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LET the robe also of the monk be such as may merely cover the body and
prevent the disgrace of nudity, and keep off harm from cold, not such as
may foster the seeds of vanity and pride; for the same apostle tells us:
"Having food and covering, with these let us be content." "Covering," he
says, not "raiment," as is wrongly found in some Latin copies: that is,
what may merely cover the body, not what may please the fancy by the
splendour of the attire; commonplace, so that it may not be thought
remarkable for novelty of colour or fashion among other men of the same
profession; and quite free from anxious carefulness, yet not discoloured by
stains acquired through neglect. Lastly, let them be so far removed from
this world's fashions as to remain altogether common property for the use
of the servants of God. For whatever is claimed by one or a few among the
servants of God and is not the common property of the whole body. of the
brethren alike is either superfluous or vain, and for that reason to be
considered harmful, and affording an appearance of vanity rather than
virtue. And, therefore, whatever models we see were not taught either by
the saints of old who laid the foundations of the monastic life, or by the
fathers of our own time who in their turn keep up at the present day their
customs, these we also should reject as superfluous and useless: wherefore
they utterly disapproved of a robe of sackcloth as being visible to all and
conspicuous, and what from this very fact will not only confer no benefit
on the soul but rather minister to vanity and pride, and as being
inconvenient and unsuitable for the performance of necessary work for which
a monk ought always to go ready and unimpeded. But even if we hear of some
respectable persons who have been dressed in this garb, a rule for the
monasteries is not, therefore, to be passed by us, nor should the ancient
decrees of the holy fathers be upset because we do not think that a few
men, presuming on the possession of other virtues, are to be blamed even in
regard of those things which they have practised not in accordance with the
Catholic rule. For the opinion of a few ought not to be preferred to or to
interfere with the general rule for all. For we ought to give unhesitating
allegiance and unquestioning obedience, not to those customs and rules
which the will of a few have introduced, but to those which a long standing
antiquity and numbers of the holy fathers have passed on by an unanimous
decision to those that come after. Nor, indeed, ought this to influence us
as a precedent for our daily life, that Joram, the wicked king of Israel,
when surrounded by bands of his foes, rent his clothes, and is said to have
had sackcloth inside them; or that the Ninevites, in order to mitigate
the sentence of God, which had been pronounced against them by the prophet,
were clothed in rough sackcloth. The former is shown to have been
clothed with it secretly underneath, so that unless the upper garment had
been rent it could not possibly have been known by any one, and the latter
tolerated a covering of sackcloth at a time when, since all were mourning
over the approaching destruction of the city and were clothed with the same
garments, none could be accused of ostentation. For where there is no
special difference and all are alike no harm is done.
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