1. Before all things, most dear brethren, let God be loved, and then also the neighbour, because these are the precepts principally given to us. 2. These are the things which we, established in a monastery, command you to observe. 3. First, the reason for which you have been gathered together into one, is that you may dwell of one mind in the house, and that you may have one soul and one heart toward God. 4. And do not call anything your own, but let all things be common to you, and let food and clothing be distributed to each of you by your superior—not equally to all, because you are not all of equal strength, but rather to each as anyone has need. For thus you read in the Acts of the Apostles, that all things were common to them, and distribution was made to each as anyone had need.
(cf. Acts 4:32 and 35). 5. Those who possessed something in the world, when they entered the monastery, should willingly wish that it be held in common. 6. But those who possessed nothing should not seek in the monastery those things which they could not have even outside it. Nevertheless, let whatever their weakness requires be granted to them, even if their poverty, when they were outside, could not procure even the necessities themselves. Only let them not on that account think themselves fortunate, because they have found food and clothing such as they could not find outside. 7.
Nor should they lift up their necks in pride because they are now associated with those whom outside they would not have dared to approach; but let them lift up their hearts on high and not seek vain earthly things, lest the monasteries come to profit the rich rather than the poor, if the rich there are humbled while the poor there are puffed up. 8. But again, let those too who seemed to be something in the world not look down with disdain upon their brethren who have come into that holy society out of poverty. Rather let them strive to glory, not in the rank of their wealthy parents, but in the fellowship of their poor brethren. Nor let them be exalted if they have contributed something of their means to the common life, nor take more pride in their riches because they share them with the monastery than if they were enjoying them in the world.
For whereas every other kind of iniquity is exercised in the doing of evil works, pride lies in wait even for good works, that they may perish; and what does it profit to scatter one's goods by giving to the poor and to become poor, when the wretched soul is made prouder by despising riches than it had been by possessing them? 9. Live, therefore, all of you with one mind and one heart, and honor in one another that God whose temples you have been made. 10. Be diligent in prayer at the appointed hours and times. 11. In the oratory let no one do anything except that for which it was made, and from which it takes its name; so that if perchance some, even outside the appointed hours, wish to pray when they have leisure, those who have thought to do some other thing there may not be a hindrance to them. 12.
When you pray to God with psalms and hymns, let that be pondered in the heart which is uttered by the voice. 13. And do not sing anything except what you read is to be sung; whatever is not so written that it should be sung, let it not be sung. 14. Subdue your flesh by fasting and abstinence from food and drink, so far as health permits. But when anyone cannot fast, let him nevertheless take no food outside the hour of the meal, unless he is sick. 15. When you come to table, until you rise from it, listen without noise or dispute to what is read to you according to custom; and let not your throats alone take food, but let your ears also hunger for the word of God. 16.
Those who are weak by reason of their former manner of life, if they are treated differently in their diet, this ought not to be irksome to the others nor seem unjust to those whom a different habit has made stronger. Nor let these think the former more fortunate because they receive what they themselves do not, but rather let them congratulate themselves that they are strong in a way the others are not. 17. And if to those who have come to the monastery from a more delicate mode of living something of food, clothing, bedding, or coverings is given which is not given to others who are stronger and therefore more fortunate, those to whom it is not given ought to consider how far the former have descended from their worldly life to this present one, even though they have not been able to attain to the frugality of others who are more robust in body.
Nor ought all to desire to receive what they see the few receiving in greater measure, not because they are honored, but because they are borne with, lest there arise that detestable perversity whereby, in a monastery where the rich become laborious so far as they can, the poor become delicate. 18. Certainly, just as the sick must take less lest they be burdened, so too after sickness they must be so treated that they may more quickly recover, even if they came from the humblest worldly poverty—as though the recent illness had conferred on them what former habit had conferred on the rich. But when they have regained their former strength, let them return to their happier manner of life, which so much the more befits the servants of God the less they need.
Nor let pleasure hold them there, now that they are hale, whither necessity had lifted them when they were infirm. Let those account themselves the richer who are the stronger in enduring frugality; for it is better to need less than to have more. 19. Let not your dress be noticeable, and do not aim to please by your clothes but by your conduct. 20. When you go out, walk together; when you arrive where you are going, stand together. 21. In your gait, in your posture, in all your movements let nothing be done that might offend anyone's gaze, but only what befits your holiness. 22. Your eyes, even if they are cast upon some woman, let them be fixed upon none. For you are not forbidden to see women when you go out, but to desire them, or to wish to be desired by them, is criminal.
