2022 Reprint of the 1958 Edition. Exact facsimile of the original edition and not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. Students of church history and the monastic ascetic life will find this volume of much interest. Contained are three important documents of the early Christian Church: The Sayings of the Fathers, The Conferences of Cassian, and The Rule of Saint Benedict. The study includes bibliographical references (pages 361-362) and indexes as well as introductions and notes by Owen Chadwick. This work was edited by Chadwick, a British Anglican priest, academic and prominent historian of Christianity. As a leading academic, Chadwick became Dixie Professor of Ecclesiastical History in 1958, serving until 1968, and from 1968 to 1983 was Regius Professor of History at Cambridge.