約伯倫理 第 962 章

23. Heretics are marked by hiding-places and instability. — We call torrents those streams which are collected from winter waters, which also dry up at certain seasons. Rightly, therefore, the inventors of perverse dogmas are called torrents, because, cold from the warmth of charity, they swell up as it were in the torpor of the winter season, because they flow not with a perpetual fullness, but are dried up by the allegations of the Catholics as by summer suns. And indeed the inventors of perverse dogmas, arisen against Holy Church, are already extinguished in the fervor of truth, yet nevertheless their disciples do not cease to hold and defend the things which those taught.

These, then, who follow the errors of those men, dwell in the deserts of torrents, that is, they trust in the preaching of those whose utterances have already been dried up by the reply and reasoning of the Catholics. But what else do we take the caverns of the earth to be but the hidden preachings of heretics? For thus the heretics come together among themselves in clandestine little assemblies, so that they may lend to their error, from concealment, the reverence which they cannot from reason, and so that to weak souls the word of depravity may appear the more to be revered, the more it is secret. Hence with Solomon a woman, as a type of heresy, persuades, saying: 'Stolen waters are sweeter, and hidden bread is more pleasant' (Prov. 9:17).

Which hidden tenets indeed the Truth detests, saying: 'If anyone shall say to you: Behold, here is Christ, or behold, there; do not believe.' And again: 'If they shall say to you: Behold, he is in the desert, do not go out; behold, he is in the inner chambers, do not believe. For as lightning goes out from the East and appears even unto the West, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be' (Matt. 24:23, 26-27). This, therefore, which is there called 'in the inner chambers,' is here called 'in the caverns.' In the caverns, then, the heretics dwell, because for the most part they hide their error by secret preachings, so that, the less they disclose themselves to the more learned and prudent, the more vehemently they may draw the unlearned to themselves. Hence well it is also subjoined: 'Or upon the gravel.'

For we call gravel those very tiny stones which the river water drags along. The teachers of perverse dogmas, therefore, dwell upon the gravel, because they draw along those minds of men which are made solid by no stability of gravity, which the floods of errors lead, as it were, ever from place to place. Hence too the excellent preacher, since he desired his hearers to be led not with the times, but to be made solid with strong gravity, admonished, saying: 'That we be now no more little children, wavering, and carried about with every wind of doctrine' (Eph. 4:14). And so Holy Church, for a little while pressed down by her adversaries, when she beheld the audacious minds of the erring insulting her, recalls to memory what their manner of life was, saying:

'They dwelt in the deserts of torrents, and in the caverns of the earth, or upon the gravel.' For because their perverse preaching, the fire of charity being sent away, gained strength from the coldness of the mind, it assuredly dwelt in the deserts of torrents. But because it was not open and free, it lay hidden in caverns. And because it held a populace not fixed, but mobile, it abode not upon the rock, but upon the gravel. Concerning whom it is further added: