The Lady Poverty: A XIII. Century Allegory

Chapter 16: X

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About This Book

A thirteenth-century allegory recounts a saintly founder's quest to find and wed the personified Lady Poverty, narrated in episodic chapters that cover his search, guidance from elders, the discovery on a mountain, and the companions who join him. The work praises evangelical poverty, distinguishes authentic devotion from counterfeit forms, and examines obstacles such as avarice, prudence corrupted into greed, and spiritual sloth. It outlines the ideal conduct of religious life, records Poverty's consent and blessing upon the brethren, and is accompanied by a reflective essay on the spiritual significance of evangelical poverty together with devotional appendices.

X

THAT TIMES OF PEACE ARE UNPROPITIOUS TO POVERTY

But alas! after a while Peace was made, a Peace more hurtful than any War. In the beginning of that long Peace but few were sealed, in the middle of it yet fewer, at the end fewer still. And behold! of a surety in ♦Isa. xxxviii. 17.♦ this Peace is my Bitterness most bitter; for All fly from me or drive me from them; by none am I sought, by All forsaken. This Peace was the work of Enemies, not of Friends; of Strangers, not of my Sons. I indeed nourished ♦Isa. i. 2.♦ and raised up Sons, but they contemned me. In that Time when the Lamp of the Lord ♦Job xxix. 3.♦ shone upon my Head, and I walked by His Light through the Darkness, Satan was raging in many who were with me, the World was enticing them, and the Concupiscence of the Flesh, so that many of ♦1 John ii. 15.♦ them ended by loving the World and the Things of the World.