Pastoral Rule, Dialogues & Letters 1

No art is presumed to be taught unless it is first learned by attentive study. With what rashness, then, is the pastoral office of teaching undertaken by the inexperienced, when the governance of souls is the art of arts! Who does not know that the wounds of thoughts are more hidden than the wounds of the inner organs? And yet often those who have by no means known the spiritual precepts are not afraid to profess themselves physicians of the heart, while those who are ignorant of the power of remedies blush to be seen as physicians of the flesh. But because, by God's authorship, every pinnacle of the present age now bows to reverence for religion, there are some who, within the holy Church, through the appearance of governance, covet the glory of honor;

they crave to be seen as teachers, they desire to surpass the rest, and, as the Truth attests, they seek the first greetings in the marketplace, the first couches at feasts, the first seats in assemblies (Matt. XXIII, 6, 7); who are all the more unable worthily to administer the office of pastoral care they have undertaken, the more they have come to the mastery of humility out of pride alone. For the very tongue is confounded in such teaching, when one thing is learned and another is taught. Against such the Lord complains through the prophet, saying: They have reigned, but not from me; they have set up princes, and I knew it not (Hos. VIII, 4).

For they reign of themselves, and not by the judgment of the supreme Ruler, who, supported by no virtues and by no means divinely called, but kindled by their own greed, seize the summit of governance rather than attain it. Yet these the inward Judge both advances and does not acknowledge; for those whom He tolerates by permitting, He surely ignores by the judgment of reprobation. Hence to certain men coming to Him even after miracles He says: Depart from me, you workers of iniquity, I know not who you are (Luke XIII, 27). The inexperience of pastors is rebuked by the voice of Truth when it is said through the prophet: The pastors themselves have been ignorant of understanding (Isa. LVI, 11). Whom again the Lord detests, saying: And those who held the law knew me not (Jer. II, 8).

And so the Truth complains both that He is not known by them, and protests that He does not acknowledge the rule of those who do not know, because surely those who know not the things that are the Lord's are not known by the Lord, as Paul attests, who says: But if any man is ignorant, he shall be ignored (1 Cor. XIV, 38). This inexperience of pastors often suits the deserts of their subjects, because, although by their own fault they exact it they do not have the light of knowledge, yet by strict judgment it comes about that through their ignorance even those who follow stumble. Hence indeed in the Gospel the Truth says through Himself: If the blind lead the blind, both fall into the pit (Matt. XV, 14). Hence the Psalmist, not with the mind of one wishing but of one prophesying, announces the penalty of this ministry, saying:

Let their eyes be darkened that they see not, and bow down their back always (Ps. LXVIII, 24). For the eyes are those who, set in the very face of the highest honor, have undertaken the office of providing for the journey; while those who indeed cling to them as followers are named the back. When the eyes are darkened, then, the back is bent, because when those who go before lose the light of knowledge, surely those who follow are bowed down to bear the burdens of their sins.