Ubi loquendum
Where Silence Is Kept
Before speaking, one must discern the place, for some places demand perpetual silence.
The third distinction in speaking follows: when we want to say something, we should first consider where it is fitting to say it. There are certain places where silence must be kept at all times.
The Oratory and Sacred Speech
In sacred spaces, only words directed to God—prayer, reading, song—are fitting, as Augustine teaches.
There are other places where it is not permitted to produce human conversations — that is, idle chatter with one another — except for those words by which a person speaks with God and to God, when, whether in prayers or in readings, or in hymns and songs spoken aloud or silently, one serves God.1 As blessed Augustine says, in the oratory nothing should be done except what it was made for.
Disciplined Speech for Instruction and Study
Some places are set apart for moral instruction and reverent study of Scripture, free from contention.
Likewise there are other places where words must be had for the discipline and instruction of morals; then again there are some places where discussions about the understanding and exposition of the Scriptures can be held — with discipline and reverence, that is, without contention and clamor and any shamefulness of words.
Permissible Freedom in External Affairs
In other places, speech may extend to practical matters of external provision, not only spiritual things.
Finally, there are places where the freedom of speech is relaxed further, so that conversation is allowed not only about spiritual matters but also about the arrangement and provision of external affairs.
No Place for Vanity
There is no place where vain or superfluous speech should be uttered.
As for places where vain and superfluous things ought to be said — I cannot find any.
Guarding the Boundaries of Speech
One must never mix idle, contentious, worldly, or secret matters into their proper sacred or disciplined contexts.
And so we ought neither to introduce idle chatter in divine and sacred places, nor in those places where discipline must be addressed, air questions or disputes about words, nor in those where the understanding of the divine Scriptures must be treated, mix in external affairs; nor should we make public in the open those things that are to be revealed to few.2
Read the original Latin
Sequitur tertia discretio loquendi, ut cum aliquid dicere volumus, prius ubi illud dici conveniat consideremus. Nam quaedam sunt loca, in quibus perpetuum silentium servandum est. Quaedam vero in quibus humanos sermones, id est confabulationes ad alterutrum edere non licet, exceptis iis verbis quibus homo cum Deo et ad Deum loquitur, quando vel in orationibus vel in lectionibus sive in hymnis et canticis manifeste vel occulte prolatis Deo famulatur. Unde et beatus Augustinus in oratorio nihil agendum esse dicit, praeter id ad quod factum est. Sunt item alia loca in quibus pro disciplina et instructione morum verba habenda sunt; quaedam iterum in quibus de intelligentia et expositione Scripturarum collationes (cum disciplina tamen et reverentia, hoc est sine contentione et clamore et qualibet turpitudine verborum) haberi possunt. Postremo sunt alia loca in quibus magis loquendi licentia laxatur, ita ut non solum de spiritualibus rebus, sed etiam de exteriorum dispositione et provisione sermones admittantur. Loca in quibus vana et superflua dici debeant, invenire non possum. Neque igitur in divinis et sacratis locis confabulationes inducere, neque in illis locis ubi de disciplina agendum est, quaestiones aut contentiones verborum ventilare, neque in illis ubi de intelligentia divinarum Scripturarum tractandum est, exteriora negotia admiscere debemus, nec ea quae sunt paucis revelanda, in manifesto propalare.
Notes
De Institutione Novitiorum (On the Instruction of Novices) companion
Keep the novice's rule going, one morning at a time
The Chosen Portion app serves a short historic devotional reading and prayer each day, so your new rule has content waiting for you every morning.
Hugh trained novices with fixed daily portions of instruction; Chosen Portion continues that method by delivering one fixed devotional portion each day.
- A 2-minute historic reading and prayer delivered every morning
- Texts drawn from 78 works of royal and monastic devotion, 1000-2020
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