YVES OF CHARTRES, ON THE ANCHORITE LIFE.

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not be a pain that lasts forever. Let it be interrupted by the more joyful remembrance of divine grace, that the heart may not become hardened by grief or wither in despair. The grace of God abounds over every sin. Hence the righteous man is not a self-accuser to the end, but only at the beginning, of prayer; but he ends with ascribing praise to God." Accordingly, he exhorted his monks, from his own experience, not to suffer themselves to be kept from prayer by any momentary feeling of spiritual barrenness. "Often we come to the altar with lukewarm, barren hearts, and address ourselves to prayer. But if we persevere, grace is suddenly poured in upon us, the heart becomes full, and a current of devotional feelings flows through the soul." So he warns beginners especially against the excesses of asceticism." It is," says he to them," your self-will, which teaches you not to spare nature, not to listen to reason. not to follow the counsel or example of your superiors. You had a good spirit; but you do not use it rightly. I fear that you have received another instead, which, under the appearance of the good, will deceive you; and that you, who began in the Spirit, will end in the flesh. Know you not that a messenger of Satan often clothes himself as an angel of light? God is wisdom; and he requires a love which instead of surrendering itself merely to pleasant feelings, unites itself also with wisdom. Hence the apostle, Rom. 12: 1, speaks of a service of God which is reasonable. If you neglect knowledge, the spirit of error will very easily lead your zeal into wrong directions; and the cunning enemy has no surer means of banishing love from the heart, than when he can get men to walk in it improvidently and not according to

Those dangers of the interior life would especially beset the anchorets, who were left to their own feelings, who could find neither counsel nor encouragement in society, and could not be led back from their wanderings to the right path by the guidance of an experienced mind. Hence it was thought necessary to warn men of the dangers to which this kind of life was peculiarly exposed. Thus Yves, bishop of Chartres, 3 took ground against those who, puffed up by the leaven of the Pharisees, boasted of their spare diet and bodily mortifications, whereas, according to the declarations of the apostle, 1 Timoth. 4: 8, bodily exercise profiteth little; and the kingdom of God, Rom. 14: 17, consisteth not in meat and drink, but in righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. The solitude of groves and of mountains cannot make a man blessed, unless he brings with him that solitude of the soul, that sabbath of the heart, that elevation of the spirit, without which idleness and storms of dangerous temptation attend every solitude; and the soul never finds rest, unless God hush to silence these storms of temptation. "But if you have his grace with you," he writes, "be assured of blessedness in whatever place you may be; in whatever order, in whatever garb, you may serve God."4 A certain

242

PETER OF CLUNY, ON THE LIFE OF A RECLUSE.

66

monk proposed to exchange the life of the convent for that of solitude; but he warned him not to do so. He bid him remember that Christ left the wilderness to engage in public labors. Hence he declared the life of the anchoret inferior to that of the monastery; because in the former the man is abandoned to his self-will and his own troublesome thoughts, which disturb the quiet of the soul. This he had learned from the experience of many, who had before led a blameless life, but, after becoming anchorets, fell into lamentable aberrations. That warm and hearty devotee to the work of missions, Raymund Lull, complains of it as a great evil, that pious monks retired into solitudes, instead of giving up their lives for their brethren, and in preaching the gospel among the infidels. "I behold the monks," says he, "dwelling in the country and in deserts, in order to avoid the occasions of sin amongst us; I see them ploughing and cultivating the soil, in order to provide the means of support for themselves, and to supply the necessities of the poor. But, far as I can stretch my eyes and look, I can see scarcely an individual who, from love to thee, goes forward to meet the death of the martyr, as thou didst from love to us." He longs for the time, which he describes as a glorious day, when pious monks, skilled in the languages of foreign nations, shall follow the example of the apostles, and, betaking themselves amongst the infidels, stand ready to lay down their lives in preaching the faith. Thus would the holy zeal of the apostles return. The abbot Peter of Cluny, writes to a recluse,3 that "his outward separation from the world would avail him nothing, if he was destitute of the only firm bulwark against besetting sins within the soul itself. This bulwark is the Saviour. By union with him, and by following him in his sufferings, he would be safe against the attacks of all enemies, or able to repel them. Without this protection, it was not of the least use for one to shut himself up in solitude, mortify the body, or travel to foreign lands; but he would only expose himself thereby to more grievous temptations. Every mode of life, that of laymen, of clergymen, of monks, and particularly that of anchorets and recluses, has its peculiar temptations. First of all, the temptations of pride and of vanity. The anchoret takes delight in picturing to his fancy what he is by this mode of life more than others. solitary, uniform life, in inactive repose, he cannot bear; and yet he is ashamed to abandon a mode of living which he has once chosen.a The repressed impulses seek room for play, therefore, in some artificial manner. Thousands flock to consult him as an oracle, and to

