 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. Sermo asceticus de renuntiatione steculi, inter S. BASIL.
opp. P.G., XXXI., 644.

2 Cum sedeSy non superpones alteri cruri alterum crus tuum: siquidem istud facere^
animi parum attenti atque aliud agentis indicium est (Sermo asceticus de renuntiat. sac.,
8, P.G., XXXI., 644).

CHAPTER LXIV

OF THE 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 AfiBATE. — In Abba- In the appointment of an Abbot let

tis 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 onwards1 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 no 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, ActaSS. O.S.B., Saec. III., Praef., in.

2 C/. EMILE LESNE, L'Originc des menses dans le temporel des Eglises etudes monastics
de France, au IXe siecle.

441

442 Commentary on the Rule of Sf. 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,3 or by abuse of their power. At the same time Councils,
such as that of Carthage in A.D. 534,4 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,5 and St. Gregory the Great maintaining this
ordinance of the Holy Rule.0 What part bishops formerly played in this
matter and what part they now play shall be made clear in the sequel.

So it is the privilege of monks to choose their Abbot; but, in actual
practice, the exercise of this right has taken various forms. 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. Pachomius, 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. Theodoret9 and
Cassian10 allude to it. For the West we have numerous pieces of evi
dence — as, for instance, in the Lives of the Fathers of Jura, in St. Gregory
of Tours, etc. The Rule of the Master11 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.

a Cf. S. ISIDORI PELUS., Epist., 1. I., Ep. CCLXII. P.C., LXXVIIL, 339.

3 Cf. Vita S. Ctesarii, 1. I., 12. M.G.H.: Script, rer. merov., t. III., p. 461.

* MANSI, t. VIII., col. 842.

5 MABILLON, Annales O.S.J5., 1. IX., xxviii. T. I., p. 231.

6 Epist., 1. II., Epp. XLI. and XLII. P.L., LXXVIL, 578-580; M.G.H.: Epist.,
t. I., pp. 348 and 346. 7 Reg. fus., xliii.

8 Cf. LADEUZE, Etude sur le cinobitisme pakhomien pendant le IVe siecle et la premiere
moitif du Ve, pp. 286, 287, and 316.

9 Religiosa historia, c. iv. P.C., LXXXIL, 1345.

10 Inst.j IV., xxviii. u Cap. xciii. and xciv.

12 ... Ne cum unusquisque de suo judicio successionem prcesumens, universos in sedi-
tionem exagitet, et studiosam partibus pugnam scandali domum pads facial in contentionem
convent (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 this way 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.3

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
cons or s 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. Cassarius 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, Consuet. Clun., 1. III., c. i. 2 BERNARD., Ordo Clun., P. I., c. i.
3 Constit. Hirsaug., 1. II., c. i. 4 Reg. ad vir., Recapitulatio, xii.

444 Commentary on the Rule of Sf. 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:1 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 of 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 sibt); " 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 Mege 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 cast 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 this1 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 pro nobis. Doctus est? doceat nos. Prudens
est? re gat 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 7

tianis vicinis claruerint, prohibeant or of the Abbots or neighbouring

pravorum praevalere consensum, et Christians, let them prevent the agree-

1 Sancta quippe rusticitas solum sibi prodest ; et quantum adificat ex vitts meritff
Ecclesiam Christi, tantum nocet si destruentibus non resistat. . . . Fides quantum inter se
distent justa rusticitas et docta justitia (S. HIERON., Epist. XLIIL, 3. P.L., XXII.,

2 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 the Abbot 44.7

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
Dei faciant, sicut e contrario peccatum, 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.

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 layfolk 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.

2 These dispositions of the Rule agree with those of the Council of Carthage of
536 (MANSI, t. VIII., col. 842): Si qua vero contentio, quod non optamus, cxorta fuent,
ut ista Abbatum aliorum concilia sive judicio finiatur; aut si scandalum perseveravent,
ad Primates uniuscujusque provi nciae universe causa monasteriorutn judicanda perducantur.
(C/. 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 villicationis burden he has undertaken, and to
su«e; 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
appointed1 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 my marshal'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. in., xxii.), do we find sufficient data for
deciding the manner of the ordinatio Abbatis at Subiaco and Monte Cassino.

2 Sermo CCCXL. P.L., XXXVIIL, 1484. De civitate Dei, 1. XIX., c. xix.
P.L., XLL, 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: <zquiparatus 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 eum esse doctum in He must, therefore, be learned in
lege divina, ut sciat unde proferat 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
(oportet 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

450 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 whichkis 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

And in his correction itself let him

In ipsa autem correctione pruden-
ter agat, et ne quid nimis; ne dum
nimis eradere cupit seruginem, franga-
tur vas; suaque fragilitate semper

act prudently, and not go to excess,
lest seeking too eagerly to scrape off
the rust he break the vessel. Let him

suspectus sit, memineritque calamum keep his own frailty ever before his
quassatum non conterendum. In eyes, and remember that the bruised
quibus non

dicimus ut permittat
nutriri vitia, sed prudenter et cum
caritate ea amputet, prout viderit

reed must not be broken. By this
we do not mean that he should
suffer vices to grow up, but that he

cuique expedire, sicut jam diximus; should cut them oif prudently and
et studeat plus amari quam timeri. 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 hominem, oderis vilium (Sermo XLIX.,
5. P.L., XXXVIII. , 323); Oderit vitium, arnet hominem (De civil. Dei., 1. XIV.,
c. vi. P.L., XLI., 409); Cum dilectione hominum et odio vitiorum (Epist. CCXI., II.
P.L., XXXIII. , 962). — S. C^SAR., Reg. ad virg., xxii.: Hoc facile cum dilectione sororunt
el odio viliorum.

2 A reminiscence of St. Jerome or of St. Augustine. Difficile est modum tenere ii
omnibus, says ST. JEROME, et vere juxta pbilosopborum sententiam, fieffbrr)* -fj ap€7
vTrep(3o\T) Ka/aa reputantur; quod nos una et brevi sententiola exprimere possumus: Ne
quid nimis, TERENTIUS, 'Andria, I., i. 34 (Epist. CVIIL, 20. P.L., XXII., 808). El"

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 (xii. 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
scarcely 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., 1 1. P.L., XXII., 1 1 16) St. Jerome repeats the two quotations
and attributes Ne quid nimis to one of the Seven Sages, adding: Quod tarn celebrefactum
est, ut comico quoque versu expressum sit. In Letter LX., 7 (P-L., XXII., 593) he asks
Heliodorus to moderate his sorrow for the death of his nephew Nepotianus and quotes
the Ne quid nimis.— On his part, ST. AUGUSTINE quotes and explains the same epigram
(Enarratio IV. in Ps. cxviii., I. P.L, XXXVII., 1509).

