Nicene and Post-Nicene Church Fathers Series 2 - The Still Small ...

(iv) The Regulæ fusius tractatæ (ὅροι κατὰ πλάτος), 55 in number, and the Regulæ
brevius tractatæ (ὅροι κατ᾽ ἐπιτομήν), in number 313, are a series of precepts for the guidance
of religious life put in the form of question and answer. The former are invariably supported
by scriptural authority.
Their genuineness is confirmed by strong external evidence. 545 Gregory of Nazianzus
(Or. xliii. § 34) speaks of Basil’s composing rules for monastic life, and in Ep. vi. intimates
that he helped his friend in their composition. 546 Rufinus (H.E. ii. 9) mentions Basil’s Insti-
tuta Monachorum. St. Jerome (De Vir. illust. cxvi.) says that Basil wrote τὸ ἅσκητικόν, and
Photius (Cod. 191) describes the Ασχετιχυμ as including the Regulæ. Sozomen (H.E. iii. 14)
remarks that the Regulæ were sometimes attributed to Eustathius of Sebaste, but speaks of
them as generally recognised as St. Basil’s.
The monk who relinquishes his status after solemn profession and adoption is to be
regarded as guilty of sacrilege, and the faithful are warned against all intercourse with him,
with a reference to 2 Thess. iii. 14. 547
545 Combefis, however, refused to accept them.
546 In this series, p. 448.
Ascetic.
547 With this may be compared the uncompromising denunciation in Letter cclxxxviii., and what is said in
the first of the three Tractatus Prævii. It has been represented that St. Basil introduced the practice of irrevocable
vows. cf. Dr. Travers Smith, St. Basil, p. 223. De Broglie, L’Eglise et l’empire, v. 180: “Avant lui, c’était, aux yeux
de beaucoup de ceux même qui s’y destinaient, une vocation libre, affaire de goût et de zèle, pouvant être dilaissée
à volonté, comme elle avait été embrassée par chois. Le sceau de la perpetiuté obligatoire, ce fut Basile qui l’imprima;
c’est à lui réellement que remonte, comme règlé commune, et comme habitude générale, l’institution des vœux
perpétuels. Helyot, Hist. des ordres monastiques, i. § 3, Bultean, Hist. des moines d’orient, p. 402, Montalembert,
Hist. des moines d’occident, i. 105, s’accordent à reconnaitre que l’usage général des vœux perpétuels remonte à
St. Basil.” To St. Basil’s posthumous influence the system may be due. But it seems questionable whether St.
Basil’s Rule included formal vows of perpetual obligation in the more modern sense. I am not quite sure that
the passages cited fully bear this out. Is the earnest exhortation not to quit the holier life consistent with a
binding pledge? Would not a more distinctly authoritative tone be adopted? cf. Letters xlv. and xlvi. It is plain
that a reminder was needed, and that the plea was possible that the profession had not the binding force of
matrimony. The line taken is rather that a monk or nun ought to remain in his or her profession, and that it is
a grievous sin to abandon it, than that there is an irrevocable contract. So in the Sermo asceticus (it is not uni-
versally accepted), printed by Garnier between the Moralia and the Regulæ, it is said: “Before the profession of
the religious life, any one is at liberty to get the good of this life, in accordance with law and custom, and to give
himself to the yoke of wedlock. But when he has been enlisted, of his own consent, it is fitting (προσήκει) that
he keep himself for God, as one of the sacred offerings, so that he may not risk incurring the damnation of sac-
rilege, by defiling in the service of this world the body consecrated by promise to God.” This προσήκει is repeated
in the Regulæ. Basil’s monk, says Fialon (Et. Hist., p. 49) was irrevocably bound by the laws of the Church, by
public opinion, and, still more, by his conscience. It is to the last that the founder of the organisation seems to
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