Annotation CXXVIII
”He commanded them that they should take nothing on the way.” — Mark 6:8
On monastic traditions.
Thomas Cajetan, when in explaining he had come to this passage, brought forward these [things]: “It is discordant with the whole evangelical doctrine to give commands about food, drink, clothing, beard, hair, and the like, which are indifferent [things] — as being a matter unworthy of so great and so eminent a Teacher; and [so] that by this we may recognize him to be God, who made all things, whom all things serve, to whom none of these [things] is displeasing, who gave to all the nations in the whole world laws suited to each and all, burdensome to none, nowhere and at no time in need [of exception].” Ambrose [Ambrosius Catharinus], in the second book of the Annotations, inveighs against these [statements] thus: “These, to speak most sparingly, are assuredly false, and consonant with the pernicious dogmas of heretics. For if these [things] are indifferent, and are not of care to God: why did God from the beginning command Adam that he should abstain from it [the tree]? and why is John praised for [his] contempt of foods? And if these indifferent [things] stand apart from evangelical doctrine: why did the Lord in the gospel so greatly extol John concerning the rough manner of [his] clothing, obliquely censuring the softer [sort], when he said, ‘Behold, they that are clothed in soft [garments] are in the houses of kings’? If the Lord is not solicitous about dress: why does he blame the rich man who clothed himself in purple and fine linen?1 why does Paul praise those who were covered with sheepskins? and command women not to adorn themselves with braided hair, gold, pearls, and precious clothing? He added also that the Lord commanded nothing about beard and hair: but the chiefs of the Apostles mentioned this — of whom the one blames outward hairdressing, the other braided locks, and asserts it a reproach for a man to nourish [long] hair. It is credible that it came from the traditions of the Apostles that clerics are shorn, and the hair shaved on the crown. Therefore these [things] do not so greatly differ from the evangelical doctrine which evangelical and apostolic men so greatly cared for. Yet I confess that Jesus was unwilling to make explicit discourse about those [things] which could more conveniently be taught by his disciples, and be determined by special traditions. But what is it that he says — that the Lord did not give such precepts, so that we might recognize him to be God, who made all things, whom all things serve? As though God were not, even to that degree, known in the Old Testament — [God] who commanded many such [things], and baser [ones], and without doubt indifferent. And what is it that he adds — ‘to whom none of these [things] is displeasing’? nay, we see [them] to be displeasing. And what also is it that he added — that he gave laws burdensome to none? Not, then, is the way narrow that leads to life! The disciples call the law of marriage hard, even with Christ himself approving [it]; and Christ himself says [it] is difficult for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven;2 and Paul, ‘Through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God.’ And now we have heard [that] the laws of the Lord are burdensome to none. It is true — yet indeed to those who love God, to whom nothing is so difficult and arduous but that it becomes easy and passable, the laws of Christ are not burdensome. Nor is that true which he perniciously subjoined — that all the commandments of the Lord suit all men. For Jerome says:”
says: “It is not commanded to all, that they should not have two tunics, nor food in a wallet, money in [their] belts, a staff in [their] hand, a sandal on [their] feet — [but rather] that they should sell all [things], and give to the poor. And Peter not rashly asks: ‘Lord, dost thou speak this parable to us, or to all?’ — knowing that the same [things] are not commanded to all, on account of the diverse states and offices.” Although the modern heretics wickedly and impiously confound these [things].