CONSUETUDINES. - These are particular regulations intended to govern the uniformity of sacred functions, made necessary, especially in large churches, as the rite developed. In monasteries, for this purpose, there were the c. (as in other Churches there were the ordines), variously designated according to the monastery of origin, e.g., c. Cluniacenses, Farfenses, etc.; they were entrusted as a patrimony to newly founded, affiliated, or reformed monasteries, in order to keep them united and to ensure that all sacred functions were performed in the same manner. The c. of Montecassino were always considered particularly important, as preservers of the most ancient and genuine traditions.
BIBL.: B. Albers, C. monasticae, I-V, Stoccarda e Montecassino 1900-11; St. Kainz, Die C. Schyrenses, in Studien und Mitteilungen aus dem Benediktiner- und Cistercienserorden, 19 (1903-1904), p. 661 sgg.; L. Eisenhofer, Handbuch der Katholischen Liturgik, I, Friburgo 1932, pp. 108-10; F. Oppenheim, De libris liturgicis deque iure ex eis manente, Torino 1940, p. 53, n. 2. Filippo Oppenheim