Sermons & Letters 74

Chapter I. — Today, brethren, the victory of Christ is completed; today his triumphal banners are raised aloft. Over his despoiling, hell mourns with its prince; over the restoration of its own loss, the heavenly host rejoices. Today that flesh, which was lifted up from the earth, has been placed at the right hand of the Father, because all natures have been prostrated before it, and every principality and power has bowed low before it. Today a new way, of which the Apostle speaks (Heb. 10:20), has been inaugurated for us: because through the flesh of Christ an approach to heaven, through which no flesh had passed before, has been unlocked—which the same Apostle calls still living, because it has been prepared for the members of Christ who are in their own time to enter through the same.

Today the opening of the book has been accomplished, which no one could open except the Lamb who was slain: since his sacraments have been revealed, when those things which are found in the Law and the Prophets, by the consummated dispensation of his humanity, have today been fulfilled. First Christ descended, that he might become a partaker of our nature; last he ascended, that he might make us partakers of his glory. Descending, by his temporal converse and visible miracles he as it were suckled infants; ascending, he gave gifts to men, by which, being instructed [or: nourished] and educated as it were unto manly strength, they should no longer crave his temporal vision, but should strive with all desire to follow whither he had gone before them. Chapter

II. — Since therefore we have been deprived of his temporal presence, let us hasten with all intention to his eternal vision. Let us say to him in the words of the Psalmist: 'My heart has said to you: I have sought your face; your face, O Lord, will I seek: turn not away your face from me' (Ps. 26:8-9). For the whole dispensation of Christ's humanity intended nothing else, did nothing else, than to direct our intention to things above, and, the time of our mortality being fulfilled, to lead us to the manifest vision of himself, and, having led us there, to satisfy us with the eternal glory of his countenance. For, as the Apostle testifies, 'We shall see him as he is' (1 John 3:2). Whence the Psalmist: 'I shall be satisfied when your glory is made manifest' (Ps. 16:15).

These are the good things of Jerusalem, 'which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it ascended into the heart of man: which God has prepared for those who love him' (1 Cor. 2:9). These good things the Psalmist beheld as far as he could, in a riddle, when he said: 'For what have I in heaven, and besides you what have I desired upon earth?' (Ps. 72:25). In wonder he said, 'What have I in heaven, etc.?' because the greatness of the heavenly glory he was able neither to unfold by speaking, nor to comprehend by thinking. Chapter III.

— These things therefore let us hunger for, these let us thirst for, since for this the great High Priest ascended as forerunner for us into the true Holy of Holies, namely to the right hand of the Father, that he might confirm the hope of his members, that the humble flock should follow thither, whither it believes its shepherd to have gone before. For thus the Lord himself promises to the disciples: 'Where the body shall be, there also will the eagles be gathered together' (Luke 17:37). He calls eagles the saints who desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ (Phil. 1:23). For it is said to be the nature of eagles to perceive carcasses by their scent even beyond the sea, and with swift flight to hasten thither to satisfy their hunger.

This hunger of the eagles therefore signifies the desire of holy souls, which, thirsting with the nostrils of faith [or: perceiving] for their Head placed in the highest quiet beyond the whirlwinds of the world, would, with the flight of hope, wish to stand before the presence of the Creator, and to rejoice without end in the satiety of his countenance. This indeed is the reason of this solemnity, that meanwhile we should follow him as with the twin wings of the virtues, namely of charity and of hope; so that when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God the Father (1 Cor. 15:24), we may reign with him without end. Chapter IV. — Therefore, according as the Psalmist exhorts, 'because the Lord has reigned, let the earth exult' (Ps. 96:1), that is, the Church;

let it exult in faith, since 'you, Lord, most high over all the earth, are exceedingly exalted above all gods' (Ps. 96:9). Let it exult in hope, since 'we shall be filled with the good things of your house.' Let us cry out from the marrow of the heart with the Apostle: 'Who shall separate us from the charity of Christ? tribulation, or distress? or famine, or nakedness, or the sword?' (Rom. 8:35). For when he shall have led us from hope to sight, 'God will be all in all' (1 Cor. 15:28). He himself food and drink, he clothing, and all things which can honorably be thought and desired by all. Let the soldiers of Christ covet this bounty, and let them not desert their warfare, until, the contest completed, they receive the unfading inheritance from their commander.

From many places of the holy Gospel we find that the disciples, before the coming of the Holy Spirit, were less capable of understanding the mysteries of the divine sublimity, less strong to endure the adversities of human depravity. But when the Holy Spirit came upon them, together with an increase of divine knowledge there was given constancy to overcome the adversities of this world. Whence now it is said to them by the Lord's promise: 'When the Paraclete shall come, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he shall bear witness of me, and you also shall bear witness, because you are with me from the beginning' (John 15:26-27).

It must be noted first of all that the Lord testifies that the Spirit of truth is both to be sent by himself, and straightway adds that the same proceeds from the Father; not that the same Spirit proceeds from the Father otherwise than he is sent by the Son, but for this reason he declares him to be both sent by himself and to proceed from the Father, that he may designate the Person of the Father to be one, and his own to be another, and in that same distinction of persons may proclaim there to be one operation and one will of his own with the will of the Father and his operation. For when the grace of the same Spirit is given to men, the Spirit is assuredly sent by the Father, is sent by the Son;

he proceeds from the Father, he proceeds also from the Son, because his mission is that very procession by spontaneous will—he who, just as he is coequal with the Father and the Son, so has the same will with the Father and the Son. For 'the Spirit breathes where he wills' (John 3:8); and as the Apostle, having enumerated the heavenly gifts, says: 'All these works one and the same Spirit, dividing to each as he wills' (1 Cor. 12:11). Now the Holy Spirit, coming, bore witness of the Lord: because, breathing upon the hearts of the disciples, he revealed to them with clear light all the things that were to be perceived concerning him by mortals, namely that he was made equal to and consubstantial with us at the end of the ages, that, born of the Virgin, he lived in the world without sin. Chapter

I.— Although, dearly beloved, the glorious sufferings of all the martyrs, whom lands separated by their several regions have merited, are made venerable to all by one faith with an honor that makes no distinction, yet those claim for themselves a peculiar dignity in this homage of veneration who both, beyond the rest, built up the Church of God by their testimonies and aided it by their patronage. Among these we justly and with catholic zeal celebrate the blessed levite Vincent, by whose confession and death we unhesitatingly acknowledge that Christ was preached to the unbelieving.

That he might commend the devotion of the faithful more zealously to God, kindled with a loftier affection of charity, he at length faithfully offered himself to death; namely, that the strength of faith founded upon the most solid rock, which is Christ, might be given to his followers to imitate; and also that the seed of apostolic preaching, sown by him among many, kept safe by the help of his intercession and restored with the fruit of perfect consummation, might be stored up in the heavenly barns as into a granary. Let those therefore venerate him the more as their own whom even foreign peoples admire; that he may show himself the more bountiful in benefits to those by whom he knows himself to be the more beloved in his joys, and that in his solemnity there may arise a fuller compass of gladness, from which the effect of faith has increased.

II.— The spirit of this man, in short, shone with so great a gift of virtues that, upheld by the office of the sacred ministry, he who was to follow the Son of God, our Lord, in His passion, first ministered the chalice of that same Christ unto salvation for the believing. Made happily drunk in mind by the draught of it, he approached the frenzy of the raging enemy who savaged against Christ, undaunted; he bore it modestly, he mocked it in security, knowing himself made ready to resist, yet not knowing himself exalted by that whereby he conquered; because, fortified with spiritual arms by the love of Him whose love armed him as he resisted, by that One's help he, unconquerable, by bravely suffering, overcame whatever of punishments the wrath of the one raging against him devised.

Therefore neither the glowing plate of the frying-pan, nor the little rack, nor the iron claws and hooked hands, nor the fearsome strength of those who struck, nor the pain of his torn limbs, nor the crackling of the fire and the sprinkling of salt into his exposed entrails, could in any degree bend this man to the command of Dacian. But while the swelling of his madness so grew that, exulting, he vaunted that he had either conquered or destroyed one subdued by such great pains of sufferings, being frustrated of the hope he had conceived, from that whereby he seemed to appear the victor he was thence, as vanquished, compelled to blush: since the harsher the punishment by which the martyr of God was pressed, the greater the constancy of confession with which he exulted. Whence it pleases us, brethren, to survey more plainly, or to recall, even the last things of his passion:

so that your holiness may observe to what end the devil led his minister by his wiles, and how Christ preserved His servant even to the end. III.— From which indeed this was truly wondrous, that as much as this man was crushed and constrained outwardly by the manifold kind of punishments, so much the more was he enlarged inwardly by the exulting of the inner man; and as much as that one was outwardly puffed up with the boasting of temporal power, so much the more, inwardly considering himself despised, was he choked, tormented in the inner man. Seeing himself scorned, he raged, nor did he find any longer against whom he might inflict vengeance.

