Different Standards for Punishment Depending On Age

In The Rule of St. Benedict, St. Benedict lists and explains all of the guidelines for his order of monks. Most of these guidelines or rules seem to be very strict, specific, and in some cases extreme. However, we are led to believe that these rules are meant to be lenient and able to be adapted according to society at a point in time. This may have been true for the older of the monks, but by today’s standards a young boy who entered the monastery was held to a higher standard than the rest of the monks.

If a young boy had done something wrong the punishment was often extremely harsh. We see an example of this when The Rule of St. Benedict says, “Therefore, as often as boys and the young, or those who cannot understand the seriousness of the penalty of excommunication, are guilty of misdeeds, they should be subjected to severe fasts or checked with sharp strokes so that they may be healed.” (St. Benedict 34) While this would have been an acceptable form of discipline at this time, it is interesting that monks, who are often perceived to be peaceful, generous, and humble people, would resort to these extreme forms of punishment. Meanwhile the punishment for the older brothers of the monastery would be something like not eating at the table with the rest of the monks or not being able to lead a prayer. If anything it would make more sense for the older brothers to have a more severe punishment, because they are fully aware of what they are doing, while the younger brothers are still learning.

Today severity of punishment, for the most part, depends on two things. These two things are the severity of crime obviously, but also the age of the person who has committed the crime itself. For instance an adult who steals something is going to be subject to a much more severe level of punishment than a child. This makes sense when you look at it knowing that the average adult of today’s time knows what they are doing is wrong. On the other hand, the child is still learning what is wrong and what is right.

A problem with the lack of severity of punishment for children in today’s age is that children know the punishment won’t be very bad so they keep do whatever it is to deserve punishment in the first place. Although I cannot guarantee that this was not a problem when it came to the younger brothers of the monastery, it would make sense that most of them would not do whatever is was that got them in trouble the first place after being punished so severely once. If you look at it there are pros and cons to both forms of punishment, but it is easy to see that most children today have it much easier than those who entered the monastery of St. Benedict during the time he was writing the rule.