CHAPTER VI
CHAPTER VI
THIRD POINT OF THE SECOND ANSWER, IN WHICH
SEVERE Fast Is DEFENDED AS CONFORMING TO
PERFECTION, AND
A MANIFOLD RECOMMENDA~
TION Is MADE oF IT.
that the strictest fast, like the most severe abstinence, offers a support of no small importance to the development of spiritual perfection.
Yet, because the lover of contention adduces further a? arguments against the excellence of fast, we are ataeilied to reply to his foolishness, lest he draw the unlearned away from perfection and believe himself wise.
While the friar he is contending with had nothing to say about fasting—a fact which he himself admits— another had spoken in his sermons of the perfection of it, and he now attempts to refute this one in a new quarrel, as if it had not been enough to attack one adversary, but, in the manner of Ismael, the hand of this man were to be against everyone, and, by a just judgment of God, everyone's hand were to be against him.
It is totally unbelievable that a cf. Gn. 16:12 wise man would have taught, as he claims, that Christ in His fasting gave an example to the perfect alone, and in His eating, to the imperfect.
It is a fact accepted by all that both fasting and eating may be either perfect or + According to Codex A, either Robert of Veglia or Peter of Tarantasia.
DEFENSE OF THE MENDICANTS
imperfect, good or evil, holy or impious, according to the different intentions and circumstances.
2. What is the difference between observance of fast and dispensation from it? The former is difficult and painful by its very nature and is in itself an effective means for the repression of the passions of the flesh and for the fostering of spiritual strength. Hence, it is naturally good and oriented toward perfection. By contrast, dispensation from fast is easy and sweet to the flesh and follows the natural bent of a weak mind. Hence, it is naturally imperfect, although it may become perfect through additional circumstances —as when a perfect man breaks his fast for reasons of weak health or out of brotherly condescension.
And so, we agree with the friar against whom our adversary is writing: speaking of these things in the abstract, it is better to fast than not to fast. Christ, the Model of all virtue, sometimes fasted and sometimes did not. In the first case, He gave an example of austerity, while in the second, He offered consolation to human weakness. The first is an act of fortitude, the second an act of condescension: yet in Christ both are perfect since they proceed from the most perfect love. For condescension, as is evident from what has been said,} implies imperfection, not in the one condescending, but in those toward whom he condescends— or in the act itself considered in the abstract.
3. Had this calumniator deigned to notice it, he would not have fallen into erroneous teachings. Since he bases his reasoning on an error, he is assailing the words of a catholic doctor with an unfounded accusation of guilt; he is concealing the craftiness of his own deceit beneath a } CE. ch. I, FF 10£., and ch. Il, { 3.
CHAPTER VI
distinction that is valid in appearance only; finally, he is offering as healthy drink the poison of fleshly pleasure by fraudulently recommending that fasting be done away with.
In short, he is attacking his opponent by accusing him of heresy, presumption, and Opposition to true perfection.
The sole argument he is able to muster in support of his accusation of heresy may be reduced to this: "If Christ had performed certain deeds for the edification of the perfect alone, He would have been spiteful since He would have lacked regard for the edification of the imperfect." And again: "If He had performed other deeds for the edification of the imperfect alone, since such deeds could not have been perfect, either there are two Persons in Christ, the one performing the perfect acts and the other the impercf. Dt. 32:4 fect— which is Nestorian teaching; or again, if the works of God the Father are perfect and those of Christ imperfect, the Person of the Son is lesser than that of the Father— which is the impious doctrine of Arius and Photinus."
4. Such sophistic reasoning shows its author to be both ignorant and impious himself. Had he possessed any knowledge, even the least, he would have known that it was not out of spite, but as a manifold sign of His bounty, that the Creator of the Universe had distinguished creatures according to their genera, and organized their several levels of nobility according to the relative perfection of their natures, powers, and operations. He would have known also that neither had it been out of spite, but as a manifold sign of His bountiful love, that the Re-Creator of the human race had offered distinct charismatic gifts, revealed distinct secrets of the mysteries, conferred distinct honors of offices and prelacies, and finally, displayed examples of distinct virtues, proposing the imitation of one example to one
DEFENSE OF THE MENDICANTS
man and of another to another, as the Apostle says, speaking of continence: Each one has his own gift from God.
Cae, FATA Furthermore, when our adversary says that Christ proposed some deeds as examples to the perfect, he should have known that this applies not only to those already perfect, but also to others who wish to be perfect, as Christ understood when He spoke to the young man: "One thing is lacking to thee," and then continued: "If thou wilt be perfect, go, sell what thou hast, etc." Hence He exMk. 10:21
Mt. 19:21 cludes no one from the ways of perfection, nor is He being spiteful to anyone or rejecting anyone: He is merely proposing a state that is fitting for those entirely engaged in the ascent to perfection — but not for those who are content to remain on the level of imperfection.
5. When, from the diversity of Christ's deeds and their lesser quality in relation to those of the Father, this man infers that there were two Persons in Christ, or that in His divine Person He was inferior to the Father, he partakes of the deceitful impiety both of Nestorius and Arius.
For only in the teachings of Nestorius is the plurality of persons said to be a consequence of the diversity of deeds — when the true consequences are actually the diversity of powers and natures.
And the lesser quality found in Christ's deeds indicates inferiority, not in the divine Person, but in the assumed nature, unless we follow Arius, who, from the fact that Christ declared Himself lesser cf. Jn. 14:28 than the Father}—which the faithful understand as referring to the inferiority of human nature—draws the conclusion that He was inferior both in His divine Person and His divine nature.t And so, if our adversary believes
{ CE. ch. II, | 5.
CHAPTER VI
all this to be valid reasoning, he stands clearly convicted of falling into the errors of Nestorius and Arius.
6. Not content with this, our man attacks his opponent, the servant of God, accusing him of presumption and arguing that he overlooks the Apostle's warning and bears judgment on another's servant when he says that those who eat cf. Rom. 14:4
[meat] are imperfect. Because our adversary claims that every imperfection implies guilt, it must also be a conces~ sion to the world which is displeasing to God. If, then, [he claims] anyone says that those who eat are imperfect, by the same token he is judging them and condemning them as intrinsically guilty, conformed to the world, and displeasing to God. "Such an assertion," he says, "is sheer madness."
And this is the sum total of his arguments. We may then truly say to him: O wicked presumption, whence camEcclus. 37:3* est thou, to cover the earth with thy malice? Anyone who accuses of lying a man who speaks the truth is presumptuously and maliciously bearing judgment upon another's servant—as this man does when he says that his learned adversary holds an opinion which even the most uneducated man knows to be wrong. What, indeed, could be more senseless than what he says, that everyone who eats is imperfect, since eating is necessary and common to every pilgrim on the way, to the perfect and the imperfect, to the good and the wicked alike? Even if we admit that it may be an imperfection to excuse oneself from fasting, it does not follow automatically that anyone who does so or anyone who eats is then imperfect —and that because, as so often said, a special circumstance affecting the person or the act may have removed any imperfection.
+ Cf. ¥ 1, in fine, and 2.
DEFENSE OF THE MENDICANTS
It is quite a different thing to compare states and to compare persons. From the fact that virginity is superior to marriage, the consequence does not necessarily follow that a virgin is superior in all cases to a married person, for it may occur that the virgin is wicked and the married holy.f Likewise, if we say that fasting is superior to eating, the consequence does not necessarily follow that a man who fasts is superior to another who eats. There is then even less reason to infer that the man who eats is imperfect.
Countless absurdities may be derived from the statement this man makes, that imperfection implies guilt, conformity to the world and the displeasure of God: for virtue, love, and justice are imperfect at times, and would then imply guilt, conformity to the world and the displeasure of God!
Again, since the married state is imperfect by nature, it would then be guilty and displeasing to God. Conjugal chastity, imperfect compared to virginity, would also be displeasing to God. Marriage would not have been instituted by God—which is Manichean Doctrine.
Furthermore, if "any imperfection in an artifact is displeasing to its maker," as this man has the temerity to say, since all the things created by God were imperfect before becoming perfect, they were all displeasing at first to their ee Gns l:2f.
Maker.
Since no one working with wisdom ever makes anything he dislikes, it follows that when God began His work of creation, He acted without wisdom.
Since this conclusion is absurd, its premises must be rejected as false, proceeding as they do from a misunderstanding of the notion of imperfection, as clearly shown above.tt cf. Ps. 103:24; Prv. 3:19
+ Cf. Foreword, p. IX.
* CE. ch. IL | 3.
TT Chstaslln (GS). 6y.te 2 4f.
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7. Even this is not enough for the contentious disputer: he further pursues the prudent man as being an enemy of perfection. He argues as follows: "If excusing oneself from fasting is an imperfection, old people unable to fast are imperfect; those whose bodies are weak are less virtuous, since the Apostle says, Strength is made perfect in weak2 Cor. 12:9 ness; and those who take advantage of Canon Law? and excuse themselves from fasting on Sundays are imperfect.
Such are the arguments this man uses to attack not so much his adversary's position as the perfection of holy fasting. Since such a theory has never been proposed by any well-informed man, and none has ever believed that to be relieved from fast for a reasonable cause is incompatible with perfection, either such arguments are worthless—or they may have an appearance of validity in the eyes of the uninformed under the pretext that no work of perfection may be omitted without impairment to perfection itself; and since fasting may in fact be omitted without impairing perfection, the conclusion may possibly be drawn that it is not essential to perfection.
8. Many a time in the following pages does our adversary attack perfection by arming himself with such reasoning. In order to destroy these sophisms by means of a single answer, let the prudent reader note that in every one of these instances a distinction must be made between the acts related to perfection: some are intrinsic and essential because perfect and perfective in themselves, while others are extrinsic and merely helpful towards full perfection and its practice. Some of the latter acts may be omitted according to the circumstances of time and place without impairing perfection in the least, while others are in fact incompatible with perfection unless omitted in certain circumstances.
DEFENSE OF THE MENDICANTS
Bede, for instance, commenting on Luke, has this to say:
"Does anyone ignore that a merciful heart, kindness, humility, patience, chastity and other such virtues must be observed by the faithful constantly? As for hunger, thirst, vigils, nakedness, reading, prayer, labor and the like, if anyone believes they are to be practiced at all times, he is depriving himself of their fruit.'* Augustine, writing "On the Good of Matrimony'' contributes to the same opinion:
"Undoubtedly, Timothy was endowed with the virtue of abstinence from wine. Paul did not deprive him of it by advising him to use a little wine for his stomach's sake and 1 Tm. 5:23 his frequent infirmities—otherwise he would have been applying the pernicious notion that something had to be done for the salvation of the body that would damage the virtue of the soul. Paul's advice could be followed, in fact, without any loss of virtue. Hence the good effect brought about by drinking was permitted for the body's sake, while the habit of abstinence remained intact in the soul.'"
From such opinions as these it is clearly seen that some works of virtue may be omitted without impairment to the virtue itself —and some works of perfection omitted without impairment to perfection.
9. Now, in order to cover up the absurdity of his teaching by which he attempts to eliminate fasting from perfection, this man continues by enumerating six manners of fasting which he distinguishes because "fasting may be done in six different ways: one, in the hope of being praised by men; two, out of avarice; three, for the sake of controlling concupiscence; four, out of the abundance of mercy in order to give an example; five, as a means of representing a mystery; six, as a condescension to others for the sake of avoiding scandal."
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Considered superficially, this division seems to attenuate our adversary's error. When submitted to careful analysis, however, it only makes it worse. Two of the ways of fasting he describes are properly attributed to hypocrites and to misers. A third—fasting for the sake of controlling concupiscence—he attributes both to the perfect and to the imperfect, "because," he says, "in every saint there remains some trace of concupiscence that must be driven out." Then he continues: "Christ did not fast in this way."
And he concludes that "this way pertains to the imperfect monk rather than to the perfect.'"' He is clearly contradicting here what he had established previously, for if there cf. Mt. 4:2ff. remains a trace of concupiscence in every perfect man, since complete victory and complete taming of concupis~ cence belong to the perfect rather than to the imperfect, it is the perfect who must fast in this way, as long as their bodily weakness does not counter-indicate it.
Thus, Jerome, describing the life of Hilarion, a most perfect monk, has this to say: "By an extraordinary fervor of the mind, he abstained from bread from his sixty-fourth year until his eightieth, and so ended his life without ever breaking his fast before sunset.'
10. Now, concerning this man's statement that "Christ did not fast in this way," he is clearly contradicting what he had written in the previous chapter, to wit, that "Christ gave an example of fasting as a means of taming concupiscence." If the author of such words has any intelligence, or even any memory, it is amazing that he would forget what he had written and be able so soon to teach the opposite.
