Life at Saint Victor: The Liber Ordinis, the Life of William of Æbelholt, and a selection of works of Hugh, Richard, and Odo of Saint Victor, and other authors (Victorine Texts in Translation) 9782503580661, 2503580661

Citation preview

L i f e at Sa i n t Vi ctor

VICTORINE TEXTS IN TRANSLATION Exegesis, Theology and Spirituality from the Abbey of St Victor

9 Grover A. Zinn Editor in Chief Hugh Feiss, OSB Managing Editor Editorial Board Boyd Taylor Coolman, Dale M. Coulter, Christopher P. Evans, Franklin T. Harkins, Frans van Liere

Life at Saint Victor The Liber Ordinis, the Life of William of Æbelholt, and a selection of works of Hugh, Richard, and Odo of Saint Victor, and other authors

Frans van Liere Juliet Mousseau eds.

F

© 2021, Brepols Publishers n.v., Turnhout, Belgium. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. D/2021/0095/48 ISBN 978-2-503-58066-1 e-ISBN 978-2-503-58067-8 DOI 10.1484/M.VTT-EB.5.115660 ISSN 2507-1912 e-ISSN 2507-1920 Printed in the E.U. on acid-free paper.

Canon Regular of Saint Victor wearing his choir robes, with hooded cloak up Pierre Hélyot [Fr. Hippolyte], Histoire des ordres monastiques, religieux et militaires, et des congrégations séculières de l’un & de l’autre sexe, qui ont esté establies jusqu’à present..., 8 vols., Paris, Coignard, 1714-1719. Vol. 2, 1714, plate between p. 150 and p. 151. online: http://pitts.emory.edu/dia/image_details.cfm?ID=118946

For Fr. Hugh Feiss, OSB

TABLE OF CONTENTS 9 Preface 13 Acknowledgements 15 Abbreviations 19 General Introduction Frans van Liere and Juliet Mousseau 35 The Book of the Order of Saint Victor in Paris Introduction and translation by Juliet Mousseau 37 Introduction 51 The Book of the Order of Saint Victor in Paris 207 Hugh of Saint Victor, On the Formation of Novices Introduction by Frans van Liere, translation by Frans van Liere and Dale Coulter, annotated by Hugh Feiss OSB 209 Introduction 217 On the Formation of Novices 255 Richard of St Victor, Answers to Questions regarding the Rule of St Augustine Introduction and translation by Hugh Feiss, OSB 257 Introduction 277 Answers to Questions Regarding the Rule of St Augustine 303 Odo of Saint Victor, Seven Letters on the Right Observance of the Canonical Profession Introduction and Translation by John Hall 305 Introduction 321 Seven Letters on the Right Observance of the Canonical Profession

8

TA B L E O F C O N T E N T S

345 The Life of William of Æbelholt Introduction by Frans van Liere and Nancy Van Baak, translation by Nancy Van Baak 347 Introduction 353 The Life and Miracles of Blessed William of Æbelholt 421 Three texts on Life at Saint Victor Introduction and translation by John Hall 423 Introduction 429 Robert of Torigny, Description of the Founding of Saint Victor 431 Hildebert of Lavardin, Letter to Master William of Champeaux 435 Osbert of Saint-Victor, Letter to John, on the Last Illness and Death of Hugh 441 Bibliography 455 Index

PREFACE This is the ninth of ten volumes in the series Victorine Texts in Translation. It gathers Victorine writings that tell us something about how the Victorines (the few known to us, and many who are unknown) lived. Perhaps, as we near the end of this series, it will be worthwhile to think about the many unanswered questions about the Victorines that remain, especially the ones raised by this volume. Tucked away in the Patrologia latina, among the letters of Ernisius (or Ervisius), by far the least worthy of the abbots of St Victor during its first 100 years, is a letter sent sometime in the 1160s from a Victorine house in Cherbourg by Br. Jonas to Abbot Ernisius: To Ervisius his spiritual father, by the grace of God, abbot of Blessed Victor of Paris, Brother Jonas, in some fashion his canon, a wretched exile and wanderer, wellbeing (salus), wellbeing that Jonas does not have. Dearest father, I find it well said, I do not know by what sweetness everyone’s native land takes him prisoner and never lets him forget it; so a wild beast, so a bird, so a fish seeks familiar things in places where earlier it had poor feed. For, rightly, before all others I prefer that place in which mother grace bore me with many brothers to her spouse Christ, where I wish to be, so that I would not be in Cherbourg. No wonder: Here is a faithless people, and the love of a king to be feared, here are sterile lands, and no vine that survives, the wood lacks leaves, the pastures lack meadows, the border, the sea, but a thousand ruins of death. There is nothing here sweeter than to be able to suffer evils. There are besides internal things: Anxious care of the house, a dearth of possessions, which many seek; not to give would be a crime.

10

P reface

What crime have I admitted that I suffer these things? If none, your obedience could have commanded a milder exile and my ignorance could have found one. Let not such a loving shepherd delay to lead back the one-hundredth sheep, and as a kind father receive your lost son returning from the region of unlikeness. I do not ask for the best garment or the fatted calf, but let it be done to me as to one of your hired hands. Farewell.1

This letter is a well-composed literary production. It  recalls an antiphon from the office of St Augustine that echoes a statement in the Confessions about the region of unlikeness that was much cited by Victorines. It cites two lines from Ovid’s Letters from Pontus, then adds additional lines of poetry. It closes with references to the New Testament parables about the lost sheep and the prodigal son. Its sentiments of homesickness for St Victor are echoed in the letter 2 of Odo of St Victor, to a canon of the abbey who was unhappy with his assignment, with one other canon, to Amponville. Godfrey of St Victor also speaks of a painful exile from St Victor. They say they missed the fellowship of the community, and very likely they missed the beautiful liturgies and the library. This raises some questions. The description of Victorine life in the Liber ordinis and the De institutione novitiorum do not suggest that there were many or any opportunities for friendly interaction. Where, in the minutely regulated horarium, was there an opportunity to read classical poetry or study the Confessions of St Augustine at length? When were there opportunities to exercise pastoral ministry? If the Liber ordinis held sway at Amponville or Cherbourg, in what sense were the Victorines so different from observant Benedictines, whose prescriptions the Liber ordinis echoes? The sermons we have from Victorines are almost all clearly addressed to canons regular. Why have more sermons delivered to lay people not survived? The Victorines were concerned about manners, about disciplined outward behavior. How was strictly and minutely disciplined outward behavior 1

PL 198.1388. The first two lines are from Ovid, Epistolae ex Ponto, 1.3.35–36 (online: www. thelatinlibrary.com/ovid/ovidponto, accessed Sept. 24, 2020), the rest of the poetry seems to be Jonas’ own composition. I have corrected the PL reading of cunctos to captos. For the antiphon from the Feast of St Augustine, see VTT 8.386–89; for the unhappiness of the canon sent to Amponville, see this volume, the second letter of Odo; for Godfrey’s exile, see VTT 4.531–32; for the Biblical parables see Luke 15:1–7 (lost sheep) and 15:11–32 (lost or prodigal son). A lengthy review in the Dublin Review, vol. 28 (March, 1850), of Friedrich Hürter’s Geschichte Innocenz des Dritten und seiner Zeitgenossen (Hamburg: Perthes, 1844), 84, cites Jonas’ poem as an example of the use of classical authors in medieval poetry.

P reface



11

seen as expressing or fostering moral and theological virtues, such as justice, hope, and charity? Part of the uniqueness of Saint Victor is the education it provided. We know that Hugh of St Victor taught external students. We have the description of a painting of Noah’s Ark that he elaborated as an educational tool. We know that Richard wrote answers to questions from persons who seem to have had connections with Saint Victor. Why is there no mention of educational activity such as this in the Liber ordinis? One would be tempted to think of the Liber as one does of the plan of St Gall, a beautiful schematic rather than an actually implemented plan. However, copies of the Liber were found at other Victorine foundations, annotated and supplemented.2 Was this educational activity unique to Saint Victor and therefore left out of the Liber because it was written with other Victorine communities in mind that had no such educational activities? Æbelholt did have a school, but in what sense was it Victorine? What about the cells, like Amponville, and priories directly subject to St Victor? Were most of the members of the abbey resident in these dependencies, rather than at the abbey itself? To what extent were these outposts economic enterprises, and to what extent were they centers of pastoral care? Is there more to be learned about the congregation of communities who adopted the Victorine observance: how long did it last? What were the relations between Saint Victor and Saint Geneviève in the second half of the twelfth century? What more can we learn about Victorine foundations outside of France, in the British Isles and Scandinavia? Some of these questions might have not arisen without this volume. That is yet another reason to thank its editors and contributors. I am grateful for the dedication, but I wonder if the book should have been dedicated to Br. Jonas. Hugh Feiss, OSB Managing editor, Victorine Texts in Translation Monastery of the Ascension, Jerome, ID

2

Liber ordinis, xii–liii.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This volume is the ninth in this ten-volume series of Victorine Texts in Translation; volume ten has already appeared. The remaining volume, tentatively entitled, Spiritual Formation and Mystical Symbolism, hopefully will be out within a year of the present one. Our debt of gratitude is to all the authors and translators of this volume: Hugh Feiss, Nancy Van Baak, and John Hall. Nancy also proofread the entire text. Our greatest debt is to Hugh Feiss, who graciously and patiently vetted many of the translations, and provided ample annotations and helpful commentary. Once again, we wish to acknowledge Luc Jocqué, whose support, advice and patience have made Victorine Texts in Translations possible, and all those at Brepols who have lavished care on the production of the series. We wish to thank the board and trustees of Calvin University, for generously granting Frans the sabbatical leave that enabled him to finish work on this volume. A special word of thanks is also due to Adrienne Ora, Frans’ research assistant, for compiling the bibliography, abbreviation list, and indices for this volume. Her employment was made possible through a generous gift of the Calvin Center for Christian Research and the History Faculty Development Fund of Calvin University, established by John Van Engen. Finally, now that the series (almost) has reached completion, it seems appropriate to dedicate this volume to Fr. Hugh Feiss. It was his vision that drove this series and his inspiration that made it possible. All those interested in Victorine studies owe him an enormous debt of gratitude for this, and this dedication is only a small way to repay this debt. Juliet Mousseau, RSCJ, Aquinas Institute of Theology Frans van Liere, Calvin University

ABBREVIATIONS General Abbreviations BV BAV BnF CCCM CCL CF CS CV DMLBS DS Œuvre 1

PL

SBO SC VTT WSA

Bibliotheca Victorina (Turnhout: Brepols. 1991–). Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France. Corpus Christianorum, Continuatio Mediaeualis (Turnhout: Brepols, 1967–). Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina (Turnhout: Brepols, 1954–). Cistercian Fathers (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1970–). Cistercian Studies (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1970–). Corpus Victorinum (Münster: Aschendorff, 2007–). Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, available online at http://www.dmlbs.ox.ac.uk/web/online.html. Dictionnaire de spiritualité (Paris: Letouzey et Ané, 1937–). L’œuvre de Hugues de Saint-Victor, vol. 1, Latin text by H. B. Feiss and P.  Sicard, tr.  (French) D.  Poirel, H.  Rochais, and P. Sicard, intro., notes, and appendices D. Poirel, Sous le Règle de saint Augustin (Turnhout: Brepols, 1997). Patrologiae cursus completus sive bibliotheca universalis, integra, uniformis, commoda, oeconomica, omnium ss. Patrum, doctorum scriptorumque ecclesiasticorum qui ab aevo apostolico ad Innocentii III tempora floruerunt…, series Latina, ed. J.-P. Migne, 221 vols. (Paris: Migne, 1844–64). Sancti Bernardi Opera, ed. J. Leclercq, C. H. Talbot, and H. M. Rochais, 9 vols. (Rome: Editiones Cistercienses, 1957–1998). Sources Chrétiennes (Paris: Cerf, 1942–). Victorine Texts in Translation (Turnhout: Brepols, 2010–). Works of Saint Augustine (New York: New City Press, 1990–).

16

A bbreviations

Bibles New Revised Standard Version. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1989. Vetus Latina Vetus Latina: Die Reste der altlateinischen Bibel. Ed. Fischer. Bibliorum sacrorum latinae versiones antiquae, seu vetus italica. Ed. Sabatier. LXX Septuaginta, id est Vetus testamentum Graece iuxta LXX interpretes. Ed. Rahlfs. Vulg. Bibliotheca Sacra iuxta vulgatam versionem. Ed. Weber. NRSV

Victorine Authors Hugh of St Victor Didasc. Sacr.

Inst. nov.

Didascalicon. Ed. Buttimer [Didascalicon, VTT 3.81–202]. De sacramentis christianae fidei, PL  176.73–618 [On  the Sacraments of the Christian Faith, tr.  Deferrari, partial  tr. VTT 3.253–68]. De institutione novitiorum. Ed.  Sicard, in Œuvre, 1:5–114. PL 176.925–51. [On the formation of novices, tr. VTT 9].

Odo of Saint Victor Ep.

Epistolae de observantia canonicae professionis recte praestanda. Ed. D’Achery, PL 196.1399–1418. [Letters, tr. VTT 9].

Richard of Saint Victor Quaest.

De quaestionibus Regulae sancti Augustini solutis. Ed. Colker. [Questions on the Rule of St Augustine, tr. VTT 9].

A bbreviations



17

Writings Associated with St Victor Liber ord.

Liber ordinis Sancti Victoris Parisiensis. Ed. Jocqué and Milis [The Book of the Order of Saint Victor in Paris, tr. VTT 9]

Other Authors Augustine RA

Rule of Augustine. Ed. Verheijen. Online at http//augustinus. it/latino/regola/regola_libro.htm. Ed. Van Bavel, tr. Canning. [Tr. Bonner and Mary Agatha].

Benedict RB RB80

Rule of Benedict. Ed.  Holzherr, tr.  Thamert. Ed.  de  Vogüé, SC 181–86. RB 1980: The Rule of St Benedict in English. Tr. Fry.

Jerome Ep. Epistolae. Select Letters of St  Jerome. Ed. and tr. Wright. PL 22.325–1182.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION Frans van Liere and Juliet Mousseau When in 1108 William of Champeaux left his position as canon of the Cathedral of Notre Dame and retreated to a small Merovingian cimeterial cella dedicated to Saint Victor, in the suburbs of Paris, it was not clear whether he had in mind to found an abbey of Augustinian canons. The monastic chonicler Robert of Torigny, writing after the turn of the century, certainly seems to have thought that he did. He writes that William “assumed the habit of a regular canon with some of his students and began to build a monastery of clerics outside the city of Paris in the place where there was a chapel of Saint Victor the martyr.”1 Peter Abelard, writing in the 1130s, took a dim view of William’s motivation, but confirmed that the original foundation was intended as a foundation of canons regular. He describes how William “changed his former status and joined the order of Canons Regular, with the intention, it was said, of gaining promotion to a higher prelacy though a reputation for increased piety.”2 Both men were writing at a time that Saint Victor had already become a flourishing center for canonical reform and an important school in the setting of the nascent university of Paris. While the nineteenth-century historian Fourier Bonnard largely followed the narrative offered by Robert of Torigny,3 modern historiography has downplayed William’s role in the foundation of Saint 1

2

3

Below, p. 429. The original chapel was probably originally dedicated to Victorinus of Paris, who at a later stage was conflated with Victor of Marseille. See Robert-Henri Bautier, “Origines et premiers développements de l’abbaye Saint-Victor.” In L’abbaye parisienne de SaintVictor au moyen âge: communications présentées au XIIIe Colloque d’humanisme médiéval de Paris (1986–1988). Edited by Jean Longère, BV 1 (Paris/Turnhout, 1991), 27. When in 1115 Hugh of Saint Victor and his uncle requested admission to the order, they brought with them relics from Saint Victor in Marseille, which naturally enhanced the status of the latter’s patronage. Peter Abelard, Historia calamitatum. Edited by Jean Monfrin (Paris: Vrin, 1978), 65; Peter Abelard, The Letters of Abelard and Heloise. Translated by Betty Radice, Penguin Classics (London: Penguin Books), 1974, 59. Fourier Bonnard, Histoire de l’abbaye royale et de l’ordre des chanoines réguliers de Saint-Victor de Paris. t. 1. Première periode (1113–1500) (Paris: Arthur Savaète), 1904, 5–12.

20

G eneral I ntroduction

Victor and emphasized that the abbey was really born of the joint desire of King Louis VI and the bishop of Paris, Walo (or Galo), to promote canonical reform.4 In 1112/3, their names appear jointly in a charter that transfers the benefices and goods of a previous canonical foundation, Puissaux, to the “ecclesia sancti Victoris,” the abbey that was to be founded in the location where William had started his retreat four years previously. Puissaux was demoted, to become one of the first priories of the new abbey. By this time, William had been promoted to the bishopric he desired, in Châlons. Gilduin, the first abbot of the newly founded, or re-founded, abbey, was confirmed in 1114. He oversaw its astonishing growth and subsequent flourishing during the first half of the twelfth century. He died in 1155. In the necrology of Saint Victor, it is Gilduin, not William, who is chiefly commemorated as the founder of the Victorine order.5 The king’s support of this foundation indicated the beginning of a shift in alliance. One of the king’s councillors, Stephen de Garlande, was not only the protector of Peter Abelard, but also a staunch opponent of the reform movement. When William left Notre Dame cathedral for his cella, Garlande was at the height of his power; he was royal seneschal and chancellor, canon and archdeacon of Notre Dame, and dean of Saint Geneviève. His protegé Peter Abelard was made head of the school of the cathedral shortly afterwards; the disastrous turn of events that his life took subsequently is described in his Historia calamitatum. But Garlande’s days as a royal favorite were numbered, and the reform party, led by the bishop of Paris, Stephen of Senlis, and Abbot Suger of Saint Denis, gained in influence at court. In 1127, an attempt to have canons of Saint Victor take over the chapter of the Cathedral of Notre Dame was still successfully resisted by the canons of the latter through an appeal to the king. But it was one of the last occasions that Garlande could bask in royal favor. In 1127, he was placed under an interdict and lost his royal positions as chancellor and seneschal. A letter of prior Odo of Saint Victor to a prelate who has fallen from 4

5

Bautier, “Origines et premiers développements,” 33; Rolf Grosse, “Entre cour et cloître: Saint-Victor et les Capétiens au xiie siecle.” In L’école de Saint-Victor de Paris: influence et rayonnement du Moyen Âge à l’époque moderne: colloque international du C.N.R.S. pour le neuvième centenaire de la fondation (1108–2008) tenu au Collège des Bernardins à Paris les 24–27 septembre 2008. Edited by Dominique Poirel, BV 22 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2010), 79–119. Walo was bishop from 1104 until 1116. Necrologium Abbatiae Sancti Victoris Parisiensis. Edited by Ursula Vones-Liebenstein and Monika Seifert, CV, Opera, 1 (Münster: Aschendorff, 2012), 148-49.

G eneral I ntroduction



21

grace, dated 1128, may well have been directed to him; Odo reminds his addressee how inconstant royal favor can be, and how difficult it is to navigate the world of courtly rivalry.6 Garlande did not go without a struggle, however. In 1133 a number of Garlande’s vassals attacked the party of the abbot of Saint Victor on his way from Chelles back to Paris; in the ensuing scuffle, prior Thomas of Saint Victor was mortally wounded. The incident did much to discredit the anti-reform party and ensured the abbey of royal support for its cause, which now possessed a martyr. The disgraced Garlande eventually retired; surprisingly, as a canon at the abbey of Saint Victor.7 The canonical reform at Saint Victor was part of the wider twelfthcentury reform of the church, which emphasized a greater independence of the church from secular power (without, of course forgoing the essential political support of that secular power), and a higher moral standard of living for the clergy. Clerical marriage, simony, and lay investiture were its main points of political action. Especially baleful for the reformers were the collegiate ecclesiastical institutions that did not conform to a rule of life; like many other reform movements of the time (Arrouaise, Premontré), Saint Victor embraced the so-called rule of Saint Augustine as a model for the communal life for clerics. Written about ten years after his baptism as a Christian, Augustine of Hippo’s Rule has a complicated and noble history. Inspired by the works of Martin of Tours and John Cassian, and the Vita Antonii of Athanasius, Augustine wrote a set of guidelines for Christians to imitate Christ through prayer and service in an environment of common property, as the Apostles had done (Acts 2 and 4). While many of those seeking to follow Jesus in a more radical way found solitude to be the answer, Augustine sought to place the individual in community: “his starting point was that a human was a social being and the perfection of the individual interacts with the perfection of the community.”8 This text became the first rule of life for a monastic community, and it spread quickly through Italy and Gaul in the sixth century. It influenced later rules, most notably the Rule of Benedict. 6 7

8

Below, p. 334-38. For a detailed account of Garlande’s career, see Robert-Henri Bautier, “Paris au temps d’Abélard.” In Abélard et son temps. Actes du colloque international organisé à l’occasion du IXe centenaire de la naissance de Pierre Abélard (Paris, 1979). Edited by Jean Jolivet (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1981), 21–77. Paul Van Geest, “The Rule of Saint Augustine.” In A Companion to Medieval Rules and Customaries. Edited by Krijn Pansters (Leiden: Brill, 2020), 132.

22

G eneral I ntroduction

The textual history of Augustine’s Rule is less than straightforward. Four different texts in many different versions exist throughout the centuries. Early on, Augustine’s writings were copied in collections of rules for religious orders. Following their inclusion in Benedict of Aniane’s Codex regularum in the ninth century, they began to guide particular religious houses. The one most appropriately called the Rule is formally entitled Praeceptum, and it began to be copied alone in the ninth century, separate from other works by Augustine (notably the Ordo monasterii). Verheijen, in his foundational work on Augustine’s Rule, determines that the Praeceptum is the closest to the original writing intended to guide Augustine’s community of Christian men, existing also in a nearly identical female version. These textual developments follow the decree of the Council at Aix-la-Chapelle in 816, which imposed a religious rule on canons connected to churches and cathedrals, by forsaking private property and pursuing community life. These regular canons, as they were called, provided a new model for religious living, alongside the monastic rule. The Rule of Saint Augustine at Saint Victor

By the time the wider reform movement of the twelfth century took hold, the Rule of Augustine became favored for its approach to religious life, combining the preaching and pastoral care of the clergy with the community of the monastery in its attempt to follow the vita apostolica of Scripture. Its place in the realm of religious orders was further strengthened in 1215 when the Fourth Lateran Council decreed that religious houses were not allowed to form their own rules but had to follow a religious rule already recognized in the church. The Abbey of Saint Victor adopted the rule of Augustine from its inception, but it was also strongly influenced by the Rule of Benedict, due to its wide usage throughout the Middle Ages. Hugh Feiss’s introduction to Richard’s writings, below,9 compares Augustine and Benedict’s influences on Richard’s interpretation of religious life. A similar dual influence can also be seen in the letters of Odo of Saint Victor, also translated below. In his second letter, Odo emphasizes the importance of stability, which was one of the prime virtues taught in Benedict’s Rule rather than Augustine’s. Odo admonishes his correspondent, who was un9

Below, p. 257.

G eneral I ntroduction



23

happy at the priory of Amponville and wished to return to the more inspiring company of the brethren at Saint Victor: “if you want to have our company because of your zeal of learning, let that wise old man in the Lives of the Fathers respond instead of me: he says, ‘Your cell can teach you everything.’”10 While previous monastic movements emphasized the role of good behavior in the relationship between the individual and God, the canonical reform movements of the twelfth century, and specifically that of Saint Victor, began to see that good behavior not only determined one’s relationship with God, but it also was a way to form or educate others for their salvation. This Victorine focus on learning through words and by example reflects the first line of St  Augustine’s Rule, “Before all things, dearly beloved brothers, love God and then your neighbor, because those were the first commandments given to us.”11 By returning to the ideal Christian lifestyle the Apostles lived, as described especially in the letters of Paul and the Book of Acts, the canons regular could act as examples of the moral life. While the monastic tradition had developed a spirituality that focused on the individual monk’s relationship with God, the Victorines understood theirs as a call to a reformed communitarian life, which would have a reforming influence on the universal church. Thus the canons of Saint Victor sought to reform religious life and the priesthood by returning to the vita apostolica that they believed was no longer being followed amid the wealth and power of medieval monasteries and unruly secular priests. For this purpose, the Rule of Augustine was adapted according to their local needs in the customs and rules of the Liber ordinis, and further explained and justified in the De quaestionibus of Richard of Saint Victor. Augustine’s Rule and the Liber Ordinis

The first line of the Rule, as quoted above, asserts that the love of neighbor sits next to the personal relationship with God. Augustine clearly expresses his understanding that religious life is meant to be lived in community, with all things shared in common and all actions done in a way that allows for harmony among the members of the 10 11

Below, p. 325. RA, 1.

24

G eneral I ntroduction

community, care for one another, and the salvation of each one. While the Rule of Augustine is quite brief, the Liber ordinis is rather lengthy. In the Liber ordinis, Augustine’s precepts for harmonious community life are translated into a series of rules and customs, providing minute detail, aimed to assure harmony in the community. The residents know what to do at all times in order to live well together, with a minimum of interruptions to their calm and ordered life. The Liber ordinis echoes the Rule of Augustine in allowing variations of practice to meet the differing needs of members of the community. Those who need more or less food are accommodated. Those who are accustomed to softer clothing or bedding are allowed leeway for their weakness, and those who do not need those things are admonished against jealousy. The sick are given special food and other luxuries that are necessary for them to regain health. While the Liber does not speak of “grumbling,” which is a particular concern of St Benedict, it is clear that each one should be content with what they receive, whether they need more or less than others. Equality is not valued so much as equity, and the distinction of person and background allows that unique needs be met. Harmony and order permeate the rules of the Liber ordinis. Clarity of the routine and expectations preserves the brothers from bothering one another. Augustine states in the Rule: “In your walking, standing, and every movement, let nothing occur to give offense to anyone who sees you, but only what becomes your holy state of life.”12 The “good life” being lived by the canons should never attract attention, but rather it should seek to please and to provide an example for others to emulate. This concern not to disrupt the focus of other brothers emerges repeatedly in the Liber ordinis. For example, novices and those who are ill are to stay away from the gathered convent when they are not able to participate as one with the others. The brothers in the kitchen are exhorted to be silent when the others are eating, as is the porter when the brothers are in the workshops. The brothers of the abbey are to bow to the abbot when he crosses before them, as a sign of deference to his authority, but the abbot is also told to minimize his crossing through the convent so that he does not disrupt their work more than is necessary. Modesty in dress is an aid to the holiness of others: special care when preparing for bed or having their feet washed in the mandatum ritual assures that nothing untoward is revealed. The question of mod12

RA 4.21.

G eneral I ntroduction



25

esty in dress is similarly elucidated in De institutione novitiorum, which indicates how the habit ought to be worn so that it does not highlight the wearer and remains uniform with the other brothers.13 In addition to being cautioned to attend to their behavior, the canons are given opportunities to correct themselves when they lapse, and to assist their brothers in doing the same. The Rule of Augustine is especially cautious about the interaction between men and women. Canons should not only avert their eyes to avoid the sin of lust, but also correct others if they fail to do so, before the temptation becomes too strong and evil is allowed to win.14 According to Augustine, the brothers have a responsibility for one another, and they are held culpable for failing to correct the sins of others. Like other monastic traditions, Augustine allows for individuals to be corrected in private before they are to be corrected in public.15 While the text focuses on lust, Augustine continues, “let everything I have said about not fixing one’s gaze be also observed carefully and faithfully with regard to other offenses: to find them out, to ward them off, to make them known, to prove and punish them—all out of love for our fellows and a hatred of sin.”16 Likewise, the Liber ordinis values the upright behavior of canons as a source of education for one another; it also has specific guidelines for the correction of behavior in the community. The daily chapter of faults allows brothers to beg for mercy for their transgressions and to accuse other brothers of disobeying the rules or interrupting the calm community life. Each brother is allowed to do so, and certain individuals, called circatores, are given the special task of seeking out disobedience. While today these practices might seem rather draconian, it is clear that the Victorines considered it their responsibility to look after each other’s salvation in this way. The abbot and the master of novices are singled out to provide a proper example for others. Chapter 4 of the Liber ordinis articulates the way of life an abbot is to have, beginning with, “the abbot is to be an example of discipline to everyone by his good way of life.”17 Though he is venerated and respected as a superior of the house, he is also a member of the community, held to their standards of living and expectations in the same way as everyone else. He is not to abuse his power, nor is he 13 14 15 16 17

Below, p. 217-253. RA 22–25. RA 4.26–28. RA 28. Liber ord. 4, below, p. 56.

26

G eneral I ntroduction

to receive special authority in the secular world. He is not exempt from correcting his own behavior or being corrected by others. The master of novices has the special duty of preparing the new members of the community to live as one with the brothers. The Liber ordinis says he is to instruct the novice, “so perfectly about all his actions and words, that he not only indicates by words what things are to be done or said, but also he makes him do and say in his presence what he has said should be done and said, so that he not only knows by listening, but also by doing, and may grow accustomed to having a good manner and appropriate measure in all words and actions.”18 Thus, the novice learns not only what he should do, but also that his actions must become an example for others to follow. Chapter 6 of the Rule of Augustine discusses quarrelling among the brothers and forgiveness for offending each other. Using the words of Jesus that “everyone who hates his brother is a murderer” (1 John 3:15), Augustine cautions against holding anger toward another in the community. In the next paragraph, he exhorts those who have caused injury to another to apologize, and those who have been hurt to forgive. In contrast, the Liber ordinis says very little about how the brothers ought to relate to one another. Mostly, they are exhorted to silence and admonished to reduce communication. The offenses cited in the Liber ordinis center on disobedience which might disrupt the peace of the community. Like the Rule, the Liber instructs members of the community to seek forgiveness from the community as a whole for any wrongdoing. The end of chapter 6 in the Rule speaks of the role of the superior in correcting behavior of others and upholding the discipline. As in the Liber, discipline in the community is the responsibility of each one and the special duty of the superiors to maintain, for the benefit of the whole house. In both texts, the superiors of the community are instructed to be like a father or a teacher to the members of their houses, caring for their brothers with a warm, spiritual love. Likewise, the brothers are to treat the superiors of the community with respect, as stated in the Rule: “You should obey superiors as fathers or mothers with the respect due them so as not to offend God in their persons. Much more should you obey the priest who bears responsibility for all of you.”19 The Rule continues to emphasize the spirit of love to be shown 18 19

Liber ord. 22, below, p. 97. RA 7.44.

G eneral I ntroduction



27

toward those under their care, and the duty that authority gives those who are superior in the community. In the eyes of the community they are held in the highest honor, but in the eyes of God they are always at the service of the community. The Liber ordinis describes the role of leadership of the community in the same way. The text expands to articulate exactly how the superior of the community must be honored and respected in specific situations. The Rule of Augustine includes a division of responsibilities among the members of the community that assures that the goods and needs of the abbey are addressed with care. The Liber ordinis increases the personnel of the abbey to include several more individuals with particular duties. In both cases, the care of material possessions reflects the corporal ownership of the goods of the community. Each one was to return what they used to the common chest. Like the apostles in Acts 4:32, the regular canons brought all they had to the community for common use and claimed nothing as their own; their possessions were redistributed to meet the needs of individuals. Canons were warned in the Rule that complaints about receiving poorer clothing should bring them to consider the state of their hearts: “if disputes and murmuring arise… you may judge from this how lacking you are in that holy and inner garment of the heart when you quarrel over garments for the body.”20 Additionally, Augustine states that, because love is not self-seeking (1 Cor. 13:5), the care of community goods should be done “with greater zeal and more dispatch” than if each were keeping things for their own.21 Stewardship of goods is expressed in the Liber, especially in the chapters regarding the property and grounds of the abbey, and the camerarius. He is given explicit instructions to protect and maintain the property and livestock, just as the cellarer is to keep track of the food used, the sacristan is to maintain and provide the items needed for liturgy, the vestiarius is charged with protecting the clothing from moths, and the armarius must control and repair books. The material goods of the abbey community are not to be squandered, but rather to be put in the service of the canons’ mission to imitate the apostles through community and evangelization. In this too, they are turning back to the call of the vita apostolica, turning aside from the accumulation of wealth and the lax guidelines of other monastic traditions. 20 21

RA 30. RA 31.

28

G eneral I ntroduction

The Rule of Saint Augustine formed the backbone of the community life at Saint Victor, giving the theological reasons behind the requirements of community life, and providing the guiding principles that result in the detailed rules and regulations of the Liber ordinis. Taken together, the two texts form a strong basis for communal living. Expounding Augustine’s Rule: Richard and Odo of Saint Victor

How the exposition of the Rule influenced the spirit of reform at Saint Victor can be seen in the Quaestiones of Richard and the Letters of Odo of Saint Victor, translated in this volume. Both men held the position of prior at one time; Odo went on to become the first abbot of Saint Geneviève in 1148, Richard was prior from 1162 until his death, in 1173. Echoing the principles of Victorine reform, Richard describes the internal formation that is accomplished when external behaviors are held to a higher standard. The first example of this comes from Question 3. In discussing common property, clearly an ideal of the abbey, Richard explains that this is not only about possessions, but the canon must also hand over his own will, “which Christ did and every Christian must do.”22 In his first letter, Odo similarly emphasizes that a true following of the Rule should go deeper than just an adherence to its outward commandments: “In the profession which we made, we promised three things, as you know well: chastity, common property, and obedience. If we pay attention to those words only superficially, soon we are boasting, wordlessly but nevertheless boyishly, as if our profession already has been fulfilled.”23 For example, community of property is meaningless if we consider only the common possession of things; it should entail also a community of heart and soul: “Unity of heart is worth more among many than a common cellar, and one soul more than a common table,” Odo says.24 In a similar vein, Richard quotes the Rule that the common possessions are to be cared for with greater zeal and speed than one would care for his own things, for it is a necessity of charity to care for others better than for oneself.

22 23 24

Below, p. 280. Below, p. 321. Odo, Ep. 1, below, p. 323.

G eneral I ntroduction



29

Richard makes a similar extension of the vow of chastity: “whoever wishes to serve God in true and perfect chastity must not only keep his body from sexual intercourse, but also keep his mind from impure thought, as far as possible, and restrain his tongue from filthy talk.”25 Odo admonishes that the vow of chastity does not just mean refraining from unchaste acts, but a spiritual state of mind that is intent on loving God above all.26 Obedience, too, must draw on deeper spiritual realities than simply external actions. Odo emphasizes that it means not just the following of the commands of one’s superior, but the complete surrender of one’s will to the love of God and neighbor.27 Richard draws a connection between the commands of the superiors of the house and the eternal law. The commands of the superiors are to be directed toward the salvation of the brothers in the house, and thus their purpose is beyond harmony among the brothers here and now. A second theme in Question 6 emerges again in Question 8. Augustine, Richard explains, gives certain precepts that are commands, some that are prohibitions, and some that are permissions. Ultimately, the superior of the community determines what the brothers in the house must do. These rules are either to advance the canon toward salvation or to protect his salvation: the goal is clearly salvation, and higher law is that which promotes rather than preserves salvation. Those who profess the vows of the community must uphold that to which they claim their profession. Once again, Richard quotes Augustine’s foundational precept: “that you have one heart in your dwelling.”28 Questions 9, 10, and 11 also point out the internal spiritual meaning of Augustine’s external precepts. Prayer (9) must not just be spoken, but also felt in the heart. Singing prayers (10) should be done only as prescribed; singing beyond what is supposed to be sung is vanity. Fasting (11) is a means to “conquer the flesh,” and those who profess the Rule of Augustine are held to fasting beyond that required of all Christians. “Let the evil inclinations of the body be held in check by fasting without suppressing the virtues of the soul.”29 The actions of the canons at St Victor must be beyond reproach: exterior behavior models interior reformation, and those exterior models 25 26 27 28 29

Richard, Quaest. 5, below, p. 282. Odo, Ep. 1, below, p. 321. Ibidem Richard, Quaest. 8, below, p. 286. Richard, Quaest. 11, below, p. 288.

30

G eneral I ntroduction

are a form of evangelizing or teaching others about this reform. Thus, Richard explains that canons must not be seen out alone without permission, but that they must have a “witness of propriety” to protect the fragile reputation of the community.30 This is a reinterpretation of Augustine’s caution about going to the baths only in pairs or groups, a rule that no longer applies in twelfth-century Paris. In Question 14, Richard uses the Gospel story of Martha and Mary’s welcome of Jesus into their home as an exposition on the role of idleness and work. Martha complains that Mary is not helping her be a good hostess. While idleness is evil, being at rest so that one can contemplate the divine is a higher form of internal work, Richard explains. Thus, Jesus calls Martha to rest with him, to put down her activity for a moment in order to contemplate. In activity, one serves their neighbor (brother), while in contemplation, one grows in knowledge of God. The external rest allows for internal work to be going on. Richard asserts that although all brothers must “work as one,” as stated by Augustine, that does not mean they all do the same work, but rather that the abbot assigns to each what is best suited, for the best benefit of the community as a whole. Additionally, the abbot must see the need for internal contemplation of each brother, and to call him out as Jesus called Martha to sit with Mary. As in all things Victorine, the interior work and spiritual growth are paired with external actions. The same emphasis is expressed in the Letters of Odo, when he emphasizes that the outward appearances should correspond to the inward disposition of the heart; “Finally, let us attend a little more diligently to your outward appearance. If we remember our name and attire, it is not fitting to be called canons regular and at the same time be disfigured by illicit words and deeds,” he says.31 Education through Word and Example

When William of Champeaux retreated to his cella, rumor had it that he also had ceased teaching. His friend Hildebert of Lavardin admonished him not to stop educating others, however: “do not close the streams of your learning, but according to Solomon let your springs be

30 31

Richard, Quaest. 13, below, p. 290. Below, p. 330.

G eneral I ntroduction



31

diverted outside, and distribute your waters in the streets.”32 He need not have worried. In due time, the reputation of Saint Victor as a center of learning came to rival that as a center of canonical reform. This reputation largely is a result of the activity of Hugh of Saint Victor, who entered the abbey in 1115, together with his uncle, also named Hugh. The elder Hugh was archdeacon at the cathedral of Halberstadt, and his nephew, a youth of noble birth, had just entered the Augustinian house of Hammersleben, near Halberstadt. The men had travelled to Paris by a circuitous route, through Marseille in southern France, where they had obtained some relics of Saint Victor, the martyr. They were now offering these relics, together with their vows, to Abbot Gilduin. The younger Hugh was eventually made master of the school at Saint Victor, a position he retained until his death in 1141.33 In the first half of the twelfth century, education was just emerging out of the monastic environment, where it had dwelt comfortably for the past five hundred years. Europe was urbanizing at a rapid pace, and in the urban centers, new schools were forming, often attached to the ecclesiastical center of these cities: the cathedral. The abbey of Saint Victor, as a collegiate institution, but one with a monastic spirit, straddled both worlds; no work expresses this better than Hugh’s introduction for novices, De institutione novitiorum. The work was intended to introduce novices to the life according to the rule and customary of Saint Victor, but Hugh’s work can be interpreted also more broadly, as a reflection on how to live a life directed towards the restoration of humankind in God’s image, the goodness of God’s initial creation. This, for Hugh, was the main purpose of education; the novice was embarking on a path of life-long learning, but at the same time he was teaching others by example in accordance with the canonical ideal of reform. Scholars like C. Stephen Jaeger have emphasized that De institutione was not just intended to groom young men for the life in the abbey; it was educating them for a life in courtly manners, eliminating their “rusticity,” and preparing them for entry into the urban elite.34 In the spirit of the Victorine interpretation of the Augustinian Rule, shown above, “beautiful manners” are an indication of an inner disposition. 32 33 34

Below, p. 432. Jerome Taylor, The Origin and Early Life of Hugh of St Victor, Texts and Studies in the History of Medieval Education, 5 (Notre Dame: Notre Dame University Press, 1957), 68–69. C. Stephen Jaeger, “Humanism and Ethics at the School of Saint Victor.” Mediaeval Studies, 55 (1993): 53–79.

32

G eneral I ntroduction

Central in this education was the cultivation of manners through discipline. “Discipline is shackles for lustful desire, a prison for evil desires, a bridle on lascivity, a yoke for self-glorification, a fetter for irascibility. It masters intemperance, binds levity, and stifles all inordinate movements of the mind and illicit appetites.”35 Discipline is a matter of constant intentionality, accompanied by self-reflection and self-correction; it should direct mind, spirit, and body alike. Hugh died within the walls of the abbey. At the time of his death his reputation was one of holiness, his authority on par with that of the church fathers. Saint Victor and its Influence

In the first half of the twelfth century the abbey of Saint Victor, enjoying royal support and the spiritual leadership of men like Gilduin and Hugh of Saint Victor, became a center for wider reform in the region; several of its canons were promoted to bishoprics; its benefices grew. In 1148, at the request of Pope Eugene III, Saint Victor “reformed” the collegiate abbey of Saint Geneviève. This despite initial opposition of the canons of Saint Victor, who feared that the more powerful abbey of Saint Geneviève would come to dominate the order. The prior of Saint Victor, Odo, as mentioned above, became its first abbot. The takeover greatly affected the life of one of the canons there, William, who had been seeking to implement reform in his personal life ever since he joined the ancient abbey on the hill; he now not only seemed to have found his spiritual home, but was even prepared to carry its ideals beyond the borders of France, to implement reform in abbeys in Denmark. With its emphasis on the purity of life of its proponent, and his healing presence within the community of believers through his miracles, William’s life can be read as an example of early thirteenth-century hagiography. However, it also provides us with a living example of the influence of the Victorine ideals of reform and their influence beyond the confines of the abbey. Even though he never entered the abbey of Saint Victor proper, William exemplified its ideals, with his interest in lectio divina, his emphasis on the regularity and obedience of the brethren in Denmark, and in the political implications of this view of Christian living. That this reform not only appealed to the canonical, 35

Hugh, Inst. nov. 10, below, p. 229.

G eneral I ntroduction



33

but also to the monastic way of living, is attested by the rumors that spread during William’s later lifetime, that Danish Cistercians were flocking to his monastery.36 With its starting point in the Rule of Augustine, the Liber ordinis builds a framework and ideal vision for life at the Abbey of Saint Victor. Together with the other texts in this volume, it demonstrates the Victorines’ central purpose of the reformation of the Church and of religious life. The texts illustrate the importance placed on proper behavior as a way to change one’s interior spirit and to teach others how to follow the way of the apostles. The vita apostolica, with its emphasis on sharing resources and living in a community, was the central theme of Victorine reform. By incorporating prayer, pastoral care, moral discipline, and an emphasis on education,37 the Victorines believed their lifestyle would help to reform the greater Christian world that was so in need of restoration to the earliest ideals. Of all documents translated in this volume, the Liber ordinis provides the rules that enabled such a lifestyle, and Richard’s De quaestionibus, Hugh’s De institutione novitiorum, the letters of Odo, William’s Vita, and the other texts associated with St Victor serve to illustrate this spirit of Victorine reform.

36 37

Peter King, “The Person and the Place – VI: Exile at Æbelholt,” Life of the Spirit, 17 (1962):99. Jean Châtillon, “De Guillaume de Champeaux à Thomas Gallus: chronique d’histoire littéraire et doctrinale de l’École de Saint-Victor.” Revue du moyen âge latin, 8 (1952): 139–62, 247–72; Jean Châtillon, Le mouvement canonial au moyen âge; réforme de l’église, spiritualité et culture. Edited by Patrice Sicard, BV 3 (Paris/Turnhout: Brepols, 1992); Jean Châtillon, “La culture de l’école de Saint-Victor du xiie siècle.” In Entretiens sur la renaissance du xiie siècle. Edited by Maurice de Gandillac and Édouard Jeauneau, Décades du Centre culturel international de Cerisy-la-Salle, nouvelle série, 9 (Paris/La Haye, 1968), 147–60.

THE BOOK OF THE ORDER OF SAINT VICTOR IN PARIS INTRODUCTION AND TRANSLATION BY JULIET MOUSSEAU

INTRODUCTION* The Liber ordinis provides the most detailed information about daily life at the Abbey of Saint Victor in Paris during the twelfth and subsequent centuries.1 This book is the customary for the abbey, written around 1116 by Gilduin, the first abbot of Saint Victor after William founded the abbey in 1108. With the Rule of Saint Augustine, the Liber ordinis governed life at the abbey, focusing particularly on day-to-day practices and customs. The earliest manuscripts of the document contain 76 chapters. Later manuscripts have a few extra chapters, indicating its use as a living document, modified as reality changed at the abbey. In their introduction to the critical edition, Luc Jocqué and Ludo Milis write that the text is descriptive of what was going on at the abbey, a guide for daughter houses, perhaps, rather than strictly-held regulations.2 As such, the reality of the abbey is both present and idealized. The Abbey of Saint Victor, if we were to judge by the Liber ordinis alone, was a large monastery with probably dozens if not a hundred residents that functioned largely like any other monastery of the twelfth century. We know from other sources, including those published in this volume, that to think of Saint Victor as a monastic community is a misconception. While many of the practices of Saint Victor were adopted from the monastic tradition, they were adapted to fit a new sort of religious life, one where ordained ministers who served the wider community also benefited from a structured environment of prayer and good moral behavior. The clerics who lived at the abbey experienced both the support of an orderly communal life and the chaotic influence of the exterior world in which they served. The Liber says little about that outside chaos and much about the interior order of abbey life. * 1

2

Part of this research was presented in 2015 at the International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo, Michigan. For a more thorough examination of the daily routine and its impact on individual members of the abbey, see Juliet Mousseau, “Daily Life at the Abbey of Saint Victor.” In A Companion to the Abbey of Saint Victor in Paris. Edited by Hugh Feiss and Juliet Mousseau. Brill Companions to the Christian Tradition 79 (Leiden: Brill, 2017), 55–78. “Introduction historique,” Luc Jocqué and Ludo Milis, eds. Liber ordinis sancti Victoris Pari­ siensis, CCCM 61 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1984), viii–xi.

38

T he book of the order

The first twenty-one chapters of the Liber ordinis describe particular officials and their duties at the abbey, beginning with the abbot and working down the hierarchical structure to the sacristan’s assistants.3 Chapters 22–24 address the welcoming and instruction of novices and their profession into the order. Most of the middle of the text, from Chapter 25 to Chapter 65, addresses specific issues of the daily and weekly routine and prayer, how responsibilities are distributed among the brothers, expectations of behavior and how they were held accountable, and the ordo for particular semi-liturgical events such as table blessings, blessing holy water, and washing the feet of the poor during Lent. Great care is taken to ensure their actions do not disturb one another or interrupt their silence, both in daily action and in correcting one another in chapter meetings. Attention to the needs of guests and those who are ill or dying emphasizes their sense of hospitality and charity as a community. Chapters 67–75 start with the anointing of the sick and quickly move to the prayers and practices for a dying brother, culminating in the offerings for those who have died and the rituals surrounding burial and commemoration. Finally, Chapter 76 contains only the formula for profession, which is spoken and signed by new members of the community at the time of their commitment to Victorine life. Throughout the minute details given in the Liber ordinis, certain overarching themes begin to emerge. First, there is a clear hierarchical structure, in which authority and responsibility are clearly defined and articulated. Parallel to the authority structure is the emphasis placed on order, conformity, and clear expectations. A third theme shows the priority given to caring for those who live at the abbey and for those who come from the outside to receive hospitality. The practices outlined in these three areas—authority, order, and hospitality—bring to life the philosophical underpinnings of Victorine life described throughout this volume. Authority and Responsibility

The authority structure of the abbey is especially clear in the first twenty-one chapters. In these chapters, the officials of the abbey are 3

Marshall Crossnoe briefly discusses the Liber ordinis, with a focus on the task of the armarius and others whose records contribute to contemporary research on the historical situation of the abbey, on pages 8–12 of “‘Devout, Learned, and Virtuous’: The History and Histories of the Order of Saint Victor.” In Mousseau, A Companion, 1–51.

I ntroduction



39

named and their specific responsibilities outlined for keeping the abbey’s community life in order and functioning. Authority is entrusted to various members of the community by the others. The only elected official in the abbey was the abbot. He was chosen by a small group of brothers who, recognized as wise and pious, were assigned the task by the entire community. When this small group identified their choice, the choice was ratified by the community as a whole. As stated in Chapter 4, “It is foreseen that the abbot is to be an example of discipline to everyone by his good way of life, by not abusing the power received, but by keeping himself under every discipline, inasmuch as he has no one else over him by whom he can be restrained.” The chapter goes on to assert that he is to live just as the other brothers, without particular privileges because of his office of authority. Chapter 2 notes limits to his authority as well, by distinguishing a Victorine abbot from the monastic abbots: no king or noble person was allowed to influence the election of the abbot, and abbots were not permitted to “frequent the councils or the courts of kings or princes.” Unlike other types of abbots, he was not permitted a crozier and he was not to separate himself from the life of his brothers. The abbot had ultimate authority over finances, property, and personnel in the community, but he was expected to consult a group of wise advisors or the whole community, especially regarding decisions concerning the assets and money of the abbey. Because they had chosen him to hold this responsibility and authority, he was venerated with signs of respect (such as bowing), and his authority was honored according to the guidelines laid out in Chapter 2 and elsewhere. Other figures who held positions of authority and responsibility were chosen by the abbot in consultation with his council. While the abbot oversaw all activities, he handed over to each office holder the authority relevant to his domain. So, the refectorian had control of the refectory, the cellarer of the kitchens, the camerarius of the grounds, and the armarius of the books and liturgy. The infirmarian was entrusted with the medicine cabinet and the tools to care for the sick. Each one held the keys to his area, had the duty to make choices and safeguard what was within his obedience, and received whatever assistance he needed. Thus, leadership and authority were both hierarchical and horizontal. As the text describes the figures who held offices in the abbey, we also begin to see the financial picture of the abbey and its holdings. The church and the cellar were the most highly protected parts of the grounds, with two brothers assigned to sleep in each so that nothing

40

T he book of the order

was stolen. Also protected were the books and the medicines, which were kept under lock and key. While security was not stressed in other areas of the abbey, proper care for properties and goods was emphasized, especially in Chapter 10, which instructs the camerarius regarding groundskeeping and animal care. Personnel fell into three categories: clerical brothers, lay brothers or conversi, and servants who were not vowed religious. All who lived in the cloister were referred to as “claustrals.” The abbey grounds reflected the distinction among these groups of people in that two sets of buildings were separated with walls and door keepers. The strict cloister was reserved for religious only, including lay brothers, with occasional allowance of guests who were also religious. Canons and lay brothers (conversi) had separate dormitories. A second set of buildings (perhaps encircling the cloister) was also enclosed and yet allowed for the presence of non-monastic people, including both servants and guests who came within the walls. Women guests were not allowed to stay on the property, though provision might be made for them in the town, if it could be done without causing scandal.4 Canons and lay brothers were forbidden to speak with women in the exterior parlor without another brother present as chaperone, and it seems that women were not allowed anywhere else on the property. Servants were identified as needed helpers to particular workshops, to be hired from the community, e.g., to make clothing or shoes. The scriptorium welcomed religious from outside to copy books, whether they were commissioned by the abbot or by someone from outside the community.5 Rituals upheld at the abbey ensured that respect be shown for the abbot and priors. Brothers were required to bow or otherwise acknowledge their presence in the room or passage through it. Likewise, the abbot was cautioned not to pass by the brothers at their work too often so as not to disrupt them. The doorkeeper, guest master, or the brother in charge of their work kept track of outsiders on the property. They were kept away from the community in everything, with few exceptions. Laymen, no matter what their social standing was, could be welcomed as guests in the exterior part of the abbey, which is discussed later in this introduction. Just as the boundaries of the cloister kept out strangers, so also they kept brothers in. Business dealings assigned to officials were overseen 4 5

See Chapter 17 on the office of the guest master. See Chapter 19 on the office of the armarius, who supervised the scriptorium.

I ntroduction



41

by the abbot. Certain brothers were allowed to go out into the community for specific reasons, always sent and received back with a blessing.6 Some small groups were even sent out to an obedience where they established a living space, which was itself regulated closely by the abbey customs and the abbot’s supervision.7 This does not appear to be a formal daughter house, but rather a small community for the sake of ministry in the wider world. The authority structure of this small community mirrored that of the larger community, with a prior placed in charge by the designation of the abbot of the big house. Order and Conformity

Authority and responsibility of the brothers placed in offices of leadership was but one part of the universal emphasis on order and conformity at Saint Victor. The rules and routine of the abbey are perhaps most clear in the chapters governing the reception and formation of novices.8 The explicit rules and descriptions here demonstrate that this rigid routine was not usual outside the abbey and new community members needed time to become accustomed to it. The novice both heard the routine and practices described by the abbot and the novice master and also had a personal guide to lead him through the first day and every day for months, so that he knew what to do and how it must be done. Even in this, the boundaries of responsibility were clear. On his first day at the abbey, he was guided by the guest master and then the novice master. Throughout the first day, different members of the community were called upon for different things: the abbot for his initial conversation and role in the ritual, the vestiarius to provide clothing and bedding, and the armarius to help him with the liturgy. Great care was taken that he be confident in his activities of the first day, and that he was not thrown into the routine all at once and without adequate preparation. With the additional document De institutione novitiorum, the attitudes and goals of the novitiate are expressed with a focus on good behavior of the individual both for his own spiritual gain and as an example for others. Thus, it is clear that the novice learned not only through being taught but also by observing the activities and 6 7 8

See Chapters 49 and 50, on those who travel outside the abbey. See Chapter 51. Chapters 22–23.

42

T he book of the order

behaviors going on around him. The abbey as a whole was a school: the actions of each individual expressed values, so that daily observation could be edifying for all members at all times. The Liber guides this moral behavior by regulating it in detail and giving daily opportunity for accountability and correction.9 Clothing, bedding, and cleanliness further express the order and uniformity expected at the abbey. All canons were given equivalent items of clothing and bedding, with nothing special allotted to the abbot. The size, shape, and fit of robes and cloaks was prescribed, as was the quality of fabric used. Such guides assured that clothing modestly covered the body of the wearer. Modesty additionally guided the way brothers prepared for sleeping and arose in the morning as well as how they sat in cloister and how they arranged their robes during the ceremonial footwashing. No part of the habit was allowed to betray a lack of attention to the moral uprightness of one another. Cleanliness was sought after, with washing days of clothes and linens predetermined. Daily ablutions were inserted into the schedule. Tonsure and shaving, as well as preventative bloodletting, were assigned to days throughout the year. License was allowed for many variations of behavior, with the abbot’s permission and the revelation to the abbey community during daily chapter meetings.10 This permission might be given for leaving the abbey grounds to perform some duty, or arriving late to one of the liturgical hours due to some ministerial reason. Actions such as speaking aloud, making a mistake in reading or singing, or falling asleep during prayer required begging forgiveness in the chapter meeting. A circator (or two) was assigned to walk the grounds looking for lax behavior to report to the abbot and community. Silence and speaking were closely monitored.11 Silence was the prevailing attitude, with speaking allowed only during particular times or when absolutely necessary. The guest master and infirmarian were both allowed more leeway to speak with their charges as needed. Silence was assured through an elaborate sign language, described in Chapter 25. However, brothers were cautioned that even this way of communicating should be kept to a minimum. As with modesty, the regulations 9 10 11

See Chapter 33 on the daily chapter meeting, which included the chapter of faults, and Chapter 41 on the duties of the circator. See Chapter 38 on receiving permissions. Silence is discussed in many places in the Liber, but see especially Chapters  27 and  31. The time of speaking is discussed in Chapter 34.

I ntroduction



43

assured that an individual’s behaviors did not disturb the prayerful day of another brother. The terminology for which there was a hand signal provides a glimpse into ordinary things used at the abbey. The signs can be divided into roughly five categories: signals pertaining to the Divine Office, signals around foods and eating, signals for various pieces of clothing and other linens, signals for types of people (including both categories that apply to feast days, such as “martyr” and “apostle,” and those that pertain to individuals living at the abbey), and signals refering to specific actions. The critical edition notes some marginal additions to the text of this chapter, indicating that the text was used and updated as needed. One such example is the insertion of a sign for “pepper” following that of “mustard” in the section on food.12 Yet the difficulty of following a written description of a hand motion shows the need for institutional memory in learning what these hand signals looked like and how they were used. Fortunately, one who needed to communicate and did not know the hand sign for something was allowed a single spoken word. This practical exemption to the rule is found in other areas as well. Brothers who needed to be absent from one thing or another were allowed to do so, though not excessively, and they must receive permission or forgiveness later. Similar leeway was given regarding food, so that multiple dishes on the table allowed a brother to eat more of one than another, and those who were particularly weak due to infirmity, age, or cold could be served something different from the rest of the community. Allowances for variation among the individuals (though limited) and for different needs based on what the abbot saw and judged to be necessary are reminiscent of the Rule of Benedict and the freedom given there to adapt to changing or differing circumstances. Thus, despite the desire for order and certainty, the Liber accounted for the reality of human diversity and changes that occur over time. Order at the abbey extended to rituals and patterns of prayer, such as the Liturgy of the Hours. The practices developed in the Liturgy of the Hours gave all communication a liturgical flair. On certain occasions, a prescribed dialogue was to be followed, which was written clearly in the Liber ordinis. The greetings offered to visitors by the porter and guest master included a ritualized Benedicite with bowing. 12

This section on sign language provides a fairly detailed description of their diet.

44

T he book of the order

The man who wished to join the community participated in a dialogue with the abbot in the chapter meeting, and the abbot then instructed the whole assembled community about the trials of living the life they have chosen. As with any religious order, the vow formula is given, both to be repeated formally and to be written and signed on the altar. The prayers around meals, foot washing, and chapter meetings are given in detail. The airing of grievances that took place during the daily chapter meeting is especially detailed. Perhaps the most touching dialogue given in the text centers on those who are sick and their conversation with the abbot as they receive the sacrament of anointing (Chapter 67). Much of the text revolves around ritual and how the brothers ought to behave. This includes not just how they acted outside times of prayer, but also it gives a roadmap for standing and sitting, kneeling, genuflecting, and bowing during the round of daily prayer and the less frequent rituals of special feasts and funerary obsequies. Most of their day was spent in a specific order, in which the highest places were taken by the authority figures, abbot and priors, and the rest of the community was seated or standing in order of seniority. Thus, the elders were higher up in the ranking and the most junior brothers were in the seats designated as lower. The newest novices were not included in that order, and some particular obedientiaries were often at their posts rather than in place among their brothers. Those who were ill were only present if their attendance would not cause a disruption for the others. As one reads the Liber ordinis, a sense of the space and structure of the prayer life of the brothers begins to emerge. Much of the day was spent in the church, where they sat in two choirs facing one another. A complicated routine was followed during the recitation of psalms that called for alternating brothers sitting and standing, so that each one was offered a rest after a certain amount of time. Bowing, genuflecting, or lying prostrate occurred at certain times of the liturgy and during certain liturgical seasons. Daily life and interactions were governed by explicit rules and expectations. Should one arrive at Saint Victor hoping for a life in which good behavior is easy to discern and supported in community, one surely found it. Though clear, the rules were flexible enough to account for human frailty, both in the opportunity for correction and the possibility of bending the rules to meet needs.

I ntroduction



45

Hospitality

Like other monastic traditions, Saint Victor extended hospitality to outsiders. For the purposes of this introduction, hospitality will include the treatment of new members of the community as they assimilate to a new life; travelers, including both wealthy guests and other religious; poor people seeking alms; the sick; and those who are dying or deceased, whether brothers or outsiders. 1. Care for New Members As discussed above, new members of the community were guided through a period of adjustment by a novice master. On the first day of their arrival, new members were treated as guests until the formal acceptance to formation in the community. Yet with this, the hospitable welcome continued. As the novice learned the routine of the daily schedule, prayers, and behavioral expectations, he was treated with kindness and compassion. At first, he was separated from the community, like any other outsider. This gave the novice master time to teach him what he needed to know, both by speaking and example, without disturbing the more senior members of the community. The novice was allowed to ask questions and to make mistakes without punishment. He learned to chant the psalms with confidence before being put in front of the rest of the community to lead the prayers. The novice master, or someone delegated by him, was a constant companion, available even at night if the novice needed help. This gentle, compassionate welcome to a new way of living reflects the community’s ideal of hospitality. 2. Welcoming Guests Guests who arrived at the abbey seeking a place to stay were treated with generosity and propriety. The doorkeeper greeted them and asked them to wait while he sought the guest master.13 Both of these men were chosen for their honesty and discipline, and the doorkeeper is further described as a “friendly and kind” lay brother. Any brother who encountered a guest in the abbey was to do so with grace, kindness, and

13

Chapter 15 outlines the responsibilities of the doorkeeper while Chapter 17 addresses the guest master and how he was to receive guests.

46

T he book of the order

joy. Additionally, “All the servants in the house ought to be instructed to show diligently cheerful and kind faces to all guests.”14 The guest master offered the guests prayer, food, and a place for rest, and he ensured that any servants and horses were also taken care of. The guest master kept a number of beds prepared and a selection of food in his pantry in case guests arrived hungry when the meal was far off. Guests who were also of the order of Victorine Canons were accepted fully into the life of the local community, taking their place by rank or ordination among the brothers of the house. Monks were welcomed into the cloister, but instead of being placed in their rank among the canons, they were to sit nearer the abbot. Provisions were made that the monks visiting could fulfill their prayer requirements separately from the canons. All reasonable requests from guests were to be met promptly, and any that seemed unreasonable would be referred to the abbot. Chapter 17 on the guest master likewise addresses what they did when a guest arrived who was sick, or when someone who was visiting died while under their hospitality. Their care would be attended to with great devotion, and the Liber ordinis explains why: “They are to believe he has been left or rather entrusted to them, as if they are specially chosen, either to direct the intervention of their prayers for him, or to render an account of his negligence.” Under the Victorine roof, he received all the care, spiritual and physical, that they could provide. Should he need burial, accommodations would be made according to the “competence and order of his person.” 3. Care of the Poor While guests offered hospitality would often consist of people of means, travelling from one place to another, those who were poor were also given a form of hospitality at the abbey. The almoner tended the land and livestock which were reserved for almsgiving, and he received a tenth of the bread. He took charge of any food that was left over from meals, whether they were in the refectory, the guesthouse, or the infirmary, to share with the poor daily.15 The almoner was to be gentle, pious, and of a “tranquil spirit” so that he could be patient with those who seek help. Following Jesus’ mandate (mandatum), the brothers 14 15

Chapter 17. Chapter 14.

I ntroduction



47

also washed the feet of the poor during Lent. This daily ritual included a small Lenten offering of food.16 People who came to the abbey in need of care due to illness might also be taken in at the discretion of the abbot, and cared for by a brother assigned to the task. Care included not just physical treatment but also prayer and spiritual guidance by the abbot or another brother. 4. Care of the Sick The care for new members was one expression of the compassion shown to all members of the community. Care for the sick and elders, as well as those who were dying or deceased, shows another side to the personal attention given one another at Saint Victor. Care for the sick, including those with temporary and chronic illness, and those who were weak due to age, varied widely to include them in the life of the community as much as possible without harming them or disrupting community life as a whole. They were allowed to eat with the community or in the infirmary. They were encouraged to attend liturgy in the retrochoir (a designated area of the church) if it was too tiring to keep up with the standing and sitting of the choir. The infirmarian and his assistant attended to their needs, and as with the novice master, they were supported by the work of the vestiarius, cellarer, and others. Those who were bedridden or otherwise confined to the infirmary were to be visited regularly by the abbot, who cared for their spiritual needs as much as physical. The infirmarian and his assistant ensured that they were able to participate in the prayers of the community as much as possible, and that they heard spiritual readings to keep up their spirits. 5. Death and Burial Great attention was paid to those dying and to the rituals surrounding burial and prayer for the dead.17 A death in the community disrupted all elements of life so that the brother died surrounded by his community, praying and commending him to God. When the bell rang to indicate someone was dying, all brothers came immediately to the infirmary, saying prayers and psalms on the way. Upon arriving at the bedside of the dying brother, they continued their prayers. Once it was determined that death was not as immediate as first thought, two 16 17

Chapter 64. The rites surrounding death and burial are found in Chapters 67–75.

48

T he book of the order

brothers were assigned to stay with the dying brother and to signal again when it once again seemed imminent. Care was taken that he would not be alone and that his soul was surrounded by prayer at the moment of his death. Then, the rituals of burial are described with care that, once again, the deceased be held in prayer by the community constantly. The rituals continued for a month, and the deceased members of the community and benefactors were remembered indefinitely on the anniversaries of their deaths.18 The Liber ordinis makes provisions for a variety of possibilities, including that a guest might arrive sick or die while staying at the abbey, and that someone might wish to be buried on the grounds or prayed for by the canons.19 In each of these cases, different rituals were followed, according to the need and importance of the figure.20 An additional practice is mentioned of accepting a layperson into the abbey for a short time before his death, becoming a frater ad succurrendum.21 In this case, someone on the brink of death entered the abbey and professed vows as a religious, assuring that he would be buried on the grounds and remembered by the brothers in their prayers. The abbot is to determine the appropriate rituals for those who die ad succurrendum. Conclusion

The Liber ordinis provides details of the regulations and practices in use at the Abbey of Saint Victor. However, it clearly does not include all the activities of the canons. From other sources, we know that the school had a lively intellectual life, in which several members of the community made significant contributions to biblical, theological, and spiritual writings. The intellectual life of the abbey included a school which welcomed boys and young men for at least a few generations.22 18 19

20 21 22

See Necrologium Abbatiae Sancti Victoris Parisiensis. Edited by Vones-Liebenstein and Seifert. For a historical overview of the care for the sick, dying, and deceased in the ninth through twelfth centuries, see Sarah Hamilton, “Pastoral Care in Early Eleventh Century Rome.” Dutch Review of Church History, 84 (2004): 37–56. She notes on pp. 55–56 that the care for the sick and dying that had been previously done in monasteries was moving to the canons regular, and with that move, secular clergy felt they were losing revenue they had previously enjoyed. Chapter 75. Chapter 74. See, for example, Hugh’s Didasc.; Donna R. Hawk-Reinhard, “Hugh of Saint Victor’s Pedagogy.” In Mousseau, A Companion, 113–46.

I ntroduction



49

Magister Hugh became well known for his pedagogical writings and theological thought, as did later canons. The only abbey school mentioned in the Liber is the novitiate, and the only intellectual activity outlined is the copying of manuscripts. The pastoral care provided by canons is also absent from the text.23 Pastoral care included providing sacraments to the wider community, and perhaps performing the duties of a parish priest. While the Liber asserts that small groups of canons needed to live away from the abbey for the purposes of their ministry (obedientiaries), it does not identify the sorts of work they would be doing. Like other monasteries, perhaps these small communities included groups of lay brothers working the granges. However, the silence, and the clerical standing of the canons, opens the possibility that canons were sent in mission to other churches in the area as well. Finally, the Liber ordinis is not a theoretical book: rarely is the reason for what they did discussed. We must look elsewhere in this volume for the philosophical underpinnings of the ordered, hierarchical lifestyle of the Victorine canons. Yet, the lively detail of this text gives a thorough and colorful glimpse into their day-to-day realities and practices.

23

Hugh Feiss discusses elements of Victorine pastoral care in “Pastoral Ministry: Preaching and Confession.” In Mousseau, A Companion, 147–83.

THE BOOK OF THE ORDER OF SAINT VICTOR IN PARIS 1. The Election of the Abbot

When the abbot has died, the brothers ought to remain in silence and fast until he is buried, that is if he died before lunch, so that same day they eat once; however, if he dies after lunch, they abstain from dinner. However, if he passes on Sunday or on a feast of nine lessons1 or on the feast of Easter or Pentecost, they will remain in silence but they do not fast. After his burial, the signal having been struck by the prior, immediately all should convene in chapter. There the prior speaks to the brothers, so that they may make provision for choosing a pastor, and because this cannot be determined easily by all, six or seven brothers (or more or less according to the brothers’ desires), esteemed in counsel and religion, may be chosen by common consensus of the whole chapter. Therefore it will be enjoined on these chosen ones by the whole convent that among themselves apart from the others, they confer and consider who according to God is to be judged most suitable and elected to the prelature. Afterwards, while the others remain in silence and prayer, no one is allowed to convene for private counsel about this matter; they confer among themselves apart from the others about electing an abbot. But when by common consensus they elect a suitable person, they announce the election to the brothers the next day in chapter, and thus the election is confirmed by the consent of all. If it should happen that the electors themselves are not able to agree on the election, then they will call on the other more pious brothers from the convent to join them so that with their help and counsel the matter may be peacefully brought to an end, and just as it was said above, it is to be announced to all the brothers the next day in chapter. However, if by chance the prior is absent, yet he is in the same province, so that his return can be expected in no more than five days, he ought to be summoned immediately and the election delayed until his arrival. Meanwhile, the brothers remain altogether silent about this and should not presume to decide anything.

52

T he book of the order

The election itself will be celebrated in this way. After the burial of the previous abbot, when they gather in chapter, they will sing the first seven psalms from the fifteen gradual psalms,2 prostrate above the seats, ending each one with Glory. When these are finished, they say Lord, have mercy three times, then Our Father. Afterwards the prior, the others still lying down, rises and says And [lead] us not [into temptation, but deliver us from evil].3 Let peace [be in your strength And abundance in your towers].4 And let [your mercy] come upon us, [Lord, Your salvation according to your word].5 Show us, Lord, [your mercy, And grant us your salvation.] Hear, Lord, [my] prayer, [And let my cry come to you].6 The Lord be with you. [And with your spirit.] Let us pray. God, who [taught] the hearts of the faithful [by the light of the Holy Spirit, grant that, by the gift of the same Spirit, we may be always truly wise and always rejoice in his consolation.]7 Through Christ [our Lord], Amen. Then when all are seated, thereupon the prior addresses the brothers, just as we said above, so that they may make provision for the election of the abbot. When it is completed, as was recalled, then the prior and subprior take the elected abbot by the hand and lead him before the seat of the abbot, where the brothers are accustomed to beg pardon. There he lies prostrate, then all the brothers, standing, sing the psalm I have lifted up my eyes,8 ending with Glory, then Lord, have mercy three times, then Our Father. Afterwards, the prior says And [lead] us not [into temptation, but deliver us from evil.] May the Lord keep your coming in [and going out From now on and forever.]9 Hear, Lord, [my] prayer,

T he book of the order



53

[And let my cry come to you].10 The Lord be with you. [And with your spirit.] Let us pray. We ask you, Lord, [to guard] your servant [by your protection] forever, [that he may devote himself to you with a free mind; and with you protecting him may he be safe from all evil.]11 Through Christ [our Lord.] Amen. Afterwards the prior lifts him up and stands him in the place of the abbot. Immediately the antiphon begins with the sung Confirm this, God,12 and the psalm Let God arise,13 and they proceed to the church, singing with sober voices, while the prior and subprior lead the abbot up to his seat. Then the abbot alone prostrates himself, with the others standing and completing the psalm. When the psalm ends with Glory, they say the antiphon and it is finished without a jubilus,14 then Lord, have mercy three times, and with all prostrate together, the Our Father is said. At the end, the prior says: And [lead] us not [into temptation, but deliver us from evil]. Save your servant, [O my God, who hopes in you.]15 Send him help, O Lord, [from your sanctuary, And defend him from Sion.] Be to him, Lord, [a tower of strength In the face of the enemy.] Show us, Lord, [your mercy, And grant us your salvation.]16 Hear, Lord, [my] prayer, [And let my cry come to you].17 The Lord be with you. [And with your spirit.] Let us pray. Almighty eternal God, have mercy on your servant and lead him according to your clemency on the way of eternal salvation, that with all his power he may hold dear what is pleasing to you and accomplish it with total devotion, through Christ [our Lord].18 Amen.

54

T he book of the order

Afterwards, according to custom, the brothers go out into the cloister. Then the next day, all obedientiaries come to chapter and prostrate themselves before the abbot, and they place their keys at his feet. He will take them so that they may rise up and take them back. 2. The Blessing of the Abbot

Then the prior and subprior, taking some of the senior brothers with them, go to the bishop and announce to him the election of the abbot, that, as established by statute, he may come and receive the blessing. When he returns after receiving the blessing, all the brothers convene in choir to wait for his arrival. When he has entered through the main door of the monastery and is proceeding and crossing through the middle of the choir, the brothers on both sides bow. The other brothers who come with him upon entering the choir go to their seats. Only the prior and subprior will lead the abbot from the entrance of the choir up to the steps of the sanctuary. There, after he has prostrated himself on the carpet, they prostrate themselves in the area nearest the altar, beyond the benches on each side, if it is a season for prostration. However, if it is not a season for prostration, only the abbot prostrates himself, while the others stand. After this, the brothers, prostrate or standing according to what the season requires, will sing the psalm May God have mercy on us,19 the psalm Blessed are all who fear the Lord,20 and the psalm Behold how good.21 When they have ended with Glory, the antiphon Let [my] prayer enter [into your presence, incline your ear to my plea, O Lord]22 is said. Then a short litany is said, begun by the prior. When it ends with the Lord’s Prayer, the prior gets up, and bringing a book from the cupboard and standing before him, says And [lead] us not [into temptation but deliver us from evil]. Save your servant, [O my God, who hopes in you.]23 Send him help, O Lord, [from your sanctuary, And defend him from Sion.] Be to him, Lord, [a tower of strength In the face of the enemy.] Show us, Lord, [your mercy, And grant us your salvation.]

T he book of the order



55

Hear, Lord, [my] prayer, [And let my cry come to you]. The Lord be with you. [And with your spirit.] Let us pray. Almighty eternal God, who alone do great wonders, stretch out over your servant and the whole congregation entrusted to him [the spirit of your saving grace, and that they may be truly pleasing to you, pour out on them the everlasting dew of your blessing],24 through Christ [our Lord, Amen]. Or else: Almighty eternal God, have mercy on your servant and lead him,25 through Christ [our Lord]. Amen. Or else: God, from whom all holy desires, [all right counsels and all just works proceed, give your servants that peace which the world cannot give, that our hearts may be devoted to your commandments, and that we, delivered from the fear of our enemies, may remain calm under your protection,]26 through Christ [our Lord. Amen.] Then the prior and subprior raise him up and lead him to his seat. However, if it happens that in this monastery an appropriate person cannot be found, according to the counsel of religious he is sought elsewhere and elected, especially if it can be from among those who were born from our house or who have adopted our order. It is to be known that our custom in no way concedes the crozier to our abbots. It is also to be known that during the election of the abbot, no outside person ought to be among the brothers of the monastery; absolutely no other person, not bishop, king, or anyone else is able to impede or contradict the election of the chapter, as it is affirmed in our privilege;27 nor, after the blessing of the bishop, ought any person except the prior of the cloister place him in his seat; especially since he lacks the crozier, it does not pertain to him to frequent the councils or the courts of the king or princes. 3. The Veneration of the Abbot

For the rest, the lord abbot ought to be honored singularly in all places by all whether standing or sitting, except in the dormitory. No brother may dare to cross in front of him without bowing. Wherever some brothers are sitting apart from the community, if the lord abbot

56

T he book of the order

approaches, they ought to rise up and not sit, until he sits or instructs them to sit. However, if he crosses in front of them, they ought to rise up and bow and remain standing until he has passed by. If he passes through the middle of the community in the cloister and choir, the brothers ought to bow to him only from their seats, unless by chance he leads someone from the outside with him, for then they ought to rise up. However, the abbot ought to plan so that this is not done frequently because of the trouble it causes the brothers. As he passes in chapter through the middle of the community, they ought to rise, get down from their stools, and bow, standing until he sits. Whoever presents to him a book or something else when he is sitting ought to bow. Likewise, whoever wishes to relate something privately to him as he sits, while others are sitting nearby, or to listen to him, ought to genuflect. However, especially face-to-face with him, all ought to be disciplined in all their behavior and never presume to utter words against modesty or discipline in his presence. But if by chance in speaking anyone goes out of bounds, and he warns him to be silent, he should not presume to speak any more. When graver things are punished heavily, they are reserved to his judgment alone. If something customary is questioned, whatever he defines has authority. His command ought to be of such authority to everyone that no one presumes to disregard or disagree with whatever he orders. When the abbot is going anywhere, he ought to leave it to the prior or subprior to take his place in weightier matters that seem to regard his authority only if need occurs and the arrival of the abbot cannot be awaited without serious cost; for example, in receiving novices, if to delay reception of them seems to do great harm, and other such things. 4. The Way of Life of the Abbot

It is foreseen that the abbot is to be an example of discipline to everyone by his good way of life, by not abusing the power received, but by keeping himself under every discipline, inasmuch as he has no one else over him by whom he can be restrained. He is not a prelate who is not subject to the discipline of the cloister. He is to understand himself as instituted to be a father by supporting and a teacher by instructing, who nevertheless strives to show himself a companion of the rest in what he does. He may never neglect the canonical Hours without a firm and rational cause. He ought never to be absent especially

T he book of the order



57

from chapter and collation. Likewise, he ought to observe the hours of silence when it is possible, because it is not fitting for him to spend time in arrogant conversation or to work during times of quiet, while others restrain themselves in quiet and silence. He always eats with others in the refectory and sleeps in the dormitory. He makes the sound by which the brothers are roused to get up at daybreak. His clothing, shoes, and bedclothes ought not to differ from the condition of the others in color, price, or fashion, but just as others are clothed, so also let him be clothed. For his Mass, if he wishes, he can have for himself one simple vestment, without gold embroidery, brocade and silken things. He may not have a brocade chasuble; he can have one silver and goldplated chalice. He is not permitted to have other gold or silver things for his special use—no candelabra, pitcher, thurible, bowl or anything else. When he departs for somewhere, he may not take more than one brother and two servants with him. He may not bring a box and leather case. If he wishes, he can carry his Mass vestments with him. Moreover, neither he nor anyone else is to have horses for his own use alone, calling them “his” as it were. When there is need, he may use from the house’s horses the one he finds pleasing and which he observes to be suitable. However, whenever he must depart for anywhere, if possible before he leaves or at least after he returns, he or someone else ought to tell the brothers in chapter the reason for his journey. But if he will be delayed away from the monastery for two months or more, when he returns, he ought to be received in this way. First, he ought to announce his arrival to the brothers. Then all ought to come and sit together in the church to await him. When he enters through the main church door and arrives before the entrance of the choir, all there stand up and the prior offers him the blessed water and the aspergillium. Then while he crosses through the middle, they bow from both sides. Proceeding to the steps, he prostrates himself or bows, and says the psalm Behold how good.28 When it is finished with Glory and Lord, have mercy, the Our Father is said. Then the prior says And [lead] us not [into temptation but deliver us from evil]. Return, O Lord, [how long? And have compassion on your servants.]29 Behold how good [and pleasing it is for brothers to dwell in unity.]30 Blessed are those who dwell [in your house, Lord

58

T he book of the order

They shall praise you for all ages.]31 Hear, Lord, [my] prayer, [And let my cry come to you], The Lord be with you. [And with your spirit.] Let us pray. We ask you, almighty God, that this your servant…32 After this the abbot goes up to his seat. Then the brothers will go into the chapter, and there having said the Benedicite,33 they exchange kisses in order. First the prior comes to him and, bowing, kisses him. Then, bowing again, he returns to his place; then the subprior and after him all from the right side of the choir in order, then all from the left side of the choir from the highest to the lowest. After sitting down again, he will inform the brothers about what needs to be said regarding his journey. He is not permitted to sell or alter or transfer possessions of the church or anything else without the approval and counsel of the chapter. He ought to retain nothing for his own use, but if it happens that it is appropriate for him to pay out or give something in particular, let him receive it from the common holdings and give the camerarius an account of his expenses, just as is done for other expenses. If the abbot is excessive in something, or if what cannot be tolerated and ignored is noted, he is to be admonished first by the more religious brothers privately and in humility for his correction. But if after the admonition he neglects to be corrected, he is to be admonished in private again and then again, because his fault should not be revealed easily, until as a last resort it ought to be brought forward to the common audience of the chapter. Just as a grave fault should not willingly be believed of him or be imputed to him, so when it is revealed and certain, it should in no way be tolerated. 5. The Major Prior

When a prior is to be chosen, first the lord abbot discusses the matter with the senior brothers. Then, with their counsel, he designates whom he is to choose for this office. Then he takes his opinion to the chapter since all must ratify him by their assent. Then the nominated brother because of his humility immediately rises up and coming before the lord abbot prostrates himself there. Then, rising up at the

T he book of the order



59

a­ bbot’s command and calling himself unworthy and unsuitable for this burden, he humbly begs that he not be heavily burdened beyond the possibility of his strength. However, if the lord abbot remains firm in his decree, he should not stubbornly refuse the obedience.34 Therefore when he assents at last to make himself available, the obedience is imposed on him in this way. He prostrates himself again at the feet of the lord abbot, and the abbot says May the Lord keep your coming in. The other brothers respond, and going out from now on and forever.35 Then rising up at the command of the lord abbot, he goes to sit on his left, and thereafter in the choir he will be the highest on the left. However it is known that there are certain things in which the prior ought to be subservient when the lord abbot is present, while it is true that when he is absent, he ought to take his role. Both when the abbot is present and when he is absent, it is his duty to strike the gong and board for work and as a warning in the dormitory, and to correct errors of reading in the church, in chapter, and in the refectory. Moreover, if he sees someone in the community acting against discipline in appearance, movement, or habit, or something else which may seem to need correcting at the moment, it is his duty to suppress it by speech or by a nod to indicate a correction. When the abbot reads the ninth reading, he is to stand and say the blessing. However, when the abbot is absent, the prior performs his duty. First, in choir he gives the signal beginning all canonical Hours and the trina oratio,36 though he does not stand in back like the abbot; the prayer in the dormitory at bedtime; and the sign of the dawn for rising. Likewise, all brothers require from him permission for their work, and the deliberations of the whole house are referred to him. Whatever is to be done or left undone is ordained according to his precept. All obedientiaries and servants of the house refer to him if something comes up for whatever reason in their service, just as they obey the precept of the abbot. However if business of greater importance comes up, which cannot be decided through his decision, it will be delayed until the coming of the abbot. Yet in all other things which are to be done or enjoined he should not follow his own opinion, but rather command what is to be done according to the brothers’ counsel, especially those who are considered more prudent or religious. However, these things do not pertain to his office: he does not impose nor remove obediences, nor does he make any appointment, unless by chance he receives an order of the abbot about it; he expels no one from the monastery, nor does he receive someone expelled or a novice, unless the abbot asks him to; he does not bless a novice.

60

T he book of the order

6. What Reverence Ought to Be Shown to the Prior

Whenever he takes the place of the abbot, reverence is shown to him by everyone, whether in choir, chapter, refectory, or whatever other place, in the following way. When the brothers are seated in choir or in chapter, if he crosses through their midst, they ought to bow only from their seats, but not rise up. Whoever crosses in front of him in choir ought to bow, in the absence of the abbot; in the refectory crossing in the middle and likewise in the choir all brothers bow toward him just as to the abbot. These bows are owed to him in the absence of the abbot. However, when the abbot is present no bows are owed either the prior or the subprior. He should be content with his habit and clothing, just as any other brother. If at any time he must leave the monastery, he should not presume to give himself greater measure in regard to horses, servants, or any other equipment, beyond that of the other brothers. He should not have his own garments for Mass, nor bring them with him on a journey. He must do his weekly task in the convent just like the other brothers. In the presence of the abbot, he must not send others out without the license of the abbot, nor go himself. If he offends in something, he must declare it in chapter just like any other. 7. The Release of the Prior from His Office

If ever the prior is released from his service, this is the way he ought to be restored to his previous position. He comes into the chapter in front of the lord abbot, where first he prostrates himself. Then by order of the abbot he arises and humbly asks for release, confessing that he was charged with a service which he did not fulfill worthily, and that his weakness is insufficient to fulfill it henceforth. Then, while he is prostrate and begging pardon, the lord abbot says May God bestow on you.37 Then, by order of the abbot, he rises up and goes back to his previous place. Without the assent of the chapter and especially without the counsel of those who are spiritual, the abbot ought neither to choose nor to remove the prior. If someone begs to be received into their fellowship and to share in their prayers, in the absence of the abbot, the prior can receive him, either in chapter or outside it. If, in the absence of the abbot, the prior is required to depart for somewhere outside the monastery, he ought, just as we said above of the abbot, indicate the reason for his journey to his brothers, either before his departure or after his return.

T he book of the order



61

8. The Subprior

In the absence of the major prior, the subprior ought to fill his role, either as he serves when the abbot is present, or the role he has in which he is absent. Likewise whatever bows and venerations are to be presented to the major prior ought likewise to be presented to the one discharging his duty, and the counsels of the whole house, just as to the prior, are referred to him whether they are internal or external. It belongs to the subprior to keep awake the brothers in his choir, just as it belongs to the prior to keep awake those in his, and to take care that they stand or sit in an orderly way, and to correct whatever he observes needs to be corrected or to indicate correcting, and to correct errors in reading. In the absence of one of them, the other who is left, either the prior or the subprior, supplies the service of both. When this obedience is enjoined on the subprior, he stands to the right of the abbot in the second place after him. However, when he is freed from this obedience, he goes back to his previous place. 9. The Monastery’s Communal Expenses

It is not only improper but entirely destructive for those professed to the common life to possess anything of their own. We are taught that everything which brings destruction and the ruin of many, which tears down unity, cannot stand. Thus, it pleases us that all expenses of the monastery are supplied from one purse, and all obedientiaries under a strict calculation may receive from there what each one ought to spend in his ministry, and each one returns back under a strict accounting a reckoning of what is spent. Therefore the rents and returns of the monastery are in the hands of the camerarius, that he may divide the resources for expenditures to the obedientiaries, just as is arranged for each. Donations either in gold, or silver, or property, from whatever source they come into the monastery, are referred to the abbot, so that he may place them under a specified custodian who will watch over them. However, all that is spent from there by obedientiaries or in other uses is divided by an exact calculation and the account of the expenses is returned back with an exact accounting. The abbot himself by the choice and providence of the whole chapter ought to invite three or four brothers, who in the judgment of all are religious and prudent, of whom one may be the prior, and another the subprior of the mon-

62

T he book of the order

astery, to be witnesses for him and make them aware of whatever is kept at hand in the money of the church, and to share the keys of the storeroom with them. Not just the abbot, but they also ought to know of the rents and returns of the monastery, wherever they may be, either from what the camerarius has at hand or from what is placed in the church treasury under the title of the abbot. With the abbot present, and these witnesses summoned, an account is rendered of all things, both from those they gave what was to be expended and from those who expended it. In order that no negligence or forgetfulness of expenses creep in, it is instituted that after every fifteen days or at least every three weeks, the abbot, with the above-named witnesses summoned, makes the obedientiaries convene before him to render an account of the assets that they have expended. However, no one ought to receive, reserve, or expend the money of the church without witnesses. Moreover if resources of obedientiaries, which by their diligence they can lawfully multiply through their industriousness, increase in their ministry—illicit gains ought not be sought nor held, nor by any means hidden—let each one, just as with anything they have accepted, bring these before the abbot to inform the common awareness of the witnesses. Because perhaps it would be tedious or superfluous to mention these things regarding all accountings, they ought to be recalled at least twice a year at a certain time, as was said above. 10. The Office of the Camerarius

To the office of the camerarius pertain or all rents and returns of the monastery, whether from wills, lands, mills, or anything else. At the appointed time he should seek and receive them from the village, the land, the millhouse, and all other things. He also sees to the care of the barns, plows, and arable lands, and the other agriculture of the monastery, and also the cattle and all the community’s livestock, so that he provides all that is necessary to renew, cultivate, and conserve them. He ought to accept and preserve all that comes forth from them, and he should distribute all of it just as it should be distributed. In the monastery, his responsibility is the care of all external things and provisions for the entire household. The stables and horses and all the furnishings that belong to the stables and horses, and the servants of the stable and all of the household are under his oversight. He ought also to buy all the iron tools and utensils for all offices of the monastery (except the

T he book of the order



63

cooking utensils) which must be bought, and to repair those which are to be repaired. Furthermore he is in charge of restoring the roof of the whole monastery and all its buildings. He ought to provide wood, whether for the hearth or whatever material is needed for any work. Without the permission of the abbot, the camerarius cannot acquire, sell, or alter land or bring about any new institutions, or introduce new livestock into the herds. Nor ought he spend the money of the church buying or selling things of any great price. Likewise, at the appropriate time he will have the monastery’s annual produce moved to the granary from the village or wherever it is. When the year’s produce in the granary falls short, he will buy and have moved to the granary as much as is necessary. He ought to provide boats and wagons for transferring the provisions. Likewise he has vegetables brought to the granary, and if there are not enough, he buys them. And not only the cellarer, but also the guest master and the infirmarian and all of the obedientiaries of the monastery seek their expenditures from him, whether for buying oil, or wax, or parchment, or whatever the scribes use, or whatever other things from the outside are needed in the church, cloister, or workshops. He should not exercise power over those obedientiaries in other respects, nor over their servants, particularly those of the cellarer, nor they over his servants, except to the extent they want to serve each other with charity and peace. However if the camerarius should in some way need the work of the servants of the cellarer or of another obedientiary, first he ought to indicate it to them, and if their servants are not busy, they ought to grant it willingly. Likewise, as often as they have need of his servants, they ought first to ask him; and being asked, if it can be done, he should agree willingly. Likewise, the cellarer and all other obedientiaries who have servants beneath them, as often as they need work in their turn, in order to maintain fraternal peace they ought to do so for one another. If by chance those being asked are not able to come to their aid, humbly they must strive to excuse themselves. One should not boldly take the utensils that pertain to the service of another obedientiary. If by chance someone uses those which pertain to another’s ministry, the one to whose ministry they belonged should not angrily go searching for them. For then both the one who does it and the one who does not yield to the one doing it are judged guilty. But if anyone should wish to offer to someone anything for the church’s money or to receive something in return, first he might consider whether some financial loss may occur or it will create any scan-

64

T he book of the order

dal, and if the loss might be great, that is, more than one hundred gold coins (solidos), he should not offer or receive anything without the permission of the abbot. He should not become surety for anyone’s debt. In no way should he engage in business, that is buying to sell for the purpose of profit—not horses, pigs, sheep, oxen, or anything, either in animals or in any other thing; namely, as if he were any other merchant buying cheap so that he might sell at a higher price. However, to buy animals for raising and for their products, and to turn their offspring to the use of the church, as much as can be without sin, is not prohibited. When the camerarius has to go out somewhere, and will be delayed, that is, if he will not return the same day, first he ought to indicate to the lord abbot (or to the prior if the abbot is not present, or to the subprior if the prior is absent) the cause of his journey and for how long he thinks he will be kept away. The camerarius sees to the care and provision of the granaries, cellars, and stables. One of the lay brothers, who has proven to be circumspect and careful and also zealous in arranging the monastery’s things, ought to assist him in the care of all these things, and the others which pertain to him. He, the subcamerarius, ought to serve under him for the protection of the store rooms, granaries, barns and stables. It will be the task of this position to inspect the roofs of the church, cloister, and all other workshops. When he discovers they are damaged or collapsed, he is to tell either the camerarius or, if his absent, his vicar, to provide for repairing it without delay, that what is broken might be repaired quickly. The camerarius in turn ought to commend to him the care of all these things, and in his absence, to hand over to him what he perceives necessary to spend in the administration of these things. However, he renders an account to the camerarius for whatever he spends and itemizes these for the community’s accounting along with his other expenses. The servants of the camerarius will obey him in what they are doing, after the camerarius. He himself ought to supply both the fodder of the horses from the granary or the barn according to the measure which was determined. When the camerarius is absent, he will provide the horses that each one needs when he is going somewhere. He sees to the supervision and care of other things, which pertain particularly to the oversight of the camerarius when the camerarius is absent, so that everyone has recourse to him just as to the camerarius in all these things which ought to be managed and distributed, in such a way that he does not presume to do anything contrary to the arrangement of the major camerarius, and

T he book of the order



65

in those things which he needs to do, he always obtains his counsel and willingly follows it. Another helper is given to him for the protection and distribution of bread and wine. If it is necessary, he ought to sleep at night in the cellar and be present there always at the established times, so that he diligently guards the wine and distributes the bread, to those who ask in the way and for the quantity which is appropriate. For he ought to take care that the provisions in the granaries are not spoilt and to distribute them to the miller for making bread, as is determined. He ought to concern himself with great care and diligence regarding the mill, lest the millers plunder the year’s provisions, or procure or prepare it negligently, and that in baking bread they are zealous, so that trouble is not brought to any of the brothers nor does any financial loss come to any in the house. Bread ought to be stored in a suitable place, and appropriately distributed through him or his assistant. We prescribe that this be most carefully observed both by him and by all others placed in command over any works, namely that no one presumes to take anything from all the things that pertain to another’s ministry without permission; that is, workers, other servants, iron tools or any sort of materials, or any other thing that the other person previously prepared and provided for his own use. 11. The Kitchen and the Cellarer

We prescribe that in our house there ought to be only one kitchen and one cellarer; however, in it there are two separate fires, so that the things being prepared might be done quickly and separately: one in which the food of the brothers, whether of the refectory or of the infirmary, is prepared; another, where the food of the guests and all the servants of the house is prepared, whether by those under the direction of the camerarius, the cellarer, or the guest master, or whatever other obedientiary. The cellarer, if it is needed, ought to be given relief, that is, an assistant, who ought to do part of his ministry and work with him, so that he does not presume to claim any power over him or against him. When the time comes for eating, the major cellarer, just as it seems fit to him, places his coworker over one part. He does the other part, namely he distributes to the brothers what they are being given in the refectory or in the infirmary; the other dispenses what is being carried to the guests and the servants of the entire community.

66

T he book of the order

It is necessary for the cellarer to be especially kind and patient. He not only knows how to have compassion for the evil of others, but also how to bear evils. I use not our words, but those of Blessed Benedict: “As the cellarer of the monastery, there should be chosen from the community someone who is wise, mature in conduct, temperate, not an excessive eater, not proud, excitable, offensive, dilatory or wasteful, but Godfearing, and like a father to the whole community. He will take care of everything, but will do nothing without an order from the abbot. Let him keep his orders. “He should not annoy the brothers. If any brother happens to make an unreasonable demand of him, he should not reject him with disdain and cause him distress, but reasonably and humbly deny the improper request. Let him keep watch over his own soul, ever mindful that ‘He who serves well secures a good standing for himself.’38 He must show every care and concern for the sick, children, guests, and the poor, knowing for certain that he will be held accountable for all of them on the day of judgment. He will regard all utensils and goods of the monastery as sacred vessels of the altar, aware that nothing is to be neglected. He should not be prone to greed, nor be wasteful and extravagant with the goods of the monastery, but should do everything with moderation and according to the abbot’s orders. “Above all, let him be humble. If goods are not available to meet a request, he will offer a kind word in reply, for it is written: ‘A kind word is better than the best gift.’39 He should take care of all that the abbot entrusts to him, and not presume to do what the abbot has forbidden. “If the community is rather large, he should be given helpers, that with their assistance he may calmly perform the duties of his office. Necessary items are to be requested and given at the proper times, so that no one may be disquieted or distressed in the house of God.”40 The cellarer should receive from the camerarius the amount of money assigned for his expenses and the vegetables from the granary. The gardener is subject to the cellarer. If there is anything that he wants and knows how to procure, let him accept it for the service of the brothers. The kitchen, larder, and interior pantry are in the hands of the cellarer. He ought to buy all cooking utensils and the salt. He can have livestock if he wishes, but if he has them, the chaff from the granary and the bran from the mill are his. The cellarer ought to see to it that the brothers’ food is equally divided and distributed without personal partiality. If it turns out that the food is not yet prepared at the time the brothers should go into the refectory, it is the cellarer’s responsibility

T he book of the order



67

to fetch the hammer that hangs at the gong. Meanwhile the brothers sit in the cloister to read. He does likewise when the bread is not yet baked. This should not happen very often. As long the brothers are in the refectory, the cellarer ought to take care that there is not a racket in the kitchen which would bother the brothers. He ought to be sure that the kitchen servants remain clean and proper around the food, and the vessels in which the food is carried are diligently washed and well wiped, so that nothing put on the tablecloths makes them dirty. The cellarer ought to know the weaknesses of each brother, so that he can know how to help each one, as far as it is suitable and possible. The cellarer ought to take care that no outsider enters the kitchen. He should inspect what is done there. All the brothers and lay brothers, obedientiaries and claustrals, ought to abstain from entering at all into the kitchen, except the infirmarian, guest master, refectorian, and almoner, and those who serve under them. If anyone has business with the cellarer, he should come up to the entrance to the kitchen and there, after the cellarer has been called, indicate what he wants. The cellarer ought to provide him whatever he desires, in such a way that the brothers for whom something special is being prepared are not named in the hearing of the servants. As we said about the camerarius, the cellarer ought to take care that he does not practice the business of buying or selling or cause a scandal by lending and bargaining, and finally that he does not presume to do anything major without the counsel of the abbot. 12. The Refectorian

It pertains to the refectorian to prepare the tables at the right time both for lunch and for dinner, and to place on them the bread, wine, and vegetables, and if some brothers come from outside, likewise, to provide and set whatever should be placed where they are to sit for the meal. He also ought to draw water for the lavatory and likewise for the refectory, both at lunch and at dinner, set out fresh water for the brothers, neither frozen in winter nor tepid in summer, and pour into a pitcher a little before the brothers enter. After the ninth hour he should have it prepared in some large vessel, so that when they return it is passed around and those who want take it. Likewise, he ought to provide that both the tablecloths and towels be changed for the sake of cleanliness, that is, the towels after fifteen

68

T he book of the order

days and the tablecloths after three weeks, unless perhaps the solemnity of some great feast demands this time limit to be shortened. It also may be, if in the near future another great feast approaches, the changing of the tablecloth might be deferred until then. However, it ought not extend beyond another eight days. There ought to be at least four towels. They always ought to be changed on Sunday after fifteen days, unless by chance it is appropriate to anticipate or go beyond Sunday for some high holyday. Moreover, all ought diligently to avoid wiping their noses, or rubbing their teeth, or wiping away blood, or handling anything dirty with their towel, and should someone by chance make a stain it should be washed immediately. Likewise it is to be observed that no one should rub his teeth on the tablecloth in the refectory, nor do anything against cleanliness or respectability. The refectorian ought to have a suitable receptacle where he places the tablecloths, towels, cups, bowls, jugs, and spoons, so that from it whatever is allotted or changed may be supplied. Jugs for water should always be placed at each pair of brothers. The salt is also put on the table in multiple places, as is needed according to the number of brothers. The refectorian ought to see to it that the salt cellar and the salt which is served are clean. He is to dry it if, by chance, as is typical, some humidity liquefies it. Cups, bowls, and spoons are washed once a month,41 and the refectory is swept clean weekly. No one should remove cups, bowls, spoons, or other vessels from the refectory without his permission. If any food or anything else falls on the tablecloths, so that they are stained, it pertains to the refectorian to have them cleaned. Candlesticks ought to be provided also, so that during the time of winter the brothers may be served at a late hour. These are arranged in such order that at least one light always serves three of them. As often as it is needed, he is to clean the mats on the seats, the candle snuffers, the spigots in the lavatory, and the lavatory itself. After the brothers sit down for the meal, then the refectorian, standing inside at the window,42 ought to receive or take from the cellarer things to be served them. Just as we said about the cellarer, so also the refectorian ought to know the weaknesses of the brothers, for whom something special will need to be provided, so that he knows what it is necessary to allot to each one. While they are eating he ought to walk around frequently and watch so that if he sees anything is lacking he supplies it. If he sees that what was served stays in front of one brother, he can place it fittingly before another. If anything that was placed on the table returns whole, that is, not tasted, and the refectorian sees an-

T he book of the order



69

other has left untouched what was placed there, he can give one whole serving for another. He ought to return to the cellarer what he received whole. What he receives whole from someone he does not place on the table for someone who has eaten his serving. However, if it seems to someone that his serving is less sufficient, or if he has taken less of it than necessary, he can take the dish of another, that has been tasted, but is more pleasing, and put it before him. However, if someone has been served what has been tasted by another and he returns the entirety of his own, this whole serving that was received is for alms, as it has been tasted. If at any time he is not able to take to the brothers the things to be placed before them, he can call upon the junior brothers to take them from his hands and set them out. He should do the same, if necessary, in collecting and returning what is left. No one ought to approach the window except him. He should not engage in conversation there either in receiving or in returning things, except whatever information he can intimate by a simple sign or indicate by a single word. Moreover, wherever he is in the refectory he ought to look to the abbot often, so that if he indicates that he do something, he can immediately be at hand. If his bread is not enough for any brother, the refectorian ought to supply more, either at lunch or at dinner. He ought also to see to it that the bread which is allotted to the brothers is clean, that is, neither burned, nor having anything that needs to be wiped or cut off. Whenever produce that is soft or cooked or such is given to the brothers, it ought to be placed in vessels in such a way that it does not stain or spoil the tablecloth. The cellarer ought to look for fruits as for other food, wherever it is to be sought. When they are to be served, only the refectorian ought to serve and distribute them. Likewise in winter he is to provide hot water so that those who want it may receive it. As is customary, he ought to have prepared little baskets and brooms for collecting the crumbs for two junior brothers, one on each side, when given the sign, to rise up and collect the leftovers. It is to be known that it does not pertain to him to buy or procure dishes for the refectory or anything else regarding the management of furnishings. Care of the linens does not pertain to him. However, he asks for dishes from the camerarius when needed, as many as necessary. He receives tablecloths and towels from the vestiarius and likewise gives them to him for washing. He receives the clean ones back for storing so that he knows how many there are and has them carefully marked.

70

T he book of the order

It is his responsibility to have hot water prepared and basins or dishes and stools all brought to the place where the brothers are to be shaved, and to have them carried back afterwards, whenever the brothers are to be shaved before chapter or after chapter, or after lunch; that is, whenever the abbot orders it. On Saturday, when the mandatum43 is to be done after lunch or after the ninth hour according to the season, he will carry bowls into the cloister with hot water prepared in one vessel and cold in another, and place them in the western part of the cloister, where the brothers wash their feet. Then, after they have washed, he returns them. Likewise at the mandatum after Vespers, he prepares hot and cold water (tepid if it is winter), and places them on the grass before the chapter, and then when the mandatum is finished, he returns the vessels. The refectorian ought to have one lay brother for assistance, who prepares the refectory at lunch and dinner in place of him, that is, he carries and places on the tables bread, wine, and vegetables, and draws the water, and provides the other things which are to be prepared before the entrance of the brothers. However, after the entrance of the brothers, only the major refectorian serves the tables, so that the lay brother does not approach the tables either to bring or take anything. Assistance is given to the refectorian so that he does not frequently leave or need be away from the community or miss the canonical Hours. He himself or the lay brother who serves under him ought to lead there and back those who need to refresh themselves in the refectory, who receive a mixtum44 after chapter, or who are departing for elsewhere before the community dinner or who have another reason, so that he may look for what they need. He is responsible for the guests who are refreshed in the refectory apart from the community. However, it should be known that the lay brother should not serve the mixtum to claustrals who are not sent outside except in his presence. Therefore between chapter and the third hour and after the major offertory Mass until the sixth hour and from that hour when the prior goes out to strike the gong until the servants have eaten, likewise between the ninth hour and Vespers, and after major Vespers until dinner, if it is needed, he can go into the cellar and the dispensary and into the kitchen to say or to do what may be required. At all other Hours, just like the other claustrals, he may not enter these under any circumstances without permission. The lay brother who serves in the ministry of the refectory ought to carry the key to the room in which the things belonging to the refectory are kept, so if necessary he can receive the things that need to be received and

T he book of the order



71

replace the things that need to be replaced. He himself ought to do and provide for those who are drawn or required outside. As we said above, the lay brother can minister together with the servants. In the convent, the refectorian should not serve clothed in his cape or only with his cloak over his shirt, but either with the robe or woolen tunic worn under the cloak.45 If needed, the subrefectorian can assist the subcamerarius in guarding and distributing the bread and the wine, and so he always sleeps in the cellar with him. 13. Care of the Sick

Care of the sick ought to be entrusted to someone. He asks the cellarer for whatever he sees to be needed by anyone. He ought to provide whatever is prepared for the sick in a timely way. When any brother shows signs of infirmity either in the choir or in the refectory or elsewhere and leaves the community, if the infirm brother needs immediate assistance, for instance if blood is flowing from his nose, the abbot or the one who holds his power ought to beckon to the infirmarian, if he is present, or, if he is not, to another whom he chooses, to follow and do whatever is helpful. However, if the prelate does not notice, the sick one ought to signal to him, if he can, or if he cannot, to someone else. However, without permission no one ought to follow, unless by chance there is sudden and grave suffering. However, if the illness is so grave that the infirm person cannot give a sign, then whoever sees this ought to run to his aid immediately. When the brother’s infirmity is not so grave as to require immediate help, he ought to remain outside the community, so that he does not enter the infirmary nor go outside the cloister without permission. The abbot or the one who takes his place, at first opportunity when the Office is completed, ought to summon him to learn of his infirmity, and then if it is necessary he commends him to the infirmarian. Otherwise, the infirmarian ought not to undertake care in any other way for anyone, except those who are constantly sick. If later, as their illness grows worse, they need further attention, he ought to indicate it to the prelate and thus with his permission either lead them into the infirmary or provide some other appropriate consolation. The infirmarian ought to have some help from a lay brother of commendable life, who remains constantly in the infirmary and carries the keys for the things which are kept in it.

72

T he book of the order

The infirmarian ought to have in the infirmary a chest or some other receptacle where he can store what always ought to be at hand, namely towels and things for the table, which he ought to have marked as belonging to the infirmary, and other vessels which are needed in the infirmary. He ought to have a separate place that is specially prepared for this, so that when it is necessary, baths can properly be drawn for the sick: whatever cask, cauldron, basins and other things which are needed; and books for the sick to recite the Hours. If it is needed, something may be read for them from the lives and examples of the saints, or from some other edifying thing, for the consolation of their souls. Each day at the hours established, as often as necessary, he ought to visit the infirm and ask what they want him to prepare for them; if it is necessary, to sing the Hours, or, if he is not available, to provide someone. However, the lay brother who serves under him in the ministry of the sick ought to be in the infirmary constantly, but he departs when the major infirmarian is present and is warned in advance. When the major infirmarian is absent, with the permission of the infirm he may not be out beyond the set time. If by chance he needs to delay outside longer, he tells the infirmarian, so that he might in the meantime provide solace to the sick. The infirmarian ought never to miss a regular Hour, unless the lord abbot is in the infirmary. Then, if that is the reason he misses an Hour, he disregards it, and it is not noted.46 If some need comes up so that he cannot be at a regular Hour or ask for permission, the next day he asks mercy in chapter and indicates the reason why he was absent. When a sick person goes into the infirmary, the infirmarian ought to take his bowl, cup, and spoon from the refectory, and his bedding from the dormitory. Then when he returns to the community, he returns what he had taken from the refectory and the dormitory. Further he ought to provide a light to burn constantly in the presence of the sick. He is able to enter the kitchen, refectory, cellar, and pantry for their service and his solace. Moreover, when there is no one sick for whom he needs to go out, just like any other claustral he takes his place in order. When the regular Hours are sung, and from when collation is rung until the next day after chapter, and in summer until the midday hour, the infirmarian ought to keep silence in the infirmary, but, if necessary, he is allowed to speak about their needs with the very sick. If some food remains which can be presented to the sick again, he holds it back if necessary. He returns to the cellarer the rest, namely whole breads, meat, and other relishes, so that he may retain what seems to him he should, namely, what can be decently be placed before

T he book of the order



73

someone else. The rest he allots to the almoner. Likewise the breads which have been tasted or cut belong to the almoner. And because it is difficult always to run back to the kitchen for every little thing, he ought to have dishes, a pan, and linens in the infirmary, in which, if it is needed, some of the food retained for the sick can be reheated or seasoned or otherwise prepared. The infirmarian takes care of bloodletting. He ought to provide both the vessels into which their blood is expelled and bandages, dispose of the blood, and have the vessels cleaned. He keeps a fire in the stove during the winter season. If those who are in the infirmary offend in any way, it is up to the infirmarian to correct them. If they do not mend their ways, he ought to indicate it to the prelate. This is also in his care: when the sick one’s languor begins to intensify, he announces it to the brothers in chapter, that a common prayer for the infirm is made. If later he grows strong, this he also indicates, so the prayer is discontinued. He announces who from the infirmary ought to communicate and when.47 He also ought to advise the abbot about the anointing of the sick. When a sick person comes to the point of death, he places him on the earth on a cloak and immed iately beats on the board before the door to the cloister or, if the brothers are at their work, he rings the bell, heats water for washing the body, and seeks clothing from the vestiarius in which the body is to be wrapped. He prepares the bier, carries it back from the grave and keeps it. 14. The Office of the Almoner

One of the pious and gentle brothers ought to be chosen for giving alms, so that through piety he knows how to suffer with the indigent and through gentleness can tolerate relentless petitions with a tranquil spirit. To this office pertains the maintaining of the land, vines, livestock, and any other things which belong to almsgiving, according to the counsel and providence of the abbot. He receives a tenth of the bread. He is to have the leftovers from the refectory, such as bread, food, and wine. He ought to have prepared enough appropriate vessels in the refectory for receiving them, so that what remains of different foods is not mixed together. Likewise he should have his own plates and bowls. The vessels of the refectory, that is the cups, bowls, and spoons, and the plates which carry the food of the brothers, and the baskets which collect the remains from the table, ought not to be car-

74

T he book of the order

ried out. He collects the wine from the cups in the evening after Compline and immediately returns to the dormitory. For assistance he has the doorkeeper of the cloister, who can come into the refectory or the pantry when alms are to be given, to help him carry out the things that are being carried out. In the distributing of any alms, he ought to be there as much as he can, provided that he does not neglect the custody of the door. In the distribution of alms the almsgiver ought to use great discretion, so that he reserves the most sumptuous and tender things for the sick, and that he has those who might blush, if such come, sit by themselves, so that they can take privately what is given to them. The subinfirmarian brings from the infirmary to the pantry the remnants of dinner which the almoner ought to have. The assistant guest master does likewise with the remnants which pertain to almsgiving from the guesthouse. The almoner ought to be present at all the Hours, except None, which is sung while he give the alms. The mandatum of Lent pertains to him. It is held once a day. He is to choose poor people and gather them in the place where their feet are washed, provide hot water, basins, and towels, and a tub for washing their feet and hands, and have ready there the disbursements which have been instituted for them. On Holy Thursday, he ought to choose the number of poor people for the mandatum according to the number of brothers, both clerical and lay, who are in the monastery, healthy or infirm. After he chooses them, he puts them in order in the cloister. He also ought to prepare hot and cold water, towels, basins, and tubs; then, when it is time, he strikes the board to call the brothers. When the mandatum is finished,48 he leads the poor people to where they are to refresh themselves, and attends to what they need while they are eating, as is decreed. It pertains to his office to give the list of the deceased from the outside to provide them honor, and to receive gifts and put them in the place determined. If a roll is brought, it is not carried inside, but the almoner recites the commemoration of that deceased in chapter. If the one who brings it throws it inside, it is not received in community, nor explained among the brothers, but the almoner writes on it, May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed rest in peace, and then returns it to the one who brought it. Only the commemoration of the dead is recited in the chapter. He does not receive those who are sick into our house as a responsibility without the permission and counsel of the abbot. If he knows someone outside is sick, he sends to him whoever ought to be sent. If the abbot orders someone to be received,

T he book of the order



75

the almoner ought to provide a servant to him according to the need of his illness, and to attend to him from the alms, and as is appropriate, to come visit him. He ought to be concerned that he make his confession and communion, as is appropriate. If the sick person dies, the almoner ought to provide what is needed for burial, and to remind the abbot and other brothers of his commemoration in chapter. If ever it is necessary for him to go out of the monastery on account of his office, he ought first to tell the reason to the abbot and ask for permission to go out, and not stay out beyond the limit set for him. Otherwise, he stays in his place just like any other claustral. 15. The Office of the Doorkeeper of the Courtyard49

One of the lay brothers ought to be chosen as doorkeeper, someone of proven morals, friendly and kind, who, equipped with discipline of character and words, displays as it were the complete model and reputation of the whole house. Therefore, he ought to have his dwelling near the door and always stay there, never leaving unless he entrusts his job to someone else. He is the first one to be seen. In order not to distress in any way those who come from outside, he does not fatigue them with many questions or excessive delay, nor does he provoke them by a harsh response or by saying something offensive. He should not open easily for those who arrive at a very late hour, unless he first knows both the person and the reason. For others, who come during the usual day hours, after modest questioning and receiving responses, he ought at once to open the entrance, or, if he perceives that he should not open for them, excuse himself humbly and explain why he does not open for them, so they are not disturbed by his rebuff. We expect him to carry out all this diligently, because those who come from the outside are to be received quickly at the first meeting with great kindness and courtesy, not only because they form an estimate of what remains inside from the one they see outside, but also first and foremost because they are comforted by charity. If anything further is done to them which is less than appropriate, they believe it comes either from ignorance or impossibility, rather than from malice. Thus, when he opens the door to those entering, if they are religious, on first meeting he says Bless you while bowing deeply. Then, if they are on horseback, hastening to his bridle and stirrup with a joyful face, he says to the one he sees is first among them Welcome to our

76

T he book of the order

house. After they dismount, he leads them into the lobby of the guest house, so that they sit there, while he calls the assistant guest master immediately from the guesthouse, who then leads them in. From now on he is the one to look out for them, so the doorkeeper returns to his door. However, if those who come are secular, after he receives them inside the door, first he speaks with them kindly and humbly asks them who they are and what they want. If they say they want hospitality, he invites them to stay and wait a bit, as he calls for the assistant guest master. When the latter leads them in, then they are thereafter in his care. The doorkeeper returns to his door. However, if those who come, whether they are religious or secular, do not come for hospitality or to stay, but ask for something else, that is, some other person is to be called from within, either the abbot or the prior or someone else, or if they ask for something else of this sort, the doorkeeper ought, when he hears their wishes, either do what they ask if he can do so suitably, or if he cannot, excuse himself with humility. In the evening after the door is locked until morning when it is opened, the doorkeeper ought to observe most diligently that those who are inside not go out without showing a specific and obvious reason, and that no one from outside is let in, unless first he knows clearly who he is and why he comes. However, it is his job to keep his eyes on those who enter during the day who want to go to any area, whether the entrance of the cloister, the kitchen, the cellar, or the guesthouse, or to whatever other area beyond what is allowed, and call them back and prohibit it, so they do not arrive unforeseen and cause those who are within embarrassment or bother. Especially, however, he does not receive women into his dwelling who are entering through the door for whatever reason; nor does he permit them to proceed to the entrance of any of the workshops, that is, to wander casually looking at the courtyard and lingering without a reason. He sleeps in his room next to the door; he listens to the Morning Mass; he eats in the refectory with the other lay brothers; and just as was said above, whenever he leaves the door to go anywhere, he relinquishes his task to the care of another. 16. The Doorkeeper of the Cloister

One of the lay brothers ought to be chosen as doorkeeper of the cloister, whose office is to observe constantly the entrance to the cloister, so that no one who does not belong enters or looks inside. And he

T he book of the order



77

ought to take care that those from outside do not approach the door of the cloister, listening to those who are inside, or making a noise near the door, or even whose voices might carry, which disturb the brothers inside. For this reason he makes those who come from outside remain in the exterior parlor and not approach the interior. But if that one asks that someone from inside be summoned, and the hour is such that this can be done, and the person asking is someone who should not be contradicted, and it is for such a reason as ought not to be deferred, then while they stand outside, the one from the inside will approach the door of the cloister, and if indeed the brothers are gathered together in community, he will not open the door; he makes only a gentle noise with an iron ring and those who are nearest within go to the exit, where he indicates the purpose, and he announces what needs to be announced. However, if the brothers are not gathered in community, he is allowed to open the door to look inside and if he sees someone, call him and indicate the current matter, if he is not a claustral. Those who are cloistered are not called outside, either by this one or any other obedientiary. But if he sees nobody inside, if the business is very pressing, he could proceed still further, until he sees someone to whom he can tell it. When others approach, whose purpose he perceives not to be of greater weight, he makes them stand outside and wait, until someone else from inside comes out to whom he can indicate his business. For he presumes to do nothing in any way contentiously or injuriously, but gladly he assents to what he does, or he modestly excuses himself from what he does not do. In the morning before the brothers get up and while they are in chapter, likewise in summer during the noon break, and at collation, and in the evening after they enter the dormitory, then he should neither open the door nor make noise around it. He ought to be on watch here constantly by day from the morning hour in which the door of the cloister is opened, until that evening hour in which it is locked. However, at night he sleeps with the other lay brothers. Likewise he eats with them in the refectory during the day, having meanwhile relinquished to another his duty of custody of the cloister, if it is necessary. The others ought to offer to assist either him or the other doorkeeper, that is, they serve in his place when it is necessary if one of them or the other is absent; or if one or the other office is to be relinquished in the providence and consideration of the abbot, he hands it over to their service.

