Comparison of a King and a Monk

1A Comparison of Royal Power, Wealth, and Preeminence with the Monk Who Lives According to the Truest Way of Life in Christ. 1. I see that most people love and admire what merely seems good rather than what is naturally excellent and truly good. So I think it necessary to speak briefly about each kind, and to set side by side the things many people neglect and the things they pursue with great eagerness. Then, once we understand the difference between them, we may value the one as worthy of our effort and salvation, and learn to despise the other as worth nothing. People love wealth, power, rule, and glory, and most call the rulers of nations blessed as they ride on splendid chariots, enjoy the shouts of heralds, and are surrounded by a large bodyguard. But the way of life of those who practice it is despised, along with those who have chosen the monastic life. When those rulers appear, they turn the crowd toward themselves; when these monks appear, they draw no one's eyes to themselves, or at most very few. No one would wish to become like these, but everyone wishes to become like those. Yet to acquire power and take rule over a nation is difficult and impossible for most people, and lovers of rule would need great wealth. But to choose the monastic life and live in the service of God is equally easy and within reach for everyone. The possession of rule is destroyed together with this life; rather, it abandons its lovers even while they live, and has already brought some into great danger or disgrace. The monastic life, however, fills the righteous with many good things now, and after the end of life leads them radiant and rejoicing to the judgment seat of God the Father, when most rulers will be seen giving a great accounting for the lives they have lived. Come then, let us set side by side the good things of the way of life and the things that seem excellent in the power and glory of this present life, and let us learn the difference between each kind of good. For things placed side by side become clearer. Or rather, if it seems good, let us set the summit of good things—I mean kingship—beside the way of life, and observe the fruits of each possession, learning precisely over what the king rules and over what the monk rules. The king stands over cities, lands, and many nations, directing generals, governors, armies, peoples, and councils by his nods. But the one who has given himself to God and chosen the monastic life rules over anger, envy, love of money, pleasure, and the other evils, always watching and taking care that he does not allow his soul to come under shameful passions, nor his reason to be enslaved to a bitter tyranny, but keeps his mind always above all these things, setting the fear of God over the passions. Such is the rule and power the king possesses, and such is the rule and power the monk possesses, so that one would more justly call the monk a king than the one shining in purple and crown and seated on a golden throne. 2. For the true king is the one who masters anger, envy, and pleasure, who brings everything under the laws of God, keeps his mind free, and does not allow the tyranny of pleasures to exercise power in his soul.

2I would gladly see such a man ruling peoples and land and sea, and cities and nations and armies. For the one who has set his reason over the passions of his soul would easily stand over human beings as well, together with the laws of God, so that he would be in the place of a father to those under his rule, conversing with the cities with all gentleness. But the one who seems to rule human beings while he is enslaved to anger and love of power and pleasures—first, he would appear ridiculous to his subjects, because he wears a crown set with jewels and gold but is not crowned with self-control, and his whole body gleams with purple while his soul is unadorned. And then he will not even know how to manage his power. For the one who was not able to rule himself, how could he guide others straight by the laws?

And if you wish to see the war of each, you will find the one fighting against demons, and prevailing, and conquering, and being crowned by Christ. For he comes to the war with divine aid, fenced around with heavenly weapons, so that victory must necessarily be his. But the king fights against barbarians. And as much as demons are more terrifying than human beings, so much more brilliant is the one who prevails over them than the one who conquers those others. And if you should wish to understand the cause of each war, you will find a great inequality. For the one fights against demons for devotion to God and the service of God, longing to snatch cities or villages out of error. But the other fights against barbarians over places or borders or stolen money, or because greed and desire for unjust power call him to battle. There, indeed, many kings have often desired greater things and lost even what they already possessed.

So then, the power and the wars have shown the king and the one who is eager to live with the service of God to differ from each other by this much. And one would know them precisely by examining the life of each and their daily actions. For he would find, truly, the one conversing with prophets, adorning his soul with the wisdom of Paul, and leaping constantly from Moses to Isaiah, and from him to John, and from him to another. But the king constantly converses with commanders and governors and bodyguards. And the character of those with whom one constantly converses is the character one is made like. Therefore the monk's mind is stamped with the character of the apostles and prophets, but the king's with the character of generals and bodyguards and shield-bearers—men enslaved to wine and gratifying pleasures, who spend the greater part of the day in drinking, and know nothing timely or good because of the wine. So then, for this reason also it is fitting to call the monastic life happy rather than the life in power and kingship and scepters.

And if we should wish to examine the time of night as well, we will see the monk adorned with the service of God and with prayers, singing much earlier than the birds, living together with angels, conversing with God, enjoying the good things of heaven. But the one set over many nations and peoples and armies, ruling much land and much sea, is stretched out on his bed and snoring.

