Epistola Ad Quosdam Germanos

To Certain Germans. I fear, venerable sons, lest, while I presume to suggest something to you for preserving peace or chastity in a rustic and unskilled speech, I may seem to incur a mark of presumption among those who do not know how great the power of charity is. For although I am both conscious of my own sins and not ignorant of your purity, I nevertheless presume, tepid as I am, to admonish the fervent, slow and negligent as I am, to spur on those who are running, languid as I am, to give counsel to the healthy, and, remaining on the way, to urge you toward the desire of the eternal fatherland; and because I am not able to visit you more frequently according to your holy vow, I piously and humbly send this little admonition to your serenity in place of my presence. But this presumption, as I have said, charity itself, which knows not how to fear, imposes upon me. Therefore I ask you, venerable sons, that, granting pardon to my boldness, you patiently and kindly receive whatever I suggest; and consulting my rusticity or modesty, read over my exhortation, such as it is, more privately, giving it to no one else, lest the ears of any learned person be struck by the harshness of our speech. For although, with God propitious, we know nothing adverse concerning your most holy way of life, nevertheless, on account of the manifold snares of the enemy of whom it is said, "His names are a thousand, his arts of harming a thousand," on account, therefore, of his venomous cunning and evil-flattering lusts, I send to your holy conscience whatever, even if tepid.

we admonish with our sermons, and although we are less capable warriors, we provide you with spiritual arms against the fiery arrows of the devil. Rejoice and exult in the Lord, venerable sons, and give him continual abundant thanks, who has deigned to draw and summon you from the dark way of life of this world to the harbor of peace and religion. Think continually, brothers, from where you have come and where you have feared to arrive. You have faithfully left behind the darkness of the world; and you have begun to see the light of Christ happily; you have scorned the fire of lust, and have arrived at the coolness of chastity; you have rejected gluttony, and have chosen abstinence; you have rejected avarice and luxury, and have held to chastity and mercy. But I ask you, venerable sons, that as much as you are secure about the past, you be so solicitous about the future. For all crimes and sins quickly return to us, if they are not daily fought against by good works. Hear the apostle Peter saying: Be sober and keep watch, because your adversary the devil, like a roaring lion, goes around seeking someone to devour. As long as we live in this body, let us fight against the devil night and day with Christ as our helper and leader.

For there are some, and what is worse, negligent and tepid, who boast solely of the name of Christianity, and think that it suffices for them to have changed their garment and taken up the habit of religion, not knowing that prophetic saying: "Son, approaching the service of God, stand in justice and fear, and prepare your soul for temptation"; nor considering the sentence of the Psalmist: "Because of the words of your lips, I have kept to hard ways"; and that which the Apostle said: "Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of heaven." For we can put off secular garments and put on religious ones in one day or in the space of a single hour; but we must strive, with Christ as our helper, to hold to good morals continually, or to fight against the sweet but evil pleasures of this world, as long as we live, because it is not he who has begun, but he who has persevered to the end, who will be saved. First of all, therefore, the soul that wishes to preserve religion should strive with all the strength of faith to overcome gluttony and avoid drunkenness, and should have a temperate table and a moderate meal, so that the flesh is neither weakened by excessive abstinence nor provoked to lust by an abundance of delicacies. Then it should lay a deep foundation of humility, restrain the tongue, flee from detraction as from poison, neither utter idle words itself nor willingly allow them to enter its ears when spoken by another; and it should accustom itself to a habit of dress that is neither too shabby nor changeably showy or of dangerous elegance.

He himself should either read frequently, or receive the words of the reader with the whole eagerness of his heart. From the fountains of the divine Scriptures, let him continually draw the water of salvation, that water of which the Lord says: He who believes in me, rivers of living water shall flow from his belly. Also, from the flowers of paradise, that is, the meanings of the holy Scriptures, let the holy soul strive to adorn itself continually, and let it constantly apply those precious pearls to its ears, and from them let it fashion for itself rings and bracelets, while it performs good works. There let us seek the ornaments of chastity, there the sacrifices of compunction. But whoever desires to preserve religion with an immaculate heart and a pure body should either never go out in public, or certainly not except for a great and unavoidable necessity. And let no one say: My conscience is enough for me. Let each one say to himself what pleases him: that excuse is wretched and hateful to God, which proceeds more from shamelessness than from a good conscience. For when a man or a woman first begins to be in close familiarity with a man, it is known to be quite modest and almost holy. But the devil at first withdraws his machinations until, with the growing of constant familiarity, hostile things are nourished between them.

For the cunning enemy makes them serve each other for a short time, without any reason of lust, without any loss of chastity, and thus he ensnares them with false security, so that he leads them out into the deep, like two little boats, as if in a calm tranquility; and while they think themselves safe, they do not even seek the help of fasts, as if they were guilty; and when he has made them secure, dashing them against themselves, he suddenly sinks them in a storm, and, hurling them into wounding embraces, kills them both at one blow. So long does he conceal them with a sudden fire [subditos ignes] without any flames, until, joining two torches together, he kindles both at once. Thus the devil unfolds what he previously seemed to bestow; thus, from what seemed simple charity, he fashions an illicit love, while at first he is despised to yield, so that he may later prevail to occupy more. Behold, is each one secure in his own conscience, that when he sees someone, he cannot be scandalized by him? Does he now know his own conscience, does he see the will of the other? Behold, your eye sees simply, and perhaps the other lusts cruelly. You rejoice in your own possibility, and you do not fear for his ruin. For if you present yourself as too familiar, you nourish the lust of another. Even if you yourself do not sin, you will still destroy another, and it will be for you a cause, even without cause, that another's lust stains you.

Do not, I beg you, do not give anyone an occasion or grant familiarity, lest perhaps an evil lust kindled in someone else begin to seek elsewhere what it could not find in you. But perhaps someone says: "I am secure in my conscience." Far be it that such a word proceed from a religious mouth: for he has already fallen who trusts in his own virginity. If he desires to overcome lust with Christ's help, let him know most certainly that he who does not cut off unworthy familiarity will quickly destroy either himself or another. But perhaps someone says: "I do not flee familiarity because I wish to have something to overcome; I desire to hold my adversary captive." See to it that the adversary does not begin to rebel against you. See to it that this captivity does not lead you captive. Hear the Apostle saying: Flee fornication; against other vices we must resist with all our strength, but against lust it is expedient not to fight, but to flee. Therefore, be a fugitive from lust if you wish to be an outstanding fighter for chastity. But attend diligently to what I have said: when someone is incited by the goads of lust while alone, let him fight back with Christ's help as much as he can against himself, because he has nowhere to flee; but when through another's companionship, however opportune, the devil supplies fuel for pleasure, let the holy soul flee that very familiarity as much as it can, as I said above. And thus, when someone is tempted within himself, let him resist himself with God's help.

when, through association with another, even a slight stirring of the conscience is provoked, let him flee as from a venomous serpent with as much speed as he can. But that we may be able to observe all these things, let us hold to rational abstinence, for true is the saying of that most holy man: As you restrain the belly, so also its venomous motions; let us also preserve true humility as much as we can. For the integrity of the flesh is not preserved where the mind is corrupted by the swelling of pride, especially where the flame of anger frequently arises, it quickly consumes the flowers of chastity and virginity. For a soul devoutly dedicated to God should not avoid having constant familiarity with strangers or even with her own relatives, either by their coming to her or by her going to them, lest she say what ought not or what is not expedient, or see what could be contrary to chastity. For if the vessels that are offered in church or placed on the sacred altar are called holy by all, and it is not lawful for them to be recalled from the church afterward into a lay house or to be adapted to human uses; if vessels that can have neither understanding nor sense have such dignity, what dignity do you think before God has one created in his own image?

