CHAPTER IV
CHAPTER IV
oe nM ey ee
First POINT OF THE SECOND ANSWER: THE DESIRE
FOR MARTYRDOM Is SHOWN To BE PERFECT AS
SUCH, AND THE FLIGHT FROM MARTYRDOM To BE
IMPERFECT AS SUCH
SEC HOSE who enjoy a spiritual underYay ; standing of the divine law know full well that the summit of evangelical cf. Ct. 4:4 i| perfection, like the tower of David, is i) provided with battlements by means | of which dangerous attacks are repelled
(mittee } an internal peace is preserved. Among these defenses, the desire to suffer and die in the name of Jesus Christ holds the foremost place, as is clearly revealed by the noblest leader of the Christian army, St. Paul himHeb, 12:1ff. self: Therefore let us also... run with patience to the fight set before us; looking towards the author and finisher of faith, Jesus, who for the joy set before Him, endured a cross, despising shame. The gloss says here: "Being girt and ready, let us dauntlessly run to the fight of the martyr, keeping our eyes on the Author of faith, that is, on the One who despised all earthly goods to prove that they must be despised, and suffered all earthly evils to show that they must be suffered—lest happiness be sought in the former, and pain feared in the latter.'' And further on:
"The very One who looses the bond of weakness is fettered; the very One who raises the dead has died. In our love, let us suffer as He did.""
DEFENSE OF THE MENDICANTS
The same Apostle also exhorts us by his example to do the same, when he writes to the Corinthians: I will most gladly spend and be spent myself for your souls. Here the gloss says: "Such is perfect love: that a man be ready to die for his brothers. But is this love perfect as soon as it is born? No; in truth, it is born to be perfected. As soon
OGorL2s15 cf. 1 Jn. 3:16 as it is born, it is fed; and as it is fed, it is strengthened; and as it is strengthened, it is perfected; and when it has attained perfection, it says: I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ.'?
Phil, 1:23* Hence, perfect love consists in desiring the dissolution and death of one's own body, in imitation of the Apostle, who wrote to the Philippians, I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ. That is why the gloss says of the same passage: "Some imperfect men die with patience, and some perfect men live with patience. At the time of death, those who desire to live must fight against themselves in order to obey God's will. When it happens, as with the Apostle, that a man desires to be dissolved and to be with Christ,
Phil. 1:23* his patience applies, not to dying, but to living: death for him is a delight. Thus, as Paul's passion was at hand, he rejoiced and gloried, saying: 'I have fought the good fight,...''° Nothing more lucid could be adduced to 2 Tm. 4:7 prove our point, since there is here an express statement that perfect love consists in the desire to die.
2. Now, the same conclusion may be drawn from the very strength of reason alone. According to Dionysius, love is A UNITIVE POWER,'
—a saying of intrinsic truth. It necessarily follows that perfect love of God perfectly inclines the lover to anything by which he will more readily, personally, and rapidly rejoin the Beloved; but nothing unites the spirit of mortal man more rapidly and personally
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with the immortal and impassible Godhead than the suffering of death for His honor.
Hence, the perfect lover must desire such death before enduring it, and perfectly rejoice as soon as it comes to him. Thus it is also said of the apostles that they departed from the presence of the Sanhedrin, rejoicing that they had been counted worthy to suffer disgrace for the name of Jesus.
Acts 5:41
As Hugh explains, this same love is also A TRANSFORMA~
TIVE POWER.?
A man who perfectly loves Christ will desire more than anything else to be conformed to Him, particularly in all things which divine law commands. In the present state of misery, the means of conformation to Christ most fitting for those to be saved consists in imitat~ing His passion and death, as Peter indicates when he writes: Christ also has suffered for you, leaving you an example that you may follow in His steps. This, then, is the goal which the ardor of perfect love seeks with par1 Pt. 2:21 ticular intensity, as shown in these words of the Canticle:
Stern as death is love, relentless as the nether world is devotion; its flames are a blazing fire.
