MONASTERY
454
MONASTERY
Lent, readinp; till eight A.M., then tierce, and after- wards labor till nones; after refection, reading or psal- mody. In Lent, reading till tierce; doing what was ordered till ten : delivery of boo'.vs at this season made. Senior to go around the house, and see that the monks were not idle. On Sunday, all reading except the ofK- cers. Workmen in the house to labor for the common profit. If possible— to prevent evagation — water, a mill, garden, oven, and all other mechanical shops, to be within or attaclied to the house, licfvction in silence, and reading Scripture during meals: what was wanted to be asked for by a sign. Kcader to be appointed for the week. Two different dishes at dinner, with fruit. One pound of bread a day for both dinner and supper. No meat but to the sick. Three quarters of a pint of wine per day. From Holyrood-day to Lent, dining at nones ; in Lent, till Easter, at six o'clock ; from Easter to Pentecost at six ; and all summer, except on Wednes- days and Fridays, then at nones. Collation or spiritual lecture every night before compline (after sujiper) ; and compline finished, silence. [See IJkeviary; Compline.] Particular abstinence in Lent from meat, drink, and sleep, and especial gravity. Rule mitigated to children and the aged, who have liberty to anticipate the hour of eating. Dormitory, light to be burning in. To sleep clothed, with their girdles on, the young and old inter- mixed. Monks travelling to say the canonical hours wherever they happened to be. When staying out be- yond a day, not to eat abroad without the abbot's leave. Before setting out on a journey to have the previous prayers of the house, and upon return to pray for par- don of excesses on the way. No letters or presents to be received without the abbot's permission. Precedence according to the time of profession. Elders to call the juniors brothers; the seniors to call the elders nonnos. When two monks met, the junior was to ask benedic- tion from the senior; and when he passed by the junior was to rise and give him his seat, and not to sit down till he bade him. Imi)ossible things ordered by the su- perior to be humbly represented to him; but if he per- sisted, the assistance of (Jod to be relied on for the exe- cution of them. Not to defend or excuse one another's faults. No blows or excommunication without the ab- bot's permission. Mutual obedience, but no preference of a private person's commands to those of the superiors. Prostration at the feet of the superiors as long as they were angry. Strangers to be received with prayer, the kiss of peace, prostration, and washing their feet, as of Christ, whom they represented ; then to be led to praj'- er; the Scripture read to them; after which the prior might break his fast (except on a high fast). Abbot's kitchen and the visitors' separate, that guests coming in at unseasonable hours might not disturb the monks. Porter to be a wise old man, able to give and receive an answer; wlio was to have a cell near the gate, and a junior for liis companion. Church to be used only for prayer. A dmusion — Novices to be tried by denials antl hard usage before admission. A year of probation. Rule to be read to them in the interim every fourth month. Admitted by a petition laid upon the altar, and prostration at the feet of all the monks. Parents to offer their children by wrapping their hands in the pall of the altar: promising to leave nothing to them (that they might have no temptation to quit the house) ; and if they gave anything with tliem, to reserve the use of it during their lives. Priests requesting admis- sion to be tried by delays; to sit near the abbot; not to exercise sacerdotal functions without leave, and conform to the rule. lyUcipl'me — Upon successless admonition and public rejirehension, excommunication; and, in fail- ure of this, corporal punishment. For liglit fault.s, the smaller excommunication, or eating alone after tlie oth- ers had done. For great faults, .sejiaration from the ta- ble, prayers, and society, and neither himself nor his food to receive the benediction : those who joined him or spoke to him to be themselves excommunicated. The abbot to send seniors to persuade him to humility and
making satisfaction. The whole congregation to pray for the incorrigible, and if unsuccessful, to proceed to expulsion. No person expelled to be received after the third expulsion. Children to be corrected with discre- tion, by fasting or whipping" ("Sanctorum Patrum Kegulie ]Monastic£e," in Fosbrooke's British Monachism, p. 109). By the strict law of the Church, called the law of cloister or enclosure, it is forbidden to all except members of the order to enter a monastery ; and in al- most all the orders admission of females to the monas- teries of men is denied. Yet must they have been at times admitted, if we may believe the accusal ions brought against the chastity of monastics, especially since the Middle Ages. In the Greek Church the law of enclos- ure is far more rigidly enforced than in the West. Thus in the celebrated enclosure of Mount Atlios, not onlj' women, but all animals of the female sex are rigorously excluded.