The Church Fathers · c. 640–660
The Rule for the Monastery of Compludo
Fructuosus of Braga · d. c. 665
What it is
A severe Visigothic rule from a nobleman who gave away an enormous inheritance to found monasteries across the northwest, with a pact by which the monks bound themselves to the abbot by written contract — and a right of appeal to the bishop if he abused it.
Why it lasted
The pactual monasticism peculiar to Spain, in which the community's obedience is a legal agreement with terms rather than an unconditional surrender. Nothing else in Western monasticism gives monks a contract.
Scripture it works from
Where to read it
Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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