De Vanitate et Miseria Humanae Vitae

The book On the Vanity and Misery of Human Life, by Lord Johannes Trithemius, abbot of Spanheim, of the Order of the holy father Benedict.

II. 45.

Book on the vanity and misery of human life, by lord Johannes Trithemius, abbot of Sponheim, [unclear].

It begins.

Since the present life is nothing when compared with the felicity above, for which we sigh earnestly, I cannot sufficiently marvel at your madness, my soul: for you bear your exile, which, prolonged as it is, you ought to have wept over, delightfully, as though it were your fatherland. A thing indeed most worthy of wonder, but to your folly, when, neglecting the banquets of eternal life, you embrace the filth of this world.

O rude and miserable one, who, forgetful of your Father’s goodness, pursue things perishable and empty, unmindful of eternal things. You seek vain solace in pilgrimage, though you are called to the heavenly kingdom. But you err, O my soul: in this life there is no fatherland, but a way by which one goes to joys. For the holy apostle says: We do not have here on earth an abiding city, but we seek the future one in heaven. But the heavenly city admits no one unless he loves. If you love, why do you not hasten? The fire of charity knows no delay.

In this life we have been placed to trade, through holy exercises, our expenses for eternal life; there, whoever fails in seedtime will not rejoice in the harvest. Where love is, there is possession. Love, therefore, what you cannot lose; seek what you may possess without end. Behold, the world passes away, and its concupiscence, and no further space for returning is left. Now, therefore, you must take the greatest care not to perish with what flows away; for if you love the world as it passes, you are preparing to run with it to destruction.

Turn now to your rest, miserable soul; return to the guide of your youth, desolate daughter; flee to your creator, wandering sheep. What is this, that you are in the land of enemies? You have grown old in a foreign land; you have been defiled with the dead; you have been counted with those who go down to hell. Why is this? Because you have abandoned the fountain of wisdom; you have withdrawn from your God through the byways of disobedience; you have made void the first faith of baptism. For if you had walked in the way of God, if you had resisted the passions of the flesh, you would surely have dwelt in peace upon the earth.

But learn where prudence is, where virtue is, so that you may know at the same time where length of life and sustenance are, where the light of the eyes and peace are. But let him who has fallen add to his effort that he may rise again. Why then do you delay? Why do you put off the necessary amendment of life? For Scripture says: Do not delay to be converted to the Lord, nor put it off from day to day; for he who today is not disposed to take up the ordinances of a more amended life will be less fit tomorrow.

Why then does today’s salvation await a doubtful tomorrow? Do good, and do not be reluctant; watch over saving gains; death will soon be your end. Now, therefore, miserable soul, what else is appointed for you to do, except to give yourself to tears, to bewail your life already passed, and henceforth to correct the remainder of your life?

O miserable condition of human life, which does not grieve as much as it knows itself, but rather, as though secure, rejoices in what it does not know. O security of the soul, always harmful, which neglects virtues, nourishes vices, and shamefully consumes the saving time of penitence. How long, then, do you sleep, soul? How long do you dissemble? You have sown wholly in sins, and dare to trust in the security of the saints?

What are your fruits, fruitless tree? What good works? What progress, stock worthy of burning? You are barren; your fruits are the piercing thorns of sins. Would that they pierced in such a way that they brought compunction; would that they became so bitter that they vanished. O dry wood, empty of good fruits, why do you still occupy the earth? You are a fruitless tree, O my soul, which the supreme, fatherly God has long endured as unfruitful in his field; he has watered it with the dung of heavenly fatness and marked it with many gracious gifts.

Take care, therefore, lest at the end you appear barren; lest you put off the possibility of penitence; lest you lose the acceptable time. For truly the judge of all, who now patiently tolerates you for penitence, condemns more severely if you neglect it. Consider how you may meet him who comes to demand an account of your whole life. What will you answer on that day, O soul, now polluted with so many sins? What, I say, will you answer? You will not be able to hide, when you are called into sight

knowing all things. But to appear will be fearsome, except for the good: those who in this life patiently undergo evils for the love of God; who love the joys of heavenly happiness; who manfully despise this world. There all things are open; there the thoughts of hearts lie exposed; there no crimes of evil men can be hidden. Many sins will there suddenly rush forth, as if from ambush, which now are reckoned either nothing or slight. Happy is the soul that anticipates this day with careful meditation; that, while now remaining in the flesh, turns itself to holy exercises and carefully keeps the house of its conscience clean, as far as it can. No one can confidently appear before the sight of the inward judge if he has not kept himself clean from this wicked age. For everyone who remembers that he has offended his lord and judge fears to come to his judgment. For the more he knows himself guilty in crime, the more he refuses to appear. Yet in vain does he try to flee from the sight of the judge, whose presence fills all things. And truly at that time it will be intolerable for the wicked to appear before the supreme judge, but possible for none to hide. For the holy Apostle says: We shall all stand before the tribunal of Christ, so that each may receive the reward of his work.

There the just man will stand in great confidence before the Lord, receiving the recompense of his proven faith, since in this life he showed himself a pilgrim to the world, bravely subdued the vices of the flesh while placed in the flesh, and with the whole desire of his mind sighed for heavenly things. But those who, now placed in the flesh, love this life as their homeland, who seek the empty honors of the world, who thirst for perishable riches [unclear], who plunge themselves into the mire of sins, will stand there shamefully, broken from their confidence. O who is wise and will understand these things? who is prudent and will fear them, so that, understanding future dangers, he may fear, and fearing may escape through care? But as long as we live in this mortal life, we are on the way to the heavenly homeland; on this way it is never granted us to stand still through sloth, but we are commanded to journey from virtue to virtue, as though panting toward our homeland. On this way, he who does not advance falls back; he who does not run retreats. For our standing still is to advance in virtues; to retreat is to grow sluggish in good work. But then we properly tend toward our heavenly homeland, when with sincere devotion we obey the commandments of God and of the Catholic Church. Therefore whoever desires to come to the heavenly homeland should seek no delays on the way, nor comforts of distraction. For whoever delights in the beauty of exile is proved to love his homeland less. And so he who does not despise the pleasures of this world will not be able to come to the heavenly homeland. Therefore, for those who wish to advance on the way of God, before all things contempt for pleasures is enjoined; without it the charity of Christ is never acquired. For he himself said: Whoever wishes to come after me, let him deny himself to himself, and take up his cross and follow me. Christ our Lord, the way, the truth, and the life, commanded these things, taught these things, did these things.

Christ is the way to eternal life, as he himself says: I am the way, the truth, and the life; I am the door, since no one comes to the Father except through me. What else do you seek, wretched soul; what more do you require? Christ Jesus, the Son of God and man, handed down to you the rule of living: he taught contempt of the world by word and showed it by example. Behold, God, the supreme arbiter, calls you to contempt of the world, and do you still dissemble? Why do you not willingly forsake the world for the love of God, which you are soon to leave through the death of the flesh? Nothing under the sun remains in the power of man, but all things vanish like smoke.

That all worldly things are subject to vanity.

Vanity of vanities. Chapter 2. That preacher, once the wisest of men, says: Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity. What does “all” mean? What is “vanity of vanities”? All things that totter and perish by time and change. The world passes away, and its desire; and we all die, and like waters poured out on the earth, we do not return again. Therefore whatever is corrupted is rightly named vanity of vanities. But all things that are generated in the world are subject to corruption; and therefore all things are vain, and vanity of vanities. In Hebrew it has habal habalym, which, according to the Seventy—

[unclear] all likewise translated into Greek: atmos, atmon, which we may call the vapor of smoke and the thin breeze that is quickly dissolved. And what is so slight as man, who lives today and tomorrow does not appear? If man is not vanity, where are all our forebears? Where are the men once famous in their generations, who subjected many peoples and kingdoms to themselves? Where is Methuselah, the old man of years? Where is Nimrod, the most powerful of tyrants? Where is Samson, the strongest? Where is Absalom, the most beautiful? Where is Solomon, the wisest? Where is Croesus, richest in gold? Where is Alexander the Great, tamer of the world? Where is Plato, the arch-philosopher? Where is Homer, the greatest of poets; where the remaining cohort of philosophers? They all died many years ago, and perished in their vanity. What now profits them all the power once possessed, what honors, what riches, what fame flying through the world? Behold, now they sleep in dust, and have perished from the memory of men as though they had not existed. Vain, therefore, are all things that are seen in the world: vain is man, vain riches, vain honors. For the things that are seen are temporal, but the things that are not seen are eternal. For the holy Apostle says: The creature has been subjected to vanity, and groans and labors in birth, and awaits the revelation of the sons of God. So long are all things vain, until that which is perfect comes. Therefore all things are liable to vanity that are contained upon the earth within the circuit of heaven. Nothing temporal remains; nothing earthly endures; nothing mortal is long-lasting. What if you are a great prince and live many years on earth? For the judgment of death, even if you put it off for a time, you will not be able to escape. Soon one day will come, suddenly rushing from ambush, which will take away all your hope and your life together. Today a prince, today a lord, today powerful on earth; and tomorrow, dead, he will be hidden beneath the earth, a rotting corpse. Behold, yesterday a mighty emperor; today he is carried dead to the tomb, and he who was clothed in gold and purple is cast almost naked into the pit as food for worms.

