Exhortatio ad monachos
by Anonymous
Source text: Public Domain. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://migne.app/pl/18/exhortatio-ad-monachos/
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## Exhortation to monks

[0071A]And if it is permitted to glory at all in Christ, you who have been initiated with beginnings of this kind — so that your commencement is already perfection, and, flying past the steps set between toward the true fruit of living, having seized the very peak of the summit, you hold the sum of discipline, such that each man ought rather to have it among his prayers and to imitate you than to believe he can be trained — to me, nevertheless, a father's affection has assigned the license of this prerogative, and I must embrace the demand of your request. You who, while you listen to me, have made me shameless through your love, not only willingly but even eagerly. I lead those who go before me, and, stretched beyond the measure of my own ability, I am compelled to lead those whom I desire to follow. I shall proceed, therefore, along the path of your life, so that, like one who is being schooled in the first traced-out elements of letters, I shall tread with an imitating pen the marks sketched out [0071B] in outline, for those approaching the hoped-for rewards of the blessed institute — the things which are to be followed. First, the care of abstinence, of fasting, of patience; assiduity in praying and in reading, or, if anyone is as yet without letters, let there be a desire of hearing along with an eagerness for learning. For these are the first rattles, as it were, of the suckling's cradle in the knowledge of God, by which a man, being admonished, may begin to will to enter the way of the divine path of his own origin, while he grows accustomed to be able. And indeed, in handing down these things, I do not speak of the mixed faith of the common crowd, for whom only a confession of almighty God instilled into them, and the teaching of a singular innocence dropped in, makes them content to be with pardon alone. Although our Lord, as we read [n: (Rom. VII, 6)], wills all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth, [0071C] yet because not all can be capable of the pre-eminent grace: for not [n: (Genes. XXI; Galat. IV)] all who are of Israel are Israelites (for Ishmael too is shut out from the fellowship of the brotherly inheritance, and Jacob and Esau, fighting together, broke the barriers of one womb), or content with a well of living water, let us [0072A] fit ourselves as a holocaust of our own selves, a victim of voluntary offering, desiring foods and preparing them, and granting to those first ones, according to the measure of pardon, this sentence: *Every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be cast away that is received with thanksgiving [n: (I Tim. IV, 4)]*. But for us, striving by that labor toward the reward of glory, it is good not to eat flesh nor to drink wine. And again: *Everyone who strives in the contest abstains from all things [n: (I Cor. IX, 25)]*. And they indeed, that they may receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible one. For abstinence is the nurse of continence, by which a woman unmarried or married more easily bears the reins of susceptibility, if she be not goaded by the spurs of delights — rather than that I should either desire or command those who strive toward the highest things so to cultivate them that they think it a crime in others to have married, [0072B] knowing it to be written: *It is good to marry, it is better not to marry [n: (I Cor. VII, 37)]*. For those who believe this unlawful themselves diminish the reward of their own labor. For to guard against things unlawful is the yoke of necessity; to conquer things permitted is the gift of choice. To abstain from evils is the wage of discipline; to go beyond good things is the liberty of merit, not the limit of command. That was granted to the boundaries of the law; this is reserved to the increases of grace.

## 2.

Let there be no fixed measure of fasts either for those who are willing, but let it be extended, so far as possibility avails, by the effort of the one laboring — fasts which, apart from the Lord's day, are always solemn, if they be votive. Preparing himself by these, the most blessed Moses presented himself worthy of God's addresses. By these the Ninevites bent back into a peaceable sentence the threats foretold through Jonah. By these the people of Bethulia, [0072C] shut in by the Assyrian siege, and terrified even to their own surrender, having tried very great valor, deserved to be avenged from the swelling threats of Holofernes by the hand of a steadfast woman. By these Mordecai hanged Haman, cruel through pride, upon the wood prepared for himself, by the turning back of the punishment he had received. By these Jesus [0073A] our Savior, schooled in the flesh of the man he had assumed, blunted the persuasions of the tempting devil. And though he could have driven them off otherwise, yet he willed to shape the peoples, who were to be taught, by this imitation. But prayers must be pressed upon so frequently that scarcely any interval breaks them off. For it is written: *Press upon prayers, watching in them [n: (Matth. VII, 18)]*. And again: *Seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you [n: (Matth. VI, 19)]*. Through these the sleeping friend is roused: and although deep sleep has beset the whole household, the importunate petitioner nevertheless wrings it out that loaves be brought forth and handed to him. Let only the pause of reading, if it can be, break these off: and the care of that matter must be placed upon the canonical monuments — not that we ought to condemn the apocrypha, especially when they are unknown, but because for the ordered knowledge [0073B] of God we think the series of the canon can suffice. For if those agree with it, they are superfluous; if they disagree, they are to be avoided. Without the study of reading no one will be able to be intent upon the Lord. First, because works of this kind draw one away from other acts of fleeting occupation, and the knowledge of various examples, instilled, makes either an appetite for good things or a wariness of evil ones. Nor indeed would Peter the apostle otherwise admonish us, saying: *Be always ready to render an account to all who ask you concerning the word of your hope and of your faith [n: (I Petr. III, 16)]*. And the Apostle: *We do not cease praying for you, that you may be filled with the knowledge of him in all wisdom and spiritual understanding [n: (Coloss. I, 9)]*. And again: *Let the word of Christ dwell in you abundantly in all wisdom [n: (Coloss. V, 16)]*. For in the Old [0073C] Testament also the sacred utterance pressed a like care of holy instruction upon men. For thus David says: *Blessed is the man who has not gone away in the counsel of the ungodly, and has not stood in the way of sinners, and has not sat in the chair of pestilence. But his will is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he shall meditate day and night [n: (Psalm. I, 1)]*. And God speaks to Joshua son of Nun: *This book shall not depart from thy hands, and thou shalt meditate in it day and night [n: (Jos. I, 8)]*. Into these occupations also the slippery things of evil thoughts frequently insert themselves. And although that very diligence renders the mind intent upon God, yet the biting care of the world makes it anxious within itself.



## 3.

But if the man given over to religious labor suffers these things frequently and importunately, the idle man assuredly will never be free of them. Now, since we have set out the members of our pursuits, [0073D] let us heap up the increases of character. And I do not think it outside our admonition that food should be plain and clothing cheap, since these were devised for the sake of covering the body, not adorning it; and the former for sustaining the soul rather than burying it. Bound over, therefore, to those acts which we showed above, let a man lay aside all hatred of an enemy. And not content with this end alone, let him exchange enmities for love, let him temper anger with the bridle of patience, let him conquer avarice with the strong command of abstinence, and above all let him fence in his tongue with the guard of silence: lest it grow hot, contentious, into quarreling; lest it run, insolent, into cursing; lest it creep, slanderous, into disparagement; lest it slip, too easy, into swearing; lest it feign, counterfeit, into lying; lest it grow crafty, cunning, in circumvention; lest [0074A] it be tossed, proud, in self-exaltation; but observing a time for keeping silence and a time for speaking, let him know that every idle word is liable to a reckoning. For this reason the most blessed David also begs a guard for his mouth. And the sacred page of blessed Paul appoints that speech be seasoned with salt. And the precepts of James, being testified, have marked that no member is so untamable as the tongue. Let him therefore who climbs a way of this kind be silent, mild, kindly. And since the affection of charity is held to be indissoluble, let him in equal zeal always judge another the better man. For by this bridle he binds fast envy, which, being rather often stirred up by the judgment of the self-exaltation neighboring upon it, while it seeks that honor be rendered back to itself, runs into the mark of wretched spite. Nor indeed does a man attain the first place if he requires it of men: *for God resists the proud, [0074B] but gives grace to the humble [n: (I Petr. V, 5)]*. And he, when he was training his disciples in a zeal of this kind, declares him the greatest who wishes to be the least of all. Suppose your brother is honored by some more readily: neither hold those men as less your friends, nor regard him as a rival in the veneration preferred to you. Rather judge that the increase of his honor grows to your own account, knowing it written: *For if one member glories, all the members rejoice together. And you are the body of Christ, and members [n: (I Cor. XII, 26)]*. For whoever loves any one of you ascribes every dignity to God, in whom you come together. In this man mild silence is pleasing; in this man winning affability is loved. This one his raw and inborn simplicity commends, this one his learned knowledge. This one's patience in the continuance of fasting, [0074C] this one's contempt in the virtue of abstinence, this one's diligence in the assiduity of reading, is praised according to the diversity of the divine gifts. And these things, as it is written: *One and the same Spirit works, dividing to each as he wills. For as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are yet one body, so also is Christ. For we have all been baptized in one Spirit into one body [n: (Ibid., 11)]*. Each of you can take beforehand the sum of all good things, if no one begins to exalt himself in that in which another excels. But when you shall bind one another close in the knot of tight-drawn charity, then do not condemn, by the austerity of a more attentive life, those who are outside and are still bound by worldly chains in secular activity, knowing it written: *I would not have you judge, lest you be judged (Luc. [0074D] VI, 37)*. And again: *Who art thou that judgest another's servant [n: (Rom. XIV, 4)]*? To his own Lord he stands or falls. For God is able to make him stand. Rather, the way of truth being shown by the exhortations of kindness and by an enticing gentleness, open up the cloud of error, so that each man may begin not to be dragged, but to follow the one going before.

## 4.

Harder things must always be bent gradually, lest the curve, bowed by force, give way and strike a fragment off before it comes round into a circle. For here rather often the scandals of the common crowd are sharply begotten, while a censor's command is arrogated to the yoke of religion. Let our life command, let our tongue persuade, because example carries more authority, and the gentle shaping of character brings on a desire of itself. In every act of yours, therefore, shine as in a mirror [0075A] reflecting the light. Circumspect everywhere, everywhere careful, that spite find nothing, that false rumor inflict nothing. Honor upright women, given over to a true zeal for religion, with a measure of veneration, so that there be neither an inhuman austerity nor a slack attentiveness. Let your going to one another not be thrust upon you, but native — such as a cause has made, not such as idleness has let loose. Hear several along with several; or if ever a number of the other sex be lacking, let either the tried gravity of someone's years, or the frequented character of the place, or the reckoning of the hour make it seemly, because for you especially the time of life, the hour, and solitude are to be avoided. Not that it is right for me to judge otherwise concerning those who have truly once dedicated devoted hearts to God, but that out of abundance we should so guard against everything that can be feigned, as though it could also be believed, lest [0075B] a suspicion born from the occasion creep into any wound of our reputation. Let the very seeds of rumor perish before they are nourished by tongues. Yet not the credit of the deed only, but even the possibility of a lie must be bound up by us. For blessed and glorious is that life concerning which nothing is permitted to falsehood. Nor indeed have I seized upon this judgment of mine as a severe censor, but have taken up a heavenly command as a gentle admonisher: for so also says the Apostle: *Being jealous over you with the jealousy of God, I have espoused you to one husband, to present you a chaste virgin to Christ [n: (II Cor. XI, 2)]*, knowing it to be written: *Put not an offense or a stumbling block before a brother [n: (Rom. XIV, 13)]*; and again: *Be without offense to Jews and to Gentiles, and to the Church of God [n: (I Cor. X, 32)]*; and again: *Let not therefore our good be blasphemed [n: (Rom. XIV, 16)]*; and again: *For why is our liberty judged by another's [0075C] conscience [n: (I Cor. X, 29)]*; and again: *But let all your things be done honorably [n: (I Cor. XIV, 40)]*; and again: *Commending ourselves to every conscience of men before God [n: (II Cor. IV, 2)]*; and again: *Let us provide good things not only before God, but also before men [n: (Rom. XII, 17)]*; and again: *That he who is on the opposing side may be confounded, having nothing evil to say [n: (Tit. II, 8)]*. Nor does it escape me that the envy of worldly spite always burns into the disparagement of religion, and fixes the biting tooth of sharp speech, pressed in by malignant rumors. Let the world use its own nature, so long as it find nothing in our discipline. Let falsehood be flung about after its custom, so long as what is said cannot even be plausible. No one on that account ought to despise the wound of ill fame, because rumor has always been accustomed to counterfeit; but so much the more attentively [0075D] should he take precaution, because it is wont even to compose fictions. No one is rendered secure from the fear of disparagement by the commonness of disparaging. Nor is a continued matter of solicitude a cause for negligence. Let there be, therefore, a safe and circumspect guard of your modesty and reverence. Let your going out from the house be necessary and rare — such as either the reckoning of religion has called forth, or the cause of practicing your work for the substance of your food has arranged. Abstaining from all gifts, except those which suffice for daily food and yearly clothing. Knowing it to be written: *But having food and wherewith to be covered, with these we are content [n: (I Tim. VI, 8)]*; and again: *That you may walk honorably toward those who are outside, and may desire nothing of any man [n: (I Thess. IV, 12)]*. Nor indeed, for the sake of giving alms, may you take upon yourselves anything from anyone beyond the aforesaid [0076A] sustenance, knowing it written: For if the will is ready, it is accepted according to that which it has, not according to that which it has not. Thus that divine sentence of the Gospel's discourse enriched with a magnificent gift the poor old woman who cast in only two coins among the lavish offerings of the wealthy. Because that cannot be little which is the whole. Nor has anyone given more than he who has reserved nothing for himself.



