On the Ruin of Britain 5

CHAPTER ONE. A rebuke against the clergy.—Britain has priests, but they are foolish; very many ministers, but imprudent; clergy, but crafty plunderers; pastors, so called, but wolves ready for the slaughter of souls—for they provide not the things profitable to the people, but seek the filling of their own belly; men who possess the houses of the church, but frequent them for the sake of filthy lucre; who teach the people, but by giving the worst examples—vices and evil manners; who seldom sacrifice, and never stand among the altars with a pure heart; who do not reprove the people for their sins, since they themselves do the same; who despise the precepts of Christ, and take care to fulfil their own lusts by every means;

who usurp the seat of the apostle Peter with unclean feet, but by the merit of their covetousness fall into the pestilent chair of Judas the betrayer; who hate the truth as an enemy, and favour lies as if they were dearest brothers; who look upon the just and needy as savage as serpents, with grim faces, and venerate wicked rich men without any regard for shame, as if they were heavenly angels; who proclaim with the tips of their lips that alms should be given to the poor, yet themselves give not so much as a farthing; who keep silent about the abominable crimes of the people, but magnify their own injuries as if they had been done to Christ;

who perhaps drive a devout mother or sisters from the house, and unbecomingly exalt strange women as if intimate in some more secret ministry, or rather (to speak the truth, though it is unseemly not so much to me as to those who do such things) humiliate them; who after this court ecclesiastical ranks more eagerly than the kingdoms of heaven, and defend in tyrannical fashion what they have received, yet do not adorn it with lawful conduct; who at the precepts of the saints (if indeed they have at any time heard what they ought most often to have heard from them) are yawning and stupid, but at the trifling and foolish fables of worldly men, as if these were the path which the ways of death lay open, are vigorous and intent; hoarse like bulls from their fatness, and unhappily prompt to unlawful things;

holding their faces arrogantly aloft, while their senses, gnawed by conscience, are plunged into the depths or even into hell; truly mournful over a single lost penny, yet glad over a single penny gained; in the apostolic ordinances, through ignorance or the weight of their sins (and even stopping the mouths of those who know), dull and dumb, yet most learned in the lying twists of worldly affairs;

and many of these, on account of their wicked manner of life, rush into the priesthood, or rather buy it at almost any price, instead of being drawn to it; and in that same old and ill-omened mire of intolerable sins, after the priestly seat of bishopric or presbytery (on which they have likewise nowhere sat), being plainly unworthy, they wallow like swine, having seized only the priestly name, yet not having received its tenor or apostolic dignity;

but they who are not yet fit, either as to perfect faith or as to repentance for their evils—how is it that they come to any ecclesiastical office (not to say the highest), and, having obtained a rank which only the holy and perfect and imitators of the apostles, and (to speak in the words of the teacher of the nations) the irreproachable, may lawfully receive without grave crime of sacrilege? CHAPTER TWO. On the same matter.—For what is so impious and so wicked as that anyone, after the likeness of Simon Magus (Acts 8:18)—though no promiscuous crimes meanwhile intervene—should wish to purchase for an earthly price the office of bishopric or presbytery, which is more becomingly acquired by holiness and upright manners?

But in this these men err the more eagerly, or rather the more desperately, in that they buy their sham and never profitable priesthoods not from the apostles or the successors of the apostles, but from tyrants and from their father the devil; nay rather, as a kind of crown and roof of all evils, by which the deeds they have committed, whether old or new, may not easily be reproached to them by anyone, and that the desires of their covetousness and gluttony—being set as it were over many—they may the more easily plunder, they set this upon the structure of their wicked life. For if such a bargain of purchase had been thrust by these shameless men upon—I will not say the apostle Peter, but any holy priest or godly king—they would have received the same answers which the author of these men, Simon Magus, received from the apostle, Peter saying:

Your money perish with you into destruction (Acts 8:20). But perhaps, alas! those who ordain these ambitious men—or rather humiliate them, and curse instead of blessing them, while out of sinners they make not penitents (which would have been more right) but sacrilegious and desperate men, and set up, as it were, a Judas the Lord's betrayer in Peter's chair, and a Nicholas the deviser of an unclean heresy in the place of Stephen the martyr—have themselves been admitted to the priesthood in the same way; and therefore they do not greatly detest in their sons—nay, rather they venerate—what it is most certain came to them likewise time and again from their fathers. For indeed, if in their parish, with the boon-companions who resist them and refuse so precious a gain, they cannot find such a pearl,

then, sending careful messengers on ahead, to sail across the seas and traverse spacious lands is no burden to them but a delight; that by all means such a singular and incomparable beauty—or, to speak more truly, a diabolical illusion—may be procured, even by selling all their resources.

Then, returning to their homeland with great pomp and great display, or rather madness, they paint an ever loftier gait upon their already lofty bearing, and, but lately gazing at the tops of the mountains, now they poise the half-drowsy edges of their eyes straight toward the heavens or toward the highest fleeces of the clouds, and thrust themselves as certain new figments—nay, diabolical instruments—upon their homeland, like Novatus of old at Rome, that black swine, defiler of the Lord's pearl; in such a posture about to stretch out hands worthy not so much of venerable altars as of the avenging flames of hell, from the most holy sacrifices of Christ. CHAPTER THREE. On the same matter: where examples are set forth from Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Melchizedek, Moses, Phinehas and Joshua son of Nun.

—What, O unhappy people, do you await from such men—from those bellies that are beasts, as the Apostle said (Titus 1:12)? Are you to be corrected by those who not only do not stir themselves up to good things, but, according to the prophet's reproach: They labour that they may do evil (Jeremiah 9:5)? Are you to be enlightened by such eyes, which gaze only eagerly upon those things which lead headlong to vices—that is, to the gates of hell? Or surely, according to the Saviour's saying (Matthew 15:14), unless you flee from these most rapacious wolves of Arabia, as Lot fled from the fiery rain of Sodom to the mountain, you, blind men led out by the blind, will fall into the pit of hell.

But perhaps someone may say that not all bishops or presbyters are evil as those described above, since they are not stained with the infamy of schism, of pride, of uncleanness: which we too do most strongly not deny. But although we know that some are chaste and good, we shall nevertheless briefly answer: What did it profit Eli the priest (1 Samuel 2:11-12; 3:12) that he alone did not violate the precepts of the Lord, snatching with the flesh-hooks, before the fat was offered to the Lord, the flesh out of the pots, while he was punished by the same wrath of death by which his sons were (1 Samuel 4:11)? Which of them, I ask, was slain through envy of a better sacrifice carried up to heaven by celestial fire, as Abel was (Genesis 4:8); they who scorn even the reproach of a moderate word?

Which of them hated the counsel of evildoers, and sat not with the ungodly (Psalm 26:5)—so that it might be truly said of him, as of Enoch: Enoch walked with God, and was not found (Genesis 5:24)—in the vanity, that is, of the world, which then was beginning to halt prone after idols, having forsaken God? Which of them, in the saving ark (which is now the Church), admitted no one who was hostile to God, as Noah did at the time of the flood (Genesis 7:7)—that it might plainly be shown that none but the harmless or eminent penitents ought to be in the Lord's house? Which of them, when the just man had been delivered by victories and in the number of three hundred (that is, the mystery of the Trinity) (Genesis 14), offering sacrifice to the deadly conquerors of the five kings and the routing armies of victorious troops,

and in no way coveting what was another's, as Melchizedek did, gave a blessing? Which of them, of his own accord, offered upon the altar his own son, to be slain by the head, as Abraham did at God's command (Genesis 22:1)—that he might fulfil something like this command of Christ, who says that the right eye that causes offence ought to be plucked out (Matthew 5:29), and might beware of the prophet's word, that he is cursed who withholds his sword and blood (Jeremiah 48:10)? Which of them tore out the memory of a wrong done from his heart by the very roots, as Joseph did (Genesis 50:15-21)? Who, having spoken with the Lord on the mountain, and being in no wise terrified by the blaring trumpets thereafter (Exodus 19:16), brought down two tablets and a horned face—in a figurative sense unfit and dreadful to the sight of unbelievers—as Moses did (Exodus

34:29)? Which of them, interceding for the sins of the people, cried out from his very breast, as he himself did, saying: O Lord, this people has sinned a great sin; yet if you forgive it, forgive; but if not, blot me out of your book (Exodus 32:31-32)? Which of them, kindled with a wondrous zeal for God unto the avenging of fornication, without delay, by the healing medicine of penitence, the lust of defilement being cured, that wrath might not be inflamed against the people, as Phinehas the priest did (Numbers 25:7; Psalm 106:31)—so that thereby righteousness might be reckoned to him for ever—rose up strenuously? And which of them, by moral understanding, either for the extirpation even to utter destruction of the seven nations from the land of promise, or for the establishment of the spiritual Israel in their stead (Joshua),

24:11) imitated Joshua son of Nun? CHAPTER FOUR. Joshua and Phinehas (or rather Eleazar), Jephthah, Gideon, Samson and Samuel are set forth.—Which of them shrewdly divided the final boundaries of the people of God beyond the Jordan, that it might be known what was fitting to be allotted to each, as the aforesaid did—namely Phinehas and Joshua (Joshua 19:51)—and showed it? Which of them, that he might lay low for the people of God the thousands of the nations exempt from adversaries, imitating in this his only daughter—who is understood as his own delight—and the Apostle saying: Not seeking what is profitable to me, but to the many, that they may be saved (1 Corinthians 10:33), meeting his conquerors with timbrels and dances (Judges

11:31)—that is, his carnal desires—into the sacrifice of votive propitiation, slew her, as Jephthah did? Which of them, for the throwing into confusion, the routing, and the laying low of the camps of the proud nations, by the mysteries of the Trinity (as we have said above), with the men holding the jars (Judges 7:6, 16, 20), wielded in their hands the excellent and sounding trumpets (that is, the prophetic and apostolic meanings, as the Lord said to the prophet: Lift up your voice like a trumpet [Isaiah 58:1], and the Psalmist concerning the apostles: Their sound has gone out into all the earth [Psalm 19:4]), and the jars flashing by night with the most splendid light of fire (which are taken to be in the bodies of the saints, joined with good works and burning with the fire of the Holy Spirit, as the Apostle says:

We have, he says [2 Corinthians 4:7], this treasure in earthen vessels)—after the cutting down of the grove of idolatry (which, morally interpreted, is the forest of dense and dark covetousness) (Judges 6:25), and after experiencing the evident signs of the heavenly rain upon the Jewish fleece (Judges 6:37) and, of the Gentiles, being wetted with the dew of the Holy Spirit—with undoubting faith, as Gideon did, went forth (Judges 7:1)? Which of them, longing to die to the world and to live to Christ (Philippians 1:23), the luxurious feasters of the nations praising their gods (Judges 16:23-25) (that is, the senses extolling riches, as the Apostle says [Colossians

3:5], which is the service of idols)—the two columns being shaken by the strength of his arms (which are understood to be in the wicked pleasures of the soul and the flesh, by which the whole house of human wickedness is in a manner framed and propped up)—laid low so innumerable a host, as Samson did (Judges 16:29-30)? Which of them, by prayers and the holocaust of a suckling lamb driving away fear (1 Samuel 7:9-10), stirring up unlooked-for voices of thunder and showers of clouds (1 Samuel 12:17), appointing a king without flattery (1 Samuel 10:1, 24), and casting off that same king when he displeased God, for a better one anointed in the kingdom in his place (1 Samuel 13:14; 15:28; 16:13), as Samuel did, will stand to bid farewell to the people, speaking in this wise: Behold, here I am;

speak before the Lord and before His Anointed, whether I have taken any man's ox, or his ass; if I have wronged any man, if I have oppressed anyone, if I have received a bribe from any man's hand (1 Samuel 12:2-3). To whom answer was made by the people, saying: You have not wronged us, nor oppressed us, nor have you taken anything from any man's hand (1 Samuel 12:4). CHAPTER FIVE. Examples of Elijah, Elisha and Isaiah are recounted.—Which of them, with heavenly fire burning up a hundred proud men, and sparing fifty humble ones (2 Kings

