because, as you very well know, no land will be able to give lawful fruit in which sowing has been done frequently in a single year. What therefore a man does not wish in his field, why does he do it in his own body? 4. The fuels of incontinence. The remedies. The chief is almsgiving. But someone will say: 'I am a young man, I can by no means contain myself.' Perhaps you do not contain yourself for this reason, that you eat more than is expedient, and take more wine than is fitting. Perhaps also you occupy your mind with shameful thoughts, and are neither afraid nor ashamed to speak lewd words yourself, or to hear them from others, not only willingly but even frequently.
Begin, with God's help, to curb the lusts of gluttony, to occupy your mind and tongue continually with chaste thoughts and honourable speech: and you will see that, with God's help, you can keep chastity. Nor let it irk you, if bodily infirmity does not forbid it, to fast more often, to rise early for church; that you may be able to keep your soul bright from lustful stains. And if, doing this not unfaithfully, you see yourself still wearied by the assaults of the flesh, and perhaps sometimes—apart from the desire of children—overcome so as to know your own wife; add daily alms according to your strength: since it is written, 'As water quenches fire, so almsgiving quenches sin' (Ecclesiasticus III, 33).
And that which against all sins is a great and wholesome remedy: to all who have sinned against you grant full pardon; that what is defiled by incontinence may be washed away by fastings, by alms, and above all by pardoning of enemies. 5. To know one's wife apart from the desire of children is sin. But you say: 'To know one's wife apart from the desire of children is not sin.' It is so much a sin that the penitent prophet cries out, 'In iniquities was I conceived, and in sins did my mother [bear] me' (Psalm L, 7). And thus we read also in the Old Testament;
when the people of the Jews were about to draw near to Mount Sinai, by the Lord's precept it was said to them, 'Be sanctified and be ready against the third day, and do not draw near to your wives' (Exodus XIX, 15); and that, 'If any man be polluted by a nocturnal dream, let him not eat of the flesh of the peace-offering; lest his soul perish from among the people' (Deuteronomy XXIII, 10). If after a pollution which is wont to happen to us unwilling, we are not permitted to communicate unless first compunction and almsgiving precede, and, if infirmity does not forbid, also fasting; who is there who can say that that which we do awake and willing is not sin?
Finally, when women receive husbands, let them not presume to enter the church for thirty days: which likewise men also ought similarly to observe. 6. It is not indeed a capital sin; yet if frequent, it makes the soul unclean and deforms the image of God. But you say: 'It is indeed a sin; but yet it is a small one.' Nor do we say that it is a capital sin, but yet if it is practised too frequently, and is not redeemed by fastings or alms, it makes the soul exceedingly unclean. Do not despise your sins because they are small; but fear because they are many. For the drops of rain are also tiny; yet they fill the rivers, and drag along masses, and lift up trees with their roots. You who say that it is a small sin;
I should like to know—as often as you commit such a sin, would you wish that so many tiny wounds be made in your body, and so many stains or rents in your garments? If therefore you do not consent that wounds be made in your body, nor rents or stains in your garment; with what conscience do you not fear to do this in your soul? And so whoever does this loves his garment and his flesh more than his soul. For since we were made within, in the soul, according to the image of God, as often as we speak or do anything shameful, so often do we soil the image of God. See too whether this becomes you or is fitting. Truly I say to you, dearest brethren, that God does not deserve this of us, that his image in us should suffer injury through evil lusts.
And since no man would wish to come to church with a tunic full of filth, I know not with what conscience one presumes to approach the altar with a soul defiled by lechery: not fearing that which the Apostle said, 'For whoever eats the body and takes the blood of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord' (I Corinthians XI, 27). If we blush and fear to touch the Eucharist with soiled hands, much more ought we to fear to receive the Eucharist itself into a polluted soul. And since, as I said, in our soul we were made after the image of God;
if you were to make an image of yourself on a panel of wood or of stone, and some insolent man wished either to break that image with stones, or to defile it with some filth, I should like to know whether your spirit would not be moved against him. I ask you, if you were so zealous for your dead image, what sort of injury do you think God suffers, when in us his living image is soiled through lechery? And therefore, if we do not spare ourselves for our own sakes, let us spare ourselves at least for the sake of the image of God after which we were made. 7. When especially one is to abstain from one's wife. What penalties they generally pay who conduct themselves otherwise. Some are more incontinent than beasts.