## 5.

If these things shall seem to anyone besides you too tightly drawn, he who has attempted to knock at the enclosures of God will loosen them as his own reckoning has borne — lest perhaps someone be joined to a wife, or hindered by children. Besides these, a narrow substance has very many things that follow upon it. Nor let him believe himself driven back, but admitted by the entrance of another calling, [0076B] as it is written: *Let each one remain in that calling in which he was called [n: (I Cor. VII, 24)]*. Yet not so that, being more occupied in fleeting things, he should spend a readier care upon his patrimony than upon religion, recognizing that it is written; and those possessing, as though not possessing. If, however, a happier nature has released anyone from the fetter of posterity — if it be rightly understood — he will not have a cause for clinging to the world, unless he is ignorant of God's gifts. For why should he not loose by the will of living what must be broken by the law of dying, making a wage out of his lot, so as to increase virtue out of necessity? Rather, he who in his own household property makes great things out of small, precious out of cheap, eternal out of fleeting, is alone, after he has arrived where he can be the everlasting possessor of his own patrimony. If he is not covetous, he ought to despise things that must come to an end; [0076C] if he is covetous, he ought to desire things perpetual, knowing it to be written: *Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves dig through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not dig through nor steal [n: (Matth. XIX, 20)]*. For to him who does not lack children this is an exhortation; to him who lacks them, a command. All these things, suited to the times, fitted to persons, filled with examples, seasoned with winning words, with an enticing address, with the wholeness of a mild exhortation, he can more easily urge who does them. Nor indeed are you grudging of the fruit of any of all these things, so as to be defrauded of anyone's esteem. Certainly you had a firm body, an unimpaired time of life, untrained minds; there lay open to you, though narrowly, according to the variety of the human race, [0076D] either the practice of trading or the pursuit of soldiering, various arts, countless offices in the doings of the world for increasing your means. Lastly there was not lacking even a poor wife, who might furnish the pleasure of living, and the endearments of children implanted in human feelings. All which things indeed you, spurning them in body and in chaste feeling, keep in religious acts the form of the divine sentence, since Scripture says: *Whoever has made more of house, or wife, or children than of me, is not worthy of me [n: (Matth. X, 27)]*. Looking therefore upon your examples, let not even those despair of the sum of merits by a narrow estimation of themselves, who have come to the pursuit of this life with a like substance. Established therefore, dearest sons, upon this path of living, be at leisure and see that the Lord is sweet. [0077A] Spend your days and nights in readings and prayers, and remember me always — me whom, an untimely birth among all priests in work and in knowledge, you counted it so great a thing [0078A] to choose as your teacher: *Watch, stand in the faith, act manfully, be strengthened; let all your things be done in charity, and the God of peace will be with you [n: (I Cor. XVI, 13)]*.
