To the knights of Christ sanctifying the zeal of their devotion by a religious way of life in the Temple of Jerusalem, Hugh a sinner: Fight and conquer and be crowned in Christ Jesus our Lord.

1. Quite as much, dearest brothers, as the Devil is intent on deceiving and subverting us, so must we through the zeal of circumspection be all the more carefully vigilant not just against evil things, but also to do good ones. For the Devil's first concern is to draw us into sin; his second to corrupt our intention of good works; his third to render us unstable in good, by shaking us from our planned work of virtue under the guise of doing something better. To make us wary of the first fraud, Scripture says: "Son, see that you never consent to sin." [Tobias, iv. 6] To guard against the second it says in another place: "Do your good well" ["Fac bonum bene." Dom Leclercq could not find this in the Bible.]; for he, who in his good work seeks his own glory instead of God's, does not do his good well. To avoid the third, it says elsewhere: "Stay in your place" ["Sta in loco tuo". Cf. Daniel, x. 12.]; for it is as if he, who through mental inconstancy and varying desires is always carried off to things other than those which he is compelled to do by obligation, does not want to stay in his place. And to correct this inconstancy and levity, the Apostle says: "Let Everyone stay in the vocation to which he was called" [I Cor., vii. 20] (and) "One this and another that." [ibid., vii. 7] Understand, brothers, that if all the members of the body had a single function, the body itself absolutely could not continue in existence. Listen to the Apostle: "If the foot were to say: `I am not an eye; I am not part of the body', is it therefore not part of the body?" [I Cor., xii. 15] Things that are more ignoble are often especially useful.The foot touches the ground, but carries the whole body. Do not deceive yourselves. Each will receive his reward according to his labor. House roofs receive rain and hail and wind; without them what would the painted ceilings do?

2. We therefore say this, brothers, that we have heard that some of you have been worried by certain of the less discreet around, as if your profession, by which you have dedicated your lives to the bearing of arms against the enemies of the faith and peace for the defense of Christians, as if, I say, that profession were illicit or pernicious, that is, either a sin or an impediment to greater progress. This is what I already said to you, that the Devil does not sleep; for he knows that if he tried to persuade you to sin, you will not listen or agree. So he does not say to you: "Get drunk, fornicate, quarrel, disparage one another." You have brushed aside his first objective, by rejecting sin. In his second objective too, you have worn the adversary down. For in peacetime you fight with your own flesh, by fasting and abstinence; and when he suggests you take pride in the work of virtue, you successfully resist. In wartime, moreover, you fight with arms against the enemies of peace, who do harm or try to do so. The invisible enemy, moreover, his temptations constantly at the ready, cruelly pursuing you, strives to corrupt your good work, which you do for good reason and with just zeal. He labors to corrupt your motivation. So he hints at hatred and blood-lust when you kill, at greed when you take booty. But you repel the ambush on all fronts, because you do not hate in an evil way when you kill, and you do not covet wrongly when you take booty. So I say: "You do not hate in an evil way", for you hate not the man but the evil. And I say: "You do not covet wrongly", because you take away what is justly taken from them on account of their sins and justly owed to you for your labor. "For the worker is worthy of his hire. For if the mouth of the threshing ox is not muzzled, on what grounds may one deny the labouring man his wage." [I Tim., v. 18) If one man gets paid a price for bearing words to the edification of his neighbors, do we not owe a wage to another who lays down his life to save that of his neighbors?

3. I have therefore said: Because the Devil is conquered on this front, he finds nothing of his own in you, where both the action is thus and the intention sincere. As a consequence he turns to another fight. For while he cannot deny that what you do is good, he labors to ensure that in the good that you do, you fail to hold to that perseverance which is the consummation of all good. He concedes that what he cannot prevent is good, but argues that you should leave the less good for a greater good, not in order that you should actually do that (greater good) but to prevent your doing the (lesser good). He does not care what he says as long as he shakes you off from your resolve. He wants this badly, so that you will leave where you are. For that reason he promises great things to winkle you out, so that, when he has got you out, he may permit you neither to go on to the one nor return to the other. This is a hostile fraud, the Devil's deviousness and trickery, by which he desires to trip you up. So make your stand here: resist the lion and dragon, your adversary; for he comes as a lion to break you, as a dragon to deceive you. Do not believe him. Whatever an enemy suggests ought to be suspect, even if it seems to be good. Remember what that devious persuader said to your mother (Eve): "Eat", he said, "and you will be like Gods." [Gen., iii. 5] See how he promises divinity to teach contempt of humanity. He offers majesty to take away humility. So brothers, now you have experienced the first fraud, take care, do not easily accept advice that persuades you to rise up in quest of divinity. Remember that you are (only) men; humbly preserve what God has given; patiently bear what God has done with you.

