A Simple statement of some elementary notions may fittingly accompany more learned essays on particular aspects of monasticism.

A Benedictine's aim is the common aim of all Christians. Only his method is, to some extent, peculiar to him. It may be succinctly described as ‘monastic obedience'.

The monastic vow of obedience seems to have been one of St Benedict's inventions. Before his time monks either lived apart and independently (as did St Benedict himself in his Subiaco days) or attached themselves by easily terminable engagements to a teacher or a series of teachers. Doubtless that often worked well, and the monk either persevered in his solitude or passed from teacher to teacher receiving from each some special lesson, some further benefit. But it obviously left the unstable soul without support and opened a fairly comfortable career to the work-shy. Indignant descriptions of some unsatisfactory typen maiven the first chapter of St Benedict's Rule.