themselves to the study of Holy Writ to the common profit of the
whole Church. Wherefore Jerome says (Contra Vigil. xiii): "It is
still the custom in Judea, not only among us but also among the
Hebrews, for those who meditate on the law of the Lord day and night,
and have no other share on earth but God alone, to be supported by
the subscriptions of the synagogues and of the whole world."
Fourthly, if they have endowed the monastery with the goods they
possessed, they may live on the alms given to the monastery. Hence
Augustine says (De oper. Monach. xxv) that "those who renouncing or
distributing their means, whether ample or of any amount whatever,
have desired with pious and salutary humility to be numbered among
the poor of Christ, have a claim on the community and on brotherly
love to receive a livelihood in return. They are to be commended
indeed if they work with their hands, but if they be unwilling, who
will dare to force them? Nor does it matter, as he goes on to say, to
which monasteries, or in what place any one of them has bestowed his
goods on his needy brethren; for all Christians belong to one
commonwealth."

On the other hand, in the default of any necessity, or of their
affording any profit to others, it is unlawful for religious to wish
to live in idleness on the alms given to the poor. Hence Augustine
says (De oper. Monach. xxii): "Sometimes those who enter the
profession of God's service come from a servile condition of life,
from tilling the soil or working at some trade or lowly occupation.
In their case it is not so clear whether they came with the purpose
of serving God, or of evading a life of want and toil with a view to
being fed and clothed in idleness, and furthermore to being honored
by those by whom they were wont to be despised and downtrodden. Such
persons surely cannot excuse themselves from work on the score of
bodily weakness, for their former mode of life is evidence against
them." And he adds further on (De oper. Monach. xxv): "If they be
unwilling to work, neither let them eat. For if the rich humble
themselves to piety, it is not that the poor may be exalted to pride;
since it is altogether unseemly that in a life wherein senators
become laborers, laborers should become idle, and that where the
lords of the manor have come after renouncing their ease, the serfs
should live in comfort."

Reply Obj. 1: These authorities must be understood as referring to
cases of necessity, th