Saturday, August 28, 2010

In Festo S. Augustini (Aug. 28), Acta


Share/Bookmark From Matins of the Feast of St. Augustine, Bishop, Confessor, Doctor.
Online Source: www.breviary.net

Absolutio: Ipsíus píetas et misericórdia nos ádjuvet, qui cum Patre et Spíritu Sancto vivit et regnat in sæcula sæculórum.R.  Amen.
Absolution:  May his loving-kindness and mercy assist us.  Who, with the Father, and the Holy Ghost, liveth and reigneth, for ever and ever.
R.  Amen.
V.  Jube domne, (Dómine) benedícere.
V.  Vouchsafe, Reverend Father (O Lord), thy blessing.
Benedíctio 4: Deus Pater omnípotens sit nobis propítius et clemens.
R.  Amen.
Benediction 4:  May God the Father Almighty shew us his mercy and pity.
R.  Amen.
Lesson iv

The Baptism of St. Augustine by Bishop St. Ambrose, Holy Saturday, A.D. 387
Augustínus, Tagáste in Africa honéstis paréntibus natus ac puer docilitáte ingénii æquáles longe súperans, brevi ómnibus doctrína antecélluit.  Adoléscens, dum esset Carthágine, in Manichæórum hæresim íncidit.  Póstea Romam proféctus, inde Mediolánum missus ut rhetóricam docéret, cum ibi frequens Ambrósii epíscopi esset audítor, ejus ópera incénsus stúdio cathólicæ fídei, annos natus trigínta tres ab ipso baptizátur.  Revérsus in Africam, cum religióne vitæ sanctimóniam conjúngens, a Valério, notæ sanctitátis epíscopo Hipponénsi, présbyter factus est.  Quo témpore famíliam instítuit religiosórum, quibúscum victu commúni eodémque cultu utens, eos ad apostólicæ vitæ doctrinæque disciplínam diligentíssime erudiébat.  Sed, cum vigéret Manichæórum hæresis, veheméntius in illam ínvehi cœpit, Fortunatúmque hæresiárcham confutávit.
Augustine was born of honourable parents at Tagaste in Africa.  As a boy his great intelléctual sharpness caused him to distance all his companions in learning.  When he was living at Carthage as a young man, he fell into the heresy of the Manicheans.  He afterwards went to Rome, and was thence sent to Milan to teach rhetorick.  At Milan he often went to hear the sermons of Bishop Ambrose, by whose labours he was drawn to the Catholic Church, and by whom he was baptized at the age of thirty-three.  After his return to Africa, Valerius, the illustrious and saintly Bishop of Hippo, finding him to unite holiness of life with Catholic profession, made him a Priest.  At this time he founded a sort of family of godly men, who lived and worshipped in common with him, and whom he earnestly formed upon the model of the Apostolic life and teaching.  The Manichean heresy flaming forth with violence, he began strongly to attack it, and confounded the arch-heretic Fortunatus.
V.  Tu autem, Dómine, miserére nobis.
R.  Deo grátias.
V.  But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us.
R.  Thanks be to God.
R.  Invéni David servum meum, óleo sancto meo unxi eum : * Manus enim mea auxiliábitur ei.
V.  Nihil profíciet inimícus in eo, et fílius iniquitátis non nocébit ei.
R.  Manus enim mea auxiliábitur ei.
R.  I have found David my servant, with my holy oil have I anointed him. * My hand shall hold him fast.
V.  The enemy shall not be able to do him violence ; the son of wickedness shall not hurt him.
R.  My hand shall hold him fast.

V.  Jube domne, (Dómine) benedícere.
V.  Vouchsafe, Reverend Father (O Lord), thy blessing.
Benedíctio 5: Christus perpétuæ det nobis gáudia vitæ.R.  Amen.
Benediction 5: May Christ bestow upon us the joys of life eternal.
R.  Amen.
Lesson v
Hac Augustíni pietáte commótus Valérius, eum adjutórem adhíbuit episcopális offícii.  Nihil illo fuit humílius, nihil continéntius.  Lectus ac vestítus moderátus ; vulgáris mensa, quam semper sacra vel lectióne vel disputatióne condiébat.  Tanta benignitáte fuit in páuperes, ut, cum non esset ália facúltas, sacra vasa frángeret ad eórum inópiam sustentándam.  Feminárum, et in eis soróris, et fratris fíliæ, contubérnium familiaritatémque vitávit ; quippe qui díceret, etsi propínquæ mulíeres suspéctæ non essent, tamen quæ ad eas ventitárent, posse suspiciónem effícere.  Nullum finem fecit prædicándi Dei verbum, nisi gravi morbo oppréssus.  Hæréticos perpétuo insectátus et coram et scriptis, ac nullo loco passus consístere, Africam a Manichæórum, Donatistárum, Pelagianórum aliorúmque prætérea hæreticórum erróre magna ex parte liberávit.
Valerius, moved by the godly zeal of Augustine, joined him with himself as an assistant in his duties of Bishop.  He was lowly and pure in the highest degree.  His furniture and dress were plain, and his food of the commonest sort, which he always seasoned when at table by either reading some religious book, or arguing upon some religious subject.  His tenderness to the poor was such that, failing all other resources, he broke up the hallowed vessels to relieve their wants.  It was his rule not to dwell or be very close friends with any woman, a rule which he did not relax even in the case of his sister and niece, for he was accustomed to say, that although no scandal could arise in the case of such near kinswomen, yet it might arise concerning the women friends who sought their company.  He never ceased to preach the Word of God, until he was disabled by heavy sickness.  He was always an hard follower after heretics, and by his words and his writings never them suffered them to rest anywhere.  In great measure he purged Africa of the Manicheans, Donatists, Pelagians, and other heretics.
V.  Tu autem, Dómine, miserére nobis.
R.  Deo grátias.
V.  But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us.
R.  Thanks be to God.
R.  Pósui adjutórium super poténtem, et exaltávi eléctum de plebe mea : * Manus enim mea auxiliábitur ei.
V.  Invéni David servum meum, óleo sancto meo unxi eum.
R.  Manus enim mea auxiliábitur ei.
R.  I have laid help upon one that is mighty, I have exalted one chosen out of the people. * My hand shall hold him fast.V.  I have found David, my servant, with my holy oil have I anointed him.
R.  My hand shall hold him fast.

V.  Jube domne, (Dómine) benedícere.
V.  Vouchsafe, Reverend Father (O Lord), thy blessing.
Benedíctio 6: Ignem sui amóris accéndat Deus in córdibus nostris.
R.  Amen.
Benediction 6: May God enkindle in our hearts the fire of his holy love.
R.  Amen.
Lesson vi

Tomb of St. Augustine at the Church of San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro, Pavia, Italy
Tam multa pie, subtíliter et copióse scripsit, ut christiánam doctrínam máxime illustrárit.  Quem in primis secúti sunt, qui póstea theológicam disciplínam via et ratióne tradidérunt.  Wándalis Africam bello vastántibus et Hippónem tértium jam mensem obsidéntibus, in febrim íncidit.  Itaque, cum discéssum e vita sibi instáre intellígeret, Psalmos David qui ad pœniténtiam pértinent, in conspéctu pósitos, profúsis lácrimis legébat.  Solébat autem dícere, néminem, etsi nullíus scéleris sibi cónscius esset, commíttere debére ut sine pœniténtia migráret e vita.  Ergo sénsibus íntegris, in oratióne defíxus, astántibus frátribus, quos ad caritátem, pietátem virtutésque omnes erat adhortátus, migrávit in cælum.  Vixit annos septuagínta sex, in episcopátu ad trigínta sex.  Cujus corpus, primum in Sardíniam delátum, deínde a Luitprándo, Longobardórum rege, magno prétio redémptum, Ticínum translátum est ibíque honorífice cónditum.
He wrote so much, and that with such godliness and understanding, that he is to be held among the very chiefest of them by whom the teachings of Christianity have been shewn forth.  He is one of the first of those whom later theologians have followed, in method, and in argument.  He fell sick of a fever what time the Vandals were laying Africa waste, and when they were busy in the third month of besieging Hippo.  When he understood that his departure from this present life was at hand, he caused the Psalms of David which most speak the language of repentance to be placed before him, and read them with tears, for he was wont to say that even if a man's conscience were to accuse him of no sin, he should not dare to leave this world except as a penitent.  His senses remained vigorous to the last, and it was while rapt in prayer, in the presence of the brethren whom he had exhorted to love, godliness, and all goodness, that he departed for heaven.  He lived 76 years, whereof he had been a Bishop nearly thirty-six.  His body was first carried to Sardinia, but Luitprand, King of the Lombards, afterwards bought it for a great price, and took it to Pavia, where it is honourably buried.
V.  Tu autem, Dómine, miserére nobis.
R.  Deo grátias.
V.  But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us.
R.  Thanks be to God.

Reliquary of St. Augustine, containing his effigy and relic of his elbow
R.  Iste est, qui ante Deum magnas virtútes operátus est, et omnis terra doctrína ejus repléta est : * Ipse intercédat pro peccátis ómnium populórum.V.  Iste est, qui contémpsit vitam mundi, et pervénit ad cæléstia regna.
R.  Ipse intercédat pro peccátis ómnium populórum.V.  Glória Patri, et Fílio, et Spirítui Sancto.
R.  Ipse intercédat pro peccátis ómnium populórum.
R.  This is he who wrought mighty deeds and valiant in the sight of God, and all the earth is filled with his doctrine: May his intercession avail for the sins of all the people.V.  He was a man who despised the life of the world and attained unto the kingdom of heaven.
R.  May his intercession avail for the sins of all the people.V.  Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
R.  May his intercession avail for the sins of all the people.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Cardinal Mercier - The Condemnation of Modernism


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Link to Cardinal Mercier's open letter on Modernism to the Belgian Church 
(reprinted by Catholic Family News).

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Garrigou-Lagrange: Thomism vs. Eclecticism


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From Garrigou-Lagrange, OP - Reality, Ch. 54:

Thomism and Eclecticism

This article reproduces substantially the important discourse of his eminence, J. M. R. Villeneuve, archbishop of Quebec, delivered May 24, 936, at the close of the Thomistic Convention in Ottawa, Canada. [1325].

Thomism is concerned primarily with principles and doctrinal order, wherein lie its unity and its power. Eclecticism, led by a false idea of fraternal charity, seeks to harmonize all systems of philosophy and theology. Especially after Pope Leo XIII the Church has repeatedly declared that she holds to Thomism; but eclecticism says equivalently: Very well, let us accept Thomism, but not be too explicit in contradicting doctrines opposed to Thomism. Let us cultivate harmony as much as possible.

This is to seek peace where there can be no peace. The fundamental principles of the doctrine of St. Thomas, they would say, are those accepted by all the philosophers in the Church. Those points on which the Angelic Doctor is not in accord with other masters, with Scotus, say, or with Suarez, are of secondary importance, or even at times useless subtleties, which it is wise to ignore, or at least to treat as mere matters of history. The Cardinal says:

In fact, the points of doctrine on which all Catholic philosophers, or nearly all, are in accord, are those defined by the Church as the preambles of faith. But all other points of Thomistic doctrine, viz.: real distinction of potency from act, of matter from form, of created essence from its existence, of substance from accidents, of person from nature—these, according to eclecticism, are not fundamental principles of the doctrine of St. Thomas. And they say the same of his doctrine that habits and acts are specifically proportioned to their formal objects. All these assertions, they say, are disputed among Catholic teachers, and hence are unimportant.

These points of doctrine, which eclecticism considers unimportant, are, on the contrary, says the Cardinal, the major pronouncements of Thomism as codified in the Twenty-four Theses. [1326] Without these principles thus codified, says the Cardinal of Quebec, Thomism would be a corpse. [1327] The importance of these Thomistic fundamentals is set in relief by a series of Suaresian counter-theses, published by the Ciencia Tomista. [1328].

In the following two paragraphs Cardinal Villeneuve signalizes the consequences of contemporary eclecticism.

Since the days of Leo XIII many authors have tried, not to agree with St. Thomas, but to get him to agree with themselves. Consequences the most opposite have been drawn from his writings. Hence incredible confusion about what he really taught. Hence a race of students to whom his doctrine is a heap of contradictories. What ignoble treatment for a man in whom, as Leo XIII wrote, human reason reached unsurpassable heights! Thence arose the opinion that all points of doctrine not unanimously accepted by Catholic philosophers are doubtful. The final conclusion was that, in order to give St. Thomas uncontradicted praise, he was allowed to have as his own only what all Catholics agree on, that is, the definitions of faith and the nearest safeguards of that faith. Now this process, which reduces Thomistic doctrine to a spineless mass of banalities, of unanalyzed and unorganized postulates, results in a traditionalism without substance or life, in a practical fideism, a lack of interest in questions of faith. Hence the lack of vigilant reaction against the most improbable novelties.

If we once grant that the criterion of truth, which ought to be intrinsic evidence deriving from first principles, lies instead in external acceptance by a majority, then we condemn reason to atrophy, to dullness, to self-abdication. Man learns to get along without mental exertion. He lives on a plane of neutral persuasion, led by public rumor. Reason is looked upon as incapable of finding the truth. We might be inclined to trace this abdication to a laudable humility. But, judged by its fruits, it engenders philosophic skepticism, conscious or unconscious, in an atmosphere ruled by mystic sentimentalism and hollow faith.

Eclecticism, we may add, entertains doubts about the classic proofs of God's existence, hardly allowing any argument to stand as proposed by St. Thomas.

"If we must leave out of philosophy," the Cardinal continues, "all questions not admitted unanimously by Catholics, then we must omit the deepest and most important questions, we must leave out metaphysics itself, and with that we will have removed from St. Thomas the very marrow of his system, that wherein he outstrips common sense, that which his genius has discovered."

Further, we may add, with such a decapitated Thomism, we could no longer defend common sense itself. With Thomas Reid's Scotch School we would, after renouncing philosophy in favor of common sense, find ourselves unable to analyze that common sense, to anchor it in self-evident, necessary, and universal principles.

Does charity oblige us to sacrifice depth and exactness of thought to unity of spirit? No, replies the Cardinal; that which wounds charity is not truth nor the love of truth, but selfishness, individual and corporate. Genuine doctrinal harmony lies along the road to which the Church points when she says: Go to Thomas [Ite ad Thomam]. Loyalty to Thomas, far from curtailing intellectual freedom, widens and deepens that freedom, gives it an unfailing springboard, firm and elastic, to soar ever higher out of error into truth. "You shall know the truth; and the truth shall make you free." [1329].

-------------

Notes:

1325 See Revue de l'Universite d'Ottawa, October-December, 1936.

1326 Congreg. Stud. Sacr.: July 24, 1914.

1327 See p. 6, note 2.

1328 May-June, 1917. Cf. Guido Mattiussi, S. J.: Le XXIV tesi della filosofia di S. Tommaso d 'Aquino approvata dalla S. Congr. degli studi, Rome, 1917; Hugon, OP.: Les vingtquatre theses Thomistes, Paris; Pegues, O. P.: Autour de saint Thomas, Paris, 1918, where each Thomistic thesis is set contrary to the corresponding counter-thesis.

1329 John 8:32.


Annibale Bugnini, Novus Ordo Architect, was a Mason After All, a Vatican Official Assures


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From "The End of One Mystery," Inside the Vatican, by the editor (July 19, 2009):

Conversation between Robert Moynihan (editor of Inside the Vatican) and an unnamed Vatican official:

"Some are thoughtless. Some are persuaded the Church should be changed. Some just flow with the tide. Some are motivated by money. And then there are those who serve other masters. That was the case with Bugnini..."

I was startled. Not because of what he said, because it is an old allegation, but because of the way he said it, as if it was something settled, beyond discussion.

"Of course, I have heard that," I said, "but why do you say it so bluntly, as if it were certain? I thought it was just an allegation?"

"It is certain," he said. "At least, as certain as anything can be in this world. He went to a meeting in the Secretariat of State, with his briefcase. It was in 1975. Later that evening, when everyone had gone home, a monsignor found the briefcase Bugnini had left behind. The monsignor decided to open it to see who the owner was. And when he opened it, he found letters inside addressed to Bugnini, as to a brother, from the Grand Master of Italian Freemasonry..."

"But could those letters have been forgeries?" I asked. "Could someone have opened the briefcase, seen it was Bugnini's, and then slipped these false documents inside, to frame him?"

"Well, theoretically, I suppose, that is possible. [Note to readers: Bugnini himself always said the allegations were false, that he was never a freemason, and that the charges were made against him by disgruntled conservatives who opposed the work he had done on the liturgy.] But Paul VI, at least, didn't think so. When the evidence was brought to him, he came to the conclusion that Bugnini needed to be removed immediately from his post. Bugnini was made the papal nuncio in Iran. After more than 25 years as the head of the liturgical reform, he was abruptly fired and sent to a country where there are hardly any Catholics at all. It was a type of banishment.

Cf. "Was Bugnini a Mason?" in Tradition in Action.

In Octava Assumptionis BVM (Aug. 22), Sermones


Share/Bookmark From Matins of the Octave of the Assumption (Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary)
Online Source: www.breviary.net


Absolutio: Ipsíus píetas et misericórdia nos ádjuvet, qui cum Patre et Spíritu Sancto vivit et regnat in sæcula sæculórum.R.  Amen.
Absolution:  May his loving-kindness and mercy assist us.  Who, with the Father, and the Holy Ghost, liveth and reigneth, for ever and ever.
R.  Amen.
V.  Jube domne, (Dómine) benedícere.
V.  Vouchsafe, Reverend Father (O Lord), thy blessing.
Benedíctio 4: Deus Pater omnípotens sit nobis propítius et clemens.
R.  Amen.
Benediction 4:  May God the Father Almighty shew us his mercy and pity.
R.  Amen.
Lesson iv
Sermo sancti Bernardíni SenénsisThe Lesson is taken from a Sermon by St. Bernardine of Siena
E Sermone 9 de Visitatione
Quis mortálium, nisi divíno tutus oráculo, de vera Dei et hóminis Genitríce quidquam módicum, sive grande præsúmat incircumcísis, immo pollútis lábiis nomináre, quam Pater ante sæcula Deus perpétuam prædestinávit in Vírginem, digníssimam Fílius elégit in Matrem, Spíritus Sanctus omnis grátiæ domicílium præparávit?  Quibus verbis ego homúnculus sensus altíssimos virgínei Cordis, sanctíssimo ore prolátos, éfferam, quibus non súfficit lingua ómnium Angelórum?  Dóminus enim ait : Bonus homo de bono thesáuro cordis profert bona ; quod verbum potest étiam esse thesáurus.  Quis inter puros hómines mélior homo potest excogitári, quam illa, quæ méruit éffici Mater Dei, quæ novem ménsibus in corde et in útero suo ipsum Deum hospitáta est?  Quis thesáurus mélior, quam ipse divínus amor quo fornáceum cor Vírginis ardens erat?
What man, unless secure in a divine oracle, may presume to speak with impure, indeed with polluted lips, anything little or great about the true Parent of God and of man, whom the Father before all ages predestined a perpetual Virgin, whom the Son chose as his most worthy Mother, whom the Holy Ghost prepared as the dwelling place of every grace?  With what words shall I, a lowly man, give expression to the highest sentiments of the virginal Heart uttered by the holiest mouth, for which the tongues of all the Angels do not suffice?  For the Lord saith : A good man bringeth forth good things from the good treasure of his heart ; and this word can also be a treasure.  Among pure mortals who can be conceived of as better than she who was worthy to be the Mother of God, who for nine months had as a guest in her heart and in her womb God himself?  What better treasure than the divine love itself, which was burning in the Heart of the Virgin as in a furnace?
V.  Tu autem, Dómine, miserére nobis.
R.  Deo grátias.
V.  But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us.
R.  Thanks be to God.
R.  Sicut cedrus exaltáta sum in Líbano, et sicut cypréssus in monte Sion : quasi myrrha elécta, * Dedi suavitátem odóris.
V.  Et sicut cinnamómum et bálsamum aromatízans.
R.  Dedi suavitátem odóris.
R.  I was exalted like a cedar in Libanus, and as cypress tree upon the mountain of Hermon,* And I yielded a pleasant odour like the best myrrh.
V.  I gave a sweet smell like cinnamon and aspalathus.
R.  And I yielded a pleasant odour like the best myrrh.