For the lust of women is desired and desires not by touch and affection alone, but by the glance as well. And do not say that you have chaste minds if you have unchaste eyes, for an unchaste eye is the messenger of an unchaste heart. And when, with the tongue silent, hearts convey their unchastity to one another by mutual gaze, and after the concupiscence of the flesh delight in one another's ardor, then, even though the bodies remain untouched by any unclean violation, chastity itself flees from their conduct. 23. Nor ought he who fixes his eye upon a woman and delights that hers is fixed upon him to suppose that he is not seen by others when he does this; he is most certainly seen, and by those by whom he supposes he is not seen.
But suppose he lies hidden and is seen by no human being: what will he do about that Observer above, from whom nothing can be hidden? Or is He to be thought not to see, because He sees the more patiently the more wisely? Let the holy man therefore fear to displease Him, lest he wish to please a woman wrongly. Let him consider that He sees all things, lest he wish to look upon a woman wrongly. For in this very matter the fear of Him is commended, where it is written: An abomination to the Lord is he who fixes his eye (Prov. 27:20). 24. When, therefore, you are together in church, and wherever else women too are present, guard your purity toward one another; for God who dwells in you will thus also guard you by means of yourselves. 25.
And if you notice in any one of you this wantonness of the eyes of which I speak, admonish him at once, so that what has begun may not go further, but be corrected at the earliest. 26. But if, even after admonition, you see him doing the very same thing again, whether on that or on any other day, then whoever has been able to discover this must expose him as one already wounded and needing to be healed; yet first let it be pointed out to a second or a third, so that he may be convicted by the mouth of two or three and be restrained with fitting severity. And do not judge yourselves to be malevolent when you disclose this. For rather are you not innocent if, by keeping silent, you allow your brethren to perish whom you could correct by disclosing their fault.
For if your brother had a wound on his body which he wished to conceal because he feared to be healed, would it not be cruel of you to keep silent, and merciful to disclose it? How much more, then, ought you to make it known, lest it fester more perniciously in his heart? 27. But before he is exposed to others by whom he is to be convicted if he denies it, he ought first to be shown to the superior, so that if, being admonished, he neglects to be corrected, then—having been reproved more privately—he might perhaps be prevented from becoming known to the rest. But if he denies it, then others are to be brought in while he is unaware, so that now before all he may be, not accused by a single witness, but convicted by two or three.
And once convicted, he ought, according to the judgment of the superior, or even of the presbyter to whose oversight such matters pertain, to submit to the corrective penalty. And if he refuses to bear it, even should he not depart of his own accord, let him be cast out of your society. For this too is done not cruelly but mercifully, lest by a pestilent contagion he destroy many. 28. And this which I have said about not fixing the eye should be diligently and faithfully observed also in discovering, forbidding, disclosing, convicting, and punishing the other sins, with love for the persons and hatred of the vices. 29.
But whoever has advanced so far into evil as to receive secretly from some woman letters or any little gifts whatsoever, if he confesses this of his own accord, let him be spared and let prayer be made for him; but if he is caught and convicted, let him be more severely corrected according to the judgment of the presbyter or superior. 30. Keep your clothes together in one place, under one keeper, or two, or as many as may suffice to shake them out so that they be not harmed by moths; and just as you are fed from one storeroom, so be clothed from one wardrobe. And, if it can be done, let it be no concern of yours what is brought out for you to wear according to the season—whether each of you receives back the very thing he had laid aside, or another that some other had had;
provided only that what each one needs be not denied to anyone. But if from this quarrels and murmurings arise among you, when someone complains that he has received something worse than he had before, and that it is unworthy of him to be clothed as another brother of his was clothed, from this test yourselves as to how much you lack in that inner holy habit of the heart, you who quarrel over the habit of the body. Nevertheless, if your weakness is tolerated so that you receive back what you had laid aside, still keep in one place, under common keepers, what you lay away. 31. So indeed let no one work anything for himself, but let all your works be done in common, with greater zeal and more frequent eagerness than if each of you were doing his own private tasks.
For charity, of which it is written that it does not seek its own (1 Cor. 13:5), is understood thus: that it prefers the common to the private, not the private to the common. And therefore, the more you care for the common property than for your own, the more you will know that you have advanced; so that in all the things which passing necessity uses, there may prevail that charity which endures. 32. It follows, therefore, that even if anyone bestows something upon his own children, or upon others belonging to him by some tie, who are settled in the monastery—whether some garment or anything else to be reckoned among necessities—let it not be received secretly, but let it be in the power of the superior, so that, brought into the common stock, it may be supplied to whoever has need of it.
