Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae

Objection 1: It would seem that a religious order should not be established for the purpose of study. For it is written (Ps. 70:15,16): "Because I have not known letters , I will enter into the powers of the Lord," i.e. "Christian virtue," according to a gloss. Now the perfection of Christian virtue, seemingly, pertains especially to religious. Therefore it is not for them to apply themselves to the study of letters.

Objection 2: Further, that which is a source of dissent is unbecoming to religious, who are gathered together in the unity of peace. Now study leads to dissent: wherefore different schools of thought arose among the philosophers. Hence Jerome (Super Epist. ad Tit. 1:5) says: "Before a diabolical instinct brought study into religion, and people said: I am of Paul, I of Apollo, I of Cephas," etc. Therefore it would seem that no religious order should be established for the purpose of study.

Objection 3: Further, those who profess the Christian religion should profess nothing in common with the Gentiles. Now among the Gentiles were some who professed philosophy, and even now some secular persons are known as professors of certain sciences. Therefore the study of letters does not become religious.

On the contrary, Jerome (Ep. liii ad Paulin.) urges him to acquire learning in the monastic state, saying: "Let us learn on earth those things the knowledge of which will remain in heaven," and further on: "Whatever you seek to know, I will endeavor to know with you."

I answer that As stated above (Article 2), religion may be ordained to the active and to the contemplative life. Now chief among the works of the active life are those which are directly ordained to the salvation of souls, such as preaching and the like. Accordingly the study of letters is becoming to the religious life in three ways. First, as regards that which is proper to the contemplative life, to which the study of letters helps in a twofold manner. In one way by helping directly to contemplate, namely by enlightening the intellect. For the contemplative life of which we are now speaking is directed chiefly to the consideration of divine things, as stated above (Question 180, Article 4), to which consideration man is directed by study; for which reason it is said in praise of the righteous (Ps. 1:2) that "he shall meditate day and night" on the law of the Lord, and (Ecclus. 39:1): "The wise man will seek out the wisdom of all the ancients, and will be occupied in the prophets." In another way the study of letters is a help to the contemplative life indirectly, by removing the obstacles to contemplation, namely the errors which in the contemplation of divine things frequently beset those who are ignorant of the scriptures. Thus we read in the Conferences of the Fathers (Coll. x, 3) that the Abbot Serapion through simplicity fell into the error of the Anthropomorphites, who thought that God had a human shape. Hence Gregory says (Moral. vi) that "some through seeking in contemplation more than they are able to grasp, fall away into perverse doctrines, and by failing to be the humble disciples of truth become the masters of error." Hence it is written (Eccles. 2:3): "I thought in my heart to withdraw my flesh from wine, that I might turn my mind to wisdom and might avoid folly."

Secondly, the study of letters is necessary in those religious orders that are founded for preaching and other like works; wherefore the Apostle (Titus 1:9), speaking of bishops to whose office these acts belong, says: "Embracing that faithful word which is according to doctrine, that he may be able to exhort in sound doctrine and to convince the gainsayers." Nor does it matter that the apostles were sent to preach without having studied letters, because, as Jerome says (Ep. liii ad Paulin.), "whatever others acquire by exercise and daily meditation in God's law, was taught them by the Holy Ghost."

Thirdly, the study of letters is becoming to religious as regards that which is common to all religious orders. For it helps us to avoid the lusts of the flesh; wherefore Jerome says (Ep. cxxv ad Rust. Monach.): "Love the science of the Scriptures and thou shalt have no love for carnal vice." For it turns the mind away from lustful thoughts, and tames the flesh on account of the toil that study entails according to Ecclus. 31:1, "Watching for riches* consumeth the flesh." . It also helps to remove the desire of riches, wherefore it is written (Wis. 7:8): "I . . . esteemed riches nothing in comparison with her," and (1 Macc. 12:9): "We needed none of these things," namely assistance from without, "having for our comfort the holy books that are in our hands." It also helps to teach obedience, wherefore Augustine says (De oper. Monach. xvii): "What sort of perverseness is this, to wish to read, but not to obey what one reads?" Hence it is clearly fitting that a religious order be established for the study of letters.

