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ROBERTS, Jeff E. H.A. Religious
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Early & christian monastic spirituality.
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EARLY AND MEDIEVAL CHRISTIAN MONASTIC
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SPIRITUALITY: A STUDY IN MEANING AND
, TRENDS
by
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Jeff Roberts
A Thesis Submitted To The Faculty Of
Graduate Studies And Research In Partial
'Fulf ilment Of The Requirements For The
Degree Of Master Of
Faculty Of Religious Studie's
university
Montreal
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,August,
e Jeff E. Roberts 1978
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ABSTRACT
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,This thesis will explore the.rneaning of the
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Christian ontemplative monasttc life,as it was
stood by the rnoflks pf the fourth
.
the of the
the early of the twelth century.
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it asks is twofoid. 'how qid the
inreach of these historical periods orde4 their lives-
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as individuals and as a and to what end?6
what particular modality of Chris'tian qiscip-
lship'and witness did such a,lif in the
Cpurcll and in the world 1 period? answer to \
this quesen take into consideration the
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response of the hierarchy of the Church te the ideals
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and practices of The study will conclude
with a discussion 'of in
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and dimensions of Christian -,
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ospirituality_-
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ette' thse explorer'a le sens de Il vie! rndhastique
contemplative 'chrtienne tel que compris par les mdihes
.
agyptiens primitifs du quatrime sicle, les
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tins du sixime sicle et les isterciens
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du douxime sic'le. La question
qui se pose ,peut tre SQus -deux aspects.
Premirement, comment les moines ont-ils regl leur vie
, comme individus et comme communaut dans chaque de
, ' ...,
ces poques historiques, et -quel Dut?
quelle modalit particulire de 'la vie chrtienne
'rsentait la vie monastique dans et dans le
monde de cette poque? La response cette question
tiendra aussi de la rsponse de l'hirarchie
de l'glise aux idals et aux pratique!. des moines,.
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L'tude se 'terrninra avec une discussion de quelques
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tendences et dimensions de la spiritualit'
monas tique_, contempla ti ve chrtienne.
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OF CONTENTS
l NT RODUgT ION
ONE - THE ORIGINS OF

Section One - The Ascetics
PART TWO - AN EXPLORATION(,I\OF EARLY EGYPTIAN,
PRIMITIVE BENEDICTINE AND EARLY
CISTERCIAN
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Section Two - Early Egyptian
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Section Three - 1\P.rimitive Benedictinism 43
Section Four - Ear1y Cistrcian Monasticism
,
PART THREE-A STUDY OF TRENDS IN, AND DIMEij'SIONS OF
'NOTES
THE CHRISTIAN CONTEMPLATIVE MONASTIC LI FE
Section Five - Wor1dviews And Trends
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Section Six - The Monastic Dimensions Of
,comm,/ity ' And Qf Love)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
60
82
99
123
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INTRODUCTION
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It is not my intention te try to a detailed
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. 1 and comprehensive history 9f Christian monasticism, of
theology, or even of Christian monastic Il
spirituality. do l propose to review the historical
of the monastic families un?er
from the of view of their origins, rise, maturity 0
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and dec Li:ne Rather, my aim in this study is to explore
how' the:, founders and first generations qf, three families
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of christian monks,. together with hierarchy of the
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Church, perceived, at particular turning-points in history,
meaning of the Christian contemplative monastic life
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for their times. This stu'dy Iwill deal with the early .
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Egyptian primitive Benedictine monasticismiof the
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fourth and sixth [centuries of the Roman
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and with early monasticism of the twe1:fth cel\1;.ury. ..
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The question as to the meaning of the Christian con":'
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temPlaJive"monast.ic life has to be seen from twb.
related theological perspectives: viz. the vertical 'or
that of man's relationship to God the one hand, and the
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horizontal. 'or ,that of man' s re,l}ltionship tp man on thi other.
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parousia had not come expected and somehow the

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promise afforded by the outpourin
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of the Spirit
As the years passed_and the Church swelled 1
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was not fulfilled.
in nwnbers, the Ugreat grace" (Acts 4:33) ol the 'Christ
to the apostles and first ge'nerations of disciples 'seemed to
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be disappearing while the quality of Christian living and
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vitaliby of th Church' s il'lterior'
life together with the closeness and unit Y of ,its fe11owship,
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dirnini-shed. the attitudes and expectations of -
the Church- also,began

to change.
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observed: 1
As commQn Christian practice becarne 1ess strenuous,
however, asceticism grew as the idea1 of 'the more'
serious. Too much must rlot be expected\of common
Christians. The Didache,in the first of th
second century, had exhorted: "If thou able
.ta bear the whoie yoke of the Lord; thou shalt be
but if thou not able do tha which
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'thou art able." Hermas (ca'. A.D. 100-140' had
taught that a man cou1d do more than God dommanded"
and w(;mld a reward .\
and celbacy were
to confer spe;.cia1 merit on those who them '
These tendencies but increased. They were
furthered by a distinction between the If advice\1 and
the requirements of the Gospel'which was clear1y
drawn by Tertul1ian and Origen
(The Church I/S) own conception of itself was
from that of a of saints to that of an
. agency for sa1vation. The change was evident in the
of Bishop Kal1istds of Rome (A.D. 217-222).
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(a) how do the Christian
,monks of any given historical period,order
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, their Lives individuals ind as a community and to what
" end? (b) what mOdality of Christian discipieship and
witness does the Christian contemplative monastic life
represent in the Church and in the of that period?
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1 So far as l know, no one has yet at:.tempted a study of
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Christian monastic 'spirituality from the point of view of
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the shifts in which have 'occurred in theology
durtng the course of Christian history. Since such an
approach can, l believe, help shed fresh light on our question,
Il have to'use it. (a)
The monks,of the Roman period and of 'the Low Middle
Ages shared the same 'eschatological expectations' in that
( a)
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According to Richard McBrien, "there are Idiffering views
of 1 the Church today because there are differing wys of,
doing theology and djiffe,ring ideas about eschatology
The theology of the Church can only be understood in
tl].e larger of schatology: at root,' the problem
of tne inter-relationships between Church, histoty and
'the Kingdom of God." Church: The Continuing Quest
(New Newman Press, 1916), p. 5 '(emphasis added) .',
r have adopted McBr ien 's met1\.od and sha Il use t'.\1e term
'eschatological perspective' in the same technicaLsense
in which he understands eschatology. l the
term 'eschatological expectations' in the more
.sense to refer to both the parousia and the rit'e of theC- "'<'
blessed, in heaven. Since r shll be using both 'escha-
.'tological perspective' anq 'eshatological expectations'
as terms in this study, r al,ays write
them withip inverted commas, as shown above.
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they aIl forward to the ,return of Christ and
the life of beatitude in heaven. 1 These expeotations, hOW-\
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by respective
which, though in agreement
'eschatlogical '
with regard -to
thelpresence of the Kingdom of.God in the world, differed
,
on ,two important points. First, time 'of its
Second, the dlgree of emphasis ,thaf should he put. on the'
orientation of the monastic life tbwards the return of
Christ; as oPP?sed to a more single-minded cultivatfon of the
life of the K.ngdom of God. Renee, if the Christian contern-

plative monastic life is a 'timeless charisrn', the
of lit and of its ecclesial and social dimep.sions may alter ---------
1
from age 'to age according to the historical
. : proper to each
shif'ts in the
age":
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l shall use t11e "term 'Kingdom of God 1 in this paper


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to describe the sovereignty and in history
and hum an experience, and not a territory allegedly ruled
)
by Hirn- or an institution (l.e. 'the visible Church')
)
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identifiable with His activity. So far as Christian theology
is concerned, God nd man then responds - either
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positively or negatiyely - to that saving activity. One
can, however, place the

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on God' s activity
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or on man 1 s l Jihall dQ the latter.
A positive. represents an act of
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to the will of - also called 1 taking upon oneself the
yoke (or 1 new law') of the Kingdom of God 1 - and an appro-
. ... .
.f the dynal}1ics of the Kingdom, that is, the grace
of God;l In speaking of the inter-reationshiips between<t
the of God, the Church and history in a rnonastic '
context,. therefore, l am referring specifically to -th.e monks'
understanding of their owl towards, and appropria-
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tion dynamics of, the 'Kingddm God. Consequently,
.
we may also approach our twofold question
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in :the .. following way. How did the I11:0nks in each of the '"
periods unde; review to what'they perceived to be
the Jill of God? nid 'they believe that their
,way of life distinguished them in sorne way from other
Christians? And finally" what was the response of the

hierarchy in its turn to the ideals and pra1ctices, of the
rnonks?
Part One comprises section one of this paper and will
,
introduce our study of the monastic spirituality df the
Roman period and of the LOW.Middle Ages by briefly'
ing trie devlopments in the Church which led to the emergence
of <the rnonastlc movernent. It willodiscuss the self-understand-
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ing antl orientation of forerunners of the monks, the,
ascetics: second, sorne of the trends which characterized
the, relations between the ascetcs and the hierarchy: and

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finally principal reasons for which the chose
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to abandon the general society of men in favour of (what
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was soon to'be called) the monastic life of the
R,art Two represents the m9in body of this inquiry and

comprises sections two through' four. Each nere wil).
be subdivided int? two chapters, the f irst dealing wi th
question.,2, the second w:j..th question b. (a)
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Section two is concerned with early Egyptian monasticism.
Louis Bouyer, in his study of Egyptian'monasticism,2 dis-
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betweeri" Othe simple and evangelical movement led
by Anthony, Pachomi'us, Macarius of Egypt and t;he other Copts
on the one hand, and the later and more sophistica.ted 'erudite
developed by Basil Qf Caesarea and John Cassian
1
on the ot.her. l shall adhere to this distinction in th:.s 1
paper, and place the emphasis upoh the former, Coptic move-
ment. The focus within the Coptic movement itself will be
(a) Cf. supra p. 2. This is only a loose distinction, how-
ever, since material dealing, strictly spe9king, with
the concerns of one question will be introduced
or elaborated upon in the other chapter. Consequently,
it l'argely a matter 6f
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upon Antonine qUsi-eremi tisrn and only secondarily upon
pachcmian cenobitisrn. l shall outline the principal' char-
acteristics of Basilian and 'Alexandrian ' (a) rnonasticism
primarily in order either to contrast thern with or to note
their influence upon coptic, primitive Benedictine and early
monasticisrn
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Section three deals with primitive Benedictine monas-
ticism. The terrn 'primitive Benedictine
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is used to denote
the original pre-Gregorian Benedictine ideal as it is seen
in the Rule Of st. Benedict and in the monastlc
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and, regimen of those monasteries which subscribed to its
authority.
Section four will look at the monastic self-understanding
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and practie of ear ly Cistercian monasticism, especially as
seen in the teaching of Bernard of Clairvaux. The primary
f
emphasis in thi,s section will be upon the cistercian vision
of t:he 1 ife of the Kin,gdom of God.
P'art Three conc ludes this study and comprises sections
five and si;x. It will explore sorne major trends in, and
(a) The term 'Alexandrian' refers principally to the teaching
of John Cass'ian. His thought was heavily influenced by
Clement and Origer! of Alex'andria by way of the latter 1 s
monastic interpreter, Evagrius of Pontus. Hence, it is
a conceptual, not a geographical, distinction.
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dimensions of, the Christian contemplative monastic life
of the Roman period and of, the Low Middle Ages
Section five will provide a brief analysis of the
general monastic- self-understanding and worldview of the
Roman per iod and of the Low Middle Ages in the light of
their respective 'eschatolog ical perspectives'. It will
then cover the principal trends in the relationship between
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the monks and the hierarchy in the context of the question
of monastic so1i tude.
Section six will examine the monastic cornmunity per
g from the point of view both of its functional chatacter
.,
as an institution oriented towards the cultivation of grace,
and of its-charismatic character as an epiphany of the
Christ-centered and Spirit-filled life. ur the final chapter
of this paper, I shall- offer a few observations on suffering
love as an expression of the tension in, Christian (monastic)
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life the celebration of the triumph of Christ and
the pr,esence in the world of the Kingdom of God on the .. one
hand, and the yearning for the conswnmation- of that Kingdorn
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and the salvaton of all men on the ether.
*
Sorne further points
neted.
defin1::::s should he
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The concept of'religious Orders appeared relatively
late in the history of Christian monas.tic,ism. It began
either with the founding of Cluny (A.D. 910) and its many
\
juridically 'Cluniac ' daughter-houses, or with the break
with Cluniac and therestablishment of a 'New
Monastery' '(A.D. 1098) on the part of the The
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distinction between 'active
'
, and the so- .
called 'mixed ' Orders arase only after the twelfth century
with the appearance of specialized organizations of religious.

Consequently, l shall not use the term until we reach section
four.
A ,contemplative monastic community,may be loosely des-
)..
cribed as one wh1ch is separated from the general society
of men and oriented towards the cultivation of grace and
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sonship in Crrist. It can be either eremitical,:cenobitic
,Qr a combinatfun of the two. Since aIl three of the fuonastic
--
families on which l shall concentrate may be descrbed as
'contemplatiye ' , I sha1t simply refer to them as 'monastic'.
When the monks of the Roman period and of the Law
Middle Ages of the active life and the contemplative
life, they were not referring ta Orders but
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ta two different and modes of external living,
or to two religious states of the interior life. The two
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concepts tended to overlap with each other since it was though:t
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that a particular (i.e. contemplative) mode of living facilitated
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growth in Christ.
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(a) 1 shall be' using the t:.erm 'contemplative
(monastic) life' "prirnarily with an emphasis upon this exterior
signification. 1t might be useful, however, to briefly out-
liAe here the substance of the latter' definition sinee an
1
implicit allusion to it will often he made in the course of
this study.
/
.Christian spirituality taught that were two principal
stages in the interior life,-that is, in the process of the
;:;
forming of Christ in the individual by,grace. The first and
ascetical stage was called 'the active life' because the
phasis here was upon man' s efforts to bring his life into
line with the activity of indwelling Holy This
stage was characterized hy repentance, self-renunciation, a
o
eontinuing conversion of life in the imittion of and
,
obedience to the conunandments. 1ts goal was an ever-greater
self-ahandonment to the \'lill of God and to the spirit of
praye'r and sacrifice.
The second and mystical stage was 'the contemplative
life' because the emphasis now was upon God' s activity i/, the
(a) Renee the was used to refer to
those whieh were explieitly oriented towards
the cultivation of grace. 1
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soul and -man 1 s dO,cility to it. The often routine, confused
,
and self-seeking activity of the soul had been largely up- '
rooted and transformed into the spiritual, free, illumin'ated
and God-centered of self-giving love.
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Footnqtes. will be indicated by an alphabeticall letter
and will be found at the bottorn of the page. 'Bibliographical,
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references, except,in the case of Scriptural quotations - the

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R. S. V. is used in aIl instances and of books repeatedly
cited in one chapter - The Life Of Anfhony,' The Rule of St.
Benedict - will be indicated by a .roman numeral and will be
found at' the end of the paper.
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PAR T ONE 0
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THE ORI9INS OF
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- SECTION ONE - THE ASCETICS
Preface
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Since Johannes Weiss and. Albert Schweitzer first em-
phasized the .eschatological element in the/ Gospels, it has
bec9me commonplace,to say that Jesus, Paul and the early
Christians l.ilred in expectation bf the' inuninent of
the world jnd that this deeply influenced their thought and
. (a) h'
,The new age had begun wit the of
Jesus and the Pentecostal of the Holy Spirit upon
...
the Church at Jerusalem. The Kingdom of God had been founded
::
and would soon be fully established with the triumphant retu:r;n
of Son of Man ,in glory.
1
When the 'end' did not 'come and as, over the years, the
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Christian Church continued to grow and finally to find an
ptace in the world, ChristianitY began to asswne a,
different character ,ah,d to pose a different set of questions.
What does it mean to live in the world but not of it? In
,
what sense are Christians "strangrs and pilgrims on this
eart1}" (Heb. Il: 13)?
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W'hat is the place the in
(a) In this paper I shall be substituting ian eschatology in
the process of realization' (Joachim Jeremias) for the
'thoroughgoing eschatology' of Weiss and Schweitzer.
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alleged in-between time (i.e. between the 'already established '
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but Inot yetI fully consurnmated ' Kingdom of God), and what is
its to the KingdoJ of God and to the
Let us begin then by
\, '
looking briefly at how the Christian
world?
community, in response to the unexpected delay of the parousia,
began to split up into two groups. The first group was re-
presented by the hierarchy. It was largely concerned with
.
the establishment' and expansion of ,tlhe Church as a religious
society. The second was' represented by the ascetics. 1 It was
oriented' more towards an ascetic and other-worldly lifestyle.
A short review of sorne of the principal political andltheolo-
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gical developrnents which led the ascetics to abandon their
the monastic of desert
follow. This wilf serve as an introduction to the main
bOdy'Oflour study

