Regula Ad Monachos

The Rule of Saints Paul and Stephen, Abbots, for Monks. Chapters. First, concerning the fear of God and mutual charity, purity of heart, and the unanimity to be maintained. How seniors ought to behave toward juniors. How juniors ought to conduct themselves toward seniors. That no one is to depart from the Work of God unless permitted. That the beginning of a verse in choir is to be started by one person. That it is to be chanted continuously through the choirs. Concerning the manner of psalm-singing and the judgment of the seniors. That those singing are not to doze off. That no one, even slightly, is to be occupied with chatter while singing and praying. That after Prime no one is to lie down on his bed. That at the noonday time each one is to sleep in his own bed for a defined period of time. That they are to chant the Divine Office with discipline in its performance. That at the hour when communion is to be received, all who are within the same cell are to strive to be present. That those things which have been ordered to be sung are to be chanted. Concerning those who are learning psalms, that they are to observe the (??) assigned to the dictators.

That what is received from the juniors according to custom be returned at table. That no one presume beyond the prescribed measure in food or drink. That those who are taking refreshment listen quietly to what is read. That at table no one procure anything specially cooked for himself. That no one move from his assigned table to another. That a cup which overflows not be mixed. Concerning the turns of the servers. If any of the junior order be separated from the ministry. That no one presume upon another’s assignment. That those to whom custody is entrusted serve with devoted charity, nor on the other hand be improperly grieved. That no one dare to enter the cellar or the workshops of the craftsmen importunately without being ordered. That no one presume to use another’s things for himself, nor be allowed to exchange them among themselves. Concerning the keeping of garments and bedding. That no one be tonsured without the use of the prior. Concerning that which, when another loses it, a brother finds.

Concerning those who wish to learn some craft. That each one promptly present himself for the mill, or for every earthly work. Concerning the labor of past time, and that nothing necessary has been withheld even from those who are negligent. That the usual sluggishness be set aside for prayer. Concerning the care of tools in work. That no one conceal a sinner. That immoderate jesting and laughter be refrained from. That one not join others who are quarreling. That no one intrude himself into any extraneous matters. That no one dare to avenge himself by human strength against the wicked excesses of rustics. That the rules of the Fathers also be read assiduously. I. First, therefore, we exhort that all have the fear of God, mutual charity, and unanimity in good pursuits. II. That seniors show paternal affection to juniors; and when it is necessary to command, they should not do so with swollen arrogance and loud voices, but confidently, with tranquil simplicity and the authority of a good life, enjoin whatever is opportune for the common good.

III. Juniors shall obey seniors with sincere subjection, nor shall they answer anyone with a swelling neck, or refuse to obey those in command with a disdainful spirit and a negligent ear; but all, with one mind and in harmony, both in spiritual work and in earthly labor, shall come together with faithful intention. IV. No one is permitted to depart from the work of God without the prior’s permission; but if a manifest cause compels him, having sought and obtained permission from the prior through prayer, he shall depart. Nor shall they go out two or three together, but singly, seeking permission through prayer; so that those who are well shall return at once, while those who are infirm, by permission, shall go back to bed. V. The seniors who stand in the choir shall begin the verses of the psalms as they are chanted; or if infirmity hinders them, those whom the Father has ordered shall begin. When they begin, all shall immediately, if possible, join in on the first or second syllable, together with one mind and one voice, so that there be no dissonance among the singers, which usually arises from a disordered beginning and a contentious variety.

VI. Juniors, and especially those who are still learning to memorize the psalms, shall dictate them through the choirs in order and without negligence: so that from the place where the younger ones still do not know, the juniors who have already finished the Psalter shall succeed each other in order in dictating; so that at all times the practice of pronouncing shall not be lacking. VII. The manner of chanting, if possible, is to be maintained by us at all times with moderation: so that it is neither excessively drawn out, nor beyond measure curtailed, but, as has been said, it is always to be spoken with a tempered modulation. Yet it is observed that according to the will and judgment of the prior, to whom it always falls to consider and weigh the time, hour, and cause in all things, whether he orders it to be drawn out or hastened by a just judgment of consideration, at his nod, whether he wishes it to be more elevated or more subdued, it is to be spoken with a voice that is, nevertheless, harmonious as if from one mouth. Nor shall anyone presume, without the prior's permission, to exceed or change the measure of moderation by an elevated exaltation of the voice, which often generates the boastfulness of inflation and the arrogance of elation in the less cautious, or by a turbulent haste. Nor shall the prior dare to usurp the granted license of consideration in practice without certain necessity: knowing that he will render an account to the Lord, who said: "Chant wisely" (Ps. xlvi).

VIII. Sleep, when the Work of God is being said, must be utterly driven from us with God's help: fearing that saying of the Prophet: "Cursed is he who does the Work of God negligently" (Jeremiah 48). And this: "They slept their sleep, and all the men of wealth found nothing in their hands" (Psalm 75). IX. Let no one be permitted, at the time when the Work of God is sung, to utter a word against another brother on any occasion whatsoever, except only to a senior; to whom, without doubt, causes of any matter either to be ordered or corrected sometimes arise. X. After Prime has been said in the morning, let no one lie back down on his bed; except on the Lord's Day, or on feast days, on which, wearied by the labor of the vigils and more than usual from the previous day, those among you who wish may rest their limbs on the beds a little after Prime. This is not permitted at all times, but only in the summer months; for all the rest of the time, every day, immediately after Prime, while the shoes received by the juniors are being mended, let each one put on his sandals and be ready for the signal which is customarily made by the sound of a board: so that all, without delay, may assemble in the designated place to learn the work of the coming day.

XI. In summer, no one is permitted to sleep at midday except in his own bed, unless by order of the prior he sleeps outside his bed for guarding the threshing-floor against clouds. In the field, however, when the harvest is being gathered, if it is allowed to sleep at midday, they are to sleep not separately, but in one place or two places. For it is not unknown how much evil the devil has wrought from this occasion. The times, moreover, in which, if there is leisure, we must sleep at midday, let us observe from the day of the Ides of May until the day of the Ides of September. XII. The Work of God, which during the day the brothers working in whatever place will recite at the appointed hours, is to be said with discipline and fear of God in a harmonious voice: not as each one wishes to overwhelm it by excuse of work or occupation. Nor is a junior to presume to leap ahead of a senior, and proceed with premature haste; and the divine work, which is to be done with fear, is not to be chanted through disordered boldness foolishly and not wisely. For by such a custom the minds and throats of some brothers, already infected, cannot be restrained to harmony within the oratory except with a great bridle of agitation. Therefore, that you may cast off this vice of usurpation from yourselves, we exhort you with the simplicity of charity: for God is the hearer of all such things: He sent His angel, and took me from my father’s sheep (Psalm 151, according to the Septuagint).

XIII. At the hour when we are about to receive the holy body and blood of the Lord, let us hasten to be present to say: “Deliver us from evil,” except for those whom a certain cause, with the knowledge of the senior, does not permit to be present. In every way it must be guarded against that we receive the holy body and blood unworthily, to our judgment. XIV. Let no one presume to sing responsories or antiphons, which some are accustomed to sing with a composed sound, according to their own pleasure, and not taken from canonical Scripture, either to meditate or to recite in this congregation. Nor shall anyone dare to meditate on any such things from a visiting guest without the command of the prior: lest, ensnared by foreign teachings of varieties and by the sweetnesses of their ravings, as it were, they disdain the maturity of simplicity and truth; and, bound by the fetters of levity and idleness through the sounds of song, they either hasten to fly away from the congregation at the devil’s prompting, or, puffed up within the monastery as if with singular knowledge, they despise all others. For we ought to imitate the one and simple apostolic doctrine and that of our fathers, and to be established by grace, to subject heart and morals to discipline, and we ought to sing those things which, as blessed Augustine says, are so written that they are sung; but those which are not so written, let us not sing.

