To your command, holy brother Aurelius, I ought to have submitted the more devoutly, the more clearly it appeared to me who it was that commanded through you. For our Lord Jesus Christ, dwelling in your inner man, and inspiring in you the solicitude of a paternal and fraternal charity — as to whether this licence ought to be permitted to our sons and brethren the monks, who neglect to obey the blessed Apostle Paul when he says, 'If any will not work, neither let him eat' — taking up your will and your tongue into His own work, commanded me through you, that I should write something on this to you. May He therefore Himself also be present with me, that I may so obey Him as to understand that I obey Him by His own gift, through the very usefulness of a fruitful labour.
First, then, it must be seen what those men of that profession say, who are unwilling to work; and then, if we find that they think not rightly, we must dispute against them, for their correction and for the fulfilling of the office of our episcopate. 'Not,' they say, 'of this bodily labour, in which either farmers or craftsmen toil, did the Apostle give the precept, when he said, "If any will not work, neither let him eat." For neither could he be contrary to the Gospel, where the Lord himself says: "Therefore I say unto you, Be not anxious for your life, what ye shall eat, nor for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than food, and the body than raiment?"'
'Behold the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? And which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why are ye anxious about raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they toil not, neither do they spin; yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore be not anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek.'
'For your Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Therefore be not anxious for the morrow: for the morrow shall be anxious for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.' 'Behold,' they say, 'where the Lord bids us be free from care concerning our sustenance and covering. How then could the Apostle think against the Lord, so as to prescribe to us that we ought to be so anxious what we may eat and what we may drink and wherewith we may be covered, that he should even burden us with the arts, cares, and labours of craftsmen? Wherefore, in that which he says, "If any will not work, neither let him eat," we ought,' they say, 'to understand spiritual works, of which it is said in another place:'
to each as the Lord has given. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase; and a little later: each shall receive his own reward according to his own labour. For we are God's fellow-workers; you are God's tillage, God's building. According to the grace which was given to me, as a wise master-builder I laid the foundation. Just as, therefore, the Apostle works by planting, watering, building, and laying the foundation, so let him who is unwilling to work not eat. For what does it profit to eat spiritually, that is, to be fed with the word of God, if one does not thereby work for the building up of others? Just as, in the case of that slothful servant, what did it profit him to receive the talent and hide it and not work for the Lord's gains?
Or was it that in the end it should be taken from him, and he himself be cast into the outer darkness? So, they say, we too do this: we read with the brethren who come to us weary from the heat of the world, that they may find rest among us in the word of God and in prayers, psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. We address them, we console them, we exhort them, building them up—if we perceive anything in their life to be according to their rank. If we did not do such works, we should be taking those very spiritual foods from the Lord at our peril; for this the Apostle said: he who is unwilling to work, let him not eat.
Thus these men suppose that they are obeying the apostolic and evangelical judgement, since they both believe that the Gospel commanded us to take no thought for the bodily and temporal want of this life, and hold that the Apostle spoke concerning spiritual work and food when he said: he who is unwilling to work, let him not eat. Nor do they consider that, if someone were to say that the Lord, speaking in parables and similitudes, gave counsel about spiritual sustenance and covering, so that his servants should not be anxious about it—just as He says: when they drag you before tribunals, do not think what you shall speak; for it shall be given you in that hour what you shall speak; for it is not you that speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.
For the discourse of wisdom is indeed spiritual, concerning which He was unwilling that they should take thought, promising that nothing would be lacking to them on that account when they were not anxious—whereas the Apostle, now speaking after the apostolic manner more openly and more properly than figuratively, as very many and almost all things stand in the apostolic epistles, spoke properly concerning bodily work and food: he who is unwilling to work, let him not eat. Their opinion would be rendered doubtful to them, unless, considering the rest of the Lord's words, they found something whereby to prove that He spoke of not being anxious about bodily sustenance and clothing, when He said: do not be anxious what you shall eat and what you shall drink, and wherewith you shall be clothed; as though they would take note of what He says:
for all these things do the nations seek; for there He shows that He spoke of those very bodily and temporal things. Thus, therefore, if the Apostle had said this alone on this matter—he who is unwilling to work, let him not eat—these words could be diverted to another meaning; but since in many other places of his epistles he teaches most plainly what he means by this, they labour in vain to spread darkness over themselves and others, so that what that charity usefully counsels they are not only unwilling to do, but are unwilling even to understand it themselves, or that it be understood by others—not fearing what is written: he refused to understand, that he might do well.
First, therefore, we must show that the blessed Apostle Paul wished the servants of God to do bodily works which should have their end in a great spiritual reward, to this end—that in their very sustenance and covering they should be in need of no man, but should procure these things for themselves with their own hands; then we must show that those evangelical precepts, by which some cherish not only their laziness but even their arrogance, are not contrary to the apostolic precept and example. Let us see, then, whence the Apostle came to say: if any will not work, neither let him eat, and what he goes on to weave together, so that from the very context of the reading the meaning may appear declared. We charge you, he says.
brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw yourselves from every brother who walks in a disorderly manner and not according to the tradition which they received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us, for we were not disorderly among you, neither did we eat any man's bread for nothing, but in labour and toil, working night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you: not because we had not the power, but that we might give ourselves to you as a pattern, whereby you might imitate us. For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any will not work, neither let him eat. For we have heard that some walk disorderly among you, working nothing, but busy about other men's matters.
Now such as these we command and beseech in the Lord Jesus Christ, that working with quietness they may eat their own bread. What can be said against this, seeing that, lest afterwards it should be lawful for anyone to interpret this according to his own will rather than out of charity, he taught by his own example what he commanded? For to him, as an apostle, a preacher of the Gospel, a soldier of Christ, a planter of the vineyard, a shepherd of the flock, the Lord had appointed that he should live by the Gospel; and yet he himself did not exact the stipend due to him, that he might give himself as a pattern to those who desired to exact things not due. As he says to the Corinthians: who serves as a soldier at his own charges at any time? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit? Who feeds a flock and does not partake of the milk of the flock?
Therefore what was owed to him he was unwilling to accept, that by his example those might be restrained who, not being so appointed in the Church, supposed that such things were owed to them. For what is it that he says: neither did we eat any man's bread for nothing, but in labour and toil working night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you: not because we had not the power, but that we might give ourselves to you as a pattern, whereby you might imitate us? Let those, then, to whom he gave this command hear it—that is, those who do not have this power which he had, so that, working only spiritually, they may eat bread free of bodily labour—and in what manner he says:
we command and beseech in Christ, that working with quietness they may eat their own bread; let them not dispute against the most manifest words of the Apostle, for this too pertains to the quietness with which, while working, they ought to eat their own bread. I would still consider and treat these words more thoroughly and diligently, were it not that I have other passages of his epistles far more manifest, by comparison with which these too are made clearer, and which, if these did not exist, would suffice. For writing to the Corinthians on this same matter, he thus says: am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord? If to others I am not an apostle, yet to you at least I am.
For you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord. My defence to those who examine me is this. Have we not the power to eat and to drink? Have we not the liberty to lead about a sister, a woman, even as the other apostles, and the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas? See how first he shows what is lawful for him, and lawful for this reason, because he is an apostle. For he began thus: am I not free? Am I not an apostle? And he proves himself an apostle, saying: have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord? Having proved this, he shows that the same is lawful for him as for the other apostles, that is:
that he should not work with his own hands, but should live by the Gospel, as the Lord appointed—which in what follows he most plainly demonstrated; for to this end also faithful women, having earthly substance, went about with them and ministered to them of their substance, that they might lack none of those things which pertain to the substance of this life. This the blessed Paul indeed shows to be lawful for him, as the other apostles also did, but he afterwards records that he was unwilling to use that power. Not understanding this, some have interpreted, not 'a sister, a woman'—when he said: have we not the power to lead about a sister, a woman?—but 'a wife'.
The ambiguity of the Greek word deceived them, for both 'wife' and 'woman' are expressed in Greek by the same word; although the Apostle so put it that they ought not to have been deceived, since he did not say merely 'a woman', but 'a sister, a woman', nor 'to lead', but 'to lead about'. Yet this ambiguity did not deceive other translators, and they interpreted it 'a woman', not 'a wife'. But whoever thinks that it could not have been done by the apostles, that women of holy conduct should go about with them wherever they preached the Gospel, to minister to them of their substance the things necessary, let him hear the Gospel and learn how they did this after the example of the Lord Himself.
