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Chapter 3Imit.1.3

De doctrina veritatis.

The Futility of Speculation

Human judgment is easily deceived, and it is foolish to pursue obscure speculation while neglecting what is useful and necessary for salvation.

Blessed is the person whom Truth itself teaches — not through images and passing voices, but just as it truly is.1 Our own opinion and our own judgment often deceive us, and we see very little. What good does it do to argue at length about hidden and obscure matters — things we won't even be called to account for in judgment, because we've never known them?2 It's sheer foolishness that, having set aside what's useful and necessary, we eagerly turn our attention to what's merely curious and what does real harm.3 We have eyes, and yet we don't see.4

The One Word Speaks All

All understanding flows from the one eternal Word of God, and the soul longs to hear God alone, silencing every other voice.

What good does it do us to argue about genera and species, when the eternal Word is spoken to us and freed from many opinions? From one Word all things come, and one thing speaks all things, and this is the Beginning, which also speaks to us.✦ No one understands or judges rightly without him. To whom all things are one, and who draws all things to the one, and sees all things in the one — that person can stand firm and remain at peace in God. O Truth, God, make me one with you in everlasting love. I grow weary of reading and hearing many things: in you is all that I want and long for. Let all teachers fall silent, let every creature be still in your presence — you alone, speak to me.

The Interior Life and Self-Conquest

Union with God brings effortless understanding, and the chief spiritual task is daily self-conquest over one's own unmortified affections.

The closer you are united to God and drawn inward, the more—and the deeper—you understand without effort, because the light of understanding comes down to you from above. A pure, simple, and steady person doesn't get scattered among many tasks, because he does everything for the glory of God and tries to be at peace within himself, free from every selfish pursuit. What gets in your way and unsettles you more than your own unruly desires of the heart?5 A good and devout person first sorts out inwardly the things he needs to carry out outwardly, and those works don't pull him toward corrupt desires; rather, he bends them to the judgment of a rightly ordered intention guided by reason. Who has a tougher fight than the person trying to master himself? And that should be our task—to conquer ourselves, to become stronger each day than we were, and to keep growing toward what is better.

Humility Over Learning

Every earthly perfection is mixed with imperfection, and humble self-knowledge is a surer path to God than deep learning pursued without a good life.

Every perfection in this life comes with a certain imperfection attached to it. And every contemplation of ours has a certain darkness mixed in. A humble knowledge of yourself is a surer path to God than a deep pursuit of learning. Knowledge isn't to be blamed, nor is any awareness of a thing that is good in itself and ordained by God — but a good conscience and a good life are always to be preferred. Because many people are more eager to know than to live well, they often go astray and bear little or no fruit.

The Vanity of Learned Glory

Scholars who pursue debate over virtue will be judged by their deeds, not their learning, and the glory of their erudition quickly fades into oblivion.

Oh, if only they applied as much diligence to rooting out vices and planting virtues as they do to stirring up debates—then there wouldn't be so many evils and scandals among the people, nor so much laxity in the monasteries.6 Surely when the day of judgment arrives, we won't be asked what we read, but what we did; nor how well we spoke, but how faithfully we lived.7 Tell me, where are all those lords and teachers now, the ones you knew well while they were still alive and flourishing in their studies? Others now hold their prebends, and I don't know whether they give them a second thought.8 In their own lifetime they seemed like something, and now no one speaks of them.

True Greatness in Humility

Worldly glory passes quickly; true greatness lies in self-abasement, true wisdom in counting all things as dung for Christ, and true learning in doing God's will.

Oh, how quickly the glory of the world passes away. If only their lives had matched their learning—then they would have read well and applied themselves to good purpose. How many in this age perish through vain knowledge, caring little for the service of God. And because they love being great more than being humble, they have vanished into their own speculations. Truly great is the one who is small in his own eyes and counts every height of honor as nothing. Truly wise is the one who regards all earthly things as dung, in order to gain Christ.✦ And truly well-taught is the one who does the will of God and relinquishes his own will.

Read the original Latin

Felix quem Veritas per se ipsam docet, non per figuras et voces transeuntes, sed sicuti se habet. Nostra opinio, et noster sensus sæpe nos fallit, et modicum videt. Quid prodest magna cavillatio de occultis, et obscuris rebus de quibus nec arguemur in judicio, quia ignoravimus? Grandis insipientia quod neglectis utilibus, et necessariis, ultro intendimus curiosis, et damnosis. Oculos habentes, non videmus.

Et quid nobis de generibus et speciebus, cui æternum Verbum loquitur a multis opinionibus expeditur. Ex uno Verbo omnia, et unum loquuntur omnia et hoc est Principium quod et loquitur nobis. Nemo sine illo intelligit, aut recte judicat. Cui omnia unam sunt, et qui omnia ad unum trahit, et omnia in uno videt, potest stabilis esse, et in Deo pacificus permanere. O veritas Deus, fac me unum tecum in charitate perpetua. Tædet mihi sæpe multa legere, et audire: in te totum est, quod volo et desidero. Taceant omnes doctores, sileant universæ creaturæ in conspectu tuo, tu mihi loquere solus.

Quanto magis aliquis unitus, et interius implicatus fuerit, tanto plura et altiora sine labore intelligit quia desuper lumen intelligentiæ accipit. Purus simplex et stabilis in multis operibus non dissipatur, quia omnia ad Dei honorem operatur, et in se otiose ab omni propria exquisitione esse nititur. Quis te magis impedit, et molestat quam tua immortificata cordis affectio? Bonus et devotus homo, opera sua intus prius disponit, quæ foris agere debet, nec illa trahunt ad desideria vitiosæ inclinationis, sed ipse inflectat ea ad arbitrium rectæ intentionis rationis. Quis habet fortius certamen, quam qui nititur vincere se ipsum? Et hoc deberet esse negotium nostrum, vincere scilicet se ipsum, et quotidie se fortiorem ipso fieri, atque in melius proficere.

Omnis perfectio in hac vita quamdam imperfectionem sibi habet annexam. Et omnis speculatio nostra quadam caligine non caret. Humilis tui cognitio certior via est ad Deum, quam profundæ scientiæ inquisitio. Non est culpanda scientia, aut quælibet rei notitia quæ bona est, in se considerata, et a Deo ordinata, sed præferenda est, semper bona conscientia, et vita. Quia student magis plures scire quam bene vivere, ideo sæpe errant, et nullum vel modicum fructum ferunt.

O, si tantam adhiberent diligentiam ad extirpanda vitia, et virtutes inferendas, sicuti movendas quæstiones, non fierent tanta mala et scandala in populo nec tanta dissolutio in cænobiis. Certe adveniente die judicii, non quæretur a nobis quid legimus, sed quid fecimus; nec quam bene diximus, sed quam religiose viximus. Dic mihi, ubi sunt modo illi omnes Domini, et Magistri quos bene nosti dum adhuc bene viverent, et in studiis florerent? Jam eorum præbendas alii possident, et nescio utrum de eis recogitent. In vita sua aliquid videbantur et modo de illis tacetur.

O quam cito transit gloria mundi. Utinam vita eorum scientiæ concordasset eorum, tunc bene legissent et studuissent. Quam multi pereunt per vanam scientiam in hoc sæculo, qui parum curant de Dei servitio. Et quia magis diligunt magni esse quam humiles, ideo evanuerunt in cognitationibus suis. Vere magnus est qui in si parvus est et pro nihilo omne culmen honoris ducit. Vere prudens est qui omnia terrena arbitratur uti stercora ut Christum lucrifaciat. Et vere bene doctus est qui Dei voluntatem facit et suam voluntatem relinquit.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩John.1.1;John.8.25 — In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John.8.25 — So they said to him, "Who are you?" Jesus said to them, "Even the very thing I have been telling you from the beginning."
  2. ↩Phil.3.8 — But more than that—indeed, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have lost everything and consider it all rubbish, so that I may gain Christ.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩Veritas rendered as 'Truth' with capital T to convey the divine, self-revealing Truth (i.e., Christ as the Way, the Truth, and the Life), not mere factual correctness.
  2. 2 ↩nec arguemur in judicio: the negative-additive 'nec' is rendered as 'won't even be' to capture the force that these are matters for which one will not be held accountable. The subjunctive arguemur is an indirect question dependent on quid prodest.
  3. 3 ↩quod introduces a noun clause functioning as the subject of an implied est: 'the fact that we… is great foolishness.' Rendered with 'It's great foolishness that' to capture the causal/exclamatory force.
  4. 4 ↩Possible echo of Jeremiah 5:21 ('O people who have eyes but do not see') or Mark 8:18 ('Having eyes, do you not see?'). Status: candidate — awaiting Moses resolution.
  5. 5 ↩affectio rendered as 'affection' per lexeme policy: disordered attachment of the heart in a negative context.
  6. 6 ↩Extirpanda and inferendas are gerundives expressing necessity: things that must be rooted out / virtues that must be brought in. The contrast with movendas quæstiones (stirring up debates) is deliberately sharp.
  7. 7 ↩Religiose (religiously) here carries the sense of devout, reverent living—faithfulness to one's vows and spiritual commitments—rather than mere external observance.
  8. 8 ↩Præbendas refers to ecclesiastical stipends or benefices. The tone is pointed: successors enjoy the material benefits without reflecting on the persons who once held them.