Work
His book bears the German language title (not Dutch language, as one might expect from a Fleming) Die vierundzwanzig alten oder der guldin Tron der minnenden seelen; The 24 elders or the golden throne of loving souls. He introduces the twenty-four ancients of Apocalypse, iv.4, and makes them utter sentences of wisdom by which men can obtain the golden throne in eternal life.
The sentences are taken from the Holy Scripture, the Fathers of the Church, Scholastics and from heathen authors "whom the Church does not condemn". He thus enumerates 104 "masters", among whom are also some of the mystics, as Hugo and Richard of St. Victor. He generally gives accurate quotation of his sources though he also draws from some not specified, e.g., St. Elizabeth of Schönau. He tries to remain on strictly Catholic ground, but sometimes loses himself in dogmatical intricacies and quibbles. To be plain and intelligible he frequently uses trivial expressions.
He writes on the nature of God and of man, on their mutual relation, on the requisites for perfection: contrition, confession and penance; on internal and external life, purity of motives, shunning idleness, love of God and of the neighbour, the necessity of faith and the grace of God. He speaks of the Scriptures as the storehouse of Divine wisdom and urges the faithful to read them. In speaking of contemplative life he insists that none can reach it without spending time in the active service of God and man. The term "friends of God" he explains according to John xv.15 and speaks of prayer, humility, obedience, spiritual life, virtues and vices and shows Christ as the model of all virtues. The longest chapters, eleven and twelve, he devotes to the Holy Eucharist and to the Blessed Virgin. The last chapters treat of death and the future life.
The number of manuscript copies of the book (about forty) bears evidence of the estimation in which it was held. It found its way to all "friends of God" in the south of Germany, along the Lower Rhine and in the Netherlands. It first appeared in print in 1470, probably by Albrecht Pfister in Bamberg. A modernized edition, Die Krone der Aeltesten, was made in 1835 at Landshut as a tenth volume of Leitstern auf der Bahn des Heils.
Read more about this topic: Otto Of Passau
Famous quotes containing the word work:
“Gratefully accepting the proffered honor, [to inscribe a new legal work to him] I give the leave, begging only that the inscription may be in modest terms, not representing me as a man of great learning, or a very extraordinary one in any respect.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“Writing is not like painting where you add. It is not what you put on the canvas that the reader sees. Writing is more like a sculpture where you remove, you eliminate in order to make the work visible. Even those pages you remove somehow remain.”
—Elie Wiesel (b. 1928)
“The idea that to make a man work you’ve got to hold gold in front of his eyes is a growth, not an axiom. We’ve done that for so long that we’ve forgotten there’s any other way.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)