[22]. Vows
Some kinds of vows are as impious and as stupid as if one should give a pledge to a king to bring to him without harm to
oneself the heads of a thousand enemies. We find that David and Hercules made themselves responsible for a number demanded or a task, but no one has ever been so presumptuous as to promise to return safe with that many heads.
When, therefore, certain persons promise chastity, poverty, and obedience, see how they are not acting from knowledge, and how their very zeal is either foolish or feigned.
First, as to chastity. Christ says, Matt. 19: 11, that not all men have this, but only those to whom it is given from above. Let those, then, to whom it is given, practice it. Impious, therefore, and quite as ill-mannered as if I should promise a friend to live for a whole year out of his purse, will it be if I promise God to give Him what I cannot even have unless He gives it to me. For is this not promising a friend that you are going to draw your expenses out of his purse? In I Cor. 7:89, St. Paul solves this diffieult problem of chastity clearly and at length, saying: If they have not continency, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn.” Do you burn, then? Marry; for you do better and more rightly in quenching the flames of ungovernable passion by marrying than in carrying about a mind restless and filthy from burning. And how long you ought to bear the burning no man can tell better than yourself. There are very, very few in the whole number of mortals who do not burn; and I am not sure that there has at any time, to say nothing of today, been one who has not felt the fires of passion; but how fiercely each burns no one can know save Him to whom the heart is known. Since, therefore, no man knows what is in a man, save the spirit of the man, which is in him [I Cor. 2: 11], no one can judge for you when you ought to marry or when to remain single. You will, therefore, have to decide alone for yourself whether to take a wife or not. But you will take one when you see that nearly all your thoughts are carried away by the violence of this fire as by a torrent; that fear of God is thrown to the winds, love of Him killed, prayer hindered.
You can, in fact, infer this from the chapter of Paul menSee I Sam. 18: 25-27.
[TAn allusion to the twelve labors of Hercules, performed in the service]
[of Eurystheus.]
tioned. For when he says [I Cor. 7:5], “Defraud ye not one the other” (he is speaking of a husband’s or wife’s withdrawal from intercourse), “except it be by consent for a season, that ye may give yourselves unto prayer. Afterwards come together again, that Satan tempt you not because of your incontinency,” it is evident that, to avoid the temptation of Satan, that is, the defilement of fornication and adultery, it is permissible to marry; likewise when our praying is hindered. But how far any one is hindered none knows better than he who feels the thing. If, therefore, you feel, as I have said, your mind reel at the mention of Venus, so that you say, “I would if I might,” the flesh surely has the upper hand and will never rest until it has accomplished what it wants. In order, therefore, not to be perpetually burning, marry; “for it is better to marry than to burn.” Whoever desires fuller knowledge of this matter should study carefully the chapter mentioned [I Cor. 7].
We, see, therefore, that all alike were spoken to. “If thou hast not continency, marry [I Cor. 7:9]; and, “if a virgin marry, she hath not sinned” [I Cor. 7:28]. Therefore, all alike may enter into marriage. For as to the objection made on the score of your vow, it has no force to invalidate the law of God, so that it is even the height of impiety to override that because of our traditions, as Christ, in Matt. 15: 3, reproached the scribes and Pharisees with doing, when He said: “Why do ye transgress the commandment of God becauuse of your tradition?” I will not mention now how foolish it is to promise a thing which is not in your power. All vows of chastity, therefore, are impious.
The objection, raised by some on account of the Nazarites, Num. 6, has long been obsolete. For the Lord commanded many things of the children of Israel of which He had Himself no need and in which He had no pleasure; but He bade them be done for Him that they might not be done for the Devil. Such were various sacrificial rites. And this is the view to be taken in regard to the Nazarites. “There was danger that the Jews would desire their sons to live after the manner of other nations according to some peculiar way of life, and that they would forthwith make vows to that effect. The Lord, therefore,
[The priest’s vow of chastity.]
