The Contrast Between Bishop And Monk
THE CONTRAST BETWEEN BISHOP
AND MONK THE MONKS' exertion is great and the strain severe; but if you compare their labours with the priestly office, when properly exercised, you will find the difference is as great as between a private citizen and a king. In their case, although the task is hard, still the conflict is shared between soul and body; or rather, it is chiefly carried to success by a system of bodily exercises. And if the body is not strong, enthusiasm remains pent up, having no outlet in practice; for it is obvious that prolonged fasting, sleeping on the ground, vigils, abstention from washing, hard labour, and all other exercises which tend towards the mortification of the flesh, are impossible if the intending ascetic is not strong.
But in the case we are considering, the skill is purely one of the spirit, and no bodily vigour is needed besides, to show its excellence. How does bodily strength help us not to be stubborn or hot-tempered or reckless, but sober, prudent, and orderly, and everything else with which St Paul filled out the picture of the pedect priest ? Yet no one could say this of the qualities proper to a monk.
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As jugglers need a lot of implements-wheels, ropes, and daggers-but the philosopher has his entire art stored in his soul and needs nothing from outside; so in our case, the monk needs a good bodily constitution, and a place suitable to his method of life, in order that he may not be too far from human society and yet may enjoy the quiet of solitude, and may not miss the most suitable climate; for nothing is
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[VI.5
SO hard to bear, for one worn with fasting, as an inequable climate. I need not mention here how much trouble over the provision of clothing and food he is bound to have, since he has set himself the aim of entire self-sufficiency. But the priest will require none of these things for his own use. He avoids needless difficulties, shares in all innocent occupations, and holds all his skill stored up in the treasuries of his soul.
If anyone admires a solitary life and the avoidance of crowded society, I quite admit that it is a paradigm of patient endurance, but not sufficient proof of all-round spiritual prowess. In harbour the man at the helm cannot yet give sure proof of his skill; but no one will deny the title of a first-class helmsman to anyone who guides his ship to safety in the midst of a stormy sea. We need not, then, give lavish or excessive admiration to the monk because, by keeping himself to himself, he avoids agitation and does not commit many serious sins; for he has nothing to goad and excite his soul. But if a man has devoted himself to the whole community and has been forced to endure the sins of all, and still remains firm and unwavering, piloting his soul through the tempest as in a calm, he is the one who deserves everyone's applause and admiration, for he has given proof enough of his own prowess.
So do not be surprised that I, who avoid the market-place and crowded society, have not many accusers. I should have no claim to admiration if I did not commit sin only because
I was sleeping, or did not get a fall only because I was not wrestling, or was not wounded only because I was not fighting! Tell me, who can denounce and expose my depravity?
This roof? This li ttle cell? They cannot break in to speech.
Well then, the one who knows my character best of all, my mother? But in the first place, our lives are completely
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THE CONTRAST BETWEEN BISHOP AND MONK
different; and we have never quarrelled. And even if this had happened, no mother is so heartless and such an enemy to her children that she would, without a compelling reason or someone's constraint, abuse and slander in front of everyone the son she had bred and borne and brought up. Yet if anyone were to examine my soul carefully, he would find that its weaknesses were many, as you yourself know quite well, though you are in the habit of praising me in public more highly than anyone else does.
To prove I am not saying this insincerely now, recollect how often I told you, on the many occasions when we discussed this question, that if anyone gave me the choice of where I should prefer to distinguish myself, in the government of the Church or in monastic life, I should go for the former every time. I never ceased commending to you those who were able to acquit themselves well in this ministry.
And no one will deny that I should never have run away from what I used to commend if I had been competent to undertake it.
But what am I to do? Nothing is as useless for church government as this inactivity and detachment, which other people regard as a form of self-discipline, but which I have more as a veil for my own worthlessness, using it to cloak most of my failings and keep them from becoming obvious.
When a man is used to enjoying so large a measure of freedom and living a life of complete leisure, however fine his nature may be, he is unsettled and confused by the want of discipline and loses a great deal of his natural ability through not exercising it. And when he is also a man of slow intellect and inexperienced in this kind of conflict, as I am, he will be no better than a waxwork, if he accepts this ministry.
This is why few of the men who come to these conflicts from that particular training-ground ever distinguish
THE CONTRAST BETWEEN BISHOP AND MONK
[vI.7 themselves. Most of them fail under test and endure bitter, hard troubles. And it is not surprising. For a contestant is no different from an untrained man, if his training and exercises have been for another sort of contest. Anyone who enters this arena should above all despise fame, should be superior to anger, and should be full of tact. But the devotee of the monastic life has no scope to exercise these qualities. He has but few to provoke him, so that he may practise restraining the force of his anger, or to admire and applaud him, so that he may be trained to scorn popular praises. And though in the churches there is a demand for tact, the monks think little of it. So when they enter these conflicts for which they have never practised, they are bewildered and dazed and grow helpless. They make no progress towards virtue, and in addition they often lose the good qualities they had when they started.
