Chapter 6 — The fundamental error of these opinions exposed

In order to refute this error, once and for all, we must examine the fallacy on which it is based. Now the premises on which the followers of Vigilantius construct their argument are erroneous, and for this reason. They assume that perfection consists, chiefly, in the observance of the counsels; and that the commandments, compared to the counsels, are as the imperfect compared to the perfect. (Cf. Nicolaus Lexoviensis, De ordine praeceptorum ad consilia, in Bettelorden und Weltgeistlichkeit, ed. Max Bierbaum (Münster: Aschendorffsche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1920), 222: "Secundo mandata praecedunt tempore sicut incompletum perfectum.") Therefore, they say, we must go from commandments to counsels, as from imperfection to perfection. But this proposition is false. We know from the very words of our Lord (Matt 22:37) that the first and chief commandment of the Law is the love of God and of our fellow-men: the first commandment is, you shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole mind. And the second is like it: you shall love your neighbour as yourself. The perfection of Christian life consists essentially, in obeying these two precepts, Hence the Apostle says to the Colossians 3:14, but above all these things, have charity, which is the bond of perfection. On this passage the Gloss observes that charity makes other things perfect, in so far, that is to say, as they are ordered in charity, for charity binds all things together. (Glossa interlinearis, at Col 3:14 (in Glossa ordinaria 6, 629-630).) Again, when our Lord had been giving the precepts of brotherly love, he added, be therefore perfect as also your heavenly Father is perfect (Matt 5:48).

St. Jerome says, commenting on the words in St. Matthew 19:27, behold, we have left all things and have followed you: whereas it does not suffice to have left all things, he (Peter) adds "and have followed you." (Jerome, Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew 3.19, at 19:27 (CCSL 77; PL 26:138C).) For the apostles followed the Lord not so much in bodily presence, as in affections of the heart. (Cf. Peter Lombard, Commentaries on the Psalms and St. Paul, at Phil 3:12 (PL 192:247A).) Again, St. Ambrose, alluding to the words, follow me (Luke 5:27), says: Christ commands him (Levi) to follow him, not with his feet, but with the desires of his mind. (Ambrose, Exposition on Luke's Gospel 5.16 (CCSL 14; CSEL 32.4:185; PL 15:1640A).) It is thus abundantly evident that the perfection of the Christian life consists in charity towards God. And there is a very solid reason for this conclusion. The perfection of anything consists, as we know, in its attainment of its end. Now the end of the Christian life is that charity, to which all things must be ordered, and which, as St. Paul says, is the end of the commandment (1 Tim 1:5), or, as the Gloss says, in its comment on this text, is the perfection of the precept, that is to say, of all precepts, for the love of God and of our neighbour is the fulfilment of all. (Peter Lombard, Commentaries on the Psalms and St. Paul, at 1 Tim 1:5 (PL 192:328C).)

We must distinguish between an end and the means to an end. In considering the means to an end, we must fix some certain measure by which the means may be proportioned to the end. But in what regards the end itself, there is no question of measure, but each one prosecutes his end to the best of his ability. A physician tempers his remedies, lest they should be in excess. He has no fear of excess in the health which he wishes to restore by those remedies, but he desires that such health should be as perfect as possible. (This is an example of Aristotle's, found in his Politics 1.8, 1257b26.) In like manner, the commandment to love God, which is the end of the Christian life, knows no limits. No one can say that this degree or that of the love of God is enjoined by this precept, or that where the love of God exceeds the commandment it becomes a counsel. Every man is bound to love God as much as he can. This truth is embodied in the very words of the precept: love the Lord your God with your whole heart. (Deut 6:5.) Every one must obey this commandment according to his ability, some with greater and some with less perfection. He totally fails to observe it who does not, in his affections, prefer God before all things. He who loves him as his last end, above all other things, fulfils the precept more or less perfectly, according as he is more or less impeded by his affection for created things. St. Augustine says in his book of 83 Questions: the poison of charity is the hope of acquiring or retaining temporal things (i.e. if such things are looked on as a last end). The food of charity is the lessening of cupidity. Its perfection consists in the extinction of earthly desire. (Augustine, De diversis quaestionibus octoginta tribus, q. 36, para. 1 (CCSL 44A; PL 40:25).)