3For the monk is fed only with so much food as would not demand deep sleep, unlike the king, while luxury and drink lull him to sleep, keeping him in bed until day itself. The monk, then, has modest clothing and a modest table, and fellow-diners who are athletes of the same excellence. The king, by necessity, is adorned with stones and gold, has a splendid table set before him, and uses fellow-diners who, if he is foolish, are worthy of his own wickedness, but if he has sense and is self-controlled, are perhaps good and just, yet fall far short of the monk's excellence. Thus even if a king pursues the way of life, he will not be able to come even a little near the excellence of the monk. For on journeys he is a burden to his subjects, whether he dwells in a city, enjoys peace, or takes up wars, collecting taxes, assembling armies, leading captives, conquering, and being defeated. When he is defeated, he fills his subjects with his own evils; when he conquers, he becomes unbearable, adorning himself with trophies, thinking great thoughts, and giving soldiers license to seize, to plunder, to wrong travelers, to occupy and besiege cities, to ravage the houses of the poor, and to exact from those who quartered them each day what no law permits, under the pretext of some ancient custom that is lawless and unjust. The king does no harm to the rich with such evils, but he afflicts the poor, as if truly being ashamed before the wealthy. The monk, however, is not like this. As soon as he appears, he comes bringing some grace to rich and poor alike, to these and to those equally, using one garment through the year, drinking water more sweetly than others drink marvelous wine. For himself he asks no favor from the rich, neither small nor great, but for those in need he asks many and continuous favors, beneficial to both those who give and those who are about to receive. Thus he is a common physician of rich and poor alike, freeing the former from sins through good counsel, and relieving the latter's want. But the king, when he orders the taxes to be lighter, benefits the rich more than the poor; and when he does the opposite, he harms those who possess little. For the harshness of taxes would harm the rich only a little, but it sweeps away the houses of the poor like a torrent, filling the villages with lamentation. Neither pitiable old age, nor the widowhood of women, nor the orphanhood of children stops those who collect the taxes; they revel all the time, common enemies of the land, exacting from the farmers what the earth has not produced.

Come then, let us also examine this: what does the monk grant to his subjects, and what does the king? The king grants gold, the monk the grace of the Spirit. The one loosens poverty whenever he is good; the other has freed souls tyrannized by demons through prayers. And if someone happens to be storm-tossed by such misfortunes, the king is passed by like the inanimate, and he flees to the house of the monks, like one fleeing from a wolf and taking refuge with a hunter who carries a sword in his hand. For what the sword is to the hunter, prayer is to the monk.

4For the sword is not so terrifying to wolves as the prayers of the righteous are to demons. So it is not only we who flee for refuge to the holy monks in our times of need; kings themselves flee to them in fearful seasons, just as the poor in a famine flee to the houses of the rich. Did not Ahab, the king of the Jews, in famine and scarcity of grain, place the hope of his salvation in the prayers of Elijah? Did not Hezekiah, who held the same rule and power, when he was sick and about to die and saw death standing over him, flee to the prophet as one stronger than death and a supplier of life? And indeed, when war broke out and Palestine was in danger of being torn up from its very foundations, the kings of the Jews abandoned the army—the infantry, the archers, the cavalry, the generals, and the commanders—and fled to the prayers of Elisha. For they considered the servant of God to be worth many tens of thousands. Hezekiah did the same thing when the Persian war arose and the city had sunk into the greatest danger of being razed to its foundations, and those on the wall were trembling, afraid, and shaken as if in expectation of thunder or an earthquake moving everything. The king set the prayers of Isaiah against the many tens of thousands of the Persians, and he was not disappointed in his hope. For as soon as the prophet lifted his hands to heaven, God destroyed the Persian war with weapons from heaven, teaching the kings to consider his own servants common saviors of the earth, so that they might be instructed, and when they were called upon by the righteous to every good action and work of love for humanity, they might respect their counsels and obey their good admonitions.

It is possible to see the difference between the two not only from these things, but also if it happens that both fall—the one deprived of kingship, the other of virtue. The monk can readily become his own master, and quickly, through prayer and tears and mourning and care for the poor, wipe away his sins and run back readily to his former rule. But a king who has fallen would need many allies, many hoplites, horsemen, horses, money, and would face many dangers. The king altogether has his hope of salvation in others; the monk will have salvation following immediately upon his will and zeal and change of mind. For it says, "The kingdom of heaven is within you" (Luke 17:21). And indeed, death is fearful to the king, but painless to the one who follows the way of life. For the one who despises wealth and pleasure and luxury—the things for whose sake most people desire to live—must also bear departure from this world readily. And if it happens that both are slain, the one will draw dangers upon himself on behalf of devotion to God, procuring immortal and heavenly life through death. But a king will have a tyrant as his slayer, a lover of his power, and after the slaughter he becomes a pitiful and terrible sight. To see a monk slain on behalf of devotion to God, however, is a sweet and saving sight. And the one will have many lovers and imitators and disciples of his own good things, praying that they may appear like him. But the other would spend many words in prayers, begging God that no lover of his kingship may ever appear.

5No one would dare to kill the monk, because he would consider it an act of impiety against God to destroy such a man. But many slayers stand over the king, lovers of tyranny. So the king is guarded by soldiers, while the monk walls cities with his prayers, fearing no one. The king, however, always lives with fear and the expectation of slaughter. For the king has dangerous greed, but the monk has secure salvation. Now I think enough has been said about the affairs of this present life. But if we should wish to examine the contest that is to come, we will see the monk shining and admired, snatched up in clouds to meet the Lord in the air (1 Thessalonians 4:17), like the leader and teacher of this saving way of life and of all virtue. The king, if he appears to have ruled his power justly and with love for humanity—though this is very rare—will receive lesser salvation and honor. For it is not equal, not equal: a good king and a monk living at the height of service to God. But if the king appears wicked and perverse, having filled the earth with many evils, who could describe the disasters that will be seen pressing upon him—burned with fire, scourged, tortured, suffering things that cannot be spoken in words or endured in deed? Considering and learning all these things, we must not admire the rich. For the one who has become master of these things cannot come even a little close to the virtue of the monk. So when you see a rich man adorned with clothing, beautified with gold, carried on chariots, making splendid public appearances, do not call that man blessed. For wealth is temporary, and what seems beautiful in this life is destroyed along with it. But when you see a monk walking alone, humble and gentle and quiet and mild, emulate that man. Show yourself an imitator of his way of life. Pray to become like that righteous man. For it says, “Ask, and it will be given to you” (Matthew 7:7). These things are truly good and saving and lasting, through the love for humanity and providence of Christ, to whom be glory and power forever and ever. Amen.