Ct. 8:6
Now, as Richard writes, this same love is, finally, A GENEROUSLY DIFFUSIVE POWER.° Wherever there is perfect love, there also is perfect diffusion, either actual if the opportunity is present, or fully desired if it is not. Since to deliver oneself to death for the love of someone else is an act of the very highest diffusion, it necessarily follows that a perfect love of charity aspires to it, in accordance with the words in John: "Greater love than this no one has,
Jn. 15:13 that one lay down his life for his friends."
3. To desire death for the sake of Christ, to expose oneself to death for the sake of Christ, and to rejoice in the agony of this death are acts of perfect love. Hence, to run
DEFENSE OF THE MENDICANTS
away from death is an imperfect act when considered in itself; yet as shown above,} it may be restored to perfection through a superadded circumstance, to wit, when a man runs to preserve himself for a more glorious triumph, as did the Apostle in his flight; or when he does so to give the weak the consolation of hope, lest, when death comes close, they feel themselves trembling and fall into despair.
We must believe that it was for this reason that Christ cf. 2 Cor. 11:33 fled: not out of the anguish of fear, but out of a kind condescension of perfect love, as Augustine explains when commenting on John in his Sixtieth Homily:
"Strong indeed are the Christians if any of them remain undisturbed at the approach of death! Is anyone stronger than Christ? Who would be mad enough to claim this?
What does it mean that He was troubled, if not that He consoled the weak members in His own body, that is, in the Church, by voluntarily assuming their weakness? — so that if some are disturbed by the approach of death, they may look upon Him in spirit and not believe themselves to be reproved because of that fear, nor fall into the more terrible death of despair.'" Here, in a demonstration as clear as light itself, we are shown that, although trembling in the face of death implies some imperfection, this imperfection does not affect Christ as condescending to it, but only those to whom He condescends.
4. Now, concerning the flight referred to in the seventh chapter of John, He did not wish to go about in Judea,
Augustine teaches that we are to understand this in the Jn. 7:1 same sense.
"It was to happen later," he says, "that one of His followers would hide so as not to be found by his
Cf. ch. 1, 49.
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persecutors; now, lest this hiding be imputed to the man as a crime, what was to come about in one of the members was first enacted by the Head.''* The same Doctor, writing of the Psalm, Judgment shall again be with justice, also
Ps. 93:19 says: "It was by prefiguring the weak in His person, that is, by assuming the personality of the weak through compassion for them, that the Lord said: 'Let this cup pass away from Me.'"? Indeed, it could not be that the Lord, who was to rise on the third day, would recoil from the Mt. 26:39 passion, while Paul would burn with the desire to be disPhil] 1:23" solved and to be with Christ. Paul suffered weakness in the flesh; and so, Christ did not give an example of weakness in the flesh, but condescended to weakness in the spirit.
5. And yet our opponent attempts in many ways to deny this limpidly clear fact. In his incomprehension of the truth, he calls the notion absurdf that Christ condescended to imperfection in any way; and he tries to show that flight from death is perfect in itself, arguing that it is commanded by Christ and practiced by perfect men. The invalidity of the first point may be construed from this cf. Mt. 10:23 fact alone: that a commandment does not bring about perfection any more than it removes imperfection.{ For if a commandment excluded imperfection, any man bound to the observance of it would be bound to its perfect fulfillment. Now, since this is manifestly untrue, it is in vain that our adversary, by recourse to the Gospel, to Pope
Pelagius, and to Athanasius, tries to demonstrate that flight is perfect. The summit of evangelical perfection depends upon the supererogation of divine counsel, and not upon the obligation of a command.
+ Cf ch. 1, (5.
+ Cf. ch. Il, { 6.
DEFENSE OF THE MENDICANTS
6. Furthermore, the command to flee in the face of per~ secution is to be understood in the light of the particular instance, as Rabanus says when commenting on Matthew, and as the gloss confirms: "This passage pertains to the particular period in which it had been uttered [to the disciples]: Do not go in the direction of the Gentiles: they were not to fear persecution, but to turn away from it in order that, when tribulation occurred, it might contribute to the sowing of the Gospel.'° If, then, our adversary understands this passage in the light of these circumMt. 10:5 stances, it has no value as far as his purpose is concerned.
If, however, he understands it unqualifiedly, as he does, his error is not a slight one; for then anyone willfully exposing himself to death while he had a chance to hide or flee would be committing a mortal sin, since he would be acting against the will of God. If this were true, the most blessed martyrs Peter, Paul, Andrew, Lawrence, Sebastian, Tiburtius, and others like them, who even went so far as to offer themselves to their persecutors, would deserve, not the glory of martyrs, but the shame of prevaricators.
It is indeed a besotted perversity that impels the sweeping declaration that the holy martyrs took to flight and submitted to martyrdom only when they had been tracked down. For this is denigrating their perfection, since any man, however imperfect, must perforce submit to being killed if he cannot hide. This disputant, by attributing a certain false perfection to the act of fleeing, would destroy the true perfection of the actual martyrs of Christ.
7. Doubly defective also is the second argument by which our opponent tries to prove that perfect men have fled. First, everything that perfect men have done is not
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automatically perfect. Even though Jacob, David, Urias, and Mathathias fled — these being the examples he adduces cf. Gn. 28:5 cf. 1 Kgs. 19: i2* cf. Jer. 26:21 cf. 1 Mach. 2:
28* in support of flight — they also had wives and owned property, two facts that are not compatible with evangelical perfection.
Again, we have shown above} that an act imperfect by nature may become perfect by reason of some circumstance added to it through perfect love. The resulting perfection is thus praiseworthy, not by reason of the act itself, but by reason of the circumstance of holiness in the doer's character and intention. Thus, the fact that Phinees and Mathathias are praised for having killed sinners does not ef. Nm. 25:77). cf.
Ps. 105:30ff. cf. 1 Mach. 2:
24-26* signify that to kill a man is a good and perfect deed. And in the same way, the parallel arguments which this man multiplies lead to no valid conclusion. It is proper to infer that if holy men have done anything worthy of praise, that same may be imitated without sin in the right circumstances of time and place, as St. Athanasius wished to prove.' Yet it does not follow that to do so is perfect, unless it is also implied that imperfection indicates sin, as this man perversely teaches. Since this has been disproved several times above,t we mention it here merely in passing.
8. Certainly, the distinction our author adds— concerning the different manners of flight which he attempts to prove perfect in themselves, and to support with many examples — brings very little light to the subject. Rather, the mind of readers is filled thereby with the darkness of error unless careful circumspection is used.
He distinguishes six manners of flight, "'the first deriving from perversity of mind, the second, from ignorance and servile ire LG 9.
+ Cf. ch. IL, Q 3 and 6ff.
DEFENSE OF THE MENDICANTS
fear,t the third, from natural fear, the fourth, from a spirit of humility, the fifth, from proper prudence, and the sixth, from abundant mercy." And when he comes to explaining these modes, we find him uttering many absurdities.
Thus, speaking of the sECOND, he says that "to flee because of ignorance is to flee because of servile fear, as the sons of Israel fled in the days of Saul'; and he adds that ClalcKgs.13:0"
"Christ did not fear death with this kind of fear: He even forbade that it be feared in this way'; and a little later:
"For this kind of flight pertains to the imperfect."
9. By these words this man shows himself to be wholly ignorant of theological truth.
First, as regards the signification of words: he says that the sons of Israel fled before the Philistines out of servile fear, whereas servile fear, being a gift of the Holy Spirit,"* implies flight, not from material battle, but from spiritual danger. Second, he shows that he does not understand the implications of propositions when he says that this fear is forbidden, and later adds that it pertains to the imperfect. From this, it would follow that something may be generally prohibited, and yet permitted to certain men; and again, that a transgression of the commandments is granted to the imperfect. Because such an argument contains an implicit contradiction, it has no value whatsoever.
10. Speaking now of the THIRD MODE OF FLIGHT, our adversary says that it proceeds from "a certain natural fear," and that this manner of fear "pertains to the perfect, like Moses, Eliseus, Elias, and Urias." Such flight "does cf Bx 2:15
} Servile fear is the fear of the slave or subject at the prospect of impending judgment and punishment.
It corresponds to imperfect contrition by which sins are avoided, not out of love for God, but out of the fear of hell. Bonaventure makes no further reference to the first mode of flight.
