9. Likewise, Augustine, in the book On the Work of Monks, says: "If they are evangelists, if ministers of the altar, if dispensers of the Sacraments, they plainly claim this power for themselves," namely of living without bodily work, because he is speaking about this: therefore such persons are not bound.
10. Likewise, Jerome, Against Vigilantius: "This custom persists in Judea to this day, not only among us but also among the Hebrews, that those who meditate on the law of the Lord day and night are sustained by the ministries of the synagogues and of the whole world"; but the custom would be blameworthy if such persons were bound to live from their own labors: therefore those who are devoted to divine things, namely the teaching of preaching and reading, are not bound to works of this kind.
Likewise, that not all are bound is shown by reason of spiritual occupation.
11. First Corinthians nine: Do you not know that those who work in the sanctuary eat what belongs to the sanctuary, and those who serve at the altar share with the altar? The Gloss: "Natural reason dictates that one should live from where he labors." If therefore the faithful person who is intent upon spiritual occupations is worthy of being sustained, and such a person is not idle: therefore neither for the sake of avoiding idleness nor even for acquiring sustenance is he bound to work manually.
12. Likewise, Anselm, On Similitudes: "There are indeed three orders of men: those who pray, farmers, and defenders, whom God has disposed to diverse offices in this world: monks, that they may pray for others and imbue them with the milk of preaching; farmers, that from their labor both they and others may live; soldiers, that they may defend those who pray and the farmers"; but soldiers are worthy of being sustained when they exercise their office without bodily labor: therefore by equal reason monks also are worthy.
13. Likewise, Augustine, in the book On the Work of Monks: "If they had something in the world by which they might easily support this life, which upon converting to God they distributed, their weakness is to be believed and borne": therefore those who have distributed their goods to the poor deserve to be sustained in the Church without bodily labor, if they once distributed their temporal goods: therefore much more strongly does one deserve this if he himself has dispensed spiritual goods by praying, counseling, and conferring good examples upon others.
14. Likewise, if spiritual occupation does not excuse from bodily labor, then much less does scholarly occupation: therefore all able-bodied poor who study in any science are in a bad state, because they do not live from the labor of their hands: but this is very absurd: therefore so also is the first claim.
15. Likewise, Christ fulfilled the Law most perfectly, because it was fitting for him to fulfill all justice ; but Christ was most poor and able-bodied: therefore if such persons are universally bound to work, Christ did not perfectly fulfill the Law nor did he give a perfect example. But this is unfitting: therefore so also is the first claim.
16. Likewise, blessed Benedict, when he was in the cave, was poor and able-bodied, and yet he did not live from the labor of his hands, but from what Romanus brought to him, as is said in the second book of the Dialogues: therefore either he was in a bad state, which is absurd, or he was not bound to labor or to work.
17. Furthermore, either the able-bodied poor can live on alms without manual labor, or they cannot. If so, I have the proposition that they are not bound. If they cannot: then since all the goods of churches and monasteries are nothing other than alms of the poor, as the Saints say and is manifest, therefore all those who are able-bodied—both clerics and monks—who live on such goods without manual labor are in a state of perdition. If therefore this is most absurd, it is clear that so too is that from which it follows. — If you say that from large and great alms it is permitted, but from small ones it is not permitted: this is not only absurd, but indeed so ridiculous that manifestly one who says this strains out a gnat and swallows a camel. It remains therefore that not all able-bodied poor are bound to manual works of this kind.
CONCLUSION.
The middle way must be held, namely that among the able-bodied poor some are bound to labor, while others are absolved from it: and that for some labor is enjoined under precept, for some as counsel, and for some in neither the one way nor the other.
I respond: For the understanding of the foregoing, it must be noted that, just as concerning the faith of the most blessed Trinity there is a threefold way of thinking, such that the two which decline toward the extremes are erroneous, like the Sabellian and Arian heresies, while the middle way is true and catholic: so in this question likewise there is a twofold way declining toward the extremes, and therefore erroneous and to be rejected, while the middle way is right and to be accepted.
One way of speaking is that no voluntary poor, however able-bodied, are bound to manual works, but only to spiritual ones. And these grounded themselves upon that passage of Matthew 6: Look at the birds of the sky.
Now this manner of speaking is erroneous, because it is corrupting of the Church and depraving of Scripture. It corrupts the Church, since, by simulating a false righteousness, it fosters laziness; while it pretends to wish to fulfill the Gospel, it wishes to nourish the leisure of the flesh. Whence Augustine says of such persons in the book On the Work of Monks: "Who would bear obstinate men resisting the most salutary admonitions of the Apostle, not to be tolerated as weaker but even to be proclaimed as holier, so that monasteries founded on sounder doctrine might be corrupted by a twofold enticement: both the dissolute license of idleness and the false name of sanctity?" — It also depraves Scripture, because it too broadly extends the evangelical words and too narrowly restricts the apostolic words. For it wishes that the Gospel prohibit to the perfect every bodily work, and it wishes that the Apostle counsel nothing but spiritual work: both of which are false. And against this falsity Augustine composed the entire book On the Work of Monks, showing that the Apostle speaks of bodily work, and that the Gospel does not forbid bodily works, but only that the heart should not be anxiously preoccupied with temporal things. Whence at the beginning of the book On the Work of Monks he says: "First we must show that the blessed Apostle wished servants of God to perform bodily works; then we must show that those evangelical precepts, by which some foster not only their laziness but also their arrogance, are not contrary to apostolic precept and example." Whence Augustine proves that this position is to be rejected.
The second manner of those who speak is that all able-bodied poor who do not have the means to live are bound to manual or bodily works. And these rely upon the words of the Apostle, Second Thessalonians chapter three: He who does not labor shall not eat. Nor can they be excused, as they say, by spiritual works.
