Confessional Corner: Monastic Vows Do Not Save (Ap XXVII 21-50)

Second, religious exercises, obedience, poverty, and celibacy--provided the latter is not impure--are adiaphora. Therefore, the saints can use them without impiety, just as Bernard, Francis, and other holy men used them. They used them to restrain the body, so that they might have more freedom to teach and to perform other godly offices, not that these works themselves are, by themselves, works that justify or merit eternal life. Finally, these exercises are of the type that Paul says, "Bodily training is of some value" (1 Timothy 4:8). [Ap XXVII 21]