THE METAPHORICAL USE OF MEDICAL TERMINOLOGY

IN THE EARLY MONASTIC TRADITION.

In chapters 27, 28 and once in the very short chapter 30 of the Rule of St.Benedict there

is to be found a medical terminology which includes the words : medicus (physician 27.1),

male habentibus (the sick 27.1), infirmus (sick 27.6), cura (care in the medical sense 27.6),

sanus (healthy 27.6), fomenta (compresses 28.3), unguenta (ointment 28.3), medicamina

(medicine), ustionem (cauterizing iron 28.3), salutem (health 28.5), ferro abscisionis (knife

of amputation 28.6), morbidus (diseased 28. .8), contagere (infect 28.8), and sanare (heal

30.3). In these chapters all of these terms are used in a metaphorical sense or, one could

say, as part of an extended metaphor. The terms morbidus (diseased or unhealthy) and cura

are also used in a metaphorical sense in chap. 2.8 where the abbot is admonished to strive

to cure the unhealthy ways of his restive and disobedient flock. It is of interest to note that

the metaphor of sheep and shepherd is also used in chap. 27 in connection with the abbot's

metaphorical role of physician.1

With the exception of this last reference in the chapter on the abbot and a use of sanare in

chap. 71, all of these terms used in a metaphorical sense are to be found in what is often called

the "penal code" of the Rule, that is, chapters 23-30, and are used specifically in dealing with

the cases of the excommunicated and those who fail to amend after frequent reproofs. The

phrase morbidis actibus ("sick acts" or "unhealthy ways") of chap. 2 is taken over from the

Rule of the Master but the rest of the terminology has no counterpart in the latter Rule. In fact

the introduction of this terminology in regard to the excommunicated and repeated offenders

manifests an attitude in sharp contrast to that of the Master whose interest is, as Adalbert de

Vogue has remarked, less pastoral than ceremonial.2 In the Rule of the Master, it is the penitent

who is required to beg the abbot to imitate the pity of Christ who (in this assimilation of the

parable to the figure of Christ) left the ninety-nine to go in search of the one lost sheep. In the

Rule of St. Benedict, on the other hand, it is the abbot who is admonished to go in search of the

excommunicated brother. To search for the lost sheep signifies the whole pastoral activity the

abbot must undertake, a field of activity totally ignored by the Master but which constitutes, as

1 A few of these terms, infirmus, cura, etc. are used elsewhere in the Rule of St. Benedict but in a literal rather than metaphorical sense and hence are not of interest to us here.

2 A. de Vogüé and Jean Neufville, La Régle de saint Benoît (Sources Chretiennes 181-186: Paris: Editions du Cerf,1971- 72) V, p.726.

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Adalbert de Vogüé has noted, the great innovation of the penitential section of the Rule of St. Benedict 3 and de

Vogüé finds these pages among the most beautiful of the Rule.4

But if St. Benedict did not derive this terminology from the Rule of the Master, what is

its source? Despite the ingenious suggestion of E. Molland that St.Benedict might have

studied medicine or at least read some medical books,5 it seems more likely that he has been

influenced by the very extensive use of medical terminology in a metaphorical sense by earlier

Christian authors .Taking perhaps as their point of departure, as did Benedict, the text of Matt

9:12, where Jesus states that "it is not the healthy who need a physician but the sick," as well

as numerous references in the Old Testament where "healing" and "healer" are used as

metaphors for "saving" and "savior,"6 early Christian writers from the time of Ignatius of

Antioch onwards made frequent use of such metaphors .At the end of the second century, the

immensely popular cult of the healer god, Asclepius, provided writers such as Clement of

Alexandria, Origen and Τertullian an additional motivation to develop the theme of Christ the

physician or healer.7 Harnack pointed out that the idea of healing was extremely popular in the

second century and all the gods tended to become healers.8 It was only natural that the

Christians should make a healer out of Christ and a healing of souls out of Christianity.

The influence of Stoicism which made extensive use of medical ideas and terminology,

may also have played a role in this development.9 Later writers such as Cyprian, Ambrose,

Augustine, and Cassian also make extensive use of such metaphorical medical terminology.

From the beginning these metaphors are applied both to God or Christ who are compared to a

physician and to human pastors such as the bishop, a priest or a monastic elder. Ignatius of

Antioch uses the metaphors in both ways.10 St. Ambrose calls Christ "the Physician," "the

3 A. de Vogüé, V, p. 726.

4 A. de Vogüé, V, p. 739.

5 Einar Molland, " Ut Sapiens Medicus: Medical Vocabulary in st. Benedict' s Regula Monachorum " Studia Monastica 6(1964) p. 296.

