The Rule of Saint Benedict

Aszove all others, let this vice be extirpated in the

THE RULE OF ST. BENEDICT 6;

monastery. No one, without leave of the abbot, shall presume to give, or receive, or keep as his own, anything whatever : neither book, nor tablets, nor pen : nothing at all. For monks are men who can claim no dominion even over their own bodies or wills. All that is necessary, however, they may hope from the Father of the monastery ; but they shall keep nothing which the abbot has not given or allowed. All things are to be common to all, as it is written, Neither did any one say or think that aught was his owz.l* Hence if any one shall be found given to this most wicked vice let him be admonished once or twice, and if he do not amend let him be

subjected to correction.