|
Any for these reasons they do not agree to take from him money to be
used even for the good of the monastery: First, in case he may be puffed up
with arrogance, owing to this offering, and so not deign to put himself on
a level with the poorer brethren; and next, lest he fail through this pride
of his to stoop to the humility of Christ, and so, when he cannot hold out
under the discipline of the monastery, leave it, and afterwards, when he
has cooled down, want in a bad spirit to receive and get back--not without
loss to the monastery--what he had contributed in the early days of his
renunciation, when he was aglow with spiritual fervour. And that this rule
should always be kept they have been frequently taught by many instances.
For in some monasteries where they are not so careful some who have been
received unreservedly have afterwards tried most sacrilegiously to demand a
return of that which they had contributed and which had been spent on God's
work.
|
|