[unclear]. Yesterday he ruled over peoples and nations; today he has lost life and empire, never to return to it again. Yesterday, when he passed by, the knees of all were bent; today he is carried dead to the pit, and no one deigns to touch the covering of his head. Yesterday men were tortured at his command; today, dead, he is tortured in hell, and there is no one to free him. Yesterday, when he spoke, the ears of all listened in silence; today he cries out with a loud voice in torments, and no one feels compassion. Yesterday, as though he would not die, he overflowed with royal banquets; today, because of the heat of the fires, he burns with thirst, and there is no one to give drink to the thirsty man. Yesterday, sitting on the tribunal, gleaming with gold and little gems, he drew the peoples into admiration of himself; today, wrapped about with the vilest linen cloth, he swarms with horrible worms. Yesterday he delighted in the sweet melodies of singers; today, placed in hell, he has become the mockery of demons. Yesterday his fat and shining body was cherished with very temperate baths; today in hell he is tortured with pitch and sulphur, as it is written: “Give to him in torments as much as he was in delights.” And again: “The powerful,” he says, “will suffer powerful torments.” What then will the honors of time past profit the wretched soul? What riches? What powers? There the impious have ceased from tumult; there the honor of earthly power is despised; there the greatness of riches is looked down upon. Why then are you proud, puffed-up power? Why do you swell, insatiable greed for gold? Whatever honor or riches you possess in the world, you will soon, and perhaps today, lose. And when you have crossed to hell by way of Acheron, you will carry absolutely nothing with you from this world, except this alone: what good or evil you have done in the body. The world passes away, and its desire; every earthly power passes away briefly, nor does anything lasting remain under the sun. What if a man is great upon the earth? What if he is powerful, learned, brave, handsome, rich? The life of all is very brief, nor is there any distinction of persons or dignities: whatever is mortal dies. For the wise man says: No one lives forever, or has experience of this thing. Established

It is for all men to die once; nor can we escape death, although we may put it off for many years. All things that are of the earth return to the earth; the spirit, released from the flesh, is hurried to the tribunal of the judge, where it is rewarded according to the quality of its conduct. How long, then, do you now sleep, O man? How long do you disregard the patience of God's long-suffering? Why do you not amend your life for the better? Behold, men die daily before your eyes; children and old men depart suddenly; learned and foolish fall into the pit; and do you, as if secure, think about your death? Behold, the world is collapsing. Men perish. Cities and towns are overturned. Nothing among human affairs remains long, and still your hard mind is not shaken? Soon your destruction will come; death is near; the end approaches. Why do you delay? Why do you linger? Why do you not do penance, wretched man, while you are healthy and strong? Behold, the world passes away, and you follow it; it deceives, and you love it; it lies, and you trust it. What do you think will happen to you? With what perishes you perish; with what slips away you slip away; with what deceives you, you are deceived. Woe to lovers of the world. They are fools; they are wretched; they are unhappy. Truly, while they desire to hold the world, they lose heaven and earth alike. They anxiously seek the riches and honors of the age, and trust that they will come to the heavenly kingdoms? But the contrary is what is spoken in the Gospels. “No one,” he says, “can serve two masters.” Who are the two masters? God and the world. For he who loves God despises the world. And he who loves the world neglects God. “You cannot,” he says, “serve God and mammon,” that is, riches. The present life does not remain but passes away; it does not endure but vanishes; it does not stand but perishes. Thus it is a road to the fatherland, along which, never to return again, we pass at every moment. Therefore he is a foolish traveler who, intent on the spectacles of the roads, forgets so excellent a fatherland; who, neglecting eternal things, pursues temporal and vain things; who embraces the world even now as it is slipping away. For nothing is more fleeting than the things of the world; nothing more fragile than human life; nothing briefer than earthly power. Blessed, therefore, is the man who has learned to despise the world; who has learned to overcome the pleasures of the flesh; who can refrain from loving the riches of this perishing age. For all things that are earthly abandon a man only in death, so that he who, rich, had possessed many things carries absolutely nothing with him. Hence the wise man cries out, saying: “What remains for man in all his labor, with which he labors under the sun?” Behold how many today sweat in the toil of this world; day and night they keep watch over the gathering of riches; they educate children; they construct buildings on high; and in the midst of the work they perish by sudden death, and carry absolutely nothing with them, but return naked into the earth from which they were taken. A generation goes and a generation comes, but the earth stands forever. As some die, others are born; and while generation succeeds generation, nothing remains stable in the world. What is more vain than this vanity? The earth, which was made for man's sake, remains; and man himself, possessing the earth, is suddenly dissolved into dust. There is no memory of the first ones who preceded us; and just as forgetfulness has hidden past things among us, so posterity will be ignorant of those things which are either now being done or are to come; and all things will pass by in silence, and will be hidden as if they had not existed. Therefore all things are vain, and not only vain, but vanity of vanities. Vain is the world, because those whom it endures as lovers it in no way saves when they die. Vain are all the honors of the age, because those whom they make great before men it suddenly leaves alone and ignoble in death. Vain are riches, because they do not free their possessors from death, but condemn them more severely for their misuse. Vain is all earthly power, because, abandoning in a moment those whom it has placed on high, it sends them down to the lower regions. Vain is the nobility of high blood, because those whom it makes glorious before men it grants, when they die, as food to worms. Vain too is a large family of kin, because he who, alive, is set apart from others by the nobility of his stock is, when dead, compared to beasts. Vain is kinship of the flesh, because it cannot interrupt the sentence of death. Vain is sweet marital union, because those whom it loves alive it immediately leaves behind when dead. Vain is the laborious upbringing of children at great expense, because the parent whom it follows while alive it detests when dead. Vain is whatever is seen as precious in the world, because it is quickly lost.

Since, therefore, all things are vain, surely whoever loves vanity is vain and desires to vanish away. Hence blessed John admonishes us, saying: “Little children, do not love the world, nor the things that are in the world; for if anyone loves the world, the charity of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world is the concupiscence of the flesh and the concupiscence of the eyes and the pride of life.” The world, therefore, must be fled, because it repays its lovers badly: it damns them forever.

That this life is a kind of pilgrimage away from our heavenly homeland, in which all must conduct their business. Chapter 3.

The holy apostle says: “As long as we are in the body, we are pilgrims away from the Lord.” And blessed Job says: “The life of man upon earth is warfare.” If, then, we are pilgrims, why do we not hasten to our homeland? If soldiers, why do we not serve? Behold, placed in this life, we know that we are pilgrims, and yet we do not pray that our exile may be ended; but, forgetful of the heavenly homeland, we love the prison of pilgrimage. He who serves badly fears the end of the war. Thus every man who overflows with the riches and honors of the world is very afraid to die. For if he knew that he had completed his service well, he would hasten to the reward. But because he remembers that he has committed many evils, for that reason he is very afraid to depart from the body and appear before the supreme judge. Why do you not do penance while you are healthy? He dies securely who lives well. Recognize that you are a pilgrim [unclear]; the hope of a longer life has deceived [unclear], because while they desire to live longer in the world, they lose the time for repentance. For often a man, by the just judgment of God, while he postpones the will to conversion, is overtaken by death and loses both the will and the power alike. For almighty God, who grants pardon to the penitent, has promised tomorrow to no one who delays.

Hence Scripture admonishes us, saying: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” It always cries “today”; today God always admonishes us, and we wait for tomorrow! The day of our last death will come, when we shall pray that the time for penance be prolonged, and we shall not obtain it. Now, healthy and strong, we neglect to repent; when the hour of death arrives, with great force we promise amendment of our life, and afterward we are no longer able to render anything. Why do we not now do what we shall then wish that we had done? At the end the rewards of labor are to be expected, not battles to be undertaken anew. For indeed, as we have said, the present life is nothing other than a pilgrimage and a certain passage to the homeland, in which we cannot stand long, but must always necessarily go forward. Every hour of time diminishes part of our life, and at every single moment cuts away something from our pilgrimage. But he who desires to go unencumbered to the homeland above should lay aside from himself every care of the world.

For the road of the heavenly homeland is narrow: it does not receive one burdened with riches; it despises one swollen with honors; it does not admit one slippery with vices. “It is easier,” says the Lord, “for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.” Therefore, if riches abound, do not set your heart on them; do not possess them greedily; do not guard them anxiously. “Better is a little for the just man than many riches of sinners.” Hence the holy apostle admonishes us, saying: “Having food and covering, let us be content with these. For those who wish to become rich in this world often fall into the temptations of the devil.” What use are gold and silver to you, O rich men of the world? How long will you thirst for and seek gold? What is money doing in little chests? For whom are you storing up treasure? For yourselves, or for your children? Not for yourselves, who possess nothing for long in this world. Therefore you seek money for your children, whom you have made followers of your avarice. But what of you who have no children? For whom are you storing up treasure? Not for yourselves, but for others; not for your own, but for strangers. Placed in the pilgrimage of this life, burdened by the weight of riches out of love for others, you go along; and while you seek to enrich your children, you wander far from the way of truth. But when the hour of death arrives, the care of the world

occupies you to such a degree that it does not permit you to think anything about heavenly things. You spend the whole, very brief time of your illness in arranging temporal affairs, and you think little about the salvation of the soul. You make a testament for temporal things, and you do not care for the wounds of the soul. You arrange for the pomp of the funeral to be elaborately disposed, and you do not provide for where the soul, soon to depart, is going to go. You solemnly compose a testament, and you do not know whether it will come to execution. For often the avaricious testator takes on unfaithful executors. Nor undeservedly. For he who has proved unfaithful to himself, what other faithful man will he expect? Behold the rich and avaricious man, who while alive contributed little in alms, when dying makes a testament and commands many gifts to be bestowed on the poor, monasteries, and churches, and trusts others more than himself. But when the testator is now dead, what very often follows is not unknown. Now the family of his kin intercepts the testamentary writing; now earthly power opposes itself with violence; now the hands of the executors carry off all the best things, and they scorn to do what the testator commands. If the unfaithful executors find with him an old and rare gold or silver coin, if they see a beautiful codex or anything else at all that is pleasing, they either carry it off secretly, or, if they cannot steal it, buy it from their associates fraudulently and under deceit. Good executors do not do this, but unfaithful ones do. It happens, however, that fraud is done to the avaricious after death, so that those who, while living, had been unwilling to give alms are, even after death, neglected by their own people through the just judgment of God. The rich and avaricious man thinks he will live long in the world, and while he fears that his expenses on the way will be diminished, he loses both life and expenses alike. He thinks himself a [unclear] of the world, and makes no haste at all toward the heavenly homeland. But in a moment he is snatched away, and is appointed to the lower regions to be tormented forever. What then will the vain riches of the world profit him, which he now has as impediments to the heavenly way? “Their gold and silver,” says the prophet, “will not be able to free them on the day of the wrath of the Lord.” O unclean world, how do you reward your own, whom you send across to be tormented in eternal fires? You very often exalt those who love you, and while they trust in temporal goods, suddenly they descend to the lower regions without repentance.

Every dominion is of brief life, and the possession of riches is not stable in the world. For mortal life is brief, earthly power briefer, and prosperity in both very brief. Therefore know your condition, O man; know life; know destruction. Your condition is mortal, life brief, destruction certain. Live in such a way that you do not fear to die. A good conscience does not fear death, through which it believes that it will come to the heavenly homeland. If you are rich and powerful, think that you are soon going to be poor and weak, because he who is a great prince today can tomorrow be a putrid corpse. Let not the vain prosperity of the world deceive you; let not greed for gold seduce you; let not the power of brief honor raise you up. Do good while you live, lest you be sorry; honor the Lord from your substance, because after death it will no longer be in your power. Do not trust others more than yourself; and do not desire that the good which should be done after death be postponed, nor commit now, while alive, to others for distribution at your death what is necessary for your provision on the way. Work good toward all while you can; labor as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, because whatever you have worked as a soldier, you will receive at the end. Whatever you have done on the way of this pilgrimage, at the end you will receive. Therefore whatever your hand can do, do it earnestly, because after death there is no working, but the repayment of good and evil works. Flee the desires of the flesh, which war against the soul; flee sloth; flee vanity. [unclear] now and for a very brief time you will labor, and as your reward you will receive eternal life. Behold, death hastens; you will not be able to live long; you will die soon. But all the things that with great labor over many years you have gathered, you are going to lose in one hour. You will carry nothing with you from all of them: not gold, not silver, not honors, not powers. For all things that are earthly will leave you in a moment; only conscience, with its adornments, will follow you. Riches will profit the dying man nothing, the ambition of the world nothing, the authority of power nothing; but good works alone do not leave the soul desolate.

What manner of life’s discipline is to be undertaken.

Chapter IV.

The brevity of the present life warns us not to spend uselessly the time granted for penitence. For indeed time passes irrevocably, and the day that is spent without the fruit of good work is reckoned liable to account. For now is the acceptable time, in which we are commanded to do good without interruption, that by it eternal rewards may be obtained. Harmful, and altogether damnable, is the loss of time, when by laboring for a little while we are able to merit eternal rest. Therefore every person zealous for his salvation should take the greatest care not to lose uselessly the time granted to him. For now is the time for laboring; after death no one will any longer be able to labor, when every meritorious action will cease. Let each one, therefore, now choose a discipline of life suited to his own state, in which he may not lose the acceptable time. But whoever has resolved to undertake the purpose of holy conduct [unclear].

“Son, when you come to the service of God, stand in fear, and prepare your soul for temptation.” For no one is able to persevere in a good purpose who undertakes [unclear] patience. Hence he says elsewhere: “Unless you hold yourself steadfastly in the fear of God, your house,” that is, your conscience, “will quickly be overthrown.” For it is written of man that he never remains in the same state.

Now he undertakes the purpose of amending his life with fervent spirit, and after a short time, growing lukewarm again, falls back once more into his former negligences. Now he burns with devotion even to tears, and an hour later cold torpor wholly occupies his mind. When fervor of spirit is present, we make great resolutions; when temptation comes upon us, good resolutions are at once forgotten. But the purpose of amendment was never firm if it could be lost so easily. For a fool changes like the moon, but a wise man remains steadfast in a holy purpose. There are many who in times of peace and tranquillity show great devotion; but as soon as some temptation begins to arise, all their devotion utterly perishes.

They confess the Lord when he has done them good; but when some adversity has rushed upon them, they not only cast aside their former devotion, but, what is more serious, they grow inflamed to murmur against God. And there are some who, when placed under some tribulation, flee to God with constant prayers; but as soon as the breeze of tribulation has passed, all devotion recedes from their memory. And there are some who, neither elated by prosperity nor cast down by adversities, remain steadfast in the fear of God, who in favorable circumstances preserve fear, and in contrary circumstances preserve patience. These alone walk rightly before God: giving thanks in all things, they always build the house of their conscience in fear. Of such persons the wise man says: “Blessed is the man who is always fearful; but he who is hard of mind will fall into evil.”

Whoever, therefore, desires to make progress in holy conduct, whoever hastens to come to eternal joys, let him not depart from the fear of the Lord and the guarding of himself. For indeed, if he casts aside for a moment the fear and solicitude of the spiritual life, if he admits torpor into his mind, he will not remain long in his holy purpose. For no negligence is so small that it does not grow if it is despised. Therefore the lover of his own salvation must put on the breastplate of patience and avoid all negligences, as far as is possible for man, lest, while he confidently supposes that he has made progress, he gradually grow lukewarm through carelessness.

