Whether It Is Lawful for Religious to Live on Alms?
Objection 1: It would seem unlawful for religious to live on alms.
For the Apostle (1 Tim. 5:16) forbids those widows who have other
means of livelihood to live on the alms of the Church, so that the
Church may have "sufficient for them that are widows indeed." And
Jerome says to Pope Damasus [*Cf. Cf. Can. Clericos, cause. i, qu. 2;
Can. Quoniam, cause xvi, qu. 1; Regul. Monach. iv among the
supposititious works of St. Jerome] that "those who have sufficient
income from their parents and their own possessions, if they take
what belongs to the poor they commit and incur the guilt of
sacrilege, and by the abuse of such things they eat and drink
judgment to themselves." Now religious if they be able-bodied can
support themselves by the work of their hands. Therefore it would
seem that they sin if they consume the alms belonging to the poor.
Obj. 2: Further, to live at the expense of the faithful is the
stipend appointed to those who preach the Gospel in payment of their
labor or work, according to Matt. 10:10: "The workman is worthy of
his meat." Now it belongs not to religious to preach the Gospel, but
chiefly to prelates who are pastors and teachers. Therefore religious
cannot lawfully live on the alms of the faithful.
Obj. 3: Further, religious are in the state of perfection. But it is
more perfect to give than to receive alms; for it is written (Acts
20:35): "It is a more blessed thing to give, rather than to receive."
Therefore they should not live on alms, but rather should they give
alms of their handiwork.
Obj. 4: Further, it belongs to religious to avoid obstacles to virtue
and occasions of sin. Now the receiving of alms offers an occasion of
sin, and hinders an act of virtue; hence a gloss on 2 Thess. 3:9,
"That we might give ourselves a pattern unto you," says: "He who
through idleness eats often at another's table, must needs flatter
the one who feeds him." It is also written (Ex. 23:8): "Neither shalt
thou take bribes which . . . blind the wise, and pervert the words of
the just," and (Prov. 22:7): "The borrower is servant to him that
lendeth." This is contrary to religion, wherefore a gloss on 2 Thess.
3:9, "That we might give ourselves a pattern," etc., says, "our
religion calls men to liberty." Therefore it would seem that
religious should not live on alms.
Obj. 5: Further, religious especially are bound to imitate the
perfection of the apostles; wherefore the Apostle says (Phil. 3:15):
"Let us . . . as many as are perfect, be thus minded." But the
Apostle was unwilling to live at the expense of the faithful, either
in order to cut off the occasion from the false apostles as he
himself says (2 Cor. 11:12), or to avoid giving scandal to the weak,
as appears from 1 Cor. 9:12. It would seem therefore that religious
ought for the same reasons to refrain from living on alms. Hence
Augustine says (De oper. Monach. 28): "Cut off the occasion of
disgraceful marketing whereby you lower yourselves in the esteem of
others, and give scandal to the weak: and show men that you seek not
an easy livelihood in idleness, but the kingdom of God by the narrow
and strait way."
_On the contrary,_ Gregory says (Dial. ii, 1): The Blessed Benedict
after leaving his home and parents dwelt for three years in a cave,
and while there lived on the food brought to him by a monk from Rome.
Nevertheless, although he was able-bodied, we do not read that he
sought to live by the labor of his hands. Therefore religious may
lawfully live on alms.
_I answer that,_ A man may lawfully live on what is his or due to
him. Now that which is given out of liberality becomes the property
of the person to whom it is given. Wherefore religious and clerics
whose monasteries or churches have received from the munificence of
princes or of any of the faithful any endowment whatsoever for their
support, can lawfully live on such endowment without working with
their hands, and yet without doubt they live on alms. Wherefore in
like manner if religious receive movable goods from the faithful they
can lawfully live on them. For it is absurd to say that a person may
accept an alms of some great property but not bread or some small sum
of money. Nevertheless since these gifts would seem to be bestowed on
religious in order that they may have more leisure for religious
works, in which the donors of temporal goods wish to have a share,
the use of such gifts would become unlawful for them if they
abstained from religious works, because in that case, so far as they
are concerned, they would be thwarting the intention of those who
bestowed those gifts.
A thing is due to a person in two ways. First, on account of
necessity, which makes all things common, as Ambrose [*Basil, Serm.
de Temp. lxiv, among the supposititious works of St. Ambrose]
asserts. Consequently if religious be in need they can lawfully live
on alms. Such necessity may occur in three ways. First, through
weakness of body, the result being that they are unable to make a
living by working with their hands. Secondly, because that which they
gain by their handiwork is insufficient for their livelihood:
wherefore Augustine says (De oper. Monach. xvii) that "the good works
of the faithful should not leave God's servants who work with their
hands without a supply of necessaries, that when the hour comes for
them to nourish their souls, so as to make it impossible for them to
do these corporal works, they be not oppressed by want." Thirdly,
because of the former mode of life of those who were unwont to work
with their hands: wherefore Augustine says (De oper. Monach. xxi)
that "if they had in the world the wherewithal easily to support this
life without working, and gave it to the needy when they were
converted to God, we must credit their weakness and bear with it."
