Question I: Whether the division of life into active and contemplative is sufficient

Common is that division of the soul into Intellect and Affect, whence is born another division of the actions of the soul into Cognition and Praxis; for the latter regards the will, by which it is either commanded or elicited; the former the intellect, in which it either rests or orders the rest toward it.

The sufficiency of this division is drawn from the Seraphic Doctor, part 2 of the Breviloquium, chap. 9, at the end: for Cognition is nothing other than the discernment of truth; and affection nothing other than flight or appetite, the former of evil, the latter of good: hence the whole soul is intellectual and affective.

But further, the intellective part either discerns truth as truth, and so rests in pure cognition, or discerns it as good, and so passes into affect, and by participation in this the intellect becomes in a way practical; then the intellective power is concerned either with the understanding of eternal things, and so is called the superior part, or with the intention of temporal things, and so is called the inferior part; but in whatever station the intellect is considered, it has an affect, or will, proportioned to itself.

It must be supposed, second, from St. Thomas, q. 169 a. 1, that Life is here taken for that in which man is more occupied and delights; whence, since some delight more in internal operations, while others are more occupied with external actions, hence these are said to live in diverse ways: These things seen.

I assert that the said division of life into the Active and the Contemplative is good and sufficient.

It is proved by St. Bonaventure, serm. 1. de S. Nicol., on the authority of St. Augustine, tract. 124 on John, about the middle, where we read: The Church knows two lives preached to it by God, one of which is called active, the other contemplative: the first in labor, the second in rest, etc. Nor is it an objection that Augustine there says one is exercised on earth; the other possessed in heaven; for he speaks of the latter, that is, of the contemplative as it is perfect, excluding all labor and sin; which is accidental, and not essential to this state.

It is proved, second, by the Saintly Doctor on Luke 10, where he admirably describes the ministry of Martha and the repose of Mary; but by these two that twofold life, working and contemplating, is figured, as all the Commentators on that passage hold. See also Sts. Augustine, book 22 contra Faustum, chap. 52; Gregory, book 6 Moralia, last chap., and on the Books of Kings, chap. 4; Jerome on chap. 3 of Lamentations, around the words: Bonum est viro, etc.; and others in Suarez, lib. 1 de varietate Religionum, chap. 5.

This division the Saintly Doctor also proves in chap. 45 of the Meditations on the Life of Christ, where he says it is asserted by the Saints; and he draws it out thus: Every man applying himself to his salvation exercises himself principally toward his own utility, correcting himself from vices and forming himself in virtues, and secondarily devotes the offices of piety and justice, or works of Charity, to his neighbor; or he principally studies the utility and benefit of his neighbor, on account of his own merit accruing from it more abundantly, as in discharging the office of Prelate, Preacher, and Confessor; and in these consists the whole active life; for we do not reckon purely secular affairs, contributing little to salvation, among the functions of the active life; for although in these affairs there are truly actions, yet they are rather idleness than business, and more distracting than active.

The second member of the division is gathered thus: He who refrains from external operation conducing to his own or his neighbor's salvation must needs devote himself to internal consideration, namely, persevering in prayer and applying himself to the study of Sacred Letters: That he may perform this opportunely, let him seek solitude of mind, attend to God alone, that thus by degrees, first instructed, then illuminated, at last inflamed, imbued with true wisdom, he may ascend the summit of the contemplative life, as far as is allowed in this age.

In this twofold sphere of Operation and Contemplation is exercised the Gate of that Castle, through which Jesus, having entered, was received in hospitality by Martha and Mary, one hastening about, ministering, and anxiously running hither and thither; the other sitting placidly at the feet of Jesus, ardently suspending her heart upon his words; whence St. Bernard says with the Seraphic Doctor, chap. 46 of the cited Meditations: on Jesus entering into this castle, two sisters, Martha and Mary, that is, operation and intellect, received him: But Jesus bestows on each what is fitting: virtue and wisdom. Virtue to operation, wisdom to intellect: For the Christian life to be lived piously and justly, virtuous operation, or operative virtue in the hand, suffices and is required, that each provide for himself and his neighbor; and sapient understanding in the mind, that one wisely savoring things above pour them out abundantly also to his neighbor, whether by conversing or by preaching; whence in 2 Cor. 1 nothing else is preached by the Apostles than the power of God and the wisdom of God, as the Saintly Doctor notes in the place just cited; for in these is the whole man, nor is anything further required.

It is proved, third, by the example of Christ, who was wont to pass the night on the mountain and to teach in a level place, as is said in Luke 6. For the mountain is designated the place of contemplation, because it is elevated from the earth and segregated from the commerce of men; whence Moses, Aaron, and Hur ascended to the top of the hill, that the former might pray, Exod. 7. So Sara, Tob. 3, went up into the upper chamber of her house, as the Saintly Doctor expounds on chap. 6 of Luke. But the level place, in which agriculture is exercised, signifies laborious action; therefore, that he might give an example of both lives, Christ ascended the mountain by night to contemplate, and by day descended into the level place, that there in a level and common place he might work the salvation of all by teaching, consoling, and healing; and it follows: A great multitude of the people from all Judea, and Samaria, and Jerusalem, and those who had come to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities, by which words it is intimated that the functions of the active life are to be devoted not to trivial secular affairs, but to the spiritual benefit of one's neighbor and to the common salvation of all.

It is proved, fourth, by the Saintly Doctor from the practice of the Church, which from the beginning instituted the Clerical state for the active life and procuring the salvation of one's neighbor, and the Monastic state for the contemplative life and attaining one's own salvation principally: But whether there be some mixed state embracing both, I shall say below.

And although many scriptures may be adduced as supports of either life, as the Seraphic Doctor everywhere adduces in the places cited above; yet, as Suarez well notes, from them it is not clearly gathered that both lives are to be taken up separately, or in diverse states of men; but it only intimates that in us a twofold holy operation can be found, one external, placed in action; the other internal, consisting in consideration; and that these can be found in each one, as I shall explain more clearly below: But those operations are of life, or vital, insofar as each one is more principally and with greater excellence occupied in one; hence it is that the twofold life is commonly gathered from those scriptures under the name of Active and Contemplative.

But that there are diverse states of men: one wholly distended by actions and taking little of contemplation, or rather of internal attention; the other, on the contrary, wholly attentive and devoted to contemplation, caring for externals moderately and only as life's necessity requires: the aforesaid practice enduring in the Church alone proves, and it is most excellently drawn from that single example of Martha and Mary, of whom one was wholly in the ministry of her neighbor; the other was at leisure for divine contemplation; the studies of which sisters were long before prefigured in the sweet embraces of Lia and the laborious childbirths of Rachel, as the Fathers commonly expound with St. Bonaventure in the places cited above, and especially on chap. 10 of Luke.