文集 第 1 章

PREFACE OF RUFINUS TO APRONIANUS. As I was setting out from the city, you earnestly charged me, Apronianus my dearest son, that even in my absence I should devote some work to you, lest the necessity of my journey should hold us back from our accustomed studies. You asked, then, that I translate Gregory into Latin for you—a man incomparable in all respects, who, illustrious in word and works, furnished to the churches of Christ the most splendid light of the knowledge of Christ, since he taught the things he did and did not condemn himself by acting contrary to what he taught. He was sprung from Cappadocia as his homeland, with a bishop as his father and a mother likewise quite religious.

At Athens he was nourished and learned as few are, yet not yielding in his scholarly life to the enticements of his age or of his companions, he kept his chastity unbetrayed, but, as a treasure entrusted to him by God, he brought back to a chaste home the unbroken seal of his chastity. At length, when he flourished in the studies of philosophy at Athens, he saw in his sleep, as he sat reading, two quite comely women seated at his right and left. He, by the instinct of chastity, regarding them with a rather stern eye, kept asking who they might be and what they wanted of him. But they, embracing him more familiarly and eagerly, said:

'Do not take it amiss, young man; we are well known to you and quite familiar—for one of us is called Wisdom, the other Chastity—and we have been sent by the Lord to dwell with you, because you have prepared for us a delightful and quite pure dwelling-place in your heart.' Then afterward, when on account of his outstanding progress in letters he was being pressed at Athens to teach rhetoric, he secretly boarded a ship and departed. And when he had entrusted himself to an unexplored sea, he was tossed by a tempest, in which he vowed that he would serve God. And when he did so, he was suddenly appointed by his father the bishop into the priesthood. Bearing this ill, he withdrew for a time;

but afterward, having returned, he delivered this apologetic discourse in the church, alleging the reasons for his withdrawal and indeed for his return. After this, when his father had died, he succeeded him in the episcopate at Nazianzus, a small town. And from there, when after the times of Valens the Arian the catholics had recovered the churches, he was entreated to pass over to Constantinople to establish and teach the church. There, when he was carrying on a magnificent work in the word of God and daily converting almost infinite multitudes from the heretics to the true faith, as is wont to happen, rivalry followed upon his glory.

But he was so perfect in the fear of God that, when he perceived that on his account there was a dispute among the bishops, at once he willingly departed, applying to himself only that prophetic saying: 'If this tempest is on account of me, take me and cast me into the sea, and the commotion shall cease from you.'

Nothing more praiseworthy and holy than his life, nothing more illustrious and renowned than his eloquence, nothing purer and more upright than his faith, nothing fuller and more perfect than his knowledge can be found—who alone is such that, concerning his faith, not even the parties and factions at variance among themselves, as is wont to happen, were able to dispute, but he obtained this standing of merit with God and the churches of God, that whoever has dared to gainsay his teaching in anything, by this very fact, because he is the greater heretic, is convicted; for it is a manifest sign that no one is of the right faith who does not agree with Gregory in faith.

Read him, therefore, without any scruple at all, knowing nevertheless that the necessity of translation obscures not a little the resplendent light of his eloquence in the Greek. As to whether in this the poverty of our language or the very nature of translation brings this about, you, who have skill in both languages, are the better judge. FROM THE GREEK, HAPPILY. HERE ENDS THE PROLOGUE OF GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS THE BISHOP. HERE BEGINS THE SAME MAN'S APOLOGETIC, TRANSLATED INTO LATIN FROM THE GREEK. HERE ENDS THE PROLOGUE. HERE BEGINS THE APOLOGETIC OF SAINT GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS. I. THE APOLOGETIC. 1. I have been conquered, and I confess that I am overcome; I am made subject to the Lord, and I have besought Him.

For it is fitting that blessed David open to me the door of speech—or rather, He Himself who spoke in David and who even now speaks through him. For the best order is that of every word or work the origin be taken by us from God and the consummation be referred to God. The cause for which a while ago I, as though overcome by a kind of weariness and indignation, withdrew and went far off in flight and dwelt in the desert for no short time, may perhaps seem one thing to some and another to others—to those who are held, as is wont to happen, either by hatred toward me or by love. And as for the fact that we then seemed to some to be fierce and harsh, but now have grown gentle and have returned to what we were before, one indeed blames it as inconstancy, another embraces the deed.

For nothing is sweeter to men than to talk of others' affairs and to busy themselves with others' concerns, especially if it happens that some are anticipated either by hatred or by love—by whom above all the truth is ever hidden and stolen away. Let others, then, as I said, think other things; but I, without any shame, will bring forth into the open what is true, satisfying both parties—that is, both those who are moved by affection toward us and those also who are moved by hatred—in some matters indeed being my own accuser, but in others also making satisfaction. 2. And that my discourse may proceed for us in due order, I will first treat of my dread and former fear. For I will not allow suspicions of those to remain against me who scrutinize either our good points or our contrary ones with curious examination.

For this too is a duty of religion: to take care, by satisfaction in word, if perchance there are any who seem wounded by the darts of suspicions—since indeed it is best that one should neither, by sinning, nor, being placed under suspicion of sin (if it can be and the matter permits), set a stumbling-block or scandal before the brethren. For we know how grave a punishment has been appointed by the Lord against him who scandalizes one of the least. 3. I, therefore, O most excellent and religious men, did not incur these things either as one unskilled or foolish, nor—that I too may boast a little something—as one arrogant and despising the divine laws and statutes.

