De arte praedicatoria

Learn as though you were always going to live; live as though you were going to die tomorrow. Likewise the Apostle: Read books. And bring the books with you.¹ Likewise Seneca: "A life without letters is death, and the burial of a living man." Likewise Jerome: "Already my head was sprinkled with grey hairs, yet the desire to learn saw no end." And elsewhere: "I would rather learn from others with modesty, than shamelessly thrust forward what is mine." Reading sharpens the understanding, multiplies the intellect, prepares eagerness for learning, supplies eloquence, warms the coldness of the mind, drives away sluggishness, extinguishes the darts of desire, stirs the groaning of the heart, draws forth tears, and brings us close to God. The writer on love says:

If you take away idleness, the bow of Cupid perishes.²

If you read, idleness flees, and the devil finds you occupied. Enter into the wine cellar,³ in which charity is set in order; that is, read the Scriptures, examine their meanings. For in this cellar a man is made drunk in such a way that he is rendered sober; and when you have read much, set aside one thing especially for yourself, chew on one thing to its marrow, whatever settles best in your mind, whatever most pleases the palate of your mind.

If you approach some reading, do not abandon it in a moment, but cling to it faithfully, and do not pass to another as though disdaining it; for as Seneca says: "A plant that is often transplanted does not thrive; and a medicine often changed does not bring the wound to a scar." And if it should happen that you are sometimes transferred from the books of theology to the books of worldly philosophy, look as you pass through, to see whether by chance you find something there that instructs morals, that suits the catholic faith, so that with what the Egyptians are stripped of, the Hebrews may be enriched; and gold may be borrowed from the Egyptians for the building of the tabernacle, and wood for the building of the temple. Let Hiram, king of Tyre, grant his wealth, and let the children of Israel drink from the wells of the Amorites. And let the hostility of Goliath be blunted by his own sword. Yet we must pass into foreign camps in such a way that we are scouts and pilgrims, not settlers.

O man, read for this purpose, that you may understand; devote yourself to this purpose, that you may read; for as the moral philosopher says: "To read and not understand is to neglect." Consider the words of the philosopher Papilianus, who says: "If I now had one foot in the grave, I would still wish to learn something." Let not the greater disdain to learn from the lesser, because sometimes what is not revealed to the greater is revealed to the lesser. And the Apostle says: If it is revealed to a lesser one, let the greater be silent.⁴ Moses, skilled in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, did not disdain to receive counsel from Jethro the gentile. And Solomon, to whom the treasury of wisdom was given, did not disdain to hear wisdom from the queen of the south. For water descends through stone channels into the beds of spices. Plato, a gentile, having endured many storms, went down into Egypt to read Genesis; and the Christian disdains what is right in front of him, what is available and ready at hand, what could instruct him himself. For the clergy of our time follow rather the schools of Antichrist than of Christ, given rather to the belly than to the gloss; they gather coins rather than read books; they look more gladly upon Martha than upon Mark; they prefer to read in Solomon's gold than in Solomon himself. Now all knowledge is cheapened, all reading grows sluggish, there is no one who reads books. There is not so much as one: all have turned aside, together they have become worthless.⁵ Now the school of Christ, which consists in two things, in life and in teaching, is deserted; but true life is despised, and teaching is buried. Once, even if the good life was not loved, teaching was nevertheless embraced; but now there is the utmost deviation, the utmost obstinacy, the utmost estrangement, since not only are good morals set aside, but even their adornment, that is, teaching, is despised.

And if by chance someone does learn, he does not refer the end to God, but to earthly gain, or human favor; he does not seek Christ in reading, but money; earth, not heaven. Such men deflower virgins, that is, they corrupt the virgin sciences, since they prostitute them for profit, and so far as it lies in them, they infect them, and, what is worse and more monstrous than any monster, the hearers of theology sell their ears to listen, and the teachers buy them, so as to display their knowledge boastfully. Now theology, made venal, is prostituted, and sits for profit like a harlot. Once teachers were held in the highest honor, but now they are rightly reckoned foolish and stupid. Now it is not asked what is in the storehouse of the mind, but what is in the treasury. Who are the ones who are honored? The rich. Who are the ones who are despised? The teachers. Who are the ones who attend the palaces of kings? The moneyed. Who are the ones who are excluded from court? The learned. Now the household of Croesus is honored, the household of Christ is despised. How glorious it is to read, how fruitful to labor over the Scriptures, to search out the mind of God, to investigate one's own instruction! Now each person ought to read in a threefold book; in the book of creatures, so as to find God; in the book of conscience, so as to know himself; in the book of Scripture, so as to love his neighbor.