6 See A. Oepke, s.v. ⲓοαμαι in G. Kittel, TWZNT, III. p. 202.

7 Rudolph Arbesmann, "The Concept of 'Christus Medicus' in st. Augustine" Traditio 10(1954) p. 3. Molland , p. ?

8 Adolf Harnack, Die Mission und Ausbreitung des Christentums in den ersten drei Jahrhunderten (4th ed.; Leipzig L924); Michel Spanneut, Le stoicisme des Pres de l'Eglise de Clement de Rome a Clement d'Alexandrie (Paris: Editions de Seuil , 1957) p. 198.

9 Spanneut, pp. 197ff.; Τertullian, antidote.

10 Molland, p. 288.

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Great Physician," and speaks of "the great medicine of his grace."1111 Jerome uses the

terms verus medicus,solus medicus, ipse ec medicus ec medicamencum of Christ,

terminology which he probably derived from Origen.12 Augustine uses the idea over and

over again. For him the chief disease is pride, Christ is the physician and the medicine is His

own humility. One example may serve to illustrate this rich theme :

Through the pride [of our first parents] then have we so fallen as to become subject to thismortality. And because pride has wounded us, humility makes us whole. God came humbly thatHe might heal man from such a great wound of pride •••He was seized by the Jews, and reviled•••He did not pay attention to what He heard as though He had not heard it. For a Physician Hewas and to cure the insane patient He had come.13

Given such a broad literary background and such popular usage, it may be pointless

to look for a specific source for this terminology in the Rule of St. Benedict, although

texts from Origen and Cassian provide some of the closest parallels. My purpose here is

rather to compare the way in which such terminology is employed, particularly in Benedict and

Cassian, in order to discover clues to more fundamental conceptions of the monastic life as such,

since the use of images often reveals underlying attitudes and concepts.

As we have already observed, most of the medical terminology employed in the Rule of

St. Benedict in a metaphorical sense is to be found in the chapters on the excommunicated

and on those who have already been frequently corrected. These constitute specific and, it

may be hoped, exceptional cases. The medicinal outlook is thus invoked in connection with

more serious disciplinary cases rather than as a metaphor for the monastic life as such. The

medical activity centers on the abbot who is the one actor, the physician, in the drama. He

may employ others to help him but they (the senpectae) are one of his medical remedies . The

patient is the recalcitrant monk or, in the case of amputation, the community as such.

The two brief references outside this section of the Rule do not really change this

picture .The reference to the sick acts (or unhealthy ways) of the sheep in the chapter on

the abbot is still within the context of discipline. Likewise, the reference in chapter 71 to

the anger of the abbot or of one of the seniors being healed is within the context of

11 Arbesmann, p. 5.

12 See A.S. Pease, "Medical Allusions in the Works of St. Jerome" Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 25 (1914) pp. 74ff.

13 Arbesmann, p. 12 (Enarr. in Ps 35.17 [PL 36.353]).

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discipline. Verse 6 of chap. 27, which admonishes the abbot to realize that he has

undertaken care of the sick, not tyranny over the healthy, could be interpreted perhaps as

a demand for a broader attitude on the part of the abbot but the sick still remain the

exceptional cases and not a description of all monks.

Medical terminology also pervades the Conferences of Cassian, Medical terminology is

employed by John Cassian, on the other hand, much more frequently and in broader

contexts. Of course it must be conceded that the scope of Cassian's work is much

broader than St. Benedict's little rule for beginners and his Institutes and Conferences

constitute a much vaster literary production, but the difference may also be symptomatic

of the differences in culture and in the forms monasticism assumed in the two periods .

This is a point to which we shall return later.

It may be convenient to begin a survey of Cassian's use of this medical terminology

with a look at chap. 7 of Book 10 of the Institutes which deals with "accidie", one of the

eight principal faults, since this passage is sometimes suggested as the source or

inspiration for Benedict's use of the terminology. At least it is the closest parallel in

Cassian. Accidie manifests itself, according to Cassian, in laziness and idleness or in

restlessness and engaging in gossip. In chap. 7 he cites the example of the apostle Paul in

dealing with the Thessalonians .He says that Paul "like a true and spiritual physician"

(verus ac spiritalis medicus) saw this disease (morbus) creeping into the community and

sought to prevent its spread by the "healing medicine of his directions ." He calls Paul "a

skillful and excellent physician" (peritissimus quidam perfectusque medicus) because he

seeks to heal the wound in two stages . The text on which Cassian is com menting is 1

Thes 4:9-11 which reads:

But concerning love of the brethren you have no need to have any one write to you, for youyourselves have been taught by God to love one another; and indeed you do a=love all thebrethren throughout Macedonia. But we exhort you, brethren, to do so more and more, to aspire tolive quietly, to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we charged you. (RSV)

Cassian points out that Paul begins "with the soothing applica tion of praise, and made their

ears submissive and ready for the remedy of healing words" (that is, the admonition to live

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quietly, mind one's own business and work). It i s easy then for Cassian to apply Paul's

admonitions to the Thessalonians to the monks by making them slightly more concrete, that

they should stay in their own cells, not go in search of rumors and gossip or examine the

lives of others and depreciate the brethren.

For those who did not heed these gentle warnings, Cassian says, Paul had to write a

second letter in which he tries "to heal with severer and sterner remedies . • those who

had not profited by more gentle treatment. " The remedy is in fact excom munication.

Again to describe Paul's medical activity, he employs the phrase "a skillful physician"

(peritissimus medicus).He says : "like a skillful physician with festering limbs, to which he

could not apply the remedy of a mild treatment, he tries to cure by an incision with a

spiritual knife, saying, 'that you keep away from any brother who is living in idleness and

not in accord with the tradition that you received from us'" (2 Thes 3:6). As in the Rule of

St. Benedict (28.6), the image of the sick person shifts from the individual to the

community. Cassian comments further on this verse from 2 Thessalonians : "so he

(Paul ) bids them withdraw from those who will not make time for work, and to cut

them off like limbs tainted with the festering

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sores of leisure: lest the malady of idleness, like some deadly contagion, might infect

even the healthy portion of their limbs, by the gradual advance of infection ."

Later in chap.14 of this same book Cassian, continuing his comments on this

passage from 2 Thessalonians, takes up the medical terminology again. He says that

Paul

adopts once more the tender character of a good father, or of a kind physician, and,

as if they were his children or his patients, applies by his healing counsel remedies to

cure them, saying: "Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus

Christ to do their work in quietness and to earn their own living" (2 Thes 3:12).The

cause of all these ul cers, which spring from the root of idleness, he heals like some

well-skilled physician (peritissimus medicorum) by a single salutary

charge to work; as he knows that all the other bad symptoms, which spring as it were

from the same clump, will at once disappear when the cause of the chief malady has

been removed. (Inst. 10,14).

Then, commenting on the next verse of 2 Thessalonians, Cassian writes :

"Nevertheless, like a far-sighted and careful physician (perspicacis smius ac providus

medicus) , he is not only anxious to heal the wounds of the sick, but gives suitable

directions as well to the whole, that their health may be preserved con tinually, and says :

'Brethren, do not be weary in well-doing' (2 Thes 3:13)" (Inst. 10,5).

This use of medical terminology in dealing with the fault of accidie ("heaviness or

weariness of heart" [Inst. 5,1]) is not an isolated occurrence in the writings of Cassian. It

is in fact typical of his approach to the eight principal faults and indeed could be said to

give us an opening into his vision of the spiritual life as such. It may be useful here to

recall that the spiritual life as conceived by Cassian, in a tradition which goes back to

Origen, is composed of two parts, the practical or "ac tive" life and the contemplative

life. The active life consists in the struggle against the eight principal faults which he

enumerates at the beginning of Book 5 of the Institutes: glut tony, fornication,

covetousness, anger, dejection, accidie, vain glory, and pride. The last eight books of the

Institutes treat each one of these in turn. After enumerating them, Cassian states that his

goal is: "to investigate the nature of these in all points however trifling or hidden or

obscure: and next to explain with sufficient clearness the causes of them: and thirdly to

bring forward fitly the cures and remedies for them" (Inst. 5, 1).These eight books of the

Institutes might then aptly be called a manual of spiritual medicine. The goal is gradually

to achieve spiritual health, also called "purity of heart" in Cassian's terminology (Inst.

5,2).

