Full-fledged monastic life probably developed among the Celts of England even earlier than in Ireland, for the British Church was in close contact with Gaul, especially with St. Germain of Auxerre, in the fifth century. The withdrawal of Roman troops in 407 had left the Island undefended before the pagan Angles, Saxons and Jutes, and the native Britons were gradually pushed back into Cornwall and Wales. There the monastic life was propagated in the early sixth century by St. Illtud, who established a monastery on the island later called Caldey, as well as the abbey of Llantwit in southern Wales. His principal disciples were St. Gildas, who migrated to Brittany and founded monasteries there, and St. David, the patron of Wales. Both seem to have promoted the monastic life in the middle of the sixth century, contemporary with St. Benedict.
The earliest of the sixth-century founders in Ireland was apparently St. Enda, founder of Killeany in the Aran Islands off the coast of Galway, of whom little is known. More famous is St. Finnian, founder of Clonard in central Ireland, for it was principally his disciples who established the other great monastic houses around the middle of the century: St. Ciarán founded Clonmacnois; St. Brendan, the abbey of Clonfert; and St. Columcille, better known as Columba, the monastery of Derry. Columba subsequently crossed to Scotland about 583 and established Iona on a solitary island just off the west coast; it was from here that St. Aidan later founded Lindisfarne on the coast of Northumbria. These two monasteries spread Christianity in its Celtic form in Scotland and the north of England. Meanwhile, St. Comgall founded Bangor in Ulster, which was to send out the greatest of the Irish missionary monks, St. Columban,4 often confused with the St. Columba mentioned above.
The Celtic monks were intrepid travelers; their exploits inspired the Navigatio Brendani, so popular in the Middle Ages. They were motivated not only by their native restlessness and a desire to bring the faith to pagan peoples but also by the ascetical ideal of seeking exile from home and family for the sake of Christ: peregrinatio pro Christo. Columban, born around 530 or 540, became a monk at Bangor, where he absorbed a remarkable degree of literary culture. Probably around 590, though perhaps earlier, he led a band of monks to the continent and established successively the monasteries of Annegray, Fontaine and Luxeuil in the Vosges mountains, just on the edge of Burgundy. These Celtic abbeys became centers of culture and evangelization in Gaul. Severe and uncompromising, Columban was expelled from the Merovingian domains in 610 for his stubborn independence (Irish abbots were not used to being subject to bishops) and his open criticism of the Gallic episcopate and the royal family. He crossed the Alps to Switzerland and eventually to Italy. There, in the territory now ruled by the Lombards, he founded the abbey of Bobbio, where he died in 615.5
While the Celtic monasteries were often governed solely by oral teaching and tradition, Columban wrote two monastic rules, the Regula monachorum and the Regula coenobialis.6 The latter is rather misnamed, for it is simply a penal code, to which many subsequent additions have been made. The former, however, is a genuine rule, showing knowledge of Cassian, Jerome and Basil. It was followed by the Celtic monasteries on the continent, which continued to multiply after Columban’s death through the work of his disciples and admirers. The most prominent of these were St. Amandus, apostle of northern France and Belgium; St. Wandrille, founder of Fontenelle; St. Philibert, founder of Jumièges; St. Owen, bishop of Rouen and founder of Rebais; and St. Riquier, founder of Centula. They spread the Irish form of monastic life throughout Gaul and propagated the Rule of Columban.7
Columban’s stubborn attachment to Celtic usages, however, provoked violent opposition in Gaul and stirred up dissension even within his communities. His followers gradually abandoned both the particularities of Celtic liturgical practice and the extreme severity of the Irish monastic customs. Without abandoning his Rule, they increasingly combined its observance with that of another monastic code. In the course of the seventh and eighth centuries, we find an ever-growing tendency to observe the Benedictine Rule conjointly with that of Columban, at Luxeuil itself and in the numerous houses of its progeny. The RB was found suitable especially for two reasons: its moderation provided a welcome counterbalance to Columban’s austerity, and its liturgical provisions reflected a “Roman” practice that these monasteries were increasingly adopting.
