Name _________________________
Block ______ Date ______________
Monasteries & Monks: The
Benedictines
Goal:
Describe the religious & secular role of monasteries
Directions:
Read & annotate the article
Complete the chart below after you finish the reading
Who were the Benedictines?
What was Benedictine rule?
What was the religious role of monasteries?
In what ways did the monasteries become
more involved in the secular world?
What type of social services did the
monasteries provide?
Before the year 1000, why might a serf
want to join a monastery?
Summary Question: How did monasteries increase the power of the Church?
Monasteries & Monks: The
Benedictines
The Benedictines were the oldest order of monks in Western Europe during the
Middle Ages. They followed Benedict of Nursia's Benedictine Rule, written in the
mid-sixth century and based upon monastic experience in the Eastern Roman
Empire. The rule, or constitution, was intended to be flexible and moderate, so
that each monk could glorify God and achieve his own individual salvation. By
800, the Benedictine Rule dominated all other monastic rules in Western Europe.
Benedict had established his original monastery at Monte Cassino in Italy ca.
530. His original group of followers were laymen seeking to escape the world.
The monks made vows of stability, reformation of life, and obedience. A daily
routine was fixed for the monks, with a balance between work and prayer and
moderation in all things as its guiding light. Benedict intended for the monastery
to be self-supporting in order to minimize contact with the outside world.
Contemporary observers referred to Benedictines as the "black monks" because
of their robes; other orders wore different colored robes, like the Cistercians with
their white robes.
After the Lombards sacked Monte Cassino ca. 589, the Benedictines fled to
Rome. Many were sent by the popes to regions throughout Western and Eastern
Europe to establish new monasteries and to convert the pagan peoples there.
Although each monastery followed the Benedictine Rule, each was independent.
Their roles also changed as society became more feudal. People began to view
the monks as defending them from evil and the monks' prayers as providing
spiritual salvation for the general population. The monks were expected to work
not just for their own salvation but for everyone's.
The monasteries also prospered under the feudal system and became landlords
as time went by. Feudal commitments, such as the need to provide knights for
greater lords, drew the monasteries into more worldly affairs. As the general level
of learning declined, Benedictines often filled such roles as clerks, financial
officers, and architects.
The move away from purely spiritual concerns to more worldly cares caused a
decline in the spirituality in the monasteries. Servants and an aristocratic lifestyle
was common among Benedictine monks by 1000. Before that date, the children
of the poor were often admitted to the order. By the High Middle Ages,
membership was most often limited to members of the nobility who could pay an
expensive dowry for admission. Convents were established for women interested
in the monastic life, and they also followed the above pattern.
As more and more monasteries appeared in Europe, they provided a variety of
social services. They served as inns for travelers and places of refuge for
individuals suffering from natural or other calamities. They served as
orphanages and provided medical treatment for the ill and injured. They often
set up schools and offered at least some rudimentary education services for local
regions, and large monasteries provide more advanced instruction for those
preparing for the priesthood or high ecclesiastical (Church-related) positions.
Some monasteries maintained libraries and scriptoria, where monks copied
works of classical literature and philosophy as well as the Bible and other
Christian writings. Almost all works of Latin literature that have come down to the
present survive because of copies made by medieval monks. Finally,
monasteries served as a source of literate, educated, and talented individuals,
whose secretarial and administrative services were crucial to the survival of
feudal government in early medieval Europe.
For many people a neighboring monastery was the only source of instruction in
Christian doctrine, and a local monastic church offered the only practical
opportunity for them to take part in religious services. Monks patiently and
persistently served the needs of rural populations, and over the decades and
centuries they helped to instill Christian values in countless generations of
European peasants.
Source: "Benedictines." World History: Ancient and Medieval Eras. ABC-CLIO, 2011. Web. 17 May 2011.