Laudator Temporis Acti

Nigel of Canterbury, The Passion of St. Lawrence, Epigrams and Marginal Poems. Edited and Translated by Jan M. Ziolkowski (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1994 = Mittellateinische Studien und Texte, 14), pp. 258-259 (Epigram 8; English before Latin here):

Downcast face, serious eyes, a voice without riotousness,
a humble mind, scant food, clothing without adornment,
proper faith, brief sleep, short-lived anger, perpetual meditation,
a modest life, a working hand, study without trifling,
saintly reading, fear of death, compunction of heart,
saintly love, pious activity, a mind unknowing of taint,
disregard of praise for oneself, contempt of honors,
no love of property, pious concern for his people:
these qualities befit a monk, these are sure indications;
therefore let money and a packed purse be far from a monk.

Frons demissa, graves oculi, uox absque tumultu,
mens humilis, cibus exiguus, uestis sine cultu,
recta fides, sopor, ira breuis, meditatio iugis,
uita pudica, manus operans, studium sine nugis,
lectio sancta, timor mortis, compunctio cordis,        5
sanctus amor, pietatis opus, mens nescia sordis,
laudis despectus proprie, contemptus honorum,
proprietatis amor nullus, pia cura suorum:
ista decent monachum, sunt hec pronostica certa;
ergo sit a monacho procul es et bursa referta.        10

I first encountered the poem in F.J.E. Raby, A History of Secular Latin Poetry in the Middle Ages, 2nd ed., Vol. II (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957), p. 99.