Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Notes on Contributors
- Preface Bella Millett
- Bibliography of Bella Millett’s Writings
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 ‘Vae Soli’: Solitaries and Pastoral Care
- 2 Scribal Connections in Late Anglo-Saxon England
- 3 Gerald of Wales, the Gemma Ecclesiastica and Pastoral Care
- 4 Time to Read: Pastoral Care, Vernacular Access and the Case of Angier of St Frideswide
- 5 Lambeth Palace Library, MS 487: Some Problems of Early Thirteenth-century Textual Transmission
- 6 Pastoral Texts and Traditions: The Anonymous Speculum Iuniorum (c. 1250)
- 7 Reading Edmund of Abingdon’s Speculum as Pastoral Literature
- 8 Middle English Versions and Audiences of Edmund of Abingdon’s Speculum Religiosorum
- 9 Terror and Pastoral Care in Handlyng Synne
- 10 Prophecy, Complaint and Pastoral Care in the Fifteenth Century Thomas Gascoigne’s Liber Veritatum
- 11 Pastoral Concerns in the Middle English Adaptation of Bonaventure’s Lignum Vitae
- 12 Prayer, Meditation and Women Readers in Late Medieval England: Teaching and Sharing Through Books
- 13 ‘Take a Book and Read’: Advice for Religious Women
- Index
- Tabula Gratulatoria
- York Medieval Press: Publications
1 - ‘Vae Soli’: Solitaries and Pastoral Care
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 March 2023
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Notes on Contributors
- Preface Bella Millett
- Bibliography of Bella Millett’s Writings
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 ‘Vae Soli’: Solitaries and Pastoral Care
- 2 Scribal Connections in Late Anglo-Saxon England
- 3 Gerald of Wales, the Gemma Ecclesiastica and Pastoral Care
- 4 Time to Read: Pastoral Care, Vernacular Access and the Case of Angier of St Frideswide
- 5 Lambeth Palace Library, MS 487: Some Problems of Early Thirteenth-century Textual Transmission
- 6 Pastoral Texts and Traditions: The Anonymous Speculum Iuniorum (c. 1250)
- 7 Reading Edmund of Abingdon’s Speculum as Pastoral Literature
- 8 Middle English Versions and Audiences of Edmund of Abingdon’s Speculum Religiosorum
- 9 Terror and Pastoral Care in Handlyng Synne
- 10 Prophecy, Complaint and Pastoral Care in the Fifteenth Century Thomas Gascoigne’s Liber Veritatum
- 11 Pastoral Concerns in the Middle English Adaptation of Bonaventure’s Lignum Vitae
- 12 Prayer, Meditation and Women Readers in Late Medieval England: Teaching and Sharing Through Books
- 13 ‘Take a Book and Read’: Advice for Religious Women
- Index
- Tabula Gratulatoria
- York Medieval Press: Publications
Summary
To glorify eremitism in general seems to me to be a dangerous thing, for each vocation to solitude is a problem of spiritual direction and aspirants should not be encouraged, without distinction, to seek it.
Vae soli, says the Preacher: ‘Woe to him that is alone, for when he falleth, he hath none to lift him up’ (Eccles. 4. 10). The lament is perfect ammunition for anyone who wishes to emphasize the dangers of the solitary vocation in general, and in particular to highlight the problems it poses for a system of pastoral care.
The locus classicus is St Basil’s argument for the superiority of the common life in the seventh of his Longer Rules. He reasons that, whilst an individual may have one or more spiritual gifts, the result when a group of individuals pools their respective gifts is both a more complete realization of the Christian life, and greater than the sum of its parts: a coenobium of all the talents, perhaps. Set alongside this positive argument in favour of the life in common are two cautions against the solitary vocation. First of all, the solitary is too self-focused properly to fulfil the demands of charity. As he asks:
Wherewith shall a man show humility, if he has no one in comparison with whom to show himself humble? Wherewith shall he show compassion, when he is cut off from the communion of the many? How can he practise himself in long-suffering, when there is none to withstand his wishes? … Whose feet then wilt thou wash? Whom wilt thou care for? In comparison with whom wilt thou be last if thou livest by thyself?
But the solitary is exposed to faults not only of omission but of commission as well – and when he offends in this regard the danger is acute, since he ‘will not even recognize his defects readily, not having anyone to reprove him and to set him right with kindness and compassion’. The problem for the solitary is identified precisely as one of spiritual direction:
Such a guide it is difficult to find in solitude, unless one has already formed a link with him in community life. There happens to him in consequence what has been said: ‘Woe to the solitary man, since if he fall there is none to raise him up.’
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- Texts and Traditions of Medieval Pastoral CareEssays in Honour of Bella Millett, pp. 11 - 28Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2009
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