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Chapter 37OdoC.2.37

Caput XXXVI

The False Excuse of Permissive Abbots

Odo refutes monks who twist the Rule to justify possessing things their negligent abbots permit, showing that God assigns rulers according to the merits of their subjects and that abbatial permission cannot exceed what Saint Benedict allowed for natural necessity.

It must be understood that just as certain words are found in both the New and Old Testaments which heretics, badly misunderstanding them, have twisted to build up their own error, so it also happens in the holy Rule: through certain of its words, those who refuse it and flee its demands try to excuse their own failings. "The Rule," they say, "commands that a monk should have nothing the abbot has not given or permitted. But our abbots are the sort who don't concern themselves with our affairs, and for that reason they allow us to have what we need. So we're not acting against the Rule if we have something by their permission." But if they were willing to listen to reason and truth, the answer comes easily. First, it must be understood that, just as is discussed in Book 25 of the Moralia, the characters of those in authority are assigned according to the merits of their subjects, and so the actions of rulers are arranged according to the quality of those under them — with the result that those who seem good are often changed once given authority, as was Saul; and those who seem and even are good are allowed to sin on account of an evil flock. In this it's clear that the people receive their punishment. Hence the Psalmist: "Let their eyes be darkened, so that they cannot see" (Ps. LXVIII, 24). It's as if he were saying: because they wander from God's way through pride, by divine judgment they receive as leaders men who lack the light of truth — so that those who follow them as the eyes of the body, foreseeing badly, stumble through their guidance and, bent down under the weight of iniquity, lose all uprightness of life. Furthermore, this much is clear: they can permit nothing beyond what Saint Benedict allowed for the sustaining of natural necessity.

The Lord's Curse on Flattering Priests

Drawing on Romans, Matthew, Malachi, and Isaiah, Odo warns that priests who promise Christ's mercy through flattery will find their blessings cursed by God, and that prelates who command beyond God's ordinance lose all authority to be obeyed.

And the one to whom we say, "Abba, Father" (Rom.✦ 8:15), when he sent his disciples out like lambs among wolves, he did allow them, given the necessity of the times, to carry something — but nothing beyond a traveling bag and a pouch.✦1 Let those people know, then, who under this pretext enslave themselves to greed, gluttony, and lust, that their excuses will not help them in their sins. But what God threatened through the prophet Malachi will come upon both prelates and subjects alike — as we said above: "I will destroy both teacher and disciple, and I will curse your blessings" (Malac.✦2 2:2–12). Priests bestow blessings when, by flattery, they promise the mercy of Christ to the guilty. But the Lord curses their blessings, because as it says elsewhere: "Those who call others blessed, and those who are called blessed, will both be cast down" (Isa.✦3 9:26). For if they held their own possessions only because of their superiors' negligence, and not more because of their own greed, they would presume to take no other food and no other clothing than what the Rule has established. Finally, if prelates have commanded anything beyond the ordinance of God or of the Fathers, they immediately lose their authority to command, and in that matter they are in no way to be obeyed.

Obeying God Rather Than Men

Using the apostles' example of obeying the Pharisees' teaching but refusing to stop preaching in Jesus' name, and Daniel and the three youths surviving Babylon, Odo exhorts monks to live well even under bad superiors, lamenting with Isaiah that truths have diminished.

By the example of the apostles—to whom the Master had said about the Pharisees and the scribes: Whatever they tell you, observe and do (Matt. 23:3). But afterward, when they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, Peter answered: It is necessary to obey God rather than men (Acts 5:29). And yet how many there are among them who live well even under bad superiors—who, although they are compelled to lead a life outside the common life or order of the holy rule, as if they are captives, nevertheless imitate Daniel and the three youths who lived continually in Babylon, and happily escape the furnace of vices. About ecclesiastical men who change secular deeds and are captured by Jerusalemites as if by Babylonians, and about the three vices through which the state of religious life is especially thrown into confusion, more things have now been set down—perhaps more verbosely than is fitting. But what the tears of you, venerable father, bear witness to—that now the spirit has failed and truths have diminished—so that, just as Isaiah weeps, we seem to be made as from the beginning, when God did not rule over us. Isn't that how it is?