But since a man cannot long persevere in the same state, even if he has fallen daily, let him rise again. A man cannot attain the habit of a good and holy purpose unless he strives to renew his affection every day. This gift is not given to many; it is granted by God only to those whose manner of life is represented by the eagle. These are holy and perfect men, who, loving God above all things, seek nothing earthly, desire nothing carnal. Such men never draw back the eyes of their mind from the rays of the true sun, except when they yield to the necessity of the body. They direct their gaze toward the truly splendid sun, because without interruption they lift up the eyes of their mind to heavenly things. But we, weak little men, to be compared with small birds, who can [unclear] our eyes toward the sun in the manner of an eagle

...to fix; let us at least take care to raise them often, so that as often as we turn the sight of the mind away from the contemplation of heavenly things because of some necessity of the body, so often we may rise again to their contemplation. For no one suddenly becomes highest; rather, one ascends to the heights of perfection by fixed steps. The greatest difficulty of the spiritual life is set before beginners; it is gradually overcome by those making progress, and wholly driven away by the perfect. No one, moreover, has ever been able to make progress who did not first begin in due order. And many indeed begin the amendment of a wicked way of life, who nevertheless do not attain progress, because the sins which today they appear to lament, tomorrow they again do not fear to commit. But weak is the purpose of repenting which is so often broken by a new sin. The sluggard wishes to rise and does not wish it; and often, while he does not fear to postpone his own willing, he loses both time and ability alike. He [unclear] himself in the bed of wicked habit; and while he neglects to break it, he creates for himself a certain necessity of sinning. For everyone who commits sin is made the servant of sin. Indeed, he who, through the grace of God, could have stood if he had wished before the fall, is no longer easily permitted to rise after his ruin. For the habit of sin weighs down the fallen man, whom it does not permit to rise without the special grace of God. O how many sinners are found today: the avaricious, adulterers, fornicators, the unclean, and those like them; when wicked and long-lasting habit is not resisted, a certain necessity is produced. But one must take up the purpose of amending one’s life with great fortitude, because if continual patience is lacking, a man’s will quickly wavers. Therefore let each person who desires to make progress in his own state clothe his mind as with the hardest rock: not so that he may kick against sounder counsels, but so that he may resist evil suggestions with a strong spirit. For security is close to danger.

That Many and Various Things Draw Us Back from a Holy Purpose and Impede Us from the Fruit of Penance. Chapter 5.

Finally, no one is able fully to consider how many snares, how many pits, and how many impediments the devil is accustomed to set before penitents. He drives them on with a thousand arts and deceits, so that he may be able to recall from his purpose the man whom he has perceived to be seeking the remedies of penance. And indeed, according to the variety of the state, sex, and condition of human beings, he uses different ways of doing harm; and what he cannot accomplish by himself, he strives to fulfill through evil people by various associations. Often, moreover, he pursues the penitent even to death; and the one whom, as a sinner, he permits to live calmly in evils, once converted he tries to overwhelm with infinite tribulations. Now he stirs up an improper wife against a man of holy purpose; now he inflames friends and relatives to anger, so that they do not fear to persecute and blaspheme as delirious and insane the man whom, as a penitent, they ought to have imitated. But if he has perceived that he cannot make progress in this way either, he turns to more serious things. He turns into hatred those once dear to the man, and beloved companions and friends, so that those who once pleasingly clung to him while he was sinning withdraw far from him as a penitent. Then the enemy puts the hand of his cruelty upon the temporal substance of the penitent; he arranges fires in the houses of the penitent man; he takes away honors; he tears away riches in various ways; he inflames the minds of judges against him; he sets up lawsuits; he seeks occasions. Now earthly power oppresses the innocent man; it draws temporal possessions into the treasury as though they belonged to a criminal; it does not allow him to live in peace. Amid these things the spirit of a man withdrawing himself from the world is very often violently shaken; he suspects that he has been abandoned by God; and unless he has put on fortitude and patience against all things that can oppose him, he soon falls away from the holy purpose of one who amends his life. But if, in all these things, the champion and lover of penance has fought bravely, a more serious contest very often approaches. For when the devil considers himself defeated in the removal of temporal things, he lets loose his force against the flesh of the penitent. With God’s permission he applies various calamities to the man, so that he may turn him away from a good purpose through impatience. Now the unfaithful wife secretly admits an adulterer; now reproaches and curses into [unclear].

... brings forth the husband: now she cries out that the household property is perishing through his negligence; now she calls him deranged and foolish. “Why,” she says, “do you spend the whole day in idle leisure? What are you doing so long in church? What have you to do with monks? How long shall I endure your hypocrisy? What are you muttering in your chamber? If you wished to live as a monk, why did you not enter a monastery? Alas for me, why has so great an evil befallen me? I had hoped to have you as a husband, a manager of my affairs; and you not only neglect domestic care, but also despise wretched me.”

From this, quarrels rise up against the penitent; from this, the woman’s hatreds arise; here the sum of inward calamity is woven together. No one believes, unless he has experienced it, how great a misery is found among married persons of unlike purpose. For always the man who desires to live according to the spirit carries his own most intimate adversaries with him.

And if every outward tribulation also should be lacking, even so the devil does not rest, but turns himself to inward battles. He suggests many and varied things to the penitent; he sets before him the difficulty of perseverance; he subtly shows the frailty of the human condition. Consequently the inward thought will say: “How long will you keep up this rigor of penitence?” If he is young, it will say: “Why do you torture your youth before its time? Will you obtain the kingdom of God by affliction more than the rest? You are young; you will not be able to endure this labor of penitence long. Rather, young man, rejoice in your youth; and when you have come to old age, then you will take up the remedies of penitence.”

But to old men it says: “Why do you destroy yourself, an old man advanced in days? Why do you not spare the age of old age, and why do you kill your weak little body by indiscreetly mortifying it? God does not require plunder as a burnt offering. But act more discreetly; let your service be reasonable, lest it be reckoned to you as sin. God is merciful; he will accept your good will in place of the work of penitence.”

In short, in this manner the devil suggests many things to the penitent man; the flesh sets many similar things against him; the world also shows many things that ought to break his holy purpose. But the strong and wise man despises all these things, scorns all the suggestions of the devil, and by perseverance bursts apart all the bonds of the world. Those doing penance in the flesh are never without struggles; those fleeing the world are never without hindrances, because the man who is not touched by one is struck more severely by another. Each man feels and carries his own cross within himself; each bears the weight of his own temptations, since for as long as one lives in this world, no one is permitted to be free from temptations.

And in all these things patience is necessary, without which no one can possess his own soul. Do not pay heed to the suggestions of the enemy, O man; do not yield to the deceitful speeches of the flesh, if you desire to come to the joys of light. While you are young and strong, do not neglect the remedies of penitence, since you have no certain knowledge at all whether you can become old. Death threatens old men openly; for the young it lies hidden in ambush. For an old man cannot live long in the world, and a young man can die quickly.

But if you are old, by no means abhor penitence. Run as much as you can, because you will not be able to remain long in this life. The more years of age you understand yourself to have lived in the world, the more you recognize that you are entangled in greater faults of crimes. Why, therefore, do you put off doing penance, when you know that you are now near death? For a long time the mercy of God has borne with you unto penitence; for a long time the supreme Judge has awaited your amendment; he has granted abundant time for making satisfaction for sins. But you, according to your hardness and impenitent heart, despise the long-suffering of God’s patience; you do not recognize that you have been preserved so that you may repent; you do not dismiss the offenses of your youth. In the time of youth you lived without the fruit of spiritual work; you continued the vice once embedded within you; and, having become older, you do not labor to begin. You do not abandon the vices of your adolescence; you do not fear avarice, detraction, rash judgment concerning your neighbor; and while you do not fear to do evil things, you go down to hell without penitence. Behold, death the cutter-off is now hastening penitence; behold, the end of your life is approaching; and still you put off doing penance, until you lose both life and time together. Why, O old man, do you not fear to defer penitence from day to day, when you have no assurance of tomorrow? Over the pit of death

...that you walk by day, and are slow to take up contrition for sins? Now too late you groan, but you do not abandon the things that must be lamented. For you say, weighed down by age and vices: “Ah, wretched me, why did I spend the days of my youth so uselessly? Why did I put off the paths of a more amended life? Why, when young and strong, did I not put on the habit of holy conduct? Unhappy man, I thought old age more suited to penitence; and what seemed difficult to me in youth, I hoped would be easy in old age. But my folly deceived me, and I have been shamefully deceived. Now I have learned by experience that old age does not receive habits, but has them. Whatever the youthful mind has once drunk in, the old man will keep even to the grave. Now, as an old man, I wish to do penance, but I cannot, because, pressed down under evil habit, I groan. Whatever good I begin contrary to habit I cannot bring to completion, because it is hard for an old mind to think new things. The practice of virtues, which in youth, if I had wished, seemed easy enough to me, now in old age appears impossible. Woe to me, because in me that saying of the wise man has been verified: ‘A youth according to his way: even when he has grown old, he will not depart from it.’ For old age is entangled in many inconveniences, from which it is not freed except by death. Therefore, O young men, whose age is fit for bearing labors, learn to devote yourselves to virtues and holy works; grow accustomed to overcoming the desires of the flesh, because he who as a young man neglects the pursuit of a more amended life will abhor it as an old man. As each person desires to be found in old age, so let him live in youth. For he who in his youth keeps watch over good morals easily perseveres good even to old age. For whatever is grasped in adolescence or youth is held more firmly. But at whatever age a man betakes himself to penitence, in all things patience will be necessary. For he will experience many temptations and adversities while walking in the law of the Lord, which he did not know before, when he was proceeding in the path of the world. And so, approaching the service of God, a man of whatever condition will endure [unclear], against which he will fight in the fear of the Lord with patience. For truly the kingdom of God suffers violence, and the violent seize it. He who neglects to bring force against the temptations of the flesh will depart not a victor but conquered, and will not be fit for the kingdom of God. But why do I proceed with many words? There is no righteous man on earth who is free from temptations. For Scripture says: ‘Many are the tribulations of the righteous, and from all these the Lord will deliver them.’ And another Scripture: ‘Because through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God.’ But that all adversities of the present life are to be borne by us with equanimity, the holy apostle indicates, saying: ‘The sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come that will be revealed in us.’ For everything that we can endure on earth is of the briefest time; but the reward due to our sufferings and patience remains forever. Therefore, if anything adverse befalls us, if any temptation of worldly depravity comes upon us, mindful always of future recompense, let us embrace patience, knowing that all these things will not last long.

