Chapter I — The notion of the religious state, and its obligation of aspiring to evangelical perfection

I. QUESTION I. What is the religious state? ANSWER. It is a way of arriving more easily at evangelical perfection. From the virtue of Religion, which is eminent among the moral virtues, this sacred state draws its name; and therefore it is called religious. It brings with it stability and immobility. That it may be such, it requires an approbation made by the Church, as is had from the Fourth Lateran Council, chapter Nimia. Necessary also is the profession of three vows according to some one of the rules approved by the Apostolic See. Hence individual Orders have their own proper rule and constitutions, to whose norm they compose the religious state.

II. QUESTION II. Whether Religious are bound under a grave precept to tend to perfection? ANSWER. This question needs perspicuous explication. All Christians, whether lay or ecclesiastical, whether secular or cloistered, are bound by a precept of aspiring to perfection. Perhaps to the unskilled this truth will be impassable. Let them know therefore that this perfection of which our discourse now is, is set in charity, as the Gospel and all the Fathers teach. Hence St. Thomas, II-II, q. 186, art. 2, describes the religious state as being a certain discipline or exercise of arriving at perfection. For that Religious might more easily and expeditiously attain this goal, they vow the three evangelical counsels, to which the rest are reduced. These three vows are instruments and as it were the wheels of the chariot which pave the way for attaining this prize. All the evangelical precepts are necessary means; the counsels are free instruments ordained to the precept of charity. This precept is the end and goal of all the precepts and counsels. Neither in the counsels therefore, nor in the other mandates, but in charity alone is evangelical perfection set, to which under precept all, both Christians and religious men, are bound to aspire. When Christ said Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect, Matthew 5, he intoned this not to monks, not to the cloistered, but addressed utterly the whole human race, since then there were neither monks nor cloistered.

III. With a gross error therefore are those Christians wrapped about who, reckoning this evangelical perfection to be something of supererogation and of counsel, and to belong only to religious men, attempt nothing for the attaining of it. Charity here separates the soul from the love of the world and of those things which are in the world, and joins it to God. And the more the soul is separated from the concupiscence of the flesh, from the concupiscence of the eyes, and from the pride of life, as St. John says, 1 epistle, chapter 2, the more intimately is it coupled to God. To this union with God all Christians are bound by precept. Therefore all Christians are obliged to tend to the perfection of charity. This only is the difference, that Christians are bound to run to perfection by the way of the precepts alone; but religious men, that they might more easily address that same goal, have embraced also the evangelical counsels, and by three solemn vows have imposed the same upon themselves to be observed.

IV. Christians therefore must needs be vigilant in observing the precepts, which enjoin a study of prayer, custody of the senses, compression of the flesh, equity, and purity of heart: because these and all the other mandates are, as has been said, necessary instruments for arriving at the perfection of charity, or union with God. And because this union is greater and more intense in one and less in another, therefore one becomes more perfect than another.

V. On the contrary religious men, besides these precepts, are bound to observe the three vows and their own rule and constitutions, which the holy Patriarchs, the divine Godhead breathing upon them, prescribed as means which help and more easily conduce to the goal set before them.

VI. Whence, you will say, can we gather that men, whether Christians or religious, fulfil this precept of aspiring to perfection? Christians who vigilantly abstain from vain pomps, from luxury, from display, from the occasions of violating the precepts of the Decalogue; who apply themselves to the study of prayer; who preserve justice and equity, and attribute to each what is his; who do to others what they would wish done to themselves; who fulfil the duties of their own state: these give signs that they walk by the way of evangelical perfection.

VII. If Christians themselves must fulfil the duties of their own state and the offices of ruling a family, of educating sons, of providing necessaries for their household, and all the rest; how much more are religious men bound to execute the duties, vows, rites, statutes, and laws of their own Religion? But whence can it be gathered that religious men bestow their labour with a sincere mind upon the study of perfection? Perhaps from the observance of silence, from assiduity of prayer, from the compression of the senses, of the flesh, and of the appetitions, from the execution of the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience? Assuredly all these are signs. These are probable enough, but sometimes fallacious. For all these can be the fruits of hypocrisy. That a man may prepare himself a way to government, to prefectures, that he may procure for himself the estimation of a religious man and of an observer of his own institute, he can execute all the aforesaid, and under the cloak of sacred Religion become a martyr of the devil. What then are the arguments of a soul aspiring to Christian perfection? The exercises of charity; love toward all; patience and tolerance of injuries; candour of soul; sincerity of tongue; docility of mind; contempt of worldly things; the trampling down of political respects; the fortitude of an evangelical breast; a study of professing openly the discourses of Christ, hostile and adverse to flesh and blood; a neglect of one's own estimation and of worldly things. These are the indications which show a soul running in the stadium of Christian perfection. Since indeed means can be found without an end; but an end cannot subsist without means. Ceremonies therefore and observances of vows, constitutions, and other rites can appear outwardly destitute of the nuptial garment and covered with the mask of hypocrisy. But the exercises of charity, which are their end, cannot stand without the same.

