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• Preface
• Introductory Notes
• Note On the History of the Text
• Here Beginneth the Prologue to a Rule For Monasteries
• Here Beginneth the Text of the Rule
• Chapter I: Concerning the Different Kinds of Monks
• Chapter II: What Kind of Man an Abbot Ought to Be
• Chapter III: Concerning the Calling of the Brethren to Council
• Chapter IV: What Are the Instruments of Good Works
• Chapter V: Concerning Obedience
• Chapter VI: Concerning Silence
• Chapter VII: Concerning Humility
• Chapter VIII: Concerning the Divine Office At Night
• Chapter IX: How Many Psalms Are to Be Said At the Night Hours
• Chapter X: How Night Praise Is to Be Accomplished In Summer Time
• Chapter XI: How Night Office Is to Be Said On Lord’s Days
• Chapter XII: How the Office of Lauds Is to Be Sung
• Chapter XIII: How Lauds Are to Be Said On Ferias
• Chapter XIV: How Night Office Is to Be Said On the Feasts of Saints
• Chapter XV: In Which Seasons Alleluia Is to Be Said
• Chapter XVI: How the Work of God Is to Be Carried Out During the Day
• Chapter XVII: How Many Psalms Are to Be Sung At These Hours
• Chapter XVIII: In What Order the Psalms Themselves Are to Be Said
• Chapter XIX: Concerning the Discipline of Saying Office
• Chapter XX: Concerning Reverence In Prayer
• Chapter XXI: Concerning the Deans of the Monastery
• Chapter XXII: How the Monks Are to Sleep
• Chapter XXIII: Concerning Excommunication For Offences
• Chapter XXIV: What the Measure of Excommunication Should Be
• Chapter XXV: Concerning Graver Faults
• Chapter XXVI: Concerning Those Who Without the Orders of the Abbot Consort With the Excommunicate
• Chapter XXVII: How Solicitous the Abbot Should Be For the Excommunicate
• Chapter XXVIII: Concerning Those Who Shall Not Have Amended Though Somewhat Often Corrected
• Chapter XXIX: If Brethren Who Go Out From the Monastery Ought to Be Received Back Again
• Chapter XXX: Concerning the Younger Boys, How They Are to Be Corrected
• Chapter XXXI: Concerning the Cellarer of the Monastery, What Sort of a Person He Should Be
• Chapter XXXII: Concerning the Iron Tools and Other Things Belonging to the Monastery
• Chapter XXXIII: Whether Monks Ought to Have Anything of Their Own
• Chapter XXXIV: Whether All Ought to Receive Necessaries Equally
• Chapter XXXV: Concerning the Weekly Kitcheners
• Chapter XXXVI: Concerning the Sick and Infirm Brethren
• Chapter XXXVII: Concerning the Old and Infants
• Chapter XXXVIII: Concerning the Weekly Reader
• Chapter XXXIX: Concerning the Quantity of Foods
• Chapter Xl: Concerning the Quantity of Drink
• Chapter Xli: At What Hours the Brethren Ought to Have Their Meals
• Chapter Xlii: That No One Talk After Compline
• Chapter Xliii: Concerning Those Who Come Late to the Work of God Or to Table
• Chapter Xliv: Concerning Such As Are Excommunicated, How They May Make Satisfaction
• Chapter Xlv: Concerning Those Who Make Mistakes In the Oratory
• Chapter Xlvi: Concerning Those Who Do Amiss In Any Other Matters
• Chapter Xlvii: of Notifying the Hour of the Work of God
• Chapter Xlviii: Concerning the Daily Manual Work
• Chapter Xlix: Concerning the Observance of Lent
• Chapter L: Concerning Brethren Who Are Working At a Distance From the Oratory, Or Are On the Road
• Chapter Li: Concerning Brethren Who Do Not Go Far Away
• Chapter Lii: of the Oratory of the Monastery
• Chapter Liii: of How Guests Are to Be Received
• Chapter Liv: If a Monk Ought to Receive Letters Or Tokens
• Chapter Lv: Concerning the Brethren’s Clothes and Shoes
• Chapter Lvi: Concerning the Abbot’s Table
• Chapter Lvii: Concerning Artificers In the Monastery
• Chapter Lviii: Concerning the Discipline of Those to Be Received As Brethren
• Chapter Lix: Concerning Noblemen’s Sons and Poor Men’s Sons Who Are Offered
• Chapter Lx: Concerning Priests Who By Chance Shall Wish to Live In the Monastery
• Chapter Lxi: Concerning Monks Who Are Strangers, How They Should Be Received
• Chapter Lxii: Concerning the Priests of the Monastery
• Chapter Lxiii: Concerning the Order of the Community
• Chapter Lxiv: Concerning the Election of an Abbot
• Chapter Lxv: Concerning the Provost of the Monastery
• Chapter Lxvi: Concerning the Porter of the Monastery
• Chapter Lxvii: Concerning Brethren Sent On a Journey
• Chapter Lxviii: If Impossibilities Be Enjoined Upon a Brother
• Chapter Lxix: That In the Monastery One Presume Not to Constitute Himself the Patron of Another
• Chapter Lxx: That No One Presume to Strike Another Unlawfully
• Chapter Lxxi: That the Brethren Be Obedient Among Themselves
• Chapter Lxxii: Concerning the Good Zeal Which Monks Ought to Have
• Chapter Lxxiii: Concerning This, Namely That Not Every Observance of Righteousness Is Laid Down In This Rule
• Other Pax Books

CHAPTER LVIII

CONCERNING THE DISCIPLINE OF THOSE TO BE RECEIVED AS BRETHREN

In the case of anyone newly come to essay conversion of life, let not an easy entrance be accorded him; but as says the Apostle: “Prove the spirits, whether they are from God.” Therefore if anyone who comes shall have persevered in knocking for admission and after four or five days shall have been found patiently to bear all the injuries inflicted upon him and the difficulty of gaining entrance and shall be found to persist with his petition, let entrance be granted him and let him be in the guests’ house for a few days. After that, let him be in the novices’ cell where he may meditate and eat and sleep. And let there be deputed to take charge of him, a senior, such an one as is well fitted to win souls, to be solicitous for his welfare and to watch with scrupulous care, whether in very truth he seek God and be solicitous as to the Work of God, obedience and humiliations. Let there be set before him all the hard and the rough things through which lies the way to God; and if he shall have given promise of stability and perseverance let this rule be read right through to him after the lapse of two months and let this be said to him: “Behold the law under which thou dost wish to serve as a faithful soldier; if thou art able to keep it, enter; but if thou art not able, depart free.” If thus far he shall have stood firm, then let him be conducted to the aforenamed novices’ cell and be again tested in all patience; and after the lapse of six months let the rule be re-read to him that he may know upon what he is entering: and if thus far he stand firm, after four months let this same rule again be re-read to him: and if, having deliberated of the matter with himself he shall have promised that he will keep it all and observe everything ordered him, then let him be received into the community, knowing himself to be now established by the law of the rule so that it is not lawful for him from that day onwards to go forth from the monastery, nor to shake free his neck from beneath the yoke of the rule which it was permitted him after such prolonged deliberation either to refuse or to accept.

Let him then who is to be received, in the oratory, in the presence of all the brethren, make promise of stability, of conversion of life and of obedience, in the presence of God and of His saints, that if he should ever act otherwise he may know he will be condemned by Him Whom he mocks. And concerning that promise of his let him make petition, calling to witness the saints whose relics are there and the abbot there present: the which petition let him write with his own hand, or at the least, if he is unlettered, let another write it at his request and let him, the novice, make his mark and with his own hand place it upon the altar: and when he shall have placed it there let the novice himself immediately begin this versicle: “O stablish me according to Thy word, that I may live: and let me not be disappointed of my hope”; which versicle let the whole community repeat thrice, adding “Gloria Patri.” Then let him, the novice brother, prostrate at the feet of all that they may pray for him; and from thenceforth let him be accounted one of the community. If he has any property, let him either assign it beforehand to the poor, or else by formal donation confer it upon the monastery, reserving nothing at all for himself, as becomes one who must know that thenceforth he will hold no power even over himself. Forthwith therefore, in the oratory, let him also be stripped of the garments, his own property, with which he is clad and be clothed with such as are the property of the monastery: and let those garments of which he was stripped be put away to be kept in the wardrobe, that if at any time, by suasion of the devil, he should consent to go forth from the monastery, which God forbid, he may then be cast forth unfrocked. Let him not receive back that petition of his which the abbot took from upon the altar, but let it be kept in the monastery.