My remarks on Benedict of Nursia, I want to look at the rule in general, and here we're not going to go into great detail because there is a course on the rule which will be given probably next year, and then a look at some other rules that happen to be around the time of Benedict, or certainly way before, and go into formulating the rule of Benedict. And then next, or next time, tomorrow, we'll begin with Cassiodorus. So the Rule of the Master was due for today, the selections from there. Now we're done with the reader for a while. There's still three more readings later on. But I'd like to, tomorrow, do Cassiodorus, and now we take a little leap, and we look at 6th to 8th century Spanish monasticism. So we'll be moving a little faster now, and also we'll be moving up and down, like we'll

[01:09]

treat something and then we'll backtrack 50 years because we're going on to another topic which is happening at the same time. So we're constantly going like this, towards our own day. Okay, so I'm at 10b, Rule for Monasteries under Benedictus Mercia. And what I particularly want to look at then, regarding the Rule of Benedict, is how does Benedict write his Rule, and how does it come across vis-a-vis all the stuff we've already seen? So the different traditions, what does he use where? The first thing we're going to look at is, if you remember, take yourselves back to the semi-eremitic life in the Egyptian desert, so the skeet, like we have here, that type of setup, where people are living in their caves, and twos and threes and ones, and they

[02:15]

come together once in a while for a quasi-communal life, at least in worship on weekends, if nothing else. So in the RB, I'll use RB for now, I'll refer you to the Rule of Benedict, in the RB, how does the Rule of Benedict take what those semi-eremites, or semi-hermits, have to say about solitude, how does the Rule of Benedict take that over and translate it into his Rule? So how does he talk about solitude in the Rule of Benedict, how does he talk about it? Is solitude even mentioned? It's obliquely mentioned, isn't it?

[03:19]

Like in prayer, praying in prayer, and stuff like that. But how does he provide for solitude in his Rule? In silence? Surely that will help. I mean, that will help as much as silence, sure, but... After you have lived a life for years and years and years, then comes solitude. Awesome. That's more Cassian, huh? That's more Cassian than Benedict. Right, at the beginning where he says there's three different kinds of monks. Yeah, that's the only case where he even mentions hermits. I mean, he doesn't really take Cassian's line on that. He's writing for Cenobites, he makes that real clear, so he's really not talking about hermits. So how does he take the spirit of solitude that the dwellers in the desert have and love

[04:24]

and talk about so much and write about and urge on their disciples, how do you translate that into a Cenobian? Surely by having little rules like silence. Real important. And allowing for contemplative prayer, yes. How do you ensure it? How do you give a Cenobian a certain spirit of solitude? How do we do it? Here. We're in a different situation, of course. Might be a faraway spirit. And because you're far away from everything, there's a distance there, how do you even further protect yourselves? There it is, cloistered. Benedict's remarks about cloistered or enclosured are what he uses, are stemming from what the

[05:32]

semi-hermits in the desert had to say about solitude. And scholars say this is where he gets that. Hand in hand with, he's familiar with Pachomius also, so certainly through the Cenobitic line, he's going to take a lot of what Pachomius has to say. And in the life of Pachomius as well. Benedict mentions hermits as in the, is it the fourth chapter or first chapter? The very first chapter. And it isn't that he despises hermits or anything. He obviously, through the one remark he makes, holds them in esteem. But there's no provision in the Rule of Benedict for moving on to a hermitage. That's Cassian's premise. That's Cassian's line. But he doesn't forbid it either. He just doesn't address himself to it.

[06:32]

He's writing for Cenobites. He's writing for this Cenobitical life in the monastery. For him it seems to be an ideal, but the normal progression for monks is to be a Cenobite. For Benedict. Regarding the discernment of spirits then, now we're still for one, two, three, four, five points, we're talking about what comes from a semi-hermitic commission. Okay, so I'm going to stay there. What about discernment of spirits? Well, the first degree of humility in the RV is a central text in how Benedict regards the discernment of spirits. And his perspective is more exterior than what we find in the Theoria and Practicae of the Egyptian desert.