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He cited the parable of the fares and the wheat
(Matt. 13:24-30) and compared the Church to the
ark of Noah in which were 1 things c'lean and un-
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Thus there arose in the Church by the second century an
increasingly individualistic spirit and a grbwing belief in
the vital connection between1asceticisrn and Christian holiness.
The ascetics became highly esteerned by their fellow Christians,
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and by the third century came,to occupy sorne of the-top echel;bs
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of leadership and authority in their communities.
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developed, one that would eventually result in the emergence
rnonastic movement.
Although the ascetics continued to live in the rnidst of
their communities, retaining their private rneans and wearing
no garb, the y began to, acquire a d,istinctive lifestyle
and 'function.
\
They tended the sick and the needy, preached
.
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, and exorcised demons, for ministers and gathered
together set hours periods of prayer'
and worship were usually at times Iike, the third, sixth and
ninth hours when ordinary working people eould not be expected
to with them. They were characterized by a freer and
more vidual approach to God than was the case with the
inreasingly formaI pub+ic of the rest' of the Church.
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As a result, the ascetics wer becorning accU'stomed to the
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of worshipping apart from the worship\ of fbe congregation
.,.,. t
as a 6
Similar1y the martyrs had becorne 'witnesses in' these
(j,.
ear1y centuries to that Kingdom which is in the world but
,
"
not of it (Jn
1
18:36), yet which is the true home of Christians.
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They too were highly esteemed by their communities and were

thought to have received special graces from God. The martyr-
Bishop Ignatius of Antioch, for instance, wrote of his
impending deat.h as an imitation of the Passion of Christ and
as a blessed opportunity to be united with God. He besought
his followers to try to-prevent him from attaining this
crown for which he 50 ardent1y'longed:
is the first of rny discipleship,
no power, visible invisible, must grudge me
my coming to Jess phrist He who died for
is aIl that f. he who rose again for ,us is
my whole desire. The _pangs of birth are upon me.
Have patience with me my and do not shut
me out from,life, do not wish me ta be stlIborn
to attain ta.light, light pure and un-
for only when l come thither shall l
be truly a man .
Here and now as l write in the fulness of life,
l am yearning for death with aIl the passion of a
lover. have been in
me there is left no spark of for munaane
things, but only a murmur of living water that
whispers within me, 'Come to the Father'
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, Ifam fainChfO:Otthe hf'GOd'd'evef
n

o Jesus r1S, w 0 1S t e see 0 Davl..: an
for rny drink l 'crave that blood of his which is
love imperishable.
7
The ,question which most interests us at this stage
the reasons for the living in or
round their commuriities, began' to go apart and live in
solitude, that is, to,live as monks. ' If the seeds of
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monasticisrn were to be fond in the communalism, ethical
,
other-worldliness dnd religious fervour of prim-
itive and especially of the Christian
....
at Jerusalem,"nonetheless certain
, '
were instrumental in bringing them into full flower.
In order ,to understand the origins of Christian rnonas-
it imfortant to, the latent tepslons
in the Church between ascetics and the
A good way to, approach this subject
,y in the <)!ontanist crisis of the
s'econd century part in the articulation these _ \
'------,
'--
"'-.........
tensions.
,
, Williston Walker features of

Mont,anism:
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,

The second century was convinced , not only
that the Holy Spirit wa in assoaiation
with God the Father and 1 Christ, but tha"t Christ
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had tiie coming in
measure in the futur this tho'll;ght of '
the special dispensation Spirit,
bined with a fresh outburst prophetie
enthusiasm, and a belief that the d world-
age at that were repr \
a considerable extent Monta . m
was aiso a rfaction against the secular tendenc'
a1readyat work in the Church In its ascetic
ce1ibacy, fasting, b
1
tinence from
meal Montanism
dencyr as anything
Montanism taught was to find a place in the
, reat Church in rnonasticism.
8
jI
Montanist ere aiso the notion,
century, that the grace
.
of God was exclusively dispensed by Church's duly cons-
1
titute,d officers. Their pr0t:st represented a ttempt:to
1
return ta- the Spirit-led characteJ:' of primitive' Christi
with its 'eshatologicai expectations"and other-
1 - - 0
wprldly .Ais' other-world,ly and
,
,
empp,as is was to h re-exerted in' strengtb" by the er'ly- Christian "

1
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rnonks of the desertS a)

... " -------...
ThJ reaction on the Ffart of Orthodox
, ... 1
9
Chrisrian had been by a 10ss of
confidence in the imminence and an opposition
---
,
(a) Sirnilarly, the rnonastic understandingof metanoia w9uId
- a reaction against the secular tendencies of
Christian people ,of God.

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the., har:shness of Montanist asceticisrn. Equa:}.ly important
- \
eased ernphasis upon ,a sacerdotal as opposed to
isma tic
---
Tne_period of prophetie,
was se en by the majority of", the hierarchy as being
they s;ught"to cqnsolidate their

position by assigning to the
-------- . .
----____ for, the flnd of -t;:he Scriptpres,"
-'- ' '-..) .
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of the Church 1 s and community life. Thus was
, --------' -------
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. established ;the practice on
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and, to sorne extent, to control the activities of th 'ascetics
charismatics and their spiritual descendants, th monks.
,
The hierarchy the
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ascetics were ablEl find
in the support fDr their respective concerns and
-:"
. . "-. '
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of 'control over the charisrnatics was,
cessary j):.\ the Church was' to safeguard, that is, to
fD a tabi\.ize its bOdy of revealed truths .. can be
. se'en by 100 . to which the fo '\ were

wont to succumb. Hans Lietzmann of the '
clairned, indee I.t self-control gave
thern insights which were in the naturel of divine reve-
lations" and were superior to the authprity of
bishops These ascetics made> preten'tions. to be persons
\

."
.' cO
spiritually endowed (pneumatics)' and they felt "thernselves .JJ
superior to the clergy." A History Of 'rhe Early. Church:
<ft r
Vol. IV (London: LutterworQh Prss, 1961), pp. 126-30.
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orientations.
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On the one hand, Christians had been encouraged
t
to accept the state as a provisional necessity willed by God,
though not itself divine in nature. They were only to oppose
it, to the extent to which it commanded
an and obedienceproperly owed to God alone. They
were to the Good News, baptize the repentant, defend
the Faith.against the Evil One, serve the poor and the needy
and celebrate the New Covenant which God offered in
Christ
,
On the other hand, Jesus had said that those who could,
or who had been called \0 it, might live an ascetic and radie-
ally self-denying existence for the of the Kingdom of
God. Furthermore, the apostles had always taught that the
Christ-life signified a kind,of 'death' to world', a
metanoia and a form of spirit'l\l\.rebirth on a new and trans-
c,en'&nf level.
As long as the Church remained outlawed by and critical'
of the state, the relations between these two groups were
for the mOl3t part harmonious'. This favourable condition
.
.
was seriously disrupted, however, when became
the official religion of the Roman empire. Indeed, the
ascetics soon concluded that fidelity to the cross of Christ
demanded of them a radical break with society and the adoption
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of (what was shortly to be called) the life of the
desert.
It may be useful for us to ekamine this development on
both a politiyal,and theological level in the first,
of martyrdom and, second, of the traditional calI of the desert.
Martyrdom had always highlighted for Christians the
essential antagonism between the wOfd oi and the
of Christian discipleship on one hand, and the ideology
and demonic demands of a totalitarian and political
and/or religious establi:hment on the other. As Paul h1ad
said, and as had noJ been the common experience for centuries,
Il aIl who desire 'to l'ive a godly life in Christ Jesus will be
persecuted" (II Tiro. 3:12).
Rad not Jesus always resisted the allurements of wQrldly
power with which the and through them the Evil One
,
had tempted him? Had not the redernption of the world come
froml cross of Christ where precisely the powerful had
slaughtered the. Lamb? Could Christians ever identify
selves with the state 50 long as the evil Prince of this world
still actively used_Jolitical-and even religious power againat
"
the faithful? The blood of the martyrs, as far as th ascetics
were concerned, cried out against any alliance or, still less,
,
(
-.,- --
-.{I
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identification of Babylon with Jerusalem. No expectations
had been raised that the Church might on day corne to contr'ol
and represent the state. On the contrary, the Scriptures
spoke of widespread and systematic persecution as a sign that
the end was near. They told of the flight of the beleaguered
faithful into the wilderness, once the Evil One had launched
1
his final desperate assault again'st thern and had infiltrated
and subverted both the
They saw salvation not
pilitical religious e,stablishrnen'ts.
in political cultural hegernony but
(
in the Kingdorn of faith and in patient endurance until the
end (Mk. 13: 9-37; Rev. 12: 1-17, 1: 9).
/ When the persecutions ended, therefore, and "the Church
settled in the world leaving the world-state in possession
\
of aIl but its gods" as Adolf Harnack so succinctly it,9
o
the ascetics made their fateful choice. ' It was impossible,
-they concluded, both to practise the particular lifestyle
they believed Christ,demalded of them and
to continue to live in a Christian community that had now
simply blended into the hitherto alien and hostile general
society of men. If they could not be martyred they could
at least practise of self-abnegation and single-
minded self-consecration to God that was expected DI those
who had given up aIl things to follow Christ. They could
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thereby "put to death aIl that was ear1:hly in them" (001. 3:5)
and so obtain the pearl of great price.
, \
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The theological groundwork for this interior and syffibolic
.
conception of martyrdom had already been implicitly laid by
the Gospels. By Jhe beginning of the third century, Clement
and Origen of Alexandria were explicitly describing asceticism
as a form of martyrdom.(a)
Clement wrote:
If martyrdom consists in confessing God, (b) every
person who conducts himself with purity in the
knowledge of God, who obeys the commandments, is
a martyr in his life 'and in his words . not the
ordinary martyrdom but the gnostic (c) martyrdom.
lO

Origen emphasized the interior and sapiential
...
aspects of the Christian Life. TheY,taught that growth in
Ch
1: b d" " ." f " "
r1st to e a
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(a) Origen also spoke of martyrdom as a kind of second baptism
- a notion which would later be transposed to monasticism.
(b) "Martyr" in Greek means "witness".
"
(c) One should not confuse Clementine qnosis with the non-
Christian Gnostic One can, however, discern
" 1
a Gnostic influence 'in the.ascetic Zeitqeist of the
period and in its spirit of growing individualisme
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- 24 -
,>
Williston Walker offers an outline of this notion:
Faith, that is, simple traditional Christianity,
-is f0r but man who adds to
his fafth, 'knowledge,' has a higher possession.
He is the true Christian Gnostic. To him that
has shall be given: to faith, to know-
ledge, love; to love, the iriheritance. The highest
good to which knowledge leads - a good even greater< ,
than the salvation which it necessarily involves -,
is the knowledge of GOd.
11
.,
This interpretation of Christianity reinforced the dis-
tinction between the average Christian and the ascetic. It
would later, after Constantine l, serve as a theological
support ,for [monastic solitude.
\
The cal'l of the desert had long been a traditional
Biblical,theme. There can be seen throughout the Bible a
continuing dialectic between city the one hand and
the lifT of the. des1ert on the other. This reflects, to sorne Il
1
the' Hebraic view that the chronic danger of
city life was that it weakend man's sense of dependence on
and intimacy God'and, .correlatively, his obedience to
Godls commandments. ;Israells sojourn in the desert under
the leadership of Moses was seen 'as the honeyrnoon of her '
..
'relationship wlth God.
, .
The prophets- rernemberld wi th long mg
those years when God had nourished His people with manna from
and they tended to desir them anew.whenever the
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community "strayed from the way of life easing to obey
the conunandments (Jer. 9:2: Hos. 2:14-20)'.
,1
It is in the desert that man discovers, according to
Isaiah, the unsurpassed fruitfulness and joy of a life lived
with God; It i's, he suggegted, the plce of revelation and
excellence (35:1-10).
(
The monks of the.fourth and fifth centuries knew from
the New 'the had been a favourite place
of prayer for Jesus (Mk. 1:35). Evagrius of Pontus, Origen's
'"'
monastic interpreter,
the pilgrimage of the
likened the flight into the desert
soul, to journey from the land
to
of
bondage, trial and suffering, aridity and emptiness,
to the promised land of blessedness.
This twin view of the desert as both an atena spiritual
combat and a place where hidden springs of living water were
to be found was prevalent throughout the early centuries
and played a large part in sUbsequent Christian monastic
spirituality.12
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AN EXPLORATION OF BARLY EGYPTIAN,
*
. PRIMITIVE BENEDICTINE AND EARLY
, ,
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CISTERCIAN MONASTICISM
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SECTION TWO - EARLY EGYPTIAN MONASTICISM
1
- l -
Anthony (ca. A.D. 250-356) was the father and model of
the solitary life of in the His story, as told
f
by Bishop Athanasius, moved the hearts and minds of Christians
throughout the empire and brought many of them to Egypt in
search of inspiration and guidance.
Anthony was one of those who heard the Gospel calI to
If
leave aIl, take up nis cross and follow Jesus, a command which
he,interpreted ta mean that he personally should
property and go and live a life apart in prayer and meditation
1
on the word of God. At first he a pa.rtially solitary
life just outside a town, earning his bread by the work of
his. hands and praying constantly. He used to travel from
place to place in order to learn what he could from other
and more mature Christians.
'rl\us filled, returned his own place of
and henceforth would strive to unite
the qualities of each, and was eager in
the virtues of ,aIl And (aIl the people)
called him God-beloved and ,welcomed him. (a)
/ ')

<1> The Life Of Anthonv: Nicene And post-Nicene Fathers
Vol. IV: pp. (Michigan: Eerdrnans, 1975), chap. 4.
(hencefbrth V.A, c.l, 2, 3 etc.)
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After he had acqu1red sufficient learn'ing l'and success-
fully resisted through grace the devil's temptations -
the remembrance of his wealth, care for his
sister, claims of kindred, love of money,
love of glory, the vrious pleasures of the
table and other relaxations of life, and at
last the difficulty of virtue and the labor
of it (a)
- Anthony withdrew into the more distant and interior de sert
in order that'he eagerly serve Gad in solitude.
Louis Bouyer suggests that at that mOment the necessity of
."
carrying on his asceticism as a against the devil
r"- .
fUl1Y dawned in his
Anthony,then spent twenty years in complete seclusion.
He his discipline, resisted the temptations and
illusions of the Evil One, though not without suffering great
(a) Ibid. c.S.
(b) explains tha' in primitive, monasticism in
general, the retreat .to the desert in no way expressed
any simple desire for tranquillity, tor leisure for ex-
tEf.nded contemplation e sense Ofl Greek philosophy .
If the monk buried in the desert, it was with
the intention 9f fight' against the devil and for. the
... reason that solitude ,seemed to be his usua1 dwelling-
place. It was in order to imitate Jesus (when, after
his baptism, he was' driven into the desert by the divine
Spirit, there to meet the devil and undergo his temptat-ions)

"l that the monk went. According to anient monasticism,
the monk only left the novitiate' when he recognized the
terrible reality of evil, the hosts of spiritual wicked-
ness in the heavenly places (Eph. 6: 2) against which
he must fight." Louis Bouyer, The S iritualit Of The
New Testament And The rathers (London: 1963),
p. 312. CF. V.A. c .13 where the demons say td Anthony,
"Go from what is, ours, what dost thou even in the desert?"
f ..
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,
"psycho-physical and finally attained a clear and
profound realization of sonship in Christ. was:
into the mysteries and filled with
the Spirit of God yet altogether as one
guided by reason and abiding in a natural state. (a)
.It was only after this period of eremitical formtion
"
,
that Anthony began to make himself available,to others. Con--
sequently, his advice to the young monks whom he agreed,to
1
guide in the spiritual life was that !geY sbould start by

learning the discipline of the cell.
An apothegm attributed to Anthony
Just as fish die if they remain on dry land
s;i0nks +emaining away from their cells or
dwe ling with men wor1d, lose their' de-
te to persevere b s?litry prayer.
TheJefore, just as fish should go baok to the
sea, so.must we remain in our cells, lest re-
maining outside we forget to watch over our-
selves (D) ! . "
1
(.)' V,A. c.14. BiShop Athanasius' account of the life of
Anthony should be read in the light of the profound con-
-qernporary strugg1es within the great Church. Thus,lle may
Jell have emphasized these latter points in tb
Arian and pagan teaching. they contrast sharp1y
with irrationa1 or dualistic modes of thought, and reaffirrn
the Bib1ical faith in the goodness of creation, the body
and human nature. / .
(b) Cf. Helen, Waddel1 (transl:.) The Desert Fathers: "The l'monk
must in his cell must never leave his ce11
It will teach him aIl things It is 1ike the furnace in
Baby1,on where the tbre'e young men found the of God and
like the pillar of cloud from which God spoke ta
(London: 1936), pp. 91, 155-6,
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Anthony counselled (i.e. those who had

renounced the world for the monastic life of the
prsevere in prayer, d'iscipline, numility and; bove aIl,
"towards Christ. Re explained to them that the demons were
against-faith, and that monks must tberefore neVer
" J
themselves tbe intimidated into abandoning 'the way'.
1
If they remained steadfast, he taught, they God,
,
be instructed in the of divine things and taste the
cherished peace and joy of the Roly/Spirit.
The monks to spend their days in a spirit of prayer
. '
and praising and awaiting the return of
the herd. Both their work - generally an uncomplic,atd and
\
t
mechanical craft such as basket weaving, mat weaving, rope
making or ca.rpentry - and their praye)s and services
were simple and unadorned. Their settlements were
usually arr,nged'in such a way that'the were
so separated that monks could neither see nor hear
\1 l' ,
one and each was able to live a life of undisturbed
meditation. Mutual' intercourse between the monks was only
allowed'either at the regular services on Saturdays
a
and Sundays or the occasional agaps when the monks
would gather for table fellowship.
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Athanasius, no doubt the rn6nks 'a,$i/witnessds
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ta the earthly paradise, prophesied in the e
//
So their cells were in the mount,a.{nS: like t
nac1eSt .. fillei with holy men who s
psalms, loved reading, fasted', prayed, rej
in e hope of things to c9me, alms-
giving d preserved love and h one
another. A 'truly it was possible, 1 it were,
to behold a lan et by itself, fil d with piety
and justice. For th there was the evl-
doer, nor the injured, no he r proaches of the
tax coll'kctor,' but instead am titude of, ascetics,
and the one purpose of themall at
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vir\tue. (a).