Nor in any other manner than that in which the Lord himself commanded through his prophets and apostles that they be made manifest to men, ought they to be spoken by us in praise of him: lest we change what is to be sung into the manner of prose and as if into a reading, or turn what is so written that we use it in the order of readings into tropes and melodies by our own presumption of art. For if we must offer to God the sacrifice of confession and praise, as he himself commanded to be offered to him, the Lord seeks from us more the sacrifice of obedience than of victims; nor is he delighted by the study of artistic melodies as much as by the observance of the commandments and the purity of the heart. XV. Those who learn letters or psalms shall observe, for the purpose of taking dictation, those to whom they have been assigned: who are either to be reproved for them concerning negligence, or to be approved in their instruction and diligence. But if the departing dictator has neglected to assign one on his own, the one who takes dictation shall return to the Father, so that he himself may assign for the absent one who ought to dictate to him. When the absent one returns, he shall go back to his own dictator.

XVI. At the hour of refection, at all times, those who daily receive portions from the psalms shall render them at the first table of the brothers, according to custom. Whoever neglects to meditate and does not render it shall not eat until the hour of refection of the following day. XVII. No one is permitted to presume beyond the established custom, whether in drink or in food, without the permission of the prior, to whom belongs the faculty of ordering and considering; so that if, for brothers wearied by heavy labor, it is necessary to add anything beyond custom, this may be done only with the prior’s nod and permission, and not by anyone presuming on his own. XVIII. When we take our meal, let us listen to the readings with thanksgiving and the fear of God. Let us not receive the gift of God with contention, murmuring, indignation, loud voices, stamping of feet, and clatter of vessels, but with charity, quietness, and the most gentle bridle of discipline; fearing the example of the carnal Israelites (Num. 11), to whom, while they ate to satiety the bread of angels (Ps. 77) and the flesh of quails even to nausea, with a mouth filled with murmuring, the wrath of God was sent to destroy them.

XIX. No brother is permitted to bring to the table for eating—whether an apple, or any kind of vegetable for seasoning, or anything else—for his own use as if by a private arrangement, lest even the slightest occasion for rancor among the brothers concerning injustice, or a dreadful avenue for private study, be opened. But whatever of these things, by God’s gift, are found by anyone, shall be faithfully handed over to the cellarer, so that he, distributing them, may serve them out either by the month or as each has need. XX. No one shall presume to move from the table at which he is assigned to eat to another; nor shall it be permitted for anyone to receive another coming to him from a different table to eat. But each shall eat at the table assigned to him, so that if the greater part of the brothers is absent from a table, the remaining ones, up to three in number, shall sit at their own table. If fewer than this number remain, they shall eat at another table, according to the assigned order.

XXI. No one is permitted to fill the cupbearers’ cup so that it overflows. Nor is anyone permitted to accept it if it is offered to him by an unskilled server who spills it; rather, he ought to fill it with moderation and appropriately, as the Apostle says: “Let all your things be done honestly and according to order” (1 Cor. 14). XXII. In all services and ministries in which the younger brothers succeed one another in turn, let each one, with good will, cheerfully and without murmuring, with the grace of God, fulfill the week of his turn in whatever ministry he has undertaken. But if it should happen that he who has undertaken some service is occupied with another duty, or a journey, or by necessity of infirmity, let the one who appears to be next in order after him in that place fulfill his turn; and if he is absent, let the third, or fourth, or fifth from him who is found present and free represent his service, so that the order of ministry, which is exhibited mutually out of love and devotion, may be preserved and in no way disturbed.

XXIII. If in that order of juniors, who succeed one another in turn in the various ministries, a person should perhaps be mingled who, in the judgment of a senior, ought to be removed from a turn of ministry, let no one dare to provoke him; nor let anyone, through jest, inflict upon him a goad of suspicion and confusion. XXIV. Let no one be permitted to presume, according to his own will, to take anything from the cellarium, or from any workshop of the craftsmen, whether a tool or any thing whatsoever that has been assigned to individual brothers for safekeeping: unless perhaps such a cause of absence or infirmity of the one to whom care in any part has been entrusted compels it, that, by order of the abbot, or certainly with the permission of the one to whom it is assigned, it be touched by another. XXV. Those also to whom custody of individual things has been entrusted shall, with fitting devotion and most dear humility, minister what is necessary without delay and without distaste at the command of a senior: nor, by delaying through proud inflation, shall they create occasions for complaints, through which murmuring ought not to be stirred up against the labor of those who, in charity, serve us in assigned matters.

