Of peace and harmony

<1+> THE TREATISE OF SAINT ANSELM ON PEACE AND CONCORD. (From

<2+> CHAPTER ONE How we should keep peace with our neighbor.

It is very necessary to have peace and concord with the brethren, to obey the superior, to
show purity of heart to God. For we must feel the same with our neighbors, so that we may
honor God with one voice. It is agreed to obey the prelate, saying to the Apostle: Obey your
superiors and submit to them. For they are watching as if they were to give an account for
your souls, so that they may do this with joy and not groaning. For it is not expedient for
you. We must prepare for God purity of heart, because they are blessed with a pure heart,
since they themselves will see God. Let us see how these three things are kept. In order to
preserve harmony with our neighbors, let us try to anticipate them with honor. Then if
indeed a man precedes his brother in honor, when he supplants his will to his will. People
who are devoted to the world tend to love their own will, to make everyone else want to
obey them. Every one desires this, cries out for this in word and deed. Those who have not
carefully considered what they want, will certainly never agree with their will. In this,
however, they have a certain agreement, which they all desire to honor. all want to be loved,
all desire that others should agree with their will. In this truth, that each one seeks what is
his own, and no one seeks what belongs to another, they disagree in many ways. Why, in
this that he desires to be presented with subjection and honor, and he seeks the same with
no less earnestness; neither this one to him, nor he to this one, will be able to agree. He says:
I want this or that to happen to me; He says: I do not want it to be so. In this way the bonds
of peace and harmony are dissolved. It is true that those who desire to please God in the
preservation of peace and charity should establish such a rule of living for themselves, that
whatever they harm to please their neighbors, they also want this to happen to themselves.
And since, as B. the Apostle testifies, it is more blessed to give than to receive, to honor than
to be honored, to serve than to be served, does not he who serves out of charity acquire
more than he does to whom he is served? In short, he who presents to another the duty of
charity, already has this by which God is pleased with him. But he who receives the service,
not so. For what thanks does God owe me, if you or anyone else loves me? Since, therefore,
it is greater to have from which God is going to give a good retribution, than that from which
there is none; It is evident that he who ministers from charity has something greater than
he to whom he is ministered. Still, he, to whom the charity of another serves, receives from
it some perfunctory gift, that is to say, an honor, a meal, or any other benefit. The other, who
served out of charity, not only retained charity for himself, but also made it greater than it
had been by participating in it. For things are diminished when scattered, but charity the
more it is scattered, the more it is enlarged. From the management of which love has grown
most around you, who exhibited it, to whom this very thing will surely be the summit of
merit; because through you your love itself grew in me. And although the very duty of
charity has passed through me for that reason; there, however, is the reward of your
charity, which never ceases, and will always remain. Hence it may be concluded that it is
better to serve than to be served. And so, therefore, in all things they desire to give rather
than to receive the justice of God, and they strive to obey the will of another rather than
their own. He who chooses to behave in this way will be a party to the will of another. Being
of one mind, feeling the same thing, otherwise it would not be possible to have harmony.
For how shall he have it, unless he diligently seek it? He will not be able to seek to have
otherwise; in this way the searcher will have

