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Chapter 72ScalePerfB1.1.72

Hou a man schal knowe whanne he synneth not in etynge and drynkynge and whanne

The Necessity of Discernment

The author introduces the challenge of distinguishing between necessary bodily needs and the sinful indulgence of fleshly appetites.

He sins mortally, and when venially.1 Yet you can see more in this image, though it is dark: that is fleshly love of yourself in gluttony, sloth, and lechery. These fleshly pleasures make a person quite beastly, and far from the inward savor of the love of God and from the clear sight of spiritual things. But now you argue that I'm saying you must necessarily eat, drink, and sleep, and that you can't do those things without pleasure—therefore, it seems to you that this pleasure isn't a sin.

Grace as the Measure of Need

True moderation in eating and drinking is not merely a human effort but a gift of grace, enabling one to treat food as medicine rather than lust.

To this I answer: if you eat, drink, and attend to your body's other needs with the moderation that reason requires, taking no more than nature demands, and you do all this for the spiritual delight you feel in your soul, I truly grant that you don't sin at all. For then you truly know how to eat and sleep, without a doubt.2 I am very far from that knowledge, and even farther from putting it into practice; for I have the natural ability to eat, but knowing how to eat is something I can only have by grace. Saint Paul had this knowledge by grace, as he said of himself: "I have been instructed in every place and in all things; and I know how to be filled and how to hunger, how to abound and how to suffer want." "I can do all things in Him who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:12-13).✦ I am trained and taught in all things, for I can go hungry and I can eat; I can live with plenty and I can live with poverty.✦ I can do all things in Him who strengthens me.✦ Saint Augustine said to our Lord, "Lord, you have taught me to take food as medicine." Hunger is a sickness of nature, and food is its medicine; therefore, the pleasure that comes with it, insofar as it is natural and necessary, isn't a sin. But when it turns into lust and willful pleasure, then it becomes sin.3 And therefore all the skill lies in knowing how to separate wisely the need from the lust and willful pleasure.4 They are so intertwined, and one comes so often with the other, that it's hard to accept the one as a necessity while rejecting the other as willful pleasure and lust, which often disguises itself as a necessity.5 If a person took food and drink only as medicine for sickness, they would know how to effectively separate lust from necessity. Nevertheless, since necessity is the basis for this sin, and necessity itself is not a sin.6 For however holy a person may be, he still must eat and drink and sleep; therefore the lust and the pleasure that come under the color of this need and go beyond this need are the lesser sin.7

The Protection of a General Will

A soul rooted in charity and a general will toward God is protected from mortal sin even when falling into the frailty of gluttony.

Usually, a person doesn't commit a mortal sin through gluttony unless they are already burdened by other mortal sins committed previously.8 Then he may all the more easily sin mortally in this. It is true that anyone who chooses the lust and pleasure of the flesh—finding their complete rest in the delicacies and comfort of food and drink, wanting no other joy or bliss, and wishing to live forever in such fleshly lusts if they could—undoubtedly sins mortally, because they love their flesh more than God. But the one who lies in mortal sin such as pride or envy or the like is blind and so bound to the devil that for the time he does not cleanly have the power of his free will; and therefore he cannot well resist fleshly pleasures, but falls down into them willingly, as a beast does upon a carcass.9 And insofar as he has no general will set first toward God, because he is in mortal sin, the lust of gluttony that he falls into is readily mortal sin for him, for he makes no resistance at all—neither general nor particular. But another man or woman who is in grace and in charity always has a good general will toward God in the soul, whether sleeping or waking, eating or drinking, or doing any other deed—as long as the deed isn't evil in itself. By that will, they choose and desire God above all things, and they would much rather forgo all the pleasure of this world than forgo their God, for love of Him. This will, though it is only general, has such great power through the grace of our Lord Jesus that even if someone falls through frailty into lust and pleasure in food and drink, or into other such infirmities—whether eating too much, too often, too greedily, too lustfully and delicately, or too soon at an improper time—it saves and keeps them from mortal sin.10 And this is true as long as they remain in charity through other good deeds and keep this general will whole in everything they do; and even more so if they know their own wretchedness, cry to God for mercy, and are specifically resolved to resist all such fleshly lusts.

Discerning the Root of Sin

While gluttony is excusable due to the necessity of food, other sins must be attacked at their root, as they lack the justification of bodily survival.

