Cap. XXVII
QUALITER DEBEAT ESSE ABBAS SOLLICITUS CIRCA EXCOMMUNICATOS

[Ms P, fol. 92v – Paulus Diaconus –
Ps.-Basil: Ms K¹, fol. 59v; Ms E¹, fol. 111r; Ms E², fol. 176r]

Ch. 27
HOW THE ABBOT SHOULD BE SOLICITOUS OF EXCOMMUNICATES

Translated by: Joseph Goering

₁Omni sollicitudine curam gerat abbas circa delinquentes fratres.

₁Let the abbot exercise care with all solicitude for the delinquent brethren.

Attendendum est, quia non dicit solummodo sollicitudine curam gerat, seu ‘sollicite’ curam gerat, sed dicit omni sollicitudine, i. e. cum omni sollicitudine. Per hoc enim, quod dicit omni sollicitudine, nihil praetermisit, sed quidquid ad sollicitudinem salvationis animae attinet, cum illis totis debet abbas curam gerere circa delinquentes fratres.  Non solummodo dicit fratres, sed praemisit delinquentes, i. e. peccantes.

Note that he does not say merely exercise care with solicitude or exercise care ’solicitously’, but he says in all solicitude, i.e. with all solicitude. By saying in all solicitude he omits nothing and includes whatsoever might pertain to solicitude for the soul’s salvation, in all of these ways the abbot ought to exercise care for the delinquent brethren.  He does not say merely brethren, but he adds delinquent, i. e. sinning.

Et reddit causam, quare circa [page 356] delinquentes dixerit et non circa fratres, dicens: ₁quia non est opus sanis medicus, sed male habentibus. [Mt 9:12] Sed hoc [enim], quod dicit: non est opus sanis medicus, sed male habentibus, de Domino tulit.

And he gives the reason why he says delinquent and not simply for the brethren, saying: ₁because they that are in health need not a physician, but they that are ill. [Mt 9:12] This saying, they that are in health need not a physician, but they that are ill, he takes from the Lord.

Dominus, cum manducaret cum publicanis et peccatoribus, reprehendebatur a Pharisaeis, quare cum illis manducaret. Ipse vero respondens dixit: Non veni vocare justos, sed peccatores; [Mt 9.13] et non est opus sanis medicus, sed male habentibus. [Mt. 9:12]

For the Lord, because he ate with publicans and sinners, was reproved by the pharisees, asking why he ate with them. But he, responding, said: I am not come to call the just, but sinners, [Mt 9.13] and they that are in health need not a physician, but they that are ill. [Mt. 9:12]

Nunc videndum est, quid est, quod dicit: Non veni vocare justos, sed peccatores. Varie intelligitur. Sunt, qui intelligunt: non veni vocare justos, sed peccatores, i. e. vos, qui dicitis esse vos justos et non peccatores, non veni vocare, sed peccatores illos, qui se fatentur esse peccatores.

Now let us see what is meant when he says: I am not come to call the just, but sinners. Interpretations differ. Some understand by I am not come to call the just, but sinners, that is, you, who call yourselves just and not sinners, I am not come to call you, but those sinners who confess themselves to be sinners.

Sunt, qui intelligunt: non veni vocare justos, sed peccatores ad poenitentiam, i. e. ac si diceret: non veni vocare justos ad poenitentiam, quia illi non indigent, sed peccatores, qui poenitentia indigent; h. e. dicere: justos non despicio neque contemno, peccatores vero ad poenitentiam voco, quia non est opus sanis medicus, sed infirmis. [Mt 9:12]

Others understand by I am not come to call the just, but sinners to penance, as if to say: I have not come to call the just to penance, because they have no need of it, but sinners, who have need of penance; that is to say: I do not despise the just nor contemn them, but I call sinners to penance, because they that are in health need not a physician, but they that are ill. [Mt 9:12]

Et secundum hunc sensum S. Benedictus etiam hoc dicit, ac si diceret: super infirmos et negligentes curam gerat et sollicitudinem abbas; studiosos et devotos, i. e. sanos non despiciat neque contemnat.

And it is in this sense that St. Benedict says this, as if to say: Let the abbot exercise care and solicitude for the ill and the negligent, and let him not despise nor contemn those in good health.

