Letters (CSEL) 1 part 84/85

If with the few we find the narrow road and a certain subtle path, we tend toward life; but if we accompany the way of the many, according to the Lord's sentence we go to death. If therefore we are possessed by hatred and envy, if we yield to lust and avarice, if we prefer present advantages to future ones, we advance along the spacious way; for we have the multitude as companion for these things, and we are thronged far and wide by columns of like men. If we wish to satisfy the appetite of wrath, if to avenge an injury, if to curse the one who curses, and to be of a hostile mind against an enemy, we are borne along equally with very many.

If either we ourselves flatter or willingly listen to one who flatters, if indeed we do not bestow favor, and are more afraid to offend the minds of men than to speak not from the heart, likewise we are of the way of the many. Our associates are as many as the strangers to truth. But on the contrary, if we are strangers to all these vices, if we present a pure and free mind, and, trampling on every desire, are eager to be rich in virtues alone, we press along the narrow way. For this manner of life belongs to few, and it is very rare and difficult to find suitable companions of the journey. Indeed many pretend to go this way, and through diverse byways of error return to the way of the multitude.

So much is it to be feared, lest those whom we believe we have as guides of this right journey, we should have as companions of error. If therefore examples are found which may lead us by this way to life and keep to the right track of the Gospel, they are to be followed; but if these are either lacking or thought to be lacking, the model of the apostles is set before all. The vessel of election cries out, and, as though calling us to this narrow road, says: Be imitators of me, as I also am of Christ. Certainly — what is greater than all — the example of the Lord Himself shines forth, who says in the Gospel: Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and humble of heart.

If it is dangerous to imitate those about whom you doubt whether they are to be imitated, certainly it is most safe to imitate this One and to follow the footsteps of Him who said: I am the way, the truth, and the life. For imitation never errs which follows the truth. Whence also holy John: He who says that he abides in Christ, he says, ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked. The blessed Peter says: Christ suffered for us, leaving you an example, that you should follow His footsteps; who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth.

Who, when He was reviled, did not revile; when He suffered, did not threaten, but delivered Himself up to Him who judged unjustly; who Himself bore our sins in His own body upon the tree, that we, being dead to sins, might live to righteousness. Let every excuse of errors cease, let the foul comforts of sinning be taken away. We accomplish nothing at all who defend ourselves by the examples of the multitude and, often reckoning up the vices of others for our own consolation, say that those whom we ought to follow are lacking to us. We are sent to the example of Him whom all confess must be imitated. And therefore let your chief care be to know the divine law, through which you may think as it were to behold the examples of the saints present before you, and by its counsel learn what must be done and what must be avoided.

For the greatest help toward righteousness is to fill the mind with the divine words, and always to meditate in the heart on what you desire to carry out in work. To a people still untaught and to men unaccustomed to obedience, it is commanded by the Lord through Moses that, as a sign of remembrance by which they may recall the precepts of the Lord, they should have fringes on the edges of their garments and mark them with a hyacinth-colored scarlet thread, so that, even when their eyes chanced to look this way or that, the memory of the heavenly commandments might arise. Concerning which fringes the Pharisees are censured by the Lord, because they began to have them by a perverse use, not for the admonition of God's precepts but for the display of themselves, namely so that they might be judged by the people to be holy, as though from a diligence of greater observance.

But for you, keeping not now the precepts of the letter but of the spirit, the memory of the divine commandments must be spiritually cultivated; by you the precepts of God are not so much to be recalled frequently as to be always pondered. Let the divine Scriptures therefore be always in your hands and continually turned over in your mind. Nor think it enough for you to hold the commandments of God in memory and to forget them in works; but come to know them for this end, that you may do whatever you have learned must be done. For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.

Broad indeed and immense is the field of the divine law that stretches out, which, blooming with the diverse testimonies of truth as with certain heavenly flowers, feeds and refreshes the reader's mind with wondrous delight; and to know all these things and always to turn them over within oneself is a vast benefit for preserving righteousness. But, as to a compendious place, a kind of memorandum, that sentence of the Gospel is to be chosen by you and inscribed upon your heart, which is uttered by the Lord's own mouth as an epitome of all righteousness: All things whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do you also to them. Expressing the force of which precept, He joins on and says: For this is the Law and the Prophets.

For infinite are the species and parts of righteousness, which it is most difficult not only to follow out with the pen but even to grasp in thought; all of which He comprehends in this one brief sentence, and by the secret judgment of the soul either absolves or condemns the hidden conscience of men. To every act, therefore, to every word, to every thought as well, let this sentence be brought back, which, as a kind of mirror set ready and always placed at hand, may show you the quality of your own will, and may even either convict you of an unjust deed or gladden you concerning a just one. For as often as you have such a mind toward another as you desire another to keep toward you, you hold the way of equity;

but as often as you have been such toward another as you wish no one to be toward you, you have abandoned the path of righteousness. Behold that whole arduous thing of the divine law, that whole difficult thing; behold on account of what harsh commands we cry out against the Lord and say that we are burdened either by the difficulty or the impossibility of the commandments. Nor does it suffice that we do not do what is commanded, unless we also pronounce the One commanding to be unjust, while we complain that the very Author of equity has enjoined things not only harsh and arduous but even impossible. All things, He says, whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do you also to them.

He wishes charity to be joined and knit among us through mutual benefits, and all men to be bound together by reciprocal love, so that, each one rendering to another what he would wish to be rendered to himself by all, the whole of righteousness and this precept of God is the common utility of men. And — O wondrous clemency of God, O ineffable kindness of God! — He promises us a reward if we love one another mutually, that is, if we render to one another in turn those things of which we have need reciprocally; and we, with a mind at once proud and ungrateful, resist His will, whose very command is a benefit. Never disparage anyone at all, nor wish to appear praiseworthy through the vituperation of others, and learn rather to adorn your own life than to carp at another's.

And always be mindful of the Scripture that says: Do not love to disparage, lest you be rooted out. Very few there are who renounce this vice, and rarely will you find one who is so willing to present his own life as blameless that he does not gladly blame another's. And so great a lust of this evil has invaded the minds of men, that even those who have withdrawn far from other vices nevertheless fall into this as into the devil's last snare. But do you so flee this evil that not only do you yourself not disparage, but you do not even ever believe another who disparages, nor grant authority to the detractor by your consent, nor nourish his vice by nodding assent.

Do not be, says Scripture, in agreement with those who detract against your neighbor, and do not receive sin upon him; and elsewhere: Hedge your ears with thorns, and do not listen to a wicked tongue. Whence also the blessed David, enumerating the diverse species of innocence and righteousness, was not silent about this virtue also, saying: And he has not taken up reproach against his neighbors; on account of which he not only opposes but even persecutes the detractor. For he says: Him who secretly detracted his neighbor, this one I persecuted. This is indeed a vice which ought to be extinguished among the very first, and wholly excluded from those who wish to establish themselves in holiness.

For nothing so disquiets the soul, there is nothing which so makes the mind movable and light, as to believe everything easily and to follow the words of detractors with a rash assent of the mind. For hence arise frequent dissensions, hence unjust hatreds are born. This is what often makes enemies even out of the closest friends, while the tongue of the slanderer sunders souls that are concordant indeed but credulous. But on the contrary, it is a great tranquility of soul and a great gravity of character not rashly to hear anything sinister about anyone. And blessed is he who has so armed himself against this vice that no one dares to disparage in his presence.

But if this diligence were in us, that we should not everywhere believe detractors, then all would fear to disparage, lest by disparaging they should make not so much others as themselves vile. But for this reason this evil is common, for this reason this vice rages in many, because it is willingly heard by almost all. Flee also the flatteries of adulators and the noxious blandishments of deceit as certain plagues of the soul. There is nothing that so easily corrupts the minds of men, nothing that strikes the soul with so sweet and soft a wound. Whence the wise man says: The words of flatterers are soft, but they strike the inner parts of the belly. And the Lord speaks through the prophet: My people, those who bless you deceive you and disturb the paths of your feet.

In many, especially at this time, this vice reigns; and — what is most grievous — it is reckoned in the place of humility and benevolence. Hence it comes about that now he who knows not how to flatter is thought either envious or proud. And truly it is a great and very subtle craft to praise another in commendation of oneself, and by deceiving the mind of the deceived to bind him to oneself; and — what is most often done by this vice — to sell feigned praises at a fixed price. But what is this so great levity of soul, what so great vanity, to forsake one's own conscience and follow another's opinion — and that a feigned and simulated one — to be snatched by the wind of false praise, to rejoice at one's own circumvention, and to receive delusion in place of a benefit?

