The Need for Uniformity in St. Benedict’s Rule for Monasteries

The essay is a literary analysis of the fifth century text Rule for the Monasteries by St. Benedict. This analysis explores the attitudes of the western European church regarding monks and abbots during a critical time in Christendom. Using support from a leading source in historiography, Peter Brown, the analysis concludes that St. Benedict himself was prodded by a need which was shared by the western European church: to protect the church by eliminated the individual and creating a protective uniformity