Chapter 62
bot may even assign him a higher place in the ranks than the time of his entry warrants, should he think he merits this kind of consideration.
But just as he can raise the rank of any monk, he can also assign a higher place in the community to one of the aforesaid orders of priests and clerics, should he judge that his manner of life calls for it.
Let, the abbot, however, beware lest he ever admit for (per manent) residence a monk of some other well known monastery without the consent or letters of recommendation from the monk's own abbot, because it is written: "Do not thou to an other what thou wouldst not have done to thyself" (cf. Matt, vii,
12; and Tobias iv, 16).1
SIXTY-SECOND CHAPTER
The Priests of the Monastery If the abbot should wish to have a priest or deacon ordained for his monastery, let him select from among the ranks of his own monks one whom he considers worthy to discharge the priestly office.
But let the one so ordained be on his guard against self-de ceit and pride, nor may he presume to do anything over and above what the abbot has commanded him, knowing that he must all the more submit his will to the discipline of the Rule.
And let the priesthood not serve him as an occasion to forget his submission to the Rule and its discipline, but let him strive all the more for progress towards (union with) God.
Likewise, let him at all times keep the place to which he is entitled by right of his entry-date into the cloister, except when he is officiating at the altar or if his brethren and the will of the abbot promote him to a higher standing on account of his meri1 The south-Gallican Council of Agdc (506) ordained that "no abbot be permitted to accept a monk from another monastery without the consent of his own abbot"
(canon 27). In the last sentence of this chapter, St. Benedict had in mind, not so much stranger monks from some little known monasteries as those that had arrived from a nearer and better known cloister. This fraternal consideration of one abbot for another goes without saying.
torious life. In the latter case, he should know that he must keep the Rule as it has been laid down for deans and superiors.1 If he should presume to do otherwise, let him be judged not as a priest but as a rebel. And if in spite of frequent admonitions he does not change his ways, let the bishop be called in as a wit ness to the fact.2
Should he not improve even after this, his guilt having be come manifest to everyone, let him be expelled from the cloister; but then only should he remain so obdurate that he will not obey and submit himself to the discipline of the Rule.
Excursus.
The Priest-Monk.—St. Benedict's attitude towards the priesthood was virtual ly the same as that of the monachism before him. The monks of that afore time, as a rule, declined to accept the dignity and honors of the priestly status, not as a principle so much as from motives of humility. St. Athanasius laud ed in his subject, the desert abbot Antony, his great awe of the clergy (Life lxvii). St. Pachomius, who was motivated by a similar reverence, had a near by priest come to his monastery and celebrate the Eucharistic Sacrifice, or he went with his monks to the nearest village church. He permitted none of them to be ordained priests, so that no occasion for arrogance or pride would be given them and none would be tempted to strive for dignities, prominence, or honors. He did not, however, refuse to admit priests who begged for admitt ance. They were also permitted to conduct divine services. When an abbot came to him with a monk who pertinaciously wanted to be ordained a priest,
Pachomius advised him to grant the monk his wish (Second Life xxiii & xxvii).
It was not long, however, before bishops had certain holy monks in their dioceses ordained to the priesthood, indeed, even consecrated bishops. Many monks tried to make themselves ineligible through flight, others by mutilating their organs of speech. Of course, there were also monks who sought the priesthood from unworthy motives (Cassian, Conferences iv, 20). Rufinus lets the desert abbot, Johannes, say what he thinks himself: "Many a one," said the abbot, "thinks that he has abandoned the world but does not at all strive ear nestly enough to keep his heart pure, to rid himself of faults and vices, and to put his virtues in order . . . Such as these aspire to the priesthood and try to penetrate into the ranks of the clergy, not realizing that it is a smaller sin for one (a mere monk) to stumble while in the pursuit of virtue or for him not to attempt diverting others from their evil ways than for one to set himself up as a teacher of virtue while he himself is a slave to many faults and vices.
On the other hand, 1 do not mean to say that one may not under any circum stances aspire to these holy callings and to the priesthood, nor that one may not with all the talents at his disposal seek them, but rather that one should first of all take greater pains to rid himself of faults and acquire virtues for his
soul. One should leave it more to the judgment of God as to whom he will single out for the priesthood. For not the one who is merely a self-made cleric but the one that the Lord has made (perfected) is really secure" (Historia
Monachorum i).
As early as the fourth century, we meet with heads of monasteries, that is, abbots, who were priests. St. Benedict did not as yet demand that his abbots be one of that class. The priest-monks (of his cloister) exercised no pastoral duties outside the monastic enclosure. St. Basil, even while bishop of a large diocese, called none of his monks to help with the care of souls, but he did single out certain trustworthy ones and consecrated them bishops. Primitive monachism, disposed as it was towards flight from the world made it, if not a principle at least a practice of its way of life (conversatio), not to seek the sacerdotal dignity and exercised no clerical duties outside the cloister pre cincts.
This attitude in the matter, however, could not for long maintain itself as an only standard or practice of monastic life. In the year 385 Pope Siricius wrote to Bishop Himerius of Tarragona as follows: "We desire and will that even monks whose strenuous pursuit of virtue, holiness of life, and faith are commendable, be called to fill clerical offices." Besides Bishop Eusebius of Vercelli (f c. 371), it was St. Augustine more than all others who led the way and disposed his monks towards the priesthood and towards apostolic activties outside their cloisters. "If Mother Church calls upon you," he said, "for any kind of service whatever, do not thrust yourselves ambitiously forward, nor yet refuse to comply. Nay, do not set your carefree life above the urgent needs of the Church" (Letter xlviii, 2). His cloister at Hippo was to all in tents and purposes already a "clerical monastery" (cf. Sermon ccclv, 2). St.
Augustine's influence in the course of time became decisive in this phase of monasticism.
The great majority of monks (of St. Benedict) in our days are priests and clerics. Even today, however, the ideal of the lay-monk, in the sense of the old monachism and of the Holy Rule, maintains the fullness of its meaning and justification (not to speak of sympathy) in the mind of many a Benedictine.