Reply to Objection 1: This commentary of the gloss is an exposition of the Old Law of which the Apostle says (2 Cor. 3:6): "The letter killeth." Hence not to know letters is to disapprove of the circumcision of the "letter" and other carnal observances.

Reply to Objection 2: Study is directed to knowledge which, without charity, "puffeth up," and consequently leads to dissent, according to Prov. 13:10, "Among the proud there are always dissensions": whereas, with charity, it "edifieth and begets concord." Hence the Apostle after saying (1 Cor. 1:5): "You are made rich . . . in all utterance and in all knowledge," adds (1 Cor. 1:10): "That you all speak the same thing, and that there be no schisms among you." But Jerome is not speaking here of the study of letters, but of the study of dissensions which heretics and schismatics have brought into the Christian religion.

Reply to Objection 3: The philosophers professed the study of letters in the matter of secular learning: whereas it becomes religious to devote themselves chiefly to the study of letters in reference to the doctrine that is "according to godliness" (Titus 1:1). It becomes not religious, whose whole life is devoted to the service of God, to seek for other learning, save in so far as it is referred to the sacred doctrine. Hence Augustine says at the end of De Musica vi, 17: "Whilst we think that we should not overlook those whom heretics delude by the deceitful assurance of reason and knowledge, we are slow to advance in the consideration of their methods. Yet we should not be praised for doing this, were it not that many holy sons of their most loving mother the Catholic Church had done the same under the necessity of confounding heretics."

Articulus 5

Argumentum 1

Ad quintum sic proceditur. Videtur quod non sit instituenda aliqua religio ad studendum.

Dicitur enim in Psalmo, quoniam non cognovi litteraturam, introibo in potentias domini, Glossa, idest, in virtutem christianam.

Sed perfectio christianae virtutis maxime videtur ad religiosos pertinere. Ergo eorum non est studio litterarum insistere.

Argumentum 2

Praeterea, illud quod est dissensionis principium, religiosis non competit, qui in unitatem pacis congregantur. Sed studium dissensionem inducit, unde et in philosophis subsecuta est diversitas sectarum.

Unde et Hieronymus, super Epist. Ad Tit., dicit, antequam, diaboli instinctu, studia in religione fierent, et diceretur in populis, ego sum Pauli, ego Apollo, ego cephae, etc..

Ergo videtur quod nulla religio debeat institui ad studendum.

Argumentum 3

Praeterea, professio christianae religionis differre debet a professione gentilium. Sed apud gentiles aliqui philosophiam profitebantur. Et nunc etiam aliqui saeculares dicuntur aliquarum scientiarum professores.

Non ergo religiosis competit studium litterarum.

Sed Contra

Sed contra est quod Hieronymus, in epistola ad Paulinum, invitat eum ad discendum in statu monastico, dicens, discamus in terris quorum scientia nobis perseverat in caelis.

Et infra, quidquid quaesieris, tecum scire conabor.

Corpus

Respondeo dicendum quod, sicut dictum est, religio potest ordinari ad vitam activam, et ad vitam contemplativam. Inter opera autem vitae activae, principaliora sunt illa quae ordinantur directe ad salutem animarum, sicut praedicare et alia huiusmodi. Competit ergo studium litterarum religioni tripliciter. Primo quidem, quantum ad id quod est proprium contemplativae vitae. Ad quam studium litterarum dupliciter adiuvat. Uno modo, directe coadiuvando ad contemplandum, illuminando scilicet intellectum. Vita enim contemplativa de qua nunc loquimur, principaliter ordinatur ad considerationem divinorum, ut supra habitum est, in qua dirigitur homo ad considerandum divina.

Unde in laudem viri iusti dicitur in Psalmo, quod in lege domini meditabitur die ac nocte. Et Eccli. XXXIX dicitur, sapientiam antiquorum exquiret sapiens, et in prophetis vacabit.

