A Benedictine Reader

Hugh Feiss, OSB, is a monk of the Monastery of the Ascension in Jerome, Idaho. He earned his licentiate in philosophy and his doctorate in theology at Sant’Anselmo and is managing editor of the series Victorine Texts in Translation (Brepols/New City Press). He published Essential Monastic Wisdom, a thematic anthology of Benedictine and Cistercian texts (HarperSan Francisco, 2000). For Cistercian Publications he has translated works of Peter of Celle and Achard of Saint Victor and collaborated on Saint Mary of Egypt: Three Medieval Lives in Verse and The Lives of Monastic Reformers,1 and 2. Ronald E. Pepin, received his PhD from Fordham University. In addition to The Lives of Monastic Reformers, 1 and 2 (in collaboration with Hugh Feiss and Maureen O’Brien), his published translations include The Vatican Mythographers (Fordham, 2008), Anselm & Becket (PIMS, 2009), and Sextus Amarcius: Satires (DOML: Harvard, 2011). Maureen M. O’Brien, is professor in the Department of History at Saint Cloud State University, where she teaches ancient and medieval European history. She edited Stephen of Muret’s Maxims and Bernard of Clairvaux’s The Parables & The Sentences; she also collaborated with Hugh Feiss and Ronald Pepin on The Lives of Monastic Reformers, 1 and 2.

Contents

Epigraph xi
Saint Anselm (1033–1109), Benedictine of Bec and Archbishop of Canterbury Oratio 18: “A Prayer for Friends”
Preface xv
By E. Rozanne Elder
Contributors xxxvi
Abbreviations xxxix
Introduction xli
By Hugh Feiss, OSB
Acknowledgments lx
 
I. Foundations
1. The Rule of Saint Benedict: Selected Chapters 2
     Introduction and translation by Terrence G. Kardong, OSB
2. Gregory the Great: The Life of Benedict (Dialogues, Book II) [Selections] 19
     Introduction and translation by Hugh Feiss, OSB
 
II. The Benedictine Centuries
3. The Venerable Bede: The Life of the Holy Abbots of the Monastery in Wearmouth and Jarrow: Benedict, Ceolfrid, Eosterwine, Sigfrid, and Hwaetbert [Selections] 34
     Introduction and translation by Ronald E. Pepin
4. Benedict of Aniane: Concordia regularum and Supplement of Aniane [Selections] 51
     Introduction and translation by Colleen Maura McGrane, OSB
5. Supplex libellus 67
     Introduction and translation by Michael T. Martin
6. The Book of Nunnaminster [Selections] 78
     Introduction and translation by Marie Schilling Grogan
7. Hildemar of Corbie: Commentary on the Rule of Saint Benedict [Selections] 94
     Introduction by Terrence G. Kardong, OSB
     Translation by Albrecht Diem and Members of the Hildemar Project
8. Walafrid Strabo: Hortulus: On the Cultivation of Gardens [Selections] 113
     Introduction and translation by Ronald E. Pepin
9. Servatus Lupus of Ferrières: Selected Letters 126
     Introduction and translation by Ronald E. Pepin
10. Haimo of Auxerre: Commentary on the Song of Songs [Selections] 143
     Introduction and translation by Michael T. Martin
11. Abbo of Fleury: The Martyrdom of Saint Edmund 154
     Introduction and translation by Hugh Feiss, OSB
 
III. The Long Twelfth Century (1050–1215)
12. Rudolph of La Chaise-Dieu: The Life of Saint Adelelm [Selections] 184
     Introduction and translation by Hugh Feiss, OSB
13. John of Fécamp: The Theological Confession and Poem on the Last Things 205
     Introduction and translation by Hugh Feiss, OSB
14. Quid Deceat Monachum: A Versified Ideal of Monastic Life 220
     Introduction and translation by Ronald E. Pepin
15. Benedictine Monasticism and the Development of the Art of Stained Glass 254
     Introduction by María Pilar Alonso Abad
     Translation by Hugh Feiss, OSB
16. Abelard I: O Quanta Qualia; Planctus; and Confessio fidei ad Heloissam 272
     Introduction and translation by Ronald E. Pepin
     Abelard II: Prayers for the Gifts of the Holy Spirit and a Letter Containing Two Prayers for Himself 283
     Introduction and translation by Hugh Feiss, OSB
17. The Life of Christina of Markyate [Selections] 287
     Introduction and translation by Ellen E. Martin
18. The Chronicle of Petershausen [Selections] 307
     Introduction by Hugh Feiss, OSB, and Ronald E. Pepin
     Translation by Ronald E. Pepin
19. Julian of Vézelay: Prologue and Sermon 16 [On the Works of Mercy] 330
     Introduction and translation by Hugh Feiss, OSB
20. Robert of Torigni: Treatise on the Change in the Monastic Order (1156) [Selections] 345
     Introduction and translation by Hugh Feiss, OSB
21. Hildegard of Bingen [Selections] 362
     Introduction and translation by Hugh Feiss, OSB
22. Peter of Celle: The Book of Breads [Selections] 380
     Introduction and translation by Hugh Feiss, OSB
23. Nigel of Canterbury: Speculum Stultorum [Selections] 402
     Introduction and translation by Ronald E. Pepin
24. Adam of Eynsham: The Vision of a Monk of Eynsham [Selections] 417
    Introduction and translation by Ronald E. Pepin
25. Gonzalo de Berceo: The Life of Saint Dominic of Silos 436
     Introduction and translation by Carmen Wyatt-Hayes
 
IV. Later Middle Ages (1215–1550)
26. Raymond Féraud: The Life of Saint Honoratus [Selections] 470
     Introduction and translation by Christopher Callahan
27. Pope Benedict XII (1334–1342): Decree Summi magistri dignatio for the Black Monks [Selections] 477
     Introduction by Hugh Feiss, OSB
     Translation by Ronald E. Pepin
28. Ranulph Higden: The Mirror for Curates [Selections] 495
     Introduction and translation by Margaret Jennings
29. Melk Reforms of the First Half of the Fifteenth Century [Selections] 512
     Introduction by Hugh Feiss, OSB
     Translation by Ronald E. Pepin
30. John Lydgate [Selections] 531
     Introduction and translation by Ellen Martin
31. John Trithemius: Sermon on the True Humility of Monks 561
     Introduction and translation by Ronald E. Pepin
32. Louis de Blois: Statuta Monastica [Selections] 580
     Introduction by Hugh Feiss, OSB, and Ronald E. Pepin
     Translation by Ronald E. Pepin
 
Bibliography of Christian Authors 605
Bibliography of Classical Authors 617
Bibliography of Secondary Sources 619
Scriptural Index 636
Index of Classical Authors 645
Index of Christian Names and Works 648
Rule of Saint Benedict Index 663
Index of Modern Authors 666