How and when did the RB come to Gaul? It is certain that it was known there in the early seventh century, but there is no clear indication how it was transmitted. There is no evidence that the Gregorian mission to England in 596 brought along the RB and communicated it to monastic centers in Gaul, though this is not impossible. Our earliest indication of it comes from southern Gaul about 620–630, in a letter written by Venerandus, founder of the monastery of Altaripa, to Bishop Constantius of Albi (northeast of Toulouse), the diocese in which the monastery was located.8 The founder says that he is sending the bishop a copy of the RB (regula sancti Benedicti abbatis romensis) and asks that its observance be imposed upon the abbot and monks. Shortly after this, a disciple of Columban named Donatus, who became bishop of Besançon, wrote a rule for a convent founded by his mother. This Regula Donati consists solely of extracts from the rules of Benedict, Caesarius and Columban, the majority of which are derived from the RB.9 Waldebert, Columban’s second successor at Luxeuil (629–670), introduced the RB into monastic foundations and probably at Luxeuil itself.10 To him is ascribed the Regula cuiusdam Patris ad virgines, which seems to have been followed at Faremoutiers, a convent that Waldebert established before he became abbot.11
During the rest of the seventh century, it was through the network of Columbanian foundations in northern and eastern Gaul that the RB was propagated. Numerous documents of the period specify that the observance is to be that of the regula mixta.12 We are certain, therefore, that the RB was known both at Albi and at Luxeuil in the first third of the seventh century, and that the followers of Columban were a significant influence upon its gradual penetration thereafter. Indeed, it is not unlikely that the RB was known to Columban himself. While this is not admitted by all, there are a few places in his Regula monachorum that seem to echo the RB, both in order and in phraseology. One case in particular seems clear enough to qualify as an indication of literary dependence.13 Columban could easily enough have come into contact with the RB, since he corresponded with Gregory while still at Luxeuil, and he ended his career in Italy. Even if he came to know it only at Bobbio (it is not known at what stage of his career the rule was written), it would have been transmitted to Luxeuil by the efficient monastic grapevine that kept the Columbanian foundations in close contact with one another. If the founder himself had used and recommended the RB, this would more easily explain his followers’ readiness to adopt it so soon after his death. The regime of the regula mixta thus introduced would eventually lead to the exclusive acceptance of the RB at the expense of the Rule of Columban.
Another factor was at work in furthering this process by the end of the seventh century: the influence of the Anglo-Saxons. It was characteristic of the remarkable foresight of Gregory the Great that in a time when everything seemed to be collapsing around him, he took the bold step of extending the preaching of the faith to the world’s farthest corner. In 596 he sent Augustine, the praepositus of his monastery on the Coelian, together with some forty companions, to evangelize England.14 King Aethelbert of Kent, who had a Christian wife from Gaul, allowed the monks to settle at Canterbury and eventually became a Christian himself. Within a generation the faith had spread throughout Kent and into neighboring Essex and East Anglia, and by the end of the seventh century, despite some setbacks and pagan reactions, the Anglo-Saxon heptarchy had been Christianized. Meanwhile, the Celtic monks from Iona and Lindisfarne had been evangelizing in Northumbria, where their influence was mingled with that of the Roman mission. Conflict between Celtic and Roman usages persisted, even after King Oswiu decided in favor of the Roman practice at the Synod of Whitby in 664, but eventually England became firmly allied with the Roman See.
; The Canterbury missionaries were monks, but we are not told that they followed the Benedictine Rule. We are sure that by the second half of the seventh century the RB was known both in Northumbria and in the south, but there is no clear evidence revealing how it came to England. It may have been brought by the Gregorian missionaries, but there is no support for this assumption. In fact, its presence in Northumbria is attested earlier than its presence in Kent, and it may be that it came first to the north. If such is the case, the probable agent would be Wilfrid of York, whose biographer, Eddius, attributes to him the introduction of the RB into his monasteries at Ripon and Hexham (Edd.Steph. vita Wilf. 14 and 17). Born in 634, Wilfrid was abbot of Ripon already about 660, it seems, after a journey to Rome that involved a lengthy stay at Lyons. On the continent he became enamored of all things Roman and was the champion of Roman usages at the Council of Whitby in 664. In the 680s Wilfrid spent one of his several exiles preaching in Sussex, where he founded the monastery of Salsey, and may thus have been instrumental in propagating the RB in the south of England also.
