Abstract
Medieval monastic customs (in Latin consuetudies or statuta) represent unique testimony of religious practices in the Middle Ages. These texts describe in detail practical matters of the daily life in medieval monasteries, including daily religious rhythm and common prayers of the monks, admission to the community and the novitiate, the relationship between the community and the laymen, sleeping in the dormitory, eating in the refectory, clothing, personal hygiene, care for the sick persons, or punishments for the monks.
The Statutes of Roudnice were written shortly after the foundation of the canonry in 1333, the text was very influential and it was spread in all the canonries in the Czech Lands. The Consuetudines Rudnicenses were written particularly for the Czech environment, but they surely had their model.
They were inspired by statutes of the congregation of St. Ruf in Avignon.
In contrast with the texts of this genre from the Western Europe, the Roudnice customs are standard in their content but substantially shorter. Despite of this fact, they were used in canonries in Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, Slovakia, Poland, Austria, and Germany.