Another book on my shelves simply because I bought all 127 titles in the Little Black Classics series by Penguin Books and it is only now when I decided to take it off the shelf and have a look at what I had that I realised the importance of the work I had in my hands. Somewhat enigmatically entitled The Rule of Benedict this turns out to be the set of rules written down by St Benedict for the correct running of the monasteries in the order he founded, The Benedictines, and was originally written in Latin around 540AD. A book of rules doesn’t sound like a good read but surprisingly I really enjoyed it and the insights it gives into the life of what were for all their ‘simple’ lives actually the most educated of the populace in early medieval times. A monk after all was expected to be able to read the bible and give readings during the various services of the day and very few people at the time could read they were also expected to be able to perform various duties within the monastery which was intended to be as self sufficient as possible so there would be the obvious gardeners, cooks, herbalists for medicine but also tailors, carpenters and furniture makers to maintain the clothes for the monks along with the contents of the monastery. Each monk would be allowed a minimum of ‘personal’ items such as a knife, needle and thread for running repairs, and two habits and a pair of shoes from the communal stock, they were assigned underwear only if they were sent on a journey away from the monastery of more than a day.

The first example I have selected from this set of rules is part of the instructions on humility which actually run to twelve steps. This gives a good overview of the structure of the rules regularly quoting from scripture to back up the instructions:

There is also guidance as to the structure of the hierarchies within the monastery with suggestions on how deans, priors and even the abbot should be appointed and in the case of deans and priors how they should be regulated and punished if they stray from the righteous life expected of them. I hadn’t realised before reading this book that a dean was responsible for ten monks under them with a prior being considerably more senior as they would normally only be one although also under the abbot however Benedict warns specifically about priors becoming self important due to their seniority.

Other people mentioned specifically are monks that become priests, these again should be watched to make sure they don’t fall into the sin of pride and also the porter of the monastery who should be as follows ‘A wise old man should be placed at the monastery gate, who will know how to take a message and give a reply and whose age means they will not be tempted to wander about’.

The rules are very much of their time as can be seen below, particularly the final sentence, this punishment is several times stipulated for children, although not exclusively for the young depending on the severity of the offence, It is preferred to one of the various levels of excommunication that could be extended to the adults in the community as children as assumed to not be sufficiently conscious of their religious obligations to be able to understand the punishment of excommunication.

The book also includes instructions for the induction of a new monk into the community which explains that they should be initially turned away and if they persist then subjected to ‘harsh treatment’. If they continue to try to join then they may be admitted, but only into the guest house for a few days where they will be watched over by a senior monk to make sure they are really seeking God. If they continue in their wish to become a monk then they can then enter the novices centre and after two months they should have this full set of rules read to them and told if they will abide by all of it then they can stay otherwise they can leave. If they stay there is a further period of six months during which ‘their patience should be tested’ and then the rules read to them again to accept or not. There then follows another four months of effective probation after which the rules are read to them again and only after they accept the rules for the third time can they be finally admitted as a monk and from that day not permitted to leave the monastery for any reason unless instructed by the abbot. Frankly I’m amazed they had anyone join.

This serendipitous purchase has proved to be a fascinating read which I wouldn’t have had if I hadn’t bought the full set of books, along with other ones from this collection that I have reviewed earlier which you can find using the tag ‘Little Black Classics’ below.