The Library
1780 works catalogued century by century, from the literature the Bible was written among to the present — each with a note on what it is, why it lasted, and where to read it.
100–1 BC
3 works
c. 100 BC
Hebrew
1QS
Anonymous
The constitution of the yahad: how a candidate is examined over two years, how property is merged, how the seating is ordered, and the penalties — a hundred days for slandering a companion, thirty for falling asleep in session, expulsion for pronouncing the Name. At its centre stand two spirits, of truth and of falsehood, set in every heart until the appointed end.
c. 100 BC; found first in Cairo in 1896
Hebrew
CD
Anonymous
A history of the sect — a plant root springing up three hundred and ninety years after the exile, groping like blind men until God raised a Teacher of Righteousness — followed by laws for members who marry, hold property, and live in camps in the towns.
c. 100 BC
Hebrew
1QSa
Anonymous
Two columns setting out how Israel is to be ordered in the last days — the ages at which a man may marry, testify, and hold office — closing with the seating at the messianic banquet, where the priest blesses the bread and wine first and the Messiah of Israel reaches out after him.
301–400
3 works
c. 330–345
Coptic
Pachomius · c. 292–348
Regulations for a walled community of monks living, working, eating, and praying together under a superior, with detailed provision for admission, clothing, meals, and correction.
c. 358–375
Greek
Asketikon
Basil the Great · c. 330–379
Questions and answers on the common life, arguing that solitude makes the commandment to love one's neighbour unpracticable, and binding monks to hospitals, orphanages, and schools.
c. 397
Latin
401–500
2 works
c. 412–435
Syriac
Rabbula of Edessa · d. 435
Short, hard commands for the monks and the covenanters of Edessa: no monk is to own two tunics, none to enter a village without cause, clergy are not to lend at interest or take part in lawsuits, and no woman is to live in a cleric's house.
c. 420–425
Latin
De Institutis Coenobiorum
John Cassian · c. 360–435
The customs of Egyptian monasteries adapted for Gaul — dress, the night office, the reception of newcomers — followed by books on each of the eight principal faults.
501–600
5 works
c. 512–534
Latin
Regula Virginum
Caesarius of Arles · c. 470–542
A rule for a community of women written for his sister's monastery, requiring strict enclosure, insisting every nun learn to read, and forbidding the acceptance of dowries.
c. 500–530
Latin
Regula Magistri
Anonymous
An enormously detailed and controlling rule for an Italian monastery, prescribing everything from the abbot's absolute authority to who inspects the loaves.
c. 530
Latin
Regula Benedicti
Benedict of Nursia · c. 480–c. 547
Seventy-three short chapters ordering a monastery's day around prayer, reading, and manual work, with a striking moderation about food, sleep, and the failings of ordinary people.
c. 534
Latin
Regula ad Monachos
Caesarius of Arles · c. 470 – 542
A short rule for a men's community, notably milder than the one he wrote for his sister's nuns: no absolute enclosure, no punishment specified beyond correction, and a working day arranged around the office rather than the other way round.
c. 590–600
Latin
Columbanus · c. 543–615
A severe Irish rule for the monasteries he founded across Gaul and Italy, paired with a penitential assigning a specific penance to each named sin.
601–700
1 work
c. 640–660
Latin
Fructuosus of Braga · d. c. 665
A severe Visigothic rule from a nobleman who gave away an enormous inheritance to found monasteries across the northwest, with a pact by which the monks bound themselves to the abbot by written contract — and a right of appeal to the bishop if he abused it.
701–800
1 work
c. 755
Latin
Chrodegang of Metz · c. 712–766
A rule for cathedral clergy living in common — shared meals, a daily chapter meeting, a dormitory — without the vow of poverty a monk would take.
801–900
1 work
c. 816–821
Latin
Concordia Regularum
Benedict of Aniane · c. 747–821
Benedict's rule set clause by clause beside every other monastic rule the compiler could find, to show that it summed them all up.
901–1000
1 work
c. 970–973
Greek
Athanasius the Athonite · c. 920–c. 1003
The founding rule of the first great monastery on Mount Athos, setting out the daily office, the common table, and the balance between community and solitary cells.
1001–1100
1 work
founded 1084; customs written c. 1121
Latin
Bruno of Cologne and the early Carthusians · c. 1030–1101
The arrangements of a house where each monk lives in a separate cell with a garden, meets the others chiefly in choir, and copies manuscripts as his work.
1101–1200
2 works
c. 1141–1144
Latin
Bernard of Clairvaux · 1090–1153
Which parts of a monastic rule bind absolutely, which may be dispensed, and what a monk owes an abbot who commands something foolish but not sinful.
c. 1160–1162
Latin
Aelred of Rievaulx · 1110–1167
Written for his sister, enclosed as an anchoress: practical advice on visitors and servants, then a long meditation on entering the gospel scenes in imagination.
1201–1300
5 works
1216–1220
Latin
Dominic de Guzmán and the early Order of Preachers · c. 1170–1221
A constitution built for a preaching order: elected superiors, a general chapter of delegates, dispensation from any observance that would hinder study, and no landed endowment.
1221
Latin
Regula Non Bullata
Francis of Assisi · 1181/82–1226
The unapproved rule: a patchwork of gospel texts and instructions on begging, on working with one's hands, on going among the Saracens, and on owning nothing whatever.
1223
Latin
Regula Bullata
Francis of Assisi · 1181/82–1226
The rule approved by the pope, shorter and more governable, binding the friars to live without property of any kind, individually or in common.
c. 1225–1240
Middle English
Ancrene Wisse
Anonymous
A rule for three enclosed sisters covering prayer, temptation, confession, and daily arrangements — including whether to keep a cat and what to say to visitors at the window.
approved 1253
Latin
Clare of Assisi · 1194–1253
A rule for her own community insisting on the privilege of poverty — the right to own nothing at all — approved two days before she died.
1301–1400
2 works
14th century
Latin
Anonymous
Guidance for solitaries living in cells attached to churches or bridges, on the hours, on manual work, and on how much contact with passers-by is permissible.
1368
Latin
Statuta Antiqua
The Carthusian Order
The consolidated law of the Carthusian order, codifying the customs of two and a half centuries into a single body of statutes.
1501–1600
1 work
c. 1547–1558
Spanish
Ignatius of Loyola · 1491–1556
A religious order without choir office, without a habit, and without enclosure, governed centrally and free to be sent anywhere in the world at short notice.
1601–1700
1 work
1650
English
Jeremy Taylor · 1613–1667
A rule of life for laypeople written during the suppression of the English church — on care of time, purity of intention, sobriety, justice, and religion.
29 of 1780 works