The most remarkable chapters, in which St Benedict's wisdom stands
out most conspicuously, are those on the abbot (2, 3, 2
7, 64)
The abbot is to govern the monastery with full and unquestioned
patriarchal authority; on important matters he must consult the whole
community and hear what each one, even the youngest, thinks; on matters
of less weight he should consult a few of the elder monks; but in either
case the decision rests entirely with him, and all are to acquiesce. He
must, however, bear in mind that he will have to render an account of
all his decisions and to answer for the souls of all his monks before
the judgment seat of God. Moreover, he has to govern in accordance with
the Rule, and must endeavour, while enforcing discipline and implanting
virtues, not to sadden or "overdrive" his monks, or give them cause
for "just murmuring." In these chapters pre-eminently appears that
element of "discretion," as St Gregory calls it, or humanism as it
would now be termed, which without doubt has. been a chief cause of the
success of the Rule. There is as yet no satisfactory text of the Rule,
either critical or manual; the best manual text is Schmidt's
editio
minor (Regensburg, 1892). Of the many commentaries the most valuable
are those of Paulus Diaconus (the earliest,
c. 800), of Calmet
and of Martene (Migne,,
Patrol. Lat. lxvi.).
Authorities. - An old English translation of St Gregory's.
Dialogues is reprinted in the Quarterly Series (Burns &
Oates). On St Benedict's life and Rule see Montalembert, Monks of the
West, bk. iv.; Abbate L. Tosti, S. Benedetto (translated
1896); also, Indexes to standard general histories of the period;
Thomas Hodgkin's Italy and Her Invaders and Gregorovius'
History of the City of Rome may be specially mentioned. But by
far the best summaries in English are those contained in the relevant
portions of F. H. Dudden's Gregory the Great (1905), i. 107-115,
ii. 160-169; on. the recent criticism of the text and contents of the
Rule, see Otto. Zoekler, Askese and Monchtum (1897), 355-371; and
E. C. Butler, articles in Downside Review, December 1899, and
Journal of Theological Studies, April 1902. (E. C. B.)
This article is from the 1911 edition of an
encyclopedia, which is out of copyright here in the U.S. It is in the
public domain and you may copy, download, print and distribute this work
as you see fit.
Every effort has been made to present this text accurately and
cleanly, but no guarantees are made against errors. Neither Melissa
Snell nor About may be held liable for any problems you experience with
the text version or with any electronic form of this document.