VIII. Hence you may gather that those superiors of Regulars do not sufficiently satisfy their own office who in their Chapters continually cry out against certain transgressions of ceremonies, and scarcely inculcate anything else upon their subjects than the custody of silence, frequency of choir, and the observance of fasts and of certain genuflexions. I praise all these things; but I grieve at this, that they omit to exhort, persuade, and urge to the exercises of charity. For this flame being kindled in the souls of Religious, all the rest flow of their own accord. Charity indeed is a most fruitful plant bearing fruits ripe for eternity. Charity is kind, is patient, envieth not, dealeth not perversely, is not puffed up, beareth all things, endureth all things, seeketh not the things that are her own but the things which are Jesus Christ's, dreads not the power of the age, fears not the calumnies of adversaries; but with undaunted breast in word and work fulfils exactly the law of Christ and the duties of her own profession. That heavenly fire always burns where it is present, and continually emits flames. If it burned in the hearts of Superiors, beyond doubt it would send its sparks into the souls of subjects. Let those therefore who, the preaching of charity being neglected, inculcate only the observation of ceremonies, fill themselves with charity, that, pouring this into others, they may procure for themselves the best subjects.

IX. Charity joins souls with the sweetest covenant of benevolence, and makes them one heart and one soul. In that community in which aversions, dissensions, and contrary factions boil; in which Superiors put on the mask of prudence with craft and cunning, a double heart and an amphibological tongue, candour, sincerity, and affability being driven out — there assuredly the flame of charity does not burn, but a lying and worldly spirit, and that knowledge which St. James calls diabolical, dominates. If superiors play with words, tergiversate in deeds, deny, answer, delude, trim their sails, and set themselves against, as the reckonings of times bear, between subjects and the superiors themselves, their craftiness being detected, no sincerity, no candour of soul, no charity flourishes. But on the contrary murmurs, dissensions, aversions, and perpetual wars are carried on. Superiors who with open soul, sincere heart, and ingenuous tongue gather and embrace their subjects bind them to themselves and oblige them at that very time at which they deny favours, when they cannot impart them with the law safe. But let us return to the path from a digression otherwise opportune.

X. Those Religious therefore who, the exercise of prayer, mortification, penance, abstinence, and of their own rule and constitutions being neglected, perform only those things which they cannot omit; who indulge in games, storytelling, idleness, solaces, and diversions; who, taking up cape or cloak, go about the cities and follow after curious things; who, if the table be not furnished to their palate, murmur; who deride the exhortations and mandates of superiors, and jest, tell tales, and dispute about them — these run not the way of evangelical perfection, but of eternal damnation.

XI. That I may contract many things into few: all Christians, whether lay or religious, are bound to aspire to evangelical perfection by force of a precept binding under mortal sin, but by various means, which all lead by one and a narrow way to the same goal. Lay Christians by the exact observation of the precepts alone; Religious add to the execution of the precepts the observance of the three vows and of their own constitutions. These vows, these constitutions and rules are not, say the Fathers, packs and weights which oppress, but are wings which lighten the journey and raise upward. Wherefore the religious state is named a school of arriving more easily at the perfection of charity, to which all Christians are bound to tend. More gravely assuredly and more wickedly do Religious sin who violate this precept than lay Christians. Since religious men, instructed by God with a richer store of graces and gifts, can more easily and conveniently tread the narrow evangelical path. Therefore these are held sacrilegious, ungrateful, and most worthless servants of God, when they squander and dilapidate so many talents received from God. Since indeed, segregated from the cares of the world and from the dangers of the world to which wretched Christians are obnoxious, compelled to think nothing of food and clothing, they can most easily be free for God alone and for the observance of their own institute. Wherefore they will be beaten doubly, if they omit, much more if they contemn, the attaining of evangelical perfection.

XII. Theologians are wont to dispute whether the observance of the three vows suffice, the other laws being neglected which do not oblige to grave fault; and again they debate whether a continued transgression of those laws induce a virtual and interpretative contempt. But I settle the matter in few words. The three vows are common to all sacred Orders. Every religious Order is distinguished from another by its own peculiar statutes, rules, and constitutions. Therefore besides the three vows common to all, the observance of one's own institute is necessary; otherwise that Religious would be of no determinate Order who kept only the three vows. Necessary therefore is the observance of one's own rule and constitutions, that a man may be said to be free for the study of evangelical perfection.

XIII. Does the transgression of this or that monastic constitution intercept the way of Christian perfection? A constant and firm mind of fulfilling one's own profession is to be distinguished from the transgression of this or that law proceeding from a subreption of soul and from weakness. Daily we all fall. Those who from infirmity violate some law not obliging to fault, at least grave, stumble and in some manner limp on the way; but they rise again at once, and restore their mind and strength that they may run more swiftly; and because we are weak and infirm, we limp anew, and at the same time anew take up wings, more or less, according as the fire of charity burns more or less in the heart. Those therefore who from common infirmity violate some constitution are not outside the way of perfection, provided they keep a firm and constant mind of observing their own profession. On the contrary those who everywhere violate the peculiar laws of their own institute, caring nothing for the transgressions of the same, and persevering in the same corruption, are outside the narrow path, and run the broad and spacious way of perdition. Nor does it avail them at all that they dwell in Convents where the observance of the laws, at least for the greater part, has passed into desuetude, since no corruption prescribes against a law. In brief, the vows and the constitutions are joined by a reciprocal knot. The constitutions are the safeguards of the vows; the vows are the bulwark of charity. Charity, the vows, and the constitutions hold out mutual hands to one another. This knot being gravely injured and broken, the whole edifice must needs fall. Those who with deliberate mind violate their own constitutions indiscriminately lie, if they boast either the observance of the vows or the exercise of charity.

XIV. Three vows are necessary for constituting the religious state, and indeed emitted with a solemn rite in the face of the Church: for that state includes firmness and stability. These three vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience denounce perpetual war upon the three evils of the world which St. John describes, 1 epistle, chapter 2: All that is in the world is the concupiscence of the flesh, the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life. Of these three vows the discourse will presently return. Meanwhile if you desire more on this matter, read St. Thomas, II-II, q. 186, articles 6 and 8.