Kinds of Monks part 3

A third and detestable kind of monks are the Sarabaites, who have been tried neither by rule nor by experience as gold by the furnace (Prov. 27:21) but, being soft as lead, still keep faith with the world in their behavior, lying to God with their tonsure. Living in twos or threes, or even singly without a shepherd, they enclose themselves not in the Lord's sheepfolds but in their own. Their law consists in their own pleasures and desires: whatever they think fit or choose to do, that they call holy; and what they do not like, that they consider unlawful.


Rule of Benedict, Chapter 1