De Republica Ecclesiae et Monachorum Ordinis

On the Commonwealth of the Church and the Order of Monks

4° Inc. 59. 1869b Trithemius Hain + 15630 An address 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.

As I was preparing, reverend fathers in Christ, in 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 subject I should bring forward that would more effectively stir your minds to devotion toward the order, I was at last persuaded by certain venerable men of your council to speak, by the gift of the Most High, about our commonwealth: for love of it, for its defense, and for its adornment, you have come together into this assembly from distant regions of the earth.

It is holy and wholesome, I confess, to speak of your commonwealth, O fathers, both holy and religious; but this belongs to a learned man, an educated man, a holy man, and one fit to persuade. Such a man I know myself not to be, since I am poor in talent, bare of merit, and uncultivated in speech. How, then, could I dare presume to speak of so excellent a commonwealth, when I am slow to discover, unpolished in speaking, and cold in persuading? Another speaker, therefore, fathers, another orator should have been sought for you: one to whom natural ability would supply strength for speaking, learning would supply understanding for teaching, and doctrine no less than merit would be fitting for persuasion.

But why do I struggle in vain, when I am compelled to obey? Therefore, although the burden imposed far exceeds the powers of my talent, nevertheless, trusting in the mercy of the Almighty and in the support of obedience, I shall undertake the work enjoined upon me not so much willingly as cheerfully. Nor shall I need Plato in his ten books, nor Aristotle in his eight, nor Tullius in his six volumes On the Commonwealth, since our Lord Jesus has provided abundant material for discussing 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,” and so forth.

Although that parable is chiefly to be understood of the destruction of the whole human race, nevertheless nothing prevents us from interpreting it also, without injury to the faith, in 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 whoever falls away from justice and turns toward the wellspring of vices descends from Jerusalem to Jericho. But before I proceed further to the exposition of our theme, since in all actions, especially theological ones, we must begin with prayer, lest we strive in vain, we must implore divine aid; without it the speech of the speaker achieves 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 salute in adoration the most holy Mother of God, the undefiled Virgin Mary, with devout mind and sincere intention, bending our knees to the ground, saying: Hail Mary.

Most of all, reverend fathers, for the glory of almighty God, I would desire that power of speech to be granted me from above by which I might most fittingly develop, for your edification, compunction, and devotion, the theme taken from the Gospel of this present Sunday, according to the state of our commonwealth. For just as that man, going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, after wounds had been inflicted on him by robbers, was stripped and left half-dead, so the commonwealth of the universal Church, so the state of almost all religious houses and orders, and so also your commonwealth, fathers, lies everywhere wounded by the blows of crimes, the injuries of offenses, and the punctures of vices, stripped and half-destroyed.

The Commonwealth of the Church

To begin with the general commonwealth, which concerns all Christian faithful, who are counted as one through the catholic faith: where is the condition of its former beauty? Where is faith? Where is the love of God? Where is brotherly love? Behold, we see avarice, lust, pride, discord, anger, envy, and the other plagues of the soul abounding everywhere in the Christian commonwealth. With savage cruelty, after the manner of robbers, they tear, strip, despoil, and kill the state of the Church with most grievous wounds, so that, left half-dead, it has no hope or beauty of its ancient loveliness.

What will you do, O holy mother Church? Whom will you call as physician for your wounds? A priest? But seeing you, he passes by; he scorns your distress, despises your pains, and contemns your wounds. A Levite? But the evil servant of an evil priest does not love your honor; he casts aside care and hates the healing of wounds. A Samaritan? But you are far from Samaria, and you will not 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 brokenness; there is no one to pour wine and oil into your wounds; there is no one to commit care of you to a faithful innkeeper. Behold, those who ought to judge crimes commit them, and, lest their own be rebuked, they gladly overlook those of others. Justice is sold for a base price of silver, and virtue is valued by the protection of statutes. The rage of Christians discordant among themselves rages, and, peace having been broken, quarrels are stirred up among citizens.

Kings and princes once used to build and endow monasteries and churches; but now, with few exceptions, having been turned into robbers, they violently seize ecclesiastical goods, despise the priests of God, and contemn the commands of the prelates of Christ. 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, so the priest” has come to pass, because avarice reigns, lust rages, pride goes mad, anger runs wild, and impurity of both mind and body makes them contemptible among the clergy just as among the people.

O priests, priests, you who confound the ecclesiastical commonwealth by your sins and crimes; you who give yourselves over to avarice and luxury; you who neglect the worship of God; you who shamefully consume the alms of the faithful: how hard a sentence of damnation you are about to undergo, you who have led 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 the laity occasion to sin, since because of your evil life you do not dare to teach well. How will an avaricious priest rebuke avarice? I lie 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, and yet they neither feed nor visit the flock entrusted to them. O what will you answer to the most high shepherd, you hirelings, you avaricious priests, you deserters of the sheep of Christ. I say: 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 take the wool and milk, and entrust the keeping of the dear ones to faithless hirelings. You avaricious men, you unclean men, you proud shepherds: you consume the blood of the poor; by the plurality of your benefices you despoil poor priests who are better than you in learning and holiness. See, you shamefully consume the substance of Christ’s patrimony; see, day and night you devote yourselves to the pleasures of the flesh; and you do not help needy priests, learned and holy, even in the least. For this reason the wrath of the just judge Jesus Christ will rage against you, and he will require the blood of his sheep from your hands.

I do not wonder at the hatred of laypeople toward clerics, who by their conduct deserve no love; for, as the Lord says through the prophet, because of their crimes priests have been made contemptible among the people. Deservedly we suffer, O priests; deservedly we suffer the reproaches of the people, because we spurn the precepts of God. For the Wisdom of the Father says: “Those who despise me shall be ignoble.” And would that the ignorant crowd did not spread the guilt of a few onto all, and that what bad men have destroyed in the ecclesiastical commonwealth good priests might somehow restore. But now the just are condemned by the ignorant together with the impious, and because of hatred owed to the bad, the honor customarily shown even to the good is withdrawn from the good.

Such now is your commonwealth, O holy mother Church, that among your priests and judges those who might correct the wicked are lacking; only those who need correction present themselves among them. Woe to the shepherds who feed themselves, who neglect the Lord’s sheep, who serve earthly profits, who seek their own things and not the things of Jesus Christ. Alas, mother and virgin, spouse of Christ, Church: to what great misery you have come. You who once, amid storms of persecutions, were enlarged and grew; you humbled the necks of the proud; you trampled down the savagery of tyrants; you subjected kings and princes of this world to your rule; now you are torn apart by your sons, despised, and reduced almost to nothing. O how many saints, how many martyrs, how many virgins, how many, finally, confessors in your tribulation you once sent on to Christ with joy; but now, in peace, your bitterness has become most bitter. Once, in tribulation for the faith of Christ, you were full of bitterness, but because of the countless multitude of holy sons you were pleasant, glad, steadfast, cheerful, and consoled by the Lord; now, however, in your peace, because of the scarcity of good sons, you are filled with the bitterest bitterness.

Nor is it any wonder. Your shepherds, with few exceptions, are mute dogs unable to bark. They buy leadership over your sheep and sons for a price; they acquire it by innocent blood; they violently invade it by sword, spear, and lance, not for the love of Christ, not for your honor, but because of avarice, pride, arrogance, and an insatiable lust for ruling. They come to prelacies without being called; they approach without being elected; unworthy men fraudulently force themselves in; and under the name of ecclesiastical liberty they wickedly defend themselves as though they had acted well. These are ravening wolves who come in sheep’s clothing, scatterers and enemies of the Lord’s flock, who unworthily covet ecclesiastical dignities, buy prelacies with gold and blood, and obtain rule over the people by right and wrong alike. These are blind leaders, evil guardians, perverse servants, unjust judges, who destroy the commonwealth of the Church, who kill Christ’s sheep by their perverse way of life, who give laypeople occasion to persecute the Church, who grant the devil boldness to rage against the Lord’s flock.

These are the foxes that demolish the Lord’s vineyard, that is, the holy Church, because, though appointed as watchmen, while they carelessly neglect to stand watch over their charge, they offer adversaries the power to do harm. Hence there follows among the people a plague of crimes and the death of souls. Because of an unjust leader, an army is often destroyed. As we now see priests to be toward God, so also we see laypeople to be toward them. Contempt for God is now quite justly punished in the priests of the Church by contempt from the people, and the negligence of his ministers is avenged by laypeople’s plundering of temporal goods. Believe me, venerable priests: God permits nothing against you without cause. He would undoubtedly defend his Church from the assault of plunderers, unless our way of life provoked him to vengeance. Therefore let us impute to ourselves what we suffer; let us ascribe it to ourselves.

Let us ascribe it to ourselves that we are despoiled by laymen of temporal goods. For almighty God once, because of the holiness of priests, magnificently endowed the Church with temporal possessions through good princes; now, because of the crimes of his ministers, he strips her of them again through evil men.

What more shall I say? You see plainly what the Church suffers in these times, since those who might bestow anything further upon her are lacking; only those who would seize what was formerly bestowed by others come forward. No one now builds churches; no one now raises monasteries, because where greed is seen to abound among priests, the customary honor and worship are denied by laymen.

The commonwealth of the Church has come to this pass: those who despoil her think that they are rendering service to God. For they say: “Behold, sinful priests and monks have obtained riches; behold, scorning the worship of God, they consume them with prostitutes; they have no concern for honor, no solicitude for holiness of life. Why, then, do we delay? Why do we stand idle? Why do we not seize their temporal goods, so that such criminal pride may be humbled? Come, let us oppose the bishops and priests of the Lord; let us tear away the tithes; let us take away revenues and pensions; let us plunder houses, drive off cattle, and let there be nothing that can escape our hands.”

So speak the satellites of the world, and so they act; they omit no kind of plunder that may harm priests. Everywhere the cruelty of the devil’s satellites rages against the priests of the Lord, and those whom they ought to have pursued with honor and reverence, they persecute with hatred and plunder because of the offenses of a few.

Where now is the privilege of clerical immunity kept, when, because of innumerable feuds, no one is secure and no one goes out anywhere in safety?

Truly, fathers, it is no wonder if we are abandoned by the Lord in necessity, since by evil morals we resist his commandments. Our 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 has fallen among robbers, while, at the devil’s suggestion, it plunges as it were into a certain spring of vices. The Lord first announced this 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 bonds of peace. All things are full of crimes, and crimes are not kept away even from monasteries. Where now is the one heart and one soul of the multitude of believers? Where is the fervor of Christian faith? Where is 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 faith, where piety, where sincerity of hearts?

O holy commonwealth, where now is the form of your beauty, with which once adorned, like the brightest star, you shone above all the kingdoms of the earth? Where is your honor, where the fear of you, where reverence for your power? It has descended, it has abandoned its former adornment; it has grown cold from the love of supernal 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 stripped and left almost naked and half alive, while inwardly you are despoiled 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 look the other way: how will you stand before the tribunal of the just judge, Jesus Christ, who will require a most exact accounting of the souls of all those committed to you? The mighty judge entrusted the care of his sheep to you; do not doubt that he will demand their blood from your hands. Woe to you. Set in place to rebuke vices, you commit vices, and by your unrighteous morals you destroy the souls of your subjects.

O what will you answer the supreme shepherd at the last judgment, when he begins to demand his sheep from your hands? Behold, because of your sins the people falls, the commonwealth is destroyed, the treasure of the Church is scattered, preaching is spurned, the granting of indulgences is despised. But why 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. Because of this, led the people of the Lord has been led into captivity; the Constantinopolitan empire has been captured by unbelievers; cities have been destroyed, churches burned, monasteries torn down; Christians, from the child to the elder, have either been killed by a harsh death or sold into slavery by an even 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 state of the ecclesiastical order, which once had been spread through all the earth with the greatest honor.

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

But now I have said enough about the commonwealth in general, lest the shortness of the hour compel us to leave behind what is our own. There is also another commonwealth, that of laymen, which is called temporal; and although it too in many respects now seems miserable enough, nevertheless, since it does not pertain to us, let it also be absent from our discourse this time.

The Commonwealth of the Benedictine Order

Now at last, venerable fathers, let us turn to our own commonwealth, which concerns us more closely. The commonwealth, then, of which we have resolved 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 too ours, in recent memory, has lost many very wealthy monasteries in these regions.

But before we begin to describe its present state, it is fitting to set out, in some small measure, what it once was like. And although I have done this several times in previous conferences, I nevertheless 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 state with it from the opposite side.

For matters stand with our commonwealth as we have already said they stand in the ecclesiastical one. By as much as it has departed from its first institution over time, by so many steps, as it were, it descends from Jerusalem into Jericho.

How greatly the order of our commonwealth was once deservedly exalted above all other orders, when it nurtured men mature, zealous, and most learned; firm in faith, strengthened in hope, shining with twin charity; pure in mind, outstanding in devotion, and adorned with the honor of all virtues. In them there was no care for earthly things, no enticement of pleasures; but, turned with their whole mind toward God, they despised the world with its vanities. From these men, because of their exceptional learning and inestimable holiness, almost countless numbers are read to have been taken up, at various times, to the summit of episcopal dignity; and the higher the place in which they were set, the more brightly they shone 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 this not for the empty glory of our present commonwealth, but rather for useful confusion. For just as the life of the saints is set before those who imitate them for glory, so it is recited to the lazy and sluggish for judgment.

For this reason I am especially afraid that, while I praise the most holy former state of our order, I shall be compelled, though truthfully, to criticize the present one, more than the patience of many will bear. But let the little know-it-alls grow angry within themselves if they wish; let those puffed up by false righteousness be driven into rage: I would by no means dare to compare the order of our age with the holiness of the ancients.

For our order once flourished, as I had begun to say, with most holy men, who, living according to the purity of the Rule, became famous for countless miracles. Though placed in the flesh, they overcame the vices of the flesh, while, 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 devotion, profound in meditation, sublime in contemplation, uniform in holiness of conduct. In their way of life holiness shone forth; in their action, purity; in their thought, integrity of mind. They were devout and most holy men: through contempt of worldly things, poor in spirit; through frugality, continent; through humble submission, obedient; and rich in every virtue.

Founded upon the firm rock, they were humble in prosperity and steadfast in adversity. Of them that saying of the apostle Paul is most fittingly understood: “They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, needy, distressed, afflicted; of whom the world was not worthy; wandering in deserts, in mountains and caves, and in caverns 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 now the world is unworthy of such monks, since it spurns the love of God, rejects truth, and despises the knowledge of the Scriptures. Our commonwealth, and also the Church, flourished in learning and holiness when it received none but the learned for the governance of souls, and admitted none but the devout. For devotion is not sufficient for the governance 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 the governance of churches.

What if I should say that the commonwealth of the Church is, in this age, unworthy of learned and holy rulers? For I think there is no one who could rightly be angry with me on that account. 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; I shall proceed to what remains of our own subject.

I remember, reverend fathers, that I have often said formerly that two things especially made our order glorious: namely, the teaching of the Scriptures and holiness of life. We have made brief mention of holiness; it remains now to say a little 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 in the catalogue of the ancients, many very learned men shone in it. For even while Saint Benedict was still living in the flesh, many most noble and most learned young men submitted their necks to his rule; they were considered highly skilled not only in the divine Scriptures but also in secular letters. Among them Marcus, a distinguished poet, having become a monk under the holy father, advanced so greatly in regular discipline that, held by him among many as most dear, he described his life after his death in clear and elegant verse. So too that most illustrious senator Cassiodorus, a man most learned in every respect, having despised senatorial dignity for the love of God, became a monk in one of the monasteries of the holy father, and at last an abbot.

But what shall I do? The day would fail me if I wished to recount by their own names all who, while our lawgiver was still living, adorned his order with wonderful learning and holiness. But as time went on, the monks had 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. From this it came about that they became most learned in every Scripture, because they persevered pure and devout in morals and way of life. For the study of secular letters is dangerous and deadly to a carnal monk who is not yet mortified. Therefore a monk who wishes to learn the Scriptures profitably must begin from humility and the amendment of life.

So our monks did in ancient times: to the study of letters they added an unwearied cultivation of the 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 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; Ansengisus of Sens; Remigius of Auxerre; Ratherius of Liège; Adelbold of Utrecht; Notger of Liège; Burchard of Worms; Guitmund of Aversa; Alfanus of Salerno; Peter Damian of Ostia; Lanfranc and Anselm of Canterbury, bishops and archbishops, who published almost countless books, shone in our order at different times no less by holiness than by learning in the Scriptures. I pass over the abbots and monks of our order, once very learned, most learned: Augustine, Columbanus, Eutropius, Paul the Lombard, Regino of Prum, Paschasius of Corbie, Smaragdus, Berno of Constance, Rupert of Limburg, William of Hirsau, Rupert of Deutz, abbots, all of whom, learned and most holy, after publishing many books, also became famous for miracles in their lives. It would be a long matter if I wished to run through even the names alone of those who shone marvelously in our order both in learning and in holiness. Great devotion dwelt in them; an inestimable zeal for regular discipline, which never allowed them to be idle. In them the love of divine studies always flourished; conceived through holy reading, it 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, devoted themselves to expounding them; they composed books and various treatises by which they stirred the zeal of their brothers toward the love of God. The other brothers were not free for idleness, but after prayers earnestly devoted themselves to manual work according to the Rule. Those fit for it wrote books, for the adornment of the divine service, and also brought together in one place works published by others. Some skillfully bound the written codices; others corrected them; others marked them out with red minium. Everyone desired to share in holy labor. The younger brothers, moreover, were trained 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 measure of his nature and talent. Once they had been grounded in the elementary sciences, they were called to the theological Scriptures. In the monasteries no place lay open to idleness; each one applied himself with the greatest fervor to his own labors and studies. They dedicated the little works they had composed to emperors, kings, princes, and prelates of cathedral churches, by whose favor and authority they might more securely come forth into the light for our instruction. Thus Alcuin dedicated countless little works to Charlemagne; thus Rabanus to Louis; thus Berno of Reichenau to Aribo of Mainz and Pilgrim, archbishops of this holy church of Cologne. And the venerable abbot Rupert of Deutz composed, for Frederick, archbishop of this city of Cologne, who burned with an incredible zeal for the Scriptures, most excellent volumes. I pass over the rest, whose number is almost infinite, who published splendid little works for princes.

The Present Decline of the Order

But where now is such zeal among monks? Where is the abbots’ love for the divine Scriptures? Shame! Now a man is called great and useful in the order not because he cultivates and loves knowledge of the Scriptures, but because he makes himself filthy in gathering perishable riches.

O fathers, O brothers, our commonwealth did not once flourish so; our order did not grow so in ancient times. 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, since we see even learned men going headlong through the cliffs of vices into perdition. Profound knowledge will not be required of us at the Last Judgment, but a good life.”

Fools and senseless 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 all Scripture, divinely inspired, 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 correct those who sin, you who do not know how to apply 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, then, what our lawgiver says in the Rule? I know that you know. “The abbot,” he says, “must be learned in the divine law, so that he may know and have a source from which to bring forth a sermon.” An unlearned prelate is a mute dog, an empty vessel; a soul that does not love the Scriptures of God. O you ignorant abbots and enemies of saving knowledge, who consume the day with obscene rumors, who drink wine to satiety, who give your attention to earthly profits, who foolishly play at the gaming table: what will you answer to almighty God and to your lawgiver Benedict? when he requires from you an account of the care of his sheep? For you are the ones who, lying in the deformity of your former life, throw our commonwealth into confusion, scorn discipline, and scatter the order. O holy religion, O venerable mother, O commonwealth of monks, once held in honor, to what misery you have come. Where now is the adornment of your former beauty? Where is holiness of life? Where is the saving study of the Scriptures? Where are the learned and holy abbots? Where are the 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 distinguished versifier, still living, says:

Our abbots and prelates of churches, neglecting the worship of those above and spurning the Thunderer’s command, indulge Bacchus and serve Venus. They handle sacred things for gold; they build altars with coins. With gold they pour libations of wine; with gold the ceilings gleam. They cover whores with jewels; they set feasts before dogs. Clothed in the spoils of the poor and enriched by plunder, elated by success, they laugh at heaven and Acheron alike.

They have no care at all for the salvation of souls, no love of God, no reverence for the saints, no exercise of the virtues. Would that our observance, fathers, had no such abbots; would that our commonwealth knew no such rulers. But I fear, indeed, if it is permissible to say it, I know that even among our own there are men of this sort: reformed in name, but in actual fact deformed. There are, I say, abbots who boast in the name of reform, ambitious, vain, proud, given over to the pleasures of the flesh; impatient of seclusion, they judge every occasion suitable by which they may travel here and there at the greatest expense. Behold, one of them, despising regular discipline, sits all day, noisy, as a dinner guest among frivolous persons; another, making light of the meekness of the saints, thrusts himself into the lawsuits of litigants. One sits playing at tables; another fool dances to the drum. What shall I say about buildings, both curious and superfluous, which are liable to no less blame than expense? The walls are adorned with vain paintings; the windows are marked with monuments of folly; walls are raised high; the pinnacles of the roof gleam with gold. Shame does not allow me to speak of the other plagues of certain abbots: lust, the eating of meat, abuse of baths, games, and hunting. Would that they were cut off, those who by their pestilent morals throw our observance into confusion.

The Remedy: Reform of the Order

Behold, reverend fathers, we have briefly heard what the condition of our commonwealth is; it remains now that we consider its remedy. For, going down 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 do not speak hypocritically, nor do I report uncertain things, but things I have found manifest in the writings of the ancients. Therefore the robbers who despoiled our commonwealth are, first, the demons, who kill the souls of monks with the wounds of vices; second, greedy men, who seize for themselves the monasteries of our order. Thus our commonwealth lies naked and torn, since it is seen to have been despoiled within by its own people and without by strangers. The priest and the Levite, when they saw its desolation, passed by, because, despising our concerns, all seek the things that are their own. But our Samaritan, the Lord Jesus Christ, seeing the desolation of our order and moved by mercy, bound up its wounds with hope, when at various times he renewed it to regular observance. On the next day, bringing out 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 Emperor Charlemagne, who was the first to reform our collapsed order in Germany. The innkeeper was Berno, abbot of Cluny, under whose reform there were fifteen hundred monasteries. The innkeepers were Richard of Fulda, William of Hirsau and of Augia, and another certain abbot of Hirsfeld, who each at different times partly reformed the order in Germany. The innkeepers were the authors of the Italian reform of Saint Justina, which, continuing even to the present day, has been honored with many privileges by the supreme pontiffs. The innkeeper was 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. they provided the beginnings for the Kastl reform. Finally, the most faithful innkeepers were Johannes Rode of Saint Matthias in Trier and Johannes Hagen of Bursfelde, most illustrious abbots, who laid the foundations of our Bursfelde reform.

The innkeepers were also the other pontiffs, princes, and many abbots, whose names we omit for brevity, who in various provinces, places, and times reformed our order according to their ability. You too, reverend fathers, are innkeepers: you have each assembled for the preservation of our commonwealth; you cherish regular observance; you love the Bursfelde union. You, I say, are innkeepers, and see to it that you are found faithful. The true Samaritan entrusted the sick order to you. 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 gloriously.

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 have I to go through many things by study, when a few things can suffice for living well?” Believe me, fathers: for an abbot, knowing a few things is not enough for living well. For if a few things were enough, 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. And even if the study of letters conferred nothing else, it is nevertheless useful for rooting out vices, as blessed Jerome says: “Love 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.

Let no one, therefore, 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, brothers, read the holy fathers speaking to you in their volumes. Nor do I want any monk to run about to schools, since in the monastery he will be able to learn very well what he is commanded to know. For the proverb says: “True love of learning does not require Athens,” for at home sufficient Minerva attends upon the diligent. But let us beware lest we become teachers of error to ourselves. For study that is too 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.

Let us consider our commonwealth, fathers, and, as far as is possible for us, let us labor for its just restoration. Let each 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 by 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 to render an account, and so stand watchfully over your charge that, for the sheep entrusted to you, you may be able to answer securely to the supreme 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 an excellent rank in eternal happiness. May the supreme shepherd, Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns without end, grant this to us. Amen.

Delivered at Cologne, in the annual chapter, by Lord Johannes, abbot of Sponheim, on the first of September, in the year M.CCCCC.XII.

109- Trithemius Collat. 203Johannes Helmstorf. Jo. Dolff SchuE. 1732. 583. German law. [A later ownership note follows; partially illegible.] M. Gohl. p. g. p.

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