Chapter II — On the vow of poverty

I. The vow of poverty is the first foundation of the regular life. The matter of that vow is the abdication of temporal things, manifested by Christ the Lord, Matthew 19: If thou wilt be perfect, go, sell what thou hast, and give to the poor. The other two counsels — of cultivating virginity, and of abnegating one's own will and subjecting oneself to a man's authority — the divine Master expressed in few words. But the very method by which the Apostles and the first Christians committed to execution the evangelical counsel of poverty the Evangelist Luke describes clearly and distinctly, Acts 2: And all they that believed were together, and had all things common. Their possessions and goods they sold, and divided them to all, according as every one had need. More fully does the holy Evangelist express this form of poverty in chapter 4: And the multitude of believers had but one heart and one soul: neither did any one say that aught of the things which he possessed was his own; but all things were common unto them. … For neither was there any one needy among them. For as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them, and brought the price of the things they sold, and laid it down before the feet of the apostles. And distribution was made to every one, according as he had need.

II. This is that poverty propped by the community of goods, which Christ set forth in his apostolic College as the foundation of heavenly perfection, which, being set in charity, joins men with the bond of the concord of love mutually with one another and with God. For the propriety of goods kindles cupidity, and like a seditious citizen stirs up tumults, quarrels, and dissensions, sunders hearts and souls, and drags them apart into contrary factions. But community, since it takes away all propriety, tears up also the root of contentions, quarrels, and dissensions, and induces a communion of heavenly goods. For these two things are connected: 1. They were one heart and one soul; 2. All things were common unto them.

III. Poverty taken generally admits several degrees: of which one excludes the dominion and use of any thing whatsoever as one's own; another rejects dominion and proper use, yet retains the capacity for dominion; a third neither absolutely abdicates dominion nor becomes incapable of dominion, but only uses no thing as its own; a fourth betrays a privation neither of dominion nor of use, but admits only that measure of goods which is necessary for the sustentation of life, and rejects all the rest. To these four degrees all the others are reduced. The first degree of poverty Regulars now vow. The third the scholars of the Society name. The other two anyone can vow.

IV. Very many theologians exhibit this definition of monastic poverty: The vow of poverty is a voluntary abdication of temporal goods, by which the one vowing is deprived of the propriety of the same. Others say more compressedly: It is the abdication of dominion. Which definitions, exactly squared to the rule of Metaphysics, describe poverty taken generally, but not as to be committed to execution. Two things they distinguish in this vow. The first they call essential, set in the abdication of dominion. The other they call accidental, which regards the use of goods. Hence they infer that the connexion of the vow of poverty with the community of goods is accidental — which holds true of poverty taken generally: whether that suffice for explaining monastic poverty I shall presently say.