This therefore must be said before all else: that throughout all ages, and everywhere in the lands of our empire, if ever anyone should wish to build a venerable monastery, let there be no license for him to act before he summons the bishop of the place, most beloved of God, who shall both stretch out his hands to heaven and consecrate the place to God by his prayer, the sign of our salvation being fixed in it (we mean, namely, that adorable and truly precious Cross), and so let a beginning be given to the building, when he has laid that splendid and fitting foundation. And let this indeed be the beginning of the pious construction of venerable monasteries.
But we command that the abbot or archimandrite, who exist in the several monasteries, be created not in all things according to the ranks of the monks, but according to the deeds of their life; and moreover, him whom all the monks who are of better repute shall have chosen—with the holy Gospels set forth, affirming that they have chosen him not through friendship or any other favor whatsoever, but because they have known him both upright in faith, and honorable in life, and worthy in administration, and because he can usefully preserve the knowledge of the monks and the whole discipline of the monastery—the most religious bishop under whom the monastery is established shall by all means promote as superior him who has been chosen in that manner.
And all these things, which have been arranged by us concerning the promotion of superiors, we command likewise to be valid in the venerable monasteries and convents of women. Moreover, if anyone should wish to come to the monastic life, we command that, if indeed it is established concerning him that he is subject to no servile condition, the superior of the monastery give him the habit when it shall seem good to him. If it is not established concerning him to what condition he is subject, let him not take up the monastic habit within three years, but within the aforesaid time let the superior of the monastery make trial, in case he should wish to draw back his foot.
And if within the three years someone should emerge who says that this man is either his slave, or his tenant farmer, or his bound colonus, and that he entered the monastery either fleeing the labor of farming, or having stolen something, or on account of some crime, and these things shall have been proven, let him be restored to his master together with the things which he shall have been proven to have brought into the monastery—pledge having first been given and received that he shall suffer nothing evil from his master.
If no one within the three years has moved an action or controversy against any of the aforesaid persons, the superior of the monastery, after the lapse of the triennium, shall then give him the habit, if he shall have judged a man of this kind worthy; nor shall anyone afterward make any business for him concerning his status and condition, so long, however, as he remains in the monastery. But the things which he shall be seen to have brought into the monastery shall be restored to the master who proves it. But if any of the aforesaid persons abandons the monastery and passes over to the secular life, wandering either in the cities or through the fields, let him be rendered back to his own fortune and condition.
Furthermore, in all monasteries which are indeed called coenobia, we command that, according to the monastic prescriptions and formulas, all dwell in one house, all be fed in common, all sleep separately in one house in a like manner, so that each in turn may afford to the other a testimony of honorable conversation; unless, however, certain of them, either on account of long conversation in the monastery, wishing to live in quiet, or for the sake of old age and the infirmity of the body, dwell in remote cells established within the monastery—and let this be done with the knowledge and will of the abbot. All these things are to be preserved with regard to the monasteries and convents of women as well.
In no place of our commonwealth do we allow that monks and female monastics dwell together in one monastery, and that there be (as they are called) double monasteries. But if anywhere such a monastery be found, we command that the men be separated from the women, and that these indeed, as the weaker, remain in that monastery in which they are, but that the men build themselves another monastery. But if there exist several monasteries of this kind, and it is not necessary to build new monasteries, let the most religious bishop of the place take care to gather the monks with the monks, the women with the women, separately in various monasteries. But those things which they hold in common among themselves, let these be divided in proportion to how much right belongs to each.
But to the women, whomever they themselves shall have chosen—whether a presbyter or a deacon—to answer on their behalf, or to convey the holy Communion to them, let the most religious bishop, under whom they are, assign him as if by drawn lots, if he shall have known him to be of right faith and honorable life. But if he who has been chosen by them be not a presbyter or a deacon, but the bishop judges him worthy of such a ministry, ordination having been imposed upon him by which he shall be seen to be worthy, let the bishop assign him to the office (as has been said) of answering on behalf of the monastery; yet so that neither he who in that manner has been chosen for those things which are to be answered on behalf of the women shall remain in the monastery.
If anyone, under the condition of marriage or of children to be received, or for the sake of a dowry or a nuptial gift, either shall have given or shall have bequeathed to his children, or to any other person, either an inheritance or a legacy; or if at the outset he leaves it to them purely, and afterward burdens them under some one of the aforesaid conditions by way of substitution or restitution—we command that, if males or females who are subject to such conditions enter a monastery, or become clerics, deaconesses, or ascetic women, conditions of this kind be invalid and held as unwritten.
But both clerics and deaconesses of the churches shall enjoy this benefit, if they neither persist in those conditions to the end of their life, nor consume or leave the things given or bequeathed under that condition for pious uses. For in the case of persons who enter a monastery or convent, and abandon a chaste manner of life of this kind, we command that the things which were given or bequeathed under that condition, together with the rest of their substance, belong to the monastery or convent in which they were at the outset when they entered. If, however, the substitution or restitution be made under the aforesaid conditions for the redemption of captives or the support of the poor, we do not allow this to be excluded by any of the aforesaid modes.
If a woman or a man shall have chosen the monastic life and enters a monastery, there being no children, we command that his goods belong to the monastery which he has entered. If a person of this kind has children, and before he enters the monastery does not express his will concerning his children, and assign to them the lawful portion, then in this case too it shall be lawful for him, even after entering the monastery, to divide his patrimony among his children; yet so that he diminish the lawful portion for none of his children. But the part which shall not have been given to the children, let it belong to the monastery.