Pachomius (A.D. '290-34'6), the next most Copt --.. .. __________
Anthony and a former soldier in the army, organized
\
his commU1i.ity of monks along a more conununal pattern. (b) He
founded a monastery at Tabennisi a common ru le and under
( a) V. A. 1 c. 44
(b) OWen \ ,Chadwick remarks that Pachomius was only one among
many monastic superiors of,houses with ,a common life
and that the spread of such communitis in Egypt and
Syria was too swift to follow only: from the exarnple of
Pachomius. Cenobitic monasteries were, he suggests, a
growth, in new circumstances, from already existing
groups of virgins and ascetics. The pachomian houses,
he concludes, had the distinction of being daughter
houses supervised by the head superior fran his residence
at Pabau. Cassian noted the unusual strictness of the
rule and .the obedience of the monks. John Cassian (Second
Ed.) (London: Cambridge University Press, 1968), p. \55.
/
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32 -
"
the institutional autharity of" an abbot. Jl:ere bte 1\
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'"'Were knit into a single body, with similar dress and

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hours and
'-
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Such certobitic pl,tactices ontrasted
Il

sharply with and orgn4ed eremitical
,
.
"'- '-,
tradition, with its charismatic understanding< of
authority and observance.
cenobiti
p severance in 'the arena of

to zeal and
piety 1, where the' .
at the highest virtue and a, growth. in the Spirit.. So:itude,
,obedience, asceticism, self-renunciation, mditation
1
on the word of God and prayer were aIl oriented towards this
end . This was what monasticism was aIl about.
.\
1
It would be a mistake, however', despite Athanasius 1
idea.1istic rcount. ta suppose of
\
monk was characterized by spirituaL consplations
, /
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a progressive ascent to perfection. On the contraJ:Y, many
'-",monks were prone to pri<\e, self-satisfaction, anger or jealousy
in ite-ir' relations with
accidie (i.e. spiritual
each other, or were bYM'
torpor and boredom), forgetfulness,
(3 .
Indeed, it perhaps due as and dissiPafion.
much to th? inabili ty of mi:my monks to meet the lofty
set by the charismatic giants of desert monasticism as it was
o /
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to the of the f.rom the scene that subsequent

generations of eastern monks carne to exaggerate the importance

of asceticism and
, '
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0. it
o
is "ait: to -say that the simplicity,
1 "
wisdom and love of the desert fathers a golden age
..
in rndnastic that would' Gserve as a source of

. ,
strength, hope and v.j.tality :l;o'r the futur.
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Pachomius, and the other early pioneers
of the Egyptian were unedcated copts. (a)
Theirs was a popular, national, lay and evangelical movement.
It was unsophi.sticated and lacked the developed theological
('
self-understanding of the later 'erudite monasticism' of
Evagrius of John Cassian and Basil of Caesarea. Their
strong Coptic traditions of a future life served as a foundation,
and their rugged fellahin lives prepared them weIl for the
'monastic life of the desert.
. .
If sorne were simply fleeing from the pol1ce, army recruiters,
1
SiJave owners, tax-collectors or even their own bishops, none-
theless, a large number were drawn by a quasi-literaI
pretation of the Gospel (b) to lave aIl and follow Christ .
They shared the intense ,'eschatological expectations' of the
early Christians afid were wont to perceive signs of Christ's
6. imminent teturn in' the historical and natural events taking
,
place around them.
/ .'
The issues with they dealt and the
values to which they were cCimmitted were for the most part
'- (a)
(b}
Cassian commented thqt the more sophisticated Greeks
regarded the copts aS rustic. There existed the
two groups a natural tension, as between native and
foreigner, simplicity and learning. Cf. O. Chadwick,
John pp.
This can be seen in their inclination towards anthro-
pG>morphism.
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uncomplicated and straight-forward. No man could serve two
masters (Matt. 6: 24) If they went into the desert, it was
because they believed with thai this was a frui tful
way of finding and serving Christ and of overcoming the emons
in open battle, so to speak.
The early Egyptian monks, f-ollowing the lead of Anthony,
Pachomius, Macarius and the other heroes of orthodox monasticism
and despite the contemporary spirit of individualism, saw
selves as Chr istians having an integral place within the Chur ch
universal. (a)
Theirs was simply one form of the Christian lift,
one of the many varieties of service to which the faithful
might be called. Always, t' their mind., the honour and the
9 lory was the Lord 1 s, and the good which was done was for the
sake of the Kingdom of God and the Church. The mutual unger-
standing and respect between Athanasius, Anthony and Pachomius
served in this regard to de fuse the individualistic and potential
separatist and anti-clerical tendencies within this evangelical
and lay movement. Their solidarity was the foundation upon
(a) Hans Lietzmann held that Coptic monasticism later degen-
erated into a pseudo-Christian movement which perceived
Christianity not as ,the way of grace but rather as an
ethi to be followed in one 1 S EO li tary strugg le against
the demons. Furtherrnore, that, gi.ven this ethic, the
monks saw themselves not simp1y as the lite of the
Church but, ev en more, as almost the\ only true practi-
tioners of an exclusively ascetic and other-worldly
Christianity. opoeit. pp. 149-55.
/
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which the unit y of the monlastic movement with the Church of
the bishops was estab1ished.
Anthony, for instance, praised aIl of the various duties
which the Church. expected o,f its members. (a) He exhorj:.ed
everyone ta have faith in the Lord and to love Him and to pre fer
,
the Love of Christ before aIL

was in the world. The world,
1
he taught, was of little worth compared wi th the joys of eternal
He counselled even the Etnperor not to think too much
r
of the present but to remember the Judgement to come and the
fact that Christ alone was king. Remember approach;ing death,
he told the faithful, and the good things to come and the me.r.cy
,
of Gad. (b)
17-
The monks saw themselves as being above history, as it
(a) IPalladius recorded that the solitary life of asceticism and
the service-oriented life were sen as being equally perfect
forros of 'Christian discipleship and owitness. Lausiac History, .
transI. Robert Meyer (Westminster: Newman Press, 1965),
pp. 49-51, 105. Similar1y,. master Paphnutius reported1y
said: "We must not despise anyone in the world, whether
they are farmers, merchants or artists because there is
no condition in this life in which 'Souls faithfu1 to God
do not please Him. This ,should make us see that it is not
so much the that each oneoembraces or what seems
the most perfect in his manner of 1ife which is agreeabte
in God 1 s eyes, but rather sincerity and the of
fhe spirit joined to good p. 73.
(b) V.A. Cl S 69, 81, 14.
1
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were, and removed from the temporal world of ignorance and
sin. They had regained paradise (a) and wer soon to

the triumphant return of Christ in glory. They believed,with
/
Anthony that the crisis of Ar1anism heralded the aq,vent of the
anti-Christ and the end of the age. (b) These intense'eschato-
logical expectations 1 coloured their per ception of the presence
.
in the world of the Kingdom of God. They established the
<horizons within which their life of work, fellow-
ship, worship and prayer was and conducted.
The distinctiveness of coptic monasticisrn can be seen Jy
briefly contrasting it with the explicitly service-oriented
monasticism of Basil of Caesarea and the thoroughly Christian
Platonist (Alexandrian) monasticisrn of John Cassian.
o )
Basil openly preferred the common to the solitary 1ife.
1
One of his Longer Ru1es reads:\
(a) Thus Jerome after having 'lived among tlaem for a number of
years exc1aimed, "Q desert, bright with the f10wers of
Christ:' 0 solitude, whence come the stones with which,
the Apocalypse, the city of the great king is bui1t!
gladdned with God's' presence!
What keeps you in the wor Id my brothr, you -who are above
the world? How long sha11 the smokey cities immure
you? Does the bound1ess solitude of the desert
you? In the Spirit you may walk' a1ways in paradise."
"The Principal Works Of St. Jerome Il, in Nicene And Post-
Nicene Fathers Of The Christian Church (Second SeriesJ,
VI, Letter XIV (Michigan: Eerdmans, 1975), p. 17.
(b) V.A. c. 69.
\-...,
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If you always live alone, whose feet will you
wash? The solitary life has one aim, to serve
the needs of the individual. But this plainly
conflicts with the law of love.
14
..
Insofar as Basil's ideas were derived, they came not from

but from Bishop Eustrathius of Sebaste, who organized
groups of celibate's and ascetics in Asia Minor. Basil' s
cornmunities, following their administered relief to
...
the poor, conducted a hospital, visited the sick and kept
schools. They were, in other words, explicitly oriented towards
service to the Church.
l5
'.
as Henry Chadwick observes:
(Basil) sought to check the indifference of
the monks not only to the calls of secular s.Qciety
and civilization but also to the normal worshipping
life of the Church by instituting rnonastic
cornrnunities with a Rule under which the authority
of the local bishop was safeguarded.
16
Basll, unlike the copts, does not seern to have ernphasized
the return of Christ. The monastic life for hirn was valid, that
is, faithful to the Gospel of Christ only'to the which
it was understood and practised in the larger context of Christian
service.
Alexandrian monasticism reflected the doctrines of a
11----, '
,
particular school of spirituality, those of the philosophical
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tradition of Clement and Origen of Alexandria and of Origen' s
monastic interpreter, Evagrius of Pontus. It was oriented
towards the interior journey of the soul and the cultivation
of the virtues, especially apatheia (the suppression of self-
wi11 and eg01\-(istical desires), ataraxia (freedom from
j,
, ,
the peace df the soul) and gnosis (the direct knowledge of
Alexandrian monasticism also de-emphasized the parousia
yet, Basilian monasticism, did not orient the monastic
life towards service to society. Rather, it practised a policy
of enclosure in order that the monks rnight concentrate aIl of
,
their energies on Anterior growth and development. Its justi-
fication for solitude, therefore, was that it facilitated the
pursuit of this.spiritual goal.
Anthony also preached love of neighbour and counselled
'y
his monks upon growth in the Spirit, that is, in the experience
His intense 'escha- of that Kingdorn which is 'within you,.(a)
{
'1
tological expectations', however, ,led h;i:m in a direction i:differen:t
; 1
from "either Basilian or monasticiim. In
\ J- 1
other words,' his' monks were to be for the inuninent return
i?l
Il
of the Lord. They were, to be sure, 'to oppose heresy,. to serve
(a) V.A. c.20.
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)

those who came ta them. and to cultivate the virtues, but aIl
of these practices were understaod in the cantext of their
d'istinctive 'eschatalogical perspective'. Thus Coptic monas-
ticism resembled Alexandrian monastitism in its preference for
1
solitude over service yet differed from it - and here a similarity
ta Montanism becomes apparent - in its emphasis upon waiting in
.
the desert for the imminent end of the age.
As far as the position 0f the hierarchy vis--vis the
monks was concerned, Adolf Harnack argued that the Church had
made a virtue out of necessity in recognizing the already
establishedlFonastic movement as an ideal form of the Christian
life. Furthermore, continued, it could not help doing so
sinee the more deeply it beeame involved in the world, in its
1
pOlitics and culture, the more loudly and had
preaFhed what monasticism now practised.
18
There is something ta be said for this argument. The
Chur eh did perhaps feel unbomfortable at first in
its new pos:ltion as pOlitical sovereign of the world. It
had had little choice in accedng to this new status. The
alternative might well have-been to become more than
it
of the many short-lived,' and only relatively influential,
'
religious sectlS which fl:ur:t.ihed at time.
however, the Church felt obliged, in <;>rder ta remain faithful
ta its roots
f
have its members witness, a total
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consecration of th1r lives, to the primordial character and
orientation of the faith.
. ,
Thus was cemented in the Churcn a
-
. diversity not of charisrns and - these had been
there from the beginning - but of forros of the Christian life.
This was a new and unforeseen and, indeed, given the intense

expectations 1 of prilnitive Christianity, un-
development. (a)
Harnack's argument, however, does not teLl the whole story.
One should also take into considertion the' fact that Athanasius
\
and, after him, many of the hierarchy, no doubt inf luenced by
,
the ascetic Zeitgeist of the saw in monasticisrn a
fruitful way of life. It was, to their mind, one which gave
glory to G01 by witnessing in a vital and spiritual
1 J
(a) Catholic scholars have too often in the past accepted
uncritically the belief of the early monks that their way
of was a simple restoration of the life and practices
of the apostolic cornmunity at, Jerusalem. Although the
division in the early church at Jerusalem between the inner-
circle of apostles on the one hand who in prater
and in the ministry bf the ward and the l 'remainder on the
other who 1 served tables 1 (Cf. Acts E?: 2-4) seems to have
resembled mpnastic separation from the world, the-semblance
is only superficial. Thejapostles did not completely
. ..
1 separate themselves from the general society of men as did
the monks. Nor wasthere \any thought, either in the early
I
dayS or, indeed, at any time during the pre-Constantinian
period (at least as far as orthodox Cbristians were concerned)
of having a part of the Church practise a complete ly different
form of life. The ascetics, after all, had still lived in
or and participated in the life of their communities.
Similarly, the example of the Qwnran OmIl'lunity and, later,
the Montanists, had Deen rejected. '
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1
way to the presence of the Kingdom of pod in the world.
)
Athanasius, in a letter to Amun, the founder of the monastery
at Nitria, could there{ore say:
(Those who) embrace the holy and unearthly way
angelic and unsutpassed namely virginity
(i.e. the monastac life) even though it be rugged
and hard to (will earn) the more
wonderful gifts: for it grows the perfect fruit.
19
\...
Moreover, Anthony and his followers had consistently
/ obeyed and honoured the bishops (a) - an important difference
1
between Coptic monasticism and Montanfsm - and defended prtho-
doxy against Arianism. These considerations led the bishops
\
to acclaim the prophetie and spiritual authenticity of the
monastic life and its value to Thus rnonasticism
found itself, wit:.hin the very lifetime of its' founders, accepted,
and honoured within the great Church. It was a rernarkable
achievement, one that can only be properly appreciated - to .
Harnack's contention - by recognizing that the monastic
/ ,
/sPirit:had been tested, and nound to be genuine.
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SECTION THREE - 1RIMITIVE BENEDICTINISM
- l -

The which monasticisrn underwent as it
\
rnoved from East to West is reflected in the life and teaching
of Benedict of Nursia (ca. A.D. 480-547).
Egyptian rnonasticis1 was largely individualistic and,
despite Pachomius's efforts, it continued to be dominated by
the Antonine eremitical ideal. Moreover, it had corne to be
l '
characterized the fifth century by a rather severe practice
of self-mortification, with an emphasis upon'the
of self-conquest .
Benedict followed this tradition when he began
rnonastic life as a hermit living alone in a cave near Subiaco,
and practising a strict of bodily
fasting and prayer. As his farne grew, however, and people
began to come to hirn in increasing numbers, he finally agreed
"
to becorne an abbot or spiritual father and eventually founded
several monasteries throughout the region. His initial pJlicy
,
was to designate a spiritually mature rnonk as abbot,(a) and to
(a) The Benedictine abbot was the\heir of the charismatic
, ,fathers of the desert. Bened1ct may also have had in mind
the role of the 'Roman paterfamilias Subsequent genera-
tions of rnonks would elect their own abbots.
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require each to live the Christian life under obe-
I
dience to its spiritual fther and to a Rule which Benedict
hiinself had written ... (a)
One of the principal changes which Benedict introduced
in the monas,tic li;fe was a of stability. (b) This meant
that each monk was to remain in the monastery of his profession
live a connnunal life with his brethren until This
prevented monks from wandering from place to place in a vain
'--
search for a supposedly ideal or perfect monastery. It also
,
allowed the discipline of the cornrnon life to bear fruit over
time by complling rnonks to li/e their under the irnperfect
yet realistic which prvailed in each monastery.
The practice of stability also created a family spirit
in which aIl the brethren travelled the
l
way together,
(a) The Rule Of" st. Benedict (henceforth, Il RSB" ) was often used
by the various rnonasteries throughout Western Christendom
together with other Rules. It did not win wide acceptance
at first. Indeed, it was only fo'llowing Benedict of Aniane
that a strict uniformity of observance of RSB was enforced
in A.D. 817 throughout Ch,arlemagne' s empirr. When l refer
to a "Benedictine" monaste;ry, therefore, l am indicating one
in which the observance of RSB predominated.
(b) Acceptance of stability and the other promises poverty,
conversion of life and obedience - did not entail a canonical
and legally binding contract - a 'vow' 'in the juridical
sense - until monasticisrn itslf, under Benedict of Aniane,
was so organized
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,
sharing with each other the joys and ,vicissitudes of thei;ro
r
communal life. The absence of rank or particularity of
observance further cemented this family bond in that aIl
social clksses and aIl ages of men in the one monastery
received the same treatment from their abbot, followed' th'
same Rule and to one another s imilar love and
fJ!aternal': respect. Indeed, it is important to note in this
"
regard that Benedict (and later, Bernard and the early Cis-
,
/
tercians) certainly did not want the monks to renounce affection
for each other but rather to cultivate family spirit and
koinonia.
Benedict was 'a collectivist in both the material and
spiritual \sense, for he legislt;tted for 'aIl men and not, simply
1
for a sophisticated few. He required his monks to live a
fully cepobitic life working together f'n the fields and shOps,
/
studying together in tl?-e library, sharing a conunon dormitory
and refectory and, of course, celebrating the liturgy together.
Gone we.re tne individualistic rivalries in ascetiisrn of a now
, ,
largely decadent Antonine tradition and its Western colonies.
-
Gone too was the notion that the monastic life must lead beyond
t-he cenobium to the herrnitage. (a) Rather, the Benedictine
(a)
>
Benedict did allow for the possibility that
might want to leave the cenobi\lIIl for a mote
but it was tha'l;- these woulq be few.
was no longer exp,ected of a+l. \ ..
, \
certain monks
soli tary 'life
Certainly it

