45. By the mockeries of the wicked the Church is not cast down, but is raised up and grows. — All the wicked flee far from the holy Church, not by the steps of their feet, but by the qualities of their habits; they flee far, not in place, but in merit; while, as pride increases, they despise her with open upbraiding. For to spit in her face is not only to disparage the good in their absence, but to confute every just man even to his face. When the depraved despise them by openly mocking, they cast forth upon them, amid insults, loose words like slavering spittle. But the holy Church knows how to grow in sufferings, and amid reproaches to hold an honourable life; she knows neither to be cast down by adversity, nor to glory in prosperity;
she knows how to lay her mind low in dejection against prosperity, and to exalt her spirit anew to the hope of the highest summit against adversity; she knows how to attribute her good things to the mercy of the Redeemer, and her evil things to the justice of the Judge—that she both has the good by his bestowing, and suffers the evil by his permitting. Whence also she straightway subjoins concerning the Lord, saying: