_SOME OF THE LLANTHONY RULES, WITH ACCOMPANYING PENANCES._
_Rule 1._—Never to ask for anything that is not necessary.
_Penance._—To be kept without it.
_Rule 2._—Never to ask for anything that is necessary a second time,
unless permission to do so be granted by the Superior.
_Penance._—To be kept without it.
_Rule 3._—Never to hold possession of, or make use of, anything, unless
given or lent by the Superior.
_Penance._—To hold it up before the Blessed Sacrament for a week, at the
_Magnificat_.
_Rule 4._—Never to touch or look at a book, letter, or newspaper, unless
holy obedience compels us to do so.
_Penance._—To wear such article tied round the neck for two days.
_Rule 5._—Never to look at, or speak to, a secular or extern,[18] unless
commanded by holy obedience to do so.
_Penance._—To confess it at once, and to repeat exactly what we have said.
_Rule 6._—In speaking to a secular or extern, to do so with eyes fixed on
the ground.
_Penance._—To be blindfolded at each office on the following day.
_Rule 7._—Never to go beyond enclosure, or the bounds permitted by holy
obedience.
_Penance._—To be confined to our sleeping-cell for a week.
_Rule 8._—Never to speak about our Superiors to others.
_Penance._—To confess it at once, and mention what we said.
_Rule 9._—Never to allow criticising thoughts upon the action of a
Superior to _dwell_ on the mind.
_Penance._—Not to be allowed to genuflect to the Blessed Sacrament for
two days.
N.B.—To a nun this is an awful penance, as she has been taught
that the “Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity” of Jesus Christ
are there present in the reserved Sacrament in the tabernacle.
_Rule 10._—If we have a tendency to criticise a Superior’s wisdom or the
correctness of any action, to believe that thereby our Lord is injured
and the vocation weakened by such thoughts, since we are under our
Superiors in and for the Lord, and that the Lord reveals His will only
through our spiritual Father or Mother.
_Rule 11._—To conceal nothing, even our most inmost thoughts, from the
abbot, or abbess.
_Rule 12._—Never to repeat anything said to us by our Superiors, unless
commanded to do so.
_Penance._—To confess it at once.
_Rule 13._—Never to speak unnecessarily during “silence,” and, when
necessary, only while kneeling upon both knees, with the hands under the
scapular, the eyes fixed on the ground, and the words we speak must be
uttered in a soft whisper, “for the Lord is in His holy temple, let all
the earth _keep silence_ before Him.”
_Penance._—To recite five psalms at recreation for each breach of this
rule.
_Rule 14._—To obey the convent bell as the voice of an angel calling us.
_Penance if late for matins._—To recite the whole of the Lamentations of
Jeremiah, kneeling.
_Rule 15._—Never to be late at meals, choir, dormitory, or work.
_Penance._—If late at meals, to eat off the floor; if late for choir,
to kneel at the door during the office; as to the rest, any penance the
Superior likes to impose.
_Rule 16._—Never to speak about home or our earthly relations, except to
God in prayer: “Forget also thine own people, and thy father’s house; SO
shall the King have pleasure in thy beauty.”
_Penance._—Any one the Superior LIKES to appoint.
_Rule 17._—To be joyful and ready in our obedience.
_Penance._—To confess it at once, and wear front scapular pinned over the
left shoulder for two days.
_Rule 18._—Never to excuse ourselves if in fault.
_Penance._—To kneel in front of the altar, _holding a large crucifix_ at
every office, for one day.
_Rule 19._—Never to excuse ourselves, even if unjustly accused of any
fault, unless it be necessary for God’s glory that the true offender
should be discovered.
_Penance._—Same as 18.
N.B.—Our Superiors never did think it for God’s glory that we
should give any reason or explanation (so that this part of the
rule is nothing else than a farce). Under this rule they would
keep us on our knees for hours.
_Rule 20._—To receive the words of our Superior humbly kneeling.
_Penance._—Any one the Superior likes.
_Rule 21._—Never to be demonstrative in our affections, even towards a
spiritual sister.
_Penance._—Not to be allowed to speak to such sister for any length of
time our Superior likes to appoint.
_Rule 22._—To zealously observe our distribution of work, and to do so
wholly to the glory of God, keeping before us the memory of eternal
years, our reasons for entering holy religion, and so to glorify God and
benefit His holy Church.
_Penance._—To lose our recreation.
_Rule 23._—Never to touch food or water out of meal times.
_Penance._—To wear a piece of bread tied round the neck for two days, and
to go without the next meal.
_Rule 24._—To keep our affections and interests perfectly detached from
all things, so that our whole hearts may be given to the Lord.
_Penance._—If we broke this rule by getting attached to a picture, or any
other trifle, our Superiors would deprive us of it.
N.B.—If we had anything they especially wanted, they would take
it from us, as they had (so they said) noticed us breaking
the rule; and of course we dared not murmur, as that would be
transgressing our vow of holy poverty.
The last two of the forty-nine rules are as follows:
_Rule 48._—To read over these observances each day, with the _intention_
of making them known to our Superior at the close of each week.
_Penance._—To write out the whole of these forty-nine observances at
recreation.
_Rule 49._—In confessing our breaches of these observances to state them
thus, _e.g._: “On Sunday, I transgressed observance ⸺ by secretly feeling
annoyed at being told to do such and such a thing. Jesus only.—‘They
shall go from strength to strength, until they all appear before God
in.…’”
These forty-nine observances (with their penances) were given to us by
the abbot, and written out for us by him, with about forty-nine others.
The Superiors being above the rule, there is no occasion for them to keep
them, though they are very, very strict in seeing that their subjects do
so, and were always dropping down on us at every nook and corner, and
making out that we had broken them, when all the time we were trying our
best to keep them.
We were the slaves; they were the taskmasters, and very hard ones too.