A Source Book for Ancient Church History Part 72

2. If a monk vomit from drunkenness, let him do 30 days penance.

3. If a presbyter or deacon do the same, let him do 40 days penance.

4. If any one by infirmity or because he has abstained for a long time, and it is not his habit to drink or eat much, or for joy at Christmas or at Easter, or for the commemoration of any of the saints, does this, and he has not taken more than is decreed by the elders, he has done no wrong.

If the bishop should have commanded, he does no harm to him unless he himself does likewise.

5. If a believing layman vomits from drunkenness, let him do 15 days penance.

6. He who becomes drunk against the commandment of the Lord, if he has a vow of holiness let him do penance 7 days on bread and water, and 70 days without fat; the laity without beer.

7. Whoever out of malice makes another drunk, let him do penance 40 days.

8. Whoever vomits from satiety let him do penance 3 days.

9. If with the sacrifice of the communion, let him do penance 7 days; but if out of infirmity, he is without guilt.

Cap. II. _On fornication._

Cap. III. _On theft._

Cap. IV. _On the killing of men._ [This should be compared with the secular laws.]

1. If any one out of vengeance for a relative kill a man, let him do penance as for homicide 7 or 10 years. If, however, he is willing to return to relatives the money of valuation [Weregeld, according to the secular rating], the penance will be lighter, that is by one-half the length.

2. He who kills a man for vengeance for his brother, let him do penance 3 years; in another place he is said to do penance 10 years.

3. But homicides 10 or 7 years.

4. If a layman kills another man with thoughts of hatred, if he does not wish to relinquish his arms, let him do penance 7 years, without flesh and wine 3 years.

5. If any one kills a monk or a clergyman, let him relinquish his arms and serve G.o.d(272) or do 7 years penance. He is in the judgment of the bishop. But he who kills a bishop or a presbyter, the judgment concerning him is in the king.

6. He who by the command of his lord kills a man, let him keep away from the church 40 days; and he who kills a man in a public war, let him do penance 40 days.

7. If out of wrath, 3 years; if by chance, 1 year; if by drink or any contrivance, 4 years or more; if by strife, let him do penance 10 years.(273)

Cap. V. _Concerning those who are deceived by a heresy._

Cap. VI. _Concerning perjury._

Cap. VII. _Concerning many and various wrong acts and those necessary things which are not harmful._

Cap. VIII. _Concerning various failings of the servants of G.o.d._

Cap. IX. _Concerning those who are degraded or cannot be ordained._

Cap. X. _Concerning those who are baptized twice, how they shall do penance._

Cap. XI. _Concerning those who violate the Lords Day and the appointed fasts of the Church._

Cap. XII. _Concerning the communion of the eucharist or the sacrifice._

Cap. XIII. _Concerning reconciliation._

Cap. XIV. _Especially concerning the penance of those who marry._

Cap. XV. _Concerning the worship of idols._

(_d_) Bede, _Penitential_, ch. XI. Haddan and Stubbs, _Councils and Ecclesiastical Doc.u.ments_, III, 32.

The Penitential of Bede is to be distinguished from the _Liber de Remediis Peccatorum_ attributed to him, _cf._ Haddan and Stubbs, _op. cit._, who print the genuine penitential. It belongs to the period before 725. In not a few points it closely resembles that of Theodore. The concluding pa.s.sage here given is to be found in many penitentials with but little variation. It is probably as early as the work itself, although apparently not by Bede. It is a method of commuting penances. In place of fasting inordinate or impossible lengths of time, other penances could be subst.i.tuted.

In later ages still other forms of commutation were introduced.

Even money payments were used as commutation of penance.

XI. _On Counsel to be Given._

We read in the penitential of doing penance on bread and water, for the great sins one year or two or three years, and for little sins a month or a week. Likewise in the case of some the conditions are harsh and difficult. Therefore to him who cannot do these things we give the counsel that psalms, prayers, and almsgiving ought to be performed some days in penance for these; that is, that psalms are for one day when he ought to do penance on bread and water. Therefore he should sing fifty psalms on his knees, and if not on his knees seventy psalms inside the church or in one place. For a week on bread and water, let him sing on his knees three hundred psalms in order and in the church or in one place. And for one month on bread and water, one thousand five hundred psalms kneeling, or if not kneeling one thousand eight hundred and twenty, and afterward let him fast every day until the sixth hour and abstain from flesh and wine; but whatsoever other food G.o.d has given him let him eat, after he has sung the psalms. And he who does not know psalms ought to do penance and to fast, and every day let him give to the poor the value of a denarius, and fast one day until the ninth hour, and the next until vespers, and after that whatsoever he has let him eat.

104. The New Monasticism and the Rule of Benedict of Nursia

In the first centuries of monasticism in the West, the greatest variety was to be found among the const.i.tutions of the various monastic houses and the rules drawn up by great leaders in the ascetic movement. This variety extended even to the nature of the vows a.s.sumed and their obligation.

