Avant-propos - Studia Moralia

THE HEALING ROLE OF FRIENDSHIP 71
take precedence over the common weal, it corrupted the splendor
of friendship and charity through avarice and envy, introducing
contentions, emulations, hates and suspicions because the morals
of men had been corrupted. From that time the good distinguished
between charity and friendship, observing that love ought to be extended
even to the hostile and perverse, while no union of will and
ideas can exist between the good and wicked. And so friendship
which, like charity, was first preserved among all by all, remained
according to the natural law among the few good. 23
This passage identifies the fall of Adam as the primary cause for
disruption between charity and friendship. Prior to the fall, the
intimate union between nature and grace allowed friendship
and charity to exist in close relationship with one another and to
share a certain “splendor.” After the fall, however, this “splendor”
was corrupted: friendship contracted in its extension and
was limited to a very few; charity, in turn, remained limited in
scope, but was possible only under the influence of grace. Elsewhere
in the treatise, Aelred describes the relationship between
charity and friendship in this manner: “…divine authority approves
that more are to be received into the bosom of charity
than into the embrace of friendship. For we are compelled by
the law of charity to receive in the embrace of love not only our
friends but also our enemies. But only those do we call friends
to whom we can fearlessly entrust our heart and all its secrets;
those, too, who, in turn, are bound to us by the same law of faith
and security.” 24 For Aelred, the fall is also responsible for the different
types of friendship in the world today. Since reason was
not completely corrupted through the fall, the wicked experience
an inclination toward companionship and society that of-
23 DSA 1:58-59 [CCCM 1.299(336-47); SF 63-64].
24 DSA 1.32 [CCCM 1:294(183-89); SF 58]. Aelred develops his general
theory of love in De speculo caritatis (CCCM 1:3-161. For an analysis of this
work, see AMÉDÉE HALLIER, The Theology of Aelred of Rievaulx: An Experiential
Theology, Cistercian Studies, no. 2 (Spencer, MA: Cistercian Publications,
1969). For a general treatment of Aelred’s position on friendship, see
DOUGLASS, “The Doctrine of Spiritual Friendship,” in SF, 15-35. See also
SQUIRE, Aelred of Rievaulx: A Study, 98-111. `