43. Again, to Prior Theodard of La Charité-sur-Loire (1130/9)

The brother Peter, humble abbot of Cluny, to brother Theodard, tending to the inner parts of true charity, prior of La Charité, wishing for him to obtain the discretion of souls in the holy spirit.

You often write to me, beloved, and frequent messangers in turn, follow them, which you send to me with deprecations, so that I may absolve you of the care which I imposed on you, and according to what you said, so that I may permit you to serve gone without the burden of [another] occupation. You bring up the weakness of nature, the intemperance of age, the inconveniences of sicknesses. You say that the house entrusted to you, suffering such things, and not sufficing to the task, suffers many problems. You assert that I demand impossible things from you which I demand of myself and that I compell your shoulders to bear things which are unable to be born. I acknowledge your complaints, carried from the heart not by a raven but by a dove, and therefore I am neither moved by them, nor am I aroused to responding injuriously, as are accustomed to arise from such attacks which do not consider those things which are of God.I ask you only to turn away from those things about which I am about to talk. Which you are completely unable to do, unless you tame the appetite of obstinate will. For a soul is not capable of true counsel unless through reason, it has subdued its will to its proper utility. Salvific hardships ought really to be sought much more by a wise man than fatal sweet things. Saddening utility ought to be acclaimed, deadly desire ought to be placed below. Attend to what I say. Indeed, I hear you complaining about the difficulty of the pastoral office, but I see you yourself bringing on yourself the reason of this difficulty.I say, I see that you act contrary to the imposed office, contrary to the virtue of obedience, contrary to mother of virtues– charity– and therefore contrary to your salvation. For since you do not spare your age, since you exhaust yourself with continuous labour, since you wither away a body overcome by innumerable sicknesses, [139] more and more by living without discretion, you continue to assail all these things which were denied to you by me. So, by conducting yourself thusly, you confirm that you act against the appointed office, since just as it is shown daily, beasts seccumb to their burden to whom the vituals necessary for work are not given. Even the strongest animal dies if both the labour lasts for a long time and the work is not followed by solace. Our holy doctors shout, “kill your enemy, feed your citizen”. And you do not wish to kill your out of opposition, since you attempt to destroy both enemy and citizen alike. For he does not overcome the enemy if the citizen seccumbs. For the law orders, “The head of the sacrificial bird, Not wholly ripped off, but wrung at the neck”; you, however, after having despised the law of god, attempt with all your strength to rip the head from the body. But God does not receive the sacrifice, which he sees offered against the decrees of his law. The devil suggested to Christ that he kill himself, saying, “If you are the son of God, cast yourself down.”But he did not wish to fall willingly from the heights, who, although he so loved to give his soul for the salvation of the world, taught that usefully the flesh was to be mortified but not to be destroyed cruelly in the manner of murderers. “None”, the apostle said, “considered his flesh with hatred, but nourished and fostered it just as also Christ did the Church.” He says, “Just as Christ did the Church.” Truly Christ nourished and fostered the Church, not malice; justice not impiety. The apostle showed [this] by following Christ, just as he [Xst] fostered the Church, when to [described] his disciple, to whom among other things, had said, “be an example to the faithful in words, in your way of life, in charity, in faith, in charity” and since his stomach hurt, he added afterwards, “Do not yet drink water, but have a little wine on account of your stomach, and your frequent infirmities.” Thus, the greatest doctor of the Church– after Christ–as even provided for the healthy body, admonish your disciple, [but] do not compell him forcefully to death. He whom also he obeyed and fulfilled the most laborious duty of ecclesiastical preaching and administration not by fleeing and denying, but by enduring and persisting. You also are able to fulfill your enjoined office who plead about its impossibility, if as a disciple of of truth, you agree to obey. If I say to obey the command of the father, if you shall wish to temper submit to the charity of the brothers both you will avoid the crime of disobedience and you will succeed to bear the however great burden of the regimen imposed. And do not marvel that I mention the crime of disobedience, when the prophets suggest this in many crimes, saying: “Since to refuse is like the sin of divination and to wish not to acquiesce as if the iniquity of idolatry.” I command certainly often, that on account of the excessive inconveniences of your sicknesses, which you yourself confess, you rest, withdrawing from the convent for a little while in the manner of other infirm, [140] but you do not. I commanded that you make use of a little more relaxed foodstuffs, and you did not obey. I ordained that you moderate how much the solace of your infirmity falls upon the disposition of the brothers, the charity of whom I would rejoice that it abounded towards you, and you did not listen.If you reflect well, you will recognize by what contempt of fraternal charity it is that you lacked not a little. With the authority of the paternal command removed, charity ordains even to prelates what ought not be despised in any way about the hearts of the faithful and of those living under piety. But if it happens, he is not spurned who is seen to offer words of charity, but rather are rejected those words which charity offers.This, he who spurns is proved to have it in no way. Now indeed, hear from the apostle how fasting or any sort of bodily mortifications benefit one not having charity: “If”, it says, “I hand over my body so that I may be burned, I do not, however, have charity, I gain nothing.”Abstain therefore, from meat, abstain from fish, abstain also if you wish from everything. Afflict, beat, and crush your workhorse [i.e. body]; give no sleep to your eyes, let not your eyelids slumber. Spend your nights in vigils, your days in labours; like it or not, you will listen to the Apostle, and even if you deliver your body to be burned [and do have not charity], it will profit you nothing. [G. Constable. “Monastic Policy” 133, LeClercq, Pierre, 139] Now this is not that the servant is unable to serve the lord, but that he does not wish to, or rather, as a great insult, to wish more to delay than to follow, to wish more to loss your way/ your life than to serve, to prefer to take refuge by fleeing from his face that to tolerate the burdens of his service. But now since I hasten to finish my words, recall, I beseech, your soul from this most beloved intention, strive in a very brief struggle by striving for everlasting repose, do not –like the lazy servant hide the talent [of gold] in the ground [and] let the labour of this present life be modest, if, on account of such things, you persist with mercy regained. And that, by labouring, you might be able to endure, you labour now for an alternate repose, that not just as you have done until now by labouring obstinately at the defect of labour, but by working discretely you strive to come towards the perfection of labour, which perhaps is not long far off.