The Philobiblon
by Richard de Bury
Chapter VI
The complaint of books against the
mendicants
Poor in spirit, but most rich in faith, off-scourings of
the world and salt of the earth, despisers of the world and
fishers of men, how happy are ye, if suffering penury for
Christ ye know how to possess your souls in patience! For it
is not want the avenger of iniquity, nor the adverse fortune
of your parents, nor violent necessity that has thus
oppressed you with beggary, but a devout will and
Christ-like election, by which ye have chosen that life as
the best, which God Almighty made man as well by word as by
example declared to be the best. In truth, ye are the latest
offspring of the ever-fruitful Church, of late divinely
substituted for the Fathers and the Prophets, that your
sound may go forth into all the earth, and that instructed
by our healthful doctrines ye may preach before all kings
and nations the invincible faith of Christ. Moreover, that
the faith of the Fathers is chiefly enshrined in books the
second chapter has sufficiently shown, from which it is
clearer than light that ye ought to be zealous lovers of
books above all other Christians. Ye are commanded to sow
upon all waters, because the Most High is no respecter of
persons, nor does the Most Holy desire the death of sinners,
who offered Himself to die for them, but desires to heal the
contrite in heart, to raise the fallen, and to correct the
perverse in the spirit of lenity. For which most salutary
purpose our kindly Mother Church has planted you freely, and
having planted has watered you with favours, and having
watered you has established you with privileges, that ye may
be co-workers with pastors and curates in procuring the
salvation of faithful souls. Wherefore, that the order of
Preachers was principally instituted for the study of the
Holy Scriptures and the salvation of their neighbours, is
declared by their constitutions, so that not only from the
rule of Bishop Augustine, which directs books to be asked
for every day, but as soon as they have read the prologue of
the said constitutions they may know from the very title of
the same that they are pledged to the love of books.
But alas! a threefold care of superfluities, viz., of the
stomach, of dress, and of houses, has seduced these men and
others following their example from the paternal care of
books, and from their study. For, forgetting the providence
of the Saviour (who is declared by the Psalmist to think
upon the poor and needy), they are occupied with the wants
of the perishing body, that their feasts may be splendid and
their garments luxurious, against the rule, and the fabrics
of their buildings, like the battlements of castles, carried
to a height incompatible with poverty. Because of these
three things, we books, who have ever procured their
advancement and have granted them to sit among the powerful
and noble, are put far from their heart's affection and are
reckoned as superfluities; except that they rely upon some
treatises of small value, from which they derive strange
heresies and apocryphal imbecilities, not for the
refreshment of souls, but rather for tickling the ears of
the listeners. The Holy Scripture is not expounded, but is
neglected and treated as though it were commonplace and
known to all, though very few have touched its hem, and
though its depth is such, as Holy Augustine declares, that
it cannot be understood by the human intellect, however long
it may toil with the utmost intensity of study. From this he
who devotes himself to it assiduously, if only He will
vouchsafe to open the door who has established the spirit of
piety, may unfold a thousand lessons of moral teaching,
which will flourish with the freshest novelty and will
cherish the intelligence of the listeners with the most
delightful savours. Wherefore the first professors of
evangelical poverty, after some slight homage paid to
secular science, collecting all their force of intellect,
devoted themselves to labours upon the sacred scripture,
meditating day and night on the law of the Lord. And
whatever they could steal from their famishing belly, or
intercept from their half-covered body, they thought it the
highest gain to spend in buying or correcting books. Whose
worldly contemporaries observing their devotion and study
bestowed upon them for the edification of the whole Church
the books which they had collected at great expense in the
various parts of the world.
In truth, in these days as ye are engaged with all
diligence in pursuit of gain, it may be reasonably believed,
if we speak according to human notions, that God thinks less
upon those whom He perceives to distrust His promises,
putting their hope in human providence, not considering the
raven, nor the lilies, whom the Most High feeds and arrays.
