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Chapter 12OdoC.2.12

Caput XI

Before the Law, Nature Restrained

Odo shows that even before written law, natural restraint kept sexual sin in check, yet those betrothed to Christ profane their Bridegroom with lamps going out.

Once, no law restrained sexual crimes except the natural one, and yet it was curbed with such zeal that King Abimelech could say, "Someone from the people could have slept with your wife, and you would have brought great sin upon us" (Gen.✦ 26, 10). And Tamar, who had conceived by Judah, was condemned to flames, for the reason that she was thought to have committed adultery while in her widowhood. Lucretia too, a pagan matron of Rome, when she had been violently assaulted by the son of Tarquin, revealed the crime to her uncle and her husband for this purpose: that they might pursue the rapist; furthermore, she herself, unable to bear the disgrace, killed herself. And, to come to the saints, Job, living among the Gentiles without any legal precept, says, "I have made a covenant with my eyes, so that I would not even think about a virgin" (Job 31:1).✦ You understand that this applies not only to another's spouse — and so the Gentiles, even without the law, held themselves in check. But those women are betrothed to Christ, and men thrust themselves in to the injury of the Bridegroom, irreparably, and the women themselves shamelessly throw themselves at them. O what kind of lamps these are, going out to meet the Bridegroom!✦

Bound by the Cross and the Bride

Apocalyptic judgment, Job’s interior vigilance, and the call to carry the cross reveal how Christians are bound to a chaste Bridegroom rather than left unrestrained.

Full cups of fornication will certainly be held, as is read in the Apocalypse.✦ Likewise Job says: If my heart has been deceived over a woman (Job 31:9).✦ To show the magnitude of so great a crime, he added: For what share would God have in me from above?✦ And indeed the mere force of natural law restrained those people. But we would be bound by many and strong conditions, if we had not been entirely unrestrained. For — to touch on a few things out of many — Christ has now been born of the Virgin, in order to present to himself a bride not having spot or wrinkle, but a virgin, as the Apostle says, and chaste.✦ He has already raised the sign of the cross among the nations, and he declares, saying: Whoever does not carry his cross daily is not worthy of me (Luke✦ 14:27).

Temple, Cross, and Holy Ground

To bear the cross is to crucify the flesh; yet we have violated the temple of God, whereas even Naaman and Israel’s holy ground inspired reverence.

The one who bears the cross, then, is the one who is chaste in heart and body and who by no means makes it his concern to gratify the desires of the flesh.✦ How, then, does someone bear the cross if he doesn't crucify his own flesh, set free from its lusts?✦1 For the Apostle calls those who worship the belly not bearers of the cross but enemies of that very cross.✦2 Our parents, like Abraham who offered Isaac and Anna who offered Samuel, offered us to God as a sacrifice.✦ But we — the very ones who ought to have been the temple of God — have violated that temple and defiled his offering; we ourselves, turned into leaven, have become that which corrupts.✦✦34 Naaman the Syrian held the place where God's name was invoked in such great reverence that he carried soil from Israel away with pack-saddles.✦5 We, standing in the courts of the church — on the land of the saints, just as the prophet laments — commit wicked deeds: 'In the land of the saints,' he says, 'he has done wicked things' (Isa.✦6 XXVI, 10).

The Fire on the Altar

From Isaiah’s blindness to Moses’ holy ground, Odo lifts the hearer to the altar of Christ, where even a permitted marital act in a sacred place was severely punished.

But it follows: "Therefore he will not see the glory of the Lord" (ibid.).✦ . A voice to Moses: "The place where you are standing is holy ground" (Exod.✦ 3:5). He didn't even dare to look back at the fire, and yet what is on the altar, which we approach impurely and irreverently, is far greater.✦ For that fire was not God, but a creature, from which the voice of God might resound; but this is the body of Christ, in which the whole fullness of divinity dwells.✦7 But since the occasion itself offers an opportunity to speak about reverence for a sacred place, it seems worth telling what happened a few years ago at the monastery of Carrilocus.8 A certain vassal by the name of Richerius had fled there in fear of his enemies, and one night, sleeping in a cell adjoining the church, he tried to lie with his wife and clung to her like a dog, so that he could by no means be torn away from her.9

A Shameful Embrace in the Monastery

The nighttime attempt of Richerius in the church causes public shame, monastic atonement, and a warning that sacrilege in holy places earns eternal vengeance.

When he realized he was being held like this, he shouted out, and a sudden outcry broke out. Everyone ran up. They were violently shaken by both fear and shame. They had monks summoned and gave as many gifts as they could to the holy place. When he had been begged at length by the monks, he was given back to them. I've known his son and brothers; I heard this from those who were there. But as the event itself shows, the embrace of spouses — because it was permitted — was temporarily punished on account of the unlawful presumption committed in that sacred place where it was carried out. But incest committed in holy places is for this reason rarely punished in the present life, because it is of such a kind that it must be struck not with temporary but with eternal vengeance.

Saint John and the Violated Tomb

A Lombard king buried at Saint John’s church is protected even in heresy, while a thief who robs his tomb is miraculously barred from sacred entry, showing how God defiles the defilers of holy places.

On the contrary, how much the reverence of a sacred place can benefit us is something that can be clearly seen through this example. A certain king of the Lombards — as is read in the history of that same people — had himself buried in the cemetery of a certain church of Saint John; nevertheless, he persisted in his heresy. A certain thief broke open his tomb and carried off the ornaments with which he had been buried as a king. But Saint John said to him in a vision: 'Why did you dare to touch the body of that man?' For although he may not have believed rightly, nevertheless he commended himself to me.10 Because you presumed to do this, you will never again have entry into my church. And so it happened. For whenever he wished to enter the oratory of blessed John, his throat was immediately struck as if by the strongest fighter, and thus he was suddenly driven backward, thrown by the blow.11 If, then, Saint John was so angered against the violator of that heretic's tomb — how much do you think God and his saints are angered against someone who defiles holy places in any way whatsoever? The whole world is illuminated by holy Scripture, which forbids us to sin.

Witnesses Against the Unchaste

Scripture illuminates the world, and at judgment all who kept God’s law will testify against us, since we are restrained by chastity, cross, consecration, holy places, altar mystery, Scripture, and the saints.

The whole of God is full of witnesses who have kept this observance. As was said above, Job declares concerning them: "You set up your witnesses against me" (Job 10:17).✦ Namely, because at judgment just as many will give testimony against us as have kept the law of God — which we despise — without even the binding force of a commandment. So there are just as many reasons that should have restrained us: the covenant of chastity to be imitated, which the Son of the Virgin entered upon with His soldiers as their leader and forerunner; the condition of carrying the cross; the consecration by which we are dedicated to God either by our parents or by our own vow; the profession of a holy purpose; the reverence due to consecrated places; the nearness of so great a majesty as is contained in the mystery of the altar; and furthermore the authority of the divine Scriptures, and the examples of so many great saints both before the law and after it.

Read the original Latin

Nulla lex olim praeter naturalem stupra cohibebat, et tamen tanto studio resecabatur, ut rex Abimelech diceret: Poterat aliquis coire de populo cum uxore tua, et induceres super nos grande peccatum (Gen. XXVI, 10). Et Thamar, quae de Juda conceperat, flammis adjudicata est, eo quod in viduitate moechata videretur. Lucretia quoque gentilis Romae matrona, cum esset a Tarquinii filio violenter oppressa, patruo suo ac viro facinus ad hoc patefecit, ut stupratorem persequerentur; porro ipsa confusionem non sustinens, seipsam interfecit. Et, ut ad sanctos veniamus, Job sine legali praecepto inter gentiles degens ait: Pepigi foedus cum oculis meis, ne quidem cogitarem de virgine (Job XXXI, 1). Non solum subaudis de alterius conjuge, gentiles itaque sic etiam sine lege. At istae Christo desponsatae sunt, quibus et viri ad injuriam sponsi irretractabiliter se inserunt, et ipsae eis impudenter se ingerunt. O quales istae lampades obviam sponso!

tenebuntur certe pocula plena, sicut in Apocalypsi legitur, fornicationum. Item Job ait: Si deceptum est cor meum super mulierem (Job XXXI, 9). Qui ut magnitudinem tanti facinoris ostenderet, subjunxit: Quam enim partem haberet in me Deus desuper? Et illos quidem sola vis naturalis legis coercebat. At nos multis et validis conditionibus ligaremur, si omnino infrenes non fuissemus. Nam ut de multis pauca perstringam, Christus jam de Virgine natus est, ut exhibeat sibi sponsam non habentem maculam aut rugam, sed virginem, ut ait Apostolus, et castam. Jam levavit signum crucis in nationibus, et protestatur dicens: Qui non bajulat crucem suam quotidie non est me dignus (Luc. XIV, 27).

