Peter then continues with excellent advice for the young noblewoman, exhorting her to deeds of mercy and kindness, and warning her against the enjoyment of revenues wrung from the poor.[1] Indeed Damiani's writings contain much that still is wise. His advice to the great and noble of the world was admirable,[2] and though couched in austere phrase, it demanded what many men feel bound to fulfil in the twentieth century. His little work on Almsgiving[3] contains sentences which might be spoken to-day. He has been pointing out that no one can be exercising the ascetic virtues all the time: no one can be always praying and fasting, washing feet and subjecting the body to pain. Some people, moreover, shun such self-castigation. But one can always be benevolent; and, though fearing to afflict the body, can stretch forth his hand in charity: "Those then who are rich should seek to be dispensers rather than possessors. They ought not to regard what they have as their own: for they did not receive this transitory wealth in order to revel in luxury, but that they should administer it so long as they continue in their stewardship. Whoever gives to the poor does not distribute his own but restores another's."[4]
This sounds modern—it also sounds like Seneca.[5] Yet Damiani was no modern man, nor was he antique, but very fearful of the classics. Having been a rhetorician and grammarian, when he became a hermit-monk he made Christ his grammar (mea grammatica Christus est).[6] Horror-
- ↑ Lib. vii. Ep. 18 (Migne 144, col. 458).
- ↑ Much is contained in the eighth book of his letters. The third letter of this book is addressed to a nobleman who did not treat his mother as Peter would have had him. The whole family situation is given in two sentences: "But you may say: 'My mother exasperates me often, and with her rasping words worries me and my wife. We cannot endure such reproaches, nor tolerate the burden of her severity and interference.' But for this, your reward will be the richer, if you return gentleness for contumely, and mollify her with humility when you are sprinkled with the salt of her abuse" (Migne, Pat. Lat. 144, col. 467). Some sentences from this letter are given post, Chapter XXXI., as examples of Latin style.
The next letter is addressed to the same nobleman and his wife on the death of their son. It gently points out to them that his migration to the coelestia regna, where among the angels he has put on the garment of immortality, is cause for joy.
- ↑ Opusc. ix., De eleemosyna (Migne 145, col. 207 sqq.).
- ↑ Opusc. ix., De eleemosyna, cap. i.
- ↑ Seneca, De vita beata, 20.
- ↑ Lib. viii. Ep. 8 (Migne, Pat. Lat. 144, col. 476). Cf. ante, p. 260.
