The Rule of St. Benedict
Introduction and Study Guide
For centuries the Roman Empire had been a stabilizing force in the world. Though one could perhaps legitimately criticize the tyranny of Rome as they dominated nation after nation and people after people it would be hard to deny that after conquest came real stability. The Pax Romana (Roman Peace) allowed for many good things to come into being and endure for more than 400 years. Everywhere the Romans went they made the best quality roads and this made traveling within the empire easier than ever before. Everywhere the Romans had a garrisoned presence they established peace and security which increased prosperity in trade. Every place Rome occupied for any length of time saw advancements of civilization in the form of education, the practice of fine arts, advancements in architecture and engineering (including running water and sewer systems), and more. Though it had its very bad emperors and very real abuses, it’s hard to deny that Rome created a kind of stability and security across much of the world that was completely unprecedented. If you lived in a well established Roman province within the first four centuries after Christ then you had little to fear from the outside world.
In 476 A.D., however, the world was changed forever when Rome fell to invading barbarian tribes from the North. The Pax Romana was no more and a massive power grab throughout Europe began. The eastern part of the empire (the Byzantine Empire) would yet endure for another 1,000 years, but when the west fell it shattered. Those shattered pieces were picked up by many different hands. With the fragmentation of Europe into many smaller state powers there came a lot of chaos. The loss of stability, structure, and security meant that many good things were set aside. Suddenly many thousands of people were back to the kind of sustenance-living that characterized the uncivilized world. Men, women, and children were working sun up to sun down seeking to scrounge enough money or food to get by day after day. In times of war and destabilization things like the arts and education often take a back seat. In those days much of the knowledge of the ancients, which Rome had cherished and protected, was in danger of being lost altogether.
A little over 150 years prior to the fall of Rome Christianity had won a major victory in the empire. In 313 A.D. Constantine and Licinius (the then co-emperors of Rome) issued the Edict of Milan making Christianity a legal religion in the empire. From that point forward the gospel spread rapidly across the empire and people were becoming Christians by the droves. In Augustine’s book, The City of God (written shortly after Rome had been sacked in 410 A.D. by the Visigoths), he ably defended the Christian faith against charges that it was responsible for the weakening state of the empire. Though it was not the case that Christians were to blame for the decline of Rome, when it did fall Christians were much in the same boat as their pagan neighbors.
Many things that should not be forgotten were in danger of being lost during this time. Literacy in Europe reached an all-time low since the inception of the Roman Empire. People were not pursuing liberal learning, the great texts of the ancient world were not being preserved by regular copying, people were just enduring the difficulties of life one day at a time. There was little leisure to be had, but leisure is the basis of culture. Where there is no rest, there is no scholarship, art, music, theology, and philosophy. Western Civilization was in a downward spiral.
In God’s good providence there arose a network of oases in the midst of the chaos thanks to a Christian man named Benedict. In 529 St. Benedict established an order of monks who committed themselves to a strict “rule of life.” Living in community with one another they worked hard to produce a shared living and as result of their shared labors they also produced the necessary time to become well-educated men. The monasteries developed under Benedictine rule became centers for learning and preserving the good things that had become in danger of being lost. These monks memorized and copied the Christian Scriptures, they studied and wrote works upon horticultural which advanced our understanding of how to yield larger crops, they preserved and built upon the works of the great philosophers and story-tellers of old, they produced incredible works of Christian theology, they started schools for the education of children, and they became centers for training and sending out missionaries for the sake of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
It would be overselling it to say that Benedictine monasteries single-handedly saved Western Civilization, but it was definitely one of the tools God used in his providence to help preserve what is true, good, and beautiful in a dark and uncertain time. Europe never reunified into a single empire, and it faced many uncertain times and much unrest throughout the Middle Ages, but in the midst of all of that the teachings of Christ and his apostles continued to spread throughout the world and change lives. Because of people like Benedict, and many other faithful men and women who loved Christ, culture did not die in the “dark ages.” Post tenebras lux. The light of Christ shone in the darkness and the darkness could not overcome it. It continues to shine to this day and the gospel will march forth until all the nations come in adoration to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. We can be thankful for those who took up the mantle in their day to keep the lamps burning, now it’s our turn. Perhaps reading about the extreme measures they took back then to preserve the true, good, and beautiful will inspire us to do what is necessary in our own day to that same end.
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