Longer Rules (Asceticon, Regulae fusius tractatae) 8–15

On renunciation.

Question. Whether one must first renounce all things and so come to the life according to God.

Answer. Since our Lord Jesus Christ, after much and strong proof given through many deeds, says to all: “If anyone comes to me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me”; and again: “So, then, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple”; we consider that the command extends to many things from which estrangement is necessary. For before all else we renounce the devil and the passions of the flesh, we who have renounced the hidden things of shame; and bodily kinship, and human companionships, and a habit of life that fights against the exactness of the Gospel of salvation. And, more necessary than these, the one who has put off the old man with his deeds, which is corrupt according to the deceitful desires, renounces himself. He renounces also every attachment to the world that can hinder the goal of godliness. Such a one will consider as his true parents those who begot him in Christ Jesus through the Gospel, and as his brothers those who have received the same Spirit of adoption; and he will treat all possessions as belonging to others, as indeed they do. In a word, how can one for whom, through Christ, the whole world has been crucified, and he to the world, still share in the cares of the world? For our Lord Jesus Christ carries hatred of one's own life and denial of oneself to the extreme, when he says: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross,” and then adds, “and follow me”; and again: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”

So perfect renunciation consists in achieving freedom from attachment even to life itself, and in having the sentence of death, so as not to trust in oneself. But it begins with estrangement from external things, such as possessions, vain glory, the habits of life, attachment to useless things; as the holy disciples of the Lord showed us: James and John, leaving their father Zebedee and the very boat in which they had their whole livelihood; and Matthew, rising from the tax office itself and following the Lord, not only leaving behind the gains of the tax office, but also disregarding the dangers that were likely to follow him and his family from the authorities for leaving the tax office's accounts unsettled. And to Paul the whole world was crucified, and he to the world. So the one who is strongly possessed by the desire to follow Christ can no longer turn back to anything of this life: not to the affection of parents or kinsfolk, when it is opposed to the Lord's commands (for then the saying has its time, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother,” and the rest); not to human fear, so as to shrink from anything profitable because of it, as the saints achieved when they said, “We must obey God rather than men”; not to the mockery of outsiders at what is good, so as to be overcome by their scorn.

If anyone wishes to know more exactly and clearly the intensity joined to the desire of those who follow the Lord, let him remember the Apostle, who tells his own story for our instruction and says: “If anyone thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord, for whose sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ.” For if (to say something bold but true) he likened the very advantages of the law, given by God for a time, to the most cast-off and loathsome parts of the body, from which we are most anxious to be rid, because they hinder the knowledge of Christ, the righteousness that is in him, and conformity to his death, what would one say of human [advantages]? … [But why should I confirm] the argument [by other proofs] and by the examples of the saints, when one can set out the Lord's own words and by them move the fearful soul to shame? For he testifies clearly and beyond dispute when he says: “So, then, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple”; and elsewhere, after “If you would be perfect,” he first said, “Go, sell what you have and give to the poor,” and then added, “Come, follow me.” The parable of the merchant, too, plainly bears on this for any right-minded person: “The kingdom of heaven,” he says, “is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.” For it is clear that the pearl of great value is taken as a likeness of the heavenly kingdom, which, as the Lord's word shows, we cannot obtain unless we give up everything we have together, wealth, glory, family, and whatever else the many eagerly pursue, in exchange for it.

Then, too, the Lord declared that what is earnestly sought cannot be achieved when the mind is divided among various concerns, saying: “No one can serve two masters”; and again: “You cannot serve God and mammon.” We must therefore choose one treasure, the heavenly one, so that we may have our heart in it. “For where your treasure is,” he says, “there will your heart be also.” If, then, we keep back for ourselves any earthly possession or perishable wealth, the mind is buried there as in mud, and the soul necessarily cannot see God and is unmoved toward desire for the heavenly beauties and the good things laid up for us in the promises; and we cannot come to possess these unless an undistracted and more intense longing leads us to ask for them and lightens the labour they require. Renunciation, then, as the word has shown, is a loosing of the bonds of this material and temporary life and a freedom from human obligations, making us readier to set out on the road to God; an unhindered means of acquiring and using the things of great price, “more than gold and much precious stone”; and, to sum up, the transfer of the human heart to the citizenship in heaven, so that one can say, “For our citizenship is in heaven”; and, greatest of all, the beginning of likeness to Christ, who for our sake became poor, though he was rich. Unless we achieve this, it is impossible for us to lay hold of the way of life according to the Gospel of Christ. For when can contrition of heart, or humility of mind, or release from anger and grief and anxieties and, in short, the destructive passions of the soul, be achieved amid wealth and the cares of life and attachment and habituation to other things? In general, one who is not allowed to be anxious even about necessities, such as food and clothing, what reason permits him to be choked, as by thorns, by the evil cares of wealth, which hinder the fruit-bearing of the seed sown by the husbandman of our souls? For our Lord said: “These are the ones sown among thorns, who are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature.”

