Chapter 32
THIRTY-SECOND CHAPTER
Tools and other Property of the Monastery As far as the property of the monastery in the way of tools, clothing, and other things is concerned, the abbot shall en trust them to the brethren upon whom he can rely by reason of their virtues and their way of life. To the extent, namely, which he thinks it expedient, let him commit to them the specific ar ticles that are to be placed in their custody and to be collected again (after they have been used).1 Let the abbot keep a list of them, so that when the brethren to whom they have been dis tributed, in their turn relieve one another (in any assignment), he may know he has given out and what is being returned. If, however, he manages the property of the monastery in a sloven ly or careless manner, let him be reprimanded. If he does not improve, let him be subjected to the discipline of the Rule.
THIRTY-THIRD CHAPTER
Should Monks have anything at all of their own This vice (of private ownership) in a monastery must, above all, be torn up by the roots. Let no one presume to give any thing or receive anything without orders from the abbot, or to possess anything of his own, or have anything at all, whether book, tablet, or pencil—absolutely nothing—since he has niether his body nor his will at his own disposal; but monks may expect all needful things from the father of the cloister. They have altogether no right to anything that the abbot has not given them or permitted them to have.
Let all things be common to all, as has been written (Acts iv, 32); nor let anyone presume to call anything his own. Should someone be found to show a leaning towards this most evil vice, let him be admonished once and again. If he does not amend, let him undergo punishment.
1 In accordance with chapter xxxi, all the possessions of the monastery are en trusted to the careful custody of the cellarer. It deals here also indirectly with the assistants whom the Rule foresees he may need. --St. Pachomius makes similar provisions for the care of the cloister's goods (Rule 65).
Excursus.
Monastic Poverty.-—-It is obvious from his very profession that a monk of his own free will has deprived himself completely of rights and possessions.
From this matter-fact-of position the Holy Rule proceeds to derive all its conclusions on this subject. Abbot Cassian praised the Egyptian monks be cause "no one dares to call anything his own even by a single word. If a monk said 'my book . . . my shoes,' it was regarded as a serious transgression, for which he had to make adequate atonement, even if he had done so secretly or without advertence" (Institutes iv, 13). The profound significance of monastic poverty lay in the imitation of our Lord, "who, though he was rich, became poor for our sake" (cf. 2 Cor. viii, 9). St. Augustine carried this thought through in graphic words: "Behold him in his riches! Everything has been made by him . . . Then behold him in his poverty (cf. John i, 14)! . . And what poverty! He comes into the world in a small stable, and they wrap him in swadding clothes and lay him in a manger ... He grows to manhood and hides his majesty. Towards the last he is taken captive, derided, scourged, mocked, spit upon, struck in the face, crowned with thorns, raised aloft on a cross, and pierced with a lance. What poverty! . . Behold there the Head of the poor! He who is truly needy will be numbered among the members of his poor" (Sermon xiv).
Actually, only the cenobite can literally be poor, whereas the anchorite cannot carry poverty to its logical fulfillment (Cassian, Conferences xix, 9).
For his sustenance he needs money or tools, be these ever so little and so few.
He needs some possessions for the entertainment of visitors, who are never wanting (Cassian, Institutes v, 26), and for almsgiving, which is a duty. The Abba Innocent "even pilfered from his brethren so he could give to the poor"
(Palladius, Vita, Patrum xliv). Private property was also common in the lauras. Nevertheless, they were consistently warned against fixing their hearts upon earthly things (Cassian, Institutes viii).
St. Jerome tells of an anchorite "who left behind him at his death a hundred pieces of gold, which he had acquired by the weaving of linen. The hermits, a thousand strong, who lived in separate cells in the neighborhood, held a council as to what should be done with the money. Some thought that the gold should be distributed to the poor; others wanted it to be given as a legacy to the Church; while a third group advised that it be sent to his rela tives. But Macarius (f c. 395), Pambo, Isidor, and the rest, who had con siderable fame as 'spiritual fathers,' enlightened by the Holy Spirit, concluded that it should be buried with its owner. 'Thy gold,' they said, 'go with thee into perdition.' This should not be regarded as cruelty. All the monks in Egypt were seized with so great a fear that they looked upon it as a crime to leave one single gold piece behind them" (Letter xxii, 33).
One maxim handed down from St. Basil, who is recorded to have up braided a monk because he had held back a part of his income, reads: "Thou didst in truth put on the monk, but thou didst not doff the senator" (Cassian