XXVI. No one is permitted to enter the cellar or any of the artisans’ workshops with improper and importunate boldness without the order of a senior, because this presumption greatly hinders the common good and also inflicts rancor upon the minds of the artisans themselves from excessive importunity. XXVII. No one is permitted, by depraved presumption, to touch for use either a garment, or footwear, or tablets, or anything, however small, whether new or old, that has been given to another brother. Nor is it permitted among the brothers that anyone, without the permission of the prior, should lend what he has received from the common store to another brother, as if out of private affection, lest illicit love arise from this occasion. But let each one willingly and with good will accept what is given to him by the distribution of charity, and delight in having it for use. XXVIII. No one shall dare to wash his garments or bedding for himself without the prayer and permission of the prior.

XXIX. None of the brothers is to dare to be tonsured without the prayer of the abbot; nor is anyone to seek to be tonsured with any tonsure other than that customary for us, except for the sick, whom, at the physician’s direction, it may perhaps be expedient to tonsure more closely on account of contrary humor. XXX. If anyone finds anything whatsoever that another brother has lost, whether within the cell or outside, he is not to keep it with himself for one day, or, if possible, for one hour; but he is to place what he has found in the designated place; and the one who lost it is to seek it in that place, so that the one who lost it does not suffer the error and labor of searching through each individual. XXXI. No one is permitted to learn any art whatsoever without the prayer of the senior, or of him to whom the power of ordering and disposing has been granted by him, presuming on his own initiative; except only those who are appointed in each art by the prior’s judgment in their order with the grace of prayer. But neither is anyone to presume to study letters, or psalms, or readings as if from his own authority; and let the evil of pride, and the judgment of dissolute will, and private study work against the spiritual good. But if anyone, through good will, desires to learn any earthly art, or in spiritual matters beyond what is daily handed down by us, he is to await with most dear humility the granting of it by the prior. And if it is granted to him, having received the prayer, he is thus to begin what he desires. But even if it is denied to him, because perhaps it is not expedient for him, let him remain joyful and not sad.

But it is not permitted for anyone, without the knowledge and command of the prior, to teach letters or any art whatsoever to another secretly and as if by stealth. If anyone presumes to do so, he will undoubtedly be subject to a double fault, that is, both of theft and of pride. XXXII. Moreover, it must be greatly guarded against by all that any brother should come sluggishly and not among the first to the mill or to any manual labor. XXXIII. For the exhortation to work, which has thus far been set before your charity by us with such moderation, is as much weakened and relaxed from that apostolic urgency of blessed Paul (Ephesians 4) as there is also a difference of persons. Since he commands us to labor with our hands to such an extent that we may have something from which to give to those in need, we have said that we should labor at least enough to suffice for ourselves. He says that he himself labored with his own hands in hunger and thirst, in cold and nakedness, night and day, so that he and those with him might not lack necessities (2 Corinthians 11; 1 Thessalonians 2; 2 Thessalonians 3): we, on the contrary, having double garments and footwear for our use, and a most abundant provision of daily sustenance from the house of God to satiety, exhort you not to love idleness, but through a sincere consensus of unanimity, let each one, as he is able, so labor. He commanded: He who does not work, let him not eat (2 Thessalonians

ject to the penalty of excommunication. XXXIV. Know this, brothers, that a monk idle in body can never be idle in mind from sordid thoughts, as Solomon says: "Every idle person is full of desires" (Ecclus. 33:27). And again: "Idleness devises many evils." Therefore, let him who has hitherto been such cast off this vice and hasten promptly to every work, for it is written: "Do not hate laborious works and rustic toil created by the Most High" (Ecclus. 7:16), so that, with the Lord's gift, we may abound from our own labors in daily and necessary things, and may be able to meet with fitting moderation those whom spiritual love invites to visit us, or to serve with due ministry from our own labor those whom grave necessity compels, because our Lord and Redeemer has certainly commanded that it is more blessed to give than to receive (Acts 20:35).