Above all, as often as the Lord's day or other festivals come, let no one know his wife. And as often as women suffer a flow of blood, likewise is it to be observed: on account of that which the prophet says, 'You shall not approach a menstruous woman' (Ezekiel XVIII, 6). For he who knows his wife when she is in her issue, or who on the Lord's day or on any other coming solemnity is unwilling to contain himself; those who are then conceived shall be born either lepers, or epileptics, or perhaps even demoniacs.
Finally, whoever are lepers, they are wont to be born not of wise men, who keep chastity both on other days and on festivals, but chiefly of rustics, who do not know how to contain themselves. And in truth, brethren, if animals without understanding do not couple except at a certain and lawful time, how much more ought men, who were made after the image of God, to observe this? But what is worse, there are some so lecherous or drunken that sometimes they do not even spare their pregnant wives. And therefore, if they do not amend themselves, let them see whether they are not to be judged worse than animals. To such the Apostle cries, saying: 'That each one know how to possess his own vessel in honour and sanctification;
not in the passion of desire, even as the Gentiles who have no hope' (I Thessalonians IV, 4-5). And since there are many who do not keep lawful chastity with their wives; as I said above, let them give generous alms, and pardon all their enemies: that, as has already been said, what lechery has made filthy may be washed away by constant almsgiving. 8. In what spirit the author has treated of these matters. I beg you, brethren, to bear with me, since for the salvation of your souls with great fear and trembling and even with shame I seem to admonish you concerning such matters; because both it is expedient for me to say this, and it behoves you to hear it.
And therefore all that you have heard from us, wherever you may be, tell one another, and admonish one another with charity. For just as I shall be guilty before the tribunal of Christ if I do not tell you; so also you, if you recognize any among you being negligent and are unwilling to admonish them, ought to fear lest it be necessary for you to render an account for them. But we trust, concerning God's mercy and concerning your manner of life pleasing to God, that both for your own salvation and for that of others, both in this age and in the age to come, double rewards may be repaid by God. Amen. SERMON CCXCIII. On the incautious familiarity of strange women. 1. Peace has martyrs. The other vices are conquered by resisting, lust by fleeing. The familiarity of women is to be fled by all.
Let no one say, dearest brethren, that in our times there can be no contests of martyrs: for peace has its own martyrs. For, as we have already said frequently, to soften wrath, to flee lust, to keep justice, to despise avarice, to humble pride, is a great part of martyrdom. Not unfittingly has it been said: to despise avarice, to soften wrath, to flee lust. For covetousness is to be despised, which for this reason procures for us wicked gains, that it may make us its own. For we should be our own, if that were not ours. Avarice, I say, is to be despised, which like fire, the more it has received, so much the more it seeks. But wrath is to be softened, which harms those about to harm, before those to be harmed.
But that lust is to be fled, we have clearly learned from the Apostle our teacher: who, though he had said that all vices are to be resisted, against lust did not say, 'Resist'; but said, 'Flee fornication' (I Corinthians VI, 18). And so against the remaining vices, with God's help, we ought in the present to resist; but lust we ought to overcome by fleeing. So too elsewhere in the Scriptures we read, 'Do not,' it says, 'gaze upon the face of a virgin, lest her countenance cause you to stumble' (Ecclesiasticus IX, 5). And blessed Joseph, that he might escape his shameless mistress, left the cloak by which he had been seized, and fled. Therefore against the assault of lust take to flight, if you wish to obtain the victory.
Nor let it be shameful to you to flee, if you desire to obtain the palm of chastity. See, brethren, how by all Christians, but especially by monks or clergy, unworthy and dishonourable familiarity is to be fled: because without any doubt he who is unwilling to avoid familiarity with women quickly slips into ruin. 2. Among whom chastity is greatly imperilled. In vain is the hope of continual victory held forth. Since against so hard a foe it is rare. And to others thereby a most wicked example is offered. But perhaps some negligent person, and one less solicitous for the salvation of his soul, answers and says: 'Behold, I both have familiarity with strange women, and yet I keep the ornaments of chastity.'