Through a just judgment of the powers on high, he is falling
+ CE. | 30.
DEFENSE OF THE MENDICANTS
into such mental darkness that, straying as he does from the truth, he cannot even remain consistent with himself!
Christ was never subject to any form of concupiscence.
Yet, through His fasting, He did give us an example of how to overcome it, as Jerome explains to Demetriades: "The Saviour of the human race, who left us the example of His virtue and of His way of life, was taken up by the Spirit immediately after baptism in order to fight the devil. After forty days of fasting, the ancient enemy tempted Him with the allurement of food.' Again, the gloss on this passage from Matthew: Jesus was led into the desert, etc., reads as follows: '""He fasts in order to be tempted; He is tempted because He fasts; and He is giving us the example of fasting.'* And another gloss on the same passage reads: ""This
Mt. 4:1 is the proper order of life, that after receiving the grace of the Holy Spirit, we are better armed against the devil."
11. From all this it may be gathered that Christ provided men with examples both of fasting and of fighting.
Certainly, we cannot follow such example by fasting in the first or second way which have nothing of righteousness, nor in-the fourth, fifth and sixth in which fasting is not intended as a weapon against the enemy.
It remains, then, that Christ gave us an example of the third way.
Wherefore Ambrose writes in his book "In Praise of Fasting': "Christ fought in order to win the victory —not that He needed to fight, but that He might show us how to fight and give us the grace of victory. Fast, then, is our manner of fighting.
In short, the Lord fasted, and the tempter had access to Him through this fasting: he threw the first dart of craving for food, then offered this food as the bait of a trap. The Lord accepted the fast in order to destroy the snares and bonds of the tempter. With such
CHAPTER VI
a bond was Adam strangled, and by such a deliverance were all men freed from the devil's torture.'""° Thus does holy
Ambrose eliminate any possibility of doubt so clearly that no one could disagree with him without being stubborn.
Coming now to the fourth way of fasting— that is, out of the abundance of mercy—even the enemy of fasting admits that Christ was offering an example, not only to the perfect, but also to the imperfect. By this he means either that Christ gave us the example of fasting in order that we may fast as a means of displaying our mercy towards others—as did Moses, Elias, Daniel, and other prophets.
He would then be saying something untrue since the abundance of mercy is proper, not to the imperfect, but to the cf. Ex. 34:28; 3 Kgs. 19:8; Daol:8, 133 perfect. Otherwise he means that we should fast in order to win our inner battles, then he is saying the truth but also contradicting himself.
12. In his exposition of the sixth way of fasting, our adversary falls into a similar error when he claims that ''the perfect who have tamed their concupiscence and are no longer obliged to fast yet continued to do so in order to conform with their companions' habits.'' He is contradicting here what he had said a little while before: "In every perfect man there remains some trace of concupiscence that must be driven out"; and he is also contradicting the truth.
For the Apostle Paul, living as he did at the summit of perfection, asserts that he chastised his body and reduced it to servitude not so much for the sake of influencing others as for the sake of overcoming the enemy within his own soul, as Jerome expressly says to Eustochius in a passage quoted above.f'! Could any man, saintly as he may be,
+ CE. ch. V, | 15.
DEFENSE OF THE MENDICANTS
and on the strength of this personal holiness, ever be dispensed of the fasts imposed by his promise of obedience to the Rule, or from those prescribed universally by Holy
Mother Church? Would any man with a sound mind hold such an opinion? And who would presume to teach it?
No one, to be sure, except perhaps one who despises the commands of Holy Mother Church.
13. Next, and as a final declaration of his intention to lead, not to the observance of fasting, but to dispensation from it, our adversary designates six ways in which the requirements of fasting may be satisfied. The first he calls illicit, the second imperfect, and the following four he attributes to the perfect. In the course of the development, he scatters the seeds of many a perverse teaching which we will leave unchallenged at present so as not to burden the reader's mind. There is one point, however, that cannot be bypassed. After the distinction he had made earlier} between the six ways of fasting, four of which were supposed to be licit and to pertain indifferently to the perfect and the imperfect, he now makes another between the six ways in which the requirements of fast may be satisfied. One of these he attributes to the imperfect, and four of the remainder more particularly to the perfect. By so doing he manifestly declares his opinion, that perfect men would do better to dispense with fast than to observe it. In this he exceeds the wickedness of the heretic Jovinian who dared not go so far as to prefer the moderate use of food to the observance of fast, but considered them equal.
14. Let this man read, if he deigns to do so, the writings of truthful doctors where dispensation from fast is t Ch ch. V, | 9.
CHAPTER VI
not extolled by great preachers, even once, but on the contrary, its observance is commended with wonderful words of praise. Holy Ambrose, for instance, in his work "On Fast," explains that fasting results not so much from the misery of the present times as from the innocence of para~ dise: '"Wherefore, lest anyone believe that fast is of earthly origin, or that it is something new, the world originated in cf. Gaels cf. ibid. 29-30;
a vacuum when clear light came to shine. When food began to exist, the world had been completed. As soon as man began to disregard its advantages [of fasting], the works of God went wild around him. By this sign it is shown that the world decreases through these very things by which it fails to grow. In order that we may know that fast is not of recent origin, the first law of paradise consisted in a law of fast: for it was known that sin was to enter it through food."
The same Ambrose, in the same book, compares fasting to the life of heaven: "It is rightly," he says, "that the divine judgment deemed Elias so deserving of heaven that he was lifted up with his body for having lived with it a cf. 4 Kgs. 2:11 celestial life and displayed on earth his familiarity with the ways of heaven. What, indeed, is fasting if not a heavenly substance and image? It is the restoration of the spirit, and the food of the mind; it is the life of angels, the death of sin, the end of misdeeds, the remedy that leads to salvation, the root of grace, the foundation of chastity. By having recourse to it, Elias reached God all the sooner: by so living, he went up even before [being lifted up] by the chariot. cf. Sir. 48:9
And John came in the spirit and power of Elias. Finally, Lh Lhe it is by fasting that John spent himself in the wilderness.
Because of his abstinence he exceeded the norms of human life: he was considered not a man but an angel."
DEFENSE OF THE MENDICANTS
15. By these words, Ambrose compares fasting to the life of angels, and he is certainly right. As Dionysius says, heavenly order demands a threefold act: purgation, illumination and perfection.' The road to all three is prepared by the observance of fast, for the holiness of life of those who fast is shown to be rather heavenly than earthly.
Fasting procures a perfect safeguard for sanctity. This it does first as a means of avoiding the vices of the flesh.
Jerome writes to Demetriades: "After the weapon of meditation, you should take up fasting with the utmost care and sing with David: I afflicted myself with fasting, and I eat ashes like bread.""' And a little later: "The devil's
Ps. 34:13; 101:10 spears that wound as they burn have been ignited and prepared for the Three Youths by the king of Babylon. But cf. Dn. 3:15ff. as, in that instance, the form of the fourth was like the Son of God, and he cooled the immense heat, so also in a virginal soul the heavenly dew and freshness of fasting ibid. 92* extinguish the ardor of youth and human bodies are made to live like angels.'"*° Fasting is also a weapon against spiritual enemies, as Ambrose writes in the same work: "Judith, who fasted all the days of her widowhood, went forth with the support of cf. dt. 8:6 this weapon, overcame the whole Assyrian army, beheaded
Holophernes with the vigor obtained from her willful sobriety, preserved her modesty, and gained final victory.
Esther, also, enhanced by fasting, delivered her whole nacf. Est. 4:16 tion from persecution and even induced the king to bow before her will, not by inflaming him with the fire of lust, but by converting him to a heaven-inspired mercy, so that the wicked were punished and the sacred altars honored.
Hence, fasting is a sacrifice of reconciliation and an increase in power, bringing strength even to woman.''"
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16. Fasting procures also a perfect understanding of truth, first of moral truth, of which kind is the truth of the divine law, as noted by Ambrose in the work quoted above:
"Moses," he writes, "'handed down the law concerning fast; and his own fasting was not interrupted even by loud cf. Ex. 24:12ff. voices, lightning, thunder, or the sight of Mount Sinai covered with smoke. Had he not been protected with the armor of fast, he could not have entered the cloud safely, nor could he have listened unharmed to the voice of God that spoke from out of the fire. He had fasted forty days on the mountain before receiving the law of the Lord our God.