[07:34]

That is, that the discernment is more one of God's presence in the monastic life than what's going on in any particular individual. You remember in the North African desert tradition, each Abba is a discerner of spirits and the important thing is to see what is working, what's going on, how is God working in each individual life at any given time, master-disciple relationship. That's not the discernment of spirits that Benedict moves into. He's more concerned with, certainly the Abbot has discernment, but the communal discernment regarding something, the sort of church consciousness of the discernment, and that the discernment is more about the presence of God in one's life or in the life of the community itself rather than an ongoing, everyday, what's happening now with every particular individual

[08:38]

in the community. There's very little about that old eight-headed demon that we got from Nebogrius and Cassian particularly, and others. Very little about that sort of thing, those battles. There's some that touches upon that, there's parts of it, but the image certainly is not there. The Abbot, in the rule of Benedict, is more of a teacher of the law and a spiritual father in the place of Christ within the community than an active discerner of spirits. So, Benedict departs from the, he doesn't take what the desert tradition of the semi-Aramaic has to say about discernment. I'm getting...

[09:42]

I'm getting... I'm getting stumped. What about the spiritual father then? What about the role of the spiritual father? Here's an example where we see direct continuity between what the Abba as a spiritual father in the North African desert was and what we find Benedict's description of what an Abbot, vis-a-vis spiritual father, within the Cenobitic community is. Taking into consideration all what I just said about discernment, there's more to being a spiritual father than discerning every little thing in an ongoing way. The spiritual father role, he fits the other, the rest of the gamut, regarding what Abba Isaac has to say about it and Abba Athenus, whatever. But when one looks at obedience in the rule of Benedict, or how the monks relate to one

[10:50]

another in the rule of Benedict, he goes off on his own. Benedict does his own thinking and his own thing in this regard. There's a new approach in the rule of Benedict, and that is that the obedience is to the rule and the customs of the house, rather than any particular command that's being given by an Abba. And, regarding paternal relations, the rule of Benedict looks directly to the desert tradition as it's funneled through Cashin, more than how it comes through the rule of the Master. Excuse me. The rule of the Master is also going to stem from Cashin, is going to use Cashin and flow out to Benedict. But here's an area where the Cashin and the rule of Benedict, the rule of the Master,

[11:54]

are different. The rule of the Master. You read parts of that for today. And Benedict will look to Cashin, the desert tradition, more than what the rule of the Master did with this particular topic. There are sections, of course, where Benedict just verbatim takes pieces of hunks out of this rule and puts it in his own. But this is not so much one of those areas. For instance, chapters 71 and 72, so the end of the rule of Benedict, which has to do with what kind of zeal monks should have and how monks are relating to one another. That's peculiar or particular to Benedict himself. He's not borrowing that from anybody that we know of. And fifthly, regarding the ascetical life, or Ascesis, Benedict tends to idealize the

[13:01]

East, regarding the monks of his own day and how they should be living a life of asceticism So he took the principles of asceticism from the desert experience, from the desert literature, the desert tradition, and applied them to the West. But, like Cashin, having to moderate, having to use his own discretion regarding rules of asceticism, and reserving that role to the abbot and his deans of discernment in this regard. And so, just remember the reading we had this morning at vigils regarding the abbot and

[14:02]

the monks entering Lent, and how they should funnel through the Abba what extra things they're going to have. What they're doing for their life. Well, it's submitting to the discretion of the abbot. And this is right from the East also. This fits within the spiritual Abba, or the spiritual father role for the abbot. Secondly, let's look at Egyptian Cenobitism and see what Benedict takes from there. Here we're looking at Picomius, of course, but Picomius funneled through whom? Scratch your memory bags. Who translated the life of Picomius? No.