Et hoc sciendum est, quia, cum dixit curam suscepisse infirmarum animarum, ostendit in ista cura multiplicem doctrinam, i. e. aliquando leniter, aliquando crudeliter, aliquando statim, aliquando post tempus et reliqua his similia, sicut superius dicit e contrario dirum magistri, pium patris ostendat affectum. [Regula Benedicti, c. 2.24]

And notice that when he said [the abbot] has undertaken the care of ill souls he shows there to be many facets to this care, that is, sometimes [caring] gently, sometimes harshly, sometimes at once, sometimes after a time, and so forth, as he says above in the contrary case: Let him show the rigor of a master and the tenderness of a father. [Regula Benedicti, c. 2.24]

Sequitur: ₂Et ideo debet omnimodo uti ut sapiens medicus,¹ quasi occultos consolatores sempectas,² i. e. seniores sapientes fratres, ₃qui quasi secrete consolentur fratrem fluctuantem et provocent eum ad humilitatis satisfactionem.

The Rule Continues: ₂And therefore he ought to use every means that a wise physician would use, for example [sending in] sempectae, that is wise older brothers, who as if secretly might console the faltering brother and induce him to make humble satisfaction.

Nunc vero, quia mentionem medici fecit, voluit exponere rationem medici latius, cum dicit: Et ideo debet omnimodo uti, ut sapiens medicus.

Now, having mentioned the physician, he wishes to explain more broadly the physician’s significance when he says: And therefore he ought to use every means, like a wise physician.

Medicus enim sapiens ante languorem [page 357] custodit per consilium, ne incidat quis in infirmitatem; deinde infirmum, qui incidit in languorem, cum magna et omni sollicitudine curam gerit, ut sanet infirmum.

The wise physician, even before [page 357] there are symptoms of infirmity, prevents one from falling ill through good counsel. When signs of infirmity appear, the physician exercises care with every and great solicitude so that the patient might be cured.

Ita et abbas: quia medicus est animarum infirmarum, ideo debet cum omni sollicitudine agere curam, ut infirmam,³ quem recipit ad salvandum, sanare valeat.

So too the abbot. Because he is the physician of infirm souls he should exercise care with every solicitude so that he might heal the infirm one whom he has received in order to save.

Nam quid fratri in infirmitate posito debeat facere, etiam ipse S. Benedictus subjunxit dicens: Debet immittere, i.e. occulte mittere, occultos consolatores senpectas, i. e. seniores fratres; nam superfluum est dicere: seniores sapientes, eo quod in eo, quod dixit seniores, sapientes comprehendit, quia de his senibus dicit, qui sapientes sunt.

What the abbot should do for the infirm brother St. Benedict himself adds saying: He should send in, i. e. secretly send, as secret consolers, sempectae, i. e. older brothers. It is redundant to say ‘wise older brothers’ because in calling them older [seniores], wisdom is implied; he speaks of the older brothers who are wise.

Qui quasi secrete consolentur, i. e. quasi non ab abbate, sed a se ipsis venissent, illi fratri excommunicato loquantur. [Quia] dixerat superius, nullum loqui cum eo, nec etiam illum, qui cibum illi ministrat - verumtamen si cellerarius talis est sapiens, qui possit hujuscemodi hominem consolari et ad satisfactionem provocare, permittente tamen et sciente abbate debet illi loqui, ut eum ad satisfactionem provocet humilitatis.

Who would console, i. e. who would go as if on their own initiative to speak with the excommunicate brother and not as if sent by the abbot. [Because] he said above that no one should speak with the excommunicate, not even the one who brings him food -- but indeed if such a cellarer is a wise man who could console such a person and induce him to make satisfaction, with the abbot’s permission and knowledge he should speak to him in order to induce him to make humble satisfaction.

Sequitur: ₃ne abundantiori tristitia absorbeatur [cf. 2 Cor 2:7] - sicuti Judas absorptus est; ille enim cum debuerat agere poenitentiam de malo, quod fecit, oblitus est sui et absorptus est, prae nimia tristitia laqueo se suspendit.

The Rule Continues: ₃That he may not be overwhelmed by excessive grief [cf. 2 Cor. 2:7] – just as Judas was overwhelmed, for although he ought to have done penance for his wrong-doing, he was forgetful of self and overwhelmed, and hanged himself out of excessive grief.

Hanc vero absorptionem i. e. desperationem voluit cavere S. Benedictus, cum praecipit, consolatores sapientes occulte ire ad illum, jubente tamen abbate, qui eum provocent ad poenitentiam, ne frater prae nimia tristitia desperet et sibi aliquid mali, sicut Judas fecit, inferat et in aeternum pereat, ₄ sed, sicut ait idem Apostolus: confirmetur in eo caritas [2 Cor 2:8] – ac si diceret: habeatur et teneatur erga illum caritas, ne frangatur.