45 2 Commentary on the Rule of Sf. 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:3 for, says he, there is no rest for
such a one. How impossible is peacefulness in a house whose head is

1 Corripiat inquietas^ consoletur pusillanimes, suscipiat infirmas, patiens sit ad omnes ;
disciplinam libens habeat, metuens imponat. Et quamvis utrumque sit necessarium, tamen
plus a vobis amari appetat quam timeri^ semper cogitans Deo se pro vobis reddituram esse
rationem. Unde magis obediendo non solum vestri^ verum etiant ipsius miseremini; quia
inter vos quanta in loco superior e, tanto in periculo major e versatur (Epist. CCXI., 15.
P.L., XXXIIL, 964-965).

2 Amastis enim ut veniretis: sed amastis, quid ? Si nos, et hoc bene; nam volumus amari
a vobis, sed nolumus in nobis. Quia ergo in Cbristo vos amamus, in Christo nos redamate,
et amor noster pro invicem gemat ad Deum: ipse enim gemitus columbee est (S. AUG., In
Joannis 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 nonconteret. . . . Non er it tr is tis, neque turbulentus
(xlii. 2-4).

Of the Appointment of the Abbot 453

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 laborare, 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 live 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 consider atus; et sive secundum Deum, sive
secundum speculum sit opera quam injungit) discernat.

2 These are the very words of CASSIAN, in his 2nd Conference (chap iv.J, whicl
might well be re-read in its entirety: Omnium namque virtu turn generatrix, custos modera-
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 ! 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 praesentem Regu- And, especially, let him observe

lam in omnibus conservet; 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 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

) II.-II.j 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 (conservis suis), 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 sq.).

CHAPTER LXV
OF THE PRIOR OF THE MONASTERT

THE Abbot may be assisted in his government by a second-in-
command. Several ancient Rules1 have no other title than
" 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 " (Patrem constituit et
quis ei secundus esset); while a little farther on he calls this " second "
his prior : Prtepositus 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 Trpoecrrw.
Cassian calls him " Praepositus;"3 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. Macarius4 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 of 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. — THEODORETI, Relieiosa bistoria, c. iv. P.G.,
LXXXIL, I348—C/. S. BASIL., Reg. fus., xlv.

2 Dial., 1. H., c. xxii. 3 2nst., V., xxvii.; Conlat., XVIII., vii.
4 Cap. xxvii. 5 p^e^ a^ visg., xvi.

6 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., LXXVII., 727; M.G.H. :
Epist., t. I., p. 284): there, as in the interesting letter ad Agnellum Abba tern 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 sq.}. In order to find this personage with the name of
" Prior," wejiave to come down to the Statutes of LANFRANC, the Customs of Cluny,
the Use of Ctteaux, etc. (Cf. HJEFTEN, 1. III., tract, vi., disq. i.-iii.).

7 Statuta, c. iii.

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 PIUEPOSITO MONASTERII. — It happens very often that by the

Saepius quidem contingit, ut per or- appointment of the Prior grave scan-

dinationem praspositi scandala gravia dais arise in monasteries; since there

in monastenis oriantur, dum sint are some who, puffed up by the evil

aliqui maligno spiritu superbiae inflati, spirit of 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, quiaabipsoinitioordinationis 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

45 8 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 prsepositusque 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 di?-

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 power which is then nothing else but usurpation and tyranny :

1 Mos erat corum tune, observes SMARAGDUS, ut quando Abbas ordinabatur, tune et
ab eodem episcopo et aliis coram adstantibus Abbatibus et preepositus ordinaretur.

2 The best manuscript reading is perhaps the very words, in " direct speech," which
pride suggests to the soul: Ab ipsis es et tu 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 monks 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 pr^videmus 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
tionem monasterii sui. Et si potest monastery depend upon the will of
fieri, per decanos ordinetur (ut antea the Abbot. If possible, let all
disposuimus)omnisutilitas monasterii, affairs of the monastery be attended
prout Abbas disposuerit: ut dum to (as we have already arranged^ by
pluribus committitur, unus non super- deans, as the Abbot shall appoint;
Hat. 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 ot the
absolute power of the Abbot derives directly from the concepti
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 XXL, 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

cum consilio f ratrum timentium Deum, 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 i-pse sibi pr&positum), 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 role of the Prior in the
community.

1 Utilitas monasterii: the same expression as in Chapter III.; it is found in CASSIAN,
Inst., VII., ix.

2 See the old customaries, especially that of Cluny, for the manner of " ordination "
of the Prior.

Of the Prior of the Monastery 46 1

Qui tamen praepositus ilia agat Let the Prior, however, reverently

cum reverentia quae 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

f aciens : 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 preepositus: we should notice the "however" (tamen)^
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 o
fuerit comprobatus, admoneatur verbis the holy Rule, let him be admon

1 ST. PACHOMIUS likewise said of the local superior of each monastery: Jpse autem
prapositus nihilfaciet, nisi quod Pater jusserit, maxime in re nova; nam qua
descendit, scrvabit rcgulas monasterii (clviii.).

2 D. MbGE, Comment., p. 750.

462 Commentary on the 'Rule of Sf. Benedict

usque quater: si non emendaverit, by words until the fourth time; and
adhibeatur ei correctio disciplinae 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 alius qui dignus est, in loco amend, let him be deposed from the
ejus 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. If 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 ventured to do.