Alio modo, studium litterarum iuvat contemplativam vitam indirecte removendo contemplationis pericula, scilicet errores, qui in contemplatione divinorum frequenter accidunt his qui Scripturas ignorant, sicut in collationibus patrum legitur quod abbas serapion, propter simplicitatem, incidit in errorem Anthropomorphitarum, idest eorum qui deum habere humanam formam arbitrantur.

Unde dicit Gregorius, in VI Moral., quod nonnulli, dum plus exquirunt contemplando quam capiunt, usque ad perversa dogmata erumpunt, et dum veritatis esse discipuli humiliter negligunt, magistri errorum fiunt.

Et propter hoc dicitur Eccle. II, cogitavi in corde meo abstrahere a vino carnem meam, ut animum meum transferrem ad sapientiam, devitaremque stultitiam.

Secundo, necessarium est studium litterarum religioni institutae ad praedicandum et ad alia huiusmodi exercendum. Unde apostolus dicit, Tit. I, de episcopo, ad cuius officium huiusmodi actus pertinent, amplectentem eum qui secundum doctrinam est fidelem sermonem, ut potens sit exhortari in doctrina sana, et eos qui contradicunt arguere.

Nec obstat quod apostoli absque studio litterarum ad praedicandum sunt missi, quia, ut Hieronymus dicit, in epistola ad Paulinum, quidquid aliis exercitatio et quotidiana in lege meditatio tribuere solet, illis spiritus sanctus suggerebat.

Tertio, studium litterarum religioni congruit quantum ad id quod est omni religioni commune. Valet enim ad vitandum carnis lasciviam.

Unde Hieronymus dicit, ad rusticum monachum, ama Scripturarum studia, et carnis vitia non amabis.

Avertit enim animum a cogitatione lasciviae, et carnem macerat, propter studii laborem, secundum illud Eccli. XXXI, vigilia honestatis tabefaciet carnes.

Valet etiam ad auferendum cupiditatem divitiarum.

Unde Sap. VII dicitur, divitias nihil esse dixi in comparatione illius.

Et I machab. XII dicitur, nos autem nullo horum indiguimus, scilicet exteriorum subsidiorum, habentes solatio sanctos libros qui in manibus nostris sunt.

Valet etiam ad obedientiae documentum.

Unde Augustinus dicit, in libro de operibus monach., quae est ista perversitas, lectioni nolle obtemperare, dum vult ei vacare? et ideo manifestum est quod congrue potest institui religio ad studium litterarum.

Ad 1

Ad primum ergo dicendum quod Glossa ibi exponit de littera veteris legis, de qua apostolus dicit, II ad Cor. III, littera occidit. Unde non cognoscere litteraturam est non approbare litteralem circumcisionem et ceteras carnales observantias.

Ad 2

Ad secundum dicendum quod studium ad scientiam ordinatur, quae sine caritate inflat, et per consequens dissensiones facit, secundum illud Prov. XIII, inter superbos semper sunt iurgia; sed cum caritate aedificat, et concordiam parit.

Unde I ad Cor. I, apostolus, cum dixisset, divites facti estis in omni verbo et in omni scientia, postmodum subdit, idipsum dicatis omnes, et non sint in vobis schismata.

Hieronymus tamen non loquitur ibi de studiis litterarum, sed de studiis dissensionum, quae per haereticos et schismaticos intraverunt in religione christiana.

Ad 3

Ad tertium dicendum quod philosophi profitebantur studia litterarum quantum ad saeculares doctrinas. Sed religiosis competit principaliter intendere studio litterarum pertinentium ad doctrinam quae secundum pietatem est, ut dicitur Tit. I.

Aliis autem doctrinis intendere non pertinet ad religiosos, quorum tota vita divinis obsequiis mancipatur, nisi inquantum ordinantur ad sacram doctrinam.

Unde Augustinus dicit, in fine musicae, nos, dum negligendos esse non aestimamus quos haeretici rationum et scientiae fallaci pollicitatione decipiunt, tardius incedimus consideratione ipsarum viarum. Quod tamen facere non auderemus, nisi multos pios ecclesiae filios, eadem refellendorum haereticorum necessitate, fecisse videremus.