Crucem vero bajulat, qui corde et corpore castus carnis curam in desideriis nequaquam facit. Quomodo igitur crucem bajulat qui carnem suam a concupiscentiis non crucifigit? Apostolus enim cultores ventris, non portitores, sed inimicos ejusdem crucis appellat. Nos parentes nostri, sicut Abraham obtulit Isaac, et Anna Samuelem, Deo in sacrificium obtulerunt. Nos templum Dei quod esse ipsi debuimus violantes, et oblationem ejus commaculantes idem nosmetipsos, in fermentum conversi sumus. Naaman Syrus in tantam habuit reverentiam locum in quo nomen Dei invocabatur, ut de Israel terram cum burdonibus portaret. Nos in atriis ecclesiae consistentes, in terram sanctorum, juxta quod propheta plangit, iniqua gerimus: In terra sanctorum, inquit, iniqua gessit (Isa. XXVI, 10).

Sed sequitur: Ideo non videbit gloriam Domini (Ibid.) . Vox ad Moysen: Locus, ait, in quo tu stas, terra sancta est (Exod. III, 5). Qui etiam non est ausus respicere contra ignem, et ecce plus est in altare, ad quod nos impure et irreverenter accedimus. Nam ignis ille non erat Deus, sed creatura, ex qua vox Dei resonaret; hic vero corpus Christi est, in quo habitat omnis plenitudo divinitatis. Verum quia de sacri loci reverentia sese occasio praebet, dicendum videtur quid ante hos annos in Carrilocensi monasterio contigit. Quidam vassus nomine Richerius ibi metu inimicorum confugerat, qui in cella, quae ecclesiae adhaeret, nocte dormiens cum uxorem suam cognoscere vellet, ita sicut canis eidem inhaesit, ut nullatenus ab ea divelli posset.

Cum igitur se ita teneri sensisset, succlamavit, rumor subitus increpuit. Accurrerunt omnes. Illi tam metu quam verecundia vehementer confusi sunt. Monachos vocari fecere, quanta potuerunt munera loco sancto dederunt. Cum diu esset a monachis oratum, sibi redditi sunt. Filium ejus, et fratres ego novi; ab his qui interfuerunt hoc audivi. Sicut autem ipsa res edocet, complexus conjugum, quia licitus erat, temporaliter punitus est ob illicitam illius sacri loci praesumptionem, ubi gerebatur. At vero incestorum in sanctis locis patratus ob hoc in praesenti minime plerumque plectitur, quia tantum est, ut non transitoria, sed aeterna ultione feriri debeat.

Econtra vero quantum sacrati loci reverentia prosit, hoc satis valet exemplo pervideri. Quidam rex Longobardorum, sicut in ejusdem gentis historia legitur, in coemeterio cujusdam ecclesiae sancti Joannis sepeliri se fecit, haereticus tamen perseveravit. Cujus tumulum quidam fur effringens, ornamenta cum quibus, ut rex, sepultus fuerat, asportavit: eidem vero sanctus Joannes per visionem dixit: Cur ausus es corpus ipsius hominis contingere? fuerit licet non recte credens, tamen mihi se commendavit. Quia ergo hoc facere praesumpsisti, nunquam in meam basilicam deinceps ingressum habebis. Quod ita factum est: Quotiescunque enim voluisset beati Joannis oratorium ingredi, statim velut a validissimo pugili guttur ei feriretur, sic subito retro ruebat impulsus. Si ergo reverentia sancti loci contra violatorem sepulcri illius haeretici sanctus Joannes ita indignatus est, quantum putas et Deus et sancti ejus irascuntur adversus quemdam qui sancta loca quolibet modo commaculat? Totus mundus sancta Scriptura, quae nos peccare prohibet, illustratur.

Totus Dei testibus, qui hanc observaverunt, plenus est: de quibus, ut supra dicitur, ait Job: Instauras testes tuos contra me (Job X, 17). Scilicet quia tot in judicio testimonium contra nos dabunt, quot legem Dei, quam nos contemnimus, sine praecepti etiam constrictione servaverunt. Igitur tot causae frenare nos debuerant, videlicet et foedus imitandae castitatis, quod cum suis militibus filius virginis tanquam dux et praevius iniit, et conditio portandae crucis, et consecratio, qua vel a parentibus, vel a nobis Deo initiamur, et professio sancti propositi, sed et locorum reverentia sacratorum, et vicinitas tantae majestatis, quae in altaris mysterio continetur, nec non et Scripturarum auctoritas divinarum, atque tantorum et ante legem et post legem exempla sanctorum.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Gen.26.10 — And Abimelech said, "What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us."
  2. ↩Job.31.1 — I have made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I gaze upon a virgin?
  3. ↩Matt.25.1-Matt.25.13 — Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Matt.25.2 — Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. Matt.25.3 — For the foolish ones took their lamps, but took no oil with them. Matt.25.4 — but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps Matt.25.5 — While the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and fell asleep. Matt.25.6 — But at midnight a cry has gone out: 'Look! The bridegroom! Come out to meet him.' Matt.25.7 — Then all those virgins got up and trimmed their lamps. Matt.25.8 — The foolish ones said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.' Matt.25.9 — But the prudent ones answered, saying, 'No — there will not be enough for us and for you. Go instead to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.' Matt.25.10 — But while they were going away to buy, the bridegroom came, and the ready ones went in with him to the wedding feast, and the door was shut. Matt.25.11 — Afterward the other virgins also come, saying, 'Lord, Lord, open to us.' Matt.25.12 — But he answered, 'Truly, I tell you, I do not know you.' Matt.25.13 — Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.
  4. ↩Rev.17.2-Rev.17.4 — with whom the kings of the earth committed sexual immorality, and those who dwell on the earth were made drunk with the wine of her sexual immorality. Rev.17.3 — And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns. Rev.17.4 — And the woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stone and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and the unclean things of her sexual immorality.
  5. ↩Job.31.9 — If my heart has been enticed by a woman, and I have lain in wait at my neighbor's door,
  6. ↩Job.31.2 — What portion has God from above, and what inheritance from the Almighty on high?
  7. ↩Eph.5.27 — so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, so that she might be holy and blameless.
  8. ↩Luke.14.27 — Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
  9. ↩Gal.5.24 — And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
  10. ↩Gal.5.24 — And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
  11. ↩Phil.3.19 — whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things.
  12. ↩Gen.22.1-Gen.22.19;1Sam.1.11 — After these things, God tested Abraham. And He said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am." Gen.22.2 — And He said, "Take now your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you." Gen.22.3 — And Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took his two young men with him, and Isaac his son, and he cut the wood for the burnt offering, and he arose and went to the place that God had told him. Gen.22.4 — On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from a distance. Gen.22.5 — Abraham said to his young men, "Stay here with the donkey, while I and the lad will go over there. We will worship and then return to you." Gen.22.6 — Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. He took in his hand the fire and the knife. And the two of them walked on together. Gen.22.7 — And Isaac said to Abraham his father, and he said, 'My father.' And he said, 'Here I am, my son.' And he said, 'Here is the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?' Gen.22.8 — And Abraham said, 'God will provide for himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son. And the two of them walked on together. Gen.22.9 — And they came to the place that God had told him about. There Abraham built the altar and arranged the wood. Then he bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Gen.22.10 — And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. Gen.22.11 — But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, 'Abraham, Abraham!' And he said, 'Here I am.' Gen.22.12 — He said, "Do not lay your hand on the boy, and do not do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, and you have not withheld your son, your only one, from Me." Gen.22.13 — And Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw, and behold, a ram, afterward, caught in the thicket by its horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. Gen.22.14 — Abraham called the name of that place 'The LORD Will Be Seen,' as it is said to this day, 'On the mountain the LORD will be seen.' Gen.22.15 — And the angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time from heaven, Gen.22.16 — and he said, 'By myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son— Gen.22.17 — because I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore, and your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies; Gen.22.18 — and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice Gen.22.19 — Then Abraham returned to his servants, and they arose and went together to Beersheba; and Abraham lived at Beersheba. 1Sam.1.11 — And she made a vow and said, 'O LORD of hosts, if you will indeed look upon the affliction of your servant and remember me, and not forget your servant, but grant your servant a son, then I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life, and no razor shall touch his head.'
  13. ↩1Cor.3.16-1Cor.3.17 — Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? 1Cor.3.17 — If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will destroy that person. For the temple of God is holy, and you are that temple.
  14. ↩1Cor.5.6-1Cor.5.8 — Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole batch of dough? 1Cor.5.7 — Clean out the old leaven, so that you may be a new batch, just as you are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed. 1Cor.5.8 — So let us keep the feast, not with the old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
  15. ↩2Kgs.5.17 — Then Naaman said, 'If not, please let there be given to your servant a load of earth — a pair of mules' burden — for your servant will no longer offer burnt offering or sacrifice to any other god, but only to the LORD.'
  16. ↩Isa.26.10 — Though favor is shown to the wicked, they do not learn righteousness; in a land of upright dealings they act unjustly and do not see the majesty of the LORD.
  17. ↩Isa.26.10 — Though favor is shown to the wicked, they do not learn righteousness; in a land of upright dealings they act unjustly and do not see the majesty of the LORD.
  18. ↩Exod.3.5 — Then He said, "Do not come closer. Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground."
  19. ↩Exod.3.5 — Then He said, "Do not come closer. Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground."
  20. ↩Col.2.9 — For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,
  21. ↩Job.10.17 — You renew Your witnesses against me and increase Your indignation upon me; relief forces and army are with me.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩a concupiscentiis: rendered 'set free from its lusts' to capture the ablative of separation; the sense is liberation from, not merely abstinence toward, disordered desire.
  2. 2 ↩cultores ventris: 'worshippers of the belly' — a Pauline phrase (Phil 3:19) rendered here with 'worship' to capture the religious force of cultores.
  3. 3 ↩in fermentum conversi sumus: 'turned into leaven' — leaven here carries its negative biblical sense (corrupting influence, cf. 1 Cor 5:6–8), not the positive kingdom parable sense.
  4. 4 ↩templum Dei: rendered 'temple of God' preserving the Pauline ecclesiological and somatic resonance (1 Cor 3:16–17; 6:19).
  5. 5 ↩burdonibus: rare word, likely meaning pack-saddles or burdens carried by beasts of burden. The sense is that Naaman loaded the earth onto animals for transport.
  6. 6 ↩The citation 'Isa.' with chapter and verse is incomplete in the source; the quotation appears to echo Isaiah 26:10 but the exact wording does not match standard Vulgate readings. Left as candidate pending Moses resolution.
  7. 7 ↩The contrast between the burning bush (creature bearing divine voice) and the altar (bearing Christ's body indwelling the fullness of divinity) draws on Colossians 2:9 — 'in him the whole fullness of divinity dwells bodily.' The Eucharistic implication is central to the chapter's argument about reverence in sacred space.
  8. 8 ↩Carrilocensis is a place name of uncertain modern identification. The monastery is otherwise unattested in standard reference works.
  9. 9 ↩The anecdote illustrates the violation of sacred space: Richerius's sexual act in a cell adjoining the church is presented as a desecration of holy ground, punished by a supernatural binding. The comparison 'like a dog' (sicut canis) underscores the animalistic, disordered nature of the act in contrast to the holiness of the place.
  10. 10 ↩fuerit: mood ambiguous between perfect subjunctive ('may have been') and future perfect indicative ('will have been'). The concessive licet favors a subjunctive reading here: 'although he may have been.'
  11. 11 ↩feriretur: tense ambiguous between imperfect and present subjunctive passive; rendered as simple past to match the narrative sequence.

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