De Republica Ecclesiae et Monachorum Ordinis

On the Commonwealth of the Church and the Order of Monks

On the Commonwealth of the Church and of the Monks of the Order of Saint Benedict

A Discourse on the Commonwealth of the Church and of the Monks of the Order of the Holy Father Benedict, delivered at Cologne in the annual chapter by the reverend father lord Johannes, abbot of Sponheim, on the first day of the month of September, in the year of the Lord one thousand four hundred ninety-three.

When I undertook, reverend fathers in Christ, by reason of obedience, to deliver a sermon before your paternities according to praiseworthy custom, and after I had long and much deliberated silently with myself what subject I should bring forward that might more effectively stir your souls to piety toward the order, I was at last persuaded by certain venerable men of your senate that I should speak, by the gift of the Most High, about our commonwealth, for love of which, and for its defense and adornment, you have come together into this assembly from distant regions of the earth.

I confess, O fathers, that it is holy and wholesome to speak about your commonwealth, holy and religious as it is; but it should be done by a learned man, an erudite man, a holy man, and one fit to persuade. I do not know myself to be such, since indeed I am poor in talent, bare of merit, and uncultivated in speech. How, then, should I dare presume to speak about this most excellent commonwealth, since I am slow in invention, unpolished in speaking, and cold in persuasion? Therefore, fathers, another orator ought to have been sought for you, one to whom talent would supply strength for speaking, learning an instructed understanding for teaching, and for persuading no less doctrine than merit.

But why do I strive in vain, since I am compelled to obey? Therefore, although the burden laid upon me far exceeds the powers of my talent, nevertheless, trusting in the mercy of the Almighty and the aid of obedience, I shall undertake the work enjoined upon me, not so much willingly as cheerfully.

For this matter I shall need neither Plato in his inadequate work, nor Aristotle in eight books, nor Tullius in six volumes on the commonwealth, since our Lord Jesus has supplied abundant material for discourse on this subject in today’s Gospel, according to our intention, when he said: “A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers,” etc. Although this parable is principally to be understood of the perdition of the whole human race, nevertheless nothing prevents us, with faith preserved, from interpreting it also with reference to our commonwealth. For the condition of the commonwealth, not only ours but that of all religious, indeed of the whole Church militant, has declined from Jerusalem into Jericho.

For Jericho is interpreted as the moon, or its waning. Therefore he goes down from Jerusalem into Jericho who, falling away from justice, comes to the spring of vices. But before I proceed further to the explanation of our theme, since in all actions, especially theological ones, one must begin with prayer, lest we strive in vain, we must implore divine aid, without which the speech of the speaker profits nothing and the intention of the hearer bears no fruit. Therefore, to obtain the grace of speaking and to secure the fruit of hearing, let us greet the most holy mother of God, the inviolate Virgin Mary, with devout mind and sincere intention, bending our knees to the ground in adoration, saying: Hail Mary.

I should very much wish, reverend fathers, for the glory of almighty God, that such power of speaking had been bestowed on me from above that, for your edification, compunction, and devotion, I might be able most fittingly to develop, according to the condition of our commonwealth, the theme taken from the Gospel of the present Sunday. For just as that man going down from Jerusalem into Jericho, after wounds had been inflicted by robbers, was despoiled and left half alive, so the commonwealth of the universal Church, so the condition of almost all religious communities and orders, so too your commonwealth, O fathers, lies despoiled and half-destroyed, with blows of wicked deeds inflicted everywhere, with wounds of crimes, with punctures of vices.

The Commonwealth of the Church

To begin with the general commonwealth, which regards all faithful Christians, who through the Catholic faith are reckoned as one: where is the condition of its former beauty? Where is faith? Where is love of God? Where is love of brotherhood? Behold, we see in the Christian commonwealth that avarice, lust, pride, discord, anger, envy, and the other plagues of the soul abound everywhere; with savage cruelty, in the manner of robbers, they lacerate the condition of the Church with very grave blows, despoil it, strip it bare, and slay it, so that, left half alive, it has neither hope nor the beauty of its ancient loveliness.