For those who have thus been delicately brought up are wont to be
unable to bear the toil of bodily labor.
In another way a thing becomes due to a person through his affording
others something whether temporal or spiritual, according to 1 Cor.
9:11, "If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great
matter if we reap your carnal things?" And in this sense religious
may live on alms as being due to them in four ways. First, if they
preach by the authority of the prelates. Secondly, if they be
ministers of the altar, according to 1 Cor. 9:13, 14, "They that
serve the altar partake with the altar. So also the lord ordained
that they who preach the Gospel should live by the Gospel." Hence
Augustine says (De oper. Monach. xxi): "If they be gospelers, I
allow, they have" (a claim to live at the charge of the faithful):
"if they be ministers of the altar and dispensers of the sacraments,
they need not insist on it, but it is theirs by perfect right." The
reason for this is because the sacrament of the altar wherever it be
offered is common to all the faithful. Thirdly, if they devote
themselves to the study of Holy Writ to the common profit of the
whole Church. Wherefore Jerome says (Contra Vigil. xiii): "It is
still the custom in Judea, not only among us but also among the
Hebrews, for those who meditate on the law of the Lord day and night,
and have no other share on earth but God alone, to be supported by
the subscriptions of the synagogues and of the whole world."
Fourthly, if they have endowed the monastery with the goods they
possessed, they may live on the alms given to the monastery. Hence
Augustine says (De oper. Monach. xxv) that "those who renouncing or
distributing their means, whether ample or of any amount whatever,
have desired with pious and salutary humility to be numbered among
the poor of Christ, have a claim on the community and on brotherly
love to receive a livelihood in return. They are to be commended
indeed if they work with their hands, but if they be unwilling, who
will dare to force them? Nor does it matter, as he goes on to say, to
which monasteries, or in what place any one of them has bestowed his
goods on his needy brethren; for all Christians belong to one
commonwealth."
On the other hand, in the default of any necessity, or of their
affording any profit to others, it is unlawful for religious to wish
to live in idleness on the alms given to the poor. Hence Augustine
says (De oper. Monach. xxii): "Sometimes those who enter the
profession of God's service come from a servile condition of life,
from tilling the soil or working at some trade or lowly occupation.
In their case it is not so clear whether they came with the purpose
of serving God, or of evading a life of want and toil with a view to
being fed and clothed in idleness, and furthermore to being honored
by those by whom they were wont to be despised and downtrodden. Such
persons surely cannot excuse themselves from work on the score of
bodily weakness, for their former mode of life is evidence against
them." And he adds further on (De oper. Monach. xxv): "If they be
unwilling to work, neither let them eat. For if the rich humble
themselves to piety, it is not that the poor may be exalted to pride;
since it is altogether unseemly that in a life wherein senators
become laborers, laborers should become idle, and that where the
lords of the manor have come after renouncing their ease, the serfs
should live in comfort."
Reply Obj. 1: These authorities must be understood as referring to
cases of necessity, that is to say, when there is no other means of
succoring the poor: for then they would be bound not only to refrain
from accepting alms, but also to give what they have for the support
of the needy.
Reply Obj. 2: Prelates are competent to preach in virtue of their
office, but religious may be competent to do so in virtue of
delegation; and thus when they work in the field of the Lord, they
may make their living thereby, according to 2 Tim. 2:6, "The
husbandman that laboreth must first partake of the fruits," which a
gloss explains thus, "that is to say, the preacher, who in the field
of the Church tills the hearts of his hearers with the plough of
God's word." Those also who minister to the preachers may live on
alms. Hence a gloss on Rom. 15:27, "If the Gentiles have been made
partakers of their spiritual things, they ought also in carnal things
to minister to them," says, "namely, to the Jews who sent preachers
from Jerusalem." There are moreover other reasons for which a person
has a claim to live at the charge of the faithful, as stated above.
Reply Obj. 3: Other things being equal, it is more perfect to give
than to receive. Nevertheless to give or to give up all one's
possessions for Christ's sake, and to receive a little for one's
livelihood is better than to give to the poor part by part, as stated
above (Q. 186, A. 3, ad 6).
Reply Obj. 4: To receive gifts so as to increase one's wealth, or to
accept a livelihood from another without having a claim to it, and
without profit to others or being in need oneself, affords an
occasion of sin. But this does not apply to religious, as stated
above.
Reply Obj. 5: Whenever there is evident necessity for religious
living on alms without doing any manual work, as well as an evident
profit to be derived by others, it is not the weak who are
scandalized, but those who are full of malice like the Pharisees,
whose scandal our Lord teaches us to despise (Matt. 15:12-14). If,
however, these motives of necessity and profit be lacking, the weak
might possibly be scandalized thereby; and this should be avoided.
Yet the same scandal might be occasioned through those who live in
idleness on the common revenues.
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