Bellarmine · De Controversiis · On the Members of the Church · On Monks (Book II)
Chapter 1: On the Name of the Monastic Life
Our translation, from the Latin of the Opera Omnia (Paris: Vivès, 1870–74), vol. II, De Monachis (De Membris Ecclesiae, Book II), On Monks (On the Members of the Church, Book II). The Latin source text is public domain; this English rendering is released with the site. Scripture quotations follow Bellarmine's Vulgate citations, rendered in Douay-Rheims wording where he quotes exactly. Click “Show the Latin” for the original (raw OCR of the scan; scanning errors remain — the scan itself is the authority).
About to explain, then, in the first place the nature, division, and origin of the religious orders, and at the same time to refute the lies and calumnies of the heretics, I will begin, as is fitting, with the name. Among the Greeks five names are found. For they call the professor of this life therapeuten, asketen, hiketen, philotheon, monachon; the Latins retained the last Greek word, and added “regular” and “religious.” Therapeutes means a worshiper. Dionysius uses this name (chapter 6 of the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy), where he says that by the Apostles the monks were called therapeutae, because they, beyond the rest, worship God purely. Philo uses the same name at the beginning of the book On the Contemplative Life of Suppliants, where he says they are called therapeutae, either because they worship God most diligently, or because they tend and cure their souls of the diseases of vices; for therapeutes means both a worshiper and a physician. Asketes means a boxer or trainer, which name Basil uses throughout, who also calls his sermons on monastic matters “ascetic.” And monks are called boxers or trainers because their whole office ought to be the wrestling-school of the virtues, since other men exercise themselves in war, in trade, and so forth. Hiketes means a suppliant, which name Philo uses, who titled the book on the life of the monks of his time On the Contemplative Life of Suppliants. And they are called suppliants from their chief function, which is to pray and to praise God.
Monks are called philosophers throughout by Chrysostom in the books against the vituperators of monastic life, and by Nilus, who titled his book on the monastic life On Christian Philosophy. And monks are called philosophers, as Nilus indicates, because they hold that place among Christians which the philosophers held among the heathen. For among the heathen certain severe men, contemners of temporal things and given wholly to the study of wisdom, were called philosophers. The name “monk” is most frequent among all the Fathers, Greek and Latin. But what it means is not explained in the same way by all.
Blessed Jerome, in the epistle to Heliodorus, seems to wish the name “monk” to belong most properly to hermits, who dwelt alone: “Interpret,” he says, “the word ‘monk’ — that is, thine own; what doest thou in a crowd, thou who art alone?” But that it is not so can be known, first, from the fact that the hermits began from Paul the first hermit (Jerome himself being author, in his life); but the name “monk” is found in Dionysius the Areopagite, who preceded Paul the first hermit by nearly 300 years; and then from the fact that all the ancients, and Jerome himself in the epistle to Eustochium on the keeping of virginity, will have the name “monk” to be common to hermits and cenobites alike.
Blessed Augustine, on Psalm 133, expounding that verse, “Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity,” says that this sweetest canticle roused men and made monks out of seculars, and that “monk” signifies nothing else than a man living in such unity and community with others of the same institute that he has one heart with them all and makes one and a single man. According to which signification the name “monk” would belong to cenobites alone. But the truest explanation of this name is in Cassian and Dionysius. For Cassian writes (Conference 18, of Abbot Pyamon, chapter 5) that monks were so called because they abstained from marriages, and separated themselves from the fellowship of their kindred and from the converse of this world, that they might, namely, cling to God alone through contemplation. Which same thing Dionysius delivers (chapter 6 of the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy), where he says they are called monks because, divisible things being left behind, they strove to please the Monad — that is, the Divinity — alone.
From which it follows that, properly, monks are none but those religious who give their labor to the contemplative life alone, such as are the Cassinese, Cistercians, Carthusians, Camaldolese, and others of that kind. Understanding which, Saint Thomas, Saint Bonaventure, and other later Doctors do not call the Dominicans and Franciscans, and the like — who do not attend to contemplation alone but are engaged in action, aiding bishops and clerics in sermons and sacraments — monks, but call them “regulars” or “religious.” Regulars indeed, because they are bound to a fixed rule of living, which name the Councils use throughout; and religious, because they have made themselves over wholly to the service of God, as Blessed Thomas rightly explains (2a2ae, question 136, article 1). For religion is a virtue by which we exhibit due worship to God. Wherefore, as all upright Christians can be called religious if they serve God as their vocation requires, so those are called religious by antonomasia who serve nothing but God. And although this name may seem new, yet in truth it is the most ancient of all; for it properly answers to that Greek word therapeutes, which we have taught that Dionysius and Philo used. So much for the name.
