Page:The letters of John Hus.djvu/82

 monk to have let slip the words, “my manuscript, my tablets, my pen, my shoes, my cap”: let a brother make atonement for this offence by a suitable penance if by any chance through inadvertence or ignorance a word of this kind has escaped his lips. Item, the blessed Francis in his rule laid this down: The rule and the life of the Brothers Minor is this, to wit, firmly to observe the holy gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and to live without any possession in obedience and chastity. And further on in the middle of the rule: Let the brothers appropriate nothing for themselves, neither home, nor place, nor anything; but as pilgrims and strangers in this world and as the Lord’s menials in poverty and humility let them go about seeking for alms without fear. So much for that rule. To the same effect the blessed Jerome writes in his Ad Heliodorum. Item, the blessed Bernard in his book addressed to Pope Eugenius. Item, the blessed Augustine in his De opere monachorum. Item, St. Thomas in his Tractatus monachorum. Item, I have read (but I know not the passage) that the blessed Bernard saith: A monk who has a farthing is not