For our Lord, after the manner of His mercy having compassion on the weaker, though angels could minister to Him, both had a purse into which money was put—money which was contributed, of course, by the good faithful, necessary for their sustenance; which purse He entrusted to Judas, that we might learn to tolerate even thieves in the Church, if we cannot avoid them. For he, as is written of him, carried off the things that were put in. And He willed that women should follow Him to prepare and minister the things necessary, showing what is owed to the evangelists and ministers of God, as to soldiers, by the people of God, as by provincials;
so that, if anyone were unwilling to use what was owed to him—as the Apostle Paul was unwilling—he might spend the more upon the Church by not exacting the stipend due, but by supplying his daily sustenance from his own labours. For the innkeeper had heard, to whom that wounded man was brought: whatsoever you shall spend over and above, on my return I will repay you. The Apostle Paul, then, spent the more, who, as he himself testifies, served as a soldier at his own charges. For in the Gospel it is written:
afterwards He Himself went about through city and village, preaching and evangelizing the kingdom of God, and the twelve with Him, and certain women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary who is called Magdalene, out of whom seven demons had gone; Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod's steward; and Susanna; and many others, who ministered to them of their means. This example of the Lord the apostles imitated in receiving the food owed to them; of which the same Lord speaks most plainly. Go, He says, preach, saying that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.
do not possess gold, nor silver, nor money in your belts, no wallet for the journey, neither two tunics, nor sandals, nor a staff; for the labourer is worthy of his food. Behold where the Lord appointed what the same Apostle records. For to this end He said that they should carry none of those things, that, where there was need, they might receive from those to whom they announced the kingdom of God. But lest anyone should suppose that this was granted to the Twelve alone, see what Luke also relates. After these things, he says, the Lord appointed others also, seventy-two, and sent them two by two before His face into every city and place whither He Himself was to come. And He said to them: the harvest indeed is plentiful, but the labourers are few;
pray therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He may send labourers into His harvest. Go; behold, I send you as lambs among wolves. Carry no purse, nor wallet, nor sandals, and salute no man on the way. Into whatever house you enter, first say: peace be to this house. And if a son of peace be there, your peace shall rest upon him; but if not, it shall return to you. Remain in the same house, eating and drinking what things are with them; for the labourer is worthy of his hire. Here it appears that those were not commands, but permissions; so that whoever wished to use it might use that which was lawful for him by the Lord's ordinance;
but if anyone were unwilling to use it, he would not act against a command, but would relinquish his own right, having conducted himself more mercifully and more laboriously in the Gospel, in which he was even unwilling to accept the reward due. Otherwise, the Apostle acted against the Lord's command—he who, after he had shown that it was lawful for him, immediately added: but nevertheless I have not used this power. But let us return to the order and diligently consider that whole passage of the epistle. Have we not, he says, the liberty to eat and to drink? Have we not the liberty to lead about a sister, a woman? What liberty did he mean but that which the Lord gave to those whom He sent to preach the kingdom of heaven, saying: eat the things that are set before you by them;
for the labourer is worthy of his hire—setting himself forth also as an example of the same power, to whom the most faithful women ministered such necessary things of their means? But the Apostle Paul did more, in that he adduced from his fellow-apostles a proof of this liberty permitted by the Lord. For he did not add by way of reproach: even as the other apostles and the brethren of the Lord and Cephas, but that he might thereby show that he was unwilling to accept this, which was proved to be lawful for him to accept by the practice of the rest of his fellow-soldiers also. Or is it I alone and Barnabas who have not the power of not working? Behold, he has removed all doubt even from the slowest hearts, that they may understand of what work he speaks. For why does he say:
is it I alone and Barnabas who have not the power of not working?—except that all the evangelists and ministers of the word of God had the power received from the Lord not to work with their own hands, but to live by the Gospel, working only spiritual things in the preaching of the kingdom of heaven and the building up of the Church's peace? For no one can say that the Apostle spoke of that spiritual working: is it I alone and Barnabas who have not the power of not working? For this power of not working all those had. Let him therefore say—he who tries to distort and pervert the apostolic precepts to his own opinion—let him say, if he dares, that all the evangelists received from the Lord the power of not evangelizing.
But if it is most absurd and most insane to say this, why are they unwilling to understand what is plain to all—that those indeed received the power of not working, but of bodily works, whereby they might seek their sustenance, since the labourer is worthy of his food and his hire, as the Gospel says? Not, then, Paul and Barnabas alone lacked the power of not working, but all alike had this power, which these men did not use, spending the more upon the Church, according as they judged it fitting for the weak in those places where they evangelized. And therefore, lest he should seem to have reproached his fellow-apostles, he adds and says: who serves as a soldier at his own charges at any time? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit?
who feeds a flock and does not partake of the milk of the flock? Do I speak these things after the manner of men? Or does not the law also say this? For in the law of Moses it is written: you shall not muzzle the ox that treads out the corn. Is it for the oxen that God cares? Or does He say it altogether for our sakes? For it is written for our sakes, because he that ploughs ought to plough in hope, and he that threshes, in hope of partaking. By these words the Apostle Paul sufficiently indicates that he had not usurped anything to himself beyond what was owed to his fellow-apostles, because they did not work bodily whereby they might have the necessaries of this life, but, as the Lord appointed, living by the Gospel, ate free bread from those to whom they preached free grace. For they received their stipend as soldiers, and
freely gathered from the fruit of the vineyard planted by them what they needed; and drank of the milk of the flock which they fed; and took their food from the threshing-floor which they threshed. And more openly he links the rest together and altogether removes all evasions of doubt. If we, he says, have sown to you spiritual things, is it a great matter if we reap your carnal things? What are the spiritual things which he sowed, but the word and the ministry of the sacrament of the kingdom of heaven? And what the carnal things which he says it is lawful for him to reap, but these temporal things which are granted to the life and want of the flesh? But he makes plain that he had not sought nor accepted these things owed to him from them, lest he should give any hindrance to the Gospel of Christ.
What remains, but that we understand him to have worked, whereby he might have his sustenance, by bodily and visible work with his own hands? For if he had sought his sustenance and covering from spiritual work—that is, that he should receive these from those whom he was building up in the Gospel—he would not consistently say: if others partake of this power over you, do not we the more? But we have not used this power, but bear all things, lest we should give any hindrance to the Gospel of Christ. What power does he say he did not use, but that which he had received over them from the Lord, namely, to reap their carnal things for the sustenance of this life, which is carried on in the flesh?
Of which power others also were partakers, who did not first announce the Gospel to them, but afterwards came preaching the same to their church. Therefore, when he had said: if we have sown to you spiritual things, is it a great matter if we reap your carnal things? he added: if others partake of this power over you, do not we the more? And when he had demonstrated what power was theirs, but we have not used, he says, this power, but bear all things, lest we should give any hindrance to the Gospel of Christ. Let these men, then, say how from spiritual work the Apostle had carnal sustenance, when he himself openly says that he did not use this power.
But if from spiritual work he did not have carnal sustenance, it remains that he had it from bodily work, and thence says: neither did we eat any man's bread for nothing, but in labour and toil working night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you: not because we had not the power, but that we might give ourselves to you as a pattern, whereby you might imitate us. We bear all things, he says, lest we should give any hindrance to the Gospel of Christ. And he returns again, and in every way, again and again, commends what is lawful for him and yet he does not do. Do you not know, he says, that they who labour in the temple eat the things that are of the temple? They who serve the altar are partakers with the altar? So also the Lord ordained that they who announce the Gospel should live by the Gospel;
but I have used none of these things. What is plainer than this? What is clearer? I fear lest perchance, while I discourse wishing to expound it, that should become obscure which shines and cries aloud of itself. For those who do not understand these words, or feign that they do not understand them, understand mine far less, or profess that they understand them—unless perhaps for this reason they quickly understand ours: because it is granted to them to deride our words when understood, but concerning the Apostle's words the same is not granted. Therefore, where they cannot interpret them otherwise according to their own opinion, they answer that even things clear and manifest are obscure and uncertain, because they dare not say they are crooked and perverse. The man of God cries aloud: the Lord ordained that they who announce the Gospel should live by the Gospel;
but I have used none of these things—and flesh and blood tries to distort the straight, to shut what is open, to cloud what is serene. He did spiritual work, they say, and thence he lived. If it is so, he lived by the Gospel. Why then does he say: the Lord ordained that they who announce the Gospel should live by the Gospel; but I have used none of these things? Or if they wish to interpret this very word here spoken, 'to live', according to the spiritual life, the Apostle had no hope toward God, seeing he did not live by the Gospel, because he said: I have used none of these things. Wherefore, that his hope of eternal life might be sure, the Apostle assuredly lived by the Gospel spiritually. Therefore what he says:
but I have used none of these things—concerning this life which is carried on in the flesh, he causes it without doubt to be understood that he said the Lord had ordained that they who announce the Gospel should live by the Gospel—that is, to carry on this life, which needs sustenance and covering, from the Gospel, as he said above of his fellow-apostles, whence the Lord Himself says: the labourer is worthy of his food, and: the labourer is worthy of his hire. This food, therefore, and this hire owed to the evangelists for the sustaining of this life, the Apostle did not accept from those to whom he preached the Gospel, saying truly: but I have used none of these things. And it follows, and he adds, lest perchance anyone should suppose that he did not accept it because they had not given it:
but I have not written these things that it should be so done in me; for it is good for me rather to die than that anyone should make my glory void. What glory? but that which he wished to have with God, in Christ having compassion on the weak, as he is presently about to say most plainly. For if I preach the Gospel, he says, it is no glory to me; for necessity is laid upon me—that is, of sustaining this life. For woe is me, he says, if I preach not the Gospel—that is, to my own hurt I will not preach the Gospel, because I shall be tormented with hunger and shall have nothing whereby to live. For it follows, and he says: for if I do this willingly, I have a reward. He says he does it willingly, who does it compelled by no necessity of propping up this life, and on this account has a reward, namely, of everlasting glory with God.
But if unwillingly, he says, a dispensation is committed to me—that is, if by the necessity of carrying on this life I am unwillingly compelled to evangelize, a dispensation is committed to me, so that, namely, by my dispensation of it—because I preach Christ, because I preach the truth, though from an occasion, though seeking my own, though compelled by the necessity of earthly gain—others may profit, but I do not have that glorious and everlasting reward with God. What reward, then, he says, shall be mine? He asked, questioning; therefore the delivery must be suspended, until he answers. That this may be more easily understood, let us, as it were, question him:
what reward, then, shall be yours, O Apostle, when you do not accept that earthly reward, owed even to good evangelists who preach not for this reason, but who nevertheless take it as a consequence and as offered by the Lord's ordinance? What reward, then, shall be yours? See what he answers. That, evangelizing, he says, I may set forth the Gospel without cost—that is, that the Gospel may not be costly to believers, lest they should think the Gospel is preached to them for this end, that the evangelists should seem, as it were, to sell it. And yet he returns again and again, to show what is lawful for him by the Lord's right, and which he himself does not do. That I may not abuse, he says, my power in the Gospel. Now indeed, because he did this out of compassion for the weakness of men, let us hear what follows.
for though I am free, he says, from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might gain the more: to those who are under the law, as under the law, though I myself am not under the law, that I might gain those who were under the law; to those who are without the law, as without the law, though I am not without the law of God, but am in the law of Christ, that I might gain those who are without the law. This he did not out of the craftiness of pretending, but out of the mercy of compassion—that is, not as though he feigned himself a Jew, as some have supposed, because he observed the old legal ordinances at Jerusalem. For he did this according to his own free and manifest opinion, in which he says: was any man called being circumcised?
let him not draw it over—that is, let him not so live as though he had drawn over his foreskin and covered what he had bared, as he says in another place: your circumcision has become uncircumcision. According, therefore, to this his own opinion, in which he says: was any man called being circumcised? let him not draw it over. Was any called in uncircumcision? let him not be circumcised—he did those things which, by those who do not understand and attend too little, he was thought to have feigned; for he was a Jew and called circumcised; he was unwilling to draw it over, that is, unwilling to live as if he were not circumcised. For this he now had in his power. And he was indeed not under the law like those who observed it in a servile manner, but nevertheless in the law of God and of Christ.
For that law and the law of God were not different things, as the lost Manichaeans are wont to say. Otherwise, if, when he did those things, he is to be thought to have feigned, he also feigned a pagan and sacrificed to idols, because he says he became to those who are without the law as without the law—by whom he certainly wishes none to be understood but the Gentiles, whom we call pagans. It is one thing, then, to be under the law, another to be in the law, another to be without the law. Under the law are the carnal Jews; in the law are the spiritual, both Jews and Christians, whence the former kept that ancestral custom, but imposed not unwonted burdens upon the believing Gentiles; and therefore they too were circumcised;
but without the law are the Gentiles who have not yet believed, to whom nevertheless the Apostle testifies that he accommodated himself by merciful compassion, not by shifty simulation—that is, so that he might succour the carnal Jew or pagan in the same manner in which he himself, if he were such, would have wished to be succoured: bearing indeed their weakness in the likeness of compassion, not deceiving in the fiction of a lie, as he immediately goes on and says: I became weak to the weak, that I might gain the weak. For from this he spoke, so as to say all those things also. As, therefore, that he became weak to the weak was no lie, so also were the other things above.
For what weakness of his does he say he had toward the weak, but that of having compassion on them so far that, lest he should seem a seller of the Gospel and of the word of God, and, falling into an evil suspicion among the unskilled, should hinder its course, he was unwilling to accept what was owed to him by the Lord's right? But if he had wished it, he would certainly not have lied, because it was truly owed; and because he was unwilling, he certainly did not lie.
For he did not say that it was not owed to him, but showed that it was owed, and that he had not used, nor at all wished to use, what was owed—by that very thing made weak, in that he was unwilling to use his power, being clothed, namely, with so merciful an affection that he considered how he would wish it done with himself, if he too were so weak that, from those through whom the Gospel was preached to him, if he saw them accepting sustenance, he might, as it were, suspect the trafficking of a market. Of this his weakness he says in another place: we became little children in your midst, as if a nurse should cherish her own children. For the context of the reading indicates this.
for neither, he says, at any time did we use flattering words, as you know, nor a cloak of covetousness—God is witness—nor did we seek glory from men, neither from you nor from others, though we might have been burdensome to you as apostles of Christ; but we became little children in your midst, as if a nurse should cherish her own children. What, then, he says to the Corinthians—that he has the power of his apostleship, as the other apostles also, which power he testifies he did not use—this too in this place he says to the Thessalonians: though we might have been burdensome to you as apostles of Christ, according to what the Lord says: the labourer is worthy of his hire. For this is what indicates that he speaks of that which he set forth above:
Nor did he do so on any occasion of covetousness—God is his witness. For through this—that what was owed by the Lord's right to the good evangelists was owed not to those who preach the gospel for this reason, but to those who seek the kingdom of God, so that all these things might be added unto them—certain others found an occasion, of whom he says the same thing: 'For such do not serve God, but their own belly.' It was from these that the Apostle wished to cut away this occasion, so that he might forgo even what was justly owed to himself. Indeed he plainly shows this in the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, saying that his needs were supplied by other churches. For he had come, as it appears, to such great want that from far-off churches necessities were sent to him, while nevertheless from those among whom he was present he received no such thing.
'Did I commit a sin,' he says, 'in humbling myself that you might be exalted, because I preached the gospel of God to you freely? I despoiled other churches, taking wages for ministering to you; and when I was present with you and in want, I was a burden to no one. For what was lacking to me the brethren who came from Macedonia supplied; and in all things I have kept myself, and will keep myself, from being burdensome to you. The truth of Christ is in me, that this glorying shall not be broken off in me in the regions of Achaia. Why? Because I do not love you? God knows. But what I do, and will do, is that I may cut off the occasion of those who desire an occasion, that in that wherein they glory they may be found even as we are.'
Of this occasion, then, which here he says he wishes to cut off, he wished it to be understood what he there said: 'Nor on any occasion of covetousness—God is his witness.' And what here he said, 'humbling myself that you might be exalted,' this in the First Epistle to the same Corinthians: 'To the weak I became weak'; this to the Thessalonians: 'I became a little one in the midst of you, as if a nurse should cherish her children.' Therefore attend to what follows. 'So,' he says, 'yearning over you, we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own souls, because you had become most dear to us. For you remember, brethren, our labor and toil, working night and day, that we might not burden any of you.' This, then, is what he says above:
'when we might have been burdensome to you as Christ's apostles.' For on account of the dangers to the weak—lest, stirred up by false suspicions, they should hate the gospel as though it were something for sale—he did this, moved as it were by fatherly and motherly bowels of affection. So too in the Acts of the Apostles he speaks in the same way, when, sending from Miletus to Ephesus, he had called from there the elders of the church, to whom, among many things, he said: 'I have coveted no man's silver or gold or clothing. You yourselves know that these hands have served my necessities, and those of them that were with me. In all things I have shown you that so laboring we ought to help the weak, remembering also the words of the Lord Jesus, that he himself said: It is more blessed to give than to receive.' Here perhaps someone may say:
If the Apostle worked at some bodily labor by which to sustain this present life, what was that work itself, and when was he free both to work and to preach the gospel? To this I reply: suppose me not to know; that nevertheless he worked bodily and thereby lived in the flesh, not using the authority which the Lord had given to the apostles—that whoever announces the gospel should live by the gospel—these things which have been said above testify without any doubt. For it was not said in one place only, nor briefly, so that it might by the tergiversation of any cunning man be twisted and perverted into another meaning.
Since, then, the opposition of those who contradict is crushed by such great and frequent weights of so weighty an authority, why do they demand of me either what work he did or when he did it? One thing I know: that he committed no thefts, nor was he a housebreaker or a robber, nor a charioteer or a hunter or an actor, nor a maker of base gain; but innocently and honestly he wrought those things that are suited to human uses, such as are the works of smiths, builders, cobblers, farmers, and things like these. For honesty itself does not censure what the pride of those men censures who love to be called honest but do not love to be so. The Apostle, therefore, would not have disdained either to undertake some rustic labor or to engage in the toil of craftsmen. For he who says:
'Be without offense to Jews and to Greeks and to the church of God'—whom in this matter he could have shrunk from, I do not know. If they should name the Jews, the patriarchs pastured flocks; if the Greeks, whom we also call pagans, even the philosophers held cobblers in much honor among themselves; if the church of God, that just man, chosen to be a witness of the ever-abiding virginity of his marriage, to whom the Virgin Mary was betrothed, she who bore Christ, was a carpenter. Whatever, then, of these things men do with innocence and without fraud, it is good. For the Apostle himself takes precaution against this, lest anyone through the necessity of sustaining life should slip into evil works. 'Let him that stole,' he says, 'steal no more;'
'but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to impart to him who has need.' It suffices, then, to know this: that in bodily work itself the Apostle wrought that which is good. But when he was accustomed to work—that is, in what intervals of time, lest he be hindered from evangelizing—who could comprehend? Certainly he himself did not keep silent that he worked both in the hours of the day and of the night. But these men, who as though very busy and occupied inquire about the time of working—what are they doing? Have they themselves filled the lands with the gospel from Jerusalem round about even to Illyricum? Or have they undertaken for the peace of the church whatever of the barbarous nations remains yet to be visited and fulfilled?