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not produce any imperfection, and this,'"' he asserts, "'is the one Christ assumed." In these words he implies two things, of which one is an error and the other a blasphemy. cf. 4 Kgs. 6:
13ff.* G23 .Kas, 1933 cf. Jer. 26°21 cf. Ja. 8:59, and 12:26
Although it is natural to fear death, yet to flee from it is a voluntary act; and while perfect charity does not ex~clude all natural fear, it does negate that compelling power of fear through which the one who fears is made to flee.
Thus Bede, commenting on the words of Mark, Leaving the Mk. 14:52 linen cloth behind, he fled, has this to say: '""The apostle a = who remained with ge the Lord even when aT Le | PAE | FR IHERN e!
AY} the others had fled, US. (RE Y/ Saiee proved that he loved € f/ Ware <1 the Lord more than % '| } did the others; but aw he was not yet perAi fect, since in his
ASAI terror he still could flee."'* Here Bede Al clearly shows that flight caused by the Mi fear of death is not S7/| consistent with the
{il perfection of love.
Syl 11. There is no difficulty in the NG i words of the gloss —— on this passage of John: Another will gird thee, where it is said that a disWy fa) 0 es
ay ) y y Jn. 21:18 position to flee is so natural that even old age failed to cure t Instead of "'in his terror," both Bede and the gloss have:
"while he was held," which seems closer to the Scripture.
DEFENSE OF THE MENDICANTS
Peter of it, although he was perfect. It is one thing to be afraid, and quite another to flee out of fear, as this same gloss (which our adversary fraudulently abridges) immediately adds: "For however severe the menace of death may be, the power of love is stronger." And so, when the power of love overcomes fear, we do not flee at all.
To flee because of the fear of death is, then, incompatible with the perfection of love. Augustine writes in the homily already cited:f "In a pastor of Christ's flock, love for Him must grow to such a degree and to such a quality of ardor as to overcome that natural fear of death which makes us unwilling to die even when we want to live with Christ."
From such arguments as these, we may draw the conclusion that to flee is not consistent with perfect charity, which overcomes natural fear and prevents it from turning into flight.
12. To say, then, that Christ fled because of such fear is to blaspheme against Him. It would follow that, in Him, love did not overcome natural fear, but on the contrary was overcome; that His love was not of the sort to make
Him perfectly steadfast, but on the contrary left Him vacillating and imperfect. Any reader will also note that to consider perfect that flight which is caused by the natural fear of death, and to assert at the same time that Christ fled in this manner, amounts to declaring that Christ the Leader was overcome in advance by His enemies, and to provoking His followers to flight.-.No one, indeed, is made to flee by the fear of death unless this fear overpowers him.
If, as this man says, such an overpowering fear is perfect, t Quoted in the gloss.
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since all men are naturally impelled by it, nothing remains, according to this profane doctrine, but that all men turn to flight. In this flight, there would be no difference between the shepherd and the hireling, since both have an elo Jn Oty: equal fear of death.
13. Commenting on the FOURTH MODE OF FLIGHT, our adversary states that "to flee because of the humility of mind through which a man recognizes his own weakness, and humbly believes himself to be unable to bear the trial of death, pertains to perfect men." For "in this manner," says he, "Peter fled before the face of Nero;'° the Jews, from the persecutions of Antioch; and the anchorites,'® from the persecutions of Decius and Valerianus.
Jesus taught this manner of flight,'' he continues, ''and confirmed it by His example. Hence, it must be imitated by the perfect." cf. 1 Mach. 1:
40*; 2:27f.
Now anyone carefully considering these examples will be aware of the writer's ineptness. The first example, concerning Peter, is false.
If, indeed, as he says, Peter accounted himself unworthy of martyrdom, so also should any Christian. But if it is a perfect act to flee for such a reason, then absolutely everyone should run away, and none should aspire to the passion, since this is something beyond our strength. And from such reasoning, it also follows that there was presumption in the fervor of the holy martyrs who went to their torment with courage in their hearts.
The second example is ambiguous in itself, and unrelated to the proposition, since nothing proves that the Jews were fleeing out of humility. In point of fact, it is impos~ sible to construe as an example of perfection the flight of those who entrusted their salvation to their own material swords, and pursued their enemies to death whenever they had a chance to do so.
DEFENSE OF THE MENDICANTS
14. As for the third example, concerning the anchorites, in which he relies on the authority of Jerome to make an issue of the flight of Paul the first hermit, it does not fit his purpose, but opposes it instead. For, as Jerome tells us in the same text, Paul was then young, rich, and delicately reared; neither an anchorite nor a monk, but still living in the world. And Jerome says of him that "he changed a necessity into a deliberate intention," since he lived in the desert first under compulsion, and later, voluntarily.
But as for other Christians who had attained perfection, the same Doctor had said, a little earlier in the text: "The wish of the Christians of that time was to be struck with the sword for the sake of God's name. But the cruel enemy, seeking tortures that would but slowly kill, attempted to throttle their souls rather than their bodies: so that Cyprian, who had suffered from this in his own person, could say that those who wished to die were not permitted to be killed.""" We have already pointed out that this citation
(misinterpreted by our author) refutes his proposition instead of confirming it, since Jerome declares [in another section of the text] that the martyrs of that time not only did not run away, but even passionately lamented because death was denied them, confirming this through the word and example of the glorious Doctor and Martyr Cyprian.
15. The fourth example proposed, referring to Christ, includes a blasphemy detestable to faithful ears: for if Christ, in His humility, thought Himself unworthy to suffer martyrdom, either He was, in fact, unworthy, or He was not.
If He was unworthy, it follows that He was actually imperfect; if He was not, it follows that He was ignorant of His own perfection. Furthermore, if it is a blasphemy against God to say or believe that Jesus Christ,
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the Son of God, is imperfect, the supposition that Christ believed Himself to be imperfect not only blasphemes against Christ, but also actually asserts that He Himself was a blasphemer, an unacceptable proposition. Anyone who insists on saying and thinking such things should be delivered up to Satan that he may learn not to blaspheme.
1 Tm. 1:20
16. When our adversary speaks at greater length of the FIFTH MODE OF FLIGHT, which is flight caused by circumspect prudence, he clearly shows his own imprudence. No one denies that even a perfect man may sometimes flee, in the expectation of a better opportunity or an occasion to render a greater service, as the Apostle Paul fled from Damascus.
But this flight should not be distinguished from the other legitimate manners, since every reasonable and legitimate flight proceeds from a circumspect prudence, which indeed determines the direction to be followed on any road of salvation. Such prudence, which directs flight according to the circumstances of place and time, proceeds not so much from the commanding power of perfect virtue ef. 2 Cor Lie 32f.;Acts9:24f. as from the condition of human imperfection and spiritual weakness. Thus, commenting on this passage from Matthew,
All the disciples left Him and fled, Bede says in the gloss:
"Just as Peter, by washing out his denial with his tears and eradicating it completely with a triple confession of love
Mt. 26:56 for the Lord, shows such as fail under torture how to rehabilitate themselves, so also the other disciples, who had escaped actual arrest by running away, teach the precaution of such flight to those who feel unequal to torture, for whom it is safer to hide than to be exposed to danger.'
From such words as these, it is clear that the circumspection which leads to precautionary flight pertains to the weak rather than to the perfect.
DEFENSE OF THE MENDICANTS
17. Now, our adversary says that prudence, which leads to perfection, could not in any way lead to imperfection.
If he means by this that prudence never makes a perfect man become imperfect, he is speaking a truth, but one which has no bearing on the present matter. If he means that no work of imperfection is done under the pretext of prudence, he is certainly mistaken.
For then every work of prudence would be perfect; and not only of prudence, but also of any of the other virtues to which prudence is necessarily joined. And, from this, it would also follow that every virtue is perfect; that anyone who possesses a virtue is perfect; that no imperfect man is just; and that every imperfection is a sin. In the preceding pages, all this has been proved repeatedly to be false and unbefitting.f
18. Finally, concerning the sixTH MODE OF FLIGHT, our adversary argues that "it pertains to the perfect man to flee by reason of an abundant mercy, lest the persecutor offend God increasingly; and such was the flight of Jacob,
Moses, David, Benedict,'? and Sylvester....'?° And he continues, "It is this manner of flight that Christ taught and confirmed by His example."
Che Nit 25:74}, GPs. L05:30f. cf. 1 Mach. 2:
24-26* Cpe 2515 To those who view the matter superficially, this might seem to be a reasonable and pious opinion. But anyone who considers the argument with real attention will perceive at once that it lacks both rational foundation and piety. The examples proposed are in themselves ambiguous; and at the same time, it does not appear anywhere in the Scriptures [or elsewhere] that the men of whom this author speaks actually fled for the cause he assigns. From what reasoning or authority may the conclusion be drawn
{Cf ch. IL | 2.
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that Jacob fled from Esau, Moses from Pharao, David from Saul, and Sylvester from Constantine, lest the persecutors commit a greater sin on account of the pursued? Hence the proposed argument must be considered worthless; as Jerome says, "That which lacks the authority of the Scriptures may be spurned or proved with equal facility."
Furthermore, if everyone who persecutes the just has sinned all the more heavily as he has inflicted more severe injuries; and if it is a holy and perfect act to flee for this reason: a man should always flee from the face of any persecutor, lest this persecutor enlarge his sin. And it would necessarily follow from this that Christ did not confer upon the Jews an abundant mercy, but rather a great cruelty; for He submitted Himself to the passion precisely when a large crowd had the occasion to sin in His regard, that is, at the time of the Pasch when a great number of Jews were to assemble of whom He knew that many would consent to His death. Finally, according to this doctrine, all the martyrs who did not have recourse to flight could be accused of unmerciful cruelty.
19. In vain, then, does this author boast of having refuted his opponent by arguing that flight is not imperfect when it happens to derive from abundant mercy, which cannot be an occasion of imperfection.t So far from having disproved his opponent's position, he is in fact opening the way to the refutation of his own arguments.
For if the reason why Christ incurred no stain of imperfection is that [on some occasions] He fled out of mercy for those who persecuted Him, should not our author with even greater truth abstain from attributing to imperfection
+ Cf. (Q 5ff., and ch. I, ({ 6ff.
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the fact that Christ fled out of mercy for His weak members? He should rather judge this to be perfect.
20. As for the conclusion he finally draws: that "Christ fled in these four manners and taught such flight''; that "perfect men have imitated Him in this and taught others to do the same'; and that "Christ in His flight gave an example to the weak, that is, to those who suffer from an infirmity of the flesh which pertains to the perfect, and not from an infirmity of the spirit which pertains to the imperfect"
— since all this has now been sufficiently disproved, there is no need for further discussion. It may be remarked, however, that the four manners of flight, considered together, clearly reveal the absurdity of this man's teachings. For if Christ had fled in these four ways, and if the most perfect men had followed Him in so doing, since all four ways are common to all times, places and people, flight would be the proper course for everyone. Who, indeed, is free of natural fear? Who has no obligation to humiliate himself? Who can afford not to be cautious in the face of danger? Who is relieved of pity for the neighbors who oppress him? If, then, these ways of flight are the paths of perfection by which a man goes to Christ, instead of heeding the call of the apostolic bugle and running toward the battle of the Passion which is proposed to us,t we should seek the safety of one of these ways of flight, in order that we may come to Christ all the sooner for having followed the shortest path to perfection. If the leaders of the battle of this world believe that such an exhortation— or rather, such a discouraging speech — should not be made on the battlefield because it would trouble the {Ch Q 1.
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te warriors' hearts, how much more does this apply to the battle of Jesus Christ where the issue is no mere avoidance of material loss or freedom from bodily injury, but victory over the soul's eternal death? We do not mean that the perfect could not be justified in fleeing under certain circumstances, as indicated above: } we merely intend to show that excessive, vain and false praise of flight must be shunned as a pernicious attitude opposed to the virtue of the perfect.
While error must be rejected always and everywhere, it is particularly dangerous wherever and whenever, under the guise of sanctity, it brings a man down from the summit of virtue and dashes him into the pit of wickedness.
+ Cf. (q 4, 6 and 7.
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