1:10-12)—and, without the grove of flattery, announcing to the wicked king his impending death, since he consulted not God through the prophets, but the idol of Ekron (2 Kings 1:16)—laid low all the prophets of the idol Baal (which are understood as the human senses of envy and avarice, as we have already said, ever bent on these things) with the flashing sword, that is, the word of God, as Elijah the eminent seer did (1 Kings 18:40)? And, moved with zeal for God, taking away the heavenly showers from the land of the wicked, as if shutting them up with the strongest bolt of dearth for three years and six months (1 Kings 17:1), dying of hunger and thirst in the desert, complained: O Lord, He said, they have slain your prophets and dug down your altars;

and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life (1 Kings 19:10)? Which of them punished his dearest disciple, burdened beyond his wont with earthly weights (2 Kings 5:23)—things which before this had been scorned by Elisha himself, though greatly entreated to receive them (2 Kings 5:16)—even if not with perpetual leprosy, as Elisha did, at least with expulsion (2 Kings 5:27)? And which of them, to a servant boiling over with despair of life, and suddenly struck with terror at the warlike apparatus of the enemy surrounding the city in which they were (2 Kings

6:15)—in our midst (as he did), by a fervent prayer made to God for the sight of his soul (so that he might be able to behold [2 Kings 6:17] the mountain full of the auxiliary host of the heavenly army, of armed chariots, and of horsemen shining with fiery countenance)—opened his eyes, and made him believe (2 Kings 6:16) that He who was stronger to save was greater than the enemies were to fight? And which of them, by the touch of his body (2 Kings 4:34)—of one dead to the world, but living to God—will be of profit to another lying low in a different death, doubtless dead to God but living to vices, as the aforesaid was; so that, leaping up at once, he renders thanks to Christ for a health despaired of by the mouths of almost all mortals?

Which of them had his lips cleansed, as Isaiah's were, by a burning coal carried from the altar by the cherubim's tongs (that his sins might be wiped away by the humility of confession) (Isaiah 6:6-7), and, the efficacious prayer of the godly king Hezekiah being joined to him (2 Kings 19:1, 14-15; Isaiah 37:1, 15), saw one hundred and eighty-five thousand of the Assyrian army laid low by the hand of an angel, with no trace of a wound appearing, as the aforesaid did (2 Kings 19:35; Isaiah 37:36)? Which of them, for the precepts of God and the threats given from heaven (Jeremiah 1:17), and for the truth that must be uttered even to those who would not hear, endured the filth and stench of prisons (Jeremiah 20:2; 32:2; 37:15; 38:6), and momentary deaths (Jeremiah

26:8, 14), as the blessed Jeremiah did? And, to be brief: Which of them, as the Teacher of the nations said (Hebrews 11:37-38), endured to wander in the mountains, and in caves and in the hollows of the earth, to be stoned, to be sawn asunder, to be tried by every kind of death for the name of the Lord, as the holy prophets did? CHAPTER SIX. Then from the New Testament: James the first, Peter and Paul.—But why do we linger over the examples of old, as if there were none in the New? Let them hear us, therefore, who think that without any labour they enter this narrow path of the Christian religion, putting forward only the priestly name, while they pluck a few flowers, as it were the choicest, from the wide and pleasant meadow of the recruits of the saints of the New Testament.

Which of you, who rather grow torpid than sit lawfully in the priestly seat, being cast out of the council of the impious, after the blows of various rods (Acts 16:23), as the holy apostles did—who were counted worthy (Acts 5:41) to suffer reproach for Christ the true God—gave thanks to the Trinity with his whole heart? Which of you, for the testimony to be borne to the true God, repeatedly struck with a fuller's club, as James, the first bishop in the New Testament at least, perished in the body? Which of you was beheaded with the sword by a wicked prince, as James the brother of John was (Acts 12:2)? Which of you, as the first minister and evangelical martyr, having this alone as his crime—that he had seen God, whom the faithless could not see—was stoned by impious hands (Acts

7:57)? Which of you, fastened to a cross with his feet inverted, out of reverence for Christ's gibbet, as that key-bearer worthy of the kingdom of heaven did, breathed out his last breath? Which of you, by the stroke of a truth-speaking sword, for the confession of Christ—after chains, prisons, shipwrecks, the bitter beating of rods; after the continual perils of rivers, robbers, Gentiles, Jews, false apostles; after the labours of hunger, fasting, watchings; after the perpetual care of all the churches; after the burning anguish for those who were caused to stumble; after the infirmity on behalf of the infirm; after the wonderful, well-nigh world-wide circuit in preaching the Gospel of Christ—as the Vessel of election and chosen master of the nations, was beheaded? CHAPTER SEVEN. The example of the holy martyr Ignatius.

—Which of you, as the holy martyr Ignatius, bishop of the city of Antioch, after his admirable deeds in Christ, was, for the testimony of Him, crushed by the mass of lions at Rome? Whose words, as he was being led to his passion, if you hear them (if ever your faces were suffused with a blush), you will not only not think yourselves priests in comparison with him, but not even ordinary Christians. For he says in the epistle which he sent to the Roman Church: 「From Syria all the way to Rome I fight with beasts by land and sea, day and night, bound and fettered to ten leopards—I mean the soldiers given to guard me, who become the fiercer for our kindnesses. But by their wickednesses I am the more instructed; yet not by this am I justified.」

「O the saving beasts which are prepared for me—when will they come? when will they be let loose? when will it be permitted them to feast on my flesh? I long for them to be made fiercer, and I will invite them to devour me, and I will beseech them lest perchance (as they have done with some) they fear to touch my body; nay rather, even if they should hesitate, I will use force, I will thrust myself upon them. Grant me, I pray, your pardon: I know what is expedient for me. Now I begin to be a disciple of Christ: let envy depart, whether of human affection or of spiritual wickedness, that I may be worthy to attain unto Jesus Christ—fires, crosses, beasts, scatterings of bones, and tearings of limbs.」

「and the pains of my whole body, and let all the torments devised by the devil's craft be fulfilled upon me alone, provided only that I may be worthy to attain unto Jesus Christ.」 What do you behold in answer to these things, with the drowsy eyes of your soul? Why do you give ear to such words with the deaf ears of your senses? Shake off, I pray, the dark and bitter gloom of your heart's present time, that you may be able to see the most resplendent light of truth and humility. A Christian, not ordinary but perfect; a priest, not base but supreme; a martyr, not sluggish but pre-eminent, says: Now I begin to be a disciple of Christ. And you, as if you were that Lucifer cast down from heaven (Isaiah 14:12), are lifted up by words and not by power, and in a manner chew under your teeth and display by your gestures the things which your author had before depicted:

