Why a Newcomer May Bring Nothing In

For these reasons they will not agree to take money from him, even to be used for the good of the monastery. First, they fear that this gift may puff him up with arrogance, so that he will not stoop to put himself on a level with the poorer brothers. Next, they fear that through this pride he may fail to come down to the humility of Christ. Then, when he cannot hold out under the discipline of the monastery, he will leave it; and afterward, once he has cooled down, he will want in a bad spirit to receive and take back, not without loss to the monastery, what he had contributed in the first days of his renunciation, when he was glowing with spiritual fervor. Many cases have often taught them that this rule must always be kept. For in some monasteries where they are less careful, men who were received without any such reserve have afterward tried, most sacrilegiously, to demand the return of what they had contributed, though it had already been spent on God’s work.