The Rule of Saint Benedict

The manner of receiving the Brethren to Religion

Any one on first coming to the religious life should not find the entrance made easy, but as the apostle saith, Try the spirits, if they be of God If, however, the newcomer continues to knock, and for four or five days shows a patient bearing, both of the harshness shown him and of the difficulty made about admitting him, and persist in his petition he shall then be allowed to enter the guest-place for a few days. After that let him be in the noviciate, where he shall meditate and eat and sleep.

And let a senior, such as has the skill of winning souls, be appointed to watch carefully over him, to discover whether he truly seeks God and is eager for the Divine Office, for obedience and humiliations. Let all the rigour and austerity of our journey to God be put clearly before him. If he promise to continue

in a steadfast perseverance, at the end of two months

100. THE RULE OF ST. BENEDICT

the entire Rule shall be read to him, and let him be told, * See the law under which you wish to fight, if you can observe it enter upon the life; if you cannot you are free to depart."

If he still persevere let him be brought back to the noviciate and again tried in all patience. And after the lapse of six months let the Rule be read to him again, that he may fully know the kind of life he is enteringupon. [f he yet persevere, after four months the Rule shall be read to him once more. If after due deliberation he shall then promise to keep all the law and to do whatever is commanded of him, let him be received into the community, knowing that he is now under the law of the Rule, so that he can henceforth neither leave the monastery nor withdraw his neck from the yoke of the Rule which after so long a deliberation he was free to have taken or refused.

When he is to be admitted into the community let

him in the oratory, and in the presence of all, promise

THE RULE OF ST. BENEDICT ro:

before God and His saints stability, amendment of manners and obedience, in order that if at any time he shall act otherwise he may know that he shall be condemned by Him Whom he mocketh. He shall draw up the form of his promise in the name of the saints, whose relics are reposing there, and of the abbot there present. Let him write out this form himself, or at least, if he is uneducated another at his request must write it for him, and to this the novice himself shall set his mark and with his own hand lay it upon the altar.

After he has placed it there let the novice immediately begin the verse, Uphold me, O Lord, acccording to Thy word, and I shall live, and let me not be confounded in my expectation.°6 'This verse the community shall repeat three times, adding at the end, G/ory Ze to the Father, etc. Then the brother novice shall cast himself at the feet of all, asking their prayers, and from that time he shall be counted as one of the com-

munity. If he has any property he must first either

2 Religion

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give it to the poor, or by formal gift make it over to the monastery without any reservation for himself, since he must know that he has henceforth no power even over his own body. Let him, therefore, forthwith be divested in the oratory of his own garments and be clothed in those of the monastery. The clothes he has taken off, however, are to be kept in the wardrobe, so that if (which God forbid) he should, by the persuasion of the devil, resolve to leave the monastery he may be stripped of his monastic dress and expelled. The form of profession which the abbot took from him at the altar he shall not receive

back, but it shall be kept in the monastery.