Another champion of Roman observance in England was Benedict Biscop, a Northumbrian noble who accompanied Wilfrid on his journey to Rome in 653. On a second trip he spent two years at Lerins (665–667), where he took the name Benedict; was it there that he came into contact with the RB?15 He returned to England with Theodore, a Greek monk whom Pope Vitalian had appointed archbishop of Canterbury (668), and Hadrian, an African who had been abbot of a monastery near Naples and who now became head of the monastery at Canterbury. Benedict established Wearmouth in 673 and its sister monastery of Jarrow in 682. Here the religious and cultural renaissance marking the high point of the Anglo-Saxon period produced its finest fruit in the life and work of Venerable Bede (673–735). The RB was used and revered at Wearmouth and Jarrow, though not exclusively.16 It is noteworthy that our oldest copy of the RB, Codex Hatton 48 of the Bodleian Library at Oxford, was copied in England at the time of Bede, the first half of the eighth century, at an undetermined place, possibly Worcester.17
By the end of the seventh century, the Anglo-Saxon monks from both the north and south of England were undertaking missionary enterprises on the continent. Already begun by Wilfrid (Edd.Steph. vita Wilf. 26), the evangelization of the Low Countries was accomplished by Willibrord, a Northumbrian who had been trained at Ripon under Wilfrid and later in Ireland (Alc. vita Will.). The greatest of the monk-missionaries, however, was Boniface, a native of Wessex, who was trained at the monasteries of Exeter and Nursling, worked under Willibrord, and then was commissioned by the Holy See to evangelize Germany. From 718 until his martyrdom in 754, Boniface, with the help of many monks, nuns and clerics from England as well as natives trained in the monasteries he founded on the continent, worked untiringly to organize the Church in the German territories and to reform the Frankish Church, collaborating with the Holy See and the Carolingian monarchs.18 Boniface and his companions spread the RB throughout their sphere of influence, making it the basis of monastic reform in the Frankish empire, and his successors were to carry it as far as Scandinavia and Hungary. In the literature that has come down to us from Boniface and his disciples, there is no longer any mention of other rules; the RB is called simply “the Rule” and “the Holy Rule.” Thus, in the course of the eighth century, while the RB was gradually ousting the Rule of Columban in the monasteries where the regime of the regula mixta had prevailed, the Anglo-Saxon missionary movement likewise contributed to bringing it into even greater prominence.19
2. THE TRIUMPH OF THE RB: THE BENEDICTINE CENTURIES
In spite of the growing influence of the RB during the eighth century, Western monasticism was far from being totally Benedictine by the year 800. That it should become so, however, was part of the policy of the Carolingian reform movement pursued during the long reign of Charlemagne (768–814). Charles wished to establish a single empire uniting the Roman and Germanic peoples on the basis of his own God-given power and the universal authority of the Holy See. The corruptions of the Merovingian age would be removed by a return to the culture of the Roman empire, thoroughly Christianized. The monasteries played a significant role in this grand design, and it was important that they become centers of genuine spirituality and culture. This was to be achieved by securing uniformity of observance, and the basis for such uniformity was to be the “Roman rule” of St. Benedict, whose excellence was being increasingly recognized.
Charles himself moved in this direction, but the decisive step was taken after his death, with the work of St. Benedict of Aniane (c. 750–821).20 Originally named Witiza, he had served at court, but became a monk at Saint-Seine in Burgundy around 774. Later he founded his own monastery on the family estate at Aniane, near the Pyrenees, and instituted an austere life that owed much to Eastern monastic inspiration. He became convinced, however, that the RB was more suitable for the Western mentality, and his monastery grew into a large feudal institution with some three hundred monks. His interest in reform attracted the attention of Louis the Pious, Charlemagne’s son, who wished to reorganize the monasteries in his kingdom of Aquitaine. Benedict sent groups of his monks to other houses to institute reform according to the RB and soon formed a congregation of monasteries that remained subject to him.