[15:04]

Jerome. Oh, Jerome. And that's one of the monastic things that Jerome did. And because of that, Picomius spread all through the empire. He translated the life of Picomius. And so it's through Jerome that Benedict is able to have the Picomian tradition in his hands. In his hands. Not just how it's funneled through various rules and movements down the centuries, and so he has Jerome or some Picomians in there, but it's through Jerome that he has the actual hands-on document. And not only that, but also he uses Cassian's Institutes. Who's telling me that they're coming up in English? Jerome was yesterday. Oh, Jerome. Sounds like they're coming up finally. There's a situation in the Bible. Which is very good news.

[16:13]

And also, our friend the tour guide who wrote the Historia Monachorum, the History of the Monks of Egypt. Refinis. Refinis. These three, Cassian, Refinis, and Picomius, through Jerome's work, are the Egyptian cenobitic slant that affects Benedict in the writing of his rule. And here I want you to look at five areas. The first area is abbot and community. The abbot, as in the rule of Benedict, as the spiritual father, is a primary point that comes across in the rule of Benedict. I mean, this is really stressed in the RP, that the abbot is the spiritual father of the community, the pater familios of this school of the Lord's servant.

[17:15]

And this comes mainly through how strong it is in this rule, the rule of the master, which is also taking it from Cassian. The rule of the master is taking that from Cassian. The rule of the master just goes wild with that. Benedict stresses it, but he's always trying to temper the rule of the master, which tends to be rather harsh and forceful, and maybe even tunnel-visioned in its approach. But in the rule of the master and in the rule of Benedict, the abbot is obviously the pivotal person in the community, a very important role within the community's life. But remember that the rule of Benedict just doesn't swallow everything that the rule of the master has to say about that. He moderates, he uses discretion, that is Benedict, when funneling this stuff through

[18:22]

the RL, regarding who the abbot is, what he should do, how the community should look to him, etc. Or how they should elect, in the rule of the master, you don't even have an election. You don't have an election of an abbot. In the rule of the master, the abbot, on his deathbed, appoints the next one. In the rule of Benedict, the community elects an abbot. Benedict sees the community as an ecclesiola, a little church, a little church within the Church of Christ, as it was in the Pocomian situation, if you remember. Pocomius also saw the monastery, remember he's the father of the St. Albans, basically, in the east.

[19:23]

He saw this small city that he built, as a monastery, as a little church. Not a building, huh? A little church, church meaning the people. But it's not all that prominent in the rule of Benedict. You have to sort of find it between the lines. It's there, but again, it's rather subtle. The reason for that is Benedict is so moderate in his approach, and trying not to be dogmatic. And always trying to temper his remarks, or temper behavior by his remarks, in how monks are to treat one another, and how all the different offices relate to one another in

[20:27]

the community, and the whole thing about service, and meeting Christ, and the presence of Christ in the community, etc. That the whole ecclesiola consciousness gets said within that, between the lines. It's there, but it's not consciously put as it is in Pocomius. Regarding regularity, here again we're not talking about bowels, but rules, regularity. You find by the time of the rule of Benedict that prescriptions regarding what should be done, and all the little particulars of little teeny rules, little small r's, especially when you get to reading the sections regarding how the office should be said, or what psalms should be... You find all kinds of little rules in Benedict. But Benedict gets specific, and that's something that's new in Western monasticism.

[21:35]

Benedict seems to have, all through his rule, a more juridical approach. That is, we need some order. We need some order for those who are about to begin this kind of life. This is what we have to offer. He says that in his rule. This is what we have to offer for beginners. And if you're working for beginners, you've got to put everything down and get it all clear. At the same time, he's not an extremist. He's not a fanatic about rules and regulations. Here's some fanaticism in rules and regulations. Benedict is constantly moderating the tradition that comes down through the rule of the master, which is taken to an extreme. The horarium, that is... What do I mean by horarium?

[22:36]

The schedule. The schedule is very precise in Benedict. He doesn't leave it, you know, this or that. There is some moderation regarding, well, if it's winter and there's not enough light, da-da-da, you know. So there's seasonal conditioners in there regarding schedule. But other than that, you know, the schedule is the schedule. And the sun goes down, it's time to do this, you know. He's got it all there. It's precise. You don't find this in the colonies. You don't find this anywhere in the East. That precise horarium. There is a horarium of sorts. But remember Pacomius? You remember the schedule in Pacomius' monastery? There wasn't any. Do you remember? I mean, you didn't even have to go to meals. You didn't have to do anything, remember? I mean, that was, you know, there was a lot of freedom in Pacomius' monastery. The only thing he liked people to do was to come to a meal a day, but you didn't have to do that either. Now, with Benedict, it's regular.

[23:43]

Of course, in his rule, once in a while, he'll always put a conditioner there. Now remember, you know, the abbot can always decide. It's moderate. He leaves it up to discernment and whatnot. But he gets the principles down. And he gets the framework down. And if people want to, in different places, like he says regarding wine and clothing, you know, if you're in a different place where you have a different material to make your habits, use that. And if you can't have wine in your monastery, well, put up with it. Thank God for the grace of not having wine. Obviously, there's flexibility in Benedict's mind regarding how we're setting up monastic life. One thing he has that we've seen before, and that he carries through in this ascetic chain, is deans, deans in the monastery, dekhan. So we had this, if you remember correctly,

[24:54]

well, we found this in a number of places. We found it with Bukhones. He had deans. Remember, they each had a number of communities within the community. And we had it, to a certain extent, with Basil. And there was a little bit of that Palestinian monasticism. And it seems to me, at one point, it's Assyrian. The later Cenobitic, large Cenobia, from the Assyrian tradition, that were formed in northern Palestine, more than Syria itself. But here, well, along the way, you have the rule of the master, where they have deans all right. Well, it's like the SS troopers. I enjoy reading this myself, and it isn't that I'm putting down this as a piece of trash, or anything, it's just that it's extreme. He's just, the rule of the master, whoever wrote it, is an extreme position. And so his deans are like,

[25:56]

your horrible memories in first grade, with the bathroom monitors, with yardsticks in their hands. They're goose-stepping up and down the halls, checking everybody out. There's surveillance within the rule of Benedict, but the deans in the rule of Benedict also share in that spiritual fatherhood of the abbot in the rule. And their surveillance is toned way down from what... Benedict's consistently trying to tone this down, what he uses. It's just too much. Regarding poverty, or dispossession, through the Cenobitic Desert line,

[27:01]

the rule of Benedict continues the line, continues what the Egyptian Cenobites had to say about dispossession and poverty. In fact, Benedict's pretty strong, if you remember correctly, what he has to say about lack of possessions. Not even the pen, not paper, not pen, nothing is your own. The idea in Benedict is more to get, like in the community of goods, the commune idea that it's our pen, our paper. Nothing is our own type thing, we just all share what we have. There are sanctions regarding people caught

[28:04]

with this or that, shall undergo the punishment, discipline of the rule. That's not always explained in the rule, what the discipline of the rule was. You know, the customs of Benedict's house were. But there are sanctions for those who transgress in this area. And the scholars seem to feel that regarding little rules about where should one be punished and how and for what, especially regarding property and things like that. The scholars seem to think that Benedict got his material, and it's a much more particular material than you find in the communes, for instance, from the Cenobitic line, but closer to his own day rather than back to the Egyptian desert.

