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Rule
St Columbanus, tr. Metlake, 1914; abridged
Chapter 2
The Rule of silence must be diligently observed, for it is written: “The service of justice shall be quietness and peace”.1 All superfluity of words must be avoided; except in cases of necessity or utility, the monk must be silent, because, according to the Scripture, “in the multitude of words there shall not want sin”.2 Hence our Saviour says: “By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned”.3 Justly indeed shall they be condemned who would not, though able, speak just words, but preferred in their garrulousness to speak wicked, unjust, ungodly, vain, injurious, double-meaning, false, quarrelsome, abusive, shameful, absurd, blasphemous, harsh, and crooked words. These and such like words must never pass the lips of the monk, whose tongue must ever be governed by prudence and right reason, lest by his talkativeness he be betrayed into detractions and contradictions born of pride.
Notes
- Ecclus. 32.
- Prov. 10:19.
- Matt. 12:37.