Informacio sancte Agnetis ad filiam de non retrocedendo et de non plus debito procedendo et de modo tenendo in abstinenciis incipiendis vel inceptis; et que continencia sit Deo acceptabilis.
The Path of Moderation
Agnes warns against the dangers of spiritual instability and the pride of excessive, unmeasured asceticism.
Agnes says: "Daughter, stand firm and don't turn back, for a biting serpent lies at your heels." And don't go further than you should, because the sharp point of a lance stands before you; if you push beyond what is right, you'll be wounded by it. And what does it mean to turn back, if not to regret having adopted stricter and healthier habits during times of temptation, and to want to return to your old ways, finding pleasure in your mind in sordid thoughts? If such things please your mind, they cloud all good things and gradually pull you away from every true good. Also, you shouldn't go beyond what's reasonable—that is, you shouldn't afflict yourself beyond your strength or try to imitate the good works of others in a way that goes against your own nature. God has ordained from eternity that heaven is opened to sinners through works of charity and humility, provided that measure and discernment are maintained in all things.1 The envious devil tempts the imperfect person to fast beyond their strength, to make unusual and unbearable promises, and to try to imitate the more perfect without considering their own strengths and weaknesses. This happens so that, when your strength fails, you either keep up what you’ve poorly started—caring more about what people think than about God—or you give up all too soon because of a lack of good judgment and your own weakness. Therefore, measure yourself by your own self—that is, according to your own strength and weakness—because some are stronger by nature, others weaker; some are more fervent through the grace of God, while others are more eager through good habits. So, guide your life by the counsel of those who fear God, so the serpent doesn't bite you through carelessness, or the point of a poisonous sword—that is, the devil's most venomous suggestion—deceive your mind, leading you to want to appear as something you aren't, or to reach for things beyond your strength and virtue.
The Vanity of Human Merit
True spiritual life is rooted in the recognition that all power, merit, and grace come from God alone.
For there are some who believe they can earn heaven by their own merits; God, in His hidden providence, spares them from the temptations of the devil.2 Others think they can satisfy God for their excesses through their own works; the error of all such people is entirely damnable.3 For even if any person were to kill their own body a hundred times over, they still couldn't answer God with even one thing for a thousand, because it's He who gives the power and the will, He who gives the time and the health, and He who fills their longing with good things. He gives riches and glory; He is the one who puts to death and brings to life, who exalts and humbles. And everything is in His hand. Therefore, all honor belongs to Him alone, and no human merits count for anything before God.
Purity of Intention and Divine Protection
God actively guards the soul that remains pure in intention, using His justice and mercy to cleanse the heart of pride and vice.
Regarding your question about the woman who fell into sin while seeking indulgences, my answer is this: some women remain continent but lack love; for them, there is neither great delight nor intense temptation. If they were offered an honorable marriage, they would certainly accept it; but because they aren't offered anything great, they look down on small things. And so, pride and presumption sometimes arise from continence, and because of this, it happens by divine permission that one falls, just as you have already heard. If, however, someone is so determined that she wouldn't want to be stained even once—not even if the whole world were offered to her—it's impossible for that person to be abandoned to shameful things.4 However, if God were to permit such a person to fall by His own hidden justice, it would count more toward their crown than toward their sin, provided it happened against their own will. So, know for certain that God is like an eagle that watches the lowest things from on high; if He sees anything rising from the earth, He immediately casts it down as if with a sling. If it sees something poisonous that goes against it, it pierces it like an arrow; but if something unclean drips down from above onto it, it shakes it off vigorously like a goose, casting it away. God acts in this same way. If He sees people's hearts rising up against God—whether from the fragility of the flesh or the temptations of the devil—contrary to the will of the spirit, He immediately, like a sling, annihilates that impulse through the inspiration of compunction and penance, and He makes the person return to God and to their own self.5 But if the poison of fleshly desire or greed for wealth enters the heart, God immediately pierces the mind with the arrow of His love, so that a person, by not persisting in sin, isn't separated from God. If any filth of pride or mire of lust stains your mind, God immediately casts it off—like a goose shedding water—through the constancy of faith and hope, so that your mind isn't hardened in vice, nor your soul, joined to God, stained in a damnable way. Therefore, daughter, in all your affections and works, consider the justice and mercy of God, and always keep the end in view.
Read the original Latin
Agnes loquitur: "Filia, sta stabilis et non retrocedas, quia serpens mordens iacet ante talos. Nec eciam plus debito procedas, quia cuspis lancee acute ante te stat, a qua, si plus iusto processeris, vulneraberis.
Quid vero est retrocedere nisi penitere in temptacionibus assumpisse austeriora et salubria et velle ad consueta redire, delectari mente in sordidis cogitacionibus?
Talia, si menti placent, obscurant omnia bona paulatimque retrahunt ab omni bono. Nec eciam debes plus debito procedere, id est ultra vires te affligere aut alios supra naturam tuam in bonis operibus imitari,
quia ab eterno disposuit Deus operibus caritatis et humilitatis aperiri peccatoribus celum, seruata in omnibus mensura et discrecione.
Nunc autem Dyabolus inuidus suadet homini imperfecto supra vires ieiunare, promittere inconsueta et importabilia, velle imitari perfecciora non consideratis viribus propriis et infirmitatibus,
ut deficiente robore homo vel continuet male incepta propter ruborem hominum plus quam propter Deum, vel deficiat cicius propter indiscrecionem et infirmitatem.
Propterea mensura teipsam in teipsa, id est secundum fortitudinem et debilitatem tuam, quia alii sunt a natura forciores, alii debiliores, alia gracia Dei feruenciores, alii consuetudine bona alacriores.
Ideo secundum consilium timencium Deum guberna vitam tuam, ne aut per inconsideracionem mordeat te serpens aut cuspis gladii venenosi id est suggestio Dyaboli venenosissima deludat mentem tuam, qua vel videri velis quod non es aut esse appetas quod est supra vires et virtutem tuam.
Nam sunt quidam, qui meritis suis obtinere celum credunt; quibus Deus parcit a Dyaboli temptacionibus ex occulta dispensacione sua. Alii sunt, qui operibus suis satisfacere Deo putant pro excessibus suis; quorum omnium error omnino dampnabilis est,
quia eciam si quilibet homo cencies corpus suum occideret, non posset Deo unum pro mille respondere, quia ipse dat posse et velle, ipse tempora et sanitatem, ipse replet in bonis desiderium suum,
ipse dat diuicias et gloriam; ipse qui mortificat et viuificat, exaltat et humiliat. Et omnia sunt in manu eius. Ideo ei soli omnis honor exhibendus est, et nulla merita hominum alicuius reputacionis sunt apud Deum.
Quod vero mirabaris de domina, que ad indulgencias veniens corrupta est, respondeo tibi: Sunt quedam mulieres, que continenciam habent sed non diligunt; quibus nec delectacio magna est nec temptacio violenta,
quibus, si nupcie honorande preberentur, susciperent quidem sed, quia non offeruntur magna, dedignantur parua. Et ideo ex continencia aliquando oritur superbia et presumpcio, propter quam contingit ex permissione diuina cadere sicut iam audisti.
Si vero aliqua esset talis intencionis, quod nec propter totum mundum, si ei preberetur, vellet semel maculari, impossibile est talem relinqui ad turpia.
Verumptamen, si Deus permitteret ex occulta iusticia sua talem cadere, plus fieret ei ad coronam quam ad peccatum, dummodo esset contra eius voluntatem.
Propterea pro certo scito, quod Deus est quasi aquila, que ab alto prospicit infima; que si aliqua viderit ascendere de terra, statim quasi funda deicit illa;
si vero aliquod venenosum prospicit contrarium sibi, quasi sagitta transuerberat; si autem distillat aliquod immundum de superioribus supra ipsam, quasi anser fortiter excutit a se et elongat.
Sic eciam facit Deus. Si viderit corda hominum ex fragilitate carnis vel temptacionibus Dyaboli contra voluntatem spiritus erigere se contra Deum, statim quasi funda per inspiracionem compunccionis et penitencie illud adnichilat et facit hominem redire ad Deum et ad se ipsum.
Si vero venenum cupiditatis carnis vel diuiciarum intrauerit cor, mox Deus transuerberat mentem sagitta caritatis sue, ne homo perseuerans in peccato a Deo separetur.
Quod si aliquod immundum superbie vel lutum luxurie fedauerit animum, mox quasi anser per fidei et spei constanciam deicit, ne vel animus obduretur in viciis aut anima iuncta Deo dampnabiliter maculetur.
Propterea, filia, in omnibus affeccionibus tuis et operibus considera iusticiam et misericordiam Dei et semper attende finem."
Notes
- 1 ↩The Latin 'discrecione' (discretion/discernment) here refers to the prudent moderation of spiritual practices, a key theme in the surrounding text.
- 2 ↩The term 'dispensacione' here refers to God's mysterious, sovereign ordering of events, often used in medieval theology to describe how God governs the world in ways beyond human understanding.
- 3 ↩The term 'excessibus' refers to sins or transgressions that exceed the bounds of moral law.
- 4 ↩The Latin 'turpia' refers to shameful or base acts, often implying moral impurity or sin.
- 5 ↩The metaphor of the 'sling' (funda) suggests a sudden, forceful, and precise action that redirects the soul back to its center.
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