Show the Latin (Vives edition, OCR)
CAPUT I. De nomine Monastices, Explicaturus igitur primo loco naturam, partitionem, atque ortum Religionum, et si¬ mul htereticorum mendacia , et calumnias refutaturus, a nomine, ut par est, exordiar. Nomine apud Graecos quinque inveniuntur. Vocant enim professorem hujus vitae Bspumv- r?iv, affxvjrrjv, tzsrvjv, «pt^oeroyov, pova^ov : Latini retinuerunt ultimum Graecum vocabulum, et addiderunt regularem, et religiosum : 9*- jOK7rsuTv)s significat cultorem. Utitur hoc no¬ mine Dionysius, cap. 6 Ecclesiasticae bier- archiae , ubi dicit ab Apostolis fuisse Mona¬ chos vocatos Bepomsvrcc; , eo quod ipsi pure praeter caeteros Deum colant. Utitur eodem nomine Philo initio libri de vita contempla¬ tiva supplicum, ubi dicit, eos vocari Qspomeu- ra? , vel quod Deum diligentissime colant, vel quod animas suas colant , et curent a morbis vitiorum ; Qspocirsx>rri? significat et cul¬ torem et medicum ; acervi; significat pugi¬ lem sive exercitatorem, quo nomine passim utitur Basilius , qui etiam sermones suos de rebus monasticis vocat asceticos. Dicuntur autem Monachi pugiles , vel exercitatores, quia totum eorum officium deberet esse vir¬ tutum palaestra, cum alii homines exerceant se in bello , in mercatura etc. hk n? suppli¬ cem significat, quo nomine utitur Philo, qui librum de vita Monachorum sui temporis, inscripsit de vita contemplativa supplicum. Dicuntur autem supplices a praecipuo mu¬ nere, quod est orare, et laudare Deum. Philosophi dicuntur Monachi passim a Chrysostomo in libris contra vituperatores vitae monasticae, et a Nilo, qui librum suum de monastice, inscripsit de Christiana Phi¬ losophia. Dicuntur autem Monachi Philoso¬ phi, ut Nilus indicat , quia eum locum te¬ nent apud Christianos, quem Philosophi apud Ethnicos. Philosophi enim dicebantur apud Ethnicos, homines quidam severi contemp¬ tores rerum temporalium , et toti sapientiae studio dediti. Nomen Monachi frequentissi- mum est apud omnes Patres Graecos et La¬ tinos. Quid autem significet, non eodem mo¬ do explicatur ab omnibus. B. Hieronymus in epist. ad Heliodorum, videtur velle nomen Monachi propriissime convenire eremitis , qui soli habitabant : « Interpretare, inquit, vocabulum Monachi, hoc est, tuum; quid facis in turba, qui so¬ lus es? )> At non ita esse, tum ex eo cognos¬ ci potest , quod eremitae coeperunt a Paulo primo eremita ,(ipso Hieronymo auctore in ejus vita. Nomen autem Monachi inveni¬ tur apud Dionysium Areopagitam , qui fere 300 annis Paulum primum eremitam ante¬ cessit, tum ex eo , quod omnes veteres , et ipse etiam Hieronymus in epist. ad Eusto- cbium de servanda virginitate, nomen Mo¬ nachi tam eremitis, quam coenobitis volunt esse commune. B. Augustinus in Psalm. CXXXIII. expo¬ nens illud : Ecce quam bonum et quam jucun¬ dum habitare fratres in unum (4) ; dicit hoc dul¬ cissimum canticum excitasse homines, et de saecularibus Monachos fecisse, nihilque aliud significare Monachum , quam hominem in tali unitate, et communitate cum aliis ejus¬ dem instituti viventem, ut cum illis omnibus unum cor habeat, et unum, ac solum homi¬ nem faciat. Secundum quam significationem nomen Monachi solis coenobitis conveniret. At verissima explicatio hujus nominis est apud Cassianum et Dionysium. Scribit enim Cassianus collat. XVIII, Abbatis Pyamonis, cap. 5. inde Monachos dictos, quod a con¬ jugiis abstinerent, et a parentum se consor¬ tio, ac mundi hujus conversatione secerne¬ rent, ut nimirum soli Deo per contemplatio¬ nem inhaererent. Quod idem tradit Diony¬ sius cap. 6 Ecclesiasticae hierarchiae , ubi dicit, Monachos appellari, quod rebus divi¬ sibilibus relictis , Monadi, id est, Divinitati soli placere contenderent. Ex quo sequitur, proprie Monachos non esse , nisi eos religiosos , qui soli vitae con¬ templativae dant operam, quales sunt Cassi- nenses, Cistercienses, Carthusiani, Camaldu- lenses, atque alii id genus. Quod intelligen- tes S. Thomas, S. Bonaventura, et alii Doc- tores posteriores, non vocant Monachos, Do- minicanos et Franciscanos , et similes , qui non soli contemplationi insistunt, sed in ac¬ tione versantur, juvantes Episcopos et Cle¬ ricos in concionibus, et Sacramentis, sed re¬ gulares, vel religiosos appellant. Regulares (1) Psal. CXXXII, 1. 506 LIBER II. quidem, quod certse regulse vivendi addicti sint, quo nomine passim utuntur Concilia. Religiosos autem , quod se totos Dei obse¬ quio mancipaverint, ut recte explicat B. Tho- mas2. 2. qusestion. CXXXYI, art. 1. Religio enim est virtus, qua Deo debitum cultum ex¬ hibemus. Quare sicut omnes probi Christia¬ ni dici possunt religiosi , si Deo serviant, ut eorum vocatio requirit : ita illi per anto¬ nomasiam dicuntur religiosi , qui nulli rei serviunt , nisi Deo. Et licet hoc nomen vi¬ deatur novum , tamen revera est omnium antiquissimum; respondet enim proprie illi Grseco, Ospumurhs, quo Dionysium, et Philo¬ nem usos fuisse docuimus. Haec de nomine.