You therefore, if you truly desire to be praiseworthy, do not seek the praise of men, but prepare your conscience for Him who will both illuminate the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the counsels of hearts, and then you shall have praise from God. Let your mind therefore be intent and vigilant and always armed against sins; let your speech be in all things moderate and sparing, and such as indicates rather the necessity of speaking than the will. Let modesty adorn prudence, and — what has always been chief in women — let shame surpass all virtues in you. Consider long beforehand what must be spoken, and while yet silent take care lest you repent of having spoken. Let thought weigh your words, and let the balance of the mind dispense the office of the tongue.

Whence Scripture says: Melt down your silver and your gold, and make a balance for your words and right bridles for your mouth, and take heed lest perchance you slip with the tongue. Never let cursing proceed from your mouth, seeing that, for the fullness of kindness, you are commanded even to bless those who curse: Be merciful, He says, humble, not rendering evil for evil nor cursing for cursing, but on the contrary blessing. But let your tongue be wholly ignorant of lying and swearing, and let there be in you so great a love of truth that whatever you say you may reckon as sworn. Concerning which the Savior says to the disciples: But I say to you, do not swear at all; and a little after: But let your speech be: Yea, yea; nay, nay; and whatever is more than these is of evil.

In every act, therefore, and every word, let a quiet and placid mind be preserved, and let the presence of God always meet your thought. Let your soul be humble and meek, and erect against vices alone; let neither pride ever exalt it, nor avarice bend it, nor anger cast it down. For nothing ought to be more quiet, nothing purer, nothing finally more beautiful, than that mind which is to be prepared as a dwelling of God — whom neither temples gleaming with gold nor altars studded with gems delight, but a soul adorned with virtues. Therefore the hearts of the saints are also called the temple of God, as the apostle affirms, who says: If anyone defiles the temple of God, God shall destroy him; for the temple of God is holy, which you are.

Have nothing more excellent than humility, nothing more lovable; for this is the chief preserver and, as it were, a certain guardian of all the virtues. There is nothing that so makes us both pleasing to men and to God, as if, being great by the merit of our life, we are lowliest in humility. On account of which Scripture says: The greater you are, the more humble yourself, and before God you shall find grace. And God speaks through the prophet: Upon whom else shall I rest, but upon the humble and quiet and him who trembles at my words? But do you follow that humility which is not shown and simulated by a gesture of the body or a broken tone of words, but which is expressed by the pure affection of the heart. For it is one thing to have virtue, another the likeness of virtue;

it is one thing to follow the shadow of things, another the truth. Far more deformed is that pride which lurks under certain signs of humility. For in some way vices are the fouler when they are concealed under the appearance of virtues. Never set yourself before anyone on account of nobility of birth, nor think those born in a humbler and more obscure station to be inferior to you. Our religion knows not persons nor the conditions of men, but inspects minds; it pronounces both the slave and the noble from their morals. The sole liberty before God is not to serve sins; the highest nobility before Him is to be renowned in virtues. What is nobler among men before God than Peter? What among women is more illustrious than the blessed Mary, who is described as the spouse of a carpenter?

But to that fisherman and poor man the keys of the heavenly kingdom are entrusted by Christ; this spouse of that carpenter merited to be the mother of Him by whom those very keys were given. For God chose the ignoble and contemptible things of this world, that He might the more easily lead the powerful and noble to humility. For otherwise too, in vain does anyone applaud himself for nobility of birth, since all are of equal honor and of the same price before God who have been redeemed by the one blood of Christ; nor does it matter in what condition anyone was born, since we are all reborn equally in Christ. For even if we forget that we were all begotten from one, at least we ought always to remember this, that through One we are all regenerated.

Beware lest, if you begin to fast and abstain, you think yourself already holy. For this virtue is a help, not the perfection, of holiness. And it must the more be provided against, lest this, that you despise things lawful, produce in you a certain security in things unlawful. Whatever is offered to God above righteousness ought not to hinder righteousness but to help it. But what does it profit that the body be attenuated by abstinence, if the mind swells with pride? What praise shall we merit from the pallor of fasting, if we are livid with envy? What virtue is there in not drinking wine and in being inebriated with wrath and hatred? Then, I say, is abstinence glorious, then is the chastisement of the body beautiful and magnificent, when the mind fasts from vices.