Our Lord is good and merciful, and He quickly forgives these minor sins of gluttony in a humble person; because the stirrings and pleasures of gluttony—insofar as they are the hardest to avoid due to the needs of our physical nature—are the most excusable and least dangerous of all sins. Therefore, you shouldn't rise up against the root of this sin the way you should against all others.11 The root of this sin is simply necessity, which cannot be avoided unless you were to do something worse and kill the necessity itself, as many fools do. They ought to kill the thief and spare the honest man—meaning, they should kill the disordered lust and willful pleasure, while sparing and preserving their bodily nature.12 But you should rise up to destroy all other sins—not just the major deadly sins and the significant minor sins, but also their roots as far as you are able. Think of it this way: you can't live without food and drink, but you can live without lechery if you choose to, and you'll actually be better off for it. And therefore you must not only flee the act itself, which is mortal sin, and also the willful delight in it in your heart without the act, which is venial—and sometimes it is mortal—but you must also rise against the root of it, to destroy the rising and the feeling and the fleshly stirrings.13

Read the original Latin

he synneth deedli and whan veniali.

Yit mai thou see more in thys image, though it be myrk; and that is fleischli love to thisilf in glotonie, sleuthe, and leccherie. Thise fleischli likynges maken a man wel beestli, and fer from inli savour of the love of God and from the cleer sight of goostli thingis. But now seist thou, that y seie that thee bihoveth nedelynges ete and drynke and slepe, and that mai thou not doo withoute likynge, therfore thee thenketh this likynge is no synne.

As unto this I answere, yif thou kepe in etynge and drynkynge and in othir nedeful thinges to the bodi mesure, up thi nede as resoun asketh, and thou resseyvest no more thanne kynde asketh, and al this thou doost for thi goostli delite whiche thou felist in thi soule, I graunte for sothe that thou thanne synnest right nought. For thanne can thou wel ete and slepe, sothli and withoutin doute. I am ful fer from that knowynge, and ferthere from the wirkynge; for to ete I have bi kynde, but for to kunne ete I mai not but bi grace. Seynt Poul hadde bi grace this knowynge as he seide of himsilf thus: Ubique et in omnibus institutus sum; et scio satiari, et esurire, habundare, et penuriam pati. Omnia possum in eo qui me confortat (Philippians 4:12-13). I am enformed and taught in alle thinges, for I can hungre and can ete, I can with plenté and I can with poverté. I mai al in Him that strengtheth me.

Seynt Austyn seid to oure Lord thus: "Lord, Thou hast taughte me that I schulde take mete as medicene." For honger is a sikenesse of kynde, and mete is medicyn therto and therfore the likynge that cometh withal, in as moche as it is kyndeli and nedefulle, it is no synne; but whanne it passith into luste and into wilful likynge, thanne it is synne. And therfore, there lieth al the maistrie, for to kunne departe visili the nede fro the lust and wilful likynge. Thei aren so knettid togedre, and that oon cometh so with the tothir, thanne it is hard to receyve that oon as the nede and reprove the tothir as wilful likynge and luste, whiche ofte tyme cometh undir colour of nede. Yif a man wolde oonli take mete and drynke as medicyn for sikenesse, he schulde kunne departe wel the luste from the nede. Neverthelees, syn it is so that nede is the ground of this synne, and that neede is no synne. For be a man nevere so hooli, hym bihoveth ete and drynke and slepe, therfore the lust and the likynge that cometh undir colour of this nede and passeth this nede is the lasse synne.

For a man comonli synneth not deedli in glotonye, but he be cumbred with othere deedli synnes bifore doon. Thanne mai he the lightliere synne deedli in this. For this is sooth, he that chesith the luste and the likynge of his fleisch in delices and welfare of mete and drinke as a ful reste of his herte, nevere to have othir joie ne othir blisse, but to lyve ay in siche lustis of his fleisch, yif he myght, hit is no doughte but that he synneth deedli, for he loveth his fleisch more than God. But he that lieth in deedli synne as pride or envie or siche othere, he is blynde and so bounden to the devel that for the tyme he hath not the power clenli of his free wille; and therefore he mai not weel agenstonde fleischli likynges, but falleth doun wilfulli into hem, as a beest doth upoun a carioun.

And in as moche as he hath noo general wille bifore to God principali, bicause that he is in deedli synne, therfore the lust of glotonye whiche he falleth inne is lightli to hym deedli synne, for he maketh noon agenstondynge, general ne special. But anothir man or woman whiche is in grace and in charité hath alwei a good general wille to God in hise soule, whethir he slepe or wake, ete or drinke, or what dede that he dooth, so that the dede be not yvel in the silf; bi the whiche wille he chesith and desireth God aboven alle thynges, and he hadde wel levere forbere al the likynge of this world thanne his God, for the love of Him. This wille, though it be but general, it is of so greet vertu bi the grace of oure Lord Jhesu, that though he falle bi freelté in luste and likynge of mete and drinke, or in siche othere sikenessis, othir in excesse of to moche etynge, or to often, or to gredili, or to lustli and delicatli, or to soone in untyme, it saveth and kepith hym from deedli synne. And this is soth, as longe as he is in charité bi othere good deedis and kepith this general wille hool in al that he dooth; and nameli yit, yif he knowe amonge his owen wrecchidnesse, and crieth God merci, and is in purpos speciali for to agenstonde alle siche lustis fleischli.

Oure Lord is good and merciful, and thise venyal synnes of glotonye He forgyveth sone to a meke man; for the stirynges and the likynges of glotonye, in as moche as thei ben hardest for to flee bicause of nede of the bodili kynde, amonge alle othere synnes aren most excusable and lest perilous. And therfore thou schal not rise agens the ground of this synne as thou schalt agenes alle othere synnes. For the ground of this synne is oonli nede, whiche mai not be eschewid but yif thou wolt doo wors and slee the nede, as many foolis doo, whiche schulden slee the theef and spare the trewe man, that is to seie thei schulde slee the unskilful lust and the wilful likynge, and spare and kepe the bodili kynde. But agen alle othere synnes thou schalt arise for to distroie; not oonli the gret deedli and the grete venyal synnes, but also agens the ground of hem in as moche as thou mai.

See bi this skile, thou mai not lyve withoute mete and drinke; but thou mai lyve withoute leccherie yif thou wole, and nevere be but the betere. And therfore thou schalt not oonli flee the dede in the silf, whiche is deedli synne, and also the wilful likynge of it in thyn herte withoutin dede, whiche is venial, and sumtyme it is deedli; but also thou schalt arise agen the ground of it, for to distroie the risynge and the felynge and the fleischli stirynges.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Phil.4.12-Phil.4.13 — I know what it is to be brought low, and I know what it is to have abundance. In everything and in all things I have learned the secret — both to be filled and to go hungry, both to have plenty and to be in need. Phil.4.13 — I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
  2. ↩Phil.4.12 — I know what it is to be brought low, and I know what it is to have abundance. In everything and in all things I have learned the secret — both to be filled and to go hungry, both to have plenty and to be in need.
  3. ↩Phil.4.13 — I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩Source is a truncated fragment (likely the tail of the chapter head: when one does not sin in eating and drinking, and when the sin is mortal vs. venial). Rendering preserves the two-part contrast without inventing the missing lead-in.
  2. 2 ↩ME can here is taken as 'know how to' (cf. kunne ete in s3 and knowynge in s3–s4), not merely permission to eat and sleep.
  3. 3 ↩kynde = nature (created bodily nature); likynge = pleasure/enjoyment; luste = disordered appetite; wilful likynge = deliberate, consented pleasure beyond need.
  4. 4 ↩maistrie rendered as 'skill' (the crux of mastery in the matter); visili taken as 'wisely' (ME wisili/visili).
  5. 5 ↩reprove rendered as 'reject' (refuse/rebuke the willful pleasure); undir colour of = under the pretext/guise of.
  6. 6 ↩Source sentence states premises without a full independent main clause; the following sentence supplies the inference. ground = occasion/foundation out of which the excess can arise.
  7. 7 ↩the lasse synne = the lesser sin (in Hilton's scale, excess under the cover of necessary bodily care is lesser than making fleshly pleasure the heart's full rest, treated as deadly in the next section).
  8. 8 ↩ME 'but he be' is the unless-construction ('unless he is'), not adversative 'but'.
  9. 9 ↩'clenli ... of his free wille' rendered as not cleanly/fully possessing free will for the time; Hilton means the will is so bound it cannot act freely, not that free will is destroyed as a faculty.
  10. 10 ↩ME 'sikenessis' rendered as 'infirmities' (moral/spiritual failings related to gluttony), not bodily disease.
  11. 11 ↩ME 'ground' here means the underlying root or basis of the sin (bodily need), not moral foundation in a positive sense.
  12. 12 ↩'unskilful lust' rendered as 'disordered lust' (ME unskilful = unreasonable/inordinate, not merely 'unskilled').
  13. 13 ↩Hilton distinguishes three levels of lechery: the outward act (always mortal), willful interior delight without the act (venial, sometimes mortal), and the deeper 'ground'—the rising, feeling, and fleshly stirrings that must be fought at the root.

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