Solitude And Society

Melius est ergo duos esse... Quaeritur hic de vita solitaria, utrum sit praeeligenda societati. Quod sic, videtur: 1. Quia dicitur Threnorum tertio de bono adolescente: Sedebit solilarius et tacebit: ergo bonum est esse solum. 2. Praeterea, Bernardus dicit: Quoties fui inter homines, minus homo redii: non est ergo bonum esse inter homines. 3. Item , qui est in societate , necesse est , quod sit sollicitus, quomodo se conformet societati; sed Apostolus dicit primae ad Corinthios septimo', quod bonum est non nubere propter vitandam sollicitudinem de placendo uxori: ergo similiter bonum est omnem societatem fugere. CONTRA: 1. Genesis secundo: Non est bonum, hominem esse solum: ergo solitudo est vituperabilis, et per oppositum societas laudabilis. 2. Item, Matthaei decimo octavo: Ubi sunt duo vel tres congregati in nomine meo, ibi in medio eorum sum; non dicit: ubi unus, sed ubi duo vel tres: ergo melior est vita in congregatione quam solitaria. 3. Item, hoc probatur per litteram istam, quia societas fulcit, fovet et defendit, quae sunt tria bona, quibus solitarii privantur. Respondeo: dicendum, quod triplex est solitarium: unum per inopiam dilectionis, sicut avarus non vult habere consortem in divitiis, nec invidus in bonis, nec superbus in magnis; et solitudo haec mala omnino est. Alia solitudo per defectum consolationis, sicut dicitur in Psalmo: Unicus et pauper sum ego, et haec misera est. Est et alia solitudo per quietem contemplationis, et haec laudabilis et honesta. Similiter triplici modo est societas: quaedam scilicet turbans et impediens, sicut societas malorum; quaedam subsidio et solatio indigens, sicut societas uxorum et infirmorum; et quaedam adiuvans et promovens, sicut societas perfectorum. Prima est fugienda, secunda toleranda, sed tertia appetenda; et haec est in religione. Quando igitur Scriptura commendat societatem, intelligitur de hac; et haec non repugnat solitudini contemplationis , quia Bernardus in Canticis: Inter multos solus potest esse homo omnino, si curiositatem fugiat. Sanctus Bonaventura, Commentarius In Ecclesiasten, Cap IV Source: Here, p 40

Therefore two are better than one... 1 It may be asked here concerning the solitary life, whether it is preferable to society. It seems it is: 1 Because it is said in the third chapter of Lamentations concerning the good youth: 'He shall sit alone and be silent.' 2 Therefore it is good to be alone. 2 Moreover Bernard says: 'As often as I was with men, I returned a lesser man.' 3 Therefore it is not good to be among men. 3 Similarly, for him who is in society, it is necessary that he shall have care for how he may accommodate himself to that society, but the Apostle says in the seventh chapter of the first letter to the Corinthians that it is good not to marry on account of the avoidance of care in pleasing one's wife. 4 Therefore it is a similar good to flee all society. On The contrary 1. The second chapter of Genesis says: 'It is not good that man be alone.' 5 Therefore solitude is to be despised and by opposition society is to be praised. 2 Likewise in the eighteenth chapter of Matthew: 'Where there are two or three gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them.' 6 He does not say where one is, but where two are, or three. Therefore life in a congregation is better than as a solitary. 3 Likewise it is proved in what follows this passage that society gives support, and preserves and defends, 7 of which three goods the solitary is deprived. I respond that it must be said that the solitary life is threefold. One is because of a poverty of love, as a miser does not wish to have an associate in in his wealth, nor does an envious man in his goods, nor does a proud man in his greatness, and this solitude is indeed an evil. Another solitude is because of a lack of consolation, as it is says in the Psalm: 'I am alone and needy, and it is wretched.' 8 But quiet contemplation is a different solitude, and it is praiseworthy and upright. Likewise society is threefold, a certain kind is troublesome and burdensome, as association with wicked men, and there is one that requires one's support and comfort, as an association with a wife, or with the infirm, and there is one that helps and promotes, which is the society of the perfect. One must flee the first, endure the second, desire the third, which is the religious life. When, therefore, Scripture commends society, it must be understood in this way, and that it is not hostile to the solitude of contemplation, because as Bernard says in his commentary on the Song of Songs, 'Among many men it is only possible to truly be a man, if one flees distraction.'9 Saint Bonaventura, Commentary on Ecclesiastes, Chapter 4 1 Eccle 4.9 2 Lament 2.28 3 Bern In Cantic 40.4-5 4 1 Cor 7.32 5 Gen 2.18 6 Mt 18.20 7 Eccles 4.9-12 8 Ps 24.16 9 Bern In Cant 40.5