RULE OF THE MASTER. — A monastic rule of unknown authorship (not unlettered and somewhat too abstract in the formulation of disciplinary precepts), whose dating fluctuates between the early 5th and the 7th century, so called because it is expressed in the form of a dialogue between a *discipulus*, who at the beginning of each chapter proposes a topic, and a *magister* (a figure quite different from an abbot), who responds by developing the various points of the Rule.
Partially reproduced in the *Concordia Regularum* of Benedict of Aniane and cited in the *Commentaria in Regulam s. Benedicti* of Smaragdus, it was long considered of Frankish origin: however, M. Cappuyns (L'auteur de la R. M. Cassiodore, in *Recherches de théologie ancienne et médiévale*, 15 [1948], pp. 209-68) has recently argued the thesis that its author is Cassiodorus and that it represents the Rule of Vivarium. Apart from this theory, the importance of the R. M. lies in the fact that chapters 1-10 present such striking analogies and verbal consonances with the prologue and chapters 1-7 of the Rule of St Benedict as to suggest a relationship of dependence: though it remains debated which of the two rules is prior. The dispute began with the research of A. Génestout 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'ascétique et de mystique*, 21 [1940], pp. 51-112) is nevertheless later than other works on the same theme, since he had communicated his views to some scholars beforehand. The critical edition of the R. M., now in preparation, will probably make a valuable contribution to the solution of the problem.