his own interest would require that he be allowed to withdraw. If his condition had been known to the Superior before he was admitted to the habit, he could not be so readily dismissed; but if he had concealed some physical weakness or defect, he could not expect to receive such consideration.

One who could not submit himself in obedience, or adjust himself to the life and customs of the community, whether the cause be his own fault or not, should be sent away. It would not be for his happiness to retain him under a yoke he could not bear, and even his salvation might be thereby imperilled.

Fourth. As we have already seen, there are certain persons in the world whose rights may condition the entrance of an aspirant into Religion. If it transpired that the aspirant had a living spouse, he would be dismissed. Likewise if it were discovered that he had large debts concerning which he had been silent when he applied for admission. The same rules that have been given concerning the needs of a parent, or certain other relatives, apply even more freely to a novice than to one who has been professed.

XI. Of the Master of Novices

When one considers the seriousness of Religious Profession, and that it binds the individual as well as the community as long as the former shall live, it will be understood of what grave importance it is that the novices be well trained.

For this reason the Master of Novices in all communities is regarded as one of the most important officials, more important in many respects than the

Superior himself, for to him is entrusted the moulding of the community. Its future is in his hands, as in those of no other official, and the stamp he sets upon the young Religious will give tone and colour to the community in years to come.

St. Basil is the first of the Fathers to describe in detail the qualifications of him who would train souls in Religion. In order to be “a safe guide,” he must be, he says, one " who knows well how to lead such as are journeying Godward, who is rich in virtues, showing forth by his works his love for God, and being wise in the Holy Scriptures."1

The Rule of St. Benedict speaks especially of the character of him who is appointed to train the novices: "Let a senior, one who has the address of winning souls, be appointed over him to watch him with the utmost care, and to see whether he is truly seeking God and has an eagerness in the Work of God, in obedience and humiliation."

The seniority of the Master of Novices is not necessarily that of years, but must, in every case, be that of spiritual experience and ripe learning in spiritual things.

"His knowledge must be experimental as well as scientific," says Doyle. He must have gone through all its duties, and encountered its many difficulties, and tested the weight of the yoke which it imposes. This will give an authority to his words, and infuse into them a persuasive power which cannot be acquired either from books or from the closest mental application.

1 St. Basil, De Renunciatione Saeculi, 2. 2St. Benedict, Regula, cap. 58.

'In the next place he must, as St. Benedict expresses it, 'have the address of winning souls to God.' This consists in knowing how to point out to those who ask him for instruction the surest ways of going to God; in being adorned with all virtues, so that his daily life will be the best commentary upon the doctrine which he imparts to others; and in a wide and deep knowledge of spiritual things.

This skill is acquired and developed by seclusion from the turmoil of worldly affairs, by the cultivation of repose and peace of soul, by an ardent love of God, by the repression of anger and of impatience, by the elimination of proud and vainglorious thoughts, and by constancy in the service of God.

Lastly, he must be filled with solicitude for the spiritual well-being of those who are entrusted to his charge, and by every means in his power strive to advance them in the love of virtue and of God."1

Thus does a spiritual master of our own time depict the spirit who is fitted to train souls for the life of Holy Religion. He is to be rich in spiritual experience, and know how to profit by it in his own life, and he is to be learned in the lore of the moral and spiritual life.

Mere book-learning cannot fit one for training others, but without a definite knowledge of the three great branches, dogmatic, moral and spiritual theology, such an one will not only be unable to help souls to advance, but will hold them back or give them such wrong direction as may lead to spiritual atrophy and disaster. We remember how St. Teresa

1
1 Doyle, The Teaching of St. Benedict, pp. 301-2.

tells us that she was for seventeen years baffled and retarded by spiritual directors who were ignorant of theology, although men of piety and even sanctity of life.1

The Master of Novices is bound, as his judgment, illuminated by the Holy Spirit, directs, to give his novices all the training that is required to bring them to the degree of virtue necessary to good Religious. He is obliged to this on two accounts.

First, he owes it to the community that has entrusted him with so grave a responsibility, to use every diligence to train aspirants so that they will be able to make a worthy contribution to its life and work after profession.

Secondly, he is bound in justice to give the novice the requisite training, and failing to do so, he, as the representative of the community, violates the contract that was made between his Order and the novice when the latter offered himself for training and was accepted.

On these two accounts we see, then, that a Master of Novices cannot be acquitted of grave blame if, through any fault of his, a novice who sincerely desires to yield himself to be trained, fails to be led on to the required degree of virtue; and that he may have every opportunity of discharging so grave a responsibility he should be relieved of all other business of the monastery or the community as far as may be.2

One further obligation the Holy Rule lays upon the 1 St. Teresa, Autobiography, ch. v, 6-8.

2 St. Francis de Sales, Visitation Constitutions, ch. xxxiii.

Master of Novices. Speaking of the aspirant, it says, "Let all the hard and rugged paths by which we walk toward God be set before him." Two centuries before, St. Basil had given like counsel to those set to train novices. "Show him," he writes, "the difficulties and distresses of the straight and narrow way.

See, too, that he have put before him all things that are essential to ascetic discipline. Appoint over him one of your number whom he may select to be his trainer, training him nobly and making him by his constant and blessed care a tried wrestler, wounding and overthrowing the prince of the darkness of this world."3

Many souls, perhaps more commonly among men than among women, have a poetical and sentimental idea of the Religious Life. Woe betide the man who is permitted to enter the Religious State with this notion! Naught but the bitterest failure awaits him, unless some extraordinary grace of God enables him to weather the storm that will surely fall upon him.

It is the duty of the Novice Master to show that the Religious Life is rigorous and austere, not a refuge for sentimental souls, but a stern citadel where strong, rugged hearts are set to fight. He must leave nothing undone to make this clear to aspirants, not only by his words, but by the stern and loving discipline to which he is in duty bound to subject them. Let him try their patience, let him prove their humility, let him test their wills. If they are unable to endure, 1 St. Benedict, Regula, cap. 58.

2" A man rich in virtues," is the description St. Basil gives of the Novice Master in his sermon De Renunciatione Saeculi, 2.

3 St. Basil, Epis. xxiii.