A rule, as it were, for your chosen way of life

1
A rule, as it were, for your chosen way of life

• Bella Millett

2
Ann K. Warren, Anchorites and their Patrons in
Medieval England (1985), p. 101

• Writings for anchorites are classified as ascetic
  treatises . . .
• Unlike monastic rules, which are demands, rules
  for anchorites are suggestions and supports.

3
Jerome, Ep. 125 (411)

• In solitude . . . a man . . . does what he wants
• in a monastery you dont do what you want, you
  eat what youre told to, you have what youre
  given . . .
• No skill is learnt without a master (absque
  magistro)
• St Jerome, workshop of Rogier van der Weyden, c.
  1450

4
Rule of St Benedict (Oxford, CCC MS 197, f. 1)
5
Rule of St Benedict (Oxford, CCC MS 197, f. 1)
6
Bernard, De Praecepto et dispensatione

• You ask how seriously a monastic rule is to be
  taken by those who profess it, and whether all
  its precepts are to be considered as binding
  under pain of sin.
• Are they commands, or only counsels and
  admonitions . . .?
• Are some counsels and others commands, so that
  we may ignore the former so long as we keep the
  latter?

7
Bernard, De Praecepto et dispensatione
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Laud 385, f. 41v
8
Heloise to Abelard, Ep. 5
But if we cannot observe the tenor of this Rule,
I am afraid that the words of the apostle James
may be quoted to condemn us also For if a man
keeps the whole law but for one single point, he
is guilty of breaking all of it Jas. 2 10
London, British Library, MS Royal 16 F.11, c. 1500
9
Heloise to Abelard, Ep. 5
Heloise asks that you will prescribe some kind
of Rule (aliquam . . . regulam) for us and write
it down, a Rule which will be suitable for women.
London, British Library, MS Royal 16 F.11, c. 1500
10
Abelard to Heloise, Ep. 7
Restat . . . aliquam vobis institutionem, quasi
quamdam propositi vestri regulam a nobis scribi
It remains for me to write some kind of
institutio for you, a rule, as it were, for your
chosen way of life
London, British Library, MS Royal 16 F.11, c. 1500
11
The clause of regularity

• . . . statuentes ut ordo monasticus qui secundum
  Deum et beati Benedicti regulam atque
  institutionem fratrum Cisterciensium in eodem
  monasterio institutus esse dinoscitur perpetuis
  ibidem temporibus inviolabiliter observetur
• . . . requiring that the monastic way of life
  which, following God and the rule of St Benedict
  and the customs of the Cistercian brothers, is
  recognized as established in that monastery
  should continue to be strictly observed there in
  perpetuity.
• OR ordo canonicus . . . Augustini regulam . . .
  institutionem fratrum Premonstratensium

12
The clause of regularity Carthusians

• ordo monasticus . . . secundum normam et
  institutionem fratrum Carthusiensium (1136)
• ordo heremiticus . . . secundum laudabilem
  disciplinam et normam Cartusiensium fratrum
  (1137)
• ordo monasticus . . . secundum Deum et beati
  Benedicti regulam et institutionem Cartusiensium
  fratrum (1140s)
• ordo heremiticae vitae. . . secundum Deum (1192)

13
Fourth Lateran Council (1215), Canon 13

• So that too much diversity of forms of religious
  life (religionum) should not introduce grave
  confusion within the Church of God, we strictly
  forbid anyone to establish a new religious order
  (religionem) in the future anyone who wishes to
  take up the religious life should adopt one of
  the approved forms instead.
• Similarly, anyone who wants to found a new
  religious house should accept a rule (regula) and
  customs (institutiones) from the approved
  religious orders.

14
bishop enclosing anchoress
Pontifical of Richard Clifford Cambridge,
Corpus Christi College, MS 79, f. 96r (early C15)
15
Aelred of Rievaulx, De Institutione inclusarum

• his sister has requested a certam formulam to
  regulate her inner and outer life
• . . . ex diuersis patrum institutis, aliqua quae
  tibi necessaria uidentur excerpens, ad
  componendum exterioris hominis statum, certam
  tibi regulam tradere curabo . . .
• . . . taking from the regulations of various
  Fathers some things which seem necessary for you
  to order your external observances, I shall aim
  to give you a fixed rule . . .