4. And if by chance desire for a higher order should come into your mind, know that in every order the better is the higher. Judas was flung down from the summit of the apostolate, and the publican was justified after his humble self-accusation. If a place could confer salvation, the Devil would not have fallen from Heaven. Again if a place could condemn, Job would not have conquered the Devil on the dunghill. Be aware therefore that neither place nor habit is anything to God. As the apostle Paul said: "Neither circumcision nor foreskin, but a new creature." [Gal., vi. 15] So if progress delights you and you wish to ascend to better things, do not look at things outside but direct your eyes inwards where God sees. There, where true virtue lies, is the good ascent . For it is said of the just man: "He stacked the ascents away in his heart; they will go from virtue to virtue; the God of Gods will be seen in Zion." [Psalm 83, 6, 8]

5. But perhaps it is said that the occupation which distracts you through external things constitutes an impediment to eternal progress and spiritual ascents. You seek peace and quiet so that you can bear fruit for God. For solitude is the friend of contemplation. When you say this, you possess God's zeal, but not according to knowledge.[ Cf. Rom., x. 2.] "For you do not know what you seek." (Mt., xx. 22) Hear how Christ, not I, answers you: "You seek to sit at His right hand and His left in His kingdom. You wish to sit and rest with Him while he reigns, yet you do not wish to labor and be worn down when he fights. What you seek would be blessed if only it were just. So, since what you seek is not just, you do not know what to seek." For the order of justice demands that he who wishes to reign does not shun labor; he who seeks the crown does not evade the fight. Christ himself, whom you ought to follow, before he ascended into Heaven securely on the Father's right hand, labored on earth fighting with impious and evil men. See brothers: if rest and peace were to be sought in this way, as you say, no order in God's Church would last. Even those who dwell in the desert [as hermits] cannot so completely flee all occupation, that they need not labor for food and clothing and the other necessities of mortal life. If there were no people ploughing and sowing, gathering and preparing, what would the contemplatives do? If the apostles had said to Christ, "We want leisure for contemplation, not to rush about and labor but to be far from the disputes and contentions of men", if the apostles had said this to Christ, where would Christians be now?

6. See therefore, brothers, how the Enemy under cover of piety strives to lead you into the snare of error. Virtuous men should flee not annoyance but fault, not bodily exercise but disturbance of the mind. The Servant of God knew how to remain calm amidst occupations, and undisturbed amidst distractions. He knew how to be content with his lot, so that he would neither rashly recoil from God's plans nor proudly contradict the divine will. For He is the Lord, and we are His servants. And he has found for each of us a place in His great house, where the law is that the more humbly one performed his function, the higher his due reward. But nowadays, the Enemy's temptations never permit the hearts of the wretched to remain calm. They induce superiors to despair over their rule, and inferiors to grow angry over their subjection. He tells lords that they cannot be saved without disposing of their burden of rule, servants that they cannot fully participate in religion because they do not share in its direction. Oh! when will this diabolical fraud cease? [Behold] how the angel of Satan is transformed into an angel of light![ Cf. 2 Cor., xi. 14.] If the Devil persuaded us to seek the world's pomp, his fraud would be easily recognized. Now he tells Christ's knights to lay down their arms, to wage no war, to flee the tumult and to seek a hidden refuge, so that by offering the appearance of humility he can take true humility away. For what is pride except disobedience to God's commandments?

7. Now that he has beaten the superiors down in this way, Satan turns to subvert the inferiors. "Why", he asks, "do you labor in vain? Why do you expend so much labor to no avail? The men whom you serve allow you to share their labor but not their fraternity. When do the salutations of the faithful come to the knights of the Temple? When do the faithful throughout the world pray for the knights of the Temple? There is no mention, no record of this; and whereas almost the whole of the bodily labor falls to you, all the spiritual fruit goes to them. So withdraw from this association and offer God the sacrifice of your labor in some other place, where the zeal of your devotion can be visible and profitable." See, brothers, the many forms of the Deceiver, how he turns his hand to every kind of fraud. He causes some to murmur because they are recognized as rulers, others because they are subjects and ignored, as if those whom men fail to make famous go on that account unrecognized by God. But see, brothers, that your Tempter has become stupid here. For I assume that you will hold nobody to be wise who is unaware that the more secret the virtue, the more secure it is. Nor should any believer doubt that anyone who shares in the labor of any group of Christ's servants will beyond all doubt share in the reward. If this is how you feel, my dearest brothers, and you keep peace within your community, the God of peace will be with you.