2. Again, 1 Peter 2: Be subject to every human creature for the sake of God: therefore the more efficaciously one does this, the more perfectly one acts; but he who subjects himself to another by vow does this most efficaciously: therefore such a person acts most perfectly.
3. Again, Gregory: "It is greater to relinquish oneself than one's possessions"; but he who relinquishes his possessions for the sake of God acts perfectly: therefore he who relinquishes himself acts more perfectly. But this is done most fully in the abnegation of the will through the vow of obedience: therefore, etc.
4. Again, Anselm: "Just as the will of God is the origin of all good, so one's own will is the origin of all evil"; but he who perfectly removes the origin of all evil acts most perfectly: therefore he who totally abnegates his own will through the vow of obedience acts most perfectly.
5. Again, Hugh: "Obedience is the virtue which, with one's own will set aside, embraces in spirit the things enjoined to be fulfilled in deed"; but he who vows obedience to another sets aside his own will to the greatest degree: therefore, etc.
6. Again, Bernard, Homily 42 on the Song of Songs: "It is a small thing to be subject to God unless you are also subject to every human creature for the sake of God: subject yourself to equals, subject yourself to inferiors: for thus it befits us to fulfill all justice "; but this is done most especially by binding oneself by vow to obey another: therefore, etc.
7. Again, sufficient justice is to keep the divine commandments; therefore abundant justice is to keep, beyond these, human commandments; but this is what he does who subjects himself to obey another.
8. Likewise, humility is consonant with evangelical perfection: therefore the greatest humility is most consonant with the same; but to bind oneself by vow to obey another is of the greatest humility: therefore etc.
9. Likewise, liberality is consonant with evangelical perfection; but this is the highest liberality, when a man for the sake of God gives not only his possessions but himself, by setting aside his own will through the vow of obedience: therefore etc.
10. Likewise, conformity to Christ is consonant with evangelical perfection: but Christ by sheer liberality subjected himself to a human being, Luke 2: And he was subject to them: therefore to subject oneself to another makes one conformed to Christ. But this is done most of all through the vow of obedience: therefore etc.
11. Likewise, that which most distances us from the world is most consonant with evangelical perfection; but to bind oneself by vow to obey a man most distances us from the world, because all that is in the world is either the concupiscence of the flesh, or the concupiscence of the eyes, or the pride of life, from which we are most distanced by the vow of obedience: therefore etc.
12. Likewise, that which most distances us from the devil most pertains to evangelical perfection; but to will to be subject and not to preside most distances us from the sin of the devil, who willed entirely to preside without being subject: therefore etc.
13. Likewise, everything that conforms us to the celestial hierarchy is consonant with evangelical perfection: but in the celestial hierarchy we see that one Angel subjects himself by obeying another, and the Angels of the lower orders obey without resistance the Angels of the higher orders: therefore in the ecclesiastical hierarchy, that one man subject himself by obeying another conforms us to the celestial order, and thereby is most consonant with evangelical perfection.
CONCLUSION.
To bind oneself by vow to obey another, not in every eventuality, but in those things which are consonant with the evangelical counsels, is constitutive, expeditive, and consummative of perfection.
I respond: For the understanding of the foregoing, it should be noted that in two ways someone can bind himself to obey another man: either in every eventuality and all the good pleasures of his will, or in those things which are consonant with the evangelical counsels according to some certain rule of living, derived from the font of the evangelical law. In the first way, it is neither perfect nor consonant with perfection, but rather rash and foolish: in the second way, it is perfect, because this is both constitutive and expeditive and consummative of perfection. For to vow obedience to a man in this way is both a constitutive part of perfection itself and a preparatory way, and an ultimate completion. - A constitutive part, I say, because it is one of those three evangelical counsels in which the integrity of evangelical perfection principally consists.
The preparatory way is that those counsels can be observed better, more perfectly, and more readily when one is supported by the fellowship, assistance, and example of others than if one is left to oneself alone. But fellowship does not avail unless it is peaceful; nor can it be peaceful unless it is bound together and ordered; and this cannot be unless through the reduction of many wills to the authority of one, according to whose direction they may be ordered and guided and consequently bound together.