But there is another perfect manner of observing this precept, which cannot be achieved in this life. For, as St. Augustine says in De perfectione justitiae, in that fulness of charity which will reign it our heavenly country, the precept of charity "love the Lord your God with your whole heart" will be perfectly obeyed. (Augustine, De perfectione iustitiae hominis, ch. 8, para. 19 (CSEL 42:17-18; PL 44:300-301).) Why, he continues, should not this perfection be anticipated by man, although, in this life he may not attain to it? He does not run aright, who does no know where he is running to. But how can he know, if he is not taught by any precepts? (Augustine, De perfectione iustitiae hominis 8.19 (CSEL 42:18; PL 44:301).) Therefore, to this, as to their end, are directed the commandments of love of God and of our neighbour, together with all other counsels and commands. Hence St. Augustine says in Enchiridion: God gives us certain commandments, such as: "do not commit adultery," (Exod 20:14; Matt 5:27.) while other things, such as "it is good for a man not to touch a woman," (1 Cor 7:1.) are not enjoined on us by precept, but set before us as a spiritual counsel. Such things are rightly done when they are referred to the love of God and to the love of our neighbour, for his sake. (Augustine, Enchiridion de fide, spe et charitate, ch. 121 (CCSL 46; PL 40:288).)

Nevertheless, the manner in which the precept of charity is to be fulfilled by certain precepts of the law is different to that in which it is to be accomplished by the counsels. For some things are so designed to a particular end that the end cannot be attained without them. Such is the case with food and the maintenance of life. Other things, again, serve to attain an end with peculiar certainty and completeness. Thus, though food is necessary for the continuance of physical life? medicine serves for the more easy and certain preservation of health. Now some of the commandments are given for the first of these two reasons, namely as a necessary means of attaining to charity. For instance, no one can fulfil the precept of charity who worships false gods, and thus withdraws from the love of God, or who commits murder or theft, which are contrary to the love of our neighbour. But the counsels are given to us in order that we may fulfil the precept of charity, in the second way of which we have spoken. Hence the Apostle, king of the counsel of virginity, expressly says that its object is to enable us to love God. He who is without a wife is solicitous for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please God. But he who is with a wife is solicitous for the things of the world, how he may please his wife (1 Cor 7:32).

Again, we see from St. Matthew 19 that our Lord gave the counsel of poverty as a means whereby he was to be followed; and following him, as we have shown, consists in charity. Now charity is lessened by cupidity, but cupidity and love of money is diminished, or wholly eradicated, by the renunciation of earthly possessions. St. Augustine, in his Epistle to Paulinus and Therasia, says that our love for the goods that we have acquired is much stronger than our desires for those that we do not possess. It is one thing, indeed, to have no will to gain those things that are lacking to us, but quite another to divest ourselves of those that we already possess. (Augustine, Epistulae, epistle 31, to Paul and Therasia, para. 5 [slightly abridged] (CSEL 34.2:5-6; PL 33:124).) Both these counsels are also intended to facilitate charity towards our neighbour. All that our Lord lays down in St. Matthew 5 about brotherly love (Matt 5:38-48.) ought to be the abiding disposition of the soul. (Cf. Augustine, De sermone Domini in monte 1.19.59 (CCSL 35; PL 34:1260).) And it is clear that his precepts on this head will be most easily obeyed by the man who is not hampered by self-interest. He who has no will to possess anything will be better prepared to part with his coat and his cloak, (Cf. Matt 5:40.) than he who desires possessions.

Since charity is not only the end, but also the foundation of all virtues and of all the precepts given us for the attainment of virtue, it follows that as by means of the counsels man advances towards more perfect love of God and of his neighbour, so likewise the more perfect observance of the counsels is furthered by obedience to those commandments which are necessary to charity. He who has the intention of practising continence or poverty for the love of Christ is a long way from committing adultery or theft. The various exercises of the religious life, such as watching, fasting and retirement from worldly affairs, tend furthermore to preserve man from vice, and to facilitate his practice of perfect virtue. Thus the observance of the counsels leads to the observance of the other commandments. Of course, we do not mean that keeping the commandments is the end proposed by those who practise the counsels. No one, for instance, embraces virginity in order that he may abstain from adultery, or leads a life of poverty as a safeguard against theft; but the counsels are practised as a means of advancing in the love of God and of our neighbour. For greater things are not made for lesser ones as their end. From all this it becomes clear that the counsels pertain to perfection of life, not because perfection necessarily consists in their observance, but because they are the way or means to perfection. St. Augustine bears this out in De moribus Ecclesiae, where he says of the life of religious: let all our endeavour be to restrain concupiscence, and to preserve brotherly love. (Augustine, De moribus ecclesiae catholicae et de moribus Manichaeorum, bk. 1, ch. 33, para. 71 (CSEL 90; PL 32:1340).) Again, in the same work, he writes, charity is there (in religious life) chiefly cultivated: virtue, words, manner, countenance, all are agreeable to charity. (Augustine, De moribus ecclesiae catholicae et de moribus Manichaeorum, bk. 1, ch. 33, para. 73 (CSEL 90; PL 32:1341).)