78

T he book of the order

17. The Office of the Guest Master

The major guest master ought to have some assistance from a lay brother, a man learned in morals and discipline, pious and honest, who knows how to be pleasing and deferential to each person who comes, as religion and decency require. He ought to remain in the guesthouse constantly and to sleep there at night, to guard the things kept there, and to be ready at all times to receive appropriately those who come whom it is appropriate to receive. When, on the arrival of guests, he is called by the doorkeeper, he immediately goes to meet them, and when he reaches them, bows and says Bless you. Then, if they are on horseback, he offers the key to the stables and the room next to the stable, where the servants sleep, so that they can receive their horses and garments. He tells the guests to wait for a short time, staying there, while he tells the guest master of their arrival. Even if a regular Hour is being sung, the guest master, having received permission, will come to them, and bowing first say Bless you. Then he leads them to the oratory, proceeding in silence, except when he responds to questions. When they enter the oratory, he goes to the blessed water, and if the abbot is there, offers him the aspersorium; if the abbot is not there, he sprinkles them himself. Then he prostrates himself, or if it is a feast, bows with them toward the altar and says the prayer together with them. When the prayer is finished, he rises and signs himself, and if they continue there in prayer, he withdraws a little to the side and waits for them. When they rise up from prayer, again proceeding silently, he leads them back to the guest house. When they arrive there, he says Bless you. Then he exchanges kisses with each of them in order, bowing deeply to each one, genuflecting if the abbot is there. Then the guest master, after giving all a kiss, invites them to sit and sits with them; he asks them who they are and where they come from, ending with a short talk. Then, if the third hour of the day has passed, he says it is time that he go and think about preparing their meal. He asks that meanwhile they sit and rest, or, if they wish, take a nap. However if the ninth hour has passed, he asks them whether they have eaten, and according to their response, either he has something prepared immediately if they have not eaten, or if they say they have eaten, he bids them to rest. If they wish to observe the workshops, he goes ahead to check that that they are open and ready. After returning to them, he leads them wherever they wish, except they do not enter the kitchen and the in-

T he book of the order



79

firmary. Then when they have seen what they wished to be shown, he leads them back. When guests should join the community, that is, to eat in the refectory, to sleep in the dormitory, or to be admitted into the choir, it is the guest master’s responsibility to lead them in and out at the appropriate time, and to indicate how they ought to keep themselves entering or exiting or remaining there. Guests are not admitted to chapter or the talking period, except by a dispensation, that is, to hear or give a word of edification, unless they are from our society and keep our customs. These are received at the talking period and at chapter just as we are. When another abbot is brought into the community, the guest master ought to indicate that to the brothers, so that they rise up and bow to him. If any monastic guests ask to be admitted to the choir, after the lord abbot, or the one who is in charge of the community, nods approval, then no matter what order or age they are, coming through the retrochoir, they stand in the upper part of choir, on the right next to the abbot, or on the left next to the prior. Guests who are canons, when admitted to the choir, stand among our brothers, each one according to his order: if he is a priest, among the priests; if a deacon, among the deacons; if subdeacon, among the subdeacons. Each is placed in his order, higher or lower as it pleases the lord abbot and befits his person. If any abbot, either canonical or monastic, is admitted to the choir, he stands in the place of the prior and the prior after him. If there are many abbots, they are ordered according to the discretion of the abbot whether in choir or in the procession. When any from outside, whether monk or canon, is to eat in the refectory, the guest master ought to indicate it to the refectorian. All monks ought to sit at the head table, canons among our brothers, each one according to his order, just as we said about the choir. If, the lord abbot being present, any external abbot of any order eats in the refectory, he sits next to the lord abbot at his left. If there are many abbots, they do not sit on each side, so that our abbot is in the middle of them, but only to his left, with the one of greater authority next to him. If our abbot is absent and an external abbot eats in the refectory, he sits at the little bell and fulfills the entire office of the abbot. At the end of the meal, when the brothers exit from the refectory to give thanks, the monks remain in the refectory, and the guest master with them, and right after they finish their thanks, he leads them out. Canons from outside, who eat in the refectory, ought to go into the church with our brothers to offer thanks, but they remain outside the entrance of the choir, the guest master with them, and immediately after the grace is

80

T he book of the order

finished he leads them out. No one ought to eat in our refectory except religious. Whenever any guests must sleep in the dormitory, the guest master ought to tell the vestiarius to prepare their beds. Whenever any from outside the community eat in the refectory, the refectorian serves them, and the guest master leads them out after they eat. If for weariness or whatever other cause a guest is worn out, guests are allowed to remain in the guesthouse, where the guest master cares for them most diligently. The guest master ought to make provisions that nothing contrary to cleanliness or decency can be found in those who serve the food and the vessels in which the food is carried, and that the basins, tablecloth, and towels are clean and spotless, and breads are carried in a clean basket or a clean cloth to the tables. He should diligently learn and teach those who minister under him all things which pertain to cleanliness or decency, whether in serving or removing bread. He ought to have as many as necessary of all furnishings which pertain to the guesthouse, that is, cups, bowls, spoons, basins, salt cellars, candelabra, tablecloths, and napkins. All of these the assistant guest master guards under lock and key and brings out when necessary. He ought to have his own tablecloths and napkins marked, and to know how many there are, for it is appropriate to change them often to maintain cleanliness. According to the custom of the dormitory he ought to have three or four beds prepared in the guesthouse, namely with bambucinis, that is, covered with strips of linen. He prepares other beds with pillows and linens, which he distributes as is appropriate to the guests, either religious or secular, according to their desires or needs. He frequently sweeps the guesthouse. He prepares a lamp that burns when necessary for the guests at night. He ought to have enough candles prepared to supply the guests in the guesthouse both in the evening and for singing Matins,50 and distribute them to the servants to get the horses from the stables, and to other servants as many as they need. When the guests arrive having breakfasted, they receive lavish kindness at dinner, so that, if by chance at breakfast they were less refreshed, they are not subsequently too weakened by dinner. The guest master ought to see to it that after the arrival of the guests he informs the cellarer and then from him he learns what he can have at hand. He returns immediately to the guests and when he tells them what he can acquire, he asks them how they wish to have the food prepared. When the foods have been prepared, the guest master comes and orders the assistant guest master to set the table.

T he book of the order



81

After the table is set and the bread, spoons, and salt cellars are placed on the table, and a candelabrum at dinnertime in winter, the guest master takes the basin, while his assistant holds the towel, and he pours the water to wash the hands of everyone in order. However, if the abbot is present, he gives the water for the hands, while the guest master holds the towel. Likewise, when the abbot is absent, the prior or subprior do it. If, however, any of them are present when the abbot is there, the water is given to the abbot, and whoever is second after him holds the towel. Whichever two they are, the superior always ought to give the water and whoever is next after him to hold the towel. It is left to the abbot’s determination to whom he should give the water, and whether he wants to give it to everyone. However, the guest master ought to see to it, especially if the guests are religious, that the bread and wine are placed on the table before they may make a blessing over the food. If the guests are secular, he does not permit them to partake of the food until he says the blessing over the food. When they sit down, the food ought to be brought in immediately. There should not be any delay, nor should the guest master first invite them to the table without knowing whether the food is ready. Thus, after they sit down, the guest master comes and sets down the first food dish with his own hand. Then, even if there are many present, he puts before those of them who seem most to be honored in religion or reverence what is to be put before them, receiving it from the hands of those helping him.51 The assistant guest master and those who serve under him serve all the others. However, while they are eating, the guest master ought to look around diligently, so that no one who is eating lacks anything that he should supply. The guest master does not return the leftover food and whatever is taken from the table in the sight of the guests, but carries them back to the interior pantry, in which also are prepared and readied the things to be brought in among them. The guest master ought to take care that he does not minister in his cape to bishops and abbots and other honored people, who ought to receive greater deference at table. The assistant guest master should never serve at table dressed in his cape. The leftovers from the guesthouse belong to the alms, just as those of the infirmary; of course those designated for the cellarer are first returned there, and the others go for alms. However, the assistant guest master ought to carry to the pantry whatever is given as alms, just as the infirmarian does from the infirmary. If any sick should arrive, who it seems should be favored with some special consolation in food, the guest master ought to announce this

82

T he book of the order

to the cellarer, so that, if he has it, he offers what can be offered that is fitting for the illness. If he has it, let him give what is needed with a ready spirit. However, if he has nothing, he consults the abbot, so that according to his precept what may be done for him is done. If the illness of the sick person intensifies and he grows weaker, and he begins to be held by lingering weakness, he ought to be taken from the guesthouse and located in some other private place suitable for his infirmity, which the abbot provides for him. The abbot ought to provide someone to minister to him who can be continually present to him in accord with his person and the mode of his illness, who can provide him with whatever may be necessary with all courtesy and charity. The abbot ought to visit him frequently in his infirmity and advise him diligently about the health of his soul and confession of his sins. If he dies and burial is necessary, whatever is necessary for his burial is to be provided. If he is a religious, he is buried like one of the brothers. If he is secular, these things are to be performed with all diligence according to the competence and rank of his person. In the chapter the abbot ought to warn all the brothers to come to his assistance by praying for him. Therefore they are to believe he has been left or rather entrusted to them, as if they are specially chosen, either to direct the intervention of their prayers for him, or to render an account of his negligence. If he begins to recover from his disease, this is especially to be observed concerning him, that he is not released before he recovers his health sufficiently. Meanwhile, whatever may be needed for his solace in food or drink or other things is to be provided most promptly and plentifully. The abbot ought to visit him frequently and advise him, that he not be ashamed or hesitate to ask for the things that will benefit him or believe that he is burdensome to anyone in any way. All the servants in the house ought to be instructed to show diligently cheerful and kind faces to all guests, not only the infirm, but whoever comes, and offer whatever services are needed, as competently as they can and promptly, or to excuse themselves humbly. They do nothing around them that is undisciplined or injurious toward them or their servants. If at any time they receive something injurious from them, either in word or in deed, they bear it humbly and patiently. The guests’ servants receive oats from the granary and straw and hay from the barn haystack. Those who present it to them offer what is customary without arguing. If anything is demanded from them beyond habit or reason, they do not dispute it, but either excuse it in humility, or, if they themselves do not wish to assent to it, they consult the abbot,

T he book of the order



83

so that it is done however he decides. When women are received for hospitality, either secular or religious, the abbot has hospitality sought for them outside in the village, where they are to be attended to as is necessary. However, if some come from whom grave scandal arises if they are guests in the village, a place outside the cloister is set up where women of this kind can be received. However, no brother may speak with them unless a witness is present. If anyone presumes to do otherwise, he is to be sharply reproached and most severely judged. If it happens that one of the other brothers encounters the arriving guests first, before they are received, he shows them a happy face, and if it is necessary for him to speak to them, that is, the doorkeeper or the guest master are not present, he ought to receive them and speak to them kindly. If they say they want to be received as guests, he invites them to wait and then immediately seeks the assistant guest master and leads him to them. When the abbot sees that guests have been received, the abbot goes to visit them and speaks with them kindly. If some arrive outside the proper hours at night, perhaps hindered from arriving at a more normal hour by some necessity or occupation, they are not turned away. However, before they are admitted, the doorkeeper asks the assistant guest master, who, when he comes to them, says the guest master and cellarer are already inside, and the door of the cloister is locked. If they remain it is not possible to minister to them as is necessary. However, if they wish, they are not barred from the guesthouse, and whatever is in his power he will freely give them. For such an event, the assistant guest master ought always to reserve something in the pantry, according to custom, that something might be given to those coming like this. If secular men arrive at night, because they can be hosted elsewhere, they are not received easily unless their need is obvious. The major doorkeeper and assistant guest master are the responsibility of the guest master, as it is appropriate that he himself teaches them what they are to be taught. If the guest master or assistant guest master asks for anything from the cellarer that he does not wish to give, they do not argue further, but if it is something necessary, and it cannot be accepted or postponed, they consult the abbot, and what he decides is done. It should be known that no outside cook is ever admitted into our kitchen for any preparation of food, but as whatever guests, bishops or abbots or whoever else, are provided for from what is ours, so they bear with what we prepare.

84

T he book of the order

18. The Vestiarius52

The vestiarius should have a tailor shop outside the workshops that are inside the cloister, that is, in a place where secular servants can be admitted, if that is necessary. If sometimes it is necessary to have them there, the vestiarius must see to it that they are such mature people that they can be allowed into such a household service, and when their work requires it, they can with permission be brought inside suitably and properly. All the clothes of the brothers, both lay and clerical, are the vestiarius’ responsibility: woolen or linen, whether robes (pellicia) or footwear (calciamenta), that is hose (caligae) and socks (socci) and shoes (subtalares). He should first of all give attention to the clothing for which he prepares the proper shape, that is, what is required for the religious habit, not too long or hanging down crookedly, or too folded, or distorted in any other way or clumsily put together. He is to examine the shape and measure of the garment in relation to the size of each person, with a witness, as is prescribed. We prescribe that any new clothing that will show or stick out, that is the cape (cappa), cloak (superpellicium), tunic (tunica), robe (pellicium), furs (pelles), and pallium, that is, the mantle (mantellum), is to be handed out only when the claustral prior is present, since it is his duty to examine the shape and quality of the clothing. We accept the quality of the garments in regard to color and price. We have stipulated in that regard that no one is to wear silk (isembrunum) in our community. Furthermore, the capes (cappae) are of black cloth, insofar as it can be arranged conveniently, inexpensive, and not too bright, but grey and dusky. The mantle (pallium), however, is to be of black or of pure white, that is, not of mixed colors. No other color ought to be used for either the capes (cappis) or the mantles (pallii). The wool clothing of the dormitory is to be to be either white or rustic grey. Wool tunics (tunicae) are made of white cloth. The tunics and capes of the lay brothers, that is the conversi, are of rustic grey. The hose (caligae) of the brothers can be white, black, or rustic grey. The robes (pellicia) and furs (pelles) and blankets (cooperatoria) can be of sheepskins; the skins of wild animals of any kind are not allowed in our clothing. Regarding linen clothing we determine that care is to be taken that they are not too soft or too expensive. In the dormitory no one may have coverlets (culcitras) of feathers, linens (lintheamenta), and velvet (villosa53), unless it is conceded to someone by the community chapter because of an urgent illness.

T he book of the order



85

These are the garments granted to each canon: one cape (cappa), one pair of furs (pellae) or one mantle (pallium); one wool tunic (tunica lanea), two robes (pellicia), two cloaks (superpellicia), two shirts (interulae), that is, camises (camisiae), two breeches (femoralia), or three if he ministers at the altar, that is, as a subdeacon, deacon, or priest; two pairs of hose (caligarum); two or three of socks (soccorum); larger shoes (subtalares maiores), that is, boots (coturnos), and also smaller ones for daily use; one hood (caputium) lined with lambskins and, if he is a laborer, he can also have a linen tunic. We grant that wool hats (mitras laneas), which we have made for lay brothers, are allowed to workers when working, and to travelers in traveling. The bedding (lectualia) are the following: a coverlet (culcitra), a bambucina, that is, a strip of cloth (pannelum), a pillow (pulvillum humeri) at the head, and above, also a woolen pillow (cervical); for blankets (coopertorium), one of sheepskin and another of white or rustic grey wool. We decree this should be the form of clothing. The cape ought to have a suitable hood at the top, rather large, so that when it is put over the head, in the back it does not form a tuft, and when taken down, when that is necessary, it covers the shoulders, so that the interior hood is fitted to the outer one and does not stick out. In the back, the cape should be shorter than the robe or tunic by a full palm, completely round, and in front not too deeply slit. The cloak and the wool tunic ought, as far as possible, to be of the same length, at least a full palm from the ground. Beyond them no other garment should stick out below. The sleeves of the cloak ought not to extend more than two palms beyond the fingers. The furs and mantles similarly are round below, that is, nothing is made to hang down further, and so nothing sticks out under the capes, nor do they have hems protruding from above. The shoes should not be too tight but spacious enough and big against the hose, so that they contain and cover the hose. All brothers, whether inside or out, must wear the habit in this way. These are the garments granted to each lay brother by custom: one cape, one pair of furs or one mantle; one tunic; two robes; two pairs of hose; three of socks. Here we wish to advise that novices who come, whether clerics or lay, are not allowed to prepare their own clothing outside, and if they prepared them before receiving the habit without having consulted the abbot, they are never permitted to use in the order items of clothing that do not match in shape, color, and all the ways of our religious discipline. We wish the tunics of lay brothers to hang down without a belt to at least two full palms from the

86

T he book of the order

ground. The cape should be at least one full palm shorter than the belted tunic, so that their furs or mantles, which we wish to be made round also, never emerge from beneath the cape, and they do not have things hanging down or clasps. Large and ample shoes are tied above with laces. If the use of linen caps is necessary, in back they should go down to the neck far enough to touch the top of the tunic and cover the whole neck and both ears, descend down to the cheeks, and be tied at the chin. The cut at the forehead should not be crescent-shaped but straight. We also grant them the use of scapulars (scapularibus). Whatever is to be approved or disapproved in the clothing of the brothers we leave to the determination of the prior, to whose scrutiny this is specially entrusted. When he asks to go to the market or a fair to buy cloth, it will be for the abbot to decide whom he wants to send, that is, whether the vestiarius himself or another. Whoever it is who goes, he is to receive the expenses with an exact accounting, and return what has been purchased with an exact accounting. When the cloth has been brought back, the vestiarius should receive it and carefully keep it in places where it will not rot, and go through it and the other clothing of the brothers to make sure they are not harmed by moths. From this cloth, whether wool or linen, he should prepare what the brothers need, and see to it that he always has ready at hand what needs to be given out, so that, if any novices arrive, he can give them immediately what they need to wear. When a brother needs a piece of clothing, he should request it from the vestiarius, and he should not delay giving it to him. If anyone asks for a new cape, furs, tunic, robe, or bedding, he should first show the old one to the vestiarius. When he sees that it is necessary, he should consult the abbot and say that this brother has need of such a garment. With his permission, let him give what needs to be given. If, however, what is requested seems beyond necessity and superfluous, and what he has sufficient and suitable still, he should in a friendly and kindly way tell him, whoever he is that asks for a change, that he should keep what he has and not require what is not necessary to the body, but is dangerous to the soul. However, if he does not want to give in and perseveres stubbornly in his request, he will tell the abbot about the matter, then do what the abbot orders. We wish to make this warning, that in no way is it allowed for a man of religion to reject any garment because of its poor quality, that is, not because of its color, form, or price, unless an obvious inconvenience forces him to ask for something else. This is because to reject something because of its poor quality is damnable

T he book of the order



87

pride, whereas to want to change something because of unsuitability is tolerable weakness. When needed, the vestiarius on his own can give other lesser garments besides those that we have listed. It is not necessary for him to come to the abbot for this, unless someone is found to be overbearing in asking for these. The vestiarius must receive and keep the secular clothes that novices bring when they come to religion, or any other things of wool or linen cloth or fur which come from outside. He is not allowed to sell them unless the abbot orders it. If it is necessary on account of illness to add something beyond the common norm whether in clothing, shoes or bedding, this should not occur without the permission of the abbot. If any of the brothers has any clothes or shoes to be repaired, he should put them in the place assigned to put them. The vestiarius should check that place daily, and take what he finds placed there, and repair what he finds there that needs repairing and return it repaired quickly, so the one whose item it is suffers no aggravation due to his delaying. As often as the shoes of the brothers, lay or clerical, need to be oiled, the vestiarius will see that they are oiled. He receives the oil from the camerarius. However, the camerarius will give oil to all the servants, except those serving in the kitchen, to oil their shoes. When necessary the vestiarius should supply the brothers with belts and laces for breeches, sheaths, combs, comb cases, and whatever else. The camerarius supplies small knives, tweezers, razors, and similar things. He must put their names on the linen clothing of the brothers, that is, cloaks, shirts, and breeches. These clothes must be changed and washed, every three weeks in the winter and every fifteen days in the summer. When laundry day has arrived, at night the vestiarius puts a piece of clothing in the middle of the dormitory. When the brothers see it, each one brings there what he has to be washed. Likewise the vestiarius must make an announcement in the infirmary and the dormitory of the lay [brothers], so that each can put out what needs to be washed. When all have put theirs out, the vestiarius collects them from the dormitory, the infirmary, and the dormitory of the lay [brothers], and takes them out to be washed. He himself must take care of the tablecloths and towels from the refectory, the guesthouse or the infirmary, and when they are to be washed, wash them himself. However, it is to be noted that these are not washed at the same time as the other clothing. The clothing of the servants is not his responsibility. The camerarius will give to all the servants who are in the house the clothes and foot-

88

T he book of the order

wear that need to be given them. After the clothes are washed, he will have them carried into the tailor shop, and there he will separate and identify them. Then he will take back the things that are to be carried to the dormitory and place them on the bed of each person. Likewise he will carry back to the dormitory of the lay brothers what needs to be taken there. He will also carry to the entrance of the infirmary what belongs there, and put them in the designated place there, so that the subinfirmarian may take them and return to each person what belongs to him. No one ought to set out or leave his clothing anywhere except in these places, not in the cloister, or in the parlor, or elsewhere. When the old clothes of the brother are returned, the vestiarius must receive them, both all linen garments and footwear, except boots, which he gives to the almoner, so that he can distribute them to the poor. Everything else he keeps to be distributed to whom and when the abbot wishes. Moreover, the vestiarius is not allowed to sell or buy anything without the abbot’s permission, and if with his permission or at his command he must buy or sell anything, he receives it under an exact accounting and accepts whatever it is. He ought to supply capes prepared for riding, and when there is need, distribute them to those who need them and receive them back when they are returned. 19. The Office of the Armarius

The armarius has in his custody all the books of the church, the names of which he ought to have recorded one by one. At least two or three times each year he ought to set them out and review them, and to check diligently whether any of them is infested or eaten by moths or anything else. The armarium itself ought to be lined on the inside with wood, so that no humidity from the wall infects the skins with any mildew or makes them damp. In it the different orders ought to be distinguished from each and suitably arranged, so the books are not damaged by being too tight, and no disorder or impediment causes delay for someone looking for them. The armarius should loan books only to someone from whom he receives a deposit, so that if the person is unknown, his deposit is of equal value. He must put a full record in a list of the name of the one to whom it is supplied, whether he is known or unknown, and the name of the book which is loaned and the security received. He should not loan major and precious books without the permission of the abbot.

T he book of the order



89

All writings made in the church or outside it pertain to his office. He provides to the scribes parchment and whatever is necessary for writing, and he directs those who write for a price. The armarius ought to provide everything to all those brothers in the cloister who are scribes and to whom the abbot enjoins the office of writing, including what they write, and whatever things are necessary for writing. No one of them should presume to write anything other than what he commands, nor to do any writing against his will and arrangement. Without the permission of the abbot, the armarius should not appoint other brothers who know how to write but to whom the office of writing has not been given. If he needs their work, he ought first to indicate that to the abbot, and then with his permission and command do what needs to be done. No one is to presume to write anything beyond what he has been given to do, unless he does so with permission of the abbot. The armarius is to provide the necessary things for all who are writing in the cloister, both those who are enjoined to do so, or those to whom it is permitted. Thus, no one may choose this or that for himself by his own will, no jar of ink, no little knife, no footstool, no parchment, nothing, but let each receive without contradiction or argument what he gives according to the requirements of the work. All lists that are written in the cloister, whether the necrology, or whatever belongs to the community’s public business, and even what is affixed to the candle at Easter, pertain to his office. No one who knows how to write is to refuse him when he charges them to write these things, unless it is something that does not have the abbot’s permission. He who writes is not to go outside the convent nor can he be absent from the regular Hours. Whenever the office of writing is to be enjoined on any of the brothers in the cloister, he is assigned the task in the communal chapter. The abbot determines for which hours they are to be available for writing, and when they ought to return to the community. They should thereafter observe those hours as they were defined for them. Places are to be designated for this work apart from the community, but within the cloister, where the scribes can apply themselves to their work quietly without disruption and noise. Sitting and working there they ought to keep the silence diligently and not wander away idly. No one ought to enter to them, except the abbot, prior, subprior, and armarius. But if something needs to be told them specially, that cannot be conveyed by a sign or wait until the speaking period, the armarius can lead them into the usual parlor and there briefly tell them what is to be said. If some of the other brothers who know how to write

90

T he book of the order

wish to write something of their own will, either for themselves or for someone else, they should not presume to do so without first receiving permission from the abbot. When parchments are to be cut or scraped, or books are to be corrected or bound, or anything like that which pertains to the office of the armarius, and he needs the help of the brothers, whoever he asks to do or prepare any of these things should not excuse himself if he is unoccupied, that is, if some other obedience does not prevent him. Common books, that is those that need to be at hand every day for singing or reading, are put out in an appropriate place, where there is easy access for all brothers. The armarius should be especially careful in correcting and punctuating them so that the brothers do not meet any obstacle in singing or reading them in the daily Office of the church. The armarius should know these books himself so that, immediately and without delay, he can put back on track any brothers who make a mistake in singing or reading at Matins, or at Mass, or at whatever Hour, by singing or reading something that should not be, or if they cannot find what should be sung or read. No one else other than the armarius should presume to delete, add, or change anything either in these books or in any other, unless he has received a special concession or injunction. With those books which are needed for the daily Office of the church, the armarius ought to place in common others which he observes to be more suitable and necessary for the instruction and edification of the brothers, such as bibles and major expositions, the passions and lives of the Fathers, and homiliaries. However, other books, that is all lesser ones and those not in daily use, ought never to be placed or left outside the armarium, unless they are required specially by some brother. Then, whatever he has put out, he ought to note it on the list, so that he knows what and how many he has given to someone. Those who receive books specially from the armarius care for them diligently for as long as they have them, and they do not place them or leave them anywhere, and when they have finished what they want in them, they again return them to the care of the armarius. At all times it is the responsibility of the armarius, as is customary, to make a list of duties, which is recited in chapter, regarding each Office, whether at Matins, at Mass, at chapter, at the table, or at collation. He ought to be careful not to place the deacon over the priest nor the subdeacon over the deacon, that is, so that the one who has the inferior rank reads after the one who has the superior order, or sings after he has sung. Regarding weekly assignments of any offices, one should be

T he book of the order



91

especially careful that among those who are chosen or designated specially for some office, no one is ever put on the list twice, that is, after he completes his duty once, he is not put down for a second time until all others who are designated to the same duty have done their weeks, and it will return to him in order. This ought to be observed as universally as possible: that he is to put no one on the list for singing or reading until he first sees that the one who to be listed is able to complete the task competently. He does not put novices on the list, except by the abbot’s command or permission. If he changes those on the list after it is announced, either by removing, adding, or changing something, he indicates all this in a timely way so that when the time comes for someone to do his task, he is not unprepared. If someone on the list is missing, it is his responsibility to take his turn in singing or in reading, or to enjoin someone else fill in. It belongs to the office of the armarius, just as it is written and done in practice, to announce in the chapter the ecclesiastical duties daily, to declare any daily changes of order and observance, to note the anniversaries on the calendar, and to determine when the solemnities are celebrated and when not; to indicate when the prayers for any particular cause that are to be placed in the Mass are to be ended, and to read letters that are to be read in chapter, if there are any. It is his responsibility, and that of the prior and subprior, to correct errors in reading, especially in the collects and others of this kind at Mass, and in the Hours in chapters, collects, and in chapter in the pronunciation of the month and day. In the song of the church, if something is in error or doubt, whether in the set tone or some other way, no one overrides him, and what he has begun no one is to disturb by beginning something different or in another way; everyone follows him in the rising and falling of the music, in intoning and repeating. He must listen to readings and end them. Finally, all who sing or read in the church are to listen to him. Further, he sees that all processions are in order and enjoins what each is to do. He by turns corrects those who do not march well or rearranges them. Likewise if they suddenly come upon things to be read or sung to which no one was specially assigned before, he indicates whomever he wishes to do it. If anyone forgets or neglects what they are supposed to sing or read, he is to take care of it. He shows the readers at table what they ought to read and for how long, and does the same for those at the chapter and collation. On solemnities, at Vespers, Matins, and the procession, when any blessings or exorcisms are to be done, or whatever else pertains to the office of abbot, he ought to carry the book to the abbot and hold it. If,

92

T he book of the order

while the abbot is absent, someone dies whom the abbot should be told about when he returns, he is to tell him in chapter. He is to compute the last day of the Masses which are required of the community for the dead. Whatever is to be imposed or ended in the liturgical Office of the church, to proclaim what is to be proclaimed; and whenever because of some reason the psalmody, singing, readings, or some other Office of the church is to be done more slowly or more quickly than usual—of this too he informs the brothers, when it is most appropriate either to slow down or speed up the Office, to temper it with a certain measure. But if by chance he does something negligently in his office, he is not to be rashly reproached or corrected by anyone, but afterward it is to be proclaimed in chapter. If he needs it, he can have help to do what he needs to do. He is never to neglect the canonical Hours, the Major Mass, chapter, collation and Compline. 20. The Office of the Sacristan

To the office of sacristan belongs the responsibility to guard all things which are in the treasury: relics, all ornaments of the altar, the sanctuary, and the entire church, whether in gold or in silver, or in purple cloth, hangings (palliis), tapestries (tapetibus), or draperies (cortinis), and also the holy vestments, altar-cloths (pallas) and towels, chalices, covering (tectus),54 crosses, thuribles, candelabra, and other vessels which pertain to ministry or to the ornament of the altar, sanctuary, and the whole church, missals, epistolaries and gospels. Both the abbot and the sacristan should have a written list of all the things which are under his care, so that the sacristan will know for what he must render an account if it is required, and the abbot will not be ignorant of what he ought to require, when it is necessary. The sacristan ought to keep with great diligence all the things that are held under his care, inspect them frequently, and survey them from memory, so that nothing goes missing or is misplaced, or decays due to long-standing negligence. On solemn feasts, he ought to set out those things which are set out for the ornamentation and service of the altar and sanctuary, and to prepare them individually and, when the service is completed, to collect and fold them in return, and then replace them again in their place of storage. He ought to be especially cautious and attentive regarding relics and precious ornaments, so that nothing happens to them besides what is fitting and correct in putting them out, conserving them, or returning them.

T he book of the order



93

He ought to know which coverings are put out for daily services, which for ordinary feasts, and which for the highest solemnities, and to provide for each altar the proper chalices, pitchers, vestments, and other things needed for the service of the altar for sung Masses, and to have a little chest and closet together next to the altar, which for cleanliness are covered inside with a clean cloth, in which to put back the things it is necessary to have at hand daily. He ought to open the little chests each day, when they prepare to sing Masses, and then, when Mass is finished, he ought to close and lock them. He needs to be very careful, not only regarding these things, but everything in his charge, not to leave the keys to the closets anywhere negligently. He distributes to the altars enough towels (manutergia), handkerchiefs (mappulas), handtowels (tersoria), with which the chalices are purified, altar cloths (pallas), and offertory cloths (offertoria) of pure, white cloth, and washes them frequently for cleanliness, and when they begin to grow old and fall apart, he immediately substitutes new and whole ones. Corporals need to be prepared from the purest and cleanest cloth, and to be stored carefully folded in clean boxes or linen sacks. Whenever they are to be washed, they are washed in this way: the sacristan himself washes separately in a vessel assigned for this the corporals, offertory cloths, hand towels for the chalices, and handkerchiefs with which the fingers of the priest are wiped after communion, and the covering of the altar over which the corporal is spread; the altar cloth, however, will be washed afterwards with the other linens and vestments of the church. He himself washes the other things in a pot assigned for that and with ashy water on a stove prepared for just this use. When they have been carefully washed and dried, he polishes the corporals with a glazed stone, which is called lischa in the ordinary tongue, in a place covered with clean linen cloths; he puts away the others folded. He makes the hosts from the purest select white flour, in a clean place covered with linens, with the help of two brothers, so that he is not compelled to touch anything but these hosts. With their hands, one of them makes the fire with care; the other holds the iron instrument for baking the hosts. When they are prepared, the sacristan, separating the suitable ones from the unsuitable, keeps them in a very clean container. If by chance they become moist, they are suitably dried out in the cloister. Once a week, if he is a priest or deacon, with the help of his assistant, having first washed his hands, he strives to wash the chalices properly inside and outside with his fingers. He throws the water into the piscina.55 After

94

T he book of the order

washing his fingers over the piscina, he wipes them and the chalices on a hand towel (tersorium), which hangs wrapped in something else. If he is not a priest or deacon, the prior is advised so that he directs someone else to do it. It pertains to his office to store the oil and wax prepared for the lamps of the church, to make as many tapers and candles as needed and once they are made store them in a convenient place, and then to provide what is needed when it is needed. Those who receive them from him are to take care not to employ and consume them in superfluous uses or negligently toss them down or leave them anywhere. He should take care not to allow the candles in the church to exceed in number or magnitude what is customary or needed, or more than are necessary to be lit at the same time, or burn longer than needed. Two candles burn on the altar during the Major Mass each Sunday and on the feasts of nine lessons and from the fourth day of Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost until the octave, and within the octave of the Apparition, Ascension, Dedication, Blessed Victor, Blessed Mary, and Blessed Augustine; on double feasts, three; and on the highest solemnities, that is, the Birth of the Lord, Epiphany, Purification, Annunciation, Easter, Ascension, Pentecost, Dedication, Blessed Victor, St Augustine, Assumption of Blessed Mary and her Nativity, and on the feast of All Saints, and on these only, five candles are burned on the altar at the Major Mass, and at the Morning Mass two, except that on solemn anniversaries at Morning Mass likewise two candles burn. On all other days at the Morning Mass only one candle is illuminated. When there are two candles, they are set up on opposite corners of the altar; when there is one, it is placed in the middle. At Vespers, the lamps are lit in the same way. At Matins and at Vespers on all those above named solemnities, two candles are set aflame before the main altar in candelabras, and on the Dedication twelve along the walls of the church. At all times at least one lamp ought to be burning before the sanctuary; at Vespers on Sundays and on the feasts of nine lessons, two in front of the sanctuary, at Matins likewise two in front of the sanctuary and a third at a distance from the entrance to the choir; on double feasts three in front of the sanctuary at Vespers, likewise at Matins three in front of the sanctuary and a fourth at a distance, on the highest solemnities, as designated above, four at Vespers before the sanctuary and at Matins likewise four before the sanctuary and a fifth at a distance. At Mass it is the custom never to light more than one lamp besides the candles. At Tenebrae on the day of the Preparation for three

T he book of the order



95

days thirteen candles are lit. The great candle on Easter is allowed to burn from the time it is kindled until after Compline the following day. It is burned only at Mass the next three days, and likewise on the day of Ascension at Mass. After Compline on that day it is carried away. Candles are not set anywhere else in the church except those places which we designated above. However, the lamps are illuminated before other altars on the recurrent feasts of the saints to whose relics and memory they are consecrated, on the evening of the feast at Vespers, and all the night and the following day. These are duties of the sacristan: whenever necessary, to offer a stole to the abbot; to prepare candles on Purification, ashes at the beginning of Lent, and branches on Palm Sunday; to arrange candles appropriately in the place where they are blessed; with his assistant to distribute the branches to everyone after the blessing; to take the branches after the procession; to receive the candles from the hand of the abbot after the offering; to provide according to the season whatever may be needed, at the procession the cross, text, candle holders, candles, thurible, and jug; salt and water to be blessed, and aspergillium, and whatever else as required; to get the wine at Mass, and to carry the leftover wine after lunch into the refectory; to wash the vials and pitchers for the service of the altar once a week; to manage the towels (manutergia), linens (linthea), basins (pelues), and candle at the mandatum, and when the mandatum is finished, take them back; to bring charcoals daily for incensing the altar, and in winter on a dish for warming the hands of the ministers of the altar; to sweep the floor and brush the walls of the church as often as necessary; to wash the lamps; to prepare water for washing the altar on the day of the Lord’s Supper, as well as water for the fonts, oil and chrism; to bring flax (stuppas) or linen cloth for wiping up at the anointing of the sick, and after wiping burn them in a fire; to distribute maniples (manualia) and stoles to priests at services for the dead, to receive and return them when the services are over; whenever any of the sick are to receive communion, to provide a stole, a chalice and an offertory cloth (offertorium) to wrap the chalice; to provide that the Eucharist is never lacking from the altar because of needs that may arise; he ought to take care diligently that when vestments and other things which pertain to the service of the church appear cut or worn or otherwise in need of repair, they are repaired quickly; and take care that sacred vestments that become old are never transferred to other uses outside holy ministry.

96

T he book of the order

21. That the Sacristan Ought to Have a Helper

The sacristan ought to have an associate and helper, a church warden whose role is particularly to look after the celebration of the Divine Office during the canonical Hours of night and day, to ring the bell, to regulate the timepiece (horologium), to ring the little bell (nolam) at Matins and in summer after midday to awaken the brothers in the dormitory, to close and open the doors of the church at the stated times, and to meet those who knock at the door of the church or the choir, to know their reason. If Matins are too late, the church warden ought to indicate this to the prelate, so that he may make the psalmody or Office hurry to match the shortness of time. However, let him ask for pardon the next day in chapter. At night, after getting up, first he makes the lights of the church shine, if that is necessary. Then lighting the lamp, and then the lantern, he sets them in the middle of the dormitory. Then he makes the sound for Prime, chapter, Terce, and Sext, when it is a time of fasting, and in Lent at None, and outside of Lent, when None is not sung immediately after lunch. Likewise he rings the bell for Vigils, and for Vespers when Vigils are not sung, and for collation, and then, after waiting an appropriate length of time, he rings the bell. He ought not to make the sound for chapter and collation until the abbot, or whoever is taking his place, instructs him. If he sees that the hour has passed, he ought to indicate it to the prelate. At other Hours he does not await the command of the abbot, but, when he sees it is time, rings the bell. When Sext or None is sung after Mass, the deacon makes the sound. If he needs to inquire of the abbot, he does so only in the regular workshops, and never anywhere else. He can, however, indicate to those who have permission to go outside, that they look for him, if something becomes truly necessary. If anyone knocks at the entrance to the church or the choir, the warden, when he hears his reason, if he needs to leave to answer, can go up to the portico in front of the church and then standing there briefly say what is to be said, in such a way that he does not go further or sit down there to talk. However, while a regular Hour is being sung, even if it is necessary for him to leave, he does not go out without first receiving permission. The warden ought to help the sacristan sweep the church, wash and prepare the lamps, and set up, light and extinguish other lights for the church, prepare the altar, wash the vessels, carry water, and other things in his ministry in which he needs his work. Whatever else the

T he book of the order



97

sacristan or church warden want to do in the ministry, they should do it at such a time that it is never necessary for them to be absent from the regular Hours. If by chance they need to be absent, they do it with permission. At least three ought always to sleep in the church, namely the sacristan, the warden, and a third whom the abbot enjoins, who can be a help in guarding the church and in other things which pertain to their ministry and need to be done. Therefore these three ought to keep vigilant watch over the church at all times, so that neither by day nor in the night does it remain without protection. Each day in the evening, when the doors of the church are to be locked, they ought to inspect and go around and then lock the doors. 22. The Reception and Instruction of Novices

We decree that the greatest caution and care are to be exercised in receiving and instructing novices, because often when the bad who will not accept correction are received and mixed with the good, they inflict grave harm on the religious life, while the good, left without instruction after they have been received, sustain serious detriment in the neglect of the religious life (religio). For receiving whoever it is who arrives asking to be granted the religious habit, we recommend that discernment and concern should be exercised first, as far as possible, that none should be received for the dignity of their birth nor the multitude of their riches or whatever else pertains to the pomp or greed of the world, whose fellowship is known will be toxic, poisonous or disgraceful to others established in the religious life, due to the depravity of his behavior, or other ways he causes annoyance and disruption. In all others who are to be received, the first thing to be considered, as far as can be, is particularly good morals so that they are meek and tractable and not impatient with correction. Here we do not wish to judge the custom of some, whether deserving of imitation or entirely reprehensible, but I think that it can be passed over in silence. If indeed certain monasteries have this custom, that they receive seculars into their order and fraternity, as altogether proper, immediately advancing as much corporally as spiritually through investiture of the community, and after such full acceptance, without a predetermined time to return, they allow them to remain in the world as long as it pleases them. Yet we consider it undoubtedly dangerous to receive this sort of man in this way, for they wish to be seen enrolled in the fraternity of

98

T he book of the order

the religious (religiosorum) for the sake of their defense and often not for the vow of religious life (religionis), not to become better as converts to religion, but rather, persisting in wickedness, to remain safer under the patronage and tutelage of the churches. Because of this often they bring grave stain and infamy to the purity of religious life, when they, as it were, compel those who are established in the order (religione) to cover up shameful and disgraceful things for their protection, as if by obligation. From this it seems to us better to be careful, and congruent with the purity of those receiving and the salvation of those received, that all who in this way hand themselves over to monasteries for the regular life, even if they are granted by way of dispensation to remain in the world for a time, a specific time be set for them to return. If for some reason this is not done, we judge this is to be carefully observed, that they are first admonished that they may not bind themselves by the vow of religious life for temporal protection, nor are they to expect the defense of the monastery in any way in temporal business and things that do not befit the profession of religious, and just as was prescribed beforehand before reception, so also after reception, one should take care that the church will never undertake for them matters that are contrary to truth and honesty. We leave to the disposition of the abbot what ought to be done for the sick who ask for the religious habit. We venture to say that, with respect to our ability and their health, not all are to be received and not all to be sent away. Thus we cannot determine who are more to be received or not received, especially when we have seen that the quick reception of some and the delay of others, has been more useful not only for the churches, but also for them. Yet it is to be observed most of all that those sick who wish to convert, if they are not allowed a certain dispensation at their request, are to be helped with counsel in whatever way that is possible and aids their health.56 We decree that laymen coming to conversion shall not be easily received into the clergy, except such persons who just cannot be refused. All of the others who are received into the society and fraternity remain in the lay habit, which is assigned for converts, each knowing on account of their different habit that they differ in regard to the truth of religion and the fullness of the brotherhood. Hence, we also establish, so that the order suffer neither scandal nor confusion, that no brother once having received the lay habit may later be received into the clerical habit: nor is one who was once given the title of cleric permitted to transfer to the lay habit, but let each one, in the vocation to which

T he book of the order



99

he was called and in which he began, strive continuously to serve and please the Lord until the end.57 Whenever anyone from the world, whether clergy or laity, comes to the monastery saying he wishes to enter, the brother to whom he first indicates his will ought to announce it to the abbot, who goes out to him and diligently examines the quality of his person and the perseverance of his will. Afterwards, if he so observes that further discussion should be brought forward on his behalf, he will relate to the brothers in chapter how the man appears to him. He will seek out their assent and will for the reception of this man. However it is observed that these to whom those coming to enter (ad conversionem) first manifest their will, are not to tell others, until the abbot makes it known in common in chapter to all, unless they do so to the prior and subprior. We leave to the disposition of the abbot to decide whether they who are received should be received at once, or if their reception will be deferred, and for how long. Before he grants their petition, the abbot himself ought first of all to explain to those whom he decides to receive all the difficulty of the order, and to show the annoyances and temptations they will need to resist in the regular way of life in casting aside their will and following obedience, and, finally, if he sees them to be eager to bear boldly with all these things, to judge them worthy for reception. However, when someone is to be received, the abbot tells him to wait ready outside in a designated place, while the guest master remains with him for consolation, meanwhile instructing him what he ought to do and how he ought to make his petition when he is led into the chapter. After this, when the abbot has told the brothers in chapter that his perseverance seems probable, again with their assent, he has him summoned. Then the guest master leads him into the chapter; when he comes there, proceeding immediately up to the abbot’s feet, he prostrates himself with his whole body extended, and begs pardon. Then when the abbot asks, What do you ask for, brother?, the prostrate one responds: I seek the mercy of God and your society, and the abbot responds: May the Lord give you the society of the elect. When the whole community answers, Amen, he rises up before the abbot, as he did when he begged for mercy. The abbot, turning to face everyone, preaches how very strictly all observances of the rule are demanded from those who have professed to it, explaining how sternly negligen­ ces and rebellions, etc., will be judged, and other hard and harsh things in this order.58 Again he asks if he is prepared to bear all these for his salvation, so that he may reveal his will in front of everyone. When he

100

T he book of the order

persists in his petition, promising voluntary obedience to everything, the abbot says a second time: May the Lord God grant you to fulfill all these things, that you can reach eternal life. After this he genuflects before the abbot, and places both hands joined together into his hands, and the abbot speaks to him saying: Brother, do you render yourself to God to serve him in the society and obedience of this congregation, and to hold to the canonical life according to the rule of Blessed Augustine and the customs of this place, either as they are now instituted or are to be instituted, God willing? He answers: I do.59 Again the abbot says: Do you promise obedience to God and to me and to this holy congregation and perseverance in your stability up to the end, according to the grace bestowed on you by God and the ability of your strength?60 He responds: I promise. Then the abbot says: May the Lord God grant you to complete in deed what he has allowed you to begin by vow. The armarius must have the rule ready, and the refectorian bread. The abbot receives them both together and offers them to the brother saying, We give you part and society of our fraternity, that hereafter you may participate both in spiritual and bodily things with us, as a brother. Then from the hand of the abbot the armarius receives the book and the almoner the bread. The abbot is the first to give the brother a kiss. Then, rising up at the direction of the abbot, he goes to the left of the choir to the prior, who stands and kisses him when he comes. Then, returning to the right choir, he goes to the subprior, who likewise stands and kisses him when he comes to him. After this, he goes to all in order who are in the right choir, and then likewise to all who are in the left choir, beginning with the superiors. Each one always rises when he comes to him and having made a bow kisses him, and then sits down. When he has exchanged kisses with everyone, then by the order of the abbot the master of novices leads him at once into the room where the novices are to be clothed and prepared. Then the vestiarius brings him clothing and shoes and other things which are needed for clothing. He will prepare him a bed in the dormitory in the place where the abbot orders. The abbot sends who he wants to shave him. After he is shaved and clothed, the master of novices leads him to the school where the novices are instructed, and that day he remains thus, and he will not enter the community, except only the refectory for lunch and dinner, and in summer the dormitory at noon and at night. Indeed at

T he book of the order



101

other Hours he is always in the school of novices with his master, and there he is instructed in these things which are most necessary regarding the order and those of which at present he ought not be ignorant. Likewise, the same day, the master of novices leads him into choir, the dormitory, and the refectory, and shows him the places where he ought to stand and sit, and how he ought to behave in that place, and then where he can speak with him about necessary things, and because of his instruction on that day he is not restricted to silence in any place. When all the brothers go to the refectory, his master leads him to the washroom with the others, first diligently instructing what must be done in that place, and after he washes, he situates him, in the place that the abbot assigns. However, no brother ought to nod or make any signal to him, other than those next to him on either side. If it happens that something needs to be signified to him regarding standing or sitting, or any other gesture or action, to guide him in what is to be done, let them do it discreetly. Likewise in all places they do the same, that he may completely learn the order. As long as he is a novice, that is, until he enters the chapter, if he offends in something in the refectory, he does not proceed to ask for mercy or stand up to do anything. At the thanksgiving prayer (gratias),61 when the brothers enter the choir, he remains outside. Then, if it is the siesta season (tempus meridianum), his master leads him into the dormitory for the midday siesta. However, if it is wintertime, he leads him into the novices’ school. Likewise, in summer immediately after the siesta, he leads him into the novices’ school, and there remains with him to instruct him. At the regular hours of the day he does not keep silence, but speaks with his master in the school of these things which pertain to the order. If by necessity he has to go anywhere, his master leads him there and back. He goes to supper just as to the midday meal. Afterwards, at the thanksgiving prayer he stays outside the choir and then goes into the school, where he sits with his master and speaks of the order until Compline. When Compline begins, they say Compline right there, just as at the other Hours, and from there his master leads him to the holy water and sprinkles him and then leads him into the dormitory to his bed. Then the master ought to have instructed him diligently how he ought to remove his shoes and cover himself and to enter the latrine covered except his head, not barefoot, or without cape, or without cloak with a hood. He notes his bed and that after he enters the dormitory he cannot go out without permission nor can he go to another’s bed. His master ought to show him his bed, where the master sleeps, so that if for some

102

T he book of the order

unavoidable reason he needs to leave the dormitory, or if he needs the help of someone for something, he comes to the master at once and awakens him by the sign, so that he may proceed with him where it is necessary to go. At Compline, when they enter the dormitory, they do not immediately lie down but rather wait seated on their beds until the community comes. When the community comes, they get up and, standing before their beds, bow until the prayer is finished. When the prayer is finished, they lie down when they wish. At Matins he gets up with everyone and goes to the bathroom, then returning sits on his bed until the warning. At the warning he does not go down with the others, but rising up stands there while they descend. Then his master leads him into the retrochoir and sitting together there they listen to Matins. Around the end of Matins, before the community goes out, he leads him back into the dormitory. In the morning at Prime he enters the choir. During winter when Prime is sung at dawn, he does not go down from the dormitory with the others, but he waits while they go out just as he does at Matins, standing before his bed. After the community enters the choir, then his master leads him into the choir before the abbot, and he places him where he wishes. Before Prime in summer, however, he is to be in the novices’ school, learning. When the community goes in to Prime, his master leads him before the abbot, so that he may assign any place he wants, and thereafter he is always among the community, except in chapter, work, and in the cloister for the speaking period. Meanwhile, when the brothers labor and are in chapter, he goes with his master wherever his master wishes. He ought to be in the school to hear and to speak of his order with his master from when chapter is signaled, and from None until Vespers, if speaking is allowed in cloister. At the other times, as we already said, he will be with the community unless something that cannot be postponed needs to be said or indicated to him. Then his master can recall him to the school and indicate to him what has been indicated; he can do this at all times except the regular Hours. When the novice sits in the cloister, no brother ought to join him, make a sign to him, call him out, or enjoin anything, except his master or the abbot, prior, or subprior. In the school he is diligently instructed about how to bow, move, and stand, and about all his gestures, and how he ought to have his clothing in all actions,62 and how to compose his limbs in an orderly way, have downcast eyes, speak quietly and slowly, not make oaths, to negate or affirm nothing except by It is (Est) or no or believe me; how he ought to speak to the abbot and his other masters, how to speak to brothers or other

T he book of the order



103

equals, and how to speak to those who are inferior to him. And also he is instructed about the signals, with which, when it is necessary to be in silence, he can express what is necessary; he also learns the places where he is permitted to go without permission when he has need, and where it is not permitted; but also the times when something is to be done or not, and when it is allowed and not allowed. Finally, he instructs him so perfectly about all his actions and words, that he not only indicates by words what things are to be done or said, but also he makes him do and say in his presence what he has said should be done and said, so that he not only knows by listening, but also by doing, and may grow accustomed to having a good manner and appropriate measure in all words and actions; also to read, recite, and sing the psalms in a loud or low voice, as the occasion demands; he makes him first practice and become accustomed there in private to all the things which he is going to do it public. When he offends in anything for which he will be called out in chapter, his master corrects him in the school and makes him ask pardon in his presence, just as he will have to in chapter. If there are many, he instructs them that they must call each other out for their offenses, and when called out, ask for pardon so that they grow accustomed to keep the order and to avoid negligence; and that they should call others out gently. When the novice sits in the cloister, he ought to reinforce his knowledge of the psalter so as to repeat it by heart, and then the hymnal. No one ought to enter the novices’ school except the master of novices and the abbot, prior and subprior, unless sent there, though he may not then speak or sit with them, unless for some special reason he is commanded to speak, and only what he has been commanded to speak. As much as can be done suitably, the novices’ school ought to be separated from the hearing of the community, so that they can freely read and sing and train their voices. If there are many novices in the school and one has to go somewhere he cannot go alone, the master ought to go with him. So that the others not remain alone in the meantime, if he is going to delay longer, the abbot ought to provide someone to take his place as guardian of their discipline; meanwhile, they keep silence. However, it is necessary to make sure that he should not leave them often, and that when he does go out, he returns quickly. After the first day, the novice is permitted to go without a guardian either from the convent or from the school into the dormitory when needed, but he does not leave the school without permission. Until the novices are admitted fully to the community, that is to both the chapter and talking in the cloister, they are not bled with the

104

T he book of the order

other brothers. If it is necessary that meanwhile they be bled, they are to undergo this separately by themselves with their master always present, so that he may guard them in discipline; as necessity demands he leads them out and leads them back. Likewise if one of the novices is ill, he is not placed with the other infirm, but by himself, where no one approaches him except his master, the one who ministers to him, and the abbot when he wishes, and the prior and subprior, but no one else without permission. His master ought to be with him constantly for consolation when he is sick, and for teaching him when he begins to regain his health. If there are many, the abbot provides for someone else who in the meantime either cares for the sick or teaches those who are well. The novices ought to have one month with such teaching before they are admitted to the chapter or talking time in the cloister. During this period, no office is enjoined on them specially in the community, either for singing, or for reading, or to say the verses, or to begin the antiphons, or whatever else of this nature. At the morning Vigils the wake-up book is not to be set before them, even if they are sleeping. Only those near them may wake them up, or the one who goes around to wake others up. After the first day in the choir and the refectory, if they need to leave without returning, or they come late, they receive permission from the prelate just like the others. They do not receive permission to leave the dormitory except from their master. At the end of a month, if it seems proper to the abbot, he admits the novice to the chapter and to the talking period, but if by chance it is beneficial to postpone that, how long it is to be deferred is at the discretion of the abbot. When he has been completely admitted to the community, then he is not habitually led to the school, except occasionally when the master calls him forth for some special instruction, and then he immediately leads him back. Yet it is to be known that from then on, not even the master of novices can lead out anyone without permission, nor can he detain him outside the community beyond what is customary. Then after he has come to the convent, if at first the master is not available, the abbot ought to provide someone who teaches him regularly and to whom he repeats the daily reading, who also ought to instruct him and teach him especially what he specifically is required to sing or to read in choir, that is, the antiphons, responsories, readings, versicles, and other such things, and he ought to show when and how to sing or read them. When the novice is admitted to the convent, the master of novices ought to come to the abbot and indicate to him his knowledge

T he book of the order



105

and vocal aptitude and other things as he has experienced them. Then the abbot, having summoned the armarius, has him put on the list to read and sing at the readings, responsories and antiphons at the Hours, according to his knowledge and ability. However, he is not quickly assigned to the major weekly roles (ad septimanas maiores), that is the invitatory, reading in the refectory, the gradual, the Alleluia, or in the chapter, until he knows perfectly the use and discipline of the order. Most especially he is in no way assigned to the invitatory, that is, to the weekly task, until he is first instructed well in and accustomed to the discipline of the cloister, because novices are never permitted to do the accusations in chapter that are connected with the weekly assignments; when they are to be sent, the armarius will first indicate it to the abbot, and thus they are sent with his permission. If he is a priest or deacon or subdeacon, he is not to be put in the office of the altar until the abbot commands, and when he is placed there, he is diligently instructed first so that he does not approach it uncultured or uneducated. When the novice is first admitted to the chapter, he ought not to be called out immediately if he offends in something. It should be deferred eight days or so, until he becomes accustomed to how one comports oneself when called out, so he will not be embarrassed. However if he offends within this time by something that clearly needs to be changed, he ought to be warned privately beforehand to ask pardon voluntarily, and thus when called out will be used to asking for pardon. 23. The Way of Life of the Novices

After the novice is fully admitted to the community, his master ought not to completely set aside his responsibility. He ought to talk to him frequently, lest he suffer any inconvenience in those things which are necessary, provide what he needs in terms of clothing and food, and frequently consider daily life and study, to see if anything is less or more than it should be, in order to correct and instruct him privately as needed. It is appropriate for him to rebuke and instruct him in private and to do this until he is more perfectly established and knowledgeable in the order. In the speaking period, the novice ought seat sit himself in front of him or near him. No one will be able to call him away to a private conversation, but whoever of the brothers wishes to speak to him may speak to him in the presence and hearing of the master, unless perhaps the abbot, prior, or subprior summons him. But the

106

T he book of the order

abbot ought to provide for someone else, who may relieve the master of novices, both in this guarding of discipline as in other things, and can take his turn either before or after. We establish that the novice ought to be in his care for at least one month, so that while his mind is still tender and wavering, no one upsets him by less sound counsel or indiscreet conversation. This also is to be known to each one: that the novice should not speak to anyone from the outside without someone listening until the end of the year; no one inside ought to report about things outside that call for him, but instead, if it is necessary, to indicate this to the abbot, and if the matter requires it, he permits him to speak, and whoever the abbot indicates leads him, and stays with him, and leads him back. 24. Profession

It is left to the arrangement of the abbot when the novice makes his profession in writing at the altar and receives the blessing. When it is time for him to make it, the master of novices instructs him concerning each thing that must be done. In this way profession ought to be made according to our custom. When it pleases the abbot to prompt the novices to make profession, he announces it to them in chapter on the preceding day and instructs that they are to be prepared; but regarding their confession, if their profession has been hurried or their confession delayed, he advises them privately so that if they must share in his blessing, they are not found unprepared. It is to be known that the confession of novices is in no way to be neglected or postponed; but immediately after their entrance (conversionem), if they postpone coming themselves, they are to be admonished and instructed secretly by the prelate as needed. Then, the day having arrived, the master of novices instructs them to write their profession in their own hand, or if they do not know how to write, that they ask others who can write. When their profession has been written they are prepared in cloaks63 (superpelliciis) for the Major Mass, where all brothers who are then in the monastery also ought to be present if they are able. Then when they have come to the offertory, the master of novices leads them up before the altar steps and stands them there in order, turned toward the altar, each one holding his written profession in his hand. When the offertory is finished, all brothers proceed from the choir up the stairs of the sanctuary, where they station

T he book of the order



107

themselves in order across it; the most superior from both choirs come together in the middle of the assembly, and from there on each side to the juniors, and the newest are placed together accordingly. If by chance they cannot stand in the front of the sanctuary, they extend themselves on both sides of the sanctuary toward the altar, extending the ranks as far as is sufficient for the multitude of brothers. The abbot ought to sing the Mass on this day on which the novices are blessed, if possible, and the relics are placed on the altar. If by chance the abbot himself cannot celebrate the Mass, the sacristan offers to him his stole and book and thus he blesses the novices. The novices ought to be arranged properly so that they proceed by rank and age. Then when the time comes, the master of novices indicates to the one who is first that he read his profession. After that he reads through it in a raised voice in front of everyone, he approaches the altar, and bowing first, offers it upon the altar, and having kissed the altar, he bows again and returns to his place, and thus standing there, he says three times in a raised voice Receive me, Lord, according to your word, and I shall live. And do not confound me from my expectation.64 Then all in order likewise read their professions, and offer what they have read, and returning to their place each one says three times Receive me, Lord, etc. When that is completed, all together prostrate themselves at the step before the altar. Then with the abbot beginning the antiphon We have received, O God, [your mercy in the middle of your temple]65 without singing, they say these psalms in order: the psalm Great is the Lord,66 the psalm Have Mercy on Me, O God,67 the psalm Behold How Good,68 ending each one with the Glory, then the antiphon We have received, O God,69 then Lord have mercy three times, Our Father, And [lead] us not [into temptation but deliver us from evil]. Save your servant, [O my God, who hopes in you].70 Send him help, O Lord, [from your sanctuary, And defend him from Sion]. Be to him, Lord, [a tower of strength In the face of the enemy.] Do not let the enemy prevail against us [Nor the son of iniquity to have power to harm us.]71 Hear, Lord, [my] prayer, [And let my cry come to you]. The Lord be with you. [And with your spirit].

108

T he book of the order

And then follow the prayers. When these are finished, the whole community responds Amen. Then they rise up, and in the order in which they read their professions, they exchange kisses first with the abbot, each one bowing before and after. Then they go to the deacon, who is vested for Mass, then to the subdeacon. After this they exchange kisses with the prior and then the subprior, who stand together, and after them with those who are in the right choir in order to the last one. They then return to the one in the left choir who follows after the prior, and exchange kisses with all in order to the last one. When this is done, all the brothers return to the choir, while the novices remain above in the sanctuary until the end of Mass. While the Mass is sung, they ought to stand on the steps of the sanctuary arranged across in order after the subdeacon until communion. When they come to communion, they approach in order to receive communion. After they receive communion, they return to their place at the steps to the sanctuary, and there they remain until the end of Mass. When Thanks be to God has been said, they bow to both, that is to the altar and to the choir, and then they return to the community. 25. [Speaking by Sign]72

Those [Hand Signals] that Pertain to the Divine Office For the general sign of a book, extend the hand and move it just as a page is accustomed to be moved. For the sign of the missal, after making the general sign, you make the sign of the cross. For the sign of the text of the gospel, to this you add that you make the sign of the cross on your forehead. For the sign of the epistolary, to this you add that you make the sign of the cross on your breast. For the sign of the reading, tap your finger against your hand or breast, and pull it back a little so it rebounds, like someone who picks away with his fingernail the wax from a candle held unsteadily over the page of the reader. For the sign of the responsory, place your thumb beneath the joint of your index finger and thus make it spring back.

T he book of the order



109

For the sign of the antiphon or the verse of the response, place your thumb under the joint of your little finger and thus make it spring back. For the sign of the Alleluia, raise your hand and bend the ends of your fingers; move them as if flying, on account of the angels, because this song is said to be theirs. For the sign of the sequence, raise your tilted hand, and moving it away from the chest, turn it upside down, so that what before was up may be down. For the sign of the tract, draw the hand across the stomach from below, which means “long,” and fold the hand facing the mouth, which means “song.” For the sign of the book from which is read at Nocturns, after the general sign of the book and reading, add that you place a hand at your jaw. For the sign of the antiphonary, after the sign of the book add that you bend your thumb on account of the curves of the notes, the neumes which are thus bent. For the sign of the rule, add that you grasp hair hanging over the ear with two fingers. For the sign of the hymnal, add that you extend your thumb and the finger next to it, joining their ends, which means that the time of Prime is at hand. For the sign of the psalter, add that you place a cupped hand on your head, imitating the crown that a king is accustomed to wear. Those Which Pertain to Food For the sign of bread, make a circle with both thumbs and the next two fingers.73 For the sign of bread which is cooked in water, add that you place the inside of one hand over the outside of the other, and thus move your upper hand in a circle as if anointing or wetting the other. For the sign of the bread which is called “turta”74 in the common tongue, add that you make a cross through the middle of the palm, because in this way this bread is typically divided. For the sign of half a bread, bend the thumb of one hand with the next finger as if making a half circle. For the sign of beans, place the end of the second finger under the first joint of the thumb and thus make the thumb stick out.75 For the sign of millet, make a ring with a finger, because it moves like that with a spoon in the pot.

110

T he book of the order

For the sign of a relish made of vegetables, draw a finger over another finger, as if one who cuts herbs that will be cooked. For the generic sign of fish, imitate with your hand the motion of a fish’s tail in water. For the sign of cuttlefish, separate all fingers from one another and then move them together. For the sign of the eel, confine one hand with the other like one who holds and presses a slippery eel. For the sign of the lamprey, imitate with a finger on the jaw the stingers the lamprey has under his eyes. For the sign of salmon, add making a circle around the right eye with the thumb and index finger. For the sign of a pike, add that with your hand you flatten the surface of the nose, because this fish has a long snout. For the sign of a trout, add that you draw from eyebrow to eyebrow, which is the signal of “female,” because the word “trout” is of the f­ eminine gender. For the sign of little crisps, grasp a lock of hair with your fist as if wanting to curl it. For the sign of cheese, bring both hands together at a slant as if pressing cheese. For the sign of a custard tart,76 after making the sign of bread and cheese, bend all the fingers of one hand and thus place the cupped hand on top of the other hand. For the sign of rissole,77 after the sign of bread imitate enwrapping with two fingers, which is how they are made. For the sign of milk, press the little finger against the lips for that which an infant suckles. For the sign of honey, briefly make your tongue appear and touch with your fingers, as if you wish to lick. For the sign of wine, bend your finger and then touch it to your tongue. For the sign of water, bring together all your fingers and move them through a slant. For the sign of vinegar, rub your throat with a finger, because acid is felt in the throat. For the sign of fruit, especially pear or apple, wrap your thumb with your other fingers. For the sign of cherries, add that you place a finger under your eye. For the sign of a raw leek, join and extend your thumb and the finger next to it.

T he book of the order



111

For the sign of garlic or horseradish, extend your finger against your mouth a little open due to the odor which is smelled from them. For the sign of mustard, place your thumb under the foremost joint of your little finger.78 [Instruments for Eating] For the sign of a drinking bowl (ciphi), bend three fingers a little and hold them up. For the sign of a saucer, extend a hand wide. For the sign of the cup, lower the hollow of the hand downward. For the sign of a drinking glass, after the sign of a cup, add that you place two fingers around your eyes. [Those Which Pertain to Clothing] For the sign of the cape, hold one’s mouth with three fingers, that is hold it with the little finger and the next two. For the sign of the cloak, hold one’s sleeve with the same fingers. For the sign of the mantle or furs, hold your mouth. For the sign of the robe, spread out all the fingers of one hand and then gather them on your chest, like someone grasping the wool. For the sign of a shirt, hold a sleeve. For the sign of breeches, add that your hand moves downward on the thigh, like someone putting on breeches. For the sign of hose, hold the slipper and add the sign of the breeches. For the sign of blanket, make the sign of the robe, and add that you draw your hand along your arm downward on your arm, like one who covers himself with a blanket. For the sign of the pillow or cushion, raise your hand and bend the ends of the fingers as if flying, and then place them at the jaw as one sleeping often does. For the sign of a lace (corrigiae), place one finger around another and bring together from both sides the fingers of both hands, as someone ties his laces. For the sign of the tie of the breeches, again make the sign for a lace around the kidneys. For the sign of metal (metalli), strike one fist with the other. For the sign of a knife, draw your hand through the middle of your palm.

112

T he book of the order

For the sign of a knife sheath, put the end of one hand on the other hand, as if placing the knife in the sheath. For the sign of a needle, after the sign of metal, pretend you are holding a needle in one hand and thread in the other, and you wish to pass the thread through the eye of the needle. For the sign of thread, surround one finger with another, and pretend that you want to run the thread through the eye of the needle. For the sign of the stylus, after the sign of metal, imitate someone writing with the thumb extended with the index finger. For the sign of writing tablets, bring both hands together and then separate them as if opening tablets. For the sign of a comb, draw three fingers through your hair, like one who is combing his hair. For the sign of the angels, make the same sign as that for the Alleluia. For the sign of the apostles, draw the right hand down from the right side to the left and again from the left to the right for the pallium which the archbishop uses. This is also the sign of a bishop. For the sign of a martyr, place the right [hand] on the neck, as if you wish to cut someone. For the sign of a confessor, if he is a bishop, make the same sign as that for an apostle. If he is an abbot, make the sign of the rule by grabbing the hair. For the sign of a consecrated virgin, make the sign of a woman. For the sign of a feast, make first the sign of reading, and then stretch all the fingers of both hands. For the sign of the abbot, grab the hair hanging over the ear with two fingers. For the sign of a monk, hold the hair with your hand. For the sign of a cleric, circle the ear with a finger. For the sign of a canon regular, with your thumb and index finger imitate someone hurrying to protect his chest with his shirttail (simila uolantem cum lingua camisiae pectus suum firmare). For the sign of a layperson, hold your chin with your right hand. For the sign of a prior, with your thumb and index finger imitate striking a little bell. For the sign of someone great, add that you extend your hand, which always signifies something great. For the sign of someone minor, extend your little finger, which always signifies “little.”

T he book of the order



113

For the sign of the church warden, with your hand imitate ringing the bell. For the sign of the armarius and precentor, raise up the inside of your hand and move it as if indicating to sing together. For the sign of the master of novices, draw your hand through your hair across the forehead, which is the sign of novice, and place the finger nearest the thumb under your eye, which is the sign of seeing. For the sign of the master of the boys, move the little finger up to the lips and add the sign for seeing. For the sign of the camerarius, after the sign of canon regular, imitate counting money. For the sign of the cellarer, imitate holding the key in your hand and turn it as if locking a lock. For the sign of the gardener, bend your finger like one who drags a hoe with his right hand. For the sign of the almoner, draw your hand from your right shoulder to your left side, for it is customary for a satchel to be carried thus by a poor person. For the sign of the infirmarian, place your hand against your chest and add the sign of seeing. For the sign of the refectorian, make the same as for a meal. For the sign of the one who takes care of the granary, imitate with both hands as if connected, as if you wish to pour the harvest into some container. For the sign of an old man, draw your hand straight through your hair against your ear. For the sign of a boy, move your little finger to your lips. For the sign of a compatriot or a blood relative, hold your hand against your face and place your middle finger on your nose, from where blood is accustomed to flow. For the sign of speaking, hold your hand against your mouth and move it from there. For the sign of being silent, place your finger over your closed mouth. For the sign of listening, hold your finger against your ear. For the sign of not knowing, wipe your lip with your finger. For the sign of kissing, place your index finger on your lips. For the sign of getting dressed, with your thumb and the following finger grasping your garment on your chest draw it down. For the sign of undressing, draw it up.

114

T he book of the order

For the sign of eating, with the thumb and index finger imitate eating. For the sign of drinking, move the bent finger to your lips. For the sign of agreeing, raise your hand slowly and move it, not upside down but right-side up so that the back of the hand is on top. For the sign of denying, place the end of your middle finger on the thumb and make it bounce back. For the sign of bloodletting, with your thumb and middle finger strike your arm, as someone does who lets blood. For the sign of seeing, place the finger nearest your thumb under your eye. For the sign of washing feet, turn the palms of both hands toward each other and move the edge of one hand a little higher than the other. For the sign of good, place your thumb on the cheek and your other fingers on the other side to slide together gently to the mouth. For the sign of bad, with fingers spread on the face, imitate the claw of a bird pulling at something to mangle it. For the sign of something that already has happened, hold your hand evenly across your chest, with the palm of the hand turned up, and move it more up above the chest. 26. How the Brothers Ought to Conduct Themselves in the Regular Hours

At the regular Hours all canons together, lay as well as clerics, ought to be present in choir, except those who have been bled or who cannot come to the church due to illness, or also those who because of some debility receive permission to be in the retrochoir. All others, whether they are in charge of works or assigned to the workshops, come to the Hours just like the others; they cannot presume to stay behind without permission. If for some necessity they cannot ask for permission, they ought to indicate this themselves in chapter, begging mercy. However the cellarer and the camerarius, because they are occupied more than the rest, by necessity can stay behind without permission. The almoner can be absent from None, if it is sung while he is giving alms. The refectorian and the brother who reads at table, and the custodian of the cloister, who eat after the community, cannot be present for None when it is sung immediately after lunch. If there is someone else who, due to another occupation, may need to be absent frequently from the regular Hours, and therefore to ask permission so often is bothersome

T he book of the order



115

to him, he ought to indicate this privately to the abbot first, and then the abbot, if it seems right to him, can release him from these Hours in chapter; he ought to designate by name what he releases him from. When the regular Hours are finished, those who are assigned to the workshops can exit to their duties. By no means do others leave the choir, from the time when the regular Hour was begun until what is to be said after the Hour is complete, unless it is for some need. When they go for a need, they do not delay, but once they have satisfied their need they return immediately so that, when the Hour has been sung, they go out with the rest of the choir in procession. Whoever leaves and delays so that he cannot be in the procession, should acknowledge his fault in chapter. Likewise from the time after the signal has been given, when the community enters the church, until again they go out after the Hour has been said, no one remains in the cloister. No one at all, either the healthy or infirm, should presume to walk or to sit or to sing the Hours there, except the one who is charged with custody of the cloister. Meanwhile, no one writes or binds a book or does anything else there without permission. 27. The Silence of the Regular Hours

It is also to be known by everyone that while the regular Hours are sung, none of the canons ought to speak within the wall that surrounds the regular workshops, except when one of the officials stays behind from the regular Hour for something necessary, just as it was determined. Then he can speak in his own workshop with his attendants about those things which pertain to his duties. However the lord abbot, if it is necessary for him to speak about necessary things and private business while the regular Hour is sung, can speak where and with whom he wishes, with the exception of the regular parlor. If it is necessary that some brother speak with an outsider while the hour is sung, he first receives permission from the abbot, and then goes out and speaks in the place assigned for that. However, the camerarius, cellarer and guest master, if they stay back from the Hour and need to speak with anyone from outside, can do so without permission. All are to strive to frequent the canonical Hours, as has been determined, and whoever cannot be present at them keeps silence. No one ought to ask permission lightly to go outside during that time, and if one petitions indiscreetly, the abbot should not give it lightly.

116

T he book of the order

28. The Book Carried around during Matins

Each night at Matins the book is carried around to wake up the brothers.79 The brother who carries it proceeds in a suitable way; he does not lift it up high with raised and extended hand, but he holds it close in front of him at his chest. He carries the book to that part of the choir in which the verse of the psalm is said, and crossing to the other part he never offers it to anyone, until in that part another verse of the psalm is begun. Each one, except the one who is in charge of the community, ought to bow when the one who carries the book crosses before him. While he goes around, if another brother neither sings nor bows when he comes before him, he ought to stop and hand the book to him. He should not put it before him immediately, but stretching out his hand a little and not moving it, hold the book a little in front of his face, and then, finally, if he does not bow, put it before him. After laying the book down, he bows to him before whom he placed it, and afterwards proceeding to the middle of the steps of the sanctuary, if it is a time of prostration, prostrates himself there. If it is not, he bows deeply in front of and behind the altar and returns to his place in the choir. The one before whom the book is placed, as soon as he wakes up and sees the book placed before him, whether it is a feast or not, immediately begs mercy on his knees and then at the stated times circulates the book. These are times in which the book is circulated: as often as the daily Office (diaeta) is sung, it is circulated at each sitting; when there are nine lessons, it is circulated once at each nocturn; when there is an octave it is circulated once at the two psalms. In Eastertime and Pentecost, when only three psalms are sung at Matins, it is circulated once; at the responses which are sung after the readings, if there are three readings, once; if nine, it is circulated three times. At morning Lauds it is always circulated twice, at Matins of Saint Mary once before the readings and again once after the readings. This is how often at a minimum we determine the book is circulated, but if the one who carries it wants more and sees it to be necessary, that is not prohibited. It is not to be circulated at the invitatory, the readings, the verse of the response, the repetition after the verse, Glory which is sung after the verse, or the litany after the seven psalms. No one at all is exempt from having the book placed before him except he who is in charge of the community and those who are ill, and accordingly are in the end of the choir. However, the brother who circulates can make a small sign to the infirm to wake them if they are sleeping.

T he book of the order



117

29. What the Armarius Ought to Write on the Notice Board on Saturday

The armarius always ought to write two brothers on the notice board on Saturday, one from each choir, who sing the invitatory on the following Sunday at Matins, and do the other things that pertain to this office throughout the whole following week. One of them, namely the one who has the part of the weekly priest, ought to begin his duty that Saturday at Vespers. These are the things that pertain specifically to his duty: whenever there is an antiphon at Vespers, or at Matins, or at the Hours when only one antiphon is sung, he is the one to begin it, and likewise the hymns. He begins the antiphons for the Magnificat,80 Benedictus,81 and Te Deum laudamus,82 if it is not a feast of nine lessons. If it is a feast of nine lessons, or even of three readings, when the invitatory is sung by two, he assigns the weekly priest as follows. He [the armarius] advances, comes before him, and signifies to him what is to be begun, even pronouncing it if necessary, because the priest ought to know ahead of time what he is to begin. After he points out to the priest the antiphon or anything else, he bows to him and goes to his place. He begins the antiphons after the suffrages and says the versicle after the antiphon. He has to begin the antiphons which are sung at the mandatum. Throughout the whole week, if there is no feast, he alone sings the invitatory at Matins. During Lent on ordinary days the response at Vespers pertains to him. At the Major Mass it pertains to him to begin the introit, Lord have mercy, the offertory, Holy Holy Holy, Lamb of God, and the communion; and Glory [to God] in the highest, if it is sung on Sundays and feast days, belongs to the priest at the altar. It also belongs to him to begin what is to be sung at the procession on Sunday. Likewise at the Morning Mass, he begins whatever is to be begun. All these things, which we have specified, pertain to that hebdomadarian who takes the part of the priest for the week. To both [hebdomadarians] together it belongs to sing the invitatory on feast days at Matins and at Vespers, if the response is sung, and in chapter after the circator to call out faults. If a double feast comes within the week, the armarius can assign others to sing the invitatory, whoever he wishes, sometimes two, sometimes four, according to what the celebration of the solemnity requires. When he assigns four to a feast, the two who are written last on the notice board have to do nothing except sing the invitatory and the response at Vespers. The other two ought to sing the response at Vespers, and at the same Vespers, they

118

T he book of the order

ought to begin the antiphons for the brothers to sing at the beginning of Vespers and Matins, and call out faults in the chapter after the circator. On the double feasts the antiphons are so distributed at Vespers and at Matins, that those who are of higher rank in the choir begin the last ones. The brother who continues the antiphon on the double feast ought only to continue and not to begin it. After the first antiphon has been sung, if any of the others who were going to begin the rest have gone from the choir, the brother who continued the antiphons may in this necessity begin the antiphon or join two into one. At Matins the antiphons of praise are always begun by the last one. When the response is sung at Vespers, after the beginning of the response, those who sing only on the double feasts must return to one side of the choir and the other. When the response is finished, again advancing toward each other in the middle of the choir, turning toward the altar they sing the verse. When the verse is finished, they do not return to the choir on both sides as before, but standing facing the altar during the repetition, bowing at the end and then rising up, they sing the Glory to the Father. At the end of the Glory, they bow to the front and the back and go to their seats. While the verse is sung, the brothers sit. When the verse has ended, they again rise immediately at the repetition. This is what is done on the double feasts. In Lent, as often as two brothers sing the response at Vespers, after the beginning they do not return to the choir, nor do the brothers rise after the verse, until the repetition is finished. It pertains to those who sing the invitatory to intone the psalms. When they begin the antiphon, each one ought to indicate to the one next to him, namely the one superior to him, in a quiet voice with singing, in what tone he should begin. If there is no one above him, he should prompt the one just below him. As often as an antiphon or another song is begun, the brothers ought to hold back somewhat, before they make any sound, until he who begins can fully form what he begins. When the weekly cantor knows he must be absent for any reason, he ought to entrust his office to someone else so as not to make a scandal. 30. The Labor of the Brothers

When the brothers are to go to work, if they are in choir, the prior, who is in charge of the community, shall go before others into the cloister, and at the entrance of the church he makes a noise by striking the board. When the sound is made it is the signal that the brothers ought

T he book of the order



119

to proceed to their labor; when it is not made, they ought to remain there. Having heard the sound after the Hour has been finished, leaving the choir in procession, the brothers ascend to the dormitory by the interior stairs. There, preparing themselves, they belt themselves over their woolen tunics; they take smaller shoes, gloves (manifulas), and hoods. When each one is prepared, he should sit quietly on his bed and wait for the others, until all are ready. Then when the brothers are prepared, the prior strikes the board. When it is heard, they all rise together, and with the prior preceding, they follow him to where they are going, singing psalms. Of course, before the brothers go out to work, the prior always ought to anticipate where they will go to work and distribute the tools necessary for each one’s labor as he perceives is needed. They go out at the same time, they return at the same time, and they work at the same time. The prior always precedes them in going out or returning. The other brothers march after him in proper order. The subprior or another of the seniors to whom the prior nods follows after everyone. Whenever they bring something from one place to another, likewise they go out and return at the same time with the prior preceding and the subprior following after everyone. If they might wish to take a break, they do so when and how and where and for however long the prior wishes. While the brothers labor, no brother, canon or lay brother, presumes to walk with or face them, nor stand idly in their sight. If another brother does something in their shared work that needs to be corrected, if another one sees, he can show him once how he ought to do it. If he does not wish to submit, he should not argue, but rather if it is necessary, he might make it known to the prior so that he might be corrected. No one chooses some special work himself but does what others do communally, or something enjoined on him by the prior. The brothers ought to avoid carefully, as far as they are able, chafing, cutting, or staining their clothes when carrying or doing things. Those who are stronger in carrying burdens ought not to load down the weaker. No one among them may speak, whether cleric or lay brother, or even the prior, nor may they multiply signs among each other, nor focus their eyes on those coming or passing by. If anyone needs to return from work to the house, he first receives permission from the prior, and then returns with whomever he orders. The brothers should not go to work on double feasts and others which are celebrated by the people. When they cannot go out for their work because of rain or too much cold, if the prior finds some inside work which can be done appropriately by the brothers, let them do it. All brothers ought to go to

120

T he book of the order

work together, except the sick, the camerarius, and the cellarer. No one else should remain behind, unless they first ask for permission to stay, and indicate the reason why. If the brothers who stay behind from work because of infirmity or another cause, either regularly or with permission, are in the choir with those who will be going out to work, they ought to go out with the procession up to the stairs of the dormitory, and when the others climb up, they ought to separate in front of the steps and receive permission from the one who is in charge. Moreover, if those who stay back from work are priests, they can sing the Mass, and the others can help them. Those who have nothing to do ought to sit quietly in the cloister, and sing their Hours and psalms just as those at work do. When the brothers return from their labor, as has been said, they return at the same time, and when they enter into the cloister, they ascend at the same time to the dormitory and without delay they change their clothing and sit on their beds. When all are dressed, the prior gives the sign and thus all walk to the washroom83 in procession and return to the community in procession. In winter, when they do not go to work, after Prime, or if Mass is sung, then after Mass, they go and return to the washroom in procession. 31. How the Brothers Should Keep Silence

On all feasts of nine lessons the brothers ought to keep silence the whole day, and also on the first four days of Easter and Pentecost, although then there are only three readings, and on the Lenten Triduum. On other days they have only one time of speaking in the cloister; if it is not a day of fasting, between None and Vespers; if it is a day of fasting, when Sext is sung before Mass, there may be talking between Terce and Sext, and in Lent between Sext and None. During the time of silence the brothers ought to sit quietly in cloister, some to read, some to sing, and each one to do what he is charged with. Those who read and sing might sit separately so that they do not hinder each other. Those who read should sit near the entrance to the monastery; those who sing ought to sit below nearer the entrance to the exterior parlor. The brothers who read from common books which are put out take what they want to read, and when they finish what they want, they return it to the place assigned to it. However, someone who receives a certain book individually from the armarius never places it with the shared books, but keeps it privately to himself. The armarius ought to

T he book of the order



121

assign individual books specifically to the brothers who are enjoined to strengthen and rehearse their singing daily, and, if it is necessary, after consulting with the abbot, to join those he wishes. Likewise, he distributes the psalters and hymnals as needed to those who have to strengthen their knowledge of psalms and hymns. As a result of this, if the armarius assigns to a particular brother some book specifically to strengthen and rehearse something at the hour in which he has to do it, no one may take it, or if he takes it for some need, he may not have it long unless he to whom it was assigned hands it over to him. However, the armarius ought to set out one or two antiphonaries and other chant books, psalters, and hymnals in common, in which other brothers can look ahead to what is coming. After those to whom the books of songs, psalters, and hymns are assigned specifically have ­reinforced their readings, they ought not to hide them either in the day or at night, but replace them in the common storage with the other books of the community. Whenever any difficult and unusual story, whether of the saints or the season, is to be sung in the church, the armarius ought to warn the brothers in the chapter in a timely way, so that they who are singing may look at them carefully in advance. No one sings in cloister except what is to be sung in choir. The armarius or some of the senior brothers whom the abbot has assigned in chapter ought to help the brothers who are charged with strengthening their singing, so that they can correct errors and listen when they want them to repeat the readings. The armarius or another brother assigned ahead of time listens to the brothers as each reads from a separate book, but those anticipating their own readings listen. They are not to disturb each other by asking questions, except about making or correcting accents or how to say something they do not know how to read, or about the difference, meters and the end of verses.84 They do not ask other questions, nor for another reason do two come together at one book. If anyone sitting in the cloister cannot read either because of infirmity or blurry eyes, with permission from the abbot, he can listen to another who is reading. Those who practice or sing the psalms read with a quiet voice so they do not disturb the others. Each one ought to diligently learn the necessary [hand] signals, so that in the hour of silence when speech is not permitted, they can indicate to another successfully in signs when it is necessary. If anytime they need to say something, and they do not know how to signify it by sign, in their need they are allowed to utter only one word. If however someone in the hour of silence uses many signs, or says one superflu-

122

T he book of the order

ous word, if it can be perceived, it is judged that he has broken the silence. When the brothers sit in cloister, those who are sitting in one area ought to sit side by side, not back to back or face to face. They should draw their vestments around them, and not extend their legs immoderately or spread them. They should not stretch out lengthwise on the platform of the cloister or hide their faces in their hoods. The brothers who have something to sing or read at Mass or at Matins should each of those days prepare themselves in that space before the Mass or Vespers, because if they do not they will need to look for and prepare it while the Hour is being sung, which one ought never to do. Each day before Vespers, or before Vigils during Lent, or, if Vigils is not sung, before None, the brother who has to read the first reading at Matins ought to bring to the armarius the book in which Matins is read and ask him where he ought to read, and when he shows it, he may place a sign there so that he can find it easily. He should listen to his reading, and when Vespers is rung he should return the book to the monastery. When the brothers sit in the cloister, if anyone has need to go somewhere else, he should put his book back in the cupboard; but if he wants to leave it at his seat, he makes a signal to a brother sitting near him to watch it. Again, if anyone wishes to receive a book from someone who is reading or singing from it, because he needs to see it, he should hand it over to him. No one ought to sit in the cloister without a book. He should give it to him, handing it to him peacefully. If he does not wish to accommodate the one who asks, he should bear it in peace, until he calls him out about it in chapter. If anyone stays too long in the cloister, it is the responsibility of the prior to correct him; and if any two or many sit together and say words or make signs that are somewhat indecorous, he ought to indicate to them that they cease, and if he wishes, he can separate them from each other. In the time of silence no one ought to run here and there through the cloister, or change his seat frequently by going from place to place. If they need to, they may go to these places without permission: the church, the dormitory, and the washroom. However if they go to these places frequently and seemingly without reason, and it is noticeable, they are to be called out in chapter. When they walk, they step humbly and with face uncovered. If they meet with the abbot, they turn aside supplicating him. This supplication should be made anywhere, whenever he meets the abbot, except in the dormitory. No one calls another from far away by voice or by making noise. In the silence before col-

T he book of the order



123

lation more than in other times of silence, the brothers ought to come together in the cloister and to sit separately and keep themselves still. They should not read aloud or sing, nor make signs to one another except for great necessity. Nor should anyone make noise in that hour in the cloister or even near the cloister. At all times the brothers can go to confession before the lunch hour, while the community sits in cloister, and even after the warning bell, until the last time the bell is rung. They cannot go when the community is in the church, unless by chance anyone wishes to confess to the lord abbot at the Morning Mass or after the gospel of the Major Mass, or while the psalmi familiares85 are sung. Each one is allowed to confess nocturnal emissions to whichever of the priests he wishes. Confession of other things is not to be made to whomever one wishes, but only to the one on whom the abbot enjoins the office of confession, or to the abbot himself, and he does it in the place assigned to this office. When the one who is going to confess comes to the place of confession, he asks for pardon, and then they sit down. He says to the one to whom he confesses, Bless you, with the response Lord; and the one to whom he confesses says The Lord be with you, and with the response Amen. He confesses briefly his faults, for which he asks pardon. When these things have been said, he should immediately continue and say I confess my guilt for these and all my other sins and I beg for your forgiveness. Afterwards they both get up, and the one to whom he confesses, having stood up a little, bows; the one who confesses, prostrate on the floor, says I confess to God and to you, Father. This is what one who confesses secretly to another says. When I confess has been said, the one to whom he confesses gives him absolution and enjoins penance on him. Then he who confesses can seek counsel and he to whom he confesses, even if it is not sought, can comfort him or advise or rebuke him as is necessary, but briefly. The brother on whom the care of confession is enjoined can hear confessions from everyone individually. However, for graver things, which exceed his mode or strength, he ought to suggest to the brother who confesses that he confess them also to the abbot. Indeed this care is not enjoined on him by the abbot so that he may hide the secrets of the brothers from the abbot, but so that when the abbot’s attention is turned elsewhere, someone who is prepared to hear confessions may be found. However, on account of this charge he should be at hand in the cloister at the time of confessions, so that when brothers wish to confess, they can find him quickly.

124

T he book of the order

32. When Private Masses Ought to Be Sung

At all times before the Major Mass, while the brothers are sitting in cloister, private Masses can be sung. Indeed, on those days when the whole community ought to receive communion, the priests are allowed to come down from the dormitory before the board is struck in the morning to sing Masses until Prime. On those same days it is conceded to them to sing Masses while the Morning Mass is sung, and even after the gospel of the Major Mass, if they cannot do it before, though they must first receive permission from the abbot. Those who are outside the choir should help those who sing [Mass] privately while the community is in choir. Those who for this reason do not enter the procession when the community leaves the cloister after Prime are not noted down. The brothers who sing privately ought to be very careful not to begin to sing at such an Hour that it is necessary either for them to neglect chapter or to miss the majority of a regular Hour. Therefore, when they foresee that the time for chapter or another regular Hour is approaching, they ought not to presume to sing, unless they first seek a sign from the church warden, whether if they begin they can complete the duty. If by chance, when the chapter or other regular Hour is struck, someone has prepared himself for singing the Mass, if at that time when the sign is struck he does not yet have the stole around his neck, he divests. If he already has put on his stole, he does not take it off, but sings his Mass; and if because of that he does not attend the chapter or regular Hour, he is to seek pardon in chapter. 33. The Hour of Chapter

When the time comes, the abbot is seen to indicate to the church warden to signal the chapter. At the command of the abbot to convoke the brothers, the warden rings the bell, giving the warning. At once and without delay on hearing the warning, the brothers who are in the cloister lay down their books and arrange themselves in the order they have in choir, so that the right-hand choir sits on the seating next to the church, and the left-hand one is facing them on the other seating near the grass. The seniors sit higher toward the door of the church, the juniors lower toward the door of the exterior parlor, and the abbot in his seat. The brothers who are assigned to duties and all others, except the sick, upon hearing the bell, convene in the cloister, and each

T he book of the order



125

one sits in his place. The brother who is assigned to close the door of the cloister ought to sit not with the others but next to the door of the parlor. After the warning, having left enough time between, the warden again rings the bell. Afterwards, when the abbot sees it appropriate, he gives the sign and all the brothers process into the chapter, the juniors going first, bowing to the abbot when they cross before him. After the abbot follows all the others, the warden nods to the watchman of the monastery, who stops ringing the bell. When he stops ringing the bell, the brother who is to close the doors of the cloister closes them, and so comes into chapter. After the doors are closed, let no one presume to knock on them. When brothers enter the chapter and descend the steps, they ought to go two by two toward the lectern where they bow toward the crucifix from each side and proceed to their seats. Following the others, the lord abbot immediately sits when he comes to his seat. Likewise, each one immediately sits when the abbot sits down. When everyone has sat down, the brother who is the chapter reader, standing at the lectern, announces the day and month, etc. When he says And many other saints, the brothers rise up. The weekly priest begins These and all saints of God, and when they come to Lord have mercy, the brothers bow until the whole prayer is finished. When the others bow, the reader bows. When the priest says Our help is in the name of the Lord,86 they all rise, the lector likewise. After Lord, order [a blessing] is said and the abbot gives the benediction, the reading from the rule is read. If it is a ninereading feast, and likewise during Easter week and Pentecost week, the gospel that is to be read at Mass is proclaimed. When the reading is finished, the anniversaries and lists of the dead are announced, if there are any. On feasts of nine lessons, and within the weeks of Easter, Pentecost, and the Nativity of the Lord, the list of the dead ought not to be read, but no anniversaries should ever be omitted. The lists of the dead that were omitted are to be read when the solemnity has passed. When the anniversaries or lists are announced, the abbot adds May they rest in peace. Afterwards when the list of duties is recited, individual brothers bow from their seat when they are named. If a weekly duty is assigned to a certain person who knows that because of some inconvenience he cannot complete it himself, he indicates it to the abbot privately and afterwards, if he orders him, asks then for pardon in chapter. After the list is announced, the lord abbot says Bless you, and they respond with clear voice Lord. Then the lord abbot, if he is giving a sermon, will do so; if someone else ought to do it, he nods to them. If the lay brothers

126

T he book of the order

or anyone from outside are present for the sermon, at the end of the sermon the lay brothers leave; seculars or monks are led out by one of the brothers. Then the abbot says Arrange the service of the church. The armarius calls out one by one what is to be said at Mass and at Vespers that day and the following day at Matins and everything else up to the next chapter, as is customary. While the armarius says what is to be read or sung, each one ought to attend diligently to what he says, especially those who have to read or sing something, so it will not happen that if they do not understand then, they will need to ask him what he said, afterwards outside of chapter. If anyone does not understand what the armarius says, only when he has said everything that he has to say, can he ask him briefly about what he is uncertain about, or to recall something he forgot. When the armarius has spoken and says he does not have more to say, the abbot says Speak of your order. Then those who need to confess of their own free will come before the abbot and plead for mercy. If the hebdomadarian and those who are assigned to duties, the ones who have been bled and the sick and the brothers who come outside, have to plead for mercy, first the hebdomadarians make their petition, and then those assigned offices, then those who come from outside, then the ones who have been bled, and last the sick. Whenever for one cause many beg for mercy all at once, if any one of them has something special to say aside from their common cause, when the others depart, he may depart; he ought not to remain to ask for mercy, but goes to sit with the others. Then, after everyone who needs to plead for mercy out of obligation has pled mercy, when those who plead mercy of their own free will have done so, he comes. Those who confess of their own free will plead mercy after the sick. No one ought to confess his secret faults in chapter. Whoever confesses his fault in chapter by coming before the abbot thus ought to confess it loudly so that it can be heard clearly by him who sits last in chapter. Those who individually ask mercy confess all their negligences, which they are going to confess, under one mercy. From the moment the brothers begin to ask pardon one by one, two should not come together at the same time to seek pardon. If someone remained away from a regular Hour or from things where he should be present, with permission of the abbot, but the brothers do not know permission was given, he ought, just as the others who freely seek pardon, come before the abbot and in the hearing of all to say: Lord, I was not at that Hour, but I stayed behind with your permission, thus not seeking pardon, but only bowing, he goes to sit at the order of

T he book of the order



127

the abbot. The others who were absent without permission ought not only to ask for pardon, but also to indicate the reason why they stayed behind, before all or privately to the abbot alone. When those who freely ask for pardon stop coming, by command of the abbot, the circator accuses others.87 When he says he does not have any more to say, after him, by order of the abbot, the weekly cantors accuse others. He who stands in place of the weekly priest does so first, and after him his assistant. If the circator and the weekly cantor have nothing to say, they plead for mercy that they are negligent in considering the negligence of others. Then by order of the abbot the other brothers accuse one another. While those who freely ask for mercy speak, no one presumes to speak except the one who asks and the abbot. Likewise, while they make accusations, no one speaks, except the one who accuses, the abbot, and the one accused. The one who makes an accusation first says, The accusation is against this brother. As soon as the one who is accused hears his name, he never responds in his seat, but coming in front of the abbot, first bows, then rises, and stands in front of him, patiently awaiting the accusation his brother has about him. The one who accuses does not overstate his accusation, nor does he seek to exaggerate or talk circuitously, but says plainly, He did this. If the one hearing the accusation recognizes his fault, he asks for mercy immediately, humbly confessing his fault. If, however, he does not recognize that he is culpable, standing, he says briefly Lord, I do not remember doing or saying what the brother says. Then he who accused him does not repeat his declaration, but first bowing, goes to sit at the command of the abbot. If anyone sees his brother deny what is true, he is rightly permitted to offer testimony of what he saw or heard. It is to be known that he who makes an accusation does not make an accusation about one who accuses him. Whoever accuses another, while he who is called out stands before the abbot and before he asks pardon, should immediately say whatever he has to accuse him of, and the one accused asks for one pardon for all the accusations. Two ought not to make an accusation at the same time about one person, but when he rises up from the ground having accepted his pardon, the other can speak further about him whatever he wishes, and he again asks pardon. No one ought to accuse different people about multiple faults at the same time, but he can at one time accuse many of one fault. However, he ought to avoid presuming to call out at the same time either the entire community or one choir. No one ought to accuse another out of suspicion alone, but only from that which he heard or saw.

128

T he book of the order

When a claim is made upon someone, if by that judgment he is to be lashed, the one who is in charge of the chapter ought to avoid having the one who accuses him or one whom he has accused lash him. But if anyone ought to accept discipline, modestly raising himself on his knees, he pulls off his clothes. Then lying down, let him remain covered by his clothing from the belt down, and, lying there, he either remains silent or only says, My fault, I will correct myself, while no one else says anything, unless by chance someone senior humbly intercedes for him. Whoever is lashing him does not stop the lashing until the abbot orders him. When he stops he helps the brother dress. When he is dressed and upright, he does not move until the abbot says, Go be seated, and then bowing goes to his place. Likewise it is known that he who is of a lower order ought not to lash someone in a superior order, that is, a deacon ought not to lash a priest, but equals may lash each other, and a superior an inferior. One thing to be especially avoided is that someone speak outside the chapter to anyone or make known the faults or secret cases that are treated in the chapter. When the accusations are finished, the abbot can speak briefly of necessary things. Then also brothers can be released from their duties and others substituted to do them. If anyone from outside needs to speak in chapter, then first he is led in. Likewise, if anyone by the order of the abbot presents salutations to the chapter, they are said at this time. At each salutation the abbot says God bless him and the brothers, sitting, respond Amen. However at the salutation of the pope (apostolici) or a bishop, the king or the abbot of a congregation, while bowing they respond Amen. If anyone asks to be commended to our prayers, when the accusations have ended, he is led in and assured regarding these prayers through the book. If a bishop or abbot or other religious is assured of our prayers, the abbot ought to ask from him humbly that he likewise surround the community and the abbot with his prayers, and grant a share in his beneficence to the brothers. When the abbot assures anyone of prayer, if the abbot gets up, the brothers ought to rise up also. If a king or bishop or abbot is led into the chapter, the brothers all rise up and bow to him when he crosses in front of them. Whenever anyone from the outside is led into chapter, when the abbot is satisfied that he has stayed long enough, any brother whom the abbot commands leads him out before the community comes out of chapter. From the time the brothers enter the chapter, no one may leave except for necessity, and then only after having received permission.

T he book of the order



129

Likewise, this is diligently observed in chapter by everyone, especially by the juniors, that they do not easily break out into speech, except to accuse themselves or call out others or when called out by others, unless by chance they are commanded or interrogated by the abbot, either about something about the order, or if they are seeking something they have lost. When the abbot asks everyone about something, the juniors ought not to give their opinion until the seniors have spoken first. In chapter, the brothers ought not to speak to one another, but only to him who is charge of the chapter. If it seems to someone that something needs to be corrected or changed or added, in what is regularly done, either in the customary or in the usage of the church, he should not say it in chapter unexpectedly, but before chapter he ought to indicate it to the abbot, and then, if the abbot commands him, he says it. Likewise, if the practice of the community is burdensome to someone or he requests something in which there is assistance, he ought to indicate it to the abbot first in private. When the lord abbot tells the community to do something, whether a prayer or something else, all should bow whenever this is specially ordered by the abbot. When the abbot specially assigns something to individuals, they should bow. When everything has been discussed, the brothers rise up and say the psalms begun by the abbot. When these have been said, they bow to the east and in procession they go into the cloister. If the roll of the dead occurred in the chapter, as soon as the abbot begins [Give ear, Lord,] to my words; [understand my cry],88 they go in procession into the church, and when the psalms are finished, they return in procession into the cloister. 34. The Time for Speaking

At the time for speaking all ought to sit in one part of the cloister, except the one who has charge of the community, who for that reason sits in the other part so that he has all in his sight as guardian and witness of their discipline, which although it should be honorable at all times, here is especially to be maintained. To those who are thus positioned facing each other, he speaks when he wishes and those to whom he has spoken can respond to him from their seat. If he calls some to speak more privately or if some on their own approach him to say something more privately, as long as they are there, they ought not to have words with those who sit out in the other part, but they

130

T he book of the order

speak back and forth with him only. If he withdraws for some reason, they return to their seats. In speaking, these things chiefly are avoided: blaming, competition, slander, rumors and all other indecent words. The cellarer, refectorian, and vestiarius, as often as each is unoccupied, ought to be there for the talking period, so that the brothers who cannot go out to them can speak to them privately about their needs. If during the hour for speaking there is reading in the cloister, the brothers who are present for it can sit on either side of the cloister, without being noted down if at the same time they speak to each other. At the end of their reading, those who sit facing each other go immediately to sit on the side where the community sits. No brother presumes to read anything privately to someone outside the cloister, unless by chance the abbot in the chapter allows this to someone for the utility of the community. However, this ought to be done most rarely. The brothers who have to read something in church either at Mass or at Matins, ought to listen to it [read] by the armarius; however, the abbot and prior are not required to listen. What is to be read at Mass should be listened to in the space which is between chapter and Terce. What should be read at Matins ought to be listened to in the space before Vespers, or in Lent before Vigils, or if there are no Vigils, before None. If brothers who are sent to duties cannot listen to what they have to read at the specified time, they listen later when they are free. Whoever does not listen to his reading, whether of the cloister or of a workshop, is to acknowledge his fault in chapter. The brother who has to read the first lesson ought to bring the book in which there is what is to be read into the cloister at the time of listening to the lesson, and after all have listened, to return to his place. It is to be noted that in Easter and Pentecost, namely when the subprior, prior, and abbot have to read at Matins, no one is to carry their book into the cloister, but the armarius ought to show them where the reading is. When several readings are read at Mass, the brother who is reading the epistle ought to bring the epistolary into the cloister and return it after listening. The brothers should not censure nor reproach one another during the time for speaking, except in private. When anyone wishes to say something to his brother, he does not speak long, nor ought he to make a lot of noise. However, the warden ought to be careful that the time for signaling does not pass by while the brothers are speaking. When he signals, immediately all are to prepare themselves to go into the cloister just as at chapter, and let those who wish go to the dormitory and immediately return. No one goes into the parlor unless he is called by the abbot or

T he book of the order



131

prior. After the second bell is rung for a little while, when the sign is given, they go into the church in procession. 35. The Refectory

All brothers ought to convene at the refectory both for lunch and dinner, except the cellarer and the custodians of the monastery and the cloister. If anyone misses, he asks pardon for it in chapter and indicates the reason for staying behind. When the gong is struck, if the brothers are in the church, they go out in procession to the washroom when the hour is finished. But if they are sitting in the cloister, at the first strike of the gong they rise up immediately, return the books to the armarium, and arrange themselves in order in the cloister, just as we determined for the chapter. When all the brothers are thus gathered, the prior again strikes the gong and the brothers rise immediately and with the juniors leading and the seniors following, as they did before the chapter, they go in procession to the washroom. When they arrive they put themselves in order according to the limit of the washroom. If they cannot all wash at the same time, the juniors wash first, then the seniors. When each one has washed and wiped his hands, they come and stand above on the side toward the entrance to the refectory, on both sides, facing each other, arranged according to the choirs, until everyone has washed. No one who is to eat should remain in the parlor at that time, but as soon as the brothers come to the washroom, he ought to go out and wash his hands with the others. In addition, the one who is in charge of the community ought to be especially careful that after the brothers wash he does not cause a delay and so make them wait longer outside the refectory. When the abbot is proceeding to the washroom, the prior strikes the gong once and immediately all proceed in order so that no one presumes to run ahead or to disturb the order. When they enter the refectory the two choirs divide in opposite directions on both sides near the tables. They do not approach through the middle but separately in two parts, in order, one on either side, two by two, and so proceed to their places, the juniors remaining below and the seniors always going up to the higher places according to their order. When each one comes to his place, he bows to the cross which is painted at the front of the refectory. Then they stand before the tables, turned to face the high table, awaiting the abbot’s arrival. After the community has entered the refectory, no one wishing to enter may

132

T he book of the order

insert himself between the abbot and the community. When the lord abbot arrives, he proceeds through the middle of the refectory. When he is crossing between the two choirs from the front, immediately all turn as one, and standing facing each other, when he crosses in front of them they bow to him. When he has passed by, they stand up facing the high table until all the community has turned in that direction. The abbot, ascending to the high table, strikes the little bell. If it happens that the abbot, coming from outside, discovers the bell has been struck or the verse said, he enters while the one who struck the bell returns to his seat after the bell has been rung enough. But if he is already reseated, he does not enter. The prior does likewise. However, he ought to avoid this as much as possible, so that it does not happen very often. The bell having been rung, the week’s leader of the response at the Liturgy of the Hours begins the Benedicite89 appropriately and with restraint, not too loudly, and when he begins all say the Benedicite together as one, so that no one begins before him or with a loud voice. At the Glory to the Father all turn toward one another and bow. Having ended the Glory with As it was, they say Lord have mercy three times, then Our Father in silence. Then the priest who sang the Major Mass will stand up and having turned toward the high table he says the verse And lead us not [into temptation]. The choir responds But deliver us from evil. Then standing and not turning in different directions, with one hand raised, he makes a cross with the words of benediction, just as it is. When he comes to the Through our Lord, the lector advances and coming forward, he stands before the steps opposite the middle, bowing. When the priest says Forever, the choir rises and turns toward the high table and stands erect. After the Forever and ever is completed, when the chorus responds Amen, the lector rises and says, Lord, order a blessing. Then the lord abbot gives the blessing; the lector does not move from his place while the blessing is being given, but when it is said, he stands up, bowing. When the blessing is finished and the choir is responding Amen, he rises and immediately ascends to the lectern and begins to read. The brothers, having responded Amen, proceed to be seated, each one in his own seat, modestly and reverently, without excessive speed or noise, nor rolling back the table linens before the first verse of the reading is finished. The lector ought to have looked ahead and marked the place of the reading so that he begins without delay. If anyone enters the refectory from when the verse is begun, that is, The eyes of all [wait upon you, O Lord, and you give them their food in due season; you open your hand and satisfy the desire of every living

T he book of the order



133

thing]90 or at dinner The poor shall eat and be satisfied; [those who seek him will praise the Lord; let your heart live forever],91 until the priest says Bless us, Lord, and your gifts,92 he does not go to his place, but remains in the last place and then after the blessing goes to his place. Once the priest begins the blessing no one enters the refectory until it is complete. If anyone goes into the refectory who cannot enjoy ordinary food because of infirmity and therefore always needs to have something other than what the community has together, he should not himself ask the cellarer for this constant change, but first he ought to indicate his infirmity and need privately to the abbot and ask humbly for what he needs from him. And if the abbot wishes to indulge him, if it has been granted privately, at the command of the abbot, the brother who has the need asks for mercy before his brothers in chapter, so that there may not be scandal among the brothers over his recurring change. If anyone for any unexpected and temporary occasion needs some change, he ought to be careful not to do it frequently and without the permission of the abbot lest it become a habit. He also ought to take care not to ask outside the time that is for asking, but when he desires it, he asks in a timely way. If he asks for something outside the time for doing so, he must be patient if he does not receive it. All ought to be careful about this, so the cellarer does not become weary from the frequent changes and different preparations. Whenever anyone cannot eat from one dish because of infirmity, the cellarer can minister to him generously from another dish. Without the permission of the abbot, no one in the refectory can, because of any infirmity, ask for fish from the cellarer. But if at any time fish or anything else is set before those who are ill, out of mercy, the others who are stronger should not be bothered by it. If out of kindness the cellarer wishes to give something more to the infirm who eat in the refectory, he sends it through to the refectory, and the refectorian distributes it to the infirm just as the cellarer directs him. When anything is given specially out of mercy to anyone who is ill, he should not then give it to anyone else. However, the refectorian can give any of what remains to someone else whom he sees can use it. The one who places it and the one before whom it is placed bow toward one another. When the abbot or whoever sits at the high table sends something to someone, first he bows to the one who brings it, then rising up he humbles himself toward the abbot. When someone who is not ill is sent something, he can give it to those sitting at his right and left, but they ought not give it to anyone else.

134

T he book of the order

If he gives it only to one, that person can give it to the one next to him but it does not proceed further. No one is allowed to send anything to anyone, either out of the refectory or into the refectory, not the prior or the subprior, but only the abbot. If anyone among those eating or serving offends in any way, he asks pardon in front of the step, and when the abbot makes a sound, he rises and bows and returns to his place. No one there is to wash a bowl with their hand, but whoever wishes may wipe it. No one there wipes hand or knife with a napkin, unless he first wipes it with bread. Whoever wishes to take salt takes it with a knife. Whoever drinks holds the bowl with two hands. If anyone sees someone lacking something which he ought to have, he nods to the refectorian. When claustrals have some need to go out of the refectory, whether they are going to return or not, they may not exit without permission. Officials who go out for some necessity but are going to return do not receive permission. If anyone wishes to go out without returning, he goes to the step before the abbot and having received permission for going, he bows there and says in silence the verse of the grace. After he finishes We give thanks to you, Almighty God, rising up he goes out singing God have mercy on me93 and completes his thanksgiving. If something occurs so that one of the brothers who is eating and has not completed the meal has to go out, if he cannot return to the meal at a proper hour, let him return and eat when the servers eat. When the lord abbot sees all the brothers have stopped eating, he gives the signal for gathering the leftover food and then he rolls up his napkin and puts down the remains of the food, and when they have heard the signal, all the others do the same. No brother should presume to place the leftovers before himself or roll up his napkin, until the lord abbot has given the signal. If one of the brothers has eaten first, he does not leave the table bare by going back from the other side, but he may sit, leaning back a little, lowering his head and hiding his hands in his folded clothing. However when the signal is given, the two brothers who are going to collect the leftovers, after theirs are set out, get up and collect the leftovers from the tables on both sides. Then the lord abbot, when he wishes, directs the reader to say But you [Lord, have mercy on us].94 Immediately saying But you [Lord, have mercy on us], when the choir has responded, Thanks be to God, he descends and comes before the steps near the middle and bows and then turns and goes to his place. Afterwards the lord abbot rings the bell, and immediately all brothers rise up and, descending, stand before the table at their places,

T he book of the order



135

turned toward the high table. Then the lord abbot gets up and rings the bell. When the ringing has stopped, the brothers say grace. The one who intoned the Benedicite begins it, the others following on the same tone. At Glory, all turn toward each other and bow until the psalm. At Forever, Amen, the priest rises, stands in front of the high table, and says We give thanks to you, Almighty God. When this is finished, when the psalm begins, all rise up and first bow toward the cross. Then they go out in procession, singing the psalm, beginning with the cantor of the week. All those present for the thanksgiving ought to enter the choir, and no one is to remain outside except the lector, the almoner, the servers, and the ill of the retrochoir. The lector, almoner, and servers remain outside at the entrance to the church; the sick stop before the entrance of the choir, withdrawing some distance. The others enter the choir and go to their seats; they face each other, that is, they are turned toward the choir, and end the psalm. At the Glory they bow, and at the Lord have mercy they prostrate themselves. If it is a feast, they only bow until the grace is finished. While they bow, the priest ought to say And [lead] us not, rise, and standing before the altar, he finishes the grace. If None or Vigils of the Dead ought to be said immediately before they go out, let them be said. When it is finished, they go to the washroom in procession, and returning from there in procession, they sit in cloister. When they go into the dormitory for the midday break after lunch, let them go from the grace, and, just as is said above, proceed to the washroom. After all have washed, they return in procession and go up to the dormitory, so that no one remains in the cloister or enters the parlor or turns aside anywhere. The one who has charge of the community enters the dormitory last after everyone else. Likewise, as soon as the servers have eaten, they go up to the dormitory. But if anyone needs to remain for any reason, let him ask permission from the abbot, and when he receives it, he should not delay either in the cloister or in the parlor, but immediately go out to whatever caused him to stay behind. Whoever stays behind without permission begs mercy the next day in chapter and indicates the reason for which he stayed. As soon as the community has gone out, those who have to eat with the servers ought to convene in the refectory and together say the blessing, eat, and again give thanks. If any of them is absent and does not eat then, he acknowledges his fault in chapter. When the abbot eats with the servers, if anyone comes from outside after he sits down and wishes to eat, he goes before the abbot, or before the prior if he sits in the place of the abbot, and asks permis-

136

T he book of the order

sion to eat. Likewise, if he wishes to go out, he receives permission. As often on Saturday as the brothers go out from the choir because of the mandatum, they ought to wash their feet immediately; they do not go to the washroom but they wash their feet. 36. The Hour of Collation

It pertains to the abbot, just as we said of the chapter, that, when he sees it is time, he has the bell rung for collation. But if the hour of ringing the bell comes and the abbot is busy elsewhere, the church warden ought to look for the abbot and indicate that it is the time. All ought to be present for collation and Compline; only the cellarer can be absent from Compline. Collation is sounded in the same way that chapter is sounded. When they hear it sounded, all of the brothers, wherever they are, gather in the cloister in the same way as we said about chapter and arrange themselves in order. In winter, when collation is sounded later, when he hears it sounded, the brother who carries the lantern ought to light the lamp in the chapter room immediately, and if it is needed, also prepare the shielded lamp with a candle, and when it is ordered he lights the candle. Then he returns and places the lantern in the middle area before the abbot and goes to sit at the entrance of the church on the lower step of that entrance. When the abbot gives the signal, he takes the lantern, and holding it up high with his hand, he proceeds. When he comes to the entrance of the chapter, he remains there before its entrance, and turning aside to the right, he allows the community to pass in front of him, while he stands outside near the entrance, holding the lantern high and providing light for those entering, until all the brothers enter the chapter. After all have entered, he sets down the lantern and goes to his seat. The lord abbot and the other brothers immediately sit when they enter the chapter room. After all are seated, the lector says, Lord, order a blessing and the abbot adds the blessing. If the reading is to be concluded in the chapter, the lord abbot orders But you [Lord, have mercy on us] and then having responded, Thanks be to God, all rise up. With the lantern going ahead, they go in procession into the church to Compline. If the reading is not to be finished in chapter, when he wishes, the lord abbot gives the signal and the lector stops, immediately takes up the book and the shielded lantern, and all rising, with the lantern preceding, if such is the season, they go with light in procession to the refectory. Then, a little bell is rung in a restrained way

T he book of the order



137

by the lord abbot, and after a blessing said by the priest, at the response Amen, the lector, standing at the head of the high table, then sits first and reads. The one who is closest in order after the brother who reads brings him a drink. If the one who reads is last, the one who is in the next highest place to him brings him a drink. In wintertime, if it is needed, the brother who carries the lantern lights the candles in front of the brothers, and first in front of the abbot. When he has gathered the candles, he leaves one burning above the step. When the abbot wishes, he may order the reader to say, But you [Lord, have mercy on us]. Then the lector drinks, and after drinking, he comes before the step and bows toward the middle. After this, the abbot strikes the bell once and all rise up. After the abbot has said Blessed be the name of the Lord and the brothers have responded From now until forever, after they bow to the cross, they go in procession into the church. The brother who carries the lantern in winter ought to light the lamp which is in the dormitory while Compline is said or even before Compline, if it is necessary. In the summer the warden ought to light it, when the time comes. Near the end of Compline, or if the psalmi familiares are said, near the end of them, the brother who carries the lantern lights the candle and goes before the step in his place, that is where he ought to stand for the trina oratio. Everything being completed, the brothers proceed into the middle of the choir and arrange themselves at the trina oratio just as at Matins. Having finished the trina oratio, they sign themselves and then, with the lantern preceding, they go out. The weekly priest goes ahead and stands in the passage to the side near the blessed water and sprinkles those who cross by. The brother who carries the lantern remains near the entrance to the dormitory, so that the light shines both inside and out. When all have passed except the abbot, the procession stops and they turn toward one another. Standing in front of the window in the entrance, the lord abbot says, The Lord be with you and all respond in restrained voice, And with your spirit. Then he says the prayer Hear us, holy Lord, [almighty Father, eternal God, and deign to send your holy angel from heaven to guard, cherish, protect, visit, and defend all who live in this house],95 just as it is, ending Through Christ our Lord, and when all respond Amen, each one goes to his bed. However, when the blessing is finished, the brother who carries the lantern goes from the place where he stood near the abbot to the lamp and lights it, if it is not already lit. It is to be known that at no time from when day turns into night until it grows light the next day, should the dormitory be without light.

