185. To his nieces

The translation is by Vera Morton, from Guidance for Women in Twelfth-Century Convents, with Interpretive Essay by Jocelyn Wogan-Browne (Cambridge: Boydell and Brewer, 2003), 98-108, reproduced with the permission of the publisher.

http://epistolae.ccnmtl.columbia.edu/letter/1259.htmlepistolae.ccnmtl.columbia.edu

To his dearest nieces and sweetest girls, Peter, humble abbot of Cluny, sends all greetings and thanks I have read the letter written from you to me in which you sympathized with my trouble and in which you attempted to treat me with medical art as well as with spiritual prayers. I thank you for your dutiful care and I embrace your daughterly affection which befits a sweet and blessed heart. But I marvel from where the pupils of Jesus Christ imbibe the lessons of Hippocrates, why the daughters of Jerusalem should be trafficking in the merchandise of Babylon. Certainly, I do not despise medical assistance which is often of benefit to corrupt nature, especially since the physician was created by the Most High, and I have heard Christ say: 'Those that are whole need not a physician, but those that are sick.' Nevertheless I charge you, mortal enemies of nature which is innate in the flesh, you who are crucified with the Crucified, to think again and again of the ills and the significance of the body. Has the solemn word of Agatha, 'I have never employed carnal medicine for my body', slipped from your mind? Was she not indeed a handmaid to Christ; was she not a bride of Christ? Are you not handmaids, are you not brides? And indeed is not that virgin martyr more renowned than you, and far more exalted than you? But your object in life is not incompatible with hers when you serve God by the witness of the same kind, and grace the splendour of the field of heaven with a virgin flower. Assuredly, I am glad; I shall rejoice and be exceedingly glad, if, from my family, from my blood, those virgins sublime throughout the whole world - Agatha, Agnes and Faith and she who is far more worth than the rest, the Virgin of Virgins - shall have you as followers in their footsteps. Indeed as I have said, if those worthy ones should hold you worthy to be as servants, I do not say as companions, I shall rejoice, rejoicing in the Lord, and my spirit will rejoice in Jesus my Saviour. And you, my virgins, as I may call you, O handmaidens, O brides in very truth of the everlasting king; if indeed you are not of the foolish virgins but the wise, with what joy will you join in the dances, with what happiness will you exult. With what joy, unknown to wretched mortals, will that be; with what a torrent of pleasure will you drink with insatiable satisfaction from him with whom is the fountain of life;2 after what dense and detestable Egyptian darkness shall you see light in his light? What will be then, what will become of you when, after the prison of Marcigny, you escape into the free dazzling splendour of pure heavenly air and in 'Jerusalem which is above' and, according to the apostle, 'is the mother of us all', you will say and sing rejoicing with heart and body in the living God, 'As we have heard, so we have seen in the city of the Lord of Hosts, in the city of our God.' What will it be when Jesus, the king of the Heavens, in return for brief continence and gentle chastity, will greet his young girls, his handmaidens, his virgins, with his right hand? How great will that happness be, unimaginable indeed, so that I should pass over it in silence? What will that happiness be for those, the greatest apostles, in that life which God, who does not lie, has promised them? Yet they will not follow Christ everywhere, but he promised you that, with the choir of virgins, you should follow the Lamb, the virgin's Son, wherever he goes. Indeed, the virgins will shine like the sun in the kingdom of the Father, and gleam like stars in unbroken eternity. They will gain glory that is greater by far, loftier by far, for the rewards of their nature. Yet they will not be able to equal you in this respect, nor will the privilege be granted to the uncountable throng of saints which has been promised to fortunate virginity, even though they shine like gold. Augustine says: 'Press on therefore holy youths and maidens of God, men and women, single and unwedded; press on persevering to the end; praise the Lord more sweetly, the Lord on whom you meditate so fruitfully. Hope with greater joy in him, whom you are the more eager to serve. Love him the more zealously, whom you are the more eager to please. With loins girded and lamps burning, wait for the Lord when he comes from the wedding. You shall bring to the wedding of the Lamb a new song to sing to your lutes. Not indeed such as the whole earth sings, to which it is said, "Sing unto the Lord a new song, sing unto the Lord the whole earth", but such as no one but you will be able to sing. For thus he saw you in the Apocalypse, dear to the Lamb above all others, accustomed to lie on his breast, drinking and proclaiming wonderful thoughts on heavenly themes, the very word of God. He saw you, a hundred and forty-four thousand sacred harpists, untouched in virginity in the body, inviolate in truth in the heart. And because you follow the Lamb "wherever he goes", he