âCorruptio optimi pessima â the corruption of the best is the worst.â
âThe love of Christ is cold in many monasteries where once it burnedâŠMonks sleep in soft beds, feast at rich tables, and the Rule of Benedict lies neglected, its charity grown cold.â â Saint Damian
âMonastic vows are blasphemy against God⊠They promise a holiness greater than that of ordinary Christians⊠Contemplation is a retreat from the cross, not a bearing of it.â â Martin Luther
Fair warning: I was raised a Lutheran, and Martin Luther vehemently condemned monasticism and a solely contemplative life. (His condemnatory perspective comes after sixteen years as a monk). I hate to rain on Danteâs parade (or ascent) since this is the beginning of the end of the journey, but thereâs trouble in âParadise-adjacentâ (the earthly realm and civic life).
While Dante said in Il Convivio âContemplation is more imbued with spiritual light than anything else found here belowâ, in the Commedia he tells us that in the practice of morality and saintly virtues, many men and women of the cloth fell short. Dante said the Church was wounded by sin (simony, monastic laxity, immorality, greed); reform, as the blessed souls bellowed in Canto XXI, was urgently needed. In spite of institutional and manmade failings, monasticism was salvageable, and contemplative ascent was still possible, and manâs ultimate aspiration. Dante, Damian and the blessed soulsâ rage in XXI werenât against monasticism or contemplative practice, but against rampant hypocrisy. Luther would ascribe the failure to the practice of contemplation and monasticism; Damian (along with Pope Gregory IX, Saint Bonaventure, and others) would say it was a failing of the practitioners.
Are contemplatives âathletae Christiâ (athletes of Christ), or morally corrupt economic parasites? Damian (âThe monk wears the martyrâs crown without blood; through obedience, poverty, chastity, he is sacrificed to Christ by his own handsâ) would say the former, Luther (âMonks pray with their lips, but their hearts are in the wine cellarâ) the latter. Both appealed to Scripture and conscience, but reached diametrically opposite conclusions. Luther saw monasticism as systemically corrupt and sought to abolish it. Dante and Damian saw it as poisoned by bad men; good men were the reform antidote.
Damian and his peers characterized authentic monastic vows as purity of intention: monks adopted poverty, humility and asceticism to love God without intermediaries. Damian told a corrupt bishop: âWhile you wallow in purple, the monk in hairshirt prays for your soul.â He was a staunch reformer, and believed monksâ penance could serve as reparation for the wider clerical sin. In short, monasticism and contemplation, properly reformed and performed, were noble and worthy. Monks were to be elite exemplars of Christian virtue. Damian wanted renewed practice, and disciplined adherents: âMonks live the angelic life in mortal flesh: without marriage, without possessions, without vain wordsâdevoted to God alone.â He did not mean monks eschewed labor; Saint Benedict said âNothing must be put before the work of God,â but required prayer and manual labor â âOra et labora.â Damian said âPray and workâthis is Benedictâs rule, this is the royal way to heaven. Prayer lifts the soul to God, labor subjugates the flesh under Christâs yoke.â But Damian prioritized âoraâ; excessive labor could distract from contemplation, so he excused monks from manual work if they were engaged in study or writing. âIf work hinders prayer, then work must cease; contemplation is the end, labor the means.â
Luther rejected the view that the contemplative life was spiritually superior to ordinary work. âTo sit in a corner and mumble prayers is easy; to raise children and pay taxesâthat is the true cross.â He saw monastic practice as unbiblical, spiritually tyrannical, elitist, and useless (âGod does not need your good works, but your neighbor does.â) It wasnât that Luther didnât allow for contemplation, but rather that he saw it as subordinate, and integrated for application in daily life and preaching. âThe cobbler on his bench preaches Christ better than a monk in his hood.â
Damian fought to reform monastic practice and liberate it from those who would corrupt and abuse it. To him, it was a heroic, elite vocation â as long as its practitioners adhered to their vows of celibacy, poverty, obedience, austerity, and prayer (to make themselves âladder ready,â one might say). Luther used the liberty argument to attack monasticism and its rules: âNo one should be bound by a vow that oppresses the conscience. Christ has set us freeâstand fast in that liberty.â
What I wouldnât pay to see Damian and Luther debate, with Dante as the (hopefully neutral) moderator. In one corner, Damian arguing that monasticism is a forge that produces exemplary Christians to lead the ascent; in the other, Martin Luther arguing that monasticism is a cage that binds what Christ has set free, and the ladder was accessible sola fide (by faith alone).