When Louis became emperor in 814, this plan was extended to the entire realm. A royal monastery called Inde was built near the palace at Aachen, and there Benedict presided over a community whose observance was to be a model for the whole empire. Benedict was authorized to enforce a standard observance in the monasteries of France and Germany (the plan was never extended to Italy). For this purpose he drew up a capitulary that was promulgated at two synods of abbots held at Aachen in 816 and 817.21 Monks were to be sent to Inde from every monastery to learn the observance, and inspectors could visit monasteries to secure compliance. The authentic copy of the RB that Charlemagne had obtained from Montecassino (the Normalexemplar) was kept at Inde, where it could be copied; we have seen that the Codex 914 of St. Gall is the happy result of this provision. Benedict also left two important works: the Codex Regularum, in which he collected the existing Latin rules,22 and the Concordia Regidarum, a kind of commentary on the RB consisting of extracts from the other rules arranged in parallel to the RB to show the continuity of the latter with tradition.23
In fact, this reform was short-lived. Benedict died in 821, and the empire was soon torn apart by internecine strife among Louis’ sons.24 For the rest of the ninth century, the continent was inundated by waves of invaders, both Northmen and Saracens, and many monasteries were unable even to survive. Consequently, the great Carolingian project was never brought to completion. But when it became possible to build once more, both on the continent and in England, it was on Benedict’s foundations that the structure was raised. He is one of the most important figures in Benedictine history; what he envisaged, or something very like it, became the pattern of Benedictine life for most of the Middle Ages.
The cardinal point of the Carolingian monastic policy was the exclusive use of the RB. While other observances survived for a long time in some places (Spain, for instance, lay largely outside the Carolingian sphere of influence, and the RB did not take firm root there until the tenth and eleventh centuries),25 eventually the other Latin rules all fell into disuse. This does not mean that a Benedictine monastery according to the conception of Benedict of Aniane was exactly like Montecassino of the sixth century. The introduction of the RB did not displace the numerous layers of tradition that had already accumulated in Gaul. The Gallic monasteries still bore the imprint of the old Martinian monasticism, of the tradition of Lerins, of the Celtic and Anglo-Saxon contributions, and especially of the vastly changed social and economic situation of the feudal period.
A great Carolingian abbey was a vast establishment that might have several hundred monks and a number of boys to be instructed in the monastery school. It might be surrounded by a town whose life was dominated by the monastery. The abbey was supported by l
arge tracts of land worked by serfs and had to fulfill obligations toward its feudal overlord. The life of the monks was highly ritualized: many additional psalms and prayers were added to the Benedictine opus Dei; churches, altars and private Masses were multiplied; there were daily processions for the veneration of altars and relics. A monastery was an image in miniature of the empire itself, the earthly kingdom of God in which law and culture produced the order and peace that were a foretaste of the heavenly realm. The life of the monks was indeed a continual seeking of God through prayer, asceticism and liturgical service. But the monastery was conceived of as an organ of the Christian state: the abbot became an important political functionary, the abbey was a powerful economic force, and the state assured control by reserving the right to appoint the abbot in most cases. This factor was to have disastrous consequences. The camel’s nose was already under the tent-flap.
Western monasticism, like that of the East, had heretofore managed to maintain a basic unity of doctrine and purpose in the midst of a bewildering, chaotic welter of observances. Now uniformity had become the ideal. The RB, that most flexible of all rules, scarcely furnished such a program; it habitually leaves practical decisions to the abbot’s discretion. Therefore, it had to be supplemented by documents that would specify details of discipline and liturgical practice. The eighth and ninth centuries, consequently, saw the introduction of “customaries” or “statutes.”26 An important step was thus taken, leading eventually to the concept of a centralized “religious order” and of the “constitutions” that serve as its legislative framework.27
Political considerations indeed played a part in the triumph of the RB over other rules. It was the “Roman rule” that best served the Carolingian design for an empire based upon the Roman-German axis. But its success, in the last analysis, was due not solely to political expediency but to a recognition of its own innate qualities. Paradoxically, its very flexibility recommended it, for by not legislating in matters of ephemeral detail, it still proved usable at a time when profound social and economic changes had taken place in the West. Many other rules, too much bound to the situations of other times and places, were patently obsolete. Subsequent history has vindicated this judgment of the adaptability of the RB. Moreover, when the RB was followed in conjunction with other rules, it was increasingly perceived that it had given superior expression to the essentials of monastic tradition. No other text summed up so trenchantly and yet so fully the “deposit” of monastic doctrine and practice. The Concordia Regularum is a testimony to Benedict of Aniane’s recognition of this. However his work may appear in hindsight, he did not intend to innovate; he wanted to restore the purity that monastic life had had in its origins, and he saw the RB as the best means to achieve this goal.
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