Caput IV. Ex confabulatione cum externis mulieribus quae pernicies.
The Poisoned Visit
A recluse leaves a conversation with an old woman loaded with dangerous pleasures instead of spiritual fruit.
So when the hour compels them to leave each other, the recluse departs loaded with pleasures, the old woman loaded with provisions.
The Burning Within
Alone in her cell, the recluse cannot pray, as the fire of the conversation rages in her heart and unsteadies every devotion.
Wretched and given over to rest, she turns over in her heart the images that hearing had introduced; and the fire conceived by the earlier conversation she kindles more violently with her own thought: like someone drunk she staggers in the psalm, she falters in the reading, she wavers in prayer.1
Demons Sharpen Their Mockery
When daylight returns, the old women resume their counsel, exposing the recluse to demonic ridicule.
Once the light of the world is poured back in, the little women are summoned, adding new things to old, and they do not stop until they expose the captive, to be mocked more freely by demons.23
From Desire to Design
The conversation shifts from kindling desire to plotting its satisfaction in concrete terms.
For the more obvious conversation now proceeds not about kindling desire, but rather about satisfying pleasure: where and when and through whom she can fulfill what she thinks in common, they set forth.4
The Cell Profaned
The sacred cell becomes a brothel, and this ruin proves a common cause of destruction in the present age.
The cell becomes a brothel, and by any delicate artful opening, either she goes out or an adulterer enters.5 This unhappiness, as is often proven, is a common cause of ruin to many men in our age.6
Read the original Latin
Sic cum discedere ab invicem hora compulerit, inclusa voluptatibus, anus cibariis onerata recedet. Reddita quieti misera eas quas auditus induxerat, in corde versat imagines; et ignem praemissa confabulatione conceptum vehementius sua cogitatione succendit: quasi ebrius in psalmo titubat, in lectione cadit, fluctuat in oratione. Refusa mundi luce citantur mulierculae addentes nova veteribus, non cessant, donec captivam liberius daemonibus illudendam exponant. Nam manifestior sermo non jam de accendenda, sed potius de satianda voluptate procedens: ubi et quando et per quem possit explere quod cogitat, in commune exponunt. Cella vertitur in prostibulum, et delicato qualibet arte foramine, aut illa egreditur, aut adulter ingreditur. Infelicitas haec, ut saepe probatur, pluribus causa viris in hoc nostro saeculo communis est.
Notes
- 1 ↩quasi ebrius rendered 'like someone drunk' to keep the simile concrete without archaism.
- 2 ↩Refusa mundi luce: ablative absolute rendered as a temporal clause ('Once the light of the world is poured back in') for natural English flow.
- 3 ↩mulierculae: pejorative diminutive rendered 'little women' to capture the dismissive tone.
- 4 ↩manifestior sermo: 'more obvious conversation' — the discourse becomes more plainly sexual. de accendenda / de satianda voluptate: gerundives rendered 'about kindling desire / about satisfying pleasure'.
- 5 ↩prostibulum rendered 'brothel' — the stark metaphor is deliberate in the source. delicato qualibet arte foramine: 'by any delicate artful opening' captures the euphemistic force.
- 6 ↩ut saepe probatur: comparative 'as is often proven' adopted as most likely; result or purpose reading possible. pluribus...viris: 'to many men' — the warning extends beyond the women themselves.
De institutione inclusarum (A Rule of Life for a Recluse) companion
A rule only lives if you keep it daily
Chosen Portion gives your new rule its anchor: one free devotional portion every day.
Aelred built his sister's day around fixed times of prayer and meditation; Chosen Portion supplies the fixed daily portion that makes a modern rule of life keepable.
- Anchor your rule with a fixed 10-minute daily portion
- Practice Aelred's threefold meditation with guided daily prompts
- Review and adjust your one-page rule after 30 days of tracked practice