It is also the ultimate completion, because in it is most fully realized abounding justice, which is evangelical justice, according to that passage in Matthew 5: Unless your justice shall abound more than that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
For there is a threefold act of justice, namely to rectify, to coordinate, and to compensate. For justice is nothing other than a right will, ordered and recompensative, because through it "there is rendered to each one what is his own," according to what befits the rectitude of right and the dignity of order.
The perfect rectification of abounding justice is therefore measured according to the conformity of the will to truth; but truth humbles each person, so that one thinks less of oneself than of another. Therefore, that person is perfectly and abundantly rectified who, according to what truth dictates, not unwillingly but voluntarily humbles his will beneath another and in a certain manner reduces and captivates it into a kind of servitude; which indeed is accomplished through obedience rendered to another person, which is most opposed to arrogance and ambition, by which one wishes to set oneself above others. Whence Bernard, in the forty-second homily on the Song of Songs: "Fear God and do not do this most wicked thing, that the will should exalt the one whom truth humbles. Rather, yield to God, and let the will be subject to truth."
The perfect ordering also according to the rule of abundant justice is that not only should the inferior subject himself to the superior, and the equal to the equal, but also that the superior should voluntarily subject himself to the inferior, according to what is said in Matthew 3: Thus it becometh us to fulfill all justice: where the Gloss says: "Thus, by subjecting himself to a servant and an inferior, it becometh him to fulfill all justice, that is, humility, which is all justice. — And this humility has three degrees: the first is to subject oneself to a greater, and this is called sufficient; the second is to subject oneself to an equal, and this is called abundant; the third is to be subject to a lesser, in which consists all justice. This Christ fulfilled." Since therefore a man is then perfectly subjected to another man when he voluntarily binds himself to obey the commands of another in those things that are according to God, especially of one who was not greater than he, but either equal, or sometimes even lesser — for every man surpasses another in some respect, at least according to the soul — hence it is that toward the perfection of the justice that orders according to the way of the dignative order, which runs according to the law of grace, whereby the greater regards himself as the lesser, obedience which is rendered by one man to another both concurs and contributes most greatly.
The perfect recompense likewise of abundant justice is discerned in this, that one should render all to him who gave all. Since therefore Christ the Lord not only gave us to ourselves, but also gave himself to us; and for our sake not only made himself man, but also subjected himself to men: hence it is that, in order that we may recompense according to the measure of our weakness, as far as we can, not only to God but also to man, it is fitting that we subject not only what we have and our members, but also what we are, that is, our will. Whence Bernard, on the Canticles: "It is established that God was emptied by charity, made lower than the Angels by charity, subjected to his parents by charity, bowed beneath the hands of the Baptist by charity, suffered the infirmities of the flesh by charity, made subject at last to death by charity, and stood inglorious upon the cross." From which he concludes that by sheer will, in recompense for these things, a man ought to subject his own will to another man.
And in this perfection truly consists, when one gives the will of his liberty for his sake, which is a good beyond price, than which nothing greater can be given by man: which being given, all things are given. Whence if that is truly called perfect "which lacks nothing," which also "attains its proper power"; in this above all the consummation of perfection is fitting, so that it begins from the renunciation of temporal goods through poverty, advances in the chastification of the bodily members through chastity; and is consummated in the dedication of the interior and mental powers through the abnegation of the will and the vow of obedience, in which a man is properly said to deny himself, according to that word of the Lord, Luke 9: If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me: where the vow of obedience is chiefly and above all commended.
From these things, therefore, it is clearly gathered that since there are three evangelical counsels, according to the exterior, inferior, and interior good, which are opposed to the threefold origin of vices, there must be a threefold vow integrative of evangelical perfection, namely of poverty, continence, and obedience, among which obedience, as has already been shown, gives to the whole of evangelical perfection its highest and most noble complement.
Whence the arguments that show this are also to be conceded.
1. To that which is objected first, that the evangelical law is a law of liberty, which is repugnant to necessity: it must be said that necessity is twofold: one is of coaction, and the other of obligation. The first is repugnant, the second is not. For a precept obliges, just as a vow does, and it does not exclude the liberty of the evangelical law; therefore the law of the Gospel is said to be a law of liberty, not by the exclusion of obligation coming from precept or vow, but by the exclusion of the burden of servitude of the law proceeding from servile fear.