Chapter 3 — The foregoing arguments do not hold good in the case of children

Since this question regards morals, our first consideration must be whether what has been said, is congruous with good works. We must prove, first of all that the doctrine of the followers of Vigilantius is directly opposed to such works. For there are three classes of mankind who have had no practice in keeping the commandments.

The first class is composed of children who have not had time to be exercised in keeping them.

The second class includes recent converts to the faith who, before their conversion, had no opportunity of observing the commandments, for all that is not of faith is sin (Rom 14:23), and without faith, it is impossible to please God (Heb 11:6).

The third class of men who have not been in the habit of keeping the commandments are those who have led a sinful life.

Now we shall show, in the case of each of these classes, the fallacy of the arguments which we have undertaken to refute.

If it were necessary that the observance of the commandments should precede the practice of the counsels and the entrance into the religious life, it would not be right, nor would the Church suffer parents to place their young children in religious houses, there to be educated in the exercise of the counsels before they have kept the commandments. But we know that such is her custom, a usage supported by grave authority, and confirmed by many passages of Scripture. St. Gregory says (Decretals, XX*,* q. 1*, Addidistis*): is it lawful for a father or mother who have placed an infant son or daughter in a monastery to be there educated in regular discipline, to withdraw such a child when it has attained the age of puberty, and to give it in marriage? This question we will not discuss. (Pope Gregory II, "Epistle 27, to Boniface (Nov. 22, 726)," in Monumenta Moguntina, vol. 1, Bibliotheca Rerum Germanicorum, ed. Philipp Jaffé (Berlin: Weidman, 1866), 90. Also found in Gratian, Decretum, P. 2, C. 20, q. 1, ch. 2 (Friedberg, 1:843-844).) The question as to how far the obligation to regular observance is perpetually binding is not of great importance; for, if the practice of keeping the commandments were a necessary introduction to the observance of the counsels, no one could be educated in the regular observance of the counsels who was not exercised in obedience to the commandments. But the custom of dedicating children to the religious life is proved, not merely by many ecclesiastical statutes, (Cf. Gratian, Decretum, P. 2, C. 20, q. 1-3 (Friedberg, 1:843-851).) but by the examples of the saints. St. Gregory relates (Dialogues, 2) that noble and religious men of the city of Rome flocked to blessed Benedict, to offer him their children to be trained for Almighty God. Then Euticius and Patricius Tertullus gave him their promising sons, Maurus and Placidus, of whom Maurus, the younger, being distinguished by his virtues, became assistant to the master, while Placidus was still in disposition a child. (Gregory the Great, Dialogues, bk. 2, ch. 3 (PL 66:140C).) And, as St. Gregory narrates in the same book, blessed Benedict himself, while still a child, being desirous to please none but God, turned his back on worldly learning and, leaving his parents’ house, sought the usages of holy conversation. (Gregory the Great, Dialogues, bk. 2, prologue (PL 66:126A).)

This custom took its rise from the Apostles themselves. Dionysius, in the end of his book Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, says, children, brought up to sublime things and kept from sin and error, will acquire the habit of holy living. This was the opinion of our blessed masters, and it seemed good to them to receive children. (Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, ch. 7, sect. 11 (PG 3:568B).) Dionysius, it is true, is here only alluding to the admission of children to baptism, but his argument bears out our assertion, namely, that it is expedient to educate children in the principles which they are hereafter to practise, in order that they may acquire the habit of them. We must add, further that this rule is authorised by our Lord Himself. For we read in St. Matthew 19:13, then were little children presented to him, that he should impose hands upon them and pray. And the disciples rebuked them. But Jesus said to them: "allow the little children, and do not forbid them to come to me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” St. Chrysostom, commenting on these words, says, who shall deserve to draw near to Christ, if innocent childhood is driven from him? If these children are to be saints, why should they not approach their Father? If they are to be sinners, why should you pronounce sentence of condemnation upon them before their crimes are committed? (Pseudo-Chrysostom, Opus imperfectum in Matthaeu, homily 32 (PG 56:804).) Now we know that it is by the way of the counsels that man approaches most closely to Christ, for he said to the young man, sell all that you have, give to the poor and follow me (Matt 19:21). Therefore children are by no means to be hindered from drawing near to him by the way of the counsels. But, as Origen says, on the same passage: some there are who, before they have learnt the doctrine of justice, rebuke those who, by simple teaching, offer to Christ infants and children, that is to say the unlearned. Our Lord exhorted his disciples, who were then grown men, to condescend to the service of children and to be, so to speak, children with children that so they might gain children, for "of such," he said, "is the kingdom of heaven." And he himself, when he was in the form of God, became a child. We ought to bear this in mind, lest, in our esteem for our own superior wisdom, we should despise the little ones of the Church, forbidding the children to go to Jesus. (Origen, Commentary on the Gospel according to Matthew, bk. 15, para. 7-8 (PG 13:1273-76).)

