De Republica Ecclesiae et Monachorum Ordinis

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.

[Instructions?] four, third part.

[unclear] I, reverend [unclear], since by reason of obedience I had to deliver a sermon before your paternities according to praiseworthy custom, and thereafter employ my talent [unclear]; and also [because] another theme, one that would effectively summon men to piety or to life, was earnestly urged by certain venerable men and brothers [unclear], so that they might not [unclear] in the commonwealth of arts and goods, since others [unclear] of detractors, and prayers? and the terrors of earthly jests in this assembly [unclear]. Yet although it is wholesome, I confess, to speak about your commonwealth, O fathers, and about so great and so religious a matter, still I am compelled; but [unclear] with so much [unclear] for expounding it as I account myself to have, since indeed I am poor, [unclear], naked, in bare speech, mute.

Whatever, then, I now speak about the most pious commonwealth [unclear], that [unclear] for its advancement [unclear], untimely for speaking, and [unclear] not in the fruits of expounding. You are therefore sparing; otherwise it would have been your task to seek out men more adorned than I, since for speaking [unclear] talent is required, for teaching an instructed understanding, and for expounding no less [unclear] than merit. But while we are [unclear], why are we compelled to obey?

Therefore, although this inquiry, far above my strength, exceeds every capacity of mine, relying only on your mutual [unclear] and on the aid of obedience, I shall undertake this untried work, not with the freedom with which there would have been need of [unclear]. This [unclear] was for me in [unclear], nor [unclear] in [unclear], nor of anyone in [unclear], among those wishing [to speak] about the commonwealth, since all our [unclear] fly disclosed before you [unclear].

A brief theme in today’s Gospel [is] that which our [unclear] has chosen by the succession of prayers, when [unclear]: “A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers,” etc. Since this parable, although it takes its general beginning from [unclear], is principally to be understood [unclear], nevertheless we may, without harm to the faith, interpret it here with reference to our commonwealth.

For the condition of the commonwealth, not only of ours but of all religious, indeed of the militant heavenly [commonwealth], has gone down from Jerusalem to Jericho; that is, from the first institution of itself it has fallen very far [unclear].

As I was undertaking, reverend fathers in Christ, for the merit of obedience, to deliver an address before your paternities according to laudable custom, after I had long and much deliberated silently with myself what material I should bring forward that would more effectively stir your minds to devotion for the order, I was finally persuaded by certain venerable men of your council that, by the gift of the Most High, I should discourse on 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.

It is holy and salutary, I confess, to speak of your commonwealth, O fathers, both holy and religious; but it belongs to a learned man, an educated man, a holy man, and one fit for persuading, such as I know I am not, since I am poor in talent, bare of merit, uncultivated in speech. How, then, should I dare presume to speak of this most excellent commonwealth, when I am slow at invention, unpolished in speaking, cold in persuading? Another, therefore, fathers, another orator should have been sought for you: one to whom talent would supply powers for speaking, learning understanding for teaching, and for persuading doctrine no less than merit would be fitting. But why do I struggle in vain, since I am compelled to obey? Therefore, although the burden imposed far exceeds the powers of my talent, yet, trusting in the mercy of the Almighty and the aid of obedience, I shall undertake the work enjoined, not so much willingly as cheerfully.

Nor shall I need Plato in ten books, nor Aristotle in eight, nor Tullius in six volumes on the commonwealth, since our Lord Jesus has supplied abundant material for discoursing on this matter according to our intention in today's Gospel, 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, without prejudice to the faith, 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 fallen away 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, approaches 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 from 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 grace for speaking and to gain fruit from hearing, let us salute the most holy mother of God, the inviolate Virgin Mary, with devout mind and sincere intention, bending our knees to the ground in prayer, 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 aptly 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 blows had been inflicted by robbers, was despoiled and left half alive, so the commonwealth of the universal Church, so the condition of almost all religions 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.

And to begin from the general commonwealth, which regards all faithful Christians, who through the Catholic faith are reckoned as one: where is the condition of its former splendor, where is faith, where is love of God, where is love of brotherhood? Behold, we see in the commonwealth of Christians that avarice, lust, pride, discord, anger, envy, and the other plagues of the soul abound everywhere; with savage cruelty, like 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 bad minister of a bad 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? In what manner to your former

... will you be able to return to health? There is no one to grieve over your destruction; there is no one to pour wine and oil into your wounds; there is no one to entrust care of you to a faithful innkeeper. Behold, those who are entrusted to judge [unclear] crimes, lest their own be reproved, willingly overlook the crimes of others. Justice is sold for a paltry price of silver, and virtue is valued by the defense of a statute. The madness of discordant Christians rages against one another, and, peace being broken among citizens, quarrels are stirred up.