Typical of his approach to the eight principal faults and indeed could be said to give us an

opening into his vision of the spiritual life as such. It may be useful here to recall that the

spiritual life as conceived by Cassian, in a tradition which goes back to Origen, is

composed of two parts, the practical or "active" life and the contemplative life. The active

life consists in the struggle against the eight principal faults which he enumerates at the

beginning of Book 5 of the Institutes: gluttony, fornication, covetousness, anger, dejection,

accidie, vain glory, and pride. The last eight books of the Institutes treat each one of these

in turn. After enumerating them, Cassian states that his goal is: "to investigate the nature of

these in all points however trifling or hidden or obscure: and next to explain with

sufficient clearness the causes of them: and thirdly to bring forward fitly the cures and

remedies for them" (Inst. 5, 1).These eight books of the Institutes might then aptly be

called a manual of spiritual medicine. The goal is gradually to achieve spiritual health, also

called "purity of heart" in Cassian's terminology (Inst. 5,2).

Each of these eight principal faults can in fact be considered a disease. In Book 8, 2 for

example, Cassian describes anger as "this most pernicious disease of the soul." Not only is

it a disease of the soul in itself but it leads to further disease, spiritual blindness. Cassian

insists that a monk who is aiming at perfection must be free of all anger; otherwise he may

become blind. Such a monk should at once treat an erring brother in such a way that, while he

manages to apply a remedy to one afflicted with perhaps a slight fever, he may not by his wrath

involve him self in a more dangerous malady of blindness. For he who wants to heal another's

wound ought to be in good health and free from every affliction of weakness himself, lest that

saying of the gospel should be used to him, "Physician, first heal thyself" (Luke 4:23); and lest,

seeing a mote in his brother's eye, he see not the beam in his own eye, for how will he see to cast

out the mote from his brother's eye, who has the beam of anger in his own eye? (cf. Matt 7:3-

5)" (Inst. 8,5).

For a person suffering from the disease of anger, Cassian observes, anything can cause the

emotion of wrath to boil over and "it blinds the eyes of the soul, and bringing the deadly beam

of a worse disease over the keenness of our sight, prevents us from seeing the sun of

righteousness" (Inst. 8,6).Much of Cassian's analysis of anger is devoted to destroying the

argument's used to justify anger or in more modern terms, to removing the defenses which

angry people use to rationalize their anger. At the end he observes that "it will be a sure

remedy for this disease, if in the first place we make up our mind that we ought never to be

angry at all, whether for good or bad reasons" (Inst. 8,22).

For those who did not heed these gentle warnings, Cassian says, Paul had to write a

second letter in which he tries "to heal with severer and sterner remedies those who had

not profited by more gentle treatment. " The remedy is in fact excommunication. Again to

describe Paul's medical activity, he employs the phrase "a skillful physician" (peritissimus

medicus).He says: "like a skillful physician with festering limbs, to which he could not

apply the remedy of a mild treatment, he tries to cure by an incision with a spiritual knife,

saying, 'that you keep away from any brother who is living in idleness and not in accord

Each of these eight principal faults can in fact be considered a disease. In Book 8, 2 for

example, Cassian describes anger as "this most pernicious disease of the soul." Not only is

it a disease of the soul in itself but it leads to further disease, spiritual blindness. Cassian

insists that a monk who is aiming at perfection must be free of all anger; otherwise he may

become blind. Such a monk should at once treat an erring brother in such a way that, while he

manages to apply a remedy to one afflicted with perhaps a slight fever, he may not by his

wrath involve him self in a more dangerous malady of blindness. For he who wants to heal

another's wound ought to be in good health and free from every affliction of weakness himself,

lest that saying of the gospel should be used to him, "Physician, first heal thyself" (Luke 4:23);

and lest, seeing a mote in his brother's eye, he see not the beam in his own eye, for how will he

see to cast out the mote from his brother's eye, who has the beam of anger in his own eye?

(cf. Matt 7:3-5)" (Inst. 8,5).

For a person suffering from the disease of anger, Cassian observes, anything can cause the

emotion of wrath to boil over and "it blinds the eyes of the soul, and bringing the deadly beam

of a worse disease over the keenness of our sight, prevents us from seeing the sun of

righteousness" (Inst. 8,6). Much of Cassian's analysis of anger is devoted to destroying the

argument's used to justify anger or in more modern terms, to removing the defenses which

angry people use to rationalize their anger. At the end he observes that "it will be a sure remedy

for this disease, if in the first place we make up our mind that we ought never to be angry at

all, whether for good or bad reasons" (Inst. 8,22).

