The Medieval Guest

Extract

The exhortations and counsel of St Benedict in his Rule on the reception of guests are too well known to be repeated here. Their importance however can never be sufficiently stressed and their wisdom and beauty can never be aufficiently praised. There is in the Luxembourg Museum of Paris a painting by Dauban of a stranger being received by s convent. It is a perfect interpretation of the 53rd chapter of the Rule, with a poignant beauty and a moral for all humanity.

Doubtless there were guests even among the primitive communities in the deserts of Nitria and the Thebaid, although such a specu Istion is beyond the scope the present essay. During the earlier history of the monasteries, the hd 12th centuries for example, hospitality was a sine qua non of monastic life. In some cases, in-deed, as of the abbeys of Reading and Battle, the foundation-charters indicated that the providing of such hospitality in the district was the motive of the founder.

The relationship between Church and State, between Church and Society, was then very different from what it is today. The Church was closely interwoven with the entire national fabric.