Asceticism and Its Influence in the Middle

Asceticism and Its Influence in the Middle Ages on the Church

Saint Jerome, known for his austerity in the spiritual life, wrote to Celantia in the fourth century that the extent of one's "abstinence and fasting" is not to be confused with his state of perfection. In other words, a life of asceticism or penance is merely a means to perfection and not an example of perfection in and of itself. Asceticism was a term borrowed from the Greeks by the early Christians, who applied askesis, the Greek word for athletic training, to the spiritual life (Campbell). As men like Benedict and Augustine developed the ascetic lifestyle, the Church began to refine its sense of the practice of penance, meant to lead one to a state of holiness in the Middle Ages. This paper will describe the beliefs and practices of the major ascetics and how their ideas affected the Church into the Middle Ages.

The ascetics were motivated by an urge to conform their wills to the will of God. Conformity of this nature meant bringing their earthly wills (or appetites) into submission. They did this by rigorously denying themselves the pleasures one typically associates with comfortable living. By curbing the desire of the flesh, the Christian ascetic could focus more on the desire of God and living his life according to God's commandments. The ascetic lifestyle was meant to cultivate good habits, or virtues, such as self-renunciation, patience, chastity, etc., that would assist in the Christian in his daily, spiritual life. They follow the words of St. Paul in Corinthians: "I chastise my body and bring it into subjection, lest perhaps when I have preached to others I myself should be castaway" (1 Cor. 9:27). They believed the body to be rebelling against the mind, the flesh against the spirit. ("The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak"). In order to discipline the flesh, they believed it was better to not indulge it but to deny it -- to "bring it into subjection" as Paul states.

The monastic life that flourished after the example of St. Anthony the Great and St. Benedict, was inspired by the asceticism of Christian devotion. Benedict embodied the spirit of renunciation of the world and the flesh so fully in the 6th century that he moved to a cave. There he could be more ascetic, having denied himself the comforts and conveniences of a life in a community. Like a desert father, he gave himself over to a spiritual contemplation of God. His total abandonment of self to the will of God attracted others who also wanted to make St. Paul's example a part of their lives. Benedict wrote his own Rule for his followers, which drew some inspiration from the Rule of St. Augustine.

The Rule of St. Benedict illustrates the degree to which Benedict embraced asceticism. For example, the Rule forbids Benedictines from owning any private possessions without permission from the abbot -- who, however, is supposed to provide his monks with everything they need. The Rule states that only two meals may be taken a day, that clothing must be inexpensive, that monks should not fight, that they should do charitable works for communities and make themselves servants of God in this manner. The Church flourished in the Middle Ages as a result of the total abandonment of self as shown by men like Benedict. Indeed, the measure of these ascetics' value to medieval society as a whole may be seen in the fact that Charlemagne, the first Holy Roman Emperor, copied the Rule of Benedict and had it disseminated throughout his kingdom in hopes of inspiring a greater ascetic devotion to God.

Augustine also advocated abstinence as a way of bringing the body and the mind into conformity with the will of God. Augustine likened the will of the flesh to the City of Man and the will of the spirit to the City of God. In order to build the City of God, it was necessary to form one's mind through spiritual reading, through a meditation on Sacred Scripture, through self-renunciation and the cultivation of virtues. Augustine's thinking influenced later medieval scholastics like Aquinas, who used Augustine's views on Original Sin and man's fallen nature to support his own claims in the Summa Theologica. In the final analysis, asceticism of the early Christians was nothing more than a method of following Christ. It was not advocated as an end in and of itself, nor was it taught that ascetics should go to extremes in self-renunciation. The Rule of Benedict, for example, stipulated that monks should wear cheap clothing but that they should have something of better quality for when they travel outside the monastery.