What will you do, O holy mother Church? What physician for your wounds will you call upon? A priest? But having seen you, he passes by; he spurns your distress, despises your pains, scorns your wounds. A Levite? But the wicked minister of a wicked priest does not love your honor, casts aside care, hates the healing of wounds. A Samaritan? But you are far from Samaria, nor will you easily be able to find the one you seek. What then will you do? How will you be able to return to your former health? There is no one who grieves over your affliction; there is no one who pours wine and oil into your wounds; there is no one who entrusts care of you to a faithful innkeeper. Behold, those who ought to judge crimes commit them, and, lest their own be reproved, they willingly dissemble those of others. Justice is sold for the cheap price of silver, and virtue is measured by defense of statute. The rage of Christians at odds with one another rages savagely, and, peace being broken, quarrels are stirred up among citizens.

Once kings and princes were accustomed to build and endow monasteries and churches; but now, with a few exceptions, turned into robbers, they violently seize ecclesiastical goods, spurn the priests of God, and scorn the commands of Christ's prelates. The love of God has withdrawn from human hearts. Reverence for priests has departed. Honor for the sacraments of the Church, alas, has expired; and as the people are, so is the priest, because among priests just as among the people, avarice reigns, lust rages, pride is mad, anger is savage, and uncleanness of both mind and body renders them contemptible.

O priests, priests, who by your sins and crimes throw the ecclesiastical commonwealth into confusion; who devote yourselves to avarice and luxury; who neglect the worship of God; who shamefully consume the alms of the faithful: how harsh a sentence of sudden damnation you are going to undergo, you who lead into guilt the people whom you ought to have instructed by the example of truth and holiness. Woe to you, ministers of pleasure, for your overthrow is very near. There is no fear of God before your eyes, no dread of the laws, no terror of the inward judge. Your damnable way of life has given laypeople an occasion for sinning, since, because of your evil life, you do not dare to teach rightly.

How will an avaricious priest rebuke avarice? I am lying if I have not known priests, sons of peasants, so inflamed by the torches of avarice that some possess ten, others twenty, and some thirty ecclesiastical benefices, both with cure of souls and without cure, and yet they neither feed nor visit the flock committed to them. O what will you answer to the supreme shepherd, you hirelings, you avaricious priests, you of Christ’s sheep? You who not only seize the wool from the sheep, but also, what is unspeakable, scatter the Lord’s flock. You have no care for the sheep, you who take the wool and the milk and entrust their keeping to faithless hirelings. You avaricious men, you unclean men, you proud shepherds, you devour the blood of the poor; by the plurality of your benefices you despoil poor priests who are better than you in learning and holiness. Behold, you shamefully consume the substance of Christ’s patrimony; behold, day and night you give yourselves to the pleasures of the flesh, and you give not the least help to needy priests, learned and holy. Therefore the wrath of the just judge Jesus Christ will rage against you; he will require the blood of his sheep from your hands.

I do not wonder at the hatred of laymen toward clerics, who by their conduct deserve no affection; for, as the Lord says through the prophet, because of their crimes priests have become contemptible among the people. Deservedly we suffer, O priests, deservedly we suffer the reproaches of the people, because we despise the commandments of God. For the Wisdom of the Father says: Those who despise me shall be without honor. And would that only wicked priests were despised, and that injury were not also done to the true and holy ministers of Christ. Would that the ignorant crowd did not spread the crime of a few over all, and that what the wicked destroy in the ecclesiastical commonwealth, good priests might somehow restore. But now the just are condemned among the ignorant together with the impious; and because of the hatred owed to the wicked, even from the good the honor customarily given them is withdrawn.

