I. And lest my discourse, as though it were a human conjecture, lack credibility, and lose its effect while too little belief is given to it, I shall try to show by divine testimonies that the things which, with the Lord's help, I have set out to demonstrate are true—if first I bring forward a few words concerning the praise of true priests, who are the teachers of the Churches. For to them in particular has been committed the care of healing souls; who, profitably bearing the weight of the people committed to them, plead with God untiringly for the sins of all as though for their own, and, like another Aaron offering the incense of a contrite heart and a humbled spirit, by which God is appeased, turn away the wrath of the coming judgment from the people (Exod. xxx, 10; Lev. xvi, 1; Num. xvi, 16);
who by the grace of God become the heralds of the divine will, the founders after the apostles of the Churches of Christ, the leaders of the faithful people, the asserters of truth, the foes of perverse doctrine, lovable to all good men and—to those evilly conscious to themselves—terrible even by their very look; the avengers of the oppressed, the fathers in the Catholic faith of the regenerated, the preachers of heavenly things, the foremost phalanxes [perhaps: the first ranks] of invisible battles, the examples of good works, the proofs of virtues, and the pattern of the faithful. These are the glory of the Church, in whom the Church shines the more; these the firmest pillars, on which, founded in Christ, the whole multitude of believers leans;
they are the gates of the eternal city, through whom all who believe in Christ enter to Christ; they are the doorkeepers to whom the keys of the kingdom of heaven have been given; they are also the stewards of the royal house, by whose judgment in the hall of the eternal King the ranks and offices of each are apportioned. 2. These are they who have merited the priesthood not by ambition, but by living spiritually; and who, raised on high not by the suffrage of human favor but by the divine gift, applaud themselves in nothing for the preeminence of their rule; whom the honor received does not puff up, but the labor imposed exercises; who, when advanced, do not think of their own excellence but of their burden; nor do they glory in the dignity of their office, but rather sweat under the weight to which they are appointed.
Such ones the divine Scripture calls watchmen (Ezech. iii, 17), who watch over the affairs of all, and with the intent of a religious solicitude explore how each one lives with his own at home, and how he lives in the city with his fellow citizens; those whom they have proved good they confirm by honoring; those whom they catch as vicious they amend by reproving; or, if these are unwilling to be amended, they bear with them in equanimity, destined to have most abundant fruit—either from their own strictness, if those reproved have made progress; or from their own patience, even if those whom they bear with have been unwilling to be amended.