For he saw that the hands of the savaging executioners found in him more of wound than of body, and that his spirit alone, still vigorous, reproached his folly by that very standard of truth which it provoked. Wherefore, believing that he would avert the cause of his confusion if he removed the person who had scorned him, and that Dacian would blush the less if the people did not see Vincent, he ordered him to be taken away from public view. But that not even so he might be without torment, he was laid upon a broken potsherd where he lay: so that the force of the sharpness might the more rend the mangled mass of the body cast upon it, and that his limbs, given back to torments, might meet the fragments that cut them. IV.— Yet blind cruelty is deceived in its opinion of conquering.

For the divine goodness, accompanying its beloved yet more in his confession, brought a new light into the darkness, and rendered the gloomy prison-house a splendid tabernacle. The healing hand of God cherished his mangled limbs, and with a fairer increase of former health supplied the losses of his pierced side. Struck therefore by the unwonted brightness of this light, the guards were astonished; nay, the mind of the pale gatekeeper trembled at the voice of angels chanting a hymn to God. The lifeless minister ran to the governor, whom the report of the messenger was to strike more grievously than the blow of a sword: and since from the greatness of the matter he could not be silent about what he had seen, trembling seizes the judge, grief tears him, fury inflames him;

and lest Vincent, conquering in his punishments, should obtain the glory of martyrdom, 'Let him be brought forth from prison the sooner,' said Dacian, 'lest while we press on to punish the rebel, we should rather seem to crown him with victory.' He is therefore brought forth from that pit of the foul prison, indeed more beautiful by heavenly grace, and, if he were still to suffer, more robust. But when he perceives that the desire of one striving toward the calling of the kingdom is to be broken by no kind of punishments or death, he is cherished with a gentler repose: namely, that if, the executioner being withdrawn a little, he should quietly breathe out his soul, he might be said not to have been slain, but to have died: as though the punishment had not destroyed him, with whom the punishment itself likewise perished. V.

— Meanwhile the heavenly court receives the blessed Vincent, and endows him with the gift of blessed felicity. At his entrance the angelic spirits rejoice, and all his fellow-citizens, the saints, congratulate him together. And we give You thanks, O Lord Jesus, that a soul worthy of Your fellowship, which steadfastly bore torment, fled from lying compliance; and which was content that the persecutor should rage, disdained that he should spare. Learning therefore of his holy departure, the mad judge, and Dacian not knowing that Christ had conquered in Vincent, promises himself vengeance by the exposure of that corpse whose victory from its virtue he laments. For, his pride deceived by fury, he commands it to be cast forth to wild beasts and dogs to be devoured:

that with such food he might fill the belly of those whose mind he himself bore. But that, by the increase of the divine benefits, the grace of a greater victory might be conferred upon Vincent, a raven is sent, a bird friendly to corpses, fasting, to guard the exposed feast of his body. VI.— From this, dearly beloved brethren, from this take heed of the distinct services of merits. Elijah of old, warily avoiding the impious hands of Ahab and Jezebel (1 Kings 17), is fed in the desert by ministering ravens; but Vincent, the champion of truth, slain by the fury of Dacian, is exposed to beasts to be consumed; yet by a serving raven he is kept unharmed. Elijah therefore obtained by the divine nod, the ravens providing, wherewith he might be nourished:

it was granted to Vincent, the raven likewise serving, that he should not be devoured. And that the raven might show itself appointed from heaven as a guardian, it drove off the other approaching birds from afar with no sluggish assault: among which, when a huge wolf too drew nearer, it beat it off far away, beating with feathers and wings, as one who would not suffer the entrusted treasure to be defiled by sacrilegious daring. But that wolf, by a certain bearing of itself, dazed, made clear that it had come not so much to inflict injury as to increase the pomp of the miracle. O shameless fury and foolish madness! The raven serves, the wolf reveres, Dacian persecutes, nor does he blush, still savage, to wish to destroy him whom the tamed brutal ferocity was busied to protect. VII.

— Whence, to hide the martyr's praise, he chose now not the secret place, but the deep: believing that, for concealing his glory, not enclosures but seas would keep faith with him; as though He were not the same Lord of that element through whom, a little before, the hidden places of the prison had shone for him, radiant with heavenly splendor. The body is given to sailors to be sunk in the waves, that at least the seas might avail for aid, for which the earth had failed toward conquering the soldier of Christ. And so, when the greater part of the whirlpools of the strait had been sailed over, the all-powerful right hand of God overtook the body cast among the swallowing waves, and that which had borne the spirit into heaven soon brought the body back to the tomb.

Thus, dearest ones, the preacher of truth is neither conquered by the punishments of torments, nor overcome by the straits of the dark prison. He is not torn by beasts, not hidden in the deep, but is restored to the shore, made famous by proclamation, so that he who had truly confessed the name of the Godhead might find by experience that the supports of the divine goodness were present to him according to truth. The grace of a precious death so adorned his life, glorious in virtue, that what he taught by living he steadfastly established by dying; and it was fitting that he should attain through death to the vision of Him whom he had always attested by the conduct of an approved life: knowing that from contempt of the present life arises the glory of eternal blessedness:

our Lord Jesus Christ granting it, who lives and reigns unto the ages of ages. Amen. The following sermon, inscribed to Leo, Quesnel published from a Paris manuscript, mutilated or lacking its end. We bring it forth entire from the manuscripts Vatican 1271 and 6454, with several chapters added, namely, which cohere with the preceding both in style and in the matters themselves, and complete the sermon. The same Quesnel prefixed to this sermon a note whereby he seemed to attribute it to St. Leo: 'The following sermon,' he says, 'on the Chair of St. Peter, which we give to the public, an old manuscript codex of the Royal Library, marked with number 341, supplied to us, from which it was copied by us. It has Leo's name prefixed in the codex in this manner: On the Chair of St.'

'the Apostle Peter, a sermon of St. Leo the Pope'; nor is there doubt but that it is ours—so far as can be gathered from the style, which seems to me altogether to harmonize with Leo's—nor does anything occur whereby it ought to be denied to our pontiff. This surely is said to be beyond doubt: that this sermon was delivered at Rome and by some Roman pontiff, as can be argued from several places, and that many phrases and words familiar to Leo are found here. 'Peter,' he says, 'was set over the people of God'; which word, in that sense rare, is read in Epistle 12 (now 14), c. 11: 'He therefore who knows himself to be set over certain persons, let him not take it ill that another is set over him.' Here he praises the fiery assemblies of the heavenly spirits:

That Paul was fiery, that the heart is set on fire, that the Holy Spirit sets on fire, Leo writes in the places noted in Dissertation 2: 'the bounty of divine grace,' 'the sinister number of the goats,' 'cautious provision,' 'incautious severity,' 'the snares of raging beasts,' 'from the mouth of truth,' and many other modes of speaking represent Leo, speaking similarly in certain writings. As for what is contained in this sermon concerning ecclesiastical chant and the adornment of temples, no one, I think, will suggest that it is a mark of a later age: for St. Leo often makes mention of chant, while the adornment of temples employed on festal days even Sermon 40 (now 41) of St. Leo alone proves.

This sermon of Leo's, which is the third on Lent, proves from its very beginning that it is not foreign to Leo's age. The antiquity of the festival of the Chair is asserted, both from a very ancient calendar-table in Aegidius Bucherius, in which it stands thus: 'The eighth before the Kalends of February, the Birth of Peter into the Chair'; and, more certainly indeed, from canon 22 of the Second Council of Tours. For if at that time, that is, in the year of Christ 566, it was observed in Gaul, without doubt it ought long before to have been celebrated in the Roman Church. Nay, the same canon proves that it had by then been ancient even in the Gallican Church.

For the superstitions on account of which it was decreed that they should be cut off, it is probable, began to creep in only after long spaces of time from the institution of some other festival. Add that this custom flourished in the earliest times of the Church, that the day of consecration of those bishops who had been more renowned should be celebrated yearly, as is manifest from the example of Saints Gregory the Great, Ambrose, Basil, and others. And by how much greater right ought the pontificate of the prince of the apostles and primate of the Church to have been recalled with an annual festival, at least in the Roman Church, where he had fixed his see. Since, moreover, a twofold commemoration of the Chair of St. Peter has now been established by the decree of Pope Paul IV of the year 1557, one on the eighteenth before the Kalends of...

of February for the Roman [Chair], the other on the eighth before the Kalends of March for the Antiochene, it is agreed that there was once in the Church a single solemnity on the eighth before the Kalends of March, by which the memory of both, or rather generally the assumption of St. Peter to the episcopate, was celebrated with due honor. And it persevered in the Roman Church up to the decree of Paul IV, which was received in use very late by the Gallican Churches, as is clear from the Breviaries and Missals; but not even today is it received by some. For the rest, since the sermon on the Chair of St. Peter which circulates under the name of St. Augustine has long ago been relegated by learned men to the appendices as a spurious offspring, there is no monument of that festival which approaches the antiquity of this one.

From which also the calendar-table of Silvius, already in part published by Johannes Bollandus, is convicted either of forgery, or at least of corruption, in that place where, instead of the feast of the Chair on the eighth before the Kalends of March, it has noted the deposition of both apostles. More about this feast is to be seen in the most eminent Cardinal Baronius, both in the Annals, volume I, and in the Notes to the Martyrology, and also in our most learned Charles Le Cointe, founder of the Ecclesiastical Annals of France, volume II, at the year of Christ 566, number 18 and following. When Quesnel had established these things in their place in the first edition, having weighed the matter more maturely, in the general preface which he printed last, he repented of having attributed the sermon to Leo. But in the preface of the second edition, number 3:

'Having examined the matter again,' he says, 'and weighed the style, we return to our first opinion, not daring to deny this sermon to Leo.' But it is most surprising that to a man versed in reading Leo the style of the following sermon could have seemed to harmonize with Leo's. For, first, the formula in chapter 1, 'Dearly beloved brethren,' and that in chapter 3, twice repeated, 'Dearest brethren,' are altogether foreign to Leo's Sermons. Then the barbarous adjective 'discordabile' in chapter 2, and (to say nothing of the whole syntax manifestly dissimilar) those words by which in chapter 3 he calls St. Peter, counseling us, the consul of the heavenly court, are too much at variance with Leo's Latinity and manner;

so much so that they contribute nothing—the words 'fiery,' 'bestower of grace,' and others of that kind, which are found similarly not so much in Leo as in other writers, as we read in the Life of St. Honoratus written by Hilary, number 3, 'God the bestower of grace,' number 32, 'to his fiery discourse,' etc. Of the same kind are the chapters which we have added. For, to pass over the allegorical expressions, 'senators of the world,' 'in the heavenly court,' 'the starry realms,' those especially in chapter 5, 'that we may return, my brethren, who live in Christ, by the steps of our tongue to you,' are most alien to the style of our Leo. Moreover, what is handed down in the same chapter about the multitude of simoniacs living in luxury befits a later age. Hence, with many manuscripts...

conspiring in preferring the name of Leo alone, perhaps this is the offspring of some Leo, a Roman pontiff, who flourished in a later and more corrupt age. Furthermore, what Quesnel observed about the deposition of the apostles Peter and Paul noted on the seventh before the Kalends of March in the Calendar of Silvius is to be compared with what we shall establish about this Calendar in the observations on Sermon 82, number 4. I.— The glorious solemnity of the blessed prince of the apostles is at hand, dearly beloved brethren, which we ought to receive with all alacrity of soul, to celebrate with all devotion of mind. For since the day of his martyrdom is deservedly held most illustrious throughout the whole world, this day is to be celebrated with no unequal joy of the whole holy Church.

For in that day he was ineffably crowned amid the alternating hymn-singing choirs of angels; but in this day he was exalted, amid the multitudes of the faithful everywhere exulting, upon the pontifical chair with great glory. In that day he ascended to his own blessedness the throne of heaven; but in this, for our salvation, he obtained the primacy of the holy Church. In that day he was joined to the fiery assemblies of the blessed spirits, that he himself might receive eternal rewards; but in this day he was set over the people of God, that he might call us all to eternal rewards. That festival therefore is chiefly of the angels; but this is especially of the faithful peoples. But by the grace of Him who slew enmities in Himself, making peace in one new man (Ephesians)...

(Ephesians 2:16), that which could have been proper to individuals has been made common to all, namely, to men and angels. II.— This our solemnity therefore, so to speak, dearly beloved, let us keep, as is fitting, with a twofold joy: and let us celebrate it not only outwardly, but also inwardly with the full desire of the soul. Hence therefore let the symphonies of those sweetly making melody resound; there let the harmonious motions of souls answer one another in turn. Let the church be adorned with lights; let the conscience shine forth with virtues. Let the pavement of the basilica be cleansed of filth; let the temple of the inner man be purged of vices, as Paul says: 'The temple of God is holy, which you are, and the Spirit of God dwells in you' (1 Corinthians 3:17).

Let nothing dissonant be detected in our voices, nothing discordant be found in our morals. For the holy day has its own dignity, and our mind too has its own solemnity. The former, namely, that we should be free from the toilsome affairs of this world; the latter, that we should abstain from the heat of earthly concupiscence, and from the enticements of all vices. The former, that it may be resplendent with visible ornaments; the latter, that it may shine forth with virtues. But since we have received today, from the bounty of divine grace, so excellent a shepherd, with what rashness do we, on our part, attempt to open our mouth to speak to you?

Let us therefore behold with the eyes of faith our most blessed pontiff, exalted upon the episcopal seat, crowned with priestly fillets, speaking to his people through himself, and, in the assembly of the holy Church after the wonted manner, preaching. Let him himself, through himself, say what he decrees is to be done both by you and by us. Behold, O our most blessed shepherd, we your sheep are present together, and we humbly beseech that you may grant us the nourishment of your teaching. But we cannot even be sheep of yours, unless you yourself instruct us how we ought to put on the fleece of innocence. For you say: 'As newborn infants, desire the reasonable milk without guile, that in it you may grow unto salvation' (1 Peter 2:2). III.

— Now indeed, since we have heard how we ought to become sheep, it remains that he impress upon us how we may also flee the sinister number of the wanton goats. 'I beseech you,' he says, 'as strangers and pilgrims, to abstain from carnal desires, which war against the soul' (1 Peter 2:11); and that he may confirm by a chief example this mortification of the flesh which he teaches by word, 'Christ,' he says, 'suffered for us, leaving you an example, that you should follow His footsteps' (Ibid., 21). Now the keepers of flocks are wont diligently to restrain their flock from noxious herbs, and to migrate into far pastures by seeking out wholesome grazing; and when they keep them from some, guarding against destruction, they offer others, restoring life.

For in one place they withdraw noxious things, in another they permit profitable ones: lest, while by cautious provision they fast from poisonous fodder, they should also, empty of the salutary, fail by incautious severity. Since therefore our shepherd, by forbidding us the deadly pastures of carnal desires, restrains us, he now relaxes our mouths to the salutary green shoots of our hope. For he says: 'Through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, whereby He has called us into a living hope, unto an inheritance undefiled and unfading, reserved in heaven' (1 Peter 1:3). Let us therefore, dearest brethren, attend with the erected ears of our heart to the voices of our keeper, the blessed apostle Peter, and, holding the straight line of his footsteps, let us nowhere stray from the pastures to which he calls.

For if we willingly admit his counsel, we shall not fear the snares of the raging beasts. For does not our keeper diligently watch over his flock, and does he not with anxious voices cry out that the assaults of wild beasts must be guarded against? 'For the devil,' he says, 'as a roaring lion, goes about seeking whom he may devour; whom resist, strong in faith' (1 Peter 5:8). It is expedient therefore, dearest brethren, that we hear with intent hearts him who counsels us, the consul of the heavenly court, and that we dread to make light of the most sure counsel of our salvation. For this is he who heard from the mouth of truth: 'You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it; and to you I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven.'

This is he who heard: 'Whatsoever you shall bind upon earth shall be bound also in heaven, and whatsoever you shall loose upon earth shall be loosed also in heaven' (Matthew 16:18, 19). IV.— He ought not therefore to be despised by man in his preaching, who from the Creator and Redeemer of men merited to be honored with the privilege of so great a dignity. It is a fearful thing that his counsel should be negligently despised, to whose power both heaven and earth are subject. He who shuts and opens heaven, binds and looses earthly things according to his own judgment. For if the chair of ecclesiastical primacy has been divinely handed over to him, that it may be founded in perpetual solidity.

From the very beginning of the world we know that there were many chairs among the people of God, not only good but also evil (but in the chair of Peter Christ both utterly overthrew the evil and confirmed the good with eternal stability). For of the good it is said: 'Let them exalt him in the church of the people, and in the chair of the elders let them praise the Lord' (Psalm 106:32)—those who keep the precepts of the teachers of the holy Church by their works. Moses held a chair for the Israelite people, of which Truth Himself said: 'Upon the chair of Moses have sat the Scribes and Pharisees' (Matthew 23:1). But on the contrary, concerning the chair of the reprobate it is said by the Psalmist: 'Blessed is the man who has not gone away, and has not sat in the chair of pestilence' (Psalm 1:1).

For he sits in the chair of pestilence who teaches the people the plagues of errors. V.— The Lord mystically overthrew chairs of this kind when He cast out from the temple both the sellers and the buyers alike. For it is written: 'He poured out the money of the money-changers, and overturned the chairs of those who sold doves' (John 2:15). This chair of pestilence that Simon the magician wished to acquire, when he coveted to buy the grace of the Holy Spirit. But the hand of the apostolic tongue overthrew it before it could be built, and cut down at its very root the nascent, plague-bearing heresy, saying: 'For I see you to be in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity. You have no part nor lot in this matter' (Acts 8:21-23).

By this sword of the apostolic sentence have all been dug out who either pant to buy ecclesiastical honors, or do not fear to sell them. Whose wretched multitude is seen even today in the holy Church—those who do not fear to possess the gift of God against the Lord for their own lust; who, even if outwardly they seem alive, already stink, buried in the death of perpetual damnation. Those who reckon it as nothing to seek the gain of souls, and nourish their most wretched flesh in delights and in the stench of luxury. Against whom I think it better to be silent than to say little. For few words do not suffice to tear apart and rebuke their mortal peril, against whom heaven and earth and all the elements bring forth the testimony of damnation.

Now therefore let us cease to speak against the dry bones, that we may return, my brethren, who live in Christ, by the steps of our tongue to you. VI.— Let us therefore found, dearly beloved, upon the faith of the blessed apostle Peter the dwelling-place of our mind, that it may be able to remain unharmed from every onset of adversity. By the example, namely, of the prudent man, of whom the Lord says in the Gospel: 'Who built his house upon the rock: the floods came, the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it did not fall, for it was founded upon the rock' (Matthew 7:24 and 25). Let us recall to mind what is said through Paul: 'We cannot here rejoice with the world, and there reign with the Lord'; and again:

'Through many tribulations it behooves us to enter into the kingdom of God' (Acts 14:21). Behold, this blessed apostle Peter, whose festival we today celebrate, who was so dear and familiar to our Lord Jesus Christ, who received so great a power not only on earth but also in heaven, by His bestowal, nevertheless penetrated the starry realms through the martyrdom of the cross. VII.— Therefore, dearly beloved, assiduously mortifying our flesh with its vices and concupiscences, let us most zealously observe the apostolic precepts: because we are to render an account of our deeds to those same judges. For to them it was said:

'Amen I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration, when the Son of Man shall sit on the seat of His majesty, you also shall sit upon twelve seats, judging the twelve tribes of Israel' (Matthew 19:28). These are the senators of the world, of whom it is written: 'Her husband is noble in the gates, when he shall sit with the senators of the land' (Proverbs 31:23). Founded therefore in their faith, instructed by their teachings, let us so strive, with divine aid, to lead this mortal life for a time, that with them we may deserve to rejoice without end in the heavenly court: our Lord Christ granting it [perhaps 'affording it'], to whom is honor and glory unto the ages of ages. Amen.