Again, this same thing is shown by reason of the Christian religion.
5. First, through the apostolic precept, Ephesians four: He who was stealing, let him steal no more, but rather let him labor, working with his hands, etc. — If you say this is a counsel: against this: First Thessalonians four: Work with your hands, as we commanded you, and that you may walk honestly toward those who are outside, and that you may desire nothing of anyone's: Gloss: "Much less ask for it, or take it." But this especially regards the poor: therefore, etc.
6. Again, this same thing is apparent through the apostolic example, Second Thessalonians three: You yourselves know how you ought to imitate us, for we were not disorderly among you, nor did we eat bread from anyone without paying, but in labor and toil, etc.; Gloss: "The Apostle was a model for those who were of slender means among the people, that they might learn not to lose their freedom. For he who frequently comes to another's table, given to idleness, must necessarily flatter the one who feeds him, since our religion calls man to freedom": therefore this is against the Christian religion.
7. Again, this same thing is apparent through the apostolic edict, Second Thessalonians three: When we were with you, we declared this to you: that if anyone does not wish to work, let him not eat: but it is established that he speaks only of those who need sustenance: therefore, etc.
If you say that this is not understood of bodily labor: against this is what the Gloss says in the same place: "Some say that the Apostle commanded this concerning spiritual works; but they vainly strive to cast a fog over both themselves and others, so that what charity usefully admonishes they not only refuse to do, but even refuse to understand."
8. Likewise, the same is seen through the apostolic judgment, 2 Thessalonians 3: If anyone does not obey the word, mark that person and do not associate with him: but he who has the opportunity and ability to fulfill the commandment is called disobedient if he does not fulfill it; but the able-bodied poor person is of this kind: therefore if he is unwilling to work, he is disobedient to the apostolic precepts, therefore by the judgment of the Apostle he ought to be avoided as one excommunicated. — But perhaps you will say that these words of the Apostle and the foregoing are understood to be spoken to the curious, the idle wanderers, and the lazy, not to the servants of Christ occupied with spiritual matters: on the contrary: on that passage: He who does not work shall not eat: the Gloss says: "The Apostle wills that the servants of God work with their bodies, so that they may have the means to live, so that they are not compelled by want to beg for necessities"; but servants of God are called good and just men, and he commands such men to work, so that they are not compelled to beg: therefore the able-bodied poor, etc.
9. Likewise, Augustine in the book On the Work of Monks: "Let those hear to whom the Apostle gives this command, namely to work with their hands, that is, those who do not have this power which he had, so that working only spiritually they might eat bread free from bodily labor. And as he says: We command and beseech that working in silence they eat their own bread: let them not dispute against the most manifest words of the Apostle, because this too pertains to the silence with which they ought, while working, to eat their own bread."
10. Likewise, the same author a little later: "What do those do who are unwilling to work with their bodies? I desire to know what occupation they devote themselves to. To prayers, they say, and to psalms and readings and the word of God. A holy life indeed and praiseworthy for its Christian sweetness: but if we are not to be called away from these things, then neither should we eat, nor should food be prepared so that it can be set before us and consumed. But if the necessity of our very weakness compels the servants of God to attend to such things at certain intervals of time, why should we not also devote some portions of time to observing the apostolic precepts? For one prayer of an obedient person is heard more quickly than ten thousand prayers of one who is contemptuous." And consequently he shows that these spiritual works do not excuse, neither reading nor psalmody nor prayer nor exhortation.
11. Likewise, the same from the Council of Carthage: "Let a cleric provide food and clothing by a craft or by agriculture, provided it is without detriment to his office." — If you say that this is understood of the unlearned: against this it immediately follows: "Let any cleric instructed in the word of God seek his livelihood by a craft." — If you say that this is not understood of all: against this it follows: "All clerics who are able-bodied for working shall learn both crafts and letters." — From these opinions of the Fathers, therefore, it is manifestly seen to follow that the apostolic precepts extend to all the able-bodied poor, whether clerics or laity, whether idle or intent upon spiritual occupations: therefore most especially to the poor religious.
This same thing is shown by reason of the monastic profession.
12. First, through blessed Augustine, who throughout his entire book On the Work of Monks intends as his final and principal conclusion to show that monks are bound to manual or bodily labors.