I will ascend, he says, into heaven, and I will be like the Most High (Isaiah 14:13). And again: I have dug and drunk water, and with the sole of my feet I have dried up all the streams of the dykes (Isaiah 37:25). Far more rightly ought you to imitate and hear Him who is the truly unconquered exemplar of all goodness and humility, saying through the prophet: But I am a worm and no man, the reproach of men and the outcast of the people (Psalm 22:6). O wondrous thing, that He should have called Himself the reproach of men, when He has blotted out the reproaches of all the world! And again in the Gospel: I can do nothing of myself (John 5:30);

although He Himself, coeval with the Father and the Holy Spirit, and of the same substance common with them, made heaven and earth with all their inestimable adornment—not by another's, but by His own power; and you have arrogantly exalted your words, while the prophet says: Why is earth and ashes proud (Sirach 10:9)? CHAPTER EIGHT. The example of holy Polycarp: where also passages of the sacred Scriptures are brought forward.—But let me return to my purpose. Which, I say, of you, as Polycarp the eminent pastor and witness of Christ of the Church of Smyrna, set out a table kindly for his guests at the fire when they were eagerly dragging him to it, and, cast into the flames for the love of Christ, said: He who gave me to bear the punishment of fire will grant that, without the fastening of nails, I may endure the flames unmoved.

One thing more, besides the great forest of the saints over which I fly in words, I will set down by way of example—namely Basil, bishop of Caesarea, who, when threats of this kind were aimed at him by a wicked prince, that unless on the morrow he were defiled with the Arian mire like the rest, he should certainly die, is said to have replied: I, indeed, will be tomorrow what I am today; would that you would not change yourself! And again: Would that I had something of a worthy gift to offer to this man who would the sooner release me from the knot of this worthless bag of trifles! Which of you holds to the rule of the apostolic word, which by all the holy priests at all times existing, [restrained] human prompting that rushes headlong to wickedness...

...has been preserved as it hastens to those who strike back, and amid the turmoil of tyrants it keeps it unbroken, saying in this manner: 'We must obey God rather than men' (Acts 5:29). Therefore, fleeing as is our custom to the mercy of the Lord and to the voices of His holy prophets, that they may hurl on our behalf the darts of His oracles against imperfect shepherds, as formerly against tyrants, by which these men are pricked and chastened, let us see what the Lord, through the prophets, speaks by way of threats against slothful and dishonourable priests, who teach the people not well, by example as much as by word.

For even that priest Eli at Shiloh, because he had not avenged with worthy zeal for God and with severity his sons who despised God, but had admonished them softly and gently, as it were with a father's affection, is condemned with such a sentence, the prophet saying to him: 'I plainly revealed myself to the house of thy father, when they were in Egypt serving Pharaoh; and I chose the house of thy father out of all the tribes of Israel to be mine in the priesthood' (1 Samuel 2:27-28). And a little after: 'Why hast thou looked upon my incense and upon my sacrifice with a greedy eye? and hast honoured thy sons more than me, that thou shouldst bless them from the beginning in all the sacrifices before me? And now thus saith the Lord: Those who honour me, I will honour;'

'and those who despise me shall be brought to nothing. And this shall be a sign to thee, which shall come upon thy two sons Hophni and Phinehas; in one day they shall both die by the sword of men' (1 Samuel 2:30, 31, 34). If, then, those suffer these things who correct their subjects with words only, and not with worthy punishment, what shall happen to those very men who by sinning urge others to evil and drag them with them? What befell that true seer also is plain — after the fulfilment of the sign foretold by him, and the restoring of the withered hand to the impious king — who, sent from Judah to prophesy in Bethel and forbidden to taste any food there, and deceived by another (as it was said) prophet into taking a little bread and water, had this said to him by his host: 'Thus saith the Lord God:'

'Because thou hast been disobedient to the mouth of the Lord, and hast not kept the commandment which the Lord thy God commanded thee, and hast turned back, and hast eaten bread and drunk water in this place, in which I had commanded thee that thou shouldst eat no bread nor drink water, thy body shall not be laid in the sepulchre of thy fathers. And it came to pass,' he says, 'after he had eaten bread and drunk water, he saddled his ass for himself and departed: and a lion found him in the way, and slew him' (1 Kings 13:21-24). CHAPTER 9. From Isaiah. — Hear also the holy prophet Isaiah speaking thus concerning priests: 'Woe to the wicked unto evil; for the recompense of his hands shall be done to him. As for my people, their exactors have spoiled them, and women have ruled over them.'

'O my people, those who call thee blessed, they deceive thee, and destroy the way of thy steps. The Lord standeth up to judge, and standeth to judge the peoples. The Lord will come to judgment with the elders of his people and with its princes. Ye have eaten up my vineyard: the spoil of the poor is in your house. Why do ye wear away my people, and grind the faces of the poor? saith the Lord of hosts' (Isaiah 3:11-15). And again: 'Woe to those who frame iniquitous laws, and who writing have written down injustice, to oppress the poor in judgment, and to do violence to the cause of the humble of my people, that widows might be their prey, and that they might plunder the fatherless. What will ye do in the day of visitation and of calamity coming from afar?' (Isaiah 10:1-3). And below:

'But these also have erred through wine, and through drunkenness have gone astray; the priests have erred through drunkenness, they are swallowed up with wine, they have wandered in drunkenness, they have not known the seer, they have been ignorant of judgment. For all tables are filled with the vomit of filthiness, so that there is no more place. Therefore hear the word of the Lord, ye scornful men, who rule over my people that is in Jerusalem. For ye have said: We have struck a covenant with death, and with hell we have made a pact. When the overflowing scourge shall pass, it shall not come upon us, for we have made a lie our hope, and by a lie we have been protected' (Isaiah 28:7, 8, 14, 15). And after some words: 'And the hail shall overturn the hope of the lie, and waters shall overflow its shelter.'