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monk was to locate his search for God in a life of soli JUde-
in-cornmunity, solitude being preserved by enc;losure and the'
enforced by shared living
and cornrnon tasks, especially the Opus Dei.
-Benedictine asceticism focussed on self-surrender in
*obedience to the abbot, to the Rule and to will
.. of the' conununity as it occupied itself with dod in aIl its
activities throughout the day. It encouraged the monks to
1
renounce an individualistic self-will in humility and love
..
and in imitation of Christ Jesus who had said that he sought
not ta do his own will but rather t:;Pe will of Him Who had sent
him ( Jn. 6: 38)
...
This was designed to weaken the attachments
,
\
to a self-centered life and to place the convert under the
t
increasingly direct guidance of the HOly,Spirit.
1
1
{a}
David Knowles writes
'"
.\
(The spirit of is one of) the forming of nature
to receive grace, y way df a gentle, steady growth
based on com
P
lete/self-sacrifice.
20
J
,
o
was central ta RSB. It represented the interior
of Basilian obedience and had for-Benedict a more
spiritual" and conununal character than . it had had for the
early Egyptian moriks who often tended to combat pride by
way of an increasingly 'sa vere practice auster;ty and bodily
self-mortification. The Benedictine community represented
in this sense a family of fraternal'love in which aIl of
the members shared their burdens with each 'other and
channels of divine love arid inercy for each other.
(
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47 -
st. wrote his Rule for' aIl who wished ta
be monks. Ta wish to be a monk was,' in his own
, .
words, IIto wish ta renounce one' s own will. Il He
is therefore/ for aIl who wish to'
devote themselves to God in a particular form of-
life. His monastery is a' Il school of the Lrd' s
service. Il Everywhre he is positive and construct-
ive. Nowhere does he suggest that he is writing
,for those who have used the world ill and now
repent, or for those who have had a (wicked) past.
He, does not imply that the'monastic life is a
reparation. does he suggest that he lS
writing for those called in sorne special way to
serve God by penance, expiatory sufferings or
intercessqry prayer. iris invitation is to aIl, \
and it:. is the invitation of the Gospel to the irl-
dividual soul.
2l
Benedict called his Rule "a minimum Rule for beginners Il (a)
and wrote:
Therefore must we establish a school of the Lord's
service; in founding which we hoP7 -:t0 ordain nothing
that' is harsh or buraensome. But if, for good
reason, for the amendment of habit or the '
pres'rvation of c::hatity, there sorne strictnes's
of discipline, do not be at once dismayed and run
away,cfrom the way of salvation, of which the
entrance must needs be narrow. But, as'we prgress
in our monastic life and faith, our shall
be enlarged, and we shall run with unspeakable
sweetness of love in the way of God t s commandments
1
so that,never abandoning his rule but
in his teaching dn the mmastery'until death, we
shall share by patience in thesufferings. of Christ,
that we may deserve to be partakers also of his
Kingdom. Amen. (b)
,"
( a r RSB, prologue..
(b) Idem.
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J Benedict saw his Rule as a synthesis of monastic
developments and thus, like them,(a) as but a practical appli-
cation of the rudiments of the Gospel to contemporary conditions.
1
Cuthbert Butler pointed out that RSB begins with Christ, ever
dwells on Christ and ends with Christ. Thus The Instruments
,
Of Good Works - the 75 spiritual and moral precepts comprising
chapter four of RSB - reveal nothing that is monastic in the
technical it is aIl mere Christianity, elementary
, d f d l l" 22
an un amenta re Justin McCann observed
..'
that the three greatest charcteristics-of Benedict
fear (or awe) love of Jesus and sincerity are
precisely those which one would expect of a mature Christian.
Bene'dict, he explained, conceived life as a journey to God in
which aIl of onels actions were to be seen sub specie aeternitatis
J
and oto be animated by spiritual motives.
23
Even
1
a cursory reading of RSB reveals the great extent to whlch it
. ,
(a) Adalbert de Vog explains that the so-called "RU1es" of
Pachomius, Basil and Augustine were originally understood
to be simply cobtemporary on, and applications
of, the one rule Scripture . This, he suggests
was the historical origin and first foundation
- of the rule for the seeonq was the personal eharis-
matie authority of the legislator had to be a- person
with mandate_Irom God to legislate for the of
su'ch a group of men. Cf. "Sub Rgula Uel Abbate" in Rule
...--
And Life, ed. Basil Pennington (Spencer, Mass.: Cistercian
Publications, 1971)', 21-64.
l,
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is concerned with salvation and Judgement, and dominated
throughout by the notion of the reign of and the King-
dom of God.
Benedictine life provided a holistic approach to living.
It within the context of the monastic regimen, a
person' s physical, ment,al and social capacities. It integrated
his interior and exterior being so that the whole man was
consecrated to God. The daily horarium, in a spirit more
moderate than that of early Egyptian monasticism and thus more
appropriate for the ordinary person, balanced study, work and
prayer so that the entire day was given up to deepening the
monk's communion with God and wi'h the brethren in peace,
awareness and love. p
David Knowles remarks:
,\
The Benedictine effort toward perfection, therefore,
does not aim at an initial material renunciation
nor at the imposition of a consistent universal
culture on the mind and soule Its aim is rather
by a sober use, by friction and assimilation, to
establish a kind of equilbrium in which ative
or intellectual and interests are themselves
a spiritual discipline and become spiritualized,
along with aIl the powers and ,.affections of the soul.
24
The principl study of the monks was Scripture and the
/ \ .
of the Fathers of the Church. The was
primarily affective and sapiential rather\than speculative, sine
;

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\h" . 1 d h d
t al.m was to stl.mu ate love for Go _ In ot er wor s,_
spiritual wisd6m, not conceptu;l knowledge, was prized.(a)
Work was both industria'l (in a primitive sense) and
agricltural and was intended to sustain the economfc self-
l '
sufficiencyof the monastery. It also'contributed to a healthy
and well-rounded life by integrating activity and
fact, Benedict revolutionized the
prevailing moral attitude toward work in the west by attaching
dignity and value to it and by giving it an essential place
in manls role as a steward of Godls creation.
Benedictine prayer - indeed its spirituality as a whole -
was in the communal celebration of the liturgy.
Here, at regular hours seven times during the day, the commu-
,
put everything else aside in order to participate, together'
1
with the rest of the "Church, ,in Christ 1 s praise."of
the Father. The litqrgy was in this'sense the repository and
voice of the Church 1 s wisdom and life-spirit, and in it the
monks were daily instructed and thus formed by the solid and
------,
(a) Benedict himself is said tohave abandoned bis studies in \
Rome as a young man because he felt that student life as
he experienced it endangered his moral lite. Consequently,
he left Rome altogether and went apart, into the wilderness
.... to sek God. Pope Gregory the Great deseribed hirn as
scienter neseius et sapienter incloctus ("Knowingly ignorant
and wisely unlearned"). Cf. MeCann, pp. 37-46.
"
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objective foundations of faith. Indeed, on a personal
level, the psalms articulated for the k th
.\1 ,0,
mon s Journey
to Goh with its alterhations of light and darkness, satisfaction
and unfulfilment, consolation and aridity. They sought, there-
fore, to enter them interiorly and, above aIl, to worship God
through them. We wrote Benedict:
/
that God is present everywhere but let us
especially believe this without any doubtingr
when we are performin9 the Divine Office
Let us then consider how we- ought to behave
ourse Ives in the presence of God and his angels,
and so sing the psalms that mind and voice may
be in harmony.(a)
Benedict did not say much about private prayeri he simply
told those who felt 50 inclined to go into the oratory and
pray. Their prayer, however, was to be short and pure unless
it happened to be prolonged by an insPirafion of divine grace,
since they were t9 be heard by God not for their lengthy
but for their purity of heart and tears of cornpunction.(b)
Clearly, the idea was that a faithful and loving observance
of the life itself would the monk's and
\ . !\'
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,1
into an ever more intimate and Spirit-filled union
( ,
With/GOd. j
)'
(a) RSB c.19.
(b) Ibid. c' s 20, 52.'
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It should \be noted in this regard that the tendency to
make a sharp distinction between corporate and private or
\
mental and vocal prayer is modern. Prayer, for the monks of
the Roman period and of the Low Middle Ages was one and un-
the form it might maniIest.
Thomas Merton comments:
,
In the of prayer, as described by the early
monastic writers, meditatio must be seen in its
close connection to psalmodia, lectio, oratio
and contemplatio. It is part of a continuous whole,
the entire unified life of the monk, conversatio
monastica, his turning from the world to God
(These forros of prayer) involve the whole man,
and proceed from the IIcenter
ll
of ,man's being,
his "heart" renewed in the Holy Spirit, totally
sUbmissive to the grace of Christ The whole
life of the morik is a harmonious unit Y in whiqh
various forros of .prayer have their proper time
and place, but in which, in one way or another,
the monk is considered as "praying always.
Simply put, Benedict intended his monks to to walk
in the wa) of grace so that in aIl of their activities in
this they might be pleasing to God and so
life.
Then, he wrptr:
When aIl the degrees of humility have been
climbed, the monk will presently come to that
perfect love of God which casts out aIl
whereby he will begin observe without labour,
as though naturally and by habit, aIl those
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precepts which forferly he did not observe
fear: no longer for fear'of hell, but fot Love of
Christ and through good habit and delight inlvirtue.
- And this wi1l the Lord deign to show forth by the
power of his Spirit in his workman now cleansed
from vice and from sin. (a)
',\
11
Il
(a) Ibid. c. 7.

IF
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Benedict sought, in his efforts to adapt conternporary
. 1
monasticism to cOJfitions of life in sixth century
both to reform existing practices and to synthesi,ze previous
developrnents in the monastic sphere. He did not,intend his
monks to serve secular but
Nor had an individUil'S affirmation
rather God and each other.-
i
of a personal calI from
God to a life of monastic self-consecration and servic'e to be
defended on any other grounds: it was its own reason and
If, therefore, Benedictine monks retired from
1
the world and from an active life in the Church\- and the
monastic life was the only genuine alternative at the
to a life in full contact with the world - it was in order
Ipursue this search for Goa, work out their own salvation and
worship God in holy living under those'conditions best
promoted these
As far as his relatiGnship to otheF Christians was con-
\ ,/ \
cerned, the Benedictine monk was not to consider himself
(a) F. Homes Dudden held that the monastic climate in Italy
in the sixth century was altered chiefly through the
exertions of Benedict, Cassiodorus and Pope Gregory the
Great. Together, he suggested, they gave to Italian
monasticism a new tone and purpose as weIl as an organiza-
tion distincly western and appropriate to the char acter
of western peoples. Gregory The Great Vol. II (London:
Longrnans, Green & Co., 1905), lQo-l.
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superior ta the cleric or the layman. Quite the contrary, he
was to cease altogether from such vain speculations Gr desires,
and ta count himself as nothing befare Gad 'and before his
fellow creatures p The novice was ta be tested in this regard
to deterrnine not only whether he truly saught God, but alsa
whether he was zealous for the Work of Gad, for obedience and
for humiliations. Even priests, when visiting the, monastery,
were to sUbscribe to the self-effacing discipline of the Rule
and ,tlo give to aIl an of humility. (b) In short, the
rnonastic life as Benedict conceived it, was to, be one of supreme
interior paverty and self-renunciationi a lowly life hid with
w
.
Christ in God and by the same radical self-
1
emptying such as Jesus himself had embraced (Phil. 2: 5-8).
Thus the mank should, according to RSB:
attribute to and not ta self, whatever good
(he) sees in (himself) not wish to be
holy but to be holy believe in his inmost
heart (that he is) lower and of less account
than ail others say in his heart whatlwas said
with eyes by the publican in the Gospel:
Lord, l a sinner am not wbrthy to raise my eyes
to heaven (and always) practise fraternal
charity with a pure love (fo that God might)
>& ,bring us aIl alike to life everlasting.(c)
(a) 'RSB ...
(b), Ibid. c.6o'.
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(c) Ibid. c's 4, 7, 72.
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The RSB was for its author but a minimum rule for beginners.
It instructed the monks to refer to the more authoritative
writings of other monastic and Church Fathers. Furthermore,
lit taught that the monk had ultimately to learn, in and through
liturgy, the sacred reading and indeed the life itself,
directly from the Holy Spirit. In other words, the Benedictine
monk was firstly a Christian and, therefore, a mernber (and,
,
conversely, nothing outside) of the one, holy, catholic and
, '
apostolic Church of Christ.
Il
A brief comparison of primitive Benedictinism with the
earlier coptic, Basilian and Alexandrian monasticism might
.
be helpful here in providing us. witl)-, a focus of
their respective orientations towards the Church and the
world. Primitive Benedictinism, it is clear, more closely
resembled Alexandrian than Basilian monasticism in its ern-
,
phasis upon the contemPlative life, and its correlative pref-
erence for solitude and enclusure 0ier against an expliit
1
service orientation. 'On the other hand, it may have more
closely resembled coptic than Alexandrian monasticisrn in the
sebse that Benedict, like Anthony, have expected an imminent
end of the age.
It is difficult to know exactly when Benedict expected
the end of' the wor Id come. Perhaps, like many of his con-
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temporaries, he thought it would coincide with the final
collapse of the Roman empire. What, after aIl, could follow
it? On the other hand, Benedict 1 s creation of a self- suf;ficient
rnonastic community with its finely developed and weIl balanced
'\
life anticipated so weIl the future needs of Europe that one
has to ask oneself whether Benedict was not in fact preparing,
for an indefinite future? Or again. perhaps he was sirnply
responding to conditions as they already existed in those last
aays of and civilization? On the basis of RSB, one may
conclude that its intense concern with 'the Last Things'
provides support for the first choice. Since our present
knowledge of Benedict is seant, however, l do not think that
one should push hykothesis too far. Consequently, my
position in this study that the influence of Alexandrian
(and Basilian)-monasticism on primitive Benedictinism rnay have
,
by the possible intense 'eschatological
tions' of the latter.
. \

The attitude of the hierarchy toward the Benedictines
strongly positive beeause they believed that through them
, <
God was 1 re-v,italizing rnonasticism in. Italy. Life at the time
was turbulent and often brutal, (a) and it was\\very diffieult
.(a) Benedict's life spanned the period of the barbarian inva-
sions and the Gothie War which ravaged the
peninsula.
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for the' clergy to avoid its agitations. Acc'ordingly, the
monastic life was increasingly seen by the Church as the best
way of maintaining that degree of contemplative tranquillity
and peae which were so necessary for profound\:' spiritual growth. (a)
Thus, not only were the monks a witness XO the belief that
Christians II s trangers and pilgrims on this earth"
(Beb. 1'1: 13), but they were also perceived as k.eeping vitally
"(
alive in the &.hurch the spirit of prayer and adoration.
, ,
Two of the canons of the Quinisext Council (A.D. 6,92)
(a) Thus Pope Gregory the Great, looking back on his early
years as a monk lamented: "I remember with sorrow what
l once was in the monastery, how l rose in contemplation
above aIl changeable and decaying things, and the thought
of nothing but the things of how my soul, though
pent within the body, soared beyond its fleshly prison,
and looked with longing upon'death itself as the means
of entering into life. But now, by reason, of my pastoral
care, l have to bear with secular business and, after so
tair a vision of rest, am fouled with worldly dust. l
ponder on what l now endure. l ponder on what lost.
For lo! Now am l shaken by the waves of a great and
the ship of the soul is dashed br the storms of a mighty
tempest. And when l recall the \pondition of my former'
life, l sigh as one who looks back and gazes on the shore
he has left behind. Il Dudden (VOl. r), p. 119.
(b) Cf. RSB: lIThe life of a monk ought at aIl times to be
lenten in character (The monk is) to desire eternal
life aIl spiritual longing' to keep death daily
before hd.s eyes (H is..,one ;who) hastens to his heavenly
country. Il (c 1 s 49, 4, 73).
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It is very beneficial to cleave to God by
from the noise and turmoil of life
fhe life of solitude
O
(has) an itiherent
beauty and honour lt is lawful for every
to choose the life of religious dis-
cpiine, and, setting aside the troublous
surgings of the affairs of this life, to enter
a monastery.26
That the RSB brought to an h;eight
\
within the Western-Church cannot be in_doubt. Not only did it
gain a graduaI but steady afcendency over aIl other Rules, but
it also had, because of its adaptability, an immense and forro-
ative influence upon the social and economic life of Christian \
Europe during what have been rlghtlY ca;.ied 'the Benedictine
. .
centurie4'. Indeed, it was to prove to be, in both its
altered and primitive forms, a continua! source of renewa!
in the spiritual, moral and political life of the great Church.
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SECTION FOUR - BARLY CISTERCIAN MONASTICISM
_ _
The early cistercians did not so much accuse Cluniac
konasticism of or decadent s of having lost
its original Benedictine character. Cluny - founded in A .I>.
910 under the influence of the Carolingian reforms of the
Synod of (A.D. 8l7)(a) - was at the of it)
powers and prestige in the eleventh century and its influence
extended, Christian Europe. Together with its many
daughter-houses, it owned immense tracts of land and great
wealth and exercised control over a large proportion of the
local peasants, including thousands of serfs. As a\ consequence,
however, it beame entangled with numerous,dependencies, and
responsibilities and deeply involved in both ecclesiastical
and worldly -affairs of its proper jurisdiction. It
- in other words, departed from its original monastic purpose.
1
drew
Clunys wealth
r
power, status and social involvement
people to it who were often not,
-
spiritually ipclined or motivated. The practice of child
\
\
oblation and the wranglin.g over privileges and positions further
___ +i__ .. '
(a) Benedict of so-called second of'
\
Benedictinism - was the driving force behihd these reforms.
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compounded the prob1em. Moreover, the life of the black
monks (a) had becorne undu1y l;p-sided because' of an
.
prolongation of the (horal) Office. tra?iional balance
between the Opus Dei, Lectio "Dj,vina, and Labor Manuurn had been
1fst because of the aqcumulation of a mass of liturgica1 ob-
and customs. The monks spent most their
t:!zne in choir, rela"t;ivel'y litt1e in reading land, by the
e1eventh century, none at aIl in manua1 labour.
This development transformed the Jitherto Shott and \
simple liturgy of the eajlY Benedictines into a ponderous and,
complicated affaire The Cluniac ideal had been that the monks r)'
represented the vanguard of Christians in,that the y were
J
'guiding the world:, its true destiny - the earthly
imitation bf the angelic choir in'heaven - the worship of God
in the Church. In actual fact, however ,'. the inner -meaning
the Office, partly under the of the strongfY
liturgical orientation of certain non-Benedictine monastic
trends and partIy because of the highly ordered character of
contemporary Christendom, had a
,A
(a) ThE;! were first. called "gray'" and then fina;Lly
"wllite" monks lin contrast to the traditional "black" habit
of the Benedictines.
...
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transformation. (a) It was irtcreasingly interpreted in a
rather mehanistic and ritualisti fashion as a guid pro qUO
in which the monks performed a fixed role in society by

(1
#
praising God on behalf of the Church, by interceding in

ptayer for others aJ'l,d by thus calling down God's graces for
His people. fot enqugh consideration, f,;-.om the point of view
(,
of the future Cistercians, was being given to the more important
interior dimetJ,sions of monastic servic,e and prayer.
The beginnings of the cistercian Order can be dated to
the ylear A. D. 1098 when Robert of Moleome and subsequently
\
Alberic and Stephen fonded the 'New Monastery 1 of
Citeaux. (b)
,
The movement has to be seen in thel
t '
context of the widespread upheaval - the crisis, in fact, of
a changing civilization - which was taking, place in Europe
'at the ti.rne>. This upheaval was characterized, in the religious
,
Knowles makes the point that .. Benedict did not expect
or o:t;der that (his monks) should carry out the elaborate
and so'lemn public worship .of Gdd which was then being
brought to perfection at Rome, at Milan, at Lyons and else-
, where (that) to put nothing the Opus ,
was not the announcement of a 'policy or an ideal but
t
a simple interpretation of the divine command that
the direCt service of God (was to be a primary) dut y of
a \Chri.stian. -II The Benedictines (Abridged Version) (St.'
Leo, Florida: Abbey Press, 1962), p. 13.
1
The word "Cistercian" der ives 0 from Citeaux, itSjlf named
after the reeds - cistels in BurgWldj.an patois which
abounded in the marshy woodland of the ,area.
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domain, by a renewed emphasis upon poverty and asceticism,
solitude and the spiritual legacy of early Christian and
monastic history. The Cistercians sought./-o disengage them-
selves from the man y encumbrances of worldly involvement and
therefore founded monasteries oin isolated and uninhabited
reg ions. Here they returned to a more pure and exact obsel1vance
of RSB. (a) They simplified the and did away with many
of the mitigations of the RSB and other superfluities which
had introduced fine clothes, abundant food, ornate decorations,
muraIs and paintings into the Benedictine abbeys. They also
restored manual labour to an integral place e daily

