4. Monasteries that kept to Benedict's Rule could be useful for many reasons. Those who join the monastery are committed to learning and their religion, and this could provide knowledge, help to increase literacy and preserve records and make advances in the literary and theological fields. Whats more, monasteries provided the stability to surrounding villages that could ease peoples fears and insecurities, which is incredibly important to helping build stable and lasting societies. The quiet, highly ascetic lifestyle that the monks had to live with incredible structure, such as "not to murmur", "Not to love much or excessive laughter." This pretty much only left learning, which the monks were prescribed to do "from the Calendars of October... let the brethren devote themselves to reading till the end of the second hour."
5. The Rule tells us about the societies in which it flourished. The strict laws and rigid outline that were provided by The Rule tell us about the lack of prevailing government and any strict from of enforced law. This loose administration shows through in the laws by providing incredibly strict outlines and structures for the day, as well as strict propriety and rule that were key to the structures of Medieval European societies. It also shows the lacking strength of the economy by stressing manual labor and the importance of respecting space, property and seniority. This can be seen in the need the Rule stresses in manual labor "on coming out in the morning, let them let them labor at whatever is necessary from the first until about the fourth hour."
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