138

T he book of the order

37. The Dormitory

All sleep in the dormitory except those whom illness compels to be absent. In this room of quiet before other places, especially when the community is here, each one ought to maintain himself more quietly, modestly, and religiously. When the community is here, no one ought to make a sign to another, or to fix eyes on another, or scatter their bedding, or cast off clothing, or make any noise, or to go to the bed of another, or to go anyplace barefoot, or enter the latrine with head uncovered. When he has entered there, he ought as far as possible, to hide his face in his hood. When anyone wishes to put on or remove shoes, he ought to do it from his underclothes. No one climbs onto the bed upright, but from the bedframe turns his feet onto the bed and with discipline lays himself down. He does not undress himself first, before drawing up the covers as far as his elbows. While the brothers sleep, if anyone needs to get up, then he gently gets up and gently goes and returns and gently opens and closes the door of the latrine so softly that he does not awaken anyone. Likewise, whoever enters or exits while the community is there steps gently. No one may sit, sing, or read at the lamp which is in the dormitory. Likewise, no one ought to read at his bed with a candle. If any brother needs to prepare an antiphon or response when Matins is sung, he lights the candle in the retrochoir near the lectern and prepares what he wishes to prepare. While Matins is sung, the dormitory is never left without a custodian. When the community is in the dormitory, no one leaves without permission. When the community is not there, no one presumes to lie down there, unless he first asks for permission. When a brother rises from bed, he does not negligently throw off his covers, but properly stretches them out on top. As often as the brother has need, he may enter the dormitory, but he should not dawdle or sit here, except while he puts on or takes off his shoes, or when changing clothes, which he ought to do appropriately and cautiously, so that he does not appear nude. As often as anyone wishes to stretch out his bed, he ought to do it while the brothers are in cloister. No one may shake out his clothes with sticks there, but when he wishes to shake them out, he carries them to the grass and there in front of the brothers he shakes them and lays them out. When the community is not there, no one ought to signal to anyone else in the dormitory without great necessity, or to go to the bed of another, except by chance the abbot allows it or orders him to. No one is allowed in their cloaks without the cape, neither by

T he book of the order



139

day nor by night do they enter the latrine without the hood. The beds of the dormitory are so low that no one may at any time have anything underfoot in front of the bed. Only a mat of rushes can be had there. In summer at the midday hour he who wishes can read in the dormitory, but he ought to beware not to make noise when he turns pages. In that hour the brothers ought to lie down clothed and beware lest their feet extend beyond the bed or on the bed appear inappropriately bare. 38. Receiving Permissions

Permissions can be received in two ways, namely, by word or by sign. Whoever asks for permission by word says plainly what he wishes to do. However, whoever asks for permission by sign, if he cannot through sign indicate clearly what he wishes, ought to indicate afterwards to the one who granted the permission what he did, when the opportunity comes. When the lord abbot is in choir, if anyone is going to ask for permission to sing Mass, or any are going out of the community, he ought to ask it from him, even if he has vested to sing the Major Mass. No permission is asked from another as long as it can be asked from him, that is, until the offering is done. Likewise as long as he can be found by anyone within the workshops of the entire monastery, it is not for the prior to give him permission for going outside, or bloodletting, or changing beds in the dormitory, or speaking with someone from the world. However, he can give permission for a brother to speak with an equal brother concerning necessary things and to drink and such things if the lord abbot is not within the cloister. If a brother who has received permission for anything from the prior encounters the abbot, he ought to ask from him permission for that thing. If someone has need to do something other than the community way of doing things, the abbot can privately relax the rigor of the communal institution for the time, but if this needs to last a while, the brother ought to indicate the necessity to the abbot in chapter before his brothers, and from him ask mercy. Whenever the abbot gives anyone permission, whether in secret or before the brothers, the abbot ought to define clearly the permission granted him, and he should not presume anything beyond what was given to him. If the abbot sees that he to whom he gave permission does not wish to return to the common practice when now he can, he first admonishes him privately, and if

140

T he book of the order

he disdains to hear, he reveals it to the prior and the senior brothers, and finally if the brother cannot be corrected in private, he states his negligence before all in chapter. Whoever wishes to ask for mercy for something in chapter, ought to indicate this to the abbot before the chapter. Afterwards, if the abbot concedes to him, coming before the abbot in chapter he prostrates himself and asks for permission for what he needs before everyone. This is also what those who ask to be released from their office do. When regular Hours are being said and in the silence which is before chapter and that before collation, no one ought readily to ask permission to go outside. Whoever needs to go outside for comfort for some infirmity, ought to do it during the speaking period, having first received permission. Whoever, having received permission, goes out before the regular Hour should return as soon as the hour is struck. If anyone frequently and inconveniently pesters the abbot for permission, whether for speaking, going out or even riding, if the abbot, reproaching him privately, cannot curb him from asking for permission of this kind, he reveals it to the prior and senior brothers, and both how often he seeks permission and how often he has given it to him, reminding them that they should reproach him privately and restrain him from this wandering. If he does not wish to give in, the abbot says it in chapter before all the brothers. Whoever in the absence of the abbot receives some permission which pertains to the abbot alone, in the chapter or from the one who is in charge of the community, should reveal it to the abbot privately after he returns, and ask that permission be granted from him. No one ought to enter the regular parlor without permission, except the prior and subprior and those who are assigned by office. Those assigned by office can enter into the parlor and speak among themselves about things that are necessary, but they should not by any means invite claustrals there without permission. The ministers themselves, when they enter there to speak for whatever necessary reason, ought not to stand or sit for a long while, but as it is necessary they speak briefly and immediately exit. The abbot and prior can call whomever they wish into the parlor. Without permission, claustrals should not summon one another without permission, nor an official a claustral, nor a claustral an official. When those who have received permission enter the parlor, they do not sit there long, nor speak loudly, nor may many congregate there, but at most four. However, with either the abbot or the prior, as many as they wish can be present. No one may miss the beginning of

T he book of the order



141

an Hour because of speaking. When anything is being sung in choir, no one sits in the parlor or lingers there. Likewise, whenever the convent processes in front of the parlor, no one ought to sit in that room or even be visible, except that the abbot may sit in the parlor while the brothers go to the washroom, if it pleases him. No one enters a procession from the parlor or the parlor from a procession. No one from outside, not even a monk or a canon, is led into the regular parlor for speaking. Brothers who ask for permission to speak to one another may speak in no other place than the regular parlor. No one calls another from the cloister into the other parlors except the abbot and prior alone. In that silence which is before chapter and collation, no one among all of them ought to call anyone into the parlor, not one official another, or an official a claustral, or one claustral another, without great necessity. 39. Those Who Go Out into the Retrochoir

Whenever the onset of illness compels anyone of those who are in choir to leave, when he has signaled the fact of his illness to the one who is in charge of the community, he goes out into the retrochoir and sitting down waits there until the Hour is finished. When the Hour is finished, they go with the others into the cloister. However he who is in charge of the community ought to call for him at the first opportunity, so that he knows about his illness. He ought to inquire diligently about the quality and quantity of his infirmity, and the sick person ought to reveal it to him in all aspects. If the illness is such that he does not need to leave the cloister or go into the infirmary, the abbot tells him that he may sit in the retrochoir and be at peace there. He is allowed to be in the retrochoir for illness. In all other things he keeps his order just as those who are in choir, and he does not presume to go beyond what has been conceded to him. If while Matins are being said, because of his illness he cannot remain awake for long or sit in the retrochoir, when the others get up for Matins, he gets up, and if he is alone, with the candle lighted, says Matins quickly in the retrochoir, and afterwards with permission goes to rest. Likewise if there are only two, either sick or diminished by bloodletting, if they wish to go to rest, they say Matins in the retrochoir. But if there are three or more, they sing Matins in the appointed place. Those who are in the retrochoir because of illness assemble in the church without delay just like the other brothers whenever any hour is struck. While the others are in the choir, they sit

142

T he book of the order

in the retrochoir. For they ought not to sit elsewhere in the church or go out into the cloister to sit or walk around. For the processions, both on Sundays and on feast days, and those done for the dead, on Ash Wednesday, on the Lord’s Supper for the foot washing of the poor, at Vespers during Easter, at a major litany, and on rogation days, the sick who are in the retrochoir ought to enter the choir and go to their seats a little before the procession. At other processions, which are daily, namely, whenever the community exits from the choir into the cloister, it is appropriate that they come together before the superior at the entrance to the choir and they join the procession just as their order demands. Every time the brothers enter the choir in procession, the infirm wait there, and when the whole procession has passed, they go into the retrochoir. It is to be known that when the brothers enter the choir but are going to go out again at once, the infirm stay in place where we already said they ought to stay and again wait until, when the procession is going out, they join it. At the blessing of the novices they come to the step of the sanctuary with the others. When the brothers are to receive communion, at Lamb of God they enter into the choir and go to their places. Likewise, when the cross is to be adored, at My people96 they enter the choir in their place. On the Purification of Saint Mary, just like those who are in the choir, those in the retrochoir hold lit candles, and they make their offering at the offering after the community.97 If the one who leaves the choir for illness has to sing or read or do something, he ought to indicate to the armarius or someone else who will do it for him. Likewise anyone who has to do something, if he cannot, commends it to someone else. As long as a brother is in the retrochoir, he should not be placed on the tablet of assignments. The infirm who are in the retrochoir, at Te Deum laudamus,98 the Benedictus,99 the gospel, and the Magnificat100 ought to stand if they can; at other times they do not need to stand. When anyone receives permission to miss any Hour due to illness, if the illness is alleviated at the very next Hour and he desires to enter, he can enter without permission. If a brother who goes only into the retrochoir for several days due to illness and in all other things keeps his duties just as the others, wishes to return to the choir when his illness lifts, entering the choir through the upper entrance in the presence of the community he asks permission to enter from the one in charge of the community and thus he goes to his place. He does not ask for pardon in chapter for this sort of illness. While a sick person is in the retrochoir, the abbot ought, as is suitable, to call that infirm one

T he book of the order



143

to him and ask him what he needs from him. If he understands that it is necessary for him to go to the infirmary only to eat, he ought to tell the infirmarian to lead the sick brother into the infirmary at meal time, and lead him back when the meal is complete. That brother ought not to go into the infirmary before the time of the meal or without a guide, nor ought he to tarry there after eating. He goes in silence, he eats in silence, and he returns in silence. A sick person of this kind keeps to the order of those who are in the retrochoir, except that he goes into the infirmary for meals, and when he returns to the community he asks mercy in chapter for being in the infirmary. If one among those in the retrochoir has such infirmity that it is necessary to go walking frequently, so that he does not cause a scandal for his brothers by coming and going, in chapter the abbot defines limits for him for how long and which hours, and with whom and where he ought to go for walking. But if the illness strengthens to such a degree that the brother who is infirm can no longer be in the retrochoir, at the order of the abbot, he is completely separated from the community and led into the infirmary. 40. The Ill Who Are in the Infirmary

In the infirmary there are three types of patients. There are those who lie in bed all the time. There are others who are recovering from their illness and now can get up and walk, but who are still in the infirmary to regain their strength. There are others who do not have this sort of illness and yet regularly eat and sleep in the infirmary, such as the aged, the blind, the crippled, and the like. No law regarding food, nor silence, nor any observance is placed on those who do not get out of their beds. The aged, the crippled, and others like them have this law, that they ought always to keep silence in the infirmary from Compline until after chapter the next day, while the regular Hours are said, and in the summer at the mid-day siesta. They are to eat and be nourished by the same foods as those in the refectory and at the same times, except if sometime the lord abbot provides more plentifully for one of them or even all, as may be appropriate. They do not lighten the customary fasts, except by permission of the abbot. Like the rest of the brothers, infirm people of this kind ought to come into the retrochoir in the church, to chapter, collation, and the other Hours of the day, and at times of silence and of speaking to sit with the other brothers in the cloister.

144

T he book of the order

Because they sleep in the infirmary, they can go there as often as they have the need. If in other things they offend and transgress the ordered statute established for them, they ask mercy in chapter just like everyone else. If any one of them needs some waiver, let the abbot tell him in chapter in front of the brothers in what way and to what extent a waiver is granted. When the community goes into the refectory after collation, they are to stay in the chapter room and say Compline there, just like those who are weakened due to bloodletting, or they may go into the retrochoir and listen, and afterwards they go to rest in the infirmary. However, the infirm who are recovering from their illness keep the silence determined above as long as they are in the infirmary because they understand it is not necessary to be speaking frequently due to their infirmity. It is conceded to infirm people of this kind for the restoration of their strength that they eat as often and whatever they need. If they are well enough, they go to Mass and to other Hours in the retrochoir and to the blessing of the novices. It is not permitted for them to linger in the cloister, or to associate and speak in signs with the brothers who are in charge of the community, but as far as possible they should try not to be seen either by them or by others. At the end of a liturgical Hour, those who are ill in this way go out from the choir into the infirmary before the brothers go out into the cloister. The one who is convalescing ought to be careful never to presume to go to the church or anywhere unless he first shows to the abbot that he can and asks him for permission. Before the abbot concedes anything to him, he should inquire diligently about his ability, and, even if he begs, concede nothing to him unless he sees him to be able to endure it. After the sick one is entirely healthy, namely, he can do all his duties, he ought to indicate this to the abbot, and if the abbot concedes it to him, come into chapter and ask for mercy and assume his rank among the others. If someone becomes well enough that it is no longer necessary for him to stay behind in the infirmary, either for meals or to sleep, but he cannot be in the choir with the others, if he asks for it the abbot can concede to him in chapter that he may be in the retrochoir. After this is conceded to him, he keeps his place among those who are in the retrochoir, not doing anything except what is conceded to him. If there is someone else who no longer wants to sleep in the infirmary or remain there throughout the day, but also not to be with others in the choir and the refectory, if he asks, it may be conceded to him by the abbot in chapter that he sits in the retrochoir and he goes to the infirmary only at meal times and returns immediately after eating. But if anyone has

T he book of the order



145

such an infirmity that he is not strong enough to stay in community in any way, nor to improve in the infirmary, let his infirmity be made known in chapter and then he may go into the church, where and how the abbot provides. Let him sing, read, and work as his infirmity allows and as the abbot decides. If anyone has some kind of infirmity that neither debilitates him greatly nor curbs his appetite for eating, such as swelling of the feet or a cut or anything like that, whether he is in the community or in the infirmary, he does not lie on the mattress or lessen the customary fasts, or change the food of the refectory. On those who are in the infirmary, the discipline of quiet is imposed, so that they do not go far beyond the infirmary, and especially so that they never appear in the court or where outsiders have access or gather. They do not wander through other rooms and corners of the house, nor do they initiate conversation with other brothers working or staying outside the community; rather, they rest in the infirmary or they sit quietly in front of the infirmary. If sometimes they need to walk, they walk as much as the abbot determines, modestly and religiously, on the level space that is open in the view of the infirmarian within the enclosure. If anyone asks to go outside to walk, he goes with whom and where the abbot directs. In the infirmary they can sit or walk in their furs or mantles, so that they never presume to go outside without their capes or cloaks. When they sit or walk in their cloaks in front of the infirmary, it is conceded to them to wear hoods or woolen hats to protect their heads. No one ought to enter the infirmary except the abbot, prior, and infirmarian, and his helper, unless sent, and when someone is sent, he is not to speak without permission. No one else ought to linger or sit down around the infirmary, where the place is for the ill to walk. Those who come to them ought not to bring news, except that the infirmarian ought to tell them if in chapter everyone has been generally required to say some prayers, or if something is established or changed in the common life, or if they were called out. Those who are in the infirmary ought not to become bothersome by requiring superfluity or diversity of food. If the abbot sends anyone from the community to eat in the infirmary during winter due to the cold, he will partake of the same food as the community and as soon as he has eaten, he returns to the community. If he is one of the juniors or one of those who regularly frequent the community, he neither leaves nor returns without someone to lead him. If any of those who are assigned offices is sick, while he is in the infirmary the abbot provides someone who fills his office and he, as others who are in the infirmary, keeps

146

T he book of the order

his order. If anyone of those who are in the infirmary is such that he disturbs others, or he mutters about this arrangement of the infirmary, or does not stop his transgressions in something, he is to be corrected. If though often corrected he does not mend his ways, if it seems so to the abbot, his perversity is announced in chapter, where accusation is proclaimed before the brothers. If indeed even this does not correct him, if his illness allows, he is also subjected to the regular discipline.101 41. The Office of the Circator102

The circator is chosen from all the congregation of those more religious and more fervent in the order, who will never call out others wickedly out of a personal hatred, nor for a personal friendship remain silent about the negligences of anyone. His duty is to go around the workshops of the monastery and observe the brothers’ negligences and transgressions of the order.103 Whenever he makes a circuit, he ought to advance very religiously and methodically, so that he strikes fear in those who see him and shows an example of following the divine law. Indeed he ought to make the circuit silently and sternly; he should never speak or make a sign to anyone, but only studiously scrutinize and inspect offenses and negligences. He can make a circuit at all times except the hour of chapter and collation, namely, when the doors of the cloister are already closed, and likewise at night, after everyone, officials and others, are lying down. He ought to make sure diligently that no one is ever absent from regular Hours without a reason, and that no one speaks to another where or when he ought not to. When the prayer has been said in the dormitory after Compline, he takes up the lantern, if it is needed, and coming into the cloister, he shines it throughout: through the chapter, parlors, refectory, and other workplaces. He should not go out into the courtyard, but he can look into it from the exterior door of the parlor and the other doors which are connected to the courtyard. He ought to pay careful attention whether anyone is in the cellar, the refectory, or any other place, and see why he is there, and also what is going on in the house of the sick, whether the sick are gathered together and how they have kept themselves. It is not necessary for him to go to the bed of each one, but standing in the middle of the infirmary, he moves the light in a circle so that he can see everything. Then returning, he goes up to the dormitory, and crossing through the middle he turns the light of the lantern toward the beds

T he book of the order



147

of the brothers, and looking here and there whether they keep themselves according to the rule in all things. This done, he extinguishes the candle. While the brothers are eating, he can without permission leave the refectory and make his circuit, but in such a way that he returns for grace. When he finds any talking together, in so far as he can as he passes by, he listens to determine if they are speaking out of order or speak with permission. They say to him We are speaking with permission; otherwise, they should leave and he should call them out in chapter. If he comes upon someone speaking with an outsider, he who is speaking ought not to excuse himself in any way, but after he with whom he was speaking leaves, he indicates to him whether he was speaking with permission or not. He who is in charge of the community, except the abbot, can help the circator in making the rounds, as needed and as they agree among themselves. It is to be noted that if there are several circators, they should not go together, but rather when one leaves a place, another enters not long after. The circator ought to be heard most attentively and reverently in chapter. The abbot ought also to provide some brothers, one or two or however many he wishes, to whom the circator may entrust his office when he is not able to do it. The circator can go in and out of the regular Hours without permission, but his seating is not changed on that account. 42. Communion

It is to be known that every Sunday the deacon and subdeacon ought to receive communion. Therefore every Sunday immediately after the epistle the deacon ought to pull down the vessel in which the Body of the Lord is contained, which hangs over the altar, and place it on the altar which is situated behind it before he unfolds the corporal. After the Lamb of God, while the priest communicates, the same deacon carries the vessel back to the high altar. After the priest has communicated and after the first consuming, the subdeacon has poured the wine into the chalice, and the priest has held out the paten from the left side of the altar, the deacon places the hosts from this vessel on the paten, and then the priest, taking those other two which lie on the altar, puts them in this vessel. The deacon leaves that vessel on the altar until he leaves after the Mass, and then he returns from the vestry to the altar with the subdeacon and returns it to its place. Therefore the

148

T he book of the order

deacon, approaching communion facing the middle of the altar, rolls back his alb, genuflects, and thus receives with reverence the Body of the Lord held out by the priest. Then the priest ministers to him from the chalice in the same way, which he receives by taking the chalice in his right hand and placing his left under his chin. Indeed, the deacon, holding the foot of the chalice in his right hand, brings it to his mouth, just as he sees fit to receive it. Once he sees this, he may rise and pray. The subdeacon communicates in the same way. But on the day when the whole community ought to communicate, immediately after passing the peace, the Lamb of God is recited repeatedly. When it is said, the brothers who are to communicate pull off their capes (cappas) and lay them on their seats. Then they ascend to the altar from both sides of the choir in procession into the sanctuary, the juniors preceding, and they station themselves facing the altar from both sides, just as in choir. Then the abbot communicates, after that the deacon and subdeacon, in the way told above, then he first beckons to the brothers who are to communicate, and at the same time they sing the I confess. That being said, he should add the absolution, even if, singing Mass elsewhere, he goes into the choir. If the lord [abbot] has to communicate first, then after he has responded Amen to the absolution, he approaches communion first; after him those who are from the right hand side of the choir, first seniors, then juniors. Thus likewise those from the left choir communicate. Each one, after he receives the Body of the Lord from the hand of the priest, turns away toward the left end of the altar, where the deacon ministers the chalice, so that while his right hand holds the chalice, he places his left hand under their chin. Those who are truly steady may hold their right hand at the foot of the chalice wrapped in cloth, and they bring it to their mouths as they are ready. While they communicate, the subdeacon ought to stand by the deacon with the wine flask and pour wine into the chalice as often as it is needed. As soon as each one thus communicates, not waiting for the others, he returns to his seat. After the canons communicate, the lay brothers receive; preceding their master and coming before the step of the altar, they arrange themselves parallel from side to side, then they come together at the left side of the altar where they bow profoundly. The abbot gives absolution, and thus they approach communion in order. While they communicate, their master stands in the left part of the sanctuary near the wall and each one, having received communion, coming to him, stops next to him, their faces turned to the east. When all have communicated, they withdraw, their master preceding. Next come the

T he book of the order



149

seculars, if any are communicating. Indeed it is noted that, while the brothers communicate, others who do not receive communion, and likewise those who after accepting communion return to the choir, all together ought to stand with their faces turned toward the altar, except any who, due to illness, may be too tired to stand. While all receive communion, the brothers who are in choir sing the communion chant, and then the deacon with the chalice and the subdeacon with the wine flask cross to the right side of the altar, and the priest, receiving the chalice, sprinkles his fingers, and then does the usual things. Indeed it is known because, as long as the Body of the Lord is on the paten and as long as the chalice is handed over to someone besides the priest, the deacon ought to return it to the altar after Mass with the subdeacon, first having washed it by hand, then to wash out the paten and to pour the ablution into the chalice and he or the subdeacon takes it up. Then the subdeacon having poured water on the chalice and paten inside and out, he washes it in the piscina and then dries it with a towel for this purpose. 43. By What Order the Water Is Blessed on Sunday

On Sunday, when the bell is rung before Terce, the sacristan prepares salt and water on the presbytery step. The priests and other ministers of the altar dress themselves immediately. However all others who have to go into the dormitory before Mass go at that time. When the priest and other ministers are dressed, the bell is rung again for the community to assemble. When they hear it, they all enter the choir together; no one goes anywhere else. When the brothers are gathered in the choir, the priest, preceded by the subdeacon with the cross and then the deacon with the text, proceeds into the choir. Then the subdeacon stops before the step and the deacon after him, the priest climbs the first step of the presbytery. Then the brother who is to carry the candle to the Mass receives the salt cellar with the salt and holds it to the right of the priest, who blesses it, and likewise the water, just as it is in the collectarium. He holds his hand over it while he says the exorcism. When the salt has been put into the water by the priest, the minister puts down the salt cellar and prepares the aspergillium. While the exorcism is occurring, the brothers who are in choir stand facing the altar. When the exorcism is completed, the cantor begins Cleanse me,104 and then the priest, returning the book to the minister, receives from him

150

T he book of the order

the aspergillium, and dipping it in the water, he climbs to the altar. He bows and sprinkles water first in front of the altar. Then, beginning at the right side, he circles it sprinkling, until he returns to the front of it, where bowing he sprinkles the presbyterate on both sides. While the priest sprinkles, his water bearer follows him, carrying the pitcher of water. After he has sprinkled the high altar and the presbyterate, turning to the right he sprinkles the altar of Saint Peter and then turning back to the left he sprinkles the altar of Saint John. Then descending through the middle of the choir to the abbot, bowing, he holds out the aspergillium to him. After the abbot sprinkles both the priest himself and those who are next to him, and himself, he returns the aspergillium to the priest. Then the priest sprinkles in order the brothers who are on the right side of the choir, and then those who are on the left, beginning from the highest to the newest. Afterwards he sprinkles the deacon, the subdeacon, and the water bearer. Receiving the book from him, he goes to stand behind the deacon. When the singing is finished, he says the prayer. When that has been said and the antiphon of Saint Mary begun, the procession descends into the crypt and the priest sprinkles the altars which are there. Then when the antiphon ends, the prayer of Saint Mary is said. When that has been said and the responsory begun, the procession goes out into the cloister and, circulating in front of the dormitory, it stops on the left side near the refectory. The priest, preceded by the water bearer, crosses the refectory and says two prayers, one which pertains to the refectory, the other to the kitchen. Meanwhile, the minister is sprinkling the refectory itself on both sides. Then the priest leaves the refectory, and the procession proceeds to the right side of the cloister, where they station themselves. The priest, preceded by the water bearer, then ascends to the dormitory and says the prayer, while the water bearer is sprinkling the dormitory on both sides. When it is said, the priest, descending, goes to stand behind the deacon and when the singing has ended, he says the prayer. When it is said and the antiphon of Saint Victor begun, the procession enters the choir. The ministers of the procession ascend into the presbytery and the priest stands on the step, so that those who belong to the left side of choir can cross to that choir freely. When the singing is ended, the priest says the prayer and then, from that place where he stands, he begins Terce. Then, bowing to the front and to the back, he descends into the choir to his established place. The subdeacon puts the cross back behind the altar and the deacon puts the text on it. Then they come into the choir next to the priest. While the weekly minister

T he book of the order



151

of the Morning Mass is taking off his cape and putting on his cloak, he receives the stole and, preceded by the water bearer of the preceding week, sprinkles the altars that have not been sprinkled, and the people who are in the church. Then the water bearer pours water into the pitcher, from which the people are sprinkled. Afterwards he goes into the infirmary, and if there is anyone sick there, he says the prayer, while the water bearer sprinkles it. 44. How They Keep Double Feasts

Whenever a double feast happens on a Sunday, the procession is after Terce. In the presence of the sacristan and candle bearer, the priest of the week for the Major Mass prepares holy water privately between the chapter and Terce, clothed in a cloak with a stole at his neck. Then, if he has time before Terce is rung and the brothers convene in the choir, he sprinkles all the altars of the church except the principal altar, and then, preceded by the water bearer, he goes into the dormitory and through the other workplaces. However, after Terce is begun, the same priest, in the same way we have said, sprinkles the principal altar, and then the brothers who are in choir, and the people who are in the church. If there is not time before Terce, then this is done while Terce is sung. 45. The Priest of the Week

When the abbot, prior, and subprior are absent, the priest of the week may complete the office of the subprior in all things, except that he does not wake up the brothers in choir. If he is absent, the priest who stands below him in choir does his duty. If there is no priest below him, the one who is next above him does it. Whenever the weekly priest for whatever reason cannot sing the Mass, he nods in a timely way to someone else to sing it, and that one, without an excuse, if he can sing it, nods his assent. If not, he excuses himself humbly. The deacon and the subdeacon ought to do this same thing. When in the recurring order a priest is put on the duty board (tabula) for celebrating the Major Mass, if he realizes he is not to be able to complete his office for whatever reason, he indicates his reason first to the abbot in private, and then if the abbot nods in assent, he asks for mercy for this in chapter before the brothers. If within his week he begins to become ill, as long as he is

152

T he book of the order

in the retrochoir, he may each day commit the Mass to whomever he wishes. He does the same if his bloodletting occurs during his week. If he grows sicker and goes to the infirmary, he informs the armarius. Likewise if within his week he goes on the road, he indicates this to the armarius, either himself or through another. It is to be noted that when someone near the beginning of his week is directed somewhere or becomes ill, if the armarius sees that for the whole of the following week he can do almost nothing or very little, he ought to indicate to the priest who stands after him in choir that he do the whole of it for him. If the one who is either in the infirmary or on the road returns before the week of the one who does it for him begins, when he arrives, he does it for him. What we say about the priest of the week is to be understood as applying to others who are appointed to weekly tasks, if they become sick or are sent on the road. The lord abbot should not be placed on the tablet for doing anything for a whole week. On the major double feasts, namely when each response is sung by two, he completes the whole Office of the day, and the lord prior ought to sing the Morning Mass. On minor feasts and on Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Pentecost, the lord abbot ought to sing only the Major Mass, and the weekly priest sing the Hours and the Morning Mass. It is to be noted that on the previously mentioned major solemnities and on the three days before Easter and on the vigil of Pentecost, the lord abbot, even if he is deprived of his night’s sleep, ought to sing the Mass. When the abbot is absent, the lord prior ought to fulfill his office, except that at the gospel he does not give the benediction. He does not bless the candles at the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, nor the ashes at the beginning of Lent, nor the palm branches, nor does he give absolution at the beginning of Lent and on Holy Thursday, unless he is vested for the Major Mass; the one who sings the Major Mass ought to do this. Likewise he does not say the I confess at Prime and Compline. On major double feasts, if the abbot is absent, or if he is present but cannot complete his office because of illness or for another reason, he indicates to the prior that he should do it, and the subprior sings the Morning Mass, and then the first antiphon and the first psalm at all Hours, both at night and by day, is said in the left choir. Then if the prior misses any Hour, the priest who stands first after him completes that Office. If the lord abbot has been doing his office, and then by chance he is absent from any Hour, the priest who stands first after him completes his office. When the abbot reads the None readings, if the prior is not there, the same priest

T he book of the order



153

says the blessing standing. It is also to be known that as often as the lord prior himself ought to celebrate the daily Mass, or the Major Mass in the place of the lord abbot, but cannot do it, he ought to indicate to the subprior that he do it, and if he cannot, the weekly priest. Likewise it is to be noted that the week of the Nativity of the Lord, Easter, and Pentecost, ought not to be assigned to anyone specially, but the lord abbot celebrates the first day, and then the priest, deacon, and subdeacon and the brothers who are put down for the invitatory, gradual, and Alleluia, ought to be changed, if there are enough brothers. 46. The Blessings in the Refectory

The priest of the week ought to say the blessings in the refectory. However, if someone else sang the Mass for him, he should say the blessing at lunch only, and the priest of the week should say the others. On double feasts, when the lord prior should sing the Morning Mass, the prior himself ought to say the blessing at the noon lunch only. The priest of the week himself ought to say the others. On double feasts, when the lord prior ought to sing the Morning Mass, the prior likewise ought to say the blessing at the meal. The one who is first in the right choir ought to say the others. Those brothers who are written on the schedule on Saturday for the gradual or Alleluia ought to do that office through the whole following week, unless the list was changed for some double feast. On Sunday and on feasts of nine lessons, they sing both the gradual and the Alleluia, two by two in the middle of the choir. On other days each one sings in turn, so that the one who is at the gradual, namely, he who stands in the part of the priest of the week, first sings the response, the other on another day. The one who sings Alleluia is to be from the other choir. It is to be noted that one of those who are at the gradual, namely, he who stands in the part of the weekly priest, ought to sing the response and the versicle that follows at the Hours every day. The other, that is his associate, says both the response and the verse at the Hours of Saint Mary. Those two brothers who are placed at the first Alleluia on the day of Pentecost, because only one Alleluia is sung during the following week, say both the response and the verse at all the Hours through that entire week by turns as the week itself changes. It is to be known that whoever has to sing, either alone or with someone else, when he comes to the place in the middle of the choir

154

T he book of the order

he ought to bow toward the altar, and when he leaves after singing, first he bows forward and then afterwards backward. When four brothers are put down to sing the invitatory or the tract, they ought to sing together the invitatory and the entire first verse and the last half of the final verse, namely, of both the psalm and the tract, and certainly one of them both the psalm and the tract, and the other verses two by two, and at the tract two of them sing. Meanwhile the other two ought to sit on the benches. Whenever the responses at Matins on double feasts are sung by two, they ought to be sung in front of the sanctuary step. So those who have to sing can be ready, when the reading is read, if they come from above, they go to sit in the lower seats. They bow in the way we said above; at the third, sixth, and ninth responses, they also bow before the Glory to the Father. From the beginning of October until the Easter Vigil the brothers who sing or read specially in the church do not take off their capes except those who on Saturday of the Ember Days (quatuor temporum) read lessons at the Mass. From the Easter Vigil until the beginning of October, whenever two together sing anything either at Matins or at the Mass, they ought to do it in their cloaks, except at the Mass of the Dead and Vigils. Then the brothers sing just as they are in choir, so that two never sing when one is in his cape and the other his cloak, but both are in their capes or both in their cloaks. Likewise those who read at Matins on double feasts take off their capes. At the vigil of Pentecost, when they sing individually, those who read and those who sing ought to take off their capes at Mass. It is to be noted that whoever throughout the day takes off his cape either to read or sing, ought to beware not to remain only in cloak or shirt, but he ought always to have under the cloak either a tunic or a robe. Those who go throughout the day in a cloak should also be careful about this. 47. In Which Order and How the Versicles Are Said

On the side of the choir where the weekly priest stands, the brother who stands last in that choir ought to say Let us bless the Lord, and the middle verse in the nine lessons at Nocturns. If Let us bless the Lord is being said twice on a feast, which is done only on those days in which neither the Hours of Saint Mary nor All Saints are said, that brother who stands last in the other choir ought to say the second Let us bless daily at Prime, at Vespers, and the versicle of Compline, and the first

T he book of the order



155

at Matins before the reading, and the last which is said at Lauds after the hymn. At Matins of Saint Mary the same one says both the versicle before the reading and the first reading and at Lauds the versicle after the hymn, and at Vespers and at Compline. In nine lessons the one who stands after him says the third verse at Nocturns. 48. Reading at Table

On Sunday after the Major Mass, the table reader comes before the sanctuary step opposite the middle of the altar, bows deeply, straightens up and says three times the whole verse Lord, open my lips. Meanwhile the community stands facing the altar. When the priest says Save your servant,105 the lector bows, and the brothers in choir bow toward one another, until the prayer is completed by the priest. He ought to ask the armarius from what and where he ought to read. He receives the mixtum if he wishes. When the brothers go to the lavatory, he carries the book with him. While they wash he enters the refectory and places it on the lectern, and having prepared for a suitable starting point, he leaves it open, and immediately descends so that he is not in the lectern when the community enters. On the days in which there is an explanation of the gospel which was read at Mass, if the whole explanation was not done or almost done at Matins, it is read in the refectory. The readings during the Advent of the Lord are Isaiah, the twelve prophets, sermons on Advent, and Origen’s sermons on Isaiah. The readings from the Birth of the Lord until the octave of Epiphany are explanations of the gospels and sermons suited to the time. Augustine’s Exposition on the Psalter is read from the octave of Epiphany until Septuagesima.106 The readings from Lent until Isti sunt dies107 are the five books of Moses and those following up to the Book of Kings, and Origen’s homilies on the Old Testament, expositions of the gospels, and sermons pertaining to Lent. The readings from Isti sunt dies [Fifth Sunday of Lent/Passion Sunday] until Easter are Jeremiah, Augustine’s exposition on the Passion of the Lord, an exposition on Lamentations and sermons on the Passion of the Lord. The readings for the week of Easter are sermons and expositions on the gospels and the epistle of the week, and Augustine’s exposition on the epistle of John, which begins, Quod fiat ab initio. The readings from the octave of Easter until Ascension are the Apocalypse, the canonical epistles, the epistles of Paul, and Augustine’s exposition on the epistles of Paul. From the

156

T he book of the order

Ascension of the Lord until Pentecost the Acts of the Apostles are read. The readings during the week of Pentecost are the expositions of the gospels and epistles, and sermons pertaining to that time. The readings from the octave of Pentecost until the beginning of July are the book of Kings108 and the homilies of Origen on that book, and afterwards the book of Chronicles. The readings from the beginning of July until the beginning of August are the Proverbs of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, the book of Wisdom, that is “Love justice,” the book of Jesus son of Sirach, and the exposition on Ecclesiastes.109 Job and the Moralia [on Job by St Gregory the Great] are read from the beginning of August until the beginning of September. Tobit, Judith, Esther, and Ezra are read from the beginning of September until the beginning of October. The two books of the Maccabees and four books of the gospels, except the passion of the Lord, are read from the beginning of October until the beginning of November. Ezekiel, Daniel, and the exposition on Ezekiel110 are read from the beginning of November until the beginning of December. It is to be noted that the histories and other things which are read in the church should not be read in the refectory until they are begun in the church. If those readings indicated for a particular time are not sufficient for reading then, the armarius provides something from the tracts of the Fathers suitable to the time for reading in the refectory. On the feasts of the saints their lives or passions are read. The lector of the table reads clearly, distinctly and slowly, and while he reads, he keeps an ear open to the prior, so that when he corrects something, he can understand. If he understands what he corrects, he humbly says so. If he does not understand, he begins the verse again and this he does as many times until he understands the complaint. When he has finished the reading, he leaves the book closed on the lectern and descends without delay. After he eats, he takes the book with him. However, if the book is small, he carries it in his hand while he descends from the lectern. 49. Those Who Are Sent on a Journey

If a brother who is sent on a journey is returning the same day, he receives no blessing when he leaves or when he returns. If he is staying outside the cloister for one night, both on his leaving and on his return he receives a blessing. Those going out or returning, if they cannot do

T he book of the order



157

so after a regular Hour, receive the blessing when the community is in the church having finished singing whatever it may be: a regular Hour, or that of Saint Mary, or the morning or Major Mass, or after grace, or after the Vigils of the Dead, or after the psalmi familiares. Likewise those who go out after the psalms of the chapter, if they cannot wait for Terce to depart, can receive the blessing either in the chapter or in the church. When someone is to receive the blessing right after Mass, the priest who stands at the altar ought to give it. If it is a time of prostration, those who receive the blessing either for leaving or returning position themselves in whatever way they find the community, either standing or prostrate. If indeed it is not a day of prostrating, they only bow. However, if the community is found to be prostrate, they do not rise up until after the blessing is given. But if they are standing, whether it is a day of prostrating or not, he only bows to both chairs (sedilia). However, if he has to depart immediately after receiving the blessing of return, when the choir bows, with his hand raised in front of the priest, he makes the sign of the cross and then immediately receives another blessing for departure. It is to be known that when three or more receive a blessing at the same time, whoever is superior among them ought to be in the middle. When only two are together, then whoever is superior ought to be to the right. Those who are sent on a journey, whatever place they come to, may take the foods which are allowed according to the custom of our order. At the table they do not speak unless they are ordered to speak by a bishop or an abbot. 50. Those Who Return from a Journey

A brother returning from a journey goes to prayer. Entering the oratory, he sprinkles himself with holy water. If the entrance of the oratory is locked, he prays in the chapter room. If he comes during a regular Hour, he goes into the choir, or if he is weary into the retrochoir, having received permission first from the abbot if he finds him outside the choir. Then he does not leave the cloister or enter the parlor without permission. When the regular Hour ends, he receives the blessing. If he comes after Compline, he is allowed to speak of his need. If someone who leaves or comes in from outside does not receive a blessing, he begs for pardon in chapter later. It should be known that when our brother comes into any abbey of our order he holds his rank in all things just as in his own monastery, except that if he is a prior or holds

158

T he book of the order

an obedience, he does nothing there regarding his obedience. However, a prior will hold the first place over the subprior there. 51. The Brothers Who Live at Their Obediences

The brothers who remain at obediences ought to number three in one place, if possible, or at least two. In diet, clothing, beds, and tonsure they ought not to depart from the common institution. At meals they keep silence. In the church they do not speak. They say Compline in both summer and winter at the proper time. They do not run around in settled areas. They do not sit or stay in courtyards or at crossroads without reason. When they come to another’s house or elsewhere they take a servant with them. They do not give women hospitality, but if they wish to bestow something on them with a view to charity, they do so outside in the village. At no time may they ask any woman to do any work or service within the wall of the house. They ought to be very careful never, without consulting the abbot, to gather their relatives around them, or to engage them in their service, nor ought they to grant them anything from the church without the permission of the abbot. Wherever two or more reside together, one of them, on whom the abbot enjoins it, takes the office of the prior among them and the others obey him. If anyone transgresses in anything, he is to be admonished in secret by the prior, a first, second, and third time. If he does not correct himself, it is indicated to the abbot. When those who are with him become aware of someone’s fault, and when he cannot be corrected through them and they have not notified the abbot, when the abbot hears it through someone, with equal judgement he punishes both the one who acts and the one who consents. If sometimes they walk around the cloister of the house to take a walk, they ought to be careful never without the permission of their prior to cross the limit established by the abbot. They do not take oaths or dispute with anyone or speak angrily against anyone. If they have sworn an oath in an inordinate way, or with outsiders, or contended with others in a disorderly fashion, it is for the prior of the place to hasten to announce it to the abbot and to the whole chapter without hiding anything. The abbot, as it seems proper to him, and having consulted the chapter, corrects the guilty brother according to the measure of his fault, either having him brought to him and correcting him publicly or enjoining a suitable penance on him there where he is staying so the others will be afraid.

T he book of the order



159

If the one who offended in the things we said is the prior, the other brothers, in the way we have stated, ought to indicate this to the abbot and the chapter, and when he hears it, the abbot ought to correct him. In those obediences in which more than four are staying, they diligently sing the canonical Hours at the times established, and the Major Mass, and if they cannot do so daily, at least they celebrate it after Terce on Sundays and the feast days which are celebrated by the people. At the time of offering grace after the refectory, they go together into the church. Those who are staying outside should not seek permission to go outside to villages or castles which are in the surrounding area, and if they ask, it is not the prior but only the abbot who gives such permission. When the prior needs to send someone, he can send whom he wishes to where he wishes, or take him with him. Whoever, whether a prior or someone else, comes from an obedience, from the time when he enters the cloister he acts in all things like one of the claustrals, so that he does not go out to his servants or anyone else without permission. If anything irregular either in habit or in tonsure has been noted in those who come from outside, whoever it is is to be rebuked in chapter in front of everyone, and to be corrected as the abbot decrees immediately after chapter. However, those who stay in obediences ought to be most careful that none of them, except the prior, return without the permission of the abbot, unless he is sent by his prior for some reason. 52. How They Ought to Conduct Themselves in the Regular Hours

In all the regular Hours the brothers alternate sitting, so that in the first psalm the first ones sit; the first, for part of the week, and in the other part, the second, so one always finds that when a psalm is finished, one is standing, the next one sitting, from the top on down. Then, when they have come to the Glory, the ones who are sitting stand, and bow with the others. At As it was they arise together. Afterwards at the beginning of the psalm the ones who were previously standing, sit, and those who first were previously sitting, stand; and so until the Glory. It is to be noted that on Sunday, when the daily Office (diaeta) is said, they always alternate sitting and standing in the first nocturn after two psalms, so that they do not stay standing until the Glory. Likewise there are certain lengthy psalms in which the times of sitting are

160

T he book of the order

divided. In May I love you, Lord,111 sitting is changed at With the holy, be holy,112 in Attend, [O my people]113 at How often do they provoke,114 in The mercies of the Lord115 at Then you spoke116 and at the end of that psalm, in Hear, heavens, the things I speak117 at The Lord saw.118 On Saturday, also, from when Hear, Lord, my prayer119 is begun through the individual psalms, the times of sitting are changed. At Prime, whenever two psalms are concluded under one Glory, those sitting always change at the individual psalms. Whenever anyone wishes to know whether he ought to sit or to stand, he always should look at the superiors and arrange himself as the order of alteration requires. Each one ought to take great care not to go out during his time of standing at any time, except for great need. If he does leave, whoever is below him rises up, and stands until the one who left returns. However, those who are close to him can give him their turn to sit by changing places. But if anyone out of those standing who has need to go out will return immediately, he ought to nod to the one who is below him so that he does not move. However, care is to be taken that no more than two sit next to each other in one choir. If anyone causes a disturbance by frequently going out in his time of standing, he is called out in chapter. Whoever goes out without returning, when he receives permission in the presence of others, may go out. When someone goes out with permission, all who are below him immediately change the order of sitting, unless it is the last psalm, and then, if he was sitting, no one moves. If he is standing, only he who is below him stands up. The time of sitting does not change for those who are highest in the choir, neither when they enter nor when they exit. However, we call the higher ones at any Hour those who do not have others above them in the choir. When the two who are sitting, one on each side of someone, simultaneously depart and leave him standing in the middle, he who was left standing in the middle remains seated until one or the other returns. If the second one goes out when he should sit, the first should remain sitting, so that if by chance he has not returned at the time of his standing the one who is next after him does not lose his time for sitting. However, if at the time of his standing he leaves, he first stands. If anyone sitting in the middle of two standing goes out and does not return to his sitting, the lowerranked one stands until he returns, unless by chance the higher-ranked one through charity nods to him that he may be seated. The lord abbot is not figured into the order of sitting. If the lord abbot is absent, and the prior, or in his absence the subprior, goes out, not to come back at the beginning of the Hour before they begin to sit,

T he book of the order



161

he ought to indicate to the first one who follows him in order, that he take his place standing or sitting. If any brother enters the choir after the beginning of the time of sitting and sees no one superior is at his seat, he enters to his place and keeps the order as he finds it. All the others, who are in the middle, if they find all who are of a lower rank still standing, can go in to their seats. If, however, they find those who are of a lower rank, whether one or many, sitting, they do not go to their seats but descend lower to the last seats, and there they hold their order according to what they have found. If two from the same part enter the choir at the same time, and the others are already seated, they may be in the choir just as they came in, without keeping seniority. At the end of the regular Hour, they go to their seats. However, if the community is leaving immediately after the Hour, they do not move, but they take their place in procession; they join as it goes out. After the Glory of the first psalm, no one enters the choir without permission. After the middle of the Hour no one enters, but if someone does come in after that, he goes into the retrochoir, and then begs mercy after that in chapter. Those who sit last due to illness are exempt from this rule. The only instruction given to them is not to take turns standing and sitting. Those of superior rank among them sit in the first place from the sanctuary. Each Sunday while Terce is sung, the priest, deacon, and subdeacon ought to sit in the choir before the brothers on the bench (formam), covered with clean linen, at the end of the choir, which is closer to the sanctuary on the side of the priest of the week. There they do not keep among themselves the others’ law of standing and sitting in turns, but they sit continually. At the Glory they do not stand up, but only bow from their seats, only humbly, not rising. They should sit in this order, with the priest on the side of the sanctuary, and after him the deacon and after him the subdeacon. 53. How the Brothers Conduct Themselves when They Sit in Their Capes

When the brothers sit in their capes, they ought to arrange them over their knees respectably, and put one edge over the other, so that their clothing underneath is completely enclosed in their laps and does not stick out. Then they gather the loose folds hanging down into one, so that they do not appear to be sitting with their clothes spread out in

162

T he book of the order

all directions. The hood above is a covering for the head, not a hiding place for the face. It is enough if at most it reaches far enough to cover the whole crown. However, when they sit in their cloaks, they should arrange both sleeves over their knees from side to side, so that, like their capes, they gather their cloaks below into one and draw them together. When they stand upright in their cloaks, they ought to have their hands in the sleeves, either both or at least one when the other is stuck out because of some necessity. 54. How the Brothers Get Up or How They Conduct themselves at Matins

From the summer solstice until the winter solstice, the schedule is adjusted as follows, as long as the length of the nights which precedes Matins grows a little through each month according to the growth of the night, growing little by little until at last in the winter solstice that time which is before Matins is twice that which follows after. Likewise it is adjusted in the opposite way from the winter solstice until the summer solstice even as the space which precedes it decreases incrementally through each month according to the diminution of the night, decreasing little by little until at last in the summer solstice, that time which is before Matins becomes equal to that which follows after. Therefore when time for Matins comes, the sacristan120 gets up, and coming into the dormitory, makes the lamp shine, and having lit the lantern he sets it up in the middle of the dormitory, and then strikes the bell. Immediately, the brothers, rising up and preparing themselves, sit on their beds until all are ready. When everyone is ready, the prior rings the bell once, and immediately the brother who carries the lantern takes it, and holding it in his hand at the entrance, he precedes the community, with the juniors marching after him, and coming to the doorway of the dormitory, he stops there, until all the brothers enter and proceed into the church, where the juniors arrange themselves crossways in the middle of the choir before the step in front of the altar through the middle, in the first row before the step, and after them in another row their seniors, and, after them, those superior to them until all are lined up in order. Thus both choirs come together in a single row. The elders always stand in the middle, and on both sides the juniors. Bowing deeply toward the altar, they say the trina oratio.121 The brother who carries the lantern places it in front

T he book of the order



163

of him; then when the triple prayer is completed, he extinguishes it. The lord abbot alone stands back at a distance. When the first prayer is finished, the abbot gives the signal, and immediately all prostrate, and rising up they turn a little to the right, and again bowing, they say the second. Again the signal is given, again they prostrate, and rising anew, they cross to the left a little beyond the first station, and say the third. When they finish that and the signal is given, they prostrate, and rising up, they sign themselves, and bowing to the altar, they go to their seats and say the third prayer. It should be known that on feast days and in their octaves and at Easter until the octave of Pentecost, the prostrations should not be done. All of them sit down and say the fifteen psalms.122 When they finish the first five, at the Lord have mercy, they prostrate or bow over the seats, and when the weekly priest has said the prayers, they sit down again and say the second five. When once again the prayers are finished, they say the last five. It should be noted that, when the brothers do not prostrate themselves but only bow, then at the And let us not the priest arises and says the prayers toward the altar. When the last prayers have ended, the brothers do not get up, but they say Our Father in silence, either prostrate or bowed. Afterwards, when the lord abbot gives the sign, all rise up, and turned toward the altar sign themselves. When the priest has said Lord [open] my lips and comes to Glory to the Father all turn and each choir bows (humiliet) to the other choir until As it was. Then standing erect, they turn back to the altar. It is to be noted that just as before Matins, so also before the other regular Hours they ought to say the Our Father, and after the signal is given, turn toward the altar, sign themselves, and after the beginning of the Hour, they bow toward the choir until As it was. During Come, when Come let us adore123 is said, all turn toward the choir and bow, until For we are his people124 is said, and then standing up they turn back toward the altar. At Glory they bow until As it was. In that way they bow as often as Glory to the Father is intoned, except at the Morning Mass. Within the week, on ordinary (privatis) days, when after Come the choir again begins the invitatory for the last time, the brothers rise up at As it was, and stand facing the choir. However, on feast days or days when the invitatory is partially started again after Come by the community, immediately at As it was they turn toward the altar. Then, when the invitatory is again started for the last time by the cantors, immediately all turn toward the choir. On feasts when two or four brothers sing the invitatory, when the Glory to the Father is begun after God [come] to my assistance, those

164

T he book of the order

who have to sing bow toward the altar as they come to the step of the sanctuary, and so they begin the invitatory. Afterward it is not necessary that they bow at each verse, until finally before Glory and again after it when they restart the invitatory, and then, bowing first to the altar, then to the choir, they return to their seats. As soon as the one who begins the hymn at Matins, or at the other regular Hours, begins, he bows to the altar. At its last verse the brothers bow to the choir until Amen is said, and then rise up. Whoever begins the antiphon, when the first verse of the psalm is finished, bows to the altar. The brothers who have to read at Matins, if they are from among the lower ranks, before reading proceed to the step of the sanctuary and bow. If they are from among the higher ranks they ought to bow in the middle of the choir, and then advancing with solemnity bow to the abbot. But if another abbot is in the seat of the prior, they bow once between them. After the blessing has been given, the readers of the first and fourth and seventh readings ought not to begin the reading immediately, until the commotion of sitting down is quiet again. Each one, except the lord abbot, after he reads, proceeds through the middle of the choir up to the step of the sanctuary, and again for a second time prostrates or bows. The abbot alone, whenever he has to read, bows toward the altar in the entrance to the choir between the two small benches (formas), before the reading and afterward. The reader of the first reading in the first, second, and third Nocturns ought to light the candle for reading the lessons. Likewise when the Benedictus125 is sung, he lights it, places it in the lantern and takes the book of Collects. He places both of them on the bench before the weekly priest. Whoever reads the third, sixth and ninth readings, extinguishes the candle when he finishes the reading. Whoever reads last returns the book to the choir when he returns from reading. Whoever sings the response, stands facing the altar from which that is begun, until after the verse he bows and sits down. Those who sing the third, sixth and ninth responses bow before and after the Glory to the Father. At the jubilus of the antiphon, which is said before the versicle, all turn toward the altar. Then after the versicle at the jubilus of its response they turn toward the choir. When it is finished, they prostrate or bow, and after the blessing is given they sit down. When the gospel is announced, they stand facing the lectern until Et reliqua is said, and then they sit. When the Te Deum laudamus126 is not sung, at the repetition of the last response after Glory to the Father, the brothers turn toward the altar, and they stand thus until the Glory after God [come]

T he book of the order



165

to my assistance. In Lent and Advent, when the ninth response after the Glory is begun again, the brothers do not turn themselves toward the altar until it is finished. In the Te Deum laudamus at Holy, Holy they bow to the choir until Heaven [and earth] are full is said. At In you, Lord, I have hoped127 they turn toward the altar until Glory after God, [come] to [my] assistance. During morning Lauds at God, have mercy on us128 they bow until the end of the verse. Likewise in Benedicite129 at We bless the Father they bow until the end of the verse. At the jubilus of the antiphon after Praise the Lord130 until the hymn and again after the hymn at the Amen up to the jubilus of the response of the versicle, and again at the jubilus of the antiphon after the Benedictus,131 they turn toward the altar and then if prostration is not done, at Lord have mercy, turned toward the choir, they bow. If prostration is done, they turn and prostrate toward the choir above the benches. When the Have mercy on me, O God132 is finished, the priest, standing near the altar, says the prayer. At The Lord be with you after Through all ages the brothers rise up, and until after Thanks be to God they stand facing the altar. At other Hours neither the priest nor the brothers rise up until after Thanks be to God, except at Vespers. If there is a commemoration, they stand turned toward the choir until Let us pray and then bow until Amen. The antiphons of the Holy Trinity, the Holy Cross, Saint Victor, and Saint Mary, and among the suffrages, those of St Augustine and of all saints are proclaimed in song, and at those, if it is time for prostration, the brothers prostrate. 55. How the Brothers Conduct Themselves at the Hours of Saint Mary

At Matins of Saint Mary, when Lord, [open] my lips is said, the brothers stand facing the altar until the hymn. At all hymns of Saint Mary they stand turned toward the choir. It is to be noted that the Hours of Saint Mary are to be said in a soft voice, and with song. In these one does not bow at the Glory to the Father. At all psalms they sit together. When the antiphon begins again they rise and bow, until the blessing is given at the first reading. At Lauds, when God [come to my] assistance is said, they bow from their seats. At the antiphon after Praise [the Lord]133 they rise up and turn toward the altar until the hymn. At  Let us pray they bow to the choir, until the suffrages134 are finished. Only the priest stands upright facing

166

T he book of the order

the altar during the suffrages, and when the others prostrate themselves, he too prostrates himself. It is noted that at the Hours of Saint Mary and also at the regular Hours when they do not prostrate, when the prayers are said, the brothers bow until after the Thanks be to God. However, at major Vespers and at Matins, when they are not prostrate, immediately after the prayer at The Lord be with you they turn toward the altar. At the psalmi familiares and at the seven psalms135 likewise the brothers sit. After the last psalm they bow or lie prostrate until the end. After Matins, when it is nearing the end, the brother who carries the lantern lights the candle, and comes to stand before the step to the sanctuary facing the middle of the altar, gracefully holding the lantern high in his hand. When everything is finished, the brothers rise up and exit, preceded by the one who carries the lantern. They exit in procession, in order two by two, coming together out of both sides, so that those are near the exit do not presume to go out nor to confuse the order, until the lower ranks go first. Thus they go in order up to the dormitory. The brother who carries the lantern stands at the door of the dormitory, and after all have entered the dormitory, he extinguishes the candle. The brothers, having entered the dormitory, go to their beds and then lie down and rest. 56. How the Brothers Arise in the Morning

In the morning, when the signal is given for rising, all rise, prepare themselves and sit on their beds. When the signal is given they leave the dormitory in procession. They bow in front of the window as is always done when entering and exiting. After going out, when they cross before the chapter, they bow to the majestas,136 and go to the washroom. There they comb their hair and wash their hands. From there they go in procession into the church, and when they enter the choir, each one stands in his place facing the altar, or if it is time to lie prostrate, prostrates above his bench and says silently I believe in God and Our Father. If it is winter, when the first Hour of the morning is called, rising up they await one another in the dormitory, each sitting individually on his bed, just as is said above. When the signal is given, they go together to the church, with the light going ahead of them if it is necessary. There they sing Prime. After Prime, if they do not go to work, they go in procession to the washroom.

T he book of the order



167

And it is noted that from the beginning of October until Holy Thursday, on feasts as well as ordinary days, Prime ought to be signaled daily in the morning, though in different ways. From the beginning of October until the Feast of St Martin and again from the Octave of Epiphany until Holy Thursday, Prime is never signaled until the day plainly appears, so that, according to the longer or shorter night the community rises later or earlier. From the Feast of St Martin until the Octave of Epiphany Prime ought to be signaled so that when Prime ends, the day having appeared, Morning Mass can be sung. For great care is to be taken that it never happens that it is sounded in the night so that after it is said the brothers needed to return to the dormitory or to sing the Morning Mass before daytime. When Prime is not immediately sung in the morning, when they finish the prayers, namely I believe in God and Our Father, the one in charge of the community will give the signal and so all signing themselves come out. The weekly priest precedes them, and stopping at the entrance to the choir, sprinkles all with blessed water, and thus all in procession go out into the cloister and do the things which they have to do until Prime. When the first bell for Prime is rung, all arrange themselves in the cloister immediately, and those who wish go into the dormitory and return quickly. Then when the second bell is rung for a little while, the sign is given, they enter the church in procession, and the church warden ceases to ring the bell. Having entered the choir a second time, the brothers, either prostrating themselves or bowing, say the Our Father. When the signal is given by the one who is in charge of the community, all arise, sign themselves, and sing Prime. So they do at all the Hours. At the Athanasian creed,137 all stand. At the jubilus of the antiphon after the Athanasian creed they turn to the altar until the jubilus of the versicle of the response. At the Lord have mercy they prostrate themselves or bow. When they bow to the choir, at The resurrection of the flesh138 the priest rises and standing facing the altar, he says the prayers until the I confess, and then bows as the others. When that is finished, again he turns toward the altar and thus Prime ends. It is to be noted that if the lord abbot is present, he says the I confess, and if not, the priest who is vested says it. But if the Mass is not then sung, the priest who sings Prime says the I confess. When the seven psalms are said after Prime in the community, they are said after the Morning Mass, Prime of Saint Mary and the psalmi familiares. At the other regular Hours, when the psalms are finished, they turn to the altar at the jubilus of the anti-

168

T he book of the order

phon until the Glory of the response. At the repetition after the Glory they stand turned to the choir until Let us pray or Lord have mercy. At the Hours of Saint Mary, at the capitulum139 they turn toward the altar until the Let us pray. 57. How the Community Ought to Behave at the Morning Mass

At the introit of the Morning Mass the brothers stand turned to the choir. At the final Lord have mercy they turn toward the altar. At Let us pray they turn again to the choir and bow. If the Glory [to God] in the highest is sung, they do not immediately turn toward the choir, but standing facing the altar, they finish it without bowing. And afterwards, when the Let us pray is said, they turn toward the choir and bow if it is a Mass of the Dead, until God the giver of pardon140 is finished; if it is another Mass, until the orations of the day. When they have finished those that are specially said then, they sit during the rest until the gospel. It is to be noted that at the Morning Mass, at the end of the song which is said after the epistle, there is not a jubilus, until the last one before the gospel. At the Glory to you, Lord all sign themselves. When the gospel is finished and The Lord be with you said, when the offertory starts, they turn toward the choir. When the offertory [verse] is finished, they sit. When the priest turns and says Pray for me, they bow to him from their seats and again they sit until the Through all ages, world without end is said. Then they rise up, and stand turned toward the altar until the preface is finished. Then, turned toward the altar, they say Holy Holy. When this is finished, they sit again until the Through all ages, world without end. Then rising up and turning toward the altar, they stand until the third Lamb of God is finished, which they say together without interruption. When that is finished, they prostrate themselves before their benches or bow, until communion begins, and this also during a Mass of the Dead; in others, until the peace is given. When the peace is given, it ought to be given in the way that is described in the Major Mass. Having received peace, each one turns to the altar and stands thus until the priest goes to the piscina.141 Then the communion [antiphon] begins, which they say turned toward the choir. When it is finished, they turn toward the altar until Let us pray. Then, they again turn toward the choir and bow just as in the prayers before the epistle. Then they sit, until the

T he book of the order



169

priest turns and says The Lord be with you, and then rising up they turn toward the altar. 58. How the Community Ought to Conduct Itself at the Major Mass

At the introit to the Major Mass the brothers stand facing the choir. Whoever begins the introit, Lord have mercy, offertory, Holy, Lamb of God, and communion bows to the altar immediately after he has begun it. At the end of the last Lord have mercy the brothers turn toward the altar until Let us pray. When the Glory [to God] in the highest is sung, at On earth peace they turn toward the choir and sing, standing upright. When We adore you is said, they all bow to the choir. At We give you thanks they rise up and stand. At Receive our prayer, again they bow to the choir. At Who sits at the right hand they rise up and stand. At With the Holy Spirit they turn toward the altar. At Let us pray they turn toward the choir and bow, until all prayers are said. When those are finished, and the response Amen has been given, they sit while the epistle is read. At the gradual, Alleluia, and the tract, when it is sung in the middle choir, they sit until the final jubilus and then rising up they turn toward the gospel. When the tract is sung in common, except in a Mass of the Dead or when a sequence follows the Alleluia, they ought to rise up as soon as it begins, and turn toward the altar when it is finished. And this is to be noted that when the sequence is sung, the Alleluia does not have a jubilus in the second repetition. At the Glory to you, Lord, they always sign themselves. When the gospel is completed, if the I believe in one [God] is sung, when the choir begins Father almighty all turn toward the choir and stand. While And was made man is said, they bow to the choir until On the third day he rose, then they rise up and stand facing the choir. When the I believe in one [God] is finished, at the jubilus of the Amen they all turn themselves toward the altar. At the beginning of the offertory they turn to the choir again and stand. When the offertory is finished, they bow, and all sit down until the priest says Pray for me. Then rising up and bowing to the choir, thus they remain until For all ages. Then they rise up and stand facing the altar until Holy Holy. At Holy they turn toward the choir and bow until Heaven is full is said, and then rising they stand until Blessed is he who comes. When this is being said, they turn to the altar, and signing themselves, stand and finish Holy. When the Holy is finished, again

170

T he book of the order

they turn to the choir and prostrate over the benches; or if it is a feast they stand and they bow, while the canon of the Mass is said. When they are prostrate at the canon they do not rise up until the second Forever said before The peace of the Lord has been said. Then they rise up, and turned toward the altar, they respond Amen. They stay that way until after The peace of the Lord is said, and they respond And with your spirit. Then immediately they turn toward the choir and the Lamb of God is begun. When they bow while standing during the canon, then at the first Forever before Our Father they rise up, and they turn toward the altar and stand until Lamb of God. Then, as was said, when the Lamb of God is begun, they immediately turn to the choir, and Lamb of God is said once. Then, they prostrate themselves or bow until the peace. The precentor of the Mass goes for the peace. The deacon who is vested receives peace first from the priest, and bows. Then he gives it to the subdeacon and both bow to each other, both first and after. Then the deacon gives it to the precentor and likewise they bow both before and after, just as all do; then the precentor to the abbot or, if the abbot is absent, to the prior. But if the prior is also absent, he first brings it to him who is of highest rank in the right choir, then to him who is of highest rank in the left. However, in the Morning Mass, when peace is given, the subdeacon receives peace from the priest. Then he gives it to the precentor and the precentor brings it to the choir, just as was said before. If there is a deacon in the Morning Mass, he receives peace from the priest and gives it to others, just as in the Major Mass. When the lord abbot rises for peace or, if he is absent, the one who is first, all rise up and stand facing the choir, until they receive peace. However those of higher rank, after they give peace to those of lower rank of lay brothers, always remain standing facing toward the altar, until the whole choir turns toward the altar. Then after a brief interval, when the second Lamb of God is begun, all turn toward the choir. When the second Lamb of God is finished, the third is said after it without an interval. The communion follows immediately. When that is finished, they turn toward the altar until Let us pray. When the priest says Let us pray, immediately all bow toward the choir until the end of the Mass. When the priest, having turned toward the choir, says The Lord be with you, they turn toward the altar, until, when everything is finished, they respond Thanks be to God. Then they sign themselves and exit in procession into the dormitory. Likewise after Vespers, when we eat twice, and in Lent also after Vespers, they go in procession from the church into the dormitory.

T he book of the order



171

59. How the Brothers Ought to Conduct Themselves at Vespers and Vigils of the Dead

At Vespers and at all Vigils of the Dead, whether they are festive or otherwise, the brothers sit together. At Vespers after the last psalm at Eternal rest, all rise up and stand facing the choir, until Magnificat with its antiphon is finished. Then they prostrate themselves, whether there are Vigils of nine lessons or not, or if it is a feast, they bow toward the choir until the end. When the brothers bow, then the priest does not rise up at And [lead] us not, until after the psalm, and then, upright and turned toward the altar, he says the prayers. When the penultimate prayer has been said before God, [creator and redeemer] of [all] the faithful,142 the priest says Let us pray and after a short pause, the brothers pray privately, and then the priest in a clear voice begins God of the faithful, and thus it ends. However at Vigils, before they begin, the brothers say Our Father. After the sign is given, they sign themselves and sing Vigils. When the last antiphon is being said, then they rise up, and prostrating themselves, or bowing to the choir, when the final versicle and its response without jubilus is finished, they say Our Father silently. After But deliver us from evil, they sit. Then the brother who is going to say the first reading gets up, and standing facing the altar while the others are seated, he proclaims it. Then after the response, he says the verse without singing, unless there are the Vigils of nine lessons. Then, both the response and verse are sung. When the verse is said, he bows and sits. Then the one who is reading the second gets up from the other side; likewise for the third. When there are nine lessons the last one rises up from the side whose week it is for the first one, and the sides alternate until the last one, so that the subdeacon does not get up to read after the deacon, nor the deacon after the priest. If this alternation of the two sides cannot be maintained because there are not enough brothers, still the difference in order is maintained, with those rising up for the readings from both choirs, either in their seats or in the middle of the choir. They read the readings when in the middle of the choir. When the reading is finished, the reader always bows to the front and back, and then returns to his place, where he stands until he says the verse, and then sits. On the vigil of a feast the psalms are proclaimed in song, and the brother who reads the ninth reading, having finished it, does not go to his seat, but remains standing there. Then someone else superior to him from the other side comes to him and together they say however many verses

172

T he book of the order

of the ninth response are to be said. When the nine lessons are not of a feast, he says the verse to the ninth response in his seat just like the others. When When you come to judge is said in repetition, they all rise up, and they stand facing the choir until the psalm. If the Vigils are of a feast, when the response begins again from the beginning after the verses are finished, they rise and stand until the psalm is begun, and then they sit. Lauds for the dead is ended in the same way as Vespers. 60. Major Vespers and the Vespers of Saint Mary

At major Vespers and at the Vespers of Saint Mary the same observances are held in the evening as at major Lauds and at Lauds of Saint Mary. It is to be noted that sometimes minor Vespers are said before major Vespers, namely, when with the following day the feast is that of nine lessons. At the beginning the Our Father is said. 61. Compline

During the hymn, chapter, verse, and Nunc dimittis,143 the brothers behave the same way as at Vespers. At the Lord have mercy they prostrate or bow, and so forth just as at other Hours. When they are bowed, the priest does not rise before I confess and face the altar as at Prime, but bowing speaks the prayers. When absolution has been said, the priest rises facing the altar and so finishes Compline. The prayer just as at other Hours is said plainly without singing. Otherwise Compline and the psalmi familiares are said just as at other Hours. 62. The Order of Tonsure

This is the order of tonsure. They may clip the hair downward in a circle to the top of the ears, with the forehead freely visible and the neck entirely uncovered. The crown (corona) is shaped on top wide and round, namely such that the circle of hair appears moderately wide and likewise round, circling the middle of the head. The times of tonsure are these: from the Feast of All Saints until Pentecost an interval of four weeks measured out; from Pentecost until the Feast of All Saints after three weeks, except if by chance in sum-

T he book of the order



173

mer or in winter some feast days overlap, or some necessary occasion demands the practice to be anticipated or postponed three or four days beyond what is set down. When the time comes, the armarius announces it the day before in chapter. On the day itself, either before chapter or after chapter, or after lunch, that is, at the time the abbot orders, the refectorian will have ready warm water, bowls, and stools, all of which he will have brought to the places where the brothers are to be shaved. Then brothers come from the community according to the number of shavers or barbers, while the others stay behind. When they have gone first to the barber, and then to the shaver, they return, and others come in turn until all are prepared decently and according to the rule. According to the cleanliness of religion nails are not allowed to grow out too far. All are shaved at one time and in one place, where the abbot has directed, unless someone is infirm or working at a necessary occupation, or detained for some other reasonable cause, so that he cannot be present for the carrying out of this task in community. He does not presume to shave himself without receiving permission. The razors and shears ought to be entrusted to one of the other brothers, and this one guards them and cleans them, and at the time of the shaving, as is appropriate, he distributes them, so no one presumes to claim something among them as his own. Whoever presumes to act against this ordinance in any way, that is, either to strip off more of his crown than is proper, or to build up his hair, or to do anything at all which is not common practice, when it has been called out in chapter, let him be subject to making satisfaction. If any of the barbers or shavers has sinned through negligence or rashness, let him be called to make satisfaction by a proclamation in chapter. The subprior is assigned to this charge specially so that under his inspection hair is cut and the crown formed according to the rule. While they are being shaved, they ought always to keep silence, wherever they may be, except in the hour when the community is speaking. Then they are allowed to speak, as long as they are in a place where speaking is permitted, that is, somewhere that is assigned for locution. Whether in going or in coming, they do so without noise or commotion, but go and return in silence, modestly and in an orderly way. 63. This Is the Order of Foot Washing (Mandatum)

This is the order of foot washing. It is to be done every Saturday, unless it is a feast with nine lessons or of an octave, or on the next day,

174

T he book of the order

that is, on Sunday, a double feast follows. However, between Easter and Pentecost there is no mandatum. Brothers sit outside on the lawn between the columns on the edge and there wash their feet. At the same time they draw their clothing close around their legs with the other hand modestly and chastely, so that their feet might appear a little more uncovered. When they have washed their feet, they dry them with no less modesty, without raising their legs high, or extending them too much, or placing one on the other, but putting them down they wipe them under their clothing and put their shoes on, and then go to the washroom and wash their hands. They may not shake out their footwear, neither hose nor shoes, inordinately in the presence of the brothers, nor beat them on the posts, so that they neither make noise nor throw dust in their brothers’ eyes. After Vespers, when he receives a signal from the abbot that it is time, the prior strikes the gong once and the warden sounds the signal in the church for convoking those who are outside. When they hear it, the brothers rise from the assembly, and if they wish to do anything that is necessary, either in the church or in the dormitory, they go there, so that at the second clap of the gong all are in order in the cloister, the same order that is kept at chapter. The sacristan brings linen, a belt, and a basin, and sets them in front of the chapter room between the columns, one for wiping the feet and another for cleaning the hands. He sets up a candelabrum with a lighted candle in front of the abbot, at a distance, so that the passage on both sides remains free for those ministering. He places the book in which the ordo mandati is written on the lectern. When everything is prepared, the prior strikes the gong a second time and all the brothers, with the abbot leading, go into chapter. The lector who is going to read at the meeting brings the book and places it on the lectern. Then the priest is prepared, and the deacon of the current week, in their cloaks, and the priest comes and girds himself with the linen with which the feet are to be dried. Lifting it up in front of him and holding it with both hands, he enters into the chapter room and proceeds to the lectern. The prior enters the chapter room with the priest. He strikes the gong the third time, ceases from that, and comes into the chapter room himself. All of the community rise up at the entrance of the priest, and the priest himself, standing at the pulpit, says The Lord be with you, and at the reply And with your spirit, without singing he says the prayer [Direct] our actions144 clearly. Meanwhile, the deacon ought to be prepared so that at the end of the prayer he may immediately precede the priest

T he book of the order



175

to the feet of the lord abbot, carrying a basin with mildly warm water. There both sink down on their knees, with the deacon at the left and the priest at his right, and wash his feet. The way to do the washing is this. Drawing back his clothing a little, he extends both feet together. The priest places his left hand under them to receive them, while throwing a linen cloth over his left arm. With his right hand he gently washes the feet, while the deacon is pouring water over the lord abbot twice, and once for the others. Then the priest, wrapping them completely from above with the spread out linen, modestly dries them, bows his head, wipes with his hair one time, and kisses them once. Then getting up and bowing, they go to the left side to the prior, with the deacon preceding, and the priest following, and then in the same way they wash his feet. Afterwards they go to the right hand choir, or if the prior is not present, immediately after they wash the feet of the abbot they go to the right hand choir, and beginning with the highest rank down to the least, they wash all feet in order. Then they return to the left hand choir, and wash all from the highest down in order. When these things are completed, the priest with the deacon goes out of the chapter room. From him another priest, namely, the weekly priest of the following week, who succeeds him, receives the linen cloth, and girding himself in a similar way, and the other deacon, namely the one for the following week, receives the basin. When the first pair return to their seats in the chapter room, the following pair then wash their feet, first the priest and then the deacon. When this is completed, the subdeacon of the following week receives another linen cloth, with which hands are to be washed, and with his deacon of the following week preceding him carrying other basins of water prepared for hands, he proceeds to the lord abbot. While the deacon pours water over his hands a third time, the subdeacon meanwhile stands at his left with the linen cloth. Whoever is highest in the right choir comes across from the right, and with the linen cloth underneath, they hold back the sleeves for the one washing and present the linen for the one wiping. Then they go to the prior and afterwards returning to the right choir they minister to all in order. If the prior is absent, immediately they go to the right choir, with the subdeacon placing the linen cloth under the hands of the one he is washing while the one who is next holds it from the other side and ministers with him so that two are always holding the linen and the third pours the water. After they have washed all in order, the deacon and subdeacon

176

T he book of the order

of the previous week come, and, receiving the basin and linen, they minister to him. While this is done, certain antiphons ordained for this are sung. One ought not proclaim them in a loud voice, but rather modestly and temperately. When the end of the antiphon approaches, the priest who began the mandatum rises up and proceeds to the lectern. When the antiphons are finished, the brothers stand up, and the priest says the chapters and the rest just as they are written in the book, and the brothers respond while standing. When he comes to the Lord have mercy the choir responds to him Lord have mercy. At For all ages the brothers rise up. The prayer being finished, the lector withdraws. When Lord, order a [blessing] is said and the blessing given, the brothers sit and he reads the reading. When two or three verses are read, the abbot makes the accustomed signal, the entire community rises up, and with the candle bearer preceding with a candle, they go into the refectory, where they end collation just as on other days. The candle is placed on the table in the refectory in front of the lord abbot. When the lector finishes the reading, he rises up, again he who carries it takes it, and descending he waits standing at the bottom of the step until the lord abbot rises and says grace. Then while the choir answers, he bows, turns around, descends through the middle of the refectory, and goes in front as the choir returns to the church. Here especially the almoner and the sacristan ought to prepare in time what pertains to the care of those in the world. The brothers who have ministry outside must see to it that they do not come late to the washing of the feet nor tardy to the mandatum, so no one stays away from this important observance through negligence. If someone arrives later and he sees the priest washing feet has already gone past his seat, he does not go up to his seat, but sits among the newest members to await the arrival of the priest. He immediately ascends to his seat after his feet are bathed. If the ministers are late in preparing the things that are necessary, or those who ought to be present arrive inappropriately late, each one according to their manner of fault is released by worthy satisfaction in chapter. All ought to strive together with great care and solicitude, that the mystery of this sacrament is carried out most religiously and reverently, so that coming together with pious and humble devotion, as they hear through external washing, they may merit to be cleansed interiorly with God’s help.

T he book of the order



177

64. How the Footwashing of the Poor is Done

The footwashing of three poor people, which is done daily during Lent, begins on Ash Wednesday (Capite ieiunii) and ends on Holy Thursday (Coena Domini). Each day, when the brothers go from the refectory to give thanks in the church, the priest, deacon, and subdeacon, who were vested for the Major Mass, stop at the entry of the church with the servants, and immediately proceeding with their cloaks on, finishing the grace, they go out into the external parlor, and there they wash the feet of the poor whom the almoner ought to have prepared there. They do this in the following way. First, they station themselves in front of the poor side by side, with the priest standing to the right. Then as they genuflect at the same time, the priest says The Lord be with you and then the prayer [Direct] our actions, we ask you, Lord. When this is finished, they rise up and the priest begins the antiphon A new commandment145 with singing, yet quietly, and then they sing other antiphons, as many as are necessary. Meanwhile they wash the feet of the poor, first the priest, then the deacon, finally the subdeacon. In the same order they pour water on the hands of the poor. When their hands have been washed, they offer bread and wine to the poor, genuflecting together, and kissing the hands of those who receive. When this office of humility is completed and the antiphon finished, arranged in the order that we said above, bowing deeply in front of the poor, the priest says the prayers and orations just as are in the book. When these are finished, they go to the washroom, saying together the Vespers for the dead, if those should be said. On  Sundays this footwashing ought to be done after dinner. When this office is being performed, the almoner or one of the lay brothers ought to be present, that during the washing they might administer water and towels and whatever is necessary. He also makes available what they should have: one small loaf, a measure of wine, and a platter of beans, and two dried herring (alletia).146 65. The Order of Bloodletting

This is the order of bloodletting. There are five times in a year of general bloodletting; outside of these times, no one whatsoever without the danger of grave infirmity is given permission for bloodletting. It is permitted to all in common so often, so it will not be sought

178

T he book of the order

­ nnecessarily by anyone outside these times. The first is in September, u the second is before Advent, the third before Septuagesima, the fourth after Easter, and the fifth after Pentecost. When the time of bloodletting has come, the infirmarian announces it in chapter the day before. Then the cellarer will prepare the things that are needed for bloodletting according to his time and possibility. The next day in chapter the lord abbot designates who and how many he wishes, that at least three at once are bloodlet, or four or five, and he directs them to be prepared. No one who has been ordered to go ought to remove himself and no one not commanded should intrude. Junior persons are not bled individually without seniors, that by their presence and fellowship they are always kept to the discipline. Brothers who have ministry outside the convent, for which they are compelled to go out often, are not bled with the others. If they have been bled, they are not to speak except as the others do. If they are bled while abroad, whether together or one by one, they are not to speak within the room where they rest and eat, except according to the custom of others who have been bled. When anyone of them in the hour of silence goes out to speak because of some necessity, he withdraws to a distance, so he cannot be heard among those who are inside in silence. Only the abbot speaks during his bloodletting. He ought not go out every time some reason arises or some things need to be arranged and he needs to give a response or command or counsel; he should do so in such a way that he does not allow a crowd to be around him, but only those who either serve him or come to him seeking counsel, and he should not compel others to break the yoke of discipline by his example. The infirmarian assigns specified persons in chapter to prepare the one to do the bloodletting, the room where the brothers are bled and the fire, bandages for binding the wounds of each of those receiving bloodletting, and individual beds. Then when the gospel has been read, or, if those who are to be bled are burdened by the delay, immediately after chapter, the infirmarian leads them out silently, the juniors preceding and the elders following according to their order, and thus they come to the place where they are to be bled. When they come there, if it is the hour of silence, they are allowed to speak about those things which concern their present need quietly and reverently, namely each one, for as long as he is being bled. When each one is bled, he ought to locate himself silently and quietly on the bed assigned him, and not change beds or anything on the bed, sit before the bed of another, go anywhere outside until the end of the bloodletting, or withdraw from

T he book of the order



179

the communal society. They hear the Morning Mass and are present at the chapter and collation. They always proceed together, the juniors preceding and the older ones following in order. They stand at the same time, they sit at the same time, and at no time does anyone presume to wander away from the presence of the others by himself. In the time of silence, they lie down on their beds quietly. When it is time for speaking in the community, then they have permission for speaking, to the extent that they may speak to each other, while each sits modestly and religiously at his own place. None of the brothers outside have permission to enter among them, except the cellarer and those who serve them carrying in the food. As soon as the time for speaking is finished in the convent, they return to silence. The lord abbot ought to provide, if it is necessary, one particular person who is continuously among them to be a witness and guard of their discipline, and also in the hours of silence do a reading in their presence for their instruction and consolation, while they are being silent. If it happens that, compelled by necessity, one alone is bled, he is not left without a guardian. Each day during the speaking period before the time of the meal, the cellarer ought to visit them and indicate to them what or how much food he can have prepared, and to offer from this what pleases them more. They should not burden him by asking either for unusual or too much food, or requiring that the food preparations be multiplied. At collation, when the community goes to the refectory, or when the reading is finished in chapter, and the community immediately enters the church, they remain in the chapter room where they say Compline. In summer after lunch they go with the others into the dormitory, except on the first day of bloodletting. When they go, they do not enter before the others, nor tarry afterwards, and when they exit they immediately enter into their infirmary. When in the community None is begun, they begin it themselves. When it is finished, and the Benedicite147 said, they may speak. This is conceded to them because they cannot always know when the time of speaking is begun in the community. They ought to eat dinner before the collation. If some impediment intervenes, they may not presume, without the permission of the abbot, to be absent from collation or to remain after collation, and immediately after they eat, they go to the dormitory. They say Compline and Matins standing in the appointed place. At the same time, when they do this, they do not prostrate nor stand at prayer, but pray sitting. Bloodletting lasts three days. After the third day they come to Matins, and are in other

180

T he book of the order

things with the community. On the fourth day they receive absolution in chapter. If the third day is a double feast, they come to Vespers and are present at the other Hours. In the evening after Vespers they eat in the infirmary. If in his bloodletting someone acts against discipline either in speaking, or in wandering around where he ought not, or in anything at all, especially if he has demanded too much or an unsuitable preparation of food, or murmured dishonorably, or spoken more than he ought, and is called out by the brother who was guarding the discipline or by others, let him make a suitable satisfaction when he has returned to the convent. Those who are to be bled with cupping or with a lancet148 always ought to do it after Vespers and afterwards sit in the retrochoir while the Hours are said throughout the following day, and when the community sits in cloister or is at work, they can rest on their beds in the dormitory. They eat with the others in the refectory and have their portion, and the following night at Matins they enter the choir. For bloodletting of this sort they do not ask for mercy in chapter. 66. How Those Who Are Outside Show Reverence to the Community

This is the order of how those who are outside show reverence to the community. When the brothers who oversee works outside enter the cloister when the community of the brothers is present, they neither pass through the community nor presume to sit among the others, unless they are dressed in capes or cloaks like the others. They should not dare to have on their heads hoods (cucullas), that is capparones, or felt caps, that is almutias, or to wear any other garment that is not used by the community. Thus, when need requires that they enter the cloister wearing work clothes when the brothers are present, they are to go around from the other side so they will not cross through the middle of them. When the community is present, lay brothers never go closer than the more remote part which is opposite, that is from the door of the cellar to the door of the interior or private parlor coming to the middle part of the cloister on the other side. They always, whether going out or returning, reverently bow to the community and then continue. However, they can, if it is necessary, when leading an outsider, and with the permission of the abbot, when the community is present, cross from the side, be led into the dormitory, church, or the crypt,

T he book of the order



181

or from the other side to the common parlor, in such a way that as they cross by they always bow toward the community and never cross through the middle of it. When the community is not present, they can, if it is necessary, cross from all parts. When necessity demands that workers, or whatever lay persons, outsiders or domestics, be led into the cloister when the community is present, whoever the brother is, he must never presume to do this without first receiving permission from the one who is in charge of the community. Even if the abbot wishes to lead anyone in, he first makes it known to the community. All owe reverence to the community. Whenever a brother sees a procession coming, he ought to turn aside immediately. Not even the abbot himself should stand, walk or sit otherwise, or act irreverently in the sight of the brothers. No one in the community places a stool or footstool for himself other than the common seats, or sets up a lectern, or a sofa (fulcra), nor does anyone set up for himself a softer cushion other than the community’s reed mat. When the community is in the cloister, the brothers who enter the parlor to speak do so quietly, so that they are not heard by the brothers who are in the cloister. 67. Anointing of the Sick

When someone who is sick is to be anointed, the infirmarian ought to indicate this to the lord abbot. Then, having summoned the sacristan, the abbot orders him to prepare the things necessary for anointing, namely oil, leather or cloth for wiping the unction, blessed water, a lantern, and the cross. When everything is prepared, the sacristan informs the abbot. He makes the signal to the brothers to have them all gather in the choir, where, after they have been gathered, the sacristan calls from the juniors those he wishes to carry the cross, the blessed water, and the lantern. Dressed in his cloak, he takes the ampule with the oil, and they proceed together into the choir. The blessed water goes in front, then the lantern with the light, then the cross, and finally after the cross the one who carries the oil. If the abbot is not doing the anointing, the priest of the week comes after him in a cloak with a stole and service book. The others who carry the blessed water, lantern, and cross ought to be in their capes. When they have been arranged this way in front of the step, the abbot gives the signal and they go out, with the procession preceding and others following in order. If the abbot is going to do the anointing, he does not take off his cape, except in

182

T he book of the order

the infirmary, and he goes in his place. The armarius brings the stole with the service book. The procession proceeds in silence until it is in the infirmary. The abbot enters last, as he says Peace be on this house [and all who live here]. If he is not present, the weekly priest says it at the entrance to the infirmary. Afterwards the abbot takes off his cape, receives the stole from the armarius, and the armarius holds the service book in front of him. Then he says The Lord be with you, then the prayer God [you have spoken] through your apostle James.149 When the prayer is finished, he approaches the sick person and says Bless you. Then the infirm one humbly asks the lord abbot and others who are standing in that place that, out of brotherly charity, if he has offended them, they forgive him. Afterwards, at the direction of the abbot, he says I confess to God and all his saints and to you, Father, and you, brothers. When he has said I confess, the brothers pray for him, saying Almighty God have mercy on you, etc.150 Afterwards, the abbot alone says the absolution and remission. But if he is a lay person, he makes his confession in the vernacular (romanis verbis) and confesses that he is guilty toward God and his brothers. The brothers and the abbot respond in the way we said above. If he who is to be anointed is an abbot, he similarly asks the brothers to forgive him, if he has offended them. Then the brothers, genuflecting before him, ask for absolution from him and humbly pray that he forgive whatever they have done to offend him. Then the abbot says I confess. When that has been said, the brothers say [Almighty God] have mercy on you, and he adds the absolution. When that is finished, the brothers rise up, and the armarius begins Let our prayer enter [into your presence, incline your ear to our plea, O Lord].151 Then, standing, the brothers sing the seven penitential psalms. While the psalms are sung, the prior, who is doing the anointing, approaches the abbot and anoints him with holy oil. If someone other than the abbot is being anointed, then the abbot similarly approaches him and anoints him. The sacristan should assist the abbot in the office and prepare the oil. After the abbot has anointed the sick person and said all which pertains to each anointing, the sacristan should wipe the anointing with linen cloth or leather, which he burns in the piscina. Meanwhile, the armarius holds the book before the abbot. When all that pertains to anointing is completed just as it is in the service book, they go out, and the lord abbot washes his hands in the piscina. If the sick person ought immediately to communicate, when the psalms are finished, while the prayers are said, two of the brothers, to whom the sacristan nods, go out to the church, a priest who carries communion in a chalice with the offering

T he book of the order



183

covered, and another who carries the lantern and the ampule of wine before him. After the abbot finishes the prayers, he washes his hands with salt in a clean vessel and wipes them with the towel, prepared there for this purposes. He pours the ablution in the piscina. Before the abbot gives communion he addresses the infirm one in this way: Brother, do you rejoice that you are dying in the Christian faith? He answers: Yes. Are you glad that you are dying in this habit? He responds: Yes. Do you confess to have lived badly, so that because of your merit nothing good is owed you? He responds: Yes. Do you repent of this? He responds: Yes. Do you admit that you have not lived as well as you ought? He responds: Yes. Do you repent? Yes. Do you have the will to improve, if you had the time? Yes. Do you believe that the Lord God died for you? He responds: Yes. Do you give him thanks? He responds: Yes. Do you confess that it is only through his death that you are saved? He responds: Yes. Therefore, as long as life remains in you, place your whole trust in Christ alone, namely his death, trusting in no other thing. Commit yourself completely to his death. Hide yourself completely in this death, and if the Lord God wishes to judge you, say: Lord, between me and your judgment is the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. I do not contend with you in any other way. And if he says: Because you are a sinner, say: Lord, I place between you and my sin the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. If he says: because you deserve damnation, say: Lord, I place the death of our Lord Jesus Christ between you and my evil deeds, I offer his merits for those which I ought to have but do not. And if he says that he is angry with you, say: Lord, I place the death of our Lord Jesus Christ between me and your anger.152

184

T he book of the order

When this is completed, the sick person says three times: Into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit. The community responds to this, You have redeemed me, Lord, God of truth. When his confession is completed, the abbot offers him the cross to adore and kiss.153 If he is not going to communicate, the abbot speaks to the sick person in this way after the last prayer of the anointing. Before they depart, he is kissed in order by all, first by the abbot, then by the others. So, when the prayer Hear us, Lord154 has been said, they return in procession to the choir. The sick person is to be carefully taken care of and frequently visited by the lord abbot. 68. A Dying Brother

When a brother approaches near to death, a rug is spread out on the ground, and ashes are scattered on it in the shape of a cross, and then he is placed on it. Then, if the community is outside the cloister, the bell is rung in the church, or if the community is within the cloister, a constant beat is struck on the knocker in the cloister, and all hurry to the dying person, saying I believe in God two or three times. If it is night, lights are kindled along the way on which they go to the infirmary. The warden ought to remain behind as guard of the church, and if it is night, so also the guard of the cloister, and the guard of the dormitory. If it is night, when the novice brothers hear the sound of the board, they should arise quickly, but until their master comes to them, they are not to run to the dying man. The sacristan carries the stole and service book to the abbot, who may send someone to carry the cross and the blessed water. If they are sitting at the meal, when they hear the knocker, they all quickly go out and But you [Lord, have mercy on us] is not said. The refectorian or his assistant ought to remain to guard the refectory. If, when the knocker sounds, the remains of the last dish have been taken from the table, at the command of the abbot But you [Lord, have mercy on us] is said, and when the verse has been said briefly, the hebdomadarian has added We give you thanks, they go out immediately, saying I believe in God. They do likewise at dinner, if it is nearly done. If they are sitting at the collation, the lector says But you [Lord, have mercy on us]. After completing the Office of the Dead, if they are fasting, they go together in procession to drink, but the reading is not begun again. If it occurs at the footwashing, the abbot goes out and whoever he commands go with him. When the mandatum has

T he book of the order



185

been completed, the reading is not begun, but the remaining brothers go out immediately. If they are in the oratory at Major Mass or at the canonical Hours, or if on Sunday or whenever it occurs the procession has already gone out from the choir, the abbot and prior, and the infirm, who are outside the choir, and others whom the abbot orders, go. The others quickly complete the work they have begun as usual and then follow them. If he has died by the time a regular Hour is finished, they do not run, but go at a moderate pace in procession, saying Have mercy on me, God155 and Out of the depths156 and, if it is needed, Praise the Lord, my soul,157 ending with [Eternal] rest. When they come to the others, they say what they are saying. If he has not yet died when the regular Hour has ended, they hasten, saying I believe in God. When they reach the others, they say what they are saying. Whoever of those hurrying to the dying person arrives first immediately begins the litany. When the litany is finished, if he is still living, they say the seven penitential psalms. When they finish the seven psalms, if as far as they can tell the death of the brother still seems to be near, they add the fifteen psalms. If, when all this is finished, he is still not dead, they withdraw, leaving there the cross, holy water, and two brothers who sing psalms. When they see by a certain sign that the dying brother is going to pass on very soon, again they beat on the board to summon the brothers. As soon as the brother dies, they begin the commendation. Then the sacristan sends the one who carries the thurible, and the church warden sounds the trumpet call. When the commendation is finished, the abbot indicates who will wash and wrap him and how. When that is done, the brothers, arranged around the deceased as space permits, say a complete Office for him. When the Office is completed, they say the Hours of Saint Mary. When that is finished, they say the psalmi familiares as well. If they do not have to say them, they begin the psalter. Meanwhile, those who interrupted a canonical Hour of the day in the church sit somewhere, and, beginning again from the top, carry it through to the end. They do not restart Matins from the beginning, but from where they left off. It is to be known that if the community has not sung Matins, when they hear the sound of the board, they finish Matins at Lauds, unless the day is so near, that once the Office of the Dead is completed, Lauds of the morning cannot conveniently be sung. When the body has been washed and placed in the middle of the gathered brothers, the psalmody is interrupted. When they have finished the psalm that they began, then the abbot again picks up his stole, and sprinkling the body with blessed water and incensing it, he says for him what the service

186

T he book of the order

book teaches. When that is finished, the armarius intones the response Deliver me, Lord158 and they carry the body into the church in this order: the blessed water goes first, then the thurible, afterwards the lantern; followed by the cross. After the cross the brothers march in the order in which they stand in the choir. After all of these comes the lord abbot with the stole. Then the deceased is taken away by four brothers whom the abbot orders to do so, and the conversi follow them. If anyone other than the abbot does the burial rites, he goes after the cross, holding the book and having the stole at his neck. Coming into the church, they place the body in the choir. As soon as the procession enters the church, the bell is rung again. The brothers who are carrying the blessed water and other things stand at the head of the deceased, in the order in which they came and the abbot after them. When the singing is finished and the abbot has said the prayer To you, Lord, we commend, the cross and two candles are placed at the head of the deceased. Those who carry other things put them in their places. If they interrupted the chapter, they return, and finish what remains, and present there, the deceased is absolved. If the abbot is absent, in the first chapter in which he is present he absolves him. If they interrupted a meal, they return to the refectory, but the gong is not struck, nor the little bell rung, or the verse repeated. The lector does not ask for the blessing, but begins where they left off. This is done in the same way during Lent. Those who had not begun to eat, but remained at the body, eat afterward. Likewise if the brothers go to chapter or dinner or somewhere, the abbot provides that the corpse does not remain alone. If it is not the time for any of these, when the prayer, To you, Lord, we commend is finished, as we said above, they are to sit together in the order in which they are in choir, and begin the psalter. They are to interrupt the psalmody to sing the canonical Hours diligently at their proper times, just as on other days, and when the Hours are finished they are to begin again where they left off. 69. On What Day and at What Hour he Ought to Be Buried

If he dies before the third hour of the day, he may be buried that day; if after, it is postponed till the next day. If he dies between the third hour of the day and Matins, he is buried after chapter. If he dies between Matins and tabulam,159 he is buried after the Major Mass. If he dies between tabulam and Terce, he is buried before Vespers.

T he book of the order



187

70. How Vigils Take Place

If he has died in summer, and is to be kept until the next day or buried that day before Vespers, after lunch the right choir keeps watch until the sound of the board, and, when None has been briefly said, if it is not sung, after the sound they go to nap. The left side goes to sleep after lunch and keeps watch after the signal, and if None is said, they sing it slowly and profoundly. When the abbot determines, he wakes up the brothers who are sleeping, and they bury the body. If it is postponed until the next day, they keep watch in the night in the following way. After Compline the sacristan divides the night, as best he can, into two equal vigils, and the right choir holds the first vigil, and around the end of their vigil, as he determines, they quickly sing Matins. When they are finished and the first vigil is completed, Matins is sounded. When they who were sleeping during the first vigil come from the dormitory, the others exit through the retrochoir and go to the dormitory. 71. How Matins Is Done

Just as on other days, those who remain, when the trina oratio is finished, begin In my trouble [I cried out] to the Lord160 and afterwards sing Matins slowly. If he dies between Compline and Matins, from the hour which the deceased was brought to the church, what is left of the night is divided into two vigils, so that the right choir has the first vigil and, when Matins are sounded by the church warden, the second group sings the Hour slowly and clearly, as time allows. Then, when Matins has been said, the left choir keeps watch. But if he dies at such an hour that the night cannot be divided after the Office of the Dead is completed, they keep watch together. At all times, let it be done just as was determined, unless another reasonable cause intervenes, and except on double feasts, on which all sing Matins together. In that case, the abbot determines who keeps watch at the corpse before and after Matins. On feasts of nine lessons and on other days, if it seems appropriate to him, the abbot can retain some from those who kept the first vigil in the night who can help the others sing Matins. It is to be known that once the psalter is begun, if it is interrupted for any reason, they restart there where they stopped. They do so even when they follow in turns. When the brothers come into the church from the refectory to give thanks, those who stayed behind, exiting

188

T he book of the order

through the retrochoir, indicate to them where they ought to begin after the grace. After Compline, all enter the dormitory as usual, and those who are to keep vigil return to the corpse. Those whom the abbot orders guard it in the meantime. No one is to be sent on a journey from the time that a brother has died until after the body has been buried unless an unavoidable reason compels him. Those who are assigned to the workshops attend the deceased as much as they can. 72. That the Brothers Ought Not To Sit in the Cloister While a Body is Unburied

While the unburied body lies in the church, the brothers do not sit in the cloister where they are accustomed to sit, either at the speaking hour or at other times, but they should be together at the body and sing psalms. If anyone has need to go out, either to prepare a reading or to do anything else, after he receives permission, he may go out, and when he has completed what is to be done, he returns immediately. If it can be done suitably, Mass ought always to be sung for the brother in the community before he is buried. When the brother is buried after chapter, then that day chapter is called earlier, and the Mass of the Dead, whether it is summer or winter, is put off until after chapter. From the chapter they go to the church, singing psalms, namely [Give ear, Lord,] to my words,161 and after the Mass has been celebrated solemnly, the body is buried. If it is such a day that the psalm Praise the Lord, all peoples162 is said in chapter, then after the psalm, having said the prayer, they go in silence into the church and sing the Mass. 73. When the Mass of the Dead Is Celebrated

When a brother is to be buried after the Major Mass, if it is such a day in which the Mass of the day either can be omitted entirely or changed: (1) If it is changed, then the Mass of the day is sung after Prime and the Mass of the Dead is celebrated solemnly in the place of the Major Mass. When that is finished, the body is placed in the ground. (2) If the Mass of the day cannot be changed appropriately, then the Mass of the Dead is sung after Prime, and the deceased is buried after the Major Mass. When he is to be buried before Vespers, then it is not a great concern at what hour the Mass for him is sung,

T he book of the order



189

namely either after Prime, or in the place of the Major Mass, if it can be omitted. When any of the brothers dies not long before Terce, he is to be buried that day before Vespers. (3) If the Major Mass is such that it cannot be omitted, then the Mass of the Dead is not offered in the community, but during the Major Mass the collect is said for him, and in the evening, if it can be done, a festive Vigil is done for him, and the Mass for him is sung the next day after Prime by the community. However, in Lent and on any days of fasting, namely, when Sext is said before the Major Mass, if it can be done appropriately, the Mass of the Dead is sung by the community. However, whenever it is in some day of fasting, either in Lent or at another time, three Masses are sung in the community, namely one for the feast, another for the fast, a third for the present deceased. Then the Mass of the feast or of the fast is sung quickly so that the community is not burdened. The Mass of the Dead is celebrated solemnly. If the death occurs on Good Friday (Parasceve) no one at all is permitted to sing Mass for him in the community or in private. Likewise, if it happens on Holy Saturday no Mass is sung for him by the community. However, it can be sung privately after the gospel of the solemn Mass. The Mass which ought to be done by the community will be kept until the fifth day of Easter, and then it is offered for him solemnly, namely, that in the preceding fourth day a vigil is said for him before Vespers. On the day of the Lord’s Birth and on Easter and on Pentecost, if the [body of the] deceased is present, the Morning Mass can be sung for him. Likewise, on other solemnities, if the Morning Mass of the saints was to be sung, it is omitted and sung for the present deceased. On the feast of St Victor, if at the hour of the Major Mass the [body of the] deceased is present, it is removed from the choir on account of the procession and placed in the crypt until after the Mass. Meanwhile it is guarded by those the abbot assigns. If it can be done, the abbot ought to sing the Mass for the deceased brother, and do all the funeral rites (obsequium). 74. How he Is Handed Over to the Grave

When the dead brother is to be carried out, the church warden ought to ring the bell three or four times a little beforehand to call the brothers together, and the sacristan ought to distribute service books and stoles to the priests. When everything is ready, the abbot and those who carry the cross, lantern, thurible, and blessed water, stand in order

190

T he book of the order

at the head of the deceased in this way: first the water, then the light, then the cross, last the abbot vested, the thurifer with the abbot, so that when he wishes to incense the body, namely when the Our Father is said, he gives him the prepared thurible. When the first prayer is finished, with the armarius and another brother standing a little bit back of the abbot on each side, they begin the response Come to his aid, saints of God.163 When that is finished, they sing the verse, then Lord have mercy. When the Office is completed, the thurifer goes in his place, that is, between the light and the water. Then the armarius intones the antiphon. They go singing the psalm in the order in which they stand in choir, so that the abbot goes after the cross. If the abbot is not vested, he goes last after the community. Four brothers assigned by the abbot, clothed in linen tunics under their cloaks, carry the body. Then the bells are rung until the dead person has been buried. Meanwhile others remain behind to watch the church and the cloister. When they reach the tomb, the abbot and ministers arrange themselves at the head of the grave. The community arranges itself so that the right choir stands at the right side and the left at the left. Those who carry the body place it in the middle. Then two of them remove their cloaks and remaining in the linen tunics prepared for this, go down into the grave to receive the body, while two remain above to lower him down. When he is buried, they return to the choir in order. Meanwhile the abbot completes the Office. When that is finished, having said You have formed me from the earth [and clothed me with flesh, Lord my Redeemer; raise me again on the last day],164 the abbot throws earth on the body, while beginning the prayer Let us pray, dearest brothers, [for the soul of our dear one N., which the Lord found worthy to liberate from the snares of this world, whose body is borne today to burial].165 When that has been said, he withdraws himself a bit from the grave, with the cross, light, thurifer, and blessed water arranged before him, and finishes the rest. The other priests, who hold service books, say the prayers in silence; only the abbot says them aloud. When the funeral rite is finished, they return to the church beginning the seven penitential psalms. They come to the church in the order in which they left, and enter the middle of the choir. Whether it is a feast or not, the seniors prostrate themselves before the step, then the others after them, with the juniors last, so that they are spread out side to side, just as they are accustomed to be at the trina oratio. Meanwhile the abbot takes off his priestly vestments and prostrates in front of the seniors on the step. If someone else conducts the burial, he takes off

T he book of the order



191

his priestly vestments and prostrates himself in the first rank among the seniors. After the psalms, when Eternal rest has been said, they say Our Father, and the priest says And [lead] us not [into temptation, but deliver us from evil]. The just shall be in eternal remembrance: he shall not fear to hear evil things.166 May the souls of your servants rest in peace. Hear, Lord, [my] prayer, [And let my cry come to you]. The Lord be with you. [And with your spirit.] and the prayer O Lord, we ask you, absolve the soul of your servant and the souls of your servants our brothers and all the faithful departed from every bond of sin; [that they may rise again to new life among your saints and elect, in the glory of the resurrection. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.]167 God, [the Creator and Redeemer] of all the faithful; [grant to the souls of your departed servants the remission of all their sins, that by our devout supplications they may obtain that pardon which they have always desired. Who lives and reigns, world without end. Amen.]168 And so they withdraw. The brothers who are outside the choir, and those who have been bled, stand in their order at the death of the dying man and at the burial, if they can; but if not, they indicate their incapacity to the abbot. They are permitted to be absent from what is done for him in the church. Those who are in the infirmary, if they wish, can likewise go to the tomb. From this many donations may occur, which are given to the almoner and the doorkeeper for distributing to pilgrims. The day on which the dead man is buried, all priests who can do so should sing the Mass for him. Whatever may be done for him by individuals before he is buried is beyond the debt that they owe to him. However, it is a communal debt that for him a Vigil of nine lessons is held for him in the church in the evening the day he is buried, if it cannot be done conveniently before the burial. The next day, the Mass in the community is said for him. He is inscribed in the calendar and mentioned each year in the chapter and he is commemorated at the Vigil and at Morning Mass. The weeklong service for the dead is done for him by the community. If he has lived with us for one year, a daily ration

192

T he book of the order

(praebenda) is set for him at the high table for seven days. When this is completed, on the seventh day the armarius gives a reminder, and he is absolved in chapter and added to the collect O God, giver of pardon169 and by each one of the priests, four private Masses are said, and by each of the others who are not priests, one psalter, and by those who do not know the psalter, one hundred fifty Have mercy on me, God;170 by those who indeed are ignorant of that, as many Our Fathers. One Mass is sung daily especially for him from his death until the thirtieth day, except on Good Friday, which the priests sing for him privately by the order which they have in choir. Each day in chapter the armarius says who ought to sing it the following day. If within those thirty days another brother dies, from the death of the last one until the thirtieth day of the first, their thirty days are done together, so that one Mass is said for both each day. When the thirty days from the first deceased are completed, the second thirty days are completed for the other one. What will be done for those who come ad succurrendum,171 is to be determined by the abbot. Anytime one of our brothers dies when at his obedience or anywhere while traveling, a full Office ought to be said for him in the community, at that hour in which his death is announced, if it can be done appropriately. The commendation, Vigils, Vespers and the Mass are done solemnly the following day. If the commendation cannot be done that day, it is done on the next day before the Mass which is sung for him. When anything is to be done for the deceased by the community, if because of a feast or for another reason it cannot be done right then, it is done as soon as it can be done. Once a year a common solemn commemoration is done by the community for all our deceased brothers. Fifteen Masses are said by each priest a year, and by others twelve psalters are said. By those who do not know the psalter, twelve hundred Have mercy on me, God;172 those who are ignorant of that, as many Our Fathers. For our fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, and all relatives, and our friends, a full Office is said solemnly in community once a year, and by each priest a Mass is sung privately for all, by others fifty psalms, by those who are ignorant of the psalms as many Have mercy on me, God;173 and those who do not know that, as many Our Fathers. When an announcement is made to one of the brothers of the death of his father, mother, brother, or sister, he can ask in chapter for mercy and thus the deceased is absolved there in his presence, and at Vigils and at the Morning Mass a collect is said for him. One must never dare to do this for other friends.

T he book of the order



193

75. How the Dead from Outside Are Received and Buried

When anyone from the world asks to be buried in our cemetery, if he is such a person who should be received by the whole community in procession, the lord abbot ought to discuss it carefully with the friends of the deceased who are taking care of the funeral. He should indicate to them the hour in which it is to be carried out, not the hour that they choose but the one that seems most appropriate for the community. He ought to tell them also that at the moment the body ought to be carried out they must quickly send a messenger ahead to announce its coming. The abbot ought to forewarn the sacristan and church warden, so that each of them prepares what pertains to his office and makes the arrangements so no scandal comes from their negligence. If any regular Hour is being sung around the time in which the deceased is to be brought, the church warden provides that it is sounded and sung earlier, so that it is not interrupted by the coming of the deceased, and not, if it can be done, said with haste. From the time the abbot first has word of the deceased, he ought to attend diligently the Hours that follow, and, as time permits, in the most convenient way that he can. Likewise, the abbot ought to forewarn the brothers that at the hour in which the deceased is to be brought they all should sit together in cloister, so that when the warden strikes the warning, no one will be discovered not to be present. Also the abbot should enjoin someone to go to some place from which he can see the coming of the deceased long before, so that as soon as he sees it he does not delay to announce it. When the body is carried in, the warden promptly rings the bell three or four times, as customarily happens for a dead person. When they hear that, the brothers immediately enter the church and prepare themselves to receive the body. Meanwhile the sacristan summons some of the juniors and assigns clearly to each one what he must carry, blessed water to one, to another the thurible, and the other things to others, and he gives to each what he must carry. When the brothers are gathered and everything is prepared, and those who carry the deceased approach the monastery, the brothers go out in procession from the choir into the church to meet the body. The blessed water precedes, followed by the thurifer, then the lantern with the light, then the cross. The priest comes last with the stole around his neck and carrying the book. All of these, like the rest, are in their capes. If immediately after the reception, Mass is to be sung for the deceased, the priest puts on priestly garments, and just as we said above, he goes

194

T he book of the order

after the cross. If the abbot has vested for the procession, he goes after the cross. If the deceased is such that he ought to be received and carried by our brothers, then four brothers, arranged for by the abbot, are dressed in linen tunics prepared for this with their cloaks over them. They go first in procession two by two on each side, positioned after the priest. When the procession is going from the choir, as the juniors, who proceed after the priest, go out the door in the retrochoir, they remain there standing next to each other, following as their inferiors cross by, and arrange themselves on each side. They bow to the abbot crossing last through their midst. The procession is arranged this way, that the abbot and the seniors may be below, near the door of the monastery, and the juniors are above toward the door of the retrochoir. The priest and those who precede him go outside into the portico, where they stand spreading out along the length of the portico. When the body of the deceased is carried up to the portico, it is set down briefly and immediately sprinkled and incensed by the priest, or the abbot if they are both there. Then it is lifted up and the armarius begins the response Deliver me, Lord.174 It is carried to the middle of the church, or, if he was such a person, into the choir, where it is set down. When the body is not placed in the choir but in the church, the whole community ought to remain there in the church, until the response which was begun is finished. The priest says the collect. The cross is placed at the head of the deceased and the candles are lit, and the procession, the blessed water, thurible, and lantern preceding, returns to the choir. If an external procession comes with the body, then our brothers, either in the church or in the choir when it is received, should all stand on one side of the church or choir, to leave the other side empty for the others. When the deceased is carried to the tomb, then, if an external procession is present there, our procession ought to advance in the last place. When they come to the tomb, as far as space allows, they ought to stand together apart from the others. When the body has been interred, they should go in the same way they came out. It is anticipated for this sort of procession that the more mature persons are to be carrying or doing something. When they are proceeding among others, as much as possible, they should strive to walk together at the same time and when they stand, to stand at the same time. In general, as long as they are in the presence of outsiders, all ought to strive to carry themselves before them with the greatest

T he book of the order



195

discipline. It is the responsibility of the armarius to handle anything that emerges unforeseen so as not disturb the order, and to indicate to others, as needed, what is to be done, and that all the rest follow his indication, whether in doing or avoiding anything. It is also his responsibility to make the remembrance of any deceased person who is buried is our cemetery in chapter and see that he is immediately absolved, and added to God by whose mercy.175 On the day when he is buried, a collect is said for him at the Vigils and the following day at the Morning Mass. If the lord abbot wishes to extend greater mercy to anyone, it is done just as he determines. For bodies that are brought from outside, not all the brothers need be present during the day, nor all for vigils at night. It is in the abbot’s discretion whomever or however many he wishes to depute to this office. Likewise it is to be known that bodies are not buried in the cemetery of the canons, unless they are received in the choir. These are to be carried there and buried by the brothers as our brothers are. The others, who are placed outside the choir, are buried in the exterior cemetery and carried and buried by laity. When the procession of some deceased person arrives who is not received in the choir, the body is left in the church. If Mass is to be sung for him right away, then the procession enters in our choir. If, however, burial is to be immediate, then we remain together with them at the body until it is buried. On the return from the grave, the seven psalms are said and the prostrations are done just as for our own. When the procession of outsiders comes to us, the abbot ought to designate by name those deputed to guard the door or any other things, either commanding them when they are present or mandating them through whomever he chooses, if they are absent. The Masses of the Dead which are held solemnly in the community ought to have only three collects: one for the present deceased, namely We ask you, Lord176 or for an anniversary God of pardon,177 a second for our brothers, O God, [giver] of pardon, a third in common for all, Almighty eternal God, [you who rule both] the living [and the dead].178 If two happen together, that is, the death of a deceased person and an anniversary, the O God, [giver] of pardon is omitted, and for the present deceased the first collect is said, the second for the anniversary, the third for all. However, on the anniversary, which for our brothers we do solemnly, first God of pardon is said, second Lord, incline [your ear]179 for deceased benefactors, and the third for all together.

196

T he book of the order

76. The Form of Declaring Solemn Profession

I, brother N., a cleric (or, if he is of another order, he says that) promise to the church of Blessed Victor stability of my body before God and the holy relics of this church, in the presence of Lord N., prelate, and the rest of the brothers, the correction of my behavior, especially in chastity, in comunity of property, in obedience, according to the grace brought to me by God and the capacity of my strength. HERE ENDS THE BOOK OF THE ORDER

NOTES 1

2 3

4

5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

The Catholic Church ranks feast days by the level of solemnity required for their celebration. Minor feasts were divided into three-lesson feasts and nine-lesson feasts. The thirteenth-century distinctions at use in Paris are discussed by Rebecca A. Baltzer on pages 115–17 of “The Sources and the Sanctorale: Dating by the Decade in Thirteenth Century-Paris.” In Music and Culture in the Middle Ages and Beyond: Liturgy, Sources, Symbolism. Edited by Benjamin Brand and David J. Rothenberg (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016), 111–41. Ps. 120–34. See The Monastic Constitutions of Lanfranc. Introduction by David Knowles (London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, Ltd., 1951), xvii. Et ne nos begins the final phase of the Our Father. The Our Father was begun out loud and probably said silently until the prior said the ending out loud, as is sometimes done in the Liturgy of the Hours according to the Rule of Benedict. See RB,13. Here and throughout this translation, liturgical dialogues, abbreviated in the manuscripts, are completed. Texts absent from the edition are placed in square brackets. Ps. 122:7. While the critical text includes only incipits, liturgical dialogue has been recreated using the Breviarium Romanum and Victor Daniel Boissonnet, Dictionnaire alphabético méthodique des cérémonies et des rites sacrés. 3 vols. (Paris: J.-P. Migne, 1847–1848). Online: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k2206615?rk=64378;0. Accessed 19 May 2020. Ps. 119:41. Ps. 102. Prayer for Pentecost: Deus, qui corda fidelium Sancti Spiritus illustratione docuisti: da nobis in eodem Spiritu recta sapere, et de eius semper consolatione gaudere. Boissonnet, Dictionnaire, 2:1187. Ps. 121. Ps. 121:8. Ps. 102. Famulum tuum, quaesumus, Domine, tua semper protectione custodi; ut libera tibi mente deserviat, et te protegente a malis omnibus sit securus. Second antiphon for second Vespers for Pentecost. Confirma hoc, Deus, quod operatus es in nobis, a templo sacro tuo, quod est in Jerusalem. (Confirm this, O God, what you have worked in us, from your holy temple which is in Jerusalem.) Ps. 68. Melisma. Ps. 86:2b. Ostende nobis, Domine, misericordiam tuam, et salutare tuum da nobis. Boissonnet, Dictionnaire, 2:987. Ps. 102. Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, miserere famulo tuo et dirige eum secundum clementiam tuam in viam salutis aeternae, ut te tota virtute diligat et quae tibi placita sunt, tota devotione perficiat, per Christum [Dominum nostrum]. Ps. 67. Ps. 128. Ps. 133. Intret oratio [mea in conspectu tuo; inclina aurem tuam ad precem meam, Domine]. Ps. 86:2b. Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui facis mirabilia magna solus, praetende super famulum tuum et super cunctam congregationem illi commissam spiritum gratis salutaris et ut in ueritate tibi complaceant perpetuum eis rorem tuae benedictionis infunde, per Dominum nostrum. This is an abbreviation of a longer prayer written in full in Chapter 1 above.

