The Rule of Saint Benedict
A short handbook organises monastic life and, incidentally, preserves European literacy.
- When
- Known to
- ± 5 years
- Era
- Post-Classical, Holocene
Benedict writes his Rule around 529 CE — moderate, practical and concerned with balance between prayer, study and manual work, with an elected abbot and a stress on stability. It becomes the standard for western monasticism. Its requirement of daily reading means monasteries need books, so they copy them; the survival of much classical Latin literature is a side effect of a rule about how monks should spend their afternoons.