Pastoral Rule, Dialogues & Letters 24

(Admonition 5.) In one way are subjects to be admonished, in another prelates. The former, that subjection may not crush them; the latter, that the higher place may not exalt them. The former, that they may not fulfil less than what is commanded; the latter, that they may not command more than is just to be fulfilled. The former, that they may humbly submit; the latter, that they may temperately preside. For this too can be understood figuratively: to the former it is said: Children, obey your parents in the Lord; but to the latter it is enjoined: And you fathers, provoke not your children to anger (Col. 3:20, 21). Let the former learn how to order their inner selves before the eyes of the hidden Arbiter; the latter, how outwardly to furnish even to those committed to them examples of good living. For prelates ought to know

that if they ever perpetrate perverse things, they are worthy of as many deaths as they transmit examples of perdition to their subjects. Whence it is necessary that they guard themselves the more cautiously from fault, in proportion as, by the wicked things they do, they die not alone, but are guilty also of the souls of others whom by their evil examples they have destroyed. Whence the former are to be admonished, lest they be more strictly punished if they cannot be found absolved even concerning themselves; the latter, lest they be judged for the errings of their subjects, even if they find themselves already secure concerning themselves. The former, that they may live the more solicitously about themselves, the more that the care of others does not entangle them;

the latter, that they may so discharge the cares of others as not to cease attending to their own, and may so glow with zeal in their own solicitude as not by any means to grow torpid in guarding those committed to them. For to the former, being at leisure for himself alone, it is said: Go to the ant, O sluggard, and consider her ways, and learn wisdom (Prov. 6:6). But the latter is terribly admonished when it is said: My son, if thou be surety for thy friend, thou hast engaged fast thy hand to a stranger, and art ensnared with the words of thy mouth, and caught with thine own words (ibid. 6:1). For to be surety for a friend is to take another's soul into the peril of one's own conduct. Whence the hand also is fixed with a stranger, because the mind is bound by the care of solicitude which was not there before.

But he is ensnared with the words of his mouth, and caught with his own words; because while he is constrained to speak good things to those committed to him, he must first himself keep what he has spoken. He is therefore ensnared with the words of his mouth, while by the demand of reason he is bound not to let his own life be relaxed to anything other than what he admonishes. Whence, before the strict Judge, he is compelled to render in deed as much as it is evident he has by his voice enjoined upon others. And there too an exhortation is fitly subjoined immediately, that it may be said: Do therefore what I say, my son, and deliver thyself, because thou art fallen into the hand of thy neighbour: run about, make haste, rouse up thy friend; give not sleep to thine eyes, neither let thine eyelids slumber (Prov. 6:3).

For whoever is set before others as an example for living is admonished not only to watch himself, but also to rouse up his friend. For it does not suffice him to watch by living well, if he does not also sever the one over whom he presides from the torpor of sin. And it is well said: Give not sleep to thine eyes, neither let thine eyelids slumber (ibid. 4). For to give sleep to the eyes is, when intention ceases, to neglect altogether the care of one's subjects. And the eyelids slumber when our thoughts, though they recognise what is to be reproved in our subjects, dissemble it, being weighed down by sloth. For to sleep fully is neither to know nor to correct the deeds of those committed to us.

But to slumber, and not to sleep, is to recognise indeed the things that are to be reproved, yet, on account of weariness of mind, not to amend them with worthy rebukes. And by slumbering the eye is led on to fullest sleep, because while very often he who presides does not cut away the evil he recognises, he sometimes comes at last, by the desert of his own negligence, to this: that he does not even acknowledge what is committed amiss by his subjects. Those who preside, therefore, are to be admonished that, through zeal of circumspection, they may have ever-watchful eyes within and round about, and may strive to become the living creatures of heaven (Ezek. 1:18). For the living creatures of heaven that are shown are described as full of eyes within and round about (Rev. 4:6).

For it is fitting that all who preside should have eyes within and round about, so that they may both strive to please the internal Judge in themselves, and, furnishing outwardly examples of life, may also detect those things that are to be corrected in others. Subjects are to be admonished that they judge not rashly the life of their superiors, if perchance they see them do something reprehensible; lest, whence they rightly reprove evils, thence, through the impulse of pride, they be plunged into deeper things. They are to be admonished that, when they consider the faults of their superiors, they become not the more bold against them, but that, if any of their doings be very perverse, they judge them within themselves in such wise that, constrained by divine fear, they refuse not to bear the yoke of reverence beneath them.

This we show better if we bring David's deed into the midst (1 Sam. 24:1ff.). For Saul the persecutor, when he had entered a cave to relieve himself, David was there within with his men, who had now for so long a time endured the evils of his persecution. And when his men urged him to strike Saul, he broke them off with his replies, that he ought not to put forth his hand against the anointed of the Lord. Yet he secretly rose up and cut off the hem of his cloak. For what is designated by Saul but evil rulers; what by David but good subjects?

For Saul to relieve his belly is for wicked superiors to extend the malice conceived in the heart even to works of wretched stench, and to display by outward deeds what they have plotted noxiously within themselves. Yet David feared to strike him, because the pious minds of subjects, abstaining themselves from every plague of detraction, cut not the life of their superiors with any sword of the tongue, even when they reprove them for imperfection. And if at any time, for their weakness, they cannot restrain themselves from touching upon certain of the outermost and external evils of their superiors, yet let them speak humbly, cutting, as it were, the hem of the cloak in silence;

because, namely, while they at least harmlessly and covertly disparage the prelatical dignity, they, as it were, defile the garment of the king set over them, yet return to themselves and most vehemently reprove themselves even for the slightest tearing of a word. Whence it is well written there also: After these things David's heart struck him, because he had cut off the hem of Saul's cloak (ibid. 6). For the deeds of superiors are not to be struck with the sword of the mouth, even when they are rightly judged reprehensible. But if at any time the tongue slips against them even in the least things, it is necessary that the heart be pressed with the affliction of penitence; so that it may return to itself, and, since it has offended against the power set over it, may dread the judgement against itself of Him by whom that power was set above it.

For when we offend against superiors, we set ourselves against the ordinance of Him who set them over us. Whence Moses also, when he had learned that the people were murmuring against himself and Aaron, said: For what are we? Your murmuring is not against us, but against the Lord (Exod. 16:8). (Admonition 6.) In one way are servants to be admonished, in another masters. Servants, namely, that they may ever regard in themselves the humility of their condition; but masters, that they may not lose the memory of their nature, in which they are created equal with their servants. Servants are to be admonished that they despise not their masters, lest they offend God if by pride they contradict His ordinance;

masters, too, are to be admonished that they are proud against God concerning His gift, if they do not acknowledge as their equals by the fellowship of nature those whom they hold as subjects by their condition. The latter are to be admonished that they know themselves to be servants of masters; the former are to be admonished that they recognise themselves to be fellow-servants of servants. For to the former it is said: Servants, obey your masters according to the flesh (Col. 3:22). And again: Whosoever are servants under the yoke, let them count their masters worthy of all honour (1 Tim. 6:1); but to the latter it is said: And you masters, do the same things to them, forbearing threatenings, knowing that both their and your Lord is in heaven (Eph. 6:9).