CHAPTER XI

THE ATTACKS MADE ON RELIGIOUS BECAUSE THEY STUDY

We now proceed to consider the objections brought against the studious life led by religious.

             1. We find (2 Tim. iii. 7) certain persons, who were a danger to the Church, accused of "ever learning, and never attaining to the knowledge of the truth." For this reason, it is considered a suspicious circumstance, when religious are fond of study.

             2. St. Gregory makes the following remarks on the words of Job xvi., "my enemy hath beheld me with terrible eyes": "The Incarnate Truth," he writes (in his 13th book, Moral.), "chose for His preachers such as were poor, simple, and unlearned. But, on the other hand, the astute and double-tongued man, filled with the knowledge of this world, whom at the end of time the Apostate Angel will elect to propagate his falsehood, will be damned." Hence, religious, because they exercise the office of preaching in a learned manner, are regarded as the forerunners of Antichrist.

             3. "I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb" (Apoc. xiii. 11). On these words of the Apocalypse the Gloss remarks: "The description of the tribulation which will be caused by Antichrist and his princes, is followed by a narrative of the evils which will befall the Church, by means of the apostles of Antichrist, who will travel throughout the entire world." Again, "Coming up out of the earth" signifies "going forth to preach" (Gloss). On the words "it had two horns" the Gloss remarks: "These preachers are said to have two horns, because they will profess to imitate the innocent and spotless life of Our Lord, to work miracles resembling His, and to preach His doctrine; or else because they will usurp to themselves the two Testaments." Hence, it would appear, that they who go forth to preach, with the knowledge of the two Testaments, and with an appearance of sanctity, are the apostles of Antichrist.

             4. "Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth" (1 Cor. viii. 1). Now, as religious are, in a peculiar manner, bound to the practice of humility, they ought to abstain from knowledge.

             5. Of St. Benedict, patriarch of religious, we are told, that, "he withdrew from the study of literature; and, that his learning was unlearned, and his wisdom untaught" (St. Greg. II. Moral.). Hence, after his example, religious should desist from study.

             6. St. Paul (2 Thess. iii.), reproves those who neglected manual labour, and indulged themselves in curiosity and sloth. As, then, the acquisition of knowledge is curiosity, religious ought not to abandon manual labour, for the sake of study.

             Now those who have been quoted above are not the originators of the error we are refuting. Julian the Apostate was the first to conceive this idea. He, as we are told in Ecclesiastical history, forcibly prevented Christians from acquiring knowledge. Those, therefore, who imitate him, by forbidding religious to study, act in a manner opposed to the precepts of Scripture. We read, for instance, in Isaias (v. 13): "Therefore is my people led away captive, because they had not knowledge." "Because," remarks the Gloss, "they would not have knowledge." Now, voluntary ignorance could not deserve punishment, were not knowledge praiseworthy.

             2. In the Prophet Osee (iv. 5) we read: "In the night I have made thy mother to be silent. My people have been silent, because they had no knowledge; because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will reject thee, that thou shalt not do the office of priesthood to me." This text clearly shows how severely ignorance will be punished.

             3. In Ps. cxviii. 66, we read: "Teach me goodness, and discipline and knowledge." On these words, the Gloss says: "Teach me goodness, i.e. inspire me with charity; teach me discipline, i.e. give me patience; teach me knowledge, i.e. enlighten my mind. For that knowledge is useful, whereby a man becomes known to himself."

             4. St. Jerome thus writes to the monk Rusticus: "Let a book be never absent from thine eyes or hand." Again, "Love the knowledge of the Scriptures, and thou wilt not love the vices of the flesh." The same saint, likewise, writes thus to the monk Paulinus: "Holy ignorance is only profitable to itself, and inasmuch as when accompanied by the example of a good life it edifies the Church of Christ. It is harmful, when it be powerless against such as impugn her doctrine." Hence, the learning of the saints is preferable, to the holiness of the unlearned. In the same epistle, after enumerating the books of holy Scripture, St. Jerome continues: "I beseech thee, brother, let these books be the companions of thy life, and the subject of thy meditation. Know nought but these, and seek no other thing. Seest thou not, that, thus, thou mayest on earth enjoy the Kingdom of heaven?" A heavenly life, then, consists in the constant study of Holy Writ.

             5. St. Paul points out, that the knowledge of the Scriptures is essential to preachers. For, he says, (1 Tim. iv. 13), "Till I come attend unto reading, to exhortation, and to doctrine." It is evident from this, that a knowledge of what they are to teach, is necessary for those whose duty it is to preach and to exhort.

             6. St. Jerome writes to the monk Rusticus: "Spend much time in learning that which, hereafter, thou must teach." Once more he writes to the same, "If thou desirest to enter the clerical state, study, in order that thou mayest teach."

             7. St. Gregory says, in his Pastorale: "It is eminently necessary that they who accept the office of preachers, should not desist from sacred study."

             8. The life of religious is established primarily for contemplation; but, as Hugh of St. Victor says, reading is part of contemplation. Hence, religious have a right to apply themselves to study.

             9. They are best capable of prosecuting their studies with success, who are least embarrassed by earthly ties. We read in Isaias (xxviii. 9), "Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand the hearing? Them that are weaned from the milk, that are drawn away from the breasts." The Commentary says, (in VII. Physic.), that chastity and the other virtues, whereby the desires of the flesh are curbed, are special aids to the acquisition of speculative knowledge. Now, as religious consecrate themselves to a life of continence and abstinence, they are peculiarly fitted for study.

