Regula Cuiusdam Patris, 8
Composed in the early 7th century for a Columbanian monastic group in Italy or France, following the death of Columbanus.
Source: Diem, Albrecht, "Disputing Columbanus’s Heritage: The Regula cuiusdam patris (with a Translation of the Rule)," in Columbanus and the Peoples of Post-Roman Europe, ed. Alexander O'Hara, Oxford: Oxford University Press 2018, 259-306.
Lying, swearing or idle talk are to be condemned by the entire body of the community. If there is a brother with whom any of these (behaviors) are discovered, he is to be sent to prison. Let him do penance until he is corrected from this vice, for a mouth that lies, kills the soul, and in the Gospel the Lord has prohibited swearing, with these words: For I tell you that you should not swear at all. Moreover he says: Men will give account at the Day of Judgment for every idle word that they will have spoken. And the Apostle says: Let no evil speech come out of our mouth, unless it is a speech valuable for the edification of faith so that it gives joy to those who hear. But if a brother, after being tested by the prison, is unable to avoid this vice, he is to be thrown out from the brothers and condemned.
