But those are to be lamented with weeping who waste away in hatred toward a brother, and preserve against others a deceit pernicious to the soul. For they separate themselves from the kingdom of God who dissociate themselves from charity. 27.3. Just as mother Church is wickedly pressed by heretical men, but yet embraces them with kind charity when they come to her, so too each one of us ought at once, in imitation of a mother, to embrace whatever enemies we endure, when they return. 27.4-5. One must quickly forgive anyone while he asks for pardon. For sins cannot be forgiven to him who does not forgive the debts to one who sins against him. For God has imposed on us the form of indulgence from the merit of our own condition, when He commanded us to pray thus:
'Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.' For just is the judgement of God, and He shows that just so much is forgiven to the sinner by Himself, as each one forgives another who has offended against him. 27.6. Certain ones, trusting in their own merits, sluggishly grant pardon to those who sin against them, but it profits nothing to be untainted from fault, for him who is not ready for pardon; and this is rather the greater fault, when brotherly offences are more tardily relaxed. 27.7. He who is more tardy to reconcile a brother to himself, is more tardy to appease God toward himself. For in vain does he seek God to be propitious to himself, who neglects to be quickly appeased toward his neighbour. XXVIII. On love. 28.1. Two things are to be preserved regarding the love of a neighbour: one, that a man inflict no evil;
the other, that he bestow good. First, that he beware of hurting; next, that he learn to give. 28.2. Friendship is a fellowship of souls; this indeed begins from two, for love cannot exist among fewer than two. 28.3. The ancients said of the fellowship of two that there was one soul in two bodies, on account, that is, of the force of love, just as we read in the Acts of the Apostles: 'They had one heart and one soul,' not because many bodies had one soul, but because, joined by the bond and fire of charity, they all in general were of one mind without dissension. 28.4.
Friendship both makes prosperous things sweeter, and by its fellowship tempers adverse things and renders them lighter; for while in tribulation the consolation of a friend is added, the spirit is neither broken nor allowed to fall. A friend is then truly loved, if he is loved not for one's own sake, but for God. But he who loves a friend for his own sake embraces him foolishly. He is deeply sunk in earth who carnally loves a man who is to die more than he ought. For he who loves a friend intemperately loves him rather for his own sake, not for God. As great a good, therefore, as it is to love a brother for God, so perilous is it to embrace him for oneself. For the most part a man loves in another what he hates in himself, as, for instance, in little children.
For we love a certain helplessness in them, and yet we hate it, because we ourselves do not wish to be helpless. So too with stones, horses, and other things, which, though we love them, we nevertheless do not wish to be, even if we could. XXVIIII. On feigned friendships. A fraudulent friend is quickly disclosed through adversity; for in prosperity friendship is uncertain, and it is not known whether the person or the good fortune is loved. Often friendship is cultivated by pretense, so that he who could not openly deceive may deceive by fraud. Then does anyone become more opposed to piety and to divine justice, when he despises a friend stricken by some adversity. In which matter he both robs himself of the occasion of reward, and shows himself cruel toward the affliction of his neighbor:
as it came to pass between the ulcerous Eleazar and the proud rich man. Through adversity and prosperity, then, it is proven whether God and neighbor are indeed truly loved; for when adverse things come, the fraudulent friend is uncovered, and at once he despises the one he had pretended to love. A sure friendship is excluded by no force, is abolished by no time; for wherever time turns itself, that friendship stands firm. Rare are those who remain dear to the very end. For adversity of time, or any contention of action, turns many away from charity. Often through the honors of certain men their manners too are changed; and those whom before they held knit together by love, after they have come to the summit of honor, they disdain to hold as friends. XXX.
On friendship arising from a gift. Among true friends, friendship arises from goodwill; among false ones, it is joined by benefit. Those are not faithful in friendship whom a gift, not grace, couples together. For they quickly desert, unless they always receive. For love which is glued together by a gift is dissolved when that same gift is withdrawn. That is true friendship which seeks nothing of a friend's goods except goodwill alone, namely that it may love the loving one freely. For the most part friendship is born of necessity or want, that there may be someone through whom each may obtain what he desires. But he seeks it truly who desires it while needing nothing. For the former friendship, born of want, is brief and fleeting; the latter is pure and everlasting. XXXI. On the concord of the wicked.
