Pastoral Rule, Dialogues & Letters 41

(Admonition 24.) In one way are the sowers of strife to be admonished, and in another the peacemakers. For those who sow strife are to be admonished to recognize whose followers they are. For of the apostate angel it is written, when tares had been inserted into the good harvest: 'An enemy hath done this' (Matt. 13:28). Of whose member also it is said by Solomon: 'A man that is an apostate, an unprofitable man, walketh with a perverse mouth; he winketh with the eyes, presseth with the foot, speaketh with the finger; with a wicked heart he deviseth evil, and at all times he soweth strife' (Prov. 6:12-14). Behold, him whom he wished to call a sower of strife, he first named an apostate:

because, unless after the manner of the proud angel he had first fallen inwardly from the sight of his Creator by the aversion of his mind, he would not afterwards have come outwardly even to the sowing of strife. He is rightly described as one that winketh with the eyes, speaketh with the finger, presseth with the foot. For the inward keeping is that which keeps the outward members ordered. He, therefore, who has lost the stability of his mind, consequently flows outwardly into inconstancy of motion, and by his outward mobility shows that he subsists by no inward root. Let the sowers of strife hear what is written: 'Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God' (Matt. 5:9). And, on the contrary side, let them gather that, if they are called children of God who make peace, without doubt they are children of Satan who confound it.

But all who through discord are separated from the greenness of love wither away. Who, even if they put forth the fruits of good work in their actions, are assuredly of no account, because they do not spring from the unity of charity. Hence, then, let the sowers of strife weigh in how manifold a way they sin: who, while they commit one wickedness, tear out from human hearts all virtues at once. For in one evil they perpetrate innumerable ones, because, by sowing discord, they extinguish charity, which is assuredly the mother of all virtues. And because nothing is more precious to God than the virtue of love, nothing is more desirable to the devil than the extinction of charity.

Whosoever, then, by sowing strife destroys the love of neighbours, serves more intimately the enemy of God; because that which the enemy lost when he fell, this the other, by withdrawing it from wounded hearts, cuts off from them their way of ascent. On the other hand, the peacemakers are to be admonished lest they make light of the weight of so great an action, if they are ignorant among whom they ought to establish peace. For as it greatly harms if unity be lacking to the good, so it is exceedingly hurtful if it be not lacking to the wicked. If, then, the wickedness of the perverse is joined in peace, assuredly strength is added to their evil deeds; because, the more they agree with one another in malice, the more robustly they dash themselves against the afflictions of the good. Hence it is that, on the contrary, concerning that damned vessel, namely the preachers of Antichrist, it is said to blessed Job by the divine voice:

'The members of his flesh cleave one to another' (Job 41:14). Hence, under the figure of scales, it is said of his satellites: 'One is joined to another, and not so much as any air can come between them' (ibid. 41:7). For his followers, in proportion as they are divided by no adversity of discord among themselves, so much the more grievously are they massed together for the slaying of the good. He, therefore, who unites the wicked in peace, ministers strength to iniquity, because they whom they unanimously persecute the more grievously do they oppress the good. Whence that excellent preacher, being caught in the grave persecution of the Pharisees and Sadducees, took pains to divide among themselves those whom he saw grievously united against him, when he cried out, saying: 'Men, brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of Pharisees; concerning the hope and resurrection

of the dead I am called in question' (Acts 23:6). And while the Sadducees denied the hope and resurrection of the dead, which the Pharisees, according to the precepts of sacred eloquence, believed, a dissension arose in the unanimity of the persecutors, and, the crowd being divided, Paul went out unhurt, whom it, being first united, had savagely pressed. Those, therefore, who are occupied in the endeavours of making peace, are to be admonished first to infuse into the minds of the perverse the love of inward peace, so that afterwards outward peace may profit them; that while their heart is suspended in the recognition of that peace, it may in no wise be carried off to wickedness by the perception of this; and while they provide for the supernal peace, they may in no way incline the earthly to the use of their own worsening.

But when the perverse are such that they cannot harm the good, even if they desire to, among these assuredly earthly peace ought to be constructed even before the supernal can be known by them; so that these, namely, whom the malice of their own impiety exasperates against the love of God, may at least grow gentle through the love of their neighbour; and, as it were from what is near, pass over to what is better, that they may ascend to that peace of the Creator which is far from them.