In the second conference (on discretion) of Abbot Moses, Cassian tells the story of a

young monk troubled by the spirit of fornication who, for the sake of the health of his soul,

confessed this to an old monk who turned out to be not a very skillful physician. Instead of

offering encouragement to the young man, this old monk left him in a state of hopeless

despair and deadly despondency. However, another wiser elder, Abbot Apollos came to the

rescue and, having discovered the reasons for the young monk's despair and how bad medicine

had made it worse, managed to set things aright. In a satirical piece Cassian has Abbot Apollos

pray as follows: "O Lord, you alone are the righteous judge and unseen physician of secret

strength and human weakness; turn the assault from the young man upon the old one that he

may learn to condescend to the weakness of sufferers, and to sympathize even in old age with

the frailties of youth" (Cons. 2,15).The prayer is granted at once with predictable and amusing

consequences.

In a different context when commenting on the question of possession by devils,

Cassian points out that those who are entangled in sins and lusts are in a worse condition

than those openly possessed. He says: "in this respect they are more dangerously ill,

because though they are their (the devils ') slaves, yet they do not know that they are

assaulted by them and under their dominion" (Cons. 7,25).He also observes that we should

not hate or despise those whom we see delivered up to various temptations and that we

should bear in mind that all things which are brought upon us by God "are inflicted for our

advantage as by a most kind father and most compassionate physician" (Cons. 7,28).

Again in Conf. 13,18 he also describes God the Father as a "most kind father and benign

physician."

One of the places where Cassian employs medical terminology most extensively and

consistently is in the discussion of the respective merits of the anchoritic and cenobitic

forms of monastic life in Conference 19. The teaching of this conference is placed in the

mouth of Abbot John, who, after spending thirty years in the cenobium, had lived for twenty

years as a hermit. However, he has now returned to the cenobium, to the infant school, as he

calls it (Conf. 19,2).Abbot John is insistent on the necessity of training in the cenobium for all

monks and he warns against the perils o{leaving the cenobium too early. When he is pressed

by Germanus to tell them what those should do who have left the cenobium too early before

they had been cleansed of their faults, instead of giving a simplistic answer such as: return to

the cenobium, he pushes the discussion to a deeper level. He says:

To those who are really seeking relief, healing remedies from the true Physician of souls willcertainly not be wanting; and to those above all will they be given who do not disregard their sickcondition (either because they despair of it, or because they do not care about it), nor hide thedanger they are in from their wound, nor in their wanton heart reject the remedy of patience, butwith a humble and yet careful heart flee to the heavenly Physician for the diseases they havecontracted from ignorance or error or necessity.

Abbot John goes on to point out, as does Basil, that if we retire to the desert, if we seek

solitude without having first been cured of our faults, they do not go away simply because

there is no occasion for them to be manifested. As soon as the occasion offers itself, the angry

person, for example, will be shown to be still an angry person.

At this point Germanus again presses Abbot Apollos to tell them how they can remedy

the situation which has resulted from their leaving the cenobium too early. His speech

deserves to be quoted in full because it contains a very good description of Cassian's view of

the "active" part of the spiritual life and it is all given in medical terminology. Germanus says:

We very clearly and plainly see the proofs by which the signs of infirmities are inferred, andthe method of discerning diseases, i.e. , how the faults which are concealed in us can be detected:for our every day experience and the daily motions of our thoughts show us all these as they havebeen stated. It remains then that as the proofs and causes of our maladies have been exposed to usin a most clear way so their cures and remedies may also be shown. For no one can doubt thatone who has first discovered the grounds and beginnings of ailments, with the approving witnessof the conscience of those affected, can best discourse on their remedies. And so though theteaching of your holiness has laid bare the secrets of our wounds whereby we venture to havesome hope of a remedy, because so clear a diagnosis of the disease gives promise of the hope of acure, yet because, as you say, the first elements of salvation are acquired in the cenobium, andmen cannot be in sound condition in solitude, unless they have first been healed by the medicineof the cenobium, we have fallen again into a dangerous state of despair lest as we left thecenobium in an imperfect condition we may not now that we are in the desert succeed inbecoming perfect (Conf. 19,13).