Friendship is to be held only in good things; for those who use it in evil become to one another not friends, but enemies. The concord of the wicked is contrary to that of the good; and just as it is to be wished that the good have peace among themselves, so it is to be wished that the wicked be at discord among themselves. That the unanimity of the wicked is contrary to the good the Apostle Paul approves, who divided against himself the wicked whom he perceived to have conspired for his slaying. Hence too in the Law the Red Sea, that is, the concord of wicked men, is divided, so that the way of the elect stretching toward blessedness may not be hindered. But the journey of the good is hindered, if the sea, that is, the unity of the unjust, is not divided. XXXII. On fraternal correction.
He ought not to correct the vices of another who still serves the contagions of vices. For it is shameless to accuse anyone in another of that which he still censures in himself. He who truly wishes to correct and heal a brother's weakness should strive to render himself to his brother's benefit in such a way that he admonishes with a humble heart the one whom he desires to correct, and does this out of compassion, as of a common peril, lest perhaps he himself also be subjected to temptation. Just as spiritual men await the amendment of another's sin, so the insolent insult the offenders with derision, and, as far as in them lies, they think them incurable, nor do they incline their heart to the mercy of compassion, but in their pride they detest and blaspheme.
Sometimes it happens that among friends a discord fostered by some reproof afterward brings forth a greater charity, as when those things are corrected which seem displeasing in a friend; and this indeed the one admonished at first receives not without a certain resentment, but when corrected he afterward gives thanks. But on the contrary many, for a small injury, rend the bond of charity, and withdraw themselves forever from the love of affection. Many reckon their correcting to be a duty of charity. But many draw this very thing, that they are corrected out of charity, to the affront of injury. Whence it comes about that they are made worse by that very thing by which, through obedience, they could have been amended.
The just receive it wholesomely as often as they are reproved for their excesses; but superfluous is the humility of those who accuse themselves of having done what they did not commit. But he who without arrogance declares his good deeds undoubtedly in no way sins. There is a certain excuse of the perverse, who, while they are reproved for their crimes, cast aside the words of the just as a censure to be avoided, reserving themselves for the divine judgment, by which they are to be punished more severely, while for a time they scorn to be judged by men. To the wicked the truth is troublesome, and bitter is the discipline of justice; nor are they delighted except by things pleasing to their own weakness;
fruitful in injustice, barren toward truth, blind to beholding the light and sharp-eyed to gazing upon the error of darkness. The hearts of the reprobate are slippery and fluid toward consenting to evil; toward consenting to good, most hard. Solomon proves both the amendment of the reproved just man and the obstinacy of the admonished fool, saying: 'Teach a just man, and he will hasten to receive it.' But of the fool he says: 'He that instructeth a scorner doth himself an injury.' Some men are of such depravity that, while they neglect to be corrected of evil themselves, they detract from their correctors by false accusation; and for the solace of their own crime they seize upon it, if, even falsely, they discover anything to hurl against the good name of the good, as is that saying from Solomon:
'The impious man turns good into evil, and lays a blemish upon the elect.' But woe to him who both refuses to correct his own life, and does not cease to detract from the good. Many defend those like themselves in evil, and by their patronage take up the wicked against the correction of the good, lest they be amended in that wherein they displease, adding others' sins upon themselves, so that they may be punished not only for their own evils, but also for the crimes of others whose sins they defend. XXXIII. On the prelates of the Church. A churchman ought both to be crucified to the world through the mortification of his own flesh, and, if it come by the will of God, to take up the stewardship of the ecclesiastical order to be governed — unwilling indeed, but humble.
With many frauds Satan intercepts those who, excelling in the profitable perception of the life, are unwilling to preside over and profit others; and, when the rule of souls is imposed upon them, they refuse it, judging it more prudent to spend an idle life than to devote themselves to the gains of souls. Yet this they do deceived by the argument of the devil who beguiles them under the appearance of good, so that, while he draws them back from the pastoral office, those who might have been instructed by their words and examples make no progress at all. Holy men by no means seek the cares of worldly occupations, but by a hidden ordering groan under those laid upon them, and although they flee them by a better intention, yet by a submissive mind they bear them.
These indeed, if it be permitted, they hasten with all their might to avoid; but, fearing the hidden dispensation of God, they take up what they flee, and exercise what they are known to shun. For they enter into their heart, and there consult what the hidden will of God wills; and knowing that they ought to be subject to the highest ordinations, they humble the neck of their heart to the yoke of the divine dispensation. XXXIIII. On unworthy prelates. Those who still lie under vices are not to be promoted to the rule of the Church. Hence it is that it was commanded to David not to build the visible temple, because he was a man of blood by the frequency of war. By which figure those are spiritually admonished who are still given over to corruption, not to build a temple, that is, not to presume to teach the Church.
