Caput Primum. Ut instituta est eremitica vita.
Why Some Cannot Bear Community Life
The author asks why the eremitic life was established, then distinguishes three kinds of people: those for whom community life is destructive, those for whom it is merely harmful, and those who find greater fruit in solitude.
First, you need to know by what cause and by what reason this life was either established or taken up by the ancients. For some people, living among others is destructive. And for others, even though it's not destructive, it's still harmful. And there are some who need not fear either of these things; they simply find it more fruitful to live alone.
Longing for Christ in the Desert
The ancients embraced solitude to avoid danger, escape loss, or more freely yearn after Christ, and many dwelt alone in the desert sustaining themselves by manual labor.
And so the ancients chose to live alone—either to avoid danger, to prevent loss, or so they could more freely yearn for Christ and long to embrace him.1 This is why many would sit alone in the desert, sustaining their lives by the work of their own hands.
The Enclosed Cell as Safest Refuge
Those who found even the desert too exposed chose the greater security of an enclosed cell with the door blocked.
But those who didn't even consider this safe for themselves—despite the freedom of solitude and the ability to wander—thought it more secure instead to be enclosed and kept within a cell with the exit blocked.2
Read the original Latin
Primum oportet te scire, qua causa, quave ratione vita haec ab antiquis vel instituta sit vel usurpata. Sunt quidam quibus inter multos vivere perniciosum est. Sunt et alii quibus etsi perniciosum non est, tamen dispendiosum est. Sunt et nonnulli quibus et nihil horum timendum est; sed potius habitare magis aestimant fructuosum. Itaque antiqui vel ut vitarent periculum, vel ne paterentur dispendium, vel ut liberius ad Christi anhelarent et suspirarent amplexum, singulariter vivere elegerunt. Hinc est, quod plures in eremo soli sedebant vitam manuum suarum opere sustentantes. Illi vero qui nec hoc securum sibi inter solitudinis libertatem, et vagandi potestatem arbitrabantur, includi potius, et intra cellulam obstruso exitu contineri tutius aestimabant.
Notes
De institutione inclusarum (A Rule of Life for a Recluse) companion
A rule only lives if you keep it daily
Chosen Portion gives your new rule its anchor: one free devotional portion every day.
Aelred built his sister's day around fixed times of prayer and meditation; Chosen Portion supplies the fixed daily portion that makes a modern rule of life keepable.
- Anchor your rule with a fixed 10-minute daily portion
- Practice Aelred's threefold meditation with guided daily prompts
- Review and adjust your one-page rule after 30 days of tracked practice