JUNIOR CYCLE HISTORY 2. Look at the following source, an extract from St Columbanus's writing 'The Rule of the Monks'
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The food of the monks should be poor and confined to the wening; let it be such as to avoid gorging, and
their drink such as to avoid drunkenness, so that it may sustain them but do them no harm: vegetables,
beans, flour mixed with water, along with a small loaf of bread, lest the stomach be strained and the mind
stifled. For those who seek eternal rewards should only take account of a thing's usefulness and use. Use
of life must be kept under control, just as work must be kept under control. This is true discretion, so that
the possibility of spiritual progress may be maintained with an abstinence that scourges the flesh. For if
abstinence goes too far, it will be a vice, not a virtue. A virtue tolerates and embraces many material things.
Therefore we must fast daily, just as we must feed daily. While we must eat daily, we must regale the body
rather poorly and sparingly. The reason we must eat daily is because we must advance daily, pray daily,
toil daily and read daily
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(a) What kind of source is this?
(b) What can we learn about the lives of monks from this source? List three pieces of information.
(c) List one useful thing about this source, and one limitation/negative thing about this source.
(d) What is St Columbanus famous for?
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