Foundational Rules

The creation of monastic orders can be attributed to a few manuscripts and their authors who evangelized them. I have added two of these foundational monastic manuscripts to my exhibition. The first is Johannes Cassianus, De institutis coenobiorum et de octo principalium vitiorum remediis, , lib. III-X, fragmenta; Collationes Patrum , Lib. I, 11-IV, 19. This manuscript is from John Cassian, one of the founders of Western monastic orders. It is significant in that it brings the notions of Eastern monasticism to Western Europe. [1]

An order by definition is a grouping of people that follow a specific set of rules or doctrines. For an order to exist, then, it must have a set of rules that its members follow. These rules set up the foundation to the ideological principles an order has. For instance, the Rules of St. Benedict were the foundation for almost every monastic order in Western Europe. St. Benedict layed out, in a set of written rules, the type of life a monk should follow. This was possible because these rules were written down on illuminated manuscripts that were shared with thousands of people around Europe, hundreds of years after St. Benedict’s death. One of the manuscripts I have chosen for my exhibition describes the power of these rules completely. The “SAINT BENEDICT, Regula sancti Benedicti and SAINT AUGUSTINE, Regula sancti Augustini episcopi” is one containing both the rules of St. Benedict as well as St. Augustine. What’s important to note with this manuscript is that it was written almost a thousand years after St. Benedict’s death. Illuminated manuscripts provide this preservation of ideology. However, as we see with this manuscript, it also contains the rules of St. Augustine. This addition is one that St. Benedict might not approve of. This presents one negative aspect of preserving information in books -- it can lead to misrepresentation of one’s thoughts and the intentional skewing of one’s ideas.

Monasteries put these highly decorated manuscripts up to show that the foundation of their doctrine comes from an incredibly important and influential historical figure. This would in turn increase their perception to the public and their reputation.