gave them a way of life Himself, with which they would be so content as not to turn aside to idolatry. Others, again, cite in objection, “Pay thy vows unto the Most High” [Ps. 50: 14], and “Vow and pay,” Ps. 76:11; but in doing this they only betray their own ignorance, namely, that they have not yet learned that “vows” is used in the Holy Scriptures for voluntary gifts and offerings, not for taking an oath or dedicating the heart. This last is what was demanded by the law [Deut. 6:5]: “Thou shalt love the Lord, thy God, ete.” As, therefore, offerings were abolished, so also were vows. For nüder” [43] in Hebrew signifies the voluntary offering of anything customarily used by the priests as an offering. In general, all vows can apparently be reduced to two classes. We vow either the things the Lord orders or of our own free will certain things over and above those which the Lord orders. Those, therefore, who vow what the Lord has commanded act presumptuously, for they pretend that they will do more zealously what the Lord orders if they add their own vow or oath than if they listen to the command alone of the Lord. And what else is this but extreme folly and weakness of faith? The faithful man ought to be eager to do the will of God for the reason that his God has ordered this or that, not because he has taken upon himself to do this or that. For, those who are eager to do the commands of God for the reason that they have taken a vow make themselves of more account than God. The man is insubordinate who does not obey the orders of the commander unless he has first promised that he will do so. Everyone ought to do without any vow what is ordered by the law and the government. Moreover, if we vow certain other things than those contained in the law of God, it is in vain; for “in vain do they worship me,” says Christ in Matt. 15:9, “teaching doctrines and commandments of men”; and, in the same chapter, “Every plant which my heavenly Father planted not, shall be rooted up” [Mt. 15: 13]. And what is more foolish than to promise some new things to the Lord, as if we had fulfilled all that had hitherto been commanded and were generously adding on also something extra of our own? Who has ever fulfilled even this one commandment, Love thy neighbor as thyself”? [Mt. 22:39]. It becomes plain, therefore,
that when we make such vows we fall into what Paul calls ἐδελοϑρησκεία [will-worship], Col. 2:23. For this is nothing else than a worship got up of our own will, and that is nothing but hypocrisy and contempt of the divine law. No one thus far has fulfilled what the Lord has commanded. Why, then, do we who have not attained to the divine commands make up new ones? I will say openly what is true: These vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience are an avoidance and evasion of the divine law, as will be evident presently when I have spoken of poverty and obedience. What is the use of vowing poverty? The Christian heart is not Christian unless it is poor; for “Blessed are the poor in spirit” [Mt. 5:3]. According to the law, therefore, we ought all to be poor; and those who are not fail to obey the law. Why, then, do they make a vow of the law itself, as if they could keep it better having vowed than by obeying the commandment of God? But if they vow poverty and want of material things, again they act foolishly. For why do you vow what is not in your power? First, if you are rich, it is not necessary for you to vow poverty, but, according to the words of Christ, to sell all you possess and give to the poor [Mt. 19:21]. This the Lord enjoins. Why do you vow what the Lord enjoins? If, on the other hand, you are poor, why do you vow poverty, which you have to bear whether you willor not? Suppose you vowed that you would be deformed, when you were so before vowing! Next, if God wishes you to be very rich, a king, for instance, or a prince, but to the end that you faithfully dispense what has been entrusted to you, will you vow poverty? Again, when the Lord has refused you riches, but given you a patient heart, so that you can endure cheerfully, and you then vow poverty, are you not more likely to ascribe your bearing a very hard situation with equanimity to your vow than to the grace of God? For if you credited all things to the grace of God, you never would make the vow, but would constantly accommodate yourself to His will.
Now, obedience we all owe to all, for “if anyone shall compel thee to go one mile, go with him two,” Matt. 5: 41; and, Love seeketh not her own,” I Cor. 13:5, but is eager to help others; and, “All things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye also the same to them,” Matt. 7:12. “The
church of Christ is one body, Rom. 12:5, and this body requires before all things that none of its members shall be at variance. Therefore, those who are members of the church of Christ, from the very fact that they are members of one body, ought honorably to direct or to obey each other as the case may be. What need, then, that you should promise obedience, when you owe it so completely that unless you give it you will find an ungracious judge? And as to the emphasis certain persons so arrogantly put upon what is written in I Sam. 15: 22, “To obey is better than sacrifice,” I answer briefly that, as a rule, it comes to pass by the will of God that if any one iries to abuse His word to serve his own desires he defeats his own ends. And that is the ease here. Samuel said to Saul: “Obedience is better than sacrifice”; but of what obedience was he speaking? Of that by which a man binds himself to some party? Not at all, but of that by which he obeys God in spite of all the schemes of man, however fair and good these are in appearance. Saul had been ordered to destroy everything that belonged to the Amalekites [I Sam. 15: 3, 9, 21-22]; but he, thinking it better that things should not perish uselessly, saved many sheep for a burnt offering unto the Lord. The Lord is angry at this, and says by the mouth of His Prophet, that it is better for you to obey the voice of God than your own counsel. Obedience, therefore, is preferable to sacrifiee, but obedienee to God. How necessary to salvation that is has been abundantly said already.
Now I will show, as I promised, that these vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience are an avoidance and evasion of the divine law and will.
Take chastity first. They vow this, which is not in their own power, and on account of it they scorn marriage, and when they ought to be begetting and bringing up children, they defend themselves with their vows; but see how nicely! They go a-whoring more shamelessly than dogs. And if you advise them to abandon the monastery and marry, since they see that continence is denied them, they reply that they are bound by the terms of their vow. See, now, whether this be not overriding the law of God on account of human tradition. I will say nothing of those vile and filthy things that the majority
of monks secretly devise from uncontrollable passion, so that it is quite plain that their hearts, and sometimes their bodies also, are defiled with fouler lusts than those living in wedlock; nay, are so vile that they cannot even be compared with respectable marriages. But, however filthy and foul they are, they fail to obey the law of God on account of their vow.
Their poverty is such a no-poverty that nowhere can you find greater riches along with greater peace and quiet than in the monasteries. If you live in the world, even though you are very rich, you have to attend to many things, to run about from place to place, to fear rain, hail, and other inclemencies of weather. These friends of ours neither fear nor trouble themselves about any of these things, but without sweat l and blood all things come to them; they toil not, neither cleave the soil with the ploughshare, yet when no market has any pheasants or pigeons, hares or goats, there is nothing in the way of stockfish, sole, mullet and eels that is not brought to them. Truly it is a great achievement to bear their want! Why should 1 speak of raiment? In winter they keep themselves so warm with skins and wool and fires that they sometimes have to sweat in spite of themselves; in summer their robes are so open to the breeze, they lay aside so completely all heavy clothing, that you might think they could live on air.
Further, their obedience is such that if a parent is in want they are not allowed to help her, even if she has spent all her substance in getting this cuckoo into that nest. If she is ill, they are not allowed, in consequence of this obedience, to go out and to nurse, to relieve, and to help, in this illness. (I say nothing of the rest of the poor.) When the government demands contributions, they are exempt; when it assigns posts of duty, they object that, bound by their allegiance to God, they cannot fill these. Why continue? They have nothing in common with their toiling neighbors and fellow-countrymen. If war breaks out, they sleep not under the sky, but snoring peacefully in the pleasantest habitations, so that Solomon in all his glory [Mt. 6:29] could not have enjoyed the delights of this world in such peace and quiet. They owe nothing to anyone but themselves, they look out for no one but themselves. And
[Her own son. The cuckoo is proverbial for ingratitude.]
the most outrageous thing of all is that the more wealth they heap up, the more they lavish upon their own pleasures; the more unyieldingly they have resisted the government in bearing the common burdens, the more they expect to be looked up to and to be considered lords of all. They are adored, worshipped, made gods of. You will never see them forbid that being done to them which ought to be rendered unto God alone. Such are these impious vows, which to these fellows, nay to us fools also, seem so fine. They promise chastity, but are content with having promised, and are more lascivious than goats; poverty, though the King himself has greater lack than they; obedience, which is manifest disobedience to God and foreign to all Christian love. Therefore they betray Christ who bind themselves by these vows. They revolt from the law of God, for they follow their own laws, scorning and rejecting the divine, and they lay aside humanity towards their kin and neighbors. For who is more cruel in commands than they, who holds on more greedily to his own than they? No one can help seeing that this kind of life has been sown by the enemy, that is, Satan, like tares among the wheat of the Lord, Matt. 13:25. Paul, that most watchful bishop, had zealously tried to guard against this evil, Acts 20: 29 and Col. 2: 18, but we have kept a poor lookout. Now, however, since God has opened our eyes again, let us walk in the light [I John 1:7], asit were. Let us do away with these evils, but with sense and order, lest the last state become worse than the first [II Pet. 2: 20].
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