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Chapter CXIII
THAT COMMANDS UNDER OBEDIENCE SHOULD NOT BE GIVEN LIGHTLY
153 His opinion was that only rarely should something be commanded under obedience, for the weapon of last resort should not be the first one used. As he said, "The hand should not reach quickly for the sword." He who does not hurry to obey what is commanded under obedience neither fears God nor respects man. Nothing could be truer. For, what is command in a rash leader, but a sword in the hands of a madman? And what could be more hopeless than a religious who despises obedience?
Chapter CXIV
A BROTHER WHOSE HOOD HE CAST INTO THE FIRE
BECAUSE, THOUGH DRAWN BY DEVOTION, HE CAME WITHOUT AN OBEDIENCE
154 On a certain occasion he took off the hood from a brother who had come alone and without an obedience,a and ordered that it be cast into a great bonfire. No one kicked the hood out of the fire, for they were scared by the upset expression on the father's face, and the saint ordered it to be pulled out of the flames, and it was unharmed.
Of course this may have been caused by the merits of the saint. But possibly that brother also was not without merit, for he had been overcome by his dedication to seeing the most holy father, even though he had been lacking in discernment, which is the only charioteer of the virtues.b
- An "obedience" is a formal directive expressed by one in authority and, in many cases, could be communicated in writing.
- A reminiscence of Plato’s analogy of the soul as the charioteer who must control the two horses of emotion and desire (Phaedrus, 246, 253-6), Aristotle’s doctrine that prudence must regulate all the other virtues (Nicomachean Ethics, VI:13), and Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermon 49:5, On the Song of Songs, translated by Kilian Walsh and Irene M. Edmonds, introduction by Emero Stiegman (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications), 1979) 25. For a thorough study, cf. André Cabassut, "Discrétion," Dictionnaire de Spiritualité Ascetique et Mystique, Doctrine et Histoire III (Paris: Beauchesne, 1957), 1311-1330.