reat number of hypocrites wearing the
monastic habit, who go wandering about the country," and afterwards
he adds: "They all ask, they all demand to be supported in their
profitable penury, or to be paid for a pretended holiness." Therefore
it would seem that the life of mendicant religious is to be condemned.

Obj. 2: Further, it is written (1 Thess. 4:11): "That you . . . work
with your own hands as we commanded you, and that you walk honestly
towards them that are without: and that you want nothing of any
man's": and a gloss on this passage says: "You must work and not be
idle, because work is both honorable and a light to the unbeliever:
and you must not covet that which belongs to another and much less
beg or take anything." Again a gloss [*St. Augustine, (De oper.
Monach. iii)] on 2 Thess. 3:10, "If any man will not work," etc.
says: "He wishes the servants of God to work with the body, so as to
gain a livelihood, and not be compelled by want to ask for
necessaries." Now this is to beg. Therefore it would seem unlawful to
beg while omitting to work with one's hands.

Obj. 3: Further, that which is forbidden by law and contrary to
justice, is unbecoming to religious. Now begging is forbidden in the
divine law; for it is written (Deut. 15:4): "There shall be no poor
nor beggar among you," and (Ps. 36:25): "I have not seen the just
forsaken, nor his seed seeking bread." Moreover an able-bodied
mendicant is punished by civil law, according to the law (XI, xxvi,
de Valid. Mendicant.). Therefore it is unfitting for religious to beg.

Obj. 4: Further, "Shame is about that which is disgraceful," as
Damascene says (De Fide Orth. ii, 15). Now Ambrose says (De Offic. i,
30) that "to be ashamed to beg is a sign of good birth." Therefore it
is disgraceful to beg: and consequently this is unbecoming to
religious.

Obj. 5: Further, according to our Lord's command it is especially
becoming to preachers of the Gospel to live on alms, as stated above
(A. 4). Yet it is not becoming that they should beg, since a gloss on
2 Tim. 2:6, "The husbandman, that laboreth," etc. says: "The Apostle
wishes the gospeler to understand that to accept necessaries from
those among whom he labors is not mendicancy but a right." Therefore
it would seem unbecoming for religious to beg.

_On the contrary,_ It becomes religious to live in imitation of
Christ. Now Christ was a mendicant, according to Ps. 39:18, "But I am
a beggar and poor"; where a