Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
Monks' Rules (Author: Columbanus Hibernus)

Rule 20

20

If any layman has perjured himself, if he did it out of greed, let him sell all his property and give it to the poor, and devote himself wholly to the Lord, and receive the tonsure, bidding farewell to the entire world, and until death let him serve God in a monastery. Yet if he did it, not out of greed, but in fear of death, let him do penance for three years on bread and water as an unarmed exile, and for two more let him refrain from wine and meats, and thus by offering a life for himself, that


p.179

is, by freeing a slave or maidservant from the yoke of bondage, and by doing many alms throughout two years, in which he may quite lawfully use all foods except meat, let him communicate after the seventh year.