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Rule
St Benedict of Nursia, tr. Hunter Blair, 1907
Chapter 22
LET them sleep each one in a separate bed, receiving bedding suitable to their manner of life, as the Abbot shall appoint. If possible, let all sleep in one place:1 but if the number do not permit of this, let them repose by tens or twenties with the seniors who have charge of them. Let a candle burn constantly in the cell until morning. Let them sleep clothed, and girded with belts or cords—but not with knives at their sides, lest perchance they wound themselves in their sleep—and thus be always ready, so that when the signal is given they may rise without delay, and hasten each to forestall the other in going to the Work of God, yet with all gravity and modesty. Let not the younger brethren have their beds by themselves, but among those of the seniors. And when they rise for the Work of God, let them gently encourage one another, because of the excuses of the drowsy.
Notes
- Note L (p. 80).—In uno loco dormiant. This rule was strictly observed for many centuries. Separate cells are expressly forbidden in all the ancient Rules; and in A.D. 1341 we find the General Chapter of the English Benedictines, and a hundred years later that of Cluny, repeating the same prohibition. The dormitory was only entered at night, and everything in the way of reading and study in the early monasteries was carried on in the cloister, from which seculars were for centuries strictly excluded.