13. Likewise, the Gloss on that passage of Luke twelve: Sell what you possess, and give alms, etc.; "so that, having once despised all things for God, you may afterward work by the labor of your hands, whence you may live or give alms"; but all religious are bound by vow to the counsel of poverty: therefore according to the Gloss, manual labor ought to follow renunciation: therefore all are bound to bodily work.
14. Likewise, Jerome to Rusticus, and it is found in De Consecratione, final distinction: "Always be doing something good, so that the devil may find you occupied. If the Apostles, having the power to live from the Gospel, labored with their own hands, lest they burden anyone, why do you not prepare things that will serve for your own use? Either weave a basket from rushes, or plait a hamper from pliant osiers." And afterward: "Let books be copied, so that the hands may work for food and the soul may be filled with reading."
13. Likewise, blessed Benedict in his rule: "Then they are truly monks, if they live by the work of their own hands, just as our fathers the Apostles": therefore if this makes us imitators of the Apostles, and all religious ought to be such, therefore they ought also to work manually, since works of supererogation do not diminish but ought to fulfill the works of the precepts.
16. Likewise, blessed Francis in his rule: "The brothers," he says, "to whom the Lord has given the grace of working, let them work faithfully and devoutly." And that he means bodily labor is clear from what follows: "From the wages of their labor, let them receive bodily necessities for themselves and their brothers, except money."
On the contrary, that not all able-bodied poor are bound to manual labor is shown both by reason of contemplation, and by reason of preaching, and by reason of spiritual occupation. First, it is shown by reason of contemplation:
1. Through that passage of Luke ten: Martha, you are anxious, etc., up to has chosen: therefore Mary did better by attending to contemplation than Martha to bodily occupation; but she would not have done better if she had omitted that to which she was bound: therefore one attending to contemplation is absolved from bodily work.
2. Likewise, Luke twelve: Consider the birds of the sky; the Gloss: "The saints are rightly compared to birds, who, having nothing in this world and not laboring, seek eternal things by contemplation alone, already like the Angels." But if those having nothing were bound to labor universally, such persons would already be transgressors: therefore if this is false, not all able-bodied poor are bound.
3. Likewise, on that passage in Genesis 23: The field was confirmed; the Gloss says: "The contemplative life fundamentally separates from all actions"; but it does not separate from spiritual actions: therefore from corporeal ones. Nor does it separate contrary to the law of God: therefore those who contemplate are not bound to this.
Likewise, manual labor is not an act pertaining universally to all members of Christ, otherwise no one could be saved without it; therefore it pertains to the office of some particular member; but a member having a more worthy office is not bound to the office of a less worthy member: therefore if the members that have the grace of contemplating are more worthy, they are not bound to the office or exercise of action or labor, especially when necessity does not compel them to supply the deficiency of a lower member.
Likewise, that not all are bound is shown by reason of preaching.
5. Luke 10: He sent them two by two, etc.; the Gloss of Ambrose says: "So great ought the preacher's confidence to be that he knows most certainly that necessities will not fail him, lest, while he provides earthly things for himself, he less provides eternal things for others." Therefore the pursuit of preaching and teaching ought not to be interrupted on account of bodily work, since a man does not perfectly suffice for both.
6. Likewise, on that passage in Luke 9: Let the dead bury their dead; the Gloss says: "The Lord teaches that lesser goods are to be passed over for the advantage of greater ones; for it is greater to raise the souls of the dead by preaching than to lay a dead body in the earth." If therefore to bury the dead, and especially one's father, is a work of the greatest natural and corporeal piety, and the Lord teaches that this is to be set aside, and those devoted to preaching are not bound to this: therefore such persons are not bound to manual works, however needy they may be.
7. Likewise, on that passage in Luke 10: The laborer is worthy of his hire: the Gloss says: "Two rewards are owed to the preacher: one on the way, which sustains him in labor; the other in the homeland, which recompenses him in the resurrection"; but what is owed to someone, he is not bound to acquire by bodily labor: therefore a poor preacher is not bound to work manually for the sustenance of the body.
8. Likewise, on that passage in 1 Corinthians 9: Who serves as a soldier, etc.; the Gloss says: "As the Lord ordained, those living from the Gospel ate bread freely given, received from those to whom they preached grace freely given"; but it is called bread freely given because it was not acquired through bodily labor: therefore those exercising the work of preaching are not bound to bodily labor.