Just as sacred vessels are destined for human use and cannot and ought not to be recalled from the church, so it is not fitting, not proper, not expedient for any religious person to become entangled in the obligations of their own parents or to be constrained by the pernicious familiarity of any outsiders. Above all, I admonish you to flee the evil of envy as if it were viper's venom, and to prepare for one another, through holy conversations, spiritual remedies. For there are some—and this is worse—who, when they come together, inflict greater wounds upon themselves by detracting or murmuring against the one set over them than they compose spiritual remedies. But you, holy and venerable sons, if you see someone faint-hearted, offer consolation; if you see someone proud, apply the remedy of humility; if you see someone wrathful, administer the refreshment of patience. If you are born of noble stock, rejoice more in the humility of religion than in the dignity of the world. And dispense your earthly substance in such a way that, by giving it away readily and quickly, you may have spiritual wings, and that by reserving something for yourselves or by disbursing it too slowly, you may not have carnal fetters. For earthly substance, if it is disbursed too slowly, is known to bind the wings of the soul as if with birdlime, because it is true what is written: The impediments of the world have made them wretched.

If anyone was poor before he took up the holy life, he ought to give thanks to God, who did not wish to bind him to the resources of this world. For many, which is worse, are so held bound by their own resources that they are unable to return to the eternal homeland. You, however, are already blessed in this world, with Christ’s favor, you who have despised the resources and pleasures of this age not only in heart but also in body. Therefore, keep your hands on the plow, and do not look back; and because you have merited to ascend to the roof of perfection, do not let the pleasure of this age bring you down from there. Remember the wife of Lot, who, looking back, was turned into a pillar of salt. Never let an oath, never let a curse proceed from your mouth. Guard not only your bodies but also your hearts with all diligence, because of what is written: “Keep your heart with all watchfulness,” and that which the Lord says in the Gospel: “For evil thoughts come forth from the heart.” For if we contrive nothing evil in the heart, whatever is holy will be uttered from the mouth, because, as it is written: “The mouth speaks from the abundance of the heart.” For the tongue is accustomed to utter that which the conscience has supplied from the workshop of the heart. And therefore, if you wish to utter good things from your mouth, always think in your heart upon what is holy.

You should apply yourselves to reading and prayer in such a way that you may also sometimes be able to do some manual work; yet especially accustom yourselves to devote time to reading until the third hour, and dedicate the better part of the day to holy work. Prayer itself should proceed from the heart in silence, so that it is scarcely heard on the lips. For whoever comes to pray in a loud voice greatly harms both himself and another, while through garrulousness he distracts another’s mind from holy and secret prayer. And in those works which you perform with your hands, despise and reject secular and ostentatious garments, which serve not utility but vanity, so that even in these earthly works you may be able to do whatever befits sobriety and honesty. For many love in their habits what they also display in their works. They prepare for themselves secular ornaments, loving the world and serving pleasure or luxury. But for you, to whom the world is crucified, there should be nothing in common with such people. [The text seems to read: To whom] The flesh, composed for luxury, as an enemy and adversary, should be rejected by your superior. For there are those, which is worse, who for the vanity of this world are more eager to devote effort to earthly desires than to attend to divine reading, while they desire beautiful coverlets and painted carpets, embroideries and other things like these, at great expense and superfluous cost, for the delight of the eyes.

the rest of the day, not knowing that which the Lord proclaims and says through the Evangelist John: Do not love the world nor those things which are in the world, because everything which is in the world is lust of the flesh and lust of the eyes and ambition of the age. What does it profit to guard virginity and integrity of the body, if one is unwilling to avoid the lusts of the eyes? There are also some who wish to give a greater part of their possessions to their parents and perhaps to the rich rather than to the poor, and they do not consider that they give their substance to them for luxury, and consume themselves with eternal beggary. But someone will say: Therefore must I despise my parents? Far be it from us to say that you should not honor your parents: how can it be that we would preach that parents are not to be loved, when we say that enemies are to be loved? Love your parents as much as you can, and if they are chaste and honest, always show them honor, and leave some small gifts to them from your possessions; but give all that is greater and more useful, which will profit until the end of the age, to the poor, so that alms may pass to the kingdoms of heaven for the relief of the poor until the day of judgment. What you give less, they will be able to provide for themselves afterwards (who were not able to work). But what you have prepared less for yourself through mercy, you will never be able to find in that world.

