Now concerning those who, moved by a slight suspicion, rebuke people of simple and upright life, so that they both confound and cast them down with disorderly reproof, and seek for themselves through this I know not what glory of severity—it is not for me to say anything; for upon such matters the divine word pronounces so plainly that it needs no interpreter. For the Holy Spirit says in Ecclesiasticus: «There is a lying rebuke in the wrath of an insolent man; and there is a judgment that is not good» (Sir. 19:28). Surely the rebuke of an insolent and proud man, which is called lying, is the rebuke of pride; it is not the judgment of any humility, and therefore it is not good. What could be said more clearly, what more openly, than that he should call the insolent man one who reproves falsely?
For both he who reproves falsely is insolent, and he who acts insolently reproves falsely. Likewise in the Proverbs: «A false witness shall not go unpunished, and he who reproves unjustly shall not escape» (Prov. 19:5). Who is the false witness, but he who upbraids any man whatever for crimes not yet examined? Such a one, reproaching unjustly, he says will not go unpunished, because by accusing the innocent—with no merits provoking it—he wishes to make him appear guilty. But as for what he says of him who reproves unjustly, «he shall not escape,» what else ought to be understood than that he shall not escape the wrath of God, who corrects another not so as to amend him, but so as to vaunt himself shamelessly?
But concerning those who despise the precepts of God, and concerning the virtue of correction and of patience, let what we have said suffice: lest, lingering longer than is right upon a single chapter, we should either run through the rest more briefly than is needful, or burden your attention by drawing out the volume to an excessive length. Let us therefore see what the following chapter of the rule of continence teaches us. It asks whether, for the sake of gathering and supporting the brethren, it is expedient that the resources of the Church be possessed, or, out of love of perfection, be despised.