âCorruptio optimi pessima â the corruption of the best is the worst.â
âThe love of Christ is cold in many monasteries where once it burnedâŠMonks sleep in soft beds, feast at rich tables, and the Rule of Benedict lies neglected, its charity grown cold.â â Saint Damian
âMonastic vows are blasphemy against God⊠They promise a holiness greater than that of ordinary Christians⊠Contemplation is a retreat from the cross, not a bearing of it.â â Martin Luther
Fair warning: I was raised a Lutheran, and Martin Luther vehemently condemned monasticism and a solely contemplative life. (His condemnatory perspective comes after sixteen years as a monk). I hate to rain on Danteâs parade (or ascent) since this is the beginning of the end of the journey, but thereâs trouble in âParadise-adjacentâ (the earthly realm and civic life).
While Dante said in Il Convivio âContemplation is more imbued with spiritual light than anything else found here belowâ, in the Commedia he tells us that in the practice of morality and saintly virtues, many men and women of the cloth fell short. Dante said the Church was wounded by sin (simony, monastic laxity, immorality, greed); reform, as the blessed souls bellowed in Canto XXI, was urgently needed. In spite of institutional and manmade failings, monasticism was salvageable, and contemplative ascent was still possible, and manâs ultimate aspiration. Dante, Damian and the blessed soulsâ rage in XXI werenât against monasticism or contemplative practice, but against rampant hypocrisy. Luther would ascribe the failure to the practice of contemplation and monasticism; Damian (along with Pope Gregory IX, Saint Bonaventure, and others) would say it was a failing of the practitioners.
Are contemplatives âathletae Christiâ (athletes of Christ), or morally corrupt economic parasites? Damian (âThe monk wears the martyrâs crown without blood; through obedience, poverty, chastity, he is sacrificed to Christ by his own handsâ) would say the former, Luther (âMonks pray with their lips, but their hearts are in the wine cellarâ) the latter. Both appealed to Scripture and conscience, but reached diametrically opposite conclusions. Luther saw monasticism as systemically corrupt and sought to abolish it. Dante and Damian saw it as poisoned by bad men; good men were the reform antidote.
Damian and his peers characterized authentic monastic vows as purity of intention: monks adopted poverty, humility and asceticism to love God without intermediaries. Damian told a corrupt bishop: âWhile you wallow in purple, the monk in hairshirt prays for your soul.â He was a staunch reformer, and believed monksâ penance could serve as reparation for the wider clerical sin. In short, monasticism and contemplation, properly reformed and performed, were noble and worthy. Monks were to be elite exemplars of Christian virtue. Damian wanted renewed practice, and disciplined adherents: âMonks live the angelic life in mortal flesh: without marriage, without possessions, without vain wordsâdevoted to God alone.â He did not mean monks eschewed labor; Saint Benedict said âNothing must be put before the work of God,â but required prayer and manual labor â âOra et labora.â Damian said âPray and workâthis is Benedictâs rule, this is the royal way to heaven. Prayer lifts the soul to God, labor subjugates the flesh under Christâs yoke.â But Damian prioritized âoraâ; excessive labor could distract from contemplation, so he excused monks from manual work if they were engaged in study or writing. âIf work hinders prayer, then work must cease; contemplation is the end, labor the means.â
Luther rejected the view that the contemplative life was spiritually superior to ordinary work. âTo sit in a corner and mumble prayers is easy; to raise children and pay taxesâthat is the true cross.â He saw monastic practice as unbiblical, spiritually tyrannical, elitist, and useless (âGod does not need your good works, but your neighbor does.â) It wasnât that Luther didnât allow for contemplation, but rather that he saw it as subordinate, and integrated for application in daily life and preaching. âThe cobbler on his bench preaches Christ better than a monk in his hood.â
Damian fought to reform monastic practice and liberate it from those who would corrupt and abuse it. To him, it was a heroic, elite vocation â as long as its practitioners adhered to their vows of celibacy, poverty, obedience, austerity, and prayer (to make themselves âladder ready,â one might say). Luther used the liberty argument to attack monasticism and its rules: âNo one should be bound by a vow that oppresses the conscience. Christ has set us freeâstand fast in that liberty.â
What I wouldnât pay to see Damian and Luther debate, with Dante as the (hopefully neutral) moderator. In one corner, Damian arguing that monasticism is a forge that produces exemplary Christians to lead the ascent; in the other, Martin Luther arguing that monasticism is a cage that binds what Christ has set free, and the ladder was accessible sola fide (by faith alone).
I found a *really* beautiful video of Monastero di Fonte Avellana, and they even mention Dante.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COSQ_PuaAgc