Document –The Rule of St. Benedict

Abstract and Keywords

Although St. Benedict (c. 480 – 542 CE) did not invent Christian monasticism, his Rule was synonymous with it throughout the Catholic Middle Ages. Benedict founded his monastery in Monte Cassino, Italy, and designed a set of regulations (known as a “rule”) for his monks to follow. The Rule governed all aspects of a monk’s life: when and how to pray, eat, work, and socialize. Monasteries such as Benedict’s were designed to allow men and women (housed separately) to devote themselves to prayer and worship, and to renounce earthly interests as much as humanly possible.

Other monastic groups criticized Benedict’s Rule as too lenient, in comparison with monastic regulations from Egypt (the birthplace of Christian monasticism) and Ireland, which emphasized physical renunciation and punishment. However, Benedict’s Rule would succeed in part because it was less onerous than other monastic Rules, particularly in the moderation of punishments meted out to the monks for violating the regulations. The Rule gained in popularity from the seventh century onward, particularly after Pope Gregory the Great popularized it and associated it with the Roman papacy.

From Migne, Patrologia Latina Vol. 66, col. 215ff, translated by Ernest F. Henderson, Select Historical Documents of the Middle Ages, (London: George Bell and Sons, 1910)

Document

1. Concerning the Kinds of Monks and Their Manner of Living.

It is manifest that there are four kinds of monks. The cenobites are the first kind; that is, those living in a monastery, serving under a rule or an abbot. Then the second kind is that of the anchorites; that is, the hermits-those who, not by the new fervor of a conversion but by the long probation of life in a monastery, have learned to fight against the devil, having already been taught by the solace of many. They, having been well prepared in the army of brothers for the solitary fight of the hermit, being secure now without the consolation of another, are able, God helping them, to fight with their own hand or arm against the vices of the flesh or of their thoughts.

But a third very bad kind of monks are the sarabaites, approved by no rule, experience being their teacher, as with the gold which is tried in the furnace. But, softened after the manner of lead, keeping faith with the world by their works, they are known through their tonsure to lie to God. These being shut up by twos or threes, or, indeed, alone, without a shepherd, not in the Lord’s but in their own sheep-folds-their law is the satisfaction of their desires. For whatever they think good or choice, this they call holy; and what they do not wish, this they consider unlawful. But the fourth kind of we are about to found, therefore, a school for the monks is the kind which is called gyratory. During their whole life they are guests, for three or four days at a time, in the cells of the different monasteries, throughout the various provinces; always wandering and never stationary, given over to the service of their own pleasures and the joys of the palate, and in every way worse than the sarabaites. Concerning the most wretched way of living of all such monks it is better to be silent than to speak. These things therefore being omitted, let us proceed, with the aid of God, to treat of the best kind, the cenobites.

2. What the Abbot Should Be Like

An abbot who is worthy to preside over a monastery ought always to remember what he is called, and carry out with his deeds the name of a Superior. For he is believed to be Christ’s representative, since he is called by His name, the apostle saying: “Ye have received the spirit of adoption of sons, whereby we call Abba, Father.” And so the abbot should not-grant that he may not-teach, or decree, or order, anything apart from the precept of the Lord; but his order or teaching should be sprinkled with the ferment of divine justice in the minds of his disciples. Let the abbot always be mindful that, at the tremendous judgment of God, both things will be weighed in the balance: his teaching and the obedience of his disciples. And let the abbot know that whatever the father of the family finds of less utility among the sheep is laid to the fault of the shepherd. Only in a case where the whole diligence of their pastor shall have been bestowed on an unruly and disobedient flock, and his whole care given to their morbid actions, shall that pastor, absolved in the judgment of the Lord, be free to say to the Lord with the prophet: “I have not hid Thy righteousness within my heart, I have declared Thy faithfulness and Thy salvation, but they despising have scorned me.” And then at length let the punishment for the disobedient sheep under his care be death itself prevailing against them. Therefore, when any one receives the name of abbot, he ought to rule over his disciples with a double teaching; that is, let him show forth all good and holy things by deeds more than by words. So that to ready disciples he may propound the mandates of God in words; but, to the hard-hearted and the more simpleminded, he may show forth the divine precepts by his deeds. But as to all the things that he has taught to his disciples to be wrong, he shall show by his deeds that they are not to be done; lest, preaching to others, he himself shall be found worthy of blame, and lest God may say at some time to him a sinner: “What hast thou to do to declare my statutes or that thou should’st take my covenant in thy mouth. Seeing that thou hatest instruction and casteth my words behind thee; and why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?” He shall make no distinction of persons in the monastery. One shall not be more cherished than another, unless it be the one whom he finds excelling in good works or in obedience. A free-born man shall not be preferred to one coming from servitude, unless there be some other reasonable cause. But if, justice demanding that it should be thus, it seems good to the abbot, he shall do this no matter what the rank shall be. But otherwise they shall keep their own places; for whether we be bond or free we are all one in Christ; and, under one God, we perform an equal service of subjection; for God is no respecter of persons. Only in this way is a distinction made by Him concerning us: if we are found humble and surpassing others in good works. Therefore let him (the abbot) have equal charity for all: let the same discipline be administered in all cases according to merit. In his teaching indeed the abbot ought always to observe that form laid down by the apostle when he says: “reprove, rebuke, exhort.” That is, mixing seasons with seasons, blandishments with terrors, let him display the feeling of a severe yet devoted master. He should, namely, rebuke more severely the unruly and the turbulent. The obedient, moreover, and the gentle and the patient, he should exhort, that they may progress to higher things. But the negligent and scorners, we warn him to admonish and reprove....

