Question III: Whether mendicancy befits religious poverty

UVICLEPHUS, therefore, condemned in the Council of Constance, sess. 8, and in the Bull of Martin V, and Luther with Roffensis, art. 41. contra eum, clamored that mendicancy should be done away with altogether. Nicholas III approves it, cap. exiit de verb. significat. in 6. And it is approved by Vualdensis, lib. 4. doctrinae fidei, cap. 3. et 4. Caietanus, ad art. D. Thom. I ASSERT that mendicancy is honorable for religious.

PROVED by St. Bonaventure first from the Rule taken up by St. Francis, from 10 Matth.: Do not possess gold, or silver, nor money in your purses, nor a scrip for the journey, nor two coats, nor shoes. The same he commands Mark 6. and Luke 9. and 10. There they are seen to live not from labor, but from the liberality of those to whom they preached. The same is read 1 Cor. 9. and he gives the reason: Who ever serves at his own charges? And Christ says: The laborer is worthy of his hire. To this the Apostle urges, 2 Cor. 8.

PROVED secondly by St. Bonaventure from the example of Christ, who declares himself a beggar, Psalm. 39. But I am a beggar and poor, and Psalm. 108. And he persecuted a needy and beggarly man: where Bellarmine observes that in these places is the word אבְי֥וֹן, which is had Deuter. 15. where it is said: There shall be no beggar among you. But observe that it in no place signifies a beggar, but in Deuter. the needy man, and in the Psalms, the poor man, as Pagn. notes, although in the Latin Bibles translated by Pagnino it reads beggar. But the LXX also read poor, with the Chaldean Paraphrase. It is had in the original Psalm. 39. עָנִ֣י וְאֶבְיוֹן afflicted, and poor. The same you have Psalm. 108. but among the Hebrews 109. 17. This the Seraphic Doctor observed, I think, who does not bring this passage against himself, when at num. 13. he opposes to himself Cod. de mendic. validis, lib. 11. cap. 25. where the able-bodied are forbidden to beg from house to house publicly.

Both Psalms are applied to Christ, and indeed the former by Paul, Heb. 9. and the latter by Peter, Act. 1. and 2. Cor. 8. For your sakes he was made poor, where the Greek has ἐπτώχευσε, signifying a beggar of gentle birth, who confidently asks for a meal somewhere, as Homer hints, Odiff. 17. Now Christ was such a beggar of gentle birth, such as we call in Italian Poveri vergognosi. He asked indeed, but with reserve, now at Martha's house Luke 10. now at Zacchaeus' ch. 19. now at Simon the Leper's Matth. 26. Marci 14. now in the house of Peter Luke 4. now in the house of Matthew ch. 9. et Marci 11. Having looked round on all things, he went out to Bethany, seeing that no one had invited him.

IN Deuteronomy, however, he said that no beggar at all, or needy man, would be among them, not forbidding, but foretelling from the blessing of their produce, if only they observed the law; otherwise he threatened in the same chapter: The poor shall not be lacking among you. Whence many in Judea in the time of Christ were beggars Luke 16. Lazarus Luke 18. the blind man begging Ioan. 9. another blind man Act. 3. that lame man. Therefore God had promised that there would be no beggar, either of gentle birth, or going publicly from door to door, because he would ward off want from those observing the divine law: but Christ in the Vulgate is called a beggar, and to this we must hold, even if in the Hebrew it is not read, except poor and needy, not a beggar; perhaps because he was not among those who ply their trade at the temple porches and through the streets. I will bring another solution from St. Bonaventure, ad 6.

THESE things I have said, that I may satisfy Armachanus, who says it is not read that Christ was a beggar. But what he adds about the necessary poverty of Christ lies sufficiently refuted by Bellarmine.

HENCE also falls what he adds, that the religious mendicant life was not instituted by Christ; for this is against the declaration of Nicholas P. III, cap. Exiit, and, as Apostolic, it was approved by Innocent III by the testimony of St. Bonaventure, Honorius III, who confirmed the rule. Gregor. IX. Innoc. IV. Alexand. IV. as Ioan. XXII. reports in Extrau. Quia quorundam, de verb. significat. and also the General Council of Lugdunum, as Nicholas P. reports, cap. Exiit, and that of Constance, sess. 8.