He ought not to take up the leadership of an honor who does not know how to go before his subjects on the path of a better life. For no one is set over others to this end, that he should correct the faults of his subjects, and himself serve vices. He who strives to seek the rule of the priesthood, let him first examine within himself whether his life is congruous with the honor; and if it does not disagree, let him humbly approach that to which he is called. For he doubles the guilt of fault, if anyone with fault aspires to the priestly summit. 'Alas, wretched me, bound by inextricable knots; for if I retain the ecclesiastical rule I have undertaken, conscious of crime I am afraid; if I forsake it, I fear the more, lest it be a worse fault to abandon the flock I have received;
on every side, wretched, I am afraid, and in so great a crisis of the matter I know not which to follow.' The fall of each one is of so much the greater guilt, by how much, before he fell, he was of greater virtue. For the greatness of preceding virtues grows toward the heap of following faults. Many priests desire to preside for the sake of their own advantage rather than of the flock, nor do they wish to be made prelates that they may profit others, but rather that they may become rich and be honored. For they take up the summit of eminence not for pastoral rule, but for the ambition of honor alone, and, casting off the work of dignity, they seek the dignity of name only.
Though wicked priests are not made without God's knowledge, yet they are not known by God, He Himself testifying through the prophet: 'They set up princes, but I knew them not.' But here for God not to know is to reprove, for God knows all things. XXXV. On unlearned prelates. Just as the iniquitous and sinners are forbidden to attain the priestly ministry, so the unlearned and unskilled are drawn back from such an office. For the former corrupt the life of the good by their examples; the latter by their ignorance know not how to correct the iniquitous. For what will they be able to teach which they themselves have not learned? Let him cease to take up the office of teaching who knows not how to teach. For the ignorance of prelates does not befit the life of their subjects: 'For if the blind lead the blind, both fall into the pit.'
The Lord reproves unlearned priests through the prophet Isaiah: 'The shepherds themselves,' He says, 'have known no understanding'; and again: 'His watchmen are all blind,' that is, unskilled bishops; 'they are all ignorant,' He says, 'dumb dogs not able to bark,' that is, not able by the word of doctrine to defend by resisting the peoples committed to them against evils. XXXVI. On the doctrine and examples of prelates. An ecclesiastical teacher ought to shine as much in doctrine as in life. For doctrine without life makes one arrogant, life without doctrine makes one useless. The preaching of a priest is to be confirmed by works, so that what he teaches by word he may instruct by example. For that is true doctrine which the form of living follows.
For nothing is more base than if anyone neglect to fulfill by work the good which he preaches by word. For then is preaching profitably brought forth, when it is effectively fulfilled. Every teacher ought to have zeal both for good action and for good preaching; for the one without the other does not make perfect, but let the just man go before in acting well, that he may afterward be able to teach well. Every useful teacher ought so to render himself to the peoples subject to him, and to persist in doctrine, that as much as he shines in word, so much may he shine also in merit.
For what the Apostle enjoins upon Timothy, to teach 'with all authority,' does not exhort to the swelling of pride, but to the authority of a good life, namely lest he lose the liberty of preaching if he should teach well and live ill. Whence also the Lord says: 'He that shall break one of these least commandments, and shall so teach, shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven.' You see that he lacks the authority of teaching who does not do what he teaches. Just as in a coin the metal, the figure, and the weight are inquired into, so in every ecclesiastical teacher one asks what he follows, what he teaches, how he lives. By the quality of the metal, therefore, doctrine is signified; by the figure, the likeness of the fathers; by the weight, humility. He therefore who differs from these three will be not metal, but earth.
XXXVII. On those who teach well and live badly. Sometimes by the teacher's fault even the very truthful doctrine becomes cheap, and he who does not live as he teaches makes contemptible the very truth which he preaches. A perverse bow is the tongue of masters who teach well and live badly. And therefore, as from a perverse bow, they shoot forth an arrow, when they pierce their own depraved life with the stroke of their own tongue. Those who preach divine things and care less to live according to the dignity of that preaching, having the word of God in mouth and not having it in work, teaching many things and well but doing nothing, imitate the soothsayer Balaam, who, falling in his work, had open eyes to behold the light of doctrine.
He who teaches well and lives badly, like brass or a cymbal, makes a sound to others, yet he himself remains insensible to himself. He who teaches well and lives badly — what he teaches well profits those who live rightly; but in that he lives badly, he kills himself; just as a priest who, if he conducts himself worthily as befits a priest, his ministry is useful both to himself and to others; but living unworthily, he is indeed useful to others by speaking, yet slays himself by living depravedly. And by this, what is dead in him is his own; but what lives in him, that is, the sacred ministry which is of life, belongs to another. He who teaches well and lives badly seems like a wax candle to others, while it displays the good and affords light, but consumes and extinguishes itself in its own evils.
He who teaches well and lives badly seems to join good to evil, to mingle light with darkness, to change truth into falsehood. XXXVIII. On the examples of depraved priests. Often through those by whom justice is taught, through them the disease of sin creeps in and death passes over to the peoples, namely either while they teach evil things, or while they do depraved things. Many priests and clerics, living depravedly, become a pattern to the rest for evil, who ought to have been an example in good things. For whomsoever these destroy by the example of their evil conversation, of them they will without doubt render an account.
From the example of carnal prelates, the life of the subjects for the most part becomes worse, and by the desert of the people such priests come to be, who by a worse example destroy the people rather than build them up. For from the desert of the people bishops are sometimes made depraved, so that those who follow may fall the more readily. When the head languishes, the other members of the body are infected. Whence too it is written: 'Every head is languid, and every heart mourning; from the sole of the foot to the crown, there is no soundness in it.' For the languishing head is a teacher committing sin, whose evil is carried to the body, while, either by his sinning or by his teaching depravedly, a pestiferous languor is transferred to the peoples subject to him.
Worse are those who by their doctrines or examples corrupt the life and morals of the good, than those who plunder the substance and estates of others; for these take away those things which are outside us, yet are nevertheless ours; but corrupters of morals properly deceive our very selves, since the riches of men are their morals. Much, therefore, do losses of morals differ from losses of temporal things, since the latter are outside us, but morals are within us. XXXVIIII. On carnal prelates. By the providence of the divine counsel prelates who pursue worldly and outward things are for the most part ordained, so that, while they expend themselves wholly on temporal things, the spiritual may exercise the safer life of contemplation.
Because the burden of episcopal cares is hard for those who wish to live in quiet, God often provides that those given over to worldly cares undertake the reception of rule, so that, while these attend to outward things without weariness, the spiritual may serve the inner things without the hindrance of earthly matters. He therefore accuses the order of God, by whom they are appointed, who condemns bishops because they pursue less the spiritual, but more the earthly. For from the arrangement of the divine tabernacle, for the bearing of the world's injuries and storms, certain men are appointed bishops who apply themselves to secular cares, so that those who inwardly desire the things above, with no earthly business standing in the way, may more freely attend to that which they love.
And so a disorderly ruler is not to be judged by the people, since the peoples should rather recognize that it was of their own perverse desert to have received the rule of a perverse pontiff. For according to the deserts of the peoples the life of the rulers is disposed by God, by the example of David's sin unto the comparison of princes, who by the desert of the people transgress. By sentence are condemned the sons of Ham, son of Noah, who publicly expose the faults of their prelates; like Ham, who did not cover his father's shame, but showed it to be derided. They shall have the merit of Shem and Japheth, who reverently cover the things wherein they know their fathers to have transgressed — provided, however, they do not love their fathers' deeds, but only cover them and do not imitate them.
For there are those who perversely judge their prelates, when they see them to be more intent on earthly pursuits, if even a little they themselves have already thought about spiritual things. Rulers therefore are to be judged by God, but by their subjects they are by no means to be judged: by the example of the Lord, who by Himself overturned with His own scourge the sellers of doves and the tables of the money-changers, and cast them out from the temple; or even as He says: 'God stood in the synagogue of the gods, and in the midst He discerns the gods.' But if a ruler strays from the faith, then he is to be reproved by his subjects; but for reprobate morals he is rather to be tolerated than censured by the people. XL. On irascible teachers.
Irascible teachers, through the rage of fury, turn the measure of discipline into the monstrousness of cruelty; and whence they could have amended their subjects, thence rather they wound them. Therefore an irascible prelate avenges faults without measure, because his heart, dispersed among the cares of things, is not gathered into the love of the one Godhead. For a mind loosed among diverse things is not bound by the chain of charity; but, ill-slackened, it is ill-moved at every occasion. XLI. On proud teachers. A good ruler is he who both preserves discipline in humility, and through discipline does not incur pride. But puffed-up shepherds tyrannically oppress the peoples, they do not govern them, and who exact from their subjects not God's glory but their own.
There are many who in the word of doctrine are not humble but arrogant, and who announce the very right things which they preach not from the zeal of correction, but from the vice of elation. There are many who teach not from the counsel of building up, but from the swelling of pride, nor are they wise that they may profit, but they strive to teach that they may seem wise. There is a depraved imitation of arrogant priests, by which they imitate the saints in the rigor of discipline, and neglect to follow them in the affection of charity; they wish to appear rigid in severity, and are unable to afford the form of humility, so that they may be looked upon as terrible rather than gentle. Proud teachers know how to wound rather than to amend, Solomon witnessing:
'In the mouth of a fool is the rod of pride,' because they smite rigidly by rebuking, and know not how to have compassion humbly. He rightly undertakes the vices of another's sin to be cured who does this from the love of the heart and a humble conscience. But he who corrects an offender with a proud or hateful spirit does not amend, but strikes. For whatever an insolent or indignant spirit brings forth is the fury of the reviler, not the love of the corrector. XLII. On the humility of prelates. He who is set over the rule ought so to render himself toward the discipline of his subjects that he may shine not only by authority, but also by humility. Yet the virtue of humility will be in him in such a way that the life of his subjects be not dissolved in vices;
and so the authority of power shall be present, lest through the swelling of the heart the severity of immoderation arise. This is in God's priests the true discretion, by which they are neither proud through liberty, nor lax through humility. Hence it is that the saints with much constancy reproved even the vices of princes; in whom, although there was the highest humility, yet in a necessary place they freely rebuked the transgressors of justice. Sometimes we ought to be humbler in spirit even than our subjects, since the deeds of our subjects are judged by us, but our own God judges. Let the bishop acknowledge himself to be the servant of the people, not the lord; yet this charity demands, not condition. XLIII. On the discretion of doctrine.
Not one and the same doctrine is to be applied to all, but according to the quality of morals the exhortation of teachers will be diverse. For some a hard rebuke corrects, but others a gentle exhortation. Just as skilled physicians serve the various diseases of the body with diverse medicine, so that according to the varieties of wounds the medicine may be diverse, so also the teacher of the Church will apply to each single person the fitting remedy of doctrine, and will announce what is proper for each, according to age, according to sex and profession. Not to all are those things which are hidden to be opened. For there are many who cannot grasp them. To whom, if they are indiscreetly made manifest, they at once either detract or neglect.
For the first virtue of prudence is to weigh the person whom one ought to teach. To rude or carnal peoples plain and common things, not the highest and arduous, are to be preached, lest they be overwhelmed by the immensity of doctrine rather than instructed. Whence too the Apostle Paul says: 'I could not speak to you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal; as unto little ones in Christ, I gave you milk to drink, not meat.' For to carnal minds it is fitting to preach neither things too lofty about heavenly matters nor earthly things, but moderately, to teach them as their beginnings and morals require.
The raven, when it sees its young of white color, feeds them with no food, but only attends to them until they blacken to the paternal color, and thus it refreshes them with frequent food; so too the diligent teacher of the Church, unless he sees those whom he teaches blacken to his own likeness by the confession of penitence, and, the worldly luster laid aside, put on the habit of lamentation from the remembrance of sin — since they are still outward, that is, carnal — does not open to them the deeper mysteries of spiritual understanding, lest, while they do not grasp what is heard, they begin to despise the heavenly commandments before they venerate them. One must act otherwise toward those who are committed to our rule, if they offend, and otherwise with those who are not committed to us;
who, if they are just, are to be venerated; but if they offend, they are to be corrected for charity alone, as there is place, yet not with severity, as those who are committed to us to be ruled. First the elders of the people are to be taught, so that through them those placed beneath may more easily be taught; whence too the Apostle: 'These things,' he says, 'commend to faithful men, who are fit to teach others also.' It is the skill of a good teacher to begin from the praises of those whom, wholesomely rebuked, he desires to correct; as the Apostle does to the Corinthians, whom he begins from praises and proves by reproofs. But there were among the Corinthians those who were worthy both of praise and of reproof.