Peter the sinful monk sends greetings to the most
prudent
Boniface, in the indissoluble bond of their true
love.
I know very well, brother, that when this letter
of mine
falls into the hands of your worldly
acquaintances, it will be
scanned diligently to see whether it shines with
eloquence;
they will look to see whether it has been set
forth in logical
order, whether it gleams with the rich colours of
rhetorical art,
whether the opinions it contains are elaborated by
arguments
of dialectical subtlety; they will ask whether I
use categorical
or hypothetical syllogisms to construct my
propositions by
means of irrefutable adductions.
CHAPTER ONE
But those who live by the spirit of God despise
these
ornamental frivolities as things utterly vain and
worthless, and,
as the Apostle says, count them but as dung. 1 And
Paul bears
witness that he himself did not speak to his
disciples with
wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should
be made of
no effect. 2 What splendid and fruitful and
honourable eloquence
is that which, while it puffs up its proud author
with the wind
of vainglory, makes of no effect the cross of
Christ, which is
the world's salvation!
And so, dearly beloved, do not look to find in my
letters
the enticing salt savour of mordant wit or the
charm of smooth
sophistication; be content with that sheeplike
simplicity which
1 Phil, iii, 8. a i Cor. i, 17.
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CONCERNING TRUE HAPPINESS AND WISDOM
leads to God; and shun the cunning of the serpent,
which
instils a deadly poison. The Scriptures say: 'Now
the serpent
was more subtle than any beast of the field.' 1
And the Lord,
who set an irreconcilable enmity between the seed
of the
woman and that of the serpent, called Himself a
shepherd of
sheep, not of serpents; He did not say c My
serpents' but 'My
sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and I give
unto them
eternal life.' 2 And yet the wise men of this
world hold in scorn
the simplicity of the servants of God. This is why
Moses says:
'The Egyptians might not eat bread with the
Hebrews; for
that is an abomination unto the Egyptians.' 3 He
gives the
reason for this elsewhere, when he says 'Every
shepherd is an
abomination unto the Egyptians.' 4 And Truth
Himself has said
that the children of this world are wiser in their
generation
than the children of light. 5 That is why they
love the cunning
of the serpent and despise the purity and
simplicity of the sheep.
Yet the Lord said to Peter: c lf you love Me, feed
My sheep,
feed My lambs.' 6 Did He say Teed my foxlings,
feed my
dragons' ?
Concerning all this I would say to you, dearly
beloved, that
you should beware of the dreadful subtlety of the
serpent.
Your holy wisdom should tread the middle way
between folly
and cunning. This is what James meant when he
dismissed the
wisdom of the serpent, saying: 'This wisdom
descendeth not
from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.* 7
A little later he
tells us of that kind of wisdom which we should
possess: 'The
wisdom that is from above is first pure, then
peaceable, gentle
and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good
fruits, without
partiality and without hypocrisy.' 8 Paul also
tells us not to
think more highly than we ought, but to think
soberly. 9 Isaias
says of unbridled wisdom: 'The wisdom of their
wise men shall
perish, and the understanding of their prudent men
shall be
hid. Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their
counsel from
the Lord; whose works are in the dark and they
say: Who
1 Gen. iii, i. 2 John x, 27-28. 3 Gen. xliii, 32.
4 Gen. xlvi, 34. 5 Luke xvi, 8. 6 John xxi, 15-18.
7 Jas. Hi, 15. 8 Ibid., 17. 9 Rom. xii, 3.
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CONCERNING TRUE HAPPINESS AND WISDOM
seeth us, and who knoweth us ?* The prophet mocks
at such
wisdom: 'Where Is the scribe? Where is the lawyer?
Where is
the teacher of the children ? You shall not see an
unwise people,
a people of deep speech, so that you cannot
understand the
discourse of their tongue, in which there is no
wisdom/ 1
CHAPTER Two
The Apostle distinguishes clearly the great
difference be-
tween worldly prudence and spiritual wisdom in
another place,
when he says: Tor after that in the wisdom of God
the world
by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the
foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe/ 2 And
again: 'The
carnal mind is the enemy of God; for it is not
subject to the
law of God, neither indeed can be/ 3 This is why
as we are
told in the book of Genesis, the five kings who
did not wish
to submit to Chedorlaomor were overcome by four
kings.
This took place in the vale of Siddim, which is
now the salt
sea. The four kings represent those four virtues
which Holy
Scripture calls the principal virtues; the five
kings symbolize
the senses of the body, and thereby outward
knowledge. And
just as the former, those virtues which I have
mentioned, spring
from their mother-source, the fountain-head of
reason, so the
latter remain in the valley of salt which is the
vanity of earthly
wisdom, where they are overthrown by their
enemies; for it is
fitting that in our souls the wisdom of the spirit
should have
the victory and the cunning of fleshly knowledge
should perish.
