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Shorter Rules
St Basil the Great, tr. Lowther Clarke, 1925
Rule 292: Should There Be in the Brotherhood a School for Children Who Belong to the…
Since the apostle says: ‘Ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but nurture them in the chastening and admonition of the Lord,”3 if those who bring the boys do so with this end in view, and those who receive them are fully convinced that they can nurture them in the chastening and admonition of the Lord, then let the Lord’s admonition be observed: “Suffer the little children to come to me, and forbid them not; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”4 But without such an end in view and such a hope I consider it is neither pleasing to God nor fitting and expedient to us.
Notes
- διδασκαλεῖον (so one reading). Text prints διδάσκαλον “teacher.”
- παιδίων βιωτικῶν. Cf. F. 15 where detailed instructions are given for the education (exclusively religious) of children brought to the monastery with a view to the religious life. Here B. discusses the problem of educating children for life in the world. If the education can be guaranteed predominantly religious, he approves; but not otherwise. Cf. the famous Hom. xxii de legendis libris Gentilium; also Hom. xii.
- Eph. vi. 4.
- Lk. xviii. 16 τῶν οὐρανῶν for τοῦ θεοῦ.