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| Chapter XX. Of those who renounce the world but ill.
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Chapter XX.
Of those who renounce the world but ill.
In the last place I am
ashamed to say how we find that a large number have made their
renunciation in such a way that we find that they have altered nothing
of their former sins and habits, but only their state of life and
worldly garb. For they are eager in amassing wealth which they never
had before, or else do not give up that which they had, or which is
still sadder, they actually strive to augment it under this excuse;
viz., that they assert that it is right that they should always support
with it their relations or the brethren, or they hoard it under
pretence of starting congregations which they imagine that they can
preside over as Abbots. But if only they would sincerely seek after the
way of perfection, they would rather endeavour with all their might and
main to attain to this: viz., that they might strip themselves not only
of their wealth but of all their former likings and occupations, and
place themselves unreservedly and entirely under the guidance of the
Elders so as to have no anxiety not merely about others, but even about
themselves. But on the contrary we find that while they are eager to be
set over their brethren, they are never subject to their Elders
themselves, and, with pride for their starting point, while they are
quite ready to teach others they take no trouble to learn themselves or
to practise what they are to teach: and so it is sure to end in their
becoming, as the Saviour said, “blind leaders of the blind”
so that “both fall into the ditch.”1311
And this pride though there is only one kind of it, yet takes a twofold
form. One form continually puts on the appearance of seriousness and
gravity, the other breaks out with unbridled freedom into silly
giggling and laughing. The former delights in not talking: the latter
thinks it hard to be kept to the restraint of silence, and has no
scruples about talking freely on matters that are unsuitable and
foolish, while it is ashamed to be thought inferior to or less well
informed than others. The one on account of pride seeks clerical
office, the other looks down upon it, since it fancies that it is
unsuitable or beneath its former dignity and life and the deserts of
its birth. And which of these two should be accounted the worse each
man must consider and decide for himself. At any rate the kind of
disobedience is one and the same, if a man breaks the Elder’s
commands whether it be owing to zeal in work, or to love of ease: and
it is as hurtful to upset the rules of the monastery for the sake of
sleep, as it is for the sake of vigilance, and it is just the same to
transgress the Abbot’s orders in order to read, as it is to
slight them in order to sleep: nor is there any difference in the
incentive to pride if you neglect a brother, whether it is because of
your fast or because of your breakfast: except that those faults which
seem to show themselves under the guise of virtues and in the form of
spirituality are worse and less likely to be cured than those which
arise openly and from carnal pleasures. For these latter, like
sicknesses which are perfectly plain and visible, are grappled with and
cured, while the former, since they are covered under the cloak of
virtue, remain uncured, and cause their victims to fall into a more
dangerous and deadly state of ill health.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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