Benedict of Nursia (circa 480 to circa 544), gave the rule according to which for some centuries nearly all the monasteries of the West were ultimately organized. The first great example of this rule in operation was Benedicts own monastery at Monte Ca.s.sino. For a time the rule of Benedict came into conflict with that of Columba.n.u.s in Gaul.(274) But the powerful recommendation of Gregory the Great, who had introduced it in Rome, and the intrinsic superiority of the rule itself made the Benedictine system triumphant. It should be noted that the Benedictine cloisters were for centuries independent establishments and only formed into organized groups of monasteries in the great monastic reforms of the tenth and following centuries. It is a question how far the Benedictine rule was introduced into England in the early centuries of the Anglo-Saxon Church, although it is often taken for granted that it was introduced by Augustine. Critical edition of the Benedictine rule by Wlfflin, Leipsic, 1895; in Mignes edition there is an elaborate commentary with many ill.u.s.trative extracts and formul, as well as traditional glosses.

Additional source material: An abbreviated translation of the Benedictine rule may be found in Henderson, _Select Historical Doc.u.ments_, 1892, and in full in Thatcher and McNeal, _A Source Book for Medival History_, 1905.

(_a_) Benedict of Nursia, _Regula_. (MSL, 66:246.)

1. _Concerning the kinds of monks and their modes of living._ It is manifest that there are four kinds of monks. The first is that of the cen.o.bites, that is the monastic, serving under a rule and an abbot. The second kind is that of the anchorites, that is the hermits, those who have learned to fight against the devil, not by the new fervor of conversion, but by a long probation in a monastery, having been taught already by a.s.sociation with many; and having been well prepared in the army of the brethren for the solitary fight of the hermit, and secure now without the encouragement of another, they are able, G.o.d helping them, to fight with their own hand or arm against the vices of the flesh or of their thoughts.

But a third and very bad kind of monks are the sarabites, not tried as gold in the furnace by a rule, experience being their teacher, but softened after the manner of lead; keeping faith with the world by their works, they are known by their tonsure to lie to G.o.d. Being shut up by twos and threes alone and without a shepherd, in their own and not in the Lords sheepfold, they have their own desires for a law. For whatever they think good and choose, that they deem holy; and what they do not wish, that they consider unlawful. But the fourth kind of monk is the kind called the _gyrovagi_, who during their whole life are guests for three or four days at a time in the cells of different monasteries throughout the various provinces; they are always wandering and never stationary, serving their own pleasures and the allurements of the palate, and in every way worse than the sarabites. Concerning the most wretched way of all, it is better to keep silence than to speak. These things, therefore, being omitted, let us proceed with the aid of G.o.d to treat of the best kind, the cen.o.bites.

2. _What the abbot should be like._ An abbot who is worthy to preside over a monastery ought always to remember what he is called and to carry out in his deeds the name of a superior. For in the monastery he is believed to be Christs representative, since he is called by His name, the Apostle saying: We have received the spirit of adoption of sons, whereby we cry Abba, Father [Rom. 8:15]. And so the abbot ought not (and oh that he may not!) teach or decree or order anything apart from the precepts of the Lord; but his order or teaching should be sprinkled with the leaven of divine justice in the minds of his disciples. No distinctions of persons shall be made by him in the monastery. One shall not be loved by him more than another, unless the one whom he finds excelling in good work and obedience. A free-born man shall not be preferred to one coming from servitude, unless there be some reasonable cause. But when it is just and it seems good to the abbot he shall show preference no matter what the rank shall be. But otherwise they shall keep their own places; for, whether we be bound or free, we are all one in Christ, and under G.o.d we perform an equal service of subjection; for G.o.d is no respecter of persons [Acts 10:34].

3. _Concerning calling the brethren to take counsel._ As often as anything unusual is to be done in the monastery, let the abbot call together the whole congregation and himself explain the question before them. And having heard the advice of the brethren, he shall consider it by himself, and let him do what he judges most advantageous. And for this reason, moreover, we have said that all ought to be called to take counsel; because it is often to a younger person that the Lord reveals what is best. The brethren, moreover, ought, with all humble subjection, to give their advice so that they do not too boldly presume to defend what seems good to them, but it should rather depend upon the judgment of the abbot; so that, whatever he decides upon as the more salutary, they should all agree to it.

4. _Concerning the instruments of good works._

5. _Concerning obedience._ The first grade of humility is prompt obedience. This becomes those who, on account of the holy service which they professed, or on account of the fear of h.e.l.l or the glory of eternal life, consider nothing dearer to them than Christ; so that as soon as anything is commanded by their superior, they may not know how to suffer delay in doing it, even as if it were a divine command.

6. _Concerning silence._ 7. _Concerning humility._ 8. _Concerning the Divine Offices at night._ 9. _How many Psalms are to be said at night._ 10. _How in summer the Nocturnal Praises shall be carried on._ 11. _How Vigils shall be conducted on Sunday._ 12. _Concerning the order of Matins on Sunday._ 13. _Concerning the order of Matins on week days._ 14.

_Concerning the order of Vigils on Saints days._ 15. _Concerning the occasions when the Alleluias shall be said._ 16. _Concerning the order of Divine Worship during the day._ 17. _On the number of Psalms to be said at these times._ 18. _Concerning the order in which the Psalms are to be said._ 19. _Concerning the art of singing._ 20. _Concerning the reverence in prayer._ 21. _Concerning __ the Deans of monasteries._ 22. _How monks shall sleep._ 23. _Concerning excommunication for faults._ 24. _What ought to be the measure of excommunication._ 25. _Concerning graver faults._ 26.