We may remember, again, how in Luke 1:80 it is written of St. John the Baptist, and the child grew and was strengthened in spirit, and was in the desert until the day of his manifestation to Israel. Bede comments on this text in the following words: he who was to be the preacher of penance passed his early years in the desert. He acted thus in order more easily to draw his hearers, by means of his instructions, from the vanities of the world. (Venerable Bede, Exposition on Luke's Gospel, bk. 1, ch. 1, at 1:80 (CCSL 120; PL 92:327C). Thomas has slightly abridged the text in this quote.) He would not, as St. Gregory of Nyssa says, allow himself to become accustomed to the allurements of the senses, lest he should be misled or perplexed in his judgment concerning the true good. And, because he was pure, and because, from the beginning of his life to the end, he offered to the divine regard desires free from every passion, therefore he was raised to such a height of grace that he received gifts surpassing those of the prophets. (Gregory of Nyssa, De virginitate, ch. 6 (PG 46:349B-D). Thomas again has slightly abridged the text in this quote.) Therefore, not only is it lawful but even most expedient in order to obtain greater grace that some men, leaving the world, even in their childhood, should live in the solitude of the religious life.

We read in Lamentations 3:27, it is good for a man, when he has borne the yoke from his youth. The reason given for these words being, he shall sit solitary and hold his peace, because he has taken it up upon himself. By this we are given to understand that they who bear the yoke of religious life from their youth upwards, arise above themselves and are rendered more fit for religious observance, which consists in silence and freedom from worldly care and disturbance. In the book of Proverbs 22:6 the words occur, a young man according to his way, even when he is old he will not depart from it. Hence St. Anselm in his book De similitudinibus compares those who have been brought up in monasteries to angels, while those who have been converted from an imperfect life he likens to men. (The text that Thomas is refferring to is actually found in Eadmer of Canterbury, Liber de Anselmi similitudinibus, ch. 78 (PL 159:649D).) This mode of thinking is not only confirmed by the authority of Sacred Scripture, it is shared even by philosophers; for Aristotle in Ethics, 2 says, it is by no means a matter of small moment whether from our youth we are accustomed to such or such a manner of life, but, on the contrary, it is of supreme importance that certain men should, from childhood, be instructed in those things which they must observe during the course of their life. (Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, bk. 2, ch. 1, 1103b24.) Again, in Politics, 8, the same Philosopher writes: the chief concern of a legislator ought to be for the education of the young who should be trained in every good quality. (Aristotle, Politics, bk. 8, ch. 1, 1337a11-14.)

We see likewise how this opinion is practically borne out by society, for men are, from their very childhood, brought up to those professions and offices for which they are destined. Those who are intended for clerics must, from their tender years, be educated in the clerical life; soldiers, as Vegetius says in book De re militari, must, in early years, be subject to military discipline; and, carpenters must, from childhood, learn their handicraft. (Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus, De re militari, ed. Petro Scrivero, G. Stewechius, and F. Modius (Leiden: Office of Plantiniana with Franciscus Raphelengius, 1607), bk. 1, ch. 4, 15-16.) Why then should the only exception to this rule be made with regard to the religious life? Why should not the young be formed to it from their youth? Surely the more arduous a profession may be, the more necessary it is that men should be early trained to it. Hence we see that the argument that it is necessary to be practised in keeping the commandments before we observe the counsels, does not hold good with regard to children.