<2+> CHAPTER II. Obedience to be shown to the superior

We must keep subjection and obedience to our superior from the heart; for otherwise we do
not keep the standard we profess. Indeed, he is truly a subject and a monk or a canon, who
rejoices that he is not his own for God's sake. For he who obeys not from the heart but only
by the law of subjection, unless he corrects himself, will not have the reward of obedience:
indeed, there is no good except voluntarily. It is necessary, therefore, that out of love he
keeps the law of obedience, lest he lose the reward of his possession. As long as he does not
appear of his own free will, as far as he is concerned he persists in his own will: but as far as
he has, it is his own, not another's. It is strange how the adversary, who goes about seeking
whom he may devour, does not invade him and him; he who goes the way which is found by
robbers, if he is not recognized by example, is attacked, beaten, and plundered. Moreover, if
he is known, but he has not had a Lord and an advocate, whose reverence and fear he
escapes the hands of robbers, as if they love him and are esteemed around him. If the king is
a king's son, or someone who is overpowering, he is tolerated out of fear, is greeted with
reverence, and goes on his journey unharmed; but if he is stripped naked and beaten. Thus,
brethren, without a doubt, thus it is done in our souls. Almighty God has prepared for us his
kingdom, to which if we choose to obey, we shall not be called his servants, but his friends
and children, and we shall be. We will therefore obey him if we can know that he wills
anything and we will endeavor to carry it out of our good will. Our will will be good and
obedient, if we submit it to his will, and take care to obey him willingly. If we agree with the
good will of the Lord, we will be called friends, we will become children of God. After this
has been accomplished, he will be able to go and pass safely wherever he wants. For he will
not fear the hands of strong robbers and demons, he will not be afraid of evil encounters,
since he will be a king and a king's son. Therefore let every one be careful not to will
anything else, except what he has been permitted to will by the authority of God or his
spiritual father. It is true that license is wont to deceive; for obedience and disobedience are
opposites. One of these is license. He, therefore, who wills what he ought not to will, and yet
he must not will himself unless he wishes to fulfill it by doing; The obedience which he
embraced in this will excuse the act itself; but to desire what he had against obedience,
unless he repents, will be dangerous for him: because some who are less attentive to
permission are often deceived. They are careful, therefore, not to rely on more equal license,
since license, although it lessens the punishment, does not, however, completely repel it. He
knows that the devil fears no one so much as he who never wants to differ from the will of
his superior. For like a thief who steals, he who hides himself from the knowledge of his
superior often suggests wrong things. He, however, who shows himself to the superior for
what he is, does not safely presume to disagree with his will; when he to whom it is
suggested, either he almost despises the suggestion, or if he agrees to the hour, he has made
amends by confession and worthy satisfaction. Therefore, in all things and through all
things, the subject must obey God and submit to the order of the superior with the safety of
God's faithfulness. For if a superior has commanded a subject to swear, if robbery,
fornication, or anything of the kind, he must in no way obey, because God forbids this to
happen. Therefore let him obey God in all things: obey his preeminent will of God in all
things, and as far as he is in himself, kept in the will of God and his Master, let him have
peace with all men. Whoever submits in this way to the will of God and of his superior, then
he will obey God, and when he is equal to his superior in God, he will be able to confidently
claim that he is not his own but God's. Whose soul, when it is at the exit of its body, will not
fear the strong hand of the demons it encounters, because it will have the Lord Christ as a
powerful advocate. Behold what and how much good obedience acquires. When he has been
put into account, whose man he is, where he comes from, where he goes, whom he seeks: if
he has obeyed the will of God, he will be able to say that he is God's. But if he rests in his
own will, and because of this he has come into existence contrary to the will of God and of
his superior, he is lying if he says that he is God's: for while he lived according to his own
will, he did not live according to God's will. Who will he have as a lawyer? To whom will he
go? Who will help him? What will interrupt? Certainly he will not be able to escape, he will
have to go through the middle, he will have or hold the road to life or death. I ask by what
power, by what forces will he come out of the hands of the invaders? The wretched man will
be crucified if he has not had God and his greater author of his will and action. Indeed, in
this way they are shaken by the storms of vices and the attacks of demons, whoever is
alienated from the will of his superior; as ships are tossed about in a sea of boiling tempest.
For if I go out, a marsh full of rocks is placed, to which the ships are tied with ropes; the
further they are from the stake, the more severely will they be struck by the falling storm.
But the more properly they are connected, the less will they feel the gravity of the storm.
Thus, of course, he who is alienated from the just will of his superior, is without a doubt
endangered in the pursuit of his own will; nor will he agree with the will of God, as long as
he disagrees with the will of God's vicar: for whoever assumes the summit of preeminence
in the Church of God undertakes to carry out the duties of God; and in whatever way he
receives it, let him see. Indeed, it is not mine to judge, but to obey his command, if it is not
unjust, saying to the Lord: The Scribes and the Pharisees sat upon the seat of Moses.
Whatever they say to you, do it; But do not do what they do. And the apostle said: Who are
you to judge another's servant? He stands or falls by his master, and there is no power
except from God, but those things which are from God are ordered. Therefore he who
resists the power resists the ordinance of God. And elsewhere: Brothers, do not make many
teachers, so that you do not fall into judgment. He becomes a teacher who indiscriminately
criticizes the actions of his teacher. Wherefore he falls into the judgment of God, because he
will unduly usurp the mastership for himself; which is very much to be guarded against,
because it is too horrible to fall into the hands of the living God. But if the Father's actions
have been worthy of criticism, he will be gently and modestly and reverently implored. For
it is written: Do not rebuke an elder, but entreat him as a father.

<2+> CHAPTER III. On the purity of the heart to be presented to God.

But we have said to God that the purity of the heart must be preserved. For he alone is the
examiner of the heart, who is the founder of mind and body. Man cannot see the heart of
man; for no one knows the things of a man except the spirit of man which is in him. But God,
to whom no sins are hidden, sees the heart and intention of man freely. He who has the
world will be able to see God; but he who has not had the world, without doubt, will in no
way be able to see God. It is necessary, therefore, that whoever desires to have God dwelling
in him should have purity of heart: which no one can have unless he has emptied his heart
of earthly lust, and endeavored to warm it with the love of Christ. For in so far as a man
loves the world, so much will he be empty of heavenly love. And the more each one forsakes
Christ, the more by sinning he departs from the justice of God. For what profit is it to any
one that he is baptized, if he be not justified? Indeed, he who said: Unless one is born again
of water and the Holy Spirit, he will not enter the kingdom of God, he also said: Unless your
righteousness abounds more than that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the
kingdom of heaven. Why, then, do many, fearing that, hurry to be baptized, and not fearing
this, and not being justified at all? Of course, God wants him to be justified by the
observance of his commandments, and to be loved by him, in whose heart he himself ought
to be lodged. For just as incense requires fire to smell, so God requires the warmth of love to
entertain. He, therefore, who desires to entertain God in himself, must grasp the discipline
of abstinence from illicit things without fiction. For the spirit of God's chastening will escape
the counterfeit, and it will be rebuked by the coming iniquity. For iniquity and the spirit of
God, who is also love, cannot coexist. Wherever the love of God has been entertained, and he
who has provided a place for it, and given a place to iniquity in himself, is undoubtedly
rebuked, and the love or spirit of God is driven away by the coming iniquity, and will not
remain if he does not make amends for the benefit of his guest. And indeed the love of God
and iniquity are not converted. He, then, who wishes to become the dwelling place of the
Lord, must maintain purity of heart, drive carnal desires far away, and as a chaste woman
despises a faithful bride to converse with an adulterer, despises his secret words, consents
to nothing that he desires secretly or openly, so that the faithful soul in his will does not
consent to his own desire , let him not receive his permission, despise his words, admit
none of his flattery. If he does this, he unequivocally establishes himself as God's beloved
bride. But if she consents to illicit desires, she will not be called a bride, but an adulteress.
Therefore let our will be pure, that it may be called and be the bride of God, that it may not
be corrupted by any spot of impurity, that it may not become an adulteress. As long as she
agrees to the will of God, she is pure and a bride; but when it disagrees with his will, it is
corrupted, defiled, fornicated. It sometimes happens that a person, while he wishes to study
purity of heart, often has unclean and detestable thoughts, which because he listens too
much to himself when such a thing comes to his mind, he severely criticizes, judges and
condemns: and thus treats himself miserably by rebuking himself: What was I thinking?
What did I do? What did I feel? alas! How can I be cleansed from so much impurity, from
such an evil thought? I am afraid to hide it, I am afraid to reveal it. Not only would I not say
such a thing, but I would not even want to hear it from anyone. How, then, shall I name such
filthiness? Thus with himself, while he is distressed, while he deals with what he does not
want to see, he is more and more attacked, troubled, and not delivered. It is true that he
should not be thus, if he desires to be delivered. So what will he do? Pay attention. When he
saw what he hated to see, he attacked him, and was too importunate; let him look down, pay
no attention, give no assent, turn his thoughts to something else, concentrate on some thing
to do, care no more if he does not like what he feels, than if a butterfly flutters before his
eyes. A traveler who is infested by a dog, if he stops and defends himself from its
importunity, will immediately feel the dog more importunate; but if he looks down at its
barking, passes by and pays no attention, that canine soon ceases all aggression, so that the
traveler passes freely. So he who strives to have purity of heart, let him despise vain and
unfruitful or impure thoughts, turn away his heart, let all that violence which he suffers
within be nothing, let him not recant by thinking what he has thought: but let him utterly
despise whatever evil he has thought less cautiously. For those who are in the faith of the
Lord Jesus are not yet condemned, who do not live according to the flesh. If we live in this
way, if we have a desire for this thing, if we present ourselves in this way before God, we
will be able to become his dwelling place, his guests. Whom we should strive to love and
honor as long as we live; as long as we live, he will repay us without a doubt for his love and
honor. For the same measure in which we were born will be restored to us through him
who gave himself for us and delivered us from the abyss of death, who will crown us with
immortality in the eternal country. to whom be honor and glory forever. Amen.