Chapter XI

. IV.

For such as have feeling for these matters, I give the following extracts from Damiani’s _Opusc._ xiii., _De perfectione monachi_, caps. 12, 13: “Let the brother love fasting and cherish privation, let him flee the sight of men, withdraw from affairs, keep his mouth from vain conversation, seek the hiding-place of his mind wherein with his whole strength he burns to see the face of his Creator; and let him pant for tears, and beset God for them with daily prayer. For the dew of tears cleanses the soul from every stain and makes fruitful the meadows of our hearts so that they bring forth the sprouts of virtue. For often as under an icy frost the wretched soul sheds its foliage, and, grace departing, it is left to itself barren and stripped of its shortlived blossoms. But anon tears given by the Tester of hearts burst forth, and this same soul is loosed from the cold of its slothful torpor, and becomes green again with the renewed leafage of its virtues, as a tree in spring kindled by the south wind.

“Tears, moreover, which are from God, with fidelity approach the tribunal of divine hearing, and quickly obtaining what they ask, assure us of the remission of our sins. Tears are intermediaries in concluding peace between God and men; they are the truthful and the very wisest (_doctissimae_) teachers in the dubiousness of human ignorance. For when we are in doubt whether something may be pleasing to God, we can reach no better certitude than through prayer, weeping truthfully. We need never again hesitate as to what our mind has decided on under such conditions.

“Tears,” continues Damiani, “washed the noisomeness of her guilt from the Magdalen, saved the Apostle who denied his Lord, restored King David after deadly sin, added three years to Hezekiah’s life, preserved inviolate the chastity of Judith, and won for her the head of Holophernes. Why mention the centurion Cornelius, why mention Susanna? indeed were I to tell all the deeds of tears, the day would close before my task were ended. For it is they that purify the sinner’s soul, confirm his inconstant heart, prepare joy out of grief, and, breaking forth from our eyes of flesh, raise us to the hope of supernal beatitude. For their petition may not be set aside, so mighty are their voices in the Creator’s ears. Before the pious Judge they hesitate at nothing, but vindicate their claim to mercy as a right, and exult confident of having obtained what they implore.

“O ye tears, joys of the spirit, sweeter than honey, sweeter than nectar! which with a sweet and pleasant taste refresh minds lifted up to God, and water consumed and arid hearts with a flood of penetrating grace from heaven. Weeping eyes terrify the devil; he fears the onslaught of tears bursting forth, as one would flee a tempest of hail driven by the fury of all the winds. As the torrent’s rush cleanses the river-bed, the flowing tears purge the weeper’s mind from the devil’s tares and every pest of sin.”

[452] _De inst. ord. er._ cap. 1 (Migne 145, col. 337).

[453] The _Vita Romualdi_ is printed in Migne 144, col. 950-1008.

[454] Romuald died in 1027; _lustrum_ here may mean four years, which would bring the time of writing to 1039.

[455] _Vita Romualdi_, caps. 8, 9. Damiani does not say this here, but quite definitely suggests it in cap. 64. The lives of these eastern hermits were known to Romuald; hermits in Italy had imitated them; and the connection with the knowledge of the Orient was not severed. See Sackur, _Die Cluniacenser, etc._, i. 324 _sqq._ Thus for their models these Italian hermits go behind the _Regula Benedicti_ to the anchorite examples of Cassian and the East. Cf. Taylor, _Classical Heritage_, p. 160. A good example was St. Nilus, a Calabrian, perhaps of Greek stock. As Abbot of Crypta-Ferrata in Agro-Tusculano, he did not cease from his austerities, and still dwelt in a cave. He died in 1005 at the alleged age of ninety-five. His days are thus described: from dawn to the third hour he copied rapidly, filling a τετραδεῖον (quaternion) each day. From the third to the sixth hour he stood before the Cross of the Lord, reciting psalms and making genuflections; from the sixth to the ninth, he sat and read--no profane book we may be sure. When the ninth hour was come, he addressed his evening hymn to God and went out to walk and study Him in His works. See his _Vita_, from the Greek, in _Acta sanctorum_, sept. t. vii. pp. 279-343, especially page 293.

[456] _Vita Romualdi_, cap. 13.

[457] _Ibid._ cap. 20.

[458] _Vita Romualdi_, cap. 51.

[459] _Vita Romualdi_, cap. 35.

[460] _Ibid._ cap. 40.

[461] _Ibid._ cap. 45.

[462] _Vita_, caps. 49, 50.

[463] The Syrian region famous for its early anchorites.

[464] _Vita Romualdi_, cap. 64.

[465] Cf. Sackur, _Die Cluniacenser_, i. 328 note.

[466] _Vita Romualdi_, 69.

[467] Peter Damiani, _Vitae SS. Rodulphi et Dominici loricati_, cap. 8 (Migne 144, col. 1015.)

[468] _Ibid._ cap. 10 (Migne 144, col. 1017).

[469] This story is told in all the early lives of Bruno, the _Vita antiquior_, the _Vita altera_, and the _Vita tertia_ (Migne, _Pat. Lat._ 152, col. 482, 493, and 525). These lives, especially the _Vita altera_, are interesting illustrations of the ascetic spirit, which, as might be expected, also moulds Bruno’s thoughts and his understanding of Scripture. All of which appears in his long _Expositio in Psalmos_ (Migne, _Pat. Lat._ 152). To us, for example, the note of the twenty-third (in the Vulgate the twenty-second) psalm is love; to Bruno it is disciplinary guidance: the Lord guides me in the place of pasture, that is, He is my guide lest I go astray in the Scriptures, where the souls of the faithful are fed; I shall not want, that is an understanding of them shall not fail me. Thy rod, that is the lesser tribulation; thy staff, that is the greater tribulation, correct and chastise me.

[470] Guigo was born in 1083 at St. Romain near Valence, of noble family (like most monks of prominence). There was close sympathy between him and St. Bernard, as their letters show. Cf. _post_,