We read of David that 'he gat himself a name when
he returned
from smiting of the Syrians in the valley of salt,
twelve
thousand being slain/ 4 And Christ, our true
David, mighty in
strength and splendid to behold, scattered twelve
thousand
men in the valley of salt, for through His
apostles He triumphed
over the salt, nay, the false witness of this
world. He had twelve
warriors for his spiritual battle, and through
each of them
must have slain a thousand men when he converted
the fool-
1 Isa. xxxiii, 18-19. 2 * Cor. i s 21.
8 Rom. viii, 7. 4 i Sam. vili, 13.
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CONCERNING TRUE HAPPINESS AND WISDOM
ishly wise from the folly of their vain knowledge.
One of these
warriors said to the Corinthians: 'Though we walk
in the flesh
we do not war according to the flesh; for the
weapons of our
warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God for
the pulling
down of strongholds, casting down imaginations and
every
high thing that exalteth itself against the
knowledge of God,
and bringing into captivity every thought to the
obedience of
Christ.' 1
CHAPTER THREE
Indeed, just as heavenly wisdom makes spiritually-minded
and lawful sons of the Church, so earthly prudence
makes them
carnal-minded and bastards. Of these, Baruch says:
'And the
sons of Agar, who sought out diligently that
wisdom which is
of this world, the merchants of Merrha and Theman,
the
spinners of tales and seekers of knowledge, knew
not the way
of wisdom, nor did they remember her paths.' 2
Those who
desire to pursue worldly knowledge and who despise
the wis-
dom of the spkit are sons of Agar, not of Sarah;
and, being
bastards, are to be judged by the law of Ishmael,
not that of
Israel. And, since the name Agar means 'stranger',
they are not
the children of wisdom, but strangers and
pilgrims, but not of
the number of those to whom the Apostle says: c
Now therefore
ye are no more strangers and pilgrims, but
fellow-citizens with
the saints, and of the household of God.' 3 Do you
too, dearly
beloved (if I may once more use the words of
Baruch), learn
where wisdom dwells. For she is to be found in her
essence
only in God, and of him you must certainly seek
her. But
because the place you hold in the world is not a
lowly one,
and because you cannot abandon it, you will find
it useful, in
avoiding the cadences of pagan rhetoric in
conversation, and
in shunning at all times the sophistication of
literary elegance,
to observe a certain discretion. Be almost
slothful in worldly
matters; but stretch all the sinews of your mind
in the discipline
of the spirit. Be heedless of the former, but
eager in the latter.
Because you cannot of yourself hope entirely to
avoid the
1 2 Cor. x, 3-5. 2 Baruch iii, 22-24. 3 Eph. ii,
19.
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CONCERNING TRUE HAPPINESS AND WISDOM
cunning of the serpent in the transaction of
worldly affairs, let
this be enough for you: that the wisdom of the
spirit may
devour your earthly prudence, and transform it
into the secret
substance of her body. The Scriptures tell us,
concerning
Pharaoh's magicians: They cast down every man his
rod, and
they became serpents, but Aaron's rod swallowed up
their
rods.' 1 Now, the rod of Aaron swallowed up the
rods of the
sorcerers because the wisdom of Christ, which it
signified, has
made void all the wisdom of the world, and has
united in the
bowels of His body, the Church, the wise men of
this world.
Besides, it is absurd and disgraceful that we
should show the
same care and precision in human affairs that we
devote to the
things of God and of the spirit. That is why the Lord
said to
Moses: 'Take unto thee sweet spices, stacte and
onycha and
sweet-smelling galbanum and pure frankincense, and
thou
shalt make it a perfume, a confection after the
art of the
apothecary, tempered together, pure and holy.' 2
We make a perfume of sweet spices when we diffuse
the
odour of a multiplicity of virtues around the
altar of good
works. And it is tempered together and pure,
because the more
we add to virtue, the more purely does the incense
of good
works rise up. And to these words of the Lord were
added
others: 'And thou shalt beat it very small, and
put of it before
the testimony in the tabernacle of the
congregation.' 3 We beat
all these spices very small when we pound our good
works in
the pestle of our hearts by secret examination of
our con-
sciences and carefully consider whether they are
truly good.
To reduce the spices to dust is to grind our
virtues by means
of reflection and to subject them to the refinement
of inner
inquiry.
CHAPTER FOUR
Remember what was said of this dust: 'Thou shalt
put of it
before the testimony in the tabernacle of the
congregation';
for our good works are truly pleasing in the sight
of the
Eternal Judge when our mind mills them by careful
considera-
1 Exod. vii, 12. a Exod. xxx, 34-35. 3 Ibid., 36.
141
CONCERNING TRUE HAPPINESS AND WISDOM
tion, and as it were reduces the spices to dust.
Let not the good
which we do contain anything harsh or coarse,
lest, the severe
hand of examination having failed to crush it, it
should not
send forth its most delicate fragrance. Such
diligence, such
pressing attention, is not, of course, to be shown
to worldly
things; its purpose is this that we may be found
pleasing in
the sight of the Creator; not that we may appear
glorious in
this world, but that we may be wise in God's sight
in our
judgement. That is why the Lord continued: c You
shall not
make for yourselves according to the composition
thereof; it
shall be unto you holy for the Lord*; 1 and
afterwards: 'Whoso-
ever shall make like unto that, to smell thereto,
shall even be
cut off from his people/ 2 Whoever, then, devotes
to the study
of pagan letters, or to any earthly thing, that
care which is
chiefly due to that punctilious inner examination
of ourselves
whereby we may please God, deserves to perish, for
he is
devoting that incense which should be offered to
God alone
to transitory and vain things. And that which we
say concern-
ing knowledge must be admitted to apply to all the
pleasures
of this life. For it is fitting that worldly
prudence should wither
up in us straightway, and that the wisdom of the
spirit alone
should blossom again in our souls; as the Apostle
tells us
when he says: Tf ye then be risen with Christ,
seek the things
which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right
hand of
God. Set your affection on things above, not on
things on the
earth/ 3 It would be none the less fitting that
this present
existence should have no life in our hearts; that,
being utterly
dead to us, it should by no means delight us who
are dead, as
the same Apostle says: Therefore we are buried
with him by
baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised
up from the
dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also
should walk
in newness of life.' 4 Yet since these things are
impossible
especially for those who live in the world, who
cannot alto-
gether attain the summit of this other perfection,
they must be
reminded that they should endeavour to give at all
events only
1 Exod. xxx, 37. 2 !&<!., ?8>
3 CoL iii, i~2. 4 Rom. vi, 4.
142
CONCERNING TRUE HAPPINESS AND WISDOM
a secondary place to those things which they
cannot completely
despise.
CHAPTER FIVE
And because this present existence is as
delightful to many
men of the world as a coy wife, we must repeat at
greater
length that even if they cannot, because of the
weakness of the
spirit, hate it as they should, they must not
begin to love it
excessively; so that even if they have not as yet
sufficient
strength to give it a writ of separation they may
be ashamed,
nevertheless, to show it preference in comparison
with their
love of everlasting life. That is why the law
declares: "If a man
have two wives, one beloved and another hated, and
they have
borne him children, both the beloved and the
hated, and if the
first-born son be hers that was hated, then it
shall be, when he
maketh his sons to inherit that which is indeed
the first-born,
by giving him a double portion of all that he
hath; for he is the
beginning of his strength; the right of the
first-born is his/ 1
Now, these two wives of man are virtue and
pleasure, at
variance with each other, feeling jealousy, malice
and hatred.
And pleasure belongs to this life, but virtue to
everlasting
glory. The former is beloved because she allures
her husband
(the feeble soul) with seductive delights; the
other is described
as hated because she causes men to travel a narrow
and painful
road and always sets before them hard and bitter
things. But
the son of the hated wife is our first-born, for
our Creator in
the beginning gave virtue to us, but pleasure, and
all the allure-
ments of the flesh, proceed from the defects of
our fallen nature.
But, since there is not time to set forth word by
word all the
essence of the nature of this precept, let it
suffice, for brevity's
sake, to say that if we cannot drive out the
beloved wife, who
is certainly harmful to us, from sharing our
bridal couch, let
us at any rate strive to exalt the hated wife, who
is upright and
chaste, to the position of the first-born; so that
even if it is
difficult for us, in however small a degree, not
to be aware of
the sweetness of this life, the glory of mastery shall
be granted
1 Deut. xxi, 15-17.
143
CONCERNING TRUE HAPPINESS AND WISDOM
to virtue, the place of servitude to pleasure. The
son of virtue
shall rule in the dignity of the first-born; the
son of pleasure
shall remain a servant, always under the restraint
of discipline.