This law was given on the summit to a fasting Moses, while in the lowlands an uprising of sacrilegious prevarication arose among those who ate. Moses, upset at this sight, broke the tablet of the law, since he deemed it unfitting to give it to a drunken people.''® 17. Once more, fasting procures an understanding of contemplated truth, as may be seen in the words of Jerome against Jovinian: "It is through fasting that Daniel and the Three Youths deserved to reveal dreams, and because they cf. Dn. 1:8ff. ate nothing but vegetables that they were found more excellent and more prudent.'""'? The same author continues in the same work: "Elias, prepared by a fast of forty days, beheld God on Mount Horeb and heard Him ask: 'What dost thou here, Elias?' And this voice was much kinder than
3 Kgs. 19:13 that in Genesis which had asked Adam: 'Where are you?'
Gn. 3:9
For the latter had terrified the man who had eaten and was doomed, while the former soothed a fasting servant.''"°
18. Finally, fasting procures constancy of perfect virtue, first as regards the accomplishment of painful tasks, as Ambrose writes in the same work: "Great is the power of fasting. It is such a beautiful service that fasting was a
DEFENSE OF THE MENDICANTS
joy even to Christ; it is such an effective service that it lifts men up to heaven. To give human examples only and ex~cluding the divine: it is through fasting that Elias closed the heavens by his word, while fasting that he made the widow's son to rise from death, while fasting that he spoke and made the rains fall, while fasting that he brought down fire from heaven, while fasting that he was carried up to heaven in a chariot, after fasting forty days that he beheld the presels Kas. J7:1 cf. ibid. 22 cf. ibid. 18:42ff. cf.4 Kgs. 1:10ff. cf. ibid. 2:11 cf.3Kgs. 19:8ff. ence of the Lord. And so, his merit increased precisely in the measure of his fasting.?" Who indeed, by human power alone, could rise aloft in a fiery chariot drawn by horses without first having changed the nature of his human body into incorruptibility through the power of fasting?''*
19. Fasting also gives the strength to overcome adversities, as the same Ambrose writes in the same work: "There exists a substance called asbestos that no fire can consume: it glows in a furnace and appears splendidly clean as if washed in water as soon as it is taken out of the flame.
Likewise, the bodies of the Israelite youths were changed cf. Dn. 3:23ff. into asbestos through fasting, so that the heat of fire, instead of destroying them, filled them with special grace.
Daniel also, by fasting three weeks, taught the lions how cf. ibid. 14:30ff. to fast. When thrown in the lions' pit, he could not be wounded, for his limbs had been hardened to adamantine strength by the rigor of fast. His abstinence had so tightened him that there was no hold on his body for the bite of the beasts. The lions remained with their jaws closed because the holiness of the prophet's fasting was so powerful that they could not open them, as if they had been tied with some kind of bond.'
+"? t Jerome's arguments show little realism!
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20. And so, from all this and from what has been said before, it appears that since fasting is a means toward per-~ fect holiness, wisdom and virtue through which the mind is cleansed, enlightened and perfected in the likeness of the heavenly hierarchies, it must be observed and desired by all, and more particularly by those who wish to be perfect. The same threefold effect is shown in this preface by Gregory:
"By means of bodily fasting, God reduces vices, lifts up the mind, and grants strength and rewards.'?* And Augustine declares in a sermon: "Fasting cleanses the mind, elevates the sensibility, subjects the flesh to the spirit, makes the heart contrite and humble so that God does not spurn it, cf. Ps. 50:19 disperses the clouds of concupiscence, extinguishes the fire of passion, brightens the light of chastity, stops loquaciousness, renounces excessive wealth, tramples pride, and exalts humility.""' Ambrose also writes in the work already quoted: 'Fasting is the master of continency, the discipline of modesty, the humiliation of the mind, the curbing of the flesh, the form of sobriety, the rule of virtue, the purification of the soul, the expression of compassion, the foundation of meekness, the origin of chastity, the grace of old age, the safeguard of youth.""° We have now praised fasting at great length so that the man who is wise according to the flesh may also be informed in his intelligence and inflamed in his affection, and that, finally admitting his error, he may turn to the Lord, ef ft. 2:42 fasting, weeping and mourning. We offer in his name to the Father of Mercies the sacrifice of a devout prayer in order that, as we have wept so far over his subversion, we may rejoice in the future over his conversion.
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