The Vices of the Last Times

Odo paints a vivid catalogue of social and moral disorder—hatred among kin, malice, envy, and every vice—and shows that Paul's description of the last times in 2 Timothy gathers all these evils under one root: self-love and subjection to vicious desire.

while deadly hatreds flare up among close relatives? while hostile quarrels are born? while inexplicable and blind malice rages all the way to bloodshed? while the corrupt envy the good, the greedy resent the generous, the turbulent harass the most peaceful, the idle scorn the zealous, the implacable attack the gentle, the harsh disturb the tranquil, the reckless mock the modest, the foolish despise the wise, the cunning exploit the simple, and the furious rage even against the most mild? But the apostolic trumpet refutes their madnesses all the better. For when the Teacher was describing the dangers of the last times among the nations, he introduced the words: 'For people will be lovers of themselves, greedy, boastful, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, wicked, without affection, without peace, slanderers, without self-control, harsh, without kindness, traitors, reckless, cowardly, lovers of pleasures rather than lovers of God' (2 Tim.✦4 III, 2–4). Most blessed Paul, with wonderful brevity, gathered together what he had set forth more diffusely above, showing that people would become like this for this very reason: because they would prove to be lovers of pleasures, because they would subjugate themselves to the most vicious desires.

Self-Love as the Root of All Evils

Odo traces all evils to the despising of God and the loving of pleasures, citing Wisdom and Hosea to show that blood, deceit, murder, and every abomination flow from this single corruption, and that even those who consent to such sins are worthy of death.

This is where all evils come from. God is despised while pleasures are loved. Hence, as Wisdom says, all things are mixed together among them: blood, murder, deceit, perjury, the scramble for honors, forgetfulness of the Lord (Wis.5 14:25). And from this, Hosea makes his complaint: There is no truth, and there is no mercy, and there is no knowledge of God in the land.✦67 Curse, and lie, and murder, theft, and adultery have overflowed, and blood has touched blood (Hosea 4:1–2).✦8 And the peoples — just as those who oppose the priest, of whom the Apostle speaks with one sentence: it is because not only those who do such things, but also those who consent to those who do them, are worthy of death (Rom.✦9 1:32).

Final Scriptural Reference

The chapter closes with a final citation marker completing the Romans reference from the preceding pericope.

32).

Read the original Latin

Sciendum sane, quia sicut quaedam verba tam in Novo quam in Veteri Testamento reperiuntur, quae haeretici male intelligentes ad exstruendum errorem suum retorquere nisi sunt: ita et in sancta regula fit, cum per quaedam ejus verba renuitae et refugae ejus fortitudines suas excusare moliuntur. Regula, inquiunt, jubet, ut nihil habeat monachus quod abbas non dederit, aut permiserit; abbates vero nostri tales sunt ut nostra non curent, et ob id permittunt nos habere quae indigemus: non igitur contra facimus, si quid ex eorum permissione habemus. Sed si rationi ac veritati consentire vellent, facile respondetur: scilicet quoniam primo quidem sciendum est, quia sicut in Moralium libro XXV disputatur, quod secundum merita subjectorum tribuuntur personae regentium, et sic pro qualitate subditorum acta disponuntur illorum, ut saepe qui videntur boni accepto regimine permutentur, ut Saul: et qui etiam boni videntur et sunt, pro malo grege delinquere permittantur. In hoc apparet quia vindictam populus suscipit. Hinc Psalmista: Obscurentur oculi eorum ne videant (Psal. LXVIII, 24). Ac si dicat, quia in via Dei per superbiam exorbitant, tales divino examine praelatos accipiant, qui veritatis lucem non habeant, quatenus hi qui illos velut corpus oculos male praevidentes sequuntur, per eorum ducatum offendant, et iniquitatis onere incurvati omnem statum rectitudinis perdant. Deinde vero et illud constat, quia nihil ultra permittere possunt, nisi quantum S. Benedictus ad sustentandam naturae necessitatem permisit.

Et ille cui dicimus: Abba Pater (Rom. VIII, 15), cum discipulos quasi agnos in medio luporum misit, permisit quidem pro temporis necessitate aliquid ferre, nec tamen aliud quam peram et sacculum. Noverint ergo isti, qui sub hac occasione cupiditati, gulae, et libidini se mancipant, quia non proderunt eis excusationes in peccatis; sed fiet et praelatis et subditis hoc quod, ut supra diximus, per Malachiam Deus comminatur dicens: Disperdam magistrum et discipulum, et maledicam benedictionibus vestris (Malac. II, 2, 12). Benedicunt sacerdotes cum adulando Christi misericordiam reis promittunt: sed benedictionibus eorum Dominus maledicit, quia sicut alibi dicitur: Qui beatificant et qui beatificantur erunt praecipitati (Isa. IX, 26). Nam si ob negligentiam praepositorum solummodo, et non magis ob cupidinem suam propria haberent, non alios cibos, non alias vestes, quam regulariter constitutas praesumerent. Praelati denique si quid extra constitutionem Dei vel Patrum praeceperint: mox praecipiendi auctoritatem amittunt, et tunc in ea re nullatenus obediendum est eis.

Exemplo videlicet apostolorum, quibus Magister dixerat de Pharisaeis et Scribis: Omnia quaecunque dixerint vobis, servate et facite (Matth. XXIII, 3). Postea vero praecipientibus eis ne loquerentur in nomine Jesu, respondit Petrus: Obedire oportet Deo magis quam hominibus (Act. V, 29). Caeterum quam plures inter eos existunt, qui etiam sub malis praepositis bene vivunt, qui quamvis extra communem sanctae regulae vitam vel ordinem degere quasi captivi coguntur; Danielem tamen et tres pueros, qui in Babylone continenter vixerunt, imitantes, fornacem vitiorum feliciter evadunt. De ecclesiasticis viris, qui saecularium facta mutantes velut a Babyloniis Hierosolymitae captivantur, et de tribus vitiis per quae status religionis maxime confunditur, plura jam, et forte verbosius quam oportet, posita sunt. Caeterum quod tuae, venerabilis pater, lacrymae testantur, ita jam defecit spiritus, et diminutae sunt veritates, ut sicut Isaias illacrymat, facti videamur sicut a principio, quando Deus non dominabatur nostri. An non ita est?

dum inter propinquos feralia succedunt odia? dum jurgia nascuntur infensa? dum usque ad sanguinem saevit inexplicabilis et caeca malitia? dum bonis invident pravi, liberalibus cupidi, quietissimis turbulenti, studiosis inertes, placidis implacabiles, tranquillis immites, modestis temerarii, sapientibus stulti, simplicibus callidi, mittissimis quoque furiosi? Sed melius eorum insanias apostolica tuba redarguit. Nam cum novissimorum pericula temporum gentium Doctor exprimeret, intulit dicens: Erunt enim homines seipsos amantes, cupidi, elati, superbi, blasphemi, parentibus non obedientes, ingrati, scelesti, sine affectione, sine pace, criminatores, incontinentes, immites, sine benignitate, proditores, protervi, timidi, voluptatum amatores magis quam Dei (II Tim. III, 2-4). Hic beatissimus Paulus quod superius diffuse protulit mira brevitate collegit, ostendens eos ideo tales fore, quia voluptatum amatores existerent, quia vitiosissimis cupiditatibus se subjugarent.

Hinc enim cuncta mala proveniunt. Dum Deus contemnitur, voluptates amantur. Hinc est quod, ut Sapientia dicit: Omnia commista sunt apud eos: sanguis, homicidium, fictio, perjurium, tumultus honorum, Domini immemoratio (Sap. XIV, 25). Hinc et Osee querimoniam faciens dicit: Non est veritas, et non est misericordia, et non est scientia in terra. Maledictum, et mendacium, et homicidium, furtum, et adulterium inundaverunt, et sanguis sanguinem tetigit (Osee IV, 1, 2). Et populi, sicut hi qui contradicunt sacerdoti, de quibus una Apostoli sententia est, quoniam non solum qui talia agunt, sed et qui consentiunt facientibus digni sunt morte (Rom. I.

