QUESTION II.
On poverty.
The question concerns poverty, and two things are inquired about. First, the question concerns poverty with respect to renunciation.
Second, with respect to mendicancy.
ARTICLE I.
On poverty with respect to renunciation.
Regarding the first, the procedure is as follows, and it is asked whether it belongs to Christian perfection to renounce all things, both in common and in private. And that it does, is shown as follows:
1. Matthew 19, where it is said: If you wish to be perfect, go and sell all that you have, and give to the poor, and come follow me; The Gloss: "Behold, the contemplative life, which pertains to the Gospel." It is certain that the Lord was not calling him to riches, and yet was counseling him to renounce all things: nor to manual labor, but rather to the contemplative life, as the Gloss says: therefore etc.
2. Again, Matthew 19: Behold, we have left all things etc.; Gregory, treating that word, says: "As much was left behind by those who followed as could have been desired by those who did not follow": therefore perfect imitation totally extinguishes the appetite for riches; but this extinction is most fully realized in one who renounces all things: therefore etc.
3. Again, Mark 10: Go, sell whatever you have and give to the poor: The Gloss: "Not a part, as Ananias did"; but he who gives everything, reserving nothing for himself, most fully does what the Lord counsels, reserving nothing for himself, neither in common nor in particular; and he who does this acts most perfectly: therefore etc.
4. Again, in Mark 12 the Lord says of the widow: Amen I say to you, that this poor widow has put in more than all. For all cast in of their abundance; but she of her want cast in all that she had, her whole living: but in this the poor widow is praised: therefore those who do this, the more perfectly they act, the more praiseworthy they are: therefore etc.
5. Again, Luke 12: Consider the ravens etc.; The Gloss: "The saints are rightly compared to birds, who, doing nothing in the world nor laboring, desire only eternal things, already like the angels"; but the more one relinquishes these things, the more one is made like the angels: therefore etc.
6. Again, Luke 14 it is said: Unless one renounces all that he possesses, he cannot etc.; The Gloss: "This is the difference between renouncing all things and leaving all things: because renouncing belongs to all who use worldly things that they possess licitly, yet in mind tend toward eternal things; but leaving belongs only to the perfect, who set aside all temporal things and long for eternal things alone." But he who utterly renounces all things both in common and in private most fully sets all things aside: therefore etc.
Again, this same thing is shown by the example of Christ:
Concerning whom, Matthew 8: The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, on which Chrysostom says: "Why do you expect to gather riches following me? Do you not see that I do not have so much as a lodging, as much as the birds have?" Therefore Christ had absolutely nothing: therefore etc.
8. Likewise, on that passage of Matthew 17: Go to the sea; the Gloss says: "The Lord was of such great poverty that He did not have the means to pay the tribute: Judas indeed had the common funds in the purse, but He deemed it wrong to use the goods of the poor for His own purposes, giving us this very example." If therefore Christ was of such great poverty that He could not pay a single coin, it is manifest that He was in the highest poverty.
9. Likewise, Luke 9: Foxes have dens, the Gloss says: "I am of such great poverty that I have not even a lodging nor use my own roof": therefore etc.
10. Likewise, John 14: The prince of this world comes, and in me he has nothing;
the Gloss says: "The Lord did not wish to have anything He might lose; He came poor, lest the devil have anything to take away"; therefore if all temporal things can be lost, He had nothing temporal.
11. Likewise, 2 Corinthians 8: You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that for your sake He became poor, though He was rich, so that by His poverty etc.: therefore whoever so renounces that he becomes destitute conforms himself more to Christ.
12. Likewise, on what follows in the same place: In this I give counsel; Augustine in the original: " He was made poor to such an extent that He did not have what foxes have; and in this I give counsel, that is to say, that you imitate His poverty"; but whoever renounces all things imitates His poverty: therefore etc.
13. Likewise, on that passage of James: Has not God chosen the poor; the Gloss says: "He chose poor parents, by whose service He would be raised"; but the destitution of Christ's parents was very great, according to that passage of Luke 2: She wrapped Him in swaddling clothes and laid Him in a manger : therefore Christ loved poverty not only in Himself, but also in others.
14. Likewise, Christ was most imitable according to the state He had on the cross, according to that passage of 1 Peter 2: Christ suffered for us, leaving an example, that you should follow His steps; but on the cross He was entirely naked; whence Jerome to Hedibia: "Do you wish to be perfect and to stand at the highest summit of dignity? Do what the Apostles did: sell all that you have, and give to the poor, and follow the Savior, and follow the naked and solitary cross with naked and solitary virtue": therefore etc.
Likewise, this same thing is shown by the testimonies of the Saints.
15. Ambrose on Luke: "What kind of person he who preaches the kingdom of God ought to be is set forth by the evangelical precepts: that without staff, without bag, without sandals, without bread, without money—that is, not seeking the supports of secular aid, and protected by faith, he should think that the less he seeks such things, the more they can be supplied to him." If therefore this bears witness to the perfection of the preacher of evangelical perfection, that he should seek no secular support whatsoever; and this is to be in the highest poverty: the conclusion is clear etc.