(a)

The Exordiurn Parvum, an Ciste;rcian ocument, reads:
In thus taking the rectitude of the le as the
norm on conduct for their whole w of life, they
fully complied with s in'
as weIl as in other observance and arranged them-
selves accordingly. way, discarding the
old man, they enjoye putting on the new one
and behold the new soldiers of Christ, poor
themselves as Christ was poor poverty (is) the
safeguard of the virtues denounced the riches
of the wor Id and f led f rom ( i t) (thereby)
livJ.ng up to etymology of their name.
27
The early cistercian documents do not speak of a "literal"
observance of RSB since Benedict himself had allowed that
circumstances coula. calI .,for adaptations of his ,Rule. The
institution of laY"'"brothers, for was dksigned
1
precisely to enable the dhoir-monks ta "fulfil perfectly
the precepts of the. Rle day and night." "Exordium 'Parvwn"
in LOuis\ Lekai: The White Monks (Wisconsin: Cistercian
Fathers :Publications, 1953), p. 2'63.
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Befo.re long the solitude, simplicity, pdverty, austerity
and egalitarianisrn of life began to attract Christiars
\
eager.) for an ,evangelical and integra,l monastic experience un-
compromised involvement with the world.
Again the Exordium Parvum records what followed:
Through the example (of the first Cistercian,s)
upon whom God poured out His deepest mercy
old and young:, men of every walk of life and from
various parts of the- world became encourag,ed since
, they saw through them that what they hd feared
impossible, the observance of the Rule, was
possible. So they began to flock together there
in order to bow their proud necks under the sweet
yoke of Christ, and to love fervently the rigourous
and burdensome precepts of the Rule, and they
began'to rnake (Citeaux) wonderfully happy and
strong .28
Bernard of Clairvaux was one of 'those who went to citeaux
(A.D. 1112) and thence, after onlt \three years, the new
foundation whicb soon became identified with bis name. He
more than anyone else drew men to the new gave it
\ "
its dynamic and shaped it;:; character. Indeed,
was originally intended, on the part of the first generation
of Cistercians, to be a simple restoration of the monastic
,
life according to the primitive Beneditine ideal,) soon de-
veloped, 4nder Bernard's guidance, into a more explicitly
,
mystical venture. Bernard emphasized the individual and
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int.erior dimensions of the rnonastic life and -the prirnacy of
self-consecration to the perfest love of God.
Accordingly, Bernard's criticism of Cluniac rnonasticism
was not that it was unholy, but rather that it was Inadequate
for those'who needed discipline and who desired a'
more contemplative mode of life. Thus, although the cistercian
was basically the sarne as that_of the primitive Bene-
dictines, the accent with regard to the search for God was,
by virtue of the particular emphasis of the eleventh century
rnohastic renewal, more upon the personal and contemplative than

upon the communal and liturgical aspects of the life. This
Bernardine accent can be seen in his portrayal of the Cister-
cian spirit and ideal:
Our place is at the bottom, is humility, is
poverty, obedience'and joy in the
Holy Spirit. Our place is under a master, under
an abbot, under a rule, under discipline. Our
place is to cultivate silence,to exert ourselves
in fasts, vigils, prayers, manual work and, above
aIl, to keep that more excellent way which is
the way of love: -furthermore, to advance day by
day in these things and to persevere in them
until the last day (his emphasis).29
The influence ot the conternporary movement toward
poverty and and atso, perhaps, of Guigo
whose meditative writings made deep
/
the Carthusian,
\ '
upon Ber!lard,
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is evident here.
Einally, despite this eremitical influence upon early
-Cistercian (i.e. Bernardine) spirituality, it is important to
recognize that the Cistercians helped to preserve Benedict of
\
Nursia's cenobitic model of the monastic life precisely at a
1
r
time when this renewal\ff the eremitical life was making a
serious challenge to the foundations of traditional Benedictine
They reaffirmed the shaken authority of Ben;edict
+ and his Rule while reinvigorating the old structure through
their innovative reforms. (a)
This faith in the enduring value of RSB was central to
'1
(a)! "Three basic ideas seem to have guided the eleventh
century monastic renewal: poverty, eremitism and apostolic
life (i.e. the life of the apostolic community at Jerusalem) ,
The revival of eremitism was closely linked with the
new concept of poverty as an idea as weIL as a historical
phenomenon. The hermit not only withdrew frorn society
but lived in total renunciation, in total poverty, both
internaI and'external Eremitisrn, just as the newand
strict interpretation of poverty, emerged as a reaction
to the prevailing standards of1monastic a
protest against the cornfort and quiet daily routine of
monks of great abbeys which no presented sufficient
challenge to souls yearning for the heroie life of the
Desert Fathers. This attitude clearly irnplied that in
the eyes of the'new generation of refoxmers eremitical
life appeared higher (in value) 'than life spent under
RSB. Il Louis The Cistercian Sp=irit, ed. Basil
-Fennington (Shannon, Ireland: Irish University
1970), pp. 35-8 .
/
67 -
Bernard's c o n c e ~ t i o n of the rnonastic life. Consequently, he
could say:
There can be no doubt as to the true holiness
of this way of life which was designed by divine
inspiration and wisdom rather than by human
prudence or ingenuity. It is,surely for this
reason that Benedict attained a peak of holi-
ness in life as great as was his glory and
happiness after death.
30
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Bernard betieved that only confusion and darkness were
to be found outside of the Christian world of faith, order
and meaning and that, psychologially speakiJ;lg, distress and
misery characterized the life of those who lived according
to self-will and cupidity. Genuine love for others, moral
\
inner harmony could only come from
1
goodness, peace, joy aqd
a faithful conformity ta the life of the Kingdom of God, that
is, from a true practice of that Christ-life which fully in-
\
carnated it.
He commented:
For this is the prdperty of that eternal and
just law of God, he who would not be ruled
with gentleness by God, ,should be ruled as a
punishment by his own self: . and that aIl those
who have willingly throym off the gent le yoke
and lighlt burden of Love should bear unwillingly
the unsupportable burden of their own will.
31
The purpose of asceticism and obedience to the cross of
Christ was not to spurn the creation as though it were in-
evil. Rather, it according to Bernard, to
adhere with aIl one 1 s heart to the order, leauty and good
which had been willed by God from the beginning, had then been
eorrupted by sin, and whieh Christ had sinee come to restore
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in the worlq. and in man and -bis corrununity. AlI human endeavor,
taught Bernard, should therefore tend to God by way of know-
i
ledge,and love. The quest for truth should lead to the con-
ternplation of truth, to the cruclfied Christ who reveals
himself in order to give life and in whom are stored aIl
treasures of wisdom. The study of the content of revelation
should lead to union with the will of God, to onels own
crucifixion to the world of sin and to a beginning of the
\
resurrection Bernard 1 s response to the great question
of -his century as to the imPortanc\e of love in hum an life (a)
to orient everything towards the love of God and of onels
neighbour in Christ. Man should love God, he believed, because
(a) Il Since the rniddle of eleventh century there was behind
the increasingly vigorous movements a
tendency toward ernotional.ism, with a specifie emphasis on
motive of love. Since neither the of its expression
nor its imputability was yet clarified, the problem
caused considerable ,confusion in public opinion as weIl as
men of l:lterature and theology.' The extremists were
represented by'two heretical movements the Albigensians
(for whom) the flesh and carnal desires, consequently love
and marritilge,"IIIare evil .'. the Troubadours (who) elevated
women to a pedestal and ignored the principles'of
Christian morality St. Bernard, with the heart of a
Troubadour himself, the motive of love in the center'
JOf his mystical theology, teaching that affectionate love
of God was th only way of approaching the final goal of
Christian perfection, the union of tne hurnan soul with
its Creator. Il Lekai: The Monks. pp. 39-40.
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God first loved him and was always seeking hirn in order that
Il '
he might love God, his neighbour and himself with the same
love with which the Triune God loves Himself.
To reject the love of God was to be a child not of God
but of wrath and to place oneself not on the of
glory but in the dark places by the gates of death. Free will
constituted fok Bernard the 'image' of God in man, but only
its consecration to qod would restore man's 'likeness' to
Rim. Such a restoration - the, journey :trom the 'region of
unlikeness' to the Kingdom of God - could be effected only
through the transforming power jof the indwelling Holy
Spirit of Christ. It is interesting to note here how modern
is Bernard's of self - the sbjectivity in which
t
the modern spirit-was born - and his particular form of humanism,
that is, his belief that self-consecration to the perfect love
l '
of God and of aIl creatures in God represented the true'ful-
filment of man's nature and destiny.
The monastic life, and especially cistercian (contemplative
life, represented, according to Bernard, the best way to fut
into practice the life of love and of spiritual perfection.
It was, if not the unique, at least th safest ray to
It Jas therefore .for aIl and,
sorne. The monk, h hEnd, having turned his face
the

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true and Jerusalem - the Kingdom prepared for him
from the of the world - had chosen with Mary the
best part ofl aIl (Cf. Lk. 10:38-42).
Bernard commented:
,
l think that monastic profession can be considered
as a second baptism : because of the more perfect
renouncement of the world and the singular excellence
of/such a $pirituat wayof life. It makes those who
live it and love stand out from other men as
rivaIs of the angels and as hardly men at aIl; fQr
it restores the divine (likeness) in the human soul
and makes us Christlike, much as baptism does.
It is also like another baptism in that we mortify
the earthly side of our nature 50 that we may be
and more clothed with Christ, being thus again
"buried in the likeness of his death" (Rom. 6: 5).
Jus,t as 'in baptism we are deliverel from the power
of darkness and carried over into the Kingdom of
light, 50 1ikewise in the second regeneration of
this holy profeasion we are refashioned in the light
of virtue, being delivered, not now from the unique
'darkness of original but from many actual sins,
according to that cry of the apostle: IIthe night
is far advanced and the day is at hand" (Rom. 13:12).32
Bernard spoke of the cistercian monastery as a school
l
of self-giving love in which the monks learned the mysterious
ways of the Spirit acquiring an ever deeper detachment from
1
self and purity of heart, and by displacing fear and cupidity
by love by way of the practice of
He remarked:
0
(To) give ourselves to outward things ,(would be
to) the true and everlasting yalues of
)
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- 72 -
God's Kingdom which is within us. The monk
is supposed to be a poor man and spiritual
his attire the spirit prayer and humility.33
Bernard was confident thatj generosii:y of spirit and
ardent faith would be rewarded,with God's good blessings,
the 'kiss' of Christ. Ideall
Y
r
tnerefore, the monastery was
paradise ' J'n which the monks might enjoy
\ .
blessednes of heaven.
to be a 1 claustral
a foretaste of the
J
Ours is a paraaise .,. beautified, like that of
'old, by the waters from four fountains the
fountain of mercy which washes away the stains
Q
of our sins; the foqntain of wisdom which gives
the waters of discretion for allaying our spiritual
thirst; the fountain of gr ace and devotion which
irrigates the plants of our good works and the \'
labours of our penance and abstinence; the fountain
of which enflames our hearts These four
fountains our Blessed Lord otfers to us in His
own Person while we still live on earth. A fifth,
which is the fountain of eternal life, He promises
to give us in the world to come.
34
There was for Bernard and the early Cistercians and,
indeed, for aIl who adhered to the patristic tradition, anJ
- \"
ever present tension between tbis-worldly concerns and the
the beyond. Therein lay the cause for their detach-
ment from the things of this world, the source of
l
their hJpe -
,
tHe expectation
Jerusalem - and
bf towards the heavenly
\
their unquenchable thirst for an ever more
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intimate union with God. Thus Bernard cou,ld exclaim:
Thanks be to God, through Whose mercy in this
our pilgrimage, in this our banishment, in this
our state of misery, unto us consolation also
has greatly abounded. For this ,reason we have
taken care to adrnonish you that this our distance
from our heavenly country should not be long
absent from our mind, and that we should
found ever hastening onwards to our heaveniy
iqheritance. He that knows not desolation,cannot
appreciate consolation, and is
that consolation is necessary shows plainlythat
he is not in God's favour.
35
How did early C'istercian monasticism compare, wlth regard
o
.
to its orientation towards the Church and the world, with the
monasticism of the Roman period?
An point becomes apparent as soon as one looks
at the historical and monastic context in which each arose.
--
.
The Church and 'the world had become one in Christian Europe
by the eleventh century in the sense that a society which
had still been largely pagan in the fourth and even sixth
was now Moreover, monasticism
had now assumed a status in Christendom ,much greater and more
pervasive than that which it had known during the Roman periode

The Cistercians, therefore, were separatidg thernselves from
a society which was now not only lthoroughly Christiap but
also one in which the monastic tradition was deeply entrenched
and widely respected. Thus, whereas the primitive ,Benedictines '
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had offered almost the only to a life in full
contact with a pagan world, the Oistercians were reacting

against an ecClesiastical culture and a Cluniac monasticisrn
which was strong ahd
This belief that the Cluniac observance was still too
worldly and insufficiently monastic (i.e. in the primitive
Benedictine sense) reflected both the current widespread
.' . "
/
desire for solitude, poverty and the apostolic life on the
one hand, and Bernard's particular 'eschatological perspective'
on the other.
Early cisterctan rnonasticism resembled primitive Bened-
ictinisrn in its preference for the cenobitic over the eremitical
life and in its emphasis upon contemplative solitude as opposed
to the service orientation of Basilian Yet,
whereas the latter had incorporated the personal and
aspects of Egyptian_monasticism into its own more cbrnmunai and
liturgical regimen, Bernard allowed this Egyptian (and contem-
porary eremitfcal) to cistercian observance
of RSB. Another differene with to their res-
pective as to the imminency of the parous'ia wil'l
depend on one's estimation of Benedict's views in this
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iegard. (a)
In any case, BeFnard, in
of the Kingdom of put the
his perception of dynamics
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emphas2s, 12 e A exan r2an
monasticism before hm, not on i'bs future, consummation but
rather on its presence as a hidden, spiritual reality with
.
which the Christian mystically communes, as it were, through
o 0 lOf d 0 0 t f t
O
1
a pragress2ve converS2on, of 2 e an 2nter2or rans orma 20n
in the Spirit. Man'S exile from the Kingdom of God, tapght,
Bernard, was commensurate with his spiritual ignorance and,
\ .r
above aIl, lack of love: (b)
,
If the soul lives by the love of God just as
the body lives by the soul, how, l ask, can
one contend that it is more present where it
gives life than where it receives it? Love is
the fountain of life he who loves God,is
with God according ta the measure of his love.
'Insofar as he fails to love, to that extent he
1

(a) They may also have differed from it witq regard to the
practice of hospitalitYi specificaliy, fin the degree to
which each monastic community\separate5 itself from its' ,
guests. So great was theif worldiy contact,
and such were the social customs which had deve10ped in the
intervening centuries to ryal and ecclesiastical
/"visitors, that the conside ed it imperative to '"
a stricter pol+cy of than had been
necessary in Benedict's time. the'cistercian practice
allowed only the Guestrnaster and occasionally the abbot J
to make themselves avilable to- guests.
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(h) Early Cistercian differed from the more thoroughly Christian
Platonist Alexandrian monasticism in preferring to emphasize'
love rather than gnosis .
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is yet in exile The of heaven and
its justice are to be sought within your own
souls rather than outside or above ,them
,Our rewa!d is n0
7
to passible 36
. or changeable thlng but a heaven.
The early cistercian preference for greater solitude,
- silence, pQverty and austerity and a integraL observance
of RSB thus followed naturally not 'bnly from their dissatisfac- .
tion with current'monastic attitudes and practices, but also
1 ..
from their belief that such measures better promoted 'a !l>rofound
,
interior experience.of the life of the Kingdom of God.
Let us now look at the relationship between the monks
and the hierarchy.
<'
Bernard was alwys a faithful servant of the"Church c
(
and it is weIl known o what extent he single-handedly in-
\ 1
rluenced the outcome of Europe both in the halls
\
of popes and kings and among the common He opposed
, ,
the abbots in his Order who sought to withdraw
from the a'J..thor.ity of their bishops. Such an attitude, he'
\.\ .
was not by God. Indeed, in the days of
Order-these threatened monasteries were
helped, both materially and politically, by local bishops.
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Without" tPeir ,support and that of: it ts possble that
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the cistercians might have been forced back into the Benedictine
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Betnard taught that 'aIl Christians are of one and
the same Church, in heaven and on earth, and that those who
are baptized form a single corrununity: " he aven and the Church.
The two are one in Christ, he explained, the only difference
that in this life the Christian sees throu9P a glass
darkly, whereas in heaven it will be face to face. The
monastery was seen as a myste
1
y within the heart of the mystery
of the Church. It was a sacrament, that is, both a reality
a sign revealing to the Church and to the world that the
.
.;
Kingdom of God is dynamically present, the power of
the risen Lord, to the first directly and explicitly and to

the second lndirectly and implicitly.
l,
1
of the therefore. was to
by their lives to the two basic realities Qf the
First, the primacy and of -the Kingdom
/ .
qf God, the hidden Ground):"and Source of aIl that '1, the
bonum of all authentil:: human life:- Second. to a holy
koinonia which i5 the manifestation in human'corrununit) of
that profound and mysterious reality wh!ch is loving
of life the in the Son, through the Holy Spirit.
One can, however, di$cern a certain ambivalence in
Bernard with regard to the relative merits of the Cistercian
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Order vis--vis both other monastic groups' and the rest of
the Church. On the one hand, he taught that there were diverse
forms bf service within the Church. It was love and the
.
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disposition of the heart that mattered. This Lbve could take
man y forrns. What important was not so much the forro but
the love, the Spirrt of life and of truth. After aIl, G?d
gave of His graces as He chose according to the mysterious
,
designs of His providence. Man, for his part, could not
merit in this life, since he saw only the done
and was' unaPle to pene1'?.a.:t:e to the heart. perceived
. -
in this regard that even the desire for contemplation could
at times a covert selfishness 'nd opposition
to the will of God.
the other hand, in his for Cistercian life,
Bernard saw his monks as a spiritual elite whose lives were
..
consecrated to God to a greater and thus with a
\ .greater excellence, than was possible elsewhere.
J'ean connnents-:
1
Bernard is so persuaged,that the new observance
Rule toassure the interior renewal
of who adheres to it, that he to
attrbute to Citeaux and its institutions a monO-
aIl true monastic renew;l On'account
of the,authoritarianism which is the
of his strong personality, this great man\ of the
spirit cornes to'the point of the charism
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within a structure that limits its possibilities
,of j
This ambivalent att\tucte was other early
Cistercians, sorne of 'rather condescending towards
the black monks. In order to counter the gr.owing puritanism
"-
and self-satisfaction of his fellow Cistercians, and perhaps
to clarify for himself his own views of the matter, Bernard
...
wrote his famous Apologia to William, the abbot
of St,\ Thierry. In it, he sought to restore hat'mony between
the two groups by the holiness of Cluny against
his own over zealous monks, and by the reasons
for which some,)Christians thought it des,irable to pursue a
sfricter course of life. This weIl publicized work helped
to diffuse a lot of the tension, though sorne no doubt remained
in the continuing competition between the two falilies.
For the most part, therefore, the early Cistercians were .

strongly of the Church as a fraternal and basically
1
egalitarian society.
\\
The hierarchy its part held the Cistercians in high

,esteem. Pope paschal wrote:
One part of you has left the broad roads of the
world, another even the of a
laxer monastery. Consequently, in order that you
may be considered always more and more deserving
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of this graee, 10U must to keep alway,s
in your the fear and love of God, so that
the more free you are of noises and pleasures
of the Jbrld, the more you aim to please God
wlth aIl the powers of your mind and soul.
38
,
Pope Eugene III, hirnself a Cistercian and former monk
39
'of Clairvaux, spoke of, their setting a "prophetie example" ,1
by their holy witness to the Kingdom of God.
In short, the startling suecess rapid growth, indeed,
, . \
explosion of the Order throughout Christian Europe convinced
the whole of Christendom not only of the sure
f
appreeiation of'the religious needs and of the
time, but alsp of their spiritual
\\
plan for His people.
authentieity and pUrpose in
Gad' s
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PART THREE
A STUDY OF TRENDS IN, AND DIMENSIONS OF,
THE CHRISTIAN CONTEMPLATIVE MONASTIC LIFE
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SECTION PIVE - WORLDVIEWS AND TRENDS
(a)
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Chrlstian contemplative monasticism represented a
particular response to the activity of God in history
and human It bespoke thetprofound conviction
on the part the monks each of them personally }lad
been called by God to a life 9f total self-consecration ta
Him and His Christ, and to that Kingdom WhlCh is in the
world but not of it, yet which is the true home of Christians.
So far as the monks were concerned, were it not for the
resurrection of Jesus and the inauguration of the Kingdom
of Christ on earth, one would be hard tp make any
\\ real sense of their way of ,life,. let alone account for tthe
.
'new aqd abundant life' they had discovered in it.
-
The very raison d'tre If contemplative they
held, lay in this celebration and ever realization,of
sonship in Christ, that is, of the Kingdom of Gad.
1\.
(a) This chapter will outline the general monastic self-
understanding and worldview of the Roman period and
of the Low Middle Ages in the light oftheir respective
i
'eschatofogical perspectives'. It will then contrast '
the essentially patristic worldview of the monks of this
first millennium of Christian with that of the
Modern Age. ,
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The spirltual and prophetlc authenticity of the monastic
modality of Christlan discipleship and been
recognlzed by the hirarchy almost from the beginning,.
Athanaslus, as we seen, viewed the monastic lite as a
distinctive and inspired wltness to the charlsmatic heritage
of the Church, and as an important complement to the latter's
other, more secular aspects. Similarly, Augustine upheld
its value by arguing that Christianlty has a double form:
it lslthe authoritative visible Kingdom, the Clty of God
1
whose foundations are not in this present worldi it is also
h
. d f l' 40
t e lnner Klng om 0 contemp atlon. Thus, the monastic
community was seen by t an early date bath
aS a witness to the hidde
{"
of the Spirit apd, ex-
panding upon an idea suggested by Clement of Alexandria, (a)
\,
as a rich reservoir and channel of Divine Love for the whole
Body of the phurch.
Let us now look at each of the two monastic periods in
"
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turn.
It remains an open questiDn as to whether or not the
\
primitive Benedictines shared the intense 'eschatological

(aJ Just as the Church w prese t in each local church,
so, taught Clement, did the ct istian gnostic,
ma\fked by the entire wealth of conununion th Gad, 'tecome
a tneans of conveying God 1 s Divine Love ta the
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expectations' of the Coptic monks. What is certain,
is that neither of thern accepted the nO,tion that Christians
could simply settle down in the worlcr and find a secure or
profitable place in it. Rather, Christians were
and pllgrlms on the earth" (Heb. Il:13). They inhabited anl
,
alien and dying world and would soon - a certainty with
regard to Anthony, a possibility with regard to Benedict -
be rescued fromlit with the return of Chrlst and the con-
summation of the Kingdom. The world was alien not because,
as Gnosticism or Manicheanism taught, it was inherently
\
evil, but rather because it was sinful in that it had rejected
Christ Jesus and his calI to repentance and covenant. It
was dying because, the of the Kingdom
the "form of this wor1d (nad begun to) pass away"
(I Cor. 7: 31)
'0
Al though they carne after Constantine l chrono-loglcally,
the ear1y and primitive Benedictine mopks, given
\
their 'eschatologica1 perspectives', cou1d a1most be con-
siderek '. pre-constantinian' in their part:i,cu1ar theo1ogica1
(.
self-understanding and orientation. monastic life for
\
these mtrnks of the Roman period cou1d sti1' be'seen, in
other words, in relation to a predominantly secular socfety,
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and a Church still in the process of its place
in the world of these 'in-between times'.
The principal responsibility of the Church in this
from the point of viewof the monks, was to defend the Faith
against the final desperatelassaults of the evil Prince of
,
this world, to be a shepherd to the faithful and to bring
,
,
within the fold as man y as God would give them from the world.
The primary concern of the monks themselves was twofold.
\
First, to respond tf the calI of God and to the demands of
the Gospel of Christ in a prayerful life of study, work and
praise. Second, given their concern the apparent
diminution much of the great Church of the intensely
Spiri t- filfed life of primitive/ Christianity togethe'r wi th
,ip
1 its critical break with the world, 'tb embody and promdte
that charismatic and other-worldly ideal in contemplative
monastic life of total self-consecration to God.
\ Bernard and the early C.istercians perce1ived the Kingdom
,
of God as a hidden spiritual reality to sought 'within',
, \1
and to be enj'oyed and celebcratd in this life as a beginning
in expectation of its full enjoyment in the next. The time
of i ts conswmnation was relegated te> an indeterminable .future
.-
were in exile, according to Bernard, to the Christianb
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extent to which their 'likeness' to Christ'had yet to be
.
restored, that 'is to say, in the measure in ,whi' ch they had
\
not yet found their true self in loving and serving God and
each other with the same love which Christ Jesus had manifested.
When of the world as alien and as a place of darkness
1
and of death, therefore, he was referring to its as
a 'region of unlikeness' where people were e\stranged fromGod
and from thernselves because they resisted, or were in open
opposition to, Spirit of (self-giving) Love which ,is th
. \
Ground and Source of truth and of life.
The proper of the Church from the point of view
of the'monks was, first, to encourage the construction,
defence and expansion of a Christian-inspired
and order which would reflect cosmological
arder and where the,princi\les
be better served. And secorrd,
1
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of the Kingdom of God would
t\ the People of Gad
towards an ever purer love for G6d and for each other ln\
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holy living.
One 'add in this regard that the Church's self-
understanding was, until the ascendancy of Scholasticisrn
o
in the latter part of the much the same as
it had been in the t'ime of the 1;athers. It was seen not so
much as an institution .or the
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Mystical Body and Servant of the presence of God's
redemptive love and mercy among men and the organism of their
manife'station to the world, where the transforming revelation
of the was accomplished. with regard to
the teaching of the Church, Etienne Gilson has observed:
From Gregory the Great to Bernard the objective
content of revlation was unchanged as were the
practical demands which union with God makes on
the soul; only men themselves had ehanged to a
certain extent. A new senslib ility, a more
affective outlook, had gradually appeared.
4l
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Ideally, the monastie eommunity itself was thought to
represent a sort of antechamber of heaven in that_it
'Pa foretaste of
the peace, joy and love of heaven. At the
same time, the
;,
monks set a prophetie example for al'l
on two levels: On a public level, they
to the reality, the primaey and the de"lectability of the life
.
and values of the Kingdom of God. On a deeper level, 'Yhid
with Christ in God" (Col. \3:3), they, like the monks of the.
Roman period, continued to keep vitally alive in the Church
. the sp,irit of prayer: and sacrifice. This -contemplative
.- life., they held, helped to maintain th' heritage
of the integral part in the mtstrious
unfolding of the' Kingdom lOf food and of His Christ.
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The patristic outlook of Anthony, Benedict and Bernard
\
and of their spiritual sons was in sharp contrast to the modern
worldview. Theirs was a theocentric, anh
contemplative as opposed to an anthropocentric, dialectical
and operative worldview. To modern eyes, their tiny and
f ' \
geocentric universe was the forum for a cosmic drama in which
the eterna destiny of each human being was "to be decided
on the basis of his beliefs and actions in this life. God
held the universe in being by His power and wisdom, and aIl
transpired lin it happened His foreknowledge and
.-
ccording to His will. There was a fixed order and design
h re which was to man whose task was to
it frOgFeSSiVelY, and to conform-his intellect and will to
i t. \ In the same way as body was s1Wordinate to .,soul,
so was the/material to the SPirtual order. Ihe thealogieal
formulation of this faith held that man discovered right
living and the fulness' of life in obedience to the teaching
and guidance of Christ alfd of His Church, and in --the use of
created things and the exercise of hurnan freedom in the s1rvice
of the Kingdorn of God.
Q
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The 'monks of the RQman period and of the Low Middle Ages,
Augustine, saw history as a great poem
o
which on a
complete and intlligible rneaning - the hidden signif-
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icance of many - as the beginning and
end it were known. The Word of God made flesh was at
the center of) the whole great. work of the creation and
sanctification of the world. It was in re"lation ta Christ
that all that had preceded'His accompanied
'. 1
it\ and all that would fOdlow it, were to be aAd
correlated. \ History was ordered and penetrated throu9h
1
and thr7pgh by this internal unit y and teleology. If, there-
fore, these monks ta pay much attention ta
thr than do most it was because they considereq
their Chri.stian and, mOl1astic sources to the breath 'n<;i.
. .
form of Creator Spiritus. ln rediscovring t.I1at living
\ . .
truth for themselves, 1 and by a deeper communion
with i ts grace '. they sought thereby t? better dispose thems,elves
\
for a more fruitfulorole ln the plan of the Mystery which
would, in the fulness of time, see all things recapitulated
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One can dlscern, during the first nine centuries of
monastic history, two phases in the attitudes and
policies of 'the .hierarchy monks'. The first
began wi'th Bishop Athanasius and ended with Pope Gregory
the Great. It was characterized by a desire on the part of
hierctrchy both to control and to protect the development
of monasticism. The second phase began with the same Pope
Gregory and ended with Pope Eugenius III. It was characterized
by an oscillation between an encourag'ement. of monastic solitude
at one moment, and then a desire for a greater monastic in-
volvement in the general affairs of Christendorn at another.
11
Let us now explore each phase in turn.-
The mutual friendship of Bishop Athanasius and abba's
Anthony and Pachomius and a shared respect for what each
other represented and was trying to do prevented a repeat
- of the Montanist dis aster . It as we saw, to the inte-
gration of monasticism into the Church and to the
of episcopal control over the activities and practices of the
monks.
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(a) This chapter will look at the monastic fact in the
of sorne of the and trends which developed in the
course of Christian history which led the to -
assume a varied attitude with regard to the sigrtificance
of the monastic presence, and its role, in
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Basil of Caesarea reinforced this 'trend by p1iltting his
monasteries under the direct controi of the local bishop,
,
and by having them serve, as .an integral aspect of their
monastic observance, the needs of the people of the surrounding
('
region. Similarly, Jphn Cassian, by developing Augustine's
notion of monastic self-consecration to the 'inner Kingdom

)la
of contemplation', argued that monasticism was rootea at the
very heart of the (inVisiblL) Church.
The next stage came when various bishops, including,
ironicaliy enough, Basil's successor, began to abuse
their authority by involving the monks in violent ecclesiastical
partisan politics and in the struggle gainst pagans and her-
etics. In response, the Council of Chalcedon (A.D. 451)
ordered ,aIl bishopsJand monks to restrict themselves in the
\
" future to their auly assd.cjned tasks and respdnsibilities.
Canon IV reads:
No one anywhere (may) build found a monastery
or oratory contrary to the wil"'i -of the bishop
of the city ... Monks in every city and district
shall be subject to the bishop, and embraGe a quiet
course of life, ,and give themselves only to fasting
and prayer, remaining permanently in the places
1 in which they were, set apart; and theX shall '
meddle/neitner in ecclesiastical,nor in secular
affairf, nor leave their menasteries te take part
in unless, indeed, they whould at any time
through urgent necessity (i.e. and for
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purposes) be appointed thereto by the bishop
of the city ... But the bishop (for his part)
must make the needfui provision for the
monasteries.
42
The final stage' of this first phase can be seen in the
.
11
perfect realization on the part of the 'primitive Benedictines
of the hopes and exp'ectations of the Council of Chaicedon.
Thus, by the close of the Romp Pope Gregory the Great,
upholding the beauty and the great value to the
Ch h
/1 . . . d h k
urc of contemp atlve monastlclsm, encourage t e mon s
. (. . . .
to cultlvate'thelr monastlc conversatlo ln a propitious at-
t _ ... - ....
mosphere of silence and solitude. Accordingly, in a move
designed ta put an end to what had become, in spite of the
spirit (though not necessariIy the,letter) of the Chalcedonian
regulations, an unwarranted intervention on the part of the
bishops in the internaI affairs of the monapteries, Pope
Gregory decreed:
that both the bishops rnay be content with the
rights of their own churches and no more, and
that the monasteries be to no eccle-
siastical conditions, or canpelled' services,
or ebedience of any kind to secular authorities
(and saving) only canonicai .
but, freed from all vexations and amioyances, .
may accomplish their divine work with the ut-
most devotion of heart.
43

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The Basilian service orientation, therefore, represented,
during the Roman period, an exception to.the rule of monastic
solitude and enclosure. This situQtion was not to last 10hg,
however, for .it presupposed a degree of order
1. .
sta1?ility which was soqn, td, aIl and purposes, to b'e-
lost.
,,-
1 Phase two began when Pope Gre90ry decided to use the
training and ski Ils of the monks for what had been until
1
this time, at least in the West, strictly speaking, non-
exten t through
Under his andl to sorne
the influence of Cassiodorus's seholarly
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orientation, the Benedictines almost single-handedly
to keep in Europe the delicate flame of civilization
and learning. During what have sinee ealled 'the
,
Bendictine centuries', they undertook to perform the manx
agricultural, apd
literary works for which they were to become 50 justifiably
famous. Indeed, the Benedietine monastery, together with the
village that usually formed around it, was to prove to be /
the ideal socio-economie and admi'nistrative unit for the de-
and chaotic 'conditions prevailed in
Christian Europe during the Dark Ages. was to rernain the
basic unit in society until the full emerg:nce of the

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stat-e1n the eleventh c!=ntury.
'rhe stage came when, in the ninth centur
1
,
. lesmagne ordered Benedict of Aniane to bring order to a
somewhat disorJanized monastic sdene in Europe. This
he did by enforcing a uniform observance of RSB throughout
the H?ly Roman Empire. It might be supposed since a
measure of political and social organzation had
now been restored to life, much
of this great burden of-responsibility the shoulders of
t
the that the latter would have been in a position to
return to 'the primiiive ideal of solitude and
'\ . !
enclosure. This was'not 'the case, however, for only

was this monastic contribution an elemerit of Ca-
rolingian culture but also, 'and equally significantly, a
..
new development had already the original obser-
vance.
Most of the monasteriel? throughout Western Europe had \\\
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for centuries now been in tbe habit of the RSB
. \ '
with the practice ?f1fOrmal pUblic worship begun in the
s ixth cent ury.
l
Thus , by tne ninth century, the two orient-
'ations - the one solitude, the other towards a
liturgical apostolate - hqd become confused, with emphasis
shifting more and more tOwards thk latter. This development.
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culminated in the tenth
.
rapid growth of
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centurf in the \ estab 'shment . and
Its perfection of the practice of
e
together its strong social
,
volvement, led to a virtual abandonment on the part of the
(Cluniac)' Benedictines of the cultivation of monastic solitude.
"f'--:-""'""'''-I
The next stage saw bre'ak with Cluny over ... ,
.....
'\
\
. .
issue of poverty, simplicity and solitude. This shift of
emphasis represented in part an att'empt by the mbnks to
(, ",f
control once again theii affqirs.
)
..