We know them gathered together most idly into a certain holy society. A marvelous thing did the Apostle do, who, truly amid so great a solicitude for all the churches—both those already planted and those to be planted, all pertaining to his care and labor—yet worked also with his hands; and nevertheless for this reason, when he was among the Corinthians and in want, he was a burden to none of those among whom he was present, but plainly what was lacking to him was supplied by the brethren who came from Macedonia. For he too, on account of such necessities of the saints who, although they obey his precepts—that working in silence they should eat their own bread—can nevertheless for many causes be in need of some supplement of such sustenance, when he had said such things, teaching and forewarning:
'Now those who are such we command and beseech in the Lord Jesus Christ, that working in silence they eat their own bread'—lest those who had wherewithal to furnish the servants of God with necessities should grow slothful on this occasion, foreseeing this he at once subjoined: 'But you, brethren, be not weary in well-doing.' And when writing to Titus, saying: 'Set forward Zenas the lawyer and Apollos diligently, that nothing be wanting to them,' in order to show whence it should be that nothing be wanting to them, he immediately added: 'And let our people also learn to be foremost in good works for necessary uses, that they be not unfruitful.'
Timothy also, whom he calls his most genuine son, since he knew him to be weak in body—as he shows in admonishing him not to drink water but to use a little wine on account of his stomach and his frequent infirmities—because he could not labor in bodily work, lest perchance, being unwilling to lack daily sustenance, he should seek for himself some businesses from those to whom he ministered the gospel, by which the attention of his mind might be entangled—for it is one thing to labor with the body with a free mind, as does a craftsman, if he be not fraudulent and greedy and eager for private gain; but another thing to occupy the mind itself with the cares of gathering money without bodily labor, as are traders or agents or contractors;
for these preside over care, they do not work with their hands, and therefore they occupy their very mind with the anxiety of possessing—Timothy, then, lest he should fall into such things, since through the infirmity of his body he could not work with his hands, he thus exhorts and admonishes and consoles. 'Labor,' he says, 'as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one warring for God entangles himself in secular businesses, that he may please him to whom he has proved himself. For he who strives in the contest is not crowned unless he has striven lawfully.' Here, lest that man should suffer straits, saying, 'To dig I am not able, to beg I am ashamed,' he added: 'The husbandman that labors must first partake of the fruits,' according to that which he had said to the Corinthians: 'Who serves as a soldier at his own charges ever?'
'Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit? Who feeds a flock and does not partake of the milk of the flock?' Thus he made the chaste evangelist secure—one who evangelizes not for this end, that he might sell the gospel, but who nevertheless is unable to furnish himself with his own hands the necessities of this life—so that he might understand that what he took as necessary for himself from those for whom he served as a soldier over provincials, as it were, and whom he tended by cultivation as a vineyard, or fed as a flock, was not begging, but authority. On account, therefore, of these occupations of the servants of God, or their bodily infirmities, which cannot altogether be lacking, the Apostle not only permits the needs of the saints to be supplied by the good faithful, but even most wholesomely exhorts it.
For, apart from that authority which he says he himself did not use—which nevertheless he charges is to be served by the faithful, saying: 'Let him who is catechized in the word communicate to him who catechizes him in all good things'—apart, then, from this authority which the preachers of the word he often testifies to have over those to whom they preach, he charges and exhorts that even to the saints who had sold and distributed all their goods and dwelt at Jerusalem in the holy fellowship of life, calling nothing their own, to whom all things were common, and who were one soul and one heart unto God, necessities should be conferred by the churches of the Gentiles. Hence is that passage to the Romans. 'Now,' he says, 'I will go to Jerusalem to minister to the saints.'
'For it has pleased Macedonia and Achaia to make some contribution for the poor among the saints who are at Jerusalem. For it pleased them, and they are their debtors. For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, they ought also to minister to them in carnal things.' This is like that which he says to the Corinthians: 'If we have sown to you spiritual things, is it a great matter if we reap your carnal things?' Likewise in the Second Epistle to the Corinthians: 'Now we make known to you, brethren, the grace of God which has been given in the churches of Macedonia, that in much trial of tribulation the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their singleness of heart;'
'For according to their power, I bear witness, and beyond their power they were willing, entreating us with much beseeching for the grace and the fellowship of the ministering which is done unto the saints; and not as we hoped, but they gave their own selves first to the Lord, and to us by the will of God, so that we exhorted Titus that, as he had begun, so he would also complete this grace among you. But as you abound in all things, in faith and word and knowledge and all diligence, and in your love toward us, so may you abound also in this grace. I speak not by way of commandment, but by occasion of the diligence of others, proving also the genuineness of your love.'
'For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty might be made rich. And I give counsel in this; for this is profitable for you, who have begun not only to do, but also to will, from the year before; now therefore complete it also by the deed, that as there was a readiness to will, so there may be also to perform out of that which each one has. For if the readiness be present, it is acceptable according to that which one has, not according to that which he has not. For it is not that there should be relief to others and straitness to you, but by equality in this present time, that your abundance may supply their want, so that their abundance also may come to supply your want, that there may be equality. As it is written:'
'He that had much, had nothing over, and he that had little, had no lack.' 'But thanks be to God, who put the same earnest care for us into the heart of Titus, because he indeed accepted the exhortation; but being more earnest, of his own accord he went out unto you. And we sent with him the brother whose praise in the gospel is throughout all the churches; and not only so, but who was also ordained by the churches as a companion of our pilgrimage with this grace which is administered by us to the glory of the Lord and our ready mind; avoiding this, that no one should blame us in this bounty which is administered by us. For we provide for good things not only before God, but also before men.'
In these words it appears how much he willed not only that there should be care by the holy peoples to minister necessities to the holy servants of God—giving counsel in this, because it profited those who did it more than those toward whom they did it (for to the latter something else profited, namely, to use holily this obsequious service of their brethren toward themselves, and neither for this to serve God nor to take these things except to supply necessity, not to feed sloth)—but also the blessed Apostle says his own care to be so great in this ministration, which was now being transmitted through Titus, that he mentions a companion of his pilgrimage ordained for this purpose by the churches, a man of God of good testimony, whose praise, he says, is in the gospel throughout all the churches.
And to this end he says that man was ordained a companion to him, that he might avoid the reproaches of men, lest without the testimony of the saints in this ministry of associates he should be thought, as it were, to take for himself and to turn into his own bosom what he received from the weak and the impious, which he received to supply the necessities of the saints, to be carried by himself or distributed to those in need. And a little after he says: 'For concerning the ministry which is done unto the saints, it is superfluous for me to write to you. For I know the readiness of your mind, of which I glory on your behalf among the Macedonians, that Achaia was ready from the year before, and your zeal has provoked very many.'
'But we have sent the brethren, lest our glorying on your behalf should be made void in this respect, that, as I said, you may be ready; lest, if the Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we—not to say you—should be ashamed in this matter. Therefore I thought it necessary to ask the brethren to go before to you and prepare beforehand this your blessing promised long ago, that it may be ready as a blessing, not as covetousness. But this: he that sows sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he that sows in blessing, in blessing shall also reap. Each one according as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity: for God loves a cheerful giver.'
'And God is able to make all grace abound in you, that having always all sufficiency in all things, you may abound unto every good work—as it is written: He has dispersed abroad, he has given to the poor; his righteousness abides forever.'
'Now he that ministers seed to the sower will both furnish bread for food and multiply your sowing and increase the growing fruits of your righteousness—that you, being enriched in all things unto all singleness of heart, which works through us thanksgiving to God, because the ministry of this service not only supplies the things that are lacking to the saints, but also makes it to abound through the thanksgivings of many to God; through the proof of this ministration glorifying God for the obedience of your confession unto the gospel of Christ, and for the singleness of your fellowship toward them and toward all, and by their own prayer for you, longing after you on account of the excellent grace of God in you. Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift.'
With how great a richness of holy gladness was the Apostle suffused, while he speaks of the mutual supplying of the want of Christ's provincials—here from carnal things toward those, there from spiritual things toward these—so that he cried out, and as it were belched forth the fullness of holy joys, saying: 'Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift!' As, then, the Apostle did not cease—nay rather the Spirit of God, possessing and filling and moving his heart—to exhort the faithful who had this kind of substance, that nothing should be lacking to the necessities of the servants of God, who willed to hold a loftier grade of holiness in the church, so as to cut off all bonds of worldly hope and to dedicate a free mind to the divine warfare:
so ought they too to obey his precepts, that they may have compassion on the weak, and, not bound by love of private property, labor with their own hands in common, and obey their superiors without murmuring, so that this may be supplied from the offerings of the good faithful. This—when to those who labor and work at something whereby to procure their food, they nevertheless think it lacking on account of the bodily infirmities of some, and on account of ecclesiastical occupations or the instruction of wholesome doctrine. For what those do who are unwilling to work bodily, to what thing they are at leisure, I desire to know. 'To prayers,' they say, 'and psalms and reading and the word of God.' A holy life plainly, and praiseworthy for the sweetness of Christ;
but if we are not to be called away from these things, then neither must we eat, nor must the very foods be prepared daily, that they may be set out and taken. But if the necessity of infirmity itself compels the servants of God to be at leisure for these things at certain intervals of time, why do we not also assign some portions of time to observing the apostolic precepts? For one prayer of an obedient man is sooner heard than ten thousand of a despiser. But the divine songs even those working with their hands can easily sing, and console the very labor as with a divine boat-song. Or are we ignorant into what vanities, and very often even basenesses of theatrical fables, all craftsmen give their hearts and tongues, while their hands do not withdraw from the work?
What, then, hinders a servant of God, working with his hands, from meditating in the law of the Lord and singing psalms to the name of the Lord Most High? So indeed that, for the learning of those things which he may recall from memory, he should have set-apart times. For to this end also those good works of the faithful for the aid of supplying necessities ought not to be lacking, that the hours in which one is at leisure for instructing the mind—so that those bodily works cannot be carried on—should not oppress him with need. But those who say that they are at leisure for reading—do they not find there what the Apostle enjoined? What perversity, then, is this, to be unwilling to obey the reading, while one wishes to be at leisure for it, and, in order that what is good may be read the longer, therefore to be unwilling to do what is read?
For who does not know that each one so much the more quickly profits when he reads good things, the more quickly he does what he reads? But if a discourse must be delivered to someone, and it so occupies him that he is not free to work with his hands, can indeed all in a monastery do this—either expound the divine readings to brethren coming to them from another kind of life, or dispute wholesomely about certain questions? Since, then, not all can, why under this pretext do all wish to be at leisure? And even if all could, they ought to do it by turns, not only lest the rest be occupied away from necessary works, but also because it suffices that, when many are listening, one should speak.
Then, how could the Apostle himself be free to work with his own hands, unless he appointed certain times for dispensing the word of God? For God did not will even this to be hidden from us. For both of what craft he was a workman, and at what times he was at leisure for dispensing the gospel, holy Scripture has not kept silent. For when the day of his departure was pressing upon him, being set at Troas, even on the first day of the week, the brethren being gathered together to break bread, so great was the intentness and so necessary the discussion, that the discourse was prolonged even until midnight, as though it had escaped them that on that day there was no fasting; but when he was to tarry in any place, disputing daily, who could doubt that he had hours appointed for this office?
For at Athens, when he was there, because he had found most zealous inquirers into things, it is thus written of him: 'He disputed therefore with the Jews in the synagogue, and with the Gentiles in the streets, in the marketplace, throughout every day, with all who were present.' For not in the synagogue throughout every day, where the custom was to discourse on the Sabbath, but 'in the marketplace,' he says, 'throughout every day'; because of the studies, of course, of the Athenians. For thus it follows: 'But certain of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers conferred with him.' And a little after it says: 'Now the Athenians and the strangers sojourning there were at leisure for nothing else than to tell or to hear something new.' Let us suppose the Apostle, on all those days that he was at Athens, not to have worked;
for on this account also his want was supplied from Macedonia, as he says in the Second Epistle to the Corinthians. Although he could also at other hours and by night, since he was so strong both in mind and in body. But when he had gone out from Athens, let us see what the Scripture says. 'He disputed,' it says, 'in the synagogue every Sabbath': this at Corinth. At Troas, therefore, where by the necessity of the impending departure the discourse was drawn out until midnight, it was the first day of the week, which is called the Lord's day: whence we understand that he was not with Jews, but with Christians, since even the narrator himself says that they had been gathered together to break bread.
And this itself is the best governance, that all things distributed in their own times be carried on in order, lest, wrapped in turbulent entanglements, they perturb the human mind. There too it is said what the Apostle worked. 'After these things,' it says, 'departing from Athens he came to Corinth. And when he had found a certain Jew named Aquila, a Pontic by race, lately come from Italy, and Priscilla his wife, because Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome, he came to them, and because of the similarity of craft he stayed with them, working; for they were tentmakers.' If they should attempt to interpret this allegorically, they show how they profit in the ecclesiastical letters for which they boast to be at leisure.
And surely those things which have been said above: 'Have I alone and Barnabas not the power of not working?' and: 'We have not used this power,' and: 'when we might have been burdensome to you as Christ's apostles,' and: 'working night and day, that we might not burden any of you,' and: 'the Lord has ordained that those who announce the gospel should live by the gospel; but I have used none of these things'—and other things of this sort—let them either expound otherwise, or, if they are pressed by the most brilliant light of truth, let them understand and obey: or, if they either will not or cannot obey, let them at least confess those who are willing to be the better, but those who are also able, the more blessed.
For it is one thing to allege bodily infirmity, whether true or feigned; but another thing so to be deceived and so to deceive, that moreover it should therefore seem that there is a greater righteousness in the servants of God, because sloth was able to reign among the unlearned. For he who shows a true infirmity of body is to be treated humanely; but he who feigns a false one and cannot be convicted, is to be left to God. Yet neither of them fixes a pernicious rule, because the good servant of God both serves his manifestly weak brother, and, when he believes one who deceives, because he does not think him evil, does not imitate him so as to be evil; and if he believes him, does not think him a deceiver. And nonetheless he does not imitate him. But from that one who says: 'This is the true righteousness, that we should in nothing'—
by working bodily should imitate the birds of the air, since he who has wrought any such thing acts against the gospel—whosoever, being weak in mind, hears these things and believes them, is to be lamented, not because he is thus at leisure, but because he thus errs. Here arises another question. For perhaps someone may say: What then? Did the other apostles and the brethren of the Lord and Cephas sin, because they did not work? Or did they bring a hindrance to the gospel, because the blessed Paul said that he for this reason did not use this power, lest he should give any hindrance to the gospel of Christ? For if they sinned because they did not work, then they had not received the power of not working, but of living by the gospel.
But if they had received this power by the Lord's ordaining, that those who announced the gospel should live by the gospel, and by his saying: 'The laborer is worthy of his food'—the power which Paul, giving out something more, was unwilling to use—they certainly did not sin. If they did not sin, they gave no hindrance. For it is no small sin to hinder the gospel. But if this is so, then to us also, they say, it is free both to use and not to use this power. This question I would resolve briefly, if I should say—and I would justly say—that the Apostle is to be believed.
For he himself knew why in the churches of the Gentiles the gospel ought not to be carried about for sale, not blaming his fellow apostles, but distinguishing his own ministry, because they had thus distributed among themselves—without doubt with the Holy Spirit admonishing—the provinces for evangelizing, so that Paul and Barnabas should go to the Gentiles, but they to the circumcision. Yet that he enjoined this on those who had not such a power, the things which have now been said in great number make manifest. But these our brethren rashly arrogate to themselves, as I judge, that they have such a power. For if they are evangelists, I confess, they have it; if ministers of the altar, dispensers of the sacraments, they rightly do not arrogate this to themselves, but plainly claim the power.
If at least they had something in this world by which they might easily sustain this life without craftwork, which, being converted to God, they distributed to the needy, their infirmity is both to be believed and to be borne. For such men are wont, not better, as many think, but—what is true—being more delicately reared, to be unable to sustain the labor of bodily works. Such perhaps were many at Jerusalem. For it is also written that they sold their possessions and laid the prices of them before the feet of the apostles, that distribution might be made to every one, according as there was need. Because they were found near at hand and useful to the Gentiles, who were called from the worship of idols afar off, according to that which was said:
'For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem,' the Apostle called the Gentile Christians their debtors. 'They are their debtors,' he says, and he added why; 'for if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things,' he says, 'they ought also to minister to them in carnal things.' But now for the most part men come to this profession of the service of God even from a servile condition, or as freedmen, or freed by their masters for this very purpose, and from a rustic life, and from the exercise of craftsmen and plebeian labor—all the more happily as they were more hardily reared: whom if they should not be admitted, it is a grave fault; for many of that number have proved themselves truly great and worthy of imitation. For on this account also God chose the weak things of the world, that he might confound the strong;
'and God chose the foolish things of the world, that he might confound the wise; and the base things of the world, and the things which are not, as though they were, that the things which are might be brought to nought, that no flesh should glory before God.' This pious and holy consideration, therefore, brings it about that even such are admitted who bring no proof of a life changed for the better. For it does not appear whether they have come from a purpose of serving God, or whether, fleeing a needy and laborious life, they have wished to be fed and clothed in idleness, and moreover to be honored by those by whom they had been accustomed to be despised and worn down.
Such men, then, since they cannot excuse themselves from working on the ground of bodily weakness — for they are convicted by the habit of their past life — take cover under the shade of an evil training, so that, out of a misunderstood Gospel, they contrive to pervert the apostolic precepts: truly they are 'the birds of the sky,' but by lifting themselves on high through pride, and 'the grass of the field,' but by having a carnal mind. For there has befallen them that which the same Apostle says must be guarded against in undisciplined younger widows: 'for at the same time they also learn to be idle; and not only idle, but also busybodies and gossips, speaking things which they ought not.'
This he was saying of evil women, a thing which we also grieve and lament over in evil men, who against the very one in whose epistles we read these words idly and verbosely speak the things that ought not to be spoken.
And those among them who have come to the holy warfare with the intention of pleasing him to whom they have offered themselves for approval, being so vigorous in bodily strength and sound in health that, according to the Apostle, they are able not only to be instructed but also to work — these, being caught up by the idle and corrupt conversations of the former sort, which through their inexperienced novitiate they are unable to judge, are transformed by a pestilent contagion into the same ruin. They not only fail to imitate the obedience of the holy men who work in quietness, and of other monasteries living in a most wholesome discipline according to the apostolic rule, but they even insult their betters, preaching sloth as though it were the preserver of the Gospel, and accusing mercy as though it were a transgressor.
For he works far more mercifully toward the souls of the weak who takes thought for the good name of God's servants, than does he toward the bodies of the needy who breaks bread for the hungry. Wherefore, would that these men, who wish to keep their hands idle, might keep their tongues wholly idle too! For they would not invite so many to imitation, if they set before them examples that were not only slothful but also mute. But as it is, against the Apostle of Christ they recite the Gospel of Christ. For so marvellous are the works of the slothful that they would fain hinder the Gospel with that very thing which the Apostle enjoined and did precisely that the Gospel itself might not be hindered.
And yet, if we should compel them to live, according to their own understanding, out of the very words of the Gospel, they will first attempt to persuade us that these words are not to be understood as they understand them. For certainly they say that they ought not to work because the birds of the sky neither sow nor reap — the likeness which the Lord gave us that we might not be anxious about such necessities. Why then do they not attend to what follows? For it was not said only that they do not sow nor reap, but it was added: 'neither do they gather into barns.' Now 'barns' or 'granaries' may be called, word for word, 'storehouses.' Why then do these men wish to have idle hands and full storehouses?
Why do they store up and keep the things they take from the labours of others, so that daily something may be brought forth from them? Why, in short, do they grind and cook? For the birds do not do this. Or if they find people whom they can persuade even to this task, that these should bring them each day meals ready prepared, at least they draw water for themselves either from springs or from cisterns or wells, and store it up: this the birds do not do. But if this pleases them, let the good faithful also and the provincials most devoted to the eternal King strive to serve his most valiant soldiers even to this extent, so that they may not be compelled even to fetch water for themselves — if indeed by a new degree of righteousness they have surpassed even those who were then at Jerusalem.
For those men, when famine was at hand and had been foretold beforehand through the prophets who then were, the good faithful sent grain from Greece, out of which I believe they made bread for themselves, or at least saw to its being made: which the birds do not do. But if now these men, as I had begun to say, have surpassed even those by some degree of righteousness, and in all that pertains to the passing of this life act just as the birds do, let them show us men serving birds, as they themselves wish to be served — unless it be birds that are caught and shut up, in which no trust is placed, lest, once flying, they should not return: and yet even these prefer to enjoy their liberty and to take from the fields as much as is enough, rather than to accept what men set before them ready prepared.
Accordingly, again those will surpass these men by another and loftier degree of righteousness, who so order themselves that daily they go out into the fields as though to pasture, and at whatever time they find it, pluck their food, and, their hunger quieted, return. But plainly, on account of the keepers of the fields, how good it would be if the Lord also deigned to bestow wings, so that the servants of God, found in others' fields, might not be seized like thieves, but chased off like starlings. As it is, however, that man will imitate the bird as far as he can, whom the hunter has not been able to catch. But behold, let all the servants of God grant that, when they wish, they may go out into their fields and thence depart safe and refreshed:
just as it was commanded to the people of Israel through the Law, that in their fields no one should hold a thief as a thief, unless one who wished to carry off something with him; for one who had touched nothing other than what he had eaten, they were to let go free and unpunished. Whence also, when the Lord's disciples were plucking ears of grain, the Jews raised a false charge about the Sabbath rather than about theft. But what will have to be done in those seasons of the year in which food that can be eaten at once is not found in the fields? Whoever shall have attempted to carry off to his home anything to prepare for himself by cooking, will, according to these men's understanding, hear from the Gospel: 'Put it down; for the birds do not do this.'
But let us grant even this — that throughout the whole turning of the year there can be found in the fields, whether from tree or from herbs or from any roots, something that can be taken as food uncooked; or at least that so great a hardiness of body is applied that even those things which ought to be cooked, taken raw, do no harm, and that one can go forth for fodder even in any winter's severities, and thus it comes about that nothing is carried off to be prepared, nothing is laid by for the morrow: those men will not be able to keep such rules who, separated for many days from the sight of men and granting no one access to themselves, shut themselves up, living in great intentness of prayers.
For these are accustomed to shut up with themselves food that is indeed most easily obtained and most cheap, yet enough for those days on which they have resolved to be seen by no one: which the birds do not do. And their exercise in so wonderful a self-restraint — seeing that they have the leisure in which to do these things, and set themselves forth to be imitated not with proud arrogance but with merciful holiness — I not only do not blame, but, as much as it deserves, I am unable to praise. Yet what do we say of these men according to the said interpreters' understanding, out of the words of the Gospel? Or is it perhaps that the holier they are, the more unlike the birds they are, because unless they lay up food for themselves for very many days, they will not be able so to shut themselves up as they do? And assuredly they too, together with us, hear:
'Do not, therefore, be anxious for the morrow.' Wherefore, to embrace it briefly, let these men, who by a perverse interpretation of the Gospel labour to pervert such manifest apostolic precepts, either not be anxious for the morrow, like the birds of the sky, or obey the Apostle, like beloved sons; nay rather, let them do both, since both agree. For Paul, the servant of Christ Jesus, would not advise things contrary to his Lord. For to these men we say openly: if you so understand the birds of the sky in the Gospel that you refuse to procure food and covering by working with your hands, then lay by nothing at all for the morrow, just as the birds of the sky lay by nothing. But if to lay by something for the morrow can be not against the Gospel, where it was said:
'Behold the birds of the sky, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns' — then also it can be not against the Gospel nor against the likeness of the birds of the sky, to pass this life of the flesh amid the toil of bodily labour. For if they be pressed out of the Gospel to lay by nothing for the morrow, they most rightly answer: why then did the Lord himself have money-bags, in which to store up the money that had been collected? Why, so long before, when famine was at hand, was grain sent to the holy fathers? Why did the apostles thus provide the necessities for the want of the saints, that there might be no lack in time to come, so that the most blessed Paul wrote to the Corinthians in his epistle: 'Now concerning the collections for the saints, as I have directed the churches of Galatia, so do you also.'
'On the first day of the week, let each one of you put aside by himself, treasuring up whatever pleases him, so that the collections may not be made only when I come. And when I have arrived, whomever you shall approve, these I will send with letters to carry your gift to Jerusalem. And if it be worthy that I too should go, they shall go with me.' These and many other things they bring forth most copiously and most truly. To whom we reply: you see, then, that although the Lord said, 'Do not be anxious for the morrow,' you are nevertheless not compelled by these words to reserve nothing for the morrow. Why then do you say that by these same words you are compelled to be at leisure? Why are the birds of the sky not an example to you for reserving nothing, and yet you wish them to be an example for doing nothing? Someone will say:
What profit, then, is there to a servant of God, that, having left behind the former actions which he had in the world, he turns to this spiritual life and warfare, if he must still busy himself with occupations like a craftsman? As though, indeed, it could easily be set forth in words how great is the profit of that which the Lord said to the rich man asking counsel about attaining eternal life — that, if he wished to be perfect, he should do this: that, having sold what he had and distributed it to the want of the poor, he should follow him. Or did anyone follow the Lord with so unencumbered a course as he who said: 'I have not run in vain, nor laboured in vain'? — who nevertheless both enjoined and did these works.
This authority, so great, ought to have sufficed for us who are learned and instructed, both as an example of relinquishing our former resources and of working with our hands. But we too, aided by the Lord himself, can perhaps in some fashion understand what profit it is that God's servants, even while thus working, have nonetheless left behind their former occupations. For if anyone is converted to this life from wealth and is hindered by no bodily weakness, are we so bereft of the savour of Christ that we do not understand how great a swelling of former pride is healed, when, the superfluities being cut away by which the soul was before ruinously puffed up, for the few things that remain naturally necessary to this life, even the humility of a workman is by no means refused?
But if anyone is converted to this life from poverty, let him not think that he is doing what he used to do, if, from love of increasing his private property, however small, now no longer seeking the things that are his own but the things that are of Jesus Christ, he has passed over to the charity of the common life, about to live in the fellowship of those for whom there is one soul and one heart in God — so that no one calls anything his own, but all things are common to them.
For if the ancient chieftains of this earthly commonwealth are wont to be praised in the most illustrious eloquence of their men of letters, because they so preferred the common concern of the whole people of their city to their own private affairs, that a certain one of them, a triumphant conqueror after Africa was subdued, had nothing to give his daughter at her wedding except that she was dowered from the public treasury by decree of the senate — with what spirit ought a citizen of that eternal city, the heavenly Jerusalem, to be in his own commonwealth, except that the very thing which he works out with his own hands he should put in common with his brother, and, if anything be lacking to that brother, supply it from the common store, saying with him whose precept and example he has followed: 'as having nothing, and possessing all things'?
Wherefore even those who, having left or distributed among the poor either ample or whatever wealth, wished to be numbered among Christ's poor with pious and salutary humility, if they are so strong in body and are free from ecclesiastical occupations — although, since they bring so great a proof of their spirit, and contribute either very much or not a little to the want of the same fellowship out of those goods which they had, the common estate itself and brotherly charity ought to owe them in turn the sustaining of their life — nevertheless, if they too work with their hands, so as to take away all excuse from the slothful who come from a humbler and therefore more inured life, they act far more mercifully than when they divided all their goods among the needy.
But if they be unwilling to do this, who would dare to compel them? Yet for them work must be found in the monastery, even though freer from bodily exertion, but to be attended to with vigilant administration, so that not even they may eat their bread — since it has now become common — for nothing. Nor is it to be regarded in what monasteries or in what place each one spent what he had upon the needy brethren. For of all Christians there is one commonwealth. And therefore whoever has bestowed necessaries upon Christians anywhere, wherever he himself also receives what is necessary for himself, receives it from Christ; because wherever he too gave to such, who received it but Christ?
But those who, even outside this holy fellowship, used to pass their life by bodily labour — and from their number the greater part come to the monasteries, since in the human race itself the greater part are such — if they are unwilling to work, let them not eat either. For it is not for this that in the Christian warfare the rich are humbled unto piety, that the poor should be exalted unto pride. For it in no way befits that in that life where senators become labourers, there craftsmen should become idlers, and that where those who had been lords of estates come, having left their luxuries, there rustics should become dainty. 'But,' someone objects, 'the Lord says: Be not anxious for your soul what you shall eat, nor for your body what you shall put on.' Rightly, since he had said above: 'You cannot serve God and mammon.'
For he who preaches the Gospel for this reason, that he may have wherewith to eat and wherewith to be clothed, thinks that he serves both God, because he preaches the Gospel, and mammon, because he preaches for the sake of these necessaries: which the Lord says cannot be done. And by this, that man who preaches the Gospel for the sake of these things is convicted of serving not God but mammon, even if God uses him for the advancement of others in a way he himself knows not. For to this saying he subjoins, saying: 'Therefore I say to you:'
'Do not be anxious for your soul what you shall eat, nor for your body what you shall put on' — not that they should not procure these things, as much as need requires, from whence they honestly can, but that they should not look upon these things and for the sake of these things do whatever they are commanded to do in the preaching of the Gospel. For that intention, on account of which anything is done, he calls the 'eye': whence a little above he was speaking, that he might come down to this, and was saying: 'The lamp of your body is your eye. If your eye be single, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye be evil, your whole body will be dark' — that is: your deeds will be such as your intention has been, on account of which you do them. And that he might come to this too, above he had given precept about almsgiving, saying:
'Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where rust and moth destroy, and where thieves dig through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, where thieves do not dig through and steal. For where your treasure will be, there will your heart also be.' Then he subjoined: 'The lamp of your body is your eye' — namely, that those who give alms should not do it with the intention either of wishing to please men or of seeking to have repaid to them on earth what they do. Whence also the Apostle, when he was charging that the rich should be admonished through Timothy, says: 'Let them readily bestow, share, treasure up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold of the true life.'
Since, therefore, the Lord has directed the eye of those who give alms toward the life to come and toward the heavenly reward, so that their very deeds also may be full of light when the eye is single — for it avails toward that final recompense, which also he says elsewhere: 'He who receives you, receives me; and he who receives me, receives him who sent me. He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet, shall receive a prophet's reward; and he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man, shall receive a righteous man's reward.'
'And whoever shall give to one of these little ones only a cup of cold water to drink in the name of a disciple, amen I say to you, his reward shall not perish' — lest perchance, the eye of those who bestow necessaries upon the needy and upon prophets and upon righteous men and upon the Lord's disciples being corrupted, their own eye should be depraved into those upon whom these things were done, so that for the sake of receiving these things they should wish to be soldiers of Christ, he says: 'No one can serve two masters.' And a little after: 'You cannot,' he says, 'serve God and mammon,' and immediately he wove in:
'Therefore I say to you, do not be anxious for your soul what you shall eat, nor for your body what you shall put on.' And what follows about the birds of the sky and about the lilies of the field, he says to this end, that no one should think that God does not care for the necessaries of his servants, since his most wise providence reaches even to the creating and governing of these things. For it is he himself who feeds and clothes even those who work with their hands. But lest they should twist the Christian warfare to this, that they may seek after these things, the Lord forewarns his servants of this, that in that ministry which is owed to his sacrament we should think not of these things, but of his kingdom and his righteousness:
'and all these things shall be added unto us' — whether we work with our hands, or are hindered by bodily weakness, or are held fast by such an occupation of the very warfare that we are able to do nothing else. For it is not the case that, because God said, 'Call upon me in the day of tribulation, and I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me,' the Apostle ought therefore not to have fled and to have been let down through the wall in a basket, that he might escape the hand of his persecutor, but rather to have waited to be seized, so that God might free him as he freed the three youths from the midst of the fires. Or on this account ought not the Lord to have said, 'If they persecute you in one city, flee to another,' because he himself said, 'If you ask anything in my name, it shall be given you.'
As, therefore, if anyone should throw at Christ's disciples fleeing persecution a question of this sort — why they had not rather stood their ground, and, God being invoked, been rescued through his marvels, as Daniel from the lions, as Peter from his chains — they would answer that it behoved them not to tempt God, but that he would then do such things, if he willed, when they themselves had no means of what to do; but when he had granted flight into their power, even if through it they are freed, they are freed by none but himself:
so also to God's servants who are at leisure and strong, called by apostolic example and precept to earn their living by their own hands, if anyone should raise from the Gospel a question about the birds of the sky, which neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and about the lilies of the field, because they neither toil nor spin, they will easily answer: if we too, through some weakness or occupation, cannot work, he will so feed and clothe us as he does the birds and the lilies, which perform no work of this kind; but when we can, we ought not to tempt our God, because even this that we can, we can by his gift, and, while we live thereby, we live by the bounty of him who has granted that we can.
And therefore we are not anxious about these necessaries, because, when we can do these things, he feeds and clothes us, by whom men are fed and clothed; but when we cannot do these things, the same one himself feeds and clothes us, by whom the birds are fed and the lilies clothed, since we are of more value than they. Wherefore in this our warfare we are not anxious even for the morrow, because it was not for the sake of these temporal things, to which the morrow pertains, but for the sake of those eternal things, where it is always today, that we have offered ourselves to him, that we may please him, being entangled in no secular affairs.
Since these things are so, bear with me a little, holy brother — for the Lord gives me through you great confidence — to address those very sons and brethren of ours, whom I know with how great love you travail, until the apostolic discipline be formed in them. O servants of God, soldiers of Christ, do you thus dissemble the snares of that most crafty enemy, who, in order to obscure your good name, so good an odour of Christ — lest good souls should say, 'After the odour of your ointments we will run,' and so escape his snares — desiring in every way to darken it with his own stenches, has everywhere scattered so many hypocrites under the habit of monks, going about the provinces, nowhere sent, nowhere fixed, nowhere standing, nowhere sitting?
Some peddle limbs of martyrs — if indeed of martyrs; others magnify their fringes and phylacteries; others lyingly claim that they have heard their parents or kinsmen to be living in this or that region and are going to them. And all beg, all demand either the costs of their lucrative beggary or the price of their feigned holiness, while meanwhile, in their evil deeds, wherever they be caught or in whatever way they become known, under the general name of monks your purpose is blasphemed — a purpose so good, so holy, which in the name of Christ we desire, as through other lands, so through all Africa, to spring up and multiply. Are you not, then, inflamed with the zeal of God?
Does not your heart grow warm within you, and in your meditation a fire blaze up, so that you may pursue the evil works of these men with good works, that you may cut off from them the occasion of that base trafficking by which your reputation is injured and a stumbling-block is set before the weak? Have pity, therefore, and be compassionate, and show men that you seek the kingdom of God not by an easy livelihood in idleness, but through the narrow and strait life of this purpose. You have the same cause that the Apostle had, to cut off the occasion from these men who seek occasion, so that those who are choked by their stenches may be refreshed in your good odour. We do not bind heavy burdens and lay them on your shoulders, which we are unwilling to touch with a finger.
Inquire and take knowledge of the labours of our occupations, and in some of us also the infirmities of our very bodies, and of the churches which we serve such an established custom, that they do not permit us to be at leisure for those works to which we exhort you. For although we can say: 'Who ever serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit? Who feeds a flock and does not partake of the milk of the flock?'
yet the Lord Jesus, in whose name I say these things securely, I invoke as witness upon my soul, that, as far as pertains to my own advantage, I would much rather do some manual work at fixed hours each day, as much as has been appointed in well-regulated monasteries, and have the remaining hours free for reading and prayer or for some occupation with the divine letters, than to endure the most tumultuous perplexities of other men's causes concerning secular affairs, either to be settled by judging or cut short by intervening — with which vexations that same Apostle bound us, not indeed by his own judgment, but by the judgment of him who spoke through him, though we do not read that he himself endured them. For the courses of his apostolate were otherwise ordered.
Nor did he say: 'If, therefore, you have secular judgments, bring them to us, or appoint us to judge,' but 'those who are contemptible in the church, these,' he says, 'set to judge. I say it to your shame. Is it so that there is not among you any wise man, who is able to judge between his brother? But brother goes to law with brother, and this before unbelievers?' Therefore the faithful and holy wise men who dwelt fixed in their places, not those who ran about hither and thither for the sake of the Gospel, he wished to be the examiners of such affairs.
Whence it was never written of him that he was ever at leisure for such matters, from which we cannot excuse ourselves, even if we be contemptible, because he wished even these to be appointed, if wise men were lacking, rather than that the affairs of Christians should be carried into the forum. This labour, however, we undertake not without the consolation of the Lord, for the hope of eternal life, that we may bear fruit with endurance. For we are servants of his Church, and especially of its weaker members, whatever kind of members we ourselves may be in the same body. I pass over the other innumerable ecclesiastical cares, which perhaps no one believes except one who has experienced them.
We do not, therefore, bind heavy burdens and lay them on your shoulders, which we do not touch with a finger, seeing that, if with the safe reckoning of our office we could — he sees it, who tries our hearts — we would rather do these things which we exhort you to do, than those which we are compelled to do. Truly, for all of us — both for us who labour according to our rank and office, and for you — the way is strait, amid labour and hardship; and yet, for those who rejoice in hope, his yoke is easy and his burden light, who called us to rest, who first made the passage from the valley of weeping, where not even he himself was without pressures.
If you are our brethren, if you are our sons, if we are your fellow-servants, or rather your servants in Christ, hear what we admonish, acknowledge what we enjoin, receive what we dispense. But if we are Pharisees, binding heavy burdens and laying them on your shoulders, do what we say, even if you disapprove of what we do. But for us it is a very small thing that we should be judged by you, or by any human day. With how genuine a charity our care for you is, let him behold who gave us that which we may offer to be beheld by his eyes. Finally, think what you will of us: Paul the Apostle enjoins and beseeches you in the Lord, that with silence — that is, quietly and obediently ordered, working — you may eat your own bread.
nor, as I judge, do you believe anything evil about him, and in him who speaks through him you have believed. These things, my dearest brother, to be venerated in the bowels of Christ, Aurelius, I have not delayed to write concerning the work of monks, so far as He granted that I could, who through you commanded me to do it, being especially concerned that good brethren, obedient to the apostolic precepts, should not be called transgressors of the Gospel by the lazy and disobedient; so that those who do not work may at least not doubt that those who do work are to be preferred to themselves.
But who could bear that stubborn men, resisting the most wholesome admonitions of the Apostle, should not be tolerated as the weaker, but even be proclaimed as the holier — so that monasteries founded upon sounder doctrine are corrupted by a twofold enticement, both by the dissolute licence of idleness and by a false name of holiness? Let the rest of our brethren and sons therefore also know — those who have been accustomed to favour such men and, through ignorance, to defend a presumption of this kind — that they themselves above all must be corrected, so that those others may be able to be corrected, and not that they should be weakened in doing good.
Indeed, in this — that they promptly and cheerfully supply the servants of God with necessities — we not only do not reprove them, but even most sweetly embrace it; yet let them beware lest by a perverse mercy they harm the future life of those men more than they help their present one. For less is sinned if the sinner is not praised in the desires of his soul and he who has done wickedly is not blessed. But what is more wicked than to wish to be obeyed by inferiors and to be unwilling to obey superiors? I speak of the Apostle, not of ourselves — to such a degree that they even let their hair grow long; concerning which he refused to dispute at all, saying: 'But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God.' And this I command:
namely, that it is not the cleverness of one who argues that is to be sought, but the authority of one who commands that is to be heeded. For to what, I ask, does even this pertain — to grow one's hair so openly against the precepts of the Apostle? Or must one be so idle that not even the barbers work? Or is it because they say they imitate the birds of the Gospel, and, as if fearing to be plucked, lest they be unable to fly? I am afraid to say more against this fault on account of certain long-haired brethren, of whom, apart from this, we venerate many things and almost all. But the more we love them in Christ, the more anxiously we admonish them. For we do not fear that their humility will reject our admonition, since we too desire to be admonished by such men, wherever perhaps we stagger or go astray.
This, then, we admonish such holy men: that they be not moved by the foolish argumentations of vain persons, and that they not imitate in this perversity those from whom in all else they are far unlike. For those men, carrying about a saleable hypocrisy, fear lest a shorn holiness be esteemed cheaper than a long-haired one — namely, so that whoever sees them may think of those ancients whom we read of, Samuel and the rest, who did not cut their hair. Nor do they consider what difference there is between that prophetic veil and this revelation of the Gospel, of which the Apostle says: 'When thou shalt have passed over to Christ, the veil shall be taken away.' For what the veil interposed between the face of Moses and the sight of the people of Israel signifies, this the hair of the saints also signified in those times.
For the same Apostle also says that hair stands for a veil, by whose authority these men are pressed. For he plainly says: 'If a man indeed have long hair, it is a shame to him.' 'That very shame,' they say, 'we take upon ourselves as the desert of our sins' — thereby stretching out a little canopy of feigned humility, so that under it they may set forth a saleable pride; as though the Apostle taught pride when he says: 'Every man praying or prophesying with his head veiled dishonoureth his head,' and: 'A man indeed ought not to veil his head, since he is the image and glory of God.' He, then, who says 'ought not,' does not perhaps know how to teach humility.
But if in the time of the Gospel — which in the time of prophecy was a sacred sign — these men seek this shame for the sake of humility, let them shave their heads and veil them with sackcloth. But then there will not be that saleable show, because Samson was veiled not by sackcloth but by his hair. Now, that other point — if it can be told, how lamentably ridiculous it is — which they have again invented for the defence of their long hair! 'The Apostle,' they say, 'forbade a man to have long hair; but those who have castrated themselves for the kingdom of heaven are no longer men.' O singular madness! Deservedly does he who says this, against the manifest proclamations of Holy Scripture, arm himself with the counsel of unspeakable impiety, and persevere in a crooked path, and attempt to bring in a pestilential doctrine.
For 'blessed is the man that hath not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, and hath not stood in the way of sinners, and hath not sat in the seat of pestilence.' For if he would meditate in the law of God day and night, there he would find the very Apostle Paul, who, having certainly professed the highest chastity, says: 'I would that all men were even as myself,' and yet shows himself to be a man not only by so living but also by so speaking. For he says: 'When I was a little child, I spoke as a little child, I understood as a little child, I thought as a little child; but when I became a man, I put away the things of a child.' But why should I mention the Apostle, when concerning our very Lord and Saviour those who say these things know not what to think? For of whom else is it said:
'until we all meet in the unity of faith, and in the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the age of the fulness of Christ; that henceforth we be no more little children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, in the deception of men, in craftiness unto the machination of error.' By which deception these men deceive the unlearned, by which craft and machinations the enemies are themselves carried about, and, cohering to themselves in their own being carried about, they attempt in a certain way to whirl the minds of the weak, so that they equally know not where they are. For they have heard, or read, what is written:
'As many of you as have been baptized in Christ have put on Christ, where there is neither Jew nor Greek, neither bond nor free, neither male nor female' — and they do not understand that this was said with regard to the concupiscence of the carnal sex, because in the inner man, where we are renewed in the newness of our mind, there is no sex of this kind. Let them not therefore on that account deny themselves to be men, because in the masculine sex they do nothing. For married Christians also, who do this, are not Christians by virtue of this at all — namely, in that which they have in common with the other, non-Christians, and with the very cattle. For one thing is that which is either conceded to weakness or paid to mortal propagation;
but another is that which is sealed by a faithful profession for the attaining of an incorrupt and eternal life. That precept, then, which is given to men concerning not veiling the head, is indeed figured in the body, but is enacted in the mind, where is the image and glory of God. The very words indicate it. 'A man indeed,' he says, 'ought not to veil his head, since he is the image and glory of God.' But where this image is, he himself declares, when he says: 'Lie not one to another, stripping yourselves of the old man with his deeds, and putting on the new, who is renewed in the knowledge of God according to the image of him that created him.' Who could doubt that this renewal takes place in the mind? But even he who doubts, let him hear a plainer statement. For, admonishing the same thing, he thus says in another place:
'As the truth is in Jesus, that you put off, according to your former manner of life, the old man, who is corrupted according to the desires of deceit; but be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, who is created according to God.' What then? Have women not this renewal of mind, where the image of God is? Who could say this? But by the sex of their body they do not signify it; therefore they are commanded to be veiled. For by that very fact — that they are women — they signify that part which may be called concupiscential, over which the mind rules, being itself also subject to its God, when life is lived most rightly and most orderly. What, therefore, in one man is mind and concupiscence — the former rules, the latter is ruled;
the former dominates, the latter is subjected — this, in two persons, man and woman, is figured according to the sex of the body. Speaking of which sacred mystery, the Apostle says that the man ought not to be veiled, but the woman ought. For the mind is advanced to higher things all the more gloriously, the more diligently concupiscence is restrained from lower things, until the whole man — with even his now mortal and fragile body — shall in the last resurrection be clothed with incorruption and immortality, and death be swallowed up in victory. Wherefore let those who are unwilling to do right at least cease to teach the perverse. But there are others whom we rebuke with this discourse:
those, namely, who by this one fault of hair let down against the apostolic precept give offence and disturb the church — because, when some, unwilling to think anything evil of them, are compelled to twist the plain words of the Apostle into a perverse sense, while others prefer to defend the sound understanding of the Scriptures rather than to flatter any men whatsoever, there arise among the brethren, the weaker and the firmer, most bitter and most dangerous contentions.
which they perhaps, if they knew it, would without doubt also correct — they whose other things we admire and love. Those, therefore, we do not rebuke, but we ask and beseech them, by the divinity and humanity of Christ and by the charity of the Holy Spirit, that they no longer set this stumbling-block before the weak, for whom Christ died, and that they not aggravate the sorrow and torment of our heart, when we consider how much more easily the wicked can imitate this evil for the deceiving of men, when they see it in those whom, for other so great goods, we honour with the due offices of Christian love. But if, after this admonition — or rather our beseeching — they should think that they must persevere in it, we shall do nothing else but grieve and groan.
Let them know this — it is enough: if they are servants of God, they will have mercy; if they will not have mercy, I do not wish to say anything more grievous. All these things, therefore, in which I have perhaps been more talkative than both your occupations and mine would wish, if you approve, make known to our brethren and sons, on whose account you have deigned to lay this burden upon me; but if anything seems to be withdrawn or amended, let me know by the written replies of your Beatitude.