And yet, if there are any parents who lack either food or clothing, we have a reward before God if you give to them from what you have, so that they may be supported. For we shall come before the tribunal of the eternal judge, and if we have acted well, we shall hear happily: "Come, blessed ones of my Fatherland, receive the kingdom; because I hungered and thirsted, etc.; as long as you did for one of the least of these, you did for me." He did not say: "Come, receive the kingdom of God because you heaped up the riches of your parents; because you left them means to revel in the world." He certainly did not say that, but rather what the Gospel records, and what the prophet had foretold: "He scattered, he gave to the poor." Pay attention, I beg you: "He scattered, he gave to the poor," he did not say to the rich and luxurious, not to those loving this world. For also that rich man about whom we read in the Gospel, who was clothed in purple and fine linen, left his brothers rich; but later, seeking a drop of refreshment in burning hell, he could not find it. But you, holy souls worthy of God, act entirely spiritually, and offer—indeed, return—your substance to the one to whom you have consecrated your souls. It is fitting that he who prepares eternal things for you should receive earthly things from you; that he who bestowed upon you the crown of virginity should receive from you your earthly substance; you are more indebted to him, who gave you the ability to follow the immaculate Lamb wherever he goes.

The multitude of the faithful indeed follows Christ, not wherever He goes, but wherever they themselves are able. For penitents and married persons are able to follow Christ through other paths of righteousness, except when He proceeds in the glory of virginity. For they do not have what virgins do, in whom it has come to pass that they cannot be virgins. But you, holy sons, follow Him by perseveringly holding to what you have ardently vowed. Beware lest the good of virginity perish from you, for you can do nothing to make it return. Again and again I ask you, holy souls dedicated to God, and with all humility I presume to give counsel for preserving the reward of virginity, that you strive with all your might to repel from yourselves or from your own any unseemly familiarity. Far enough, far away be that plague which disordered familiarity hurls; there is no safety in that company. It suffers collisions, as if by certain turbulent waves; in this familiarity, friendly concord does not dwell, which grows only through discordant enmity. For preserving the dignity of holy religion, security is a more sacred witness than disordered familiarity. Attend, holy soul; diligently understand how many evils arise from disordered familiarity.

Familiarity with any woman, if it begins to be frequent, sows nothing but corruption, sprouts vices, conceives lust, prepares disgrace, extends fury, feeds lasciviousness, nourishes petulance, exalts falls, builds ruins, erects banks, opens precipices, shipwrecks in dangers, debases through shipwrecks, rejoices in perdition, fosters among the tumults, purchases confusion, hoards opprobrium, exaggerates accusations, inflames excuses, and in throngs are heaped together numerous snares of captiousness, and through infinite disgraces it brings the destruction of the lost by manifold death. So many and such evils of pernicious familiarity no one lays low, unless he who has striven to have the company from which he might be endangered either with difficulty or certainly rarely. For a holy soul which has wished to guard its own secret, let it flee the evil of assiduity by the virtue of the mind. That holy singularity itself is an invincible bulwark of sanctity for it, a strong assault on infamy, a firmness of fortitude, and an infirmity of petulant lasciviousness, a protection of propriety, and a destruction of infirmity, a victory of the soul and a prey of the body, a freedom of glories and a captivity of crimes, a promoter of sanctity and a repudiation of turpitude, an indication of sincerity, and an ablution of scandals, an exercise of continence, and a total evacuation of luxury.

a secure peace of virtues, and a restless assault of wars; a summit of purity, and a prison of lust; a harbor of modesty, and a shipwreckable place of virginity and a booty of filth; a breastplate of modesty, and a spoil of property; a wall of incorruption, and a constraint of vulgarity; a dignity of integrity, and an overthrow of fornication; an addiction to clarity, and a precipice of dishonor; a will for good works, and a doing of vices; a refreshment of chastity, and a punishment of petulance; an acquisition of triumphs, and a detriment of crimes; a rest of salvation, and an exile of perdition; a life of the spirit, and a death of the flesh; a state of angelic quality, and a funeral of human substance. All these evils will be strongly overcome with God's help, and those goods we have spoken of will be happily acquired, if inordinate familiarity is rejected by holy souls. Attend to yourselves, I beg you, holy souls, because among all the struggles in which the Christian soldiery is always engaged, the battles of chastity are alone more difficult, where there is a daily fight and a rare victory; chastity has drawn a grave enemy who is daily conquered and feared: daily, I say, conquered, and does not allow one to challenge. No one conquers securely who fights with himself. Dangerous... • who glory in the Christian name. But for this reason those five foolish and five prudent are spoken of, because the five senses are proven to exist in all men.