198

T he book of the order

26 Deus, a quo sancta desideria, [recta consilia et justa sunt opera, da servis tuis illam quam mundus non potest dare pacem; ut et corda nostra mandatis tuis dedita, et hostium sublata formidine, tempora sint tua protectione tranquilla.] 27 The election of the abbot at St Victor was similar to that described in RB, 64; however, the regulations regarding the use of power by Victorine abbots contrast with those in practice at Benedictine houses in the Middle Ages. For a discussion of power and authority through the documentation of French medieval monasticism, see Robert F. Berkhofer III, Day of Reckoning: Power and Accountability in Medieval France (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004). 28 Ps. 132. 29 Ps. 90:13. Convertere Domine, usquequo? v. Et deprecabilis esto super servos tuos. 30 Ps. 133:1. 31 Beati qui habitant in domo tua, Domine, r. in saecula saeculorum laudabunt te. 32 Quaesumus omnipotens Deus ut hic famulo tuo. I have been unable to identify the remainder of this prayer. 33 This prayer is known as the “Song of the Three Children,” based on Dan. 3: 56–88 and Ps. 149. 34 Here, “obedience” is the duty given by his superior. 35 Ps. 120:8. 36 The trina oratio was sung after the Divine Office: three penitential psalms (6, 31, and 37) were sung, then the Our Father, followed by prayer for oneself. Then Ps. 51 and 102 were said on behalf of the king and his court, followed by a prayer. Finally, Ps. 130 and 143 were sung on behalf of the dead, with a third prayer. See Knowles, Constitutions of Lanfranc, xvii; and Sally Elizabeth (Roper) Harper, Medieval English Benedictine Liturgy: Studies in the Formation, Structure, and Content of the Monastic Votive Office, c. 950–1540, Routledge Library Editions, 19 (London: Routledge, 2019), chapter 2. 37 Indulgeat tibi Deus, [injungat ei poenitentiam]. Found in William Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum, or The History of the Abbies and Other Monasteries (London: Longman, 1817), xlix. 38 1 Tim. 3:13. 39 Sir. 18:17. 40 RB80, 31:1–15, 17–19. Here, verse 16 is omitted. 41 Monastic practice holds that each member of the community has his own cup, bowl, and spoon which he uses for the month. 42 This refers to the window between the kitchen and refectory for the passing of food. 43 Chapter 64 discussses the mandatum. 44 RB, 38:10. Mixtum is “doctored wine,” water or bread and wine mixed, taken as a kind of snack. RB80 translates this a “diluted wine.” See also Thomas Merton, Charter, Customs, and Constitutions of the Cistercians. Edited by Patrick F. O’Connell, Initiation into the Monastic Tradition 7 (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2015), regarding chapter 73 of the twelfth-century Cistercian customary. He specifies that this small refreshment of either bread and wine or bread and water was given to some who had particular need, including adolescents, those who have been bloodlet, lay brothers, the infirm, and oblates. 45 The most helpful source for clothing of the Victorine canons is Filippo Buonanni, Histoire du clergé séculier et régulier, des congrégations de chanoines et de clercs, et des ordres religieux de l’un et de l’autre sexe, qui ont été établis jusques à présent (Amsterdam: Chez Pierre Brunel, 1716). 46 That is, it is not necessary to mention it in the chapter of faults. 47 That is, receive communion. 48 The mandatum takes its name from Jesus’s words in the Last Supper narrative in John 13:14, “this is my commandment.” Mandatum came to refer to the ceremony of footwashing. 49 There seem to be two doors or gates. This one refers to one in the wall that surrounds the whole complex. The next chapter refers to one that leads directly to the cloister. 50 According to David Knowles in his introduction to The Monastic Constitutions of Lanfranc, the medieval terminology for different liturgical Hours differed from modern monastic us-

NOTES

51 52 53 54

55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73

74 75 76 77



199

age. For Lanfranc, Nocturns was what is known to modern monks as Matins. This Office was the longest of the day, consisting two to three divisions of multiple psalms with prayers and responses. What Lanfranc knew as Matins is what is known today in monasticism as Lauds. In this text it is clear the author followed the usage known by Lanfranc, and the translation will keep the usage “Nocturns” and “Matins” respectively. See Knowles, Constitutions of Lanfranc, xvi. The Latin of this sentence is unclear. See the appendix, below, p. 205-06. Villosa can mean “velvet” or some other plush, pile cloth. This is using an alternate reading from the apparatus, tectus, which means “veil” or “covering.” Textus could also mean “evangeliaries,” but because the gospel books are mentioned later in the sentence, tectus seems a likelier reading. “Covering” might refer to one of the cloths used in the liturgy to cover the paten or the chalice. The piscina was a basin with a drain (known as the sacrarium) in which items used in the liturgy could be washed and the water used would drain directly into the earth. “health” or “salvation.” The term habitus, translated here as “habit,” can refer either to clothing or to one’s way of life. Alludes to RB, 58:8: Praediceretur ei omnia dura et aspera per quae itur ad Deum. Literally, “I return,” (Reddo) echoing the words of the abbot. This promise of stability and obedience echoes two of the three components of Benedictine profession; see, e.g., RB, 58:17. That is, the prayer after meals. See Chapter 35. See also Hugh’s Inst. nov., below, p. 230-31. Superpelliciis is used to refer to an ordinary part of the habit, translated throughout as “cloak.” However, it can also be used to refer to a part of the liturgical dress, in which case it is more appropriately called a “surplice.” Ps. 119:116, RB, 58:21. Ps. 48:9. Ps. 48. Ps. 51. Ps. 133. Ps. 48:9. Ps. 86:2b. Prayer for one about to make a journey, from the Roman Breviary: Nichil proficiat inimicus in nobis. Et filius iniquitatis non apponat nocere nobis. This is an alternate title, taken from the critical apparatus, which seems to fit the text more appropriately, “De locutione per signa.” Liber ord., 116. This section reveals some of the common foods eaten at the Abbey in the twelfth century. Various recipes for rissoles, breads, fish and vegetables based on medieval French sources are found in the following two cook books: D. Eleanor Scully and Terrence Scully, Early French Cookery: Sources, History, Original Recipes, and Modern Adaptations (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2002); and Odile Redon, Françoise Sabban, and Silvano Serventi, The Medieval Kitchen: Recipes from France and Italy. Translated by Edward Schneider (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1998). Torte or Tourte means “espèce de pain commun de forme ronde.” Frédéric Godefroy, Dictionnaire de l’ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du ixe au xve siècle (Paris: F. Vieweg, 1881–1902). https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k50634z.image. Accessed 20 May 2020. According to the critical apparatus, some manuscripts added “Pro signo pisarum (pilarum) summitatem poliicis articulo indicis subpone et descendendo moue.” See Liber ord., 120. Flan. The Latin text here is unclear. Jocqué chose rufellarum as the favored text, yet the meaning of that term cannot be found. Two alternatives from the apparatus include rubeolarum or

200

T he book of the order

raseolarum, which both could mean a placenta cake, a layered pastry with cheese and honey from Italy and Greece; and russelarum, which, according to DMLBS, is a “dish of minced fruits, sugar, and spices, or of minced meat and spices, formed into balls and fried,” called “rissole” today. I chose to use this last option as it was a food typical of medieval France. It is discussed and recipes are offered in Scully and Scully, Early French Cookery, 70–72 and 91–96. 78 An additional sentence was added in the margins in some manuscripts: “Pro signo piperis indicem contra os paululum apertum moue.” See Liber ord., 123, l. 70. 79 See discussion on circatores in Chapter 41. 80 Luke 1:46–55. 81 Luke 1:68–79, also called the Canticle of Zechariah. 82 “We praise you, Lord,” a canticle also known as “Hymnus SS. Ambrosii et Augustini” in the Roman Breviary. 83 Perhaps a simple fountain rather than a separate room. 84 Abbot Gilduin, to whom authorship of this text is credited, is also thought to have written a short treatise on accents. See Luc Jocqué and Dominique Poirel, “De Donat à Saint-Victor: un De accentibus inédit.” In La tradition vive: Mélanges d’histoire des textes en l’honneur de Louis Holtz. Edited by Pierre Lardet (Turnhout: Brepols, 2003), 161–92. 85 According to David Knowles, the psalmi familiares were two or four psalms with prayers said for family or benefactors after each Hour of the Office. See Knowles, Constitutions of Lanfranc, xvii, and Harper, Medieval English, chapter 2. 86 Ps. 124:8. 87 See Chapter 41. 88 Ps. 5. 89 “Song of the Three Children,” based on Dan. 3: 56–88 and Ps. 149. 90 Oculi omnium [in te sperant, Domine, et tu das escam illorum in tempore opportuno. Aperis tu manum tuam et imples omne animal benedictione.] 91 Ps. 22:26. 92 Benedic, Domine, nos et dona tua, [quae de largitate tua sumus sumpturi, et concede, ut illis salubriter nutriti tibi debitum obsequium praestare valeamus, per Christum Dominum nostrum.] Bless us, O Lord, and your gifts, which from your bounty we are about to receive, and grant that, healthily nourished by them, we may render you due obedience, through Christ our Lord. 93 Ps. 51. 94 Tu autem [Domine miserere nobis]. This phrase is used to mark the end of the reading. 95 Exaudi nos, Domine sancte, Pater omnipotens, aeterne Deus: et mittere digneris sanctum Angelum tuum de caelis, qui custodiat, foveat, protegat, visitet atque defendat omnes habitantes in hoc habitaculo. 96 Good Friday Reproaches, Mic. 6:3–4. 97 It is not clear what they offer. 98 “We praise you, Lord,” a canticle also known as “Hymnus SS. Ambrosii et Augustini” in the Roman Breviary. 99 Luke 1:68–79. 100 Luke 1:46–55. 101 This term “regular discipline” doesn’t seem to appear elsewhere in the text. St Benedict’s Rule uses this expression often. See RB80, 415–36. The RB uses exclusion from meals and from public prayer as well as corporal punishment. 102 Hugh Feiss, “Circatores in the Ordo of St Victor.” In The Medieval Monastery. Edited by Andrew MacLeish. Medieval Studies at Minnesota 2 (St Cloud: Northstar, 1988), 53–58; “Circatores from Benedict of Nursia to Humbert of Romans.” American Benedictine Review, 40 (1989): 346–78. 103 Order here means “way of life,” as described in this document. 104 Ps. 51. 105 Ps. 86:2b.

NOTES



201

106 The ninth Sunday before Easter, the third before Ash Wednesday. 107 Passion Sunday, the Fifth Sunday of Lent, identified by the first response at Matins on that day. See Joseph Pascher, Das liturgische Jahr (Munich: Max Hueber Verlag, 1963), 101. 108 1 to 4 Kings (1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Sam.). 109 Two of these commentaries, those on Lamentations and Ecclesiastes, are mentioned without an author, and Hugh of Saint Victor wrote commentaries on both. Perhaps they were using his. 110 This probably refers to Gregory the Great’s Homiliae in Hiezechielem prophetam. 111 Ps. 18. 112 Ps. 18:26. 113 Ps. 78. 114 Verse 40. 115 Ps. 89. 116 Verse 20. 117 Deut. 32. 118 Verse 19. 119 Ps. 102. 120 The term used here is “secretarius,” which both here and elsewhere seems to refer to the sacristan. 121 See description of the trina oratio in Chapter 5, above, footnote 36. 122 The fifteen psalms of ascent or Gradual Psalms, Ps. 120–34. They are sometimes sung after the trina oratio. See Knowles, Constitutions of Lanfranc, xvii (2). 123 Ps. 95. 124 Ps. 95:7. 125 Luke 1:68–79. 126 “We praise you, Lord,” a canticle also known as “Hymnus SS. Ambrosii et Augustini” in the Roman Breviary. 127 Ps. 71. 128 Ps. 67. 129 “Song of the Three Children,” based on Dan. 3:56–88 and Ps. 149. 130 Ps. 117. 131 Luke 1:68–79, also called the Canticle of Zechariah. 132 Ps. 51. 133 Ps. 117. 134 “The Suffrages, or anthems and prayers of various saints said after Lauds and Vespers.” Knowles, Constitutions of Lanfranc, xvii. 135 The seven penitential psalms, Ps. 6, 31, 37, 50, 101, 129, and 142. See Knowles, Constitutions of Lanfranc, xvii. 136 This might refer to a piece of art depicting Christ in glory. 137 Also known as Quicumque uult. 138 Carnis resurrectionem. This is a phrase from the Apostle’s Creed, not from the Athanasian Creed cited above. 139 This was a short reading during the Liturgy of the Hours of St Mary. 140 Prayer for the dead: Deus veniae largitor, et humanae salutis amator, quaesumus clementiam tuam: ut nostrae congregationis fratres, propinquos, et benefactores, qui ex hoc saeculo transierunt, beata Maria semper virgine intercedente cum omnibus Sanctis tuis, ad perpetuae beatitudinis consortium pervenire concedas. 141 Unless the priest here went into the sacristy, this suggests the piscina was in the wall near the altar. 142 Prayer for the dead: Fidelium Deus omnium conditor et redemptor, animabus famulorum, famularumque tuarum remissionem cunctorum tribue peccatorum: ut indulgentiam, quam semper optaverunt, piis supplicationibus consequantur. Qui vivis et regnas in saecula saeculorum.

202

T he book of the order

143 “The Song of Simeon,” Luke 2:29–32. 144 Actiones nostras [quaesumus, Domine, aspirando praeveni et adiuvando prosequere: ut cuncta nostra oratio et operatio a te semper incipiat, et per te coepta finiatur. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.] 145 Antiphon sung on Holy Thursday: Mandatum novum do vobis ut diligatis invicem sicut dilexi vos. 146 The text uses the word alletia. An alternate reading in the apparatus, halecia, means dried herring. See DMLBS, s.v. 147 Song of the Three Children, based on Dan. 3:56–88 and Ps. 149. 148 In the DMLBS, ventosia is defined as treatment by cupping, a technique used in bloodletting. The same source also states that iarsis is also spelled garsis, which means “lancet,” one of the tools used in bloodletting. Du Cange et al., Glossarium mediæ et infimæ latinitatis. Niort: L. Favre, 1883–1887, cites Statuta Ordin. Praemonstratensis Dist. 1 Cap. 19: qui vero de ventosis et Garsis minui voluerint…. See also Heinrich Stern, Theory and Practice of Bloodletting. New York: Rebman Co., 1915, 17–32. 149 Cf. Jas. 5:13–15. Deus, qui per Apostolum tuum Jacobum locutus es, dicens infirmatur quis in vobis: inducat Presbyteros Ecclesiae, et orent super eum, ungentes eum oleo sancto in nomine Domini et oratio fidei salvabit infirmum: et si in peccatis est, dimittentur ei; cura, quaesumus Redemptor noster, per gratiam Sancti Spiritus, languores istius infirmi: et ejus sana vulnera, ejusque dimitte peccata atque dolores cunctos cordis et corporis ab eo expelle: plenamque ei interius exteriusque sanitatem misericorditer redde ut ope misericordiae tuae, sanitati restitutus: ad pristina pietatis tuae reparetur officia. From the Breviarium, “Quomodo tractandus sit qui moritur et de sepultura defuncti.” God, you have spoken through your Apostle James, [saying, “are there any sick among you? Let them send for the priests of the church, and let them pray over them, anointing them with holy oil in the name of the Lord. The prayer of the faithful will save the sick, and if they are in sin, remove them.” Our Redeemer, through the grace of the Holy Spirit, cure the weakness of this sick one, make whole his wound, and separate him from sin, and remove from him all pains of heart and body; in your mercy restore him to fullness of health inside and outside, that by the might of your mercy, health will be restored, and he will return to his duty of perfect piety.] 150 Misereatur tui omnipotens Deus, et dimissis peccatis tuis, perducat te ad vitam aeternam. Almighty God have mercy on you, and forgiving you your sins, bring you to life everlasting. 151 Intret oratio nostra [in conspectu tuo; inclina aurem tuam ad precem nostram Domine]. 152 This entire text seems to be found in Anselm of Canterbury’s Admonitio morientes; PL 158:686–87. 153 This strong theological emphasis on the death of Christ is found also in Osbert’s account of Hugh of Saint Victor’s death: he clung to the cross. See below, p. 437. 154 Exaudi nos, Domine (see above in Chapter 36). 155 Ps. 51. 156 Ps. 130. 157 Ps. 146. 158 R. Libera me, Domina, de viis inferni, qui portas aereas confregisti; et visitasti infernum, et dedisti eis lumen, ut viderent te *qui erant in poenis tenebrarum. V. Clamantes et dicentes; advenisti Redemptor noster. Qui erant in poenis tenebrarum. V. Requiem aeternam dona eis Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis. Qui erant in poenis tene­ brarum. R. Deliver me, O Lord, from the ways of hell, you who have broken the bronze gates and visited hell, and given light to them, that they may see you *who were in the pains of darkness. V. Crying, and saying: You have come, Our Redeemer. *Who were in the pains of darkness. V. Grant them eternal rest, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine on them. *Who were in the pains of darkness.

NOTES

 203

159 The meaning of the sound of the knock indicates something, but it is unclear. This may mean the reading in the chapter of the list of assignments for the day or the list of the dead. 160 Ps. 120. 161 Ps. 5. 162 Ps. 117. 163 Subvenite sancti Dei, [occurrite angeli Domini, suscipientes animam eius offerentes eam in conspectu Altissimi]. Come to his aid, saints of God. [Come to meet him, angels of the Lord, receiving his soul and presenting him in the presence of the Most High.] 164 De terra plasmasti me [et carnem induisti me; redemptor meus Domine, resuscita me in novissimo die.] 165 Oremus, fratres karissimi, [pro anima cari nostri N., quem Dominus de laqueo huius saeculi liberare dignatus est, cuius corpusculum hodie sepulturae traditur.] Gelasian sacramentary no. 1620. Translation and text in Frederick S. Paxton, Christianizing Death: The Creation of a Ritual Process in Early Medieval Europe. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1996, 66. 166 In memoria aeterna erunt iusti; ab auditione [mala non timebunt.] 167 Absolue, quaesumus, Domine, animam famuli tui et animas famulorum tuorum fratrum nostrorum et omnium fidelium defunctorum ab omni uinculo delictorum [ut in resurrectionis gloria inter sanctos et electos tuos resuscitatus respiret. Per Christum Dominum nostrum]. 168 Fidelium Deus omnium [conditor et redemptor, animabus famulorum famularumque tuarum remissionem cunctorum tribue peccatorum: ut indulgentiam, quam semper optaverunt, piis supplicationibus consequantur. Qui vivis et regnas in saecula saeculorum.] 169 Deus veniae largitor, [et humanae salutis amator, quaesumus clementiam tuam, ut nostrae congregationis fratres, propinquos, et benefactores, qui ex hoc saeculo transierunt, beata Maria semper virgine intercedente cum omnibus Sanctis tuis, ad perpetuae beatitudinis consortium pervenire concedas.] O God, giver of pardon [and lover of human salvation, we ask for your clemency, that the brothers, relatives, and benefactors of our congregation, who have departed this life, through the intercession of the blessed Mary, every virgin, and all your saints, may you allow them to reach the sharing of perpetual happiness.] 170 Ps. 51. 171 This technical term refers to a medieval practice allowing lay benefactors to join the community just before death. This underlies the phrase in the previous paragraph, “if he has lived with us at least a year”. See Louis Gougaud, “Deathbed Clothing with the Religious Habit.” In Devotional and Ascetic Practices in the Middle Ages (London, 1927), 131–45. 172 Ps. 51. 173 Ps. 51. 174 R. Libera me, Domine, de viis inferni, qui portas aereas confregisti; et visitasti infernum, et dedisti eis lumen, ut viderent te *qui erant in poenis tenebrarum. V. Clamantes et dicentes; advenisti Redemptor noster. Qui erant in poenis tenebrarum. V. Requiem aeternam dona eis Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis. Qui erant in poenis tene­ brarum. R. Deliver me, O Lord, from the ways of hell, you who have broken the bronze gates and visited hell, and given light to them, that they may see you *who were in the pains of darkness. V. Crying, and saying: You have come, Our Redeemer. *Who were in the pains of darkness. V. Grant them eternal rest, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine on them. *Who were in the pains of darkness. 175 Deus cuius miseratione [animae fidelium requiescunt, hunc famulum benedicere dignare, eique angelum tuum sanctum deputa custodem; et quorum quarumque corpora hic sepeliuntur, animas eorum ab omnibus absolve vinculis delictorum, ut in te semper cum sanctis tuis sine fine laetentur.] God, by whose mercy [the souls of the faithful find rest, bow down to bless this grave, and send your holy angel to guard it; and absolve the souls of all those whose bodies are buried here from all the bonds of sin, that they may always rejoice in you and your saints forever.]

204

T he book of the order

176 Quaesumus Domine, [pro tua pietate miserere animae famulae tuae; et a contagiis mortalitatis exutam in aeternae salvationis partem restitue. Per Dominum.] We ask you, Lord, [for your goodness, have mercy on the soul of your servant, and being freed from the corruption of mortality, restore to her the portion of eternal salvation. Through our Lord, etc.] 177 Deus indulgentiarum [Domine, da animabus famulorum famularumque tuarum, quorum anniversarium depositionis diem commemoramus, refrigerii sedem, quietis beatitudinem, et luminis claritatem. Per Dominum.] [O Lord] God of pardon, [give to the souls of your servants, men and women departed, whose anniversary day of departure we commemorate, the seat of refreshment, the happiness of rest, and the brightness of eternal light. Through our Lord. Etc.] 178 Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui uiuorum [dominaris simul et mortuorum, omniumque misereris quos tuos fide et opere futuros esse prenoscis; te suppliciter exoramus, ut pro quibus effundere preces decreuimus, quosque uel presens adhuc seculum in carne retinet, uel futurum iam exutos corpore suscepit, pietatis tuae clementia delictorum suorum omnium ueniam et gaudia consequi mereantur aeterna. Per Dominum.] Collect for Missa pro abbate et congregatione. Almighty eternal God, [you who rule both] the living [and the dead, and are merciful to all those you foreknew to be yours by faith and good works, we humbly ask you that those for whom we pour out our prayers, whether they are still retained in the flesh in this world, or the world to come has already received them out of their bodies, by the mercy of your faithful love may receive all pardon and eternal joy.] 179 Inclina Domine [aurem tuam ad preces nostras, quibus misericordiam tuam supplices deprecamur: ut animam famuli tui, quam de hoc saeculo migrare iussisti, in pacis ac lucis regione constituas, et sanctorum tuorum iubeas esse consortem. Per Dominum.] Lord, incline [your ear to our prayers, in which we humbly beseech your mercy, that you would place the soul of your servant which you have caused to depart from this world into the region of peace and light; and unite it to the fellowship of your saints. Through Our Lord, etc.]

APPENDIX: CLOTHING Juliet Mousseau The clothing assigned to the canons and lay brothers at Saint Victor is outlined in Chapter 18 on the vestiarius. Here, the author of the Liber ordinis describes what items of clothing are to be given to each community member, how they ought to fit and be worn, and the materials from which they should be made. Further indications of the clothing terminology can be found in Chapter 25, on hand signals.1 Each canon was given the following: one cape (cappa), one pair of furs (pelles) or one mantle (pallium), one wool tunic (tunica lanea), two robes (pellicia), two cloaks (superpellicia), two shirts (interulae or camisiae), two pairs of breeches (femoralia), two pairs of hose (paria caligarum), two or three pairs of socks (soccorum), large shoes (subtalares maiores), that is, boots (coturnos), and also smaller ones for daily use, one hood (caputium) lined with lambskin, and if he was a laborer, he was also given a linen tunic (tunicam lineam). Those working or travelling could be given a wool hat (mitras laneam). The outer clothes are relatively easy to imagine. The author states that the prior, who has ultimate authority over clothing, must oversee the distribution of all clothing that will show: cape, cloak, tunic, robe, furs (made of sheepskin), and mantle. It seems that two options are given, perhaps for winter and summer wear. A canon wore a robe made of wool or a linen tunic (white) which came to a full palm above the ground. Over that was worn a cloak of the same length, with long sleeves that “extend no more than two palms beyond the fingers.” On the shoulders furs or a mantle could be worn, which are cut in a round 1

A historical overview of clothing and habits of religious orders, including regular canons, is discussed by Filippo Buonanni, Histoire du clergé séculier et régulier, des congrégations de chanoines et de clercs, et des ordres religieux de l’un et de l’autre sexe, qui ont été établis jusques à présent. 3 vols. (Amsterdam: Chez Pierre Brunel, 1716). 213–20, with a drawing on page 215; and also Pierre Hélyot and Maximilien Bullot, Histoire des ordres monastiques, religieux et militaires, et des congrégations séculières de l’un et de l’autre sexe, qui ont esté establies jusqu’à present (Paris, Coignard, 1714–1719), 2:149–54, which contains six illustrations, two presenting the “ancien habillement.”

206

T he book of the order

shape, not to stick out above or below the cape. The mantle is to be either solid black or solid white, never mixed colors. Finally, over all was worn a black hooded cape, “not too bright, but grey and dusky.” In the back, it should be a palm width shorter than the tunic or robe, and its hood is lined with lambskin. All these items of clothing were carefully controlled so that whatever was seen by others was uniform in quality and fit. The clothes worn under the robe are less clear. It seems each one wore a shirt, breeches that likely came down to the knee, hose that attached to them to cover the calf,2 socks, and shoes. Each one had two pairs of shoes, one for daily use and one for heavier use, which we might call “boots.” It is instructed that shoes not be too tight and have enough room in them to fit over the hose. The clothing worn by lay brothers is distinct, but the distinctions are not entirely clear in the text. Their clothing seems to be different based on the need of their duties. In addition to minor changes in the form and color of their clothes, they were also allowed to wear a scapular when needed.

2

The term “hose” is used throughout the text to translate caliga. This word is particularly elusive in the history of fashion. Caliga was used by the Romans to indicate the type of boot worn by soldiers, which consisted of a sole with hobnails that was strapped to the foot with lengthy thongs that wrapped around the calf. Clearly, medieval clerics were not wearing such boots. Yet the term remained in use, and historians are unsure exactly what type of garment it referred to. One dictionary, equating caliga with “hose,” indicates that they are bands of leather wrapped around the lower legs, which we might call garters. They continue by stating that by the sixteenth century, the word “hose” was used to refer to the entire undergarment comprising both the upper part (breeches) and the lower part covering the legs (stockings). Anglicus Galfridus, Promptorium parvulorum, sive clericorum: Lexicon Anglo-Latinum princeps. Edited by Albert Way (London: Camden Society, 1843), 25:248, n. 2. For another interpretation, see Elizabeth Coatsworth and Gale R. Owen-Crocker, Clothing the Past: Surviving Garments from Early Medieval to Early Modern Western Europe (Leiden: Brill, 2018). Undergarments covering the lower half of the body, including breeches and hose, are discussed on pages 273–307. Footwear, including stockings, is discussed on pages 348 ff. Caligae as worn by twelfth to thirteenth century ecclesiastics are described as short stockings or buskins (p. 350).

HUGH OF SAINT VICTOR ON THE FORMATION OF NOVICES INTRODUCTION BY FRANS VAN LIERE, TRANSLATION BY FRANS VAN LIERE AND DALE COULTER, ANNOTATED BY HUGH FEISS OSB

INTRODUCTION Hugh of Saint Victor wrote his De institutione novitiorum probably in the early 1120s, shortly after his Didascalicon, with which it shared thematic material.1 If the latter had the subtitle “de studio legendi”—on how to read—, the former might be read as its counterpart, “de studio vivendi”—on how to live.2 De institutione was intended as a work to introduce novices to the life according to the rule and customary of Saint Victor, and Ralph Stammberger has pointed to the significant parallels between it and the Liber ordinis.3 But Hugh’s work can be interpreted also more broadly, as a reflection on how to live a life that was directed towards the restoration of mankind in God’s image, the goodness of God’s initial creation. This return to God could be achieved by virtue,4 defined as the continuous practice of discipline, which in turn was the practical application of the knowledge of how to act. As such, the work is an outline of Hugh’s broader view of the cloistered life as an educational endeavor; both Damien Van den Eynde and Dominique Poirel have interpreted De institutione in this context, listing it with Hugh’s didactic works.5 Education for Hugh was a re-formation of the image of God in mankind; the novice was embarking on a path of life-long

1

2 3

4

5

Damien Van den Eynde, Essai sur la succession et la date des écrits de Hugues de Saint-Victor, Spicilegium Pontificii Athenaei Antoniani, 13 (Rome: Pontificium Athenaeum Antonianum, 1960), 113–15. Dominique Poirel is more cautious on assigning a date, but does emphasize the strong parallels with the Didascalicon: Hugo de Sancto Victore, “De institutione novitiorum,” introd. by D. Poirel, in Œuvre 1, 10–11. Patrice Sicard, Hugues de Saint-Victor et son école, Témoins de notre histoire (Turnhout: Brepols, 1991), 189, uses the words “art de vivre.” Ralf M. W. Stammberger, “‘Via ad ipsum sunt scientia, disciplina, bonitas.’ Theorie und Praxis der Bildung in der Abtei Sankt Viktor im zwölften Jahrhundert.” In Scientia und Disciplina. Wissenstheorie und Wissenschaftspraxis im 12. und 13. Jahrhundert. Edited by Rainer Berndt, Matthias Lutz-Bachmann, and Ralf M. W. Stammberger, Erudiri Sapientia, 3 (Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 2002), 97. Ineke van’t Spijker, “Hugh of Saint Victor’s Virtue: Ambivalence and Gratuity.” In Virtue and Ethics in the Twelfth Century. Edited by István Pieter Bejczy and Richard Newhauser (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2005), 75. Op. cit.

210

Hugh of Saint Victor – ON THE FORMATION OF NOVICES

learning, but at the same time he was educating, teaching others by example, in accordance with the canonical ideal of reform.6 As Poirel and Caroline Walker Bynum have pointed out, several treatises in the twelfth century were written to introduce novices to the monastic life, but there are few medieval antecedents to Hugh’s work. Stammberger points out that Hugh’s path of “knowledge and discipline” was essentially different from the Benedictine practice (represented by, for instance, William of St-Thierry) of amor and caritas as a path to spiritual happiness.7 Other treatises emphasized the contemptus mundi, a warning to flee the world. In contrast, Hugh emphasizes right behavior within this world, structured by the study of Scripture, the examples of the saints, and common sense or reason. Stephen Jaeger, in his study of the origin of courtliness, has interpreted Hugh’s work in light of the emergent literature on courtly behavior. He surmises that De institutione was intended to educate young members of the urban aristocracy, and was aimed at introducing them to the “beautiful manners” needed for the cleric as aspiring courtier, rather than a cloistered religious.8 Jaeger saw in Hugh’s work the influence of a Ciceronian model of ethics, rather than a Christian one; its satirical tone in the second half of the treatise was in stark contrast with the monastic emphasis on caritas, he argued.9 At the same time, as we will see, Hugh’s instructions were entirely in line with the Victorine approach to ecclesiastical reform. Hugh starts his work with a quotation from Ps. 119:66: “Teach me goodness and discipline and knowledge.” This, he says, is also the outline of his book: it is divided into two main parts, the first discussing knowledge, the second discipline; both are essential pathways to achieving goodness. The ultimate monastic (c.q. canonical) goal was the achievement of the happiness (beatitudo) that originated with the possession of goodness, given to mankind at the moment of Creation (cf. Gen. 1:31), but was lost in the act of disobedience to God (cf. Gen. 3:17–18). This goodness could be restored through God’s salvation and the re-creation 6

7 8 9

Caroline Walker Bynum, Jesus as Mother. Studies in the Spirituality of the High Middle Ages, Publications of the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, UCLA, 16 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982), 42–43. Stammberger, “Via ad ipsum,” 123–25. C. Stephen Jaeger, The Envy of Angels; Cathedral Schools and Social Ideals in Medieval Europe, 950–1200 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1994), 265. Jaeger, The Envy of Angels, 256.

I ntroduction



211

of fallen Mankind in the image of its Creator, the “the homeland… at which we long finally to arrive.”10 Hugh sees a two-fold path leading to this goodness: the acquisition of knowledge, which leads to wisdom, and the practice of discipline, which leads to virtue. The double pursuit of scientia and disciplina is a deep-seated theme within Victorine ethics. We see it, for instance, mentioned in Andrew of Saint Victor’s commentary on Proverbs.11 Goodness itself, however, is more elusive. Hugh ends his treatise by simply saying, “as for goodness, pray that God may give it to you.”12 Authors have long puzzled about Hugh’s abrupt ending; it led Stephen Jaeger to speculate that the treatise was hurriedly composed and left unfinished.13 However, its summary ending was probably meant to indicate that this goodness is ultimately not something that could be acquired by one’s own efforts, but only as a gift of God. The outline of De institutione, with the corresponding chapter number from the Migne edition added in parenthesis, can be delineated thus:14 Prologue—a description of the two-fold path leading to goodness. Part 1: Knowledge, taught by Reason = inherent in each human being, can be reasonably deduced by considering the circumstantiae of action (1): what to do (2) where to do it (3) when to do it (4) to whom to do it (5) Teaching = external, can be learned by (6): Examples of the saints (7) 10 11

12 13 14

Below, p. 217. See Rainer Berndt, “Scientia und Disciplina in der Lateinischen Bibel und in der Exegese des Hohen Mittelalters,” in Scientia und Disciplina. Wissenstheorie und Wissenschaftspraxis im 12. und 13. Jahrhundert, edited by Rainer Berndt, Matthias Lutz-Bachmann, and Ralf M. W. Stammberger, Erudiri Sapientia, 3 (Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 2002), 30. Below, p. 249. Jaeger, The Envy of Angels, 255. Following Stammberger, “Via ad ipsum,” 113.

212

Hugh of Saint Victor – ON THE FORMATION OF NOVICES

Scripture: sacred reading (lectio divina) (8) Self-scrutiny. The basis of discipline is the continuous examination of the motivations for one’s course of action. Behavior is the “speculum” (mirror) that indicates the interior state of mind (9) Part 2: Discipline, which leads to virtue (the completion of discipline), which in turn leads to goodness and happiness (the reward of virtue (10). Discipline should be maintained in: Dress (11) Demeanor (12) Speech, considering the circumstantiae what (13) to whom (14) where (15) when (16) in what manner (17) Table manners and eating (18) what (19) how much (20) in what manner (21) Stammberger rightly points out that the scientia Hugh is describing here is neither academic nor theoretical; it is the scientia recte vivendi, the knowledge of how to act in life, what to do, and especially, what to do in each particular context and circumstance. This kind of knowledge precedes the actual practice of doing the right thing. Essential to this knowledge is discernment (discretio): knowing what to do in particular circumstances. Hugh here pays special attention to right action with respect to rank and hierarchy. Hugh next discusses the sources for this kind of knowledge: the examples of the saints and the lectio divina, the reading of Scripture. It should be noted that Hugh here probably chiefly had in mind the reading of those books that incited to

I ntroduction



213

leading a moral life, such as the books of Proverbs and Ecclesiasticus. Hugh emphasizes that in the acquisition of such knowledge, listening is required, rather than disputation. The latter, says Hugh, doubtlessly in a rebuke of the nascent scholastic method, stems from a “pernicious root”, and “is not the wisdom that comes from above”, which can only be received by humble listening. Finally, one source for this kind of scientia is self-examination, scrutiny, which leads one to conquer oneself and “arrive at the good and healthy wisdom,” which serves discipline and goodness.15 The second part of Hugh’s treatise examines the concept of disciplina, discipline, better understood as continuous practice. Hugh’s treatment of this term is less scholastic than the first half of the treatise and given more to providing examples of how discipline should be maintained in dress, gesture, speech, and at the table; again, the circumstantiae play an important role here. The disciplined practice of what is good defined virtue. In  his De sacramentis, Hugh said that virtue was an ordered affectus and a remedy against vice.16 Vice is an evil inclination; consent to it constitutes sin.17 This idea of virtue as disciplined conduct today is what we would call manners; and indeed Hugh’s treatise is a treatise on manners; in dress, gesture, speech, and at the table. Most of the examples of good manners are offered by showing their counterparts, how not to act, when manners have become mannerisms. It is this emphasis on “beauty of manners,” venustas morum, that made Jaeger see Hugh’s treatise in the tradition of courtliness, rather than monastic education, and indeed Hugh tied his definition of perfect behavior closely to medieval aesthetic ideals: proportion and hierarchy. Hugh describes the body as a res publica—orderly and hierarchically disciplined. Each member has its own function, and they should work in concord.18 Although De institutione, as one of Hugh’s earlier works, can be considered in its own right, it is also worth considering how it fits into Hugh’s overall theory of reading and education presented in book six of his Didascalicon.19 Here, Hugh emphasized the threefold order in the “disciplines” of reading: 15 16 17 18 19

Below, p. 229. Hugh of St Victor, Sacr., 1.6.17, 273BC. Hugh of St Victor, Sacr., 2.13.2. Below, p. 232-39. Hugh, Didasc. 6, 1–2, VTT 3.163–64.

214

Hugh of Saint Victor – ON THE FORMATION OF NOVICES

littera—the study of history and Scripture. allegoria—the wisdom acquired through meditation and contemplation. moralia—the outward decoration as indication of the inner beauty. It would seem, then, that his De scripturis, Notulae, and Chronicon correspond to this first discipline, even though it should be noted that for Hugh, scientia is broader than just scriptural knowledge; “learn everything, and afterwards you will see than nothing was superfluous” was Hugh’s motto, after all.20 The second, the pursuit of inner wisdom through the meditation on the deeper meaning of this knowledge, Hugh described in his De meditatione and De sacramentis. His De institutione is chiefly dedicated to the third, the perfection of virtue though the continuous practice of moral behavior, but one should keep in mind that it is not separate from the Victorine ideal of lifelong learning and teaching by word and example. Modern scholars have evaluated De institutione in a wide range of manners. While Stephen Jaeger emphasized the work’s unique character, noting its dependency on classical, rather than Christian sources, and its lack of precedent except in the Carolingian period, he also found the treatise to be discombobulated and disorganized. Jaeger also saw the work as having few followers, since it was at the courts, rather than in the schools, where the practice of the venustas morum was perfected. More recent studies, such as by Poirel and Grover Zinn have seen it, by contrast, as an integral part of Hugh’s pedagogical œuvre.21 In any case, it knew a wide readership and dissemination, since it is transmitted in over 172 manuscripts.22 Its influence in the Middle Ages was felt in the educational manuals of Vincent of Beauvais, William Perault, William of Tournai, and Humbert of Romans—incidentally all

20 21

22

Hugh, Didasc. 6.3, VTT 3.166. Grover A. Zinn, “Vestigia victorina: Victorine Influence on the Spiritual Life in the Middle Ages with Special Reference to Hugh of Saint Victor’s De institutione novitiorum.” In L’école de Saint-Victor de Paris: influence et rayonnement du Moyen Âge à l’époque moderne: colloque international du C.N.R.S. pour le neuvième centenaire de la fondation (1108–2008) tenu au Collège des Bernardins à Paris les 24–27 septembre 2008, BV 22 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2010), 405–32. Rudolf Goy, Die Überlieferung der Werke Hugos von St. Viktor. Ein Beitrag zur Kommunikationsgeschichte des Mittelalters (Stuttgart: Hiersemann, 1976), 340–67. Additional manuscripts are listed by Patrice Sicard, Iter Victorinum, BV 24 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2015), 131–37. Cf. Hugh, Inst. nov., ed. Sicard, 9 n.

I ntroduction



215

Dominican authors.23 But Poirel points out that the work was popular in Cistercian and Benedictine circles also.24 This seems to indicate that the ideal of reform through the practice of good manners was perhaps more widely appreciated than in courtly circles alone. The Present Translation

Although De institutione novitiorum has been cited at length by the authors mentioned in this introduction, no complete English translation existed until the present one. A complete translation into French was published as part of Hugh’s collected works by Poirel, Rochais, and Sicard in 1997.25 No critical edition exists. It was edited among the works of Hugh in the Patrologia Latina, and an improved text, by Hugh Feiss and P. Sicard, was offered side by side with the aforementioned translation. The present translation, by Dale Coulter and myself, was prepared for a Calvin Christian Summer Seminar, “Teaching and Learning at Saint Victor,” which we taught in 2008. This draft was extensively revised by Hugh Feiss and me, and annotated by Hugh Feiss.

23

24 25

On the reception of this work, see especially Mirko Breitenstein, “The Success of Discipline. The Reception of Hugh of St Victor’s De institutione novitiorum within the 13th and 14th century.” In Rules and Observance: Devising Forms of Communal Life. Edited by Mirko Breitenstein et al., Vita regularis: Abhandlungen, 60 (Berlin: Lit Verlag, 2014), 183–222. Stammberger, “Via ad ipsum,” 97. Œuvre 1, 5–114.

ON THE FORMATION OF NOVICES Prologue. On the Three Paths to Beatitude: Knowledge, Discipline and Goodness.1

Brothers, since as a result of the Lord’s generous gift, with all the effort and aspiration of your mind, you have turned by holy desire from the empty lifestyle of this world and determined to return to him who made you, it is necessary that you now learn the way by which you can complete the journey to him whom you seek. For he is true and everlasting life. Just as apart from him no one can live happily, so anyone who lives in him and with him is made happy. And so if you seek God, or rather because you seek God,2 you genuinely long for true and perpetual happiness. Now it is only through virtue that anyone can achieve happiness. Virtue cannot truly be obtained unless one guards the discipline of virtue without negligence, for the practice of discipline directs the mind to virtue, and virtue leads one to happiness. This is why your beginning should be the practice of discipline, its completion should be virtue, and the reward of virtue should be eternal happiness. Brothers, this is the path, that is the homeland to which we run and at which we finally long to arrive. The Psalmist had seen this path and this homeland when he said, happy are those who are unstained on their way, who walk in the law of the Lord.3 He had seen this path and this homeland when he said, your discipline has restored me to the uttermost.4 The discipline of God restores to the uttermost because when it fully and perfectly reforms man through virtue, it leads him to happiness. This path and this homeland the Psalmist had also seen when he declared, teach me goodness and discipline and knowledge.5 He considered that one comes to happiness by goodness, which is why he asked to be taught goodness, because through it he longed finally to arrive at happiness. However, because he saw that discipline was necessary to obtain goodness, he added teach me discipline.6 The Psalmist was prepared to maintain discipline. He not only freely committed himself to preserve it, but begged that he might be worthy to receive it. Ultimately,

218

H ugh of S aint V ictor

because he saw that no one could maintain the discipline of good work who did not possess the knowledge of true discretion, he asked that it too be given to him as a kind of foundation and principle for a holy way of life. Teach me goodness, he declares, and discipline and knowledge.7 To show that he was suited to learn this, he added at the end, because I have believed your commandments,8 as if to he were to say, “in God.” For this reason, you need to teach me how much I should serve you, because I no longer resist your commandments by my obstinacy. I believe that what you command is good, and I believe that what you promise is true. For your sake I have now consented to abandon my good. This is why I ask that through you I might merit to obtain your goods, because I have believed in your commandments. You also, brothers, by the grace of God have now believed in his commandments. You have abandoned your goods for his sake. Now ask for commandments from him so that you may merit to come to him through them. You have believed the commands of one who says, if you desire to be perfect, go, sell all that you have, and come follow me, and you will have treasure in heaven.9 You have done what he commanded, you have placed your hope in what he promised, now ask from him what will be beneficial for obtaining it. No carnal affection is now an obstacle to perceiving his grace. You have left father and mother, brothers and sisters,10 blood relatives and relatives by marriage. You have girded yourself to run his path. You now prefer nothing to his love;11 you seek it alone. To gain it you regard all the delights of this world as bitter as wormwood and reckon every glory and beauty as dung.12 Enter his path and run to him. The more quickly you come to him, the more quickly you will have rest. Knowledge, goodness, and discipline are the path to him. The way to discipline is through knowledge; the way to goodness is through discipline; and the journey to happiness is through goodness. This is the reason why we have begun to speak to you, so that with the measure that the Lord has given we might instruct you concerning this path that leads to him. 1. The Ways in which Knowledge of Right Living Is Found

First, you ought to know that one should gather and weigh in many ways this knowledge that relates to the instruction of right and honest living: partly by reason, partly by teaching, partly by example, partly by meditation on the Sacred Scriptures, and partly by constant inspection

O n the F ormation of N ovices



219

of one’s deeds and behaviors. One does this by reason in this manner: one should diligently consider and, inasmuch as one is able on one’s own, discern what is licit and what is not licit, what is fitting and what is not fitting in every act,13 at every place, at all times, and with respect to every person. 2. What Should Be Done in Every Act14

In every act: that is, the particular manner required to fulfill the sacred and divine mysteries, and the particular manner suitable to engage in human duties and those things that pertain to the body. How reverent, attentive, devout, and religious a man ought to show himself in the service of God. How willingly, how cheerfully, how readily he should offer himself in alleviating the needs the needs of his neighbors. How frugal, how temperate, and how without importunity he should be to anyone in those things pertaining to himself that he seeks and performs. In this way he should always be frugal with respect to himself, ready with respect to his neighbor, and devout with respect to God. Let him become accustomed to subdue his own desires in every case and learn to incline himself to another’s desires in all things as much as it is fitting and proper: how he should sit, lie down, stand, walk, speak, be silent, eat, fast, act or remain still.15 3. What Should Be Done in Every Place

It is necessary to consider not only what he should do, but also where he should do it. The behavior apt for the place where God is worshipped is one kind, it is another in the place where the body is refreshed, still another in the place that is designated for conversation, and yet another in the place where silence is observed; one way inside and another outside, one in private and another in public. Moreover, although no one should abandon his own discipline in any place, one should maintain it yet more diligently and more carefully in a context where either its neglect produces a scandal among many or its observance produces a good example for imitation. One should discern what are the actions that can never be omitted if one is to maintain discipline, and again what actions sometimes can be omitted or sometimes be put into practice, at a particular place and time. Nevertheless, even

220

H ugh of S aint V ictor

among those actions that are necessary in public, some first require practice in private, because if we neglect them entirely in private, we will afterwards not be capable of doing them in public when we need to. Then, lacking discipline, we scandalize those who see us, or we provoke derision when we clumsily try to simulate what is not in us. 4. What Should Be Done at Different Times

The times to act should also be discerned. The way to act at night is one thing, and the way to act in the daytime is another. Evening is the time for silence and rest, whereas day is the time of labor, movement, and action. At night people ought to be alone, and either rest their tired members with sleep or silently exercise their mind in prayers and holy meditations. During the day, by contrast, they leave their privacy to gather with others in order to be seen and imitated. Then it is permissible to give and receive example by good deeds and words of exhortation. During that time, the one who scrutinizes another’s action is rightly declared impudent and the one who neglects to imitate another’s actions, in so far as it is advantageous to do so, is correctly identified as torpid and useless. Our bearing should not be the same after we have been nourished as it was before we consumed our food. Before we have consumed our food it is proper that we are more cheerful so that our abstinence is not seen as heavy and bothersome. After we have consumed our food it is proper that we are more reserved and quiet, to avoid the impression that we have been infected by drunkenness through the vice of gluttony. The time for prayer and teaching is before the consumption of food; afterwards is the time for work. The mind is to be employed before eating because it is still nimble for spiritual study, but afterwards the flesh should be restrained when the heat of its urging is more aroused by food. Thus also feast days require a different application and another kind of conduct from days on which it is permitted to work. On feast days, we should convene more earnestly and cheerfully at the church, direct our thoughts to celebrate the divine mysteries more devoutly, remain in prayer longer, and show by our bearing, movement, and action a greater devotion to divine worship. It is also required that we do nothing irreverent, sacrilegious, or out of order, keep our tongue from empty speech, restrain our feet from coming and going, restrain

O n the F ormation of N ovices



221

our eyes, keep our head down, and lift up our minds. Finally, we need to assign every action and every motion of both the heart and body to divine service, and, if I may put it this way, honor the feast with a kind of renewal of our conduct. Now, for the remaining days on which it is permissible to work, no one should show himself inert, but, as far as his strength and knowledge make possible, each should engage in the work he has been assigned, not what he has chosen. In the same measure that leisurely rest adds to the beauty of feast days, so the effort of labor is an adornment for other days. Consequently, let whoever did not want to be quiet on feast days be the judge of his own vanity, and whoever was not active on other days be a witness to his own sluggishness. Vacuity stirs carnal minds so that they do not rest on feast days, and sluggishness ties them down so they do not exert themselves in good work on other days. Therefore, one should not be negligent in discerning times of good work, because while bad work is never praiseworthy, so good work is judged reprehensible if it is not done at an opportune time. 5. What Should Be Done for Each Person

A distinction of persons should be observed, regarding merit in relation to love, and in terms of age and office insofar as it pertains to respect.16 We ought to love those who are better and honor our superiors because either is arrogance; whether one despises virtue in a man who occupies a lesser role, or disdains someone who has a superior position but leads an inferior life. Let love, then, be given to the former and honor to the latter, in such a way that honor given to the superior is voluntary and love given to the better is respectful. Reverence without love is servile, and love without reverence ought to be judged immature. So the beneficence of love should be shown to those who are better than us with such humility and reverence that it might seem that we have to be subject to them, and the compliance of submission should be given with such affection and cheerfulness to those who are over us that it is as though we were bound only by a debt of love. In this way, let us render to the former what is theirs as though it were ours, and to the latter let us show what is ours as though it were theirs. From this discussion, we gather that the distinction of persons has six modes, three in terms of dignity and three in terms of conduct. For some are superior, some are equal, and some are lower in terms

222

H ugh of S aint V ictor

of dignity of rank. We ought to show obedience, fear, compliance, and respect to those who are superior. For those who are equal in rank, we should preserve peace and concord, come before one another with mutual submission, favor, and honor, and in every word and action grant them a superior position. If we are compelled to go before them in some business, we should with all humility and reverence show, rather than order, the things that should be done. And if it happens that they should go before us, we should obey with eagerness and devotion as though subject to them by necessity. For those who are inferior, we should always give favor and help, never reproaching them, but correcting without abuse, governing without pride, chastising them without cruelty and supporting them with kindness. Do not demand veneration, but love, comradeship, and equality. Submit with fear to those who are greater, yield through love to those who are equal, and become equal through humility to those who are lower. Respond readily to those who issue commands, be moderate to those who obey, be silent toward those who speak ill, and modest toward those who give praise. In the same way, concerning conduct, we ought to be attentive to some as though superior to us, some as though equal, and some as though inferior. Even if we do not presume to condemn the deeds of the latter, we ought not to emulate them. The conduct of those that is equal to our own is adjusted to our weakness in such a way that it may supply an example of virtue, and the ease of working together with it allows us to be companions in its exercise. Those who are superior to us we can admire, but should not imitate. Those who are superior to us have advanced in their conduct so far through the long practice of discipline that, although our weakness through love might begin to desire their virtue, nevertheless, it is unable to become equal to it through imitation. The conduct of those who are somewhat equal to us, whose deeds are tempered to our strengths, contains nothing that exceeds our capability, yet our devotion might discover enough in them to imitate. We ought not to imitate the conduct of those who are somewhat inferior to us, who either are unable to do the things that we can do, or do the kinds of thing that we ought not to do. Likewise, in these matters we should have such discretion that we strive to show reverence to those who are superior in every place and in every deed and word; whatever they do or wherever they are, we do not presume impudently to intrude as though we were their equals. We should quietly and for a long time consider what we may imitate in

O n the F ormation of N ovices



223

such an example of virtue and never presume to expect companionable cooperation, so that when we everywhere yield to them it is clear from our modesty how humbly we think of ourselves, and how exaltedly of them. However, from those who are careless and especially those whose works or concerns appear reprehensible, we must turn away with such care that we also run away from what they do, even though we do not presume to judge what they are. Let us consider that these cases neither offer us an example nor an occasion for judgment because perhaps ignorance or weakness in them excuses what would have no excuse if we were to do it. So it is necessary that, just as we do not presume to seek familiarity with the perfect out of respect for them, so out of precaution we also flee fellowship with the weak. We honor the former because we are not worthy to be associated with them, while we are careful of the latter because we can easily be corrupted by their company. Moreover, as the one who always desires to be associated with his superiors indicates that he is haughty, so he who wishes to keep frequent company with those who are worse proves that he is depraved. When we do not want to seek the company of the wicked we receive a twofold benefit: we flee fault and produce testimony of our innocence. So our daily and frequent interaction should be with those who are in between, who are our equals, so that we might desire more eagerly the association and companionship of those of them whom we discern to be more fervent in good work. With these persons we should be so diligent to preserve peace and concord that there is no activity, inasmuch as it is in our power, that disturbs fraternal love. Let us strive to cause nothing injurious or irritating to them, but rather sustain those who injured for love of brotherly charity; do nothing toward them out of arrogance, but be prepared always in every work both to yield to those who are insistent, and freely aid those who are struggling. There are times that a kind of perverse jealousy of virtue can occur among equals. They look upon one another’s advancement in virtue with envy and because of this they exert themselves very much in good work so they do not seem inferior. It is necessary that we maintain such governance of discretion that, as has been said, we do not impose upon those who are unwilling, nor do we turn away from those who are trying hard, because a suspicion of envy can arise in either case. If, perhaps, we wish to bring aid to those who are struggling in some matter, it should be done with such humility and gentleness that it becomes clear to them that we do not seek glory from our deed, but

224

H ugh of S aint V ictor

a share in the labor. For the rest, as it relates to us, we should strive with great effort not to be found less patient in labor, less eager in our obedience to precepts, or less fervent in our performance of works of charity. We do this so that our good conduct might supply the same individuals with an incentive to virtue from which to derive a model and example of good work. If you have chosen to think carefully on these matters, you will know and quickly understand the path of discipline that leads you to the consummation of goodness through the practice of good action. However, if perchance on your own you are inadequate to examine and discern these matters in an advantageous way, with the Lord’s help you will have the teaching and example of actions in which you will hear what should be done and will see what has been done. Lest the services of my exhortation in this section be inadequate for you, let me now indicate to you briefly the kinds of things you ought to exhibit, either to receive teaching or to imitate examples of the good. 6. How Those who Wish to Advance through Teaching Should Act

Since you come to the school of virtue to be instructed, you should know that verbal disputes do not henceforth pertain to you in any way, because the pursuit of spiritual teaching does not require debaters but attentive listeners.17 As Moses said when he instructed the people in God’s law: listen, Israel, and observe what you should do.18 He does not say, “speak,” but rather, “be quiet.” Also James the Apostle admonishes, let everyone be swift to listen, but slow to speak and slow to anger.19 Notice how appropriately, after he has prohibited excessive talking, he adds a precept about avoiding anger, saying, be slow to speak and slow to anger, so that he might clearly show that the one who does not wish to restrain his tongue from excessive talking will not be able to keep his mind unimpaired for very long from the rage of anger. Excessive talking produces disputes, and disputes incite the tongue to quarrels and abusive speech. Abusive speech in turn—and this is even more serious—inflames the mind to hatred of one’s brothers. This is why Scripture says, in excessive talking, sin is not lacking.20 James the Apostle declares that every kind of beast can be tamed, but the tongue is an untamable plague that sets on fire the entire course of our life, and for this reason a man who does not offend with his tongue is perfect.21

O n the F ormation of N ovices



225

Since quarrels and disputes always originate from a pernicious root, there is no doubt that if the heart did not first swell with pride inside, the tongue would never loosen itself outside from the guard of its own humility in an invective of words. However, since out of our own pride we wish to seem wiser than others, we feel ashamed either when others prove our ignorance or when the wisdom of others is approved and that seems to put us down. Moreover, sometimes against our own conscience, either we impudently defend our own error or we maliciously attack the truth of someone else. This is the wisdom of this world that the same apostle James calls carnal and devilish, which is shrewd and malicious, searching out those cunning ways in which it can, in the opinion of foolish and unwise people, hide22 its own error and pervert another’s. This kind of wisdom is not the wisdom that comes from above,23 which does not even know how to love itself against the truth. Instead, the wisdom from above is always prepared either to seek freely the good that it does not have from those who have it, or to denounce with others and in the presence of others in truth the evil that it sustains. This is the reason why the Apostle James says of it, the wisdom that is from above is first of all pure, then peaceable, modest, open to persuasion, consenting to what is good, full of compassion and good fruit, judging without pretense.24 In this way, dearest brothers, not only must you restrain your tongue from an excess of vain words, but even in those words that are right you must preserve measure and moderation, and choose to be listeners rather than teachers in the assembly of the saints. Keep your mouth shut and your ears open. The more hesitant you are to speak, the wiser you will be to understand. If perchance the situation demands it, let it be enough for you that you recommend humbly what you know to those who ask, but never undertake to defend your words stubbornly against those who resist. As I have told you before, disputes are the reason for many troubles,25 and soon the tongue lets loose many words without discernment, and opens like a door for the Enemy to disturb the peace of your heart. It remains then, brothers, that if you really desire to be disciples of the truth, you should endeavor to show yourselves people who can be easily persuaded of the truth. The teaching of truth itself loves this kind of listeners: those who receive it with humility when it is presented by the wise and do not arrogantly despise it when it is administered by the simple; those who, in the knowledge of God, that is in the skill of right living, consider all others to be more prudent and wiser than they are;

226

H ugh of S aint V ictor

those who are not ashamed to have as masters all from whom they can learn what they do not know; those who assent willingly to the good statements of all, but the errors of others, inasmuch as they recognize that they pertain to them, they strive either to correct or else prudently keep silent about them; and those who adorn the pursuit of knowledge with the discipline of manners and demonstrate a graciousness and modesty in their mind not only by guarding their mouth, but also in the bearing and gestures of their body. I will now point out with a few words, if I can, examples of good actions, which in the present discourse I believe I should discuss with you.26 7. On Imitating the Example of the Saints

Why do you think, brothers, that we are admonished to imitate the life and conduct of the good, if not so that we may be reformed by imitation of them toward the likeness of a new life? In them a form of likeness to God has been expressed, and for this reason, when we are imprinted by them through imitation, we are also fashioned to the image of the same likeness. Consider this. Unless a wax tablet has first been softened, it does not receive a form; likewise a man is not bent to a form of virtue through the hand of another’s action unless he is first softened through humility from the rigidity of all self-exaltation and contrariness. Neither can he be reformed to something better by the example of someone else, if he is still moved by the vice of selfexaltation to attack the good deeds of others and defend his own evil. Consequently, if we truly want to imitate good people, it is necessary that we first temper our heart to obedience through genuine humility. Our life returns more swiftly to renewal the more promptly it inclines itself in voluntary obedience to everyone in whom it sees the appearance of virtue. Also, the imprint of another’s good actions begins to inhere more deeply in our life, the more rigorously our life applies itself to imitate the good actions of others rather than disparage them. On this point, the form of the seal offers us yet another consideration that is not to be despised. The figure that stands out in high relief on the seal appears in low relief in the impression embedded within the wax. The figure shown chiseled within a seal is represented standing out in the wax that receives it. What else does this example illustrate to us, if not that we who desire to be imprinted by the example of good ac-

O n the F ormation of N ovices



227

tions, as though by a kind of seal perfectly carved out, discover in them some sublime imprints of deeds that stand out in relief, and others that lie flat as though pressed down. There is no doubt that the deeds of the saints that in human estimation pertain not to their dignity but to their utility, lie hidden in their way of life as if pressed down. However, when the kinds of deeds are performed that draw forth human minds to admire them, they manifest in themselves sculptures in high relief. What stands out in relief among these deeds should be hidden inwardly in us, while those deeds that are pressed flat ought to stand out in us. This is because when we select deeds of the saints to imitate, we ought to perform in private those that are sublime and perform in public those that lie low, lest the former, if they are out in the open because of the praise they receive, begin to serve vainglory, or the latter, if they are hidden because they are feared to be of no value, lose the reward of merit. I do not know how a man has an excuse for his ignorance when so many ways are shown to him in which he can come to a knowledge of the truth. Behold, after the discretion of his own reason by which he is directed, after the teaching of wisdom through which he is instructed, after the example of good people by whom he is taught, the precepts of Scripture are also added by which he is informed about every aspect of living. Finally, temptations are added; dealing with them through daily experience renders more certain the truth of these precepts. 8. Things to Pay Attention to in the Sacred Scriptures

Brothers, you who have already entered the school of discipline27 must seek first in lectio divina what instructs your morals to virtue rather than what sharpens you intellect to subtlety; you should want to be informed by the precepts of Sacred Scripture, rather than be burdened with questions. Thus, when you read the Holy Scriptures, ponder solemnly what is said there to incite you to the love of God, what to contempt of the world, what to avoidance of the snares of the Enemy, and what serves to nourish good feelings and extinguish bad desires, and what more quickly incites the heart through the ardor of compunction, what teaches one to have discipline in work, humility in thought, obedience in precepts, patience in adversities, and finally what teaches one to be secure in doing good and prudent in avoiding evil. Read in this way, Sacred Scripture confers a salutary understanding,

228

H ugh of S aint V ictor

and that same wisdom which you now gladly despise instead of virtue, you will be better able to find later through virtue. 9. One Needs to Be on Guard in Everything One Does

Finally, there is one last thing that is needed, perhaps more than anything else, to be on guard and circumspect in everything one does. One should in daily self-examination ponder all one’s thoughts, words, and deeds. Those who are wise learn every day by doing, and by the exercise of good works they grow daily in greater insight into virtue. By the experience of the things they do, they will be more cautious in the things they are going to do. One sees that often a work that one believed one started with a good intention all the more quickly throws one into a trap of deception, when one does not look at the outcome of one’s action because one is confident about the beginning of one’s intention. The imprudent person runs on a level road toward a pit, because he sees what must be done, but he does not ponder the possible consequences of his action. Likewise, he never considers what is unlikely to happen, so the disposition of his soul is so uncertain that one cannot discern the quality of his intention except through the outcome of his work. If he carefully considered the end to which the affect of his mind tended, then he would plainly see the vice in what at first his soul was falsely flattered to think of as virtuous. Again, there is yet another thing about which a man must be circumspect in all places. A man is all the more made expert in doing good, the more he diligently examines his deeds and tries to surpass himself daily in his actions by intently looking into how he acts and should act; if he does what he has to do, if he does it in the way he is supposed to do it, if he does not mix any evil with his good actions, if he fulfills the good that he is supposed to do with as much devotion as necessary, if he loves the good of another as his own, and if he corrects his own evil as he does the evil of others. Every day he passes judgment on his own life. When he rises in the morning, he considers what he has done at night, and in the evening when he goes to bed he considers what he has done during the day, how much more ready than usual he was to do good things, how much more steadfast than usual to conquer evils. If he has presumed to do something that should not be done, if in any deeds of his he has fallen into snares of the Enemy, he considers how far he can through

O n the F ormation of N ovices



229

the judgment of this past deception avoid his future deceit, so that an unforeseen emotion will not conquer him because he is unready, or present negligence deceive him when he is unprepared for doing good. I think that whoever exerts his heart in the study of these things will soon arrive at that good and healthy wisdom that, as we said above, the Psalmist asked to be given him to maintain discipline and goodness. Now it remains that we present what should be shown about discipline. We will first teach you what discipline is, how valuable it is, and finally how we observe it.28 10. What Discipline Is and How Valuable It Is

Discipline is good and honest conduct, which is the same as not doing evil, but it also takes care to be completely irreprehensible in all things one does well. Or again, discipline is ordered movement in all one’s members and an appropriate disposition of them in attitude and action. You have heard what discipline is, now see how useful and necessary it is. Discipline is shackles for lustful desire, a prison for evil desires, a bridle on lasciviousness, a yoke for self-glorification, a fetter for irascibility. It masters intemperance, binds levity, and stifles all inordinate movements of the mind and illicit appetites. Just as inappropriate motion of the body is born from the inconstancy of the mind, so the spirit is strengthened towards constancy if the body is constrained by discipline. Little by little the mind is settled inwardly toward quietude, when by maintaining discipline its evil movements are not permitted to flow outside. Integrity of virtue occurs when by the inner watchfulness of the mind the parts of the body are directed in an orderly manner. It is an interior guard that keeps the members of the body ordered exteriorly. Whoever loses that state of mind subsequently slips away in the inconstancy of his movements. By his outward inconstancy, he indicates that he has no firm roots inside. Hence Solomon says that a renegade [apostata] is a useless man; he advances with false words; he winks his eye; he shuffles his feet; he talks with his finger; in his depraved heart he schemes evil; and at all times he sows quarrels.29 He first calls such a man (whom he wishes to accuse equally of lack of discipline and discord) a renegade, because unless he had first fallen interiorly by turning his mind from the gaze of his Creator, he would not have come to inconstancy and sowing discord outside. The limbs of the

230

H ugh of S aint V ictor

body should be bound outwardly by discipline, so that on the inside the state of the mind is strengthened; as long as everywhere on the outside a guard is set against fickleness of mind that needs to be controlled, the mind is finally gathered to a stable peace in itself. Discipline controls the movement of all evil inclinations (vitiorum). The more it restrains evil desires on the outside by force, the stronger good desire grows inside because of it. Little by little the same form of virtue is imprinted on the mind by habit that is maintained exteriorly by discipline of the carriage of the body. Now that we have seen how valuable discipline is, we should consider how to maintain it. There are four areas where discipline should especially be maintained: dress, gesture, speech and eating at table. 11. Maintaining Discipline in Dress

Discipline in dress is maintained in five ways: in style and quality, in color and shape, and in ensemble. In style: our clothing should not be too expensive. In quality: it should not be too fine or soft. In color: it should not be too bright or in any other way colored beyond what the discipline and proposition of religious life requires. In shape: clothing should be decently and religiously cut and bear the sign of humility, that is, not too large or hanging or flowing, but also not too tight or misshapen in any other way according to the vanity of the world. Ensemble: this pertains to how clothes are worn. There are some foolish men who desire to please fools, so with a certain artfulness they drape their clothes around themselves. Others, with an even greater buffoonery, turn them in a ridiculous way. Others, to make a show of themselves, unfold them and drape them around as expansively as they can. Others rashly hold them crumpled up into one, while others wrap them up crookedly and twirled around. Still others are intent on stringing them together and wrapping them together and expose with a kind of exhibitionist immodesty all the contours of their body, to be measured by onlookers. Others show the flightiness of their mind by the levity of their behavior, in throwing their vestments around and draping them all over the place. Others walk along sweeping the floor with a curving tail, and cover their steps with the border of their robes hanging down or even trailing after them like foxes’ tails. Well done! After they are gone, their memory is erased and they are no longer remembered in the world of the living. Wherever they go, they stir up dust like a whirlwind to show they are counted among those to whom

O n the F ormation of N ovices



231

the Psalmist refers: it is not thus with the wicked, not like this. They are like dust that wind blows away from the face of the earth.30 These sons of darkness outwardly carry away from the eyes of men the light that they have already lost inwardly by blinding their minds. There is one thing in which we take vengeance on them even in this life, for with the same garments with which they throw a cloud of dust into our eyes, they also clean off the mud from the roads and clear a way for our feet. What else shall I say? It bores me to list all the whims of vanity by which the stupid and mindless direct31 their attention to women, even whores. With as much disgrace as excess, they almost change their gender with their clothes. There are another thousand ways in which vain and unrestrained people, intent on making a spectacle of themselves, desire to put on a show for those who see them. All these things the servant of God must despise with great constancy, while he sees that with these efforts they render themselves nothing but stupid and ridiculous. All these things are contrary to true religion. Those who cling with care and effort to these things show very clearly how far removed they are from the service of God. The grace of God makes all those who have now taken up religious vows and pursue these things and desire to please people this way all the viler and more contemptible, whereas those who despise these things for the sake of God are not only dearer and more honored by God; they are so also among men. Let them go now, miserable and stupid and ignorant of all decorum. Let them go and cover themselves with their clothes. They do not understand how true it is that for men who have professed the religious life the cultivation of precious clothing is reprehensible. The Apostle Paul prohibits it even for women, saying, not in precious clothes.32 Let them see how much they are worthy not, I say, of reprehension, but of confounding, even how much they are worthy of damnation, when they pursue precious clothing while they think they pursue religious life. The rich man in the gospel who was clothed in purple and fine linen was later buried to be eternally tormented in the pains of hell.33 What else is reproached in “purple” but the color and the price, and what else in “fine linen” but the softness? Because he is said to attach to his flesh luxury in the purple and softness in the fine linen, he is proved to have been without a doubt both haughty and luxurious. When someone exposes his body in this way to the illicit kindling of vice, that body will be subjected to torture in the torment of fire. And still this rich man did not renounce his property. Because he did not want to preserve temperance

232

H ugh of S aint V ictor

in those things that he possessed, after the illicit use of temporal goods he arrived at eternal pain. If, therefore, this man deserved such a damnation because he abused his own property, what do you think they should do who, not having property of their own, are not afraid to spend the alms of others to pursue their own glorification? Woe to them, for as the prophet says they have eaten the sins of the people34 and have turned the victims aside into the depth,35 because what others have offered for the redemption of their souls they have accepted and converted to illicit use to the damnation of their own souls. Woe to you, crown of pride, Ephraim, and the fading flower,36 for all flesh is grass and all his glory will be like the flower of the field for the spirit of the wrath of God is blowing over it. The grass has withered and the flower fallen, but the word of the Lord stands for ever.37 Why, then, are ashes and dust proud,38 as disappearing smoke and vapor that appears for a little while?39 What is man but rot, the son of man but a worm?40 He is a worm, and his inheritance is a worm, for a man shall inherit worms and beasts and snakes.41 No matter how much you cultivate it and dress it up, what is flesh but flesh? What benefit is there to seek glory in cloth that clings to the outside for a time and not to consider the rottenness of corruption that is in us and stays there? Moreover, the lovers of the religious life should demonstrate in deed how much they despise earthly goods. They should not cultivate with excessive effort the flesh that is to die, but prefer the ornament of good behavior to the pomp of clothing. Clothes more cheap than precious, more coarse than fine, more rough than soft, more dark than bright, more carelessly than carefully arranged or lovingly fitted;42 as long as they cannot completely separate themselves from comfort in their clothes, at least they should not presume to use them for ostentation. All this may be enough to educate those well-disposed about modesty and humility, but I know that there are hard and rebellious minds, who will not easily turn away from the way of their previous error unless forced to it by sharper restraints.43 It is necessary to restrain them in all observances to the tips of their fingernails, and, so that no back door is left for them to deviate, to bind them with specific commands at every step. 12. The Discipline to Be Maintained in Demeanor

Demeanor44 is the manner and form of the parts of the body in all manner of acting and behaving. This can be found reprehensible in

O n the F ormation of N ovices



233

six ways; namely when it is too effeminate, dissolute, tardy, hurried, impudent or disorderly. Effeminate demeanor indicates lasciviousness, dissolute negligence, tardy laziness, hurried inconstancy, impudent haughtiness, and disorderly irascibility. It was shown above that disorderly movements of the body indicate a corrupt body and a dissolute mind. There we showed by the testimony of Solomon that the renegade indicates by exterior signs the evident alienation of his mind. He said, a renegade [apostata] is a useless man; he advances with false words, winks his eye, shuffles his foot, talks with his finger,45 because, when the interior mind is released from its control, the body parts are moved exteriorly to all kinds of disorderly movements. Just as the body of a paralyzed person has movement, but does not carry out the function of its body parts in its action, this one by impatience and fluctuation of mind is provoked headlong to anything, but in all that he does he is not governed by rational control. We need to know that in these corrupt gestures some are very much like others, and just as the vices from which they spring are not all that dissimilar to each other, so these outward movements retain a certain perverse concord with respect to each other. Effeminate and impudent gestures, dissolute and tardy ones, hurried and disorderly ones are similar, because the vices themselves are very much alike: lasciviousness and haughtiness, negligence and laziness, restlessness and impatience. Moreover, all these inordinate demeanors, because they come out of the interior corruptions of the soul, can be found to be severely corrected and reprehended in the Scriptures. Although we cannot enumerate them one-by-one lest we seem to be uselessly exaggerating, we want to give some examples here. The Lord takes to task a lascivious and arrogant soul about an effeminate and impudent demeanor through the prophet Isaiah, who says, come down, sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground; there is no throne for the daughter of the Chaldeans. You shall no more be called delicate and tender. Take a millstone and grind meal. Uncover your shame, strip your shoulder, bare your legs, cross rivers.46 A little further on he says: sit, be quiet, and go into the darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans, for you shall no more be called the mistress of kingdoms.47 She is commanded to go down; she is corrected about an impudent demeanor and a type of arrogance. The following words express it well: there is no throne for the daughter of the Chaldeans,48 for a man is often the more disrespected by others the more he is lifted up in his own eyes by the swelling of arrogance, so that the words spoken by Truth himself are fulfilled: everyone who

234

H ugh of S aint V ictor

exalts himself shall be humbled, and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted.49 This is also referred to when it says: Sit, be quiet, and go into the darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans, for you shall no more be called the mistress of kingdoms.50 Great confusion follows a person when he sees himself despised by others for the very thing on which he prides himself. Because lasciviousness and effeminacy are the friend of the impudent and the proud, after correcting arrogance he also takes lasciviousness to task, when he adds, take a millstone and grind meal. Uncover your shame, strip your shoulder, bare your legs, cross rivers, for you will no longer be called soft and tender.51 How hateful lasciviousness and impudence are in the sight of God is clearly shown because Scripture threatens both with such strict censures, rejection for the arrogant and severity for the soft. This again is the reason this same Isaiah spoke against the lascivious and the impudent, saying: The Lord said, because the daughters of Zion are haughty and have walked with outstretched necks, and winked with their eyes and made a noise with their feet as they walked, and moved at a set pace, the Lord will make bald the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion and uncover their hair.52 They have walked with outstretched necks and winked with their eyes.53 This indicates arrogance. They made a noise with their feet as they walked and moved with a set pace.54 This indicates lasciviousness. The Lord will make bald the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion.55 This is punishment for the arrogant. The Lord will uncover their hair. This is punishment for the lascivious. Because the luxury in expensive clothing usually follows these vices, the punishment for that is also suggested when he says: in that day the Lord will take away the ornaments of their shoes, and their lunettes, chains, necklaces, bracelets, veils and headdresses, and leg ornaments, cinctures, perfume boxes, amulets, rings, nose rings, jeweled pendants on the forehead, changes of apparel, short cloaks, purses, crisping pins, looking glasses, tunics, turbans, and veils. Instead of a sweet smell, there shall be a stench; instead of a cincture, a cord; instead of curled hair, baldness; instead of a fine gown, sackcloth.56 See how diligently he enumerates all the signs of vanity to demonstrate how strictly God weighs those things in which people think there is little or no fault. Solomon rebukes the dissolute and tardy with these words: I passed through the field of the slothful man and through the vineyard of the foolish man. Behold it was all filled with nettles, and thorns covered its surface and the stone wall was broken down. When I had seen it, I placed it in my heart and by its example I learned discipline.57 How long will

O n the F ormation of N ovices



235

you sleep, O sluggard? You will sleep a little; you will slumber a little; you will fold your hands a little to sleep.58 And want shall come upon you as a traveler might, and poverty like an armed man.59 Go to the ant, you who are lazy. Consider her ways. Learn wisdom. Although she has no guide, no master, no captain, she provides food for herself in the summer and at the harvest gathers what she shall eat in the winter.60 As vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, so is the lazy person to those who sent him.61 He says about the dissolute: the hand of the strong shall bear rule; but the one that is slothful shall bring tribute.62 Again, about the slothful: the slothful wants to and does not want to, but the soul of those who work shall be made fat.63 Again, about the dissolute: The one who is loose and slack in his work is brother to him who wastes his own works.64 And again about the slothful: The slothful man hides his hand in his armpit and labors to bring it to his mouth.65 Again: Desires kill the slothful, for his hands have refused to work at anything.66 And again: The slothful person says, there is a lion in the road; I shall be slain in the middle of the streets.67 Again: As the door turns on its hinges, so the slothful person turns upon his bed.68 And in the book of Ecclesiasticus it says of the slothful, the lazy, and slackers: The sluggard is pelted with a dirty stone, and all men will speak of his disgrace. The sluggard is pelted with the dung of oxen, and everyone who touches him will shake clean his hands.69 If I cared to enumerate them all, there are many other examples to in Scripture to rebuke or ridicule these people, but to cite those given here is enough to exhort you for now.70 Excitable or restless and turbulent demeanor is also reprehended by Solomon, as was already shown in the example cited above where he says: A renegade [apostata] is a useless man; he advances with false words; he winks his eye, he shuffles his foot; he talks with his finger; in his depraved heart he schemes evil; and at all times he sows quarrels.The destruction of such a person will come presently, and there will no longer be any remedy for him.71 Someone who loses the peace within himself through the vice of restlessness, even before he has encountered an obstacle outside, shows clearly by his own action how close he is to perdition. Where he is headed is shown when he finds an occasion for anger; his own interior levity and impatience provoke him to sudden anger even when no one else is bothering him. For that reason, after Solomon mentions the sign of inconstancy and levity by saying he winks his eye, he shuffles his foot; he talks with his finger, he next indicates the signs of anger, saying, at all times he sows quarrels.72 As was noted, the peace of internal tranquility is first dissolved by the vice of

236

H ugh of S aint V ictor

levity and by restlessness, then the mind thus excited is thrown into the pit of anger. Even though what he says—he advances with false words; he winks his eye, he shuffles his foot; he talks with his finger—is a sign both of anger and restlessness, this is commonly the order of perdition: first a man deserts dignified constancy73 by his restlessness and then he erupts into the impatience of anger. This demeanor, that is, one hurried and restless, also has an affinity with one that is effeminate and impudent, because levity sometimes indicates lasciviousness and sometimes impatience. The restless demeanor meshes with the lascivious and impudent one, as Solomon says: I look out the window of my house through the lattice, and I see little ones. I behold a foolish young man who passes through the street by the corner and goes into another’s house in the dark, when it grows late, in the darkness and obscurity of the night. Behold, a woman meets him in harlot’s attire, prepared to capture souls; talkative and wandering, impatient with quiet, unable to stay home, now outside, now in the streets, now lying in wait near corners; catching the young man, she kisses him and with an impudent face flatters him.74 Immediately he follows her, like an ox led to slaughter, and like an lamb, ignorant and wanton, not knowing that he is drawn like a fool to chains, until the arrow pierces his liver; like a bird hurrying to the snare, he does not know that his soul is in danger. … Her house is the way to hell, reaching even to the inner chambers of death.75 Let no one think that those, who against the rule of discipline move their limbs in turbulent ways and inordinate gesticulation, transgress only a little bit, because Scripture would never reprehend so severely in us those exterior motions of the body, if all shameful demeanor and shameful movement did not flow from an internal corruption of the mind. For this reason discipline is very useful to constrain the wicked movements of the mind, so that bad desires, constrained by the watchfulness of discipline, will not spill outside and sometimes end up ceasing completely even to arise and move on the inside. Now that we have described the vices of gesticulation, our plan requires us to define the manner of discipline for every gesture. And even if we cannot do this in every single respect, it is still more helpful to say something for instruction than to remain completely silent. We have first to observe that each body part has its proper function and should not take over that of another one; next that each one fulfills its own function in a decent and modest way, that it does not offend the eyes of onlookers by its lack of discipline. In whatever of these ways a sin is

O n the F ormation of N ovices



237

committed, it deserves to be reprehended, both when a body part confuses its actions with another, or when it does not fulfill the function that it should be fulfilling. We have to maintain discretion in our actions so that each part is doing what it is supposed to do, so that we do not talk with our hands, listen with our mouths, or speak with our eyes. There are some who cannot listen without having their mouths open, and who open their mouths to the words of the speaker, as though the meaning has to flow into the heart by way of the mouth. Others, which is still worse, stick out their tongues like thirsty dogs when doing things or listening, and, whatever they are doing, twist their lips as if they were a millstone. Others when speaking extend their fingers, raise their eyebrows, roll their eyes, or stare as if in deep thought, by which they try to show off some great interior effort. Others nod their head, scratch their hair, arrange their clothing, lean on one side or stretch their feet, and thus cut a completely ridiculous and ostentatious figure. Others, as if they did not have two ears for listening, twist their necks and only direct one ear toward the oncoming voice. Others—I don’t know what model they imitate—close one eye and open the other when they want to look at something. Others, even more ridiculously, mumble when they speak. Besides these, there are a thousand more grotesque gestures, a thousand more mockeries and nose flutters, spectral shudderings, and lip contortions that deform the beauty of the face and the decorum of discipline. The face is a mirror of discipline, which one should guard all the more carefully, because if there is any sin in it, it cannot be hidden. We have to control our face and keep its expression in check, so that it is not carelessly irritated, nor effeminately dissolved, but instead always has a composed sweetness and sweet composure. Others swing their arms around them as if they are rowing a boat, and, with a double monstrosity, at the same time walk with their feet below on the earth as they try to fly in the air with their upper arms. What, I ask, is this monster that at the same time tries to walk like a man, row like a boat, and fly like a bird? It seems apt to cite here the poet’s statement of poetic mockery: If a painter chose to set a human head on a horse’s neck, covered the connected members all over with multi-colored feathers, so that what was a lovely woman at the top ended repulsively in the tail of a black fish. …76

238

H ugh of S aint V ictor

Certainly this seems to me the form of a monstrous fancy, in which a false species is conjured up as in a feverish person’s dream, so neither feet nor head belong to the same form.77 So that we will not seem to offer satire rather than doctrine, although there are many more things to mention, here we should not forget modesty. Even if here we would do better for the negligent and undisciplined to indicate by silence how much they should be ashamed about these things, they still should know that it is the same vice, that first scatters the state of mind interiorly, then exteriorly distorts the order of action in the body parts. This has already been shown several times by the testimony cited from Solomon, where he first says how in the renegade’s mind turning aside and flowing out come first, and then afterwards reminds us that disorder and disturbance in actions follow. He says: A renegade is useless, he advances with false words; he winks his eye; he shuffles his feet; he talks with his finger.78 This shows confusion in action. Hence it is also said in the book of Ecclesiasticus: A man is known by his look, and a wise man, when you meet him, is known by his countenance. The way a person dresses his body, the smile of his teeth, and his walk tell about a man.79 What is done well or badly on the outside indicates clearly to the eyes of the beholder the inner quality of the mind. For this reason, to settle this confusion, the guard of discipline needs to be set in opposition to restrain each member to its task, so that when one member is acting, another remains completely quiet or, if its actions be necessary for the other, it moves decently and orderly to cooperate with it. That way, nothing confused or disorderly is done in the members of the body, but each one knows in what it should aid the other, and in what, when the other moves, it should remain at rest. The human body is like a commonwealth, in which different functions are distributed to all its individual members. If one body part is taking over the function of another in an inordinate way, what happens but that the concord of the whole is disturbed? If one body part is impeding another by its movement, certainly it contradicts the arrangement that nature moderates.80 The first thing to watch in the discipline of demeanor is that every body part restricts itself to the functions for which it was created and

O n the F ormation of N ovices



239

does not confound the function of another body part with its own, so that the eyes see, the ears hear, the nose smells, the mouth speaks, the hands work, and the feet walk. Thus, the function of the body parts is not changed nor mixed up in an irregular way. The second thing to watch in the discipline of demeanor is that every single body part should be doing what it is doing, in the way and measure that it is supposed to, no more and no less and not in another way than it is supposed to do it, insofar as it is so directed and moved in its action, so that it does not exceed in any way the limits of temperance and the form of decency. That means, to give a few examples, to laugh without showing the teeth, to look without staring, to speak without extending your hands and pointing your fingers, without curling your lips, shaking your head, or raising your eyebrows; to walk without changing your gait, swinging your arms, or shaking your shoulder; to sit without spreading your legs, without putting your feet on top of each other, without extending or shaking your shins, without resting on one side and then the other, and to lie down without spreading out your limbs. To bring this section to a close, in every action one’s gesture should be gracious without being effeminate, restful without being listless, grave without being tardy, alert without being restless, mature without being impudent, and severe without being turbulent. A soft gesture tempers a vehement one, and a vehement one the soft; a quick one should temper a sluggish one, and a sluggish gesture a quick one; a fast gesture tempers a tardy one, and a tardy one a fast one, for in contrary vices, the median line is virtue. These words suffice for the present teaching about demeanor. If there are people who are so hard of heart that they do not want to be informed by these admonitions, one should urge them with more severe measures, so they do unwillingly what they do not want to do of their own accord. I know how difficult it is to bend a heart hardened by malice to the form of discipline and the shape of decency, but it is necessary to apply the flame of a hotter fire and the beating of a heavier hammer when a hard material is not easily bent into shape. 13. The Discipline of Speaking; First, What to Say

In speaking five things are to be observed: what is said, to whom it is said, where it is said, when it is said, and how it is said. About what should be said, we first need to make a general observation, namely,

240

H ugh of S aint V ictor

that in disciplined speech, there never should be any idle talk. Idle talk is about all things that are harmful, indecent, or useless. Useless words are those that benefit neither the speaker nor the listeners. Dishonest words correspond neither to the dignity of the speaker, nor of the listener, nor of the one about whom they are said. Harmful words are those that induce the souls of those who hear them to commit either error or depravity.81 These three, that is, harmful, dishonorable, or useless, can be distinguished in two ways; namely, according to the quality of the things that are talked about and according to the quality of the people by whom, to whom, or about whom something is being said. The quality of persons is considered in four different ways: by age, by knowledge, by function, and by condition. By age, for it is appropriate for old people to say some things and for the young to say others. By knowledge, for it is appropriate for the wise to say some things and for the simple to say others. According to function, for it is appropriate for those who do external business to say some things, and for those who guard the quiet of the interior life and the pursuit of contemplation to say others. According to condition, for it is appropriate for those who are in charge of others to say some things, and for those in obedience to say other things. Old people have to talk about discernment in giving good counsel; young people about the opportunity to do good. The wise have to speak about the mysteries of Scripture, and the simple about examples of good works. Those who engage in external business have to speak about resourcefulness in acquiring goods; those who lead a life of silence, about the discipline of living. Those in charge have to speak about providing things; those who obey about obeying precepts. Everyone who speaks according to the quality of his person should seek the kind of subject matter that is suitable to what he is talking about. 14. To Whom One Should Speak

It follows that after someone has chosen what to say, he should also pay close attention to whom he speaks, for a certain wise man says: Someone who speaks a word to someone who does not listen is like a man who wakes another out of a deep sleep.82 Again: Do not do much talking with a fool, and do not go with someone who has no sense.83 Solomon also says: Do not reproach a mocker; otherwise he might hate you. Rebuke a wise man and he will love you. Give a wise man an op-

O n the F ormation of N ovices



241

portunity, and he will gain added wisdom. Teach a just man; he will be eagerly receptive.84 Again, in the book of Ecclesiasticus it says regarding discretion in talking: With an irreligious man speak of holiness, and with an unjust one of justice, with a woman about those of whom she is jealous, with a fearful man about war, with a business man about passage, with a buyer about selling, with a spiteful man about giving thanks, with an impious man about piety, with a dishonest man about honesty, with a farm worker about all kind of work, with a person who works by the year about the end of the year, with a lazy servant about much work.85 Here we are given to understand that sometimes the good should seek conversation with the wicked, but at other times they ought to avoid it. The good should seek conversation with the wicked when they hope to be able to correct them by their exhortation, and when they have so much confidence in their own stability that they do not fear they will be corrupted by others’ wicked suggestions. However, when they consider the others’ obstinacy and their own weakness, they should flee, lest, when they cannot correct them by their admonition, they will gradually start to follow their wicked ways. When we speak for our own edification, let us speak with those by whose teaching we can be instructed. However, when we speak for the edification of our neighbor, let us speak with those whom we hope to reform from their wickedness by our exhortation. Otherwise, it is presumptuous to want to teach the wise, and foolishness to correct the obstinate. For he is wrongful towards his neighbor who does not show reverence to someone better, and he injures himself who does not improve the fool but makes himself the object of his raving. Hence, one who speaks to another should first consider whether he talks for his own sake or for the other’s. If he talks because it is useful for his own sake, he should see if the other is such a person that he can benefit from talking to him. If one speaks for the other’s sake, he should take care that he is not someone who does not need exhortation, or someone who is so stuck in his wickedness that he does not allow himself to be corrected by someone else’s exhortation. Thus, we should never talk except for our own education or for the education of others. We should maintain such discretion in our own speaking that we are always striving to learn from the wise and to teach the less learned as long as they let themselves be taught. Just as when we ask something, we mainly talk about what concerns us most, so when we teach we should talk mainly about what most concerns the person with whom we are speaking. Against the vice that

242

H ugh of S aint V ictor

we want to cure in him we should oppose the suitable medicine of our word, as was said above: with the ungodly we should talk about holiness, with the unjust about justice, with the lazy laborer about much work.86 It is easy, therefore, to discern to whom we should talk if we consider carefully what it is that we want to say, for it is certainly appropriate to say to each something that offers good advice to cure the evil that he most struggles with. For example, if we want to praise constancy, we should direct our words to the timid, not to the proud, for, since the vice of pride sometimes hides under the pretext of constancy, if we start praising constancy with the prideful, we confirm their vice, when we think we are exhorting them to virtue. So let us exhort the timid to constancy, the proud to fear, the spendthrift to frugality, the miser to generosity, the frugal to kindness, the gluttonous to restraint, the reckless to counsel, the lukewarm to zeal, the talkative to silence, the taciturn to verbal exhortation, the slow to alacrity, the impatient to meekness, the negligent to justice, the cruel to mercy, the impudent to respect, the hurried to rest, the careless to prudence, the heedless to concern, the shameless to modesty, and in general, whatever we want to say, let us assess by the quality of our speech to whom we should say it. 15. Where to Speak

Here there follows the third distinction in speaking: when we want to say something, we first consider where it is appropriate to say it. There are some places where an eternal silence should be maintained. There are other places where it is not allowed to utter human speech, that is, discourse among people, but only those words with which one speaks with God and to God. There we serve God either in prayer or in reading, or in hymns and canticles, uttered either openly or in secret. That is why Augustine says that no business should be done in the chapel, except that business for which it is built.87 There are other places where we can speak for the sake of discipline and instruction in morals, and others where we can have talks (collationes) regarding the understanding and exposition of the Scriptures, but with discipline and reverence, that is, without contention and clamor or any coarseness of words.88 There are still other places where there is a more relaxed license to speak, so that in them one is allowed to speak not only about spiritual matters, but even about the arrangement and provision of external affairs. I have not been able to find any place where vain and superfluous

O n the F ormation of N ovices



243

talk should occur. Hence, we should neither introduce conversation in godly and sacred places, nor vent questions or contentious words in those places where we deal with discipline, nor do external business in places where we deal with the understanding of Sacred Scripture, and we should not utter in secret those words that are meant for many, nor divulge in public those things that are meant only for a few. 16. When to Be Silent and When to Speak

The fourth distinction concerns paying attention to what is to be said at what time. There is a time to say nothing, and there is a time when you should say something, but there is never a time when you should say everything. There is a time when you should say nothing, for there is a time to be silent, and there is a time when you should say something, for there is a time to speak.89 There is, however, never a time when everything needs to be said, for Solomon says: He who speaks a word in due time is like apples of gold on beds of silver.90 Thus, every word has a time to be spoken and a time when one needs to be silent about it. When one should speak can be demonstrated better if we first show when we ought to be silent. For the time to be silent ought to precede the time to speak, for in the time of silence one learns what is afterwards to be given voice at a time of speaking. This is why Solomon does not say “there is a time to speak and a time to be silent,” but there is a time to be silent and a time to speak, for first, as is said, in silence the form of speech is shaped, which subsequently is expressed in voice during the time to speak. Sometimes we need to be silent because another has begun to speak. Otherwise, if we interrupt his speaking with the words we utter, we will offend equally both him who speaks and those who listen. At other times one should be silent, because we realize that the minds of the hearers are not yet ready for what we want to say. Sometimes we need to be silent to avoid a multitude of words, or even because we who are going to speak have not yet found the proper form for what we want to say, for certainly the minds of listeners will be offended if the word that should edify is spoken in a confused and disorderly way. Sometimes we have to be silent because those present are not the kind of people that we should speak to. This can happen in two ways: either because we should have reverence for the dignity of the person or we estimate that their malice is incorrigible and not worthy of admonition.

244

H ugh of S aint V ictor

Each of these we can prove with examples from Scripture, for we find that these instances can be shown not just by one but by many scriptural witnesses. That we should not interrupt the words of those who have started to talk before us, but always keep discipline and reverently support and pay attention to others who are speaking, especially when they speak about useful and true words, the holy man Job shows us when he speaks about his own discipline and the reverence that others had toward him and says, among other things: They that heard me waited for my opinion and being attentive held their peace at my counsel. To my words they dared to add nothing. My speech rained down upon them.91 Again, that we often have to be silent because of the weakness of the listeners, the Lord shows by his example. When he saw that the apostles were still weak of mind and not fit for instruction in higher doctrine, he said: I still have many things to say to you but you cannot bear them now.92 That sometimes we have to keep silent to avoid an outpouring of words, Solomon shows in Proverbs where he says: In the multitude of words sin will not be lacking, but he who refrains his lips is most wise.93 And again: The lips of the just teach pleasing things, but the mouth of the wicked utters perverse things. Again: He who answers before he hears shows himself to be a fool and deserves to be confounded.94 Again in the book of Ecclesiasticus: Winnow not with every wind, and go not on every path, for thus someone is proved a sinner by a double tongue. Be receptive to hear the word of God so you may understand and return a true answer with all wisdom. If you have understanding, answer your neighbor, but if not, let your hand be upon your mouth, so you will not be caught in a careless word.95 In the same place, Solomon also shows that we often have to be silent out of reverence for a person. He says: Before you investigate, blame no man, and when you have investigated, reprove justly. Before you hear, answer not a word, and do not dare to speak in the midst of elders.96 Solomon also teaches that sometimes we have to be silent because of the malice of the listeners. He says: Speak not in the ears of fools, because they will despise the instruction you tell them.97 Again: Contend not with the wicked, nor seek to be like the ungodly.98 Again: If a wise man contends with a fool who is angry or laughing, in either case he shall find no rest.99 Anyone who wants to heed these obstacles to speech will perhaps recognize easily and effortlessly when he should speak, provided he remembers that there is a time when one has to give room to another who wants to speak, and there is another time when one should

O n the F ormation of N ovices



245

be faulted if one does not choose to speak out. The wise should be equally attentive not to fall silent when they ought to speak and not to fall into verbosity every time they are allowed to speak. Hence, the time to speak is to be discerned rightly, so that a man neither falls silent when he ought to speak nor always speaks whenever he is allowed to speak. Now it remains that, after we have demonstrated what and to whom and where and when one should speak, we also need to show how one should speak. 17. How One Should Speak

The quality or manner of speaking consists of three things: with what gesture, with what sound, and with what meaning something is said. Discipline requires that the speaker maintains a modest and humble demeanor, a quiet and soft sound, and a true and sweet meaning. The demeanor of the speaker should be modest, which means that he should not move his limbs in a disorderly way or impudently, wildly gesticulate, wink his eyes while speaking, or by another kind of indecent expression or contortion of his face make his speech less pleasing. The demeanor of the speaker should be humble, so that his word will find grace with his listeners. The sound of the speaker’s voice should be quiet, so that he does not with noise and excessive volume either unduly frighten his listeners or give just cause for offense. It should be sweet, for the more the roughness of the of the voice grates on the minds of the listeners, the harsher and more unpleasant it is to their ears. The meaning, that is the content of the speech, should be true, because an untruthful assertion, even if spoken in a fluent and skillful way, —if it is understood—is judged by the listener to be noxious or vain. Even if it is true, it is still necessary that a word be pleasing, for even the truth is made bitter to the listener if it is delivered to him either without reason or without love, that is, either rudely or irreverently. Each of these we can prove from the testimonies of Sacred Scripture. Solomon shows that an undisciplined attitude makes speech contemptible, when he says: Eloquent words do not become a fool,100 and again, a proverb is not seemly in the mouth of a dolt.101 Again: Knowledge is a fountain of life to him who possesses it; the instruction of fools is folly.102 Again: A man shall be known by his learning, but someone who

246

H ugh of S aint V ictor

is vain and proud shall be exposed to contempt.103 Again: As it is useless for a lame man to have fair legs, so a parable is unseemly in the mouth of fools.104 A certain kind of vainglory renders the word of a man unpleasant to people. Solomon attests to this also when he says: Wisdom is too lofty for a fool; at the gate he shall not open his mouth.105 Again, he says: The poor will speak with supplications, and the rich will speak roughly.106 A loud voice should be avoided by those who have discipline. This the author of discipline shows, for Isaiah writes, he shall not cry out, nor have respect for persons, nor shall his voice be heard abroad.107 The same authority shows that a sharp and quarrelsome word should be completely shut out from disciplined speech, when he writes: The lips of a fool involve him in strife, and his mouth provokes quarrels.108 He hints at how much one should beware of a lie, when he says: A false witness shall not be unpunished. Someone who speaks lies shall not escape.109 The book of Ecclesiasticus clearly shows how much a sweet word is worth in speech, when it says: A sweet word multiplies friends and appeases enemies, and a gracious tongue leaps up in a good man.110 18. Discipline at Table.

Discipline at table should be kept in two ways; here a man should maintain discipline in his behavior (habitus) and his food.111 This discipline in behavior consists in three things: the discipline of silence, discipline of the eyes, and discipline in the form of self-control. It is important to maintain silence during the meal, because the tongue, which is at all times prone to sin, is even more dangerously relaxed and talkative when it is heated up by intoxication. For this reason, the rich man, who had been a slave to his garrulousness during his dinner, was afterward placed in hell, where he was most severely burned on his tongue.112 Moreover, one should especially guard one’s eyes during meals, for there it is particularly improper for someone to have his eyes wandering curiously or, to say it more explicitly, impudently looking around here and there at what is going on with the others. Rather, one should with modestly lowered eyes pay attention only to what is set before oneself and what is nearby. One should also not be negligent in maintaining self-control, so that nothing indecent or shameful occurs in one’s bearing and demea-

O n the F ormation of N ovices

 247

nor. Nothing should be done with noise or tumult; all members should be controlled by discipline with modesty and tranquility, not in the way some do when they sit down to dinner and show by some unquiet agitation and confusion of their members the intemperance of their mind. They shake their head, stretch their arms, raise their hands up high, and not without major disgrace, as if they were going to swallow the whole meal at once, they display huge effort and indecorous gestures. They pant and gasp from anxiety. You would think that they are seeking a wider access for their bellowing belly, as if the narrowness of their throat could not provide sufficient nourishment for their famished stomach. They sit in one place, but with their eyes and hands they check out everything near and far. All at once they break bread, pour wine in glasses and bowls, surround themselves with plates, and, as a king about to assault a besieged city, they ponder where to launch the first attack, because they really crave to be in all places at once. Perhaps we have said more than is proper and have forgotten shame, but sometimes impudence does not know how to blush unless it has been clearly taken to task.113 In these three ways, then, everyone needs to maintain discipline within himself during meals, namely by restraining his tongue from loquacity, forbidding his eyes to wander, and keeping all other members modest and quiet. 19. About the Threefold Way to Observe Discipline When Eating. First, What to Eat

Here follows the threefold way to observe discipline in taking food, by observing what to eat, how much to eat, and how to eat it. Observance in what to eat is not to seek out too precious and delicate things, nor to require too rare and unfamiliar things, and not to desire too well-cooked and fine things. In the first one is guilty of luxury, in the second of curiosity, and in the third of excess. There are those who have a curious disease of the throat and cannot eat anything except very rich and delicate foods. When they are offered poor or frugal foods, they suddenly pretend to have indigestion of the stomach or a drying of the chest or a trembling of the head or whatever similar excuses they can think of. Others spurn delicate and luxurious foods with great constancy, but with a petulance that is no less intolerable, despise all food that is too common for their taste. They demand new

248

H ugh of S aint V ictor

and unusual kinds of food, so that a crowd of servants is often running around the countryside for the sake of one person’s appetite, and hardly anything that is attained by pulling out roots from faraway mountains, or by catching a few tiny fish by searching around in the deep waters, or by plucking some out-of-season fruits from some bramble bushes can satisfy the appetite of this one person. I cannot fathom what vice incites them to this kind of behavior, unless, by some insolence of their spirit, they are happy to have so many people occupied in service to them, or because by the swollenness of their self-glorification they wish to seem different from all others when it comes to food. Others cultivate excess in preparing food, thinking up countless ways of cooking, frying, and spicing, sometimes soft, sometimes hard, sometimes cold, sometimes hot, sometimes cooked, sometimes roasted, sometimes spiced with pepper, sometimes with garlic, sometimes with cumin, sometimes with salt, desiring such food just as pregnant women are wont to do. These people not only should be reproached, but even derided, for like a shopkeeper at every turn of the waterclock they stretch their palate, just to entice their taste buds. To cure them of these vices, the rigor of discipline is needed to restrain the petulancies of their gluttony within a certain limit, so that they do not extend their desire to immoderate delicacies, novelties or excesses in food preparation. 20. Second, How Much to Eat

Next comes guarding discipline regarding how much one should eat. The measure seems to me to be this: it should not be against decency or beyond necessity. Not every stomach holds the same: some are content with one amount, others with another. The one who does not need much food offends against the rule of excess before he falls into the disgrace of greed. The one who needs more, often offends against decency in eating before he falls into excess. Hence, he for whom small amounts of food are sufficient should be more careful of excess, and he who needs more food should pay attention to decency. The former does not reach disgrace unless he transgresses the measure of temperance, and the latter does not infringe on the measure of excess unless he first forgets decency.

O n the F ormation of N ovices

 249

21. Third, How to Eat

Finally, in observance regarding food there is how one should eat food, that is, how neatly and how moderately. About messiness in eating it is sufficient to give a few examples here, so that if one perceives it in some of its variations, by comparison one can easily avoid it everywhere. During the meal, some, wishing to spare their plates, dip their bread in the gravy and put it on the table, and after they have eaten the inside of it, put the crusts back where they came from. Others, while drinking, dip their fingers in the middle of the cup. Others wipe their dirty hands on their clothing and then use them again to handle food. Some fish for vegetables with their bare fingers instead of using a spoon, so that it seems that at the same time they wash their hands as well as fill their belly. Others dip their half-eaten biscuits and chewed-off cakes for a second time in the food bowl and soak the rest of their bread in their cup before they take another bite. As said above, we would be ashamed to mention these things were it not that some people actually act in this way. Now let him who does not want to be disciplined in his actions at least suffer embarrassment in hearing about them. It is enough to mention these things as example of the messiness of those who eat without discipline. We understand temperance in eating to be this: a person eats at an orderly speed, without too much haste. As much as we can, we strive to persuade everyone to maintain manner and measure, but we cannot give a general rule, because, as we already said, not everyone is the same. Meanwhile, brothers, this is what we had to tell you about knowledge and discipline. As for goodness, pray that God may give it to you.

NOTES 1

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

17

18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26

Ps. 119:66. Biblical translations are loosely based on the Douai-Rheims version, but they have been reworked in an effort to put them into modern English, trying as much as possible to find a way to reflect what Hugh might have understood the Vulgate to mean, but at the same time making sense of passages that are not very coherent in the Vulgate. RB, 58:71–72 (RB80, 266). Ps. 119:1. Ps. 19:35. Ps. 119:66. Ps. 119:66. Ps. 119:66. Ps. 119:66. Matt. 19:21. Matt. 19:29; Luke 14:26. RB, 4:21 (RB80, 182–83). Phil. 3:8. Reading “actu” for “tactu.” Hugh will now devote a chapter to each of the four dimensions just mentioned: act, place, time, and person. Hugh will consider all these aspects of behavior in the rest of the treatise. Note the elaborate style of this section: a series of triads arranged abcddcba. Elaborations of three, four or six objects of love modeled on Augustine’s ideas about ordered love are not uncommon in Victorine authors. For example, Godfrey of St Victor elaborates two such schemata in his Microcosmus. In par. 139–42 on the affects, Godfrey distinguishes love of what is above ourselves (God), of ourselves (soul), of what is alongside us (neighbor), and of what is beneath us (body). At this point, Charity appears and offers a six-fold schema: love of one’s body and soul, love of friends and enemies, love of God and the Godman. For these ideas of Godfrey see VTT 2.301–41. Some other instances are referred to in VTT 10.111, an anonymous Victorine sermon, and VTT 10.448–49, where Richard of St Victor (On the Difference between Mortal and Venial Sin) says mortal sins involve grave corruption of self, grave harm to neighbor, and grave contempt of God. In the first paragraph Hugh mentioned ways to acquire knowledge to guide right living: partly by reason, partly by teaching, partly by example, partly by meditation on the Sacred Scriptures, and partly by constant inspection of one’s deeds and behaviors. He has now concluded his discussion of reason, and so takes up teaching. Throughout this paragraph he insists the teaching of virtue is not imbibed through debate but through listening. Insistence on this point would have been necessary if the novices were students newly come from the schools of Paris where debate was an important form of pedagogy. Throughout his writings Hugh is cautious about the value of argumentative debate. Deut. 6:3. Jas. 1:19. Prov. 10:19. Jas. 3:2–8. Reading “tegere” for “legere.” Jas. 3:17. Jas. 3:17. The phrase “consenting to what is good,” occurs in some versions, but not in Weber’s edition of the Vulgate text or in the New American Bible (Revised Edition). Reading “molestiarum” rather than “modestiarum.” There is some irony here. Hugh has argued for restraint in speech; now he is going to say some things briefly, if he can.

NOTES



251

27 RB, Prol. 45 (RB80, 164–65). 28 Hugh has finished discussing the ways in which one acquires wisdom. Now in the second half of his treatise he will discuss the nature and value of discipline and the form it takes in dress, gesture, speech (what to say, to whom, where, when, and how), and table manners (silence, looking, and self-control) and food (what to eat, how much, and how). Hugh already spoke about speech and silence in paragraph 6; now he will dedicate paragraphs 13–17 to it. In his Didasc., 3.13 and 17 he mentioned humility and “quies” as necessary for study; here he says they are needed for someone to grow in the knowledge and discipline of conventual life. 29 Prov. 6:12–14. 30 Ps. 1:4. 31 Reading “adferunt” for “auferunt.” 32 1 Tim. 2:9. 33 Luke 16:19–22. 34 Hos. 4:8. 35 Hos. 5:3. 36 Isa. 28:1. 37 Isa. 40:6–8. 38 Sir. 10:9. 39 Jas. 4:14. 40 Job 25:6. 41 Sir. 10:13. 42 Reading “amore” for “amare.” 43 The Latin is “modacioribus lupatis.” “Lupatus” meant a stick fitted with wolves’ teeth or other sharp teeth. “Curry combs” or “brushes with metal bristles” might be other possible translations. 44 “Gestus” seems to be broader than the English “gesture,” but narrower than “demeanor.” It will be translated both ways here, depending on context and for variety. 45 Prov. 6:12–14. In the following pages, Hugh gives a dazzling number of quotations from Proverbs. These often are slightly different from the texts in modern editions of the Vulgate. They could be variants in the text Hugh cites, but it also seems likely that he is citing from memory. 46 Isa. 47:1–2. Reading “tenera” for “terera.” 47 Isa. 47:5. 48 Isa. 47:1. 49 Luke 14:11. 50 Isa. 47:5. 51 Isa. 47:1–2. 52 Isa. 3:16–17. 53 Isa. 3:16. 54 Isa. 3:16. 55 Isa. 3:17. 56 Isa. 3:18–23. 57 Prov. 24:30–32. 58 Prov. 6:9–12. 59 Prov. 24:34. 60 Prov. 6:6–8. 61 Prov. 10:26. 62 Prov. 12:24. 63 Prov. 13:4. 64 Prov. 18:9. 65 Prov. 19:24.

252 66 67 68 69 70

Hugh of Saint Victor – ON THE FORMATION OF NOVICES

Prov. 21:25. Prov. 22:13. Prov. 26:14. Sir. 22:1–2. One might well detect irony here also. Hugh has piled one citation upon another. The reader is inclined to agree: enough! However, Hugh is about to pile up more quotations regarding the restless and turbulent person. 71 Prov. 6:12–14. 72 Prov. 6:14. 73 “constantiam gravitatis” in contrast with the earlier “levitas.” The comparison is between someone who might be described as “a lightweight” or “flighty,” and someone who has a statesmanlike bearing. 74 Prov. 7:6–13. 75 Prov. 7:22–23, 27. 76 Horace, Ars poetica, 1–4. Edited by H. Rushton Fairclough, Loeb 194 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1991), 450–51. 77 Horace, Ars poetica, 7–9, 450–51. 78 Prov. 6:1–13. 79 Sir. 19:26–27. 80 Hugh thinks that nature (God the Creator) has given each body part a task, and it goes against the natural order of things for a part to do something else. 81 Again, a triad arranged abccba. 82 Sir. 22:8. 83 Sir. 22:14. 84 Prov. 9:7–9. 85 Sir. 37:12–14. 86 Cf. Sir. 37:12–14, cited earlier in this section. 87 Praeceptum 2.1 (RA, 13). 88 Hugh has referred to the church and the chapter room. This third place for talks about Scripture is probably the cloister, though it is possible that there was some sort of classroom. 89 Eccles. 3:7. 90 Prov. 25:11. 91 Job 29:21–22. 92 John 16:12. 93 Prov. 10:19. 94 Prov. 18:13. 95 Sir. 5:11, 13–14. 96 Sir. 11:7–8. 97 Prov. 23:9. 98 Prov. 24:19. 99 Prov. 29:9. 100 Prov. 17:7. 101 Cf. Sir. 15:9; Prov. 26:7. 102 Prov. 16:22. 103 Prov. 12:8. 104 Prov. 26:7. 105 Prov. 24:7. 106 Prov. 28:23. 107 Isa. 42:2. 108 Prov. 18:6. Hugh seems to mistakenly attribute this to Isaiah. 109 Prov. 19:5. 110 Sir. 6:5.

NOTES



253

111 In section 11, Hugh discussed the discipline to be observed in dress (in habitu). “Habitus” has a wide range of meanings. Here Hugh uses it for demeanor or behavior, as he discusses how one should comport oneself at table. 112 Luke 16:24 113 Once again Hugh adds a twist: he says he may have forgotten shame in his effort to shame shamelessness.

RICHARD OF ST VICTOR ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS REGARDING THE RULE OF ST AUGUSTINE INTRODUCTION AND TRANSLATION BY HUGH FEISS, OSB

INTRODUCTION This introduction considers three things: first, the text of Richard’s De quaestionibus regulae Sancti Augustini solutis, the manuscript that contains it, the work’s author and recipient, and the Bridlington Dialogue, a later work on the Rule of Augustine that incorporates most of Richard’s De quaestionibus; second, the interaction between the Rule of Augustine, the Rule of Benedict, and the De quaestionibus; and third, some observations on the outline and contents of the De quaestionibus.1 The Text: Trinity College Dublin, MS 97

The De quaestionibus regulae Sancti Augustini solutis exists in only one manuscript, Trinity College Dublin, MS 97. The work was entered in Rudolf Goy’s catalogue of Richard’s work, but not in the later, more extensive catalogue published by Patrice Sicard.2 In the manuscript the work is attributed to Magister Richardus de Sancto Victore. In it “R” answers twenty questions addressed to him by “his dear brother and friend, Brother Simon.” Trinity College Dublin, MS 97 is a collection of texts, mostly on the religious life, that belonged to the Abbey of St Thomas the Martyr, in Dublin, founded in 1177 by Henry II as an act of reparation for the murder of Thomas Becket. The monastery became wealthy. It was the

1

2

The De quaestionibus regulae sancti Augustini solutis (hereafter, De quaestionibus) is here translated from the first and only edition, Marvin L. Colker, “Richard of Saint Victor and the Anonymous of Bridlington.” Traditio 18 (1962), 181–227, edition at 201–23. Many of the sources in the notes to this introduction and translation are indebted to Colker’s edition. All translations from Latin are mine, even if I give references to another translation. Biblical quotations are put in italics, citations from the RA in small caps. I have chosen not to italicize the RA or RB. I have not capitalized “blessed,” but have capitalized “Saint.” Throughout I will refer to the De Quaestionibus as the work of Richard of St Victor, although it is difficult to be certain of the text’s author on the basis of the attribution to him in the single known manuscript. I find nothing in the text itself that proves or disproves the attribution to Richard. Sicard, Iter Victorinum, omitted the work from his exhaustive inventory for the reasons given in the previous note (private communication, March 29, 2019).

258

H ugh of S aint V ictor – A nswers to Q uestions

most important Victorine church in Ireland.3 The manuscript, from the late thirteenth or early fourteenth century, contains 275 leaves on which various scribes transcribed texts in the later part of the thirteenth century: fol. 1–4v: calendar (incomplete). fol. 7–32: two computus texts. fol. 33rv: prayers. fol. 33r–36r: introduction to the martyrology. fol. 36v–72v: martyrology, which includes Peter Martyr, OP (canonized in 1253). fol. 73–95: Pseudo-Hugh of St Victor, Expositio in regulam St Augustini. fol. 95–102: Richard of St Victor, De quaestionibus regulae S. Augustini. fol. 102–47. Liber ordinis Sancti Victoris Parisiensis. fol. 147v–52: miscellaneous regulations and a treatise on how to say Mass (150v–52v). fol. 153–65: list of epistles and gospels beginning with Advent. fol. 166–78: Regula S. Benedicti. With marginalia. fol. 178–79: Regula secunda of the Friars Minor and papal bulls of 1230 and 1279 on interpreting it. fol. 187–91: Two texts for anchorites. fol. 192–205v: Excerpts from Patristic and medieval texts. fol. 219–27: Hugh of St Victor, De institutione novitiorum. fol. 222v–38v: Contra religionis simulatores. fol. 239–40: Benedict XII, Super apostatis revocandis (1335).

3

For what is known of the abbey of St Thomas, Dublin, see Marie Therese Flanagan, “Victorine Canons in Medieval Ireland.” In Households of God: the Regular Canons and Canonesses of St Augustine and of Premontré in Medieval Ireland. Edited by Martin Browne and Colmán Ó Clabaigh (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2019), 28–61.