Nay rather, those who hold the virtue of abstinence commendably and knowingly, afflict their flesh for this end, that they may break the pride of the soul, so that, as though from a certain height of self-contempt and arrogance, it may descend to the fulfilling of God's will, which is chiefly perfected in humility. For this reason they draw back the mind from the varied desires of foods, that they may occupy its whole force in the desire of virtues. And now the flesh feels less the labor of fasting and abstinence while the soul hungers for righteousness. For even the vessel of election, when he chastises his body and brings it into servitude, lest, preaching to others, he himself be found reprobate, does this not on account of chastity alone, as certain unlearned men suppose;

For abstinence is a help not only to this virtue but to absolutely all the virtues. Nor is the Apostle's glory great or complete merely in not committing fornication; rather he aims at this, that by the chastisement of the body the soul may be instructed, and that, in proportion as he desires nothing from pleasures, so much the more may he be able to give thought to the virtues — lest the teacher of perfection should display anything imperfect in himself, lest the imitator of Christ should do anything beyond the precept and will of Christ, or should teach less by example than by word, and, having preached to others, should himself be rejected and hear together with the Pharisees: 'For they say and do not do.' But it belongs both to the apostolic precept and to its example that we take care not only of our conscience but also of our reputation.

It is no superfluous thing, nor one void of fruit, that the teacher of the nations teaches here; for he desires that even outsiders may through the works of the faithful advance to the faith, so that the very discipline of religion may commend religion itself. And therefore he bids us shine like lights in the world, in the midst of a depraved and perverse nation, that the unbelieving minds of those who err may, from the light of our deeds, perceive the darkness of their own ignorance. Whence he himself says to the Romans: 'Providing good things not only before God but also before men,' and elsewhere: 'Give no offence to the Jews and to the Gentiles and to the Church of God, even as I also please all men in all things, not seeking what is profitable to myself, but to many.'

Blessed is he who has so holily and so gravely ordered his life that not even any slander can be fabricated against him, while the greatness of his merit contends against the malice of detractors, and no one dares to invent what he judges no one will believe. But if to attain this is difficult and exceedingly arduous, let us at least apply this diligence to our life, that evil minds may find no occasion for disparaging us, that no spark may proceed from us by which the sinister rumours against us may be kindled. Otherwise we are angry in vain at our detractors, if we ourselves furnish them the materials for detraction.

But if, when we diligently and carefully provide all things toward honourable conduct and set the fear of God before all our actions, they none the less rage against us, let our own conscience console us — which is then most safe, then most secure, when it has given no occasion even for thinking ill of it. For to those it is said 'Woe' through the prophet, who call what is good, evil, who call light darkness, and name what is sweet, bitter. To us therefore the saying of the Saviour will be fitted: 'Blessed are you when men shall revile you, lying.' Let us only take care that no one may speak ill of us without a lie. So hold the care of the household, that you nevertheless grant some rest to your soul.

Let there be chosen for you a suitable place, somewhat removed from the din of the household, into which you may withdraw as into a harbour, as it were out of the great tempest of cares, and may compose, in the tranquillity of solitude, the waves of thoughts stirred up abroad. Let there be there such zeal for divine reading, such frequent turns of prayer, such firm and intent meditation upon things to come, that you may easily compensate for all the occupations of the rest of your time by this respite. Nor do we say this in order to draw you away from your own household; rather we aim at this, that there you may learn and there meditate what manner of person you ought to show yourself to be to your own. So rule and cherish your household that you would wish to seem to your people rather a mother than a mistress, and from them exact reverence by kindness rather than by severity.

Service is always more faithful and more pleasing which is received from love than that which is received from fear. But especially in honourable and undefiled wedlock let the order of the apostolic rule be kept. Let there be preserved, above all, to the husband his own authority, and let the whole household learn from you how much honour it owes to him. Show him to be lord by your obedience, show him to be great by your humility — you yourself destined to be the more honoured, the more you have honoured him. For the head, as the Apostle says, of the woman is the man; nor is the rest of the body adorned from any other source more than from the dignity of the head. Whence the same says elsewhere: 'Wives, be subject to your husbands, as it is fitting in the Lord.' But blessed Peter also says:

'Likewise, wives, be subject to your husbands, so that even if any do not believe the word, they may without the word be won through the conduct of their wives.' If therefore honour is owed even to heathen husbands by the right of wedlock, how much more is it to be rendered to Christian ones! And in order to show with what ornaments women joined even to husbands ought to adorn themselves, he says: 'Whose adorning let it not be the outward plaiting of hair, or the wearing of gold, or the putting on of apparel, but the hidden man of the heart, in the incorruptibility of a quiet and modest spirit, which is rich in the sight of God. For so also in times past the holy women who hoped in the Lord adorned themselves, being subject to their own husbands, even as Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him lord.'

But in prescribing these things he does not bid them be squalid with filth and covered with rough, matted rags, but he forbids immoderate finery and too exquisite adornment, and commends a simple ornament and dress; concerning which the vessel of election also says: 'Likewise also that women adorn themselves in decent apparel, with shamefastness and sobriety, adorning themselves not with braided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array, but, as becomes women, professing chastity through good works.' Now I have found that, kindled with a wondrous ardour of faith, you some years ago already resolved upon continence and consecrated the remaining time of your life to purity. This is a sign of a great soul and a mark of perfect virtue:

to renounce suddenly a pleasure once experienced, to flee the well-known enticements of the flesh, and by the ardour of faith to quench the flames of an age still hot. But at the same time I have also learned this, which no little troubles and goads me: namely, that you have begun to keep this great good without the consent and agreement of your husband — whereas the apostolic authority altogether forbids this, which in this particular matter has subjected not only the wife to the husband but also the husband to the power of the wife. 'The wife,' he says, 'has not power over her own body, but the husband; likewise also the husband has not power over his own body, but the wife.' But you, as if forgetful of the nuptial covenant and unmindful of this pact and right, without consulting your husband have vowed chastity to the Lord.

But that is promised dangerously which is still in another's power, and I know not how welcome a gift it is, if one person offers a thing belonging to two. Through ignorance of this kind we have already both heard and seen many marriages torn apart, and — what it grieves me to recall — adultery committed on the occasion of chastity. For while one party abstains even from what is lawful, the other has slipped into what is unlawful. And I know not, in such a case, who ought the more to be accused, who the more to be blamed: whether he who, being repulsed by his spouse, commits fornication, or she who, by repelling her husband from herself, in a certain manner cast him into fornication. And that you may recognize, concerning this matter, what the truth holds, a few things from divine authority must be set down by me.

The rule of apostolic doctrine neither, with Jovinian, equates the works of continence with those of marriage, nor, with the Manichaean, condemns wedlock. Thus the vessel of election and teacher of the nations proceeds tempered and in the middle between the two, so that he both grants marriage as a remedy for incontinence and summons to continence as to a reward. And his whole meaning in this matter is this: that chastity be undertaken by the resolve of both, or at least that the common debt be paid by both. But let us now set down the very words of the Apostle and review this whole matter from its beginning. He speaks to the Corinthians: 'Now concerning the things whereof you wrote to me: it is good for a man not to touch a woman.' And although here he has praised chastity, yet, lest to some he should seem to prohibit marriage, he adds:

'But because of fornication let each man have his own wife (and let each woman have her own husband). Let the husband render to the wife her due, and likewise also the wife to the husband. The woman has not power over her own body, but the husband; and the husband has not power over his own body, but the wife. Do not defraud one another.' And again, lest by speaking so much on the side of marriage he should seem to exclude chastity, there follows: 'except perhaps by consent for a time, that you may have leisure for prayer.' And immediately, as it were, he retracts this that he said, 'for a time,' lest he should seem to teach a continence not so much perpetual as temporary and brief. For he says: 'because of your incontinence; but this I say by way of indulgence, not by way of command.'

Whence by what he said, 'for a time,' he teaches that a rehearsal of chastity ought to be made, so that at fixed intervals of time, as it were having tested the strength of their continence, both may without danger promise what is always to be kept by both. What he desires absolutely, he says plainly: 'But I would that all men were even as I myself' — that is, in constant and perpetual chastity. Do you see how cautiously, how providently, how without any occasion of scandal to anyone, the teacher has confirmed his judgment concerning chastity, unwilling that so great a good should waver upon the rashness of one, when it ought to be bound and confirmed by the consent of both?