Such now is your commonwealth, O holy mother Church: among your priests and judges those who might correct the wicked are lacking; among them only those who need correction are found. Woe to the shepherds who feed themselves, who neglect the sheep of the Lord, who serve earthly gains, who seek their own things, not the things of Jesus Christ. Alas, mother and virgin, bride of Christ, Church, to what great misery you have come. You once grew and expanded amid the storms of persecutions; you humbled the necks of the proud; you trampled upon the savagery of tyrants; you subjected the kings and princes of this world to your rule. Now you are torn by your sons, despised, and reduced almost to nothing. O how many saints, how many martyrs, how many virgins, how many confessors at last did you once send on to Christ with joy in your tribulation; but now in peace your bitterness has become most bitter. Once, in tribulation for the faith of Christ, you were full of bitterness; yet because of the innumerable multitude of your holy sons you were joyful, glad, steadfast, cheerful, and consoled by the Lord. Now, however, in your peace, because of the small number of good sons, you are filled with the bitterest bitterness. Nor is it strange. Your shepherds, with few exceptions, are mute dogs unable to bark. They buy the leadership of your sheep and sons for a price; they acquire it with innocent blood; they violently invade it with sword, spear, and lance, not for love of Christ, not for your honor, but because of avarice, pride, arrogance, and an insatiable lust for ruling. They come to prelacies uncalled; they approach unelected; unworthy men fraudulently thrust themselves in; and under the name of ecclesiastical liberty, as though they had done well, they wickedly defend themselves.

These are ravening wolves, who come in sheep’s clothing, scatterers and enemies of the Lord’s flock: they unworthily seek ecclesiastical dignities; they buy prelacies with gold and blood; by right and wrong alike they acquire rule over the people. These are blind guides, evil guardians, perverse servants, unjust judges, who destroy the commonwealth of the Church; who kill the sheep of Christ by their corrupt conduct; who give laymen an occasion to persecute the Church; who grant the devil boldness to rage against the Lord’s flock. These are the foxes that demolish the vineyard of the Lord, namely the holy Church, because, though appointed as watchmen, they negligently fail to stand carefully on their guard, and offer adversaries the power to do harm. From this follows among the people a plague of crimes and the destruction of souls. Because of an unjust leader, an army is often destroyed.

As we now see priests standing in relation to God, so also we see laymen standing in relation to them. Contempt for God is now quite justly punished in the priests of the Church by the contempt of the people, and the negligence of his ministers is avenged by the seizure of temporal goods by laymen. Believe me, venerable priests: God permits nothing against you without cause. Without doubt he would defend his Church from the assault of plunderers, if our conduct did not provoke him to vengeance. Therefore let us impute to ourselves what we suffer; let us ascribe it to ourselves. let us ascribe to ourselves the fact that we are stripped of temporal goods by laymen. For almighty God once, because of the holiness of priests, magnificently endowed the Church with temporal goods through good princes; now, because of the crimes of his ministers, he strips her again through evil men.

What more shall I say? You see plainly what the Church suffers in these times, since those who would confer anything further upon her are lacking; only those who would seize what was once conferred by others present themselves. No one now builds churches; no one now erects monasteries, because where greed is seen to abound among priests, the accustomed honor and worship is denied by laymen.

To this end the commonwealth of the Church has fallen: those who plunder her think that they are rendering service to God. For they say: Behold, priests and monks, sinners, have obtained riches; behold, with the worship of God despised, they consume them with prostitutes; they have no care for honorableness, no concern for holiness of life. Why then do we delay? Why do we not invade their temporal goods, so that such criminal pride may be humbled? Come, let us oppose the bishops and priests of the Lord; let us plunder the tithes, take away revenues and pensions, strip houses, drive off livestock, and let there be no one who can escape our hands. Thus speak the attendants of the world; thus they act, and they omit no kind of plunder that may harm priests. The cruelty of the devil’s attendants rages everywhere against the priests of the Lord; and those whom they ought to have treated with honor and reverence, they pursue, because of the offenses of a few, with hatred and robbery.

Where now is the privilege of clerical immunity preserved, when, because of innumerable declarations of hostility, no one is secure, and no one goes out anywhere in safety? Truly, fathers, it is not to be wondered at if we are abandoned by the Lord in necessity, since by evil habits we resist his commandments. Sins alone have made us contemptible before God and men. And so the state of the ecclesiastical commonwealth descends from Jerusalem into the Jericho of defection, because, falling away from its holy institution, it fell among robbers, while at the devil’s suggestion it rushed as if into a certain spring of vices. This the Lord long ago announced in the Gospel: “Because,” he says, “iniquity will abound, the charity of many will grow cold.”

Iniquity abounds no less among the people than among the clergy, while anger rages, lust runs wild, pride goes mad, and discord breaks the covenants of peace. All things are full of crimes, and crimes are not kept even from monasteries. Where now is the one heart and one soul of the multitude of believers? Where is the fervor of the Christian faith, where integrity of morals, where purity of actions? Where is zeal for discipline, where the keeping of God’s commandments, where love for the heavenly mansions? O Christians, Christians, where now among you is the harmony of brotherly love? Where is faith, where piety, where sincerity of hearts?

O holy commonwealth, where now is the beauty of your adornment, with which you were once adorned and shone like a most brilliant star above all the kingdoms of the earth? Where is your honor, where the awe, where the reverence for your power? It has gone down; it has abandoned its former adornment; it has grown cold from the love of heavenly charity; it has withdrawn from discipline; it has scorned virtues; it has despised observance of the law. Behold, you have fallen among the robbers of crimes, among the swords of wickedness, among the arrows of vices. Behold, you have been stripped and left almost naked and half-dead, while inwardly you are stripped of your former virtues and outwardly of temporal goods.

O you priests, you Levites, you prelates of churches and guardians of the Lord’s flock, who see the desolation and ruin of your commonwealth and pretend not to see it: how will you stand before the tribunal of the just judge Jesus Christ, who will require a most exact account of the souls of all those entrusted to you? The great arbiter entrusted to you the care of his sheep; do not doubt that he will require their blood from your hands. Woe to you. Set in place to rebuke vices, you commit vices, and by your unjust morals you destroy the souls of those subject to you. O what will you answer to the supreme shepherd at the last judgment, when he begins to require his sheep from your hands? Behold, because of your sins the people collapses, the commonwealth is destroyed, the treasury of the Church is dissipated, preaching is scorned, the granting of indulgences is despised. But why should I use many words? From the sole of the foot to the crown of the head there is no health in our commonwealth. All seek the things that are their own, not the things that are Jesus Christ’s. For this reason, having been led The people of the Lord has been led into captivity; the empire of Constantinople has been captured by infidels; cities have been destroyed, churches burned, monasteries demolished; Christians, from the child to the elder, have either been slain by a hard death or sold into slavery with a still harder cruelty. Almost all Asia has abandoned the Christian faith; Africa has withdrawn from Christianity; in Europe alone the Catholic faith has remained, though weak. Alas, how narrow is the ecclesiastical estate, which once, with the greatest honor, had been spread through all the earth.

Take up this lament over it, O pontiffs, priests, prelates, and rulers of the Christian commonwealth; and while you bewail the danger of others, fear for your own. For I fear, and I fear greatly, that iniquity long dissembled may at last come to be punished with a heavier chastisement. If almighty God did not spare the sanctified land in which, clothed in human flesh, he lived among us, how will he spare ours? Our desolation is nearer than we believe; our destruction closer than we fear. Foolishly we presume upon security, when we see so many Christian lands and kingdoms captured by infidels.

But now I have said enough about the general commonwealth, lest the too-short hour compel us to leave our own behind. There is also another commonwealth of the laity, which is called temporal; and although it too, in many respects, already seems quite miserable enough, nevertheless since it does not pertain to us, let it also be left out of our discourse this time. Now at last, reverend fathers, after a long discourse on the common commonwealth, which, as I was able, I have poured forth from my elders, let us come to our own commonwealth, which concerns us more.

The Commonwealth of the Benedictine Order

The commonwealth about which we intend to speak is our most sacred order, which follows the ruin of the ecclesiastical commonwealth, and is compared with it by a likeness that is quite close. For just as that commonwealth, almost in our own times, has lost an empire, kingdoms, and provinces, so also ours, in recent memory, has lost many and very wealthy monasteries in these regions. But before we begin to describe its present state, it is pleasing to set forth a little what kind it once was. And although I have done this several times in the preceding conferences, nevertheless I do not think it will be superfluous if we repeat more often what has been well said. For we never understand the present state of the commonwealth better than if we compare the past with it from the opposite side.

For it has gone with our commonwealth as, we have already said, it has gone with the ecclesiastical one. By as much as it has departed over time from its first institution, by so many steps, as it were, it has descended from Jerusalem to Jericho. At one time the order of our commonwealth was deservedly exalted above all other orders, when it nourished men mature, zealous, and most learned: firm in faith, strong in hope, radiant with twofold charity, pure in mind, outstanding in devotion, and adorned with the honor of all the virtues. They had no care for earthly things, no lure of pleasures repeated upon them; rather, converted to God with their whole mind, they despised the world with its vanities.

From among these, because of their outstanding learning and inestimable sanctity, almost innumerable men are read to have been raised, at various times, to the summit of episcopal dignity; and the higher the place in which they had been set, the more brightly they shone forth in virtues and sanctity. What church would not seek a priest from the order of venerable Benedict? What people devoted to the Christian name would not desire a teacher from the order of monks?

I have said these things not for the empty glory of our present commonwealth, but rather for useful confusion. For just as the life of the saints is set forth for glory to those who imitate them, so it is recited for judgment against the sluggish and idle. Hence I fear especially that, while I have praised the most holy former state of our order, I shall be compelled to censure the present one, although truthfully, more than the patience of many can bear. But let the little know-it-alls be angry with themselves, if they please; let those puffed up with false justice be driven into fury: I would by no means dare to compare the order of our time with the sanctity of the ancients.

For, as I had begun to say, our order once flourished with most holy men, who, living according to the purity of the rule, became renowned for innumerable miracles. Though placed in the flesh, they overcame the vices of the flesh, since, despising the pleasures of the world, they loved God with all their heart. They were always ardent in the love of God, constant in prayer and devotions, profound in meditation, sublime in contemplation, uniform in holiness of morals. In their conduct holiness shone forth; in their action, purity; in their thought, the integrity of the mind. They were devout and most holy men: through contempt of worldly things, poor in spirit; through frugality, continent; through humble obedient through humble subjection, and rich in every virtue. Founded upon the firm rock, they were humble in prosperity and constant in adversity. Of them that saying of the apostle Paul is most aptly understood: “They went about in sheep-skins and goat-skins, needy, distressed, afflicted, of whom the world was not worthy; wandering in solitary places, in mountains and caves, and in dens of the earth.” The integrity of the monks’ life then deserved to be exalted, when by word and example it converted many from iniquity to justice. But the world is now unworthy of such monks, for it spurns the love of God, rejects truth, and despises knowledge of the Scriptures. The Church too flourished in learning and holiness together with our commonwealth, so long as it received none to the rule of souls except the learned, and admitted none except the devout. For devotion is not sufficient for the rule of the Lord’s flock if knowledge of the Scriptures is lacking. But now our monks and abbots are neither devout nor learned, and for that reason they are judged unworthy of governing churches. What if I were to say that the commonwealth of the Church is, in this tempestuous age, unworthy of learned and holy rulers? For I think there is no one who could rightly be angry with me on that account. For Scripture says of God, the supreme ruler: “He makes a hypocrite reign because of the sins of the people.” Rare in our times are prelates of churches who are at once learned and devout. Why? Because they are chosen not by the Holy Spirit, but by men. And so it is.

But enough of this; shall I proceed to what remains of our subject? I remember often having said, reverend fathers, that two things above all made our order glorious: namely, knowledge of the Scriptures and holiness of conduct. Of holiness we have briefly made mention; it remains now for us to say a few things about learning in the Scriptures. And, to begin from the origin of our commonwealth: from the beginning of our order down to the times of King Henry IV, as I have found from the catalogue of the ancients, many most learned men were distinguished in it. For while Saint Benedict was still living in the flesh, many very noble and very learned young men submitted their necks to his Rule, who were considered most skilled not only in the divine Scriptures but also in secular letters. Of these, Marcus, an eminent poet, a monk under the holy father, advanced so greatly in regular discipline that, being held by him as especially intimate among many, after Benedict was dead he described his life in clear and elegant meter. Likewise that most renowned senator Cassiodorus, a man most learned in every respect, despised senatorial dignity for the love of God and became a monk in one of the monasteries of the holy father, and finally an abbot.

But what shall I do? The day would fail me if I wished to review by their proper names all those who, while our lawgiver was still living, adorned his order with wonderful learning and holiness. In the time that followed, moreover, the monks had the highest zeal for the Scriptures, and an inestimable love of learning in every branch of knowledge, even secular knowledge. For those who had come learned to conversion supplied the younger brothers with rules for study. From this it came about that they became most learned in every scripture; for they believed it dangerous in morals, and deadly, to learn the Scriptures usefully while beginning apart from humility and amendment of life. So our monks did in ancient times: those who applied zeal to letters also applied unwearied cultivation to the virtues.

Such was Bede, priest and monk in England; such was Alcuin, his disciple, a deacon; such were Boniface the martyr and Rabanus, archbishop of Mainz; such were all monks truly learned. What shall I recount concerning the other pillars of the Church? Gregory the Great, pope; Leander of Seville; Gregory of Tours; John of Girona; Caesarius of Arles; Hincmar of Rheims; Haymo of Halberstadt; Aldhelm of the West Saxons; Radbod of Utrecht; Amalarius of Trier; Ansengisus of Sens; Remigius of Auxerre; Ratherius of Liège; Adalbold of Utrecht; Notger of Liège; Burchard of Worms; Guinemund of Aversa; Alphanus of Salerno; Peter Damian of Ostia; Lanfranc and Anselm of Canterbury, bishops and archbishops, who produced almost innumerable books and were distinguished in our order at different times no less by holiness than by learning in the Scriptures. I pass over in silence the abbots and monks of our order, once most learned most learned: Eugippius, Columbanus, Eutropius, Paul the Lombard, Regino of Prum, Paschasius of Corbie, Smaragdus, Hermann the Lame, Rupert of Limburg, William of Hirsau, Rupert of Deutz, abbots. All of these, learned and most holy, after publishing many books, were also renowned in life for miracles. It would be a long task if I wished to run through even the names alone of those who shone wonderfully in our order both in learning and in holiness.

Great devotion burned in them, and an inestimable zeal for regular discipline, which never allowed them to be idle. In their studies divine love always flourished; conceived from holy reading, it called those keeping vigil to prayer. Those who had exercised themselves more fully in the divine Scriptures, in the hours free from the service of God, devoted themselves to expositions of those same Scriptures. They composed books and various treatises, by which they stirred the studies of their brothers toward the love of God. The other brothers had no leisure for idleness, but after prayers devoutly applied themselves, according to the Rule, to the work of their hands. Those fit for the task wrote books for the adornment of the library, and from sheets brought into fair form works published by others. Some skillfully bound the written codices; others corrected them; others marked them out with red minium. All were eager to share in holy labor.

The younger brothers, moreover, were instructed in scholastic disciplines: some in grammar, some in rhetoric, some in philosophy, some in arithmetic, some in dialectic, and others in other disciplines, each according to the strength of his nature and talent. Once grounded in the elementary sciences, however, they were called to the theological Scriptures. In the monasteries no place was given to idleness, as each applied himself to his own labors and studies with the greatest fervor. They sent the little works they had composed to emperors, kings, princes, and prelates of cathedral churches; by their favor and authority those works came forth more safely into the light for our edification. Thus Alcuin dedicated innumerable little works to Charlemagne; thus Rabanus to Louis; thus Berno of Reichenau to Aribo of Mainz and to Pilgrim, archbishops of this holy church of Cologne. But the venerable abbot Rupert of Deutz also composed, for Frederick, archbishop of this city of Cologne, most excellent volumes, with incredible zeal burning for the Scriptures. I pass over the rest, whose number is almost infinite, who published brilliant little works for princes.

The Present Decline of the Order

But where now is such study among monks? Where is the abbots' love for the divine Scriptures? Shameful to say, he is now called great and useful in the order not who cultivates and loves knowledge of the Scriptures, but who grows foul in gathering perishable riches. O fathers, O brothers, our commonwealth did not once flourish in this way; our order did not grow in this way in antiquity. But abbots given over to the world are accustomed to answer, and monks who are friends of vanity excuse themselves from study: We willingly wish to remain in our simplicity, because we see even learned men going through the precipices of vices into perdition. At the last judgment, they say, profound knowledge will not be required of us, but a good life.

Useless and foolish men, you do not hide your sloth; rather, to your greater confusion, you openly show yourselves enemies of the divine Scriptures. It is well said in the proverb that knowledge has no enemy except the ignorant man. You lovers of the world, you followers of vanity, who foolishly cast away from yourselves the study of the Scriptures, why do you not love it in others? Or do you not know that every Scripture inspired by God is useful for teaching, for arguing, for rebuking? What will you teach your monks, you who are ignorant of the Scriptures? How will you be able usefully to reprove offenders, you who do not know how to bring forward the testimonies of the Scriptures?

Remain, then, in your simplicity, but not in a right one; remain in asinine humility. Refuse to understand so that you may act well; refuse to attend to the Rule of Saint Benedict; refuse to withdraw from your foolishness. Do you know also what our lawgiver says in the Rule? I know that you know. He says: The abbot ought to be learned in the divine law, so that he may know and have a source from which to bring forth discourse. An unlearned prelate is a mute dog, an empty vessel; the soul that does not love the Scriptures of God is empty. O you abbots, ignorant men and enemies of saving knowledge, who spend the day in obscene rumors, who drink wine to satiety, who devote yourselves to earthly profits, who stupidly play at the gaming table: what will you answer to almighty God and to your lawgiver Benedict? b ij L p when they require from you the care of their sheep? For you are the ones who, lying in the deformity of your former life, confound our commonwealth, spurn discipline, and scatter the order. O holy religion, O venerable mother, O commonwealth of monks, once honored, to what misery you have come. Where now is the adornment of your former beauty? Where is holiness of life? Where the saving study of the Scriptures? Where are learned and holy abbots? Where are monks devoted to regular observance? Behold, you retain more than ten thousand monasteries under the order, of which we believe scarcely a thousand have been preserved in any observance of the Rule. For your abbots, having despised regular discipline and neglected the care of souls, are given over to the vanities of the world, intent on earthly riches, submerged in the pleasures of the flesh. For as a certain excellent versifier, still living, says:

Our abbots and the prelates of churches, neglecting the worship of those above and spurning the command of the Thunderer, indulge Bacchus and serve Venus. They furnish sacred altars with gold and coins; with gold they pour libations of wine; with gold the ceilings gleam. They cover whores with gems; they set banquets before dogs. Clothed with the spoils of the poor, and enriched by plunder, elated by success, they laugh at those above and at Acheron alike.

They have no care for the salvation of souls, no love of God, no reverence for the saints, no practice of virtues. Would that, fathers, our observance had no such abbots; would that our commonwealth knew no such rulers. But I fear, indeed, if it is right to say so, I know, that among our own such men are also found, who are reformed in name but in truth deformed. There are, I say, abbots who glory in the name of reform: ambitious, vain, proud, given over to the pleasures of the flesh, who, impatient of seclusion, consider every occasion suitable by which they may travel here and there at the greatest expense. Behold, that man, despising regular discipline, sits all day as a curious guest among frivolous persons; this one, making little of the meekness of the saints, involves himself in the cases of litigants; that one sits playing at the gaming-table; this stupid fellow dances to the drum. What shall I say about buildings both curious and superfluous, which are liable to no less reproach than expense? The walls are adorned with vain paintings; the windows are marked with monuments of folly; in height the walls are raised up; the pinnacles of the roof gleam with gold. Shame does not permit me to speak of the other plagues of certain abbots: lust, eating meat, the abuse of baths, games, and hunts. Would that those who confound our observance by their pestilent morals were cut off.

The Remedy: Reform of the Order

Behold, reverend fathers, we have briefly heard what the condition of our commonwealth is; it remains now for us to think about its remedy. For, descending from Jerusalem to Jericho, it fell away from its former beauty; it fell among robbers, because from the time of Henry IV it lost more than five thousand monasteries from the order. I am not speaking hypocritically, nor do I report uncertainties, but things I found plainly in the writings of the ancients. The robbers, then, who despoiled our commonwealth are, first, the demons, who kill the souls of monks with the wounds of vices; second, greedy men, who plunder for themselves the monasteries of our order. Therefore our commonwealth lies naked and torn, since it is seen to have been despoiled within by its own and without by strangers. The priest and the Levite passed by when they saw its desolation, because, while our affairs are despised, all seek what is their own.