16
Aelred of Rievaulx, De Institutione inclusarum

• Habes nunc sicut petisti corporales
  institutiones, quibus inclusa exterioris hominis
  mores componas habes formam praescriptam qua
  interiorem hominem uel purges a uitiis, uel
  uirtutibus ornes
• You have now as you requested physical customs,
  by which as an anchoress you may order your
  external observances you have a prescribed form
  by which you may purge yourself internally from
  vices, or adorn yourself with virtues

17
Peter the Venerable to the recluse Gilbert

• De jejuniis et vigiliis etc. nulla a quolibet
  tibi est, ut mihi videtur, lex praefigenda . . .
  . Tu tibi, qui omnia intima et extima tua nosti,
  in talibus praeceptor existe.
• No law should be predetermined for you, it seems
  to me, on fasting and watching etc. . . . Since
  you know all your inner and outer capacities, set
  your own rules for such things.
• if you love God, the yoke of the precepts of
  God (praeceptorum Dei), which you had formerly
  found harsh, will become pleasant.
• Ep. 20, PL 189. 99

18
Ancrene Wisse (Cambridge, CCC MS 402, f. 1r)
19
Dublin Rule (c. 1300)

• Omnes enim in spirituali humilitate regulariter
  vivere debent. Una quidem regula omnibus
  christianis constituta est.
• For everyone should live in spiritual humility
  according to a rule. Indeed, there is one rule
  for all Christians i.e. the two commandments of
  love.
• The bread of a good anchorite never has to be
  weighed, or his drink measured. But at all times
  he must live spiritually (spiritualiter).

20
Cambridge Rule, earlier C14

• If indeed they dispose their lives in every
  respect according to a prescribed form (formulam
  prescriptam), hermits are not unjustly to be
  counted among those who are truly religious
  (inter vere religiosos).
• For, as Augustine says in De vera religione,
  religion (religio) is that by which we bind
  (religamus) our souls to God alone by serving
  him.
• And it is also said in Jamess canonical epistle,
  ch. 1, Pure religion (religio munda) is keeping
  oneself with God unspotted from this world,
  which certainly true hermits can do more freely.

21
Cambridge Rule, earlier C14

• Soli Deo debet heremita obedienciam facere, quia
  ipse est abbas, prior et prepositus claustri
  cordis sui.
• The hermit owes obedience to God alone, because
  He is the abbot, prior and provost of the
  cloister of his heart.
• . . . though he may choose to obey the consilia
  (recommendations), or even the praecepta (orders)
  of his spiritual adviser.

22
Oxford Rule, later C14

• . . . licet status heremitarum regula careat
  canonica, nichilominus tamen omnibus, que viam
  vere paupertatis pro Christo Ihesu elegerunt,
  valde necessarium est quod sancte vivant . . .
• . . . although the estate of hermits lacks a
  canonical rule, nevertheless it is very necessary
  that all those who have chosen the path of true
  poverty for Jesus Christ should lead a holy life
  . . .

23
Oxford Rule, later C14

• He should make a vow of poverty and chastity,
  with divine help, to Almighty God . . . because
  otherwise it would seem that he was serving under
  a rule or a human being (militaret sub regula vel
  homine).
• But nevertheless if he wishes he can make his vow
  to the bishop, and live according to his advice,
  if he can.
• non est regulata persona

24
Ancrene Wisse (c. late 1220s)

• I said earlier . . . that you should not commit
  yourself to keeping any of the outer rules by a
  vow I say the same now.
• And I am not writing them for anyone apart from
  you. I mention this so that other anchoresses
  cannot say that I am presuming to make a new Rule
  for them.

25
explicit
Bella Millett enm_at_soton.ac.uk