Abbot John then expounds the basic principle of the spiritual life that "remedies should be

sought by the same means that the signs of each fault are discovered" (Conf. 19,14). For

example, if one is prone to anger, the solution is not to withdraw from the company of others,

but on the contrary to put oneself in situations where one will have the occasion to develop

patience. It is only by practicing patience in concrete situations that one will be able to acquire

it. Likewise one should meditate on the occasions which are known to elicit one's anger and to

imagine responding to such situations or provocations with humility and patience. This is why

Germanus could speak of the "medicine of the cenobium" because the cenobium provides the

opportunities for developing and practicing patience and humility whereas the desert and

solitude, offer the possibility of pride and self-delusion.

This brief and by no means exhaustive survey of medical terminology in Cassian's Institutes

and Conferences should be enough to show how much his thought is permeated by this

language and by the outlook or attitude which accompanies it. He uses this language of God in

His dealings with people in general. He uses it also to describe the activity of the apostle Paul

and that of individual monastic fathers in their efforts to bring healing to the sufferings of

others. And he uses it also to describe the person who is seeking healing whether from God or

from a spiritual father or simply through life in the monastic community. Far from being

restricted to exceptional and disciplinary cases as it is in the Rule of St. Benedict, it is

indicative rather of a whole approach to the spiritual life and reveals his spiritual program. It is

a program not for the delinquent but for all those who are really seeking healing. In Cassian's

view, it is not just a few but all of mankind which is suffering from the wounds or diseases of

the eight principal faults and the additional maladies that result from these. Therefore, to

seek healing is an integral part of the two-fold spiritual program which he sets forth most

clearly at the beginning of Conference 14 on "spiritual knowledge." Abbot Nesteros, the

interlocutor in this conference, states it this way: "(spiritual knowledge ) has a two fold

aspect. There is first the practical side which is achieved through the correction of one's

moral acts and through the purging of sin. Second there is theory, that is, the

contemplation of things divine and the awareness of very sacred meanings" (Conf. 14,1

Paulist trans.). Nesteros points out that if one wishes to advance in the contemplative life, one

must first of all make progress on the practical side. It is possible to make progress on this side,

the active life, without advancing in the contemplative life but the reverse is not possible. A

person, for example, who is suffering from constant anger and irritation at others can hardly

maintain the quiet contemplation of God's providence.

The active or practical side of the spiritual life also has a two-fold schema, as Abbot

Nesteros explains:

First is to know the nature of one 's sins and the means of curing them. Second is to discern the order of the virtues and to have our spirit shaped by their perfection, so that the soul is not, as it were, in thrall to them and violently subjected to their rule but, rather, is filled with a natural pleasure at their goodness, feeding upon them, delightedly climbing that high and natural road (Conf. 14,3).

The extensive use of medical terminology on the part of Cassian is also, it seems to

me, indicative of a certain attitude. It is an attitude which is non-judgmental and non-

moralistic. I have already quoted from Abbot John in Conference 19 where he speaks of

fleeing to the heavenly Physician for the diseases we have contracted from "ignorance or

error or necessity." In fact the tendency to pass judgement on others is one of the diseases

for which we need healing. In Conference 11 Cassian makes this observation: "A very

clear proof of the fact that a soul has not yet cut loose from the corruption of sin is when it

feels no sympathizing pity for the wrongdoing of others but holds instead to the strict

censoriousness of a judge. For how can someone attain perfection of heart if he does not

possess what the apostle described as the Law's consummation when he said, 'Carry one

another's burdens and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ' (Gal 6:2)?" (Conf.

11.10). Developing the attitude of either a suffering patient or of a most kind and skilled

physician or both can help to cure this particular disease.

Prof. Owen Chadwick has called attention to the changes which occurred in monastic

life in the west between the time of Cassian and that of Benedict. He does this by tracing

the shift in emphasis away from the individual cell, which in the time of Cassian was the

place where the monk was expected to pray, work, eat, and sleep, to an emphasis and

reliance on common facilities in the time of Benedict : the oratory, the refectory, and

finally the dormitory. He says of the monastic legislation of the sixth century: "The

lawgivers have discipline in their minds.. .The cell cannot, or cannot easily , be supervised.