And this manner of speaking is indeed erroneous, just as the first. For by deviating too much to the other extreme, it depraves Scripture and corrupts the Church. It depraves Scripture, because it too broadly extends the words of the Apostle, when it says: He who does not labor shall not eat, wishing those words concerning manual labor to be extended not only to the idle, but to those however usefully occupied in spiritual matters, who do not have the cure of souls. It also too narrowly restricts the evangelical words, while it extends those words: The laborer is worthy of his hire, to those alone who have the cure of souls; when rather a man is made worthy of his hire from his work than from his rank. Far be it entirely from faithful minds that the co-workers of those having the cure of souls should not be worthy laborers nor worthy of their hire and sustenance, especially those who faithfully labor together in the word and in doctrine .
It also corrupts the Church, while it simulates the strictness of justice and persecutes the spirit of life. For what else is this than what was signified by the taskmasters of Pharaoh, of whom it is said in Exodus 1, that they hated the children of Israel and brought them to bitterness, afflicting them with hard labors of clay and brick, and with every kind of servitude? And lest perhaps I seem to be moved by my own spirit, hear what the Gloss says on that passage of Exodus 5: Why, Moses and Aaron, do you disturb the people from their works? Go to your burdens: "Today if Moses and Aaron, that is, the prophetic and priestly word, should urge a soul to the service of God, to go out from the world, to renounce all that one possesses, to attend to the law and the word of God; immediately you will hear the unanimous friends of Pharaoh saying: See how men are seduced, and young people are perverted, so that they neither labor, nor serve in the military, nor do anything profitable, and having abandoned necessary affairs, they pursue idleness and leisure! What is it to serve God? They do not wish to labor and they seek occasions for idleness. These were then the words of Pharaoh, these also his friends now speak, and they persecute not only with words, but also with blows." Thus far the Gloss.
Since therefore each of these opinions or positions inclines to extremes and by inclining distorts Scripture and corrupts the Church, therefore each is to be rejected: the first, because it gives encouragement to laziness; the second, because it strives to extinguish the spirit of life under the burden of Egyptian servitude; the first, because it fosters carnal idleness; the second, because it persecutes the spiritual life. On this account the second is far more perverse than the first, although each is evil. And therefore, with each rejected, the middle way must be held: that among the able-bodied poor, some are bound, some indeed are free; for some it is imposed under precept, for some as counsel, and for some in neither the one way nor the other.
For the fuller clarification of this, it should be noted that the governance of the commonwealth in the Church is directed toward three things, namely: with respect to the lower good, which is corporeal; with respect to the exterior good, which is civil; and with respect to the interior good, which is spiritual. And accordingly, a threefold kind of work is necessary for the governance of the commonwealth and of the Church Militant, namely: artificial work, which is also called manual, because "the hand is the instrument of instruments"; civil work; and spiritual work. By manual or corporeal work, I mean that which is necessary for preparing food, clothing, dwellings, and the instruments of various crafts and arts. By civil work, I mean that which belongs to the rulers who govern, the soldiers who defend, the merchants who trade, and the servants who minister. By spiritual work, I mean that which consists in disseminating the divine words, in chanting the divine canticles, in dispensing the Sacraments, and in distributing the goods divinely given to oneself, whether earthly or spiritual. For to distribute one's goods for Christ is a spiritual work, not a civil one, nor one belonging to the earthly city.
Just as, therefore, those who are engaged in the civil works of the commonwealth are not understood to be bound to manual labor by the apostolic precept, so neither are those who are engaged in spiritual works, especially if these redound to the salvation, benefit, and advancement of others. And therefore Augustine, in his book On the Work of Monks, exempts those occupied in the four aforesaid kinds of spiritual works from the obligation of the apostolic precept, when he says: "If they are evangelists, if ministers of the altar, if dispensers of the Sacraments, they plainly claim this right for themselves; if at least they had something in the world by which they might easily sustain this life without a trade, which, having turned to God, they distributed to the needy." Now evangelists disseminate the divine words; ministers of the altar chant the divine praises and divine canticles; dispensers of the Sacraments dispense the divine Sacraments, and especially those of the Eucharist and of Penance; those who divided their possessions distributed their goods. Therefore they are worthy to be sustained for a single distribution of temporal goods, and much more so for a continual distribution of spiritual goods, even if they perform no corporeal work whatsoever. And if he who teaches someone's son grammar deserves to be sustained by him, why not he who teaches the way of the heavenly kingdom, who obtains grace by praying, who also by the examples of a good life rouses and directs others toward eternal salvation?
Since, therefore, the universal commonwealth of the Church, or of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, requires for its preservation the threefold work described above, neither God, nor an Angel, nor a pastor of the Church or ruler, such as the Apostle, binds to works of this kind except insofar as the salvation, necessity, and utility of the ecclesiastical hierarchy itself demands, of which the servants of Christ are members.
And since among the members of Christ some are most suited to bodily operations and least suited to spiritual ones, some conversely, and some in a middle way: hence it is that those able-bodied poor who are most suited to bodily works and least suited to spiritual ones, who do not know how to suitably avoid idleness and do work worthy of their sustenance in any other way, such persons are bound to manual labor, and for them manual work is a matter of precept.
But for those who can at the same time attend sufficiently to spiritual matters and acquire their sustenance by the labor of their hands, either wholly or in large part—such as the Apostle Paul was—manual work is a matter of counsel.
But for those who are most suited to the aforesaid spiritual works, or even to civil ones, and least suited to these manual ones, such gainful and artisanal works are neither a matter of precept nor even of counsel: because it would be foolish that the common good should suffer great detriment for the sake of a thing of slight utility; nor did God ordain this, nor His Apostle, as will be clearly shown in what follows.