But our Samaritan, the Lord Jesus Christ, seeing the desolation of our order, was moved by mercy and bound up its wounds, when at different times he renewed it to regular observance. On the next day, bringing forth two denarii, namely love of God and of neighbor, or certainly the increase of spiritual and temporal goods, or understanding and action, he gave them to the faithful innkeeper, saying, “Take care of him,” and so forth. The faithful innkeeper was the emperor Charlemagne, who first reformed our collapsed order in Germany. An innkeeper was Berno, abbot of Cluny, under whose reform there were fifteen hundred monasteries. Innkeepers were Richard of Fulda, Wilhelm of Hirsau, and another abbot, of Hirschfeld, who individually at different times were authors of reform for the order. Innkeepers were also the abbots of the Italian reform of Saint Justina, which, persevering down to the present day, has been honored by many privileges from the supreme pontiffs. Innkeepers were Emperor Sigismund with his helpers, who began the Melk reform in Austria. Faithful innkeepers also were those who provided the beginnings of the Kastl reform. for the Kastl reform. Finally, the most faithful innkeepers were Johannes Rode of St. Matthias at Trier and Johannes Hagen of Bursfelde, very illustrious abbots, who laid the foundations of our Bursfelde reform.

Innkeepers were the other pontiffs, princes, and many abbots, whose names we omit for the sake of brevity, who in various provinces, places, and times reformed our order according to their ability. Innkeepers also are you, O reverend fathers, who have each assembled for the preservation of our commonwealth, who cultivate regular observance, who love the Bursfelde union. You, I say, are innkeepers; see to it that you are found faithful, you to whom the true Samaritan has entrusted the sick order. It is required of you that you pour into its wounds the wine of the holy Scriptures and the oil of devotion. For, as we said above, our order once shone gloriously through these two things.

Therefore, if you desire to reform the commonwealth, or even to preserve it in reform, devote yourselves to the study of letters and to holiness of life. Let none of you say: “What need is there for me to go through many things in study, when few things can suffice for living well?” Believe me, fathers: for an abbot to live well, it does not suffice to know few things. For if few things sufficed, the holy fathers would have composed so many volumes for the instruction of morals in vain. For an abbot must be learned in divine law; and even if the study of letters conferred nothing else, it is nevertheless useful for the extirpation of vices, as blessed Jerome says: “Love the knowledge of the Scriptures, and you will not love the vices of the flesh.” Nothing so despises the world, nothing so subdues the flesh and lust, nothing so kindles the love of God, as ardent study and love of the Scriptures.

Therefore let no one excuse himself from holy study; let no one blame the lack of teachers: love conquers all things, charity can do all things, humility endures all things. If a teacher is lacking, O brothers, read the holy fathers in their volumes for yourself as your instructors. Nor do I wish any monk whatever to run about to schools, because in the monastery he will very well be able to learn thoroughly what he is commanded to know. For the proverb says: true love of learning does not require Athens, because at home a sufficient Minerva is available to the diligent. But let us beware lest we become teachers of error to ourselves. For study, especially solitary study, unless it burns with the love of Christ, often produces error. Therefore let us apply the oil of compunction, and the learning of the Scriptures will be useful.

Let us look upon our commonwealth, fathers, and labor for its just healing as much as is possible for us. Let each one of us strive to reform himself according to the Rule of Saint Benedict: let him flee vices, spurn pleasures, not love riches, and despise the world. Let us be abbots of our brothers according to the Rule: shepherds in solicitude, fathers in charity. Let us feed them with the word, let us feed them by example, let us feed them with sustenance. If anyone omits one of these, he will be a useless shepherd.

Therefore remember, you shepherds, to whom you are going to render an account; and so stand diligently on guard over your keeping, so that for the sheep entrusted to you, you may be able to answer securely to the highest shepherd. Adorn the commonwealth with your morals, adorn it with saving knowledge, adorn it with piety, adorn it with love, so that when you have ministered well in this brief misery, you may acquire the best rank in eternal happiness, which may the highest shepherd, Jesus Christ, grant to us, who lives and reigns without end. Amen.

Trithemius 1609. Collat.

German law Gul. Jost. Opfer. 1722. 503.

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