Though it has no key, it is a place where men can hide library books, or pens, or family

keepsakes, or unauthorized property. It is a place where lust can reign under cover of

darkness. Monks were many and their morals were various. The legislators now attached

hardly any religious importance to the cell. The commonness of the common life was a

protection. The legislators sound anxious."14 They are in fact interested in what, in modern

sociological terminology, is called "social-control.15

It is perhaps not far-fetched to see a similar difference of spirit in the way in which medical

terminology is used respectively by Cassian and Benedict. As in many other instances, against

the background of the Rule of the Master, the Rule of Benedict appears far wiser and more

humane .The abbot is to behave like a wise physician, seeking to cure the diseased sheep rather

than pompously waiting for the excommunicated monk to come and plead with him to behave

like a good shepherd. Nevertheless, the context of this phrase in the Rule is discipline .The

terminology in the Rule does not point to a wider spiritual program, to goals shared by all. The

emphasis is not on the spiritual program or goals of the individual monk. Although the

difference in time between Cassian and Benedict is only about a hundred years, we are in a

different age when we come to the sixth century. It is a far less cultured and sophisticated age

or society than that of the early fifth century in southern Gaul or that of the Mediterranean

14 Owen Chadwick, The Meaning of the Benedictine Ideal (Washington, D.C.: St. Anselm' s Abbey, 81) p. 12. Thomas Merton, The Monastic Journey edited by Patrick Hart.

15 Chadwick, The Meaning, p. 5.

world in general of this period. The old cultural and administrative systems have broken down

as we hear from the lamentations of Cassiodorus, a contemporary of Benedict. Someone may

object that it is unfair to compare a work such as the Rule of St. Benedict, which has a

restricted scope to begin with, to a much larger work like the Institutes and Conferences, which

aims at setting forth a sophisticated and refined spiritual program. This may be true. But it is

not so much a comparison of different works that I have sought to make but a comparison of

two periods.The two works are representative of their respective periods . They are in fact the

best representatives of their genres in their periods, but the two periods are very different. The

age of Benedict is not one of the high points of either secular or ecclesiastical culture in the

western world. It is an age of writing rules, little rules for beginners, or long prolix ones like

the Rule of the Master, and books on correct orthography such as that which Cassiodorus felt

compelled to write for his monks at Vivarium. It was an age which had trouble digesting the

rich literary output of the previous one, the age of Ambrose, Augustine, Jerome, Chrysostom,

Cassian and many others .

Much, perhaps too much, has been written in praise of the Rule of St. Benedict, Much of

this writing has been and continues to be romantic and focuses on the role of the Rule in

history rather than on what is actually contained in the Rule. On the other hand, although

Cassian has always been held in honor in the western monastic tradition, he has not always

been widely read or appreciated. And in modern times he has perhaps been less read and

appreciated than formerly. Yet no less a modern writer than Thomas Merton has called him the

"most important and influential writer in Western monasticism."16 And Owen Chadwick

has said of him that "He was one of the four or five people, from all of the Graeco-Roman

world whether heathen or Christian, with a truly modern insight into the predicaments of

the soul. At times his ethical analysis of a soul's experience is as penetrating and subtle as

that of a modern psychologist."16

To conclude, I do not wish to leave the impression that one should choose between

Benedict and Cassian. Both have much to offer as a basis for a modern monastic

spirituality. There will always be a need for a certain amount of social-control such as we

find in the Rule of St. Benedict.There will always be situations in monastic life which call

for the intervention of a strong authority figure. And we may be grateful indeed if that

figure behaves like a wise physician. But this is not enough. All those who aspire to

monastic life need to receive the orientation toward spiritual health which Cassian has to

offer and to develop for themselves the spiritual goals and program which he has set forth

16 Chadwick, The Meaning, p. 5.

rather systematically. We need to look beyond the little rule for beginners, as St.Benedict

himself recommends, to the works of a more sophisticated age because we too live in a

much more sophisticated age. The Rule of St. Benedict has provided the framework for a

great deal of activity throughout the history of western monasticism, missionary,

educational, pastoral etc. but it does not provide an adequate program for the development

of the interior life in our age. We can try to read into it all sorts of things, including

Cassian, as has long been done. But perhaps it might be simpler and more productive just

to read Cassian, as St. Benedict himself recommends.

It is much easier of course to engage in external activity than to develop the interior life, to

face up to the hard realities within us. But our age has perhaps more need for the development

of the interior life than it does for more external activity. He who would truly become a

peacemaker must first develop his own interior peace. Otherwise, in his efforts to make peace,

he is likely to add to the strife by contributing his own internal strife to that around him. For

such a development of the interior life Cassian does provide a basis and a program, a program

which, to be sure, needs to be updated and augmented. For a wise physician is always seeking

to increase his skill and add to his knowledge.

Mark Sheridan, O.S.B.

August 9, 1988

Given at a meeting of the American Benedictine Academy