It now remains that he should ever be mindful of this reading, which has been read especially for him now, the Apostle exclaiming, the people acclaiming, the judgment crying out together: «If any man desires the episcopate, he desires a good work» (1 Tim. 3:1). But very many are wont to temper the fire of their own ambition with this apostolic saying as with a cooling draught, because now, with liberty granted, a thing of good work is coveted. But such desire would at once cease, if the following words were considered. «It behooves,» he says, «such a one to be irreproachable» (Ibid. 3:2). Here, I pray, let swelling ambition and the spirited vows of good men contend within themselves: here let merits, having searched themselves, weigh the security of desire permitted to them;
siabomniinterdictaereprehensionisnævocandidadivinaeimaginisintegritascustoditur; siquandocunquementisimpetusmoderationislimitemnoncxcessit; siquibuscunqueindigentibussuperfiuumquispiammanusnontenuit; sinunquamsermonispetulantiahonestatemsilentiisalubriorisirrupit; si ( Ephes. IV, 26 ) calentemdieiferventisiracundiamlimesocciduisolisabsolvit; sinunquamcordeduplicidiversumsonantiscogitantisquealiudverba'quamvolamoliuntur; siadultimumdignaobservantiaecura, utdejuramentistaceam, velperjuriaformidantur.
whether the shining integrity of the divine image is kept free from every blemish of forbidden reproach; whether at any time the onset of the mind has not overstepped the boundary of moderation; whether toward any of the needy anyone's hand has not withheld the superfluous; whether the wantonness of speech has never broken in upon the honor of a more wholesome silence; whether (Eph. 4:26) the boundary of the setting sun has absolved the burning wrath of a fervent day; whether never with a double heart do the words sound one thing while thought and the will devise another; whether, finally, with worthy care of observance—to say nothing of oaths—even perjuries are dreaded.
Not that we can all be free from all these things, but that it is perilous for each not to recall his own merits, and to aspire to that which is owed to the irreproachable alone. Now what shall be said of those who, bartering the preciousness of grace at the cheapness of a price, are brought by their loss of modesty even to the loss of money? Whose acclamations are served by hired lies, whose itching ears a mercenary clamor inflames with scratching heraldings; and who, not remembering that Simon Magus (Acts 8:18) wished to purchase the dispensation of the divine gift for a price, are with their money reckoned not unto the priesthood, but unto destruction. Freely, therefore, let me protest these things before the ambition, whether chosen or compelled:
he can in no wise please God who has pleased himself even to the point of his own election. Rather let us speak of the labor of innocent prelates. For the cause of a pontiff who is to administer is no light one, whom a twofold burden awaits: his word, as master of the people; his act, as disciple of Christ; who is to govern the people no less by piety than by severity. Whom it befits to fear for his own losses, whom it does not befit to share in the crimes of others. Who burdens another when he testifies, who suffers loss when another perishes. When he hears that he must not be greedy of base gain, he is to be so tempered that he may indeed be desirous of gain, yet not of base gain:
that is, that he strive to polish the talents entrusted to him by discourses of unremitting preaching, and to double the health of his flock once it has been acquired and multiplied. He is bidden to be adorned; yet this is not to be taken in a bodily sense. A bishop, to whom deserved ornaments furnish the office laid upon him, is graced not by pomp but by grace. And so the priestly office, holding to that strait and troubled path of the Gospel, and drawing the people also after itself through its narrow places, fleeing the left hand yet not presuming upon the right, should dread the perilous slipperiness on either side; and weighing the balance of the apostolic word with an even-handed consideration, if he would be strict, let him read 'no striker'; if kindly, 'not given to wine'; if sober, 'not covetous';
if submissive, 'not base'; if a servant, 'not haughty'; if merciful, 'not lax'; if awe-inspiring, 'not bloody'; if one who rules his own house well, then surely ordering all things, neglecting none, acquiring much, dispensing very much. Therefore to this man too, upon the tested and upright judgment of his household administered, much money is committed at the table of that evangelical money-changer, which, to be repaid with multiplied interest, you yourselves shall be.