OF THE CONDUCT OF A MONK.
67. If you be a monk under government,
Cast all evil from your hands;
Abide in the rights of the Church
Without laxity, without fault,
68. Without quarrel, without negligence,
Without dislike to any one,
Without theft, without falsehood, without excess,
Without seeking a better place,
69. Without railing, without insubordination,
Without seeking for great renown,
Without murmur, without reproach to any one,
Without envy, without pride,
70. Without contention, without self-willedness,
Without competition, without anger,
Without persecution, without particular malice,
Without vehemence, without words,
71. Without languor, without despair,
Without sin, without folly,
Without deceit, without temerity,
Without merriment, without precipitance,
72. Without gadding, without haste,
Without intemperance—which defiles all—
Without inebriety, without jollity,
Without silly, vulgar talk;
73. Without rushing, without loitering,
With leave for every act;
Without paying evil for evil,
In a decayed body of clay;
74. With humility, with weakness,
Towards uncommon, towards common;
With devotion, with humbleness,
With enslavement to every one.
75. In voluntary nocturns,
Without obduracy, without guile,
Waiting for your rewards
At the relics of the saints.
76. With modesty, with meekness,
With constancy in obedience;
With purity, with faultlessness
In all acts, however trivial.
77. With patience, with purity,
With gentleness to every one;
With groaning, with praying
Unto Christ at all hours;
78. With inculcation of every truth,
With denunciation of every wickedness,
With perfect, frequent confessions
Under direction of a holy abbot;
79. With preservation of feet, and hands,
And eyes, and ears,
And heart, for every deed
Which is due to the King above;
80. With remembrance of the day of death
Which is appointed to all men;
With terror of the eternal pain
In which [souls] shall be after the Judgment.
81. To welcome the diseases,
Patience in them at all times,
With protection to the people of heaven—
It is a holy custom.
82. To reverence the seniors,
And to obey their directions,
To instruct the young people
To their good in perfection.
83. To pray for our cotemporaries,
Greatly should we love it,
That they barter not their Creator
For the obdurate, condemned demon.
84. To forgive every one
Who has done us evil,
In voice, in word, in deed,
Is the command of the King of the Heavens.
85. To love those who hate us
In this Earthly world;
To do good for the persecutions,
Is the command of God.