I ntroduction



259

fol. 241–52: Innocent III, De miseria humanae conditionis. fol. 253–75: Facetus; Urbanus Magnus (both on manners), Proverbs of Serlo of Wilton (d. 1181); verses on proper behavior in church. This composite collection seems to have been a chapter book, designed to facilitate the proceedings of the daily chapter meeting. When the various parts of it were brought together needs further study, but in addition to materials needed for the chapter meeting it includes rules from other religious orders and other texts that may have been used for instructing new members of the abbey. The De quaestionibus certainly fits well with the rest of the collection.4 Author and Recipient

The author is designated as “Master Richard of St Victor” and the recipient is “his friend, brother Simon.” Those who have studied the text, notably Marvin Colker and Sr. Penelope Lawson, C.S.M.V, have constructed a probable scenario: Simon, a monk of St Alban’s who wrote Richard two surviving letters requesting copies of books by Hugh of St Victor and a list of Richard’s writings, asked Richard to answer twenty questions of the Rule of St Augustine and this work is the result.5 This construction is plausible, if not certain. St Alban’s seems to have been founded in the late 700s as a double-monastery. The Anglo-Norman abbot, Paul (1077–93), a relative of Lanfranc, instituted a thorough-going reform that almost entirely eliminated eating meat and imposed stricter silence and other measures on the monks and nuns. Abbot Paul established a scriptorium and financed the work of scribes brought over from the continent. With Lanfranc’s support, the abbey gained several charters securing owner4

5

Colmán Ó Claibaigh, “Formed by Word and Example: the Training of Novices in FourteenthCentury Dublin.” In Monastic Life in the Medieval British Isles: Essays in Honor of Janet Burton. Edited by Karen Stober, Emila Jamroziak, and Julie Kerr (University of Wales Press, forthcoming); Colmán Ó Clabaigh, “Community, Commemorations and Confraternity; The Chapter Office and Chapter Book in Irish Augustinian Foundations.” In Households of God, 235–51. My thanks to Br. Colmán for providing me with pre-publication copies of these two articles. Colker, “Richard of St Victor,” 181–83; Robert of Bridlington, The Bridlington Dialogue: An Exposition of the Rule of St Augustine for the Clergy. Edited and translated by A Religious of the C.S.M.V. [Sr. Penelope Lawson] (London: A. R. Mombray, 1960), vii–xiii.

260

H ugh of S aint V ictor – A nswers to Q uestions

ship of properties. Abbot Paul had little sympathy for the Anglo-Saxons and destroyed the tombs of his predecessors. As respect for the abbey grew, so did donations, which continued to flow to the community under Paul’s successor, the Norman Richard of Albini (d. 1119). Richard was succeeded by Geoffrey de Gorham (1119–1146), the confidant of Christina of Markyate. He was an energetic spiritual and temporal leader and builder. Simon, who was prior under Geoffrey, was blessed as abbot in 1167 and died in 1183. He loved learning, remodeled the scriptorium, and had a cupboard constructed for storing books. Although the monastery was in debt from the litigation undertaken by his predecessor, Simon undertook the construction of an expensive shrine in honor of St Alban.6 There are four extant letters from St Alban’s to Richard of St Victor. Three of these were written by G. prior of St Alban’s: Ep. 6, to Master Richard (PL  196.1227D–1228A); Ep.  7, to Prior Richard (PL 196.1228AC), and Ep. 11, to Prior Richard (PL 196.1230BC). According to Rodney M. Thompson, Manuscripts from St Alban’s Abbey, 1066–1225, 2nd ed. (Woodbridge: D. S. Brewer, 1985) 1:64–65, these letters were written after 1167 by Guarin or Warin, prior of St Alban’s. In Ep. 7, Guarin asks for a list of Richard’s writings so he can make “the treasure of your knowledge shine in nostra Anglia.” The fourth letter Ep. 8 (PL 196.1228C–1229A) begins: “to his venerable brother and friend R[ichard], prior of St Victor, Br. S[imon], minister of the Church of St Alban’s, [wishes] health and the due reverence of sincere love.”7 Simon has sent someone with a list of writings by Hugh of St Victor; he asks Richard to check the list and to facilitate making copies of works not held at St Alban’s. Ep. 10, a letter from an unidentified “M” to Prior Richard, refers to Richard’s friend, the prior of St Alban’s (Ep. 10, PL 196.1230AB). This converging evidence makes Simon a likely recipient of the De quaestionibus. However, why would he, a Benedictine monk, be so curious and so informed about the Rule of St Augustine? Similarly, why would Richard go out of his way to refer to the Rule of Benedict? Was it

6

7

“Houses of Benedictine monks: St Albans Abbey – After the Conquest.” In A History of the County of Hertford: Volume 4. Edited by William Page (London, 1971), 372–416. British History Online, http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/herts/vol4/pp372-416 [accessed 8 December 2018]. “Venerabili fratri et amico R. priori de Sancto Victor, Fr. S. humilis minister Ecclesiae Sancti Albani, salutem et debitum sincerae dilectionis obsequium.”

I ntroduction



261

because he was writing to a monk familiar with the Rule of Benedict? How did Richard know the Rule of Benedict? Richard is certainly a plausible author of the work. According to John of Toulouse, a later historian at St Victor, Richard came to St Victor from Ireland or Scotland during the abbacy of Gilduin (d. 1155) and studied under Hugh of St Victor (d. 1141). In Trinity College Dublin MS 97, as in many other manuscripts, Richard is referred to as a magister, a teacher, perhaps of novices at the abbey. John of Toulouse says that by 1159 he was subprior of St Victor and from 1162 prior.8 Perhaps, then, Richard wrote De quaestionibus before 1159, when he was known simply as magister. Richard wrote a number of theological works at the request of others. However, Simon was at St Albans; how did De quaestionibus get to Dublin? The Bridlington Dialogue

Although there is only one known manuscript of the De quaestionibus and no mention of it in other medieval sources, there is a work which, without acknowledgment, incorporated much of De  quaestionibus into its own pages: Colloquium magistri et discipuli in regulam beati Augustini de vita clericorum, known as the Bridlington Dialogue because the author seems to have been a canon regular at Bridlington Priory. Bridlington is a seacoast town in the East Riding of Yorkshire.9 It was part of the lands granted by William the Conqueror to the Norman lord, Gilbert de Gant (d c. 1095), who accompanied William on his invasion of England. His son Walter de Gant founded the community in 1113 or 1114. The foundation was well endowed. The first prior, Wichmann, died in 1141. The author of the Bridlington dialogue refers to Wichmann as already dead but mentions King Henry without in8

9

Jean Châtillon, “Richard de Saint-Victor,” DS 13 (Paris: Letouzey et Ané, 1988), 593–96. Châtillon discusses Richard’s biography and his life and is the source of the reference to R. M. Thomson’s work on the manuscripts of St Alban’s. Bridlington harbor is bordered on the north by a promontory called Flamborough. The author of one Victorine penitential is called Robert of Flamborough (or Flamesbury): Robert of Flamborough, Liber poenitentialis, Texts and Studies 18 (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1971). Thus, Robert is a possible indication of a connection between St Victor and Bridlington, if this is indeed the same Flamborough. For more on him see VTT 10. For a map of the Bridlington area and the monastic houses located there, see John Wardle, St John of Bridlington: His Life and Legacy (n.p.: John E. Eckersley, 2013), 14.

262

H ugh of S aint V ictor – A nswers to Q uestions

dicating which one, so he may have written the Dialogue before the accession of King Henry II in 1154. Wichmann’s next two successors must have been short-lived, because according to some sources by 1150 the fourth prior of the community, Robert the Scribe, was in office.10 Robert is the likely author of the Dialogue. He was a lover of books and an author who wrote biblical commentaries, of which those on Exodus, the Minor Prophets, and St Paul’s epistles survive. In his preface to one of these, he describes the work as “a short exposition… which Brother Robert has selected, collected, and brought together into one from the sayings of the venerable fathers… having been requested so to do by Gervase, of pious memory, Abbot of the monks and brethren at Louth Park.”11 The Dialogue resembles the De quaestionibus in that it is written in question and answer form. However, whereas the latter has only 20 questions and answers, the much longer Dialogue (191 pages in Lawson’s edition), which in the manuscripts is not divided into chapters, has many more questions. Only two copies of the Bridlington Dialogue survive. Its  existence became known when a manuscript containing it was purchased by the Bodleian Library in  1932. This manuscript, now known as MS lat. Th. D. 17, was written around 1200 by several scribes. In addition to the Dialogue (fol. 1–97) it also contains letters exchanged between St Augustine and St Jerome and the Visio Baronti. A second copy was later discovered in the University Library at Durham, MS B III 8, a collection of religious rules and treatises on religious life not unlike Trinity College Dublin MS 97. This Durham manuscript was copied about 1300. It both abridges the text of the Dialogue in the Bodleian and expands it, and in general provides a superior text. This suggested to Lawson that the copyist of the Durham manuscript was working from a revised version prepared by the original author, which improved on the copy used by the scribes of the Bodleian manuscript. If so, we are cognizant of at least four copies of the Bridlington Dialogue: the original and its revision by the author, and a copy of each. Although Robert the Scribe did not include the whole of De quaestionibus in his Dialogue,

10

11

Marmaduke Prickett, History of the Priory Church of Bridlington (Cambridge: T. Stevenson, 1836; repr. Middletown, DE, 2018); Colker, “Richard of Saint Victor,” 183–82, who is less certain of Robert’s authorship than is Lawson. Cited by Lawson, Bridlington Dialogue, viii. Louth Park Abbey was a Cistercian Monastery established in 1139 from Fountains Abbey, which had been founded in the North Riding of Yorkshire in 1132 and became Cistercian in 1135. Gervase was the first abbot of Louth Park.

I ntroduction



263

he included enough of it that Colker used both manuscripts in editing the text of the De quaestionibus. Assuming that the authors are as conjectured, Richard received a letter from Simon of St Alban’s around 1150 asking him to answer twenty questions about the Rule of St Augustine. Richard wrote down his answers and sent them to him. A copy of Richard’s work was at hand when Robert the Scribe wrote the Bridlington Dialogue (1150– 1180). There is no evidence how and if these copies were connected with each other or with the Abbey of St Thomas in Dublin, nor is there evidence of relations between Bridlington and St Thomas. It is possible that Richard’s work reached Dublin from St Augustine’s Abbey, a Victorine foundation in Bristol, which may have supplied some of the founding canons at St Thomas, and which in any case was the leading Victorine Abbey in England. It is odd that only one copy of Richard’s De  quaestionibus survives, though that is perhaps understandable in England and Ireland, because after the Reformation there was no practical need there for works on the monastic life. Why, however, there is no trace of De quaestionibus at St Victor is more difficult to explain. As Colker demonstrated, most of the De quaestionibus is found in the Dialogue, even in the same order,12 although the author of the Dialogue combines, in Dialogue 3, the contents of De quaestionibus 3, 19 and 20 regarding reasons by which a canon regular is justified in leaving the place of his profession. Otherwise the 18 chapters into which Lawson divided the Dialogue match up almost exactly with the topics in chapters of De quaestionibus. From Augustine to Benedict and Back Again

As noted above, Trinity College MS 97 containing the De quaestionibus also contains an annotated version of the Rule of Benedict. The Rule of St Augustine (c. 400) and his other writings were a major source for the Rule of St Benedict (c. 540). Six centuries later in his answers to twenty questions on the Rule of St Augustine, Richard of St Victor drew on the Rule of Benedict. This section will trace the three stages of this development. 12

Colker, “Richard of St Victor,” 223–25.

264

H ugh of S aint V ictor – A nswers to Q uestions

The Rule of Augustine The authors of the more than twenty-five surviving early Latin monastic rules (400–700) drew on each other’s work. They all regarded the Scriptures (particularly Acts 4) as the ultimate authority for monastic life, and the rules they formulated reflect a rather homogeneous monastic tradition. These authors adapted the oral and written traditions of cenobitic monasticism to specific situations, without any intention of being innovative. Augustine (354–430) was drawn to community life even before he was baptized. After his baptism at Easter in 387 he returned to Thagaste and lived in community with some friends. In 391 he was ordained a priest in Hippo, whose bishop gave him a garden in which he could live in a community of monks. In 395/96 Augustine became the bishop of the city. He moved from the monastery in order to protect the peace of the servants of God who lived there. It is probable that he wrote the Rule of Augustine for that monastery after he had left it and become bishop.13 The Rule of St Augustine is short, five typed pages. It begins with its theme and purpose: that the members of the monastery may be gathered in the house of God in unity of Spirit14 and be of one soul and one heart15 unto (ad) God (1.2).16 None should call anything his own, but each should receive what he needs.17 Because members of the community come from very different socio-economic backgrounds, they all must be humble, whether they need more or less 13

14 15 16

17

There are several monastic rules associated with Augustine’s name, and some of his other writings treat of monastic life. The Rule he wrote for the monastery in Hippo is referred to as the Praeceptum or the Regula ad servos Dei, though neither title is original. There is a short Ordo monasterii associated with Augustine but probably not by him. Augustine also wrote a feminine version of the Praeceptum. Very often the first sentence of the Ordo monasterii, about loving God and neighbor, was attached to the Praeceptum. It is that conflated version that is here called the Rule of Augustine. It was the rule followed at St Victor in the twelfth century. Ps 67:7 (Vulg.). Acts 4:32. The Latin Rules ascribed to St Augustine were studied and edited by Luc Verheijen, La Règle de saint Augustin, 2 vols. (Paris: Études Augustiniennes, 1967). Here, the references to the RA are put in the text in parentheses and refer to the Latin text available online at http// augustinus.it/latino/regola/regola_libro.htm. Two English translations with commentaries are Gerald Bonner and Sister Mary Agatha, S.P.B, The Monastic Rules, WSA 4. Edited by Boniface Ramsey (Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 2004); Tarsicius van Bavel, The Rule of Saint Augustine. Translated by Raymond Canning, CS 138 (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1996). Acts 4:35.

I ntroduction



265

(1.37). Augustine ends this chapter as he began it: united in mind and heart “you should in one another honor God, whose temples you have become” (1.8). The next topics Augustine discusses are prayer, liturgical and private (2.1–4), food and fasting (3.1–5), and then clothing and comportment, where he pays particular attention to custody of the eyes when in the presence of women (4.1–6), and fraternal correction (4.7–11). Chapter 5 discusses clothing (5.1; 5.4), work (5.2), bodily care and baths (5.4–5.6), and receiving books and clothing without grumbling (5.9–11). There follow directives on forgiveness (6.1–3), obedience, and authority (7.1–4). The Rule concludes with a prayer that God grant them to observe all these things with love, and a directive that this little book should be read to them every week and held up as a mirror. When someone finds he is doing what is written, he should thank God; if someone finds that he is lacking, he should be sorry regarding the past and cautious about the future, praying that his debt may be forgiven and that he will not be led into temptation18 (8.1–2). Augustine to Benedict The Rule of Benedict uses many sources. The  author mentions three: Cassian, Basil, and the Lives of the Fathers. However, he does not refer by name to his two most important sources: The Rule of the Master and the writings of Augustine of Hippo, particularly his rule, the Praeceptum. The Rule of the Master, probably written in Italy early in the sixth century, is the text that Benedict draws on most, especially in the prologue and first seven chapters of The Rule of Benedict. There is a tension between the Master and Augustine. Whereas the Master, who seems not to have been familiar with Augustine’s writings, thinks of monks as related to God through their spiritual master, the abbot, Augustine, as we have seen, emphasizes the community of brothers. To the Rule of the Master’s organization of cenobitic life around a vertical axis, Benedict, drawing on Augustine, added the horizontal dimension of fraternal bonds. The Master is focused on the abbot’s formation of each monk; Augustine emphasizes the spiritual love that should exist between the members of the community. “The great merit of Benedict is doubtless to have joined these two cenobitic currents, the one more

18

Matt. 6:12–13.

266

H ugh of S aint V ictor – A nswers to Q uestions

individual, which came from Egypt through Cassian and the Master, the other more communitarian, which flowed from Augustine.”19 Some examples will show how Benedict drew on Augustine’s writings. (1) Regarding the cellarer Benedict writes: RB 31:7, 13: Si quis frater ab eo forte aliqua irrationabiliter postulat, non spernendo eum contristet, sed rationabiliter cum humilitate male petenti deneget. … Humilitatem ante omnia habeat, et cui substantia non est quod tribuitur, sermo responsionis porrigatur bonus.20 (If a brother happens to demand something from him unreasonably, let him not sadden him by dismissing him, but let him reasonably with humility deny the one who asked inappropriately. … Above all else, let him have humility, and to the one to whom there is nothing to give, let him extend a kindly word of response.)

The source for this is a general admonition of St Augustine: Augustine Ennarationes in Psalmos, 103.1.19: Supplicem nullum spernas, et cui dare non potes quod petierit, non eum spernas; si potes dare, da; si non potes, affabilem te praesta.21 (Be dismissive of no one who asks, and do not be dismissive to him to whom you cannot give what he asks; if you can give, give; if you cannot, show yourself to be friendly.)

(2) Benedict adds that requests should be made of the cellarer at the proper time: RB 31:18–19: Horis competentibus dentur quae danda sunt et petantur quae petenda sunt, ut nemo perturbetur neque contristetur in domo dei. (Let it be at the proper times that the things to be given out are given out and the things to be requested are requested, so that no one is disturbed or saddened in the house of God.)

19

20 21

Adalbert de Vogüé, La règle de Saint Benoît, 6 vols. SC 181–86 (Paris: Cerf, 1971–72), 1:22–39, citation from 39: “Le grand mérite de Benoît a été sans doute de réunir ces deux courants cénobitiques, l’un plus individuel, qui lui venait d’Égypte à travers Cassien et le Maître, l’autre, plus communautaire, qui découlait de Augustin.” Colleen Maura McGrane’s English translation of de Vogüé’s classic is being published by New City Press; three volumes have appeared. The Latin text of the Rule is de Vogüé’s Règle, 2:507–675. English translations are my own. Augustine, Enarrationes in Psalmos CI–CL. Edited by Eligius Dekkers and Iohannes Fraipont, CCL 40 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1956), 1491.

I ntroduction

 267

In his Rule, 5.10, Augustine had written regarding the time for asking for books: Codices certa hora singulis diebus petantur; extra horam qui petierit, non accipiat. (Books are to be requested at a certain time each day; whoever asks outside of that time, should not receive what he asks.)

(3) Regarding private property, Benedict writes: RB 33:6: Omniaque omnium sint communia, ut scriptum est, nec quisquam suum aliquid dicat22 vel praesumat. (Let all things be common to all, as it is written: let no one say or presume that anything is his own.)

As we have seen, the RA, 1.3, declares: Et non dicatis aliquid proprium, sed sint vobis omnia communia. (Let none of you say that anything is his own, but let all things be common to all of you.)

(4) In his chapter 34, “whether all should receive all necessities equally,” Benedict wrote: Sicut scriptum est: Dividebatur singulis prout cuique opus erat.23 Ubi non dicimus ut personarum—quod absit—acceptio sit, sed infirmitatum consideratio, ubi qui minus indiget agat Deo gratias et non contristetur, qui vero plus indiget humilietur pro infirmitate, non extollatur pro misericordia; et ita omnia membra erunt in pace. Ante omnia, ne murmurationis malum pro qualicumque causa in aliquo qualicumque verbo vel significatione appareat, quod si deprehensus fuerit, districtiori disciplinae subdatur. (As it is written: Distribution was made to each as each had need. By this we do not say there should be favoritism,24 which God forbid, but that there should be consideration for weaknesses. The one who needs less should thank God and not be saddened; the one who needs more should be humbled because of his weakness, not lifted up by this mercy, and thus all the members will be in peace.25 Before all else, let not the evil of murmuring appear in anyone by any word or sign for any cause whatsoever. If, however anyone is caught murmuring, let him be subjected to stricter discipline.) 22 23 24 25

Acts 4:32. Acts 4:34. Rom. 2:11. 1 Cor. 12:12, 26.

268

H ugh of S aint V ictor – A nswers to Q uestions

There is no precedent for this in the Rule of the Master. Its source is the Rule of Augustine: 1.3 Distribuatur unicuique vestrum a praeposito vestro victus et tegumentum, non aequaliter omnibus, quia non aequaliter valetis omnes sed potius unicuique sicut cuique opus fuerit. Sic enim legitis in Actibus Apostolorum, quia erant illis omnia communia et distribuebatur unicuique sicut cuique opus erat.26 (Let food and clothing be distributed by your prior to each of you, but not equally because you are not all equally robust, but rather to each as each has need. Thus you read in the Acts of the Apostles that they held all things in common and distribution was made to each as each needed.) 5.1 Si autem hinc inter vos contentiones et murmura oriuntur, cum queritur aliqus deterius se accepisse quam prius habuerat et indignum se esse qui ita vestiatur, sicut alius frater eius vestiebatur, hinc vos probate quantum vobis desit in illo interiore sancto habitu cordis, qui pro habitu corporis litigatis. (If because of this quarrels and murmurings arise among you, when someone complains that he received something inferior to what he had before and that it is not fitting that he is thus clothed as some brother of his was, test how lacking you are in that interior holy clothing of the heart, when you fight over the clothing of the body.)

(5) Benedict was very opposed to murmuring. For  example, he wrote regarding the kitchen servers: RB, 35:3: ut hora refectionis sine murmuratione et gravi labore serviant fratribus suis. (So that at meal time they may serve their brothers without murmuring and burdensome work.)

Augustine had said the same thing about various monastic officials: RA 5.9: Sive autem qui cellario, sive qui vestibus, sive qui codicibus praeponuntur, sine murmure serviant fratribus suis. (Let whoever are appointed to the cellar, or for the clothing, or for the books, serve their brothers without murmuring)

These examples are enough to show the influence of Augustine on the Rule of Benedict. In the notes to the translation, further places where Benedict drew on the Rule of Augustine will be indicated. 26

Acts 4:32, 35.

I ntroduction

 269

We can now turn to the way the Rule of Benedict influenced Richard of St Victor’s answers to Questions regarding the Rule of St Augustine. Benedict to Augustine It is perhaps not surprising that when in the eleventh and twelfth centuries canons regular began to follow the Rule of Augustine and live a full community life, sharing temporal goods, housing, prayer, and meals under the direction of a prior or abbot, they interpreted the Rule of Augustine in the light of the Rule of Benedict, which had been normative for claustral life for 300 years. The Rule of Augustine is very short and does not discuss, or mentions very briefly, some things that are essential for claustral life. So, Augustinians who wanted to fill out the Rule of Augustine with a customary often drew on the Rule of Benedict and the customs of monasteries that followed it.27 This recourse to the Rule of Benedict (RB) is evident in the De quaestionibus. For example, in his answer to the first question, Richard says that the canon regular promises to serve God without property, in chastity and in obedience to his prelate. He wrote this at a time when the form and theology of monastic profession was evolving. His inclusion of poverty, chastity and obedience as the key components of the profession of canons regular anticipates the vows that were distinguished and taken by mendicant friars in the next century. Richard also thinks that stability of place is an important part of the profession of canons regular. This idea comes from the Rule of Benedict. Stability of place was a component of monastic profession according to the Rule of Benedict. The workshop in which monks practice the spiritual art (RB 4.75) using the instruments of good works is the cloister and stability in the community (RB 4.78). When a new member joins the community he professes to obedience, living according to the monastic way of life, and stability (RB 58.17). A visiting priest who is accepted into the community promises stability (RB 60.9). A properly disposed visiting monk may be received, with a letter from his abbot, 27

As Jocqué and Milis observe (Liber ordinis, ix), Cistercian practice was particularly influential on the customaries of the canonical centers of Arrouaise, Oigny and Premontré, whereas the influence of Cluny is more evident in the customs of St Victor. Hugh of St Victor makes an allusion to RB, 7.9 in Libellus 4 (Sicard, 147 lines 119–21), but references to the Rule of Benedict are not common in Victorine writings other than the Liber ordinis and the De quaestionibus. Thanks to Fr. Patrice Sicard for reminding me of the reference in the Libellus.

270

H ugh of S aint V ictor – A nswers to Q uestions

if he is willing to bind himself to stability (RB 61.5). Thus, becoming a monk is to commit to a life of celibacy and dispossession in a specific community, under its abbot, and begin on a lifelong journey on the path of the commandments, so that persevering in the monastery until death, by sharing in Christ’s sufferings one deserves to share his lot in the Kingdom (RB Prol 49–50). The only exception Benedict envisages is if a monk, after long training in the monastery, is ready to undertake the solitary life of a hermit (RB 1.3–5). Richard accepts the importance of stability, but he is living in a different world, where people are more mobile and where new options are opening up, as monks move from their monastery to a stricter one, secular canons become canons regular (either individually or as a community), and members of highly esteemed communities like Clairvaux, Bec and St Victor supply superiors for existing communities or new foundations.28 Richard recognizes these as valid reasons for moving to a new community (Quaest. 1). They are not mentioned by canons regular at their profession, because it is obvious that the promise to serve God and seek salvation includes but also relativizes the promise of stability (Quaest. 19). St Benedict, speaking of encouraging visiting monks to join his monastery, noted that “in every place one God is served, and service rendered to one King” (60.10).29 This principle could cut both ways: if Benedict can receive monks from other monasteries, why cannot they receive monks from his? Richard accepts the principle, but offers a reason why canons regular who are quite capable of serving God elsewhere should stay where they are and keep their promised stability: to support the weaker members of the community who need their presence (Quaest. 20). A second example of how the Rule of Benedict informed Richard’s De quaestionibus is Benedict’s provision regarding the election of an abbot: “In choosing an abbot, the principle should always be that the one to be installed is someone on whom the whole community agrees in the fear of God, or even a part of the community chooses by a more wholesome counsel” (RB 64.1: “saniore consilio”). Because of this it 28

29

See Robert of Torigny, Treatise on the Change in the Monastic Order, in A Benedictine Reader 530–1530. Edited by Hugh Feiss, Ronald E. Pepin, and Maureen O’Brien, CS 275 (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2019), 345–61. Benedict may be thinking of monks who were quasi-professional pilgrims, the gyrovagues he excoriates in RB, 1.10–12, or even of monks displaced from their former monasteries by the wars and upheavals of sixth century Italy.

I ntroduction



271

became commonplace in monastic circles to speak of the “sanior pars,” the wiser or healthier part. Benedict’s reference to the part of the community guided by a healthier counsel is vague. Who determines who is the “sanior pars”? Who enforces their decision and how? The Rule of Augustine does not legislate how to choose the superiors it mentions, the presbyter [“priest”] and prepositus [“prior”]. Richard devotes all of Question 7 to “what should be considered the healthier part of the community” (“pars sanior congregacionis”)? He assumes the question refers to those to whom “the election of a pastor should be entrusted.” Richard offers a four-part definition. That part of the community is “sanior” that over time has proven itself (1) deeper in discernment, (2) more wholesome in counsel (“salubrior consilio”), (3) purer in truth, (4) and not swayed by antagonisms, favoritism, or self-interest. Richard also says that the one chosen should be commended by his life, knowledge and habits. Thus, both the question and the answer assume the function of the “sanior pars” mentioned in RB 64.1. The Contents of the De Quaestionibus

Richard begins with an elegant exordium, explaining to Simon, who asked him for it, why he should not be writing the work: he is not intelligent enough; he is not competent to write; because of pressing duties he does not have time; for him to settle questions debated by learned people is presumptuous. However, although he knows that he will be ridiculed for doing it, he also knows that sometimes God’s grace helps people do things they are otherwise not able to do. So, out of love for Simon and for other friends he will do what Simon asks. This is the humility topos, so it is difficult to deduce anything about Richard’s situation. He was probably busy his whole career as a canon regular and teacher at St Victor. He is writing for Simon “and my other friends.” At the end of Quaest. 7 and the beginning of Quaest. 8, Richard indicates that beginning with Quaest. 8 his reflections are moving from the profession of canons to the observance of the Rule of Augustine. Up to Quaest. 8, Richard has been elaborating on a statement in Quaest. 1 that under the Rule of Augustine a canon regular promises to serve God in the church to which he offers himself (Quaest. 1: loci stabilitas; Quaest. 19; Quaest. 20), without property (Quaest. 3 and Quaest. 4), in chastity (Quaest. 5) and in obedience to his prelate (Quaest. 6) and

272

H ugh of S aint V ictor – A nswers to Q uestions

to whomever the healthier part of the community chooses as his successors (Quaest. 7). We will first consider the contents of Quaest. 1 to Quaest. 7 concerning the profession of the canons regular to observe the Rule of St Augustine. Then we will turn to the specific precepts of the Rule. Questions 1 to 7: The Profession of Canons Regular to Observe the Rule of St Augustine. Quaest. 1. Having summarized what a canon regular promises at profession, Richard discusses the first question: stability in the community where he makes his professions. Quaest. 1 considers especially six reasons why a canon might legitimately move to another religious community. Richard will return to this topic in Quaest. 19, to consider why these reasons are not mentioned at profession, and in Quaest. 20, why canons make a promise of stability when God can be served anywhere. Quaest. 19 and Quaest. 20 seem like an afterthought. As we have seen, the Bridlington Dialogue incorporates them with the discussion of Quaest. 1.30 In any case, as was noted earlier, this is an important concern of Richard’s in the De quaestionibus. He may have had particular situations in mind, such as the tumultuous abbacy of Ernisius at St Victor or issues affecting the Church more generally. Quaest. 2. The one who makes profession according to the Rule of Augustine is not bound to everything in the Rule, some of which pertains to people with specific positions in the community. Quaest. 2 ends with the same reference to the final sentence of the Rule of Augustine (RA 8.2), about praise to God for what one has observed and contrition for acting badly, that concludes Quaest. 18. It forms a kind of inclusio for the De quaestionibus. Quaest. 3 and Quaest. 4. Richard, like Augustine, is very stringent in his call for complete dispossession, but like Augustine he is also merciful toward those who are accustomed to a comfortable life (RA 1.3, 7; 5.1). Richard adds that assertive self-will is a kind of possession, and also distinguishes two sorts of property, that which is retained as a possession and that which is employed for use. Augustine modeled his ideas about communal ownership and distribution to each according to need on Acts 4:32–35. Richard endorses this and the principle that the measure of all things should be the law of charity. 30

Ed. Lawson, Bridlington Dialogue, 32–37.

I ntroduction



273

Quaest. 5. Richard does not write much about chastity (RA 4.4–6), except to say that chastity pertains to thought, word, and deed. Quaest. 6. In discussing obedience, Richard refers to a distinction elaborated by Hugh of St Victor in his discussion of the natural law. Hugh wrote that there are three kinds of works: good ones that can never be omitted, bad ones that must never be committed, and middling ones that may be done or omitted according to time and place.31 Richard specifies that the first two kinds of commands given in Scripture are immutable, except when something good is to be omitted for the sake of a more perfect good, or something evil is permitted to avoid a greater evil. If a prelate requires something that is not required, the canons should obey, unless they are commanded something that violates charity or honor, in which case the prelate should be respectfully resisted. Quaest. 7. As noted earlier, Richard’s final question regarding the profession described at the beginning of the Rule of Augustine concerns the sanior pars, a term and idea found in the Rule of Benedict, 64.1.32 Questions 8 to 18: On the Rule of St Augustine Quaest. 8. Obedience to the Rule. Returning to a topic broached in Quaest. 6, Richard, says that canons should obey everything in the Rule whether it is a command or a warning. Quaest. 9. Prayer. Richard reiterates Augustine’s dictum (RA 2.3) that what is produced by the lips should be contained in the heart.33 Quaest. 10. What is sung and read in church. Richard emphasizes that what is sung or read in Church should be from authentic and authoritative sources (RA 4.2), but observes that in his time determining what sources have church approval is often not possible. Similar teaching is found in the Rule of Benedict.34 31 32

33 34

Hugh of St Victor, Sacr., 1.11.7 (PL 176.347A–348C). Benedict says the abbot should be “one chosen either by the whole community acting unanimously in the fear of God, or by some part of the community, no matter how small, which chooses with sounder council. Goodness of life and wisdom in teaching must be the criteria for choosing the one to be made abbot, even if he is the last in community rank.” These provisions can all be found in decrees of the Emperor Justinian promulgated in 530 and 535. On this, see Georg Holzherr, The Rule of Benedict: An Invitation to the Christian Life (­Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2016), 494. The qualifications for abbot in RB, 64, echo RA, 7. On this saying, which occurs in the RB, 64.7, but is found also in Cyprian and Basil, see Holzherr, The Rule of Benedict, 223. RB, 9.8.

274

H ugh of S aint V ictor – A nswers to Q uestions

Quaest. 11. Food. Richard says the Rule of Augustine (RA 3.1–2) prescribes that one eats only what is necessary for the nourishment of the body and even a little less, but in such a way that the health of both body and mind is sustained. Quaest. 12. Those who are not sick, but cannot fast, should have special consideration (RA 3.1, 3.3–5). This is a topic to which both Augustine and Richard devote considerable space but this is the gist. Quaest. 13 and Quaest. 15. Going outside the monastery. Augustine legislated that when members of his community went outside the monastery, they should always be accompanied by another community member (RA 4.2). He was concerned not just about the behavior of the individual brother, but also about the reputation of the community (RA 4.3). When someone went out, the superior designated who should be with him. Reputation (fama) remained a concern of medieval canons. Richard explains what Augustine meant, but he does not emphasize the need for a companion. Quaest. 14. Work. Richard reiterates what Augustine says: all work should be done not for oneself but for the community. He agrees that idleness is to be avoided, but then distinguishes between the idleness of laziness and the idleness (otium) of contemplation. The former is to be avoided, the latter is more important than the many practical works he lists. Richard elaborates on this at some length, evidently because it was a topic of discussion or dispute at the time he wrote. He gives a very interesting list of all the kinds of work done in a community, and in the process indicates that he assumes canons regular will raise much of their own food and specifies what they grow. In line with Gregory the Great’s influential teaching on contemplation, Richard says everyone needs a balance of work and contemplation suited to his temperament. No one can contemplate all the time, though one should try to pray continuously. Work concerns what is passing. People who are inclined to work should not pressure those who wish to contemplate to join them in working. Like members of the body, members of the community have different functions. Richard does not specify what he means by contemplation (though he wrote two major treatises, one on the virtues as preparation for contemplation and the other on contemplation itself), but he seems to have in mind reading or prayer (“in psalms, in prayers, in holy meditations, in hearing readings or reciting them

I ntroduction



275

to oneself ”).35 He cites the story of Martha and Mary in an interesting way. Imitating Jesus’ private invitation to Martha, Richard invites his “beloved” from work to rest. Quaest. 16. Requesting books. Canons should be alert in prayer (RA 2.1), constant in reading (5.10), and persevering in good activities (5.2), and so avoid idleness. Books should be requested each day at a specific time, but Richard is readier than Augustine to be merciful to those who ask for a book at another time. He cites the adage, “When we pray, we speak with God, but when we read, God speaks with us.” Quaest. 17. Who is the presbyter and who the priest? Richard cites a text from the Rule of Augustine, that indicates that in disciplinary matters, the “priest” and “prior” are both active, but the priest has greater authority than the “prior” (RA 4.9; cf. 4.11). In Richard’s time, the “prior” would be subject to the bishop or abbot, depending on how the governance of the monastery was arranged. Quaest. 18. Who fulfills the Rule of Augustine? Augustine provided precepts for regular canons; he prayed that they be able to fulfil them; he gave advice to those who were keeping the precepts and for those who were negligent. If they kept them, they thanked God the giver of all good. If they found themselves lacking, they were sad about what had happened and concerned about what was going to happen; they asked confidently for forgiveness. This is how each fulfills the Rule of Augustine (RA 8.2). In this answer, Richard shows who he thought Augustine was for a canon regular—lawgiver, intercessor, mentor—and he ends, as he began (Quaest. 2) and as the Rule of Augustine (8.2) ended and as chapter 4 of the Rule of Benedict on the tools of good works ended, with confidence in God’s mercy.

35

Colker, “Richard of St Victor,” 217–18, lines 36–38: “in psalmis, in oracionibus, in sacris meditationibus, in audiendis vel secum recitantibus lectionibus.”

ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS REGARDING THE RULE OF ST AUGUSTINE Good health to his beloved brother and friend, Simon, from his brother Richard, in the Lord. The task that you enjoin on me, my dear brother, is burdensome and, it seems to me, impossible to fulfil, for me who am insignificant, if divine loving-kindness does not come to my help. You pray and entreat me to answer your questions in writing, although I am not gifted enough to ponder this as it deserves, nor, should I be able to ponder it, do I have the verbal facility to present it. I also do not have the time free from necessary and pressing responsibilities that a work of this kind requires. Who am I, even if these things you desire were at hand, who am I, I say, to be appointed judge among so many great men—as numerous and great as you say in your letter—who think differently about some things? Am I to say that this one’s opinion is good and that one’s is bad? When I, unlearned and insignificant, stand up as judge of those more learned and better, I will appear laughable in the estimation of all. However, because on innumerable occasions, when for God’s sake brotherly love1 advances to show itself to a brother as much as it can, it does not fear disgrace from those who mock and it makes possible for a person what seemed impossible,2 confident in the help3 of one who enabled the mute beast to form human words,4 I undertake what you ask.5 I know who said, Open your mouth and I will fill it.6 I consider myself heavily weighed down by such a burden. I am not unaware that I am going to offend some who envy another’s fruitfulness because I who am so insignificant address such important matters. However, that I prefer to write and incur the unfair accusation of such people rather than to remain silent and offend your cherished friendship and that of other friends, to whom this work will perhaps be pleasing, is not hidden from the one who knows all things.7 There is no way I would attempt it if brotherly love did not compel me by asking and commanding.

278

H ugh of S aint V ictor

Notice, whatever answers I give are placed under the headings stating the questions so that it will be clearer what answers which question. 1. Whether Canons Regular Promise Stability of Place, and Whether It Is for a Certain Length of Time or for Their Entire Lifetime, and What Are the Causes for Which It Is Lawful to Leave Their First Monasteries Permanently?

Your Prudence, whom I love, knows very well that a canon regular promises that he will serve God in the church to which he offers himself under the Rule of St Augustine without property and in chastity and that he promises obedience to the prelate of that church to which he offers himself, and not only to him but to his successors whom the sounder part of the community in that church8 has chosen in a godly way. You are concerned that each of these things be treated by me, not, I think, so that you may learn things that you already know well, but because you desire to learn and know how I know them. Therefore, let me say what I think so that I may provide what you desire and, in some way, God willing, offer something of use to the unsophisticated. When someone promises he will serve in the church of this or that saint, he without doubt promises stability at that place.9 He must necessarily keep this promise for the whole of his lifetime, not because it is necessary that he always remain there, but because he can never fully cut his ties there unless some reasonable cause has arisen. There are, however, many causes that make it lawful for a brother not only to change the stability of the place of his profession, but also, if it is desirable, to leave it completely, provided his profession is kept. Here is what I mean: if a prelate orders it; if he gives permission to a brother; if a brother is rightly chosen to preside at another church; if he realizes beyond doubt that there is danger to his soul if he continues to dwell at that place; if through some misfortune the place is destroyed so that he cannot serve God there; if a bad prelate is put in there.10 Thus, if a prelate orders someone subject to him in the monastery to which he gave himself to go elsewhere to build up another monastery and stay there as long as he lives, either ruling others or living under the law of another, who would think he should not obey? If he wishes to go to another monastery in order to live a better or stricter life, where the life is better lived, and he does this with his

A nswers to Questions



279

prelate’s permission, not extracted but freely given, who would dare to criticize this? Learned men declare that an extracted promise is the sister of disobedience.11 If a brother has been elected to rule another church, and he to whom it is assigned has agreed because he knows his way of life and teaching fit that position—otherwise he is free to refuse the election—this brother can and should lawfully and completely leave the monastery to which he committed himself. If he sees that without a doubt his soul is in danger, not through his own fault but by living in that monastery, for God’s sake let him leave the place lest he suffer harm to his soul. If a monastery gives him occasion or opportunity to sin, which he cannot by himself avoid and he cannot curb it in others by entreaty or rebuke, let him freely depart from Sodom with Lot so that going up to the mountains he can at last be saved by himself in the village of Zoar, lest struggling with the profligates he himself certainly will be put in danger.12 However, if someone who is in a monastery that is conducive to salvation, but through his own fault, which perhaps has become habitual so that it can scarcely or not at all be resisted, deserts his place without permission, it is doubtful whether he can attain salvation. Perhaps he will amend by a good life lived elsewhere and true penance will save him in the end. If because of some calamity the place to which a brother professed stability suffered such destruction that God cannot be served there, who will dare to judge him if he left there and did not do what he promised because he could not do it? However, if that place begins to be rebuilt and restored after peace returns, I think it is necessary that the brother return, unless he has permission of his prelate. If a wicked and evil prelate has not been properly chosen according to God, but has been forcefully intruded into some monastery, and to obey his commands or acquiesce to his way of acting is as little owed as it is fruitless and harmful, who doubts that someone opposing this intrusion and objecting to it as much as he can may leave the place, especially since it is not necessary to obey the intruder and to live peacefully with a corrupt person without obeying is very difficult, and to live one’s whole life in contention and conflict exacts a heavy cost from a good and religious man. Perhaps other causes can be found, but let this suffice.

280

H ugh of S aint V ictor

2. Under the Rule for Canons of St Augustine, What Is it that Is Added in Profession? By these Words Does One Promise Complete Observance of All the Things that Are Contained in the Rule, and If not All, but Some, Why Are these Required rather than those?

I do not think that by these words anyone promises to observe everything in the Rule, but that each must be subject to those provisions that seem to pertain to his level or offices. Some things pertain to the prior, some to the subject, some to claustrals, some to officials, some to all. When someone’s position or office changes the provisions of the Rule necessarily change for him. It seems to me that what a canon professes he will keep according to the Rule of St Augustine is what every Christian promises to live according to the Gospel of Christ, which contains different commands because the persons who hear it are different. Thus the author of the Rule prescribes that each one fulfill it insofar as it pertains to him, give thanks for fulfillment of the Rule, be sorry for his daily deviations, and be careful not to deviate in the future.13 Thus, someone lives according to the Rule when he praises God by whose grace he does well and accuses himself whose fault it is that he acts badly. 3. What Is it to Live Without Property?

You say that you have no questions about this chapter and the next one about chastity, because, as it is said, these matters are obvious to the dim-sighted and the barbers.14 Although you have not asked me to write anything about them, I nevertheless want to present to you what I think about them, in accord with that passage in the Gospel, if someone compels you to walk one mile, go with him two more.15 Perhaps some, like the dim-sighted and barbers, think that this only concerns external things like gold and the like. However, I think no one who tries to fulfill his own will lives without property. What does it profit someone to have an empty purse and a mind swollen with self-will; or what does it profit to leave external things—Crates the Theban did that16—unless one relinquishes one’s own will, which Christ did and every Christian must do.17 Without doubt any canon who does his own will has a private possession, and whoever has a private possession

A nswers to Questions



281

thereby violates the Rule and his profession. Because someone who offends in one thing becomes guilty of all,18 whoever violates his profession in one thing, unless he has made satisfaction, should return by penance to the observance of the Rule, lest he perish forever. He should then strive to live according to his profession without private possessions whether of things or of sentiments. Moreover, let me say something about private property. Although the Rule restricts us to live without private property so that it even prohibits us to say that something is “mine,” one can ask how it says in the Rule, do all your works together with greater zeal and greater speed than if you were doing something proper to each of you. charity puts common things before personal ones, not personal ones before common ones. therefore the greater the care you have taken of common things than of what is personal to you, the more you will have known how to advance.19 4. How, then, Do we Live without Property When we Have Many Things Proper to ourselves?

There is no doubt that “proper to oneself ” (proprium) has two meanings, one referring to possession and the other to use. “Possession” expresses the desire to retain; “use” expresses something necessary for life. Thus, the Lord told the apostles, Do not possesses gold, etc.20 Then he immediately added, the workman is worthy of his food.21 What is to possess if not to keep superfluous things with love? What does he mean by “his food,” if not use of food necessary for oneself? The former is prohibited; the latter is allowed. Hence it is that the Rule orders us to care more zealously and eagerly for common necessities than for what is proper to oneself. 5. What Is the Chastity that Canons Promise to Observe?

On chastity.22 In this word, by which the canon regular promises that he will serve God, it seems to many that only bodily cleanness is promised. However, I confidently add spiritual cleanness as well. No private rule should prejudice the common rule which says whoever sees a woman to lust for her has committed adultery with her in his

282

H ugh of S aint V ictor

heart.23 Hence a man, without doubt a true worshipper of God, said among other declarations of his praise, I pledged a covenant with my eyes that I would not think about virgins.24 And that rigid25 Cato,26 St Jerome, said, “Woe to us who whenever we lust after a woman commit fornication.”27 The innkeeper in no way divided the two denarii that he had received from the Samaritan to take care of the man wounded by robbers.28 Certainly our blessed father Augustine taught the precepts of the two testaments which the Guardian of Israel gave to him for the salvation of his people by fulfilling what he taught and added on his own for the protection of the people subject to him, which that Samaritan will repay him when he comes to judge.29 Therefore, whoever wishes to serve God in true and perfect chastity must not only keep his body from sexual intercourse but also keep his mind from impure thought, as far as possible, and restrain his tongue from filthy talk. 6. Whether Prelates Are to Be Obeyed in All Good Things

As I  know most certainly so I  affirm confidently that subjects owe the highest obedience to their prelates, both those in their own monasteries as well as those who are chosen from outside in a godly way, so that not only are they impelled and bound in good things, but also so that they are cautioned and freed in bad things. Because “in good things” is cryptic, I add: in all good things whatever that prelates choose to enjoin on their subjects, provided it is understood, as is proper, that those things are what are properly called good according to the language of the Holy Scriptures. We know that in the divine Scriptures some things are commanded, some prohibited, some allowed, and some encouraged. Good things are commanded, bad things are forbidden, middling things are allowed, perfect things are encouraged. All sin is included in the first two, since it is blatant contempt of God either not to do what is commanded or to do what is prohibited. In these also justice is commanded, that is, that we do to others what we wish to be done to us,30 and that we do to no one what we do not want done to us. The will complies with the other two when with less glory we make use of what is allowed or by doing perfect things we acquire the highest glory. Marriage and eating meat are permitted; virginity and abstinence in food are urged by a more perfect counsel.31 One should know, however, that some commands are unchangeable and others changeable.32 Unchangeable ones are those which eternal

A nswers to Questions



283

law establishes. If one keeps these one gains salvation; if one neglects them death undoubtedly follows. Therefore, in these no dispensation is permitted, unless opportunity tells us to leave undone a lesser good in order to do a greater good, or to allow a lesser evil since there is no other way to avoid a greater evil. Changeable commands are those that not the eternal law but the attentiveness of those who come later devises, not principally to attain salvation, but to protect it more carefully. In such matters a dispensation can be granted by a considered judgment if honorable and useful compensation follows.33 Such is that command of the Apostle that after a first and second attempt at correction we should avoid a heretic, not because speaking with a heretic is per se harmful to salvation, but because if frequent it could accidentally corrupt some simple persons. Unmovable prohibitions are those enunciated in the divine law against evil inclinations (vicia), which if indulged endanger salvation.34 If they are avoided, salvation is not gained immediately, unless one does what is commanded. It is not enough to abstain from evil unless you also do good. It says, depart from evil and do good.35 Examples of changeable commands are those that the revered authority of the holy Fathers decreed so no one could be harmed or that they provided out of genuine charity to guard against or compensate for evils. Such is that saying of the gospel, but I tell you not to swear at all,36 not because it is bad to swear when necessary, but because the one who never swears is far from perjury. Just as someone who does not speak does not lie, so one who does not swear does not commit perjury.37 If there was no prohibition regarding these, salvation would not be endangered and death would not result. In such cases prelates may grant a dispensation when they see an honorable and beneficial compensation follows. The ruler of a church must so measure all the church decrees that he teaches and expounds in such a way that he refers everything to the rule of charity. Without doubt he neither sins nor errs when he considers the salvation of his neighbors who are subject to him and strives to arrive at the goal for which the holy enactments aimed. The aim of the command is charity, the Apostle said.38 Every command must be referred to that principle as its goal, because on it depend the whole law and the prophets.39 However, it seems to me that a concession does not have a first remedy, because it does not choose what is better, and everyone who departs from it deserves lethal judgment. For example, to avoid fornication one is permitted marriage,40 and whoever violates that merits eternal punishment.

284

H ugh of S aint V ictor

Moreover, persuasion, other terms for which are admonition or counsel, threatens no punishment for the unwilling, but promises a reward to one who accepts it. After it has once been accepted, it provides a penalty if it is not kept. For example, if one invites someone to daily fasts or the observance of virginity or contempt of the world, that person is urging something worthy of reward to the one who accepts his advice and perseveres in following it, but if he does not accept it, then just as he does not make himself better by that, so he does not make himself worse, even if he remains inferior to one who does what is recommended. However, if he falls from his vow, he makes himself less and worse. Thus, the middling things, which are permitted, are voluntary, not necessary. If they were necessary, a man who did not marry would sin. It should also be known that it is sometimes better to urge than command the things that are rightly called good and must be commanded, because subjects often willingly hear what is not harshly but gently enjoined on them. After all these things have been considered, it is sufficiently clear, I think, that all good things can be commanded and when commanded need to be obeyed. If, however, as often happens, prelates enjoin on their subjects certain middling or highest things that should be allowed or urged, then, although one seems allowed not to obey because they are not prohibited by the Lord and are enjoined by prelates for the humility of their subjects, still it pertains to the love of religion not to consider so much what is allowed as what is beneficial.41 The easier the things enjoined on subjects are, the quicker and greater should be the obedience they obtain. We need to discern to what the necessity of that precept of our vow compels us and to what reward its utility leads. If, God forbid, abbots enjoin something by commanding or prohibiting what certainly violates honor or charity, in no way are they to be obeyed by subjects nor are they to be haughtily resisted, but if the subjects cannot gain the mitigation they ask for by repeated humble requests, they should firmly proclaim that it is necessary that we obey God rather than men.42 7. What Should Be Considered the Healthier Part of the Community?

It seems to me that part of the community should be declared “healthier” (sanior) that often over time proves itself to offer more

A nswers to Questions



285

wholesome counsel, and to be deeper in discernment, purer in truth, and more genuine in love, whose mind is certain not to be swayed by undiscerning hatred or intemperate love, two plagues that, as someone said, are devoid of judgment.43 The choice of a pastor is to be entrusted to this part, which in electing does not seek temporal advantage for itself and does not fear its own disadvantage, but rather for God’s sake chooses with all its votes someone even if he is opposed to this part or is thought to be going to be opposed to it. The one chosen should be commended by his life, knowledge and habits, and so ought to be chosen for God’s sake. These words should suffice regarding profession. Now something needs to be said about the Rule. 8. Whether All the Things Contained in the Rule of Blessed Augustine Are Precepts or Admonitions

Turning from the profession of canons to their Rule, you say that some assert that all the things that are proposed in the Rule of blessed Augustine are to be observed by clerics as commands, whereas others think that they are not commands but admonitions. Those who say that there are no commands in this Rule seem to me not to understand the beginning of his Rule, where blessed Augustine says, These are the things we command you who are established in a monastery to observe, etc.44 I am persuaded by the above discussion that some things in the Rule are commanded, some are forbidden, and some are permitted. The things that the Rule prescribes or prohibits are such as those contained in the divine law and admit of no dispensation. Certain ones are such that the considered diligence of blessed Augustine, a most learned man, instituted for greater precaution. In these the discerning authority of the one in charge may allow dispensation when necessity prompts him, provided it does not place an obstacle to honor. However, if there are any things that according to the earlier discussion or the language of Scripture are to be called warnings rather than commands, they are to be kept by us as commands. The observances of the Rule are for those who are professed not voluntary like warnings, but necessary like commands. What before was voluntary afterwards is necessary, and if it is not kept it deserves deadly punishment. Hence, writing this Rule for his clerics, the servants of God who

286

H ugh of S aint V ictor

had by then begun to live according to the Rule established by the Holy Apostles, he declared: These are what we command you who are established in the monastery to observe. First, because you have been gathered into one, that you have one heart in your dwelling,45 and the rest that follow until the end of the Rule. Everything is to be observed by professed canons as a precept, so that the things that are properly commands are kept and those that are prohibited are avoided, unless there is some dispensation that is reasonably allowed by their prelates. 9. According to the Rule, How One Should Pray

Blessed Augustine desired and commanded that canons should pray to God with psalms and hymns in such a way that whatever they produced with their mouth was also contained in their heart. He had read the Apostle who said, singing and chanting in our hearts to the Lord,46 and the Psalmist who said, I have called with all my heart; hear me, Lord.47 If prayer occurs in the sound of the voice but not in the affect of the heart, it is in vain. However, if it is not produced by the voice but with all the heart, it can lie hidden from men, it cannot be hidden from God. One prays with all one’s heart when one thinks about nothing else, that is, when the soul drags along in prayer no carnal or senseless thoughts, but speaks with God alone. This is what is written in the Rule: when you pray to God with psalms and hymns,48 let what you offer by your mouth dwell in your heart.49 10. What Canons Should Sing

It is known how much care the holy Fathers showed to keep intact the integrity of Holy Mother Church in the face of the heresies percolating up everywhere. They allowed nothing to be read in church that was not found in the sacred canon, nothing to be sung that was not taken from authentic books and had been approved and received by councils,50 so that more simple people unlearned in the purity of the true faith would not come upon the poisons of falsehood when they sought the sweetness of honey in the chant. One reads in the decrees of Pope Martin: one should not recite composite and vulgar psalms in church nor books which are outside the canon, but only the canonical

A nswers to Questions



287

books of the Old and New Testaments.51 According to the Council of Braga nothing should be read or sung in church that does not have divine authority and the authority of the sanction of the holy Fathers.52 Hence in his Rule, St Augustine forbade the canons to chant anything unless they had read that it was to be chanted; and if it was not written that they could sing it, he forbade them to sing it. They lived at a time when such prohibitions were being enacted, and so they could know and observe them. However, how can we know or observe this when we see that so many things are sung which we do not know have been approved and received in councils? Hence, it seems to me that this is a matter of advice to us, so that if we cannot know completely what we ought to sing in church, in no way will we sing what we know without doubt ought not to be sung. Let us sing only ancient chants, and indeed few even of them, taken from the canon and used often in authentic churches.53 I know that to free themselves from discussing these questions, some say that the author of the Rule only forbade singing readings from the apostles and the Gospel in church because it is prescribed that these readings are to be read, not sung. Although this could seem plausible, I do not think that this is what blessed Augustine wished to be understood when he wrote, and do not sing except what you read is to be sung.54 To be sure it is certain that in his time this kind of superfluous vanity whereby epistles and gospels were sung had not become implanted, since he is a witness to us that it was established that hymns and psalms should be sung according to the eastern manner so that the people would not be worn out by exhausting lament, at the time when Empress Justina, seduced by the Arians, persecuted St Ambrose. Her heresy was the cause of that.55 11. How Canons Should Practice Fasting and Abstinence According to the Rule of Blessed Augustine

Your Prudence knows well that it is the custom of many secular people to celebrate solemn fasts at certain times and on certain days of the year, but to indulge in food and drink the rest of the time. However, blessed Augustine, a man discerning in word and likewise in action, and outstanding in discretion,56 prescribed that, beyond these fasts which have been instituted generally for almost all Christians, those for whom he published his Rule should, insofar as their health of mind and body allowed, conquer their flesh with fasts and abstinences not only

288

H ugh of S aint V ictor

so that they would not against their conscience at any time grant any food beyond what is necessary for the nourishment of their body, but also insofar as they were able, they would hold back a little from what is necessary for the nourishment of their body. Health should refer to the vigor of both the mind and of the body, so that, to the extent that the mind understands the capability of the body’s vigor, to that extent and not more each should assume fasting and abstinence. Let the evil inclinations of the body be held in check by fasting without suppressing the virtues of the soul. Although the Enemy is to be held in check, one’s fellow citizen is to be sustained. However, the fellow citizen is surely sustained carelessly, if by this the Enemy’s strength increases. Because it is difficult for us to arrive at the exact measure,57 let us as is lawful try to avoid the two excesses. If this is thought to be difficult, let us take care as far as we can that neither is excessive. However, if, as some prefer, health is taken for illness, as is often the case, this will have the sense that each is to have dominion over his flesh by means of fasts and works of abstinence insofar as his health permits. Therefore, although someone keeps himself within the limits of sobriety and is frugal at table, he will not pursue the reward of the greatest, but if he has fallen from these to revelries and drunkenness, he is shown to have acted in a way worthy of reproach and shame. On the other hand, if truly for God’s sake he has constrained himself to moderation within the limits of what is necessary for the body, he is shown to have done something worthy of reward. 12. What Is to Be Done for Those Who Are not Sick but Still Cannot Fast?

Blessed Augustine, having given a command about how those who can should fast, added a remedy for those who cannot fast even though they are not sick. He said, when someone cannot fast, let him not take any nourishment outside of dinner time except when he is sick.58 I think Your Prudence should note that the meal on fast days is not called dinner (prandium), but supper (cena). When there are two meals a day, the first meal is usually called dinner and the later one supper. After dinner supper is still to come; after supper no dinner follows. As it is customary to change and alter the hours of supper according to the season, so who doubts it is possible to change the hour of dinner when necessary? This is the meaning: when someone cannot fast as do

A nswers to Questions

 289

the rest, he is not to seek any food outside the hour of dinner, unless he is sick. Since he ate an early dinner as a remedy, let him also receive supper as though due to him, if it is necessary. He is not by law going to lose supper because he experienced mercy in his dinner. It seems to me that by this statement Blessed Augustine prohibited what is childish and too worldly. Indeed among some it is a reprehensible that someone, especially someone placed in religious life, wants to eat three or four times a day if he is not sick, but let him take food once a day or at most twice, as the time and necessity require. There are some who so discourse on this passage that they say the term “food” (alimentum) should refer to whatever food is taken with bread and is permitted for those who find it difficult to wait each day for the lawful hour, so that they receive only bread with something to drink before the common meal. This form of food they call “mixtum.”59 I do not think Augustine thought this. When he says in what follows, and if those who come to the monastery with delicate habits are given some food, clothing and coverings which are not given to those who are heartier,60 he clearly understands that “food” (alimentum) is not, as they claim, specifically what is taken with bread (companagium), but in general anything that nourishes, just as clothing is what clothes, and covering is what covers. Otherwise, it does not seem to me that by these words murmuring is forbidden when we see that the bread given to someone else is better than that given to us. 13. In What Way and How Canons Regular Are Required to Go Together and to Be Together after They Arrive

In his Rule St Augustine commands canons: when you go, walk together; when you arrive where you are going, stay together.61 I do not think that “together” is to be understood to mean that if there are twenty brothers in one community it is necessary that because of these words all go together where one of them is to go, but rather that no one of them should proceed anywhere alone without another canon. Since the latter went where the former was to go, neither of them remains anywhere without the other. I do not doubt that this is so that each is for the other a guard and witness, lest, if either of them were alone, his salvation might be endangered or his good name harmed. Who else can better caution against real evils and refute madeup ones? Whence, because reputation for propriety is fragile, and to

290

H ugh of S aint V ictor

neglect reputation is a kind of cruelty,62 it seems honorable and useful that no canon go anywhere, and no one ever remain without a guard and witness of propriety.63 It benefits the sanctity of religion that each one provides for himself, insofar as he can, that neither in going nor in standing still nor in any speaking, silence or deed he offends the gaze of anyone,64 but rather is on guard, as much as he can be, against whatever anyone could imagine or believe. If, however, the abbot sees that necessity requires it, let him grant a dispensation in such a way that honor is not compromised. 14. What Does this Mean, “None of you Should Do Anything for Himself, but All Your Work Should Be Done as One?”65

As in these words I judge that regular clerics are everywhere strictly forbidden all work that unlawfully accrues to themselves, so no less I understand that it is truly enjoined on them that they do all in unity. Since the Rule commands them to do all their works as one, it is certainly clear they ought not to aim at something that is personally theirs nor indulge in idleness. They should not in any way indulge in idle free time, since Solomon says, every idle person is steeped in his desires.66 Someone says, why, then, are we warned to rest (vacare) and see, for he is God,67 if the idle person is blameworthy? However, rest (otium) is used in three ways. One is blameworthy, when a lazy person is of no use to himself or another. Solomon spoke of this in Proverbs: every idle person is steeped in his desires,68 since clearly the desires of evil inclinations bubble in the heart of the lazy. The other two forms of rest are praiseworthy. One of these is good; it occurs when someone quits doing bad works and does good ones. Whence, Isaiah says, rest (quiescite) from acting badly; learn how to act rightly.69 The other is the best: it occurs when someone with his mind intent on heavenly things interrupts for a time doing even good works so that in the meantime he may rest (vacet) in divine contemplation. Whence, the Psalmist says, rest (vacate) and see, for he is God.70 Whoever has this rest (otium) cannot reasonably be called idle (ociosus), because he ceases from external action, but nevertheless in some fashion he is not idle because he is exerting himself in divine contemplation. Whence, blessed Augustine says one who is zealous only for the Word of God is not idle, nor is the one who works exteriorly of more value than he who is working zealously to know the Godhead. Moreover, that wis-

A nswers to Questions



291

dom is most necessary, and Mary is placed before Martha.71 Thus far, Augustine. We know that Mary also needs Martha. Good people have two lives, one active, the other contemplative.72 One is the life of honest business, the other of holy and fervent leisure. One involves work but not crime, the other rest but not indolence. One works for the benefit of the neighbor, the other rests in contemplation of God. Clearly the two lives are different, but they cannot rightly be separated. In action there is need for contemplation of God; in rest one needs to consider what benefits one’s neighbor. They differ in this: love of the truth seeks holy leisure; the need of brotherly love undertakes honest work. Rest relieves the mind of cares; work involves the mind in many concerns that burden it. Therefore, if work is not necessary, one should devote the time (vacandum) to truth. If, however, there is a need, one should accept it as necessary for one’s neighbor, but not in such a way that one deserts the sweetness of God. Never are those inert who serve religion or devote their time to God in psalms, prayers, holy meditations, listening to readings or reciting them to themselves, or who take care of themselves or others externally with just and necessary actions. It seems to me that there are very many actions besides the canonical hours and private prayers that are necessary for a religious establishment to which clerics must devote themselves according to their place, time, capacity and the arrangement of the abbot.73 Let me mention some: to read, explain, and preach the word of God to the brothers; to prepare for singing the office; to obtain parchment for scribes; to write, illumine, rule, annotate, emend and bind books; to sew new clothes and mend old ones; to make candle holders (coclearia candelabra) and things of that sort; to weave baskets, nets, and beehives. And to mention outdoor activities: to dig the garden, apply manure, arrange beds, broadcast the seeds of vegetables and herbs; to plant and water vegetables and herbs; to plant, prune, trim, graft and transplant trees, and more besides; to plough, sow, harvest and cut the hay with a sickle. In my way of thinking, as these are not to be enjoined on all, so I have no doubt they are permitted to some, namely those who have the kind of skill and stamina by which they have the know-how and capacity to do them, especially if they are needed to supplement the necessities of life, although it may seem unworthy and unbefitting that those assigned to the service of the altar are assigned to this kind of farm activities if they were not necessary. Who could in such a varied multitude of activities excuse himself from sloth? All these things de-

292

H ugh of S aint V ictor

pend on the judgment of the prelate, so that he assigns them to each as he has seen suits each. As there are many members of one body and they do not have the same function, so in a monastery there are many people who cannot complete the same tasks. Just as it is necessary to consider what clothes are suitable for what members, what seeds for which lands, so it is necessary to consider what works are suitable for which people. It would be a misuse of words to apply the name “soldier” to someone who wants to put his boot on his head and his helmet on his foot. So, surely, someone who commands his eyes to walk and or his feet to see is deservedly ridiculed. So it is unusual and incongruous if delicate daughters are forced to do the work of women servants, or rough women servants are freed for the quiet rest (quietem) of daughters. There are many religious who although healthy in body are perhaps wandering in mind. They wish to draw others with them to the work that they do and away from the quiet (quiete) that they themselves cannot desire or maintain because of their restlessness (inquietudinem). They would be acting more rightly if they sometimes withdrew from work and became accustomed to spend time in quiet (quieti vacare) rather than calling others from a desirable and praiseworthy quiet. I think that in the gospel Martha stands for such people. Rather busy with continuous ministry, she had seen her sister sitting at the feet of the Lord to listen to his word. When she complained that her sister did not help her while she worked, she asked the Lord to require her resting sister to help her with her work.74 Let abbots both notice and act. He did not in fact call Mary from her rest to work, but instead, privately invited Martha from work to quiet, saying to her, Martha, you are concerned and disturbed about many things. One thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the best part and it will not be taken away from her.75 I call from work to rest. I invite you from what passes to what always remains. My beloved, according to this example work is ours as it were in passing, but religious quiet is ours continuously as much as possible. Let someone who cannot attain this quiet at least hold to good work as much as he can. Let him not call away someone who can rest that way. We are to be invited from the good to the best, nor driven from the best to the good, as long as the best maintains its measure. Because no one can keep quiet continuously for a long time, we must be allowed to interrupt the best for a while and in the interim devote our efforts to some good work until we can again strive after uninterrupted quiet more fervently.

A nswers to Questions



293

15. That no Fewer than Two Canons Should Go Together Where it Is Necessary to Go

That canons must go together and be together and why is indicated above.76 Now, however, we return to this to determine clearly how many and who must go together: at least two or three, and not those someone chooses as his companions but those whom the prior has ordered to go with him. Thus it says: Let no fewer than two or three go to the baths77 or wherever it is necessary to go. Let one who has need to go out go with those with whom the prior told him to go.78 This is as if to say, “I had one bread today and another yesterday, which79 I found placed before me on the table,” or “whoever wants to read must read the lessons that the cantor has commanded.” Since it says “lessons,” in the plural does this mean that someone must therefore always read several lessons, whenever it pleases him to read in Church? I think, rather, that the prelate can allow a dispensation in this command whereby a canon is allowed to go where he needs to go without another canon, but with a conversus80 or a servant, if unquestionable necessity requires this and the proven uprightness of the religious person invites it. However, let him go out with those whom the prior designates. 16. On Requesting Codices81 Each Day

I think you are hardly unaware that sluggishness and idleness are very harmful to religion, while alertness in prayer, constancy in reading, and perseverance in any good activity strengthen it. This is why blessed Augustine, wishing that idleness which kills the soul be far from regular clerics, when he commanded them among other things he knew were necessary to religion, saying, be urgent in prayer82 at the required hours and times,83 and then, let all your works be done together,84 added, let them ask for codices at a certain hour each day.85 I think that by these words we are commanded that without a reasonable cause we ought in no way, apart from an incapacity of heart, to omit the specified time appointed for us each day for praying, the time specified for working, and also the time specified for reading. Because we cannot do one of these continuously, by praying at this time, by reading at that time, and by doing something useful at another time at the discretion of our prelate, we go through the day

294

H ugh of S aint V ictor

without heedlessness insofar as that is possible. What follows in the Rule, someone who asks outside the hour designated should not receive a book,86 is assigned to strictness and can be softened by the mercy of the prelate. I know that certain ones, who are reluctant to read or pray because they wish to work, explain this passage by saying that the author of the Rule wanted only one hour of the day to be devoted to reading since in the Rule it is said, Codices are to be requested each day at a certain hour, not “at certain hours.” However, this will not stand. It is sufficiently known that in writings the singular number is frequently put for the plural. For example, a fountain arose from the earth watering the whole face of the earth,87 and “let them fill the belly with an armed soldier”.88 We ourselves confess daily to God that we sin “in thought, word, and deed,” when we have offended in each many times. Hence, since prayer and reading are more important than any external activity, let us devote greater and readier care to these, sometimes secretly and sometimes openly. For when we pray, we speak with God, but when we read, God speaks with us.89 When we do something externally, we are taken away from both forms of speaking. However, since we are not able to remain in prayer or reading for a long time without taking a break, let us certainly not refuse to work at something useful so that having devoted ourselves to good work for a while we can without lingering return to weightier things. 17. Who Is a Priest (presbyter) and Who Is a Prior (prepositus)

Who is called a “priest” according to our Rule, is clearly indicated by the biographer of blessed Augustine, whom they call Possidonius,90 when he says that when this same blessed Augustine was approaching the end of his life, if the church had any possessions or embellishments, he entrusted them to the safekeeping of the priest who under him was in charge of the church building.91 The prior is clearly the one who, according to the Rule, is to be obeyed as a father. According to the same Rule he distributes to each whatever he needs, inasmuch as he is the one who, under the priest, is administrator and dispenser in the house. Therefore, it says in the Rule regarding the priest and the prior, when the necessity of discipline to control behavior compels you to say harsh words, …92 The one who is over all the rest is commanded to have disciplined behavior willingly in himself, and to impose it on his subjects as some-

A nswers to Questions



295

one to be feared. Or by discipline he means corporal punishment. It is to be known, therefore, that the prior is called by the priest, who is in charge of all things, to a share in the supervision, but not in the fullness of power. The Rule seems to indicate this when it says, that all these be kept (there is no doubt this refers to the things contained in the Rule) and if anything has been kept less fully, this should not be passed over negligently. care should be taken to emend and correct it. it pertains primarily to the prior to refer to the priest, who has the greatest authority among you, whatever exceeds his measure or strength.93 18. Whether the Rule of Blessed Augustine Can Be Fulfilled by Anyone and Who Fulfills it

Blessed Augustine extends to regular clerics great care, benevolence and concern. First, he conveyed commands to them; by observing these they would live rightly. Then he poured out prayer for them so they would be capable of keeping the commands. Finally, he supplied counsel, which both those keeping the commands and those neglecting them might profitably strive for and hold to.94 A clear instance of this is that when they had learned to observe the law, they gave thanks to God the giver of all good things. When they saw that they were lacking in something, they were rightly sad regarding what had gone before and looked cautiously to what was going to happen to them, and faithfully asked that their debt be remitted for them, and without doubt were going to receive pardon if they had asked well. Thus each one fulfills the Rule when he thanks God for the good he has done, when he groans as he repents his evil, when groaning he asks pardon, and when asking he receives. For even what is not done is regarded as though it were done when someone who is truly repentant is mercifully forgiven. 19. Why we Do not Mention in Profession the Reasons for Lawfully Leaving the Monastery

Above it states that there are six causes for which it is lawful to leave completely one’s first monastery, but it does not say why these are not stated at profession.95 Since we promise service to God and obedience to our superior and stability of place in order to obtain salvation for our

296

H ugh of S aint V ictor

souls, which without the first two is not obtained, it seems superfluous to me for those causes to be specified at profession, since none of them is against the salvation of one’s soul, but in them either salvation of the soul is acquired or danger to it is avoided. It would be foolish because of the place either not to serve God, or not to obey one’s prelates, or to incur harm to one’s soul. Professed obedience commands the first case; if it is violated observance confers nothing on promised stability. Permission sought and granted for the salvation of one’s soul is operative in the second case; it is not much different from obedience. The authority of an ecclesiastical election constitutes the third case; there is no safe possibility to go against it. An indubitable danger to the soul drives the fourth; it is very necessary that all take precautions against that. The impossibility of remaining in a monastery and serving God generates the fifth case; to want to return there is very shameless stubbornness. Like the fourth case, the sixth is driven by danger to the soul, and therefore there are obvious grounds for deciding that it is superfluous for it to be differentiated with the others. Plain thinking teaches that it is much better to serve God and show obedience to prelates and avoid danger to one’s soul than to keep stability in one place, because without the others the latter is of no value. It would therefore be unsuitable to specify at profession any of these cases, because, if we think rightly about it, profession itself contains whatever would be delineated. 20. Why One Promises Stability at One Place since God May Be Served Everywhere?

It is manifest in the Body of Christ, which is the Church, that since there are some strong members and some weak ones, not all the members have the same function.96 Nor do they need the same things in the same way. The strong do many things, in which the weak have no share. The strong can do many things that the weak cannot do, and the weak need many things that the strong do not need. The latter can go safely among serpents and scorpions of the world, which cannot harm them.97 However, it is necessary for the former to be protected among the lambs under the wings of a hen, so that nothing bad happens to them.98 Regarding the former it is said, high mountains for deer,99 and of the latter, a rock is a refuge for hedgehogs100 or rabbits. The former are like Mount Zion that will never be moved for eternity.101 They are

A nswers to Questions



297

certain that neither death nor life can separate them from the love of Christ.102 However, the latter, as though still living in mud houses,103 are afraid of being burned by the sun during the day and by the moon during the night.104 Moreover, because the strong are perfected by divine guidance and endowed with sharp intelligence, they know how to rule others and do not need a human ruler. The weak, however, and those whose reason has not matured, also need the guidance of a human being. Therefore, I do not doubt that it is necessary that they have one certain place where, under one specific head, they may live according to an order, safely, in the service of God. Thus, it will not happen that, as if perfect, although they are weak, they prefer to use their own laws in everything rather than live in a specific place under the will of one head. If they falsely think themselves better than they are, they truly become worse. If to human eyes they seem to be free, they thereby appear to the divine gaze to be slaves, not the good of good people, but the unhappiest lot of demons and the corrupt. Therefore, let them first learn to live humbly in a cloister under an abbot, like chicks growing feathers in a nest under their mother, until clothed with feathers of virtues they can, if need be, by traveling everywhere become known to birds of prey.105 Therefore stability of place is promised for the sake of the weak, although the faithful can serve God everywhere. For both the former and the latter it is much more helpful to be subject in humility to fathers chosen for them, than to be in charge over the gathered brothers. It is much safer to dwell quietly in one place than to risk traveling through different monasteries. Therefore, each one needs to consider diligently what is, and what is possible. If he is more perfect than those staying with him, let him not disdain to help those who are less than he by admonishing, scolding and counseling as much as he can. If, however, he is weaker, let him stick with the stronger and gain through them an example of life for himself.

NOTES 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

14 15 16

17

Rom. 12:10; 1 Thess. 4:9; Heb. 12:1, 1 Pet. 1:22. All translations from the Bible or other Latin sources are my own, even if I indicate a published English translation. Matt. 19:26; Luke 18:27. Ps. 70:1. 2 Pet. 2:16. Jerome, Ep. 140:1 (PL 22:1166): “Aggredior opus difficillimum, et sanctarum precum tuarum fultus auxilio.” Ps. 81:10. Augustine, De civitate Dei. Edited by Bernhard Dombart and Alfons Kalb, CCL 48 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1955), 22:20, 846.13–14: “quomodo aliquid vel latet omnia sentientem vel irrevocabiliter fugit omnia moventem?”). RB, 64.1. Lawson, Bridlington Dialogue, 31–32 explains at length that “locus” (place) is used to mean “monastery” or “religious community”. Richard will now elaborate on these causes or cases one by one. He will return to the topic in paragraphs 19 and 20, the last two in the document. Bernard of Clairvaux, Ep. 87.2; SBO 7/2, p. 224. Gen. 19:1–25. RA (Praeceptum) 8.2, tr. Gerald Bonner and Sister Mary Agatha, S.P.B, The Monastic Rules, WSA 4 (Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 2004), 121: “ubi autem sibi quicumque vestrum videt aliquid deesse, doleat de praeterito, caveat de futuro, orans ut ei debitum dimittatur et in temptationem non inducatur.” Hereafter this translation will be referred to as “Bonner”; the translations are however my own. The Latin Rules ascribed to St Augustine were magisterially studied and edited by Luc Verheijen, La Règle de saint Augustin, 2 vols. (Paris: Études Augustiniennes, 1967). Here I will cite an edition of the version of the Rule of St Augustine used at St Victor, the Regula ad servos Dei, available at http//augustinus.it/latino/regola/regola_libro. htm. It is the Praeceptum to which was added at the beginning the opening sentence of another Rule, the Ordo monasterii. For the Rule used at St Victor, see Philippe Delhaye, Le Microcosmus de Godefroy de Saint-Victor, Étude théologique (Gembloux: J. Duculot, 1951), 200–205. Horace, Satires. Edited and Translated by H. Rusthon Fairclough, Loeb 194 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1991), 1.7, 90–91. Matt. 5:41. Jerome, Ep. 58:2 (PL 22.580): “Crates Thebanus homo quondam ditissimus, cum ad philosophandum Athenas pergeret, magnum auri pondus adiecit; nec putavit se simul posse et virtutes et divitias possidere” (“Crates the Theban, a man who was formerly very rich, cast aside a great weight of gold; he did not think he could possess both virtues and riches at the same time”); Ep. 66.8 (PL 22.644): “Fecit hoc Crates Thebanus. … Tibi non sufficit opes contemnere nisi Christum sequaris” (“Crates did that. … It is not enough for you to despise riches, unless you follow Christ”). Crates was a Cynic philosopher who lived on the streets without owning anything. This section contains many words from the root prope: pro + the demonstrative suffix -pe, which in its comparative adverbial form is proprius, and in the superlative, is proximo, meaning “nearby,” “nearer,” “nearest.” From this comes proprius, “one’s own,” “proper,” “not common with others.” The noun proprietas means “a peculiar quality,” “ownership” or “what is owned,” “property.” In this passage Richard speaks of “proprietas” (property), and propriam voluntatem (“one’s own will”), usually in the pejorative sense of “self-will,” which Richard says is a form of property that one must give up. The good regular canon puts things that are common ahead of things “proper to himself ” (propria). “Proprium,” Richard says in paragraph 4, can refer to “possession” (the desire to keep) or to “use” of what is necessary for life; the former is forbidden, the latter is permitted.

NOTES

 299

18 Jas. 2:10. 19 RA, 5.2 (Bonner, 117–18: “omnia opera vestra in commune fiant, maiore studio et frequentiori alacritate, quam si vobis singuli propria faceretis.” 20 Matt. 10:9; Luke 9:3. 21 Matt. 10:10. 22 RA, 4.4–4.6 (Bonner, 114–16). The title “De castitate” does not appear in the Latin text used in this translation. 23 Matt. 5:28. 24 Job 31:1. 25 Jerome, Ep. 61.3 (PL 22.604) says of Vigilantius: “Solus es Cato Romani generis disertissimus” (“You alone are Cato, the most fluent of the Roman race”). 26 Ovid, Ars amatoria, 2.664 (The Art of Love, ed. and tr. J. H. Mozley, rev. G. P. Goold, 2nd ed., Loeb [Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1985], 110: “quae rigidus munera Censor habet” [“The duties which the rigid Censor has”]; Juvenal, Satire 11.91–92 [Juvenal and Persius, ed. and tr. Susanna Morton Braud, Loeb 91 [Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004], 406: “durumque Catonem … rigidi severos / Censoris mores etiam collega timeret” [“even his colleague feared the rigid Censor’s morals”]; Boethius, Cons. 2 carm. 7.16 (Theological Tractates; Consolation of Philosophy. Edited by Hugh Fraser Stewart, Edward Kennard Rand and Stanley Jim Tester, Loeb [Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1962], 218–19: “Quid Brutus aut rigidus Cato?” [“what of Brutus and rigid Cato”]). 27 Jerome, Ep. 125.7 (Wright, 408–409). 28 Luke 10:33–36. 29 Luke 10:35. 30 Matt. 7:12; Luke 6:31. 31 1 Cor. 7:7–9; 1 Tim. 4:3. 32 For Richard’s teaching from here to “nor would death result” at the end of the paragraph, see Hugh of St Victor, Sacr., 1.11.7 (PL 176. 347–48; tr. Feiss, VTT 10). 33 Horace, Odes, 4.9.40 (Odes and Epodes. Edited and translated by Niall Rudd, Loeb 33 [Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004], 246–47): “sed quotiens bonus atque fidus / iudex honestum praetulit utili” (“but as often as a good and trustworthy judge has placed what is honorable ahead of what is useful”). 34 Cicero, In Catil, 1.5.11 (www.thelatinlibrary.com/cicero/cat2;shtml, accessed online December 4, 2018: “summa salus periclitanda rei publicae”). 35 Ps. 37:27. 36 Matt. 5:34. 37 There is wordplay on the verbs perjurat/jurat. 38 1 Tim. 1:5. 39 Matt. 22:40. 40 1 Cor. 7:2, 6. 41 1 Cor. 6:12. 42 Acts 5:29. 43 Sallust, Cat. 51.1 (Sallust I. Edited and translated by John Carew Rolfe, rev. John T. Ramsey, Loeb 116 [Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013], 108–109: “qui de rebus dubiis consultant, ab odio, amicitia, ira atque misericordia vacuus esse decet” [“those who deliberate on difficult things, should be free of hated, friendship, anger and pity”]); see Berthold Louis Ullman, “Sine ira et studio,” Classical Journal 38 (1942/43): 420–21. 44 RA, 1.1 (Bonner, 110): “haec sunt quae ut observetis praecipimus in monasterio constituti.” 45 RA, 1.1–2 (Bonner, 110), continuing the citation from the previous note: “Primum propter quod in unum estis congregati, ut unianimes habitetis in domo”; Ps 67.7 (Vulg.). This citation is the first sentence added to the Praeceptum from the Ordo monasterii. 46 Eph. 5:19. Colker suggests that “our” might be emended to “your” to read as it does in the Bible.

300

H ugh of S aint V ictor – A nswers to Q uestions

47 Ps. 119:35. 48 Col. 3:16. 49 RA, 2.3 (Bonner, 112): “psalmis et hymnis cum oratis Deum, hoc versetur in corde quod profertur in voce”; RB, 19.7. 50 RB, 9.8. 51 Martin, Bishop of Braga, Capitula, 67 (PL 130.586B: “Non oportet psalmos compositos et vulgares in ecclesia dicere, neque libros qui sunt extra canonem legere, nisi solos canonicos Novi et Veteris Testamenti” (“it is not allowed to recite composite and popular psalms in church, nor to read books that are outside the canon, but only canonical ones of the New and Old Testaments”). Richard mistakenly identifies Martin of Braga (c. 520–80) with Pope Martin (649–55). 52 Council of Braga 30 (PL 130.570): “Item placuit ut Veteris Testamenti nihil poetice compositum in ecclesia psalletur sicut et sancti praecipiunt canones” (“Likewise as the holy canons prescribe, it is proper that nothing from the Old Testament poetically arranged be sung in church”). 53 This seems more restrictive than the practice at the Abbey of St Victor. 54 RA 2.4 (Bonner 112). 55 Augustine, Confessions, 9.6.1 (O’Donnell 1:109: “quantum flevi in hymnis et canticis tuis … Iustina, Valentiniani regis pueri mater, hominem tuum persequebatur haeresis suae causa, qua fuerat seducta ab arrianis” [“how much I wept during your hymns and songs … Justina, the mother of the boy-king Valentinian, was persecuting your man (Ambrose) on behalf of her heresy, by which she had been seduced by the Arians”]). On this see O’Donnell, Confessions, 3:109–11. 56 This emphasis on discretion is found in the Rule of Benedict and in his life as recounted by Gregory the Great. 57 RB, 40.2. 58 RA, 3.1 (Bonner, 112): “quando autem aliquis non potest ieiunare, non tamen extra prandium aliquid alimentorum sumat, nisi cum aegrotet.” 59 RB, 38.10. 60 RA, 3.3 (Bonner, 112): “Qui infirmi sunt ex pristina consuetudine, si aliter tractantur in victo non debet aliis molestum esse nec iniustum videri quos fecit alia consuetudo fortiores.” The Latin of Richard’s citation is slightly different. 61 RA, 4.2 (Bonner, 114): “Quando proceditis, simul ambulate, cum veneritis quo itis, simul state.” 62 Augustine, Sermo 355.1 (PL 39.1569). 63 Cicero, In Verrem, 2.5.59, online: www.thelatinlibrary.com/cicero/verres.2.5.shtml: “illi homines testes custodesque furtorum.” 64 RA, 4.3 (Bonner, 114): “In incessu, in statu, in omnibus motibus vestris nihil fiat quod cuiusquam offendat aspectum sed quod vestram decet sanctitatem.” 65 RA, 5.2 (Bonner, 117). 66 This is an interpretation of Richard’s “in desideriis est omnis ociosus.” The Latin seems to be an Old Latin version of Prov. 13:4, which in the Vulgate is “vult et non vult piger.” Richard’s version is found in Jerome, Ep. 125.11 (PL 22.1079): “in desideriis est omnis otiosus.”). A note in R. Weber, ed. Biblia sacra iuxta vulgatam versionem, 4th ed. (Stuttgart: Deutsches Bibelgesellschaft, 1994), 968, indicates that “in desideriis” is added to the Vulgate text in one ninth-century manuscript. 67 Ps. 46:10. 68 Prov. 13:4. 69 Isa. 1:16–17. 70 Ps. 46:10. 71 Colker could not find this quotation in any known work of Augustine. However, he found the substance of the text in Augustine, Sermo 103 (PL 38.613–16); 169.14.17 (PL 38.925–26); 255.6.6 (PL 38.1188–89), in which the Bishop of Hippo speaks of Mary and Martha. Augus-

NOTES

72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80

81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88

89 90 91



301

tine develops the theme especially in Sermo 104.4 (PL 38.617–18), which is the source of the elaboration that follows here just below. Richard of St Victor, Liber Exceptionum: Texte critique avec introduction, notes et tables. Edited by Jean Châtillon, Textes philosophiques du Moyen-Âge, 5 (Paris: Vrin, 1958), 15.5.503–504. On work, prayer, and reading see RB, 48. Luke 10:38–40. Luke 10:41–42. Paragraph 13. RB, 36.8. RA, 5.7 (Bonner, 118–19): “Non eant ad balneas, sive quocumque ire necesse fuerit, minus quam duo vel tres. Nec ille qui habet aliquo eundi necessitatem cum quibus ipse voluerit, sed cum quibus praepositus iusserit, ire debebit.” “quos” (“which”) is plural. The term conversus/a had several meanings over time. In late antiquity it was used for someone who after undertaking public penance was required to live a penitential life, which could approximate that of monks. In the early Middle Ages the term was used to designate men or women who came to monastic life after living as adults in the world in contrast to oblati who were raised in a monastery. By Richard’s time the term usually referred to people admitted to a monastery as adults who lacked the literacy needed to take part in the Divine Office. They spent less time in prayer and more in work, often at a rural cell or grange at a distance from the monastery. The Cistercians did away with oblati and welcomed large numbers of conversi who were the backbone of their economic success. This text indicates that there were conversi at St Victor. This is confirmed by the Jocqué, Liber ordinis 30, 143, which legislates that at the time designated for working, some may be excused from going out to work, but stipulates regarding those excused that, “none of the brothers, whether canon or conversus should presume to walk with or before” the brothers who are working (“Interim dum fratres laborant, nullus fratrum vel canonicus vel conversus cum eis vel coram eis deambulare praesumat”). Likewise, Jocqué, Liber ordinis 42, “On Communion,” 198, tells how, after the canons have received communion, the conversi are to receive the sacrament. On conversi and for bibliography see A. Rüther, “Konversen,” Lexikon des Mittelalters (Stuttgart: J. B. Metzler, 1999) 5:1423–24; James France, Separate but Equal: Cistercian Lay Brothers 1120–1350, CS 246 (Collegeville. MN: Cistercian Publications, 2012), xiii–35. A codex was a book made by binding together a number of parchment leaves or gatherings. Col. 4:2. RA, 2.1 (Bonner, 112); “orationibus instate horis et temporibus constitutis.” RA, 5.2 (Bonner, 117): “omnia opera vestra in commune fiant.” RA, 5.10 (Bonner, 119): “codices certa hora singulis diebus petantur”; RB, 48.15. RA, 5.10 (Bonner, 119). “extra horam qui petierit non accipiat.” Gen. 2:6. Virgil, Aeneid, 2.20 (ed. and tr. H. R. Fairclough, rev. George P. Goold, Loeb 63 [Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006], 316–17): “uterumque armato milite complent”). Augustine cites this example in Enchiridion 13.44 (ed. and tr. J. Rivière, Exposés géneraux de la foi, Œuvres de Saint Augustine, 1.9 [Paris: Desclée De Brouwer, 1947], 184–85). Cf. Jerome, Ep. 22.25 (Wright, 108–109: “Oras; loqueris ad sponsum; legis; ille tibi loquitur”). On this often-repeated idea, see Duncan Robertson, Lectio Divina: The Medieval Experience of Reading, CS 238 (Collegeville, MN: Cistercian Publications, 2011), xi–xii. Richard is referring to Possidius, a fellow bishop and friend of Augustine, who wrote a biography of Augustine. Possidius, Sancti Augustini vita, 31 (ed. Herbert T. Weiskotten [PhD dissertation] [Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1919], 142: “Si quid vero ecclesia vel in sumptibus, vel in ornamentis habet fidei presbyteri, qui sub eodem domus ecclesiae curam gerebat, dimisit”). This book is available at archive.org/details/sanctiaugustiniiv00possrich.

302

H ugh of S aint V ictor – A nswers to Q uestions

92 RA, 6.3 (Bonner, 120): “Quando autem necessitas disciplinae, minoribus cohercendis, dicere vos verba dura compellit”). 93 RA, 7.2 (Bonner, 120): “Ut ergo cuncta ista serventur et, si quid servatum non fuerit, non neglegenter praetereatur, sed emendandum corrigendumque curetur, ad praepositum praecipue pertinebit; ita, ut ad presbyterum, cuius est apud vos maior auctoritas, referat, quod modum vel vires eius excedit.” 94 On the way the Victorines thought about St Augustine, see VTT 8.385–95, introduction to Achard of St Victor, Sermo 9: On the Solemnity of St Augustine. Achard of St Victor, “Sermo 9: On the Solemnity of St Augustine,” In Sermons for the Liturgical Year. Edited by Hugh Feiss, VTT 8 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2018), 385–95. 95 Paragraph One. 96 Rom. 12:4; 1 Cor. 12:12. 97 Luke 10:19; Jerome, Ep. 22.3 (Wright, 56–57: “Nemo inter serpentes et scorpiones securus ingreditur”). 98 Deut. 22:6; Ps. 84:4; Matt. 23:27; Luke 13:34. 99 Ps. 104:18. 100 Ps. 104:18. 101 Ps. 121:6. 102 Rom. 8:38–39. 103 Job 4:19. 104 Ps. 121:6. 105 Gregory, Moralia 14.63 (Edited by Marc Adriaen, CCL 143A [Turnhout: Brepols, 1979], 737). Milvus means a bird of prey, or more specifically a kite; see the Aberdeen bestiary (online: www.abdb.ac.uk/bestiary), fol. 25r, 25v, 46v.

ODO OF SAINT VICTOR SEVEN LETTERS ON THE RIGHT OBSERVANCE OF THE CANONICAL PROFESSION INTRODUCTION AND TRANSLATION BY JOHN HALL

INTRODUCTION Life

Odo of Saint Victor, the author of the letters translated here, was a prominent prelate of the mid-twelfth century. He rubbed shoulders not only with venerable Victorine figures like Guilduin and Hugh, but also with Bernard of Clairvaux and Suger of Saint Denis. When he came to Saint Victor is not known. He became prior in 1133, when he succeeded Thomas. Two documents signed by “Prior Odo” were edited by de Lasteyrie in Cartulaire générale de Paris. One of these also bears the signature of “Magister Hugo,” likely indicating that it dates before the death of the famous master Hugh in 1140.1 Odo served as Prior of Saint Victor until 1148. At this time, he was chosen to be the founding abbot of a community of regular canons at Saint Geneviève. In 1147, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux and Abbot Suger of Saint Denis, then regent for Louis VII, were commissioned by Pope Eugenius III to reform the secular foundation of Saint Geneviève.2 Initially, it was to have become a priory of Cluny, but the unhappy secular canons of Saint Geneviève proposed a compromise under which their church would become a monastery of regular canons modeled after nearby Saint Victor. Suger then solicited Gilduin, abbot of Saint Victor, to supply an abbot and canons for the newly refounded institution. Suger tells us that Gilduin offered his own prior, Odo, as the founding abbot, though with demonstrative and prolonged grief.3 Perhaps 1

2

3

Cartulaire générale de Paris. Edited by R. de Lasteyrie (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1887), 1:250 and 330–31. On the evidence stated above, de Lasteyrie dates the first document to 1133–1140; the second he dates after 1145, when an “Archdeacon Bernard” of Notre Dame first appears in the cathedral records, and before 1148, when Odo was no longer prior of Saint Victor. Saint Geneviève was on the left bank inside the walls in today’s “Latin Quarter”. Portions of it survive today as the Lycée Henri IV, and the Panthéon had been the recently constructed abbey church when it was secularized during the revolution. The relics of the namesake saint (the patron saint of Paris) were also burned at that time. For Eugenius’ letters on the reform of Saint Geneviève to Suger, Bernard, and the secular canons of Saint Geneviève, see Recueil des historiens des Gaules et de la France, vol. 15. Edited by Martin Bouquet et al. (Paris: Imprimerie Impériale, 1808), 449D–453B. Bouquet, Recueil des historiens, 503C–504B.

306

O D O O F ST V IC T O R – Seven L etters

Bernard was also grieved by the choice for the new abbot: he writes to Suger urging him to “condescend to comfort” Odo after he has been installed as abbot, “because he is fainthearted (pusillanimis).”4 The new monastery was occupied by Odo and twelve canons from Saint Victor on August 28 of 1148. A royal decree from Louis VII also confirms both the reform of the abbey and Odo’s appointment as the abbot.5 As Abbot of Saint Geneviève, Odo negotiated with Saint Victor about the diversion of the Bièvre River to provide water for Saint Victor’s new mill, a transaction to which Bernard was legal witness.6 Another document survives in which Odo permits one of the female serfs of Saint Geneviève to marry a male serf from Saint Germain in exchange for a woman of Saint Germain to marry one of the Sainte Geneviève serfs.7 It appears that Odo did not retain the abbacy of Saint Geneviève until the end of his life. A bull from Alexander III, dated August 18, 1164, is addressed to “Odo, formerly the abbot of Saint Geneviève” (“Odonem, quondam Sanctae Genovefae abbatem”) and four prelates in Paris. Alexander requests that these prelates investigate the conduct of the current abbot of Saint Geneviève.8 Odo is likewise mentioned as the “former abbot of Saint Geneviève” (“Odonis, Beate Genovefe quondam abbatis”) in a grant from a certain knight Ferry de Paris of his portion of an estate to Saint Victor. Odo, it appears, both interceded with Ferry on behalf of Saint Victor, and is named as a witness to the grant.9 4 5

6

7

8

9

Bernard of Clairvaux, Epistola 370, in SBO, vol. 8, 329. De Lasteyrie, Cartulaire générale, 320–21. For a more complete description of this messy undertaking, see Lindy Grant, Abbot Suger of St.-Denis: Church and State in Early TwelfthCentury France (London: Routledge, 2013), 166–69. De Lasteyrie, Cartulaire générale, 317–19. These pages contain two documents on the subject, both dated by the editor to 1148–1154. The first was written by Odo, the second by Bernard. Both documents identify Odo as the abbot of Saint Geneviève. A third document on pp. 319–20 from the Abbots of Chaalis and Notre-Dame du Val discusses the negotiations between Saint Geneviève and Saint Victor, though without mentioning Odo by name. Antoine Le Roux de Lincy and Alexandre  Bruel, “Notice historique et critique sur Dom Jacques du Breul, prieur de Saint-Germain-des-Prés, II.” Bibliothèque de l’École des Chartes, 29, 6th ser., 4 (1868), 478–512, here 493–94. Specifically, Canon William complains of excessively harsh penance imposed by the abbot, who had him stripped and beaten, and then compelled to take food from the ground with the dogs for seven days. Epistola Alexandri Papae 267. PL 200.307. De Lasteyrie, Cartulaire générale, 417.

I ntroduction



307

After his tenure as abbot of Saint Geneviève, Odo appears to have retired to Saint Victor. Claude du Molinet (died 1687)10 apparently first makes this claim in his biography of Odo in his Vies des hommes illustres des Chanoines Réguliers en France. The fact that Odo was active on behalf of Saint Victor late in his life supports the suggestion that he retired there; furthermore, he was reported to have been buried in the church of Saint Victor.11 The date of Odo’s death remains a mystery. It is commonly given as 1173.12 Daunou, in an article on these letters in Histoire littéraire de la France, states that this claim originates with Gallia Christiana, where no evidence was given to support it. He further states that 1165, 1166, and 1167 have also been given as the year of Odo’s death.13 These earlier dates do not seem possible because the document in which Odo has secured a donation from Ferry de Paris is dated 1171–1172, so Odo, named as a witness, must have been alive at that time. Whether his death occurred in 1173 is not possible to know. According to the necrology of Saint Geneviève, it occurred on April 29 of some year.14 Contents

Odo’s letters, translated here, show exegetical, theological, and philosophical accomplishment, not to mention an uncommon Latin style. They are also of historical interest. Perhaps their most extraor10 11

12

13

14

Date of du Molinet’s death: Jacques Lelong, Bibliothèque historique de la France (Paris: J. T. Herissant, 1768), 836. Writing in 1575, François de Belleforêt, La cosmographie universelle de tout le monde (Paris: Michel Sonnius, 1575), 1:205–206, appears to have seen the grave, and uses the burial locations of two abbots of Saint Geneviève, both named Odo, to distinguish between them: the first Odo was buried in the church at Saint Victor, the second in the chapter house of Saint Geneviève. In 1722, Casimir Oudin, Commentarius de scriptoribus ecclesiasticis (Leipzig: Weidmann, 1722), 2:1255–57 prints the epitaph from the grave. This epitaph mentions both that he was Prior of Saint Victor and then abbot of Saint Geneviève. See “The Abbey and Order of St Victor in the Twelfth Century: Context and Bibliography for Readers of Victorine Texts in Translation,” Accessed on March 11, 2020. https://www. newcitypress.com/pub/media/wysiwyg/downloads/AnnotatedBibliographyVictorines.pdf. Marie-Madeleine Lebreton, “Recherches sur les manuscrits des sermons de différents personnages du xiie siècle nommés Odon.” Bulletin d’information de l’IRHT 3 (1954): 33–54, especially 33. Pierre-Claude-François Daunou, “Odon, abbé de Saint-Père, près d’Auxerre, et Odon, premier abbé de Sainte-Geneviève.” Histoire littéraire de la France, 14 (Paris: Victor Palmé, 1817), 346–50, esp. 348. So says Daunou, “Odon, abbé de Saint-Père.” 346–50, esp. 348.

308

O D O O F ST V IC T O R – Seven L etters

dinary feature, however, is the vividness with which they paint life in the monastery. Such windows across the ages are rare. The seven letters in the collection translated here have a continuity which seems to result from thoughtful curation of the collector. There is no reason to believe that these are the only letters Odo wrote; on the contrary, letter 7 indicates that Odo had a reputation for writing letters to his brothers. Such a reputation would probably be based on more than five (one of the letters is not addressed to a brother). There is also no reason to think that the letters here are in chronological order. Although letter seven was clearly not the first letter that Odo had written, it is entirely possible that the other six letters were not the ones that preceded it. What the arrangement of the letters does show is intelligent attention to topic and theme. The first letter makes an excellent introduction to the collection, for two reasons. First, it expounds on the vows which a regular canon takes, of chastity, obedience, and community of property. These three topics form a structure within which the other letters operate, and to which they allude on a regular basis. Second, alone of the letters, this letter has an introduction with the customary apologies for writing. Odo attributes his writing to leisure, begs that the recipient overlook the mediocre quality of his work in the name of brotherly love, and invites correction. In most of the other letters, in contrast, he launches straight into business. This first letter is addressed to “brother R.” quite possibly the same “brother R.” to whom letters 4 and 5 are addressed. Odo urges brother R. to look beyond the surface meaning of the vows and to find that they are a complete guide to the devotion demanded by religious life. In letter 2 Odo takes up the obedience theme from the first letter. He addresses brother N., who feels his assignment in the dependent priory of Amponville to be a sort of exile. Brother N. misses the “delightful fellowship” with his brothers, and their “sweet conversation.” He longs for their company, their good example, and the learning which he gleaned from them. Odo exhorts Brother N. to rejoice in his condition because his departure is a victory of obedience. Obedience, specifically grumbling, continues to be the theme of Letter 3. Although the recipient is not identified, he apparently had some plan in mind which he was never able to put into action because he received conflicting instruction from the abbot. Odo praises this brother’s prompt obedience and then, in a lovely typological exegesis of 1 Peter 5:8, “the adversary circles like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may

I ntroduction

 309

devour,” concludes that when the devil is frustrated in his various attempts to tempt a victim into sin, his last resort is to corrupt good works by inspiring grumbling. May one conclude that Odo felt the unnamed brother compromised the excellence of his obedience in this way? Letter 4 picks up the theme of watching one’s words in fulfilling obedience. It is addressed to brother R. (possibly the same as the first letter), whose work outside the monastery makes it especially important that he be careful of appearances so that people will not revile God because of the behavior of the religious. Although living outside the monastery deprives Brother R. of the structures of monastic life which aid in bridling the tongue, Odo reminds him that his attire will still offer him some instruction in how to behave. Brother R., likely the same as the recipient of letter 4, is also addressed in letter 5. This letter discusses the relative importance of a good reputation and a clean conscience. It also makes some interesting claims about the role of good intention, the role of knowledge in informing the conscience, and how one can know that something is good without experiencing it. This letter is the most philosophically interesting of the seven. Letter 6 is the most historically interesting. It addresses an unnamed courtier fallen out of favor with the king and queen. The identification of the recipient is potentially valuable for dating these letters, a value which has not been overlooked in the past. The following passage contains the most concrete biographical information about the courtier: The king himself, in whose love you were trusting most greatly, and near whom you were accustomed to sit because of your friendship, even in a place of honor, persecutes you like an enemy, and whatever you had built in Paris with great labor is being destroyed entirely by order of the queen. The silver and gold and money which you gathered in the time of tranquility you now must spend in the time of war, and night and day you must plan anxiously so that your enemies don’t fall upon you unawares.

Two potential identities of the intended recipient of Letter 6 have been proposed. The more commonly accepted (although not substantiated) hypothesis identifies this courtier with Stephen de Garlande, who also fell out of favor with Louis VI in 1127.15 The details of Stephen’s fall 15

Identifying the recipient of the letter as Stephen de Garlande was first proposed by Beaugendre in 1708; his text is reprinted PL 171.85–186. Others have accepted this identification: M.-J.-J. Brial. Bouquet, Recueil des historiens, 324D–325D.

310

O D O O F ST V IC T O R – Seven L etters

correspond with what is mentioned in the letter above. In his prosperity, Stephen was simultaneously royal chancellor and seneschal, as well as canon and archdeacon of Notre Dame and dean of Saint Geneviève. He built a palatial house for himself in the cathedral close. His ambition alienated key friends, including Queen Adelaide, prompting the king to strip him of his royal offices. Stephen fortified himself in his Château de Livry northeast of Paris (now in the commune of LivryGargan) and allied himself with Henry I of England and Theobald II, count of Champagne. Louis laid siege to the castle, ultimately completely destroying it. Stephen spent some time with Theobald until 1132 or 1133, when Louis restored him as chancellor, although not as seneschal. When Louis VII came to power in 1137, he relieved Stephen of all offices, and Stephen subsequently retired to Saint Victor for the last years of his life.16 Stephen’s tumultuous experiences 1127–1132 correlate with Odo’s description of the queen’s enmity and subsequent wars. The letter opens with a lament that Odo is unable to speak face to face with the person he addresses, which could be a reference to Stephen’s exile after his castle was successfully besieged. This period coincides with the five years preceding Odo’s appointment as prior of Saint Victor, when presumably he was a canon in the monastery. It is possible that Odo would have struck up an acquaintance with the large-living archdeacon in the years prior to 1127. We know that secular canons visited Saint Victor regularly; but would a simple canon be a likely correspondent with the former seneschal and chancellor of the kingdom? It seems more likely that Odo’s friendships with the rich and powerful would develop after he became an abbot, suggesting a later date for the letter. On the other hand, Stephen entered Saint Victor while Odo was still prior there. This letter is urging the superiority of the religious life, and, although it gives no indication that the addressee was considering conversion, perhaps it was successful. Pierre-Claude-François Daunou in the 1817 Histoire littéraire de la France suggests an alternative identity. He claims that this letter was addressed to Gilles Clément, a minister to Philip Augustus who was 16

Michael T. Clanchy, Abelard: A Medieval Life (Oxford: Blackwell, 1997), 342–43. Wim Verbaal, “Trapping the Future: Abelard’s Multi-Layered Image Building.” In Rethinking Abelard: A Collection of Critical Essays. Edited by Babette S. Hellemans (Leiden: Brill, 2014), 187–212, esp. 190, 211. Bautier, “Paris au temps de d’Abélard.” Grover A. Zinn, “Garlande, Stephen of.” In Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages. Edited by Robert E. Bjork (Oxford: University Press, 2010), 2:685–86.

I ntroduction



311

e­ xiled from the royal court in 1182 or 1184. In support of this claim, Daunou points out that Gilles Clément’s fall from favor was precipitated by a feud with the queen mother.17 Daunou does not claim that Gilles’ misfortunes also involved a war. This hypothesis might cover the facts of the sixth letter, but there is a much stronger correspondence between those facts and the life of Stephen de Garlande. The fact that Stephen was known to be connected with Saint Victor further strengthens the case for Stephen. There is, however, no reason to suppose that these two are the only disgraced courtiers of the twelfth century. The identity of the recipient of letter 6 must remain uncertain. Some of the themes in this letter are consistent with those of the other letters, however different the audience may be. The letter contrasts the transience of earthly pursuits with pursuit of the love of God, and exhorts the nobleman to humility. This letter also introduces a theme taken up in the final letter, namely the gratitude due to God for present trials. Letter 7 continues the theme of the benefits of undergoing trials. This letter was apparently solicited by a Brother F., evidently a regular canon who did not live at Odo’s monastery, whether because he lived at a dependency like brother N. in letter 2, or because he belonged to another monastery entirely. Brother F. knew that Odo wrote encouraging letters and wanted to receive one himself because he “undergoes many temptations.” The wording of this request apparently inspires the topic of the letter, which first talks about the benefits of undergoing such difficulties and then proposes methods for standing firm against them. Odo exhorts brother F. to protect himself by remembering the vow taken by regular canons, of chastity, community, and obedience. Thus the last letter closes where the first letter began, in discussing these vows of regular canons. The Latin of the letters is polished and elegant. Odo constructs carefully drawn antitheses, and expresses himself economically and yet explicitly. Odo’s Latin also bears marks of a classical style, using case endings where medieval authors would often use prepositions, and constructing indirect discourse with the accusativus cum infinitivo construction. Letter 6 exhibits the same stylistic features, but the first sentence is uncharacteristically ornate, with a first clause beginning 17

Daunou, “Odon, abbé de Saint-Père.” 346–50, esp. 349–50. On the basis of this identification, Daunou argues for attributing these letters to a different author. See the section on authenticity below.

312

O D O O F ST V IC T O R – Seven L etters

and ending with a cognate noun and verb pair (desiderio…desiderem) and then two synonymous and related, but distinct verbs in the succeeding clauses (novit…agnoscit). The ability to knit the text together with recognizably related words is characteristic of Odo’s style; the particular flourish with which it is done here is distinctive. He seems to have saved his fanciest for the noble audience. In all the letters, the writing itself would make these texts a pleasure to read, even if their contents were not so interesting. Authenticity of the Letters

The attribution of these letters to Odo is reasonably secure; however, questions of authenticity arise at four different levels: whether the letters can be attributed to someone named Odo, whether this Odo was from Saint Victor, to which Odo from Saint Victor they can be attributed, and finally whether all the letters can be attributed to the same author. Odo is the leading and strongest candidate for the name of the author of these letters; however, this attribution is attested only once in the manuscripts, at the beginning of letter  1 in BnF  lat.  14193.18 In ­d’Achery’s text, letters 1, 2, 4, 5, and 7 are addressed from “Frater Odo”; in the manuscript, however, only the first one has this full name written out; the others write simply “Fr. O.,” although a medieval hand has inserted a superscripted “do” in letter 7 to complete the name. Letters 3 and 6 are not introduced by an epistolary address. BnF lat. 2907 includes copies of letters 5–7. Again, letter six lacks an address, while 5 and 7 are signed by “Fr. O.” The possibility exists that the “Odo” at the beginning of the first letter in lat. 14193 represents a scribal conjecture; however, based on the manuscript evidence, it appears safe to say that the name of the author of these letters began with the letter O, and “Odo” is the most likely possibility. Was this Odo from Saint Victor? It appears likely. The attribution of these letters to Odo of Saint Victor appears to originate with a biographical note by Casimir Oudin, first published in that author’s Commentarius de scriptoribus ecclesiasticis in 1722, and reprinted in the PL.19 Luc d’Achery, OSB, in his Spicilegium sive Collectio veterum aliquot 18 19

Fol. 59r. Oudin, Commentarius, col. 1255–57; also available PL 196.1397–1400.

I ntroduction



313

scriptorum, the source for the PL text, did not hazard that Odo was from Saint Victor; he attributed them only to “Odo, a regular canon.”20 Since Saint Victor was a monastery of regular canons, this leaves open the possibility of Victorine authorship, and d’Achery is on safe ground, for the content of the letters makes clear that they were written by a regular canon and to regular canons. Further identifying features are scarce. The evidence of identification with Saint Victor is the mention of Amponville in letter 2. Amponville was a dependency of Saint Victor. It appears that Brother N., to whom this letter was addressed, had been sent there. He felt this call of obedience as a banishment and wished to return. It would have been common for the mother house to send one of its canons to a dependent priory. The probability that d’Achery’s “regular canon” was associated with Saint Victor is therefore high. The scholarly consensus on this point is consistent: except for William Cave’s attribution of these letters to Odo of Canterbury (Odo Cantianus d. 1200) in 1688,21 historians have never considered any Odo who was not from Saint Victor to be the author. Some, however, have identified a second Odo from Saint Victor as the author of these letters. Most prominently, Pierre-Claude-François Daunou in Histoire littéraire de la France concludes that they were written by an Odo who was the abbot of a monastery of regular canons in Auxerre called Saint Père (sometimes also Saint Pierre). In support of this claim, Daunou alleges that this Odo also came from Saint Victor.22 This claim has not been without influence.23 This attribution originated with Abbot Lebeuf, who states that there is an ancient tradition that regular canons were sent to Saint Père from 20

21

22 23

Luc d’Achery, OSB, Spicilegium sive Collectio veterum aliquot scriptorum (Paris: Montalant, 1723), 3:529–36. Oudin erroneously claims that d’Achery ascribed the letters to “Odoni Sanctae Genovefae abbati et canonico regulari” (PL 196.1397–1398). William Cave, Scriptorum ecclesiasticorum historia literaria (London: Richard Criswell, 1688) 677. Both Oudin (PL 196.1397–1398) and Daunou, “Odon, abbé de Saint-Père,” 346–50, esp. 347 reject this suggestion. Daunou, “Odon, abbé de Saint-Père,” 346–50. Daunou cites a bull from Alexander III in 1174 as evidence that an Odo was the abbot of Saint Père. I have not been able to find this bull. Three subsequent publications acknowledge the possibility that Odo of Saint Père was the author of these letters. Two are agnostic: both Barthelemy Hauréau, Notices et extraits de quelques manuscrits latins de la Bibliothéque Nationale (Paris: C. Klincksieck, 1891), 2:359. and Adolphe Dieudonné, Hildebert de Lavardin, évêque du Mans, archevêque de Tours (1056–1133): sa vie, ses lettres (Paris: Picard, 1898), 136 profess an inability to say to which of the two Odos the letters should be attributed. The Dictionnaire de Théologie catholique attributes them to Odo of Saint Père: É. Amann, “Odon de Saint-Père,” Dictionnaire de Théologie catholique (Paris: Letouzey et Ané, 1931), 11:939–40.

314

O D O O F ST V IC T O R – Seven L etters

Saint Victor. On this ground, he states that “there is room to believe that” the first abbot, Odo, was the author of these letters.24 What is the source of this “ancient tradition”? Lebeuf cites Belleforêt’s La cosmographie universelle de tout le monde, published in 1575. What does Belleforêt have to say about it? In his description of the churches of Auxerre, he writes, “Then there is that of Saint Peter, where there are canons under the rule of Saint Augustine, as in Paris there are those of Saint Victor.”25 Belleforêt never claims that the canons of Saint Père came from Saint Victor! Speculation that the abbot of Saint Père was the author of these letters because of his Victorine origin is therefore groundless. There is no evidence that this Odo came from Saint Victor. Daunou supports his attribution of the letters to Odo of Saint Père with an argument which relies on his identification of the recipient of the sixth letter with Gilles Clément, discussed above.26 Since Gilles’ rupture with Philip Augustus occurred in 1182–1184, Daunou feels that a letter written at that time must have been too late to have been written by Odo of Saint Geneviève. That would likely be true, but Gilles is not a strong candidate for the intended recipient of this letter. Although identifying the author of a text with a historical personage is often insecure, there is no serious reason to doubt an attribution to Odo, the abbot of Saint Geneviève. Nor has any attractive alternative been proposed. Based on the evidence of textual transmission, all seven letters appear to have the same author. Letter six is certainly the odd one out, in that all the others address canons, whereas letter six addresses a nobleman. Letter six also has greater literary embellishment. These features, in combination with the fact that letters 5–7 are included in BnF lat. 2907 immediately after letters by Hildebert of Lavardin, are probably what prompted Beaugendre, the editor of Hildebert’s letters, to attribute letter 6 to Hildebert.27 Hildebert was decidedly in the habit of corresponding with the rich and powerful, and he also cultivated an artistic style which has been greatly admired in subsequent centuries.28 The problem with this attribution is that it ig24 25 26 27 28

p. 530. “Puis celuy de saint Pierre, où il y a Chanoines sous la reigle saint Augustin, tels que sont a Paris ceux de saint Victor.” Belleforêt, La cosmographie, 338. Daunou attributes this identification also to Lebeuf, but I have been unable to find Lebeuf ’s argument. PL 171.186A–190B. In manuscripts and printed material up to the late nineteenth century, Hildebert is more commonly referred to as Hildebert Cenomanensis, or Hildebert of Le Mans, because he was the bishop of Le Mans for around 30 years. He is also called Hildebert Turonensis or

I ntroduction



315

nores the manuscript evidence. In both manuscripts in which these letters survive, including the manuscript which Beaugendre cites (BnF lat. 2907, which contains letters 5–7 without the 1–4), letter 6 falls between letters 5 and 7.29 Although letter 6 is itself unattributed, textual transmission strongly indicates that it belongs with at least those two, which are both explicitly attributed to “Fr. O.” in both manuscripts. Beaugendre published letters 5 and 7 later in the same volume with a note that it was nearly impossible that they were written by Hildebert. Nevertheless, he printed letter six within the main collection. Beaugendre’s attribution of Letter 6 to Hildebert has been convincingly refuted by Dieudonné in his study on the authenticity of Hildebert’s letters.30 Hauréau, in his description of BnF lat. 14193, also rejects the attribution of letter 6 to Hildebert.31 With a fair degree of confidence, all seven letters translated here can be attributed to Odo of Saint Victor, abbot of Saint Geneviève. Manuscript Tradition and Other Works

Other texts may be attributable to Odo in addition to the seven letters, starting with the texts preserved in the same manuscripts as the letters. Paris, BnF lat. 14193 is a composite of at least three manuscripts, readily distinguishable by differences in size, format, and script, not to mention, in some cases, wear on the first and last page. The part of this composite which contains the seven letters of Odo includes six sermons preceding the letters (fol. 31r–59r), the letters themselves (fol. 59r–74v) and after the letters six more texts. These latter six include a sermons beginning Foderunt manus meas (74v–78r),32 a sermon

29 30

31 32

Hildebert of Tours, because he was the Archbishop of Tours for the last 8 or so years of his life. Letters 5&7: PL 171.301D–307A. In BnF lat. 2907, letter 6 (fol. 76r–78r) falls immediately between letters 5 (fol. 74r–76r) and 7 (fol. 78r–80r). Dieudonné, Hildebert de Lavardin, 136. There may be more recent research that has not been published. Roberto Angelini, “Powerful Women in the Epistles of Hildebert of Lavardin.” In Medieval Letters: between Fiction and Document. Edited by Christian Høgel and Elisabetta Bartoli (Turnhout: Brepols, 2015), 167–78, esp. 169, cites P. Orth. Untersuchung zur Überlieferung und Rezeption der Briefe Hildeberts von Lavardin: Vorstudien zu einer kritischen Edition, which was still unpublished at the time of writing. Hauréau, Notices et extraits, 359. The sermon Foderunt manus meas is edited in the collection of Hildebert of Lavardin’s sermons in PL 171.551–56. This attribution to Hildebert is not taken seriously. Cf. Hauréau, Notices et extraits, 358–59.

