The origin of the monastic customaries coincides with the activity of Carolingian
reformers, led by Benedict of Aniane (d. 821), to impose the Rule of St. Benedict
everywhere in the Frankish empire. The customaries make specific, detailed applications
of the Rule to the circumstances present in a single monastery or a group of monasteries.
They not only interpret and supplement the directives of the Rule but can actually alter
Benedict’s careful equilibrium, as happened with the large quantity of liturgical
obligations required by the customs in force at Cluny. A common customary imposed the
influence of the great monasteries like Cluny, Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire, and Cîteaux on
daughter houses. The monastic customaries can profitably be studied as a source of
information on contemporary social and cultural life.
Joseph H.Dyer
[See also: BENEDICT, RULE OF ST.; BENEDICT OF ANIANE; CISTERCIAN
ORDER; CLUNY; LÉRINS; MONASTICISM]
Desprez, Vincent, ed. Règles monastiques d’Occident (IVe-VIe siècle): d’Augustin a Ferréol.
Begrolles-en-Mauges: Abbaye de Bellefontaine, 1980.
Franklin, Carmela, et al., eds. Early Monastic Rules: The Rules of the Fathers and the Regula
Orientalis. Collegeville: Liturgical, 1982.
Hallinger, Kassius, et al., eds. Corpus consuetudinum monasticarum. 12 vols. to date. Siegeburg:
Schmitt, 1963–.
de Vogüé, Adalbert. “The Cenobitic Rules of the West.” Cistercian Studies 12(1977):175–83.
——. Les règles monastiques anciennes (400–700). Turnhout: Brepols, 1985.
Hallinger, Kassius. “Consuetudo, Begriff, Formen, Forschungsgeschichte.” Untersuchungen zu
Kloster und Stift. Max-Planck-Institut far Geschichte, Veröffentlichungen 68 (1980):140–66.
MONASTICISM
. From its origins in the Egyptian desert in the second half of the 3rd century,
monasticism quickly spread throughout the Roman Empire. By the 4th century, the Lives
of the Desert Fathers were being read in the West, and monasticism soon became
established there. The semilegendary figure of Martin, Roman soldier, bishop of Tours,
and founder of Marmoutier, the first known monastic house in Gaul at the end of the 4th
century, was influential in the spread of Frankish monasticism. Although early Egyptian
monasticism had emphasized the eremitic life, hermits were rare in Gaul, where
monasticism was normally of the cenobitic sort, in which a group of brothers lived
together under the direction of an abbot.
Monasticism from the beginning emphasized separation of the individual from secular
society, putting him into a setting where prayer and contemplation of God would be his
chief concerns. Humility and obedience to the abbot, who himself was expected to be
humbly obedient to God, responsible for the souls of the monks entrusted to him, was
stressed in all monastic rules. Monks were expected to live in common, with no
individual property. They deliberately gave up normal secular pleasures, from sex to red
meat to fine clothing, in order to concentrate on the world beyond.
The Merovingian period saw a great variety of monastic practices. Martin’s
foundation of Marmoutier continued to influence many new houses. The 5th-century
The Encyclopedia 1187