Chapter Twenty-Eight
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
On Those Who Having Often Been Corrected Do Not Amend
IF A BROTHER has often been corrected and has even been excommunicated for a fault and does not amend, let a more severe correction be applied to him—namely, he should be beaten with rods.
But if even then he does not reform, or if (God forbid) he is puffed up with pride and attempts to defend his actions, then let the Abbot act like the wise physician. After he has applied the soothing lotions and ointments of encouragement, the medicine of the Holy Scriptures, and if, as a last resource, he has attempted the cautery of excommunication and the blows of the rod, and observes that even after all this his efforts are of no avail, let him apply for that brother at last what is more potent than all these measures: his own prayer and those of the brethren, so that the Lord who is all-powerful may work a cure of the sick brother.
But if he is not healed even in this way, then finally let the Abbot dismiss him from the community, as the Apostle says: “Put away the evil one from among you” (1 Cor. 5:13); and again: “If the faithless one depart, let him depart” (1 Cor. 7:15); for one diseased sheep must not infect the whole flock.