Again, in the Collatio patrum, the Abbot Moses says, for this (i.e. for the sake of purity of heart and charity), we do and suffer all things, and on this account we renounced kinsfolk, country, honours, riches and all manner of earthly joy. (John Cassian, Collationes partum, collection 1, ch. 5 (CSEL 13:11; PL 49:487B).) To gain these virtues we undertake fasting, watching, labour and nakedness, and for these we practise reading and all other virtues. For we desire to prepare our hearts and to keep them pare from defiling thoughts, and by these means to rise to the perfection of charity. (Cassian, Collationes partum 1.7 (CSEL 13:13; PL 49:489A).) Hence we learn that obedience to the commandments may be either perfect or imperfect, according as we practise a more or less perfect means of keeping them. For we may, as we have shown, practise by means of the counsels perfect obedience to the commandments; or we may, by living in the world without the counsels, keep them imperfectly.

Therefore, to teach that a man must first be exercised in keeping the commandments before he passes to the counsels, is tantamount to saying that he must first obey the commandments imperfectly, rather than at once strive to keep them perfectly. This is, of course, an absurdity, whether we consider the commandments themselves or the mode of observing them. For who could be so foolish as to dissuade a man from loving God and his neighbour perfectly by telling him first to love them imperfectly? Is not such a fallacy condemned by the divine precept of charity: love the Lord your God with your whole heart? (Deut 6:5.) Or need we fear lest we should learn to love God so quickly that we shall love Him beyond due measure? Bless the Lord (says Sirach 43:30), exalt him as much so you can, for he is above all praise. And St. Paul says, “So run that you may obtain” (1 Cor. ix. 24). Again, let us hasten, therefore, to enter into that rest (Heb 4:11). For with whatever energy a man enters on the road of perfection, he will still have much progress to make before he arrives at final perfection in his heavenly home. The argument is equally absurd if we consider the means used for attaining to perfection. Who would tell a man who aspired to virginity or continence that it would be best for him first to live chastely in wedlock? Or who would tell a man who wished to practise poverty first to live justly in the enjoyment of riches, as if wealth were a preparation for poverty rather than an impediment to it? The young man who did not accept from our Lord the counsel of poverty (Matt 19) went away sad, because of his possessions. (Matt 19:16-22.)

We have up to now been observing the connection between the counsels and the precepts of charity, but our arguments hold equally good with regard to the other precepts of the law. For, if the practice of the counsels and the exercises of the religious life are a safeguard against breaking the commandments, is it not clear that some men may need them in order, by their means, to avoid the occasions of sin? Should we advise a young man to live among women and bad companions, in order that by practising chastity in the world he might afterwards observe it in the cloister? Is this virtue easier in the world than in the religious life? The same reasoning applies to other virtues and vices.

Those who hold the opposite opinion resemble generals, who would like to expose their raw recruits to the heat of battle. Those who live in the world and keep the commandments can make greater progress in virtue if they become religious. For we must remember that if, on the one hand, a secular life spent in obedience to the commandments is a good preparation for the practice of the counsels, yet, on the other hand, a life in the world presents a great obstacle to the observance of the counsels. Hence St. Gregory says in the beginning of his Morals: when my conscience was urging me to leave the world, many secular cares began to press upon me, as if I were to be detained in the world, not from love of its beauty, but by that which was more serious, viz. anxiety of mind. But at length, escaping eagerly from all such cares, I sought the monastery gate. (Gregory the Great, Moral., epistles, ch. 1 (CCSL 143; PL 75:511A).)