V.  Jube domne, (Dómine) benedícere.
V.  Vouchsafe, Reverend Father (O Lord), thy blessing.
Benedíctio 5: Christus perpétuæ det nobis gáudia vitæ.R.  Amen.
Benediction 5: May Christ bestow upon us the joys of life eternal.
R.  Amen.
Lesson v
De hoc ígitur Corde quasi de fornáce divíni ardóris Virgo beáta prótulit verba bona, id est, verba ardentíssimæ caritátis.  Sicut enim a vase summo et óptimo vino pleno, non potest exíre nisi óptimum vinum ; aut sicut a fornáce summi ardóris non egréditur nisi incéndium fervens ; sic quippe a Christi Matre exíre non pótuit verbum, nisi summi summéque divíni amóris atque ardóris.  Sapiéntis quoque dóminæ et matrónæ est pauca verba, sólida tamen atque sententiósa habére ; proínde septem vícibus quasi septem verba tantum miræ senténtiæ et virtútis a Christi benedictíssima Matre legúntur dicta, ut mystice ostendátur ipsam fuísse plenam grátia septifórmi.  Cum Angelo bis tantúmmodo est locúta.  Cum Elísabeth bis étiam.  Cum Fílio étiam bis, semel in templo, secúndo in núptiis.  Cum minístris semel.  Et in his ómnibus semper valde parum locúta est ; excépto quod in laude Dei et gratiárum actióne se ámplius dilatávit, scílicet, quum ait : Magníficat ánima mea Dóminum.  Ubi non cum hómine, sed cum Deo locúta fuit.  Hæc septem verba secúndum septem amóris procéssus et actus sub miro gradu et órdine sunt proláta ; quasi sint septem flammæ fornácei Cordis ejus.
And so, from this Heart as from a furnace of divine ardour the blessed Virgin brought forth good works, that is, words of the most ardent charity.  For as from a vessel full of the richest and best wine only good wine can be poured ; or as from a furnace of intense heat only a burning fire is emítted ; so indeed from the Mother of Christ no word can go forth except of the greatest and most intense divine love and ardour.  It is also the mark of a wise woman and matron to speak few words, but words  that are effective and full of meaning ; and so seven times, as it were, seven words of such wonderful meaning and virtue are read as having been uttered  by the most blessed Mother of Christ, that mystically it may be shewn she was full of the sevenfold grace.  To the Angel twice only did she speak ; to Elizabeth also twice ; with her Son likewise twice, once in the temple, and a second time at the marriage feast ; and once to the attendants.  And on all those occasions she always said very little ; with this one exception that she spake at length in the praise of God and in thanksgiving, namely, when she said : My soul doth magnify the Lord.  But here she did not speak with man, but with God.  Those seven words were spoken in a wonderful degree and order according to the seven courses and acts of love ; as if they were seven flames from the furnace of her Heart.
V.  Tu autem, Dómine, miserére nobis.
R.  Deo grátias.
V.  But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us.
R.  Thanks be to God.
R.  Quæ est ista quæ procéssit sicut sol, et formósa tamquam Jerúsalem? * Vidérunt eam fíliæ Sion, et beátam dixérunt, et regínæ laudavérunt eam.V.  Et sicut dies verni circúmdabant eam flores rosárum et lília convállium.
R.  Vidérunt eam fíliæ Sion, et beátam dixérunt, et regínæ laudavérunt eam.
R.  Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, clear as the sun, fair as the moon, comely as Jerusalem? * The daughters of Sion saw her and blest her ; the queens also, and they did praise her.V.  As the flower of roses in the spring of the year, and as lilies by the rivers of waters, so did they cluster round about her.
R.  The daughters of Sion saw her and blest her ; the queens also, and they did praise her.

V.  Jube domne, (Dómine) benedícere.
V.  Vouchsafe, Reverend Father (O Lord), thy blessing.
Benedíctio 6: Ignem sui amóris accéndat Deus in córdibus nostris.
R.  Amen.
Benediction 6: May God enkindle in our hearts the fire of his holy love.
R.  Amen.
Lesson vi
Ex ecclesiasticis documentis

Pope Pius XII
Cultum litúrgicum, quo Cordi Immaculáto Vírginis Maríædébitus tribúitur honor, cuíque plures viri sancti ac mulíeres viam parárunt, ipsa Apostólica Sedes primum approbávit ineúnte sæculo undevicésimo, cum Pius Papa séptimus festum Puríssimi Cordis Maríæ Vírginis instítuit, ab ómnibus diœcésibus et religiósis famíliis, quæ id petiíssent, pie sanctéque agéndum : quod póstmodum Pius Papa nonus Offício ac Missa própria auxit.  Ardens autem stúdium atque optátum, jam sæculo décimo séptimo exórtum et in dies invaléscens, ut nempe ejúsmodi festum, majóri solemnitáte donátum, totíus Ecclésiæ commúne efficerétur, Summus Póntifex Pius duodécimus benígne excípiens anno millésimo nongentésimo quadragésimo secúndo, bello atrocíssimo per orbem fere totum ingravescénte, infínítas populórum ærúmnas míserans, pro sua in Matrem cæléstem pietáte ac fidúcia genus hóminum univérsum illíus Cordi benigníssimo obsecratióne solémni eníxe commendávit, atque in honórem ejúsdem Immaculáti Cordis festum cum Officio et Missa própriis in perpétuum ubíque celebrándum indíxit.
The liturgical worship, through which due honour is given to the Immaculate Heart of the Virgin Mary, and for which many holy men and women have prepared the way, the Apostolic See itself first approved in the beginning of the nineteenth century, when Pope Pius VII instituted the feast of the Most Pure Heart of the Virgin Mary, to be piously and reverently celebrated by all the dioceses and religious families who had asked for it.  Afterwards Pope Pius IX added an Office and a proper Mass to it.  But an ardent desire and longing, which had arisen in the seventeenth century, grew day by day, that namely, the same Feast, given greater solemnity, might be spread to the entire Church.  In 1942, Pope Pius XII, graciously acceding to this wish, and during the terrible war then ravaging almost the entire world, pitying the infinite hardships of men, and because of his devotion and confidence in our heavenly Mother, in solemn supplication earnestly entrusted the entire human race to her most generous Heart, and in honour of the same Immaculate Heart he ordered a Feast to be kept forever with its proper Office and Mass.
V.  Tu autem, Dómine, miserére nobis.
R.  Deo grátias.
V.  But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us.
R.  Thanks be to God.
R.  Ornátam monílibus filiam Jerúsalem Dóminus concupívit :* Et vidéntes eam fíliæ Sion, beatíssimam prædicavérunt, dicéntes : * Unguéntum effúsum nomen tuum.
V.  Astitit regína a dextris tuis in vestítu deauráto, circúmdatavarietáte.
R.  Et vidéntes eam fíliæ Sion, beatíssimam prædicavérunt, dicéntes :
V.  Glória Patri, et Fílio, et Spirítui Sancto.
R.  Unguéntum effúsum nomen tuum.
R.  When the Lord beheld the daughter of Jerusalem adorned with her jewels, he greatly desired her beauty * And when the daughters of Sion saw her, they cried out that she was most blessed, saying : * Thy name is as ointment poured forth.V.  Upon thy right hand did stand the Queen in a vesture of gold wrought about with divers colours.
R.  And when the daughters of Sion saw her, they cried out that she was most blessed, saying :V.  Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
R.  Thy name is as ointment poured forth.

Friday, August 20, 2010

Louis Bouyer: Enemy of Traditional Theology


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Fr. Louis Bouyer, Neo-Modernist, not-quite-ex-Lutheran, Conciliar Peritus, unleashes his neo-modernist hogwash and tells Garrigou-Lagrange, Sertillanges, John of St Thomas, and the rest of the tradition of Scholastic Thomists what St Thomas really taught about God and Revelation.

Taken from Bouyer's The Invisible Father: Approaches to the Mystery of the Divinity, pp. 248-257, with comments by Don Paco in red.

Neo-Thomist Equivocations on Thomism

Let us take as an example one of the most venerable productions of the last Thomist, or rather, Neo-Thomist renaissance {note that the term 'neo-Thomist' is a pejorative one}: the long and great book of Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, OP, Dieu, son existence et sa nature [God: His Existence and His Nature].  In it, the theological teaching of St Thomas is analyzed, carefully taken to pieces and put together again, with a clarity and a fidelity most deserving of praise.  Yet few readers, putting down the book, will have escaped the impression that in it the God of the Bible and the Gospel has been reduced to a caput mortuum [dead head] of frozen abstractions.  And yet its author undoubtedly exemplified in his time that rare combination of theologian and eminent man of the spirit, and it was his constant concern to develop spirituality and theology in tandem.  How then, we must ask, could such a theologian have produced a summa about God frankly so overwhelmingly boring and, more especially, the speculative ramifications of which (practically) never contribute to a genuine enrichment of thought?  {Typical Neo-Modernist critique of everything traditional: "it is boring."  Cf. Von Balthasar, Raising the Bastions.  This is quite telling of their motives and of their unworthiness as theologians or even as churchmen.}

E. Gilson, with such Thomists in mind, was perfectly right in saying that one can’t see the forest for the trees, and that this is an inevitable result of their systematic effort to separate what is philosophical from their master’s theology, so as to reorganize and rebuild it, purportedly, according to its own innate exigencies.  It is at the very least surprising that disciples, beyond the Angelic Doctor, of Aristotle himself should have forgotten that order is of being.  Instead, they imposed an order on Thomas’ thought which was not his own, and thereby turned it into something quite different from his, even if (which is supposing a good deal, given such manipulating) the individual pieces were fully respected.  {Note that the neo-modernist finds Gilson to be on his side.}

It was not in fact by chance that St Thomas never separately systematized his philosophy {never mind about his commentaries on Aristotle!  They don’t count because they do not represent St Thomas’ philosophy, only Aristotle’s...} that he never detached it from Christian theology but always developed it within the latter.  However purely rational philosophical developments should be and remain, for St Thomas it was quite certain that they did not thereby become independent of the situation of the thinker producing them.  If the one philosophizing is a Christian, this will have an effect on his thought, even if, while philosophizing, he uses nothing but rational concepts and procedures accessible, at least in principle, to any and every man even unenlightened by revelation.  {Agreed, but St Thomas's philosophy can be found in his Commentaries on Aristotle exactly in that way: in a non-theological context.  Only there, in fact, does it follow its own properly rational principles.  The philosophy contained in the Summa is formally theology, and only materially philosophical.  This is something that Gilson and his followers are willingly blind to.}

The result is that when John of St Thomas, the first to do this, transformed Thomism by developing philosophy independently of and prior to the theology dealing with the Christian revelation, he inevitably created a different philosophy and a different theology, however careful he was to use nothing but elements taken straight from his master.  Even when he is scrupulously precise in repeating St Thomas’ words and key phrases, they no longer say the same thing.  {Bouyer, on the other hand, can't even use St Thomas' words themselves, because they would prove that he is in error.}

That this is true of “John of St Thomist” theology, {note the audacious ad hominem, a mockery of traditional Thomistic theology} right from its very beginning, is revealed by that theologian’s understanding of what, following St Thomas, he calls a “theological conclusion.”  According to him it is possible, even while adhering to a strict application of syllogistic reasoning, to have two kinds of theological conclusions—one flowing from two revealed premises, the other from one revealed and one philosophical premise.  And this latter kind by its very nature will widen the field, if not precisely of revelation as such, at least of the knowledge we can draw from it.  This may appear at first sight to be a quite innocuous and legitimate development of St Thomas’ idea of a theological conclusion.  In fact, it transforms it to the point of being unrecognizable.  The whole meaning of theological endeavor is at a stroke radically altered, and at the same time even our very conception of revelation.

For St Thomas there are not and cannot be theological conclusions which are not already comprised within revelation.  A theological conclusion is and can only be a revealed doctrinal affirmation of which one has established the logical relationship it has with other doctrinal affirmations of the same species.  The whole of theology moves within faith and so within revelation.  To suppose that it can evade it in order to increase its scope (!) is no longer to understand anything about revelation itself, {thus, pretty much all of post-Tridentine theology, which is founded on this doctrine, is unable to understand revelation} as if theology could ever flatter itself of having gone so far beyond revelation as to be able to complete it.

This in fact supposes that, according to John of St Thomas and those who have followed him, revelation is nothing but an accumulation of externally juxtaposed propositions, to which one can further add philosophical propositions, thus aspiring to enrich revelation by philosophico-theological hybrids.  It is of course this which purportedly justifies the separation of philosophy and of the theology concerned with the revealed datum, and the reconstruction of the first prior to the second, with, consequently, the naive expectation of “developing” the objects of revelation by artificially inseminating them with external philosophical propositions.  {Bouyer, you are disgusting.}  But at this point one is miles away from genuinely Thomist views of theology as the science of God, having its whole basis on his word.  One has in the first place lost sight of St Thomas’ strong sense of revelation as the communication of a single mystery {barf!} that of God himself, an organically coherent mystery {double barf!} which speculation can attempt to inventory, to analyze and synthesize but never exhaust, and even less indulge in the grotesque pretension of adding something to it to complete and develop it {Apparently, Bouyer never read the first question of the Summa: “Hence sacred doctrine makes use also of the authority of philosophers in those questions in which they were able to know the truth by natural reason ... as extrinsic and probable arguments...” ST I.1.8 ad 2}.

