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Longer Rules

St Basil the Great, tr. Lowther Clarke, 1925

Rule 28: The Attitude of the Community Towards a Disobedient Brother

As for one who shows hesitation in obeying the commandments of the Lord, in the first instance all should sympathise with him as a sick member of the body and the Superior should try to cure his infirmity by his private admonitions; but if he perseveres in disobedience and will not amend, then the Superior must correct him sharply before all the brethren and apply methods of healing by every method of exhortation.¹ But if after much admonition he is still unabashed, and shows no improvement in his conduct, he becomes his own destroyer, as the saying is, and with many tears and lamentations, but nevertheless firmly, as a corrupted and utterly useless member, we must cut him away from the body after the practice of doctors. For they too, whenever they find one member affected by an incurable disease, are accustomed to remove it by surgery and cauterisation, so that the harm may not spread further, corrupting the neighbouring parts by its continuity with them. We too must of necessity adopt this course in the case of those who hate or oppose the commandments of the Lord, following the precept of the Lord Himself Who said: “If thy right eye causeth thee to stumble, pluck it out, and cast it from thee.”² For kindness in such cases resembles the uninstructed complacence of Eli, which he showed towards his sons in a manner displeasing to God and was punished accordingly. So such spurious kindness towards the wicked is a betrayal of the truth, a plot against the common good, an accustoming of men to sin lightly, since the Scripture is no longer observed—“Why did ye not rather mourn, that he that had done this deed might be taken away from you?”³ — and what is appended inevitably comes to pass—“a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.”⁴ “Them that sin” says the apostle “reprove in the sight of all,” and immediately gives the reason, “that the rest also may be in fear.”⁵

To sum up, he who does not accept the treatment applied by the Superior is inconsistent. For if he does not accept subordination, and asserts his own will, why does he remain with the Superior? Why does he also choose him as his leader? When a man has once accepted enrolment in the body of the brotherhood and has been judged a vessel fit for service, even if a command seem beyond his strength, let him cast the responsibility on him that gave the excessive order and show docility and obedience even unto death, remembering the Lord Who “became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross.”⁶ But rebellion and contradiction argue many evils—faith diseased, hope a prey to doubt, a proud and overweening character. For no one disobeys a command unless he has first condemned the giver of the command, nor will a man who trusts in God’s promises and has his hope firmly fixed on them, ever shrink from performing orders, however laborious. For he knows “that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed.”⁷ And he who is persuaded that “whosoever humbleth himself shall be exalted”⁸ will show greater zeal than his preceptor expects, being aware that “our light affliction, which is for the moment, worketh for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory.”⁹

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