But he speaks both indiscriminately to all in such a way that both seem to fit all. XLIIII. On the silence of teachers. For the evil desert of the people the doctrine of preaching is taken away. For the good desert of the hearer the discourse of the teacher is granted. It rests in the divine power to whom God may wish to give the word of doctrine, or from whom to take it away; and this comes to pass either for the desert of the speaker, or for that of the hearer, so that now for the fault of the people the discourse of the teacher is taken away, now indeed for profitable deserts it is granted. For the good man teaches good, and the evil, evil; and the good, evil, and the evil, good; which yet comes to pass according to the desert of the peoples. Not all times are suited to doctrine, according to the saying of Solomon who says:
'a time to keep silence, and a time to speak.' Not indeed through fear, but through discretion, on account of the incorrigible iniquity of the wicked, the elect ought sometimes to cease from teaching. Sometimes the teachers of the Church, burning with the heat of charity, fall silent from teaching, because there is no one who hears, the prophet witnessing: 'The cities of the south are shut up, and there is none to open.' He who has received the office of teaching should sometimes for a time be silent about the deeds of his neighbor, which he judges he can by no means correct at once. For if he can correct and dissembles, it is true that he has consent to another's error.
Many holy teachers, on account of the obstinacy of the wicked, because they cannot amend the iniquitous, dispose to be silent toward them, but not enduring to bear the heat of the spirit by which they are driven, again they burst forth into the rebuke of the iniquitous. XLV. On affording priestly protection to the people. Those to whom the form of teaching is committed undergo much peril if they should be unwilling to resist those who contradict the truth, since the prophet instructs the teacher of the Church to attain to the very summit of justice, when he says: 'Get thee up upon a high mountain, thou that bringest good tidings to Zion,' namely that he may be pre-eminent as much in merit as in rank. Then, lest perhaps he should be restrained from teaching by fear, he hears: 'Lift up thy voice with strength, and fear not.'
Whence too the Lord says thus to Jeremiah: 'Gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak to them! Be not afraid at their presence! for I will not cause thee to fear their countenance.' Whence too it appears that even not to fear is the gift of God. He who accepts the person of the powerful and dreads to speak the truth is chastised by a grave sentence of guilt. For many priests through fear of power conceal the truth, and are turned away from a good work, or from the preaching of justice, by dread of some matter or by threatening power. But alas! for grief! thence they are afraid because they are either entangled by the love of worldly things, or confounded by some deed of crime.
Many prelates of the churches, fearing lest they lose friendship and incur the trouble of hatreds, do not reprove those who sin, and are afraid to correct the oppressors of the poor; nor do they dread the severity of the account to be rendered, in that they keep silent about the peoples committed to them. When the poor are oppressed by the powerful, good priests bring the aid of protection to rescue them, nor do they fear the troubles of anyone's enmities, but openly reprove, rebuke, and excommunicate the oppressors of the poor, and less do they dread their snares of harming, even if they be able to harm: 'For the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.'
Just as a vigilant shepherd is wont to guard the sheep against beasts, so also God's priest ought to be solicitous over the flock of Christ, lest the enemy lay it waste, lest the persecutor assail it, lest the covetousness of any more powerful man disturb the life of the poor. But depraved shepherds have no care for the sheep, but, as it is read in the Gospel of the hirelings: 'They see the wolf coming and they flee.' For then do they flee, when they are silent before the powerful, and are afraid to resist evils. XLVI. On the discipline of priests in regard to those who offend. Priests are condemned for the iniquity of the peoples, if they either instruct not the ignorant, or reprove not the sinning, the Lord witnessing to the prophet: 'I have made thee a watchman to the house of Israel.'
If you have not spoken, so that the wicked man might guard himself from his own way, he shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand. For so was Eli the priest condemned on account of the iniquity of his sons: although he admonished them when they went astray, yet he did not rebuke them as he ought. The priests ought to search out the sins of the peoples, and with keen solicitude to test each one, according to the testimony of the Lord speaking to Jeremiah: 'I have set you,' he says, 'as a strong prover to my people, and you shall know and prove their ways.' Priests, in their zeal for correction, ought to examine thoroughly the deeds of those under them, that they may gain them once amended; but just as it is fitting that the sinner be rebuked, so the righteous man must not be galled.
Priests ought to have care for those who are perishing, so that by their rebuke such people may either be corrected from their sins, or, if they prove incorrigible, be separated from the Church. Those are severely reproved who, by deceiving sinners, not only fail to reprove them for their sin, but even flatteringly deceive them, as the prophet says: 'And there shall be those who bless this people, leading them astray, and those who are blessed shall be cast down.' Again, those are severely reproved who do not receive the one who sins, but despise and spurn him, and do not grieve over another's fault as though it were their own. Concerning such the Lord threatens through Isaiah, saying: 'Those who say, Depart from me, do not come near me, for you are unclean, these shall be smoke in my wrath, a fire burning all the day.'
Hence it is that the Apostle became all things to all men, not by imitating their error, but out of the compassion of pity, namely that he might so weep over others' vices as if he himself were entangled in such an error. Good shepherds of the people ought to bewail their sins and give themselves wholly to lamentation, imitating the prophet Jeremiah who says: 'Who will give water to my head and to my eyes a fountain of tears? And I will weep day and night for the slain of my people.' Therefore the priest ought to weep over the sins of the people as though they were his own faults, but with the disposition of one who suffers with them, not by the act of one who has committed them. Some rulers of the flock cast certain persons out of communion for their sin, that they may do penance, but they do not visit them so as to exhort them to something better, by what manner of life they ought to live.
To such the divine word fittingly threatens in rebuke: 'Shepherds who feed my people, you have scattered my flock, you have cast them out and have not visited them; behold, I will visit upon you the malice of your pursuits.' The zeal of good priests, with much diligence, searches out even the small deeds of the peoples, so that, while they show themselves most keen in the least sins of their subjects, they may make the greater evils cautious, and render those subject to them careful. Just as physicians undertake to cure the diseases that threaten, and by the interposition of medicine, with a certain foreknowledge, forestall those to come lest they seize upon the patient, so also good teachers cut away the things that have been done wickedly in such a way that, with doctrine coming to the aid, they may prevent the things that could be committed, lest they be perpetrated.
He who is not corrected when chastised with a gentle word must of necessity be reproved more sharply. For those things which cannot be gently healed must be cut away with pain. He who, when admonished secretly, neglects to be corrected for his sin, must be reproved publicly, so that the wound which cannot be healed in secret may have to be amended openly. Manifest sins are not to be purged by secret correction; for those who do harm openly are to be reproved openly, so that, while they are healed by open rebuke, those who had gone astray by imitating them may be corrected. While one is rebuked, many are amended. For it is necessary that one be condemned for the salvation of many, rather than that many be endangered through the license of one.
The word must be uttered toward the offender in such a way as the welfare of the one being rebuked demands. But if it be needful to sprinkle some healing of medicine by the word of reproof, one must nevertheless retain gentleness in the heart. Teachers sometimes strike their subjects with harsh reproofs; yet they do not depart from love for those whom they correct. Often the censure of the Church seems to the arrogant to be pride, and what is done reverently by the good is thought to be done cruelly by the depraved, because they do not discern with a right eye what is done by the good with a right mind. It must be noted that every bishop should act toward those committed to him all the more cautiously the more sternly he dreads to be judged by Christ; for as it is written:
'With what measure you have measured, with the same it shall be measured back to you.' For daily we all offend, and slip into many errors. We who are lenient toward our own faults ought by no means to hold to severity in another's sin. Many perceive the vices of others but do not look upon their own, and although they are held liable to the greatest crimes, they do not forgive their brothers the lesser sins. Hypocrites do not feel the beam lodged in their own eye, and gaze upon the mote clinging in their brother's eye. We reprehend others' vices more easily than our own. For often what we judge to be perverse in others we feel less to be harmful in ourselves, and what we reprehend in others we ourselves are not ashamed to do.
We attend to each person's vices more readily than to their virtues, and we do not seek to recognize what good anyone has done, but scrutinize what evil he has done. XLVII. On Subjects. On account of the sin of the first man, the penalty of servitude was divinely inflicted upon the human race, so that upon those in whom God sees that liberty does not suit, He more mercifully imposes servitude. And although it is through the sin of the human race's origin, yet the just God for this reason distinguished the life of men, appointing some as slaves and others as masters, so that the license of slaves to do evil might be restrained by the power of those who rule. For if all were without fear, who would there be to restrain anyone from evils?
Hence also among the nations princes and kings were chosen, that by their terror they might restrain the peoples from evil, and subject them to laws for right living. As regards the inner reality, there is no respect of persons with God, who chose the ignoble and contemptible things of the world, and the things that are not, to destroy the things that are, so that no flesh — that is, no carnal power — might glory before Him; for the one Lord equally provides counsel both for masters and for slaves. Subject servitude is better than exalted liberty. For many are found serving God freely though set under disgraceful masters; who, although subject to them in body, are yet set above them in mind. XLVIII. On Prelates.
The just man is either stripped of all worldly power or, if he is girt with some, he is not bent beneath it so as to swell with pride, but he subjects it to himself so as to make himself known as the more humble. This is proved by the apostolic example, who did not use even that power granted to him for what was lawful, but, though he could have used it, he refused what was permitted and showed himself as a little child in the midst of those over whom he presided. He who toils with unremitting labor in seeking the honors of the world or the prosperities of the age is found empty of rest both here and in the world to come, and is weighed down by the burdens of sins the more he is estranged from good works.
The more anyone is exalted by the dignity of worldly honor, the more heavily he is burdened by the weights of cares, and the more he is subjected in mind and thought to those over whom he is set by his rank of eminence. For as one of the Fathers says: 'Everything that stands eminent is afflicted with more griefs than it rejoices in honors.' The more anyone is occupied with the greater cares of the world, the more he is pressed by the easier vices. For if a mind at rest can scarcely avoid sins, how much more one bound fast by worldly occupation. Not every emblem of power is at once useful, but it is then truly useful if it is well administered; and it is then well administered when it profits the subjects over whom earthly honors are preferred.
Power is good when it is by God's gift, so as to restrain evil through fear, not so as to rashly commit evil. But nothing is worse than to have, through power, the liberty of sinning, and nothing more unhappy than the felicity of doing evil. He who within this age rules well in temporal matters shall reign without end in perpetuity, and passes over from the glory of this age to eternal glory. But those who exercise their reign wickedly, after the gleaming robe and the light of gems, descend naked and wretched to be tormented in the regions below. Kings are so named from acting rightly, and therefore the name of king is held by doing right, and is lost by sinning.
For holy men too are for this reason called kings in the sacred words, because they act rightly, and rule their own senses well, and by rational discernment compose the impulses that resist them. Rightly, therefore, are those called kings who have learned to govern both themselves and their subjects by ruling well. Certain men pervert that very name of rule into the monstrousness of cruelty, and as soon as they come to the summit of power, they at once slip into apostasy, and lift themselves up with such swelling of heart that they despise all their subjects in comparison with themselves, and do not acknowledge those whom they happen to rule. To such it is fittingly said through Ecclesiastes: 'They have made you a leader; do not be lifted up, but be among them as one of them.'
Though the kings of the world feel themselves more exalted than the rest, let them nevertheless acknowledge that they are mortal, and let them not gaze upon the glory of the kingdom by which they are exalted in the world, but attend to the work which they will carry with them to the regions below. If, therefore, they shall lack the glory of this present time, let them do those things which after the end they may possess without end. Since the Apostle says: 'There is no power but from God,' how does the Lord say through the prophet concerning certain powers: 'They have reigned, but not from me,' as though he said, 'not with me favorable, but rather with me angry?' Whence further below through the same prophet he adds: 'I will give you,' he says, 'a king in my wrath.' By which it more clearly shines forth that both good and evil power are ordained by God, but the good when He is favorable, the evil when He is angry.
Kings, when they are good, are the gift of God; but when they are evil, they are the crime of the people. For according to the merit of the peoples is the life of rulers ordained, as Job testifies: 'Who makes a hypocrite to reign because of the sins of the people.' For when God is angry, the people receive such a ruler as they deserve for their sin. Sometimes on account of the malice of the people even kings are changed, and those who before seemed to be good, having received the kingdom, become wicked. XLIX. On the Justice of Princes. He who rightly uses the power of the kingdom ought so to bear himself above all, that the more he shines with the loftiness of honor, the more he humbles himself in mind, setting before himself the example of the humility of David, who was not puffed up by his own merits, but humbly casting himself down said:
'I will go about as vile, and I will appear vile before God, who chose me.' He who rightly uses the power of the kingdom establishes the pattern of justice by deeds rather than by words. He is not lifted up by any prosperity, nor troubled by any adversity; he does not rely on his own strength, nor does his heart depart from the Lord; he presides over the summit of the kingdom with a humble spirit; iniquity does not delight him, cupidity does not inflame him; without defrauding anyone he makes the poor man rich, and what he could have extorted from the peoples by just power, he often bestows out of merciful clemency. God gave to princes the office of governing over the peoples, and willed that they should be set over those with whom they share one condition of being born and of dying.
Therefore rulership ought to profit the peoples, not to harm them, nor to oppress by domination, but to counsel by condescending, so that this emblem of power may truly be useful, and that they may use the gift of God for the protection of Christ's members. For the members of Christ are the faithful peoples, whom, while they govern excellently by the power they receive, they render indeed a good recompense to God the giver. A good king is more easily brought back from a fault to justice than transferred from justice to a fault, so that you may know that the one is a mishap here, the other a resolve. In his resolve it ought never to be to depart from truth; but if by mishap it should chance that he stumbles, he should soon rise again. L. On the Patience of Princes.
Very often a just prince knows how even to overlook the errors of evil men, not because he consents to their iniquity, but because he awaits a fitting time for correction, when he may either amend or punish their vices. Many are detected in the crime of conspiracy against princes, but God, wishing to prove the clemency of princes, permits the former to think evil, and does not forsake the latter. Out of the evil of the former He does good to the latter, while the latter with wonderful patience pardon the faults which the former commit. To render evil for evil is the reciprocity of justice; but he who adds clemency to justice does not render evil for evil to the guilty, but bestows good for evil on those who have offended. LI. On the Faults of Princes, or Examples.
It is difficult for a prince to return to something better, if he has been entangled in vices. For the peoples, when they sin, fear the judge, and are restrained from their evil by the laws. But kings, unless they are restrained by the fear of God alone and the dread of hell, freely rush headlong, and through the precipice of license they slip into every crime of the vices. The higher a man is set in place, the greater the peril in which he is engaged; and the loftier anyone is in the honor of splendor, the greater is his sin if he offends: for 'the mighty shall be mightily tormented.' For 'to whom more is committed, more is required of him,' even with the interest of punishments.
Kings easily either build up or subvert the life of their subjects by their examples, and therefore a prince ought not to offend, lest by the unpunished license of his sin he make a pattern of sinning. For a king who rushes into vices quickly shows the way of error, as we read of Jeroboam, who sinned and made Israel to sin. And to him is ascribed whatever is perpetrated by his subjects after his example. Just as some follow the deeds of good princes that are pleasing to God, so many easily follow their depraved examples. Most men under wicked princes become evil more by necessity than by will, while they obey their commands. But some, as they are prompt to follow kings in evil, so are they slow to imitate them in good.
Often from the very source in which evil kings sin, good kings are justified, while they correct the cupidity and malice of their predecessors. For truly they share in the sins of the former if they retain what those plundered. Whosoever's sin one follows, of necessity he must follow his punishment also. Nor will he be unequal in the penalty who is equal in the error and the vice. LII. That Princes are Bound by the Laws. It is just that a prince should obey his own laws. For then does he judge that his laws are to be kept by all, when he himself also shows reverence to them. Princes are bound by their own laws, nor can they condemn in themselves the rights which they establish for their subjects.
For the authority of their voice is just, if what they forbid to the peoples they do not permit to be lawful for themselves. The powers of the world are made subject to the discipline of religion; and although they are endowed with the summit of the kingdom, they are nevertheless held bound by the bond of faith, so that they may proclaim the faith of Christ by their laws, and preserve that very preaching of the faith by good morals. LIII. On the Discipline of Princes in the Church. The princes of the world sometimes hold the summits of power obtained within the Church, so that through that same power they may fortify ecclesiastical discipline.
Otherwise powers would not be necessary within the Church, except that what the priest is not strong enough to accomplish through the word of doctrine, the power may command through the terror of discipline. Often through the earthly kingdom the heavenly kingdom advances, so that those who, placed within the Church, act against the faith and discipline of the Church, may be crushed by the severity of princes; and that very discipline which the Church's usefulness is not strong enough to exercise, the princely power may impose upon the necks of the proud; and, that it may deserve veneration, may impart it by the strength of power. Let the princes of the world know that they owe an account to God on behalf of the Church, which they undertake to protect from Christ.
For whether the peace and discipline of the Church be increased through faithful princes, or be dissolved, He requires an account of them who entrusted His Church to their power. LIV. On Judges. It pertains to the fault of princes when they set depraved judges over faithful peoples against the will of God. For as it is the fault of the peoples when princes are evil, so it is the sin of the prince when the judges are wicked. A good judge, as he knows not how to harm the citizens, so he knows how to profit all. For to some he affords the censure of justice, to others the kindness of goodness. He undertakes his judgments without respect of persons; the flame of avarice does not weaken his justice, nor does he strive to take away from another what he desires for himself.
Good judges undertake justice solely to obtain eternal salvation, nor do they distribute it in exchange for gifts received, so that, while they do not seek temporal gains from a just judgment, they may be enriched with an eternal reward. Everyone who judges rightly carries a balance in his hand, and bears in each scale justice and mercy; but through justice he renders the sentence of sin, through mercy he tempers the punishment of sin, so that by this poise he may correct some things through equity, but pardon some through compassion. He who sets the judgments of God before his eyes, always fearing and trembling, in every matter dreads lest, deviating from the path of justice, he fall, and lest from that whereby he is not justified he rather be condemned. LV. On Depraved Judges.
No one of the foolish or the wicked ought to be a judge. For the fool through slothfulness is ignorant of justice; the wicked man through cupidity corrupts the very truth which he has learned. The poor are more grievously torn to pieces by depraved judges than by the most bloodthirsty enemies. For no robber is so greedy in what belongs to others as a wicked judge in his own subjects. Robbers set their hidden ambushes in inaccessible defiles and lurking-places, but these rage openly in the avarice of rapacity. Enemies aim only at the blood of others; judges, like the most cruel executioners of the citizens, extinguish by their oppression the life of their subjects. For those who destroy are many, but rare are those who govern the peoples by the moderation of the laws.
Very often the judges too are good, but they have rapacious ministers. The figure of these, as someone says, is painted and described like Scylla: it is indeed of human form, but girt about and surrounded with the heads of dogs. Not otherwise does it happen to certain powers, that the monstrousness of their wicked associates disturbs their own humanity. Often depraved judges, for the sake of cupidity, either defer or pervert judgments, and do not conclude the causes of the parties once begun, until they empty out the purses of those who plead. For when they judge, they consider not the cause but the gifts, and just as they are negligent in the examination of the pleaders, so are they solicitous in their loss.
Depraved judges, according to the word of the prophet, are 'like wolves in the evening, they leave nothing till the morning'; that is, they think only of the advantages of the present life, not of things to come. For this life is understood as the evening, but the life to come as the morning. And he says well 'like wolves,' because after the manner of wolves they plunder all things and scarcely leave a little to the poor. LVI. On Verbose and Wrathful Judges. Verbose and haughty judges, that they may seem wise, do not discuss the causes but assert them, and thus they throw the order of judgment into confusion, while, not content with their own office, they presume upon another's. Some, when they begin to judge, grow angry, and turn the very sentence of judgment into madness. Of whom it is rightly said through the prophet: 'Who turn judgment into fury.'
For he who judges in anger turns judgment into fury and utters his sentence before he perceives. Fury in a judge cannot attain to the investigation of the truth, because his mind, troubled by fury, is estranged from the scrutiny of justice. A wrathful judge cannot fully behold the examination of judgment, because through the darkness of fury he does not see. But he who, having repelled fury, examines, more easily rises with serenity of mind to behold the truth, and without any disturbance arrives at the understanding of equity. LVII. On Respect of Persons. In judgment the person is not to be considered but the cause; for it is written: 'You shall not respect persons in judgment.' And again: 'You shall not have pity on the poor in judgment.'
For those who pervert judgment through favor of kinship or friendship, or through the hatred of enmities, are known without doubt to sin against Christ, who is truth and justice. Wicked judges err in the truth of the sentence, while they attend to the quality of the person and often gall the just, while they wrongly defend the wicked; but he who strives to preside rightly neither knows how to flatter a party, nor has he learned to restrain himself from justice. LVIII. On Bribes. He who judges rightly and yet expects a reward of recompense for it commits a fraud against God, because the justice which he ought to have imparted freely he sells for the taking of money. They use good things badly who judge justly for the sake of temporal gain;
for such men it is not the defense of justice but the love of reward that draws them to the truth. If the hope of money be withdrawn from them, they at once withdraw from the defense of justice. The taking of bribes is a betrayal of the truth; whence also concerning the just man it is said: 'He who shakes his hands free from every bribe, this one shall dwell on high.' The rich man quickly corrupts the judge with bribes, but the poor man, while he has nothing to offer, is not only scorned in his hearing, but is even oppressed against the truth. Justice is quickly violated by gold, and the accused fears no fault which he supposes he can redeem with money. For the love of gain holds the mind of the assessor more than the equity of judgment.