CHAPTER LXVI

OF THE PORTER OF THE MONASTERT

fHT^HE 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

-A. 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
et redder e, cujus maturitas eum non
sinat vagari. Qui portarius cellam
debet habere juxta portam, ut venientes
semper prsesentem inveniant a quo
responsum accipiant. Et mox ut ali-
quis pulsaverit aut pauper clamaverit,
" Deo gratias " respondeat, aut bene-
dicat; et cum omni mansuetudine
timoris Dei reddat responsum festi-
nanter, cum fervore caritatis. Qui
portarius, si indiget solatio, juniorem
fratrem accipiat.

knows how to give and receive an
answer, and whose ripeness of years
suffers him not to wander. This
porter ought to have his cell near
the gate, so that they who come may
always find someone at hand to give
them an answer. As soon as anyone
shall knock, or a poor man call to him,
let him answer, "Deo gratias," or
bid God bless him, and then with
all gentleness of the fear of God, let
him answer quickly in the fervour
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 traditional2 that one gate only

1 Treating of the monastery of Abbot Isidore, in the Thebaid: Intrinsecus putei
plures, horti irrigui, omnium quoque pomorum arborumque paradisi, et quacumque neces-
taria usibus erant sufficienter, immo et abundanter proviso; ab hoc ut nulli monachorum
habitantium intrinsecus, necessitas ulla fieret exeundi foras ad aliquid requirendum.
Senior quidam, vir grams, et de primis electus, ad januam sedens, hoc habebat open ut
adventantes ea lege suscipiat, qua ingressi ultra non exeant. . . . Hie ergo senior in janua,
ubi ipse commanet, adharentem sibi habebat hospitalem cellulam, in qua adventantes
bospitio recipiat et omni humanitate refoveat (Vita Patrum, II., xvii. ROSWEYD,
pp. 475-476). In chap, ii., RUFINUS had written: Plantavit (Hor) bane silvam, ut ibi
fratres, quos inibi congregate cupiebat, non haberent necessitatem ligni gratia longius
evagandi (ROSWEYD, p. 457)-

* The i33rd Novel of JUSTINIAN (c. i.: Collatio IX., tit. XVI.) legislated thus:
Volumus . . . nonplurimos esse in monasterium ingressus sed unum, aut secundum forte;
et adstare januce viros senes et castos et testimonii boni ex omnibus, qui quidem neque reveren-
dissimis monachis concedant sine abbatis voluntate exire monasterium. . . . Sitque cau-
tissima maceria munitum monasterium, ut nullus exitus ahunde nisi per januas sit.

463

464 Commentary on the Rule of Sf. 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 w|n 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 " (responsum) often meant, in the language of the time, some
business affair or message, a " commission," as we say commonly.3

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 seorsum baud longe a vesti-
bulo monasterii commanens habet cur am peregrinorum atque advenientium deputatam eisque
omnem diligentiam susceptionis et humanitatis inpendit (Inst., IV., vii.).

2 Such was the case at Citeaux (according to chap. cxx. of the Use), at Bursfeld, etc.

3 In Chapter LI. St. Benedict wrote: Prater qui pro quovis responso projiciscitur. . . .
And ST. GREGORY THE GREAT: Mos etenint cellee fuit, ut quotient ad responsum aliquod
egrcderentur fratres . . . (Dial^ 1. II., c. xii.). — Cf. Du CANGE, Glossarium.

Of the Porter of the Monastery 46 5

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
Citeaux, 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; qua jam ex
prasentibus pompis nibil desiderent; sed in toto cordis affectu Creaton inhterentes singular
dicant: mibi autem adbcerere Deo bonum est, ponere in Deo spent meam. . . . Sint mentis
m* statu firmissima, ut Domino cum Propheta orando dicant: Averte oculos nostros ne
videant vanitatcm. . . . Tale semper supervenientibus ostendant exemplum, ut et Jons at)
extraneis nomen Domini glorificetur, . . . etintus a consodalibus suis mercedis praparent
lucra. dum omnium vice foris gerent cur am (iii.)«

2 Epist., 1. I., Ep. XXVIII. P.L., CLXXXIX., 134-

3 Cf. Reg Magistri, xcy,

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 gratias 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}- But what should
be noted is the counsel to " answer " with all possible sweetness, with
all the gentleness that comes 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 necessaria, ought to be so constructed that all

id est, aqua, molendinum, hortus, pis- things necessary, such as water, a mill,

trinum, vel artes diversae intra monas- a garden, a bakery, and the various

terium exerceantur, ut non sit neces- crafts may be contained within it; so

sitas monachis vagandi foras; 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 aui 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,3 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 trained
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 excuset. 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 Bernardus valles, monies Benedictus amabat,
Oppida Franciscus, celebres Dominions urbes.

2 Read chap. v. of the Life of St. Benedict (S. GREG. M., Dial., 1. II.)-

3 D. CALMET 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 Aix-la-Chapelh
of 817 (cap. Ixix.). The reading in the refectory is appointed in the Rule of the Mast,
(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 orationi 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 th<
monastery, the care of souls, messages to be taken to princes, bishops,
or abbots, attendance at councils, and, in exceptional cases, a visit t(
one's family: these are some of the motives which may induce the Abbol
to impose this hard obedience.1 Even nowadays, when journeys are
accomplished more rapidly, a man with the monastic spirit should nevei
solicit, still less insistently claim, the favour of returning to his home-
perhaps periodically — or of passing some weeks near a well-stock(
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 no1
wholly abandoned. Although St. Benedict says nothing of this custoi
(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

1 Cf. H^EFTEN, 1. XL, tract, iv., Itinerarium.

2 Nullus solus foras mittatur ad aliquod negotium, nisi juncto ei altero (S. PA<
Reg., Ivi.).— Cf. S. MACAR., Reg., xxii.— S. BASIL., Reg. fus., xxxix.— ST. GREGORY

468

Of Brethren who are sent on a 'Journey 469

Council of Aix-la-Chapelle (A.D. 817) prescribed that a monk on 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.3 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 : 'per omnes 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:
Or emus pro fratribus 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.L., LXXVIL, 1233; M.G.H.:£pM!., t. II., p. 351.

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., xxii., 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.

2 The Gregorian Sacramentary has three special prayers for this occasion; they are
quoted by H/EFTEN (1. XL, 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^FTEN, 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.

3 Codiculum modicum cum aliquibus lectionibus de monasterio secum portct, ut quavt,
bora in via repausaverit, aliquantulum tamen legal, etc. (Reg. Magtstrt, Ivii.).

4 We have recalled the fact before (p. 156), that the ancient services ordmaril
with prayers for all the needs of the faithful.

47° Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict

Revertentes autem de via fratres,
ip«o die quo redeunt, per omnes canoni-
cas Horas, dum expletur opus Dei,
prostrati solo oratorii ab omnibus
petant orationem propter excessus,
ne quid forte subripuerit in via visus,
aut auditus malae rei, aut otiosi ser-

Let the brethren that return from
a journey, on the very day that they
come back, lie prostrate on the floor
of the oratory at all the canonical
Hours at the ending of the Work of
God, and beg the prayers of all on
account of their transgressions, if

monis. Nee praesumat quisquam aliis perchance they should have seen or

referre quaecumque foris monasterium
viderit aut audierit, quia plurima
destructio est. Quod si quis prae-
sumpserit, vindictae regular! subjaceat.

heard anything evil on their journey
or have fallen into idle talk. And let
no one presume to tell others what he
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, begging 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 subripuerit; 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,3 or of certain harmless details ? What
he requires is that a man should not relate at random and thoughtlessly
all that he has observed: qucecumque; for, says he, " thence comes mani
fold destruction " (destructio, the opposite of eedificatio). Indiscreet
or too circumstantial narratives might awaken memories here and then
might arouse interests, inspire regrets, suggest little romances, resuscitat<

1 Constit. Hirsaug., 1. II., c. xix.

2 Cf. S. BASIL., Reg.fus., xliv. : Quibus permittendee sint peregrinationes et quoi
ubi redierint, sint interrogandi.

3 As is formally permitted by the Regula Tarnatemis (ii.). — St. Benedict is quotir
ST. PACHOMIUS: Et omnino qvidquid joris gesserint et audierint, in monasterio narrare "
poterunt. Si quis ambulaverit in via, vel navigaverit, aut opera tus fuerit forts, non

tur in monasterio qua ibi geri viderit (Ivii., Ixxxvi.).

Of Brethren who are sent on a 'Journey 47 1

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 praesumpserit 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 reasons 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, outside the 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 rules2
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, moderators non prius commonefacto f
(Reg. brev., cxx.).

2 Nullus neque exeundi in agrum, neque ambulandi in monasteno, nequc extra murum
monasterii foras habeatfacultatem, nisi interrogaveritprapositumet ille conccssent(\\xxiv.).

3 Inst., IV., x.

CHAPTER LXVIII

IF A BROTHER BE COMMANDED TO DO
IMPOSSIBILITIES

THERE is nothing in the Rule which does not deserve our greatest
veneration: yet, these last pages, written by our Holy Father in
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 sixty-seventh 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 aliqua forte gravia commands that are hard and impos-

1 Post h<sc tanta observantia obedientifg regula custoditur^ ut junior es absque prapo si ti
sui scientia vel permissu non solum non audeant cella progredi, sed ne ipsi quidem communi
ac naturali necessitati satisfacere sua auctoritate prtesumant (we recognize here the con
clusion of our Chapter LXVIL; and here are words which resemble the succeeding
chapter): sicque universa complete, quacumque fuerint ab eo prcecepta, tamquam si ex Deo
sint ceslitus edita, sine ulla discussione festinant, ut nonnunquam etiam impos sib ilia sibimet
imperata ea fide ac devotione suscipiant, ut tola virtute ac sine ulla cordis heesitatione
perficere ea et consummare nitantur et ne impossibilitatem quidem prtecepti pro senioris
reverentia metiantur. — St. Benedict may have been thinking also of ST. BASIL, Reg.
contr.j Ixix., Ixxxii. — Cf. Reg. f us., xxviii.

472

If a Brother be Commanded to do Impossibilities 473

aut impossibilia injunguntur, 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 to 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 m
one day.2 But, after all, there are graces of state and graces of off

1 S. GREG. M., Dial., 1. II., c. viii. p ,.

2 Quid vultis oner a nobis imponere, qua non possumus portare f exclaimed bt. 0e
at first. But presently he worked the miracle, in all simplicity of faith (J>. U
Dial., 1. II., c. xxxii.).

474 Commentary on the Rule of Sf. 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 went 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 suarum But if he sees that the burden

viderit pondus excedere, impossibili- altogether exceeds his strength, let

tatis sua3 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 (suggeraf). " 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. Ixxii. 25-26).

Quod si post suggestionem suam in
sua sententia prioris imperium perdura-
verit, sciat junior ita .sibi expedire,

et ex caritate confidens de adjutorio
Dei, obediat.

If, however, after these represen
tations, the superior still persist in his
command, let the subject know that
this is expedient for him, and let him
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 " : in this case fortune is the grace of God.

CHAPTER LXIX

THAT MONKS PRESUME NOT TO DEFEND ONE
ANOTHER

CHAPTERS LXVIII. to LXXI. seem to have a common purpose —
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 MONASTER10 NON PRJESU-
MAT ALTER ALTERUM DEFENDERS. Sum-

mopere praecavendum est, ne quavis
occasione praesumat alter alterum
defendere monachum in monasterio,
aut quasi tueri, etiamsi qualibet con-
sanguinitatis propinquitate jungantur.
Nee quolibet modo id a monachis
praesumatur, quia exinde gravissima
occasio scandalorum oriri potest.
Quod si quis haec transgressus fuerit,
acrius coerceatur.

The greatest care must be taken
that no one in the monastery presume
for any reason to defend another, or to
take his part, even though they be
joined by some near tie of kinship.
Let not the monks presume to do this
in any way whatsoever, because the
most grievous occasion of scandals may
arise therefrom. If anyone transgress
this rule, let him be very severely
punished.

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

That Monks presume not to 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 work 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, and so on. 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

* St. Benedict is not more severe than the ancient monastic legislators: Qui consent*
peccantibus et defendit alium delinquentem, maledictus ent apud Dcum et bo* nes et
corripietur increpatione severissima (S. PACII., Reg., clxxyi.-See also ST. BASIL, Reg.
contr.* 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.

In order that in the monastery
every occasion of presumption may
be avoided, we ordain and decree that
it be lawful to no one to excommuni
cate or strike any of his brethren,
except he be given power to do so by
the Abbot. Those that sin before all
shall be reproved, that the rest may
have fear.

UT NON PIUESUMAT QUISQUAM ALI-
QUEM PASSIM CREDERE AUT EXCOMMUNI-

CARE. — Ut vitetur in monasterio omnis
pnesumptionis occasio, ordinamus
atque constituimus ut nulli liceat
quemquam fratrum suorum excom-
municare aut caedere, nisi cui potestas
ab Abbate data fuerit. Peccantes
autem coram omnibus arguantur, ut
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 b

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 vitetur2 in monasterio omnis pr&sumptionis 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
cor am omnibus) shall not remain unpunished; some authorized person
must correct such faults, with vigour, publicly if necessary, and in such
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 objurgare, sicut nee mederi,
nisi si prcsfectus ipse, multo adhibito examine, id cuipiam permiserit (S. BASIL., Reg. f us.,
liii.).