[29:05]

And some of the rules, Cenobitic rules in Latin monasticism, which were just prior to Benedict, generation to a century before Benedict, for a long time were thought to be rules from the east, because they had eastern names, but they weren't. They were western rules written for monastic foundations in the Latin West, but still through the Cenobitic chain. Rules like the Eastern Rule, the Rule of the Four Fathers, the Rule of St. Macarius. Well, that sounds pretty east, but it wasn't. These were western rules, but they were given eastern titles. To have an affinity with the roots of monasticism. And this is where the scholars feel

[30:07]

that Benedict borrowed and took sections regarding punishments, and how do you make this rule work, and what do you do with troublemakers, that sort of thing. Prayer. Regarding prayer, Cassian, if you remember, says that the Cenobium is good for the life of active ascetical works, which lead to... what? Lead to what? What's at the goal of Cassian's monasticism? Purity of heart, exactly. And that there are certain forms of contemplative prayer that can happen there quite naturally, according to Cassian's theory. Now, Benedict,

[31:09]

in taking this, regarding prayer, this theory, uses the ladder of humility, which he gets from here. There's just a couple changes, there's some order changes, and some wording changes, but the ladder of humility is from the rule of the master. What Benedict does is he uses this ladder of humility, making some switches and some changes, but keeping the basic number of things there, and then modifies it all by looking to what Cassian said. Do you remember that one section from Cassian that I read from book four of the Institutes, regarding his own ladder, the ten steps,

[32:11]

and you end up with purity of heart and apostolic love. You start with the fear of the Lord, so it's like the ladder of humility. It comes out looking much more like Cassian than the RM. But he's using both when he's writing about humility, Islam, this connection of prayer. The rule of Benedict stresses the fear of the Lord at the beginning of the process. And then from there on, and they all start with the fear of the Lord, but from there on, he goes more to what Cassian has to say in his progression. The rule of the master changed it somewhat. Regarding the steps along the way. The rule of Benedict really doesn't talk about contemplation as such.

[33:13]

It talks about private prayer here and there, and it talks about prolonged prayer induced by the power of the Spirit. That sort of thing. But it doesn't talk about contemplatio like Cassian had talked about contemplatio, or some of the great fathers in the church were talking about contemplatio. Benedict is very pragmatic in his rule. He's not all that concerned with contemplative prayer as such in the way it's being used by these other people. It's clear that Cassian's concept that a certain amount of contemplation or contemplative prayer is possible in the cenobitic life is accepted by the rule of Benedict. Chapter 20 of the rule of Benedict regarding prayer. It shows an influence

[34:17]

of Cassian's reflections regarding prayer in his monastic works. Especially that of Abbot Isaac's conference, where Cassian was talking with Isaac about prayer. That's affecting Benedict regarding pure prayer. Benedict's concerned with pure prayer. He seems to have the feeling that it's short. Pure prayer is really short. Take it here and there and go on. Go on with the schedule. The important thing in Benedict is the schedule, the life, the rhythms. And that the presence of God is in all those rhythms. And so his bells are constantly calling the monks to one thing or another. Back and forth. Calling them up to another awareness of that presence in the life of the community. You had your hand going up? No? I guess most of the people

[35:18]

that joined this rule couldn't read, I guess. Right. Scholars feel that in Benedict's rule the reason, first of all, the novices are set aside in their own house with the masters. He's also teaching them how to read and write. If they didn't know. A lot of them were former slaves. Some of them were goths. So, yeah. It's not just a school of the Lord's service. It's also a school of the three R's. Also where there are other Well, when we study the rule we'll look into that. But there are other instances where scholars feel that Benedict's writing to this issue here. That he wants his monks to be able to read. You know, another thing is all along through monastic history we've had people

[36:19]

who didn't know how to read. And that's why it was so important to have good memories, first of all. Which is also why they memorized the psalters or why they were constantly having it read to them or recited to them in church or in the refectory or whatever. They were having it drilled into them so that they could pray these words. They could take that to heart without the text in their hands. Well, later on, of course, in Western monasticism you get both. You get both the reading and the memory work in order to take that into you. And fifthly, regarding enclosure and how we deal with guests, through the cenobitic tradition the rule of Benedict owes a lot to Egyptian monasticism regarding these two

[37:20]

facets of monastic life. Let me just give you some examples and you can look these up yourself or you can remember them and we're going to treat them again next time I teach the course. Chapter 66, the rule of Benedict gets this from Rufinus Arturgo regarding guests. The rule of Benedict's chapter 67, he gets that from Procomius. 66 and 67 are the porter of the monastery of 66, and of course he's the one dealing with the guests. And the 67 is what about brothers who have to be sent outside the walls, out on a journey?

[38:23]

So he, if you remember what Procomius had to say about that, it's alright, they got to go this, they got to take care of a dying parent, or they can go to funerals, but when they come back, what? Exactly. You don't talk about anything in the world. And you see that again coming through in a more subtle way in the rule of Benedict. Just shut up about it. Don't scandalize the brothers by anything you might have seen or heard. He gets that right from Procomius. Chapter 53, which is I don't know my chapter topics by heart. On the reception

[39:25]

of guests. So here you get the real particulars regarding the tradition that Benedict wants to set forth regarding relationships between monks and guests, between community and guests. He gets this directly from Cassian and Rufinus together. Cassian and Rufinus. The rule of Benedict in treating this whole section regarding guests, this whole phenomenon, is a little more juridical than you would find it in these other sources, than in Cassian and Rufinus, except for the business about brothers going out. They're mirrors of the same words, practically. Here's an instance where Benedict's a little stronger, stricter, and harsher than the precedents. You don't find that in Eastern Cenobitic, in general.

[40:27]

But he isn't the strongest regarding what you do to guests. What do you do with guests? R.M. would be, what do you do with two guests? If you didn't do the reading you really should, just to get a taste of this document. Again, Benedict's moderating this but at the same time taking a firmer stance regarding people and things from the outside coming into the cloister. Why is that cloister there? Benedict's pretty firm about that, pretty strong. Basil. Basil the Great. These would be the rule of Benedict. So what does the rule of Benedict get from Basil? We're going to look mainly at two topics. First of all,

[41:30]

regarding Abbot and community again. What does he get, what does he pick up? See, you notice regarding Abbot he's picking up something from everybody. Something from the semi-Aramitic, something from the Egyptian Cenobites, and here's something from Basil, often Turkey, often Cappadocia. That is, the rules written in response to specific questions in community come through in the RB. So obviously there's been some of the stuff that you find in RB regarding the Abbot, regarding the community, have come from problems that have to be ironed out. Practical situations. If you remember the smaller rule of Basil,

[42:31]

basically what it is is question and answer regarding how he was trying to settle practical problems in this regard. But the figure of the Abbot in Basil does not come up real strong, and superior, rather. The superior in Basil's monasticism really doesn't come out as strongly as it does in so much of the rest of the monastic tradition, even if Gregory of Nyssa, who was his blood brother, in many ways had a much more interesting character, a little more extreme. He presents Basil himself as the Abbot, or as the superior of this aspect that he started, monasticism.

[43:33]

But Basil insists much more strongly on the church aspect, the little church aspect, ecclesiastical, ecclesial aspect of the community. And again, how does it fit into the church? Remember, Basil's monasticism is running hospitals and orphanages, and they're doing all kinds of work with the local church. It's a much more activist model than what Benedict is about. Regarding God's presence, the focus on God's presence, Basil's influence on the rule of Benedict comes directly in the first degree of humility and the twelfth degree of humility. So the bottom and the top of the ladder of humility, but that ladder, the first

[44:36]

degree you find everywhere. I mean, that fear of the Lord, that's just something everybody could rattle off by heart. You know, it's from psalms on. The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. The beginning of humility is the fear of the Lord. The beginning of love is the fear of the Lord. But it also comes through Basil, and two very important chapters in the rule of Benedict, I've mentioned them already, chapter 19 and 20, they're both on prayer in the rule of Benedict, strongly flow from what Basil has to say. And he refers to our holy father Basil in his rule also. For Basil, the recollection of God's presence is what keeps you alive in the monastic life, what keeps you going on a daily basis. And without

[45:37]

which, you shouldn't even be there. Well, Benedict is very, very centered on the presence of God also in this regard. The presence of God permeates the rule of Benedict and why things are the way they are in the rule of Benedict. There are various reasons why the rule of Benedict perdured. Now, you know, we have a whole bunch of rules. And to answer the question, why did the rule of Benedict win the game? I mean, you have different monasteries, even centuries down the line now. There are whole areas that don't even use the rule of Benedict. They're using the rule of this or the rule of that. And there is a political turnabout with Benedict of Anion in the Carolingian Revival where the rule of Benedict is made the standard. It was the big political breakthrough for the rule

[46:37]

of Benedict. But there were other reasons why the rule of Benedict pertured all those centuries and was adapted and the reason why Benedict of Anion took it as his model and why he had it politically imposed on various monasteries and movements. First of all, it's eminently practical. And for the most part, it hits the whole gamut of monastic life. Everything's there in one way or another. It's pretty thorough as a theoretical document. Secondly, it's short enough. It's not ponderous. It doesn't go like this on and on and on ad nauseam without any given punishment that's being meted out.

[47:38]

Benedict is brief enough. He says what needs to be said, puts in some quotes, and moves on. Very practical. Very moderate and flexible approach. At the same time, absolutely uncompromising when it comes to any spiritual nuggets. Any monastic traditional wisdom that's there, no compromise. That's the theory. That's the principle. That's it. Chief among his principles that will come through that way is charity. Charity, love, mutual love of the brothers and the abbot. Absolute must in the document. It comes through again and again in different ways throughout the role. Also, another reason is that just its principle that the

[48:38]

simple life we live together is written down in this document produces a harmony. If it does that, that's all it needs to do. It just needs to give yourself an environment, your community an environment in which you really can discern the presence of God. You really can discern and celebrate that and live that on a daily basis. Also, among all the rules, it's probably the best one in one area. That is, how does the abbot and all the monks relate to one another? And the different ways they relate to one another. How is that developed? How is that set down? The rule of

[49:38]

Benedict is probably the best one in that regard. Again, then, a nice practical thing to have of how to, for the future, have abbots elected and govern and how monks are taken in, educated, nourished, and prosper in a monastery together as a community. And again, it had good PR. It made it because it had good PR, especially to Benedict of Anjou, but also through others. It had a lot of support and was at key moments of centralization and unification at various times in monastic history, was right there at the center of renewal and reclamation. In the last ten minutes

[50:40]

then today, I'd like to talk a little bit about what are these other rules that are going on. Again, this is something we covered last year for those of you who happened to be in the rule class at that time when I discussed the other rules that are going on. And for those of you who will have the Benedict class down the line, so the present postulants, we'll talk about this again in that course. But I want to mention them because most, if not all, these people and their rules affected Benedict, or he knew about them, or were developing right at the same time as Benedict's rule from the same sources. Now, we've named some already. See if you can name at least six.

[51:42]

There are twenty-four rules at this time. But see if you can name six from the tradition we've already looked at regarding rules or documents of monastic theory or practice. Just give me one. Basil. Okay, there's one. Basil. Pachomius, whom we get through, whom he gets through. Jerome. Jerome. Augustine. That's four. Two more. Cassian. This is real important in Benedict. The most important ones in Benedict are Cassian and Augustine, oddly enough. We'll talk about them in a moment. One more. The Master. Yeah. The Rule of the Master,

[52:43]

which is before R.B., but not all that much before it. And the Rule of the Master, of course, is giving forth mainly one line. It comes in a direct line off of one source more than any other. And that is Cassian. And the Rule of the Master takes Cassian to an extreme. Benedict is taking all these sources, but when he gets from Cassian, he goes back more to Cassian than when he gets through the Rule of the Master. But there are cases where he uses pretty much the same thing the Rule of the Master has. Caesarius of Arles. There's another one. Who wrote, if you remember, a rule for nuns for his sister Caesaria and her community. And then later on, a rule for them, for monks, which he wrote

