prove to us the evils to which the system had given rise.
- 1. They are to keep the holy gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ living in obedience, without anything they can call their own, and in chastity. Brother Francis promises obedience and respect to our Lord Pope N. and his successors canonically promoted, and to the Church of Rome. And the other brothers shall be obliged to obey Brother Francis, and his successors.
- 2. The provincial ministers alone shall receive candidates for admission into the order, and shall examine them diligently as to the Catholick faith and ecclesiastical sacraments. And if they believe all these things, and will faithfully confess and observe the same to the end, and that they have no wives, or if they have, their wives will also go into monasteries, or else they give them leave, having made a vow of continency, by the authority of the bishop of the diocese; and that the wives are of such an age as that there may be no cause to suspect them; let them pronounce to them the word of the holy gospel, viz., that they go and sell all that they have, and take care to bestow the same on the poor, which, if they cannot do, their goodwill shall suffice.
- 6. All the brothers are to be clad in mean habits, and may blessedly mend them with sacks and other pieces; whom I admonish and exhort that they do not despise or censure such men as they see clad in curious and gay garments, and using delicate meats and drinks, but rather let every one judge and despise himself.
- 8. The brethren are to be meek, peaceable, modest, mild, and humble.
- 9. They are not to ride unless some manifest necessity or infirmity oblige them.
- 10. Whatsoever house they go into they shall first say, "Peace be unto this house;" and according to the gospel, it shall be lawful for them to eat of all meats that are set before them.
- 11. I firmly enjoin all the brothers that they upon no account receive any money, either by themselves or by a third person. However, to supply the necessities of the sick, and for clothing of the other brothers, special care shall be taken by means only of the minister's particular friends, and the guardians, according to times and places, and cold countries, as they shall find necessity requires; saving always, as has been said, that they receive no money.
- 21. The brothers are strictly commanded to keep no suspicious company, or to be familiar with women, or to go into the monasteries of nuns, excepting those who have special license granted them from the See Apostolick. Nor that they do not become gossips of nuns or women, lest upon this account there arise any scandal among the brethren or upon the brothers.
The Benedictines were obliged to perform their devotion seven times within four-and-twenty hours. At cock-crowing, or the Nocturnals: this service was performed at two o'clock in the morning. The reason for pitching upon this hour was taken partly from David's saying, At midnight I will praise the Lord," and partly from a tradition of our Saviour's rising from the dead about that time. Matins: these were said at the first hour, or according to our computation, at six o'clock. At this time the Jewish morning sacrifice was offered. The angels likewise were supposed to have acquainted the women with our Saviour's resurrection about this time. The Tierce: which was at nine in the morning, when our Saviour was condemned and scourged by Pilate. The Sexte, or twelve at noon. The Nones, or three in the afternoon: at this hour it is said our Saviour gave up the ghost; besides which circumstance, it was the time for public prayer in the temple of Jerusalem. Vespers at six in the afternoon; the evening sacrifice was then offered in the Jewish temple, and our Saviour is supposed to have been taken down from the cross at this hour. The Compline: this service was performed after seven, when our Saviour's agony in the garden, it is believed, begun. The monks going to bed at eight had six hours to sleep before the Nocturne began; if they went to bed after that service it was not, as we understand, reckoned a fault, but after matins they were not allowed that liberty. At the tolling of the bell for prayers the monks were immediately to leave off their business; and herein the canon was so strict, that those who copied books, or were clerks in any business, and had begun a text-letter were not allowed to finish it. Those who were employed abroad about the business of the house were presumed to be present and excused other duties; and that they might not suffer by being elsewhere they were particularly recommended to the divine protection. The monks were obliged to go always two together; this was done to guard their conduct, and to prompt them to good thoughts, and furnish them with a witness to defend their behaviour. From Easter to Whitsuntide the primitive Church observed no fasts; at other times the religious were bound to fast till three o'clock on Wednesdays and Fridays, but the twelve days in Christmas were excepted in this canon. Every day in Lent they were enjoined to fast till six in the evening. During this solemnity they shortened their refreshment, allowed fewer hours for sleep, and spent