2 The most authoritative reading is: Vetetur in monasterio . . . occasio, atque con-
stituimus.

3 Is not this ST. BASIL'S meaning also: Si quis, non desiderio corrigendi fratres arguat
eum qui delinquit, sed sui vitii explendi gratia, quomodo oportet hunc corrigi ? . . . Iste
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 qitali modo corripi debeant,

4 The majority of the commentators connect the words coram omnibus with both
peccantes and arguantur. SMARAGDUS recalls in this context the words of Leviticus:
Non oderis fratrem tuum in corde tuo, sed publice argue eum, ne habeas super eo peccatum
(xix. 17). — Ipsa corripienda sunt coram omnibus, qute peccantur coram omnibus; ipsa
corripienda sunt secretius, qua peccantur secretius (S. AUG., Sermo LXXXIL, 10. P.L.,
XXXVIII., 511). — Another explanation is: no one should without authority inflict
corporal or spiritual punishment (excommunicare aut c<edere), 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 prae- 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, disciplinae regu- severity 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 feceris. 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 not have done to thyself."1

The ordinances of this chapter are primarily addressed to those wh<
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 anc
by prudence. Speaking generally, all correction should fulfi
following conditions: the corrector should have power to correct, t
cause should be just and reasonably adequate, and the punisnm
should be proportioned to the fault. The effect of correction will
much jeopardized, if it is manifest that we are yielding to impatience, 01
to natural antipathy, or to irritability of temperament: let us keep c
antipathies for our own faults.

i 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

FRATRES. — Obedientiae bonum non so-
lum Abbati exhibendum est ab omni
bus, sed etiam sibi invicem ita obediant
fratres, scientes se per hanc obedien-
tiae viam ituros ad Deum. Praemisso
ergo Abbatis, aut praepositorum qui
ab eo constituuntur imperio (cui non
permittimus privata imperia praeponi),
de cetero omnes juniores prioribus suis
omni caritate et sollicitudine obe
diant. Quod si quis contentiosus
reperitur, corripiatur.

Not only is the boon of obedience
to be shown by all to the Abbot, but
the brethren must also obey one
another, knowing that by this path of
obedience they shall go to God. The
commands, therefore, of the Abbot or
the superiors appointed by him (to
which we allow no private orders to
be preferred) having the first place,
for the rest let alt the younger brethren
obey their elders with all charity and
solicitude. But should anyone be
found contentious, let him be cor
rected.

Ob edi entice 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.j xiii., Ixiv.

2 The expression is CASSIAN'S, Inst., IV., xxx.; XII., xxxi.

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 etiam sibi invicem ita obediant 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

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 " (l Cor. xi. 16).

Si quis autem pro quavis minima
causa, ab Abbate vel a quocumque
priore suo corripiatur quolibet modo;
vel si leviter senserit animum prioris
cujuscumque contra se iratum vel com-
motum, quamvis modice, mox sine
mora tamdiu prostratus in terra ante
pedes ejus jaceat satisfaciens, usque
dum benedictione sanetur ilia commo-
tio. Quod si quis contempserit facere,
aut si contumax fuerit, de monasterio
expellatur.

But if anyone be rebuked by the
Abbot or by any superior in any
way for however small a cause, or if he
faintly perceive that the mind of any
superior is angered or moved against
him, however little, let him at once,
without delay, cast himself on the
ground at his feet, and there remain
doing penance, until that feeling be
appeased, as he gives him a blessing.
But if anyone should disdain to do this,
let him either be subjected to corporal
chastisement, or, if he remainobdurate,
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 offendei
has not to wait for this extreme development ; a slight display of f eelinj
is enough : quamvis modice. Nor need it be manifest ; it is enough thai
it be merely divined, faintly perceived : vel si leviter senserit. Howevei
trifling the cause of the rebuke may appear (pro quavis minima causa);

1 Prater qui pro qualibet culpa arguitur vel increpatur, patientiam kabeat et non
respondent arguentt; sed hutuiliet se in omnibus (S. MACAR., Reg., xvi.).

That the Brethren be Obedient One to the Other 485

whatever be the manner in which it is administered (quolibet modo);
and whencesoever it comes (ab Abbate vel a quocumque priore suo) : he
must prostrate on the ground1 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 benedictione sanetur ilia commotio. Both parties gain by the
experience.

St. Benedict, in concluding, indicates the penalties reserved for those
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., Inst., IV., xvi.

2 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

OF THE GOOD ZEAL WHICH MONKS OUGHT TO HAVE

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. .

DE ZELO BONO, QUEM DEBENT
HABERE MONACHI. — SlCUt CSt ZeluS

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. . . .

f I ^HIS chapter completes and summarizes the teaching of the four

which precede it. We may even regard it as a synthesis of the

entire Rule. St. Benedict condenses the whole science of monastic

-*- 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 ? 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

1 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 ajfectu debet servire qui
servit Deo f Affectum bonum vel animum ilium esse arbitror ego, cum desiderium vehemens
et inexplebile atque immobile inest nobis placendi Deo. Impletur autem iste affectus per
tbeoriam (flew/wa^), 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 stint; ex quorum recordatione venit animee dilectio Domini Dei sui, ut eum
diligat ex toto corde suo, et ex tota anima sua, et ex tola mente sua (xiv.).

2 De civitate Dei, 1. XIV., c. xxviii. 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 efc Odvarov dyov £?}Xo?
(" 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
have 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
prseveniant. Infirmitates suas sive one another. Let thenimost 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, Opera Patrum Apost., L, p. 7*)- cited bX D' BuTLER
along with the " ancient Latin translation." ...

2 Cf. CASS., Conlat., II., xxvi.; VIL, ii., xxvi., xxxi.; XII.,i.; XIII.,vm., X
xxv.— S. BASIL., Reg. contr., Ixxviii. . YV ^

* ST. JEROME, in his 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 ctnjuno qux 'due* tad mortem, et
est confusio qua ducit ad vitam. He quotes these words again in his lett
P.L., XXI I., 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;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
diversis 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.2 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} infirmitatem carports patientissime toleravit
(Conlat., VI., in.). Is vere et non ex parte perfectus est, qui et in eremo squalor em soli-
tudinis et in ccenobio infirmitatem fratrum tequali magnanimitate sustentat (Conlat.,
XIX., ix.).

