Nothing But Good Can Come From Obedience

In his printed treatise, Johannes Trithemius expostulates on the many virtues a monk will acquire by copying. He gives arguments for the practice, and uses scripture to back up his arguments. Copying makes one closer to God, it is a practice of servitude and obedience and he says all monks should copy because it suits monks; it is the most suitable work for a monk to do because it involves solitude, servitude, and meditation on the Word.

From the beginning, he says "The learned will shine as brightly as the vault of heaven, and those who have instructed many in virtue as bright as the stars of all eternity". This refers both to those who, by their talents, have created the new and to those who have copied the old. So, to those who create the new, doesn't that include printers? Printing was new, right? Well, I guess he may mean authors since they are really the "creators" of a text...

"The scribe is distinguished by devotion", yes! one has to be very devoted to re-writing a whole text BY HAND, but can't they show their devotion in other ways, ie. helping the poor, etc? For Trithemius, the scribe is the ultimate shower of devotion because he equivocates the practice of copying with work and "then are they truly monks when they live by the labor of their hands" (St. Benedict) "No other manual labor is more suitable for us than copying". When I read this I immediately went back to my previous thought about helping the poor and I guess that I thought that would be the best kind of work to do for a monk. But Trimethius' goal is to expostulate on the virtues of copying. He doesn't want to make any other form of devotion look good. Copying is the best!

He also warns of the "younger monks who aren't sufficiently trained in the customary exercises" and who use big words. He tells the abbot or prior to pull him back down to "the solid ground of obedience" because what better suits a monk than absolute obedience, to God, to the scripture, to his superiors... Therefore, copying becomes a way to exercise obedience in order to focus themselves on the word and not delve into "dangerous unchecked liberties". But I think if there is a problematic young monk out there, making him copy a text may not be the best way to discipline him. As we talked about in class, one can copy a text without really reading and thinking about it. Sometimes it just becomes an act of writing specific letters in order, and the words get lost. I think it would be better to just read and study what was read. Especially if you're a monk who is losing his way- you're not going to want to study what you're copying. Just get the job done, hand it in to your superiors and be done with it. Kinda like how I feel about writing papers (and blogs). Overall, I think Trithemius is aggravated - with the advent and popularity of printing, and with young monks. He basically begins his treatise laying out reasons for copying, but I think towards the end is where he really gets to what is on his mind: disobedient monks.