Chapter IV.
The reason why those who are received in the monastery
are not allowed to bring anything in with them.
And
for these reasons they do
not agree to take from him money to be used even for the
good of the monastery: First, in case he may be
puffed up with arrogance, owing to this offering, and so not deign to
put himself on a level with the poorer brethren; and next, lest he fail
through this pride of his to stoop to the humility of Christ, and so,
when he cannot hold out under the discipline of the monastery, leave
it, and afterwards, when he has cooled down, want in a bad spirit to
receive and get back—not without loss to the monastery—what
he had contributed in the early days of his renunciation, when he was
aglow with spiritual fervour. And that this rule should always be kept
they have been frequently taught by many instances. For in some
monasteries where they are not so careful some who have been received
unreservedly have afterwards tried most sacrilegiously to demand a
return of that which they had contributed and which had been spent on
God’s work.