Ye do not think upon Daniel and the bearer of the mess of
boiled pottage, nor recollect Elijah who was delivered from
hunger once in the desert by angels, again in the torrent by
ravens, and again in Sarepta by the widow, through the
divine bounty, which gives to all flesh their meat in due
season. Ye descend (as we fear) by a wretched anticlimax,
distrust of the divine goodness producing reliance upon your
own prudence, and reliance upon your own prudence begetting
anxiety about worldly things, and excessive anxiety about
worldly things taking away the love as well as the study of
books; and thus poverty in these days is abused to the
injury of the Word of God, which ye have chosen only for
profit's sake.
With summer fruit, as the people gossip, ye attract boys
to religion, whom when they have taken the vows ye do not
instruct by fear and force, as their age requires, but allow
them to devote themselves to begging expeditions, and suffer
them to spend the time, in which they might be learning, in
procuring the favour of friends, to the annoyance of their
parents, the danger of the boys, and the detriment of the
order. And thus no doubt it happens that those who were not
compelled to learn as unwilling boys, when they grow up
presume to teach though utterly unworthy and unlearned, and
a small error in the beginning becomes a very great one in
the end. For there grows up among your promiscuous flock of
laity a pestilent multitude of creatures, who nevertheless
the more shamelessly force themselves into the office of
preaching, the less they understand what they are saying, to
the contempt of the Divine Word and the injury of souls. In
truth, against the law ye plough with an ox and an ass
together, in committing the cultivation of the Lord's field
to learned and unlearned. Side by side, it is written, the
oxen were ploughing and the asses feeding beside them: since
it is the duty of the discreet to preach, but of the simple
to feed themselves in silence by the hearing of sacred
eloquence. How many stones ye fling upon the heap of Mercury
nowadays! How many marriages ye procure for the eunuchs of
wisdom! How many blind watchmen ye bid go round about the
walls of the Church!
O idle fishermen, using only the nets of others, which
when torn it is all ye can do to clumsily repair, but can
net no new ones of your own! ye enter on the labours of
others, ye repeat the lessons of others, ye mouth with
theatric effort the superficially repeated wisdom of others.
As the silly parrot imitates the words that he has heard, so
such men are mere reciters of all, but authors of nothing,
imitating Balaam's ass, which, though senseless of itself,
yet became eloquent of speech and the teacher of its master
though a prophet. Recover yourselves, O poor in Christ, and
studiously regard us books, without which ye can never be
properly shod in the preparation of the Gospel of Peace.
Paul the Apostle, preacher of the truth and excellent
teacher of the nations, for all his gear bade three things
to be brought to him by Timothy, his cloak, books and
parchments, affording an example to ecclesiastics that they
should wear dress in moderation, and should have books for
aid in study, and parchments, which the Apostle especially
esteems, for writing: and especially, he says, the
parchments. And truly that clerk is crippled and maimed to
his disablement in many ways, who is entirely ignorant of
the art of writing. He beats the air with words and edifies
only those who are present, but does nothing for the absent
and for posterity. The man bore a writer's ink-horn upon his
loins, who set a mark Tau upon the foreheads of the
men that sigh and cry, Ezechiel ix.; teaching in a
figure that if any lack skill in writing, he shall not
undertake the task of preaching repentance.
Finally, in conclusion of the present chapter, books
implore of you: make your young men who though ignorant are
apt of intellect apply themselves to study, furnishing them
with necessaries, that ye may teach them not only goodness
but discipline and science, may terrify them by blows, charm
them by blandishments, mollify them by gifts, and urge them
on by painful rigour, so that they may become at once
Socratics in morals and Peripatetics in learning. Yesterday,
as it were at the eleventh hour, the prudent householder
introduced you into his vineyard. Repent of idleness before
it is too late: would that with the cunning steward ye might
be ashamed of begging so shamelessly; for then no doubt ye
would devote yourselves more assiduously to us books and to
study.
-
- The Philobiblon
by Richard de Bury
Chapter V
<<< Contents
>>> Chapter
VII
|
