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, allowing for more rigorous exegetical instruction. 98 Two of the books, Smaragdus of Saint-Mihiel’s Diadema monastica and Expositio in regular sancti Benedicti , were explicit regulators of monastic life according to the RB. 99 Jean Leclercq states that Smaragdus’s impetus for writing his works on monastic life was the monastic capitulary of 817, formulated at Monte Cassino: ‘Let the abbots scrutinize the Rule , word for word, in order to understand it well, and, with their monks, let them endeavor to practice it.’ 100 One can thus imagine William following this
true friend. All men seek happiness but true happiness is not to be found in earthyly wealth, power or fame or in bodily pleasures. True happiness is to share in the perfect goodness of God, the self-sufficient regulator of the universe. Although it may seem that the wicked flourish while the innocent suffer, in fact, ‘good folk ben alwey strong and myghti, and the schrewes ben feble and desert and