¹ If a presbyter or deacon commits fornication, whether natural or sodomitical, and has already taken monastic vows, he must do penance for three years. He shall pray for forgiveness continually, make weekly prostrations except during the fifty days after Easter, eat bread without limit, and on the Lord’s Day have food prepared with a little butter. On other days, if he is a laborer, he may have a set portion of bread and broth lightly thickened, cabbages, a few eggs, and British cheese, along with a Roman half-pint of milk to strengthen his body, and a Roman pint of whey or buttermilk to quench his thirst, with the same measure of water. His bed must not be furnished with much straw, and he should add extra penances for three Lents, as far as his strength allows. Let him weep sincerely for his sin, and above all pursue obedience. After one and a half years, he may receive the Eucharist and be admitted to communion, and he should sing the Psalms with his brethren, lest his soul be lost entirely through so long a time under heavenly discipline.

² If a monk of lower rank commits the same sin, he must do penance for three years, but with a greater portion of bread. If he is a laborer, he may have a Roman pint of milk, another of whey, and as much water as is needed to quench his thirst.

³ But if a presbyter or deacon without monastic vows sins, his penance shall be the same as that of a monk without orders.

⁴ If a monk intends to commit a sin, his penance shall last for one and a half years; however, the Abbot has authority to lessen this if the monk’s obedience is pleasing both to God and to his Abbot.

⁵ The ancient fathers established twelve years of penance for a presbyter, and seven for a deacon.

⁶ A monk who has stolen a garment or any article shall do penance for two years in the way already described, if he is a junior; if a senior, for one full year. If he is not a monk, let him do the same for one year and, at most, three Lents.

⁷ If a monk, because of a disordered stomach, vomits the Eucharist during the day, he must not take his dinner. If it was not due to weakness, he shall atone for his offence with seven prostrations; but if it was from weakness and not from gluttony, with four.

⁸ If he has not vomited the Eucharist, let him be punished with one day of prostration and with frequent rebuke.

⁹ If anyone through negligence loses any part of the Eucharist, he shall do penance for three Lents, leaving it to be consumed by wild beasts and birds.

¹⁰ If anyone, because of drunkenness, is unable to sing the Psalms—being stupefied and without speech—he shall be deprived of dinner.

¹¹ A man who sins with an animal shall do penance for one year; if he does so by himself alone, he shall atone for his offence with three Lents.

¹² Whoever holds communion with a man excommunicated by his Abbot shall do penance for forty days.

¹³ A man who unknowingly eats carrion shall do penance for forty days.

¹⁴ It must, however, be understood that as long as a man continues in sin, his penance must be proportionately increased.

¹⁵ If any work is imposed upon a man and, out of contempt, he refuses to do it, he shall go without his dinner; but if through genuine forgetfulness, he shall receive only half of his daily portion of food.

¹⁶ But if he takes up the work of another, let him tell the Abbot privately and with humility, without anyone else hearing, and let him carry it out if the Abbot commands it.

¹⁷ For anyone who holds onto anger in his heart for a long time is in death. But if he confesses his sin, let him fast for forty days; and if he continues in that sin, let him fast for two periods of forty days. If he commits the same sin again, let him be cut off from the community as a diseased limb, because anger feeds murder.

¹⁸ If someone is offended by another, he should make this known to the Abbot—not with the spirit of an accuser, but with the desire to bring healing—and let the Abbot decide what is to be done.

¹⁹ Whoever does not arrive by the end of the second Psalm must sing eight Psalms in order. If, when awakened, he enters after the reading has been completed, he must repeat in order everything the brothers have sung. But if he comes only by the second reading, let him go without his dinner.

²⁰ If anyone, by mistake, alters any of the sacred words where “danger” is marked, let him observe a three-day fast or perform three superpositiones.

²¹ If, through neglect, the consecrated element falls to the ground, let him go without dinner.

²² He who, by his own will, has defiled himself in his sleep—if the monastery has plenty of beer and meat—shall keep vigil for three hours of the night standing, provided he is truly strong enough. But if the food is poor, let him stand in supplication and recite twenty-eight or thirty Psalms, or make amends through extra labor.

²³ For good kings we ought to make the holy offering, but not for the bad.

²⁴ Presbyters are not forbidden to make offerings for their bishops.

²⁵ Anyone who is found guilty of an offense and is corrected as being careless must go without dinner.

²⁶ Whoever breaks a hoe that previously had no damage should make restitution through extra work, or else observe a superpositio.

²⁷ If anyone sees one of the brothers breaking the Abbot’s commands, he should not conceal it from the Abbot. Instead, he should first urge the offender to confess his wrongdoing to the Abbot himself. In this way, he is not to be regarded as an informer, but as one who carries out the rule of truth.

²⁸ Thus far the words of Gildas.