             10. St. Jerome proves, moreover, in a letter to Pammachius the monk, that it is commendable in religious to devote themselves, not only to sacred learning, but to secular study. "If," he says, "thou be enamoured of the spouse knowledge, whom thou hast taken captive, (that is to say if thy heart be enthralled by the beauty of secular knowledge), cut off the tresses of this maiden, and remove the ornaments from her head, whereby I mean, heed not, when thou dost study, the meretricious charms of language. Bathe thy spouse, learning, in the salt of prophetic wisdom; and, then, resting with her, speak saying: 'Her left hand is under my head, and with her right hand she will embrace me.' Then, shall this captive raise up around thee a numerous offspring, and this Moabitess shall become an Israelite in truth." Hence, we may understand, that it is permissible for religious to occupy themselves with secular branches of learning, if, according to the rule of Holy Scripture, they avoid all that may be reprehensible.

             11. St. Augustine, (in 2 De doctrina christiana), says: "Those philosophers, especially of the Platonic School, whose teaching is true and consistent with the Faith, are not to be feared. On the contrary, we may make use of them, as we may despoil those who are in unjust possession of our property."

             12. On the words, "Daniel purposed in his heart," (Dan. i.), the Gloss says: "He who would not eat at the king's table, lest he should, thereby, be defiled, would never have studied the science of the Egyptians, had he considered it to be sinful. He studied it, however, not in order to follow it, but to judge and confute it. Now, if a man, ignorant of mathematics, undertake to argue with a mathematician, or if one who knows nothing of philosophy enter the lists against philosophers, what does he do, save expose himself to ridicule?" From all that has been said, we see, then, that it is advisable for religious, and especially for preachers, to be learned; and that, above all things, they ought to have a good knowledge of Holy Scripture.

             We will now proceed to answer the arguments brought forward by those who condemn learning in religious.

             1. The words, (2 Tim. iii.), "Ever learning, and never attaining to a knowledge of the truth," are a rebuke, not to such as are ever learning, but to those whose study withdraws them from the Faith, and who, therefore, never attain to the knowledge of the truth. Such men are "reprobates at heart, and blinded to the faith."

             2. When St. Gregory says, that the preachers of Antichrist are learned in the knowledge of this world, he refers to those preachers who make use of earthly learning to draw their hearers to sin and to worldly desires. For, in the context to the words we have quoted, he cites the following verse of Isaias (xviii. 1): "Woe to the land, the winged cymbal, that sendeth ambassadors by the sea, and in vessels of bulrushes upon the waters." Upon these words, St. Gregory makes this comment: "Paper is made from the reed papyrus. What then shall we understand by the bulrushes, or reeds, whereof the prophet here speaks, save earthly learning? The vessels of bulrushes, then, are the hearts of worldly men; and to send ambassadors upon the waters in vessels of bulrushes, is to base our preaching on the arguments of carnal wisdom, and to attract our hearers to sin."

             3. The words of the Gloss, quoted in the third objection, refer, (as may be plainly seen by comparing this passage with many others), to the preachers whom

Antichrist will, at his coming into the world, send forth. Neither is the fact that the knowledge of the Old and the New Testament may be abused, an argument against religious possessing such knowledge; unless we, likewise, say, that because they may make a hypocritical display of innocence and purity of life, these virtues are therefore to be reprobated.

             4. To the objection, that "science puffeth up," we reply, that it certainly does so, unless it be accompanied by charity. Thus, the Gloss says: "Knowledge alone puffeth up"; and again: "add charity to your knowledge, and your knowledge will be useful." Hence, to such as practise works of mercy, learning will not be very dangerous. But, if we are to avoid knowledge because it leads to pride, we ought, on the same grounds, to desist from any good work. For, as St. Augustine says, "Pride insinuates itself into good actions, in order to render them worthless."

             5. To the argument, founded on the example of St. Benedict, we reply that this Saint did not forego study from a dread of learning, but from fear of the effects of a worldly life and society. Thus, St. Gregory tells us, that, "being in Rome, St. Benedict applied himself to liberal studies, and to literature; but perceiving that many of those around him fell into sin, he withdrew the foot with which he had stepped out into the world, fearing, lest, if he attained to worldly learning, he might, likewise, fall into the abyss of sin." Therefore, they are worthy of all praise, who abandon the life of worldly students, and retire into a monastery, wherein they may prosecute their studies.

             6. To the last objection proposed, we reply that idle and inordinate curiosity is a danger attendant, not only on study, but on all other mental occupation; and that superfluous anxiety, which is engendered by curiosity, is reprehensible. But in the words of St. Paul (2 Thess. iii.), quoted as an argument against religious, the Apostle, as the Gloss points out, rebukes those men, who, from an undue desire for material gain, entangle themselves in their neighbours' concerns. To speak of study of Holy Scripture as a life of idleness, is flatly to contradict the Gloss. For, on the words of Ps. cxviii., "My eyes have fainted," the commentary says: "As he is not idle who only studies the word of God; neither can he who performs manual labour be more justly accused of sloth, than he who is occupied with the study of divinity. Such learning is the greatest of all work; and Mary, who listened to Our Lord, is preferred before Martha, who ministered to Him."