2 Sitque inter eos pax et concordia, et libenter majoribus subjiciantur, sedentes, ambu
y ac stantes in ordine suo, et invicem de bumilitate certantes (S. PACH., 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 timeant. 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 permanens in seeculum sceculi; 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. Benedic
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 holy and joyous liberty; but liberty is not
ceremoniousness. The fabulist has described for us the impudei
of the frogs towards their King Log:

1 D. G. MORIN has made the same comparison: Vtrs un text* definitif de la regie
de S. Benoit: Revue B>ned., October, 1912, 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 was 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 I1

1 The Amen is not to be found in the best manuscripts nor in the most ancient
commentators.

CHAPTER LXXIII

THAT: THE WHOLE OBSERVANCE OF JUSTICE is NOT

SET DOWN IN THIS RULE

f I ^HIS 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

-A- 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

in 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

JUSTITI^E IN HAC SIT REGULA 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 conversationis
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 conversationis: the same phrase occurs in CASSIAN, Inst., IV., xxxix. See
also Verba seniorum: Vita Patrum, V., xi., 29. ROSWEYD, 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 Testamenti, 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 cur su pervenia- what book of the holy Catholic Fathers

mus ad Creatorem nostrum ? Nee non does not loudly proclaim how we may

1 S. GREG. M., Dial., 1. 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 Patris 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 ideal1 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. Augustine2
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 vitce human*?).3

1 Ad perfectionem festinantibus . . . (CASS., Conlat., XXL, v.).

2 Enarrat. in Psalmum Ixiv. 2. P.L., XXXVI., 774-

3 This is the whole theme of psalm cxvlii.: Lucerne pedtbus meis verbum KM, et
lumen semitis 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 (sanctorum catholicorum 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 Tertullian1 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 Collationes, in which
John Cassian summarizes his admirable conferences with the Eastern
monks; the Instituta ccenobiorum of the same author; the Lives of the
Fathers (Vitce 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.3 They are at the same time 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 christianarum Litter arum; ad quos merito dicen-
dum est: Qui estis f quando et unde venistis ? quid in meo agitis, non mei ? quo denique,
Martian^ jure silvam meant cadis ? qua licentia, Valentine, fontes meos transvertis ? qua
potestate, Appeles, limites meos commoves ? quid hie ceteri ad voluntatem vestram seminatis
et pascitis f Mea est possessio^ olim possideo. . . . Ego sum hares apostolorum . . . (De
prcescriptione heereticorum, xxxvii. P.Z,., II., 51).

2 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 prascriptione hcereticorum^
xxxviii. P.Z,., II., 51).

4 A desidiosis ac neglegentibus . . . (CASS., Conlat.t XII., xvi.).

'The 'whole Observance of justice not in this Rule 495

perfection : ad celsitudinem 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 mmimam 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

doctrine virtutumque culmina, Deo arrive, under God's protection, at the

protegente, pervenies. 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 supei

natural genius ?

But St. Benedict is concerned with glory of a far different s<
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,
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 m
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 an
expected, where God and St. Benedict are waiting for us: let souls
hasten to reach it first achieve their novitiate for eternity.

* CASSIAN said: Kinder*. . . ^^JSJl * «* <ulm">

* Dtminic* doctnn* culmen Conlat'
virtutum ejus volumus pervenire . .

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 no ted further that the majority of the references to authorities
are to actual quotations, and not to mere citations of the authors specijied.

ABANDONMENT of the monastery, 228-230,

405

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, 35-5 5) 445-4545

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). 54-55) 59) 356> 43 1»
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, 150,
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,
343-346j 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, 4°°;
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

I absent brethren, prayers for, 156, 468-469
i abstinence, 319. See Fleshmeat
j acus, 356

I ad ipsum diem pcrtinentes, 165-167
i address, modes of, to be used by monks,

437-438. See Bencdicite
t admission, of fugitive and expelled monks,
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 clansura, 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,
817)) 183, 358, 375, 384, 394, 410, 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
analogium, 151
anchorites, 28-30
Angela of Foligno, B., 191
angels, i, 6, 89, 101, 102; guardian, 107,

108, in, 112
ante-mass, 139, 149
antiphonal psalmody, 145-148
antiphons, at various Offices, 144-148,

152-157, 158-169, 175
497 32

498 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict

Antony, St., 28, 70, 72, 276, 313, 373, 489

ApophthegmAta 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
Athanasius, St., 424, 426
Athos, Mt., 27
Augustine, St., 10, 16, 22, 23, 26, 32, 33,

53) 63, 68, 72, 105, 108, no, 150, 178,

188, 195, 223, 226, 227, 236, 250, 304,

3°5> 3°6, 3*2, 3i33 327j 345? 361, 363>
366, 382, 388, 424, 439, 448, 450, 451,
452, 480, 486, 493
Augustine of Canterbury, St., 424
Aurelian, St., 148, 151, 375, 425, 442
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

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,

3°4> 323> 333> 35 J> 357> 38o> 395> 4°7>

408, 419, 420, 427, 435, 440, 442, 470,

471, 480, 486, 494
baths, 259-262
Baumer, Dom, 159, 161, 170
Bavarian Congregation of the Holy

Angels, 385
Bee, 411

bedding, 354-355
Bede, Venerable, 412
bells, 302

benedicere, benedictio^ 150, 156, 176, 416
benedicite, 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
<*!>.: iience , 3j conceives our life as a

journey to God, 3; continual insistence
on obedience, 1-5, 78, 83-91, 114-119,
472-4755 482-4855 on stability, 24,
81-82, 388-389, on the love of Christ,
69-70, 8 1, 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 ;
monies 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

Benedictus (Canticle), 159, 162

benedictus 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,

417, 438, 439

Bethlehem, monastery at, 171
biberes, 256
bishops, relations of monks with, 426,

429-430, 442, 4477448, 458
blessing. See Benedicere
Boherius, 439, 462
Bonaventure, St., 26
books, for Lent, 314-315, 318; for the

Office, 142, 150, 157, 1 66, 323-324
boots, 350
Bossuet, 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,

3°4, 367

cabals, monastic, 477

Cabrol, Dom, 139

ccedere, 209

Caesaria, Abbess, 403

Caesarius, St., 24, 147, 151, 157, 159, 165,
167, 188, 199, 222, 244, 261, 262, 265,
291, 314, 352, 355, 375, 383, 384, 389,
403, 407, 450, 456

Cagin, Dom, 146

Cajetan, St., 248

Calends, meaning of, in the Rule, 139, 311,

3.13

caligce, 350

Callinicus, 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

capitale, 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,
493-494; freely used by St. Benedict,
103 and passim; quoted, 5, 22, 26-27,
29, 31) 53) 6l, 76, 93. 95) 96) 102-103,
104, 112, 120, 121, 124, 129, 141, 142,
143, 145, 147, 150, 163, 171, 172, 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) 3^9) 37'» 377)
405, 409, 426, 453, 464, 472, 488, 494,

495

Cassinese Congregation, 300, 366, 459

Cassinum, 473. See Monte Cassino

Cassiodorus, 14, 261

Cato, 352

Celestine III., Pope, 411

cellarer, appointment of, 233; qualifica

tions and duties, 233-242
cenobite, 25-34
ceremonies, of choir, 187; of profession,