'And your covenant with death shall be annulled, and your pact with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass, ye shall be trodden down by it; whenever it shall pass over, it shall carry you away' (Isaiah 28:17-19). And again: 'And the Lord said: Forasmuch as this people draw near with their mouth, and with their lips glorify me, but their heart is far from me; therefore, behold, I will proceed to make this people wonder with a great and astounding miracle. For wisdom shall perish from its wise men, and the understanding of its prudent shall be hidden. Woe to you who are deep of heart, that ye may hide your counsel from the Lord; whose works are in darkness, and they say: Who seeth us? and who knoweth us? For perverse is this your thought' (Isaiah 29:13-16).

And after some words: 'Thus saith the Lord: Heaven is my throne, and the earth is the footstool of my feet. What is this house that ye will build for me? and what shall be the place of my rest? All these things my hand hath made, and all these things were made, saith the Lord. But to whom shall I look, except to the poor little one and contrite in spirit, and trembling at my words? He who slaughters an ox is as one who slays a man; he who kills a beast is as one who brains a dog; he who offers an oblation is as one who offers swine's blood: he who burns incense is as one who blesses an idol. All these things they have chosen in their ways, and their soul hath delighted in their abominations' (Isaiah 66:1-3). CHAPTER 10. From Jeremiah.

— Hear also what Jeremiah, the virgin and prophet, says to foolish shepherds: 'Thus saith the Lord: What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they have gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and have become vain? (Jeremiah 2:5). And a little after: 'And entering in, ye defiled my land, and made my inheritance an abomination. The priests said not: Where is the Lord? and those who held the law knew me not, and the shepherds transgressed against me. Therefore will I yet contend with you in judgment, saith the Lord, and with your children will I plead' (Jeremiah 2:7, 9). Likewise after some words: 'Astonishment and wonders have been done in the land.'

'The prophets prophesied a lie, and the priests applauded with their hands, and my people loved such things. What then shall be done in the latter end thereof?' (Jeremiah 5:30-31). 'To whom shall I speak and testify, that he may hear? Behold, their ears are uncircumcised, and they cannot hear. Behold, the word of the Lord is become to them a reproach, and they receive it not' (Jeremiah 6:10): 'for I will stretch out my hand upon the inhabitants of the land, saith the Lord. For from the least even to the greatest all are bent on covetousness, and from the prophet even to the priest all deal falsely. And they healed the breach of the daughter of my people with shame, saying: Peace, peace; and there was no peace. They were confounded, because they committed abomination;'

'but rather they were not ashamed with confusion, and they knew not how to blush. Wherefore they shall fall among those who fall; in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, saith the Lord' (Jeremiah 6:12-15). And again: 'All these princes of them that turn aside walk deceitfully; they are brass and iron; all of them are corrupted. The bellows have failed in the fire; the founder hath melted in vain; for their wickednesses are not consumed. Call them reprobate silver, because the Lord hath rejected them' (Jeremiah 6:28-30). And after a few words: 'It is I, it is I; I have seen, saith the Lord. Go to my place in Shiloh, where my name dwelt from the beginning; and see what I have done to it because of the wickedness of the people of Israel. And now, because ye have done all these works, saith the Lord;'

'and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, and ye heard not; and I called you, and ye answered not: I will do to this house, in which my name is invoked, and in which ye put your trust, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh; and I will cast you out from my face' (Jeremiah 7:13, 15). And again: 'My children have gone forth from me, and they remain not; and there is none to stretch out my tent any more, and to set up my curtains. For the shepherds have acted foolishly, and have not sought the Lord; therefore they have not understood, and their flock is scattered' (Jeremiah 10:20-21). And after some words: 'What is it that my beloved hath done many crimes in my house?'

'Shall the holy flesh take away from thee thy wickednesses, in which thou hast gloried? The Lord called thy name a rich olive tree, fair, fruitful, beautiful; at the sound of the speech a great fire was kindled in it, and its branches were burnt' (Jeremiah 11:15-16). And again: 'Come, be gathered together, all ye beasts of the earth, hasten to devour. Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard, they have given my desirable portion into a desert solitude' (Jeremiah 12:9-10). And likewise it speaks: 'Thus saith the Lord to this people, which loved to move its feet and rested not, and pleased not the Lord. Now will he remember their iniquities, and visit their sins' (Jeremiah 14:10). 'The prophets say to them:'

'Ye shall not see the sword, and famine shall not be among you, but the Lord shall give you true peace in this place. And the Lord said to me: The prophets prophesy falsely in my name; I sent them not, and I commanded them not; a lying vision, and divination, and fraud, and the seduction of their own heart they prophesy to you. Therefore thus saith the Lord: By sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed. And the peoples to whom they prophesied shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of famine and sword; and there shall be none to bury them' (Jeremiah 14:13-16). And again: 'Woe to the shepherds who scatter and tear the flock of my pasture, saith the Lord. Therefore thus saith the Lord God of Israel to the shepherds who feed my people:'

'Ye have scattered my flock, and have driven them away, and have not visited them. Behold, I will visit upon you the wickedness of your endeavours, saith the Lord' (Jeremiah 23:1-2). 'For both the prophet and the priest are polluted; and in my house I have found their evil, saith the Lord. And therefore their way shall be as a slippery place in the darkness; for they shall be driven on, and shall fall therein; for I will bring evils upon them, the year of their visitation, saith the Lord. And in the prophets of Samaria I saw folly; and they prophesied in Baal, and deceived my people Israel. And in the prophets of Jerusalem I saw the likeness of adulterers, and the way of lying; and they strengthened the hands of the most wicked, that no man should turn back from his wickedness;'

'they are all become to me as Sodom, and its inhabitants as Gomorrah. Therefore thus saith the Lord to the prophets: Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and give them gall to drink; for from the prophets of Jerusalem pollution has gone forth over all the earth. Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Do not hear the words of the prophets who prophesy to you and deceive you; for they speak a vision of their own heart, not from the mouth of the Lord. For they say to those who blaspheme me: The Lord hath spoken: Peace shall be to you. And to all who walk in the perversity of their own heart, they have said: No evil shall come upon you. For who hath stood in the counsel of the Lord, and seen and heard his word? Who hath considered his word and heard it?'

