The Rule of St. Benedict 7

Study Guide Questions for Ch. 55-63

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Virtues/Vices/Great Ideas: (Find them in the Text)

Community, Family, Justice

Grammar Questions: (The Information of the Text)

1. According to Benedict, what factors should determine the kind of clothing the brothers in a monastery receive?

2. What was to be different about the clothing monks would wear when they went out “on a journey” from the monastery?

3. With whom should the Abbot of a monastery take his meals according to the Rule?

4. What were monasteries not to do concerning “newcomers to the monastic life?”

5. What must a newcomer who is finally received into the community “be well aware” of?

6. What things were new monks required to do as part of the ceremony of admittance into the community?

7. What are ordained priests who are admitted to the community of the monastery allowed to do which regular brothers are not?

8. What should the status of “ordained priest” not have any effect upon in the life of the monastery?

9. What benefit did Benedict say could come from having a visiting monk stay with them?

10. What three things play into what rank a monk holds in a benedictine monastery?

Logic Questions: (Interpreting, Comparing/Contrasting, Reasoning)

1. Why was the renunciation of private ownership so crucial to the rule of a Benedictine monastery?

2. Why were monks who were artisans supposed to set the prices for their work “a little lower than people outside the monastery [were] able to set it?”

3. Why did Benedict insist that the process of joining the monastery should take about a year and provide the initiate with numerous chances to back out?

4. Why might “a member of the nobility” offer his son to the monastery?

5. Why might a poor family offer their son to the monastery?

6. What is the difference between a regular monk and an ordained Priest?

7. Why might the Abbot, in some cases, set a visiting monk (who decides to become a permanent member of the monastery) higher in rank than those who entered before him?

8. Why should age not be a determining factor in the rankings of a monastery according to Benedict?

Rhetoric Questions: (The Analysis of Ideas in the Text)

1. The Rule states that “In order that the vice of private ownership may be completely uprooted, the abbot is to provide all things necessary.” Was Benedict right to call “private ownership” a vice? Why or why not?

2. When a brother was admitted into the monastery part of the finalization of this was a signed contract placed upon the altar. What is a contract? How should we define that concept? What are some different examples of contractual relationships? Why is it significant that contracts are typically signed by one or more parties? What sort of situations call for a contract to be made? When should one not enter into a contractual relationship? Should there always be penalties associated with the breaking of a contract? Why or why not?

Theological Analysis: (Sola Scriptura)

1. Read Acts 5:1-11. What specifically was the “fraud” which Ananias and Saphira committed?

2. How would you relate Proverbs 27:17 to what Benedict says about visiting monks in Ch. 61?

3. Read 1 Samuel 1. Why did Hannah commit Samuel to the temple? How might this inform your thinking about why some families may have given their sons to Benedictine monasteries?