But if anyone conceals a thing bestowed upon him, let him be condemned by the judgment for theft. 33. Let your garments be washed according to the judgment of the superior, whether by yourselves or by fullers, lest an excessive craving for clean clothing contract inner filth in the soul. 34. Nor let the bathing of the body, which the necessity of infirmity compels, be by any means denied; but let it be done without murmuring, on the advice of medicine, so that even if one is unwilling, at the superior's command he may do what must be done for the sake of health. But if he is willing, and it perhaps is not expedient, let him not obey his own desire. For sometimes what gives pleasure is believed to be beneficial, even though it may do harm. 35. Finally, if there is a hidden pain in the body, let the servant of God who tells what pains him be believed without doubt;
but nevertheless, if it is not certain whether what gives pleasure is expedient for healing that pain, let a physician be consulted. 36. And let them not go to the baths, or wherever it is necessary to go, in fewer numbers than two or three. Nor shall he who has need to go somewhere go with those he himself may wish, but with those whom the superior shall command. 37. The care of the sick, whether of those to be restored after illness, or of those laboring under some weakness even without fever, ought to be enjoined upon some one person, so that he himself may request from the storeroom what he sees each one needs. 38. And whether those set over the storeroom, or over the clothing, or over the books, let them serve their brethren without murmuring. 39. Let the books be requested at a fixed hour each day;
whoever requests one outside the hour, let him not receive it. 40. But as for clothing and footwear, when they become necessary to those in want, let those under whose keeping are the things requested not delay to give them. 41. Have no lawsuits, or end them as quickly as possible, lest anger grow into hatred, and make a beam out of a mote, and make the soul a murderer. For thus you read: He who hates his brother is a murderer (1 John 3:15). 42. Whoever has injured another by insult, or curse, or even by the charge of a crime, let him remember to cure by satisfaction as soon as possible what he has done, and let the one who was injured forgive without dispute.
But if they have injured one another, they must remit to one another their mutual debts, for the sake of your prayers, which, the more frequently you offer them, the more wholesome ought they to be. Better, however, is the one who, although he is often tempted by anger, yet hastens to obtain that it be forgiven him by the one to whom he acknowledges he has done an injury, than the one who is more slow to anger but is more reluctantly inclined to ask pardon. But whoever is never willing to ask pardon, or does not ask it from the heart, is without cause in the monastery, even if he is not cast out from it. Therefore spare yourselves harsh words; and if they have gone forth from your mouth, let it not irk you to bring forth from that same mouth the remedies whereby the wounds were made. 43.
But when the necessity of discipline, in restraining subordinates, compels you to speak harsh words, if you feel that even in these you have exceeded due measure, it is not required of you to ask pardon of them, lest, among those who ought to be subject, while excessive humility is preserved, the authority of governing be broken. Yet nevertheless pardon must be sought from the Lord of all, who knows with how much goodwill you love even those whom you perhaps rebuke more than is just. But your love toward one another ought to be not carnal, but spiritual. 44. Let the superior be obeyed as a father, with due honor preserved, lest in him God be offended; much more the presbyter, who bears the care of you all. 45.
That all these things, therefore, may be observed, and if anything has not been observed, that it be not carelessly passed over but be seen to for amendment and correction, this will pertain chiefly to the superior; in such a way that he refers to the presbyter, whose authority among you is greater, whatever exceeds his own measure or powers. 46. But let him who presides over you not deem himself happy in a power that domineers, but in a charity that serves. In honor before you let him be set above you; in fear before God let him be laid beneath your feet. Toward all let him show himself an example of good works; let him rebuke the unruly, comfort the fainthearted, support the weak, be patient toward all. Let him gladly maintain discipline, and impose fear.
And although both are necessary, yet let him seek rather to be loved by you than to be feared, ever bearing in mind that he will render an account to God for you. 47. Whence you, by obeying the more, show mercy not only to yourselves but also to him, because among you, the higher his place, the greater his peril. 48. May the Lord grant that you observe all these things with love, as lovers of spiritual beauty and breathing forth the good fragrance of Christ by a good manner of life, not as slaves under the law, but as those established as free under grace. 49. And that you may be able to look upon yourselves in this little book as in a mirror, lest through forgetfulness you neglect anything, let it be read to you once a week.
And wherever you find yourselves doing the things that are written, give thanks to the Lord, the Bestower of all good things. But wherever any one of you sees that something is lacking in himself, let him grieve over the past, beware for the future, praying that his debt may be forgiven him and that he be not led into temptation.