'Behold, the whirlwind of the Lord's indignation goeth forth, and a tempest bursting forth shall come upon the head of the wicked. The fury of the Lord shall not return until he hath done it, and until he hath fulfilled the thought of his heart. In the latter days ye shall understand his counsel' (Jeremiah 23:14-20). CHAPTER 11. From Joel, Hosea, Amos. — For little do ye consider or do what holy Joel also, admonishing the slothful priests and bewailing the loss of the people because of their iniquities, declared: 'Awake, ye who are drunk with your wine, and weep and lament, all ye who drink wine to drunkenness, because gladness and joy are taken away from your mouth' (Joel 1:5). 'Mourn, ye priests who serve the altar, because the fields are made wretched.'

'Let the land mourn, because the grain is made wretched, and the wine is dried up, the oil is diminished, the husbandmen are withered. Mourn for your possessions over the wheat and barley, because the vintage hath perished from the field, the vine is withered, the figs are diminished: the pomegranate, and the palm, and the apple, and all the trees of the field are withered, because the sons of men have brought confusion upon joy' (Joel 1:9-12). All these things ye must understand spiritually, lest your souls should wither away by so deadly a famine of the word of God. And again: 'Weep, ye priests who serve the Lord, saying: Spare, O Lord, thy people, and give not thine inheritance to reproach, that the nations should not rule over them, lest the nations should say: Where is their God?' (Joel 2:17).

But these things ye by no means hear, but ye admit everything by which the indignation of divine fury may the more readily be kindled. Mark also pointedly what the holy prophet Hosea said to priests of your stamp: 'Hear this, ye priests, and let the house of Israel and the house of the king attend, fix it in your ears: for to you is the judgment, because ye have become a snare to the watch-post, and like a net spread over Tabor which the trackers of the hunt have set up' (Hosea 5:1). Let an estrangement of this sort also be directed against you from the Lord through the prophet Amos, saying: 'I have hated and rejected your feast days, and I will not accept the savour in your solemn assemblies:'

'for even if ye offer me your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, I will not accept them (and the salvation of your manifestation I will not regard). Take away from me the noise of thy songs, and I will not hear the psalm of thy instruments' (Amos 5:21-23). For the very kitchen of the famine of the gospel food, eating up the very inward parts of your soul, rages in you, just as the aforesaid prophet foretold: 'Behold,' he says, 'the days come, saith the Lord: and I will send a famine upon the land, not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the word of God. And the waters shall be moved from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east they shall run about, seeking the word of the Lord, and shall not find it' (Amos 8:11-12). CHAPTER 12. From Micah.

— Take also into your ears holy Micah, as it were sounding a kind of heavenly trumpet more cuttingly against the deceitful princes of the people. 'Hear now,' he says, 'ye princes of the house of Jacob. Is it not for you to know judgment, who hate good and seek evil things, who pluck their skins from off them, and their flesh from off their bones? Even as they ate the flesh of my people, and flayed their skins off them, broke their bones, and tore them in pieces as flesh in a pot. They shall cry out to God, and he will not hear them, and he will turn away his face from them in that time, because they have done wickedly in their devices against them.'

'Thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets who lead my people astray, who bite with their teeth, and proclaim peace to him, and there is not given into their mouth: I have stirred up war against him. Therefore night shall be to you instead of vision, and darkness shall be to you instead of divination: and the sun shall set upon the prophets, and the day shall be darkened over them. And they that see dreams shall be confounded, and the diviners shall be derided, and they shall all rail against them: because there shall be none to hear them. Unless I shall have filled up strength in the spirit of the Lord and in judgment and in power, to declare to the house of Jacob their impieties and to Israel their sins.'

'Hear this, therefore, ye leaders of the house of Jacob and remnant of the house of Israel, who abhor judgment and pervert all that is right, who build Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquities. Its leaders judged for bribes, and its priests answered for hire, and its prophets divined for money, and they leaned upon the Lord, saying: Is not the Lord among us? No evils shall come upon us. Therefore because of you Zion shall be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall be as a heap of an orchard, and the mountain of the house as the thickets of a forest' (Micah 3:1, 12). And after some words: 'Woe is me, for I am become as one who gathers stubble in the harvest, and as a cluster in the vintage, when there is no grape-cluster to eat of the firstfruits.'

'Woe is me, my soul, because it has perished by earthly works: a reverence ever rises up reverencing from the earth: and there is none to set right among men. All contend in judgment for blood, and each one afflicts his neighbour with tribulation; he prepares his hands for evil' (Micah 7:1-3). CHAPTER 13. From Zephaniah, Zechariah, Malachi. — Mark what Zephaniah also, that excellent prophet, once disputed concerning your fellow-gluttons: for he was speaking of Jerusalem, which is understood as the spiritual Church or the soul. 'O,' he says, 'that splendid and liberated city, the trusting dove, has not obeyed the voice nor received instruction; it has not trusted in the Lord, and has not drawn near to its God' (Zephaniah 3:1-2).

And he shows why: 'Its princes are like roaring lions: its judges like the wolves of Arabia, they left nothing till the morning: its prophets, men carrying a spirit, are despisers: its priests profaned holy things, and acted impiously against the law. But the Lord is just in the midst of it, and he will not do iniquity: morning by morning he will give his justice' (Zephaniah 3:3-5). But hear also blessed Zechariah admonishing you in the word of God: 'For thus saith the Lord Almighty: Judge just judgment, and do mercy and compassion, each one toward his brother: and the widow, and the orphan, and the stranger, and the poor, oppress not by your power: and let no man remember in his heart the malice of his brother.'

