CHAPTER XXXIII.

Whether monks ought to have anything of their own.

Especially let this vice be cut away from the Monastery by the very roots, that no one presume, without leave of the Abbot, to give, or receive, or hold as his own, anything whatsoever, either book, or tablets, or pen, or anything at all; because they are men whose very bodies and wills are not in their own power. But all that is necessary they may hope for from the Father of the Monastery; nor can they keep anything which the Abbot has not given or allowed. Let all things be common to all, as it is written: “Neither did any one say to think that aught was his own.”¹⁷⁶¹⁷⁶Acts. iv. 32. If any one shall be found given to this most wicked vice, let him be admonished once or twice, and if he do not amend, let him be subjected to correction.