.
for its part, recognizing the spiritual vitality
,
of the primitive Benedictine charisrn and the advantages of
.
having two mon'astic within the Church, supported
the 'New Monastery' . / !
The
1 \
l1ugen1us
final stage of this got underway when Pope
III, a former novice of Be'rnard, began to put
.
.
-pressure on the Cistercians,to become more involved, in
,the cu;rent period of poiitibal, social and intellectual
burmoil, in the general affairs of ,Christendom. This ex-
.>
pectaJion was in large measure a natural consequence of
the ambiguity in Bernard of Clairvaux's own life between
an ardent-desire for solitude and an acceptance of the
,
need to assume of moral leadership rt a time
"
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- 96 '-
of crisis. The example and which had been
, by Bernard\ the 'course of a long, .truly
pOl>,
and astonishingly active influential career was sirnply
too grat for his spirithal son to ignore. 'Once )
though this time for a reason, a burden of res-
ponsibility for the hea1th and prosperity of, Christendom
,
had fallen upon the shoulders of the monks. /,
This 'oscillation on the part of the
, \,
an encouragement of monastic solitude and a that t
monks share, in times of crisi
p
, the fruits 0)
that solitude in a of greater social wlth
the rest of the Church reflected a 'fundamental
within Christianity itself. On the one hand, t ere was its
\
primitive, and other-worldly ideal. On the other,
J \ \ was i ts concern for the challEi!nges facing' tlte Church as a
growing religious If, therefore qp equilibriurn
..
between the two, orientations were to be
1
the rnonks were to be' able to the
contemplative lif they sc -desired" it was necessary that
..
the Church as a whole enjoy a general -stability and well-bing,
. .
This fact had been recognized by the from the
start as a' condition ,of Christian d!scipleship. From the
..' 0 (1
moment knelt before Bishop and actively
.,-
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movement began
co-responsible with
and of
IJ

the
1
1
the
.... 97 -
Arianism, the monastic
.
with, and to hold itself
1 1
hierarchy for, the general welfare .'

Church. Specialized organizations
" '
of religious would ar:,'se after the twelfth century and would
handle the tasks now te the monks, but until that
\'
,
day arrived" bath the ;ierarchy and the monks recognized th
1'\ '
justLfication of, and compell"ing need for., occasional mon-
\
astic participation-in general affairs of Christendom.
1
" \.1
There was simply no one else at the time, who could respond
!
to the needs of the Church as weIl ,as could the monks.
One an also look at this development by exploring the
twofold manner in a strongly ecclesiology
\
perceived the relationship of the Church tO.the Kingdom of
, ' ,-) \
God. On one level, it ident.ified the 'invisible Chur ch "
with the Kingdom of God as present, albeit hidden" spiritual
reality. solitude, from this point of view, was
,
of to the Church as a witness to the existence and
goodness of what Augustine had called 'the inner Kingdom
1

of contemplation'.- On another level, it 'spoke of the 'visible
Church' as the celebrant and servant the Kingdom of God
\
/
,
/
- 98 -
\
in the wprld. (a) Monastic invo in the ,general affairs
of Christendom, from this po:in t of view, was thus justified
whenever the Church had need of it.
. .
In other words, Christians either felt
called to, cloistered in order that ther might
glorify ... His Son and His Church througl?- a holy koinonia, or,
,
they found themselves to be the recipients of those charisms
which were ,necessary to enable, them to respohd fruitfully
to the and confronting the
Sometimes, as with Anthony and. especially
,
experienced both. In any ca'se, it was, held the Church,
aIl part of the providential of His Kingdom.
(a) The triumphalist attitude of sirnply identifying the
'visible Chur ch , with tne Kingdorn of God 'would not
become pervasive until after the Protestant
\
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,
SECTION six - THE MONASTIC DIMENSIONS OF COMMUNITY & OF LOVE
- .
It might be best to begin this as to how
the monastic corrununity served the function of, traniRg the
, \ ' \
monk in the way of grace by looking briefly at the notion
of tAe,will'of God together with the peculiarly monastic
interpretation of the meaning of metanoia.
,Grace signified the presence and activ;ity within the
...
soul of the inqwelling and Roly Spirit of God.
Although it was bestowed upon a person,at baptism, it had
,
then to be developed during phe of his life through
an ever purer obedience to the will of God." The purpoke' of
grace, that is, the mission or the Holy Spi it was form
Christ the believer and so to er more intimately
..
wi th, the Father in the Son through the Holy
Similarly. the will of re resented both
the inner liIe of the Triune into which ma was-admitted
, ,. , 1
in Christ by grace, and the in whicp he had ta liv
,\
(a)
\
This will look at the monastic commtrlnity from
the view both of its functional as an
institution orienfed the of grace,
and of its charismatic character as 'an epfphany of the
and Spiri t-'f,illed life.
l'

,.".
, .
,--
-,
'C
- 'Ir
- 100 '-
.
1
in order to conform to the way of the Spirit and so be
transformed in and 'commune with God. The inqividal could
, \., .
only obey the will of God by bringing his entire life under
""
\
the contrc?l an\d guidance of the Holy Conver-
sely, a continuous and purer obedience to the will of _!
-
God deepened and clarified his realization of sonship in
, /ChEist and pis sensitivity ta .. the mavement of the Holy Spirit
in the soule Clearly, therefore, grace and the will of
1
/
reRresented two aspects of the same
'" -
Christ-life or life of
,
,
the Kingdom of God: \\ they signified Godls work in the soul
\
:to make it like tfimself. Hence Jesus cruld 'say, "only he
who does the will of my heavenly Fathe'r shall \the
l , ;,
of (Matt. 7:21).
Paul often elaborated upon the life of the Kingdom of
God and its relationship to the will of God:
\
The of God does not mean food and drink
but righteousness and peace an joy in the Holy
Spirit . The of God consists in
.. power by whch we are justified, washed and
in the name of the Lord Jesus Chr is't
and in the Spirit of our God and are united
to'Him and become one spirit Him Do not
be conformed to world, but be transformed
by ,the renewal of your minds, you may prove
what is acceptable and perfect will
l-
of God continue to work"out your
own with fear and tremblingi for God
. .
. "
...
..
..
\ '
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- 101 -
is at work in you" to will and to work
f<?r His good 14:17; '1 Cor.
6: IL 17; Rom. -12::2; 2: 12-13) "
The life of .the Kingdom of God was, above al, one of
joyful self-giving love. ConsequentlY,I heart of the"
,
, ,
Christian life lay in the personal and shared ex- .
periepce of that love, an possible through
the mission of the Holy Spirit. Obedience to grace and to
the will of' God entailed,
# ,-
therefore, an ever greater and
purer self-abandonment in loving faith to the
, .
Spirit of Divine Lov. As William of sl. ThierrY'put it:
The love of God, God who is love, the Holy
Spirit, pours hirnself into our love and our
spirit and attracts us, .to himself. Then God
loves himself in us and rnakes us', our spirit
and our love, one with himself.
44
1
.. Sin, on the other hand, ultimately represented a re-'
,-
jection of the will of God and of love in favour
1
of an egotistical attachment to self-will ana ta self-
aggrandizement over othels. a radical metanoia
'1as required in' .. the sinner - and aIl human beings are sinners, \ ,
, /
, /
taught theology - if his! life' was to be reconciled
//,,/'
with. tha!;<'out-gging Spirit of Christ which is "the way, .. the
r
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.the life" (Jn.

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\
The under'standing or metanoia was somewhat
diffefent from what it 'had been'for the Chfistians.
Q ,
It meant more to the monks than simply entrance
:1 by into the new" of th: nEj!w Israel aJd an
,
acceptance of the yoke br new law of the kingdom of
-- .
It now also connoted an interi>or transformation in the
. . .
Spirit, a transformation of consciousness, as it were, an
..
acquiring of the of Christ' and a IJlystical 'inner :te":' (
,,'"
nactment of -y-he radical. kenosi's pr self-emptying wh,ich
\ l'
having the mind of Christ entai1ed (Cf. 2:519).
The monks believed that a profound and
, ,
mystical formation was required if Christians were consciously
to participate in-the communication of the divine being by
, '
"partakers of the divine nature" (II Pet. 1:4).
They had, therefore,.\to fo11ow an interior 'way of the c'ross'.
This meant that just as Jesus a1ways did the will of his
.
Father, that is, was perfect1y docile to the of
,
the Holy Spirit - for which reason he was without sin - 50
had the of Jesus to allow th,mselves ta be led
by \SPirit through trials and suffering dnd
aridity and finally to their own personal "crucifixion' or
Each had to 'die' on a crtain level of his
- that of s'elf-centeredness - in order to consummate
\
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- 103 -
that transformation in the Spirit which had been begun at
baptisme Only in this way would he be led to a personal
A 'rebirth' on a higher and more spiritual 16:!vel .... i.e", that
ft
/
of Chd .. st-centeredness - and so be able to say with Paul,
*'"
"1 have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer l who
but Christ who lives in me" (Gal. 2:20).
As Merton observeq:
'./- .
In aIl the different (ear ly monastic) traditions
Greekl coptic, Syriac, Palestinian - there was
common agreement that in the desert the monk
renounces his own i llusory ego- self, "dies" to
hlS worldly and empirical self in order to
surrender to the transcendent reality
which, though described in various terms, is
always best expressed in the simple Biblical
express-i.on "the will of God". In his surrender
of himself and of his own will, his "death" to
his identity, the mor'lk is renewed in
the image 'and likeness of God and bcomes like
a mirror filled with the divine light.45 (a)
,
It is clear the monastic understanding of rnetanoia;
like histor ical shift towards asceticism i tself, re-
\>j
presentd a response to the now lower standards of disciple-
ship q,nd witness charaGteristic of the rank and file of the
(a) Likewise, Bernard of Clairvaux saw the myth of original
sin as referring to a fundamental in man of
his true Christ-centered identity and a correlatively
false and ego-centerfid relationship to his fellow
creatures.
/
"
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1
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great Church. Indeed, this trend was art iculated in the
1
very deve10pment of religious language itself. Thus, by
the sixth century, if not earlier, the strong religious
impulse to ~ stricter life, that is, to the/ monastic life,
came to represent, in "the idiom of the time, 1 the grace
of conversion '. Siffiilar ly, the monk of the Middle Ages
was called 'a religious 1 in contradistinction to the ordinary
Christ1.an because the monastic l ~ f e was seen as more per- 0
fectly conformin<g to the life of the Kingdom of God.
The realization of (monastic) metanoia, however," was
not easy to attain. As Pope Gregory confessed, "it is a less
thing to renounce what one has: but i t is an exceedingly
difficult thing to renounce what one iS". 46 Hence the vital
importance attributed 'by the monks to poverty, obedience and
conversio morum not as' ends in themselves, but rather' as a
, ,
means by which to learn in r the school of the Lord' s service 1 ,
\
to deny themselves, take up the ir cross and follow Jesus.
t;3enedict spoke in the prologue to his Rule of the
necessity of strict discipline in order to p):'omote the amend-
ment of evil habit and the preservation of charity. Similarly,
Adam of Perseigne, an earlyjCistercian, spoke of the monastic
,
formation as a period of cure and convalescence during which
\
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tirne the; young monk repudiated the way of the world in
order to learn the way of the Spirit, that is, to learn
to live by self-giving love.
47
If thre suffering in
such self-denial, it was best to think of it, said Isaac
of Stella, another early Cistercian,
and not of wrath ".48
r "a hel!
of mercy
Everything in the monast,ic life - silence, soli tu?-e,
fasting, self-mortification, meditative
\
worship, the 'vows', the of community life, even

the experience of laneliness and unfulfifment
of this 'education of the new man', And always the intention
was to strip the monk of self-will and to encourage a greater
sensitivity and docility to the spirit of prayer and sacrifice,
in a word, to the, will. of God. Obedience ta the spiritual
master and/or abbot, t<:J the Rule and to the common will of
the community was in this regard an essential element in
the monk's formation. It was designed to mediate the will
ol God to him until such time as he was spiritually matur
enough to be able ta it in his heakt. His obedience,
of course, would continue but now it would be, more
freely and on a higher level.
Not surprisingly, in view'of the differences in the
religious Zeitqeist and the 'eschatological
"
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characteristic of each rnonastic period, there was a corresponding
difference of emphasis in the respective Coptic, primitive
and Cistercian approaches to asceticism.
- 1
The Coptic monks placed great stress upon the struggle
against the demons. Athanasius's tife Of Anthony reads in
,
this regard like a chronicle of war in which the hero,
Anthony, successfully beats off th) often
,
and always.cunning assaults of the evil spirits. if
the
1
monk wishes to grow in Christ, taught Coptic rnonasticfsm,
"
he had first to recognize, with the author of Ephesians, the
insidious nature of these hosts of spiritual W(;9kedness and
then to deal with,thern accordingly, that with theshield
of faith and with aIl prayer and supplication (6:12-18).
The most important fact for the monk to bear in rnind
at aIl times 'tas that Jesus,
! .
had already utterly defeated
the crucified and risen (Lord,
Satan l the evil. Prince of ---
this world, and would soon consummate that victory through
his return and the full establishment of the Kingdom of God.
Consequently, the temptations or threats with which the devil
sought to induce the monk to abandon his way of life .were
of no avail against the 0!1e who persevered in hi.s faith and
discipline. The monk had only to combat the demons of passion,
";-' .
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pride, despair, anger, jealousy, greed, sloth, dissipation
etc _ by abandoning himself to the will of God in abstinence.,
r
fasting, self-mortification, humility, pat lent
vigils, sacred reading, prayer and so on. The struggle,
to be sure, was long and difficult and sorne would be lost,
but victory was assured for those who gave themselves totally
ta Jesus and him to overcomM the demons with his
truth, and through his triurnphant power.
)
Benedict also saw the monastic life in terms of the
c,oming Judgement and t;.p.etefore as a means by which to shun
the falsehoods, vainglory and illusqry pleasures af 'the
warid 1 :
(a)

"'1'
.
For the days of our life are lengthened 3nd a
respite allowed us for this very reason, that we
, may amend our evil ways . We have heard what is
the dllty of him who would do/ell (in the tab.,ernacle
of the remairis for us to fulfil this
dut Y Theref(\>re our hearts and bodies must be .
made to fight under the holy obedience of
his cornmands; and let us ask God that he De
pleased, where our nature powerlers, ta give
us the he lp Qf his grace. And if we wGlUld escape
the pains of he Il and reach eternal life, then
- while there is while are
in this body: and can ,thJse things by
the light of: this life - hasten to do now what
may profit 'Us :for etrnity (a) \
..

II:
( .
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!
/

more moderate
than that of the Copes. While advocating a s'trict d'iscl.pline
for aIl, it made allowance for weaker souls and for difficult
circumstances and simply encouraged the to give
priority to the demands of love and to do the best they could.
Furthermore, growth in Christ was now seen as a more general
function of a faithful and loving observance of the commupal
and life of the community itself. Their

abandonment to-the will of God, therefore, was thought to be
commensurate with their self-surrender Spirit
had inspired the Sacred Scriptures, which suffused the natural
world they were to cultivate, which sang through the
in praise of the Father and which moved them to love and
serve God and each othr.
Although the early Cistercians mode lIed themselves after
the primitive Benedictines, the accent-with regard te their L
search for God was, as a result of their 'escha-
cl
. tologid perspective', more upon the, persona'l and' intedtor
\ 1
aspects of the life. Consequently, while both monastic groups
sought to respond to the calI of Christ and to in
.
by worshipping God in holy living and by serving each other
\
and bearing each other's burdens, the Cistercians seem to
have had a more psychological view of this prlcess. 1hey
\ :
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109
q
were aware of it, in other as an un\olding of the
inner man and
l
as an expression of rnion with God. Thus
....
, .
william of St'. Thierry, the\ former Benedictine abbot who
,
became a Cistercian, observed:

Just as God loves himself in us and we have
1 1
learned ,to love in ourselves-only God, 50 we
begin to lOVe our neighbour as ourselves. For
in our neighbour we love God.
49
Especially here, therefore, was obedience to the will
of God seen in the monk 1 s advrnce in contemp,lative prayer.
te these differences of emphasis, however,' , aIl' of
the monks were in agreement with regard to the basic point
- .'
that the monastic regimen represented a course of instruction
in the life of grace. It is for this reason that ORe rnay
speak. of the functional character a monastic community.
. ,
Let us now turn to the charismatfc character Of\ the
.
mOlastic corrununity as an epiphany of the Christ-cen.tered
life.
If the monastic life served in and of, itself to
the monk in the way of grace, it was because it was so
oriented as to conform to, and tAus in a sense tiF incarnate,
ck so far as human beings were able this th:! / '
life of the Kingdom of God. Thomas Merton has perhaps expressed
1
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t
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,
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C
..: 110
it best in the following observation:
\
The monk not so much one whu denies himself
and practises virtue in arder to find God, but
one.who is more or less fervent in his monastic
cOhversatio in proportion as he realizes that
he has found God in it. It is aH awakening to
the sound of God's voice ca1ling (him) to the
path of life, to the way of humility and obe-
dience, not merely because they ,are ascetic
exercises, but because they re .
of the life of sonship and discipleship which
(
the monk lives in the school of the Lord's ser-
vice.
50
Ideally, Christian contemplative'monasticipm offered a
life of fredom, both freedorn from something and for some-
thing.
It offered freedom fram much of what prevented man
from life
of his own and aIl
as hi was meant when was
creatures' , 'sonship Chriat..'. Life' s
vicissitudes and harsh'realities refuained would continue
until the consurnrnation of the, Kingdorn of God - but by aband-
oning himselJ totaJly to the Holy Spirit, the monk could
1\J
thereby find his proper place, and thus his peace and joy,

in Christ: yoke is 1asy and whose burden is
,
1
(Ma t t . Il : 28- 3 0) \
l
,J.
It was to be a life, therefore, of freedom from the
cares and burdens of the 'worldly' man: freedom from feari
t
1
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t
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fear of death, of of God's or man's displeasure.
from spiritual ignorance of one's own inmost truth
and identity as a bdloved child of GOd. Freedom fram interior
/
c
disunity and disharmony and the corresponding states of
confusion, agitation, misery and restlessness. And
freedom from the illusion that this or that created
finally,.
thiAg
or transitory phenomenon could fulfil man as a creature
and 50 provide him peace, happiness and meaning
he sought.

