Men in holy orders who indulge in games of chance are deserving of no slight penalty. Why is this? For the reason that while they should, with a calm mind and spirit, deliver themselves up to the contemplation of divine things, as far as is possible for human nature to do, they, on the contrary, eagerly devote themselves to the amusements of youth. A precept of the Divine Apostles provides that persons of this kind shall be expelled from the priesthood. As, however, it mitigates this sentence to a certain extent by stating that they shall undergo the said penalty if they do not desist from the practice, We have decreed that ecclesiastics who disgrace their sacred calling by engaging in games of chance shall be confined in a monastery (where they shall remain for three years), and when they seem to have sufficiently expiated their offence, they shall be restored to their former condition. If, however, they should afterwards waste their time in such frivolous pursuits, they shall, by way of punishment, be absolutely expelled from the priesthood.