wrote this about you. Where do you think the Lamb goes, where no one has dared or been able to follow, save you? Where do you think that he goes, in what woods and fields, where, I believe, there are pastures of delight? Not the joys of this vain world and its deceiving frenzy; such joys as there are in the kingdom of God for others who are not virgins, but joys that are unlike all other joys. Joys which are fitting for the virgins of Christ, from Christ, in Christ, with Christ, after Christ, through Christ, because of Christ. Go then; in this you follow the Lamb, for the flesh of the Lamb is supremely virgin; though abundantly generous yet his integrity was untouched, for his conception and birth took away nothing from his mother. What is "to follow" but to imitate? "Because Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example", as says the apostle Peter, "so that we should follow his footsteps". Each man follows him when he imitates him, not in that he is the Son of God, the one by whom all things were made, but in that he is displayed to the sons of men in himself and this we ought to imitate. Many things are set forth in him which all ought to imitate, but virginity of the body is not for all, for there is nothing that they can do to become virgins, when they have already ceased to be virgin. Therefore let the rest of the faithful who have lost their virginity of body follow the Lamb, not wherever he goes, but wherever they are able. For they are able to go everywhere, except where he goes in the comeliness of virginity. But see this Lamb walking in the path of virginity. How can those who have lost what they can in no way regain follow after him? You, therefore, his virgins, follow him thither, since because of this one thing you follow him wherever he goes. We can urge the married to any other kind of holiness in which they can follow him, except to this, which they have irreparably lost. Do you, therefore, follow him tenaciously, holding fast to what you have ardently vowed. Do this while you can, lest the goodness of virginity fade away from you and you will be able to do nothing to bring it back. The rest of the multitude of the faithful, who are unable to follow the Lamb in this will see you and not hate you; rejoicing with you over what they do not have themselves. They will possess it in you. For they will not be able to proclaim that new song which is fit only for you, but they will be able to hear and to rejoice in such a surpassing blessing. But you will both proclaim and hear it, since what you will proclaim you will hear in yourselves. You will rejoice more fully and will reign more joyfully. But there will never be any lessening of your great joy. For the Lamb whom you follow wherever he goes will not desert those who are not strong enough to follow him as you do; he will go before you and he will not leave you when he shall be God, all in all. And those who have less than you will not shrink away from you, for where there is no jealousy, diversity is harmony. Take the lead then, be confident, take strength, persist in what you have vowed and fulfill the vow of everlasting continence which you have made to the Lord your God, not for this present world but for the kingdom of heaven.' How great my daughters, how great is the praise of virginity. If she perseveres, my Margaret will deserve what Mary Magdalene did not. How so? Because neither patience, nor humility, not chastity itself, not any other virtue is said to be sister of the angels, but virginity. The blessed Jerome says: It was well that the angel was sent to the virgin, for virginity is always related to the angels. Certainly to live in the body, but yet not in the body, is not an earthly life but heavenly. Whence it follows that to gain the glory of an angel in the body is a greater glory than to receive it; for to be an angel comes by grace, but to be a virgin has the angel by nature. Behold you are such now, because such you ought to be. These qualities added to virginity display the angelic life to men and the ways of heaven to earth. If therefore you have rejected the marriage of the sons of men, love with your whole heart what is, by nature, beyond the sons of men. You are not bound; your heart is free from the chains of marriage. Consider the beauty of your lover; think that he is the equal of the Father, subject also to his mother, ruling in heaven, yet serving on earth, creating all things, yet a creature among others. Consider how lovely is that very thing which the proud derided in him. With the light of your mind meditate on his wounds as he hangs on the cross, the wounds of him who rose again, the blood of the dying, the reward of the faithful, the ransom of the redeemer. Think how much these things are worth; weigh this in the balance of love, and weigh too whatever custom required that you should provide for your marriage; spend it on him. It is well that he seeks your beauty of soul, when he has given you the power to become the daughters of God. He does not seek beauty of body from you. He is not one to whom someone can lie about you and deceive you about him, or make you serve him without reason. See with what confidence you can love him when you do not fear that he will be displeased by slanders about you. Husband and wife love one another because they see one another, and what they do not see they fear to discover in one another. Nor do they rejoice confidently because of what is in the open, since, in secret, they fear much that is not so. You do not see him with your eyes, yet you behold him through faith, but you have nothing to find fault with, nor do you fear to offend him by chance. If, therefore, you owe great love to your husbands, how much love do you owe to him on whose account you are unwilling to have husbands. He who was fixed to the cross for your sakes is wholly fixed to your hearts. May he hold entirely in your heart everything you have not wished to devote to marriage. It is not right for you to love meanly the one for whose sake you have rejected what you had a perfect right to love. Loving what is gentle and humble from your heart, I do not fear you will be proud. The holy Ambrose also says: 'But for you, holy virgins, there is the special defence against pride, that you serve the holy chamber of your Lord with inviolable modesty. Nor is it to be wondered at if the angels fight for you who yourselves do battle in the manner of angels. Chaste virgins deserve as defence the angels whose life they imitate. And what more shall I add in praise of chastity? Chastity indeed formed the angel. Whoever preserves it is an angel. She who has lost it is a devil. It is from this that he [the devil] received the name. She who weds the Lord is a virgin; she is a whore who makes gods for herself. For what shall I say about the Resurrection, for its rewards are now within your grasp? In the Resurrection they will neither marry nor be given in marriage but they will be like the angels of God in heaven. What is promised us is near at hand for you. You have the benefit of our prayers. You are in this world and not of this world. This age is entitled to have you, but it has not been able to hold you. For it is well-known that angels fell from heaven into this world because of their excesses, but virgins have passed from this world into heaven because of their purity. Blessed virgins whom no allurement of the body entices; no foulness of pleasures casts them down. The food of frugality, or rather abstinence, teaches them to be ignorant of vice and teaches them to be ignorant of the causes of vice.' Again Ambrose says: ' "A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse, a fountain sealed", so that there in a garden of this sort she is imprinted with the seal of the image of God as the waves of a pure spring should be clear, should not be stirred up, a wallowing place for the beasts of the spirit, spattered with mud. Because of this, modesty enclosed with spiritual walls does not lie open to ravage. So just as the garden shut off from thieves diffuses the scent of vines, burns with the olive and is resplendent with the rose, so religion grows in the vine, peace in the olive, and the modesty of consecrated virginity in the rose. This is the scent which Jacob the Patriarch smelled when he was found worthy to hear, "Behold the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed." For although the field of the holy patriarch was filled with almost all fruits that exist, yet that field produced fruits with great expenditure of effort, but this one produces flowers. Then, virgin, gird yourself, even though the rule of this kind breathes to you like a garden with prophetic injunctions to keep it closed: "Place a guard on your mouth, and on your lips" so that you will be able to say, "As is the apple among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight and his fruit was sweet to my taste. I found him whom my soul loves, I held him and would not let him go." After such sublime and sweet words of the saints, listen, my dear ones, to Hilary, of outstanding fame and repute, preserving his daughter according to the flesh in virginity of both body and mind; he placed before her the divine vesture and a celestial pearl, inviting her with great effort and exhorting her: "In the first year (said Saint Hilary) I saw the garment, I saw it, my daughter, I saw it, I cannot express what it was like; was not the fineness of silk like hessian in comparison to it, do not snowflakes grow black in comparison to its whiteness? Was not gold turned to lead by its brightness? For its many colours overpowered all other lovely things and, in short, nothing could be equal when compared to it. After that I saw the pearl. When I saw it, straightway I was prostrate, my eyes could not bear the fineness of its colour. For nothing seen in the sky, in the light of heaven, nor on earth was able to compare with its beauty." This indeed was written to Hilary's daughter. But last of all there may come the great Cyprian of Carthage, equal to all his predecessors in the performance of his office, equal in preaching, greater in his martyrdom. For he says: 'Now our talk turns to virgins: so much the greater their glory, so much the greater [our] concern for them. That flower is the glory of the stem of the Church, the splendour and ornament of spiritual grace. A happy innate gift of praise and honour, the work of God whole and incorrupt, the picture which reflects the holiness of God, the more splendid part of the flock of Christ; through them, and in them, the glorious fruitfulness of our mother the Church flourishes more abundantly, and how much more abundantly does virginity add to its number. The joy of our mother increases. We speak about these virgins, we urge these things, with affection rather than authority. They are the equals of the angels, since they are daughters of the resurrection. What we shall become, you now begin to be. You already touch the glory of the resurrection in this age. You pass through this age without the contagion of the worldly. Since you persevere chaste and virgin you are equal to the angels of God. May virginity remain and live unimpaired and unharmed as it started boldly and perseveres perpetually. Since we carry the image of him [Adam] who comes from the slime, let us also bear the image of him [Christ] who comes from the heavens.' 'Virginity bears this image, it bears integrity, it bears holiness and truth, and so do those who keep in mind the teachings of God, holding fast justice with religion, steadfast in faith, lowly in reverence. Brave in all endurance, gentle in bearing injury, quick to show pity, united and harmonious in sisterly love. These things, good virgins, you ought to keep in mind, to love, to persevere to the end, you who are ready for God and Christ, to the Lord to whom you have made your vow and have dedicated your greater and better part. As you are carried on by the years, act as instructors to the younger ones. Though lesser by birth, provide rivals for an incentive. Urge one another on with mutual encouragement, by striving earnestly, give examples of virtue, incite to glory. Persevere boldly, press on spiritually, arrive happily, and be mindful of us when you begin to be honoured for your virginity.' These, my dearest ones, from whose books, as from flowery meadows, I have gathered these delightful blossoms, are among the highest priests of God; after the apostles they are the most outstanding teachers of the faithful, doctors of the Latin Church; in truth if the many barbarities of various tongues did not prevent it they would stand out in the whole Christian world. I hold out their pearls to you from every side; I have poured out for you from their treasure valuables precious and desirable beyond gold and topaz. It remains for you to take up with eager heart what is freely offered, and keep it safe with greatest zeal and care, and, with angelic virginity, with the deepest humility, with sublimest love so that you should be made handmaidens of Jesus Christ, or rather his brides, worthy of his love, and make me, who am concerned about your salvation more than of all people in the world, rejoice with you. Remember my blessed mother, your saintly grandmother. Remember, I say, with what great faith and what unimaginable fervour of love (which she took from above), when you were still little girls not knowing your left hand from your right, she fled the world, carried you away from the devil, presented you to God and attached you to the lay sisters. As I have often heard from her own lips at Marcigny, she was afraid that she might by chance be carried off at the will of the Lord from this wretched vale of tears when he summoned her, and you would be left to survive her before she could snatch you from the snare of the hunters, and join you to the number of saints in the school of virtue. The blessed Saviour had regard from on high to the humble prayers of his handmaiden and he who fills with good things the ardent desire of his people, and will fulfil the desire of them that fear him, at length fulfilled her desire. He has made you members of the virgin choir while you are still in the body. See how he will make you members in the mind. Not all your sister members are virgins in the flesh, but they are, as says our father Augustine, virgins in the faith. About them he makes a solemn pronouncement on the holy day of the birth of the Lord. For when the flesh is not untouched by intercourse, let it be considered (by common understanding) virgin in faith; according to this the whole Church is virgin. In accordance with this idea the trumpet of the apostle often sounds out about those who live chastely and holy, as about those who are virgins. I have promised you to one husband so that I may present you a chaste virgin to Christ. Placed by a happier fate, not only in the spirit, that is, but with unimpaired bodies, in the virgin chorus of those saints whom I have set before you, order your life, regulate your behaviour, fight the good fight, finish the race successfully by running earnestly the race begun for you in your tender years. Copy the sisters and mothers with whom you serve God and, in particular, as I have reminded you, your happy grandmother who has gone before you and summons you (as you follow her), as she did not only while she lived but now too, even when she is dead. Give me, I entreat you, the voice of the great apostle, so that I may say confidently to each of you what he wrote to his disciple, Timothy, 'I may be filled with joy when I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in you, which dwelt first, not indeed as he says, ‘in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice,’ but in your grandmother Raingard.