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 property, despise the priests of God, and scorn the commands of the prelates of Christ. The love of God has departed from human hearts; reverence for priests has gone away; the honor of the sacraments of the Church, alas, has expired; and as the people are, so is the priest, because among priests, as among the common people, avarice reigns, lust rages, pride is mad, anger is fierce. 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 are given over to avarice and luxury; who neglect the worship of God; who shamefully consume the alms of the faithful: how hard a sentence of sudden damnation you are about to undergo, you who ought to have instructed the people by the example of truth and holiness, but go before them into guilt. 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 conduct has given laymen an occasion for sinning, since, because of your evil life, you do not dare to teach well. How shall an avaricious priest rebuke avarice? I would be lying if I said that I did not know priests, sons of peasants, so inflamed with the torches of avarice that some possess ten, others twenty, and some thirty ecclesiastical benefices, both with cure and without cure; yet the flock entrusted to them they neither feed nor visit.

O what will you answer to the supreme shepherd, you hirelings, you avaricious priests, you deserters of the sheep of Christ? You who not only snatch the wool from the sheep, but also, what is unspeakable, scatter the Lord’s flock. You have no care for the sheep, you who receive the wool and the milk and place their keeping in the hands of 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, better than you in learning and holiness. Behold, you shamefully consume the substance of the patrimony of Christ; behold, day and night you are given over 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 love; for, as the Lord says through the prophet, because of their crimes the priests have become contemptible among the people. Deservedly we suffer, O priests, deservedly we suffer the reproaches of the people, because we despise the precepts of God. For the Wisdom of the Father says: Those who despise me shall be ignoble. And would that the unlearned common people spread the crime of a few upon all, and that whatever evils [unclear] in the ecclesiastical commonwealth, good priests might somehow repair. 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 correct the wicked are lacking; only those who are corrected are found among them. 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 enlarged amid the storms of persecutions, grew; 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 to pieces by your sons, despised, and reduced almost to nothing. O how many saints, how many martyrs, how many virgins, how many finally

You once, in your tribulation, sent confessors to Christ with joy; but now in peace your bitterness has become most bitter. Once you were in tribulation for the faith of Christ, full of bitterness, yet joyful, glad, steadfast, cheerful, and consoled by the Lord on account of the innumerable multitude of holy sons; now, however, in your peace, because of the paucity of good sons, you are filled with most bitter bitterness. Nor is it surprising. Your shepherds, with a few exceptions, are dumb dogs, unable to bark. They buy the leadership of your sheep and sons for a price; they acquire it by innocent blood; they violently invade it with sword, spear, and lance: not for love of Christ, not for your honor, but because of greed, pride, arrogance, and an insatiable lust for ruling. They come to prelacies without being called; they approach without being elected; unworthy men fraudulently thrust themselves in, and under the name of ecclesiastical liberty they wickedly defend themselves, as if they had acted well. These are ravening wolves who come in sheep’s clothing, scatterers and enemies of the Lord’s flock, who unworthily seek ecclesiastical dignities, buy prelacies with gold and blood, and by right and wrong acquire the rule of the people. These are blind leaders, evil guardians, perverse servants, unjust judges, who destroy the commonwealth of the Church, who kill Christ’s sheep by perverse conduct, who give laymen an occasion for persecuting the Church, who grant the devil boldness to rage against the flock of the Lord.

These are the foxes that destroy the Lord’s vineyard, namely the holy Church, because, although set as watchmen, they negligently fail to stand diligently over their guard-duty 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 annihilated. Such as we now perceive priests to be toward God, such also do we see laymen to be toward them. Contempt of 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. He would surely defend his Church from the incursion of plunderers, unless our conduct provoked him to vengeance. Therefore let us impute to ourselves what we suffer; 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 respectability, 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 pursued 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, 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 rendered 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: anger rages, lust storms, pride is mad, discord has broken the bonds of peace. All things are full of crimes, and not even in the monasteries are crimes kept away. Where now is the one heart and one soul of the multitude of believers? And where is the fervor of the Christian faith; where integrity of morals, where purity of actions? And where is zeal for discipline, where the keeping of God’s commandments, where love of the heavenly mansions? O Christians, Christians, where now among you is the concord of brotherly love, where faith, where piety, where sincerity of hearts?

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

O you priests, you Levites, you prelates of the 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 from you the most exact account of the souls of all those committed to you? The mighty arbiter has 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 wicked morals you slay 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? And behold, because of your sins the people has fallen, the commonwealth is destroyed, the treasure 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 what is their own, not what belongs to Jesus Christ.

For this reason the people of the Lord has been led into captivity; Constantinople and so much of the empire have 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 harsh death or sold into slavery with harsher cruelty. Almost all Asia has abandoned the Christian faith; Africa has withdrawn from Christianity; in Europe alone the Catholic faith, though weak, has remained. 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 [unclear] God did not spare the sanctified land in which, clothed in human flesh, he dwelt, in what way will he spare ours? Our desolation is nearer than we believe, our destruction closer than we fear. Foolishly we presume upon security, who see so many Christian lands and kingdoms of ours captured by infidels.

But now I have said enough about the general commonwealth, lest the shorter 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, seems already quite miserable enough, yet 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 had at length from my elders, let us come to our own commonwealth, which concerns us more. The commonwealth, therefore, about which we intend to speak, is our most sacred order, which follows the ruin of the ecclesiastical commonwealth, to which it is also compared by a sufficiently close likeness. For just as that one, 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 to some extent 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

[unclear] we may compare it with that one from the opposite side. For it goes with our commonwealth, as we have already said it has gone in the ecclesiastical commonwealth. In proportion as it has departed over time from its first institution, it has, as it were, descended so many steps from Jerusalem to Jericho. Just as once 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 twin charity, pure in mind, outstanding in devotion, and adorned with the honourableness of all the virtues; men in whom there was no care for earthly things, no enticement of pleasures [unclear], but who, turned with their whole mind toward God, despised the world with its vanities. From these, because of their extraordinary learning and their inestimable holiness, men almost innumerable are read to have been taken up at different times to the summit of episcopal dignity; and the more they had been placed in a higher station, the more brightly they shone forth in virtues and holiness. 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 it, so it is recited for judgment to the sluggish and idle. Hence I am especially afraid that, while I have praised the most holy former state of our order, I shall be compelled, though truthfully, to condemn the present one, more than the patience of many will bear. But let the half-learned be angry with themselves if they please; let those puffed up by false justice be driven into fury: I would by no means dare to compare the order of our own tempestuous age with the holiness 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. For while placed in the flesh, they overcame the vices of the flesh, since, despising the pleasures of the world, they loved God with their whole heart. They were always burning in the love of God; constant in prayer and devotions; profound in meditation; lofty in contemplation; uniform in holiness of morals. In their way of life there shone forth [unclear]; in their action, purity; in their thought, the integrity of mind. They were devout and most holy men: poor in spirit through contempt of worldly things, continent through frugality, 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 deserts, in mountains and caves, and in dens of the earth. The integrity of the life of monks then deserved to be exalted, when by word and example it converted many from iniquity to justice. Of such monks indeed the world is now unworthy, for it spurns the love of God, casts away truth, and despises knowledge of the Scriptures. The Church too flourished in learning and holiness together with our commonwealth, while it received none to the rule of souls except the learned, and admitted none except the devout. For devotion does not suffice 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 therefore they are judged unworthy of the governance of 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, the learning of the Scriptures and holiness of conduct. Of holiness we have briefly made mention; it remains now that we 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 Saint

having been made father. He advanced so far in regular discipline that, regarded as especially intimate with him before many others, he described the life of that man, after his death, in clear and elegant meter. Thus that most illustrious senator Cassiodorus, a man most learned in every respect, despising senatorial rank for love of God, became a monk in one monastery of the holy father, and finally abbot.

But what am I to do? The day will fail me if I wish to recount by their proper names all who, while our lawgiver was still living, adorned his order with wonderful learning and holiness. But in the succeeding time there was among monks the highest zeal for the Scriptures, and an inestimable love of learning in every branch of knowledge, even secular. For those who had come learned to conversion supplied the younger brothers with precepts for study. Hence it came about that they became most learned in every Scripture, because [unclear] dangerous in morals and deadly, one wishing to learn the Scriptures usefully should begin from humility and amendment of life. Thus our monks did in antiquity, who applied to the study of letters an unwearying cultivation of virtues.

Such was Bede, priest and monk in England; such was Alcuin, his disciple, a Levite; such were Boniface the martyr and Rabanus, archbishops of Mainz; such were all the monks truly learned. What shall I report about the other pillars of the Church? Gregory the Great, pope; Leander of Seville; Gregory of Tours; John of Girona; Caesarius of Arles; Hincmar of Reims; Haymo of Halberstadt; Aldhelm of the West Saxons; Radbod of Utrecht; Amalarius of Trier; Ansegisus of Sens; Remigius of Auxerre; Ratherius of Liège; Adelbold of Utrecht; Notger of Liège; Burchard of Worms; Guinomundus of Aversa; Alfanus of Salerno; Peter Damian of Ostia; Lanfranc and Anselm of Canterbury, bishops and archbishops, who published almost innumerable books and shone in our order at different times, no less in holiness than in knowledge of the Scriptures.

I pass over the abbots and monks of our order, once most learned servants of the Lord: Eugippius, Columbanus, Eutropius, Paul the Lombard, Regino of Prüm, Paschasius of Corbie, Smaragdus, Hermann the Lame, Rupert of Limburg, William of Hirsau, Rupert of Deutz, abbots, all of whom, learned and most holy, after the publication of many books, shone also with miracles in life. It would be a long matter if I wished to run through even only the names of those who in our order blazed forth as wonderful both in learning and in holiness.

Great devotion burned in them, an inestimable zeal for regular discipline, which never allowed them to be idle. Always in their studies there flourished a divine love, which, conceived from holy reading, called those keeping watch to prayer. Those who had exercised themselves more fully in the divine Scriptures, in the hours free from the service of God, applied themselves to expositions of the same; they composed books and various treatises, by which they called the studies of their brothers to the love of God. The other brothers did not have leisure for idleness, but after their prayers devoutly applied themselves to the work of their hands according to the rule. Those capable wrote books for the adornment of the library, and from sheets brought into fair order works published by others. Others skillfully bound written codices; others corrected them; others marked them out with red minium. All rejoiced to be [unclear] of holy labor. They were trained in the scholastic disciplines: some in grammar, others in dialectic, and others in other disciplines, each according to the force of his nature and talent. Once grounded in the elementary sciences, however, they were called to the theoretical Scriptures.

No place was given to idleness in the monasteries, with each one applying himself to his own labors and studies with the greatest fervor. They sent the little works which they had composed to emperors, kings, princes, and prelates of cathedral churches, by whose favor and authority they more safely came forth 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 also the venerable abbot Rupert of Deutz [dedicated] to Frederick, archbishop of this city of Cologne, with incredible

fervent in the study of the Scriptures. He composed most excellent volumes. I pass over the rest, whose number is almost infinite, who published brilliant little works for princes. But where now is such study among monks? Where is the abbots’ love for the divine Scriptures? For shame. Now he is called great and useful in the order, not who cultivates and loves the knowledge of the Scriptures, but who soils himself in gathering perishable riches. O fathers, O brothers, our commonwealth did not once flourish thus; our order did not grow in ancient times thus. But abbots devoted to the world, friends of monastic vanity, are accustomed to answer and excuse themselves from study: “We gladly wish to remain in our simplicity, because we see that even learned men go through the precipices of vices into perdition. Deep knowledge will not be required of us at the Last Judgment, but a good life.” O fools and senseless men, who do not hide your sloth, but, to your greater confusion, 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 all Scripture, divinely inspired, is useful for teaching, for arguing, for rebuking? What will you teach your monks, who are ignorant of the Scriptures? How will you be able usefully to accuse those who offend, when you do not know how to adduce the testimonies of the Scriptures? Remain, then, in your simplicity, not upright; remain in asinine humility; refuse to understand, so that you may act well; refuse to heed the Rule of Saint Benedict; refuse to withdraw from your folly. Do you know also what our lawgiver says in the Rule? I know that you know. “It is fitting,” he says, “for the abbot to be learned in divine law, so that he may know and have a source from which to bring forth speech.” An unlearned prelate is a mute dog. A soul not loving the Scriptures of God is an empty vessel. O you ignorant abbots and enemies of saving knowledge, who spend the day in obscene gossip, who drink wine to satiety, who pursue earthly gains, who play stupidly at the gaming-table: what will you answer almighty God and your lawgiver Benedict, when they require from you the care of their sheep? For you are the men 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 the holiness of life? Where the saving study of the Scriptures? Where the learned and holy abbots? Where the monks devoted in regular observance? Behold, you hold more than ten thousand monasteries under the order, of which we believe scarcely a thousand to have been preserved in some 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 upon earthly riches, submerged in the exultations 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 with golden coins. With gold they pour libations of wine; with gold the ceilings gleam. They cover whores with gems; they set feasts before dogs. Adorned with the spoils of the needy, and rich from plunder, veiled in 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 did not have 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 also such men are found, who are reformed in name, but in truth are deformed. There are, I say, abbots glorying 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 migrate here and there at very great expense. Behold, that man, despising regular discipline, sits all day as a curious guest at frivolous [unclear]; this man, making little of the meekness of the saints, involves himself in the causes of litigants; that one remains playing at the gaming-table; this stupid fellow dances to the drum. What shall I say of curious and superfluous buildings, 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

the walls are raised high; the pinnacles of the roof gleam with gold. Shame does not permit me to speak of the other plagues of certain abbots: lust, the eating of meat, the abuse of baths, games, and hunting. Would that they were cut off, who by their pestilential morals confound our observance.

Behold, reverend fathers, we have briefly heard what the condition of our commonwealth is; it remains now for us to consider its remedy. For, descending from Jerusalem to Jericho, it has fallen away from its former beauty; it has fallen among robbers, because from the time of Henry IV it has lost more than five thousand monasteries from the order. I do not speak hypocritically, nor do I report uncertainties, but things evident which I have found in the writings of the ancients. Therefore the robbers who have stripped our commonwealth are, first, demons, who slay the souls of monks with the wounds of vices; second, greedy men, who plunder for themselves the monasteries of our order. Thus our commonwealth lies naked and torn, since it is seen to have been stripped within by its own, without by strangers. The priest and the Levite, seeing its desolation, pass by, because, despising our affairs, all seek the things that are their own. But our Samaritan, the Lord Jesus Christ, seeing the desolation of our order, moved by mercy, [unclear] bound up its wounds, when at various 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,” etc.

The faithful innkeeper was Charlemagne the emperor, who first reformed our order when it had collapsed in Germany. An innkeeper was Berno, abbot of Cluny, under whose reformation there were fifteen hundred monasteries. Innkeepers were Richard of Fulda, William of Hirsau, and another certain abbot of [Hersfeld?], who, each at different times, were authors in the order of the Italian reform of Santa Giustina, which, persevering down to the present day, has been honored with many privileges by the supreme pontiffs. Innkeepers were Emperor Sigismund with his helpers, who began the Melk reform in Austria. Faithful innkeepers also were those who supplied the beginnings for the Kastl reform. Finally, 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 diverse provinces, places, and times reformed our order according to their ability. Innkeepers also are you, O reverend fathers, who have assembled individually for the preservation of our commonwealth, who cultivate regular observance, who love the union of the Bursfelders. You, I say, are innkeepers; see to it that you are found faithful, you to whom the true Samaritan has entrusted the order, sick as it is. 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, by these two things our order once shone forth in glory. 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, by studying, to run through many things, 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 written so many volumes for the instruction of morals in vain. For an abbot must be learned in divine law; even if the study of letters conferred nothing else, nevertheless it is 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 contemns the world; nothing so subdues the flesh and lust; nothing so kindles the love of God, as burning zeal and love for 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 for yourself in their volumes, [unclear]. Nor do I wish any monk 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 it is said in the proverb: “True love does not require

[There is no need of going] to Athens for learning, because at home a sufficient Minerva is available to the diligent. But let us beware lest we become teachers of error to ourselves. Study that is almost solitary, unless it burns with the love of Christ, often begets error. Let us therefore apply the oil of compunction, and the learning of the Scriptures will be useful. Fathers, let us look to our commonwealth, and, as far as is possible for us, let us labor for its just [unclear]. 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, despise the world. Let us be abbots of our brothers according to the Rule: shepherds in solicitude, fathers in charity. Let us feed them by word; let us feed them by example; let us feed them with nourishment. If anyone omits one of these, he will be a useless shepherd. Therefore you shepherds, remember to whom you are going to render account; and so stand watch over your custody solicitously, so that, concerning the sheep committed to you, you may be able to answer securely to the supreme shepherd. Adorn your commonwealth with morals; adorn it with saving knowledge; adorn it with piety; adorn it with love, so that, when in this brief misery you have ministered well, you may obtain an excellent rank in eternal happiness, which may the supreme shepherd Jesus Christ grant us, who lives and reigns without end. Amen.