Question I: Whether the vow of obedience is chief among the religious vows

I ASSERT that among the vows Obedience excels in Religion.

It is PROVED from St. Bonavent. ad cap. 1. Regulae Min. That is the most excellent among the vows, whereby the most excellent thing is offered: But in man this is the will; whereas by the Vow of chastity the body, and by the Vow of poverty external goods are offered: Ergo. It is confirmed, for by the Vow of obedience the whole man is consumed as a holocaust; for under it Chastity and Poverty are included. Hence some Religions make profession by promising obedience. It is the argument of John XXII. Extravag. Quorundam, de verb. signif. which the Fathers used, as at B. Bonavent. lib. 2. Phar. cap. 43. and St. Thomas here: Moreover that is more excellent whereby one offers himself, than that whereby he offers his things; but man offers himself by obeying: Ergo.

This vow, however, whereby it is more excellent than the rest, and therewith richer, was at all times harassed by the railings of Heretics; and before all others, from almost the first centuries, the Lampetians dreamed the impious dream that a man, in the worship of God, at the nod of another, renounces his own will; yet they did not think it so evil to promise any vow for another moral end outside the worship of God: Thus walking in darkness they judge perversely, so that what belongs to the service of God is charged with crime, while what is destined to another end is honored by them: This error was followed by the Waldenses, as also by the Beghards and Beguines, as Castro has it, verb. obedientia; finally the rest of the innovators in a body, with Luther at their head, swore to the same heresy. They were refuted by Bellarmine lib. 2. de Monachis, cap. 8. Suarez lib. 10. de voto obedientiae, and other defenders of the truth: Nor indeed can they bring forward any foundation of their error which does not readily collapse for a universal reason: for whatever is in itself good and honest, without doubt becomes better and more honest, while it is placed in a firmer, securer, and immovable state; for this reason, an act elicited from a long-standing habit is more perfect and better than an act from some light disposition, because it becomes more immovable, and proceeds into its act more intensely and more firmly with a stable will; such is that which proceeds from a vow, since it is a state, more stable even than a habit. Who, moreover, will deny that obedience in itself, even when rendered to a man, in the service of God, is good and honest, since for God Christ was made obedient unto death, and was subject to his parents, so that at their nod he even left behind the assembly of the Doctors.