Traveling on such a road—and this has been the mentality, more or less of Baroque Thomism, not to mention modern Neo-Thomism—one inevitably comes to prolong this now bloodless religious philosophy into a correspondingly depreciative theology of revelation.  Such a theology ceases to be able to vivify by the vision of faith, and at the same time refine and reform our merely human concepts, and it increasingly tends to yield to the disastrous policy of clearing out the Word of God of everything that cannot be circumscribed by or reduced to pre-formed concepts constructed without reference to the Word.

It is therefore not surprising if such so-called Thomism gives the impression that the philosophico-theological thought of St Thomas is nothing but a gigantic and futile exercise in tautology which, while claiming to explain and develop the statements of the faith, in fact eviscerates and disjoins them.  And it is worth emphasizing that if this can happen in the case of so distinguished a mind and so worthy a  man of the spirit as Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, then how much worse it will be when this kind of philosophy and theology is taken up by some college rector whose chief concern is to bring out the “errors” of his colleagues, and either has no interior life or never dreams (quite rightly!) of nourishing it on his theology!

The Existential Character of Authentic Thomism

Once we have become aware of all of this, and drawn the moral, we are in a position to rediscover St Thomas’ God.  He is not simply that first unmoved mover of the universe, blithely indifferent to it, even disdainfully ignorant of its existence, and who in any case is only capable of referring everything outside and within himself to a hideous egoism or egotism expanded to infinite dimensions.  Such was Laberthonnière’s accusation.  The first thing we must realize is what E. Gilson exposed in a history of the Neo-Thomists, far more devastating than anything Laberthonnière ever wrote {Note: Gilson's critique of traditional Thomism is more devastating than that of a declared enemy of Thomism}, and without making the latter’s mistake of believing the Neo-Thomists when they claimed to be unfolding their master.  This is the fundamental misunderstanding which travesties the whole of Thomism from top to bottom and in particular St Thomas’ theology: that of transposing his thought from the most radical existentialism there has ever been to a deadly essentialism {as always, the critics of 'essentialist Thomism' never define either 'essentialism' or 'existentialism'; instead, you are expected to 'feel' what those terms mean}.  How could the God whose essence is to be precisely “Pure Act,” the very act of existing without any limitation, possibly be summed up by concepts?  {Here you are expected to 'feel' that essentialism has to do with ascribing attributes, or 'concepts', to God...  Ooh, those evil Thomists!}

But to realize, in the deepest sense, the significance of this starting-point, one must see St Thomas’ Metaphysics, not as simple, superficially modified Aristotelianism, but as what E. Gilson, fifty years ago, was so bold as to call “the metaphysics of Exodus,” without himself immediately grasping every consequence of that insight [The Spirit of Medieval Philosophy, vol. 1, London, 1950, p. 51].  {So even Gilson was not as bright a Thomist as Bouyer!}

In other words, the point of anchorage and the spring-board for this whole metaphysic is the mysterious saying of the burning bush: “I am who am.”  This must not be hastily translated in the way that St Augustine did in his Soliloquies, still wrapped up as he was in the cocoon of his Neo-platonism: “I am the beinng who is always and forever.”  This is to stay with a platonizing essentialism, even though its contours have been practically pushed out of sight.  {Read: Augustine was moronic 'essentialist' who did not understand God.}  The phrase must be taken as St Thomas took it with a rigor no previous Christian thinker had approached: “I am what I am; I am the only one who can define the infinite, ever actual fullness of his existence.” {Note that this is Bouyer’s own amateurish expression, not St Thomas’.  And it falls desperately short of the Gilsonian existentialism which it tries to convey.  A better rendering would be: "I am he whose essence is to exist."}  This is what St Thomas meant practically every time he spoke of Ipsum Esse.

Yet at the same time one must emphasize the point so few recognize, namely, how laughably illusory {traditional Thomism is laughable now} are all those well-intentioned attempts to introduce more logic into St Thomas {Are you implying, Bouyer, that St Thomas cannot be improved or given more logical rigor?  Are you denying that philosophical and theological thought should develop?}.  We see Sertillanges, for instance, disarmingly doing his open best to expurge from St Thomas’ system any platonic left-overs, especially the theory of ideas...

The facile acceptance, then, of the commonly-used method of exposition introduced a discordance into Thomist theology.  To this we must add the congenital weakness of any theology which allows itself to turn, at least apparently, into a collection of questions, however ingeniously arranged.  {The scholastic method is bad?  Sorry, but I got the opposite impression from Leo XIII, St Pius X, Pius XII, etc., etc.}  It will inevitably come to treat the Word of God or revelation, as it will be called, as a stack of juxtaposed propositions which it will be the whole task of theology to put in logical order.  Experience has shown ad nauseam the effect of such an arrangement on pupils, if not on the master himself.  Docility to it has the disastrous result of dissipating the mystery of God and our freely-given association with his life, or at least of concealing it under a spider’s web of abstractions.  First, these last are superimposed upon the harmonious play of imaged expressions found in the Word of God.  Then, and soon, they replace them in fact, if not in principle...  {Of course, Bouyer could not leave out his Protestant residue: traditional Thomism is no good because it is un-biblical.}


St Bernard: On the Praise of the New Knighthood to the Knights Templar


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DE LAUDE NOVAE MILITIAE (1128-1131)


To Hugh [de Payens, first Grand Master], Christ's knight and master of Christ's knighthood, Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux in name only, sends his greeting: fight the good fight. 

Once, twice and now a third time, unless I am quite wrong, you have asked me, dear Hugh, to write an exhortation for you and your knightly companions and to fling my pen, since I am not allowed a lance, against your tyrannical enemy; you maintain that it would be of some help to you if I were to fortify with my writing men whom I cannot with arms. I know I have been putting you off for some time now, not because your request seems improper but for fear that assent to it on my part would prove to be careless and imprudent, if in my ignorance I were to take on something that a better man would do a better job of; the job would still remain to be done, and I would perhaps have made it less easy for someone else to do. Finally, I realized that I was only wasting a great deal of time with such speculations, and in order not to seem more unwilling than incapable, I have done what little I could: it is for the reader to judge whether or not I have done satisfactorily. Even if some should find inadequacy in it or little pleasure, it matters not to me, who have not failed to make your desire my own.


I. Exhortation for the Knights Templar


1. We hear that a new kind of chivalry has risen on earth, and that it has risen on the very region of it which the rising Son Himself, present in flesh, once visited from on high; as He then, by the strength of His mighty hand, threw down the princes of darkness, so now He exterminates their followers, those sons of misplaced faith, put to flight by a band of His mighty ones, bringing about even now His people's redemption and raising again the cup of salvation for us in the house of His servant David. A new kind of chivalry, one ignorant of the ways of the ages, which fights a double fight equally and tirelessly, both against flesh and blood and against the spiritual forces of iniquity in the heavens. When a man mightily resists a bodily foe by strength of his body alone, I no more think it a wonder than I believe it to be a rare occurence; nor is it marvelous, though I might call it praiseworthy, when a man declares war on vice or demons with the power of his soul, since the world is full of monks. But when both of these kinds of men are girded with their own particular powerful sword and distinguished with their own particular noble belt in a single man, who would not judge this, which is as yet an unfamiliar thing, to be most worthy of all admiration? He indeed is a fearless knight, and one secure from any quarter, since his soul is dressed in an armor of faith just as his body is dressed in an armor of steel. Since he is well protected by both kinds of arms, he fears neither the demon nor man. Nor is he afraid of death, since he longs to die. Why should he fear whether he lives or dies, since for him life is Christ and death is a reward? Faithfully and freely does he go forth on Christ's behalf, but he would rather be dissolved and be with Christ: such is the obviously better thing. So go forth in safety, knights, and drive out the enemies of the cross of Christ with fearless intention, certain that neither death nor life can separate you from God's love, which Jesus Christ embodies; in every moment of danger, fulfill through your own actions the principle: 'Whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's.' {1} How glorious the victors returned from battle! How blessed those martyrs who died in battle! Rejoice, brave fighter, if you live and conquer in the Lord; but rather exult and glory, if you die and are joined to the Lord. Life can be fruitful and victory can be glorious; but sacred death is properly to be preferred to either, for if 'they are blessed who die in the Lord,' are they not much more so who die on the Lord's behalf?

2. Doubtless the death of His holy ones will be valuable in the sight of the Lord, whether they die in' bed or in battle. On the other hand, death in battle is surely the more valuable inasmuch as it is the more glorious. Life is safe when conscience is pure. Life is indeed safe, when death is looked forward to fearlessly, when death is even longed for with savour and received with devotion. That chivalry is truly holy and safe, and is moreover free from the double danger by which another type of knight is habitually and regularly endangered, when Christ is not the sole cause of chivalrous doings. Every time you who live in the ways of worldly chivalry gather to fight among yourselves, you need fear killing your adversary in body and yourself in soul; even more, you need fear finding yourself killed by him, both in body as well as soul. The heart's disposition, not the fortunes of war, determine defeat or victory for the Christian. If the reason for fighting is good, the outcome of the fight cannot be bad, in the same way that any end cannot seem good when good cause and righteous intention do not precede it. If you get yourself killed while trying to kill someone else, you will die a murderer. But if you prevail and in trying to win or do well you have occasion to kill a man, you will live a murderer. Being a murderer benefits no one, the dead, the living, the victor or the vanquished. It is a joyless victory when you overcome a man but surrender to vice, and you vainly glory in having overcome a man when wrath or pride has mastered you. I know there are those who kill not out of a lust for revenge, nor a fever for conquest, but simply in selfdefense; but I would not call even this a good victory, since dying in the flesh is a lesser evil than dying in soul. The soul does not die because the body is killed; rather, 'it is the soul that sins that will surely die.'


II. Secular Chivalry


3. What then is the end or issue of this secular chivalry, which I should probably just call wickedness outright, if its murderers sin mortally and its victims perish forever? To use the words of the Apostle, 'he who plows should plow in hope, and he who threshes should thresh in hope of gain of some fruit.' What error, knights, so incredible, what madness so unbearable draws you to chivalrous deeds at such expense and labor, all for no return but death or crime? You cover your horses in silks and dress your armor with swatches of flowing cloth; you figure your lances, shields and saddles; your bridles and your spurs you adorn with gold and silver and jewels; and with all this display, you rush only towards death, in shameful madness and shameless idiocy. Are these the tokens of chivalry or the trappings of women? Perhaps you imagine that your adversary's sword will reverence the gold, be gentle with you because of your jewels, be unable to pierce your silks? For the fighter, as you yourselves know well from your well-known experience, three things are essential: the knight who would accomplish much and well needs be careful in shielding himself, unencumbered for movement on the field, and quick to strike his adversary; you, on the contrary, wear your hair after the fashion of women, impeding your vision; trip up your own feet with your long hanging overgarments; bury your delicate, tender hands in sleeves cut long and flowing. A greater danger than all of this, a thing that endangers the conscience of the armed man more, is the fact that the reasons for espousing such a culpable kind of chivalry are so very inconsequential and frivolous. What engenders such war and raises such strife among you is nothing more than unreasoned anger, or lust for profitless glory, or want of some trifling worldly good. Surely it is not prudent either to kill or die fur such causes as these.


III. A New Chivalry


4. But Christ's knights can fight their Lord's fight in safety, fearless of sin in slaughter of their adversaries and fearless of danger at their own deaths, since death suffered or dealt out on Christ's behalf holds no crime and merits great glory. Hence one gains for Christ, and then gains Christ Himself, who most willingly accepts the death of an adversary for the ends of vengeance and then even more willingly offers Himself to a knight for the end of consolation. Christ's knight deals out death in safety, as I said, and suffers death in even greater safety. He benefits himself when he suffers death, and benefits Christ when he deals out death. 'He does not wear a sword without cause; he is God's agent for punishment of evil-doers and for glorification of the good.' Clearly, when he kills an evil-doer, he is not a homicide, but, if you will allow me the term, a malicide, and is plainly Christ's vengeance on those who work evil and the defense Christ provides for Christians. When such a knight is himself killed, we know that he has not simply perished but has won through to the end of this life. The death he inflicts accrues to Christ's profit; the death he receives accrues to his own. The Christian glories in a pagan's death, because Christ is glorified; in the death of a Christian, the King's generosity is confirmed, by revelation of the knight's reward. Moreover, in the first case, the just will be gladdened when they see vengeance done; in the second, 'men will say, if there is indeed a reward for the just, it is God Judging men on earth.' Pagans would not even have to be slaughtered, if there were some other way to prevent them from besetting and oppressing the faithful. But now it is better that they be killed than that the rod of these sinners continue to imperil the lot of the just, preventing the just from reaching out their hands against iniquity.

5. What next? If a Christian is not allowed to strike with the sword, then why did the Saviour's precursor bid knights be content with their earnings, instead of forbidding them knighthood altogether? If on the other hand it is allowed all who are destined by God for such a role and have not professed some higher calling, which is in fact the case, to whom could it be better allowed than those by whose force and power the city of our strength, Sion, is held for our general protection, that the people of justice who keep the truth might enter it safely when those who transgress God's laws have been driven out? Surely, then, let peoples who love war be destroyed, and let those who trouble us be cut off, and let all workers of iniquity, those who strive to carry off the invaluable treasure that the Christian people have stored up in Jerusalem, to profane the holy things and to hold God's sanctuary as their heritage, be scattered from the Lord's city. Let both swords of the faithful stretch out over the necks of their enemies, to destroy any hautiness seeking to set itself up against that knowledge of God which is the faith of Christians, 'so that no one will have to ask, where is their God?'

6. When they have been cast out, He Himself will return to His heritage and house, over which he was angered when he spoke in the Gospel: 'See,' He said, 'your house is left empty to you'; and He lamented it thus in the words of the Prophet: 'I have left my house, I have abandoned my heritage'; and He will fulfill the terms of another prophecy: 'The Lord has ransomed His people and freed them, and they will come and exult on Mount Sion, and will rejoice in the Lord's bounty.' Be glad, Jerusalem, and know now the time of your visitation. 'Rejoice and give praise, wastes of Jerusalem, for the Lord has consoled His people, He has ransomed them, the Lord has bared His holy arm in the sight of all peoples.' O Virgin Israel, you had fallen and there was no one to raise you up. Rise now, shake off the dust, virgin, captive daughter of Sion. Rise and stand tall, and see the pleasure which comes you from your God. 'You will no longer be called abandoned, and your lands will no more be called waste, for the Lord has taken pleasure in you and your lands will be peopled. Lift up your eyes, look around you and see: all these have gathered, they have come to you.' This is the help sent you from the Holy One; through them, the promise made you long ago is already fulfilled: 'I will set in you the pride of the ages, the joy of generation on generation, you will suck the milk of peoples and will feed from the breast of kings'; and: 'just as a mother consoles her children, so I will console you and in Jerusalem you will give consolation,' Do you not see how many attestations of the ancients the new chivalry makes true? And that 'just as we have heard of it, so do we see it in the city of the Lord of forces'? 6 Only let not such literal interpretation preclude spiritual understanding, for whatever we usurp from the words of the Prophets for making sense of the present day diminishes what we can hope for in eternity; let not what we believe vanish because of what we have seen; let not the poverty of reality diminish the riches of hope; let not the witness of the present void our future. The earthly city's temporal glory has not destroyed heavenly goods, but augmented them, if only we do not falter in our assertion that the one is but a figure of another, which is our mother in heaven.


IV. The Way of Life of the Knights Templar


7. Now, for edification or disparagement of our chivalry, which clearly does its chivalrous deeds not for God but for the devil, a brief account of the life and ways of Christ's knights, of how they conduct themselves in battle and at home, of how they behave in public, and how greatly Christ's chivalry and the usual sort differ from one another. First, Christ's knights have discipline and never disdain obedience, for as Scripture attests, the undisciplined son will perish, 'restiveness is as the sin of witchcraft and refusal to acquiesce is like the crime of idolatry.' They come and go at the will of their superior, wear what he has given them, and take clothing and nourishment from nowhere else. They are wary of all excesses in food and dress; they concern themselves only with necessities. They have a joyous and sober life in their community, without women and without children. That they might lack no evangelical perfection, they live without private property, in one house, in one way, eager to safeguard spiritual oneness within the bounds of their peace. You could say that all their multitude has but one heart and one spirit, to such an extent does each of them strive, not to fulfill his private desires, but rather to obey his master. At no time do they sit at leisure or wander adventurously; rather on those rare occasions when they are not engaged, they repair the wear and tear that their clothes and armor have suffered, bring things to order, and generally see to whatever their master's will and communal necessity dictate, in order to earn their keep. Rank is not recognized among them at all; pride of place is alotted better, not nobler men. They rival one another in honor; they bear one another's burdens, so fulfilling Christ's injunction. m e insolent word, the profitless deed, improvident laughter, even the least murmur or whisper does not go unrepaired when perceived properly. They swear off dice and gaming; they detest hunting, and take no pleasure in the absurd cruelty of falconry, as it is practiced. They renounce and abominate mimes and magicians and romanciers, bawdy songs and the spectacle of the joust as vanity and dangerous folly. They keep their hair short, having learned from the Apostle that it is shameful for a man to wear his hair like a woman. Never do they set and rarely do they wash their hair, preferring to go about dishevelled and unkempt, covered in dust and blackened by the sun and their armor.

8. When battle is at hand, they arm themselves with faith within and steel without, rather than with gold, so that when armed, rather than prettified, they instill fear in their adversaries rather than incite their greed. They choose to have horses that are strong and quick, rather than showy or well-dressed. They attend to battle rather than display, to victory rather than glory, and concern themselves to inspire fear rather than wonder. They are not unstable or impetuous, and do not behave as if driven headlong by heedlessness; rather, they order themselves and dispose their forces for battle considerately and with every caution and provision, as we read that the Fathers did. True Israelites go forth to war at peace. But when they have come to the point of battle, it is as if they say: 'Should I not hate those who hate you, Lord, and be disgusted with your enemies?'; they fling themselves against their foes and treat their adversaries like sheep, ever fearless alike, however few in number they may be, of barbarous savagery and the numberless horde. Moreover, they know better than to presume upon their own strength, and prefer to hope for victory through the virtue of the Lord of Sabaoth, for whom they believe it to be a simple thing, as the sentence of Maccabees states: 'Many can be closed in the hands of a few, and in the sight of heaven's God there is no difference between bringing freedom by means of many and few, for victory in battle comes not of a multitude of armies, and might is cue gift of heaven.' They have in fact experienced this quite often, that a single one of them can hunt down practically a thousand and two can put ten thousand to flight. Finally, then, they are both gentler than lambs and fiercer than lions, in such a wonderful and peculiar way that I am very nearly incapable of deciding what I think they should rather be called, monks or knights, unless I should perhaps more appropriately name them both, since they apparently lack neither, neither the monk's gentle disposition nor the knight's fierce strength. What can be said, but that this is the Lord's work and a miracle in our eyes. God has elected such men to Himself and gathered them together from the ends of the earth, from among the mightiest of Israel, His agents for keeping the tomb which is the resting place of the true Solomon, all bearing swords and well taught in the ways of war. 

Translated by David Carbon  from: J. Leclercq and H. M. Rochais, eds., "Liber ad milites Templi de laude novae militiae," in S. Bernardi Opera, vol. 3 (Rome, 1963), 206-239. An English translation of the entire treatise is available: trans. Conrad Greenia, "In Praise of the New Knighthood," in Treatises III, The Works of Bernard of Clairvaux vol. 7, Cistercian Fathers Series 19 (Kalamazoo, 1977), 127-167.

{1} Rom 14:8.
{2} Apoc 14:13.
{3} Ez 18:14.
{4} I Cor 9:10.
{5} Rom 13:4.
{6} Ps 57:12.
{7} Cf. Lc 3:14.
{8} Ps 113:2.
{9} Mt 23:38.
{10} Jer 12:7.
{11} Jer 31:11-12.
{12} Is 52:9-10.
{13} Is 62:4.
{14} Is 60:15.
{15} Is 16:13.
{16} Ps 47:9.
{17} I Reg 15:23.
{18} Cf. Gal 6:2.
{19} I Cor 11:14.
{20} John 1:47.
{21} Ps 138:21.
{22} I Mac 3:18-19.



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