As a refinement to the practice of Augustine, Benedict focused even more on the "retreat" aspect of monasticism by building the monastery more geographically distant from the local church activity.
He also further "enclosed" the monastery, both physically with bricks and mortar and legislatively via his detailed Rule.
In compiling his Rule, Benedict was aware of the rules of many leaders of individual monasteries of his day.
It was the Rule of the Master which left the strongest impact on the shape and structure of the Rule of Benedict.
The Rule of the Master had been written in Italy some few years before Benedict had first read it.
Benedict copied many sections of the Rule of the Master verbatim. He deleted many sections of the Rule of the Master that were extreme, and added his own perspective to monastic life.
The Rule of the Master looked upon the abbot as the final word for the will of God, and actually quoted Scripture out of context to prove this point.
The tone of the Master's community was one of fear, competition, and of blind obedience to the abbot.
While the Rule of Benedict remains primarily in the tradition of the monks of the Egyptian desert as mediated by Cassian and the Rule of the Master, the next most important frequent source to which Benedict turned was Augustine.
Benedict used the writings of Augustine to temper the harshness of the Rule of the Master and, on top of all this amalgamating, he added his own insights, accumulated practical experience and wisdom.
The humanity (in Italian, the special word umanita) of Augustine and his concern for fraternal relationships contributed to the Benedictine Rule some of its best known and most admired qualities.
And rather than the detailed instructions of Benedict for prayer cycles and ascetic renunciation, the basic ideas of Augustine centred on community, love and the human heart.
Augustine emphasised the way of interiority (interioridad in Spanish, and interiorita in Italian) whereby the external observance of rules was to be merely a symbol of inner spiritual change and growth.
(Continued on the next page.)
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