1 Ep. 256. 20 gloriose Domine, quando erit illa benedicta Dies, in qua videam, quod sancti religiosi velint te adeo laudare, quod cant in terras exteras ad dandam laudem de tua sancta trinitate et de tua sancta unitate et de tua benedicta incarnatione et de tua gravi passione? Illa dies esset dies gloriosa, et dies, in qua rediret devotio, quam sancti apostoli habebant in moriendo pro suo Domino Jesu Christo. In the magnus

The

ABELARD, ON THE WORLDLY SPIRIT OF THE MONKS.

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ask his advice about everything. They make confession of their sins to him, and implore his spiritual counsel. They invite him to aid them by his intercessions in a great variety of matters, and offer him presents. Thus both his ambition and his avarice are gratified. While he exhorts people to give to the poor, he may amass great treasures for himself." After the manner here described, persons who had begun as strict anchorets, might soon, through the excessive veneration which was shown them, and the numerous presents which they received, be turned away from the course which they had chosen. Many monkish institutions, governed by the strictest rule, degenerated in this way. Impostors, too, would sometimes take advantage of the popular credulity, contrive to render themselves famous, as strict anchorets, and thus make themselves rich. The monks, who roved about as preachers of repentance, might produce great effects amongst the uneducated and neglected people. But when powerful compunctions, showing themselves outwardly by sensible signs, resulted from these impressions, and an excitement of this kind, accompanied with strong sensuous elements, seized irresistibly on the multitude, it required consummate wisdom to give the right direction to such a movement of the affections, so that nothing impure might intermingle, so that the sensuous element might not prevail over the spiritual, and give birth to a fanaticism which would even run into immorality, as it was said to have done in the case of a certain Robert of Arbrissel.2 Amongst the vast multitude of monks, there were many who embraced this mode of life only for the purpose of obtaining consideration and an easy living, while they spent their time in idleness; and if, on the one hand, there were pious monks, who exerted a powerful and wholesome influence on the religious feelings and the religious education of multitudes, so there proceeded, on the other hand, from the ranks of the uneducated or hypocritical monks, active disseminators of every kind of superstition. Abelard was one who stood forth as a stern reprover

of this class of monks. He describes how those who had retired from the world became corrupted by the veneration in which they were held, fell back again into the world, paid court to the rich, and, instead of speaking to their consciences, lulled them to security in their sins by teaching them to depend on their intercessions.3 He applies to such the words in Ezek. 13: 18: "Woe to you that sew pillows

1 Thus, it is related in the life of the abbot Stephen, of Obaize, in the province of Limousin, in the first half of the twelfth century, that a person had settled down there as an anchoret, and built himself an oratory. He gladly received whatever the people brought him, and what he could make no use of himself he converted into money. Once he appointed a day on which they were to assemble there together to hear a mass. Many came in the morning, but found him no longer there. He had absconded with all he possessed. Hence there was a want of confidence in that district, towards

244 JOACHIM ON WICKED MONKS.

NORBERT'S CONVERSION.

to all armholes, and make kerchiefs upon the heads of young and old, to catch souls!" "What other meaning has this, than that we pacify the consciences of worldly people by our sweet words, instead of improving their lives by our honest reproofs ?" In like manner Hildebert, of Mans, boldly unmasked the hypocritical monks. "Let his pale, haggard countenance," says he, "excite reverence; let him stand forth, in coarse and squalid raiment, the stern censor of manners; yet for all this he is far astray from the path that leads to life."2 Raymund Lull, in one of his books, where he relates the wanderings of a friend of that true wisdom which begins in the love of God (philosophia amoris), describes how, in his search after this true love, he comes to a monastery that stood in the highest reputation for piety. Rejoiced at beholding so many united together in offering praise to God, he thinks he has at last found the dwelling of true love. Soon, however, he observes a monk with a patched cowl; but he was a hypocrite; for though he fasted, preached, labored, and prayed abundantly, yet he did it only for the sake of being regarded as a saint by the others. Beside him stood another, who fasted and prayed still more. He did so, however, because he supposed that God would certainly make him so holy that he might be able to work miracles, and so be venerated as a saint after his death. Here the joy of the lover of true wisdom vanished; for he could not help seeing how much he was dishonored by such conduct, who alone should command the love of all. Even that enthusiastic friend of the contemplative life of the monk, abbot Joachim, declared that while a monk who stands firm under temptations attains to the highest degree of the spiritual life, so one that yields to them becomes the worst of men. "Let a monk once become wicked," said he, " and there is not a more covetous and ambitious creature than he is."5

