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← Liber ad milites templi de laude novae militiae (In Praise of the New Knighthood)/Book 1 · De laude novae militiae
Chapter 6BernT.1.6

De Templo

A Temple Not of Gold but of Virtue

The new knighthood's temple in Jerusalem rivals Solomon's in glory, yet its true beauty lies in holy living, adorned with weapons rather than jewels, echoing Christ's own zeal in cleansing the temple.

There is also a temple in Jerusalem, where they likewise dwell, rivaling that ancient and most famous one of Solomon — indeed unequal in structure, but not lesser in glory. For all of that temple's splendor consisted in perishable gold and silver, in fitted stonework and variety of timbers; but the whole beauty of this one, and the charm of its pleasing adornment, is the devout religious life of its inhabitants and their most orderly way of living. That one was meant to be admired for its varied colors; this one is to be revered for its diverse virtues and holy deeds. For holiness befits the house of God (Psal.✦ XCII, 5), who delights not so much in polished marble as in adorned character, and loves pure minds more than gilded walls.✦ Still, the face of this temple too is adorned — but with weapons, not jewels: instead of ancient golden crowns, the wall is covered with shields hanging round about; instead of lamp-stands, censers, and pitchers, the house is fortified on all sides with bridles, saddles, and lances. Clearly, with all of this making it plainly evident that the soldiers burn with the same zeal for God's house that once set the Leader of soldiers himself ablaze — when, inflamed most fiercely, with that most holy hand armed not with a sword but with a whip that he had made from cords, he entered the temple, drove out the merchants, poured out the money-changers' coins, and overturned the seats of those selling doves (Joan.✦ II, 15): judging it utterly unworthy that a house of prayer should be profaned by such marketplace traffic.✦

Zealous Guardians Offering Spiritual Sacrifice

Moved by Christ's example, the devoted soldiers keep watch in the holy house day and night, offering not animal sacrifices but fraternal love, humble submission, and voluntary poverty.

Moved, then, by this example of his own King, the devoted army — judging it far more undeserved and far more intolerable that holy things should be defiled by unbelievers than that they should be violated by merchants by trade — lingers in the holy house with horses and arms; and with every foul and tyrannical rage of faithlessness driven out from it as from the other sacred things, they themselves are occupied in it day and night with duties as honorable as they are useful.✦ They eagerly honor God's temple with zealous and sincere services, offering in it constant devotion — not, to be sure, the flesh of cattle after the ancient rite, but truly peaceable sacrifices: fraternal love, devoted submission, voluntary poverty.

Sinners Turned Saviors: A Double Harvest of Joy

The world streams to Jerusalem, yet most who flock there are criminals whose conversion brings double joy—freeing their homeland and defending the holy city—as Christ triumphs even through his former enemies.

These things are happening in Jerusalem, and the world is roused. The islands hear it, and distant peoples pay attention; they pour forth from East and West, like a torrent overflowing with the glory of the nations, and like the rush of a river bringing joy to the city of God.✦✦ And what you'll notice as more delightful and more advantageous is that you'd see very few from such a great multitude of people flocking there, unless of course they are criminals and the wicked, plunderers and sacrilegious men, murderers, perjurers, and adulterers. From their conversion, just as a twofold good clearly results, so the joy is doubled, since they bring as much joy to their own people by their departure as they do to those they hurry to help by their arrival.1 They benefit both sides, you see—not only by protecting their own people, but also by no longer oppressing the others. And so Egypt rejoices at their departure, while Mount Zion nonetheless rejoices just as much at their protection, and the daughters of Judah exult.✦ The former rightly boasts of being freed from their hand, while the latter even more rightfully boasts of being freed into their hand. The former gladly loses its cruelest ravagers; the latter joyfully welcomes its most faithful defenders. And from the very thing that sweetly consoles the latter, the former is equally and most wholesomely desolated. This is how Christ knows how to take vengeance on his enemies: not only from them, but frequently even through them, he is accustomed to triumph all the more gloriously, and all the more powerfully.

From Persecutor to Preacher: The Joy of Repentance

Just as Christ made Paul the preacher from Saul the persecutor, so the heavenly court rejoices more over one repenting sinner than over many righteous, since conversion undoes the harm of a wicked life.

How pleasant and fitting it is that he now begins to have as defenders those he long endured as attackers, and that he makes a soldier out of an enemy — the one who once made Paul the preacher from Saul the persecutor (Acts IX). So I'm not surprised if that heavenly court too, by the Savior's own testimony, rejoices more over one sinner doing penance than over very many righteous people who have no need of penance, since there's no doubt the conversion of a sinner, and especially of a wicked one, does as much good as his former life had done harm.✦

Hail, Holy City: A Hymn to Jerusalem

A soaring salutation to Jerusalem as God's consecrated dwelling, mother of prophets and apostles, land of promise now offering salvation to the whole world, whose glory is proclaimed to the ends of the earth.

