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Shorter Rules
St Basil the Great, tr. Lowther Clarke, 1925
Rule 187: May We Receive Anything from Our Relations According to the Flesh? (R. 81)
It is necessary that relations should pay over to those who embrace the religious life their income and keep nothing back, lest they incur the judgment passed on sacrilege. However when such income is spent openly before the eyes of those to whom it appears to belong, it often is a cause of pride in them and an occasion of grief to those who have embraced the same life but are poor.1 The result is the same as that for which the Corinthians are accused by the apostle when he says: Ye put them to shame that have not.” Wherefore he who is entrusted with the care of the churches of the neighbourhood, if he is faithful and able to manage wisely, let the money be put in his charge, in imitation of those in the Acts who brought money and laid it at the feet of the apostles. But as it is not the task of every one to manage such things but only of those who have been assigned to the work after previous examination, so also this man will administer according to his discretion gifts received from such men.
Notes
- See note on B. 85. Here the case is contemplated of a monk being proud when money, given to the monastery on his behalf, is spent. The remedy is to form a trust fund with the bishop. The qualification is natural seeing how disturbed the times were. B. avoids naming the bishop. Cf. Intr. p. 41.