De iis quae in sacris Scripturis sunt attendenda
Reading Scripture for the Heart, Not the Head
Novices are urged to approach Holy Scripture seeking the formation of virtue rather than intellectual cleverness.
Brothers, you who have now entered the school of discipline: in your reading of Holy Scripture, seek first what shapes your character toward virtue rather than what sharpens your mind toward cleverness — and let your aim be to be formed by the precepts of Scripture rather than to get tangled up in questions.12
What to Seek in the Sacred Page
The reader is invited to weigh Scripture by what stirs love of God, contempt of the world, protection from the enemy, growth in good desires, and the fire of compunction.
Since you read the divine Scriptures, weigh carefully what has been said there — what serves to stir up the love of God in you, what serves to foster contempt of the world, what serves to help you avoid the enemy's snares, what serves to nourish good dispositions and extinguish petty desires, and what most quickly kindles the heart with the fire of compunction.345
Discipline, Humility, and Patience in the Word
Scripture is to be read for what it teaches about discipline in action, humility in thought, patience in adversity, confidence in good, and caution toward evil.
Consider what it teaches about discipline in action, humility in thought, and patience in adversity — and finally, what it teaches about being confident in doing good and cautious in avoiding evil.67
Wisdom Returned Through Virtue
Reading in this way yields wholesome understanding, and the wisdom set aside for virtue's sake is later found more truly through virtue itself.
Read in this way, Scripture brings a wholesome understanding — and that very wisdom which you gladly set aside for the sake of virtue, you will later find more truly through virtue itself.89
Read the original Latin
Vos autem fratres, qui scholam disciplinae jam intrastis, in lectione divina prius debetis quaerere, quod mores instruat ad virtutem, quam quod sensum acuat ad subtilitatem, magisque velle informari praeceptis Scripturarum, quam quaestionibus impediri. Cum igitur divinas Scripturas legitis, solerter perpendite quid ibi dictum sit ad excitandum in vobis amorem Dei, quid ad contemptum saeculi, quid ad cavendas insidias inimici, quid ad bonos affectus nutriendos et parva desideria exstinguenda valeat, et quid citius cor per compunctionis ardorem accendat. Quid disciplinam in opere, quid humilitatem in cogitatione, quid patientiam in adversis habere doceat, quid denique ad agenda bona securum, et ad mala cavenda doceat esse circumspectum. Hoc modo lecta scriptura intelligentiam confert salutarem, et hanc ipsam sapientiam (quam pro virtute libenter despicitis) melius postmodum per virtutem invenitis.
Notes
- 1 ↩disciplinae rendered 'discipline' in the sense of monastic/spiritual formation, not mere punishment.
- 2 ↩autem marks a shift to direct address; rendered as natural sentence-initial positioning rather than an explicit 'however'.
- 3 ↩Cum + subjunctive taken as causal ('since'); igitur rendered 'therefore' as inferential/resumptive.
- 4 ↩compunctionis ardorem rendered 'fire of compunction' — compunction in the devotional sense of grace-pierced sorrow for sin.
- 5 ↩parva desideria rendered 'petty desires' to capture the diminutive force of parva.
- 6 ↩Parallel quid…quid…quid…quid clauses rendered with anaphoric 'what' for natural English rhythm.
- 7 ↩securum rendered 'confident' (in the sense of spiritual assurance, not recklessness); circumspectum rendered 'cautious' (watchful, guarded).
- 8 ↩salutarem rendered 'wholesome' (health-giving, spiritually beneficial) rather than 'salvific' to avoid over-translation.
- 9 ↩The parenthetical quam pro virtute libenter despicitis carries an ironic edge: the novices think they are despising worldly wisdom for virtue's sake, but that despised wisdom is recovered through the very virtue they pursue.
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
- Free on iOS — start day 8 of your rule the moment you finish the checklist