Hail then, holy city, which the Most High himself consecrated as his own dwelling place, through whom and in whom so great a generation would be saved.✦ Hail, city of the great King, from which new and joyful wonders have scarcely been absent to the world in any age from the beginning.✦ Hail, mistress of the nations, ruler of the provinces, possession of the Patriarchs, mother of the Prophets and of the Apostles, beginner of the faith, glory of the Christian people, whom God has always allowed to be attacked from the beginning, so that for brave people the gates might be an occasion of virtue and of salvation alike. Hail, land of promise, which once flowing with milk and honey for your own inhabitants alone, now offer to the whole world the remedies of salvation and the food of life.✦ Good and best land, I say, which receiving the heavenly seed into your most fruitful womb from the treasury of the Father's heart, brought forth from that heavenly sowing such great harvests of martyrs, and nonetheless from the rest of all the faithful, fertile soil, you have born thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold fruit over all the earth in manifold ways.✦ And so, most delightfully satisfied and richly fed from the great abundance of your sweetness, those who have seen you everywhere proclaim the memory of the fullness of your gentleness, and those who have not seen you speak of the magnificence of your glory to the ends of the earth, and tell of the wonders that are done in you. Glorious things are spoken of you, city of God: but now, from the delights with which you overflow, let us too bring a few things forward into the open, to the praise and glory of your name.✦ 550

Read the original Latin

Est vero templum Jerosolymis, in quo pariter habitant, antiquo et famosissimo illi Salomonis impar quidem structura, sed non inferius gloria. Siquidem universa illius magnificentia in corruptibilibus auro et argento, in quadratura lapidum et varietate lignorum continebatur: hujus autem omnis decor, et gratae venustatis ornatus, pia est habitantium religiositas, et ordinatissima conversatio. Illud variis exstitit spectandum coloribus: hoc diversis virtutibus et sanctis actibus venerandum. Domum quippe Dei decet sanctitudo (Psal. XCII, 5), qui non tam politis marmoribus, quam ornatis moribus delectatur, et puras diligit mentes super auratos parietes. Ornatur tamen hujus quoque facies templi, sed armis, non gemmis: et pro antiquis coronis aureis, circum pendentibus clypeis paries operitur; pro candelabris, thuribulis, atque urceolis, domus undique frenis, sellis, ac lanceis communitur. Plane his omnibus liquido demonstrantibus, eodem pro domo Dei fervere milites zelo, quo ipse quondam militum Dux vehementissime inflammatus armata illa sanctissima manu, non tamen ferro, sed flagello, quod fecerat de resticulis, introivit in templum, negotiantes expulit, nummulariorum effudit aes, et cathedras vendentium columbas evertit (Joan. II, 15): indignissimum judicans, orationis domum hujuscemodi forensibus incestari.

Tali proinde sui Regis permotus exemplo devotus exercitus, multo sane indignius, longeque intolerabilius arbitrans sancta pollui ab infidelibus, quam a mercatoribus incestari, in domo sancta 549 cum equis et armis commoratur; tamque ab ipsa, quam a caeteris sacris omni infidelitatis spurca et tyrannica rabie propulsata, ipsi in ea die noctuque tam honestis quam utilibus officiis occupantur. Honorant certatim Dei templum sedulis et sinceris obsequiis, jugi in eo devotione immolantes, non quidem veterum ritu pecudum carnes, sed vere hostias pacificas, fraternam dilectionem, devotam subjectionem, voluntariam paupertatem.

Haec Jerosolymis actitantur, et orbis excitatur. Audiunt insulae, et attendunt populi de longe, et ebulliunt ab Oriente et Occidente, tanquam torrens inundans gloriae gentium, et tanquam fluminis impetus laetificans civitatem Dei. Quodque cernitur jucundius, et agitur commodius, paucos admodum in tanta multitudine hominum illo confluere videas, nisi utique sceleratos et impios, raptores et sacrilegos, homicidas, perjuros, adulteros; de quorum profecto perfectione sicut duplex quoddam constat provenire bonum, ita duplicatur et gaudium; quandoquidem tam suos de suo discessu laetificant, quam illos de adventu quibus subvenire festinant. Prosunt quippe utrobique, non solum utique istos tuendo, sed etiam illos jam non opprimendo. Itaque laetatur Aegyptus in profectione eorum, cum tamen de protectione eorum nihilominus laetetur mons Sion, et exsultent filiae Judae. Illa quidem se de manu eorum, ista magis in manu eorum liberari se merito gloriatur. Illa libenter amittit crudelissimos sui vastatores: ista cum gaudio suscipit sui fidelissimos defensores; et unde ista dulcissime consolatur, inde illa aeque saluberrime desolatur. Sic Christus, sic novit ulcisci in hostes suos, ut non solum de ipsis, sed per ipsos quoque frequenter soleat tanto gloriosius, quanto et potentius triumphare.

Jucunde sane et commode: ut quos diu pertulit oppugnatores magis jam propugnatores habere incipiat; faciatque de hoste militem, qui de Saulo quondam persecutore fecit Paulum praedicatorem (Act. IX). Quamobrem non miror, si etiam superna illa curia, juxta testimonium Salvatoris, exsultat magis super uno peccatore poenitentiam agente, quam super plurimis justis qui non indigent poenitentia, dum peccatoris et maligni tantis procul dubio prosit conversio, quantis et prior nocuerat conversatio.

Salve igitur, civitas sancta, quam ipse sanctificavit sibi tabernaculum suum Altissimus, quo tanta in te et per te generatio salvaretur. Salve, civitas Regis magni, ex qua nova et jucunda mundo miracula nullis pene temporibus defuere ab initio. Salve, domina gentium, princeps provinciarum, Patriarcharum possessio, Prophetarum mater et Apostolorum, initiatrix fidei, gloria populi christiani, quam Deus semper a principio propterea passus est oppugnari, ut viris fortibus sicut virtutis, ita fores occasio et salutis. Salve, terra promissionis, quae olim fluens lac et mel tuis duntaxat habitatoribus, nunc universo orbi remedia salutis, vitae porrigis alimenta. Terra, inquam, bona et optima, quae in fecundissimo illo sinu tuo ex arca paterni cordis coeleste granum suscipiens, tantas ex superno semine martyrum segetes protulisti, et nihilominus ex reliquo omnium fidelium genere fructum fertilis gleba tricesimum, et sexagesimum, et centesimum super omnem terram multipliciter procreasti. Unde et de magna multitudine dulcedinis tuae jucundissime satiati et opulentissime saginati, memoriam abundantiae suavitatis tuae ubique eructant qui te viderunt, et usque ad extremum terrae magnificentiam gloriae tuae loquuntur eis qui te non viderunt, et enarrant mirabilia quae in te fiunt. Gloriosa dicta sunt de te civitas Dei: sed jam ex his quibus affluis deliciis, nos quoque pauca proferamus in medium, ad laudem et gloriam nominis tui. 550

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Ps.92.5 — For you have made me glad, LORD, by your deeds; at the works of your hands I sing for joy.
  2. ↩Ps.92.5 — For you have made me glad, LORD, by your deeds; at the works of your hands I sing for joy.
  3. ↩John.2.15 — And having made a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple—the sheep and the oxen—and he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables.
  4. ↩John.2.15 — And having made a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple—the sheep and the oxen—and he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables.
  5. ↩John.2.15 — And having made a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple—the sheep and the oxen—and he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables.
  6. ↩Isa.2.2-Isa.2.3 — And it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the LORD will be established at the top of the mountains, and lifted up above the hills; and all the nations will stream to it. Isa.2.3 — Many peoples will go and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths." For from Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
  7. ↩Ps.46.4 — There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. The nations rage, the kingdoms totter; he lifts his voice, and the earth melts. Selah
  8. ↩Ps.114.1-Ps.114.2 — When Israel went out from Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of foreign tongue, Ps.114.2 — Judah became his holy realm, Israel his dominion.
  9. ↩Luke.15.7 — I tell you, there will be joy in heaven over one sinner who repents more than over ninety-nine righteous persons who have no need of repentance.
  10. ↩Ps.87.3;Gal.4.26 — Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God. Selah. Gal.4.26 — But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother.
  11. ↩Ps.48.2 — Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised, in the city of our God, his holy mountain.
  12. ↩Exod.3.8;Deut.26.9 — So I have come down to deliver them from the hand of Egypt and to bring them up from that land to a good and broad land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite. Deut.26.9 — And he brought us to this place and gave us this land—a land flowing with milk and honey.
  13. ↩Matt.13.8;Mark.4.8 — But other seed fell on good soil and produced grain—some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Mark.4.8 — But other seed fell on good soil, and it produced fruit, rising and growing, and yielded thirtyfold, sixtyfold, and a hundredfold.
  14. ↩Ps.87.3 — Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God. Selah.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩The Latin 'perfectione' is translated as 'conversion' here, reflecting the context of sinners leaving their former lives; a literal rendering like 'perfection' would obscure the causal link to the 'duplex bonum' of their departure and arrival.

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