[53:45]

by taking the rule for nuns and changing the sexes and what didn't apply and put in what should apply for men in the community. And we have the rule for monks, which is pretty common in English. We have to watch for it. It's coming out in England. Liverpool. I have to talk to non-monks. Anyway, we finally got the volume on Caesarius of Arles the other day. I'm from Cambridge. It's an excellent volume. So we really have the first critical study of Caesarius, finally, in English. There is a professor at the Catholic University who's just been working on Caesarius for years and is coming up with all this stuff. So we have that. It'll be out in a couple weeks, probably, on the card. The rule of Eugippus. Not a lot is known about this. Some of these rules, by the way, we have

[54:46]

in our libraries. These western rules with the eastern names. It's a nice little volume on the St. John's College liturgical press. I'll give you four, five, six of those rules. My former confer from my militia class did that. He died tragically, junior master at St. John's, age of 40-something, heart attack. Excellent scholar. Fulgentius of Ruspe. This is... His rule is known in the empire. Where's Ruspe? Who are we talking about here? Where are we talking about? Anyone know? Okay, we're going to talk about it after Cassiodorus. This is Spain. So we'll be looking at Fulgentius of Ruspe. Cassiodorus

[55:51]

had a rule. He's next on here. We're going to do him tomorrow. Cassiodorus. The rule of Macarius. That's one of those western rules that has the eastern name. The rule of the four fathers. There's another one. We have this in English. The second rule of the fathers. The third rule of the fathers. These are all monastic rules that are being used by various foundations and communities in the West. The rule of the east. Also called the eastern rule. It's western. Very important to the rule of Benedict. A document called Octa Mediciae Cordis. I don't know how to translate that. Soldier of the heart. Acts of the

[56:53]

militant heart. Yeah. That'd be closer. It's a real another one of these marching soldier army of Christ type documents. But this has a strong effect on parts of the rule. The rule of the monastery was another one. Regula monastery. But not only rules well there is another one. Donatus ended up in a question mark here because this is at the same time as Benedict and we don't know if he knew all that much about Donatus. The rule of Donatus. It's happening around the same time. It is one that will be used by others and it's using a lot of the same sources so that's why I mentioned that. But with a question mark.

[57:56]

But there are other things that are used that aren't precisely rules as such but are formulatory regarding what the rule of Benedict how that comes out in form. Certainly the Apothecary the sayings of the desert tradition were something at hand. Benedict had every opportunity to have that in his hands. Also we say we have to remember who's behind Keshe and the sayings that come from him. And who is that? No. Huh? One of the Desert Fathers. Who's Keshe's mentor? He had to change the terminology, remember? Origin, well yes, but

[58:58]

origin slant Evagrius. Evagrius of Pontus. Evagrius of Pontus. Interestingly the abbots in their workshop just treated both Master and Disciple. If you think about it. They treated Evagrius and Keshe in the same workshop. But Benedict has that channeling into his rule also. Certainly another history, another document by the other tour guide. We've mentioned Refinus. Palladius. And he wrote the what was his history called? Lausean. The Lausean history. Why was it called Lausean? Lausean. L-A-U It's just that he opens it up saying, well, Lauseus

[59:59]

here is the history you asked for. The travelogue. So it got to be known as the Lausean history. Also Jerome. The letters of Jerome. The works of Jerome. The translations by Jerome. They all go into the rule of Benedict. The making of the rule of Benedict. And lastly, any number of lives. Lives of the saints. Lives of the desert. Lives of the whatever. That are in the tradition of being handed around. And help to formulate what Benedict puts in his document. All that affects him. Okay, so tomorrow we'll do Cassidorus. There's no assignment. No reading assignment.

[60:47]

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