Dom Cuthbert Butler’s Benedictine Monachism begins by quoting Viollet-le-Duc’s statement that, “[r]egarded merely from the philosophical point of view, the Rule of St. Benedict is perhaps the greatest historical fact of the Middle Ages.” Pius XII, in his Fulgens radiatur, praises Benedict’s monastic law as an “outstanding monument of Roman and Christian prudence.” While St. Benedict’s Rule is first and foremost a document governing common monastic life, it is, as Viollet-le-Duc, Butler, and Pius XII recognize, an example of the classical tradition and applicable more broadly. One particular area where the Rule offers great insight is penal law. St. Benedict offers a vision of the penal law that has significant value even today.
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