The Treasure of the City of Ladies Read online

  ‘O pitiful woman, you are so blinded that you do not perceive your great peril. The cause of it is great pride, which, because of the vain honours that surround you, overrides all reason in you, so that you do not imagine yourself to be only a princess or a great lady, but like a veritable goddess in this world. Oh, this false pride! How can you tolerate it in yourself? You know very well, from the report of the Scriptures, that God hates it so much that He cannot endure it, for because of this He exiled Lucifer, the prince of devils, from Heaven into Hell,3 and He will undoubtedly do the same to you if you are not careful.

  ‘O Pride, root of all evil, certainly I know that from you spring all the other vices, and I can recognize this in myself, for because of you and not for any other reason I often fly into a rage, desiring vengeance, as I recently did. Pride makes me imagine that I ought to be feared and esteemed above all others, and that I ought always to have my own way, and for this reason I ought not to put up with anything that displeases me, but immediately avenge myself, however small the insult might be. O perilous vanity, bloated wilfulness, carbuncle full of poison and putrefaction, the flesh that harbours you is at greater risk than that which contains a plague bubo.4

  ‘Perverse creature, you desire vengeance because it seems to you that you are so great that, whatever you do, no one ought to dare to contradict or object to your wishes, but your blind ignorance, egged on by proud arrogance, makes you fail to realize how any person, be he great or little, who passes his days in wickedness deserves all his wishes to be opposed. If you do not reflect on what you have deserved and now deserve because of your behaviour, you will not be in favour with very many people. For this reason it is not without cause that several women rebel against you and contradict your wishes and opinions, and thus you do not consider your offence, but at every turn you imagine that everything that you do can overrule all other wills and opinions. And if any people resist or contradict it, you hate them and plot against them and secretly or openly persecute them, without considering the evil and the very great peril which can result from it for you yourself and an infinite number of others, in body and soul. Or if you do not persecute them because you cannot, at least you harbour mortal hatred for them. This treacherous pride that maroons you in the sea of perdition – does it also put into your head (because of vanity or the desire to achieve either your revenge or other useless things) the idea of amassing treasures without regard to conscience? O, painful Treasure! It is nearly impossible for you to be amassed without harm to many people. And against their wishes they yield wickedly to your own desire.’

  Know for certain, and do not doubt it, that you will never use with much joy the wealth you have acquired and amassed unfairly, for just when you have assembled it with the intention of using it in some way at your pleasure, God will send you so much adversity or affliction or other burdens that this damnable treasure will turn out to be disagreeable and painful to use, quite contrary to what you intend. What will you do then with this treasure? Will you take it with you when you die? Certainly not, but only the burden of what you have wickedly acquired and used. But look again where this cursed pride puts you. Because it makes you believe that you surpass everyone else in grandeur and authority, it makes your heart quite sad and fearful that someone else may be able to overtake you and reach your high estate. Because it makes you always wish to be greater, if it happens that you see or learn about someone with as much or more authority or honour than you, no pain could be greater than the sorrow that your heart carries. This pain makes you spiteful, wrathful and malicious.

  A second little flame from Hell makes you proud. You say to yourself, ‘It’s not your duty, place or trade to labour or to work at anything. You have nothing to do but to see to your own comforts, to sleep late in the morning, and then after dinner to rest, inspect your chests of jewels and ornaments – this is your rightful employment.’ And so, unhappy witless creature that you are, does it seem to you that God, who has given time to each person to put to good use, has given you, more than another, the authority to spend it in lazy idleness? O wretched creature, you have heard it preached before that St Bernard says of the Canticles that Idleness is the mother of all error and the wicked stepmother of the virtues.5 Idleness makes even a strong and constant man stumble into sin, which destroys all the virtues, nourishes Pride and builds the road to Hell. But what else comes of this Pride? This Pride, which thus makes you love your comforts, and those comforts, which nourish that Pride so much, make you desire voluptuous pleasures in eating and drinking, and by no means common things nor customary food, for you are quite tired of them. The cooks, to please you and to earn their wages, have to devise seasonings, garnishes and new sauces to make the meat more pleasant to your taste. Likewise, you demand the finest wines.

  O sorrowful woman, is it necessary thus to fill up this belly which is, after all, only food for worms and the vessel of all wickedness? But what happens to it when it is thus filled? What does it ask, just like the mouth, but the nourishment of passion, luxury, and voluptuousness, and excess of wines and of meats and the nourishment of carnality? This is what inflames Pride and predisposes the will to desire in all ways everything that can delight the body. Flesh thus nourished resembles the horse which, when its master tries hard to spur it on, is so strong and skittish that when he thinks to ride it he cannot control it. It bolts with him in spite of the roads being hazardous, and finally through its resistance and wrongheadedness it breaks the rider’s neck. In exactly this way the body too much overfed and excited by voluptuous foods kills the soul and the virtues, but Pride, which flourishes on this rich food, makes you so much desire extravagant clothing, jewels and finery that you hardly think of anything else, neither what they must have cost nor where they must have come from, nor how you may have acquired them. Besides leading you to other unseemly, disreputable and boundless vices, Pride makes you so disdainful and aloof to serve that one can hardly find jewels, clothing or ornaments that are good enough for you. In addition to all these things, you are so impertinent and presumptuous that it seems to you that neither God Himself nor anything else can impose upon you.