393-402
Chalcedon, Council of (A.D. 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-Benoit, Constitutions of, 379, 384
children (pueri parvuli 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
circatores, 197, 202, 315
Cistercians. See Citeaux
Citeaux, 52, 93, 98, 122, 209, 250, 300,

323) 336, 349, 35°) 35') 353, 366, 375)

438, 439) 4^4) 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,

clothing in the monastic habit, postulants,
374-375, novices, 375, professed monks,
375) 399-400, 4°5

Cluny, 93, 98, 151, 176, 197, 201, 209, 229,
255, 257, 271, 273, 276, 300, 323, 331,
338, 339, 350, 35') 353) 355) 35*, 35»,
365-366, 374, 375) 384, 393) 394) 404,
411, 418, 413) 438, 443, 456, 465, 470

collect. 156 193

500 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict

colour of habit, 351

Columbanus, St., 140, 209

Columella, 81, 194, 244, 348

commendanty 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, 1 1 1
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
cons ti tut am annonam^ 241
Constitutions monastics, 246
Constitutions, vows 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
conversio, 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, 31°- See

Murmuring
cuculla, 348
cultellus, 20 1, 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

decanuSj 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,
i2i, 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,
43-455 365; See Order

docility required by St. Benedict, 2. See
Obedience

dom, domnus, 437-438

domestic* fidei) 332

Domine labia mea aperies, 267

Dominic, St., 26, 467

Dominic Loricatus, St., 184

Dominicans, 142, 390

Domitian, 49

Donatus, St., 355

dormitory, 201-204

Dracontius, 426

drink, the measure of, 275-277

duality in moral life, 10

Eastern monks, 26-27, T44> J45? J4^i H7>
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 bv
St. Benedict, 252

Equitius, St., 351

Erasmus, 343

eremita, 28

Index

501

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

evrpaTreX/a, 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

Exhortatio de panoplia ad monacbos, 4

experientia magistra, 31

Explication ascetique et bistorique de la
Regie, 444

expulsion of incorrigible monks, 227;
readmission of, 228-230

Euscbius of Vercellae, 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,

SiS-SHj 336, 359; 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 L6rins, 429
Faustus of Rhegium, 395, 399
fear of God, 105-112, 489. See God
feast-days. See Saints'-days
Jenioralia, 352-353
ferias, Office on. See Matins; Lauds;

etc.

Ferreolus, St., 375, 384
fervor novitius, 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,
275~277i 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

Francois, 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> 3857 39° .

friendships, particular, 476-477
Fructuosus, St., 209, 353, 355, 375, 384,

395
Fulgentius, St., 437

gaiety, 77, 94, 97, 126

garden of the monastery, 466, 467

gate of the monastery, 463-464

Gelasius, Pope, 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
call, 10, 12, 23, 368; all good 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, 30i; sees us always,

74-75, 107-109, III-II2, I2S, I»5-I50;

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

graphium, 356

Gratian, Decree of, 97

Greek monks, 151. See Eastern monks

Gregory the Great, St., 24, 48, 120, 165,
191, 193, 213, 248, 250, 302, 308, 329,
339> 348, 35r> 4'S, 4*9> 44*, 456> 4645
4655 473, 495

Gregory II., St., 410

Gregory of Tours, St., 141, 407

grumbling. See Murmuring

guardian angels, 107, 108, in, 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, 351; significance of, 400; not to be

taken away by a monk who leaves, 405;

taking of the, see Clothing
bcec complens, 1 7
Haeften, Dom, 35
hardships of monastic life, 381-382
hcgoumenos, 437
hemina, 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, 330-331, 340, 360. See 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
humanitas, 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,

inattentiveness, spiritual, 106-108

infirmarian, 261

infirmary, 260

ingenuus, 45

Inscriptionum latinarum . . . collectio

(Orelli-Henzen), 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, 364, 407,
413, 433, 446, 450, 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°> 335> 34°> in the poor, 332-333,
337; the monastery a school of His
service, 18-19, 23; must suffer with Him,
24; teaches humility, 36-37, 100; desire
of, 13, 73; priesthood of, 133; used the
psalms, 183; bids us avoid wordiness
in prayer, 191, and intemperance,
273; Imitation of Christ, see Imitation

Jethro, 195, 419

Jews, psalmody of, 146, 149, 170

Job, 22, 89

John, St., on charity, 66-67

Index

503

ohn the Baptist, St., 28, 164, 165, 406, 474
ohn Chrysostom, St., 89
ohn Climacus, St., 415
ohn of the Cross, St., 97, 306, 483-484
ohn 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
fc"S 3535 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 consider ationem 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

lasna, 355^

La Fontaine, 490

Lanfranc, Statutes of, 386, 394, 456

Last Things, the, 72-74

Lauds, on Sundays and feast-days, 1 58-1 59,

164; on ferias, 160-163; 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 divina, 142, 192, 201, 304, 306. See

Reading
lectiones cum responsoriis suis, 151. See

Lessons

lectisternia, 200
Lent, observance of, 317-321; silence in,

93, 319-320; hours of meals in, 279-280;

special books for, 314-315, 318
Leo the Great, St., 318, 319
Lerins, 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, 343-34$

libra, 271-272

library of the monastery, 314, 355

lighting of dormitory, 202

litaniee, 152, 156, 159, 162

litterce commendatitice, formates, 212, 334,
423

Little Hours, the, 148. See also Terce;
Sext; None

liturgy, idea of, 131-133; the Opus Dei,
133; the special province of religious,
134; the main Benedictine work,
1 34-1 37; 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 Vita?
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> 4^4, 456
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
Martene, 119, 122, 141, 165, 180, 323,

358> 36o, 3777 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, 4°°> 4OI-4°2, 4i6

Matins, on ferias, 138-153. l685 on
Sundays, 154, i57> 169; on Saints -days,
164-167; the psalms of, 182; most
ancient part of the Office, 138-139; the
time of, 139-Hi, '43i probably began
with Domine labia mea aperies, 144;
interval before Lauds, 142-143, 1 56-' 57»
no interval between the nocturns, 152.
See also under names of various element*

solemnitas, 158. See Lauds
Maundy, the, 337

504 Commentary on the 'Rule of St. Benedict

Maurus, 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;
Drink

meat. See Flesh meat

meditari, 142

meditation, 142-143, 307

Mege, Dom, 104, 119, 140, 165, 337, 445

Melania the Elder, 395

melota, 348, 349

M&nard, 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
mittutiO) 261

miscens temporibus tempera, 46
Miserere, 158-159
missce sint,fiant, 156, 174
Missal, the Roman, 23, 402
missam, missas tenere, 413
mixtum, 269
Molesmes, 353
monastery, a school of the Lord's service,