Whether one who joins those dedicated to the Lord should simply leave his property to his ungrateful kinsfolk.

Answer. Since the Lord said, “Sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me”; and again, “Sell your possessions and give alms”; I consider that one who leaves his own with such a goal should not be disposed contemptuously toward his property, but should try to take everything with exactness, as now consecrated to the Lord, and to administer it with all reverence, either himself, if he is able and experienced, or through those chosen after much testing who have given proof that they can administer faithfully and prudently; knowing that it is not without danger either to leave it to his kinsfolk or to administer it through just anyone. For if one entrusted with the care of the emperor's estates, even if he often does not embezzle from what is at hand, but through some negligence lets slip what could have been gained, is not acquitted of the charge, what condemnation must we expect those to incur who are disposed slackly and carelessly toward the management of what has already been named as the Lord's? Will they not be liable to the judgment of the negligent, according to what is written: “Cursed is everyone who does the works of the Lord negligently”?

But everywhere we must take care not to be seen breaking one commandment on the pretext of another. For it is not fitting for us to fight or quarrel with the ungrateful, since “the Lord's servant must not quarrel”; rather, the one treated ungratefully by his kinsmen according to the flesh must remember the Lord who said: “There is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands,” not simply, but “for my sake and for the Gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold in this time, and in the age to come eternal life.” To the ungrateful, however, we must solemnly declare the sin of sacrilege, according to the commandment of the Lord who said: “If your brother sins, go and rebuke him,” and the rest. But the word of godliness has forbidden going to law about these things in outside courts, where it says: “If anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well”; and: “Does any of you, having a matter against another, dare to go to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints?” And even before these let us call him to judgment, having more regard for our brother's salvation than for an abundance of money. For the Lord, having said, “If he listens to you,” added, “you have gained,” not the money, but “your brother.” There are times when, to make the truth clear, if the one who began the wrong often calls us to a common arbitration, we come down to the inquiry, not beginning it ourselves but following those who summoned us, not satisfying our own passion of anger or contentiousness, but making the truth manifest. For so we shall rescue him from evil even against his will, and we ourselves shall not transgress the commandments, standing firmly together for the making known of the truth as ministers of God who are not quarrelsome and not lovers of money, and nowhere exceeding the measure of zeal that has been given.

Whether we should receive all who come, or only some; and whether we should admit them at once, or after testing, and what kind of testing.

Answer. Since our God and Saviour Jesus Christ, the lover of mankind, proclaims and says, “Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,” it is not without danger to turn away those who come to the Lord through us and wish to take on his kind yoke and the burden of the commandments, which lifts us up toward heaven. Yet we must not allow them to tread on the holiness of the teachings with unwashed feet; but just as our Lord Jesus Christ asked the young man who came to him about his former life, and when he learned that he had lived rightly, commanded him to fulfil what was still lacking for perfection, and then allowed him to follow, so plainly it is fitting for us also to learn about the past life of those who come. To those who have already achieved something, we should hand on the more perfect teachings; but those who are turning from an evil life, or who have set out from indifference toward the exact life of the knowledge of God, must be examined as to what their character is: whether they are not unstable and quick to change their decisions. For the changeableness of such people is suspect: not only do they do themselves no good, but they become a cause of harm to others as well, spreading reproaches and lies and wicked slanders about our work. But since all things are achieved by care, and the fear of God overcomes every kind of defect of soul, we must not despair of these at once either, but lead them to suitable exercises, making trial of their resolve by time and laborious contests, so that, if we find something firm in them, we may admit them without danger; and if not, we may send them away while they are still outside, so that the trial brings no loss to the brotherhood.

We must also test whether one who has been caught in sins confesses the hidden things of shame without shame and becomes his own accuser, at once putting to shame and disowning the partners of his evil deeds, according to him who said, “Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity,” and gaining security for himself for the rest of his life, so as not to fall again into the same passions. The common way of testing for all is whether they are disposed to all humility without shame, so as to accept even the meanest crafts, if reason judges that their work is useful. And when each one, after every examination by those able to search into such things with skill, has been shown to be like a vessel useful to the Master and ready for every good work, let him be numbered among those who have dedicated themselves to the Lord. Especially for one who is hastening from a more distinguished life to humility in the likeness of our Lord Jesus Christ, we must appoint some of the tasks that outsiders think disgraceful, and watch whether he presents himself to God with full assurance as a worker who has no need to be ashamed.

On slaves.

Answer. Slaves under the yoke who take refuge with the brotherhoods should be admonished and made better, and then sent back to their masters, after the example of blessed Paul, who, having begotten Onesimus through the Gospel, sent him back to Philemon. He assured the one that the yoke of slavery, borne in a way that pleases the Lord, makes him worthy of the kingdom of heaven; and he urged the other not only to give up his threats against him, remembering the true Lord who said, “If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive your trespasses,” but also to be more kindly disposed toward him, writing: “Perhaps this is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back for ever, no longer as a slave but more than a slave, as a beloved brother.”

If, however, the master happens to be wicked, commanding unlawful things and forcing the slave to transgress a commandment of the true Master, our Lord Jesus Christ, we must strive that the name of God may not be blasphemed because of that slave doing something that does not please God. The struggle is achieved either by that slave being trained to endure the sufferings brought on him, in order to obey God rather than man, as it is written; or by those who have received him taking upon themselves, as pleases God, the trials brought on them for his sake.

How those who are married should be received.

Answer. Those in the bond of marriage who come to such a life must also be examined, whether they do this by mutual consent, according to the Apostle's ordinance (“For he does not have authority,” he says, “over his own body”); and so the one who comes should be received before many witnesses. For nothing is to be preferred to obedience to God. But if the other partner is at odds and resists, caring less for pleasing God, let the Apostle be remembered, who says, “God has called us to peace”; and let the command of the Lord be fulfilled, who said: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother and wife and children,” and the rest, “he cannot be my disciple.” For nothing is to be preferred to obedience to God. And we have known in many cases that, often through earnest prayer and unremitting fasting, the goal of a life of chastity has been reached, the Lord bringing even those who had been wholly unwilling, often through bodily necessity as well, to consent to the right judgment.

That the exercise of silence is also useful for those being admitted.

Answer. The exercise of silence is good for those being admitted. For by mastering the tongue they will give sufficient proof of their self-control, and at the same time, in quiet, they will learn intently and without distraction from those who use speech with skill how one ought both to ask questions and to answer each person. For there is a tone of voice, a measure in speech, a fitness of occasion, and a choice of words that are proper and distinctive to the godly, and these cannot be taught unless one has unlearned the habits of ordinary life; and silence both produces forgetfulness of former things through disuse and gives leisure for learning what is good. So, unless some personal need concerning the care of one's own soul, or the unavoidable necessity of the work in hand, or some such question put to one, presses, one should keep silence, except, of course, for psalmody.

On those who have professed themselves to God and then attempt to set aside their profession.

Answer. Anyone of these who has been received into the brotherhood and then sets aside his profession must be regarded as one who has sinned against God, before whom and to whom he made the profession of his covenant. “But if anyone sins against God,” he says, “who will pray for him?” For one who has dedicated himself to God and then leaps off to another life has become guilty of sacrilege, having stolen himself away and taken from God what was dedicated to him. It is reasonable that the brothers' door should no longer be opened to such people, not even if they should stop by merely in passing for the sake of shelter. For the apostolic rule is plain, bidding us to keep away from everyone who is disorderly and not to associate with him, that he may be put to shame.

From what age should people be allowed to profess themselves to God, and when should the profession of virginity be considered firm?