But if he should wish to divide his whole substance among his children, let him, his own person being reckoned among the children, by all means reserve to himself one part, which ought to belong to the right of the monastery. If, while he dwells in the monastery, he dies before he distributes his goods among the children, the children shall take the lawful part, and the remaining patrimony shall belong to the monastery. Moreover, lawful betrothals having been contracted between certain parties, if the betrothed man enters the monastery, let him receive back those things which were given as earnest (arrha) for the betrothal; if the betrothed woman chooses the monastic life, let her restore only those things which she likewise received in the name of earnest. The penalty being remitted to each person by indulgence.
But if, while the marriage still stands, either the husband alone, or the wife alone, enters a monastery, let the marriage be dissolved even without a bill of repudiation, as soon as the person who enters the monastery has taken up the monastic habit. And indeed, if the husband chooses the monastic life, let him restore to the woman both the dowry, and whatever else he received from her, as well as, in addition, from the nuptial gift, as great a part as would have befallen the woman from the death of the husband according to the agreed pact which was inserted in the dotal instruments.
But if the woman has entered a monastery, in like manner let the husband retain for himself the nuptial gift, and we command him to restore to the woman the remainder of the dowry—the contingency of the dowry which by pact had been agreed upon from the death of the woman—and whatever else of the wife's property shall be found in his possession. But if both choose the monastic life, we command that, the dotal instruments being void, the husband retain the nuptial gift, and the wife receive her dowry, and whatever else besides she shall be proven to have given to the husband, so that each may enjoy his own goods without loss:
unless the betrothed man should wish to give or remit something to the betrothed woman, or the betrothed woman to the betrothed man, or the husband to the wife, or the wife to the husband—when neither is anything allowed to be gained by the man or the woman from the nuptial pacts. But we give no license either to parents to exclude from their inheritance their children, or to children to exclude their parents, who abandon the secular manner of life, as ungrateful, on account of any cause which preceded the monastic life. We likewise forbid parents to drag their children out of the venerable monasteries as soon as they have chosen the monastic life.
If a monk should abandon his monastery and enter another, or should be seen to have any things during that time while he abandoned the monastery, we command that these belong to the first monastery, into which he first entered. Moreover, let the most religious bishops of the places exercise foresight that monks and female monastics do not wander about through the cities; but if they have anything concerning which they are compelled to answer, let them carry it out through their apocrisiarii, so that they themselves may remain in their own monasteries.
But if a monk should abandon the monastery and pass over to the secular life, this man, first stripped of military service and of honor, if he holds any, through the bishop of the place and the governor of the province, is sent back into the monastery, and the things which he shall afterward be shown to have shall belong to the monastery into which he is sent in. But if he should again abandon the monastery, then let the governor of the province in which he is found detain him, and reckon him among the cohort subject to him.
If anyone should carry off, or solicit, or violate an ascetic woman, or a deaconess, or a nun, or any other woman who leads a consecrated life and wears its habit, we command that both the property of this man and that of those who joined him as accomplices in a crime of this sort be claimed for the venerable place in which such a woman was dwelling, through the most religious bishops of those places and their stewards, and likewise by the governors of each province and their cohorts. But those who have committed such offenses, or have shared in the crime together with them, shall undergo the penalty that the law imposes.
Such a woman also is to be sought out everywhere, and together with her property is to be cast into a monastery, in which she may be kept more securely, lest she again be caught in the same crime. Clearly, if she be a deaconess and have legitimate children, the lawful portion is to be given to the children. If within a year from when a crime of this kind became known, such property has not been claimed by the venerable houses, we command that by all means the count of the privy purse adjudge it to our treasury, the governor of those places who did not bring it under his own care to claim that property being stripped of his belt, and a fine of five pounds of gold being exacted from him through the count of the privy purse.
In general we forbid all who pass their life in the secular world, and especially those who appear upon the stage, both men and women, and likewise prostitutes, to make use of the habit of a monk, or of a nun, or of an ascetic woman, or in any way to imitate it: all being warned that whoever shall presume either to use such a habit, or to imitate it, or to mock at any ecclesiastical order whatsoever, shall both suffer bodily punishments and be delivered into exile, the oversight in a matter of this kind being given not only to the most religious bishops of those places and the clergy subject to them, but also to the civil and military magistrates, and the cohorts that obey them, and likewise to the defenders of those places.
Finally, the penalties which are set forth in the present law, and which indeed were also recognized by earlier laws, we decree to have force and to be imposed by all means not only in future, but also in past cases or offenses. But those things which have been freshly expressed by the present law and reduced to a fixed formula, we command to be observed for future times only. Likewise by the present law we confirm all the remaining things that have been decreed by us in various constitutions, both concerning bishops and presbyters and the other clergy, and also concerning the keepers of hospices, the keepers of poorhouses, the keepers of orphanages, and the others who preside over the venerable houses.
69:104
Quaeigiturnobisplacuerunt, etperhancnostramdeclaranturlegem, eaperprogrammatasolitislocisinregiaurbeproposita, excellentiatuaadomniumnotitiamperducere, etprovinciarumrectoribusmanifestafaceresludelo. Dat. K. Maii, Const., Just. PP. Aug., Basiliov. c. cons.,.
Therefore those things which have pleased us and are declared by this our law, your Excellency shall take care, by proclamations posted in the customary places in the royal city, to bring to the knowledge of all, and to make manifest to the governors of the provinces. Given on the Kalends of May, at Constantinople, in the consulship of Justinian, perpetual Augustus, and of Basilius, most distinguished man.