'But they refused to attend, and turned their back in stubbornness, and made their ears heavy that they should not hear: and they made their heart unpersuadable, that they should not hear my law, and the words which the Lord Almighty sent in his Spirit by the hands of the former prophets: and great wrath came from the Lord Almighty' (Zechariah 7:9-12). And again: 'Because those who spoke, spoke vexations, and the diviners saw false visions and spoke false dreams, and gave empty comfort: therefore they were made withered like sheep, and were afflicted, because there was no health. My anger was exasperated against the shepherds, and against the lambs will I visit' (Zechariah 10:2-3). And after a few words:

'A voice of the wailing of the shepherds, because their greatness is made wretched. A voice of the roaring of lions, because the pride of Jordan is made wretched. Thus saith the Lord Almighty: Those who possessed them slew them, and repented not; and those who sold them said: Blessed be the Lord, for we have been made rich: and their shepherds suffered nothing for them. Therefore I will no longer spare the inhabitants of the land, saith the Lord' (Zechariah 11:3, 5-6). Hear, moreover, what holy Malachi the prophet has announced to you: 'You,' he says, 'priests who despise my name, and have said: Wherein do we despise thy name? By offering polluted bread upon my altar, and ye have said: Wherein have we polluted them? In that ye have said:'

'The table of the Lord is contemptible. And the things set upon it ye have despised: for if ye bring a blind beast for a victim, is it not evil? If ye offer the lame or the sick, is it not evil? Offer it therefore to thy governor, whether he will accept it, whether he will regard thy person, saith the Lord Almighty. And now entreat the face of your God, and beseech him: in your hands these things have been done, whether I will accept your persons from you' (Malachi 1:7, 8, 9). And again: 'And ye brought of plunder the lame and the sick, and brought a gift. Shall I accept it from your hand, saith the Lord?'

'Cursed is the deceitful man who has a male in his flock, and making a vow sacrifices a feeble one to the Lord; for I am a great King, saith the Lord of hosts, and my name is terrible among the nations' (Malachi 1:14). 'And now to you is this commandment, O priests. If ye will not hear and lay it to heart, to give glory to my name, saith the Lord of hosts: I will send want upon you, and I will curse your blessings, because ye have not laid it to heart. Behold, I will cast at you the arm, and I will scatter upon your face the dung of your solemnities' (Malachi 2:1-3). CHAPTER 14. Again from Malachi.

— But meanwhile, that ye may the more eagerly prepare instruments of wickedness for good ends, hear what He says concerning the holy priest (if any whit of inward hearing yet remains in you): 'My covenant,' He says, 'was with him (for He was speaking of Levi, or of Moses according to the history) of life and of peace: I gave him fear, and he feared me: he was in dread before the face of my name. The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips: in peace and in equity he walked with me: and he turned many away from iniquity. For the lips of the priest shall keep knowledge, and they shall seek the law from his mouth: for he is the angel of the Lord of hosts' (Malachi 2:5-7). Now likewise He changed His meaning, and ceases not to rebuke the wicked:

'You,' He says, 'have departed from the way, and have caused many to stumble in the law: and ye have made void the covenant with Levi, saith the Lord of hosts. Wherefore I also have made you contemptible and base before all peoples, inasmuch as ye have not kept my ways, and have accepted persons in the law. Have we not all one Father? Hath not one God created us? Why then doth every man despise his brother?' (Malachi 2:8, 10). And again: 'Behold, the Lord of hosts shall come: and who shall be able to consider the day of his coming? and who shall stand to see him? For he shall go forth as a burning fire, and as the herb of the fullers:'

'and he shall sit refining and purifying silver, and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and shall strain them as gold and as silver' (Malachi 3:1-3). And after a few words: 'Your words have prevailed against me, saith the Lord: and ye have said: He that serves God is vain: and what profit, that we have kept his commandments, and that we have walked sorrowfully before the Lord of hosts? Therefore now we shall call the arrogant blessed: since indeed those who work iniquity are built up: they have tempted God, and have been saved' (Malachi 3:13-15). CHAPTER 15. From Ezekiel. — But mark what Ezekiel the prophet has said: 'Woe,' he says, 'shall come upon woe, and rumour shall be upon rumour:'

'and they shall seek a vision from the prophet, and the law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the elders' (Ezekiel 7:26). And again: 'Thus saith the Lord: Because your words are lies, and your divinations vain; therefore behold I am against you, saith the Lord: I will stretch out my hand against the prophets who see lies, and those who speak vain things: they shall not be in the instruction of my people, and they shall not be written in the writing of the house of Israel, and into the land of Israel they shall not enter: and ye shall know that I am the Lord. Because they have seduced my people, saying: The peace of the Lord; and there is no peace of the Lord. One builds a wall; and they themselves daub it, and it shall fall' (Ezekiel 13:8-10). And after some words:

'Woe to those who sew cushions under every elbow of the hand, and make veils over every head of every age to subvert souls. And the souls of my people are subverted, and they possessed souls, and they defiled me toward my people for my sake — for a handful of barley and for a fragment of bread, to slay the souls which ought not to die, and to keep alive the souls which ought not to live, while ye speak to a people that hearkens to vain utterances' (Ezekiel 13:18-19). And below: 'Son of man, say: Thou art the land which is not rained upon, neither has rain been made upon thee in the day of wrath; in which the princes in the midst of it are like roaring lions, snatching plunder, devouring souls in power, and receiving prices:'

'and thy widows are multiplied in the midst of thee, and its priests have despised my law, and have polluted my holy things. Between the holy and the polluted they did not distinguish, and between the unclean and the clean they did not divide: and they hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and they were polluted in the midst of them' (Ezekiel 22:24-26). And again: 'And I sought from among them a man living uprightly, and standing before my face altogether in the time of wrath, that I should not destroy it in the end: and I found none. And I poured out my soul upon it in the fire of my wrath, to consume them: I have given their ways upon their own head, saith the Lord' (Ezekiel 22:30-31). And after some words: 'And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, speak to the children of my people, and thou shalt say to them:'

'The land upon which I shall bring a sword, and the people of that land shall have taken one man from among themselves, and shall have set him for themselves as a watchman; and he shall have seen the sword coming upon the land, and shall have blown the trumpet, and shall have warned the people: and whoever hears the sound of the trumpet, and does not heed it; and the sword comes, and takes him: his blood shall be upon his own head; for because he heard the sound of the trumpet, and heeded not: his blood shall be on himself: but this man, because he kept his soul, has delivered it. And if the watchman shall have seen the sword coming, and shall not have given the warning by the trumpet; and the people shall not have heeded; and the coming sword takes a soul from among them; that soul, indeed, is taken for its own iniquity, but I will require the blood from the hand of the watchman.'

'And thou, son of man, I have set thee a watchman to the house of Israel, and thou shalt hear the word from my mouth, when I say to the sinner: Thou shalt surely die; and thou speakest not, that the wicked may turn himself from his way, and that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require from thy hand. But if thou shalt have foretold to the wicked his way, that he may turn himself from it, and he turns not himself from his way: this man shall die in his impiety, but thou hast delivered thy soul' (Ezekiel 33:2-9). CHAPTER 16. From the Gospel of Matthew. — But let these few out of the many testimonies of the prophets suffice, by which the pride or the cowardice of stubborn priests is beaten back, lest they suppose that we denounce such things to them rather by our own invention than by the authority of the law and of the saints.

