In the table: 'Ancient Monasticism', there are * against some names, they represent books. These are some of the monastic rules; for the Rule of St Benedict is not the only rule. There were many rules in ancient monasticism. Not all of them have survived, we know about twenty-five of them. It is a good idea to see how the Rule of St Benedict is related to all these rules.
CLASSIFICATION
Some rules are what we could call 'Mother-Rules', because they were written before all the others and are independent of each other. The Rules written later are more or less inspired by them.
There are three "Mother-Rules". Two come from Africa: the rule of Pachomius from Egypt and the rule of St Augustine from North Africa. The third, improperly called the rule of St Basil (we shall see why 'improperly') comes from Asia Minor. All those which depend on them, the 'Daughter Rules' come from Western Europe, particularly from Gaul.
Several generations of "Daughter-Rules" can be distinguished, according as they have descended with more or less intermediaries from the three Mother-Rules. These Mother-Rules do not use the word 'monk', as they are destined for cenobites, and the word 'monk' implies solitude (see below: The word 'Monk'). They preferred the word 'brother' because they were men living the common life; but the word 'monastery' already designated their dwelling, and Pachomius and Augustine, in other writings, used the word monk in speaking of cenobites. The word 'monk', which was first used for anchorites, gradually came to be used in rules destined for cenobites; it is found in the daughter-rules as shown in Table 4 in Book 2.
Among the latter, some are more important. In the first generation we find the influence of Cassian's Institutes; they are not a monastic rule, but they describe, for the cenobites of Gaul, the observances inspired both by Pachomius and by the hermits of the desert. In the second generation we find a very important rule from which St Benedict drew a lot of inspiration: it is written by an unknown person called 'the Master'.
The Rule of St Benedict belongs to the third generation. It is strongly influenced by the Rule of the Master. It depends also very much on the Institutes of Cassian and on the rule of St Basil which St Benedict urges us to read.
After St Benedict, there are three more generations of rules which will be inspired by it. All of them are from Gaul or Italy.
THEIR LENGTH
These monastic rules are of different lengths. The longest is the Rule of the Master, if we take only that part of the Rule of Basil which Benedict knew (as we shall see in the chapter on Basil), the only part on our table. But if we take the rule of Basil in its totality, it is the longest by far. The rule of Benedict is the third longest.
All the others are shorter than the rule of Benedict and, with one exception, the longest of them are less than half its length. Among the others some are very short. In Table 5 in Book 2 (pink paper) the shortest rule is used as a unit of measurement.
THEIR CONTENT
The content of these rules is very variable. The three Mother-Rules afford a good example of their diversity.
What are called the Rules of Pachomius are in fact collections of regulations, probably edited and put together by his disciples, instructions and prohibitions concerning the life of the community. References to the Bible and the spiritual reasons for doing or not doing things are hardly mentioned here. They are found in other writings of Pachomius and his disciples. The rules are a sort of practical notebook.
The Rules of Basil are the opposite. The emphasis is on the Gospel on which they are founded, spirituality is everywhere abundant. The regulations laid down come from reflection on the Bible and flow from it. This is the richness and interest of the Rules of St Basil in which a real and profound theology is to be found. That is why St Benedict advises us to read them.
The third of these Mother-Rules, that of St Augustine is in between, combining concrete regulations and spiritual reflection.
Among the other rules, those of the Master and of Benedict resemble those of Basil and Augustine since they contain precise regulations but a theological and spiritual reflection show the reason for the regulations.
DIFFERENT EMPHASES
All deal with monks living in common. However some of them are marked by the eremitical ideal of Lower Egypt; what counts most of all is the master-disciple relationship, the relationship between brothers takes second place. One could say that they develop a vertical cenobitism. This is the case with the writings of Cassian and the Rule of the Master.
Others give first place to fraternal relationships, insisting on the life of the community, on the communion of persons according to the ideal outlined in the Acts of the Apostles 2:44: "All the believers lived together and had everything in common", and 4:32: "The group of believers had a single heart and soul and nobody called any of their possessions their own, but all things were held in common." These rules could be said to portray a horizontal cenobitism. Such are the rules of Basil and Augustine.
In Table 4 we can see how Benedict is specially andsimultaneously influenced by one rule of vertical cenobitism, that of the Master, and by another of horizontal cenobitism, that of Augustine. If we recall chapter 73 of his Rule, after he mentions the Lives of the Fathers he recommends that we read the Conferences and Institutes of Cassian (vertical cenobitism), and the Rule of Basil ( horizontal cenobitism). This feature is an indication of the balance which characterises his Rule, a mark of his discretion.
The BIBLIOGRAPHY will be given with each author studied.
THE WORD "MONK"
The meanings of this word
are rich and distinctive.
The word comes from the Greek: Monakos, already used by Plato to mean something unique or
solitary. For Plotinus, The One who is at the summit of his ladder of beings is monakos:
God is 'Monk'. The word has an equivalent in the Bible as we shall find.
Monasticism, which came to birth particularly in a Greek environment, very soon used the
word monakos, 'monk', to designate the ascetic who lived alone, apart from the world, even
if these solitaries were sometimes grouped togetherin small communities. On the other
hand, the first three cenobitic monasticrules, those of Pachomius, Basil and Augustine did
not use the word: the cenobite lived with others, he was not alone, he was not solitary,
he was not a monk. Basil, who was fiercely anti-eremitical, went so far as to say in his
rule: "Man is not a monastic animal". In none of these rules do we find the
word: 'monk', they speak of 'brothers'. It is only later that the word 'monk' designates
the cenobite. This came about slowly, so that the frequency of theword enables us to
estimate the age of a monastic Rule. At the time of St Benedict it had already become a
term which was used regularly: "Then are they truly monks when they live by the
labour of their hands".
However, though the word is absent from the Rule of St Augustine, he wrote such a vast
amount and lived at a time when the word 'monk' was becoming common and when the Donatists
had their monks, he attempted to justify the word in his Ennaratio on Psalm 132: "How
good and how pleasant it is, brothers dwelling 'in unum'". He referred here to the
passage in Acts: "the community of believers had but one heart and one soul".
This "one" heart and soul are characteristic of community life. It is the
community which is 'Monk', and not the one who is living in community. How then, do we
arrive at: "they are truly monks"of St Benedict?
The connection was admirably formulated in the twelfth century by a Cistercian, Geoffrey
of Auxerre who said: "A community is only united if the monks who compose it first
seek their own interior unity". The condition for a community to be one, is that the
monks be 'one' interiorly. The monk then isnot one who is alone exteriorly, but one who is
interiorly one. We have then moved from exterior unity to interior unity. To account for
this passage, we must take another line of enquiry and look at the Hebrew equivalent of
the Greek word monakos:jahid.
This Hebrew term caused a lot of trouble to the Greek translators. Let us take an example
from Psalm 68:7: "Elohim makes the jahadim dwell in his house". It can be
translated as "God gives the lonely a home to dwell in". Here we have the term
Monakos which we have met. But this translation has not satisfied some translators, which
is understandable, for if God has created human beings to live in society: "He
created them man and woman", and has given them the command: "Increase and
multiply", why is it that he has given the lonely a dwelling? So others have
translated it by monozonous, "those who only have one belt". Here we have the
idea of renunciation and poverty. Others have gone deeper: Aquila, who was a Jew
influenced by Christianity, translated it by monogenesis, the only-begotten, assimilating
the lonely to the Only Son of God (elsewhere he rendered the same word by
agapetos,'well-beloved').
Finally the Septuagint gives another translation which was to bear fruit in the Fathers:
monotropous: "those who have only one direction". God makes those who have only
one direction, one aim, dwell in his house. We can see the phrase of Geoffrey of Auxerre
behind this translation. It is in fact the meaning retained by posterity.
Origen was the first to give this meaning when he commented on the verse from the book of
Samuel: "There was one man". He said: "This 'one' man is he who has
dominated the passions which distract him, who is not divided, no longer pulled this way
and that, who has achieved equanimity, who has become the imitator of God, the Immutable.
Man is 'one' when he is united toGod in such a way that he has realised unity within
himself. Origen was not a monk; he wrote for Christians. But what he says is very true
when he deals with with men and women consecrated to God. We shall find the same idea
throughout the monastic tradition, in Pseudo-Macarius and in Gregory the Great: "We
are called 'monks'. The Greek word is translated into Latin by unus and means 'one'. Let
yourselves be marked by this word".
You will remember perhaps this well-known passage from Theodore Studite: "He is a
monk who looks only to God, desires God alone, labours for God alone, and who, wanting to
serve God alone becomes a source of peace forothers". The monk is a man with a single
gaze, a single desire, a man with tremendous love which influences others!
This word 'monk' then conceals within it our whole future: our divinisationalready begun
here below. In heaven we shall be "truly monks": one with the One, united to
Jesus our Head who will bring us into the unity of the Trinity.
4. THE MONASTIC RULES
REVISION
1)
What is a 'mother-rule' and a 'daughter-rule'?2) What differences do we find in their content?
3) And in their emphases?
4) Where does the Rule of St Benedict belong in the classification 'mother-rule' and 'daughter-rule'? In length? In its content? In its emphasis?
5)What is the origin of the word 'Monk'? In what sense is it used at the beginning of monasticism? What is its deepest meaning?
4. THE MONAS TIC RULES
REVISION ANSWERS
1)
What is a 'mother-rule' and a 'daughter-rule'?The Mother-rules are the source of the others. They are independent from each other, and the rules which came later were inspired by them.
2) What differences do we find in their content?
Differences may be in the compilation of commandments to do or not to do certain things, with very little spiritual content (Pachomius); or on the contrary a spiritual reflection on the Gospel as found in St Basil.
3)And in their emphases?
Some of them are influenced by the eremitical life of Lower Egypt, and insist on the relationship of master-disciple (vertical cenobitism); others are strongly cenobitic, with emphasis on the community, the communion of persons (horizontal cenobitism).
4)Where does the Rule of St Benedict belong in the classification 'mother-rule' and
'daughter-rule'? In length? In its content? In its emphasis?
The Rule of St Benedict is among the daughter-rules; there were other daughter-rules before it and afterwards. In length, there are two which are longer, those of Basil and the Master, but it is longer than all the rest. In content, it unites precise regulations with spiritual theology. In emphasis, it is remarkably balanced, inspired both by vertical and horizontal cenobitism.
5)What is the origin of the word 'Monk'? In what sense is it used at the beginning of monasticism? What is its deepest meaning?
The word 'monk' comes from the greek 'Monakos' which means 'alone'. In the beginning it stood for the ascetic who was not married and lived alone. Cenobites did not use this word.However it quickly acquird a deeper meaning: a person who is 'one' in his inmost being. It means a person united within himself, a person with a single gaze, a single desire.