The Rule of Benedict

Aelred's historical works both reflect on the past and direct the men and women of England to God through virtuous participation in the secular world, imitation of great and humble models, and a combination of virtue and faith. A descendant of generations of married priests in an age when priests were forbidden to wed, an english monk in a french Order, a Saxon living under norman rule, an abbot bred to service in the church but trained for service in the court. Aelred explores the past as a guide for the present and assurance of the future. Drawing on the Bible, the Fathers of the Church, classical writers like Cicero, and medieval historians such as the Venerable Bede and Symeon of Durham, he insisted on the importance of history for guiding human action, declaring that the meaning of the past can only be known in the present and that only at the end can one understand the beginning. Book jacket.