we view now simply as convention, for them was necessary commensurability. Even the
individual letters of the language had significance. Both Maurin and Zumthor point to the
worldview of these poets, essential for understanding their work.
Paul B.Burrell
[See also: BURGUNDIAN CHRONICLERS; CHASTELLAIN, GEORGES;
GRANDS RHÉTORIQUEURS; HISTORIOGRAPHY; JARDIN DE PLAISANCE ET
FLEUR DE RÉTHORIQUE; OCKEGHEM, JOHANNES; ROSE, ROMAN DE LA;
VERSIFICATION]
Molinet, Jean. Chroniques, ed. Georges Doutrepont and Omer Jodogne. 3 vols. Brussels: Palais des
Académies, 1935–37.
——. Faictz et dictz, ed. Noel Dupire. 3 vols. Paris: Didot, 1936–39.
——. Plusieurs ditz de la manière d’aucunes femmes, ed. M. de Grève. Brussels: Palais des
Académies, 1961.
Dupire, Noel, Jean Molinet: la vie—les œuvres. 2 vols. Geneva: Droz, 1932.
Jodogne, Omer. “Les ‘Rhétoriqueurs’ et l’humanisme: problème d’histoire littéraire.” In Humanism
in France, ed. A.H.T. Levi. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1970.
Sautman, Francesca. “‘Des vessies pour les lanternes’: Villon, Molinet, and the Riddles of
Folklore.” Neophilologus 69 (1985):161–84.
MONASTIC RULES AND
CUSTOMARIES
. The first monks lived either as solitaries or under the direct supervision of an abba
(‘father’). This seems to have been the case with the first known European monastic
house, Marmoutier, established in 361 by Martin of Tours. As monasticism developed
into a permanent institution, the charisma of a spiritual master was supplemented by
written legislation regulating the common life in the monastery. As de Vogüé has shown,
the earliest sources of such monastic guidelines (Pachomius, Basil, Augustine), all
written ca. 400, exercised a decisive influence on the subsequent tradition. Quotations
from them appear in later monastic rules, which also borrow among themselves to a
striking degree. This reflects the eclectic nature of monastic establishments until the
triumph of the Rule of St. Benedict in the 9th century.
About 300 monastic rules were written between the end of the 4th century and last half
of the 7th. The majority provide no more than the barest suggestions for the regulation of
life within the monastery. They vary considerably in length and detail, from the succinct
De ordine monasterii (by Augustine, or from his circle) to the enormous Rule of the
Master, whose ninety-five chapters legislate on every conceivable aspect of monastic
discipline. (Benedict’s Rule is little more than one-third the length of the Master’s.) The
Rule for Virgins (ca. 534) by Caesarius of Arles is the first rule written for female
religious. Its prescriptions for the Divine Office are thought to reflect the lost tradition of
Lérins, an island monastery off the coast of Provence near Cannes, founded ca. 410 by
Honoratus.
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