Regula, caput XIV
Christ Ordains the Election of the Abbess and Confessor
Christ establishes that the abbess is to be chosen and that she, with the community, shall select a priest as general confessor for both nuns and brothers.
Christ lays out here how the abbess is to be chosen, and how afterward she, together with the community, should choose from among the brothers who are priests one to serve as confessor—a general confessor for both the nuns and the brothers of that monastery. .
The Abbess Chosen in Honor of Our Lady
The abbess is to be chosen by the community with the bishop's counsel, and she holds the place of the blessed Virgin, who became head and queen of the apostles when Christ ascended to heaven.
The abbess is to be chosen by the community with the counsel of the bishop. Out of reverence for the most blessed Virgin, my Mother, to whom this order is dedicated, she ought to be the head and mistress, because that Virgin herself—whose place the abbess holds on earth—became, when I ascended into the heavens, the head and queen of my apostles and disciples.
The Confessor's Authority and Its Limits
The abbess and community choose a confessor whom the bishop confirms with full authority to bind and loose, yet he must act in all matters of judgment and order with the counsel of the abbess as head of the monastery.
The abbess shall also choose one from among thirteen priests—someone on whom she, together with the whole congregation of sisters and brothers, agrees—as confessor of all, and the bishop shall appoint and confirm him. To whom the authority of binding and loosing, of correcting and reforming, has been fully granted by the bishop, all priests and brothers, like the sisters of the abbess, are to obey in all things outside her command, doing nothing at all, not even the least thing. This confessor, however, shall do nothing at all without the counsel of the abbess in matters concerning the judgments of the brothers and the preservation of the order, because she, as the head of the monastery, is to be consulted about the affairs and goods of the monastery to be ordered.
Read the original Latin
Christus ordinat hic, qualiter debeat eligi abbatissa et qualiter postea ipsa cum conuentu eligat de illis fratribus sacerdotibus vnum in confessorem, qui sit generalis confessor tam monialium quam fratrum dicti monasterii. .
"Abbatissa cum consilio episcopi eligatur a conuentu. Que ob reuerenciam beatissime Virginis, Matris mee, cui hic ordo dedicatus est, caput et domina esse debet, quia ipsa Virgo, cuius abbatissa gerit vicem in terris, ascendente me in celos caput et regina extitit apostolorum et discipulorum meorum. Abbatissa eciam vnum de tredecim sacerdotibus, in quem ipsa vna cum omni congregacione sororum et fratrum consentit, in confessorem omnium eligat ipsumque episcopus constituat et confirmet. Cui auctoritate ligandi atque soluendi, corrigendi et reformandi plenarie ab episcopo concessa omnes sacerdotes et fratres, sicut sorores abbatisse, in omnibus obediant extra preceptum nichil omnino vel ne minimum quidem facientes. Qui tamen confessor preter iudicia fratrum et conseruacionem ordinis absque consilio abbatisse nichil omnino faciet, que, quia caput monasterii est, de negociis et bonis monasterii ordinandis est consulenda."
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