04-08# The Rule of our Holy Father Benedict. Chapter 55: Concerning the Brethren’s Clothes and Shoes. Continued.
_
For bedding let a rush mattress, blanket, coverlet and pillow suffice; and these beds are to be frequently searched, by the abbot, for private property, lest any be found: and if anyone be found to have anything he did not receive from the abbot, let him be subjected to very severe discipline. But at the same time, that this vice of private ownership may be wholly uprooted, let there be provided by the abbot all things that are necessary; that is to say cowl, tunic, sandals, shoes, girdle, knife, pen, needle, handkerchief, writing-tablet, that all plea of wanting anything be taken away: yet let the abbot be always mindful of that statement in the Acts of the Apostles that: “Distribution was habitually made to them all separately according as each had need”; and in the like manner let the abbot have regard to the infirmity of those who feel want, not to the malevolence of the envious: and yet in all his judgments let him remember the retribution of God.
