Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
Monks' Rules (Author: Columbanus Hibernus)
Rule 3
Of Food and Drink (V)
Let the monks' food be poor and taken in the evening,’’
cf. Hieron. Epist. lviii. 6
such as to avoid repletion,’’cf. Hieron. Epist. xxii. 17
and their drink such as to avoid intoxication, so that it
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may both maintain life and not harm; vegetables, beans, flour mixed with water, together with the small bread of a loaf, lest the stomach be burdened and the mind confused. For indeed those who desire eternal rewards must only consider usefulness and use. Use of life must be moderated just as toil must be moderated, since this is true discretion, that the possibility of spiritual progress may be kept with a temperance that punishes the flesh. For if temperance exceeds measure, it will be a vice and not a virtue; for virtue maintains and retains many goods. Therefore we must fast daily, just as we must feed daily; and while we must eat daily, we must gratify the body more poorly and sparingly; since we must eat daily for the reason that we must go forward daily, pray daily, toil daily, and daily read.