Don’t Be Quick To War: The Tale of Melibeus

War is upon us. And more war is coming. So we need to take a moment to consider why we should not be quick to go to war. 

We live in an interesting time, because we live in a time where so many people have an inherent sense of superiority, particularly regarding people of the past, and yet we are actually intellectually inferior in a host of ways. One way to demonstrate this is simply to read a book written by some of the intellectual greats of the past, prior to at least 1911, and observe how much more a command of language, philosophy and the understanding of the human mind many of them had.

I think there are many reasons for this. One of which is that in today’s day and age, so many topics are considered verboten that people’s intellectual progress has been stilted and directed away from discussing these things. Another is that systematized education creates a certain type of thinker who is trained to think within a particular range, and this has the danger of suppressing individual thought. But I think there are probably other significant reasons for this, which we will not go into in this piece.

One of these areas where moderns ardently consider themselves so superior is with regard to war. It is not uncommon to hear Westerners talk about previous generations as the times of warmongers and petty chieftains, and our day as an enlightened age that has learned so much from the downsides of war that we are much more peaceable. But nothing could be further from the truth, just give people the right justification, the right inspiration and a dose of the right kind of propaganda and they will be hankering for war against almost anyone. It is a disturbing trend to see, and one many people would seek to say they are not prone to, but it is very real. People are easily provoked into supporting, signing up for and barracking for malicious ill-conceived wars, and this is a problem. 

This is one of many reasons why I was so encouraged when I read The Tale of Melibeus recently in The Canterbury Tales. The Canterbury Tales is a famous work of literature in the English language, dating back to the medieval era, that contains a bunch of stories and poems told by a varied group of people written by Geoffrey Chaucer. The Tale of Melibeus is a powerful story about a man who is thinking about how he should respond to a violent attack made on his family. 

The tale begins by showing us how Melibeus’ family was attacked while he was not at home, and at leisure,

“A young man named Melibeus, mighty and rich, begot on Prudence, his wife, a daughter who was called Sophie.

It happened one day that, for his amusement he went into the fields to play. His wife and daughter remained at home, the doors of his house being all fast shut and locked. But three of his old enemies, having spied out the state of things, set ladders to the wall of the house and entered therein by a window; and they beat the wife and wounded the daughter with five dangerous wounds in five different places; that is to say, in her feet, in her hands, in her ears, in her nose, and in her mouth; and they left her for dead and went away.

When Melibeus returned to his house and saw all this mischief, he, like a madman, rending his clothes, began to weep and cry.”

Chaucer, Geoffrey .. The Canterbury Tales: FREE Hamlet By William Shakespeare (JKL Classics – Active TOC, Active Footnotes, Illustrated) (p. 166). JKL Classics. Kindle Edition.

Melibeus is rightly angered by this attack and begins to plot how he can respond. His wife Prudence, who counsels him with biblical advice through the tale, encourages him to bring over his friends to seek their counsel,

“Call, then,” said Prudence, “all of your true friends and those of your kindred who are wise; tell them your trouble and hearken to what they say in council; and then govern yourself according to their advice. Says Solomon: ‘Do nothing without advice, and thou shalt never repent.’”

Ibid, p. 168.

Once he has gathered his friends, he asks their advice and he finds that some counsel him to act wisely and be patient to consider his response, but others encourage him to declare war and to act with violence against his enemies,

“His neighbours, full of envy, his false friends who feigned to be reconciled to him, and his flatterers, made a semblance of weeping; and they greatly aggravated the matter by praising Melibeus, speaking of his might, his power, his wealth, and his friends, and disparaging the strength of his enemies; and they said outright, that very swiftly he should begin the war and wreak vengeance upon his foes.

Then arose an advocate, a wise man, by leave and advice of others who were wise, and said: “Masters, the matter for which we are assembled here is a heavy thing, and a high, what with the wrong and wickedness that have been done, and by reason of the great evil that may follow hereafter from this same cause; and, too, by reason of the great wealth and power of both parties. For all of these reasons it were dangerous indeed to err in this matter. Wherefore, Melibeus, this is our judgment: we counsel you above all things, that, without delay, you take steps to guard your own person in such wise that you shall lack neither spy nor watchman.

And we counsel, that in your house you establish a sufficient garrison, so that the house may be as well defended as you yourself. But, to say truth, as to initiating warfare in order to obtain a sudden revenge, we can give no opinion, in so short a time, on whether such a move will be profitable. Therefore we ask for leisure and time wherein to deliberate upon the matter more fully.”

Ibid, pp. 168-169

The wise men want more time to consider how they will advise Melibeus. But the foolish men counsel, “Vengeance, war, fight, fight!” What is significant is that the tale makes sure to note that many of those who are advocating that he go to war immediately do not have his best interest in heart, but actually want to see him act rashly, so they can gain an advantage over them. They are not true friends those who counsel unwisely. However, because of his emotional state it is the cries for vengeance that win him over, as he is emotional and hankering for revenge.

His wife is standing by watching all of this, and when the time is right she seeks to privately give her husband her counsel,

“When Melibeus heard that the greater part of his councillors were agreed on war, straightway he showed himself in accord with them and confirmed their judgment. Then Dame Prudence, seeing that her husband shaped his course for war and revenge, humbly and after biding her time, said to him: “My lord, I beseech you as earnestly as I dare and can, that you go not too hastily in this matter; and for your own good give me a hearing. For Petrus Alfonsus says: ‘And if one man do to another any good or any evil, let there be no haste to repay it in kind; for then will the friend remain friendly, while the enemy shall but the longer fear.’ The proverb has it: ‘He hastens well who wisely can delay.’ And in foolish haste there is no profit.”

