Iberian Fathers, Volume 1

The Training of Nuns and the Contempt of the World

THE TRAINING OF NUNS AND THE CONTEMPT OF THE WORLD (De institutione virginum et contemptu mundi) Leander, bishop by the grace of God, to my beloved daughter in Christ and sister Florentina: As I was reflecting, dearest sister Florentina, to what heaps of wealth I might make you heir and by what sort of inheritance I might enrich you, many images of false blessings came to mind. Rejecting these ideas from my thought as one drives away annoying flies with his hand, I reflected: gold and silver are of the earth and return to the earth; estates, inheritances, and incomes are worthless and transitory, "for this world, as we see it, is passing away."l Anything that I have seen beneath the sun, sister, I have not considered worthy of you; nothing have I believed completely consonant with your office; for I saw that all will be changing and ephemeral and empty. Whence I realized the truth of the words of Solomon, who said: "I undertook great works; I built myself houses and planted vineyards; I made gardens and orchards, and set out in them trees of all sorts. And I constructed for myself reservoirs to water a flourishing woodland. I acquired male and female slaves, and slaves were born in my house. I also had cattle and flocks of sheep, flocks of goats also, more than all who had been before me in Jerusalem. I amassed for myself silver and gold, and the wealth of kings and provinces. I got for myself male and female singers and all human luxuries, I I Cor.7.~1. 183 184 LEANDER OF SEVILLE cups and vessels for the serving, to pour out wine. And I stored up more riches than all others before me in Jerusalem."2 That all this was but mortal pomp he realized, and concluded by saying: "But when I turned to all the works that my hands had wrought, and to the toil at which I had taken such pains, behold! all was vanity and vexation of mind, with nothing gained under the sun."3 And again he said: "I detested all the fruits of my labor under the sun, because I must leave them to a man who is to come after me. And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have control over the fruits of my labors and solicitations. This also is vanity. So I ceased and my feelings turned to despair of further labor under the sun."4 Instructed by such an oracle, I would think myself not a true parent, sister, if I were to enrich you with those things which are not built on a stable foundation, which, when subjected to worldly fates, would desert you and leave you destitute . I would also heap hardships on you and subject you to fear and trembling, if I thought that I should confer upon you, my sister, what a thief can take away, moth pierce, rust consume , fire devour, earth decay, water erase, sun burn, rain spoil, and ice crush. Surely, when the mind is engaged in such humai'l things it is turned away from God and withdraws from the immovable and unchanging form of truth. Nor can the heart, agitated by so many troubles of the world and lashed by the goads of so many temporal cares, receive unto itself the sweetness of the Divine Word and the blessing of the Holy Spirit. If I were to bind you with such knots, to load you with such weights, and to oppress you with a burden of worldly thoughts, you would consider me an enemy rather than a parent; you would consider me an agent of destruction rather than a brother. 2 Cf. Eccles. 2.4·9. 3 Cf. Eccles. 2.11. 4 Cf. Eccles. 2.18-20. THE TRAINING OF NUNS 185 So, then, dearest sister, since, of all that is included beneath the axis of heaven and is borne up by the foundations of the world and is revolved upon the face of the earth, we have found not a thing worthy of enriching us, it is above the skies that we must seek, whence you received the gift of virginity, that you may also find there the reward and inheritance of that virginity. For merit is recognized and recompensed in comparison with one's integrity. Just as virginity would be...