For I know that, just as in our body some members are those which govern the body and preside over all its motions, while others are those which are governed and render obedience to their rulers, so also in the Church God has appointed it, dispensing it by the law of equity and by His divine providence, by which He arranges all things, tempering the privileges of merits. Some He has appointed to be ruled and governed—for whom this is more useful—that by the word and work of their rulers they may be imbued with what is profitable;

others He gave as pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the Church—namely those who, endowed beyond the rest with virtue of soul, stand more familiarly near to God and perform that office in the Church which either the soul performs in the body or mind and reason work in the soul—so that the two, equally joined together and mutually mingled, in which something is lacking and in which something abounds (as in the diversity of members), with a concord wrought through the Spirit, may exist as a body perfect and whole and fit for all things, and worthy to have Christ as its Head. 4.

Although, then, I know that it is not safe even for any other living creatures to be without rulers and governance, yet much more is this so for men, for this reason: that a greater and graver peril hangs over them when they err; for if indeed that which is first cannot be preserved by them, namely that they not transgress, this at least holds the second place toward their salvation, if they are corrected and recalled from their offense. If, therefore, this has appeared true and seemed good and just, it is certain that the contrary is evil and useless—either for all to wish to become rulers, so that no one remains who ought to be ruled, or again for no one to be willing to undertake the office of ruling—through which the whole body of the Church can at once limp and be shaken, with no one, of course, governing.

And where then, or how, or by whom shall God be worshiped by us? In what way shall the sacrosanct mysteries be celebrated after the likeness of the heavenly image, through which we, still placed on earth, are associated with the heavenly orders? Without doubt that which was foretold will come to pass, that there be no king nor prince nor priesthood nor sacrifice. And all those things will befall us also, by which that former people was condemned for its immense crimes. 5.

But this is not even new or strange among those with whom the studies of divine philosophy flourish: that someone from the rank of disciples be taken up into the office of masters—just as not even a sailor of proven worth, if the matter requires, may be transferred to the inspection of the prow, or from that place (if he has commendably gathered the lore of the winds) be summoned to the very helm of the ship; or the bravest soldier be entrusted with the care of a squadron and cohort, or one managing a squadron well be transferred to the command of the whole army. Let none, therefore, of those who become the most severe censors in others' affairs and weigh the deeds of others by their own vices, suppose that I have blushed at the rank of this ministry while desiring greater things.

I am not so ignorant either of the greatness of divine things or of the lowliness of human ones, as not to deem it a great thing for the universal nature of mortals, in whatever manner and in whatever rank, to draw near to God, who alone dwells in light inaccessible to every creature. 6. What, then, is the reason for my disobedience? For I strove at that time to have nothing of my own nor anything resembling my own character, but to speak against it more boldly and to resist more shamelessly. Hear, therefore, the causes of this matter, which you have long desired. The chief cause of my disturbance was that I was suddenly taken by surprise.

And just as, when some sudden noise has crashed out, minds are thrown into confusion, smitten by unforeseen terror, so I too, terrified, dissolved all that modesty which had been an inseparable companion to me always in all my life. Then afterward the recollection of my silence and my quiet disturbed me more vehemently, since I saw that thing hindered for me which I from the beginning of my life had singularly loved and had vowed to God amid great and the greatest perils. By desire for it I was the more stirred up, the more I now seemed to myself to have reached at least its threshold, and from that point I was more keenly kindled, the more its goods became known to me.

And therefore I could not bear to be violently dragged into the midst of the throngs of peoples, and, as it were from a certain temple of quiet, to be thrust into the tumultuous crashings of this life. 7.

For nothing in truth seemed to me more excellent for the blessed life than for someone, as it were with the carnal senses closed and made beyond the flesh and the world, to turn into himself—that is, to contemplate his own senses and mind, and, made beyond the cares of mortals, to speak to himself alone and to God; so that, made loftier than all visible things, he may fill his mind with divine perceptions and heavenly forms without any earthly admixture, being made truly an unspotted mirror of the image of God, and ever receiving light from His light; bearing within himself certain first-fruits or beginnings of the age to come, and, while still placed on earth, enjoying in a certain manner the fellowship of the angels; and, the earthly frailty being despised and forsaken, to be transferred to things supernal and heavenly by the uplifting of the Holy Spirit.

If perhaps any of you has at some time felt the ardor of a love of this kind, he knows what I mean and recognizes what I am saying, and understands why I was so disturbed, and will readily grant me pardon. But toward the rest I shall not labor overmuch in self-justification — those to whom such discourse, while its purpose is unknown, may even be a matter for derision, and especially those in whom the languor of envy hinders the faculty of right judgment, and who fasten a faulty name upon the best of works, calling philosophy vainglory, and defaming the illustrious pursuits of wisdom with the names of boastfulness — to whom the assent of the base and ignorant multitude readily joins itself.

For the crowd of the unskilled is more ready to disparage good pursuits than to imitate them, so that they fall short in every way: either because they do not avoid manifest and public evils, or because they do not believe in hidden and concealed goods. 8. To these there has been added also this — for I will lay everything before you and now conceal nothing of secret matters — and whether it be a mark of my rusticity or of my frankness, do you judge.

I blushed at certain men whom I saw had gained nothing at all toward the amendment of their life, nothing of correction to their morals — nay rather, having become even worse, they rush, as the saying goes, with unclean feet into holy things, vying with one another, and before they are deemed worthy of the first entrance and of the doors, they straightway press on toward the tribunal and hasten to the priesthood; and thrusting away the rest, they themselves brood over the sacred altars — so that now that order seems not to be set forth as a pattern and example to the people, but a kind of opportunity for living in abundance and ease; nor is it reckoned an office accountable to the future judgment of God, but is thought to be a secure administration nowhere to be called into question.

And these rulers are almost more numerous than those whom they rule, so that nowhere holds true that word of the Apostle which says: 「Are all prophets? Are all teachers?」 For here all are teachers, all are prophets, so that according to the ancient proverb it may rightly be said, 「Is Saul also among the prophets?」 And in very truth no history of the ancients has handed down to us that the number of ministers in the Church was ever so great, or so cheaply assembled. Whence also a reproach is born to our religion and teaching, that priesthoods and ministries are conferred rather by ambition and to win favor than by a judgment of merits. Though to prevent the fault or stain of this matter is beyond us, yet at least to blush at it and turn away from it is some part of piety. 9.

But what deterred me beyond all things, and above everything we said above, is this — for I must come to the very summit of my discourse and bring forth what is true; for in such matters it is not lawful to deceive — I judged that it was not the same thing (as I judge even now) to herd flocks or cattle, and to preside over men and to govern souls. For there the aim is to make the flock, whether of cattle or of sheep, sturdy in limb and fat in flesh; with a view to which the herdsman or shepherd chooses fields leafy with grass and green with streams, which he has proved more fertile for pasture; and these very fields he renews with alternating grazings, and moves the flock from one pasture-land to another.

But he also seeks out shady lairs for their rest. He drives the flock at times with a rod, yet chiefly soothes it with the sweetness of reed or pipe. And no further task presses upon the herdsman or shepherd, except that some small care is required against the snares and wickedness of wolves, and, if perchance any beast be sick, either to inspect it with the eye or to tend it by stroking; to look out for shade in the heat; to provide for those lying down soft and grassy bedding, and to let breathing breezes blow upon the resting-place of those reclining, where also the cold wave of the running stream may graze it; and likewise to sing, as it were to soothe the flocks, some song of olden time or of love.

Besides this, he is permitted either to slaughter whatever is fatter, or to turn it into profit; but no care of this kind concerning virtue of soul and diligence presses upon such shepherds, by which they would be obliged to serve the pleasure of the flock rather than their own. 10. But since for a man it is exceedingly difficult to know how to be ruled, that is, to submit himself to the one who governs, it is far more difficult to know how to rule others — and to rule according to this discipline of ours, which has descended from the divine law and leads to God. And the greater the hope and glory of this is, by so much the heavier also is the danger, especially for those who have understanding.

Such a ruler, it seems to me, ought first of all to be tested like silver or gold, and examined on every side, and scrutinized in all times and in his actions, lest perhaps he have within himself some admixture of foreign or baser matter, and give back a harsh sound through the admixture of bronze or lead, and lest there lurk within something counterfeit which the fire may test and dissolve. And this evil indeed becomes the more pernicious the more numerous the people of which one stands as ruler; just as it is surely a graver thing for a plague to be spread among many than for one man to be consumed by pestilence. 11. Nor is the stench of a corpse so pernicious if it pollutes one place, as if, scattered abroad with savage reek, it breeds the disease of corrupted air for many.

So, if there is in a ruler any disease of vices, it is easily handed on and poured over into those who are ready at his bidding to obey; and what is evil passes from him much more easily than if there were in him anything of virtue and diligence. In this matter I too am wont often, pondering within myself about such things, to marvel greatly that wickedness advances so easily and without any toil and with no props at all, and that nothing is so easy as to become evil — even if no one teach it, no one compel it — whereas it is rare and exceedingly difficult to become good; and so, as it were, the ascent of some steep and sheer crag must be climbed, though many call to it, though many invite, even if all favor and exhort.

And this is what, it seems to me, the blessed Haggai too perceived, when he introduced that wondrous image of inquiry, when it is said to him: 「Ask the priests concerning the law, and say to them: If holy flesh or a holy vessel touch anyone's garment, does it sanctify it by that which it touched?」 And when the priests had said that it does not sanctify, he says to them again: 「If uncleanness touch the garment of a clean man, does it pollute it?」 And they said that it pollutes. 12. This therefore is what our present discourse too has now reviewed: that the taking on of good is exceedingly difficult for the nature of mortals, as if fire were applied to some damp material.

But to receiving evil we are very many and very apt, as if one should throw a spark of fire upon dry stubble, which is moreover quickened by the blowing winds. So we are consumed more swiftly by a little spark of wickedness than we can either be kindled by the fires of virtue or even grow warm. For a little wormwood thrown into much honey imparts a swift bitterness, whereas even if a double measure of honey be thrown into wormwood, its sweetness will not be able to prevail. So a small clod drawn out from the bank of a river diverts headlong the weight of the whole stream, whereas you could scarcely resist and turn back the river's onrush with great masses and immense machines. 13.

Wherefore first of all we must take heed lest we be found very bad painters of fair and comely virtue, or at least, presenting to others — that is, to the people, who ought to paint it within themselves — very bad models of its image; or lest there befall us the matter of the common proverb, that we who undertake to cure others should ourselves be found teeming with ulcers. 14. Then secondly, even if a man keep himself from the contamination of all sin, I judge that not even this is enough for him who presides over peoples to be trained and instructed unto virtue.

For it is not enough that he be not evil to whom the chief office of teaching is committed — which is surely blameworthy and disgraceful even in those who are taught — but he ought also to be endowed with all good deeds, according to that commandment which says: 「Turn away from evil and do good.」 Nor does it suffice to cast away from the soul unworthy thoughts and to abolish the forms of evil things, but also to engraft and inscribe more excellent and more divine ones, so that virtue of soul may seem to us acquired much more than human dignity.

Nor must we ever think that some end of good deeds or limit of progress has been set for us; nor are the things rightly done by us to be reckoned as gain so much as the things we have not yet been able to accomplish are to be counted as loss. And this life is to be thought of as a kind of ascent, in which it counts for nothing to have unfolded what you have climbed, unless you have made your way past what remains.

Nor let us measure ourselves by comparison with others, and think ourselves great if perchance we be found more excellent than some; but let us rather reckon it a loss if we do not conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of our place and rank; and if any things are done by us, let them be weighed not by comparison with the negligent, but by the authority of the precept — whether those men live more negligently or even somewhat more zealously — because we have received the patterns of the virtues not from the deeds of those nearest us, but from the authority of the word of God, from whom are all things, and in whom are all things, and to whom all things are referred. 15.

Nor is it to be thought that the same things suit all, just as neither is there one age for all, nor are the lineaments of countenance the same for everyone, nor is the quality of the whole earth one, nor is the splendor of the stars one. It is therefore to be thought fitting for the unlearned and the simpler man not to do evil, and to beware of doing all those things which are dragged to punishment or are stricken by the gravest censure of the law. But for him who presides over others, with every work of sin left behind, it is fitting to advance in the best things, so that he may be able by the example of his progress to invite and entice the rest to virtue, especially through the pattern of humility handed down to us by the Lord.

For one ought not to constrain by force or necessity, but to persuade by reason and by the examples of one's life; because everything that is wrung out unwillingly, together with what seems tyrannical, cannot even endure. For whatever is violently drawn is wont — just as if someone bend by force the top of a young tree — when released, to return again to what it had been. But what is done from purpose and from the will is as lawful as it is sure, being bound, that is, by the strongest bonds of one's own will. Whence also the Apostle, writing to the Hebrews, enjoins us to shepherd the flock willingly and not of necessity. 16.

But there is one who is neither evil nor one who has attained to the summit of virtue, and I do not see with what confidence he comes to teaching, who has not himself approached with this faith that he might learn. For in very truth it seems to me to be the art of arts and the discipline of disciplines to govern or to instruct man, who is surely the most varied in character and the most diverse in will among all living beings. No less keenly indeed will one contemplate, from the medicine of bodies, the cures also of souls; and the more difficult to grasp he has found bodily medicine, the more difficult he will find that of souls, since indeed the quality of the substance is much more excellent, and the end of the matter much more precious.

For the former indeed furnishes healing to bodies, and applies care and diligence toward temporal matter, which without doubt will at some time be dissolved by the frailty of its own nature, even if for now it be repaired by the aid of art. For it is certain that every body is dissolved either by sickness or by time, and is not permitted, by the condition of its frailty, to endure beyond the bounds of its nature. 17.

But the soul, which is divine and comes from God, is partaker of a supernal nobility, to which it also hastens to return, although it is bound and fettered to an inferior companion — perhaps also for other causes, which He alone knows who bound and fettered it, namely God, and whoever it is who has been enlightened and instructed by Him concerning mysteries of this kind. But, as far as I can understand, for two causes, I think:

one, that through the contests of struggle which are appointed for it against earthly things, it may seek the inheritance of heavenly glory, and, like gold by fire, be proved by the trial of the afflictions of the present life — whereby it may hope for the rewards of virtue not from God's gift alone, but, that virtue may truly be the highest good for it, may acquire it by its own work and labor; so that the good may seem to have been naturally implanted in us by the Creator, but to have been cultivated by us through our own will and purpose, and propagated by the exercise of each motion of free choice;

but the other, that it might also draw this inferior substance of the body along with itself and place it above in the supernal seats, gradually dissolving its grossness by which it is held back, so that this — which God is to the soul — the soul may also become to the body, governing matter as its servant and offering it together with itself to God as a faithful fellow-servant. 18. The differences of places and times and age and other like things the physicians will inquire into — when and with what medicines or foods there is need, or how one must abstain from harmful things, lest the discipline of the art be overcome by the desires of the sick. Sometimes too they employ the cutting of the knife and more potent medicines.

Yet all these things, although they be carried out with great toil, nothing of such a kind is wrought in them as is to correct morals, to purge vices, to amend lives, and to convert the purpose toward better things, and to moderate with assiduous circumspection all things that are done within us or even without us; so that, separating from our nature all that is brutish and wild in us, whatever there is of gentleness and meekness, whatever is worthy of man and dear to God, we may engraft in place of all those things, and may hold a just judgment between soul and body, never subjecting the better nature to the worse — which is surely most unjust — but always making use of the soul's command and the body's service.

This is the first law of God, and one most excellently established to be observed throughout all His creation, whether visible or even that which exceeds the sense of sight. 19. I consider also this, that all those things which we mentioned above as observed by physicians, each one of them remains according to the order of its own nature, nor can it in any way come to pass that the physician should attempt anything either against art or against nature, since indeed the very quality of bodily matter yields and obeys the medicinal disciplines — unless perchance some impatience or restlessness of the sick man should intervene, which itself surely it is not difficult either to watch for or to prevent.

But among us all things are done in the spirit, and the highest endeavor is to overcome those who love themselves wrongly after the flesh, and in no way are willing to yield to us, fighting against their very selves; so that we have a kind of war against those very ones for whom we wage war, while each one bestows as much zeal in covering and concealing the diseases and vices of his sins as he ought to have had zeal for disclosing his sickness to the physician. 20.

In this they even seem to themselves brave and steadfast against their own salvation, and prudent against their own life, while they hide some sin, as it were a theft, within themselves and within the secret recesses of their mind, as though that which is hidden from men could lie hidden from that Eye which sees all things; or while they 「make excuses in their sins,」 contriving, in defense of their own vices and passions, certain reasonings, and becoming the advocates of their own evils; or surely, like the deaf adder 「which does not heed the voice of the charmers,」 nor yields to the medicines of the wise — by which alone the sickness of the soul is cured — they do not receive the word of him who admonishes;

or surely — which is the ultimate evil — when now openly and shamelessly they defend their sins, and like men out of their minds rush headlong publicly and without shame into every disgrace; and then upon those who somewhat desire to hinder or at least to retard them for their salvation, they even take vengeance as upon enemies and adversaries, 「hating those who reprove in the gates」 and execrating the holy word — most wretched of all men, in that they punish their own selves the more, the more savagely they have raged against their adversaries, like those who, seized by madness and frenzy, tear their own flesh, which out of their minds they suppose to be another's. 21. These are the things for the sake of which I judge this medicine of our discipline to be much more difficult than that which heals bodies alone.

And the more difficult it is, by so much surely it is more precious and more useful. For that medicine indeed treats but a few of the deeper matters, while it carries on most of its art and work before the eyes and in the hands; but in this our medicine, all our care is concerned with the inner man of the heart, and all our endeavor is exercised against the enemy who assails us from within and wrestles against us in the senses. Our whole contest is with him who, using swords against our very selves to our own hurt, delivers us over to death.

Against all these things therefore we must strive with much faith — nay, with our whole faith — and yet more with the grace of God, and also somewhat, as I judge, with our own zeal and labor, which is shown forth in word and deed, that we may be able to cure that which is more precious in us, namely souls, from the languors of vices, or to purge them from the stains of sins. 22. But the end of each medicine — for this remains to be shown — is, in the one indeed, that the health of the body, if it exists, be preserved, or, if it has departed, be recalled. Which it is not sufficiently certain has always profited those who have used it, since we frequently see that strength of bodily vigor has done harm to some, while certain men, trusting in it, give themselves over to robberies or rapines.

Yet these are middling things, like poverty and riches, or lowliness and renown, and the rest like them, which are for that reason called middling, because by the purpose of those who use them they can be drawn either to good or to evil. But the end of the other, that is, of this our medicine, is to incite the soul to virtue, and to snatch it out of this world, and to offer it to God, and either to preserve the image of God which is in it, if it is upright, or to govern it, if it is in peril, or, if it has fallen or been crushed, to repair it — by Christ engrafted in hearts through the Holy Spirit — and at the last to make the man a son of God, and to place him in heavenly blessedness with the heavenly ones. 23.

For this the law was given to us as a schoolmaster; for this, mediating between the law and Christ, the prophets were sent; for this the spiritual law is fulfilled, and Christ, the end of all things, has come. This is what the self-emptied divinity accomplishes; this the assumption of flesh furthers; and this is what we gain from both. This is that new commingling of God and man, that through the One we may be able to have both. For God was commingled with the body, the soul mediating, in order to join together things separated, and to recall to concord and peace things at discord — recalling all things into Himself and through Himself, things first brought forth from the one father of our race:

He took on a soul because of the disobedience of the soul, flesh because of the evil obedience, for which it was likewise condemned, so that, as in flesh and soul there had been condemnation, so in flesh and soul there might come salvation. Christ therefore for Adam, for him who was made under sin, He who was without sin. 24. And the new is brought in for the old, that by His voluntary suffering He who had suffered unwillingly might be healed; namely, that for each of us that which was above us might be restored. There is fulfilled, therefore, the new sacrament of mercy toward him who fell through disobedience. Therefore a new nativity, and a virgin mother, and Bethlehem for Eden, and a manger for Paradise, things small and visible for things hidden and great.

Therefore also the shepherds behold heavenly glory because of the Lamb and the Shepherd; therefore, with a star for guide, the Magi worship and offer gifts, namely that now no one any longer should worship either idols or stars; therefore Jesus is baptized, and testimony is borne to Him from the heavens, and He fasts and is tempted and conquers him who had conquered; therefore demons are put to flight, sicknesses are healed, and the preaching of great things is enjoined upon the least. 25. Therefore the nations rage, and the peoples meditate vain things; therefore wood against wood, and hands patiently stretched out against hands intemperately stretched out:

in place of hands loosed and let go, nails driven through are offered; in place of those things which cast Adam out, hands are offered which embrace the circle of the earth and call it back. In place of humbling, exaltation; in place of the sweet and pernicious tasting, the tasting of gall is undertaken, and death is exchanged for death, darkness for darkness, burial for burial, resurrection for resurrection. All these things are a certain care of God toward us, and a medicine of our infirmity, repairing and reforming the old Adam unto that state from which he fell, and restoring him to the tree of life, from which the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, taken unseasonably and out of due time, had driven us. 26. Of this medicine and healing, therefore, we are the ministers and helpers, whoever of us seem to preside over peoples.

But I know not whether we have made progress even to this much, that we should be able at least to cure our own infirmities, let alone to heal others' languors and to purge the stains of souls with anxious instruction. 27. Then, secondly, the physicians of bodies indeed endure toil, vigils, and anxieties, and, as one of their wisest says, bear others' misfortunes with their own griefs — themselves seeking out and finding some things for healing by their own labor, borrowing some too from others, and there is absolutely nothing that escapes them.

They neglect not even the least thing, but reckon all things great and supreme, whatsoever confer anything toward the health of the body, counting it the highest good if by their industry they seem to confer anything upon this life which we lead above the earth — and sometimes upon the life of the worst of men, for whom it had once been a common good to depart from this world. And even if through these things they take counsel for the life of the good, how great is that which is conferred from this, when the very oldness of age and senescence at once dissolves it! For what is there that each of the good gains from this life, since it is certain that no prudent man ought to love that which by every means he is soon about to give up? 28.

But we, for whom there is peril concerning the salvation of souls, and for whom there is a contest for immortality, and a strife concerning the eternity either of glory or of punishment — of which the one virtue, the other sloth will prepare — how much labor and zeal ought we to take up, how much industry and virtue to apply, that, cured of vices, amended in morals, corrected in purpose, we may be able both to transfer our life from things present to things to come, and to subject and subdue earth to the spirit! As, therefore, one kind of medicine is not applied to all, so neither does the same discourse suit everyone; the same motion does not befit woman and man, or old man and youth, nor poor and rich, the joyful and the sad, the infirm and the vigorous, rulers and subjects.

the wise and the unskilled, the timid and the bold, the irascible and the meek, those advancing and those falling away. 29. And, to search yet more inwardly, the same things will not suit those who are in marriages and those who are free from the conjugal yoke. But again, even among these there is a difference, between those who lead their life in deserts and those who have a common way of living, mixed with others. And again, the same things will not be fitted to those who are rational in faith and clear-sighted in the Scriptures and to those who advance by simplicity alone; nor to those who come down from city life and to those who come from rustic and country life;

not the same things suit the simple and the cunning, nor those engaged in business and those living far from it and at rest, nor those who have been converted after the wounds of sins and those who, before the experience of evil, have chosen the good. In each of these many differences are to be observed, since indeed even their very motions and desires bear very many differences among themselves. Finally, consider again from the very bodily principle of the elements: although we all subsist from the same elements, yet there is in each body a certain proper temperament. 30. And on this account the same medicines do not benefit all, but one needs one medicine or food or drink, another another, and diverse things suit individuals.

So too a discourse variously and diversely composed will cure souls. And to me those very ones who have experienced these things will be witnesses, that some indeed a word alone amends, others examples convert; some are to be incited with goads, others to be held back with bridles — because some are slower and lazier toward good work (who indeed are suitably roused by the blows of words), while others, stirred up overmuch by a fervent spirit, exceed the measure of fairness, just as when a noble and fiery colt, impatient as yet of its still recent yoke, spreads out in too wanton a course beyond the appointed bounds of the turning-posts — whom indeed a word, reining in and recalling them to the appointed lines of the commandments, will better temper. 31.

For many it has been profitable to be praised, for others to be reproved; yet both, if offered at the right time, are beneficial, whereas otherwise, when brought forth out of season, they have done harm. Some a consoling word has corrected, others a rebuke; and for some it is fitting to be reproved before all, for others to be admonished more privately. For some despise more private warnings, but blush at a public mark of censure; while others, when reproved in public, become more shameless, yet revere the secrecy of a private rebuke and repay their obedience as a kind of gift with an honourable and diligent service. 32. For some it is fitting that all things be observed more carefully and scrutinized down to the smallest detail, especially of those who, while they suppose they hide their evils by some artifice, rise up against the rest and are puffed up;

but with others it is right to pass over certain things, so that, seeing, we may seem not to have seen, and hearing, not to have heard, according to the sense of the proverb, lest through rebuke they come to the utmost contempt—those who perhaps blush to enlarge and multiply their faults so long as they think them unknown, but become bold and headlong once the modesty has been broken which was their last and only remedy of amendment. At times too we must be angry with some without being angry, and despise some yet not despising, and despair of some yet not despairing, since the disposition of each one requires it thus;

others, again, we must treat with gentleness, others with humility, joining ourselves, that is, to them and promising one and the same rule of hope. And to overcome some, but at times to be overcome by others, has been better; and sometimes it is fitting to praise and embrace the prosperity and power of some, but the poverty and lowliness of others. 33.

For the order of our discipline does not demand, as the order and kind of virtue and of sloth does—whereby the one is always in praise and the other always in blame—that the sick soul should always receive what is sound and useful and fitting; namely, either to be more sharply corrected, or more gently admonished, or always to choose one of the remedies we have mentioned above; but by some this can be received, by others its opposite, according as the time, or the matter, or the very sickness of souls permits. Yet to distinguish and explain all things in discourse, item by item, so as to describe in order the whole art of healing, I think impossible even for those who have deserved to know the secrets of wisdom itself. 34.

But so far as it has been disclosed to us through the word of God, and as brief experience could discover, I think this must be observed with a general purpose: that just as for those whose discipline it is to walk on tight-stretched ropes on high, to swerve this way or that is peril, and to deviate even a little, however trifling it may seem, is destruction, while all their safety lies in this—if they keep the straight and steady line of their advance—so also in these our actions, into whatever part one swerves and from whatever cause, whether he does it through malice or even through inexperience, it is a matter of the utmost peril. But if he also presides over others, he will become the cause of eternal destruction not for himself alone but also for the rest.

Therefore we must walk on the royal road, and incline neither to the things on the right nor to those on the left, as the proverbial saying also forewarned before. Let it suffice, then, to have recalled these things concerning our vices and passions, and what labour they require for their cure from the good shepherd—namely from him who, according to the sense of Scripture, knowingly knows the souls of his flock and rules the flock according to the Lord's word and pastoral discipline. This we have received from Christ, the true shepherd of all. 35. But the very care of God's word and the method of teaching—how I may be able to set it forth, that I may say last what is first and great—since indeed today, as I see, all are masters and all play the philosopher?

At this I greatly marvel, whether all these whom I see coming forward in the church to deliver a sermon to the people rightly and correctly know how to give to their fellow servants their measure of wheat in due season, and to order their words with judgment, and to expound the truth of our doctrines consistently and reasonably—whatever it is right to discourse concerning the pure beings or the world, concerning matter, concerning the soul, concerning the mind, concerning the intellectual natures whether good or contrary, and, what is greatest and what binds and contains and composes all things, concerning providence and concerning the particulars which seem to happen either against reason—human reason, that is—or according to reason. 36. 37.

But also concerning our first estate and last reformation, concerning the prefigurations and the truth, concerning both Testaments, concerning the first and second coming of Christ, concerning his incarnation and passion and resurrection and ascension into the heavens, concerning the end of all things, concerning the judgment, concerning the recompense whether of the sorrowful or of the good, and above all, and what is first, concerning the blessed Trinity that holds the principle of all things, how one ought to think of it.

Herein consists the height of peril for those who preside over the enlightenment of others: lest, by contracting the discourse into a single substance and person, as one shunning a multitude of gods, anyone suppose there to be mere names only, and, reckoning that the same one is named Father and Son and Holy Spirit, incline through such confusion and intermixture to the impiety of Sabellius—so that, while he supposes that all things are named one, he should signify that each is nothing, since indeed that which is would cease to be once that which is said to be the proper being of each is poured over into the other; or assuredly, what is absurd, a God composed for us out of diverse parts be introduced after the manner of those vulgar fables in which out of diverse forms a single creature is sketched

and depicted into one animal—; nor again, dissecting the nature of God after the madness of Arius and shutting up the abundance of the Godhead within Jewish poverty, so as to ascribe the sum of deity to the unbegotten Father alone, as though fearing lest a corruption of the deity should seem to befall us if God the Father be Father of a true God and of a Son equal to himself by nature; nor again, let them put forward three beginnings of deity contrary to one another and diverse, so that through a plurality of principles they seem to return again to the errors of the pagans, from which there had been a departure.

38. Nor is it lawful, after the manner of Arius, for the deity to be divided into three substances mutually alien and diverse to one another. For one ought not so to suppose that he is rendering to God the Father his due, as to take away from him this very thing, that he is Father—for whose Father will he be, if the nature of the Son is separated from him and associated with the rest of the creatures? For this is not what it is to be a Son: either to be made alien to the Father, or to be commingled with and refunded into the Father—; nor again to suppose that one acts so much on behalf of Christ as not even to preserve for him his very being a Son; for whose Son will he be, if his own origin is not referred to the Father, so that the one is he who begot, and the other is he who is begotten from him?

For the Father is the origin not of anything petty and unworthy, but is the origin of deity and goodness, which is understood and perceived in the Son and the Holy Spirit—in the former as in the Son and the Word, in the latter as in the Spirit proceeding from him. And thus it is necessary that we both confess one God according to the truth of substance, and perceive the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit each to subsist in his own substance. 39. These things I have perhaps drawn out more than the time allowed, wishing to demonstrate the life, or the discourse, or the understanding of him who presides over the peoples, whereby he may become perfect in both and a habitation of the Holy Spirit, through whom alone God is both understood and interpreted and heard.

For it belongs to the pure to touch the pure, and to the holy to know holy things. And this must be known first of all, that it is an exceedingly difficult business, in a mixed and diverse multitude where both the age and the training are varied, while discoursing on such subjects—and as it were striking a certain lyre of many strings—to find and bring forth a word of preaching suited to all, and so to apply, as it were, the plectrum to each, that nowhere may the sound offend the hearing. For from a threefold source hangs the danger of those who speak in the church—from the sense, from the word, from the hearing—so that it very easily happens that one fails in some one point at least, if not in all.

For either the sense is less enlightened, or a sufficient discourse was lacking for the explaining, or the hearing, being too dull, did not receive what was well delivered; and from any one of these chances there arises in all the peril of the truth. And indeed in any other pursuits and teachings the discourse is easily either delivered or received, but in these our schools the very expectation of the hearers begets peril for the one about to speak. 40. For as those who are about to hear of God and to receive a word concerning the highest hope and salvation of all, the more ardent they have been toward the faith, so much the more attentive and scrupulous do they become toward the hearing, so that, if anywhere the speaker's discourse should sound otherwise, they reckon it not a stumbling of the tongue, but condemn it as a betrayal of faith and piety.

And they judge all things not by the reasoning of the teacher but by their own senses, holding fast not to those doctrines which they hear in the church but to those which they bring with them from home—not those they have learned reasonably, but those they have held from a custom that is not approvable.

And this I say is not as yet the vice of very evil men, who, although they do not hold the rule of truth, yet seem to suffer these things religiously and to have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge; and therefore perhaps they will seem not to deserve to be condemned too vehemently, inasmuch as they will not be beaten with many stripes, as not knowing the will of the Lord and therefore not doing it; or perhaps they may even sometime be corrected and amended, since a religious mind, however quickly it is offended, is as readily and easily cured. If perchance some word aptly and fitly applied should strike the heart of them, at once, like a fire-bearing stone struck by a like one, from the spark of light naturally inherent in it, it kindles forthwith the lamps of truth. 41.

But what shall we say of those who, while they seek the glory of boasting and delight to preside over peoples, speak iniquity in the heights, who, like a certain Jannes and Mambres, resist not so much Moses as the truth, and stir up the arms of words against sound doctrine? There is also a third kind of those who gainsay out of inexperience, which inexperience insolence consequently accompanies; and they rush hostilely and insolently against every word, save perhaps such as they themselves have uttered. By these, according to the Lord's saying, the pearls of truth are trampled underfoot in the manner of swine. 42.

There are also others who indeed bring forward no opinion of their own sense, nor hold any form, good or bad, concerning the faith of God, but deliver themselves over to all masters and accept every discourse, as though about to choose out of all what is better and more correct, not knowing that they have chosen no good judges of the truth—namely themselves—and they suppose they can judge concerning those things which they confess they are ignorant of. Then from things that resemble the truth, frequently turned and changed now to this, now to that, and acquiescing in every word, a little later again resisting, they change at once both masters and pursuits, and like dust driven by the wind are easily carried about. But at last they bring forth the fruit of their folly;

for as though wearied by hearing diverse teachers and overcome by weariness, they at once reject all things, and as though made empty and void of all that they had believed, they straightway begin even to despise and deride us, as though we had nothing reasonable in our faith; and they suffer what is wont to befall those who have sore eyes and accuse the light of the sun, or those who, having sore ears, complain that the voices of men are too little sonorous. 43. Therefore it is far more useful for the soul to receive the elements of truth simply and purely, and to inscribe them as it were on wax not yet scored, than over those which were before badly written to overdraw—that is, to bring in the word of faith and truth over bad teaching and perverse doctrines, and to confound the last with the first.

For indeed it is better to travel a road worn smooth and levelled by the constant passing of travellers than one unaccustomed and rough and trodden by no previous footprints; and it is better to sow a field tamed by the exercise of frequent ploughing than one that is a stranger to the furrow and knows not the ploughshare. But that soul I shall better cultivate which has as yet been violated by no plough of the malignant tiller, nor preoccupied by the previous sowing of the worst seed. Otherwise our labour will be doubled, while it is necessary first to thrust out from the heart the forms of malice already conceived, and then to reform the image of goodness on the varying wax of the virtues—so that, as many and diverse as had been the species of depravity in the soul, just so many may be also those of restoration.

Knowledge and discipline of all these things ought to flourish in him to whom the care of forming souls is committed. Of which we now, for the sake of brevity, pass over very many. 44. For as, by way of example, if it could come to pass that out of many animals and little beasts, diverse in genus and species, great and small, fiercer and milder, harsher and gentler, some one single animal or single beast should be composed—surely, if anyone were entrusted with the taming of it, how much labour and toil would press upon him, how much of his industry would be required, that he might meet each one of the beasts or animals according as the manner of each demands or as nature requires!

Since indeed neither is the same voice suited to all, nor are they driven by the same whistlings, so to speak. But not even is the food one and the same for all, nor is the manner of stroking and soothing one for all beasts, so that sometimes by the very same means by which some are calmed, others are roused to fury. By what means, then, will that trainer adapt himself to the several beasts of this single creature? How will he accommodate himself to the nature and disposition of each?

Will it not be necessary for him, although in himself he is simple and constant, to become as varied and as changeable into diverse states as the very diversity of the beasts demands, so that each animal may be cared for according to the opportunity of its nature and disposition, whereby the body of the whole beast, composed of so great a diversity, may rightly persist among itself, the little beasts being mutually moderated, in peace and tranquillity?

Thus he who has undertaken to form and rule this common body of the Church, composed as it were of one animal made out of many and diverse manners and tongues and trainings, yet dissimilar to itself, although he himself ought to be always immovable and the same in himself, has nevertheless the necessity of conforming himself to the manners and trainings of each, and of fitting his discourse opportunely to each. 45. Since indeed some need milk—namely those to whom the first rudiments of religion are still being handed on, and who, being little children in the faith, cannot as yet, so to speak, bear the vigour of manly food;

which, if anyone should force upon them beyond their strength, they would perhaps be oppressed and weighed down, since the mind does not suffice to receive what is forced in—just as not even in little children does the bodily matter avail to digest foods too great for its strength—and they would feel even the loss and detriment of what they had before. But there are others who need wisdom, which is brought forth and preached among the perfect, and they can use loftier and stronger foods, inasmuch as they have their senses exercised to the discernment of good or evil, of truth and falsehood. To such it befits neither to be given milk to drink nor to be fed with herbs—that is, with weak and frail food;

otherwise they will by no means be strengthened in the fortitude of Christ, nor will they grow with that laudable increase whereby it behoves every perfect one to grow in him into a perfect man, into the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. 46. And who is fit for these things?

For we ought not to be like the very many who adulterate the word of God and mix water with wine—that is, to mingle a cheap discourse with the word that gladdens the heart of man, and creeping along the ground, such as either moves a jest or relates something temporal, so that we may seem to be peddling thereby some bit of carnal gain, when we so speak to individuals as they themselves delight to hear, and are as it were certain ventriloquists—that is, speaking from the belly and for the belly, and providing for the belly in all our words, which is truly to speak of the earth—that we may seem to please the powerful and the rich, whom rather we injure, nay whom we destroy, and whose innocent blood we shed; that is, we give over to perdition the life of simple souls, which assuredly will be required at our hands.

47. For all these reasons, therefore, I considered it much better to yield the reins of governing to others more skilled than to give a headlong chariot to ruin through inexperience, and rather to lend an ear to the hearing of obedience than to move an unskilled tongue. Reasoning thus within myself, and using myself as a counsellor not a bad one, as I think—or if not, certainly at least a diligent one—I preferred rather, while ignorant, to learn the words and deeds that pertain to piety than to teach them.

For it is desirable and very dear to me to go on learning even to the last old age, since indeed no age can suffice for learning thoroughly; but for one who is not sufficiently instructed to aspire to teach others seems to me a matter of the old proverb, 'to learn the potter's art on the wine-jar'—that is, to learn the doctrine of piety at the peril of souls. And such men seem to me either foolish enough or rash: foolish in this, if they are brutish to such a degree that they do not perceive that they are unskilled; rash, if they indeed understand, yet dare to approach the business. 48.

The elders of the Hebrews hand down that there was anciently among them a certain laudable observance of this kind: that not every Scripture was committed to every age either to be read or to be learned, for the reason that it was not expedient for all to learn all things quickly, since not all can grasp all things, and therefore they were rather harmed than helped, if, not yet capable, they should come to know those things which are more profound.

But all the rest indeed, whose historical narrative is not improbable, they learn straightway from boyhood; yet those Scriptures which under a cheap garment of the letter conceal within precious mysteries, it is committed to no one before the twenty-fifth year to learn or even to know—so that this might be, as it were, a certain prize set forth for the exercise of virtue to those in whom, at that age, both an approvable life and an adornment of morals and a capacity of understanding shall appear; who indeed may now be able well and confidently to ascend from the lower things of the letter to the higher and lofty things of the spirit. 49. What then? Among us shall there be no difference, no distinction between teaching and being taught? Nor shall any division be made between tribe and tribe?