Do you by any chance wish to know who are the sons
of the
beloved wife ? Paul will give you the answer: 'Now
the works
of the flesh are manifest, which are these:
adultery, fornication,
uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft,
hatred, vari-
ance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions,
heresies, envyings,
murders, drunkenness, revellings and suchlike, of
the which I
tell you before, as I have also told you in times
past, that they
which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom
of God.' 1
And would you like to hear now who are the
offspring of the
hated wife? Listen to what he says next: 'But the
fruit of the
spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuflering,
gentleness, goodness,
faith, meekness, temperance.* 2 The first-born son
should there-
fore receive his double portion in this way: the
fruit of the
spirit should rule both body and soul, and should
have rights
over both the inner and the outer man.
CHAPTER Six
If, then, you find it hard to be content with one
wife, and
have not the strength to give to the beloved wife
whom you
should hate a writ of separation, at least be sure
that the hated
wife, whom you should embrace with all your might,
is given
the highest place in the household of your heart.
But she who
is now wrongly beloved shall have the lowest place
until such
time as she shall gradually, by reason of her
hideousness, be-
come an object of aversion, and aversion be
irrevocably turned
into hatred. Let the son of the hated wife be your
first-born,
and let the multitude of your other children do
him reverence.
That is why we read that Joshua called down a
curse upon
Jericho after she had fallen, saying: 'Cursed be
the man before
the Lord, that riseth up and buildeth this city
Jericho; he shall
lay the foundation thereof in his firstborn, and
in his youngest
son shall he set up the gates of it/ 3 For by
Jericho which in
1 Gal v, 19-21. 8 Ibid., 22. 3 Joshua vi, 26.
144
CONCERNING TRUE HAPPINESS AND WISDOM
our language means 'moon 5 , is signified our
present life; so
that he who builds the city of Jericho on his
firstborn is he
who loves the good things of this life above all
else. And
because Truth Himself has commanded, in the
gospel: 'Seek
ye first the kingdom of God, and his
righteousness; and all
these things shall be added unto you', 1 anyone who
is proved
to have erred from this commandment is deservedly
con-
demned by a curse, as the prophet bears witness
when he says:
They are cursed who do err from thy commandments.'
2 On
the other hand, he may be said to set up the gates
of Jericho
in his youngest son who so uses this world's goods
that he
does not possess them with desire but yearns with
all his heart
for the reward of heavenly glory. He who sets
earthly things
below heavenly ones in his love cares not a straw
for perish-
able things. In doing this, he makes the son of
the hated wife
the first-born, according to the commandment of
the law, and
as Joshua says, raises the gates of Jericho on the
youngest of
his children. Cain, on the other hand, built a
city upon his
first-born son Enoch because he did not hope for
an inheritance
to come; and because he destined himself
over-hastily for the
Jericho of this world, he incurred the sentence of
everlasting
damnation. Hence it is written: 'An inheritance
may be gotten
hastily at the beginning; but the end thereof
shall not be
blessed.' 3
And so, beloved, if you cannot yet be content with
the life
of the spirit alone as your only bride, but are
held bound by
the evil caresses and allurements of life in the
world, at least
let the love of everlasting life hold first place
in the household
of your heart, as befits the first-born; and let
concern for earthly
things be in a place of subjection, as an inferior
to be kept in
check. In the Song of Songs it is said: 'His left
hand is under
my head, and his right hand doth embrace me.' 4
Now the left
hand is said to be under the head when this life
is scorned and
despised by the mind, which is the head and source
of our
thoughts. He is held in the embrace of the right
hand who at
1 Matt, vi, 33. 2 Ps. odx, 21.
8 Prov. xx, 21. 4 Song of Sol. ii, 6.
K 145
CONCERNING TRUE HAPPINESS AND WISDOM
all times takes pleasure in longing for eternal
life alone. And
because Solomon also says: 'Give a portion to
seven and also
to eight', 1 hasten forward in this life, which is
signified by the
number seven, in suchwise that you may now strive
with all
your powers to abide in the love of life
everlasting, which
through the number eight signifies the glory of
the resurrec-
tion. Show only a careless and fleeting concern
for this world;
fix your unwavering and enduring purpose of
unfailing love
on the world to come, which is everlasting.
Moreover, I would
like to remind you that what I have said of this
mortal life
applies also to the wisdom of the world, so that
in your soul
mortal life and earthly wisdom may yield, trodden
down, as it
were by the heel of the mind. But may the love of
eternal life
and zeal for spiritual wisdom surpass all other
things, set on
the highest pinnacle of your heart, so that when
you spurn this
life and its wisdom, you may deserve by happy
exchange to be
filled with the divine Spirit, who will urge you
on to eternal
glory.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.
1 Eccles. xl, 2.