That presumption is unhappy and exceedingly dangerous. For many, while they thought they were conquering, have been conquered. But someone still adds and says: 'I dwell among strange women, and I keep continence, and I wish to have something to conquer.' What is it to say this, 'I wish to have something to conquer,' but, 'I wish to have a way to perish'? 'But I,' he says, 'wish to keep the assault of lust continually captive, as my adversary.' See lest that captivity itself begin to prevail against you, and from where you thought to obtain a triumph, thence you incur reproach for ever. For among all the contests of Christians, the battles of chastity alone are the harder; where the fight is daily, and the victory rare.
For chastity has been allotted a grievous enemy, who is daily conquered, and feared. And therefore, as has already been said, let no one deceive himself with false security, let no one dangerously presume upon his own strength; but let him hear the Apostle saying, 'Flee fornication.' For that most holy David saw a naked woman a thousand paces off; and straightway committed murder and adultery. And those who, dwelling with women, think they obtain the triumph of chastity, are ignorant that they are doubly guilty before God, since they both put themselves into danger, and show to others an example of perverse familiarity.
For however many, imitating their folly, lose the ornaments of chastity through dishonourable familiarity, the souls of those shall be required at the hands of those who show them an example of perdition on the day of judgment. 3. Who now are the persecutors of Christ and the martyrs. No familiarity whatever is to be had with woman. How great is the loss of a momentary pleasure. And therefore, dearest brethren, against the deadly enticements, and against the helpers of the devil, who neither fear nor blush to hold suspect familiarity, lest they deceive us by their example, let us continually implore God's help, that he may deign to free us from the snare of the hunters:
knowing that in all the evils which we spoke of above, he who lies in wait for Christians is a persecutor of Christ: but he who both is willing to defend these things in others and to keep them in himself, will be a martyr. And therefore he who loves these things with all the strength of his soul both in himself, and labours by words or by justice or by chastity that others also may love them, and, as far as he prevails, of his own accord even presses forward, and according as he has strength strives to defend them; he will receive, not one, but many crowns, God rewarding him. And that we may deserve to obtain these things with God's help, let each one strive to avoid not only the familiarity of strange women, or secret conversation: because the baser their condition, the easier is the ruin.
For concerning the familiarity of such, Solomon admonishes us, saying: 'Will anyone bind fire in his bosom, and his garments not burn? or will anyone walk upon coals, and his soles not be scorched?' (Proverbs VI, 27-28); and that, 'The price of a harlot is scarcely half a loaf; but a woman captures the precious soul of a man' (Ibid., 26). And how great an iniquity and how lamentable a perversity, that the soul which Christ redeemed with his blood, some lecherous man should, for the delight of a single moment of lust, sell and hand over to the devil! For truly the condition is exceedingly to be bewailed and pitied, where that which delights quickly passes away, and that which torments remains without end.
For in a moment the assault of lust passes, and the reproach of the unhappy soul remains without end. 4. Whether it is easily repaired. Lust, the hammer of the whole earth. But someone says: 'I am a young man, I do what delights me now, and afterward I do penance.' As if he should say, 'I strike myself with a cruel sword, and afterward I go to the physician': and he does not know that in the point of a single hour a wound is received, and scarcely over a long time is it recalled to its former health. For he who commits adultery, saying that he will afterward do penance, why does he not fear lest a sudden little fever coming upon him snatch him away; and the delay perish, and eternal damnation succeed?
And since concerning unhappy lust, of which we spoke above, it is to be believed that that was said which the prophet says, 'How is the hammer of the whole earth broken?' (Jeremiah L, 23)? although after the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, through all the monasteries, and through clergy and even laity keeping chastity, that hammer seems as it were to have been broken; yet still, what is worse, there are many more who are daily broken by that hammer than those who are freed from its ruin or crushing. Wherefore again and again I ask, that we consider more diligently, and as much as we can fear that which the Lord said in the Gospel: 'He who has looked upon a woman to lust after her, has already committed adultery with her in his heart' (Matthew
V, 28). 5. How death enters through the windows. Wherefore, as has already been said, not only from strange women, but even from one's own maidservants, secret familiarity is to be curbed, and the incautious frailty of the eyes; lest that befall us which the Lord terribly cries through the prophet, saying, 'Death has entered into your souls through your windows' (Jeremiah IX, 21). For through what windows does death enter to our souls, except through the sight of the eyes and the hearing of the ears? If through your tongue you should command your friend or servant that a harlot be brought to you; [if] you should hear a detractor, or one speaking anything lasciviously, or uttering shameful songs, and do not reject it;
through the windows of your ears death has entered to your soul. And since the Lord said, 'He who has looked upon a woman to lust after her, has already committed adultery with her in his heart'; it is understood that the perfected will of doing shall be reckoned as the deed done. And so while anyone considers a woman with a lustful mind, through the window of his body he instils the venom of death into the secret place of his heart. For such a thought, even if by some chance it is hindered, so that it does not fulfil its will; is nonetheless condemned by the Lord for the crime of the act: and so both she is chaste with whom he wished to do the evil of lust, and he is already held an adulterer in his heart. And therefore let us hear the Scripture saying, 'With all keeping guard your heart' (Proverbs IV, 23);
and that, 'Turn away my eyes, lest they behold vanity' (Psalm CXVIII, 37). For just as if anyone should take hold of coals of fire, if he casts them off quickly they will do him no harm; but if he wishes to hold them longer, he cannot throw them away without a wound: so too he who has fixed the gaze of his eyes to lust, and, receiving the evil of lust into his heart, has permitted delays to remain in his thoughts, cannot shake them off from himself without a wound to the soul. And therefore let us continually cry with the prophet, 'My eyes are ever toward the Lord; for he shall pluck my feet out of the snare' (Psalm XXIV, 15); our Lord granting it, etc. SERMON CCXCIV. An admonition that the evil of drunkenness be guarded against with all one's strength. 1.
Drunkenness is not even thought a sin. The friendship of drunkards is hostile. Although, Christ being favourable, dearest brethren, I believe that you dread the evil of drunkenness as the pit of hell, and not only are unwilling yourselves to drink more, but do not adjure or compel others to take more than is fitting: yet since it cannot come to pass that there be not some negligent ones who are unwilling to be sober, you who always present sober banquets, do not take it as an injury to yourselves that we must rebuke other drunkards. For since, dearest brethren, the evil of drunkenness is an exceedingly grievous vice and hateful to God;
yet throughout the whole world it has been let loose by many into a custom, so that by those who are unwilling to know God's precepts, it is now neither thought nor believed to be a sin: to such a degree that in their banquets they mock those who are able to drink less, and through hostile friendship are not ashamed to adjure men to take more drink than is fitting. For he who compels another to inebriate himself by drinking more than is needful: it were a lesser evil for him to wound his flesh with a sword than to kill his soul through drunkenness. Drunkards are compared to marshes.
And since our bodies are earthy, just as when rain has been too great and long-lasting, so the earth is soaked and dissolved into mud, that no cultivation can be done in it: so too our flesh, when it has been inebriated by too much drink, can neither receive spiritual cultivation, nor exhibit the fruits necessary for the soul. And therefore, just as all men desire to receive sufficient rain in their fields, so that they may be able to practise cultivation, [so in their bodies] they ought to drink only that much as is fitting; lest through too much drunkenness the very earth of the body, turned as it were into a marsh, be able to bring forth worms and serpents—kinds of vices—rather than the fruits of good works.
For all drunkards are such as marshes are seen to be. What is born in marshes, your Charity is not ignorant of: for all that is born there is known to have no fruit. There are born there serpents and leeches: there are born there frogs and diverse kinds of worms, which can generate horror rather than exhibit anything that profits for sustenance. For those herbs or trees which are wont to grow either in the marshes themselves or about their banks, are seen to have no usefulness. See that what is born of drunkenness is prepared for the fire. 3. They are depicted. For such are, as I have already said, all drunkards, whose luncheons are drawn out until night, whose suppers the morning-star beholds;
who cannot stand even when they seem to be fasting; whose senses are slow, heavy, dulled, and in a certain manner already buried. Finally, often in their very drunkenness they recognize neither themselves nor others, nor are they able to walk or to stand; to say or to hear anything that pertains to reason, they are utterly unable. Often too they are not ashamed to gorge themselves even to vomiting, and to drink beyond measure without measure. For larger cups are provided, and a contest is waged by a fixed law of drinking; he who has been able to conquer earns praise out of a crime. Thence lawsuits and brawls are born, thence the limbs are twisted in diverse and dreadful dances, thence adulteries and sometimes even homicides are perpetrated.
