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• Preface
• Introductory Notes
• Note On the History of the Text
• Here Beginneth the Prologue to a Rule For Monasteries
• Here Beginneth the Text of the Rule
• Chapter I: Concerning the Different Kinds of Monks
• Chapter II: What Kind of Man an Abbot Ought to Be
• Chapter III: Concerning the Calling of the Brethren to Council
• Chapter IV: What Are the Instruments of Good Works
• Chapter V: Concerning Obedience
• Chapter VI: Concerning Silence
• Chapter VII: Concerning Humility
• Chapter VIII: Concerning the Divine Office At Night
• Chapter IX: How Many Psalms Are to Be Said At the Night Hours
• Chapter X: How Night Praise Is to Be Accomplished In Summer Time
• Chapter XI: How Night Office Is to Be Said On Lord’s Days
• Chapter XII: How the Office of Lauds Is to Be Sung
• Chapter XIII: How Lauds Are to Be Said On Ferias
• Chapter XIV: How Night Office Is to Be Said On the Feasts of Saints
• Chapter XV: In Which Seasons Alleluia Is to Be Said
• Chapter XVI: How the Work of God Is to Be Carried Out During the Day
• Chapter XVII: How Many Psalms Are to Be Sung At These Hours
• Chapter XVIII: In What Order the Psalms Themselves Are to Be Said
• Chapter XIX: Concerning the Discipline of Saying Office
• Chapter XX: Concerning Reverence In Prayer
• Chapter XXI: Concerning the Deans of the Monastery
• Chapter XXII: How the Monks Are to Sleep
• Chapter XXIII: Concerning Excommunication For Offences
• Chapter XXIV: What the Measure of Excommunication Should Be
• Chapter XXV: Concerning Graver Faults
• Chapter XXVI: Concerning Those Who Without the Orders of the Abbot Consort With the Excommunicate
• Chapter XXVII: How Solicitous the Abbot Should Be For the Excommunicate
• Chapter XXVIII: Concerning Those Who Shall Not Have Amended Though Somewhat Often Corrected
• Chapter XXIX: If Brethren Who Go Out From the Monastery Ought to Be Received Back Again
• Chapter XXX: Concerning the Younger Boys, How They Are to Be Corrected
• Chapter XXXI: Concerning the Cellarer of the Monastery, What Sort of a Person He Should Be
• Chapter XXXII: Concerning the Iron Tools and Other Things Belonging to the Monastery
• Chapter XXXIII: Whether Monks Ought to Have Anything of Their Own
• Chapter XXXIV: Whether All Ought to Receive Necessaries Equally
• Chapter XXXV: Concerning the Weekly Kitcheners
• Chapter XXXVI: Concerning the Sick and Infirm Brethren
• Chapter XXXVII: Concerning the Old and Infants
• Chapter XXXVIII: Concerning the Weekly Reader
• Chapter XXXIX: Concerning the Quantity of Foods
• Chapter Xl: Concerning the Quantity of Drink
• Chapter Xli: At What Hours the Brethren Ought to Have Their Meals
• Chapter Xlii: That No One Talk After Compline
• Chapter Xliii: Concerning Those Who Come Late to the Work of God Or to Table
• Chapter Xliv: Concerning Such As Are Excommunicated, How They May Make Satisfaction
• Chapter Xlv: Concerning Those Who Make Mistakes In the Oratory
• Chapter Xlvi: Concerning Those Who Do Amiss In Any Other Matters
• Chapter Xlvii: of Notifying the Hour of the Work of God
• Chapter Xlviii: Concerning the Daily Manual Work
• Chapter Xlix: Concerning the Observance of Lent
• Chapter L: Concerning Brethren Who Are Working At a Distance From the Oratory, Or Are On the Road
• Chapter Li: Concerning Brethren Who Do Not Go Far Away
• Chapter Lii: of the Oratory of the Monastery
• Chapter Liii: of How Guests Are to Be Received
• Chapter Liv: If a Monk Ought to Receive Letters Or Tokens
• Chapter Lv: Concerning the Brethren’s Clothes and Shoes
• Chapter Lvi: Concerning the Abbot’s Table
• Chapter Lvii: Concerning Artificers In the Monastery
• Chapter Lviii: Concerning the Discipline of Those to Be Received As Brethren
• Chapter Lix: Concerning Noblemen’s Sons and Poor Men’s Sons Who Are Offered
• Chapter Lx: Concerning Priests Who By Chance Shall Wish to Live In the Monastery
• Chapter Lxi: Concerning Monks Who Are Strangers, How They Should Be Received
• Chapter Lxii: Concerning the Priests of the Monastery
• Chapter Lxiii: Concerning the Order of the Community
• Chapter Lxiv: Concerning the Election of an Abbot
• Chapter Lxv: Concerning the Provost of the Monastery
• Chapter Lxvi: Concerning the Porter of the Monastery
• Chapter Lxvii: Concerning Brethren Sent On a Journey
• Chapter Lxviii: If Impossibilities Be Enjoined Upon a Brother
• Chapter Lxix: That In the Monastery One Presume Not to Constitute Himself the Patron of Another
• Chapter Lxx: That No One Presume to Strike Another Unlawfully
• Chapter Lxxi: That the Brethren Be Obedient Among Themselves
• Chapter Lxxii: Concerning the Good Zeal Which Monks Ought to Have
• Chapter Lxxiii: Concerning This, Namely That Not Every Observance of Righteousness Is Laid Down In This Rule
• Other Pax Books

CHAPTER I

CONCERNING THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF MONKS

It is clear that there are four kinds of monks. The first is that of the Cœnobites, that is the monastic kind, who serve under a rule and an abbot.

Then the second kind is that of the Anchorites, that is the Eremites; and these are they who are not any longer in the novice-like fervour of the life of conversion, but by the daily discipline of the monastery have learnt to fight against the devil and are thoroughly experienced in the solace that being one of many affords; and who, as being well established for the lonely battle of the desert, beyond the fighting line of their brethren and already brave apart from the consolation of companionship, are competent to fight single-handed, God helping them, against the vices of flesh and mind. And the third kind of monks is that very disgraceful kind of the Sarabites, who have not been brought under discipline by any rule dictated by experience so as to become as gold refined by the heat of the furnace, but who, as soft as lead, while still by their works keeping faith with the world, are known by their tonsure to be lying to God. These are they who being by twos or threes, or indeed singly and without a pastor, enclosed not in the Lord’s but in their own sheepfolds, take for law their own whims, since whatever they think and choose they say is holy and whatever they dislike they esteem unlawful. And the fourth kind is that of the monks called Girovagi, who are all their lives guests for three or four days at a time in the different groups of cells through the various provinces. Always wanderers and never settled, they are slaves to their own pleasures and the snares of gluttony and in every respect worse than the Sarabites. Concerning the most miserable manner of life of all these, it is better to be silent than to speak. Leaving these out of our calculations therefore, let us come to arranging by the Lord’s help for this most stable kind, the Cœnobites.