Casting a glance at the various monastic societies, which sprang up within this period, we notice, in the first place, those which derived their origin from efforts of reform amongst the clergy; and which may, therefore, be regarded as a medium of transition from the clerus to the body of monks. Among these belongs the order of Praemonstrants, whose founder, Norbert, was born in the city of Xantes, in the dukedom of Cleves, between A. D. 1080-1085. Descended from a family of note, he lived at first after the manner of the ordinary secular clergy, sometimes at the court of the archbishop Frederic the

1 Quid est autem pulvillos cubitis vel cervicalia capitibus supponere, nisi saecu larium hominum vitam blandis sermonibus demulcere, quam nos magis asperis increpationibus oportebat corrigere. Quorum dona quum sustulerimus, eos utique de suffragio nostrarum orationum confidentes, in suis iniquitatibus relinquimus securiores. De Joanne baptista sermo, opp. Abaelardi, p. 954.

2 Ut in eo adoretur osseus et exanguis vultus, ut sermo censorius ei sit et cultus incultior, extra viam est, quae ducit ad vitam. Ep. 11.

3 In his Arbor philosophiae amoris, opp. t. vi, f. 56.

Hoc faciebat ideo, quia habebat opinionem, quod Deum ipsum deberet facere tam sanctum, quod etiam posset facere miracula, et cum esset mortuus, quod de ipso singulis annis fieret sollenne festum.

Nec putes ambitione monachum non esse tentandum, quia mortuus est mundo, quia nihil, si malus est, ambitiosius monacho, nihil avarius invenitur. In the Concordia veteris et novi testamenti, c. ii, p. 109.

THE PREMONSTRATENSIANS.

245

First, of Cologne, sometimes at that of the emperor Henry the Fifth. But in the year 1114, being caught by a storm, while riding out for his pleasure, a flash of lightning struck near him and prostrated him to the earth. On recovering his breath and coming to his senses, he felt admonished by the thought of the sudden death from which he had been saved as by a miracle, and resolved to begin a more serious course of life. From this incident he was led to compare the history of his own conversion with that of the apostle Paul, and to represent it as partaking of the miraculous. He laid aside his sumptuous apparel for a humbler dress, and after a season of earnest spiritual preparation, entered the order of priests. In Germany and in France he itinerated as a preacher of repentance, and by his admonitions and reproofs restored peace between contending parties. He rebuked the worldly-minded clergy, and the degenerate canonical priests. By this course, however, he made himself many enemies, and was accused of preaching where he had no call to preach. He found a protector in pope Gelasius the Second, who gave him full power to preach wherever he chose. He was everywhere received with great respect. Whenever he entered the vicinity of villages or castles, and the herdsmen saw him, they left their cottages and ran to announce his arrival. As he proceeded onward the bells rang; young and old, men and women, hastened to church, where, after performing mass, he spoke the word of exhortation to the assembled people. After sermon he conversed with individuals on the concerns of the soul. Towards evening he was conducted to his lodgings, all were emulous of the honor and blessing of entertaining him as a guest. He did not take up his residence, as was customary with itinerant ecclesiastics and monks, in the church or in a monastery, but in the midst of the town, or in the castle, where he could speak to all and bestow on such as needed, the benefit of his spiritual advice. Thus he made himself greatly beloved among the people. In the year 1119, he visited pope Calixtus the Second, in Rheims, where that pope had assembled a council. This pope confirmed the full powers bestowed on him by his predecessor, and recommended him to the protection of the bishop of Laon. The latter wished to employ him as an instrument for bringing back his canonical priests to a life corresponding to their rule. But meeting here with too violent an opposition, Norbert withdrew from the field; as the bishop, however, wished to retain him in his diocese, Norbert chose a desert region in it, the wild valley of Premonstre (Praemonstratum Pratum monstratum) in the forest of Coucy, as a suitable spot for a retreat. Such was the first foundation of a new spiritual society, which, attaching itself to the so-called rule of Augustin, aimed to unite preaching and the cure of souls with the monastic life. From this spot he travelled in every direction to preach, to France, to Flanders, and to Germany, at the invitation of ecclesiastics, communities, and noblemen. The pious count Theobald of Champagne proposed uniting himself, and all he possessed, with the new spiritual foundation. But Norbert dissuaded him from his purpose by showing him how much good of which he might be the instrument as a prince,

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