If an Abbot desire to have a priest or a deacon ordained for his monastery,let him choose one who is worthy to exercise the priestly office. But let the one who is ordained beware of self-exaltation or pride; and let him not presume to do anything except what is commanded him by the Abbot, knowing that he is so much the more subject to the discipline of the Rule. Nor should he by reason of his priesthood forget the obedience and the discipline required by the Rule, but make ever more and more progress towards God. Let him always keep the place which he received on entering the monastery, except in his duties at the altar or in case the choice of the community and the will of the Abbess should promote him for the worthiness of his life. Yet he must understand that he is to observe the rules laid down by deans and Priors. Should he presume to act otherwise, let him be judged not as a priest but as a rebel. And if he does not reform after repeated admonitions, let even the Bishop be brought in as a witness. If then he still fails to amend, and his offenses are notorious, let him be put out of the monastery, but only if his contumacy is such that he refuses to submit or to obey the Rule.

Almost thirty years before Benedict's birth, the Council of Chalcedon had begun to clarify the relationship of the monasteries to the broader life of the church. The fourth canon adopted at Chalcedon reads:

"Those who truly and sincerely live the monastic life should be accorded appropriate recognition. But since there are some who don the monastic habit and meddle with the churches and in civil matters, and circulate indiscriminately in the cities and even are involved in founding monasteries for themselves, it has been decided that no one is to build or found a monastery or oratory anywhere against the will of the local bishop; and that monks of each city and region are to be subject to the bishop, are to foster peace and quiet, and attend solely to fasting and prayer, staying set apart in their places. They are not to abandon their own monasteries and interfere, or take part, in ecclesiastical or secular business unless they are perhaps assigned to do so by the local bishop because of some urgent necessity. No slave is to be taken into the monasteries to become a monk against the will of his own master. We have decreed that anyone who transgresses this decision of ours is to be excommunicated, lest God's name be blasphemed. However, it is for the local bishop to exercise the care and attention that the monasteries need."

Just as the monastics are to be "set apart in their places," so Benedict seeks to ensure that priests will know their place in the monastery.

Americans are not inclined to know our place. We are an itinerant culture, without a strong sense of place. This has been a vital aspect of our freedom.

It does not, though, foster peace and quiet.