316

O D O O F ST V IC T O R – Seven L etters

reportatio included in a letter addressed “To my lord brother G. from Brother O.” which has a short preface and then gives the full text of a sermon given by Brother O.’s abbot (The sermon itself begins Tria sunt munera que obtulerunt magi domino; (78v–82r), a sermon beginning Ad hoc, fratres karissimi, istum monasterium locum convenimus (82v– 83v), a piece on the value of spiritual songs beginning si enim creditur agentibus quod carmina quedam (83v–85v), a text on the active and the contemplative life beginning Due sunt vite, activa scilicet et contemplativa (85v–86r), and finally a piece on the importance of despising wealth and possessions for understanding the Scriptures beginning Necesse est eum qui audire scripturas spiritualiter novit (86v). Folio 87 begins what was originally a separate manuscript, as its different size and the wear on the verso of 86 both attest. These nineteen texts comprise the entire contents of what was once a separate manuscript, now bound within MS lat. 14193. Paris, BnF lat. 2907 contains the second half of this collection, starting with letter five, and with all subsequent works appearing in the same order. The collection begins immediately after Hildebert’s letters, on the same page and in the same hand, affording Beaugendre some excuse for his apparent belief that they may have been written by Hildebert. As in MS lat. 14193, Necesse est eum qui audire scripturas spiritualiter novit is the last text in the manuscript. These two manuscripts do not appear to have been copied one from the other. On the one hand, 14193 cannot have been copied from 2907, since the latter is missing more than half of the contents of the former, nor can the copy in 2907 be the surviving part of the original manuscript because of the continuity with the previous texts. On the other hand, there are a few apparent mistakes in 14193, where 2907 supplies a superior text. It seems clear that these manuscripts represent independent witnesses to an earlier exemplar. Scholars since Oudin have attributed the initial six sermons, the Foderunt manus meas, and the sermon reportatio addressed from “Brother O.” to Odo of Saint Victor.33 This last is a particularly interesting case, since in it Odo reports to “Brother G.” a sermon given by his abbot on Epiphany. Presumably the abbot in question would be 33

One exception: Although he thought it possible that Odo wrote the other seven sermons in MS lat. 14193, Hauréau claims that one was written by Innocent III, namely Quem vultis dimittam vobis (fol. 40v–44r). Hauréau, Notices et extraits, 357. This claim has not been addressed, including by Lebreton, who lists this sermon among the sermons in the more extensive collections which she attributes to Odo.

I ntroduction



317

Gilduin, abbot of Saint Victor in the years 1113–1155, who was therefore abbot during all of Odo’s first residence at Saint Victor, though he died before Odo’s return. If that is the case, then this reportatio is the only known work of the great abbot.34 The prefatory letter is also the only work of Odo to have been edited in a modern edition.35 The case for attributing the four remaining texts to Odo is as good as for the eight conventionally attributed to him. The probable reason that investigators have assumed the collection ended here is that there exists a superficial similarity between the first of these four texts, Ad hoc, fratres karissimi, istum monasterium locum convenimus, and a well known sermon, attributed variously to Saint Eucherius of Lyon and Saint Caesarius of Arles and published in the Patrologia Latina under both.36 In fact, a later hand in BnF lat. 14193 attributes the text to Caesarius. As Hauréau noticed, however, after the first few sentences, this sermon diverges from the published texts.37 The remaining three texts are unstudied and unknown. There is no reason to suppose other authorship. André Wilmart and Marie-Madeleine Lebreton have attributed another body of sermons to Odo’s literary corpus. In his catalogue of the Vatican fond Reginensis, Wilmart attributes a sermon collection in Città del Vatticano, BAV, cod. Reg. lat. 241 to Odo based on the fact that this sermon collection contains the eight sermons traditionally attributed to Odo from from BnF lat. 14193, including the reportatio sent by Brother O, although the Vatican copy omits the address and most 34

35

36 37

The text survives in a number of manuscripts, of which only these two preserve the address and prefatory letter to “Brother G. from Brother O.” The text of the sermon itself, without the prefatory material, is edited from Tours, BM, MS 343 in H.-M. Rochais, ed. “Une collection de textes divers de S. Bernard dans le manuscrit Tours 343.” Recherches de théologie ancienne et médiévale, 29 (1962): 77–158, esp. 112–17. Regarding authorship, Rochais admits that there are a number of texts in MS 343 which are not by St Bernard, but considers this one likely to be by him; he lists it among “Τextes nouveaux que l’on peut considérer comme de S. Bernard à raison des parallèles bernardins relevés et de la place de ces textes dans cette collection bernardin” (pp. 154–55). More discussion of Bernardine parallels in the sermon are on p. 117, note 383. Jean Leclercq, ed. “Epistola Odonis ad G,” Revue Mabillon, 36 (1946): 11–12, where it is edited from BnF lat. 2907. See also André Wilmart, Codices Reginenses latini (Rome: Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana, 1937), 1:573–77 (because the sermon, again without Odo’s preface is in Città del Vatticano, BAV Reg. lat. 241, 125v–128r), and Jean Leclercq, “Le genre épistolaire au Moyen Âge,” Revue du Moyen Âge latin, 2 (1946): 63–70, esp. 65. The complete text is under St Eucherius in PL 50.848–49; the attribution to Saint Caesarius gives only the first few lines: PL 67.1089. Hauréau, Notices et extraits, 359–60.

318

O D O O F ST V IC T O R – Seven L etters

of the introduction to the reportatio.38 Lebreton points out that the Vatican sermon collection is almost identical to collections of sermons found anonymously in two other manuscripts: Paris, BnF nouv. acq. lat. 833 and Brussels, Bibliothèque royale, 168–94.39 With Wilmart, she attributes this entire collection to Odo, not just the eight in lat. 14193. Furthermore, Lebreton finds that the sermons are largely a compilation of Cistercian and Victorine texts, especially of Hugh of Saint Victor and Bernard of Clairvaux.40 Although Lebreton does not mention it, we know that Odo had personal connections with both figures. These collections include two of the four texts at the end of 14193 and 2907, namely Ad hoc, fratres karissimi, istum monasterium locum convenimus and Necesse est eum qui audire scripturas spiritualiter novit. The attribution of the larger collections to Odo therefore depends on the attribution of a substantial part of the collection in the manuscripts containing the letters. How secure is this attribution? The address of the sermon from “Brother O.”, and the close association in the manuscript tradition of the final six texts with the letters of Odo are the two principal pieces of evidence in favor of attributing the sermons and other texts in BnF lat. 14193 and lat. 2907 to Odo. Additionally, a later hand supplies a marginal note on fol. 31r of lat. 14193, at the beginning of the texts in question, attributing the sermons to Odo, and the same hand labels each subsequent sermon. All these arguments tell equally in favor of attributing the eight sermons traditionally attributed to Odo and of attributing to him the four texts which follow. The argument from integrity of manuscript tradition does not apply to the longer collections in the three MSS Lebreton and Wilmart found, but the other two arguments do. On the other hand, apart from the later marginal notation in 14193 and the reportatio from “Brother O.” in both 14193 and 2907, no manuscript contains any attribution of these texts. Finally, sermon collections are notoriously fluid, so an argument based on the continuity of tradition in two manuscripts is not a strong one. The attribution of these sermons to Odo, both those in 14193 and especially those in the more extensive collections, must remain uncertain.

38 39 40

Codices Reginenses latini 1 (Rome: Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana, 1937), 573–77. Lebreton, “Recherches,” esp. 47–50. Lebreton, “Recherches,”47–48.

I ntroduction



319

In his article on Odo, Daunou also mentions a collection of sentences in a Saint Geneviève manuscript which are attributed to “Abbot Oddo” at both the beginning and the end.41 It is clear, however, that this work cannot be attributed to Odo of Saint Victor. The manuscript which he mentions is evidently Saint Geneviève, MS 2767.42 The text is published in the Patrologia Latina, where it is attributed to Odo, abbot of Cluny.43 The first line of the text precludes Odo of Saint Victor’s authorship, because the writer identifies himself as a monk, whereas the author of these seven letters identifies himself as a regular canon and distinguishes between canons and monks. This sentences collection is unmistakably not by Odo of Saint Victor.44 Editions and the Present Translation

The letters translated here were first printed by Luc d’Achery, OSB in Spicilegium sive Collectio veterum aliquot scriptorum. D’Achery worked on the Spicilegium for the last few decades of his life. Editions modernly available were published posthumously in 1722–1723.45 D’Achery was a monk at Saint Germain 1637–1685 and monastery librarian for at least part of that time, so it is likely that he edited the letters from what is now BnF lat. 14193, previously Saint Germain 656.46 The Patrologia Latina edition reprints d’Achery’s, adding nothing to the text except d’Achery’s own marginal notes, which are interpolated into the text and appear as titles in the PL; the text in italics in the PL (besides biblical 41 42 43 44

45 46

Daunou, “Odon, abbé de Saint-Père.” 346–50, esp. 350. Charles Kohler, Catalogue des manuscrits de la bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève (Paris: Plon, 1896), 2:497. PL 133.517–638. Daunou notes four manuscripts listed in Bernard de Montfaucon, Bibliotheca Bibliothecarum Manuscriptorum, 2 vols. (Paris, Braisson, 1739) which contain texts that might be by Odo, and which he was not able to trace. I have also been unable to trace them. One sounds extremely interesting in this connection. De Montfaucon labels it “Odonis á S. Victore opera” in Paris, Saint Germain, MS 649 (vol. 2, p. 1135). This is presumably now in the BnF, but I have not located it. Given the proliferation of the name of “Odo”, the others are less likely to be from the hand of this Odo: There was “Odonis abbatis epistola consolatoria ad Alexandrum III” in the library of Alexander Petau, possibly now included in the fond Reginensis of the Vatican library (1:67); “Sermones Mag. Odonis” in Bec, MS 196 (2:1255); and “Sermones Magistri Odonis” in a Carcassonne cathedral manuscript (2:1353). D’Achery, Spicilegium, 3:529–36. BnF lat. 14193: verso of flyleaf, after a table of contents: “Sancti Germani…olim 656.” Oudin, whose note on Odo appeared as the preface to Odo’s letters in PL 196.1397–1400, also cites it as Saint Germain 656. Originally published in Oudin, Commentarius, col. 1255–57.

320

O D O O F ST V IC T O R – Seven L etters

quotations) are these glosses.47 Additionally, letters 5–7 were edited by Beaugendre from BnF lat. 2907 with his edition of Hildebert’s letters: Venerabilis Hildeberti, prima Cenomanensis episcopi, deinde Turonensis archiepiscopi, opera tam edita quam inedita. This text is reprinted in volume 171 of the Patrologia Latina.48 The translation which follows is the first translation of these letters into any language. In my translation I have followed d’Achery’s edition as reprinted in the PL. I have emended it against d’Achery’s Spicilegium and both manuscripts. I have also removed d’Achery’s marginal notes which the PL inserted into the text.

47 48

PL 196.1399–1418. Letter 6: PL 171.186A–190B. Letters 5&7: PL 171.301D–307A.

SEVEN LETTERS ON THE RIGHT OBSERVANCE OF THE CANONICAL PROFESSION The first Letter. Brother Odo to Brother R.: To Fulfill the Vow of the Canon’s Profession

Leisure rather than any definite business compels me to write to you, dearest brother, and trust of fraternal love rather than any knowledge of literature; but because I think that my words please you regardless of their quality, I preferred to write something than to be silent. I pray, therefore, that you would not idly assess an idle man’s words, and that you would wisely pay attention to whatever I say foolishly, so that it may be corrected. In the profession which we made, we promised three things, as you know well: chastity, common property, and obedience. If we pay attention to those words only superficially, soon we are boasting, wordlessly but nevertheless boyishly, as if our profession already has been fulfilled. Perhaps someone will say to himself: “The profession which I promised, God inspiring me, I have kept hitherto in my own strength; I obviously keep chastity of the body; I live in community by having nothing of my own; I keep obedience by doing what I am ordered.” See, if this is as he says, he is doing well so far, but nevertheless the one who says this should not be complacent: for if we were to pay attention to the words of the profession more diligently and inquire a little more subtly into their deeper meaning, we will see plainly that we have perhaps not yet even begun what we vainly thought we had completed. Because we have promised chastity first, let us see first whether we have preserved chastity well. Obviously, Holy Scripture asserts that chastity is twofold, namely integrity of the flesh and purity of the mind. I ask, therefore, what is the worse corruption, that of the mind or that of the body? The solution of this question is obvious to the wise person, if true discernment travels with him. Obviously, that of the mind is far worse to the same degree as its nature is incomparably better. Nearly everyone knows what integrity of the flesh is, but, sad to say, many do

322

O D O O F ST V IC T O R

not know what purity of the mind is. As far as I can tell, that mind is proven the most chaste which, although it be among all things, loves God above everything, and because of that love agrees to no sin, even in thought. For as often as we agree to any sin, even the smallest, and as often as we love something besides God, we break the chastity of our mind, because we fornicate spiritually by leaving the Creator, the husband of our soul, and joining ourselves with a creature through illicit love. I will go further. As often as we think about transitory things idly and uselessly, we violate the purity of our mind in the sight of the Lord. People who say that a brief withdrawal from the contemplation of Christ is fornication perceive that what I say is very true. As a matter of fact, through contemplation perfect people cling with such great ardor of love to this internal sweetness, that they judge themselves to have committed fornication when they have retreated from it even a little through laziness or negligence. David, avoiding this fornication and desiring this chastity, said: You have destroyed all those who fornicate away from you, but to me it is good to cling to God.1 But because of our weakness, it is very difficult and nearly impossible to maintain chastity of this kind. To say nothing of the body, who will brag that he has a chaste heart? And therefore perhaps you say that nobody promised this chastity, and nobody keeps it. For who would dare to promise what he knows he is not able to keep? Who ever maintained such chastity that he never consented to any sin whatever, or clung to God continuously through contemplation? Therefore, compelled by this question and by our infirmity, in the following we describe such chastity as we can and should have by the grace of God, although we are not sorry to have said the things above. We say, therefore, that chastity is that wholeness of flesh which is either never spoiled in virgins or is renewed through confession and repentance in those already spoiled, and it is preserved continually out of love for religion. To this we add, if you don’t mind, purity of the mind. The Gospel says this about the corruption of this purity: He who has seen a woman to desire her has committed adultery with her in his heart.2 None of us, I believe, will deny that he has professed this kind of chastity, namely, that he will neither fulfill the act of fornication through the flesh, nor consent to fornication in his heart. If, therefore, we are not able to maintain the higher chastity in which we give no consent to even the most minor sin, at least let us maintain this last, so that neither unclean profanation may corrupt the flesh, nor illicit desire pollute the mind. This is enough about chastity.

Seven L etters on the R ight O bservance



323

Let us now speak about community of property. As we have said above, someone might suppose that he maintains himself in perfect community because he does not have any outward thing of his own. Perhaps he fulfills the vow because he does not have his own bread and his own clothes but does not fulfill it because he has his own will. He fulfills his vow in that he has a common dwelling with the others, but he does not fulfill it because he does not have a common love with the others. The one who fulfills his vow in this way is blind, is outside. Let him turn inside; let him open the eyes of his heart and fulfill true inward community. That community, certainly, is considered true and holy, about which we read in the Acts of the Apostles: Theirs was one heart and one soul.3 Unity of heart is worth more among many than a common cellar, and one soul more than a common table. What use is it to be joined to others in food and drink and separated from them through one’s own will? Community of resources is little use where there is division of wills. Furthermore, if one likes sobriety but the other likes drunkenness, one silence but the other loquacity, and one brotherly agreement but the other brotherly discord, how, I ask, is the outward community of things able to be healthy where there is such a wicked and detestable separation of customs? Therefore, let no one think that he has fulfilled the profession of community by lodging in one house or sharing one table or even by common reception of body and blood of the Lord, if he either retains independence of will or divides brotherly unity through bad behaviors. This is enough about community. Now we will say a few things about obedience. Obedience is certainly a great virtue, and necessary for all subordinates. But what else does it mean to obey, except to fulfill what is ordered for the love of God alone, all earthly fear and love set aside? There are some who demonstrate obedience because they like everything their prelates order them to do, but if anything hard and burdensome is imposed on them, immediately it becomes clear whether their obedience is true. People such as these are directly comparable to the lily, which gives off the sweetest odor as long as it is not touched but emits the worst stench when pressed. I must clarify, however, that we should sometimes join our own will to the obedience imposed upon us, but sometimes remove it a little. For when my abbot orders me to fast, to hold silence, to receive a rebuke for my offenses, or to do some work, even if it is most disgusting, I ought to undertake such obedience rejoicing and with a good will. But if he orders me for some reason to eat more sumptuous food, to run hither and

324

O D O O F ST V IC T O R

thither frequently for various business, to undertake the management of an estate, and other things which appeal to the flesh and are pleasant, I should not arrogantly reject this kind of obedience in the name of religion, but I ought not to seek the delight of my own will in them at all. In showing obedience, discernment must be retained in such a way that if an onerous or even nasty obedience is imposed, discernment or devotion of good will should accompany it. But if a sweet one which the flesh likes is imposed, the desire of one’s own will should be repulsed immediately from it. For anyone who once for the love of God leaves behind the pleasing things and hindrances of the world without a doubt sins if he still sometimes returns to it of his own will. But if anyone were to assert that our profession should be understood simply and according to how the words sound, I want to yield to his understanding humbly and peacefully rather than to resist proudly and disputatiously. For when I reflect on my weakness and imperfection, I judge that even the one who keeps it simply and humbly is great, in my view. But nevertheless, it seems better to me to be prudently doubtful that one has kept his oath than to be imprudently secure about having kept it. But this is enough for now. See, my brother, because I was somewhat—say rather excessively—idle, by drawing out this letter, I have become verbose. Thus vice is born from vice, and from a bad root a bad sprout is generated. For see, because I was pursuing leisure, I have incurred loquacity, in which, according to Solomon, I do not think that I have escaped sin.4 But because I have already included what I wanted, I have put an end to verbosity. Goodbye, and pray for me. Grace be with you. I greet our brothers from my whole heart, and I pray and entreat that they love each other, that they do nothing through disagreement, that they understand this itself, and that they receive outside visitors with love. Letter 2. Brother Odo to Brother N., Happiness and Continual Duration of Happiness

Dearest Brother, when you still remained in Amponville,5 you made your will known to me and instructed me to be your mediator with the lord abbot and ask for your return. You were wishing, if it were possible, to remain happily with us; you were wishing to see the brothers whom

Seven L etters on the R ight O bservance



325

you loved; you were wishing to take part in their sweet conversation. Their company was sweet to you, their conversation sweet, their comfort sweet. I am not surprised at those things; for to acknowledge the truth, our brothers are delightful for fellowship and useful to imitate. I say they are delightful for fellowship, as much for the sanctity of their lives as for the sweetness of their manners. Nevertheless, my brother, don’t mourn because of our absence; don’t take this hard; certainly, if you had left us of your own will, for some worldly amusement, and had gone out through disorderliness, then you deservedly should have mourned. But now, since true obedience compels you to relinquish your own will and the delightful fellowship of your brothers, rejoice and be glad. Embrace the virtue of obedience with the whole love of your heart. But if you want to have our company because of your zeal of learning, let that wise old man in the Lives of the Fathers respond instead of me: he says, “Your cell can teach you everything.”6 Will you ask how? How does an irrational object instruct? How does something teach which doesn’t have a voice? Hear briefly: It clearly instructs the one who attends and opens the ears of his heart. A cell is said to instruct when the one who sits in it is instructed, illuminated by the Holy Spirit, and when the one placed in it is stirred by various temptations but is freed by the grace of God. In fact, the teaching of temptations is great, since through it one understands one’s own weakness, the malice of the tempting devil, and the kindness of the God who frees. We see many illiterate people living in little cells disputing subtly about morals, detecting the hidden snares of the devil with incredible quickness and avoiding them when detected, and in addition loving and seeking God above all things. Who, I ask, taught them? Not the eloquence of schoolmasters, but the grace of the Holy Spirit and the experience of temptations. Pay attention to this teaching, therefore, and sit in your cell continually because of God. For as has been written, “the one who sits in his cell because of God, will be in the same place where abbot Antony was.”7 You certainly have a great comfort with you, namely Brother G., who can both teach you by word and shape you with good works. Goodbye, and pray for me. Grace be with you. Letter 3

You knew, dearest brother, that obedience is better than sacrifices.8 And again: the obedient man speaks victories.9 and: Better is a patient

326

O D O O F ST V IC T O R

man than a strong man, and the one who rules his own mind than the conqueror of a city.10 The Apostle says: Obey the ones in charge in everything.11 But why do I bring forward so many attestations about obedience? If anyone outside hears or reads these things, perhaps he will consider you suspect in obedience. Far be that from me! I do not intend to call you back from disobedience with those words, but rather to strengthen you in the virtue of obedience, which you show faithfully. But nevertheless I have begun with this, leaving a veil that is obvious to you so that what I want to say to you may also be obvious to you and yet may remain hidden from the ignorant if they read it. Your conscience knew, and similarly I learned from you, that before the lord abbot enjoined upon you that obedience which you now practice, you would have liked to do something else, if it had been permitted; and whatever you were arranging to do, you were desiring to do with good will and devout usefulness. For if your arrangement produced its desired effect, you hoped that some fruit would result. But after you suddenly and unexpectedly received a mandate of obedience from the lord abbot to come here, you immediately left all that you had arranged, although it was good, although it was useful, even abandoning your own will, and with the Lord Jesus you said: I did not come to do my will.12 Nevertheless, it is fitting for you to know that the devil often makes people whom he is not able to drag into disobedience grumble in obedience. That way, at least he may diminish the merit of their obedience through a hidden grumble, even though he cannot trip them up through open disobedience. Therefore we must anxiously keep awake against the traps of the devil, because he is that adversary who circles like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.13 But because I have stated those words from the Apostle, I have interpreted them briefly, according to the capacity of my perception, not by necessity but from a sort of excess: so the devil is correctly called the adversary, because he appears to oppose himself to certain people who are on the Way of God and running to him with the whole desire of their hearts, and turns against them, as much as he is able, so that they do not arrive at God. Also, when he desires to eat someone, he circles like a roaring lion. In the roar cruelty is denoted, and in the circuit, cunning; therefore he roars to terrify, and he circles to deceive. Through the roar he terrifies the timid, and through the circling he deceives the unaware. But we are strengthened and enlightened by Christ, who is the strength and wisdom of God. Thus armed against both tactics, we scorn the

Seven L etters on the R ight O bservance



327

roar by fortitude and through prudence take precautions against the circling. I would still like, if I may, to investigate the circling of the devil more closely, and to mark out his traps more clearly so that we can take precautions against them. When the devil desires to corrupt someone, if he is able to do it easily, he does not care to labor for too long. Therefore, at first he instigates the perpetration of a crime or a disgrace in the open, as it were right in front, so that he may corrupt quickly and without labor. He wishes that a person may openly perceive the evil which he suggests and nevertheless do it, so that he may implicate his victim in a greater guilt. But if he is defeated and retreats from the front, soon he begins to circle to the left side a little and transforms by disguising himself. By “the left side,” understand “an evil work.” But you must notice that our eye sees what stands on our side by no means directly, but rather imperfectly and obliquely. From the left side, therefore, the devil sends in temptation, when whatever he suggests is evil, but he hides it with a veil of either necessity or weakness so that he cannot be seen perfectly. For instance, he introduces the vice of gluttony to many under the pretext of necessity, and under the excuse of weakness he brings in the fault of harmful levity, for he says: “You need to eat a lot, because you need it. You are allowed to laugh and speak, because such is human weakness.” But if he sees himself caught there also, immediately he circles around to the back, so that at least he may strike on the blind side the person whom he wasn’t powerful enough to deceive through open evil in his face, nor through covert evil on his side. Often, in fact, he hides his deceptions secretly like this, so that he may suddenly and unexpectedly strike as though coming from behind. But perhaps the one who is being tempted has eyes not only in the face, but also in the back, like the holy animals,14 and therefore that diabolical temptation is quickly caught, and does not harm him deeply. But the Enemy, seeing that the wickedness which he had prepared behind the back has been uncovered, continues to the right, so that he may circle the whole person. What is signified by the right but a good deed? Therefore, he goes over to the right not to advise good, but rather to corrupt good. After he advises evil and has been repulsed and is shut out from every side and he can’t do more, urged on by his own wickedness, he strives at least to corrupt the good. I will show you in a few words how he corrupts it: through pride, vainglory, and indiscretion. The good is corrupted through pride when the heart of the one doing good is lifted up arrogantly on high by despising others

328

O D O O F ST V IC T O R

and preferring himself to others. By this evil vice of pride the devil corrupted the good deeds of the Pharisee, when he was saying to the tax collector who was standing far off and displaying penitence: I am not like the rest of men, or even this tax collector.15 Vainglory stamps its stain when the one who works good seeks his own praise from people. The gospel says about these: Amen I say to you, they have received their reward.16 These words show how extensive the corruption of a good work can be, since the prize of eternal reward is traded for transitory praise, which is the worst corruption. In a third way the good which one does is neutralized, if discretion in displaying a good work is not maintained. Because of this it is said: If you were to offer correctly, and do not divide correctly, you have sinned.17 Certainly one who obviously does good but does not accurately and discreetly discern the time and way of doing it, shares correctly but doesn’t divide correctly. There are also many other kinds of corruption by which our good works, if there are any, are frequently corrupted, and which it would be long to write and nauseating to hear, and which, to speak more truly, I, a blind and mute man, am neither able to see nor to express. But this note suffices for you, brother, about the circling of the devil, which God in his mercy allows us both to understand and to discern. Letter 4. Brother Odo Gives Greetings to Brother R.

Dearest brother, all of you and the others of our brothers who live outside for your obediences must carefully guard your words and deeds, partially because of your monastic profession and partially because of the love of religious life. For the eyes of certain defamers frequently gaze at you viciously and maliciously. They turn their attention to you diligently, but not out of love. They consider your works, not to imitate them but to castigate them. They listen to your words, not to be built up but rather to tear you down, and if they see anything reprehensible in them, exulting and insulting they revile by mocking and deriding. For they say: “see what monks are like, what regular canons are like! See how greedy they are, how proud, how irritable, how envious. Look! That regular canon greedily seized somebody else’s stuff. Look! He replied rudely to so-and-so and so-and-so. Look! He has a dispute not only with outsiders, but even with his own brother.” I wish that our detractors were speaking to you only for their own sin and

Seven L etters on the R ight O bservance



329

not for the truth of the thing. I wish that they were finding absolutely nothing of all these things among us. But woe to us if what they say is true, if the name of the Lord is reviled among men because of us.18 For this is what it means to revile the name of the Lord because of us: to detract from divine worship and sacred religious life because of our desires and contentions. Therefore, it is necessary that we keep watch on our life, and, as much as possible, for the love of God, to show ourselves above reproach before people in words and deeds. But there are some who guard themselves cautiously as far as works go, and they arrive at a kind of perfection by fasting and holding vigils, but nevertheless they do not attain to the heights of that perfection about which James the blessed apostle says: If anyone does not offend with his tongue, this is a perfect man.19 He correctly calls that man perfect who like a man, standing manfully, does not falter by offending in his speech. For he is clearly proved to be fragile and, as it were, womanly, who not only falls into confusion by mentioning useless or trifling things and offending in so-called trivialities by vacillating hither and thither, but also is completely shaken to pieces, offending strongly, so to speak, and falling down heavily at the urging of anger and the instruction of frenzy, maintaining no management on the bridle of the tongue by litigating and demanding reprimands. It is dangerous to spread idle words, but much more dangerous to inflict insults. For an account must be given for a useless word, and a punishment is exacted for an insulting one. Accordingly, the Lord in the Gospel said: People will give an account on the day of judgement for every idle word which they have spoken.20 And in another place: The one who says “you fool” to his brother will be guilty of the fire of hell.21 See, these verses clearly demonstrate what I said earlier, both that an inquiry into the account follows an idle word, and that a punishment of eternal damnation follows the infliction of an insult. Certainly that sin is great through which a person is separated from the kingdom of heaven. When the prophet David asked, Lord, who will dwell in your tent?22 he continues, saying: The one who enters without fault.23 And a little later: and does not do evil to a neighbor and does not accept an insult against his neighbor.24 But what is it to accept an insult against a neighbor, except to listen gladly to an insult inflicted on a neighbor? Certainly the one who gladly listens accepts. Therefore, if the person who accepts an insult against his neighbor is excluded from the tent of God, how much more will the one who inflicts the insult? When the same prophet asks in another place, Who wants life,

330

O D O O F ST V IC T O R

and loves to see good days? He continues, saying: Keep your tongue from evil.25 As though he were to say: If you keep your tongue from evil, without doubt you will have sought life and good days. Solomon also said: Death and life are in the hands of the tongue.26 Since the soul of both the speaker and the hearer often dies because of bad speech, conversely the one who says a good word earns life, and the one who hears it is roused from the death of the soul. Because bad speech slaughters like a sword by inflicting the death of the soul, the prophet David in one place calls the instruments of speech the instruments of death, saying: the sons of men, their teeth are weapons and arrows, and their tongue is a sharp sword.27 And conversely because good speech bestows life, Holy Scripture says in another place: A peacemaking tongue is the tree of life.28 Therefore it is necessary to restrain the tongue from evil, if we want to attain life. But perhaps you say: “You who live within a monastery, who keep silence at established hours, and who regularly make time for reading and prayer, are easily able to avoid the offenses of the tongue, but we who are continuously outside, who run about hither and thither for countless reasons and are able to speak when we wish, frequently offend in our words. Silence binds your tongues so that they can’t flow destructively, but the freedom of speaking allowed to us loosens our tongues.” I respond to these words of yours in this way: It is true that both spiritual study and established periods of silence help us greatly in guarding our mouth. Helped by each, we do not want to inflict an idle word, and frequently it is not even permitted. However, even though by necessity the freedom of speaking has been granted to you who are outside, the ability to sin has not been conceded. The freedom of speaking has not been granted to you so that you can either quarrel with outsiders or insult each other. But if you go to court against the people outside, and inside disparage each other, I acknowledge that you have strayed far from the course of the rule’s way. Finally, let us attend a little more diligently to your outward appearance. If we remember our name and attire, it is not fitting to be called canons regular and at the same time be disfigured by illicit words and deeds. A shaved head and a proud heart don’t agree; nor do the religious cassock and a quarrelsome tongue. The outward appearance of humility profits little if inwardly pride rules in the mind. It profits little to have short boots like a penitent and to feel none of the penitent’s pain about evils committed. It profits little that a corona29 is spread wide on the head, if charity, grown cold, is restricted in the heart.

Seven L etters on the R ight O bservance



331

A lofty tonsure profits nothing if restraint is not maintained in speech. Therefore, let us attend to our outward attire, and let us practice what it admonishes us to do. If, however, because of human weakness and recurrent talking, we are not entirely able to put away useless words and other things which seem minor, nevertheless we both can and must entirely eradicate arguments and slander, through the grace of God. But if sometimes, heaven forbid, by the persuasion of the devil or at the impulse of anger, one person mocks and curses another, our rule prescribes both that the one who inflicted the wrong ought to make amends as quickly as possible, and that the injured party should put aside his own dispute. But so that we may be able to avoid the offenses of the tongue, which are many, let us say with the prophet to the Lord our God: Lord, place a guard on my mouth, etc.30 Behold, my brother, even though I have sent this letter to you especially, nevertheless all the things which are written I have said about all the brothers generally; because I liked it this way, so that by speaking with you I could caution everyone equally, and so that I would not excuse you by admonishing everybody. Letter 5. Odo Sends Greetings to Brother R.

I beg you, dearest brother, to praise and honor God in your life and exalt our church by your good reputation, as far as you have been able in the obedience entrusted to you. Make sure that you have a good report from outside before people and that inwardly before God you rejoice in a good conscience. Your conscience will be good, if you do no evil intentionally and do whatever is good with a pure motive. Otherwise, if your intention is not pure and right, the reputation which you have outside will not be true, nor will the conscience which is within be good. Purity of motive is proven most sincere when human praise is entirely disdained in a good deed and only the praise of God and the benefit of a neighbor is sought. Therefore, each of these two good things, the deed and purity of motive, does a good thing, because purity of motive delights the mind of the do-gooder inwardly through a good conscience, while right action, which is displayed outside, inviting other people to the praise of God, shapes them for doing good works. May we say with the Apostle, if we can say it in truth: This is our glory: the witness of our conscience.31 For only the one to whom a good conscience inwardly testi-

332

O D O O F ST V IC T O R

fies is most certainly able to boast. Certainly, it seems to me that a person is deceived most easily, but God is never fooled: A person looks on the surface, but God sees in the heart.32 Therefore let our conscience appear pure and clean to God, who sees the inside, and let your good work shine for people who look on the surface, so that God may be praised. Therefore, let our action be right, let the motive be pure and clean, because our action proceeds uselessly before the eyes if good intention doesn’t precede it. Nor does a conscience have inward rest if it is either bothered by a perpetrated sin or gnawed by desire of human praise for a good work. Nevertheless, if we wish to have true acquaintance with our conscience, it is necessary that knowledge come before conscience, for where there is no knowledge, neither good nor bad conscience can exist. But where knowledge comes first, soon it becomes known whether the conscience is good or bad. There are some good people who, because of the cleanness of their life, do not have a bad conscience. They use knowledge to search themselves diligently, but because they are pure and clean they are conscious of no evil. In these people, knowledge comes first and a good conscience follows. On the other hand, there are others who are bad, but through their knowledge they recognize it. These people have a bad conscience by knowing themselves, but nevertheless sometimes they are turned to repentance, sorrowing and groaning. Bad conscience follows knowledge for these people, but conscience illuminated by knowledge is transformed by repentance. There are other worse people (much worse than the first group) who because of their foolishness do not pay attention to their own evil. Because they either don’t want to or neglect to examine themselves in the light of knowledge, lacking the light of knowledge, they very dangerously sleep in their sins as though in a most foul night. Such people rarely or never return to repentance, because they have lost the way of repentance, that is, knowledge. For it is written: The one who adds knowledge adds sorrow also.33 From this it is clearly obvious that the one who has no knowledge is powerless to regret his sins. We see many of the justified weep most bitterly for the lightest faults, and on the other hand some of the worst feel no pain for horrendous crimes, or rather they rejoice and delight over what should pain them the most. About these it has been written: They rejoice when they have done evil and delight in the worst things.34 But why is this, unless because both the just, illuminated by the light of knowledge, gravely rebuke themselves even about the least things which they know in themselves, and the evil, not having the light of knowledge and being

Seven L etters on the R ight O bservance



333

entirely ignorant of themselves, don’t know to lament even the horrible things which they do? If, therefore, we truly desire to know what kind of consciences we have, it is necessary that we cultivate knowledge and presume not on our own effort to acquire it, but only on the mercy of God and his superabundant grace. Therefore let us ask the mercy of God and implore his grace, to give us knowledge and a good conscience, so that we can truly come to know ourselves by knowledge and rejoice indescribably about a good conscience in his sight. But woe to poor me, who do not have a good conscience and nevertheless presume to talk about a good conscience. How will my conscience be able to be good, I who have committed many evils which I have not wiped out worthily through repentance, and who, lazy and neglectful, didn’t want to do the good things which I should have done? For our conscience is able to be good only if by repentance we both appropriately deplore the evils which we have done, and do the good things that we can, with the help of the grace of God. O good conscience, how delightful and congenial you are! O great treasure, incomparable to earthly riches! Certainly nothing in this life is more blessed, nothing more delightful. But perhaps you say: “How do you know that nothing is more blessed and nothing more delightful? Sometimes we say that food is good, because we know this through experience, but you, as you have said, do not have a good conscience. How are you able to know that nothing is more blessed?” You may say this, and what can I say? We are not able to say in truth what the Apostle says: I am unaware of anything against me.35 On the contrary, I am aware of many things. Nevertheless, hear this comparison, and understand the explanation. Certainly we see many things through our eyes which we nevertheless do not possess; in the same way we recognize by reason that many things are good which we nevertheless don’t do. For the same reason we discuss many things about the virtues which we lack. But see, in speaking about a good conscience and discussing many things through reason, I see, as it were, with my eye a good thing which I do not have in myself. Hear also another: often while we taste the bitterness of gall, we praise the sweetness of honey, and although in the present we experience only the bitterness of the gall, nevertheless from comparison with it we confirm the sweetness of the honey which we don’t experience. In this way also, when someone born in poverty and raised in misery considers people who hold earthly power and wealth, he shouts that they are blessed and he is miserable, although, perceiving only his misery, he doesn’t know through experience

334

O D O O F ST V IC T O R

what kind of blessedness theirs is. We often praise abundance in this way, and when sick we say that health is good. In the same way I, from the unhappiness of a bad conscience, which I experience, ponder how great is the happiness of a good conscience. And because I know through experience that nothing is sadder than a bad conscience, from that sadness I judge that nothing is more delightful than a good conscience. Certainly, if the choice were given to me, I would prefer to bear all the miseries of the world with a good conscience than possess all the riches of the world with a bad one. But because the people who are outside are not able to see our consciences, at least our reputation, which is able to reach them, should not be putrid in their ears. For if, confident in our consciences, we neglect our reputation, we are cruel, as the blessed Augustine says.36 Indeed, in my opinion we do not have a good conscience if, though our negligence, we incur infamy. On the other hand, if human fame praises us, and our conscience internally rebukes us, we are like the people who declare their wealth in public and are tormented by the straits of poverty in their private lives. Therefore, my brother, be diligent and scrutinize your conscience. Carefully pay attention to its testimony about its own state. Strain to hear what it truly testifies to you about your works, your words, and your thoughts. Pay attention, I say, whether there be holiness in your work, truth in your word, purity in your thought, and candor in your intention. If your conscience is conscious that it says this kind of thing about itself, it will be able most correctly to say the words of the Apostle written above: This is our glory: the testimony of your conscience.37 But if you have destroyed someone by the example of your evil work, or you have inflicted a curse or insult on somebody by your word, or you have polluted the cleanness of your heart by illicit thoughts; if you have done these things and have not yet made reparations by repenting, I think that not only do you not glory in your conscience but are even tormented by a secret disorder. There are also some other things about which the conscience is often disordered, namely pride, anger, and sorrow. May God first take all these things away and grant a clean conscience. Goodbye, and pray for me. Letter 6

The one who alone truly knows the secrets of hearts alone has truly known with how great a desire and emotion I have desired your well-

Seven L etters on the R ight O bservance



335

being. But now, because I am not able to speak face to face and mouth to mouth, I transmit these exhortatory little letters for your pleasure. I do not write to you because of our need, but only in consideration of love. For the adversity which befell you, even though it took away from me conversation in person with you, nevertheless it was not able to take love from my heart; even though it took away your bodily presence, it nevertheless did not take the memory of you from my prayer. For to speak truth, when we celebrate the solemnity of the mass, we implore the mercy of omnipotent God, since he forgets no one in ignorance, to be mindful of you through his grace. Now also before I begin this exhortation, I send out a prayer that the grace of God should intervene on behalf of our advice, and should open the ears of your heart, so that you will gladly hear, mindfully retain, and effectively fulfill the things which concern your true well-being. Therefore, what should I say first? Where should I begin the exhortation? I wish to uproot my lord and friend from the love of the present life, like a faithful servant and true friend, and to stimulate his desire to the love of his Creator and his paternal homeland. Therefore I ought to set out something about the contempt of the world, and later add in the things which may stir up his mind to the love of God. But because I know that you brood on the cares of this world, I would like, if I were able, to explain our advice in a few words. First, let wisest Solomon approach and set out a true expression of the contempt of the world to you, and let him say: Vanity of vanities, vanity of vanities, and all things are vanity.38 Oh, my lord, don’t you understand that what you hear is true? Certainly it is not the kind of thing that you would doubt: apply your ear to it, and understand the truth; open your eyes and consider vanity. I ask you to diligently consider your life, because, if I am not mistaken, in your own life you will recognize how perfectly vain all things are. Go over in your mind how much worldly power was granted to you in the time of your prosperity, how great an abundance of wealth, and what is more, how much prudence in the arrangement of temporal affairs. You were accustomed to sit first among the courtiers, and you were managing the whole kingdom of the Franks at your pleasure. Moreover, just as Solomon remembers he has done, you too, great in accomplishment, have esteemed your works, you have built lofty towers and beautiful palaces, you have planted vineyards, you have had slaves and maidservants and a great household, you have amassed silver and gold for yourself, the wealth of kings and provinces, and you have been filled with the delights

336

O D O O F ST V IC T O R

of the sons of men.39 But consider for a little while how great is the vanity in all these things, and what is its instability. See! The king himself, in whose love you were trusting most greatly, and near whom you were accustomed to sit because of your friendship, even in a place of honor, persecutes you like an enemy, and whatever you had built in Paris with great labor is being destroyed entirely by order of the queen. The silver and gold and money which you gathered in the time of tranquility you now must spend in the time of war, and night and day you must plan anxiously so that your enemies don’t fall upon you unawares. Therefore, my lord, you can recognize most vividly in your own life that the opinion which Solomon expounded about vanity is true. Certainly, Solomon was lofty in royal authority, incomparable in the gift of wisdom, rich in the opulence of wealth; and although all those things were at hand in abundance, nevertheless he attributed no truth to them, but because he saw that they were transient, he rightly called them “vanity”. The more he learned what he said by experience, the better it is to believe him. If I weren’t eager to be brief, I would still be able to say a few things about the contempt of the world which would not only rationally restrain, but even strongly deter, your soul from desiring it. Of that sort is that verse: The world and the desire of it will perish.40 and this one: Whoever has wished to be a friend of this world will become an enemy of God.41 Fearful decrees! This can be said even more terribly, since whoever is made a friend of this world is proved to be an enemy of God. There is another reason why the rational mind should despise those worldly things: because they are acquired with great labor, guarded with care, and lost with sorrow. It is also written: The mighty shall be mightily tormented.42 And: those who have wealth follow the kingdom of God with difficulty.43 What does it benefit a person if he wins the whole world, but suffers a defeat to his soul?44 Let these words suffice on the contempt of the world. But if your love desires to rouse your mind to the love of God, you ought to frequently recall to memory God’s kindnesses conferred on you. Think how much his grace and his mercy towards you have come to light. Grace, in that he conferred his goods on you gratuitously; mercy, in that he has calmly endured your evil deeds. Certainly, if you wish to pay attention, this reason alone for loving God can suffice for you, that he both offered good things by his grace to kindle your love for him, and put up with your bad deeds by his mercy to challenge you to repentance. In the end, however, after he showed patience, he

Seven L etters on the R ight O bservance



337

applied discipline like a devoted father to his beloved son, so that he who did not wish to return to the father after being challenged by kindness, at least may return after being scourged. For it has been written: God scourges all whom he receives.45 Clearly, this feud and persecution which you undergo is the scourging of God, because even though your enemies persecute you out of hatred, nevertheless some hidden and just dispensation of God precedes what they do. Therefore, don’t murmur against this scourging of God, because it would be hard for you to kick against the goad.46 Remember that when King David fled the persecution of his son Absalom, and a very bad man called Shimei cursed him, the men who were with David, pained at the insult to the king, wanted to kill that Shimei. David nevertheless restrained them, saying: Let him go so that he may curse, for the Lord has ordained that he curse David. Perhaps the Lord will render me a blessing for this curse today.47 I ask diligently before God that you pay attention, and what David did, you do also. Behold, he put up with cursing from an enemy, and nevertheless did not wish to avenge himself on the man, although he could do so easily, and he imputes the curse not to Shimei, but to God, when he said: The Lord has ordained that he curse David. Certainly, he was one of the sons of God, and he knew that he was being scourged by a devoted father, and he did not wish to heed the injustice of the one cursing, but the usefulness of the curse. Therefore he said: perhaps the Lord will render me a blessing for this curse today. For I also think that he was recalling his past sins to memory: I think that because he sorrowed deeply in his heart for adultery and murder, he therefore endured the persecution of his son and the curse of his slave most patiently. I present this example of David so that you may painstakingly think about your sins, both open and hidden, lesser or greater, and in the persecution which you presently put up with, not heed the evil will of your enemies, but the most merciful devotion of God who rebukes you. Hear what the Lord would say: Those whom I love, I test and reprimand.49 For he strikes for a reason: to heal; and he scourges a sinner for a reason: to make clean. Therefore, don’t reject the call of God by plugging your ears. Don’t receive the scourges of God with a hardened heart. Don’t cling tenaciously and obstinately to the dregs of the bottom, to the love of the world. Allow God to draw you out from the lake of misery and from the mud of the mire.48 Don’t become like a cart sunk in the mud, which oxen pull strongly from in front and people push from behind with full exertion, and nevertheless cannot extract it from the mud either by pulling or pushing. See! Merciful God earlier granted

338

O D O O F ST V IC T O R

you prosperity to pull you, and now he applies the hand of adversity to push. Therefore, when you make the Lord labor, so to speak, in your conversion, make certain that you don’t provoke him to anger. It is a terrible thing to fall in the hand of the living God.50 For if he is provoked, who can resist him? Do not, as the Psalm says, trust in leaders, nor in the sons of men, in whom there is not salvation,51 but only in him who is able to free you from every distress. But as soon as I cease my exhortation, I ask that you consult your interior reason about the things which I am saying. For it is incredible when your reason, which thrives only in the oversight and management of worldly things—it is incredible, I say—when it lies as good as dead for knowing and doing good. But perhaps your reason understands the things which are good by discernment, and nevertheless does not do them because pride resists. For pride controls your reason and resists it with a tyrannical law. Reason says: if you were doing this or that, you would be acceptable to God. Pride says: if you were doing this or that, you would be worthless in the sight of people. O wicked and detestable slavery, when reason, which ought to rule as the mistress, evidently obeys pride as a handmaid. I beg that reason may return to its proper freedom, pride may go out expelled from your heart, and that its place may be taken by true humility, which is dear to God. Letter 7. Brother Odo Sends Greetings to Brother F.

When you came to us in the feast of Pentecost, dearest brother, you called me in secret, and you said reprovingly: “You don’t care about me but cast me out like something worthless and useless.” When I diligently inquired why you were saying this, you replied: “You frequently direct your comforting letters to the rest of the brothers, but you offer absolutely no comfort to me, who need it more than all and who undergo many temptations.” Hearing this, I joyfully received your rebuke, and I promised that I would make some consolation for you in the coming time if I had the opportunity. Nevertheless you ought to know that I am frequently involved in such extensive jobs, and disturbed by such hefty responsibilities, although minor, both outside and inside the monastery, that I did not have an opportunity as I wished either to direct my thoughts to reading, or to write anything, or, most importantly, to make space for prayer. But because in your message you

Seven L etters on the R ight O bservance



339

again admonished me to remember my promise, although, as I said, I am impeded by many things, at the urging of charity, I will briefly do what I promised. I do not want you to wonder, brother, if you endure various temptations. For human life on earth is temptation.52 Hence it is also written: Son, when approaching the service of God, stand in righteousness and fear and prepare your heart for temptation.53 See, in this saying you have what you ought to do. For you have now approached the service of God, you have now promised to serve God and to live the religious life. You should stand in righteousness and in fear, and prepare your soul for temptation, not rest. For many approach the service of God, but because they flee the toil it takes to acquire virtues, they return to their earlier sins with God’s permission. If therefore you wish to escape the snares of temptations, you must undergo many toils of both heart and body. For who is able without toil to prick his heart to laments, to cast out his own will, and to fulfill the good wishes of others in everything? For who, I say, can recognize the complex snares of the devil, and who, having recognized them, can shun them without great toil and continuous devotion? For certainly the toil of temptation is great and should not be despised, but nevertheless it must be tolerated very patiently for the love of God. And lest you fall into despair because of temptation, hear what the blessed apostle James says: Consider it all joy, my brothers, whenever you fall into various temptations.54 Dearest brother, temptations are of great utility, because true humility is acquired through temptations. For our pride builds itself up very much, I believe, unless with God’s permission the weight of temptations pushes that very pride of ours to the bottom. Often, while we suffer no outward temptations, in our heart we are tested most heavily through conceit. And because we neglect to consider our own unrighteousness, we think we are the best and the greatest, and we look down on others in comparison with ourselves, even on some who are better. But faithful God sometimes, when he mercifully sees our conceit, allows a temptation of the flesh to come upon us to rebuke us. For he wants the temptation of the flesh to depress the conceit of the heart; he wants us, aware of our weakness, to perceive the base and worthless things about ourselves, so that in humility we should place some who are lesser before ourselves.55 It is also good, when you undergo some temptation, to recall to memory the profession which you have made. For you have professed chastity, community, and obedience. When you made that profession, you gravely offended the devil. He saw this pro-

340

O D O O F ST V IC T O R

fession and he was envious, and therefore to the separate professions he applies separate temptations. Against your profession of chastity, he suggests luxury of the flesh; against the profession of community he kindles desire of something of one’s own; against the virtue of obedience he opposes the vice of disobedience. But you, my brother, hold to your profession strongly and cautiously shun temptation. If the devil fights against you, beware that he doesn’t conquer you or overcome you. Resist bravely, fight manfully: if he launches the dart of lust, oppose the shield of chastity. If the he draws past activities or pleasures to your memory, you in opposition think about the sufferings and horrible punishments of hell. For if you pay attention diligently to the fire of hell, you will quickly extinguish the fire of luxury. It is also necessary to preserve the internal disposition of the heart, and the external glance of the eyes. For often a corrupt disposition leads the line of the eyes to illicit things, and an illicit glance corrupts the inward disposition, and so you should therefore purify both the inward disposition and restrain the outward glance through discipline. Think frequently how great chastity is, how pleasing and acceptable to God. Consequently, the Truth says in the gospel: Let your loins be girt.56 For what is it to gird your loins except to restrain the looseness of luxury with the belt of chastity? O clean chastity, how much you reside in the heights! O unclean luxury, how much you lie in the depths! Certainly, chastity joins a person to God and keeps the temple of God incorrupt;57 luxury, however, separates a person from God, associates him with the devil, and violates the temple of God. Therefore, embrace the virtue of chastity and recoil in terror from the vice of luxury; love the beauty of the one and flee the filthiness of the other. Chastity is certainly a great and most beautiful virtue, if humility is also maintained together with it. We are not able to please God with chastity alone unless we also truly maintain humility with chastity. On the contrary, chastity endures great assaults of temptations exactly because pride is not expelled from the heart. If therefore you wish to be secure about chastity, be grounded in humility. Finally, because the devil feels that we please God through the virtue of chastity, he does not cease to disturb it, even if he can’t take it away. Consequently, if he can, he sends us filthy thoughts when we are awake and when we are asleep takes the shapes of various beauties to deceive us. His evil and his hatred are so great that he doesn’t care what he does with himself, how he takes the shapes of worthless things, as long as he can entice us so that he may trap us. But let us, whether waking or sleeping, living

Seven L etters on the R ight O bservance



341

as lords and reaching towards God, repel filthy thoughts by opposing good thoughts, and armed by the sign of the holy cross let us by no means fear nocturnal illusions. It is also good for one who desires to guard his chastity to maintain sobriety in food and drink and to persevere in frequent prayer. For after the devil notices that the fire of natural desire burns a little by the addition of food, immediately he draws in his evil breath and forcefully blows out a wind of temptation to inflame the fire of desire. For that reason, it is good to put out the fire of desire with the water of frugality, and to repel the exhalation of the devil with the breath of prayer. There are many things which help very much in conserving chastity, but let these words, dearest brother, suffice for you. If I still wanted to discuss the professions of community and obedience, the letter would already exceed its size, and longer speech would generate disgust in the reader. Nevertheless, I  say this briefly, and I want you to know it: if anyone, after a vow of community, retains in his own possession a horse, or clothing, or what is less, an obolus, he can have no part with God and no community with his saints unless he has repented worthily. Similarly, one who, after a promise of obedience, declines to obey a command of his superior through stubborn pride, can by no means be a joint heir with Jesus Christ, who became obedient unto death.58 And therefore it is good that we have absolutely no property and not lose the delightful society of the saints, and that we keep up obedience with the Lord Jesus Christ unto death, so that after death we are capable of receiving the fruit of obedience from the same Lord. Goodbye, and pray for me.

NOTES 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36

37 38

Ps. 73:27–28. Matt. 5:28. Acts 4:31. Cf. Prov. 10:19: “In much speaking, sin will not be absent” (“In multiloquio non deerit peccatum”). Lat. Apponi-Villa: “Le lieu appelé ici Apponi-Villa, n’est point Appoigny, près d’Auxerre, (l’abbé Lebeuf en convient), mais Amponville, prieuré dépendant de l’abbaye de Saint-Victor de Paris, et situé au diocèse de Sens.” Daunou, “Odon, abbé de Saint-Père,” 347. Vitae patrum, PL 73.781B. Ibid. 780D. 1 Sam. 15:22. Prov. 21:28. Prov. 16:32. Heb. 13:17. John 5:30: “I do not seek my own will” (“non quaero voluntatem meam”). 1 Pet. 5:8. Cf. Apoc. 4:6–8. Luke 18:11. Matt. 6:2. Gen. 4:7 Vetus Latina; follows LXX: “οὐκ ἐὰν ὀρθῶς προσενέγκῃς, ὀρθῶς δὲ μὴ διέλῃς, ἥμαρτες” (“If you offer correctly but do not divide correctly, have you not sinned”). Cf. Vetus Latina: Die Reste der altlateinischen Bibel: 2. Genesis, ed. Bonifatius Fischer (Freiburg: Herder, 1951‒54), 82–83. Rom. 2:24. Jas. 3:2. Matt. 12:36. Matt. 5:22. Ps. 15:1. Ps. 15:2. Ps. 15:3. Ps. 34:13. Prov. 18: 21. Ps. 57:4. Prov. 15:4. See p.172. Ps. 141:3. 2 Cor. 1:12. 1 Sam. 16:7. Eccles. 1:18. Prov. 2:14. 1 Cor. 4:4. Cf. Augustine, “Sermo 355: De moribus clericorum sermo primus.” Edited by Dom C. Lambot, in Sancti Aurelii Augustini Sermones selecti duodeviginti, Stromata Patristica et Medievalia 1 (Utrecht: Spectrum, 1950), 123–31, esp. 123: “Duae res sunt conscientia et fama. Conscientia tibi, fama proximo tuo. Qui fidens conscientiae suae negligit famam suam, crudelis est” (“Conscience and reputation are two different things. The conscience is for you, reputation is for your neighbor. Someone who, trusting in his conscience, neglects reputation, is cruel”). 2 Cor. 1:12. Eccles. 1:2.

NOTES 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58



343

Eccles. 2:8. 1 John 2:17. Jas. 4:4. Wisd. 6:7. Cf. Mark 10:23 and Luke 18:24. Matt. 16:26. Heb. 12:6. Acts 9:5. 2 Sam. 16:12–13. Ps. 40:2. Apoc. 3:19. Heb. 10:31. Ps. 146:3. Job 7:1 “trial” (tentatio) follows Vetus Latina (after LXX πειρατήριόν), rather than Vulgate militia. Cf. Pierre Sabatier, Bibliorum sacrorum latinae versiones antiquae, seu vetus italica (Reims: Reginaldus Florentain, 1743), 844. Sir. 2:1. Jas. 1:2. Cf. Phil. 2:3: “in humility judging each other superior” (“in humilitate superiores sibi invicem arbitrantes”). Luke 12:35. Cf. 1 Cor. 6:18–20. Cf. Phil. 2:8.

THE LIFE OF WILLIAM OF ÆBELHOLT INTRODUCTION BY FRANS VAN LIERE AND NANCY VAN BAAK, TRANSLATION BY NANCY VAN BAAK

INTRODUCTION William’s Life

Around the year 1165 or 1166, William, an Augustinian canon of the abbey of Saint Geneviève, received a call from the bishop of Roskilde, Absalon, to take on the reform of the Danish abbey of Eskilsø, in Ise­ fjord, Denmark. Despite opposition from the local canons, whom he found living in a lax state of affairs, William succeeded in reforming their way of life and imposing discipline. The monastic foundation would later be moved to Æbelholt, on Sjælland. William of Æbelholt, as he was later known, lived a life of self-denial and strictness, and already before his death, in 1203, had gained a reputation for holiness. The fact that several miracles were attributed to him, among them restoring to life a young boy who had died recently, doubtlessly contributed to the calls for his canonization. The process for this was set in motion in 1218 and completed in 1224. The Life of William, translated here, was written by an anonymous monk from Æbelholt, who, like William, was most likely of French provenance. This is indicated by the fact that his prose is laced with French words.1 He must have written his account before William’s canonization in 1224. Although its editor, M. C. Gertz, does not think it likely that this Vita was used as an official source for the canonization process, he surmises that it must have been used for reading on the saint’s feast day at Æbelholt.2 The main source for this account of William’s life was most likely William’s own reminiscences, oral traditions, and memories about ­William that circulated among the canons of the abbey. William’s writ1

2

“Sanctus Wilhelmus Abbas et Confessor.” In Vitae Sanctorum Danorum. Edited by Martin Clarens Gertz (Copenhagen: G. E. C. Gad, 1912), 285–386. Online: http://dibiki.ub.uni-kiel. de/viewer/image/PPN834949911/1/. Gertz does not give a reason for his assumption, Gertz, Vitae, 289–90. Perron assumes that it was written as part of the canonization process: Anthony Perron, “Fugitives from the Cloister: Law and Order in William of Æbelholt’s Denmark.” In Law and Learning in the Middle Ages. Edited by Helle Vogt and Mia Münster-Swendsen (Copenhagen: DJØF Publishing, 2006), 123–36.

348

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt

ings, including a brief treatise on St Geneviève, and his letters,3 were also used by the anonymous author. The lack of concrete detail about William’s early life is skilfully concealed by an abundance of scriptural and classical allusions, mainly from Ovid, Horace, and Ennius. William was an oblate. His life tells us that he was of noble birth, even though it does not mention his parents. While still a young child, William was given into the care of the monks at Saint-Germain-desPrés, in Paris, where his uncle Hugh was abbot. When he came of age, William was given a prebend at Saint Geneviève and became a canon there. At a young age, he developed an interest in lectio divina. Desire for a stricter monastic discipline led him, along with a friend, to ask for admittance to the monastery of La Charité-sur-Loire, a Cluniac foundation.4 The whole episode, however, appears to have been a ruse, devised by his fellow canons to get rid of him; they apparently were suspicious of his reformist ideas. After trying to trick William into making profession at La Charité, his friend excused himself and fled back to Paris. William bowed out, pointing out that he, as the junior member, was not supposed to make profession before his senior brother. William returned to Saint Geneviève, where he was promoted to deacon. His promotion, and his interest in pursuing the spiritual life, apparently caused more grumbling and resentment among the other canons, who tried to prevent his ordination. In 1148, a papal edict of Eugene III ordered the reform of Saint Geneviève by the canons of Saint Victor, and Prior Odo of Saint Victor5 became its first abbot. At his request, William was admitted as a regular, Victorine, canon and took religious vows. He became subprior shortly after this. William’s religious zeal sometimes brought him into conflict with other ecclesiastical authorities, especially Guarin, the second abbot of Saint Geneviève. The Vita tells us how William successfully prevented the irregular promotion of one of Guarin’s protégés to the position of prior. Shortly after this, rumors spread that the abbey’s most sacred relic, the head of Saint Geneviève, was stolen while in the custody of the canons. Under the watchful eye of many prelates, the chest containing the head was opened, and the relic was found to 3

4 5

Tractatus beati Guillermi, in Gertz, Vitae, 378–82; his letters are edited in Diplomatarium Danicum, by Carl Andreas Christensen, Herluf Nielsen, and Weibull Lauritz, ser. 1, vol. 3, part 2 (Copenhagen: C. A. Reitzels Boghandel, 1977). William’s Letters report that this happened at Pontigny, not La Charité, Perron, “Fugitives from the Cloister,” 135. The author of the Letters, translated in the previous section.

I ntroduction

 349

be in good order. William was not allowed to be among those who were invited to witness the event, but he entered disguised as a servant. When the relic was produced unharmed, he burst out singing the Te Deum. Some of those present, however, among them the bishop of Orléans, took offence at William’s inappropriate behavior. In 1161, one of William’s old study companions, Bishop Absalon of Roskilde, asked William to take up the reform of the canons of Eskilsø, an abbey on an island not far from Roskilde. Some Parisian dignitaries, at least, must have been glad for an occasion to be rid of William. The Vita tells us how, while in Denmark, William worked assiduously to impose stricter discipline. That this reform was not always popular is shown by the assassination attempts William had to endure (ch. 13 and 17). Initially, the community of Eskilsø saw its numbers dwindling. Two of the canons there immediately departed, feeling uncomfortable with the stricter life now imposed on them. Of the five that remained, four were “quite elderly and nearly useless for all work.”6 William’s companions could not endure the life in the barren north, and were granted permission to return to Paris. However, some turnaround must have occurred under William’s leadership. In 1176, the community was transferred to its new location, Æbelholt in Sjælland, and it eventually became wealthy and influential.7 Although the old monastery was dedicated to Saint Thomas, the new community was co-dedicated to the Paraclete, that is, the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. The dedication is curious. One of the very few other dedications to the Paraclete in the twelfth century was made by Peter Abelard. Although the latter is nowhere mentioned in either the letters or the Life, he was teaching at Saint Genevieve in the 1130s, at a time when William was there. Nanna Damsholt speculates that William must have identified with Abelard, who also suffered the persecution of monks whom he tried to reform, while he was abbot at Saint Gildas in Rhuys, in Brittany.8 Anthony Perron points out that William was probably not just called to Denmark for his dedication to reform, but also for his expertise in 6 7 8

Below, p. 370. For an account of William’s abbacy, partly based also on his correspondence, see Peter King, “The Person and the Place –VI: Exile at Aebelholt.” Life of the Spirit, 17 (1962): 95–100. Nanna Damsholt, “Abbot William of Æbelholt: A Foreigner in Denmark.” In Medieval Spirituality in Scandinavia and Europe. A Collection of Essays in Honour of Tore Nyberg. Edited by Lars Bisgaard, Carsten Selch Jensen, and Kurt Villads Jensen (Odense: Odense University Press, 2001), 8–10.

350

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt

implementing it; he was regarded as “learned in law, particularly canon law.”9 This probably also explains why William intervened on behalf of Queen Ingeborg, sister of the Danish King Knut VI, when King Philip Augustus of France tried to repudiate her on grounds of consanguinity. King Knut and the bishop of Roskilde were the most ardent supporters of William’s reforms.10 The hapless queen was eventually reinstated as the rightful wife of the monarch in 1213, ten years after William’s death. William’s Life attests to the appeal that the Victorine reform must have had for canonical reform not just in France, but throughout Northern Europe. On a more personal level, it also shows the internal circumstances that led to the Victorine reform of Saint Geneviève, and the appeal that the Victorine rule (with its emphasis on lectio divina) exerted on canons who were attracted to a more monastic way of living, such as William. William’s Miracles

During his life, William is described as devoted to caring for the poor, the sick, strangers and pilgrims (chapter 17), providing food at his table for them even when the community’s resources were limited. Many of the miracles ascribed to William during his lifetime are connected to this charitable practice. Rumors arose in the region that his food, or even his leftovers, could heal. After that, when someone was ill, especially if a dream or vision had told them to ask him for help, William would send them some food from his table (or once, water from a special fountain). But he did not leave his community in search of such opportunities; he usually worked through the sick people’s friends or relatives who came to the community for assistance. The only person outside his community whom the Vita mentions that William saw in person was the Cistercian monk Haakon, who had come to the shrine of St Thomas, not to him specifically, for help with a weak chest and loss of his voice (chapter 21). William was clearly relieved to be asked to do something smaller than usual. His words and actions in this case (the only ones recorded for a healing miracle in his lifetime) are invocations 9 10

Perron, “Fugitives from the Cloister,” 124. Damsholt, “Abbot William of Æbelholt,” 12. Ivan Boserup, “A French-Danish Letter Collection and Some Danish Diplomataria: Historical and Literary Remarks on the Epistulae of Abbot William of Æbelholt.” In Living Words and Luminous Pictures: Medieval Book Culture in Denmark. Vol. 1: Essays. Edited by Erik Petersen (Copenhagen: Det Kongelige Bibliotek, 1999), 85, and 90–91.

I ntroduction



351

of Christ’s power alone; and he uses an optative subjunctive, “May the Son of God heal you”, rather than any form of command. A large part of the Vita is dedicated to William’s posthumous miracles. As his reputation for miracles spread, people began to ask Augustinian brothers from his house to help the sick in the places they came to on their travels, because of the curative power associated with two of his teeth which had been pulled in his old age (chapters 32–36, 41, 45–47). Miracles due to “the healing water” or similar phrases (chapters 52 and 56) may also be part of this group, although the teeth are not specifically mentioned there. William’s miracles were increasingly linked to his shrine and its surroundings. As visits by pilgrims increased, people had dreams and visions about William in which he expressed his desire to help as many sick people as possible. Accordingly, the community built a new church and moved their own choir there, so that William’s tomb in the older church could be visited by more pilgrims. At least one miracle (chapter 38) definitely took place before the community’s move to the new church, as the sick woman had to wait for the brothers to go out of the choir to the refectory before she could visit William’s tomb. (By the time they returned from their meal, she had been cured.) Eventually, the invocation of William’s name proved sufficient for healing at a distance. In one of the miracles (chapter 50), a blind woman, after praying for his help, saw and spoke to William in a vision, as he journeyed to her village to help another woman who was ill with sacer ignis (presumably ergotism, a disease William was often reported to heal). It is consistent with his humble character that even then he identified himself to her as “Abbot William.” Most of those who recovered made a pilgrimage to his shrine in order to give thanks, although in one story, the recipient of the miracle was too far away, and so he offered the saint a candle worth one mark instead (chapter 54). William’s lesser miracles include several involving animals: during his life he helped cure an injured horse, and taught an old horse a new gait (chapters 22 and 23); and after his death, he restored a lost hawk to its owner (chapter 54). There are also several stories of “unsuccessful” healings, which are not so common in saints’ lives. In two of them, William foretold the sick people’s future rather than healing their illness. A woman suffered from chronic pain and went to William’s shrine (chapter 48). Of all the sick people in the Vita, this woman was the only one who did not ask for healing, but for William to pray to the Lord to grant what was best for her. William promised her that

352

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt

soon she would become a living stone in the heavenly building. She rejoiced, went home, and made herself ready for her life’s end. A man suffered from sickness and weakness, and went to the shrine for healing (chapter 49). But William told him that he would regain his health once he was back at his home, and yet it would not last long. The man later died while cutting down a tree, which fell on him. Some of the healings were incomplete. In one case of a difficult childbirth (chapter 35), the mother’s life was saved, but the infant was stillborn. The mother’s reaction vividly expressed both her bitterness and thankfulness. The bodily healing of a woman named Cecilia (chapter 55) was left incomplete because of an unremembered sin. After three visits to the shrine brought no improvement, Cecilia recalled a sin she had forgotten, and confessed it to the guardian of the shrine; and then she received complete healing. In chapter 51, William healed someone who afterwards did not fulfill what he had promised the saint during his illness. The priest Reiner, a former disciple of William who had abandoned his vows, was dying of a sacer ignis infection. He was physically healed after invoking William’s help, and came to thank the saint at his shrine, but he did not keep the other promise which he had made to William while ill: to renew his broken vows and return to the Augustinian community. The biographer does not mention any physical consequences for Reiner, but hints that his spiritual state later will be worse than before. The Present Translation

The Vita is preserved in two manuscripts, Paris, BnF lat. 14652, a fifteenth-century paper codex from Saint Victor, and a thirteenth century collection of saints’ lives from Saint Geneviève in Paris, MS 558. Earlier editions include an abbreviated life in the Vita Sanctorum, by Laurens Surius (Cologne 1618), the edition in the Acta Sanctorum by Papenbroch (1675),11 and the edition by Petrus F. Suhm in the Scriptores Rerum Danicarum (1783).12 This translation, the first into English, is based on the critical edition in the Vitae Sanctorum Danorum, by Martin Clarentius Gertz (1912).13 11 12 13

AASS, April 6, 10:622–40. Scriptores Rerum Danicarum Medii Aevi. Edited by Petrus Fridericus Suhm (Copenhagen: Nicolaus Möller, 1783), 5:458–95. Gertz, Vitae.

THE LIFE AND MIRACLES OF BLESSED WILLIAM OF ÆBELHOLT Chapter I

Blessed William, sprung from a noble lineage, was handed over by his parents to the venerable man Hugh, abbot of Saint-Germain-desPrés, to be educated. Hugh received him kindly, as he was his nephew, and had him carefully instructed in the study of letters. When he was still a little boy, being raised in the cloister of Saint Germain and being taught his first lessons about letters, he eagerly perceived how the monks in the cloister sat, read, sang and prayed. Because of this, like a very wise bee finding a variety of flowers, he received gifts of honey from them, and stored them in the honeycomb of his heart. For even in his boyish mind he was thinking about what he would devoutly fulfill later, in his old age. So, by the action of divine grace upon him, he excelled many of his age in his mind’s ability to learn, succeeded in his study of literature, and was considered remarkable for his knowledge and learning, and renowned among the masters of arts themselves. Chapter II

Therefore, Abbot Hugh rejoiced even more fully and gave thanks to God, because of the progress and worthy life of his nephew. Wishing to provide something that would be useful to him in the future, Hugh obtained a prebend for him—when he was promoted to subdeacon—at the church of the apostles Peter and Paul and of the blessed Geneviève, where there were secular canons at that time. And so, once he had become a secular canon, he performed wisely all tasks that came with that function. But he decided to do something which he had known that the monks who lived in silence did, when he was being educated in childhood: taking a book, he would very often sit alone in the cloister and read it, and exercise himself in lectio divina.

354

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt

When his fellow canons saw this, they became extremely angry;1 and, envying his good behavior, instead of improving because of it (as they should have), they began to grow worse. Their thoughts toward him were for evil,2 and set on fire by hell.3 Since they were gnashing their teeth against him,4 they could not say anything peaceably to him.5 For their throats were open graves, they acted deceitfully with their tongues, a poisonous viper was under their lips.6 So they conspired against an innocent person,7 saying, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?8 Look, this man does many things against us and our customs. For he opposes our actions,9 and wants to bring a monastic lifestyle upon us. Let us remember what a philosopher says: ‘Resist the beginnings, for the remedy will be ready too late, / once evil things have gained strength by long delays.’10 Therefore let us oppose his evil contrivances11 and pull them up by the roots. Otherwise, if we let him go on this way, not only will the Romans come, but also the supreme pontiff and the king of France, and they will take away our place.12 After throwing us out, they will appoint men with other ideas to rule in our stalls, and we will become a byword to all the people.”13 Among themselves they took turns saying these things and others like them, as if by a spirit of prophecy,14 for they did not know that something like that was going to come upon them after a few years. From that day on they thought about15 how to ruin him and to deprive him of his canonry more quickly, after deceiving him by fraud. And they became guilty in their thoughts.16 Chapter III

But one of them, who seemed on friendlier terms with William than the rest, met with him in secret; it is not known whether this was his own idea or the others’ suggestion. With a pretense of affection which he did not really have in his heart, he said to William, “Dearest friend, most worthy of all love, there is a secret I want to tell you, if you will swear and promise not to reveal it to anyone until I have completed the task I have in mind.”17 The man of the Lord answered this by saying he could very well keep hidden what the other wanted to be secret. Then the other said, “It has been a long time now, dearest brother, since I have determined, because of desire for the heavenly life, to change the way of life which we lead. For even if it is called life, yet it should rather be called death than life, for it is known to lead those

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt



355

who love it into eternal death. For the world is set in the midst of evil,18 and is filled with every impurity, by which it constantly ensnares its own. Because of that, let us pay attention to what the Lord says in the gospel, Keep watch, for you do not know the day or the hour.19 And again, Whoever has not given up everything which he possesses cannot be my disciple.20 Also the apostle says, Now is the hour for us to arise from sleep.21 Let us arise therefore from the sleep of guilt, and trim our lamps, and be watchful with the wise ones,22 so that when the master of the household comes, we may enter in with him to the wedding feast, without being rejected.” And since William was listening intently to what he said, he added, “If there are two of us, we will encourage one another (to obedience).”23 The man of God answered him, “These things which you have spoken of are salutary, and more desirable to someone wise than gold or precious stones.24 But what shall we do?” The other said, “If we really wish to abandon the fleeting and transitory things of the world, let us offer ourselves to God faithfully, together with what is ours, in the habit of religion.” To this William said, smiling, “I do not yet have the desire to become a monk. However, for the salvation of my soul and yours, if you will make good your words by your deeds, I will do what you urge me to, but on this condition: that I see you go first, so I will follow more securely.” And the other was glad, and said, “You have spoken well; let it be so.”25 Chapter IV

When they had joined in friendly conversations together more often, about contempt for the world and about their intention, it seemed good to them both to go as quickly as possible to an abbey of monks, called La Charité.26 When they had arrived there, after the father of the monastery had been summoned, the one who had given the advice humbly explained the reason for their coming. Rejoicing at their coming and their promise, he embraced them in the arms of love and answered them thus, “Our Lord says, Anyone who comes to me I will not cast out.27 Relying upon this saying, I will freely tell you about the temporal and spiritual matters of this house, and if you do not give up your plan, I will see to your joining this holy community.” When they had thanked him many times for so kindly a response, and also because

356

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt

he had decided to accept their petition, the abbot ordered them to be received into the guesthouse, and to be given whatever they needed. When they were living there, the other man said to William, “Now by the Lord’s favor we have laid the foundation of a good work, which will be profitable for the salvation of our souls. What remains is that, with his help, we should not turn aside at all from what we have begun. How fortunate you are, beloved brother, for you are not subject to the temporal hindrance of anyone; but, released from all, you can receive the habit right now with these holy men! But I ought to go back home for a little while, so that I may arrange for a guardian for my mother and sister. For it is wicked, and a very serious sin, for me to leave them without protection, when the apostle says, If anyone does not take care of his own people, and especially of those who are of the faithful, he has denied the faith, and is worse than an unbeliever.28 So be of good heart, and do not be upset by my absence for a while, but do quickly what you have to do.29 But once the grace period that you will grant to me is over, I promise before God and his saints that I will return very speedily.” Then William, clearly perceiving that these things were not happening by the Spirit of God, but so that the other might bind him in monastic bonds once he was separated from him, replied, “Your maturer age demands that you go first; it is more fitting for me, the younger in age, not to precede you, but to follow after you. I recall that I stipulated this to you, even at the beginning of your advice.” Then the contriver of this scheme, seeing that the lies of his treachery were effectively frustrated, heaved long sighs from the depths of his heart, and said, “Then let us defer this to another time.” So, departing from the monastery, they returned by the way they had come. And thus iniquity, turned against itself, told a lie to itself.30 Chapter V

Master Hugh the abbot, always burning resolutely with the same zeal of love for the progress of his nephew, wanted him to be promoted to the order of deacon. When those who were jealous of him found this out, their hearts were deeply grieved,31 and they feared that if he were ordained, he would be advanced to a greater dignity in their church. So, seeking to relieve their fear, they harassed the bishop of Paris with many kinds of petitions, asking either that he would not accept William

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt



357

for promotion at all, or that he would completely stop conferring holy orders for that time. The bishop, overcome by their petitions and too ready to believe their words,32 because they accused William of many things, stopped conferring holy orders. But almighty God, who sees through the clever in their cleverness, and destroys the wisdom of the wise and the discernment of the discerning,33 wanted Abbot Hugh not to keep hidden at all what these people had set in motion against his nephew. So the abbot sent William off, with his own letters, to the bishop of Senlis to be ordained, and that bishop faithfully did what he wanted. After he obtained an appointment to the diaconate, William returned home, and none of his fellow canons knew where or why he had been away. On the following Saturday he was named to read the homily, because he could not get a substitute due to their ill behavior. But they were doing this so that, by his not having someone to perform the diaconal function for him, as the regulations of his prebend required, William would be made into a cause of scandal, and they themselves would get an opportunity to contrive evil against him.34 On Saturday night,35 when the seventh reading was supposed to be read aloud, he went up to read it, and opening the book, intoned in a loud voice the Iube domine.36 But the Gospel was: Jesus was casting out a demon who was mute.37 At the sound of his command, filled with great astonishment and amazement at what had happened to them,38 they became mute and silent following the response of the blessing. Because their pain was redoubled,39 leaving Matins, they exited the choir one after another, starting with the eldest. William remained alone at the lectern, and Master Alberic, who was a good and just man, in the middle of the choir; he had not consented to the plotting and deeds of the others, but awaited the kingdom of God.40 When morning came, and the canons had gathered and were talking among themselves about the things which had happened, William arrived. Then Master Alberic began to speak in this way, “We can truly say this: in this night we have seen wonders.41 And who would not wonder? It is not wonderful that the only Son of Almighty God could cast out a demon who was mute, and when the mute man spoke, the crowds wondered.42 But to me this is more wonderful, that when Master William proclaimed the homily reading, Jesus was casting out a demon, his fellow canons were cast out of the church—of course, they were rational human beings—and as he was speaking, they became mute, and his brethren went far from him,43 and his acquaintances departed

358

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt

as if strangers.”44 By the end of his speech, the persecutors of God’s servant became a byword to everyone45 who had heard these things. But blessed William, strengthened by constant meditation on the Word of God, conducted himself wisely in all things, so that he could say with the Psalmist, The Lord is my helper; I will not fear what a human being can do to me,46 and again, But for me it is good to cling to God, to place my hope in the Lord God.47 And William, with God’s help, whose judgment is a great deep48 and against whose scrutiny human counsel cannot stand,49 armed with patience, rendered harmless his adversaries who were persisting in the malice50 which they had begun. He was then raised to the honor of a provost’s position.51 O the mercy of Christ, which must be honored by all praise!52 He understood how to lift up his servant at the time of his good pleasure,53 whom before that time the sons of envy attempted to oppress. However, his fellow canons, indolent in shameful idleness, ate and drank in royal pomp to the point of excess, in pride and in wastefulness,54 until the day when the lord Pope Eugene entered France, who had habitual perseverance that went beyond those things which are external, a concern for all the churches committed to him by God.55 He broke their pride and reduced it to nothing.56 For when he came to Paris, what they had feared took place, and what they dreaded happened to them.57 It was not something done by chance, nor was it either done or premeditated by the counsel of William, but by the just judgment of Divine Wisdom arranging everything. Chapter VI

The lord pope, wishing to know if the vines were in blossom and if the flowers had brought forth fruit,58 departed into the regions of France. As he was approaching Paris, King Louis and the bishop of that city went out to meet him with a multitude of clergy and laity; and receiving him honorably, they led him to the church of the Blessed Virgin Mary with great solemnity.59 After a few days it pleased him to visit the church of Saint ­Geneviève, because it was called apostolic, and celebrate the divine service there. When he had arrived, a silk mantle was laid down by the servants of the church before the altar where the lord pope would prostrate himself to pray. When his prayer was ended, he entered the vestibule, and was clothed in the sacred vestments for celebrating Mass.

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt



359

Meanwhile, the servants of the lord pope took away the silk mantle, declaring that it belonged to them, according to a custom of ancient usage. The servants of the canons reacted indignantly, and tried to rescue the mantle from their hands. On the other side, the Romans did not cease pulling it in their direction with all their might. Why do I delay about these things? They did not stop tugging on both sides until the mantle was torn in pieces. Then they pounded one another with their fists, and the servants of the church, fetching rods, beat the servants of the lord pope until they were bloody. When the noise of those fighting in the church arose, King Louis ran there, wanting to restrain them. But because their foolish hearts were darkened,60 they did not fear the king coming in his dignity,61 but inflicted heavy blows upon him, as they did on the others. While these things were going on, some of the lord pope’s household, with torn clothing and faces deeply scratched by fingernails, fled in tears to the feet of their master, and told him of the outrages done to them. They said, “See how those are honored whom the lord pope wishes to honor!62 Do we deserve such a reward, when we have left Rome and what is ours, and followed you?63 Now let Rome feel shame! Nowhere have we been without honor, except in this church, in which evils have happened to us which we did not fear beforehand. Because of this we have become a reproach to our neighbors, and a scorn and derision to those around us.64 But if you can do something, take away our disgrace.”65 When the Apostolic Father understood everything that had been done, he was aroused to exceedingly great anger, and answered, “Vengeance is mine, and I  will repay.”66 Summoning the lord king Louis, he said, “Out of reverence for the apostles Peter and Paul and for blessed Geneviève, I came here to preside over the sacred mysteries, and the evil and foolish canons of this church, casting aside the fear of the Lord, have struck down my servants with fists and scourges, in order to provoke me to wrath. But lest they glory in their malice67 any longer, you, who are the defender of this church’s cause, may not delay obtaining justice for me from the wrongdoers I spoke of.” However, the king said to the lord pope who asked for justice from him, “Holy Father, to whom may I express my complaints for the injuries inflicted on me, or who may do me justice? For, just like your people, I myself received heavy blows from those madmen while I was trying to separate them. But since the Lord by righteous judgment conferred the power of binding and loosing68 upon you, look—they are in your hands; pay back to them their retribution.”69

360

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt

After saying this, they left that place at the same time. Since they were going together, they again began a conversation about how they might destroy the pride70 of those canons, and hire out that vineyard to other farmers who would give them its fruit in season.71 On the other hand, they did not want to do violence to any of them by depriving them of their prebends before God took them out of the way; for many of them were nobles and learned men. So in order to avenge the injuries inflicted on them without sinning—by means of religious men, through committing the church of Saint Geneviève to them—they therefore determined that black monks should be established there. But it troubled them very greatly that they had nothing there for the monks’ support except one prebend, which was vacant just then, by chance. So the abbot of Saint Victor,72 who had found out about their plan to change the order, showered the lord pope and King Louis with earnest prayers that the order of St Augustine might be established in the church, to the honor of God, the apostles Peter and Paul, and the blessed virgin Geneviève, under their patronage. With many arguments he asserted that some of these insolent people would be more easily converted to their life under a Rule than to the habit and customs of monks. The Apostolic Father and King Louis, knowing that the good reputation of the abbot himself and of his brothers, as well as religion itself, would be exalted above all their neighbors, and that the house of Saint Victor would be fragrant with the perfume of great charity, gave their grateful assent to the petition of the abbot, who was glowing with righteous desire.73 On the next day, Odo the prior was chosen as abbot, a man of a holy way of life, and an unwearying lover of all prudence and religion; and with him, twelve canons, worthy men of good reputation, were sent to the church of Saint Geneviève, as befitted the purity of the virgin herself. Thus the order of blessed Augustine was permanently established in the church of Saint Geneviève, by the decree of the lord Pope Eugene and the most Christian King Louis;74 and it is preserved there even to the present day. Behold, even as it was mentioned at the beginning, the earlier canons who had the prophetic power of Caiaphas75 lost their place, and that place was given to another group,76 a religious one, who would devoutly cultivate the vineyard of the Lord. When these things were going on, William had gone away to his work as a provost, discussing and dealing with household matters together with his friends. On the next day, when he had sat down to eat

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt



361

with his people at a table laden with various dishes, behold!—suddenly someone came in who addressed him thus, “Odo, the lord abbot of Saint Geneviève, greets you, and sends you these letters.” More astonished than could be believed at the words of the greeter, William said, “Who is this abbot, or when has he been abbot in the church of Saint Geneviève?” The messenger said to him, “Odo, the prior of Saint Victor. He is the abbot in the church of Saint Geneviève, and was installed there yesterday by the supreme pontiff and the lord king.” To this William said, “Am I hearing this in my sleep, or are you telling me the truth?” He answered, “These things are true.” Then, examining the set of letters, William saw a command from Abbot Odo to him, that he should return to his chapter as quickly as possible. So he arose, disregarding his concern about refreshment, and bidding farewell to all, he said, “I will go and see if this change is wrought by the hand of the Most High.”77 And when he entered the cloister of Saint Geneviève, he saw there men arrayed in religious habits. So he believed the words the messenger had said to him; yet within himself he was very mystified78 about why this had happened and what the reason was for this change. Master William’s arrival was announced at once to the abbot, who ran to him in haste, received him with the kiss of peace, and embraced him very devoutly. When they sat down again and conversed with one another, the abbot revealed to William the way in which he and his people had arrived, and the other things which had happened these past days. After telling him these things, he began to counsel William about despising the world, saying, “My son, if you desire to be rich, seek for the true riches. If you long for the glory of rank, hasten to be enrolled in that heavenly court of the angels. Consider what the Lord says in the Gospel, Whosoever loves father and mother, and fields, or homes, etc., more than me is not worthy of me.79 And again, Blessed are you poor in spirit, for yours is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you who thirst now, for you will be filled.80 And blessed John the Evangelist says, Do not love the world, nor the things which are in the world; because if someone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.81 Blessed James the apostle agrees well with him, saying, Whoever has wanted to be a friend of this world is found to be an enemy of God.82 Therefore, do not delay being converted to the Lord, and do not put it off from day to day, lest the wrath of God come upon you suddenly, and destroy you in the time of vengeance.83 Truly foolish is the one who, because he has been a deserter for the sake of a brief time of

362

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt

luxury and feeds his wretched desire on evil delights, both loses heavenly pleasure and incurs eternal damnation. So renounce all that you possess, and bear the cross of Christ every day,84 who, although he was the rich and very mighty King of heaven and earth, freely became a poor man for us, that he might make us rich with him in the kingdom of heaven.”85 After he concluded these admonitions, he took William’s hand and led him to a glass window in which an image of the Crucified was depicted. He began to speak again, “My lord, do you not see this image and consider it?”86 William said, “I see it clearly, and consider it attentively. For even if this mystery is old to me because of familiarity, yet it is ever new to me on account of him who shall transform us, when the body of our lowliness has been conformed to the body of his glory,87 and who renews our inner man from day to day.”88 Perceiving that his heart was fired by the Holy Spirit, the abbot spoke again: “Do you see with what great sweetness of love he longs to bind you to himself, and to embrace you by taking you in his outstretched arms—he who allowed himself to be crucified for you?” Immediately the man of God, his face wet with a shower of tears, scarcely able to get his words out because of his great sobbing, answered with reverence, “If only I could know that he would deign to take me as his servant, and to forgive the errors of my past wrongdoing and my weakness!” The abbot answered, “If you wish indeed to obey these warnings, I myself will be your guarantor that not only will he forgive your sins, but truly, after the end of this life, he will crown you with eternal glory,89 along with his saints.” Without delay, William sank to the ground at the feet of his guarantor, and readily commended himself and what was his to God and to the abbot. And thus he escaped naked from the shipwreck of this world. The family of Christ rejoiced at the conversion of so great a young man, and were glad all the more because of the unexpected help sent down so suddenly from on high. O good Jesus, how great are your works!90 For, as the prophet says, you have worked all our works in us.91 Now we see fulfilled what we read that you have said, It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. But when the people who understood only earthly things asked, Who then can be saved?—you answered, The things which are impossible for human beings, are possible for God.92 Behold, since you destined this man for grace, you could easily make a humble man out of a proud one, or a poor man out of a rich one.

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt



363

Let all say what they think: it is written in praise of the apostles and brothers Peter and Andrew, that at the sound of a single order from their commanding Lord, they left their nets and boat, and followed the Redeemer. But this man, not merely at the warning of the Lord but at that of his servant, left not only nets and boat, but his estates and possessions, his houses and families, his wealth and honors, and his very self besides.93 We do not say this in order to put him on the same level as the greatest apostles; but thus we show approval of lesser works, while not diminishing the mighty works of greater people. Chapter VII

After taking the habit of a canon regular, William was added to the other brothers and was numbered with the twelve.94 When his habit changed, he was changed into another man, and by the work of divine grace, which had foreseen him as a vessel chosen for itself,95 he went from strength to strength, so that he might be considered worthy to see the God of gods in Zion.96 For he was endowed with the virtue of charity, excelling in humility, strong in patience, submissive in obedience, and disposed to other kinds of virtues. He applied himself to reading, prayer, divine contemplation; he subdued the members of his body with vigils and fasts, and he who was accustomed to lead the way, clothed in silk garments, later served the poor as a poor man, in castoff clothing. Forgetting his past life of wealth, he ate bran bread and herbs of the field prepared for food, as the others did, with thanksgiving. For only two prebends at the beginning could not provide other delicious food for the brothers and their household. Because of this, Christ’s athlete stood forth, steadfast in what he had undertaken, so vigorously zealous for religion and the order that when he held the position of subprior, he allowed no transgression of the statutes of the order. Since he exerted himself unceasingly in these and other similar works of the virtues, and already was approved before God and the people,97 one night, when he had given his limbs over to sleep, our Lord Jesus Christ (according to that Gospel passage, Whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him98) appeared to him in a vision in the form of a most beautiful youth. Calling him by his name, he said, “Know that you will travel with me to an island, where you will endure many kinds of temptations and troubles;

364

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt

but when these have been overcome with my help, and the burden of the flesh is laid aside, you will be with me in Paradise.”99 But he could not guess at all what such a vision and such an admonition intended for him, before he was called to Dacia, to the island which is called Zealand, where he now rests.100 Chapter VIII

Not many years had run their course since these events, when Abbot Odo journeyed to the Lord at a good old age.101 After his death, Master Guarin, prior of the same monastery, was chosen abbot, because he was considered a worthy and learned man, with foresight about what should be done. However, after he had been consecrated and installed in his seat, a speech was made to the brothers in chapter about replacing the prior. There was someone there to whom the abbot greatly desired, in every way, to grant the office of prior. Everyone had agreed and had given their consent to the abbot, when that brother opposed it, saying, “It is proper for office-bearers in a royal abbey to be installed in their office by the king.” When the brothers heard this, they were extremely troubled,102 and said, “If you wish to receive the office of prior according to the procedure of the order, we consent to your election. But if you try to cross the boundaries which our fathers have set, you will never obtain it.” But when the brother persisted in his proposal, the abbot brought the brother with him to the king’s palace, so that the king might take part in his installation. And because the practice of the order was unknown to the king, the brother was made prior by him in the palace. So, having obtained the result he hoped for, at the time for the meal he went up to the bell, struck it, and called the community together. When the brothers saw this, what could they do, what could they say? They could not speak, but with nods and signs they showed the inner bitterness of their hearts.103 Because indeed a righteous man is as bold as a lion,104 after the entrance into the refectory, William, inspired by zeal for the order and the love of justice, drove that presumptuous man away from the bell, and brought forward the subprior instead. After being driven away, the brother went out red with shame, and with loud laments described to the abbot the indignity that had been done to him. The abbot consoled and soothed the complainer, saying,

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt



365

“If I don’t pay William of Saint Germain back for these things, I will never be the abbot.” In the morning, when the brothers were gathered in chapter, William was called out for having laid violent hands on the prior. He denied that he had ever inflicted any injury on the prior. After some exchange of words, he said, “If I have committed some sin because I drove away from the function of a prior someone who was not a prior but a defrauder of the order, I am ready to undergo remedial punishment.” And receiving pardon, he was sentenced to keep perpetual silence, and every week to fast three days on bread and water, seated on the ground without any tableware. He did not shrink from such a sentence; but considering that the shepherd’s decision must be revered, whether just or unjust, he humbly bore what had been brought upon his head. Still, word spread among the brothers that this disciple was condemned by an unjust judgment. Because of that, someone came in haste to the Apostolic Lord, who was then staying at Sens, and made known to so great a father everything as it had happened. The supreme pontiff, who did not take it lightly that the order was defrauded and an innocent person was sentenced harshly, at once commanded the abbot of Saint Geneviève to appear before him without delay, and to bring William as a companion on his journey. He obeyed the command, and, taking William with him, came to Sens. Standing there before the supreme pontiff, he was reproved for rashness and lack of discernment, and William was released from his sentence. For the rest, the abbot was most sternly warned that office-bearers were not to be elected or installed in violation of the statutes of the order. Chapter IX

While all things were in the midst of silence,105 and every stormy wind of the tempest in that church seemed to have died down, a rumor arose among the people that the head of blessed Geneviève had been removed from its holy place. Finally a breath of this slander came to the king’s ears. The lord king Louis, enraged by the great anger of wrath at these reports, swore by the Bethlehem saint106 that if this were true, he would have all the canons of the church beaten with whips and thrown out of the church. After summoning guards to take custody of the treasury and relics of the monastery, he sent letters to the archbishop of Sens and his suffragans, and to the abbots and priors of the

366

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt

same bishopric, ordering them all to come to Paris on a day he set, to investigate the truth of the matter.107 Hearing about the king’s oath, the brothers were upset, they were troubled, and fear seized them.108 Still, however formidable to them was the wrath of the prince, they grieved yet more about the treasure, quite renowned for its gold and a valuable pearl,109 which they feared had been stolen from them. But more than the rest, the spirit of William was filled with anxiety,110 since for a long time he had had under his guardianship all the reliquaries and the treasury of the church. The appointed day dawned; the king arrived with his men, the bishops and abbots arrived, and also a very large crowd arrived, wanting to know the result of the matter. When at last those who would go up with the archbishop and the other bishops to the holy place of the holy virgin were named and assigned, William wanted to go up with them, but he was not permitted to. Snatching up (I do not know any more) a candlestick or thurible, he said to himself, “If I am not allowed in any other way, at least I will go in as a servant”, and he started off. When the chest was opened, behold, the head of blessed Geneviève, the jewel of France, was found with the other relics of her members. When William, the faithful servant of this virgin, saw this, he did not restrain within himself the joy conceived in his heart; instead it burst forth with a voice of exultation.111 Forgetful of those who were of greater authority, he boldly began the Te Deum laudamus so that the whole church resounded with his voice. Once it started, all the people gathered for the festive day sang it to the end, with no less enthusiasm. After the singing ended, the archbishop proceeded with the collect of this virgin. When he had finished, the bishop of Orléans thundered in very great indignation, “Who is this buffoon, who, against the authority of the lord archbishop and the other bishops, has presumptuously dared to intone the Te Deum because of the head of some old woman, which these people have fraudulently put here?” William replied to this, “If you ask who I am, I want you to know that I am not a buffoon, as you say insultingly, but a servant of blessed Geneviève. Although you accuse me of presumption, not rash presumption but a wholehearted love for the holy virgin, which I have always had, compelled me to do this. I do not deny that the head which you see is that of an old woman. Blessed Geneviève lived seventy years and more, ever preserving the flower of her virginity, always a pure and unspotted virgin, until she gave back her soul to heaven and her

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt



367

body’s substance to the earth. But so that not even a tiny amount of doubt about this head may remain in your hearts, cause a furnace to be heated very hot, and I will take up the head and enter the heated furnace unafraid, to declare the merits of the blessed virgin.” Deriding him, the bishop answered, “I certainly would not get into even a vat of hot water with that, and you would go into a burning furnace?” But the archbishop, who could not stand any longer the unreasonable verbosity of the bishop, nodded to him to be quiet, and approved the devout brother’s faith and sincere devotion to the holy virgin. Yet the stupid speech that the bishop had made with polluted lips against the holy virgin could not remain unavenged in any way, for God will destroy all those who speak lies.112 From this, ensnared later by many evil deeds and cast out of his see, he miserably concluded an unsuitable life with a suitable death.113 Chapter X

In the year 1161 after the Incarnation of our Lord, King Valdemar, son of Canute the king and martyr, was ruling in Dacia.114 (He drove the Slavs out beyond the borders of his kingdom, which they were accustomed to invade quite often, taking men and women captive and plundering everything they could lay their hands on. Since he was a martyr’s son, by that martyr’s intercession he emerged a glorious victor in all the battles of the wars which he waged against the Slavs, who at that time were pagans. Therefore, after showing them the way of eternal salvation,115 he compelled them to bow their necks to the yoke of Christ;116 this man was wise and discerning, mighty in deed and word before God and all the people.)117 At the same time, in the church at Roskilde,118 Bishop Absalon was the glory of the priesthood—a man of great counsel,119 an honor to the clergy, a comforter of the mourning120 and afflicted, a devout lover of all religious, a humble governor of the whole people, a merciful supporter of strangers and the poor, and a very great persecutor of the Slavs; an ornament of the faith, an example of sober life, an image of modesty, a special mirror of nobility and righteousness, a lamp shining in the temple of God, and its strong and unmoved column.121 In his diocese there was a community of canons on the island called Eskilsø, not far away from the region of Roskilde, surrounded on all sides by the sea. This place, adorned with green fields and various trees

368

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt

in groves, was delightful and pleasant to those living there. Yet the number of brothers dwelling there at that time was very small, and they were called regulars in vain, for they were not equipped with the disciplines of any religion. How could those be called regulars who did not bow their heads to any counsel of a Rule? How could they be cloistered when they lacked cloistered enclosure? They had the statutes of their order in writing, but they observed none of them. At the greatest festivals of the year, the secular canons who were their friends frequently visited their houses with their own women, to celebrate the feasts with them. In the refectory, the canons feasted and became drunk with the men and women, and led dances. In such a way was their house thrown into disorder by their deeds, and its substance was squandered. Alas, what became then of the worship of God, when more of the night was spent in drinking than in psalmody and divine contemplation? Who then would worthily become an intercessor to God for the people? When gathered for Matins, heated by drink, they preferred by far to sleep rather than to sing. So, living shamelessly, they poured their detestable ill-fame into the ears of all religious people. Therefore the venerable Absalon, bishop of Roskilde, seeing and considering that their life was out of harmony with all religion, was touched by grief within,122 and abhorred the souls of such men, darkened by the devil’s deception and all too inclined to the transience of this world. So very often he pondered in his silent mind how he could take counsel for that church, to transform the design of the order and of religion for the better, with the Lord’s approval. At last he recalled the familiarity and the friendship which he had once pledged to William, a religious man, when he was living in Paris for the sake of study. Considering him a worthy man, a man particularly farsighted and discerning, and adorned with holy behavior, Absalon’s soul was so pleased with him,123 that he would grant him, once summoned, the place mentioned before. Therefore, sending a messenger—that is, the provost Saxo, a worthy man—to the church of Saint Geneviève, he requested in his letters that this frequently mentioned man, namely Master William, be dispatched to him with three other brothers immediately, with every effort; and he promised that he would confer on these brothers a place near him which would be suitable to their religion, to the honor of God, and to the distinction of the order of St Augustine. Thinking that the request of so eminent a prelate was fair and right, with the consent of the chapter, the abbot decided that his request should be granted.124 So Brother William, taking three others with him,

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt

 369

was sent with the provost Saxo into Dacia. Setting forth on a favorable journey, they arrived in Zealand after the feast of the Assumption of blessed Mary, and on the third day after, they reached Ringsted, which has been made famous by the merits of blessed Canute the martyr,125 whose glorious life shone greatly with the light of justice. It was the will of God that something which they desired happened to them there: the presence of King Valdemar and Bishop Absalon. They rejoiced at the coming of these brothers,126 embraced them with a firm hug (lentis brachiis),127 and welcomed them with the kiss of peace. When, with courteous speech, they had congratulated them a little on their arrival, they solemnly pledged that they would cherish them as sons, love them as brothers, and consult with them as friends. Glad in those things that were said to them,128 they returned with joy to their hostel. After three days had passed, they went over to Roskilde; some of the bishop’s household followed in their footsteps to look after them there. This was to the advantage of the honest custom of the land and the probity of him who had called them. After they had spent some days in the city,129 they landed on the island of Eskilsø, where they found six canons, at least in name, whose faces, already made bloodless by their arrival, grew even paler, and whose speech dried up in their mouths; for they saw that a deprivation of funds was now threatening their evil customs. So, doing an injustice to the arriving brothers, the canons held meetings that night after the meal, and decided that the lord bishop should be present, so that they could inform him of what had happened (as if he did not know), and wring some feelings of compassion from him, lest they lose the people and their place.130 But the lord bishop, who had known the course of the matter a long time before, and who took offense at their malice, pretended not to have heard anything, lest perhaps, during his delay in coming there, the resources of the house131 might be depleted even more than before. He set a date for them on which he would be present, and, as if ignorant of the arriving brothers, he earnestly asked them the reason for all this. He came on the day after the feast of blessed Bartholomew, as he had promised. After he had a talk with them about their shepherd, by his appointment Brother William was chosen abbot and installed in the abbot’s chair, although they had been accustomed to having not an abbot, but a provost or a prior. That same day, two of the earlier canons received and obtained permission to depart, for the lord bishop judged that they should be dismissed, lest by their malicious scheming there

370

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt

might be a disturbance among the people.132 Four remained who were quite elderly, and nearly useless for all work. One of them,133 who held the office of prior, was a worthy man, and in his days was found righteous.134 So this one of them began to live, and after being instructed in the way of the Rule, to bring his former life to a better close. Chapter XI

After the lord abbot William had undertaken the care of the house, the lord bishop wanted to know, at the abbot’s request, what and how great that house’s resources were, and what was owned in the way of provisions. And when only six cheeses and one and a half hams were found, seeing that their storerooms were almost empty, he realized that they had devoured Jacob and made his place desolate.135 Filled with righteous shame and wonder, the bishop began to comfort the spirits of the brothers and of the abbot himself, so that they would not fall into despair for lack of temporal resources. He ordered five pounds of pennies (V libras denariorum) to be given to them to buy necessary food items, and promised them subsidies for sufficient expenses in the future. When some time had passed, the brothers who had come with the abbot could not endure the unaccustomed poverty, and they loathed the excessively severe cold; so they received permission from the bishop to return to their homeland. This action deeply distressed the lord bishop, but he did not wish to use compulsion on anyone. However, the abbot did not take lightly the departure of his people. The customs and the unknown language of a foreign country made him afraid, so he himself asked for the same permission which they had received from the bishop, stating that the task to which he had been called was beyond his strength, and that it would be safer for him to have the liberty to return with the others. At these words of the abbot, the bishop’s face fell136 and his heart sank. But finally he broke forth in this speech, “We have greatly desired137 your coming, for the growth of this church. Just as we thought, the Enemy grudges very much its good success and increase. For he is very afraid that he will lose his ancient rights, which he had possessed thus far because of the unruly acts of those who lived in this place. But if the Lord wills to change the proposal in your heart by more weighty counsel, we would ask, with the great love of piety, that you

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt



371

not try to abandon the duty of leadership once you have taken it up. Let entering alone upon this work not be frightening to you, for victory in the war does not depend upon human power, but fortitude is from heaven;138 and thus the Lord saves by a few as well as by many.139 What you believed would be fulfilled by the help of your brothers, the Lord has the power to fulfill by the obedience of you alone.” Because of these and other counsels of the venerable bishop, the abbot was strengthened by the seasoned salt140 of wisdom. Reminding himself of what the Lord says through Jeremiah the prophet, Accursed is the person who trusts in human beings, and makes flesh the strength of his arm, and his heart turns away from the Lord,141 he changed the intention of his mind, and agreed to remain to see how this would end.142 Chapter XII

In the same year, a decree went out from the Lord,143 and lo, a famine occurred in the land144 when the crop failed; and nearly all the animals died, and of course, the sheep and cows. So the remaining brothers could have neither butter nor cheeses, except small ones, to eat. Turning to rebellion145 because of this, they did not attribute the entire burden of their adversity to the divine judgment which searches all things, but to their abbot, saying, “Woe to us! Why has this man in rags, this vile little man, come here in our days, eating and drinking nothing,146 but exchanging all the better things in the house for silver and gold, and putting it in his own pockets? He is torturing us by starvation, and instead of food, is giving us leaves of the trees and grasses of the field.” This seedbed of falsehood was made public by them, and it spread to the ears of many. And because the vicious minds of human beings are always inclined to disparage the good, the truth was obscured among those of ill will. But the man of the Lord was not moved by these charges, but bore everything patiently, having become a man who does not hear, and who does not have contradictions in his mouth.147 Chapter XIII

One night, when the brothers had gone to sleep, Satan was present among them; and he overturned the light which, according to the usual

372

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt

custom, shone in the middle of the dormitory, and dropped it next to the abbot’s bed where there was a large heap of straw, in order to burn the abbot. But the heavenly Protector did not forsake his true soldier148 in this contest; for the straw was burned in a circle resembling a crown; and a beam set over the straw received a scorching, but the fire did not touch the abbot’s bed at all. A rumor of this occurrence reached the bishop’s ears, and not many days after, he came down to the abbey and confirmed that what was being said agreed with the truth. Chapter XIV

The next night, the ancient Enemy, grieving that his wiles had failed to produce results, switched to a different kind of tempting. For he came to the bed of a sleeping brother and said, “You know that I have been the lord of this place, to preside over all the drinkers and lechers. But at the coming of your abbot I have suffered violence, and this, I believe, will not end well for him.”149 When the brother asked who he was, and by what name he was known, he declared that he was called Salmanasar, and was a king of the Babylonians from ancient times,150 and he added, “Advise the abbot to stop what he has begun, and not to receive from the bishop the blessing due to abbots, because the abbey here cannot continue against my will.” The brother answered him, “You go and suggest to him yourself what you’ve suggested to me to do. Don’t you, even you, have some knowledge of him?” He said, “I do, but less now than before. So go tell him what I have commanded, and give him this sign: in the crypt of blessed Geneviève in Paris, he wrote out with his own hand seven psalms with a litany, for a certain cleric. Also report to him that the other night I wanted to burn him because of the injuries brought upon me; but I was disappointed in my desire, because a stronger than I came upon me.151 Nor could I succeed in getting what I wanted for a result.” When it was morning, the brother who had heard this made it known to the abbot. But he paid little attention to what he heard, and put no faith in the devil’s suggestion, for he had no memory of the seven psalms. After a little while, a servant of the provost Thoco, returning from the city of Paris to Dacia, approached Abbot William with these words, “My lord greets you, and commending himself completely to your friendship, lovingly asks that you will intercede on his behalf with the lord bishop, that he may provide him an assistant for his school,

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt



373

which lacks the usual abundance of hands. And this is a sign for you152 that he sent me: at Paris you wrote out for him seven psalms with a litany.” The abbot, wondering at the message, recalled the true event which the devil had made known to the brother in his dream, namely that William had written out seven psalms for the provost Thoco. Chapter XV

Also, at another time, Abbot William, accompanied by Thrumo the priest, a learned and discerning man, went down to a village called Thorstanthorp to stay as a guest. There, when the night had reached mid-journey in its course,153 the ancient Enemy, raging against the holy man of God, devised new provocations in his malice. Assuming the habit of sanctity under the appearance of a very ancient and very shameful monk, he came to the bed of the abbot—who had previously fortified himself with the sign of the salvation-bringing cross—and strove to ensnare him in an obscene act of lust as he rested. But even though he had given his eyes over to sleep, William was nevertheless awake in mind, and said to the adversary, “Get behind me, foulest one of all!154 By the grace of God, you will not obtain in me the result of your desire.” Hearing this, the devil was aroused by the spurs of fiercer savagery; drawing nearer, he breathed a cloud of stench upon the abbot’s mouth. And with his own evil mouth he laid bare the sins that were formerly blotted out by confession and washed away by a shower of tears. But while he was being so severely wearied by the devil in his sleep, the abbot repelled the Enemy from him with a strong kick from his slightly raised foot. When the devil saw that he was mocked by the man of God, he began to rage like a most cruel lion. He turned his steps to the bed of Thrumo the priest, who lay on the other side keeping watch, and struck a very strong blow on his side, so that it seemed to the priest that he had broken some of his ribs. In the morning when dawn ended the night, after singing praises to God, both of them, that is the abbot and the priest, retired to the warming-room (calefactorium) because the weather was cold. When they were sitting there, the priest said to the abbot, “My lord abbot, may almighty God guard and help you!”155 And the abbot answered, “Amen.” When he had spoken thus two or three times, the abbot asked why he repeated this so many times. And he answered him, “I know that you have suffered many stings of temptation, and will suffer more;

374

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt

but may God deliver you from all of these! In this night I saw what trouble from Satan you endured, how he poured on your mouth a cloud of the worst stench, and I heard how many reproaches and taunts he inflicted on you. And when, confounded, he departed from you, he rushed violently at me,156 and after he hit my side I thought that he broke some of my ribs. Therefore I judge that you must manfully resist this enemy, lest if he triumphs once you are overcome, he would send you to hell.”157 At this speech the abbot began to feel loathing and fear, recalling to memory the attacks of the adversary which he had endured the previous night. Chapter XVI

The ancient Enemy, raging still because no results followed from his temptations against the Lord’s anointed,158 plotted to accomplish through his followers what he could not accomplish himself. So he inspired the hearts of certain brothers to inflict various insults on the man of God, assault him with many injuries, and thus force him to retreat back home in shame. But he was not afraid of the words of the wicked,159 because he was placed strongly upon the strong rock.160 Also he reminded himself of that word of the apostle, Tribulation produces patience, patience produces testing, testing produces hope, and hope does not confound us.161 Chapter XVII

When his debased sons made no progress in these matters, they planned together to put him to death.162 Once they decided to put him in a sack and drown him in the sea, once to stab him with knives, and once to sell him to the Slavs. More often, they undertook to destroy him by the blow of an axe to his brain. But God, whose providence does not fail in its arrangements, frustrated their plans163 and granted to his beloved one a way out, along with the trial.164 But why were they trying to do this? Because his spirit was with God, by keeping to the discipline of the order and to every observance of religion; nor would he allow them to run off onto the rough paths of the sins. For he was an unfailing imitator of holy religion, and a wondrous preserver of the order and of its holy principles; a mighty

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt



375

uprooter of sins, a true lover of virtues, searching out and teaching whatever was honorable and full of holiness. He was stern in reproof, zealous in correction, gentle and humble in exhortation, modest in giving a reason, truthful in speech, just in judgment, faithful in trust. He was a comforter of the sick, a most kindly caretaker of the poor and of pilgrims. He persevered in vigils, fasts165 and constant prayers, taking unwearying care of his flock; and he commended it unceasingly to his Lord with prayers,166 so that the faithful servant might increase the talent entrusted to him.167 When the brothers were resting at night, he anticipated the morning Hours with vigils, and prayed with devout groans for the Lord’s mercy on them. In his sermons, in which he taught the brothers to do good, he was so much inclined to tears and laments that he would quite often bring his hearers to penitence and remorse of heart; and it would be clearly evident to all that divine grace was always with him. Inspired with zeal for the order, sometimes he was rigorous with the puffed-up or the proud, and he compelled transgressors of the order to undergo corrective punishment and submit to the sentence. For he knew that he would render an account to God168 for as many as he allowed to wander away from the paths of righteousness169 by his example or by his silence. Finally, he himself showed the nature of humility to those who had obstinate hearts and were not inclined to ask for forgiveness for their transgressions; he asked them for forgiveness, against the rules of his office. Amid the persecutions inflicted on him by his disciples and others, he was steadfast and patient, and by the power of patience he overcame everyone. The virtue of pity and mercy was so abundant in him that he would receive, with all gladness and moderation, those who sinned against him and returned to him for pardon. He would weep most copiously for their transgressions, and offer many thanks to the Lord for their conversion. He always strove for charity, and detested jealousies and slander. He uttered no dishonorable or idle word or foolish laughs at all, nor did he want to hear them from anyone else’s mouth. His talk was always about peace, concord, humility, gentleness and honor, in which the brothers must excel one another.170 Frequent in prayer, constant in reading, he stood out foremost in devotion. Also, he never wanted to be absent from the daytime and the night Hours, without great reason for the necessity. His spirit was diligently occupied with devotion when in the choir of those singing psalms and in the holy ministry of the altar; and he tenderly loved

376

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt

those who were more devout in these things. Until the day of his death, he ruled over his flesh with haircloth, and compelled it to serve the spirit. He wanted to have a frugal table, not for the refreshment of his body (since he was a man of wondrous abstinence), but for warming back to life the poor and the sick, whom he cherished with fatherly affection. For his coverlet he had nothing besides a small woolen cloth laid over straw, or bearskins to keep out the cold when the winter raged more greatly, unless the trouble of great illness forced him to allow softer things for his limbs. And even as his food was moderate, so was his clothing. He first built the monastery of St Thomas the Apostle in the place which is called the Paraclete,171 and transferred the order of St Augustine to it. In the transfer he established, and caused to be confirmed by a decree of the lord Pope Alexander, that it would be preserved in that place forever.172 But because, in praise of the man of God, we have departed in one way or another from our purpose, let us now return to those matters which we have begun to describe. Chapter XVIII

To someone with dysentery in the village which is called Medellus by the natives, it was revealed in a vision that he should taste Abbot William’s food, and he would be cured of his illness. The man believed the word he had heard, and, when a messenger was sent very quickly to the abbey, he requested and received what the man wanted. When he ate the foods which were brought, the flux of his illness ceased at once; because of them, he obtained restoration within. Chapter XIX

A girl from the village of Nadweth, near the abbey, was seized by the torment of great sickness. When she had lain three days as if a lifeless corpse, and the warmth of life seemed to be only in her limbs, her friends and relatives stood around her, mourning her as if she were dead. But on the fourth day the girl’s mother, Brigit by name, was overcome by a light sleep, because she had spent many days and nights sleepless while keeping watch over her. When she fell asleep, she saw in her sleep a woman dressed in snow-white clothing, sitting by the bed

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt



377

of the sick one, and saying this to her, “O woman, you are very greatly troubled about your daughter.” She replied, “What wonder is that? For three days we have upheld her173 because she might die at any moment, and yet so far, look, there is still time remaining.”174 The other woman answered, “Know that your daughter can recover her health and obtain lengthening of her life, if she tastes the food or the leftovers of Abbot William of the Paraclete.” When she had said this, she vanished. The girl’s mother, awaking, described everything she had heard and seen in her dreams175 to those who were present. They counseled her to obey the commands of her adviser, because this abbot was considered a saint by many. And indeed he was so, because of the divine grace shining in him. So the woman, strengthened by the hope of the good vision and the encouragement of her friends, hurried with swift steps to the abbey. She revealed in order the vision which she had seen to the servants whom she found at the boundary of the abbey. The woman’s request was reported to the abbot by the brothers, and her vision about the remedy for her daughter, made known from on high, was retold. The man of the Lord, who always had compassion in his heart176 on those afflicted, felt as much pity for the mother as for the daughter, and ordered that some fish, which we call perch,177 and some broth which had been made for him, be given to the woman in the name of the Lord, to be a cure and remedy for the suffering girl in danger of death. She rejoiced at the gift, and soon returned home in haste. Very quickly she poured into her daughter’s mouth some of the broth she had brought with her. When this had been done the third time, and it had drained down to her inner parts with a strange groaning sound,178 the girl revived and drew a breath.179 After a little while, she who had been as if dead sat up.180 When her family approached, she opened her mouth, blessed God,181 and said, “Now I shall not die but live, and declare the works of the Lord.182 For I trust in the Lord183 that I have been restored to health by the prayers and merits of Abbot William.” Those who were gathered with her testified to the truth about these things, and we know that their testimony is true.184 Chapter XX

A man in the village of Annisse was sick and longed to drink water from a fountain that the abbot had caused to be cleaned out and secured with strong locks. Because no one could obtain access185 to

378

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt

the fountain without the permission186 of the one who kept it closed, he made his longing known to the abbot. So Brother Eric, who was in charge of this fountain, was summoned, and directed to provide a cup of its water to the ailing man. When the sick man had tasted the water which was brought, he soon realized that its taste was health-giving. For it not only quenched his thirst, but it also conferred the favor of the health for which he hoped. Chapter XXI

A monk of the Cistercian order, Haakon by name, from the abbey of Esrum, suffered for many years from such great hoarseness in his weakened chest that what he was saying could scarcely be understood by those who stood around him. When he had found no remedy for his infirmity in any cure by means of a doctor’s potion or other skill, a good idea occurred to him,187 to go and visit the shrine of St Thomas of the Paraclete. So he came, and approaching the father of the monastery, he explained in a plaintive murmur what he was subject to, and began to ask him humbly if the father could lay his hand on the monk’s throat for the favor of recovering his health. Then the man of the Lord, pleased at his asking something small, first made the sign of the cross, then touched his throat, saying, “May the Son of God heal you!” And he was heard, because of his reverence.188 Then the monk sensed that divine help was with him, for the vessels in his chest, which had been short of breath, gradually dilated, and the instrument of his voice, which had been lost for a long time, was restored day by day. So, returning to the house from which he had come,189 he strengthened his brothers,190 making it known that at the Paraclete there was an elder who knew how to cure people, and affirmed that it was Abbot William. Chapter XXII