Answer. Since the Lord says, “Let the children come to me,” and the Apostle praises the one who had known the sacred writings from infancy, and again commands that children be brought up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord, we judge every time, even that of earliest age, suitable for receiving those who come. Those without parents we take in on our own initiative, so as to become fathers of orphans after the example of Job; those under the care of parents, when brought by the parents themselves, we receive before many witnesses, so as to give no occasion to those who seek an occasion, but that every unjust mouth of those who speak blasphemy against us may be stopped. They should be received, then, on this principle, but they should not at once be numbered and enrolled in the body of the brothers, lest reproaches arising from their failure be brought upon the life of godliness. Rather, they should be brought up in all godliness as common children of the brotherhood; and both the houses and the daily life of the boys and the girls should be kept apart, so that neither familiarity nor undue boldness toward their elders may arise in them, and their reverence for their seniors may be kept through the rarity of meeting. Nor should the penalties imposed on the more advanced for oversights in their duties, if it should ever happen that they become distracted, breed in the children a readiness to sin, or often, without their noticing, conceit, when they see their elders often stumbling in the very things in which they themselves do well. For one who is a child in mind differs in nothing from a child in age; so it is no wonder that the same passions are often found in both. Nor should the young, through living together, rush forward prematurely and unbecomingly to those things in which the elders keep what is fitting because of their age. For the sake of this order, then, and of decorum generally, the dwellings of the children and of the more advanced should be separate. At the same time the house of the ascetics will not be disturbed by the repetition of lessons that is necessary for the young.

But let the prayers appointed for the day be common to children and elders; for the children gain from the zeal of the more advanced a habit of compunction, and for the seniors the help of little ones in prayer is no small thing. But let their studies be separate, and let their daily life in sleeping and waking, the time of meals, and the measure and kind of food be appointed suitably for children. Let one advanced in age be put in charge of them, one who surpasses the others in experience and has a good testimony for long-suffering, so that he may correct the young people's faults with a father's compassion and with skilful words, applying to each fault its proper remedy, so that the same thing both punishes the sin and becomes a training of the soul in freedom from passion. For example: has a boy been angry with one of his own age? Let him be made to tend him and serve him in proportion to his offence. For the habit of humility, as it were, cuts out the irascible part of the soul, since it is mostly pride that produces anger in us. Has he touched food out of time? Let him go without food for most of the day. Has he been found eating immoderately or unbecomingly? Let him be kept from food at mealtime and made to watch the others eating properly, so that he may be both punished by going without and taught decorum. Has he let fall an idle word, an insult to his neighbour, a lie, or anything else forbidden? Let him be corrected with fasting and silence.

The study of letters, too, must suit the goal: they should use names from the Scriptures, be told the stories of wonderful deeds instead of myths, be taught with maxims from the Proverbs, and be offered prizes for remembering names and facts, so that the goal may be reached with pleasure and relaxation, without pain and without offence. Attentiveness of mind, too, and the habit of not being distracted, would easily arise in such children through right training, if they were constantly asked by those in charge where their thoughts are and what they are turning over in their minds. For the simplicity and guilelessness of that age, unsuited to lying, readily discloses the secrets of the soul; and so as not to be constantly caught in forbidden things, such a child would flee thoughts of what is improper, and would constantly call himself back from improper things, fearing the shame of being rebuked. The soul, then, while it is still easily moulded and tender, and readily impressed like soft wax by the forms pressed on it, must be led straight away and from the beginning to every practice of good things; so that when reason comes and the habit of discernment is added, there may be a course already run from the first elements and the patterns of godliness handed down, reason suggesting what is useful and habit making it easy to accomplish.

Then the profession of virginity also should be admitted, as now firm, made by one's own will and judgment after the full development of reason, after which honours and punishments are given by the just judge to those who sin or do right according to the worth of their works. The superiors of the churches should be taken as witnesses of the decision, so that through them the sanctification of the body may be consecrated to God like a dedicated offering, and the deed may be confirmed through their testimony. “For at the mouth of two or three witnesses,” he says, “every word shall be established.” So the zeal of the brothers will be beyond reproach, and no occasion for shamelessness will be left to those who have professed themselves to God and then attempt to set it aside. But the one who does not accept the life of virginity, as unable to care for the things of the Lord, should be dismissed before the same witnesses. The one who has made profession, after much examination and consideration, which it is fitting to allow him to make by himself over a number of days, so that nothing may seem to be done by us by snatching him away, should then be received and counted a member of the brotherhood, to share the same house and the same way of life as the more advanced.

What we forgot to say may fittingly be added even now: since some crafts must be practised from early childhood, when some of the children already show themselves apt for learning, we do not forbid them to spend the day with the teachers of the craft; but at night we necessarily bring them back to those of their own age, with whom they must also take their meals.