on account of a stricter life, and decide
to remain there, the holy synod allows them to do so": and the same
would seem to apply to any religious. Therefore one may lawfully pass
from one religious order to another.

_I answer that,_ It is not commendable to pass from one religious
order to another: both because this frequently gives scandal to those
who remain; and because, other things being equal, it is easier to
make progress in a religious order to which one is accustomed than in
one to which one is not habituated. Hence in the Conferences of the
Fathers (Coll. xiv, 5) Abbot Nesteros says: "It is best for each one
that he should, according to the resolve he has made, hasten with the
greatest zeal and care to reach the perfection of the work he has
undertaken, and nowise forsake the profession he has chosen." And
further on he adds (cap. 6) by way of reason: "For it is impossible
that one and the same man should excel in all the virtues at once,
since if he endeavor to practice them equally, he will of necessity,
while trying to attain them all, end in acquiring none of them
perfectly": because the various religious orders excel in respect of
various works of virtue.

Nevertheless one may commendably pass from one religious order to
another for three reasons. First, through zeal for a more perfect
religious life, which excellence depends, as stated above (Q. 188, A.
6), not merely on severity, but chiefly on the end to which a
religious order is directed, and secondarily on the discretion
whereby the observances are proportionate to the due end. Secondly,
on account of a religious order falling away from the perfection it
ought to have: for instance, if in a more severe religious order, the
religious begin to live less strictly, it is commendable for one to
pass even to a less severe religious order if the observance is
better. Hence in the Conferences of the Fathers (Coll. xix, 3, 5, 6)
Abbot John says of himself that he had passed from the solitary life,
in which he was professed, to a less severe life, namely of those who
lived in community, because the hermetical life had fallen into
decline and laxity. Thirdly, on account of sickness or weakness, the
result of which sometimes is that one is unable to keep the
ordinances of a more severe religious order, though able to observe
those of a less strict religion.

There is, however, a difference in these three cases. For in the
first case one ought, on account