Relaxation of the Rule

A widespread relaxation of the Rule in the religious communities of late-medieval Britain is evident enough in their buildings. There are the divided dormitories and private chambers that overturned St Benedict's original urging: 'let them all sleep in one place'. There are the similarly partitioned infirmaries, the refectories abandoned for more comfortable and relaxing heated parlours, the ambitiously extended superiors' lodgings, and the cloister alleys glazed against the cold. The privacy of the individual, in too many cases, had risen above the ideal of a discipline shared in common, while private property – that vice which, in Benedict's view, 'ought utterly to be rooted out of the monastery' – was everywhere accepted as routine. But such a softening of the Rule could, in certain circumstances, prove expensive. At precisely the time when monastic incomes were either fixed or registering a decline, the expectations of men and women of religion were rising. In the lifeboat analogy so commonly used today, only a limited number might be taken aboard or the vessel would be swamped and all perish. Establishments must be trimmed. Property, at whatever cost, must be protected.