This overwhelming, i. e. despair, Saint Benedict wishes to guard against when he prescribes that wise consolers should secretly visit the excommunicate, but at the abbot’s command, in order to induce the brother to do penance, lest he despair from excessive grief and, like Judas, do some wrong to himself and perish forever. ₄Rather, as the same Apostle says: Let love be strengthened in him [2 Cor. 2:8] – as if to say: Let love be had and held toward him, lest he be broken.

Hoc vero quod dicit: ₄oretur pro eo ab omnibus, ista oratio non est gradus, sicut illa oratio, quae pro illo fratre debet fieri, qui pro levioribus culpis excommunicatus est.

Where he says: ₄Let all pray for him, this prayer is not made at the altar [??? non est gradus] as is the prayer which ought to be made for the brother who has been excommunicated for lighter sins.

Sequitur: ₅Magnopere enim debet sollicitudinem gerere abbas et omni sagacitate et industria curare,⁴ ne aliquam [page 358] de ovibus sibi creditis perdat.

The Rule continues: ₅The abbot must exercise the utmost solicitude and with all keenness and diligence take care lest he lose any [page 358] of the sheep entrusted to him.

Magnopere enim adverbium est, i. e. magno studio vel studiose et non negligenter.

Utmost (magnopere) is an adverb, i. e. with great care, or carefully and not negligently.

 Sagacitate, i. e. velocitate; industria, i. e. ingenio.

With keenness (sagacitas) i. e. speedily (velocitas); with diligence (industria) i. e. with ingenuity (ingenium).

In hoc enim, quod dicit omni sagacitate et omni industria curare, datur intelligi, ut etiam si talis est frater, cui non possit abbas credere, ne forte fugiat, mittatur in carcerem et in catenas et compedes vel in aliquod vinculum, ne effugiat. Quare? Quia non dixit solummodo sagacitate et industria, sine praemissione omni, sed quia omni dixit, ideo potest illum, sicut dixi, in vinculum mittere - ac si diceret: cum omnibus, quae excogitari possunt, ingeniis et velocitatibus currere erga illum debet, ne perdat eum, i. e. ne ille pereat.

Where he says with all keenness and diligence take care, one understands even that if he is such a brother as the abbot is unable to trust not to run away, he may be imprisoned and chained hand and foot or put in some sort of fetter lest he flee. Why? Because he did not say simply with keenness and diligence omitting all, but he added all, and therefore, as I said, he may be imprisoned - as if he had said: with every imaginable ingenuity and speed he ought to run after him, lest he lose him, i. e. lest he should perish.

Et reddit causam, quare ne perdat aliquam animam, quam ille Dominus ad custodiendum commisit, cum subjungit: ₆Noverit enim se infirmarum curam suscipisse animarum, non super sanas tyranidem exercere.

And he gives the reason why [he ought to run] lest he lose any soul that the Lord himself committed into his care, when he adds: ₆He shall have learned that he has undertaken the care of ill souls, and not a tyranny over healthy ones.

Noverit, i. e. sciat, cognoscat - ac si diceret aliis verbis: Cognoscat, quia curam suscepit infirmarum animarum, non sanarum, sicut superius jam dixit: Non est opus sanis medicus, sed male habentibus [Mt 9:12] - non super sanas tyrannidem exercere.

He shall have learned (nosco), i. e. let him understand (scio), perceive (cognosco) - as if he had said in other words: Let him perceive that he has taken up the care of ill souls, not of healthy ones, as he said already above: They that are in health need not a physician, but they that are ill. [Mt 9:12] – Not to exercise a tyranny over healthy ones.

Tyrannidem, i. e. crudelitatem vel severitatem, quia non super illas sanas animas debet exercere crudelitatem, eo quod non est illius officium super bonos monachos, sed super negligentes, i. e. super sanos non debet crudelitatem agere, super infirmos autem omnia , quae illis expediunt, ut ad salutem perveniant, agere debet.

 Tyranny, i. e. harshness or severity, because he ought not to exercise harshness over healthy souls insofar as his office is not over good monks but over negligent ones, i. e. he ought not to deal harshly with healthy ones, but he should do everything to the ill ones that might help them come to salvation.

Sequitur: ₇et metuat prophetae comminationem, per quem Dominus dicit: Quod crassum videbatis, assumebatis, et quod debile erat, projiciebatis.[Ez 34:3-4]

The Rule Continues: ₇And let him fear the Prophet’s warning, through which the Lord says: What you saw to be fat you took for yourselves, and what was feeble you cast away. [Ez 34: 3-4]

Hoc enim testimonium latius dicit Ezechiel propheta, i. e.: Quod fractum erat, non consolidastis et rel. [Ez 34:4]

Ezechiel carries the testimony further, i. e., What was broken you have not bound up, and so on. [Ez 34:4]

Nunc videndum est, quid est, quod dicit: Quod crassum videbatis, assumebatis, et quod debile erat projiciebatis?

Now let us see what it means: What you saw to be fat you took for yourselves, and what was feeble you cast away.

  Pastores enim crassum sumunt ad occidendum et ad manducandum; debile enim projiciunt - ac si diceret aliis verbis: Eos, qui boni erant, assumebatis invidendo [page 359] et malo exemplo persequendo, i. e. bonis aut invidebatis aut per confabulationem vestram malo exemplo perdebatis, super malos autem curam et sollicitudinem ad salvandum non habebatis. Nam assumere in hoc loco pro duobus modis accipitur, i. e. aut exemplo aut invidia.

 Shepherds take the fat animals for slaughtering and eating; but they cast away the feeble - as if to say in other words: Those who are good we will take for ourselves by envying them [page 359] and persecuting them by bad example, i. e. either you envy the good ones or through your conversation you destroy them by your bad example, but you have no care or solicitude for saving the evil ones. Now take for yourself, in this context, is understood in two ways, i. e. either [take for yourself] by example or by envy.

Et hoc notandum est, quia sicut comminatur, eo quod malos et negligentes non curabant, ita etiam comminatur, quia bonos aut exemplo aut invidia persequebantur.

And notice that, just as he warns because they do not care for the evil and negligent ones, so also he warns that they persecute the good ones either by example or by envy.

Sequitur: ₈et pastoris boni pium imitetur exemplum, qui relictis nonaginta novem ovibus in montibus abiit, unam ovem quae erraverat quaerere, ₉cujus infirmitati in tantum compassus est, ut eam in sacris humeris suis imponeret et sic reportaret ad gregem. [cf. Lc 15:4-5]

The Rule Continues: ₈Let him imitate the pious example of the good shepherd, who left ninety-nine sheep in the mountains and went back to seek the one sheep that had gone astray, on whose weakness he had such compassion that he placed it on his own sacred shoulders and carried it thus back to the flock. [cf. Lc 15:4-5]

Bene exemplum Domini illi proposuit, cujus vicem agere jam superius illi indicaverat. Sicut enim Dominus relictis angelicis potestatibus in montibus, i. e. in excelsis, et venit in terram, quaerere unam ovem, i. e. humanum genus, quod per primae culpae meritum ab illa celsitudine immortalitatis et a consortio angelorum erravit, ita et abbas debet curam bonorum monachorum deserere, qui per bonam conversationem in excelsis consistunt, sicut dicit apostolus Paulus: Nostra autem conversatio in coelis est. [Phil 3:20]

Fittingly he proposes to the abbot this example of the Lord, whose vicar he is, as he indicated to him already above. Just as the Lord left the angelic powers in the mountains, i. e. on high, and came down to earth to seek the one sheep, i. e. humankind, which, by merit of the first fault, had strayed from that height of immortality and from the company of angels, so also the abbot should foresake the care of the good monks, who stand firm in the heights through their good conversation, as the apostle Paul says: Our conversation is in heaven. [Phil 3:20]

Et ideo debet abbas curam illius fratris infirmi habere et omnem sollicitudinem, donec revocetur ad illam conversationem celsitudinis, quam ceteri boni fratres habent.

And therefore the abbot should have care and all solicitude for the ill brother until he shall be called back to that heavenly conversation that the other good brothers have.

Forte dicit aliquis: ‘Quomodo ponit abbas super humerum suum ovem, i. e. monachum errantem? Cognosco, quia tunc Christus errantem ovem quaesivit, i. e. humanum genus, cum carnem hominis suscipere dignatus est, et reportavit ad gregem, i. e. ad angelicas potestates, cum per incarnationis mysterium humanum genus redemit et ad coelos ascendit.'

Perhaps someone will say: ‘How does the abbot place the sheep, i. e. the wayward monk, on his shoulder?’ I understand that Christ sought the wayward sheep, i. e. humankind, when he deigned to take on human flesh and carried it back to the flock, i. e. to the angelic powers, when he redeemed humankind through the mystery of the incarnation and ascended to heaven.

Cui respondendum est: tunc abbas ovem morbidam i. e. monachum negligentem super humerum suum ponit, cum compatitur ejus infirmitati et pro eo affligitur, et eum studet admonere, et cetera, quae ad regularem ordinem attinent, circa salutem illius agere studet.

To whom it should be replied: The abbot puts the sick sheep, i. e. the negligent monk, on his shoulder when he has compassion on his infirmity and is afflicted on his account, and takes care to admonish him and to do the other things that pertain to the regular order concerning his salvation. (???)

Sciendum est enim, quia de hac separatione, qua ab eo, qui publice excommunicatur, ceteri separantur, etiam instituta [page 360] patrum bene docet dicens hoc modo:

It should be known also that, the Institutes [page 360] of the Fathers also teaches well concerning this separation by which others are separated from him who is publicly excommunicated, saying:

Sane, si [omitted in ed. Mittermüller, inserted from SC 109: fuerit ab oratione suspensus, nullus cum eo prorsus orandi habet licentiam, antequam summissa in terram paenitentia reconciliatio eius et admissi venia coram fratribus cunctis publice fuerit ab abbate concessa.

Further, if one of them has been suspended from prayer for some fault which he has committed, [omitted in Mittermüller, inserted from SC 109: no one has any liberty of praying with him before he performs his penance on the ground, and reconciliation and pardon for his offence has been publicly granted to him by the Abbot before all the brethren.

Ob hoc namque tali obseruantia semet ipsos ab orationis eius consortio segregant atque secernunt, quod credunt eum, qui ab oratione suspenditur, secundum apostolum tradi Satanae, et quisquis orationi eius, antequam recipiatur a seniore, inconsiderata pietate permotus communicare praesumpserit, conplicem se damnationis eius efficiat, tradens scilicet semet ipsum voluntarie Satanae, cui ille pro sui reatus emendatione fuerat deputatus.

And in this he falls into a more grievous offence because, by uniting with him in fellowship either in talk or in prayer, he gives him grounds for still greater arrogance, and only encourages and makes worse the obstinacy of the offender. For, by giving him a consolation that is only hurtful, he will make his heart still harder, and not let him humble himself for the fault for which he was excommunicated; and through this he will make him hold the Elder’s rebuke as of no consequence, and harbour deceitful thoughts about satisfaction and absolution. 

In eo vel maxime gravius crimen incurrens, quod cum illo se uel confabulationis uel orationis communione miscendo maiorem illi generet insolentiae fomitem et contumaciam delinquentis in peius enutriat. perniciosum namque solacium tribuens cor eius magis magis que faciet indurari nec humiliari eum sinet, ob quod fuerat segregatus, et per hoc uel increpationem senioris non magni pendere uel dissimulanter de satisfactione et] venia cogitare. [Cassian, Institutiones II, c. 16, SC 109, pp. 86-88]

For by a plan of this kind they separate and cut themselves off from fellowship with him in prayer for this reason--because they believe that one who is suspended from prayer is, as the Apostle says, 'delivered unto Satan:' and if any one, moved by an ill-considered affection, dares to hold communion with him in prayer before he has been received by the Elder, he makes himself partaker of his damnation, and delivers himself up of his own free will to Satan, to whom the other had been consigned for the correction of his guilt. [Cassian, Institutiones II, c. 16]

Verum etiam magnum studium debet esse abbati de illo excommunicato, ne contingat ante mori quam reconcilietur, quia si ante, quod absit, mortuus fuerit, secundum canonicam auctoritatem pro eo sacrificium offerri non debet, sicut Leo papa in suis decretis loquitur dicens hoc modo capitulo vicesimo: De communione privatis et ita defunctis. Horum causa Dei judicio reservanda est, in cujus manu fuit, ut talium obitus usque ad communionis remedium differretur. Nos autem, quibus viventibus non communicavimus, mortuis communicare non possumus. [Collectio Dionysiana, papal decretals, c. 20]

The abbot indeed should devote great care concerning this excommunicated brother, lest he should happen to die before being reconciled. If, God forbid, he should have died before, no sacrifice should be offered for him, according to canonical authority, as Pope Leo says in his decrees, speaking thus in chapter twenty: As for those who have died while deprived of communion, their case is to be reserved to God’s judgment, in whose hand it was that the death of such persons might have been postponed until [they had received] the remedy of communion. We, however, do not communicate with the dead with whom we did not communicate while they were alive. [Collectio Dionysiana, papal decretals, c. 20]

Et ideo dixi, ut magnum studium sit, quatenus, si cognoverit eum venire ad mortem, ante reconciliet eum, et corpus et sanguinem Domini nostri Jesu Christi illi tradere studeat, quia nullus peccator sine illo viatico de hoc corpore exire debet.

And therefore I have said that great care should be taken that, if [the abbot] should sense that [the excommunicated brother] is nearing death, he should reconcile him before death, and take care to give him the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, because no sinner ought to leave this body without that viaticum.