Let us therefore see what the gospel trumpet, sounding to the world, declares to disordered priests: for our discourse is not concerning those, as we have already said, who lawfully hold the apostolic seat, and who well know how to dispense spiritual food in due season to their fellow-servants (if indeed there be many such at present), but concerning the unskilled shepherds, who forsake the sheep and feed on vanities, and have not the words of a skilled shepherd. It is therefore a plain sign that he is not a lawful shepherd, but indeed a mediocre Christian, who has refused or denied these decrees, not so much ours (who are very small), as those of the Old and New Testament, just as one of our own has well said:

«We earnestly desire that the enemies of the Church be also our enemies without any treaty, and that our friends and defenders be held not only as allies, but even as fathers and lords.» For let individuals examine their own conscience by a true scrutiny, and so they will discover whether they sit upon the priestly chair according to right reason. Let us see, I say, what the Saviour and Maker of the world says: 'You are,' he says, 'the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is good for nothing any more, but to be cast out and trodden underfoot by men' (Matthew 5:13). This one testimony might suffice abundantly to confute any of the shameless.

But that it may be proved by the words of Christ, with still more evident corroborations, with how great and intolerable burdens of their own these false priests oppress themselves, some things must be added. For it follows: 'You are the light of the world. A city cannot be hidden, set upon a mountain. Neither do men light a lamp, and put it under a bushel, but upon a candlestick, that it may shine to all who are in the house' (Matthew 5:14). Which priest, then, of this time is so possessed by the blindness of ignorance, that, like the light of a most brilliant lamp, he shines in some house to all who reside there by night with the torch of knowledge and of good works at once?

Who among all the sons of the Church is held to be a safe, open, and conspicuous refuge, such that he might be to the citizens a most secure city set upon the summit of a lofty mountain? But as for what follows: 'So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven' (Matt. 5:16) — which of them can fulfil this even for a single day? Rather, a certain most dense cloud of theirs, and the black night of sins, so weighs upon the whole Island that it turns nearly everyone away from the straight path, and causes them to wander through the trackless and obstructed byways of wickedness; by whose works the heavenly Father is not only not praised, but is even intolerably blasphemed.

I would indeed wish these testimonies of Holy Scripture, inserted or to be inserted into this letter, to be interpreted in their entirety — so far as our slender ability could manage — whether in a historical or moral sense. But lest this little work be drawn out to an immense extent for those who despise, loathe, and turn away not so much from what is ours as from what is God's, they are heaped up, or to be heaped up, simply and without any circumlocution of words. And after a few words: 'For whoever shall loose one of these least commandments, and shall so teach men, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven' (Matt. 5:19). And again: 'Judge not, that ye be not judged: for with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged' (Matt. 7:1, 2). Which of you, I ask, will look upon what follows?

'And why,' he says, 'beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how sayest thou to thy brother, Let me cast out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?' (Matt. 7:3, 4). Or as for what follows: 'Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you' (Matt. 7:6) — which very often happens to you. And warning the people not to be seduced by deceitful teachers, such as you are, he said: 'Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?'

'So every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit' (Matt. 7:15-17). And below: 'Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven, he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven' (Matt. 7:21). CHAPTER XVII. Again from the Gospel of Matthew. — What indeed shall become of you, who — as the prophet said (Isa. 29:13) — believe in God with your lips only and not with your heart? And how do you fulfil what follows: 'Behold,' he says, 'I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves' (Matt. 10:16), you who, on the contrary, advance like wolves into the flock of sheep? Or what he says: 'Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves' (Matt. 10:16)?

You are indeed wise — to bite someone with a deadly mouth, but not to defend, by the interposition of your body as it were, that which is yours, namely Christ, whom you trample down with all your endeavours of evil works. For neither do you possess the simplicity of doves; rather, likened to the blackness of the raven, and having once flown out from the ark — that is, the Church — and finding the stench of carnal pleasures, you have never flown back to her with a pure heart. But let us look at the rest as well. 'Fear not,' he says, 'them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell' (Matt. 10:28). Consider which of these things you have done.

But which of you would not be wounded in the deepest secret of his heart by the testimony that follows, which the Saviour speaks to the apostles concerning depraved prelates? 'Let them alone: they are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch' (Matt. 15:14). The peoples over whom you preside — or rather whom you have deceived — surely need to hear this. Attend to the words of the Lord speaking to the apostles and to the crowds, which you also, as I hear, are not ashamed to bring frequently into the open: 'The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat: all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not' (Matt. 23:2, 3).

Certainly, dangerous and useless is the teaching of priests which is darkened by depraved works. 'Woe unto you, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in' (Matt. 23:13). For not only on account of the great crimes of wickedness which you commit shall you be punished with penal punishment in the future, but also on account of those who perish daily by your example; whose blood shall be required at your hands in the day of judgment. But consider what evil the parable of the servant sets forth, of him who says in his heart: 'My lord delayeth his coming' — who perhaps for this reason had begun to smite his fellow-servants, eating and drinking with the drunken.

'The lord of that servant,' he says, 'shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, and shall cut him asunder' (namely, from the holy priests) 'and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites' (assuredly with those who, under the priestly covering, greatly cloak their wickedness): 'there,' he says, 'shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth' (Matt. 24:48-51) — which does not often happen to you in this life on account of the daily ruins of the sons of mother Church, or the desires of the kingdom of heaven. CHAPTER XVIII. From Paul's Epistle to the Romans. — But let us see what Christ's true disciple, the teacher of the Gentiles, Paul — who is to be imitated by every ecclesiastical teacher ('even as I also am of Christ' [1 Cor. 11:1]) — says beforehand in such a matter, declaring in his first Epistle:

'Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools' (Rom. 1:21, 22). Although this seems to be said of the Gentiles, yet consider that it fittingly applies to the priests of this age together with their peoples. And after a few words he says: 'Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. For this cause God gave them up unto passions of dishonour' (Rom. 1:25, 26). And again: