The Rule of St Benedict Chapter 28
Of those who, being often corrected, do not amend
Text
If any brother who has been frequently corrected for some fault or even excommunicated but does not amend, let a more severe correction be applied, that is, the punishment of flogging be carried out.
Si quis frater frequenter correptus pro qualibet culpa, si etiam excommunicates non emendaverit, acrior ei accedat correctio, id est, ut verberum vindicta in eum procedat.
If even then he does not correct himself, or perhaps (God forbid), puffed up by pride, even seeks to defend his actions, then the Abbot should act like a wise doctor: if he has applied poultices and the ointments of exhortations, the medicine of the holy Scriptures and the final cautery of excommunication or the blows of the rod, and if he sees that his labours are of no avail, let him add what is greater; his prayers and those of all the brothers for him, that the Lord who can do all things, may work the cure of the sick brother.
Quod si nec ita se correxerit, aut forte (quod absit) in superbiam elatus etiam defendere voluerit opera sua, tunc Abbas faciat quod sapiens medicus: si exhibuit fomenta, si unguenta adhortationum, si medicamina Scriptuarum divinarum si ad ultimum ustionem excommunicationis vel plagas virgarum, et iam si viderit nihil suam praevalere industriam: adhibeat etiam, quod maius est, suam et omnium fratrum pro ei orationem, ut Dominus, qui omnia potest, operetur salute, circa infirmum fratrem.
But if he is not healed even by this, then the Abbot should use the sword of amputation, as the Apostle says: Put away the evil [or evil one] one from you.1
Quod si nec isto modo sanatus fuerit, tunc iam utatur Abbas ferro abscissionism uta it Apostolus: Auferte malum ex vobis.
And again: If the faithless one leaves, let him go,2 lest one diseased sheep contaminate the whole flock.
Et iterum: Infidelis si discedit, discedat: ne una ovis morbida omnem gregem contaminet.
Comment
As I work in employment law, I always find these chapters of the Rule on excommunication and expulsion interesting. Think about working in a Company; you do something against the Company rules and action is taken. You may turn up late regularly and be given a verbal warning; you may do something more serious and be given a written warning. In the UK, you can get up to three warnings but if you are still a troublesome employee, failing to abide by the Company’s rules and procedure, the next step is dismissal. This is exactly St Benedict’s approach and it is tempting to think that maybe our modern practices derive from his principles.
In a culture where physical punishment was the norm, it is noteworthy that St Benedict reserves it for the last stage, when all else fails. On top of that, while in earlier chapters he does say that the other monks should pray for the monk, he also mentions it specifically here as a serious decision approaches. If all the works of man have failed, ask God to intervene.
It is worth noticing that he considers the brother “sick” – infirmus – and not wicked. The monk is clearly not seeing things correctly, and is afflicted by some kind of sickness, in St Benedict’s mind. The Abbot is a doctor who should apply all the remedies at his disposal to cure the disease. But if all his remedies fail, amputation of the limb is the only option left.
In an employment situation, one person failing to follow the rules or upsetting others (or both) can have a destabilizing effect on the rest of the employees. Productivity falls, complaints rise, and the worst case scenario is that you end up in court having to justify why you didn’t take action. A Company cannot allow that to happen, so they dismiss the troublesome employee to protect the Company and the other workers.
This is ultimately a wholly Christian approach, as we see in this chapter. St Paul is clear that no community should tolerate wrongdoers. The context of the quote from 1 Corinthians 5 is as follows:
I wrote to you in an epistle, not to keep company with fornicators. I mean not with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or the extortioners, or the servers of idols; otherwise you must needs go out of this world.
But now I have written to you, not to keep company, if any man that is named a brother, be a fornicator, or covetous, or a server of idols, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner: with such a one, not so much as to eat.
For what have I to do to judge them that are without? Do you not judge them that are within?
For them that are without, God will judge. Put away the evil one3 from among yourselves.
St Paul is quite clear here – you cannot and should not avoid all bad people in the world but those who choose to follow Christ are held to a higher standard. We should not judge the behaviour of those who are not Christians, but we should judge the behaviour of those that say they are.
Just as when you take a job you agree to the Company rules about what you do at work, so if you are a monk, you have freely entered into a contract which holds you to higher standards than those who are not monks.
St Benedict wisely perceives that an unfaithful member of the community will unsettle the rest, lower their morale and depress the spiritual life of the monastery. Bad behaviour is like a contagious disease – allow it to spread and it will infect more. The only answer is to cut it out, remove it and restore harmony.
Dom Delatte, in his commentary, quotes a passage from St Augustine about this need to cut out the problem:
Nor is this done from cruelty, but from mercy, lest he destroy many by the infection of his disease.
Over the years I have dealt with employment cases where people have done some fairly terrible things. Like St Benedict, I have learned that if someone does the same thing twice, even if they have previously been corrected, they will do it again. Some people are incapable of amending their behaviour. This is particularly the case with issues of anger and abuse (whether sexual, physical or psychological). We have seen in the church an attitude of “we’re Christians, we have to forgive” in relation to abuse in the religious and clerical life. For me, this is a modern and profoundly unchristian thought process which culminates in thinking that everyone who does a bad thing is themself a victim and deserves our compassion and forgiveness. If only we are kind to them, they will see the error of their ways and reform. Hence why we end up with scandals, people moved on into similar situations, to abuse again.
As St Benedict and St Paul understood, this should not happen. These people should be cast out, or at least moved to a place or duties where they cannot harm others. Hence why in the medieval period, some monasteries had what were effectively prison cells. The pastors should prioritise the wellbeing, both spiritual and physical, of the wider community over their desire to practice Christian charity and forgiveness towards the malefactor.
So the final step for someone who will not reform, who does not see the error of their ways, is to remove them from the community. By their actions they have already expelled themselves mentally and spiritually. All that is left is to recognize that physically. St Paul had obviously seen that the Corinthians were keeping people in their community who had committed profoundly unchristian acts. He was very direct; they have to go. St Benedict uses a strong word – “sword” to indicate the need to cut them off absolutely and irrevocably, to protect the rest of the community. They should be put out the door and securely lock it behind them.
1 1 Cor 5:13
2 1 Cor 7:15
3 The word used here is “malum” which would generally mean “evil” but could equally mean an individual who is considered to be evil.