32).

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Rom.8.15 — For you did not receive a spirit of slavery again to fear, but you received a spirit of adoption, in which we cry, "Abba, Father."
  2. ↩Matt.10.16 — Look, I am sending you out as sheep among wolves; therefore be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.
  3. ↩Mal.2.2 — If you do not listen, and if you do not set your heart to give glory to my name, says the LORD of hosts, then I will send the curse among you, and I will curse your blessings; indeed, I have already cursed them, because you do not set your heart.
  4. ↩Isa.9.14-Isa.9.16 — So the Lord cut off from Israel head and tail, palm and reed, in a single day—the elder and the honored one is the head, and the prophet who teaches lies is the tail. Isa.9.15 — Those who lead this people lead them astray, and those who are led are swallowed up. Isa.9.16 — Therefore the Lord does not rejoice in their young men, and he has no compassion on their orphans or their widows; for all of them are ungodly and do evil, and every mouth speaks folly. In all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is still stretched out.
  5. ↩2Tim.3.2-2Tim.3.4 — For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boasters, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 2Tim.3.3 — without natural affection, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of good 2Tim.3.4 — traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
  6. ↩Hos.4.1 — Hear the word of the LORD, O children of Israel, for the LORD has a charge against the inhabitants of the land. For there is no faithfulness, and there is no steadfast love, and there is no knowledge of God in the land.
  7. ↩Hos.4.1-Hos.4.2 — Hear the word of the LORD, O children of Israel, for the LORD has a charge against the inhabitants of the land. For there is no faithfulness, and there is no steadfast love, and there is no knowledge of God in the land. Hos.4.2 — Cursing and lying, murder and stealing and adultery have broken out, and bloodshed follows bloodshed.
  8. ↩Rom.1.32 — Although they know God's righteous decree, that those who practice such things deserve death, they not only do them but also approve of those who practice them.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩The passage echoes Matthew 10:16 (and Luke 10:3), where Christ sends the disciples as lambs among wolves. The Latin cites Rom. 8:15 in the preceding sentence; the allusion here is to the Synoptic mission discourse.
  2. 2 ↩The quotation 'Disperdam magistrum et discipulum, et maledicam benedictionibus vestris' is attributed to Malachi. The closest Vulgate parallel is Malachi 2:2–3, though the wording does not correspond exactly to any single verse; it may be a paraphrastic composite.
  3. 3 ↩The quotation 'Qui beatificant et qui beatificantur erunt praecipitati' is attributed to Isaiah. The closest Vulgate parallel is Isaiah 9:14–16 (LXX/Isaiah 28:7 in some traditions), though the exact wording does not match a single verse precisely; it may be a paraphrastic rendering.
  4. 4 ↩Quotation from 2 Timothy 3:2–4 (Vulgate). The Latin follows the Vulgate closely; English rendering here tracks sense rather than any standard English Bible translation.
  5. 5 ↩Quotation from the Book of Wisdom (Sapientia), chapter 14, verse 25. The Latin 'commista' (mixed together) and the catalogue of vices follow the Vulgate text.
  6. 6 ↩Quotation from Hosea (Osee) 4:1. The triple negation of truth, mercy, and knowledge of God is a direct prophetic citation.
  7. 7 ↩'scientia' rendered as 'knowledge of God' to supply the implied object (Dei) present in the Vulgate text of Hos. 4:1 but omitted in the Latin citation here.
  8. 8 ↩Continuation of the Hosea quotation, covering verses 1–2 of chapter 4. The catalogue of sins and the phrase 'blood has touched blood' match the Vulgate.
  9. 9 ↩Allusion to Romans 1:32, where Paul declares that those who consent to sinful acts are worthy of death. The Latin 'una Apostoli sententia' signals a single Pauline sentence.

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