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JAMES L.J. NUZZO*
The letter of the Rule contains life within itself, and this life can be awakened in the heart of the disciple who listens .... Down the centuries countless monks have drawn life from these words, through the action of their communities which have begotten them in the Spirit, and especially through the seniors who have taught them the meaning of these words. On any Sunday in every Trappist2 monastery after Lauds3 and Mass have been celebrated, all of the brethren gather in the Chapter Room to hear a lecture from the abbot or another senior monk on an aspect of the Rule of St. Benedict. The main meal of each day is eaten in silence, with one of the monks designated to read a portion of the Rule aloud to the community.4 The solemn profession, made by all members wishing to join the community, is to live a life in accord with the Rule of Saint Benedict. This document, written in the Sixth Century, continues to occupy a central place in the lives of all Trappists.
Although American jurists and legal scholars have difficulty reconciling their two-hundred-year-old Constitution with the needs and concerns of today, Trappist monks still adhere to the precepts laid out in an ancient set of regulations spelling out in considerable detail the day-to-day life of the monk.5 The continued viability of this document provokes a number of questions to the secular legal observer: how is it that such a text can continue to occupy such an important position after fourteen-hundred years? Does the text of the Rule continue to influence the monastery, or have the layers of interpretations and customs made the original document merely a symbol of an otherwise unwritten Rule?
The history of the interpretation of the Rule provides the scholar of the American legal system with a laboratory in which to examine the effects that differing interpretative styles upon a written central charter can have upon that document's adherent community.6 Although the American legal system is still grappling with the debate between textualists and supplementers, as described by Thomas Grey in his article The Constitution as Scripture,' the monastic tradition has come down in favor of the supplementers. But rather than providing a clean...