The mature monk was thus free to love and praise God
in a life of service and Perhaps the
outstanding characteristic of such a life was its spirit of
simplicity, that is, its rejection of aIl that'appeared to
,
the monks to be superfluous or artificial. Their life was
in this -regard nothing if not singl-Finded. The only, thing
that mattered was that in aIl of their activities throughout
.
the day they might in the love of God and of their
brethren in God. Indeed, in the monastic vocation
\
-was nothing else than the deepening of love, not to be found
in the accumulation of more and more supposedly pious db-
servances, but in an ever purer, ever\mo
1
e loving practiGe of
1 .
..
,
f
o
112
\
one's monastic observances. (a)
, Bernard 1 s\ rh'iipsody on the all- sufficiency of love
captured weIl the spirit of the Christian contemplative
monastic life:
Love seeks no justification outside itself.
Love sufficient toitself, is pleasing to
itself and for its own sake. Love is its own
merit and its own reward. Love seeks no cause
. ,
outside itself qnd no results other than itself.
\ .
fruit of love is love. Love is all-sUfficient
because it cornes from God as its source and re-
turns to Him as 'its end, for God Himself is Love.
5l
- '
Having looked at the Copttc, primitive Benedictine and
early Cistercian approaches to the cultivation of tJe life
of grace, we can now follow up that how
their respective ascetical and mystical formations bore
in the correlative experience of each
.'
. \ A good way \ of highlighting the Coptic expressi0I?- of the
\ .
fulnes$ of the Christ-life might be by reviewing Anthony's
description of the essential between the experience
. \
of the presence of good spirits and pf evil spirits.
\'
(a) the very utensils and ?f the monastery
to be and used, according to' RSB, as thougb
e the sacred vessels of the altar (c.3l).
\
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\
The Vl.Sl.on of the hbly ones is not frauJht-=--with
distraction . but i t cornes so quietly and
that irnmediately joy, gladness and c9urage arise
in the sou For the Lord is our joy is,with.
them, and the power of God the Father. And the
thoughts of the soul remain unruffled and un-
disturbed, so that it, as it were
with rays, beholds by itself those who appear
r
For the love of is divine and of the' things
to come possesses it, and willingly it be
wholly.joined with if it could depart along
with them . .
..
But the inroad and the display O"f- .the evil spirits
is fraught with confusion, with sin, witn sounds
and cryj.ngs such as the disturbance of boer ish !'
youths or robbers would occasion. From which
arise fear in the heart, ,tumult and confusion
of dejection, hatred towards them
live.a life of discipline, indifference, grief,
remembrance of kinsfolk and fear of death, and
finally desire of evil things, disregard of virtue
and unsettled habits. (a)
o
Such discernment of spirits the blessings occasioned
by the vision of the divine reality, in proportion as they,
'were genuine, always humbled the monk and ied him to rejoice \
not in himself or in his' own, powers; but in the Lord and
in his
\ .
power and mercy, and in the unspeakable goodness and .
:'l
beauty of the things to come. Anthony could therefore say
of the life of the mature monk:
1 (a)
Let us net be sorrowful qS though we were
perishing; but rather let us be courageous and
c's 35-6.
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rejoice always, believing thi we are safe.
Let us considr i'n our soul that
,
the Lord is
- wi th us, who put ev il spiri ts to f lig1:lt ,-
and broke their power' . 'For when they come
they a,pproach us in a form correspondinq to
the state in which they discover us 1 and adapt
their ,delusions to the condition of mindoin
which they find us (Therefore) if they see
us rejoicing in the Lord (i.e. as we be
doing) contemplating the bliss of the future,
mindful of the Lord, deeming aIl things in His
hand . they ar discomfited and turn back-
wards . (So) let us ever,ponder over the things
of theoLord, and let the soul ever rejoice in
\ 1
hope. (a) D
The primitive Benedictine modality of the Christ-life,
cistinctive' charism, so to s'peak, was reflected in the
,
harmony, the peace and joy and, above plI, the shared love
and worship of the holy the
of God. If the paid particular attention to the
exorcism of as a\sign of the presence of the'Kingdom
of Christ, the Benedictines tended t.o uphold the table-fellow-
.
ship of the redeemed, its celebration of the forgiveness of
sins and of the gift of eternal in a
,
and of responsive love. Il Bebold" , exclaims RSB:
1
.
his loving mercy the Lord showeth us th6t' way
of life. Let us, therefore, gird our loins with
faith and the obs;rvance of good works, and
ing the of the Gospel walk j.n his paths,
c.42.
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so thaJ we may merit to see hlm who 'has' alled
us unto his Kingdom . ,
JUst as'there is an evil zeal of bitterness _
'which separates from God and leads to hell, so
there is a zeal which separates from evil
and leads to God and life' everlasting.. Let"
monks, therefore, exercise this with the
most fervent love Let 'them bear with the
greatest patience one another's infirmities,
of,body or-character. Let them vie in
paying obedience to on another. Let none
follow what seems good for himself, but rather
what is good for another. 'Let them practise
fraternal charity with a pure love. Let
fear God Let them prefer nothing whatever'
to Christ. And may he bring us aIl alike to
- life
The holiness of the therefdre, was not
intended ta' be seen in great works and achievernents but _
f
i 0
rather in the quality of their lives, that is, in the
\
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and loving which they quietly'and
God an'd each other in theJ.r daily ,living and in the
liturgical praise of the new covenant of the Kingdom of Christ
. .
l '
The earl; Cistercian charism. ad:;lui'i:-ed its
character

from the contemplative ernphasis given to it by
Xhus, while' the was also to
" be a holy koirionia - indeed, of Rievulx, a
early Cistercian abbot, wrote a celebrated book on friendship
a) Prologue
0,
. . .
,
F
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c. 72
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the faithful observafice of such a life came be especially
. . .
valued for its ability to promote a experience of
union with Christ, the Word of Bernard's most famous
book, ,On The Song dJf Songs, continuously makes a calI to
"Christians to come aqd for themselves the' un-
rivalled excellene of this unioh df lover and beloved:
. ,
There is () song which, by unique dignity .-
and sweet!1ess, . any qthers there .might
'i be '," ,(This is) the Song of Songs. It stands
at a point where aIl others culminate. Only
,the touch of the Spirit can inspire a song liRe'
ithis, and only personal experience can unfold
its meaning. Let those wh are in the
revel in ci.ti let,oeil!" others burn with
rather to attain to this than
simply to learn about it. ' \, .
For itois not melody that resouns abroad
but the very music of the heart, not a trilling
on bhe but an inward pulsing of delight, a
'ha:r:mony not. of voices but of wills. It s a
SOrlig you will not. hear in the streets, these notes
do not sound where crowds assemblei only the
. singer hears and the one to whom he sings
the' and beloved. It is pre-eminently
a song telling of chaste souls in 10ving
embrace, of their ills in sweet concord, bf" the
mutual exchange of heart's affections. .
The novices, the immature, -those but recently
convelted from a worldly life/'do not normally
sing thi$ song or hear it sung. Only the rind
disciplined by persever.ing only the man
whose efferts have borne fruit under God's in-
spiration, the man whose.years, ,as it were, make
him ripe for marriage "'\- years measured out not
1
in time but in merits - only he is truly prepared' .
for 'nuptial union with the divine
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In concluslon, the Jonastic community, whether it be
quasi-eremitical or cenobltic, was designed to be a sanctuary
where aIl the monks' could help each other to serve the Truth
~
that w a ~ above aIl of them and yet in aIl of them as the
Source and Ground of life. This was what it was aIl about -
to be drawn eyer more deeply into the life and festivity
_ l
of the Kingdorn of God. The monastic community, therefore,
.'
,
o was an ?piphany of the Chrlst-centered and Spirit-filled
, .. -
life in the measure ln which the life of the monks gave
glory to the t r u t ~ of Christ and to the Spirit of Divine
Love.
..
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- II
(a)
God desired that aIl hurnan beings be saved and come
to the knowledge of the truth. The Good News spoke, above
aIl, of the compassionte mercy and lpve of God
for man, and of how there was great JOy in heaven when even
one'person was saved. It told of how God's self-revelation
in Christ represented a manifestation not so much of power
and might as of gentleness and even vulnerab-
illty,' or again, not 50 much of royalty as of service. Indeed,
the contrast between man's understanding and exercise of
greatness, majesty and power and the actual nature of God's
gent le and loving relationship to His creatures was so great
1
that Paul could only exclaim in wonderment:
God chose whatc is foolish in the
the wise what is o/eak to
Christ crucified . : a sturnbling
, and folly to Gentiles ... (for)
nor ear heard, nor the heart of
wha[ God has prepared for those
( l Cor. l : 27, 23; 2: 9) .
world to shame
shame the strong
block to Jews
no. eye has seen,
man conceived
who love him
Paul never ceased from the day of his spiritual awakening
1
(a) This chapter., will offer a few observations on suffering
love as an of the tension in the Christian
(roonastic) life between the celebration of the triurnph
of Christ and the presence in the world of the Kingdom
of God on the one hand, and the yearning for the consumma-
tion of that Kingdom and the salvation of aIl human beings
on the other.
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to the day of his death to tell 'of this inexhaustible love
of God for man. Be told of'how God forgave man not as One
Whose divine law had been broken, but rather as One Who had
been grieved and wounded in spirit by the repeated betrayal
of His love and yet Who still loved man without measure.
For God welcomed not as One Who condescended, but rath'er
1
! /
as One/Who experienced great JOY in receiving even a
from who have giyen Him more.
If, however, there was great JOY in heaven when even a
single indlvidual was saved, so too there sadness when

people rebuked God and those whom God had sent to them.
How was Jesus' lamentation at the hard-heartedness
of men:
o Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the prophets and
stoning those who are sent to you! How
would l have gathered your children together as
a hen gathers her brood under her wings and you"
would not! (Lk. 13:34)
,
how his sorrow and compassion for their
spiritual blindness:
Father, forgive them: for they know not what
they do (Lk. 23: 34)
For, as Paul put it in, his inimitable hymn to love:'
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,,"
Love is patient and kind; love is not jeal-ous or
boastful; i t lis not arrogant or rude. Love does
not insist on its own waYi it is not
or resentfuli it does not rejoioe at wrong but
rejoices in the right. Love bears aIl things,
believes aIl things, hdPes aIl things, endures
aIl things (1 Cor. 13:4-7).
Anthony, Benedict, Bernard and aIl of the mature Christian
monks of the Roman period and of the Low Middle Ages marvelled
at the boundless love and of God. It bespoke for them
the true climate withtn which the Christian and, therefore,
the monastic life was to be led and celebrated.
(Few monks liked to dwell on or to talk about their
experience of suffering; it could too easily encourage an
unhealthy and exaggerated self-scrutiny and even, ultimately,
"
morbid form self-indulgence. Nonetheless, it
was a.real element in the monastic life and, in a deep and
mysterious way, commensurate with the monk'$ growth in
Christ, tha,t is, with the forming of Christ in him. One
could list the spheres of human existence in which he, like
everyone else, had to suffer: the physical (weakness, disease
and death)i the intellectual (obscurity of understanding, the
experience of failure); the soial (the fragility and frictions
of human inter-relations); and
hi) own sinfulness). However,
,
the moral (the experience of
it would be more accurate to
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1
say that the root of his suffering lay in the tension between
hlS experience human finitude and imperfection, and his
hope for the full consurnrnation of the Kingdom of God and
the recapitulation of aIl things in Christ.
It was not only that the monk was impatient, although
\
it had been saidl that "it is far oetter to depart and to
be with Christ", (Phil. 1:23). It was, rather, that as he
matured in Christ, the monk came to experience more deeply
and more personally the sufferings of Christ Himself, the!
-
Sacred Heart at the of a creation that groaned in
travail, awaiting in hope its redemption from bondage to
sin and death and the glorious liberty of the children of
Gad (Cf. Acts 17:24-8; Rom. 8:18-24). This eschatological
\
element was the outstanding feature of aIl Christian (mon-
t Il
astic) prayer, and it tempered the monks' celebration of
the triumph of Christ over sin and death and the presence
/
in the world of the Kingdom of God. As abba Isaac told
Cassian, "there is a weeping caused, not by self-knowledge,
\
but by an awareness" of others' sins and their lack of re-
\.
pentance.,,52 It might be fitting. to conclude -
this stutly with the thoughts of abba Moses on Christian
1
(and hence, monastic) contemplation:
---.,....-................ ......... ----
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- 122 -
We know Him fn worshipping His very being
we cannot fathom, the vision which is
yet hidden,' though it is promised, and for
which we may hope. We Him in the majesty
of His creation, in regarding His justice, in
apprehending the help we receive' for our daily.
lives.
We when we see what He has
wrought with His saints in every generation:
when we feel awe at mighty power
rules creation, unmeasurable knowledge of
His eye which see into the secrets of every
... When w ;emember His mercy unimaginable
- se,ing countless sins committed every moment
and bearing them with inexhaustible long-
sufferingi when we contemplate that He has called
us by reason of no merit which He found in us
but simply of His free grace . how He is
working to overcome the enemy in us, simply
for the pleasure of His goodness, and is reward-
ing us with blessednessi and finally,
how for our salVation He was and made
man, ind has spread His wonderful\ mysteries\among
aIl _ \
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NOTES
(1) l,am indebted here to Norman Perrin' s discussi.on of the
term "Kingdom of God" in his book: The Kingdom Of God
In The Teaching Of Jesus (London: S.C.M. Press, 1963).
(2), The Spirituality Of The New Testament And' The Fathers
(London: Desc1e, 1963)", pp. 30(6-7.
(4)
(5 )
Cf. Mason: Active And Contemplative Life;
A Studv Ot The Concepts From Plato TO The Present (Mil-
waukee: Marquette uniyersity Press, 1961), esp. pp. 34-
45, 59-77.
Cf. Wil1iston Wa1ker: A Historv Of The Christian Churdh,
Third Ed. (New York: Charles Scribner & S'ons, 1970),
pp. 94-5. Owen Chadwick: Western Asceticism (London:
S.C.M. Press, 1958), pp. 13-16-.
Cit. pp. 94-5 (order rearranged).
(6) Chadwick, pp. 15-16.
(7)
(8)
(9)
(10)
(lI)
( 12)
1
Maxwell Staniforth (transI.): Early Christiarl Writings
1968), pp. 105-6.
Op. pp.'55-6.
Moriasticism: Ideals And'History (Londdn:
& Norgate, 19l8),.p. 28.
p. 13.
Op. Cit. p. 73.
Williams
Cf. Owen Chadwick: John cassiah, Second Ed. (London:
Cambridge University Press, 1968), 82-90.
(13) Thomas Merton (transI.): The Wisdom Of The Desert (New
York: New Directions, 1960), p. 29.
. '
( 1;4) .John Cassian, p. 60.
. .....
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(17) cf. Owen Chadwick: John Cassian, pp. 22-30, 82-3.
(18) Op. Cit. pp. 16, 31, 45.
(19 ) "Selected Works And Letters Of Athanasius" in Nicene'
And Post-Nicene Fathers (Sebond Series) Vol. IV, Letter
(Michigan: Eerdmans, 1975), p. 557.
(20) The Monastic Order In Enq]and, Vol. l (Cambridge:
bridge University Press,' V940), p. 14.
( 21) The Benedictines, Abridged version; Robert Brown, ed.
(St. Leo, F1orida: Abbey Press; 1962), p. 5.
(22) ,Benedictine Monachism, Second Ed. (London: Longmans,
Green & Co., 1924), pp. 51-7.
(23) Saint Benedict (New York: Doub1eday, 1958), pp. 80-4.
(24) The Benedictines, p. 41.
(25) contemplative prayer (New York: DOub1eday, 1971), pp.
29-31.
(26) "The Seven Ecumenical Counci1s" in Nicene And Post-Nicene
Fathers (Second Series) Vol. XIV (Michigan: Eerdmans,
( 27)
(28)
( 29)
\ -
1975), pp. 383-4). 1
-i" v
Cf. Louis Lekai: The White Monks (Wisconsin: Cistercian
Fathers Publications, 1953), pp. 262-5.
\
Ib1d. pp. ./ \
Bruno Scott James (trans1.)\ The Letters Of Bernard Of
Clairvaux (London: Hodder, & Stoughtoni 19,55), pp. 220-1.
(30) The works Of St. Bernard, Vol. l (Cistercian Fathers
Series)I: Michael Casey & Conrad Greenia, transl's.)
(Mass.: Cistercian Publications, 1970), p. 92.
l '
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- 125 -
(31) Dr. Ea1es (trans1.): Letters Of St. Bernard (London:
John Hodges, 1904) ,p. 199.
The Works St. BEitrnard, Vol. l, pp. 148-50.
Il
\
/
rb id . pp. 144- 5
(34) Sermons Of St. Bernard On dvent And Christmas (A nun
of St. Mary's Convent, England, trans1.) (London: R. & T.
Washbourne, 1999), pp. 106-8.
(35) lb id. p: 151.
/ (36) The Works Of St. Bernard, Vol. l, pp. 48, 60-1.
(37) "The Intention, Of The Founders Of The Cisterc ian arder"
in The Cistercian Spirit (Sh.annon, Ire1and: Irish Uni-
versity 1970), pp.
(38)
(39 )
L. Lekai, pp. r1.::--2.
,.1
The Cistercian Spirit, p. 269.
(40) Cf. Herbert Workman: The Evo.1ution Of The Monastic Ideal
. (Boston: Beacon Press, 1962), p. 22.
(41)
(42)
(43 )
the Mystica1 Theology Of St. Bernard (London:
1955), p. 61. - \ \
.... - \
The Ecumenical'Councils, p. 270.
/
Sheed &
"Se1ected Epist1es" in Nicene And Post-Nicene Fathers .
(Second Series, Vol. XII, Letter XLI) (Michigan:
mans, 1975), pp. 112-13.
(44/ The Way Of Love' Publicatioris, 1977), no
page nurnbers.
(45) Contemp1atiin In A Wor1d Of Action (New York:
1973)" pp. 86-7.
Doub1eday, .
\
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(46) Butler, p. 50.
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(47) Cf. Thomas Merton: The Asian Journal (New York: Do'll.ble-
day, 1973) , 33'3.
..
p.
"-
,
(48)
_ Contemplative Prayer, p. 102.
(49) The Of Love.
"
(50) Mystics And Zen Masters (New York: Delta Books, 1967) ,
pp. 155-6.
,
(51) " Cf. Thomas Merton: Cisterciah Life (St. Joseph's Abbey,
Mass.: postulants guide), p. 9.
(52) On The Song Of Songs (Kilian Walsh, transI.)
Mass.: Cistercian Pub}ications, 1971), pp.
(53) Owen Chadwick: Western p. 228.
\
(54) Ibid.\ pp. 206-7.
" '
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