  O miserable, wretched and blind creature! How can this outrageous pride have so much power over you that it makes you forget the punishments of God, even though He allows you to stay immersed for so long in so many faults without paying you your just deserts? Do you not know that a holy doctor of the Church says that the slower the vengeance of God is in coming, the more perilous it is when it does come? Likewise, the more the bow is bent, the more piercing is the arrow when it comes. Have you forgotten how Our Lord punished for his pride Nebuchadnezzar, who was king of Babylon and so great a prince that he feared no one? Similarly the great king of Persia, Antiochus, was punished, and also the Emperor Xerxes and a great number of others who were so great and powerful that there was nothing in Heaven or earth that they feared.6 And always by the vengeance and will of God they were so humbled and reduced to such confusion for their punishment that there was no man born in the world who was more miserable or more unfortunate than they became.

  Do you not remember in connection with this that it is written in the Book of Ecclesiasticus in the tenth chapter, as you have heard your confessor relate, that God has cast down the thrones of proud princes and has set up the meek in their stead, and has plucked up the roots of the proud nations and has planted the lowly in their place?7 This means nothing else than that He destroys the proud and exalts the humble. So you are doing the right thing if you want to be destroyed!

  By Almighty God, you who are a simple little woman who has no strength, power or authority unless it is conferred on you by someone else, do you imagine that you are surrounded by luxury and honour so that you can dominate and outdo the whole world at your will?

  5. The good and holy reason and knowledge that comes to the good princess through the love and fear of Our Lord.

  Thus the good princess, admonished by God, who loves and fears Our Lord, will co
me to her senses. However good she is, she will consider herself the worst of all. After pondering the above-mentioned points, she will say to herself: ‘Now you see and recognize by the grace of Almighty God the terrifying perils in which you have put yourself all because of this damnable pride! What are you going to do about it? Has it become such a habit? Do you want to be damned? Which is worth more to you: to live in this world for a little while at your ease and be damned perpetually (but not really at your ease, because the more you involve yourself in the delights of the world and the more you remember various desires – which will torment your heart, because you cannot fulfil them or gain your wishes – the more your heart will never be content), or to refrain from your extravagant pleasures and live in the love and fear of Our Lord and be saved in the Kingdom without end?

  ‘Alas, damned woman – and what is it to be damned? Holy Scripture says that it is to be deprived always and eternally of the sight of God and to be in terrifying darkness in the company of horrible devils, the enemies of human beings. The souls of the damned wail terrible lamentations, cursing God and their parents and themselves in unimaginable torment in burning fire.1 In short, as Job says, it is to be in indescribable fear and in perpetual horror, and furthermore, what makes it even worse is the hopelessness of ever escaping from it.2

  ‘Oh poor woman, do you want to sink into such damnation and lose by your folly the grace that God promises you if you try to deserve it by only a little effort? And what does He promise you? He has promised you by virtue of His holy passion that if you choose to keep His commandments, you will go to Paradise. St Gregory, speaking in his homilies of this city of Paradise,3 says, in brief, “Where is the tongue and the understanding that can comprehend or say what or how great are the joys of Paradise, to be always in the company of angels with the blessed saints in the glory of our Creator, to see the glorious visage of God and the Holy Trinity face to face, to see and look at and feel His incomprehensible light, to be relieved of all desires, to have knowledge of all learning, to be in eternal rest, never to be afraid of death, and to be assured of remaining in this blessed glory forever?”

  ‘Now you see the difference between the two paths. Which one will you take? Will you mire yourself down, in danger of suffocation, and leave the clean, beautiful and safe way which leads to salvation? No, no, you will not be so foolish as to lay aside the good in order to take up the evil!

  ‘O Holy Trinity, one God in unity, sovereign power, perfect wisdom, and infinite goodness, counsel me and help me to escape the shadows of ignorance that have so dimmed my sight. Pure and holy Virgin, comfort of the grief-stricken, hope of true believers, hold my hand in your holy mercy, and rescue me from the slough of sin and iniquity. Most holy and blessed company of the court of Paradise, angels and archangels, cherubim and seraphim, thrones and dominions, saints, apostles of God, martyrs, virgins and celibates, pray for me and be my help.’4

  6. Of the two holy lives, namely the active life and the contemplative life.

  Now, therefore, here is what you have to do if you wish to be saved. Scripture mentions two paths that lead to Heaven,1 and without following one or the other of these paths it is impossible to enter it. One is called the contemplative life and the other the active life. But what exactly are the contemplative life and the active life?