4. The Instruments of Good Works

1. First of all, to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy strength.
2. Then, to love thy neighbor as thyself.
3. Next, not to kill.
4. Not to commit adultery.
5. Not to steal.
6. Not to covet.
7. Not to bear false witness.
8. To honor all men.
9. Not to do to another what one would not have done to oneself.
10. To deny oneself in order to follow Christ.
11. To chastise the body.
12. Not to seek after luxuries.
13. To love fasting.
14. To refresh the poor.
15. To clothe the naked.
16. To visit the sick.
17. To bury the dead.
18. To help in affliction.
19. To console the sorrowing.
20. To keep aloof from worldly actions.
21. To prefer nothing to the love of Christ.
22. Not to follow the promptings of anger.
23. Not to seek an occasion of revenge.
24. Not to foster deceit in one’s heart.
25. Not to make a feigned peace.
26. Not to forsake charity.
27. Not to swear, lest perhaps one perjure oneself.
28. To utter the truth with heart and lips.
29. Not to render evil for evil.
30. To do no wrong to anyone, but to bear patiently any wrong done to oneself.
31. To love one’s enemies.
32. Not to speak ill of those who speak ill of us, but rather to speak well of them.
33. To suffer persecution for justice' sake.
34. Not to be proud.
35. Not to be given to wine.
36. Not to be a glutton.
37. Not to be given to sleep.
38. Not to be slothful.
39. Not to be a murmurer.
40. Not to be a detractor.
41. To put one’s trust in God.
42. To attribute any good one sees in oneself to God and not to oneself.
43. But always to acknowledge that the evil is one’s own, and to attribute it to oneself.
44. To fear the days of judgment.
45. To be in dread of hell.
46. To desire everlasting life with all spiritual longing.
47. To keep death daily before one’s eyes.
48. To keep guard at all times over the actions of one’s life.
49. To know for certain that God sees one in every place.
50. To dash upon Christ one’s evil thoughts the instant they come to one’s heart, and to manifest them to one’s spiritual father.
51. To keep one’s mouth from speech that is wicked or full of guile.
52. Not to love much speaking.
53. Not to speak words that are vain or such as provoke laughter.
54. Not to love much or noisy laughter.
55. To listen willingly to holy reading.
56. To apply oneself frequently to prayer.
57. Daily with tears and sighs to confess one’s sins to God in prayer, and to amend these evils for the future.
58. Not to fulfill the desires of the flesh.
59. To hate one’s own will.
60. 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”
61. Not to wish to be called holy before one is so, but first to be holy that one may be truly so calledf
62. To fulfill the commandments of God daily by one’s deeds.
63. To love chastity.
64. To hate no man.
65. To have no jealousy or envy.
66. Not to love strife.
67. To fly from vainglory.
68. To reverence one’s seniors.
69. To love one’s juniors.
70. To pray for one’s enemies in the love of Christ.
71. To make peace with those with whom one is at variance before the setting of the sun.
72. And never to despair of God’s mercy.

Behold, these are the instruments of the spiritual art, which, if they be constantly employed by day and by night, and delivered up on the day of judgment, will gain for us from the Lord that reward which He Himself has promised: “Eye has not see, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, what things God has prepared for those who love Him.” And the workshop in which we are to labor diligently at all these things is the enclosure of the monastery and stability in the community.

Review

1. What powers does the abbot have in relation to the monks? What are his limits?
2. In the Rule, Benedict lists a series of “Instruments of Good Works” that lead to spiritual progress. Why does Benedict believe that a monastery is the best place to use these instruments? Which instruments are particularly “monastic”?
3. In general, Christian monks take three vows: poverty, chastity, and obedience. Find an example of each in the excerpts from the Rule and discuss what that vow is meant to achieve for the monk.