18, 19, 23, 319; 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; kinds

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,

197, 257, 269, 272, 276, 328, 335, 346,

352> 353, 355> 365, 4°i» 4*8, 431, 439
mortification, 19-20, 68, 317, 319, 320-321
Moses, 50, 195, 419, 443, 474
murmuring, 71, 90-91, 206, 253, 256, 277,
338

Nathan, 47

necessaries to be provided for all alike,

251-253

negligence 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, J7°> I75? 179-180,

3H

nonnus, 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 approbate, 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

obedientia bonum, 482

oblates, adult, 365, 412; children, 406-
412, 434-435. See Children

obligation of the Rule, 391-393

oblivio, 1 06

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,
185-193; the Night Office, 138-157,
164-167, 182; the Day Offices, 158-163,
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 nutum Abbatis, 198. See also
Cellarer, etc.

officiousness, 479-480

old monks, 263

Optatus, St., 114

opus Dei, 133

opus peculiar e, 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
Ouen, St., 425
Ovid, 76

Pachomius, 22, 85, 93, 98, 193, 206, 229,
243, 281, 288, 291, 299, 316, 323, 332,

333, 343, 371, 373, 379, 384, 395, 4°5,

414, 419, 424, 442, 456, 461, 468, 470,

471, 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 mottc, 1 1
pedules, 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 psalms, 173
Peregrinatio Eucheria, 156, 164-165, 166
Perpetua and Felicity, SS., 102
Peter Damian, St., 184
Peter the Venerable, 93, 230, 323, 337,

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-ii2, 128,185-186

presents to monks, 343-345

pride, 72, 100-101, 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,
312

prior (prapositus) 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 the 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, 436,
438, 474, 482, 484 .

pro modo conversations, 200, 204

7rpof<TTi6j, 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, l82, 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 Hou/s'
175, 1 79-1 80; 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, I4$->4*1 essential
part of the Office, 149

psalmus responsorius, 146

pueritia, 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, 225, 231,

298, 485. See also Correction; Penances
puritatis devotio, 190
purity of prayer, 190

Quintilian, 49
Quintus Curtius, 8

Racine, 218

Raguel, 436

Ranee, Abbot de, 118-119, 3°°

reader, the weekly, 265-269; of Lessons,

H.2, 3°3
reading, at meals, 265-268; after supper or

Vespers, 283-284; sacred, 77, 142,

306-308, 3H-3l6> 3*8-319, 493-495
reception of brethren into religion,

367-405. 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, 331, 338, 404? 442, 469
Regula Ortentalis, 207
Regula SS. Patrum I., 46, 211, 234, 237,

244, 268, 303, 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,

*75, *8i

responsorial psalmody, 146
responsum, 325, 464
reverence in prayer, 189-193
Ring of Pope Xystus, 127
rising, time of, 139-141, 143, 154, 157;

promptitude in, 203, 204
Robert, St., 353
Roman Liturgy, 138, 149, 150, 152, 155,

161, 166, 177, 181, 182

Romanus, St., 302, 347, 418
Rome, Council of (A.D. 826), 425
Rufinus, 34, 68, 101, 126-127, J76, I9I)

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; one 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,
491-496; adaptability of, 495. Textual
notes, 3, 5, 12, 17, 18, 25, 31, 33, 38, 40,
59, 63, 91, 96> I04, !°9, II2> "3> i*7>

H3, 155, 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, 384, 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.

See Benedicite
Samuel, 57, 433
sanatorium, 260
sanctity, kinds of, 354
sapientice doctrina^ 197
Sarabaites, 31-33, 418
Satan. See Devil
scapular, 202, 349-350
Scete, 333, 426
Schenoudi of Atripe, 395
schola dominici servitii^ 19
scriptorium, 201

Index

507

Scripture, use of, in the Rule, 8, 9;
sacramental value of, 226; to be read to
guests, 3355 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, 100-101, 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 of Sextus, 62, 126

Serapion Sindonita, 221

Sermo asceticus de renuntiatione s&culi, 440

Servandus, Abbot, 419

servers in the kitchen and at meals,
254-257

seven Offices of the day, 172-173

Sext, 148, 168-169, 170, 171, 175, 179-180,
312

Sextus, Sentences of, 62, 126

shoes, 349-350

sic stemus ad psallendum, 1 5 1

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, 116

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, 318-319,493-495

stability, essential element in the Rule,
24, 27, 34, 82; meaning of, 389; vow
OI, 388-389; to be promised by pilgrim
monk, 421; St. Benedict anxious for,
466-467

static, 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

superfluitas, 259, 419

supplicatio litanice, 156

Surin, Pere, 126

sympacta, 221

Tabennisi, 433
tabula, 356
tacita conscientia, 116
Tacitus, 39, 69
taciturnitas, 92
talkativeness, 95-97, 125
I 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, 170-171, 175,
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
I Tertullus, 408, 412
I Thebaid, 467
! Thelema, 35

Theodemar, 348, 349, 353

Theodore of Canterbury, St., 394

Theodoret, 442

Theophilus of Alexandria, 102

tberapeutee, 26

Thomas Aquinas, St., i, u, 26, 30, 43, 64,

76, 79, 94, 103, I31* '32, '34, i35> !92>
249, 37°> 372> 387, 391, 399, 453

Thomassin, 407, 425

508 Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict

time, how computed by St. Benedict,
139-141. See Meals; Office; Sleep; Year

Tobias, 436

tokens (eulogi<e\ 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

Vaison, 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

vel, 27, 469

Verba Seniorum, 3, 28, 33, 125, 184, 236,

276, 354> 4*5
Versicles, 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
vigilta, 140
Vigilius, Pope, 442
Vigils. See Matins

Virgil, 189, 381

Vitas Patrum, 72, 93, 184, 494. See also
Verba Seniorum

Vitry, Jacques de, 93

Vivarium, 261

vocation, 368-370; requirements of Bene
dictine, 370-373

voluptas habet poenam, 113

vows of religion, 386-392; theological
basis of, 386-388; 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 also

Self-will.

wine, allowed by St. Benedict, 275-277
wit, pleasantness of (eurpaTreX/a), 94, 125
work, value of, 304-305; kinds of, for

monks, 361-366. See 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

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