On the manifold misery of the human condition. Chapter six.

We know the miseries of the human condition to be manifold, so that, if the present life were eternal, it would not undeservedly seem contemptible to the wise. Hence holy Job says: ‘Man born of woman, living for a short time, is filled with many miseries, and never remains in the same state.’ Indeed, the whole life of man upon earth is misery: to live is labor for him, to die is danger. How long, then, O man, will you love your misery? How long will you love your exile in this world? See with how many evils, with how many miseries, with how many tribulations the world pursues you, and still you do not consent to be separated from its love? Daily it drags you toward destruction, and you pretend not to flee from what is collapsing. Man is a pilgrim upon earth; at every hour something is snatched away from the road of one passing by, and daily he is pressed on toward the end of the journey. Like the days of a hireling, man at every moment tends toward evening, where he will receive wages for his labor. Whoever has labored well and bravely in the vineyard of the Lord will receive the eternal reward of labor. Why then do we delay? Why do we lie idle all day in the marketplace? Let us go to the vineyard of the Lord; let us labor

as good soldiers of Jesus Christ; for if, in the brevity of this life, we advance through good works, we shall receive the everlasting fruits of the heavenly fatherland. But he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. As long as we live in this life, we are wretched and are shaken in the world by various tribulations. No one is free from miseries, no one is untouched by tribulations, no one lives without temptations. And just as punishment does not make a martyr, but the cause does, so tribulation does not earn merit, but patience does. The just have temptations in the world; sinners have them too. But for the just, adversity through patience is turned into the merit of eternal happiness; for sinners and the impious, however, because of their impatience and reprobate life, it is reckoned as sin. Tribulation makes no one blessed; only the love of God and patience cause merit. For sinners too are vexed by many miseries in this world, yet they are driven away stripped of merit. Why is this? The fear of God is not before their eyes; they endure evils not for love of the Lord nor with regard to the heavenly fatherland, but by the necessity of human life. For many are the scourges of the sinner, but mercy will encompass only those who hope in the Lord. Since, then, no one can live in the world without tribulations, let us make a virtue of necessity, so that the evils we necessarily bear we may turn toward the love of God. Let the misery of our own condition never be hidden from us; let it never depart from our memory, so that, while we bring it to mind in the prosperity of the world, we may beware of all pride and vain security. Finally, from the very consideration of our own vileness we perceive what we ought to think about ourselves. We are conceived and born in sins; with labor and sorrow we are nourished, and by many continual tribulations we are beaten. Meanwhile, what does mortal man hope for? Death alone will give an end to miseries. What, then, do you hope for, O man? The end of misery. Why, then, do you fear death? For no one will be happy before he dies. Do you desire the misery of this life to be ended, and do you dread the judgment of death? O misery and most grievous affliction of spirit. To live is misery for us, and to die is danger. We shudder at the prison, and we fear to go out. What, then, shall we do? Wherever we turn, we find misery. Behold, those who serve the world are not without misery, but are vexed daily by many tribulations and anxieties. To what end? For what reward? That they may obtain in the world what they desire. For the devil too has his martyrs; the world has them; pleasures have them. Indeed, those who serve the devil in carnal sins endure many miseries in this world, so that they may know that from temporal punishments they will pass to eternal ones. The lovers of this world also, who seek empty honors, who seek perishable riches, who fulfill the desires of the flesh, daily subject themselves to endless miseries and anxieties. Envy follows the happiness of this life, and each person exposes himself to greater danger in proportion as he rises higher in power. For it is necessary that the one whom many fear should himself fear many. Finally, who will be able to set forth the anxieties and continual miseries of the rich? For the wise man says: The satiety of the rich man does not let him sleep. Where there are riches, there is anxiety. These are the martyrs of the world, for whom death will not be the departure from miseries, but the entrance into eternal tribulation. They pass from small anxieties to the greatest, from temporal punishments to eternal ones, from the lightest tribulations to dreadful ones. For death does not bring the impious and sinners the end of misery, but the beginning of eternal calamity. But the just, through the approach of death, come to the end of human tribulation. For at the very point where in this world they end life and misery by dying, there they begin to live happily without end. Therefore, whoever desires to come to the joys of eternity, whoever longs for those choirs of the citizens above, let him present himself as a martyr of God, and patiently and humbly endure all the evils of this world for the love of God. It is better to enter the kingdoms of heaven through the miseries of this life with patience than through impatience to be sent to hell. What profit is the brief consolation of the world, which perishes like an instant? What are riches, what are honors, what is the vain presumption of life? Woe to the lovers of the world, woe to the rich, avaricious and impious, who, having despised the love of God, feed upon the pleasures of the flesh. Why do you deceive yourself, O rich lover of the world? Why do you daily slay your immortal soul through the desires of the flesh? To what end do you trust in the multitude of your riches? The abundance of temporal things frees no one from death:

carnal delights defend no one from worms, nor will worldly honors preserve anyone from the stenches of the grave. For all worldly things perish, and they follow no one in death.

That rich man who, clothed in purple, feasted splendidly every day, unmindful of future death, refused to hear the cry of the poor man; now he cries out among the dead, and no one comes to his aid. Where now are the cellars once filled with various liquors? Where are the granaries heaped with grain? Where is the splendid table? Where are fine linen and purple? All things have passed away like a shadow, and the possession of temporal things has perished together with its possessor. What profit could the riches lost in the world bring to the rich man among the dead? What good are honors, what a beautiful wife, what most beloved offspring? Purple will not defend anyone among the dead from cold, nor fine linen from heat, nor gold from want. There the affection of those once beloved in the world will cease; there the kinship of the flesh perishes, because each person will be judged in his own crime.

Now, therefore, man, remember the time that has passed, and from the death of others know that you too are mortal. Where are your ancestors? Where is your father, where your mother, where your brother or sister? Where are the young men with whom you once played the games of childhood? Where are the men, where the women, whose times and deaths you once knew? Where is your wife, where your children? Behold, they are dead, and the memory of them has perished from among men. What good now are riches to them, what honors, what pleasures of the flesh? What, I ask, do the delights of the world profit the dead, for which they now receive the torments of hell? Or what harm after death could poverty and tribulation endured in the world now do to the just, for which they receive the joys of eternal happiness? When a man dies, what profit is it to him that he lived long? What if you should live on earth for a thousand years, rich and healthy? By no multitude of years, even if you delay it, can you escape death.

Indeed, when the hour of death has come, it takes away every pleasure of life. In that hour you will reckon your having lived as nothing; you will count as nothing all the gladness of the life you have had, since you fear that you are about to pass to punishment. Then you will wish that you had despised the world, and you will say: Alas, wretched me, who have spent my whole life so shamefully in sins; who, loving the world, have walked after vanities. Why, when I was healthy, did I not fear this hour full of dangers? Would that I had spent my days in the service of God; would that I had lived as a monk in a monastery; now I would pass securely from the world. What good are riches to me now? What help are honors? What power, what nobility, what the vain knowledge of the world? I was rich and powerful; I possessed gold and silver, and there was no end to my substance. But what good are all these things to me now? Behold, now I die, and for the merits of my life I am about to receive a sorrowful sentence. What does the gold in which I trusted profit me, when it cannot free me from the dominion of death? Woe to wretched me. While healthy I put off repentance; now I lie on the little bed of death, and I am wholly unable to think anything for the salvation of my soul, now departing. Now I wish to repent, but I cannot. O accursed cares of the world, O vain and perishing riches, O pleasures of the flesh, always harmful, how you have deceived wretched me. I had believed my life to be good and pleasing to God, if I persevered in the Christian faith. But faith without works of piety is vain. Now countless crimes leap forth from their hiding places; now many wicked deeds present themselves to memory, of which, while healthy, I had no consciousness at all. Now, then, what shall I do? To whom shall I flee? O how securely I would depart from this life if I had walked religiously and piously in the way of the Lord. Meditate on these things, O man, while you live; think on these things while you are healthy; and do not fail at all times to live as you desire to be found in the hour of death.

That in every state, sex, age, and condition of this life misery and temptation are never lacking. Chapter 7.

Man, born of woman, living for a short time, is filled with many miseries, and never remains in the same state. What man? Every man. What is every man? Wretched, and his life brief. Why wretched? Because he is subject to corruption; he never remains in the same state. Why is life brief? Because he dies quickly. Therefore every man is wretched

Wretched, plainly. Therefore even infants are wretched? Yes, wretched. For what reason wretched? Because they are human beings. If therefore all are wretched, who are happy? No one in this life. Whatever a person’s status, sex, condition, or age may be, so long as he is in the world, he will be wretched. Does death, then, make people happy? It does not make, but distinguishes.

What does it distinguish? Between the happy and the wretched. For all of us, as long as we live in the world, are wretched. But when through death we are released from this life, we are distinguished as though fish caught on the shore: some of us, who are good, are led to eternal life, thereafter to lack all misery; others of us, who are evil, are destined from temporal misery to eternal misery. For the misery of this life can be understood in two ways: one which, from the necessity of nature, is imposed commonly on all; another which is produced by various accidents. From the necessity of corrupted nature we are all wretched: all changeable by the vicissitude of times or by chance, all passible in the flesh, and all, finally, mortal. From the variety of accidents and fortune, misery is not equal for all; but each person in his own state, according to the quality of his mind, either conquers or is conquered by temptations. Finally, very often in this pilgrimage misery is inflicted on a person according to the merit of his life, where it is not the penalty that is rewarded, but the cause. For whoever suffers in this world for justice is judged not wretched but blessed.

But he who endures punishments or persecutions in the world for his own crimes is wretched and pitiable, and far removed from the blessedness of the saints. Truly, to bear the necessary miseries of this life for the love of God with a patient and humble mind is no small part of justice. For all things that seem necessary to us by nature can become meritorious through the love of God.

If therefore we gladly and humbly endure the necessities and miseries of this life for the love of God, we come very close to justice. Thus, so that after death we may deserve to be made happy in heaven, let us patiently tolerate the miseries of our present sojourn, converting the instruments of necessity even into weapons of piety. For as long as we live in this pilgrimage, we are necessarily wretched. The necessity of suffering is indeed equal for all, but the outcome is very different. He who can convert necessity into virtue for the love of God, once freed by death from the misery of this life, will deserve to obtain eternal happiness. But he who, placed in this life, impatiently tolerates the necessities and miseries of the human condition, who, set aflame by the torches of crimes, murmurs against God, when dead does not escape misery but changes it. What does he change? Misery. What misery? Temporal misery. How does he change it? A small one into the greatest, a brief one into an eternal one. For he who, persevering here in his sins, ends temporal misery by death, enters eternal misery, condemned by the just judgment of God. And he who in this life patiently sustains tribulations and adversities for the greatest love of God, freed after death from all misery, happy in the land of the living and to reign without end, lacks misery. For to the just, from death, the entrance of happiness lies open. Now therefore, since in this life we necessarily suffer misery and various temptations, let us patiently and with a cheerful mind tolerate the evils that we bear also for the love of God. And let no one think himself a stranger to the misery of this world, because then each person is truly wretched when he thinks himself happy. From infancy to old age, no one lacks misery. In every age there is misery, although many do not understand that they are wretched. Whatever is generated subject to change and is corrupted is rightly declared vain and wretched. Therefore man is vain and wretched, his works vain, and he too is troubled in vain. In misery and sins he is conceived and born; in misery and continual pain he is raised; in misery he lives wholly and dies. Finally, every age, status, and condition is harried and burned by its own miseries and temptations. Who will be able worthily to unfold the miseries of infancy and childhood? Conceived in his mother’s womb, man is wretched, and subject to death before he comes alive into the light. He is conceived in the sins of his first parents, and from a corrupt root he is born a son of wrath. Finally, before he begins to live for the world, he approaches death. But of these things we shall speak elsewhere. Misery is wholly lacking to no one who sojourns in this life. The tender infancy of children has its miseries; youth has them; old age has them too. In every state likewise there is misery and affliction of spirit. We are

the pontiff, the vicar of Christ, is shaken in this life by many temptations; and the more excellently he is seen to be exalted above all, the more abundantly he is filled with misery. For from the highest prince of mortals down to the farmer's son, no man on earth is without misery. For the whole world is full of misery and bitterness. If you enter religious life, you will find misery; if you remain in the world, you will encounter misery. If you have become learned in every variety of writings, you will find misery in all things, since he who adds knowledge adds also sorrow. If you shine forth as a great, rich, and powerful man, you will not lack much misery. Nor can misery be absent from the humble and the lowly, who are often the more unhappy in that they do not recognize themselves as miserable. The rustic life also, necessary to the human race, is full of many temptations and miseries. O vanity of vanities, why do you think yourself happy? Each man is displeased with his own estate, and another's pleases him. Few are content with their own bounds. The man who has taken a wife in marriage groans that he is bound; he longs to recover the liberty he has lost; he praises the life of monks. He loathes what he has and desires what he does not have. Another, bound to the monastic profession, shudders at the order and the habit; he turns his intention back to the world; he censures the purpose of holy living; he loudly praises marriage. But why do I use many words? Each man judges another's fortune better. And this is vanity and affliction of spirit. Believe me, every estate in the course of human life has its own miseries; and where happiness is thought to be greater, there misery overflows more copiously. Those who are set over others think the fortune of their subjects better; but those who are compelled to be subject to prelates believe themselves miserable and the others happy. But we are all deceived when we think that any estate in the world lacks misery. Everywhere in this world there is misery; everywhere there is temptation. For no one should truly be called happy before death.

On the brevity of the present life and the necessity of death. Chapter VIII. C.III.

Man, living for a brief time, is shaken in this life by many and almost continual miseries, so that through the temptations which he endures in the world he may hasten to come to eternal joys. For Scripture says: through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God. The time of our life on earth is very brief and subject to many calamities. He who today lives healthy and glad may perhaps tomorrow be counted among the dead. Why then are you proud, earth and ashes? Why do you not recognize that you are mortal? Or if you recognize it, why do you not fear? You will not be able to remain long in this life, since at every hour you are running toward death. Why do you swell with empty honors, soon to be food for worms? Why do you think yourself rich, when you know that very shortly you will be utterly poor? Why are you puffed up over worldly knowledge, when after a little while you are going to lose all your senses? Why do you glory in beauty, when in a little while you will be a most vile corpse and rotting dung? O ever blind folly of the human condition. Why do you not recognize yourself as miserable, O mortal man? You think yourself rich and happy, and you give scarcely any thought to how near your death is. It is at the doors; it is already hastening swiftly to your destruction. Why do you presume upon earthly power? For every dominion is brief. You are a bishop: you will soon die, and another will rise up in your place. Where are your predecessors? Where is the one immediately before you? They are dead, and you have risen up in their place. You will not be able to remain long in the chair of mortals, but you will soon follow those whom you have sent on before. You are abbot and prior of monks: you will not remain long. Death will come, and is already hastening; it will give your priory to another, but will present you to the supreme judge to be examined. What then will that brief power profit you, when by then it has already been lost? What will episcopal dignity, what will pastoral reverence, be able to help? Indeed, for the sheep entrusted to you, you must then be presented to God the supreme shepherd, and you will have to render account to him for all of them. On that day you will know that it falls upon the pastor as guilt if God, the inward shepherd, has been able to find any less usefulness in his sheep. For to whom much is entrusted, much will be required of him. How many men now under

