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

life’

Bella Millett

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

• Writings for anchorites are classified as ascetic treatises . . .

• Unlike monastic rules, which are demands, rules for anchorites are suggestions and supports.

Jerome, Ep. 125 (411)• In solitude . . . a man . . .

does what he wants

• [in a monastery] you don’t do what you want, you eat what you’re told to, you have what you’re given . . .

• No skill is learnt without a master (absque magistro)

• St Jerome, workshop of Rogier van der Weyden, c. 1450

Rule of St Benedict (Oxford, CCC MS 197, f. 1)

Rule of St Benedict (Oxford, CCC MS 197, f. 1)

Bernard, De Praecepto et dispensatione • You ask how seriously a monastic

rule is to be taken by those who profess it, and whether all its precepts are to be considered as binding under pain of sin.

• Are they commands, or only counsels and admonitions . . .?

• Are some counsels and others commands, so that we may ignore the former so long as we keep the latter?

Bernard, De Praecepto et dispensatione

Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Laud 385, f. 41v

London, British Library, MS Royal 16 F.11, c. 1500

But if we cannot observe the tenor of this Rule, I am afraid that the words of the apostle James may be quoted to condemn us also:

‘For if a man keeps the whole law but for one single point, he is guilty of breaking all of it’ [Jas. 2: 10]

Heloise to Abelard, Ep. 5

London, British Library, MS Royal 16 F.11, c. 1500

[Heloise asks]

that you will prescribe some kind of Rule (aliquam . . . regulam) for us and write it down, a Rule which will be suitable for women.

Heloise to Abelard, Ep. 5

London, British Library, MS Royal 16 F.11, c. 1500

Restat . . . aliquam vobis institutionem, quasi quamdam propositi vestri regulam a nobis scribi

‘It remains for me to write some kind of institutio for you, a rule, as it were, for your chosen way of life’

Abelard to Heloise, Ep. 7

The ‘clause of regularity’• . . . statuentes ut ordo monasticus qui secundum

Deum et beati Benedicti regulam atque institutionem fratrum Cisterciensium in eodem monasterio institutus esse dinoscitur perpetuis ibidem temporibus inviolabiliter observetur

• . . . requiring that the monastic way of life which, following God and the rule of St Benedict and the customs of the Cistercian brothers, is recognized as established in that monastery should continue to be strictly observed there in perpetuity.

• OR: ordo canonicus . . . Augustini regulam . . . institutionem fratrum Premonstratensium

The ‘clause of regularity’: Carthusians• ordo monasticus . . . secundum normam et

institutionem fratrum Carthusiensium (1136)

• ordo heremiticus . . . secundum laudabilem disciplinam et normam Cartusiensium fratrum (1137)

• ordo monasticus . . . secundum Deum et beati Benedicti regulam et institutionem Cartusiensium fratrum (1140s)

• ordo heremiticae vitae. . . secundum Deum (1192)

Fourth Lateran Council (1215), Canon 13• So that too much diversity of forms of religious life

(religionum) should not introduce grave confusion within the Church of God, we strictly forbid anyone to establish a new religious order (religionem) in the future; anyone who wishes to take up the religious life should adopt one of the approved forms instead.

• Similarly, anyone who wants to found a new religious house should accept a rule (regula) and customs (institutiones) from the approved religious orders.

bishop enclosing anchoress

Pontifical of Richard Clifford

Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 79,

f. 96r (early C15)

Aelred of Rievaulx, De Institutione inclusarum • [his sister has requested a certam formulam to

regulate her inner and outer life]

• . . . ex diuersis patrum institutis, aliqua quae tibi necessaria uidentur excerpens, ad componendum exterioris hominis statum, certam tibi regulam tradere curabo . . .

• . . . taking from the regulations of various Fathers some things which seem necessary for you to order your external observances, I shall aim to give you a fixed rule . . .

Aelred of Rievaulx, De Institutione inclusarum • Habes nunc sicut petisti corporales institutiones,

quibus inclusa exterioris hominis mores componas; habes formam praescriptam qua interiorem hominem uel purges a uitiis, uel uirtutibus ornes

• ‘You have now as you requested physical customs, by which as an anchoress you may order your external observances; you have a prescribed form by which you may purge yourself internally from vices, or adorn yourself with virtues’

Peter the Venerable to the recluse Gilbert• De jejuniis et vigiliis [etc.] nulla a quolibet tibi est,

ut mihi videtur, lex praefigenda . . . . Tu tibi, qui omnia intima et extima tua nosti, in talibus praeceptor existe.

• No law should be predetermined for you, it seems to me, on fasting and watching [etc.] . . . Since you know all your inner and outer capacities, set your own rules for such things.

• [if you love God,] the yoke of the precepts of God (praeceptorum Dei), which you had formerly found harsh, will become pleasant.

• Ep. 20, PL 189. 99

Ancrene Wisse (Cambridge, CCC MS 402, f. 1r)

‘Dublin Rule’ (c. 1300)• Omnes enim in spirituali humilitate regulariter

vivere debent. Una quidem regula omnibus christianis constituta est.

• For everyone should live in spiritual humility according to a rule. Indeed, there is one rule for all Christians [i.e. the two commandments of love].

• The bread of a good anchorite never has to be weighed, or his drink measured. But at all times he must live spiritually (spiritualiter).

‘Cambridge Rule’, earlier C14• If indeed they dispose their lives in every respect

according to a prescribed form (formulam prescriptam), hermits are not unjustly to be counted among those who are truly religious (inter vere religiosos).

• For, as Augustine says in De vera religione, religion (religio) is that by which we bind (religamus) our souls to God alone by serving him.

• And it is also said in James’s canonical epistle, ch. 1, ‘Pure religion (religio munda) is keeping oneself with God unspotted from this world’, which certainly true hermits can do more freely.

‘Cambridge Rule’, earlier C14• Soli Deo debet heremita obedienciam facere,

quia ipse est abbas, prior et prepositus claustri cordis sui.

• The hermit owes obedience to God alone, because He is the abbot, prior and provost of the cloister of his heart.

• . . . [though he may choose to obey the consilia (recommendations), or even the praecepta (orders) of his spiritual adviser.]

‘Oxford Rule’, later C14

• . . . licet status heremitarum regula careat canonica, nichilominus tamen omnibus, que viam vere paupertatis pro Christo Ihesu elegerunt, valde necessarium est quod sancte vivant . . .

• . . . although the estate of hermits lacks a canonical rule, nevertheless it is very necessary that all those who have chosen the path of true poverty for Jesus Christ should lead a holy life . . .

‘Oxford Rule’, later C14

• He should make a vow of poverty and chastity, with divine help, to Almighty God . . . because otherwise it would seem that he was serving under a rule or a human being (militaret sub regula vel homine).

• But nevertheless if he wishes he can make his vow to the bishop, and live according to his advice, if he can.

• non est regulata persona

Ancrene Wisse (c. late 1220s)

• I said earlier . . . that you should not commit yourself to keeping any of the outer rules by a vow; I say the same now.

• And I am not writing them for anyone apart from you. I mention this so that other anchoresses cannot say that I am presuming to make a new Rule for them.

Bella Millett

enm@soton.ac.uk

explicit