Basil: What! Are we to take men of the world, whose minds are set on mundane things, who are adepts at strife and abuse, who are full of all kinds of trickery and accustomed to a life of luxury, and set them over the government of the Church?
John: Hush, my friend! These men must not even be considered when our inquiry is for priests, but only those who mix and associate with all sorts of people and still manage to preserve more untarnished and steadfast than the monks themselves their purity and poise, their devoutness, patience, and frugality, and the other good qualities that belong to monks. For someone who has many faults, but can keep them out of view by living in isolation and disarm them by not associating with anybody, when he returns to social life, will achieve nothing except to become a laughing-stock, and will run worse risks than that. This
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very nearly happened to me, but that God's loving care quickly rescued me from that hazard.
This kind of man cannot pass unnoticed when he appears in public. All his faults are exposed, and as fire tests metals, so the touchstone of the ministry distinguishes men's souls.
H a man is hot-tempered or petty or conceited or boastful or anything like that, it soon uncovers all his shortcomings and lays them bare. And not only does it lay them bare, it actually makes them more tough and intractable. For bodily wounds become harder to heal if they are chafed; and equally the diseases of the soul, if provoked and irritated, naturally grow more irksome and force their victims deeper into sin. They rouse a man, if he is not on his guard, to the love of popularity and to bragging and avarice; and they lead him on to luxury, self-indulgence, and indolence, and step by step to worse faults than these that are their natural offspring.
There arc so many things in society which can enervate the soul and baulk its straight course. First of all, there is female company. For the president, being concerned with the whole flock, cannot simply take care of the part that consists of men and neglect the women, particularly as they require greater vigilance, since they easily slip into sin. On the contrary, the man appointed to exercise episcopal oversight must give as much thought, if not more, to the spiritual well-being of women. He must visit them in sickness, comfort them in sorrow, reprove them when indolent, and help them when overburdened. When this is done the Evil One will find many loopholes, unless he fortifies himself with a strict guard. A look strikes at his soul and unsettles it, and that from modest women, not only from the wanton. Flatteries unman him and courtesies enslave him, and fervent
THE CONTRAST BETWEEN BISHOP AND MONK
[VI.S love, which is indeed the cause of all good things, becomes to those who misuse it the cause of incalculable evils.
It has sometimes happened, too, that continual cares have dulled the keenness of the intellect and made its wings heavier than lead; and anger has struck and smothered all within like a puff of smoke. Why mention the harm caused through grief, insults, abuse, and criticism from high and low, from wise and foolish? Persons of this last type, deprived as they are of right judgement, are the worst of cavillers, and will not readily accept explanations. But the wise prelate should not despise even these; he should rebut their accusations in public, very gently and humbly, being more prone to pardon their unreasonable complaints than to be indignant or angry.
For if 8t Paul was afraid he might incur the suspicion of theft among the disciples and so took others to help him in administering the money, "in order", he said, "that no man should blame us in the matter of this bounty which is ministered by us", 1 must not we do everything we can to destroy evil suspicions, however false they may be and however unreasonable and unlike the character we bear? Weare not as far removed from any fault as Paul was from theft, and yet, far though he was from this evil practice, he did not disregard popular suspicion, although it was most unreasonable and insane. For it certainly was insanity to form any such suspicion about that blessed and wonderful soul.
But still, in spite of this, he sweeps away all possible grounds for suspicion, although it was so absurd and no one but a lunatic would have entertained it. He did not disregard people's mad suspicions. He did not say: "Who would ever think of suspecting me of any such thing, since everyone reveres and admires me, both for my miracles and for my
1 II Cor. 8.!Zo. r48
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virtuous life?" No; quite the opposite-he foresaw and anticipated this evil suspicion and tore it up by its root, or rather, he did not let it grow at all. And why? "We take thought for things honourable," he said, "not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men." 2 And we should show just as much care as this, or even more, for preference. Then we shall not only strangle evil reports at birth and eradicate them, but even foresee their source far in advance, remove the pretexts from which they spring, and not wait for them to be established and bandied about on everyone's lips. By that time it is no longer easy to extirpate them; indeed it is very difficult and perhaps impossible. Nor is it done without damage, because it happens after popular suspicion has done its worst.
But how long am I to continue chasing a will-o'-the-wisp?
Making a list of all the difficulties involved is like trying to measure the ocean. For even if a man were absolutely free from human passion-which is impossible-he must still put up with untold troubles in order to correct the faults of others. And when his own frailties are added, look at the abyss of his toils and anxieties, and the host of sufferings he must endure, if he would master his own sins and the sins of others!
22 Cor. 8.21.