REGULA MAGISTRI. - A monastic rule by an unknown author (not unlettered and somewhat too abstract in the formulation of its disciplinary precepts), whose dating oscillates between the beginning of the 5th century and the 7th, so called because it is expressed in dialogic form between a discipulus, who at the beginning of each chapter proposes a topic, and a magister (a figure rather different from the abbot), who responds by developing the various points of the Rule.

Partially reproduced in the Concordia Regularum of Benedict of Aniane and mentioned in the Commentaria in Regulam s. Benedicti of Smaragdus, it was long held to be of Frankish origin: recently, however, M. Cappuyns (L'auteur de la R. M. Cassiodore, in Recherches de théol. ancienne et médiév., 15 [1948], pp. 209-68) has maintained the thesis that its author is Cassiodorus and that it represents the Rule of the Vivarium. Apart from this theory, the importance of the R. M. lies in the fact that chapters 1-10 present such analogies and verbal consonances with the prologue and chapters 1-7 of the Rule of St. Benedict as to postulate a relationship of dependence: there is, however, discussion as to which of the two has priority. The dispute began with A. Génestout's research on the text of the Benedictine Rule: his first article on the subject (La Règle du Maître et la Règle de st Benoît, in Revue d'ascét. et de myst., 21 [1940], pp. 51-112) is nevertheless later than others on the same theme, because he had previously communicated his thinking to certain scholars. A valid contribution to the solution of the problem will probably be made by the critical edition of the R. M. currently in preparation.

Bibliography2 works

BIBL.: text in PL 88, 943-1052. A clear and documented synthesis of the dispute over the relations with the Benedictine Rule is owed to E. Franceschini, La polemica sull'originalità della Regola di s. Benedetto, in Aevum, 23 (1949), pp. 52-72. Add H. Vanderhoven, Règle du Maître, Statistiques et manuscrits, in Scriptorium, 3 (1949), pp. 246-54; E. Franceschini, Regola Benedicti, Nestoriei magistri, R. M., in Liber Floridus, Mittelalterische Studien Paul Lehmann... gecident, St. Ottilien 1950, pp. 93-119.

Alessandro Pratesi

@incollection{ec10_regula_magistri, author = {Pratesi, Alessandro}, title = {Regula Magistri}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {X}, pages = {664--665}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1953}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/regula-magistri} }

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