Pie: THE RULE oF Our Most Holp Father St. Penedict, PATRIARCH OF MONKS. | IN OMNIBUS GLORIFICETUR DEUS. t FROM THE OLD ENGLISH EDITION OF 1638. EDITED IN LATIN AND ENGLISH BY ONE OF THE BENEDICTINE FATHERS OF ST. MICHAEL’S, NEAR HEREFORD. LONDON: R. WASHBOURNE, 18 PATERNOSTER ROW. 1875.PREFACE. THE venerable Father Baker, while acting as spiritual director to the Benedictine Nuns at Cambrai, compiled for their use a Commentary | upon the Rule of our Holy Father St. Benedict. In the few remarks which he prefixed to that " work, he states that the first seven chapters of the Rule, “ were done into English” by Father Leander Jones, commonly called Father Leander of St. Martin. It would seem that when he had gone thus far with his transla- tion, he was hindered from proceeding any fhrther by bis appointment to the important ice of President General of the English JPenedictine Congregation. The task which e had so happily begun was not, however, suffered to remain long in its unfinished con- dition. It was taken up and completed, most srobably, by Father Cuthbert Fursden, whose A—2ihe © Preface. initials, C. F., stand upon the title-page of th, edition published in 1638, { With some necessary alterations, the present edition is a reprint of that published in the above mentioned year. Though possibly in- ferior, from a literary point of view, to many of the English versions already in existence, nevertheless for our Benedictine Sisters, at whose request and for whose use it is chiefly published, it possesses a charm to which no other can pretend to lay claim. To many of them it has been the medium through which they have imbibed the spirit of our Holy Father, while to our Sisters of Stanbrook it is hallowed by memories which must invest it in their eyes with a character almost sacred. It. was certainly used in the Convent of Cambrai by those illustrious Sisters, of whom they aie ‘the lineal descendants, and whose saintly liv: they so earnestly strive to emulate. Th ‘look upon it, therefore, as a kind of heirloom), and its quaintness speaks to them of days df trial long gone by, of hardships endured, of | obstacles removed, of difficulties overcome, and! of the many cherished ones who have passe from among them, after learning from its pages; that heavenly prudence, which taught them ne Sane pememens a i