Blanquerna

The abbess said to the sifters that God has given will to man, and to beafts, birds, fishes and all living things; but the will that He has given to men and women is nobler than the wills of the beafts, and the other creatures that have no reason ; the end whereof is that the human will muft desire nothing without reason. Therefore, when it comes to pass that a man or woman loves or hates without reason, such a one has a baser will than any other creature.

2. “ It beseems the will to love that which is good and to hate that which is evil. When a man loves that which is the lesser good more than that which is the greater good, then does he order his will to love that which is evil and to hate that which is good.” Now, while the abbess with much subtlety spake these words, a sifter said to her that it was not a lawful thing that women should speak with such subtlety. And the abbess answered and said “ that since the understanding could comprehend such words as these which she had spoken, it beseemed the will to desire that the understanding should soar in its comprehension, and that the will thereby should be the better able to contemplate and understand God and His works. For if God had not willed to be contemplated by love and understanding, He would not have placed such great virtue in the creatures nor in the memory, understanding and will, the which virtue He has placed in them that He may be the better comprehended, and thereby the more loved. And if through the direftion of will and understanding toward some subtlety there be engendered doubtfulness, then muft recourse be had to faith and fortitude, whereby the human mind may be Strengthened to believe that which it may not understand.”

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B LANQUERN A

3. “ Liberty in this world accords better with will than with memory and understanding; and obedience is more seemly in religion than in the world or apart from religion. And this is because liberty is more constrained in religion than in the world, inasmuch as the will that loves of its own accord to subjedt itself freely to obedience has risen the higher and will have the more merit and charity and juStice, than the will that is not under obedience. For, if it be a pleasing thing to love of one’s own accord the Beloved,1 a greater merit is it to love againSl one’s own accord obedience to a superior; for in such a case the will is submitted to itself in loving that which inwardly it feels disposed to hate. And if thou dareft not to think upon this subtlety thou doff doubt concerning the exaltation of thy faith, the which thou shouldSt love that there may be in thee the greater fortitude and hope. And this which I tell thee signifies for thee some hidden thing, the which, at this present time wherein we live, I dare not give thee to understand.”

4. “ Each one of you has will and understanding; let each one submit her will to her understanding. And I desire and command that the will of each be bound and submitted to my will; and that my will and my under¬ standing be bound and submitted in general to the under¬ standing of all of you, for this is the proper funftion which pertains to the office of an abbot or an abbess in religion,”