One time, when William was coming back from the Roman Curia, his servant’s horse injured its foot among the Alpine crags, and could not make the journey. Distressed in spirit by this misfortune, he prayed to the Most High that by the merits of the saints whose relics he had brought along with him, this horse would be healed. When the prayer

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt



379

was finished, he felt with his hands the horse’s foot, which was painful, and by feeling it, he soothed the pain. From that hour the horse was healed, and continued on the journey it had begun. Chapter XXIII

One day, when he went out on some business of the house, he was mounted on a certain riding-horse. The brother who went with him, looking at the horse’s beauty and the regularity of its limbs, said, “What a shame that this horse cannot amble!”191 The abbot said to him, “Don’t you believe that it could amble?” The brother answered, “Not at all, I think, for it is old and will not change its natural gait.” The abbot responded once more, “O you of little faith, why do you doubt?192 God is able to make it amble as much as we like.” And he began to urge it on with his heels. Forgetting its usual gait, it took clear steps, ambling properly, as long as the man of God was on its back. But the brother, full of wonder about the miracle he had seen, told his brothers, after he got back home, what had happened on the journey,193 and how the abbey’s father had made the riding-horse amble. And everyone was amazed.194 Chapter XXIV

One day he lay on his sickbed, kept there by the suffering of a very great illness.195 While he was reflecting on the course of his life, on Sunday night, tormented by a more serious pang of illness, he invoked his lady the blessed Geneviève, whom he loved with all the longing of his heart, to remember him and undertake to pray to the Lord for him. When he fell asleep for a little while, she pitied her faithful servant and appeared to him, standing at the foot of the bed on which he lay. And with a joyful face and gentle words she comforted him, saying, “Do not be afraid, for we have a good Master.”196 He recognized her by the gladness of her face, and began to thank her for coming, asking who that master was. She said to him, “Jesus, the Son of God.” Then the man of the Lord, hearing the Son of God named, exulted the more, as much as sleep allowed. He awoke after a little while, and feeling that he was restored to health by the prayers of the virgin St Geneviève, he

380

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt

blessed God, who does not abandon those who trust in him,197 but is always wondrous in his saints.198 Indeed, the Lord deigned to work many other miracles through him which are not written in this book,199 because either they were consigned to oblivion by carelessness and were not kept in remembrance, or because they seemed incredible to those who would detract from his holiness. But now let my pen turn to his glorious passing; when and how he departed from this world to the Lord should be told briefly. Chapter XXV

Seven years before his departure from this world to the Father, in a vision one night, a man with a worthy aspect, venerable white hair, and a comely face,200 stood by him and said, “You will live seven days.” Very concerned about his vision, but full of the Spirit of the Lord,201 he passed through the seven days unharmed, and concluded that by “seven days” were meant either seven weeks, or seven months, or seven years, which was the truest answer, as the end of the matter confirmed. So he disciplined his body and reduced it to submission.202 Although he had loved the Lord God before with all the devotion of his heart, and had closely followed his commandments with constant observance, yet from that time to the end of his life he so crucified his flesh with its sins and desires,203 that in comparison with his later life, the life he led before would have been considered soft and luxurious. For who saw him praying without tears flowing down his cheeks?204 And when he celebrated divine service at the altar, offering the holy mystery to God, he was so set on fire, he wept so, as if he saw the sufferings of the Lord present in the flesh. It is lengthy to express in words with how many vigils, fasts and constant prayers he afflicted himself and made himself ready as an offering to the Lord. The Lord added yet more to try the endurance of his servant205 and to purify him as gold in the furnace,206 by so filling his body with sores that from the soles of his feet to the top of his head there was no health in him.207 But, knowing that strength is made perfect in weakness,208 he bore everything patiently, and said, “If we have accepted good things from the Lord’s hand, why may we not endure the evil things?”209

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt



381

Chapter XXVI

Meanwhile, seven years of extraordinary abstinence and mortification of the flesh had almost passed. When Quadragesima210 arrived, which must be observed by all the faithful with holy devotion, the man of the Lord thought again, with a careful mind, about his last days211 and the struggle of his ending. Although he did not yet know the day and hour of his release,212 knowing that the boundary which he had not been able to pass was drawing nearer,213 he celebrated the sacrifices of our Lord Jesus Christ daily with the greatest contrition of heart, shedding of tears, and great reverence, and he fortified himself by the most holy partaking of his body and blood. On the Wednesday preceding the day of the Lord’s Supper,214 when he was resting in his room with some of the brothers who had come to him to talk together, the prior complained to him and the other brothers that he had never endured a harder night. But the man of the Lord replied, “I don’t recall having ever had a better night, for I saw my Lord Jesus Christ. Two others were with him,215 and I was third; with them I experienced indescribable happiness.” To this the prior said, “Perhaps, holy father, the Lord has come in this visitation to call you to himself, as he promised you before you came to the regions of Dacia.” Sighing and with flowing tears, he responded to the prior’s answer, “Let it be done to me according to your word.”216 Chapter XXVII

On the next day, which is called the Lord’s Supper, he went to the altar to celebrate the holy rites. After the absolution of his disciples was completed in the usual way, and they had received Communion from his own hands, and the Mass was celebrated, he went out with the other brothers in order to receive Christ among the poor,217 and performed the washing of their feet with great devotion. When that was done, he went inside to eat a last meal218 with his disciples, imitating in this the Lord’s example. O happy meal, which was more illuminated by the presence of so great a father than enriched by the pleasures of dining! Who can put into words what a glad countenance, what a joyful face the holy man showed to all who took part in that meal? In a wondrous manner, already some foreshowing of future joy was represented in his face,

382

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt

which could be recognized by the overflowing gladness, more than usual, which was seen in him. Now, for the Supper, the divine mercy had entered into its dwelling place, made ready for it.219 Now the Holy Spirit had filled all his inner being,220 and rested thus in the chamber of his heart like the Bridegroom in his marriage chamber.221 It was now being shown in his flesh, visible to the eyes of the body, with what a great joy of exultation his soul exulted in the Lord his God,222 because of the glorification of the recompense to come, which the Lord had determined to give him, even as he deigned to reveal it in a vision to one of his disciples, a man of righteous life, Gerard by name, more than twelve years earlier. For the aforesaid canon was resting on his bed one night, when an aged man called out loudly, “Arise, follow me!”223 The canon, following him, was led to unknown places. At last, coming to an open space that was very large, and pleasant with flowers, they entered a house of wondrous size, built of blocks of marble. But the tongue of the one who saw it could not express how great the brightness, how great the sweetness of the fragrance, how great the wondrous joy was in that house. A seat was set there, adorned with precious jewels and purest gold.224 On the middle of the seat a golden crown was laid, ornamented with most precious stones,225 but still incomplete. Around the seat were sitting four men in white robes,226 preparing thin plates of gold227 with precious stones for the completion of the crown. And when this brother, filled with wonder and as it were rapt in a trance, was silently observing what was shown to him, his guide addressed him in these words, “Do you know whose seat or crown this is?” When he said that he didn’t know, the other said, “Your abbot became worthy of this seat at the time of his conversion from the world to the Lord, when he left houses and wealth and the glory of this world for Christ,228 and denied himself, taking up his cross by following the Redeemer. He will be crowned with the crown when it has been completed by the many hardships and harsh persecutions which he has manfully endured, and will yet endure,229 for the sake of the observance of the order. What James the apostle says will be fulfilled in him, Blessed is the man who suffers temptation, for when he has been tested, he shall receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love him.”230 After he got up from the meal, he wanted to wash the feet of his disciples,231 but he was not allowed to, being stricken with very great pain in his side. Sitting down again, he prayed thus, “Lord God, may your will be done in all and through all, you who are blessed forever!232

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt



383

Let your face shine on your servant, and save me, and do not confound me in what I long for.233 Do not cast me off in my old age; when my strength has failed, do not leave me.”234 When his weakness continued and grew greater, he was led away to lie down, and suffered in great torment for the rest of the day and half of the following night. After that, because in him the grace of God was not in vain,235 the pain was relieved, and a mild fever took hold of him. When his bodily powers began to fail on the Vigil of Easter, the brothers who had come together to visit him asked him to provide for himself and be anointed with the holy unction. He said to those who were persuading him about these things, “My state is not what you think; in my body I feel no pain and no weakness within. I would like a bed for myself to be made in the choir, so that I could be part of the ministry of the coming night of the Lord’s Resurrection.” When they replied that he could not endure the singers’ voices at all, he concluded, “Then let us do what is better.” O venerable, unchangeable devotion of so great a man to the service commemorating God’s death, which could be diminished neither by the outcome of any event nor by the trouble of such great weakness! While he was thus in this struggle, brothers were assigned to watch in vigils to keep him safe. So on the holy night of the Lord’s Resurrection, the man of God, rightly concerned about his passing, called one of those standing near him and said, “You know, my son, that the new solemn feast day, which should be venerated by all people, has come; so we must put on new clothing. Bring me the clothing which you have, so that I may put it on.” Understanding what clothing the abbot was talking about, he brought him a new haircloth garment, and removing the old one, clothed him in the new one. Since he was very weak, he was again advised by his guardians that he should make use of the liquid of the holy oil. He said to those who were persuading him about these things, “By the gift of my Lord Jesus Christ, I shall await the light.” Chapter XXVIII

Meanwhile the whole community followed the Vigils and Lauds of the glorious night. When the third reading had come to an end and the third responsory, Dum transisset sabbatum,236 had begun, one of the guardians came running quickly, saying that William would depart soon. When the darkness of night was driven away, the dawn of the

384

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt

holy light shone red, for which the man of God had promised that he would wait. And while the responsory ut venientes ungerent Iesum237 was being sung, the prior, summoning some of the brothers, left the choir, carrying the holy oil with which he would anoint the venerable father, who was now in his last struggle. When they arrived, the holy man of God responded only this, very often, “Quickly, quickly!” When the anointing was finished, he was placed on ashes and haircloth, so that, according to the teaching of blessed Martin, he might die on ashes and haircloth as a Christian and a true Catholic.238 When that was done, released into a precious death, he breathed forth his spirit239 on the eighth day before the Ides of April, in the year 1202 from the Lord’s incarnation, in the ninety-eighth year of his age, but the fortieth year after he had undertaken the care of the Lord’s flock. And thus his soul, departing from the prison-house of the flesh, passed from sorrow to joy, from toil to rest, from the world to the Lord.240 But his spiritual sons carried the body of their venerable father into the holy church with hymns and songs,241 with groans and tears, and placed it in the midst of the choir. When everyone was in their seats, they began the Te Deum laudamus, and the morning Lauds of the Lord’s Resurrection were completed by the tearful voices of the singers, yet with fitting reverence. Understand, reader, how wondrous God is in his saints:242 for the life of this man was not without glory, nor his death without grace, but very precious in God’s sight.243 For on that day the Lord took him to Paradise, to the place where that same Lord and Victor had risen from hell; and the one who had very often celebrated the rites of the Lord’s Resurrection with great solemnity, on that same day, with due honor, was joined to the angelic choirs. On the second day of Easter he was buried before the altar of St Thomas the apostle, which he had built. The lord abbot Thurkill of the church of blessed Mary at Esrum, with his monks, took charge of the ceremony for his funeral, and many priests and clerics hastened there with great devotion to take part in his funeral service. Even to this day in that place, our Lord Jesus Christ, to the praise and glory of his holy name,244 grants countless benefits, through the prayers of his glorious confessor, to those who seek him with their whole hearts.245 His is the honor and glory throughout endless ages of ages. Amen!246 O how great was the grief of all; how great, especially, were the laments of his disciples! Even though we were sure of the glorification of so great a

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt



385

father, yet, deprived of his presence, we were sorrowful as humans usually are. Our festive days were changed into grief, and our sabbaths into lamentation,247 although, if the strength of our sorrow allowed for reasoning, we should have rejoiced that the one whom we had as a teacher on earth, we would have as an intercessor in heaven. But blessed be God, who has transformed our sorrow into joy!248 For after the passing of our father, our young men saw visions and our old men dreamed dreams,249 through which we inferred that in a short while the Lord would exalt his saint. Chapter XXIX

There were two young men from the saint’s own household, located in different places, who in the very hour of his passing from this world, saw in a vision how he passed over to the joy of the angels. And even though these visions were slightly different, each of the two was full of faith, and worthy to be told and remembered. One of them, named Nicholas, was occupied with studying letters in the land of Germany, in the city of Hildesheim. In the same hour when the man of God laid aside the earthy weight of his body and was about to enter heaven, this man saw in a vision a person whom he did not know, clothed in a white robe,250 ascending to heaven, just as is usually done in pictures commemorating the Ascension of the Lord (where he is depicted as completely lifted up under shining white clouds, and only his feet are showing). So also this saint was lifted up beneath shining white clouds, and only his feet and the edges of his robe were seen. And when Nicholas was wondering at what he saw, with his eyes fixed on the sky, a man stood by him, saying, “Why do you wonder while looking at the sky? This man who has been lifted up into heaven is your abbot, who overcame in patience the persecutions of the world; for now he is crowned, because he lived faithfully in the commandments of the Lord.”251 He awoke, and, led by penitence, he returned to the monastery from which he had withdrawn after he forsook his vows. And presenting himself for correction, he made known the aforesaid vision to all. Chapter XXX

Such a vision of a glorified man was shown to the second person mentioned earlier, whose name was Gogmund, while he was staying

386

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt

at the abbey called Sorø.252 As the dawn of the Sunday of the Resurrection drew near, he saw in a vision, when nearly awake, a multitude of angels singing with most delightful sweetness. Among them, two angels shining with indescribable brightness were holding up, on the right and on the left, a man of mature age clothed in priestly robes. They held onto his arms, which rested on their shoulders, and were going forth to heaven. The devil was pursuing them, surrounded by a very large crowd of raging and screaming demons. When the holy angels had been received into heaven, the ancient Enemy, as if sorrowful, turned back with his followers the way he had come. But some of the demons followed at a slow pace, walking with a limp. The man who saw this vision, growing more bold, said to one who was going more slowly than the rest, “I adjure you by the Son of God253 to declare to me what these things are which I have seen.” Then he answered, regarding his questioner with a twisted face and averted eyes, “If you want to know, your abbot William was borne away from the world and carried off to heaven by a very great following of angels. However, we came to assert some of our claims on him; but after we suffered violence from the angels, we were thwarted in our purpose.” Arising early on the first day of the week,254 the aforesaid young man described his vision to his master, and to all who were with him. In answer they said, “Indeed, we believe that now he has fallen asleep, and his place is found in peace.”255 Ultimately the young man returned to our house, and made sure to tell the same to us in turn; and taking the religious habit in that very place, he began to serve God as a soldier. Chapter XXXI

Our Savior Jesus Christ, desiring to make known the signs of the virtues of his most beloved confessor William, whom he had clothed in the robe of immortality in heaven after his death,256 granted him the power to do the works, for those who were sick with various diseases, which he himself did, and greater than these.257 Thus many would praise his wisdom together, and it would not be blotted out forever and ever; the memory of him would not disappear, and his name would be sought after from generation to generation.258 Therefore, after he had slept with his fathers,259 the servant of God first began to shine with miracles, little by little, like the morning star

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt



387

in the midst of a cloud,260 among those who had disbelieved and envied him, in order that he might show that those who had defiled his reputation261 and disparaged his holiness, slandering his name,262 were liars. But after he became renowned among his neighbors, then he began to glow with greater and more frequent portents, as brilliantly as the sun shining at noon far and wide, to the praise and glory of his name who is the Maker of all the saints. From the four corners of the earth came groups of people wanting to see the wonders which took place through him. He put demons to flight from possessed bodies, he healed the paralyzed, he restored sight to the blind, walking to the lame, hearing to the deaf, speech to the mute. Those who were bent over or crawling on their knees he lifted up to their proper state; he cleansed lepers, raised the dead, and recalled those nearly dead back to life from the jaws of death itself. And he not only healed human beings but animals too, even as the Lord multiplied his mercies with him.263 At the invocation of his name, the winds restrained their storms and the sea’s roughness grew calm. But after briefly commemorating these things, let us come to the miracles which we have either heard of or seen in the city of our God,264 that is, in the Paraclete, where William, the glorious confessor of God, rests. Chapter XXXII

When Abbot William, afflicted with old age, was still in his corruptible body,265 two teeth were pulled from his head. Giving them to Brother Saxo, he said, “Keep these teeth in your possession,266 and do not lose them.” He did as he was asked, unsure within himself267 why William had given him this command. But after the Lord took William from their midst,268 his surviving disciples hoped to share with one another something of his possessions or vestments, in memory of so great a father. Among these was the sacristan, named Brictius, who grieved that he had received none of William’s possessions except a leather band which he used to wear on his head. The brother to whom the teeth were given answered him thus as he grieved, “I will give you a gift which is not small but great, a precious pearl:269 that is, a tooth of our father, who loved you in his lifetime, not just as an individual but as a special friend.”270 Saying this, he handed over the tooth. The other gave him many thanks for the gift conferred on him, and held the tooth he received in

388

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt

great veneration, as he should. O how many benefits God conferred on mortals afterward through this tooth! If they were written down, the weak mind would not agree to believe in them at all. At that time there was in the abbey a scholar named Grimolf, almost fifteen years old, who was battling a fatal illness. One day, when he was thrown onto the ground by this illness and was rolling about, foaming at the mouth,271 Abbot Richard, the successor to the man of God, came there, and, moved by pity for him,272 said to the secretary who had come with him, “Do you see how miserably this clerk is tormented? Go quickly and wash the father’s tooth in water, and pour that water into his mouth, so that we can prove what power this tooth has in itself.” Obeying the abbot’s command, he fulfilled what he had been charged to do. When he wanted to pour the healing liquid into the mouth of the afflicted man, he could not, because the clerk had clenched his teeth together. So, taking up a small knife, he parted the clerk’s jaws and poured into his mouth the water he had brought. When the clerk, tasting the water, swallowed it, he began to howl and groan as if he had drunk boiling oil; but after a very short time he was still, as if he had fallen into a trance. When some hours had passed, his spirit revived, and he arose healed. For from then on that disease neither touched nor troubled him, nor did it bring any affliction on him. The servant of God did this first one of his signs after his death, in the sight of his disciples, and manifested his glory.273 Sweyn, son of Tholf, afflicted with a similar disease, obtained the same mercy. Chapter XXXIII

Again St William manifested the glory of his holiness in the village of Frisleve, and he showed it in this way. In that place there was a woman possessed by a very evil demon;274 to everyone who came to her to comfort her, she revealed the secrets of their hearts and accused them of their sins, just as the Enemy suggested them to her. A deacon who was in that village came to invoke the name of his God over her and cast out the demon.275 The woman saw him enter to see her; she was violently aroused to insults, and shouted, “Deacon, why have you come? Stay outside! You are not worthy to come under my roof.276 I know very well who you are and what you have done; I have knowledge of your ways.277 You are the one who stole a poor woman’s hen and plucked it, and you concealed the feathers

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt



389

and the wings under a hedge; and you ate it for dinner, thinking that your theft was hidden from me. Get away from me,278 most wicked one, get away! May your blessing be far from me!”279 The deacon, confounded by the reproaches hurled at him, returned to his home sadder than when he had come, conscious of the crime for which he was reproached. An administrator of the abbey’s property, who was from the family and house of the saint himself and who held a benefice in that town, abhorring this woman’s madness, came to the abbey and requested that water in which the saint’s tooth had been washed might be given to him. He asked and received it; returning, he gave it to the woman to drink. She drank, and when the unclean spirit was cast out, she was healed of her sickness.280 Not very long afterward, another woman in the same village was possessed by a demon, and was cured by the same remedy. Chapter XXXIV

While Brother Saxo was on a journey, when he was going through Methdeluse, the people of that village cried out to him, saying, “Sir, if you can do something, help us, have pity!”281 When he asked them what was the matter and what they wanted done for them, they answered, “There is a woman here named Estrid, who had so great an appetite for eating vegetable roots that she went into her garden and began to dig them out of the soil, and gnawed them greedily once they were dug out. When she had done this, at once an evil spirit came upon her, convulsing her.282 See, now we keep her tied up so that she does not kill herself or strangle her children. We beat her with rods and threaten to use bigger whips, but we are not doing any good; rather, we are heaping more pain upon pain.” Distressed by the woman’s misfortune, he ordered water to be brought to him. Signing the water with the tooth of St William which he had kept with him, and wetting the tooth in it, he called on the name of the Holy Trinity and of the saint himself; then he gave them the water to bring in and offer to the insane woman. When she had drunk the water they brought, soon the wicked foe, unable to bear the power of the holy liquid, reluctantly left the dwelling he had occupied, and the woman regained her former senses. The said brother, turning back after a little while, went down to the woman’s house to see how

390

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt

she was; he found her very much in her right mind, and praising God in his saint, who had shown his mercy to her.283 Chapter XXXV

In the same village, the wife of Vider was pregnant. The time for her childbearing was completed,284 but because of the difficulty of the birth, she could not bring forth. She was severely racked by pain, laboring in childbirth but not bearing, weakened but not dying. The woman, afflicted with such torments, was a cause of sorrow to all her people. Meanwhile the infant, shut up within its mother, lost its life, and the womb of the unhappy mother became the tomb of her poor offspring. A corpse lay within a corpse, a dead person within a dying one, taken away before it was seen, buried before it was born. Fearing that his wife would die, her husband ran here and there, cornering everyone to see if he could find any remedy for his dying wife. Finally he came to the abbey, found the sacristan, and asked him if he knew of any advice for so miserable a situation, either in writing or by medicine. The sacristan answered his question thus, “At this point there is no need of writing or medicine, but of the consent of God and the saints. If you hold fast to your faith,285 I believe I can give her the remedy of health. I will wash St William’s tooth in water, which you will bring to her to drink. If she has believed that she can be set free by his merits, after she tastes it she will escape the danger of death.” He did as he promised, and when he had instructed the husband well about faith,286 he sent him back to his own place with the healing drink. When he had returned home, he poured what he brought into the mouth of the woman, who was now very close to death from pain, and went out. Scarcely had he gone outside, and the holy liquid had flowed down to the woman’s hidden parts, when she bore a decomposed fetus, something many people had not heard of. When she had seen this, taking a breath, she cried, “If it was going to happen this way for me, why did I have to conceive? O Lord, behold and see if there is sorrow like my sorrow!287 Yet I thank you, for you have set me free from the danger of death by the merits of your confessor, William.” Her neighbors, hearing that such a miracle had happened in her, rejoiced with her,288 giving praises to God and to St William which were no less for the second miracle than for the first.

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt



391

Chapter XXXVI

One time when Brother Saxo (already frequently mentioned) had come to Iulike and was admitted to the guesthouse, a man possessed by a demon came in, raging and gnashing. Such great madness tormented him that quite often he left his dwelling and lived among the beasts as a beast.289 The entire household, fearing his scoffing, was upset at his entrance. The brother, looking at the madman, said, “Do you want something to eat?” Mocking and raving, he replied, “You eat!” To this reply the brother said in turn, “Do you want something to drink?” And the other asked for water to be brought to him. Because there was a delay in bringing the water, he took some whey which was at hand, and dipping St William’s tooth in it, he gave it to the madman. When the other drank it, it became sweet as honey in his mouth.290 So he said to the giver, “What you gave me is good; please give me more.” And when he had drunk a second and a third time, the spirit of delusion was driven out, and he regained control of himself. On the next day, he followed this brother to the abbey, and glorifying God,291 he rendered thanks to William, his deliverer, teaching everyone by his own experience that he is mighty, and holy is his name.292 Chapter XXXVII

One time when our brother lord Peter, bishop of Roskilde,293 was with us, and in the evening sat down for supper, his servants, who were carrying in the things necessary for eating, brought him a message, saying, “Blessed be God! Now we have seen with our own eyes a burning wax candle, like a shooting star from heaven, descend upon the tomb of St William, and the roof of the church made a way through for it as it descended.” One messenger after another came in, about the same vision.294 Then the venerable priest, with his eyes raised to heaven, blessing God, began to speak thus, “I can scarcely put faith in the miracles which are said to happen at the tombs of some people whose life and ways I knew when they were living in the flesh, unless it is because the Lord is mighty to exalt and glorify whomever he wills, as much as he wills, and in any way that he wills.295 But there isn’t the smallest amount of doubt in my heart about the works of power being done by this holy

392

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt

man. I have examined his life, which was so excellent in all things that hardly anyone could adequately admire the contrition or compunction of his heart, the humility of his mind, the purity of his conscience, his great charity toward friends and foes, and his extraordinary generosity to the poor, even when in the midst of very great poverty himself. Therefore, I will praise his name diligently,296 and extol it in faith, for his good things are established in the Lord, who himself will be an eternal reward for him.”297 Chapter XXXVIII

A woman, poor in possessions but rich in faith,298 presented herself at the tomb of St William to ask for the grace of health from him. As we saw, she had a belly so swollen by the great size of a tumor that she could scarcely wear a belt three ells in length.299 After getting permission to go in to the tomb of the man of God, she came inside, with tears and prayers, when the brothers went out for their meal. As they received bodily food, she was renewed by spiritual food; for in the space of an hour she was cured of her sickness,300 as if the confessor of the Lord had answered her while she prayed, “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.”301 O how firm was the faith of the infirm woman, how full of merit, how swiftly rewarded! When the brothers returned into the church to give thanks, she was found there, so slim and slender that she could hardly be believed to be the same person; she retained no trace of her tumor or swelling. When she was asked if she had suffered any rupture in her body, inside or outside, through which the harmful fluid or matter had drained, she denied feeling any rupture or pain in her healing, but said that the swelling had subsided, even as it pleased him who had made her well. In remembrance of this deed, and to increase the faith of others, the belt which she had used, of the length written above, was hung up. So, the signs were compelling, and praises were given to God, and he was glorified by all for the miracles which he had done on behalf of his servant’s merit. The wonders increased day by day; the flask of oil (lechitus) in the house of God did not fail but increased,302 the alabaster box of ointment was dripping,303 there was a heavenly fragrance of balm.304 Crowds of sick people quickly gathered together, and obtained the rewards of his good deeds.

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt



393

Chapter XXXIX

Our father St William was of such great and memorable sanctity in his life; the wonders of the following miracles will declare this, even as the previous ones have. For, in order that he might show to the poor many kinds of the good deeds of his tenderness, frequently and in public, he grieved very often in visions to the brothers and to other people that he was enclosed in a narrow place, because he was buried in the middle of the choir of a small wooden church which could accommodate only a few people besides the brothers. And he said that therefore he was no help to them, nor could he confer on others the grace of the health which they hoped for, as long as he was confined there and forbidden the approach of the people. In the seventh year after he rested from his labors,305 the sanctuary of a new and larger church, built of bricks (ex tegulis), was completed, and the brothers’ choir was relocated there, far removed from the tomb of the man of God.306 The wooden church was left for the pilgrims, the sick people, and those arriving from this place and that to venerate him. On the vigil of the Ascension of the Lord, such a throng of people gathered that after the church was full, the entire courtyard could scarcely hold the others. Then, from vespers until the Mass of the following day, fourteen miracles occurred; on the next Sunday there were four, and also on the feast of Pentecost, during the whole day there were four or five. Indeed, at the following feast of St Botolph the abbot, which is celebrated eight days before the feast of St John the Baptist, when the high altar would be dedicated in honor of blessed Thomas the Apostle by Peter, the venerable bishop of Roskilde, so many and such great wonders happened that no one was able to keep track of them, except for him from whom nothing is hidden. For the sick were being healed on the road by which they were coming, and in the forest far from the monastery, where the servant of God had sat or walked. O how much joy and exultation307 there was among all the people, who saw the great and wondrous works of God308 that were being done by his saint! The church was resounding, even the courtyard was resounding, the forest also was resounding with the voices of those praising and saying, “This is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”309 We also paid the duty of our servanthood, singing and making music to the Lord with heart and mouth,310 because he is good, because his mercy endures forever,311 and because the Dayspring from on high has visited us312 and has raised up a horn of salvation

394

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt

for us in the house of his servant David.313 Then we remembered his own words, with which he encouraged us during his lifetime when we complained about our poverty. For he used to say to us, “Be patient, for God in his salvation will yet visit you,314 and your storehouses will be filled with abundance,315 and this place will be very glorious.”316 Chapter XL

A woman from Copenhagen, named Olava, had sore eyes since her infancy, and because of this she had become blind. Hearing of the reputation of the holy man, which was renowned everywhere, she came to his tomb, asking with tears and prayers that she might be worthy to receive light. She sought and obtained what she wished; for while she was devoting herself to prayer, her eyes were opened,317 so that she saw all things clearly. Chapter XLI

On the vigil of Pentecost, a young man twenty years old, destroyed by paralysis318 and deprived of every use of his limbs, was carried to the tomb by others’ hands and set down there. The tomb’s guardian was asked to show to the paralytic the healing liquid, that is, water in which the tooth of St William had been dipped. Fulfilling the prayers of those who asked, he gave them the curative water. Tasting it, the sick man received the use of his limbs, and all the joints became strong for their proper function. Chapter XLII

A woman from Bardeleue, named Ragnhild,319 had been blind since she came from her mother’s womb. Her darkness was the same as her light; she lacked the light of her eyes, but she flourished by the light of her heart. Being rooted and founded in faith by this,320 knowing that the Lord is near to all who call upon him in truth,321 with her brother as guide, she set out on a journey to St William. Since she had arrived there at night, she began to keep vigil in the cemetery itself. When she was sitting there resting from her toil, a great horror assailed her,322

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt



395

and fear and trembling came upon her.323 Because of this she became like someone in a trance: she stood up on her feet and made strange clapping sounds with her hands.324 After a little while she sank back to the ground, and then stood up again. Because she was impelled to act this way so often, her brother, who knew she had conceived a child and was pregnant, was very afraid that, by such great efforts of hers, she would miscarry or smother what she carried in her womb. So he turned to the Lord and to his saint, and began to pray humbly for her. Since the eyes of the Lord are indeed upon the righteous, and his ears hear their prayers,325 the infant in her womb was kept safe, and the woman received light by the merit of the man of God. For her night was changed into light, and in the darkness of that time, she lost the darkness of her eyes. Chapter XLIII

Andrew, a priest from Suntbe, was in danger because of long-standing pain in his eyes. He feared he would lose the light of his eyes, and be subject to the dark of night for always. So with a contrite heart and a humbled spirit,326 he pledged that he would go to St William. Having the hope of recovering his health, and knowing that foolish and untrustworthy vowing displeases God,327 he went on the journey to fulfill his promise. And because the saint’s power intended to heal him,328 while he was coming on his way the darkness was removed, and his eyes began to grow clear and regain their lost sight. Arriving at the tomb of the man of God, he made known this miracle to all, blessing God, who had given them such an advocate for the healing of his people. Chapter XLIV

Five days before the feast of blessed John the Baptist, citizens of Roskilde left their city and came to St William. A mute man accompanied them, a good merchant named Ketil, a Norwegian by country. Satan had bound his tongue for eleven years, and he could not say anything. After he entered the church, the evil spirit troubled him; he was forced down and fell to the ground.329 He got up again frequently, but with an unstable footing he could not stand. He was turning himself on his sides and rolling from one place to another. He was falling on his face,330 he

396

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt

was dashed against stone,331 wherever the attack carried him. Injured and badly cut by his frequent falling, he was throwing off his clothing. He seemed to have come for his own harm, for he was thought to be mad—the one whom divine power was arranging to heal in this way. On Sunday night, when Matins had already been sung, the binding of his tongue was loosened, and he spoke plainly,332 glorifying God. The people came running toward this godly and glorious sight, as full of joy as it was worthy of wonder. The people from Roskilde came running to see Ketil speaking, whom they had known to be mute for so long. At last he was presented to the brothers, and set before the prior. When the prior asked him where he came from and how he had lost his speech, he answered, “I was born in Norway; when I fell asleep in a field eleven years ago, I lost my speech; I fell asleep healthy, I awoke mute.” As he answered these things, a noble matron, in whose house he had been a guest for two years, bore witness to his words, along with many others who had come for the feast day. Chapter XLV

On St Nicholas’s Day, a certain peasant from Lucethorp came to us with his deaf and mute son, aged twelve. The father had put him in charge of his sheep; as the shepherds’ custom is, he had lain down on a small hill and fallen asleep, but when he awoke from a heavy slumber, he had become deaf and mute. On his son’s behalf, he asked us to admit his son to the holy tomb. We agreed to what he asked, and the guardian of the tomb, taking the tooth of St William, put it in water and poured the water on the ears and mouth of the boy, saying, “I command you in the name of the Lord333 and by the power of St William, that you tell us what your name is.” At this word of command to him, the boy’s mouth was immediately opened and his hearing restored at the same time, and he answered, “Peter.” After this, being asked more things, he answered each one freely. When they saw these things, they rejoiced with great joy,334 praising God in his saint, who has made the deaf hear and the mute speak.335 Chapter XLVI

Another time, an eight-year-old boy was presented, whom his mother’s womb had brought forth into this light both deaf and mute.

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt



397

In the church at that time there was a very large multitude of people, whom the rumor of something new had attracted. So a brother, taking that universal and effective remedy for the ailing and sick, put it into the mouth and ears of the boy, saying, “By the power of St William, I order you to say after me the words which you hear me speaking.” Commanded by the power of the holy confessor, he soon began to receive the two senses denied him from the beginning of his birth, that is, his hearing and speech. When the brother began the Lord’s Prayer, he spoke word after word in a distinct and intelligible voice, although he stammered while forming and uttering the words. But those who had brought him stood stunned, wondering at the things that were coming from his mouth.336 Chapter XLVII

On one feast, when countless people of both sexes had come together to our saint, a woman had in her arms her infant girl, in whose eye an immense sore had grown, horrible to see. Coming with her daughter to the brother who took care of the sick, she asked him to pour a drop of the holy liquid on the eye of her poor child. Inclining his ear to the woman’s petition,337 he fulfilled her request, and in addition, applied the holy tooth to the swelling. Wonderful to tell, at once the skin below the eye burst as if pierced with iron, and the swelling collapsed, yielding to the presence of the relics. The diseased matter did not stop flowing until the eye was opened, and in clarity of sight it was like the unhurt eye. And all the people, as they saw it, gave praise to God.338 Chapter XLVIII

As the miracles became more frequent and the fame of the confessor grew, a woman racked by many pains took refuge in his help. She humbly entreated the saint to commend her, by his prayers, to the Lord, so that he would deliver her from her misery in the way that he knew would be right for her. Keeping night vigils in the church, she was overcome by a light sleep and laid her head down on the desk on which the saint, during his life, used to lean while devoting himself to prayer. She saw the confessor of the Lord standing by her and saying, “Woman, return to your home, for you cannot be cured now. Yet your

398

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt

salvation is in the hand of the Lord; after you have endured a very little time339 in your sufferings, you shall be set as a living stone in the heavenly building.”340 When she awoke at these words, the woman was made more joyful by the promise than she would have been if she had lost her bodily pains. She told what had been said to her to those who stood around her; and understanding that the decree of God is unchanging, she returned to her home, and with the greatest devotion, made ready for the end of her life. Chapter XLIX

I do not think I should be silent about something which is not very different from the previous story. There was a man, weak in his limbs and almost delirious, in the village of Annisse, which is near the abbey. Wishing to obtain comfort from the saint for his sickness and weakness, he came to his tomb. When he had continued there for five days in prayer and weeping, that he might see divine help come upon him,341 he yielded to sleep. The confessor of God appeared to him as he slept, saying, “Why do you lie here? You will not have healing in this place. However, when you return to your home, you will recover your health; but for you, it will not last long.” When he heard these things, the man’s heart was troubled, his bones trembled, and sleep was taken from his eyes.342 Starting up, and remembering his vision, he made known to us what he had heard, not without great contrition of heart. Therefore, he returned to his own dwelling, having been instructed that divine Providence does not err in its arrangements. Not long afterward, when he had become stronger, he took an axe and went into the forest to cut wood. While he was applying himself very eagerly to his task, the oak on which he was working fell on him; his limbs were crushed, and he died. But what the reason was that he was allotted such a death is not mine to discuss, for the judgments of God are a great deep.343 Chapter L

In the same village lived two women struggling with different illnesses: one had lost the light of her eyes,344 but the other was being

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt



399

devastated by sacer ignis345 in part of her body. They poured out unremitting prayers346 to God for their deliverance, and pledged themselves to St William with a vow,347 so that they might gain deliverance from such great calamity through his supporting merits. As they continued thus in prayer, the one whose eyes had been darkened348 saw in a vision that she was going to St Thomas’s abbey as if on pilgrimage, and she met St William on the way, clothed in a cloak349 and carrying in his hand a holy water vessel (aspersorium) with blessed water. When she saw him, she was so frightened that she hardly dared to ask who he was. Nevertheless, she said to him, “Who are you, lord?”350 He said to her, “Take heart, daughter!351 I am Abbot William, whom you have invoked very often, and now I am going to the woman in your village who is troubled by the stinging fire, for she cries out to me the whole day long.352 In the meantime, go to my resting place,353 and there await my coming.”354 In the same hour she awoke healed, having regained the light of her eyes, and in the other woman the fire which gives no light, yet consumes, was quenched. In short, even as both were cured at the same time by divine compassion, so they came to the tomb of the confessor of God at the same time, fell to the ground at the same time,355 arose at the same time, and after giving thanks, at the same time proclaimed to everyone the glorious miracles worked upon them. They did not do this alone; their fellow villagers also gave testimony to their cure, with great joy. Chapter LI

A priest from Scania356 named Reiner, from Hardekeir, afflicted with sacer ignis357 in his tongue, was ill and near to death, for the disease was very severe.358 He had once been a disciple of St William, but after forsaking his vows, he lived among worldly people in a worldly manner. When death was now at the door359 and the end of his life was hastening on, he sent his son to the monks of the Church of All Saints, to bring back a brother to him who would provide him the ministry of confession and anointing, and clothe him in the habit of his religious profession. In the meantime, coming to himself,360 and considering again in his mind with what great glory the Lord has exalted his holy saint William, he was pierced to the heart, because he had not made reparation

400

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt

to William either when he was alive in the flesh or when he was glorified after laying his flesh aside. He said within himself, “Holy father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; now I am not worthy to be called your son.361 But have mercy on my sins!362 If  you visit me with some grace of healing before my messenger has come back, I will return to your house, and strive to make amends for the wrongs I have done.” In his heart, he promised righteousness, and lo, divine compassion, which always is at hand for the penitent, was present for him, and delivered him as he invoked his saint. Suddenly the stinging fire was quenched, the swelling in his mouth burst, and matter mixed with blood streamed forth, as if someone had pressed the tongue with his fingers. After he was made well, he came to the saint, telling us how much the Lord had done for his soul.363 But in spite of this, he put off renewing his religious vows. For he was one of those who cry to the Lord in the time of their tribulation,364 and when they have been delivered, they return to their wickedness;365 and that wrong is worse than the former one.366 Chapter LII

A girl in the village of Gherluse367 was tormented by the same disease. She had already stopped speaking, and was awaiting her last hour. In the same village there was a cleric named Lawrence who loved her tenderly.368 Distressed in his soul more than the rest about the death of the one he loved, he hurried to the abbey, and after obtaining the curative water, he quickly returned and very carefully poured the healing liquid which he had brought into the mouth of his beloved, and smeared the swollen tumor with it. When that was done, the cause of the disease was destroyed, and the woman recovered from her illness.369 Chapter LIII

But which is easier:370 to give health of the mind or of the body? He who healed many in body, healed in mind a woman from the city of Ribe. She had been insane for many weeks after giving birth, and had inflicted an unexpected wound of grief on her husband, her mother

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt



401

and sister, and her other friends. By these people she was dragged to the saint with her hands tied behind her back; although she was struggling and protesting, she was brought before the saint. When she was led into the church, she filled the church with her shouting by multiplying blasphemous words,371 and was raving there all day and all night; yet at the return of the light of the sun, she obtained the gift of the light of reason. When released from her bonds, she redid her hair by parting it (discrimen imposuit capillis suis); when clothed in her apparel, she brought joy to her kinsfolk. At the morning Mass she received Communion from the hand of the priest, and she who been brought there in sorrow now returned home sane, with joy. Chapter LIV

A man named Bernard was heading in a boat to the market in Scania. While he was voyaging on the sea, a hawk which he was holding on his hand escaped and flew away. On the next day, when he put into port and had sat down to eat, he heard from those sitting with him that unheard-of miracles were happening in their own time, through St William. Moved by this, and distressed in his heart until then because of the loss of his hawk, he burst out with these words, “St William, return my hawk to me, and I will give you a mark’s worth of wax.” As the words ended, by divine command, the hawk arrived and perched right before him. Astonished by the rarity of so great a miracle, he made no delay about paying the saint what he had vowed,372 giving praise to the Most High, who has given such power to human beings. Chapter LV

Our confessor is great, and his power is great, and there is no numbering of his miracles!373 A woman named Cecilia, from the village of Ekebe, whose limbs were utterly wasted by paralysis, was brought to his tomb. She was lying down, completely powerless in her hands, feet, and entire body. She seemed to have no sign of life except what movement there was in her eyes. She was carried, with the help of two or three people, to whatever place her body’s need called her, because she could not turn herself from side to side. She could neither close her open hands nor stretch out her closed hands; she could not retract

402

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt

her extended feet, nor extend her feet when they were drawn up close to her. From the ninth hour to vespers she lay there, awaiting God’s mer374 cy. Then at first she began to tremble, and in a short time, to move her head. Then she felt her legs and feet recover from their insensitivity, her sinews grow warm, and her whole body, except her right arm, restored to some ease of movement. So she sensed and perceived that she was made well by the manifest power of God, except for her right arm, which remained withered, for her amendment. Full of joy, she sat up on the spot, and with tears springing from happiness, she approached his tomb to give thanks to the saint. A shout went up from the people,375 and God on high was praised,376 who granted to his saint William so great a grace of healing. But the woman was confused about why her arm nevertheless remained withered and she did not attain complete health; and the brother who was the guardian of the tomb wondered about this. So he asked her to return the following Sunday, and to entreat earnestly the mercy of the Lord and of his saint for the restoration of her arm. The woman kept the words of his request in her heart,377 and returned the following Sunday; but she went away in the same state as she came. On the holy day of Pentecost she returned again, but did not receive the hearing of her request. The guardian of the tomb, surprised that the woman had come so many times and yet her labor was in vain, said to her, “Woman, examine your conscience and search more carefully, to see if there is any wicked way in you,378 and confess it, so that you may be healed.” She obeyed these sensible words, and after returning home, she set before the eyes of her heart the secrets of her conscience, carefully investigating by what transgression she was still considered liable to punishment. At last she remembered that she had committed some wrong which she had never confessed to anyone. Then, groaning and giving way to copious tears, she went back to the saint of God. After finding the brother who was guardian of the tomb, she fell down before him,379 saying, “Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner!380 Indeed I have sinned greatly, nor have I tried to make amends; but hear me, although I am repenting late, and pray for my sins!” When she had confessed to the aforesaid priest the wrongdoing which she had concealed, and made a solemn promise to amend her life, she suddenly received the healing of the withered arm. Seeing that she had regained the health of her whole body, she exclaimed, full of thanksgiving, “Return to the Lord our God, for he is kind and merci-

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt

 403

ful, patient and very merciful, and is exalted over evil.”381 The feast of St John the Baptist was on the same day, and a very great multitude of both sexes had gathered. When they heard what had happened, they glorified God, who had only scourged the woman in her body so that he might purify her soul of sin. O man of great piety, by whose prayers a woman was set free from all loss, as much of the soul as of the body! O extraordinary prodigy! For since the soul is a more powerful part of a human being than the body is, so much more glorious a miracle is its cure. Truly this was accomplished through our confessor, and it is marvelous in our eyes.382 Chapter LVI

There was a young man in Gotland named Ligner; he was very wealthy, but a leper. He wanted to pay a great deal to doctors, to human beings in whom there is no healing,383 in order to cleanse his body; but there was no one who would help him.384 Perceiving at last that human deliverance was in vain,385 he came to us after crossing the sea in the hope of obtaining bodily health, because it is good to be close to God, and to put one’s hope in the Lord God.386 The foul leprosy had infected his hands, arms, feet, legs, and entire body. At his request, he remained with us for some time, eagerly participating in the vigils and prayers, and washing and refreshing himself very often in the healing water. After doing this, according to the merit of his faith he grew better from day to day, as the infection of leprosy disappeared. He returned again to his country, and was fully cured. Before, he had been someone to be shunned by all because of the stench; afterward, he had fellowship with human beings and lived with them. We had witnesses of his cure: his fellow parishioners and his priest, who testified that after his flesh was made whole and flourishing,387 no sign of leprosy remained in him. Chapter LVII

Truly the Lord is glorious in his saint, and worthy of praise,388 in his saint’s works. God compassionately came to the help of a girl named Inghefrit from Nordenberge, from the village of Lungbe, infected by a very serious case of leprosy, and blinded in her left eye. In the house of his confessor William, he restored her sight and partly cleansed her

404

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt

from leprosy. After she obtained the gift of so great a benefit to her parents, to whom she had been the cause of very great sorrow, she was returning to her own place; she was completely cleansed during that return, and brought back an occasion for unexpected joy. The next year she came back with her mother, with the leprosy completely gone, in order to give thanks for such a great benefit to St William, who had delivered her body from destruction.389 At her return, those who had seen her before were astounded, for her face was so changed, the leprosy so blotted out, the flesh so blooming. The priest John and her mother proclaimed their testimony, for by the merits of St William she had been cleansed from her leprosy. Chapter LVIII

The hand of the Lord was very heavy390 upon a woman named Tonna, from Halland,391 spreading leprosy throughout her whole body and hurting her flesh with a painful ulcer. Everyone who saw her cast her off, for from the soles of her feet to the top of her head there was no health in her.392 The woman heard of the confessor’s renown, and learned about many of his miracles. So she hastened to go to him, so that she might show deference to him according to her heart, and fulfill her desire; and it would happen to her according to her faith.393 When she had arrived at the place, she prostrated herself in prayer next to his tomb, and cried out, with all her heart, to the Lord to have mercy on her.394 The Lord heard her and had mercy; the Lord became her Helper.395 For as she got up from her prayer, the leprosy fell from her body in the sight of all, as scales (scame) do from a fish. And all who saw it blessed the Lord, saying “that today we have seen wonders.”396 Chapter LIX

A crippled woman from Norway, twenty-six years old, was brought to us. With the help of her family she had sought the thresholds of many saints, so that, by the favor of the saints, the Author of nature,397 to whom all nature is subject, would grant her the ability to climb steps, when nature had denied this to her. But God delayed granting health to her through others, so that he might become the cause of praise and glory for William, his saint. The woman approached the harbor

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt

 405

of salvation, that is the tomb of the man of God, and decided in her heart that she would neither release her spirit from prayer nor depart elsewhere, until he would make her feet and her steps firm.398 After fifteen days, when the tendons had lengthened and the ankles of her feet were stretched out from her buttocks, our confessor set her feet upon a rock and established her steps.399 And all the people saw the crippled woman walking and praising God. They saw and rejoiced.400 Chapter LX

When very large crowds were gathering to St William, and were hastening to him from the cities, a woman crippled from birth, named Olava, from the town of Copenhagen, after they heard of the fame of the earlier miracle, was brought to the saint on the vigil of St John the Baptist. But because of the crowding of the people, she could not come into the church. So on the following night, around midnight, when she was sitting next to the church, and with rising tears was imploring most devoutly the saint’s favor for her deliverance, a man with venerable white hair appeared to her, saying, “Woman, go into the church.” But she said, “Sir, I lack the ability to walk, so I cannot go in because of the crowd. Nor do I have any person who could guide me into the church.”401 The elder said to her, “Crawl to the church’s gate which faces north; there you will meet a person with a grey cloak and a white cap, who will bring you in.” Cheered by these words, she crawled quickly, and when she had arrived at the gate, she found the person who had clothing such as the elder had told her. After she asked him, he carried her into the church. There, once received among the sick people trembling and falling here and there, she also began to tremble. When she did this, she knew that the day of her healing402 was near; yet she was anxious, because she had no ankle-length clothes (vestes talares), but only the short ones in which she usually crawled. And so she implored the saint in this way, “William, loving confessor of Christ, if you desire to confer on me the favor of health, please do not let me roll about on the pavement, for I am half-covered, lest my shame be laid bare403 and I become the laughing-stock of all the people.”404 She prayed, and it was done for her according to her prayer. For after the first Night Office was ended, when she was resting, she felt the tendons of her right leg relax, which had been contracted from her

406

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt

birth; and as they relaxed, they were stretched. After an hour, she felt the same thing in the tendons of the left leg. After a little while more, when her footing and steps were firm,405 she stood up on her feet, and what nature had not given, she learned by walking here and there for exercise. When this happened, it put into the mouth of the people a new song, a song to our God. For many saw and rejoiced, and hoped in the Lord.406 The witness for this woman was Absalon, dean of the church of blessed Mary in Copenhagen, with his brothers, and all the citizens of that town. Chapter LXI

It is memorable, and should be remembered among the faithful, that the favor of our most loving father preceded some people’s vow and impelled them to fulfill the vow; it followed the solemn promise of some people at once, with healing; to some it happened on their journey; some it helped at the entrance to the cemetery; it waited for others either in the church or at the tomb itself; it accompanied others as they went away. It held some back from help for a longer time, and at last restored them to health. A woman from the city of Lund, named Gude, had her ability to walk taken from her for twenty-five years by contracted and shortened tendons. She came twice to the saint, but nonetheless she did not obtain her prayer, or return whole. On the second day after the Ascension of the Lord, she came a third time, and until the vigil of Pentecost she devoutly awaited the mercy of God and of his saint, applying herself to vigils and prayers, always next to the tomb. The Lord regarded the lowliness of his servant,407 adding to her what she sought in prayer. For on the holy vigil of Pentecost, when the prophecies and the singing of the Glorias were finished, and the deacon proclaimed the Gospel, a very sweet sleep came upon her suddenly, and she heard a voice say to her, “Woman, arise! It is not right for Christians to be seated for the Gospel reading, but to stand with reverence, and to listen to what is being read.” Awakening, she looked at a woman who stood behind her, and asked her what she had said to her, and the other replied, “Nothing.” Understanding that this word had come from on high, she exulted more fully; and at once she felt her tendons stretch (though not without difficulty), her legs come to life, her flesh be restored, and the marrow

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt

 407

in her bones grow warm. So, after finding the penny which she had lost,408 she arose, filled with rejoicing, and giving praise; and before the Gospel reading had ended, she walked around the confessor’s tomb three times with firm steps, shouting her thanks with all her strength. But the people blessed the Lord with hymns and thanksgivings,409 who with the glory of so great a miracle had willed to anticipate the following day, on which Mount Sinai glowed with heavenly fire and the Holy Spirit descended upon Christ’s disciples in tongues of fire.410 Chapter LXII

Paul, son of Hemming, an eight-year-old boy from the village of Thortorp, went with his parents to the monks’ hostel at Asserbo. When they went into the meadow to harvest the hay, the boy stayed in the house. In the meantime, he went into the mill-house to lead the horse which turned the mill. He was thrown down by the force of the millwheel, and fell between a pillar and the millwheel itself, so that the horse could not move the mill. So he remained between the wheel and the pillar, with his back broken and his other limbs jammed together, from sunrise until the third hour. At that time eight men arrived, who turned the wheel backward with great difficulty, and got the dead boy out. Trying to see if he were still alive, the lady of the house, named Ingerith, turned him this way and that, and held him up in the air, but in vain: there was neither voice nor sensation in him, and he lay without the breath of life, such that everyone would say that he was dead.411 Finally the unfortunate parents came, wailing and crying, “Lord, have mercy! Oh, what has happened to us!” Kneeling, they cried out, “Glorious confessor of God, William, give us back our son!” Yet the boy did not arise, but remained dead that whole day and night until cockcrow. However, when at cockcrow they vowed that if the boy came back to life, they would offer him to God and to blessed William, his spirit revived,412 and he began to move, but he did not recover his speech until day. In the morning, as day grew bright, he said to his mother, “When are we going to St William?” The woman rejoiced and marveled, because he named a saint whom he had never heard named before. She answered, “My son, after eight days, on the feast of St Lawrence, if you live.” When the solemn festivity of the glorious martyr St Lawrence

408

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt

arrived, the boy’s father and mother came together, leading him with their hands; his limbs were now healed except for his back, where there was a wound with the skin still drawn back, where it had been broken. We inquired very carefully about the truth of this miracle, and we know, from their testimony and that of others who had been present, that indeed our confessor has raised him from the dead, and restored him to his parents.413 Chapter LXIII

The four-year-old son of a widow in Oreberghem was playing with other children next to a river; but by accident he fell down from the riverbank into the water. The  children who had been playing with him went home and told the mother that her son had fallen headfirst into the river. When she heard this, she ripped the clothing from her breast414 and tore hair from her head,415 crying and wailing, “O wretched me, O wretched me!”416 The neighbors gathered at this cry and ran to the place where the children said that he fell, but they did not find him at all. Descending the riverbank, they found him in a backwater of the river where the force of the current had rolled him. They pulled out the found boy, and when he was pulled out, they carried him home with grief and laments. They hung the boy up by his feet, which were pallid, and propped his mouth open by putting in some wood, so that the water with which he was filled would drain out. But because his spirit had departed,417 there was yet more labor and sorrow in this.418 Finally, they rolled him about on the bank, trying to recall him to life, but their efforts were in vain. Meanwhile the boy’s mother—now not a mother, for she was deprived of her son—poured out continual tears, uttered frequent sighs, and directed loud cries to God, and did not stop calling on St William to give her back her son. She was shaken by such great grief, affected by such great sorrow, that she stirred everyone up to mourning and lamentation; and everyone cried out together with her, “Holy confessor of God, show the power of your help toward our dead, although we are unworthy, that we may believe in your wonders, which have often sounded in our ears.” And the mother indeed made a vow, saying, “Saint of God, if I may obtain the return of my son, revived by your merits, I will offer to you half his inheritance, whatever movable goods belong to him; and I will bring him to you.”

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt

 409

The confessor was merciful and restored the woman’s boy to life. First, a sign of red coloring appeared in his face, and then he moved his eyes about, and there was great happiness in the house, and rejoicing took the place of the extremes of grief.419 The woman obtained joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing fled away420 from her. And everyone exclaimed, “O saint of God, we confess that you have been glorified in an awesome way; your works are wonderful, and we know this very well.”421 The next year, she visited St William with her son, and in the presence of all the brothers and of a multitude of people, she testified, along with the witnesses she had summoned, that her son had been dead, and was recalled from the dead by the merits of St William.

NOTES 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46

Dan. 14:28. Ps. 56:5. Jas. 3:6. Acts 7:54. Gen. 37:4. Rom. 3:13. Cf. Ps. 2:2. Acts 2:37. Wisd. 2:12 Ovid, Remedia amoris, 91–92. Judg. 2:19. Cf. John 11:48. Deut. 28:37. Apoc. 19:10. John 11:53. Cf. Rom. 1:21. Cf. Gen. 11:6, Job 5:27. 1 John 5:19. Matt. 25:13. Luke 14:33. Rom. 13:11. The wise virgins; see Matt. 25:7 ff. and 24:42–44. Cf. Eccles. 4:11, where fovere is used in a different sense. Ps. 19:10; NRSV translates “fine gold” instead of “precious stones”. John 4:17, Exod. 10:29. The Cluniac priory of Notre Dame de La Charité-sur-Loire. John 6:37. Cf. 1 Tim. 5:8, in which the second phrase reads: et maxime domesticorum, “and especially of those of his household.” Cf. John 13:27. Ps. 27:12, but NRSV translates: “they are breathing out violence.” Gen. 6:6. Cf. Gen. 39:19; but some later translations omit the idea of credulity. 1 Cor. 3:19, 1:19. Clerics below the order of deacon were not permitted either to give a homily or to proclaim the Gospel in the service. The text has nocte dominica, which here must mean the night between Saturday and Sunday. In the Iube domine (or domne) benedicere, the deacon who reads the Gospel asks for the priest’s blessing before the reading. Luke 11:14. Acts 3:10. Ps. 39:3 and Isa. 36:21. Luke 23:50–51. Luke 5:26. Luke 11:14. Jer. 2:5. Job 19:13. Ps. 69:11. Ps. 118:6.

NOTES 47 48 49 50 51

52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88



411

Ps. 73:28. Ps. 36:6. Sir. 37:16. 1 Sam. 12:25. Praepositura entailed temporal oversight of estates and payments belonging to the church. This may have meant that William lived away from Saint Geneviève for some time, since he was unaware of the later events involving the canons, as described in the next chapter. See “Præpositi”, Charles Du Cange et al., Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis (Niort: L. Favre, 1883–1887), t. 6, col. 462b. http://ducange.enc.sorbonne.fr/PRAEPOSITI: Munus ecclesiasticum in ecclesiis cathedralibus, ad quod ecclesiarum præstationes et reditus prædiorum recipiendi et administrandi cura pertinebat, ab Obedientia distinctum. O Christi pietas omni prosequenda laude, an antiphon associated with Vespers and often with St Nicholas, which continues, qui sui famuli merita longe lateque declarat, “which makes known far and wide the merits of his servant.” Ps. 69:13, Ps. 89:17. Ps. 31:18. 2 Cor. 11:28. Cf. Ps. 78:59. Job 3:25. Song of Sg. 7:12. The visit of Pope Eugene III to Paris is dated to 1147 in Moshe Sluhovsky, Patroness of Paris: Rituals of Devotion in Early Modern France (Leiden: Brill, 1998), 19. It must have taken place before June of that year, when Louis departed for the Second Crusade. Rom. 1:21. Cf. Isa. 33:17, although decus is translated there as “beauty.” Cf. Esther 6:9. Cf. Matt. 19:27. Ps. 79:4. Isa. 4:1. Rom. 12:19, Heb. 10:30. Ps. 52:3. Cf. Matt. 16:19. Cf. Gen. 16:6, Ps. 28:4. Ezek. 30:6. Matt. 21:41. Gilduin, abbot 1113–1155. Cf. Num. 11:4. In 1148; see Sluhovsky, Patroness of Paris, 19. See chapter II above, and John 11:47–50. Bar. 4:3. Ps. 77:10, Gen. 45:28. Acts 10:17. A conflation of Matt. 10:37 and Mark 10:29–30. Matt. 5:3 and part of 5:6. 1 John 2:15. Jas. 4:4. Sir. 5:7. Cf. Luke 14:33, 27. Cf. 2 Cor. 8:9. Lam. 1:11. Phil. 3:21. Cf. 2 Cor. 4:16.

412

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt

89 Cf. Ps. 8:5. 90 Ps. 92:5. 91 Isa. 26:12. 92 Cf. Matt. 19:24–26. 93 Cf. Matt. 4:18–20, Mark 1:16–18, Luke 5:1–11. 94 Cf. Acts 1:26. 95 Cf. Acts 9:15. 96 Cf. Ps. 84:7. 97 Cf. 1 Sam. 2:26. 98 John 14:21. 99 Luke 23:43. 100 Dacia, a combination of Dania and Suecia, was the name of the ecclesiastical province covering the entire Nordic region; Zealand (in Latin variously Selandia or Zelandia) is the island of Sjaelland in modern Denmark. 101 Gen. 25:8. 102 Cf. Ps. 6:10. 103 Cf. Esther 4:1. 104 Prov. 28:1. 105 Dum medium silentium tenerent omnia, cf. Wisd. 18:14, is the beginning of the Introit for the Sunday in the Octave of Christmas, appropriate to the time of year when the events described here occurred. 106 The Latin is in the singular, but “by the Bethlehem saints” was one of his favorite oaths. 107 In the appendix to the edition of the Vita, the Tractatus beati Guillermi de revelatione capitis et corporis beate Genovefe, chapter I, says that the year in which King Louis called the council was 1161, but does not indicate the month. Sluhovsky, Patroness of Paris, 21, says that King Louis’s investigation of the saint’s tomb took place on January 10, but does not give the year. The actual dating is complicated further by the question about when the new year officially began at this time and place. 108 Ps. 48:5–6. 109 Matt. 13:46. 110 Ps. 143:4. 111 Ps. 42:4. 112 Ps. 5:6. 113 The bishop of Orléans from 1146 to 1185 was Manassès de Garlande. However, the edition of the Vita S. Willelmi in PL 209.603, footnote 8, states that Manassès was not removed from his see. Other sources state that his predecessor Elias, after being accused of crimes, actually had resigned his bishopric and entered a monastery. Perhaps the writer of the Vita has confused the two. 114 The editor of the Vita cites variant MS readings for the year of William’s arrival and appointment as abbot and proposes 1166; 1165 has been suggested by others. King Valdemar I was not the son of the martyr King Canute IV (c. 1042–1086), but of the martyr Duke Canute Lavard (1096–1131), eldest son of King Eric I. His realm was Denmark, rather than all of Dacia. 115 Cf. Acts 16:17. 116 Cf. Sir. 51:26, Matt. 11:29. 117 Luke 24:19. 118 Then the capital of Denmark. 119 Sir. 32:18, Jer. 32:19. 120 Job 29:25. 121 John 5:35, 1 Tim. 3:15, Gal. 2:9. 122 Gen. 6:6. 123 Cf. Isa. 42:1, Matt. 12:18. 124 Cf. Luke 23:24.

NOTES



413

125 Canute Lavard, whose tomb is still there. 126 Cf. 2 Kings 20:13. 127 Horace, Epodes, 15, 6. 128 Ps. 122:1. 129 When the Vita uses the term civitas, the meaning is a town that is a bishop’s see. Cities/ towns which are not sees are referred to as castrum or oppidum; both these terms are used in Chapter LX for Copenhagen, which was part of the diocese of Roskilde. See Du Cange et al., “Civitas”, Glossarium, t. 2, col. 347b: “Urbs Episcopalis, cum cæteræ Castra vel oppida dicerentur, uti attigimus in v. Castrum”; and “Castrum”, t. 2, col. 213b: “castra vocabant Scriptores medii ævi, urbes quæ Civitatis, id est, Episcopatus, jus non habebant.” 130 Cf. John 11:48. 131 Prov. 6:31. 132 Matt. 26:5. 133 Acts 1:22. 134 Et in diebus suis inventus est justus, from Ecce sacerdos magnus, antiphon at second Vespers for the common of a confessor bishop. 135 Ps. 79:7. 136 Gen. 4:5. 137 Luke 22:15. 138 1 Macc. 3:19. 139 Cf. 1 Sam. 14:6. 140 Cf. Col. 4:6. 141 Jer. 17:5. 142 Matt. 26:58. 143 Dan. 2:13. 144 Gen. 12:10, Ruth 1:1. 145 Num. 20:3. 146 Matt. 11:18. 147 Cf. Ps. 38:14. 148 Cf. 2 Tim. 2:3. 149 Cf. Num. 14:41. 150 See 2 Kings 17:3–6: Salmanasar (= Shalmaneser V), king of Assyria and Babylonia, destroyed the kingdom of Israel. 151 Luke 11:22. 152 Luke 2:12. 153 Et nox in suo cursu medium iter haberet: Wisd. 18:14, the second phrase of the Introit for the Sunday in the Octave of Christmas; see the note on the first phrase in Chapter IX. 154 Cf. Matt. 16:23, Mark 8:33. 155 Cf. Num. 6:24, Esther 14:14. 156 Dan. 14:30. 157 Cf. Matt. 5:29. 158 1 Sam. 24:6. 159 Prov. 12:6. 160 Cf. Matt. 7:25. 161 Rom. 5:3–5a. 162 Acts 9:23 and Matt. 27:1. 163 Cf. Neh. 4:15. 164 Cf. 1 Cor. 10:13. 165 2 Cor. 6:5. 166 Cf. 1 Sam. 7:20. 167 Cf. Matt. 25:14 ff., Luke 19:12 ff. 168 Cf. Heb. 13:17.

414

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt

169 Ps. 23:3, Prov. 2:8. 170 Rom. 12:10. 171 John 14:16. 172 The site of the Paraclete, in Tjæreby, near Lake Arressø in North Sjælland, has been excavated, and the Æbelholt Klostermuseum contains its artifacts. There is still disagreement about the exact year of the abbey’s founding. 173 Cf. Mark 8:2. 174 Gen. 29:7. 175 The edition has sompnis “sleeps”, but the reading probably should be sompniis “dreams.” 176 Cf. Prov. 12:10, Luke 1:78, 2 Cor. 7:15. 177 Pertica, a variant of perca. See Du Cange, including a citation of the Vita, “2. Pertica”, Glossarium, t. 6, col. 288a: “pro Perca, piscis ita dictus, in Vita S. Willelmi Abbat. Roschild. num. 41.” 178 Job 3:24. 179 Ps. 119:31. 180 Cf. Luke 7:15. 181 Dan. 3:24 (Prayer of Azariah). 182 Ps. 118:17. 183 Rom. 14:14. 184 Cf. John 19:35, 21:24. 185 Rom. 5:2. 186 Gen. 42:6. 187 1 Macc. 4:45. 188 Heb. 5:7. 189 Cf. Matt. 12:44, in a very different context. 190 Luke 22:32. 191 Ambling is an intermediate gait faster than a walk, more comfortable for a rider on long journeys than a trot. 192 Matt. 14:31. 193 Cf. Luke 24:35. 194 Luke 1:63. 195 John 5:4. 196 Cf. the words of the dying St Ambrose, in Paulinus of Milan, Vita Sancti Ambrosii (PL 14.45), …nec timeo mori, quia Dominum bonum habemus, “I do not fear to die, because we have a good Master.” 197 Jth. 13:17 (Vulgate), but the equivalent phrase is not in NRSV. 198 Ps. 68:35; NRSV translates it “in his sanctuary.” 199 John 20:30. 200 Gen. 49:22, 39:6. 201 Gen. 41:38. 202 1 Cor. 9:27. 203 Gal. 5:24. 204 Lam. 1:2. 205 Wisd. 2:19. 206 Wisd. 3:6. 207 Job 2:7, Isa. 1:6. 208 2 Cor. 12:9. 209 Cf. Job 2:10. 210 The first Sunday in Lent. 211 Sir. 7:36. 212 2 Tim. 4:6. 213 Job 14:5, Gen. 47:29. 214 Wednesday in Holy Week.

NOTES



415

215 Cf. Luke 9:30. 216 Luke 1:38. 217 Cf. Matt. 25:34 ff., and Gerhoh of Reichersberg, Commentarius in Psalmos, 4, on Ps. 40 (PL 193.1474): Nam et ille beatus est, qui in pauperibus Christi pedes ejus intelligit, quos per eleemosynas ungit, “For that one also is blessed who perceives, in Christ’s poor, Christ’s feet, which he anointed when giving alms.” 218 Cf. Matt. 26:20 ff. 219 1 Kings 8:39, cf. John 14:3. 220 Luke 1:15, Rom. 7:22, Eph. 3:16. 221 Cf. Hugh of St Victor, De arca Noe morali, 1.1 (PL 176.621), Deus…in anima est, ut sponsus in thalamo, “God… is in the soul, as the Bridegroom in his marriage chamber.” 222 Ps. 35:9, Isa. 61:10. 223 Acts 12:7–8. 224 1 Kings 10:2, Exod. 25:24. 225 Esther 15:6. 226 Cf. John 20:12. 227 Cf. Exod. 26:29. 228 Cf. Matt. 10:37, 16:24, 19:29; Mark 10:29. 229 2 Thess. 1:4. 230 Jas. 1:12. 231 Cf. John 13:5. 232 Matt. 6:10, Rom. 1:25. 233 Ps. 67:1, Ps. 86:2, Ps. 119:16. 234 Ps. 71:9. 235 Cf. 1 Cor. 15:10. 236 “When the sabbath was over”; this and the next responsory quoted are from Mark 16:1. 237 “That they might come and anoint Jesus.” 238 St Martin of Tours does this in the description by Sulpicius Severus, Epistola III (PL 20.182), nobili illo strato suo in cinere et cilicio recubans, “lying on that noble cover of his in ashes and haircloth.” 239 Matt. 27:50. 240 The editor of the Vita’s Latin edition comments here: numeri certe falsi sunt, maxime prior, “the numbers are certainly wrong, especially the first one.” William’s death is now thought to have occurred on Easter Sunday, April 6, 1203, which matches the month and day, though not the year, given in the Vita: 8 days before the Ides of April (April 13), including the 13th in the count. His birth year is now conjectured to have been around 1125, so at his death he was probably in his late seventies. If the year of William’s arrival in Denmark and appointment to the abbacy was 1165, then by Easter of 1203 he had been an abbot for almost 38 years. 241 Col. 3:16. 242 Ps. 68:35, see note on this passage in chapter XXIV. 243 Cf. Ps. 116:15. 244 Cf. Phil. 1:11. 245 Deut. 4:29. 246 Cf. 1 Tim. 1:17. 247 1 Macc. 1:39, cf. Tob. 2:6, Am. 8:10. 248 John 16:20. 249 Joel 2:28, Acts 2:17. 250 Cf. Mark 16:5, Apoc. 7:13. 251 Cf. Acts 1:10–11. 252 Latin Sora, founded in 1142 in the town of the same name; at the time of William’s death it was a Cistercian house. 253 Cf. Matt. 26:63.

416

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt

254 Mane prima sabbati: cf. Mark 16:9, the beginning of an Easter sequence. 255 2 Macc. 12:45, Ps. 76:2, although NRSV translates pace as the place-name “Salem.” Its Vulgate equivalent, Ps. 75:3, is also used for a sequence for Holy Saturday, In pace factus est locus ejus, which is linked to Klosterneuburg, an Augustinian monastery in Austria; see Cantus Manuscript Database, http://cantus.uwaterloo.ca/chant/289451. 256 Quem stola immortalitatis…vestivit; cf. a versicle in honor of St Martin of Tours from the Latin Office of the Dead: Martine, presulum gemma, qui cernere Dominum in tua veste dignus eras, strenue subveni eis, ut vestiantur stola immortalitatis; “O Martin, jewel of protectors, you who were worthy to behold the Lord in clothing of yours, quickly bring them help, that they may be clothed in the robe of immortality.” 257 John 14:12. 258 Sir. 39:9. 259 Cf. Gen. 47:30. 260 Sir. 50:6. 261 Wisd. 10:14. 262 Cf. Apoc. 13:6. 263 Ps. 36:6–7. 264 Ps. 48:1. 265 1 Cor. 15:53. 266 Cf. Num. 3:38, in a different context. 267 Acts 10:17. 268 Cf. Col. 2:14, in a different context. 269 Matt. 13:46. 270 Latin: non singulariter solum, sed specialiter unum. Cf. Heloise’s superscription to Abelard in Letter 5: Domino specialiter, sua singulariter. Peter Abelard, The Letters of Abelard and Heloise. Translated by Betty Radice (London: Penguin Books, 1974), 159. 271 Mark 9:20. 272 Luke 7:13. 273 Cf. John 2:11. 274 Acts 19:16. 275 2 Kings 5:11, Matt. 7:22. 276 Cf. Matt. 8:8, in a different context. 277 Job 21:14. 278 ibid. 279 Cf. Job 21:16. 280 Matt. 9:22. 281 Mark 9:21. 282 Cf. 1 Sam. 10:6, Mark 1:26. 283 Gen. 24:12. 284 Luke 1:57. 285 Cf. Mark 9:23. 286 Cf. Col. 2:2. 287 Lam. 1:12. 288 Luke 1:58. 289 Cf. Dan.4:22. 290 Ezek. 3:3. 291 Luke 5:25. 292 Luke 1:49. 293 Peder Sunesen, nephew of Bishop Absalon, and bishop of Roskilde 1191–1214. 294 Although the Vita says nothing about this, a candle is one of the symbols of St Geneviève. 295 Cf. Hugh of St Victor, Libellus de potestate et voluntate Dei (PL 176.839–40). 296 Sir. 51:11.

NOTES



417

297 Cf. Sir. 31:11. 298 See the description of a sick man in St Gregory the Great, Homilia 15.5 (PL 76.1133): fuit quidam Servulus nomine…rebus pauper, meritis dives, quem longa aegritudo dissolverat, “there was a certain man named Servulus, poor in goods, rich in merits, whom long illness had wasted.” 299 Latin: trium ulnarum, but the length of an ell varied widely; perhaps the Danish ell (alen) was meant, which is approximately 60 cm / 24 inches. 300 Cf. Luke 5:15. 301 Matt. 15:28. 302 1 Kings 17:14,16. 303 Matt. 26:7. 304 See The Gregorian Repertory, https://gregorien.info/chant/id/7296/0/en, for an antiphon at Lauds from the Common for Apostles or Martyrs in Paschal time: Sancti tui, Domine, florebunt sicut lilium, et sicut odor balsami erunt ante te, “Your saints, O Lord, shall blossom like the lily, and they will be like a fragrance of balm before you.” 305 Isa. 14:3. 306 According to some later sources, in 1210 the Æbelholt church was rebuilt of limestone, although some of the abbey buildings were of brick. 307 Luke 1:14. 308 Exod. 14:13. 309 Ps. 118:24. 310 Eph. 5:19. 311 1 Chron. 16:34, Ps. 106:1. 312 Luke 1:78. 313 Luke 1:69. 314 Cf. Ps. 106:4. 315 Prov. 3:10. 316 Cf. Isa. 11:10. 317 Matt. 9:30. 318 1 Macc. 9:55. 319 Latin Regnilda. 320 Cf. Eph. 3:17. 321 Ps. 145:18. 322 Gen. 15:12. 323 Ps. 55:5. 324 Cf. Jth. 14:13. 325 Ps. 34:15. 326 Ps. 51:17, Jth. 8:16; my translation. 327 Eccles. 5:4. 328 Cf. Luke 5:17. 329 Mark 9:20, here and two sentences later. 330 2 Sam. 9:6. 331 Cf. Ps. 137:9, in a different context. 332 Mark 7:35. 333 Cf. Acts 16:18. 334 Tob. 11:18. 335 Mark 7:37. 336 Cf. Luke 4:22. 337 Ps. 17:6. 338 Luke 18:43. 339 Cf. Acts 15:33. 340 Cf. 1 Pet. 2:5. 341 2 Chron. 20:17.

418

T he L ife of W illiam of Æ belholt

342 Cf. Esther 15:16, Jer. 23:9, Gen. 31:40. 343 Ps. 36:6. 344 Tob. 14:3. 345 The Latin name for several diseases, but most likely ergotism. 346 Bar. 2:19. 347 Cf. Num. 21:2. 348 1 Sam. 3:2. 349 The superpellicium, part of the habit of the Augustinian canons, was originally a wide tunic put on over fur garments worn for warmth in church; see Joseph Braun, “Surplice,” The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 14 (New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912). http://www. newadvent.org/cathen/14343d.htm. 350 Cf. Acts 9:5. 351 Matt. 9:22. 352 Cf. 1 Sam. 15:11, Ps. 88:9. 353 Acts 7:49. 354 Judg. 9:25, my translation. 355 Gen. 44:14. 356 Part of Denmark in William’s time, now the southernmost province in Sweden. 357 See note 345, above. 358 1 Kings 17:17. 359 Cf. Matt. 24:33. 360 Luke 15:17. 361 ibid. 362 Job 14:16, my translation. 363 Ps. 66:16. 364 Neh. 9:27. 365 Jer. 11:10. 366 Cf. Matt. 27:64. 367 probably Gørløse, about 8 km from Tjaereby. 368 Cf. Gen. 44:20. 369 Heb. 11:34, my translation. 370 Cf. Mark 2:9. 371 Acts 6:11. 372 Eccles. 5:4. 373 Cf. Ps. 147:5. 374 Cf. Jude 21 375 Cf. Neh. 5:1, in a different context. 376 Ps. 148:1. 377 Dan. 7:28. 378 Cf. Jth. 5:20, Ps. 139:23–24. 379 Gen. 19:1. 380 Luke 18:13. 381 Joel 2:13. 382 Cf. Ps. 118:23. 383 Ps. 146:3. 384 Sir. 51:7. 385 Ps. 60:11. 386 Ps. 73:28. 387 Ps. 28:7, my translation. 388 Dan. 3:52 (Sg. of 3 Childr.). 389 Sir. 51:2. 390 1 Sam. 5:6.

NOTES



419

391 A province of Denmark at the time of the Vita, now in Sweden. 392 The same phrase is used for William in chapter XXV; cf. Job 2:7, Isa. 1:6. 393 Ps. 20:4, Matt. 9:29, Ps. 127:5, my translation. 394 Ps. 119:145. 395 Ps. 30:10. 396 Luke 5:26. 397 Cf. Augustine of Hippo, Sermo 294.11.14: Non accusamus naturam. Naturae auctor Deus est (PL 38.1344). 398 Cf. Acts 3:3. 399 Cf. Ps. 40:2. 400 John 8:56. 401 Cf. John 5:7. 402 Cf. Jer. 14:19. 403 Exod. 20:26. 404 Lam. 3:14. 405 Cf. Acts 3:7. 406 Cf. Ps. 5:11, Ps. 40:3. 407 Luke 1:48. 408 Cf. Luke 15:8–9. 409 2 Macc. 10:38. 410 Exod. 19:18, Acts 2:3. 411 Mark 9:26. 412 Cf. Gen. 45:27, in a different context. 413 Cf. 1 Macc. 10:9. 414 Gen. 37:29. 415 3 Ezra 8:71. 416 Jer. 45:3. 417 Ps. 143:7, in a different context. 418 Ps. 90:10. 419 Latin: extrema luctus occupavit gaudium; cf. Prov. 14:13, which has the opposite meaning: extrema gaudii luctus occupat, “grief took the place of the extremes of joy.” 420 Isa. 35:10. 421 Cf. Ps. 139:14.

THREE TEXTS ON LIFE AT SAINT VICTOR INTRODUCTION AND TRANSLATION BY JOHN HALL

INTRODUCTION The three brief texts translated here provide insight into the early days of the abbey of Saint Victor and demonstrate the spirit of reform that inspired its foundation and early growth. Robert of Torigny’s De immutatione ordinis monachorum offers an account of the origin of Saint Victor written when its founding was still a living memory. Hildebert of Lavardin’s letter to William of Champeaux demonstrates the importance of teaching for the canonical foundation. Finally, Osbert’s account of the death of Hugh of Saint Victor, its most prominent teacher, shows the piety that characterized the spiritual life at the abbey and demonstrates the familial affection which these brothers felt towards each other. Robert of Torigny’s Description of the Founding of Saint Victor

Robert of Torigny’s history of the innovations in religious orders in the early twelfth century, De immutatione ordinis monachorum, includes an early account of the founding of Saint Victor. Robert was Abbot of Mont Saint Michel from 1154 until his death in 1186 and before that was monk (1128) and prior (1149) of Bec. Today, he is primarily remembered as the author of a continuation of the Gesta Normannorum Ducum begun by William of Jumièges and Orderic Vitalis, as well as his Chronica. The De immutatione often appears in manuscripts appended to the Chronica, including the Chronica’s earliest versions that appeared in 1154. This date is therefore the terminus ante quem for the composition of the De immutatione.1 The De immutatione provides a valuable 1

L. Delisle claims that Robert explicitly says that he composed the De immutatione in 1154, but I have not been able to trace Delisle’s source. See Leopold Delisle, Chronique de Robert de Torigni (Rouen: H. Boissel, 1872–1873), 2:183. For an analysis of the manuscripts of Robert’s Chronica, see Robert of Torigny, The Chronicle of Robert of Torigni, Abbot of the Monastery of St Michael-in-Peril-of-the-Sea, Chronicles of the Reigns of Stephen, Henry II, and Richard I, 4. Edited by Richard Howlett, Rerum Britannicarum Medii Aevi Scriptores 82.4

424

T hree texts on L ife at S aint V ictor

perspective on the early days of Saint Victor when its foundation was still a living memory. In addition to the founder, William of Champeaux, this text mentions Gilduin, Saint Victor’s first abbot, and Hugh, its most famous author and teacher. Gilduin, whom Robert in this passage refers to as “the venerable”, would still have been alive in 1154, and would have been venerable indeed, having been abbot since 1113. He would die the following year. The De immutatione has been published in five editions, most recently in 1873 by L. Delisle.2 The translation was made from this edition. Hildebert of Lavardin’s Letter to William of Champeaux

Hildebert of Lavardin lived c. 1056–1133, and was a prolific author of poetry (in classical meter), sermons, and letters.3 His letters in par-

2

3

(London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1889), xxxvii–lxv. For the latest on the manuscript traditions of the Chronica, together with recent bibliography, see two works by Benjamin Pohl: B. Pohl, “Robert of Torigni and Le Bec: The Man and the Myth,” A Companion to the Abbey of Le Bec in the Central Middle Ages. Edited by Benjamin Pohl and Laura L. Gathagan, Brill’s Companions to European History 13 (Leiden: Brill, 2017), 94–124. And Benjamin Pohl, “The Date and Context of Robert of Torigni’s Chronica in London, British Library, Cotton MS. Domitian A. VIII. fol. 71r–94v.” (London: British Library, 2016, online: https://www. bl.uk/eblj/2016articles/pdf/ebljarticle12016.pdf, accessed on 3/18/2020). Specifically about De  immutatione: Laura Cleaver, Illuminated History Books in the Anglo-Norman World, 1066–1272 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018), 29. Delisle, Chronique de Robert, 181–206. For a review of previous editions, see p. 183. The most readily accessible edition is PL 202:1309–1320. A new edition of the Chronica is expected any time now, but I have been unable to ascertain whether it will include the De immutatione: Thomas N. Bisson, Chronography of Robert of Torigni, 2 vols., Oxford Medieval Texts (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020). Critical editions of the following of Hildebert’s works are available: “The Biblical Epigrams of Hildebert of Le Mans: a Critical Edition.” Edited by Alexander Brian Scott, Deirdre F. Baker, and Arthur George Rigg, Medieval Studies, 47 (1985): 272–316; Hildeberti Cenomannensis, Carmina Minora. Edited by Alexander Brian Scott (Leipzig: Teubner, 1969); Hildeberts Prosimetrum De Querimonia und die Gedichte eines Anonymus: Untersuchungen und kritische Editionen. Edited by Peter Orth, Wiener Studien 26 / Arbeiten zur mittel- und neulateinischen Philologie 6 (Wien: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2000); Hildeberti Cenomanensis episcopi Vita beate Marie Egiptiace. Edited by Norbert Klaus Larsen, CCCM 209 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2004). For an extensive recent bibliography, see “Hildebert of Lavardin,” The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. Edited by Frank Leslie Cross and Elizabeth A. Livingstone (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 774-75. More recent still, see Angelini, “Powerful Women,” 167–78. And Bruce Gibson, “Hildebert of Lavardin on the Monuments of Rome,” Word and Context in Latin Poetry: Studies in Memory of David West. Edited by Anthony John Woodman and Jakob Wisse. Cambridge Classical Journal supplement no. 40 (Cambridge: Cambridge Philological Society, 2017), 131–54; and Bridget K.

I ntroduction



425

ticular were much admired, a collection which he curated into three books. These letters were extensively studied by Adolphe Dieudonné in the late nineteenth century.4 Hildebert served as the master of the cathedral school at Le Mans, becoming archdeacon there in 1091, and subsequently served as bishop of Le Mans (1096–1125) and archbishop of Tours (1125–1133).5 The connection of this eminent prelate and stylist to Saint Victor is not fully understood, but in the letter translated here he addresses William of Champeaux (c. 1070–1122) at what appears to be a pivotal moment in the development of the new Abbey. The ostensible occasion of Hildebert’s writing is to congratulate William on his conversion to religious life, but it is clear that the purpose of the letter is to exhort William to resume his lectures.6 Hildebert acknowledges that William has made a laudable choice in abandoning worldly hopes and fears by entering a monastery but urges William to make an even greater sacrifice by continuing to teach. Before founding and entering Saint Victor, William had been a famous teacher of philosophy at the cathedral school in Paris. When he gave up his chair and founded a monastery, he also abandoned teaching. Peter Abelard, who was one of William’s students, claims that William assumed religious habit to improve his chances of elevation to a bishopric.7 Hildebert, on the other hand, portrays William’s conversion as the culmination of his philosophical pursuits, since ascetic abandonment of the world was a philosophical ideal dating from pagan times. He points out, however, that Christian charity demands an even more complete giving of self, which in William’s case entails teaching. Why did Hildebert take the matter of William’s teaching so much to heart? Did William’s former students urge Hildebert to exert his influence on their former teacher, as Dieudonné speculates?8 What relationship did Hildebert have with William? The letter appears to have achieved its purpose, for William briefly resumed his lessons from inside the monastery, before his elevation to the bishopric of Châlons-

4 5 6 7

8

Balint, Ordering Chaos: The Self and the Cosmos in Twelfth-Century Latin Prosimetrum, Medieval and Renaissance Authors and Texts, 3 (Leiden: Brill, 2009). Dieudonné, Hildebert de Lavardin. He is also frequently called Hildebert of Le Mans (Cenomanensis) because of his long episcopacy there, occasionally also Hildebert of Tours (Turonensis). PL 171.141A–143A; Dieudonné, Hildebert de Lavardin, 187–88. Abelard, Historia calamitatum, 65: “ad regularium clericorum ordinem se convertit; ea ut referebant intentione ut quo religiosior crederetur ad maioris prelationis gradum promoveretur.” Dieudonné, Hildebert de Lavardin, 242.

426

T hree texts on L ife at S aint V ictor

en-Champagne. Thus began the tradition of learning and teaching for which Saint Victor became famous. It is impossible to judge how crucial Hildebert’s letter was in bringing about this decision, which changed the course of western intellectual history. Hildebert’s letters have appeared in several printed editions. The Maxima Bibliotheca Patrum, published in Paris in 1589, included a large number of them. In 1677, Luc d’Achery included 29 of Hildebert’s letters (of which 22 had not previously been printed) in his Spicilegium. Antoine Beaugendre published an edition of all the works of Hildebert in 1708, in which he drew on both of the earlier editions. Beaugendre’s work was reprinted in Patrologia Latina 171 in 1854. Dieudonné’s comprehensive study on the letters, published in 1898, includes an edition of the letter translated here, together with a running commentary and a French translation.9 I did not have access to P. Orth’s unpublished Habilitationsschrift on Hildebert’s letters in preparation for an edition, of 2000.10 The following translation was made from the PL text, corrected against Dieudonné’s edition. Osbert of Saint Victor’s Letter on the Last Illness and Death of Hugh

The last text translated here is an account of the death of Saint Victor’s most famous teacher, Hugh of Saint Victor. Osbert’s letter describing his death was first printed in the preface to the 1648 edition of Hugh’s works, which was reprinted in Patrologia Latina 175.11 A partial French translation appears earlier in the same volume.12 Matthias Tischler published a revised edition of this text in 2016, using a manuscript from Tarragona, Spain, and collating it with two Paris manuscripts that are close to the PL tradition.13 In recent decades Osbert’s 9 10 11 12 13

Dieudonné, Hildebert de Lavardin, 241–49. Orth, Untersuchungen. Hugo of Saint Victor, Hugonis de Sancto Victore Opera (Rouen: Garzonum, 1648); PL 175. clxiA-clxiiiA. PL 175.xlviiA-xlixB. Matthias M. Tischler, “Was das Sterben über das Leben verrät. Osberts Epistola de morbo et obitu Hugonis als biographisches Zeugnis für die Viktoriner ‘vita religiosa’,” in Diligens Scrutator Sacri Eloquii. Beiträge zur Exegese- und Theologiegeschichte des Mittelalters. Festgabe für Rainer Berndt SJ zum 65. Geburtstag, edited by Hanns Peter Neuheuser, Raph M. W. Stammberger, and Matthias M. Tischler, Archa Verbi, Subsidia 14 (Münster: Aschendorff Verlag, 2016), 271‒98.

I ntroduction



427

letter has been referred to in introductions to translations of Hugh’s works.14 The manuscript tradition tells a different story. This letter survives in at least five manuscripts, three of which do not contain any of Hugh’s works, although it was always transmitted with theological works of some sort.15 Osbert was the priest who acted as Hugh’s confessor during his last days and administered the last rites to him; the secondary literature generally identifies him as “the infirmarian”. He is writing to a “brother John” who was unable to be present and wants an eyewitness account of Hugh’s passing. The picture of Hugh that emerges is both vivid and touching: a kindly, slightly cranky, faithful man who places his hope in Christ; an inveterate teacher who is propounding scholastic questions on his deathbed. Osbert artfully models Hugh’s death as following that of Christ, including Christ’s sayings such as “do what you are about to do”, and crying out with a loud voice “Into your hands I commend my spirit…”. Hugh concludes, “I have followed,” and Osbert asks “What have you followed?” but leaves it to the reader to understand whom Hugh has followed. Although written in serviceable rather than elegant Latin, this letter is a literary gem. If even its infirmarian could compose a piece like this, small wonder that Saint Victor was such a center of learning. The following translation is based on the PL text, supplemented with Tischler’s edition. This is the first translation into English, except that a few lines of it were translated in the second volume of the Victorine Texts in Translation series.16

14

15

16

Hugh Feiss, “Introduction to Hugh of Saint Victor’s Soliloquy.” In On Love: a Selection of Works of Hugh, Adam, Achard, Richard, and Godfrey of Saint Victor, VVT 2 (Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 2012), 204; Aelred Squire, “Introduction.” In Hugh of Saint Victor: Selected Spiritual Writings (1962; repr. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2009), 13; Jerome Taylor, “Introduction.” In The Didascalicon of Hugh of Saint Victor: A Medieval Guide to the Arts (1961; repr. New York: Columbia University Press, 1991), 38. In the seventeenth century, the letter was cited as evidence of Hugh’s belief in real presence and adoration of the host: Louis Moréri, “Hugues de S. Victor,” Le grand Dictionnaire historique (Lyon: Jean Girin & Barthelemy Riviere, 1683), 2:212. Paris, Bibliothèque de Sainte-Geneviève, MS  1198, fol.  118v (twelfth–thirteenth cent.), where it comes at the end of a manuscript of glossed Old Testament fragments; Paris, BnF, franç. 24866, fol. 102 (dated 1465), where it is again the last text, this time following a passion narrative in French verse and a treatise on confession, also in French; and Paris, Bibliothèque Mazarine, MS 1724, fol. 350 (fourteenth cent.) where it is again the final text, here following a copy of Jacques de Vitry’s Legenda Sanctorum. Feiss, On Love, 204.

ROBERT OF TORIGNY DESCRIPTION OF THE FOUNDING OF SAINT VICTOR (Treatise on the Change in the Monastic Order, 5: On the Monastery of Saint Victor in Paris)

At the same time, Master William of Champeaux, who had been the archdeacon of Paris, an exceedingly educated and religious man, assumed the habit of a regular canon with some of his students and began to build a monastery of clerics outside the city of Paris in the place where there was a chapel of Saint Victor the martyr. When he was elected bishop of Châlons, the venerable Gilduin, his student, became the first abbot. Under his direction, many noble clerics instructed in secular and divine literature came there to live. Among these, Master Hugh of Lotharingia excelled both in knowledge of literature and in humble religion. He published many books which it is not necessary to list because they are commonly known.

HILDEBERT OF LAVARDIN, LETTER TO MASTER WILLIAM OF CHAMPEAUX He congratulates him on his conversion from secular to Christian philosophy, and promises that he will achieve perfection in it, provided that he fears nothing and hopes nothing. In the meanwhile, he urges him not to cease cultivating his gifts as a teacher and preacher. My soul, following the example of God by the action of graces which are his own gift, rejoices and exults over your conduct and conversion, because now you have finally learned to philosophize. You were not yet giving off the scent of a philosopher when you used the knowledge of the philosophers in your attempts to tease out the attractiveness of morality. Now, however, you have squeezed the formula of acting well out of that knowledge, like squeezing sweet honey from the honeycomb. For this reason, having laid aside all ecclesiastical honors, you have chosen to be cast away in the house of your God, rather than dwell in the tents of sinners.1 For the same reason you chase out the fancy furniture with a relentless hatred, you renounce teaching for business, you declare godliness with contentment great gain.2 Finally, for the same reason you keep yourself entirely within the boundaries of virtue, because you deliberate about your life according to nature, paying less attention to what the flesh can do than to what the spirit wills.3 This is truly to philosophize; to live in this way is to enter a great partnership with those above. No way from here to those above is more direct. You will arrive there easily, if you march without a burden. Further on, the mind itself becomes baggage, until it ceases to hope and fear, for the person does not yet live blessedly whom either the delay of a vow torments or the fear of failing to fulfill a vow pains. Diogenes, because he hoped for the favor of no one, dreaded the power of no one. He settled in his barrel in wealthy poverty, as empty of hope as he was free from fear. The things which the infidel Cynic abhorred, a Christian teacher should abhor even more, to the degree that his profession, which works through faith, is more fruitful. Worldly hopes and fears are little of-

432

T hree texts on L ife at S aint V ictor

fenses against morals, and they delay one who is progressing toward virtue. Learned speech, a humble appearance, and the withdrawn habits of true religion show the religious Christian, but you will exhibit and portray the perfect philosopher, if you neither hope nor fear anything. Worldly hopes and fears are what both the strength of your mind and your complete contempt of the world denounce. Rumor reports that some people have persuaded you to abstain entirely from all reading. Heed what I think about this: whoever does not benefit another when he is able falls short of perfection. It is a virtue to supply the material of virtue, even to one who will use it badly. Furthermore, you have fallen short of the advice the Gospel gave when the young man heard from Christ: go, sell all you have and give to the poor, and come, follow me.4 You have a whole burnt offering to offer, not a sacrifice; you have certainly read in Gregory about the differences between these: “In a sacrifice, part of the animal is customarily sacrificed; in a whole-burnt offering, on the other hand, the whole,” and a little later: “When anyone vows something of his, it is a sacrifice, but when he vows all that he has, all that he lives, and all that he knows to omnipotent God, it is a whole burnt offering.”5 Therefore, offer yourself whole to the Lord God, since you have vowed your whole self to the Lord God; otherwise you cheat him of his promised whole-burnt offering. Finally, what use is there in hidden wisdom and hidden treasure? Scattered gold glows red better than stamped gold. Gems differ not at all from worthless tufa unless they are shown to the public. Knowledge also when scattered receives increase, and, disdaining its greedy possessor, slips away unless it is shared. Therefore, do not close the streams of your learning, but according to Solomon let your springs be diverted outside, and distribute your waters in the streets.6

NOTES 1 2 3 4 5 6

Ps. 84:10. 1 Tim. 6:6. Cf. Matt. 26:41; Mark 14:38: “The spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak” (“Spiritus quidem promptus est, caro vero infirma.”) Mark 10:21. Gregory the Great, Homiliae in Hiezechielem prophetam II. 8.16, CCL 142.348. Prov. 5:16.

OSBERT OF SAINT VICTOR, LETTER TO JOHN, ON THE LAST ILLNESS AND DEATH OF HUGH Brother Osbert to brother John, beloved by him in Christ; may he always flourish in the Lord. You demand with a devout desire, dearest brother, that I write to you something about the death of your beloved Master Hugh, so that you could know in truth how he behaved in his last sickness. Receive therefore what you desire: he behaved piously, devoutly, and justly through everything. But perhaps you do not wish me to speak so briefly, and you desire to hear more fully about his end. I am not able to explain everything; accept a few things which I saw in person, for if I am not mistaken, it was in your request that I write nothing except what I had either seen or heard. I will not speak about the pure, full, and complete confession which he made to the lord abbot and me, diligently and with tears poured out beyond human measure with great contrition of heart; I will not describe in detail the frequent thanksgiving which I heard him giving to our Lord Jesus Christ for his present sickness, often and noisily singing from the exultation of his heart that psalm: Blessed is the Lord my God into eternity.1 I will not linger on these things. I will come to the things which he said or did around the end of his life, and the following speech will be about them. On the day before he departed from this life, I came before him in the morning and I asked him how he was doing. When he had replied that he was well in both soul and body, he said to me “is anyone here besides us two?” I said, “no”. He asked, “Have you celebrated mass today?” When I had replied that I had done so, he said: “Come near and breathe on my face in the shape of the holy cross, and I will receive the Holy Spirit.” When I had done this as he had bidden, he added this from David: “I have opened my mouth and inhaled the spirit.”2

436

T hree texts on L ife at S aint V ictor

Faithfully understanding and devoutly believing that the apostles had received the Holy Spirit from the Lord Jesus by inhalation, he believed that he was able to receive from a man that which was not from a man through an open mouth, as though he was drinking the Spirit from his breath, because he knew according to the statement of the Lord that all things are possible to those who believe. How Catholic he was, through and through! He, already in his last days, faithfully believed that he was able to be given the Holy Spirit by a priest because of the mystery and communion of the body and blood of the Lord, and asked for it very devoutly. Then immediately cheered and comforted, I believe, by the Spirit of God, greatly rejoicing, he broke out in these words: “Now I am secure, now I walk in truth and purity, now I am founded upon a solid rock and I am no longer able to be moved. Now, although the whole world with its delights should come before me, I would consider it to be nothing, nor would I do anything against God for all of it. Now especially I recognize the mercy of God around me, so that out of all the things which God has done for me in my whole life up until this day, none of these can be so pleasing, so sweet, so welcome to me as this, which God condescended to do with me in the present. Blessed is the Lord my God into eternity.” Having said these things, he humbly asked me to absolve him from all that he had done against God. After this I released him to rest, having first given the absolution as he had asked, and in this way I departed from his bed. But on the following night, around cockcrow, he began to be gravely ill, more than usual. I ran to him, and as soon as he had recovered enough to talk, he spoke to me about the salvation of his soul. After this, when he was absolved by the brothers who were present, I suggested that he receive the holy anointing. Receiving the word with joy,3 he ordered us not to delay in preparing the things which would be necessary. When all had been prepared, the day had already dawned, and the brothers, gathering around him, made a visitation with psalms and prayers, as usual. When this was finished, I asked him whether he would like to receive the sacred unction from us immediatly,4 or wish to wait until the lord abbot came, for he was not then present, although a request had been sent for him to come quickly. But he, responding to me, said, “Do what you are about to do5 since God has gathered you.” For many religious men, both monks and regular canons, and priests and other clerics had assembled, and even an abundance of lay people was not lacking.

T hree texts on L ife at S aint V ictor



437

Therefore, when the anointing had been celebrated, I asked him if he wished to receive the body of the Lord, for it had not been ready at hand because he had communed three days before. He responded to me with great rebuke: “My God! Do you ask if I want my God? Run quickly into the church and quickly bring me the body of my Lord.” When I had done this just as he had ordered, I came before his bed, and holding the consecrated bread of eternal life in my hands, I said: “Adore, and recognize the body of our Lord.” And he, straightening himself as much as he was able, and raising up both hands to those holy things, said: “I adore my Lord before all of you, and I receive my salvation.” Then, after eating the body of Jesus, he asked that a cross which was present there be given to him. When he had taken it in his hands, he signed himself with that cross and after he devoutly kissed it many times, he took the feet of the Crucified in his mouth, and holding the feet in his mouth for a long time, with flowing tears he sucked the blood, which by the painter’s art seemed to flow from the feet, like an infant at a mother’s breasts. It is believable that just as he had eaten the flesh of the Son of Man in our presence, so also the wise man had then wanted to visibly drink his blood. After a pause, when I had suggested that he say that verse Into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit,6 He, thinking, I believe, that I was making a question about that same verse, said that he wanted to hear the solution of it. He said, “The Lord Jesus Christ, about to leave this world, said this: Father, into your hands I commend my spirit,7 which you have handed over to me and I have received from you. Having said this, he was silent, and as the hour of death rushed upon him, he was unable to speak for a short time, and the Father himself received him.” I replied to him, “And you, who are about to leave this world, ought to say the same thing so that God may receive your spirit.” Then raising himself a little and drawing deep breaths, with all of us hearing, at last he broke out with these words: “Into your hand and into your strength I commend the spirit, Lord, which you have given me and I have received from you.” Having said this, he was silent, and as the hour of death rushed upon him, he was unable to speak for a short time. He lay back again and, having recovered his breath, began to say something to himself. When I asked him what he was saying, he replied with a clear voice, and said, “I have followed.” I said, “What have you followed?” But it was too difficult for him to produce complete words.

438

T hree texts on L ife at S aint V ictor

As8 far as we who stood around could understand, he responded, “He will receive my spirit.” Then, beating his chest with his own hand, he invoked the blessed Mother of God, saying, “Saint Mary, pray for me.” When he recovered breath, he said, “Saint Peter, pray for me.” And he spoke to me after a short time: “Which of the saints will I invoke further?” And when I had named Saint Victor, he said, “Saint Victor, pray for me.” He said these things and was silent, and the mouth of the righteous man, which had been accustomed to produce wisdom, was closed, and the tongue of the wise man, which in its days had furnished knowledge, stuck in his throat. After this, he continued to live for about the space of one hour. And in this way, with his brothers standing about and praying, he gave back his spirit into the hands, we believe, of him who had long ago given it, and into whose strength he had commended that same spirit. The venerable and most learned doctor Hugh went out from this world, in acknowledgement of the Holy Trinity, on the third day before the Ides of February, on the third day of the week,9 at the third hour of the day, a good, humble, gentle, and devout man. Therefore, generous God of souls in the blessed life, have mercy on your Hugh. Have mercy, we pray.10

NOTES 1 2 3

Conflation of Ps. 144:1 with Ps. 89:52. Ps. 119:31. “Cum gaudio suscipiens verbum;” Cf. Luke 8:13: “cum gaudio suscipiunt verbum” (“they receive the word with joy”). Ironically, in the gospel this refers to the seeds cast upon the rocky soil, which spring up quickly but wither because they have no roots. 4 would – immediately] om. PL. 5 “Facite quod facturi estis” mirrors the words of Jesus to Judas on the former’s last night with his disciples: John 13:27: “quod facis, fac citius” (“what you are doing, do quickly”). 6 Ps. 31:5. 7 Luke 23:46. 8 PL adds: When he asked again. 9 “Feria tertia,” i.e. Tuesday. 10 Therefore – pray.] om. PL.

BIBLIOGRAPHY PRIMARY SOURCES The Aberdeen Bestiary. The  University of Aberdeen, MS  24. Online: www. abdn.ac.uk/bestiary. Abelard, Peter. Historia calamitatum. Edited by Jean Monfrin. Paris: Vrin, 1978. ___________. The Letters of Abelard and Heloise. Translated by Betty Radice. Penguin Classics. London: Penguin Books, 1974. Achard of St Victor. “Sermo 9: On the Solemnity of St Augustine.” In Sermons for the Liturgical Year. Edited by Hugh Feiss. VTT  8. Turnhout: Brepols, 2018, 385–400. Alexander III, pope. Epistola 267. PL 200.307. Anselm of Canterbury. Admonitio morientes. PL 158.685–87. Augustine of Hippo. “Sermo 355: De moribus clericorum sermo primus.” Edited by Dom C.  Lambot. Sancti Aurelii Augustini Sermones selecti duodeviginti. Stromata Patristica et Medievalia 1. Utrecht: Spectrum, 1950. PL 39.1568–1574. ___________. Confessions. Edited by James J. O’Donnell. Vol. 1. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2000. ___________. De civitate Dei. Edited by Bernhard Dombart and Alfons Kalb. CCL 48. Turnhout: Brepols, 1955. ___________. Enarrationes in Psalmos CI–CL. Edited by Eligius Dekkers and Iohannes Fraipont. CCL 40. Turnhout: Brepols, 1956. ___________. Exposés géneraux de la foi: De fide et symbolo. Enchiridion. Edited and translated by J.  Rivière. Œuvres de Saint Augustin 9. Paris: Desclée De Brouwer, 1947. ___________. Sermo 103. PL 38.613–16. ___________. Sermo 294. PL 38:1335–1348. ___________. Rule of Augustine. Translated by Gerald Bonner and Sister Mary Agatha, S.P.B. The  Monastic Rules. Edited by Boniface Ramsey. WSA 4. Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 2004.

442

B ibliography

The Rule of Augustine. Edited by Tarsicius Van Bavel. Translated by Raymond Canning. CS  138. Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1996. ___________. La Règle de saint Augustin. Edited by Luc Verheijen. 2 vols. Paris: Études Augustiniennes, 1967. Online: http// augustinus.it/latino/regola/regola_libro.htm. Benedict. Rule of Benedict. Edited by Georg Holzherr, OSB. Translated by Mark Thamert. CS  256. Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 2016. ___________. La règle de Saint Benoît. 6  vols. Edited by de Vogüé, Adalbert. SC 181–86. Paris: Cerf, 1971–72. Bernard of Clairvaux. Sancti Bernardi Opera. 9 vols. Edited by Jean Leclercq, Charles Hugh Talbot, and Henri-Maria Rochais. Rome: Editiones Cistercienses, 1957‒98. ___________. Apologia. In  Cistercians and Cluniacs: St  Bernard’s Apologia to Abbot William. Translated by Michael Casey. CF 1. Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1970. Biblia sacra iuxta vulgatam versionem. Edited by Robert Weber. Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelstiftung, 1969 Bibliorum sacrorum latinae versiones antiquae, seu vetus italica. Edited by Pierre Sabatier. Reims: Reginaldus Florentain, 1743. Boethius. Theological Tractates; Consolation of Philosophy. Translated by Hugh Fraser Stewart, Edward Kennard Rand and Stanley Jim Tester. Loeb 74. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1962. Caesarius of Arles. Homilia XXII. PL 67.1089. Cantus: A  Database for Latin Ecclesiastical Chant – Inventories of Chant Sources. Edited by Debra Lacoste, University of Waterloo, Canada. Online: http://cantus.uwaterloo.ca/ Cicero. In Catilinam. Online: http://thelatinlibrary.com/cicero/cat.shtml. ___________. In Verrem. Online: http://thelatinlibrary.com/cicero/ver. shtml. D’Achery, Luc, OSB. Spicilegium sive Collectio veterum aliquot scriptorum. Vol. 3. Paris: Montalant, 1723. De Lasteyrie, Robert Charles, ed. Cartulaire générale de Paris. Vol. 1. Paris: Imprimerie nationale, 1887. Diplomatarium Danicum. Ser. 1, Vol.  3, Part 2. Edited by Carl Andreas Christensen, Herluf Nielsen, and Weibull Lauritz. Copenhagen: C. A. Reitzels Boghandel, 1977. ___________.

B ibliography

 443

Eucherius of Lyon. Homilia VI. PL 50.848–49. Gerhoh of Reichersberg. Commentarius in Psalmos. PL 193:619–1814. The Gregorian Repertory. Edited by Inga Behrendt. Diocese RottenburgStuttgart, n.d. Online: https://gregorien.info. Gregory the Great. Homiliae in Hiezechielem prophetam. CCL 142. Turnhout: Brepols, 1971. ___________. Homiliae in Hiezechielem prophetam. PL 76:781–1312. ___________. Moralia in Job.  Edited by Marc Adriaen. CCL  143A. Turnhout: Brepols, 1979. Hildebert of Lavardin. Sermones. PL 171.339–967. ___________. “The Biblical Epigrams of Hildebert of Le Mans: A Critical Edition.” Edited by Alexander Brian Scott, Deirdre  F. Baker, and Arthur George Rigg. Medieval Studies 47 (1985): 272–316. ___________. Epistolae. PL 171.35–311. Hildeberti Cenomanensis episcopi Vita beate Marie Egiptiace. Edited by Nobert Klaus Larsen. CCCM 209. Turnhout: Brepols, 2004. Hildeberti Cenomanensis Carmina Minora. Edited by Alexander Brian Scott. Leipzig: Teubner, 1969. Horace. Ars poetica, 1–4. Edited by H.  Rushton Fairclough, Loeb  194. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 1991. ___________. Satires. Edited and translated by H.  Rushton Fairclough. Loeb 194. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1991. ___________. Epodes. Edited by David Mankin. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995. ___________. Odes and Epodes. Edited and translated by Niall Rudd. Loeb 33. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004. Hugh of Saint Victor. De arca Noe morali. PL 176.618–81. ___________. De sacramentis christianae fidei. Edited by Rainer Berndt. CV: Textus historici 1. Münster: Aschendorff, 2008. ___________. On the Sacraments of the Christian Faith (De sacramentis) of Hugh of Saint Victor. Translated by Roy Deferrari. The  Medieval Academy of America Publications  58. Cambridge: The Medieval Academy of America, 1951. ___________. Didascalicon: De studio legendi. Edited by Charles Henry Buttimer. The Catholic University of America, Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Latin,  10. Washington, DC: The Catholic University Press, 1939.

444

B ibliography

The Didascalicon of Hugh of Saint Victor: A  Medieval Guide to the Arts. Translated by Jerome Taylor. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961. ___________. Hugonis de Sancto Victore Opera. Rouen: Garzonum, 1648. ___________. Libellus de potestate et voluntate Dei. PL 176:839–42. ___________. “De institutione novitiorum.” Edited by Patrice Sicard. In Œuvre, 1. Turnhout: Brepols, 1997, 5–114. Hugues de Saint-Victor et son école. Edited by Patrice Sicard. Témoins de notre histoire. Turnhout: Brepols, 1991. Interpretation of Scripture: Theory. Edited by Franklin T. Harkins and Frans van Liere. VTT 3. Turnhout: Brepols, 2012. Jerome, Epistola. PL 22:325–1182. ___________. Select Letters of St Jerome. Edited and translated by F. A. Wright. Loeb 262. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1975. Juvenal. Juvenal and Persius. Edited and translated by Susanna Morton Braud. Loeb  91. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004. Lanfranc. The Monastic Constitutions of Lanfranc. Edited by David Knowles and Christopher Brooke. London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, Ltd., 1951. Liber ordinis Sancti Victoris Parisiensis. Edited by Luc Jocqué and Ludo Milis. CCCM 61. Turnhout: Brepols, 1984. Martin, Bishop of Braga. Capitula. PL 130.575B–588C. Necrologium Abbatiae Sancti Victoris Parisiensis. Edited by Ursula VonesLiebenstein and Monika Seifert. CV, Opera  1. Münster: Aschendorff, 2012. Odo, abbot of Cluny. Collationes. PL 133.517–638. ___________. “Epistola Odonis ad G.” Edited by Jean Leclercq. Revue Mabillon, 36 (1946): 11–12. Ovid. The Art of Love and Other Poems. Translation by J. H. Mozley. Revised by G. P. Goold. 2nd ed. Loeb 232. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1985. ___________. Remedia amoris. Edited by Rudolf Merkel. Leipzig: B. G. Teubneri, 1905. ___________. Epistolae ex Ponto. Online: www.thelatinlibrary.com/ ovid/ovidponto. Paulinus of Milan. Vita Sancti Ambrosii. PL 14.27–46. ___________.

B ibliography

 445

Possidius. Sancti Augustini vita. Edited by Herbert T. Weiskotten. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1919. Richard of Saint Victor. Epistolae. PL 196.1226–1229. ___________. Liber Exceptionum: Texte critique avec introduction, notes et tables. Edited by Jean Châtillon. Textes philosophiques du Moyen-Âge, 5. Paris: Vrin, 1958. Robert of Bridlington. The Bridlington Dialogue: An Exposition of the Rule of St  Augustine for the Clergy. Edited and translated by A  Religious of the C.S.M.V. [Sr.  Penelope Lawson]. London: A. R. Mombray, 1960. Robert of Flamborough. Liber poenitentialis. Edited by Francis  J.  J. Firth. Texts and Studies  18. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1971. Robert of Torigny. Chronique de Robert de Torigni. Edited by Leopold Delisle. Vol. 2. Rouen: H. Boissel, 1872–1873. ___________. De immutatione ordinis monachorum. PL 202:1309–1320. ___________. The Chronicle of Robert of Torigni, Abbot of the Monastery of St Michael-in-Peril-of-the-Sea, Chronicles of the Reigns of Stephen, Henry  II, and Richard  I. Edited by Richard Howlett. London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1889. ___________. Treatise on the Change in the Monastic Order. In  A Benedictine Reader 530–1530. Edited by Hugh Feiss, Ronald  E. Pepin, and Maureen O’Brien. CS  275. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2019. ___________. Chronography. Edited by Thomas  N. Bisson. 2  vols. Oxford Medieval Texts. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020. Sallust. Sallust  I. Edited and translated by John Carew Rolfe. Revised by John  T. Ramsey. Loeb  116. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013. Sancti Wilhelmi Abbatis Vita, see Vita Sancti Wilhelmi Abbatis. Septuaginta, id est Vetus testamentum Graece iuxta LXX interpretes. Edited by Alfred Rahlfs. Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelstiftung, 1935. Sulpicius Severus, Epistolae tres. PL 20:175–83. Vetus Latina: Die Reste der Altlatinischen Bibel, nach Petrus Sabatier neu gesammelt und herausgegeben von der Erzabtei Beuron. 2. Genesis. Edited by Bonifatius Fischer. Freiburg: Herder, 1951‒54.

446

B ibliography

Virgil. Aeneid. Edited and translated by H. Rushton Fairclough. Revised by George  P. Goold. Loeb  63. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006. Vita Sancti Willelmi Abbatis. Edited by Gertz, Martin Clarens. Vitae Sanctorum Danorum. København: G. E. C. Gad, 1912. Online: http:// dibiki.ub.uni-kiel.de/viewer/image/PPN834949911/1/. ___________. Edited by Petrus Fridericus Suhm. Scriptores Rerum Danicarum Medii Aevi, vol.  5, 458–95. Copenhagen: Nicolaus Möller, 1783. PL 209.593–636. Vitae patrum. PL 73.

SECONDARY SOURCES “The Abbey and Order of St  Victor in the Twelfth Century: Context and Bibliography for Readers of Victorine Texts in Translation,” https://www.newcitypress.com/pub/media/ wysiwyg/downloads/AnnotatedBibliographyVictorines. pdf. Accessed on March 11, 2020. Amann, É. “Odon de Saint-Père.” Dictionnaire de Théologie catholique. Vol. 11. Paris: Letouzey et Ané, 1931. Angelini, Roberto. “Powerful Women in the Epistles of Hildebert of Lavardin.” In  Medieval Letters: between Fiction and Document. Edited by Christian Høgel and Elisabetta Bartoli. Turnhout: Brepols, 2015, 167–78. Balint, Bridget K. Ordering Chaos: The Self and the Cosmos in Twelfth-Century Latin Prosimetrum. Medieval and Renaissance Authors and Texts, 3. Leiden: Brill, 2009. Bautier, Robert-Henri. “Paris au temps de d’Abélard.” In Abélard en son temps: actes du colloque international organisé à l’occasion du 9e centenaire de la naissance de Pierre Abélard, 14–19 mai 1979. Edited by J.  Jolivet. Paris: Les  Belles Lettres, 1981, 21–77. ___________. “Les origines et premiers développements de l’abbaye Saint-Victor.” In  L’abbaye parisienne de Saint-Victor au moyen âge: communications présentées au XIIIe Colloque d’humanisme médiéval de Paris (1986–1988). Edited by Jean Longère. BV, 1, Paris/Turnhout: Brepols, 1991, 23–52.

B ibliography

 447

Berkhofer  III, Robert  F. Day of Reckoning: Power and Accountability in Medieval France. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004. Berndt, Rainer. “Scientia und Disciplina in der lateinischen Bibel und in der Exegese des hohen Mittelalters.” In Scientia und Disciplina. Wissenstheorie und Wissenschaftspraxis Im 12. und 13. Jahrhundert. Edited by Rainer Berndt, Matthias Lutz-Bachmann, and Ralf  M.  W. Stammberger. Erudiri Sapientia, 3. Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 2002, 9–36. Bisgaard, Lars, Carsten Selch Jensen, and Kurt Villads Jensen, eds. Medieval Spirituality in Scandinavia and Europe. A  Collection of Essays in Honour of Tore Nyberg. Odense: Odense University Press, 2001. Bjork, Robert E., ed. Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages. 4 vols. Oxford: University Press, 2010. Boissonnet, Victor Daniel. Dictionnaire alphabético méthodique des cérémonies et des rites sacrés. 3  vols. Paris: J-P Migne, 1847–1848. Online: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/ bpt6k2206615?rk=64378;0 Accessed 19 May 2020. Bonnard, Fourier. Histoire de l’abbaye royale et de l’ordre des chanoines réguliers de Saint-Victor de Paris. t. 1. Première periode (1113–1500). Paris: Arthur Savaète, 1904. Boserup, Ivan. “A French-Danish Letter Collection and Some Danish Diplomataria: Historical and Literary Remarks on the Epistulae of Abbot William of Æbelholt.” In  Living Words and Luminous Pictures: Medieval Book Culture in Denmark. Vol.  1: Essays. Edited by Erik Petersen. Copenhagen: Det Kongelige Bibliotek, 1999, 78–95. Bouquet, Martin et al., eds. Recueil des historiens des Gaules et de la France. Vol. 15. Paris: Imprimerie impériale, 1808. Brand, Benjamin and David  J. Rothenberg, ed.  Music and Culture in the Middle Ages and Beyond: Liturgy, Sources, Symbolism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016. Braun, Joseph. “Surplice.” The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol.  14. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. Online: http://www. newadvent.org/cathen/14343d.htm. Breitenstein, Mirko. “The Success of Discipline. The Reception of Hugh of St Victor’s De institutione novitiorum within the 13th and 14th  century.” In  Rules and Observance: Devising Forms of Communal Life. Edited by Mirko Breitenstein, Julia Burkhardt, Stefan Burkhardt, and Jens Röhrkasten. Vita

448

B ibliography

regularis: Abhandlungen,  60. Berlin: Lit  Verlag, 2014, 183–222. Browne, Martin and Colmán Ó Clabaigh, eds. Households of God: The Regular Canons and Canonesses of St Augustine and of Premontré in Medieval Ireland. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2019. Buonanni, Filippo. Histoire du clergé séculier et régulier, des congrégations de chanoines et de clercs, et des ordres religieux de l’un et de l’autre sexe, qui ont été établis jusques à present. Amsterdam: Pierre Brunel, 1716. Bynum, Caroline Walker. Jesus as Mother. Studies in the Spirituality of the High Middle Ages. Publications of the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, UCLA,  16. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982. Cave, William. Scriptorum ecclesiasticorum historia literaria. London: Richard Criswell, 1688. Châtillon, Jean. “De Guillaume de Champeaux à Thomas Gallus: chronique d’histoire littéraire et doctrinale de l’École de SaintVictor.” Revue du moyen âge latin 8 (1952): 139–62, 247–72. ___________. “La culture de l’école de Saint-Victor du xiie siècle.” In Entretiens sur la renaissance du xiie  siècle Edited by Maurice de Gandillac and Édouard Jeauneau. Décades du Centre culturel international de Cerisy-la-Salle, nouvelle série, 9. Paris/La Haye, 1968, 147–60. ___________. “Richard de Saint-Victor.” DS 13. Paris: Letouzey et Ané, 1988. ___________. Le mouvement canonial au moyen âge; réforme de l’église, spiritualité et culture. Edited by Patrice Sicard. BV 3. Paris/Turnhout: Brepols, 1992. Clanchy, Michael T. Abelard: A Medieval Life. Oxford: Blackwell, 1997. Cleaver, Laura. Illuminated History Books in the Anglo-Norman World, 1066– 1272. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018. Coatsworth, Elizabeth and Gale  R. Owen-Crocker. Clothing the Past: Surviving Garments from Early Medieval to Early Modern Western Europe. Leiden: Brill, 2018. Colker, Marvin L. “Richard of St Victor and the Anonymous of Bridlington.” Traditio 18 (1962): 181–227. Daunou, Pierre-Claude-François. “Odon, abbé de Saint-Père, près d’Auxerre, et Odon, premier abbé de Sainte-Geneviève.” Histoire littéraire de la France 14. Paris: Victor Palmé, 1817, 347–50.

B ibliography

 449

De Belleforêt, François. La cosmographie universelle de tout le monde. Vol. 1. Paris: Michel Sonnius, 1575. De Lincy, Le Roux and Alexandre Bruel. “Notice historique et critique sur Dom Jacques du Breul, prieur de Saint-Germain-desPrés, II.” Bibliothèque de l’École des Chartes 29, 6me sér., vol. 4 (1868): 56–72. De Montfaucon, Bernard. Bibliotheca bibliothecarum manuscriptorum. 2 vols. Paris: Braisson, 1739. Delhaye, Philippe. Le Microcosmus de Godefroy de Saint-Victor, Étude théologique. Gembloux: J. Duculot, 1951. Dieudonné, Adolphe. Hildebert de Lavardin, Évêque du Mans, archevêque de Tours (1056–1133): sa vie, ses lettres. Paris: Picard, 1898. Du Cange, Charles et  al. Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis. Niort: L. Favre, 1883–1887. Online: http://ducange.enc.sorbonne. fr/. Dugdale, William. Monasticon Anglicanum, or The History of the Abbies and Other Monasteries. London: Longman, 1817. Feiss, Hugh B. “Circatores in the Ordo of St  Victor.” In The Medieval Monastery. Medieval Studies at Minnesota  2. Edited by Andrew MacLeish. St Cloud: Northstar, 1988, 53–58. ___________. “Circatores: from Benedict of Nursia to Humbert of Romans.” American Benedictine Review 40 (1989): 346–78. France, James. Separate but Equal: Cistercian Lay Brothers 1120–1350. CS 246. Collegeville, MN: Cistercian Publications, 2012. Galfridus Anglicus. Promptorium parvulorum, sive clericorum: Lexicon Anglo-Latinum princeps. Edited by Albert Way. Works of the Camden Society, 25, 54, 89. London: Camden Society, 1843-1865. Gibson, Bruce. “Hildebert of Lavardin on the Monuments of Rome.” Word and Context in Latin Poetry: Studies in Memory of David West. Cambridge Classical Journal supplement, no.  40. Edited by Anthony John Woodman and Jakob Wisse. Cambridge: Cambridge Philological Society, 2017, 131–54. Godefroy, Frédéric. Dictionnaire de l’ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du ixe au xve siècle. Paris: F. Vieweg, 1881–1902. Gougaud, Louis. Devotional and Ascetic Practices in the Middle Ages. London: Burns Oates & Washbourne, 1927. Goy, Rudolf. Die Überlieferung der Werke Hugos von St. Viktor. Ein Beitrag zur Kommunikationsgeschichte des Mittelalters. Stuttgart: Hiersemann, 1976

450

B ibliography

Grant, Lindy. Abbot Suger of St.-Denis: Church and State in Early TwelfthCentury France. London: Routledge, 2013. Grosse, Rolf. “Entre cour et cloître: Saint-Victor et les Capétiens au xiie siecle.” In  L’école de Saint-Victor de Paris: influence et rayonnement du Moyen Âge à l’époque moderne: colloque international du C.N.R.S. pour le neuvième centenaire de la fondation (1108–2008) tenu au Collège des Bernardins à Paris les 24–27  septembre 2008. Edited by Dominique Poirel. BV 22. Turnhout: Brepols, 2010, 79–119 Hamilton, Sarah. “Pastoral Care in Early Eleventh Century Rome.” Dutch Review of Church History 84 (2004): 37–56. Harper, Sally Elizabeth (Roper). Medieval English Benedictine Liturgy: Studies in the Formation, Structure, and Content of the Monastic Votive Office, c. 950–1540. Routledge library editions, 19. London: Routledge, 2019. Hauréau, Barthelemy. Notices et extraits de quelques manuscrits latins de la Bibliothèque nationale. Vol. 2. Paris: C. Klincksieck, 1891. Hélyot, Pierre [Fr. Hippolyte], and Maximilien Bullot. Histoire des ordres monastiques, religieux et militaires, et des congrégations séculières de l’un et de l’autre sexe, qui ont esté establies jusqu’à present. 8 vols. Paris: Coignard, 1714–1719. Holzherr, Georg. The Rule of Benedict. An Invitation to the Christian Life. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2016. Hürter, Friedrich. Geschichte Innocenz des Dritten und seiner Zeitgenossen. Hamburg: Perthes, 1844. Hugonin, Flavien. Prolegomena. Essai sur la foundation de l’école de SaintVictor de Paris. PL175.xiv–clxviii. Paris: J.-P. Migne, 1879. Jaeger, C.  Stephen. The Envy of Angels; Cathedral Schools and Social Ideals in Medieval Europe, 950–1200. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1994. ___________. “Humanism and Ethics at the School of Saint Victor.” Mediaeval Studies 55 (1993): 53–79. Jocqué, Luc, and Dominique Poirel, “De Donat à Saint-Victor: un De  accentibus inédit.” In  La  tradition vive: Mélanges d’histoire des textes en l’honneur de Louis Holtz. Edited by Pierre Lardet. Turnhout: Brepols, 2010, 161–92. King, Peter. “The Person and the Place – VI: Exile at Aebelholt.” Life of the Spirit, 17 (1962): 95–100. Kohler, Charles. Catalogue des manuscrits de la bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève. Vol. 2. Paris: Plon, 1896.

B ibliography



451

L’abbaye parisienne de Saint-Victor au moyen âge: communications présentées au XIIIe Colloque d’humanisme médiéval de Paris (1986– 1988). Edited by Jean Longère. BV 1. Paris/Turnhout, 1991. Lardet, Pierre. La tradition vive: Mélanges d’histoire des textes en l’honneur de Louis Holtz. Turnhout: Brepols, 2003. Lebreton, Marie-Madeleine. “Recherches sur les manuscrits des sermons de différents personnages du xiie siècle nommés Odon.” Bulletin d’information de l’IRHT 3 (1954): 33–54. Leclercq, Jean. “Le genre epistolaire au moyen âge.” Revue du Moyen Âge latin, 2 (1946): 63–70. Lelong, Jacques.  Bibliothèque historique de la France. Paris: J.  T.  Herissant, 1768. Merton, Thomas. Charter, Customs, and Constitutions of the Cistercians. Edited by Patrick  F. O’Connell. Initiation into the Monastic Tradition 7. Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2015. Moréri, Louis. “Hugues de S. Victor.” Le grand dictionnaire historique. Vol. 2. Lyon: Jean Girin & Barthelemy Riviere, 1683. Mousseau, Juliet and Hugh Feiss, eds. A  Companion to the Abbey of Saint Victor in Paris. Brill Companions to the Christian Tradition 79. Leiden: Brill, 2017. On Love: A Selection of Works of Hugh, Adam, Achard, Richard, and Godfrey of Saint Victor. Edited by Hugh Feiss. VVT 2. Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 2012. Orth, Peter. Untersuchung zur Überlieferung und Rezeption der Briefe Hildeberts von Lavardin: Vorstudien zu einer kritischen Edition, Erlangen: Friedrich-Alexander-Universität, Unpublished Habilitationsschrift, 2000. ___________. Hildeberts Prosimetrum De Querimonia und die Gedichte eines Anonymus: Untersuchungen und kritische Editionen. Wiener Studien  26  / Arbeiten zur mittelund neulateinischen Philologie  6. Wien: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2000. Oudin, Casimir. Commentarius de scriptoribus ecclesiasticis. Vol. 2. Leipzig: Weidmann, 1722. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. Edited by Frank Leslie Cross, and Elizabeth A. Livingstone. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. Page, William., ed. “Houses of Benedictine monks: St Albans Abbey – After the Conquest.” In  A  History of the County of Hertford. Vol.  4. London: Victoria County History, 1971. British

452

B ibliography

History Online, http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/ herts/vol4/pp372-416. Pascher, Joseph. Das liturgische Jahr. Munich: Max Hueber Verlag, 1963. Paxton, Frederick  S. Christianizing Death: The Creation of a Ritual Process in Early Medieval Europe. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1996. Perron, Anthony. “Fugitives from the Cloister: Law and Order in William of Æbelholt’s Denmark.” In Law and Learning in the Middle Ages. Edited by Helle Vogt and Mia Münster-Swendsen, Copenhagen: DJØF Publishing, 2006, 123–36. Petersen, Erik, ed. Words and Luminous Pictures: Medieval Book Culture in Denmark. Vol.  1: Essays. Copenhagen: Det Kongelige Bibliotek, 1999. Pohl, Benjamin. “The Date and Context of Robert of Torigni’s Chronica in London, British Library, Cotton MS. Domitian A. VIII. fol.  71r–94v.” London: British Library, 2016. Online: https://www.bl.uk/eblj/2016articles/pdf/ebljarticle12016. pdf. Accessed on 3/18/2020. Pohl, Benjamin and Laura L. Gathagan, eds. A Companion to the Abbey of Le Bec in the Central Middle Ages. Brill’s Companions to European History 13. Leiden: Brill, 2017. Prickett, Marmaduke. History of the Priory Church of Bridlington. Cambridge: T. Stevenson, 1836. Reprint Middletown, DE, 2018. Redon, Odile, Françoise Sabban, and Silvano Serventi. The Medieval Kitchen: Recipes from France and Italy. Translated by Edward Schneider. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1998. Rennie, Kriston R. “The Normative Character of Monastic Exemption in the Early Medieval Latin West.” Medieval Worlds 6  (2017): 61–77. Online: https://www.medievalworlds. net/0xc1aa5576%200x00372f1d.pdf Robertson, Duncan. Lectio Divina: The Medieval Experience of Reading. CS 238. Collegeville, MN: Cistercian Publications, 2011. Rochais, H.-M., ed. “Une collection de textes divers de S.  Bernard dans le manuscrit Tours 343.” Recherches de théologie ancienne et médiévale, 29 (1962): 77–158. Rüther, Andreas. “Konversen.” Lexikon des Mittelalters. Stuttgart: J.  B. Metzler, 1999. Scully, D. Eleanor and Terrence Scully. Early French Cookery: Sources, History, Original Recipes, and Modern Adaptations. Ann  Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2002.

B ibliography



453

Sicard, Patrice. Iter Victorinum. BV 24. Turnhout: Brepols, 2015. Sluhovsky, Moshe. Patroness of Paris: Rituals of Devotion in Early Modern France. Leiden: Brill, 1998. Squire, Aelred. “Introduction.” Hugh of Saint Victor: Selected Spiritual Writings. London: Faber  & Faber, 1962. Reprinted, Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2009. Stammberger, Ralf M. W. “‘Via ad ipsum sunt scientia, disciplina, bonitas.’ Theorie und Praxis der Bildung in de Abtei Sankt Viktor im zwölften Jahrhundert.” In  Scientia und Disciplina. Wissenstheorie und Wissenschaftspraxis im 12. und 13.  Jahrhundert. Edited by Rainer Berndt, Matthias Lutz-Bachmann, and Ralf  M.  W. Stammberger. Erudiri Sapientia, 3, 91–126. Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 2002. Stern, Heinrich. Theory and Practice of Bloodletting. New York: Rebman Co., 1915. Stober, Karen, Emila Jamroziak, and Julie Kerr, eds. Monastic Life in the Medieval British Isles: Essays in Honor of Janet Burton. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2018. Suhm, Petrus Fridericus, ed.  Scriptores Rerum Danicarum Medii Aevi. Copenhagen: Nicolaus Möller, 1783. Taylor, Jerome. “Introduction.” The Didascalicon of Hugh of Saint Victor: a Medieval Guide to the Arts. 1961. Reprint New  York: Columbia University Press, 1991. ___________. The Origin and Early Life of Hugh of St Victor. Texts and Studies in the History of Medieval Education,  5. Notre Dame: Notre Dame University Press, 1957. Thompson, Rodney M., ed. Manuscripts from St  Alban’s Abbey, 1066–1225, 2nd ed. Woodbridge: D. S. Brewer, 1985. Tischler, Matthias M., “Was das Sterben über das Leben verrät. Osberts Epistola de morbo et obitu Hugonis als biographisches Zeugnis für die Viktoriner ‘vita religiosa’,” in Diligens Scrutator Sacri Eloquii. Beiträge zur Exegese- und Theologiegeschichte des Mittelalters. Festgabe für Rainer Berndt SJ zum 65. Geburtstag, edited by Hanns Peter Neuheuser, Raph M. W. Stammberger, and Matthias M. Tischler, Archa Verbi, Subsidia 14 (Münster: Aschendorff Verlag, 2016), 271‒98. Ullman, Berthold Louis. “Sine ira et studio.” Classical Journal, 38 (1942/43): 420–21.

454

B ibliography

Van ’t Spijker, Ineke. “Hugh of Saint Victor’s Virtue: Ambivalence and Gratuity.” In  Virtue and Ethics in the Twelfth Century. Edited by István Pieter Bejczy and Richard Newhauser. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2005, 75–94. Van den Eynde, Damien. Essai sur la succession et la date des écrits de Hugues de Saint-Victor. Spicilegium Pontificii Athenaei Antoniani,  13. Rome: Pontificium Athenaeum Antonianum, 1960. Verbaal, Wim. “Trapping the Future: Abelard’s Multi-Layered Image Building.” Rethinking Abelard: A  Collection of Critical Essays. Edited by Babette  S. Hellemans. Leiden: Brill, 2014, 187–212. Vogt, Helle and Mia Münster-Swendsen, eds. Law and Learning in the Middle Ages. Copenhagen: DJØF Publishing, 2006. Wardle, John. St  John of Bridlington: His Life and Legacy. N.p.: John  E. Eckersley, 2013. Wilmart, André. Codices Reginenses latini. Vol.  1. Rome: Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana, 1937. Zinn, Grover A. “Vestigia victorina: Victorine Influence on the Spiritual Life in the Middle Ages with Special Reference to Hugh of Saint Victor’s De  institutione novitiorum.” In  L’école de Saint-Victor de Paris: influence et rayonnement du Moyen Âge à l’époque moderne: colloque international du C.N.R.S. pour le neuvième centenaire de la fondation (1108–2008) tenu au Collège des Bernardins à Paris les 24–27 septembre 2008. BV 22. Turnhout: Brepols, 2010, 405–32. ___________. “Garlande, Stephen of.” In Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages, vol.  2. Edited by Robert  E. Bjork. Oxford: University Press, 2010, 685–86.

INDICES

INDEX OF SCRIPTURE REFERENCES

OLD TESTAMENT Genesis 1:31210 2:6 294 (n. 87) 3:17–18210 4:5 370 (n. 136) 4:7 (Vetus Latina) 328 (n. 17) 6:6 356 (n. 31), 368 (n. 122) 11:6 354 (n. 17) 12:10 371 (n. 144) 15:12 394 (n. 322) 16:6 359 (n. 69) 19:1 402 (n. 379) 19:1–25 279 (n. 12) 24:12 390 (n. 283) 25:8 364 (n. 101) 29:7 377 (n. 174) 31:40 398 (n. 342) 37:4 354 (n. 5) 37:29 408 (n. 414) 39:6 380 (n. 200) 39:19 357 (n. 32) 41:38 380 (n. 201) 42:6 378 (n. 186) 44:14 399 (n. 355) 44:20 400 (n. 368) 45:27 407 (n. 412) 45:28 361 (n. 77) 47:29 381 (n. 213) 47:30 386 (n. 259) 49:22 380 (n. 200) Exodus 10:29 14:13

355 (n. 25) 393 (n. 308)

19:18 20:26 25:24 26:29

407 (n. 410) 405 (n. 403) 382 (n. 224) 382 (n. 227)

Numbers 3:38 6:24 11:4 14:41 20:3 21:2

387 (n. 266) 373 (n. 155) 360 (n. 73) 372 (n. 149) 371 (n. 145) 399 (n. 347)

Deuteronomy 4:29 6:3 22:6 28:37 32 32:19

384 (n. 245) 224 (n. 18) 296 (n. 98) 354 (n. 13) 160 (n. 117) 160 (n. 118)

Judges 2:19 9:25

354 (n. 11) 399 (n. 354)

Ruth 1:1

371 (n. 144)

1 Samuel 2:26 3:2 5:6 7:20 10:6

363 (n. 97) 399 (n. 348) 404 (n. 390) 375 (n. 166) 389 (n. 282)

458

INDEX OF SCRIPTURE REFERENCES

12:25 14:6 15:11 15:22 16:7 24:6

358 (n. 50) 371 (n. 139) 399 (n. 352) 325 (n. 8) 332 (n. 32) 374 (n. 158)

2 Samuel 9:6 16:12–13

395 (n. 330) 337 (n. 47)

1 Kings 8:39 10:2 17:14, 16 17:17

382 (n. 219) 382 (n. 224) 392 (n. 302) 399 (n. 358)

2 Kings 5:11 17:3–6 20:13

388 (n. 275) 372 (n. 150) 369 (n. 126)

1 Chronicles 16:34

393 (n. 311)

2 Chronicles 20:17

398 (n. 341)

Nehemiah 4:15 5:1 9:27

374 (n. 163) 402 (n. 375) 400 (n. 364)

3 Ezra 8:71

408 (n. 415)

Tobit 2:6 11:18 14:3

385 (n. 247) 396 (n. 334) 398 (n. 344)

Judith 5:20 8:16 13:17 (Vulg.) 14:13

402 (n. 378) 395 (n. 326) 380 (n. 197) 395 (n. 324)

Esther 4:1 6:9 14:14 15:6 15:16

364 (n. 103) 359 (n. 62) 373 (n. 155) 382 (n. 225) 398 (n. 342)

1 Maccabees 1:39 3:19 4:45 9:55 10:9

385 (n. 247) 371 (n. 138) 378 (n. 187) 394 (n. 318) 408 (n. 413)

2 Maccabees 10:38 12:45

407 (n. 409) 386 (n. 255)

Job

2:7 380 (n. 207), 404 (n. 392) 2:10 380 (n. 209) 3:24 377 (n. 178) 3:25 358 (n. 57) 4:19 297 (n. 103) 5:27 354 (n. 17) 7:1 (Vetus Latina) 339 (n. 52) 14:5 381 (n. 213) 14:16 400 (n. 362) 19:13 358 (n. 44) 21:14 388 (n. 277, 278) 21:16 389 (n. 279) 25:6 232 (n. 40) 29:21–22 244 (n. 91) 29:25 367 (n. 120) 31:1 282 (n. 24)

Psalms 1:4 2:2 5 5:6 5:11 6:10 8:5 15:1 15:2

231 (n. 30) 354 (n. 7) 129 (n. 88), 188 (n. 161) 367 (n. 112) 406 (n. 406) 364 (n. 102) 362 (n. 89) 329 (n. 22) 329 (n. 23)

INDEX OF SCRIPTURE REFERENCES

15:3 329 (n. 24) 17:6 397 (n. 337) 18 160 (n. 111) 18:26 160 (n. 112) 19:10 355 (n. 24) 20:4 404 (n. 393) 22:26 133 (n. 91) 23:3 375 (n. 169) 27:12 356 (n. 30) 28:4 359 (n. 69) 28:7 403 (n. 387) 30:10 404 (n. 395) 31:5 437 (n. 5) 31:18 358 (n. 54) 34:13 330 (n. 25) 34:15 395 (n. 325) 35:9 382 (n. 222) 36:6 358 (n. 48), 398 (n. 343) 36:6–7 387 (n. 263) 37:27 283 (n. 35) 38:14 371 (n. 147) 39:3 357 (n. 39) 40:2 337 (n. 48), 405 (n. 399) 40:3 406 (n. 406) 42:4 366 (n. 111) 46:10 290 (n. 70) 48 107 (n. 66) 48:1 387 (n. 264) 48:5–6 366 (n. 108) 48:9 107 (n. 65, 69) 51 107 (n. 67), 134 (n. 93), 149 (n. 104), 165 (n. 132), 185 (n. 155), 192 (n. 170, 172, 173) 51:17 395 (n. 326) 52:3 359 (n. 67) 55:5 395 (n. 323) 56:5 354 (n. 2) 57:4 330 (n. 27) 60:11 403 (n. 385) 66:16 400 (n. 363) 67 54 (n. 19), 165 (n. 128) 67:1 383 (n. 233) 67:7 (Vulg.)264 (n. 14), 286 (n. 45) 68 53 (n. 13) 68:35 380 (n. 198), 384 (n. 242)



459

69:11 358 (n. 45) 69:13 358 (n. 53) 70:1 277 (n. 3) 71 165 (n. 127) 71:9 383 (n. 234) 73:27–28 322 (n. 1) 73:28 358 (n. 47), 403 (n. 386) 76:2 386 (n. 255) 77:10 361 (n. 77) 78 160 (n. 113) 78:40 160 (n. 114) 78:59 358 (n. 56) 79:4 359 (n. 64) 79:7 370 (n. 135) 81:10 278 (n. 6) 84:4 296 (n. 98) 84:7 363 (n. 96) 84:10 431 (n. 1) 86:2 383 (n. 233) 86:2b 53 (n. 15), 54 (n. 23), 107 (n. 70), 155 (n. 105) 88:9 399 (n. 352) 89 160 (n. 115) 89:17 358 (n. 53) 89:20 160 (n. 116) 89:52 435 (n. 1) 90:10 408 (n. 418) 90:13 57 (n. 29) 92:5 362 (n. 90) 95 163 (n. 123) 95:7 163 (n. 124) 102 52 (n. 6), 53 (n. 10, 17), 160 (n. 119) 104:18 296 (n. 99, 100) 106:1 393 (n. 311) 106:4 394 (n. 314) 116:15 384 (n. 243) 117 165 (n. 130, 133), 188 (n. 162) 118:6 358 (n. 46) 118:17 377 (n. 182) 118:23 403 (n. 382) 118:24 393 (n. 309) 119:1 217 (n. 3) 119:16 383 (n. 233) 119:31 377 (n. 179), 435 (n. 2) 119:35 217 (n. 4), 286 (n. 47)

460

INDEX OF SCRIPTURE REFERENCES

119:41 119:45 119:66

52 (n. 5) 404 (n. 394) 210, 217 (n. 1, 5, 6), 218 (n. 7, 8) 119:116 107 (n. 64) 120–34 52 (n. 2), 163 (n. 122) 120 187 (n. 160) 120:8 59 (n. 35) 121 52 (n. 8) 121:6 296 (n. 101), 297 (n. 104) 121:8 52 (n. 9) 122:1 369 (n. 128) 122:7 52 (n. 4) 124:8 125 (n. 86) 127:5 404 (n. 393) 128 54 (n. 20) 130 185 (n. 156) 132 57 (n. 28) 133 54 (n. 21), 107 (n. 68) 133:1 57 (n. 30) 137:9 396 (n. 331) 139:14 409 (n. 421) 139:23–24 402 (n. 378) 141:3 331 (n. 30) 143:4 366 (n. 110) 143:7 408 (n. 417) 144:1 435 (n. 1) 145:18 394 (n. 321) 146 185 (n. 157) 146:3 338 (n. 51), 403 (n. 383) 147:5 401 (n. 373) 148:1 402 (n. 376) 149 58 (n. 33), 132 (n. 89), 165 (n. 129), 179 (n. 147) Proverbs 2:8 2:14 3:10 5:16 6:1–13 6:6–8 6:9–12 6:12–14

375 (n. 169) 332 (n. 34) 394 (n. 315) 432 (n. 6) 238 (n. 78) 235 (n. 60) 235 (n. 58) 229 (n. 29), 233 (n. 45), 235 (n. 71)

6:14 6:31 7:6–13 7:22–23 7:27 9:7–9 10:19

235 (n. 72) 369 (n. 131) 236 (n. 74) 236 (n. 75) 236 (n. 75) 241 (n. 84) 224 (n. 20), 244 (n. 93), 324 (n. 4) 10:26 235 (n. 61) 12:6 374 (n. 159) 12:8 246 (n. 103) 12:10 377 (n. 176) 12:24 235 (n. 62) 13:4 235 (n. 63), 290 (n. 68) 14:13 409 (n. 419) 15:4 330 (n. 28) 16:22 145 (n. 102) 16:32 326 (n. 10) 17:7 245 (n. 100) 18:6 246 (n. 108) 18:9 235 (n. 64) 18:13 244 (n. 94) 18:21 330 (n. 26) 19:5 246 (n. 109) 19:24 235 (n. 65) 21:25 235 (n. 66) 21:28 325 (n. 9) 22:13 235 (n. 67) 23:9 244 (n. 97) 24:7 246 (n. 105) 24:19 244 (n. 98) 24:30–32 234 (n. 57) 24:34 235 (n. 59) 25:11 243 (n. 90) 26:7 245 (n. 101), 246 (n. 104) 26:14 235 (n. 68) 28:1 364 (n. 104) 28:23 246 (n. 106) 29:9 244 (n. 99)

Ecclesiastes 1:2 1:18 2:8 3:7

335 (n. 38) 332 (n. 33) 336 (n. 39) 243 (n. 89)

INDEX OF SCRIPTURE REFERENCES

4:11 5:4 Song of Songs 7:12

355 (n. 23) 395 (n. 327), 401 (n. 372) 358 (n. 58)

Wisdom of Solomon 2:12 350 (n. 9) 2:19 380 (n. 205) 3:6 380 (n. 206) 6:7 336 (n. 42) 10:14 387 (n. 261) 18:14 365 (n. 105), 373 (n. 153) Ecclesiasticus/Sirach 2:1 339 (n. 53) 5:7 361 (n. 83) 5:11 244 (n. 95) 5:13–14 244 (n. 95) 6:5 246 (n. 110) 7:36 381 (n. 211) 10:9 232 (n. 38) 10:13 232 (n. 41) 11:7–8 244 (n. 96) 15:9 245 (n. 101) 18:17 66 (n. 39) 19:26–27 238 (n. 79) 22:1–2 235 (n. 69) 22:8 240 (n. 82) 22:14 240 (n. 83) 31:11 392 (n. 297) 32:18 367 (n. 119) 37:12–14 241 (n. 85), 242 (n. 86) 37:16 358 (n. 49) 39:9 386 (n. 258) 50:6 387 (n. 260) 51:2 404 (n. 389) 51:7 403 (n. 384) 51:11 392 (n. 296) 51:26 367 (n. 116) Isaiah 1:6 380 (n. 207), 404 (n. 392) 1:16–17 290 (n. 69) 3:16 234 (n. 53, 54)

3:16–17 3:17 3:18–23 4:1 11:10 14:3 26:12 28:1 33:17 35:10 36:21 40:6–8 42:1 42:2 47:1–2 47:1 47:5 61:10



461

234 (n. 52) 234 (n. 55) 234 (n. 56) 359 (n. 65) 394 (n. 316) 393 (n. 305) 362 (n. 91) 232 (n. 36) 359 (n. 61) 409 (n. 420) 357 (n. 39) 232 (n. 37) 368 (n. 123) 246 (n. 107) 233 (n. 46), 234 (n. 51) 233 (n. 48) 233 (n. 47), 234 (n. 50) 382 (n. 222)

Jeremiah 2:5 11:10 14:19 17:5 23:9 32:19 45:3

357 (n. 43) 400 (n. 365) 405 (n. 402) 371 (n. 141) 398 (n. 342) 367 (n. 119) 408 (n. 416)

Lamentations 1:2 1:11 1:12 3:14

380 (n. 204) 362 (n. 86) 390 (n. 287) 405 (n. 404)

Baruch 2:19 4:3

399 (n. 346) 360 (n. 76)

Ezekiel 3:3 30:6

391 (n. 290) 360 (n. 70)

Daniel 2:13 3:24 (Prayer of Az.)

371 (n. 143) 377 (n. 181)

462

INDEX OF SCRIPTURE REFERENCES

3:52 (Sg. of 3 Ch.) 403 (n. 388) 3:56–88 (Sg. of 3 Ch.) 58 (n. 33), 132 (n. 89), 165 (n. 129), 179 (n. 147) 4:22 391 (n. 289) 7:28 402 (n. 377) 14:28 354 (n. 1) 14:30 374 (n. 156) Hosea 4:8 5:3

Joel

2:13 2:28

403 (n. 381) 385 (n. 249)

Amos 8:10

385 (n. 247)

Micah 6:3–4

142 (n. 96)

232 (n. 34) 232 (n. 35)

NEW TESTAMENT Matthew 4:18–20 363 (n. 93) 5:3 361 (n. 80) 5:6 361 (n. 80) 5:22 329 (n. 21) 5:28 282 (n. 23), 322 (n. 2) 5:29 374 (n. 157) 5:34 283 (n. 36) 5:41 280 (n. 15) 6:2 328 (n. 16) 6:10 382 (n. 232) 6:12–13 265 (n. 18) 7:12 282 (n. 30) 7:22 388 (n. 275) 7:25 374 (n. 160) 8:8 388 (n. 276) 9:22 389 (n. 280), 399 (n. 351) 9:29 404 (n. 393) 9:30 394 (n. 317) 10:9 281 (n. 20) 10:10 281 (n. 21) 10:37 361 (n. 79), 382 (n. 228) 11:18 371 (n. 146) 11:29 367 (n. 116) 12:18 368 (n. 123) 12:36 329 (n. 20) 12:44 378 (n. 189) 13:46 366 (n. 109), 387 (n. 269) 14:31 379 (n. 192)

15:28 392 (n. 301) 16:19 359 (n. 68) 16:23 373 (n. 154) 16:24 382 (n. 228) 16:26 336 (n. 44) 19:21 218 (n. 9) 19:24–26 362 (n. 92) 19:26 278 (n. 2) 19:27 359 (n. 63) 19:29 218 (n. 10), 382 (n. 228) 21:41 360 (n. 71) 22:40 283 (n. 39) 23:27 296 (n. 98) 24:33 399 (n. 359) 24:42–44 355 (n. 22) 25:7 355 (n. 22) 25:13 355 (n. 19) 25:14 375 (n. 167) 25:34 381 (n. 217) 26:5 370 (n. 132) 26:7 392 (n. 303) 26:20 381 (n. 218) 26:41 431 (n. 3) 26:58 371 (n. 142) 26:63 386 (n. 253) 27:1 374 (n. 162) 27:50 384 (n. 239) 27:64 400 (n. 366)

INDEX OF SCRIPTURE REFERENCES

Mark 1:16–18 363 (n. 93) 1:26 389 (n. 282) 2:9 400 (n. 370) 7:35 396 (n. 332) 7:37 396 (n. 335) 8:2 377 (n. 173) 8:33 373 (n. 154) 9:20 388 (n. 271), 395 (n. 329) 9:21 389 (n. 281) 9:23 390 (n. 285) 9:26 407 (n. 411) 10:21 432 (n. 4) 10:23 336 (n. 43) 10:29 382 (n. 228) 10:29–30 361 (n. 79) 14:38 431 (n. 3) 16:1 383 (n. 236) 16:5 385 (n. 250) 16:9 386 (n. 254) Luke 1:14 1:15 1:38 1:48 1:49 1:57 1:58 1:63 1:69 1:78 1:46–55 1:68–79 2:12 2:29–32 4:22 5:1–11 5:15 5:17 5:25 5:26 6:31 7:13

393 (n. 307) 382 (n. 220) 381 (n. 216) 406 (n. 407) 391 (n. 292) 390 (n. 284) 390 (n. 288) 379 (n. 194) 394 (n. 313) 377 (n. 176), 393 (n. 312) 117 (n. 80), 142 (n. 100) 117 (n. 81), 142 (n. 99), 164 (n. 125), 165 (n. 131) 373 (n. 152) 172 (n. 143) 397 (n. 336) 363 (n. 93) 392 (n. 300) 395 (n. 328) 391 (n. 291) 357 (n. 41), 404 (n. 396) 282 (n. 30) 388 (n. 272)

7:15 8:13 9:3 9:30 10:19 10:33–36 10:35 10:38–40 10:41–42 11:14 11:22 12:35 13:34 14:11 14:26 14:27 14:33 15:8–9 15:17 16:19–22 16:24 18:11 18:13 18:24 18:27 18:43 19:12 22:15 22:32 23:24 23:43 23:46 23:50–51 24:19 24:35 John 2:11 4:17 5:4 5:7 5:30 5:35 6:37 8:56

 463

377 (n. 180) 436 (n. 3) 281 (n. 20) 381 (n. 215) 296 (n. 97) 282 (n. 28) 282 (n. 29) 292 (n. 74) 292 (n. 75) 357 (n. 37, 42) 372 (n. 151) 340 (n. 56) 296 (n. 98) 234 (n. 49) 218 (n. 10) 362 (n. 84) 355 (n. 20), 362 (n. 84) 407 (n. 408) 399 (n. 360, 361) 231 (n. 33) 246 (n. 112) 328 (n. 15) 402 (n. 380) 336 (n. 43) 277 (n. 2) 397 (n. 338) 375 (n. 167) 370 (n. 137) 378 (n. 190) 368 (n. 124) 364 (n. 99) 437 (n. 6) 357 (n. 40) 367 (n. 117) 379 (n. 193) 388 (n. 273) 355 (n. 25) 379 (n. 195) 405 (n. 401) 326 (n. 12) 367 (n. 121) 355 (n. 27) 405 (n. 400)

464 11:47–50 11:48 11:53 13:5 13:14 13:27 14:3 14:12 14:16 14:21 16:12 16:20 19:35 20:12 20:30 21:24

INDEX OF SCRIPTURE REFERENCES

360 (n. 75) 354 (n. 12), 369 (n. 130) 354 (n. 15) 382 (n. 231) 74 (n. 48) 356 (n. 29), 436 (n. 4) 382 (n. 219) 386 (n. 257) 376 (n. 171) 363 (n. 98) 244 (n. 92) 385 (n. 248) 377 (n. 184) 382 (n. 226) 380 (n. 199) 377 (n. 184)

Acts of the Apostles 1:10–11 385 (n. 251) 1:22 370 (n. 133) 1:26 363 (n. 94) 221 2:3 407 (n. 410) 2:17 385 (n. 249) 2:37 354 (n. 8) 3:3 405 (n. 398) 3:7 406 (n. 405) 3:10 357 (n. 38) 4 21, 264 4:31 232 (n. 3) 4:32 27, 264 (n. 15, 17), 267 (n. 22), 268 (n. 26) 4:32–35272 4:34 267 (n. 23) 4:35 264, 268 (n. 26) 5:29 284 (n. 42) 6:11 401 (n. 371) 7:49 399 (n. 353) 7:54 354 (n. 4) 9:5 337 (n. 46), 399 (n. 350) 9:15 363 (n. 95) 9:23 374 (n. 162) 10:17 361 (n. 78), 387 (n. 267) 12:7–8 382 (n. 223) 15:33 398 (n. 339)

16:17 16:18 19:16 Romans 1:21 1:25 2:11 2:24 3:13 5:2 5:3–5a 7:22 8:38–39 12:4 12:10 12:19 13:11 14:14

367 (n. 115) 396 (n. 333) 388 (n. 274) 354 (n. 16), 359 (n. 60) 382 (n. 232) 267 (n. 24) 329 (n. 18) 354 (n. 6) 377 (n. 185) 374 (n. 161) 382 (n. 220) 297 (n. 102) 296 (n. 96) 277 (n. 1), 375 (n. 170) 359 (n. 66) 335 (n. 21) 377 (n. 183)

1 Corinthians 1:19 357 (n. 33) 3:19 357 (n. 33) 4:4 333 (n. 35) 6:12 284 (n. 41) 6:18–20 340 (n. 57) 7:2 283 (n. 40) 7:6 283 (n. 40) 7:7–9 282 (n. 31) 9:27 380 (n. 202) 10:13 374 (n. 164) 12:12 267 (n. 25), 296 (n. 96) 12:26 267 (n. 25) 13:527 15:10 383 (n. 235) 15:53 387 (n. 265) 2 Corinthians 1:12 4:16 6:5 7:15 8:9 11:28 12:9

331 (n. 31), 334 (n. 37) 362 (n. 88) 375 (n. 165) 377 (n. 176) 362 (n. 85) 358 (n. 55) 380 (n. 208)

INDEX OF SCRIPTURE REFERENCES

Galatians 2:9 5:24

367 (n. 121) 380 (n. 203)

Ephesians 3:16 3:17 5:19

382 (n. 220) 394 (n. 320) 286 (n. 46), 393 (n. 310)

Philippians 1:11 2:3 2:8 3:8 3:21 Colossians 2:2 2:14 3:16 4:2 4:6

384 (n. 244) 339 (n. 55) 341 (n. 58) 218 (n. 12) 362 (n. 87) 390 (n. 286) 387 (n. 268) 286 (n. 48), 384 (n. 241) 293 (n. 82) 371 (n. 140)

1 Thessalonians 4:9

277 (n. 1)

2 Thessalonians 1:4

382 (n. 229)

1 Timothy 1:5 1:17 2:9 3:13 3:15 4:3 5:8 6:6

283 (n. 38) 384 (n. 246) 231 (n. 32) 66 (n. 38) 367 (n. 121) 282 (n. 31) 356 (n. 28) 431 (n. 2)

2 Timothy 2:3 4:6

372 (n. 148) 381 (n. 212)

Hebrews 5:7

378 (n. 188)

10:30 10:31 11:34 12:1 12:6 13:17 James 1:2 1:12 1:19 2:10 3:2 3:2–8 3:6 3:17 4:4 4:14 5:13–15

 465

359 (n. 66) 338 (n. 50) 400 (n. 369) 277 (n. 1) 337 (n. 45) 326 (n. 11), 375 (n. 168) 339 (n. 54) 382 (n. 230) 224 (n. 19) 281 (n. 18) 329 (n. 19) 224 (n. 21) 354 (n. 3) 225 (n. 23, 24) 336 (n. 41), 361 (n. 82) 232 (n. 39) 182 (n. 149)

1 Peter 1:22 2:5 5:8

277 (n. 1) 398 (n. 340) 308, 326 (n. 13)

2 Peter 2:16

277 (n. 4)

1 John 2:15 361 (n. 81) 2:17 336 (n. 40) 3:1526 5:19 355 (n. 18) Jude 21

402 (n. 374)

Apocalypse 3:19 4:6–8 7:13 13:6 19:10

337 (n. 48) 327 (n. 14) 385 (n. 250) 387 (n. 262) 354 (n. 14)

INDEX OF ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL AUTHORS

CLASSICAL AUTHORS Cicero In Catil. In Verrem Horace Ars Sat. Odes Epodes Juvenal Sat.

299 (n. 34) 300 (n. 63) 252 (n, 76, 77) 298 (n. 14) 299 (n. 33) 413 (n. 127)

Ovid Ars 299 (n. 26) Remedia 410 (n. 10) Pont.10 Sallust Cat.

299 (n. 43)

Virgil Aen.

301 (n. 43)

299 (n. 26)

PATRISTIC AND MEDIEVAL CHRISTIAN AUTHORS Abelard Historia calamitatum 19, 425 Epistolae 416 (n. 270) Alexander III, pope Epistolae Anonymous Vitae patrum

306, 376 342 (n. 6)

Anselm of Canterbury Admonitio morientes 202 (n. 152) Augustine of Hippo Confessiones

300 (n. 55)

De civitate Dei 298 (n. 7) Enarrationes in Ps. 155, 266 Enchiridion 301 (n. 88) Sermones 300 (n. 65), 334, 342 (n. 35), 419 Rule 21–28, 37, 100, 263–275, 280, 285, 289, 290–291, 293, 295, 298–301 Benedict of Nursia Rule 197–199, 250–251, 257, 258, 263, 265, 266–271, 273, 298 (n. 8), 300 (n. 49–50, 57. 59), 301 (n. 73, 77, 85)

I N D E X O F A N C I E N T A N D M E D I EVA L AU T HO R S

Bernard of Clairvaux Epistolae 298 (n. 11), 306 Boethius De consolatione philosophiae299 (n. 26)

 467

Jerome Epistolae 298 (n. 5, 16), 299 (n. 25, 27), 300 (n. 66), 301 (n. 89), 302 (n. 97)

Caesarius of Arles Homeliae317

Lanfranc of Bec Constitutiones 197 (n. 2), 198–99 (n. 36, 50), 200 (n. 85), 201 (n 122, 134–35)

Eucherius of Lyon Homeliae317

Martin of Braga Capitula

Gerhoh of Reichersberg Commentaria in Ps. 415 (n. 217)

Paulinus of Milan Vita S. Ambrosii414

Gregory the Great Homeliae 417 (n. 298) Homeliae in Ez. 201 (n. 110), 433 (n. 5) Moralia 156, 302 (n. 105)

Possidius S. Augustini vita

Hildebert of Lavardin Epistolae 30–31, 314–316, 320, 423–426

300 (n. 51–52)

301 (n. 91)

Robert of Bridlington Bridlington Dialogue 257, 261–263, 272, 298 (n. 9) Robert of Torigny Chronica424 De immutatione 19, 270, 423–424 Sulpicius Severus Epistolae tres

415 (n. 238)

VICTORINE AUTHORS Achard of St Victor Sermones

302 (n. 94)

Godfrey of St Victor Microcosmos

250 (n. 16)

Hugh of St Victor Archa Noe 415 (n. 221) Didasc. 48, 213, 214 Inst. nov. 30–32, 199 (n. 62), 209–215, 258 Libellus 269, 416 (n. 295)

Sacr.

213, 273, 299 (n. 32)

Odo of St Victor Epistolae 305–320

10, 21–23, 28, 33,

Richard of St Victor Diff. pecc. 250 (n. 16) Epistolae260 Liber exc. 301 (n. 72) Quaest. 29–30, 33, 257–275

SUBJECT INDEX abbot, election of, 39, 51–55, 198 (n. 27), 270; as an example, 25, 39, 56; responsibilities of, 30, 39; permission of, 42, 63–64, 75, 88–91, 115, 121, 126, 133, 135, 139–140, 144, 157–159, 179–180; privileges of, 25–26, 39, 42, 57, 181; death of, 51–52; blessing of, 54–55; veneration of, 24, 40, 55–56, 60, 79, 164; way of life of, 25, 56–58; see also authority Abelard, Peter, 19–20, 349, 425 ablution, 42, 149, 183; see also sacred vessels and linens, washroom Absalom, 337 Absalon, bishop of Roskilde, 347, 349, 367–369, 416 (n. 293); see also Roskilde Absalon, dean, 406 absolution, 123, 148, 152, 172, 180, 182, 381, 436; see also confession absolved, 186, 192, 195, 436 abstinence, 220, 282, 287–288, 376; see also chastity, lust Acts of the Apostles, book of, 156, 268, 323 Adelaide, Queen, 310 Advent, 155, 165, 178, 258; see also Christmas Æbelholt, 347, 349, 417 (n. 306); Klostermuseum, 414 (n. 172); school, 11 Alban, St, 260; monastery, 259–261, 263 Alberic, Master, 357 Alexander III, Pope, 306, 313 (n. 22), 376 All Saints, feast of, 94, 154, 172; church of, 399

Alleluia, 105, 109, 112, 153, 169; see also chapter, gradual, tract almoner, 67, 73, 88, 100, 113–114, 135, 176–177; duties of, 46, 73–75 altar, 95, 117, 157, 201 (n. 141), 358, 384, 393; ministering at, 85, 105, 291, 375, 380–381; signing of profession, 44, 106–107; prostration and bowing, 54, 78, 108, 116, 154–155, 162–164, 166, 169; facing, 118, 135, 163, 165–172; communion, 147–149; sprinkling with holy water, 149–151; vessels of, 66, 93, 96; ornaments of, 92; cloths, 92–93; candles/lamps on, 94–95; see also Mass amble, 379, 414 (n. 191); see also horse Ambrose, St, 287, 414 (n. 196) Amponville, 10, 11, 23, 308, 313, 324 Andrew, priest of Suntbe, 395 Andrew of St Victor, 211 Andrew, St, 363 angels, 109, 112, 361, 385–386 Annisse, 377, 398 Anointing of the Sick, 38, 44, 73, 95, 181–184, 384, 399, 436–437; see also oil antiphon, 10, 53–54, 104–105, 107, 109, 117–118, 138, 152, 164–165, 167, 171, 176–177, 190, 197 (n. 12), 202 (n. 145), 411 (n. 52), 413 (n. 134), 417 (n. 304); communion, 168; of St Mary, 150, 165; of St Victor, 150, 165 antiphonary, 109, 121 Apocalypse, book of the, 155 archdeacon, 20, 31, 310, 425, 429; see also deacon, subdeacon

SU B J E C T I N D E X

armarium, 88, 90, 131 see also armarius armarius, 39, 41, 100, 105, 113, 120–122, 126, 130, 142, 152, 173, 182, 186, 190, 192, 194; duties of, 27, 88–92; notice board, 117–118; reading at table, 155–156; see also books, reading, writing Arressø, Lake, 414 (n. 172) Ascension, feast of the, 94, 95, 155, 156, 385, 393, 406 Ash Wednesday, 142, 177; see also ashes, Lent ashes, 384; cleaning, 93; death, 184; Lent, 95, 152 Asserbo, 407 Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 94, 369 Assyria, 413 (n. 150) Athanasius, St, 21 Augustine, St, 165, 250 (n. 16), 262; feast of, 94; office of, 10; Confessions, 10; Exposition on the Psalter, 155; Exposition on the Passion of the Lord, 155; Exposition on the Epistle of John, 155; Exposition on the Epistles of Paul, 155 Augustine, Rule of, 21–30, 33, 37, 100, 257, 259–260, 263–269, 271–275, 278–297, 314; order of, 360, 368, 376; see also Benedict, Rule of authority, 38–41, 198 (n. 27), 265, 285, 296, 336; of the abbot, 24, 56, 79; of other superiors, 27, 44, 205, 275, 295, 366; of Scripture, 264; of the Fathers, 32, 283, 287; secular, 26 Auxerre, Abbey of Saint Père (Pierre), 313–314 Babylonia, 413 (n. 150) Bardeleue, 394 Bartholomew, St, feast of, 369 Basil, St, 265, 273 (n. 33) beatitudo, see happiness Beaugendre, Antoine, 314–316, 320, 426 Bec, 270, 423

 469

bedding, 24, 41–42, 72, 85–87, 138; coverlet, 84–85, 376; bambucina, 80, 85; pillow, 80, 85, 111; see also dormitory behavior, 10, 42–43, 56, 210, 219, 230, 246, 248, 253 (n. 111), 259, 274, 294, 309, 368; good, 23, 37, 41, 44, 232, 354; bad, 97, 323, 349, 357; perfect, 213; correction of, 25–26, 196; expectations of, 38, 45; reflecting interior disposition, 28–29, 33, 212, 214; see also demeanor, manners bell, 96, 113, 131, 134–135; death, 47, 73, 184, 186, 189–190, 193; hours, 96, 149, 162, 167; collation, 136–137; chapter, 124–125; meals, 79, 123, 364; little, 79, 96, 112, 132, 136, 186; see also gong Belleforêt, François de, 314 Benedicite, 43, 58, 132, 135, 165, 179 Benedict XII, 258 Benedict of Aniane, 22 Benedict, Rule of, 21–22, 24, 43, 257, 260–261, 263, 265–271, 273, 275, 300 (n. 56); see also Augustine, Rule of Benedictine, 10, 210, 215, 260; see also Cistercian benediction, 125, 132, 152 Benedictus, 117, 142, 164, 165 Bernard, man of Scania, 401 Bernard of Clairvaux, St, 305–306, 317 (n. 34), 318 Bible, 90; see also Scripture, individual books Bièvre River, 306 blessed water, see holy water blessing, 91, 186, 357, 372, 410 (n. 36); of holy water, 38, 95, 149–151; of candles, 95, 152; of the abbot, 54–55; for journeys, 41, 156–157; novices, 59, 106–107, 142, 144; at meals, 38, 81, 132–133, 135–137, 153–154; at readings, 59, 164–165; at collation, 137; at mandatum, 176

470

SU B J E C T I N D E X

blindness, 143, 328, 351, 387, 394, 403; spiritual, 231, 323 bloodletting, 42, 73, 114, 126, 139, 141, 144, 152, 177–180, 191, 202 (n. 148) Bodleian Library, 262 body, 99, 196, 219, 221, 250 (n. 16), 339, 362, 367, 382–383, 435; discipline of, 29, 363, 380; order in, 32, 213, 229–230, 232, 236–239, 252 (n. 80); gestures, 226, 233, 236; clothing, 27, 42, 73, 206 (n. 2), 230–231, 268; washing, 73; nourishment of, 274, 287–288, 376; illness in, 392, 399–404; corpse, 185–188, 190, 193–195, 384–385, 387; chastity of, 29, 282, 321–322 Bonnard, Fourier, 19 books, 54, 56, 72, 91, 107, 108–109, 115, 124, 128, 131, 136, 259, 262, 301 (n. 81), 353; armarius, 27, 39, 88, 90, 100, 120–121; asking for, 265, 267, 275, 294; chapter, 259; dead, 193; Matins, 104, 116, 122, 357; lesson, 130; collects, 164; mandatum, 174, 176, 177; at table, 155–156; exorcism, 149–150; scriptorium, 40, 260, 291; Scripture, 212–213, 286–287; service book, 181–182, 184, 186, 189–190; see also armarius, reading Botolph, St, 393 Brictius, sacristan, 387 Bridlington Dialogue, 257, 261–263, 272 Bridlington Priory, 261, 263 Brigit, woman of Nadweth, 376 Bristol, 263 Brittany, 349 burial, 38, 46, 47–48, 82, 186, 190–191, 195; of the abbot, 51–52; duties of the almoner, 75; see also death, funeral Bynum, Caroline Walker, 210 Caesarius of Arles, St, 317 Caiaphas, 360

camerarius, 39–40, 58, 113–115, 120; duties of, 27, 61–67, 69, 87; assistant, 65; see also subcamerarius candle, 108, 137–138, 141–142, 147, 149, 152, 164, 166, 351, 366, 391, 416 (n. 294); for the dead, 186, 194; candelabrum, 57, 68, 80–81, 92, 94, 174, 291; bearer, 151, 176; snuffers, 68; duties of Guest Master, 80; duties of sacristan, 94–95; duties of church warden, 136; Easter, 89, 94–95 canonical reform, see reform canons regular, 10, 22–23, 30, 112, 269–271, 280, 330; order of, 19, 46; secular, 270, 305, 310, 353, 368 canonization, of William, 47 cantor, 118, 127, 135, 149, 163, 293; see also singing Canute, King, 367, 412 (n. 114) Canute Lavard, Duke, 367, 369, 412 (n. 114), 413 (n. 125) caritas, see charity Cassian, 21, 265, 266 cathedral, 22, 31; school, 20, 425; see also individual cathedrals Cave, William, 313 Cecilia, woman of Ekebe, 352, 401 cellarer, 39, 47, 63, 68–69, 71–72, 80–83, 113–115, 130, 133, 178–179, 266; duties of, 27, 65–67; assistant, 65–66 cemetery, 193, 195, 394, 406 censer, see thurible chalice, see sacred vessels and linens Châlons, 20, 425–426, 429 Champagne, 310, 426 chapter meeting, 25, 38, 54, 56, 59, 70, 77, 79, 82, 141, 157, 166, 174, 179, 188, 259, 364–365; hour of, 124–129; asking mercy in, 42, 72, 96, 114, 124, 131, 133, 135, 139–140, 142–144, 151, 157, 161; calling out in, 117–118, 122, 146–147, 160; absolution in, 176, 180, 186; postulants, 44, 99; novices, 101–106; convening in, 51–52; announcing

SU B J E C T I N D E X

in, 51, 57, 73, 92, 106, 145, 158–159, 173, 178; duties assigned at, 89–91, 121, 143, 178, 202 (n. 159); granting dispensations in, 84, 115, 130; decision/approval of, 51, 55, 58, 60–61, 368; reciting the deceased in, 74–75, 191–192, 195, 202 (n. 159) chapter room, 136, 144, 157, 174–175, 179, 252 (n. 88) charity/caritas, 28, 38, 63, 75, 82, 158, 160, 210, 250 (n. 16), 273, 281, 283–284, 330, 339, 360, 375, 392, 425; works of, 224; law of, 272, 283; brotherly, 182, 223; as one of the virtues, 11, 363; see also love chastity, 273, 280; profession of, 28–29, 196, 269, 271, 278, 281–282, 308, 311, 321–322, 339–341; see also abstinence, lust Château de Livry, 310 Cherbourg, 9–10 choir, 71, 94, 96, 106–108, 114, 116, 127, 131–132, 134, 136, 139, 144, 149–150, 152, 172, 176, 187, 189, 191, 195, 351, 357, 383–384, 393; order in, 58–59, 107, 118, 124, 137, 148, 161–162, 170, 175, 186, 190, 194; coming in and out of, 106, 115, 119–120, 135, 141–142, 144, 149–150, 157, 160–161, 166–167, 180, 184–185, 190, 192– 194; sitting in, 44; convening in, 54, 151, 181; bowing in, 56–57, 60, 132, 155, 157, 163–165, 167–169, 171; keeping awake in, 61; exchanging kisses in, 108; singing in, 117–118, 121, 141, 149, 153–154, 169, 375; guests in, 79; novices, 100–102, 104, 108; see also singing chrism, see oil Christ, 326, 362–363, 383, 405, 407, 435; the Crucified, 362, 437; the Redeemer, 363, 382; Son of God, 351, 357, 378–379, 386; body and/ or blood of, 147–149, 323, 381, 436–437; imitating, 21, 28, 367,



471

381–382; sufferings of, 270; sacrifices of, 381; death of, 183, 341, 383, 427, 437; cross of, 362; mercy of, 358; intercession of, 351, 384, 386; contemplation of, 322; Birth/Nativity of, 94, 125, 153, 155, 189, see also Christmas Christian, 214, 384, 406, 431–432; communion of, 22; lifestyle, 23, 32, 280; ethics, 210; charity, 425; guidelines for, 21; requirements for, 28–29, 280, 287, 431; world, 33 Christina of Markyate, 260 Christmas, 94; Octave of, 412 (n. 105), 413 (n. 153) Chronicles, book of, 156 Church, 22, 58, 89, 98, 272, 286, 305, 331, 356–359, 365–366, 391–393, 397; Body of Christ, 296; reform of, 21, 23, 33, 368, 370; building, 39, 44, 49, 122, 129, 142–143, 151, 158, 174, 180, 182, 184, 190–191, 194–195, 252 (n. 88), 294, 351, 395, 401, 405, 437; going in and out of, 53, 57, 79, 114–115, 123–124, 129, 131, 136–137, 141, 144–145, 159, 162, 166–167, 170, 176–177, 179, 186, 188, 193, 220; entrance of, 118, 135–136; reading in, 59, 130, 154, 156, 273, 286–287; Office of, 90, 92, 185, 187; treasury of, 62–64; books of, 88; singing in, 91, 121, 157, 273, 287, 384; ornaments and vessels of, 92–95; behavior in, 259; stability at, 271, 278–279; decrees, 283 Church Fathers, 32, 90, 156, 262, 283, 286–287 church warden, 113, 124–125, 130, 136–137, 167, 174, 184–185, 187, 189, 193; duties of, 96–97; see also sacristan Cistercian, 198 (n. 44), 215, 269 (n. 27), 301 (n. 80), 318; monks, 33, 350, 378; monastery, 262 (n. 11), 415 (n. 252); see also Benedictine

472

SU B J E C T I N D E X

circator, 25, 42, 117–118, 127; duties of, 146–147 civitas, 413 (n. 129) Clairvaux, 270 Clément, Gilles, 310–311, 314 cleric, 85, 98, 112, 196, 295, 372, 384, 400, 436; duties of, 114, 119, 210, 285, 290–291, 293, 410 (n. 34); communal life of, 21, 37; community of, 19, 429; see also canons regular cloister, 55–56, 63–64, 71, 73, 83–84, 88–89, 93, 115, 138–139, 144, 146, 156, 158, 174, 184, 269, 297; living in, 40; sitting in, 42, 120–124, 131, 135, 143, 180, 188, 193; reading in, 67, 120–121, 130, 353; singing in, 120–121; speaking in, 102, 120, 129–131, 252 (n. 88); calling from, 141; washing in, 70; mandatum, 74; guests in, 40, 46; novices in, 102–105; going in and out of, 54, 118, 120, 129, 136, 141–142, 150, 157, 159, 167, 180–181; doorkeeper of, 74, 76–77, 83, 125; custodian of, 114–115, 131; guarding, 184, 190 clothing, 43, 73, 85, 88, 113, 120, 128, 134, 138, 149, 205–206, 237, 249, 265, 268, 291, 323, 341, 405; soft, 24, 87, 289; precious, 231–232, 234; complaints about, 27, 60, 265; uniformity in, 42, 57, 85–86, 158, 161, 206, 230; modesty in, 24–25, 42, 128, 138, 174–175; discipline in, 213, 230–232, 246; making, 40, 84, 205; cleaning, 42, 87–88, 119; secular, 87, 180; for novices, 100, 102, 105; for servants, 87–88; see also vestiarius clothing, types of, – habit, 25, 42, 60, 84–85, 159, 199 (n. 57); lay, 98 – cape, 84–86, 88, 101, 111, 180, 193, 205–206; serving in, 71, 81; with cloak, 138, 145; taking off, 148, 151, 154, 181–182; sitting in, 161–162

– cloak, 42, 73, 84–85, 87, 101, 106, 111, 151, 174, 180, 190, 194, 205, 399, 405; serving in, 71, 154, 177, 181; with cape, 138, 145; sitting in, 162 – mantle, 84–86, 111, 145, 205–206, 358–359 – furs, 84–86, 111, 145, 205 – tunic, woolen, 71, 84–86, 119, 154, 205–106, 418 (n. 349); linen, 85, 190, 194, 205 – robe, 42, 71, 84–86, 111, 154, 205–206, 230, 382, 385–386 – shirt, 71, 85, 87, 111, 154, 205–206 – breeches, 85, 87, 111, 205–206 – hose, 84–85, 111, 174, 205–206 – socks, 84–85, 205–206 – hood, 85, 101, 119, 122, 138–139, 145, 161, 180, 205–206 – hat, 85, 145, 205 – gloves, 119 Cluny, 269 (n. 27), 305, 319 Colker, Marvin, 259, 263 collation, 57, 72, 77, 90–92, 96, 122, 136–137, 140–141, 143–144, 146, 176, 179, 184 collects, 91, 164, 195 communion, 93, 117, 147–149, 168–170, 182–183, 436; receiving, 108, 124, 142, 147–149, 198 (n. 47), 381, 401; the sick, 75, 95; see also Christ, Eucharist community, 10, 23–24, 30, 127–128; life, 22, 28, 33, 39, 264, 269; discipline of, 26, 59; practice of, 129, 139; vow of, 196, 311, 321, 339–341; leadership of, 26–27, 29, 116, 118, 129, 131, 135, 140–142, 144, 147, 167; individual in, 21, 198 (n. 41); new members of, 26, 38, 41, 44–45, 100, 102–105, 108, 269; guests in, 46, 79–80; the sick, 47, 71–72, 143, 145; receiving communion, 124, 148; death in, 47–48; outside, 37, 40–41, 49, 180–181, 193–195; see also property, sanior pars

SU B J E C T I N D E X

community of property, see property; community, vow of confession, 123, 182, 322, 373, 399, 435; novices, 106; the sick, 75, 82, 184 confessor, 112, 413 (n. 134), 427; William, 384, 386, 387, 390, 392, 397, 398, 399, 401, 403, 404, 405, 407, 408, 409; see also absolution conscience, 225, 228, 309, 326, 331–334, 392, 402 contemplation, 240, 322, 363, 368, 214; as rest, 290–291; as opposed to activity, 30, 274; see also Mary and Martha conversus, see lay brothers Copenhagen, 394, 405, 413 (n. 129), Church of Blessed Mary, 406 council, 39, 55, 285, 286, 287, 412 (n. 107); Aix-la-Chapelle, 22; Braga, 287; Fourth Lateran, 22 Crates, 280 Creed, 166–167, 184–185; Athanasian, 167, 201 (n. 138); Apostles, 167, 201 (n. 138) cripple, 143, 404–405 cross, 92, 95, 142, 149–150, 181, 184– 186, 189–190, 193–194, 202 (n. 153), 341, 373, 382, 435, 437; bowing to, 131, 135, 137; of Christ, 165, 362 cross, sign of, 108, 157, 378 crozier, 39, 55 crypt, 150, 180, 189, 372 customary (book), 31, 37, 129, 198 (n. 44), 209, 269 d’Achery, Luc, 312–313, 319–320, 426 Dacia, 364, 367, 369, 372, 381, 412 (n. 100, 114); see also Denmark damnation, 183, 231–232, 329, 362 Damsholt, Nanna, 349 Daniel, book of, 156 Daunou, Pierre-Claude-François, 307, 310–311, 313–314, 319 David, King, 322, 329–330, 337, 394, 435



473

deacon, 96, 128, 151, 153, 170, 348, 356, 388–389, 406, 410 (n. 34, 36); duties of, 90, 93–94; communion, 147–149; blessing water, 149–150; clothing, 85; guests, 79; novices, 105, 108; order of sitting, 161; reading, 171; mandatum, 174–175; footwashing, 177; diaconate, 357; see also archdeacon, subdeacon deafness, 387, 396 death, 142, 198 (n. 36), 201 (n. 140, 142), 270, 283, 330, 354–355, 367, 374, 377, 387, 390, 398–400; in the community, 47–48; a dying brother, 73, 184–186; ad succurrendum, 48, 203 (n. 171); Office of, 184–185, 187, 416 (n. 256); Lauds for, 172; Vespers for, 172, 177; Mass of, 92, 95, 154, 168–169, 188–189, 195; vigil, 187–189, 191, 195; anniversary of, 125, 192, 195; memory of, 74; raising of, 387, 407–409; of Hugh of St Victor, 31–32, 202 (n. 153), 305, 423, 426–427, 435– 438; of William, 347, 350–351, 376, 384, 386, 388, 415 (n. 240, 252); see also burial, necrology, Vigils Delisle, Leopold, 424 demeanor, 232–239, 245, 251 (n. 44), 253 (111); see also behavior, manners demons, 357, 391; evil spirits, 389, 395; see also exorcism Denmark, 32, 347, 349, 412 (n. 100, 114, 118), 415 (n. 240), 418 (n. 356), 419 (n. 391); see also Dacia devil, see Satan Dieudonné, Adolphe, 315, 425–426 dinner, 69, 74, 81, 100, 131, 177, 179, 246, 389; while a brother is dying, 184, 186; prayer before, 133; guests at, 80; preparation of, 67, 70; fasting, 51, 288–289; table manners during, 247; see also lunch, supper Diogenes, 431

474

SU B J E C T I N D E X

discernment/discretio, 97, 212, 225, 240, 271, 285, 321, 324, 338, 357, 365 discipline/disciplina, 85, 129, 138, 178, 180, 194, 209–214, 217–220, 224, 227, 229–230, 337, 340, 347–349, 368, 374; behavior, 10, 32, 226, 294; moral, 33; of the body, 380; of quiet, 145, 179, 246; in dress, 230–232, 253 (n. 111); in demeanor, 232–239, 246–247; in speaking, 239–246; at table, 246–249; superiors, 25–26, 39, 56, 222; positions requiring, 45, 75, 78; novices, 103–106; correcting, 59; punishment, 128, 146, 200 (n. 101), 267, 275, 295 discretio, see discernment Divine Office, 43, 59, 71–72, 91–92, 96, 101–102, 105, 108–109, 116, 119–120, 122, 131–132, 141, 144, 152–153, 159, 165, 180, 186–187, 198 (n. 50), 200 (n. 85), 291, 301 (n. 80), 375; regular, 72, 78, 89, 96–97, 101–102, 114–115, 124, 126, 140, 143, 146–147, 157, 159–161, 163–164, 167, 185, 193; of the dead, 184–185, 187, 190, 192, 416 (n. 256); arriving late to, 42; absence from, 56, 70, 72, 74, 78, 89, 92, 97, 114, 124, 126, 142, 146, 152; books for, 72, 90, 121 – Matins, 91, 102, 117–118, 126, 137–138, 141, 154–155, 163, 179–180, 199 (n. 50), 357, 368, 396; signal for, 96, 116, 162; candles, 80, 94; reading at, 90, 116, 122, 130, 164; for the dead, 185–188 – Lauds, 116, 155, 165, 172, 185, 199 (n. 50), 383, 384, 417 (n. 304) – Prime, 96, 102, 109, 120, 124, 152, 154, 160, 166–167, 172, 188–189 – Terce, 96, 120, 130, 149–151, 157, 159, 161, 186, 189 – Sext, 96, 120, 189 – None, 74, 96, 102, 114, 120, 122, 130, 135, 152, 179, 187

– Vespers, 70, 91, 102, 117–118, 120, 122, 126, 130, 142, 154–155, 165–166, 170–172, 174, 180, 393, 402; signal for, 96; candles, 94–95; for the dead and burial, 177, 186–189, 192 – Compline, 74, 101–102, 137, 143–144, 146, 152, 154–155, 157–158, 172, 179; candle, 95; absence from, 92, 136; for the dead, 187–188 – Nocturns, 109, 154–155, 164, 199 (n. 50) doorkeeper, 40, 45, 78, 83, 191; of the courtyard, 75–76; of the cloister, 76–77 dormitory, 55, 74, 77, 119, 122, 124, 130, 137–139, 146, 149–151, 166, 170, 174, 187–188, 372; abbot, 57; warning in, 59; the sick, 72, 120, 138; guests, 79–80; novices, 100–104; bloodletting, 179–180; clothing of, 84; laundry, 87–88; awakening in, 96, 162, 166–167; siesta, 101, 135, 143; guard of, 184; see also sleep Dublin, 257, 261, 263; Trinity College, 257, 261–262; St Thomas Abbey, 257, 263; Abbey of St Augustine, 263 du Molinet, Claude, 307 Durham, 262 dream (vision), 350–350, 373, 377, 385 dress, see clothing drunkenness, 220, 288, 323 Easter, 51, 89, 94–95, 130, 142, 155, 163, 174, 178, 189, 264, 384, 415 (n. 240), 416 (n. 254); Eastertime, 116; Easter week, 125, 153, 155; first four days of, 94, 120; Triduum, 152; Vigil, 154, 383; see also Lent Ecclesiastes, book of, 156; commentary on, 109 Ecclesiasticus, book of, 213

SU B J E C T I N D E X

education, 11, 25, 30–32, 33, 38, 90, 97, 101, 179, 209, 213, 214, 218, 241–242; see also novitiate Egypt, 266 Ekebe, 401 Elias, bishop of Orléans, 412 (113); see also Orléans Ennius, 348 envy, 223, 277, 354, 358 Epiphany, 94, 316; octave of, 155, 167 epistle, 156, 258, 287; at Mass, 130, 147, 155, 168–169; canonical, 155 Eric, Br., 378 Eric I, King, 412 (n. 114) Ernisius (Ervisius), abbot of St Victor, 9, 272 Eskilsø, 347, 349, 367, 369 Esrum, Abbey of, 378, 384 Esther, book of, 156 Estrid, woman of Methdeluse, 389 Eucharist, 95; see also communion, Christ Eucharius of Lyon, St, 317 Eugene III, Pope, 32, 348, 358, 360, 411 (n. 59) exile, 9–10, 308, 310–311 Exodus, 262 exorcism, 91, 149 Ezekiel, book of, 156 Ezra, book of, 156 F., Br., 311, 338 fasting, 219, 284, 323, 329, 363, 365, 375, 380; rules for the sick, 143, 145, 274; at what times one should, 96, 120, 189; for the dead, 51, 184; under Rule of Augustine, 29, 265, 287–289; see also food faults, 223, 234, 245, 279–280, 327, 332; confessing in chapter, 25, 58, 115, 117–118, 126–128, 130, 135, 176, 198 (n. 46); in the sacrament of confession, 123; reported to the abbot, 158; see also chapter meeting, circator, confession



475

feast days, 43–44, 68, 95, 112, 116–117, 142, 156, 159, 163, 167, 173, 189–190, 192, 197 (n. 1), 220–221, 368, 396– 397; double, 94, 117–119, 151–154, 174, 180, 187; of nine lessons, 51, 94, 117, 120, 125, 153, 172–173, 187, 197 (n. 1); solemn, 92, 383; ordinary, 93; bowing, 78, 135, 170–171; see also individual feast days fellowship, 60, 97, 178, 223, 403; of the community, 10, 308, 325 Ferry de Paris, 306–307 food, 69, 105, 157, 179, 198 (n. 42), 199 (n. 73), 265, 274, 282, 288, 333, 363, 370–371; needing more or less, 24, 43, 248, 268, 289; indulging in, 287, 323, 341; preparation of, 66, 80, 83, 180, 248; leftovers, 69, 73, 81, 134, 350, 377; use of, 281; used, 27; hand signals for, 43, 109–111; guests, 46, 65, 80–81; the poor, 46; the sick, 72–73, 81–82, 133, 143, 145; cleanliness around, 67–68, 80; blessing of, 81; discipline, 220, 246–249; healing, 350, 376–377, 392; Lenten offering, 47; see also fasting footwashing (mandatum), 24, 42, 64, 136, 173–176, 184, 198 (n. 48); of the poor, 46, 177; duties of the refectorian, 70; duties of the almoner, 74; duties of the sacristan, 95; duties of the armarius, 117 fornication, 282–283, 322 France, 31–32, 350, 358, 366; see also specific cities Frisleve, 388 funeral, 44, 189–190, 193, 384; see also burial, death Geneviève, St, 359–360, 365–366, 379, 416 (n. 294) Geoffrey of Gorham, 260 Gerard, disciple of William, 382 Germany, 385 Gertz, M. C., 347, 352

476

SU B J E C T I N D E X

Gervase, Abbot of Louth Park, 262 gestures, 101–102, 213, 226, 230, 239, 251 (n. 44); inappropriate, 233, 236–237; in speech, 245; at table, 246–247; see also manners Gherluse, 400 Gilbert de Gant, 261 Gilduin, abbot of St Victor, 20, 31, 32, 37, 200 (n. 84), 261, 305, 317, 360 (n. 72), 424, 429 Glory be, 52–54, 57, 107, 116, 118, 132, 135, 154, 159–161, 163–165, 168, gluttony, 220, 248, 327; see also drunkenness, fasting, food God, 196, 211, 217, 267, 270, 309, 326, 334, 337–338, 340–341, 355–358, 360, 362–363, 379–380, 398, 402–403, 431, 437; Most High, 361, 378, 401; Creator, 229, 252 (n. 80), 322; Author, 404; house of, 66, 266, 392; will of, 269; eyes of, 27, 234, 332, 395; authority of, 51, 279, 390; serving, 29, 219, 231, 269–272, 278–279, 281–282, 295–297, 339, 385; confession to, 182, 294; judgement of, 183, 234, 367, 398; wrath of, 361; discipline of, 217; grace of, 218, 231, 325, 331, 333, 335, 373, 383; mercy of, 328, 333, 335, 406, 436; salvation of, 394; knowledge of, 30, 225; servant of, 231, 264, 285; intercessor to, 368; image of, 31 209, 211, 226; loving, 23, 29, 227, 311, 322–325, 329, 335–336, 339, 380; praising, 265, 280, 331–332, 339, 368, 373, 382, 390–392, 396–397, 402, 404–406; praying to, 47, 242, 249, 265, 275, 286, 291, 399; giving thanks to, 265, 295, 311, 353, 377; offending, 26, 210; see also Christ, Holy Spirit, Trinity Godfrey of St Victor, 10, 250 (n. 16) Gogmund, man of Sorø, 385 gong, 59, 67, 70, 131, 174, 186; see also bell

Good Friday, 152, 189, 192, 200 (n. 96) goodness, restoration of, 31, 209–211 Gørløse, 418 (n. 367) gospel, 108, 152, 178, 258, 287, 410 (n. 34); of Mass, 123–125, 168–169, 189; reading at table, 155–156; standing during, 142, 164, 168–169, 406–407; see also individual books Gotland, 403 Goy, Rudolf, 257 grace, 45, 245, 324, 356, 362, 384, 431; fallen from, 20; of God, 196, 218, 231, 271, 280, 322, 325, 331, 333, 335–336, 353, 363, 373, 375, 377, 383; of health, 392–393, 400, 402; prayer, 176–177; prayer for meals, 79, 134–135, 147, 157, 159, 188 gradual, 52, 105, 153, 169, 201 (n. 122); see also invitatory, Alleluia granary, 63–64, 66, 82, 113 greed, 66, 97, 248, 279, 328; see also property Gregory the Great, St, Pope, 156, 201 (n. 110), 274, 300 (n. 56), 432 Grimolf, 388 Guarin (Warin), prior of St Alban’s, 260 Guarin (Warin), abbot of St Geneviève, 348, 364 Gude, woman of Lund, 406 guesthouse, 46, 74, 76, 78, 80–83, 87, 356, 391 guest master, 40, 42–43, 45, 63, 65, 67, 115; concerning novices, 41, 99; duties of, 46, 78–83; assistant, 74, 76, 80–81, 83 guests, 38, 40, 45–46, 48, 65–66, 70, 78–83, 373, 396 habit, see clothing Haakon, monk, 350, 378 haircloth, 376, 383–384; see also clothing Halberstadt, 31

SU B J E C T I N D E X

Halland, 404 Hammersleben, 31 hand signals, 108–114 happiness/beatitudo, 210, 212, 217–218, 324, 334, 381, 402, 409 Hardekeir, 399 Hauréau, Barthelemy, 315, 317 healing, 32, 350–352, 392, 395, 398, 400, 402–403, 405–406; water, 351, 388, 390, 394, 400, 403; see also miracles hebdomadarian, 117, 126, 184, see also priest, weekly Henry I, King, 310 Henry II, King, 257, 261–262 Hildebert of Lavardin, 30, 314–316, 320, 423–426, 431 Hildesheim, 385 Hippo, 264 holiness, 24, 32, 242, 334, 347, 375, 380, 387–388 holy oil, see oil Holy Saturday, 152, 189, 416 (n. 255) Holy Spirit, 325, 349, 356, 362, 380, 382, 407, 435–436; see also Christ, God, Trinity Holy Thursday, 74, 152, 167, 177, 202 (n. 145); see also Lord’s Supper holy/blessed water, 38, 57, 78, 101, 137, 151, 157, 167, 181, 184–186, 189–190, 193–194, 399; see also sacred vessels and linens Horace, 348 horses, 46, 57, 60, 62, 64, 78, 80, 341, 351, 378–379, 407 hospitality, 38, 45–48, 76, 83, 158 host, 93, 147, 426 (n. 13); see also communion, Eucharist Hours, see Divine Office Hours of St Mary, see Mary Hugh, abbot of Saint-Germain-desPrés, 348, 353, 356–357 Hugh, archdeacon of Halberstadt, 31 Hugh of St Victor, 31–32, 201 (n. 109), 215, 250 (n. 1), 259–261, 273, 305,

 477

318, 424, 429; education, 11, 31, 49, 209, 213–214; knowledge, 211–213, 214; discipline, 210–211, 213; death, 31–32, 202 (n. 153), 423, 426–427, 435–438; Inst. nov., 10, 25, 31, 33, 41, 209–211, 213–215, 258; Didasc., 209; De Meditatione, 214; Sacr., 214 Humbert of Romans, 214 humility, 76, 82, 221, 223, 225, 227, 232, 251 (n. 28), 266, 271, 284, 311, 330, 363, 375, 392; true, 338–339; and chastity, 340; in correction, 58; in nomination, 58; in obedience, 222, 226, 297; in clothing, 230; footwashing, 177 hymn, 117, 121, 155, 164–165, 172, 242, 286–287, 384, 407; see also psalm hymnal, 103, 109, 121; see also psalter idleness (otium), 30, 274–275, 290, 293, 358; see also contemplation illness, 44, 116, 126, 135, 143–146, 173, 322, 351, 345; exceptions for, 24, 43, 73–74, 81–82, 84, 87, 114, 120–121, 124, 133, 138, 140, 149, 161, 177, 289; in the retrochoir, 135, 141–143, 151–152, 185; care of, 38–39, 47, 66, 71–73; healing, 350–352, 375–379, 386, 388–389, 392–394, 397–400, 405; guests, 46–47, 48, 74–75, 81–82; novices, 104; meals, 143; blessing, 151; ad succurrendum, 98; of Hugh, 426, 435–436; see also Anointing of the Sick, death, retrochoir infirmarian, 42, 47, 63, 67, 81, 113, 143, 145, 427; bloodletting, 178; Anointing of the Sick, 181; duties of, 39, 71–73; assistant, 47, 71, 145; see also Anointing of the Sick, illness, subinfirmarian infirmary, 46–47, 65, 71–74, 81, 87–88, 141, 143–146, 151–152, 179–180, 182, 184, 191 Ingeborg, Queen, 350

478

SU B J E C T I N D E X

Ingerith, woman of Thortorp, 407 Inghefrit, girl of Nordenberge, 403 insult, 328–330, 334, 337, 374, 388 Italy, 21, 200 (n. 77), 265, 270 (n. 29) Innocent III, 259 introit, 117, 168, 169, 412 (n. 105) invitatory, 105, 116–118, 153–154, 163–164 Ireland, 258, 261, 263 Isaiah, book of, 155 Isefjord, 347 Israel, 282, 413 (n. 150) Iulike, 391 Jacob, 370 Jaeger, C. Stephen, 31, 210–211, 213–214 Jeremiah, book of, 155 Jerome, St, 262, 282 Job, book of, 156 John, St, altar of, 150 John, first epistle of, 155 John the Baptist, St, feast of, 393, 395, 403, 405 John, Br., 427, 435 John, priest, 404 John Cassian, see Cassian John of Toulouse, 261 Jonas, Br., 9–10, 11 jubilus, 53, 164–165, 167–169, 171; see also Alleluia Judith, book of, 156 junior, canon, 69, 129, 145, 178, 181, 193, 348; order of standing or sitting, 44, 107, 124–125, 131, 148, 162, 178–179, 190, 194; see also canons regular, senior Justina, Empress, 287 Ketil, Norwegian man, 395–396 kingdom of God, 270, 329, 357, 362 Kings, book of, 155–156, 201 (n. 108) kiss, 113, 177; of peace, 58, 78, 100, 108, 175, 184, 361, 369; altar, 107; cross, 184, 437 kitchen, 24, 39, 65–67, 70, 72–73, 76, 78, 83, 87, 150, 198 (n. 42), 268

knowledge, 104–105, 213, 221, 226, 240, 249, 260, 271, 285, 353, 372, 388, 431–432, 438; of God, 30, 225; of psalms, 103, 121; scriptural, 214; of how to act, 209, 212, 218–219, 250 (n. 17); of truth, 227; of literature, 321, 429; leading to goodness, 210–211; and conscience, 309, 332–333 Knut VI, King, 350 La Charité-sur-Loire, 348, 355 labor, see work Lamb of God, 117, 142, 147–148, 168–170 lamp, 80, 94–96, 136–138, 162, 355, 367; see also candle, lantern Lanfranc, 199 (n. 50), 259 lantern, 96, 136–137, 146, 162, 164, 166, 181, 183, 186, 189, 193–194; see also candle, lamp lasciviousness, 229, 233–234, 236; see also lust latrine, see lavatory Lauds, see Divine Office lay brothers (conversus), 40, 49, 67, 74, 114, 119, 125–126, 180, 186, 198 (n. 44), 293, 301 (n. 80); door keeper, 45, 75–77; as assistants, 64, 70–72, 78, 177; clothing, 84–85, 87, 205–206; dormitory, 87–88; during Mass, 148, 170 laymen/laity, 10, 40, 48, 98–99, 112, 181–182, 195, 203 (n. 171), 358, 436 lavatory/latrine, 67–68, 101, 138–139, 155 Lawrence, St, feast of, 407 Lawrence, cleric, 400 Lawson, C.S.M.V., Sr. Penelope, 259, 262–263 Lebeuf, abbot, 313–314 Lebreton, Marie-Madeleine, 316 (n. 33), 317–318 lectern, 125, 132, 138, 155–156, 164, 174, 176, 181; see also books, lector lectio divina, 32, 212, 227, 348, 350, 353

SU B J E C T I N D E X

lector, 125, 132, 135–137, 155–156, 174, 176, 184, 186 Le Mans, 314 (n. 28), 425 Lent, 95–96, 117–118, 152, 155, 165, 170; footwashing, 38, 47, 74, 177; death during, 186, 189; Triduum, 120; Vigils, 122, 130 leprosy, 387, 403–404 lesson, 130, 154, 164, 197 (n. 1), 293, 353; feast of nine, 51, 94, 116, 117, 120, 125, 153, 154, 155, 171–172, 173, 187, 191 Liber ordinis, 11, 37–49 258, 269, 301 (n. 80) Ligner, young man, 403 linens, see sacred vessels and linens litany, 54, 116, 142, 185, 372, 373 literature, 210, 321, 353, 427, 429; see also books, education liturgy, 27, 39, 41, 44, 47; see also Mass Lives of the Fathers, 23, 265, 325 Lord’s Prayer, 52–54, 57, 107, 132, 163, 166–167, 170–172, 190–192, 197 (n. 3), 198 (n. 36), 397 Lord’s Supper, 95, 142, 381–382; see also Holy Thursday, Mass Lot, 279 Louis VI, King, 20, 309–310 Louis VII, King, 305, 306, 310, 358– 360, 365, 411 (n. 59), 412 (n. 107) Louth Park, Abbey of, 262 love, 225, 245, 250 (n. 16), 260, 265, 271, 281, 285, 291, 309, 325, 335–336, 340, 354–356, 362; of God, 23, 29, 218, 227, 311, 322–324, 329, 335–336, 339; of neighbor, 23, 25, 29; of superiors, 221–222; of religion, 284, 322, 328; of the world, 337; of justice, 364; of piety, 370; for Mary, 366; fraternal, 223, 277, 291, 308, 321, 369; unselfish, 27; spiritual, 26, 265; see also charity Lucethorp, 396 Luke, gospel of, 23 lunch, 69, 95–96, 100, 114, 123, 131, 135, 173, 179, 187; fasting, 51; prepara-

 479

tion of, 67, 70; blessing, 153; see also dinner, supper Lund, 406 Lungbe, 403 lust, 25, 32, 229, 281–282, 340, 373; see also women luxury, 24, 231, 234, 247, 340, 362 Maccabees, book of, 156 Magnificat, 117, 142, 171 mandatum, see footwashing Manassès de Garlande, bishop of Orléans, 412 (n. 113); see also Orléans manners, 10, 32, 213–215, 226, 259, 325; beautiful (venustas morum), 31, 210, 213; table, 212, 246–249 marriage, 282, 283; clerical, 21 Marseille, 19 (n. 1), 31 Martin, bishop of Braga, 300 (n. 51) Martin of Tours, St, 21, 384, 415 (n. 238), 416 (n. 256); feast of, 167 Martin, Pope, 286, 300 (n. 51) martyr, 21, 43, 112, 257; St Victor, 19, 31, 429; Canute, 367, 369, 412 (n. 114); St Lawrence, 407 Mary, Blessed Virgin, 438; Nativity of, 94; Octave, 94; antiphon, 150, 165; Hours of, 153–154, 157, 165–166, 168, 185, 201 (n. 139); Matins, 116, 155; Prime, 167; Vespers, 172; churches dedicated to, 19, 20, 310, 358, 384, 406; see also specific feasts Mary and Martha, 30, 275, 290–292; see also contemplation Mass, 95–96, 144, 258, 335, 381, 393, 435; of the abbot, 57; vestments for, 57, 60, 108, 358; reading at, 90–91, 122, 125, 130, 154–155; duties of, 90, 126, 151–152; communion, 147–149; of the dead, 92, 154, 168– 169, 188–189, 191–193, 195; Major, 70, 92, 94, 106, 117, 123–124, 132, 139, 151–153, 155, 157, 159, 168–170, 177, 185–186, 188–189; Morning,

480

SU B J E C T I N D E X

76, 94, 117, 123–124, 151–153, 163, 167–170, 179, 189, 191–192, 195, 401; sung, 93, 107–108, 120; private, 124, 192; daily, 153; see also death, sacred vessels and linens, sacred vestments master of novices, 25–26, 41, 45, 47, 113; duties of, 100–101, 103–104, 106–107 Medellus, 376 meditation, 214, 220, 274, 291, 358; on sacred Scripture, 218, 250 (n. 17); see also contemplation, lectio divina Methdeluse, 389 merit, 218, 221, 227, 265, 283, 326, 392, 403; of saints, 367, 369, 378; of William, 377, 390, 395, 399, 404, 408–409; footwashing, 176; Anointing of the Sick, 183 mill, 62, 65–66, 306, 407 minister, 37, 95, 140, 149–151, 176, 190, 260, 310; see also servant Minor Prophets, books of, 155, 262 miracles, 32, 347, 350–352, 379–380, 386–387, 390–393, 395, 397, 399, 401, 403–405, 407–408; see also healings mixtum, 70, 155, 198 (n. 44), 289; see also wine modesty, 56, 77, 128, 138, 145, 173, 222–223, 226, 232, 236, 238, 242, 245–247, 367, 375; in dress, 24, 42, 174–175, 230; in sitting, 132, 179; in singing, 176 money, 39, 62, 63, 66, 113, 309, 336; see also camerarius, property monk, 112, 259, 261–262, 270, 301 (n. 80), 319, 328, 347–349, 353, 355, 360, 373, 384, 399, 407, 423, 436; relationship with God, 23, 265; community of, 264–265; guests, 46, 79, 126, 141, 269; Benedictine, 260; Cistercian, 350, 378; see also canons regular

Mont Saint Michel, Abbey, 423 moral life, 21, 23, 213 Moses, books of, 155; see also Exodus murmuring, 27, 180, 267–268, 289, 337, 378; see also silence muteness, 328, 357, 387, 395–396 N., Br., 196, 308, 311, 313, 324 Nadweth, 376 necrology, 20, 74, 89, 125, 129, 202 (n. 159), 307; see also death neighbor, 241, 359–360, 387, 390, 408; love of, 23, 29, 264 (n. 13); serving, 30, 219, 291, 331; salvation of, 283; harming, 250 (n. 16), 329 Nicholas, St, 396, 411 (n. 52) Nicholas, young man, 385 Nordenberge, 403 Norway, 395–396, 404 novices, 59, 105–106, 113, 184, 261; separation of, 24, 44–45, 91, 100–101, 103–104; reception of, 38, 41, 56, 97–100; instruction of, 26, 31, 38, 41, 45, 100–105, 209–210; profession, 106–108; blessing, 142, 144; clothing of, 85–87; see also master of novices, Hugh of St Victor; see also novitiate novitiate, 49, 100–104; see also cathedral, master of novices, novices oaths, 102, 158; see also profession, vows obedience, 32, 265, 284, 308–309, 313, 325–326, 355, 371; profession of, 28–29, 99–100, 196, 199 (n. 60), 269, 296, 308, 311, 321, 339, 341; to superiors, 222, 269, 271, 273, 278, 282, 295–296, 323–324; to precepts, 224, 227, 273; through humility, 226; virtue of, 340, 363 obediences (ministries), 39, 41, 59, 61, 90, 158–159, 192, 198 (n. 34), 328, 331 obedientiaries, 44, 49

SU B J E C T I N D E X

Oderic of Vitalis, 423 Odo of Canterbury, 313 Odo of St Victor, Abbot, 10, 20–22, 28–29, 32, 305–320, 348, 360–361, 364, oil, 63, 87, 94, 392; holy (chrism), 95, 181–182, 202 (n. 149), 383–384; see also Anointing of the Sick offertory, 106; Mass, 70, 117, 168–169; cloths (offertoria), 93, 95 office, see Divine Office Olava, woman of Copenhagen, 394, 405 oratory, 78, 157, 185 Oreberghem, 408 Origen, 155–156 Orléans, 349, 366, 412 (n. 113) Orth, P., 426 Osbert of St Victor, 202 (n. 153), 423, 426–427, 435–438 otium, see idleness Oudin, Casimir, 312, 316 Ovid, 10, 348 Oxford, 262 Palm Sunday, 95, 152; see also Lent Paraclete, 349, 376–377, 378, 387, 414 (n. 172); see also Holy Spirit Paris, 21, 30–31, 306, 309, 336, 348–349, 366, 368, 372–373, 429, Notre Dame, 19, 20, 310, 358 parlor, 88, 89, 115, 125, 130–131, 135, 140–141, 146, 157, 180, 181; exterior, 40, 77, 120, 124, 177 pastoral care, 10–11, 22, 33, 49 Paul, St, 231, epistles of, 23, 155, 262, see also Peter and Paul Paul, boy of Thortorp, 407 Paul, abbot of St Alban’s, 259–260 Peder Sunesen, 416 (n. 293) penance, 123, 158, 279, 281, 301 (n. 80), 306 (n. 8) Pentateuch, see Moses, books of Pentecost, 51, 94, 116, 120, 130, 152–153, 156, 172, 174, 178, 189, 338, 393, 402;



481

week, 125, 156; vigil, 152, 154, 394, 406; octave, 156, 163 perfection, 21, 214, 329, 431–432 permission, 30, 70–72, 84, 101, 103–104, 115, 122, 139–141, 161, 173, 177, 278–279, 296, 339, 349, 370, 378, 392; Rule of Augustine, 29; of the abbot, 42, 63–64, 74–75, 86–91, 105, 115, 121, 124, 126, 133, 135, 139–140, 143–144, 157–159, 179–181; of the prior, 59, 119, 158; to leave, 71, 103–104, 128, 134, 136, 138, 160, 188, 369; for being absent, 43, 72, 78, 96–97, 114, 120, 126–127, 135, 142, 147, 179; for borrowing, 65, 68; for being in the retrochoir, 114; for speaking, 145, 147 Perron, Anthony, 349 Peter, St, 359–360, 363, 438; altar, 150; church, 314 Peter and Paul, 353, 359–360 Peter Abelard, see Abelard, Peter Peter Martyr, OP, 258 Peter, bishop of Roskilde, 391, 393; see also Roskilde Philip Augustus, King, 310, 314, 350 piety, 19, 73, 241, 370, 403, 423 pilgrimage, 351, 399 pilgrims, 191, 350–351, 375, 393 Poirel, Dominique, 209–210, 214–215 portico, 96, 194 possessions, 58, 294, 316, 363, 387; community, 27–28, 272, 280–281, 341; see also property Possidius (Possidonius), 294, 301 (n. 90) poverty, 269, 333–334, 370, 392, 394, 431 prayer, 29, 33, 51, 60, 108, 151, 157, 163, 171, 176, 179, 188, 190, 220, 242, 258, 265, 269, 273, 286, 291, 295, 335, 338, 341; imitating Christ, 21; sung, 29; and reading, 274–275, 293–294, 330; structured, 37–38, 43–45, 91; falling asleep during, 42; for guests, 46, 78, 82, 128; for

482

SU B J E C T I N D E X

the poor, 47, 177; for the sick, 47, 73, 145, 182–184; for the dead, 47–48, 82; in the dormitory, 59, 102, 146, 150; bowing during, 125, 129, 155, 166–169, 172, 177; grace (meals), 153–154, 199 (n. 61); thanksgiving (gratias), 101; see also grace prayers for the dead, 190, 201 (n. 140, 142); of Saint Mary, 150; see also trina oratio Praeceptum, 22, 264 (n. 13), 265, 298 (n. 13), 299 (n. 45), see also Augustine, Rule of pride, 87, 222, 225, 242, 327–328, 330, 334, 338–341, 358, 360 priest, 26, 93–94, 120, 124, 132, 155, 165, 168–172, 190–192, 264, 269, 275, 294–295, 384, 391, 403, 436; weekly, 117, 125, 127, 137, 151–154, 161, 163–164, 167, 181–182; secular, 23; parish, 49; serving, 105; confession to, 123, 402; communion, 147–149, 401; Anointing of the Sick, 181–184; blessing, 133, 135, 137, 149–150, 153, 157, 410 (n. 36); mandatum, 174–177; order, 79, 90, 128, 161, 171, 194; vestments of, 85, 95, 149, 189, 193; priesthood, 23, 367 prior, 57–58, 61, 76, 89, 94, 112, 130–131, 134, 151, 157–159, 175, 182, 185, 197 (n. 3), 261, 293–295, 364–365, 369–370, 381, 384, 396, 423; veneration of, 40, 60, 170; authority of, 41, 44, 56, 64, 81, 135, 141, 145, 269; permission of, 139, 158; duties of, 58–59, 70, 84, 86, 91, 122, 152–153, 158, 205, 268, 280; making signals, 118–120, 131, 162, 174; blessing, 153; in correcting, 140, 156; release from service, 60; concerning novices, 99–100, 103–105, 108; election of the abbot, 51–55; order of sitting, 79, 160; Odo of St Victor, 305, 310, 348, 360

procession, 91, 141–142, 150–151, 166, 181, 184–185, 189, 194; order of, 79, 148, 161, 181; singing in, 117, 135; absence from, 115, 124; to the dormitory, 119–120, 170; to cloister, 129, 135, 150, 167; to the washroom, 131, 135, 166; to the infirmary, 182; into church, 129, 131, 136–137, 166–167, 186; for the dead, 193–195; branches, 95 profession, 38, 98, 106–108, 199 (n. 60), 269–273, 278, 281, 285, 295–296, 324, 328, 348, 399, 431; vows of, 28– 29, 263, 321, 323, 339–341; formula, 38, 196; see also novices, vow property, 27, 39, 40, 61, 232, 272, 298 (n. 17), 389; common, 21, 28, 267, 308, 321, 323; renunciation of, 22, 231, 269, 271, 278, 280–281, 341; dispossession of, 270, 272; see also possessions Proverbs, book of, 156, 213 Providence, Divine, 374, 398; provost, 358, 360, 368–369, 372–373 Psalms, 121, 199 (n. 50); praying the, 274, 286, 291, 436; gradual (the fifteen psalms), 52, 163, 185, 201 (n. 122); recitation of, 44, 47, 107, 116, 161, 192, 286; singing/chanting of, 45, 103, 118–121, 135, 152, 154, 171, 182, 188, 190, 287, 375; psalmi familiares, 123, 137, 157, 166–167, 172, 185, 200 (n. 85); penitential (the seven psalms), 116, 166–167, 182, 185, 190, 195, 198 (n. 36), 201 (n. 135), 372–373; when to sit and stand during, 44, 53, 129, 159–160, 165, 171–172; when to bow during, 135, 164, 166 psalmody, 92, 96, 185–186, 368 psalter, 103, 109, 121, 185–187, 192 Puissaux, 20 Purification, 94, 95, 142, 152 purity, 360, 366, 436; of life, 32, 98; of mind, 321–322, 392; of thought, 334; of faith, 286; of motive, 331; in truth, 271, 285

SU B J E C T I N D E X

Quadragesima, 381 quiet, 221–222, 224, 240, 292, 297, 367; times of, 57, 179, 220; in the dormitory, 138; in the infirmary, 145; in work, 89; in speaking, 102, 118, 121, 178, 181; in singing, 177; in sitting, 119–120, 123, 145, 164; at meals, 247; as discipline, 229, 238; see also silence R., Br., 308–309, 321, 328, 331 Ragnhild, woman of Bardeleue, 394 reading, 10, 108, 145, 176, 213, 242, 265, 293–294, 330, 338, 347, 375, 432; errors in, 42, 59, 61, 90–91, 121, 156; assignment of, 91–92, 104–105, 121–122, 126, 130, 142, 155–156, 164, 188, 357; novices, 103–105; aloud, 47, 72, 121, 179; in church, 90, 152, 154–155, 165, 171, 184–185, 273, 286–287, 383, 406–407, 410 (n. 36); in cloister, 67, 120, 123, 130, 353; in chapter, 91, 125, 136–137, 174, 179; at table, 91, 114, 132, 155–156; in the dormitory, 138–139; three, 116–117, 120; nine, 116, 125; sacred, 212, 227; contemplation through, 274–275, 291, 363; see also books reason, 210, 227, 245, 297, 333, 385, 401; and knowledge, 211, 218–219, 250 (n. 17), 338 refectorian, 39, 67, 79–80, 100, 113–114, 130, 133–134, 184; duties of, 67–71, 173; assistant, 184 refectory, 39, 46, 65, 67, 69, 73–74, 95, 131–136, 146–147, 150, 176, 198 (n. 42), 351, 364, 368; eating in, 57, 76–77, 180; reading in, 59, 105, 155–156; blessings in, 153–154; grace after, 159, 177, 187; reverence, 60, 132; coming into, 66, 101, 131–133, 135–136, 144, 176, 179, 186; guarding, 184; preparation of, 70; cleanliness in, 68, 87; guests in,



483

70, 79–80; novices in, 100–101, 104; concerning the sick, 71–72, 133, 143–145 reform, 28, 29, 30, 32, 33, 209–210, 215, 217, 226, 241, 259, 305, 306, 347–348, 350, 423; anti-, 21; canonical, 19, 20, 21, 23, 31, 349–350; twelfth-century, 21, 22, 23; Reformation, 263 Reiner, priest, 352, 399 relics, 19 (n. 1), 92, 95, 365, 378, 397; concerning novices, 107, 196; reliquaries, 366; of St Victor, 31; of St Geneviève, 305 (n. 2), 348–349, 366; see also tooth religious life, 97–98, 230–232, 257, 262, 289, 308, 310, 328–329, 339, 425; clothes, 86–87; Liber Ordinis, 33, 37; Rule of Augustine, 22–23 remembrance of the dead, see death repentance, 295, 322, 332–334, 336, 341, 402; Anointing of the Sick, 183; see also confession requests, 66, 86, 98, 129; for books, 266–267, 275, 293–294; of guests, 46; see also permission responsibility, of individual brothers, 62, 66, 70, 74, 79, 83–84, 90–92, 105, 122, 194–195; for one another, 25; of discipline, 26; of authority, 38–41 response, 109, 116, 118, 123, 137, 152, 164–165, 167–169, 171–172, 178, 186, 199 (n. 51), 201 (n. 107); leader of, 132; of the armarius, 117, 190, 194; preparation of, 138; sung by two, 153–154 responsory, 108, 150, 383–384 restlessness, 233, 235–236, 239, 292 Resurrection, of the Lord, 383–384; see also Easter retrochoir, 79, 102, 138, 157, 161, 187–188, 194; sick in, 47, 114, 135, 141–144, 152; after bloodletting, 180; see also illness

484

SU B J E C T I N D E X

reverence, 221–222, 241–242, 244, 260, 359, 362, 378, 381, 384, 406; of the prior, 60; at meals, 81; communion, 148; of the community, 180–181 Rhuys, Abbey of St Gildas, 349 Richard, abbot of Æbelholt, 388 Richard of Albini, abbot of St Alban’s, 260 Richard of St Victor, 22, 28–30, 250 (n. 16), 259–261, 263, 269–275, 277; Quaest., 11, 23, 33, 257 Ribe, 400 Ringsted, 369 Robert of Flamborough, 261 (n. 9) Robert of Torigny, 20, 423–424, 429; De Immutatione ordinis monachorum, 423–424 Robert the Scribe, 262–263 Rome, 359 Roskilde, 349–350, 367, 369, 395–396, 413 (n. 129); church at, 367; see also Peter, bishop of Roskilde and Absalon, bishop of Roskilde Rule of Augustine, see Augustine, Rule of Rule of Benedict, see Benedict, Rule of Rule of the Master, 265, 268 sacer ignis (ergotism), 351–352, 399, 418 (n. 345) sacred vessels and linens, – ampule, 181, 183 – aspergillium (sprinkler), 57, 95, 149–150 – aspersorium (holy water vessel), 78, 399 – chalice, 57, 92–95, 147–149, 182, 199 (n. 54) – corporal, 27, 93, 147 – covering (tectus), 92–93, 199 (n. 54) – offertory cloth (offertorium), 93, 95 – paten, 147, 149, 199 (n. 54)

– piscina, 93–94, 149, 168, 182, 183, 199 (n. 55), 201 (n. 141) – thurible, 57, 92, 95, 185, 186, 189, 190, 193, 194, 366 – wine flask, 148, 149 – sacred vestments, 57, 60, 92–93, 95, 190–191, 193, 358, 386–387 – alb, 148 – chasuble, 57 – maniple, 95 – stole, 95, 107, 124, 151, 181–182, 184–186, 189, 193 – surplice, 199 (n. 63); see also cloak sacristan, 107, 149, 151, 162, 174, 176, 201 (n. 120), 387, 390; Anointing and death, 181–182, 184–185, 187, 189, 193; duties of, 27, 92–97; assistant, 38, 93, 95; see also church warden saints, as examples, 72, 210–212, 226–227 Saint Geneviève, Abbey of, 20, 28, 32, 305–308, 310, 314–315, 319, 347–350, 352–353, 358, 360–361, 365, 368, 372, 411 (n. 51) Saint Germain, Abbey of, 306, 319, 348, 353 Salmanasar (Shalmaneser V), 372, 413 (n 150) salvation, 24–25, 210, 282–283, 289, 355–356, 367, 373, 393–394, 398, 405, 436–437; education for, 23; commands of superiors, 29; novices, 98–99; through stability, 270, 279, 295–296 sanctuary, 54, 92, 94, 106, 107, 108, 116, 142, 148, 154, 155, 161, 164, 166, 393 sanior pars, 271, 273, 278, 284–285; see also community Satan, 371, 374, 395; Devil, 309, 325– 328, 331, 339–341, 368, 372–373, 386; Enemy, 225, 227–228, 288, 327, 370, 372–374, 386, 388; adversary, 326, 373–374

SU B J E C T I N D E X

Saxo, Br., 387, 389, 391 Saxo, provost, 368–369 scandal, avoidance of, 40, 67, 83, 98, 118, 133, 143, 193, 219–220, 357 Scania, 399, 401 school, see cathedral, novitiate scientia, 211–214 Scotland, 261 scribe, 258–259, 262; supplies for, 63, 89, 291; see also Robert the Scribe, scriptorium scriptorium, 40, 259–260; see also armarius, scribe Scripture/Word of God, 22, 227, 233– 236, 240, 264, 273, 282, 285; study of, 210, 214, 227–228, 242–243, 252 (n. 88), 316, 321; learning by, 212, 250 (n. 17); meditation on, 218; see also lectio divina seculars, 76, 81–83, 97, 126, 149 senior, canon, 45, 54, 58, 119, 121, 128–129, 140, 178, 190–191, 348; order of sitting or standing, 44, 124, 131, 148, 161–162, 194; see also canons regular, junior Senlis, 357 Sens, 365 Septuagesima, 155, 178 sequence, 109, 169, 416 (n. 254, 255) Serlo of Wilton, 259 sermons, Victorine, 10, 315–318; of William, 375; of Hildebert, 424; at chapter, 125–126; on specific seasons, 155–156 servants, 80, 84, 159, 177, 248, 292, 335, 349, 358–359, 362–363, 372, 375, 377–378, 380, 391; duties of, 40, 46, 82; meals of, 65, 70; dormitory of, 78; clothing of, 87; allowance to take with, 57, 60, 158, 293; to the sick, 75; under direction of the prior, 59; under direction of the camerarius, 62–65; under direction of the cellarer, 63, 67, 71; see also conversus



485

servants, of God, 231, 264, 285, 358, 383, 386, 388, 392–393, 406 servants, of St Geneviève, 366, 379 servers (of food), 134–135, 268 shaving, 70, 100, 173, 330; see also tonsure Shimei, 337 shoes, 84–85, 87, 119, 138, 174, 205–206; making of, 40; uniformity in, 57, 85–86; for novices, 100–101; boots, 85, 88, 205–206 shrine, of St Alban, 260; of St Thomas, 350, 378; of St William, 351–352; see also tomb sickness, see illness signals, hand, see hand signals silence, 49, 140–141, 178–179, 219–220, 238, 240, 242, 290, 323, 375; keeping, 26, 38, 42, 115, 120–123, 173, 243, 259, 330, 353, 365; praying in, 132, 134, 163, 190; at anointing and death, 51, 182, 188; at meals, 246; of the abbot, 57; of the guest master, 78; of novices, 101, 103; in the infirmary, 72, 143–144; in the scriptorium, 89; at obediences, 158; see also quiet Simon, Br. of St Alban’s, 257, 259–261, 263, 271, 277 sin, 64, 183, 213, 237, 246, 279, 282, 284, 309, 324, 328–330, 352; committing of, 236, 294, 332, 365; of lust, 25, 322 Sinai, Mount, 407 Sjælland, 347, 349, 412 (n. 100); see also Zealand Slavs, 367, 374 sleep, 104, 111, 116, 152, 220, 361, 363, 368, 371–373, 376, 379, 397–398, 406, 414 (n. 175); on guard, 39, 65, 71; preparation for, 42; vigils, 187; in the dormitory, 57, 79–80, 101, 138–139; in the infirmary, 143–144; in the guest house, 78; in the church, 97; of the door keeper, 76–77; in sin, 332, 340, 355

486

SU B J E C T I N D E X

sloth, 235, 291 Sodom, 279 solemnity, 68, 117, 125, 197 (n. 1), 335 Solomon, King, 30, 141, 156, 229, 233, 234, 235, 236, 238, 240, 243, 244, 245, 246, 290, 324, 330, 335, 336, 432 singing, 29, 53, 116, 145, 149–150, 163– 164, 176–177, 190, 273, 286–287, 349, 366, 386, 406; mistakes in, 42; books for, 90; assigned, 91, 117–118, 126, 142; practice, 120–122; novices, 103–105, 107; Hours, 72, 74, 78, 80, 90, 92, 96, 102, 114–116, 120, 138, 141, 151–153, 157, 159, 161, 166–167, 171, 186–187, 193, 291; Mass, 93, 107–108, 120, 124, 139, 148, 151–152, 154, 157, 167–169, 185, 187–189, 191–193, 195; not allowed, 123, 138, 172, 174, 287; see also choir, psalms Sora, 415 (n. 252) Sorø Abbey (Sora), 386 speaking, 42, 56, 113, 146, 219, 224–225, 237, 239, 275, 286, 290, 294, 327, 330–331, 364; time for, 89, 102, 105, 115, 119–120, 129–131, 158, 173, 178–181, 188; permission to, 139–141, 145, 147, 157, 179; discipline of, 239–246; with women, 40, 83; with guests, 76, 83; with novices, 101–103, 105–106; with a heretic, 283; the mute, 396–397; in the infirmary, 72, 143–144; in chapter, 127–129; by sign, see hand signals spiritual growth, 30, 41, 97 stability, 22, 100, 196, 199 (n. 60), 241, 269–270, 272, 278–279, 295–297 stable, 62, 64, 78, 80; see also camerarius Stammberger, Ralph, 209–210, 212 Stephen de Garlande, 20–21, 309–311 Stephen of Senlis, 20 subcamerarius, 71; see also camerarius

subdeacon, 151, 153, 170, 353; duties of, 90; communion, 147–149; blessing water, 149–150; clothing, 85; guests, 79; novices, 105, 108; order of sitting, 161; reading, 171; mandatum, 175; footwashing, 177; see also deacon subinfirmarian, 74, 88; see also infirmarian subprior, 64, 89, 119, 130, 134, 140, 151, 158, 160, 261, 348, 363–364; duties of, 61, 81, 91, 152–153, 173; concerning the abbot, 52–56, 58, 60; concerning novices, 99–100, 102–105, 108; see also prior Suger, Abbot of St Denis, 20, 305–306 Suntbe, 395 supper, 101, 288–289, 391; see also dinner, Lord’s Supper Sweden, 418 (n. 356), 419 (n. 391) Sweyn, son of Tholf, 388 table manners, see manners Te Deum, 117, 142, 164, 165, 349, 366, 384 temptation, 99, 227, 265, 311, 325, 327, 338–340, 363, 373–374; to lust, 25, 340–341 Thagaste, 264 Theobald II, Count, 310 Thoco, provost, 372–373 Thomas Becket, 257 Thomas of St Victor, 21, 305, Thomas the Apostle, St, 393; Monastery of, 349, 376, 384, 399; shrine of, 350, 378 Thompson, Rodney M., 260 Thorstanthorp, 373 Thortorp, 407 Thrumo, priest, 373 thurifer, 190, 193; see also sacred vessels and linens, thurible Thurkill, Abbot of St Mary at Esrum, 384 Tjæreby, 414 (n. 172), 418 (n. 367)

SU B J E C T I N D E X

 487

unction, see Anointing of the Sick, oil

Vigils, 96, 104, 122, 130, 154, 383, 405; for the dead, 192, 195; see also death, Divine Office, vigil Vincent of Beauvais, 214 virgin, 233, 282, 322, 410 (n. 22); consecrated, 112; Mary, 152, 358; Geneviève, 360, 366–367, 379; virginity, 282, 284, 366; see also chastity vision, see dream virtue, 11, 22, 29, 221–224, 226–230, 239, 242, 250 (n. 17), 274, 288, 297, 333, 339, 363, 375, 386, 431–432; practice of, 209; discipline leading to, 211–214, 217; of obedience, 323, 325–326, 340; of chastity, 340 vita apostolica, 22, 23, 27, 33 vow, 395, 399, 401, 406–408, 431–432; religious, 29, 31, 40, 44, 48, 98, 100, 231, 269, 284, 308, 311, 321, 348, 352, 385, 400; of chastity, 29; of community, 323, 341; see also profession

Valdemar, King, 367, 369, 412 (n. 114) Van den Eynde, Damien, 209 vanity, 29, 221, 230–231, 234, 287, 335–336; see also pride, vainglory vainglory, 227, 246, 327–328; see also pride, vanity venustas morum, see manners versicle, 104, 117, 153, 154–155, 164–165, 167, 171, 416 (n. 256); see also response vessels, see sacred vessels and linens vestiarius, 47, 69, 73, 80, 100, 130, 205; duties of, 27, 41, 84–88; see also clothing vestments, see sacred vestments vices, 213, 220, 226, 228, 231, 233–236, 238–239, 241–242, 248, 324, 327– 328, 340; see also individual vices Vider, man of Methdeluse, 390 vigil, 171, 329, 363, 375, 380, 383, 394, 397, 403, 406; see also death, specific feasts, Vigils

Walo (Galo), bishop of Paris, 20 Walter de Gant, 261 Warin, see Guarin washroom, 101, 122, 136, 141, 174, 177; procession to, 120, 131, 135, 166 Wichmann, prior of Bridlington, 261–262 will, 99, 183, 282, 297, 323–324, 372; surrender of, 28–29, 326, 339; free, 126; good, 323–324, 326; evil, 337, 371; one’s own, 89–90, 280, 323–325; of God, 369 William the Conqueror, King, 261 William of Champeaux, 19, 30, 423, 424, 425, 429, 431 William of Jumièges, 423 William Perault, 214 William of St-Thierry, 210 William of Tournai, 214 Wilmart, André, 317–318 wisdom, 336, 357, 371, 386, 432, 438; divine, 213, 225, 326, 358; knowledge

Tobit, book of, 156 tomb, 260, 390; burial, 190–191, 194–195; William, 351, 391–396, 398–399, 401–402, 404–407, 412 (n. 107); guardian of, 352, 394, 396, 402; see also death, healings Tonna, woman of Halland, 404 tonsure, 42, 158–159, 172–173, 330; corona/crown, 162, 172–173, 330 tooth, of St William, 387–391, 394, 396– 397; see also healings, miracles Tours, 425 tract, 109, 154, 156, 169 treasury, 62, 92, 365–366; see also church, relics trina oratio, 59, 137, 162, 187, 190, 198 (n. 36), 201 (n. 122); see also prayer Triduum, see Lent, Easter Trinity, 165, 349, 389, 438; see also God, Christ, Holy Spirit

488

SU B J E C T I N D E X

and, 211, 227–229; through meditation, 214, 290; of the world, 225 Wisdom, book of, 156 work, 40, 49, 73, 89, 102, 114, 158, 173, 227, 301 (n. 80); time of, 59, 102, 118–120, 166, 220–221, 293; for the community, 224, 274, 281, 290–291; and contemplation, 30, 57, 274–275, 290–292, 294; the sick, 120, 145, 180; see also contemplation, Mary and Martha works, good, 228, 240, 269, 275, 290, 309, 325, 328, 331; see also merit

workshop, 24, 40, 63–64, 76, 78, 84, 96, 114–115, 130, 139, 146, 151, 188, 269 women, 231, 248, 292, 367, 368, 398; averting eyes from, 25, 265; hospitality to, 40, 76, 83, 158 writing, 89–90, 112, 115; tablets, 112; see also scribe, scriptorium Yorkshire, 261 Zealand, 364, 369, 412 (n. 100); North, 414 (n. 172); see also Sjælland Zinn, Grover, 214 Zoar, 279