And whenever they take too much drink, like men undone by a stroke of palsy, since they cannot walk upon their own feet, they are carried to their beds by the hands of others in a most disgraceful state. And in them there is a dimness of the eyes, dizziness, weariness and pain of the head, a flushing of the face, a trembling of all the limbs, and a disturbance of soul and mind. To whom is woe? Whose father has woe? For whom are brawls? For whom wounds without cause? For whom the bloodshot eyes? Is it not for those who linger over wine, and strain themselves to drain the cup? (Prov. 23:29-30). 4. They excuse themselves on the plea of friendship. A guest ought not to be forced to drink. Drunkards are lavish upon their own like, but stingy toward the poor. They are baser than the beasts.
They destroy both themselves and their goods. But those who wish to be such men try wretchedly to excuse themselves, saying: 'I count my friend ungrateful if, as often as I invite him to a feast, he will not drink as much as I please.' But let him be no friend to you who wishes to make you an enemy of God. If a man is an enemy both of yours and of his own, and you make both yourself and another drunk, you will have a man for a friend and God for an enemy; and therefore consider wisely whether it is just that you should separate yourself from God while you join yourself to a drunkard. Finally, do not press him with oaths, do not compel him; but leave it in his own power to drink as much as pleases him: so that, if he chooses to make himself drunk, he alone may perish, and you both do not perish. O the wretchedness of the human race!
How many are found who force drunkards and gluttons to drink more than is fitting; and yet before their door make pretence of giving even a single cup to the poor who beg! Nor do they consider that what they seem to heap upon the debauched, Christ ought to receive in the poor, He who said: 'As long as you did it to one of the least of Mine, you did it to Me' (Matt. 25:40). But such men are they, that when they bury others in excessive drink, to the poor man begging alms they say, 'Go, go on ahead, God will give to you'; and yet, when a man walks on, it is God who is to give through him. What then does he mean when he says, 'Go on ahead, and God will give to you,' except, 'Go to that man who has God, for he is the one who will give to you'?
And thus by his own mouth he confesses that with him there is no God by whose inspiration he might bestow anything upon the poor. I beg you, dearest brethren, attend diligently and see: that when horses or the other animals are led to water, once they have quenched their thirst, even if they are kept over that very water for a long while, being satisfied of thirst they utterly refuse to drink and cannot. Let drunkards consider whether they are not to be judged worse than the beasts. For whereas the animals refuse to drink more than they need, these men take twice and three times as much drink as they ought. And whence for three or four days they might have had reasonable refreshment, in one day, with their own great sin, they strive rather to squander than to spend it wisely:
and would that they only wasted the drink, and did not also perish themselves! 5. The evils of drunkenness are declared by the examples and words of Scripture. How much evil drunkenness has in itself was plainly shown also in Lot and his daughters. For being made drunk with wine, unknowing he lay with his own daughters (Gen. 19:33, 35). Pharaoh too, being drunk, caused the chief of the bakers to be hanged upon a cross (ibid. 40:20, 22). And the people of the Jews, of whom it is written, 'The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play' (Exod. 32:6);
after they had taken wine more than was fitting, they demanded that idols be fashioned for themselves, and in honour of those very idols they began to lead dances, and in frenzied fashion to twist their limbs about in diverse leapings. Herod too, when he had grown hot with excessive wine, at the dancing of a single girl commanded holy John the Baptist to be slain (Matt. 14). What further evil is born of drunkenness the Holy Spirit witnesses through Solomon, saying: 'Wine and women make wise men to fall away, and shall reprove the prudent' (Ecclus. 19:2); and again, 'Look not upon the wine when it grows yellow, when its colour shines in the glass. It goes in pleasantly: but in the end it will bite like a serpent, and like a basilisk it will pour out its venom.'
Your eyes shall behold strange women, and your heart shall utter perverse things (Prov. 23:31-33). Paul the apostle also admonishes us against the evil of drunkenness, saying: 'Be not drunk with wine, wherein is riot' (Eph. 5:18). Again and again we plainly show, by the testimonies of the holy Scriptures, what evil drunkenness has in itself, to those who love it. In Solomon it is written: 'He that loves wine and rich fare shall not be enriched' (Prov. 21:17); and again, 'Give not wine to kings, for there is no secret where drunkenness reigns; lest perhaps they drink, and forget the judgments of God, and change the cause of the children of the poor' (ibid. 31:4-5). Likewise there he says, 'A drunken workman shall not grow rich' (Ecclus. 19:1); and again: