1. The very order of things seems to require that we say a few words about envy as well, which flowed so much from the fountain of pride that the devil, who perished through pride, immediately destroyed the first man, inflamed by the wickedness of envy; for it proceeded from the devil. Accordingly, since that same devil appeared envious by being proud, not proud by being envious, pride was not the fruit of envy, but envy proceeded from the root of pride. Therefore, since the foregoing discourse has already shown how greatly envy afflicts the envious, it does not seem necessary here to speak of that torment by which the envious destroy their own souls by tearing themselves; but only this, by the Lord's gift, ought we to show: how the envious, by envying, make the merits of those who live holily into their own sins;
and how greatly envy corrupts the good in them—those who, whatever good they hear is done or said by the saints, either do not believe at all, or, by interpreting well-done deeds badly, turn them into evil. Every evil that lying rumor has spread about them they at once believe, as though they had seen it themselves. They fiercely contradict those who would wish to prove that it is not true. They invent all manner of things against their rivals, they grow faint at their progress, they hide hatreds within themselves and nurse them into their own torments, they envy those advancing, they favor sinners. They rejoice at the misfortunes of the good, they mourn at their successes, they burn with gratuitous enmities, they fear that the malice of their breast be detected, ever bitter, never sure; friends of the devil, enemies even to themselves.
hateful to all; anxious over things to be rejoiced at, glad over things to be lamented, perverse on both sides. Among friends they sow discords; those at variance they confirm, if they can, for a time in their dissension. They tarnish the good reputation of others with lies; in spiritual men they praise the carnal things, so as to persuade that spiritual goods are lacking in them. They feign friendships, in order to deceive by whatever art they can those who have incautiously entrusted themselves to them. They heap up occasions for hatreds by depraved suspicions; the demons, whose deeds they follow, they gladden. The holy men by whom they are known they sadden, like friends in service, enemies in soul. Restrained in word, base in deed.
Prodigal of secrets, tenacious of evils, ready with wicked suspicions, empty of good things. Full of filth, endowed with frauds. Adversaries in heart to virtues, depraved in conduct, and treacherous toward all who live in simplicity with them. 2. These and things like these are what show all the envious to be enemies, in will or in soul, to the good. Into these evils they fall who, by persecuting those to be followed and abhorring those to be loved, ferociously exclude themselves from the fellowship of all good men: so that the good which they persecute in the good may rightly not be in them. Consider, I beg you, how their own evils are destined to punish the envious, whom even the goods of others punish. Where will those be able to become good, who are evil amid good?
or when will they use evils well, who do not cease to use good things badly! The holy martyrs used evils well, truthful in the testimony of our Savior, and vigorous warriors in the spiritual camps; who, afflicted by tribulations and losses and various torments, and likewise proved thereby, exchanged earthly things for heavenly; and, having advanced from the good use of evils, arrived at the joys of everlasting goods. Likewise the envious man uses good things badly, because, cut off from all the goods that the wretch detests, he will be left to be afflicted by the torment of his own soul. And who will be able to help him, who shows himself an executioner to himself by envying? Or from what source will he procure salvation for himself, who, by using good things badly, draws ruin out of the very material of salvation?
Nevertheless, if the envious also, like other sinners, being divinely inspired, rise up into the hope of recovering salvation, and—being such as they are—displease themselves so as to please God; if they do not imitate Cain, who, after being blinded by the fury of dominating envy, wrested life from his own brother by crime, and consigned his soul, smitten by the death of his brother's body, to the punishment of eternal death, and, weighed down by despair of obtaining pardon, said to the Lord: «My iniquity is greater than that I should deserve pardon» (Gen. 4:13)—that is to say to God: «I do not ask to be forgiven, because the greatness of my sins is overcome by the greatness of your indulgence.» And indeed it is nowhere read that he either repented of his crime or earned pardon.
If therefore, abhorring this man's example, they withdraw themselves from themselves, and restore themselves to their God, and do not, by despairing of salvation, cast themselves into the depth of evils; who would doubt—nay, who would not firmly believe—that pardon for their former malice can be granted them, provided only that, corrected by the healing of the wound of envy, they drive out the bitterness of their breast by the sweetness of brotherly love, simply loving those whom they had hated; so that toward the good of brotherly fellowship and peace they may be helped by the examples of all the good men whose merits had weighed them down?