XXXV. When going to any work, the one who goes first among them shall receive in the morning the necessary tools, counted out, from the keeper of the tools, and shall assign them for safekeeping to one of the younger ones, from among those who are to go with him, whom he sees as suitable for this; when the work is completed, he shall himself diligently receive them back from that same person and hand them over to the keeper, so that nothing is lost through the usual forgetfulness and the negligence of many. XXXVI. If anyone sees another doing anything illicit, whether in word or in deed, in any place whatsoever, and delays in reporting it to the prior, let him know that he is a nurturer of sin, and in every respect equal to the sinner. And because he is the harshest enemy both of his own soul and of the one he covers up, from this he will be considered, before God, who hates evil, and before the entire brotherhood, as execrable and unfaithful: because through an abundance of malice he was unwilling to expose the one who was erring, whom he could have corrected; and out of hatred for discipline he loved malice, and stood by every way that is not good (Ps. 35).

XXXVII. Therefore, all of us must beware of the immoderate excess of jesting and laughter, through which very bitter scandals often arise among brothers. Nor should an occasion for discord arise from this matter; for even if a quarrel were not to spring from it, we must still beware of speech that does not pertain to edification. And let us know that an account must be rendered to the Lord even for idle talk. For who does not know that excessive laughter is the gateway to indiscipline and levity, through which the devil subtly administers pernicious food to the wretched soul? XXXVIII. If one brother, provoked by another contrary to the prohibition, should respond in such a way as to lead the matter to contention, let no one mix himself in their contention—that is, in another’s quarrel—lest the partisanships of the disputants, as of different factions, be nourished among the brothers; unless perhaps it be the elder who, by mitigating the discord between them, interjects words of peace with moderation, discipline, and sincere faith.

XXXIX. Let no one presume to involve himself in any causes of others, whether of relatives, of blood relations, or in any worldly occasions whatsoever, except by the command of the prior: whom the tears of the poor and the oppressed often move, so that he may approach as a petitioner either before judges or before whomever is necessary. Nor shall the one sent dare to presume more than is commanded, either in speech. For it is written that no one serving God should entangle himself in secular affairs, so that he may please the one to whom he has proved himself (2 Tim. 2). And if we desire and avoid the necessary, that is, the business of the monastery, which is very burdensome to us, how much more ought we to abhor and flee from alien matters and those which are outside the utility of the monastery? XL. Let none of you dare to defend himself by his own strength or by human arm against the rage and wicked excesses of rustics, which they often, with the devil arming them, exercise against us, since our sole defender is God, and the patronage of the blessed apostles and of all the saints of God.

XLI. The Rules of the Fathers are read to us assiduously for this reason, that by their holy exhortations we may adapt our inner ear, and conceive the sweetest love of discipline, and, with the Lord aiding us in all things, follow the examples of their lives. For this reason we must hasten, so that ingrained tepidity may be expelled from our minds. For we have not presumed to set forth these things to you in the present writing, by a rash audacity, as a reproach to the rule of the holy and most blessed Fathers; but we have taken care to impress upon you in writing only those things which are specially derived from their constitutions. The fullness of holy conversation and the perfect teaching of the spiritual life are daily recited to us in the rules of those holy Fathers, whose proven life, by divine gift, and whose authority to teach are attributed. May Almighty God, who is the author of peace, who alone can make men dwell in one house with one mind, fit you all to do his will: making in us what is pleasing before him through Jesus Christ our Lord; and may he plant and cherish the seed of this exhortation and admonition in your heart through the grace of the Holy Spirit, and lead it to the mature perfection of good works, Amen; and may he, granting us remission of sins, keep us in eternal rest with his peace. Amen.