NOR did Christ ever revoke this institution, but dispensed for the time of the fierce persecution Lucae 22. Whence also 1. Cor. 9. the Apostle teaches by the argument of Christ, adduced above, namely, that those who preach the Gospel should live from the Gospel.

PROVED still by St. Bonaventure, from 11. Heb. where the Saints are said: They wandered about in sheepskins, destitute. So Elias 3. Regum, 17. Eliseus, and others.

HE proves also by examples of the saints of the new testament, who even wrought miracles in receiving alms. He adds the authorities of the holy Fathers, especially St. Gregory, lib. 8. moral. cap. 5. St. Hieron. ad Iulian. epist. 34.

HE proves also by reasons: Then because the state of the poor is that of the needy, and it is not only not forbidden religious to beg, but it is declared holy and meritorious, because it humbles and makes one contemptible. Then it is fair that the spiritual laborer at least be sustained, while he spends his life for them, as Christ and the Apostle say.

SINCE, however, there is another mendicancy, religious, unto evangelical perfection, which I proved honorable, and the Seraphic Doctor confirms again in the body, by authority, and by reason, as anyone can read through. Another is of necessity, which he shows is meritorious, if patiently undergone, as is shown of Lazarus Luke 16. Another is from cupidity. This the holy Doctors reprehend with St. Ambrose, lib. 2. de offic. cap. 16. St. August. de oper. monach. cap. 21. et seqq.

The adversaries OBJECT first from Scripture, which detests mendicancy, as the cause of many evils, Prouerb. 30. Give me not beggary, and riches: give me only food necessary for my sustenance: lest perhaps being filled I be enticed to deny, and say: Who is the Lord? or compelled by want I steal, and perjure the name of my God, Eccles. 17. Through want many have fallen away.

St. Bonaventure ANSWERS, art. 1. de paupertate Christi, that the Holy Spirit speaks of involuntary poverty, whose desire is the handle of evil; not of voluntary poverty, whereby we are as having nothing, and possessing all things, 2. Cor. 6. For this looks up to heaven, nay, sits in it. He brings St. Chrysostom, homil. 47. in Matth.

He ANSWERS secondly, that it speaks of the state of the old testament, where men, for the most part imperfect, esteemed the greatest blessings in a land flowing with milk and honey, as Chrysost. says, homil. 18. in epist. ad Heb. and Ambros. serm. 8. in Psalm. 118.

They OBJECT secondly: mendicancy is imposed only in punishment of faults, Psalm. 108. Wavering, let his children be removed, and beg, and Psalm. 36. I have not seen the just forsaken, nor his seed seeking bread, Psalm. 33: There is no want to them that fear him, Eccles. 40. Better is it to die, than to want.

The Seraphic Doctor ANSWERS that want of spiritual goods, and involuntary, is the punishment.

To the second passage he says with the Gloss, that the just do not need spiritual food — surely many just men have begged. Elias 3. Reg. 17. David 1. Reg. 21. Lazarus, Luke 16. Therefore Hieronymus and Augustine explain it of spiritual refreshment.

Bellarmine ANSWERS secondly, cap. 46. citing Titelmanus, that that word (derelictum) is referred also to the seed seeking bread. Thus the sense is: I have not seen the just, nor his children, even seeking bread, forsaken by God. It had been better for him to say that this response is that of St. Bonaventure, from whom he excerpted all the others, as is evident to the reader.

¶ The Seraphic Doctor adds that this is true of the anxious solicitude of the greedy, which does not befit the just. Whence in the Hebrew the verb is in the Piel, בקש, which signifies to seek solicitously.

¶ To the third he says it speaks of spiritual want, of which he subjoins: The rich have wanted, and suffered hunger.

¶ To the fourth he answers with the Gloss, that it is understood of those needy of spiritual goods, such as was that one in the Apocalypse.

¶ They object thirdly: moderate riches contribute to a perfect life, Eccli. 7. Wisdom is more profitable with riches.

¶ He answers that nothing is better for the poor wise man than the things of eternal life; but the rich fool is liable to six hundred evils, therefore the rich man is better joined with wisdom together with riches; for thus he does not cling to them, but becomes poor in spirit. Thus the sense is: Wisdom is more profitable, that is, if it is joined with riches, rather than if he lacks it: Or more profitable, insofar as it teaches him to spend them for salvation. Thus St. Bonavent. respons. 4. cap. 3. in Apologia.

