The Dialogue

A distinction between two kinds of obedience ; the one that of religious, and the other that paid to any secular person.

"As I have said to thee, He left this sweet obedience as His rule and doctrine, giving it to you as the key to open the door by which you reach your end. He left it by command in the case of general obedience, and by counsel for those of you who should wish to advance to great per fection and pass through the narrow door of religious life. And there are also those who belong to no religious order, and yet are in the ship of perfection. Such as these observe the perfection of the counsels, outside religion, having re nounced the riches and pomps of the world, both in fact and in thought, and observing continence, some in the virginal state and some without virginity. They observe obedience, submitting, as I told thee in another place, to some creature whom they strive to obey perfectly until death. And if thou shouldest ask Me whether these or they who dwell in a religious order have greater merit, I should reply that the merit of obedience is not measured according to the act or place, as being greater when per formed by a good man than by a bad man, or by a secular than by a religious, but according to the measure of love of him who obeys ; for to a truly obedient man the imperfec tion of a wicked superior does no harm ; rather it sometimes profits him, because through the persecutions and unwiselygiven weight of a too heavy obedience he may acquire both the virtue of obedience and her sister patience. Nor does the imperfection of the place hurt him. I say " imperfec tion," for religion is more perfect, firm, and stable than any other condition of life. Wherefore the place of those who hold the little key of obedience, observing the counsels out side a religious order, I indeed call imperfect, but not so their obedience, which is of no less merit ; because all obedi ence, as has been said, and every other virtue, is measured by the degree of love. It is indeed true that in many other

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ways, both by the vow which is made to the superior, and also because a religious has more to endure, obedience is better proved in religion than in the world, because in religion every action of the body is bound to this yoke, from which a man cannot free himself when he wishes without mortal sin, because of his vow and the sanction of the holy Church. But these others are not in the same condition. They are bound voluntarily by the love which they have for obedience, but not with a solemn vow. Wherefore they can leave the obedience of any mortal creature without mortal sin, if they have legitimate reasons, though their own defects are not such ; for if they leave their obedience through their own defects, they would not do so without a grave fault, though they would not incur mortal sin in the strict sense of the word. Dost thou know the difference between these two ?

" This man is like one who should take back what he has given his neighbour through love without any intention of asking for it again, but without having made an agreement to that effect ; while the religious gives himself and draws up the agreement of his profession, abandoning himself to the hands of his superior and promising to observe obedi ence, continence, and voluntary poverty, and the superior on his side promises him eternal life if he observe his vow until his death. In observance, place, and manner, religion is more perfect, and obedience in the world less perfect. In the former a man is safer, and if he fall is more likely to rise, because he has more help ; and the latter is more doubtful and less secure, and a man is more likely if he fall to turn his face backwards, because he does not feel himself bound by a vow, like a religious before he is pro fessed ; for until profession he can leave the order, though afterwards he cannot. But merit, as I said and repeat to thee, is given to the truly obedient man according to the measure of his love ; and he may obtain perfect merit in any state, for it is founded on love alone. One man I call to one state, and another to another, according to the fitness of each; but all are filled with love according to their measure ; so that if a particular secular loves more than a

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particular religious he receives more, and the same — a par ticular religious if he love more than a particular secular — and this is true for all other men."