Bellarmine · De Controversiis · On the Members of the Church · On Monks (Book II)
Chapter 43: That It Is Lawful for Monks to Live from the Goods of the Church
Our translation, from the Latin of the Opera Omnia (Paris: Vivès, 1870–74), vol. II, De Monachis (De Membris Ecclesiae, Book II), On Monks (On the Members of the Church, Book II). The Latin source text is public domain; this English rendering is released with the site. Scripture quotations follow Bellarmine's Vulgate citations, rendered in Douay-Rheims wording where he quotes exactly. Click “Show the Latin” for the original (raw OCR of the scan; scanning errors remain — the scan itself is the authority).
Of the second mode of living there can be no doubt; for first, such was the life of the first religious under the Apostles (Acts, chapter 4); for each one brought the prices of his goods to the Apostles, and thence it was distributed to each as each had need. Then such too was the usage of the ancient monasteries, that they received, if those who became monks wished to give anything in common, as appears from Augustine (in epistle 106 to the nuns), where he says thus: “Those who had anything in the world, when they entered the monastery, let them willingly wish it to be common.” Likewise (sermon 2 on the common life of clerics): “They live,” he says, “with us in common society, and no one distinguishes them from those who brought something.” And (in the book On the Work of Monks, chapter 25) he says that the rich are therefore not bound to the work of the hands, because they conferred their goods on the monastery.
Blessed Benedict, as is read in the life of Saint Placidus: “The goods which had been his monks’ he did not suffer to be diverted elsewhere than to his monasteries, that thence he might feed many servants of God.” Blessed Bernard (epistle 1 to Robert): “There is shown,” he says, “the land which is said to have been given with him and for him.”
Finally, hence arose those laws of Justinian (in the Authentics, collation 1, Constitution 5, § Illud quoque, and collation 9, Constitution 15, § Si qua mulier), in which it is established that the goods of those who become monks belong by that very fact to the monasteries which they enter. Although at this time many religious orders have renounced this privilege.
Show the Latin (Vives edition, OCR)
CAPUT XLIII. Licitum esse Monachis vivere ex bonis patrimonialibus in communi. De secundo modo vivendi nulla potest es¬ se dubitatio ; nam in primis talis fuit vita pri¬ morum religiosorum sOb Apostolis cap. IV. Act. unusquisque enim adferebat pretia sua¬ rum rerum Apostolis, et inde dividebatur cui¬ que sicut cuique opus erat. Deinde talis etiam fuit usus antiquorum monasteriorum, ut reci¬ perent, si quid ii in commune dare volebant, qui Monachi fiebant, ut patet ex Augustino, in epist. 106. ad Sanctimoniales, ubi sic ait: « Quae aliquid habebant in saeculo, quando ingressae sunt monasterium, libenter velint illud esse commune. » Item serm. 2, de com¬ muni vita Clericorum : « Vivunt, inquit, no- biscum in societate communi, et nemo eos distinguit ab eis, qui aliquid attulerunt. » Et lib de opere monachorum cap. 25. ideo dicit, divites non teneri ad opus manuum, quia monasterio sua bona contulerunt. B. Benedictus, ut in vita S. Placidi legi¬ tur : « Bona quae fuerant Monachorum suo¬ rum, non sinebat alio derivari, quam ad sua monasteria, ut inde multos Dei servos alere posset. » B. Bernardus epist. I ad Robertum: « Ostenditur, inquit, terra, quae cum illo, et pro illo dicitur data fuisse. » Denique hinc natae sunt illae leges Justi¬ niani, in Authenticis coli. I, Const. 5. §. Il¬ lud quoque, et coli. 9 const. 15 §. Si qua mulier. In quibus statuitur, bona eorum, qui Monachi fiunt, eo ipso ad monasteria, quae ilii ingrediuntur* pertinere. Quamquam hoc tempore multae religiones huic privilegio renuntiarunt. CAPUT XLY. 627