Chapter Fifty-Nine
CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE
On the Children of the Noble and of the Poor Who Are Offered
IF IT HAPPEN that a nobleman wishes to offer his son to God in the monastery and the boy is of tender age, let his parents execute the written promise which we have mentioned above. Let them wrap that document and the boy’s hand with the oblation of bread and wine in the altar cloth and in this manner offer him.
As to their property, let the parents bind themselves under oath in the same document promising that they will never give him anything themselves, nor through an intermediary agent, nor in any way whatever, nor establish the means for his owning anything. Now if they do not wish to do this but desire to make an offering to the monastery as alms for their own benefit, let them make a donation to the monastery of whatever goods they wish, reserving for themselves the income of it, if they so desire. And let everything be so strictly construed that the young man suffer from no ambiguity, which might deceive and ruin him (which God forbid)—we have learned by experience that this can happen.
Let those who are poor act in like manner. But as to those who have nothing at all, let them simply make their promise, and with the oblation offer their son in the presence of witnesses.