“The Benedictines follow a rule divided into seventy-three chapters of advice covering every detail of monastic order and the pursuit of a spiritual life. However, there remains an overriding stipulation that the rules exist to help and are not an end in themselves.”
Excerpted from: Rogerson, Barnaby. Rogerson’s Book of Numbers: The Culture of Numbers–from 1,001 Nights to the Seven Wonders of the World. New York: Picador, 2013.
