De disciplina in mensa servanda, et primo in habitu et gesta
The Twofold Watch at Table
The novice is reminded that discipline at table has two aspects: bearing and food.
At table there is a twofold watchfulness to be kept over discipline. For there a person ought to keep discipline in bearing, and discipline in food.
Silence of the Tongue
The first discipline of bearing is silence, because the tongue loosened by food and drink is prone to sin, as shown by the rich man in hell.
Discipline in bearing is threefold: the discipline of keeping silent, the discipline of looking, and the discipline of restraining oneself. Silence at meals is necessary for this reason: because the tongue, which at every moment is prone to slip into sin, is loosened to speak more dangerously when it has been inflamed by drunkenness. For this reason the rich man who had served loquacity at feasts, afterward placed in hell, burned more vehemently in his tongue.✦
Guarding the Eyes
The eyes must be kept from wandering curiously at table, attending instead with modesty to what is set before oneself.
Watchfulness over the eyes at meals is necessary for this reason: because it is not fitting there, especially, that a person should have wandering eyes, nor look around curiously — and, to say something still more plainly, shamelessly — at what is being done among others; but rather, with modesty and eyes cast down, that person should attend only to what has been set before and placed near them.
Restraint of Gesture and Bearing
Nothing unseemly should be done in gesture; all limbs must be held in modesty and tranquility.
The watchfulness of restraining oneself there must not be neglected, insofar as — that is — nothing unseemly or dishonorable should be done either in bearing or in gesture. Let nothing be done with noise or commotion, but let all limbs be held in discipline with modesty and tranquility.
The Shamelessness of the Undisciplined
The author vividly describes the restless, indecorous behavior of those who lack table discipline, then acknowledges he may have spoken too plainly—but shamelessness must be openly shamed.
Not as some people do, who, when they have sat down to eat, reveal the lack of restraint in their minds through a certain restless agitation and confusion of their limbs. They shake their heads, stretch out their arms, spread their hands wide into the air, and not without great shame — as if they were about to devour the entire feast all at once — they display certain enormous and thoroughly indecorous efforts and gestures. They pant and sigh from the pressure of it, so that you'd think they were seeking a wider passage for their growling belly, as if the narrowness of the throat couldn't supply a hungry stomach with enough abundance.1 Sitting in one place, therefore, they run their eyes and hands over everything — what's near, what's far — all at once they break apart loaves, pour wines into cups and bowls, send the dishes around in a circle, and like a king about to assault a besieged city, they hesitate over where to begin the attack, since they long to storm every side at the same time. Perhaps we go too far in saying these things, having forgotten what modesty requires — but shamelessness doesn't know how to blush unless it has been openly put to shame.
The Three Means of Table Discipline
The chapter concludes by summarizing the three means of maintaining discipline at table: restraining the tongue, holding back the eyes, and keeping all limbs in modest stillness.
By these three means, then, each person ought to maintain discipline at table within themselves: namely, that they restrain their tongue from talkativeness, hold back their eyes from wandering glances, and keep all their remaining limbs in check with modesty and stillness.
Read the original Latin
In mensa est duplex custodia disciplinae. Ibi enim debet homo servare disciplinam in habitu suo, et disciplinam in cibo suo. Disciplinam in habitu, tribus modis, in disciplina tacendi, in disciplina videndi, in disciplina continendi sese. Taciturnitas inter epulas necessaria est idcirco, quoniam lingua quae omni tempore prona ad peccatum labitur, periculosius cum per crapulam inflammata fuerit, ad loquendum relaxatur. Propterea enim dives qui inter epulas loquacitati servierat, post in inferno positus vehementius in lingua ardebat . Custodia oculorum inter epulas propterea necessaria est; quia non decet ibi praecipue, ut vagos homo habeat oculos, neque curiose, et (ut amplius aliquid dicam) impudenter ea quae apud alios aguntur circumlustrando prospiciat, sed ut potius pudice demissis luminibus ea tantum quae sibi anteposita et apposita sunt attendat. Custodia quoque continendi sese ibi negligenda non est, quatenus videlicet neque in habitu, neque in gestu indecens aliquid aut inhonestum agatur. Nihil cum strepitu aut tumultu fiat, sed omnia membra cum modestia, et tranquillitate in disciplina contineantur.
Non sicut quidam faciunt, qui cum ad sedendum assederint, inquieta quadam agitatione et confusione membrorum intemperantiam animi sui designant. Caput excutiunt, brachia exerunt, manus in altum expandunt, et non sine magna turpitudine quasi totum epulum simul sint absorpturi, ingentes quosdam conatus et gestus satis indecoros ostendunt. Anhelant, et suspirant prae augustia, ita ut existimes eos alium rugienti ventri patentiorem aditum quaerere, quasi angustia faucium non possit esurienti stomacho satis sufficientem abundantiam ministrare. In uno ergo loco sedentes, oculis, et manibus quae prope, quae longe, omnia circumcurrunt, simul panes comminuunt, vina in calices, et pateras effundunt, discos in gyrum circumducunt, et velut rex super obsessam civitatem assultum facturus, dubitant ubi primum expugnationem aggrediantur, dum simul in omni parte irruptionem facere concupiscunt. Plus justo fortassis ista dicentes, verecundiae obliti sumus, sed nescit aliquando impudentia erubescere, nisi fuerit manifeste confusa. His igitur tribus modis debet quisque inter epulas conservare disciplinam in semetipso, videlicet ut et linguam suam a loquacitate restringat, et oculos suos a circumspectione cohibeat, et ut caetera membra omnia cum modestia et quiete contineat.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Luke.16.19-Luke.16.24 — Now there was a certain rich man, and he used to dress in purple and fine linen, celebrating every day in splendor. Luke.16.20 — And a certain beggar named Lazarus was laid at his gate, covered with sores. Luke.16.21 — and longing to be fed from what fell from the rich man's table; but even the dogs came and kept licking his sores. Luke.16.22 — And it happened that the poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried. Luke.16.23 — And in Hades, while he was in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus at his side. Luke.16.24 — And he called out, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame.'
Notes
- 1 ↩augustia is a rare form, possibly for angustia ('narrowness, distress'); translated as 'pressure' to capture the sense of constriction.
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