04-16# The Rule of our Holy Father Benedict. Chapter 61: Concerning Monks Who Are Strangers, How They Should Be Received. Continued.
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But if during his time as a guest he shall have been found burdensome or given to vice or unteachable, not only ought he not to be incorporated in the body monastic, but let it even be said to him frankly that he must go away, lest it should even happen that by his evil estate others be vitiated. But if he shall not have been found such as may deserve to be cast forth, let him not only if he himself so petition be received for association with the community, but even be persuaded to remain, that by his example others may be edified and because in all places obedience is rendered to one and the same Lord, loyalty to one and the same King; and when it is so that the abbot have found him to be such an one as this, let it be lawful to put him in a somewhat superior position. And the abbot has the right to set anyone, not only a monk, from the aforenamed ranks of priests and clerics in a position higher than that due by seniority, if he have perceived that his manner of life be such as this. But let the abbot beware lest he ever receive into residence a monk from any known monastery without letters commendatory or his abbot’s consent, because it is written: “What thou dost not wish to be done to thee, do not to another.”