  The contemplative life is a manner and condition of serving God in which a person so ardently desires Our Lord that she entirely forgets everyone else – father, mother, children, and even herself – for a very great and passionate concentration on her Creator. She constantly thinks of Him and Him alone. All other things are nothing to her, nor does she experience poverty, tribulation or other torment with which any other creature might be afflicted. These afflictions could be an obstacle to the upright contemplative heart, but it pays no attention to them. Her approach to life is to scorn utterly everything that is of the world and its pleasures. Her object is to keep herself solitary and withdrawn from human society, on bended knee, her hands joined together, her eyes looking to Heaven, her heart exalted by high thoughts. She goes before God to contemplate and consider by holy inspiration the blessed Trinity, the heavenly host and the joys of Heaven. In this condition the perfect contemplative is often so ecstatic that she does not seem to be herself. The consolation, peacefulness and joy that she then feels cannot be described, neither can any other joy be compared to that one, for she is tasting the glories and joys of Paradise – that is, she sees God in spirit through contemplation. She burns in her love and has perfect contentment in this world, for she neither wishes nor desires anything else, and God comforts her, for she is His servant. He sets before her fragrant dishes from His holy Paradise; they are pure and holy thoughts which come from Heaven and give confident hope of joining that happy company. There is truly no joy like it. Those who know it have tried to describe it. I regret that I can only talk about it in this indirect way, as a blind person might discourse upon colours. That this life is more agreeable to God than any other has often been made clear to the world. It has been demonstrated and written by various men and women contemplative saints who have been seen in their contemplation raised above the earth by a miracle of God, as though the body wished to follow the thoughts that had mounted to Heaven. Of this holy and most exalted life I am not worthy to speak nor to describe it as it deserves, but there are many sacred writings that describe this fully, and so my attempt would be unnecessary anyway.

  The active life is another way of serving God. The active life means that the person who wishes to follow it will be so charitable that, if she could, she would render service to everyone for the love of God. She goes around to the hospitals, visits the sick and the poor, according to her ability, helps them at her own expense and physical effort for the love of God. She has such great pity for people she sees in sin or misery that she weeps for them as though their distress were her own. She loves her neighbour’s welfare as much as her own, is always striving to do good, is never idle; her heart burns ceaselessly with desire to do works of mercy, to which she devotes herself with all her might. Such a woman bears all injuries and tribulations patiently for the love of God.

  As you can see, this active life has more use in the world than the other one. These are both of great excellence, but Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself judged the greater excellence of the two, when Mary Magdalene, who represents the contemplative life, was seated at the feet of Our Lord as one who had no thought for anything else and who utterly burned with her holy love. And Mary Martha, her sister,2 by whom is understood the active life, was the hostess of Our Lord. She worked in the house in the service of Jesus and His Apostles and complained that Mary her sister did not help her. But Our Lord excused her, saying, ‘Martha, you are very diligent, and your work is good and necessary, but Mary has chosen the better part.’ By this ‘part’ that she had chosen it can be understood that, although the active life is of great excellence and necessary for the help and succour of many, contemplation, which is to give up the world and all its cares to think only of Him, is the greatest and worthiest perfection. For this reason holy men have in the past established religious orders. In God’s eyes life in a religious community is the highest level of life there is. Anyone who founds a religious order so that those who wish to live in contemplation can be separated there from the world in the service of God without any other cares pleases not only those people, but also God, who would be pleased indeed that each one said his offices there.

  7. The life that the good princess decides to lead.

  The good princess who has been inspired by God says to herself, ‘You must decide which of these paths you wish to take. It is commonly said, and it is true, that Discretion is the mother of the virtues. And why is she the mother? Because she guides and sustains the others, and anyone who fails to do any undertaking through her will find that all the work comes to nothing and is of no effect, because it is necessary to work by discretion. This is what I must consider before I undertake anything a
t all.

  ‘First I ought to think of the strength or weakness of my poor body and the frailty to which I am inclined, and also of what level of submission it is appropriate for me to assume, according to the estate where God has called me and which He has entrusted to me in this world. If I consider these things honestly, I will find that although I have some good intentions, I am too weak to suffer great abstinence and great pain, and my spirit is weak through frailty and inconstancy. And since I feel myself to be like that, I should not imagine that I am more virtuous than I am, even though God says, “You must forsake father and mother for my name.” I’m afraid that I would not be at all able to fulfil my pledge and leave husband, children, everyday life, and all worldly concerns with the hope of serving only God, as women of the greatest perfection have done. Therefore I should not attempt something I wouldn’t be able to persevere with. What shall I do then? Choose the active life? Alas, happy are those who succeed in the work they have been commanded to perform. O God, as You have established me in the world as a mere woman, I can at least serve You perfectly in ministering and doing service to Your “members”, that is, the poor, for love of You. Alas, how would I ever manage to abandon all worldly position? O Lord, counsel me and teach me what I must do to be saved. Although I know very well that there is nothing else I love and desire except only You, and that all pleasure is nothing, I do not have the strength in myself to be able to abandon every worldly thing. I am very frightened about what to do, for You say that it is impossible for the rich to be saved.’

  At this juncture Holy Inspiration comes to the good princess and speaks to her in this manner: