Pastoral Rule, Dialogues & Letters 73

But behold, while I am relating the deeds of valiant men, there suddenly comes to my memory what the divine mercy did concerning Andrew, bishop of the city of Fundi. I wish this to be of profit to those who read it, in this respect: that they who dedicate their bodies to continence should not presume to dwell with women; lest so much the more sudden a ruin steal upon the mind, as, toward that which is wickedly coveted, even the presence of the coveted form allures. This matter which I relate is trustworthy, for the witnesses of it are almost as many as the inhabitants of that same place.

For this venerable man, while he led a life full of many virtues and kept himself under priestly guard in the citadel of continence, was unwilling to drive away from the care of his bishopric a certain nun whom he had had with him before, but, being sure of his own and her continence, permitted her to dwell with him. From this it came about that the ancient enemy sought an entrance of temptation into his mind. For he began to imprint the image of her upon the eyes of his mind, that, being enticed, he might contemplate wicked things. But on a certain day a certain Jew, coming from the parts of Campania to Rome, was making his way along the Appian Way:

Coming to the hill of Fundi, when he now saw that the day was declining toward evening, and could by no means find where he might turn aside, he came upon a temple of Apollo, and there betook himself to remaining. Fearing the sacrilege of that place, although he by no means held the faith of the cross, he nevertheless took care to fortify himself with the sign of the cross. But in the middle of the night, troubled by the very terror of the solitude, he lay wide awake, and suddenly, looking, he saw a throng of malignant spirits going before, as if in attendance upon a certain power, and him who presided over the rest seated in the bosom of that place; who began to examine the causes and deeds of each of the spirits attending upon him, so that each might discover how much wickedness he had wrought.

And when the several spirits, at his inquiry, set forth what they had wrought against the good, one leapt forth into the midst, who disclosed how great a temptation of the flesh he had stirred up in the mind of bishop Andrew, through the form of the nun who dwelt in his bishopric. And when the malignant spirit who presided heard this eagerly, and believed the gain done for himself to be so much the greater, the more he inclined the mind of a holier man toward the fall of perdition, that spirit who confessed these very things added that, up to this point too, on the past day, at the evening hour, he had drawn his mind so far that, fawningly, he gave a slap upon the back of that same nun.

Then the malignant spirit and ancient enemy of the human race exhorted him fondly to accomplish what he had begun, so that he might hold a singular palm above the rest in that one's ruin. And when the Jew who had come cast beheld this while awake, and quivered with the anxiety of great dread, it was commanded by that same spirit who presided over all attending there, that they should inquire who he might be who had presumed to lie in that same temple. And the malignant spirits, going and looking more closely, saw him signed with the mystery of the cross, and, marvelling, said: "Alas, alas, an empty vessel and yet signed!" When they had reported this, that whole throng of malignant spirits vanished.

But the Jew who had seen these things at once rose up and hastily came to the bishop. Finding him in his church, he took him aside and inquired by what temptation he was pressed. To the Jew the bishop was ashamed to confess his temptation. But when the other said that he had cast the eyes of a depraved love upon such a handmaid of God, and the bishop still denied it, he added, saying: "Why do you deny what is asked of you, you who up to yesterday evening were led so far as to strike her hinder parts with a slap?" At which words the bishop, seeing himself indeed detected, humbly confessed what he had before persistently denied. And the same Jew, taking counsel for his ruin and his shame, told how he had come to know this,

and what he had heard concerning him in the assembly of the malignant spirits, he disclosed. Recognizing this, the bishop at once cast himself upon the ground in prayer. And forthwith he expelled from his dwelling not only that same handmaid of God, but also every woman who dwelt there in his service; and in that very temple of Apollo he suddenly made an oratory of the blessed apostle Andrew, and was utterly freed from all that temptation of the flesh. And the Jew, by whose vision and rebuke he was saved, he drew to eternal salvation. For, having imbued him with the sacraments of the faith and cleansed him with the water of baptism, he brought him to the bosom of the holy Church.

And so it came to pass that this same Hebrew, while he took counsel for another's salvation, arrived at his own; and Almighty God thence led the one to good life, from whence He had guarded the other in good life. PETER: This affair which I have heard, both gives me fear and gives me hope. GREGORY: Assuredly it is fitting both that we always trust in His mercy and that we always fear because of our own weakness. For behold, we have heard that the cedar of paradise was shaken, but not uprooted, so that for us who are weak both a fear may be born from its shaking, and a confidence from its stability.