¶ But what Bellarmine expounds from the Hebrew: Good is wisdom with riches, because without it riches are evil, not because without riches wisdom itself is evil; and thus he removes the comparison, he accomplishes little.

¶ They object fourthly. Act. 20. It is a more blessed thing to give, than to receive. Whence Aristotle 1. Eth. cap. 8. says that riches are necessary for happiness.

¶ The Seraphic Doctor answers that it is more blessed to give alms, than to receive out of necessity: but it is more blessed to receive by begging for the love of God, than to give: for the former adds the state of perfection. Thus he expounds with St. August. de Eccl. dogm. cap. 71. or Gennad. with St. August. who teaches this in the lib. de bono coniug. cap. 8. Aristotle, however, speaks of human happiness.

¶ They object fifthly, Luke 11. Sell what you possess, etc. where the Gloss says: That you may live by labor.

¶ The Seraphic Doctor answers that it is a counsel, and indeed an alternative one, whence he subjoins: Or make alms. Moreover he urges labor on those not occupied in a greater work.

¶ They object sixthly: Urban Pope 12. quaest. 1. cap. Videntes, orders the Bishops to provide the needy with a common life, that no one be needy.

¶ St. Bonaventure answers that the decree is not for the needy, but for the Bishops. Whence just as the law of Deuter. 15. There shall be no needy one at all, and no beggar among you, is not given against the mendicancy of the poor, but against the tenacity of the rich, as is evident, for in the same cap. it is subjoined: The poor shall not be lacking in the land of your habitation: Therefore I command you, to open your hand etc. so also in this case. This exposition Bellarmine attributes to St. Thomas.

¶ He adds there that Clerics are introduced, that they may not possess property: and it is added, that they should be helped; granted that they may have in common; nevertheless the profession of having nothing in common he teaches is approved by the Supreme Pontiffs, Innocent, Honorius, and Gregory, cap. Nimis prava de excessibus prael. Both, however, Nicholas III praises, cap. Exiit.

¶ They object seventhly, that begging is forbidden in the Cod.

¶ The Seraphic Doctor answers that the law speaks of certain healthy, able-bodied, and idle men, useless to the Republic, not of poor evangelicals, who labor not idly, but for the good of the Republic and of the Church.

¶ They object eighthly, that it is the vice of the Giezi to receive bodily things for spiritual.

¶ The Seraphic Doctor answers that they do not give spiritual things for sustenance, but ask for sustenance, that they may spend their life for the salvation of others.

¶ They object ninthly: the ancient holy Patriarchs, Basilius, Benedictus, Augustinus, Hieronymus, and others, held goods in common, nor are they read to have begged.

¶ The Seraphic Doctor answers amply at 10. that by the great providence of God at this time he sent Blessed Francis to the Church, to be built up by the apostolic life, when men, already growing cold in charity, were declining from the paths of Christ: Therefore he seemed to be renewing the footsteps of Christ, as is read in the Chronicles. He venerates, and deservedly, the other Patriarchs. Thus quaest. 4. in Regulam.

¶ Nor does he fear those denying that Christ was a beggar, and saying that he asked out of urbanity; nor yet that he did these things for imitation. For he showed that he exhibited these to be imitated, and earnestly begged. See the Seraphic Doctor.

¶ From these he deduces that Religious can live from alms; for alms are owed to Religious from the will of the givers, from the necessity assumed for Christ, and from the ministries undertaken for the people, as St. Thom. also says, quaest. 186. art. 4.

¶ But accidentally alms would be illicit for them, if they deviated from their due, and this is lethal, Caietan. says, if they abstained from their office out of contempt for the benefit of alms. See also Valencia, quaest. 5. puncto 3. These St. P. Francis called thieves.

¶ St. Thom. adds in the body with St. Bonau. in the arguments; if it is lawful to receive ample possessions, much more can they receive necessaries for sustenance. But why it is now asked more, see the Seraphic Doctor, quaest. 14. cont. hostes Religionis, and quaest. 8. in Regulam.