Volume III, Treatise III, Chapter VIII

Another Efficacious Help to Obtain and Preserve This Poverty of Spirit

CERTAINLY it is of very great advantage to us, in order to increase this virtue of poverty, and gain it in perfection, not only to deprive ourselves of things superfluous, but also to retrench those which are absolutely necessary for us, thereby to show our love of poverty, and to appear what we really are, I mean poor men. This is what St. Ignatius enjoins in his constitutions, when he says: Let their diet, clothes, and lodging be like those of poor men; and let every one, for his greater spiritual progress and greater abnegation of himself, always think that the worst things in the house ought to be given to him. And he recommends the same over and over in several other parts of his rule, in these words: Let every one love poverty. as a mother, and according to their zeal, endeavour now and then, so far as prudence and discretion shall admit, to feel some effects of it. Our holy founder desires that we should always incline to have the meanest and most ordinary things; but he does not pretend that ‘our love of poverty should rest in these bare desires, and go no farther—no, he would have us feel the effects of it so far as to put it really in practice, though he would not have us want anything that is necessary for life. Nor is he content to speak in several other places of poverty in general, but in the sixth part of his constitutions he descends to particulars, and assigns habits to us, according to the offices we are employed in, but always conformable to the poverty we profess. And in order to this effect, he appoints that our clothes should be decent, as becoming religious; that they should suit the place we live in, since our way of living is common as to the exterior; and, lastly, they should be poor, which they would not be, says he, if they should be made of fine stuff or cloth that is dear. And, therefore, when the parents or friends of any religious would give him clothes of this kind, he must not accept of them, as being contrary to our constitutions, and not being suitable to the poverty we profess, Some may hereupon object that it is good economy to buy the best cloth, because it lasts longer, and consequently is less expensive. These reasons are the dictates of flesh and blood, and may hold in the world, but not in religion; for this economy is not of so much importance to true religious men, as is the obligation they have to manifest to the world their poverty by the clothes they wear, and to appear such as they really are. Nor ought this poverty appear only in the cloth, but also in the fashion and cut of it; for should any of us have a cassock too wide in compass, or with too many plaits in it, or trailing upon the ground, it is certain we would transgress against the poverty we made profession of. lls St. Ignatius requires that our clothes be religiously decent and warm, which are the two chief ends for which clothes were first invented. This is St. Basil’s doctrine, in his explanation of these words of St. Paul, “having food and raiment, let us be content” —I. Tim, vi. 8. Another saint observes, and very much to our purpose, that St. Paul says, “food, and not delicacies, and raiment to cover us, not to make us gay and fine”. We ought to content ourselves with what is barely necessary, and absolutely banish everything that looks rich, or has any appearance of ostentation, as savouring too much of vanity and profaneness. Let us never suffer such things, nor ever permit the pride and vanity of the world to find way into our order. St. Francis used all possible precaution in this point. We read in the chronicles of his order, that Friar Elias, one of the chief men of the order, and afterwards general of it, got himself a habit made that was very large and full, with sleeves that hung down to the ground, and of very fine cloth. As soon as St. Francis knew of this, he sent for him, and in the presence of several religious desired to see his habit. When he had brought it, St. Francis put it on above his own, and began to set the plaits in order, and to let fall the sleeves with an air that was vain and fantastical; after this he put on a haughty mien, and strutting along, paid his honours to the religious with affected voice and affected gesture. The religious, surprised at this, looked at one another with amazement, when the saint, transported with zeal, hastily pulled off the habit, and, casting it with violence upon the ground, told Friar Elias, before all the company, that the bastard sons of the order were clothed in that manner. After this he re-assumed his sweet and mild countenance, and, conversing with the religious according to his custom, recommended mildness, humility, and poverty to them. Let us take care, then, that we do not declare ourselves illegitimate by a similar vanity; let us, like the lawful issue and true children of holy poverty, endeavour to resemble our mother, and in this quality wear no habit that may distinguish us from poor men. For this effect, we ought to retrench something even of what we might wear with decency, as also something which the world might judge really necessary for us. For he cannot be called poor in his clothes, who is well clothed from head to foot; and he alone who wants something of what in this part is really necessary, deserves that name. And for this reason we have declared all along in this treatise, that

os true poverty consists in being satisfied to want things really necessary; and he that finds not an ease and content of mind in this point, is by no means as yet arrived to the perfection of poverty of spirit.

What I have said of clothes, may be applied to other things; for in all things we ought to appear like poor men, and endeavour to make known our poverty. And therefore, our chambers ought to be provided with nothing but what is precisely necessary, and that too ought to be the worst in its kind; as for example, the worst table, the worst chair, the worst bed. Nay, we ought to desire the worst of everything in the house, and return those books to the library which we do not actually stand in need of, and never to affect the honour of having a great number of them upon our shelves. St. Bonaventure, treating this matter, descends to particulars. He recommends\ to his religious that they should have nothing but bare necessaries, bids them take particular care that even those should not be curious or finely wrought, but rather coarse, ordinary, and plain; that they should not seek after books neatly bound; that their breviaries and diurnals should be plain and like those of others; that they should not have any pictures or beads of any considerable value; and that if they had any Agnus Deis, crosses, or relic-cases, they should be conformable to the poverty they had vowed; and be assured, says the same saint, that the more your poverty appears, the more agreeable you are in the sight of God and his saints. The humble St. Francis said, that an affection in a religious person to curious and unnecessary things, is a sign of his soul’s being dead to grace; for it cannot proceed but from the want of the life and warmth of divine grace, and thus, not finding any satisfaction in spiritual things, the soul seeks its comfort and ease elsewhere. Daily experience confirms this truth, and makes our superiors most vigilant in this point; because not only poverty, but fervour of spirit is destroyed by these trifles. If we desire to be truly poor, it is not enough to disengage our affection from these, but also even from necessary things; and we must be glad of the occasion of suffering this want of necessaries, the better to resemble Jesus Christ, ‘ who, when he was rich, became poor for our sakes”—II. Cor., viii. 9, —who suffered hunger and thirst, cold and heat, weariness and nakedness, and several times wanted the necessaries of life.

St. Bernard says, that there was in Heaven a great abundance of riches, but that poverty was a species of merchandise not found there; and though it was common in the world, yet men did not esteem it nor know the value of it. What, therefore, did the Son of God do? Knowing the true value of poverty, he came to Earth, and like a prudent merchant, he purchased it, in order that men might, from his example, be convinced of its worth, and bring it with them to Heaven, where it is in so high estimation.

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