Letter 13
To the most holy Caesarius,
Your observation about the state of theological learning in our part of the world is one I share, and I want to develop it a little further.
The problem is not that no one is reading or thinking. There are clergy in this kingdom who are genuinely learned, who know the fathers, who engage with the scriptural tradition seriously. The problem is the distribution: the learning is heavily concentrated in a few centers — the major monasteries, the cathedral cities — and is very thinly spread everywhere else.
A priest in a market town or a rural parish may have access to a psalter, a missal, and perhaps a gospel book. That is all. He has never seen the works of Augustine or Jerome, let alone Gregory or Cassiodorus. His theological formation, if he received any, consisted of basic instruction by a priest who was himself inadequately formed. He is doing his best with what he has, but what he has is very little.
I am not certain what the solution is. The monasteries have libraries; the monasteries could in principle be centers of formation for the parish clergy. This would require a different understanding of what monasteries are for than many abbots are comfortable with. But the alternative — a clergy chronically too poorly equipped to do its job well — seems worse.
Desiderius
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.
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(In a.d. 368 the City of Nicæa in Bithynia was almost entirely destroyed by a terrible earthquake. Cæsarius lost his house, and his personal escape was almost miraculous.