Ibid, pp.170-171

At first, Melibeus rebukes his wife and actually insults her saying that he should not listen to her, because some of the scriptures appear to say that women are evil, and he may be seen as a man who does not keep his word, and who also submits to his wife, and does not lead. But through biblical wisdom, she proves to him from scripture that a wife is given to a man for his own good, to be his helper, and it is right for a man to seek the advice of the one who is closest to him in this life. So if he changes his mind based on good advice this is to his benefit. “For understand now, you ask counsel to do wickedness; and if your will is to work wickedness, and your wife restrains such an ill purpose and overcomes you by reason and good counsel given, then, certainly, your wife ought rather to be praised than blamed.” [Ibid, p. 173] So he deigns to listen to her advice, and she starts to take him through a biblical theology of war and shows her name Prudence is well given. 

She begins by encouraging him to be free of anger, “First, he that takes counsel within himself, certainly he must be free from anger, and this for many reasons.” [Ibid, p. 174] Then that he should drive covetousness out of his heart, and also hastiness. He needs to make sure he is cold, rational and deliberate in considering his response. This is fantastic advice. How many wars have happened because a nation has been attacked and then it responds straight away leading to a war that drags on and makes the situation worse than it was at the start? This could summarize many modern wars. People are quick to be overtaken by war propaganda and wicked warmongers will often take advantage of this.

Once he has deliberated he should keep his counsel close to himself for a time, so as not to be taken advantage of. Then he should call a counsel of his true friends, not just sycophants, so that he can hear what he needs to hear, not just what he would like to hear. After this he needs to evaluate whether or not even his true friends are wise, and he should defer to those with some experience and age, as they are more likely to be tempered. She especially advises him to ignore the fools and the flatterers, “’Incline not thine ears to flatterers, nor take counsel of flattering words.’ And Cato says: ‘Be well advised, and avoid sweet and pleasant words.’ And you must also eschew the counsels of such of your former enemies as have become reconciled to you.”[Ibid, p. 177] Listen to that advice people, be wary of recent enemies who claim to be now on your side. 

She then encourages him to consider whether he has the power to achieve his ends of vengeance and what are the root causes of the conflict, and whether or not he did something to provoke it, and therefore, should he do something to make that right? This is to cause him to think about the wisdom of going to war. Maybe he cannot win, maybe they have more friends and family to back up their cause than he does, maybe they have more resources? He may be rich, but they may have much larger families, and he may win one battle and find himself fighting many more. Maybe he should be seeking to right a wrong that he has actually done which provoked this war?

“Nor should anyone take upon himself a burden so heavy that he cannot bear it. For says the proverb: He that too much embraces, confines but little. And Cato says: ‘Attempt only what thou hast power to do, lest the great task so oppress thee that it shall behoove thee to forgo that which thou hast begun.’ And if it be that you are in doubt whether you can perform a thing, choose rather to suffer than to begin. For Petrus Alfonsus says: ‘If you have power to do any thing which you must later regret, it is better to say nay than yea.’ That is to say, it is better to keep silence than to speak.”

Ibid, p. 178.

And once he has considered all of this, it is time to ponder how he could change his response. Maybe temperance is the better approach? Maybe reconciliation? Maybe some other response? Either way, make sure that you have gotten the advice of a host of wise men who can examine your purpose. 

Just as we have seen here she continues to counsel him about the wisdom of rashly going to war, and over the course of the discussion helps him to think rationally about what he is planning to do, rather than just acting on emotion. There is much more to the tale as well, and the whole conversation between Melibeus and Prudence is excellent. I highly recommend reading the whole thing, you could find a free or cheap copy of this book in a host of places online, as it is an ancient text. And it shows just how lacking in wisdom so many of our modern political leaders are. 

I could not help but think while reading this tale how easy modern populations are to provoke either to engage in a war or to support a war. I know about false flags and green flags and all that, put those aside for the moment. If a population were raised on a strong diet of the kind of biblical counsel that Prudence gave her husband in this tale you would find that people would be far harder to manipulate. The kind of wisdom in this short story is incredible, but it all comes either from the Bible, the Apocrypha, or classical authors and is there for anyone to find and consume.

But all of these sources of wisdom are so highly denigrated by our modern society, and often inside the church as well. This puts us in a position of intellectual poverty compared to many people in the past who lived on a steady diet of such sources. I think a tale like this, and especially the wisdom behind it should be mandatory teaching for all teenagers at some point in their high school education. It would give them the wisdom to see through so many lies in our society, but also temperance about how to respond to attacks and offenses of many kinds. We should not fear conflict when it is necessary, and national leaders should have the courage to defend their countries and people, but to act rashly is to act foolishly. 

Read The Tale of Melibeus, and meditate on its wisdom. Especially if you have found yourself justifying a particular war recently based on news reports designed to make you emotional. I have seen a lot of this in the last couple of years, and our new media, whether left or right, knows how to play most people like a fiddle. It is rather sad to see so many otherwise serious and good thinkers being manipulated so easily into throwing their support behind our nation funding a war here, there, or somewhere else, because of news reports that are designed to provoke them. Whenever you are finding yourself provoked, that is when you need to stop, wrestle yourself with cold reason and sit down and evaluate either how you are being manipulated, or how you are being foolish. Praise God for Prudence, and Chaucer who placed that wisdom in her mouth for us all to read.