... you receive under your [governance?]: for so many sheep you will answer at the last judgment. Indeed, you are to render an account to God not only for your own soul, but, placed as ruler over all those subject to you, you will answer to God for the souls of each one. O if you now set that day before the eyes of your mind; O if you foresaw your last things, you would easily despise the world with its vain honors. Behold, death hastens; behold, the end approaches; behold, the consummation of your rule hurries on. Therefore, if you are wise, if you fear the peril of your soul, remember past sins, and let the recollection of death never withdraw from your inmost parts. For the wise man says: Remember your last things, and you will not sin forever. Nothing so recalls a man from the vanities of the world, nothing mortifies the desires of the flesh, as frequent and intent meditation on death. He easily despises the world who always thinks that he is going to die. Hence Solomon, moved by consideration of most certain death, says: I accounted laughter error, and to joy I said: Why are you deceived in vain? Therefore it is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting. For in the former a man is made solicitous about his end; in the latter, however, nothing is thought about death. What if a man has lived many years upon the earth? What if he has been rich, powerful, noble? Death does not fear the authority of earthly power; it does not regard riches; it does not dread nobility of birth. With equal vengeance it is borne against all; it has learned to seize all without respect of persons; it knows how to spare none. We all die; we are all dragged before the tribunal of Christ for our merits to be examined; to remain long in this world is granted to no one. Therefore let no one deceive himself; let no one presume upon the honors of the world; let no one trust in the multitude of riches. Let each one prepare himself to die well through a good life; let no one place uncertain hope in length of life, because the longer anyone has lived in the world, the less willing he will be to die. Why is this? Indeed, while life is prolonged, guilt also increases in many things. For often one who, as a young man, is seen prepared and willing to die is found, as an old man, unprepared and most desirous of a longer life. With life grows the appetite for living, and the more a man hastens toward death, the more he loves life. For a young man fears death less, because he knows that he has sinned in fewer things. But when a man’s age is extended to old age, it is defiled by many vices and sins, and he fears death with such anxiety in proportion as he recognizes that he has sinned in many things. Human weakness is prone to sin; and the time of life granted to it, which it ought to have spent in good works, it sees that it has very often indulged in the pleasures of the flesh. A man demands that his life be prolonged for him; and while he delays doing penance for past things, he fears to die unprepared. The wretched man desires to live long in the world, and the longer he is permitted to remain in this life, the less he is found to have amended his ways. He desires to be old, but refuses to be called old. He asks to come to old age through many years, and when he has arrived, he is afraid to depart from the body. O most wretched condition of human weakness. Why are you deceived in vain, mortal man? How long will you not acknowledge that you are going to die? You live badly, and for that reason you are afraid to die. You were unwilling to wipe away the faults of your youth through penance; you did not fear to add sins; and therefore you flee to appear before the eternal judge. But you fear in vain; in vain you are afraid: you will not be able to escape death. You demand that time for repentance be extended for you, and however much prolongation you receive, you do not amend your life. What profit is the longest life to you, when it grows wholly old in sins? What are many years, empty of good works? O rare amendment of life in the aged. Old age always joins new vices to old ones; it always advances into worse things; ever uncertain, it tends toward death. For the disposition that it once put on in adolescence it does not lay aside on any of the days on which it dwells upon the earth. For it is very difficult to leave what one is accustomed to and to think new things with an old mind. What a man learned as a young man, he will retain as an old man. The purpose of amendment, when by delaying one neglects it, one shamefully loses. Behold, while we are healthy we put off saving penance; we postpone the amendment of our life from day to day; and while we desire to live longer in the world, overtaken by the hour of death, we depart from this life without repentance. We have turned over in our mind daily the purpose of amendment; we think of beginning tomorrow; but while we neglect to do violence to ourselves against evil custom, always in

in sins we persist: for no one will be able to rise from a depraved habit unless he does violence to himself against the desires of the flesh. Hence it is said of Pharaoh in Exodus: The heart of Pharaoh has been hardened; he does not wish to let my people go except by a strong hand and an outstretched arm. Who is understood by Pharaoh except the devil, who is said to hold hardened sinners in his servitude? For he is the head of all the wicked. Whoever he has once subjected to his rule in the mire of depraved habit, he does not permit to flee to the remedies of penitence except by a strong hand.

What is the strong hand? What is the outstretched arm? Listen. The strong hand signifies the grace of almighty God, without whose aid no one rises again to penitence. For truly, one who has once fallen of his own accord into the pit of sin will not be able to rise without the special grace of God. No one can stand before a fall unless the grace of the Almighty, by preserving him, goes before him; no one can rise after a fall unless the clemency of the merciful God, by helping him, raises him up.

What then is free will? What is the outstretched arm? Listen. Freedom of will is necessary for every good work; through it the grace of God works in us both to will and to accomplish, according to good will. As an artisan works and completes his work through a suitable instrument, so the grace of God through free will disposes and does a good work in human beings. And as free will without the grace of God accomplishes nothing, so the grace of God, for working good in us, requires our will. Hence the holy Apostle, writing to the Corinthians, says: We exhort you not to receive grace in vain.

Is the grace of God, then, sometimes received in vain? Plainly in vain. How is this? Listen. Whoever, while in health, neglects to do penance; whoever scorns doing good while he can, has received the grace of God in vain. Therefore it is said: He will not let my people go except by a strong hand and an outstretched arm; that is, the grace of God is at hand. Stretch [it] out, lest you lose both grace and [at the same time] the time for penitence. Why do you delay? Why do you tarry? What is suffering violence? How long will you dissemble? How long will you receive the grace of God in vain? Why do you not take account of the strong hand for your liberation? Why do you not stretch out the arm of your will toward the grace of God, which offers itself freely? Why do you not run to meet God as he calls? Why are you negligent?

There is no virtue without labor, no struggle against evil habit without very great sweat. One does not come to the heavenly kingdom by the desires of the flesh, but of the spirit. No one, however, can extinguish the desires of the flesh unless, aided by the grace of God, he has learned to do violence to himself. What violence? Hear it from the Lord. Whoever wishes, he says, to come after me, let him deny himself to himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. Here violence lies hidden; here consists the sinew of victory. If, with the flesh conquered, you desire to come to the kingdom of heaven, you must despise your own will for the love of God. Walk according to the spirit, and you will overcome the desires of the flesh. Nevertheless, in all these things do not neglect to bear your cross daily, if you desire to come after the Lord to your salvation. What cross? That of daily temptation. In what way must it be borne? Through patience. For the Lord himself says to his followers. And the holy Apostle says: Patience is necessary for you.

Now therefore stretch out the arm of your will, if you wish to escape dark Egypt. Why are you afraid? Why do you hesitate? Why do you doubt? Why do you not begin penitence today, since you are not unaware that you will soon die? Behold, death, the cutter-off of penitence, is already hastening; it will extinguish alike your life and your long-deferred purpose of repenting.

On the Bitterness of Death and the Severity of Judgment. Chapter IX.

Of all terrible things death is the more terrible: with the greatest pains it snatches the soul from the body; it [turns] the flesh into dust and sends the spirit, to be judged according to its merits, to the tribunal of God. For the just man, by whatever death he has been overtaken, will be in refreshment. Not so the impious, not so: for them death gives an end to the present life and a beginning to eternal calamity.

Woe to hardened sinners, who, while they neglect to do penance, descend to hell to be tormented without end. What use are earthly riches now to those set in the torments of Gehenna? What use are honors held in the world for a brief time? What use the glory of the world, what the majesty of a kingdom? All have passed away, and like smoke have vanished. The wretched lie in torments, to be tortured forever without end. Where are the pleasures of the flesh which they loved? Where the hope of a longer life? Where the resolve to repent, postponed through so many years? Pleasure has been changed into punishment that will endure without end; hope into confusion; pleasures into reproach. Now confession has perished from the dead man as though from nothing; the purpose of penance has vanished; the time for working has expired. Blessed is the man who is always fearful, who thinks every day in advance on the bitterness of death, who prepares himself through penance to meet God. For nothing so stirs the mind to compunction, nothing so mortifies the desires of the flesh, nothing so hastens penance, as frequent and intent meditation on death. Thus Hezekiah, king of Judah, when he had received the message of death, turned to the wall and wept, and obtained a postponement of life by tears. Thus the Ninevites, when they heard the Lord’s proclamation concerning the overthrow of the city, were afraid, and, salutarily pierced with compunction, hastened to do penance in sackcloth and ashes, and received pardon from the Lord together with the safety of the city. Thus Ahab, king of Israel, having received the sentence of death, with lowered head was humbled to the ground, who before, exalted and proud, had despised the words of Elijah. No one is so savage and proud that he is not made gentle by intent remembrance of death. Therefore always be mindful of your end, that you may not forget the last judgment, if you desire to overcome the vain lusts of the world. For indeed he who thinks death is threatening him while he is alive loves nothing perishable in the world. The diligent memory of death despises the world, scorns the fires of the flesh, contemns riches. For the soul is easily led to contempt of earthly things if it meditates anxiously on death close at hand. Finally, if we diligently attend to the dangers of death, it is a wonder if we hold back from tears. For the more sharply does the devil make a din in our [unclear] at the hour of death, the more he knows that after this [unclear] the opportunity of conquering is being taken from him.

For that faithless persecutor of human salvation knows that the reward depends upon the end of the labor, and therefore he strives to resist more strongly at the point of death, lest a man be able to remain in his holy purpose. And therefore we read that many among the saints greatly feared death, because they did not doubt that the whole of salvation consisted in the end. What shall we wretched sinners do in that hour, where the holy and perfect tremble? What will boards do where the great columns of a house are shaken? If the righteous man fears death, how will the impious and the sinner stand? Woe to us. We spend the time of penance badly, and, as though secure, hasten toward death. He is deceived who awaits death without penance. He who lives badly never dies well without penance. When the Lord was hanging on the cross, the plotter against salvation is read to have been present; and he who could never find any sin in him sought something of his own in death. Who now would not fear, if he weighs the craftiness of the cunning enemy? When that most holy bishop of Tours, Martin, was once dying, the devil was present and sought something of his own in him. The saint said: “Why do you stand here, bloody beast? Whom do you await? Depart; you will find nothing deadly in me.” To this the devil is said to have answered indignantly: “I was present when the Son of God was dying on the cross, and ought I not to come near you? No one has ever died at whose death I was not present.” Hence, though holy men always fear the divine judgments in all things, nevertheless they are then vehemently afraid when they perceive that they are drawing near to the strict judge as he comes to exact the debt of the human condition; and fear becomes the sharper, the more eternal the recompense of vices is. What will we wretched little worms be able to do when we are about to die? Let us therefore fear death, which will most certainly come to us, lest we [unclear] it when present. For nothing is more certain than death, nothing among human things harsher, nothing more horrible. And although we are all most certain of death to come, yet we do not know at what hour it will come, or in what state it will cast us down. Hence in the Gospel the Lord admonishes us, saying: “Watch, for you know neither the day nor the hour.” And, introducing a similitude on this, he says: “And you, be like men waiting”

envy rages more fiercely, when the final battle is being waged for eternal triumph. But in vain do we fear death, which we cannot escape. Hence the wise man admonishes, saying: “Do not fear the judgment of death.” As if he were saying openly: Do not fear what you cannot escape; nor increase the danger by fearing, lest you fall into despair. What then? Is death therefore not to be feared? It is to be feared by the wicked and the reprobate, for whom it makes an entrance to hell. But by the good and the faithful it is to be feared in such a way that it restrains them from sin, not that it breaks their constancy. Yet for all, discreet meditation on death is good and useful; the memory of it preserves the good and the just in their holy purpose, and calls back the impious and sinners to repentance. For to the holy and the just, death is the entrance to eternal life, as the blessed Apostle says: “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Why gain? Because by death a passage is prepared for me to joy; through it I go from labor to rest, from abasement to glory, from poverty to incomparable riches, from fear to security, from the world to heaven, from death to eternal life. But this confidence belongs only to the perfect, to whom this world has been crucified, and they to the world. Unhappy I, Trithemius: who will deliver me from the body of this death? I endure the weariness of the present life, and I greatly fear to die. I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ, but I fear to appear before the inward judge, whom I recognize that I have offended by many sins. I bear my sojourn with distress, in which I see that I have made no progress; and therefore with the holy Apostle I mix lamentation. For he says: “I know that good does not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh. For to will is present with me, but to accomplish I do not find. For the good that I will, I do not do; but the evil that I do not will.” If the holy Apostle could say this of himself, what shall we wretches do? Woe to us, to whom at times neither to will is present nor to accomplish. O if the strict examination of the inward judge never fled from the eyes of our mind; O if the memory of the last things never withdrew from our thoughts, the world would easily become worthless to us, and the bitterness of repentance would please us. How strictly God judges the sins of men after the deed is shown by many examples. For no sin is so small that a punishment would not have to be assigned for it, if it has not been purged in this life through repentance.

Let us carefully consider what is read concerning the saints of God, Severinus, archbishop of Cologne, and Paschasius, deacon of the Roman Church: that both, shining with miracles, were seen after death in the punishments of purgatory; the one because, occupied with the affairs of the commonwealth, he had at times performed the canonical hours too negligently; the other because in the election of Pope Symmachus he had dissented from the will of others, although with good zeal. What shall we wretches do, if men most holy and renowned for miracles could not escape the punishments of purgatory? What, I say, shall we unjust men do, if saints are tortured after death in the punishments of purgatory? How will the impious man be able to escape punishments, if the saint could not? Therefore let us fear, brothers; by fearing let us take care, lest through negligence we fall. Let us do penance at all times, because in this life alone is penance fruitful, when we can not only escape punishments, but also merit glory.

That, by consideration of death and judgment, the world, the flesh, and all the pleasures of this life are to be despised.

Chapter 10.

Divine Scripture admonishes us, saying: “In all things remember your last things.” And to the sinful nation Moses says: “It is a nation without counsel and without prudence: would that they were wise and understood, and would provide for their last things.” What last things? Those, namely, that follow the present life. What are they? Judgment and death. Indeed, how useful the memory of death is to a man, the wise man declares, saying: “Son, remember your last things, and you will not sin forever.” Behold, death hastens; the strict judgment of God approaches. How long will you sleep? How long will you put off repentance? You will not be able to live long in this world; you will quickly be snatched to the judgment of God, where you are to receive a sorrowful sentence for the negligence of your life. Therefore now, while you live and are healthy, do penance; amend your life for the better; purge your conscience. Whatever good your hand can do,

[unclear] work, because neither work nor reason, nor wisdom nor knowledge, will exist among the dead, whither you are hastening. Now is the time of penitence; now the days of labor, in which we can redeem our sins through holy exercises and, for small works, obtain the heavenly kingdom. The world passes away, and its desire; men die, and are snatched from our memory as though they had never been. Why do you trust in gold, O rich man? Why do you glory in power? Why do you not consider that you will shortly die? Put down your haughtiness; cast away vain confidence. Death does not fear honors, does not heed riches, does not distinguish age. It is one for all; it spares no one, reverences no one. As with the servant, so also with the lord; it makes the farmer equal to the prince; it equates scepters with mattocks. It renders equal judgment to all, pronounces a just sentence, accepts no person. It does not ask a man’s will; it imposes necessity on all. Whether a man is prepared to die or not, it does not weigh; it hastens to seize him for whom it has come; it gives no consideration to the words of one promising, however great they may be. In all the days in which a man lives upon the earth he hastens toward death, and, as if with eyes closed, blind, he hastens to the pit. No age is secure from death; no time is safe; no place under heaven has immunity. Age does not excuse a man who is to die; time does not free him; place does not preserve him. Since, therefore, at every age, place, and time we are subject to death, let us await it continually prepared, for it watches us at every moment. The doubtful, uncertain, and changeable death of the human condition diligently warns us that, being solicitous about our death, we should nowhere presume vainly. For Scripture says: Blessed is the man who is always fearful; but he who is hard of mind will fall into evil. Indeed, he who fears the coming of death guards himself from every negligence, so far as human frailty permits, and desires to be found ready in all things. Who is the one who fears death in a salutary way? He who, by fearing, lives well. The wicked fear and dread death, but in fearing they live badly. Fear profits nothing where there is no progress. For the rich of this world greatly fear the dominion of death, because, entangled in earthly desires, they are afraid to depart from this age, since they have loved nothing outside the world. He who is conscious of evil in himself dreads the coming of the judge. Indeed, he who does evil hates the light, fearing the correction of judgment. But what does it profit? Necessity drives us toward death, and human will cannot withstand it. After death judgment is at hand, where conscience will accuse as witness and justice will judge. Therefore, while we live in the flesh, let us prudently fear death; by fearing let us prepare ourselves, because we cannot escape. Let us do penance for past sins; let us beware of future ones; and thereafter let us strive to live in such a way that we may not fear death. A sound conscience always has joy, since it places its hope in the help of the Most High, whose commandments it humbly observes. But salvation is far from sinners, who seek earthly honors, who cultivate greed, who at all times seek the pleasures of the flesh. Deservedly such people fear death, for they do not have the testimony of a good conscience. For just as death is for the good an entrance from poverty to the kingdom, so for the reprobate it is an approach to hell. Blessed is the man who meanwhile is always fearful, who does not love the vanities of the world, who spurns perishable riches, who flees the desires of the flesh, who guards the commandments of God with humble devotion. Such a man awaits death securely, having confidence in the grace of God alone. For no one is holy by his own powers, but God works all things in all, who by his mercy may grant us eternal life. Amen.

Printed in the noble city of Mainz by Peter Friedberg, in the year of the Virgin birth 1495.