BENEDICTINE AMBIGUITIES
The Rule of St. Benedict did not specifically regulate the
location of the monastic workshops. The only reference to
artifices occurs in chapter 57 where St. Benedict stipulates
"if there be craftsmen in the monastery, let them practice
their crafts with all humility" and "let the goods always
be sold a little cheaper than they are sold by people of the
world."[414]
The conditional "if" clause of this sentence,
which implies that under certain conditions the craftsmen
were housed outside the monastic enclosure, caused confusion;
the more so, since it contradicted the famous passage
in the Rule that declares, the "monastery, if possible,
should be so constituted as to contain within itself every
necessity of life. . . so as to avoid that the monks stray
outside of its bounds which is not good for their souls."[415]
