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Their hair should be cut in a circle. No one should be tonsured in any other way, unless an evident physical infirmity demands it.a
10Concerning the entrance of persons into the monastery, we firmly and strictly decree that an Abbess or her sisters may never permit any religious person or secular of whatever dignity to enter the monastery.b This is allowed to no one except to whom or concerning whom permission has been granted by the Supreme Pontiff or by us, or following us by him to whom, as to us, the Lord Pope has especially entrusted the concern and special care over you.
You should take solicitous care that, when a Cardinal or a Bishop of the Roman Church, who has been especially designated for you, has passed from this life, you always ask from the Lord Pope another from his brother bishops, to whom you ought to have special recourse through a Visitator or your own messen- ger, when a necessity arises.
Excused from the above law of entrance into the monastery are those on whom it is incumbent to enter in order to do some necessary work.
But even if one of the Cardinals sometime comes to a monastery of this religion and would like to enter, he should be received with reverence and devotion, but he should be asked to be accom- panied by one or two suitable companions. Any other prelate, to whom permission is ever given to enter, may be content with only one religious and suitable companion. If, by chance, permission is ever given to some Bishop to celebrate Mass within the enclo- sure for the blessing of an abbess or for consecrating some sister as a nun or for some other reason, let him be content with as few and as virtuous companions and assistants as he can. Let this permission be rarely given to anyone.
No one, whether healthy or sick, should speak with anyone except in the manner mentioned above. Particular caution should be taken that those, to whom permission has been given
- Background information concerning the practice of the tonsure among religious women can be found in Luigi Padovese, “Clare’s Tonsure: Act of Consecration or Sign of Penance,”GR 6(1992): 67-74.
- This passage initiates a consideration of the formal passive enclosure, that is, the exclusion of men and women from the confines of the monastery. The Rule of St. Benedict contains a number of chapters concerning the receptions of guests. The Exordium Parvum 15 of the Cistercians goes further in considering the entrance of laymen. In their chapters of 1193, 1197, and 1205, the Cistercians instituted more prescriptions which were eventually brought into common ecclesial legislation. Cf. Vincentius Hermans, Commentarium Cisterciense: Historico-Practicum in Codicis Canones de Religiosis (Rome: Tipografia Pio X, 1961), 406-407.