The Adoption of an Order and Customs

Abstract

Eremitical communities if they prospered were, as has been seen, organised under a leader whose commands, if not beyond criticism, were yet regarded as both necessary and authoritative. A certain recognisable pattern was imposed on the hermits’ lives by their observances of the offices of the church but in other respects their routine diverged greatly from that of established religious houses. Their poverty, their asceticism, their practice of manual labour in particular were traits which marked them out as different. In general the hermits seem to have been able to forge this new way of life fairly peacefully among themselves. In some communities there were quarrels as to both means and aims but it seems as if the leaders had more often to try to give shape to religious aspirations than to reconcile conflicting schemes. But the hermits were seldom content to have simply established a working community. They were not sure that to live in obedience only to a superior was a sufficient guarantee against the pitfalls of an arbitrary life. They felt uneasy at having no recognised status within the church, at having to depend on the spoken word rather than the written rule and they felt worried about the permanence of their ideals, how to ensure the continuity of their settlements.