ve out of his room when he
finds it comfortable and is attached to it; taking away from another a
book of which he is fond; or obliging a third to exchange his garment
for a worse one. Otherwise we should end by acquiring a species of
property in all these several objects, and little by little the wall of
poverty that surrounds us and constitutes our principal defense would
be thrown down. The ancient fathers of the desert used often thus to
treat their companions.... Saint Dositheus, being sick-nurse, desired a
certain knife, and asked Saint Dorotheus for it, not for his private
use, but for employment in the infirmary of which he had charge.
Whereupon Saint Dorotheus answered him: 'Ha! Dositheus, so that knife
pleases you so much! Will you be the slave of a knife or the slave of
Jesus Christ! Do you not blush with shame at wishing that a knife
should be your master? I will not let you touch it.' Which reproach
and refusal had such an effect upon the holy disciple that since that
time he never touched the knife again.' . . .

"Therefore, in our rooms," Father Rodriguez continues, "there must be
no other furniture than a bed, a table, a bench, and a candlestick,
things purely necessary, and nothing more. It is not allowed among us
that our cells should be ornamented with pictures or aught else,
neither armchairs, carpets, curtains, nor any sort of cabinet or bureau
of any elegance. Neither is it allowed us to keep anything to eat,
either for ourselves or for those who may come to visit us. We must
ask permission to go to the refectory even for a glass of water; and
finally we may not keep a book in which we can write a line, or which
we may take away with us. One cannot deny that thus we are in great
poverty.

But this poverty is at the same time a great repose and a great
perfection. For it would be inevitable, in case a religious person
were allowed to own supernuous possessions, that these things would
greatly occupy his mind, be it to acquire them, to preserve them, or to
increase them; so that in not permitting us at all to own them, all
these inconveniences are remedied. Among the various good reasons why
the company forbids secular persons to enter our cells, the principal
one is that thus we may the easier be kept in poverty. After all, we
are all men, and if we were to receive people of the world into our
rooms, we should not have the strength to remain within the bounds
prescribed, but should at