Sight, and smell, taste, hearing, and touch, because through these senses as through certain doors and windows either life or death enters into our soul. Concerning these the prophet also said: Death entered through the windows. Therefore there are said to be five wise virgins there, who use these senses well, and five foolish there, who through these five senses receive death rather than life. But how these five senses, like five virgins, either preserve virginity or are subject to corruption, let us examine more carefully. If some man or woman sees his son or daughter, slave or maidservant, and gazes at them with desire, one virgin is corrupted, because through the eyes, that is through the windows of the body, the poison of death has entered into the secret place of the heart. But if someone, whether religious or lay, willingly listens to men who slander, and also to idle talk and to those uttering luxurious or shameful songs, and receives them with a calm hearing and with delight, another virgin is corrupted. But if he is not content with moderate foods, but seeks sumptuous delicacies, if he always strives to speak ill, a third virgin is corrupted. But if he also diligently seeks out foreign perfumes, so that he may be able to please men, a fourth virgin is violated.

If someone, with his hands, wishes to touch either his own sons or the daughters of others, not with delight but out of lust, and seeks out excessively soft garments with a voluptuous mind, then even the fifth virgin has been corrupted. For these five orders of the five senses are corrupted in men like five virgins, and on the contrary, while holy souls restrain these five senses—that is, sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch—from all illicit things, and relax them soberly and chastely toward what is licit or legitimate, therefore five virgins signify all the good, and another five prefigure those who are evil. And truly, dearest brothers, what benefit is it to a man or a woman, a cleric or a monk, or a nun, if bodily virginity is preserved, when the integrity of the heart is violated through evil lusts? What benefit is it to display chastity in one member and to harbor corruption in all the senses? For those virgins who follow the Lamb, if you attend carefully, do not follow the Lamb for this reason alone, because they preserved only bodily virginity. Finally, when it was said, "These are those who have not defiled themselves with women," it was added, "and no lie was found in their mouth. They are without blemish." Therefore, whoever glories in bodily virginity alone, attend carefully: if he loves a lie, he will not be able to follow Christ with those holy virgins.

Therefore, let no virgin presume upon bodily virginity alone, for if she has been disobedient or talkative, let her know that she is to be excluded from that bridal chamber of the heavenly spouse. Since a virgin holds the hundredth rank, and a married woman the thirtieth, a chaste woman is nevertheless better than a proud virgin: for that woman, serving her husband chastely and humbly, has possessed the thirtieth rank; for the proud virgin, not even one rank will remain, and what the Psalmist says is fulfilled in her: You will save the humble people, and you will humble the eyes of the proud. And because the blessed Apostle calls the whole Church a virgin, considering in it not only bodily virgins but desiring all minds to be uncorrupted, saying thus: Prepare yourselves to present yourselves as a chaste virgin to Christ, not only of nuns but also of all men and women, if with chastity of the body in those five senses mentioned above they wish to preserve virginity, let them not doubt that they are a bride of Christ. For Christ is to be understood as the bridegroom not of bodies, but of souls. And therefore, dearest brothers, both men and women, both boys and girls, if they preserve virginity until marriage and through those five senses, that is, sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch, while they use them well, they do not corrupt their souls; on the day of judgment, with doors opened, they will merit to enter the eternal bridal chamber of the bridegroom.

Those, however, who corrupt their bodies before marriage by adulterous union, and afterwards throughout their entire life, by living wickedly, by perhaps seeing wickedly, hearing wickedly, speaking wickedly, do not cease to violate their souls—if fruitful and worthy penance does not come to their aid, with the doors closed they will cry out in vain: “Lord, Lord, open to us,” and they will deserve to hear: “Amen, I say to you, I do not know whence you are.” Therefore, brothers, if we—both clerics and monks, and nuns, and those placed in marriage—faithfully and diligently attend to these things, and with the chastity of the body also preserve the integrity of the heart with the help of the Lord, we will not be cast out with the foolish into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, but with the wise we will be admitted to the spiritual nuptials, and we will deserve to hear: “Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord.